BMC Helix Business Workflows 20.02

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 Platform, 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 22 Sep 2020

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
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 Platform. 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 Chatbot 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.

Getting started See more	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. See more
	Developing knowledge articles 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. See more
	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. See more

Administering

As an administrator, set up roles and permissions, configure case approval, service targets, case assignments, enable employees to submit service requests in BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced client application.

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.

Helix Communities

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Videoshttps://www.youtube.com/user/BMCSoftwareBMCtv/featured

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Knowledge Base

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BMC Helix Business Workflows

PDFs and videos

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FAQs and additional resources

This topic provides information that supplements the BMC Helix Business Workflows documentation.

Frequently asked questions

This section provides answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about BMC Helix Business Workflows.

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?

Role name	Capability
Case Application Access	Create cases by using the case view and Quick case options.
Catalog Application Access	Access to BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog.
Reporting Access	Access the Reporting application.
Case Agent	Create cases by using the case view or Quick case option.
Case Manager	Access records that belong to the manager's company.
Case Business Analyst	Configure the application according to the business requirements.
Case Catalog Admin	Create and publish services in BMC Helix Digital Workplace Catalog.
AR Foundation Organization Read	Read-only access to Organization data—Service provider, operating organizations, vendor organization, manufacturer, business units, departments, and support groups.
AR Foundation Categorization Read	Read-only access to Categorization data—Operational, product, resolution, and root cause categories.
AR Foundation Location Read	Read-only access to Location data—Region, site, and site area. For more information, see Location data.
AR Foundation Person Read	Read-only access to Person data—Employee, agent, customer, and vendor.
AR Foundation Geography Read	Read-only access to Geography data—Country, city, postal code, state/province/district, and time zone.
Knowledge Candidate	Search for relevant knowledge articles, create new articles, or reuse existing knowledge articles when resolving support tickets. These primary support agents can use existing knowledge articles, propose amendments to them, or create new articles where no relevant article already exists. A Knowledge Candidate has the following permissions: Create new articles and move them to In Progress or Draft status. A Knowledge Contributor, a Knowledge Publisher, or a Knowledge Coach reviews or completes such articles. Edit own articles that are in In Progress, Draft, or SME Review status. Change status of own articles from In Progress to Draft. Flag own articles in Draft, SME Review, or In Progress status. Assign own articles to another Knowledge Management user with Knowledge Contributor or above permission. After the assignment changes, a Knowledge Candidate can no longer edit the article. Search and view knowledge articles. Rate knowledge articles. Comment on knowledge articles. A Knowledge Candidate cannot take ownership of any knowledge narticles. Best Practice: Grant this permission to a user who uses the knowledge base to work with cases.
Knowledge Contributor	Review, enhance, and complete articles that are created by other users to suit a wider audience. Flag articles that need improvement, and unflag articles after improvement. They also create and validate articles. Knowledge Contributors have a detailed understanding of the target audience and the content standards. A Knowledge Contributor has the following permissions: All permissions of a Knowledge Candidate Edit own articles that are in In Progress or Draft status. Change status of articles to Canceled. Approve internal publishing of an article. Retire internally published articles. Take ownership of knowledge articles. A Knowledge Contributor can take ownership of articles created by other users, can be the article assignee, and can change the assignments. Best Practice: Grant this permission to advanced users who can create, modify, or review knowledge articles, and can publish articles to a specific audience, usually the internal users.
Knowledge Publisher	Publish content to an external audience. Knowledge Publishers are advanced users who have proper understanding of modifying the published content, define priority information, and understand the copyright and trademark laws as defined by their organization. A Knowledge Publisher has the following permissions: All permissions of Knowledge Candidate. All permission of Knowledge Contributor. Approve external publishing of an article. Retire externally published articles. A Knowledge Publisher can take ownership of articles created by other users, can be the article assignee, and can change the assignments. Best Practice: Grant this permission to advanced users who have the authority to publish articles to external users.
Knowledge Coach	Monitors, maintains, and improves the knowledge health of an organization by guiding users to adopt good knowledge management processes. A Knowledge Coach performs the following tasks: Helps individuals develop their knowledge skills, and guides and influences them to adopt good knowledge management processes. Monitors and maintains the knowledge health of the organization. Access the Knowledge Management configuration items to configure knowledge sets, templates, and styles as per the business requirements. A Knowledge Coach has the following permissions: All permissions of Knowledge Candidate, Knowledge Contributor, Knowledge Publisher, and Knowledge Administrator. Cancel knowledge articles. A Knowledge coach can take ownership of articles created by other users, can be the article assignee, and can change the assignments. Best Practice: Grant this permission to an advanced user who can be a mentor to other users for their development of Knowledge Management competencies.
Knowledge Administrator	Configures the knowledge sets, templates, and styles according to the business needs. These permissions are given out-of-the-box only to the Knowledge Coach functional role.
SLM Viewer	Read-only access to SLA progress bar on the case view and team performance data.
SLM User	Read-only access to company-specific configuration data like data source and service targets.
SLM Administrator	Read and write access to company-specific configuration data.
Task User	Read and write access to tasks assigned to the agent's support groups.
Task Manager	Read and write access to all tasks and templates.
Task Administrator	Read and write access to all tasks and templates.
Approval Admin	Setup and maintain approval processes.
Flowsets Administrator	Create Flowsets for various line of business in the administrator's organization.
Report Administrator	Create or modify reports.
Shared Services Read	Read access to case and task status.
Social User	Read and write access to activity feeds.
Email Config User	Access to configured email IDs, and acknowledgement and email templates to send emails from a case.
Notification User	Receives notification for an event that a case business analyst configures.
Cognitive User	Access to the training data that an administrator configures. This data is used while predicting case templates and categories for creating a case.
Notification Administrator	Configure notification events, templates, and processes.
Cognitive Administrator	Maps a configured data set to a company, and enable category and template prediction.
Email Config Administrator	Configures an email ID, and associates acknowledge and email templates to it.

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)

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?

As an administrator, log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio and navigate to the Administration tab.
Navigate to Foundation Data > Manage People.
On the Manage People page, open the required user profile.
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.

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.

Related spaces

The following links to other documentation spaces provide information about the corresponding products:

Additional resources

The BMC Helix Business Workflows YouTube playlist provides list of videos for BMC Helix Business Workflows features that you might find helpful.