Tracking application usage and generating reports for BMC Helix Innovation Suite applications

Administrators can track user activity in BMC Helix Innovation Studio applications to derive metrics and generate reports to understand if end users are fully utilizing the applications. By monitoring the application metrics, administrators can get answers to the following questions and make informed decisions:

  • How much of the application do the users use?
  • How many unique users logged in to an application in a given month or over a period of time?

Administrators can leverage the out-of-the-box BMC Helix Innovation Studio events, event statistics, and reports by using BMC Helix Dashboards or BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting.

Example

Your organization has an application for employees to claim reimbursements for business expenses. The application is configured to auto-approve a certain amount spent on business lunches by sales representatives. An administrator can track the application metrics and generate reports about the number of auto-approvals that were successful in a month.

Related topic

Viewing-and-generating-application-reports-in-BMC-Helix-Dashboards

Before you begin

Make sure to review the following points:

  • You have the BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting license. For more information, see Getting started.
  • The administrator has enabled access to the reporting dashboard. 
  • You have configured the Helix-Portal-URL setting in Configuration-settings-E-M.
  • You have permission to access and generate reports in BMC Helix Dashboards. 
    For more information, see Roles and permissions in BMC Helix Dashboards documentation. 

Out-of-the-box events, event statistics, and reports

The following table lists the out-of-the-box events, event statistics, and reports: 

Event name and description

Event attributes

Event Statistics for the Event

Reports and their example

com.bmc.dsm.innovationsuite.activity_

useractivitytracking

  • UserName
  • CreatedDate
  • SessionId
  • Application
  • UriPath
  • UserLicenseType

com.bmc.dsm.innovationsuite.activity_

useractivitytrackingstatistics

Example of activity report for user session count

Activity report for user session count and application.png

Example of user activity

Pie chart for User activity.png

To access and generate reports in BMC Helix Dashboards

  1. Log in to BMC Helix Innovation Studio.
  2. On the Workspace tab, click Application launcher.png and select BMC Helix Dashboards.
    Launch BMC Helix Dashboards.png 
  3. In BMC Helix Dashboards, create and set up a dashboard. 
    For more information, see BMC Helix Innovation Studio in BMC Helix Dashboards documentation.
  4. Use the BMC Helix Dashboards capabilities to create reports and charts.
    For more information, see Using dashboards in BMC Helix Dashboards documentation.


Troubleshooting report generation or viewing issues

The following table provides the troubleshooting steps if users are unable to generate or view reports:

Scenario

Troubleshooting steps

  • Unable to view BMC Helix Dashboards option in Application launcher.png
  • Unable to view data in the reports for a specific application
  • Unable to generate custom reports
  • Make sure that you have configured the Helix-Portal-URL setting in Configuration-settings-E-M.
  • Make sure that you have permission to access and generate reports in BMC Helix Dashboards. 
    For more information, seeRoles and permissions in BMC Helix Dashboards documentation. 
  • Unable to access the Reports link
  • Unable to view data in the reports for a specific application
  • Unable to generate custom reports
  • Make sure you assign Fixed or Floating licenses to the users. For more information, see Creating-and-modifying-users.
  • Make sure you have application business analyst permissions for all the applications you want to generate reports for.


 

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