Support Group

Support Groups are organizational units within an enterprise who may be involved in the Release process. Typically the Support Groups reflect an area of expertise.

• The Support Groups in the Release Manager help to describe the different groups and their assigned tasks. It is possible to establish which Support Group is currently responsible for a given Release at any given time.
• Where services are being charged or to increase the cost awareness, a price per hour can be associated with a Support Group. Later this can be used to optimize the use of expensive specialists.
• The Support Group will be often used in Searching, Grouping and Sorting functions. The Support Group will also feature strongly in reports which may be generated about the individual Releases. The Support Group leader can use the reports to monitor the Releases currently allocated to his Support Group.

Support Group in the Edit Mode

The Edit View of the Support Group is divided into an upper and a lower section. In the upper section the attributes and simple relations of the Support Group are displayed.

The Support Group editor provides the following fields:

The Master Tab:

• Support Group

  The name of the Support Group.

• Email

  A group Emails address to which all group members have access.

• Description

  A fuller description of the Support Group.

• Recipient

  The recipient for Emails sent to this group. The possible values are: Group Members, Group Email and No Recipient.

• Ticket Email

  If a ticket is passed on to this Support Group by email, it defines how much detail is to be used. This would depend on how tightly integrated the Support Group is into the Valuemation Service and Change Processes.

  The valid options are: E-Mail Text – Brief, E-Mail Text – Detailed and No EMail.

• Activity Email

  If an activity is passed on to this Support Group by email, how much detail is to be used. This would depend on how tightly integrated the Support Group is into the Valuemation Service and Change Processes.

  The valid options are: E-Mail Text Standard and No E-Mail.

• Default pass on Target Group

  This specifies what should happen when a Ticket is passed on to this Support Group.

  The valid options are: No Default, Overall resp. Person and KnowHow dependent.

• Service Level Group

  Choose to which Service Level Group the Support Group is assigned.

• Solution Group

  Define if the Support Group is a Solution Group.

• Take overall responsibility on Accept

  Under certain conditions, an option to "take overall responsibility" for the ticket is offered when a user calls the 'Accept' action. (The overall responsible person is the main responsible user for the ticket who receives ticket-related notifications, can accept the ticket even if he/she is not part of the ticket's current responsible group, etc.)

  When the 'Accept' action is called, the application needs to decide whether or not the overall responsibility option should be offered. The 'Take overall responsibility on Accept' check box helps to determine this.

  It works in the following way:

  • The ticket is sent to a support group, this support group becomes its current support group.
  • A member of this support group can now accept the ticket.
  • If the member of this current support group is not already the overall responsible person AND if the current support group has the 'Take overall responsibility on Accept' check box set to true, then the overall responsibility option is offered when the user calls the 'Accept' action.

    Example:

    1st level support sends a ticket to 2nd level support. Person 'X' from second level support is about to accept the ticket. If the second level support group has the check box checked and person 'X' is not already overall responsible for the ticket, then the taking overall responsibility is offered when person 'X' calls the 'Accept' action.

• Take over all responsibility on non-status Accept

  Same as above, but for non-status acceptance, i.e. the 'Work On' action. (Clicking the Work on action makes the current user the new actual "worker" of the ticket. This taking over is captured in the ticket history but the ticket status remains unchanged - 'Work On' is not a status action.)

  Analogically to the 'Take overall responsibility on Accept' description above:

  • A member of the ticket's current support group decides to work on the ticket.
  • If the member is not already the overall responsible person AND if the current support group has the 'Take overall responsibility on non-status Accept' check box set to true, then the overall responsibility option is offered when the user calls the 'Work on' action.
• Cost per Hour

  For each Support Group, you can set the cost per hour. This is a prerequisite for the calculation of Ticket costs. Please see the 'Calculation Ticket Costs' section for details.

• Currency

  For each Support Group, you can select the currency. This is a prerequisite for the calculation of Ticket costs. Please see the 'Calculation Ticket Costs' section for details.

The Validity Tab:

• Valid From/To

  Set from when until when the Support Group is valid.

• Updatable by interface

  Decide if the Support Group is updated through Orchestra.

• Workhours Definition

  This is important for the Resource Manager.

The Group Leader Tab:

Here the standard reference view for a Person is displayed, providing basic contact information for the Group Leader of this Support Group. Using the standard icons on the right hand side, the fields can be reset, the information can be updated, or a new person can be located and assigned as Group Leader.

The Comments Tab:

Enables you to enter a detailed comment.

The reference catalogs represent relations to other object types:

• Members of Group Tab

  It lists all Persons (with all the relevant organizational and contact information) who are assigned to this Support Group.

  The following controls exist for processing the link between Person and Support Group:

  • Search and assign the existing Person-Support Group
  • Edit Person-Support Group
  • Add a new Person-Support Group
  • Remove Person-Support Group
• Competency Rules Tab

  It lists the types of Ticket that should be linked to this Support Group. This allows a help desk user to pass on a ticket to the correct person.

  Example: A Group has e.g. competency defined as Database Specialists. If a Ticket with Database issues and the user in the help desk has Passon=KnowhowDependent set, then the correct Support Group will be suggested for the Pass on.

• Forwarding limited to groups

  This is relevant for Tickets and Activities only. If there is no definition, the support group can assign a ticket to all support groups. If there is a definition, the support group can forward a ticket only to the specified support groups. Additionally, it is possible to define an approval supportgroup.

• Reservations

  Lists the Tasks, Activities or other Reservations of the support group.