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Service Requests FAQs


dwalby

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Hi all,

This may be a silly question, but why does the option to view FAQs not appear for Service Requests?

When creating a new starter for example (a Service Request), we'd like to have a process/checklist document easily available to follow when needed. If the option to have it as an FAQ isn't available where is the recommended place to store it whilst also making it easily accessible from within the Service Request?

Thanks in advance

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Wouldn't it be more efficient to have a simple, clear Progressive Capture that guides the customer through the process?
This, to me, would be far more user-friendly than expecting the customer to flick between an FAQ guide and the Service Request when each stage of the capture can be clearly documented as part of the flow.

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Or you could use check lists in human tasks as we do. 

Especially useful for new starters where there are lots of steps to take to provision a new starter with all nessesary accounts and other access. 

In the text prior to the checklist you can add html links to documents in document manager (as mentioned by DeadMeatGF) for particularly tricky / complex task work instructions. 

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15 hours ago, DeadMeatGF said:

Could that be a good use case for Document Manager?

@DeadMeatGF Thanks - Yeah I've taken a brief look at this as an option, although it seems whilst viewing the Service Request you'd need to manually search and link the relevant document for it to be easily accessible.

@Dan Munns - Thanks, I may explore the option of Human Tasks with Document Manager links.

Overall though, there seems to be a lack of other options for having useful, process/procedural documentation easily accessible within a Service Request ticket - likely needing the analyst to navigate away from the page. Having the FAQ section seemed to me like the logical place for this.

@James Ainsworth what are you thoughts and recommendations on this?

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Hi @dwalby

Thanks for your post.  

In response to your first question regarding not having the solutions action on a request that displays the FAQs, this is just the result of the progressive nature of the development where we are introducing some aspects in smaller iterations and I'm sure you will find that FAQs will continue to be used in more places over time.  The solutions action on an incident is presented more as a way to look for a solution for resolution rather than documents to help with a process.  However, we could look to see how we can take advantage of FAQs as part of a service request as well.

Some great ideas have been posted above.  I like the idea of the check boxes on a task.  These check lists can be created as part of a Human Task in the BPM.   However, you may find that you have some instruction that goes beyond a list of items.  You may even find that you can add a link to a document as part of your task description.  

Instructions documents may also go outside the intended use of a FAQ.  As mentioned above, this is where documents in Document Manager might play a role.  We are discussing ways in which we could possibly use the BPM to present documents at a particular point within a BPM process.  I haven't tried it yet, but you might be able to append the description of the request with links to the required documents using the BPM operation Update Request.

I'll post some more if I can think of some other ideas.

Regards,

James

 

 

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23 hours ago, dwalby said:

Say for example a document outlining how to delegate mailbox access within Exchange, how and where should this go?

What scenario does this apply to? Are you thinking of an analyst needing to know how to delegate access, a customer needing to know how to delegate access, or an analyst needing to explain over the phone to the customer?

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We would have a user guide in the Portal accessible FAQs and a work instruction in the Service Desk accessible Knowledge base in this case. As the analysts have access to both libraries if an over the phone instruction was required they could read the portal document to the user if required. 

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We too came across this issue about where to store the documentation/instructions to tasks.  For New starters for example we actually have separate tasks automatically setup within the BPM process which holds basic instructions on what to do.

Not ideal as you can't add too much details or pictures but it details the main bits.

Works at the moment but it would be good to link out to a more detailed documentation.

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Using @Dan Munns approach with Libraries, I was able to add links to a PDF document held in one of my libraries into 3 different places on a request.

In all 3 cases I used wiki markup to provide some friendly text with a URL behind the text using the form [[http://pathToTheDocument|Friendly text]].  The first link in the description was using the BPM Operation Update Request->Details where I updated the Description field using the option to append the description.  The second place is in the timeline where I used the BPM Operation Update Request->Timeline where I added the link at the main text for the timeline update.  Last, I created a manual task and in the description of the task I included the link to my document.

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This is what I added into the Task Details... 

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This is the operation for appending the details of the request...

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We do have the new Document Manager plug-in on a request.  Eventually I'm sure we will have a BPM Operation that works with this as well.

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I hope this provides some more ideas on how a document in a library can be linked to a request.

Regards,

James

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@dwalby @Tina.Lapere @Dan Munns @DeadMeatGF @Martyn Houghton an update for you on this, we have added the option so it is now possible via the Hornbill iBridge to add a document to a request as part of your Business Process.

If you set up a keysafe for the user who owns the document in document manager (generate them an API key under their profile) you can then use the Integration Call node in your business process to have a document automatically added to the request.

https://wiki.hornbill.com/index.php/Hornbill

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Considerations

1. Once linked to the request, the analysts viewing this doc via the request would need to have the rights to view it (but you can manage this via the document sharing / libraries etc)

Config for the iBridge node:

Application: com.hornbill.servicemanager

Doc id: Needs to be the DOCxxxxxxxxxxxxxx reference (you can see this in the URL of the document when viewing it

Entity: Requests

EntityId: In this scenario use the variable picker in the field and go to Global Inputs > Requestid and use this

Run your process and you will then have the specified document in the documents section on the request

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Hope that helps 

Steve

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@dwalby all a little hot off the press but the user needs the appropriate Document Manager rights can use this option to add docs to requests.  Obviously they would need rights to view a specific doc to be able to grab it's Doc ID but if know then their DM rights would allow them to add these to a request. 

Just tried this with a non doc owner who uses DM and knows the Doc ID and it worked fine so this should make it easier for you.

Users wanting to view the doc from the request would need to have the doc shared with them / in a library they have access to in all the usual ways still.

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Hi @Martyn Houghton the Document Add is just the test name i gave to the Keysafe credentials when setting up the Hornbill Authentication type, it doesn't relate to any functional capabilities, that is all handled through the chosen Method field under the Connector above. 

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No remove document option as of yet i'm afraid, but we are always adding to the available options 

Steve

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