SysAid Problem Management

Problem Management

SysAid’s ITIL-aligned problem management software and its capabilities will help you to minimize the adverse effect of incidents and problems caused by errors in the IT infrastructure and systems, and to proactively prevent the occurrence of incidents, problems, and errors.

Help your problem management personnel achieve what ITIL defines as the objectives of incident management:

• Preventing problems and the resulting incidents from happening
• Eliminating recurring incidents
• Minimizing the business impact of incidents that cannot be prevented

With SysAid, problems can be linked to multiple incidents, with automated communications sent to affected end users upon problem activity progress and then resolution. If ITIL’s problem management best practice isn’t right for you and your organization, it’s easy to configure the out-of-the-box problem management process to meet your exact needs.

An Integrated Approach for Effective Problem Management

SysAid Problem Management is fully integrated inside the service desk, making it easier for you to quickly access the information and capabilities you need for effective problem management.

• Create a problem record from within one or more incident records
• Easily add incidents to problem records from within the incident or problem form
• Link assets, configuration items, tasks, projects, FAQs, changes, and other problems to the problem
• Access the CMDB for effective analysis of root causes and business impact

Create and Customize Problem Management Workflow Templates

As most organizations have their own unique set of problem management requirements, SysAid allows you to build an unlimited number of problem management templates to suit any scenario. Custom workflow processes can be created from scratch, or customized from existing templates, to ensure that all the activities involved in your organization’s problem management process are accurately reflected. So if you have recurring application errors, you can create a specific template that instructs problem management and other IT staff which potential causes to investigate first in the hope of quickly finding the root cause and effecting a resolution.

Built-in Templates for Basic and Advanced Problems

SysAid Problem Management comes with a number of best practice problem management templates to help you quickly get up and running with identifying, analyzing, and resolving problems. Built to match ITIL workflows, these out-of-the-box templates are designed to help you:

• Identify the root cause, or causes, of problems
• Assess the resources required to resolve problems (such as manpower, time, and costs)
• Evaluate the risks associated with both a problem and problem resolution (such as complexity, urgency, downtime, and potential impact)
• Calculate the ROI and added value of resolving problems
• Evaluate the relative success of problem management activities in investigating and resolving problems

Problem Management Notifications and a Full Audit Trail

As with all SysAid features, problem management has full notification capabilities to keep involved parties informed. It also records who does what and when, to provide a full audit history of problem management activities.

• Set automatic notifications of problem statuses and significant changes to be sent to involved parties as per your organization’s agreed communication points in the problem management process
• If needed, access detailed problem descriptions and a historical log of all activities and changes for any number of problem records

Group Incidents and Attach Them to a Problem Record

With SysAid Problem Management, it’s easy to identify similar or recurring incidents as problems. This can improve incident visibility and facilitate the investigation of the problem’s root cause. Moreover, as soon as problem management staff resolve and close a problem, all the attached incidents are automatically updated and closed as well, with communication to the affected end users as needed.

Knowledge Base of Known Errors and Known Problems

Reuse previously gained knowledge by maintaining a knowledge base of previous problems and their root causes. Provide workarounds to the service desk for the fast and efficient resolution of unresolved problems.