Why ticket split is important in IT and HR services

Learn how ticket splitting enhances efficiency in IT and HR services by streamlining workflows, improving collaboration, and accelerating problem resolution.

Customer Support Automation

May 30, 2025

Ticket splitting is a simple yet powerful way to handle complex IT and HR requests. Instead of bundling everything into one ticket, you break it down into smaller, focused tasks. Here’s why it matters:

  • Faster Problem Resolution: Teams can work on different parts of a request at the same time, reducing delays.

  • Clear Accountability: Each task is assigned to the right person or team, eliminating confusion over responsibilities.

  • Better Collaboration: IT and HR teams can focus on their specific roles while staying aligned on overall progress.

  • Cost and Time Savings: Avoid inefficiencies, errors, and bottlenecks caused by handling everything manually.

For example, during employee onboarding, IT can handle equipment setup while HR manages policy and benefits. Splitting tickets ensures each team works efficiently without stepping on each other’s toes. Tools like Adelante CX make this process even smoother by automating ticket splitting and linking related tasks.

Ticket splitting simplifies workflows, speeds up resolutions, and improves overall service quality for IT and HR teams.

Problems with Complex Tickets That Aren't Split

When complex tickets remain unsplit, they create significant operational challenges. These include delays in resolutions, reduced team productivity, and lower employee satisfaction. The main issue lies in managing multiple, interconnected problems within a single ticket. Without breaking them down, teams face difficulties in assigning ownership, setting priorities, and coordinating efforts effectively.

Collaboration becomes even harder when multiple departments are involved in resolving a single ticket. Poor communication in such cases is costly - businesses lose an estimated $1.2 trillion annually due to inefficiencies in communication. This issue is particularly disruptive in IT support operations, as detailed below.

How IT Support Teams Struggle

IT support teams often find themselves in a tough spot when dealing with tickets that combine several technical issues. For instance, one ticket could include software bugs, hardware failures, network connectivity problems, and user access requests. Each of these requires a different specialist and varying resolution timelines.

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework typically involves three layers: the user, first-level support, and second-level support. When complex tickets aren't split, they bounce between these levels, causing confusion about who owns which part of the problem. For example, first-level agents might be unable to resolve hardware issues needing physical intervention, while second-level specialists waste time sifting through unrelated software problems.

This lack of clarity also makes prioritization a nightmare. Critical issues can get lumped together with routine tasks, leading to delays. Consider a ticket that includes both a server outage and a software update request. While the urgent issue gets immediate attention, the routine task might be pushed aside indefinitely. When multiple problems are bundled together, the triage process becomes unmanageable.

How HR Service Delivery Gets Slowed Down

HR departments face similar hurdles when handling bundled employee requests. A single ticket might include questions about benefits, payroll issues, policy clarifications, and administrative updates. Each of these requires expertise from different team members and has distinct processing times.

On average, HR leaders spend nearly four weeks each year on repetitive tasks like data entry and form processing. Every manual data entry costs about $4.78. Without splitting tickets, HR teams are forced to manually handle each element, increasing the likelihood of errors and delays.

This inefficiency directly impacts employee satisfaction. Sixty-four percent of employees say the tools provided by their employer significantly affect their job satisfaction. Manual systems, often reliant on outdated spreadsheets, struggle to handle complex tasks like compliance, payroll, and benefits administration. When these tasks are bundled into a single ticket, HR teams are left juggling multiple responsibilities without clear direction.

Paper-based systems and lengthy email threads only add to the confusion, especially when multiple departments need to collaborate. Complex HR tickets make this worse, as different parts of a request require input from various specialists - payroll experts, benefits administrators, and compliance officers. Without clear separation of responsibilities, these tickets become bottlenecks, slowing the entire HR service delivery process.

The financial toll is also significant. In 2023, the average cost per HR task was $4.78, with some tasks costing up to $21.18. Complex, unsplit tickets often involve multiple tasks, driving up costs dramatically. Additionally, 62% of businesses have identified at least three major inefficiencies or bottlenecks in their workflows.

Benefits of Ticket Splitting in IT and HR Services

When dealing with complex requests, ticket splitting can be a game-changer. By breaking down intricate issues into smaller, manageable tasks, it helps streamline workflows, improve collaboration, and speed up resolutions across IT and HR departments.

Improved Efficiency and Clear Accountability

Splitting tickets ensures that each sub-task is assigned to the right specialist, eliminating confusion over ownership. With clear responsibilities, team members can focus on their specific parts of the issue, leading to better accountability.

This clarity in task ownership not only improves individual productivity but also fosters smoother collaboration between departments.

Enhanced Collaboration Between IT and HR

Ticket splitting simplifies interdepartmental teamwork by allowing each team to focus on their area of expertise while staying informed about the overall progress. For instance, when onboarding a new employee, IT can handle equipment setup while HR manages workspace and policy-related tasks. Linked tickets keep both teams aligned and reduce potential bottlenecks.

One organization successfully streamlined their onboarding process by using linked tickets for IT and HR sub-tasks. While IT managed tech equipment requests, HR oversaw workspace arrangements. Both teams tracked the overall progress, reducing handoff delays and working more efficiently together.

This approach not only improves communication but also ensures that both teams stay on the same page throughout the process.

Accelerated Problem Resolution

Breaking down complex tickets into smaller, focused tasks allows for parallel workflows and better prioritization. Senior technicians can tackle critical issues, while junior staff handle routine tasks, ensuring that high-priority problems are resolved without unnecessary delays.

In short, ticket splitting brings structure and efficiency to complex workflows, helping teams work smarter, not harder.

How Zendesk Handles Ticket Splitting

Zendesk offers ticket merging as a built-in feature but doesn't include a native option for splitting tickets. This limitation often pushes IT and HR teams to rely on workarounds or third-party tools to break complex requests into smaller, more manageable tasks.

Built-in Ticket Management Features in Zendesk

Zendesk comes equipped with various ticket management tools, but handling complex tickets often requires manual effort. Teams typically duplicate the relevant content, manually reassign tasks, and link related tickets to maintain context. While this approach works, it’s far from efficient.

Zendesk does provide robust routing tools. These include omnichannel distribution, round-robin assignment, and manual ticket allocation. Agents can also self-assign tickets using Play mode or benefit from skills-based routing, which matches tickets to agents with the right expertise. Additionally, Zendesk's AI-powered Answer Bot assists with initial ticket routing, and its trigger system automates actions based on predefined conditions. However, these manual processes highlight the need for a more automated and streamlined solution.

Enhancing Zendesk with Adelante CX

Adelante CX

Adelante CX steps in to simplify these manual processes. The Ticket Split app integrates seamlessly with Zendesk, transforming how teams handle complex requests. This app allows agents to split tickets in seconds while retaining essential details such as assignees, requesters, custom fields, attachments, CCs, and forms. It eliminates the need for manual duplication and ensures that split tickets are automatically linked, making it easier for agents to track related tasks and monitor overall progress.

What sets Adelante's solution apart is its AI-driven recommendations, which help agents decide how to divide complex requests efficiently. Agents remain in control, ensuring the final decisions align with team needs. For example, HTZone implemented Adelante's tools and saw a 66% reduction in manual ticket responses, along with automated identification and resolution of duplicate tickets. Similarly, Airspace used Adelante’s tools to automate repetitive tasks within their Zendesk system.

"Adelante knows Zendesk inside-out and can take a customer's vision and provide an effective and smart solution. They brought in other solutions that we were unfamiliar with and can be integrated into the system to do the things it doesn't let us do out of the box."

  • Michael Brady, EVP, Strategy and Operations, Airspace

Adelante CX’s solutions are built to meet enterprise-level security standards, including SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and GDPR compliance, making them ideal for organizations managing sensitive IT and HR data. The Ticket Split 2025 app is available at no cost and is priced per account rather than per agent, ensuring it remains accessible for teams of all sizes.

For IT and HR teams juggling complex, multi-departmental requests, Adelante CX’s enhanced splitting capabilities automate ticketing workflows, preserve context, and improve collaboration.

Best Practices for Using Ticket Splitting in IT and HR Workflows

Getting ticket splitting right is about more than just knowing what it is. For IT and HR teams, success comes from clear guidelines, smart automation, and thorough team training. Knowing when to split tickets is the first step to creating efficient workflows and fostering smooth collaboration.

When to Split Tickets

Not every complicated ticket needs to be split. Teams should set clear rules to decide when it’s necessary to break a ticket into smaller parts. For instance, if a ticket deals with multiple distinct issues - like IT infrastructure concerns paired with HR policy questions - splitting allows each department to focus on their part independently. Similarly, tickets with tasks tied to different service level agreements (SLAs) can benefit from splitting, as it ensures each task is prioritized correctly.

Another scenario involves unrelated issues bundled into one ticket, such as a password reset request alongside a hardware malfunction. Separating these ensures better tracking and resolution progress. When a ticket requires input from multiple specialized teams, splitting adds clarity and helps streamline the process for quicker resolutions. The rule of thumb? If tasks within a ticket can be resolved separately, it’s a good candidate for splitting.

Setting Up Automated Workflows

Automation tools like Zendesk triggers can make identifying and managing split tickets much easier. A well-thought-out tagging system is key here. By tagging tickets with labels like "multi-department", "complex-issue", or "requires-splitting", teams can ensure proper routing. Triggers can also be set to flag keywords such as "also need", "additionally", or "separate issue", which often indicate a ticket might need to be divided.

Real-time workload monitoring helps balance tasks across the team, while AI-powered tools like sentiment analysis and advanced routing further refine the process. To get the most out of these tools, teams should fully understand their workflows, organize triggers logically, and rigorously test them before rolling them out [20, 23].

Training Teams for Better Collaboration

While automation is essential, the human element can’t be overlooked. Proper training ensures teams can fully capitalize on the benefits of ticket splitting. Effective collaboration and communication are the backbone of this process. Training should cover not only technical skills but also soft skills like empathy and problem-solving.

Cross-departmental understanding is crucial. Teams need to share knowledge and set realistic expectations when working on split tickets. Clear communication protocols are vital to ensure updates, escalations, and context are managed seamlessly across linked tickets. Familiarity with ticket splitting tools, such as those provided by Adelante CX, ensures smooth execution and proper documentation.

Encouraging regular feedback and fostering a culture of continuous learning strengthens teamwork. By clarifying roles and empowering team members to use their strengths, IT and HR teams can work together more effectively. This seamless collaboration leads to faster resolutions and better service quality, reinforcing the streamlined workflows these practices aim to achieve.

Conclusion: Why Ticket Splitting Changes IT and HR Services

Ticket splitting reshapes the way IT and HR teams tackle complex support requests by breaking them down into smaller, more focused tasks. This method simplifies workflows, speeds up resolution times, and boosts overall efficiency in service management. By dividing multi-departmental issues into specific tasks, each specialist can concentrate on their area of expertise without being distracted by unrelated challenges. This targeted approach not only improves clarity but also drives measurable gains in team productivity and response times.

Data shows that structured ticketing systems lead to significant productivity improvements, with enterprise-level implementations consistently handling thousands of support requests more efficiently. The key lies in the clarity ticket splitting provides - clearly assigning task ownership and minimizing delays caused by overlapping responsibilities.

For example, when IT focuses on technical onboarding processes while HR manages policy-related tasks, the division of responsibilities ensures smooth interdepartmental coordination. This clarity dramatically reduces resolution times and enhances the overall support experience.

Organizations using tools like Zendesk can take these benefits even further. With advanced solutions such as Adelante CX, they can automate workflows and incorporate enterprise-grade security, making ticket splitting even more effective. Combining clear task criteria, proper team training, and intelligent automation creates an environment where even the most complex issues are resolved faster and with greater efficiency.

Related posts