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The unique number (referred to as case number)
generated for this particular support request.
SupportCalls uses an iterative count to generate new
support requests. Every email communications out of
Support to the callers are tagged with the
corresponding case number such that subsequent email
replies from the callers retain the same tag for
SupportCalls to identify and perform various
automations like adding the replies to the
particular support case. Internal communications to
technicians in the form emails, SMS, due-date
appointments, tasks etc. are also tagged with the
corresponding case number.
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The date/time the support request was logged,
either from Outlook items such as email or phone
call.
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The date/time the support request was last worked
on.
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Shows the duration (in days) the support case is
active.
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The support staff (or technician) take was
responsible for logging this support request.
Note that, the assigned technician need not be the
author of this case.
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Signifies the source of the support request. The
following are the possible values:
- Mail Item - the case is logged from
an Outlook mail item.
- Post Item - the case is logged from
an Outlook post item.
- Task Item - the case is logged from
an Outlook task item.
- Appointment Item - the case is logged
from an Outlook appointment item.
- Phone Call - the case is logged from
a phone call.
- Address Book - the case is generated
from a contact in the address book.
- Web Access - the case is created by a
remote technician using SupportCalls Web Access
- Web Form - the case is created from a
web form submitted by an end-user.
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A drop-down field that consists of the
problem category list. Specify the problem
category to which the support request belongs to.
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A drop-down field that consists of a type
list (sub-category) for each problem category. The
type list changes depending on the item selected in
the problem category drop down field.
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Problem Category-Type : Apply default technician
- This check button gets enabled when a
combination of Problem Category and Problem Type is
selected from the drop-downs. This means, checking
this button would automatically assign the default
technician (specified for that selected problem) to
the current support case. If the helpdesk manager
had restricted changes to the assigned technicians
of the case, then the functionality of this button
is grayed out to technicians with non-admin access.
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Problem Category-Type : Apply default SLA -
This check button gets enabled when a combination of
Problem Category and Problem Type is selected from
the drop-downs. Checking this button would
automatically enforce the default SLA specified for
that selected problem to the current support case.
Both the importance and the due date of the case
would be then affected.
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A drop-down field listing all defined Service Level
Agreements (SLA) of the organization. When a SLA is
enforced to a support case, the importance of this
Outlook item is automatically set to that defined by
the SLA as well as the due date is adjusted to
reflect the response time of that SLA under which
the case should be resolved.
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This is the same Outlook importance field that takes
one of these values - High, Normal and
Low.
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The due date field enables helpdesk manager to set a
time before which the support request case should be
resolved. There are lot of automatic notifications
and reminders options that can be sent to concerned
technicians when a new due date is specified or
updated. For example, when a new technician is
assigned, SupportCalls can send out notification
email or SMS informing technicians on the due date
of the support request. SupportCalls can also
automatically add/update a due date appointment or
task to the personal mailbox calendar of the
concerned technician.
When deciding to set a due date for a particular
support request case, helpdesk managers can lookup
the schedule calendar/personal calendar of a
prospective technician in order to find availability
of the said technician. (Note: for personal
calendar, the managers need to have access rights to
the technician's mailbox)
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This is a drop-down field that consists of the
problem status list (customizable by technicians
with admin access). |
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The email address of the caller. This drop
down field houses all the email address of the
callers defined in the Callers list manager. This is
useful when the technician had to manually log a new
support request case, say when caller is on the
phone. Selecting an email address automatically
populates other fields such as caller name, address,
phone etc, thereby reducing time spent trying to log
every single detail on the caller.
 Open
a new email populated with details on the support
request (as defined in configurable email template)
addressed to the caller. A new compose window will
be loaded on which further inputs can be made before
sending it.
 Directly
send an email to the caller containing details (as
defined in configurable email template) on the
support request. The email is sent directly
with no window displayed to edit or add any
comments.
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Caller : Apply default technician - This
check button gets enabled when a caller email
address is selected from the drop-downs. Checking
this button would automatically assign the default
technician (specified for that selected caller) to
the current support case. If the helpdesk
manager had restricted changes to the assigned
technicians of the case, this functionality of this
button is grayed out to technicians with non-admin
access.
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The full name of the caller. For new (empty)
support request, a technician can easily pick a
contact from the address book (eg. GAL) and that
populates all other caller details automatically.
 Allows
the technician to pick a user from the address book
(eg. global address list)
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The telephone number of the caller. If the
caller exists in the SupportCalls Callers list, a
telephone number can be specified and it
automatically gets listed in this field. If the
caller has been picked from the address book (eg.
GAL, AD), this field would also get populated
(provided the primary telephone of the picked user
is specified in GAL or AD).
Call the telephone number of the caller
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The mobile number of the caller. If the
caller exists in the SupportCalls Callers list, a
mobile number can be specified and it automatically
get listed in this field. If the caller has been
picked from the address book (eg. GAL, AD), this
field would also get populated (provided the mobile
number of the picked user is specified in GAL or
AD).
Call the telephone number of the caller
 Send
a SMS message to the mobile device of the caller
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The organization/company to which the caller
works for. This field gets populated
automatically when caller is specified from the SupportCalls Callers list or picked from the address
book.
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The full correspondence address of the caller.
This field also gets populated automatically when
caller is specified from the SupportCalls Callers
list or picked from the address book.
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The internal department/category to which the
caller is assigned to. This field also gets
populated automatically if the caller exists in the SupportCalls Callers list or in the address book (eg.
GAL, AD).
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The technicians who are assigned to this support
request case. By default, only one technician
can be assigned to a case. But that of course can be
bypassed by the helpdesk manager by simple enabling
an option in administrative settings.
During new support case logging,
there are two ways SupportCalls may populate this technician field
automatically:
- When a new support request is submitted from
a web form by an end-user, depending upon the
selected problem area, the default technician
linked to that problem area (that is, in the
problems list manager) would be assigned to this
case.
- When a support request case is generated
from an incoming email (auto-conversion mode),
if the sender already exists in the SupportCalls
Callers list and if a default technician is
assigned for that particular caller in that
list, then the technician field in the support
case form would be populated automatically.
In both scenarios, the notification email/SMS or
reminder options in the technician's mailbox
calendar would be triggered automatically as a
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 Select
a technician from a list
 Remove
the selected technician
Open
a new email populated with details on the support
request (as defined in configurable email template)
addressed to the selected technicians. A new compose
window will be loaded on which further inputs can be
added before sending it.
Directly
send an email to the selected technicians containing
details (as defined in configurable email template)
on the support request. The email is sent
directly with no window displayed to edit or add any
comments.
 Call
the telephone number of the selected technician.
Send a SMS message to the mobile device of the
technician.
 Add/update
the due date appointment to the mailbox calendar of
the selected technicians. If successful, it
automatically triggers a reminder popup on that
technician as well as get added to Outlook today
page.
 Add/update
the support request task to the mailbox task folder
of the selected technicians. If successful, it
automatically triggers a reminder popup on that
technician as well as get added to Outlook today
page.
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The subject field of the support request.
Notice that appended case number in brackets for
easy recognition when displayed in calendar and
timeline views.
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The problem description and resolution field.
It supports all the HTML formatting supported by
Outlook. You can insert links, images, files as
attachments etc. to make a rich content. |
