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 gain a deeper understanding of how classifications can help streamline your ticket assignment. A category is the parent, and the subcategory is the child of that parent. For example, for the category Computers, you can have a subcategory called Laptops.
After the parent categories and their child subcategories are set up, 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 enables your employees to specify a category for their break/fix incidents through the Service Portal. You can ensure incidents are routed to the correct group of technicians by establishing default assignees on both the category and subcategory level. Having a well-defined set of categories and subcategories will also empower you to create informative reports on the types of 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 lets you search for change records easily (without relying on their title), sort your change index, and slice reporting information accordingly.
Examples of out-of-the-box categories available for the change module include:
- Applications
- Network
- Security
Category index page
The Categories index page contains two tabs: Incidents/Service Requests and Changes. In addition, you can scroll to the bottom of the page and establish default settings for categories (see Establish default settings for Categories).
From the index page, you can perform inline editing by hovering over a category name and selecting the pencil 
icon.
The index page is customizable. See List view for more information on customizing.
Establish default settings for Categories
Category settings
Making any and all of these selections can help auto-route incoming incidents based on the category and subcategory your employees select in the Service Portal. SolarWinds recommends using groups as your default assignees for visibility and ease of use.
Category is a mandatory field
Categories are the top level selection that provides information regarding the topic of the incident. As both your requesters and service agent users will be entering in categories and subcategories, you’ll want to ensure that your defined categories are clear and familiar.
Examples of categories that can help you define your organization include:
- Applications
- Building Maintenance
- Hardware
- Human Resources
Subcategory is a mandatory field
Subcategories give your employees and technicians the ability to provide another layer of granularity when describing their issue or the service request item. Examples of subcategories may be:
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Category: Hardware
Subcategories: Laptop, Mobile, Desktop
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Category: Human Resources
Subcategories: Benefits, Time Off
Both the category and subcategory entry can be made mandatory fields, helping to ensure all incoming incidents and requests are classified.
Default category
By setting a default category for new tickets without a category, you can help to ensure all tickets are assigned.
Default assignee and notifications
You can select a default assignee and/or default group assignment for all new tickets or a default user to receive notifications when new tickets are created.
If you choose to have a default category, SolarWinds recommends that for all uncategorized incoming incidents you also select a default assignee. This will save time and help you meet SLAs by streamlining processes while also ensuring incidents are being addressed in a timely manner.
Default Assignee
In On, all new incidents will be assigned to the selected user.
Default Group Assignment
If On, all new incidents will be assigned to the selected group.
Default Notification for All New Incidents
If On, and no default assignee is selected, a notification will be sent to the selected user for all new incidents.
If you decide to enable the Default Notification for All New Incidents feature, a notification for all new incidents is relayed to the selected user or group. This helps ensure that a notification is sent, even if no category or default assignee was selected for routing.
Create or edit a category
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, select a default assignee and/or default group assignment from the dropdown lists, and add comma-separated default tags.
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Optionally, create an email dropbox.
An email dropbox can be used to directly route incidents to a specific email address. See Category dropbox emails for more information. -
Click Create.
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After creation is complete, refresh the Categories index page. The list of categories will automatically re-sort to alphabetical order.
Create a new subcategory
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Hover over a category name and select the Add
icon. -
Provide a name, select a default assignee and/or default group assignment from the dropdown lists, and comma-separated default tags.
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Optionally, create an email dropbox.
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Click Create.
The parent category expands to display the new child subcategory under it.
Rename a category or subcategory
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Hover over the category or subcategory name and select the pencil
icon. -
In the dialog box, select Rename category in 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 or archive a category or subcategory
You can also delete or archive. If you choose to delete a category or subcategory, it is removed but you can run a report for historical tickets using that category.