Many of the clients that I work with have been using Ivanti Service Manager for many years. When we begin working together on some of the first items, we address how they get their work, how do they process the work, and where they feel their current processes are lacking. Quite often it comes down to customers building out their systems in a way that Ivanti Service Manager was not designed to function. That does not mean what they built is necessarily wrong, but they may be overlooking some key features that come with Ivanti Service Manager right out the gate. Here are three of the most overlooked functions within the Problem workspace.
1. Resolutions and Workarounds – The Problem workspace allows analyst to create Problem records from Incident when it rises to the need of a full-on investigation for a solution to a widespread problem affecting the company. That Problem goes through a few different phases of analysis before we arrive at either a resolution or a workaround. Both are valid ways of dealing with a problem and getting your users back up and running. Both resolutions and workaround can be published to the child incidents easily so that the customers get the right information quickly all through the use of quickactions (buttons). Some customers believe that you have to solve every problem. But the reality is that sometimes you can’t, and a workaround is just as good in the moment.
2. Knowledge Articles – Analysts are able to create Knowledge Articles with details directly from a problem record with the click a button. This is tucked away a bit and not immediately available when setting up Problem. When the problem is resolved 2 quickactions become available. Each allows you to create an article with either the Resolution or the Workaround provided in the problem. These articles are linked to the problem and then would be available for the techs. This process could also be automated to create those knowledge articles as soon as the problem is resolved, saving your techs time.
3. From Problem to Change – Problem is directly tied to Change within Ivanti Service Manager, just as it is in the ITIL framework. The typical progression is Incident -> Problem -> Change. From Problem you can directly create a Change record and have it directly linked back to the problem. This change record can be populated with details from the problem record to save time. Some customers, when a change is linked to a problem, automatically resolved problems when the change is implemented, similar to how incident get resolved when the problem is resolved.
So how does your service desk stack up? Are you doing the right things to ultimately provide the absolute best in customer satisfaction? Are your processes aligned with your technology and people? If not, we can help! Contact us today and let us help you lead the way!
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