 The way to raise an Incident/Request has recently changed within ServiceNow. You now need to use the Call form so that you have the option to choose either Incident or Request depending on what your ticket is about. I.e. Incident = something broken, Request = require something new This change has been made as […]
2018
Improvements made to the Conference, Accommodation and Travel forms
Previously there were three forms in existence for booking Conferences, requesting Accommodation and requesting Travel. As part of Diane Taylor’s Yellow Belt Project it was found that a lot of time was wasted by staff having to complete the three forms separately, whilst duplicating effort typing the same information in each form. The forms were felt […]
How to send a message to a user with a ticket
There seems to be some confusion about who is notified when a note is added to a request or incident ticket in ServiceNow. To send a message to the user of a ticket (that is, the requester or caller), just add a Public note to the ticket. An email message containing the note will then […]
Keep the user informed
We all know what it is like when you are waiting for something but have no idea when it will happen because those meant to provide it are not giving anything away about when it might show up. Well that’s akin to how our users feel when they need something from us but we put […]
Improvements to the URL Redirect Form
Changes have been made recently to the way URL Redirects and Vanity URL requests are submitted. Previously both of these were requested using a single complex form with no explanation to users on the difference between a URL redirect and a Vanity URL. We found this was causing confusion and resulted in phone calls to […]
Change Management Notification Emails
As part of continual service improvement activities, the following changes have been made to Change Management related email communications. All email notifications regarding the progress of change requests now automatically include the affected system or service in the short description. This means there is no longer a requirement to include the name of the affected […]
A Short Q&A on Sending Tickets to Other Teams
When is it okay to reassign a ticket to another team? A ticket should be owned by the team that is responsible for the service that is the focus of the ticket. For a request, this will be the service being requested, or at least some aspect of that service, and for an incident it […]
A new way to log Telephony Requests
In the last 12 months, Service Desk processed 99,687 call records, of which approximately 28% were ‘First time Fulfilment’. Approximately 7% were junk emails, and 7% were updates or chases to existing cases. This means that 58% of incoming call requests were logged as Incidents or Requests. In many cases, Service Desk are logging the […]
Improvements to Outage Notifications
Recent improvements have been made to the way that Outages can be recorded in ServiceNow from resolved P1 & P2 Incidents and approved Changes. In both cases by right clicking on the resolved Incident & approved Change Request form header bars and selecting Create Outage, you are taken straight to the Outage form with all […]
Focus On Incident SLA Breaches – Guidelines
This month, the Service Management team is focusing on Incidents that are due to breach their SLAs imminently (see this previous blog entry). The following guidelines show how we’re looking at tickets across the whole of iSolutions: Instructions in brief: Go to the Service Management SLA Dashboard and go through the tickets listed in the three […]
Requesting Admin Rights for UoS Machines
Service Management have been working closely with Service Desk and IRT to identify process or system improvement opportunities. One area that IRT have highlighted as needing improvement is the process around requesting admin rights for UoS machines. Reviewing tickets we have received where admin rights have been requested showed a number of ‘bottlenecks’ in the […]
Service Management Team looking into every incident that is about to breach its SLA.
In May, the Service Management Team will be focussing on a single activity – looking into every incident that is about to breach its SLA.  There are six key reasons for us not being able to meet our standard five day SLA: Poor ticket management Issue is not an Incident (request or project) Lack […]
Simply the Best Practice
There are some folks in iSolutions who spend most of their time using ServiceNow for processing incidents & requests, and it’s probably true to say that everyone gets tickets at least occasionally. However, understanding of how ServiceNow should be used varies greatly within iSolutions and for this reason, the prescribed way to use ServiceNow for […]
Putting Tickets On Awaiting User Info In ServiceNow – Prompt After Instructions
ServiceNow has an automated system for reminding users that they have been asked for further information regarding tickets that they have raised. It is best practice to set the Prompt After field to the date on which the update is being made, unless you are aware that the user may be away from the business […]
2017
Outages – Amendments to the Form and related Notifications
Currently the Outages form and notification email does not accurately record power outages affecting our network infrastructure. Therefore in order to improve the information regarding power outages, the Outages form has been amended to include additional Types and fields for planned and unplanned power outages with a new power outage email notification created.  In addition […]
Change Management – Minor Amendments
Currently when a change approval request is set to More Information Required the change requestor/assignee is not automatically notified of this. This change addresses that fact by sending a notification email to the requestor/assignee that more information is required. In addition currently changes can be closed as Closed Cancelled, Closed Backed out or Closed Failed […]
Adding Procurement Info to the System & Service CI Record
Currently there is no Procurement/Contract information captured in a System or Servcice CI record. This has now been addressed as part of the process to make the ServiceNow System & Service CI record the single source of all information with the ultimate aim of doing away with the Service Handbook. This has been achieved as […]
Changes to the ServiceNow Systems & Services CI Record
Over that past few weeks a number of changes have been made to the Systems & Services CI Record form in ServiceNow in order to improve the information it can contain. Removal of a number of redundant fields and replacing all but one of the HTML ones with plain text fields to improve loading time. […]
ServiceNow Problem Module Re-Design
As part of our process of Continual Service Improvement, work has taken place to redesign the Problem module in ServiceNow and a summary of the work carried out as part of the redesign is as follows:- The majority of the work involved the tidying up of the problem record form to remove unnecessary fields and […]
Customer Personas @iSolutions
With an increasing focus on the student experience within the UoS and the drive for a more customer centric approach within iSolutions, the need to identify, understand and manage our customers is becoming increasingly important in order to develop and deliver exceptional customer experiences. A project team has been assembled to research, develop and deliver […]