Basic concepts in Service Manager Collaboration conversations

This section describes the basic concepts in Service Manager Collaboration conversations.

Topics in this chapter include:

Conversation roles

Service Manager Collaboration defines the following conversation roles.

• Participants:

  A participant is defined as a user who has posted at least one message to a conversation, or a user who has been added to a conversation.

  Any participant can add other IT Collaboration users to a conversation, as well as remove themselves and other participants. A maximum of 200 participants can participate in a conversation.

• IT Collaboration users:

  All valid Service Manager IT operators are defined as IT Collaboration users. When IT operators do not log on to Service Manager but are available on the Microsoft Skype for Business client, they can be invited to an IT Collaboration conversation by using Skype after the Skype integration is set up.

• Skype users:

  The IT Collaboration users who do not log on to Service Manager but are available on Microsoft Skype for Business 2016.

• End users:

  The Employee Self-Service (ESS) users and the Service Manager Service Portal users who access Service Manager web client by using a web browser. The end users can collaborate with Service Manager Service Desk agents in End User Chat. They can also be invited to an IT Collaboration conversation by using Skype after the Skype integration is set up.

  Conversations

  Conversations are a series of messages that are saved in the Service Manager database. By default, the title of an IT Collaboration conversation consists of the record ID and the record title, whereas the title of an End User Chat displays the end user's name only. For example, IM10001 Printer malfunction. To access a conversation, you need to locate the corresponding Service Manager record, and then click the Start Conversation button.

  Notifications

  With Service Manager Collaboration notifications, you are always up-to-date with real-time incoming messages and new conversation invitations. The Collaboration notifications are rendered as notification badges (for example, ), which are displayed in different places, depending on whether the conversation window is minimized or not.

  • When the conversation window is minimized, the following behavior occurs:

    • A notification badge appears on the Collaboration notification button showing the sum of the message number of all unread messages in all updated conversations.

  • When the conversation window is not minimized and there are multiple conversation tabs open, the following behaviors occur:

    • A notification badge appears on the Collaboration notification button showing the sum of incoming messages in all conversations that are minimized. The incoming message numbers on all active/inactive conversation tabs in the conversation window are not included in the sum.
    • New messages and new conversation invitations are displayed in the Conversation area of the currently active conversation immediately, without showing a red notification badge on the conversation tab.
    • Notification badges appear on the inactive conversation tabs showing the incoming message number of updated conversations, respectively.

  Service Manager Collaboration recounts the numbers on the notification badges every time when you log in.

  Note You will no longer receive messages or notifications from a conversation after clicking Quit Conversation. See Quit a conversation for more information.

  Note Suppose an IT agent starts multiple sessions in Service Manager by logging on to the web tier with the same user account in different web browsers. When the notifications are read in a session, the unread number displayed on the red badge does not decrease in other sessions.

  HTML5 desktop notification

  As of version 9.50, Service Manager web client also supports HTML5 desktop notification for incoming Collaboration conversation messages and new conversation invitations in the following scenarios:

  • When the browser is open and the Service Manager web client is not the currently active webpage, the notification appears on the lower-right corner. Click this notification to return to the Service Manager web client webpage.
  • When the browser is minimized, the browser window icon flashes in the taskbar. Click the browser window icon to return to the Service Manager web client webpage.

  Note Before using the HTML5 desktop notification feature,pay attention to your browser settings as follows:

  • If you are working with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, you must configure the browser settings and allow the Service Manager web client URL to show notifications.

  • If you are working with Internet Explorer, you must do the following:

    • Turn off pop-up blocker.
    • Clear the Display intranet sites in Campatibility View check box in Compatibility View Setting.
    • Add the Service Manager web client URL to the Trusted sites in Internet options.

  Note You cannot get desktop notifications if the web browser is not active but is not minimized.