QR Codes and NFC Tags

You can share a hyperlink with your end users that they can use to quickly submit a certain type of request. Similarly, you can send people a link with which they can register a request for a specific configuration item.

The trouble with such links is that they are a little long. For example, the link for a request template looks something like this:

https://widget.4me.com/self-service/requests/new?template_id=659

Now all specialists are able to shorten such URLs. They can do this in the Short URLs section of the Settings console.

When they create a short URL for a configuration item or request template, it looks like this:

That’s much shorter, which is nice. But there’s so much more that can be done with short URLs.

Configuration managers can, for example, generate 1,000 short URLs after their organization has submitted a purchase order for 1,000 new laptops. By reserving these 1,000 short URLs, they can be exported and sent off to a print shop. The print shop can then create a QR code or NFC tag sticker for each short URL.

After one of the new laptops has been configured, one of these stickers can be placed on it. At that point the short URL can be linked to the CI record that represents the new laptop.

When the user who gets the new laptop scans the QR code or NFC tag sticker, a list of request templates related to the Personal Computing service opens. The user can then select the most appropriate template (e.g. Install Microsoft Project), after which a new request is opened with the laptop already linked to it and all the information filled out.

Short URLs can also be used to create a QR code that sends an email, SMS message or tweet with a specific message to the service desk every time a user scans it. Just think of the possibilities when QR codes are attached to network printers, coffee machines and company cars.

Or how about something a little more advanced? You could create a QR code that authorized users could scan to submit a request for the building’s WiFi password. A Webhook could be set up to trigger a script that sends an SMS message with today’s WiFi password every time such a request is submitted.

Developers will find all the information they might need concerning the integration options that the Short URLs API provides in the 4me developer documentation.