This section covers the following steps to create an
escalation:
When to Run—Specify when the escalation should run.
Issue Criteria—Select Issue criteria
used to escalate Issues.
Contact Criteria—Select Contact criteria
used to escalate Issues.
Advanced Criteria—Specify the types of Issues to be checked for escalation as well as other advanced criteria and also whether Advanced Actions, such as Change Manager activity, is included in the escalation.
Actions—Select one
or more actions to occur when an Issue meets the escalation criteria.
Name/Save—Name and save the escalation
information.
Note
Master Issues cannot be closed by an escalation rule.
Tab 1: When to Run
There are two kinds of escalation rules: instant and
time-based. Instant
escalation rules are run at the time an Issue is created, edited, or both.
Time-based
escalations are only applied after an Issue has remained open or unedited
for a specified amount of time. Depending
on which option is chosen, a number of sub-options are available.
Instant
Escalation—If
you select this option, one of the following additional options can be
selected. Note that, when an escalation is based on a status change, if there is a status change for a Global Issue and it changes all of the linked Issues, this is problematic when the escalation is instant. Therefore, that type of escalation must be time-based not instant:
Instantly
escalate Issue after it has been created and/or edited—Select
one or both of the following:
Instant Escalation
upon creation of Issue
Instant Escalation
upon editing of Issue
Instantly
escalate Issue received as a copy:
From
Workspace—Specify
the workspace from which the Issue is being received to trigger the escalation.
Time-Based
Escalation—If
you select this option, the following additional options become available
(only one can be selected):
Time
unedited/Age—Select
the amount of time that must pass since the Issue was created (Age) or
since anyone edited it (Time unedited) before it is escalated. Minute,
hour, day, and week increments are available. Combinations of hours,
minutes, days, and weeks can be selected. The
time is based on a 24/7 schedule.
Time
unedited/Age based on “Work Time”—This
option also counts the time since an Issue was created or last edited,
but uses the workspace Work Schedule rather than the standard 24/7 schedule.
Regular working days and hours, as well as holidays, can be configured
for the organization by clicking the link for Work
time or by selecting Work
Schedule from the Workspace Administration page. When using the Workspace Schedule, only one unit of time can be chosen (minutes, hours, days, or weeks).
Refer to Workspace Schedule for more information.
Re-escalate
Issue—This
option applies to both types of escalations. When selected, the system
will apply or re-apply the escalation rule to an already escalated Issue.
Recurring age-based escalations are also allowed; each escalation will
only run once when the Issue sufficiently ages. So, for example, you can
create separate age-based recurring escalation rules for 5 minutes, 10
minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, and 1 week, and each escalation rule will only
be applied once to an Issue when it is sufficiently aged for that rule.
Example:
The support hours
are Monday-Friday from 8am to 6pm (as configured in the workspace Work Schedule).
An escalation rule
states that an Issue must be unedited for 6 hours before it is escalated.
A new Issue comes
in at 4pm on Friday.
In the above case, the Issue will be escalated
at 12pm on Monday (6 working hours later).
Note
Escalated Issues lose their urgent status once they are edited.
If an Issue is reported as escalated, it is not escalated again until
it has lost its urgency (by being edited) and then becomes urgent again.
The exception to this is if Re-escalate
Issue is selected under the Time
criteria.
Select when to check an Issue against escalation criteria.
There are two options:
Anytime—The escalation
can be run at any time (the default).
Follow
the Sun—"Follow
the Sun" escalations allows you to assign or reassign Issues to Agents
in different locations and time zones depending on the time of day or
day of the week that the Issue is created or escalated. The
time and day specified here are based on the FootPrints
server time. This
integrates the escalation time on the server with when the escalation
rule is to be applied. Some
examples are:
Escalate Issues
received off hours to someone's pager (time intervals when support team
is not available).
Escalate Issues
and route them based on the time of day, e.g., Issues submitted 9am-5pm
EST are routed to the East Coast US Service Desk; those submitted 5pm-1am
EST are routed to the Tokyo Service Desk; those received 1am-9am EST are
routed to the London Service Desk.
To set Follow the Sun criteria:
Select Follow
the Sun.
Select the time range
for the escalation rule.
If this escalation
should run during a span of time that includes a change of date, you must
specify the time spanned during both dates in order to cover the entire
period. For
example, the four hours between 8:00pm and 2:00am can be covered by selecting
8:00pm-11:59pm above and, additionally, Midnight-2:00am in the second
set of time criteria.
Check the boxes corresponding
to the days of the week that the escalation is required to run.
Tabs 2 and 3: Issue and Contact Criteria
The criteria chosen here determine which Issues are automatically
escalated. Available criteria include virtually all options that
appear on the Advanced
Search page, including Status,
Priority,
Assignee,
Workspace fields, Address Book fields, etc. (see the section on Advanced Search
for more information).
NOTE
If your rule requires that Create/edit must be by an agent,
but a Customer Request status (such as Request) is used as a criterion
for escalating an Issue, then it becomes possible for Customer Requests
to be escalated (i.e., an escalation created by a Customer).
Tab 4: Advanced Criteria
In the Advanced Criteria tab, enter other criteria. These criteria are not matched to data in fields, but instead provide a filter for the Issues that are returned.
Issue
Types to Include—Specify
whether Advanced Issue types, including Subtasks and Global Issues, are
returned. Options include:
All
Issue Types—All
Issue types are returned.
Regular
Issues—Regular
(non-Global or Master/Subtask) Issues are returned.
Include
Master Issues—Master IssuesA type of FootPrints Issue that contain Subtasks, each with a different task that must be completed before the Master Issue is Closed. The Master issue is the "parent" in a parent/child relationship between the Master Issue and its Subtasks.
that contain subtasks are returned.
Include
Subtasks—Subtasks
of Master Issues are returned.
Include
Global Issues—Global IssuesA special FootPrints Issue type used to designate important or frequently reported Issues that will affect many users. Global Issues can be broadcast to all Agents, are displayed on the Agent Home page, and can optionally be displayed for Customers to subscribe to. Whenever a new Issue is reported with the same problem, the Agent (and optionally the Customer) can link the Issue to the known Global Issue (called GlobalLinks). Global Issues can be closed with the GlobalLinks together at one time.
are returned.
Include
GlobalLinks—All
users' Issues linked to a Global Issue are returned.
Group
Master Issues with Subtasks/Global Issues with GlobalLinks—Available for
Reports only. These options override the sort order selected in the report.
Date—If dates are
specified, the search returns only Issues from the time period specified. For more information, refer to Date Field Search Options.
Age—Returns Issues
created in the time specified. Number
of days and hours can be specified. Modifiers
are also provided, including “Greater Than”, “Less Than”, “Equal to”,
“Greater than or Equal to”, “Less than or Equal to”, and “Not Equal to”.
As an example,
to return Issues greater than 1 day old, choose “Greater than” and fill
in “1” for “Days”.
Note
Age is always 24/7 and does not use the Workspace Work Schedule.
Note
Date/time fields can only be searched by date, not time.
Multiple Criteria
And/Or—Select whether
the criteria you entered are all required to be fulfilled before triggering
the Change Manager approval process (And)
or only one of them must be fulfilled before triggering the approval process
(Or).
Advanced Action Criteria—Click the checkbox to indicate that the issue has an associated Advanced Action that requires workflow (i.e., an approval via Change Manager or some other factor) before execution on the asset. This checkbox only applies if you have the BMC FootPrints Asset Core.
Tab 5: Actions
Notification
Email—One or more email actions can be selected.
Send
a summary mail—When
the escalation routine is run and matches are found, an email is sent
to the specified addresses. The
email contains a summary of escalated Issues for the Workspace. If
you enter multiple email addresses, separate the addresses with a space.
Summary
mails are not coded to use uploaded custom formatted files. To
use an uploaded mail template, edit the escalation to modify Email Notification
from "Send a summary mail to ...." to "Send Single Issue
notification mail to ..."
Send
mail to Assignees—When
an Issues is escalated, an email is sent to all Assignees of each escalated
Issue. Select the email address type to use for this escalation
rule:
Agent—the Agent's
agent email address.
Pager—the Agent's
pager email
address.
Wireless—the Agent's
wireless email address.
Note
The different email address types are defined for each user
on the Edit
Agent Administration page, or on the My
Preferences page by the Agent.
Send
mail to the Supervisor of each Assignee—An email is
sent to the Assignees' Supervisor(s). Refer
to Add Agents or Edit
Agent User for information
on designating Supervisors.
Send
mail to the Team Leader of each Team—An email is
sent to each Team's Team Leader. Refer to Creating Teams for information on designating
Team Leaders.
Send
mail to Contact—An
email is sent to the Customer contact for the escalated Issue.
Send
mail to CC of each Issue—An
email is sent to each CC for the escalated Issue.
Send
mail to the last agent to edit (or submitter if none) if last edit was
by an agent—An
email is sent to either the last agent to edit the Issue or, if no editing
has been done on the Issue, send mail to the person who submitted the
Issue.
Send
single-Issue notification mail to the following space-separated email
addresses—Send
an email to the specified email addresses only once for this escalation.
Email Template—Select or define
an email template to be used for this escalation. If
you elect to configure an email template, you can refer to Escalation Email for further
instructions.
Broadcast Message—One or more broadcast message types can be
selected.
Display
pop-up notification to the following users—Specify
a user or users to receive a broadcast message from FootPrints.
Display
pop-up notification to the Assignees—Agents
assigned to the escalated Issues receive a broadcast message from FootPrints.
Workflow—One or more
workflow actions can be selected.
Priority—Automatically
raises or lowers the Issue’s priority as specified. You can also
change the priority of all escalated Issues to a specific priority.
Status—Automatically
change the status of the escalated Issue.
Advanced Action—Execute the pending Advanced Action for the asset associated with the issue. This only applies if you have the BMC FootPrints Asset Core.
Workspace/Address
Book Fields—Automatically
change specified Workspace/Address Book fields. If
you check this box, you must click the Click
here to configure field edits link to specify the changes.
Click
here to configure field edits—This
page allows you to update Workspace and Address Book fields via an escalation. In addition to editing other fields, you can change the Title field or append a description to the Description field.
Fill in
the fields with the appropriate data and then click the "GO"
button.
Add field variables on left to target fields on right—This feature allows you to populate a field with the value from another field upon escalation. Select a field from the left drop-down and then select a field from the right drop-down. When an Issue is escalated, the field in the right drop-down is populated with the value of the field in the left drop-down.
Address
Book Fields—Specify
the changes to be made to Address Book fields upon escalation, i.e., select
the data that is to populate the field after the escalation. If
you do not change a field, it is unchanged after the escalation.
Workspace
Fields—Specify
the changes to be made to Workspace fields upon escalation, i.e., select
the data that is to populate the field after the escalation. If
you do not change a field, it is unchanged after the escalation.
Note
If you notice that dependent fields are being displayed with
a null value when an escalated Issue is edited, it may be that the dependent
field was configured with an incorrect value in the escalation rule. If
you configure a dependent field to be changed to an invalid choice as
a result of an escalation, the dependent field is populated with null
data. For
example, if the first field were set to Software
and the dependent field were changed to Printer
when escalated, and Printer
is not a valid choice for the Software
dependent drop-down, when the Issue is edited, the dependent field will
show no selection. The
drop-down for the dependent field will contain the normal, valid choices,
so it can be corrected at that time. To
correct the problem at its source, edit the escalation rule and replace
the incorrect choice with the correct choice.
Assignment—Highlighted
users are assigned to the escalated Issue. If Add
Selected Users is chosen, the original assignees of the Issue remain
assigned. If Re-Assign
is chosen, the original assignees are unassigned. Teams and/or individual
users can be selected. Re-assignment
can also automatically be made to Team Leaders or Assignees' Supervisor(s)
by checking the appropriate box.
Add to CC list—Click the Append This List to CCs of the Issue checkbox to include a list of email addresses to receive a notification as a CC to the issue. Click in the text field to add the CC list. When you click in the text field, a CC list editor pop-up window is displayed:
CC addresses—The addresses you select are displayed in this field. Additionally, you can type email addresses directly into this field. Addresses must be space-separated. Select addresses
Select FootPrints users—Click the user or users to be added to the CC list. If you select the Flat radio button, you can use the CTRL key to click on multiple users at one time. Once you have made your selections, click the add selected users icon to add them to the list. Alternatively, double-click the user names to add them to the list.
Select a Contact from the Address Book—When you click the Select a Contact from the Address Book icon, the address book search engine is opened in a new window. Enter search criteria and click the GO button. When the search is completed, click the result to add it to the CC list, close the window without adding the user, or start a new address book search.
When you have finished creating your list, click the GO button.
Add to one time CC list—Check the box to add email addresses. The addresses will be copied on the escalation notification the first time a notification is sent, but not on subsequent notifications. Click in the field below the checkbox to open the CC list editor pop-up window. See the instructions in step 2.f. (above) for details on using the editor.
Sub-tasks
for this Issue—Automatically
creates sub-tasks for the Issue using the Master Quick Issue template
that you select from the drop-down list.
Copy Selected Fields of Escalated Subtasks to Master—When enabled, administrators can select subtask fields to be copied to the associated master task when this escalation runs on subtasks. Copies are made even if escalations do not change the subtask. Master task fields that are changed by this copy are identified in the master task history. Master task fields that already contain the desired values are not changed. If all selected fields match each other then no copies are made and no entry is logged in the history of the master task. This configuration is ignored by Issues that are not subtasks.
When enabled, a field picker is displayed. Select the fields that are to be copied to the master issue from the subtask by highlighting the field in the Available Workspace Fields list and then clicking the Add Field button. Remove a field that was previously selected by highlighting it in the Field to Copy list and then clicking the Remove Field button (this only removes the field from the list, not from the issue form).
Note
Sub-tasks are not created for an escalated Issue if the Issue
is itself a sub-task, a GlobalLink, a Global Issue, or a Solution.
Cross-workspace—The Issue is
automatically copied or moved to the Workspace specified. If Copy
with a Dynamic Link is selected, the Issues update each other when
field data changes. If
Include Related Subtasks is checked, then when a Master Issue is copied
or moved across Workspaces, the related subtasks are also copied or moved.
NOTE
Subtasks are not accepted by the receiving Workspace
unless the receiving Workspace is configured for Cross-workspace copy/move
of subtasks. Refer
to the topic for Issue Workflow for more
information on setting this option.
Color—The Issue is
displayed on the FootPrints Homepage
with the specified color.
External
Action—An
external application can be run by the rule. This
feature is especially useful for running scripts. For VBS scripts, some changes must be made to the registry (instructions for VBS script are below). The
application must be one that can run and stop on its own without any user
intervention. In
addition, if the program involves running a graphical user interface (GUI),
it may not be able to display the interface to a screen, which could cause
the application to hang and fail. Therefore,
the application should also be one that can run from a command line rather
than a GUI. Enter
the full path to the program, e.g., D:\Programs\AppLite\applite.exe.
Some field data from the escalated Issue can also be passed to the program
as arguments:
Issue
Number—%%MRID%%
Title—%%Title%%
Priority—%%Priority%%
Status—%%Status%%
Submitter—%%SUBMITTER%%
Workspace
ID—%%PROJID%%
Workspace
and Address Book fields—%%FIELD
NAME%% where "FIELD NAME" is the name of the field in upper
case.
External actions run applications from the
CGI directory. Make
sure that directory has permission to run the application or the external
action will fail.
Surveys—If checked, a customer satisfaction survey is sent to the contact when the escalation occurs.
Unassigning One Agent While Keeping the Rest Assigned
The administrator may need to build an escalation in
which one agent, who is always the same agent, is removed from the assignments
list while others, who vary from Issue to Issue, remain assigned to the
Issue. In
this instance, it would not be possible to use the standard escalations
page to unassign everyone and then re-assign the Issue because the agents
who are to remain would vary from Issue to Issue. An
example where this might be needed is in the case of an Issue requiring
an approval. The
approver might be the same agent every time, but the other assignees could
vary. This
re-assignment can be accomplished via an escalation, but not by using
the Assignment section of Step 4: Escalation Actions. Instead,
you would use the External Action function to run a command from the FootPrints API. To
do so, specify the following as an external action:
After criteria and actions are chosen, you can name the escalation, decide whether to turn it on or off, and then save it
Escalation
Name—Give
a name to the escalation rule, for example, Gold
Level Issues.
Escalation
On/Off—To
activate this escalation rule, the On
radio button must be selected (the default). If an escalation rule
is turned off, the settings are saved until the rule is re-activated or
deleted.
Enter your password
and click Save; the
escalation rule is enabled. When an Issue matches the criteria of
the rule, the specified actions occur. If an escalation rule fails
for any reason, the Workspace Administrator receives an email notification.
Scheduler Service
Escalations are run by the FootPrints Scheduler
service. On Windows, FPSchedule.exe
is automatically set as a service on the FootPrints server. On
UNIX, a cron
job is automatically created that runs the MRrunScheduledScripts.pl
file. This service handles incoming email, outgoing email notification,
escalations, mass emails, and scheduled reports.
VBS Scripts
The VBS scripts interpreter (wscript.exe or cscript.exe) requires the presence of certain registry entries for IUSR_Machine user. Since an HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive is not available for the IUSR_Machine, IIS loads the HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT hive in its place. However, the HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT hive does not contain the necessary keys and entries for the scripting engine, and read access for IUSR_Machine user is not granted to the HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT hive. Therefore, in order to run VBS scripts as an external action from an escalation, the registry must be changed as follows:
Using the Registry Editor, create the following Keys and Entries: