Incident vs Case: What can only be done at an incident?

[Haruka Kubota1]

Hi, 

Now, I’m researching the difference incident and case.
I have checked this site.
https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=824a87a9db5cdbc01dcaf3231f96...

https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=e747cf29db1cdbc01dcaf3231f96...

I did some research and found out the following
・　Incident is used for internal problem management, while Case is used for external customer problem management.
・　Incident manages all records in the same scope, while Case manages records for each account.
　　・　With Incident, all users who are allowed to access the Incident table can view all records.
　　　　With Case, only the records in the account can be viewed.

I understand what can be done in a case and cannot be done in an incident(Mainly related to scope), but conversely, what can be done in an incident and cannot be done in a case?

It seems to me that everything that can be done for incidents can also be done for cases.

I hope you can tell me.

Thanks,
Haruka Kubota

[Jimmie Odelius · Accepted solution]

Hi Haruka Kubota,

Case Management, Incident Management and Problem Management are 3 different processes. You have identified correctly that generally anything can in theory be done using the two ticket types. However since they are different processes they are covering different kinds of services within the platform.

You've rightly identified that incident is for internal IT infrastructure things. This is due to when acting as a service provider you might need to perform some work on the foundational infrastructure relating to that service. From the customers perspective they are however not interested in the underlying infrastructure. They just know that the service no longer works as expected. This is where case management comes in. The customer gets an easy way of requesting support on their subscribed services while not having to deal with any of the technical details making up the service.

There is additional plugins for enabling case agents to relating problems, incidents, requests and changes to a case. These relationships are there to support service owners, change managers, etc. to follow up on service health, impact and other metrics.

Please note that this is a really high level and simplified description and there are a myriad of nuances that might exist within your organization that might not fit with the description above.

Hope it helps. 🙂

[Jimmie Odelius]

And another thing...

There are some technical bits that don't exist within the other table in ServiceNow. But the overarching purpose of the different processes are usually more relevant I find.

There are also ITSM and CSM process guides provided by ServiceNow. I haven't been able to find them publicly but you should be able to request them from your sales representative.

[Haruka Kubota1]

Hi @Jimmie Odelius 

Let me get this straight.
So, for each incident and case, there is a specialized function for internal incidents and a specialized function for external query cases.

I kind of understand now. Thank you.

Thanks,
Haruka Kubota