ITSM - Incident and Problem Management

Quickly respond to tickets, automate service desk request actions, and improve outcomes.

Information is key when determining if an issue qualifies as an incident or a problem. According to IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), a problem is the root cause of one or more incidents; and each has a slightly different critical path. Both problems and incidents need your attention, that’s why when you run a service desk, you need to have fast routing capabilities; the ability to group and manage tickets; and a great communication platform.

IT Service Management (ITSM) software needs to have all of this & more; from change management to a stellar portal, to integrated projects and workflow automation.

ITSM - Incident and Problem Management

Quickly respond to tickets, automate service desk request actions and improve outcomes.

Information is key when determining if an issue qualifies as an incident or a problem. According to IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), a problem is the root cause of one or more incidents; and each has a slightly different critical path. Both problems and incidents need your attention, which is why your service desk needs fast routing capabilities; the ability to group and manage tickets; and a great way to send communications.

The right IT Service Management (ITSM) software should have all these capabilities and more – from change management and a stellar portal to integrated projects and workflow automation.

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We Make it Easy to Follow ITIL Best Practices

TeamDynamix ITSM software helps organizations by incorporating ITIL best practices. With TeamDynamix you can adopt as much or as little ITIL as you desire. The first step is to clearly separate out incidents from problems in order to create the most efficient tech team, while also being able to perform root-cause analysis more effectively.

Quick and easy ticket management is key. Technicians will have easy access to the Knowledge Base for expediting resolution, they will have access to mass communication channels for managing high ticket volumes; they can group tickets; they can even convert tickets to projects.

The Gratz Bank Takes Ownership of IT Service Management

Reliable IT service management is especially critical in a banking environment. The Gratz Bank is using the TeamDynamix platform to gain the visibility they need into technical operations and build sound change management processes. They are even using it outside of IT to help with enterprise service management.

Easily manage incident, problems, and projects in one place

ITIL states, “an incident is an unplanned interruption to a service or the failure of a service component that hasn’t yet impacted service.” The keyword here is “unplanned.” For instance, planned or scheduled maintenance is not an incident.

How does an incident become a major incident?

To determine if an incident is a major incident you must look at the impact. Did the disruption or degradation have a significant effect or urgency for the end-users that would require a response time beyond routine incident management timeframes? To test for this, we can ask the following:

Did the disruption or degradation have the potential to cause a lack of access to critical systems?
Could it be determined that this incident has a significant impact on reputation, legal compliance, regulation or security related to the organization?

Defining a Problem In an ITSM System

A problem is simply a collection of incidents. When there’s a series of incidents all related to the same underlying issue, they are bound together and referred to as a problem. When this happens, the situation is typically viewed as more severe than a single incident. The follow-up procedures will require a more in-depth review cycle with root-cause analysis and appropriate stakeholder visibility. TeamDynamix can really help the technicians at this point by allowing for fast grouping and mass communications out to all impacted.

It’s important to note, incidents in and of themselves are not problems – however, if an incident is severe enough, it can be raised alone to a problem level – this happens when there is a need for a more in-depth review to prevent a likely recurrence.

Problem management rests not on solving the specific issue – which would be the remedy for the incident – but instead focuses more on recurrence and underlying root cause. This is an investigative procedure that takes place as a preventative measure.

Using TeamDynamix, our customers benefit from the unique ability to convert incidents and problems to projects in one ITSM system with project management as part of the platform — allowing for the allocation of resources, budgets, and timelines.

There has been a cultural shift here, we’re now a more mature IT enterprise.

- Matthew Wright, Technical Support Manager

Incident or Problem?

Ultimately, understanding whether you’re dealing with an incident or a problem will determine the processes you use to resolve whatever the issue is. When focused on an incident, the goal is to restore service to acceptable levels. Problem management comes after this – and is focused more on how to prevent this from happening again. Incidents have distinct timelines for resolution attached – whereas problem management is more focused on the investigation, and there are no clear timelines.

Incidents are also tied to Service Level Agreements (SLAs), which are in place to ensure the IT team is held to a set of response time standards. Deviation from these standards should be monitored closely.

In the TeamDynamix ITSM software, customers can enjoy a flexible implementation of the ITIL framework. As these definitions may not exactly suit a specific organization’s processes, these various classifications can be renamed and turned on or off as needed.

Unique to TeamDynamix ITSM, is the ability to also convert an incident or a problem to a project. As the case develops, you can convert to a project, and from there assign a budget, timelines, and risk grades as required. This gives you a single view of your resources across both tickets and projects – and your end–users and technicians can see all their work in one spot.

Because we now have a robust help desk application available, we have much more visibility and can plan for our IT needs more effectively.

- Katie Hayes, Project Manager

When does an incident become a problem?

An excellent simple use case for most of these would be that there are fifty incidents of Wi-Fi being interrupted. Those incidents are then rolled up into a single problem ticket about the lack of suitable Wi-Fi infrastructure. A change ticket could then be opened, and the Wi-Fi infrastructure is later changed or upgraded to be more resilient and reliable. A release ticket could then be created, and the organization could release new documentation and justification for the upgrade in Wi-Fi infrastructure. You can also publish the news that the new Wi-Fi infrastructure should be more consistent and that people should not worry.

Considerations When Shopping for ITSM Software

The Key Drivers for Searching for a New IT Service Management (ITSM) Software Platform So you’re shopping for ITSM software. Typically, if you’re in the market for a new IT Service Management (ITSM) platform, one of two scenarios is usually in place – either you are currently using a very rudimentary ticketing platform that doesn’t truly encompass the full scope of IT Service Management or the opposite – the platform is very cumbersome, overly complex and requires 3-8 full-time resources to administer. When looking for the right vendor, you should strive to meet somewhere in the middle – in other words, you

AUTOMATE IT

Are your resources deprived?

Reduced budgets and limited resources aren’t new problems. We hear it over and over – there is a significant shortage of resources. Between the great resignation, the move to remote work, and the increased demand for resources to support a mobile workforce, we now have a situation where the IT service desk can’t keep up.

This eBook highlights examples of how no-code automation with the right ITSM platform can help.

Learn more about the ITSM platform

Incident & Problem Management

Asset Management & Discovery

Service Portal & Knowledge Base

Workflow & Automation

ITIL Change Management

ITIL Release Management

Project Management

Dashboard & Reporting

Integrations

No Coding. No Scripting. No Hassles!

TeamDynamix was recognized as an ‘Honorable Mention’ in the 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for IT Service Management (ITSM)

IT Service Management Vendor Rankings

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