Categories
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Introduction
Service Desk uses categories and subcategories to classify the incidents, service requests, and changes coming through your service desk. You can categorize your Solutions in Service Desk using the same list of classifications.
A look at the parent/child relationship between categories and subcategories can help you better understand how classifications can help streamline your ticket assignment. A category is the parent, and the subcategory is the child of that parent. For example, your Computers category can have a subcategory called Laptops.
After you set up parent categories and child subcategories, you can use them in tickets (an incident, service request, or change) and automatically assign a ticket to individuals or groups in your organization.
Navigation
| ITSM customers | ESM customers |
|---|---|
| Setup > Service Desk > Categories |
Service Provider > Service Desk > Categories |
Benefits of categories and subcategories
Incident categorization lets your employees to specify a category for their break/fix incidents through the Service Portal. You can ensure incidents get routed to the correct group of technicians by establishing default assignees on both the category and subcategory levels. A well-defined set of categories and subcategories will also empower you to create informative reports on the incidents and requests you are addressing within Service Desk.
You can also organize your work according to categories and subcategories for changes and change catalog items. This approach lets you search for change records easily (without relying on their title), sort your change index, and slice reporting information accordingly.
Categories are the top-level selection that provides information regarding the topic of an incident. As both your requesters and service agent users select categories and subcategories, you’ll want to ensure that your defined categories are clear and familiar.
Examples of categories designed to help you define your organization include:
- Applications (available out-of-the-box)
- Network (available out-of-the-box)
- Security (available out-of-the-box)
- Building Maintenance
- Hardware
- Human Resources
Auto-route incoming tickets
Service Desk can auto-route tickets to ensure proper routing. Two options are available for auto-routing.
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Incoming tickets with no category assigned
You can configure a default assignee or default group for all incoming tickets with no category identified, such as tickets received via email. See Categories.
SolarWinds recommends you enable the Default Group Assignment setting so a group member can assign themselves in a ticket Assignee field. SolarWinds does not recommend using both the Default Assignee and Default Group Assignment fields (when someone gets removed from the group, ticket routing can be affected). -
Incoming tickets with a requester-identified category and/or subcategory
Service Desk can auto-direct incoming tickets to the proper individual, group, or queue if you have configured a default assignment for the category/subcategory. See Categories.
Category index page
The Categories index page contains two tabs: Incidents/Service Requests and Changes. You can also scroll to the bottom of the page and establish default settings for categories (see Categories).
You can perform inline edits by hovering over a category name and selecting the pencil 
icon.
The index page is customizable. See List view for more information on customizing.
Configure category settings that apply to all tickets
Global category settings are available at the bottom of the Categories index page.
Be aware: Configuring a global setting overrides similar settings configured in a specific category.
Many customers prefer to establish default settings at the category/subcategory level, which provides more flexibility and control over how defaults are applied to each category/subcategory. See Create or edit a category or subcategory.
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Navigate to Setup > Service Desk > Categories.
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Scroll to the bottom of the page, and locate Category Settings. There, you see a list of global settings for all tickets.
Enabling these global category settings can help auto-route incoming incidents based on the category and subcategory that requesters select in the Service Portal.
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Category is a mandatory field.
When enabled, the category field is mandatory when a ticket is created. -
Subcategory is a mandatory field.
When enabled, the subcategory field is mandatory when a ticket is created.Subcategories allow your requesters and technicians to provide another layer of granularity when describing their issue or the service request item. Examples of subcategories might be:
- Category: Hardware
Subcategories: Laptop, Mobile, Desktop
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Category: Human Resources
Subcategories: Benefits, Time Off
- Category: Hardware
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Default category
When enabled, Service Desk uses the selected category for new tickets submitted without a category.You can ensure all new uncategorized tickets get assigned by enabling a default category for new tickets without a category.
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- Set default assignee and notifications settings at the global level. SolarWinds recommends that, before you make any selections here, you decide whether or not to establish ticket routing at the category/subcategory level. See Create or edit a category or subcategory.
To configure these settings, you select either a default assignee or a default group to receive notifications when a new ticket is created. Otherwise, you can choose to configure default notifications for all tickets.
Default Assignee
If enabled, Service Desk assigns all new incidents to the selected user. (Default Assignee allows you to select only users and queues.)
For organizations that choose not to use category/subcategory routing, SolarWinds recommends configuring a default assignment group instead of a default assignee. This approach offers better ticket visibility.If enabled, Service Desk assigns all new incidents the selected group. (Default Assignee allows you to select only groups.)
SolarWinds does not recommend configuring a default assignee and a default assignment group.Default Notification for All New Incidents
When enabled, the Default Notification for All New Incidents feature triggers a notification to the selected user or group. This setting ensures that theService Desk sends a notification, even if your organization has not configured a category or default assignee for routing.
Enabling a notification for all new incidents and setting the service desk manager as the default to receive the messages would be an excellent way for a new service desk manager to be aware of all incoming tickets to gain insight about the service desk's efficiency.
Create or edit a category or subcategory
There is no limit to the number of categories and subcategories you can create. Categories can have as many subcategories as you need, but they are limited to only two levels. Subcategories cannot have their own subcategories.
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Navigate to Setup > Service Desk > Categories.
- Select the appropriate tab:
- Incident/Service Requests
- Changes
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Click Add category on the right. You can add subcategories by hovering over a category and clicking the + that displays.
To edit a category or subcategory, hover over it and click the pencil icon.
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Provide a name.
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Optionally, you can:
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Select defaults from the dropdown list to auto-route tickets: default assignee (user or queue) or default group. Add comma-separated default tags. The queue icon
appears next to queues in the drop-down list. -
Create an email dropbox.
You can use an email dropbox to directly route incidents to a specific email address. See Category dropbox emails for more information.
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Click Create.
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Refresh the Categories index page. The list of categories automatically re-sorts to alphabetical order.
Auto-direct a ticket based on its category/subcategory
Service Desk can auto-direct tickets to the proper individual, group, or queue if you have configured a default assignment for the category/subcategory.
See Categories.
Rename a category or subcategory
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Hover over the category or subcategory name and select the pencil icon.
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In the dialog box, select Rename category at the bottom right.
Hide a category or subcategory
If you need to hide a category from end users, for example, an IT-only category for alerts, you can do so through Roles and Permissions.
Delete a category or subcategory
If you delete a category or subcategory, it is removed from the category list, but it still displays in filters so you can run a report for historical tickets.