Definition

EndDefinition

• You define the functions of each group using roles.
• The level assigned to each group is used to manage escalations and redirections when transferring a ticket or action. You manage transfers to groups based on the concept of authorized groups and unauthorized groups.
• Certain IT Department operations can be delegated to external service providers and subcontractors. These are also defined in groups whose members are associated with suppliers.

Examples

• Software maintenance group: Set of users in charge of incidents related to software problems.

• Delegated to a subcontractor: Onsite resolution of problems related to workstations.

• Video technician role: Assigned to Support persons in the Maintenance group who handle screen-related incidents.

Notes

• You must first define the members in these groups using the Employee Directory.

• When an email or notification is sent to a group:
  • If the email address of the group is specified, all members of the group will be notified via this email address.
  • If the email address of the group is not specified, the notification will be sent to all group members using their individual email addresses.

• The concept of authorized/unauthorized groups is used when transferring a ticket and when transferring or assigning an action.
       See Manage authorized/unauthorized groups.

Caution

• When you delete a group, the action is final. If you want to keep the group without making it available in Service Manager, you can archive it by entering the end date of the group. You can then view it using the Archived filter.
• Even though a user is defined as the manager of a group, this user will not be authorized to process the tickets assigned to the group. To do so, you must first define the manager as a member of the group.
• When sending emails to a group, if just one group member's email address is incorrect, no one in the group will receive the email or notification.  See Analyze email sending problems.
• In order to simplify the administration of authorized/unauthorized groups when transferring tickets and when transferring or assigning actions, you should use the same management method for the entire directory.  See Manage authorized/unauthorized groups.

Best Practice

• If you need to associate a significant number of Support persons with a group, you should use the Assign to a Group wizard available in List mode in the Employee Directory.
• If a Support person belongs to several groups, you should define a default group. This concept is used by certain wizards, e.g. wizards for closing or reopening an incident.  See the procedure. 

• Define the method for managing authorized/unauthorized groups based on your corporate policy as regards data access and visibility for groups.  See the best practice in Manage authorized/unauthorized groups.

Characteristics specific to versions 2016 and earlier

The Group Directory form in versions 2016 and earlier is different:

• The Chat Enabled field indicates if the group can use the chat functionality (box is checked) or not (box is not checked).
  • Note: The chat functionality is available only in the SaaS setup for versions 2016 and earlier.
  • Group members will inherit the right to use chats if this option is enabled.

• Menu access 
• Graphic interface:
  • General overview of the form  See the Fundamentals
  • Screens in the Group Directory form

Menu access

References > Directory > Groups

Description of tabs

TabUpdateRules_After2016Versions

Alphabetical order of the tabs

QuickAccess

Details

Group Name: Name of the group.

Group Manager: Name of the manager preceded by a thumbnail of the photo.

Group Level (99 max.): Number indicating the level of the group within the Support hierarchy of the IT Department. It is used to manage escalations and redirections when transferring a ticket or action.

• Level 1 indicates Support level 1, generally used for the Service Desk group. Expert groups are assigned higher levels.
• All members in the group will inherit this level. 
• When group members want to transfer a ticket or action:
  • They can redirect it to another member of their group, or to another group or group member belonging to the same level or to a lower level. Note: You can prohibit transfers between groups in the Groups: Transfers Not Authorized tab.
  • They can escalate it to another group or group member belonging to a higher level.

Supplier: If there is a value in this field, this indicates that the group is a non-company group managed by an external service provider or subcontractor.

Email, Phone: Information for contacting the group.

Email Alert: Used to indicate if an email should be sent to the group when a ticket or action is assigned (box is checked) or not (box is not checked).

• If the group email address is not specified, the email will be sent individually to each member in the group.

Language: Language in which messages are sent to the group, via workflow steps.

Address, Zip Code, City, Country: Postal address of the group.

State: Geographical state of the country where the group is located.

Default OLA: OLA that specifies the target resolution time for the group.

• This information is used when transferring a ticket or action outside the workflow, i.e. escalation or redirection to the group.
• If an external service provider or subcontractor is involved, the agreement is known as a UC or Underpinning Contract.

Start Date/End Date: Group's activity period.

• Note: At the end of the period, the group will automatically be archived. Users will no longer be able to transfer actions to it.

Discussion Enabled: Used to define if the group can use the discussions functionality (box is checked) or not (box is not checked).

• Group members will inherit the right to use discussions if this option is enabled.

Note: Comments related to the group.

Group Members

List of Support persons in the group who are able to intervene when a ticket or action is transferred to the group.

Group Roles

List of roles associated with the group.

CI Roles

List of roles associated with the group for configuration items (CI).

• You define the list of CI roles in a reference table.

Problems

List of problems to be managed and updated by the group.

• Update: In Problem forms

Known errors

List of known errors to be managed and updated by the group.

• Update: In Known Error forms

Groups: Transfers Not Authorized / Transfers Authorized

List of groups to which the current group can or cannot transfer a ticket or assign/transfer an action.

• The name of the Groups: Transfers Not Authorized tab is dynamic and can change to Groups: Transfers Authorized depending on the group management method defined in the Manage Transfer Group List wizard. 
• Escalations and redirections are also based on the level assigned to the group.

•  See Manage authorized/unauthorized groups.

History of Changes

HistoryOfChangeTab

Knowledge Prerequisites

List of prerequisites associated with the group, used to restrict access to knowledge articles when a full-text search is run.  See the example.

• Members of the group automatically inherit the prerequisites assigned to their group.
• Group members can view all knowledge articles without prerequisites.

Sender's Email Addresses

List of email addresses that can be selected as senders when a group member sends an email to a Front Office user.

• If no email address is specified in this tab, then only the email address of the logged-in user will be available.
• Email addresses are available:
  • In a ticket. Click  > Email in the top banner.
  • In the wizards for sending emails:
    • In Action forms: Transfer, Notify Support Person and Send Email to Requestor wizards
    • In Incident forms: Notify Support Person and Send Email to Requestor wizards

Click to see a use case

Sender's Email Addresses	Send a ticket

Discussion

DiscussionTab

Procedure and Wizards

How to create a group

Step 1: Create the group

1. Select References > Directory > Groups in the menu.

2. Click + New.

3. Complete the information required.

4. Click Save.
 

Step 2: Define the members of the group

1. Click + New in the Group Members tab.

2. Select the employee belonging to the group.

3. Repeat this procedure for each group member.
 

Step 3 (optional): Manage transfers to other groups

      See the best practice in Manage authorized/unauthorized groups.

Default management method: All new groups are allowed to transfer tickets or actions to other groups. Unauthorized transfers are specifically defined for each group.

Alternative management method: All new groups are prohibited from transferring tickets or actions to other groups. Authorized transfers are specifically defined for each group.

Step 4 (optional): Associate prerequisites to limit access to knowledge articles

1. Click + New in the Knowledge Prerequisites tab.

2. Select the prerequisites assigned to the group.

3. Repeat this procedure for each prerequisite.
 

Step 5 (optional): Specify the email addresses that can be selected as senders in the group

1. Click + New in the Sender's Email Addresses tab.

2. Specify all the email addresses for the group that can be selected as senders when sending a ticket or when using the Transfer, Notify Support Person, or Send Email to Requestor wizard in an incident or action.

Step 6 (optional): Define the default group

Note: If certain group members belong to two or more groups, you can define their default group for running specific wizards, e.g. wizards for closing or reopening an incident.

1. Open the Employee Directory.

2. Open the form of one of the group members.

3. Run the Manage Groups wizard.

4. Select the Default option for the relevant group.

5. Click Finish.

Wizards

Manage Transfer Group List
Delete

Manage authorized/unauthorized groups

An authorized group is a group to which another group or group member is allowed to transfer a ticket or assign/transfer an action.

An unauthorized group is a group to which another group or group member is not allowed to transfer a ticket or assign/transfer an action.

General rules

• To be able to transfer a ticket or assign/transfer an action to a user, this user must belong to one or more groups where transfers are authorized.

• A group is considered unauthorized if it is unauthorized for all of the groups where the user belongs.

Examples

• A user belongs to groups G1, G2, G3.
  • Group G1 ==> Transfers authorized to all groups
  • Group G2 ==> Transfers authorized except to group G4
  • Group G3 ==> Transfers authorized except to group G4

• A user belongs to groups G1, G2, G3.
  • Group G1 ==> Transfers unauthorized to all groups
  • Group G2 ==> Transfers unauthorized except to group G4
  • Group G3 ==> Transfers unauthorized except to group G4

Manage groups using the Groups: Transfers Not Authorized / Transfers Authorized tab

• The name of the Groups: Transfers Not Authorized tab is dynamic and can change to Groups: Transfers Authorized depending on the group management method defined in the Manage Transfer Group List wizard. 

• By default, when you create a new group, all transfers to this group are authorized.
  • The name of the tab is Groups: Transfers Not Authorized. 
  • You specify the groups to which the new group is not allowed to transfer a ticket or action in this tab.
  • You can also specify the unauthorized groups for transfers using the Manage Transfer Group List wizard. To do so, select the Unauthorized transfers to option.

• If you select the Transfers authorized to option in the Manage Transfer Group List wizard, the name of the tab will change to Groups: Transfers Authorized.
  • In this case, the current group is allowed to transfer a ticket or action only to the groups specified in the tab.

Best Practice

• Define the method for managing authorized/unauthorized groups based on your corporate policy as regards data access and visibility for groups.* You want to authorize transfers between all groups in line with escalation levels and you want to prohibit escalation to specifically defined groups. In this case, you should use the default management method for groups.

  • 
    
    • Select a group.
    • Specify the groups to which escalation is prohibited in the Groups: Transfers Not Authorized tab.
    • You can also run the Manage Transfer Group List wizard and select the Unauthorized transfers to option. This option is selected by default.
    • Perform these actions for each group in the directory and for each new group.

      ==> Each group in your company can escalate tickets or actions to all groups except for the groups specified in the Groups: Transfers Not Authorized tab.

  • You want to prohibit all transfers between groups and you want to authorize escalation to specifically defined groups. In this case, you should use the alternative management method for groups.
    Caution: You must specify the list of authorized groups. If you do not do so, no groups will be available for transfers.
    • Select a group.
    • Run the Manage Transfer Group List wizard and select the Authorized transfers to option.
    • Specify the groups to which escalation is authorized and save your changes.
    • The name of the Groups: Transfers Not Authorized tab will change to Groups: Transfers Authorized.  
    • Perform these actions for each group in the directory and for each new group.

      ==> Each group in your company can escalate tickets or actions only to the groups specified in the Groups: Transfers Authorized tab.

Search for authorized groups using wizards

The concept of authorized/unauthorized groups is used when transferring a ticket and when transferring or assigning an action.

• Transfer a Quick Call
  • The wizard will search for all groups where the logged-in user belongs. You can apply a filter to select only the authorized groups.
  • The wizard will then filter authorized groups based on the domain of the logged-in user and the role defined in the workflow that manages the ticket.
  • Note: You cannot prohibit escalation to a group where the logged-in user belongs.

• Transfer an Action
  • The wizard will search for all groups associated with the group defined for the action. You can apply a filter to select only the authorized groups.
  • The wizard will then filter authorized groups based on the domain of the logged-in user and the role defined in the workflow that manages the ticket.
  • Note: In Other Parameters, if the {SM} Filter list of groups by category when transferring actions parameter is disabled, i.e. its value is False, the role of the workflow and the user domain will not be taken into account. In this case, all authorized groups will be displayed, regardless of the domain and role.

• Assign an Action
  • The wizard will search for all groups associated with the group defined for the action. You can apply a filter to select only the authorized groups.
  • The domain of the logged-in user and the role defined in the workflow that manages the ticket will not be taken into account.