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SupportDesk ITSM: Quick Guide

Introduction

If as part of your SupportDesk system you have purchased the ITIL-Pack you will have the

functionality to handle IT Service Management as prescribed by the IT Infrastructure Library

(ITIL) ®.

Below is a series of sections explaining how the ITIL-Pack is configured to support the

various elements of ITIL Service Management.

The Main Window

Clicking on the call Folderi will display the Live Calls view where you can access all live

calls, search for particular calls and log new onesii.

Folders

The ITIL-Pack comes with different Folders already pre-configured for your Incidents,

Problem & Change Management processes. Below is a discussion of these different Folders

and their Folder types.

Fig1: ITIL Settings on Folder Management Fig2: SupportDesk ITSM default Folder setup

Click NEW to open a new

call dialogue

Select a view to apply to

the main window

Double-click to open any

call and view full details

Sort by any heading, or

use the Find tool to search

for keywords or reference

numbers

Folder list: select different

folders to display different

ITIL call types.

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Incident & Problem Management

For years, the lifecycle of receiving, recording, resolving and reporting on issues or requests

was referred to as ‘problem management’. The ITIL framework makes a useful distinction

between two related processes, previously lumped together under the problem management

banner.

Incident Management refers to the calls or requests that your service desk deals with on a

day-to-day basis. Problem Management in contrast is to do with the resolution of underlying

issues that may cause some of your day-to-day incidents.

Having a dedicated Problem Management Folder separate from Incident Management allows

us to monitor these records’ differing life cycles more effectively; but we can also linkiii

incidents and problems together to closer monitor the cause and effect relationships that may

exist between these call types.

The Incident & Problem Management Folders work in much the same way, however the

dialogues differ in a couple of minor ways.

With separate Folders for Incident & Problem Management you are free to configure the

workflow for each Folder differently. You can also configure the individual call fields and

actual terminology to be used in each Folder in their respective Data Dictionaries.

Change Management

ITIL best practice makes another distinction between the tracking and resolution of Problems

and the characteristically more rigidly structured processes of Change Management.

A Request for Change (RFC) can be raised independently of a Problem (such as a change

brought about from above by the business) but are often related directly to the successful

resolution of problems (for example the implementation of a new email server to resolve the

problem of intermittent email access for multiple users).

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As a result of RFCs often relating to the physical IT environment and possible repercussions

of a change therefore, RFCs need to be able to be related to multiple CIs. The Change

Management Folder therefore has special functionality to enable Changes to be raised

relating to more than one CI <Inventory> or User <Customer>.1

Fig5: Launching a Change Request for multiple PCs

By selecting multiple CIs and then selecting *ew Change Request from the QuickCalls!

menu, it is possible to launch a Call in the Change Request folder that is linked to each of

those CIs via Activities2.

Fig6: Activities sub-tab on a Change Request

CMDB ITIL also impresses the need to utilise a CMDB, and specifically the cause and effect

relationships between incident, problems, change requests, customers and CIs. Central to this

is the idea of linking records together to represent these relationships. In SupportDesk ITSM

it is possible to link incidents, problems & changes, CIs and Customers in numerous

combinations. Below is a discussion of the various relationships that can be configured.

1 All SupportDesk systems are built around the same default terminology. In SupportDesk ITSM the

Customer and Inventory fields have been renamed as CI and User to better fit an ITSM environment.

Wherever possible in this document the original (Data Dictionary) name for each field will accompany

the SupportDesk ITSM name for each field in triangular brackets. 2 For general information on how to use and configure Activities please consult the SupportDesk

Documentation Suite.

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Linking Calls Together at the Same Level

The principal of linking Calls together allows you to easily keep track of related

issues.

e.g. Incident A: I cannot access Outlook on my PC today

Incident B: I cannot send or receive email since this morning

Assume that the CIs (in this case PCs) related to both incident A and B need to access

Server A to perform email functions. This would make a relatively strong argument

for linking Incidents A & B together, seen as they may well turn out to have the same

root cause.

Linking Calls Together Hierarchically

Consider the example above; perhaps after further investigation (and further incidents

with similar subjects) it is discovered that Server A is unreliable and spends an

unacceptable amount of time offline. In this situation it is reasonable to raise a

Problem to record this server’s unreliability.

e.g. Problem: Server A is sporadically going offline

With the logging of this problem you will not want to link the related Incidents to

each-other but to the Problem record via hierarchicaliv links.

Linking Calls: How it’s done

Linking Customers & CIs

Your customer and CI records will either need to be manually inputted, imported from

a CSV file or spreadsheet or populated using some of SupportDesk’s available

optional modules such as LDAP, SMS or LANDesk integration. Either way you will

likely want to record which customer ‘owns’ which CIsv.

Select which Folder to search

for related Calls

Use chevron buttons to link

and un-link records to current

Call

Select your search term from

the pulldown of related items

or write in a keyword

Click whether to show

parents or children. Calls you

create will be logged in line

with the way this button is

toggled i.e. parent or child of

current call.

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This can be done through adding CI records on the Customer record and selecting the

Product to be added as inventoryvi.

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Linking CIs together

Returning to our previous example, Server A has been identified as unreliable. If you

spend the time to link CIs together you can at this point identify all CIs that may be

affected by unreliable Server A.

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On the Search & Link Related CIs tab you can do just that. Use the chevron buttons to

link and remove relationships between CIs as with calls before.

Categories & Service Level Management As well as customising the field layout for each Folder (via the Data Dictionary), you

can also configure the pulldowns for the six Category pulldowns via Categories &

SLA Management.3

SLAs the ITIL Way: Impact, Urgency & Priority

The SupportDesk ITIL pack comes with a preset SLA structure based on ITIL’s

suggested Impact + Urgency = Priority model. Priority will automatically adjust

depending on the sum of the former two fields:

3 This option can be accessed from the Setup menu

2. Minor + 0. High = 2. Medium

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Impact: measure of the significance of this issue to the business

Urgency: measure of how quickly this issue should be dealt with

Priority: rank giving an indicator of the order in which issues should be addressed.

Each priority has deadlines associated with it that can be edited from Service Level

Management on the Setup menuvii.

You can further edit impacts, urgencies and priorities from within Service Level

Management on the Setup menu. For more information contact Support.

Respond within: the point where a call

should have been first responded

represented by a status change.

Warning after: milestone warning of

impending Action/Fix breach. Often set at

an arbitrary point between other two

deadlines.

Action/Fix within: the point where the

call should be resolved or closed.

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Types & Sub-types

Each Folder in SupportDesk ITSM comes with a set of categories that have been locked into

only appearing in one Folder. These can be edited through using the Folder and Folder Type

pulldowns on each category (Fig8).

Use the Folder pulldown if the category in question only applies to one Folder. Use the

Folder Type pulldown if you intend to have more than one Folder of each Folder Type.

Status

Statuses are a way of keeping track of the lifecycle of your different call types.

SupportDesk ITSM comes with separate statuses for incidents, problems & changes

already loaded in; however you will more than likely find that you will want to edit

these to reflect your service desk workflow.

Use the Parent Category pulldown to

parent a sub-type to a type.

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Activities

Activities are unusual in that they are not simply a value recorded by means of a field

on the call dialogue, but are a ticket in themselves. The most common way to utilise

Activities is for recording sub-tasks of an incident.

Using Activities to track OLAs

Another use for activities is for tracking Operational Level Agreements, including

SLAs you hold with your suppliers. This also proves as a very good example of how

activities may be of use.

First create a new activity to record one of the SLAs you hold with one of your 3rd

parties and give it a name to reflect this e.g. ‘Azlan Technical SLA’.

Lock a status into one

folder type

Mark whether the status is

a Responded, Resolved or

Closed status

Parent the status to another

status to preserve a rigid

workflow

Use these fields to record the

details of the SLA you hold

with the 3rd party.

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If you create a status you can parent it to the activity, meaning any time you select it

the activity will also be launched and visible from the call dialogue.

Scheduled date indicates the point where the OLA breaches. At this stage

notifications can be triggered, via email and pop-up, to the assignee of the call or even

the 3rd party itself

viii.

Select the Activity to

be auto-launched

Give the status a

suitable name to reflect

its use

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Analysis

The analysis pulldown is designed to record the reason for closure (or Closure Code).

The Analysis is a way to re-evaluate the call at point of closure and is closely

associated with the solution. As a result the value selected in this pulldown may be at

odds with the value in the type pulldown. For example:

Type: Fault Hardware

Sub-Type: Printer

Analysis: User Error

In the example above the cause of the incident turned out to be that the end-user did

not know how to correctly load paper and had been attempting to load it into the

wrong tray!

Closing Calls the ITIL Way

According to ITIL you can never close an Incident until the related Problem has been solved

and a Change has been implemented, however, we’ve elected to give you the choice!

To close a Call without closing linked calls (either because you don’t want to or there aren’t

any); simply select the closed status on the Call dialogue.

To close all linked calls to the call you are currently viewing go to the Search & Link Related

Calls tab and click Close All Linked Recordsix. You will then be asked to enter a solution

which will be applied to all of the call to be closed.

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Fig11: Close All Linked Records tick box on Search & Link Related Calls dialogue

If you are using the SupportDesk Email Module, all automatic emails set to be sent on the

closure of a call will be sent for all related calls, further reducing the need for further contact

with each customer.

Further Information

We hope this guide proves useful and helps you to understand SupportDesk ITSM’s Service

Management framework. However, if you require further assistance, or to request additions

to the guide or SupportDesk ITSM program please contact itil@houseonthehill.com

iThe concept of Folders is discussed in the next chapter ii Depending on privilege levels set by an administrator in Login Management

iii See section on Linking Record types

iviv In this situation you would link the incidents as children to the Problem record. Normally a Change

Request would be raised as a parent of a problem record. This keeps a logical hierarchy to all linked

records and enables you to use the ‘close linked records’ button from the top level call to close all calls

below. v If you have the LDAP and Auditor modules some CI’s and customers can be automatically linked. vi If the product you want to add does not appear in the pulldown you can check the product archive for

this item, or create a new product record. vii Be aware that priorities are locked into ITIL Folder types. You need to be sure to edit the correct

Folder’s priorities. viii Requires SupportDesk Escalation & Email modules

ix The ‘Close All Linked Records’ button only closes calls hierarchically lower than the call you have

chosen to press it on. Therefore, is parented as previously suggested, a change will result in problems

and incidents being closed, but a problem with only close incidents and leave any associated changes

open.