Importing Data into CTM:People in Remedy ITSM (Incident Management)
CTM:People Overview
If you are implementing BMC Remedy ITSM (aka, “remedy helpdesk”, Remedy Incident Management, etc) – you’ll end up import Customer and staff records into the CTM:People form at some point. Assuming, of course, that you are not insane and intend to enter them manually.
The Remedy ITSM suite uses People data for all of the following:
- User login name
- User rights management
- Customer/Contact information
In most environments all of this data exists in other places or will be compiled before the system is fully implemented. Consequently it is necessary to formulate a strategy for each of these data sources so the data can be used efficiently.
Ideally data will not be imported into the system unless there is a plan in place to perform automated updates in the future. The only exception to this would be the creation of new users which may occur in a non-predictable fashion. These would be added by the system administrator. Even in that case templates should be added for most user roles to make sure user roles are consistent. But that’s a blog post for another day.
The following basic facts about the Remedy system are relevant:
- In the OOB application the “Customer” (caller) must exist in the CTM:People form prior to saving an Incident.
- The best (in terms of least customization) method to deal with Customer data is to pre-populate the data in the forms. Populating the data at the time of the call will require a great deal of customization and testing.
- If you have different data sources duplicate data may exist. It may be impossible that to prevent this from happening since unique identifiers might not exist across systems. You’ll have to decide if that makes sense to your organization.
Remedy People Fields
All people in the BMC Remedy ITSM Suite applications are shared in the CTM:People form.
The following fields are required in the CTM:People data form and you’ll have to map data into them.
| Field Label | Field Type | Mandatory | Possible Values |
| Client Sensitivity | Selection | Yes | Sensitive Standard |
| Client Type | Selection | Yes | Office-Based Employee Field-Based Employee Home-Based Employee Contractor Customer Prospect Vendor |
| Company | Character | Yes | Valid configured OC |
| First Name | Character | Yes | Free form text |
| Last Name | Character | Yes | Free form text |
| Phone Number Business | Character | Yes | Free form text |
| Profile Status | Selection | Yes | Proposed Enabled Offline Obsolete Archive Delete |
| Submitter | Character | Yes | Default to $USER$ |
| Support Staff | Selection | Yes | Yes No |
| VIP | Selection | Yes | Yes No |
And there is one more thing – make sure you populate the hidden “full name” field. It gets used for displays a lot but it’s not a mandatory field to save the entry.
Enjoy! Importing people is usually one of the least fun parts of an implementation – it has to be done right, every time. But once you get this done the rest is easy.
Loss.
The past few days have been full to say the least.
Monday was normal. Tuesday was very busy but also normal – the last thing of any importance was my wife and I going to the “Y” to the trainer appointment. Since she was 12 weeks pregnant (give or take) the trainer was showing her some more low-impact things to do and generally running us through a few other things.
Wednesday – things changed. We had our first major pre-natal appointment. This was the one where we would hear the heartbeat the first time. Before we go there, let’s cover recent history.
We had one pregnancy that was successful – we have a great 2-year old. The second one terminated naturally around 9 weeks. My wife was naturally very nervous for this appointment and I was a bit tense too. However, no one thinks something bad could really happen twice – the odds are against it (although surprisingly right in the poker-player range of odds).
During the appointment – no heartbeat. So they did an ultrasound with a small, portable ultra-sound. No definite results. They moved up to the larger cart-based ultra-sound. No definite results.
This resulted in the next step, using the “BIG” ultrasound that was effectively the size of a large computer workstation on wheels. This time we got definitive results – we had to wait to see the doctor to get the official results but we could see it ourselves – an empty sac which should have been filled with a 3″ or so embryo. We had the same experience before we know what to look for – and my wife summarized it best by saying “this seems all too familiar”.
The rest is details – pregnancy #3 is over. My wife is recovering. But that leads us to how people react to this sort of thing.
If an old person dies – or even someone who is roughly classified as “not young” (including me) at this point – people try to comfort the family with sayings like “At least he/she got to live a full life” or “They got to do many things others don’t” and what not. And that’s not just a trivial comment – it’s true. Anyone alive in American (and most modern countries( is living longer, better, and healthier than the majority of humans throughout history. We instinctively know those comments have some weight and meaning. That’s not the case with a miscarriage. There’s just not a lot you can other than the aforementioned “that sucks, etc” clause.
The problem is threefold. First, there’s nothing you can really say that isn’t a modified version of “That sucks and we are thinking of you – if you need anything let me know”. I am not questioning the sincerity of anyone’s comments – they have all been sincere and appreciated. But you can’t simplify it – you can’t downplay it – it just proverbially is what it is.
Second, if you are single – or if you have never tried to have kids – you can’t really identify with the situation. You can certainly sympathize – but you can not empathize. If you are a single female you simply haven’t sat there and felt like crap for 12 weeks (= 84 days = 2016 hours = 7257600 seconds) hoping to it is all worth it and having those dreams crushed by a harsh reality. If you are a single guy you haven’t experienced any of the major forms of weirdness guys develop with a pregnant wife (I tend towards the sudden over-protectiveness) and then had to deal with it all changing plus your own emotional stake in the process. You just can’t identify with it.
Third – if you are a guy – you can never really appreciate the woman’s point of view. You can certainly try – I know I have – but we never have the physical connection with a child that women have during pregnancy and birth. I’ve had multiple guys tell me that when their children were born they didn’t have the immediate love and closeness that their wife had. It took some time.
So – no matter how you summarize it – we had a loss. But we’ve also had a win – and she is two years old and cute as a button. Her birthday is that week. We’re concentrating on that and moving forward. After all – life is measured by how you pick your self up after you get kicked in the teeth by reality.
Quote of the Day
You’re a pragmatist, I’m not worried about you.
-From a friend of mine in regards to the miscarriage, asking how my wife was doing.
Little Peanut goes sledding
It snowed here yesterday and we found time to get outside. I shoveled – so did little peanut.
We also managed to get some sledding up and down the driveway in.
Snow on the moraine
It snowed here last night. The scenery this morning was very good – this picture doesn’t do it justice.
