SCSM Apps

Install: Outlook Console

This article applies to: Cireson Outlook Console, version v8.0.6 and above.

Overview

The Cireson Outlook Console app allows analysts to create, edit, view and complete work items simply from within Microsoft Outlook. Analysts can quickly attach an email to a work item and monitor their active work items without opening the Service Manager Console.

Please ensure you have a Product Key and the Cireson Licensing installed before installing this app. If you do not have a Product Key for your environment, please request this through our portal request offering. Please read more about Cireson Software Licensing here.

Note: A Product Key is designed for use with a specific environment only.  If you require additional Product Keys for use with TEST/DEV/STAGE environments, you can request these through our portal request offering.

Prerequisites

The Outlook Console requires the following:

Step 1: Install Outlook Console app Management Pack

Important Note: If you are upgrading to version 8.0+ from version 7, you must uninstall Cireson Outlook Console prior to upgrading.

To install the Outlook Console app, import the provided Management Pack (.mpb) into SCSM by following the steps below on the Management Server:

  • Navigate to the Administration workspace and select the Management Packs node
  • Select Import on the Tasks menu
  • Import the provided Management Pack, Cireson.Outlook.SCSM.AddIn.mpb

Step 2: Configure Outlook Console app Settings

After applying your license, you need to configure your application settings. To complete the configuration, perform the following steps:

  • Navigate to the Administration workspace and select the Settings node
  • Select Cireson – Outlook Console Settings and select Edit in the Tasks menu (or double click)
  • Select / populate the following fields

General Settings

Show Requested By (Affected User) for Change Request - This option displays the associated user that is requesting the change request.

Only add email body text up to this token (for example, "From:") - This option allows administrators to configure a text token that is used as an "end marker" of text in the email to add to the action log.  

Description is required - Makes the description field a mandatory field.

Disable the use of the [mygroups] token for the My Active Work Items feature - Removes a users ability to display work items assigned to their support group within the My Work Items view.

On the Incident form, show affected CIs and Services - Adds the visibility of affected CI's and Services on the Work Item forms.

When searching for users, show Last Name first - By default, user searches use the first name followed by last name. This option reserves the default configuration to have last name first.

Append email body to existing Description when creating from an email and using a template - Selecting this option will add the text from the e-mail to the end of the description field rather than overwriting the pre-formatted text that may exist in the description field from the select Work Item template.

Add supported form customisations onto the Custom tab - This option adds supported customisation on to a separate Custom tab of the Work Item form.

Add supported form customisations onto the end of the General tab - This option adds supported customisation directly on to the General tab of the Work Item form.

Add supported class extensions onto the Extensions tab - This option adds supported extensions to the selected class to a tab on the form to allow analysts to enter information for the Outlook console directly.

Enable integration with Cireson Calendar apps - Enabled the Cireson Calendar apps to be accessed from the Outlook console.

Allow use of the change Incident status task - Enables the use of a task that allows analysts to change the status of an Incident.

Maximum number of records to return for a query: (250 default) - Allows for more or fewer results to be returned from queries such as number of affected users. Warning: High numbers can impact performance.

Allow non-administrators use of the Skip Activity feature - Allows all analysts, not just administrators, to skip an activity rather than having to complete it.

Process sub-group memberships for User Picker Group Assign feature. (can greatly affect performance) - By default, when using the Group Assign feature, only the top level AD groups are processed. Selecting this option allows for nested groups within the group assign feature, however can greatly increase query process time and affect performance of the Outlook console.

Custom Service Request Area - This allows administrates to add a custom field to Service Requests to be able to track the area that a request is created for. Select the list from the drop down list that is to be used.

CC Emails to this address - All e-mails sent from the Outlook console will be CC'd to this address. Leave blank to disable this feature.

Disable user caching for User Pickers - To improve performance of the Outlook console, by default, all user lists are cached locally rather than having to query the CMDB database for every access. This prevents a lot of database query time and will improve the user experience for the analysts. However, in a dynamic environment where new users are created frequently, this option can be selected to disable the caching and force a query to the CMDB every time a user is selected on a form.

Show Lync Status on User Pickers - This option enables the Lync\Skype for Business presence data to be displayed on the forms.

On My Active Work Items, for Incidents, also show items where the current analyst is the Primary Owner (may affect performance) - This option will display any Incident that the logged on analyst is also a Primary Owner of. This allows analysts to track not only Incidents that they are assigned to but may want to keep track of throughout its life-cycle. Enabling this feature will affect performance and may cause poor performance of the Outlook console.

Use alternative commit method - If you are having issues with normal operation for saving in the console, switch to this method and try again. No need to change this unless you are having issues.

Add Time Worked tab to supported forms - Adds time tracking features to forms that support time tracking

Attachment Settings

When creating from an email, automatically add all mail item attachments to the new work item - Enabling this option will attach all email attachments to the created work item regardless of content. All pictures embedded in the email will also be saved as an attachment.

Obey SCSM settings for maximum size and number of attachments - Within SCSM there are default attachment settings for work items that can be configured including number of attachments per work item and size of attachments (kb). This option uses the rules from SCSM rather than custom rules defined specifically for the Outlook console. Requires first option enabled.

Signature logo filter - Minimum attachment size in bytes - As all embedded pictures will be added as an attachment, it is possible to attempt to filter out company logo images from email signatures by setting a minimum size for embedded pictures to attach. Requires first option enabled.

Obey SCSM settings for maximum size and number of attachments - This option applies to all manually attached files that an analyst may attach to a work item.

Source Settings

Default Incident Source when creating from and email - This drop down list contains the source type that will be used by default when creating a new Incident via an email.

Default Problem Source when creating from and email - This drop down list contains the source type that will be used by default when creating a new Problem via an email.

Default Service Request Source when creating from and email - This drop down list contains the source type that will be used by default when creating a new Service Request via an email.

Default Incident Source when creating - This drop down list contains the source type that will be used by default when an analyst manually creates a new Incident from the Service Manager ribbon.

Step 3: Install Outlook Console app

The Outlook Console app is an add in to Microsoft Outlook that must be installed on each computer that analysts will use. The computer that the add in is installed on must contain the prerequisites detailed earlier in this KB article.

Before we begin, make sure you are using the correct version of Cireson Outlook Console. You can check this in Outlook by going to File->Office Account->About Outlook. See screenshot below.

To install this add-in, perform the following steps:

On a computer with Microsoft Outlook and Service Manager console installed:

  • Close Outlook
  • Run the setup installer for your Outlook version
  • Navigate through the wizard to complete installation
  • Start Outlook and verify that the Cireson Outlook Console appears in the ribbon

On a computer with Microsoft Outlook but without the Service Manager console installed:

  • Close Outlook
  • Run the setup installer for your Outlook version
  • Navigate through the wizard to complete installation
  • Copy the following files from a computer that has Service Manager installed to the install folder of Outlook Console app (SCSM folder may vary depending on version)
C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012 R2\Service Manager\Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Common.dll
C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012 R2\Service Manager\Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Config.dll
C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012 R2\Service Manager\SDK Binaries\Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Core.dll
  • Start Outlook and verify that the Cireson Outlook Console appears in the ribbon

Deploying the Outlook Console via a Software Distribution Tool such as System Center Configuration Manager

The Outlook Console installer is a basic .msi file. It can be installed as part of a package by installing the .msi silently using the /qn parameter to msiexec.
Don't forget to ensure the Service Manager console is installed on these computers as well

 

A correctly installed add in will display on the main ribbon on the far right, as seen below.

Step 4: Configure Outlook Console Settings 

Once the Outlook Console app has been installed, click the Settings icon on the Service Manager ribbon within Outlook to be able to configure the Outlook Console settings.

Management Server - Populate the name of the management server in your environment or the management server that is assigned to console connections. This may be automatically populated if Service Manager is already installed on the local machine.

When Outlook starts, disable features and don't connect - If you do not want the Outlook console to automatically connect to the Management Server when Outlook starts, check this option.

Prompt for credentials when connecting - Select this checkbox if you wish to be prompted for your user name, password, and domain when trying to connect to the Management Server.

On My Active Work Items, include Work Items with a status of - Select the checkboxes for "Cancelled," Failed," "Pending, or "Skipped" if you wish to view items of that status that are in the My Active Work Items view.

Refresh My Active Work Items data after this number of seconds (0 to disable) - This option sets the refresh time for queries to the CMDB.

On My Active Work Items, include items assigned to your Support Groups - Option to enable the display for Work Items that are assigned to Support Groups that you are a member of

Use this language for Service manager text - The language options will display the Outlook console texts and labels in the selected language.

When creating a Work Item from an email, attach the entire email - This option allows for the entire email to be attached to the newly created Work Item as a .eml format attachment.

Step 5: Using the Outlook Console App

Following the configuration of the Outlook Console app, analysts will be able to create, edit, view and complete any Work Item. In addition, they will be able to add emails to Work Items all from Outlook.

Create or edit a Work Item

Option 1

Select Create or Edit in the upper right-hand corner of the ribbon in Outlook and select the Work Item you would like to create or edit.

Selecting Edit will bring up a Search box to be able to find a specific work item

Option 2

Right-click on an email that will be the source of the Work Item.
Navigate to Service Manager in the drop down list and select the Work Item you would like to create or edit.

Note: By using Option 2 for creating work items, the person who sent the email will be displayed as the “Affected User”, the subject of the email will become the “Title” of the Work Item and the body of the email will become the “Description."

View your Work Items

Select My Active Work Items in the Service Manager ribbon in Outlook

 

Add an email to a Work Item

Right click on the email you wish to add to work item
Select the option to attach the email or add it to the log of the Work Item of your choice

 

Skip or Unskip Activities

You can use the Outlook Console to perform some tasks, one of which is skipping or unskipping activities. To do this, simply find a work item with an activity, right click it and click Skip Activity. 

To unskip an activity, right click the activity, and click Unskip Activity

This can even be done for failed activities.

Integration with Cireson Console Calendar Apps

Cireson Outlook Console can also display work items that are scheduled, however the option does need to be enabled by an administrator.

In Cireson Outlook Console Settings, turn on 'Enable integration with Cireson Calendar apps'

Reconnect to Service Manager in the Outlook Console app (Settings->'Ok & Connect')
You will now get a new drop down option for Calendars