2021 enhancements
Review the BMC Helix Dashboards enhancements made available during 2021 for features that will benefit your organization and to understand changes that might impact your users.
December 30, 2021
Enhanced reporting with Grafana 8.x
BMC Helix Dashboards now supports Grafana 8.x to provide an enhanced experience of unified reporting and a consolidated view of data from applications across your environment.
Print specific case details with Printable Case Summary dashboard
As a dashboard user, you can use the Printable Case Summary dashboard to print specific case details in PDF format on an A4 size paper without having to manually select any fields.
For more information, see Printable dashboard.
View associated work orders in the Printable Incident Details dashboard
The Printable Incident Details dashboard displays all the work orders that are associated with an incident ID. Dashboard users can use this dashboard to quickly view the associated work orders without having to navigate to the Associated Work Orders screen. Multiple work orders associated with the same incident ID are also displayed as a subsection on the same panel.
For more details, see Printable dashboards.
View associated known errors in the Printable Problem Details dashboard
The Printable Problem Details dashboard displays all the known errors that are associated with an incident ID. Dashboard users can use this dashboard to quickly view the associated known errors without having to navigate to the Associated Known Errors screen. Multiple known errors associated with the same incident ID are also displayed as a subsection on the same panel.
For more details, see Printable dashboards.
Display multiple responses and select column styling with BMC Record Details plugin
By default, the BMC Record Details plugin displays information for the first response only. In this release, the plugin will be able to display information for multiple responses. Additionally, you can select the styling for specific columns with this version of the plugin.
For more information, see Visualizing data as records in panels.
Set internal and external email recipient preferences
As a tenant administrator, you can restrict the recipients of the report schedules. Depending on your preferences, you can either share the report schedules with internal users or with external users and specific email domains.
For more information, see Scheduling reports for automatic distribution.
Renamed the Total Automations panel to Total Unique Automations
The Total Automations panel is now called the Total Unique Automations in the BMC Helix Intelligent Automation Value dashboard.
For more information, see BMC Helix Intelligent Automation Value dashboard.
November 19, 2021
Monitor KPIs for open incidents
Service Desk Managers can use the Open Incident Analysis dashboard to quickly view all the open incidents.
For more information, see BMC Helix ITSM Open Incident Analysis dashboard.
Monitor KPIs for aging incidents
Service Desk Managers can use the Ageing Incidents Analysis dashboard to quickly view the number of incidents that are open for a specific time period.
For more information, see BMC Helix ITSM Ageing Incident Analysis dashboard.
Monitor incident response times
Service Desk Managers can use the Closed Incidents Metrics dashboard to easily monitor the response time to resolve incidents and track the number of incidents that met the service targets. 
For more information, see BMC Helix ITSM Closed Incidents Metrics dashboard.
Enhanced out-of-the-box Printable Details dashboards
Dashboard users can use printable dashboards to print specific record details in a PDF format on an A4 size paper without having to manually select any fields. The following out-of-the-box printable dashboards are available for BMC Helix ITSM:
- Printable Asset Details
- Printable Problem Details
For more information, see Printable dashboards.
Support for additional out-of-the-box calculated fields
As a tenant administrator or editor, you can add one or more predefined calculated fields for KPIs in your service management query.
For more information, see Service Management query.
Enhanced out-of-the-box dashboards
As a tenant administrator or editor, you can add Drill through links to bar charts for the following dashboards:
- BMC Helix ITSM Asset compliance dashboard
- BMC Helix ITSM Asset inventory dashboard
- BMC Helix ITSM Change dashboard
- BMC Helix ITSM Incident dashboard
- BMC Helix ITSM Incident SLA Performance dashboard
- BMC Helix ITSM KCS Effectiveness and Efficiency dashboard
- BMC Helix ITSM Service Automation dashboard
- BMC Helix Digital Workplace dashboard
- Service Targets Against Cases dashboard
For more information, see Viewing out-of-the-box dashboards.
Ability to define dashboard report formats
As a tenant administrator or editor, you can define the format of dashboard reports using the supported_report_types variable.
For more information, see To configure variable for supported report formats.
October 22, 2021
Best practices for transitioning existing reports from BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting to BMC Helix Dashboards
As a reporting or tenant administrator, copy reports and dashboard panels from BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting to BMC Helix Dashboards.
For more information about copying reports and dashboard panels, see Copying reports and dashboards from BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting to BMC Helix Dashboards.
View the count of work orders that can be automated on the BMC Helix ITSM Service Automation dashboard
As a Service Request manager, you can use the BMC Helix ITSM Service Automation dashboard to view non-automated work orders.
For more information about the Service Automation dashboard, see BMC Helix ITSM Service Automation dashboard.
Ability to print out-of-the-box Printable Details dashboards
As a dashboard user, you can use printable dashboards to print specific record details in a PDF and standard format on an A4 size paper without having to manually select any fields. The following printable dashboards are available for BMC Helix ITSM out of the box:
- Printable Change Details
- Printable Incident Details
- Printable Work Order Details
For more information, see Printable dashboards.
September 15, 2021
The following video (4.16) provides an overview of the features added to BMC Helix Dashboards in June - September 2021 release:
Track the usage and value of ITSM Insights in BMC Helix Dashboards
Service Desk Managers and Problem Coordinators can track the usage of ITSM Insights with various KPIs in BMC Helix Dashboards.
Use this dashboard to track the incident and problem management statistics for a company for a defined period. The out-of-the-box report includes the number and percentage of problem investigations created from ITSM Insights, number of associated incidents, number of jobs and job executions, status of various problem types, top emerging clusters, and incident relationships created.
For more information, see BMC Helix ITSM Insights dashboard.
Visualize data by using BMC Record Details visualization
BMC Record Details supports visualizing the data as records in panels. You can use this visualization to organize data into multiple sections and fields.
To configure a dashboard using this visualizations, see Visualizing data as records in panels.
Out-of-the-box calculated fields for Service Management Query
As a tenant administrator or editor, you can add one or more pre-defined calculated fields to the service management query without writing any SQL script.
For more information, see Service Management query.
BMC Combination Chart Improvements
The BMC Combination Chart now allows to set the minimum and maximum values for both the Y-axes. It also allows you to select different chart types for various metrics in the same chart.
For more information, see Visualizing data as a combination of charts and graphs in panels.
View new out-of-the-box dashboards for BMC Helix Operations Management
The following dashboards are now available for BMC Helix Operations Management out of the box:
- Dynamic Metrics Analysis
- Windows Server Metrics
- Linux Server Metrics
- Oracle Database Metrics
- Microsoft SQL Database Metrics
- Tabular KPI Report
For a complete list of BMC Helix Operations Management dashboards, see BMC Helix Operations Management dashboards.
View out-of-the-box BMC Helix Business Workflows dashboards
The following dashboards are available for BMC Helix Business Workflows out of the box:
Survey and CSAT Metrics for Line of Business
Survey and CSAT Metrics for Assigned Groups
- Service Targets Against Cases
Survey and CSAT Metrics dashboards
As a user with a functional role as case agent, case business analyst, or case manager with appropriate permissions, use the survey and CSAT metrics dashboards to gain insight about the overall customer satisfaction and performance of each line of business, assigned group, and agents. These dashboards are based on the customer feedback received for surveys in BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced for cases. The survey and CSAT metrics dashboards display the average CSAT rating, case resolution time, requester wait time, survey response rate, and so on for each line of business and assigned group.
The following survey and CSAT metrics dashboards are available out of the box in BMC Helix Dashboards:
Survey and CSAT Metrics for Line of Business
Survey and CSAT Metrics for Assigned Groups
For more information, see Case survey and customer satisfaction dashboards.
Service Targets Against Cases dashboard
As a dashboard user, use the Service Targets Against Cases dashboard to view the metrics for service targets of cases and monitor the number of target SLAs met, missed, or in progress for the selected line of business. For more information, see Service Targets Against Cases dashboard.
View the chatbot user details in the Chatbot User dashboard
As a chatbot owner, use the Chatbot User dashboard to view the number of active users, returning users, user location, and user retention rate to determine the effectiveness of a chatbot. For more information, see BMC Helix Virtual Agent user engagement and feedback dashboard.
August 23, 2021
Create report schedules in .XLS format
You can now create report schedules in Microsoft Excel Worksheet (.XLS) format for all types of panels, such as tables, charts, and so on.
For more information, see Scheduling reports for automatic distribution.
Set up a long-lived session for NOC dashboards
You can now prolong a dashboard session to never expire for one or more users as required.
For more information on how to prolong the NOC dashboard sessions, see Configuring dashboards, panels, and queries.
Support for the CSV data source plugin
You can now use the CSV data source plugin to import data from CSV files to the dashboard filters and panels in BMC Helix Dashboards.
Important
You must select SFTP in the Access field drop-down. SFTP should be either publicly-accessible or reachable via the internet.
To configure dashboards with CSV data source, see Adding and configuring a data source and
CSV Data Source for Grafana.
View the CI information and CMDB data quality metrics
As a CMDB dashboard user, view the information about CIs and relationships, and CMDB data quality metrics in the following out-of-the-box BMC Helix CMDB dashboards:
- CMDB Overview
- CMDB Data Quality
For more information on these dashboards, see BMC Helix CMDB dashboards.
Check service automation success for work orders
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View the chatbot usage and intents for each chatbot in the Chatbot Overview dashboard
As a chatbot owner, use the Chatbot Overview dashboard to view the number of conversations by channels, chatbot transfer, and chat intent performance for each chatbot in your system. For more information, see BMC Helix Virtual Agent channel usage and intent recognition dashboard.
July 27, 2021
View new out-of-the-box dashboards for BMC Helix ITSM
The following dashboards are now available for BMC Helix ITSM out of the box:
- Channel
- Asset Compliance
- Asset Contracts
- Asset Inventory
- Asset Overview
For a complete list of BMC Helix ITSM dashboards, see BMC Helix ITSM dashboards.
View the out-of-the-box dashboard for BMC services
New Service Request Overview dashboard is now available out of the box for BMC Helix Intelligent Automation.
For more information, see Service Request Overview dashboard.
Visualize data by using Grafana Community panels
The following two additional Grafana Community panel visualizations are available out-of-the-box for selection from the dashboard Panel > Visualization section:
- Worldmap Panel: Use this to display a tile map of the world. It can be used with time series metrics, with geohash data from Elasticsearch or data in the Table format. You can represent data points as overlaid circles on the map.
- Traffic Lights: Use this to display the traffic lights based on the recent time aggregation data source. You can tune the thresholds to limit the number of traffic lights per line.
To configure a dashboard using these panels in BMC Helix Automation Console, see
Configuring dashboards, panels, and queries.
,
Grafana snuids trafficlights plugin
, and
Grafana Worldmap Panel plugin.
Visualize data by using BMC Combination Chart
BMC Combination Chart supports visualizing the time series metrics as graphs and charts.
To configure a dashboard using this visualizations, see Visualizing data as a combination of charts and graphs in panels.
Use additional Display options to configure BMC Bar Chart and BMC Cross-tab visualizations
When you expand the Display option for the BMC Bar Chart and BMC Cross-tab visualizations, you can see additional fields that you can configure now.
For more information, see Visualizing data as charts in panels and Visualizing data as grids in panels.
Use the CSV format for creating reports
While creating reports for automatic distribution, you can now use the CSV format to create reports of the table-type panels.
For more information, see Scheduling reports for automatic distribution.
Marketplace content dashboards available
New dashboards created by the BMC community are now available in the Marketplace Content folder in BMC Helix Dashboards. You can create a copy of these dashboards and make your own customizations.
For more information, see Building a dashboard quickly from marketplace content.
New name for the BMC Helix Vulnerability Management dashboard
The BMC Helix Vulnerability Management is now called the BMC Helix Automation Console dashboard.
For more information, see BMC Helix Automation Console dashboard.
New name for the BMC Helix Vulnerability Management data source
The BMC Helix Vulnerability Management data source is now called the BMC Helix Automation Console data source. Use this data source to create dashboards that obtain data from BMC Helix Automation Console.
To view the out-of-the-box dashboard created with the BMC Helix Automation Console data source, see BMC Helix Automation Console dashboard.
June 17, 2021
Out-of-the-box dashboard available for BMC Helix Intelligent Automation
The BMC Helix Intelligent Automation dashboard is now available out of the box for BMC Helix Intelligent Automation.
For more information, see BMC Helix Intelligent Automation Value dashboard.
May 27, 2021
Schedule report distribution and add branding to reports
As a tenant administrator, editor, or a viewer, schedule the distribution of BMC Helix Dashboards reports to users over email.
As a tenant administrator, add your branding and logo to the BMC Helix Dashboards report.
For more information, see Scheduling reports for automatic distribution and Adding logo and branding on scheduled reports.
View out-of-the-box dashboards for BMC applications
Out-of-the-box dashboards are now available for the following applications:
- BMC Helix Business Workflows
- BMC Helix Digital Workplace
View new out-of-the-box dashboards for BMC Helix ITSM
The following dashboards are now available for BMC Helix ITSM out of the box:
- Change dashboard
- Incident SLA Performance dashboard
- Application Availability dashboard
- KCS Effectiveness and Efficiency dashboard
For a complete list of BMC Helix ITSM dashboards, see BMC Helix ITSM dashboards.
Download the open-source BMC Helix plugin from the Grafana community
If you use an on-premises Grafana instance, you can leverage the BMC Helix capabilities by downloading the open-source BMC Helix plugin from the Grafana community and adding it as a data source in the Grafana instance. This plugin enables an enterprise or stand-alone Grafana instance to create dashboards that use BMC Helix APIs to obtain Events, Metrics, and Cloud Security data.
For more information, see Adding the BMC Helix plugin in an on-premises Grafana instance.
March 17, 2021
Obtain data from multiple sources in a single dashboard
You can now use the BMC Cross-tab visualization to create dashboards that can obtain data from multiple sources.
You can use this visualization with the Service Management query.
For more information, see Visualizing data as grids in panels.
View out-of-the-box dashboards for BMC applications
With the new out-of-the-box dashboards, you can now view data from the following applications:
- BMC Helix ITSM
- BMC Helix Virtual Agent
For more information, see Viewing out-of-the-box dashboards.
For information about BMC Helix ITSM and BMC Helix Virtual Agent, see the following documentation:
View the out-of-the-box dashboard for BMC services
With the new Service dashboard, you can now view data obtained from BMC services in BMC Helix Operations Management and BMC Helix ITSM.
For more information, see Service dashboard.
Use new query types to create dashboards
The following query types are now available:
- Log: With this query type, you can create dashboards to obtain the BMC Helix Log Analytics data.
- Service Management: With this query type, you can obtain data from multiple sources in a single dashboard. You can obtain data from different service management applications, such as BMC Helix ITSM including Smart IT, BMC Helix Virtual Agent, Custom AR and IS application.
For more information, see Service Management query.
Obtain data for BMC Helix Capacity Optimization
You can now use the Metric query to obtain data from BMC Helix Continuous Optimization.
For more information, see Metric query.
Add and configure a new data source
You can add and configure a new data source to obtain data from the data stores in your environment.
For more information, see Adding and configuring a data source.
February 05, 2021
Experience enhanced performance in the Metrics Data dashboard
The out-of-the-box Metrics Data dashboard is now enhanced to load only 500 events at a time, resulting in improved performance.
For more information, see BMC Helix Operations Management Metrics Data dashboard.
January 15, 2021
Use a new data source name for BMC Helix
The name of the BMC Helix ADE data source is now changed to BMC Helix. You can use this data source while creating queries.
For more information about creating queries, see Configuring dashboards, panels, and queries.
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