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Remedyforce Winter 2021 is out!

RightStar TeamMarch 4, 2021

It is out! Winter 2021 is now GA. As always, BMC will push the upgrade to your org; this release is scheduled to be pushed on April 9, 2021 (see the schedule here: https://docs.bmc.com/docs/display/public/REMF/Release+schedules ). But of course, you can always self-upgrade by going to appexchange.salesforce.com, searching for Remedyforce, and installing the new version! I did that yesterday, myself. As always, I could keep on working in my org while the upgrade happened; about 20 minutes after requesting it, I got an email and could start enabling the new feature.

Release notes are here if you want the full list –  https://docs.bmc.com/docs/BMCHelixRemedyforce/202101/en/20-21-01-enhancements-976137436.html but here are MY favorite things about this release.

See what customers are searching for

Have you ever wondered what search phrases your customers are using in the self-service portal? Now you can capture them and report on the searches!

To enable, go to Remedyforce Administration > Configure Self Service > Search and check the box “Enable Tracking of Self Service search history” (Note: this could use up space in your org, so see the release notes about how to delete older data – https://docs.bmc.com/docs/BMCHelixRemedyforce/202101/en/configuring-search-settings-for-self-service-976138614.html ).

 

 

Once you have that set, there is a new Dashboard – Self Service Dashboard – to monitor the searches. This can help you make sure you fill any gaps with knowledge articles or service requests.

 

Dynamic Field Rendering

My next favorite thing is dynamic field rendering. YES! We can finally show/hide fields based on earlier data on Incidents and Service Requests! (Change and Task aren’t included yet.) Documentation is here – https://docs.bmc.com/docs/BMCHelixRemedyforce/202101/en/setting-up-dynamic-field-rendering-for-tickets-976138596.html?src=search . (Go to Remedyforce Administration/Application Settings, Consoles, Create/Edit Layout; Click on a Layout and check the box “Enable Dynamic Field Rendering,” and click on “Define Conditions”.)  Here’s how I set up a test in my org. I decided to show/hide my custom Contract field based on Account. Note: the field that drives the show/hide behavior has to be before the field that you want to show or hide. There are some other caveats as well in the documentation. But overall – awesome!

Here is the field showing because I picked Universal Company as the account:

And now it’s gone when I pick Acme Company:

I have also created a custom formula field to hold the Layout Type; my thought is that I can have one field set for multiple layout types and hide/show fields based on the Layout Type. Here’s my custom field:

 

Enhanced Self-Service Interface

For those of you that are wanting bigger icons on the self-service portal, there is an enhanced interface available that includes those, plus spacious page layouts, descriptions for sidebar tiles, prominent and wider search boxes, center-aligned titles for the tiles, etc.  Select the Enable enhanced look and feel check box from Remedyforce Administration > Configuring Self Service > General Self Service Settings to see the difference.

Without the box checked:

With the box checked:

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Salesforce Experience

By the way – for those of you looking for more control over the self-service portal, Remedyforce customers have access to the Salesforce Experience tool (previously known as Community) if they are using it with internal users only. This can give you a lot of control over the end-user experience, and you can embed service requests on the Experience page. Our service people can help you set this up! Here are a couple of samples that the BMC Product Manager put together:

 

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That’s it for me for today! Again, release notes are here – https://docs.bmc.com/docs/BMCHelixRemedyforce/202101/en/20-21-01-enhancements-976137436.html . Enjoy the new release!