Creating a Top Level Incident Hierarchy Template

 

To get started, complete the following fields on the Incident Hierarchy tab in the Options and Tools | Automate | Templates screen.

Completing the Basics Tab

Incident Hierarchy Template Basics Tab Example

Name

Enter a name for the hierarchy template. This name will display for selection in the Incident screen.

Make Available to mySupport

This field is only available on a top-level hierarchy template. Select Yes to allow the template to be used on the mySupport portal.

Enable Category Selection and Require Lowest Level

This field appears if Yes is selected in the Make Available to mySupport field. Select Yes to enable the category picker when the template is used on a mySupport portal. The user will be prompted to select the lowest level category if they have not already done so.

Description as Placeholder for mySupport

Select On to remove the configured text in the Issue Description field when the user clicks in the field in the Incident screen on mySupport.

Make Available to Support Representatives

This field is only available on a top-level hierarchy template. Select Yes to include the template in the list of templates for selection in the Incident screen.  You can restrict access to members of support representative groups via the Group Access tab.

Approval Cycle

If approvals are enabled, select the approval cycle to associate with the template. The rule group in effect for the incident can control whether approvals are required and how approval cycles are applied. You can use the Create New Create New icon and View/Edit Edit icon icons to access the Approval Cycle screen.

Categorization

Click the Categorization link to select a category combination describing the issue. This category combination will populate the Categorization field in the Incident screen.

Display the Call Script for This Category Set

This field is enabled if a script is associated with the selected category combination. Select Yes to display the script when the template is selected in the Incident screen. To view the call script associated with the categorization, click the View Call Script link.

Short Description

This field appears if the Short Description field is enabled on the Incident Fields tab in the Incident Management Configuration screen. Enter the text to populate the Short Description field in the Incident screen.

Description as Placeholder

Select On to remove the configured text in the Issue Description field when the user clicks in the field in the Incident screen.

Issue Description

Enter the issue description to populate the Issue Description field in the Incident screen. If On is selected in the Description as Placeholder field, the text will disappear when the user clicks in the field in the Incident screen.

Issue Resolution

Enter the issue resolution to populate the Issue Resolution field in the Incident screen.

Completing the Advanced Tab

  Incident Hierarchy Template Advanced Tab Example

Default Assignee

Select the support representative to populate the Assignee field in the Incident screen.  If this field is left blank and the template is applied, the incident source is considered:

  • If the incident was manually created by a rep and has not been routed, the default assignee selected in the Incident Management | Basics screen will be used.

  • If the incident had been routed previously, the original author of the incident will be the new assignee.

  • If the incident was created from a lower level template in a hierarchy, the author of the parent incident is used.

  • If the incident was created via mySupport, the default customer request owner specified for the portal options set will be used.

  • If the incident was created via email processing, the email account’s default assignee will be used.

You can use the Create New Create New icon and View/Edit Edit icon icons to access the Support Representative Profile screen.

Routing Method

Route Type

 

Select one of the following for assignment of incidents created by the template:

  • None to only assign to the support representative specified in the Default Assignee field.
  • Load Balanced to select an assignee based on current open incident statistics, including weights based on priority.  The available support representative with the lightest overall workload will be selected.
  • Round Robin to select an assignee based on the oldest date and time.

If Load Balanced or Round Robin is selected, the Route Type field will appear; select By Name to select among all available representatives, By Group to select among a specified group, By Location to select among those in a specified location, By Skill to use the categorization to select qualified support representatives, and By Location By Skill to select among those in a specified location with qualified skills. See Setting Up Routing and Skills for more information.

If there is no support representative available for a selected method, an incident will be assigned to the support representative in the Default Assignee field. If none, the incident will be assigned to the support representative in the Default Incident Assignee field on the Basics tab in the Incident Management Basics screen.

Default Status

Select the status level to populate the Status field in the Incident screen. You can use the Create New Create New icon and View/Edit Edit icon icons to access the Incident Custom Status Labels screen.

Restrict Statuses/Statuses to Display

To designate the status labels that will be available for selection in incidents created by the template, select Yes and then select the labels.

Default Mapping

This field appears if Impact Urgency Mapping is enabled. Click this link to select the Impact, Urgency, and Priority mapping to assign to the Impact, Urgency, and Priority fields on incidents created from the template. You can use the Create New Create New icon and View/Edit Edit icon icons to access the Impact and Urgency Mapping screen.

Default Priority

This field appears if Impact Urgency Mapping is not enabled on the Basics tab in the Incident Management Configuration screen. Select the priority level to populate the Priority field on the Incident screen.

Default Number of Days for Followup

If including a followup date on the Incident screen, enter the number of days (after the incident open date) to be used in the calculation of the date to display by default in the Followup field. When the followup date is reached, a followup reminder email will be sent to the assignee of the incident. Once the email is sent, the date is recalculated based on the number of days entered in this field.

Append Short Description/Description/Resolution to Existing Text

Select Yes to add a blank line and the text from the Short Description, Description, and/or Resolution field to existing text when the template is applied to a saved incident.

Append Description From Parent

Select Yes to enable the description from a parent (originating) incident in a hierarchy to be appended to the description in a child incident created from it. This will also apply to child incidents created via rules or when the template is applied to an incident that is already part of a hierarchy.

Note that if this option is set to Yes for templates on all levels of a multi-tier hierarchy, the lowest level work items could have descriptions built up from many other higher level work items.

The text entered in the work item's description via email or direct entry will be retained when the template’s configured description and resolution are applied. If the Append Description/Resolution to Existing Text option is also enabled for a template, an incident description would include the text from the template, the text entered via the email, rep, or mySupport customer, and the description from the parent (originating) incident. 

This setting will be ignored if the template is applied to an incident that has no parent level incident (it's not part of a hierarchy).

Auto Close Parent

Select Yes to automatically close the top level work item if all lower level work items in the hierarchy are closed. The following text will be included in the resolution field: “Automatically closed after closure of all work items in the hierarchy”.

Auto Close Parent Status

If automatically closing a top level work item when all lower level work items in the hierarchy are closed, select or create a Closed status label to assign to the top level incident that is automatically closed. You can use the Create New Create New icon and View/Edit Edit icon icons to access the Incident Custom Status Labels screen.

Rule Group

 

Select the rule group to apply when the template is selected in the Incident screen or leave None selected to apply the default rule group.

When the template is selected in the Incident screen, the rule group assigned to the template will replace any existing  rule groups that may be in effect (for the category or customer).  You can use the Create New Create New icon and View/Edit Edit icon icons to access the Incident Rule Group screen.

Desktop Incident Layout

Select the layout containing the fields and tabs that will display when the hierarchy template is selected for an incident via the Incident screen or a rule. You can use the New Create New icon and View/Edit Edit icon icons to access the Layouts configuration screen. Layouts can also be associated with a category, customer group, support rep group, or incident template; the Order of Precedence field in the Incident Management | Layouts screen determines which layout to use when more than one reference is applicable (for example, if the logged in rep's primary group has a layout as does the selected category). For categories, the layout found with the lowest level will be used; if a layout is not found at the lowest level the next level up will be checked, and so on up to the top level. If no layout is associated at the top level, the default layout specified in the Layouts screen will be used.

mySupport Display Incident Layout

Select the mySupport incident display layout (configured via the mySupport Layouts screen) to apply when incidents created by the template are displayed on a mySupport portal. You can use the New Create New icon and View/Edit Edit icon icons to access the Layouts configuration screen.

mySupport Submit Incident Layout

Select the mySupport incident submit layout (configured via the mySupport Layouts screen) to apply when the template is used on a mySupport portal. You can use the New Create New icon and View/Edit Edit icon icons to access the Layouts configuration screen.

Configuring Custom Fields

The Custom Fields tab contains custom fields configured via the Custom Fields screen; select the values to populate custom fields by default in incidents created by the template.

Formatting the mySupport Incident Template Submit Screen

Incident Hierarchy Template Format Tab Example

If Yes is selected in the Make Available to mySupport field on the Advanced tab, use the Format tab to add formatted text and images to appear at the top (header) and bottom (footer) of the mySupport submit screen.

Restricting Access

Use the Group Access tab to restrict display of the template to members of support representative groups. Click the Add link to display the following dialog for selecting the groups. After you add one or more groups and save, the template will display only to members of the selected groups.