Maintaining Contacts


Overview

Tasks

Included with

Tivoli Service Desk

Overview

Contacts

Any person who requests support from your help desk is a contact. Each contact is associated with a location. Some locations may have only one person (contact) who is allowed to request support. In other organizations, every person at a location may be able to request support.

Contacts who can access Tivoli Service Desk features via the Internet or an office intranet must have an end user account. See Maintaining End UserAccounts.

Contact information requirements

You can control the requirements for contact information in the Tivoli Service Desk database. You set the requirements for contact IDs and associations with locations. For more information, see Configuring Contact Settings.

Contacts and notification methods

Help desk analysts can automatically notify contacts when the problems they report are resolved. In order for contact notifications to work:
  • You assign a default notification method to the contact.This method is used to notify the contact when a problem is closed. See Maintaining Notification Methods for Users or Groups.
  • The help desk analyst selects the Notify All Contacts check box in the Problem Status dialog box when they close a problem reported by this contact. See Registering Calls. Or, the help desk analyst selects the Notify Contact On Close check box in the Call Registration dialog box when they resolve a problem during call registration. See Working with Problems.
  • The system administrator runs the Notification Monitor which collects the notifications created inside Tivoli Service Desk and passes them along to the appropriate messaging system (e-mail, pager, or fax).

Dialog boxes

You maintain contacts in the Add Person dialog box, Edit Person dialog box, or the View Person dialog box. See Person dialog boxes for more details.

Tasks

Adding a contact

Add a contact for each new person who calls your help desk. There are fives tabs in the Add Person dialog box that contain information required for contacts:
  • For all contacts, complete the information required on the General and Contact tab.
  • In addition, for contacts who are granted access to Tivoli Service Desk features via the Internet or an intranet, create an end user account on the End User Account and Capabilities tabs.

To add a contact:

  1. In the People dialog box, choose Add.
  2. In the General tab of the Add Person dialog box, record the information required for all people. For more information, see Adding a person.
  3. Choose the Contacts tab.
  4. In the Contact tab, in the Contact ID box, type an identifier for this contact.
    Note: The selection in the Contact Settings dialog box controls whether Contact IDs must be unique for all of locations or unique for a given location. See Configuring Contact Settings.
  5. Do one of the following:
    • Leave the Active check box selected. This indicates that the contact is available at the designated locations.
    • Clear the Active check box. This indicates that the contact is not yet or no longer authorized to request support.
  6. Do one of the following:

Maintaining contact locations

You maintain a list of locations from which a contact can call for support.

Note: Selections in the Contact Settings dialog box controls whether contacts must be associated with locations and whether a contact can be associated with more than one location. See Configuring Contact Settings.

To assign a location to a contact:

  1. In the Add Person dialog box or Edit Person dialog box, choose the Contact tab.
  2. Below Locations, choose Add.
  3. From the Locations window, select a location.
    Tip: If you need help locating a specific location in the location hierarchy, see Navigating a hierarchy.
  4. Choose Select.
    Result: The selected location appears in the Locations list.
  5. Choose OK.

To designate a default contact location:

The default contact location appears automatically in the Call Registration dialog box when the help desk analyst registers a call from this contact.

  1. In the Add Person dialog box or Edit Person dialog box, choose the Contact tab.
  2. Do one of the following:
    • If all the locations in the list have Default set to FALSE, go to the next step.
    • If any location is in the list has Default set to TRUE, select that locations, then choose Default.
      Result: Default is set to FALSE for the selected location.
      Note: All locations must have Default set to FALSE before you can designate a new default location.
  3. From the Locations table, select the location you want to make the default..
  4. Below Locations, choose Default.
    Result: The Default is set to TRUE for the selected location.
  5. Choose OK.

To view a location associated with a contact:

  1. In the Add Person dialog box or Edit Person dialog box, choose the Contact tab.
  2. From the Locations table, select a location.
  3. Choose View.
  4. In the View Location dialog box, view the details of the selected location.
    Tip: For more information on the information displayed in the Locations Manager dialog box, see Maintaining Location Hierarchies.
  5. Choose Close.

To remove a location from a contact:

  1. In the Add Person dialog box or Edit Person dialog box, choose the Contact tab.
  2. From the Locations table, select a location.
  3. Choose Remove.
    Result: The selected location no longer appears in the Locations table.
  4. Choose Close.

Editing a contact

You can change contact information from the Edit Person dialog box.

To edit a contact:

  1. From the People List in the People dialog box, select the contact to edit.
    Tip: If you need help locating the contact, see Finding a person.
  2. Choose Edit.
  3. In the Edit Person dialog box, make any necessary changes.
    Tip: For a description of each box, see Adding a person and Adding a contact.
  4. Choose OK.

Viewing a contact

You can review information on any contact from the View person dialog box. You cannot make changes when you are viewing a contact.

To view a contact:

  1. From the People List in the People dialog box, select the contact to view.
    Tip: If you need help locating the contact, see Finding a person.
  2. Choose View.
  3. In the View Person dialog box, make any necessary changes.
    Tip: For a description of each box, see Adding a person and Adding a contact.
  4. Choose OK.

Deleting a contact

You can delete a contact when a person no longer works at a supported location and has never reported a call or problem. If the contact ID appears on a call or problem, you can deactivate the contact instead of deleting it. See Deleting a person.

Deactivating a contact

If a person leaves a supported location, you can retain the contact information, but mark the contact inactive from the Edit Person dialog box.

To deactivate a contact:

  1. From the People List in the People dialog box, select the contact to deactivate.
    Tip: If you need help locating the contact, see Finding a person.
  2. Choose Edit.
  3. In the Edit Person dialog box, choose the Contact tab.
  4. Clear the Active check box.
  5. Choose OK.

Printing contact information

See Printing people information.