Creating and modifying ticket templates

In Smart IT, you can use templates to create different ticket types, such as incident, change request, work order, release, activities, and tasks. As an administrator, you must create ticket templates in BMC Helix ITSM. The service desk agents can use these templates in both BMC Helix ITSM and Smart IT to quickly create tickets by using predefined values, which eliminates repetitive tasks in the process.

Fields you can define in ticket templates

Typically, ticket templates have values predefined in the following key fields and sections:

Title
Description
Template name
Company
Categorization details
Assignment specification
Template authoring group details
Tasks

After applying a template, the predefined values on the ticket profile can be changed by the service desk agent.

To create a template in BMC Helix ITSM

Templates that you access in Smart IT are created in BMC Helix ITSM. As an administrator you can create templates for the following applications:

Change Management
Incident Management
Task Management System
Work Order (under Service Request Management)
Release Management
Activity System

You can use the following procedure to create templates for all applications. To create a template, do the following:

On the BMC Helix ITSM Home page, select Applications > Administrator Console > Application Administration Console.
In the Application Administration Console, click the Custom Configuration tab.
Depending on the application for which you are creating the template, click on the application. For example, Incident Management.
Select Template > Template.
Click Open.
Specify values in the appropriate fields.
Set its status to Enabled and then save the template.

For additional information about how to create templates, see Configuring templates.

To relate a change request template to a release template

In BMC Helix ITSM, you can relate a change request template or an activity template to the release template. The system creates the change request according to the template and adds them to the specified milestone in the release plan.

To relate a change request template or an activity template to a release template, do the following:

In BMC Helix ITSM, search for and select the release template to which you want to relate the change request template.
On the Manifest tab of the release template, from the Request Type list, do one of the following:
- If you want to relate a change request template, select Infrastructure Change Template and click Search.
- If you want to relate an activity template, select Activity Template and click Search.
In selection window, select the template, and click Select.
The template is added to the table on the Manifest tab of the release.
In the table on the Manifest tab, select the change template, and in the Milestone column, select a milestone from the list.
Click Save.

To relate a task template to an activity template

You can relate the task templates to activity templates. In Smart IT, when you create activities by using templates that have related task templates, the system creates tasks as per the template and adds them to the specified activity. There are two types of task templates: task templates and task group templates. You can relate both types of task templates to change request, incident, and activity templates.

In BMC Helix ITSM, search for and select the activity template to which you want to relate a task template.
On the Task Templates tab of the activity template, from the Request Type list, select Task Template, and click Relate.
In the Select Template window, select the category and template type from the list.
From the search result, select an appropriate task template and click Relate.
The template is added to the Related Templates table of the activity template.

You can add multiple templates to the activity template. You can follow the same procedure to relate task templates to change request and incident templates.

To filter templates based on the support group

In Smart IT, by default, the service agent or the change agent uses the template that is created for the company accessible to them. Though templates are filtered based on the company, incident and change request templates can also be filtered based on the support group.

The following scenario would help you to understand this setting and its benefits:

Calbro Services has defined 25 incident templates. Out of the 25 templates, 5 templates belong to the support group of which the service agent is a member. If the templateSearchByAuthoringGroup property is set to false, the system displays a list of all 25 templates. If the templateSearchByAuthoringGroup property is set to true, the system displays a list of only 5 templates that belong to the support group. This helps the service agent to quickly search for the required template.

To relate filter incident templates based on the support group and to filter templates based on the support group for change requests, perform the following steps:

To relate filter incident templates based on the support group, in BMC Helix ITSM, select an incident template.
Click on the Authored for Groups tab.
From Authoring Company, select the required company.
From Authoring Organization, select the required organization.
From Authoring Group, select the required support group.
Click Update. The support group that has access to the template is saved.
(Optional) Restart Smart IT to display suggested templates as per your support group.
If you do not restart the application, the changes reflect when 30 minutes have elapsed from the time you saved the change.

The setting is applied at the tenant level and does not depend on the user's choice. For additional information about how to specify the setting, see Centralized-configuration.