Recurring incidents are symptoms of unresolved problems – and identifying this pattern manually across hundreds of tickets is impractical. The NexTool Problem Flow module automates this detection and creates ITIL Problems in GLPI without human intervention.
The problem
Support teams that follow ITIL know that Problems are the underlying root cause of repeated incidents. But in practice, the identification process is manual: someone needs to notice that several tickets have the same category, in the same entity, within the same period – and then create the linked Problem.
This gap has a high cost. The time between the pattern emerging and the Problem being opened is filled with more incidents, more tickets, and more load on the team. In high-volume operations, the pattern frequently goes unnoticed until the impact is already significant.
How Problem Flow works
The module automatically evaluates closed and solved tickets looking for concentration by category and entity within a configurable time window. When the number of occurrences reaches the threshold defined in the rules, an ITIL Problem is automatically created in GLPI.
- Dual triggers – Evaluation happens in real time (when closing/solving a ticket) and via periodic cron, ensuring coverage even in high-volume scenarios.
- Configurable rules – Each rule defines the minimum number of tickets (N), the analysis period, the category, and the monitored entity. Multiple rules can coexist to cover different operational scenarios.
- Focused scope – The module exclusively analyzes Incident-type tickets, aligned with the ITIL practice of associating Problems with repetitive incidents.
- Complete traceability – Each detection is logged in the module's activity log, with references to the tickets that triggered the rule and the generated Problem.
The result is that the team receives a contextualized ITIL Problem as soon as the pattern is identified – without depending on someone looking at reports at the right moment.
How to activate
- Install NexTool on GLPI
- Go to Setup > NexTool > Modules
- Activate the Problem Flow module
- Configure detection rules: category, entity, ticket threshold, and time window
Who is it for
Problem Flow is essential for operations that formally adopt ITIL and want to close the gap between incident management and problem management. It is especially useful in environments with high ticket volume, multiple entities, or distributed teams, where manual pattern detection is impractical. Managers who need ITSM maturity indicators also benefit directly: the module generates tracked evidence that the problem management process is active and working.
Compatibility
- GLPI: 10.0+ and 11.0+
- Plan: Enterprise
- Plugin: NexTool 3.x+
Next step
Problem Flow is part of NexTool. Want to implement ITIL problem management with automatic traceability? Contact the team.
This content was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the Nextool Solutions team. Screenshots are from the real GLPI environment with the NexTool plugin.
