Collaborating with users on service requests
A user who submits a service request can add other users as collaborators to the request, so the collaborators can view and comment on the initial request. Collaborators can also cancel the service request if required. Collaboration on service requests is useful when a user creates a request that impacts other users or if the user will not be available when the request is fulfilled. For example, Allen is an analyst at his company. Allen and five colleagues from his department work in the office room where an office printer is installed and connected to the corporate network.
- One day, Allen wants to print a document, and he realizes that the quality of the printing has diminished. Allen opens BMC Digital Workplace and creates a service request about the printer that needs to be fixed. To the service request, he adds a collaborators group that contains his five colleagues who share the same office room. If Allen is out of the office when the IT department starts processing the request, the service request's collaborators can answer questions from the support team to help process the ticket.
- When Allen created the ticket, he did not know that Jane (who is part of the collaborators group Allen had created) had already requested the printer service in BMC Digital Workplace. When Jane created the service request, she did not add collaborators to her request. Because Allen had added Jane as a collaborator to his request, she could cancel his request with the comment that she had already created another request.
Before you begin
If you want to allow end users to add predefined collaborator groups to their requests, use BMC Digital Workplace Catalog to create these groups. For more information, see People groups.
To add collaborators to a service request
End users can use one of the following options to add collaborators to a service request:
Manually adding collaborators and collaborator groups to a service request
- In the BMC Digital Workplace end user console, view the details for an existing request.
- Click Options > Add/remove.
In the Collaborators dialog box, add available individual users and user groups as collaborators.
The service request is shared with the selected users and groups when the Collaborators dialog box is closed.
Note
A service requester can add a combined maximum of 20 individual collaborators and collaborator groups to their service requests.
Automatically sharing all new service requests with the default collaborators group
All new service requests are automatically shared with the default group of collaborators if the end user has added users to the default group, and has enabled automatic sharing of service requests with the default group. For details about how to enable the auto-share option, see Collaborator settings.
Collaborator settings
End users can configure the Collaborator settings in the user profile preferences in the BMC Digital Workplace end user console.
Version 20.02
Version 20.02.01 and later
Managing the default group
In the BMC Digital Workplace end user console, end users can load the collaborators default group when they manually add collaborators.
| Task | Description | Image |
|---|---|---|
| Add the default group | (Version 20.02) Click Add people to search for and add individual users to the default collaborators group. (Version 20.02.01 and later) Click Add people to search for and add available individual users and user groups to the default collaborators group. |
|
| Edit the default group | Click the pencil icon, and then add or remove individual users or user groups from the collaborators default group. |
|
| Delete the default group | Click the trash button next to the default group, and confirm deletion of the default group. |
|
| Automatically share all new service requests with the default group | Turn on the Auto-share toggle. |
Comments
How the users added in collaboration are notified - by Email, In-app notification or Push Notification?
Can we add it as a preference (in future versions) to select Email v/s In-app notification for collaboration feature.
Thanks for your comment, Shekhar. I will share this with Product Management.
Thanks,
Ravee
Is it possible for the administrator to enable collaborator group that is added by default to each service request and this per company? The goal is to secure that certain people will always see the request created for a specific company?
Thanks for your comment, Tord. The capability to enable this feature by default for end-users is not available.
You could consider discussing this on BMC Communities.
Thanks,
Ravee
That would be very useful. Did you in anyway succeed doing this?
We have patch 20.02.01 installed but are unable to add a user group to the collaboration default group. The search is only returning users. Should be group id or name used? Is any other configuration necessary to add a group here? Thanks!
Thanks for your comment, Johannes Richter.
You should be able to find the collaborator groups by name. Please confirm if you created these groups in BMC Digital Workplace Catalog. End users will be able to groups after they are created using the People groups feature.
Thanks,
Ravee
Is it possible to add other Collaboration groups besides the default group?
Thanks for your comment Peter Lundqvist. Can you please elaborate on your question? The feature in its current form in version 20.02 supports manually created default groups and people groups.
Thanks,
Ravee
Should collaborators get notified by email when approver or enduser adds anything on the request?
Thanks for your comment Ed Albright.
You need to install 20.02 Patch 2 to enable email and push notifications for collaborator groups. For more information, please see Enabling service request collaboration.
Thanks,
Ravee
I really LOVE the new People Groups feature for collaborator groups, but I think it would be even greater if end users were able to manage this for themselves. Meaning the management of the groups is placed on the preferences page of myIT and not on the catalog server. We have a big company and a small group of admins, so while I think our end users would love feature, we may elect not to use it due to the amount maintenance that would be required to manage all of the groups. Please consider placing the power to manage this feature in the hands of the end users.
Thanks for your comment, Tamika Mccants. The 'Managing the default group' section describes how end-users can create and manage a default group at that level. Please let me know if you meant to provide your end-users with the option to manage multiple groups.
Thanks,
Ravee
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