20.20.02 enhancements

Grant record access to an approver 

In BMC Helix Remedyforce 20.20.01 and older releases, if approvers do not have access to records, they cannot approve or reject records. While trying to access a record, an error message is displayed. Starting from 20.20.02, administrators can grant record access to approvers. Approvers who have access to records can view records and approve or reject them. 

To provide record access to approvers, administrators must click the new Start button next to Share records with Approvers under Remedyforce Administration > Application Settings > General Application Settings. A batch job runs in the background after every minute and provides record access to approvers.

Note that approvers are granted read access to records.

For more information, see Granting record access to approvers.

Track the total time spent by each queue

Administrators can track the total work time and wait time spent by each queue(owner) on an incident or service request having multiple queues. Thus, the new reports will provide detailed insights for time calculated based on the work status and non-work status respectively.

Additionally, the Generate Historical Data feature allows you to generate data for older records while calculating time spent by the queues on incidents.

For more information about tracking the total time spent on queues, see Tracking the total time spent by queues and Creating and viewing reports for time spent by queues.

Configure a lightning web component to submit tickets from Salesforce Communities

Community users can submit a ticket to BMC Helix Remedyforce by using the new Lightning Web Component called Submit Ticket. This component provides the look and feel of the Salesforce Lightning Experience.

For more information about configuring the new Lightning Web Component, see Configuring Lightning components on community pages.

Configure a lightning web component to view tickets from Salesforce Communities

Community users can view tickets submitted to BMC Helix Remedyforce by using the new Lightning Web Component called View Tickets. This component provides the look and feel of the Salesforce Lightning Experience.

The component functionality is similar to that of the View in My Activity tile in Self Service 3.0. On viewing a ticket, users can add attachments and notes as well.

For more information about configuring the new Lightning Web Component, see Configuring Lightning components on community pages.

Clone CIs and assets

Remedyforce CMDB users can clone configuration items and assets. For similar type of CIs and assets, use the clone feature instead of creating new instances. For more information, see Cloning assets and Cloning configuration items.

Enhanced user interface for the CMDB Explorer

The new user interface of the CMDB Explorer is more intuitive and easy to use.

• You can print the CMDB Explorer or export it in the SVG and PNG formats.
• The newly added Key provides guidelines on how to use the CMDB Explorer.
• You can select multiple CIs and assets and link them with existing or new change requests

For more information, see Working with the CMDB Explorer.

Link CIs and assets with change requests from the CMDB Explorer

In the CMDB Explorer, you can now link CIs and assets with new or existing change requests. For example, you want to apply a patch on all servers that are related to an instance, you just have to select the corresponding nodes in the CMDB Explorer and link them with change requests. This ability helps CMDB users in performing their tasks much faster through the CMDB Explorer.

For more information, see Working with the CMDB Explorer.

Enhanced user interface for configuring service request definition

The enhanced SRD interface is designed to provide a better and intuitive user experience. The following enhancements are introduced.

• A wizard to sequentially guide you through the entire configuration process that reduces the complexity of SRD creation.
• Better accessibility through the UI that has been improved by organized sections, labels, segmentation on forms, and essential tool tips.
• Intuitive navigation through look and feel that is aligned with Salesforce Lightning Experience.

For more information about the new SRD interface, see Managing service request definitions.

Browse through categories with a new navigation experience for requesting a service

The Self Service 3.0 clients can use a new hierarchical way to browse through categories for requesting a service. The Browse Categories dropdown located on the Request a Service page, facilitates easy navigation to the required category or sub-category. Thus, helping to easily identify and select the appropriate service request. However, we recommend the hierarchical approach only when the sub-categories expand up to the three levels.

Additionally, the Request a Service page will display Common Service Requests as well. Furthermore, the Browse Categories dropdown supports keyboard navigation.

For more information about browsing categories, see Configuring settings for service requests in Self Service.

Increased window size for self help articles and submit ticket form

The width for self help articles is increased to 70% for better user experience and readability. The high resolution images are easily accommodated on all browsers, except Internet Explorer 11.  Also, administrators are provided with a custom setting SSKAWindowWidthPercent to set the required window width.

Additionally, the width for Submit a Ticket form is increased to 50% for better usability. This is applicable even when you the view self help article from Smart Suggestions section of the Submit a Ticket form.

For more information about the custom setting, see Managing custom settings.

Sort multiple columns and save the sorting settings in Remedyforce Console list view

In BMC Helix Remedyforce 20.20.01 and older releases, administrators and staff users can sort one column at a time in Remedyforce Console list view. When you log off from BMC Helix Remedyforce, the sorting setting is lost.

Starting from 20.20.02, administrators and staff users can sort multiple columns in Remedyforce Console list view. The sorting settings that you apply in Remedyforce Console list view are available even when you log on again. 

This feature is supported for the following record types:

• Incident
• Service request
• Task
• Problem
• Release
• Change request
• Service outage
• Broadcast

For more information, see Overview of the Remedyforce Console tab.

Watch the following video (2:08) to know how to sort columns in Remedyforce Console:

https://youtu.be/dpF88pHkkg0

Save the applied filters in Remedyforce Console list view

In BMC Helix Remedyforce 20.20.01 and older releases, the filters that you apply in Remedyforce Console list view are lost after you log off from the application. Starting from 20.20.02, the filters that you apply in Remedyforce Console list view are saved even after you log off from the application. 

For more information, see Filtering records in list views.

Configure service outages in Remedyforce Console

Profiles that are granted the service outage permission can access and create service outage records from Remedyforce Console without going to the Remedyforce Workspaces tab. They can view, create, and modify service outage records from Remedyforce Console > Service Outage. To create and modify service outage records, see Configuring service outages and monitoring service health.

For fresh installations, the Service Outage option is available by default in Remedyforce Console list view. All profiles are granted permission to create and modify service outage records from Remedyforce Console > Service Outage. 

In an upgraded organization, administrators have to grant the service outage permission to profiles from Remedyforce Administration > Application Settings > Consoles > Console View > Service Outages. For more information, see Enabling staff and other users to specify service outages.

Though administrators can configure service outage records from the following paths, they can sort and filter service outage records in Remedyforce Console only:

• Remedyforce Administration > Manage Workflows and Other Processes > Service Outage
• Remedyforce Console > Service Outage
• Remedyforce Workspaces

View actionable items list and plan your work

Staff users can view their action items on Remedyforce Console in the new My Work Day section. The metric cards in this section display details of different objects such as incidents, tasks, and so on. These metric cards help staff users in planning their work. Administrators must enable My Work Day and configure metric cards.

For more information, see Enabling My Work Day and configuring console metric cards and Viewing actionable items list and planning work.

Adding images to records from clipboard or through drag and drop

In addition to adding images through Add Attachments in Self Service, client users can copy and paste images to Rich Text Format (RTF) fields in tickets and service requests. Alternatively, you can drag and drop images from your computer to tickets and service requests. You can add images to RTF fields if administrators add RTF fields to the the ticket and service request forms.  For more information, see Using Self Service 3.0

If a ticket is created through an email and images are inserted in the email body, staff users can now see them in the email body. To view images that are added to an email body, administrators must add an RTF field to the corresponding form and map it with the email body. For more information on mapping fields, see Settings to create incidents by using email messages.

In the older releases, images inserted in emails are displayed as attachments.

Staff users can copy and paste or drag and drop images to RTF fields of records in Remedyforce Console. For information, see Creating and editing records.

Attach and view files through the Service Desk on Salesforce Mobile App

On the Salesforce Mobile App, the staff users can attach and view files for incident and task records. They can view the files attached by them as well as other users. To attach files to an existing or new record, the paper clip icon is provided on the toolbar of the record.

For more information about attaching files, see Overview of Service Desk on Salesforce1 Mobile App.

Enhanced user interface for the Discovery Setup & Configuration tab

The user interface of the Discovery Setup & Configuration tab under Remedyforce Administration > Configure CMDB 2.0 > Discovery Setup & Configuration is enhanced in look and feel with a more intuitive interface. For more information, see Enabling and configuring agentless discovery.

Enhanced security

In the Summer '20 release, access to various Remedyforce Administrator modules has been made more stringent for increased security. Staff and Change Manager persona's access is modified to prevent unauthorized access to Remedyforce Administration modules.