Service Requests in ServiceNow

This article covers the benefits of service request management, the life cycle of a service request, and steps to create and manage a service request with prerequisites.

A service request may be defined as a formal request that a client or an employee of the client makes, asking a domain user to provide them with something that would be useful in the business's day-to-day operations. 

Examples include:

• Password recovery
• Hardware requirement
• Travel expenses reimbursement
• Upgrade new version of software

Service requests should be handled as a distinct workstream to help IT teams focus on delivering more valuable work and better enabling the rest of the organization. Service requests are quite often low risk and can be expedited or even automated. For instance, if a new employee submits a service request for access to a software application, that request can be pre-approved and automatically granted. All of this means that the IT team can reduce stress, save time, and avoid overly complicated workflows.

Benefits of Service Request Management

Service request management promises to deliver the following benefits if meticulously implemented.

• Automation of repetitive requests: With automation, service management helps the support team to concentrate on the complicated tasks that are not automated. For example, password reset requests come from many internal or external users that does not require support team to present at their desk all time. 
• Centralized repository of requests: With centralized information available on a single repository, you can search and track of all requests with an ease to know the status of each request.
• Consistency in handling a request: All requests made by the different users from internal and external environment can be handled in a similar manner that ensures consistency and continuous improvement of service requests. 
• Effective communication with stakeholders: Communicating with stakeholders regarding their service requests' status build trust with the organization. Communication of requests generally happens through chat or comment section in an organized service request portal.

Life Cycle of Service Request

Our recommended service request process consists of the following state model.

1. A tenant requests help from your service portal or via email.
2. The IT service team assesses the request alongside pre-defined approval and qualification processes. If needed, they send the request for financial or business approval.
3. A service desk agent works to fulfill the service request, or forwards the request to someone who can.
4. After resolving the request, the agent closes the ticket and consults the tenant to make sure they are satisfied.

Creating a Service Request (SR)

Pre-requisites

To send service requests from Service Now to Resolution Intelligence^®, you must first integrate and map the mandatory fields from both applications.

Required User Permissions

Admins can create a service request. However, employees of a tenant and organization can create service request differently than admins.

 To create a SR in Service Now,

1. Log in to your service now instance with valid credentials.
2. From the Self Service module, navigate to Self Service à Service Catalog.
3. Select an item from the service catalog.
4. Choose sub-category of an item, if required.
5. Select Quantity (count of items) required and click Order Now. Your request is submitted successfully, and a request number is generated for your request.

ServiceNow automatically notifies the approvers if approval is required and creates work orders to fulfill the order according to your organization's process. For example, if you order a new notebook computer, the purchasing group might receive a work order to order the computer, and the desktop services group might receive a work order to configure the new computer and deliver it to your office after it arrives.

Updating a Service Request (SR)

To view the SR that is submitted recently,

• Navigate to All --> Service Catalog --> Requested Items.
• Search your requested item using the number that is provided after creating your request.
• View the approval progress in the Stage field.

Note: Not all requests to be approved by the approvers. Only those requests that exceeded the certain amount need approvals.

• Open the request and provide the necessary details in the given fields and in the comments.
• Click Update in the top right corner of the screen.

After updating an SR, a Netenrich ID will be generated for the request you have submitted. Use this Netenrich ID to track the progress of your request in the Resolution Intelligence as well. 

Service Request States

Service requests go through different states in their life cycle from creation until the fulfillment of the requests displayed in the State field.

Note: States are varied from request to request as indicated in the table. State is read-only field.

State	Description
Open	The request is raised but no work progress has started
Pending	Waiting for the work to be started
Work in Progress	Work is currently going on
Closed Complete	Request was completed to specification
Closed Incomplete	Request could not be completed as specified
Closed Skipped	Request was completed as specified but not request not closed

Service Request Catalog Tasks

Once you raise a service request, an associated task will be generated automatically under the Catalog Tasks tab. A request contains one or more tasks. These tasks allow qualifiers to define activities that must be done to complete a request.

Administrators can create multiple tasks under a single request.

Splitting a request into separate tasks, when necessary, enables qualifiers to:

• Assign different aspects of a request to different staff members.
• Assign tasks to staff members who have a different set of skills or are in different locations.
• Schedule tasks so they are either done one after another or at the same time by different staff members.
• Schedule additional tasks, if necessary, to complete the request.

Note: If you have the Request life cycle is request driven configuration option is activated, you can manually add tasks as needed. If you have Request life cycle is task driven activated, an initial task created when the request record is created.

Once the task is in the closed complete state within a request, the stage will be updated accordingly, and another task will be created until the request is fulfilled to the requester. For example, if a hardware request (Ordering Macbook) is raised, the stage is updated in a request from Awaiting Approval --> Approval --> Configuration -->Complete when you close the tasks one by one until the request is fulfilled.

Creating a task in a Service Request

Tasks are created in support of requests.

Required User Permissions

Administrators

To create a task under a request,

• Navigate to All --> Service Catalog --> Requested Items.
• Open the request for which you want to create tasks.
• Click New, under Catalog Tasks tab.
  The Task screen for the SM application opens.
• Fill in the fields on the form and click Submit.

Note: Not all fields display for all SM applications.

Fields	Description
Number	Auto-generated identification number for the task.
Parent	Request that this task is associated with.
Cloned from	Record number of the task this task was cloned from, if any.
Location	Geographical area where the work must be done. The location is critical for determining the staff member who is assigned to the task.
Template	Template for creating this request (optional). Click the lookup icon and select a template. The description of the selected template populates the Description field.
Skills	Abilities necessary to execute the task. This field is automatically completed based on the selection in the Affected CI field on the associated request. If you change the affected CI on the request, the system adds any skills required by the new CI to the skills already listed here.
State	Current state of the task, such as Accepted or Closed Complete. The ServiceNow advances the state automatically as users complete the work for each successive state.
Assignment group	Group from which an individual legal staff member is selected to complete the task. The lookup list shows only the assignment groups associated with the selected Location. If the Assignment Group field is empty, the system searches for the group covering the territory that includes the location of the task.
Assigned to	Individual staff members who should complete the task, selected from the Assignment group. If you defined skills and assigned them to staff members, the Assigned to field lookup list shows only those staff members in the assignment group who have all the Skills required. If no exact match of skills is found, the lookup list shows all assignment group members. Note: If state flows are disabled, this field is not mandatory.
Short description	Brief explanation of the task.
Description	Exact technical description of the unit of work to be performed. Qualifiers should provide as much detail about the problem as possible to avoid extra communication with the caller in later stages of the request.
Work notes	Information about the task as it progresses through each state. Work notes are not visible to tenants.
Actual work start	Date and time when the earliest task actually started.
Actual work end	Date and time when the latest task ended.
Requested due by	Estimated date when the latest task is completed.

 

Note: The workflow appears at the top of the form, with the completed states shown in Green.