RTTS 2 User Manual 20130119

Saudi Telecom Company User Manual

January 2013

Table of Contents Preface .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 7 About this Course............................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Description ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Prerequisites .................................................................................................................................................................................. 7 Objectives ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 7

INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW ....................................................... ............................................................................. ........................... ..... 8 Purpose .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 8 Objectives .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 8 User Identification ............................................................................................................................................................................. 8 Login to the RTTS system ............................................................................................................................................................... 8

HOME PAGE........................................................... .................................................................................. ............................................. ......................................... ...................9 Customising your Home Page ................................................................................................................................................... 10 Trouble Tickets – Individual ................................................................................................................................................. 10 Trouble Tickets – Group ......................................................................................................................................................... 11 Trouble Tickets – Centre ........................................................................................................................................................ 11 Trouble Tickets – MSP ............................................................................................................................................................. 12 How to access the Network Management Console .......................................................................................................... 13 Applications List .............................................................................................................................................................................. 13 Quick links .................................................................................................................................................................................... 13 Network Management ............................................................................................................................................................. 13

NETWORK OPERATIONS FAULT MANAGEMENT SCREEN LAYOUT................14 Screen Layout ................................................................................................................................................................................... 14 Navigation area ................................................................................................................................................................................ 15

SUBMISSION OF TROUBLE TICKETS .......................................... ................................................................. ................................ ......... 16 Quick View on Submission.......................................................................................................................................................... 16 Met hodology hodology on Trouble Ticket Template Scenario’s .................................................................................................... 17 Detail on the Submission of a Trouble Ticket .................................................................................................................... 18 Selecting the Template ................................................................................................................................................................. 18 Problem type functions. ............................................................................................................................................................... 19 External Customer .................................................................................................................................................................... 19 © Copyright Reserved metaWEAVE 2012 metaWEAVE 2012 BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.6.04 System Manuals Page 2 of 85

Table of Contents Preface .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 7 About this Course............................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Description ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 7 Prerequisites .................................................................................................................................................................................. 7 Objectives ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 7

INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW ....................................................... ............................................................................. ........................... ..... 8 Purpose .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 8 Objectives .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 8 User Identification ............................................................................................................................................................................. 8 Login to the RTTS system ............................................................................................................................................................... 8

HOME PAGE........................................................... .................................................................................. ............................................. ......................................... ...................9 Customising your Home Page ................................................................................................................................................... 10 Trouble Tickets – Individual ................................................................................................................................................. 10 Trouble Tickets – Group ......................................................................................................................................................... 11 Trouble Tickets – Centre ........................................................................................................................................................ 11 Trouble Tickets – MSP ............................................................................................................................................................. 12 How to access the Network Management Console .......................................................................................................... 13 Applications List .............................................................................................................................................................................. 13 Quick links .................................................................................................................................................................................... 13 Network Management ............................................................................................................................................................. 13

NETWORK OPERATIONS FAULT MANAGEMENT SCREEN LAYOUT................14 Screen Layout ................................................................................................................................................................................... 14 Navigation area ................................................................................................................................................................................ 15

SUBMISSION OF TROUBLE TICKETS .......................................... ................................................................. ................................ ......... 16 Quick View on Submission.......................................................................................................................................................... 16 Met hodology hodology on Trouble Ticket Template Scenario’s .................................................................................................... 17 Detail on the Submission of a Trouble Ticket .................................................................................................................... 18 Selecting the Template ................................................................................................................................................................. 18 Problem type functions. ............................................................................................................................................................... 19 External Customer .................................................................................................................................................................... 19 © Copyright Reserved metaWEAVE 2012 metaWEAVE 2012 BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.6.04 System Manuals Page 2 of 85

Interconnect ................................................................................................................................................................................. 20 Internal Alarm ............................................................................................................................................................................. 20 Internal Event ............................................................................................................................................................................. 21 Internal MDT ............................................................................................................................................................................... 21 Internal Observation ................................................................................................................................................................ 22 Network Expansion Request ................................................................................................................................................ 22 Alarm/Service Impact Date+ ..................................................................................................................................................... 22 Node Selection .................................................................................................................................................................................. 23 Known Node – user knows the name of the node ....................................................................................................... 23 Searching a previously captured Node (Using the node Selector Wizard) ...................................................... 24 Node does not exist on RTTS II database ........................................................................................................................ 24 Assigning/referral of Tickets ..................................................................................................................................................... 25 Saving the Trouble Ticket ........................................................................................................................................................... 26 Upon Saving ................................................................................................................................................................................. 26 Status History field ................................................................................................................................................................... 27 Existing Node - with open tickets ....................................................................................................................................... 27 Search Open ticket Console – (Show Similar Tickets button) ............................................................................... 29 Different Tabs on the Search console. .............................................................................................................................. 29 Capturing node that does not exist in the RTTS II database - (Using the Wizard) ............. ............. ............. 30 Different networks ......................................................................................................................................................................... 31 Creating Mobile tickets ................................................................................................................................................................. 31 Creating Transmission tickets .................................................................................................................................................. 34

SEARCHING A TROUBLE TICKET ....................................................... ............................................................................. ......................... ... 35 The Query By Example Method ................................................................................................................................................ 35 The Advanced Search Bar ........................................................................................................................................................... 36 Using a combination of search methods ............................................................................................................................... 37 Advanced Search Bar Format and Syntax ....................................................................................................................... 37 Operators Used in the Advanced Search Bar ................................................................................................................ 38 Advanced Search Bar Format Conventions ................................................................................................................... 39 Building Search Criteria .......................................................................................................................................................... 40 Building Search Criteria Examples .................................................................................................................................... 40 © Copyright Reserved metaWEAVE 2012 metaWEAVE 2012 BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.6.04 System Manuals Page 3 of 85

Using Wildcard Symbols ......................................................................................................................................................... 41 Using Wildcard Symbols in the Advanced Search Bar .............................................................................................. 42 Specifying Time in a Search .................................................................................................................................................. 42 Absolute Time ............................................................................................................................................................................. 42 Relative Time ............................................................................................................................................................................... 43 Calculating Epoch Time .......................................................................................................................................................... 43 Using Keywords ............................................................................................................................................................................... 43 Viewing Status History ................................................................................................................................................................. 45 Using Status History in a Search ......................................................................................................................................... 45 Using a Currency Field in a Search .................................................................................................................................... 46 Defined Searches and My Searches ................................................................................................................................... 47 Other methods of Searching ................................................................................................................................................. 48 Viewing Results and Details.................................................................................................................................................. 49 The Results List .......................................................................................................................................................................... 49 The Details pane......................................................................................................................................................................... pane .........................................................................................................................................................................

50

Modify All ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 50

WORKING ON THE TROUBLE TICKET .............................................. ..................................................................... ......................... .. 51 Accepting assignment ................................................................................................................................................................... 51 Work Info entries ............................................................................................................................................................................ 52 Work Info Table ......................................................................................................................................................................... 52 Adding Entries from the Network Console Table ....................................................................................................... 52 Adding Entries within the request ..................................................................................................................................... 53 Adding Attachments ................................................................................................................................................................. 53 Viewing Attachments ............................................................................................................................................................... 53 Duplicates ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 54 Assignments within the trouble ticket .................................................................................................................................. 54 Referrals .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 54 Incomplete Data ......................................................................................................................................................................... 54 Wrong Referral ........................................................................................................................................................................... 55 History log .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 56 Audit Tracking ............................................................................................................................................................................ 56 © Copyright Reserved metaWEAVE 2012 metaWEAVE 2012 BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.6.04 System Manuals Page 4 of 85

Status history tab ....................................................................................................................................................................... 56 Field history tab ......................................................................................................................................................................... 56 Assignment history tab ........................................................................................................................................................... 57 Notification log ........................................................................................................................................................................... 58 Statuses ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 59 Status Queued ............................................................................................................................................................................. 59 Status Assigned........................................................................................................................................................................... 59 Status In Progress ...................................................................................................................................................................... 59 Status Pending ............................................................................................................................................................................ 59 Status Cleared ............................................................................................................................................................................. 59 Status Referred ........................................................................................................................................................................... 59 Status Restored .......................................................................................................................................................................... 59 Status Cancelled ......................................................................................................................................................................... 59 Status Closed................................................................................................................................................................................ 60

CLEARING TICKETS ......................................................................................................... 60 The Resolution tab ......................................................................................................................................................................... 60 Statistics Collected ......................................................................................................................................................................... 61 Company detail ........................................................................................................................................................................... 61 Other Detail .................................................................................................................................................................................. 62

RESOLUTION OF TICKETS.............................................................................................. 64 NOTIFICATION ENGINE (AD HOC AND AUTOMATIC) ...........................................65 SMS Notification .............................................................................................................................................................................. 65 Email Notification ........................................................................................................................................................................... 66

TASKING ...............................................................................................................................67 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 67 Creating Tasks .................................................................................................................................................................................. 68 Activating the tasks ........................................................................................................................................................................ 69 Notification on tasks ...................................................................................................................................................................... 70 Working on Tasks ........................................................................................................................................................................... 70 Opening the task – (Determine if your group should be tasked to preform the work) .................................. 71 Assignment ................................................................................................................................................................................... 71 © Copyright Reserved metaWEAVE 2012 BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.6.04 System Manuals Page 5 of 85

Work Information Entries ..................................................................................................................................................... 72 Accepting the task. .................................................................................................................................................................... 72

MULTI TENANCY ............................................................................................................... 73 Multi-tenancy description ........................................................................................................................................................... 73 Divisions ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 74

TICKET RELATIONSHIPS ................................................................................................ 75 What are the possible relationships? ..................................................................................................................................... 75 The following rules apply. ........................................................................................................................................................... 76 How to relate trouble tickets to one another ..................................................................................................................... 76 Make another trouble ticket the child of this trouble ticket................................................................................... 76 Make this trouble ticket a child of another trouble ticket. ...................................................................................... 78 Grandparent tickets .................................................................................................................................................................. 78 Make another trouble ticket a duplicate of this ticket .............................................................................................. 79 Possible Relationship Statuses ............................................................................................................................................ 79

VENDOR MANAGEMENT.................................................................................................80 EXTERNAL SYSTEM ADDITIONAL DATA .................................................................. 81 Data from Systems.......................................................................................................................................................................... 81 Data available form RMS ............................................................................................................................................................. 82

SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT MANAGEMENT (SLA) AND NOTIFICATION .. 83 Methodology of an SLA’s..............................................................................................................................................................

83

Example of an SLA .......................................................................................................................................................................... 83 Refreshing the SLA table of the ticket .................................................................................................................................... 83 Interpreting the Metric Meter ................................................................................................................................................... 83 Escalation Table .............................................................................................................................................................................. 84 How to see the SLA status of the ticket ................................................................................................................................. 84

GENERAL SYSTEM USER INTERFACE ENHANCEMENTS .....................................85 Populating the Date fields with + .............................................................................................................................................

85

Populating the Character fields with + .................................................................................................................................. 85 Hover over fields. ............................................................................................................................................................................ 85 Auto Complete .................................................................................................................................................................................. 85 Auto expandable views ................................................................................................................................................................ 85 © Copyright Reserved metaWEAVE 2012 BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.6.04 System Manuals Page 6 of 85

Preface About this Course Description This course is designed to give you a basis on which to build your Remedy Trouble Ticketing System (RTTS) knowledge. We will learn how to navigate through a work process automated within RTTS and how to automate your work process by using a browser. Prerequisites This course is designed for people who will be using the RTTS system.

A student taking this course must have the following prerequisites: 

User knowledge of the Microsoft Windows graphical user interface.

Objectives Upon completing this course, you will be able to: 

Use the RTTS system.



Create new RTTS requests.



Search for and modify existing RTTS requests.

© Copyright Reserved metaWEAVE 2012 BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.6.04 System Manuals Page 7 of 85

Introduction and Overview Purpose The Purpose of this module is to provide a general overvi ew of the RTTS System.

Objectives Upon completion of this module, you will be able to: Open the Network Operations Fault Management Console and customise the home page.

User Identification Your administrator supplies you with your login information. This includes your user name and password; these identify you to the RTTS system and give you the access permissions that your administrator has defined.

Login to the RTTS system

1.

Type in the URL for the Home Page: http:///arsys/home

2.

Type your RTTS username and password.

3.

Click OK.

Your RTTS user name and password are space and case sensitive.


Home page

Your default home page form will open with four similar flashboard fields. These flashboards fields can be customised according to the user preference. To the right of each field, click on the buttons to po pulate the fields.

Edit – Select flashboard information Collapse – Minimise the flashboards field Expand – Maximise the flashboard field. Close – Close the flashboards field


Customising your Home Page 1.

Click on the + button (add content to Layout button) in the top right hand corner of you Home page

2.

This will add four additional windows to your Home Page layout.

3.

From the ‘Show’ dropdown buttons you can now select the content y ou want to add to your home page.

4.

After selecting content for you four different screens, you can edit at any time. You can also remove and add windows at will. (Four is the maximum)

5.

Please remember to SAVE your preference. Available also in the top right hand corner.

6.

Restore Default Layout to return to the Default layout.

There are a lot of flashboards available for the user/manager to view the user’s per formance and the performance of his groups. The following flashboards are available to select from in this section. Trouble Tickets – Individual These flashboards focus on the individual’s performance and assist him to monitor his own perfor mance. The flashboards that are available are the following: Name of Flashboard

Description

All Tickets Summary

Summary of all the tickets

Tickets/Priority Flashboard – User

All the tickets grouped by status and priority for the user that is logged in only.

Work info Flashboard – User

Shows a graph per day on how many work info items have been added.


SLA Meters – User

Shows the tickets that are about to breach SLA in a meter format.

Trouble Tickets – Group These flashboards focus on the group’s performance that the logged in users belongs to. It assists the logged in user to monitor the performance of all the groups that he belongs to. The flashboards that are available are the following: Name of Flashboard

Description

Tickets/Priority Flashboard – Group

Show per group number of tickets

Assignee Summary

Shows all the open tickets group by referred group and user

Problem Type-Group

Show what problems are logged

Work info Flashboard

Show for all the groups the number of work info items logged

SLA Per Group

Shows the SLA’s per group

Referral Counter

Shows the referral counter on all the tickets that your groups look after

Trouble Tickets – Centre These flashboards focus on the centre’s performance that the user that is logged in belongs to. It assist he logged in user to monitor all the groups that are part of the default centre he belongs to performance. The flashboards that are available are the following: Name of Flashboard

Description

Tickets/Priority Flashboard – Centre

Show per group number of tickets

Assignee Summary – Centre

Shows all the open tickets group by referred group and user of all the groups that belong to the centre

Problem Type – Centre

Show what problems are logged and group by the problem type and the “next level” of the problem.


Work info Flashboard – Centre

Show for all the groups that belongs to the centre, the number of work info items logged

SLA Per Group

Shows the SLA’s per groups that belongs to the centre

Referral Counter

Shows the referral counter on all the tickets that belongs to your centre.

Trouble Tickets – MSP These flashboards focus on the MSP performance that the logged in user belongs to. It assists the logged in user to monitor his MSP (Division) performance. The flashboards that are available are the following: Name of Flashboard

Description

Tickets/Priority Flashboard – MSP

Grouped by the priority and status for all tickets in the division

Problem Type-MSP

Group problem type per division

Assignment Summary – MSP

Group tickets by group for the division

Ticket Location – MSP

Show the geo location of all the tickets for the division

SLA Summary

Shows the summary of the SLA’s


How to access the Network Management Console

1.

In the left hand corner of your Home Page screen you can maximise your access point menu by clicking on the Applications tab.

2.

From here you can access all the modules you have permission to.

Applications List Quick links Home Page – Return to home page.

1.

Change your Password

2.

Fill in the current password

3.

Choose a new password and confirm the new password

4.

Click on Save

Network Management Open Console - Open the Network management console Create TT – Open the Submission mode of Trouble Tickets Search TT – Search Tickets


Network Operations Fault Management screen layout

Screen Layout Navigation Area

Navigation Area - various functionality. Home page – Return to the home page Close – Close the current browser tab. Logout – Log out of the system. Please log out of the system when you finished yo ur work. This will release your license and the next user will be able to log in. Just beneath the logout button the user is welcomed and the user default group is stated.

Filtering fields

Above the table of requests, the show – and Console View fields filters requests displayed on the Requests table. Create button – Create a new trouble ticket. View button – View the highlighted trouble ticket.

Requests

Request table with your trouble tickets and tasks. Detail of the highlighted request Scroll bar with notifications.


Navigation area NOC New Trouble Ticket – Submit Search Trouble Ticket - Searches

Other System Enhancement – Suggested Enhancements to system Submit Data Addition Request – Suggested Data additions View my Data/Enhan Request – View previous enhancement req Change Application settings – Change your defaults Search archive Tickets – Searching the archive

Documentation – Useful Documentation on the system Reminders – Reminders that can be set

Advanced Searches TT-Work info TT-SLA TT-Audit Trail


Submission of Trouble Tickets Quick View on Submission

Field:

Value:

Template

Select the template from the abstract field drop-down menu. Depending on what template you selected, certain fields will be populated.

Problem Type

The problem type will be populated according to the template selected. Each problem type will dynamically influence the form and certain tabs will display or not display.

Alarm/Service Impact Date+

It’s required to specify a date. Pres s enter on this field to populate the field with the current date and time.

Node+

The node needs to be selected and can be searched by opening the node wizard. If the node was not captured previously, node detail can be captured by selecting the “Add a node” button.

Assignment

Assignment must be done on the trouble ticket to specify who needs to work on the trouble ticket.

Save

Upon completion of all the above-mentioned fields, the request can be saved and trouble ticket number will be supplied.

Detail of each above-mentioned step, will be discussed in the next couple of pages.


Methodology on Trouble Ticket Template Scenario’s Ticket needs to be created

Yes

Does template exist ?

No

Use the template and fields are auto populated

Select the fields manually

Does node/circuit exist ?

Use the wizard or paste the node name. or paste the Circuit name

Yes

Yes

Create the Required Node

No

Service Impacted ?

Enter the Service Type Affected

No

Enter the Reported date field

Add any other fields Save ticket

  

Does a template exist on the issue? Does a node exist? What services are impacted?

Upon Submit 

 

   

The chronic ticket counters (for node and circuit) will be populated. Originator Group and user will be set. SLA will be populated as soon as the ticket is created. System notifications will be sent out. The shift logged field will be populated. EMS response time will be populated. Ticket will be in status Queued


Detail on the Submission of a Trouble Ticket 1.

From the Network Operations Fault Management Console, Select the New Trouble Ticket form the Network Operations Console to open the Trouble Ticket form.

Selecting the Template Use the drop-down menu item and select the correct

2.

template.

One of Two Scenario’s can now be true. Either

3.



Template available



Template unavailable

Select the correct Template from the Abstract field.

4.

Certain fields are populated, according to the template selected.

Template available

Template unavailable

Form is updating fields according to “Problem Type”

5.

6.

Manually populate the required fields: 

Abstract



Severity



Problem Type



Alarm/Service Impact Date

See the next section for form updates.


Problem type functions. 

On selecting specific Problem Types, fields will open and get focus .



The system will enforce that the correct fields are populated.



Depends on user permissions.



Different tabs are displayed and hidden at certain times.

External Customer External Customer

The focus will move to the Circuit Information tab and set the focus there. There will be no second level. Submit External

1.

Fill in the template, Date and the assignment .

Customer

2.

Add the faulty circuit number to the customer circuit number.

3.

The nodes related to the Circuit populates the table.

4.

If the Node does not exist in RTTS, the second column of the “Nodes related to the circuit” table, wil not be filled in and the system will open the Node selection Wizard to help you add the Node to RTTS.

5.

Click the “Use this node” button – This populates the Node Information.


Interconnect

The next level will be Related Operator and the field will open. The following fields will be auto populated: Network, Sub Network, Vendor, and Technology. The selection of the event source is related to the Technology selected.

Internal Alarm

The next levels will be opened and displayed : Event Source an d Event Class


Internal Event

No fields will be displayed for this option

Internal MDT

The next level will be opened and displayed: Int MDT Class. The MDT Date, and the MDT Ref Number field will be opened and the focus will be placed on the MDT Date.


Internal Observation

The next level will be opened and displ ayed is “Internal Obs Types”

Network Expansion Request

The next level will be opened and displayed is “Network Exp Classification”

Alarm/Service Impact Date+ 7.

The User needs to select the date the issue became apparent. The user can either select the date manually, or the user can press the Enter key on the field. This will g ive the current date and time.


Node Selection The node needs to be selected. A node can be captured on the system or not yet. If the user knows the name of the node, the following method can be followed.

Known Node – user knows the name of the node 8.

Fill in the node name on the Node field. Press Enter.

9.

If it is the correct name, the Node fields will populate.

10. Click on the View Site button to see detail of the site on various tabs. Detail on the site is not populated yet, still to be populated


11. Open the history of the site to see the previous Trouble Tickets Searching a previously captured Node (Using the node Selector Wizard) The open node wizard can be used, when a node has been captured, but the user does not know the name of the node. Click on the open node wizard button.

1.

Select the correct node by searching the filtered fields provided by the drop-down menus of the node wizard.

2.

Select the value you want to search on and press the Refresh button. You can also perform a leading search on the Node field, if you know the name of the Node.

Node does not exist on RTTS II database 1.

You filled in the Name of the Node, but the Name of the does not exist on the system.

2.

The Node Wizard is used, but the values do not exist on the system, thus cannot be selected.

3.

You have to add the Name of the Node manually.


4.

Close the Wizard. (The Add Note button appears)

5.

Click on the Add Node button and add the Node manually.

6.

The Node detail will be captured manually, by selecting or filling in the values on each field.

7.

Values will not be accepted to the Node database yet, but will be sent to the Administrator for validation.

This does not stop the Trouble Ticket investigation from continuing.

If the Trouble Ticket is saved without an existing Node, the system will give the error message stating: “This node is not known. Please enter a valid node name.”

Assigning/referral of Tickets

Assignment of the trouble ticket will be done during submission of the trouble ticket. The system will use a referral matrix to do the referral of tickets. The referral matrix means that groups may only assign to certain groups. The user can select one of the following options. Refer the trouble ticket to your group - the referred to group field will display your default group name. This means that everybody in your group will be able to retrieve this trouble ticket. The assigned to name field will remain empty, and status equals Queued. © Copyright Reserved metaWEAVE 2012 BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.6.04 System Manuals Page 25 of 85

Refer it to yourself – user clicks on the image next to the assigned to name field. This image is only available on submission of the trouble ticket. The login name of the currently logged in, user gets filled in on the field. Refer to a person in your group - from the assigned to name field, drop down menu. The login name of that user will be filled on the assigned to name field. Status will be changed to Assigned. Refer to another group – if the user wants to refer the trouble ticket to another group, he needs to click on the Referred button. The referred to group field will be emptied, and the user need to select the group from the referred to group field, drop down menu. The status of the trouble ticket will change to Referred.

Saving the Trouble Ticket With the above-mentioned steps completed, the user can click on the save button to s ave the trouble ticket. The system will prompt the user, if the service impacted field holds a value other than “No ”. Service impacted field: Degraded or Outage– the service impacted tab displays and prompt the user to fill in the following three fields: 

Services type affected field



quantity equivalent or affected subscribers field



elements affected field

Upon Saving As soon as the trouble ticket is saved, the trouble ticket number will be assigned.

Counters There are metrics on the system that will count the number of referrals. This is mostly intended for reporting purposes. © Copyright Reserved metaWEAVE 2012 BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.6.04 System Manuals Page 26 of 85

The following are checked on the ticket and will then be displayed on After the ticket has been created the ticket will be opened in

the “Notification Area” on the TT form

modify mode.



Chronic Node Counter > 0



Chronic Circuit Counter > 0

Once the number of referrals reaches a threshold a notification



Number of Wrong Referrals > 0

can be triggered to notify somebody about this condition. There



Number of Referrals > 5



When you do not have access to

are also flashboards that measure and report on the reassignments

modify the ticket 

SLA time on the ticket has expired.

Status History field As the system moves through the statuses, it will record the time that each status occurred. There are fields on the trouble ticket that defines this:

The status history can also be used to inspect the time and user that has changed the status. This field can be accessed from the trouble ticket menu. On a request, click the status history button to open the statushistory field. This display all the trouble tickets statuses, with the date and time stamp to indicate status changes.

Existing Node - with open tickets A node, already captured on the system, may have other trouble tickets related to it. It is possible to look at the related items by following the next steps. 1.

As soon as the user selects a node with open tickets


attached to it, the system gives a note. Open the Show Similar Tickets button at the bottom of the screen, to view the tickets.

2.

Click on the button at the bottom of the screen.

Click on the Open Ticket button to open the request in Modify Mode


Search Open ticket Console – (Show Similar Tickets button) 3.

Reporting on all or open tickets of a certain status or range of months.

4.

Select the Status and the amount of months and click on the refresh button.

Different Tabs on the Search console. The Node Tab

The Circuit Tab

The Company Tab

The Site Tab


Capturing node that does not exist in the RTTS II database - (Using the Wizard)

3.

If the user does not exist, you will get such a message.

4.

The wizard will open automatically.

5.

Click on OK to dismiss the message. The Node selector Wizard form will open.

6.

If your default group has the permission to work on more than one network, the following pop-up screen will be displayed, containing a list of all the possible networks that your default group has permission to.

7.

Select the preferred Network from the list. If you have only one network defined for your group, the network will automatically be selected.

8.

Once the network has been selected, it will be locked down on the network search field. This means that the user cannot select any nodes outside the allowed network.

9.

On the next couple of pages, the different networks will be discussed.


Different networks “ Different networks will have different behaviour. As soon as the user selects the preferred network, the screen layout will change. Tabs will be added or left out. According to the technology on the node information tab, the detail on the mobile tab will be adapted. Fields and field labels will change according to 2G, 3G LTE. Complete the fields if you have additional information.”

Creating Mobile tickets 1.

Mobile tickets will display the Mobile tab.

2.

The system will determine if the node you selected belongs to the 2G, 3G or LTE network. The labels of the fields are changed accordingly.

Field labels on 2G

Field labels on 3G

Field labels on LTE

3.

The system place the node that was selected in the correct level and then auto populate all the upstream records. Form the dropdown menus the downstream nodes can be


selected. 4.

After the topology is selected, the number of affected nodes is completed as to the number of affected nodes per the 2G, 3G or LTE network.

5.

The next step is to identify the names of the related items and capture it in the related nodes table. You have to fill in the affected node in the “Affected nodes to add” field, by adding “node”, “space”, “node”, “space”.

6.

Press enter to add the nodes to the related items table

7.

The system then auto-assigns the Start Date to all the related nodes selected.

8.

When the ticket is cleared/restored all the affected nodes will be closed.

9.

The system will then calculate the time that a node was down, not only on a ticket, but all the related tickets. These can the give a true picture on the outage of a node.

10. The system checks the number of affected records entered in the table above against the number of the nodes that are related in the Affected Nodes table. The number of records in the affected nodes must always be one less than the numbers entered. The main node selected will © Copyright Reserved metaWEAVE 2012 BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.6.04 System Manuals Page 32 of 85

automatically be added when the ticket is restored/cleared.

After the main ticket has been restored and it is evident that there is still a problem one of the related nodes, then a ticket can be created by selecting the node on the affected node table and press the “Create Ticket” button below

The trouble ticket form will open and the following fields will be sent to c reate a new request. Field Name

Value sent to the ticket

Abstract

Same as the main ticket

Priority

Medium

Description

Ticket Created from ticket : PRXXXX Ticket Description

Originator Detail

Same as the main ticket detail

Assignment Detail


Problem Type


Problem Type L2


Problem Type L3


Node


Reported Date

The Cleared date


Creating Transmission tickets The following additional information needs to be captured for transmission nodes. 1.

The system will look in the transmission database on RTTS II and then populate the server and ring detail from the database.

2.

If one of the E1, STM-1, STM-4, STM-16, STM-64 is populated and the ticket is restored or cleared, then the system will force the Resolution dates for e ach field to be populated manually.

3.

On this section of the form the number of links affected can be captured and the resolution dates of the various types can be separately captured.


Searching a trouble ticket You can use the Search window of Remedy to view or modify any requests that you have permission to access. For example, you might want to find all the requests that were submitted during the last month for a particular piece of equipment. You can do so by defining a search that locates the target requests and then displays those requests.

To locate specific requests, you Search the database by specifying search criteria.

The Search Window

You can specify search criteria in the following ways: 

Query-by-example (QBE)



Advanced Search Bar



Using a combination of the two methods.

The Query By Example Method The simplest way to specify search criteria is to fill in fields and select choices in the Search window that match the requests you want to find. This is called creating a query-by-example (QBE). For example, to search for all the requests you have created, type your name in the Submitter field in the Search window, and click on the Search button.

The example below shows a query-by-example for all requests with a Category of Hardware and a Status of Assigned.

For a more precise query, you can specify values for more than one field. The system searches for requests that meet all the criteria (a logical AND operation), so the more you fill in, the more specific your search becomes. © Copyright Reserved metaWEAVE 2012 BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.6.04 System Manuals Page 35 of 85

Based on Administrator defined options for each field, you may receive more or less information that you searched for.

The Advanced Search Bar The second method for specifying query criteria is to use the advanced search bar. You can display the advanced search bar by clicking on the Advanced button on the top of the form or by selecting the Advanced Search Bar option from the View Menu.

Use the advanced search bar when you want to define a search that does more than simply find requests with fields that match an example. The advanced search bar lets you build more complex logical statements. To search for requests that contain one of many values, you must use the advanced search bar.

Advanced Search bar


Using a combination of search methods You can use both the query-by-example style and the advanced search bar at the same time. Remember, any criteria you type in the advanced search bar are used in

“addition” to

the criteria you have defined in the

query-by-example section of the window. The two sets of criteria are connected with a logical AND.

AND

In the above example, we are looking for all requests with a request type equal to “Hardware” with a status of “Fixed” or “Rejected”. Advanced Search Bar Format and Syntax To define search criteria, you can use operators and wildcard symbols, symbols, which are discussed in the tables following this paragraph. Some operators can be used anywhere in the Search window, and some can be used only in the advanced search bar. You must follow a set of formatting conventions when you build a search

statement in the advanced search bar.

Consider the example, ‘Status’ = “Closed” Expressed in English, it means find the requests with a “Closed” status only. By itself, this may be the lowest common denominator in your search, but it may also provide you with too many matches. You can refine you r search by using the operators described describ ed in the following tables to narrow down the number of requests that match your search criteria. You can use the operators shown below in defining your search, as well as the wildcard characters described later in this module.

© Copyright Reserved metaWEAVE 2012 metaWEAVE 2012 BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.6.04 System Manuals Page 37 of 85

Operators Used in the Advanced Search Bar

OPERATOR AND

ACTION Logical AND of the result of two conditions (the result is true only if both conditions are true). For example, ‘Status’ = “New” AND ‘Assigne d-to’ d-to’ = “Andy” finds all new requests

&& OR

|| NOT

assigned to Andy. You can use the symbol && instead of the word AND. Logical OR of the result of two conditions (the result is true if either condition is true). For example, ‘Status’ = “New” OR ‘Assigned -to’ = “Andy”, finds all new requests and all requests assigned to Andy (no matter what their status). You can use the symbol || (two vertical lines) instead of the word OR. Negates the condition that follows (if the condition is false, the result is true). For example, NOT ‘Status’ = “New”, finds all requests that are not new. You can use the

!

symbol ! instead of the word NOT. Performs a pattern search. search . For example, ‘Submitter’ LIKE “Bob%ton”, finds all the

LIKE

requests with a submitter name that begin s with the letters “Bob” and ends with the letters “ton” – such as Bob Compton and Bobby Fenton. The Like operator is useful only with characters and diary type fields. 

+

-

Adds two integer or real values.



Adds an integer interval to a time string.



Concatenates two character strings.



Subtracts two integer or real values.



Subtracts two time values.



Subtracts an integer interval from a time value.

*

Multiplies two integer or real values.

/

Divides two integer or real values.

%

Supplies the modulo of two integer values (the remainder of a division of the values).

<

Matches contents that are less than the value.

>

Matches contents that are greater than the value.

!=

Matches contents that are not equal to the value.

<=

Matches contents that are less than or equal to the value.

>=

Matches contents that are greater than or equal equal to the value.

=

Matches contents that are exactly equal to the value.


Operator Precedence

Operator Precedence



( )



!, NOT, - (negative numbers)



*, /, %



+, -



<, <=, >, >=, =, !=



&& (AND)



| | (OR)

Advanced Search Bar Format Conventions Use the following format conventions to construct a query statement in the advanc ed search bar.

a.

Fields Enclose field labels in single quotes. Single quotes are automatically added when you select fields from the Fields menu or when you click on their label in the query-by-example part of the window.

b.

Values Enclose non-numeric values (including character, time, and diary) in double quotes. quotes. For example “07/01/99” You can use the special value $NULL$ (without quotes) to query for requests that have no value in a field. Called “Keywords”. “Keywords”. For example, to query for requests that have not been assigned, (requests with no values in the Assignedto field), you would type:

‘Assigned‘Assigned-to’ = $NULL$

Selection field values can either be specified as the text value, in quotes, or the numeric, numeric, value not in quotes. For instance, if you have a Status field with the radio buttons Open, Fixed, and Verified, to specify the value of Open, you can either type “Open” or 0 (zero) since Open is the first selection value in the selection field. Fixed is stored as a 1 since it is the second value, and Verified is stored as a 2.


Building Search Criteria

Building Search Criteria



Add a field name to the advanced search bar by typing its name with single quotes, selecting it from the Fields menu, or by clicking on its i ts label.



Type an operator or select the appropriate operator from the palette in the advanced search bar.



Type a field value, usually within double quotes.



Continue adding field names, operators, and field values until you have completed the search statement.



When you are ready to perform the search, click the Search button.

Building Search Criteria Examples The advanced search bar may look like the following examples:


Using Wildcard Symbols

You can use wildcard symbols when you are defining search criteria in character and diary fields and in the advanced search bar. This is a list of the available wildcards and their meanings. Use this wildcard: % (Percent)

To match these characters: Use to match any string of 0 or more characters. For example: J%son matches Jackson, Johnson, Jason, and Json.

_ (Underscore)

Use to match any single character For example: B_b matches Bab, Bob, and Bub.

- (Hyphen)

Use to indicate a range. Always use within square brackets ([]). For example, [a-f] matches the range of characters a through f.

[ ] (Square brackets)

Use to match any single character within a specified range or set Always use within square brackets ([]). [abcf] matches the set of characters a, b, c, or f.

[^] (Square brackets with Use to match any single character not within a specified range or set . For caret)

example, [^a-f] matches all characters except the range a through f , and [^abcf] matches all characters except a, b, c, or f.

The result of this search would find all records where the word move appears somewhere in the Short Description field.


Using Wildcard Symbols in the Advanced Search Bar In the advanced search bar, wildcard symbols are interpreted as wildcards only when used with the LIKE operator; otherwise, they are interpreted as explicit characters. The advanced search bar also requires that you use the % symbol when you want to include leading and/or trailing characters in your query. For example, if you are uncertain of the spelling of some one’s last name, the following search may help.

‘First Name’ LIKE “J%son” matches Jackson, Johnson, and Jolson.

Leading and Trailing

To include the leading and trailing characters, you must use the % symbol.

Eg. ‘Submitter’ LIKE “%Bob%ton” will match:

Jill Bobbington, Bobby Fenton, Bob Compton and Bob Stone in the Submitter field. Specifying Time in a Search

Specifying Time in a Search

There are two methods to specify time in search: 

Absolute ‘Modified Date’ > “January 10, 1999”



Relative ‘Arrival Time’ >= $TIMESTAMP$ - (60 * 15)

Absolute Time Using absolute time in a query is straightforward because you explicitly use a date or time. For example, to search for all entries created after an absolute date or time, use the greater-than (>) relational operator and one of the date and time formats. The example below will locate all entries modified after January 6, 1999. Note that the date is hard-coded into the query.

‘Modified Date’ > “January 6, 1999”


Relative Time Sometimes you may not want to hard-code in specific dates or times. You may want to use relative time in a query. For example, if you want to create a macro that locates all open entries that are more than two weeks old, you would want to use relative time. For example, to locate all entries that have been created within the last 15 minutes, you would use: ‘Arrival Time’ >= $TIMESTAMP$ - (60 * 15)

To specify relative time in a query requires using epoch time. Epoch time is defined as the number of seconds since January 1, 1970, at 12:00am . Since epoch time is kept in seconds, you must specify units of time in seconds. For example, to specify one week, you must figure out the number of seconds in one week. Do this by multiplying the number of seconds in one minute, by the number of minutes in one hour, by the number of hours in one day, by the number of days in one week. Specifying a week in epoch time looks like this: (60 * 60 * 24 * 7) The relative query below is tied to whatever today’s date is. ($DATE$ means today’s date at midnight). The query below will find all open entries, more than a week old where Bruce is the submitter.

‘Submitted By’ LIKE “Bruce%” AND ‘Status’ != “Closed” AND (‘Arrival Time’) < ($DAT E$ - (60 * 60 * 24 * 7))

Calculating Epoch Time

Number of seconds in

Number of hours in

one minute

one day

(60 * 60 * 24 * 7)

Number of minutes in

Number of days in

one hour

one week

Using Keywords Keywords can be used in a QBE or in the advanced search bar. You can type special keywords any place that you can type character values. These keywords, shown below, are replaced with their corresponding values by the system. © Copyright Reserved metaWEAVE 2012 BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.6.04 System Manuals Page 43 of 85

KEYWORDS $DATE$

SUBSTITUTED VALUE Current date. In a date/time field, the time defaults to midnight (00:00:00).

$NULL$

A null value.

$TIME$

Current time. In a date/time field, the day defaults to the current date.

$TIMESTAMP$

Current date/time stamp.

$USER$

Name of the currently logged in user.

$APPLICATION$ $DATABASE$ $DEFAULT$

The application name if the application is running; $NULL$ when no application is running. The database on which the current form’s data is stored. The default value for the associated field (used only when assigning a value to a field).

$FIELDHELP$

The field help text for the currently selected field.

$GROUPS$

The groups of which the current user is a member.

$GUIDE$

The guide name if the guide is running; $NULL$ if the guide is not running.

$GUIDETEXT$

In a Guide Definition, the text that is entered under the help tab.

$HARDWARE$

The hardware platform on which the current process is running.

$LASTCOUNT$

The number of matches found in the most recent search.

$LASTID$

The ID of the last successfully created request. The current mode or operation being performed. The most common

$OPERATION$

values returned are: 

CREATE is returned for a create request operation.



QUERY is returned for a database search.

$OS$

The operating system under which the current process is running.

$SCHEMA$

The form on which you are currently operating.

$SERVER$

The BMC Developer studio server on which the current form is defined.

$VERSION$

The version of the Remedy User tool. If the version includes a patch, it is also included.

$VUI$

The name of the view of the current active window.

$WEEKDAY$

The current day of the week.

$INBULKTRANSACTION$

Indicates whether you are in a bulk transaction. This keyword is not supported and is reserved for future use.

$FIELDID$

The ID of the field that currently has focus in the client.

$FIELDNAME$

The name of the field that currently has focus in the client.

$FIELDLABEL$

The label of the field that currently has focus in the client.

$SERVERTIMESTAMP$

For Date/Time fields, the current date and time on the server.


For Time fields, the current time on the server. For Date fields, the current date on the server. Returns the list of the group IDs of which the current user is a member.

$GROUPIDS$ Using Keywords

The following example uses the $USER$ keyword to search for requests where the submitter’s name is the same as the current user’s name.

Keywords are also available from the Fields menu in the Advanced Search Bar.

Viewing Status History The Status History core field is directly tied to the Status field. Status History includes the username of the last person who changed the status of a request and the date and time that the change occurred.

1.

Select View  Status History when viewing the details of a request. The Status History window displays.

Note:

Status History only tracks the last user and time that a status change was made. If your business process allows you to visit a state more than once, the original data is overwritten.

Using Status History in a Search You can use the Status History references in a Search.


In the first example, we are searching for all requests that Francie Fron tline placed in a state of closed. The second example is searching for all requests that took longer than ten hours to close.

For each Status there are two Status History referenc es: 

USER – The user who placed a request in a state



TIME – The date and time a request was placed in a state

For example: ‘Status-History.Closed.TIME’ >”01/06/99” ‘Status-History.Resolved.USER’ = “Bob Backline”

Note:

The correct syntax is entered for you automatically when you choose the Status History reference from the Fields menu in the advanced search bar.

Using a Currency Field in a Search When searching a currency field there are 3 references that can be used: 

The value of the field



The type of currency field



The date-time when the currency value was set.


Value of Field

The value can be referred to as: ‘Currency Field’ = 500

or

‘Currency Field.VALUE' = 500

This will return records with the value 500 in the field; this does not depend on the currency type at all.

Type of Currency

To refer to the currency the following search c an be done: 'Currency Field.TYPE' = "USD" This will return all records where the currency is US Dollars.

Date Time when Currency Was Set

Any date time related function can be used to refer to the date when the current currency value was set e.g.

'Currency Field.DATE' >= $DATE$

This will return all records where the currency value was changed after midnight last night.

Defined Searches and My Searches These searches, previously defined by the administrator for this form view, or previously saved by the user with the Save Search action.


Other methods of Searching

To save a search in Remedy: 1.

Open a Search window for the desired form.

2.

Define your search.

3.

Select Searches Save Search. A Save Search dialog box displays.

4.

Name your search and click OK .

This saved search is now available from the Searches menu. Remedy also saves all recent searches for a given form. These are also available from the Searches menu when the form is open.


Viewing Results and Details When you select Search, the system executes the search according to the criteria you specified and opens a window that displays a Results List pane and a Detail pane.

Results List Pane

Details Pane

The Results List The Results List pane displays a one-line description of each request that matches the search criteria you defined. The number of requests listed by the search displays in the status bar of Remedy.

The Results List pane may be refreshed using: Select View  Refresh Search

You can choose how the search results are sorted in the results list by clicking on any of the column headings. You can sort each column in the results list, in ascending or descending order. 1.

Click on the column header of the field that you want to sort by. The requests in the results list are ordered by the column you selected, in ascending or descending order.

2.

To change this order, click the column again.


3.

To return to the default sorting for the list, right-click on the column headers. From the menu that appears, choose Reset.

4.

You can also re-arrange the order of the fields in the results list by clicking and dragging a field to another position.

The Details pane The Detail pane shows the details of the request selected in the results list. From this pane, a user can modify requests for which they have permission.

To modify a request, make the required changes and then click the Save button. When a request has been modified, that record becomes italicised in the results list. Modify All A query can result in an operation to modify all the selected, records in a results list. In order to modify more than one record at a time, execute a query and select a few items in the results list. Then go to Actions

Modify All

This will change the window mode to a modify all window. You can then change some of the values in the fields. When you apply (save), all the selected records will be subjected to the change.


Working on the trouble ticket

1.

Open the trouble ticket from the network operations fault management console. 2.

Once the request has been open the user needs to assign this trouble ticket to him. Use the drop-down menu on the Assigned to name field, and choose the correct user login.

3.

Save.

1.

Once user opens a trouble ticket from

Accepting assignment

the network management console, he needs to accept assignment of the trouble ticket. 2.

The user accepts assignment by clicking on the “In progress” button.

3.

The trouble ticket will move to status “In progress”and automatically be saved.


Work Info entries Work Info Table

1.

Here you can see at a glance when a record has been added, by who it has been added (the full name and not the login name) and what group added the work info.

2.

You can also see if there are and how many attachments are there on that item.

On this screen you are also able to search for any words or phrases in the table by typing the data in the “Search worklog+” field and pressing enter. This will show all the entries that contain the phrases entered in the field. Adding Entries from the Network Console Table Worklog entries can be added or viewed from the Network Management Console, by using the Add Worklog or View Worklog buttons.


Adding Entries within the request 1.

Most of the work info items are entered manually, but there are cases where the system will add some important notes automatically. These work log items can be printed or exported to file from a web report.

2.

To create work info items, enter all the fields needed



Work info Type



Summary



Notes

3.

Click on Add Work log button. This will write your entry to the work info table. When using browsers like Firefox (and others) a spell checker will be active on the browser that can assist the user to correct spelling errors.

1. Adding Attachments

The system uses the work log mechanism to add attachments to the system. This will take away any limitations on the number of attachments that a user can add to the system. To add attachments use the “create attachments” button, just above the Work Info Entries table.

2.

Click on the add button and add a browser to add file.

3.

Add the attachments in the attachments slots (maximum 3) and save the record.

4.

After saving this work info record the attachment counter will show how many attachments are in that item.

Viewing Attachments


1.

To view these attachments, select the item and click on the view button.

2.

From here the attachment can be viewed or saved to a local or network drive.

Duplicates When adding work info items the system will check for certain duplicates and then prevent users form adding duplicate entries.

Assignments within the trouble ticket Assignments were discussed previously in the manual, please refer to the section on submission of a trouble ticket.

Referrals Incomplete Data

1.

A user is allowed to refer a trouble ticket back to its sender, if the data on the trouble ticket is incomplete.

2.

The status of requests should be “Referred”

3.

If the user needs more information, the user needs to: a.

Select the group.

b.

The status reason needs to be selected

c. 4.

Referrer button can be selected

On selecting a status reason of


"Incomplete Data" the system will open a popup to help you to indicate the free text data is incomplete. 5.

This entry will be auto added in the work info. The ticket will be assigned to the Group that has moved it forward. After referral the ticket will close

Wrong Referral

1.

On selecting a status reason of "Wrong Referral" the system will open a popup to help you to indicate in free text why you think it is a wrong referral.

2.

This entry will be auto added in the work log. The ticket will be assigned to the Group that has moved it forward. After referral the ticket will close.


History log Audit Tracking Any respectable trouble ticket system needs to track the history on the ticket and what happened when and by whom. It needs to record a full audit trail without affecting performance on the system. The new RTTS ticketing system was designed to do just that. To record changes without having an effect on the performance. This will record “just enough” audit trail information. These audit entries can be searched by end users to retrieve archive information on the system. The audit trail entries have been grouped in the following categories. Status history tab

The status history table shows the status change history on the ticket. Every time there is a status change in the system, the system records it. As seen above, it shows the following: 

Date/Time change occurred



Group responsible for the status change



The previous status



The new status



Duration in the status (hh:mm:ss)



The user that made the change

Field history tab

The system is tracking changes on imported fields that have been id entified. This list of fields can be expanded, but system will for now track the changes on the following fields: 

Node –The whole node structure is displayed with the node.



Node Classification



Priority



Status Reason


Service Impact



The following will be recorded on the audit logs: 

New Value



Group



User



Date and time

Assignment history tab

This section tracks the movement between support groups and users. It will list all the groups that were used for this ticket and the time spent with each group up to the time the ticket was cleared. The following will be recorded on the assignment logs: 

New Value (Dispatch Group and Dispatch To)



User that performed the change



Date and time it occurred.



The time that the ticket was open against this group.


Notification log

Every notification that is sent out from the system will land up in the notific ation history table. There are 4 sources for records in this table: 

Manual Emails



Manual SMS



System Generated Notifications



Escalation notifications

The following fields are available in this log. 

Submitter



Date/Time Created



Method



To



Subject



Body

The full message can be viewed as well


Statuses Trouble tickets can have various statuses. The below table will discuss each status of the trouble ticket.

Status Queued This status is used upon submission of the trouble ticket. Status Assigned As soon as a group ease assigned to a trouble ticket the status changes to assigned. Status In Progress As soon as a user start working on the trouble ticket the status will be moved to “In progress” Status Pending Only certain groups are allowed to move the status to Pending. Status Cleared Status cleared will be selected as soon as a user has found the resolution to a trouble ticket.

Status Referred A user can refer a trouble ticket to a next group of users. Only certain groups can refer to certain other groups. Status Restored Status restored will be used with a temporary solution to a trouble ticket. Status restored is only used if there is a service impact on the trouble ticket. This means that the service impact that field will hold either the value degraded or outage. If the restored button is selected, the status reason label turns red, and the user selects: 

Permanent solution required



Final – (Trouble ticket is moved to status Cleared, on save. Keep in mind that Cleared fields first needs to be completed.)

Status Cancelled A trouble ticket can be cancelled when duplicates are logged. See ticket Relations for more info.


Status Closed After five days in status Cleared, the trouble ticket with will automatically be moved to status Closed.

Clearing tickets The Resolution tab 1.

As soon as the user completed his investigation on the trouble ticket, it can be moved to status Cleared.

2.

If the user didn’t complete all the resolution fields, the system will notify you with an error to complete all the resolution fields.

3.

Click on the Resolution tab to fill in all the fields.

The following fields will automatically be updated in moving the trouble ticket to status Cleared.

When the user completes this data and finds that

5.

“Cleared Date”,



“Cleared Group”



Repaired user



Shift Cleared

On clearing a ticket the required fields will display in red to ensure it is completed.

the data that he needs is not there, a request can be made to add the data. In this way accurate



6.

Open the resolution details tab and fill in all the fields required. The required field labels

data can be captured.

will turn to red. 7.

If the “resolution” node is different than the current node, the current node needs to be changed. The system keeps a history of the changed nodes.


Take Note: MOBILE network tickets - When a ticket is cleared, the node that was selected at the time the ticket was cleared will automatically be copied to the related nodes tab.

This is only filled in with “ Restored” Trouble tickets. In the case of a permanent solution, the user can indicate if a new design is necessary or not. If the SLA was breached on the Trouble ticket, the user has to provide a reason for the long outage. These fields are not filled in with a trouble ticket within its SLA. Upon Saving of the trouble ticket, the last fields on the Resolution Tab will be automatically filled in.

Statistics Collected

Company detail During the lifecycle of the ticket there are various metrics that are collected. This section describes all the fields.


Name of indicator

Description

Company

Division of the group that is currently assigned to the ticket

Originator Division

The Originator Division

Originator Centre

The Originator Centre

Originator Group

The Originator Group

Originator

The user that create the ticket.

SLA Target Date

The date that is linked to the SLA that is monitored

Create Date

Date the ticket was created

Modified Date

Date that the ticket was last modified

Restored Date

Date that the ticket was restored

Cleared Date

Date the ticket was cleared

Closed Date

Date the ticket was closed

Previous Referred Group

The last group that the ticket was with.

Previous Assigned To User

The last user that ticket was assigned to.

Time to Restore/cleared

Time in hours from Create to Resorted or Cleared. This will be the actual hours with all stoppages ignored.

Time to Closed

Time in hours from Create to Close. This will be the actual hours with all stoppages ignored.

Other Detail

Name of indicator

Description

Number of wrong referrals

Counting every time the wrong referral is used.


Number of referrals

Counting every time that referral is used

Chronic node Counter

Number of tickets logged for the selected node

Chronic Circuit Counter

Number of tickets logged for the selected Circuit

Shift Originated

The shift of the group that created the ticket

Shift Cleared

The shift of the group that cleated the ticket

Shift Closed

The shift of the group that closed the ticket

Restore Group

The group that restored the ticket

Cleared Group

The group that Cleared the ticket

First Referral time

The time that the first group was referred to the ticket

Last Manual Update Time

The time that the last manual modification was done

Longest Progress Update

The longest time between manual system updates.

Group responsible for the

The group that caused the longest update

longest update Response time for the EMS

The time it took from the alarm appears to the time the ticket was created.

Ticket relationship status

The parent/child indicator.


Resolution of tickets This is a new status that has been created for when there is a service impact. All th ese tickets will go from In Progress to Restored. This user needs to pass through the Restored status or stay there if there if a permanent solution required. See the workflow diagram below for the process.

Ticket with service impact is logged

Ticket is restored

Yes

Permanent Solution required ?

Select Design/Non Design

No

Ticket is in status “Restored”

Permanent solution provided

Clearance fields completed and ticket Cleared

End


Notification Engine (Ad hoc and Automatic) There are 3 notification strategies that have been followed when the system was designed. These include: 

Ad hoc (manual) notifications



Automated system notifications



Automated escalation notifications according to the SLA milestones.

The system supports the following notification methods: 

Alert Tool (Notifier)



SMS



Email

Use the Email or SMS button at bottom of the screen on the trouble ticket menu bar.

SMS Notification 1.

Click on the SMS link at the bottom of the screen on the trouble ticket.

2.

This will open a console where the user names can be selected and the message templates selected to send out predefined messages.

3.

The user has the ability to send out ad hoc notifications to other users via sms from in the system.

4.

The value in the summary field can be dragged and dropped into the SMS message field. Make use of the message library button, at the bottom of the send SMS window, and select the message that will auto-populate the SMS message field.

5.

The notification audit log keeps track of all the messages send from the system.

6.

Click on the history log tab, and then the notification log tab, see a log of all the notifications sent on this trouble ticket.


Email Notification 1.

An email can only be sent to an individual.

2.

Click on the email button at the bottom of the trouble ticket screen, the sent email window will open.

3.

Some of the detail on the email will be populated and the user can use the menu on the To or CC fields, to specify the receiver of this email.

4.

Fill in the subject and body of the email, all make use of the message library.

5.

Click on the send button to send the email.

6.

The email will be sent and an entry will be kept in the notification log.


Tasking Introduction Level 1

Tasking is used to create activities that are part of the ticket but each has its own lifecycle and hub time.

Task 1

Tasks can be created manually.

Task 2

Initially the tasking will be used for investigation, where there is a

Task 3

problem but the root needs to be investigated from various areas.

Level 1

For this scenario all the tasks will run in parallel.

Task 1

Task 2

Task 3

1.

Tasks are created to first of all, determine who needs to perform the work necessary .

2.

The trouble ticket owner will assign three tasks on the trouble ticket, to three groups, in order to determine the actual group this trouble ticket needs to be assigned to.

3.

As soon as these three groups opened the tasks and investigated the issue, the correct group will take full responsibility of the trouble ticket .

4.

The tasks assigned to the two other groups, will be closed as soon as the third group takes full assignment of the trouble ticket.

5.

The full trouble ticket will now be forwarded to the third group that took the assignment of the issue.


Creating Tasks 1.

On the trouble ticket, click on the tasks tab, tasks can be created manually by clicking on the “create task” button.

2.

The following screen opens. All the fields from the ticket will be copied to the task.

3.

Give you new task a name, by filling in the name field.

4.

Select the Group that the ticket needs to be assigned to. This will be assigned according to the referral matrix of the user that is logged in. There is a further con straint on the assignment of the tasks. They can only be assigned to any group in the referral matrix that belongs to the same division as the user.

5.

Save the task by clicking on the save button.

6.

The tasks will now be in status “ Staged” until the tasks are activated.

Tasks cannot be added after activation of tasks. If none of the groups that was assigned a task, accepts the final assignment to the task, the following will happen: 

All the tasks will be closed.



The status reason of the trouble ticket will be updated.



The t rouble ticket status will remain in “In progress”


Activating the tasks After adding all the tasks, the tasks will appear in the list of tasks Once the tasks have been activated, NO MORE TASKS can

The status of the tasks is now “staged.”

be added!!

This means that the task is not active yet. No notifications will go out at this “task

The Main Trouble Ticket must “Start the Tasks” to move

preparation” stage.

the tasks to Status “ Pending” 1.

As the status of the main ticket moves to “In Progress” the task activation button will also become available. The tasks need to be activated and started.

2.

All the tasks will be moved to status Pending.

3.

The status reason for the main ticket moves to “Pending Tasks”

4.

The hub time will stop on the main trouble ticket.

5.

When the view button is used the “view flow” of the tasks is displayed

The tasks are now sent to 3 groups where the disruption might have occurred.


Notification on tasks

1.

Once the tasks have been activated there will be notifications sent out to the Group (where there is no user assigned yet) or to the user personally, where that user is assigned.

2.

The notifications on the tasks can be viewed in the Notification audit log.

Working on Tasks

There are various ways that a task can be opened.

1.

The task will also appear in the inbox of the users on the management console.

2.

From the ticket via the “View Task” button. (the user needs to have access to the ticket)

3.

On the Alert List , click view

4.

On the email received there is a link to click to open the task.


Opening the task – (Determine if your group should be tasked to preform the work)

All the information that is shown is copied from the

1.

If more information is required, the

trouble ticket. The following information (from the

parent ticket can be viewed from

trouble ticket) is available here:

here by clicking on the “View Ticket”

a.

Node information

b.

Ticket Abstract

c.

Ticket Priority

d.

Parent Work info

on the task form.

Assignment 2.

If the task is only assigned to a group and not to a user, the assignment can be done from the Assignment Tab of the Task.

3.

Once the task is assigned to a user, the status of the task moves to Assigned.

4.

To refer the task to another group the ability exists to change the group that the task is assigned to by selecting it from the menu.


Work Information Entries 5.

Once the user starts working on the task, the status needs to be moved to “ Work In Progress”.

6.

After the user has completed the investigation and found that the problem is not in his area, he can close the task by moving the status to “Closed” and add some work info on the tasks work info.

7.

The user can still only assign within his referral matrix. Only the groups that are in the same division are displayed here. This means that a task cannot be assigned to a group outside the division of the user.

8.

Upon saving, the system will force the user to make a work log entry, before moving on. The user needs to click on the work info tab, complete the entry before saving.

Accepting the task. 9.

Once the user has identified that the problem is in his area, the “ Assign Ticket To Me” button can be used.

If no user “accepts” the responsibility and all the tasks are closed without any user accepting the problem, the status reason of the ticket will change to "Tasks Completed" and the SLA on the ticket will start again. The hub time of the owner of the ticket will reset to include all the time that

(This button is only available once the ticket is in Assigned status.) Clicking this button has the following effect: 

This task closes



All the other open tasks close



The ticket is assigned to this user and moved to status “In progress” and the

was spent with the tasks.

status reason removed. 

A work log entry is added to say that the user has accepted the task.



The SLA on the ticket will start again.



If there were changes on the node on the task, these changes will be sent to the ticket as well.


Multi Tenancy 







Multi tenancy is used to segment a system so

This allows multiple divisions to work

that users can only see data that is relevant to

independently on the same system without seeing

their division (Company).

data of another division. A “wall” is built around

Multi tenancy is purely intended for security

division data. This data includes:

purposes.



Ticket data

Requests are separated on the grounds of



Support group data

their division.



People data.

This means that each division can work on its



Task data

own ticket data, has its own support group structure, has its own people records and log its own tasks. 

A user can belong to more than one division if required.

“ The one division will not even be aware of the fact that the other division exists.”

Person Access to Div A,B and C

List of tickets created by Division A, B and C

Division A

Division B

Person Dedicated to Div A

Multi-tenancy description

Division C

Person Dedicated to Div C

Person Dedicated to Div B


Divisions Company (Division) Central Region Operations Mgmt East Region Operations Mgmt MS DATA Cisco MS EM Imanco MS Fixed Access VDSL and FTTX ALU MS Fixed Access-FTTX Huawei MS LBS Project MS Mobile ALU MS Mobile Ericsson MS Mobile Huawei MS Mobile LTE ALU MS Mobile LTE Huawei MS Mobile LTE NSN MS Mobile LTE Samsung MS Mobile LTE ZTE MS Mobile NSN MS Mobile ZTE MS Transport Detasad MS Transport Huawei MS VDSL Huawei NMC Fixed NMC Mobile NMC Transport Network Operations GM None Network Operations Operations Planning & Contracts Professional Services South Region Operations Mgmt West Region Operations Mgmt


Ticket relationships Related tickets are used to staple a current ticket to another ticket. Th e Master (Parent) ticket can be defined as the root cause of the issue experienced and the related ticket, considered the Child. 1. Ticket 100

Ticket 110

Ticket 120

An event (like a cable cut) causes 4 tickets to be

Ticket 130

created without any relationship. 2.

After referral and investigation

Ticket 100

a.

Ticket 100

b.

Ticket 110 becomes a parent child relationship.

Parent : 100

Ticket 110

What are the possible relationships?

Make another trouble ticket

Make this trouble ticket a child

Make another trouble ticket a

the child of this trouble ticket

of another trouble ticket.

duplicate of this ticket

Your current trouble ticket will

Your current trouble ticket will

Your current ticket will be the

be the parent, and the child

be the child, and the other record

parent and the duplicate ticket

record will be stapled, to the

will be the parent.

parent.


will be cancelled.

The following rules apply. 

Only tickets that are assigned to the same Group can be stapled together when you make a current ticket a parent.



When you staple children tickets to a parent, then the parent ticket can be of the same owner group or you can staple tickets that you have originated to a parent ticket that now belongs to a different group.



When a ticket that is a parent of another ticket is related as a c hild, then the “grandparent” becomes related to the current ticket. A history will be kept of all the parents if it changes.



When a child record is of a higher severity than the parent, the parent will be upgraded to the higher priority.





The child ticket cannot be modified until it is cleared by the parent . Consider the following scenario:

How to relate trouble tickets to one another Make another trouble ticket the child of this trouble ticket 1.

To start the identifying of the relationship use the ticket relationship button at the bottom of the trouble ticket on the menu bar.

2.

The ticket that needs to be related needs to be in modification mode, and the user must have permissions to change the ticket.

3.

Select the correct link action. The link action window will open.


4.

Once the ticket is selected, the focus will go back to the ticket form. On the ticket the selected indication will be indicated.

5.

If the ticket is now a parent ticket The Children Tickets tab will be displayed and a list of all the child tickets displayed.

6.

Brown box will appear in the top right of the screen. The purpose of the Brown box is to alert the user, that this trouble ticket is a parent request.

7.

On the general info tab the ticket relationship status, has now changed to parent.


Make this trouble ticket a child of another trouble ticket. 1.

If the ticket is now a child ticket

2.

Display the parent detail tab. This will show the work info items on all the “parents” of this ticket, and the ticket numbers of all the parents.

3.

Click on the parent’s details tab, to see the history of previous relationships.

4.

The parent trouble ticket ID will appear.

5.

On the general info tab, the ticket relationship status will now indicate “child”.

6.

In the right upper corner of the screen, a purple box will appear, indicating that this trouble ticket is a child request.

Grandparent tickets 1.

Ticket 120

The ticket that was a parent, which is now related to another trouble ticket as a child, will give a grandparent, a

Parent : 120

parent and a child relationship.

Ticket 100

2.

Three levels deep relationships are not allowed. In such a scenario, the

Parent : 100

relationship between the initial parent

Ticket 110

and the initial child will be broken. 3.

A new relationship will be made to move the grandchild, to the position of child under the grandparent. The outcome will be a parent with two

Ticket

children trouble tickets beneath it.

120

Parent : 120

Parent : 120 Previous Parent :

Ticket 100

100

Ticket 110


Make another trouble ticket a duplicate of this ticket 1.

As soon as the user submits a trouble ticket there is a duplicate of another open ticket, the system will notify the user accordingly.

2.

The user can stop the submission of the trouble ticket at this stage, since there is a similar trouble ticket open.

3.

If the user continues the submission of the trouble ticket, he can now search the system for the duplicate, and select to relate the two trouble tickets with one another.

If the ticket is now a duplicate ticket

4.

Click on the ticket the relationships



The status of the ticket will change to Cancelled.

but then to open the link action



The Ticket Relationship status will move to:

window.

Duplicate 

5.

Select the option “Make another

The “Parent Details” will contain the ticket

trouble ticket a duplicate of this

parent number that made this ticket a duplicate

ticket” and press select.

ticket.

6.

Click on the request and click on the link button.

7.

The duplicates ticket tab will now be visible on your trouble ticket and the trouble ticket that was linked will now be in status cancelled.

Possible Relationship Statuses 1.

Not linked – no parent child relationship

2.

Parent – parent request

3.

Child – child request

4.

Not linked –removed – request had a relationship that was removed.

5.

Duplicate – a duplicate request of another request on the system.

6.

Parent – duplicates – this request had a duplicate on the system, which was cancelled.


Vendor Management 1.

The vendor functionality enables STC to track tickets assigned to external Vendors. This functionality tracks and monitors the lifecycle of a vendor assigned trouble ticket.

2.

It tracks their:

3.

a.

Ticket numbers

b.

Status workflow

c.

Contact details.

The Vendor tab is only available for the Long Term problem type or when a ticket is in “Restored status.”

4.

Vendor assignment is logged on this tab when a ticket is assigned to an external vendor.

5.

The following fields need to be completed when a vendor assignment is done: a.

Status – Process starts with referred.

b.

Handover Method – The way that the ticket was received

c.

Handover Date/Time+ - The Date that the ticket was handover to the vendor.

d.

Vendor Assigned to – This is the vendor that the ticket is assigned to. On selecting the vendor name the following fields will be

“ Once the ticket is referred to the vendor, he

populated from the base tables.

needs to accept it and then allocate a ref number

i. Email

to the system. ”

ii. Cell iii. Phone iv. Fax 6.

Once the vendor has completed his ticket, the status will be changed to “Completed” and the Hand back date/time is completed.

7.

On saving the ticket the Time at vendor field is calculated.

Any vendor resolution notes need to be captured in the work log.


External system additional data CRMD provides the following information

Data from Systems The system makes provision for additional technical information on the ticket when the ticket is created / updated. This information can be used to get more information on the nature of the ticket. The additional data can lead to better reporting and better resolution of the tickets. The links will provide additional information when they create tickets in RTTS II via the EAI interface.

ICMS provides the following information


Data available form RMS Circuit information is retrieved from the Circuit table that resides on the RTTS database that is synced from the RMS database on a daily basis. Basic relationship infor mation is available between the circuit and the node. All available information is displayed on the screen below.


Service Level Agreement Management (SLA) and Notification

Methodology of an SLA’s 



Example of an SLA

The SLA’s and the technical way the SLA’s

As can be seen in the screenshot above this ticket

function, are fully discussed in additional

has 3 service targets.

technical documentation.



(95%)

SLA’s are important to measure the performance of MSP and it is used to



measure STC performance, in order to get tickets resolved. 



Medium Ticket Restoration for Datasad

Medium Ticket Restoration for Datasad (100%)



Response Target for Datasad

As there are penalties involved in the breaching of SLA’s it becomes increasingly

Refreshing the SLA table of the ticket

important to manage SLA’s proactively.

1.

As soon as the user opens the request, click on

This document will focus on the end user

the SLM tab to view the SLA status of the

experience and describes the basic

request. The SLA table will display.

mechanism of the SLA’s.

2.

If the user is viewing the trouble ticket and is already on the SLM tab, the Refresh button needs to be clicked to refresh the SLA table.

Interpreting the Metric Meter The Status is colour coded. 

Green for milestone still met.



Yellow (Warning) if on 75%



Red if the SLA has expired.



Due date time – When the milestone will

“An SLA will be changing the colour of the trouble ticket displayed in the results list. If the trouble ticket displays as green, the SLA is still

fail. 

Completion Time or Time left o

within time, but if the results list displays it as

red, it has been breeched.”

If the milestone is completed then this will hold the elapsed time

o

If the milestone is still busy then this field will hold the time left or the time expired.


Escalation Table

The Escalations define the milestones on a service target. It defines 2 levels 

75% of SLA and



100% of SLA

The table shows the time that this escalation will execute (this is the time that the notification will be sent out to the users defined). It also shows if it has been executed (have the notifications been sent)



The colour of the ticket in the results list.



The box colour on the ticket screen.

The 95% restoration SLA has been identified as this one service target. This is to help the users working on the ticket to be a bit more proactive on the ticket.

How to see the SLA status of the ticket

Results List Ticket colour box at the top right hand corner of the screen. The management console on the Request table.


RTTS 2 User Manual 20130119

Recommend Documents