Enabling users to manage approvals

As an administrator, you can make the following actions available to approvers in addition to the standard Approve and Reject options:

Action	Goal
Put approvals on hold	Approvers can put approvals on hold to prioritize ongoing tasks. If the approver postpones an approval request, the service requester can see the request's On Hold status. The approver can resume working on the approval request at any time.
Delegate approvals to alternate approvers	Approvers can delegate approvals to decrease the number of unresolved requests if they cannot process them on time, for example, due to an absence.
Ask for approval clarification	Approvers can ask for more information about a request instead of outright rejecting it, which can expedite the approval process and improve the quality of decision-making.
Reassign approvals	Approvers can reassign requests to other approvers, ensuring that tasks are distributed efficiently and completed on time by the appropriate personnel.

The following image displays additional approval configurations in the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Admin console. You can configure approval reassignment in Action Request System (AR System).

Before you begin

Enable one or more of the available approval types in BMC Helix Digital Workplace. For more information, see Enabling approval types.

To enable the option for putting approvals on hold

In the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Admin console, navigate to Configuration.
On the Configuration page, select Configuration > Approval.
In the Additional approval actions section, select the Put approvals on hold option.
Click Save.

After this option is enabled, the On Hold button is displayed next to the Approve and Reject buttons for all approval requests in the end user console. The approval requests that are put on hold remain in the Active events of an end user's list until they are approved, rejected, or reassigned. For more information, see Delegating, reassigning, and responding to approval requests.

To enable users to delegate approvals to alternate approvers

In the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Admin console, navigate to Configuration.
On the Configuration page, select Configuration > Approval.
In the Additional approval actions section, select the Alternate approvals (enables delegation) option.
Click Save.
On the Configuration page, select Application Features.
In the Providers section, select Helix ITSM pluggable provider.
If it hasn't been configured yet, refer to the Integrating-with-other-applications-by-using-providers on how to configure the Helix ITSM pluggable provider.

After the delegation is enabled, approvers can delegate approvals only for the following approval types. For more information, see Delegating, reassigning, and responding to approval requests.

Requests from BMC Service Request Management
Important
Starting with the 21.3.02 patch, BMC announces changes related to the availability of BMC Service Request Management that might affect your use of BMC Helix Digital Workplace.
For more information, see Deprecated and discontinued features.
Requests from BMC HR Case Management
Requests from BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog.
This delegation is supported only if you have aBMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced license.

For more information, see Delegating, reassigning, and responding to approval requests.

To enable approvers to request clarification

In the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Admin console, navigate to Configuration.
On the Configuration page, select Configuration > Approval.
In the Additional approval actions section, select the Approval clarification messages option.
Click Save.

After that, the Request approval details button is displayed next to the Approve and Reject buttons for Catalog-native approval requests in the Service request details view. Approvers can only request additional information for approval requests related to Catalog-native services.

For more information about asking for clarification, see Requesting approval clarification. Also, learn how service requesters can provide clarification in Providing clarification for approval requests.

Important

If you decide not to enable the Approval Clarification Messages setting, approvers cannot request clarification for Catalog-native requests from the BMC Helix Digital Workplace end-user console. However, they can still ask for clarification in Approval Central by adding a new question. In this case, the status will appear as More information needed on the My Activity page in the BMC Helix Digital Workplace end-user console, but a service requester cannot see or respond to the question.

To disable notifications from Approval Central

After you enable the option for approvers to request clarification, approvers and service requesters will receive email notifications from BMC Helix Digital Workplace and Approval Central when an approver asks for clarification and when the requester replies. For more information about notifications from BMC Helix Digital Workplace, see the Notifications section in Requesting approval clarification.

To prevent users from receiving duplicate notifications, you can choose to disable notifications from Approval Central:

As an AR administrator, log in to AR System.
From the Applications menu, select AR System Administration > AR System Administration Console.
On the BMC Remedy AR System Administration Console page, select System > General > Centralized Configuration.
On the AR System Configuration Generic UI page, in the Component name field, select com.bmc.dwpcatalog, and then select an asterisk symbol (*).
Set the Clatification-Aproval-Notifications-Disable setting to true.
Click Apply.

Important

Email notifications from BMC Helix Digital Workplace are only available when using the notification engine on BMC Helix Innovation Suite. If your company uses the traditional notification engine, BMC Helix Digital Workplace does not send email notifications for clarification requests and responses. Also, to receive email notifications from BMC Helix Digital Workplace, approvers and requesters must have a valid email address specified in the CTM:People form.

To enable end users to reassign approval requests

As an AR administrator, log in to AR System.
From the Applications menu, select Quick links > Approval Administration Console.
On the Process tab, select a process definition.
On the Process Definition form, select Yes from the Can Reassign? list of the corresponding process.
Click Save.

After you enable this setting, approvers can reassign their requests to other approvers. For more information, see Reassigning approvals to other users.

Reassigning approvals is supported for most types of BMC Helix Digital Workplace and BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog requests, with the following exceptions:

Request	Exception
BMC Helix Digital Workplace requests	Requests that are automatically delegated to alternate approvers.
BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog requests (Available only if you have aBMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced license)	Requests that are automatically delegated to alternate approvers.
	Approval requests from BMC Helix Business Workflows.
	Approval requests for bundled services. End users can reassign services one by one in a bundle. They cannot reassign all services in a bundle to a single approver at one time.
	Approval requests for services added to the cart. Users can reassign services one by one in the cart. They cannot reassign all services in the cart to a single approver at one time.