Version 2022 - Build 2022.1.109.0.03
(19/04/2022 SaaS - 26/04/2022 On-Premises)

Service Apps templates

New vertical templates

New vertical templates are now available. They are included in a package that presents the same template in three different formats that can be used for three different approaches:

• Portal for users
• Dashboard app for managers
• Back Office app for the Support team
   

Human Resources vertical template: Specific to human resource management

User portal		Dashboard		Back Office
Portal for helping users find answers to their questions or solutions to their problems using the Self Help portal and a virtual agent. Users can also monitor their activity and read corporate news articles.		Dashboard for HR managers.		Back Office app displaying the list of actions to be processed by the HR team.

Facilities vertical template: Specific to general services management

User portal		Dashboard		Back Office
Portal for helping users find answers to their questions or solutions to their problems using the Self Help portal and a virtual agent. Users can also monitor their activity and read corporate news articles.		Dashboard for general services managers.		Back Office app used by the Support team to manage tickets and actions related to general services and find solutions to problems using the Self Help portal and a Service Bots virtual agent.

New dashboards

ITOM template: Template with multiple dashboards that display trends and reports related to the network, infrastructure, IT support and security.
       

Customer Service Dashboard template: Template with multiple dashboards displaying performance indicators and objectives related to the quality of service, processes, customer satisfaction and digitalization.
       

What's new in templates

• The CSS for all templates has been minified to reduce the code file size, load times and bandwidth usage. Minification optimizes performance when displaying apps.

• Three new functionalities have been added to the Mobile Tech Support template.
  • Suspend action: Used to change the status of a ticket to On Hold.
  • Reopen ticket: Used to change the status of a ticket to In Progress.
  • Transfer action: Used to transfer an action to a group or Support person.

New Intelligent Knowledge Suggestions (IKS) functionality

The aim of this new Service Apps functionality is to automate the submission of customer tickets by proposing Self Help content and procedures to help users analyze and solve their incidents by themselves. Users can, however, create a ticket if the solutions proposed do not solve their problem.

• Intelligent Knowledge Suggestions is an artificial intelligence technology that enables a system to learn and improve using the data made available to it.
• The implementation of the Intelligent Knowledge Suggestions functionality in Service Apps is based on the new Pattern Recognition functionality implemented in Self Help version 2022 that enables the use of the machine learning ticket classification tool.  See Overview of what's new in Self Help

• (1): Field for entering the user request.

• (2): List of results from the Knowledge Base. Click one of the results to open the relevant Self Help procedure.
         

• (3): Link used to create a ticket with the category (type) associated with the result.
         

• (4): Link used to create a standard ticket without a category.
         
   

Operating principle

• An algorithm will perform the classification using the history of tickets stored in the Self Help Knowledge Base and group them based on the categories and key terms they contain.
  • Customer issues are identified using the words contained in ticket descriptions. General terms, such as hello, thank you, company name and address, that obscure the key terms, are excluded.
  • The algorithm uses the constantly updated ticket history. The more extensive this history, the more precise the analysis. Results proposed by the Knowledge Base will therefore be more relevant.

• Service Apps is the communication interface between the Self Help Knowledge Base and the user interface using the machine learning API.
  • When users select a suggestion and then create a ticket because they were unable to solve their problem, the new ticket will automatically be preloaded with the category associated with the suggestion. The description entered by users will automatically be loaded to the ticket creation form.
  • If there are no results and users subsequently create a new ticket, the standard ticket creation form will appear without any preloaded category. Users must then select the category.
  • The new ticket will be logged in the history of tickets and will be included in the algorithm's continuous learning process.

Implementation principle
The implementation of the Intelligent Knowledge Suggestions functionality in a Service Apps app requires several widgets and data sources.

• Self Help Procedure widget (new widget): This enables users to enter their request in natural language before retrieving the key information from the ticket.
• Data Viewer widget: Used to display results relevant to the user request that are returned by the Self Help Knowledge Base.
• Self Help Data Procedure data source (new data source): Used to link the Self Help connector, the Self Help Procedure widget and the Data Viewer widget.
• EasyVista Self Help data source: Used to open Self Help procedures in Service Apps.
         

Note: A new table called SA_LANGUAGES has been added to store the language to be sent to Self Help. As such, the language has been removed from translation files.
 

New IKS Integration custom widget
To facilitate the implementation of the Intelligent Knowledge Suggestions functionality in a Service Apps app, a new custom widget called IKS Integration has been created. It enables you to install the required widgets and data sources quickly.

• The custom widget contains the widgets and data sources required for running a search in the Self Help Knowledge Base and returning results that are relevant to the user request.
• It also contains a Secured HTML widget for creating a ticket if the results returned do not solve the issue.
         
   

Properties of widgets and data sources for the IKS functionality

• Self Help Procedure widget (new widget)
            

Data Datasource: Name of the Self Help Data Procedure data source to which the widget is pointing. Theme: Graphic configuration of the field containing the search text. Button Setup: Method for running the search, i.e. automatically or using a button. Show Button: Used to indicate if the search is run automatically (box is not checked) or if users must first click the search button (box is checked). By default, this option is not checked in order to offer a more dynamic search. The button display complies with accessibility requirements. In manual search mode, you must click the button each time you modify the search text in order to see new results. Options available in automatic search mode: Time Before Search: Idle time (in seconds) with no detected keyboard activity after which the search is automatically run. Characters Before Search: Number of characters entered after which the search is automatically run.

• Self Help Data Procedure data source (new data source)

Content Self Help Alias/Connector: Self Help connector used by the data source to access Self Help. EasyVista Alias/Connector: EasyVista IT Service Manager connector used by the data source to access Service Manager. No Data Message: Message displayed when there are no results.

• EasyVista Self Help data source (new option)

Content Type: A new Widget option is used to link the EasyVista Self Help data source and the Self Help Data Procedure data source, and open the Self Help procedure selected from the list of results.

Other enhancements

Contextual information sent to Self Help and Service Bots

A Service Apps app can now send information to a Self Help portal or Service Bots virtual agent to contextualize and customize the display of the Self Help procedure or the discussion with the virtual agent.

Uses

• Open a Self Help procedure directly using the ticket number and display its description in the procedure. You can also close it in Self Help

• Open the Service Bots virtual agent directly using the keyword corresponding to the ticket type

Characteristics

• Data sent by Service Apps can be static data, i.e. values entered by users, or dynamic data, i.e. values loaded from Service Manager via an EasyVista Self Help or EasyVista Virtual Agent data source.
• Data is retrieved by Self Help via the input parameters of procedures.
• Different data can be sent at the same time by Service Apps.
• If the data source is also used by a Data Viewer widget, the data sent will correspond to the record selected by users.
   

Implementation principle

• Add a Self Help widget to your app to send information to Self Help or add a Virtual Agent widget to send information to Service Bots.
• Specify the contextual information to be sent to Self Help or Service Bots in the new section of the widget called Contextual Information. Click Add Item to add different data.
  • If you select a data source to pass dynamic values, you should select the column in the Datasource Columns field. In the Context Key field, specify the key value for defining the link with Self Help.
  • If you do not select a data source, you should specify the static value in the Context Value field. Note: This is a multilingual field.
           
• Note: Service Apps contextual information is used in Service Manager via the app's exposed properties.
         
         

Addition of new measurement units

New measurement units are now available. They improve the responsiveness of Service Apps apps. Objects can now be positioned more precisely, especially when a zoom is applied.

• Measurement units are applicable to the Height, Size, Padding and Margin properties in widgets and in skins.

• Note: The new measurement units are not available in the Self Help widget.
   

Uses
Ensure that the entire Home page of the portal is always displayed, irrespective of the zoom level or device used by the user.
       
 

List of new measurement units

• Absolute measurement units
  • px: Pixel
  • in: Inch
  • cm: Centimeter
  • mm: Millimeter 
  • %: Percentage relative to the parent item

    example  If a parent item's size is 50px, the size of the child item defined as 50% will be 25px.

• Measurement units relative to the screen size (viewport)
  • vh: Unit based on the screen height. 100vh corresponds to the entire screen height.
  • vw: Unit based on the screen width. 100vw corresponds to the entire screen width.

• Measurement units relative to fonts
  • pt: Point
  • em: Unit proportionate to the parent item's font size, or document font size if the font size is not specified. 1em = 16px if no font size is specified.
  • rem: Unit referring to the font size of the root item. This depends on the default font size defined in the <body> tag.

• Measurement units that calculate values using mathematical operators, e.g. multiplication, division, addition, subtraction, as well as all measurement units available.
  • These units can be used as variables and are fully compatible with CSS variables in the __Root widget.
  • Spaces between operators are mandatory.
  • The measurement unit must be specified in the formula. The default unit is pixel.

Customizable logo in the login window

You can now modify the logo in the login window. 

Implementation principle

• Go to the /var/www/argo/dist/resources/theme/logo/ folder on your server.
• Replace the image file with your logo file.
  Caution: Do not modify the image name.
  Note: The logo will also be modified in the App Gallery.
   

Login window		App Gallery