Universal Request integration - Incident Management

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Universal Request integration - Incident Management

    The Incident Management integration with Universal Request in ServiceNow allows users to manage incident-related services through a unified service desk experience. This integration enables the creation and association of incidents with Universal Request records, streamlining the service process and improving visibility and control for both users and IT staff.

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    Key Features

    • Create Incident from Universal Request: Users can create incidents directly from Universal Request forms with key fields (such as short description, description, caller ID, and opened by) automatically copied. Incident managers can customize which fields are copied.
    • Automatic Universal Request Creation: When creating incidents via certain channels (record producers, virtual agent, email), a universal request record can be automatically created and linked to the incident, with the incident designated as the primary ticket.
    • Field Visibility and Routing: Universal Request fields appear on the Incident form only when linked, and the Routing Reason field shows when an ITIL agent routes an incident back to Universal Request.
    • Email Notification Suppression: Incident email notifications are suppressed if the incident is part of a Universal Request; instead, emails display the universal request number to the requester.
    • Requester Experience: Requesters view only the Universal Request record (not individual incidents) via the ServiceNow AI Platform or Service Portal, with an Incident Actions widget allowing resolve, reopen, or close actions on related incidents.
    • Transfer and Association of Incidents: Incidents can be transferred back to Universal Request or to other departments, with or without resolution. Also, associated tickets can be created from incidents for related departments.
    • Access Control: Incidents containing sensitive information can be marked as restricted to limit agent access.

    Activation and Configuration

    • The integration is enabled by installing and activating the Universal Request Integration for Incident Management plugin (com.snc.incident.universalrequest) through ServiceNow support.
    • A business rule named Create Universal Request for Incident can be activated to automatically create universal request records when incidents are created via supported channels.
    • Incident managers can customize field mappings between Universal Request and Incident records through the Mapping Configuration form.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Provides a single, unified service desk experience by linking incidents and universal requests, reducing duplicated efforts and confusion.
    • Improves data consistency and reduces manual data entry by automating field copying between Universal Request and Incident records.
    • Enhances requester visibility and control by exposing only universal requests rather than individual incidents, simplifying user experience.
    • Offers flexibility to transfer and associate incidents across departments to ensure proper issue resolution routing.
    • Supports secure handling of sensitive incidents by restricting visibility to authorized agents only.

    Incident Management integrates with Universal Request to provide incident-related service as unified services to users. The integration helps users to have a single service desk.

    Install and configure the Universal Request Integration for the Incident Management plugin (com.snc.incident.universal_request). The integration provides the following configurations and functionalities:

    Features of the Incident Management integration with Universal Request

    The integration of Incident Management with Universal Request provides the following features:
    • The Universal Request form has the UI action to create an incident. The following fields are copied by default from the universal request record to the incident record when a new incident is created:
      • universal_request
      • short_description
      • description
      • caller_id
      • opened_by
      An incident manager can customize the fields using the system property sn_inc_uni_req.incident.universal_request.copy_fields.
    • The Universal Request field appears on the Incident form only when an incident is associated with a universal request record.
    • The Routing reason field appears on the incident form when an itil agent routes an incident back to the universal request.
    • On the record producer, if you select the Create Universal Request check box, a new incident created from that record producer automatically creates a universal request record. This universal request record is associated with the incident record.
    • You can activate the Create Universal Request for Incident business rule and create incidents using any channel, such as record producer, virtual agent support, email, and so on. When you do this, a universal request record is automatically created. This universal request record is associated with the incident record. The incident is added as a primary ticket to the universal request record. By default, this business rule works as follows:
      • The rule is inactive. To activate this business rule, navigate to System Defination > Business Rules > Create Universal Request for Incident, and then select Active check box to activate this business rule.
      • The rule is not applicable to child incidents for which the parent incident is associated as a primary ticket to the universal request record.
    • When a universal request record is automatically created based on the incident, Incident record information is copied from the incident record fields to the universal request record fields. An incident manager with admin role can customize and configure the fields using the Create UR Mappings and Create UR Information tabs in the Mapping Configuration form for incidents in Universal Request. For more information, see Mapping configuration.

    Visibility of Incidents to a requester

    The requesters cannot view the incidents that are associated with the Universal Request records. Instead, the requesters can only view the Universal Request record using the following ways:
    • On ServiceNow AI Platform, you can access the universal request records under Self-Service > Universal Requests.
    • On Service Portal, you can access the universal request records under Service Portal > Requests.

    Suppression of email notifications

    If any incident is a part of Universal Request, then the notifications sent to the caller from an Incident are suppressed. In all other incident email notifications, the universal request number is displayed instead of the incident number.

    Requester Actions on Service Portal

    For an Universal Request record that has an incident-related as its primary task, an Actions widget with the requester actions is displayed. The actions can be Resolve, Reopen, or Close depending on the state of the incident.