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Basic concepts > About workflows

# About workflows

Fulfillment of a catalog request depends on the structured workflow designed by your Service Manager administrator. The workflow starts with the actual request process where you select one or more items, load them in a cart, and go through a check-out process that actually submits the request.

Depending on the organizational requirements, your request might need a review and approval process by your manager or others who manage the corporate budget process. In some cases, you can authorize the purchase of items within a prescribed price range. More expensive items might have budget constraints that trigger the internal review and approval process.

The final step is fulfilling the request. Fulfillment might be impacted by available inventory, discontinued items, or placing an external request with a product vendor. The supply chain administered by your organization governs this process. For questions, your best starting point is your Service Request Catalog administrator, who can direct you to the correct resources.

The request workflow

The Service Request Catalog workflows depend on the combined approval workflows defined by the Service Manager administrator and the enterprise fulfillment processes. The Service Request Catalog application is the interface where you begin the process by submitting a request for items or services. Service Manager accepts the request and starts the approval workflow by using a notification system. When the last approval is obtained, the enterprise fulfillment processes complete the request.

For more information, see the Service Manager documentation, or contact the Service Manager administrator.

The approval workflow

The Service Request Catalog approval workflow depends on the approval workflow defined by the Service Manager administrator. The Service Request Catalog application is the request interface, the Service Manager application manages the catalog content and defines the approval workflow. Fulfillment does not begin until the approval process is complete.

For more information, see the request approval section of Service Manager documentation, or contact the Service Manager administrator.

The fulfillment workflow

The Service Request Catalog fulfillment workflow depends on the fulfillment processes defined by the enterprise organization. Completion of the approval workflow triggers the fulfillment process to begin. Fulfillment may depend on an external vendor, inventory control, or service scheduling.

For more information about your fulfillment workflow, contact the Service Manager administrator.

The support request workflow

There are two types of support requests that you can make. You can request a standard item from the Support Catalog or you can create a custom request for support that is not part of the Support Catalog. Follow this process to resolve your problem.

1. Before you request support, look for assistance in the Knowledge Base. You may find useful articles, tips, or other information that helps you solve your problem on your own. If you cannot find any information related to your problem, or there is no link to the Knowledge Base on the Support tab, proceed to step 2.
2. Search for a standard support item. Other users have requested this type of support often enough that there is now a standard support request item available in the catalog. If there is no standard support item, proceed to step 3.
3. Create a custom request. Your problem is unique or not encountered very often.

After you submit the request, you will receive a confirmation ID number that you can use to track your support request.

There are two status values associated with a support request. It is either open or closed. You can view this status on Your Account page.

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