Create an Escalation

An escalation is a mechanism for monitoring time-sensitive records that can take actions or send notifications when a record reaches a defined escalation point. You can create escalations in the Escalations (SP) application to use in any application. However, you are most likely to use them for service management, IT asset management, and workflow processes.

You must define at least one escalation point and at least one action or notification to associate with the escalation point before you can activate the escalation. You do not need to define elapsed time values for the escalation point. You can define multiple escalation points, and each escalation point can be associated with one or more actions or one or more notifications.

To create an escalation:

  1. On the toolbar, click New Escalation .

  2. Define the header attributes:

  1. Optional: Change the value in the Escalation field.

  2. In the Applies To field, specify a value.

  3. In the Schedule field, click Set Schedule to choose the date interval and preview the first 20 instances of when the escalation will poll for conditions. For example, a schedule can be as simple as "every 5 minutes" or as complex as "the fourth Friday of the month at 8:30 PM., every month."

Tip: You can manually specify the date and time pattern for how often you want the escalation to poll for conditions.

  1. Optional: In the Condition field, identify the set of records you want this escalation to monitor. You can type the SQL condition in the field, or click SQL Expression Builder to use the SQL Expression Builder.

  2. If you want the system to create execution status entries, select the Create Successful Execution Entry check box. If you do not select this check box, the status entries for an escalation are generated only if an execution error occurs.

  1. Optional: Complete any of the remaining header fields that you want to include.

If you specify a value in either the Organization field or the Site field, you restrict the escalation for use only with that organization or site. If you specify values in both fields, the escalation can be used only at that site.

  1. Define at least one escalation point. Each escalation point that you create further filters the set of records based on the condition that you specified in the previous step:

  1. In the Escalation Points table window, click New Row.

  2. To specify time-based threshold criteria, specify values in the Elapsed Time Attribute, Elapsed Time Interval, and Interval Unit of Measure fields. The set of values in these fields are filtered based on the business object you specified in the Applies To field.

  3. To specify additional criteria, enter the SQL expression in the Escalation Point Condition field.

  4. Optional: Select the Repeat check box to apply actions and send notifications more than once.

  1. Define at least one action or at least one notification, or both:

  2. Define actions:

  1. On the Actions tab, click New Row.

  2. In the Action field, specify a value. The Description, Sequence, and Type fields show the information for this action.

Optional: You can change the value in the Sequence field to indicate the order that the action is performed.

  1. Define notifications:

  1. On the Notifications tab, click New Row.

  2. To add a free-form notification, specify values in the Role/Recipient, Subject, and Message fields.

To add a template-based notification, specify a value in the Template field or click Detail Menu , then Select Value to select a communication template. The template provides the recipient, subject, and message content of the notification.

  1. From the Select Action menu, select Validate to validate the SQL conditions. The system displays a message stating whether the validation succeeded or failed.

  2. Click Maximize to expand the Validation Results table window and review any validation errors.

If the validation failed, an error occurred in the condition for an escalation point. Correct any errors and revalidate.

  1. Click Save Escalation . The system saves the escalation to the database.

You must activate the escalation by selecting Activate/Deactivate Escalation from the Select Action menu.

See Also

Use the SQL Expression Builder

Validate an Escalation

Activate or Deactivate an Escalation

Modify an Escalation