ITSM - General: BMC Remedy Co-Founder on Mobile ITSM

Now, it’s the time to watch an interesting video.

BMC’s CTO, Chief Software Architect and Co-Founder of Remedy, Doug Mueller talks about Mobile ITSM (IT Service Management).

A key point I noted from this video was that Doug believes, going Mobile ITSM does not mean putting all those thousand fields on your helpdesk into the mobile screen and scrolling up and down! Instead, having only what you want while you are away from your work station or what you might need for a quick update on the move in your iPhone or Blackberry screen is what is going to be. Of course, that makes sense!

Find below the video “BMC Remedy Co-Founder Talks Mobile ITSM”

Enjoy!

Cheers,

ITSM: Expert: Multi Tenancy in BMC Remedy ITSM - Unleashed!

What is Multi-Tenancy?

Multi-tenancy is a BMC Remedy IT Service Management (ITSM) feature that enables the administrators to control access to Data and Configuration based on the value in Company field in ITSM. Company field can contain company name, department name or business unit name or similar entities using which the access rights to be segregated.

There are other ITSM applications (non-BMC Remedy) as well that supports Multi-tenancy.

How to configure Multi-Tenancy?

Three Simple Steps…

Step 1: Set Tenancy Mode to Multi-Tenancy

Open the System Settings form in ITSM and change the value in Tenancy Mode drop down to Multi-Tenancy. Tenancy Mode in Remedy ITSM is set to Multi-Tenancy as the default value during installation.

Step 2: Configure Companies

Open the Company form and configure the companies.

Only the following company types can be used for Multi-tenancy.

· Customer Company

· Operating Company

· Vendor Company

Configure business units as Company (Use multi-tier structure in advanced Configuration tab if needed) if you have to use it as the criteria for segregation. Configure both companies and business units as company using multi-tier structure if you want multiple companies and multiple business units under them to be used for Multi Tenancy.

Step 3: Configure Access Rights for People

In People form Open the People record> General Tab> Access Restrictions Table – add the Companies that the user needs access to. Clear the Unrestricted Access check box unless the user wants access to ALL Companies configured in ITSM.

That’s it! Now the user will have access to only the records with either Customer Company, Contact Company or Service Type (for Incidents Only) company matching any of the companies configured in his People record.

How it works?

For every Company configured in BMC Remedy ITSM, a corresponding Group created in Group form. As you add the company to a user’s people record, corresponding Group ID is added to Group List his record in User form. Now all that ITSM does is, add the Group ID to the Assignee Group field (Field ID 112) in the record (e.g. Incident). Because of the AR System behaviour that the user whose group is in Field 112 will have access to that record, the Multi-tenancy user gets access to the records belonging to his companies.

ITSM: General: Why You Should Take a Holistic Approach to ITIL® and Service Support - BMC

Read the interesting article “Why You Should Take a Holistic Approach to ITIL® and Service Support - BMC” by Doug Mueller of BMC (Chief Technology Officer at BMC Software, Founder of Remedy Software) in the below link.

http://www.bmc.com/usa/promotions/attachments/21590_december_itss_insights_article-itil-3383.html

Cheers

ITSM: Expert: CA's (ca) ITSM Solutions; BMC's Cloud Strategy

It was interesting to hit this blog in CA's (Computer Associates) portal, while browsing through ITSM related stuff in Google. Though of marketing mix, a glance at the blog will help BMC Remedy ITSM experts to think out-of-the-(Remedy)-box at times and shall give them an opportunity to see where other vendors are heading to.

http://community.ca.com/blogs/itil/default.aspx

While Cloud computing is expected to introduce a huge boom in ITSM market, because of SaaS and PaaS, and venors are gearing up to make the most of it, an intersting recent news was about CA's acquisition of Oblicore. Though CA had a Service Level Management (SLM) application in theri portfolio, Oblicore is expected to integrate with their other ITSM products and provide better SLM capabilities.

Read more about it: http://www.ca.com/files/IndustryAnalystReports/opinionwire_25jan10_ca_oblicore_227781.pdf

http://www.ca.com/files/IndustryAnalystReports/ptaknoel_ca_oblicore_commentary_226048.pdf


Finally, see what are BMC's plans around cloud computing

http://www.bmc.com/cloud/

http://documents.bmc.com/products/documents/32/99/133299/133299.pdf

Happy reading!
Cheers.

ARS: General: BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.6.03 Beta Customer Program

The following posted in BMC Communities on May 04, 2010 by David Easter announcing the launch of ARS 7.6.03 Beta program may be of interest to ARS geeks! Read the excerpt below follow the link to read the complete post.

http://communities.bmc.com/communities/thread/42478
Enjoy!

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Excerpt from the post...

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What's new in BMC Remedy Action Request System 7.6.03?

The following are some of the high level enhancements currently expected to be part of AR System 7.6.03:

• Ad-hoc graphical reporting

- Enables graphical reporting through the web client without requiring SAP (Business Objects / Crystal Reports)

- Benefit: No additional cost to customer for simple reporting on the web

• Overlays

- Enforces best practice development within Developer Studio

- Preserves customizations during upgrade of AR System powered applications

- Benefit: Protects business investment in customizations

• Improved User Experience

- New home page including end-user personalization options

- Drag and Drop between tables and fields

- Rich Text Formatting support

- Cut/Paste into attachments

- Fly-out menus

- Panel resizing based on content

- Benefits: Richer User Experience

• Increased 64-bit Support

- AR System will run as a 64-bit executable when installed on Windows 64-bit OS

- AR System will optionally support 64-bit JVM and 64-bit application servers

- Benefit: Take advantage of extended memory on 64-bit servers, increasing capacity and stability

• Enhanced Search Engine

- Provides a centralized search capability for Full Text Search and ITSM Suite

- Benefit: Centralized administration of search capabilities

• Advanced Developer Tools

- Documentation and Graphical Workflow visualization in Developer Studio

- Enhanced Search and Analysis abilities

- Benefit: Developers become more efficient, utilities centralized in one tool

• L10N Improvements

- Introduces a Localization Toolkit for AR System

- Benefit: Enables partners and customers to more quickly localize applications

ARS: Intermediate: Field Reference in AR System Filter Qualifications: Using TR. and DB.

You can specify a field reference in BMC Remedy AR System filter qualifications in three ways:

field - Filters have the native capacity of checking both the current transaction and then the database values of fields against the conditions in the qualification. i.e., unless restricted using one of TR. or DB. prefixes, Filters check the transaction value of the field in the current transaction first and if that is NULL, then uses the database value.

The value of a field in the current transaction will be NULL if the value has not been modified after the last retrieval. This helps Action Request System in achieving the best performance while transferring data from client to server.

TR.field - If field reference in a Filter is specified like this, the Database value of the field is ignored while evaluating the qualification, even if the value in current Transaction is NULL. As stated earlier, the transaction value of the field remains NULL if the field value has not changed in the current transaction.

This option is often used by AR System Developers to make the Filter perform the actions ONLY IF the field value is modified in the current transaction.

DB. field - If the field is referred with a prefix DB. , the Filter evaluates only the value existing in the Database value while parsing the qualifications. Value in current transaction is ignored irrespective of it is NULL or not.

If you specify only the field without prefixes, the database value is ignored every time if there is a non-NULL value in the current transaction.

I have heard a belief among developers that the usage of TR. or DB. is not recommended. I am not yet sure about the reason why it is not recommended. However, if you use it without properly understanding the meaning of each field reference strategy, you might end up spending some extra time in debugging it. J . Also remember that the prefixes TR. and DB. are limiting a Filter’s native capability to check both transaction and database value in sequence, which may not be desirable always.

Key Words: Remedy AR System Filter Qualifications, Writing Filter Qualifications in BMC Remedy Action Request System Filters, Using TR. and DB. in Filter Qualifications. Field Reference in AR System Filter Qualifications, Field Referencing in ARS, Remedy ARS filter qualifications.

ARS: Intermediate: Writing Better Workflow Qualificaitons

Having an eye on query performance right from the first days of your programming is better. Practice good habits from day one! Thus, later you may not have to pay attention to assure that your code is not the reason for slow performance! I have seen fresh AR System developers writing Workflow without any Run If at all. I have seen them choosing more than necessary Execute On conditions to make sure that the Active Link or Filter will execute in all possible scenarios when they are not sure which conditions shall meet their purpose.

After visiting the production floor of one of the BPO customers in India back in 2007, I felt the 'crime' that a developer does while compromising on application performance is more humanitarian than technical. We spoke to the end users while my team was working on the performance tuning of the application. Most of the BPO agents were complaining that their Performance Appraisals are affected by application slowness. Another group complained that they are not meeting the criteria for performance incentives because the application eats their time. Another group said they started hating their job because their productive hours were spent waiting for the application to respond after every click. They all said one common concern, the application made all of them get lesser incentives, that is application eats all their money and job satisfaction.

Even experienced guys often forget to think about avoiding table scan while writing qualifications.

Some of those to avoid are…

The != Operator

Searches using the != operator check every record to see if the value is NOT contained. Indexes on a field are not used in this case. Searching by what you are looking for gives better performance that what you are not looking for.

Quoting the example given in BMCs documentation: you can rewrite the search qualification ’Status’ != "Closed" to 'Status' < "Closed" to improve the use of an index.

The != operator does not match entries in which the value for the field is NULL. You must explicitly include a test for NULL to find NULL values.

Wildcards in front of search terms

Searches that begin with a leading wildcard (for example, 'Submitter' LIKE

"%John%") does not use the index but scans the database for every record containing the word John. But the search searches with trailing wildcards are valid and use indexes. for example 'Submitter' LIKE “John%" utilizes the indexing.

Poorly written arithmetic operations

Try to use the indexed field on the left side of the equation,

as in the following qualification: 'Create Date' < $TIMESTAMP$ -60*60*24.

Avoid unqualified Run If statements for escalations.

An unqualified Run If statement for an escalation performs an unqualified query to the database table and execute the If actions for every request found in the form. Server performance is especially degraded for unqualified Run If statements in escalations that are set to run at frequent intervals, because the server must search the database every time the escalation is run.

Some of the other query optimization techniques are…

1) Creating effective indices

Index frequently searched(either workflow or by user) fields.

Tip: Too many indices may cause adverse effect hence do indexing with caution.

2) Setting QBE Match to equal or leading

Note: This is done from field properties, ‘QBE Match’ Drop Down

3) Optimizing Menus

Select Refresh ‘On Open’ only when absolutely necessary. Unless you anticipate the data to change so frequently, choose Refresh ‘On Connect’ (this option refreshes menu entries when the form is opened)

For more information, download the ‘Optimizing and Troubleshooting Guide’ from BMC.

I would still say, knowing the performance tuning tips are not compulsory for anyone to do coding in BMC Remedy AR System. But it is vital to be effective in their profession.

Be responsible, do it right!

ARS: Beginner : Putting Your First Steps in Remedy AR System

For those who are not yet part of an AR System development team but still want to learn Remedy and move closer to or into Remedy AR System development: What are the prerequisites to put your first steps (hands-on) in Remedy?

There are no prerequisites as such! It’s all your willingness and inspiration to read and experiment.

If you are so specific about checking a readiness to do get hands on or if you are someone who doesn’t have the confidence to do it even after doing enough reading, check whether you know the following.

1) Forms

Theoretical understanding of the three main form types, Regular, Display only and Join.

Core fields. (Note: Core fields cannot be deleted; they can be disabled or hidden)

2) Fields

Character fields and Integer to begin with. Rest are nice to haves on your first day.

3) Active Links and Filters.

If you understand why to have Run If, Execute On, Execution Order and Form Name in the workflow.

Familiarity with key Active Link and Filter Actions (If you want to start simplest, go for Set Fields, Push Fields, Change Fields (ALs only), Open Window (ALs only, If you find the field mapping in Open Window confusing you, leave it aside).

Nice to haves at this stage: Understand theoretical basics of Escalations, Workflow Permissions (in Permissions tab), and Understanding of more Active link/Filter actions.

If you have been serious about learning Remedy, I am sure you know much more than this. That means you are more than good to go hands on.

Something to do in the first day:

· Have a very simple logical flow in mind. Today you are going to build that in Action Request System.

· I would ask you to start in your first experiment only with a Regular form.

· Create your Regular form. Core fields are already there. Add a couple of new fields in-line with the flow you have planned. Play around with the fields, add them, align them, realign, use Trim fields (boxes, lines, text etc) to enhance the view. (Let the GUI designer in you enjoy the first hand on the Remedy!)

· If you already possess theoretical understanding of table fields, put one and experiment. If you think it is not too much on the first day.

· Add buttons, tables or so. Write workflow on them as required by the design already have in mind.

If you have done at least 80% of what you wanted to build when you stared, take it as success. Read further and experiment further. There is no limit, go on…

All of BMC’s AR System and ITSM (IT Service Management) documentation are simple and illustrative. You can depend on them to dig a bit deeper even if you do not have a ‘sandpit’ AR System Server at this stage. A few days later when you feel enough confident and have enough time, install your own AR Server and live like a king in your world of Remedy.

Experiment, Try, Practice..Whatever you call, that is what it takes!

Log analysis is a key skill for AR System Developers. Try to enable logs and try to understand them.

Tip: Though not mandatory (technically) at any stage, good if you make it a practice to write change history and help text as applicable, whenever you create and modify new objects. This habit will help later when you start working in large development teams.

I am yet to explore much of AR System and ITSM version 7.5 and above. It seems I have to wait a couple of months to get that natural opportunity or time to do it in away from work. Thus most of the things I write in this blog may be more specific to versions pre 7.5.

Disclaimer

Disclaimer:

Writer of this blog does not have designated authority on ITSM, Remedy or anything else discussed here.mPlease note that this blog is fully independent and written with the intention of sharing knowledge. The blog is not affiliated to or approved or authorized by BMC Software, blog author's employers, clients or any other entity. All copyrighted content (or such content referenced in the blog) are owned and controlled by relevant copyright owners.