Trouble tickets, service requests: What’s the deal?

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Tessa B. Corrick
  • 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs

When a computer crashes or a phone won’t connect, the 2nd Communications Squadron gets contacted. When a light won’t turn on or there’s a hole in the ceiling, the 2nd Civil Engineer Squadron gets the call.

A commonality between these two scenarios is a work order process - to the 2nd CS they are known as trouble tickets and to the 2nd CES they are called service requests.

According to 2nd Lt. Stephen Johnson, 2nd CS communication focal point officer in charge, there are currently more than 400 tickets open for the 2nd CS with an average of 40 tickets accumulating every day.

“The average ticket time for all tickets we track is 26 days average for NIPR (Non-Secure Internet Protocol Router) and 58 days average for SIPR (Secure Internet Protocol Router),” Johnson said. “Also, we provide same day walk-in service for eligible systems .”

The 2nd CS is responsible for more than 11,600 NIPR and SIPR computers, more than 6,300 types of phones, 145 miles of fiber cables and 86,000 pair miles of copper cable wire, among various other infrastructures and networks they maintain.

“One main thing that takes away from working on our ticket que is the administrative work that piles up,” Johnson explained. “We also have other maintenance and needed improvements to the base that are driven by requirements from higher headquarters.”

For the 2nd CES, there are more than 1,500 open service requests with an average of 25 requests received per day, according to Staff Sgt. Larturo McMahan, 2nd CES requirements office work force manager.

There isn’t a way to give a definitive average time for service requests because there are numerous factors that can impact the amount of time a ticket will take.

On top of the service requests, the 2nd CES is responsible for preventative maintenance and up-keep of 22,000 acres, more than 1,400 buildings and facilities and 2.64 million square yards of airfield pavements on Barksdale.

“Due to the nature of our job, we support a lot of different missions both domestically and internationally,” McMahan explained. “So we have people coming and going, which leads to manning issues.”

 Although trouble tickets and service requests are not the only job for these squadrons, they are a big part of their missions, and in order to ensure they are taken care of properly, all of the tickets and requests are ordered based off an internal prioritization process.

In both squadrons, the tickets are stacked depending on how many people the issue affects and how it impacts Barksdale’s mission – which is where the wait times come into play.

“Some tickets take a few days others can take months,” McMahan said. “It all depends on factors such as parts needed, manning constraints and the scope of the work. It doesn’t mean we have forgotten, it just means there is a lot going on.”

So although there may be extended wait periods at this time, it is important to remain patient, understanding and honest. If it can wait, let it wait, and have confidence knowing those trouble tickets and service requests will be taken care of.