“Reference Number” — or “REF” — is a new customer-facing record that will provide a simplified experience when obtaining and providing help via UW Connect. Whether their UW Connect service provider is managing their issue/inquiry as a Request, Incident, UW Connect Lite Ticket, or HCM Case, the customer will be provided a single REF number that will stay the same for the lifetime of the issue. If a customer’s Request is converted to an Incident, customers won’t be exposed to such conversions — they stay “behind the scenes.”
Reference Number will be released in on March 18th for all customers and licensed UW Connect agents, well ahead of the UW Finance Transformation (UWFT) go-live. UWFT will use UW Connect as the support tool within its Operating Model. Note that the Finance record prefix will be “FIN.”
In preparation for the release, team successfully conducted User Acceptance Testing during the first week of March.
How it works
When a customer reports an issue, both a Reference Number record and a primary ticket (Incident, Request, Lite Ticket, HCM Case, Finance Case) are created. The REF serves as an overlay to the primary ticket that the UW Connect agent is managing. The agent doesn’t have to manage the REF; their updates/comments will pass to the customer via the REF record and vice versa. If the customer reaches out about their issue, they will refer to their REF record, and agents can quickly get to the primary ticket from the REF.
Reference Number is based on ServiceNow’s Universal Request solution, which provides a simplified employee experience regardless of administrative unit or function. It’s not just about the customer experience: UW-IT aims for agents to have a simplified experience in these transfers, as compared to today.
Informational videos and Knowledge Base articles on Reference Number
(please note that you need to a UW Connect licensed user to see following Knowledge Base articles)
- Reference Number, Transfer, and Conversion Training information for you:
- Here is a link to a recorded Zoom training.
- There are three knowledge articles that cover key aspects of functionality
- KB0031705: Reference Numbers
- KB0031711: Transferring Organizations
- KB0031712: Converting Record Types
Additional information for those who have custom reports or filters:
- You may notice REFs appearing alongside the records you usually work with (REQ, HRP, INC, etc.) in any reports, filters, or dashboards you have created. To exclude REFs, update your filters and reports. Do so by adding this additional condition: task type | is not | reference number.
- For more information on how to update your filters, please seeKB0010235
- For more information on how to update your reports, please see KB0028679
- For more information on how to update your dashboards, please see KB0026589
My Requests web page on IT Connect
On My Requests, customers will see the REF number instead of the REQ, INC, TKT, or HRP number. As today, they’ll continue to see which support unit owns and is working their issue, as well as its state. Communications to customers about the change will remind them about the availability of My Requests and explain minor changes they can expect to see there.
Questions? Please use this form to reach the UW Connect support team. We appreciate your continued engagement in this important effort.
The UW Connect Reference Number Project Team