Creating clients and staff members

Define clients that can contact the service desk when they face an interruption to or reduction in the quality of services. Also, create staff members who attend to the incidents and service requests. Clients and staff members are together referred to as users in this section.

The following topics are provided:

To create clients and staff members

1. Click the Remedyforce Administration tab.
2. On the Home page, click the Manage Users tile, and from the menu select Clients.
   The Clients option is also available in the Configuration list on the Remedyforce Workspaces tab.
3. Click .
4. Enter details about the client. For more information, see Client fields.
5. Click Save.

After you have created the client, you can add supporting information for the client. For more information, see Supporting information for clients.

You can also use the Client form to assign permission sets to existing clients and staff members. For more information, see Assigning permission sets to a client or staff member.

Client fields

The following table describes the fields that are available on the Client form.

Assigning permission sets to a client or staff member

You can use the Client form to assign permission sets to existing clients and staff members.

• Users for whom only the ServiceDesk Staff check box is selected (on the User form) can use the Client form to assign permission sets to existing clients only.
• Users for whom the Remedyforce Administrator check box or both the ServiceDesk Staff and Manage ServiceDesk Staff Member check boxes are selected (on the User form) can use the Client form to assign permission sets to existing staff members and clients.

If a permission set grants View All access to any Salesforce standard or custom object, you cannot assign that permission set to clients whose license is Customer Portal Manager Custom. For example, the ServiceDesk Staff and ServiceDesk Change Manager permission sets grant View All access to the Knowledge Article object. You cannot assign these two permission sets to clients whose license is Customer Portal Manager Custom.

To assign permission sets to a client or staff member

1. Click the Remedyforce Administration tab.
2. On the Home page, click the Manage Users tile, and from the menu select Clients.
   The Clients option is also available in the Configuration list on the Remedyforce Workspaces tab.
3. From the list of clients and staff members, select the client or staff member to whom you want to assign permission sets.
4. On the Client form, click .
5. To assign permission sets to the selected client or staff member, in the Manage User Permission Sets window, perform the following actions:
   1. From the Available User Permission Sets list, select the permission sets that you want to assign.
   2. Click the right arrow to move the selected permission sets to the Selected User Permission Sets list.
   3. Perform one of the following actions:
      
      • To save your settings, click Apply.
      • To save your settings and close the Manage User Permission Sets window, click OK.
6. To save your changes to the client record, click Save.

To make a client or staff member record inactive

Based on your requirements, you can mark an existing client or staff member record as inactive. For example, if the client is no longer associated with the account, you might have to make this client record inactive.

1. Click the Remedyforce Administration tab.
2. On the Home page, click the Manage Users tile, and from the menu select Clients.
   The Clients option is also available in the Configuration list in the Remedyforce Workspaces tab.
3. From the list of clients and staff members, select the record that you want to designate as inactive.
4. On the Client form, select the Inactive check box.
5. Click Save.

To configure a client as VIP

To configure a client as VIP, you must add the VIP field to the Client page and then select the VIP check box. The VIP field is not provided on the Client page by default. You can also mark a client as VIP on the Users page by customizing the layout of the page to add the VIP field.

1. To add the VIP field to the Client page, perform the following actions:
   1. Click the Remedyforce Administration tab.
   2. On the Home page, click the Manage Objects tile, and from the menu, select Create and Edit Objects.
   3. On the Create and Edit Objects page, from the Object list, select User.
   4. Click Field Sets.
   5. On the User Field Sets page, in the Action column next to the Main Panel field set, click Edit.
   6. Drag the VIP field to the In the Field Set list.
   7. Click Save.
2. To assign the Client page to the system administrator profile, perform the following actions:
   1. Click the Remedyforce Administration tab.
   2. On the Home page, click the Application Settings tile, and from the menu, select Form Assignment.
   3. From the Assign Form Without Field Sets list, select System Administrator, and click the right arrow.
   4. Click .
3. To mark a client as VIP, perform the following actions:
   1. Navigate back to the Remedyforce Administration tab.
   2. On the Home page, click the Manage Users tile, and from the menu, select Clients.
   3. Click the user whom you want to mark VIP.
   4. Select the VIP check box.
   5. Click .
      When an incident or task is created for a VIP client, in the Client ID field on the Incident or Task form in the Remedyforce Console tab, the  icon appears next to the icon.

To configure tab visibility for client users

If you have created a client user and assigned Salesforce or Salesforce Platform user license, the Dashboard and Reports tab are shown to such clients when they log on to Self Service using the http://www.login.salesforce.com URL. Therefore, you must hide these tabs from being displayed to clients.

1. Click the Remedyforce Administration tab.
2. On the Home page, click the Manage Users tile, and from the menu select Profiles.
3. In the Action column for the profile that you have selected for the client, click Edit.
4. In the Tab Settings section, select Tab Hidden for the Dashboard and Reports tabs.
5. Ensure that Default On is selected for the Remedyforce Self Service and Chatter tabs.
6. Ensure that Tab Hidden is selected for all other tabs.
7. Click Save.
   When your clients log on to http://www.login.salesforce.com, they view the Home, Chatter, and Remedyforce Self Service tabs.

To enable other license types to create clients

If you have installed BMC Remedyforce for the first time, by default, the following options are shown in the User License field on the Client form:

• Salesforce Platform
• Salesforce
• Customer Portal Manager Custom
  The Customer Portal Manager Custom license is being discontinued and might not be available in your Salesforce organization. 

To enable more licenses in this field, perform the actions mentioned in this section.

1. Click the Remedyforce Administration tab.
2. On the Home page, click the Application Settings tile, and from the menu select Custom Settings.
3. In the Action column of Remedyforce Portal Licenses, click Manage.
4. Click New.
5. In the Name field, enter a number.
   Ensure that this number is not used in the list.
6. In the Value field, enter the license that you want to add to the User License field.
7. Click Save.

Supporting information for clients

The Supporting Information tabs at the lower section of the Client form allow you to:

• Add new incidents
• Link services and configuration items
• View audit information about the client

The Client form contains the following Supporting Information tabs:

• Incidents --Allows you to add new incidents that must be resolved for the client.
• Services and CIs --Allows you to link the services and CIs that belong to the client.
• Auditing --Allows you to view the user who created the client and the last user who modified the client record.

To create and link incidents to a client

You can create incidents and link those incidents to the client record.

1. Click the Remedyforce Administration tab.
2. On the Home page, click the Manage Users tile, and from the menu select Clients.
3. In the clients list view, select the client record for which you want to create and link incidents.
4. In the Supporting Information section, click the Incidents tab.
5. From the Actions menu, select Add.
   The incident form is opened.
6. Enter the incident details.
   A link to the incident that is created is established in the Incidents tab in the Supporting Information section of the Client.
7. (Optional) To edit an incident record linked to a client, select the incident record, and from the Actions menu, select Edit.

To view incidents linked to a client

You can view the incidents that linked to a client.

1. Click the Remedyforce Administration tab.
2. On the Home page, click the Manage Users tile, and from the menu select Clients.
3. In the clients list view, select the client record for which you want to view linked incidents.
4. In the Supporting Information section, click the Incidents tab.
5. To view all the linked incidents, from the View menu, select All.
6. To view the linked incidents that are in the Open stage, from the View menu, select Open.
7. To view the linked incidents that are in the Acknowledged stage, from the View menu, select Acknowledged.
8. To view the linked incidents that are in the In Process stage, from the View menu, select In Process.

9. To view the linked incidents that are in the Closed stage, from the View menu, select Closed.

   Note

   If you are using the Remedyforce Console tab, each time you click a record from the Incidents tab from the Client form, the record opens in a new browser tab or window.

To link services and CIs

You can link services and configuration items (CIs) to a client.

1. Click the Remedyforce Administration tab.
2. On the Home page, click the Manage Users tile, and from the menu select Clients.
3. In the clients list view, select the client record to which you want to link services and CIs.
4. In the Supporting Information section, click the Services and CIs tab.
5. To link a service, from the Actions menu, select Link Service.
   The Select from Business Services window is displayed where you can select a service to link to the client. This window displays active instances of the Business Service class only. If you have selected an account for the client, the services linked to the selected account are displayed. If there are no services linked to the selected account or no account is selected, all the services are displayed.
6. To link a CI, from the Actions menu, select Link CI.
   The Select from Configuration Items window is displayed where you can select a CI to link to the client. If you have selected an account for the client, the configuration items linked to the selected account are displayed. Click Show All CIs to see all the CIs. If there are no CIs linked to the selected account or no account is selected, the Show All CIs check box is selected, by default and all the CIs are displayed.
7. (Optional) To unlink a service or CI, select the required record, and from the Actions menu, select Unlink.
   When you double-click the CI record in Remedyforce Workspaces > Configuration> Clients > Supporting Information > Services and CIs tab, the corresponding CI form is opened in the Instance Editor of the Remedyforce CMDB tab in a different tab in the same browser.
   When you double- click the CI record in Remedyforce Administration > Manage Users> Clients > Supporting Information > Services and CIs tab, the corresponding CI form is opened in the Instance Editor of the Remedyforce CMDB tab.

Types of clients

The clients list view displays two types of clients that are available in BMC Remedyforce.

• The first type is created from the client form or is created during self-registration in Self Service. For these clients, the Account field is a mandatory field in the Clients form. These clients can log on to Self Service only.
• The second type of clients that is displayed in the clients list view is BMC Remedyforce staff members.

To configure the fields shown in the Users window

The fields that are shown in the Users window are configured in the Column Header field set of the Users object. The Users window is shown when users are selecting clients. For example, when they are selecting a client in the Remedyforce Console > Incidents/Service Requests or Remedyforce Console > Tasks tabs.

1. Navigate to Setup > Customize > Users > Field Sets.
2. In the Action column beside Column Headers, click Edit.
3. Drag the field that you want to show in the Users window.
4. (Optional) To remove a field from the Users window, hover over the field, and click .
5. Click Save.

To restrict staff members from creating or editing client records

Staff members can view, create, and edit clients from the Remedyforce Workspaces tab. To restrict staff members from creating and editing clients, you can create a custom setting Enforce User object Security in Clients form and set the value as True.

1. Click Setup.
2. In the App Setup section, click Develop and select Custom Settings.
3. In the Action column of Remedyforce Settings, click Manage.
4. On the Remedyforce Settings page, click New.
5. In the Name field, enter the name EnforceUserObjSecurityInRFClientForm.
6. In the value field, enter True.
7. Click Save.

Troubleshooting

The following table lists the issues that you might experience while creating a client or staff.