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 methods

The following image shows the ways in which you can communicate updates for cases and the benefits of each method:

Examples

The following table lists some examples of case updates through different methods:

To communicate case updates

1. Log in to BMC Helix Business Workflows. 
2. Navigate to Workspace > Cases.
3. 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.
5. On the case details page, you can communicate the case updates using any of the following options:

• 
  
  • View activity updates and add notes
  • Request information from an employee who submitted a service request
  • Send or reply to an email

To view activity updates and add notes

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.

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  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 . To make your note visible to everybody, select the checkbox.
  To attach files to your notes, click .
  The spell check option is enabled by default. You can use the available options to spell check.
• Request information from an employee—To request information from an employee who submitted a service request in BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced, add a comment in the text box.

The Modified Date and Modified By fields of the case are updated if a case business analyst has enabled the configuration.

To 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.

To send and reply to an email from a case

1. On the case details page, click Email or click the email ID of the requester, external user, or contact to open the Compose Email dialog box.
2. On the Compose Email dialog box, enter the recipients of the email or if you want to select the recipients from the People List, click Add People . 
   In the People List pane, from any of the following tabs, select the required people and click Add:
   
   • All People—Displays a list of users belonging to your company.
   • Related People—Displays a list of users associated with the case.
     To filter the related people records based on relationship type, in the Relationship Type field, select the required relationship type.
3. (Optional) If you want to send the email to additional recipients, perform any of the following actions:
   
   • Click Cc to include the Cc recipients.

1. • Click Bcc to include the Bcc recipients. The Bcc recipients are not shown to other recipients who receive the email. The Bcc option is available only if it is enabled for your line of business.
2. (Optional) If you want to mark the email as high importance, select High Priority.
   
3. (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.
4. To compose your email, complete the following steps:
   • Draft the email, and format the text.
   • To add a table to the email, click .
     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 .
     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 .
     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 add an attachment, click . Add files from the Document Library, or click Existing attachments to add files from the case, task, case activity, or from BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced.
2. (Optional) To save the email as a draft, click Save as draft. 
   The content of the email, the recipient email addresses, and the attachments, if any, are saved in the email draft. You can review the email draft later and continue to work on the unsent email. To view email drafts, see To edit an email draft.
3. (Optional) To save the email that you are composing as a template, click Save as template, and complete the following steps.
   The Save as template option is enabled only if you are assigned the Email Template Management functional role. Learn more about roles in Roles-in-BMC-Helix-Business-Workflows.
   1. On the Save as template pane, specify a name for the template.
   2. Select the locale.
   3. Add a subject for the email.
   4. To include the documents from the Document Library that are added to the email that you are composing, select Include attachments from Document Library.
   5. Click Save.
      The new email template is displayed when you click Select email template.
4. To send the email, click Send.

To reply to an email from a case, in the Activity tab, click Reply or Reply All on the email update to which you want to reply.

After you send or reply to an email from a case, the following actions occur:

• 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.
• If a case has an SR ID, and you compose an email from that case, the SR ID is prefixed and suffixed with ## in the subject line. For example, the subject line of an email can be Your Request ID ##1001##: CASE-0000000026 is submitted.
• 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 a user other than the requester and case assignee replies to an email conversation and if the requester is in the 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 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 send an email to other agents, the email is added to the case activity feed as a private note.
• If you send an email with Bcc recipients, the Bcc email addresses are displayed along with the email content in the activity feed. However, the Bcc email addresses are not displayed in BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced.
• If you send an email as high priority, the email is displayed in the case activity feed with the high priority indicator . The recipients of the email will see the high priority indicator in all email platforms that support the high importance flag.
• You can view and add the attachments from dynamic data to emails only if you have the access to the dynamic data. When you add the attachment from the dynamic data, the attachment is available publicly.
• The Modified Date and Modified By fields of the case are updated if a case business analyst has enabled the configuration.

• When comments are added to the case activity through an email, the system is shown as the last user who modified the case.

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

To edit an email draft

Review the email drafts in the Compose Email dialog box and continue to work on the emails that you saved for later. Only users who have created the email drafts can view them. The email drafts are specific to a case. 

1. To return to the saved email draft, on the case details page, click Email to open the Compose Email dialog box.
   You can also click Reply on an email in the Activity tab.

1. In the Compose Email dialog box, to view the email drafts, click Drafts . 
   The Drafts panel displays the list of saved email drafts.
2. From the list of saved email drafts, click the required email draft and continue to work on it.
   After you send the email, the saved email draft is automatically deleted.

1. (Optional) To delete a saved email draft, click the email draft that you want to delete and click Delete.
   
   

Related topics

Viewing-and-updating-case-details

Updating-tasks-and-tracking-progress

Adding-HTML-tags-and-domains-to-the-allowlist

Tracking-activity-updates-in-cases-and-tasks-for-your-line-of-business