In ServiceDesk Incident Management, there is a variety of methods and part of the process to work an incident that will satisfy SLA requirements. One method, however, did not get formally defined. In the list of process actions, the Send Email action exists. Sending an email from the case does signify that the case has been viewed by an technician, and therefore can satisfy Initial Response SLA.
The attached document outlines the procedure to configure ServiceDesk for this.