Configuring Escalations and Chase

Overview

The Escalation and Chase features are designed to work both reactively and proactively, giving users and analysts a structured, non-disruptive way to surface concerns and ensure tickets get the right visibility at the right time.

In Alemba Service Manager (ASM), Escalations and User Chase are closely related mechanisms that work in tandem to provide enhanced visibility, accountability, and responsiveness within the support process. Though functionally separate, they share a unified escalation mechanism.

User Chase and Escalations are inextricably tied to one another while still being essentially separate capabilities. When you configure User Chase, users are able to chase ticket based on predefined parameters and these chases can automatically trigger an escalation, if escalation is enabled. These escalations make use of call templates to create a new call and assign the new call to the escalation authority. The triggering call or request is written to the ESCALATED_CALL_REF or ESCALATED_REQUEST_REF field as appropriate, but it is not linked to the newly created Escalated Ticket through Call Linking.

Analysts can also escalate a ticket regardless of user chases, if they feel it is necessary. The same capability is then triggered as if a Chase has reached its Count of Chases threshold. A new ticket is logged using the configured call template and it is sent to the escalation authority.

User Chase

• Allows users to "chase" or follow up on an outstanding ticket.

• Chases can be initiated through the Self Service Portal or email.

• Configurable thresholds determine how many times a user must chase a ticket before it triggers an escalation.

• When the threshold is reached, an escalation ticket is automatically logged.

Key Purpose: Provides a structured method for users to request updates, escalating the issue only if repeated chases indicate insufficient response.

Analyst-Initiated Escalations

• Analysts can manually escalate a ticket without user chase activity.

• Triggers the same escalation process used by the User Chase mechanism.

Key Purpose: Enables proactive escalations when the analyst determines an issue needs managerial or specialized attention.

Escalation Process Flow

1. A new ticket is created using a predefined Call Template.

2. The new ticket is assigned to an Escalation Authority (typically a management queue).

3. The original ticket is not modified or reassigned.

4. Instead, it is referenced via the ESCALATED_CALL_REF or ESCALATED_REQUEST_REF fields.

5. There is no call linking between the two tickets.

Why Not Link the Tickets?

Escalation tickets are intentionally not linked to preserve clarity and independence.

Benefits of Separate Escalation Tickets:

• Visibility Without Disruption: Original ticket continues to be worked without interference.

• Parallel Tracking: Management can track escalations separately.

• Accountability: Escalations provide measurable data points for internal reviews.

• Flexible Reporting: Escalations can be independently reported and analyzed.

Design Intent

This design differentiates between:

• SLA Escalations (based on timing, handled elsewhere)

• Visibility Escalations (driven by concern, user behavior, or analyst discretion)

Escalation tickets are purpose-built to provide visibility into tickets needing attention—without modifying, reassigning, or compromising the original record.

System Behavior Summary

Use Case Examples

• A user chases their support request 3 times over 5 days → new ticket escalated to Support Manager.

• An analyst sees a critical delay and manually escalates → template creates a new record in DevOps queue.

Configuration/Implementation

Audience: System Administrators

For System Administrators wishing to configure Escalations and Chase, the details of specific configurations can be found in the relevant System Administration Sections:

1. IPK Settings (Partitioned)

2. Workflow Management Settings

3. IPK Security Roles

4. Workflow Management Security Roles

5. Self Service Portal Settings (Partitioned)

6. Self Service Portal Security Roles

7. Call Templates (Optionally)

8. Screen Designer (Optionally)

9. System>Message Types (Optionally)

When a Call or Request escalates, the following happens:

1. A new ticket is created using the specified Call template. The triggering Call or Request is written to either the Escalated Call Ref or Escalated Request Ref fields. You can find these fields in Screen Designer.

2. The user will receive an email notification that a new ticket has been created using the template defined in your auto-notify rules in IPK Workflow Rules.

To setup Escalations and by extension Chase, you will need to perform the following actions:

Prerequisite: Requirements Gathering

Meet with stakeholders and define the following:

• Can customers Chase? If not, there may be no reason to setup Chase.

  • If yes, how many chase attempts (Max Chases) can a customer make from the portal before the ticket automatically escalates?

  • Should it be unlimited (a Zero) or a fixed number?

• Will Analysts be able to manually escalate?

  • If yes, will it be all analysts or a select group?

  • If No, there is no reason to configure escalations unless you want chases to trigger them automatically.

• Will Calls and Requests be escalated, or only one or the other?

• If you are escalating requests and calls, will they use the same Call Template or different templates and therefore, screens?

• How long between chase attempts must a customer wait (Min. Minutes)?

  • An Hour, 2 hours, a day, or more?

• Where will the escalated ticket that is created be sent (Call Template Assignment)?

  • Who should be notified by email or SMS (Recipients)?

• How will you identify tickets that have been chased?

  • You can place text on the screen and/or set a call status title that indicates the ticket has been chased.

• What should the screen for the Escalated tickets look like?

  • Once configured, link it to your call template.

  • You will at a minimum need to add the Escalated Call Ref and Escalated Request Ref fields to the ticket.

Step 1-Configure Call Templates

Create a call template for escalations - Consider if you will create a separate screen set. This has both advantages and disadvantages. For example, creating a separate screen set, stream, and/or status gives you more flexibility with partitions, assignment, and message templates. This means, for example that you can customize the auto-reply message so that it is more apparent the ticket that has been logged is not a new issue, but rather an escalation. The main disadvantage is of course, you will need to build the screens and all related messaging and branding.

Step 2 - Enable Escalations in IPK Settings (Partitioned)

Step 3 - Enable Escalations in Workflow Management Settings

Step 4 - Configure IPK and Workflow Security Roles for escalations

1. Ensure the Managers have access to the escalated ticket queue and are members

2. Ensure Analysts that should be able to escalate have the permission granted in their Workflow and IPK Management Security Roles

Step 5 - Meet with stakeholders and define the following in Self Service Portal Settings (Partitioned):

Refer back to your Requirements Gathering checklist to see the decisions that were made, and conform with your stakeholders this is what they intended.

• Can customers Chase? If so, how many chase attempts (Max Chases) can a customer make from the portal before the ticket automatically escalates? Should it be unlimited (a Zero) or a fixed number?

• Will Calls and Requests be escalated, or only one or the other?

• If you are escalating requests and calls, will they use the same Call Template or different templates and therefore, screens? If you created separate screen sets for each entity, you will need to configure escalations to go to the correct screen set/Call Template

• How long between chase attempts must a customer wait (Min. Minutes)? An Hour, 2 hours, a day, or more?

• Where will the escalated ticket that is created be sent (Call Template Assignment)? Who should be notified (Recipients)?

• What should the screen for the Escalated tickets look like? Once configured, link it to your call template. You will at a minimum need to add the Escalated Call Ref and Escalated Request Ref fields to the ticket. Here is an example:

1. Configure Self Service Portal Security Roles for Chase (if you are enabling Chase)