Remedy Enhanced: Introducing Rem-Mail

By Pat Evans, Remedy Developer

Since the initial implementation of Remedy in 1998, Remedy has undergone a major system upgrade and several smaller but no less important enhancements.In the past few weeks, the latest and possibly most noticeable enhancement to the current ARS 4.5/Helpdesk 4.0 system was placed into production – that enhancement was Rem-Mail.

Remedy review

While Remedy has become an almost ubiquitous asset for many support personnel across campus, to many other people Remedy is still a mystery. Questions may arise like – What is Remedy? What does it do for the University? And, what does Remedy mean to me?

In its simplest definition, Remedy is a campus-wide trouble call tracking system for computer support problems. Its primary purpose at the University is to provide a central tracking system for every conceivable type of computer support action. Key features provided by this system are:

• Notifies groups of support staff members by various means (E-mail, pager) as soon as a new case (trouble ticket) is entered into the system and assigned to them.

• Notifies the customer via E-mail when a new trouble ticket is created, and when that ticket is placed in various states such as "Work in Progress, Pending, Resolved, and Closed."

• Enables distributed support staff to quickly escalate problems to central computing staff where appropriate, while maintaining continuous feedback to the customer.

• Provides follow-up and escalation actions for problems that are not being resolved in a timely manner.

• Empowers the customer to decide whether or not the problem was resolved, and if not, allows them to easily reopen the ticket via ARWeb or Remedy Web, which automatically notifies the support staff of that fact.

• Stores solutions to problems in a database that can be searched directly from the trouble ticket screen, and will ultimately be available to all customers as well.

• Enables customers to enter their own trouble tickets into interactive web forms that are forwarded directly to their primary computer support staff (either the distributed area or the central helpdesk).

From a customer's perspective, Remedy means a number of things. For one, it enables support staff to quickly pick your customer record and get on with recording the facts of your problem. For another, it means being told that a trouble ticket number has been created for you if the support staff couldn’t resolve your problem over the phone. And finally, allows you to receive notification messages (when you have a valid E-mail address in the system) when your case has been resolved and upon resolution of your case, an opportunity to respond to a Customer Satisfaction Survey via the Web.

Okay, so what is Rem-Mail?

Rem-Mail is an E-mail Integration tool designed for use with the Remedy Action Request System. It enhances the E-mail capabilities of Remedy by allowing for “total free-form E-mail message to create or update entries within the Remedy AR System.” [i] No longer are Remedy notifications to customers and individual assignees limited to a terse 255-characters; now we can have up to 32K of text and up to 5 E-mail attachments per notification/ correspondence. It is simply the best third-party solution for outbound E-mail notifications (for robustness and form) and inbound updates from practically any mail client (a feature not previously available via the ARS mail system) to existing Remedy cases.

What does Rem-Mail mean for me?

In the most general of terms, Rem-Mail makes it possible to send you comprehensive information regarding your HelpDesk or ChangeRequest ticket, and it allows you to input additional information directly into the ticket, all from the simplicity of your preferred E-mail client. Because Rem-Mail facilitates a wide range of new capabilities for Remedy, what Rem-Mail can do for you individually is broken down based on your role (Requester, Support Staff, and Manager) as defined in the Remedy Action Request System.

The Customer (Requester)?

As a Remedy customer, you have likely received E-mail notifications from arsystem@unt.edu with a subject line looking something like:

Trouble Ticket (Case) HD0000000017022 has been opened for you (Login Name "xyz0001") on the Remedy call tracking system.

This message indicates that a support staff member (or one of our problem reporting web pages on WebCT or EagleMail-mail) has created a new case for you in Remedy as a result of a telephone call, E-mail, or other customer service transaction with or for you in which a problem was reported.  It is a clear indication that someone is aware of your problem, and usually provides telephone point of contact information for the group assigned to your case within the text body of the message.

But the drawback of a notification like this is its very one-way nature. You get notified by E-mail, but have to reply to Support Staff via the phone or through ARWeb (a Remedy interface via the Web). Now, using Rem-Mail, you will receive notification from remmail@unt.edu and have the ability to reply directly to a notification such as this:

  Remedy HD0000000046439 for EUID/xyz0001 was created. Status: ##UPDATE##

While the message subject line still indicates by inference that a support staff member has created a new case for you in Remedy, this subject line now has the power, because of its format and content, to be read by Rem-Mail and acted upon by Remedy when properly replied back to remmail@unt.edu.

So what is the Subject line telling me?

The first part of the message, the “Remedy HD0000000046439” portion, tells us that a HelpDesk (hence ‘HD’) case numbered ‘46439’ was created when you reported your problem to Support Staff. The second part of the message, the “EUID/xyz0001”, is the EUID, or Enterprise User Identification – a unique identifier that for our purposes is also your Remedy User Identification. And lastly, the Status flag word located between the ## delimiters. The standard notification flag word upon creation of a Remedy ticket has been pre-scripted for you.... ##UPDATE##. This flag word lets you know that a ticket has been created and now you, the customer, can update your case simply by replying to this notification. (NOTE: The information above talks about a Remedy Help Desk case, but is equally applicable to Remedy Change Requests; as identified by a preceding CHG to the change request number.)

So how do I successfully update my Remedy case by Rem-Mail?

This is the easy part. Simply click ‘Reply’ in your mail client like you would any other E-mail message and reply in the text body with the updated information you would like to convey to the Support Staff handling your case.Here is an example of how a successful reply would look using Outlook Express as a mail client:

Additionally, when you are successful in updating your Remedy case, Rem-Mail will send you a message containing a subject line like this:

You, the Requester ( xyz0001 ) of Remedy case HD0000000046441, have successfully updated it via Rem-Mail.

This message is only a notification and cannot be replied successfully to.

What happens if I am not successful in replying to Rem-Mail or reply in error to the successful update notification message?

If you should accidentally reply to the successful update notification message or for whatever reason your reply was not successfully read by Rem-Mail, you will receive a notification from Rem-Mail telling you that your update has failed and what the likely cause for that failure was. Most common causes for failure is using an unsupported flag word (the word(s) between the ## signs) in a reply, or accidentally modifying your case number, or in the case of the success notifications, not following a reply format that Rem-Mail can understand and process.

Can I resolve my own case using Rem-Mail?

Yes, absolutely! Now you, the customer, can resolve your own case via E-mail without having to call or E-mail the assigned support staff that your problem has been resolved. Using the same E-mail notification that you received from Rem-Mail that a Remedy case had been opened for you, simply replace the word “UPDATE” with the word “RESOLVE” between the ## delimiters in the subject line. An example of this using EagleMail-mail:

I’ve just received a message from Rem-Mail that my case has been resolved. What do I do? What if I disagree - can I reopen the case?

If you agree that the specific problem that was reported in this case has been resolved to your satisfaction, you can do one of two things: do nothing and let the Remedy system automatically close your case or you can reply to the message and close it immediately. (NOTE: If you close your case, but the original problem reappears, you will have to have a new case created.)

If, however, you do not believe that your problem for this case has been resolved, you may reopen the case. To reopen the case, replace the flag word RESOLVE with the flag word REOPEN between the ## delimiters. An example is provided:

I’ve used Rem-Mail to reopen my case. What happens next?

Upon receiving an inbound E-mail into Rem-Mail’s mailbox with the flag word of REOPEN, Rem-Mail reads the case number and Remedy takes that case number and changes the status of the case from Resolved to Assigned. The ticket is then handled as a continuation of the original problem reported.

Upon reopening your case, the originally assigned support group is notified that you have re-opened your case, and that work must resume to correct the problem that you reported. For you, the customer, the REOPEN flag word has surely got to be one of the most powerful tools you have to achieve problem resolution. No longer will you have to accept that your case is resolved when you don’t believe that it is. With REOPEN, you can keep reopening your case until such time as the problem is resolved to your satisfaction; then you would agree to CLOSE the case and no further work for this ticket with this problem will occur.

(NOTE: Please do not abuse this function. To provide the best support to you, it would not be appropriate to reopen a ticket for one reported problem, only to add a new and unrelated problem.)

This is great! Where can I get more information about using Rem-Mail?

You can get additional information about using Rem-Mail by going to Help Desk Central at the following web-site and choosing the link for Remedy E-mail Interfaces: http://remedy.unt.edu/HELPDESK/

The Support Staff?

For support staff, Rem-Mail offers up a whole new and exciting way to create and manage Remedy Helpdesk cases, Change Requests, and Tasks; all from the comfort of your E-mail client. To best understand the added features to Remedy that Rem-Mail brings, let’s look at the entire life-cycle of a Helpdesk case from creation to closure with an eye toward the needs of support staff working the ticket.

Creating a New Case

With Rem-Mail, you can now create a new Helpdesk case or Change Request from your mail client without ever having to open up the Remedy client. In the past, it was not uncommon for a customer to send an E-mail to a support group E-mail address requesting assistance for a problem they were experiencing. In most cases, the customers E-mail was replied to by a member of the group, but no Remedy case was created for the support provided. If the support staff did create a case from the incoming E-mail, it would require opening the Remedy client, finding the user in the People database, and then submitting the case to the appropriate support group for the customer. All in all, a more time consuming process.

Now imagine taking that same customer’s E-mail and forwarding it to a Remedy mailbox that would automatically create a case and assign it to the appropriate support group for its stated problem. With Rem-Mail, this is a reality.

Processing a submitted E-mail into a Remedy request depends upon the correct format of the Subject line of the incoming E-mail message. It also must come from an E-mail address that has been give specific rights to use this capability. The creation of a new Help Desk Case or Change Request requires three key elements: a prefix telling Rem-Mail how to proceed with the Inbound E-mail, a pre-defined NewKeyword that Rem-Mail already understands, and the Requester’s EUID (actually, their Remedy Login Name if it differs from their EUID).

Again, submitting an E-mail into a Remedy request can only come from an E-mail address that has been given specific rights to use this capability. For more detailed information about New Help Desk case or Change Request creation, please visit the following URL: http://remedy.unt.edu/helpdesk

and select the link for “Using Rem-Mail to create NEW Remedy Trouble Tickets or Change Requests” under “Remedy E-mail Interfaces.”

Self-Assignment of cases

While Group Notification (notifications to each member of a support group) is not a Rem-Mail feature, group notifications have been enhanced to support Self-Assignment of cases. Leveraging the strength of the Remedy API to handle group notifications, the outbound message from Remedy has been reformatted to allow a Support Staff member or Manager to FORWARD the message to Rem-Mail, thus permitting an individual assignment and even a status change to the case.

  (An example of a Group Notification to a member of the Testing group)

Only designated Support Staff and Managers in the Remedy People Database have the permissions necessary to assign a ticket from E-mail, all others attempting to self-assign a ticket will result in a failure. 

If you are support staff member or a manager in Remedy, the recommended method for self-assigning tickets is to EDIT the FLAGWORD in the Subject: line, DELETE the text after the flagword and ADD the action ASSIGN/login name one space following the flagword ## delimiters. Otherwise leave the subject line exactly as you received it, plus the "Fwd:" or "FW:" prefix appended to the Subject line by your E-mail client. Enter the text you want to add to the Work Log in the Message: body.

  (An example of a correctly formatted self-assigned case submission)

(NOTE: Support Staff ONLY have permission to assign the ticket to themselves)

Update of assigned tickets

Once a Help Desk case or Change Request has been assigned or reassigned to an individual Support Staff (either through Rem-Mail or the Remedy client), the individual assignee will receive a notification from Rem-Mail containing pertinent information about the case. (Notification to an assignee is dependent upon the support staff having notification preference set to E-mail within Remedy.) Rem-Mail, because of its ability to handle text up to 32K in size, allows for robust notifications to include such information as Summary, Description of problem, and Status of case, Customer information and any additional Work Log entries already associated with the case. Ideally, the information in this notification would allow a Support Staff to print it, and then travel with that information to the customer’s location if on-site work was required.

Much like a requester updating a case, Support Staff can also update a case with just informational updates to the Work Log, or additionally change the status of the working case. The recommended method for updating tickets is to ONLY EDIT THE FLAGWORD in the Subject: line and leave all other elements exactly as you received them, plus the "Re:" or "RE:" prefix appended to the Subject line by your E-mail client. Enter the text you want to add to the Work Log in the Message: body.

  (An example of a correctly formatted case update by a reassigned to support staff)

  (An example of a correctly formatted status change and update)

  (An example of an assignee correctly resolving a case via Rem-Mail)

Flagwords

Critical to the successful update of a Help Desk case or change request is the flagword. While the need for a valid login name and ticket number is self-evident, the flagword needs a brief explanation.

Simply put, a flagword is nothing more than the word between the ##’s in a notification. With the exception of REOPEN and CONFIRM, flagwords are the same as the choices of Status from the Helpdesk or Change client and are always in UPPERCASE.

(NOTE: Status Pending is a unique case. Pending actually requires two parts; the Pending Status and the Pending subtype. PENDING is the all-caps flagword, followed by a period (.) and the pending subtype in lower case. The pending subtype is identical to the Pending values from the Helpdesk or Change client.)

Success Notifications

Success Notifications are simply indicators informing you that your submission of an update or status change update was successful and look like this:

Rem-Mail update of HD0000000046797 by SECONDLEVEL, SAM SIMEON was successful.

You cannot Reply to THIS success notification and update anything! It is only an indicator that your last attempt to update the ticket succeeded. Also, as a Support Staff member, you will receive a carbon copy of the success notification received by Requesters who successfully update their ticket via Rem-Mail, whether the ticket is assigned to a group or to an individual assignee.

The Support Manager?

For the support manager, Rem-Mail expands upon the Rem-Mail feature of support staff case self-assignment. Like support staff case self-assignment, managers can assign a case via a group notification to the most qualified support staff member. Or, should one support staff member be better qualified to resolve the case over another support staff already assigned, managers can reassign the case from one to the other.

The recommended method for initially assigning/reassigning tickets is to EDIT the FLAGWORD in the Subject: line, DELETE the text after the flagword and ADD the action ASSIGN/login name//login name one space following the flagword ## delimiters. Additionally, the first login name will be of the Group member this case is being assigned to, with the second login name being that of the manager. Otherwise leave the subject line exactly as you received it, plus the "Fwd:" or "FW:" prefix appended to the Subject line by your e-mail client. Enter the text you want to add to the Work Log in the Message: body.

 (An example of a correctly formatted assignment by a manager to a support staff member)

Success Notifications for Managers

Success Notifications for managers are simply indicators informing you that your submission of an assignment/reassignment of a case was successful.

 (An example of a successful assignment/reassignment notification to a Manager)

Like other success update notifications, you cannot reply to this success notification and update anything!It is only an indicator that your last attempt to assign/reassign the ticket succeeded.

What the future holds for Rem-Mail and Remedy

One of the most appealing features slated for the next Rem-Mail development cycle at UNT is the ability to push Knowledgebase information from Remedy to a customer, including file attachments (for example, an updated system file or product diagram illustration) as warranted. Where appropriate, this process could also be run in reverse, allowing a support staff or even possibly a customer to inject a file (possibly, an image file of a screen capture for example) into a trouble ticket. Another feature being considered is to develop more robust Group notifications utilizing Rem-Mail that can manage email addresses of individual group members, thus eliminating the cryptic messages currently sent out by Remedy. And at some point, using Rem-Mail as the platform to do Customer Satisfaction surveys directly, rather than having to go to a web link to complete the survey.

Still, added features aside, the Remedy/Rem-Mail Administration and Development team will continue to push for ease of use for all users; Customers, Support Staff and Managers alike.

For more information on using Rem-Mail

Please visit Help Desk Central at: http://remedy.unt.edu/helpdesk and select any of the following links for much more detailed instructions for using Rem-Mail.

Procedural Instructions for Customers (Requesters) - Rem-Mail

• Using Rem-Mail to Update Remedy Trouble Tickets or Change Requests

Procedural Instructions for Support Staff – Rem-Mail

• Using Rem-Mail to Update Remedy Trouble Tickets or Change Tickets
• Using Rem-Mail to Create NEW Remedy Trouble Tickets or Change Requests
• Using Rem-Mail to Assign Existing Remedy Trouble Tickets or Change Requests

Credits

This is an original document; however some small portions of this article were previously published in Benchmarks Online and written by Chris Strauss, UNT Remedy Administrator. Also, thanks to Mark Warner of Ultimate Workflow Integration Partners, Inc. for all his assistance in teaching me the finer points of development with Rem-Mail and its integration with Remedy. And lastly, thanks to Sandy Burke, Computing Center HelpDesk Manager, for reminding me to keep any Remedy documentation readable.

[i] Courtesy of Ultimate Workflow Integration Partners, Inc. (http://www.uwip.com)