One thing I enjoy most about my work is using existing systems and applications to create solutions that end users, like me, can implement to make our jobs more efficient, less stressful, and more fun!

Recently our department moved to a new location on campus. Those of us who work with office operations – building/facilities, furniture, technology, and telecommunications - knew there would be many issues that would arise in our new space. We wanted a way to gather, process, and resolve the issues in a relatively easy and efficient manner.

We had used the Qualtrics survey tool in the past so our staff was familiar with the application and felt comfortable using it. Having one link for staff to report all issues simplified the process for reporting. Similarly, since Qualtrics has a trigger email feature which sends an email to specified addresses once the survey is complete, we knew our operations team would receive email notifications each time a survey was completed. 

 

Figure 1:  Qualtrics Survey Form for Staff

 

Figure 2: Qualtrics Trigger Email Feature

We had also recently started using Trello, a visual project management tool. Trello has an easy drag-and-drop interface that is flexible and feature-rich; it’s kind of like electronic sticky notes that you can move from one column to another column to accomplish your projects. One of my favorite features is email-to-board. You can copy the board email address and then send an email to your board. I have created some of my Trello board emails as contacts in Outlook so that I can easily forward to-do emails to the appropriate boards for processing and don’t have to copy/paste or re-create the task in Trello. 

Check out this short video for a brief overview of Trello: 

 

In Figure 3, there is a visualization of the Trello Board hierarchy. 

Figure 3:  Trello Board  >  List/Column >  Card  >  Back of Card Hierarchy

By using the email trigger in Qualtrics and the email-to-board feature in Trello, as soon as a staff member completes the Qualtrics form, a card appears in the specified Trello column. Once the card appears, I “process” the card by adding more information so that my teammates and I can resolve the issue. Here’s a step-by-step look at how it works.

 

Figure 4:  Simple Ticket System using Qualtrics and Trello

Feedback from our office operations team has been overwhelmingly positive. Using a Qualtrics survey simplified the reporting process for our staff; they had one link to report all issues and didn’t have to try to remember what operations team member to contact.

Additionally, using Trello saved many hours of searching through email, trying to find the latest thread to find out the status of an issue. Team members were able to work synchronously and asynchronously.

The Trello environment made it easy to view an issue status at any time and one team member could take over for another at any part in the process. Using labels to prioritize works efficiently because you can use the filter feature in Trello and view only cards that meet the criteria such as all high priority cards or all cards assigned to me.

While we could also use Qualtrics to get information about our tickets, we were able to use Trello business class to export the ticket board to an Excel file and see how many tickets we had for each category/label.

Check out the many ways you can use Trello individually and in teams from the Trello user community: https://trello.com/inspiration.  

Dawn Wall has worked for Kansas State University for 26 years. She joined the Career Center in 1995 and has served as the Technology Coordinator since 2006. As the departmental liaison to the university and outside vendors, she provides technical support for 30+ full-time and student staff members. Wall enjoys learning about technology tools and sharing them with colleagues. She may be reached at dawnmw@ksu.edu.