Learning about Incident Management

Incident registration

When users contact the service desk, as a service desk agent, you register the incident request.

As you record an incident, Smart Recorder shows information about the customer and suggests resources. The following illustration shows an incident being recorded in Smart Recorder and some of the information that Smart Recorder displays, such as the customer's open tickets.

You can use the templates suggested by Smart Recorder, which help you register the incident request accurately and consistently.

If your help desk phone system is integrated with other web tools, an administrator can configure it to start Smart Recorder directly from the phone system user interface. Then, when you are using the phone system software, you can launch Smart Recorder to create a ticket. Smart Recorder can carry over some of the information from the phone system, such as the customer name.

End users can register their incident requests in BMC Digital Workplace or BMC Helix Chatbot, if you use those applications.

Incident assignment

Administrators configure Smart IT, so that when you create a ticket, it is automatically assigned to a support group. When you record an incident, if you select an incident that has an assignment group predefined, the incident is assigned to that group. Otherwise, the routing rules used by Incident Management automatically assign the incident request to the most appropriate group when you save the incident request record. 

Check the Ticket Console to see which incidents are assigned to you or to your support group. Service desk managers use the Ticket Console to reassign incidents as needed to ensure that critical incidents can be addressed and resolved in a timely manner.

Incident tracking

After you create a ticket, you can change the details or add new information to it. For example, you can update the ticket status, add activity notes, or change the customer and contact information. If you share a knowledge article with the end user, you can save the article to the ticket. If you use Openfire chat to collaborate with other agents, your conversation is logged in the ticket.

In the following illustration, the Activity tab shows the history of the ticket and includes an activity note.

The SLA progress bar shows you the progress of the incident against the service level agreement, as shown in the following figure:

Incident resolution

Smart Recorder helps you resolve more incidents during the initial call by suggesting knowledge articles and other resources.

When you're ready to resolve an incident, you mark the incident as resolved, select the appropriate status reason, and add a resolution note.

Incident closure

When you resolve the incident request, if you can verify the resolution from the customer, set the request status to Closed immediately. If you cannot verify the resolution from the customer, complete the incident request with the Resolved status, and set the Status Reason field to Customer Follow-up Required.

The customer must verify the resolution within a specified time period, or Incident Management automatically moves the incident request status to Closed. The length of this period is configurable. Check with your system administrator to determine how much time your organization specifies. The default setting is 15 days.