Automating Document Requests in ServiceDesk Plus

This customer request had me scratching my head for a bit but I suggested the following approach to help solve it. 

This particular client is constantly being asked by users for details of how to locate key company documents, such as the latest terms and conditions for example. As they were the person ‘in the know’ they were constantly being bugged to provide the information (yes I’m afraid users can’t be bothered to look back over their email queue – shocking!).

As a result the client was looking for an easy way to track the user document requests and automatically send the document link information to the user on request. 

To resolve the issue we opted to add a Service Category of Document Request to the self-service portal (sorry users we’re going to get you to accept the system one way or another!):

We then created an Incident Template and added the Service Category category field to this template and set it to ‘Document Request’:

Why an Incident Template and not a Service Request Template? Well by using an Incident Template we could predefine an entry in the Resolution field with details of the SharePoint link or Document Share location:

Now, as it’s a template, we also set the Request Type to be a ‘Request for Information’ and also set the Request Status to ‘Resolved’.

Now a couple of assumptions need to be true for this procedure to work correctly and a I appreciate it may not be the case for all environments (just depends how much of a pain these user requests are):

First off ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus should ideally be enabled for Automatic Closure of requests in the ‘Request Closing Rules’ (see HelpDesk Customizer under Admin tab). In addition the Mandatory Field options on the ‘Request Closing Rules’ in ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus of ‘Work Log’ and ‘Associated tasks should be closed’ must not be enabled.

The Notification option for Resolved Requests must also be enabled:

If the above is true then when a user performs a document request via the ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus Self-Service portal then they will receive an automatic email providing them with the document locations as required.

Enjoy!