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Policies

Service Desk > Configure > Policies

The Policies page regulates how a service desk can be used, including when it may be contacted, the method of contact used, the resources available and other requirements. Policies are assigned to a ticket as each ticket is created, by organization, organization type or machine group. See Automated Processing Using Policies.

Policy Configuration

  1. Define the hours and days of the year a service desk is open to respond to service requests using Coverage Schedules. This includes hours of coverage to standard holidays.
  2. Define hours of coverage for specific holidays using Holidays.
  3. Define policies regulating how a service desk can be used, using Policies.
  4. Link a policy to a service desk using using Service Desk > Desk Definition > Processing > Associated Policies.
  5. Define variables you associate with service desk policies, using Procedure Variables.
  6. Assign procedure variables to policies using the Variables tab in Policies.
  7. Use policy variables in procedures to determine how tickets are processed. An example is automatically setting property values in a ticket based on the value of a policy variable.

General tab

Click New to display the Add Policy window, or click a row in the middle panel, then click Edit to display the Change Policy window. Enter the following attributes:

  • ID - The name of the policy.
  • Description - A brief description of this ID.
  • Policy Hours - Assign a Coverage Schedules record to this policy.
  • The following settings are for reference purposes only.
    • Contact by Email - If checked, the service desk can be contacted by email.
    • Contact by Phone - If checked, the service desk can be contacted by phone.
    • Contact by IM - If checked, the service desk can be contacted by instant messaging.
    • Access to Knowledge Base - If checked, service desk users have access to a knowledge base.
  • Time Measured Against Coverage - If checked, goals and escalations include Coverage Schedules when calculating escalations. For example, if a new ticket is created just before the service desk shuts down for the night, and escalation is scheduled for two hours, then escalation won't occur until two hours after the service desk re-opens the next morning. If unchecked, calendar time alone is used.

Variables tab

Variables can be assigned to policies. Once policies are assigned to tickets, those tickets can be processed by procedures differently, based on the values of their policy variables. Procedures can both read and override the values set by a policy variables.

Select a variable and assign a value. Before you can assign a variable to a policy, the variable must be previously created using Service Desk > Procedure Variables. When a procedure is processed, the default value for a policy variable supersedes the default value set for a variable using Procedure Variables.

Click New to display the Add Variable window, or click a row in the Variables tab, then click Edit to display the Change Variable window. Enter the following attributes:

  • ID - Displays the policy name selected in the middle pane.
  • Variable - Select a variable previously defined using Service Desk > Policies.
  • Value - Enter an alphanumeric value.