Managing Service Actions
A Service Action is a specific service offering provided as part of a service.
Users can order Service Actions directly from the Self Service Portal if they are subscribers of that Service Action, stakeholders, or the Action is available to all Users. You must link a Service Action to a Service to make use of it. Then you can use them to define which Services Users can request through the Service Request Catalog on the Self Service Portal. They can also be added to Service Bundles.
For the Email service, for example, you can have various Service Actions, such as “Creation of new email account”, “Password reset” and “Close email account”. A Service Action is therefore always linked to a Service.
Best Practice
Consider carefully what service Actions you want to expose and the level of complexity. Too many choices will potentially confuse the users or cause them to select the wrong service action.
It is often beneficial to look at your top ten reports for service requests (grouped by by Service) and build only those service actions to start. You are then able to add more service actions as the quarterly or annual top ten reports reveal what users really need.
Where it is sensible, combine 1 or more tasks into one screen set or service action.
Example #1: The Enterprise Application Services may only need 1 service action for the portal; Software Request. User will simply select the software from a pick list on the screen. In this case, it is not necessary to build a separate service action and/or screen for each brand or release of the software you deliver.
Example #2: In the Email Service you may only need 2 Service Actions. The first would function much like the Enterprise Applications Software Request as above for selecting and ordering email applications. The second could link to an incident response template and allow users to report issues with their email service. By using a template you can automatically route and assign the incident to the correct team, email the user and perform a host of other automated actions including suggesting help and resolutions automatically right on the self service portal.
Adding a Service Action
Before you start
You must have CMDB Item New selected in the CMDB tab of your Configuration Management security role.
The service to which the service action relates must have been added to the CMDB.
Display New Item in Wrapper must be selected in the CMDB Item Type Details window for the Service Action CMDB Type. If you are creating a sub-type, and this option has been selected in its CMDB Item Type Details, you may see this in your submenu also.
As for creating a new CMDB item, open a new CMDB item.
Complete the details. Most of the fields are common to the other CMDB Item Details windows, except the Service Action Details window has an additional Service Details section because a Service Action is always linked to a service.
The details are divided into sections. To expand a section, click on the title.
Service Details | Use this section to select the service to which the service action relates. When you display the Service Action Details window from the New menu or the CMDB Item Search window, the Service Details section is blank. When you display it from a service, the Service Details section is populated with the details of the linked service (these details are read-only). |
Service | Search for and select the service you want to link the Service Action to |
Service Title | The name or title of the chosen service. This is a read only field |
Service Ref | A unique reference number for the service. This is a read only field |
Service Type | The type of the chosen service. This is a read only field |
Class | The class of the chosen service. This is a read only field |
Portfolio Status | The lifecycle phase of the service , such as ‘Pipeline’, ‘Service Request Catalog’ or ‘Retired’. This is a read only field |
Asset Catalog | Select to include the service action in the Self Service Portal asset catalog. Users can use the advanced search options in the portal to view service items published in this catalog. |
3. Complete the rest of the details.You can import the information from a linked service or key the details in direct. Select Import Catalog Information to import the catalog information from the linked service. You can then add further details if you wish.
4. If you have added catalog information for the service action, selecting Yes will overwrite any changes with the catalog information from the service. However, you can still edit the imported catalog information for the service action. The catalog information for the service action is not updated if it is changed on the linked service.
5. Link the service action to other CMDB items, such as a service bundle.
6. When linking service actions to service bundles, you can select Service Bundle to Service Action (Optional) to give Users the option of ordering this linked service action, or Service Bundle to Service Action to make it mandatory for Users to order this linked service action. If you link a service action to a service through the Linked Items tab, this is a standard link. To link a service action as a core component of a service, use the Service Actions tab.
7. Allocate Subscribers to the Service Action.
8. Define what will happen when the Service Action is selected in the Service Request Catalog.
9. Carry out further tasks on the Service Actions Explorer pane.
10. Select Ok to save the changes and close the window, or Save New to save and close the window and open a new details window. Complete the Change Reason details, if prompted to do so.
Allocating Subscribers to a Service Action
Subscribers are people (typically Users) or organizations who are granted permission to request a particular Service Action (or Bundle) from the Self Service Portal. When creating Service Actions, you can link them to specific Subscriber Groups. Users and organizations are only able to access, and perform actions on, those service entities to which they are subscribed unless it is made available to all Users.
You cannot link a service action to a subscriber group if it is available to all Users, that is, if the Available to all Users checkbox is selected when allocating subscribers to the Service Action or to the Service Bundle. If you try to do this, a warning message will appear. You can filter visibility in the Self Service Portal by stakeholder role instead. Whether visibility is determined by stakeholder or subscriber group is determined in the CMDB tab of the Self Service portal role.
Making a Service Action available to all Subscriber Groups
Scroll down to the Linking Panel at the bottom of the window, and select the Subscribers tab.
Select Available to all Users, which appears just above the Subscriber Group table.
Linking a Subscriber Group
Scroll down to the Linking Panel at the bottom of the window, and select the Subscribers tab.
Select Add.
Search for the Subscriber Group. From the search results, select the Subscriber Group you wish to link.
You can also add a new Subscriber Group by selecting Add New on the Subscriber Group Search. This opens a new Subscriber Group Details window. When you save the Subscriber Group, it is linked to the selected service action.
Select the Action icon or double-click on the group you want to add to see it appear in the table of subscriber groups in the Service Action Details window.
Unlinking a Subscriber Group
Scroll down to the Linking Panel at the bottom of the window, and select the Subscribers tab.
Select the Subscriber Group in the browse table.
Select Remove.
Viewing the details of a linked Subscriber Group
Scroll down to the Linking Panel at the bottom of the window, and select Subscribers tab.
Select the Subscriber Group in the browse table.
Select Open.
Linking a Stakeholder Role to a Service Action
You can limit the visibility of a service action in the Self Service Portal to specific stakeholder roles. Only those stakeholders will then have access to the Service Action, unless it is made available to all stakeholders.
You can filter visibility in the Self Service Portal by subscriber group instead. Whether visibility is determined by stakeholder or subscriber group is determined in the CMDB tab of the Self Service portal role.
Making a Service Action available to all Stakeholders
Scroll down to the Linking Panel at the bottom of the window, and select the Stakeholders tab.
Select Available to all Users, which appears just above the Stakeholders table.
Linking a Stakeholder
Scroll down to the Linking Panel at the bottom of the window, and select the Stakeholders tab.
Choose the type of stakeholder that you want to add from the drop down list.
Select Add.
The appropriate search window appears. Search for and select the stakeholder(s) you want to add to the service action.
When you return to the Service Action Details window, a pop up window appears, prompting you to select a stakeholder role. Select one from the drop down list.
The stakeholder details appear in the Stakeholders table. You can change the role from here if necessary. You can also add more stakeholders, remove stakeholders, view the details, and email all or selected stakeholders.
Select Ok to save the changes and close the window, or Save New to save and close the window and open a new details window. Complete the Change Reason details, if prompted to do so.
Service Action Explorer Options
The following options are available from the explorer pane on the Service Action Details window.
| Select | To... |
|---|---|
Agreements | view all the agreements where the service action is specified in the agreement selection criteria |
Availability | view or set Availability Settings for the service action |
Impact Criteria | specify the criteria that will be used to apply an outage to a service action when CMDB items impacting it are experiencing an outage |
Catalog Action |
|
Clone | copy a service action in order to create a new one |
Object | attach objects or files from Windows applications to the service action |
Attributes | type data into categories set up in the Administration module |
Service Action Default Form | capture general, non-reportable, non-searchable information about the service action |
Audit | view an audit trail of the changes made to the details of the service action |
Version History | view the history of the service action, including relevant changes to each version of the service action |
Depreciation | view the depreciation information for the service action |
Linking | display a graphical view of the other CMDB items which are linked to the service action |
Components | display a graphical view of the components for a container service action |
Call Search | to display the Call Search window, where you can view all open calls logged against the service action |
Request Search | to display the Request Search window, where you can view all open requests logged against the service action |
External Resources | view external resources such as directory server users linked to the service action |
Discrepancy Reports | display outstanding CMDB Resource Reports (reports to be reviewed) linked to the entity |