20.19.01 enhancements

This topic provides information about the following enhancements that are provided in the BMC Helix Remedyforce product in this release:

Column filtering in Remedyforce Console

Starting this release, the Column Filtering feature is provided on the list view of Remedyforce Console to filter out the records. You can use column filtering when you do not require persistent or reusable filters. With this feature, you can filter down the records of any view at run time without having to create a separate view. You can use the Column Filter feature over the list view search and custom list views to further drill down the records.

For column filtering, a Filter icon  is provided on the column header of fields through which you can add criteria and filter the records quickly. For more information about the Column Filtering feature, see the Column Filtering section in Filtering records in list views.

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Service Target reporting

Starting this release, the service target fields of open records can be saved and can be viewed in the SLA reports. Earlier, the SLA reports showed the service target fields values only for the closed records.

A new administration setting, Calculate Service Target Report Fields Every, is introduced that runs a job at a specified interval and calculate the service target values for open records. The following fields are introduced to save the values:

• Relative Elapsed Time in Minutes
• Relative Elapsed Time in Day(s) HH:MM
• Relative Time Remaining in Minutes
• Relative Time Remaining  in Day(s) HH:MM
• Relative Paused Duration in Minutes
• Relative Paused Duration in Day(s) HH:MM
• Job Run Time

When a job is run at a scheduled time, Relative Elapsed Time in Minutes, Relative Time Remaining in Minutes, and Relative Paused Duration in Minutes fields get calculated according to the current time that is saved in the Job Run Time field. Relative Elapsed Time in Day(s) HH:MM, Relative Time Remaining in Day(s) HH:MM, and Relative Paused Duration in Day(s) HH:MM fields will display the same information in the date and time format. The calculations are performed based on business hours set from SLA configuration. 

You can view these fields in the following SLA reports:

• Incident Service Targets
• Change Request Service Target
• Task Service Target
• Problem Service Target

 For more information about job scheduling, viewing the reports, and SLA dashboard, see General settings for Remedyforce and Accessing predefined reports.

Service Level Agreement dashboard for incidents and service requests

Starting this release, Service level Agreement (SLA) dashboards for incidents is introduced that shows various graphs that provide SLA related information for incidents. You can also customize the criteria that is applied for each graph as per your requirements.

For more information about these graphs and how to access the dashboard, Viewing the SLA dashboard for incidents.

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Column filtering in Remedyforce CMDB

Starting this release, the Column Filtering feature is provided to filter the CMDB records. The features that differentiate column filtering from advanced search are as follows:

• It is quicker than advanced search as with only a few mouse clicks you can filter the current view.
• Column filtering is limited to columns that are displayed in the list view, whereas advanced search can include fields beyond the columns displayed in the list view 
• Unlike column filtering, advanced searches can be saved.

For column filtering, a Filter icon  is provided on the column header of fields through which you can add criteria and filter the records quickly. For more information about column filtering, see Overview of the Remedyforce CMDB tab. 

Enhanced user interface

Starting this release, the Remedyforce CMDB tab gets an enhanced look and feel with a more intuitive interface. The following GIF shows the changes that are made in terms of look and feel. For more information about the Remedyforce CMDB tab, see Overview of the Remedyforce CMDB tab.

Enhanced user interface for CMDB Instance Editor 

Starting this release, CMDB Instance Editor has been given an enhanced look with intuitive interface. For more information about enhanced interface for CMDB Instance Editor, see Creating and updating assets, Creating and updating configuration items, Managing relationships between a configuration item and other CMDB instances, and Managing relationships between an asset and other CMDB instances.

Following changes are made in terms of look and feel.

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Support for BMC Helix Discovery

Starting this release, Remedyforce now provides the same integrations with the recent release of BMC Helix Discovery as with the on-premise BMC Discovery. For more information about how this integration works, see Integrating Remedyforce with BMC Discovery and BMC Helix Discovery.

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Configuring ticket layouts for creating and viewing tickets 

Starting this release, the administrators can configure the fields to be excluded from the Submit ticket and Copy ticket layouts. Self Service includes a standard layout configured for the Submit, Copy, Edit, and View a ticket actions. However, there are certain fields which are required in the View and Edit layouts, but are redundant for the Submit and Copy layouts. With this feature, the clients will not see the redundant fields for those layouts.

For more information about configuring the ticket layouts, see Managing custom layouts for the Ticket form.

Allowing multiple approval feature for the records

Starting this release, the clients can select multiple approval requests for the records to approve, reject, or reassign them.

Identifying the incident source for Self Service Mobile application

Starting this release, the incidents created on Self Service Mobile application will be identified distinctly in the incident source of Remedyforce Console. Earlier, the incident source for incidents created through Self Service Desktop application, Mobile application, and Analyst application were all displayed as Self Service.

With this feature, the incident source for Self Service Mobile and Analyst application are shown as Mobile Self Service and Mobile respectively. For these values to be visible, the administrator must add them in a picklist.

For more information about adding the values in the picklist, see Configuring settings for Self Service on Salesforce1 Mobile App.

Saving service requests as drafts

Starting this release, the administrators can configure a setting which will enable the clients to save their service requests as drafts. Once administrators configure this setting, clients see the Save Draft option on the service request form. Requests saved as drafts can be later accessed to make edits or to submit the request. 

For more information about configuring the setting to save service requests as drafts, see Settings for service requests in Self Service.

Alternative way of displaying broadcast

Starting this release, broadcast can be shown either as a scrolling text or as scrolling messages based on the settings configured by the administrator. Earlier, broadcast was shown as a scrolling text. With this new feature, administrators have the option to display broadcast as scrolling messages. If the scrolling messages setting is configured, clients have the option to view the next or previous message or all broadcast messages at one go. For more information to configure the setting, see Configuring banner settings.

Manage Approvals

This section provides the settings for managing pending approvals of the Self Service records.

The features introduced under this section are as follows.

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Unlocking badges and sharing them on social media

Starting this release, in Remedyforce Value Adoption Dashboard (earlier known as Remedyforce Utilization) areas for which the scoring is calibrated are assigned two predefined badges. These badges are awarded to an organization when the organization gains a certain score in that area. For example, under Console Readiness, the first badge is awarded when the score is greater than 50% and the second badge is awarded when the score is greater than 90%.

For more information about badges, see Remedyforce Value Adoption Dashboard and Unlocking Remedyforce Value Adoption badges.

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Additional chart options in QuickViews

Starting this release, the charts in QuickViews will use the HighCharts framework instead of the FusionCharts framework that provides additional chart options. Users will not require Adobe Flash to create or view the charts and there is no additional installation required for HighCharts. QuickViews now provide more options for charts that includes donut charts, 2D options for column and pie charts, and 3D options for bar charts. Also, while viewing the 3D column and bar chart, users can adjust the chart perspective. If you want to revert to FusionCharts that require Adobe Flash to be downloaded, contact the BMC Customer Support team

For more information about creating and viewing QuickViews, see Creating and editing QuickViews in the Remedyforce Console, Creating QuickViews from the Remedyforce Dashboard tab, and  Working with QuickViews in the Remedyforce Console. 

Removal of JavaScript from Remedyforce buttons

To prevent rendering of JavaScript code on Salesforce domain, all JavaScript codes on Remedyforce buttons are removed. The buttons on the following interfaces are impacted:

• Remedyforce Console and Standard Layouts
• Service Cloud Console

Note that because of this change, buttons will start appearing in the Lightning Experience in Standard Layouts, but they will not be functional and are not supported.

You might observe the following behaviour due to this change:

• Difference in how a window is refreshed or how redirections are managed.
• In the Remedyforce Console > Details tab, the following behavioural changes can be observed.
  • Multiple windows are not opened when any button is clicked. Instead a single window opens that gets refreshed when another button is clicked.
  • Messages that were shown as alerts are now shown on intermediate pages. For example, you might see a temporary window when you click Select and Link Tasks to Incident on a closed incident as shown in the image below.

View your organization performance against benchmarks

Starting this release, you can view Incident Management key performance indicators (KPIs) for your organization against benchmarks that are obtained from data collected from various Remedyforce customers. Factors affecting the KPIs are also calculated and shown. You can use the benchmark information to understand the areas of focus to improve the overall KPIs for your organization. For more information about benchmarks, see Assessing your organization performance against benchmarks.

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Support for BCM versions built on Java 11 and onwards

Starting this release, a new method is introduced to launch the BCM console due to Oracle licensing changes with Java that impacted the JWS support. If any latest version of BCM is integrated with Remedyforce 20.19.01, instead of JNLP files, binary files are downloaded. The latest versions of BCM includes BCM 12.8 Patch 2, BCM 12.7 Patch 4, and BCM 12.6 Patch 5.

With older versions of BCM, JNLP file will still be downloaded and it will continue to work same as before.

For more information about upcoming BCM versions built on Java 11, see Overview of the BMC Remedyforce integration with BMC Client Management.

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Integrating Remedyforce with BMC Helix Chatbot

Starting this release, you can integrate Remedyforce with BMC Helix Chatbot with an additional cost. Once the integration is successful, clients can see the chatbot window in Self Service application and use it to submit service requests, view knowledge articles or get the status of their requests. For more information about integrating Remedyforce with BMC Helix Chatbot, see Integrating Remedyforce with BMC Helix Chatbot and Launching the chatbot window.

Chat with a Remedyforce Support agent

Starting this release, you can initiate a live conversation with a Remedyforce Support agent. This feature is available under the following conditions:

• You have purchased Remedyforce. 
• The Remedyforce Administrator check box is selected on the user record of the Remedyforce administrator who has access to the Remedyforce Administration tab.
• The email address of the Remedyforce administrator is associated with the company’s Support ID, and the administrator has the right to create cases on behalf of the company. 

For more information about chatting with a Remedyforce Support agent, see Navigating the Remedyforce Administration tab.

Related topics

Enabling new features in 20.19.01

Known and corrected issues