DLC Ticketing
![]() | Please note that DLC Ticketing is currently in a pilot phase and is available by invite only. If your DLC is interested in joining this pilot please email dlc-ticketing@mit.edu |
DLC Ticketing is a custom application that allows MIT Departments, Labs, and Centers to use ServiceNow for Case Management. What follows is a high-level overview of the capabilities of this tool.
Contents
Dashboard
The Dashboard is the default starting page when signing into ServiceNow. It shows tickets in three states, described below.
State | Description |
---|---|
New | Tickets assigned to the Assignment Group the user is a part of. Generally these have not been interacted with yet. |
In Progress | Tickets solely assigned to the user that are in the "In Progress" state. These have been updated in some way by the user. |
On Hold | Tickets solely assigned to the user that are in the "On Hold" state. These have been deliberately set to sleep awaiting a reply from the requester, or some other form of update or change. |
Custom Dashboards can also be created for a particular Queue/Assignment Group, please feel free to inquire about this.
Feedback Form
The Feedback Form is used to submit feedback regarding the functionality and behavior of DLC Ticketing. We encourage all of our users to submit Feedback using this method.
Ticket Creation
Directly through mit.service-now.com
By clicking on "Create New" from the left-hand side, users are able to manually create a ticket to their assignment group. Use-cases for this include receiving calls that require a ticket, emails sent to a personal inbox, or walk-ins.
Via Email to Feeder List
Tickets can also be created via emails sent to a Moira list. There will be a public-facing "feeder list", which will be the email address the DLC will advertise to its users.
Forms (e.g. Drupal Webform, or Qualtrics) can also be used to feed a Moira list on the back end. The advantage here is that users will be required to supply certain information, and service-now can be configured to auto-populate the service or category fields (see below.)
Auto-reply Message on New Ticket Creation
Unique auto-replies can be configured for every Moira list/form that feeds into ServiceNow. These replies are only applicable when a new ticket is opened via email.
Since these auto-replies are associated with a specific Moira email address, the message may reference a specific Service and/or provide contact information and/or specific instructions on how to proceed with the ticket. For example, an auto-reply message could say
Thank you for contacting Hogwarts Student Services regarding Quidditch. You will receive a reply within 24 hours. You may add comments to this ticket by replying to this email.
Ticket Anatomy
Field | Description |
---|---|
Requester | For the user requesting assistance from the queue. If creating a ticket manually this would need to be filled in, email tickets would auto-populate this field. |
Priority | Low and high, default is set to low |
Service | Higher level categorization for tickets |
Category | Additional level of categorization |
State | New, In Progress, On Hold, Closed, and Cancelled. Tickets need to be moved from one state to another manually except for when a new ticket is created (default is New) or when a ticket is On Hold, Closed, or Cancelled and a requester replies back, that ticket will automatically be placed In Progress. |
Contact Type | Phone, Email, Walk-In, Direct Entry, Transfer. Tickets need to be manually assigned a Contact Type except for ones coming in through email. |
Assignment group | Ticketing group users are assigned to. If working in multiple Assignment Groups users are able to move tickets between multiple groups. The assignment group is auto-selected upon ticket creation. |
Assigned to | User the ticket is assigned to. This will need to be manually selected. |
Short description | The title of the ticket, auto-filled if ticket was created via email. |
Description | Additional field that can be used to summarize ticket succinctly |
Watch list | Optional space where users can add email addresses to multiple people receive updates on ticket |
Work notes | Internal space to write notes, visible to everyone in Assignment Group |
Additional comments | Space used to communicate with requestor and anyone on Watchlist |
Activities | Log of the different actions taken on the ticket (State, Work Notes, Additional Comments) |
Parent/Child Tickets
A DLC Ticket can have a Parent ticket. The primary use case is when a duplicate ticket is opened by the requester, the Parent of the duplicate can be set to the TKD number of the original ticket, and the duplicate can then be Cancelled/Closed. The child/duplicate ticket will appear on a related list at the bottom of the parent form.
- A Child ticket cannot be transferred to an Incident
- You cannot reference a Parent ticket if it is already closed, it needs to be Open while becoming a Parent ticket. If the Parent ticket is closed you will encounter this error - Invalid Reference
Sidebars
A Sidebar is a separate type of ticket that is used for email communication with one or more collaborators without notifying the Requester of the original ticket. Watch List is a required field when creating a Sidebar, and a Sidebar can only be created if the DLC Ticket has been assigned to a member of the Assignment Group. When Comments are added to the Sidebar, email notifications will be sent to the "Watch list" of the Sidebar and to the "Assigned to" of the DLC ticket.
Ticket Categorization
Tickets are categorized using two properties: "Services" and "Categories."
"Service" functions as a high level grouping, e.g. Quidditch, and "Category" is a more specific subgroup, e.g. Quidditch Tournament Ticket Sales.
Assignment Group/Queue | Service | Category |
---|---|---|
Hogwarts Student Services | Quidditch - April Tournament | Ticket Reservation - Request |
Note: By default, tickets cannot be closed without a value in both fields.
All users in the Assignment Group are able to create Services and Categories for their own queues by using the "Create New Service/Category" link on the left-hand side. They can also delete Services and Categories which are not in use. However, if a Service or Category has been used (i.e. it is assigned to a Ticket) then it cannot be deleted until those tickets are migrated to other categories/services.
DLC Services and Categories are specific to Assignment Groups and cannot be shared with other groups.
Notifications
Requestor/Watch List
- When a new ticket is open via email the Assignment Group has the option to send Auto-reply with the additional option to also include the body of the email in the reply to the requestor
- When a comment is added by anyone on the ticket the Requester and anyone on the Watchlist will receive an email and will include the full comment history
Assigned To/Assignment Group
- All members of the Assignment Group will receive an email once an email generates a ticket
- The "Assigned to" user will receive an email notification when anyone apart from themselves adds a Work Note or Additional Comment to a ticket
- If the ticket is unassigned all members of the Assignment Group will receive an email notification
Queries and Favorites
ServiceNow allows querying of almost any data point in a ticket, which can, in turn, be used for reports and/or dashboards. The quickest way to start a query would be to first click on "All Tickets" on the left-hand side and click on the funnel icon located above the columns.
Once you have a query you're likely to reuse, it is best to save it as a Favorite. Above the funnel icon is a three-line icon, clicking on that and "Create Favorite" will allow you to save the query to be used later on.
Transfers
A user can transfer a DLC Ticket to an Incident by clicking the "Create Incident" button on the DLC Ticket form located on the top right-hand side. The new Incident will by default be assigned to the Service Desk Triage team. The DLC Ticket is not automatically closed so if no further action is required the ticket will need to be manually closed.
Support
Please email dlc-ticketing@mit.edu with any support-related questions concerning your demo or production queue.