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BMC Helix Virtual Agent 21.02

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Use BMC Helix Virtual Agent to enable your end users to request services and resolve their issues in a conversational interface. Using natural language, BMC Helix Virtual Agent can report issues, create requests and cases, or search for knowledge articles on behalf of the users.

Release notes and notices

updated 05 May

Learn what’s new or changed for BMC Helix Virtual Agent 21.02.01, including new features, urgent issues, documentation updates, and fixes or patches.

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Related topics

Known and corrected issues

Support information

BMC Helix Innovation Suite Release notes and notices

The following updates have been added since the release of the product:

Date	Title	Summary
May 4, 2021	21.02.01: Patch 1	Issues that were corrected by this patch and issues that remain open
March 17, 2021	21.02	BMC Helix Virtual Agent includes the following enhancements: Product name changes in Remedy platform, Remedy ITSM, and BMC Helix Platform applications. BMC Helix Innovation Suite for all service management applications. Leverage common Foundation data in BMC Helix Virtual Agent. Leverage BMC Helix Knowledge Management knowledge search in BMC Helix Virtual Agent. Support for WhatsApp as a chatbot channel. Additional locale support provided by real-time translation. Importing services from BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced to BMC Helix Virtual Agent includes the following enhancements: Ability to include service fulfilment answers with data lookups. View the last published state of service definitions when republishing the services. Change the branding of BMC Helix Virtual Agent by customizing chatbot animation. Leverage BMC Helix Dashboards to view and generate chatbot usage reports. View the request ID of service request definitions that are imported from BMC Service Request Management.
December 4, 2020	Patch 01 for 20.08	This update includes defect fixes and the following enhancement: Support for IBM Watson Plus and IBM Watson Premium plan.
September 23, 2020	20.08	BMC Helix Virtual Agent includes the following enhancements: Import services with dependent questions from BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced. Add service options in the chatbot welcome message. Integration with BMC Helix Cloud Cost to show cost optimization recommendations in a chat. Customizable chatbot menu for multiple lines of business. Search chatbot reports by location and view chatbot unique users reports in BMC Helix Innovation Studio. Receive attachments from support agents during a live chat session. Support for Danish and Norwegian languages. Set the default locale for a chatbot. Switch to preferred language in a chat conversation.
February 21, 2020	20.02	BMC Helix Virtual Agent includes the following enhancements: Improved cognitive search crawler to include articles from Remedy Knowledge Management. Chatbot measurement dashboard which displays the out-of-the-box reports on the usage metrics. Chat enhancements for ease of use. Create reports based on raw events in the Telemetry service.
November 22, 2019	19.11	BMC Helix Virtual Agent includes the following enhancements: Real-time translation of chatbot conversations. Transfer a chat conversation from one chatbot to another. Configurable chatbot feedback rating scale order. Support for Automation Anywhere Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Ability to configure how a chatbot addresses the user—by first name, last name, or both.
October 10, 2019	Patch 01 for 19.08	This update includes defect fixes.
August 22, 2019	19.08	BMC Helix Virtual Agent includes the following enhancements: Enable users to access their asset information in BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced from a chat conversation. Cognitive routing of chats to subject expert agents. Provide extractive summaries of chatbot and end user to agents. Enable chatbot to provide Did you mean options to the end users.
May 31, 2019	19.05	BMC Helix Virtual Agent includes the following enhancements: Improved BMC Helix Virtual Agent web UI for better user experience. Support for Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business on-premises as a chatbot channel. Leverage BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting capabilities to generate chatbot usage reports. Support for attachment questions and dynamic answers in service requests from a chat. Support for providing feedback using BMC Helix Virtual Agent User Survey.
February 21, 2019	19.02	BMC Helix Virtual Agent includes the following enhancements: Utilize multiple chatbots for each line of business. Track chatbot events to derive usage metrics.
November 30, 2018	18.11	BMC Helix Virtual Agent includes the following enhancements: Enhanced wizard to configure BMC Helix Virtual Agent for BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced service. Live chat enhancements.
October 18, 2018	Patch 01 for 18.08	BMC Helix Virtual Agent includes the following enhancement: BMC Helix Innovation Suite supports Identity and Access Management (IAM) API key based authentication for configuring the cognitive service.
September 14, 2018	18.08	BMC Helix Virtual Agent includes the following features: Localization of BMC Helix Virtual Agent messages in select languages. Configuration of application data for use in context of a chat conversation. Ability to embed the BMC Helix Virtual Agent UI in applications that were not developed on BMC Helix Innovation Suite. See also Deprecated features .
July 29, 2018	18.05: Update 01	This release includes fixes for known issues.
June 6, 2018	18.05	BMC Helix Virtual Agent includes the following features: Enable users to submit service requests from BMC Helix Virtual Agent conversations Enable interactive conversation Interface design enhancements
March 30, 2018	18.02: Update 01	BMC Helix Virtual Agent includes the following feature: Support for enabling live chats for users
February 28, 2018	18.02	BMC Helix Virtual Agent includes the following features: Support for BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced Support for new interface channels Web chat UI enhancements

Getting started

Submitting service requests or searching knowledge articles

End users search knowledge articles and submit service requests from chatbot.

Using live chat to escalate issues to support agents

End users can use live chats to escalate their requests to support agents.

Planning and deploying chatbots

Before implementing chatbot, plan and identify the use cases that you want to address by using chatbots.

Integrating

As an administrator, set up integrations with other BMC products or third-party software.

Administering

As an administrator, change the branding of BMC Helix Virtual Agent, configure the chatbot channels and knowledge search providers, and view the chatbot usage reports.

Troubleshooting

Resolve issues that you might encounter while using BMC Helix Virtual Agent.

Developer Communities

Helix Communities

Videos

Education

PDFs and videos

This topic describes and links to PDFs and videos that support this product release. If the ready-made PDFs of this space do not satisfy your requirements, you can export a custom PDF.

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Videos

The following list displays the topics that contain videos that supplement or replace the text-based documentation:

Page:

21.02 enhancements
Page:

Example of invoking a custom process in BMC Helix Virtual Agent
Home page:

Home
Page:

Importing chat-enabled services from BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced
Page:

Orientation

Frequently asked questions

This topic provides information that supplements the BMC Helix Virtual Agent documentation.

Frequently asked questions

This section provides answers to frequently asked questions about BMC Helix Virtual Agent.

In which ways can I enable chat for BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog services?

You can enable chat for services from IBM Watson Assistant Skills or by using the Publish Chat-enabled service wizard in BMC Helix Virtual Agent.

What is the recommended way to enable chat for services?

BMC recommends that you enable chat for services by using the Publish Chat-enabled service wizard. For more information, see Importing chat-enabled services from BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced.

How do I enable a dynamic answer in IBM Watson Assistant without using the Publish Chat-enabled service wizard?

Log in to your IBM Cloud account.
Navigate to the IBM Watson Assistant Skill that is configured with BMC Helix Virtual Agent, and take the backup of the skill.
Navigate to the dialog that contains intent for the service that has dynamic answers.
Create a child dialog and specify its name by using the following syntax:
Fetch Dynamic Answers - <Service Name>
For example, Fetch Dynamic answers - Flight Reservation.
Specify the condition as True.
Next to Then set context:, click , and open the JSON editor.

In the JSON editor, replace the existing text with the following text:

{
 
"context": {
   
"questionIdsWithDynamicAnswer": [

<comma separated values of all the dynamic answers question Id>

    ]
  },
 
"output": {
   
"text": {

"values": [],
     
"selection_policy": "sequential"

},

"action": {
     
"inputMap": {
       
"service Id": "<serviced of the request>",
      
 "questionIdsWithDynamicAnswer":
"$questionIdsWithDynamicAnswer"
     
},
     
"outputMap": {
       
"status": "${actionResult.output.status}",
       
"message": "${actionResult.output.message}"
     
},
     
"actionTypeName": "com.bmc.dsm.chatbot:fetchDynamicAnswerUsingServiceRequestId",

"waitForActionExecution": true

    }
  }
}

The following image shows an example of fetching dynamic answers for the Flight Reservation service:

In the Fill Questions - Flight Reservation child dialog, complete the fields.
The following table provides examples of field values for the Flight Reservation service:

Check for	Save it as	If not preset, ask	Type	JSON content
@sys-date && slot_in_focus	$departingDate		Required	`{` `"context": {` `"departingDate": "<? @sys-date+' '+((entities['sys-time'] == null) ? '00:00:00': @sys-time) ?>",` `"show_flyingTo": "true"` `}` `}`
$flyingTo == null && $show_flyingTo == true	$temp		Optional	`{` `"context": {` `"temp": "$flyingTo == null && $nextStep == 5",` `"sys_options": "<? context.bmc_lookup_mappings.get('66c33cf7-9a11-9104-a2b8-a5e06f2bc9be') ?>",` `"bmc_dynamicQuestionId": "66c33cf7-9a11-9104-a2b8-a5e06f2bc9be",` `"bmc_isCurrentAnswerValid": "false"` `}` `}`
input.text && slot_in_focus && $bmc_isCurrentAnswerValid	$flyingTo	Flying To	Required	`{` `"context": {` `"flyingTo": "<? input.text ?>"` `}` `}`
$flyingTo != null	$temp		Optional	`{` `"context": {` `"temp": "$flyingFrom != null",` `"bmc_dynamicQuestionId": null,` `"bmc_isCurrentAnswerValid": "false"` `}` `}`

Save your specifications and close the JSON editor.

How do I enable an attachment in IBM Watson Assistant without using the Publish Chat-enabled service wizard?

Log in to your IBM Cloud account.
Navigate to the IBM Watson Assistant Skill that is configured with BMC Helix Virtual Agent, and take the backup of the skill.
Navigate to the dialog that contains intent for the service that has attachments.

In the Attachment Question child dialog, complete the fields.
The following table provides examples of field values for the Flight Reservation service:

Check for	Save it as	If not preset, ask	Type	JSON content
@sys-date && slot_in_focus	$returningDate		Required	`{` `"context": {` `"show_attachmentDocument": "true",` `"returningDate": "<? @sys-date+' '+((entities['sys-time'] == null) ? '00:00:00': @sys-time) ?>"` `}` `}`
$attachRequiredDocument == null && $show_attachmentDocument == true	$temp		Optional	`{` `"context": {` `"temp": "$attachRequiredDocument == null",` `"$bmc_isCurrentAnswerValid": "false",` `"bmc_import_wizard_response_type": "Attachment"` `}` `}`
input.text && slot_in_focus && $bmc_isCurrentAnswerValid	$attachRequiredDocument	Flying To	Required	`{` `"context": {` `"attachRequiredDocument": "<? input.text ?>"` `}` `}`
$attachRequiredDocument != null	$temp		Optional	`{` `"context": {` `"temp": "$attachRequiredDocument != null",` `"$bmc_isCurrentAnswerValid": "false"` `}` `}`

Save your specifications and close the JSON editor.

What are the unsupported scenarios and limitations of real-time translation?

The following table describes the limitations of real-time translation for specific content:

Content	Translation limitations or unsupported scenarios
Strings	After enabling real-time translation, all responses from the chatbot are translated. You cannot choose specific responses for translation.
Knowledge articles	Custom model and dictionaries in knowledge articles are not translated. When a knowledge article content is in multiple languages, such as English, French, and German, the knowledge article might not get translated correctly. Names of attachments might not get translated. If the title of a knowledge articles or the content has GUID, the GUID value is not translated. If the title of a knowledge article or the content has words in upper case, for example ORACLE, such words are not translated. If the knowledge article contain proper nouns as single words (not used in a sentence), for example Java, such words are not translated. However, proper nouns in a sentence are translated correctly. For example, Download Java from Oracle, is translated correctly. If the HTML or JSON in a knowledge article is not valid, the knowledge search returns an error or incorrect translation.
Dates	When using BMC Helix Virtual Agent web UI, dates are not translated correctly. When translating from Japanese, dates entered in a format other than yyyy-dd-mm are not translated. Administrators can advise their end-users to enter dates in the appropriate format.
The word Amazon	When using Microsoft Azure Translator Speech API to translate from French to Japanese, the word Amazon does not return correct results. Instead of Amazon, users can type search for Amazon so that the correct results are displayed.