The way in which a team manages its workflow is often closely tied to the level of service it provides. At Applied Trust we're dedicated to providing an outstanding level of customer service, and toward that end we've developed our own ticket-focused workflow strategy for managing tasks related to projects and issues. In contrast, many of our competitors use a "body shop" strategy, under which they provide consult-ants on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. We feel that our ticket-based approach is superior, because it allows us to allocate exactly the right amount - and exactly the right type - of resource for each task, and it also allows us to track progress carefully.

Along these lines, we are very proud to announce that in September we launched ATREK™, Applied Trust's new workflow management and ticketing system. Prior to ATREK we were using a highly cus­tomized version of wreq (a Perl/gdbm-based system) for ticketing. As veterans of many enterprise-class workflow management systems, such as Remedy, OSS, and Evolve (now Primavera), we were convinced that we could build a better mousetrap.

After developing a formal requirements document, we set out to build ATREK. Starting with the Mantis open-source bugtracking platform and a MySQL database backend, we wrote more than 5,000 lines of PHP and Perl to create ATREK. In addition to the traditional Web interface, which is available both to Applied Trust employees and clients, we also created a Windows "tray tool" for internal use to provide quick access from any Windows desktop. Furthermore, we integrated the ATREK database with our phone switch, so if you know an ATREK ticket number you can check status of that ticket any-time, anywhere, through an automated interactive voice response system, or you can be automatically transferred to the engineer who is handling that ticket.

For our clients, ATREK means better project tracking, faster issue resolution, and real-time, self-service access to proj­ect and ticket status. Clients will soon receive automated email notifications that look like this:

These notifications keep clients up to date as progress is made on the ticket. The ticket number is always contained in the subject line, preceded by the ATREK queue name. In this example, the ticket number is “100607” and the queue name is “Dispatch.” This same information will appear on invoices, allowing the work effort to be tracked from end to end.

If you are a client and you are interested in accessing or submitting ATREK tickets directly via the Web, please send email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

We're confident that ATREK is a valued addition to the Applied Trust family, and we look forward to comments and suggestions on how we handle tickets at Applied Trust.