BMC Helix Business Workflows for a line of business

BMC Helix Business Workflows is a single application that can be used to manage cases related to multiple lines of business. A line of business, such as Human Resources, Finance, Facilities, and Legal, is a part of an organization that offer a specific service. The requirement of each line of business is unique and BMC Helix Business Workflows gives you the flexibility to define a line of business with its custom definitions, roles, and data access permissions. You can segregate data, create data, create configurations, and customize the flow of cases according to the business needs. A line of business enables you to have a focused and well designed case management implementation. 

Administrators can define the number of line of business required for your business. Based on the access to a line of business, case business analysts can set up data and configurations, and case agents can manage cases, tasks, and knowledge articles.

Line-of-business definitions and related configuration

A line of business definition includes the following data and configurations:

• Domain tag, bundle, and functional role—After an administrator defines a line of business, the following parameters are created for a line of business:
  • A bundle is created for the line of business.
  • If a domain tag does not exists for a line of business, a domain is created in BMC Helix Innovation Suite.
    The domain tag is used to tag Foundation data for the line of business. For more information about a domain tag, see Associating Foundation data with domain tags.
  • A functional role for the line of business is created and available for Foundation users.
    
• Out-of-the-box data—Out-of-the-box configuration data, such as notification templates and acknowledgement templates, is available for a line of business. For information about the out-of-the-box notification templates and acknowledgement templates, see Notification events and templates and Creating email and acknowledgement templates.
  
• Foundation data—Administrators associate the Foundation data, such as business unit, departments, categories, and support groups, for a line of business by using the domain tag. They grant required permissions to case business analysts and case agents to access a line of business.
• Configuration data—Case business analysts create the following configuration data for a line of business and activate it:
  • Case and task related configuration data
  • Approval mappings
    
  • Assignment mappings
    
  • Templates
  • Automated status transitions
  • Read access configurations
  • Status configurations
  • Document libraries and templates
  • Email configurations and templates 
  • Flowsets
  • Notification events and templates
  • Service Level Management configurations

After a case business analyst makes a line of business active, the line of business is available for use. Case agents who have access to the line of business can create cases in the line of business. The appropriate approval, service level targets, and assignments are applied to the case based on the line of business.

Data access based on a line of business

An organization can have multiple lines of business. Case agents and case business analysts in the organization can have access to multiple lines of business. Case business analysts can create and access configuration data for the line of business to which they have access. Case agents can manage cases and access data in the line of business. For example, if an organization has two lines of business Finance and Procurement. Data in the Finance line of business, such as templates, cases, tasks, and knowledge base, is not accessible in the Procurement line of business and vice versa.

The following examples describe a line of business data access for different situations:

Example 1: Data access for same operating and requester company model

Calbro Services has Human Resources and Finance lines of business and uses BMC Helix Business Workflows to manage cases related to these line of business. In this example, the operating company and requester company are the same. To manage cases, case business analysts in Calbro services can access and create configuration data defined for the company and the line of business to which they belong.

Case agents in Calbro Services can create cases for a line of business and access data such as case templates, notification templates, and email templates as described in the following table:

Person	Case creation for company	Line of business supported	Access to...
			Global data	Human resources data	Finance data
Agent 1	Calbro Services	Human Resources
Agent 2	Calbro Services	Finance

Example 2: Data access for service provider model

Calbro Services is a service provider company and uses BMC Helix Business Workflows to manage cases for different companies Company A (operating company) and Company B (customer company).

In this example, the operating company and requester company are the different. Calbro Services uses two lines of business Human Resources and Finance for Company A and Company B. Company A has a line of business Legal that is managed by Company A only. To manage cases for multiple companies, an administrator in Calbro Services creates the lines of business for these companies. The administrator assigns case business analysts and case agents for respective companies.

Case agents can create cases for requesters and access data as described in the following table:

Person	Case creation for company	Line of business supported	Access to...
			Calbro Services Global data	Company A data	Human Resources data for Company A	Legal data for Company A	Finance data for Company A	Company B data	Human Resources data	Finance data for Company B
Agent 1 who has access to Company A and Calbro Services	Company A	Human Resources for Company A
Agent 2 who has access to Company B and Calbro Services	Company B	Human Resources for Company B
Agent 3 who has access to Company A, Company B, and Calbro Services	Company A or Company B	Human Resources for Company A and Company B
Agent 4 who has access to Company A, Company B, and Calbro Services	Company A or Company B	Human Resources for Company A and Finance for Company B
Agent 5 who has access to Company A, Company B, and Calbro Services	Company A or Company B	Finance for Company A and Company B
Agent 6 who has access to Company A and Calbro Services	Company A	Legal for Company A

Example 3: Data access for multiple operating companies model

Company A and Company B uses BMC Helix Business Workflows to manage cases for Calbro Services. This example involves two operating companies that manage requests for a requester company. Calbro Services includes lines of business Facilities and Finance. Case business analysts in Company A and Company B can access and create configuration data defined for the line of business to which they belong.

Case agents in Company A and Company B can create cases for requesters from Calbro Services and access data as described in the following table:

Person	Case creation for company	Line of business supported	Access to...
			Calbro Services global data	Facilities data	Finance data
Agent 1 who has access to Company A and Calbro Services	Calbro Services	Facilities
Agent 2 who has access to Company B and Calbro Services	Calbro Services	Finance
Agent 3 who has access to Company A, Company B, and Calbro Services	Calbro Services	Facilities and Finance

Example 4: Data for a case with tasks mapped to different lines of business

Calbro Services consists of Human Resources, Finance, and Facilities. A case business analyst in Calbro Services wants to create a case template in Human Resources. The case business analyst wants to include tasks in the case from different lines of business. Case business analysts in Calbro Services can access task templates and add tasks to a case template as described in the following table:

 The case business analyst who has access to the Human Resources and Finance, creates a case template in Human Resources. The case business analyst adds a task for Human Resource and another for Finance in the case template and makes the case template active.

While creating a case, case agents can access the case templates and knowledge articles as described in the following table:

A case agent who has access only to the Human Resources line of business creates a case by using the case template. The case agent can view the tasks in the case. The case agent can also access the attachments in the tasks. The line of business of a task is not displayed in the task details.

Related topic

Defining your line of business