IT Change Management in ServiceDesk Plus

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Change management in

Welcome to Zylkerville!
WENDY
HR
DAVE
HIRING MANAGER
JOHN
END USER
BUSINESS USERS IT FOLKS
MARCUS
CIO
SCOTT
IT TECHNICIAN
JASON
IT TECHNICIAN
ADAM
IT TECHNICIAN
CATRIN
IT SERVICE
MANAGER

Zylker works out two different changes. Let’s see how the stories
unfold.
Two stories of change from
Zylker
Replacing the
printers at
Zylker.
ROOTKIT at Zylker.

Zylker IT replaces their printers
Change management with ServiceDesk Plus

The Zylker printers are ageing
Wendy, HR
John, End User
Dave, Hiring Manager
This printer’s
giving me
trouble every
single day!
The paper
always gets
jammed!

STEP 1
Catrin informs Marcus about the need to
replace
the old laser printers with LED
ones.
CATRIN
IT SERVICE
MANAGER
STEP 2
Marcus confirms that the team can go
ahead
with the change, provided the finances
involved are taken care of.
Zylker decides to take an easy way
out
MARCUS
CIO
STEP 3
The technicians replace the old laser
printers with
the new LED ones.

It’s a nice, sunny day at Zylker
until…
The tornado strikes.
END USERS
Wendy, from the 1st floor
John from the 2nd floor
I get an “Access
is denied” error
every time I try
to print.
I don’t know the IP
address of the
printer. It has
changed!
Dave from the 3rd floor
WI-FI
printing
takes too
long!

Zylkerville in trouble!
Who changed the
IP address?
Did you not know you
weren’t supposed to
change the static IP
address?
What’s going wrong
here, Catrin?
The “Access denied
error” is because of the
changed IP address.
Geez! I didn’t know the
IP configuration
procedure.
I’m trying to fix the WI-
FI issue! Doesn’t seem
to be working though!
I thought you had this
under control.

The snowball effect takes a toll on
Zylker
The impact of the change
wasn’t analyzed due to lack
of planning and a back out
plan wasn’t laid out.
LACK OF IMPACT ANALYSIS
AND BACK OUT PLAN
The technicians lacked
expertise and were not
familiar with the process.
LACK OF EXPERIENCE
LACK OF AN APPROVAL SYSTEM
How a minor change blew up to a major issue, thereby affecting productivity
Lack of approval caught
people unawares and
the right expertise was
not pinned to the
change.
NO FORETHOUGHT OF RISKS
There was a lack of proper
planning and the risks
weren’t identified.
POOR TRACKING SYSTEM
No tracking system
to keep tabs on the
progress or the
status of the
change.

Change management with
ServiceDesk Plus
For hassle free changes

PLANNING CHANGES
FEATURE: CALENDAR VIEW.
Catrin checks the calendar view of changes and plans the printer replacement change, accordingly. She
schedules the change using the scheduled start and scheduled end options during change submission.
Catrin schedules the
change making sure
it doesn’t interfere
with other changes.

CHANGE SUBMISSION
FEATURE: CHANGES.
Zylker is a fairly big organization that has a number of printers installed in the company. To manage the overall
process of replacing the existing printers with new LED ones, Catrin creates a new change in the “Changes”
module of ServiceDesk Plus.
Creates a
new change
in the
“Changes”
tab.
Catrin creates a new
change type in the
admin module.
Chooses the
newly configured
change type for
the change.
Selects the
time frame of
the change.

CHANGE CONFIGURATION
FEATURE: CHANGE STAGE AND STATUS.
Catrin updates the change stages to match the requirements and creates statuses for each stage.
Catrin adds
new statuses
for each stage
of the change.
Edits the
change
stage.

FEATURE: CHANGE SLA.
Catrin sets the resolution SLA and defines escalation levels. This helps to notify change roles on the progress of
the change and maintain the desired pace of the process.
Catrin adds new
statuses for each
stage of the
change using the
configuration
wizard.
Adds new
statuses for
each stage of
planning.
Sets escalation rules to
notify the specified
roles should the SLA
be violated.

FEATURE: CHANGE ROLES.
Catrin creates roles pertaining to the change in the admin module and provides the required access permissions.
This helps to assign change specific roles to technicians or end users.
Catrin adds the
change roles
required.
Gives relevant
access
permissions.
Assigns the
right
technicians for
each role.
Restricts the role
to technicians.

FEATURE: NOTIFICATION TEMPLATE.
Catrin defines the notification template that will be automatically triggered when the status changes.
Defines the
change roles that
need to be notified
of change in
status.
Configures the
notification
template.

CHANGE STATUS TRANSITION:
FEATURE: STATUS ACTIONS.
To move the change to the next stage, Catrin uses the ‘Status Action’ option. She chooses ‘Accept’ from the
‘status actions’ dropdown and adds a comment. The status of the change automatically moves to the next stage.
Catrin moves to
the planning
phase after
submitting the
change.
Catrin chooses
‘Accept’ in the
status actions.
Adds a comment
on the status
change and
saves it.

CHANGE PLANNING
FEATURE: PLANNING (Roll Out Plan, Back Out Plan, Check List, Downtime).
Catrin adds the roll out and back out plans for the change to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. She
adds a checklist for technicians to easily carry out the process of replacing the printers. She also sets the time
period for which printers will be inaccessible.
Creates a roll
out plan and
back out plan.
Sets a
checklist of
things to do.
She adds the
detailed
checklist as an
attachment. Sets the time for
which printers are
going to be
inaccessible.

CHANGE APPROVAL
FEATURE: APPROVAL, ADDING CAB, SEND FOR RECOMMENDATION.
Catrin forms a Change Advisory Board (CAB) in the admin module, selects the CAB members in the “approval”
tab and sends a pre-defined notification template to them asking for their approval.
Catrin creates a
CAB for the
printer
replacement
change.
Associates the
CAB with the
change and sends
it for approval.

NOTIFYING END USERS AND TECHNICIANS ABOUT THE CHANGE
FEATURE: ANNOUNCEMENTS.
Catrin creates an announcement using the ‘Actions’ drop down box for the end users and technicians. This will ensure
that everyone is updated and are on the same page when the change is being implemented. The auto-suggest feature
also makes sure that end users who have missed the announcement don’t log in tickets on issues pertaining to the
change.
Catrin creates a new
announcement that
will be available for
end users and
technicians to view.
Chooses to send
the announcement
as email to
selected users.

IMPLEMENTATION OF CHANGE:
FEATURE: PROJECT MANAGEMENT.
Since Zylker has a big number of printers, Catrin turns the change into a project instead of breaking it down to
tasks. She creates a new project titled, “Printer replacement” and associates it with the change.
Catrin creates a
new project for
the printer
replacement.
Associates the
project with the
change in the
implementation
phase.

CHANGE REVIEW:
FEATURE: REVIEW.
Catrin collects reviews from the CAB, the associated technicians, and the end users and attaches them as files to
the change in the ‘review’ tab. This helps ensure a successful change and also serves as references for similar
changes in the future.
Catrin attaches
the reviews to
the change.

CHANGE TIMELINE:
FEATURE: TIMELINE.
At each stage, Catrin checks the status details of the change easily by hovering the cursor over the timeline.
Catrin views the status
comments at each
stage easily by
hovering over the
timeline.

CHANGE CHANGE CLOSURE:
FEATURE: CLOSE TAB.
Based on the reviews, Catrin decides to close the change. This registers the complete closure of the change. She
also triggers an asset scan to record the new printers in the asset directory.
Catrin selects the
closure code and
closes the
change.
Triggers the
scanning of the
newly installed
printers.

Driving a successful change with
ServiceDesk Plus.
SUBMIT
The change is
created.
The technicians
and end users
are notified of the
change by
making an
announcement.
ANNOUNCE
IMPLEMENT
The change is
associated with a newly
created project and
implemented.
PLAN
REVIEW
The change is
planned with
the 6 stages of
planning.
The
implemented
change is
reviewed and
recorded.
CLOSE
The change is closed
after analyzing the
review.
4
1
2 3
4
5
6

ROOTKIT at Zylker
Firefighting using emergency change management in
ServiceDesk Plus

5:00 a.m.: Scott is a happy guy, kicking off
his day listening to cool music!
SCOTT
IT TECHNICIAN
Zylker under attack!
5:10 a.m.: Scott notices something strange in
his dashboard. There were entries showing
multiple failed login attempts.
5:20 a.m.: Scott is not so happy! Finds out
it’s a ROOTKIT!

Scott creates a change and sends it for
approval
from Catrin and the CAB. Waits for the
approval.
How Scott handles the issue.
None of the members of the CAB were working at
those
early hours and by the time they responded, it was
too late.
I know how to
handle this!
Oh wait! Catrin has
made it very clear that
I shouldn’t process
anything without an
approval!
1
2

Emergency changes
Handling emergency changes using ServiceDesk Plus

EMERGENCY CHANGE:
FEATURE: CHANGE TYPES; CHANGE WORKFLOW.
Scott creates a new change type for the emergency type and marks it as a pre-approved change. This will allow
him to skip the approval stage. Scott doesn’t have the time for an elaborate change workflow. He modifies the
Emergency workflow and sets it to skip a few stages.
Scott creates a new
change type for the
emergency change
and marks it ‘pre-
approved’.
Defines a quick
processing change
workflow for the
emergency change.

EMERGENCY CHANGE SUBMISSION:
FEATURE:. CHANGE MODULE
Scott creates a new change with the emergency change template and workflow, which will allow him to skip a few
stages for faster closure of the change. The pre-approved emergency change workflow automatically by-passes
the approval stage.
Scott creates a
new change using
the emergency
template and
workflow.
The workflow
automatically skips
the approval step.

EMERGENCY CHANGE CLOSURE:
FEATURE:. CLOSE.
Scott implements the change and closes it quickly and the issue is solved.
Scott selects the
closure code, adds
a comment and
closes the change.

ROOTKIT busted With ServiceDesk Plus!
The change
is created.
DEFINE
CREATE
PRE-
APPROVE
CLOSE
SKIP
SOLVE
The change is
completed and
closed.
The
emergency
change
workflow is
defined.
The pre-
approved
workflow skips
the approval
stage.
The issue is
fixed in no
time.
The
emergency
workflow
moves the
change
directly to

James Arnold
Service desk manager
Manhattan Associates
ServiceDesk Plus has been a great decision both functionally and financially.
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IT Change Management in ServiceDesk Plus

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