Date, time, and time zone display

As a service desk agent, date and time is immensely important to you when you monitor Service Level Agreements (SLAs) against the progress of tickets. It helps you efficiently track and receive updates related to tickets. BMC Helix ITSM displays date and time in two formats: relative and absolute. You can also configure the date and time format to be displayed in your preferred format by specifying your preference in the AR System User Preference form.

Progressive Web Application (PWA) and classic Smart IT display date and time in two formats: relative and absolute. However, PWA screens support the date based on the user's default browser settings in absolute format.

Relative date and time display format

In BMC Helix ITSM, by default, date and time for social data is displayed in relative format, such as 2 days ago and 3 hours ago. This social friendly format gives you a general idea about when an activity happened.

Date_Relative format.gif

You can view date and time in relative format in the following areas of BMC Helix ITSM:

Activity feed of tickets and resources
Updates feed
Chat messages
Related items of tickets and resources
Last updated details on the ticket profile

Absolute date and time display format

In all other areas by default, date and time is displayed in absolute format, such as Sep 15, 2016 6:00 PM. This format displays the exact date and time. It helps you determine the exact time left to meet the SLAs.

Date_Absolute format.gif

Service Delivery section on the Dashboard.
Tickets and articles listed under Recommended tickets and Recommended knowledge on the Resources tab.
Scheduled and actual start and end date and time on the task, change request, work order profile, and outage.
Start and end date and time on broadcasts.
Target date and time on problem investigation and known error ticket profiles.
Lifecycle dates on the asset profile.
Related items and outages of assets.
Date and time in the Last Modified Date column in the Knowledge console.
Date and time related columns on the Ticket console - Actual End Date, Actual Start Date, Completed Date, Resolved Date, Responded Date, Scheduled Start Date, Scheduled End Date, Submit Date, and Target Date.
Knowledge article version dates.
Date and time options under Custom Range when you perform global search and specify the Create Date and Last Modified Date filters.
Date and time related filters on the Ticket Console and Knowledge Console.

Date and time format as per user preference

You can configure the date and time format to display as per your preference. Use the AR System User Preference form to specify Long, Short, or Custom format for the date and time. To learn more about the date and time formats, see Date and time formats.

Time zone

By default, the language and time zone are defined by the locale setting of the user's browser and client system time settings. As a service desk agent, you can override the client system time zone settings and set the time zone in Progressive Web Application in the AR System User Preference form. For example, if your organization works in a specific time zone, the administrator can configure the CCS parameter to allow change of time zone, and you can modify the time zone in the AR System User Preference form, overriding the system time setting in favor of the corporate time zone.

To enable this feature, your administrator must set the useARUserPreferenceForTimezone CCS parameter to true. By default, this parameter value is set to false. For more information, see Setting-configuration-parameters-in-BMC-Helix-ITSM.

Important

This feature is not applicable for the Smart IT native mobile apps.
This feature applies only if Progressive Web Application screens are enabled. If Progressive Web Application screens are not enabled, the client system time is used in the classic Smart IT UI.

Daylights Savings Time

At the start of Daylight Savings Time, the clocks are moved forward by an hour from 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. You cannot select the time between 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. on the day Daylight Savings starts..

For example, the Daylight Savings Time starts in Australia on October 1, 2023 at 2:00 am. The clocks are moved forward by an hour and after 1.59 am, the clock automatically gets set to 3 am. Therefore, you cannot select the time between 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. on October 1, 2023.