How to configure OTRS in this case?

[rick20]

Dear all,

first of all I am sorry for my English - it is not my native language.

Before asking this question i have read a lot of about queues, roles, groups, sla, services etc. I understand how it works if we support customer users. My case is a bit different and I am asking for solution how i should configure my otrs (i have installed OTRS 5 beta 4 & ITSM). If someone can share ideas - it would be great.



Situation:

Our company have maintenance contracts to customer companies, under contract are listed branches, in branches are installed systems. For example:

Customer company A->Contract A->Branch A->Access control
Customer company A->Contract A->Branch B->Fire alarm system
Customer company A->Contract B->Branch C->Access control
Customer company B->Contract B->Branch C->Fire alarm system

We have about 200 customer companies and 2000 branches at all.

My goal is to make new ticket (agent view) template in the following:

first of all agent should choose customer company
then contract, which belongs only for chosen customer company
then branch, which belongs only for chosen contract
then system, which belongs to the chosen branch



Which scenario i should choose?

Scenario 1

Customer company A, B -> Customers
Contract A, Contract B -> Services
Branch A, branch B, Branch C -> Services::subservices
System -> queries?

weakness: (in this scenario i think queries will be used not for the right purpose)

Scenario 2

Customer company A, B -> Customers
Contract A, Contract B -> Services
Branch A, branch B, Branch C -> CMDB CI Class: location
System -> CMDB CI Class: System (new type)

weakness: (In this case i don't know (or better to say i think i do not manage) how to make CMDB fields accessible in the ticket instead of link them. So customer in customer portal can not choose location and system, only write it in the text message)

Scenario 3 - your suggestion.

I am going to use contracts under services, because it will be good to assign sla to contracts, and i can assign contracts to customer user, who belongs to customers. Maybe i am wrong...

[crythias]

This is my first guess, based upon just reading this and not understanding the need for your hierarchy to apply to OTRS

Services should be installed systems: Fire Alarm Systems, Access Control
Maintenance contracts should be SLA
Branches are an enigma. Location?

Normally, a customer would choose a queue (what group of agents is likely to handle the request?).
A priority (how urgent is this request?)
Then a service (what needs support?)
Then an SLA (what's the deadline to repair?)
Except that Services have SLAs, these can be chosen independently.

Branches have no default affect (to OTRS) to the default selection options, but may be asked separately in a Dynamic Field. If you need dependency/filtering on Branch, then you might use an ACL to determine what can be seen based upon the value of the field.

[rick20]

Thank you for your answer. Hope It let me go to the right way

Yes your guess is correct, branches (branch offices) is a location.

I have two questions (hope last ones) if you don't mind:

In my case each customer's contract has different response time and solution time. It means i should assign somehow SLA to particular customer company. I find add-on for otrs 3.x Customer<->SLA, but i want to use otrs 5 version and this add-on does not fit. Is there a way to make association between Sla and Customer in some easy way (work around or something like that)? My hope in a year or two find similar add-on for otrs 5

The second question is about location (branch offices). Is it the right way to create an dynamic field and have about 200 ACL (each ACL for each customer contract) to make dependency. I mean is it normal in OTRS configuration to create huge amount of ACL, or i should drop this idea to use location.

[crythias]

It means i should assign somehow SLA to particular customer company

An option for this, if the company (customer_id, not customer_user_id) is one-to-one is to use a GenericAgent on ticket create to Match customer_id / Set SLA)

The second question is about location (branch offices). Is it the right way to create an dynamic field and have about 200 ACL (each ACL for each customer contract) to make dependency. I mean is it normal in OTRS configuration to create huge amount of ACL, or i should drop this idea to use location.

What, exactly, depends on the selection of Branch? Is this a customer branch or an agent branch? (as in, is this a branch office of the customer or is it a branch office of where you provide service from your company?)

[rick20]

I like your solution to use Generic Agent. I will try how it works.

Regarding branch offices:

First of all i should mention to you, the company i work for mostly provides on site services. We have several branch offices in all country. Our customers (banks, petrol stations etc) have a lot small sites in all country. When the ticket arrives to OTRS for SD is good to identificate where is the customer branch office (site) located, and then SD can assign ticket to the agent from the particular our branch office. Maybe for my idea is better solution...

[crythias]

When the ticket arrives to OTRS for SD is good to identificate where is the customer branch office (site) located, and then SD can assign ticket to the agent from the particular our branch office. Maybe for my idea is better solution...

Since Queue is effective in determining the agent(s) that can handle a ticket, perhaps the Queue might be Branch.

[rick20]

Thanks for your support. Maybe i will try to configure otrs 3.x with customer<>SLA add-on.

[rvaldomir]

I suggest:

Company is a Queue
branches is a sub queue
contracts is a service with a sla applied using generic agent, using event based execution.

assigning permissions by groups to agents and customer users.

Event Triggers:
TYPE EVENT
Ticket TicketCreate
Ticket TicketPriorityUpdate
Ticket TicketServiceUpdate
Ticket TicketQueueUpdate

and the desired filter (service/queue::subqueue) to apply the correct SLA