How do I make attachments .jps instead of .wps?

How to use email to get some jobs done

• How can I use email to automate some tasks for our helpdesk? I manage a helpdesk and I like to make things easier by ridding the techs of a lot of the trivial tasks where I can. One idea which has been bandied around seems to be popular with helpdesk and users alike. I am proposing that we configure a mailbox to recieve 'requests' for some tasks. For example: Many users dont have the ability to unzip files they recieve (various reasons from political to technical, giving them all winzip or 7-zip etc is not viable at this time). Many users recieve documents in a format they cant read - eg .wps files when they only have MS Word. I would like to give users the ability to forward an email, with files attached. The mail would be recieved by the server, and a client pc/server would poll the mailbox periodically. Users can specify in the subject line something like 'unzip' or 'convert to word' whatever. The client PC will perform the request action, and -crucially- return the output (the unzipped files, converted docs etc) to the users home folder. (I can get the user name from the sender address) We run Lotus notes here, and also have a clearswift mailsweeper SMTP server. I dont have Visual Studio or any major windows based programming tools, but am capable with scripting, batch files, and similar type of tools but I'm not a serious programmer. Any ideas on how I could go about this? I'm a bit stuck on how to get the mails out of the mailbox, and save off the attachments. I can figure out the unzipping bit, no idea on the word conversion bit. At the end of all this I'd like to have a system that I can expand and do a lot more with - essentially an job request by email system. Any thoughts appreciated.

• Answer:

  I think you're looking for too much complication. Why not just have a mailbox, called (for example) "Help" to which all the helpdesk techs have access? End-users simply address their email to "help" and the techs read the emails and act on the requests. This has worked very nicely for me in two different jobs, where the helpdesk was essentially the whole IT department (two people each time). These were both Exchange server/Outlook mailboxes, so I don't know how that works in Notes. Part of the problem is that you will rarely, if ever, get end users to obey any "rules" you dictate on the formation of subject lines. By having a single email address and having your help desk people make a determination of what needs to be done, you eliminate this problem. I currently work for a Very Large Company, and out helpdesk doesn't even attempt anything like what you're looking at. There are simply too many places for automated systems to misunderstand or mess up the request. Help desk issues are either phoned in or entered via a web-based system. The web system has several dozen "webforms," each geared toward a particular application or system (plus one for questions that don't fit the pre-defined categories, of course). The only role of automation in the system is directing the form to the proper helpdesk group, where the generated ticket is read and acted upon by a human. I've learned over the years that end-users don't want automated help any more than they want automated telephone operators. Even if the help desk tech ends up sending them an email with a step-by-step solution to their problem, they want that human interaction. End users generally have love-hate (or just hate-hate) relationships with their computers and want human interaction when they have a question or problem they can't solve themselves. (In my other jobs, our online help libraries were never consulted by end users; if they couldn't Google it, they'd ask us. Where I work now, the helpdesk knowledgebase isn't even available to end users.) Remember, the idea isn't to make it easier for the helpdesk; it's to make it easier for the users. And "easier for the users" almost always results in "harder for the helpdesk."