The following questions were raised during our Configuration Assistance webinar on 4/29. We didn't have time to answer all of them during the webinar, but wanted to post them here so none were left unanswered.
Q. We are upgrading from version 5 (Domino) to v7 (Windows). Is there a similar webinar available for reviewing the basic configuration - not these new features?
A. There is none scheduled at this time. Professional Services are available to help you with configuration and training. Please contact your Account Manager for details.
Q. What is the difference between an incident and a problem?
A. The primary goal of Incident Management is to provide rapid restoration of normal service operations according to the service level agreement. The primary goal of Problem Management is to prevent problems and incidents from occuring by tracking the process of troubleshooting the underlying the issue until a resolution is discovered.
Q. How does 7.0 handle incidents (break/fix) vs service requests or fullfilment.
A. The break/fix aspect can be corrected within Incident Management, and if similar break/fix issues occur then a Problem Management can be created. If a change must be approved to make changes then Change Management with an associated Problem can be attached.
Q. What about having a webinar for basic use of c.Support? If we have an active maintanence agreement do we still have to pay for the training you offer online?
A. We are looking into further options for webinar content. Additional training is a Professional service offered by GWI. Please contact your Account Manager for additional details.
Q. What is the assignee by page notification?
A. Assignee's can be notified by pager for a specific service level agreement event if the pager address is defined in their profile.
Q. Are you going to create a CMDB in later versions? How much of the templetes are already in c.Support? Is the documentation available without downloading the new version?
A. Information has not been provided from the Development Group about additional databases. When the application is installed, no templates are created. It is the responsibility of the c.Support Administrator to create the Incident and Hierarchy Templates. The Administrators Guide is available as a PDF under the Help button.
Q. How is record locking handled in 7.0? In the current version, we have many occurrences where one user's info is overwritten by another because they both have the ticket open at the same time and they both save it.
A. The current version has not changed.
Q. Can cSupport send/receive data to/from SAP or similar systems?
A. Not at this time.
Q. What type of information can be stored in Asset Management? Is it purely AM or can it be used for CM? Configuration Management, sorry, not Change Management.
A. Configuration Management is used to configure the Type of Assets tracked. This also allows the collection of optional fields for data collection. An Inventory Asset scan collects 400 data points from the registry of the scanned computer.
Q. Can Change Management be linked to Asset Management to track changes to Configurable Items (as in Configuration Management)?
A. Assets can be associated with Change Management.
Q. Are there any DB schema changes that have been made that would need to be taken into consideration for any existing exports/imports of data?
A. No.
Q. In PM, are all Action Items either a Change or Incident linked or can there be actionable items that are not?
A. Problem Management can be stand-alone and not associated with Change Management or Incident tickets.
Q. Can the "Headlines" be configured to show dynamic data based on the values of fields (including Custom fields)?
A. No.
Q. For ChM and PM, is there any systematic notifications that can be set up? Also, can responses be given via BlackBerry or similiar device?
A. Notifications are defined in the service level agreement. PDA's can be used to receive emails as defined in the notifcation section of the service level agreement.
Q. Can routing rules and other events be driven based on values of Custom fields?
A. Not at this time.
Q. How is paging handled? Can it be defined based on Severity? Speaking of which, is cSupport still Priority based or now Severity based and can this be modified if it is not? Can paging occur based on the value of Custom fields (similar to earlier question, but an example of an event)?
A. Paging is defined in the support rep's profile. Then defined within the notification event defined in the service level agreement, notifications, and priorities.
Q. How long has 7.0 been out or when is it going out for GA?
A. Version 7.0 was posted on 4/21/08
Q. Can you attach a word document to a headline or FAQ?
A. In the current version a Word document cannot be attached.
Q. Is there a way to prevent a ticket from being viewed by more than one person? To prevent one person from closing and the 2nd person re-routing the ticket, then having to close the ticket again. Somebody submits a ticket and it is set to use an approval cycle. Later one, of the 3rd or 4th approvers calls in sick and is replaced by their backup. Will the ticket still send to the sick person (since that was the configuration when the ticket was sumitted) or will it be re-routed to the "new" approver after the first 2 people have approved the ticket?
A. The email to approve or decline the ticket will still go to the set list of approvers. The incident ticket remains with the current assignee, and the approvers open and then approve or reject the process. If someone is not available then a 'proxy' can accept or reject the process. The only time a ticket is rerouted is because of an SLA configuration or a manual route.
Thanks again to everyone that attended the webinar, and for all your great feedback and questions.
Eric & David