A Guide to Categories & SLA Management

Transcription

1 A Guide to Categories & SLA Management 1. Introduction Calls can be logged quickly and efficiently in SupportDesk using selection Categories on the call screen. The categories can match the conditions of your Service level Agreements (SLAs) that are determined by the informational data in your business s service contract. These define for instance, how quickly calls will be responded to and fixed, or the hours that services will be available. Your SLAs can be entered into SupportDesk to automatically define how quickly calls of a certain Priority must be resolved, and to determine the support contracts of suppliers and customers etc. All collected data can be reported against. As every system is unique, it is not possible to dictate an exact template as to how your categories and SLAs should be configured. This document instead offers some strong guidelines that will assist you when embarking upon the configuration process. 2. Categories and Relationships Categories are the various classification options available on the call screen that Agents can select when logging a call. They should enable the Agent to accurately define what the call is regarding. Web: Windows: Within SupportDesk, there are the following category options as standard: 1. Super-Type This optional level of categorisation can sit above Type in order to create further call definition. It can be useful if you wish to manage Incidents and Requests within a single folder: it allows you to generate unique workflows for an Incident and for a Request, without having to switch folders. 2. Type This can define the nature of the call and will be based upon the areas of your business that you support (e.g. Software/Hardware/Fault/Query etc.) 3. Sub-Type The child of Type, this provides further detail (e.g. Type = Hardware, Sub-Type = Printer) 4. Status Whether a call is Open, Closed, On Hold etc. 5. Priority If a call is Critical, Medium, Long Term etc. the selection of Priority in SupportDesk can automatically generate Response, Warning and Action dates. 6. Impact Signifies the impact the call has on the organisation and corresponds with company SLAs. The impact and urgency model can be configured within SupportDesk when using SLA in conjunction with Urgency. This enables Priorities to be calculated automatically upon 1

2 selection of the two parent categories. Some consultancy will be required for creating the Impact and Urgency matrix. 7. Urgency This signifies how quickly the call needs to be resolved in order to have minimum impact on the business. 8. Analysis Useful for recording extra information upon closure of a call, such as noting that a Workaround has been put in place or if there was No Fault Found etc. The Service Level Management Screen: It is from SupportDesk s Service Level Management area that the maintenance screens of all the categories can be accessed. The Service Level Management screen is found in the web via Settings > Service Level Management. In the Windows, it is accessesd via System Management > Service Level Management. The maintenance screens for categories all share many of the same settings and attributes, but any differences will be highlighted in the section on that particular category. Web: Windows: 2

3 Setting up the main Categories: Types Call Types will depend upon the areas of your organisation that you are supporting. For example, if you are setting up an IT Service Management system and want to set up Types within your Incident Management folder, these may include Hardware, Software or Fault, Query. Types should be kept relatively broad and clear: call definitions can become more detailed with the use of Sub-Types. Creating Types: Web view: 1, Category dropdown. Select Type from the category dropdown. 2, Folder Type. Select the Folder Type for which you are creating the new Type. This is so that you can see the Types (if any) that already exist for this Folder. 3, Click New at the bottom left of the screen in Windows. In the web, click Type from the Category dropdown, and click the Add New Type link. Windows view: 3

4 The category details screen will appear after clicking New or Add New Type: Web view: 1, Enter the name of the new Type 4, When you are happy with the settings, click OK to save 2, Select the Process Type from the Process Type dropdown this will be the Folder that the Type will be locked into. (Only available in SupportDesk Enterprise). 3, The Folder selection refers to the Data Dictionary. If you have separate Dictionaries for different folders, you can lock the Type into the DD folder (Enterprise only) Windows view: 1, Enter the name of the new Type 3, The Folder selection refers to the Data Dictionary. If you have separate Dictionaries for different folders, you can lock the Type into the DD folder (Enterprise only) 4, When you are happy with the settings, click OK to save 2, Select the Process Type from the Folder Type dropdown this will be the Folder that the Type will be locked into. (Only available in SupportDesk Enterprise). 4

5 Test. Go into the Folder for which you have created the Type, click the lifebelt icon to log a new call, and see if the new Type appears in the Type dropdown. Repeat the Process until all of your Types are created: Sub-Types Sub-Types can be used to expand the call type selection further and enable the person logging the call to provide precise details of the nature of a call. To add a new Sub-Type, select Sub-Type in the category dropdown in Service Level Management, then click New/Add New Sub-Type. This will generate the Sub-Type Details screen: 1, Enter the Sub-Type Name 4, Click OK to save 2, Select the Process Type 3, Select the Folder 5

6 The Sub-Type will now appear in the Sub-Type dropdown on the call screen. Currently, the Type and Sub-Type are not related, so now you can set Parenting rules: 2, Once you have selected the Parent Category, click OK to save. 1, Click back into the Sub-Type. In the Parent Category dropdown, select the Type that you wish the Sub-Type to be the child of. This means that the Sub- Type Laptop will only appear when the Type Fault is selected. You can set many Sub-Types to have the same parent Type, by clicking into each Sub- Type and selecting the required Type from the Parent Category Dropdown. In this example, Laptop now appears as the Sub-Type of Fault: 6

7 1. Build your list. Repeat the process for creating and parenting Types and Sub-Types. Your lists can be edited easily at a later date via the Service Level Management screen if you want to change any names or make any additions. If you wish to remove any Types or Sub-Types, you can archive the category by ticking the box labelled Archive on the Details tab, then clicking OK. Archive unwanted categories using the tick box Archive unwanted categories using the tick box 7

8 Statuses The status category informs users of the stage a call is at, and enables you to set up a specific workflow to be used when handling calls. The following statuses are a suggestion for when setting up your status categories within SupportDesk: Open this can be the initial status for calls. SupportDesk automatically calculates and logs the Open Date and Time of the call. On Hold this status is used for calls which cannot currently be progressed for various reasons, which could include if you are waiting for information from a customer etc. SupportDesk has the optional functionality to Stop the Clock on this status, so that Key Performance Indicators and SLAs are not adversely affected. Resolved this may be used as a pre-emptive status to Closed. This could be used in situations when the customer is required to confirm that the issue has been sorted out. It is possible for this status to automatically escalate to Closed after a predefined amount of time. Closed when a customer confirms that the issue has been resolved, the call can be marked as Closed. SupportDesk automatically calculates the Closed date and time and enters this on the call screen. Reopen in the occurrence of the call needing further work, the call can be given a Reopen status which makes the call live once more. Create your Statuses. Statuses can be configured in the same way as Types, by going to the Service Level Management Screen, selecting Status in the category/classifications dropdown and clicking Add New Status/New. 8

9 This will generate the Status details screen: Web view: 1, Enter the Status Name 3, Click OK to save 2, Set up Status Milestones. One function that is unique to the Status Category is the ability to indicate to the system if the Status you have defined corresponds to one of three milestones that SupportDesk will recognise. These include Responded To, Resolved, and Closed. *SupportDesk automatically recognises the status as being an Open status if no milestones are selected. For this example, when this Resolved status is selected on a call, SupportDesk recognises that the call is no longer Open. This is important for reporting, for keeping users and customers aware that a call is progressing, and for filtering calls to view which are at a certain Status. It is also possible to set escalation rules so that the status moves from Resolved to Closed after a predefined amount of time, this is covered on page 12 of this Document. For any Closed statuses, select the Closed milestone. You may also wish on some statuses for the system to recognise that calls have been Responded to, (perhaps if your SLAs include sending a First Response on calls) so again, the milestone tick box needs to be selected for such a status. 9

10 Stop the Clock. It is possible on certain statuses that you will require to Stop the Clock. An example of this may include an On Hold status. In this example, a status has been created called On Hold: Customer, which can display to the helpdesk that the call is currently waiting for the customer to perform an action. Stopping the Clock means that the elapsed time stops counting down, and can mean that SLA targets do not breach if there is something standing in the way of the call progressing that is out of the helpdesk s control. Web view: Scroll down to the Actions section on the Status Details screen, and select the Stop The Clock tickbox. Click OK to save. Windows view: 1, Click the Workflow & Actions tab 2, Tick the Stop The Clock setting 3, Click OK to save 10

11 Parent Child Relationships within Statuses. It may be that some Statuses require parent-child relationships. Such statuses may include Resolved being set as the parent of Closed, the reason for this being that the customer may need to confirm that they are satisfied the call has been resolved before the call can be set as closed. Therefore, the Closed status must not be available to select within the workflow of a call when it is first logged and still Open. Parenting means that a specific workflow must be followed. Similarly, Closed may be set as the parent of Reopen. This is because the call would only need to be reopened once it has been marked as Closed. Closed and Reopen are not available in the initial dropdown when first logging a call Closed can only be accessed to select once the Resolved status has been selected Reopen can only be accessed to select once the Closed status has been selected Web view: In the web, click into the Closed status and scroll to the Dependency section. Select Resolved from the Parent Category dropdown Windows view: On the Details tab in the Windows, in this example the Reopen status has been given the parent of Closed 11

12 Escalation of Statuses. You can configure categories so that they escalate to another status after a predefined amount of time. A common case in which this may be used is the escalation of the Resolved status to Closed. An may be sent to the customer on the Resolution of a call to notify them of the requirement for a response if they are dissatisfied with the call being closed, and may include something along the lines of: We believe that the call has been resolved. If you do not feel that the issue has been fixed then please respond to this within 2 days, otherwise the call will be closed. *you may require consultancy to set this up. In this situation, you can set the call to escalate to Closed automatically if the customer does not respond. *Workflow Engine. To do this, you must first ensure that your Workflow Engine is running in order for the escalation of statuses to work. Web view: 1, Select the status to escalate to in the Next Category to Escalate to dropdown 3, Click OK to save 2, Enter the amount of time that you wish the status to Escalate After if it is not changed manually. Select Days, Minutes, Weeks etc. from the dropdown, and enter the amount in the free text field e.g. 2 Days 12

13 Windows view: 1, Select the status you wish to escalate to from the Escalate to: dropdown. OK to save. Escalation Tab. 2, Enter the amount of time you wish the status to escalate after * The status has (Resolved) in brackets. This is just to notify you of the fact that Resolved is the parent of Closed. 3, Click OK to save Service Level Agreements: Call Priority If you have an agreement with your customer to provide a specific level of service, you can define a suite of priorities for different SLAs which can generate Response, Warning and Action times, thus defining how quickly each call needs to be resolved. Configuring your Service Level Agreements is an important part of how your system will function and how your categories will work together. This part of the setup will require an amount of configuration by House-on-the-Hill consultants. There are a number of decisions that you will need to make in order to create your SLA model: 1. Impact/Urgency/Priority An Impact and Urgency matrix for determining the Priority of a call can be configured, and this will require consultancy. If you would like the Response, Warning and Action times to be calculated based on the selection of just Priority, then this can be set up without consultancy. A simple Priority model may consist of 5 different Priorities including: 1. Critical 2. High 3. Medium 4. Low 5. Long Term 13

14 To create your Priorities, go to Service Level Managemet and select Priority from the category dropdown, then create your Priorities by clicking New. At this point, simply select the Folder Type and give each Priority a name. It is from the Details tab on the individual Priorities that you can then set the Response, Warning and Action times: 2, Click OK to save. Repeat for all Priorities. 1, Enter the number in the free text field next to the Response, Warning and Action/Fix settings, then select the timing e.g. Minutes, Hours, Days etc. from the dropdown. Now, when the Priority is selected, the Response, Warning and Action times are automatically populated on the call screen and are calculated from the Open Date. Additional Fields Now that the base areas of configuring your Categories and Service Level Agreements have been covered, you can repeat the processes outlined in this document for each folder that you set up within your system. Be sure to specify the Folder Type so that each set of categories you configure functions independently within the various folders. 14

15 You may notice that there are a number of fields within the category management screen tabs that have not been discussed, so here are some brief descriptions of their functionalities. This should give an idea of the additional capabilities that you can enable within your system, however, to always contact HotH if there is an area you are not sure about before making any dramatic changes to your system. Details tab: Category details can be locked into a specific folder type Use sort order to set the order of category selections displayed in dropdowns on the call screen 15

16 Workflow & Actions: Enterprise Pack: Close Linked Records allows for group closure of linked records You can set a default assignee for categories Automatically copy or move calls to other Folders when category is selected Child activities can be raised automatically when a category is selected Set up automatic templates to be sent out on certain categories. E.g. On Resolved status, you may wish to send an to notify customer that the call is now believed to be Resolved and will soon be Closed. 16

17 Category Escalation: Use to define new Assignees on the call after specific breaches If you require further assistance with your Category configuration and Service Level Management, or have any questions regarding SupportDesk, please get in touch at 17