Best practices for Requests/RITM/Task?

[na93]

Hi All,

Still new to ServiceNow but I have a couple of questions and would be most grateful if someone could answer/clarify.

For our implementation we won't be going live with the customer portal till 'Phase 2' this means until then any requests will be logged by our ServiceDesk. As our go live date isn't far away we haven't had time to think about or create catalog items unfortunately. So for Phase 1 we plan on creating a generic catalog item which has only 1 Task. The service desk will log this on behalf of our users using the 'New Call' module and completing out the relevant information on the catalog item which will just be description and fulfillment group etc.

My question is, is there is a perhaps an easier way to handle this other than using the new call module or anyway we can simply it a bit more? Secondly we only plan to work at Task level so we don't want RITM's being assigned, is anyone ever used or have a business rule to achieve something similar ie stop RITM from being assigned on insert?

Thanks in advance and any help will be much appreciated.

[phillipmelmoth]

We use New Call module for the SD to raise RITMs for customers. We find it to be the best/easiest solution considering you can create different types of tickets from the same starting points (new call).

The best way to stop RITM assignment fields being used is to control it via ACL, and remove them from the forms.

If you are going to work exclusively at task level consider how you will handle incoming and outgoing email notifications (assuming you are using those). We work from the RITM level in all cases and only use tasks for more complicated RITMs that have multiple components. Even working at RITM level we have had to put a lot of work in to our forms, business rules and email notifications to make it all work seamlessly with the three different levels (REQ, RITM and TASK), and keeping the right reference numbers going out to the customer: Eg: if an analyst puts a comment on a TASK which reference number do you want to send to the customer?

[na93]

Thanks for the clarification, much appreciated.

As part of my form variable it has assignment group which I need for the task to be assigned which works well, however it assigns both the Task and RITM to the same assignment group. I want only the task assigned and the RITM left unassigned, and am struggling on how best to do this?

Also can I just ask what benefits there is working at RITM level?

Cheers

[phillipmelmoth]

I can't be 100% sure what is setting your Assignment Group on RITM and TASK however - with variables - if the variable name matches a field name on the target record then that field will take on the value of the variable. The way to stop that is change the name of the variable to something else and control the assignment group field via a script.

It's possible that you have something else there such as a business rule setting those assignment fields. Where do your variables end up? On the RITM and the TASK or just RITM?

For us, the RITM level is the level at which our customers are aware of their ticket. The majority of our request items have only one task but in the case there are multiple ones then the customer is not given visibility to those, they are behind the scenes. The issue with that is when support staff want to communicate with the customer then it needs to be done at RITM level or it will not trigger notification emails or appear in the portal OOB. To make that happen you would need to set up scripts to push the customer visible comments between the ticket levels, and then think about how you will apply customer updates - which ticket they will go to.

You could find that your support staff will still need to refer to the RITM (or even the REQ) in order to get "the bigger picture".

I don't want to persuade you to go for one way or the other as it will depend on your environment and how your support staff work. Working at TASK level is very useful for managing multiple support staff, but think about how it all fits together when communicating with the customer.

[na93]

Thanks Phillip it's given some food for thought certainly!

Cheers