Oh fantastic, that sounds like it could add some very useful functionality.
We had a mod previously which enabled this, however it stopped a while ago.
I'll try it out when I have a chance but for the moment can you please explain a little further how the first response is replied to ?
There are "ticket create alert" emails which only go to the department manager, and "ticket assigned alert" emails which go to someone when they are assigned a ticket.
Cheers.