Archibus SaaS / Foundations / Facility Services / Service Console
Workplace Services / Service Desk / Service Provider / Service Console
Understanding Requests for Maintenance Work
Archibus Workplace users can request all types of service, including maintenance work. Archibus handles requests for maintenance slightly differently than other service requests.
To manage requests, you will work through the steps outlined on the Service Console and will not need to be aware of the differences between maintenance requests and other requests in your daily work. This topic provides background for those who establish the SLAs governing maintenance requests or who work with Workplace in conjunction with the Maintenance module or applications.
Maintenance Requests in the Service Console
The Archibus system handles requests for maintenance as work requests. When you examine requests for maintenance in the Service Console, you will notice that a request for maintenance is identified by the prefix "Work" and then the Problem Type. For example, in the image below you can see requests for maintenance, such as Work-TEMP ADJUSTMENT or Work-AIR QUALITY, as well as a service request for document shredding (non-maintenance work) which does not have the prefix.
When you select a request from the Service Console, you will notice that the Console loads the Work Request Details form and that the request has a Work Request Code. This is a different number than the Service Request number displayed on the Service Console. For example, selecting request number 11855, above, presents the Work Request Details form since this request is a request for maintenance. In general, you will not need to worry about the value of the Work Request Code when managing work from the Service Console. If your site also uses the Maintenance module or Corrective Maintenance application, you would use the Work Request Code to access this request in the Maintenance Console.
Maintenance Console (Maintenance module and Maintenance applications)
The Maintenance module and the Maintenance applications offer a Maintenance Console and Maintenance mobile app for managing maintenance work. The Maintenance Console handles more complex workflow than available with the Service Console.
Maintenance users might wonder why requests that appear in Maintenance Console do not appear in Service Console. For new work requests submitted using Archibus Workplace, the Report Problem task, or the Maintenance mobile app in V.24.2 and later , the request shows in both consoles.
Maintenance requests submitted using the Report Problem task or the Maintenance mobile app before V.24.2 do not show in the Service Console.
The Service Console looks for service requests assigned to the logged-in user (activity_log.assigned_to). The Maintenance Console looks for work requests for whom the logged-in user is a supervisor (wr.supervisor or wr.work_team_code where the logged-in user is a supervisor on that work team). V.24.2 logic puts the supervisor into the assigned_to field of the corresponding service request so that requests made in V.24.2 Maintenance Console appear in the Service Console.
If you are a Foundations user only, you use the Service Console to manage maintenance requests. For Foundations, maintenance requests track a limited set of data and can be managed in Service Console.
Work Request Status
The Maintenance module and Maintenance applications offer a finer definition for managing work requests than is available in Archibus Foundations.
In Archibus Foundations, work requests have these statuses:
| Status | Action that Sets this Status |
|---|---|
| Requested | Request work using Archibus Workplace |
| Issued and In Process | Approve a work request |
| Rejected | Reject a work request |
| Stopped | Cancel an approved work request |
| Closed | Complete a work request |
In the Maintenance module and Maintenance applications, several additional Work Request statuses are available.
If your site also works with Maintenance module or Maintenance applications, the Archibus Foundations "Location of Maintenance Work" report might present requests of these statuses.
Example: Set up a Maintenance Request Type and SLA
As with all service requests, an SLA underlies maintenance requests and determines how the item is processed. For maintenance requests, you must associate a problem type with a request type.
If you build the Service Catalog in Maintenance, all requests will be SERVICE DESK - MAINTENANCE requests and can be managed through the Maintenance Console
In general, follow a procedure such as below to add a new maintenance request type to Archibus Workplace. In this example, you add a selection for carpet cleaning to the Workplace Service Catalog.
- Sign in as AFM-FDN. Define a problem type. For information, see Define Problem Types.
- Complete Problem Type Code with CARPET.
- Enter a description.
- This will be a one-level hierarchy, so Hierarchy Trace will read "CARPET." See the below note about first checking for existing request types with problem types.
- Define a request type. For information on all the fields, see Create Service Catalog.
- From the Create Service Catalog task, select GENERAL MAINTENANCE in the left column.
- Make sure Active for Self-Service is set to Yes
- Click Add Child. In the right column, locate the Service Request Type field and type any value in the box. ("SERVICE DESK" will already be entered as a prefix.)
- Complete the other fields to indicate how this item will appear to users in Workplace.
- For the Work Request Problem Type field, select the CARPET problem type created in step 1.
- Define an SLA. For details, see Manage Service Providers and Notifications.
- For Request Type, choose SERVICE DESK - MAINTENANCE and Problem Type CARPET (created in Step 1) from the validating list (accessed by the ellipses button).
- Enter AFM-FDN as the employee who will handle these types of requests.
- For this case, do not enter a building; requests for carpet cleaning will be routed to AFM-FDN regardless of the building.
If you now access Workplace, you will see that CARPET is a request type that the user can select. To illustrate this:
- Sign in to Workplace as AFM-EM. Select General Maintenance, and then Carpet. Create a request for carpet cleaning.
- Sign in as AFM-FDN and load Service Console. You will see the request that AFM-EM just made. Note that this is a maintenance request, as indicated by the "Work" prefix in the service request number. Select the item and you will access the Work Request Details form, where you can see the generated work request number.
- If AFM-FDN has a license for the Maintenance module or applications, open the Maintenance Console. The Console includes this item in its list of work requests.
Maintenance SLAs in the Sample Project
When you scan through the SLAs in the sample HQ project, you will notice that there are many SLAs. The SLAs with the SERVICE DESK - MAINTENANCE request type have a predefined operation and have an assigned Problem Type.
If you follow the above procedure to create an SLA for a problem type that is already assigned to the SERVICE DESK - MAINTENANCE request type, the system will follow the SLA for the SERVICE DESK-MAINTENANCE request type.
For example, suppose you follow the above procedure, but you try to use the existing MECHANICAL problem type to create a request type of SERVICE DESK-MECHANICAL, with a MECHANICAL problem type. A request type of SERVICE DESK - MAINTENANCE with a Problem Type of MECHANICAL already exists. Therefore, when the user selects MECHANICAL from Archibus Workplace, the system will follow the existing SLA for SERVICE DESK - MAINTENANCE, MECHANICAL problem type rather than the SLA for SERVICE DESK-MECHANICAL that you created.
When creating new request types and SLAs, be sure to check the Problem Types for the existing SERVICE DESK-MAINTENANCE request types and do not create a request type for a problem type that is already assigned to the SERVICE DESK-MAINTENANCE request type.
Note that in the example above, CARPET was a new problem type which was not associated with the SERVICE DESK-MAINTENANCE request type. Therefore, the system followed the SLA for the SERVICE DESK-CARPET request type, which is associated with the CARPET problem type.