Creating an incident

When users detect a failure of an asset/resource or a degradation of IT service, then they can send an incident request to the system administration team.

Modes to report an incident

There are various modes of placing a request to the system administration team. Some of the most common modes are:

Requesters call up the help desk agent and report an issue or explain the nature of their request. The help desk agent will then manually feed in the details into the application.
Requesters log into the Self Service Portal and submit their requests.
Requesters email the request to the help desk team. The email is automatically converted to a new request in the application.

Note: The requests created via email will use the default template.

Apart from the above three modes, there are various other modes by which an incident request is created. For more information on adding additional modes, refer to Configuring Mode section.

Create Incident Requests from the application

A typical example for technicians to create an incident request from the application would be when a technician is on a call with the requester. The technician fills in the necessary details for future references.

There are three ways in which the new incident request form can be accessed in the application,

New Incident drop-down menu
Quick Create - New Incident
Requests tab

1. New Incident drop-down menu

The New Incident drop-down menu lists all the Incident Templates configured in the application. It is an instant means to quickly access the new incident form. For easy identification, the incident templates are grouped according to Service Categories. So all you need to do is browse through the available incident templates, select the one relevant to your issue and raise a new incident request.

The Incident Templates are configured in the Admin module under Helpdesk block.

Note: The New Incident drop-down menu is available only if the administrator has disabled the option "Merge Incident and Service Templates" in Self Service Portal Settings.

2. Quick Create - New Incident

Quick Create - New Incident is an instant mode to create new incidents when you are on a call with a requester or when you are loaded with a lot of work. This section is available only when the 'Quick Create Settings' is enabled in the Self-Service Portal Settings.

In the Quick Create - New Incident block, you can either conduct a search for the existing requesters using the icon or enter the requesters name in the field provided. Next, you need to enter Request Title and Description. Click Save. The incident is saved and the request details page is displayed.

If you require additional details such as category, priority or assign a technician, click Add More Details >> link. This takes you to the New Incident form.

3. Requests Tab

To create a new request from the request tab,

Click Requests tab in the header pane.
From the Request List view, click New Incident button. By default, the 'Default Incident Template' form is displayed. From this form, you can select an incident template from the Change Template drop-down menu.
In the default request form, select the Request Type from the combo box. Request Type denotes the type of request sent by the requester to the help desk team. You can configure Request Type in the Admin tab.
Select the Status of the request, the Mode of request submission, Level and Priority of the request from the drop-down box.
Also, select the Impact, Impact Details and Urgency of the request from the corresponding drop-down box.
In the Requester Details block, specify the Requesters Name, Contact Number, Job Title and Department of the requester.
You can select the requester from the list of users configured in the application. Click Requester lookup icon beside the requester name field. The Requester List window pops up.

To select a requester from the list, click the hyper-linked requester Name. The requester name and details associated with the requester are populated in the requester details block.

If the requester list is huge, then click on the Alphabets at the top of the page to view only a selected group of requesters.
Also, you have an option to edit the requester details directly from this page. Click the edit iconbeside the requester name to perform the edit operation.
In addition, add new requester directly by clicking the Add Requester button from the requester list page.
If you are aware of any requesters details such as name, login name, department, email and so on, then conduct a column-wise search using the search icon .
Conduct an instant search for the requester by entering the search string in Search Requester List field and click Go.
The assets associated to the requester are populated in the Asset drop-down. Select the Asset from the drop-down. If the issue is caused by a network resource such as a router or an access point, then click the icon and select the asset.

In Select Assets pop-up window, you can filter the assets by selecting the Type of assets such as, access point, routers, workstation and so on, from the drop-down. Selecting All Assets lists all the assets available in the application, irrespective of the asset type. You can further filter the assets according to sites using the Site drop-down. Selecting a site lists the assets from that particular site. Say, for instance, if the site selected is "New York" and the asset type is "Access Point", then all the access points associated to the site New York are listed.

Note: The sites associated to the logged in technician are listed in the Site drop-down.

By default, if the location of the requester is configured in the application, then the same is populated in the Site field. In certain scenarios, the requester may raise a request from one site to a problem in another site. In this case, the site in which the issue persists should be selected.
On selecting the site, the groups corresponding to the site gets populated under the Group field. The request is routed to the particular group by selecting the Group name from the drop-down.
On selecting the Group, technicians associated with the Group alone are listed in the Technician drop-down list. Select a Technician to handle the request from the drop-down.
Select the Service Category which is affected by the incident from the drop-down.
Select the relevant category under which the request is classified from Category drop-down box.
Also, select the relevant Sub-Category and Item from the drop-down box.
If you wish to add a CC to the email loop, then select the Email Id(s) to Notify by clicking the icon . From the Requester List pop up window, enable the check box beside the requester name. Click Add Requester.

Note: Please note that the email address should be configured for the selected requesters.
Specify the subject line to be displayed while sending the request in the Subject text field. The subject line is displayed as the request title and is a mandatory field.
Provide a detailed description with any other associated details relevant to the request in the Description text box.
To add any attachments relevant to the request, click the Attach file button in the Attachments block. The Attach File pops up as shown below,

- Click the Choose file button and select the file to be attached from the file chooser window and click the Open button.

- Click the Attach file button. The selected file is listed below the Attachments heading. If you have more files to choose, follow steps 2 and 3 repeatedly till you have attached all the relevant files. Please ensure that the maximum size of the attachment is 10 MB.
  
  The attached document is indicated with an attachment icon beside the title of the request in the request list view page.

While entering the request details, if you have a solution for the request, then the same can be entered in the Resolution field. The purpose of resolution field in the new request form is, when you are reported a problem for which you are aware of the solution, then in this case, specify the solution in the resolution field, set the status as closed to close the request.
To add resolution, click the button beside Resolution title in the new request form. Specify the solution in the resolution text field. The entered resolution can be viewed by clicking the Resolution tab while viewing the request.
If there are any additional fields configured for the new incident form, then enter the values for the fields. To know more on adding user defined fields in the incident form, refer Incident - Additional Fields.
Click the Add request button. The request is added to the existing list of requests and can be viewed from the request list view.
Once request is added/submitted, the created date/time will be set automatically (see request details section) and a unique id (see request details page (or) request list view page) will be assigned to the request.