20.15.02 enhancements

The following enhancements are provided in version 20.15.02 of the BMC Remedyforce product:

SRD enhancements

In this release, the following enhancements have been made to service request definitions (SRDs):

• Improved wizard for creating request definitions
• New features for service request management
• Changes to Self Service

Improved wizard for creating request definitions

The wizard to create service request definitions (SRDs) has been improved in the following ways:

• The General Information tab includes the  icons to create services, service offerings, categories, and incident and service request templates.
• The new Input tab enables system administrators to more easily create and manage input fields for request definitions.
• The Fulfilment tab now enables system administrators to link templates and map input fields to template fields.
  For more information, see Creating the SRD.
  

• Additional enhancements have been made to the wizard, as listed in the following  table:

  Enhancement	Tab in the SRD wizard	Reference topic
  System administrators can choose to show or hide Quantity and Price field values of a service request from the staff member by selecting the Apply above Quantity and Price field settings for staff members check box.	Display Options	Configuring service request information to be shown to clients
  System administrators can also configure request definition entitlement based on the permission set of a user.	Entitlement	Configuring entitlement of SRDs
  System administrators can simultaneously configure multiple display and stored values of radio button and picklist response types.	Input	Use case - Adding a picklist response type Use case - Adding radio button options to the service request
  System administrators can add only one Text Area (Rich) response type input field to a request definition.	Input	Points to consider when adding input field of type Text Area (Rich)
  System administrators can make uploading attachments with a service request mandatory in Self Service by selecting the Make Attachment Required in Self Service check box.	Display Input	Configuring service request information to be shown to clients
  System administrators can clone the input fields that you are configuring for a request definition by using the Clone button or by clicking .	Input	Adding fields to take information from clients

New features for service request management

The following table lists new features added to service request management:

Changes to Self Service

The following enhancements have been made to Self Service:

• Button labels on the Service Request and Ticket pages are updated. For example, Close button has been updated to Close Ticket or Close Service Request.
  
  

• On the Request a Service tab, only categories for which request definitions are created are shown. System administrators can choose to show all request definitions associated with child categories under their parent category.
   
• Clients can edit a submitted service request only if no approval is required or all approvals for a service request are pending or rejected and fulfillment process has not started. The Edit button is shown to clients only if system administrators have enabled editing of submitted service requests for clients.
• Clients can view tasks linked to a service request or incident in the Tickets and Requests tab and on the Ticket and Service Request detail pages (in the Add Attachments and Notes section). Linked tasks are shown to clients only if system administrators have enabled the display of linked tasks in Self Service.
• In the list view of the Tickets and Requests tab, the Type column is added by default. The Type column shows Service Request for a service request and Incident for a ticket.
  
  Also, in the list view of the Approvals tab, the Type column shows Service Request for service requests and Incident for tickets. 

BMC Remedyforce CMDB enhancements

The following enhancements have been made to BMC Remedyforce CMDB:

• Ability to create and manage custom and out-of-the-box CMDB classes
• Edit multiple CIs from the List view
• Filter classes in the left panel on the Remedyforce CMDB tab
• CI Explorer enhancements

Ability to create and manage custom and out-of-the-box CMDB classes

System administrators can now update the out-of-the-box CMDB classes. Also, if out-of-the-box CMDB classes do not meet their requirements, system administrators can add custom classes in BMC Remedyforce CMDB. In addition, system administrators can perform the following actions for the custom and out-of-the-box CMDB classes:

• Hide any unused CMDB classes in the left panel of the Remedyforce CMDB tab.
• Customize the CMDB Class and CMDB Class Impacted icons for the out-of-the-box and custom classes.
  The CMDB Class and CMDB Class Impacted icons for a class are displayed in CMDB List and Tile views, CMDB relationships, and in the CI explorer.
• Add or update the class label for the out-of-the-box CMDB classes. The class label is displayed on:
  • the Label column of the CMDB Classes list view page.
    
  • the left panel of the Remedyforce CMDB tab. The class label, instead of the out-of-the-box class name, is displayed.

To manage the  out-of-the-box and custom CMDB classes, system administrators must navigate to the CMDB Classes list view page (Remedyforce Administration > Application Settings > CMDB Classes).

For more information, see Managing CMDB classes.

Edit multiple CIs from the List view

On the Remedyforce CMDB tab, you can edit multiple configuration items from the list view. From the list view, for a particular CI, you can edit any field that is available on the General and Specifications tabs of a particular CI. For more information, see Updating multiple configuration items for a class.

Filter classes in the left panel on the Remedyforce CMDB tab

On the Remedyforce CMDB tab, all out-of-the-box and custom classes are displayed in the left panel. You can search for a particular CMDB class by using the search box in the top-left corner of the panel. The classes CMDB in the left panel are filtered based on the value that you enter in the search box. For more information, see Searching for a class in the left pane of the Remedyforce CMDB tab.

CI Explorer enhancements

Prior to BMC Remedyforce 20.15.02, the Configuration Items (CI) Explorer used Microsoft Silverlight technology to display content. Because of Google’s announcement to deprecate support for Microsoft Silverlight in their Chrome browser, in BMC Remedyforce 20.15.02, Microsoft Silverlight has been replaced with HTML5 and JavaScript technology. By default, in a new installation or an upgraded version of Remedyforce 20.15.02, the CI Explorer uses HTML5 and JavaScript technology.

The following enhancements have also been made to the CI Explorer:

• You can display the CIs that will be impacted when a change request is implemented on a selected CI.
• You can display or hide the records linked to a selected CI.
  If a CI has linked Incidents, Change Requests, Problems, Releases, or Tasks, those are displayed irrespective of their Opened or Closed status.

• The attributes of the custom CMDB classes  are displayed on the CI Explorer.

For more information, see Working with the Configuration Items Explorer.

Segregation of incidents and service requests

Incidents and Service Requests are provided as separate module in the Remedyforce Console tab.

Segregating incidents and service requests also impacts the following areas:

• Global Search: Separate tabs for Incidents and Service Requests are shown.
  
• Self Service: In the Tickets and Requests and Approvals tabs, the Type column has been added that shows Incidents for tickets and Service Requests for service requests. 
• Remedyforce Administration: The Console View list on the Application Settings > Consoles page, Incidents and Service Requests appear as separate modules in the list.
  If you create a custom action to be added to the Actions or Agent Tools menu for the Incidents or Service Requests module, the custom action will also be available for both the modules. However, you can configure the custom action to be shown in Incidents or Service Requests module.
• Remedyforce CMDB: Separate tabs for Incidents and Service Requests are shown on the Details tab of Instance Editor.
  
• Remedyforce Console: From a related list, if you click a record number in the Launch Console column, the record opens in the Incidents or Service Requests tab.

If you are upgrading to BMC Remedyforce 20.15.02, system administrators get the option to segregate incidents and service requests into separate modules. The setting to segregate incidents and service requests (Segregate Incidents and Service Requests) is available on the Remedyforce Administration > Application Settings > Consoles page.

Remedyforce Console enhancements

The following enhancements have been made to the Remedyforce Console tab:

• Create and edit incidents by using smart suggestions - BETA
• Ability to lock records for editing
• Remedyforce Console general enhancements
• Support for integrating BMC Remedyforce with Salesforce Open CTI adapter

Create and edit incidents by using Smart Suggestions - BETA

To provide staff members with quick-and-easy access to relevant information while working on an incident in the Remedyforce Console, you can enable and configure Smart Suggestions. When staff members are working on an incident, they can view suggested knowledge articles, broadcasts, and templates that might be relevant to the record. They can browse the suggested knowledge articles, broadcasts, and templates, and link relevant records to the incident. The smart suggestions are displayed based on the description and category of the working record.

If Smart Suggestions is enabled, a pane is displayed at the bottom of the Incident form in the Remedyforce Console. If there is no value in the Category or Description fields of an incident record, the suggestions are not displayed. By default, a maximum of 10 records for each type are shown in the Smart Suggestions. At a given time, a maximum of 50 records are shown in the Smart Suggestions pane.

For more information, see Configuring Smart Suggestions - BETA and Using Smart Suggestions to create or edit incidents.

Ability to lock records for editing

On the Remedyforce Console tab, if staff members are working on particular records and they don't want any other user to edit these records, they can lock the records. Record locking is available for incidents, tasks, problems, changes, releases, and broadcasts. The default lock duration for a record is 15 minutes. For more information, see Locking records.

Remedyforce Console general enhancements

• To easily identify if an incident or service request is opened in a tab, the IN and SR prefixes are added to the record ID. A few examples of record IDs are IN0000013 (incident record) and SR0000014 (service request record).
• The Incident # column in the Incidents/Service Requests module is renamed to Number. You can change the column name based on your requirements.
  
• System administrators can add the Queue field in the list views or on the forms to show the queue to which a record is assigned.
• Staff members can open the linked incident or service request details page from the Task details page by clicking . For more information, see Task fields.
• While writing an email message, staff members can choose to write content in rich text format or plain text. The incoming Rich Text email messages are received in Rich Text format. Staff members can view these email conversations on the email conversation forms in the Rich Text format. 
   
• System administrators can hide the Duration field on an action form, such as Note, by using the Hide Duration field (Remedyforce Administration > Configure Application > Actions).

• System administrators can now enable or disable the functionality to simultaneously update multiple records from list views by using the Enable multi-record updates in list views check box (Remedyforce Administration > Application Settings > Consoles). By default, this functionality is enabled for all modules. For more information, see Customizing the Remedyforce Console tab.

Support for integrating BMC Remedyforce with Open CTI adapter

BMC Remedyforce 20.15.02 supports integration between BMC Remedyforce and Open CTI adapter. For more information, see Support for Open CTI adapter.

QuickViews enhancements

The following enhancements have been made to QuickViews:

• While creating a QuickView query condition, system administrators can leave the Value column blank. While filtering records in a QuickView, staff members can also leave a filter value blank. In this case, all records where the field value is blank are shown. For example, if staff members do not enter a value in the Priority = condition, all records where Priority field is blank are shown in the QuickView.

• By default, the following out-of-the-box QuickViews show only incidents. To see service requests in these QuickViews, select the Show Service Requests run-time filter.
  
  • My Work (Incident & Task)
  • Work for a specified queue
  • Incident with a specified category
  • Incident with a specified priority
  • My Incidents
  • Incidents in my Queues
  • Incidents assigned to me
    

Providing feedback about BMC Remedyforce application

If your system administrator has enabled the settings, from the Remedyforce Console, you can provide feedback about the BMC Remedyforce application. In the Tell us about your Experience window, you can provide feedback only for the modules that are enabled for your profile. 
For example, if Problem module is not enabled for your profile, you cannot provide feedback for the Problem Management Experience.

New and updated reports

The following enhancements have been made to the reports in BMC Remedyforce:

• New reports
• Updated reports

New reports

The following new out-of-the-box reports are available on the Reports tab:

• Incident Resolution Average Time
• Incidents by SLA Status
• Incidents by Priority
• Priority 1 and 2 Incidents by Status
• Incidents with a First Call Resolution
• Incidents with Incorrect Assignment
• Incidents with Incorrect Category
• Open Incidents by Owner
• Incidents Resolved Remotely
• Closed Incidents by Queue
• Incidents assigned more than twice

All new out-of-the-box reports show only incidents by default. To see service requests in these reports, users must clear the Is Service Request filter.

The new Remedyforce Configuration Data Integrity report is also available on the Reports tab. This reports lists templates, suggested owners, SLAs, and request definitions that reference data in other objects that is deleted, modified, or made inactive. Remedyforce Administrators can use this report to quickly identify and correct such impacted records. For more information about how the data in this report is generated, see Verifying configuration data integrity.

For more information about the new reports, see Accessing predefined reports.

Updated reports

The Is Service Request filter has been added to the following existing reports on the Reports tab. These existing reports show only incidents by default.

• Clients 2.0
• Outage Hours based on Business Hours
• Priority 1 Incidents
• Total Time Spent Per Incident 2.0
• Incident Feedback Survey Report
• Incidents Closed Before Due Date
• Incidents Closed by Knowledge Articles
• Incidents per Category

Remedyforce Configuration Data Integrity Tool

A new Remedyforce Configuration Data Integrity Tool has been added in version 20.15.02 to help you identify active templates, request definitions, suggested owners, and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that reference data in other objects that has been deleted. For example, you might have created a template that sets the assigned user to Emma User but since the template was defined, Emma User is no longer with your company. The tool uses the Remedyforce Utility Service to run a batch job daily at 12 AM (GMT) to identify these impacted records for you. If an impacted record is found, an email with the Remedyforce Configuration Data Integrity report is sent to Remedyforce Administrators (users for whom the Remedyforce Administrator check box is selected). This report lists active records that are impacted by deleted, modified, or unused (inactive) records in other objects. For more information, see Verifying configuration data integrity.

In a new or upgrade environment, when you click the Remedyforce Administration tab for the first time, the Remedyforce Utility Service is started and the scan job is run. If impacted records are found, an email with this report is sent to Remedyforce Administrators.

Other enhancements

The following other enhancements have been made to BMC Remedyforce:

• Updated LDAP Pentaho package
• General enhancements for system administrators

Updated LDAP Pentaho package

The Pentaho package for importing Salesforce Platform license users with assigned permission sets from an LDAP server has been updated. It now enables you to import the following additional data:

• Manager field information of users from the Active Directory.
  The UpdateManagerInfo.ktr file (Update manager Information transformation in the TransferLDAPInfo job) has been added to the package.
• Phone, Mobile Phone, and Fax information of users from the Active Directory.
  The Salesforce Upsert [For User] step of the TransferLDAPInfo transformation now displays additional out-of-the-box fields—Phone, MobilePhone, and Fax—which are mapped from the LDAP Active Directory Users.

For more information, see Importing Salesforce Platform license users with assigned permission sets from an LDAP server.

General enhancements for system administrators

The following table lists the general enhancements that have been made for system administrators: