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Guide on how to configure and use SLAs in FocalScope

FocalScope's SLA engine utilizes two components to give you precise tracking and predictable escalation of your SLA-dependent tickets. This article details how you can configure a working-hours profile and the SLA routines that will color emails for visual distinction, notify supervisors of aging tickets, and escalate tickets to rapid-response teams.

For a diagrammatic overview of the SLA logic, please download the attached PDF file.

Prerequisites

Adding a new ticketbox

Tutorial

Configuring a working-hours profile

  1. In the [Main menu], select [Screen > Administration]
  2. Click the [SLA configuration] tab (highlighted in red)
  3. Click the [Working Hours Profiles] folder
  4. In the right-hand pane, right click and select [New]


Figure 1 - Adding a new working-hours profile


There are two aspects to a working-hours profile, (1) the days and office hours during which the SLA timer will age tickets, and (2) the holidays / exceptions which prevent the SLA timer from aging tickets for a specified date and time.


Under the [General Working Hours Definition], there are three columns, (left) are the days of the week, (middle) are the start times for each day, and (right) are the finish times for each day. FocalScope's SLA engine will only age tickets on marked days between the start and finish times.

  1. In the [Name] field, enter a suitable name for the working-hours profile (e.g., Tech Support Working Hours)
  2. In the [Time zone offset] field, set the correct time zone for your region (e.g., GMT+02 = 2)
  3. Tick the flags next to the days on which the SLA should operate
  4. Specify the [form] (start time) time for the selected days
  5. Specify the [to] (finish time) time for the selected days
  6. Continued in next section...


Figure 2 - Working hours



  1. Click the [Holidays/Exceptions] tab
  2. In the [Name] field, enter the name of the holiday / exception
  3. In the [Date], [from], and [to] fields, enter the date as well as the start and end time for this holiday / exception
  4. Click [Add] to add the holiday / exception to the working-hours profile
  5. Click [Ok] to save the working-hour profile


Figure 3 - Holidays and exceptions


Configuring an SLA profile

  1. In the [Main menu], select [Screen > Administration]
  2. Click the [SLA configuration] tab (highlighted in red)
  3. Click the [SLA Profiles] folder
  4. In the right-hand pane, right click and select [New]


Figure 4 - Adding a new SLA profile



  1. In the [Name] field, enter the name of the SLA
  2. Under the [SLA events] section, add a timer by clicking the left green [+] button, and in the [Time] column, enter the time + unit (minutes or hours). Tickets that reach the age as specified in the [Time] column will have the corresponding action effected on them
  3. In the [Report] column, tick the corresponding flag of the timers that you want to make available for reporting
  4. In the [Action] column, select the type of action  to be effected on tickets of the specified age. There are four options and are defined in the [Details] column:
    1. Paint e-mail in color: highlights the ticket root with the specified color for a visual alert of the ticket age
    2. Send e-mail: sends email to specified email address (can be in FocalScope or to an external email address)
    3. Alert supervisor: sends an alert to the specified user(s) in FocalScope
    4. Copy ticket to folder: create a mirror of the ticket (does not consume extra disk space) in the specified folder
  5. Please note, multiple actions can be triggered per timer. To add more actions to a timer, click the corresponding right green [+] button for the corresponding timer to which you want to add additional actions
  6. Click [Ok] to save the SLA profile



Figure 5 - Defining the SLA logic


Associating a working-hour profile and SLA profile to a ticketbox

Please note, only one working-hours profile and one SLA profile can be assigned to a particular ticketbox at one time.

  1. In the workspace screen, right click the folder where you want to enable an SLA and select [Properties]
  2. Click the [SLA] tab
  3. From the [Working hours profile] and [SLA configuration profile] dropdown lists (highlighted in red), select the designated profiles for the selected ticketbox
  4. Please note, click the green [+] button to add new profiles or click the [Pencil] button to edit existing profiles. (Highlighted in blue)
  5. Click [Ok] to save the changes made. The SLA engine should now take effect and start acting on aging tickets based on the associated working-hours and SLA configuration profiles



Figure 6 - Associating an SLA with a ticketbox


Viewing logged SLA actions in the action history

Whenever the SLA engine performs an action on a ticket, it will be recorded in the action history log for the affected ticket. To see the action history log for a ticket, simply hover the mouse cursor over the leftmost icon in the message list as indicated in Figure 7.


Figure 7 - SLA events logged in a ticket's action history

Additional Information



Attachments

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