Managing your work in Smart IT consoles

Smart IT provides two consoles that help you organize your work:

• Ticket Console (incidents, work orders, service requests, tasks, and change requests)
• Knowledge Console

From the consoles, you can locate tickets or knowledge articles that match your criteria (for example, open incidents assigned to your group), and take a specific action on several tickets or articles at the same time (for example, changing the status or assignee). Use the information and tools in the consoles to align your work with your highest priorities.

Your access to records in these consoles depends upon the permissions you have been granted to fulfill your role in the organization. For example, you must have the permissions required for Change Agent to view change requests in the Ticket Console.

Options for filtering, sorting, and displaying tickets and knowledge articles

By default, the consoles show all open tickets and articles ("items") assigned to you. In the universal client and tablets, counts of items assigned to you (My Tickets or My Articles), along with tickets and articles in other categories, are shown above the lists of tickets and articles. These counts apply to the tickets and articles currently displayed, so the numbers can change when you apply a filter. Click or tap a count to show only the tickets or articles you want to see in the table (for example, Critical Tickets or Published articles).

You can sort the console tables by tapping or clicking one of the column headings (tablets and universal client), or by selecting a sorting option from a menu (phones).

You can apply filters to the console tables; for example, to show only the tickets or articles with a particular assignee or status. When you filter by the type of ticket, such as Change or Incident, the rest of the available filters dynamically change so that only the filters appropriate for that ticket type (or type) are listed. For example, if you select Incident, the filters for Change Manager, Change Class, and so on, are not displayed.

Click a ticket or an article in the table to view details.

Options for changing and ordering columns (universal client only)

In the universal client, you can choose columns, such as Assignee or Status, to show in a console. Click the menu below the ticket or article counts to display the Change and Order Columns panel.

From Available Columns in the Ticket Console, select Columns that Apply to All Tickets, or choose one or more ticket types (such as Change or Incident) to show the available columns for that ticket type. Add columns by double-clicking each column name, or by dragging columns from Available Columns to Visible Columns. Arrange the order in Visible Columns by dragging.

Console presets

In the universal client, you can save various console settings as presets for later retrieval. For example, if you are both a change approver and a service desk manager in your organization, you can save different preset perspectives for each role, and then toggle between them quickly. You can create separate presets for your applied filters and visible columns, or you can create a preset that includes both your applied filters and visible columns together.

Bulk actions you can perform on console contents (universal client only)

In the universal client, you can perform actions on multiple tickets or knowledge articles at the same time. For example, in the Ticket Console, you can change the assignee, update the status, and follow multiple tickets in a single action. Select the check box next to a ticket or knowledge article, or, to select all of the table's contents, select the check box at the top left of the table.  

When you select one or more items from the consoles, the following bulk actions appear:

• Assign — Assign one or more of the selected items to an individual. If you are selecting this action for tickets, the tickets that you select must all be of the same type; for example, all work orders or all incidents.
• Share — Share one or more of the selected items with members of a support group.
• Follow — Choose one or more items for which you want to receive updates in the Dashboard.

The following bulk actions are available on the Ticket Console only:

• Link — Link tickets together tickets or link tickets to other records. For this action, the tickets you select must all be of the same type; for example, all work orders or all incidents.
• Launch in new tab — For each selected ticket, open details in a new tab.
• Update Status — Change the status of one or more tickets. For this action, the tickets you select must all be of the same type; for example, all work orders or all incidents.

After you perform a bulk action, the selected items remain selected so you can perform additional actions. Clear the check box in front of each item individually, or deselect all of the selected items.

Scenario for reassigning multiple incidents in bulk

As the service desk manager, you must ensure that critical incidents are assigned so that they can be addressed and resolved in a timely manner. In talking with one of the service desk agents in your group, you determined that the agent is overloaded, and you need to transfer some of his high-priority tickets to another agent. You log on to the Smart IT universal client and open the Ticket Console to make the assignee changes.

1. You clear any active filters and add the appropriate custom filters to show all open tickets assigned to the overloaded agent. 
2. You select three of the highest priority incidents and click the bulk Assign action. 
3. In the Assign panel that slides into view, you select your group, choose the new assignee, and click Assign.
4. Because you plan to review the service agent's workload regularly, you save the filter settings as a preset.

Scenario for sharing multiple knowledge articles in bulk

As a service desk manager, you are looking for ways to help one of your support groups quickly resolve incidents related to a piece of infrastructure that has recently been reassigned to them. You decide to see if there are any knowledge articles in your knowledge base that address the more common issues that arise. You log on to the Smart IT universal client and open the Knowledge Console to see what you can find.

1. You clear any active filters so that all of the knowledge articles are available in the console table, and then click the Filter icon to add a new filter.
2. From the list of available filters, you select Keywords, type the specific search term (router time out), and then press Enter.
   The filter removes all of the knowledge articles from the table, except for five.
3. You open each of the remaining knowledge articles and visually scan their contents.
   You realize that three of the articles relate directly to the router that the support group is having issues with, so you decide to share these articles with the group.
4. You click the check box beside the three articles, and then click the Share icon.
5. From the Share panel that slides into view, you select the support group, ensure that the names of all group members are selected, and then click Share.
   An email window opens, showing the addresses of the support group members, which have been automatically added to the To: field. A system-generated subject line has also been added, and the body of the email contains links to the knowledge articles.
6. You add a brief paragraph to the email note, providing some context for the links, and then click Send.