itil analyst user guide 04

Managed Services

Assure Service Desk

Internal Analyst User Guide January 2011

Commercial in confidence

Managed Services Internal Analyst User Guide Document Number: version 1.0 Date: January 2011 Status: ISSUED

Information contained in this document and associated documents is confidential, proprietary to, and constitutes the trade secrets of, Hitachi Consulting. Without prior written permission from Hitachi Consulting, it may not be disclosed to any other parties or to employees or representatives other than those with a need to know for the purpose of evaluation of this proposal.

© Copyright Hitachi Consulting, 2010.

Contents

1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 6

1.1 Document Control .................................................................................................. 6

1.2 Related Documents ................................................................................................ 6

1.3 High-Level data Model ........................................................................................... 6

1.4 Glossary of Terms .................................................................................................. 7

2 Support Process Principles .................................................................................... 9

3 System Overview ................................................................................................. 11

3.1 System Scope ...................................................................................................... 11

4 User Interface Overview ....................................................................................... 13

4.1 Configuring Google Chrome to run as an application .......................................... 13

4.2 Logging in to Assure Service Desk ...................................................................... 14

4.3 The User Interface................................................................................................ 14

The Application Menu Bar .................................................................................... 14

Browser Controls .................................................................................................. 16

Google-style Searching ........................................................................................ 16

5 Working with Tasks .............................................................................................. 18

5.1 Task Management Fundamentals ........................................................................ 18

5.2 The Task List and Associated Queries ................................................................ 18

A basic Task List .................................................................................................. 18

Using the Task List header bar functions ............................................................. 19

Filtering a Task List based on its contents ........................................................... 20

The Task List query „cookie crumb‟ trail ............................................................... 21

Constructing complex queries .............................................................................. 22

Saving your queries for future use ....................................................................... 22

5.3 The Task Record .................................................................................................. 22

Right-Click Menu .................................................................................................. 23

Option Buttons ...................................................................................................... 23

Standard Icons ..................................................................................................... 23

Task Field Colour Coding ..................................................................................... 24

Field-Level Smart Icons ....................................................................................... 24

5.4 Managing Tasks ................................................................................................... 24

Watch Lists ........................................................................................................... 24

Recording Progress – the Progress tab ............................................................... 24

Reviewing the Audit Trail for a Task .................................................................... 25

The Additional Info tab ......................................................................................... 25

Related Lists ......................................................................................................... 25

Linking Tasks to other Tasks ............................................................................... 26

Entering Time Worked ......................................................................................... 26

Tagging Records .................................................................................................. 27

6 Incident Management ........................................................................................... 29

6.1 Incident Management Fundamentals ................................................................... 29

Incident Logging ................................................................................................... 29

Incident Progression ............................................................................................ 29

Two-Stage Closure............................................................................................... 29

6.2 The Incident Management Process Flow ............................................................. 30

6.3 Service Level Agreements ................................................................................... 31

7 Problem Management .......................................................................................... 32

7.1 Problem Management Fundamentals .................................................................. 32

Problem Logging .................................................................................................. 32

Problem Progression ............................................................................................ 32

7.2 What is a “Known Error”? ..................................................................................... 32

7.3 The Problem management Process Flow ............................................................ 33

8 Change Management ........................................................................................... 34

8.1 Change Management Fundamentals ................................................................... 34

8.2 Change Types ...................................................................................................... 34

8.3 Change Management Process Flows .................................................................. 35

Fast-Track Changes ............................................................................................. 35

Standard Changes ............................................................................................... 36

9 Reports ................................................................................................................. 38

9.1 Reporting Principles ............................................................................................. 38

9.2 Types of Reports .................................................................................................. 38

9.3 Report Visibility ..................................................................................................... 38

9.4 Running a Report ................................................................................................. 39

9.5 Base a new report on an existing global Report .................................................. 39

9.6 Scheduling a Report ............................................................................................. 40

10 Future Enhancements .......................................................................................... 42

11 Requesting Support ............................................................................................. 43

Table of Figures

FIGURE 1: HIGH-LEVEL DATA MODEL .......................................................................................................................... 7 FIGURE 2: CONFIGURING GOOGLE CHROME ........................................................................................................... 13 FIGURE 4: THE WELCOME PAGE ................................................................................................................................ 14 FIGURE 3: LOGIN PANEL .............................................................................................................................................. 14 FIGURE 5: APPLICATION MENU BAR .......................................................................................................................... 15 FIGURE 6: EXPANDING APPLICATIONS ...................................................................................................................... 15 FIGURE 8: FILTERING APPLICATIONS ........................................................................................................................ 16 FIGURE 9: BROWSER CONTROLS............................................................................................................................... 16 FIGURE 7: HIDING / REVEALING THE APPLICATION MENU BAR ............................................................................. 16 FIGURE 10: SEARCH RESULTS.................................................................................................................................... 17 FIGURE 11: FILTERING SEARCH RESULTS ................................................................................................................ 17 FIGURE 12: A BASIC TASK LIST ................................................................................................................................... 19 FIGURE 13: LIST HEADER OPTIONS ........................................................................................................................... 19 FIGURE 14: THE GROUP BY FUNCTION ..................................................................................................................... 20 FIGURE 15: FILTERING THE TASK LIST BASED ON SPECIFIC VALUES ................................................................. 20 FIGURE 16: A FILTERED LIST ....................................................................................................................................... 20 FIGURE 17: ADDITIONAL FILTERING ........................................................................................................................... 21 FIGURE 18: THE COOKIE-CRUMB QUERY STRING ................................................................................................... 21 FIGURE 19: THE QUERY PANEL .................................................................................................................................. 21 FIGURE 20: COMPLEX QUERY CRITERIA ................................................................................................................... 22 FIGURE 21: THE RIGHT-CLICK MENU ......................................................................................................................... 23 FIGURE 22: WATCH LISTS ............................................................................................................................................ 24 FIGURE 23: THE PROGRESS TAB................................................................................................................................ 24 FIGURE 24: THE TASK AUDIT TRAIL ........................................................................................................................... 25 FIGURE 25: THE TASK AUDIT TRAIL FILTER .............................................................................................................. 25 FIGURE 26: THE ADDITIONAL INFO TAB ..................................................................................................................... 25 FIGURE 27: RELATED LISTS ......................................................................................................................................... 26 FIGURE 29: RELATED ITEMS TREE ............................................................................................................................. 26 FIGURE 28: ADD/REMOVE RELATED TASKS ............................................................................................................. 26 FIGURE 31: THE TIME ENTRY RECORD ..................................................................................................................... 27 FIGURE 30: THE TIME WORKED TAB .......................................................................................................................... 27 FIGURE 32: TAGGING A TASK RECORD ..................................................................................................................... 28 FIGURE 33: MY TAGGED RECORDS ........................................................................................................................... 28 FIGURE 34: THE INCIDENT MANAGEMENT PROCESS ............................................................................................. 30 FIGURE 35: THE PROBLEM MANAGEMENT PROCESS FLOW ................................................................................. 33 FIGURE 36: THE FAST TRACK CHANGE PROCESS .................................................................................................. 36 FIGURE 37: THE STANDARD CHANGE PROCESS ..................................................................................................... 37 FIGURE 38: SAMPLE REPORT OUTPUT ...................................................................................................................... 39 FIGURE 39: PERSONALISED REPORT ........................................................................................................................ 40 FIGURE 40: SCHEDULE REPORT WINDOW ................................................................................................................ 41

www.hitachiconsulting.com

Assure Service Desk 6

1 Introduction The purpose of this document is to provide business process and functional guidance to Managed Services

Consultants when using the Assure Service Desk service management system.

This user guide describes Hitachi Consulting‟s Managed Services‟ the use of Assure Service Desk, including:

System functional & user interface overview

Incident Management

Problem Management

Change Management

System Reporting

Hitachi Consulting has adopted ITIL best practice service delivery and support processes to deliver managed

services to our clients. These form part of our HC Assure service delivery framework.

1.1 DOCUMENT CONTROL

This document is designed to be a „living document‟ which will extend and adapt to the changes that occur during

the normal life-span of Assure Service Desk.

The latest version of the User Guide is stored on Front Porch in the Managed Services / AMO team site.

1.2 RELATED DOCUMENTS

Document Title File Name Location

1.3 HIGH-LEVEL DATA MODEL

The following schematic contains a high-level data model for the Assure Service Desk system. This will aid the

users understanding of the terms used within this guide and also provide the basis for personalised reporting as

further defined within section 9 of the guide.



Figure 1: High-Level Data Model

1.4 GLOSSARY OF TERMS

The following common terms are used within this document.

Term Definition

Assure Service Desk The Hitachi Consulting service management web-based application.

Business Service The top-level of a CMS structure relating to the services which a Customer is receiving from Hitachi Consulting. A strict definition has been defined for Business Services and is as follows:

It is named as a Service in a customer contract

A different SLA applies for Incidents managed against

this configuration item

Examples of Business Services may include:

ACME ERP Production Environment

ACME ERP Training Environment 1

ACME ERP / Payroll Interface XYZ123 (but only where

this interface has a unique SLA associated with it)

Change Management The HC Assure process for managing Changes to Customer systems.

CMS Configuration Management System. A database containing details of system configurations.

Company An end user organisation who we deliver Managed Services to, and track such activities through Assure Service Desk.



Term Definition

Contact An employee, or authorised agent, of a Customer organisation. Contacts have access to data relating to their own Company only within Assure Service Desk.

Customer See Company.

ESS User End User Self Service user. See Contact.

HC Assure The Hitachi Consulting ITIL-based service management methodology.

Incident Management The HC Assure process for managing interruptions, or potential interruptions, to normal system operations.

ITIL User See Support Consultant.

Problem Management The HC Assure process for undertaking route cause analysis of one or more Incidents, the objective being to reduce / remove the risk of future recurrences.

SaaS Software-as-a-Service. Cloud-based delivery of a software application.

Support Consultant A Hitachi employee, or authorised sub-contractor, who has unrestricted access to all transactional data within Assure Service Desk.

Task Task is the collective word for Incidents, Problems and Changes within Assure Service Desk.



2 Support Process Principles This section of the guide provides a simple set of guidance principles which all Support Consultants should follow

to ensure we are working in a consistent and effective manner.

It is of paramount importance for the retention and growth of our Managed Services client base that Customers

receive a consistent Hitachi Consulting experience. All Support Consultants should ensure they are familiar with

these guiding principles and adopt them on a daily basis.

Do not start working on a Task until it has been logged within the Assure Service Desk system.

Why? If the Customer has not logged the Incident/Problem/Change record, then you MUST do so before you

start to work on it.

Why? This protects you, ensures SLAs are operating correctly and reduces the risks of two people working

on the same issue

“....if it not in the system – you haven‟t done it...” – all progress against any support task must be recorded within

the assure Service desk system.

Why? Because this keeps our customers informed and reduces the chances of them thinking that we are not

working on their issue when we actually are.

Why? Because it helps maintain an audit trail in case your colleagues need to pick up your work mid-flow.

Why? Because this adds to the overall knowledge within the system

Provide frequent updates, and clearly set Customer expectations

Why? If you do not update Tasks regularly, Customers will think they are being neglected and will place

inbound „chase‟ calls with the Service Desk thus generating additional workload for the Service Desk and

you.

All Customer-facing updates must be in clear English, stating:

(i) what you have done,

(ii) what you are waiting for,

(iii) what you will do next,

(iv) when you will do it

Why? Because this sets a clear expectation with the Customer and your colleagues

Why? Because all updates generate an automated email to the Customer. Writing this as though it were an

email in its own right will present a professional image of our company. Updates such as “Got it”, “Will do”,

and “Investigating” are not acceptable and do more to antagonise Customers than inform them when they

are delivered in automated email form.

Ensure Tasks are owned promptly – if a Task is assigned to you incorrectly, take responsibility for ensuring it is

re-routed promptly and correctly. If you are the L2 Scheduler, ensure you allocate tasks to individuals promptly

Why? Leaving incorrectly assigned tasks in your Queue means they are not being allocated efficiently

Why? Leaving Tasks without an individual owner means they are not being owned.

Do not rely solely on Internal updates / work notes

Why? Customers do not see any progress when you provide Internal-only work note updates. In theory, ay

internal update can also e accompanied by a Customer-facing work note – after all, you have undertaken

some additional investigations / actions to justify the internal note.



Do not assume Internal Notes will remain Internal. Never enter details into an Internal note that you would not

be comfortable with the Customer seeing.

Why? Because Customers have a right to see ALL data relating to their interactions with our business – and

we should remain professional and business-like in our Task updates regardless.



3 System Overview Assure Service Desk is a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) based offering, built upon the Service-Now (www.service-

now.com) product. As a SaaS model the service can be accessed by any web browser and does not involve the

installation of any local software on your desktop / laptop computer.

The baseline product has been customised to fit with the HC Assure service delivery framework, our organisational

structure, and customer requirements.

3.1 SYSTEM SCOPE

The system will evolve through a number of major releases. Phase 1 encompasses the following high-level

functions:

Generic

Web-based deployment, through a flexible and intuitive user interface

Access for Support Consultants and authorised end user Contacts.

All users access the same URL (https://assure.hitachiconsuting.com)

User rights are associated with the individual‟s logon ID.

Support Consultants can access all transactional data across the entire system, regardless of which

Customer it relates to.

Contacts can access the vast majority of transactional data – but relating to their own Company only. The

system restricts the data which can be accessed through an inherent domaining system based upon the user

logon name.

Outbound email notifications – to inform Support Consultants and Customers of key events during the

service request lifecycle

Customisable dashboards

Flexible and powerful reporting sub-system

Incident Management

Ability to log and track the progress of Incidents

Ability to associate Incidents with the Customer, Caller and Business Service to which it is relates

Automatic application of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) based upon combinations of Incident data in

accordance with the Customer‟s contractual agreement with Hitachi Consulting

The ability to link Incidents with related: Incident, Problem and Change records

Problem Management

Ability to log and track the progress of Problems

Ability to associate Problems with the Customer and Business Service to which it is relates

Workflow-driven approach to Problem Management, following ITIL guidance on the registration of

workarounds and categorisation of Problem records as Known Errors

The ability to link Problems with related: Incident, Problem and Change records.

Change Management

Ability to log and track the progress of Change Requests

http://www.service-now.com/

http://www.service-now.com/



Ability to associate Changes with the Customer and Business Service to which it is relates

Categorisation of Change Requests as either: Fast-Track (i.e. Urgent); or Standard (the default). Change

requests undertake a different scoping an approvals workflow process depending upon their categorisation.

The ability to link Changes with related: Incident, Problem and Change records.

Configuration Management

CMS-Lite – an initial Configuration Management System deployment, associating Business Services with

Customers. In future releases this will evolve to include full asset structures and related attribution.

The remainder of this document provides information pertaining to the business processes and system usage for

the above functions.



4 User Interface Overview The Assure Service Desk is a web-based application. The production system can be accessed at

https://assure.hitachiconsulting.com through one of the following supported web browsers:

Google Chrome

Internet Explorer

Mozilla Firefox

Safari

Although the choice of browser is a personal one, we recommend the use of Google Chrome to access Assure

Service Desk for two primary reasons:

1 The latest version of Google Chrome performs tasks involving Java script more efficiently (quickly) than most

other browsers,

2 Google Chrome allows you to save the website as an „application‟ which results in a better user experience.

4.1 CONFIGURING GOOGLE CHROME TO RUN AS AN APPLICATION

If you wish to configure Google Chrome to run as an application, thus maximising the screen-space available to

you within Assure Service Desk:

Launch a new Google Chrome session and log in to the Assure Service Desk application

Choose the spanner icon with Chrome

Select Tools -> Create Application Shortcuts

Choose where you want the shortcuts to appear (you can rename them later if you wish)

When you launch the application by using one of these shortcuts, it will run in an application Window rather than

a standard browser interface

Figure 2: Configuring Google Chrome

https://assure.hitachiconsulting.com/



4.2 LOGGING IN TO ASSURE SERVICE DESK

The Assure Service Desk can be accessed at the following URL:

https://assure.hitachiconsulting.com

You will then be presented with the login page. Login using the username and

password credentials assigned to you by the Service Desk team. The

username is normally your email address.

4.3 THE USER INTERFACE

Once logged in, you will be presented with your own home page. This may differ from the screenshot below

depending upon whether you have a customised home page or not.

This section explains the common panels / sections and icons which reside on all home pages.

Figure 4: the Welcome page

The Application Menu Bar

Assure Service Desk can contain a large volume of menu options, reports and applications. From within the

Application Menu Bar the user can:

Instigate new business actions – for example, Create a New Incident

Run a pre-defined Query – for example, List all Fast Track Change Requests

Display process-specific dashboards – for example the Problem Management Overview dashboard

Instigate the Reporting sub-system

As the Application Menu Bar can provide so many different options, t is important that it remains easy to navigate

and use. The Application Menu Bar provides several handy shortcuts to help you quickly find the desired option.

The Application Menu bar

Home Page / dashboard

Panels

Common icons

Figure 3: Login Panel

https://assure.hitachiconsulting.com/



Figure 5: Application Menu Bar

Expanding or collapsing an Application shows application components - create records, query records, process-specific dashboards, etc...

Figure 6: Expanding Applications

You can use the text Filter box to quickly filter the number of applications shown in the Menu Bar...

The currently Logged-in User

Name

The Application Menu Filter Bar

Application Menu (currently shown in their collapsed

state)

Expand or Collapse an

application using this control

The application bar icons can be used to: change font size; refresh the Application Menu Bar; quickly

expand/collapse all applications; or to change the perspective.



Figure 8: Filtering Applications

You can temporarily hide the entire Application Menu Bar – thus allowing greater

screen space for working with Tasks – by selecting the icon highlighted below. Select

it again to reveal the Application Menu Bar.

Browser Controls

The browser controls displayed in the top right-hand corner of the Home page

provide additional functionality.

Figure 9: Browser Controls

Google-style Searching

You can use the “Search” box to perform Google-style searches of all data which is visible to you within the system.

In the example below we have searched for the word “oracle” within our test environment and it has returned

various records which contain this word (Incidents, Problems and Support Group data).

Here we type the letters “chang” and, as we do so, the list of applications

automatically filters out and applications / options which do not

include that string of letters.

Select the „X‟ button to remove the filter.

Logout, Select a Home Page, Print the current record/screen

or summon Help

Google-style search...

Figure 7: Hiding / Revealing the Application

Menu Bar



Figure 10: Search results

You will notice we can further refine our search results using the search bar, filtering out the types of records

returned either by "Tasks" (Incidents, Problems, Changes") or "People and Places” (Companies, Users, groups,

etc)

Figure 11: Filtering search results

If the return list is lengthy, you can jump to the type of record you require by clicking on its title next to the "Found:"

label - for example "Companies" to jump to the single record in the example above.

Complex Queries

As with Google, you can enter complex query conditions within your search criteria.

For example „+oracle –Linux‟ will show all records which contain the word Oracle but do not contain the word Linux.

Similarly “Microsoft CRM” (in double quotes) will show al records that contain the exact term “Microsoft CRM” only.



5 Working with Tasks Task is the collective word for Incidents, Problems and Changes within Assure Service Desk. The system presents

Tasks in a similar way to the user, regardless of the type of Task being managed.

5.1 TASK MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS

Before we review the system‟s ability to help us manage Tasks we will introduce some best practice advice on

managing Tasks.

You should not work on any Incidents, Problem or Change activities without a supporting Task record. Creating

records is a simple activity and can be performed form any web browser. Please ensure a Task is in existence and

assigned to you before you work on it.

You should also keep the Task record updated such that it accurately reflects the real-world status of the request,

and ensure that Customers and colleagues are kept informed of progress.

Please ensure that you update the task record as frequently as possible – an inbound Customer chase for updates

should be deemed as a failure to update frequently enough.

All Task updates should be in English sentences and should clearly state:

What you have done

What you will do next

When you will do it

Anything you are waiting for

Whenever you update a record, remember that the update is likely to be sent to the Customer in the form of an

automated email notification. Hence you should write it in the same way as you would write an email. Updates such

as “Investigating”, “Got it” and “Will do” are unacceptable and create a poor impression of our business.

The remainder of this section describes the Assure Service Desk approach to managing Tasks.

5.2 THE TASK LIST AND ASSOCIATED QUERIES

Tasks are presented in a number of ways within the system, including Task Lists; Bar Charts; Pie Charts and OLAP

cubes.

Regardless of the presentation method, underpinning each of these display mechanisms is a list of related Task

records. Most Queries will generally return a List of records.

This section provides an overview of the various techniques available to you when working with Task Lists.

A basic Task List

Here we see a list of all Incidents within our test system.



Figure 12: A basic Task List

We can see that there are 27 records in total and we are seeing the first twenty of them. You can turn to the next

page using the record controls at the top or bottom of the list.

Using the Task List header bar functions

By right-clicking on the header bar for the record list you can perform a number of additional actions including

sorting, grouping, charting and exporting the list to excel, csv or pdf output files.

Figure 13: List Header Options

Here we have grouped the list by Company Name after right-clicking on the Company field, and expanded the

Incidents relating to one of those companies.



Figure 14: the Group By function

Filtering a Task List based on its contents

You can also use the extensive filtering capabilities. For example if we are only interested in Severity 1 Incidents

we can right-click on one of the red fields and choose "Show Matching" ...

Figure 15: Filtering the Task List based on specific values

The list now only shows only the 14 Severity 1 Incidents:

Figure 16: A filtered List

If we want to filter OUT the Closed Incidents we can right-click on one of the "Closed" State fields and choose to

further reduce the record list to see only the 12 active Severity 1 Incidents.



Figure 17: Additional filtering

The Task List query „cookie crumb‟ trail

You will notice that a query string is being constructed on our behalf at the top of the records list:

Figure 18: the cookie-crumb query string

The cookie-crumb trail can be "unwound" by clicking on the last query condition added (in this case the "State !="

Closed" condition).

You can also create more complex queries, using fields which are not even displayed in the record list as selection

criteria if you so wish. Click on the small triage to the left of the selection criteria and the following options appear:

Figure 19: the Query Panel



Constructing complex queries

You can build complex and/or logic conditions if you wish to here, and the query results will be refreshed as

appropriate when you click the Run button. Here we have added to the above query to ask only for records where

the Category field is set to "Request" or Software"

Figure 20: Complex query criteria

As you can see, the ad hoc query capabilities are powerful – all stemming from a simple task record list.

Saving your queries for future use Once you have constructed the desired query filter, you can save this for future use. To do this, click on the “Save Filter”, and supply a name for your filter.

To recall this Filter again in future, click on the down arrow next to the Incidents title (or Problem / Change if you

are managing those Task types) and select the Filter List. You will then be presented with any personally saved

Filters, plus a selection of globally pre-created Filters for the specific Task type. Simply select the desired Filter to

run that query.

5.3 THE TASK RECORD

All Incidents, Problems and Change records are treated as Tasks within Assure Service Desk. Although the

underlying business rules and window contents differ between these Task Types, the fundamental way in which

you manage these remain the same.

In this section we will use the Incident record to provide an introduction to Task management. The principles

remain the same for Problem and Change records also.



Right-Click Menu

A number of context-sensitive actions are available by right-clicking on the menu bar of the Task window. In the

screenshot, we see the options for an Incident record to include:

Update the current record by committing changes to the database

Create related Problems

and Change records

Manage Template incidents

(pre-formatted commonly

used Incidents in this case)

Export the Task record to

PDF format in either

landscape or portrait

orientation

Assign a Label – labels can

be used to „tag‟ records for

future reference.

Copy the specific URL for this Task to the Windows clipboard

Reload the current form

Option Buttons

The User Interface buttons displayed in the upper right hand corner of the Task window provide context-sensitive

options for progressing the Task record. Options such as

“Resolve”, “With Customer” and “Workaround” provide

methods for working requests through to an optimal resolution. In most cases the use of these buttons will result in

the system presenting a pop-up window requesting additional information.

Standard Icons

The icon bar, also positioned in the upper right hand corner of the Task window provides

options for: Adding Attachments; initiating the email client; paging Up or Down through record

lists; Collapsing / expanding all sections in the Task window.

Base task details

Option Buttons and standard Icons

Progress Notes Tab

„Child‟ records tab(s)

„Task to Task relationships

Figure 21: the Right-Click menu



Task Field Colour Coding

Special fields are colour-coded according to the following key:

Red fields are read-only

Blue fields are Mandatory

Yellow fields signify changes that have not yet been saved

Field-Level Smart Icons

A number of special fields also include icons to provide additional information to the user.

These icons are displayed immediately after the field value and provide options to:

Search for record values using a record list

Show related records (e.g. Incidents for this user)

Show additional information (mouse-over for a

summary, click to show full details)

5.4 MANAGING TASKS

There are a number of generic activities that can be performed against Tasks, regardless of the Task type. This

section provides an overview of the most common Task actions.

Watch Lists

Task records can optionally contain Watch Lists. The Watch List is a

list of people who will be informed of progress against this task record

by way of automated outbound email notifications. In essence, the

Watch List people will receive the same email notifications as the

original Requestor of the Task record. Using the smart-icons next to

the Watch List field you can add yourself, other named users or

external email addresses as Watchers.

Recording Progress – the Progress tab

Progress can be reported in many ways within Assure Service Desk. Where a Task progresses to the next stage in

its workflow – usually via the use of Option Buttons – the system will prompt for additional information where

appropriate (for example – stating the reason why a Task

is being passed back to the Customer).

In many cases you may wish to record progress without

moving the Task through the related workflow process. In

this case the use of the Progress tab is encouraged.

Within the Progress tab you can record customer-facing

notes in the form of Additional Comments or Hitachi-

internal notes in the form of Work Notes. Whenever

Additional Comments are added an automated email is

sent to interested parties, including customer contacts.

It is important to note that Work Notes should always be

considered customer-facing even though these are not

visible to the client through the self-service portal. Work Notes should never be used to record anything which may

be deemed unprofessional or critical of clients or colleagues. It should also be stressed that, whenever you add a

Work Note, you should also endeavour to add Additional Comments as this will ensure customers are kept

informed of progress. If you are adding a Work Note then you have attempted to progress the Task and hence an

Additional Comment entry should be feasible.

Figure 23: The Progress tab

Figure 22: Watch Lists



Reviewing the Audit Trail for a Task

Every Task record maintains its own concise audit trail of historical activities. This is held in reverse chronological

order and is accessible through the Progress Tab of any task record.

Figure 24: The Task Audit trail

The audit trail can be manipulated to expand or contract the view using the icons in the top right

hand corner of the Activity list, or filter the types of records that are displayed by selecting the

chevrons beside the Activity label. You can then (de-)select the required audit trail entry types to be displayed.

Figure 25: the Task Audit Trail filter

The Additional Info tab

Depending upon the current stage in the Task workflow, the Additional Info tab may be populated. This shows

context-specific information relating to the current Task. In the example below the Incident record has been set to

an On-Hold state whilst awaiting further information.

Figure 26: The Additional Info tab

Related Lists

At the bottom of the Task record you will find one or more Tabs showing related information – usually „child‟ records

for the Task itself. These related lists contain such entities as: Attachments, SLAs and Time Worked logs.



Figure 27: Related Lists

Linking Tasks to other Tasks

Assure Service Desk contains flexible and powerful features for linking one Task to other Tasks. You can link

Tasks in one-to-one, one-to-many or many-to-many relationships based upon a set of predefined Task

relationships.

For example, you may decide to link a Problem record to the Incident(s) which it has been created to address.

Similarly, you may wish to link a Change record to the Problem records which it provides a permanent structural fix

or, or to any Incident records which are created as a result of the Change being implemented.

You link Tasks using the Related Items feature within the Task window

Click the + sign next to the Related Items header to present the Add/Remove relationship window.

You can undertake additional filtering of the results list if you wish.

In the left hand panel you will see a list of available relationship

Types available for this type of Task (i our example, an Incident).

Select the Relationship Type which you wish to create, select the

record which you wish to link to the current record in the right hand

panel and the click the Add button. The related record will now

display in the left hand window. Click “return” to submit the change.

The related record(s) will then be displayed in the main Task

window and can be navigated to using the hyperlinks to the related

record. You will note that any existing relation nships form the

related record are also displayed, this providing a full view of the

inter-relationships between the respective Tasks You will note that

the relationship has automatically been created in the reverse direction also.

Figure 29: Related Items Tree

Entering Time Worked

Assure Service Desk provides a method for Support Consultants to capture time worked against individual tasks at

the time you are working on the Task. It is important that time is capture accurately and entered promptly into

Portera at the end of each reporting period. These time entries allow us to accurately generate incremental

revenue from our clients and also track the profitability of individual accounts.

The ability to add Time Worked to Tasks as you work on them will aid this process and should result in more

accurate time tracking and less time-consuming time entries at the end of each period.

Figure 28: Add/Remove related Tasks



To log time against any Incident you select the Time Worked tab at the bottom of the task Window and choose the

NEW button. Note: you can log time against any Task - it does not need to be assigned to you personally but you

are expected to record details of what you spent the time actually achieving.

You will then be presented with the time entry window where you

must enter as much information as you can regarding your time

worked.

Figure 31: The Time Entry record

Reports are available within the Reporting sub-system which will assist you in entering time into Portera for the reporting period. Note: in the initial release of Assure Service Desk it is not mandated that all time worked is entered into the system. At this point in time, this is an optional feature which Support Consultants can elect to use or not. You are still required to enter your time into Portera as you have been previously. In future phases we expect to mandate the use of this feature with Assure Service Desk, and allow Support Consultants to enter aggregate time entries into Portera, rather than detailed granular time entries. This should reduce the overhead of tracking time accurately.

Tagging Records

You can tag records that are of interest to you using the Assign Label function from within a Task record. In the

screenshot sequence below we tag an Incident as being of interest and see it appear in the “My Tagged Records”

list within the Application Menu Bar.

Figure 30: The Time Worked tab



Figure 32: Tagging a Task record

Figure 33: My Tagged Records

Any type of record can be tagged (Incidents, Problems, Changes, etc.). Clicking the record within the “My Tagged Records” application group will hyperlink directly to that record. You can un-tag a record by clicking the large „X‟ next to it in the Application Menu Bar.



6 Incident Management This section of the document describes the specific activities involved in managing Incidents within Assure Service

Desk. Incidents are a type of Task, so please ensure you review Section 5 “Working with Tasks” in conjunction with

the following information.

6.1 INCIDENT MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS

The focus of Incident Management is to handle interruptions, or potential interruptions, to normal service and to

restore service to users as quickly as possible. In resolving an Incident the Support Consultant may implement a

temporary fix or work-around, with the root cause being addressed through the Problem and/or Change

Management processes. Please see later sections on Problem and Change Management for further details on

those specific processes.

Incident Logging

Incident records can be raised by Customers or Hitachi Consulting employees. Hitachi Employees may raise

Incidents as a result of their normal daily operations or as a result of a HEMS (Hitachi Event Management System)

alert.

If a Hitachi employee raises an Incident on behalf of the customer, the Caller field should be set to “Hitachi

(customer)” for example “Hitachi (ACME)” to signify that this record has been created on behalf of the Customer

organisation by Hitachi.

It is important that an Incident record is created for every Incident BEFORE you start to work on resolving it –

regardless of whether the is inside working hours or outside normal hours. This ensures that we have a full audit

trail of the Incident, all stakeholders are informed of progress via automated notifications, and we are managing

against SLAs in real-time.

All incidents are initially assigned to the Service Desk queue. The Service Desk will normally assign these to the

relevant Support Group but it is also acceptable for Support Consultants to create Incidents and assign them to

their own Support Group in one action.

Incident Progression

The Incident record should always reflect the current status of the investigations, and should be updated on a

frequent basis in line with good Task management practice as defined in section 5.1 of this guide.

Section 0 provides an overview of the Incident Management process and the various States that an Incident

progresses through during its lifecycle.

At any point in its lifecycle an Incident record can be related to existing Problem / Change records, or can result in

a new Problem / Change record being created in order to address the root cause of the Incident.

Two-Stage Closure

In line with ITIL best practice, Assure Service Desk enforces two-stage closure of Incident records. The first stage

is when the Support Consultant (or the Customer in some circumstances) sets the State to “Resolved”.

The Incident will progress to the second stage “Closed” status either when the customer agrees that the Incident is

complete, or when the Incident has remained in a “Resolved” state for at least 10 working days. Only the Service

Desk team can set an Incident to a “Closed” state.

At any time when the Incident is in a “Resolved” state it may be un-resolved and will return to an “In Progress”

status should the customer be unsatisfied with the resolution actions.



6.2 THE INCIDENT MANAGEMENT PROCESS FLOW

The schematic below provides an overview of the Incident Management process and the associated state changes of the Incident records within the Assure

Service Desk.

Figure 34: the Incident Management Process



6.3 SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENTS

Assure Service Desk includes a comprehensive Service Level Agreement (SLA) sub-system which is used in the

Incident Management process. Each Incident will typically be subjected to two separate and parallel SLAs:

Response Time SLA – the time between the Incident being logged, and it being triaged and assigned to a 2nd

/3rd

line support group

Resolution Time SLA – the time between the Incident being logged and it being set to a Closed state

The SLA-clock is automatically paused at specific points within the Incident Management lifecycle namely:

Whenever the time of day is outside the core hours for the specific SLA. For example, if an SLA is operable

between the hours of 08:00 and 18:00 Monday to Friday, the clock will be paused outside of these hours.

Whenever the Incident is in one of the following States: With Customer; With Vendor; On-Hold; or Resolved.

The SLA which is applied to each Incident is based upon the contractual agreement which we have in place with

the client and can be influenced by any combination of the following attributes:

Customer Name

Business Service Name

Incident Severity

You can see the progress of the SLAs within the related tasks section of the Incident Window.

In the example below we can see the two SLA targets for this Incident within our test system. The Response time

SLA (UK-SPO-P3-RESP-SAP) was achieved within 45 minutes and is showing in a green state. The resolution

time SLA however was not achieved and the SLA has breached after 3 hours of active elapsed time.

In addition to the Task window notifications, Assure Service Desk will send automated email notifications to the

relevant Support Team / Consultants as an Incident progresses toward the SLA breach time (at 50%, 75% and

100% of the way through the allocated time).

In addition, SLA Reports are available to highlight any Incidents in danger of breaching our contractual

commitments to the client.



7 Problem Management This section of the document describes the specific activities involved in managing Problems within Assure Service

Desk. Problems are a type of Task, so please ensure you review Section 5 “Working with Tasks” in conjunction

with the following information.

7.1 PROBLEM MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS

The focus of Problem Management is to identify and address the root cause of one or more Incident records. We

can also invoke proactive Problem management activities and create a Problem record which is not linked directly

to an Incident.

Problem Logging

Only Hitachi Consulting employees can create new Problem records, as Problem Management is primarily an

internal support process. Customers do have full visibility of Problem records relating to their organisation, and can

update existing problem records should they so wish.

Problem Progression

Problem records will progress through a very simple lifecycle in accordance with the Problem Management

Process Flow defined within section 7.3 of this document.

Each problem record commences life in a “Diagnosing” state until such time as the root cause has been identified.

Once the root cause has been confirmed it moves to a “Known Error” state. Only when the Problem has been

addressed will it progress to a “Closed” state.

At any point in its lifecycle, a new Workaround can be added to the Problem record identifying how any further

recurrences of the issue can be addressed, prior to the permanent structural fix being introduced.

Permanent structural fixes will typically be introduced by way of a related Change Request record under the

Change Management process.

7.2 WHAT IS A “KNOWN ERROR”?

A Problem record can only be categorised as a Known Error when the root cause of the Problem has been

identified and confirmed. Up until such time as this has occurred, the Problem record must remain in a “Diagnosing”

state.

It is totally feasible for a Problem record to remain in a “Known Error” state indefinitely in cases where it is deemed

either uneconomical or technically unfeasible to address the root cause in the form of a permanent structural fix.



7.3 THE PROBLEM MANAGEMENT PROCESS FLOW

The schematic below provides an overview of the Problem Management process and the associated state changes of the Problem records within the Assure

Service Desk.

Figure 35: the Problem Management process flow



8 Change Management This section of the document describes the specific activities involved in managing Change Request within Assure

Service Desk. Changes are a type of Task, so please ensure you review Section 5 “Working with Tasks” in

conjunction with the following information.

8.1 CHANGE MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS

The focus of Change Management is to ensure we protect our customer‟s businesses, our own business and our

Support Consultants against the risk and repercussions of poorly managed I.T. changes.

The processes underpinning Assure Service Desk have been designed with pragmatism in mind, coupled with an

acknowledgement that our services can be change-intensive. That said, we must balance this rate of change

against the real risk of changes being implemented incorrectly.

All permanent Changes to customer solutions must be managed under a Change Request record within the

Change Management process. All Change records should be managed in line with best-practice Task

Management as defined within section 5.1 of this document.

All Changes, no matter how urgent or apparently simple, must be peer reviewed by at least one other Support

Consultant prior to be being implemented.

8.2 CHANGE TYPES

There are two different types of Change defined within the Assure Service Desk Change Management process:

Standard Changes

Fast Track Changes

These different types of Change follow different workflow processes governing scoping, approvals and

implementation.

The specific differences are defined within the process flows in the next section of this document. The guiding

principles of this classification are described below:

Fast Track Changes should only be used to implement a Change which is to correct an issue which is causing -

or about to start causing - failures on a Production system AND the change cannot wait for the Standard change

process to be followed.

All other changes should follow the Standard Change route.

Fast Track Changes require a reduced level of approvals when compared with Standard Changes, although

they will be subject to post-implementation reviews by the SDM/CAM and must be peer-reviewed before

implementing.

Fast Track Changes do not follow a formal approvals Workflow within Service-Now, whereas Standard Changes

do.

Fast Track Changes can ONLY be created as a result of an Incident record (using the “Create Fast Track

Change” option on the context sensitive menu within an Incident record. They cannot be created outside of the

Incident Management process.

Fast Track Changes cannot be created by Customers.

Standard Changes can be created through: the “Create Change” application menu choice, or through the

context menu within an Incident record.

All changes created by Customers are Standard Changes.



Standard changes must be approved by a SDM/CAM:

before we spend time scoping the details, and

before we implement them.

All Changes will go through a Scoping state, regardless of their categorisation. During this stage, the Support

Consultant is expected to complete a „checklist‟ of questions to confirm they have considered all pertinent points –

and obtain a peer review - before progressing to the “Implementation” State.

8.3 CHANGE MANAGEMENT PROCESS FLOWS

The schematic below provides an overview of the Change Management processes and the associated state

changes of the Change records within the Assure Service Desk.

Fast-Track Changes

Fast Track changes do not follow a workflow process as they are not subject to in-line workflow approvals and

scoping stages. The schematic below provides and overview of the business process to be followed for fast Track

changes.



Figure 36: the Fast Track Change Process

Standard Changes

Standard Changes comply with the following process workflow.



Figure 37: the Standard Change Process



9 Reports Assure Service Desk includes a feature-rich and flexible reporting system. This works in concert with the query

sub-system which was described previously in section 5, “Working with Tasks”.

The Reports system comprises a number of pre-defined globally available reports coupled with the ability to define

personal and group-level custom reports.

9.1 REPORTING PRINCIPLES

It is important to define the underlying principles behind the reporting implementation. These are stated below:

To avoid a proliferation of reports which become unmanageable in future:

Only privileged users (i.e. trained Service Desk personnel) are able to produce/amend globally available

reports. All such changes will be subject to Change Management.

Support Consultants are able to create / amend / schedule their own reports, but not publish these to a

broader audience

Customers are not able to amend reports

Where a report is only applicable to a specific territory (e.g.: US or UK) it should not be visible to people

outside of that territory.

In general, reports should not be territory-specific unless absolutely necessary.

To ensure a consistent look & feel:

Standard Record Lists should be agreed and maintained (e.g. Incident Record Lists will always contain

Incident ID, Company Name, etc.) wherever possible

A limited range of charts should be used

9.2 TYPES OF REPORTS

To avoid the temptation to produce a multi-coloured array of charts which become difficult to understand, we have

standardised on four chart formats as follows:

Pie Chart – used to show the relative breakdown of a record set (e.g.: Active Incidents by Status).

Bar Chart (either vertical or horizontal) – used to show the actual number of records in a specific state (e.g.:

Active Incidents by Assigned Group)

Stacked Bar Chart (either vertical or horizontal) – used to show the actual number of records in a specific state,

with a further level of breakdown (e.g.: Active Incidents by Assigned Group, with further breakdown by Severity)

Line Chart – used to show trends over a period of time (e.g.: new Incidents raised per month). Line charts can

contain multiple lines (e.g. Incident Resolved by Team per Month)

It is permissible to include the record contents in a grid format below the chart where appropriate to do so, using

the standard grid option within the Assure Service Desk reporting sub-system.

The use of Pivot Table Reports in preference to Charts where applicable is also encouraged.

9.3 REPORT VISIBILITY

Reports are made available at one of three levels:

Global – the reports is available to all Support Consultants, and to Customers where the report is available

within their restricted Application Menu Bar

Group – the report is available to members of a specific Support Group



Personal – the report is available only to the currently logged-in Support Consultant

These different visibility levels can be seen within the screenshot below, which is accessible by selecting

“View/Run” from the Reports application menu bar option.

9.4 RUNNING A REPORT

Reports can be run by selecting “View/Run” from the Reports application menu bar option, and selecting the

required Report from the presented list.

In the example below, we have selected the “Active Incidents by Raised User” report. This particular report is

presented as a Pie Chart although a wide variety of presentation methods are available within the system.

Figure 38: Sample Report output

9.5 BASE A NEW REPORT ON AN EXISTING GLOBAL REPORT

It is possible to create personal copies of existing reports, customising these to your own personal preference. In

this example we will amend the report in section 9.4 to change the Group By condition from “Caller” to “Company”

and also to amend the Report Name. This change is shown in the screenshot below.

Global Reports

Group Reports

Personal Reports

Base Chart Definition

Report Selection Criteria

Report Output



Figure 39: Personalised Report

If we SAVE this report it automatically creates it as a Personal report.

As well as creating Reports based upon existing reports, you can create a report from scratch using the “NEW” option within the View / Run window.

9.6 SCHEDULING A REPORT

You can also schedule reports to run automatically at predefined times, emailing the output to nominated

recipients. From within the required Report, choose the “Schedule” option to display the following window:



Figure 40: Schedule Report window

Complete the required field. It is recommended that you test the report to your own account prior to sending to other users.



10 Future Enhancements This document contains an overview of the current deployment of Assure Service Desk. The system will be subject

to a continuous review and improvement / enhancement programme of works.

If you wish to request any changes or enhancements to the system please log these as a Standard Change

Request within Assure Service Desk, setting Hitachi Consulting as the Company, and Assure Service Desk as the

Business Service.

Current candidates for future system releases include the following:

Full CMS functionality – the ability to create Configuration Items and associated structures which underpin the

current high-level Business Services. These will be accessible by Support Consultant‟s only and will further

enhance the level of knowledge and audit-ability within the system.

Automated Inbound email parsing – the ability to raise and respond to Tasks via email.

Knowledge Management – a document and knowledge management solution which may eventually superseded

the Client Gateways.

Integration into HEMS – bi-directional integration between Assure Service Desk and Hitachi Event Management

System.

Service Catalogue – the ability to request additional services (for example new Virtual Machines) through

Assure service desk using an Amazon-style ordering system.

Project Portfolio Management – the ability to manage Project activities (for example, major Change Requests,

service Transitions, etc.) through Assure Service Desk‟s project management sub-system.



11 Requesting Support If you require support in your use of Assure Service Desk, the first port of call should e the supplied documentation

– including this guide.

Should you still require support please log an Incident within Assure Service Desk describing the issue which you

are facing. The Incident should be logged against the Hitachi Consulting Company, and the Assure Service Desk

Business Service.

Should you be unable to access the Assure Service Desk, please contact your local Service desk team who will be

able to assist you in either resolving the issue or logging an incident on your behalf.



For further information please contact:

Brian McCabe Hitachi Consulting Barnett House 53 Fountain Street Manchester M2 2AN Hitachi Consulting 2 More London Riverside London SE1 2AP Hitachi Consulting 3rd Floor Wing 2, Cluster C MIDC Knowledge Park Kharadi, Pune-411 014 India Email: [email protected] Mobile: +44 (0) 7825 054211 Office: +44 (0) 161 240 0363 Fax: +44 (0) 161 240 0310

Change History

Date Name Version Change reference

01 Jan 2011 B. McCabe 0.1 Initial draft for review

02 Jan 2011 B. McCabe 0.2 Minor revisions

05 Jan 2011 B. McCabe 0.3 Added section on Filters

08 Jan 2011 B. McCabe 0.4 Revised messaging around time tracking

Distribution

Copy Name Organisation


About Hitachi Consulting Corporation As Hitachi, Ltd‟s (NYSE: HIT) global consulting company, with operations in the United States, Europe and Asia, Hitachi Consulting is a recognised leader in delivering proven business and IT strategies and solutions to Global 2000 companies across many industries. With a balanced view of strategy, people, process and technology, we work with companies to understand their unique business needs, and to develop and implement practical business strategies and technology solutions. From business strategy development through application deployment, our consultants are committed to helping clients quickly realise measurable business value and achieve sustainable ROI. Hitachi Consulting‟s client base includes 25 percent of the Global 100 as well as many leading mid market companies. We offer a client focused, collaborative approach and transfer knowledge throughout each engagement. About Hitachi, Ltd. Hitachi, Ltd, (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 390,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2007 (ended March 31, 2008) consolidated revenues totalled 11,226 billion yen ($112.2 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials, logistics and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company‟s website at http://www.hitachi.com

London 2 More London Riverside London SE1 2AP tel +44 (0)20 7947 4500 fax +44 (0)20 7947 4510

Manchester Barnett House 53 Fountain Street Manchester, M2 2AN tel +44(0)161 235 6490 fax +44(0)161 235 6491

Pune 3rd Floor Wing 2, Cluster “C” MIDC Knowledge Park Kharadi, Pune-411 014 India

Company Confidential – © Copyright 2010 Hitachi Consulting Corporation.