Roles

You can perform different tasks, depending on your role and authorizations. Depending on the information you want to forward, you create an incident message, a problem message or a service request.

The roles you can use include:

End user (reporter)
Dispatcher
Processor
Administrator

SAP delivers these roles as models. Adjust the roles to the division of work and tasks in your support organization. The tasks may differ from those in your company.

For more information about the roles and their authorizations in Incident Management, see the Security Guide for SAP Solution Manager on SAP Service Marketplace under http://service.sap.com/instguides SAP Components SAP Solution Manager <current release> 4 Operations.

Process

Administrator Tasks

The administrator sets up the information required to manage messages, for all messages. The relevant functions are in the navigation bar, under Master Data and Basic Functions and in the SAP Solution Manager configuration.

For further information, see Administration.

Reporting an incident

The reporter can perform the following actions:

Create an incident message (see Create an Incident Message as End User)
Display his or her own messages, and monitor their status
Answer a processor query (see Answer Proposed Solution or Query)
Confirm the solution (see Confirming a Solution).

The reporter can also report the message by telephone, E-Mail, or in other ways. A Dispatcher or Processor creates such messages and performs other actions, in the system, for the reporter.

The dispatcher can perform the following actions:

Create a message, if incidents are reported by telephone or in other ways (see Create Incident Message as Dispatcher or Processor)
Forward a message to a processor (see Forwarding a Message to a Processor)
Confirm completed messages (see Confirming a Solution).

The processors responsible for the incident message can then perform the following actions:

Receive incident message (see Find Message)
Prioritize and categorize the incident message
Find a solution (see Finding a Message)
Process the incident message (see Process Message)
Send an e-mail for the incident message to the reporter (see Send to E-Mail)
Forward the incident message to downstream support units (such as an external Help Desk) or to SAP Support (see Forwarding a Message)
Propose a solution to the reporter (see Propose Solution)

Once the processor of the incident message has received the confirmation, he or she can:

Create a problem message (see Create Problem Message)
Create a knowledge article (see Editing Knowledge Articles)
Create a change request (see Change Request)
Confirm the time required to find the solution (see Record Support Processor Working Time)
Close the incident message

For more information about processing messages, see Process Message.

Service Request Message

The reporter can perform the following actions:

Create a service request, to request a specified service (see Create Service Request as End User)
Display his or her own service requests, and monitor their status
Answer a processor query (see Answer Proposed Solution or Query)
Confirm the solution (see Confirming a Solution).

The reporter can also report the message by telephone, E-Mail, or in other ways. A Dispatcher or Processor creates such messages and performs other actions, in the system, for the reporter.

The dispatcher can perform the following actions:

Create a message, if service requests are reported by telephone or in other ways (see Create Service Request as Dispatcher or Processor)
Forward a message to a processor (see Forwarding a Message to a Processor)
Confirm completed messages (see Confirming a Solution).

The processors responsible for the service request can then perform the following actions:

Receive service request (see Find Message)
Prioritize and categorize the service request
Find a solution (see Proposing a Solution)
Process the service request (see Process Message), for example in the assignment block Checklist
Send an e-mail for the service request to the reporter (see Send E-Mail)
Forward the service request to downstream support units or SAP Support (see Forwarding a Message)
Propose a solution to the reporter (see Propose Solution)

For further information about using service requests, see Processing Service Requests.

Reporting a Problem

An IT Support employee creates a problem message, because he or she has detected a problem or is currently processing several incident messages that relate to a problem.

The processor can perform the following actions:

Create a problem message and assign it to incident messages for the same problem. The system locks the incident messages for further processing because the processor is looking for solutions to the problem.
Create a problem message from an incident message as a follow-up transaction.
Assign an existing problem message to an incident message and assume responsibility for processing the problem message (depending on the support organization).

While processing the problem message, the support employee can perform various activities to find a solution and close the message.

For further information about using problem message, see Processing Problem Messages.