Communicating case updates

As a case agent, when you work on a case, you can share information related to the case. You can communicate the case updates with other agents or employees in various ways. You can also share or receive case related information that can help resolve the case, or provide reference information that helps you proceed with the case. Case information that is shared or received is associated to the case, and is available in the case record.

A case business analyst can configure the Modified Date and Modified By fields to be updated for a case when a note or comment is added to the case. These updates help case agents to track the changes to the case.

Communication through notes

Agents who have write access to a case, can post comments or add attachments in the case activity feed. When an approver accepts or rejects a case, after the approval process is complete, you can see the case approval status message in the case activity feed. The case activity feed also displays the messages for activities like emails sent and so on.

Benefit of communication through notes

Activity feed notes provide you and other case agents (with write access) a way to post and view relevant case information and take necessary actions, if required.

Example of communication through notes

You create the Need spot bonus for an employee case. You assign it to yourself and your support group, the HR support group.

You become unavailable for a few days and cannot work on the case this time period. The following events occur:

  1. You reassign the case to another case agent in the HR support group.
  2. You add a note in the case activity feed stating the reason behind reassigning the case.
  3. The new case assignee views the note and starts working on the case.

For more information, see Adding a note in a case activity feed.

Communication through comments

A requester submits a request in BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced and a corresponding case is created in BMC Helix Business Workflows. If the requester adds a comment to the service request, the comment is visible to you in the activity feed of the corresponding case. If you add a comment to the case, the comment is visible to the requester in the service request.

Benefit of communication through comments

By leaving comments, you and the requester can easily share the required information and view the latest information in the case.

Example of communication through comments

A requester submits a request Need information about reimbursement policy and a corresponding case is created. While working on the case, you need the employee ID of the requester. The following events occur:

  • You add a comment to the case activity feed asking for the employee ID.
  • The comment is displayed in the service request and the requester responds with the required information.
  • You can view the employee ID in the case and proceed with the case.

For more information, see Sharing updates to and from a case and service request.

Communication through emails

When an employee or a user outside of an organization sends an email to request a service, a case is created automatically in BMC Helix Business Workflows, and an acknowledgment email is sent to the employee or user.

Example of what case details show

The following table describes how a case indicates for whom it is created:

If

then

An employee registered in the BMC Helix Platform Foundation library sends an email,

the case details page displays the following details:

  • Employee is displayed as the requester of the case.
  • The contact number and email ID of the employee is displayed in Created For.

A user outside of an organization sends an email,

the case details page displays the following details:

  • Employee with whom the user's email ID is mapped, is displayed as the requester of the case.
  • The user's email ID is displayed in Created For.

The content of subsequent email communications between you and an external user or employee is captured in the case activity feed. In addition to the requester or external user, you can send emails to other agents of your company.

Benefits of communication through emails

Using email to communicate case updates provides the following benefits:

  • You can work with users outside of your company on their issues.
  • Users have a record of case updates in their email. Because the emails you send from a case contain the case ID, users can easily relate an email with a case.
  • Because the email communication is displayed in the activity feed of a case, you can find old emails related to the case.
Example of communication through emails

A manager sends an email to request an employee spot bonus and a corresponding case is created automatically. You need to get an approval from the HR manager and the following events occur:

  • From the case, you send an email to the HR manager asking for the approval.
  • The HR manager sends an email to approve the case.
  • After receiving the approval and completing other required formalities, you close the case.

For more information, see Using emails to share case updates.

To communicate case updates

  1. Log in to BMC Helix Business Workflows. 
  2. Navigate to Workspace > Cases.
  3. (Version 20.08.01) From the Line of Business list, select the line of business for which you want to update a case.
    If you have access to a single line of business, the line of business is selected by default.
  4. To open a case on the Cases workspace, click the required case ID.

  • On the case details page, perform any of the following steps:

    Action

    Steps

    Result

    View and update a case activity

    Click the Activity tab and perform any of the following steps:

    • Filter displayed actions—To filter the actions based on the type of comments or activities, click 2008_FilterIconBlue.png and select the required options.
    • Add notes—To add a note, enter it in the text box and click Post.
      To format the text, use the options in the text editor.
      By default, the note that you add is marked private Private note icon.png. To make your note visible to everybody, select the 2008_PublicIcon.pngcheckbox.
      To attach files to your notes, click 2008_Attach.png.
      (Version 20.08.01) The spell check option is enabled by default. You can use the available options to spell check.

    The Activity tab in a case lists different actions that are performed on it, such as status change, comments, feedback, and so on. When you add a note, a notification is sent to the assignee of the case.
    The Modified Date and Modified By fields of the case are updated if a case business analyst has enabled the configuration.

    Request information from an employee who submitted a service request in BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced

    1. Click the Activity tab.
    2. To request the information, in the text box, add a comment.

    The comment is displayed in the service request and the employee responds with the required information in the case activity feed.
    The Modified Date and Modified By fields of the case are updated if a case business analyst has enabled the configuration.

    Send an email from a case

    1. To open the Compose Email dialog box, click Email.
      You can also click the email ID of the requester, external user, or contact to open the dialog box.
      Note: Although the email address from the Configured email address is automatically populated in the To and CC list, the email address is automatically removed when the email is sent. This behavior occurs to ensure that no unnecessary and repetitive emails are received on the same email address.
    2. (Optional) If you want to use an email template, perform the following steps:
      1. Click Select Email Template.
      2. (Optional) From the Locale list, select the language for the email template.
      3. From the list displayed, select the required email template, and click Apply.
    3. To compose your email, complete the following steps:
      • Draft the email, and format the text.
      • To add a table to the email, click 2005_TableIcon.png.
        You can add columns, rows, and specify the table attributes. You can also add a caption and summary for the table.
      • To add an image to the email, click 2005_ImageIcon.png.
        You can upload an image, or add a URL from which to refer the image. You can also define the attributes of the image.
      • To add a link to the email, click 2005_LinkIcon.png.
        You can specify the details of the link, and also the target of the URL.
        Note: If you cannot add a table, image, or hyperlink, contact your administrator to get HTML tags whitelisted.
    1. To send the email, click Send.

      Important:
      • You can override the previous email template by selecting a new email template.
      • You can only use email templates that have been configured by a case business analyst.

    For more information about templates, see Creating-email-and-acknowledgement-templates.

    • When an employee raises a service request from BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced, a case is created in BMC Helix Business Workflows. If you send an email to the requester from the case, the email is displayed in the case activity feed as a public note. Also, the employee can view the email content from BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced.
    • When the requester forwards an email to a user with the configured email ID in the To or CC list, the email content is displayed in the case activity feed. The forwarded email also contains the request ID and FW: keyword in the subject line.
    • The response from the user to this forwarded email is also displayed in the activity feed.
    • If you send an email to a user who is not registered in Foundation Data, the email content is displayed in the case activity feed as a public note.
    • If you use an email template to send predefined responses for a case, the email template name with the email content is displayed in the case activity feed.
    • When you send an email to other agents, the email is added to the case activity feed as a private note.
    • You can add documents from the document library or attach files from a local drive in an email template and send the attachments through emails composed by using this template.
    • The Modified Date and Modified By fields of the case are updated if a case business analyst has enabled the configuration.

    For more information about email, see Case-management-through-email.

    Reply to an email from a case

    1. Click the Activity tab.
    2. On the email update to which you want to reply, perform any of the following steps:

      • To send your response only to the person who sent you the email, click Reply.
        In the Compose Email pane, the previous email context is copied, and the  To email address is updated.
      • To send your response to all the recipients of the original email, click Reply All.
        On the reply email pane, the previous email context is copied, and the To and Cc email addresses are updated.

    Important:


      • You can use an email template to draft a reply to an email.
      • You can add additional recipients while replying to an email.

    • When a case is created through a service request in BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced, and if you send an email reply to the requester, the email is displayed in the case activity feed as a public note. Also, the requester can view the email content from BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced.
      If a user other than the requester and case assignee replies to an email conversation and the requester in To or Cc list, the email content is displayed in the case activity. However, the email content is not displayed in 

      BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced.

    • If you send an email reply to the requester of the case, the email content is displayed in the case activity feed as a public note.
    • If you send an email reply to an external user's email ID, the email content is displayed in the case activity feed as a public note.
    • If you send an email reply to other agents, the email content is displayed in the case activity feed as a private note.
    • The Modified Date and Modified By fields of the case are updated if a case business analyst has enabled the configuration.

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