Release Notes - Ostrich 3.0.0

Introduction of New Features

1. Location Scoping

We have implemented location based data segregation for organizations with diverse geographical presence; it is achieved using location scoping. Data in the ITSM tool is segregated for technicians and requesters based on location; for example, London office technicians will support that office’s requesters and authorized to see that location’s data.

Few Use Cases for Location Scope

  • A ticket filed in a particular office will be visible to the technicians assigned to that office. A ticket must carry location information for location scope to work. Such segregation speeds up the service delivery process.
  • Achieve security through obscurity. You can define access authorization using location. A technician assigned to a particular location will see data of that location only.
  • Manage large amount of tickets through segregation based on location. A technician assigned to a location will able to see tickets of his/her location.
  • Achieve separate automated workflows for different locations using location scoping. Scope of Location Segregation

Following objects comes within the scope of location based segregation (i.e. Data accessed by location):

  • Incident
  • Problem
  • Change
  • Asset
  • Report
  • Project
  • Technician***
  • Requester***

Implementing Location Scope

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Related Guides:

2. Plugin Server

Motadata has introduced the concept of plugins, which is piece of code that integrates with our main server to perform a specific function. In the context of our product, a plugin is nothing but a .fp bundle (i.e. Kind of app, zip).

A Plugin server is a server which hosts/runs plugins. It is like our main server with a specialized purpose of running plugins. The main server will call a plugin server to execute specific plugin and get the desired output.

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Why use a Plugin Architecture?

Different users have different needs as customization is the reality of our market. It not possible to accommodate all different needs in the form of a product feature, which is why we have introduced the concept of plugin architecture.

Benefits of a Plugin Architecture:

  • Gives the ability to add business specific functions to the ITSM tool; for example, a user might want to send a notification to his CRM when a ticket is created.
  • Provides a great deal of flexibility when it comes to customization without burdening the tool.
  • New functions can be added with changing the code base of the main product.

Related Guides:

3. ITSM Plugin - Active Directory Integration

This is a standard plugin offered by Motadata to all our users.

Purpose: The plugin provides integration with an Active Directory. When the plugin is executed it can create new users, update existing users, read user data and delete a user using the LDAP protocol.

Perquisite: Plugin server needs to be setup with the main server.

Learn how to Setup Plugin.

4. Scenario Automation

Scenario automation allows a user to apply specific changes to a Request, Problem or Change ticket based on a defined scenario (conditions). An admin can create multiple scenarios each for Request, Problem and Change. He can define access level for each scenario that restricts access to particular technician/technicians or group/groups.

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Some of the Benefits of Scenario Automation

  • Make multiple changes to a ticket on a single click.
  • Create a template for a specific kind of tickets.
  • Automate the handling of recurring scenarios.

You can also create a specific scenario for a Service Catalog item. Learn more.

Related Guides:

5. Project & Task Management

Motadata now has the Project Management module. To support the Project Management module, we have centralized the task management as a separate module that shows all tasks (throughout the system) of a technician.

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Some of the Benefits:

  • Collaboration on Projects.
  • Monitoring of milestones.
  • Track resource utilization.
  • Share documents.
  • Perform delegation in the form of tasks

Key Highlights:

  • Intuitive UI to track project milestones and tasks.
  • Create and assign tasks from a project.
  • Track total man hour worked on a project through time-log.
  • Relate a task with other modules.
  • Location scope in project management.
  • Assign technician to a project as a member.

Feature Improvements

  1. Auto Update of Asset Location and User:

    Motadata now has a feature that allows the system to automatically assign an asset to a requester based on the Logon Name provided in the system. The Logon Name is the workstation username which is provided when registering a requester. When an asset is discovered, it is matched with a requester using the Logon Name. You can find the username in Windows 10 from Control Panel >> User Accounts.

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    Related Topics: Adding a Requester.

    Now Motadata automatically assigns a location to an asset based on the Network.The assignment happens during a discovery of an asset by both agent-based and agent-less method. The location is assigned from the Network List; if a discovered asset has an IP that falls in a Network with an assigned location, then the location is inherited by the asset as well.

    Relate Guide: Preference

  2. Report:

    • Package Report
    • Deployment Request Report
    • Report of Asset Audit Trail (Change Log, and Scan Log).
    • Agent report based on active and inactive status.

  3. Request:

    • Requests created from a Service Catalog item automatically has the source field set to Service Catalog.

  4. Patch and Packages:

    • Check whether downloaded patches are corrupt or not using Checksum.

  5. Service Catalog:

    • Service template workflow now runs for all event triggers.
    • Hide a form field of a Service Catalog item from Requesters.

  6. New Technician Access Control

    • Group Access: This puts an additional restriction on top of location scope. A technician with Group Access permission will be able to see only Requests tickets with unassigned Technician Group, and if assigned, then he/she has to be part of the group in order to see the tickets.
    • Restricted Access: This puts an additional restriction on top of location scope. Technicians with this permission won’t be able to view and create Request tickets.

  7. SLA (Service Level Agreement):

    • SLA Monitoring: An admin can monitor the performance of an SLA. The admin can define a compliance level, based on which, he can reward or penalize a SLA (Learn more).

  8. Knowledge:

    • New privacy model and sharing features (Learn More).

  9. Others:

    • Create workflows on approval statuses for Service Desk and Catalog.
    • Custom Fields in a workflow Event, (both main workflow and Service Catalog workflow)
    • Create custom hidden fields to show system generated data.
    • Shared Drive Cleanup and Disk Space notification feature.
    • A global group has been added called All Technician Group.