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Use this process if your support organization has several levels. Your SAP experts support SAP applications in the SAP Solution Manager Help Desk. You can use an external help desk from a third-party supplier to support non-SAP applications and for general IT problem messages. This process describes how the two help desks work together.

IT Service Management in SAP Solution Manager can use several external help desks.

Prerequisites

  • You have configured the SAP Solution Manager Help Desk.

  • You have assigned the appropriate user role to the necessary users:

    For more information, see the SAP Solution Manager Security Guide in the SAP Service Marketplace, under   http://service.sap.com/instguides   SAP Components   SAP Solution Manager <current release>  , under 4 Operations.

  • You have connected an external help desk to your SAP Solution Manager system. For further information, see Connecting an External Help Desk.

  • You have displayed the assignment block External Help Desk in the WebClient UI.

Process

Scenario A: Starting from the external help desk

  1. The customer, user, or reporter creates a support message in the external help desk.

  2. A member of the support unit responsible processes the support message in the external help desk.

  3. The external help desk staff classify the support message as an SAP application problem and forward it to the SAP Solution Manager IT Service Management.

  4. The system creates a corresponding message in the SAP Solution Manager.

  5. The SAP expert processes the support message in the SAP Solution Manager.

  6. If necessary, the external help desk staff send additional processing information.

    The system copies the information automatically.

  7. The SAP expert sends the support message back to the external help desk with a proposed solution or for further processing.

  8. The external help desk processor puts the support message back in processing.

  9. The external help desk processor sends the support message to the problem reporter, with a proposed solution.

  10. The problem reporter tests and confirms the solution.

    The system closes the message in both the external help desk and the SAP Solution Manager.

Scenario B: Starting from IT Service Management in SAP Solution Manager

  1. The customer, user, or problem reporter creates a support message in the SAP Solution Manager.

  2. An SAP expert processes the support message in the SAP Solution Manager.

  3. The SAP expert decides that the support message is not an SAP application problem, and forwards it to the external help desk.

  4. The system creates a corresponding message in the external help desk. The SAP Solution Manager shows the processing status of the message as In External Processing.

  5. The external help desk staff process the support message in the external help desk.

  6. If necessary, the SAP expert sends additional processing information.

  7. The external help desk staff send the support message back to the SAP Solution Manager, with a proposed solution, or for further processing.

    The system updates the support message in the SAP Solution Manager.

  8. The SAP expert processes the support message in the SAP Solution Manager again.

  9. The SAP expert sends the support message to the problem reporter, with a proposed solution.

  10. The problem reporter tests and confirms the solution.

    The system closes the message in both the external help desk and the SAP Solution Manager.