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 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. .
Where approvals authorities are individuals and the individual that needs the approval is dependent on what has been ordered, consider assigning these approval authorities as the user of the service action. You can then assign the approval in the Workflow Template to the Ordered Service Action>User.
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.
Linking Service Actions to other CMDB Items and Finishing up
Link the service action to other CMDB items, such as a service bundle if it will be part of a bundle. For more information on bundles, see Service Bundles.
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.
Carry out further tasks on the Service Actions Explorer pane.
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... |
|---|---|
Catalog Action | Select to display the service action as a config item action. This will display all items of that CMDB Item Type in the Catalog Portal. You will need to specify the config item type in the list. |
Keywords | For faster searching, you can enter keywords that a user might use when looking for this service 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 |
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 |
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 |
Troubleshooting Service Actions
Minimum Fields Required for Service Actions to Function Correctly
Service/Service Details
Service Action Details
Title
Ref
Type = Service Action (Do not change)
Self Service Portal Display Category
Baseline, Template, Asset Catalog Checkboxes. You can hide all but Template. Do not hide Template but only check it if the Service Action will serve as a template that you will use for cloning purposes to make additional Service Actions.
User and Organization - You need not populate this, but do not hide or remove from your screens
Criticality and Status Section
Criticality - do not hide but can be left as the default
Status - do not hide but can be left as the default
Portfolio Status - Must be populated with a portfolio status available to the Self Service Portal
Service Level - do not hide but can be left as the default
Time Zone - do not hide but can be left as the default
Templates and Actions
Select the Action for this Service Action
Select the Template, URL or File to download
Do not hide any other field in this section, but you may leave them blank
Subscriber or Stakeholders - You must specify what users will be able to access this Service Action
Last updated
