Broadcasting messages to users

You can send messages to your entire organization, selected groups within the organization, and to external customers by using the broadcast feature. You can use send messages about work in progress, outages, knowledge article updates, and so on. You can also use this feature to view messages that were broadcast to you from other groups in your organization.

Broadcasts are filtered, based on the following criteria:

• Global and company-specific broadcasts are displayed to logged-in users.
• Only Global broadcasts are displayed to guest users.

You can send broadcasts to a company or location (site) to which you have access. For example, you can send a broadcast to users at a certain campus location and building that is supported by your group, to notify them of maintenance work. The broadcasts are active during the start and end time that you specify.

https://youtu.be/CY5CkaakfLg

Before you begin

To create a broadcast, you must have the Broadcast Submitter functional role.

To create a broadcast message

1. On the application console, click View broadcast or New broadcast.
2. In the View broadcast dialog box, click Create.
3. Enter information in the required fields.
   Required fields appear in bold on the Broadcast Details tab.
   • The Company field is mandatory. To specify a specific part of the company, fill in the other location fields. For example, you can specify the site, organization, or department.
     Out of the box, you can only define broadcast messages for the Global company.
   • Broadcast Start Date and Broadcast End Date — To start the broadcast now, click in the Broadcast Start Date field. Click Browse to select a start and end date from the calendar. You can also specify times of the day by using the Time option available at the bottom of the calendar.
   • Broadcast Originated From — This field is automatically filled in according to the source from where you are creating the broadcast. If you create a broadcast from an investigation, the value is set to Problem Investigation.
   • Broadcast Originated From ID — When you define a broadcast from within a record, this field is automatically filled in. If you define a broadcast from the main console, the field is unavailable.
   • View Access — To make the broadcast visible only to members of your organization, select Internal. To make the broadcast visible from the Requester console, select Public.

   • Send to Twitter? — To post the broadcast message by using a configured Twitter account, select Yes. For additional information about receiving broadcast messages through Twitter, see Receiving-BMC-Helix-ITSM-broadcasts-in-RSS-Feeds-and-on-Twitter.

     Important

     This option is available only when you select Global in the Company field and set the View Access value to Public.

   • Notify — Select Yes to send broadcast notification automatically to an individual or group.
     If you select Yes, the Email option and the Notify Support area appears.
     • Select Manual Email to manually send an email about the broadcast. On the Email System form, enter Internet Email, and then click Send Email Now.
     • Use the Notify Support area to indicate which group to notify of the broadcast. You must complete all three fields--Support Company, Support Organization, and Support Group. The notification is sent according to the Broadcast Start Date field.
   • Priority — Select a priority level for the broadcast.
4. To add an attachment to the broadcast, right-click inside the table and select Add from the menu.
   Only one attachment is allowed for each broadcast.
5. To add members of another group to be able to modify the message, click Authoring Groups > Manage Authoring Groups and select the group to provide authoring rights, and then click Add.
6. Click Save.

To view broadcast messages

If you belong to an authorized authoring group, you can modify the message and define a new broadcast message while you view broadcasts. Also, when you view the message from the current record, you can relate the broadcast message to the current record.

1. On the application console, click New broadcast, which notifies you when there are new, unread broadcast messages.
2. Select the message to view from the Broadcast table, and then click View.
3. To view another message, close the View Broadcasts dialog box, select the broadcast message to view, and then click View.

Controlling the timing of broadcast pop-up messages

From the BMC Asset Management, BMC Change Management, BMC Service Desk: Incident Management, and BMC Service Desk Problem Management consoles, you can control the timing of broadcast pop-up messages. Broadcast pop-up messages alert you to the presence of broadcast messages.

The options are:

• Never — Broadcast messages do not automatically pop up on the screen. You must click View Broadcast to view them.
• On Console Open — New broadcasts messages are displayed on the screen when you open a console for the first time. After you view the broadcast from any console, the pop-up message does not appear unless there is a new broadcast message.
• On Console Refresh — New broadcast messages display only when you refresh the console by clicking the Refresh button available in the top right corner of the console.

The On Console Open and On Console Refresh options display the broadcast pop-up alert only in certain scenarios.

To set the timing of pop-up messages

1. From the application console, select Functions > Application Preferences.
2. In the Request Preferences form, click the Broadcast tab.
3. In the Broadcast Auto Popup field, specify one of the following default settings:
   • Never
   • On Console Open
   • On New Broadcast
4. Click Save.
   For the changes to take effect, you must close the application and log in again.

To create a broadcast message from a Service Desk form

To create a broadcast message from an Incident Management or Problem Management form, you must have the functional role of Broadcast Submitter.

1. From the Navigation pane, select Quick Actions > Broadcast Incident (or Broadcast Problem) to open the New Broadcast or Modify Broadcasts form.
   When you create a broadcast message from a record, it is related to that record. When you create a broadcast message from a console, it is not related to any specific record.

2. Enter information in the following required fields:

   Field	Description
   Company	The company to which this broadcast pertains. Only users with access to this company can see the broadcast. If you select Global, the broadcast is sent to everyone. Of the various Location fields, only Company is mandatory. The other Location fields (Region, Site Group, Site, Organization, and Department) are informational fields that allow you to specify the physical location to which the broadcast applies. These fields do not otherwise restrict who can see the broadcast. All people assigned to the specified company will see the broadcast.
   Subject	A short description of what the broadcast is about.
   Broadcast Message	The text of your message.
   Broadcast Type	The type of broadcast: General Information, Unavailability, or Scheduled Unavailability.
   Broadcast Start Date and Broadcast End Date	To start the broadcast now, click inside the Broadcast Start Date field, and press Enter. To select a date from the calendar, click the Browse button next to the field, and select the dates on which you want the broadcast is to start and end. To specify times of the day, use the Time feature at the bottom of the calendar.
   Broadcast Originated From	This field is completed by the system. The contents depend on where you are creating the broadcast. If you broadcast from an incident, this is set to Incident.
   Broadcast Originated From ID	This field is completed by the system when you create a broadcast from within a record. If you create a broadcast from the main console, the field is dimmed.
   View Access	If you want the broadcast enabled only for members of your organization, select Internal. If you also want the broadcast enabled from the Requester console, select Public.
   Notify	If you want a broadcast notification automatically sent to an individual or group, select Yes. Then, the Manual Email button and the Notify Support area appear. Use the Manual Email button to manually send an email about the broadcast to a person or group. When the Email System form appears, enter the recipient's email address in the Internet Email field, and click Send Email Now. Use the Notify Support area to indicate the group you want to notify of the broadcast. You must complete all of the fields: Support Company, Support Organization, and Support Group.
   Priority	The priority level for the broadcast: Low, Medium, or High.

3. To add an attachment to the broadcast message:
   1. Right-click inside the table and select Add. 
      The Add Attachment dialog box appears.
   2. Select the file you want to attach.

   3. Click Open to attach the indicated file.

      You are limited to one attachment for each broadcast.

4. To allow members of another group to modify the message:
   1. Click the Authoring Groups tab.
   2. Click Manage Authoring Groups.
      The Authoring Group dialog box appears.

   3. From the menus, select the group that you want to have authoring rights.

      The support group that you belong to appears in the table by default.

   4. Click Add.
   5. Indicate another group, or click Close to dismiss the dialog box.

5.  Click Save. 

   Tip

    When viewing a broadcast message, you can also create new broadcast messages. For more information, see .