Detailed ITSM Feature List

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Smart Service Desk Feature List

General Functionality

  • SMART Desk has CMDB (Configuration Management Database) for managing key ITIL functions and processes: IT Service Desk, Incident, Problem, Change, Release, Configuration, Service Level, and Financial Management
  • Supports ITSM process with configurable workflows for ticket assignment and electronic request approvals
  • Supports a web and mobile interface for end users and support agents / managers
  • Has ITIL best-practice processes, categorization and templates embedded in tool for accerated ITIL implementations
  • Simple and advanced search capabilities in all ITSM processes
  • Can add new forms, for all key ITSM processes with zero code.
  • Solution has current responsive design and modern web design principles
  • Supports System Outages, news flash within the graphical user interface
  • System also displays the organization news and outages within the Graphical User interface.
  • Rich feature of Dashboards and SMART auto refresh screens are available to display the key information on a single screen.
  • Request status and updated notes can be acknowledge via email notifications and a link will be provided in the email for a direct access to the ticket.
  • Approvals can be made via email.
  • Parent-child relationship between the cases of all ITIL processes such as (Incidents, Problems, Service Requests, Change and Release Records) can be maintained through process relations
  • Multi-lingual application available for all major world languages

Incident Management

  • Supports the creation, modification, resolution and closure OR cancellation of incident records.
  • System will automatically generates a unique ID for each request created
  • Can link Incidents to Problem Records, Service Requests, known workarounds and RFCs
  • Can link Incidents, Service Requests, Problem, Change and Release Records to the Configuration Items / Assets in CMDB)
  • Can close and notify incident owners when the associated problem is resolved
  • Stores historical incident data and other Incident related information including an audit history with updates and resolutions
  • Supports flexible incident classification and schemas for quick logging of incidents
  • Incident matching and trending information is available at ticket level
  • Supports highly flexible routing of incidents
  • Workflow supports automatic prioritization, assignment and escalation of Incidents based on the service
  • Can have hierarchical or functional escalation, as per workflow rules and/or service-level clock expiration.
  • Integrates with event and alert monitoring tools, and allow for automatic creation, update and closure of Incident, Problem, Change tickets
  • Can input free text, file attachments for the recording of incident descriptions and resolution activities.
  • define and use reason for closure categorization codes upon incident closure.
  • Can use knowledge base and/or support scripts for incident diagnosis and resolution.
  • Supports creation of Service Request for Change or Problem from an incident with automatic population of fields.
  • Supports feedback satisfation surveys, upon the close of an incident.
  • Initiate a ticket on behalf of someone else - list the requestor as different than the creator of ticket
  • Allows incidents to be placed on hold, with a reason code
  • Resolved tickets will automatically trigger an email to the user
  • Customer can choose to receive an email/sms/surveys as their preference
  • Can send multiple resolutions for tickets, if the resolution is rejected by end user or customer
  • Supports assignment of multiple tags to an incident and report/search on those tags.

Request Fulfillment

  • Supports quick Logging of Service Requests from create service request form or from service catalog
  • Supports generation of different workflows (with different subtasks auto creation) for different types of requests for both IT and Non IT Services
  • Allow for the automatic sending, receiving and logging of approvals for requests, from IT and Business users.
  • Automated status updates to requestors when a request reaches specific points in the workflow. But elect to opt-out if needed.
  • For request owners to reply via email and have email automatically entered in the notes of the job
  • Interface with Procurement and IT Financial Systems, and manage URL's from ECM
  • Frequently Asked Questions support capability for requestors.
  • Submit attachments as part of a service request and they are stored with service request.
  • Ability for support staff to make private work notes on incident/service request records which are not viewable by customers.
  • Automate request routing for appropriate authorizations (e.g.: Financial, security, etc.).
  • Route and assign service request records to pre-defined support staff or groups including IT, HR, Procurement or other business functions.
  • Automate the recording, reporting and billing of the ongoing costs of request management against particular cost centers or accounts.
  • Ability for the user to opt-out of receiving updates for specific requests
  • Insert screenshots into the notes, without having to save and attach as an attachment.
  • Search for jobs, and select the "back" button without having to perform the search all over again
  • Manage other SLA's that are not defined by the KM ITIL Based Service Framework - e.g. for specific requests received for ECM that have an agreed turnaround, such as workflows or new logons etc).
  • Delegate entire worklist or multiple jobs to someone else (e.g. if going on leave)
  • Utilise a certain template based on request type
  • Ability for template entered information to be automatically entered into the solution
  • Reassign multiple requests to another agent in a single action
  • Put a request on hold, so that the time does not count against SLA, and when ticket is resumed SLA is re-calculated for balance of SLA time.
  • If clock is put on hold then record and report on multiple hold reasons

Problem Management

  • Support free text, screen captures, and file attachments for the recording of problem descriptions and resolution activities
  • Ability for the problem management team to communicate status and progress reports, as well as temporary solutions and workarounds to the Service Desk staff
  • Increase/decrease the severity or impact classification of a problem according to the number of associated incidents and/or the number of end users affected
  • Create, maintain and monitor a knowledge base
  • Link with third party knowledge bases
  • Report on the number of proposed knowledge solutions, most used solutions, and least used solutions in the knowledge base
  • Publish FAQ’s and supporting reference documents within the knowledgebase that is accessible by end-users
  • Use solutions developed in response to past incidents to create new knowledge base entries
  • Develop templates for recurring problems
  • Search for known solutions,work around and known errors based on the description of the problem
  • Track multiple tasks and assignments with a problem
  • Document root cause analysis
  • When creating a new incident it automatically display a list of open problems / known erros, that may apply to the incident

Change Management

  • Configurable change process and categorization templates
  • Templated workflow best practices and/or ITIL for emergency, normal and preapproved change
  • Basic required change record data fields
  • Document back-out plans, installation and turnover documents within the RFC
  • Relate post implementation incidents and problems resulting from an implemented change
  • Create subactivities or task records for a specific change record, for separate assignment to an individual or support groups
  • Role-based approval, retracting or rescheduling of RFCs
  • Supports the release and deployment management as part of the change process
  • Automatically create a change request for unauthorized changes to CIs
  • Automatically produce the change schedule (FSC) in calender format
  • A change calendar with scheduled change viewing
  • Support maintenance, for change freeze windows
  • Easily identify the affected CIs whenever a change is made to a particular CI
  • Support a "virtual" CAB (i.e., approvals/issues submitted and stored electronically)
  • Select and create "preapproved changes" from a list of predefined templates with prepopulated content, such as categorization, text, etc.
  • Ability to promote one or more RFC(s) to a release, with corresponding notifications
  • Change workflow feeds into release workflow
  • Open an RFC against an incident/problem/known error record, and automatic population of the RFC
  • Reference Change Model that clearly depicts the requirements and activities associated with the change process
  • Automated notification of RFC's to appropriate person(s) when change is updated, status change, etc.
  • Predetermined fields will be auto-populated when a standard change from the library is entered. Manual entry for certain fields will be permitted.
  • Verify and select pre-approved changes from a viewable library
  • Edit RFC's based on roles and change status
  • Easily reschedule changes and identify scheduling conflicts
  • Automated Approval workflow - 1.automatically send approval requests to designated approvers. 2.pickup and record approver responses. 3.change status if approval criteria met. 4. send notification of approval (rejection) to change owner and change manager
  • Customize Change Dashboard by person, group, customer
  • Have multiple approvers and electronic routing of those approvals
  • Send approval requests several times and to store multiple instances of approvals. reset approval status, resend approval requests and history logged of approval requests.
  • Set response thresholds for automated approval process
  • Upon submission, a requestor has the view available release windows from FSC
  • Ability for automated notifications sent at the scheduled start time to the activity assignee to remind them of the change.
  • Send notifications upon implementation for each open assignment.
  • Cap link RFC's to projects
  • Progress requests through the appropriate stages of authorization and implementation and to maintain clear records of this progress
  • Automatic warnings of any RFC's that exceed pre-specified time periods during any stage (OLA)
  • Automatic prompting to carry out reviews of implemented changes
  • Automatic notices sent out for past due scheduled changes.
  • Automatic notification will be sent to the specified stakeholder for any change based on results
  • Automated repeatable metrics
  • Real-time dashboards
  • Native integration with Incident Management
  • Native integration with Problem Management
  • Native integration with Configuration Management
  • Native integration with Release Management
  • Native integration with Service Level Management
  • Use different process flows according to urgency
  • Clone change records
  • Restrict desired deployment dates during RFC submission based on minimum lead times
  • Enter of free form text, screen captures, and file attachments as well as the use of codes for recording of change requests
  • Monitor and track the lifecycle of a Change request
  • Communicate information of changes and schedules that can be distributed to the key groups such as the Service Desk and user groups
  • Support time and cost tracking for project based activities as well as service event based activities
  • Identify periods against a specific service or across the board when changes cannot occur
  • Automatic notification to requestor when trying to schedule a change in a black out period

Service Catalog

  • A single source of consistent information on all production services.
  • Ability for the Service Catalog to be widely available to those who are approved to access it.
  • Have different views of the Service Catalog, such as Technical Service Catalog and Business Service Catalog
  • Publish services with associated features, benefits, service levels, pricing/costing, components.
  • Support a structured content framework (services, subservices, etc).
  • Organize services into logical groupings or hierarchical structures.
  • Assemble services into customer and business revelant packages.
  • Support different service levels for the same service (e.g., bronze, silver, gold levels).
  • Have prepackaged Service Catalog content out of the box.
  • Have configurable service definition templates out of the box.
  • Quickly find services via a search engine.
  • Handle different service states (for example, services in design versus services in production).
  • User training information regarding the Service Catalog (for example: access instructions, navigating the service catalog instructions).
  • Automatically create and track Service Requests through the Service Catalog.
  • Support distributed, role based Service Catalog management.
  • Create and publish service offerings with descriptions, service levels, available service bundles, and pricing related to service levels.
  • Ability create and publish Service Components that may include both Professional Services and Technical Services.
  • Customize service definition templates and pre-packaged Service Catalog content.
  • Support a multifunction service catalog (example: IT, HR, Facilities, Procurement)
  • Ability for service catalog to attractive web interface for users that is easy to use to request services.
  • Ability for service catalog to contain security features that allow users to only see what is available to them.
  • Ability for the Service Catalog to Integrated with the Configuration Management Database.
  • Ability for non-IT based people to create service definitions, design service workflow and easily publish these services into the catalog
  • Workflow tool allows definition of service from initial request to fulfillment, incorporating the support sequential and parallel workflow paths.
  • Measure service quality and timeliness against defined benchmarks and/or metric guidelines. (SLA, OLA and UC tracking and reporting)
  • Discovery capabilities for service dependencies highlighting potential impact if a service is added, modified or deleted

Service Level Management

  • Manage and monitor OLA's and supplier performance metrics in Underpinning contracts (UC's)
  • Handle multiple contract types and contracts per customer
  • Handle priority definitions and action times different for each customer
  • Automate service availability and performance thresholds monitoring against defined SLA's
  • Schedule SLA/OLA/UC review cycles and renewals
  • Report on SLA achievements vs. SLA targets.
  • Auto verify that SLA targets are supported by OLA and UC targets

Configuration Management

  • Manage leases, depreciation schedules, warranties, and service contracts.
  • Support a web-based front end.
  • Support both flexible data import/export, and simple points of integration for associated tools.
  • Interface with Inventory Control tools to automate gathering of asset and inventory information.
  • Interface with and make use of barcode scanners
  • Supports integration with bar-code scanners or hand level barcode devices
  • Integration with all key ITIL processes
  • Support of multiple data sources, including SMART Discovery which automatically discovers asset data
  • Detailed technical and financial data, such as location, service contract status, and logistical information (available inventory, in use / operational status, etc.)
  • Customizable through codeless configuration, allowing full asset traceability for regulatory compliance
  • Easily track and assign of assets to individuals, locations, business units, and cost centers—all based upon enterprise policies and procedures
  • Multi-site support for asset inventory, including hardware, consumables, service providers, and more

Software compliance management

  • Identify license gaps through reconciliation of all purchased (and non-purchased) installed software
  • Software version management through analysis of the versions of software installed and in use, providing you valuable insight during software upgrades, licenses agreements and license use rights
  • Multi-level tracking software: installed, authorized, used, minimum versions
  • Fully integrated Asset, License and Financial data, based upon the IT Service Catalog
  • Calendar and schedule of contract renewals for both hardware and software, with automated alerts

Knowledge Management

  • Embed Web links, images and objects into knowledge articles (e.g., screenshots, etc.)
  • Support a variety of search methodologies, including metadata, fuzzy searching, hierarchical/drill-downs, cross-references, attribute queries, category, Web and file system external library searches, and to utilize natural language and proper stemming, and Boolean search methodology
  • Allow user feedback to rate/score content for usefulness related to the inquiry
  • Knowledge-centered support (KCS) standards and guidelines
  • Link to or import existing KB information

Release Management

  • Log a Release so that changes can be identified and related to the release.
  • Capture the release date and time, and who will be implementing.
  • Attach and store documentation with the Release record.
  • Link resources/approvers to releases.
  • Display impacted CIs (information which is derived from the related change records).
  • Assign tasks to individuals to be accomplished within a specified time frame.
  • Notify the assignee of the task and due date and the associated Release.
  • Change status of release and linked changes.
  • Change status of release approvals.
  • Automatically send approval requests to the appropriate approvers
  • Alert release manager when approvals are past due.
  • Automatically approve releases when all approvals are returned approved, and communicate with appropriate parties regarding the approval.
  • Store approver comments with the approval, and store approval history for a Release.
  • Manually kick off approval process or override approval workflow
  • Search all releases by any release data attribute captured by the tool.
  • Create and publish a Master Release Schedule.
  • Associate the Master Release Schedule with the Service Level Agreement information.
  • Integrated with Change Management allowing for the linking of Release records to Change records.
  • Have full visibility into which changes are associated with which releases.
  • Support full lifecycle of release management.
  • Validate required information from the CMDB for release build and deployment activities.
  • Support the establishment and governance of release readiness criteria
  • Incorporate or Integrated with a Definitive Media Library.
  • Support workflow integration with a DML to support release deployment and provisioning. activities
  • Build, bundle and schedule different types of release packages for deployment.
  • Identify and control a release package.
  • Authorize and schedule release deployments in conjunction with Change Management. processes
  • Ensure that release deployments are subject to scheduling and approval requirements managed by the change management process
  • Support varying Release models such as large-scale or phased deployments.
  • Integrated with the CMDB to support the association of release records to CI records.
  • Support the logical association between changes and releases.
  • Assign tasks to pools of resources.
  • Trace implementation to the authorized version in the DML.
  • Verify license and warranty information.
  • Trace and track post deployment activities.

Financial Management

  • Record activities and time spent
  • Tool has the invoice based on time accounting
  • Tool is able to integrate with Finance tools for purchasing, accounts payable, and accounts receivable/billing functions and leading ERP Systems
  • Support a varity of cost/time allocation methods (i.e., per project, service contract, request)

Self-Service

  • End user has access to self-service portal
  • Create new incidents and service requests.
  • Track status and updates of existing requests.
  • Users can search knowledge-base articles.
  • End users have access to frequently asked questions.
  • Employees can access news to view announcements.
  • Look and feel and logo can be customized

Reporting

  • Easily construct queries and reports from any combination of database fields including meta data.
  • Report against requests/incidents using a variety of non-related classification types and be reported against timeline and/or compartive periods.
  • Further classify by user definable classification types with the filter against organisational structure
  • Ability for users and administrators to use drag and drop methods to create their own custom reports.
  • Create custom ad-hoc parameters on reports (e.g., report is called and prompts user to enter query parameter values instead of hard-coding those values in the query). Should be easy for a non-technical person.
  • Predefined reports for users and administrators
  • Easily export reports and report data for consumption outside the system. (i.e. PDF, xls)
  • "drill down" capabilities on reports and dashboards.
  • Integrated with external data sources.
  • Support business analytics (business intelligence tools)
  • Restrict access to reports by role.
  • Have scheduled reports which are sent automatically to subscribers.
  • Ad hoc reporting for all modules.
  • Ability for data for dropdown lists to be changed to an "inactive" flag/status and still be available for historical reporting purposes.
  • Real-time reporting via graphical and configurable dashboards
  • Support a real-time dashboard display for each process that is customizable based on individual, role or informational needs.
  • Ability for dashboards to be accessed via a web browser.
  • Ability for dashboards to be accessed via a mobile device. (iphone, ipad, droid)
  • Report trending specific to each ITIL process. (Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management, etc.)
  • Report on usage by end user, location department, region, etc.
  • Report incidents by priority, categorization, service-level adherence, technician and CI
  • Run incident age report
  • Report incidents linked to problem records
  • Report CIs impacted by an incident
  • Report time spent and materials used by incidents
  • Report first-contact resolution rate
  • Report mean time to resolution
  • Perform trend analysis of tickets
  • Perform trend analysis based on CI items
  • Report on the business impact of failed changes
  • Report on change blackout dates and times resulting in change freeze.
  • Capture data for and report on KPI's for service delivery
  • Capture and report on different KPI's for same service but different teams
  • Capture and report on different KPI's at the subtask level to identify delays/bottlenecks
  • Report on job times i.e. when opened, when closed, when on hold, etc.
  • Ability for teams to track and report triage time especially for teams that don't do level 1 support
  • Reporting based on user groups or roles
  • Ability for agent to report on jobs that they have been involved in not just jobs they were assigned and/or closed
  • Show work loads, patterns, etc

Project Management

  • Support requesting and managing project inventory
  • Track service orders placed with vendors
  • Navigate quickly to project WBS (work breakdown structure), change, risk, issues and communications content
  • Link schedule dependencies
  • No limitations to size of WBS
  • Track workflow as information is updated by different sources
  • Financial view able to capture and lock-in initial budget
  • Auto approve time for team members
  • Assign and commit resources fully to a project over time
  • Establish team assignments based on dates and time allotments to get work done
  • Designate low priority projects that do not need to follow timeline
  • Associate requirements to key projects deliverables
  • Link projects to a service, product or asset
  • Connect releases/incidents/changes/configuration items to a project
  • Custom reports with detail, flags, notes, risks, issues
  • Access raw data for further analysis
  • Record the source of project initiation
  • Link a project back to an incident/problem/request
  • Time sheet management of support staffs or employees

Client Management

  • Record interactions with a customer whether it is via face-to-face, telephone, or email
  • Record feedback and general requests from customers whilst performing other work such as incidents or service requests
  • Report general requests by both specific customers or request type to allow determination of service demand from the organisation
  • General CRM functionality
  • Record information on external customers
  • Intergrated with leading telephony systems

About Us

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, SMART Service Desk, is a vendor for ITSSM – IT Service Support Management, GRC – Governance & Risk Compliance and Case Management Software’s, using industry leading best practices and standards such as; ITIL, ISO 20000, ISO 27001, ISO 9001, AS 9001 and NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology).

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