Terms and Definitions

ITSM is a process centered approach. This approach focuses on providing framework and methodologies to deliver IT services to the Self-Service users. ITSM deals with establishing an organized system to provide services, support, and assistance to the users of IT systems and services. ITSM includes responding to questions about using a product, application, or service. ITSM addresses difficulties in accessing a service and resolving issues that are related to malfunctioning or unavailability of a service.

ITSM also provides a framework that covers activities that are related to updates and upgrades, changes to the IT infrastructure and IT services.

The application offers organizations an ITSM-based platform for receiving, processing, and resolving user requests for IT Support and Services.

Organizations use Information Technology to enable their resources to delivery business goals systematically, and increase their productivity. To enhance efficiency, the IT systems and services in the organization must be available to the users always.

To ensure the availability and quality of the IT Services, IT support comes into play. IT support deals with a range of organized services that provide support and assistance to the users of the IT systems and services. The organized services include:

• Responding to questions about how to use a product, application, or service.
• Addressing the difficulties in accessing a service.
• Resolving the issues that are related to failure, loss in quality or unavailability of a service.

IT Support also covers activities that are related to timely updates and upgrades and the IT infrastructure and IT services.

An Administrator is responsible for the initial setup and configuration of the application. An administrator configures the application to enable software to process the tasks according to the needs of the organization. Configuring the application includes the following tasks:

• Setting up various records in the application.
• Creating the required workflows.
• Enabling permission to users to access those components of the application they need.
• Ensuring that the software is able to enhance the productivity and efficiency.

An administrator undertakes two broad roles. First is the initial setup of  the application for the organization. This role includes the following activities:

• Configuring the organization, contact, and Configuration Item records.
• Configuring various templates. 
• Setting up the workflows according to the required support processes and philosophy.

The second activity begins once the application is in use. This task is to undertake regular administrative updates and changes depending on the changing needs of the organization.

Administrators have access to the full suite of features the application offers. Administrators also have default access to all forms and records in the application.

Service Desk is an organizational unit. Service Desk acts as a central or single point of contact between service providers and users of the services daily. Service Desk is also a focal point for requesting standard services and reporting incidents. Service Desk can also provide an interface for communication with users for other service management activities. For example, change, problems, configuration management, release, and continuity management.

Analysts handle all the requests that requesters log. The analysts work in different capacities to provide IT support to the users. The Self-Service users of IT Support contact the Service Desk through phone, email, or the Web requesting for support. The analysts handle their requests according to the defined processes and procedures.

Outage is a failure or interruption in the availability or functioning of a service. The duration between when a system stops functioning and when services are restored is Downtime or Outage. For example, a power outage when electricity fails, or a network outage when the internet or intranet fails.

Malfunctioning of a system could lead to a sudden unplanned outage; where the users lose the service unexpectedly.

Information that is related to known outages can be made available to Self-Service users from the Self-Service User Interface.

Prioritization is the process of determining which task or activity takes priority when several issues must be worked on simultaneously.

If the issue is critical, a Self-Service user can set a request as requiring immediate attention. You can assign Priority and Urgency for a request only if the administrator has made these fields visible on your Interface.

Prioritization of tickets allows the analyst to decide whether a new request can be moved into a higher priority queue. Prioritization of tickets helps especially when there are multiple issues seeking attention. The analyst interface displays more prioritization-related fields like Urgency, Severity, and Impact.

Guidelines regarding how to determine the Priority and Urgency of an issue are specific to each organization.

Service request is a request from a user for information or advice regarding the use of an IT service. A service request can be a request for a standard change or access to an IT service. A Service Request can also report an issue that a user faces. The Request Management process is the workflow that enables these requests to be appropriately submitted, routed, approved, monitored, and delivered.

Request Management is the process of managing a service request through its life-cycle. The lifecycle starts from the submission of a request to delivery of the required information. The process also includes the execution of standard change, providing a work-around or solution or escalating the request for further processing as an Incident.

In some organizations, all requests are logged and handled as Service Requests. An analyst working on the request can create an Incident ticket, a Problem ticket, or a Change Request against the Service Request, if necessary, and work to close the request.

Management of Service Requests is handled in the Request Management Module of Intelligent Service Management. Self-Service users can log requests through email, or from the ticket form in the Self-Service User Interface.

Service Level Agreement (SLA) is an agreement between an IT service provider and a customer. The agreement describes the IT Service and the performance that is expected. In ITSM, SLA defines aspects that are related to the availability of the IT Service, service conditions, and more. SLA is the time that is taken to respond. The time that is taken to resolve requests against an agreed performance target forms the basic measure of actual Service Level.

Compliance of a ticket against agreed upon SLA targets can be monitored. Action can be configured to ensure that ticket resolution is within agreed upon target thresholds.

Support Groups refer to the group of all analysts who provide support on similar type of requests. Grouping the requests helps in the assignment of tickets that are related to a specific group rather than an individual.

When a ticket is assigned to a group, anyone from the group can take ownership and can start working on it.

Such Grouping of analysts is helpful in 24X7 type of support environments or in geographically dispersed support environments, where accepting assignment on the issue could be dependent on which member of the group is working at a given time. Setting up support groups ensures that someone from the appropriate group handles requests assigned to that group promptly.

Having Support Groups also facilitates effective routing of a request. Based on the categorization of a request by "Type", it is possible to route the request to an appropriate Support Group, with matching expertise. This translates to faster response time for a request and faster resolution on a request that is raised with the IT Support team.

A Self-Service user can log requests using a phone, email, or the Self-Service interface of the application.

• If a user has logged a request using email, a ticket is automatically logged in the application.
• If a user calls the support number, the analyst logs a request manually in the application on behalf of the caller.
• If a user has a Self-Service Login to the application, the user can use the ticket forms. The user can also use a preconfigured request template from the request catalog to log the request.

For repetitive, common requests the administrator can configure Request Templates, with most fields and information being prepopulated in it. Then make it available for the users. This ensures that users can submit the standard requests easily. All information that is needed for such requests is available when the ticket is first logged.

The administrator can also set up workflows inside the application. These requests get auto assigned to specific Groups and Individuals based on the type of request. Other requests are assigned by default to a Level 1 group. The Application Administrator determines and manages the routing of the requests workflow actions.

The application can send notifications to the requester directly. Notifications include ticket creation, assignment, worklog additions, and any modification to the ticket. The requester can follow updates and progress on the request through these notifications. The requester can also log in to the Self-Service Interface of the application.

The administrator manages the actual progression of a ticket from the time it is logged until its resolution.