Dealing with email replies

[quentin_cobb]

We have an issue were INC are created for every replied to email, and is creating multiple tickets for the same issue.   Our clients do not send emails strictly to ServiceNow but its redirected from a ServiceDesk Email account on Exchange.   Our clients tend to use the ServideDesk Email account has a repository for all communication concerning IT related issues.   They will open up a thread with multiple recipients when informing us of an issue, then all replies in such thread are creating on average about 5-10 duplicated tickets for this one instance.   We want duplicated tickets from different users, this is allows us to know its effecting more than just one person.    

After several failed attempts of scripts in side inbound email actions, I stumbled across business rules.   This is my 3rd week working with ServiceNow so this may be a rudimentary fix, but I am unaware of a better.   I don't want to ignore all emails whose subject starts with   "RE:" because emails containing watermarks to update existing INC and re-opening a ticket after it was closed wouldn't function automatically as designed by the system.

Here is my solution:

Create New Business Rule -

table: Incident

when: before inserted

condition: when short description starts with "RE:"

action: Abort action

This simply prevented all emails starting with "RE" from being inserted into the INCIDENT table as new.   If the watermark exists the system does not try to process this as a new insert but as an update so updating an existing ticket will process and function normally, same functionality for re-opening a ticket after is was closed when issue was not resolved properly.

Is this the most effective solution, or has anyone found a better?

[Michael Fry1]

It's one way of dealing with the problem. Adding something (that works ) to the inbound action would also work. I mentioned this to someone else recently but there is a plugin called FIlters that could also help with this problem. wiki: Email Filters - ServiceNow Wiki

[quentin_cobb]

Thank you Michael,

I believe the system comes defaulted with some low level filtering, which we applied.   But, the issue we were running into is when "ignoring" emails with subject "RE" we were preventing the system from updating tickets with the ref watermark.   Also it would prevent the reply to a closed ticket inbound action from re-opening a closed ticket if work wasn't completed.   I believe the bigger issue was applying these actions and having the proper scripting to help deal with watermarks and what to do.   We also found that even though we put in the language to stop processing when conditions are met it would still create tickets when we did not want it.

I will investigate filters a little more, the plugin appears to add some advanced functionality to it, and also allow for new ones to be created.   For now the BusinessRule approach is working smoothly without interfering with the built in OOB features.   I will test and reply back my findings.   If you have any scripting that has worked for you, and you can share it would be appreciated.

Im playing catch up, I have a lot to learn.

Thanks,

[mattchm]

Is this working for you, or are you finding that you're missing tickets?

1: If the business rule aborts the insertion of everything coming in with RE:, there are some circumstances where replies would create legitimate requests.

2: Is the business rule smart enough to insert new data into existing tickets based on the incident number, or does it just discard them altogether?

Thanks!

[quentin_cobb]

Yes it is working, but you are correct there will be a chance of missing tickets.

1:   There are scenarios where a reply would be blocked from   creating an inc/req.   We found that it was more of a behavior change that we had no control over and this was the only way to prevent tickets from being created upon responds.

2.   I'm sure there are some conditions and scripts that can be applied to prevent this.   One coming to mind would be to have the condition look within the body of the email for the email address for your instance.   In our case we have a ServiceDesk email that automatically redirects the emails to ServiceNow.   You may be fortunate to have your users emailing ServiceNow directly and you would be looking for your_instance@service-now.com.   If the email is found within the body text you can abort.   Or something along those lines.

Obviously company rules and polices very but ide be interested in seeing what works for you and what successes you have had.   We are still pretty new to ServiceNow and I would assume there are many tricks Im unaware of.