I N C I D E N T A L S

The Effective use of Quick Calls

Using Quick Calls for Repetitive tasks

In a world where everything is go, go, go, service and support staff need to capitalize on every opportunity to find more and more time every day. Daily repetitive tasks, frequently occurring projects and annual events contribute to the necessary evils that maintain IT service quality. However, these are often considered as having a high administrative cost.

To ensure support technicians are not bogged down in monotonous tasks that fail to stimulate their interest, or add any perceived value to customer service, LiveTime has expanded Quick Calls. This feature has evolved from a simple 'request - solution' template, to include workflow, team impact assignment and group templates.

As with previous versions of LiveTime, solutions can still be defined for a Quick Call by selecting the Closed-Resolved state of a workflow. This State selection displays the Solution tab and allows the user to assign a resolution from the Solution Knowledge Base. LiveTime Service Manager also allows Users to create Quick Call templates for Problem and Change Requests.

Ensuring technicians do not waste time on simple data entry, repetitive tasks that occur on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis are easily managed by using the "Schedule" option within Quick Calls. This option ensures tasks are auto-created by the system with pre-configured team or even technician assignment.



Quick Call Groups

In the case where support organizations include project-type events and consistency of service is mandatory, the Group Templates facility can be used. This facility saves time on data entry and ensures that support technicians expectations are clear, in relation to the project as a whole.

Supervisors create a group of Quick Calls, (Service Manager allows the tasks to be created across all Processes), and when the Group Template is instantiated in the system, the User decides when and how the separate tasks are created. For example, in some cases not all Requests are required for a project so tasks can be omitted (see Tips and Tricks). Also, at the point of creation, the User may create all the requests at once, or set the tasks to be created in sequence, (i.e., when task one is moved to a Closed state, task two is created).

What's New @ LiveTime

In response to customer demand, LiveTime has developed its Service Management Essentials course. The training can be tailored to customer requirements where support technicians have little to no understanding of the ITIL guidelines, or for ITIL certified technicians who want to gain a comprehensive working knowledge of LiveTime Service Manager.

Training provides long-time LiveTime users and new customers with an in-depth look at LiveTime and allows participants to work through business case scenarios relevant to their support organization. The training covers the following areas:

• ITIL version 2 & 3 relative to LiveTime
• System overview
• Configuration Management System (CMS) - the foundation of effective service management
• Mapping business processes to the system
• User training.

More information about LiveTime Service Management Essentials is on the LiveTime website at http://www.livetime.com/webservicedesk/training/Overview.html.

Tips and Tricks

Getting the most out of Quick Calls

Enable Quick Call Facility
To access the Quick Call features the Administrator must turn-on the system privilege. Within the Administrator interface, go to Setup > Privileges > Request tab. Select "Yes" for the Enable Quick Calls option.



Quick Call Templates with Solutions
To assign a Solution Article to a Quick Call template, the Article must pre-exist in the Solution Knowledge Base and the Item Type assigned to the Solution and the Quick Call must be identical.

Schedule repetitive tasks
Service requests that are created on a regular basis, can be scheduled to generate automatically within LiveTime. To schedule a Quick Call, as a Supervisor, select "On" for the Schedule Status. A list of Interval options will be displayed, select the Interval and then define the relevant Generation details.

Group Templates
The Incident Groups option within the Incidents tab provides Users with access to the Group Templates. Select "New" within this screen and then tick the "Use Template" field to displays the drop-down list of group templates in the system.



Select requests
When creating an instance of the template group in the system, it is not necessary to generate all tasks within the group. To omit a Request included on the template, de-select the task by removing the tick next to the request number.



Request creation order
Request creation within the system using a Group Template can be set to automatically generate at the point the New Group is saved or in sequence. When creating a New Group from a Group Template, select the "On Save" Creation option to generate all Requests in system when the New Group is saved. Or, select the "In Sequence" Creation option to create the first Request in the group, with other Requests created after the previous request is closed.

What's coming....

LiveTime 5.1 - Q1 2008

The continual refinement of LiveTime takes another step in version 5.1 that will be available in Q1 2008. In the last newsletter we talked about some of the new features and here are a few more:

• Technician RSS Feeds - Technicians can now receive updates regarding incidents in their work queue via an RSS Feed
• Multiple Item Types can be associated with Knowledge Base Articles - Often Articles are related to a mix of products and in the past this has meant that articles were defined multiple times in the Knowledge Base. With version 5.1 a mix of Items can be linked to a KBA.
• HTTPS supported throughout the User interface - Prior to v5.1 only unsecured URLs rendered as links in the User interface. The new release allows secured links to also be displayed correctly.
• Event Calendar Links - Workloads as shown in the Event calendar are now drill-down links to the relevant Incident, Problem or Change Request.
• Bulk Changes are now possible against CI's in the Configuration Management System, allowing users to change ownership against multiple CI's in a few clicks.

LiveTime Partner Update

IXIF joins LiveTime's Reseller Program

In its quest to provide customers with an advanced, yet cost-effective Service Desk Management solution, IXIF, a UK operational support systems company, joined the LiveTime Partners program. LiveTime and IXIF share similar technology foundations and vision, and with the full LiveTime suite, IXIF can meet its client needs and assure business continuity.

Based in Mitcham, Surrey, IXIF specializes in supporting public sector customers in delivering robust, secure, monitored enterprise infrastructures and directory-enabled networks. IXIF is a Sun Advantage Partner, and utilizes open standards in its product development.

For more information about IXIF please visit their web site at http://www.ixif.net