20.15.01 enhancements
The following table lists the enhancements in version 20.15.01 of the BMC Remedyforce product. The table also provides information about configuring the enhancements and performing any additional post-upgrade steps to enable the new features.
Dashboard and QuickViews in the Remedyforce Console
The Remedyforce Console now includes a dashboard and QuickViews, enabling staff members to view a consolidated list of all their assigned records and other key data. For example, QuickViews can provide information that staff members need daily, such as the tasks assigned to them or to their queue, the high-priority incidents that must be resolved first, or the broadcasts for a specific category.
Staff members can view QuickViews that are provided out of the box or shared by other users. System administrators can also grant a few staff members the permission to create and manage their own QuickViews. The dashboard, which is a collection of QuickViews, enables staff members to view a key set of data in one place and to monitor metrics regularly. Staff members can configure the QuickViews that are displayed on their dashboard.
For more information about using the dashboard and QuickViews, see My Dashboard and QuickViews management. For more information about configuring the default dashboard for all users and enabling staff members to create and manage their QuickViews, see Configuring the default dashboard in the Remedyforce Console and Adding or editing users.
If you are upgrading to BMC Remedyforce 20.15.01, you must enable the dashboard and QuickViews in the Remedyforce Console. For more information, see Enabling the dashboard and QuickViews in the Remedyforce Console.
Enhancements to the BMC Remedyforce mobile application on the Salesforce1 platform
The following enhancements have been made to the BMC Remedyforce mobile application on the Salesforce1 platform. Users of the BMC Remedyforce mobile application can now perform the following additional tasks:
- Create and manage tasks.
- Perform the View Action History, Add Note, Email, Close, and Service Target actions on task records.
- Apply templates to new and existing incident and task records.
- Link knowledge articles to incident records by copying the knowledge article link or text to the Resolution field.
- View service targets that are applied to a record.
- Perform additional actions on incident records; for example, Knowledge Search, View Action History, Create and Link Task, and Service Target.
- Configure settings to recalculate the due date of a record when the priority of a record changes.
- Enable staff or the queue as the owner of incident and task records.
The following table lists all the actions that you can perform on incident and task records from the BMC Remedyforce mobile application on the Salesforce1 platform:
| Action | Incidents | Tasks |
|---|---|---|
| Knowledge Search |  | |
View Action History | | |
| Add Note | | |
| | |
| Create and Link Task | | |
| Close | | |
| Service Targets | | |
For more information, see Configuring BMC Remedyforce mobile application on the Salesforce1 platform.
General availability of BMC Remedyforce Chat with multiple enhancements
The following enhancements have been made to BMC Remedyforce Chat:
| User | Enhancement |
|---|---|
| System Administrators |
|
| Staff members |
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| Clients |
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For more information, see Configuring BMC Remedyforce Chat.
New report and dashboards
A new BMC Remedyforce Chat report called Chat sessions by Account and Category is available on the Reports tab. The report lists lifecycle events related to chat sessions. It also provides the following information about a chat:
- When it was initiated
- The staff member to whom it was assigned
- When it ended
- The wait time for the client before it started
- The duration
For more information, see Accessing predefined reports.
On the Dashboards tabs, the following new dashboards are available:
- BMC Remedyforce CMDB Dashboard - Provides 16 out-of-the-box reports that show the health of your CMDB. For more information, see Viewing CMDB reports.
- BMC Remedyforce Chat Dashboard - Provides six out-of-the-box reports related to chat sessions. You can view various reports about chat sessions by category and by Self Service account. For more information, see Viewing the BMC Remedyforce Chat dashboard.
If you are upgrading to BMC Remedyforce 20.15.01, you must enable the BMC Remedyforce Chat Dashboard for users. For more information, see Enabling users to view the BMC Remedyforce Chat Dashboard.
Data migration from one Salesforce organization to another
System administrators can migrate data from one Salesforce organization to another by using Pentaho packages that are provided on the BMC Communities website. For example, say that you want to migrate configuration data from a sandbox organization to your production organization. You can use the Pentaho packages to migrate data from the following objects:
- Categories
- Templates
- Request definitions
- Service Level Agreements
- QuickViews
- Basic configurations that include status, impact, urgency, and priority
For more information, see Importing BMC Remedyforce configuration data from another Salesforce organization.
New Pentaho package to import data from BMC Atrium Discovery
A new Pentaho package is provided on the BMC Communities website. It enables system administrators to import CIs and relationships of computer system CIs with IPEndpoint, LANEndpoint, OperatingSystem, Processor, and Software Server CIs from BMC Atrium Discovery. For more information, see Importing data from BMC Atrium Discovery.
Automation of processes in BMC Remedyforce through the use of web services
System administrators can call external web services when certain configured events—for example, a service request being created, or a task being created from a template—occur in BMC Remedyforce. For example, system administrators can configure to call a custom web service written for the Microsoft Active Directory server to change the password of a user. BMC Remedyforce supports web services of the Representational State Transfer (REST) and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) type. For more information, see Configuring external web APIs to automate processes in BMC Remedyforce.
Enhancements to Remedyforce Console
The following table lists the enhancements that have been made to Remedyforce Console:
| Enhancement | UI location |
|---|---|
Staff members can add clients from the Incident form. In a new installation, the Enable creation of clients from the Incident page in Remedyforce Console check box is selected by default. For more information, see Configuring user settings, Creating an incident or a service request without a template, and Creating an incident or a service request by applying a template. If you are upgrading to BMC Remedyforce 20.15.01, you must manually select this check box. For more information, see Enabling staff members to add clients from the Incident form in the Remedyforce Console. | Remedyforce Administration > Manage Users > User Settings |
While searching for matching incidents, staff members can link matching incidents as children or parent of the incident record. When staff members link matching incidents as children, they can also assign a status to the linked records. For more information, see Searching for matching incidents. | View > Incidents/Service Requests > Agent Tools > Incident Matching |
In list views for any module, staff members can search within all records that belong to the selected module or only within the filtered view. To search only within the filtered view, staff members must select the Search within the filtered view: viewName check box. For more information, see Overview of the Remedyforce Console tab. For information about configuring the default search option, see Configuring the default search option for list views in the Remedyforce Console. If you are upgrading to BMC Remedyforce 20.15.01, you must manually configure global search as the default option in Remedyforce Console list views. For more information, see Enabling global search as the default option in Remedyforce Console list views. | View list for any module |
Enhancements to Service Level Agreements
The following table lists the enhancements that are available for Service Level Agreements:
| Enhancement | UI location |
|---|---|
The paused duration of a cancelled service target is now used to calculate the elapsed Time of a new service target that is applied to an incident, a task, or a problem. In a new installation, the Use paused duration of a cancelled service target to calculate the Elapsed Time check box is selected by default. For more information, see Configuring general application settings and How elapsed time of a service target is calculated. If you are upgrading to BMC Remedyforce 20.15.01, you must manually select this check box. For more information, see Enabling the use of paused duration of a cancelled service target to calculate the elapsed time. | Remedyforce Administration > Application Settings > General Application Settings |
System administrators and staff members can configure specific support hours for a client's account by using the new Support Hours field. The support hours that you configure are used to override the service target support hours. For more information, see Creating accounts. |
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While creating a service target, system administrators and staff members can choose to override the service target support hours with the client's account support hours by selecting the Override the service target support hours with the client's account support hours check box. If system administrators select this check box but no support hours are configured for the client, the service target support hours are retained. For more information, see Creating service targets, milestones, and email templates. |
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Enhancements to SRDs
The following enhancements have been made for service request definitions (SRDs):
On the Getting Started tab (Remedyforce Administration > Configure Application > Request Definition), system administrators can view a step-by-step guide for creating an SRD. This tab provides information about the settings that users must configure before creating an SRD, an overview of the instructions to create an SRD, and a link to verify the status of the SRD.
- System administrators can display sorted options in the Picklist type of input field in a request definition. When a client creates a service request by using the request definition, the options in the Picklist type field are sorted based on the configuration performed by system administrators.
- To get more information from a client about the service request, system administrators can create filters for the Lookup type of input field that they create for a request definition.
For more information, see Creating and configuring an SRD.
Ability to configure multiple email addresses in the From field of an email message
System administrators can configure multiple email addresses to be displayed in the From field of an email message. They can also configure the availability of each email address for selected profiles. While sending an email message, a staff member can choose one of the email addresses. For example, say that you are using BMC Remedyforce to provide service to multiple groups or clients, such as Human Resources (HR) and Finance departments. If system administrators configure multiple From email addresses, such as HR@abc.com and Finance@abc.com, staff members of the HR department can select HR@abc.com while sending an email message from a record. Also, staff members of the Finance department can select Finance@abc.com while communicating with their clients.
For information about configuring multiple From email addresses, see Settings for email conversation. For information about sending email messages to clients, see Using email conversation.
New Remedyforce Search Version 2
From the Spring '15 release, Salesforce is ending support for HTML Area type components. Because Remedyforce Search is an HTML Area type component, BMC has provided Remedyforce Search Version 2, which is a Visualforce component. After you enable the Remedyforce Search Version 2 component in the assigned Home page layout, Remedyforce Search is displayed on the left panel in the application.
If you are upgrading to BMC Remedyforce 20.15.01, you must manually enable the Remedyforce Search Version 2 component. For more information, see Enabling Remedyforce Search Version 2.
Support for BMC MyIT 2.2
BMC Remedyforce supports integration with BMC MyIT 2.2. With this integration, the following enhancements are available:
- Clients can resubmit service requests. From their timeline or request history, clients can open a previous service request (opened and closed) and click Request Again, adding new details as they need. This feature helps simplify the user experience by reusing previous requests.
- Clients can access attachments of a service request in the Comments section. They can also add attachments to an opened and submitted service request from the Comments section.
For more information, see Integrating BMC Remedyforce with BMC MyIT.
General enhancements for system administrators
The following table lists the general enhancements that have been made for system administrators:
| Enhancement | UI location |
|---|---|
Apply lookup filters configured for the For more information, see Configuring lookup filters in BMC Remedyforce. | Remedyforce Administration > Application Settings > Lookup Filters |
Search for a setting or configuration by using keywords on the Remedyforce Administration tab. For more information, see Navigating the Remedyforce Administration tab. | Remedyforce Administration > Home |
Run the new License Metrics Report to generate the list of users to whom the Remedyforce package license is assigned. For more information, see Generating the list of users to whom the Remedyforce package license is assigned. | Remedyforce Administration > License and Storage Usage > License Metrics Report |
Release schedules
Starting with 20.15.01, BMC will automatically upgrade all sandbox and production organizations that are on version 20.13.02 or later. For information about the predefined dates on which BMC will automatically upgrade sandbox and production organizations, see Release schedules. Prior to the automatic upgrade, you can also choose to self-upgrade your organization to release 20.15.01. For more information about upgrade options, see Overview of the self-upgrade and automatic upgrade processes and Upgrade FAQ.
The BMC Remedyforce component on the Home tab now includes the Release Schedules link. Click this link in any locale to open the Release schedules page in the BMC Remedyforce online documentation.
BMC Remedyforce version name
BMC has changed the BMC Remedyforce version name to make it similar to Salesforce platform release names. The version name for BMC Remedyforce 20.15.01.014 is Winter 15. This change helps system administrators to easily identify the BMC Remedyforce version that is installed on their Salesforce.com organization. To view the version name, system administrators can navigate to Setup > Installed packages, and in the Installed packages section, click BMC Remedyforce.
BMC Remedyforce CMDB Common Data Model documentation
System administrators now have access to a diagram and help that provide information about the Common Data Model (CDM) in BMC Remedyforce CMDB. The diagram provides a hierarchical view of all classes in the CDM, including unique attributes. The help provides details about the data that can be stored in out-of-the-box CMDB classes and their attributes.
To view the CDM diagram and help, go to CMDB Common Data Model.
BMC Remedyforce documentation on docs.bmc.com
The BMC Remedyforce documentation is now available online (docs.bmc.com). Online documentation provides several benefits:
- Searches across all the BMC Remedyforce documentation. For more information, see Searching.
- Notifications of updated documentation available immediately to all customers. For more information, see Watching pages to receive notifications of updates.
- Comments, feedback, and questions about specific topics. For more information, see Providing feedback.
- Exports to HTML, PDF, and Microsoft word. For more information, see Exporting to PDF and other formats.
The following table outlines changes to the PDFs and Help links within the product:
| Documentation deliverable | Updates |
|---|---|
| PDFs | The following PDFs are no longer available within the product or on the BMC Support website.
The PDF links on the Getting Started, Remedyforce Dashboard, Home (BMC Remedyforce component), and BMC Remedyforce Home tabs have been replaced with the BMC Remedyforce Help link. This link opens the Home page of the BMC Remedyforce online documentation. For information about product enhancements and known and corrected issues, see Release notes and notices. For information about supported software and supported localized versions, see Planning. To access a PDF of the complete Remedyforce online documentation, see PDFs. This PDF is updated only for major and patch releases. Any updates made to the documentation between releases are not available in this PDF. You can also create custom PDFs based on your requirements. For example, say that you want to upgrade to the latest version of BMC Remedyforce. You can navigate to the Upgrading branch in the online documentation and export all pages in that branch as a PDF. For more information, see Exporting to PDF and other formats. Note: If you have converted a trial organization to a production organization and then upgraded to BMC Remedyforce version 20.15.01.014, there are additional steps that you must perform to access the updated online documentation from BMC Remedyforce panel on the left component. For more information, see Displaying updated online help link in the BMC Remedyforce panel. |
| Help links within the product |
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| Japanese documentation | The Japanese documentation will be available as follows:
In the Japanese locale within the product, all help links open the Japanese PDFs page of the online documentation. From the table on this page, you can open the appropriate PDF. |
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