Take a picture – Submit a ticket!

With smart phone and mobile tablet devices enabled with cameras, a new option to take a picture of a software support issue with the phone camera might be the fastest way to clearly show the support staff the problem.

For facilities ticket tracking, this is an excellent way to report an issue so that the dispatcher can better assess the appropriate response in terms of urgency,to assign the best qualified staff to handle the request, and to allocate any materials, parts, equipment and/or tools that might be needed to service the request.

Why it works!
The file attachment feature of Web+Center was primarily designed for attaching files (documents, debugging log files and configuration files, etc) and was not initially designed for customers to attach pictures.  If you use the standard HTML attach file feature with a mobile device,  the mobile device (phone or tablet) will ask if you wish to attach a file from the photos or take a photo directly.  There are some differences between Apple iPads and  iPhones and among older versions of iPhones and Android phones and devices, but MOST mobile devices will provide you an option to either take a picture or grab a picture from the photos already taken on the device.

Test it out yourself with your own mobile (smart phone or tablet device) on our Sandbox Server

Step 1) Connect to our Customer+Mobile Test / Demo sandbox on our website

Step 2) Log in using the default account credentials provided by clicking on the ‘Login’ button on the menu page and the ‘Login’ button on the ‘Login’ screen.

Step 3) Click on ‘View’ to view a list of existing cases, and then expand the ‘Open Cases’ list and select any case.

Step 4) Click on the’ Attach File to Case’ link.  This will bring up a ‘File Attachment’ dialog box.  Click on the ‘Choose File’ button.

Figure 1 – Using the file attachment feature with Customer+Mobile on Samsung Tablet

Step 5: Depending upon the mobile device type, you will be offered options to take and save a picture or select a photo from the device.    Try taking a photo and attaching it to the support ticket.  This photo will now be available to support technicians to aid in solving your support issue.

Step 6:  You can view your attached support image with the Tech+Center sandbox as well by visiting our Sandbox Tech+Center site at:

Step 7:  Log in into the Tech+Center using the default configured Tech account credentials and view the case you just added the image to by selecting  the ‘GET CASE’ button and entering the case number that contains the image.

Step 8: The image will be the last entry in the history record with text like:
Customer Uploaded File: 1418416494693-573935110.jpg AND RENAMED TO C17.1418416494693-573935110.jpg (934619 Bytes)   – Click on that link to view the image.

Step 9: Technicians can also attach pictures for customers to view using the Tech+Mobile application and a similar attach file to case features.  Click on the Tech+Mobile Sandbox to test this as a tech.

Conclusions:  Internet Software Sciences is developing new code to better use photo images as part of the support process.  Having a camera on the same devices that creates and updates tickets, opens up new options that weren’t available until recently.   With these smaller mobile devices, keyboard entry isn’t easy, but it IS easy to snap a photo of a screen shot and attach it to a support case.