KACE Systems Management Appliance 9.1 Common Documents

Change the default escalation email message

You can change the text of the email message that is sent automatically when Service Desk tickets are escalated.

Go to the Service Desk Queue Detail page:

Log in to the KACE SMA Administrator Console, http://KACE_SMA_hostname/admin. Or, if the Show organization menu in admin header option is enabled in the appliance General Settings, select an organization in the drop-down list in the top-right corner of the page next to the login information.

On the left navigation bar, click Service Desk, then click Configuration.

On the Configuration panel, click Queues.

Click the name of a queue.

In the Email on Events section, click Customize Emails to display the Service Desk Email Notifications page.

Edit the Ticket Escalated message as needed.

Click Save.

For more information on the Ticket Escalation message, see Configuring email triggers and email templates.

Using Service Desk processes

Add, edit, and enable process templates

Define process types

Create process tickets to manage related tasks

View process information

Cancel or complete process tickets

Delete process templates

Convert process tickets to regular tickets

Convert regular tickets to process tickets

Service Desk processes are ticket templates that enable you to automatically use parent and child tickets to track tasks that require multiple steps or activities to complete.

For example, consider the tasks required to prepare systems and equipment for new-hires:

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Identify office space and furniture requirements

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Set up phone service

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Obtain devices and software

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Set up network credentials

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Complete required employment paperwork

You could create a process template that includes all of these required tasks as child activities. Then, when you create tickets based on that process template, the child tickets are created automatically for all of the required tasks at each stage of the process.

To set up a Service Desk process template see, Add, edit, and enable process templates.

Add, edit, and enable process templates

You can add process templates to the Service Desk. In order for a process template to be enabled and available for end users to create tickets based on that process, it must include at least one parent ticket.

Go to the Service Desk Create Process Template wizard:

On the left navigation bar, click Service Desk, then click Configuration.

On the Configuration panel, click Process Templates.

To create a new process template, on the Process Templates page, select Choose Action > New.

To edit or copy an existing process template, on the Process Templates page, click a process template name.

The Create Process Template wizard appears, with the Define Process Template page open.

To copy an existing process template, on the Define Process Template page, click Duplicate.

A copy of the duplicated process template appears. While the duplicated process template is disabled, all of the other options are the same as in the original template. When you finish updating the duplicated version, you can select the Enabled option on the Publish Options page.

On the Define Process Template page, specify the following information:

Option	Description
Name	A name that describes the overall process, for example, New Hire, Employee Termination, or Office Move.
Description	A description of the process. For longer descriptions, this field expands automatically, as you type.
HTML/Markdown	An indicator of whether the description contains rich text. Some process descriptions can be longer than others, so formatting specific text elements can improve the overall readability and help the end user better understand the process. You can use the Markdown project syntax to format the contents of the Description box. For example: <h1> Before you proceed:</h1> <h1><ol> <li>Ensure the new employee acquisition process is finalized by HR. <li>Ensure the Badge ID exists for the new employee<br><br> <b>If you do not have a Badge ID, contact HR.</b> </ol></h1> For more information about the Markdown syntax, visit http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax.
Process Type	The type of the process. In a default installation, only the Service Request and Software Request: Approval Required process types are included. You can create new process types, as required. For example, you can create a process type for accessing a specific application, or a group of applications. For more information, see Define process types.

Click Save and Continue.

On the Parent Ticket page that appears in the Create Process Template wizard, associate a parent ticket with this process template.

Software Request: Approval Required process types only. This process type is meant for building special process templates that can be used to set up user downloads that require one or more approvals. If selected, a parent ticket is created from this process type by default.

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To view or edit the contents of the ticket, click Software Request: Approval Required.

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Tickets of this type do not allow you to edit the Title, Summary, Device, or Submitter fields. These fields will be populated with the values from the request that initiated the process.

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Approvals for this process type are mandatory.

Select a queue containing the parent ticket that you want to associate with this process template, and click Add Parent Ticket.

On the New Parent Ticket page, create a new parent ticket for this process template:

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If you have multiple queues, select a queue. Parent and child tickets can each be located in different queues. If you do not have multiple queues, queue selection is not offered.

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Most fields are similar to those on the Ticket Detail page. See Create tickets from the Administrator Console Ticket page. You do not have to use the same category, owner, and so on, for the parent as you use for the child tickets.

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The Due Date Offset is the amount of time required to complete work on a child ticket, and this amount of time is used to calculate the ticket due date. For example, if you set the Due Date Offset to four days, the child ticket's due date is offset to be four days after the ticket's creation date. Due dates are not enforced, but if the due date has passed, tickets are marked as Overdue on the Ticket list and they appear as Overdue on reports.

For additional information about creating tickets, see Create tickets from the Administrator Console Ticket page.

Click Save to return to the Create Process Template wizard.

Optional. After adding a parent ticket for a process, you can configure child tickets or activities for that process. Child tickets can be from different queues and they can be assigned different stages.

On the Parent Ticket page that appears in the Create Process Template wizard, under Child Tickets, click Add Child Ticket.

When a ticket based on this process template is created, stage 1 child tickets are created automatically (after approvals and requirements are met, if needed). When the last child ticket in stage 1 is closed, the child tickets defined in the next stage are created.

On the Child Ticket page that appears, create a new child ticket for this process template:

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Stage: The stage of the process at which the ticket is created, such as 1, 2, 3, and so on. You can assign multiple tickets to the same stage if necessary. For example, if the first stage is to obtain equipment and supplies for a new-hire, you might have several separate child tickets for ordering devices, office equipment, and supplies, all assigned to stage 1.

When you create a process ticket, all child tickets assigned to stage 1 are created automatically. Stage 2 tickets are created when all stage 1 tickets are closed, stage 3 tickets are created when all stage 2 tickets are closed, and so on.

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Title: A title for the child ticket.

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Summary: A description of the task associated with this child ticket.

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Category, Owner, and Due Dates: These values do not need to match those of the parent ticket.

For additional information about creating tickets, see Create tickets from the Administrator Console Ticket page.

Click Save to return to the Create Process Template wizard.

If you want the tickets created from this process template to require approvals, on the Approvals page that appears, select One or more approvals required for this process to start, and specify the information listed in the table below.

If you selected the Software Request: Approval Required process type, this check box is selected by default and cannot be cleared. Approvals for this process type are mandatory.

When a process ticket is created for a process that requires approval, child tickets are not created until all of the approvals are received. If there are multiple approval stages, emails requesting the approvals are first sent to step 1 approvers. Step 2 approvers receive their emails only after all of the step 1 approval requirements are met.

Approvers can approve or reject a process ticket by email using email tokens. For example, use the following syntax examples, as applicable:

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To approve a ticket by email:

@approval = approved
@approval_note = This request is approved by email

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To reject a ticket by email:

@approval = rejected
@approval_note = This request is rejected by email

For more information about these tokens, see Changing ticket approval fields using email.

One or more ticket approvers. You can edit the list of approvers, as required.

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New process templates. This field appears blank.

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Existing process templates. If one or more approvers are already defined in the process template, they are listed in this field.

NOTE: The submitter's manager appears selected by default.

Any one approval is required

At least one ticket approval is required.

All approvals are required

All ticket approvals are required.

Remove All

Removes all approvers from the list.

Add Another Step

Adds an approval step.

Approval Options

Approval Timeout Period

The amount of time each ticket approver has to approve or decline a ticket that is based on this process template.

Approval Timeout period does not span over multiple approval steps. For example, if a process has two approval steps and the approval timeout period is defined as eight hours:

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Step 1 approvers have 8 hours to approve.

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When all of the step 1 approvals are received, step 2 approvers are given eight hours to act on their approval requests.

Approval Notification Recurrence

Indicates how often the system sends notifications to each approver about a ticket that is pending approval.

Leaving this option set to zero '0' causes one-time notification to be sent without any recurrences.

Use business hours and holidays for approval timeout and notification frequency

Indicates if the system calculates the approval times using business hours.

Approval Override

Overriding an approval advances the process ticket forward without waiting on any pending approvals. After the override, any pending approvals are closed out, a ticket history is written, and an Approval Received email is sent to approvers, as defined in the email notification.

None

Approval overrides are not allowed.

Allow All Admins to Override

Any users with administrative access can override approvals.

Specify Label

Any users belonging to group with this label can override approvals.

Click Save and Continue.

On the Email Notifications page that appears, select the recipients of email notifications for each stage of the ticket lifecycle.

When Service Desk tickets associated with this process template are created or changed, the appliance can be configured to send email notifications each time the ticket enters any of the following stages: Process Submitted, Approval Required, Approval Timed Out, Approval Received, Approval Rejected, Process Cancelled, and Process Complete.

TIP: To send email notifications to all recipients each time the ticket enters a new process stage, in the top-left corner, click Select All. To select all ticket stages for a particular recipient, select the check box in the recipient's column in the top row, as required. For example, to send email notifications to the Submitter each time the ticket enters a new stage, select the Submitter check box in the top row.

For each ticket stage, you can configure the process template to send an email notification to a Submitter, Owner, Approver, and the contacts on the CC List, as required.

Some options appear pre-selected by default, but you can change that, if required. For example, by default, when an approval is required, an email notification is sent to the ticket owner and the approver using the predefined email template.

Optional. Customize the email template for one or more process stages.

On the Email Notifications page, in the row containing the stage whose email template you want to edit, click

In the Edit Email Template dialog box, specify the following information:

Option	Description
Subject	An email subject.
Body	An email body.
Use HTML/Markdown	An indicator of whether the description contains rich text. Some process descriptions can be longer than others, so formatting specific text elements can improve the overall readability and help the end user better understand the process. You can use the Markdown project syntax to format the contents of the Description box. For more information about the Markdown syntax, visit http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax.

TIP: If you want to reference some ticket- or process-specific information in the email subject or message body, such as the ticket title or process status, you can use email tokens. For more information about the available email tokens, see Configure email templates.

Click Save.

On the Email Notifications page, click Save and Continue.

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On the Publish Options page that appears, select any publishing options, as required:

Option	Description
Enabled	Processes must be enabled before you can use them to create process tickets. Select this check box if you want to enable users to create tickets from this process template.
Hide approval information from non-owner users	Select this option if you do not want the users who do not own the ticket to view approval information.
Hide process steps from Submitters	Select this option if you do not want to display the process steps (child tickets) to submitters in the parent ticket details page.
Display process to all users	This option is selected by default. If you want to restrict end user access to this process, clear this option. Alternatively, select a label associated with the group to which you want to grant access.
Display process description page while creating new process requests	Select this option if you want to show the process description page when creating new tickets based on this process template.
Use process status workflow instead of ticket status	When you want to take advantage of the approval and notification features available in the process template, you must select this option. If you already configured approvals or notifications, this option is selected by default and cannot be cleared. Choosing to use the process status workflows causes the parent ticket to automatically advance through various process-specific states such as Pending Approval, Approval Denied, Approval Timed Out, In Progress, or Process Complete. If you choose not to select this option and continue to use the ticket status workflows instead, you must create custom ticket rules to achieve desired approval and notification functionality. When you use process status workflows, the Status field does not appear on the Ticket Detail page, even if that field is configured to appear for the related queue. The ticket Status field is still displayed for the child tickets.
Parent Ticket Closed Status	Select the status that you want to use when the parent ticket associated with this process is closed. When the last child activity is closed, the parent ticket is closed automatically, and its status appears in this field.

Click Finish.

The Create Process Template wizard closes, and your newly created or updated process template appears on the Process Templates page.

Define process types

In a default installation, only the Service Request and Software Request: Approval Required process types are included. You can create new process types, as required. For example, you can create a process type for accessing a specific application, or a group of applications.

The Software Request: Approval Required process type is meant for building special process templates that can be used to set up user downloads that require one or more approvals.

Create a parent ticket.

Go to the Service Desk Process Detail page:

On the left navigation bar, click Service Desk, then click Configuration.

On the Configuration panel, under Process Templates, click Define Process Types.

To add a new process type, in the top-right corner, click

. In the text box that appears, type the process type name, and click Save.

To change the name of an existing process, in the row containing the process type that you want to edit, click

. In the text box that appears, type the new process type name, and click Save.