Setting up help desk appointments

Besides helping users solve problems themselves, BMC Digital Workplace also makes it easy to get help from support, human resources, and other company staff by scheduling in-person appointments and by contacting IT.

The help desk is one part of assisting users. For additional ways to assist users, see Use cases.  The following diagrams illustrate the enablement tasks for assisting users.

Calendars for appointments

The Availability Calendar enables an administrator to set availability times and capacity so that BMC Digital Workplace users can see what time slots are open for requesting appointments. If you use BMC HR Case Management, you can set up calendars for HR appointments. If you use BMC Remedy IT Service Management, you can set up calendars for IT appointments. You can set up multiple calendars to reflect different campuses and situations.

Before you begin

You must add room assets before you can set up calendars. For details about how to add room assets, see Adding assets.

To set up or update a calendar  

1. On the Help Desk tab in the BMC Digital Workplace Admin console (http://BMCMyITserver:port/ux/admin), click Calendar Configuration.
2. Select an existing calendar to modify, or click Add Calendar to create a new calendar.
3. In the Appointment Generates area, select whether an appointment generates an incident or a request.
   Although this field is lower on the screen, this option affects other options. For an HR appointment calendar, select Request.
4. If the appointment generates a request, select the the category (SRM items for an IT appointment calendar or HR cases for an HR appointment calendar). Then select the applicable service request (for an IT appointment calendar) or HR solution (for an HR appointment calendar).

5. In the Create Calendar or Edit Calendar area, enter or update the required information, as follows:

   Note

   Associated Location, Days available, and the Time and duration fields cannot be changed after the calendar has been created.

   Field	Additional information
   Name	You might choose to name the calendar after the campus location (for example, San Jose) to communicate the geographical association. If you are setting up calendars for both IT and HR appointments, indicate whether the calendar if for HR or IT.
   Enable Calendar	You might choose to disable a calendar if, for example, the location or campus with which it is associated does not use the BMC Digital Workplace calendaring system for scheduling appointments.
   Associated Location	If you do not specify a location, you must specify a time zone for the calendar in the Time and duration area.
   Default Room	Specify the location of the in-person help desk.
   Assigned Group	If the appointment generates a request, this field is hidden.
   Days Available	—
   Users can schedule appointments up to x days in advance	The value x represents calendar days, not business days.
   Users can schedule appointments a minimum of x hour(s) in advance	The minimum value is one hour (to prevent users from attempting to schedule appointments seconds after encountering their problems and to allow for efficient management of help desk resources).

6. In the Time and Duration area, specify time slot parameters.
7. In the Email options area, specify specific contact email addresses and the BMC Digital Workplace email subject.
8. Click Save.

After calendars are set up, you can add information about resource availability in the Availability Calendar console.

To set up a weekly schedule for IT or HR staff  

1. On the Help Desk tab in the BMC Digital Workplace Administration Console (http://BMCMyITserver:port/console), click Availability Calendar.
2. Select a calendar from the Calendar list.
3. From the Availability Calendar for the calendar you chose, pick a day of the week by clicking the << or >> button on either side of the displayed day.

4. Add staff to a given time slot by selecting the appropriate check box and clicking Edit Availability.

   Tip

   You can select multiple time slots to edit simultaneously, or you can select the check box at the top of the column to edit the entire day.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 as needed for the remaining days of the week.

To set up exceptions to the weekly schedule  

1. On the Help Desk tab in the BMC Digital Workplace Admin console (http://BMCMyITserver:port/ux/admin), click Availability Calendar.
2. Select a calendar from the Calendar list.
3. On the Availability Calendar for the calendar you chose, click the Specific Date tab.
   The schedule for a specific date is displayed.
4. To select another date, click the calendar icon and select the date in the calendar.
5. Update the schedule for the chosen date by selecting the appropriate check box and clicking Edit Availability. 
   You can also choose to make the whole date unavailable.
6. (Optional) Enter comments in the Notes field to keep track of your reasons for the exception.

To view staff capacity

To view how many IT or HR staff members are scheduled to work with employees and how many are free, click the Current Usage tab in the Availability Calendar pane.

• The date is displayed at the top of the calendar; you can change it by clicking the << and >> buttons.
• Time indicates the time slot for that day.
• Staff Used indicates how many people will be busy with appointments scheduled through BMC Digital Workplace on that day at that time.
• Staff Remaining indicates how many people are available to take appointments on that day during that time slot.
• Total represents the total number of IT or HR staff available to take appointments on that day during that time slot.

You can adjust the staff capacity in the Every Week Default Schedule and Specific Date tabs of the Availability Calendar pane.

To change your default schedule  

To change your default schedule, you must create a new calendar and set it up with new parameters. You might need to make such a change if, for example, on the first of the next month, your Help Desk hours will change from a 9:00 A.M. start time to an 8:00 A.M. start time.

Begin this process at least N+1 days before the switchover date. N is the number of days that users can schedule appointments in advance. For example, for a 5-day lead time, perform this procedure at least 6 days (5+1) before the transition.

1. Set up a new calendar with the new start and end times.
2. Click Availability Calendar, and select the new calendar.
3. Click the Specific Date tab, and manually set the availability for the first day that you want the calendar available and each business day for several days or weeks.
   
   The number of business days you should set is based on the lead time, and it should be several days more than the lead time. (In the 5-day lead time example, the administrator should set the availability for two weeks of business days.) You must manually define each date.
   
   Do not use the options on the Every Week Default Schedule tab to set up the availability for this transition process.
4. Click Availability Calendar, and select the current calendar (the calendar you want to phase out).
5. Click the Specific Date tab, and click Make whole date unavailable for each date you defined in step 3.
   
   The results is two overlapping calendars, but on the transition date, availability is turned off for the current calendar and turned on for the new one. End users can set up appointments on the current calendar up to the point when the new calendar is available.
6. After the transition date (for example, the first of the next month) and before the lead time for the new calendar expires (for example, 5 days):
   1. Click Availability Calendar, and select the new calendar.
   2. Click the Every Week Default Schedule tab, and set the default schedule.
   3. Click Calendar Configuration, and select the current calendar (the calendar you want to phase out).
   4. Clear the Enable Calendar check box.

At this point, the older appointments on that calendar should have been completed, and new appointments should be using the new calendar.

Where to go from here

Setting up self-help resources