Internal Users Working on External Customer Projects (Case vs Incident) + CSM RITM Visibility Issue

[Puneet Hegde1]

Hi Community,

I have a couple of questions related to a CSM implementation and would really appreciate your guidance:

Q1: Internal Users Working on External Customer Projects
In our organization, we provide services to external customers using CSM (Cases) for issue tracking, while internal users use the standard ITSM modules (Incidents, etc.). However, in the current project, many internal users are also working on external customer projects.

In this scenario:

• Should internal users create Cases or Incidents when working on external customer-related issues?

• If they need to use Cases, how can we associate internal users (from the sys_user table and synced via AD) with a Customer Account?
  ServiceNow doesn’t seem to allow adding internal users to customer accounts directly. Is there a workaround or best practice to handle this kind of hybrid role?

Q2: RITM Visibility in CSM Portal
External users can submit requests (RITMs) via the CSM portal. However, these RITMs are not visible under their ticket list—it only shows Cases.

• How can we make RITMs visible to external users in the CSM portal?

• I noticed the "Customer Service Request" plugin is installed. Does this only support Case records with type 'Request', or is there a way to expose actual RITMs too?

• What's the best practice to handle service requests for external users in a CSM context?

Any advice, configuration tips, or documentation references would be highly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!
P. Hegde

[Kieran Anson]

For question 1 - it would depend on what they're logging and whether the visibility of what they're creating a ticket for is needed to be presented to the account

For question 2 - When a request is created by a CSM user, a related case record should be auto-created. The CSM user then accesses the request via the case record....they don't access to the request/ritm directly

[Vishal Jaswal · Accepted solution]

Hello @Puneet Hegde1 

• Should internal users create Cases or Incidents when working on external customer-related issues?

• If they need to use Cases, how can we associate internal users (from the sys_user table and synced via AD) with a Customer Account?
  
  There are two type of internal users; operational engineers who actually troubleshoot and get the issue fixed and others are service desk agents who may reply to an e-mail, chat or phone call and create case for Customer. So, usually the Service Desk agents should be allowed to create Case in Native UI for customer. Once the Service Desk agent opens the Case for the customer, then from the Case Form Context Menu, agent should be able to create Incident or Change or Request based upon the customer's scenario (you can modify the context menu accordingly).

  
  
  

  This way Case is created for the customer and e-mail will be sent out to customer from case table e-mail notification and at the same time for internal employees, the incident will be created and the members from the assignment group will recieve an e-mail to work upon.
  
  Additional Comments and attachments among these ITSM records and Case should be replicated so that if internal user / operational engineer wants to interact the customer, then the additional comments in the note should be added which then be replicated to case which then be seen in the csm portal under activities as well as an e-mail from case table notification should be sent out.
  
  If customer replies to such additional comments as case can be set to resolve then the operational engineer should resolve the ITSM record and once all the ITSM records associated with the case are resolved then the parent / wrapper Case to be set as resolved.
  
  Don't allow the operational engineers to work on Cases at all rather let it be driven by the customer via portal (only customers should access portal) and all the states of the Case should be driven by the underlying ITSM record(s).
  
  
  

  • How can we make RITMs visible to external users in the CSM portal?
    
    The Service Request should automatically creates a Case by replicating some of it's field values. Once external user creates a Service Request via CSM Portal, then redirect the external user to the Case Details and just show the Service Request Number and not other details associated to the Service Request like underlying RITMs or any other such records. If you notice the Case and Service Request details are same.
    
    You can decide which notes to be replicated from Service Request or RITM to be visible in Case (CSM Poral - Activities). You can also configure such e-mail notification from Case where you can provide the Service Request, RITM(s) numbers and their desired SLAs, priortiy etc.