Mapping knowledge visibility from BMC Helix ITSM Knowledge Management with BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround

How knowledge article visibility in BMC Helix ITSM: Knowledge Management is mapped with BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround

The following image shows how visibility in BMC Helix ITSM: Knowledge Management is mapped with BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround:

Best practices for defining knowledge article visibility in BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround

Before you define knowledge access permissions in BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround, consider the goals you want to achieve by grouping knowledge content and limiting access to different article groups in BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround. You can benefit from the opportunity to create the knowledge structure from the start to align it with up-to-date needs of your organization, without inheriting the structure that reflects the goals that might be no longer relevant; for example, such outdated goals as grouping knowledge articles for filtering purposes or aligning the knowledge structure with the organization hierarchy. Also, contrary to the hierarchy-based approach to defining access permissions, KCS offers the principles of Abundance and Trust that promote creating knowledge content constantly and collectively to enable knowledge sharing as much as possible. To learn more about these principles, see What’s KCS®? Knowledge-Centered Service Explained and Placing Knowledge Management at the Heart of Digital Service Management posts on BMC Communities.

We recommend that you consider the following scenarios for defining knowledge access permissions in BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround: 

• Confidentiality—Limit access to knowledge articles that contain sensitive or confidential information only for the user groups authorized to work with it; for example, confidential recruitment policies.
• User role or job function—Assign access to knowledge articles based on the user role within the organization;  for example, employees of the finance and recruitment departments might need access to completely different sets of knowledge articles to do their jobs. Also, you can grant broader permissions for certain roles; for example, managers may need privileged access permissions compared with nonmanagerial employees.
• Organization lifecycle—Grant access to knowledge articles that apply to a specific lifecycle phase within the organization only for users that need it; for example, you can allow new hires to access only onboarding knowledge articles. 
• Location—Restrict access for users from a specific location to knowledge articles created for a different location; for example, country-based HR policies.
• Service provider multitenancy—Segregate knowledge articles for different external clients of the organization if the organization provides its services to the clients by using BMC products.

After you identify the scenarios that you want to implement, the respective user groups can be created in BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround and mapped with the existing groups from BMC Helix ITSM: Knowledge Management.

When you plan the knowledge access structure in BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround, mind that only 64 user groups can be created in BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround.

Before you begin

To define the mapping between companies, visibility groups, user groups, and folders

After the portal and folders are created in BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround, and BMC has created and assigned user groups to them, you can define or modify the mapping between companies and permission groups in BMC Helix ITSM: Knowledge Management and BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround user groups to set the knowledge article visibility. 

1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio and navigate to the Administration tab. 
2. Select Knowledge management > Knowledge access mapping.
3. Select the company and permission group (combination of visibility groups and assignment groups) that you want to define or modify:
   1. From the Product name list, select ITSM. 
   2. From the Company list, select the company for which you want to define or modify the mapping.
      For example, Apex Global.
      The list of permission groups is displayed in the table for the selected company.
   3. Select the permission group for which you want to define or modify the mapping. 
      For example, Backoffice Support.
4. Click Map access. 
5. Map the selected permission group with the appropriate user group in BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround:

   1. On the New knowledge access mapping page, from the Knowledge management portal list, select the portal with which you want to map the company. 

      Important

      Map a company with only one portal because BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround doesn't support integrations with multiple portals. 

      For example, BMC Helix integration team.
      In Support group, the permission group that you selected in step 3 is displayed. 

   2. From the Knowledge management user group, select the user group that you want to map with the selected ITSM permission group. 
      For example, BMC Helix integration team candidates.
      In Accessible folders, a list of folders accessible to the selected user group is displayed. 
      This is a read-only list that displays the parent folders only. To view the child folders, click the parent folder. 
6. Click Save. 
   On the Knowledge access mapping page, the status of the permission group that you selected is changed to Mapped. 

The following image shows an example mapping:

To remove the mapping between companies, visibility groups, user groups, and folders

1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio and navigate to the Administration tab. 
2. Select Knowledge management > Knowledge access mapping.
3. On the Edit Knowledge access mapping page, select the company and permission group (combination of visibility groups, and assignment groups):
   1. From the Product name list, select ITSM. 
   2. From the Company list, select the company for which you want to remove the mapping.
      For example, Apex Global.
      The list of permission groups is displayed in the table for the selected company.
   3. Select the permission group for which you want to remove the mapping. 
      For example, Backoffice Support.
4. Click Unmap access. 
5. Click Save.

The following image shows an example of removing a mapping:

Where to go from here

Integrating BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround with Smart IT