How multicompany user onboarding works

When BMC Helix ITSM (BMC Helix ITSM) is implemented with multiple companies in a shared Action Request System (AR System) environment, the managing organization runs the multicompany user onboarding process and the content import processes for each company defined in BMC Helix ITSM.

The user onboarding process performs the following functions:

Creates a single data source for one BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting instance.
(For multicompany onboarding) In addition to a default client organization, creates a BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting Client Organization for each company that is onboarded. For more information, see Organizations-in-a-multitenancy-environment.
Onboards AR System, BMC Helix Chatbot and BMC Helix Business Workflows users to BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting for all the companies in your environment and adds these users to their respective client organizations.
Creates a shared organization (managedServiceProviderName_sharedOrg) after the first client is onboarded in a multicompany onboarding, populates the data source, and gives access to the users in Reporting Shared Org group to the shared organization. For more information, Shared organizations.

Note

The following users are not onboarded in BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting:

Users with login names starting with special characters or containing the ! and # characters in their names
Users with a duplicate email address in AR System

(For Oracle only) If you have two users in AR System with the same name, one with lowercase and one with uppercase (for example, allen and Allen), only the user that you have created first in AR System is onboarded in BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting.

By default, users are assigned to the company that is defined in the Company field under the Organization section of the People form.

Topics in this section include:

Notes

BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting does not support onboarding of multiple customers from the same AR System server.If you have already onboarded a customer, offboard or delete the existing customer and manually update the entry in the SmartReportingServer_Info form before onboarding another customer from the same AR System server.

For multicompany user onboarding, perform the same procedure if you want to onboard a company that you deleted earlier.

For more information about deleting a customer or company, see Offboarding-users-and-clearing-the-database-in-Smart-Reporting.

Example scenario

Company A (the managing organization) manages BMC Software, Calbro Services, and Invention, Inc.

Support Engineer Harish manages BMC Software and Calbro Services. The Company field on Harish's People form record is set to BMC Software.

Support Engineer Girish manages Invention, Inc. The Company field on Girish's People form is set to Invention, Inc.

To enable reporting management for respective companies, the following actions are required:

The BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting super admin, usually siadmin, must add Harish to the shared organization so that he can manage reporting for Calbro Services and BMC Software.
Girish is already in the appropriate client organization. The siadmin only needs to provide Girish the appropriate read and write access to Reports and Dashboards

Supported company types in BMC Helix ITSM multicompany onboarding

The BMC Helix ITSM multicompany onboarding process supports only the following company types:

Operating Company
Service Provider
Customer
Vendor

User access after onboarding users by using the BMC Helix ITSM multicompany module

Data access defined in AR System also applies to BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting data. Users can access reports and dashboards for their company and other companies to which they have access in AR System, even if they are a part of a single BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting client organization. For example, Bob belongs to the BMC Software and, during onboarding, is added to the BMC Software client organization. However, Bob has access to Calbro Services data in AR System. So, even though he is not a part of the Calbro Services client organization, he can access the Calbro Services BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting data.

The Organization information (Company, Organization, and Department) on a user’s People form helps manage the segregation of users and their associated company. Users without a company defined in their People record (created in the AR System User form) are added as a part of the default BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting client organization. These users can access all reports and dashboards available to the default client organization. However, data restrictions defined in the AR System server are applied.

When the administrator of the managing organization creates new reports to be shared with all companies, the administrator must export the reports and then import them to the client organizations of the companies. Alternatively, an administrator can create the common content in the shared organization that will be shared with all tenants at scheduled intervals at same time. For more information, see Organizations-in-a-multitenancy-environment and Synchronizing-common-content-across-multiple-tenants.

If a view or report is modified for one company, the changes are not reflected in the reports or views of another company.

Data security for multitenancy

Data security defined in AR System is applied for all reporting users in BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting. The reporting users can view all the data they have access to in AR System.

When BMC Helix ITSM is implemented in a multicompany environment (set up with multiple companies in a shared AR System environment), data security settings are the same as defined for the AR System server. Access is restricted to the reports and dashboards of the company to which a reporting user belongs. Additionally, when using collaboration options such as comments, annotations, discussions, and notifications, other users who belong to the same company are displayed.

A client organization provides a way to create content isolation within different organizations or tenants. Additionally, the shared organization enables you to share common content across multiple tenants.

Scenarios and options for user onboarding

Multiple onboarding options are available. Based on your BMC Helix ITSM deployment (single company or multicompany) and your BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting deployment option (single BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting server shared by multiple AR System servers), select the appropriate onboarding process.

In BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting, a customer manages an organization that maintains the AR System instance. In a single-company environment, the customer and the company are typically the same. When BMC Helix ITSM is implemented in a multicompany environment (in a shared AR System environment), a customer is the managing organization (for example, a managed service provider that manages the AR System instance for several companies).

The following table lists deployment scenarios and the corresponding user onboarding options:

Deployment scenario	Environment setup	User onboarding option	Where to run the onboarding process
Single company defined in BMC Helix ITSM	Single AR System server or multiple AR System servers sharing a single BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting server	Single-company user onboarding All users onboarding	Each AR System server that uses BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting
BMC Helix ITSM multicompany environment (set up with multiple companies in a shared AR System environment)	Single AR System server with a single BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting server	Multicompany user onboarding The following onboarding options are available: One company at a time Multiple companies in bulk	The AR System server to onboard users of each company is defined in the BMC Helix ITSM multicompany environment of the AR System server.