9.4 Register GenericAgent

When allocating SLAs to incident tickets, it is necessary to consider various conditions such as names and criticality of customers. Depending on the number of customers and conditions, agents might feel it difficult to allocate SLAs.
OTOBO’s GenericAgent function can be used to automate SLA allocation and streamline SLA management.


(1) Create GenericAgent

The procedure for creating GenericAgent is shown as follows.

1. Select [Admin] from the main menu.
2. On the screen that appears, click [Processes & Automation] - [GenericAgent]. The [Generic Agent Job Management] screen appears.
3. Click the [Add Job] button.
4. On the [Add Job] screen, register the following information.

(Table) Setting items in [Job Settings]

Setting items Description
Job name Name of the GenericAgent
Validity To make the job valid, specify "Yes” (default value).

(Table) Setting items in [Event Based Execution (Single Ticket)]

Setting items Description
Type Specify "Ticket".
EVENT Events that trigger execution of the job
The following settings are recommended.
  • TicketCreate: Creating a new ticket
  • TicketXXXUpdate: Changing a field in a ticket
  • TicketDynamicFieldUpdate_XXX: Changing a dynamic field in a ticket

Specify one or more items as the conditions for the tickets for allocation. The following items are recommended. Please be sure to specify the type.

(Table) Setting items in [Select Tickets]

Setting items Description
Title Title of the ticket
Customer ID Customer ID
Specify the relevant customer ID from the customer list displayed in [Customer] - [Customer Administration] from the main menu.
Customer user ID Customer user ID
Specify the name of the customer user.
Type Select "Incident" and click the [Confirm] button.
Priority Ticket priorities
Referring to "Ticket priorities", select the priority from the list.
Queue Contact person
Select the contact person from the list.
State Ticket status Referring to "Ticket statuses", select the status from the list.
Agent/Owner Agent or owner to which the ticket is assigned
Select the Agent/Owner from the list.
Add dynamic field Add customized fields
When you select an additional item, a field for setting values appears. The setting method depends on the type of field.
  • Checkbox: Select "Yes” or "No".
  • Date: Specify the date in UTC format from the calendar.
  • Date/time: Specify the date/time in UTC format from the calendar.
  • Dropdown: Select from a pulldown menu.
  • Text: Specify a value to search for.
  • Textarea: Specify a value to search for.
For details on customizing fields, see "Designing and Building Your Operation > Other operational design tips > Customizing the ticket window > Ticket fields" in "JP1 Cloud Service/Operations Integration User's Guide".

Specify the SLA to be used for allocation.

(Table) Setting items in [Update/Add Ticket Attributes]

Setting items Description
Set new Service Level Agreement The SLA to be used for allocation
You must create an SLA beforehand.

For details on the setting items, see the OTOBO manual.
https://doc.otobo.org/manual/admin/11.0/en/content/administration-area/processes-automation/generic-agent.html


5. When you have finished entering data, click [Save] to return to the [Generic Agent Job Management] screen. The registered job is displayed in the list.
For tickets that meet specified conditions, the SLA is automatically applied when the specified event occurs.

NoteNote

  • Even if you customized and changed the name of an incident ticket type, specify the type name as it was before the change.
  • Jobs are evaluated in the order they appear in the list (alphabetical order of job names) on the [Generic Agent Job management] screen, and ticket updates are performed each time conditions are met.
    If there are multiple jobs that meet the conditions, tickets will be updated for each job. Therefore, the same [Update/Add Ticket Attributes] setting items will be overwritten by the settings of the last job that met the conditions.
  • When you set the specified SLA to invalid, it will be removed from the GenericAgent. If you change the validity of the SLA, you need to specify the SLA in GenericAgent again.
  • For configuring "Select Tickets”, the following items are not supported.
    From, To, Cc, Subject, Ticket lock, Pending times, Escalation times, Escalation - first response time, Escalation - update time, Escalation - solution time


(2) Example of GenericAgent settings

Times and order of responses might differ depending on the criticality and priorities of incidents. You can prepare multiple SLAs and specify settings separately for different conditions.
The procedure for specifying GenericAgent settings is shown as follows.

1. Specify an event for [Event Based Execution (Single Ticket)].

(Table) Events to be monitored

Trigger for OTOBO event Ops I ticket field Description
TicketCreate - Set the SLA when creating a ticket
TicketCustomerUpdate Customers Re-assign the SLA when changing customers
TicketDynamicFieldUpdate_ITSMCriticality Criticality Re-assign the SLA when changing criticality
TicketDynamicFieldUpdate_ITSMImpact Impact Re-assign the SLA when changing impact
TicketPriorityUpdate Priority Re-assign the SLA when changing priority

2. Specify the ticket conditions in [Select Tickets].

(Table) Ticket setting items

Setting items Description
Type Specify "Incident"
Priority Specify the priority of the SLA
Impact* Specify the impact of the SLA
Criticality* Specify the criticality of the SLA
*Select this in [Add dynamic field].

3. Configure the SLA that you want to specify for each condition in [Update/Add Ticket Attributes].
Here we present an example of setting SLAs by criticality. We will not set an SLA for incidents with a criticality of "very_low".

(Table) Update/Add Ticket Attributes

Setting in Ops I Setting in OTOBO
Criticality Criticality SLA to set GenericAgent to create
very_high 5 very high SLA1 GenericAgent A
high 4 high SLA2 GenericAgent B
medium 2 low, 3 normal SLA3 GenericAgent C
low
very_low Do not specify Do not specify Creation not required