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Automated Processing Using Policies

You can apply different values to the fields within a ticket and automate the processing of that ticket differently, based on the policy assigned to that ticket. Each service desk definition can be associated with any number of different policies.

Note: The Setup topic provides instructions on how to create an Incident service desk. The Incident service desk incorporates the automation features described in this topic.

Configuring Policies

A policy can be assigned to a service desk at the time a ticket is created manually, or automatically based on an inbound email or alerts. The policy selected can be based on rules set up for matching the organization name, organization type or machine group of a ticket using Definitions > Processing > Associated Policies. 

The policy can also be assigned to a ticket at any time using a procedure.

The automatic processing of new tickets is based on four interlocking tables of information:

  • Procedure Variables
  • Policies
  • Policy Variables
  • Associated Policies

Variables

A variable name and default value must be defined first, before it can be used as a policy variable.

Policies

A selected policy defines two types of information: hour of coverage and policy variables. The system includes hours of coverage when calculating escalation and goal times.

Policy Variables

Policy variables represent an important link in automating the processing of new tickets using policies. Each policy can be assigned one more variables with a default value. Once a policy is selected and applied to a newly created ticket, the values of any of the policy's variables can be interpreted by a procedure.

Associated Policies

The assignment of a policy to a ticket is based on the Associated Policies table defined in a service desk definition. A single record in the Associated Policies table represents an association of one policy and any one of the following types of information: an organization, an organization type, or a machine group, in that order of precedence. Multiple policy associations can be defined in this table. As a ticket is created, based on a specified service desk definition, one or more of these three types of information can be entered before the ticket is saved the first time. Based on the three types of information entered, a corresponding policy "rule" is selected from the Associated Policies table and applied to the ticket. A default policy is selected if none of the three types of information is entered with the new ticket. This default is defined using the Definitions > Properties > General > Standard Field Defaults tab. If there is no default policy for a definition, the system assumes a coverage schedule of 7x24.

For example, assume many different organizations are all generating tickets using the same service desk definition. Several organizations can be defined that have all purchased Diamond service coverage. A second set of individual organizations have purchased Gold service coverage, and so on. Alternatively, these same policies could be selected and applied to tickets using organization types or machine group classifications instead.

Once each new ticket is assigned the appropriate policy, based on the Associated Policies table, procedures can be run that automatically act on the new ticket.

Procedures

Recall that one or more policy variables can be associated with each policy. IF-ELSE procedures can be written that interpret the value of a policy variable assigned to a ticket. Doing so enables a procedure to customize the settings of that ticket. Typically, this procedure would be run as a Stage Entry or Exit procedure, and be associated with the first stage of a ticket, which is usually called New.

For example, assume that a Diamond policy is associated with the organization Walmart and should always be prioritized as High. Instead of requiring service representatives to enter this information manually, you can create a procedure that always ensures this important customer receives the highest possible priority. Additional IF-ELSE branches can automatically set the properties of any of your other new tickets, including Status, Priority, Severity, Category and Resolution. The same procedure can also trigger outbound email and message notifications, add notes to the ticket, and even execute additional procedures as appropriate.

Note: Automatic processing of manually created tickets occurs only after you save the ticket.