When to use Case and When to use Incident

[Siddharth A]

Dear ServiceNow Community,

I have a query, If I have  CSM and ISTM module, is it best to record any issues coming from customer as 'Case' only or to be captured as 'Incidents' too?

My understanding is anything with the service provider to be recorded as 'Incident' and all the customer facing ones should be 'Case'.

Please help with my understanding.What is ServiceNow recommended practice?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Siddharth A

[Sarthak Kashyap]

Hi @Siddharth A ,

Differences Between Incident and Case Management in ServiceNow

1. Purpose and Focus:
   • Incident Management: Primarily aimed at quickly addressing and resolving unexpected disruptions or degradation in the quality of IT services. The focus is on restoring normal service operation as soon as possible to minimise impact on business operations.
   • Case Management: Focuses on handling customer focused complex, issues that require detailed investigation and coordination.
2. Process and Workflow:
   • Incident Management: Typically involves a standardised, streamlined process with an emphasis on swift resolution. This process includes steps like incident identification, logging, categorisation, prioritisation, resolution, and closure.
   • Case Management: Involves more complex, often customisable workflows that can vary significantly based on the type of case. It is not necessarily about quick resolution but rather thorough handling of the issue.
3. Urgency and Impact:
   • Incident Management: Deals with high-urgency situations where there is an immediate impact on business operations or service quality.
   • Case Management: Often handles issues with right entitlements and contracts, where the impact is more on individual (consumer) or specific group (account) needs rather than on the entire business operation.
4. Scope and Complexity:
   • Incident Management: Generally addresses more straightforward issues with known solutions and procedures.
   • Case Management: Tackles more complex situations that may not have a predefined path to resolution and could require cross-departmental coordination or in-depth analysis.
5. Communication and Interaction:
   • Incident Management: Communication is often status-oriented, focusing on the progress of incident resolution and restoration of service.
   • Case Management: Involves more extensive interaction with customer, often with a need for detailed information gathering, continuous updates, and personalised communication.
6. Integration with Other Processes:
   • Incident Management: Closely integrated with other ITSM processes like Problem Management and Change Management.
   • Case Management: May involve integration with broader business processes, including external departments or entities, also companies involved in IT Support (MSPs) can use underlying Incident, Problem and Change Management processes.
7. Examples:
   • Incident Management: Server downtime, application errors, hardware failures.
   • Case Management: Specialised service requests, complex customer inquiries, internal process exceptions. Of course IT Support companies can make use of the Cases as an Incidents with the First time fix.

Please mark my answer correct and helpful if this works for you

Thanks and Regards,

Sarthak