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Below are descriptions of the primary Revelation definitions. Understanding these will facilitate a quicker understanding of how the product operates.
Most objects in Revelation have status options of active or inactive. Setting an object to inactive removes the object from the user interface but maintains its data for reporting and archive purposes.
An alias serves as a nickname for an object in Revelation. Aliases are used in drop down boxes and other areas not large enough to support long names.
Revelation has four ticket states - New, Good, At Risk and Late. Tickets are color coded in the system based on the state of the ticket. The state is determined by times set in the Administration area and the due date for the ticket. If the Service Level Manager module is activated, the colors will change based on the settings for the specific SLA for the ticket. Without the SLA module, tickets will change based on the due date assigned.
The Ticket States are colored in Revelation as follows:
New tickets are green
Good tickets are blue
At risk tickets are yellow
Late tickets are red
The ticket number will show the Ticket State color on the home page, and within the ticket itself.
A Department is a container for grouping your organization’s end users. It is the main building block for organizing the system. Users, reports, and business rules all revolve around the department structure. Departments are broken into sub-units called locations. Employees are attached directly to locations. The default department created during installation is called the Host. The Host is for tracking the support staff that will use the application.
Host refers to the group of people using the application in a resolver capacity. For internal support Host refers to the IT Department whereas in the case of an IT vendor Host may refer to the entire company. Full access is available only to members of the Host Department.
Revelation’s functionality centers on departments and projects. Departments are used to organize end users into logical groups whereas projects are used for organizing tickets and applying business rules.
Revelation has customizable terms and phrases. Personalization is available for Revelation as a System Option. The system comes with default phrase sets. The set displayed in your copy is based on the Helpdesk Mode chosen during installation. The phrase set designated Internal is designed for IT departments that support their company’s employees. The External phrase set is for companies that support other companies’ employees. Throughout this document the word department is interchangeable with company.
A Project in Revelation is a container for organizing tickets. Projects facilitate detailed reporting, but more importantly allows for the assignment of business rules. Business rules include such things as 1) automatic ticket routing, 2) email notifications, 3) end user access and 4) bill rates. Projects are created at the department level. Each Department must have at least one project before tickets can be logged. Once logged, a ticket will inherit the business rules specified for the project.
In Revelation, tickets may be assigned to any number of resolvers to work on. It is not always practical or even possible at times to know what specific person to assign to work on a ticket. That is why queues were created. A queue facilitates ticket assignment and routing by not specifying the individual responsible for the ticket. A ticket can instead be sent to “Second Level” or “Help Desk” to be picked up by technicians who monitor those queues for new tickets. A Queue is a temporary assignee for tickets. Staff can monitor multiple queues.
All required fields are marked with a red asterisk. If a form is submitted without all the required fields completed, Revelation will notify the user.
In Revelation, any person listed under the Host Department is considered part of your support staff and is automatically granted login access. A user’s access rights are based on their assigned access level. There are four resolver access levels in Revelation:
STAFF
Staff level users can create, work with & close tickets as well as search the archive and Knowledge Base.
MANAGER
In addition to Staff level functions, the Manager can view reports and management tools.
REPORT BUILDER MANAGER
In addition to the Staff and Manager level functions, the Report Builder Manager can create/edit/use Report Builder function.
ADMIN
Admins have day-to-day administrative privileges in addition to the Report Builder Manager level rights.
SUPER ADMIN
Super Admins have full administrative privileges in Revelation helpdesk.
Staff are assigned to a team in addition to an access level. Teams are groupings of resolver staff. Revelation supports an unlimited number of teams, but each resolver may be a member of only one team. Teams allow larger IT organizations to break down their staff into multiple groups (helpdesk, network, development, etc) for more orderly tracking and reporting. The Revelation interface can be customized to a certain degree based on Team.
Revelation has several features which are 'transparent'. When the function is disabled, it does not appear on the system. These functions are enabled/disabled from the modules within the Admin tab.