Incident brokering

When organizations utilize services from multiple vendors, managing incidents across multiple ticket management systems presents a challenge to effective service management. BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Service Management facilitates efficient service management by integrating Remedy IT Service Management (ITSM) and BMC Helix IT Service Management (ITSM) with cloud service providers (for example AWS). 

When a service desk agent creates an incident in Remedy ITSM, BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Service Management creates a corresponding vendor application ticket with the appropriate cloud service provider (for example AWS). Notes and the status of the incident as well as the vendor application ticket are updated in both applications. The Smart IT console displays the vendor application ticket ID as a link that opens the ticket in the vendor ticket management system.

BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Service Management provides the incident brokering feature for the following:

• Amazon AWS
• Salesforce Service Cloud
• Multiple instances of Remedy ITSM

Configuring BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Service Management for incident brokering enables the following actions:

• Automatic creation of a ticket with the vendor application when an incident is created in Smart IT.
• Notifications for status updates, so that changes in the status of an incident are synchronized between Remedy ITSM and the vendor application.
• Updates to incident notes in the Remedy ITSM incident as well as in the vendor application ticket.

Using BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Service Management without Smart IT

You can integrate BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Service Management with vendor ticketing systems without using Smart IT.  Instead of the Smart IT console, you can use Remedy Mid-Tier to view incidents. When working without Smart IT, you cannot view the vendor ticket details. However, you can view the work logs to verify that tickets are being brokered.  When working without Smart IT, BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Service Management supports all available features except the sending of an activity note from Remedy ITSM to the vendor application ticket.

Incident brokering with BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Service Management

BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Service Management uses connectors, flows, and processes to create vendor tickets.

Remedy ITSM to Vendor ticketing system

The following diagram illustrates the flow between Remedy ITSM and the vendor ticketing system:

Connector: A connector is an integration (connection point) with a BMC application or a third-party application. Connectors are configured in BMC Helix Integration Service.

Flow: A flow is a connection between two connectors that enables you to accomplish a certain task. A triggering event in the source application causes an action to take place in the target application. Flows are configured in BMC Helix Integration Service.

Process: A process uses rules and actions to implement the business logic for a given business use case. Processes are configured in BMC Helix Platform.

The out-of-the-box configuration requires minimal changes for most scenarios. As a BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Service Management Administrator, you can customize the configuration based on your organization's requirements.

How a vendor ticket is created automatically

The following diagram illustrates how BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Service Management uses connectors, flows, and processes when an incident is created:

How status and activity notes are updated in BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Service Management

• When a service desk agent adds a comment to the incident ticket in Smart IT and clicks Share with AWS/Salesforce, the comment is added to the vendor application ticket.
• For fields mapped when you specify the technology provider and field mapping during vendor data configuration:
  • When a field is updated in Remedy ITSM, BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Service Management updates the corresponding vendor application ticket with a comment mentioning the field name with the new and existing values. 
  • Any updates to fields in the vendor application ticket are reflected in the corresponding Remedy ITSM incident fields. 
  • A Remedy incident is marked as resolved when the vendor ticket is closed, based on the option you select during the vendor data configuration. 
• For Salesforce Service Cloud:
  • When a Case Comment is added to a Salesforce Service Cloud ticket, Smart IT displays the comment as an activity note for the corresponding incident.
  • When a service desk agent adds an attachment to an activity note in Remedy ITSM, BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Service Management adds the attachment to the case in Service Cloud. The text from the activity note is added to Case Comment. Similarly, when an attachment is added to a case in Service Cloud, BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Service Management creates an activity note and adds the attachment to the corresponding incident in Remedy ITSM. The file size of the attachments depends on the limitations specified in Remedy ITSM and the Service Cloud application. The Multi-Cloud connector does not support attachments that are larger than 50 MB.
• When a Remedy ITSM incident is Canceled, Closed, or Resolved, the corresponding vendor application ticket is Closed.

• Status changes to a vendor application ticket are reflected as an activity note on the Remedy ITSM incident. Activity notes display the vendor ticket numbers and the author of the note. Following are formats of the activity notes added:

  From a vendor to Remedy ITSM	Note added from <vendor> ticket <vendor ticket id as URL> by <vendor user first last names>
  From Remedy ITSM to vendor	Remedy user <remedy user first last name>, added a work note: <work note text>

Where to go from here

To configure incident brokering, see Configuring-BMC-Helix-Multi-Cloud-Service-Management.