Defining escalation rules

Escalation rules can be applied in several ways: when a ticket is created or edited, after a ticket has remained open or unedited for a specified amount of time, or both. When defining escalation rules, you can base them on age or status changes or on other fields, or create special conditions (such as configuring a Generic Linking condition). For example, you can set a rule to trigger when a master task closes.

Recurring age-based escalations are allowed. Each escalation will only run once when the ticket sufficiently ages. For example, you can create separate age-based recurring escalation rules for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, and 1 week, and each escalation rule will  be applied only once to a ticket when it is sufficiently aged for that rule.

For example, you can define a rule to trigger when a Master Ticket closes (On Linked Ticket Update), based on the associated subtasks being closed (Link Type is Master/Subtask). The Criteria would be defined as Every Master/Subtask Virtualised by, and the Action would be defined as Status is equal to Closed.

Or, you might define a rule that sends email notification to an assignee's supervisor when the age of a ticket exceeds a certain number of hours.

Once a ticket is edited, it loses its urgent status and is not escalated again until the parameters are met to reapply the rule.

The following topics are provided:

To define an escalation rule

1. Open the item where you want to define an escalation rule:
   1. Click the Administration tab.
   2. In the appropriate section, click the name of the container or click Manage to open the container Administration page. Then double-click the container.
      The container details page appears. 
   3. In the left pane, click the item link (such as Record Definitions in workspaces).
      The Items page appears. 
   4. Double-click the item that you want to modify.
2. In the left pane, click Business Rules.
3. Click New business rule and select After Save.
   The New Business Rule page appears.
4. In the Business Rule Name field, type a descriptive name for this rule.
5. (Optional) In the Description field, type a description that explains the purpose of this rule.
   This is especially useful when looking for a particular rule in the list.
6. (Optional) In the State field, select Not active if this rule is not ready for use.
   You can also deactivate a rule temporarily and return to this page to activate it again. The Business Rule Type field is read-only.
7. (Optional) In the Business Rule Schedule field, select any work schedule configured for this container (such as Normal Work Week).
   If you select the default work schedule, be aware that the rule may not run as you expect, if the Administrator changes the default schedule between the time that you configure a business rule and when the rule checks the schedule.
8. In the Triggers section:

   1. Define the action or event that will trigger this rule, such as when a ticket is updated or has not been updated for a certain amount of time.

      For detailed information about selecting triggers, see Selecting triggers for business rules. 

   2. Click Create.
9. In the Criteria section:
   1. Select conditions that will trigger the action, using the information in Defining criteria for business rules.
   2. Click Create.
10. In the Actions section:
    1. In the Action field, select the appropriate action.
       Options are Change assignment of Ticket, Send email to, Set field value, and Calculate field value.
    2. Select the other options, using the information in Defining actions for business rules.
    3. Click Create. 
11. Click Save.
12. In the breadcrumb trail, click the Item link and review the rules configured for the item to verify they are correct and complete.
13. Publish the container to implement your changes:
    1. In the breadcrumb trail, click the container link.
    2. Click Save and Publish.
       A confirmation message appears.
    3. Click Yes.
       The Publication Succeeded message appears, showing the number of errors and warnings.

To use follow-the-sun criteria

For any business rule, you can specify which work schedule to use such as the Normal Work Week schedule. Rules that are assigned a schedule are not triggered outside of the work hours defined for that schedule. You may find that a rule has not run for tickets that arrive after the normal work week ends or tickets that stay in the Created state after normal work hours end.

To use follow-the-sun criteria, select Run any time in the Schedule Type field.

Configure the options for the business rule as needed to trigger the required action.

Related topics

Configuring business rules

Managing business rules

Deleting business rules