Sending email messages

 

As a service desk agent, you can communicate with customers and other IT users directly from tickets, including incidents, work orders, tasks, problem investigations, known errors, and change requests. You can send emails, request information, and update work notes without needing additional permissions, as long as you have access to the ticket.

This feature provides the following benefits:

• Context-aware communication: Emails sent from a ticket automatically include the ticket ID and title. You can also add customers and related contacts without knowing their email addresses.
• Easy sharing of resources: You can attach files and knowledge articles to emails, making it easier to share reference information with customers.
• Improved security: Emails are sent and received through a generic system account, protecting your corporate email address.
• Complete audit trail: All email activity is captured in the ticket’s Activity feed, ensuring traceability.
• Two-way communication: Recipients can reply directly to system-generated emails, and responses are associated with the ticket.

Attaching knowledge articles to emails

When sending emails from an incident, you can attach one file or one pinned knowledge article. The article can be in any status, but it must have the Publish to External Audiences option set to Yes. If multiple versions of the article exist, only the version pinned to the incident is sent, and the current copy of that pinned article is attached. You can send articles created using any supported knowledge article template, including custom templates. The article content can be in any language supported by BMC Helix ITSM, except Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Hebrew. Sending a knowledge article as an email attachment is an asynchronous process, so delivery to recipients might take some time.

To compose and send an email from a ticket

1. Open a ticket.
2. Click the Email  icon.
3. In the Compose Email pane, enter the email addresses in the To and CC fields.
   Specify the name, login ID, email address, or corporate ID to search for a recipient who has a profile in BMC Helix ITSM. For users who do not have a profile in BMC Helix ITSM, enter their email addresses. You cannot use accelerators—exclamation mark (!) to populate the To field with content from fields on the ticket, such as the assignee.
   The CC field is available only in incidents and not in other ticket types.
4. To see the recipient suggestions, in the To field, press the ↓ key.
   For incidents, the system suggests the customer, contact, and assignee when working on an individual ticket, and the assignee when tickets are selected from the Ticket Console. For problem investigations and known errors, the assignee is the suggested recipient for single or bulk tickets. 
5. To search for only those users who are related to the ticket, select the Only search people related to this ticket checkbox.
6. To send an email with high importance, select High checkbox.
   

7. To use accelerators to draft an email, complete the following steps:

   1. Type an exclamation mark (!) in the email content area or select the Help using accelerators to insert content option.

   2. BMC Helix ITSM opens a list of accelerators, which are fields from the ticket. 

   3. Select an accelerator, and the system adds the value of the field to the email content.
      For example, if you select !Description, BMC Helix ITSM inserts the description of the ticket in the email content area.

      BMC Helix ITSM provides predefined accelerators that differ as per the ticket type. Accelerators are the key fields of the ticket type. You cannot customize accelerators.

8. If you have opened an incident, and you want to select an existing email template, complete the following steps:

   1. Click Select email template.​​​​​​​

      You can view only those templates that are available for your company, support group, and agents.

   2. (Optional) To select a locale for the email template that is different from the default agent-preferred locale, select it from the Locale field.
      The table is refreshed based on the locale that you select.

   3. Click Yes to rewrite any information that you typed in.

   4. In the Select email template pane, select the template.

   5. Click Apply.
      The information from the email template is populated in the email that you are composing. Any existing email that you had composed is overwritten. 

9. To attach up to one file to the email, click .
10. To attach a knowledge article as a reference, click .
11. Click Send.
    After the email is sent, a link to the knowledge article is displayed in the ticket’s Activity feed. Users following the incident can view the article link in their Updates feed. You can use the link to open the full article in a separate window. The RKM:SHR_RKM_Document_Email_Status form in Mid Tier tracks the email delivery status and maintains failure logs for emails with attached articles.

To track emails in the Activity feed and Updates feed

The Activity feed and Updates feed help you get details of emails sent from a ticket. When the system successfully delivers the email, BMC Helix ITSM adds a feed about the email to the Activity feed of the ticket and the Updates feed of the followers of that ticket. You can search for emails in the filters available in the Activity feed and Updates feed. The Activity feed displays the name of the person who sent the email, the number of recipients, and attachment, if any. You can select the number of recipients to see their names. A link to the knowledge article that you emailed is available in the Activity and Updates feed. You can click the link to view the complete article.

1. Open an incident, and in the Activity tab, view the email sent to the recipients from the incident.

2. Click the name of the recipients to view their profiles.
   If the recipient is not registered with BMC Helix ITSM, when you click the recipient's name, an email window with the email address of the person pre-populated in the To field is displayed.

3. To reply, reply all, or forward the email from the Activity feed, complete the following actions:
   1. Click , and select the appropriate option.
      
      The subject is automatically populated in the email, and the email context is added to the body.
   2. (Optional) Select a template for the email.
   3. (Optional) Attach a file.
   4. Click Send.

If the underlying BMC Helix ITSM: Service Desk installation is configured to allow the creation and the updating of tickets by email (version 8.1.00 and later) and the recipient replies to the email note sent from the ticket, then BMC Helix ITSM adds the reply to the ticket and to the Activity and Updates feed.

To track emails in the Email status form

When you send an email with a file or a knowledge article attached to it, you can view the email delivery in the NTE:Notifier log form and the AR System Email Messages form in Mid Tier.

You can track the status of sent emails and PDF conversion of the article in the RKM:SHR_RKM_Document_Email_Status form in BMC Helix ITSM. To find out the status of the email, enter details of the email, such as the incident ID, knowledge article ID, email subject, or the date of sending the email:

The form maintains a record of the email that the system failed to deliver. The following reasons could lead to failure in delivering emails:

• The email server or the classic Smart IT server is down
• The attached file is corrupt
• The file size is more than the set limits
• The file type is not supported in BMC Helix ITSM: Service Desk or BMC Helix ITSM
• Invalid email addresses of the recipients
• Issues in PDF conversion

Based on the reason given in the form, you may rectify the error and resend the email.

Updating filters while updating out-of-the-box email template

If you copy and rename an out-of-the-box template, you need to update the run-if qualification for the filters for the new template name, so that the Source ID gets associated correctly for the new template. For example, if you rename ITSM_Generic_Template and it has a run-if qualification ('EmailTemplateName' = "ITSM_Generic_Template"), then you need to update the following filters:

• NTE:NTS:Email_SystemNT_with_EmailTemplateSetIncidentType
• NTE:NTS:Email_SystemNT_with_EmailTemplateSetProblemType
• NTE:NTS:Email_SystemNT_with_EmailTemplateSetReleaseApprovalType
• NTE:NTS:Email_SystemNT_with_EmailTemplateSetChangeApprovalType
• NTE:NTS:Email_SystemNT_with_EmailTemplateSetActivityType
• NTE:NTS:Email_SystemNT_with_EmailTemplateSetReleaseType
• NTE:NTS:Email_SystemNT_with_EmailTemplateSetKnownErrorType
• NTE:NTS:Email_SystemNT_with_EmailTemplateSetWorkOrderType
• NTE:NTS:Email_SystemNT_with_EmailTemplateSetChangeType
• NTE:NTS:Email_SystemNT_with_EmailTemplateSetRequestType
• NTE:NTS:Email_SystemNT_with_EmailTemplateSetTaskType

Instructions for classic interfaces

View instructions for classic interface

​To compose emails

To send an email from a ticket (for example, an incident ticket), open the incident, and then perform the following steps:

• (UC) Click the Share icon and then click Email this Incident. 
• (Android) Tap the Contact icon next to the customer or assignee name, and then tap Compose Email.
  Alternatively, you can also tap the Options icon , and then tap Share.
• (iOS) Tap Actions, and then tap Email this Incident.

To send an email with attachment and with a link to a knowledge article from a ticket

When you compose an email from the tickets, to attach files, click the Attachment icon and then select File. On an incident ticket, you can also attach a related knowledge article by using the Knowledge Article option. 

In an email, you can attach only one file or a pinned knowledge article. 

You can attach the following types of files to an email:

• UC—Images and files of file types supported in Mid Tier
• Android—Only camera pictures and files
• iOS—Images in the device gallery

The incident might or might not be resolved, but the service desk agent can send a knowledge article that will help customers to resolve the issue. The agent can send an article that is pinned to the incident. 

• Knowledge articles are sent as PDFs. However, files attached to the knowledge articles such as videos, animated images, and other files are not converted into PDF and are not included in the email.
• You can attach articles irrespective of the status they are in. However, they must have the Publish to External Audiences option set to Yes.
• The current copy of the pinned article is attached to the email.
• In case of multiple versions of an article, only the version that you pinned to the incident can be sent as an email attachment.
• The article could be created from any type of supported knowledge article template, including custom templates.
• A link to the knowledge article that you emailed is available in the Activity feed of the ticket and in the Updates feed of those following the incident. You can click the link to view the complete article in a separate window.
• The RKM:SHR_RKM_Document_Email_Status form in mid-tier screens of BMC Helix ITSM shows the status of the sent email that has an article attached to it, and maintains the email failure logs.
• The content of the article could be in any language that BMC Helix ITSM supports, except Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Hebrew. 
• Irrespective of the language the article is written in, the article metadata and PDF name is always in English.
• Sending articles as email attachments is an asynchronous process, and hence might take some time to deliver to the recipient.

View instructions for Mid Tier

To send an email message about an incident

You can send email messages about an incident to any valid email address on any device that can receive email.

1. Open the incident request or problem investigation record.
2. In the Navigation pane, choose Functions > Email System.
3. Indicate the recipient by selecting one of the following options:
   • Current Contact—If Incident Management assigned a current contact to the record when you open the Email System form, the contact's name and contact information appear in the table and is the default recipient.
   • Current Assignee—To select the current assignee, click Select Current Assignee. The current assignee's name and contact information appear in the table.
4. To select another recipient, perform the following steps:
   1. Complete the fields in the People Search Criteria area.
   2. Click Search.
   3. From the search results, select the recipient's name.
      If you need help determining the correct name in the list, you can see more information about an individual by selecting their name from the list, and then clicking View. This opens the People form, which contains detailed information about the recipient.
5. Complete the email information fields:
   • Internet Email—This displays the recipient's email address. When you select the email recipient, as described in steps 3 and 4, the Internet email address updates from the People record.
   • Email Subject Line—By default, the subject line contains the incident ID number, to which you can append text or type over.
   • Email Message Body—Enter the message text here. By using the series of buttons to the right of the Email Message Body field, you can also automatically insert text from the record into the message text. You can insert the following values:
     • Status
     • Summary
     • Details

     • Resolution

       If one or more of these buttons are dimmed, it means the corresponding field in the record contains no information.

   • Email Attachment — You can attach a file to the email message (BMC Helix ITSM: Service Desk limits you to one attachment). To do this, right-click inside the Email Attachment table and click Add, and add the file.
6. Click Send Email Now.

To send an email from a task

You can send an email from the task. You can do this, for example, to request more information about the task, or to request a clarification or assistance from another help desk agent. You can also send a note to the originator of the task to let that person know the task is complete, and to ask the originator to verify the work.

1. On the Task form, click Email System.
2. To indicate the recipient, perform any of the following actions:
   • Select one of the following options:
     • Select Current Customer—Places the email address of the customer associated with the task in the Internet Email address field. If the button is not available, no customer is associated with the task.
     • Select Current Assignee—Places the email address of the current task assignee in the Internet Email address field. If the button is not available, no assignee is associated with the task.
   • To select another recipient, perform the following steps:
     1. Complete the fields in the People Search Criteria area. Provide as much information as you can.
     2. Click Search.
     3. When the search finishes, click the recipient's name in the search results table to place their email address in the Internet Email field.
        If you need help determining the correct name in the list, you can see more information about an individual by selecting their name from the list, and then clicking View to opens the People form.
   • If you know it, type the email address of the recipient directly in the Internet Email field.

3. Complete the rest of the information fields on the Email System form. 

   Field	Description
   Email Subject Line	By default, the subject line contains the task ID number. You can append the text or type over it.
   Email Message Body	You type the message text here. By using the following buttons to the right of the field, you can insert text from the record into the message text: Status Summary Details  Resolution If any of these buttons is not active, it means that the corresponding field in the Task form contains no information.
   Email Attachment	You can attach a file to the email message (Service Desk limits you to one attachment). To attach a file, right-click inside the Email Attachment table, and click Add. In the Add Attachment dialog box, browse to and select the file that you want to attach. Click Open. Details of the attached file appear in the table.

4. Click Send Email Now.

Related topics

Configuring Email Engine (Action Request System documentation)

Restricting users from uploading and viewing files with specific extensions (Action Request System documentation)