TL;DR
Choose an incident for a failed service, and a service request for something you need provided.
Apply templates early, check assignment after saving, and record what the next analyst needs to continue.
Pending doesn't always pause a service-level agreement (SLA) clock, and resolution and closure are separate stages.
Before you follow a Helix tutorial, check whether it matches your screen. BMC's documentation covers Progressive Web App screens, classic Smart IT and Mid Tier, sometimes on the same page. A correct instruction for one can be confusing in another.
This BMC Helix ticketing system guide follows an analyst's incident from creation to closure using the 26.2 Progressive Web App screens. The documentation was checked in November 2026, and your organization's required fields and permissions still apply.
What Is the BMC Helix Ticketing System
BMC Helix ITSM is an IT service management platform for handling incidents, service requests, problems and changes, building on the Remedy ITSM product line, which explains why colleagues might still call it the Remedy ticketing system.
The analyst workspace and employee portal serve different jobs. BMC Helix Digital Workplace gives employees access to services and knowledge; analysts investigate and manage the resulting work in ITSM. Start with your organization's sign-in link, because there isn't one universal Helix login for every customer.
Which Kind of Ticket Should You Create
Choose the record according to the work you need to do. BMC's product overview separates these processes:
Record | Example | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
Incident | An employee's VPN has stopped connecting. | Restore service. |
Service request | A new employee needs VPN access. | Fulfill a requested service. |
Problem | The same VPN failure keeps returning. | Investigate and manage its underlying cause. |
Change | The team plans a VPN gateway update. | Assess and control the change. |
Use the relevant service catalog item for a request when one exists, so its configured approval and fulfillment workflow can run. An incident can be resolved with a workaround while a linked problem investigation continues; restoring service doesn't prove you've removed the cause.
How to Create and Handle an Incident
Suppose an employee's VPN disconnects immediately after sign-in. Start with what they observed, then build the record as you investigate.
1. Capture the Failure Before Choosing a Fix
Open Console > Ticket Console and search for an existing incident. If this employee already has an open incident for the same issue, update it. If another employee's report looks related, check the affected service and follow your team's procedure for linking outage reports.
To create the incident, select Create New > Incident and find the affected employee in Customer by name, email or corporate ID. Helix fills Company from that selection, and you can use Incident Template if an approved template fits the issue.
Choose the template before refining the fields, then check the values it supplies. Changing it can replace values the previous template filled, which is an easy way to lose a correction.
In Summary, describe the symptom: "VPN disconnects after sign-in on employee laptop." Use Description for the start time, exact error, affected users and checks already attempted. Include a working contact method and add relevant evidence with Attach Files. Select the appropriate Incident Type, checking any value supplied by a template.
2. Set Priority From the Business Impact
Select Impact and Urgency, then review Calculated priority. Helix calculates priority using weights and ranges configured by an administrator. Impact describes the effect on business processes, while urgency describes how soon that effect becomes significant.
Use your team's definitions, and explain the assessment in the ticket. For the VPN issue, establish whether the employee has an approved alternative and what work is blocked. An on-call engineer who can't reach production may need urgent help even if nobody else is affected; record the blocked work and its deadline.
If the impact grows, update the assessment and record what changed. Don't copy a priority matrix from another company's tutorial and assume it matches your configuration.
3. Check Categories and Ownership
Select the affected Service and CI when known. A configuration item, or CI, is a managed component recorded in your configuration data, such as the affected device. Check with your team when the CI is uncertain, because an unrelated device can send the investigation in the wrong direction.
Operational categories describe the action or work, while product categories identify the kind of product involved. Review suggestions and template values against the actual issue, even when Helix has supplied them automatically.
If you're taking the work, use Assign to me; for another team, select its Assignee group. Otherwise, check the group supplied by the template or automatic routing. Complete the remaining required fields and select Save ticket, then confirm the assignment on the saved record. A group can own it without an individual assignee.
To reassign an existing incident, use the pencil icon in its assignment section, select the appropriate group or person, and save. Explain the handoff: which checks are complete, why this team is needed, and what you need them to investigate.
4. Investigate and Leave a Useful Record
When you start investigating, select the status near the top of the ticket, choose In Progress, complete any requested fields and save.
In the ticket's Resources tab, search knowledge articles and use advanced search to filter by operational or product category. Check that an article applies to the affected service and version, relate useful articles, and record which steps worked or failed.
Open the Activity tab and enter your investigation in New note. Check the content and audience before posting, because existing activity notes can't be edited. Add a correction if you discover a mistake.
A useful investigation note might read:
Sign-in succeeds, then the VPN disconnects. Restarting the client made no difference, and the employee can still browse the internet. Network support will review the attached client logs. Next employee update: 14:30.
"VPN broken, escalated" leaves the next analyst repeating your questions. The fuller note records what happened without calling it an authentication failure just because the connection dropped after sign-in.
Tell the employee what you're checking and when they'll hear back, then use your team's configured channel to send the update. Check whether the note is visible to them, because saving it doesn't establish that they received a notification.
5. Keep Waiting Work Visible
Use Pending when another action must happen before you can continue. Select it from the status control, complete the requested fields and save. When the dependency clears and you resume work, return to In Progress.
Record the dependency and who needs to act, along with a follow-up time. For example: "Waiting for the employee to test the connection on their home network. Follow up tomorrow at 10:00." That gives the next shift a specific action to chase.
Pending pauses some configured SLAs; others keep running. Check the SLA progress and your team's service-target rules before assuming the clock has stopped. Keep the employee updated while you're waiting, using the follow-up time you recorded.
6. Verify the Result Before Resolving
For the VPN example, test that the connection stays up and the employee can reach the application they need. Successful sign-in alone doesn't confirm that the original fault has gone.
Select Resolved and complete Status Reason and Resolution Note. Record what changed and how you checked it, distinguishing a workaround from a permanent fix. For example: "Applied the approved client configuration; employee reconnected and confirmed access to the internal application." Check the note, then save the update.
Once the employee confirms the fix, set the status to Closed and save, following BMC's documented workflow. Without that confirmation, leave it Resolved with Customer Follow-up Required. Automatic closure uses a configurable waiting period; 15 days is the documented default, so check your local setting before quoting it.
How to Find Tickets and Manage Your Queue
These queue steps use the Shared Ticket Console, which your administrator can enable separately from PWA incident screens. Search by ticket ID when you have it, and check status filters if a resolved ticket disappears from view.
For a working queue, filter by ticket type and your support group, then use Save as to keep the combination as a preset. Check records waiting on someone else as well as new assignments, so your view includes work that still needs a follow-up.
One search detail saves confusion: the documented Keywords filter combines multiple keywords with OR. Searching Outlook and VPN can return records containing either word, so add appropriate field filters when you need a narrower result.
If another analyst can see a ticket you can't, ask your administrator to check your access. Include the ticket ID and the view you're using so they can reproduce the issue.
What Should You Learn Before Automating
I believe you should test a handoff before automating the workflow. Give a colleague only the ticket history, and see whether they can continue without asking you what happened.
Helix already supports capabilities such as suggested categorization and assignment when configured. Start by understanding those workflows and their exceptions.
For a software access request, check what happens after approval. Ravenna's Access Policies and Approval Templates define who can request access and who must approve it, while the configured provisioning method determines how access is granted.
Ravenna Agents can start configured workflows from chat and answer questions from connected knowledge. We're happy to walk through one of your requests, or you can follow the setup guide first.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is BMC Helix the Same as Remedy
Helix ITSM builds on Remedy's ITSM heritage, but the name doesn't establish which release or interface you're using. Confirm those details before applying an older Remedy ticketing system tutorial to your environment.
How Do Employees Submit a Service Request
Use your organization's configured support channel. Where BMC Helix Digital Workplace is available, choose the appropriate service catalog item and supply the requested details. Keep the request reference so you can track progress; approval and fulfillment are separate steps.
Can You Reopen a Closed Incident
The documented Reopen action opens a new related incident in draft mode, retaining the original record. It requires Incident Master permission, or Incident User permission plus the Support Group Manager or Support Group Lead role for the assigned group. Ask an authorized colleague if the action isn't available.
