23.3 enhancements and patches
BMC applies upgrades as described in theBMC Helix Upgrade policy. BMC applies upgrades and patches during Maintenance windows.
(On premises only) Downloading and installing the patch
Downloading from EPD | See Downloading the installation files in BMC Helix Service Management Deployment documentation. |
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Patch installation | See Upgrading BMC Helix IT Service Management to 23.3.04 in BMC Helix Service Management Deployment documentation. |
The following video (3:57) provides a summary of some of the new features and enhancements in BMC Helix ITSM version 23.3.
23.3.04
BMC Helix ITSM enhancements
(Controlled availability customers only) Leverage BMC HelixGPT chat for a conversational experience when searching for information from knowledge articles
BMC HelixGPT chat, powered by the generative AI capabilities of BMC HelixGPT, provides a powerful chat-based search experience to service desk agents.
Instead of manually searching for knowledge articles, agents can type in their questions in BMC HelixGPT chat and get contextually relevant, summarized answers.
Faster availability of information helps agents make faster decisions and perform necessary actions. Thereby, improving case resolution time and increasing agent efficiency, service desk productivity, and customer satisfaction.
For more information, see Leverage BMC HelixGPT chat to search for information.
Pin knowledge articles, copy a response, and send an email from the Ask HelixGPT tab
As a service desk agent. you can perform the following tasks on the Ask HelixGPT tab of an incident screen:
- Pin a source knowledge article to the incident.
- Send the generated response in an email message to a customer or other IT user so that they can resolve the incident.
- Attach the pinned knowledge article or a file to the email message.
- Copy a generated response.
These capabilities save your time and enhance your user experience. You need not navigate to other tabs or screens to pin knowledge articles or email the generated response. Thereby, enabling you to communicate and collaborate with your customers and coworkers faster and more efficiently.
For more information, see Resolving-tickets-with-the-help-of-Ask-HelixGPT.
Optimize cost while leveraging the Ask HelixGPT capability by disabling initial resolution summary
By default, BMC HelixGPT generates responses when an agent clicks the Ask HelixGPT tab on an incident screen and when the agent asks questions on the AskHelixGPT tab.
To generate each response, an API call is made to the Large Language Model (LLM). Each API call is associated with a cost, which depends on the LLM you select.
You can optimize the cost by disabling the initial resolution summary so that a response is generated only when an agent asks a question, limiting the API calls to answer the questions.
For more information, see Configuring-Ask-HelixGPT-for-BMC-Helix-ITSM.
View AI-based risk assessment for your change requests
As a change manager, view the overall risk factors associated with a change request in the BMC Helix Innovation Studio-based calendar. The AI-based risk factor prediction is based on similar change requests implemented in the past and helps you make well-informed decisions about approving, holding or rejecting a change request. Therefore, it saves your effort and time to evaluate change requests manually.
For more information, see Assessing the risk for a change request.
Open a record from a PWA ticket, asset, or people profile screen in a new window or tab
You can directly open records through a click of a link that is available in certain fields in tickets, asset records, and people profile. For example, you can click an Assignee name in an incident ticket to open the Profile page of the assignee.
PWA screens provide right-click options to open a record from a ticket, asset, and people profile in a new window or tab so that you can view the record and also retain the page from where you opened the record.
For more information, see Differences-between-the-classic-Smart-IT-and-Progressive-Web-App-screens.
Relate existing outages or create related outages for the associated CIs directly from an incident or a change request
In Progressive Web App (PWA) screens of an incident or a change request, create related outages for the associated CIs directly from the Related items tab. Also, search for an existing outage for one or more CIs associated with an incident and relate these outages to the incident directly from the Related items tab.
Creating these relationships makes planning and scheduling associated tasks easier, with all the relevant information available in the incident or change request. For more information, see Relating items to incident requests.
Eliminate redundant efforts in asset assignment using automation
Leverage asset automation to automatically relate People records, location and contracts with any newly reconciled asset. After you create an automation, it runs on multiple assets in your environment simultaneously, reducing the manual efforts of asset assignment.
To learn more, see Automating tasks by using Asset automation.
Search for multiple CIs with a comma-separated list
As a ticket assignee, you can search for multiple configuration items(CI) across incident, problem investigation, work order, task, asset, and known error tickets simultaneously by entering comma-separated CI names. This feature helps you save your time and focus more on other critical issues.
For more details, see Performing bulk actions or single row actions in Ticket Console.
Optimize ticket analysis by viewing all pinned knowledge articles together in tickets
A new filter is introduced to display all pinned knowledge articles together in incident, problem investigation, work order or known error tickets at a glance. Ticket assignees pin the most helpful knowledge articles that they refer to while resolving tickets. While analyzing tickets, the filter saves your effort of browsing through pages to find the pinned knowledge articles.
For more details, see Resolving tickets with the help of knowledge articles.
Automate processing of failed inbound emails for creating or updating records
If an attempt by the email rule engine to process an inbound email for creating or updating a record fails, you need not create or update the record manually. Use the auto-retry and manual retry capabilities to automate the process of reattempting failed inbound emails for creating or updating records.
For more information, see Configuring-maximum-attempts-to-process-inbound-emails-automatically and Manually-retrying-failed-inbound-emails.
What else changed in this release
Update | Product behavior in versions earlier than 23.3.04 | Product behavior in version 23.3.04 |
---|---|---|
Combining group email notifications | When the CombineGroupEmailNotification configuration parameter is enabled, the email notifications are sent in groups based on the locale and company specific outgoing mailboxes configured, instead of sending one email for each member in the group. | If the company specific outgoing mailboxes are not configured, the email notifications are sent in groups based on the locale and the company of the recipients. For more information, see Configuring-default-notification-preferences. |
Support for enabling or disabling the Ask HelixGPT tab on the incident screen. | This configuration parameter is not present. | Use the disableAskHelixGPT CCS parameter to enable or disable the Ask HelixGPT tab on the incident screen according to your requirement. For more information about enabling or disabling the Ask HelixGPT tab, see Configuring-Ask-HelixGPT-for-BMC-Helix-ITSM. |
Support for BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround as a data source for the BMC Helix IT Service Management Application in BMC HelixGPTManager. | BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround is not supported as a data source for the BMC Helix IT Service Management Application in BMC HelixGPTManager. | You can configure BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround as a data source for the BMC Helix IT Service Management Application in BMC HelixGPT Manager. BMC HelixGPT uses published knowledge articles from BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround to generate responses for Ask HelixGPT. For more information, see Configuring-Ask-HelixGPT-for-BMC-Helix-ITSM. |
Response streaming on the Ask HelixGPT tab of the incident screen. | A complete response is generated and then displayed on the Ask HelixGPT tab. | BMC HelixGPT streams the response on the Ask HelixGPT tab as it generates it, delivering parts of the response as they become available. Agents do not have to wait until the entire response is generated. Response streaming increases agent engagement and provides them a natural and dynamic conversational experience. For information about finding information to resolve incidents by using Ask HelixGPT, see Resolving-tickets-with-the-help-of-Ask-HelixGPT. |
Updates to BMC ADAPT theme. | The selection buttons in progressive web application screens are white in color. | The selection buttons in progressive web application screens are grey in color. |
BMC Helix ITSM Insights enhancements
Receive notifications for emerging major incidents in Real-time incident correlation clusters
As a major incident manager, receive notifications for emerging, potential major incidents in clusters so that you can assess their overall business impact. It saves you from constantly monitoring the real-time incident correlation dashboard, helping you to use the time to address other critical issues. By using this feature, you can address the issues early, potentially reducing the business impact.
For more information, see Incident correlation.
Use regular expressions in stop words to generate quality clusters for efficient problem investigation and incident analysis
While generating Proactive problem management and Real-time incident correlation clusters, define patterns of stop words by using regular expressions to identify and remove irrelevant incident information (words and sentences). Using regular expressions in stop word generates better quality clusters, reducing the overall effort and time for problem investigation and incident analysis.
For more information, see Configuring incident correlation to detect similar incident clusters and Configuring proactive problem management settings.
What else changed in this release for BMC Helix ITSM Insights
The following table lists the changes in the product behavior in version 23.3.04:
Update | Product behavior in versions earlier than 23.3.04 | Product behavior in version 23.3.04 |
---|---|---|
Support for regular expressions for stop words in Proactive problem management | The Proactive problem management algorithm did not support regular expression for stop words. | The Proactive problem management algorithm supports regular expressions in stop words. For more details, see Configuring proactive problem management settings. |
Stop words support for Real-time incident correlation | The Real-time incident correlation algorithm did not support stop words. | The Real-time incident correlation algorithm supports stop words. For more details, see Configuring incident correlation to detect similar incident clusters. |
Ability to remove Personally Identifiable Information (PII) from Real-time incident correlation and Proactive problem management clusters | BMC Helix ITSM Insights did not support the removal of PII from incident details. | Real-time incident correlation and Proactive problem management algorithms support the removal of PII from incident details before generating clusters. For more details, see Configuring incident correlation to detect similar incident clusters and Configuring proactive problem management settings. |
Support for Canadian-French and Canadian-English in BMC Helix ITSM Insights | BMC Helix ITSM Insights did not support Canadian-French and Canadian-English. | BMC Helix ITSM Insights supports Canadian-French and Canadian-English. |
BMC Helix Innovation Suite enhancements
Improvements to HelixGPT chat view component
As a developer, enhance the user experience by implementing the following improvements in the HelixGPT chat view component:
- Configure a welcome message to be displayed when a chat session is initiated.
- Configure predefined prompts to be displayed with the welcome message when a chat session is initiated for the first time.
- Rate the BMC HelixGPT responses in a chat conversation by using the thumbs-up or thumbs-down icons, driving better engagement and outcomes.
- Share the response received from HelixGPT with requesters by copying or emailing the information.
- Configure custom actions to the response received in the chat session.
- Configure custom actions to be performed after the source knowledge article links are clicked.
For information, see Adding-an-AI-based-conversational-search-interface-to-a-view.
Enhance the application shell to add the HelixGPT icon to the global search
Customize the global search from the navigation bar to add HelixGPT icon to the search for your application.
For more information, see Adding-navigation-components-to-header.
Customize styling attributes in the Tab panel component
As an application business analyst, you can enhance the display format of the Tab panel view component by customizing the styling attributes for the tabs in the Tab panel view component such as badge text, badge color, icon, and icon position.
For more information, see Configuring-a-Tab-Panel-view-component.
Create associations between record definitions by using existing fields
As an application business analyst, create an association between two existing fields in the record definitions to establish a relationship and easily leverage related data from both record definitions.
For example, you create an association between Department and Person record definitions by using the existing fields that establish a relationship between both these record definitions. These associations help identify which employee belongs to which department. For more information, see Creating-record-associations.
Use a horizontal scroll bar to view additional columns in the record grid
Enable a horizontal scrollbar on the record grid to view all the columns easily.
For more information, see Creating-a-tabular-view-of-record-instances-by-using-a-record-grid.
Usability enhancements for PWA screens
As a developer, you can provide better usability on the PWA screens of your application by performing the following steps:
- Add movable character fields by using the Expand Box property.
- Enable application users to right-click and open buttons or links in a new window or tab on PWA screens.
You must use the HREF Link, HREF, and HREF Target properties in Developer Studio to enable this. - Enable application users to pin a knowledge article by using the Read Only Indicator Field and Reference Pinning List properties in Developer Studio.
For more information about these properties, see Field-Properties.
Accessibility enhancements for PWA screens
As a developer, add accessible text to Progressive Web Application (PWA) screens by using the Aria Label property in Developer Studio. This property is available for many more fields such as Integer, Decimal, Real, and Table - List View.
For more information about the Aria Label property, see Field-Properties.
What else changed in this release for BMC Helix Innovation Suite
Update | Product behavior in versions earlier than 23.3.04 | Product behavior in version 23.3.04 |
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Support for OpenJDK version 17 for BMC Helix Innovation Studio. | BMC Helix Innovation Studio supported OpenJDK 11 and later. | BMC Helix Innovation Studio supports OpenJDK 17 for runtime. Make sure to upgrade to OpenJDK 17 because using OpenJDK 11 might result in errors during compile time. For more information, see Setting-up-your-IDE-and-installing-BMC-Helix-Innovation-Studio-SDK. |
Updates to BMC ADAPT theme. | BMC Helix Innovation Studio supported only Primary, Secondary, and Active as base colors to customize the appearance of your applications. | BMC Helix Innovation Studio supports additional colors to customize the appearance of your applications. For more information, see Customizing-the-skins-and-logo-for-BMC-Helix-Innovation-Studio-applications. |
In Administration > Knowledge management > Knowledge access mapping, select All Companies from the Company list. | In Administration > Knowledge management > Knowledge access mapping, administrators couldn't select and view all companies available to them at once. They could only select one company at a time from the Company list. | In Administration > Knowledge management > Knowledge access mapping, administrators can select the All Companies option from the Company list. This action displays a table of all available companies for the administrators. This improvement saves time for the administrators when they need to map multiple companies with BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround user groups. For more information, see Defining-permission-mappings-for-BMC-Helix-Knowledge-Management-by-ComAround. |
Display unique records in the record grid. | The record grid displayeded duplicate records. | You view only unique records in the record grid, which helps you to find the record that you want quickly. For more information, see Creating a tabular view of record instances by using a record grid. |
Support for additional languages. | NA | Support for localizing the content in the following languages is added:
For more information, see Localizing-an-application and Localizing-field-values. |
Static file cache expiry. | Static files cache expiry set by the Mid Tier configuration setting arsystem.formhtmljs_expiry_interval was by default one day ( 86400 s). | Static files cache expiry determined by the Mid Tier configuration setting arsystem.formhtmljs_expiry_interval has the default value of one week ( 604800 s) for better performance. For more information, see BMC-Helix-Mid-Tier-performance-benchmark-configuration-settings. |
Retry of email message processing when specific errors such as timeout or server being unreachable. | Administrators cannot set retrying of email message processing to handle failures email messages. | Administrators can set retrying of email message processing to handle failures email messages in the following ways:
For more information about this configuration setting, see Configuration-settings-N-R. |
Support for DIN 91379 Character Set | DIN 91379 character set is not supported. | BMC Helix Innovation Suite supports DIN SPEC 91379, which ensures that characters used in European languages such as ü, ä, and ß are displayed correctly. For more information, see Unicode in AR System. |
Hide navigation bar items in Innovation Studio based on conditions. | Menus, menu items, and actions can be hidden either unconditionally or based on user permissions. | Additional capability to hide menus, menu items, and actions based on conditions. For more information, see Adding-navigation-components-to-header. |
BMC Helix CMDB enhancements
(Controlled availability) Quickly create service models by using blueprint templates
Leverage BMC Helix Service Modeling to quickly create service models by using predefined blueprint templates. Seamlessly integrate topology data from multiple sources to easily build comprehensive, dynamic service models. For more information, see Creating-service-models-by-using-blueprints.
Improve reconciliation job performance when processing a large number of CIs
Use the RE ID Service to improve the speed and efficiency of large reconciliation jobs by processing the identification activity on a separate pod. For more information, see Reconciling-a-large-number-of-CIs .
Additionally, the RE ID Service filters duplicate CIs from the source dataset before running the identification a ctivity, making the overall process more efficient. For more information, see Identification-activities-to-match-instances-across-datasets.
Run Atrium Integrator Spoon on Pentaho 9.x
Pentaho is upgraded from 6.x to 9.x. Upgrade your Atrium Integrator Spoon client to run on Pentaho 9.x. For more information about upgrading the Spoon client, see Using-the-Atrium-Integrator-Spoon-client .
New classes and attributes added to the Common Data Model
The BMC Helix CMDB Common Data Model is updated with new classes and attributes under the BMC_BaseElement class and new attributes under the BMC_BaseRelationship class. These classes and attributes support the impact analysis and incident creation processes in BMC Helix NetOps. For more information, see Summary-of-changes-to-the-Common-Data-Model.
What else changed in this release for BMC Helix CMDB
The following table lists the changes in the product behavior:
Update | Product behavior in versions earlier than 23.3.04 | Product behavior in version 23.3.04 |
---|---|---|
Update to BMC_OperatingSystem class. | The options available in the OS_Type list in the BMC_OperatingSystem class are version-specific for Windows. Hence, it is difficult to map a Windows operating system to an OS_Type that is unavailable in the list. | A generic option Windows is available in the OS_Type list of options. To specify a required version of the Windows operating system, use the following attributes:
This update is available with TKU for December 2024 and later. For information about the latest TKU, see Technology Knowledge Updates (TKU) - Schedule and Roadmap |
23.3.03
BMC Helix ITSM enhancements
Copy an existing release request into a new release request
Create a draft release request with the information copied from an existing release request. Select the information you want to copy, edit the copied information as required, and save it. This way, you can save time instead of creating a release request from scratch.
For more information, see Creating a release request by copying an existing release request.
Customize bulk actions and row actions views for Shared Ticket Console and Asset Console
Copy the default out-of-the-box views and customize them to your needs. In addition to the existing views available for customization from the Manage Views screen, you can now customize the bulk action views for Shared Ticket Console, asset action views, and in-row action views for Asset Console.
For more information, see Customizing-Shared-Ticket-Console and Enabling and configuring the Asset console.
Ability to configure date and time format as per user preference
Instead of using the local system settings, you can configure the preferred date and time format by using the AR System User Preference form. You can set one specific date and time format for the whole organization by using this configuration.
To learn more about this feature, see Configuring-date-and-time-formats.
What else changed in this release
Update | Product behavior in versions earlier than 23.3.03 | Product behavior in version 23.3.03 |
---|---|---|
Configure accent-insensitive search for a field of a PWA screen | This capability is not supported for PWA screens. | You can configure an accent-insensitive search for a field of a PWA screen to get the same search results when you search for strings with or without accented characters. For example, you want to consider Sebastián and Sebastian as the same strings when searching. For more information, see Configuring-accent-insensitive-search-for-a-field. |
View decimal separators in real, integer, and decimal fields in the create and edit mode of a PWA screen. | This capability is not supported for PWA screens. | If the Thousand Group Separator property is set to True for real, integer, and decimal fields of a PWA screen, decimal separators are displayed when a user types a value in those fields. For more information the Thousand Group Separator property, see Types of data fields. |
Configure asynchronous impact analysis for change requests (PWA screens) | This capability is not supported. | If your organization's CI data is large, the impact analysis for a change request might take a long time to complete. Users might not want to wait long for the impact analysis to be completed. Instead, they might want to navigate to other screens to perform other tasks while the impact analysis runs. In such a case, you can configure asynchronous impact analysis for change requests. For more information, see Configuring asynchronous impact analysis for change requests. |
Customizable Keywords filter in Shared Ticket Console. | This capability is not supported. | Support for customizable Keywords filter in Shared Ticket Console to filter records based on one or more keywords. For more information, see Customizing-the-Keywords-filter-in-Shared-Ticket-Console. |
Set the format of the SLA due date displayed on the SLA progress bar of the PWA screens. | The SLA due date is displayed in Absolute format. The format of the SLA due date is not configurable. | You can set the format in which the SLA due date must be displayed on the SLA progress bar of the PWA screens. The format options are: Absolute, Relative, and both Absolute and Relative. For more information, see Differences-between-the-classic-Smart-IT-and-Progressive-Web-App-screens. |
The icon to access self-help has changed. | The following icon provided access to self-help: | The following icon provides access to self-help: |
The UI label for the Requested For field has changed. | The Requested For field is used to enter a customer name. | The field Requested For is changed to Customer in the Progressive Web App (PWA) screens for a change request. |
Hotkey search for assets in activity notes | The hotkey @ is used to search both asset and people in the activity notes. | You can use the + hotkey for searching assets in the activity notes. This hotkey search is independent of the configuration parameter ActivityHotkeySearchesByPeopleAsset setting in the Centralized Configuration. |
IS URL is displayed on the Progressive Views configuration screen | The Progressive Views configuration screen in Mid tier does not show the IS URL configured in Centralized Configuration. | The Progressive Views configuration screen in Mid tier shows the following URLs configured in Centralized Configuration as described in Setting configuration parameters in BMC Helix ITSM:
For more information about enabling progressive web application screens, see Enabling-Progressive-Web-Application-screens. |
New configuration parameter restrictPersonWorknoteAccess | This configuration parameter is not present. | This configuration parameter is used to allow users to add activity notes on other people profiles in Smart IT, even if they do not have necessary permissions. For more information about setting the CCS parameter, see Setting configuration parameters in BMC Helix ITSM. |
New configuration parameter CombineGroupEmailNotification | This configuration parameter is not present. | This configuration parameter is used to send the email notifications in groups based on the locale and company specific outgoing mailboxes configured, instead of sending one email for each member in the group. For more information about setting the CCS parameter, see Setting configuration parameters in BMC Helix ITSM and Configuring-default-notification-preferences. |
BMC Helix ITSM Insights enhancements
Group clusters with multiple categorical fields for problem investigation
As a problem coordinator, configure one-time and recurrent jobs to group clusters based on multiple categorical fields in the Proactive Problem Management dashboard. You group clusters to view the details of recurring incidents, and analyze incident patterns which aid in the overall problem investigation.
For more information, see Proactive problem management and Resolution insights overview.
Estimate the complexity of incidents in a proactive problem management cluster
As a problem coordinator, view the average resolution time and average effort it took to resolve the incidents in a cluster. Use these operational metrics to predict the complexity of incidents in the cluster, and determine your time and effort required to perform problem investigation.
For more information, see Proactive problem management and Resolution insights overview.
Efficiently identify critical clusters
As a problem coordinator, you can quickly identify the proactive problem management clusters with high number of incidents that need to be prioritized for problem investigation, thereby saving overall time and effort.
For more information, see Proactive problem management and Resolution insights overview.
What else changed in this release
The following table lists the changes in the product behavior in version 23.3.03:
Update | Product behavior in versions earlier than 23.3.02 | Product behavior in version 23.3.02 |
---|---|---|
The icon to access self-help has changed. | The following icon provided access to self-help: | The following icon provides access to self-help: |
BMC Helix Innovation Suite enhancements
Leverage the generative AI capabilities in your application by using the HelixGPT chat component
Use the HelixGPT chat component to add a conversational search bar. This component delivers targeted answers for users' queries from an automatically determined set of data sources and enhances your applications in the following ways :
- Provides a conversational experience for a search by returning an answer to the query instead of a list of knowledge articles.
- Returns reliable and refined results for queries on knowledge articles, tickets, and cases .
- Provides a clear, plain-language summary of the data sources that are shared.
For more information, see Adding-an-AI-based-conversational-search-interface-to-a-view.
Get streamed responses by using the HelixGPT chat component
BMC HelixGPT streams answer for end-user queries in real time, delivering parts of the response as they become available. Response streaming increases user engagement. Users do not need to wait for the entire response to appear, and they get a more natural and dynamic conversational experience.
For more information, see Adding-an-AI-based-conversational-search-interface-to-a-view.
Automatic redirect to the login page after session timeout for enhanced data security
To avoid unnecessary data exposure, w hen a Mid Tier session times out and the BMC Helix Single Sign-On session is still valid, the form data is cleared.
However, when Mid Tier session and BMC Helix Single Sign-On times out, you are redirected to the BMC Helix Single Sign-On login page.
For more information, see Configuring-the-action-after-a-Mid-Tier-session-timeout .
Access BMC Helix Innovation Studio data from applications built in Developer Studio
As a business analyst, you can seamlessly access data in BMC Helix Innovation Studiofrom the applications that are built in Developer Studio . For example, you can access the list of employees from a Payroll application that is built-in BMC Helix Innovation Studio into BMC Helix ITSM . For more information, see the following topics:
Text for screen readers on Progressive Web Application screens
As a developer, add text to the Aria Label property in Developer Studio, which will be available to screen readers on Progressive Web Application (PWA) screens. For more information about the Aria Label property, see Field-Properties.
Better usability with relative dates on Service Level Agreement progress bar
As a developer, display relative dates, absolute dates, or both in tooltips on PWA screens for Service Level Agreement (SLA) progress bars by using the Display > Show Date As property. With this enhancement, application users get a better idea of the time remaining to complete a task or a process. For more information about this property, see Field-Properties. To know more about creating progress bars, see Configuring-the-Progress-bar-widget-in-Progressive-Web-Applications.
What else changed in this release
Update | Product behavior in versions earlier than 23.3.03 | Product behavior in version 23.3.03 |
---|---|---|
The icon to access self-help has changed. | The following icon provided access to self-help: | The following icon provides access to self-help: |
Configure the heap memory of Email Engine to process the outgoing emails. | Emails with a lot of content in the body often got stuck in the outbox. | Email Engine successfully sends out emails with a lot of content in the body. For more information, see Configuration-settings-C-D . |
Email notifications are not received when article votes are synchronized to BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround | If the Third-party mail service setting was enabled for the BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround portal, article authors received separate email notifications for every article vote synchronized to BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround. | During knowledge base synchronization, BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround disables the Third-party mail service setting to prevent sending email notifications to article authors. As a result, the synchronization tool's performance increases, and article authors receive only relevant email notifications. For more information about handling the Third-party mail service setting during and after the synchronization process, see How article votes are synchronized . |
Restrictions on editing service account details | You can edit service account details on the User form. | Only the BMC Saas operations team can edit service account details on the User form. The following warning is displayed when you try to edit the service account details: For more information, see Restrictions for editing service account details. |
Change in the deployment method of the plug-in server for optimizing system performance. | The plug-in server processes for different applications run in a single container. | The plug-in server processes run on independent pods, providing an optimized system performance. You can selectively scale only the required plug-in server without affecting the other services. For more information about the plug-in server instance settings, see Setting-plug-in-server-configuration-options . |
Do not create or deploy a non-BMC application or library in com.bmc.* namespace. | You can create an application or library in com.bmc.* namespace and no warning is displayed. | T he com.bmc.* namespace is reserved for lines of business and BMC-specific bundles. Do not use this namespace in your Group ID because it might lead to performance issues. If you create or deploy your application or library by using the com.bmc.* namespace, the following warning message is displayed : |
Date and time on PWA screens. | PWA screens did not display date and time based on the settings in AR System User Preferences. | You can set the application to display date and time based on settings in AR System User Preferences settings. To do so, you must set the configuration setting useARUserPreferenceForDateTimeFormat to T. For more information about this setting, see Setting-user-preferences-and-CCS-parameters-for-Progressive-Web-Applications. |
Accent-insensitive searches for application users. | PWA users could not perform accent-insensitive searches. | PWA users can perform accent-insensitive searches. As an administrator, you can use the CCS option Full-Text-Accent-Chars-Ascii-Convert to enable accent-insensitive searches. |
Disable the chunking menu in list view and cell based tables. | You could not disable chunk menu in list view and cell based tables. | The Disable Chunk Menu option is available for Table - List View and Table - Cell Based in Standard View with a default value of False. To know more about this property, see Field-Properties. |
JDK version for Developer Studio during runtime. | Developer Studio supported JDK 11 or later for runtime. | Developer Studio supports JDK 17 or later for runtime. |
23.3.02
(Controlled availability customers only) Leverage BMC HelixGPT generative AI to get real-time, summarized information for resolving incidents faster
BMC HelixGPT provides you a conversational experience to find information when working on incidents. Instead of reading through the knowledge articles, you can ask your incident-related questions to BMC HelixGPT and get real-time summarized answers.
Use BMC HelixGPT to resolve your incidents faster by getting reliable, summarized answers.
Faster resolution of incidents leads to increased agent efficiency, call center productivity, and customer satisfaction.
For more information, see Finding information to resolve incidents by using BMC HelixGPT.
Progressive Web Application (PWA) screens for release
To offer a customizable dynamic modern UX that exactly fits your needs, the support for Progressive Web App (PWA) screens has been extended to release requests.
PWA screens are already available for changes, work orders, incidents, assets, broadcasts, problem investigations, and tasks. For more information about PWA screens, see Progressive Web Application (PWA) screens.
For more information about enabling PWA screens and managing releases, see Enabling Progressive Web Application screens and Managing releases.
Relate tickets and assets in bulk in Shared Ticket Console
Select multiple tickets in Shared Ticket Console and relate them to other tickets, or assets, by using bulk actions. This saves the effort and time required to manually create relationships for each ticket.
For more information, see Managing your work by using Ticket Console.
(Controlled availability customers only) View AI-based risk assessment for your change requests
As a change manager, view the overall risk factors associated with a change request in the BMC Helix Innovation Studio-based calendar. The AI-based risk factor prediction is based on similar change requests implemented in the past and helps you make well-informed decisions about approving, holding or rejecting a change request. Therefore, it saves your effort and time to evaluate change requests manually.
For more information, see Viewing data by using the Calendar.
(Controlled availability customers only) Automate asset management
Instead of manually updating the assets, configure automation rules to automatically relate People records, locations, and contracts with any newly reconciled asset. You can configure multiple automations or one automation with multiple rules to update the assets in your environment. To learn more, see Automating tasks by using Asset automation.
What else changed in this release
Update | Product behavior in versions earlier than 23.3.02 | Product behavior in version 23.3.02 |
---|---|---|
Filter search in BMC Helix Innovation Studio based Calendar | Filter suggestions are shown even if you type one character in the filter search. | You must type at least three characters when searching for filters in the calendar, for the filter suggestions to be shown. |
New configuration parameter AllowOnlyEnabledTicketTemplates | This configuration parameter is not present. | This configuration parameter is used to validate incoming ticket templates via Interface_Create forms. An error message is displayed for any offline or invalid templates. For more information about setting the CCS parameter, see Setting configuration parameters. |
New configuration parameter defaultChunkSize | This configuration parameter is not present. | This configuration parameter is used to limit the number of results that appear for a query, that does not have a configured chunk size. For more information about setting the CCS parameter, see Setting configuration parameters. |
New configuration parameter sameSiteCookieAttribute | This configuration parameter is not present. | This configuration parameter is used to control whether the browser can or cannot send a cookie with cross-site requests. The parameter can be set to following values:
For more information about setting the CCS parameter, see Setting configuration parameters in BMC Helix ITSM. |
Support for Canadian French (fr_CA) locale | The Canadian French locale is not supported. | You can view BMC Helix ITSM in Canadian French locale. For more information about supported languages and to configure language preferences, see Supported-languages-and-locales. |
CI Class column in BMC Helix Innovation Studio based Asset Console | The CI Class column is available in BMC Helix Innovation Studio based Asset console. | The CI Class column is an obsolete column that does not display any data. To avoid the confusion with the Asset type field, the CI Class column is removed from BMC Helix Innovation Studio based Asset console. |
Active Approval column in BMC Helix Innovation Studio based Shared Ticket Console | The Active Approval column is visible after the Action column in BMC Helix Innovation Studio based Shared Ticket Console. | The position of the Active Approval column is moved before the Action column in BMC Helix Innovation Studio based Shared Ticket Console. |
BMC Helix ITSM Insights
Access the in-app help from any screen
In-app help (Self-help) has shifted to a movable widget that is available on every screen. The widget provides access to a product tour, interactive guides, instructions for setting up and going live, and more. It has been streamlined to provide the most useful content. In addition, you can continue to find answers to your questions in the online documentation or from our YouTube playlist.
What else changed in this release
The following table lists the changes in the product behavior in version 23.3.02:
Update | Product behavior in versions earlier than 23.3.02 | Product behavior in version 23.3.02 |
---|---|---|
Ability to select number of days as the lookback time period in Proactive problem management job settings. | Prior to version 23.3.02, you could only select number of months or weeks as the lookback period of Proactive problem management job settings. | Along with number of months and weeks, you can also select number of days as the lookback period of Proactive problem management job settings. For more details, see Configuring Proactive problem management settings for recurring jobs. |
BMC Helix Innovation Suite enhancements
Better control over the key encryption key
To have better control over the key encryption key (KEK), you can bring your own KEK by using check and rotate REST API endpoints.
Use the check REST API endpoint to check the existing KEK and use the rotate REST API endpoint to change the existing KEK. For more information about using the REST API endpoints, see Example-of-using-the-kek-endpoint-to-bring-in-your-own-key-encryption-key-KEK.
(Controlled availability) Use the Ask HelixGPT tab on Incident screens to fetch summary of the latest incident attributes
Use the Ask HelixGPT tab on PWA enabled Incident screens to view summarized incident attributes. Helpdesk agents can resolve incidents faster by using BMC HelixGPT.
For more information, see Finding information to resolve incidents by using BMC HelixGPT .
Use the tutorial to build an application in BMC Helix Innovation Studio
Use the tutorial to quickly build a simple codeless application to meet your business goals by using BMC Helix Innovation Studio.
For more information, see Tutorial.
What else changed in this release
The following table lists the changes in the product behavior:
Update | Product behavior in versions earlier than 23.3.02 | Product behavior in version 23.3.02 |
---|---|---|
Change in the deployment method of Email Engine service for optimizing system performance | The Email Engine service is a part of the FTS pod. To restart the Email Engine service, you must restart the FTS pod. | The Email Engine service runs on an independent pod, providing optimized system performance. Also, you can selectively restart only the Email Engine service, without affecting other services. For more information about installation and upgrade scenarios, see Enabling-email-requests-and-notifications. |
Ability to run an Innovation Studio process in an application and fetch results | Developers used two different commands, one to run the Innovation Studio process and another to fetch results back into the application. | As a developer, use the Application-Start-Process-And-Return-Output command on a Progressive Web Application screen to call an Innovation Studio process and also fetch the output back into the Progressive Web Application. To know more about how to use this command, see Field-Properties. |
Change in granting KCS roles for BMC Helix Business Workflows users in BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround | To grant a KCS role to a user, administrators assigned to the user a specific IS Persona that was defined for the com.bmc.dsm.knowledge application. | The user's KCS role is determined not only by the IS Persona defined for the com.bmc.dsm.knowledge application but also by other assigned IS Personas that depend on the KCS roles. For more information, see How KCS roles are defined for BMC Helix Business Workflows users. |
Change in mapping KCS roles for BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced and BMC Helix Virtual Agent users to user groups in BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround | Regardless of the KCS roles defined on the CTM:People form, BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced or BMC Helix Virtual Agent users could be assigned the Reader role in BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround. | While mapping companies to user groups, you must consider the KCS roles of BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced or BMC Helix Virtual Agent users. Select the user group that corresponds to the highest-level KCS role assigned to the user on the CTM:People form. For more information, see Permission-mapping-overview-for-BMC-Helix-Knowledge-Management-by-ComAround . |
Change in accounting for users' KCS roles when they search for BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround knowledge articles | The ability of users to search for knowledge articles was not determined by the KCS role of a specific user. BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround returned all articles that the mapped user group with the highest KCS role was entitled to view. | When users search for knowledge articles, BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround returns the articles based on the defined mapping and the KCS role of a user in BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround. For more information, see Defining-permission-mappings-for-BMC-Helix-Knowledge-Management-by-ComAround . |
BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround enhancements
Create videos in BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround
Users with knowledge worker roles can capture the screen when they create or edit articles in BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround. While recording the screen, users have the option to add narration from the microphone, audio from the system, and video from the webcam.
The video recording tool is readily available within BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround. Therefore, users can capture the screen without the need to download and set up third-party software. This built-in tool provides an effortless way to capture the screen with maximum efficiency.
For more information about the video recording tool, see the Create a video in BMC Helix Knowledge vNext help article. To learn how to access help articles for BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround, see Accessing product documentation provided by help articles in the BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround documentation.
23.3.01
BMC Helix ITSM enhancements
Department information displayed for filter suggestions
In BMC Helix Innovation Studio based Shared Ticket Console, Asset console and Calendar, when you start typing in filters, a list of suggestions are shown. These suggestions for Named List filters include department information displayed below, along with the email IDs to help distinguish filter suggestions with same values.
For more information, see Managing-your-work-by-using-Ticket-Console, Accessing and navigating the Asset console, and Scheduling changes by using the Calendar.
Take advantage of the upgraded BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround interface
Users with knowledge worker roles can benefit from the enhanced application interface when they open BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround from BMC Helix ITSM to view or create articles.
With the upgraded interface, users enjoy extended capabilities as they can get more information about articles in BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround. For example, they can quickly see related content and possible duplicate articles, or assess article quality by completing the standard checklist.
For more information about how BMC Helix ITSM users with knowledge worker roles can leverage the upgraded BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround interface, see Leveraging-knowledge-from-BMC-Helix-Knowledge-Management-by-ComAround.
End-of-product-support information
Starting from 23.3.01 version, in the Asset console, you can view the following end-of-support dates:
End of Extended Support (EOES)
End of Life (EOL)
End of Security Support (EOSS)
End of Support (EOS)
You can add these fields as visible columns and filter by these dates in the Asset console. This helps you to manage the lifecycle of the assets easily by using the Asset console. For more information about Asset console, see Accessing and navigating the Asset console.
Display start and end dates of tickets in Calendar side bar
In the BMC Helix ITSM Calendar, built on the BMC Helix Innovation Studio, you can view the date ranges in the side bar. You can directly view the start and end dates of the planned activities without opening the tickets. You can configure the calendar component to view the start and end dates of tickets by turning on the Show dates ranges toggle switch.
For more information, see Enabling and configuring the calendar.
Add BMC Helix bot by default to the Microsoft Teams chat
When you click Launch ChatOps from any incident ticket, you can add members and launch a Microsoft Teams chat. You can add the BMC Helix chat bot to the chat group and get details related to the incidents quickly.
You can either manually add the chat bot, or you can now configure the ChatBot-Id CCS parameter to add the bot to the Microsoft Teams chat by default.
For more information, see Launching ChatOps for collaboration.
What else changed in this release
Update | Product behavior in versions earlier than 23.3.01 | Product behavior in version 23.3.01 |
---|---|---|
Ticket statistics cards in the Shared Ticket Console | When you click Show ticket statistics and click any statistics card, the corresponding filters are applied and the statistics cards are hidden. When you click Show ticket statistics again, the previously selected statistics card is not highlighted even when the filters are still applied. | When you click Show ticket statistics and click any statistics card, the corresponding filters are applied. The statistics card remains selected until you click any of the statistics card again or any filter is removed. For more information, see Managing-your-work-by-using-Ticket-Console. |
Searching in BMC Helix Innovation Studio based Shared Ticket Console, Asset console and Calendar. | Searchable option is enabled for a few Named List filters. | All the Named List filters are configured with either Contains (Anywhere), or Starts with (Leading) search. Also, the Searchable option is enabled for all the contextual fields of Named List Filters to help expand the search capability. |
New configuration parameter LockFieldsPostApprovalPhase | This configuration parameter is not present. | This configuration parameter is used to lock the Title and Description fields of a change request after approval. If the change request is moved to Draft status after approval, both the fields are unlocked and can be edited. For more information about setting the CCS parameter, see Setting configuration parameters. |
New configuration parameter ChatBot-Id | This configuration parameter is not present. | This configuration parameter is used to add BMC Helix chat bot to Microsoft Teams chat by default, when you click Launch ChatOps from any incident ticket. For more information about setting the CCS parameter, see Setting configuration parameters. |
The Approval State note type for change request in Activity | In Change request (Progressive Web App screens), the Approval State note type is available for selection in the Note type dropdown list, when you try to add a new note under Activity section. | The Approval State note type is removed from the Note type dropdown list. |
Unavailability Class for outages | In Change Calendar, outage shows the Unavailability Class value as Incident and there is no option to select value as Change. | You can now select Change or Incident from the Unavailability Class list for outages to indicate the origin of unavailability request. |
Viewing the audit log information for tickets | The ability to view the audit logs is available only to select customers as a controlled availability feature. | The ability to view the audit logs is generally available to all customers. |
Changes in look and feel of the UI | The popover views for Tasks in Calendar show the task relationship with the parent ticket below the pills. | The popover views for Tasks in Calendar now show the task as breadcrumb to parent ticket: Some elements in the UI look different, for example, a collapsible toolbar is added in the Calendar: |
BMC Helix ITSM Insights enhancements
Export a list of incidents from Real-time incident correlation clusters for offline analysis
As a service desk agent or a major incident manager, you can select and export a list of incidents from Real-time incident correlation clusters that you want to analyze offline. You can then share the exported list of incidents with other users for detailed analysis or a second opinion of your analysis.
For more information, see Identifying clusters of incoming incidents.
Detect major incidents in the Proactive problem management clusters
As a problem coordinator, you can instantly check if any cluster in the List view of the Proactive problem management dashboard has a major incident in it. You can save time and effort to manually discover the major incidents in clusters.
For more information, see Proactive problem management and Resolution insights overview.
Search and relate an original incident that is not available within the Real-time incident correlation cluster
As a service desk agent, you can search for an incident that is unavailable in the Real-time incident correlation cluster, and mark the incident as an original to one or more incidents available in the cluster. You need not navigate away from BMC Helix ITSM Insights to perform this association and therefore it saves your effort and time.
For more information, see Identifying clusters of incoming incidents.
Consent for data collection
When you log on to BMC Helix ITSM Insights for the first time, select whether you want to allow the product to collect information about your product usage. By default, data collection is enabled.
For information about how to change data collection settings, see Modifying consent for data collection.
What else changed in this release
The following table lists the changes in the product behavior in version 23.3.01:
Update | Product behavior in versions earlier than 23.3.01 | Product behavior in version 23.3.01 |
---|---|---|
Configuration parameters removed from Centralized configuration:
| These configuration parameters were used to enable the Proactive problem management job share feature and the Real-time incident correlation preset share feature. | These configuration parameters are removed from the Centralized configuration as the Proactive problem management job share and the Real-time incident correlation preset share features are enabled in the default configuration. |
BMC Helix Innovation Suite enhancements
Enable users to request e-signing of documents
Maintain the document integrity and certify the authenticity by e-signing the documents from within BMC Helix Innovation Studio applications.
As an administrator, you can integrate BMC Helix Innovation Studio with external signature providers such as DocuSign and Acrobat Adobe Sign to e-sign your documents.
For more information, see Enabling-users-to-e-sign-documents.
Obtain a license usage report through the licensereport REST API endpoint
Obtain the license usage report for a specific duration by using the licensereport REST API endpoint. With this endpoint, you can obtain the license report without logging into Mid Tier .
Use the licensereport REST API endpoint through any REST client such as Postman.
For more information about using the licensereport REST API endpoint, see Example-of-using-the-licensereport-endpoint-to-obtain-the-license-usage-report.
Set webhook payload limits for reliable data transfer to external applications
As a system administrator, set limits on some or all of the webhook payloads to reliably send data to third party applications.
For more information, see Setting the AR System webhook payload size.
Automate processes by using content packages
Use sample services from the Cloud action content package to quickly automate the service requests for creating virtual machines and buckets in the Google Cloud Platform.
For more information, see Automating-actions-performed-in-third-party-systems-by-using-a-content-package.
Organize options on PWA screens by using collapsible and accordion panels
As a developer, you can simplify the user experience on PWA screens by creating collapsible or accordion panels. For more information, see Organizing-fields-by-using-collapsible-and-accordion-panels-in-Progressive-Web-Applications.
Improve readability with resizable panes on PWA screens
As a developer, you can enhance the application user experience on PWA screens by creating resizable panes. By adjusting the width of the panes, users can expand the pane which has large amounts of information thereby improving readability and the user experience. For more information, see Creating-resizable-panes-in-Progressive-Web-Applications.
Add context menus on PWA screens
As a developer, you can provide application users with the options to open links in a new tab or window by adding context menus. For more information, see Adding-context-menus-for-right-clicking-of-interface-objects-in-Progressive-Web-Applications.
Utility to enable rich text entry on PWA screens
As a developer, you can add rich-text capabilities to PWA screens by using the Enable ARTF for PWA utility. This utility provides application users with the ability to add formatted text and images, thus saving time and effort of manually converting PWA screens to support rich text. For more information on how to run the Enable ARTF for PWA utility, see Enabling rich text fields on PWA screens by running a utility.
What else changed in this release
The following table lists the changes in the product behavior:
Update | Product behavior in versions earlier than 23.3.01 | Product behavior in version 23.3.01 |
---|---|---|
(Controlled availability customers only) Availability of BMC Helix Single Sign-On -based multiple service providers (MSP) . | BMC Helix Single Sign-On-based multiple service providers (MSP) is available for BMC Helix ITSM applications, BMC Helix CMDB, BMC Digital Workplace, and BMC Live Chat. | BMC Helix Single Sign-On-based multiple service providers (MSP) is available for all applications on BMC Helix Innovation Suite, including the applications developed by using BMC Helix Innovation Studio. For more information, see Facilitating-application-access-to-users-having-different-email-domains. |
In Administration > Knowledge management > Knowledge access mapping, filter the Company and Line of Business lists. | In Administration > Knowledge management > Knowledge access mapping, administrators couldn't filter the Company and Line of Business lists by entering the name of a company or the name of a line of business. Administrators had to manually scroll through the lists to find the required values. | In Administration > Knowledge management > Knowledge access mapping, administrators can search within the Company and Line of Business lists by entering the name of a company or the name of a line of business. The lists instantly get filtered based on the administrator's input. With this improvement, administrators save time when they select companies and lines of business to define permission mappings for BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround. For more information, see Defining-permission-mappings-for-BMC-Helix-Knowledge-Management-by-ComAround . |
Include additional information about the category in the Business Time Segment form. | You cannot enter any additional information about the category in the Business Time Segment form. | You can enter any additional information about the category in the Business Time Segment form. |
Highlight required fields that are left empty on PWA screens. | PWA screens displayed separate messages for each required field that users left empty and initiated a save operation. | When required fields are empty and users initiate a save operation, the PWA screen displays a message that lists all the required fields that are left incomplete. The Required fields become active one after another prompting application users to fill in the necessary information before proceeding. For more information, see the Entry Mode property in Field-Properties. |
Height limit for the @mention list. | As a developer, you cannot set a height limit for the @mention list. | As a developer, use the Hotkey Menu Max Height property in Developer Studio to the set the height limit for the @mention list. For more information, see Field-Properties. |
Support for tree tables on PWA screens. | As a developer, you could not use tree tables on PWA screens. | Tree tables are supported on PWA screens. For more information, see Differences-between-Developer-Studio-features-available-for-Mid-Tier-and-Progressive-Web-Applications. |
Information about the workflow object mode included in the filter log. | The filter log does not contain details about the workflow object's mode. | For efficient and faster troubleshooting, the Filter log includes details about the workflow object mode, indicating whether it is an Unmodified object, Overlay object, or a Custom object. For more information, see Filter-log . |
Information about the escalation failures included in the server error log. | The escalation log does not contain details about the failed escalation errors. | The server error log (arerror.log) contains information about failed escalation errors, the escalations that failed, and the reason for the failure. This information helps troubleshooting the escalation failures without having to enable the escalation logs. For more information, see Server-error-log. |
Information about updates in the servgrp_board table is included in the server group log. | The server group log file includes additional information about the discrepancies in the servgrp_board table. For more information, see Server-group-log. |
BMC Helix CMDB enhancements
High availability of CMDB Portal
Even when the platform-fts-0 pod that handles all administrative requests is down, you can still access CMDB Portal with limited functionality. For more information, see Accessing and navigating the CMDB Portal .
23.3.00
BMC Helix ITSM enhancements
Use Shared Ticket Console to quickly view or modify tickets
The Shared Ticket Console is built on the BMC Helix Innovation Studio and offers you a modern UI that you can customize according to your requirements. Use multiple filters to find your tickets quickly and use bulk actions to update multiple tickets simultaneously or to open the tickets in multiple tabs. For more information, see Managing-your-work-by-using-Ticket-Console.
Configurable ITSM calendar with a modern UI experience
The BMC Helix ITSM Calendar, built on the BMC Helix Innovation Studio, combines rich filtering and preset capabilities with a modern UI experience. Out of the box, the calendar supports Incident, Change, Problem investigation, Release, Task, Outage, and Business Event.
BMC Helix ITSM Calendar provides the following key features:
- Calendar is highly configurable and is extensible to other ticket types.
For example, you can configure the Work Order ticket type to be displayed in the Calendar and customize the views for work orders. - Get real-time insights into service models created in BMC Helix Discovery and BMC Helix CMDB.
- Collision detection in Calendar helps you manage and resolve the potentially harmful conflicts between the change requests.
- Send emails to change coordinators directly from the popover view of a change ticket to plan for outages and to resolve collisions.
For more information, see Enabling and configuring the calendar and Scheduling changes by using the Calendar.
Streamlined documentation structure
Starting with version 23.3, we have restructured the documentation of BMC Helix ITSM to help you find the documentation for the ticket types that you work on.
To learn more, see Where-did-the-Smart-IT-documentation-go
Access the in-app help from any screen
In-app help (Self-help) has shifted to a movable widget that is available on every screen. The widget provides access to a product tour, interactive guides, instructions for setting up and going live, and more. It has been streamlined to provide the most useful content. In addition, you can continue to find answers to your questions in the online documentation or from our YouTube playlist.
Create a new asset by copying an existing asset
When you create a new asset, instead of filling up all the details for the asset, you can copy the details from an existing asset by the click of a button. It greatly saves time and effort required for such repetitive tasks and increases efficiency. To learn more, see Creating and updating assets.
Perform bulk actions by using the Asset console
Select multiple assets and perform the following actions in bulk to save your time:
- Relate people - Relate multiple assets to a person, support group, or organization along with their relationship role.
- Update asset - Update out-of-the-box and custom attributes for assets belonging to different classes.
You can also update class specific attributes for Computer System, Application, and Processor, when you select only the assets belonging to a same asset class.
For more information, see Performing bulk updates.
(Controlled availability customers only)
View the Audit log information for any ticket
Viewing the complete audit log information helps the service desk agents gain all the information about a ticket on a single window in Progressive Web Application (PWA) screens . When list of changes and updates are made to selected ticket, an audit entry is created to track the changes. You can view this Audit log information directly in the PWA screens of the ticket by setting the arsystem.pwa_enable_auditlog CCS parameter value to true. For more information, see Viewing the audit log
Share your custom view presets with other users in Asset console
Share the custom view presets you created in Asset console with multiple users so that they can use these view presets without having to re-create them. Sharing the custom views presets helps improve efficiency and consistency.
For example, as an asset manager, you can create a custom view preset to view all Down computers and share this custom view preset with your team, so that they can use the same view preset for tracking the assets.
For more information, see To share a custom view preset.
What else changed in this release
Update | Product behavior in versions earlier than 23.3.00 | Product behavior in version 23.3.00 |
---|---|---|
BMC Helix Cognitive Automation renamed to AI Service Management (Categorization and Classification) . | Leverage cognitive capabilities and automate manual tasks in an application by using BMC Helix Cognitive Automation. | BMC Helix Cognitive Automation is renamed to AI Service Management (Categorization and Classification) . This name change will be updated on all documentation pages. If you have bookmarked these pages, you should update them with the new links. For more information, see Automating-service-management-by-using-cognitive-service. |
New configuration parameter arsystem.pwa_enable_copyasset | This configuration parameter is not present. | This configuration parameter is used to allow asset administrator and users to create a new asset by copying an existing asset. For more information about setting the CCS parameter, see Setting configuration parameters |
New configuration parameter enableAssetCreator | This configuration parameter is not present. | This configuration parameter is used to allow an asset user with the asset creator functional role to create a new asset. For more information about setting the CCS parameter, see Setting configuration parameters |
(Controlled availability customers only) arsystem.pwa_enable_auditlog | This configuration parameter is not present. | (Controlled availability customers only) For more information about setting the CCS parameter, see Setting configuration parameters |
Business justification | If an approver rejects the change request multiple times and adds business justification in the change request, the application appends the business justification of all the previous rejections on the Work Detail tab in the change request. | If an approver rejects the change request multiple times and adds business justification to the change request, the application does not append the business justification of all the previous rejections. On the Work Detail tab, in the Type column, you see Approval state, and the business justification is displayed in the Notes column. |
Change in the supported Android versions for the BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT Android native app | The BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT Android native app can be installed on Android OS 5 and higher versions. | The BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT Android native app can be installed on Android OS 7 and higher versions. |
Changes in look and feel of the UI | NA | Some elements in the UI look different, for example, the buttons and menus appear darker than before and do not display a border. |
BMC Helix ITSM Insights enhancements
Filter the clusters based on quality in the Proactive problem management dashboard
Cluster quality slider is introduced in the Proactive problem management dashboard to help you quickly filter the clusters. While performing a root cause analysis, you can use the slider to view clusters of certain quality range of the clustering job.
For more details, see Proactive Problem Management.
View the resolution summary of incident groups in a cluster
As a problem coordinator, you can view the incidents that have a similar resolution grouped together in a cluster along with their resolution insights. Without opening every incident in BMC Helix ITSM to see how they were resolved, you can quickly get a high-level resolution overview of incidents. You can also view the knowledge articles that were used to resolve the incidents.
For more details, see Proactive Problem Management.
Use presets to reuse your dashboard filter preferences
As a service desk manager or a major incident manager, you can select and save your filter preferences, such as Assignee Support Group, and Urgency as presets in the Real-time incident correlation dashboard. You need not manually select your filters. Instead, just select a preset to view clusters based on your filter preferences. You can also share your preset with other users.
For more information, see Managing-filter-presets.
View and track the number of jobs created by each user in BMC Helix ITSM Insights Dashboard
As a problem coordinator, determine the overall productivity of users by viewing the number of jobs associated with each of them. The widget displays the number of jobs, the type of jobs, and their last date of execution for each user. You can filter the results based on the support company and date range.
For more information, see Tracking ITSM Insights usage in BMC Helix Dashboards.
Share your Proactive Problem Management job configuration with other users
As a problem coordinator or problem manager, you can share your job configuration with other users such that they can analyze the most impactful set of recurring incidents. Use the capability when you want other users to generate similar clusters using your job configuration for root cause analysis. It saves their time and effort of creating a job from scratch.
For more information, see Sharing-proactive-problem-management-jobs-with-others.
What else changed in BMC Helix ITSM Insights
The following table lists the changes in the product behavior in version 23.3.00:
Update | Product behavior in versions earlier than 23.3.00 | Product behavior in version 23.3.00 |
---|---|---|
Ability to search and exclude values in advanced filter for fields with search menu, such as Service CI. | While setting a job in Proactive problem management settings, you could search and include field values in advanced filter for fields with search menu. However, you could not exclude values. | While setting a job in Proactive problem management settings, using the Not equals to option, you can search and exclude field values in the advanced filter categories for fields with search menu. For more details, see Configuring-one-time-job-settings-for-proactive-problem-management and Configuring the recurrent job settings for proactive problem management. |
Ability to support hierarchical groups | Hierarchical groups were not supported. | Hierarchical groups are supported. For more details, see Inheriting permissions by using hierarchical groups and Configuring incident correlation to detect similar incident clusters. |
BMC Helix Innovation Suite enhancements
Unified documentation space for BMC Helix Innovation Suite
Starting with version 23.3, the documentation for AR System and BMC Helix Innovation Studio is merged into a single documentation space.
This unified documentation is designed for easy navigation, featuring diverse rich media to improve the user experience.
For earlier versions of AR System and BMC Helix Innovation Studio, see the following links:
AR System version | BMC Helix Innovation Studio version |
---|---|
Share your custom view presets with other users
Share the custom view presets you created with multiple users so that they can use these view presets without having to re-create them. Sharing the custom views presets helps improve efficiency and consistency.
For example, as a case agent, you can create a custom view preset to view all Open and Critical cases and share this custom view preset with your team, so that they can use the same view preset while working on the cases.
For more information, see Adding-a-View-preset-selector-to-a-view.
Improved usability with dropdown buttons
Use the dropdown action button in a view to create a compact and efficient way to access multiple options. This vertical stacking format consumes less horizontal space. It also provides a more organized user interface, allowing easy navigation through various actions without cluttering your view.
For more information see, Adding-an-action-button-to-a-view.
Simplified data filtering experience in named lists
Add contextual label fields to named lists for improved data visibility, efficient filtering of data, and understanding of the relationships and context associated with the displayed values. For more information, see Facilitating-data-entry-through-named-lists .
Create search filters for BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced
When using BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround as a search provider for BMC Helix Digital Workplace Advanced, create filters to narrow down the search results in workplace pages. When your end users use these filters to search for knowledge articles, the workplace page returns only those articles that meet the search criteria. Your end users benefit from using these search filters in the following ways:
- Quickly find the required knowledge articles.
- View only articles that are relevant and available to the end users.
- Get a personalized user experience.
For more information, see Creating-search-filters-for-BMC-applications.
Eliminate the need to create multiple search filters for different user groups
BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround supports search filters to narrow down the search results in BMC applications. You can create and use dynamic tags in these search filters. Dynamic tags eliminate the need to manually create multiple search filters for different user groups and automate the filtering process. For more information, see Creating-search-filters-for-BMC-applications.
An externalized unique Key Encryption Key (KEK) for the Field ID 123
The Key encryption key (KEK) provides better access control and avoids unauthorized data decryption. The KEK is used for encrypting or decrypting the Data Encryption Key (DEK).
You can use the DEK for the following purposes:
- Encrypt the data stored in the reserved field with Field ID123.
- Encrypt all character fields for which encryptDataAtRest field or the Store Encrypted field object property is selected.
The KEK is stored in a Kubernetes secret, inside a Kubernetes cluster.
For example: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/
Automate Google Cloud Platform resource provisioning with ease
By using BMC Helix Innovation Suite , you can automate the creation of Google Cloud Platform (GCP) virtual machines and storage buckets. Maximize efficiency by ensuring rapid, error-free, and consistent resource provisioning. For more information, see Automating-the-creation-of-virtual-machines-and-storage-accounts-by-using-GCP.
What else changed in BMC Helix Innovation Suite
The following table lists the changes in the product behavior:
Update | Product behavior in versions earlier than 23.3 | Product behavior in version 23.3 |
---|---|---|
BMC Helix Cognitive Automation renamed to AI Service Management (Categorization and Classification). | Leverage cognitive capabilities and automate manual tasks in an application by using BMC Helix Cognitive Automation. | BMC Helix Cognitive Automation is renamed to AI Service Management (Categorization and Classification). This name change will be updated on all documentation pages. If you have bookmarked these pages, you must update them with the new links. For more information, see Leveraging-cognitive-capabilities-in-your-application . |
The password policy is applied on the password created for the new user | The password policy is not applicable when an administrator creates password for a new user. | To enhance the security of your environment, an administrator must follow the password policy while creating the password for a new user. The password policy is enforced in either of the following scenarios:
For more information, see Forcing-users-to-change-their-passwords. |
Right-click an action button to open the view in a new window. | When you right-click an action button, the option to open the view in a new window is not available. | When you right-click an action button, you gain the ability to open the view in a new window. This feature provides a convenient and efficient way for users to access content without disrupting their ongoing browsing activities. |
Use record definitions to find information about folders and subfolders created in BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround. | In BMC Helix Innovation Studio, administrators couldn't find information about folders and subfolders created in BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround. | Administrators can use the following record definitions to find information about folders and subfolders created in BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround during the knowledge base synchronization:
For more information, see Synchronizing-the-knowledge-bases. |
Migrated article links point to articles in BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround | In knowledge articles synchronized with BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround, the links to other articles redirected users outside of BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround and back to a BMC application, from where the articles were migrated. | In knowledge articles synchronized with BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround, the links to other articles redirect users to the corresponding knowledge articles in BMC Helix Knowledge Management by ComAround. |
Ability to define the socket timeout for calls other than the search and delete operations | NA | To avoid wait intervals, use the ElasticSearch-Normal-Timeout parameter in Centralized Configuration to define the socket timeout for the following operations:
For more information about the ElasticSearch-Normal-Timeout parameter, see Configuration-settings-E-M. |
Ability to view HTML source when displaying rich text | You cannot view the HTML source in a rich-text enabled field. | In rich text fields, click Source to view the HTML source of the rich text. |
Loader icon when viewing tables in PWA screens. | Application users did not see a loader icon when tables were loading. | Application users see a loader icon whenever tables are loading. |
Ability to define how the search engine will match the search terms in a named list and display the results. | When you type in a field associated with a named list, the search engine displays all the values containing that character. Selecting the required value from the list might be difficult if there are too many records. | In a named list, you can define the search behavior to display the results that start with or match the search term. The search results are refined, and only the values that match the criterion are displayed. For more information, see Facilitating-data-entry-through-named-lists. |
Ability to specify cache disk space and heap memory for Email Engine | Email Engine fetches user data from the database with every request, causing performance issues. | Specify the cache disk space and heap memory for Email Engine by using the following Centralized Configuration parameters:
Setting these parameters reduces the number of database requests, thus improving the overall Email Engine performance. For more information about these parameters, see Configuration-settings-C-D. |
Map response header while fetching data from a third-party application by using a REST API | NA | You can map response headers to field values when using the REST API to fetch data from a third-party application, thereby avoiding multiple calls to a third-party application. For more information, see To define request response mapping. |
BMC Helix CMDB enhancements
Attributes to store end-of-product-support information
Store and view the end-of-support dates for the hardware and software products in your environment. The following attributes are added under the BMC_BaseElement class in the Common Data Model:
- EndOfExtendedSupport
- EndOfLife
- EndOfSecuritySupport
- EndOfSupport
The information for these attributes is populated by BMC Discovery. For more information, see Summary-of-changes-to-the-Common-Data-Model.
What else changed in BMC Helix CMDB
The following table lists the changes in the product behavior:
Update | Product behavior in versions earlier than 23.3 | Product behavior in version 23.3 |
---|---|---|
UI enhancements in CMDB Explorer |
|
|
UI changes in CMDB Portal | You can access the flash-based Atrium Core Console and Atrium Integrator from CMDB Portal > Atrium Core as shown in the following image: | You cannot access the flash-based UI components. You can access only the following CMDB components:
For more details, see User-interface-overview. |