Service Pack 2 for version 8.1.00: 8.1.02

The following Data Management enhancements are available with Service Pack 2 for BMC Remedy ITSM 8.1.

Simplified spreadsheets

With Service Pack 2, Data Management introduces the concept of simplified spreadsheets. The simplified spreadsheets provide a streamlined way to import data in bulk more quickly and efficiently. Use these spreadsheets when you do not need to use all of the fields provided on the standard data load spreadsheets or when you need to get your system up and running quickly, using a subset of the data. There are two types of simplified spreadsheets: Foundational data spreadsheets, which are used by the new Onboarding wizard, which is described in the following section, and a simplified version of the Transactional CI spreadsheet (Transactional CI Express).

These spreadsheets are simplified, because they contain:

• fewer tabs
• columns for only required, conditional, and the most commonly used fields
• required fields group together, in the left most columns of the spreadsheet
• default values in some fields
• enhanced help text
• support for more CI types

Onboarding Wizard

Service Pack 2 introduces the Onboarding wizard to the BMC Remedy ITSM Data Management component. The Guided mode of the Onboarding wizard makes the job of onboarding foundation and assignment data much simpler and faster by prompting you through a set of predefined steps designed to load, validate, promote, and (if necessary) edit data. All of these activities are performed from a single UI. 

Other features of the new Onboarding wizard include:   

• Simplified spreadsheets
  The Onboarding wizard makes use of the simplified Foundation spreadsheets.
• Centralized exception handling
  When verifying data while using the Onboarding wizard, you will see any data exception errors reported directly in the UI and have the ability to correct the errors in the same interface.
• Support for People templates
  You use People templates to onboard People data for individuals who fulfill the same user role in a given support group. Using People templates, you can define permissions, support groups, and functional roles for each of the user roles in your support organization. Then, when you load People information, you can specify which People template to use to associate permission, support group, and functional role information for each person–based on their user role.
• Exporting data
  After you have verified that the contents on the dataload job are free of data exceptions, you can export the data from the Onboarding wizard for use on other servers. For example, you could export the validated data to your QA environment.
  
• Model data
  The Onboarding wizard enables you to use model data, which is a predefined set of typical data. The most current version of the model data spreadsheets is linked to the documentation at Best practice use case: Using model data to quickly load Foundation data.
  If you are performing an import of the model data and you use BMC Remedy ITSM but you do not use BMC Service Request Management, you must remove the BMC Service Request Management related records from the people template model data spreadsheet (Model_Data_PeopleTemplate.xlsm).

Data Management configuration now included in the BMC Remedy Configuration check

Use the BMC Remedy Configuration Check utility at the start of every Data Management session to significantly reduce the likelihood that data import jobs will fail for environment related reasons.

Data format checking

The Data Management spreadsheets now include a macro that automatically checks for correct data formatting in each cell. Optionally, the macro also checks for leading and trailing spaces and for correct data and time formats.

ApproverLookup process-setup data now supported for BMC Remedy Knowledge Management

The Data Management utility now provides support for the BMC Remedy Knowledge Management ApproverLookup process-setup data. With this extended support, you no longer need to use the time consuming .arx method to import this type of data, which requires you to fix the IDs of various data elements after you perform the import. Now, you can use the Data Management utility to import ApproverLookup data cleanly. To achieve this, a new tab is added to the ProcessSetup-Knowledge template spreadsheet: APR_LoadApproverLookup. This tab supports approvals for both individuals and groups.

The following enhancements are available with Service Pack 2 for BMC Asset Management 8.1.

Usability enhancements for BMC Asset Management

Service Pack 2 introduces the following enhancements:

Updates to the Asset Management console:

• Additional Location based filters have been added on the Asset Management console.
• Additional advanced filter options to search for CIs with specific components. You can now search based on Region, Room, Serial Number, and Floor.
• Additional predefined filter to search based on all CI types.
• Search for CI based on the CI Type from the Asset Management console.
• Options to directly relate people to a CI from the Asset Management console. You can also modify the role of the related people from the Asset Management console.
  For more information about relating people to a CI, see Relating people, organizations, and groups to CIs in Service Pack 1 or later for version 8.1.
  
  For more information about the updates to the Asset Management console, see Functional areas of the Asset Management console.
• Display of the inventory location if CI is In Inventory on the Inventory Location form. For more information see, Viewing inventory locations.

The following enhancements are available with Service Pack 2 for BMC Change Management 8.1.

Dynamic calculation of the Risk Level value of the Change request

In previous versions of BMC Change Management, the value of the Risk Level for a Change request, calculated based on the risk questionnaire, was updated only after you saved the Change request. This release allows you to view the recalculated risk level when editing the change, allowing you to view the updated value without having to specifically close the Change request.

For additional details about Risk Level calculations, see  Specifying risk level at the Review and Authorize stage.

Basic information copied for tasks from parent record

You can create a task using an existing task template or add an ad hoc task to a record. In this release of BMC Remedy IT Service Management, for Work Orders, Change records, and Incident records, when you create an adhoc task, the Summary and Priority information on the task is pre-populated with the values of the parent record.

An additional button provided on the Tasks dialog box, Copy Parent Data,  allows you to copy the categorization information from the parent record to the task. For tasks that were added a part of a task template group, you need to update this information for each individual task.

For more information, see Automatically populating task details from the parent record.

Defining templates with higher level access for Change Management, Release Management, and Incident Management

Starting with Service Pack 2, you can create a template that does not need to be associated up to the Support Group level.

Based on the level of access you provide to the template, all the lower levels are given access to the template. For example, if you provide only Company level access, all Support Group Organizations and Support Groups defined for that company get access to the template. Any new organization or support group added to the selected Company or organization will automatically get access to the template.

This option is not available for Activity or Task templates.

For more information, see:

• Configuring authored for Groups settings for incident management templates
• Configuring authoring for groups settings for change templates
• Configuring authoring for groups settings for release templates

The following enhancements are available with Service Pack 2 for BMC Knowledge Management 8.1.

The following enhancement is available with Service Pack 2 for BMC Service Desk 8.1.

Impacted areas can now be configured to auto-populate

Starting with BMC Remedy ITSM 8.1 Service Pack 2, you can configure the Incident Request form and the Problem Investigation form to automatically populate the fields in the Impacted Areas dialog box. 

With this release, BMC Remedy ITSM Process Designer 8.3.04 is released.

The following enhancements are available with Service Pack 2 for BMC Service Request Management 8.1.

Advanced mapping enhancements

An advanced mapping allows you to concatenate several question responses, SR fields, and pieces of text into a single variable. In previous versions, you could only append new items to the end of an advanced mapping, but you could not remove items or insert new items at the beginning or middle. In 8.1.02 and later versions, you can insert new mapped items in any position, delete items individually, and change the order. You can also select multiple questions and add them at the same time, and optionally include the question text along with the response. For more information, see Concatenating multiple inputs.

Foundation data ID validation enhancement

When you migrate BMC Service Request Management data between servers, foundation data IDs used by BMC Service Request Management must match on both servers. Foundation data IDs on different servers can become inconsistent, for example, when foundation data is created manually or is loaded by using Data Management. In 8.1.01 and previous versions, there were limited options for correcting these inconsistencies. Version 8.1.02 includes an enhancement to automatically check the foundation data IDs used by BMC Service Request Management. For more information, see Foundation data validation: 8.1.02 and later.

Work order status reasons enhancement

In previous versions, status reasons were only included for the Completed work order status. In version 8.1.02 and later, to provide more consistency with other BMC Remedy ITSM applications, status reasons have been added for the Assigned, Pending, Planning, Cancelled, and Closed work order statuses. For more information, see Work order status reasons.

SR Type fields enhancement

Two Date fields and two Time fields were added to BMC Service Request Management for use in question and variable mapping. The new fields allow you to map Date questions, Time questions, and variables to the correct data type. These new SR Type fields also appear on the work order template and Work Order form, and can be used in advanced interface forms (AIFs). For more information, see Adding information for advanced interface forms.