Ticket Templates

Last Updated on November 19, 2022 by maximosecrets

There are three classes of Tickets, a Service Request, Incident, and a Problem. For most Maximo users it is only the Service Request (SR), which is used, and the Service Request application is often used as Maximo’s Service Desk. The Service Request is then used for requests, issues, incidents, defects, and other observations that may be made. It is common for some of these records to lay dormant in the system, effectively on hold, until a time when it can be addressed, which may be never, the asset might be decommissioned, and the service requests cancelled. For example, not all observed defects will be addressed, they may be monitored to see if they deteriorate.

For the Incident and Problem applications you need a license that includes these applications, most likely to be the Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) add-on. The three applications are based on views over the same TICKET table. The HSE add-on also has two applications Defects and Investigations, which use the Incidents and Problems objects, respectively.

As the name suggests a Ticket Template is a template for a Service Request, Incident or Problem, and it also supports Defects and Investigations. Think of a ticket template as being similar to a job plan with respect to a work order.

Ticket Template

Tickets exist at the System level and so does the Ticket Template. It has a simple status of Draft, Active or Inactive, and does not have a status history. When creating a ticket template, you will need to pick the ticket class to which it applies.

Most of the fields you see in the Details section copy over to the class of ticket when the ticket template is applied, for Service Requests this can be through the action Apply Service Request Template. This is easily extendable as the TEMPLATEID field on the SR object has a crossover domain called TKTEMPLATE.

The Owner and Owner Group fields are mutually exclusive, only one of these may have a value. This allows an incoming request to be automatically routed to the right team or person when the ticket template is applied.

The Service Group and Service fields work together and provide a way of identifying the service being provided when a request is made. They are core to making improvements in service management. On the Service Request they can be used to help relate multiple SRs together, including calls being reported by many people, and referred to as a global issue.

The Internal Priority is a value normally in the range of 1 to 4 where 1 is the highest, opposite to that for work orders where 999 is the highest, this is supported by a Numeric Domain called TICKETPRIORITY. There are two hidden fields Impact and Urgency which can be used with a configured formula to derive an internal priority via a matrix between the two fields.

The Classification and Class Description fields are used as a means of searching for the type of requests or issues you need to deal with, it is based on a classification hierarchy. The attributes of a classification in the hierarchy, known as a specification, can provide a set of questions to be answered when the classification is used. For example, for a broken window, you might ask “How high up is the window?”, or “Does the window repair require a ladder or other access equipment?”. The attributes are entered in the Specifications tab.

The Order and Instructions fields are used with the Service Request Work Center which we will discuss later.

Ticket Template Activities

The Service Requests application does not have a set of activities, whereas the Incidents and Problems applications do. It is easily configured to add Activities to Service Requests and the associated Activities and Tasks application is licensed for Maximo clients without any add-ons. Activities would be used if the nature of the request, issue, or other reason for using the Service Requests application requires multiple tasks, reviews, or investigations to be performed by one or more people or teams, whether in series or in parallel. For issues or incidents affecting multiple people it is easy to see why multiple activities might be used. It is one of those things that when a client sees the Incidents application as part of the HSE add-on they often say that it would have made a better help desk or service desk.

The Activities table window will be used for the more complex responses to requests, issues, etc. It has an Owner and Owner Group fields for directing the activity to the right person or team. It too has a Classification and Class Description fields and on the Specifications tab you’ll find the associated attributes for the Activity Specification linked to the Sequence field for the activity and displaying the associated classification of the activity. This is needed because if there are multiple activities each with a classification and attributes, then you will need to understand which attributes belong to which activity.

To use classifications on activities you need to use the Use With Object of WOACTIVITY. Beware you cannot see the attributes and their values from the Service Requests application and Specifications tab you will need to navigate to the Activities and Tasks application to see the attributes. Also, while the Ticket Template and Service Request now support a DATE data type for an attribute and a Date Value, this is available for the Activity on the Ticket Template but the Work Order Specification and hence the Activity Specification does not support this, hopefully by version 7.6.1.3 it will.

The activity can have a Job Plan, and this is applied on the activity to create a set of tasks which can be seen from the Activities and Tasks application and Plans tab. The Priority field in this case is a value in the range of 0-999 where 999 is high, it is the activity priority, and an activity is a class of work order.

Service Request Work Center

When you use the Service Request Work Center or the Maximo Mobile Service Requests applications the categories that you drilldown are Classifications, and they are linked to an Issue which is a Ticket Template. The Categories and Issues can be entered through the Administration Work Center and the Service Request Configuration option and Categories tab. You can enter Issues against either a Category or a Sub-Category. You may need to grant access to View Service Request Configuration in the Security Groups application and for the Administration application.

The Instructions field that you see in the Ticket Template application can be entered via the Administration Work Center. These are the instructions used to help a user troubleshoot or gather additional details.

The order of categories and sub-categories are supported by the Order field in the Classifications application. The order displayed for the Issues is supported by the Order field in the Ticket Template application.

Quick Insert Portlet

Ticket Templates can be used in the Quick Insert Portlet on a user’s Start Center to launch the Self-Service Create Service Request application or the Service Requests application with a Ticket Template already applied. This allows the most common requests to be added at the click of a button.

Links

Ticket Templates

Maximo Mobile Service Requests

See Pages 2 and 3 Work Centers a Functional Footprint 7.6.1.2

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