Service Desk process overview

Every user contact with the service desk is logged as an interaction. User Interaction Management is the process for handling all interactions with the service desk that are received from self-service Web pages or directly by service desk personnel. These interactions can include service disruptions, service requests, requests for information (RFI), or complaints reported by users who communicate with the service desk by using instant messages, phone, E-mail, or by self-service Web pages. The User Interaction Management process enables you to easily log and resolve simple user requests and to escalate others into incidents requiring further action.

Multiple user interactions can be linked to a single incident in the tool. User Interaction Management describes all the activities a Service Desk agent needs to follow when registering a new incident or change. The Service Desk agent follows the necessary steps and searches for related knowledge records, known error records, and existing incidents or changes. This process streamlines service desk activities, thereby decreasing the workload for second line support teams.

A general overview of the User Interaction Management processes and workflows is depicted below. They are described in detail in Service Desk Workflows.

When a user contacts the service desk, the Service Desk agent uses the Service Desk application to create an interaction record. The Service Desk agent records the user name, the name of the component that the user is calling about, and a description of the service request. After collecting this information, the Service Desk agent performs the actions required to resolve the user request.

• If the service request is resolved without escalating it to an incident, the Service Desk agent can close the interaction record.
• If the service request cannot be resolved without escalating it to an incident, the Service Desk agent searches for existing incidents, problems, or known errors that affect the same component or one of the parent assets of that component.
  • If an existing incident is found, the Service Desk agent can associate the current interaction with the existing incident.
  • If an existing incident is not found, the Service Desk agent can register a new incident based on the Service Desk interaction. Service Desk copies information from the interaction record into the newly-created incident.

For example, consider a user who cannot print to a network printer:

• The user contacts the service desk for assistance.
• The Service Desk agent populates an interaction record with the relevant information.
• Because the issue cannot be resolved immediately, the Service Desk agent opens an incident, and the incident is assigned to a technician.
• The technician discovers that the printer network connection is broken.
• The technician fixes the connection and closes the incident.
• The Service Desk agent contacts the user and instructs the user to attempt printing to the network printer.
• If the user can successfully print, the Service Desk agent can close the interaction. If the user still cannot print, the Service Desk agent may create a new incident and then relate the unsolved interaction.
• If the user wishes to report a related or new issue, the Service Desk agent closes the interaction (as the original issue was resolved) and opens a new interaction detailing the new issue the user needs to report.

Interaction categories

Service Manager Categories classify and define the type of interaction. Each category could have its own workflow process. The steps of the workflow are represented by the phases. Service Manager requires that every interaction has an interaction category and phases.

Interaction phases

Service Manager uses phases to describe the steps needed to dispose an interaction. The phase also determines the forms users see, the actions users can manually trigger.

The following figure shows the workflow phases for an Interaction.

Service Desk user roles

The following table describes the responsibilities of the User Interaction Management user roles.