Managing Contracts

Contracts are created and maintained within the CMDB. A contract could be a warranty, support or maintenance agreement, or a record of the purchase of any Configuration Item or Service.

If your organization has support contracts with external suppliers, or even internal departments, the key elements of these documents can be recorded within ASM Core. A contract is always linked to an External Supplier organization.

You can specify the Analysts within your organization who are responsible for maintaining and monitoring these contracts.

Creating a Contract

Before you start

You must have Contract New selected in the Contracts tab of your Configuration Management security role to create contracts.

You must have Contract Stakeholders Write selected in the Contracts tab of your Configuration Management security role to link stakeholders.

Select New > Contract
The Contract Details window appears. Complete the details.

Changes made to this field will be tracked if it is selected in the Audit Trail options in the CMDB Settings window.

3. Select the tabs at the bottom of the window to link CMDB items, external linked analysts and stakeholders to the contract.

If your system has defined stakeholder roles for contracts, select a suitable role, such as business owner or group owner.

4. Select Ok to save your changes, or Save New to save the details and open a blank details window in which you can enter the details for another new contract. Provide the Change Reasons if prompted to do so.

Contract Details Explorer

The Contract Details Explorer pane contains options or links to other windows and functionality that relate to the Contract. They include:

Searching for a Contract

Select Search > Contract.
The Contract Search window appears, and from here you can filter your search using the search criteria in the left pane.

Filter the search by specifying contract, linked and/or date criteria. You must select at least one of these search criteria.

3. To add more fields to your search criteria, select and configure your search criteria.

4. Select Search. The results are displayed in a browse table located in the right hand pane.

All contracts which match your search criteria are displayed in the search results pane (right) in a browse table. You can now do any of the following:

Updating a Contract

To update an object attached to a contract, you must have Contract Object Update selected in the Contracts tab of your Configuration Management Security Role.
To cancel and ‘override’ a checkout of an object that is attached to a contract, you must have Contract Object Cancel selected.
To delete an object, you must have Contract Object Delete selected.
To edit stakeholder details, you must have Contract Stakeholders Write selected.

Select the Action icon on the toolbar to allow you to edit the fields.
Make the necessary updates.
Select Ok to save your changes, or Save New to save the details and open a blank details window in which you can enter the details for another new contract. Provide the Change Reasons if prompted to do so.

Deleting a Contract

You can delete a contract in either of the following ways:

Search for the contract.
Select the contract in the browse table and then select the Delete icon.

Alternatively, if the Contract Details window is already on screen, select the Delete icon to delete it.

Adding Expiry Notification Details

You can enable ASM Core to send a message or log a new call or request when a contract is about to expire.

Before you start

If a contract is locked for editing, you will be able to break the lock and take over the item if you have Contract Cancel Lock selected in the Contracts tab of your Configuration Management Security Role.

To update a contract, you must have Contract Update selected in the Contracts tab of your Configuration Management Security Role.

Select the Expiry Notifications button in the Pricing and Support Details section.
Select if necessary to activate the fields and buttons, and complete the details as follows.

Mapping Fields to the Template

If you want the details on the new call or request to use the values specified on the template, leave the mapping table browse table blank. Otherwise, select Add below the browse table.
In the Add Fields popup, choose the fields you wish to map and select OK to display them in the browse table.
Click in the Contract Field column next to the field title to specify its values. Each field is a dynamic field selector, that is, the way you can specify the value for the field depends on the type of field. Select the button. A popup with three tiers opens.
Select (Value) to select or specify a value for the field. The behavior of the field adjusts to the field type.
- For a select list (such as the Call Priority field), the list of values that may be assigned to the field pops up in the next tier. If you add the Call Priority field, for example, this is the list of call priorities defined in IPK administration. Simply choose the value you wish to set the field to this value when the entity is created.
- For a text field, type the value you wish to appear in the field when the call or request is created.
- For a checkbox, select True to select the checkbox or False to clear the checkbox when the call or request is created.
- For a CMDB Item or Person field, run a quick search for an item by typing the name into the field. If a match is found, the item is selected in the field, otherwise, a list of matching items appears from which you can make a selection.
If you change the type of entity to create (that is, change the Call or Request options), you will lose the fields you have mapped.
Using the drop-down in the Update column, select the condition for populating the field when the call or request is created:

6. There is an additional option, On Initial Population. This is used elsewhere in the system and is not applicable in this case.

7. To remove any fields, select the field and select Remove.