I N C I D E N T A L S

Analyze This !

Proactive Incident Analysis

The pressure on Service Desk staff is relentless. If things are quiet on the customer front, there are systems, software and hardware to be updated. When the updates do not occur in a timely manner the incidents pile up, response times are stretched and customers complain. In an effort to reduce the incident workload and allow Service Desk staff to invest their time in proactive versus reactive support, LiveTime has introduced proactive incident analysis functionality.



During the incident creation process and after the Incident Description has been entered, LiveTime goes to work and searches through the Solution Knowledge Base matching text in the Description field and cross referencing the Incident Classification and Item Type. The search results are listed within the Proposed Solutions of the Analysis tab of the newly created incident.

If a Proposed Solution resolves the new incident, it can be easily applied to the Incident with the click of a button. LiveTime automatically sends the solution to the customer and closes out the incident.

How does your Solution Knowledge Base grow?

Converting Incident Notes into usable solutions

Wow, so you and your customers have the power to access all the knowledge and fixes that have been used to resolve previous incidents. But how can you be sure that all the information is available to be accessed when it is needed most? Once again, the Analysis tab of the Incident is where you will find the Solution.

Service Desk staff can manually enter Incident solutions within the Analysis tab of an Incident. Alternatively, all the details of an Incident Note can be converted into a Solution, by clicking the Resolved Button within the Incident Note screen. LiveTime then defaults to the Solution screen and the Incident Description along with the Note are automatically converted to the Solution. The Technician just needs to define the Solution's visibility and Publication Status.

Proposing solutions to Customers

Proactive analysis and the customer portal

To ensure the Service Desk is not backlogged with Incidents that may already have a Solution, LiveTime extends its proactive analysis functionality to the Customer Portal.

Customers enter their Incident details as before, and based on the Incident Description, Item Type and Classification, LiveTime searches the Solution Knowledge Base. The search results are included in the Thankyou/Incident Number screen.

If one of the Proposed Solutions resolves the customer's Incident, they select the Resolved button and the Incident is automatically closed.

The Power of the Analysis Tab

Improving the effectiveness of the Service Desk

For a Proposed Solution to be accessible in the Customer Portal, modify the Solution Articles' Visibility to 'Technician & Customers'.

To generate Proposed Solutions as part of the Incident creation process, ask your LiveTime Administrator to enable the Force Analysis option within the Setup > Privileges>System tab.

Recycle solutions generated by Customers, when they close their own incidents through the Customer Portal. To convert the Customer resolution, select the Analysis tab in Edit mode, and click the Article button to create the Solution Article.

Create temporary fixes for Incidents as Workarounds that can be readily applied to future Incidents. In edit mode, select the Incident Analysis tab to use the Proposed Workaround, Search Workaround and New Workaround options.

Next Release....

Whats available in version release 4.0.3

LiveTime v4.0.3 Service Manager is now available. This release includes the following features:

• Fully integrated, PinkVerify compliant Service Level Management, with support for underpinning contracts, operational level agreements and unlimited workflows.
• Option to raise RFCs in LiveTime when synchronizing the CMDB with 3rd party asset management /discovery systems.
• Users can define their own dashboard widgets by specifying the page layout and widget graph-types.
• Holding queues are included to allow team members to select jobs from unassigned requests.

ITIL Crash Course

An overview of ITIL terminology and what it means

"Aligning IT Services with business objectives", "competitive advantage" and "being accountable" - are these considerations for your organization's IT department? How are these terms associated with ITIL - that buzz acronym which is bandied about?

For a crash course on ITIL and it's possible relevance to your support service Infoworld.com have provided the following special report.

ITIL Crash Course (484 KB)