ManageEngine announced that its flagship ITSM product, ServiceDesk Plus, now enables users to visually map the request management process by creating custom request life cycles (RLCs) that use statuses and transitions.

For every request, the associated RLC can be used to define custom statuses and configure criteria required to move from one status to another. While transitioning between statuses, technicians can also trigger notifications, mandate field updates and execute scripts.

ManageEngine brings visual request life cycle management to ServiceDesk Plus — simplifies request handling to achieve quality IT service consistently.

Most IT service desks have statuses to track the progress of requests and bring traceability to request flows. Based on user input, a single request can be serviced in various ways, and custom statuses can be used to indicate the progress of the request. However, that variety often leads to inconsistent service delivery that erodes the efficiency and effectiveness of the service desk team.

"Ensuring consistency of service quality is a top challenge for ITSM teams, especially for enterprises that have many IT functions or technicians who are in different locations. Establishing a comprehensive knowledge base helps, but it doesn’t provide contextual assistance to the technicians," said Rajesh Ganesan, VP of Product Management at ManageEngine. With this new capability, process owners can easily convert detailed process documents into simple, visual request life cycles. For any request, technicians now have the required process clarity to fulfill the request with minimal lapses in service delivery."

Even the most complex request management processes can be reduced to a series of steps (or statuses) that dynamically adapt to user inputs. With an intuitive interface, RLC allows process owners to visually map the life cycle of a request using various statuses. It also allows them to configure the conditions and actions (transitions) required to move from one status to another. Actions such as restrict access, request for information, abort the request processing, send notifications, and invoke custom scripts, provide technicians with more context.

With RLC, IT service desks can integrate process guidance into the day-to-day activities of the technicians. RLC improves the efficiency of the IT service desk, while streamlining the request management process to provide:

- Process owners with better control of the process, as well as the flexibility to improve the process iteratively.

- Technicians with the ability to learn processes on-the-go, minimizing the need for external guidance or training.

- IT service desk teams with visibility over various processes and their KPIs, such as request resolution time, service quality, and cost of service.

- End users with a consistent service quality for any service requested.

The ServiceDesk Plus Request Life Cycle feature is available in all editions — Free, Standard, Premium, and Enterprise — in both on-premises and cloud versions. A free, fully functional, 30-day evaluation edition is also available.