A ticket can be placed in SLA Hold status when the service desk agent is waiting for a response from the individual who submitted the ticket. You enable the SLA Hold status for a SLA in the Service Level Agreements (SP) application.
When a ticket is in SLA Hold status, it is not escalated and no actions or notifications associated with the SLA are started. The amount of time that the ticket is in SLA Hold status is added to the target date and time for the ticket. The agent can wait for a response from the person who submitted the ticket. The amount of time allotted for the resolution is not impacted.
The SLA Hold feature must be activated in the Organizations (SP) application. You select the Allow SLA Hold to be Applied on SLAs check box in the SLA Options window to activate the SLA Hold feature. The feature is either activated for all organizations in the system or for no organizations. When the SLA Hold feature is activated, you can enable the SLA Hold status to be used on tickets that are associated with an SLA. Select the Enable SLA Hold check box on the Service Level Agreement tab in the Service Level Agreements (SP) application, the SLA Hold status is enabled for that SLA.
Not all installations use the SLA Hold feature. If your installation does not use the SLA Hold feature, the Allow SLA Hold to be Applied on SLAs check box in the Organizations (SP) application cannot be changed. Also, the Enable SLA Hold check box on the Service Level Agreement tab in the Service Level Agreements (SP) application is hidden.
An SLA is used for tickets that are related to the graphics department server. Graphics team members must help with resolving problems with this server. The SLA Hold feature is enabled so that the SLA target resolution times can be extended if department members are not available to help.
Mary from the graphics department calls the help desk at 10:00 and reports a problem with the color laser printer. The service desk agent creates a ticket and an SLA is applied to the ticket. The SLA indicates that a resolution is required within four hours.
Juan from the server department is assigned to the call. The resolution time clock runs for fifteen minutes and, at 10:15, Juan attempts to contact Mary to get more information about the problem. Mary is in a meeting, so Juan leaves her a message asking her to contact him. He notices that the SLA Hold feature is enabled for this ticket, so he changes the status of the ticket to SLA Hold. The ticket remains in this status until Mary returns his call. During this time, the ticket is not escalated, and the remaining time during which Juan must resolve the issue is not affected. When Mary returns the call and Juan receives the information that he needs, Juan changes the status of the ticket to In Progress. The clock starts again, and from that point, Juan has three hours and 45 minutes to resolve the issue.