Viewing Calls Outstanding

The Calls Outstanding window displays all the calls that have been assigned to you. These are calls on which you may be working currently, or ones that you will be working on in the future. The Calls Outstanding window does not display closed calls.

  1. Display the Calls Outstanding window in one of the following ways:
    • From the Wrapper menu, menu, select .
    • Select and then View. From the submenu, select Calls Outstanding.
  2. The Calls Outstanding window is displayed, with a number of filter options in the left pane and a browse table of results in the main window. The toolbar displays the number of results found, along with a selection of toolbar buttons that allow further actions.
  3. Select from the filters to change the view.

    4. Calls for Analyst

    Your name will appear in this field by default. You can view another analyst's outstanding calls by clearing this field and then keying in all or part of their name and pressing Enter. Alternatively, use the button.

    You can only view the calls outstanding window for other analysts if you have View Others’ Calls or View Groups’ Calls selected in the Options tab of your IPK Management Security Role. When you are viewing the calls of the other analyst, you can only select from analysts whose calls you can also access.

    If analyst Bob is in the Incident Management group, and analyst Sue is in both the Incident Management and Problem Management groups, Bob will not be able to select Sue as an analyst to view their calls outstanding since he does not have access to calls in the Problem Management group.
    IPK Status

    If your system is set up for the IPK tiers feature, you can filter your calls or another analyst’s outstanding calls by IPK Status. Simply select the required IPK Status from the IPK Status list. The window will be refreshed to display open calls with the selected IPK Status.
    Calls Outstanding
    • Your Calls displays all calls that are currently assigned to you, unless they have been forwarded internally. Calls forwarded internally will only display when you have the Forward Internally filter option selected.
    • Forward to You displays all calls that have been forwarded to you including calls that have not yet been actioned by you.
    • Forward to Your Group displays all calls that have been forwarded to group to which you belong, including calls that have not yet been actioned by any member of the groups.
    • Forward Internally displays all calls you have forwarded to other analysts or groups that have not been actioned yet. This option allows you to separate calls forwarded internally from your calls outstanding.
    Your Group's Calls

    You can only select this filter if you have View Groups’ Calls selected in the Options tab of your IPK Management Security Role.

    If you are linked to more than one IPK group, you can select another group from the list to filter the calls outstanding for that group. To view group calls for all the groups to which you belong, select All Your Groups.

    This view provides the following filtering options:

    • Current Group’s Calls displays all the calls that are owned by the members of the selected Group. This excludes calls that have been forwarded internally by a group member.
    • Forward to Group displays calls that have been forwarded to the group or members in the group, but have not yet been actioned.
    • Forward Internally displays calls that have been forwarded by members of the selected group to other analysts or groups.
    Forum/Watched Calls

    Use this filter to view:

    • calls on which you have placed a watch
    • calls which have a linked forum, of which you are a member.

    The Forum Status field allows you to filter the calls displayed in this view based on forum status. Select an option from the Forum Status list to only view the calls with that forum status in the Calls Outstanding window.

    To remove a watch you have placed on a call, select the call and click on the toolbar. When you remove a watch you have placed on a call, your forum status on the call will be updated to Completed.
    Escalated Calls

    Use this filter to view:

    • escalated calls
    • calls with reminders (you can only reset the reminder on a call in the Escalated Calls view)

    Escalated calls are calls brought to your attention because they have exceeded your organization’s service goals. You can choose to show only certain types of escalations by using the filter options in the left panel. The calls in the Escalated Calls view are those for which you have been set as one of the escalation recipients, and not calls that you have failed to respond to or resolve.

    The button enables you to view the escalation on a call, and subsequently remove the call from this view.

    This button will be disabled unless you have selected a call with escalation currently applied to it. Also, administrators can enable permissions to use this button as part of an analyst’s IPK Security role.

    You can also view calls that have breached the service goals set.

    This view provides the following filter options:

    • Resolution Breach: This option will display all calls that have not been resolved within the time stipulated by the SLA applied to the call.
    • First Call Back Breach: This option will display all calls that required an update to the user about the status of the calls within the time specified in the SLA.
    • Response Breach: This option will display all calls that have not been responded to within the time specified in the SLA.
    • Resolution: This option will display all calls for which resolve escalation alerts have been activated.
    • First Call Back: This option will display all calls for which the first call back escalation alert has been activated.
    • Response: This option will display all calls for which the response escalation alert has been activated.
    • Action: This option will display all calls for which the action escalation alert has been activated.
    • Action Breach: This option will display all calls that have not been actioned within the time specified in an OLA or UC applied to the call.
    • Reminders: This option will display all calls for that have a reminder set for them.

    The Esc Type and Agreement Type columns are displayed in the browse table.
    Suspended Calls

    Use this filter to view calls that have been suspended on the Forward Internally window (that is, if an analyst forwards a call and suspends it).

    The Physical Status column shows the action you should expect to take on the item.

    Taking action on a call does not remove the suspension from the call. To manually remove the suspension on a call, select the call and click on the toolbar.

    This view provides the same filtering options as the Calls Outstanding view.

    Suspended Group's Calls  
    Delegated Calls

    Use this filter to view another analyst’s calls that have been delegated to you.

    If you are linked to more than one delegator (that is, more than one analyst has delegated their calls to you), you can select an analyst from the Delegator list. To view all the calls delegated to you, select All Delegators from this list.

    This view provides the following filtering options:

    • Delegator Calls: This filter displays the calls that are owned by the delegator (that is, the office who delegated their work to you).
    • Forward to Delegator: This filter displays the calls that have been forwarded to the delegator but not yet actioned.
    • Forward Internally by Delegator: This filter displays the calls that have been forwarded internally by the delegator but not yet actioned.
    • Forward to Delegator Group: This filter displays the calls that have been forwarded to the IPK groups to which the delegator belongs but which have not yet been actioned by a member of the groups.

  4. You can view and action calls from this window, including forwarding selected calls by selecting calls and then selecting the button on the toolbar.
  5. To close one or more of the calls in the search results, use the Bulk Close function. Select the record(s) you want to close, using the Shift key to select consecutive records, or the Ctrl key to select non-consecutive. Then click on the toolbar.

 

Columns on the Calls Outstanding window

Most of the column headings are self-explanatory, and they can be renamed by a System Administrator.

You can configure the columns that you want to see by selecting the button on the toolbar.

The SLA, OLA, and UC columns display escalation states for Service Level Agreements (SLAs), Operation Level Agreements (OLAs), and Underpinning Contracts (UCs). These escalation states alert you about impending escalation and breaches on agreement events.

Indicators for Calls Outstanding

The Ind column displays indicators related to calls, for example, a yellow square symbol is displayed if a note has been added to the call. The following table lists the indicators that are displayed on the Calls Outstanding window. Some of these indicators are also displayed on the Call Search window.

If you cannot see this column, you may wish to add it using the button on the toolbar.

Some indicators are only shown if you are in a particular view in the Calls Outstanding window. For example, the watched calls indicator only appears in the Ind column when you are viewing the Forum/Watched Calls.

Indicator Description

A note has been added to the call.

The current call has other calls linked to it as children, that is, this call is a parent call.

The current call is linked to another call as a child, that is, this call has a parent call linked to it.

The current call has an outage linked to it.

The User associated with the call has VIP status.

Double-clicking in the Flag column enables you to mark a call as being flagged and displays a flag icon in the column. You can use this functionality to flag a call on which you want to work at a later date. You can filter your calls to view all calls, flagged calls, and calls that have not been flagged.

Color Coding your Calls

You can change the colors of the call background in the Calls Outstanding window to give you a visual indication of the call type, priority, physical status, SLA Alert Level, or whether it is open, closed, new, resolved or unresolved.

  1. Select the button on the toolbar. The Select Colors window is displayed.
  2. Select the criterion for color coding from the drop down Color By list. The entries in the Values table below change depending on the item selected from this list.
  3. You can make the text bold by ticking the Bold checkbox beside any item in the Values list. To change the colors, click on the item itself and then select the required Text Color and Text Background.
  4. Clicking OK will close the window and apply the color settings. If you are not happy with them, you can simply repeat the process. To remove all configured color coding, select the button and then select Restore Defaults.

When assigning colors by Status, you can choose to assign colors to both physical status and call status. The color assigned to the physical status will always be displayed, except when the physical status is Pending Your Action in which case the color assigned to the call status will be displayed.

Toolbar Buttons on the Calls Outstanding Window

From the Calls Outstanding window, you can do any of the following, using the toolbar buttons:

Hide the explorer pane
Open the selected call and take action on it
Open the selected call without taking action on it
Add a note to the selected call
Refresh the results
Select the columns you want to see in the browse table
Color code your calls by SLA Alert Level, Type, Call Priority, Physical Status, or whether it is Open, Closed, etc.
Generate a report on the calls outstanding
Print the contents of the browse table, or the selected calls
Forward the selected call(s)
Close the selected call(s)
Put a watch on selected calls