Consolidation of tickets from third-party applications into BMC Helix ITSM

When organizations use services from multiple third-party applications, tracking incidents across multiple ticket management systems can be a challenge. BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker facilitates the consolidation of third-party application tickets into BMC Helix ITSM.

You can leverage the ticket consolidation functionality for the following third-party applications:

Salesforce Service Cloud
Jira Service Management (formerly known as Jira Service Desk)
BMC Helix Remedyforce
Multiple instances of BMC Helix ITSM

Benefits of ticket consolidation

The major benefit that you get by using this functionality is to use BMC Helix ITSM as a central repository of tickets. Avoiding the need to navigate to different applications, you can control all your tickets from BMC Helix ITSM.

Additionally, you also get the following benefits:

Whenever a ticket is created in a third-party system, for example, in
Salesforce Service Cloud, a corresponding ticket is created in BMC Helix ITSM.
Notifications for status updates are sent so that status changes in incidents are synchronized between BMC Helix ITSM and third-party applications.
Notes in the BMC Helix ITSM incident and third-party ticket are updated.
Ticket data between the third-party system and BMC Helix ITSM is also synchronized.
The BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT console displays the vendor ticket ID as a link that opens the ticket in the third-party ticket management system.

Using BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker with Mid Tier

To integrate BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker with third-party ticketing systems, instead of using Smart IT, you can also use Mid Tier.

If you are using Mid Tier, consider the following information:

You cannot view the third-party ticket details.
However, you can view the work logs to verify that tickets are being brokered.
You cannot send an activity note from BMC Helix ITSM to the third-party application ticket.
BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker supports all other features.

Components used to create third-party application tickets

BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker supports BMC Helix iPaaS, powered by Jitterbit and BMC Helix Integration Service as the underlying integration technologies. These technologies contain different components that you can configure for an integration, as shown in the following image:

To learn more about the technologies and their components, see Leveraging integration technologies to integrate BMC Helix ITSM and third-party applications.

How tickets are consolidated into BMC Helix ITSM by using BMC Helix iPaaS

The following image shows an example of how BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker uses BMC Helix iPaaS to consolidate ServiceNow ITSM incidents into BMC Helix ITSM:

How tickets are consolidated into BMC Helix ITSM by using BMC Helix Integration Service

When a ticket is created in a third-party ticketing system, a corresponding ticket is created in BMC Helix ITSM. For example, when a case with the Escalated status is created in Salesforce Service Cloud, a corresponding ticket is created in BMC Helix ITSM.

The following image illustrates how BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker uses connectors, flows, and processes to create a third-party application ticket:

How status and activity notes are updated in BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker

The following table lists the events that update the status and activity notes:

Event type	Event	Result
Addition of a comment	A service desk agent adds a comment to the ITSM incident in Smart IT and clicks Share with vendor.	The comment is added to the third-party application ticket.
Addition of a comment	A Case Comment is added to a Salesforce Service Cloud ticket.	Smart IT displays the comment as an activity note for the corresponding incident.
Addition of an attachment	A service desk agent adds an attachment to an activity note inBMC Helix ITSM.	BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker adds the attachment to the case in Service Cloud. The text from the activity note is added to Case Comment.
Addition of an attachment	An attachment is added to a case in Service Cloud.	BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker creates an activity note and adds the attachment to the corresponding incident in BMC Helix ITSM. Important: There is no limitation for sharing attachments between Smart IT and Service Cloud for any supported version of Smart IT. However, the attachment shows in the activity feed in Smart IT only in version 18.08. The Mid Tier can be used to view the attachments for any supported version.
Updates to a field	A field is updated in BMC Helix ITSM.	BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker adds a comment in the corresponding third-party application ticket mentioning the field name with its new and existing values. Important: BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker adds a comment only for those fields that are mapped when you specify the technology provider and field mapping during the third-party application data configuration.
Updates to a field	Any updates to a field in a third-party application ticket.	The updates are reflected in the corresponding BMC Helix ITSM incident field. Important: This behavior applies only to those fields that are mapped when you specify technology provider and field mapping during the third-party application data configuration.
Updates to a ticket status	A third-party application ticket is closed.	The corresponding BMC Helix ITSM incident is marked as Resolved, based on the option that you select when you specify technology provider and field mapping during the third-party application data configuration.
	Status of a third-party application ticket is changed.	The change is reflected as an activity note in the corresponding BMC Helix ITSM incident.
	A BMC Helix ITSM incident is canceled, closed, or resolved.	The corresponding third-party application ticket is closed.

Activity notes also display the third-party application ticket numbers and the author of the note.

The following table lists the different formats in which an activity note can be displayed:

From where a ticket is created

Format of the activity note

From a third-party application to BMC Helix ITSM

Note added from <vendor> ticket <vendor ticket id as URL> by <vendor user first last names>

From BMC Helix ITSM to a third-party application

ITSM user <ITSM user first last name>, added a work note:

<work note text>

Where to go from here

Configuring BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker