Virtual Agent and Universal Request

[Luiz Lucena]

Hello everyone, 

We have Virtual Agent and now we are implementing Universal Request with the intention to reduce the number of incidents created by mistake, for example, someone requesting something new that is not included in a Service Catalog, should be a request instead of incident. 
We thought we could leverage Universal Request for that, but I'm finding some issues, particularly with Virtual Agent. 

Is not clear to me why ServiceNow would make the topic block "Create Incident" to create an Incident AND a Universal Request when the plugin ITSM Virtual Agent Conversation is enabled.

I've found the script include VACreateINCUtil is causing that, which will be little bit confusing to the end user. 

I tried to duplicate that script include but cannot edit the name because is policy protected, now I cannot even delete the one I duplicated because of same policy. 

What would be the best process to have Virtual Agent creating a Universal Request ONLY and letting Service Desk triage and create an Incident or Request?

What should I do with the script included duplicated?

Thanks in advance!

[jMarshal]

The logic that they are using OOB seems odd, but it actually kinda makes sense. In ITSM, the primary goal of Incident Management is to restore service ASAP by any means (workaround, temp fix, whatever)...so if someone is reporting an incident (even if it isn't "really an incident"), you'll want it to get into the INC table ASAP, in case you have automation to begin remediation right away...

...but because you are also using UR, in theory you will also want a UR to provide the client - in theory they only get the UR number, not the INC number...and then resolve the INC as "client education - needs request fulfilment" (or a similar resolution code that you have in your organization) and start the SR from the same UR.

This creates a seamless transition/interaction for the end-user, and they are getting what they need, as fast as they possibly can.

The cost is overhead for your organization, having to address the INC first.

My guess is that your business stakeholders would rather save on the overhead at the cost of a potentially small, insignificant, delay in call resolution.

...in which case, I'd recommend a different approach, instead of copying and modifying the script include such that it doesn't make an incident...instead, create a new va topic called "submit incident" (so you can tell the difference between yours an oob) and configure it to just create a UR and assign it to the T1 queue right away. Then deactivate the oob "create incident" topic and stick this one in it's place (could be a bit tedious if you have a mature conversation structure already in place).

Sorry I cannot help with the duplication that you have already done - I'd reach out to NowSupport, for help with that part.

[Luiz Lucena]

Thanks, @jMarshal, 

Found one OOTB topic that might help, it belongs to Universal Request - Virtual Agent Conversations plugin.

The topic name is Employee Help Request.

I've activated it and published, but somehow that son of a gun doesn't want to work.

[jMarshal]

From what I can tell, that comes oob as a template only and must be copied and configured further - it won't do anything if you activate it as is.

....but it does look like it'll do what you want it to do (generate a simple UR and not any other records along with it).