Incident ManagerValuemation Incident Manager supports the IT service desk in efficiently correcting faults and malfunctions and in restoring the availability of services and applications as quickly as possible. It registers all problems received from customers. These are referred to as Tickets. Incident Manager specifically deals with tickets of the Incident Ticket Class. Incident tickets are assigned to the person or group who should deal with them, prioritized and their handling is documented. Activity An Activity is a task that must be carried out as part of the solution to the Ticket. Using Activities, part of the work on a certain Ticket can be loaded on the other people. On this account, Activities can be given its own deadline and responsible person, independent of the Ticket itself. Typically activities are opened from a catalog of activities. In these catalogs, members of individual support groups see only activities for which they/their support group is responsible. Catalogs of activities can be found under the Activities folder in Valuemation side bar. Authorization Groups and Roles Standard Valuemation comes equipped with many Authorization Groups corresponding to different roles performed by the users in individual areas of Valuemation business functionality. Each Authorization Group is given a set of authorization permissions according to the expected tasks and expertise of group members. These permissions are grouped together to form so called Authorization Roles. Calendar This is the name for the calendar definition. In this catalog, the particular Working days and Holidays for various working groups can be defined. Category The Category is a tool of classification of a Ticket at a lower level. It is applied when an input from a customer is being processed (i.e. the Ticket is being created). The categorization by Category can be useful for reporting or for an appropriate selection of a particular Support group, which will cater for the Ticket solution for instance. Dashboard InfoObjects Valuemation enables you to use interactive reporting and visualization of important KPIs and analyses in the form of various dashboards. The dashboards are available as authorized InfoObjects used mainly on the welcome pages (Home Perspective) of various Valuemation managers. These Dashboard InfoObjects are provided in both English and German depending on the application GUI language. Valuemation uses primarily the USU Valuemation Analytics tool for consolidating, analyzing and presenting IT data. Valuemation Analytics data presentation is based on KPIs and customized dashboards facilitating easy analysis of data and detection of interrelationships, dependencies and weak points in the business operation. Historically, Valuemation also uses predefined MashApps (ARIS MashZone composite applications) to offer interactive reporting and visualization of important KPIs. The MashApps are also available as authorized InfoObjects used on the welcome pages (Home Perspective) of various Valuemation managers. Day Type Using the Day Types, various working hours can be defined. This definition can be understood as a work shift. Duration The Duration is an estimate of how quickly the Ticket should be solved. It can be set dependent on Priority or Impact. Duration catalogue is not used in the latest Valuemation verson, it is replaced by Ticket Service Parameters. Escalation (Escalation Process) Valuemation Escalation is a flexible mechanism for identification of problems such as delays, non-fulfillment of business contracts or service level agreements etc. It recognizes the situation and can draw attention to it by setting escalation levels and carrying out actions (e.g. sending an email or creating a Ticket). The Valuemation Escalation involves a number of steps which reflect an increasing level of urgency or an approaching (or overdue) deadline. The Escalation is started for a particular Escalation Parameter which indicates a collection of Escalation Types. For each Escalation level within that Escalation Type, the relevant objects are identified. The relevant Escalation Actions are then carried out for these business objects. There are two kinds of escalation:
Impact The Impact/Urgency of a Ticket describes the urgency of a Ticket. The more users are affected by a Ticket, the more likely it is to have a high Impact. Assigning an Impact to a Ticket will be a result of applying Business Rules. This will reflect who is affected, how badly, whether there is a workaround, etc. The Impact is used to classify the Ticket and will often be used in Searching, Grouping and Sorting functions. It will also feature strongly in reports which may be generated about the Tickets. Keyword It is possible to define a list of special key words which can be used for extra Ticket classification. These key words are usually grouped in an appropriate class. Keyword Class Both the Keyword Class and its keyword may be used for a detailed Ticket classification when creating a new Ticket. Keywords usually have superordinated classes. Model Ticket Model Tickets act as templates for certain standard Tickets that occur regularly. The Model Tickets contain a framework of information, which is used to reduce the amount of work involved when a Ticket is reported. The pre-filled information in the Model Ticket can be used in the Ticket, or adjusted as required. Priority The Priority expresses how the importance of a solution so that the users responsible for a Ticket can organize their work. Assigning a Priority to a Ticket will be the result of Business Rules. Users will postpone working on a low Priority Ticket if a higher Priority Ticket is assigned to them. The Priority is used to classify the Ticket and will often be used in Searching, Grouping and Sorting functions. It will also feature strongly in reports which may be generated about Tickets. Public Holiday Public Holiday catalog lists the Public Holidays ("exceptions") for a given year. Through various Day Types, you can specify particular working hours for the holidays. Reference Type Reference Type allows you to specify which Business Object Types may be referenced in Ticket descriptions. Solution Request Parameter SR Parameters (Solution Request Parameters) specify how a ticket is handled if it reaches a certain status. It impacts the following:
Statement Type The Statement Type is used to describe and categorize the contents of the Ticket Description or Activity. This can be used to differentiate between the initial report from the user and steps towards analysis by a specialist, the actual problem, the solution and so on. It can also be used to indicate an activity (Installation, Systemcheck, etc.). The Statement Type can be used to keep the Shorttext in the Ticket Description simple. For instance the Shorttext "Logon Failed" can be a report, a symptom, a query or the statement of the cause of the problem. By using the appropriate Statement Type, the natural language can be kept to a minimum, thus speeding up the documentation process. Typical values could be Symptom, Check, Solution, Analysis, Verify etc. Status Track Status Tracking mechanism is used for tracking changes (status history) in a Ticket. It is in place to improve the quality and accuracy of the information stored about the Ticket. Support Group The support Groups are organizational units within an enterprise who may be involved in resolving Tickets. Typically the Support Groups reflect an area of expertise. Ticket (Ticket Class: Incident, Service Request) A Ticket is the central item in Valuemation IPC Management. A Ticket is used to represent Incident / Problem / Change requests. Tickets (and Ticket descriptions) are the central Object Types in Valuemation IPC. All the classification and descriptive Business Objects are used to describe and classify the Ticket. By using existing values, typing time is kept to a minimum, which speeds up the processing of a Ticket. A Ticket contains the information that is relevant to the IPC request. It also contains references to other relevant objects. The Ticket itself will contain information about the time it was reported, the impact and priority, the type of ticket etc. The Ticket will also contain links to the persons involved in solving the Ticket, the system affected etc. A Ticket contains one or more Ticket Descriptions which are the individual steps required to access / identify and solve the issue. The Ticket Descriptions contain the historical sequence describing the Ticket and its solution. Where a specific task must be carried out, a ticket description can be replaced by an Activity. An Activity may be assigned to a person or group and can have a deadline and a duration of its own (independent of the ticket itself). Depending on the complexity of the Ticket, a Ticket may have more than one Activity. Ticket Class Ticket Class is the highest and essential level of a Ticket classification (there are actually four levels of classification for a Ticket itself). The Ticket Class is chosen through the workflow which created it. Ticket Description A Ticket consists of one or more Ticket Descriptions. Each Ticket Description describes a step in the process of identifying the problem and solving it. The Ticket Descriptions document status changes and steps taken to solve the problem. Ticket Service Parameter Type The Service Parameter Type classifies the Service Parameters. Usually there are Ticket Service Parameters of two types available:
Ticket Shottext Ticket Shottext is a short description of a problem which has come about. It is used in a Ticket as a predefined text in the Ticket Shottext field later. Ticket Type A Ticket Type is a more detailed classification of a Ticket. It is a higher level of classification than the Category but lower level than the Ticket Class. The Ticket Type is dependent on a Ticket Class selected. The Ticket Class and Type in particular will often be used in Searching, Grouping and Sorting functions. Both Ticket Class and Type will also feature strongly in reports which may be generated about Tickets. Working Day Public Holiday catalog lists the Public Holidays ("exceptions") for a given year. Through various Day Types, you can specify particular working hours for the holidays. ZIS Interface Valuemation ticketing is capable of communication with ZIS System (Zentrales Informations-System), namely creation of new Incident tickets automatically out of ZIS events and sending information back to ZIS. | |||||