Support group configuration for assignments
When a support group is created for a company, it is available for resolving the company’s tickets. However, configuring valid support groups for a company is necessary in the following scenarios:
- A company might have multiple support groups but all the support groups may not be relevant to a ticket. Having an irrelevant support group in the assignment menu might lead to confusion or incorrect assignment.
- A company might need to assign its tickets to the support group of another company.
The Support Group Assignment Configuration form allows you to manually configure valid support groups for a company, which can be used to resolve tickets.
Terminology
The following table lists the terms that are relevant to support group assignment configuration:
| Term | Details |
|---|---|
| Assignment menu | The fields that include the support groups on a ticket are referred as assignment menus. For example, if you are creating an incident by using the HPD:Help Desk form, the Assigned Group and Owner Group fields include the support groups that are relevant to the companies specified in the company fields. These fields are referred as assignment menus in the documentation. To see a list of assignment menus associated with BMC Remedy IT Service Management applications, click here. |
| Customer company | Customers who request support belong to the customer company. For example, Allen raises an Incident Management ticket for Calbro Services. Calbro Services is referred as customer company for this ticket. |
| Location company | The company associated with a location where the changes requested through a ticket are implemented. For example, Calbro Services is located in New York. Allen raises a ticket for Calbro Services to resume the email server which is located in Paris. Invention Inc is associated with the Paris office of Calbro Services. For this ticket, Invention Inc is the location company. |
| -Global- |
|
| Auto-assignment | You can configure assignment routing to an individual or a support group so that system automatically assigns records such as problem investigations or change requests to the appropriate individual or support group. For details on how to auto-assign, see auto assignments. |
Permissions required to use the Support Group Configuration form
An administrator or a user with Contact Organization Admin permission need to manually configure an entry in the Support Group Assignment Configuration form for a support group if a support group can be assigned to a company other than the company it belongs to. This includes the - Global - company.
Support Group Assignment Configuration form data
The Support Group Assignment Configuration form contains the following data:
- When a support group is created for a company, it is automatically configured in the Support Group Assignment Configuration form.
- When you upgrade from an earlier version of BMC Remedy ITSM to version 9.1.02 or later, the following data is automatically configured in the Support Group Assignment Configuration form:
Data from auto-assignment form (CFG:Assignment)
Important
- Though auto-assignment data is configured in the Support Group Assignment Configuration form, the auto-assignment data continues to be available on the CFG:Assignment form also.
- In this version, the auto-assignment data configured for -Global- is also automatically configured in the Support Group Assignment Configuration form.
- All the support groups within a company
Assignment data from the template forms such as Change Management, Release Management, Activity, Task Management, and Work Order templates
Important
The system displays an error message if the support groups defined in the older versions of Incident Management template are not valid per the Support Group Assignment Configuration form. To prevent the error message, you can either assign a valid support group to template assignment or modify the support groups defined in the template assignment data.
Benefits of support group assignment configuration for -Global- company
You can achieve the following benefits with support group assignment configuration:
- Users can quickly define a single support group for multiple companies by using the Single support group to multiple companies configuration mode available on the Support Group Assignment Configuration form.
- Users can define global support groups which would be available for all companies for assignment. Whenever a new company is added to a company, the global support groups are available in the assignment menus for the new company as well.
- When you select the -Global- option in a company field, the assignment menus display the support groups that are configured for -Global- .
Configuring valid support groups
To configure valid support groups for a company, see Configuring valid support groups.
Visibility of support groups in assignment menus
Assignment menus vs assignee fields: While creating or modifying a ticket for a company, the assignment menus and assignee fields display the following details:
Assignment menus Assignee fields - All the support groups configured for a company
- Support groups configured for the -Global- company
The assignee fields are used to assign tickets to individuals. The assignee fields display the members of the support groups, which are selected in the assignment menus. However, if the logged in user does not have access permissions to the support group's company, the assignee fields do not display the members of the support group. If the logged in user is unable to assign a ticket to an individual, an administrator can take one of the following actions: - Allow the BMC Remedy Assignment Engine to automatically assign a ticket to an individual
- Provide access permissions to the logged in user to the assigned support group's company.
Example
Configure the following support groups for Calbro Services by using the Support Group Assignment Configuration form:
| Support group | Support group’s company |
|---|---|
| Support group ABC1 | ABC Corp |
| Support group Inv1 | Invention Inc |
While creating or modifying an incident for Calbro Services, Allen from Calbro Services sees the above support groups in the Assigned Group and Owner Group fields. However, the assignee list fields Assignee and Owner display the individuals based on the assigned support group and Allen’s access to the assigned support group’s company.
| Allen has access to support group’s company? | Allen selects the following support group in the Assigned Group or Owner Group fields | The assignee list fields display the following individuals |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | Support group ABC1 | Individuals from the assigned support group |
| No | Support group Inv1 | The assignee list does not display the individuals from the assigned support group as Allen does not have access permissions to the support group's company, Invention Inc. An administrator can allow the BMC Remedy Assignment Engine to automatically assign the ticket to an individual or provide access to Allen to Invention Inc. |
- Search for tickets: The assignment menus display the support groups based on the logged in user's permissions when you search for tickets from the respective BMC Remedy IT Service Management application menu on the Home page.
Assignment menus for applications of BMC Remedy ITSM
The following table displays the list of assignment menus for BMC Remedy ITSM applications. The fields that include the support groups on a ticket are referred as assignment menus. The location and customer companies selected while creating or modifying a ticket are referenced as company fields.
| Application | Form | Assignment menu | Company fields considered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Incident Management | HPD:Help Desk |
|
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| Problem Management | PBM:Known Error |
|
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| Problem Management | PBM:Problem Investigation |
|
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| Problem Management | PBM:Solution Database |
|
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| Change Management | CHG:Infrastructure Change |
|
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| Change Management | CHG:Template |
Important: The assignment menus display the following support groups:
|
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| Release Management | RMS:Release |
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| Release Management | RMS:Template |
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| Asset Management | AST:PurchaseRequisition | Company (in Assignment Tab) |
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| Service Request Management | WOI:WorkOrder |
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| Service Request Management | WOI:Template |
Important: The assignment menus display the following support groups:
| Location Company(1000000001) |
| Knowledge Management | RKM:KnowledgeArticleManager |
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| Configuration | CFG:Assignment |
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| Task Management | TMS:Task |
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| Task Management | TMS:TaskTemplate |
|
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| Activity | AAS:Activity |
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| Activity | AAS:Template |
|
|
Error messages
While creating or modifying a ticket, the BMC Remedy ITSM suite applications, BMC Digital Workplace, BMC Remedy with SmartIT, and any other integration with BMC Remedy IT Service Management applications may display the following error messages pertaining to support groups configuration for assignments:
Code | Message | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| ARERR 51001 | The Support Group <name of the support group> is not configured for assignment to Company <name of the location company> on <name of the form> form. Please contact your Administrator. | The error message is displayed when at least one of the following scenarios is true:
|
| ARERR 51016 | The Support Group <name of the support group> is not configured for assignment to either Company <name of the location company> or <the name of the customer company> on <name of the form> form. Please contact your Administrator. | The error message is displayed when the selected support group is not defined for either the location company or the customer company. |
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