Creating broadcasts

With broadcasts, BMC Helix Digital Workplace enables users to quickly see the status of important services. Enabling employees to see whether a problem is local or system-wide reduces the number of support calls and additional steps for the end user. As the BMC Helix Digital Workplace administrator, you can use broadcasts to notify users about events, updates, important or critical information as well as share warning messages. Depending on how the user's notification settings are configured, the user can receive the broadcast by a notification in BMC Helix Digital Workplace or by a push notification to the user's mobile device. By using the broadcasts feature, you can:

• Manage multiple broadcasts
• Create broadcasts of different types (information, success, warning, critical)
• Track the broadcast's status
• Add more information for end users through the Learn more link
• Schedule broadcasts to become live at a certain time
• Duplicate broadcasts

Examples

• The BMC Helix Digital Workplace administrator Allen wants to notify users in the Calbro Services office in Plano, Texas, of upcoming fire sprinkler system maintenance. Armando writes the corresponding message to the target Plano office location. Users who have mapped their home location to the Plano office in the settings receive the blue broadcast message in the feed and in-app notification with a blue megaphone icon.

  

• The BMC Helix Digital Workplace administrator Allen wants to congratulate the colleagues with the successful release and notify them about the upcoming Family Day. Users receive the green broadcast message in the feed and in-app notification with a green megaphone icon.

  

  

• The BMC Helix Digital Workplace administrator Allen wants to warn the employees of company A about the upcoming scheduled downtime of the system. Users receive the yellow broadcast message in the feed and in-app notification with a yellow megaphone icon. When the planned maintenance is finished, Allen can remove the message, and the employees do not see these messages.

  

  

• The BMC Helix Digital Workplace administrator Allen wants to inform the employees of company A that they need to reset their passwords. He creates a critical broadcast message. Users receive the red broadcast message in the feed and in-app notification with a red megaphone icon.

  

  

To create a broadcast

The following video (3:28) describes how you can create broadcasts in the  BMC Helix Digital Workplace Admin console.

 https://youtu.be/Ij0zk9uZaLg

1. In the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Admin console, select Broadcast > New broadcast.

2. Complete steps 1–3 by clicking Next (as shown in the following images):

   Step	Display	Description
   1. Create		Title —Enter the message that end users will see in their feed. This field is required. (Optional) Turn the title into a URL—Include a site link to expanded details about the subject of the broadcast. This link will be available in the in-app notification. Broadcast type —Broadcast types reflect the urgency level of the message. Depending on the different types, broadcast messages in the user's feed and the megaphone icon in the in-app notifications appear in different colors: Information (the default)—blue Success—green Warning—yellow Critical—red For the examples of different broadcast types, see Examples.
   2. Additional information		(Optional) Learn more —Enable this toggle key to give users additional information about the broadcast message. You can customize the additional text with: Fonts Colors Adjustment types Lists Links
   3. Schedule		Send to —Select user groups that will receive the broadcast message. User groups can be set up as an LDAP group or Remedy group. You can select several user groups. This field is required. With BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced, you can also send broadcasts to users based on the following options: Services The broadcast is sent to end users who follow a particular service in My Stuff → Service Health. Locations The broadcast is sent to end users who has a particular location as a home location. Sending broadcasts to members of a Computed group created in the Action Request System (AR System) is not supported.  Schedule —Determine the period when users will receive the broadcast message. This field is required. Select one of the following options: Send now to make the broadcast live immediately. Optionally, you can select an end date for a broadcast. By default, the expiration date is one week from the current date. Date range to make the broadcast live at a future time.

3. Review the details of the broadcast and click Schedule.

   To remove the broadcast, click Cancel.

   

To manage existing broadcasts

BMC Helix Digital Workplace enables you to manage existing broadcasts. To work with broadcasts, go to the Broadcast section of the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Admin console. 

On the Broadcast page, you can review the following details about existing broadcasts:

You cannot edit an existing broadcast, only remove it or create a new one.

How BMC Helix ITSM and BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT broadcast data corresponds to BMC Helix Digital Workplace data

The following table shows how data from BMC Helix ITSM is displayed in BMC Helix Digital Workplace:

BMC Helix Digital Workplace does not support attachments from the BMC Helix ITSM and BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT broadcasts.

According to the broadcasts schedule, the BMC Helix ITSM and BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT broadcasts have the following correlation in BMC Helix Digital Workplace: 

• BMC Helix ITSM and BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT broadcasts before the end date are shown in the Active status in the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Admin console.

• BMC Helix ITSM and BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT broadcasts after the end date are shown in the Inactive status in the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Admin console.

To determine the source of broadcasts

To determine the source of broadcasts, check the Sent to field. For broadcasts that were created in BMC Helix Digital Workplace, the Sent to field always includes a value. For broadcasts that were created in BMC Helix ITSM or BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT, the Sent to field is always blank and the title always includes [ITSM]: