Working with Incidents

A requester (or customer) can submit incidents and requests for services directly to the Service Desk using the Self Service module, or by phone or email to the Service Desk. For all modules, a unique reference number (called a RecId) and date time stamp (CreatedDateTime) is automatically generated for each newly created record.

Incidents can also be created from customer phone calls if your HEAT environment is using FrontRange Voice (or IPCM).

If the requester creates the incident from Self Service, the Service Desk is notified of the assignment through email and opens the ticket. If the requester calls or emails the service desk, the Service Desk Analyst then creates a new incident on behalf of the user (see Link a Source Incident to a Service Request).

Service Desk Analysts and Service Desk Managers can create a new incident with or without using one of the default incident templates. If they use a template, some information in the incident form is automatically generated. You can edit these fields just as you would any other field on the incident form.

Service Desk Analysts can create a service request through the Service Request workspace, add information, and link the source incident to the service request. See Working with Service Requests for more information on how to do this.

You can apply a template to an incident at any time during or after an incident is created.

Incidents can also be created from the Social Board.

If an incident is submitted by phone or email, you must create an incident from a form or template.

Creating an Incident from an Incident Form

Within the Service Desk Console, open the Incidents workspace.

From the toolbar, click New Incident to open a blank form, or choose a template from the drop-down list. See Default Incident Templates.

A New Incident Record

The following default tabs appear (results may vary depending on your system setup):

Details: Continue to the next step.
Resolution Details: See Resolution Details.
Task: See Tasks.
External Task: See Using External Tasks.
Cost Item: See Cost Items
Related Posts: See Related Posts.
Activity History: See Activity History.
Attachment: To attach a file or URL, see Attachments and URLs.
Problem: To create or link a problem, see Working with Problems.
Change: To create or link a change, see Creating a Change Request
CI: To create or link a configuration item, see Working with CIs.
Knowledge: To create or link a knowledge article, see Creating a Knowledge Article
Escalation Watch: See Escalation Watch.
Audit History: See Accessing the Audit History.
Survey Results: See Viewing Survey Results
DSM Provisioning Task: See If the Task Fails, Create a New Task
DSM Software Installation Task: See Install Software on a Managed Computer
Workflow Instance: See Workflow Instance.
Approval: See Approvals.

Enter information into the fields.

--fields--

Field	Description
Customer	The customer name to search. If the name is not on the database, you must create a new customer.
Reported by	Your name (or the name of the person reporting the incident).
Location, Email, Phone	Automatically generated from the customer or employee record.
Summary	A summary of the incident. Click Search (magnifying glass) to find matching incidents, problems, and knowledge base entries. A list of possibly related items appear in under Related Items. Click an item to view more information.
Description	Description of the incident with relevant details. NOTE: You must include HTTP:// or HTTPS:// when entering a URL in this field.
Service	The affected service. Select from the drop-down list.
Category	The category. Choose from the drop-down list.
Impact	Impact to the organization, group, or individual. The default value is 3. Impact and urgency together define the priority value.High: Has a major impact on the organization. Low: Does not have much effect on the organization. Medium: Has some effect on the organization but generally not considered a large effect. .
Urgency	The time appropriateness required. The default value is 3. Urgency and impact together define the priority value. High: Necessary immediately with a high degree of urgency. Medium: Required, but can be made after higher urgency changes have been implemented. Low: Required, but can wait for other changes of greater urgency to be implemented.
Source	How the incident was submitted. Select from the drop-down list.
Status	The status of the incident. If you are creating the incident for the user, the status is set to active. When the incident is submitted by the user or through email, the status is logged. Choose from the drop-down list.
Team	The team to work on the incident.
Owner	Automatically generated from your login ID. You can change the owner from the drop-down list.
Attachments	To attach a file, see Attachments and URLs.
Assets	To link another record (such as a CI) to this record, see Linking Assets.
Comments	To add a comment or note to this record, see Notes and Comments.

Any attachments or linked files are listed at the bottom of the Details tab. See Attachments and URLs.

You can add comments or notes to keep track of specific activity. See Notes and Comments.

Click Save

from the toolbar.

The requester is notified that the incident has been submitted.
The incident assignee and manager of the team that the assignee belongs to are notified of the incident assignment via email.
Click Refresh to view the resolution target values. See Resolution Details.

Creating an Incident from an Email

To create an incident from an email, the requester must have a record in the employee form and must send the incident email from the email address that is set up for that user in the Primary Email field in the employee record. Users can also be created along with the incident, if configured in the email listener inbox.

When an incident is created through an email, some fields in the incident record are automatically generated and a new task is created.

Create an email with the following information:

Field	Description
To:	The email address provided to you for logging incidents in the Service Desk. The user must send the email to the incoming server address set up in the Email Configuration form.
Subject:	A brief summary of the issue.
Body	A detailed description of the issue.

Click Send.

HEAT sends a notification email reply that the incident is submitted to the user. The subject of the email contains the incident number for reference. The user can refer to this incident number when searching for the incident in Self Service or when contacting the Service Desk regarding the submitted incident.

Creating an Incident from the Social Board

You can create an incident from a message posted on the Social Board. This is especially useful for users logged into the Self Service module.

Click Create (down arrow) within the message area.

Select Create Incident from the drop-down list. An abbreviated incident window appears.

Enter information into the fields.

--fields--

Field	Description
Service	The service. Select from the drop-down list.
Category	The incident category. Select from the drop-down list.
Summary	A brief summary of the issue. The message is automatically entered, but you can edit this as needed.
Description	A complete description of the incident.

Click Share. The message now appears with an incident number.

The incident also appears on the incident list.

Duplicating an Incident

Select the incident to copy either from the list view or from within a single incident record.

From the action menu, select Form Actions > Clone Incident. The copy confirmation box appears.

Enter the incident status from the drop-down list and click OK. A copy of the incident is created.

The incident ID number increments accordingly from the last incident record saved in the system.
The child objects are not copied or linked. For example, activity history email records or tasks associated with the original incident are not attached to the new record.
The field values are copied exactly, except for the field values overridden by the quick action. You can modify the quick action to specify which fields are automatically copied from the original incident.

Update the fields as needed.

Click Save

from the toolbar.