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BMC Helix Business Workflows 21.02



BMC Helix Business Workflows 21.02

BMC Helix Business Workflows is a cloud-native case management application for all lines of business. It provides services to employees in a scalable, managed, and automated way. Built on BMC Helix Innovation Suite, it provides the ability to create automated workflows without writing code and tailor the user interface to meet the organization's need.

Release notes and notices Updated 14 Feb 2024

Consult the following table for a list of notices and information about updates to BMC Helix Business Workflows.

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The following updates have been added since the release of the space:

Date

Release

Summary

April 21, 2021

Enhancements

  • Use of Foundation data from BMC Helix ITSM without the need to sync it into BMC Helix Innovation Studio
  • Line of Business - Counts report to view the total number of lines of business and their status in your setup
  • Line of business specific configurations to ease customizing your application for your line of business
  • Improved UI for the configuration Settings pages and change assignments

December 16, 2020

20.08.01

Enhancements

  • Line of business for data and case management
  • Customizable page layouts in PDF document templates
  • Spell check in activity notes

September 23, 2020

20.08

Enhancements

  • Knowledge article versioning
  • Knowledge article approvals
  • Task approvals
  • Applying approval mappings to case and task templates
  • Using the new Approval Rejected status for cases and tasks in approvals
  • Email enhancements
  • New notification templates
  • Enable users to digitally sign documents by using DocuSign
  • Live Chat enhancements
  • Ability to add images, tables, and hyperlinks in emails and notification templates
  • Tracking activity updates
  • Anonymizing agent names in public comments in BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced service requests
  • Protecting privacy by hiding case view counts from activity notes
  • View customization enhancements
  • Usability improvements
  • Email templates support attachments from Document Library
  • Setting up the time zone, and date and time formats in PDF file generation
  • Support for special characters in PDF file generation

February 21, 2020

20.02

Enhancements

  • Automatic case initiation from phone systems that are integrated with BMC Helix Business Workflows
  • Email communication enhancements
  • Templates and qualification builder enhancements
  • Knowledge Management improvements
  • License Consumption reporting enhancement
  • BMC Helix Business Workflows integration enhancements
  • Case Dashboard in reporting
  • View customization enhancements

November 22, 2019

19.11

Enhancements

  • Live chat with users to resolve user issues faster
  • Categorize resolved cases to gain insights and report on the resolution process
  • Automate case status transitions for quicker case resolution
  • Automatically notify users by using annotations when adding updates in the case Activity feed
  • Enhancements to data permissions for enhanced security
  • Create service requests in BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced from BMC Helix Business Workflows
  • Use dynamic groups in templates for categorizing dynamic fields

October 10, 2019

Patch 01 for 19.08

This update includes defect fixes.

August 22, 2019

19.08

Enhancements

  • Enhanced auditing capabilities for cases and tasks
  • View and add related cases and people from within a case
  • Add relationships to related cases and persons
  • Enhanced user efficiency: Multiple case assignment, watchlist and activity notes template
  • Enhancements to the people profile
  • Create custom label or case sources
  • Accurate service target measurements by defining business time segments
  • View the source of a notification message
  • Approve cases through emails

July 5, 2019

Patch 01 for 19.05

This update includes defect fixes and an enhancement for sending notifications to external email IDs.

May 31, 2019

19.05

Enhancements

  • Conditional execution of tasks
  • Restrict access to confidential case data
  • Automatically generate formatted PDFs for required information
  • Automatic case assignment based on location and round robin method  

February 22, 2019

19.02

Enhancements

  • The BMC Helix Innovation Suite product is renamed to BMC Helix Innovation Suite.
  • Ability to configure service targets for tasks
  • Notifications to users who do not directly work on records but are related to them like a case assignee's manager
  • Centralized repository for documents that can be shared across organizations
  • Ability to add dynamic fields to the dynamic field library and consume the dynamic fields in cases and tasks as additional details
  • Ability to modify the default lifecycle statuses and transitions
  • Automatic case creation for individuals outside of an organization
  • Approval enhancements:
    • Approval action messages
    • Default approval notifications to notify approvers about certain events, for example, case approved, rejected, and so on
    • Ability to allow certain number of approvers to approve records

November 30, 2018

18.11

Enhancements

  • Flexibility to create common configurations across companies.
  • Filtered Foundation data.
  • Enhancements to the Business Workflows connector.
  • Assign cases to a support group that is directly related to a Business Unit or Department.
  • Enhancements to attachments.
  • BMC Helix Business Workflows now supports the following languages:
    • Dutch (nl)
    • Swedish (sv)

September 14, 2018

18.08

Enhancements

  • Introduction to the Case Business Analyst functional role that replaces the Case Administrator functional role.
  • Simplified method to create custom notifications by defining simpler and fewer parameters.
  • Support for BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced Advanced. BMC Helix Business Workflows does not support BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced Basic.
  • Faster approval configuration and support for additional approval scenarios.
  • Ability to view the history of a case to gain more insights into which case agent made what changes to a case and when.
  • Ability to validate the identity a requester before creating a case.
  • Ability to assign or reassign a case to a support group with which an agent is associated, irrespective of the company.
  • Ability to manage failed automated tasks to enable a smooth execution flow of automated tasks in a case.
  • Ability to view the audit trail and summary of a case in the form of reports.
  • Enhanced email configuration that ensures case creation via emails is more flexible and fast.

June 6, 2018

18.05

Enhancements

  • Cognitive capabilities for category and template selection to create cases.
  • Ability to raise service requests by sending emails that automatically create and update cases.
  • Ability to change case template after saving a case.
  • Ability to view tasks from a case template while creating a case.
  • Enhanced knowledge article search functionalities for agents to quickly find the required articles.
  • Automatic refresh of the progress bar and better handling of the pause condition on the progress bar.
  • Ability to view attachments in the Employee's Responses tab of a case.
  • Case status Draft is renamed to New.
  • Ability to view the origin of a case.
  • Notifications for status change and notes added in activity feed of cases and tasks.

March 30, 2018

18.02: Update 01

This update includes enhancements for BMC Helix Business Workflows.

  • BMC Helix Business Workflows licensing.
  • Brazilian Portuguese language support.

February 28, 2018

18.02

Enhancements

  • Integration of BMC Helix Business Workflows with third-party applications.
  • Task automation to reduce manual intervention in the execution of tasks and the number of agents that organizations hire to work on cases.
  • Enhanced case assignment functionality to enable agents to assign cases to themselves or other agents from the support group related to the case.
  • Ability to grant read-only case access to first-line support groups.
  • Updates to the progress bar on the Case view to display service-level milestones.
  • Support of multiple languages to provide a localized UI to agents.

November 30, 2017

17.11

Enhancements

  • BMC Helix Virtual Agent provides support to users by interacting through natural language.
  • Flowsets enable you to use BMC Helix Business Workflows for different lines of business.
  • Task sequencing to guide agents on how to execute the tasks in an order.
  • Modern and user-friendly dashboard to view and create reports.
  • Case visibility to manage access to cases for agents and support groups.


Onboarding and implementing

As a case business analyst, configure BMC Helix Business Workflows for your organization.

Setting up a line of business

As a case business analyst, set up BMC Helix Business Workflows according to your line of business.

Creating and updating cases

As an agent, create a case by adding details about the user's issue or request. After the case is assigned, work on a user issue by adding related information, reviewing relevant knowledge articles, and taking actions to work on and resolve the issue or request.

Managing and developing knowledge articles

As a knowledge coach, develop a knowledge base for case agents to access reference information easily.As an agent, create a knowledge article adding information that agents can use to resolve an existing issue, view information about different policies of your organization, and so on.

Viewing reports

As an agent, view information about knowledge articles and progress of cases.As a case manager, view information about case performance, agents workload, service target status, efforts, and so on.

Administering

As a case business analyst and administrator, set up roles and permissions, create templates, configure case approvals, set service targets, case assignments, define notifications, and so on for your organization.

Extending BMC Helix Business Workflows

As a case business analyst, add custom data and custom processes to extend  BMC Helix Business Workflows to meet your organization requirements.

Integrating

As an administrator, integrate BMC Helix Business Workflows application with third-party applications or other BMC applications.

Troubleshooting

Common issues, error messages, logs, and contacting Support.

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FAQs and additional resources

Here are some answers to the most frequently asked questions about the BMC Helix Business Workflows product.


Can I edit a task although I do not have access to the associated case?

Yes. You must be assigned the task or belong to the support group that is assigned to the task to view and edit the task.


What are the roles provided with BMC Helix Business Workflows for functional roles?

BMC Helix Business Workflows provides various roles that provide you specific permissions and access to the product such as reporting access, document manager, SLM user, notification user, and cognitive user. For information about the roles, see Roles-in-BMC-Helix-Business-Workflows.


How does licensing work in BMC Helix Business Workflows?

Licensing BMC Helix Business Workflows enables you to:

  • Control access to your application.
  • Protect the intellectual property of your organization.
  • Reduce management costs, and adhere to your organization's compliance policies.

To use BMC Helix Business Workflows, BMC SaaS Operations assigns an application license to the tenants. An administrator no longer has to assign individual licenses to agents and business analysts. 


How do I set the language for the application?

BMC Helix Business Workflows supports the following languages:

  • English (en)
  • French (fr)
  • German (de)
  • Spanish (es)
  • Italian (it)
  • Brazillian Portugese (pt-br)
  • Dutch (nl)
  • Swedish (sv)
  • Danish (da)

The following table describes how users can select the required language from various browsers:

Browser

Operating System

Steps to change the language

Google Chrome

Windows, Apple MacOS

Open Settings, search for language settings, and add the required language.

Mozilla Firefox

Windows, Apple MacOS

Navigate to Open Menu and click Options. Search for language settings and add the required language.

Edge

Windows

In Control Panel, in the Clock, Language, and Region option, add the required languages in the order of preference.

You must download the install pack of the added languages and then restart the computer.


I belong to multiple support groups. Which is my default support group?

The default support group is the first support group that the server matches chronologically.

Example: You belong to three support groups: HR-Helpdesk, HR-Recruitment, and HR-Benefits. The server matched you to the HR-Helpdesk support group followed by the HR-Recruitment and HR-Benefits support groups. HR-Helpdesk is your default support group.


How do I view the roles and permissions assigned to a user?
  1. As an administrator, log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio and navigate to the Administration tab.
  2. Navigate to Foundation Data > Manage People.
  3. On the Manage People page, open the required user profile.
  4. In the Edit Person pane, in Basic, on the Access Details tab, expand the Functional Roles list, and view the roles.


Example of Flowset based assignment process

The following figure depicts a typical process for cases related to facilities and the flowset-specific process for the Assignments function. The Assignments process explains how the system looks for a Flowset-specific process and assigns the case accordingly. If the Flowset-specific process is not found, the case is assigned according to the default assignment mapping.

Example of assignment process.png

The following table describes the stages of this process example:

Stage

Description

1

A case is created.

2

The case details are sent to Call Create sub process.

3

The case initialization process runs.

4

The case validation process runs.

5

The case assignment process is triggered.

5a

The case details after initialization and validation is sent to the assignment process.

5b

The system checks whether a Flowset is specified in the case details.

5c

If the Flowset is specified, the Flowset based assignment process is called.

5d

If the Flowset is not specified, the default assignment process is triggered.

5e

The system checks whether the the Flowset based assignment process exists.

5f

If the Flowset based assignment process exists, the system runs the process.

5g

The case is assigned to the support group or individual specified in the process.

5h

If the process is additive (to be run in addition to the default process) or the support group is not mentioned in the Flowset based assignment process, the default assignment process runs. The case is assigned based on the default assignment process.

6

The status transition process runs.

7

The Row Level Security process runs.


Example of how assignment or read-access mapping is applied when a case is created

BMC Helix Business Workflows enables a case business analyst to configure the assignment and read-access mapping to assign the case to the relevant support groups or individuals added in the mapping. 

Consider a scenario where a case business analyst configures a mapping for assignment and read-access with the following values:

Mapping name

Company

Flowset

Category Tier 1

Category Tier 2

Category Tier 3

Priority

Support group

Compensation Mapping 1

Calbro Services

Human Resources

Total Rewards

Compensation

Recognition Awards

High

Compensation and Benefits

Compensation Mapping 2

Calbro Services

-

Total Rewards

Compensation

Recognition Awards

-

Employee Relations

Compensation Mapping 3

Calbro Services

-

Total Rewards

Compensation

-

Low

Staffing

(Default) Compensation Mapping 4

Calbro Services

-

-

-

-

-

Workforce Administration

The case business analyst configures the mapping for assigning the case to the relevant support group. After an agent creates a case, BMC Helix Business Workflows selects the mapping based on the following scenarios:

Scenario 1: Exact match is found

If all the values added in a case matches with the values defined in a mapping (best match is found), the case is assigned to the support group that is defined in the mapping.

Case Name

Company

Flowset

Category Tier 1

Category Tier 2

Category Tier 3

Priority

Case is assigned to

Case 1

Calbro Services

Human Resources

Total Rewards

Compensation

Recognition Awards

High

Compensation and Benefits

Case 2

Calbro Services

-

Total Rewards

Compensation

-

-

Staffing

Scenario 2: No match is found

If no match is found, the case is assigned to the support group that is defined in the default mapping. 

Case Name

Company

Flowset

Category Tier 1

Category Tier 2

Category Tier 3

Priority

Case is assigned to

Case 1

Calbro Services

-

Talent Management

-

-

-

Workforce Administration

Scenario 3: Best match is found

If a few of the values in the case match the values defined in the mapping, the mapping with the closest match is applied.

Case Name

Company

Flowset

Category Tier 1

Category Tier 2

Category Tier 3

Priority

Mapping applied

Case 1

Calbro Services

-

Total Rewards

Compensation

-

-

Employee Relations

Case 2

Calbro Services

-

Total Rewards

-

-

Low

Staffing

If no best match is found and a default mapping is not defined, the case submitter must manually assign the case to a support group. If the case submitter does not manually assign the case, BMC Helix Business Workflows generates an error.


How do I integrate BMC Helix Business Workflows with phone systems?

BMC Helix Business Workflows can be integrated with phone systems if the phone systems are configured to pass certain parameters to BMC Helix Business Workflows. When a case agent receives a call from such a configured phone system, Quick Case opens, and the details of the caller are automatically populated in Quick Case.

For more information, see Automating-case-initiation-from-phone-calls-by-integrating-BMC-Helix-Business-Workflows-with-phone-systems.


Can I enable automatic service request creation in BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advance at a Company level?

Yes, you can enable the option to automatically create service requests in from  at a Company level. For more information, see Enabling-automatic-creation-of-service-requests-in-BMC-Helix-Digital-Workplace-Advanced-from-cases.


How can I hide the identity of case agents in public comments in BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced?

As a case business analyst, you can hide the identity of case agents in public comments in BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced by enabling the HIDE_AGENT_NAME_FROM_REQUESTER setting in BMC Helix Business Workflows from Line of Business > Manage Line of Business > Application Configurations. You can enable the setting at a global level for all companies in your setup or for specific companies. For more information, see Anonymizing agent names to ensure agents privacy.


How can I create an alias for case agent names to be seen in BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced?

As a case business analyst, when you enable the setting to anonymize case agent names in public comments in BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced, you must also specify the case agent name alias. To create a case agent name alias, enable the AGENT_NAME_ALIAS setting in BMC Helix Business Workflows from Line of Business > Manage Line of Business > Application Configurations. If you have anonymized the agent names at a global level, you can define an agent name alias at a global level. If you have anonymized agent names for specific companies, you must define an agent name alias for every company. For more information, see Anonymizing agent names to ensure agents privacy.


Where do I see the previous knowledge article ID of a migrated knowledge article in BMC Helix Business Workflows?

In the Knowledge workspace, select the PrevDocReference option from the More More option.pngicon. This option displays the previous knowledge article IDs of the migrated knowledge article in the PrevDocReference column.