22.1 enhancements and patches

BMC Helix Virtual Agent provides a self-service solution for users to resolve their issues. The chatbot provides support by interacting with users through natural language, understanding the conversation context, and performing tasks on behalf of the user.

Review the BMC Helix Virtual Agent 22.1 enhancements for features that will benefit your organization and to understand changes that might impact your users.

Version	Fixed issues	Updates and enhancements
22.1.08	Known-and-corrected-issues	None
22.1.07	Known-and-corrected-issues	None
22.1.06	Known-and-corrected-issues	None
22.1.05	Known-and-corrected-issues	22.1.05 enhancements
22.1.04	Known-and-corrected-issues	22.1.04 enhancements
22.1.03	Known-and-corrected-issues	None
22.1.02	Known-and-corrected-issues	None
22.1.01	Known-and-corrected-issues	22.1.01 enhancements
22.1	Known-and-corrected-issues	22.1 enhancements

22.1.05 enhancements

Migrate IBM Watson Discovery to v2

IBM Watson Discovery has deprecated v1 and moved its functionality to v2. BMC Helix Virtual Agent will use the newly configured IBM Watson Discovery v2 environment. IBM Watson Discovery v2 offers many advantages, such as a project-based experience to support different use cases and customization of tools within a single environment. For more information, see Migrating to Discovery v2.

Optionally display the company logo in BMC Helix Virtual Agent web UI

Administrators can configure the BMC Helix Virtual Agent web UI to optionally display the company logo. The chatbot displays the logo by default. However, users may choose to turn off the logo based on their requirements and preferences. This helps users to customize their chatbot interface. For more information, see Setting-up-chatbots-for-your-line-of-business.

Highlight keywords in knowledge articles for users in BMC Helix Virtual Agent

BMC Helix Virtual Agent now supports highlighting of keywords in knowledge articles for all search providers, in addition to the cognitive search feature. This enhances the overall user experience and users can easily search for knowledge articles. As an administrator you can configure BMC Helix Virtual Agent to highlight keywords when users search for knowledge articles. For more information, see Defining-a-knowledge-search-provider-for-chatbot.

Display chat expiration message after the session timeout

BMC Helix Virtual Agent displays a chat expiry message if the user tries to re-initiate the recent conversation with the chatbot after the session timeout period. In that case, the user needs to start a new chat session. For more information, see Setting-up-chatbots-for-your-line-of-business.

Provide an initial intent in the BMC Helix Virtual Agent web UI at the start of the chat session

Administrators can configure BMC Helix Virtual Agent web UI to set an initial message from the user while launching the chatbot. It helps users with specific purposes or queries to communicate easily with the chatbot. The user can start with an intent, such as a specific service request, search request and others based on their queries and preferences, and the chatbot can execute the action accordingly. For more information, see Setting-up-chatbots-for-your-line-of-business.

22.1.04 enhancements

Setting chatbot permissions

Administrators can enable permission settings in BMC Helix Virtual Agent to provide permission to a specific user role or group to use a particular chatbot. Other users will be limited to access that specific chatbot and the system will display an error message if other users belonging to a different role or group use the chatbot. For more information, see Configuring-chatbot-permissions.

Setting proactive notifications

Administrators can enable proactive notification settings in BMC Helix Virtual Agent to proactively notify if the user is idle or inactive during conversation with the chatbot. The chatbot proactively connects with the user through the preferred communication channel. For more information, see Setting-up-chatbots-for-your-line-of-business.

22.1.01 enhancements

Update IBM Watson to version 9.3.x

IBM Watson SDK is updated to the latest version 9.3.x. This will enable users to utilise the latest Watson features, such as auto-learn and response types.

Display 63 characters in the titles of knowledge articles

BMC Helix Virtual Agent can display up to 63 characters in the titles of the knowledge articles.

22.1 enhancements

View knowledge search metrics in the Chatbot Overview dashboard in BMC Helix Dashboards

The following image shows the knowledge search panels added to the Chatbot Overview dashboard:

Knowledge search panels.jpg

As an administrator, you can view the following additional metrics in the BMC Helix Virtual Agent (Chatbot) Overview dashboard:

Chatbot self serviced—Number of conversations that were resolved without a live agent.
Total knowledge searches—Number of times knowledge articles were searched from the chatbot.
Unsuccessful knowledge searches—Number of times that the knowledge search did not return any results.
Top knowledge searches—Top five search queries used to find knowledge articles from the chatbot.

For more information, see BMC Helix Virtual Agent channel usage and intent recognition dashboard in BMC Helix Dashboards documentation.

Display a message to end users when all agents are busy

BMC Helix Virtual Agent end users can see the following message when the specified number of agents are offline and are temporarily unavailable:

All agents are currently busy. The wait may be a bit longer. If it’s not urgent, you may want to try again later.

End users can benefit from this configuration in the following ways:

Make an informed decision to wait for an agent or try to connect later.
Expect a longer wait time and continue with any other tasks at hand.
Look for other self-help resources to resolve the query.

As an administrator of Live Chat, you enable the display message in Live Chat. For more information, see Enabling system notifications for end usersin Live Chat documentation.

To learn how to enable Live Chat in BMC Helix Virtual Agent, see Enabling-live-chat-for-users.

The following image shows the message displayed when all agents are busy:

End user message when agent are busy.png

What else changed in this release

From version 22.1, note the following significant changes in the product behavior:

Update	Product behavior in versions earlier than 22.1	Product behavior from version 22.1
Support for rich text formatting in comments added to BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced service requests	End users could not apply rich text formatting when adding comments to their service requests from chatbot.	Chatbot end users can apply rich text formatting when they add comments to service requests from chatbot. Add Bold, Italics, and Underline fonts Select colors Adjust text alignment Insert hyperlinks Add numbered and bulleted lists Drag and drop, copy and paste as well as click the image icon to insert images Add an attachment Example of RTF options when you add a comment To learn more about the formatting that can be applied, see Enhanced catalog in the BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced documentation. For more information, see Submitting-service-requests-or-searching-knowledge-articles.