Everyone who uses CA Service Desk Manager must be defined as a contact. A user's contact record defines the user information that the system needs as follows:
Defines basic identification, such as the user's name and contact type. A contact's name is used as the primary identifier when selecting a contact or filling in contact information in other contexts.
Defines login information, such as the user ID and in some cases, a PIN field to use as a password that verifies the user upon login. The user ID is used to identify the user in the contact table for authentication purposes and for determining the access types assigned to the user. Depending on how the administrator has configured security, another field such as the contact ID, can be specified as the PIN field and the user can use that as the password for login.
Defines the access type that is assigned in their contact record or by a default access type, depending on how you set up the security for your system. In addition, a user's access type can be assigned based on their membership in an LDAP Directory group.
A user's access type determines all aspects of their security, including how they are authenticated to the system, which web interface they see, and what product functionality they can access.
Security management is a feature of the web interface.
Determines the level of service a user receives. A contact's service type defines the level of service a user should receive. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are negotiated with CA Service Desk Manager customers, and service types serve as the mechanism for CA Service Desk Manager to implement SLAs. By associating a service type with a user's contact record, you can guarantee that when a ticket for which a user is identified as the affected end user is created, the service type for the ticket is at least as good as the contact's service type.
Setting up SLAs using service types is a feature that you, as the administrator, perform using the web interface.
Defines automatic assignment information, such as work shift and availability (used for analyst contact types only). You can set up analyst contacts to determine if they are eligible for automatic assignment. Automatic assignment is valid only for requests, and is defined as part of the request area definition. It is also linked to the groups to which the analyst belongs.
Defines a contact's notification information includes their various email addresses and telephone numbers that can be used for notification purposes, the method to use for notifications of different urgency levels, and the work shifts during which they should receive notifications.
Organizational information (such as location, organization, and department) lets you group contacts based on the organization to which they belong. For example, associating a contact with a location links the contact to a physical address and also helps in determining automatic assignment. The organization can be assigned a service type, making it easier to manage SLAs by organization rather than by individual contacts.
Organizes contacts into groups that represent specific areas of responsibility within your service desk. You can set up and define contacts using the web interface.
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