Configuring cognitive service for custom applications by using IBM Watson

BMC Helix Platform Cognitive Service is a licensed service that uses the IBM Watson machine learning capability. After BMC has activated the necessary IBM Watson services, BMC also configures BMC Helix Platform to communicate with IBM Watson. 

Cognitive service credentials and region settings

After you subscribe to the BMC Helix Platform Cognitive Service, BMC sends you an invite to join IBM Cloud as part of your onboarding process. You must set your user name and password for IBM Cloud by using this invite. You require these credentials when you configure the BMC Helix Platform Cognitive Service in BMC Helix Innovation Studio.

BMC SaaS Operations sets the region for all services to match the BMC Helix Platform data center. You can override this default region for each IBM Watson service.

The following table lists the regions supported by BMC and their mapping with IBM Watson services locations:

To learn more about the regions supported by IBM Watson services, see  Service and infrastructure availability  in IBM documentation. 

Before you begin

• Ensure that you subscribe to the appropriate service to configure the services for your application.
• The IBM Cloud platform API key is used by BMC Helix Platform and it is recommended that you lock the API key so that it is not deleted. To know how to lock the platform API key, see Locking a platform API key  in the IBM Watson documentation.
  
  
• If you want to override the default region setting for IBM Watson services provisioned to you, note the region of the services from IBM Cloud > Resource List > Services > Location, as shown in the following example:
  
  
  

Process to configure BMC Helix Platform cognitive service

The following image shows the steps to configure BMC Helix Platform cognitive service:

To invite users to work in IBM Watson services

As an administrator, you can invite users with administrator or non-administrator permissions to work in IBM Watson Assistant, IBM Watson Discovery, and IBM Watson Tone Analyzer services. 

Perform this procedure only if the following condition is true:

• You do not have the Premium plan of IBM Watson Assistant or IBM Watson Discovery.
  If you have the Premium plan, contact BMC Support to invite users from your organization. For more information, see  IBM Watson Assistant pricing  or  IBM Watson Discovery pricing .

1. Log in to IBM Cloud. 
2. Perform the tasks described in  Resource group access  in the IBM documentation and fill out the following BMC-specific values: 
   
   1. In the Services tab, from the Resource group list, select one of the following groups:
      
      • tenantname-dev—To invite users in the developer environment. 
      • tenantname-prod—To invite users in the production environment.
      • tenantname-qa—To invite users in the QA environment.
   2. From the Assign access to a resource group list, select one of the following options:
      • Administrator—For users with administrator permissions.
      • Viewer—For users with non-administrator permissions.
   3. From the Services list, select Watson Assistant or Discovery. 
      You can select only one service at a time.
   4. From the Regions list, select the appropriate region of IBM Watson Assistant or IBM Watson Discovery instance. 
      You can get the region from IBM Cloud > Resource list > Services > Location.
   5. In Assign Platform Access Roles, select one of the following check boxes:
      • Administrator and Manager—For users with administrator permissions.
      • Viewer and Writer—For users with non-administrator permissions.

Learn more about  IAM roles  in the IBM documentation. 

The following image is an example of filling out BMC-specific values when inviting users:

To configure the region for an IBM Watson service

To override the default region setting provided by BMC SaaS Operations, you can change the region for your tenancy. 

1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio and navigate to the Administration tab.
2. Select Configure My Server > Cognitive Service.
3. From the Configure list, select Cognitive Service Regions.
4. In the Cognitive Service Regions section, select the appropriate region for the service that you noted earlier.
5. Save the settings. 
   If you want to use the default setting for a service, do not select any value for that service.  
   
   
   
   

After you change the region for an IBM Watson service, ensure that you also update the cognitive automation service credentials for the correct region.

To add the IBM Cloud administrator API key

To ensure that you can create unlimited cognitive training data sets for auto-categorization and auto-assignment, as permitted by IBM Watson, you must enter the IBM Cloud administrator credentials.

1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio and navigate to the Administration tab.
2. Select Configure My Server > Cognitive Service.
3. From the Configure list, select Cognitive Administration Credentials.
4. In the Cognitive Administration Credentials section, enter the platform API key that you generated earlier.
   
   
   
   
5. Save the credentials.

To configure IBM Watson Assistant for auto-categorization

You must configure the instance of IBM Watson Assistant that you are using for auto-categorization, email analysis, and change risk scoring capabilities.

1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio and navigate to the Administration tab.
2. Select Configure My Server > Cognitive Service.
3. From the Configure list, select Cognitive Service Connections.

4. Expand the  IBM Watson™ Assistant for Natural Language Classification section.

5. On the API Key tab, enter the API key of the IBM Watson Assistant instance, as shown in the following image:
   
   
   
6. To test the connection, click Test.
   If the connection fails, verify that the region and the API key.
7. Save the settings.

Related topics

Training and testing the cognitive service for a custom application

Adding cognitive capabilities to a custom application