Upcoming enhancements in Maintenance of Task, Problem Closure Rule, Problem Form Rules, Problem Workflow and Revamped System Notification Email Templates in ServiceDesk Plus Cloud

Upcoming enhancements in Maintenance of Task, Problem Closure Rule, Problem Form Rules, Problem Workflow and Revamped System Notification Email Templates in ServiceDesk Plus Cloud

Dear Users,
We’re pleased to share an important announcement about the upcoming enhancements in Maintenance of Task, Problem Closure Rule, Closure Rule Violation Handling, Problem Form Rules, Problem Workflow, Microsoft Teams - Conversational Zia Support and Revamped System Notification Email Templates in ServiceDesk Plus Cloud.

Below is a brief run-through of the same.

Enhancements

Maintenance for tasks
  1. Standalone tasks are now supported in Maintenance schedules, alongside requests and changes. Routine activities such as inspections, cleaning, and compliance checks can now be automated and managed from a single place, without having to create these tasks manually each time.

  1. Advanced scheduling options let you set tasks to repeat on specific dates each month, or on a relative day such as the first Sunday of each month.
  2. Date and time fields in Maintenances, including Scheduled Start Time and Scheduled End Time, accept duration values in days, hours, and minutes. Whenever a task, request, or change is created from a Maintenance, these values are computed by adding the configured duration to the creation time.
  1. Use Generate Now button next to the maintenance tasks in the list view to create a task from a maintenance on demand, outside the configured schedule

  1. A new Tasks From Maintenance view is available in the tasks list view to display all tasks generated from a maintenance.

  1. Maintenance field is now included in the task list view.
  1. Control technician access to the task maintenance using the newly created four roles: CreateTaskMaintenances, ViewTaskMaintenances, ModifyTaskMaintenances, and DeleteTaskMaintenances. 

  1. Task maintenance activity including additions, edits, deletions, schedule changes, and the success or failure of each task generation is recorded in the History tab.
  1. Configure a custom ID prefix and starting number for task maintenances from the Task Maintenance section under Maintenance ID Settings in Setup > Customization > Maintenance Management > Configuration.
  1. Custom reports can now be generated for task maintenances. Select Task Maintenances from the Maintenance section in the Module dropdown when creating a new custom report.
Renew Contract with the Same Name:
  1. You can now renew a contract with the same name without adding the Renewed suffix to the contract name.
  2. You cannot use an already existing contract name. Duplicate names will throw errors.
  3. After renewal, the list view shows only the latest version of the active contract.
  4. You can access previous contract versions, along with their complete details and related history, from the Renewals tab in the latest contract.

  1. Use the All Contracts (Including Renewals) filter in the list view to see all contracts, regardless of status or renewal.

Advanced Date Filter in Contract List View
  1. You can use the advanced date filter in the contract list view to filter contracts by Active From, Active Till, and Created On dates.


Track Contract Expiry with $DaysToExpire Variable
  1. You can use the $DaysToExpire variable in contract notification rules to show the days remaining before contract expiry.
  2. You can view this value in contract email notifications and in the right pane of the contract details page to identify upcoming expirations.
    1. For Active or Yet to be Active contracts, the remaining duration appears in days, months, or years.
    2. For Indefinite contracts, the value appears as Never Expires.
    3. If the contract expires today, the value appears as 0.
    4. If the contract is Expired or Canceled, the value appears as -



Problem Closure Rule Enhancements

Problem Closure Rules now support mandatory fields and enhanced validation during problem closure. 
  1. The following fields are now available under Mandatory Fields in Problem Closure Rules.
    1. Description fields
    2. Group
    3. Reported By
    4. CIs Involved
  2. The optional rule, All approval levels should be approved, now includes an additional option, All approval levels should be completed, in Problem closure rules and Workflow manual transitions.
  3. Problem closure rules now supports problem closure code and closure comments, which can be mandated.
  4. When closing a problem, associated incidents can now be moved to any configured completed status (except Canceled).


Closure Rule Violation Handling
  1. During problem closure, all mandatory fields in Life Cycle, Templates, and Closure Rules will now be displayed on the problem details page.

  1. When closing a problem, pending mandatory rules appear in a pop-up with links to the relevant tabs

  1. On status change, mandatory fields configured through Life Cycle, Workflow, and Closure Rules will be mandated in the Problem add/edit form.
Problem Form Rules
  1. The Status field is now supported in the Field Change event for the new problem form.
Configuration Changes
  1. Problem Management Settings in Advanced Portal Settings is now moved to Setup > Customization > Problem Management > Configurations.

  1. Trigger Approval Notifications in Problem Management Settings has been moved to Setup > General Settings > Problem Approval Settings.
Other Problem Enhancements
  1. Problem statuses are now grouped under Pending and Completed.
  2. The Description and Attachment fields can now be mandated in Problem Workflow and Life Cycle.
  3. Tasks are now included in the problem print preview.
  4. A new canned widget, Closed Problems by Closure Code, has been added to the Problem dashboard to help visualize and analyze problem closure trends based on closure codes.
Problem Workflow Enhancement
In Problem workflow, IF and Wait For conditions now support User and Technician multi-lookup fields.

Revamped System Notification Email Templates
System notification email templates used for mail processing errors, portal inactivity, deletion reminders, and more have been redesigned with improved UI, styling, and layout for better clarity and readability.

Microsoft Teams - Conversational Zia Support
Conversational interactions are now supported for the ServiceDesk Plus Cloud bot in Microsoft Teams, in addition to Zia action commands.


Note : All upgrades and feature releases, will be in-service and there won't be any downtime or service interruption.
Stay tuned for more updates!!! We will update here once these upgrades are unwrapped in live
Please share your thoughts/queries/feedback.

 
Thanks and regards,
A N Nithish Kumar
ServiceDesk Plus Cloud