Professional Documents
Culture Documents
3
Administrator Guide
Copyright 2007 Hornbill Systems Ltd. All rights reserved. Information in this document is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Hornbill Systems Ltd. Hornbill Systems Ltd assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this document. Except as permitted by the Licence Agreement pertaining to the software described in this document, no part of the document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, whether electronic, mechanical or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Hornbill Systems Ltd.
Supportworks is a registered trademark of Hornbill Systems Ltd. Acrobat is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc. Microsoft, Outlook, Windows, Windows NT and Windows XP are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
To Import Call Profiles ...............................................................................55 Advanced Import Techniques ...........................................................................56 Programmed Mapping Using JavaScript ....................................................56 Pre- and Post-Import SQL Action on the Target Database ........................57 Manipulating an Import and Its Mapping with JavaScript .........................58 Pre-Import JavaScript...........................................................................58 Pre-Transformation JavaScript.............................................................59 Post-Transformation JavaScript ...........................................................60 Post-Import JavaScript .........................................................................60 Administrative Entities 61 Service Level Agreements ................................................................................61 Introduction to Service Level Agreements .................................................61 Example................................................................................................64 Third Party SLAs .................................................................................65 Adding a New SLA ....................................................................................66 Viewing and Modifying an Existing SLA ..................................................73 Deleting SLA-related Items ........................................................................74 Managing Third-Party SLAs ......................................................................74 Adding a New Third-Party Supplier ....................................................75 Adding a New Third-Party SLA for a Supplier ...................................76 Modifying a Third-Party Suppliers Details ........................................77 Removing a Third-Party Supplier ........................................................77 Viewing a List of Third-Party SLAs ....................................................77 Modifying a Third-Party SLAs Details ..............................................78 Removing a Third-Party SLA ..............................................................78 Call Profiles.......................................................................................................79 Introduction to Call Profiles .......................................................................79 Example................................................................................................81 Call Profiles in Supportworks ITSM Applications.....................................82 Example................................................................................................82 Call Profiles in Supportworks CS Applications .........................................83 Example................................................................................................83 Adding a New Call Profile .........................................................................84 Viewing and Modifying an Existing Call Profile .......................................86 Deleting Existing Call Profile Tiers ...........................................................87 Workflow Templates.........................................................................................87
Introduction to Workflow ...........................................................................87 Example................................................................................................89 Creating a New Workflow Template..........................................................90 Viewing and Modifying an Existing Workflow Template .........................93 Deleting an Existing Workflow Template ..................................................94 User-Related Data and Settings 95 Skills ..................................................................................................................95 Adding a New Skill.....................................................................................96 Viewing and Modifying the Details of an Existing Skill............................97 Deleting an Existing Skill ...........................................................................97 Support Groups..................................................................................................97 Adding a New Support Group ....................................................................98 Viewing and Modifying the Details of an Existing Support Group .........100 Deleting an Existing Support Group.........................................................100 Support Analysts .............................................................................................100 Adding a New Support Analyst ................................................................101 Adding a New Support Analyst Based on an Existing Analyst .........118 Viewing and Modifying the Details of an Existing Support Analyst .......119 Changing the Availability Status of a Support Analyst .....................119 Changing a Password .........................................................................120 Recovering an Analysts Password ....................................................120 What Needs to Be Done After Changing System Privileges .............121 Removing an Analysts Access to a Mailbox ....................................121 Updating the Details of a Skill in an Analysts Skill Profile .............121 Removing a Skill from an Analysts Skill Profile..............................121 Deleting an Existing Support Analyst ......................................................121 Analyst Management Capabilities Relating to Each Role ..............................122 Managing E-Mail 123 Managing Address Books ...............................................................................124 Creating New Contact Entries in Address Books .....................................126 Modifying Contact Entries in Address Books ..........................................127 Deleting Entries from Address Books ......................................................128 Managing Distribution Lists in Address Books........................................128 Creating a New Distribution List .......................................................128 Examining and Modifying the Contents of a Distribution List..........131
Importing Addresses from Microsoft Outlook .........................................131 Managing E-Mail Templates...........................................................................133 Viewing and Editing Existing E-Mail Templates.....................................133 Creating New E-Mail Templates ..............................................................134 Deleting E-Mail Templates.......................................................................135 Setting a Default E-Mail Template...........................................................136 Sending Bulk Mailshots ..................................................................................137 Managing Custom SQL Database Searches 139 Creating a Custom Search ...............................................................................139 Modifying a Custom Search............................................................................140 Deleting a Custom Search ...............................................................................141 Managing the KnowledgeBase 143 Placing Content into the KnowledgeBase .......................................................143 How to Publish Call Information..............................................................143 How to Publish FAQ Information ............................................................147 How to Publish External Documents........................................................148 Modifying Publications in the KnowledgeBase..............................................151 Deleting Publications from the KnowledgeBase ............................................151 Managing KnowledgeBase Catalogues...........................................................152 Managing Calendars 153 Creating a Calendar .........................................................................................153 Reconfiguring a Calendar................................................................................157 Deleting a Calendar .........................................................................................157 Management Information and Reporting 159 Running a Report in Real Time.......................................................................160 Scheduling a System Report ...........................................................................162 Viewing Information About a System Report.................................................168 Modifying System Report Chart Characteristics ............................................169 Chart Characteristics.................................................................................171 System Report Prompting ...............................................................................176 Creating and Configuring System Reports......................................................177 To Build a System Report.........................................................................178 The Options Available for a Simple List Report ...............................187
The Options Available for a Grouped List Report .............................188 The Options Available for a Boxed Grouped List Report..................190 The Options Available for a Value Counter Report...........................191 The Options Available for a Grouped Value Counter Report............191 Using the WHERE Builder in a System Report .......................................192 Setting Up User Prompts for a System Report...................................196 Querying Multiple Tables in a System Report .........................................198 To Configure an Existing System Report .................................................201 Editing Clauses in a System Reports Filter.......................................203 To Create a Copy of an Existing System Report ......................................203 Sharing System Reports with Other Systems..................................................204 To Export One or More System Reports ..................................................204 To Import One or More System Reports ..................................................204 Managing System Reports...............................................................................205 Creating a New System Report Folder .....................................................205 Deleting a System Report Folder..............................................................205 Renaming a System Report Folder ...........................................................205 Moving a System Report to Another Report Folder.................................205 Deleting a System Report .........................................................................206 Dashboard: Real-Time Data Display 207 Starting Up ......................................................................................................207 Refreshing the Displayed Data........................................................................208 Switching to a Different Chart Layout ............................................................209 Switching to a Different or Null Chart in a Pane ............................................209 Creating and Configuring a Chart ...................................................................210 Basic Chart Definition ..............................................................................212 Chart Characteristics.................................................................................213 Displayed Data ...................................................................................214 Visual Attributes ................................................................................215 Sizing Attributes.................................................................................216 Lines and their Colours ......................................................................217 Object Fill...........................................................................................218 Background ........................................................................................219 Deleting a Chart...............................................................................................219
Operator Scripts 221 What Operator Scripts Contain .......................................................................221 How Operator Scripts Are Used......................................................................223 Managing Operator Scripts .............................................................................225 Creating an Operator Script ......................................................................226 Modifying an Operator Script...................................................................233 Deleting Operator Scripts .........................................................................233 Exporting and Importing Operator Scripts ...............................................233 To Export One or More Operator Scripts ..........................................233 To Import One or More Operator Scripts ..........................................234 Customer Satisfaction Surveys 235 Questionnaire Constituents .............................................................................235 Questionnaire Usage .......................................................................................238 Managing Customer Surveys ..........................................................................240 Creating a Customer Survey .....................................................................241 How to Create a Section.....................................................................248 How to Create a Matrix......................................................................249 Modifying a Customer Survey..................................................................250 Deleting Customer Surveys ......................................................................251 Viewing Survey Reports...........................................................................251 To Run the Reports for a Survey Campaign ......................................252 Analysing the Survey Data by Respondent........................................254 Analysing the Survey Data Statistically by Question ........................254 Analysing the Free-Text Survey Data by Question ...........................257 Resetting the Data Gathered from Survey Campaigns .............................258 Exporting and Importing Customer Surveys ............................................258 To Export One or More Customer Surveys .......................................259 To Import One or More Customer Surveys .......................................259 On-Line Customer Access to Your Helpdesk 261 Auto Responder E-Mail Commands ...............................................................261 Auto Responder E-Mail Templates ..........................................................263 Testing the Auto Responder E-Mail Commands......................................264 Configuring the Auto Responder..............................................................264 The Web-Based SelfService Application........................................................264 Testing the Default SelfService Instance..................................................266
Managing SelfService Configurations......................................................266 Configuring a SelfService Instance: Settings.....................................266 Configuring a SelfService Instance: International Settings ...............271 Configuring a SelfService Instance: Displayed Text Paragraphs ......273 Configuring a SelfService Instance: System Privileges .....................275 Creating a New SelfService Instance .................................................277 Publicising the SelfService URL ..............................................................278 Managing Analyst Access to the Helpdesk 281 Analyst Access Licensing ...............................................................................281 Nominating Analysts for Named Licence Usage ............................................282 Appendix A Analyst Rights and Default Settings 285 System Privileges ............................................................................................285 Call Management Rights A.......................................................................287 Call Management Rights B.......................................................................289 System Management Rights .....................................................................291 Desktop Workspace Rights.......................................................................293 Data Dictionary Rights .............................................................................295 Global SQL Database Rights ....................................................................296 Database Management Rights ..................................................................296 E-mail Privileges .............................................................................................297 Library Resources............................................................................................300 Default Settings ...............................................................................................301 Appendix B Context Rights 305
Appendix C E-mail Template Variables 307 Variables in Customer Notification Templates ...............................................308 Variables in Auto Responder Templates.........................................................309 Template for Confirmation of Logged Call ..............................................310 Template for Rejection Response to Logged Call ....................................311 Template for Confirmation of Call Update...............................................311 Template for Rejection Response to Call Update.....................................312 Template for Call Status Report ...............................................................313 Template for Open Calls Summary ..........................................................315 Template for No Open Calls Response to Summary Request ..................317
Template for Response to Web Password Request ..................................318 Template for Rejection Response to Any Information Request ...............318 Appendix D CTI Functionality and Number Specification 321 Telephone Number Entry on a Form...............................................................321 Appendix E How SelfService Works 323
the template-specific Administrator Guide, as database schemas vary between the different Supportworks applications. In subsequent chapters, the kinds of entities designed to be held in the separate tables are described, and you are given precise instructions on how to manually create and maintain the records concerned. The remaining chapters deal mainly with the management of other essential (and not-so-essential) helpdesk facilities that are available to users from the client.
User Privileges
The vast majority of administrative operations on the platform are carried out using the main Supportworks client. As general user operations are also carried out using the client, two tiers of system privileges are provided to filter out inappropriate functionality in each individual users case. The first tier of privilege is based on the users role, which can be System Administrator, Group Manager or Support Analyst. Role is concerned largely with the extent to which the user is allowed to manage the support teams analyst records. A users role can be set only by someone in the System Administrator role, and it would be done in the Analyst Properties dialogue box (see Support Analysts on page 100). The second tier of privilege is based on permissions, which allow the user to perform specific actions within the client. Permissions (which also include mailbox rights) can be set, for oneself and for others, only by users in the role of System Administrator or Group Manager. This would be done in the Analyst Properties dialogue box (see Support Analysts on page 100). An extension of the second tier of privilege is mailbox-specific rights. These govern the ability of the user to (a) access particular shared mailboxes and (b) access particular e-mail functions within (or relating to) each personal or shared mailbox. Another extension of the second tier of privilege is application-specific rights. Any Supportworks application (for example, ITSM) is likely to have functions, unique to it, that require rights control on a per-user basis. Many of these functions are sub-sets of generic functions, and any permission you may set for
such a function will always override the permission set for the associated generic function.
Supportworks Features
Supportworks offers the following features to users: Familiar look and feel Various elements of the clients user interface are strongly suggestive of Microsoft Office. The software offers, for example, familiarly styled shortcuts and toolbar buttons, drag-and-drop technology (as a quick way of moving message files around and of assigning support calls), a choice of docking or floating toolbars, and tree browsers with expandable levels. Many of the clients separate parts run in their own independent windows, allowing you to carry on with an operation while keeping other information in view. Different ways of finding customer and asset records A customers or assets details can be found and displayed by various means, depending on your preference and on what you happen to be doing at the time. Easy-to-use and flexible call-logging facilities Calls for service or support are logged by analysts using suitable forms (defined by the application) to enter the required details into the database. Logged calls, while still outstanding, are listed in the appropriate view on the client. Subject to user rights, they can be listed in full for the entire helpdesk, by support group, or by individual analyst. The list can also be filtered according to predefined call-record criteria. Analysts can display the logged details for any call listed, and suitably update them as necessary. If analysts wish, they can place a call on hold, or cancel a call. Once a call has been confirmed by the customer as being resolved, an analyst would mark it as closed, which would result in its removal from the list of calls. The calls details would then be viewable only via a call search (see below). It is also possible to mark a call as resolved, which would be appropriate when the analyst believes that the problem has been resolved, but no confirmation has yet been received from the customer. Such a provisionally resolved call would still be displayed in the list of calls. If an analyst has closed or cancelled a call by mistake, it is possible to reactivate it. Note that the ability to carry out any of the above call-related actions is dependent on the analyst having been given appropriate rights.
Start and end categorisations for calls Supportworks allows you to build two sets of codified call profiles that any member of the support team can quickly and conveniently select from, when logging or closing/resolving a call, to include in the call record concerned. A starting profile (or problem profile) categorises the reason for the call (perhaps expressed as the type of problem at hand), while an ending profile (or resolution profile) categorises the nature of the calls resolution (perhaps expressed as the type of problem fix). These profiles are multi-tiered, so that the essence of any call can be defined and coded in a hierarchical manner. Such categorisations are useful when it comes to reporting on calls. Multiple call forms To cater for the different call-logging and call-progressing requirements of different groups of analysts, and for differences in the nature (or class) of calls themselves, facilities are provided for the creation of multiple designs of call forms. Members of the support team, when logging a call, would then be able to display only a form that is appropriate to their own groups function. Within the scope of that function, they would be able to choose one form from several, depending on the type of service/support call they happen to be receiving. Quick-add technology This allows data entry on-the-fly. When an analyst is logging a call and has entered details of a hitherto unknown customer or asset into a form field, the client software prompts the analyst either to try again, or to create a new record in the relevant database table, allowing the data to become instantly available when a call from that customer is next logged. This record-creation ability can be restricted to certain analysts, if desired, by setting appropriate user rights to access specific tables. Auto-fill and auto-complete When an analyst enters call details on a form, the software verifies each entry and, if the analyst enters a recognised and unique customer or asset reference in an appropriate field, all other related fields are automatically filled. Additionally, where the analyst enters only partial data in a field, the software automatically completes the entry or, if more than one option is available, provides a pick-list from which the required entry can be selected. Call ownership and analyst skills The principle of call ownership is maintained throughout the application. You cannot log a call without it belonging to a support group, or to an individual support analyst. If you log a call without specifically assigning it to yourself, to another analyst or to a
group, it will be automatically assigned to your own group. If you elect to specifically assign a call, a tree-view of the support organisation is displayed, showing the number of calls each support group and individual analyst is handling; this gives you an idea of current relative workloads as you try to decide on the most appropriate assignee. Furthermore, assuming that the system has been made aware of the specialist skills that the individual members of the support organisation possess, you will be able to list the analysts by skill (within any group) and therefore make an assignment decision on that basis as well. Workflow If your helpdesk operates in a highly managed environment where the various elements of the work necessary to resolve certain kinds of call are clearly stipulated and then allocated to different members of the team (or perhaps to just one analyst or group), Supportworks will assist you in organising the allocations according to basic workflow principles. When a call needs to be actioned, the workflow required for its resolution can be subdivided firstly into worklists, and then into individual work items that are allocated to support analysts or groups. Each work item would be an actual task that an analyst must carry out. You can define worklists and work items on an ad hoc basis when logging a call, or you can predefine them within a named template, which any authorised member of the support team may subsequently apply to a call. All the worklists (and therefore work items) associated with a call must be completed before the call can be resolved or closed. The owner of any call having worklists associated with it will remain in overall control of the call until its closure. Quick-log calls This feature allows service/support calls with frequently recurring sets of characteristics to be created in advance for quick recall at any subsequent time. Quick-log calls are created as copies of actual call-logging forms (filled-in to the desired extent), and saved as named templates. Once created, a quick-log call can be selected by an analyst from a menu of such calls. This would display the relevant form, exactly as saved. The analyst would then be able to submit the form to the system immediately as a new call, without having to fill in the details first (although it would still be possible to edit the form). With the default rights, analysts can create and maintain quick-log call templates themselves, although it is possible to set up a scheme in which the templates are manageable by certain users only. There is no limit to the number of quick-log calls that can be created.
Scheduled calls This feature allows planned and routine support tasks (such as system backups) to be logged and assigned automatically as calls. The calls are set up in advance to activate on either a once-only or repeating basis. Like quick-log calls, scheduled calls are created by saving actual call-logging forms as named templates. Each scheduled-call template would include all the required call parameters. Once the template for a scheduled call has been created, the call is held dormant, only becoming active in the system at the first (or only) designated date and time. Batch call-handling facilities Most call-related operations (such as updating, closure, and so on) can be carried out on several calls at once. You just make a multiple call selection and click the same button as the one you might use for performing the action on a single call. Any data you may then enter, or any options you may set, for the chosen operation will be applied to your entire selection. Should an operation be invalid for any of the selected calls, you will be prevented from carrying it out for the batch as a whole. Audit trail Every action carried out by a support-team member, a customer or the system itself against a support call in Supportworks is fully audit-trailed and noted in the calls diary. This information is displayable on the client when you review the calls details, and provides a means of tracking the changes of status at every stage in the calls life-cycle. Viewing the call diary additionally allows you to see which support analyst handled any given stage of the problem. Call-diary information is also displayable by customers via SelfService. With SelfService in use, analysts can, if they wish, disable public viewing of any particular update in which they intend to type comments of a sensitive nature. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) Supportworks supports a fully-configurable scheme of SLAs, escalations and alerts. The administrator sets the scheme up via the client, first defining the required SLA levels, and then assigning these (as necessary) to customers, assets, charge centres and/or problem profiles. When logging calls, analysts would either specify the SLA explicitly or via one of these assignments. The system itself, in subsequently tracking the calls, generates escalations and displays alerts as and when appropriate. The whole mechanism ensures that no call reaches a response or fix deadline without ample warning being issued to all support staff concerned. Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) Supportworks is fully TAPI 2.1 compliant for integration with modern digital telephone systems. If your
organisation uses such a telephone system, and CTI is enabled on the client, it is possible for an analyst to auto-dial a customer by clicking a link on the customers active page. Conversely, on an incoming service/support call, the analyst can identify the caller via an on-screen monitor, on which they could then click a button to log the call, whereupon a new form would be opened and automatically populated with customer details derived from the first table record containing the incoming number. E-mail system Included in Supportworks is an independent e-mail system that will connect and exchange mail with any number of in-house mail systems that are MAPI, VIM or SMTP/POP3/IMAP4/LDAP compliant, and will also connect directly to the Internet through its own SMTP mail server. Among the features of the e-mail system, as seen on the client, are standard folders (such as Inbox, Outbox, Sent Items and Deleted Items), additional user-created folders, file attachments, template-based personal and group signatures, customisable displayed columns, preview text and a preview pane. Analysts can each have a personal mailbox, and can be authorised to access any number of shared mailboxes. Call functions from e-mail Supportworks allows analysts to initiate actions such as logging or updating a call from within any open e-mail message that has been submitted by a known customer. In the case of a call-log action, when the relevant form opens, the customers details are filled in automatically. When initiating any other call action, the analyst would be able to select the required call from a list of outstanding calls held against the customer. If the system has detected a call reference number in the messages Subject field, it would know automatically which is the required call. Customer notifications by e-mail There are facilities available for automatically (or semi-automatically) notifying the customer by e-mail of actions taken by analysts at key stages in a calls life-cycle, which include logging the call, updating the call, placing the call on hold and closing/ resolving the call. When performing such an action, the analyst would be presented with an e-mail message window whose contents are based on an appropriate customisable template. This message would then be sent (after editing if necessary) to the customer concerned. By default, analysts maintain their own individual sets of e-mail templates, although it is possible to set up a single centralised scheme maintained by the administrator.
The KnowledgeBase Supportworks comes with the KnowledgeBase a fully integrated database of support information derived automatically (or semiautomatically) from call details and the applications user documentation, as well as from other sources and by manual entry. From the client, it is possible to conduct free-text searches of the KnowledgeBase, which include multiword searches using selectable Boolean logic, and natural-language searches. You can also browse through the catalogues (four predefined and another four user-definable) that make up the KnowledgeBase, manage the indexing, and edit the content of individual records and documents. Since the KnowledgeBase uses a PHP interpreter to display much of its data, and the remaining data could easily be held as HTML and/or PDF documents, it would be quite natural to publish this information using a Web front-end as a way of promoting customer self-help. The SelfService application would make a good choice if you require such a front-end for customers. For maximum peace of mind, you have full control over which KnowledgeBase records or documents can and cannot be searched by customers. Reporting tools The unique architecture of Supportworks allows it to supply fully configurable, interactive, real-time statistical reports derived from any of the current information in the database. Reports, for example, on helpdesk calls by problem type over various time periods could be particularly useful. You can run supplied and custom reports from the client, with the option to run them immediately, or to schedule them to run automatically at one or more specified times. With a scheduled report, you can arrange for the output to be stored anywhere on your network, stored on an FTP server, or e-mailed to any number of mail recipients. Reports are organised hierarchically and selected using a tree-browser interface. An easy-to-use wizard is provided for designing your custom reports. Real-time wallboard display Supplied with Supportworks is an independently running client program known as Dashboard, which displays real-time callrelated information in your chosen graphical format. The display is in the style of an Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) wallboard, with separate panes in the window simultaneously showing different information. Just as with reports, the displayed information is obtained from the Supportworks database but, unlike report outputs, Dashboard outputs are updated automatically at set intervals. Ticker display Another program running independently of the main client is the Ticker Bar, which produces, on client computers, a scrolling taskbar-
based (or floating) ticker display of summary information feeds obtained at set intervals from the Supportworks database and/or the BBC website. Call searches From the relevant view in the Supportworks client, analysts can conduct field-based and free-text searches for logged service/support calls, whether or not currently open, using selectable Boolean logic where appropriate. It is possible to filter either kind of search by problem profile and/or by call status (including certain combinations of call status). Database searches The Custom Search Manager in the client allows suitably authorised team members with a knowledge of SQL to create named searches that are made available as executable entities for subsequent usage (subject to appropriate search rights). Customer issues Whenever your support team is receiving calls from a number of different users regarding the same problem, you have an issue to contend with. The Supportworks client allows analysts to deal with issues of two types: Hot Issues and Known Issues. Hot Issues would perhaps relate to the more critical problems that need urgent attention, while Known Issues might reflect lesser problems that your team is fully aware of but may be able to do very little about at the moment. You can link a number of existing calls to a particular issue. Any subsequently logged call can also be linked to the issue. When you close an issue, all calls associated with that issue are closed as well, and all affected customers can be notified via e-mail as usual. Current issues are visible to members of the support team in the same way as individual calls. They can also be displayed on SelfService pages, so that affected customers can be advised of known problems before logging a new call. (Note that, on Supportworks ITSM systems, the Issues feature is disabled, as this kind of functionality is available with Problems.) Instant overview of todays helpdesk activity A particularly convenient view available in the client is one that includes at-a-glance summaries of the analysts and the groups current workload, summaries of the analysts and the teams mailbox content, a summary of all the major issues known to the system, and a highly visible indication of todays date. Advanced spell-checking facilities Automatic and manual spell-checking and correction facilities are available in all major free-text-entry areas. Analysts can configure the operation of this feature precisely in accordance with their own wishes and requirements.
10
Preconfigured Web server and scripting language Supportworks ships with a fully preconfigured Web server, based on Apache for Win32, to provide the technologies required for the Web-style functioning of many parts of the application. Also included preconfigured is PHP, a versatile server-side scripting language that offers a means by which Supportworks can connect to, and integrate with, a broad range of database and information systems. Troubleshooting system for users The Operator Scripts feature allows you to set up a decision-based troubleshooting system within Supportworks that provides first-line support staff with suggested resolutions to common problems by means of a wizard-style interface. Customer-satisfaction surveys The optional Customer Surveys feature provides you with facilities for creating transactional on-line survey campaigns that you can use to gauge your customers satisfaction with the helpdesk service you give them. When analysts are resolving or closing calls, they can have the system automatically e-mail the customer with a URL link to the selected survey page for them to complete the questionnaire you have built. GUI customisation using data dictionaries A data dictionary provides a central repository of customisation settings for the Supportworks client. These settings include database table column names, form-layout and fieldfunctionality definitions, menu elements, tree-browser definitions, search fields and application icons. If you are suitably authorised, you can change the customisation settings by means of the Data Dictionary Editor, the relevant Form Configuration tool and/or the easy-to-use Form Designer, all of which are accessible from the client. The data dictionary is the chief element that distinguishes one Supportworks application from another, or one application variant from another. Multiple data dictionaries allow you to provide supportgroup-specific customisations that will present a different user interface to each group within the support team, thus giving optimal configuration for team members. As the customisation facilities are an integral part of the client, and the application uses Non-Polling Architecture (NPA), any changes you make that do not actually alter database table structures are applied dynamically, which means that there is no need for you to then shut down the server, or for users to log out of the system. When you are using the Form Designer and you save changes you have made to a form layout, the changes are immediately applied to any forms that are currently open on your desktop.
11
With a Form Configuration tool, the changes are applied the next time you open a form. Two types of Web-browser interface (Not applicable to Supportworks Essentials) There is no need to be at your own desk in order for you to be able to carry out many of the usual day-to-day analyst activities associated with Supportworks. The full-sized Web-browser interface provided with the application allows you to log, examine and progress calls from any Webconnected computer by using nothing more than a standard Web browser, while the PDA Web Client interface (currently supported on Supportworks ITHD only) allows you to do the same from any Web-enabled personal organiser. The full-sized interface, known as the Analyst Portal, is designed to provide a user experience that is as identical as possible to the one provided by the most essential parts of the native clients user interface. One mode of the Analyst Portal employs Microsoft ActiveX controls to automatically replicate substantial parts of the native clients customisable dialogues, whereas the more secure non-ActiveX mode relies on PHP developers to achieve the same result.
12
Via the Supportworks SelfService application By accessing the passwordprotected SelfService pages on your website using any standard Web browser, customers with the relevant set of rights will be able to log support calls, track the status of their calls, update their calls and search the KnowledgeBase. As with calls logged by analysts, Supportworks automatically generates a unique Call Reference number for each support call logged via SelfService or via e-mail. As no distinction is made between calls logged in different ways, all open calls relating to a given customer will be available for status-tracking and updating by that customer (or, equally, by analysts). For detailed information on configuring these facilities on your helpdesk system, refer to the chapter entitled On-Line Customer Access to Your Helpdesk on page 261.
13
14
Where to Start
Organising the implementation of new helpdesk software always requires a lot of consideration and planning. Perhaps the first issue to consider is the extent to which you can import data into the Supportworks database tables, rather than having to manually enter it. If you have just upgraded your previous helpdesk application to Supportworks, the likelihood is that you will already have some kind of customer table and, possibly, other tables whose records are suitable for importing into Supportworks. See the chapter entitled Importing Data from External Sources on page 19 for details of the Data Import Manager utility that comes with Supportworks and allows you to define and run any number of imports. Another issue to think about is the possibility of regularly importing data from another database currently in use elsewhere in your organisation. Once you have defined the required imports using the Data Import Manager, you can schedule
15
them to run at appropriate times using the Server Configuration utility. Please refer to the Server Configuration Guide for information about the Scheduler. If you wish to import data from other databases, you will probably have to consult people within your organisation who have expert knowledge of these, so that you will be able to properly map the data to the relevant columns of the Supportworks tables. Any degree of importation that you can carry out will certainly save you a lot of time: this is especially true of tables that contain a very large number of records. However, there will always be at least some tables that you will have to populate, or just top up, manually. Normally, therefore, you are advised to take into account the order in which to populate them. Note that you may not need to use all of the tables that Supportworks provides.
16
Management of those kinds of data that are common to all applications is covered in the following chapters, after the chapter dealing with data importation. To read about template-specific data management, please see the Administrator Guide for the template concerned.
17
18
19
The tab displayed by default (as shown above) provides the starting point for managing imports from SQL databases. The other tabs provide similar facilities for managing imports via LDAP, from text files and from Excel files (with both generic and dedicated content). The first four tabs have the same appearance.
SQL Imports
SQL imports obtain data from standard SQL databases, typically those populated by applications unconnected with Supportworks.
20
3. In the Name field, type in a suitable name for the import. Leave the Template field blank. 4. Click OK. The Data Import dialogue box, containing a number of different tabs, is displayed.
5. In the SQL Query tab, you must now complete the fields in the Database Connection section to define the connection to the relevant source database. First select the type of connection you want. 6. For a non-ODBC connection type, enter, in the Server Name field, the DNSresolvable host name or IP address of the computer on which the source database resides.
21
7. In the Database field, either enter the name of the source database or, if the connection type is ODBC, select the name of the relevant System data source. 8. Enter a valid username and password for logging into the source database. For an ODBC connection type, you can use the same credentials as those given in the System DSN definition. 9. Click the Test Connection button to confirm that the connection works. If so, the Data Import Manager will display a message indicating that the test completed successfully. If, on the other hand, you see an error message, you will have to sort out the connection details before continuing any further. 10. With a valid connection defined, you now need to define the SQL query itself, whether implicitly or explicitly. An implicit query would, in the simplest case, just consist of a table selection. In the Table field, select the table, in the source database, from which the data is to be obtained. An explicit query, on the other hand, would be needed if you wanted to query more than one table, or if you wanted to be specific about which records to import. In that case, select the Ad-hoc Query option and enter the required SQL statement in full in the adjacent free-text field. Even with an implicit query, you can optionally enter record criteria in that same text field. In such a case, the WHERE clause concerned must exclude the WHERE word itself. 11. If you have entered an explicit (ad-hoc) query, select (or enter), in the Unique ID field, the name of a column of the queried table (or one of the queried tables) that the import process can use as a unique key for record selection. 12. If required, you can opt to limit the number of records to be returned by the query. This would normally be useful for testing purposes only. 13. With the SQL query defined, you now have to retrieve a sample of data from the source database so as to validate the query and to help you choose exactly which source table columns to use for the import. Click the Query Sample button and observe that the Query Columns/Data Preview list now shows the first of the queried set of sample records as follows:
22
The record is displayed as a list of column names, together with their respective values. You can display other records in the set by means of the >> and << buttons at the top right. 14. Once you have decided which columns should be included in the import process, select their associated checkboxes. Only these columns will now be available to you for mapping to the target Supportworks database, as described in the following steps. 15. To proceed with the mapping, first select the Target Value Mapping tab.
23
16. In the Database field, select the database into which you want the data imported. 17. In the Table field, select the table, within that database, into which you want the data imported. Note that the Unique Key field is now filled by default with the name of the selected tables primary-key column, and that the Target Columns list is populated with all the columns of that table. 18. If necessary, you can manually select a unique key other than the primary key. 19. By virtue of the default Data Update Operations setting, the import process will both create (insert) and update records in the Supportworks database, as dictated by their absence or presence with respect to the corresponding source records. If, however, you wish to preserve the Supportworks data on this import, you should enable the Only allow inserts option. Alternatively, if you wish to prevent further Supportworks records being created on this import, you should enable Only allow updates.
24
20. You are now ready to map your previously selected source table columns to columns of your selected target table. First select the checkboxes associated with your proposed target columns. 21. Highlight one of the selected target columns and click anywhere in the Value Transformation and Assignment field. 22. For a simple mapping, click the Insert Value button and, from the menu that pops up, select the source table column that you want mapped to the target column you have highlighted. Notice that the chosen column appears in the field in the form db.<column>. For more complex mappings, you would have to manually type the required expression into the Value Transformation and Assignment field. See the section entitled Advanced Import Techniques on page 56 to find out what is possible here using JavaScript. 23. If you want the import process to skip each source record where there is no value assigned for the column (or for any column in the expression), enable the Non-empty value required option. This will always be enabled if the target column being mapped is a unique key. 24. If you have entered an expression manually into the Value Transformation and Assignment field, you can confirm correct resolution of the currently highlighted target columns values by clicking the Check Syntax button. This will display, one at a time in the Preview Value Assignment field, the values for that column as computed by the expression, using the set of sample data you previously queried. You can use the >> and << buttons to show the following and preceding values, respectively. 25. Repeat step 21 to step 24 for each of your proposed target columns. 26. Click Apply. 27. Having completed the mapping, you can now run or schedule the import. First select the Control & Schedule tab.
25
28. If you wish to run the import immediately, click the Run Import Now button. A separate window is displayed, in which you can see the imports progress. 29. On completion of the import, you can click View Log in the progress window to view the details of the import process. Note that this is a cumulative log, which means that the current import details are appended to any existing details already logged in this session. (The log will be deleted when you exit from the Data Import Manager.) You can also view the log by using the View Log File button located next to the Run Import Now button. 30. Click Close to dismiss the progress window. 31. If you wish to schedule the import, first enable the Schedule this import option. 32. Specify when, or how often, the import is to run by selecting the relevant item from the Run this import when fields drop-down list. If you select Once a day, some additional options are immediately displayed:
26
In this case, select the day(s) of the week on which the import should run, and choose whether this should keep occurring indefinitely, or a specified number of times. If you select any frequency other than Once a day, the multi-day selection options are replaced in all but one case with a single-day drop-down selection field that allows you, for example, to choose the first day of the relevant period on which the import should run. The exception is Once every period, which retains the multi-day selection options, but replaces the Starting At field with an Every (n) Minutes field, allowing you to specify repeated occurrences of imports during the course of selected days of the week. In the Starting At field (for those options that have it), specify the date and time at which the import is to run, or at which the import scheduling is to switch on. Alternatively, for the Once every period option, enter the period (in minutes) required between successive import occurrences. 33. Click OK.
27
LDAP Imports
The most likely kind of data you might import using LDAP is internal customer data. If your organisation runs ADS, for example, there will almost certainly be a directory of users held on the network that you should be able to access via LDAP.
28
3. In the Name field, type in a suitable name for the import. Leave the Template field blank. 4. Click OK. The Data Import dialogue box, containing a number of different tabs, is displayed.
5. In the LDAP Query tab, you must now complete the fields in the Connection section to define the connection to the relevant LDAP service. First enter the DNS-resolvable host name or IP address of the computer on which Active Directory Services or the dedicated LDAP service is running.
29
6. If the LDAP server is enabled for SSL encryption and you want to use it, check the Use a Secure Connection (SSL) option. 7. In the Port Number field, either leave the number at its default value of 389 or, if the LDAP server uses a different TCP port, enter its number. 8. Ensure that the appropriate LDAP version is selected. Note that ADS supports both versions. 9. In the Authentication field, specify the method of authentication to be used in connecting to the LDAP service. You can opt for either Simple Authentication, which logs directly into an LDAP account, or Windows NT Authentication, which provides access via any valid NT account. There is also a third option, which allows automatic negotiation of the authentication method from those currently available. In the case of a scheduled import, you should bear in mind that authentication will take place in the context of the scheduler, and you should ensure that the relevant rights exist. 10. If you check the Login with username and password option, you will be able to enter a suitable name and password (in the fields below) for logging into the LDAP service. You can keep this option disabled if you have selected Windows NT Authentication and you will not be scheduling the import, or if the LDAP service is configured not to require logins. 11. Click the Test Connection button to confirm that the connection works. If so, the Data Import Manager will display a message indicating that the test completed successfully. If, on the other hand, you see an error message, you will have to sort out the connection details before continuing any further. 12. With a valid connection defined, you now need to define the LDAP query itself. First specify a search root, which is the path to the container level at which the top-down search should start for suitable data to be imported. Click the browse button next to the Search Root field to display the Browse LDAP Directory and select the required naming context. Then select the required container level from the tree browser and click OK. Notice that the path appears in the Search Root field with the appropriate syntax. 13. If you wish to select specific groups of containers or records at the root level and below, type a suitable filter expression into the Query Filter field. See the documentation supplied with Windows or your LDAP application for details of the syntax you can use. The example filter displayed by default in
30
this field selects the entire contents of the root container (but subject to the Scope setting described in the next step). 14. Using the drop-down menu in the Scope field, you can choose how much of the container hierarchy, from the root downwards, should be considered for data importation. Data can be obtained from the root container only, from the root and its immediate children, or from the root and all of its descendants. 15. If required, you can opt to limit the number of records to be returned by the query. This would normally be useful for testing purposes only. 16. For extra speed, the LDAP query will use paging by default. You can specify the required size of each page in the relevant field. However, some LDAP servers (Lotus Domino, for example) do not support paged mode. In this case, you can set the query page size to 0 (zero), which will turn off paging. 17. With the LDAP query defined, you now have to retrieve a sample of data from the LDAP server to help you assess the query and choose exactly which data items to use for the import. Click the Query Sample button and observe that the Query Attributes/Data Preview list now shows the first of the queried set of sample records as follows:
31
The record is displayed as a list of attribute names (indicating the available data items), together with their respective values. You can display other records in the set by means of the >> and << buttons at the top right. 18. Another perspective on the queried data is provided by the Preview Data button. Click it to open a separate window displaying that data. 19. Once you have decided which attributes should be included in the import process, select their associated checkboxes. Only these attributes will now be available to you for mapping to the target Supportworks database, as described in the following steps. If you now wish to view your chosen data as a single, scrollable, list of records, click the Preview Data button, which displays the list in a separate window. 20. To proceed with the mapping, first select the Target Value Mapping tab.
32
21. In the Database field, select the database into which you want the data imported. 22. In the Table field, select the table, within that database, into which you want the data imported. Note that the Unique Key field is now filled by default with the name of the selected tables primary-key column, and that the Target Columns list is populated with all the columns of that table. 23. If necessary, you can manually select a unique key other than the primary key. 24. By virtue of the default Data Update Operations setting, the import process will both create (insert) and update records in the Supportworks database, as dictated by their absence or presence with respect to the corresponding source records. If, however, you wish to preserve the Supportworks data on this import, you should enable the Only allow inserts option. Alternatively, if you wish to prevent further Supportworks records being created on this import, you should enable Only allow updates.
33
25. You are now ready to map your previously selected source data attributes to columns of your selected target table. First select the checkboxes associated with your proposed target columns. 26. Highlight one of the selected target columns and click anywhere in the Value Transformation and Assignment field. 27. For a simple mapping, click the Insert Value button and, from the menu that pops up, select the LDAP data attribute that you want mapped to the target column you have highlighted. Notice that the chosen attribute appears in the field in the form ldap.<attribute>. For more complex mappings, you would have to manually type the required expression into the Value Transformation and Assignment field. See the section entitled Advanced Import Techniques on page 56 to find out what is possible here using JavaScript. 28. If you want the import process to skip each LDAP record where there is no value assigned for the attribute (or for any attribute in the expression), enable the Non-empty value required option. This will always be enabled if the target column being mapped is a unique key. 29. If you have entered an expression manually into the Value Transformation and Assignment field, you can confirm correct resolution of the currently highlighted target columns values by clicking the Check Syntax button. This will display, one at a time in the Preview Value Assignment field, the values for that column as computed by the expression, using the set of sample data you previously queried. You can use the >> and << buttons to show the following and preceding values, respectively. 30. Repeat step 26 to step 29 for each of your proposed target columns. 31. Click Apply. 32. Having completed the mapping, you can now run or schedule the import. First select the Control & Schedule tab.
34
33. If you wish to run the import immediately, click the Run Import Now button. A separate window is displayed, in which you can see the imports progress. 34. On completion of the import, you can click View Log in the progress window to view the details of the import process. Note that this is a cumulative log, which means that the current import details are appended to any existing details already logged in this session. (The log will be deleted when you exit from the Data Import Manager.) You can also view the log by using the View Log File button located next to the Run Import Now button. 35. Click Close to dismiss the progress window. 36. If you wish to schedule the import, first enable the Schedule this import option. 37. Specify when, or how often, the import is to run by selecting the relevant item from the Run this import when fields drop-down list. If you select Once a day, some additional options are immediately displayed:
35
In this case, select the day(s) of the week on which the import should run, and choose whether this should keep occurring indefinitely, or a specified number of times. If you select any frequency other than Once a day, the multi-day selection options are replaced in all but one case with a single-day drop-down selection field that allows you, for example, to choose the first day of the relevant period on which the import should run. The exception is Once every period, which retains the multi-day selection options, but replaces the Starting At field with an Every (n) Minutes field, allowing you to specify repeated occurrences of imports during the course of selected days of the week. In the Starting At field (for those options that have it), specify the date and time at which the import is to run, or at which the import scheduling is to switch on. Alternatively, for the Once every period option, enter the period (in minutes) required between successive import occurrences. 38. Click OK.
36
37
1. With the Data Import Manager running, select the Text File Imports tab. 2. Click the New button.
3. In the Name field, type in a suitable name for the import. Leave the Template field blank. 4. Click OK. The Data Import dialogue box, containing a number of different tabs, is displayed.
5. In the CSV Load tab, you must now complete the fields in the File Information section to define the structure of the data in the relevant text file. First specify the file in the File Name field.
38
6. Examine the contents of the Character Set field. A greyed-out selection would mean that the utility has detected a marker in the text file identifying the character set/encoding used and has automatically selected this here. (Note that only Unicode files with standard byte order marks are properly recognised.) An open selection would mean that the utility has not found any valid marker and has selected Western European by default, allowing you to reselect manually as necessary. 7. In the Field Limiter field, select the text character that separates data items from each other within the file. In the case of a less commonly used character, select [Custom] and type that character into the adjacent field. 8. In the Text Qualifier field, specify the quote type (if any) that is used in the file to delineate textual data items (for example, when field-limiter characters may themselves appear within items). 9. If the first row of text in the file is made up of column names, so that the data itself actually begins on the second row, enable the First Row Contains Column Names option. This allows the utility to treat the first row as column names for display later on. 10. If there are data rows at the beginning and/or the end of the file that are unusable for your purposes and that you therefore want the import to ignore, you can specify these in the Exclusions area by enabling the relevant option(s) and selecting the number of records to skip. 11. With the data structure defined, you now have to retrieve a sample of data from the file to help you choose exactly which data items to use for the import. Click the Query Sample button and observe that the Data Columns/ Data Preview list now shows the first of the queried set of sample records as follows:
39
The record is displayed as a list of column names (auto-generated if nonexistent in the source file), together with their respective values. Note that if you specified a quote type as the text delineator, all instances of these within the values would now have been stripped out. You can display other records in the set by means of the >> and << buttons at the top right. 12. Once you have decided which columns should be included in the import process, select their associated checkboxes. Only these columns will now be available to you for mapping to the target Supportworks database, as described in the following steps. 13. To proceed with the mapping, first select the Target Value Mapping tab.
40
14. In the Database field, select the database into which you want the data imported. 15. In the Table field, select the table, within that database, into which you want the data imported. Note that the Unique Key field is now filled by default with the name of the selected tables primary-key column, and that the Target Columns list is populated with all the columns of that table. 16. If necessary, you can manually select a unique key other than the primary key. 17. By virtue of the default Data Update Operations setting, the import process will both create (insert) and update records in the Supportworks database, as dictated by their absence or presence with respect to the corresponding source records. If, however, you wish to preserve the Supportworks data on this import, you should enable the Only allow inserts option. Alternatively, if you wish to prevent further Supportworks records being created on this import, you should enable Only allow updates.
41
18. You are now ready to map your previously selected source columns to columns of your selected target table. First select the checkboxes associated with your proposed target columns. 19. Highlight one of the selected target columns and click anywhere in the Value Transformation and Assignment field. 20. For a simple mapping, click the Insert Value button and, from the menu that pops up, select the source data column that you want mapped to the target column you have highlighted. Notice that the chosen column appears in the field in the form csv.<datacolumn> or csv[<data column>], depending on whether or not there are spaces in the source data columns name. For more complex mappings, you would have to manually type the required expression into the Value Transformation and Assignment field. See the section entitled Advanced Import Techniques on page 56 to find out what is possible here using JavaScript. 21. If you want the import process to skip each text-file record where there is no value assigned for this column (or for any column in the expression), enable the Non-empty value required option. This will always be enabled if the target column being mapped is a unique key. 22. If you have entered an expression manually into the Value Transformation and Assignment field, you can confirm correct resolution of the currently highlighted target columns values by clicking the Check Syntax button. This will display, one at a time in the Preview Value Assignment field, the values for that column as computed by the expression, using the set of sample data you previously queried. You can use the >> and << buttons to show the following and preceding values, respectively. 23. Repeat step 19 to step 22 for each of your proposed target columns. 24. Click Apply. 25. Having completed the mapping, you can now run or schedule the import. First select the Control & Schedule tab.
42
26. If you wish to run the import immediately, click the Run Import Now button. A separate window is displayed, in which you can see the imports progress. 27. On completion of the import, you can click View Log in the progress window to view the details of the import process. Note that this is a cumulative log, which means that the current import details are appended to any existing details already logged in this session. (The log will be deleted when you exit from the Data Import Manager.) You can also view the log by using the View Log File button located next to the Run Import Now button. 28. Click Close to dismiss the progress window. 29. If you wish to schedule the import, first enable the Schedule this import option. 30. Specify when, or how often, the import is to run by selecting the relevant item from the Run this import when fields drop-down list. If you select Once a day, some additional options are immediately displayed:
43
In this case, select the day(s) of the week on which the import should run, and choose whether this should keep occurring indefinitely, or a specified number of times. If you select any frequency other than Once a day, the multi-day selection options are replaced in all but one case with a single-day drop-down selection field that allows you, for example, to choose the first day of the relevant period on which the import should run. The exception is Once every period, which retains the multi-day selection options, but replaces the Starting At field with an Every (n) Minutes field, allowing you to specify repeated occurrences of imports during the course of selected days of the week. In the Starting At field (for those options that have it), specify the date and time at which the import is to run, or at which the import scheduling is to switch on. Alternatively, for the Once every period option, enter the period (in minutes) required between successive import occurrences. 31. Click OK.
44
Excel Imports
You can import data from a worksheet of a Microsoft Excel workbook or template file that has any of the following extensions:
.xls, .xlw, .xlt, .xlsx, .xlsm, .xltx, .xltm, .xlax, .xlam, .xltb, .xlab
45
3. In the Name field, type in a suitable name for the import. Leave the Template field blank. 4. Click OK. The Data Import dialogue box, containing a number of different tabs, is displayed.
5. In the Excel Load tab, you must now complete the fields in the File Information section to identify the location of the required data in the relevant Excel file. First specify the file in the File Name field. 6. In the Worksheet field, select the worksheet that contains the required data.
46
7. If the first row of the spreadsheet is made up of column names (headings), so that the data itself actually begins on the second row, enable the First Row Contains Column Names option. 8. With the data structure defined, you now have to retrieve a sample of data from the file to help you choose exactly which data items to use for the import. Click the Query Sample button and observe that the Data Columns/ Data Preview list now shows the first of the queried set of sample records as follows:
The record is displayed as a list of column names (auto-generated if nonexistent in the source file), together with their respective values. You can display other records in the set by means of the >> and << buttons at the top right. 9. Once you have decided which columns should be included in the import process, select their associated checkboxes. Only these columns will now be available to you for mapping to the target Supportworks database, as described in the following steps. 10. To proceed with the mapping, first select the Target Value Mapping tab.
47
11. In the Database field, select the database into which you want the data imported. 12. In the Table field, select the table, within that database, into which you want the data imported. Note that the Unique Key field is now filled by default with the name of the selected tables primary-key column, and that the Target Columns list is populated with all the columns of that table. 13. If necessary, you can manually select a unique key other than the primary key. 14. By virtue of the default Data Update Operations setting, the import process will both create (insert) and update records in the Supportworks database, as dictated by their absence or presence with respect to the corresponding source records. If, however, you wish to preserve the Supportworks data on this import, you should enable the Only allow inserts option. Alternatively, if you wish to prevent further Supportworks records being created on this import, you should enable Only allow updates.
48
15. You are now ready to map your previously selected source columns to columns of your selected target table. First select the checkboxes associated with your proposed target columns. 16. Highlight one of the selected target columns and click anywhere in the Value Transformation and Assignment field. 17. For a simple mapping, click the Insert Value button and, from the menu that pops up, select the source data column that you want mapped to the target column you have highlighted. Notice that the chosen column appears in the field in the form xls.<datacolumn> or xls[<data column>], depending on whether or not there are spaces in the source data columns name. For more complex mappings, you would have to manually type the required expression into the Value Transformation and Assignment field. See the section entitled Advanced Import Techniques on page 56 to find out what is possible here using JavaScript. 18. If you want the import process to skip each Excel-file record where there is no value assigned for this column (or for any column in the expression), enable the Non-empty value required option. This will always be enabled if the target column being mapped is a unique key. 19. If you have entered an expression manually into the Value Transformation and Assignment field, you can confirm correct resolution of the currently highlighted target columns values by clicking the Check Syntax button. This will display, one at a time in the Preview Value Assignment field, the values for that column as computed by the expression, using the set of sample data you previously queried. You can use the >> and << buttons to show the following and preceding values, respectively. 20. Repeat step 16 to step 19 for each of your proposed target columns. 21. Click Apply. 22. Having completed the mapping, you can now run or schedule the import. First select the Control & Schedule tab.
49
23. If you wish to run the import immediately, click the Run Import Now button. A separate window is displayed, in which you can see the imports progress. 24. On completion of the import, you can click View Log in the progress window to view the details of the import process. Note that this is a cumulative log, which means that the current import details are appended to any existing details already logged in this session. (The log will be deleted when you exit from the Data Import Manager.) You can also view the log by using the View Log File button located next to the Run Import Now button. 25. Click Close to dismiss the progress window. 26. If you wish to schedule the import, first enable the Schedule this import option. 27. Specify when, or how often, the import is to run by selecting the relevant item from the Run this import when fields drop-down list. If you select Once a day, some additional options are immediately displayed:
50
In this case, select the day(s) of the week on which the import should run, and choose whether this should keep occurring indefinitely, or a specified number of times. If you select any frequency other than Once a day, the multi-day selection options are replaced in all but one case with a single-day drop-down selection field that allows you, for example, to choose the first day of the relevant period on which the import should run. The exception is Once every period, which retains the multi-day selection options, but replaces the Starting At field with an Every (n) Minutes field, allowing you to specify repeated occurrences of imports during the course of selected days of the week. In the Starting At field (for those options that have it), specify the date and time at which the import is to run, or at which the import scheduling is to switch on. Alternatively, for the Once every period option, enter the period (in minutes) required between successive import occurrences. 28. Click OK.
51
Other Imports
The final tab of the Data Import Manager is reserved for ad-hoc importation of Supportworks-specific data. Currently, only call-profile data imports are supported. With such an import, you can populate either the problem/request profile tables or the resolution profile tables with data you previously entered into a Microsoft Excel worksheet.
52
The worksheet must contain either a set of problem/request-profile data or a set of resolution-profile data. Up to 16 profile tiers are supported. Within the worksheet, the arrangement should be such that there is one complete profile per row, with each individual tier of the profile being under an appropriately headed column. These column headings should be on the first row of the worksheet and each of them should be named LevelX, where X is 1 to 16, signifying the profile tiers. This would be the simplest format you could use, specifying the user-friendly version of the profile nomenclature. For example, you could have the following:
A 1 2 3 4 5 Level1 Hardware Hardware Software Software B Level2 Server Server Server Server Level3 Disk Drive Network Device OS MS Exchange C
Although the column positions are unimportant to the import process, you would probably prefer the LevelX headings to be in ascending order from left to right, which means descending order in the hierarchy. With this simple format, the underlying codes would be generated automatically by the import process, using the same rules as when you are creating call-profile records manually. The one difference is that the importer has a smart codegeneration feature that guarantees the uniqueness of codes and their children at a given level, thus preventing inadvertent replication of code branches.
53
Instead of, or in addition to, having profile codes auto-generated, you can define your own codes. Wherever you define the codes, they will be used. If you only define some codes, the importer will fill in the gaps for you by automatic code generation. If you define codes manually and they conflict, the import process will display an error and then stop. To define your own codes, you simply add one or more columns headed CodeX, where X is again 1 to 16. The following example is the same as above but with manually defined codes:
A 1 2 3 4 5 Code1 HW01 HW01 SW01 SW01 B Level1 Hardware Hardware Software Software C Code2 SV01 SV01 SV01 SV01 D Level2 Server Server Server Server EXCH E Code3 DSK1 NTW1 Level3 Disk Drive Network Device OS MS Exchange F
All of the manually defined codes above will be used. For the OS tier, the importer will automatically generate the code because none is specified. You can also import other items of data, associated with call profiles, that are normally found in the pcinfo or rcinfo tables. You simply use the table column names as headings on the worksheet. All columns except code are valid and can be specified. The following example uses the sla and user2 columns:
A 1 2 3 4 5 Level1 Hardware Hardware Software Software B Level2 Server Server Server Server Level3 Disk Drive Network Device OS MS Exchange C sla Critical Critical High High D user2 Disk Info Network Info OS Info Exchange Info E
54
55
3. Click the browse button next to the Import File field and select the Excel file that contains the call profiles to be imported. Click Open. 4. If there is more than one worksheet within the Excel file, select, in the Worksheet field, the one that contains the required call profiles. 5. In the Target field, specify whether the call profiles to be imported are problem/request profiles or resolution profiles. 6. If you want all currently existing call-profile records of the target type deleted from the Supportworks database before importation proceeds, ensure that the Clean Tables option is enabled. 7. Click Import. The call profiles are imported.
56
For example, the Supportworks Customer table has a persons first name and last name in two separate columns, but it could be that the only corresponding data item available for your LDAP query is the displayName attribute, which has the persons first and last name in a single field, separated by a space. In this case, for correct mapping, the process would need to split the source string and assign the left and right of the split string to two separate columns. Conversely, you may, in other instances, need to join two values to put into a single column. To achieve a split as just described, you would first have to highlight the firstname target column and type the following expression into the Value Transformation and Assignment field:
ldap.displayName.split( )[0]
Then, with the surname column highlighted, you would enter the following expression:
ldap.displayName.split( )[1]
You can see that the original name string is split into two, and the resulting portions are made available within two distinct elements of an array. This is no longer a simple mapping but an actual value transformation. In fact, JavaScript will allow you to incorporate even more complex transformations in your imports, for example, by using regular expressions. Furthermore, you are able to put any kind of JavaScript-coded logic around these expressions. Here, for example, is some code that uses a test to decide which one of two source data items is to apply for the mapping:
if(ldap.distinguishedName == ) ldap.dn else ldap.distinguishedName
What this is doing is checking to see if the ldap.distinguishedName attribute is empty and, if so, returning the value of the ldap.dn attribute instead.
57
for the import. You would enter such statements in the Pre-Import SQL edit tab and the Post-Import SQL edit tab, respectively, of the Data Import dialogue box. For example, suppose you want to keep records in the Customer table (userdb) synchronised with those in the LDAP directory by marking the former as inactive if the customers concerned are no longer in the LDAP directory. You could firstly create a control column called imp_control and a status column called state in the userdb table. You would then enter the following statement in the Pre-Import SQL tab:
UPDATE userdb SET imp_control = 1;
This would set the control value to 1 for every record in the table. In the import mapping, you would set this column to 0 for every record processed (by entering simply the constant value 0 in the Value Transformation and Assignment field of the Target Value Mapping tab). So far, this would mean that whenever the import is run, on completion of the actual data importation, all records in the userdb table that had not been imported from the LDAP directory would still have 1 in the imp_control column. We would therefore enter the following statement in the Post-Import SQL tab to mark these records as inactive:
UPDATE userdb SET state = 'Inactive' WHERE imp_control = 1;
The above is quite a simple example, but it does demonstrate the concept of import initialisation and finalisation using SQL.
Pre-Import JavaScript
This script, written in the window accessed via the Pre-Import Script button, will be invoked once at the start of the import. If you wanted the Data Import
58
Manager to connect to other databases to look up values or obtain extra information for use in the import prior to actual data importation, you could create the required database connections here. For example, if, during the import, you wanted the e-mail addresses in the import cross-checked against those in the HR database to determine whether the customer is an internal or external person, you would write the code for connecting to the HR database in this script. The connection would be maintained throughout the life of the import process. Here is some sample code that will achieve this:
global.hrdb = new DatabaseConnection; global.hrdb.Connect(DBAPI_SWSQL,swdata,root,,);
Warning Connecting to a database is costly in terms of resources, time, network traffic and load on the SQL server itself. Therefore, you should avoid using the above code in the Pre-Transformation and Post-Transformation JavaScript sections of the utility to connect to any databases. This is very bad practice and is likely to cause resource issues on the SQL server concerned.
Pre-Transformation JavaScript
This script, written in the window accessed via the Pre-Transform Script button, will be executed before each record is processed. The source data will be in context, so you can use such a script to pre-validate data or use remote databases for cross-referencing/checking. If you wanted the import to skip the record being processed, you would include code that sets the _skipRecord variable to True. For example:
if(global.hrdb.Query(some query) && hrdb.Fetch()) { if(global.hrdb.GetValueAsNumber() == 0) { // The record will not be imported _skipRecord = true; } }
59
Post-Transformation JavaScript
This script, written in the window accessed via the Post-Transform Script button, will be run after each record has been processed. There are two special read-only variables set by the processing that can be checked and used within the code. These variables and their possible values are as follows:
Variable
_writeMode
Possible Value(s)
0 if nothing was written to the target database. 1 if a new record was inserted into the target database. 2 if an existing record in the target database was updated.
_lastInsertId
If the target table has an auto-increment column and the operation was an INSERT, then this variable will contain the value of the last inserted records auto-increment value.
Post-Import JavaScript
This script, written in the window accessed via the Post-Import Script button, will be run once at the end of the import process.
60
Administrative Entities
Administrative Entities
Administrative entities are named sets of operational definitions that are selectable by name on call forms. Unlike managed entities, administrative entities apply to the Supportworks platform as a whole, and their user interfaces are therefore not customisable on a per-application basis. The three basic types of administrative entity are as follows: Service Level Agreements (SLAs) Call profiles Workflow templates The characteristics of each SLA, call profile or workflow template are stored in a record in the appropriate table. Before your Supportworks system goes live, you will have to ensure that all the required records exist and contain the correct data. Equally, if your system has been live for a while, you may wish to make changes to some of this data. In either case, you will be using a relevant management facility to achieve your goal. This chapter describes the administrative entities and the facilities available for managing them.
61
Administrative Entities
periods during which support staff will be available to handle calls. Supportworks allows you to fully define all of these parameters (in records within the SLA table) for as many different SLAs as your organisation supports. If your organisation offers, for example, a number of different levels of service contract for its external customers, each of these would easily map to a suitably defined SLA. SLAs ensure that, wherever possible, every support issue is handled within the designated time. SLAs are one of the key means of monitoring performance at your helpdesk. At the very least, they are able to provide a mechanism by which automatic reminders are sent to analysts. Even if your helpdesk is not contracted to meet SLAs, it is nevertheless beneficial to try and resolve support issues within a reasonable time and to find out which individuals are consistently failing to do this. SLAs are also a useful means of establishing which areas of support are the most time-consuming for analysts, and which analysts would benefit from further specific training. The SLA functionality provided by Supportworks is based on response and fix timers that allow the system to monitor the progress of calls against the target timescales for initially responding to them and ultimately resolving them. For a given call, both timers are started when the analyst logs the call. They would be temporarily suspended during any period defined as being out of business hours, and while the call is on hold. The response timer is not finally stopped until an analyst action interpreted as an initial response occurs. The fix timer is not stopped until the call is understood to be resolved or closed. When a timer stops, the elapsed time to that point is recorded. This measured time would, of course, exclude all suspension periods, just as predefined SLA target times would always exclude periods outside working hours and periods of forced inactivity caused by factors outside the control of the support team. Intrinsic to any SLA are automated escalations and associated alerts. Escalation means that, as a logged call approaches (or runs beyond) a designated response or fix time, more people can become aware of the increasing urgency of the problem. Such awareness would arise from escalation triggers defined in the SLA. These are scheduled events that may change the status of a call, generating one or more preconfigured actions (mostly reminders, alerts and notifications).
62
Administrative Entities
It is possible to configure two kinds of escalation trigger, one effective at a given time prior to the expiry of the response or fix time, and the other recurring at set intervals after its expiry. You can assign one of four degrees of urgency to an escalation trigger, depending on how far along the call life-cycle it is to be scheduled: Non-escalation. This will merely send a pop-up reminder to the call owner, without changing the call status or recording the event in the call diary. Escalation to the call owner. This will send a pop-up alert to the call owner, will change the call status to Escalated (O), and will record the event in the call diary. Escalation to the call owners group. This will send a pop-up alert to all members of the call owners group, will change the call status to Escalated (G), and will record the event in the call diary. Escalation to all support analysts. This will send a pop-up alert to all members of your organisations support team, will change the call status to Escalated (A), and will record the event in the call diary. In addition, you can specify, for each escalation trigger, which (if any) of the following actions the system must perform at the scheduled time: Send a notification message via the Messenger to a selected individual or group within the support team. Typically, this may be the helpdesk manager or supervisor. Send a notifying e-mail message to a selected person in any of the address books. This may be someone who is not normally logged into the helpdesk. Transfer ownership of the call to a selected member or group within the support team. Analysts need not rely solely on specific reminders, alerts and notifications to keep themselves aware of the current state of urgency of a call. They should also be able to see the situation at a glance by looking at either the Condition or the Escalation column of any of their call lists in the Helpdesk view. To that effect, you can optionally assign one of up to 24 possible call conditions or, alternatively, one of 36 possible escalation levels, to each escalation trigger. These will then appear as colour-coded indicators against calls listed in a calllist tab, each representing the degree of urgency appropriate to the level of escalation that applies at any given time for the call concerned. You have a
63
Administrative Entities
choice of up to four different geometric shapes to use as call-condition indicators, each in one of up to six colours. In the case of the escalation-level indicators, you have a choice of six arrows at incrementally increasing sizes, each again in one of six colours. The main functional difference between these two schemes is that, with call conditions, it is possible for an analyst to set an initial state on a per-call basis and (if appropriate) to subsequently keep changing the state independently of the escalation level. No such manual functionality is available for the arrow-style escalation-level indicators. By virtue of these manual facilities, you can use call conditions to indicate the priorities of individual calls, whether changing or static over the lifetime of the call. At the same time, you could use the arrow scheme to track escalation levels. Once you have defined all the SLAs offered by your organisation, you will be able to assign any of them to customers, assets, charge centres and/or call profiles. This is how, for example, each customer record would be associated with the type of service contract they have purchased. Furthermore, if any of the contracts contain clauses that single out certain items of equipment for special treatment in relation to level of support, any SLAs created to cover such levels could, at the same time, be associated with the respective items of equipment. Similarly, if you want certain kinds of problem to receive higher-priority support, you would assign suitable SLAs to the relevant problem profiles. Yet another example of SLA assignment, in the case (especially) of internal support, could arise when there is a requirement to charge departments differently to reflect their varying support needs. In such circumstances, you would assign different SLAs to the respective charge centres. Whenever a call is logged, the analyst can choose either the basis on which the SLA is to be applied for that call, or the specific SLA itself. Typically, the default would be to use the customer-based SLA. To indicate one possible way of managing SLAs in a support environment, a worked example is provided in the example below.
Example
DO IT offer two different types of support service, corresponding to two different sets of SLAs. One set is for external, FAST customers who pay for varying levels of software support, and the other is for internal DO IT staff who
64
Administrative Entities
are provided with multiple tiers of hardware support. As DO IT maintain a policy of cross-departmental charging, it is essential that the respective SLAs are adhered to wherever possible. It is also important for the two types of SLA to be easily distinguishable. Consequently, it has been decided that the FAST-customer SLAs will be named after the technical support options on offer from DO IT: Gold, Silver and Bronze Support Premiums. To make internal SLAs apparent, DO IT have decided to name them High, Medium and Low. DO IT do not hold any SLAs against assets, which means that it will not be necessary to assign SLAs to asset records. Additionally, it is essential that the escalations and alerts within each SLA reflect the practices in place within the DO IT support operation. Therefore, it has been decided that all SLAs will follow the same pattern of escalation: four trigger actions before the response time is met, and a similar four actions (with different timings) before the fix time is met. During both pre-response and prefix phases, the first action against a call will be a simple reminder to the call owner, and this will not be tracked in the call diary. The second action will be a recorded escalation of the call to the call owner. The third will be an escalation of the call to the owners support group, and the fourth will be a transferral of call ownership to the helpdesk administrator. Although other escalations and alerts are available, DO IT have chosen to specify the same set of actions against every SLA, applying this to both the response and fix triggers. As far as support periods are concerned, it is possible to specify different hours of business for different SLAs, perhaps depending on the geographical location of the customer or asset that is being supported. However, this is not a consideration for DO IT, as they keep to one standard set of business hours during which they provide support, irrespective of the potential origin of any calls they may receive.
65
Administrative Entities
In Supportworks, you manage third-party SLAs via the Support Team tree browser. Once you have enabled the feature for a given data dictionary (as described in the relevant chapter of the System Customisation Guide), a new root category called Third Party Suppliers appears in the Helpdesk views tree browser. Under this category, you can create entries for all of the outsourced support suppliers with which you have SLAs. Then, for each third-party supplier, you can create sub-entries in which you would define the SLAs and reference the written contracts that you have with the organisation. Much of the dialogue used for defining these third-party SLAs is identical to that used for defining the underlying call SLAs. Both kinds of SLA data are stored in the same table (whereas the data on third-party suppliers is stored in one of the Support Analyst tables). During the life-cycle of a call, the relevant third-party SLA would be invoked by an analyst temporarily assigning the call to that SLA. Typically, such an assignment would place the call on hold automatically, although you can opt to give the analyst control over whether or not the call should go on hold in any particular instance. In relation to response and fix times, escalations and notifications, the system will treat the third-party SLA as simply an additional SLA, totally independent of the call SLA that would also be in force for the same call. Ultimately, the call would be manually re-assigned to an analyst. This would be the point that the system recognises as the third-party fix time, and would also be the point at which the call comes off hold (unless it has already done so by manual command or by virtue of reaching the automatic off-hold point).
66
Administrative Entities
2. Click the New button to view the Create New Service Level Agreement dialogue box. The Details tab is displayed initially.
3. Decide on a name for the SLA record you wish to create and enter it in the SLA Name field. 4. If necessary, adjust the time-zone setting to reflect your own location. 5. In the Response and Fix Time Periods area, enter the response and fix timeperiods that are to apply to this SLA. You can enter these directly in the respective fields in terms of hours and minutes, or you can enter them in days using the Specify in days button, which presents you with an
67
Administrative Entities
appropriate prompt. A day here would mean a working day consisting of a specific number of support hours, as defined in the Support Hours tab (see below). Thus, if you enter a time in days, this would be converted to support hours and displayed in the relevant hours field (the days being shown in parentheses). If necessary, you can then edit the hours and minutes fields to fine-tune the time. Note that you can specify times in days only if all working days are of equal length. The response and fix time periods will run concurrently, both of them starting at the time when a call is logged. This is shown graphically on the Relative Response/Fix Time Indicator. 6. Click Apply, and then click the Support Hours tab.
7. Look at the calendar grid in the upper half of the dialogue box, showing the default weekly support hours (as preset in the server configuration), highlighted in blue. As you move your mouse pointer over the grid, you can see that the relevant day, and the range of support hours for that day, are displayed at the bottom left of the calendar, and the day and the start of the half-hour time-slot represented by the cell you are pointing at are displayed at the bottom right. If you see that the default days and hours are in
68
Administrative Entities
accordance with the requirements of this SLA, you should skip the following four steps. 8. To set the support hours (to the nearest half-hour) for any given day of the week, first clear the existing range (if any) by clicking any cell within that day, and then move the mouse pointer to the desired support-start time for that day. Alternatively, if you just want to adjust the start or end time of a support day, move the mouse pointer over to the start or end cell for that day. 9. Click the left mouse button and hold it down while dragging the mouse pointer to the desired end (or start) time of the support day. As you drag the pointer, a tooltip appears, showing you the time range you are setting. 10. Release the mouse button. The new duration of the relevant day will now be highlighted in blue. 11. Repeat step 8 to step 10 for each day you wish to set. To remove the time range for a day that is not to be a support day, just single-click any cell for that day. 12. Look at the Holiday Exclusions area in the lower half of the dialogue box, showing the holiday dates (if any) that are currently excluded from the default calendar. If you see that these exclusions are in accordance with the requirements of this SLA, you should skip the following five steps. 13. To add a new exclusion, click the Add button in the Holiday Exclusions area to display the Exclude Date dialogue box.
14. Select one of the following two options: Exclude this date every year This option, when enabled, specifies that the exclusion will be valid every year. It would be appropriate for a public holiday that always occurs on the same date.
69
Administrative Entities
Exclude this date this year only This option, when enabled, specifies that the exclusion will be unique to a particular year. It would be appropriate for a day on which the company relocates to another site, for example. If you enable this option, you must also enter the relevant year (in full four-digit format) in the adjacent field. 15. Enter the day of the month in the Exclusion Date field, and select the month from the drop-down list. 16. Click OK. You will see that the exclusion has been added to the list in the Support Hours tab. 17. Repeat step 13 to step 16 for each additional exclusion you wish to register. 18. Click Apply, and then click the Escalation Triggers tab.
19. To create an escalation trigger for responses, first click Add in the upper half of the dialogue box. Alternatively, to create an escalation trigger for fixes, first click Add in the lower half of the dialogue box. In either case, the Add New Escalation Trigger dialogue box is displayed.
70
Administrative Entities
20. Specify either how long (in hours and minutes) before the expiry of the agreed response or fix time you want an escalation event to trigger, or how frequently (in minutes) after the expiry of the response or fix time you want such an event to trigger. 21. Click OK. The trigger is displayed as an entry in the Response Triggers or Fix Triggers list, as appropriate. 22. To specify escalation events for the trigger you have just created, ensure that it is selected in the Response Triggers or Fix Triggers list, and click the Properties button. The Escalation Trigger Event dialogue box is displayed.
23. Bearing in mind the urgency of the escalation being defined, select an appropriate event to be triggered by clicking one of the four radio buttons.
71
Administrative Entities
24. If you want the escalation to include the transmission of a notification message to, say, the helpdesk manager, the transmission of a standard e-mail to, say, someone not in the helpdesk team, and/or a selective transfer of call ownership, you should click the appropriate checkbox(es) and specify the required individual(s) or group(s). 25. If you want the escalation to invoke a user-defined VPME process, first click the Invoke VPME Script checkbox. Then, in the Script field, enter the name of the relevant process. In the Verb field, enter a brief description that will uniquely identify this escalation trigger event. This text will be presented to the process at run-time as the contents of an input parameter named verb. Also passed (implicitly), as the contents of the input parameter callRef, would be the current call reference. It follows that these two input parameters must be defined in the VPME process itself. For callRef, the data type should be xs:unsignedInt, and for verb, the data type should be xs:string. Please refer to the Visual Process Management chapter of the System Customisation Guide for basic guidance on building VPME processes. 26. If you want arrow-style escalation-level indicators to be used for visually tracking escalation changes, first select, in the Level Indicator field, a suitable escalation level corresponding to a specific length of arrow that calls associated with this SLA are to display (in the Escalation column of a call list) when this escalation trigger is activated. Then select, in the Colour field, the colour that the arrow should have for representing the desired escalation level. There is no need to select a specific level or colour if you are happy with the order in which the different-sized arrows and/or their array of colours will appear. Instead, you could just select [Next Level] and/or [Next Colour], respectively, which would automatically pick the next indication item in the relevant list. For either field, if you were to keep the default setting of [No Change], activation of this escalation trigger would have no effect on the relevant aspect of the displayed indicator, allowing the previously set arrow length or colour to persist. 27. If you want call-condition indicators to be used for visually tracking escalation changes, select, in the Call Condition field, a suitable condition that calls associated with this SLA are to display (in the Condition column of
72
Administrative Entities
a call list) when this escalation trigger is activated. Any specific condition setting you may select here will, on activation of this escalation trigger, set the condition indicator for the call to the corresponding urgency level. Visually, a condition indicator would consist of a geometrical icon (circle, triangle, square or clock) in the chosen colour, followed by a textual label. If you were to keep the default setting of [No Change], activation of this escalation trigger would have no effect on the condition displayed, allowing the previously set condition for the call concerned to persist. Note that, if you were to leave the call-condition setting for all escalation triggers at [No Change], you would make call conditions completely independent of escalation levels. This is what you would have to do if call conditions are to be interpreted as priorities that you expect analysts to set manually. 28. If you are configuring a fix trigger, you may want the escalation-level or callcondition indicator to change only if the response timer has stopped. In that case, check the relevant option in the appropriate area. 29. Click Update or OK, depending on whether or not you made any changes. 30. Repeat step 19 to step 29 for each additional response or fix trigger you wish to create and configure. 31. Click Apply, and then click OK. Notice that the new SLA is displayed in the list, which means that a new SLA record has been created. 32. Click Close.
73
Administrative Entities
3. Click the Support Hours tab. To adjust the support hours for any given day of the week, follow the same procedure as when you were creating a new SLA. To add a new holiday exclusion, click the Add button in the Holiday Exclusions area and proceed as before. To modify an exclusion, select it from the list, click Edit and make the necessary changes. 4. Click the Escalation Triggers tab. To add an extra escalation trigger for responses or fixes, click the appropriate Add button and follow the same procedure as when you were creating a new SLA. To change the escalation events for a trigger, select the trigger from the relevant list, click the corresponding Properties button, and proceed as before.
74
Administrative Entities
2. In the Company ID field, enter a suitable (unique) identifier for the new supplier. 3. In the Company, Telephone and Fax fields, enter the full name, telephone number and fax number, respectively, of the new supplier. 4. If you need to record more details about the new supplier, enter these in the Notes field. 5. Click the Apply button and then either click OK to close the dialogue box or, if you already know the details of one or more agreements with the supplier concerned, proceed with the creation of the SLA records as described in the next subsection.
75
Administrative Entities
2. In the Contract Number field, enter the reference number of a written contract you have with the supplier concerned. 3. Specify the duration of the contract. 4. Provide any relevant contact details in relation to this contract.
76
Administrative Entities
5. If you want calls to go on hold automatically whenever they are assigned to this SLA, enable the checkbox option here. Note that on-hold placement can be automatic only where the Third Party SLAs option (in a given data dictionarys Global Parameters) that forces the display of the Update Call dialogue whenever an analyst assigns a call to a third-party SLA is set to False (0). 6. If you wish to record more details about this contract, enter these in the Notes field. 7. Select the Details tab and follow the instructions to create a call-SLA record from step 4 of Adding a New SLA.
77
Administrative Entities
In this tab, as well as being able to view the list of SLAs, you can add new ones by means of the New button, modify any of their details via the Properties button, and remove any of them by using Delete.
78
Administrative Entities
required. However, you will not be allowed to delete the record until all calls currently assigned to this SLA are re-assigned to analysts. An alternative means of removing an SLA is via the Delete button in the SLAs tab of the Third Party Supplier Properties dialogue box, as mentioned in Viewing a List of Third-Party SLAs above.
Call Profiles
In this section, you are first introduced to the idea of call profiles, and you are then shown how to perform each of the available call-profile management tasks in turn.
79
Administrative Entities
(problem or request) profile, which would allow you to offer your customers different levels of support for different types of problem or request. Once you have built up a set of call profiles, analysts will be able to select any of them, down to the desired level, when logging or closing/resolving a call. For call logging, it would be a problem/request profile that is allocated to the call, whereas for call closure/resolution, it would be a resolution profile. When encountering a new kind of problem/request (or registering a new kind of resolution) that is as yet unprofiled, the analyst may be able to select Other on any tier, or on all tiers, as a generic default. Such generic profiling is unhelpful as a future reference, and should be used only as a stopgap measure. At any time during the life of a call, it is possible for the analyst to change its profile to something more specific, provided that such a profile has been created in the meantime. In any call-logging or call-closure/resolution situation, there is a facility available for making notes against the call. The analyst could either manually enter a suitable description of the problem/request or resolution, or could opt to instantly include the default text description associated with the selected profile, thus saving him or her the trouble of typing it out. The description could still be edited at that point, if necessary. When you are in the process of constructing a call profile, a corresponding string of characters known as a call profile code is automatically built up at the same time. A call profile code is a shorthand representation of the associated call profile, and is used by the system internally to uniquely identify that profile (although the helpdesk administrator or group managers may need to be aware of it in some circumstances). Each tier of a call profile is represented by four characters of its profile code. Thus, a three-tier call profile would have a twelvecharacter call profile code. Although the profile codes are generated automatically by default, you have the option of entering them manually. Profiling can prove invaluable for pinpointing problematic software or hardware, or areas of support weakness. Supportworks provides, for example, ready-to-run reports summarising open calls by problem type. You can also create your own reports to further extend the scope of problem analysis, and to implement any desired kind of resolution analysis. When examining or constructing reports based on problem or resolution types, you need to be aware of the meanings of all the stored profile codes.
80
Administrative Entities
Most helpdesk teams would be able to define most problems in three tiers. These, broadly, would be as follows: (a) Hardware or software (b) The application or machine that is malfunctioning (c) The way in which it is malfunctioning Similarly, fixes could typically be defined by the following three tiers: (a) Hardware or software (b) The application or machine that was malfunctioning (c) The way in which the problem was resolved It is not only problems and their fixes that need to be categorised. Customers may call to ask you questions or to ask you to do things for them. These calls and their resolutions will also require profiling. A different number of tiers may be appropriate for such profiles. For example, a resolution profile relating to the answer to a question is unlikely to be as deep as one relating to a problem fix. For every helpdesk, there will be existing problem/request trends and corresponding resolutions that staff are already aware of, and it is these that your initially defined call profiles should reflect. Then, as the support team reports new kinds of problems/requests and resolutions, you can create call profiles for those, too, and therefore make them available for use on future calls.
Example
It has been decided that three tiers of problem profiles will be used. The first tier will indicate the two currently supported versions of FAST software, along with the two basic categories of supported in-house hardware (internal and mobile). For each version of FAST software, the second tier will indicate the main software modules: client, server and database. The third tier will indicate the actual nature of the problem, such as incorrect result data in relation to the database, for example. The hardware will be profiled in a similar way. Detailed problem descriptions will be entered at the third tier for each problem profile, and auto-coding will be enabled to save time.
81
Administrative Entities
Example
It has been decided that three tiers of call profiles will be enough. For problem/ request profiles, the first tier will contain hardware, software and service exception (that is, problem) categories, along with a question category and a request category. For each exception category, the second tier will contain various equipment, software and service types, with the relevant classes of call indicated. The question category will be subdivided into question types, and the request category will be split into hardware, software and service changes, and general actions. The change categories would be relevant to RFCs.
82
Administrative Entities
The third tier will contain the most specific subdivisions of the exception, question and request categories. For exceptions, detailed problem descriptions will be entered at the third tier of each problem/request profile. For questions and requests, the decriptions will not need to be so detailed. Resolution profiles will broadly follow the hierarchical structure of the problem/ request profiles.
Example
It has been decided that three tiers of call profiles will be enough. For problem/ request profiles, the first tier will contain hardware and software exception (that is, problem) categories, along with a customer-question category and a customer-request category. These would be relevant to the Support Request call
83
Administrative Entities
class. On that tier, there will also be an Analysis Request category and a Work Request category, relevant to those classes of call respectively. For each exception category, the second tier will contain various equipment and software types. The customer-question category will be subdivided into the types of question customers commonly ask, and the customer-request category will be split into the types of request that customers typically make. The Analysis Request category will be split into debug and research subcategories, while the Work Request category will have billed and unbilled subcategories. The third tier will contain the most specific subdivisions of the problem/request profiles. For exceptions, detailed problem descriptions will be entered at the third tier of each problem profile. For everything else, the decriptions will not need to be so detailed. Resolution profiles will broadly follow the hierarchical structure of the problem/ request profiles.
84
Administrative Entities
2. By default, the system automatically builds multi-tier profile codes for all call profiles you may create. If you wish to create the codes manually most of the time, you should clear the Enable Auto-coding option in this dialogue box. Note that the Code field in this dialogue box is always read-only, and will show all tiers of the profile code for the selected profile as built so far. 3. In the tree browser, highlight either Problem Profiles or Resolution Profiles, depending on the type of call profile you wish to create, and click New to view the Add New Profile Level dialogue box.
4. In the Level Description field, enter a brief description to identify the profile tier you are creating. Notice that, as you type, with Auto-coding enabled, the system automatically generates a profile code for you, representing the profile tier you are entering. If, for this tier, you wish to generate your own profile code instead, you could either disable Auto-coding and enter the fourcharacter code of your choice in the Code field, or simply edit the autogenerated code. In any case, if there is a shortfall in the code size, the code will ultimately be padded out with zeros. 5. Click OK, and notice that the profile tier you have just added now appears in the tree browser. 6. Keep that profile level highlighted and click New to add another tier, proceeding as before. Repeat the tier-creation procedure for each extra tier you require. The maximum number of tiers is six by default, although it will be more if the relevant tables have been suitably modified. Note that you can increase the depth of any call profile at any time by simply adding tiers in this way. 7. Once you have added the lowest tier for the profile you are creating, ensure that this tier is highlighted, and complete the Description field. This will be the default text description of the problem/request or resolution for this
85
Administrative Entities
profile, and it can be made instantly available to any analyst logging or closing/resolving a call. Note that, although you could enter a text description at any tier (or at more than one tier) of a call profile, such text would tend to be most useful at the tier that will be used the most. 8. For a problem/request profile, assign an SLA, if required, by selection from the pick list in the SLA field. You could assign an SLA to any tier, or to more than one tier, of a call profile, depending on your specific requirements. 9. In the case of a problem/request profile, if your system is licensed to handle operator scripts, and you have created such a script, you can assign that script to the profile (at any tier, or tiers) by selecting it in the Script field. To make the scripts execution mandatory for analysts when they choose a problem/request profile to use in a call, enable the Force execution option. 10. If you are creating a problem/request profile and are required to specify attributes for a given tier, click the Attributes tab when highlighting the appropriate tier, and enter or select the necessary attributes. You can specify attributes at any tier, or tiers. 11. Click Close.
86
Administrative Entities
Modify Profile Description dialogue box. Note that you cannot edit the profile code displayed in the adjacent Code field. Click OK.
Workflow Templates
In this section, you are first introduced to the idea of basic workflow in Supportworks, and to the use of workflow templates. You are then shown how to perform each of the available workflow-template management tasks in turn. To find out about more advanced business-process management (if applicable to the particular Supportworks application you have purchased), please see the relevant template-specific Administrator Guide.
Introduction to Workflow
The organisation of any part of a business process that involves task management within a team can be represented as a workflow. In the context of actioning a helpdesk call, the workflow would procedurally specify the work that has to be carried out in order to resolve that call, and would also indicate which analyst or group is to be assigned to each individual work item. Work items would be grouped together within named worklists. A worklist can be
87
Administrative Entities
regarded as a distinct stage in the process of resolving a call. It is possible to apply one or more worklists to any given call. A work item within a worklist applied to a call would be a specific helpdesk task that has to be performed, either by the call owner or by a team member who may not be responsible for the call as a whole. Any number of worklists, and any number of work items within them, can be included in a call. If, for example, an internal customers workstation has sustained widespread hardware and software damage, it may be necessary to create a hardware worklist and a software worklist against the call logged. In each worklist, several work items would be specified, each to be dealt with by perhaps a different specialist. Each specialist would be assigned responsibility for the work item(s) in their field of expertise. Work-item assignees do not always need to be specialists, however, as work items can be defined purely for the purpose of sharing the workload necessary to resolve a call. In such a case, it would not matter very much who was assigned which work item, although it may still be useful to exercise some kind of preference. Note that support groups can be assignees as well. You can specify a list of work items as being open or sequential. The items in an open worklist can be completed in any order, while those in a sequential worklist have to follow the stated order. The worklists themselves, on the other hand, as they represent stages in the workflow, always follow each other in sequence. Thus, in the example above, the workflow would most likely be organised such that the hardware worklist precedes the software worklist. All worklists logged against a call must be completed before you can close or resolve the call, and a worklist will not be marked as completed until all of its constituent work items have, in their turn, been completed. When defining a work item, you can specify whether absolutely anyone in the support team will be allowed to register the task as complete, whether that action is to be restricted to members of the assignees group, or whether it is to be restricted to the individual assignee. There are two possible ways in which you can create a workflow for a call: You can create it individually at the time of the call. This method would be appropriate for calls that are non-routine and are handled on an ad hoc basis.
88
Administrative Entities
You can create sets of workflows in advance and save them as templates, any of which you or a member of the team can subsequently select when logging a call. This would be appropriate for routine and standardised calls. The templates employed in the second method are in fact records held in the Workflow Template table. There is no need to populate this table when first setting the system up unless perhaps you already have some standard assignable tasks in mind.
Example
When a new employee joins DO IT, the manager of that individuals department would normally contact the support team to arrange for the usual workstationrelated new-starter procedures to be carried out. These procedures might include the connecting up of a new desktop PC, the creation of a new Windows NT Domain account, the installation of Windows NT, the installation of other applications, and so on. As each of these work items involves a different specialist in the support team, it would make sense to include appropriate workflow elements in all such support calls. Furthermore, since the required set of work items would be the same every time, creating the workflow as a template would be the preferred way of specifying them. A brief analysis of the work items involved in the new-starter process indicates that they are not complex enough to warrant the introduction of more than one major workflow stage. Thus, a single worklist containing all the required work items would suffice. Because the starting of each task is dependent on the previous task being completed, the work items would need to be specified as sequential. In accordance with the DO IT support teams usual practices, the responsibility for completing all routine work items other than the installation of standard office applications rests with the individual assigned to the job. However, for applications, the responsibility is widened to the assignees entire group. These responsibilities will be reflected in the workflow template.
89
Administrative Entities
2. Click New to display the Create New Workflow Template dialogue box.
3. In the Name field, enter a name for the workflow template you wish to create.
90
Administrative Entities
4. In the adjacent field, indicate the data dictionary or dictionaries in which this template is to be available. 5. Click Add Worklist. 6. When prompted to do so, enter a name for the first (or only) worklist you wish to create in the workflow template, and click OK. Notice that an empty worklist (initially of the open type, as shown in brackets after its name) appears in the Create New Workflow Template dialogue box. 7. If the worklist is to be sequential rather than open, select it and click the Make Sequential button. Notice that the words in brackets after the worklist name now indicate that its constituent work items are to be sequential. Should you change your mind about the order type at any point during this procedure, be aware that you have use of the Make Open button as well. 8. Ensure that the new worklist is selected and click Add Work Item. The Create New Work Item dialogue box is displayed, allowing you to define a work item for the worklist concerned.
9. In the Allowable Time field, specify the period of time (in hours and minutes) to be allowed for completion of the work item. 10. If you want your own support group to take collective responsibility for the task to be carried out, leave the content of the Assign to field as it is. If you personally are to be responsible for carrying out the task, click the button showing a persons head. Observe that the Assign to field now contains your own analyst ID (as well as that of your group).
91
Administrative Entities
Otherwise, click the button with three dots to display the Choose Assignee dialogue box. From the tree browser, you can select the support group or analyst to which you wish to assign the work item. If you need to base your choice on respective skills, click the Skills tab, select a group and skill as necessary, and select the required analyst. In either case, click OK, and observe that the Assign to field in the Create New Work Item dialogue box now contains the selected analyst or group. (Alternatively, you could have simply double-clicked the item in either the browser or the Skills list.) 11. In the next field, use the drop-down list to specify whether the work item can be completed only by the assignee, by any member of the assignees group, or by anyone in the support team. 12. In the Priority field, select an appropriate level of priority for the work item, indicating how important you think it is. 13. In the Type field, select the category under which the work item should fall. 14. If you want the system to send the assignee and/or the call owner an automatic reminder of the work-item deadline shortly before expiry of the allowed time, enable the relevant options and specify how long (in hours and minutes) before expiry the reminder should be sent. 15. If you want the system to notify all members of the assigned group of the completion of the work item, enable the relevant option. 16. In the Description field, type a suitable description of the work item. 17. Click Add, and notice that the work item you have just defined has been added to the selected worklist in the Create New Workflow Template dialogue box. 18. Repeat step 8 to step 17 for each additional work item you want to define. 19. If you wish to delete a work item, select it and click the Delete button. 20. If you wish to rearrange the work items in the list, you can do that by selecting individual items and clicking the Move Up or Move Down button. 21. Repeat step 5 to step 20 for each additional worklist you want to create. 22. If you wish to delete a worklist, select it and click the Delete button.
92
Administrative Entities
23. If you wish to rename a worklist, select it, click the Rename button, enter its new name at the prompt, and click OK. 24. If you have created more than one worklist in this template, and you wish to rearrange these on the list, you can do that by selecting them individually and clicking the Move Up or Move Down button. 25. If you wish to rename the template, click the Rename Template button, enter its new name at the prompt, and click OK. 26. Click Close Window, and notice the addition of the new template to the list in the Manage Workflow Templates dialogue box. 27. Click Close.
93
Administrative Entities
9. To rename the template, use the Rename Template button as before. 10. Click Close Window and then Close. Note A workflow template that is empty cannot exist as a named entity. Therefore, if you have deleted all the contents of a template, the template itself will also be deleted when you close the Edit Workflow Template (or Create New Workflow Template) dialogue box.
94
Skills
Skill records are designed to hold sets of suitably categorised skills information. The skills defined in these records would be all of those possessed by the individuals in the entire support team. Once defined, a skill can be associated with one or more analysts. Also, multiple skills can be associated with any given analyst. (Note that such associations are performed within the relevant analyst record.) Furthermore, the administrator can give analysts a performance and experience rating with respect to each of their associated skills. The administrator or suitably authorised analysts would then be able to assign calls to individuals based on their specialist skill sets and/or their levels of competence in those areas.
95
The use of skills is optional. Even if you do decide to create skill records, there is no need to do so when first setting the system up unless you already have quite a clear and comprehensive idea of what skills exist within your support team.
3. In the Skill field, enter a name for the skill record you are creating. 4. In the Category field, select an existing category for the skill, or type a new category.
96
5. In the Description field, type some text describing the skill. 6. Click OK. The new record is created. 7. Click Close.
Support Groups
Supportworks allows you to divide up your support organisation into groups, each having one or more support analysts and possibly further groups as members. The records in which the groups are defined are referenced by the support-analyst records.
97
In a support-group record, not only can you specify a number of appropriate attributes, but you can also reserve user licences for that group. The support groups can be differentiated from each other in any way that may be appropriate to your support operation: for example, by internal and external support responsibilities, or by skill sets. Any such classification scheme should allow easy and logical access, via the analyst-selection tree browser, to specific analysts for assigning and tracking calls. Each Supportworks installation is provided with a default group to begin with whose ID is SUPPORT, and whose sole member is the Administrator. You can easily expand from this to build a grouping structure that is suitable for your support team.
98
3. In the Group ID field, enter an identifier for the support group you are creating. All text you type in here will be capitalised. As you type, you will see, below the field, a greyed out text string being built. For a top-level group, this will be an exact copy of what you are typing. For a group at any other level, however, it will be the full and unique representation of that subgroup, shown as a hierarchical path. The maximum allowable length for the complete text string (including the forward slashes) is 160 characters, and this constitutes the only limit to the group depth. Unless you are creating a top-level group, the ID you actually type does not have to be unique. 4. In the Name field, enter the name of the support group as you would wish it to appear in a tree browser representing the structure of the support team. 5. In the remaining editable fields, specify any necessary attributes for the support group. 6. In the licence-reservation field, select the number of concurrent user licences (if any) that are to be reserved for the support group. Reserving licences is useful where the members of the group concerned need to have guaranteed access to Supportworks at times when the system is running low on spare licences. If no such special treatment is required for the group, leave the number of licences at 0 (zero).
99
Support Analysts
Support-analyst records hold information and settings relating to every member of the support team. The information consists mainly of contact and authentication details, and indications of group membership and locale. In addition, there are settings that define the rights the individual has been given to carry out specific actions in Supportworks, and those that define the default operational options that are associated with the individual. It is also possible to set an availability status, select the individuals skills from the skills record, and manage their library resources.
100
The analyst records are actually user accounts. They govern the ability of Supportworks users to log into the system as analysts, managers or administrators, and to use the system in a manner consistent with their respective rights. On initial system installation, you will find that one analyst record already exists: an account for the user named Administrator. You are warned not to delete the Administrator account unless you are prepared to permanently do without the rights associated with the helpdesk administrators role, as this account is initially the only one that possesses such rights. Before you start creating your own analyst records, you would probably want to ensure that you have created all the required group records, and possibly all the skill records. If third-party SLAs are enabled, the information on third-party service suppliers would be stored as analyst records.
101
2. Complete all fields in the Details tab. They are as follows: Analyst ID This field should contain the proposed user ID of the support analyst, and will be the ID used by the analyst to log into Supportworks. (Note that only alphabetic, numeric and underscore characters are allowed in the analyst ID, with underscore not being permitted as the first character.) Any of five methods of authentication can be used: one specific to Supportworks, one based on Windows NT, one based on the Microsoft Active Directory service (ADS), one based on the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) often associated with Novell NetWare 5.0 and above, or one based on Novell NetWare Directory Services (NDS). All methods other than the first would allow the analyst to use the same familiar credentials for logging into Supportworks as those they already use to log into their respective Windows systems.
102
If you opt for the native Supportworks method, you have to decide on a suitable analyst ID, and then type that into the field. If you opt for NT authentication, you can click the NT Domain Account button to display a domain browser in which you would then select the relevant login ID from the displayed list either by scrolling and clicking, or by entering the ID in the Search field. When you close the list window, the login ID you selected appears in the Analyst ID field, the users name appears in the Full Name field, and the login-related fields at the bottom of the Details tab change appropriately. If you opt for Active Directory service authentication, you have to decide on a suitable analyst ID (which may, for example, be the initial part of the User Principal Name), and then type that into the field. If you opt for LDAP, you have to decide on a suitable analyst ID (which may, for example, be an appropriate part of the Distinguished Name), and then type that into the field. If you opt for Novell NDS authentication, you have to decide on a suitable analyst ID (which may, for example, be the NetWare username), and then type that into the field. Full Name This field should contain the name of the analyst, as you would like to see it displayed in a tree browser representing the structure of the support team. You may wish to include a job title in the case of a group manager, for example. If you have selected a Windows NT login ID, as mentioned above, the Full Name field will have been filled in automatically (although you may still edit it). Home Group From the pick list associated with this field, select the support group to which the analyst primarily belongs. This is the mandatory group that will always appear in red in the Support Team tree for that analyst. Note that the full and unique versions of the group IDs are shown in parentheses against the group names in the pick list. The contact-information fields Of these six fields, complete whichever are necessary. Current Availability As you are in the process of creating a new supportanalyst record, you can most probably ignore the Current Availability field and the associated Absence Message button for the time being.
103
Authenticate login using The item in this field indicates the method of authentication that Supportworks must use when the analyst logs into the system. By default, the setting is Supportworks Security Database, which is the method specific to Supportworks. With this setting, you will have to decide on an initial password for the analyst and then enter it in both of the password fields provided. If you have selected a Windows NT account as the analyst ID (as mentioned above), the setting will have automatically changed to NT Domain Authentication, and the password fields will have changed to a Domain field. You should check that the domain indicated is correct. If you want the analyst to use the Microsoft Active Directory service (ADS) as the means of authentication, you should select Windows 2000 Active Directory via the drop-down list, whereupon the password fields change to one in which you must enter a valid User Principal Name (UPN). A UPN is similar in format to an Internet e-mail address. If you want the analyst to use LDAP as the means of authentication, you should select Lightweight Directory Access Protocol via the drop-down list, whereupon the password fields change to one in which you must specify an LDAP server and a valid Distinguished Name. Enter the name or IP address of a suitable computer running LDAP (perhaps a Novell NetWare server), then type a forward slash (/), and finally enter the analysts Distinguished Name as recognised by the LDAP server. An example might be as follows: SERVER01/o=hornbill,cn=steve. If you want the analyst to use Novell NDS as the means of authentication, you should select Novell NDS Authentication via the drop-down list, whereupon the password fields change to one in which you must enter a valid NDS username or, if this is not unique within your organisation, a fully qualified NDS user ID. The latter option would be in the following format: unit of the ID, <context> is any number of levels of organisational unit (separated from each other by single dots, with the lowest level first), and <tree> is the highest-level organisational unit. A typical example (with two context levels) might be: jsmith.development.acmeUK.acmecorp.
<username>.<context>.<tree> where <username> is the lowest-level
104
3. Click Apply to create a new record containing the information you have entered so far. This step is necessary so that you will be able to set the analysts e-mail privileges (as described below). 4. Click the Regional Settings tab if you need to adjust any settings that relate to the analysts own locale.
Supportworks does not use the regional settings provided by Windows. Instead, it uses settings you can set up for yourself independently of the operating system. You configure these settings within the Regional Settings tab. Note that some of these, such as Date/Time Format, can be overridden by more specific field-attribute settings in customisable forms. (For further information, please refer to the System Customisation Guide.) The following fields are available in which you can adjust the settings:
105
Time Zone This specifies the time zone in which the analyst is located. When the analyst is logged into the Supportworks system, any dates and times generated by the system will be displayed on the client in accordance with the time zone set here. Local Standards and Formats The first field in this section allows you to quickly set commonly accepted region-specific defaults for date and time formats and the currency symbol, or to select a Custom Settings option by which you can modify these (in the fields below) according to your own preferences. With Custom Settings, the various coded elements you can use in the date and time format fields, together with their meanings, are as follows:
Element HH H hh h mm m ss s dddd ddd dd d MMMM MMM MM M yyyy Meaning Hours in 24-hour clock form with leading zero when less than 10 Without leading zero Hours in 12-hour clock form with leading zero when less than 10 Without leading zero Minutes with leading zero when less than 10 Without leading zero Seconds with leading zero when less than 10 Without leading zero Day of the week as its full name Day of the week as a three-letter abbreviation Day of the month as digits with leading zero when less than 10 Without leading zero Month as its full name Month as a three-letter abbreviation Month as digits with leading zero when less than 10 Without leading zero Year represented by all four digits
106
Element yy tt
Meaning Year as last two digits (with leading zero when less than 10) AM or PM for 12-hour clock
Along with the elements above, you can enter any other displayable characters, which the system will interpret literally. Thus, the following time and date formats might produce respective times and dates as shown: HH:mm:ss = 12:30:59 hh:mm:ss tt = 05:25:41 PM dd-MM-yyyy = 03-09-2007 dddd, dd of MMMM, yyyy = Tuesday, 03 of September, 2007 5. If the analyst is also a member of other support groups, click the Group Membership tab to define these additional memberships.
107
6. The Group Selection area of this tab contains a pool of all the true groups (and sub-groups) defined on the system, while the Group Membership area is intended for showing the specific groups to which the analyst belongs. Notice that the home group you selected for the analyst on the Details tab is already displayed in the Group Membership area. To add a group to the analysts group membership, select the group concerned and click the Add button. The group immediately appears in the Group Membership area. In this area, only the home groups name has an icon next to it, thus distinguishing it from any optional groups shown. To remove an analyst from a group, select that group and click the Remove button. Note, however, that the system will not allow you to remove the analysts home group by this means. The only way to do that is by first going back to the Details tab, selecting a new home group, clicking Apply, and then
108
returning to this tab. You would then find that you are able to remove the group as normal. 7. Click the System Privileges tab to select an appropriate role and data dictionary for the analyst, and to set specific operational and/or managerial permissions for that individual.
8. Adjust any of the following settings, available in the System Privileges tab, as appropriate: Role You can select one of three roles for the analyst within the support team: Support Analyst, Group Manager or System Administrator. Someone in the role of Support Analyst will be unable to create or manage other analyst records, and will be able to manage their own record only to a limited extent. A Group Manager will be able to create and manage (to a certain extent) records relating to their own support group, and will be able to
109
manage their own record to the same extent. A System Administrator will be able to create and fully manage records relating to the entire support team. See Analyst Management Capabilities Relating to Each Role on page 122 for more precise details. Data Dictionary A data dictionary is a system look-up table that defines major elements of the Supportworks clients appearance and operation. One or more data dictionaries (based on the Default or other templates) will have been created for you to produce customised versions of the client, suitable for your particular support operation or the different offerings available from it. Any such customised version is known as an application. If multiple applications (data dictionaries) are available, each may perhaps be intended for analysts in a different support group. It is also possible that analysts having multiple responsibilities may need to use more than one application. For the analyst whose record you are creating, you should select here the data dictionary that is relevant to them, or (in a multi-role case) the one that is relevant most of the time. Whichever data dictionary you select will be the one that is going to be loaded by default whenever the analyst logs into their Supportworks client account. Permissions In Supportworks, there are a large number of rights, regarding very specific client operations, that analysts can be given on an individual basis. They fall into the following categories: Call Management Rights (A and B), System Management Rights, Desktop Workspace Rights, Data Dictionary Rights, Global SQL Database Rights and Database Management Rights. By default, every new support-analyst record is initially set with most rights disabled, as depicted by the red crosses against the items in the scrollable list. You have to examine carefully the list of permissions and decide which of these to enable for the analyst whose record you are creating. To give the right to perform a particular operation, click the item concerned. The red cross changes to a green check-mark. To subsequently revoke a right, click the item again. If you click a category, all permissions within it are enabled or disabled. Calls cannot be assigned to this analyst If, as helpdesk administrator or group manager, you wish to prevent calls from being assigned to the analyst (for example, to reduce their workload), you should enable this option.
110
Max Assigned Calls If you wish to place a limit on how many calls the analyst can have assigned to them at the same time, you can specify the maximum number here. A value of 0 (zero) would mean that an unlimited number of calls can be assigned. Can backdate call actions If you enable this option, the analyst, when updating a call, will be allowed to enter an update time that is older than the current time. Note that, if any Log Call form used by the analyst contains a log-date/time field, and you wish to give the analyst rights to backdate (and post-date) log actions specifically, you must ensure that the Can backdate when logging new calls option under Call Management Rights B is enabled. Max Backdate Period If you have enabled the previous option, you can specify here the maximum amount (in hours and minutes) by which the analyst will be able to backdate call updates. 9. Click the Application Rights tab to grant access to each application (identified as a data dictionary) that the analyst is going to be using, and to set application-specific permissions for the analyst.
111
10. The left-hand pane of the Application Rights tab displays a checklist of all available data dictionaries, where initially the one you selected in the System Privileges tab would be checked (assuming you enabled permissions in that tab). If the data dictionary is part of an application that has its own specific rights associated with it, the right-hand pane will display these rights. In that pane, if you can see application rights, click any red crosses representing the permission groups or individual permissions that you want to enable for the analyst. To grant access to additional data dictionaries, click the relevant checkboxes in the left-hand pane. (Note that the original entry remains displayed in bold type to indicate that this is the analysts current login default.) If any of these applications have permissions associated with them, you can again enable the ones that are required for the analyst.
112
If there are no applications, usable by the analyst, that have permissions associated with them, you can ignore the right-hand pane completely. 11. Click the E-Mail Privileges tab to give the analyst access to the required mailboxes, and to set specific mailbox-related permissions for the analyst.
12. In the E-Mail Privileges tab, click Add Shared Mailbox to display the Available Shared Mailboxes dialogue box, which lists all the shared mailboxes that are available on your Supportworks system. 13. Select a shared mailbox that you want the analyst to be able to access, and click OK. 14. Repeat the above two steps for each additional shared mailbox that the analyst will need to access.
113
15. In the tree-browser area of the E-Mail Privileges tab, highlight the item under Personal Mailbox, which is actually the analyst ID, representing the analysts own mailbox. Notice the set of rights now displayed in the main right-hand pane. By default, all personal-mailbox rights are initially enabled in a new support-analyst record, as indicated by the green check-marks. To revoke any of the rights, click the relevant item. Notice that the check-mark changes to a red cross. To subsequently re-invoke the right to perform the action, click the item again. A quick way of invoking or revoking all rights on a given mailbox is to select All Rights or No Rights, respectively, from the pick list above the main right-hand pane. 16. Back in the tree browser, highlight each of the shared mailboxes in turn and adjust the rights as necessary in the same way as for the personal mailbox. 17. Click the Default Settings tab to set operational options for the analyst.
114
18. In the Default Settings tab, adjust any of the following settings, as appropriate: When logging calls the following number of problem profile levels are required You can define here the minimum number of problem-profile levels (if any) the analyst must specify when logging a call. When resolving/closing calls the following number of resolution profile levels are required You can define here the minimum number of resolution-profile levels (if any) the analyst must specify when closing or resolving a call. Default Options These define the default settings for options that the analyst can enable or disable on a per-call basis when logging or updating a call. The most sensible policy for the defaults would be to enable the options that must be permanently set, as well as those that the analyst is likely to require for the majority of calls. By default, every new support-analyst record is initially set with all default options disabled, as indicated by the red crosses against the items in the scrollable list. To enable a particular option, click the item concerned. The red cross changes to a green check-mark. To subsequently disable an option, click the item again. If you click the By Default item at the top of the list, all options are enabled or disabled. 19. Click the Library Resources tab if you wish to see the virtual root folders (shares) that have been made available by default to the analyst in their My Library view, or if you wish to modify these shares or create new ones. All shares point to folders on the computer where the Supportworks server is located.
115
20. In the Library Resources tab, if you wish to examine the permissions associated with a particular root folder, just select that share from the list in the top pane, and look at the items displayed within the Permissions pane. To change any of the permissions, you would click the relevant check-marks or crosses as usual. If you wish to make a new share available to the analyst, you can create one by clicking Add. At the prompt that appears, enter a name or path for the share (which will ultimately appear in the My Library view), and then enter the actual path (on the server) that the share will represent. Click the Validate button to verify that the path you typed actually exists, and click OK at the confirmation prompt. If you then click OK again, you will see that the new share has been added to the list.
116
If you wish to modify the share name/path or the actual path for an existing share, you can do so by clicking Edit. You are presented with a prompt similar to the one displayed when you create a new share, except that the fields show the existing parameters. If you wish to delete a share, you must first select it and then click Delete. Click Yes at the prompt to confirm. 21. Click the Skills tab if you wish to build a skill profile of the analyst. With such a requirement, it is probable that you would have already created records for all available support skills, as described in Skills on page 95.
22. In the Skills tab, click Add to display the Skill Chooser dialogue box. This is similar to the Manage Skills dialogue box. 23. In the tree browser, highlight a skill appropriate to the analyst, and click OK.
117
24. In the Skill Status dialogue box, you can enter information representing the effectiveness of the analyst with regard to the selected skill. Firstly, from past records, you may be able to ascertain the number of incidents (calls) that brought this skill into play, and the number of these that the analyst was able to resolve successfully. Secondly, you may also have a note of the date when the analyst resolved the most recent incident of this kind. You can then combine these and other factors, by an assessment scheme of your own choosing, to form an overall skill rating. You should enter all these figures in the relevant fields. 25. Click OK. Notice that the selected skill now appears in the list in the Skills tab. 26. Repeat step 22 to step 25 for each skill you wish to associate with the analyst. 27. Click Apply to save all the information in the new record, and then click OK.
118
and name are different, consisting of the original with an underscore and a numeral appended. 3. Complete the required fields in each of the tabs, as described in the main procedure above.
119
Changing a Password
If you have the appropriate rights, you can change the password of any member of your team or group who uses the Supportworks Security Database method of login authentication. With the Details tab displayed, double-click in the first Password field and type the new password. Repeat this in the second Password field and click Apply. For changing your own password, there is no need to open any dialogue box showing your analyst record. Instead, you can perform the following procedure: 1. From the Tools menu, select Change My Password to display the Change My Password dialogue box. 2. In the Old Password field, enter your current password. 3. In both the New Password and Confirm fields, enter the new password. 4. Click OK. Your password is suitably updated in the database.
120
121
122
Managing E-Mail
Managing E-Mail
The Messaging System included with Supportworks is a powerful and flexible e-mail application that may be used in a number of different configurations, depending on the requirements of your helpdesk. It can operate in stand-alone and interconnecting modes, and can integrate intelligently with various aspects of Supportworks functionality. You can set up the Messaging System to work in one or more of the following ways: By default, you have the ability to send e-mail (and quick pop-up messages) internally to any member of the support team whose details are recorded in the Support Analyst tables. You can also receive e-mail (and quick pop-up messages) from these analysts. Every analyst record is associated with a personal mailbox that holds the analysts e-mail. By configuring and enabling the Internet Mail Connector in the Messaging tab of the Server Configuration utility, and by setting up the relevant mailboxes in the System Mailboxes tab, you can integrate the Messaging System with any other mail system in your organisation, provided that it supports SMTP/POP3/IMAP4 Internet mail (which would therefore include Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes). With such a configuration, analysts should be able to send e-mail to recipients registered in the other mail environment and also over the Internet. In addition, they can be allowed access to one or more shared mailboxes so that they can handle inbound mail collectively as a group. However, analysts would not be able to receive external e-mail in their personal mailboxes via the Internet Mail Connector (therefore see the last point below). By configuring and enabling the Exchange Mail Connector, you can integrate the Messaging System with any Microsoft Exchange mail system used in your organisation, particularly if it is not connected to the Internet. Such a configuration would allow analysts access to only one shared mailbox. This option is not available on Supportworks Essentials systems. By configuring and enabling the Notes Mail Connector, you can integrate the Messaging System with any Lotus Notes mail system used in your
123
Managing E-Mail
organisation, particularly if it is not connected to the Internet. Such a configuration would allow analysts access to only one shared mailbox. This option is not available on Supportworks Essentials systems. By registering one or more Internet domains for your helpdesk, and then setting up a dedicated SMTP mail server for the Messaging System via the Inbound SMTP Mail Routing tab of the Server Configuration utility, you can allow Internet e-mail to be received by analysts in their personal mailboxes as well as in their shared mailboxes. All global aspects of e-mail setup, as mentioned in the above bullet points, are covered in the Server Configuration Guide. Actual e-mail usage is detailed in the ESP User Guide. This chapter of the Administrator Guide covers specific aspects of e-mail that are usually regarded as management functions. They include managing address books, managing templates (for mail merge) and sending bulk mailshots.
124
Managing E-Mail
mailbox, you would also have at least read access to its address book. Such address books can be populated by means of the same kind of learning mechanism as used for the Global Address Book, and also by the manual creation of entries. The ability to create, modify and/or delete entries is again subject to rights. Your own personal address book Your personal mailbox also has an address book associated with it. This personal address book is intended to hold address data that will be for your own use. Nobody else in the support team will have access to this data. Entries in your personal address book can be created manually, learnt automatically from incoming mail addressed to your personal mailbox, and imported in bulk on demand from Microsoft Outlook. Just as for the other address books, special rights are necessary for creating, modifying or deleting entries in this address book. If you wish to open an address book for management purposes, you can start from the main client window or from within a Compose New Message window. From the main client window, you can either click the Address Book button on the toolbar, or select Address Book from the Mail menu. From a message window, you have to click the Address Book button. The Address Book dialogue box is displayed.
In this dialogue box, select, via the drop-down list, the address book you wish to examine. To find a specific address entry and see it appear in the list, type any
125
Managing E-Mail
known portion of the required name or address in the relevant field. As you type, your text string becomes more unique, causing an ever-reducing list of matched entries to be displayed. Alternatively, if you wish to browse through the whole address book, you can click List All to display its entire contents. You may see up to five different kinds of entry in the address list, reflecting mainly the types of connection via which e-mail is sent on your system. The various kinds of entry can be recognised in the list by the respective styles of the icons that prefix them. These are as follows: Internal address (of a support analyst or shared mailbox) Internet address (most probably of an external customer) Microsoft Exchange address (probably of an internal customer) Lotus Notes address (probably of an internal customer) Distribution list (containing any of the above contact types) You can now perform any of the available management functions on the selected address book, as described in the following subsections.
126
Managing E-Mail
3. Check that New Contact is selected for the entry type, and that the relevant address book is still selected. If you wish to select a different address book at this point, you can do so. 4. Click OK. The Add New Contact dialogue box is displayed.
5. Enter the required information in the following fields: Name This should be an appropriate display name for the contact concerned. Address This should be the contacts e-mail address, in any valid transport format (normally Internet). Transport Your selection here can specify any of the types of e-mail connection for which your system is set up, and would be determined by the format of the address you have entered. In most cases, Internet Mail would be the appropriate choice. 6. Click Save. The new contact entry is added to the address book. You should be able to see it listed if you type its name or click List All in the Address Book dialogue box.
127
Managing E-Mail
the Add New Contact dialogue box that appears when you are creating a distribution list. It displays the details of the selected contact. 3. Make the necessary changes to the relevant field(s) and click OK. The entry is now updated.
128
Managing E-Mail
3. Check that the address book which is to contain the distribution list is still selected. If you wish to select a different address book at this point, you can do so. 4. Select the New Distribution List entry type and click OK. The New Distribution List dialogue box is displayed.
5. Decide on a name for the distribution list you wish to create and enter it in the List Name field. 6. Click the Add Entries button. The Select Entries for Membership dialogue box is displayed.
129
Managing E-Mail
7. In this dialogue box, first ensure that an address book containing the intended members of the distribution list is selected. Then, to find and show, in the Address Entries list, the name of an intended member, type any known portion of the required name or address in the relevant field at the top. As you type, your text string becomes more unique, causing an ever-reducing list of matched entries to be displayed. Once the required entry has appeared, you should highlight it and click the Add button, whereupon the name is copied to the Members field on the right. If, as is normally the case, the distribution list is to have multiple members, you should repeat the above procedure for each of them. Alternatively, you could click List All to display the entire contents of the address book in the Address Entries list. In this case, you could now highlight the address entry for every intended member of the distribution list, and click the Add button. All the selected names would be copied to the Members field. If you should then change your mind about the membership of any contact, you can simply select their name in the Members field and delete it from there using the Delete button on the keyboard. If you wish to select members from different address books, you should follow the above instructions (within this step) again for each of them.
130
Managing E-Mail
Once you are satisfied with the make-up of the distribution list, you should click OK. The dialogue box closes, and the contact names appear in the New Distribution List dialogue box. 8. In the New Distribution List dialogue box, click Save. The new entry is added to the originally selected address book. You should be able to see it listed if you type its name or click List All in the Address Book dialogue box. Hint You can define not only individual contacts, but also other distribution lists, as members of any given distribution list.
131
Managing E-Mail
available to the Messaging System by importing them. You import address data from Outlook by means of the Import Addresses Wizard. To invoke the wizard, open the Supportworks Address Book dialogue box and click Import From Outlook. In the Welcome dialogue box displayed by the wizard, click Next and, in the Step 1 dialogue box, click Next again. The Step 2 dialogue box is displayed as follows:
In this dialogue box, if necessary, select the address book into which the data is to be imported, and indicate whether you want imported address entries to replace any existing entries that may have the same address and transport (but not necessarily the same display name). Click Finish to go ahead with the importation. When the importation is done, a message window announcing completion is displayed. Click OK or, to check for any addresses whose importation may have failed, click View Log. In the log window, you can display a list of the failed imports by selecting the appropriate option. The reason for failure is given in the Details column. An address import may fail if the Outlook entry concerned does not have a correctly formatted Internet e-mail address, or if an entry with the same address and transport already exists and you have opted not to replace such duplicates. Click Close.
132
Managing E-Mail
2. In the Manage E-Mail Templates window, look in the required mailbox section of the tree browser and expand the folder containing the type of template you are interested in. 3. In that folder, select the template to view or edit by clicking its name. The textual content of the template immediately appears on the right. Within the text, you may notice a number of different strings beginning with $ and
133
Managing E-Mail
ending with !. These are macro variables representing data held in the database or snapshot data to be generated by the system. 4. In the case of a customer-notificaton template, if you wish to change the call class to which the template is allocated, make the relevant selection in the Call Class field. 5. In the Subject Text and Message Text fields, make any required changes to the e-mail template content. You could edit the text itself, or you could perhaps remove or add variables. The easiest way to insert a variable is by selecting it from the drop-down list next to the Insert Variable button, placing the cursor in the required position in the text and then clicking that button. Alternatively, you could type the name of the variable within the text. See Appendix C: E-mail Template Variables on page 307 for information about template variables, and for definitions of the variables you can use in the templates. Note that, if HTML is set as the compose-message format (in Tools > Options and Settings > E-mail), you will be able to use, on the message text, any of the Web-style formatting functions available in the Format menu and on the formatting toolbar, just as in e-mail messages composed using Microsoft Outlook. You can temporarily override the default format by selecting either Plain Text or HTML Editor in the Format menu. 6. When you have finished editing the currently displayed template, click the Save Changes button on the toolbar. 7. Repeat the above for each of the templates you wish to modify. 8. Close the Manage E-Mail Templates window.
134
Managing E-Mail
2. In the Manage E-Mail Templates window, look in the required mailbox section of the tree browser and highlight the folder that is to contain the template you wish to create. 3. Right-click that folder and select Add New from the pop-up menu. 4. At the prompt now displayed, enter a name for the new template and click OK. 5. If you now expand the highlighted folder, you will see the name of the template you just created. Initially, the template will be empty, but once you have selected it, you will be able to enter any required text and variables in the normal way. Also, if this is a customer-notification template, and you need to associate it with a particular call class, you can select that in the Call Class field. If it is a customer-notification or bulk-mail template, you should select a suitable Remote Query for it to use. For a customer notification, the Remote Query to select would normally be Call. 6. When you are satisfied with the content of the template, click the Save Changes button on the toolbar. 7. Close the Manage E-Mail Templates window.
135
Managing E-Mail
136
Managing E-Mail
137
Managing E-Mail
Notice the yellow information bar indicating that this is a mailshot, and that the first customers copy of the message (out of the given total) is currently being shown. The mailshot will include copies for all customers whose e-mail addresses are defined in their respective Customer table records. You can now, if you wish, use the Prev and Next buttons to page to any individual customers copies of the message so as to make any necessary alterations. When you are ready to send the mailshot, click Send.
138
139
3. In the Query Name field, type a suitable name for the custom search. 4. In the SQL Query field, type an SQL query that will yield the results you require. For your convenience, all valid keywords will appear in blue, all recognised table names will appear in bold, all recognised column names will be in plain black, and all data (enclosed in quotes) will be in red. 5. If you want this custom search to appear as a direct command in the clients Search menu, enable the checkbox option provided for this. 6. Click OK. The new custom search is added to the list. If you have selected the checkbox option, click the Search menu and notice that a new command has appeared at the bottom. You can now run the search by selecting its list entry and clicking the Search button (or just double-clicking the entry), or, irrespective of the view you are displaying, by selecting the command from the Search menu.
140
141
142
143
of making this decision is described in the chapter of the User Guide that indicates how to progress a logged call. In any event, you have the option to edit the data before publishing it. If the choice is made to defer publication until later, the call data will be placed into the Awaiting Publication area of the KnowledgeBase, from where it may be accessed at any subsequent time for editing and publication. Note The choice of whether to publish now or defer publication will be given only if the analyst handling the call has rights to add call data to the KnowledgeBase. Without such rights, analysts will neither be able to edit/ publish the call data themselves, nor be able to defer this until later. Therefore, if a call is closed by such an analyst, the opportunity to submit its data to the KnowledgeBase will have been lost, unless suitable provision had been made by another (properly authorised) analyst when previously resolving the call. The procedure for editing and publishing call data in the KnowledgeBase is as follows: 1. If you are in the process of resolving or closing a call and wish to edit/ publish the data immediately, ensure that, in the Add Call to KnowledgeBase dialogue box, the option to add the new document to the KnowledgeBase now is enabled, and click OK. If, on the other hand, editing/publishing had been deferred and the call data is now awaiting publication, first display the KnowledgeBase view and click Browse at the top of the search pane. Then select the Resolved/Closed Calls Awaiting Publication container and double-click the entry that relates to the call concerned. In either case, the following dialogue box is displayed:
144
2. In the Reference field, either leave the content at its default value if you want the KnowledgeBase to generate a reference number for this publication automatically, or enter your own choice of reference number (which can be made up of any alphanumeric string of characters). 3. In the Author field, either leave your own name, or enter another one if appropriate. 4. In the Date field, either leave todays date, or change it to another if appropriate. 5. In the Catalogue field, ensure that the KnowledgeBase catalogue in which the publication is to be stored is selected. 6. Leave the Template selection at the default setting. 7. In the Title, Problem and Solution fields, carry out any necessary editing. Bear in mind that the contents of these fields are searchable, so you must ensure that all spellings are correct and that all wordings are appropriate. 8. If you want this publication to be visible to your customers logging into your SelfService Web page, select the relevant checkbox option.
145
9. Notice the problem- and resolution-profile elements that have been generated in the Keywords field, separated from each other by a comma and a space. The contents of this field are also searchable. If you wish, you can add to this list any extra words that you think may be equally representative of the content of this publication. Likewise, you may delete words from the list. 10. The contents of the Call Ref and Problem Profile Code fields would normally stay as they are. However, you can change them if necessary. 11. If you want to close the dialogue box but have not yet finished making changes, ensure that Document Being Composed is selected in the Status field. However, if you have finished making changes but the content has not yet been checked by the relevant people, set the status to Document Awaiting Approval. Alternatively, if you have finished making changes and the content has now been checked (or there is no need for checking), set the status to Document Approved for Publishing. 12. Click Publish Document on the toolbar. Irrespective of what status you have set, a copy of the publication is now created and placed in the Resolved Helpdesk Calls catalogue of the KnowledgeBase (or whichever catalogue you have chosen). The relevant entry in the Resolved/ Closed Calls Awaiting Publication container is nevertheless retained, and will remain there until you delete it. When a publication derived from a call is opened by an analyst (from the searchresults list or browse list in the KnowledgeBase view), it is displayed in the analysts Web browser as follows:
146
When accessed by a customer via SelfService, on the other hand, the display format of such a publication is rather different. An example of that format is given in the chapter covering on-line customer access to your helpdesk, in the section entitled The Web-Based SelfService Application on page 264.
147
In this case, the main content fields are empty, awaiting input from you. You will need to work your way through the fields, setting and typing content as necessary. All the fields have the same meanings as before. Therefore, you may wish to refer to How to Publish Call Information on page 143 for details. For a true FAQ, there is obviously no need to specify a call reference, nor possibly even a problem profile code. When you click the Publish Document button, a copy of the publication is again created and placed in the chosen KnowledgeBase catalogue. The two respective display formats of the publication, when opened, will be exactly the same as for a call-derived publication.
148
When you publish an external document in the KnowledgeBase, you import it to a reserved location and you create a header record containing information similar to some of the content in the other two types of publication, but with the addition of a reference to the document itself. Also, instead of problem/solution data being included in the record, there may be a text-only copy of the document concerned, just for indexation purposes. The inclusion of this index text is optional, depending on whether you want the document content itself to be searchable. The KnowledgeBase is able to specifically identify files/documents of the following types (by their extensions), and can therefore properly isolate and index their textual content: Pure text files: .txt HTML documents: .htm, .html RTF documents: .rtf Word documents (6.0, 95, 97, 2000, 2002/XP, 2003): .doc C/C++ files: .h, .c, .cpp, .cc, .hpp Binary files : .exe, .com, .bin, .wri, .lib, .dll The following file types are also specifically recognised, but in the sense of being totally unsupported with regard to indexing: Compressed files: .zip, .gzip, .tgz, .zoo, .Z, .arc, .cab, .bzip, .bzip2 Page-description language files: .gs, .ps, .pdf When encountering a file other than those in the above lists, the KnowledgeBase can attempt to index its readable content (if any), first testing for either pure text or binary and then treating it as one or the other for text extraction. However, for such files, there is no guarantee of proper indexing. To publish an external document, first select Submit External Document from the clients KnowledgeBase menu. This displays the following dialogue box:
149
As with the other types of publication, you have to work your way through the fields, entering and setting the content as required. Notice that the Status field here has an extra option, Awaiting Index, which is selected by default and is greyed out at this stage. An additional field you will see in this dialogue box is the Document field. With the help of the adjacent browse button, this field allows you to specify the pathname of the document you wish to publish. Click OK once you have finished. A copy of the document is imported into a reserved Supportworks folder, and its header record is created in the chosen KnowledgeBase catalogue. The indexation of its text content will not occur until the designated Index Rebuild Time has been reached (or the Index Server has been restarted). Up till that time, you will have a chance to bypass indexation for this document if you do not want its actual text content to be searchable, as described in Modifying Publications in the KnowledgeBase below. When, subsequently, an analyst (or a customer) opens the publication, their Web browser should display the document, assuming that the relevant plug-in is installed.
150
151
the confirmation prompt. The publications concerned are now automatically moved to the Deleted KnowledgeBase Documents container, and all future searches will ignore them. To delete one or more items from the Resolved/Closed Calls Awaiting Publication container in the KnowledgeBase view, first select that container and make your selection from among the entries in the right-hand pane. Then rightclick your selection and select Delete this Publish Request from the menu that pops up. Finally, click Yes at the confirmation prompt. The publications concerned will then no longer exist.
If you wish to rename a catalogue, first select it and click Rename. At the name prompt, change the name appropriately and click OK. To delete a catalogue, just select it and click Remove. The catalogue is deleted without any confirmation being requested. To create a new catalogue, first click Add. At the name prompt, enter a suitable name for the catalogue and click OK.
152
Managing Calendars
Managing Calendars
Supportworks calendars are used for storing and displaying appointments involving one or more support analysts, customers and/or non-human resources. A calendar can belong to a support analyst, to a group of support analysts, or to a non-human resource. Whenever a new analyst record is created, a personal calendar for that individual is automatically created along with it. However, each group of analysts working together who require the use of a shared calendar would need to have one created manually for them. Likewise, each non-human resource whose availability needs to be tracked would require a resource calendar to be created. Management functions are provided that allow you to create calendars as necessary. Since calendars have various configurable properties, the management functions also allow you to set those. The properties of a calendar are as follows: Working hours Identifying details Specification of the analysts having rights to the calendar Specification of these rights
Creating a Calendar
If you are authorised to do so, you can create shared and resource calendars manually by means of the calendar-management facilities. You can also create personal calendars, although you will not need to do this manually unless the Calendar Server was not running when a given analyst record was created. To create a calendar, follow the instructions given here: 1. Select Manage Calendars from the Administration menu on the main client window.
153
Managing Calendars
The Manage Calendars dialogue box displays a list of all existing calendars held in the system. It allows you to reconfigure these and to create new ones. 2. Click New.
The Calendar Configuration dialogue box contains two separate tabs in which you can configure the new calendar. 3. Look at the calendar grid in the upper half of the Details tab. It shows, highlighted in blue, the default weekly working hours of the group or resource that is to own the calendar, and these will correspond to the timeslots that will be displayed in a lighter shade in the Calendar view. As you move your mouse pointer over the grid, you can see that the relevant day,
154
Managing Calendars
and the range of working hours for that day, are displayed at the bottom left of the calendar, and the day and the start of the half-hour time-slot represented by the cell you are pointing at are displayed at the bottom right. If you see that the default days and hours are in accordance with the requirements of this calendar, you should skip the following four steps. 4. To set the working hours (to the nearest half-hour) for any given day of the week, first clear the existing range (if any) by clicking any cell within that day, and then move the mouse pointer to the desired work-start time for that day. Alternatively, if you just want to adjust the start or end time of a working day, move the mouse pointer over to the start or end cell for that day. 5. Click the left mouse button and hold it down while dragging the mouse pointer to the desired end (or start) time of the working day. As you drag the pointer, a tooltip appears, showing you the time range you are setting. 6. Release the mouse button. The new duration of the relevant day will now be highlighted in blue. 7. Repeat step 4 to step 6 for each day you wish to set. To remove the time range for a day that is not to be a working day, just single-click any cell for that day. 8. In the Display Name field, enter a suitable name for the calendar. 9. In the Type field, select the calendar type. 10. If you are creating a personal calendar, enter, in the Analyst ID field, the ID of the analyst to whom the calendar will belong. 11. Ensure that an appropriate time zone is selected. For a personal calendar, this should be the same as the time zone held in the relevant analysts record. For a shared or resource calendar, the time zone should again be the one that applies to the region where the participants in appointments expected to be set up in that calendar are located. 12. Click the Rights to this Calendar tab.
155
Managing Calendars
13. In the left-hand section of this tab, compile a list of all the support analysts who are to have access to the calendar. You add each analyst to this list by first clicking Add Analyst, which displays the following window:
You then select the analyst from the support-team tree and click OK. 14. For each analyst now listed in the Rights to this Calendar tab, specify the kinds of access to the calendar that they will be allowed to have. You do this
156
Managing Calendars
by first highlighting the analyst on the list and then, in the right-hand section of the tab, enabling the rights required. 15. Once you have finished setting the calendar rights, click Apply and OK. Notice that the name of the new calendar has now appeared on the Manage Calendars list. 16. Click Close to dismiss the Manage Calendars dialogue box.
Reconfiguring a Calendar
You change the properties of an existing calendar by means of the same dialogue boxes that you use to configure a new one. The procedure is as follows: 1. Select Manage Calendars from the Administration menu on the main client window. 2. In the Manage Calendars dialogue box, double-click the name of the calendar you wish to reconfigure (or select it and click Properties). 3. In the Calendar Configuration dialogue box, make the necessary changes in either or both of the two tabs. The fields and controls in these tabs are described in Creating a Calendar on page 153. Note that, although it is possible to change the calendar type and (in the case of a personal calendar) the analyst who owns the calendar, you are most unlikely to ever want to do so. 4. Once you have finished reconfiguring the calendar, click Apply and OK. 5. Click Close to dismiss the Manage Calendars dialogue box.
Deleting a Calendar
The procedure to delete a calendar is as follows: 1. Select Manage Calendars from the Administration menu on the main client window.
157
Managing Calendars
2. In the Manage Calendars dialogue box, select the name of the calendar you wish to delete and click Delete. Notice that the calendar you have chosen has now disappeared from the list. 3. Click Close to dismiss the Manage Calendars dialogue box.
158
159
concerned. Thus, customers could be listed by department, or the list could contain only customers within a specified department. In a statistical System Report, results can be displayed in the form of a chart, and also as textual information. A list System Report may also be headed by a chart, but this is less common. With both types of report, each separate grouping of textual information may include a further, subsidiary chart that is simply a group-level version of the main chart. You can modify the characteristics of each chart in a given System Report by means of the Chart Constructor. Using this tool, you can set various chart dimensions, specify the chart type, change the charts background colour, and so on. Textual information, such as a list of records, is generally presented in tabular form on the report output, reflecting the database table columns from which the values will have been taken. The headings of the displayed columns are always derived from the respective Display Name attributes of the table columns concerned, and are therefore data-dictionary dependent. See the chapter on the Supportworks database in the System Customisation Guide if you want to know how to modify the display names. Each System Report is based on a PHP-scripted template defining its overall type, while its specific characteristics are determined by its configuration, which is stored in the database. It is possible to share System Reports among different Supportworks systems by saving their configurations in a file on one system using an export function, and then restoring these from the file on another system by means of an import function. If you have any Custom HTML Reports, their role would be to meet those of your organisations more complex reporting requirements that System Reports are unable to fulfil. Although Custom HTML Reports have the advantage that they support multi-querying and multi-table value counting (which System Reports currently do not), there are no easy-to-use customisation facilities available for them, it is not possible to schedule them, and they have no configuration that can be shared.
160
1. Display the Management Information and Reporting view by clicking the relevant icon in the shortcut bar. 2. In the tree-browser pane, choose the appropriate information or reporting category and expand that folder. Keep expanding the sub-folders until you can see the report you wish to run. 3. Double-click the report. 4. The report may be an interactive one that prompts you for information prior to displaying the output. If, for example, it asks you to specify a date range within which the report is to apply, enter the relevant start and end date, and click Run Report. Note that clicking the PoP link adjacent to either field in such a case would display a calendar window from which you can select a date, which is inserted into the field when you click Use This Date/Time. If you are asked to specify some other filter such as a department or a postcode, enter the information asked for, and click Run Report. Note that, in the case of a filter for which you have to type text, you can use the % character as a wildcard. 5. Observe the results appearing in the right-hand pane. If the output contains listed records with column headings at the top, you can click any of these headings to sort the displayed records by the column concerned. If the output contains listed call records, each call reference will be a hyper-link, which, when clicked, will display an active page showing much the same information as the Call Details form. To then redisplay the report output, you can simply click the Back arrow button on the toolbar. 6. If the report output is displaying column-related SQL filter fields above the respective columns, you can enter suitable criteria in any number of these to view only the records that are of interest to you. Within each filter field, the criteria would consist of the required WHERE expression minus the portion before the first operator (which is implied by the column to which the field relates). As a simple example, you could enter > 1120 in the filter field above a Call Reference column to limit the display to those call records whose references are greater than F0001120. You need to click Apply Filter to refresh the output pane and thus show the filtered data. 7. If you wish to generate the results as hard copy, you can invoke the print function in the usual way.
161
To schedule a report, use the following procedure: 1. Display the Management Information and Reporting view by clicking the relevant icon in the shortcut bar. 2. In the tree-browser pane, choose the appropriate information or reporting category and expand that folder. Keep expanding the sub-folders until you can see the report you wish to schedule. 3. Right-click the report and select Schedule Report from the menu that pops up.
162
4. In the Report Format tab of the New Scheduled Job dialogue box, select the preferred file format into which the report output should be packaged. The first option will create a single MHT file that can be viewed in a Web browser. The second will create a ZIP archive containing an HTML file and its related files, which, once extracted, can also be viewed in a Web browser. 5. Click the Report Delivery Options tab.
6. In the first field of this tab, select the mode by which the results should be delivered.
163
7. If you opt for the e-mail delivery mode (which is the default), you should complete the mailing details. Use the Send To button to display the Address Book dialogue box, which allows you to specify the intended recipient(s). 8. If, when displaying the Report Delivery Options tab, you choose the option to place the results into a file on the network, the tab immediately changes to show the following:
In the UNC field, specify a suitable folder in the relevant computer on the network, either via the browse button or by typing its UNC path. In the File Name field, type an appropriate name (without any extension) for the report file to be created. Note that the file format you have already chosen will determine the files extension. 9. If, when displaying the Report Delivery Options tab, you choose the option to place the results into a file on an FTP server, the tab immediately changes to show the following:
164
Enter the name of the FTP server, the login details for that server, the path to the folder in which to place the report file to be created, and an appropriate name (without any extension) for the report file. Note that the file format you have already chosen will determine the files extension. 10. Click the Schedule tab.
11. In this tab, specify how often the report is to run by selecting the relevant item from the Run fields drop-down list. If you select Once a day, the Schedule tab immediately displays some additional options:
165
In this case, select the day(s) of the week on which the report should run, and choose whether this should keep occurring indefinitely, or a specified number of times. If you select any frequency other than Once a day, the options that are displayed in the Schedule tab will include one that allows you to choose the first day of the relevant period on which the report should run. 12. In the Starting field, specify the date and time at which the report is to run for the first time (or only time, if appropriate). 13. Click the Format Settings tab.
166
14. In this tab, check whether the settings displayed by default are appropriate to the intended readers of the report and, if not, adjust them suitably. The data dictionary specified should give the report a presentational context that corresponds to the readers requirements or expectations (such as the results being labelled in their own terminology or language). The time zone selected should, of course, be the readers time zone. The predefined format setting relates to the localised date and/or time, and should be either the readers language/region or [Custom Settings]. A language/region selection would give the format normally associated with that part of the world. The [Custom Settings] selection would activate the field below, allowing you to explicitly specify a non-standard date/time format. When you specify such a custom format, there are a number of coded elements you can use, and they are the same as those that apply to a similar field in the Regional Settings tab of the analyst-properties dialogue box, as described in Adding a New Support Analyst on page 101. 15. Click Apply to save your changes, and OK to close the dialogue box. A Scheduled Job entity now appears in the tree browser as a child of the report, confirming that a schedule has been set up. You can examine and make changes to the schedule at any time by double-clicking the Scheduled Job entity, which opens the Scheduled Job Properties dialogue box. This is identical to the New Scheduled Job dialogue box and allows you to modify any of the existing schedule settings.
167
When the starting time set in the schedule is reached, the report runs and an appropriate file containing the results is created. The file is then immediately forwarded to its intended destination via the relevant delivery mechanism. In the case of e-mail, there will be a delay determined by the current setting of the Mail Scheduler poll interval in the server configuration.
4. Observe the information, as illustrated above, when it appears in the righthand pane.
168
The graphic in the top left-hand corner shows the overall format that reports based on this reports template can have when the reports are fully configured. The Report Configuration area displays a list of the reports current configuration settings. It also indicates the data dictionary that was in use at the time the report was created. The relevance of the data dictionary here stems from the fact that certain customisable elements of the database schema (such as the display names of table columns) are used by reports, which means that datadictionary dependence is possible for the display of some report characteristics. The Report Run History area displays a log of the last ten occasions on which the report was run, showing the relevant dates and times, as well the ID of the analyst who ran it each time. The time taken for the report to run on each occasion is also shown.
169
Using the settings panels, you can now alter the characteristics of the chart. You will find that different types of charts will have slightly different combinations of characteristics displayed in the settings panels. Descriptions of all the modifiable characteristics, and of the circumstances in which they are available, are given in the next subsection. Whenever you wish to see the effect of changing a given characteristic, click the Update button near the bottom of the left-hand settings panel, whereupon the chart-preview image is regenerated using your new setting. If, at any time, you want the chart to revert back to its original characteristics, simply click the Back link, which takes you out of the Chart Constructor without saving any changes, and redisplays the report results. Once you are satisfied that the chart has the characteristics you require, click the Save button, which saves the new characteristics and then runs and displays the report again using these. From then on, for all subsequent executions of this particular report, the chart will be displayed with the new characteristics. Note that some reports will contain more than one chart: perhaps a main, summary chart at the top, with a number of group-level charts further down. If
170
you display the Chart Constructor for the main chart, any changes you make to its characteristics will affect only that chart. However, if you display the Chart Constructor for a group-level chart, your changes will affect all the other grouplevel charts as well, although not the main chart.
Chart Characteristics
The settings panels in the Chart Constructor allow you to alter many of the visual characteristics of a selected chart belonging to a report. Although most of the characteristics available for alteration are common to all types of chart, and will always be displayed in the panel, some will be visible only for certain chart types. In the descriptions of the characteristics given below, the circumstances under which the latter will be available are clearly stated. Chart Type This defines the type of chart to be generated. Normally, you can select any of the following chart types: Pie chart 3D pie chart Bar chart 3D bar chart Line graph 3D line graph Area graph 3D area graph
For Grouped List reports, you can opt for the main chart to be multidimensional, in which case your possible chart-type choices would be as follows: Multi-dimensional arranged bar chart Multi-dimensional stacked bar chart Multi-dimensional area graph Multi-dimensional line graph
Sort Order This defines the kind of sorting that should apply to the items shown on the chart. For a bar chart, line graph or area graph, the items are ordered by
171
default from left to right (or from bottom to top), while for a pie chart, the default ordering is clockwise. The following kinds of sorting are available: Default Values This option gives the chart items a fairly random distribution, as they are placed in the order in which the data is read from the database. Reverse Values This option places the chart items in an order that is the reverse of the Default Values order. Values Ascending This option does not apply to multi-dimensional charts. It places the chart items in ascending order, based on the count for each item. Values Descending This option does not apply to multi-dimensional charts. It places the chart items in descending order, based on the count for each item. Label Ascending This option places the chart items in ascending alphanumerical order, based on the label text. Label Descending This option places the chart items in descending alphanumerical order, based on the label text. Staggered Values This option does not apply to multi-dimensional charts. It places the chart items in an order of alternating opposites. The placing starts with the item that has the highest count, followed by the item with the lowest count. Then, the items with the next-highest and next-lowest counts are placed, and so on. This kind of distribution is most useful in pie charts where overlapping of item labels would otherwise occur due to adjacent segments being too thin. Canvas Size These two settings define, in pixels, the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the canvas on which the chart is drawn. Chart Size These apply to bar charts, line graphs and area graphs. They define, in pixels, the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the chart graphic itself. Top & Left Margins These two settings apply to bar charts, line graphs and area graphs. They define, in pixels, the left and top margins of the chart, as measured between the edge of the canvas and the corresponding edge of the chart graphic (that is, the drawn chart itself, excluding any labels). Centre Offset X & Y These two settings apply to pie charts. They define, in pixels, the position of the pies centre within the canvas, as measured from the centre point of the canvas.
172
Scaling This applies to pie charts. It defines the flat diameter of the pie, expressed as a percentage of the smaller dimension of the canvas. Depth This is specific to 3D charts. It defines, in pixels, the depth of the chart graphic (that is, along the Z-axis). For a multi-depth pie chart, it would define the maximum depth (or height) of the pie. Angle of View This is specific to 3D pie charts. It defines the apparent angle of view (in degrees) that the observer has of the pie, with 0 being the top view and 90 being the side view. Note that true perspective is not automatically maintained, as the pies depth is controlled independently of the angle. Swap XY This applies to bar charts, line graphs and area graphs. Selection of Swap XY will switch over the X- and Y-axes of the chart. Selection of Default will switch these back to their default positions. Main Title This defines a title for the chart. Any text typed in this field will appear, horizontally centralised, at the top of the canvas. X Axis Title This applies to bar charts, line graphs and area graphs. It defines a title for the X-axis of the chart. Y Axis Title This applies to bar charts, line graphs and area graphs. It defines a title for the Y-axis of the chart. Multi Depth This option is specific to 3D pie charts. When enabled, it causes each segment of the pie to be displayed with a different depth, dropping by equal increments from maximum depth at the start angle in a clockwise direction. The respective depths therefore have no significance apart from a stylistic one. Explode Pie This option is specific to pie charts. When enabled, it causes the specified segment (counting from the start angle) to be set apart from the remainder of the pie by the specified distance (in pixels). Start Angle This is specific to pie charts. It defines, in degrees (relative to 12 oclock), the angle at which segment ordering begins, being the place in the pie where the starting edge of the first segment is located. Fill Type & Colour These apply to all except multi-dimensional charts. The fill type defines mainly the colouring mode of the chart elements, of which there are three to choose from:
173
Default Palette With this option, each element is filled with a different colour from the palette provided. One Colour This option allows you to select the single colour, of constant tone, with which all elements are to be filled. You select the actual colour by means of the adjacent Pick Colour button. Gradient This option applies to bar charts and area graphs. It allows you to select the single colour, of gradually changing tone, with which all elements are to be filled. You select the actual colour by means of the adjacent Pick Colour button. Another aspect of colour fill is Transparency. This option, when enabled, will make the charts grid lines and normally hidden parts of chart elements visible through all those elements that overlap them. Background Style This defines the colouring style of the canvas background, of which there are three to choose from: Plain Colour This option specifies the colouring style of the canvas background as being constant-tone and opaque. With an opaque canvas background, the colour of the canvas will stand out from that of the report as a whole. You select the actual colour by means of the adjacent Pick Colour button. Gradient This option specifies the colouring style of the canvas background as an opaque one with repeating gradients. Again, an opaque canvas background allows the colour of the canvas to stand out from that of the report as a whole. You select the actual colour by means of the Gradient drop-down list. Transparent This option specifies the colouring style of the canvas background as one that is transparent. When the background is transparent, it will be colourless, and the reports background will be visible through it. Show Lines The settings in this area govern which of the charts ruled lines should be displayed and, if any are, what colour they, and also the label text, should be. The enabling options are as follows: Horizontal This option applies to bar charts, line graphs and area graphs. When enabled, it will cause horizontal grid lines to be displayed. Vertical This option applies to bar charts, line graphs and area graphs. When enabled, it will cause vertical grid lines to be displayed.
174
Border This option, when enabled, will cause the canvas boundary to be made visible by the appearance of a border. Note that, if you copy a chart and paste it into another application, the border will be lost. Edge This option, when enabled, will cause the lines defining the edges of the chart graphic to be displayed. For a pie chart, it will cause the lines defining the segment boundaries to be displayed. Below the enabling options, there are the colour controls for these line elements, and for the text. To select a colour for a given element, use the relevant Pick Colour button. The elements are as follows: Edge Colour This determines the colour of the lines defining the edges of the chart graphic, including the two axes (if not separately overriden). In the case of a pie chart, it determines the colour of the segment boundaries. Horiz Line Colour This determines the colour of the horizontal grid lines on bar charts, line graphs and area graphs. Vert Line Colour This determines the colour of the vertical grid lines on bar charts, line graphs and area graphs. Axis Colour This determines the colour of the two axes on bar charts, line graphs and area graphs, when you want this to differ from the overall edge colour. Text Colour This determines the colour of all label text. Labelling The settings in this area are concerned with how the chart should be labelled. For pie charts, it is possible to display a colour-coded legend to augment the presentation. For other charts, you can specify the angle at which the X-axis labelling should be displayed. The settings available are as follows: Legend This is specific to pie charts. By making the appropriate selection in the drop-down list, you can either show or hide the legend. Legend Coordinates These are specific to pie charts. By entering appropriate X and Y values (which are in pixels, measured relative to the top left-hand corner of the canvas), you can position the legend anywhere on the canvas. Label Angle This applies to bar charts, line graphs and area graphs. You specify the angle that the label text should make with the X-axis by entering an appropriate number (which is in degrees).
175
Discard Results This area applies to all except multi-dimensional charts. The first two fields here allow items with too high or too low a count (in comparison with the majority) to be excluded from the chart. This is useful when a few items having counts far below, or in excess of, the norm are seen to adversely affect chart readability, or when such items simply do not need to be compared with the others. If you wish to exclude high counts, type the required threshold value in the Above field. Similarly, to exclude low counts, you should type an appropriate value in the Below field. The third field here allows you to specify the maximum number of records that are to be included in the statistics for the chart display.
176
Database Pick List. This prompts for a database item selectable from a dropdown list. The list content would be built automatically from the values in the table column you specify for the prompt (subject to the constraints of an optional filter). User Defined Pick List. This prompts for an item selectable from a drop-down list. You would create the list content for the prompt yourself. Each selection item you create is made up of a display component mapped to an underlying value component, both of which would normally be the same. However, you can change the display component separately and, if you do, this would be the version that the user sees, while the underlying value would be the one that the report actually takes account of.
A template falls under one of two main categories: Lists or Value Counters. Lists mainly display textual lists of records (although these are sometimes augmented by graphical distributions), whereas Value Counters display numerical statistics, presented in graphical and/or textual form.
177
Within both template categories, there are further, Grouped subcategories. A Grouped report would group the relevant tables records or value counts by whatever column of that table you specify. An optional feature of grouping (except for boxed grouping) is the display of a subordinate chart for each group, showing the same kind of information as the main chart at the top, but relating only to the group. All Grouped templates have facilities, in the relevant Reportwizard dialogue box, whereby you can specify the column by which to group. The following subsection provides guidance on using the Report wizard to build a report. You are given a full walkthrough of the wizard, whose overall structure is always the same, irrespective of the template category. At the end of the walkthrough, all the possible sets of variations in report options are indicated. After the walkthrough, there is a subsection that describes how to configure existing reports. Following that, you will find a subsection on how to quickly create an identical copy of an existing report, which you can then use as the basis for a new report.
178
2. In the tree browser located in the wizards first dialogue box, look in the Standard Lists, Grouped Lists or Value Counters folder to find the required template, and select it. 3. Click OK. 4. A dialogue box similar to the following is displayed:
5. In the Choose Tables dialogue box, decide whether you wish to work with the underlying SQL-recognised table and column names within the database, or with their user-friendly equivalents, and ensure that the appropriate option is selected. Your setting here will be maintained by default in subsequent wizard dialogue boxes that show the same controls, but you will be free to switch between the two options at any such point. 6. In this dialogue box, the Available Tables list is a pool, initially containing the names of all the tables in the database, from which the required name(s)
179
can be taken and placed into the Selected Tables list. On the Available Tables list, highlight the name of the first, or only, table that you want the report to query, and click Add Table. This tables name now appears on the Selected Tables list. If you find you have made the wrong selection, simply highlight the table name, click Remove Table and try again, this time using the correct table. 7. If there is a requirement for the report to query more than one table, see the section entitled Querying Multiple Tables in a System Report on page 198 to find out what you have to do at this point. 8. Click Next.
9. In the Choose Columns dialogue box, ensure that each table column to be used in the report is displayed under Selected Columns. Note that a Value
180
Counters report can use only one column. To move a column from one list to the other, select it and click the appropriate arrow button.
10. Once all the required columns are listed on the right, you may need to set or unset certain options for some of them. The Visible option determines whether or not data from each of the table columns selected for usage in the report is to be actually visible in the results. Ensure that this option is enabled for all columns whose data is to be displayed. There are additional settings, described below, that control certain optional aspects of the display of visible data. The Raw option is relevant to numeric data values that are internally mapped to more user-friendly (textual or formatted) equivalents. Normally, although the numeric columns would be specified in logical comparisons within the report criteria, the actual data displayed in the results would be the
181
corresponding user-friendly values. However, if you want the raw numeric values to be displayed for a given column (say, for diagnostic purposes), you should enable the relevant Raw option. The next four options govern whether or not mechanisms are to be activated in the report to calculate value sums, value averages, minimum values and/or maximum values, respectively, for the data relating to each of the numeric columns. Ensure that the appropriate options are enabled for all numeric columns whose data is to be aggregated in these ways. The No Wrap option determines whether or not the space taken up by the data and heading of each displayed column in the output report should be squashed and the text wrapped around when there are many columns to fit into the results page. If you wish to display a lot of columns, you should consider enabling this option for all of those whose contents will look messy when wrapped around. If you wish to reposition any table-column entry on the list, select the entry and use the up and down buttons to the right of the list. Top and bottom on this list correspond to left and right, respectively, on the output report. 11. Click Next.
182
12. The Filter Results dialogue box allows you to enter the criteria (if any) that the report, in its query of the database, is to use for selecting or excluding the records to be processed, thereby filtering the data output. The criteria would comprise one or more valid SQL WHERE clauses. You can create the required filter either by typing out the full text of the WHERE clause(s) in the edit field, or by using the WHERE Builder in the lower part of the dialogue box, which automatically generates each clause for you in the correct syntax. The advantage of using the WHERE Builder is that you will be selecting most clause items from drop-down lists, rather than having to remember them or look them up. Although the WHERE Builder is not quite as flexible as typing your own SQL text, you can always insert extra clause(s) manually as necessary. When typing the criteria out in full, you can use the function _sw_time() to calculate a known day and time. The functions argument would be a
183
Supportworks standard context variable, as used in data-dictionary-based filters for customisation. For example, to refer to the start of today, you would specify the function as _sw_time(startoftoday). A full list of the context variables you can employ within the parentheses is given in an Appendix of the System Customisation Guide. Note that only the timerelated variables are valid for report criteria. For a prompted report, you would refer, in the SQL text, to the input data by means of a variable such as &[uv_arg1] or &[uv_arg2], where 1 represents the first (or only) prompt, 2 represents the second prompt, and so on. In the case of a range prompt, the variable representing the From data would be of the form &[uv_argf1], and the variable representing the To data would be of the form &[uv_argt1]. For details of how to use the WHERE Builder, see the section entitled Using the WHERE Builder in a System Report on page 192. 13. Click Next.
184
14. There are two versions of the Grouping and Sorting dialogue box that can be displayed: one showing Group checkbox options and a Group Graph field (as illustrated above) and the other without these items. The Group version is displayed in the case of a Grouped List, a Boxed Grouped List or a Grouped Value Counter, while the non-Group version is displayed for a Simple List or a simple Value Counter. Note that the table-column order defined in a previous dialogue box is maintained here. If you are displaying the Group version, select the Group checkbox against the table column by which you want to group the report. For a Grouped Value Counter, there will be only one table column against which to select a Group checkbox. 15. By default, the data displayed on the output report will be sorted (within each group if relevant) in the order in which it will be taken from the database. If you want the data to be sorted on a specific table column, you should select the Asc (for ascending) or Desc (for descending) checkbox
185
against that column. If you then want further sorting to take place within the initial sort, you should select additional checkboxes against the columns concerned. Sorting priority goes from top to bottom on the column list (that is, from left to right on the output report). 16. If the report is to have a main (summary) chart, then select, in the Summary Graph field, the table column on which this is to be calculated. 17. If you are displaying the Group version of the above dialogue box, and the report is to have group-level charts, then select, in the Group Graph field, the table column on which these are to be calculated. 18. Click Next.
19. The Report Options dialogue box allows you, first of all, to specify a name and title for the report. The name of a report is the one by which it is identified in the Management Information and Reporting tree browser,
186
whereas the title is what appears at the top of the reports output display. If you leave the title field blank, the title will default to the reports name. Enter an appropriate and accurate name and title for the report in the relevant fields. Note that you can use prompt variables such as &[uv_arg1] in the title field if you wish. Secondly, this dialogue box allows you to allocate a specific data dictionary, or all data dictionaries, to the report. A specific data dictionary allocation ensures that the report will be visible only to those analysts that have this data dictionary loaded. (For such filtration to work, you must have the relevant criteria set up, for the data dictionary concerned, in a Global Parameters folder called Reports, as described in the System Customisation Guide.) In the Data Dictionary field, select the required data dictionary or leave the setting as All Data Dictionaries. Thirdly, this dialogue box allows you to specify a theme for the output report. A theme is a preset look-and-feel that you can give to a report, affecting its displayed fonts, colours, borders and background. In the Report Theme field, select the theme you require or leave it at the default setting of <No Theme>. Lastly, this dialogue box allows you to enable and disable various report options. The options available will differ with the report template. The different sets of possible options are described in the following subsections. 20. Click Finish. The wizard saves the configuration and then terminates. The new report will now appear at the bottom of the System Reports section of the Management Information and Reporting tree browser. You can move the report to any folder within that section by dragging it with the mouse.
187
column headings to be visible, ensure that this option is enabled. The column headings will be equivalent to the display names defined for the columns in the data dictionary. Show Overall Aggregate Summary If this option is enabled, an Overall Totals section, capable of showing overall aggregate values, will appear at the end of the report output. The aggregates would consist of value sums, value averages, minimum values and/or maximum values, shown under those numeric columns for which these aggregate figures are to be calculated (as configured in step 10 above). Another possible aggregate would be the number of records displayed. Each aggregate value is separately selected for display by enabling the appropriate child option below. Show Sum This child option, when enabled, will cause the sum total of the values in a given column to be displayed. Show Average This child option, when enabled, will cause the average of the values in a given column to be shown. Show Lowest Value This child option, when enabled, will cause the minimum value in a given column to be shown. Show Highest Value This child option, when enabled, will cause the maximum value in a given column to be shown. Show Record Count This is the child option that allows you to enable or disable specifically the part of the Overall Totals section that shows the total number of records displayed. Disable Row Data Output If this option is enabled, the textual part(s) of the report will be output without any data rows. Such an effect may be useful for testing purposes. Enable Filter If you want the report output to display column-related filter fields, you should enable this option.
188
Make Graphs Editable This option, when enabled, allows the user to successfully save, from within the Chart Constructor, any changes made to the charts in the report. Show Column Headings On report outputs, records are listed in tabular form, with the columns distributed horizontally across the display. If you want the column headings to be visible, ensure that this option is enabled. The column headings will be equivalent to the display names defined for the columns in the data dictionary. Show Overall Aggregate Summary If this option is enabled, an Overall Totals section, capable of showing overall aggregate values, will appear at the end of the report output. The aggregates would consist of value sums, value averages, minimum values and/or maximum values, shown under those numeric columns for which these aggregate figures are to be calculated (as configured in step 10 above). Other possible aggregates would be the number of records displayed, and the average number of records per group. Each aggregate value is separately selected for display by enabling the appropriate child option below. Show Sum This child option, when enabled, will cause the sum total of the values in a given column to be displayed. Show Average This child option, when enabled, will cause the average of the values in a given column to be shown. Show Lowest Value This child option, when enabled, will cause the minimum value in a given column to be shown. Show Highest Value This child option, when enabled, will cause the maximum value in a given column to be shown. Show Record Count This child option, when enabled, will cause the number of records displayed to be shown. A similar record-count will appear at the end of each group if Show Group Aggregate Folder (see below) is also enabled. Show Group Average Record Count This child option, when enabled, will cause the average number of records per group to be shown (in parentheses after the overall total record count), provided that Show Record Count is also enabled.
189
Show Group Aggregate Footer If this option is enabled, a footer section showing group-related aggregate values will appear at the end of each group in the report output. In just the same way as for the Overall Totals section, the aggregates would consist of value sums, value averages, minimum values and/or maximum values, shown under those numeric columns for which these aggregate figures are to be calculated (as configured in step 10 above). Another possible aggregate would be the number of records displayed in the group. This record count would appear only if Show Record Count is enabled as well. Show Group Name in Group Header This option, when enabled, will cause the names of groups to be displayed in their respective headers. Show a Record Count in Group Header This option, when enabled, will cause the number of records in each group to be displayed in the groups respective headers. Should the main chart be multi-dimensional This option, when enabled, will cause group elements in the main chart to be subdivided into their respective components. Disable Row Data Output If this option is enabled, the textual part(s) of the report will be output without any data rows. Such an effect may be useful for testing purposes. Sort Groups Descending Normally, the reports groups are displayed in ascending order, which means that the group name with the lowest underlying alphanumerical value would be at the top, and the name with the highest would be at the bottom. However, if you wish to reverse the order, you should enable this option. Enable Filter If you want the report output to display column-related filter fields, you should enable this option.
190
191
end of each group if Show Group Aggregate Folder (see below) is also enabled. Show Group Average Record Count This child option, when enabled, will cause the average number of records per group to be shown (in parentheses after the overall total record count), provided that Show Record Count is also enabled. Show Group Aggregate Footer If this option is enabled, a footer section showing group-related aggregate values will appear at the end of each group in the report output. In just the same way as for the Overall Totals section, the aggregates would consist of value sums, value averages, minimum values and/or maximum values, shown under those numeric columns for which these aggregate figures are to be calculated (as configured in step 10 above). Another possible aggregate would be the number of records displayed in the group. This record count would appear only if Show Record Count is enabled as well.
192
2. In the Left Column field, select the table column whose values are to be tested against the operand value you are about to supply. (If you have specified more than one table for this report, you will be able to select here a column from any of these.) A further three fields now appear following the initial one. 3. In the Operator field, select the type of test to be applied. The following operators are available, but not all at the same time, as some depend on the selected columns data type: is equal to This will look in the selected column for an exact match against the stated operand value. The SQL equivalent is =. is not equal to This will look in the selected column for a non-match against the stated operand value. The SQL equivalent is <>.
193
is less than This applies to integer data-type columns only. It will look in the selected column for a value that is less than the stated operand value. The SQL equivalent is <. is greater than This applies to integer data-type columns only. It will look in the selected column for a value that is greater than the stated operand value. The SQL equivalent is >. is between This applies to integer data-type columns only. It will look in the selected column for a value that is between two stated operand values. The SQL equivalent is ...>...AND...<.... Notice that two SQL clauses will actually be generated. begins with This applies to alphanumeric data-type columns only. It will look in the selected column for a string value whose initial characters match the stated operand value. The SQL equivalent is LIKE ...%. ends with This applies to alphanumeric data-type columns only. It will look in the selected column for a string value whose final characters match the stated operand value. The SQL equivalent is LIKE %.... contains This applies to alphanumeric data-type columns only. It will look in the selected column for a string value within which any sequence of characters matches the stated operand value. The SQL equivalent is LIKE %...%. is one of This will look in the selected column for an exact match against any of the stated operand values. The SQL equivalent is IN (...). is not one of This will look in the selected column for a non-match against each of the stated operand values. The SQL equivalent is NOT IN (...). 4. In the Operand field, select the type of operand you wish to use for specifying the value(s) with which to test data in the column already selected. You can choose from the following operand types, but the precise set of choices available in any given instance will depend on the operator you have selected: Column This is available with all except multi-value and LIKE operators. When selected, it displays a field named Right Column in the space below allowing you to specify a column that is to provide the test data.
194
User Defined Value(s) This is available with all operators. When selected, it displays a dialogue in the space below allowing you to specify, as appropriate, one or more literal values to be used as the test data. The Filter Results dialogue would then look like this:
You can supply a literal value in one of two ways: either by selecting the Value as free text option and typing the value in the associated field, or by selecting the Value from database option and specifying the value from the relevant table and column. Having specified a value by either method, you would then need to click the Add button to display that value in the Value(s) list. If more than one value has to be given, you would just repeat the above series of actions the appropriate number of times. (If you make a mistake, you can remove the offending value from the list by highlighting it and clicking the Delete button.)
195
Runtime Defined Value This is available with all except IN/NOT IN operators, and allows you to set up user prompts by which the person running the report will be able to filter the query results. If you want the users of the report to be prompted in this way, see the subsection entitled Setting Up User Prompts for a System Report on page 196 for instructions on what to do at this point. 5. Once the required operand value, or set of operand values, is in place, click Apply Edit. Your configuration data is committed to the report, and the generated clause is added to the edit field at the top. If there was at least one clause displayed there already, the new clause would be prefixed with an AND by default (which you can manually change to an OR if required). If you wish to generate any further clauses, you will need to repeat the above procedure for each of them.
196
4. In the Prompt Type field, select the data-input format or mechanism that is to be presented to the user. See the section entitled System Report Prompting on page 176 for a description of the types of prompts available. 5. In the Prompt Text field, enter the text of the prompt, inviting the user to enter information of the appropriate kind. 6. In the Label field, enter the text of the label relating to the data-input field in the prompt. Note that defining labels is unnecessary for prompts that ask for the start and end of a range, as these labels are always fixed at From and To, respectively. 7. If you have selected Database Pick List as the prompt type, the area of the dialogue box relating to that type would be active, allowing you to configure the database query that establishes the drop-down lists contents. You would need to specify, in the appropriate fields, the table and column from which the prompt is to generate the drop-down list items. Then, if necessary, in the
197
Filter field, you could enter an SQL expression for the purpose of limiting what will appear in the prompt fields drop-down list. 8. If you have selected User Defined Pick List as the prompt type, the area of the dialogue box relating to that type would be active, allowing you to specify the drop-down lists contents literally. You can supply an item for the list in one of two ways: either by selecting the Selection item value option and typing the required string of characters in the associated field, or by selecting the Value from database option and specifying the required string from the relevant table and column. Having specified an item by either method, you would then need to click the Add button to display that item in the Item Value(s) list. As you would normally need to supply more than one item for a list, you would just repeat the above series of actions the appropriate number of times. (If you make a mistake, you can remove the offending item from the list by highlighting it and clicking the Delete button.) For any clause where the values to be tested are non-user-friendly and therefore not suitable for use as selectable items in the prompt fields dropdown list, you can specify display names against those underlying values. The report user would then see the display names in the drop-down list, instead of the underlying string values you have supplied for it. To specify a display name for a list item, first ensure that you have added it to the Item Value(s) list. Then highlight it and, in the Display Name field, type a suitable name. Click the Update button and observe that you now have the entered name mapped against the underlying value. 9. Click OK. The Prompt Properties dialogue box closes. 10. Back in the Filter Results dialogue, click Apply Edit as usual to commit your configuration data and to generate the corresponding WHERE clause. If you wish to create any further prompts, you will need to repeat the above procedure, configuring each prompt in a separate WHERE clause.
198
For example, the Open/Closed Call table contains a customer-identity column whose data values would reflect those held in a corresponding column in the Customer table. Thus, with such a relationship existing between these two tables, you may want a report designed to return a list of calls to also include various details of the customer associated with each call. This kind of querying can be achieved by means of multi-table selection in the reports SQL statement, which is possible only if appropriate JOIN...ON conditions are included. One JOIN...ON condition would be needed for each additional table that has to be queried. A JOIN...ON condition would be in the form of an expression that filters the data from the two tables concerned in such a way as to obtain the required combination of record-pairs in the returned results. The most useful kind of expression would be a single equality clause specifying a match between related columns in the two separate tables. This would look at each record in the left-hand table in turn and temporarily combine it with a record, from the right-hand table, that relates to it by virtue of matching values in the two related columns. If, for a given record, no related record is found, it is omitted from the results. A variant of the JOIN...ON condition is LEFT JOIN...ON, which, instead of filtering out every record for which no related record is found, will actually include such records in the results, but with the columns added from the righthand table indicating null values. The mechanism employed by another variant, the RIGHT JOIN...ON condition, works in reverse, in that it looks at individual records in the right-hand table and tries to find related records in the left-hand table with which to temporarily combine them. In this case, it would be the columns added from the left-hand table that would show null values when no related record can be found. When you are building or configuring a report, you can implement JOINs by typing the necessary SQL directly into an edit field and/or by using the JOIN Builder, which is similar in operation to the WHERE Builder. Note JOINs are currently not supported for Value Counter report templates, while for Grouped Value Counter report templates there is a limit of two tables. To include JOINs in a report, follow the instructions given here:
199
1. Ensure that you are displaying the Choose Tables dialogue, and that at least one table is already visible in the Selected Tables list. 2. Highlight the table you wish to combine with any of the tables that have already been selected, and click Add Table. The Join Tables dialogue box is displayed.
3. In the Join Tables dialogue box, ensure that the type of JOIN you want is selected. Notice, in the edit field, that the first part of the relevant JOIN has been generated, showing the table you have elected to combine. 4. Click the New Clause button. The JOIN Builder section of the dialogue is activated, showing the initial field to be populated. 5. In the Left Column field, select the table column whose values are to be tested against those in the related column you are about to supply. (Your possible selections here are restricted to columns from the table you have chosen to combine.) A further three fields now appear following the initial one.
200
6. In the Operator field, select the type of test to be applied. Although the same operators are available here as for the WHERE Builder, it would normally only make sense to use is equal to. 7. In the Operand field, select the type of operand you wish to use for specifying the value(s) with which to test data in the column already selected. You can choose from the same operand types as are available in the WHERE Builder, but normally only Column would make any sense here. When Column is selected, it displays a field named Right Column in the space below allowing you to specify a column that is to provide the test data. This should be a related column belonging to any of the tables that have already been selected. 8. Click Apply Edit. Your configuration data is committed to the report, and the generated clause is added to the edit field at the top. If there was at least one clause displayed there already, the new clause would be prefixed with an AND by default (which you can manually change to an OR if required). 9. If you wish to generate any further clauses, you will need to repeat the above procedure from step 4 onwards for each of them. 10. Click OK. Notice that the table you elected to combine is now listed under Selected Tables in the Choose Tables dialogue. If you now wish to combine an additional table with any of the selected ones, you will need to repeat the entire procedure given above.
201
The tabs you can view in this dialogue box are exact replicas of the wizard windows used for building a report, and they are arranged (from left to right) in the same order as that in which the wizard windows appear. Each tab has the same name as the corresponding wizard window. Here, instead of clicking Next to display the subsequent dialogue, you would simply select the required tab. In each of these tabs, you will be able to change any of the values or options that were initially configured using the wizard. For information about the parameters and controls to be found in the configuration dialogues, see the subsection entitled To Build a System Report on page 178. Note that making certain changes within some of the tabs will have an effect on tabs further to the right. For example, if you add or remove a column in the Choose Columns tab, this will be reflected in the Grouping and Sorting tab, and you may then wish to make some adjustments there as a result.
202
203
204
Information and Reporting tree browser. However, with multiple reports and their folders, you would first have to exit from the view and then come back into it before they become visible.
205
206
Starting Up
To run Dashboard, select Start > Programs > Supportworks Client > Supportworks Dashboard. The Dashboard window opens, displaying the currently stored configuration of charts. The first time you run Dashboard, you would have no configuration of your own, which means that it would be the default configuration supplied with Supportworks (in the file named swdashconf.xml) that is loaded and displayed, after having been automatically copied over from the server and saved locally under a different name (swdbconf.xml). All configuration changes you may make from now on within the Dashboard client (both overall and chart-specific) will be saved in this local file. The default configuration defines a number of example charts, of which six are displayed as follows:
207
For each displayed (or displayable) chart, you can specify precisely the kind of statistics that you want it to show, and you can configure the type and characteristics of the chart. See Creating and Configuring a Chart on page 210 for details. To save any changes that affect Dashboards main window as a whole, you would select Save Configuration from the File menu, or simply exit from the application.
208
charts. Dashboard updates a chart by resubmitting the query associated with it and then displaying the new results. To manually refresh a specific chart in the window, first select the chart, and then either click the Refresh Selected Chart toolbar button or select that function from the View menu. To manually refresh every chart in the window, either click the Refresh All Charts toolbar button or select that function from the View menu. To configure the mechanism that automatically refreshes charts, either click the Auto Refresh toolbar button or select that function from the View menu. The Options dialogue box is displayed:
In this dialogue box, you can switch the auto-refresh mechanism on or off and, if the mechanism is on, you can specify how often the charts are to be refreshed. To close the Options dialogue box, click OK.
209
a context menu. In that menu, pick Select Chart and then the chart you want displayed. If you simply wish to clear the pane, pick Select Chart and then No Chart from the context menu.
210
The left-hand section of the Chart Properties window is a tabbed area containing a Chart tab and a Query Data tab. The Chart tab displays a preview of the chart you are constructing and allows you to see instantly the effects of any attribute changes you may make. The Query Data tab simply displays the query results in tabular form (representing the temporary records in which the results are held). The top right-hand section of the Chart Properties window consists of fields that allow you to define the chart and its function in an overall sense. These fields are described in Basic Chart Definition below. The remainder of the right-hand section of the Chart Properties window is a tabbed area containing an Edit Properties tab and a Choose Template tab. The Edit Properties tab displays the detailed characteristics currently applying to the chart, and allows you to edit each of these. You will find that different types of charts will have different combinations of characteristics displayed here. Descriptions of all the modifiable characteristics, and of the circumstances in which they are available, are given in Chart Characteristics on page 213.
211
The Choose Template tab in the Chart Properties window displays a list of chart templates from which you can select one to make a whole set of characteristics apply to the chart instantly. You may wish to experiment with different templates to see if any are suitable for you. If you find one with a style that is quite close to what you want, you can fine-tune the characteristics in the Edit Properties tab. To save all the changes you have made in the Chart Properties window, you must click OK. The window then closes and your changes are applied to the chart (whether displayed in a pane or not).
212
Top Ten Calling Customers Today Top Ten Calling Sites This Month Top Ten Calling Sites This Week Top Ten Calling Sites This Year Top Ten Calling Sites Today Top Ten Problem Types This Month Top Ten Problem Types This Week Top Ten Problem Types This Year Top Ten Problem Types Today
Chart Type This defines the type of chart to be displayed. You can select any of the following chart types: Pie chart 3D pie chart Bar chart 3D bar chart Line graph 3D line graph Area graph 3D area graph
Chart Characteristics
The Edit Properties tab in the Chart Properties window allows you to alter many of the visual characteristics of the chart, and to place limits on the data to be displayed. Although most of the characteristics available for alteration are common to all types of chart, and will always be displayed in the tab, some will be visible only for certain chart types. In the descriptions of the characteristics given below (grouped by category), the circumstances under which the latter will be available are clearly stated. To enter values for these attributes, you either (as appropriate) type/edit the required text, or click in the attribute field to reveal a drop-down list (or some other control), from which you then make a selection. On making a change in a
213
type/edit field, you have to press Return or click outside that field to see the effect of your change in the preview area.
Displayed Data
The characteristics in this category relate to the data to be presented in the chart, and apply to all chart types. Maximum Records This specifies the maximum number of result records that are to be included in the statistics for the chart display (where the actual records are those listed in the Query Data tab). Discard Above This attribute allow items with too high a count (in comparison with the majority) to be excluded from the chart. This is useful when a few items having counts far in excess of the norm are seen to adversely affect chart readability, or when such items simply do not need to be compared with the others. If you wish to exclude high counts, type the required threshold value in this field. Discard Below This attribute allow items with too low a count (in comparison with the majority) to be excluded from the chart. This is useful when a few items having counts far below the norm are seen to adversely affect chart readability, or when such items simply do not need to be compared with the others. If you wish to exclude low counts, type the required threshold value in this field. Sort Order This defines the kind of sorting that should apply to the items shown on the chart. For a bar chart, line graph or area graph, the items are ordered by default from left to right (or from bottom to top), while for a pie chart, the default ordering is clockwise. The following kinds of sorting are available: Default Values This option gives the chart items a fairly random distribution, as they are placed in the order in which the data is read from the database. Reverse Values This option places the chart items in an order that is the reverse of the Default Values order. Values Ascending This option places the chart items in ascending order, based on the count for each item. Values Descending This option places the chart items in descending order, based on the count for each item.
214
Label Ascending This option places the chart items in ascending alphanumerical order, based on the label text. Label Descending This option places the chart items in descending alphanumerical order, based on the label text. Staggered Values This option places the chart items in an order of alternating opposites. The placing starts with the item that has the highest count, followed by the item with the lowest count. Then, the items with the nexthighest and next-lowest counts are placed, and so on. This kind of distribution is most useful in pie charts where overlapping of item labels would otherwise occur due to adjacent segments being too thin.
Visual Attributes
The characteristics in this category relate to various aspects of how the chart is presented visually. Title X This applies to bar charts, line graphs and area graphs. It defines a title for the X-axis of the chart. Title Y This applies to bar charts, line graphs and area graphs. It defines a title for the Y-axis of the chart. Swap X and Y This applies to bar charts, line graphs and area graphs. Selection of True will switch over the X- and Y-axes of the chart. Selection of False will switch these back to their default positions. Depth This is specific to 3D charts. It defines, in pixels, the depth of the chart graphic (that is, along the Z-axis). For a multi-depth pie chart, it would define the maximum depth (or height) of the pie. Multi Depth This is specific to 3D pie charts. When set to True, it causes each segment of the pie to be displayed with a different depth, dropping by equal increments from maximum depth at the start angle in a clockwise direction. The respective depths therefore have no significance apart from a stylistic one. Label Angle This applies to bar charts, line graphs and area graphs. It specifies the angle (in degrees) that the label text should make with the X-axis. Perspective This is specific to 3D pie charts. It defines the apparent angle of view (in degrees) that the observer has of the pie, with 0 being the top view and
215
90 being the side view. Note that true perspective is not automatically maintained, as the pies depth is controlled independently of the angle. Start Angle This is specific to pie charts. It defines, in degrees (relative to 12 oclock), the angle at which segment ordering begins, being the place in the pie where the starting edge of the first segment is located. Use Explode Mode This option is specific to pie charts. When enabled, it causes a specific segment to be set apart from the remainder of the pie. Explode Segment For a pie chart, this specifies the segment to be exploded. It is expressed in terms of a clockwise count of segments, beginning with 0 at the start angle. Explode Distance For a pie chart, this specifies the distance (in pixels) by which the exploded segment is to be separated from the rest of the pie. Show Legend This is specific to pie charts. For such a chart, it is possible to display a colour-coded legend to augment its presentation. To enable the legend, set this attribute to True. Legend Left For a pie chart, if you enter an appropriate value (in pixels, measured relative to the left-hand edge of the chart pane), you can position the legend horizontally anywhere within the pane. Legend Top For a pie chart, if you enter an appropriate value (in pixels, measured relative to the top edge of the chart pane), you can position the legend vertically anywhere within the pane.
Sizing Attributes
The characteristics in this category govern the size of the chart within its pane. Left Margin This applies to bar charts, line graphs and area graphs. It defines, in pixels, the left margin of the chart, as measured between the left-hand edge of the pane and the Y-axis of the chart (that is, ignoring all labels). Thus, as you increase the size of the left margin, the charts width is reduced from the left. Top Margin This applies to bar charts, line graphs and area graphs. It defines, in pixels, the top margin of the chart, as measured between the top edge of the pane and the corresponding edge of the chart graphic. Thus, as you increase the size of the top margin, the charts height is reduced from the top.
216
Right Margin This applies to bar charts, line graphs and area graphs. It defines, in pixels, the right margin of the chart, as measured between the right-hand edge of the pane and the corresponding edge of the chart graphic. Thus, as you increase the size of the right margin, the charts width is reduced from the right. Bottom Margin This applies to bar charts, line graphs and area graphs. It defines, in pixels, the bottom margin of the chart, as measured between the bottom edge of the pane and the X-axis of the chart (that is, ignoring all labels). Thus, as you increase the size of the bottom margin, the charts height is reduced from the bottom. Scaling Factor This applies to pie charts. It defines the flat diameter of the pie, expressed as a percentage of the smaller dimension of the chart pane.
217
Edge Colour This determines the colour of the lines defining the edges of the chart graphic on bar charts, line graphs and area graphs. You select the colour by clicking the drop-down list to reveal a colour chart in which you then click the required colour. Show Boundaries This option applies to pie charts. When set to True, it will cause the lines defining the segment boundaries to be displayed. Boundary Colour This determines the colour of the segment boundaries on pie charts. You select the colour by clicking the drop-down list to reveal a colour chart in which you then click the required colour.
Object Fill
The characteristics in this category govern the different stylistic ways in which the chart elements can be colour-filled. Fill Type This applies to bar charts, pie charts and area graphs. It defines the colouring mode of the chart elements, of which there are three to choose from: Default Palette With this option, which applies to bar charts and pie charts only, each element is filled with a different colour from the palette provided. Plain Colour This option specifies that all chart elements be filled with a single colour of constant tone. The Fill Colour attribute (see below) would specify the actual colour. Gradient This option applies to bar charts and area graphs. It specifies that all chart elements be filled with a single colour of gradually changing tone. The Fill Colour attribute (see below) would specify the actual colour. Fill Colour This specifies the colour to be used for the Plain Colour and Gradient types of fill. You select the colour by clicking the drop-down list to reveal a colour chart in which you then click the required colour. Element Transparency This option, when set to True, will make the charts grid lines and normally hidden parts of chart elements visible through all those elements that overlap them. Transparency Level This option specifies the precise degree of transparency that will apply to all chart elements. The available values are in the range 0 to 255, where 0 is totally opaque and 255 is fully transparent.
218
Background
The characteristics in this category govern the different stylistic ways in which the chart background can be coloured. Background Type This defines the colouring style of the chart panes background, of which there are three to choose from: Plain Colour This option specifies the colouring style of the chart panes background as being constant-tone and opaque. The Background Plain Colour attribute (see below) would specify the actual colour. Gradient This option specifies the colouring style of the chart panes background as an opaque one with repeating gradients. The Background Gradient attribute (see below) would specify the actual colour. Transparent This option specifies the colouring style of the chart panes background as colourless, which effectively means white. Background Plain Colour This specifies the colour to be used for the Plain Colour type of background. You select the colour by clicking the drop-down list to reveal a colour chart in which you then click the required colour. Background Gradient This specifies the colour to be used for the Gradient type of background. You can choose from the following: Gold Silver Red Metal Blue Metal Green Metal
Deleting a Chart
If you simply wish to make a chart disappear from a particular pane but still retain it within the pool, you should clear the pane as described in Switching to a Different or Null Chart in a Pane on page 209. However, if you actually want to remove a chart altogether from the pool, you should first ensure that it is displayed in one of the panes. Then, you have to
219
right-click in that pane and select Delete Chart from the context menu that pops up. At the confirmation prompt, click Yes. The charts details are then removed from your local swdbconf.xml file.
220
Operator Scripts
Operator Scripts
Note The Operator Scripts feature is not available in Supportworks Essentials. The Operator Scripts feature allows suitably authorised users to build, within Supportworks, a wizard-run system of troubleshooting scripts, which may include a certain amount of call-logging data-entry functionality. Once such a system has been built, analysts will be able, when scripts are run, to follow guided, decision-tree questioning on-screen as they speak to customers on the phone. Not only can the question-led scripts yield suggested resolutions to commonly encountered problems, but, at the end of script execution, the entire sequence of questions asked and answers given can be automatically logged in the problem-description field of the Log Call form. In addition, questions asking for information that analysts would normally be expected to enter in edit fields of the Log Call form can be included in scripts to provide a wizard-orientated way of completing much of the form. The inherent ease with which the troubleshooting interface made available by Operator Scripts allows basic problems to be solved makes it particularly suitable for first-line or newly recruited support staff. It allows inexperienced staff to achieve higher fix rates at the first support level, and therefore reduces the number of calls that have to be passed to a higher level. Even if the troubleshooter fails to resolve a problem, the details of the initial process of elimination will have been recorded instantly in the call diary (without any need for typing), ready for the next line of support to pick up.
221
Operator Scripts
multiple-choice questions would be achieved by associating each possible answer with the appropriate question to follow. For questions that do not generate branches, the sequence is determined by simply indicating, within each questions properties, what the next question should be. Apart from strictly troubleshooting types of questions, a script can also contain questions that request information intended to go into edit fields in the Log Call form, or those that are not questions at all, but announcements not requiring an answer. There are, broadly, four types of questions you can include in scripts: Information entry. This kind of question prompts the analyst to type textual or numerical data, such as the customers name, in an edit field. Textual data is alphanumeric and can be either single-line or multi-line. When creating such a question, you can choose whether or not the data input by the analyst is to be placed into the Log Call form and, if so, into which edit field on that form. Single-item selection. This is a multiple-choice kind of question in which only one answer is allowed. The mechanism for selecting the answer can be a dropdown list, a set of horizontally arranged radio buttons, or a set of vertically arranged radio buttons. When creating such a question, you would normally link each radio-button choice with a subsequent question relating to that answer, thus allowing you to build entire troubleshooting sequences. Multi-item selection. This is a multiple-choice kind of question in which more than one answer is allowed. The mechanism for selecting the answers can be a tabular list, a set of horizontally arranged checkboxes, or a set of vertically arranged checkboxes. Multi-item answers cannot be processed by the system in any way, so they would be used primarily as checklists just for the benefit of the analyst. Announcements. These are simply statements, directed at the analyst, that do not need an answer (other than a button click to continue). Although you can have such statements anywhere in the script, they are most appropriate at the beginning of the script, and when defined as exit points at the ends of sequences. When creating a new question within a script, you can base it on a template containing the required typed-input format, a predefined multiple-choice set, or no answer mechanism at all. Alternatively, you could build all aspects of the question from scratch.
222
Operator Scripts
For an information-entry type of question, there are templates available that offer all three of the possible typed-input formats: Single-line text input Multi-line text input Numeric input For single-item selection, the predefined multiple-choice sets available per selection mechanism are as follows: Yes/No Yes/No/Dont Know True/False Rating (Very Poor to Excellent) Rating (1 to 5)
For multi-item selection, the predefined multiple-choice sets are: 2 choice items 3 choice items 4 choice items 5 choice items
For announcements, you can choose from the following predefined texts: Wizard introduction Wizard completion
223
Operator Scripts
the analyst to proceed with the troubleshooting. The next few pages could contain prompts inviting the analyst to enter information required for the call, such as a customer or asset identifier. For example:
The subsequent pages would display a series of branched questions designed to determine the precise cause of the problem, and to suggest an appropriate fix, by a logical process of elimination. A typical troubleshooting question might be as follows:
Each line of questioning would end with a specific fix suggestion and an invitation to specify whether or not this actually resolved the problem. A positive answer would display the final page of the wizard, indicating its completion. A negative answer would display the first page of the next line of questioning. Once all the lines of questioning have been exhausted, a negative answer would yield an alternative final page, indicating that resolution of this
224
Operator Scripts
problem is outside the scope of the wizard. In both types of final page, the Next button would be replaced by a Finish button, allowing the analyst to terminate the wizard. At any point during the troubleshooting process, the analyst can backtrack through the path by means of the Back button, or can exit from the wizard by clicking Cancel. When the wizard finishes, it would (by default) automatically place a record of the troubleshooting questions asked and the analysts answers into the problemdescription field of the Log Call form, and it would also place any call information entered by the analyst into the appropriate fields of the form. The analyst would then complete the remainder of the form as necessary and log the call as usual.
You can access all these functions from the dialogue box that is displayed when you select Manage Operator Scripts from the Administration menu. On a newly installed system, this dialogue box would be empty of content, as shown here:
225
Operator Scripts
Whenever you create a new operator script, its name would appear on this list. You would then be able to manage the script, as required, by selecting its entry on the list and clicking the relevant button. The management functions are described in the following subsections.
226
Operator Scripts
2. In the first field of the Attributes tab, enter an appropriate name for the script. This is the name by which you will be able to recognise the script, once created, on the list in the Manage Operator Scripts dialogue box and elsewhere in the client. 3. In the Script Title field, enter descriptive text that summarises the intended function of the script. The text will appear in the title bar of the troubleshooting wizard. 4. In the Default Data Field field, indicate the edit field on the Log Call form in which the sequence of questions and answers relating to the script are to be logged. This would normally be the problem-description field. You must specify the field in terms of its data binding, as given in the Form Designer. The data binding is an expression used to identify the database table and column with which a form field is associated. To determine the data binding for a field, click the Design Form Layout button on any instance of the relevant Log Call form, select the field concerned in the Layout area and observe the value of the Data Binding attribute in the Object Inspector area.
227
Operator Scripts
In general, any questions that have had a target data field (see below) incorrectly specified, or have not had one specified at all, will, along with their answers, always be placed automatically into the field identified by the Default Data Field attribute (assuming that this action has not been disabled). Note that specification of a Default Data Field attribute is mandatory. 5. Click the Questions tab.
This is where you will now start to build the questions for the script. The first question you might wish to create would probably be an introduction of some kind, to be displayed on the initial wizard page. The next question could be one that invites the analyst to enter data, and the ones after that could be various multiple-choice questions relating to the problem to be resolved. At the end of each line of questioning, you would need to have an announcement of successful completion. Finally, at the end of the script, if a failure to resolve has to be acknowledged, you would need to have an announcement to that effect. 6. To create a question, first click Add.
228
Operator Scripts
7. You have a choice of whether to base the required question on a specific template, or to build it from a blank starting point. If you know that a suitable template exists for the question/answer format you require, ensure that the first option is selected and then, under the relevant question type in the tree browser, find and select the template concerned. If, on the other hand, your question is to have completely customised answer choices, just select the second option. For the initial script question, you may wish to select the Wizard Introduction template under the Announcements question type. 8. Click OK to close the Add a Question dialogue box. Notice that an entry has been created for your new question in the browser list. When you select any question on this list, the information displayed in the Properties and Choices sub-tabs will relate to that question. 9. Select the new question and, in the Properties sub-tab, ensure that the required information is entered in, or selected by, the following fields and controls: Question Format This specifies the overall format of the question, indicating the mechanism by which it is to be answered, or whether it is to be purely an announcement. To Follow This is intended mainly for information-entry questions, multiitem selection questions and announcements. Your selection here determines
229
Operator Scripts
the question, if any, that is to be displayed (on a wizard page) immediately after this one. If you leave the setting as the generic default -----Next Question-----, the next question displayed on the wizard will literally be the question immediately below this one on the browser list. However, when you are creating a single-item selection question, the meaning of -----Next Question----- here changes to now indicate that the following question will depend on the analysts choice (see step 11 below). If you are creating a new question for a new script, you will not be able initially to specify the next question, as none will yet exist. However, once you have actually created the next question, if you come back to this one, you will find that you will now be able to make the required selection. For a single-item-selection kind of question, if you actually specify a particular following question here, this will prevail over any specified for an individual choice. If you are creating a question that is to be displayed (with a Finish button) on one of the final pages of the wizard, you must select the generic item -----End-----. Question Text This determines the text of the question. Target Data Field This can apply to any type of question that requires an answer but would normally be used just for information-entry question types. It specifies the edit field on the Log Call form into which the answer to the question is to be placed. Note that only the answer would go into the edit field. You specify the field in terms of its data binding, as given in the Form Designer. The data binding is an expression used to identify the database table and column with which a form field is associated. To determine the data binding for a field, click the Design Form Layout button on any instance of the relevant Log Call form, select the field concerned in the Layout area and observe the value of the Data Binding attribute in the Object Inspector area. Note that if you fail to specify a target data field for a question requiring an answer (or you specify it incorrectly), and you have not enabled the No output data option (see below), both the question and the answer will be placed by default into the edit field identified by the scripts Default Data Field attribute. Thus, if you want analysts troubleshooting sequences to be
230
Operator Scripts
recorded within calls, you should ensure that (a) the recording field on the form is specified by the contents of Default Data Field, (b) the target data field for each question remains unspecified, and (c) No output data remains unchecked for each question. Mandatory This option applies to any type of question that requires an answer. It must be enabled if you want to prevent the analyst from skipping past the question without giving an answer. No output data This option is applicable only when nothing is specified for the target data field (see above). The effect of this option, when enabled, is to prevent the question and its answer from appearing in the edit field specified by the scripts Default Data Field attribute. 10. If you are creating a multiple-choice question, click the Choices sub-tab.
11. The Choices sub-tab allows you to create and manage the answer choices available for a given multiple-choice question. All created choices would be displayed on the list. If the question is based on a template, the relevant
231
Operator Scripts
choices would appear here automatically. If it is not based on a template, you would have to create the required choices from scratch (see below). The management facility available for choices allows you to edit the choice text and to identify the next question in the troubleshooting sequence for each choice (once you have created the questions concerned). To access this facility for a given choice, first double-click the choice entry on the list. The following dialogue box is displayed:
In the Choice Text field, you can change the text if necessary. In the To Follow field, you can select the question that is to follow the answer expressed by this choice. Just as for the To Follow field in the Properties sub-tab, if you are creating a new question for a new script, you will not be able to specify the next question here until you have actually created it. As mentioned before, if you want a specific question to follow a specific choice, you must not only select that question here, but you must also ensure that the default setting -----Next Question----- is selected in the To Follow field in the Properties sub-tab. Click OK to close the dialogue box. You can also create any number of new choices for a question. To create a choice, click the Add button in the Choices sub-tab. A dialogue box similar to the above is displayed, allowing you to specify the choice text and the next message. Click OK to close the dialogue box, and notice that the new choice has been added to the list. 12. Repeat step 6 to step 11 for each further question you wish to add to your script. 13. At any time during the script-building process, you can use the relevant Move Up and Move Down buttons to reposition any selected question or choice entry within its respective list. You can also delete an entry from a list by means of the appropriate Remove button; on clicking either of these, you would be prompted to confirm your deletion request.
232
Operator Scripts
14. When you are ready to test your script, click Save and then click Preview. The wizard for this script is invoked, allowing you to see exactly how it would work for an analyst. If the wizard does not work in the way you would expect, keep making changes to the script until you are satisfied with the results. 15. Once the script is usable, you must assign it to the appropriate problem profile if you want the wizard to execute from the Log Call form. For details of how to assign a script, see Viewing and Modifying an Existing Call Profile on page 86.
233
Operator Scripts
To export the scripts, select their entries from the list in the Manage Operator Scripts dialogue box and click Export. A standard Save As dialogue box is displayed. Select the required target location for the file, enter an appropriate name for it and click Save. The dialogue box closes and the file is created and placed in the chosen location, triggering the display of a confirmation message box. Click OK to close the box.
234
Questionnaire Constituents
The questionnaire you would create for any given survey would consist largely of a series of questions relating to that survey, each presented in a format dependent on the type of question. Branching on multiple-choice questions
235
would be achieved by associating each possible answer with the appropriate question to follow. For questions that do not generate branches, the sequence is determined by simply indicating, within each questions properties, what the next question should be. Apart from actual questions, a questionnaire can also contain statements that do not require an answer, and those that act as headers for groups of subsidiary questions or statements. There are, broadly, four types of questions you can include in questionnaires: Information entry. This kind of question prompts the respondent to type textual or numerical data, such as their own name, in an edit field. Textual data is alphanumeric and can be single-line, multi-line or password. Password fields are the same as single-line text fields, except that the entered data is hidden by asterisks in the customary way. Single-item selection. This is a multiple-choice kind of question in which only one answer out of two or more alternatives is allowed. The mechanism for selecting the answer can be a drop-down list, a set of horizontally arranged radio buttons, or a set of vertically arranged radio buttons. When creating such a question, you would normally link each radio-button choice with a subsequent question relating to that answer, thus allowing you to branch the questionnaire at appropriate points. Multi-item selection. This is a multiple-choice kind of question in which more than one answer is allowed. The mechanism for selecting the answers can be a tabular list, a set of horizontally arranged checkboxes, or a set of vertically arranged checkboxes. Multi-item answers will not alter the flow of questions within the questionnaire. Announcements. These are simply statements, directed at the respondent, that do not need an answer (other than a link click to continue). Although you can have such statements anywhere in the questionnaire, they are perhaps most useful at the beginning of the questionnaire, and when defined as a questionnaire exit point at the end of each possible question sequence. All types of questions can be grouped together as subsidiary questions within a section, a structure that consists of a general statement as its header (known as a section header), with a set of individual questions below it. The contents of a given section will always be displayed together on the same page. Thus, if you
236
wanted to construct a single-page questionnaire, you would have to create a section and include all the questions within that. Any series of questions whose answer mechanisms are of the horizontally arranged radio-button or checkbox type, and which have a common set of answer choices, can be grouped together in a matrix, which is a tabular structure consisting of a general question or statement as its header (known as a matrix header), with a set of subsidiary questions below it. Typically, these subsidiary questions would qualify the main question (that is, the header) in some way, or divide it up into its constituents. When creating a new question within a questionnaire, you can base it on a template containing the required typed-input format, a predefined multiplechoice set, or no answer mechanism at all. Alternatively, you could build all aspects of the question from scratch. For an information-entry type of question, there are templates available that offer all four of the possible typed-input formats: Single-line text input Multi-line text input Password input Numeric input
For single-item selection, the predefined multiple-choice sets available per selection mechanism are as follows: Yes/No Yes/No/Dont Know True/False Rating (Very Poor to Excellent) Rating (1 to 5)
For multi-item selection, the predefined multiple-choice sets are: 2 choice items 3 choice items 4 choice items 5 choice items
237
For announcements, you can choose from the following predefined texts: Survey introduction Survey completion (not normally needed, as a standard, fixed-text completion announcement will always be generated at the end of a survey) For every question you create, of a type that requires an answer, you can choose whether or not it is to be included in the survey reports.
Questionnaire Usage
Whenever a support analyst, during the process of resolving or closing a customers call, enables the Send customer survey option, then selects a named survey from the adjacent fields drop-down list, and finally clicks Resolve Call or Close Call, an e-mail message is sent to that customer inviting them to take part in the survey. When the customer clicks the URL link provided in the message, their Web browser opens, displaying the first (or only) page of the relevant questionnaire. On any given page, the respondent would see one or more questions, followed by a Continue link at the bottom. They would be expected to answer the question(s) on that page and then click Continue. Typically, the first question might be a brief introduction to the survey, and would invite the respondent to proceed. The subsequent pages would display a series of questions designed to elicit the respondents opinion on your support teams performance, or perhaps about some other issue. A typical multiple-choice question using vertically arranged radio buttons might be as follows:
238
For certain questions with alternative answer choices, a different line of questioning may open up for each possible answer that the respondent can give. Otherwise, without such branching, the main line of questioning, which would always be the same for all respondents, is maintained. The survey would terminate at the end of a particular line (or the only line) of questioning with the display of a separate, standard page announcing the successful completion of the survey. At any point during the questionnaire-completion process, the respondent can backtrack through the question sequence by means of the browsers Back button. This is possible because the answers are not stored for reporting until the respondent has clicked Continue on one of the possible final-question pages (or the only question page) of the questionnaire. Note that a customer can be invited to take part more than once in the same survey. Therefore, if repeat invitations are to be avoided in relation to a given call, analysts must be careful not to select, on call closure, a survey that has already been selected at call resolution.
239
You can access all these functions from the dialogue box that is displayed when you select Manage Customer Surveys from the Administration menu. On a newly installed system, this dialogue box would be empty of content, as shown here:
240
Whenever you create a new customer survey, its name would appear on this list. Against each name, you would be able to see an indication of the surveys creation date. Once support analysts have started using, on call resolution or closure, the mechanism for sending out invitations to take part in that survey, the number of such invitations that have been sent out so far is also shown. Equally, once customers have, in response to those invitations, started completing the questionnaires relating to that survey, the number of questionnaire submissions that have been received so far is shown as well. This is followed by an indication of the response rate, which is the calculated ratio of submissions received to invitations sent, expressed as a percentage. Once a survey is on the list, you would be able to manage its content, as required, by selecting its entry and clicking the relevant button. The management functions are described in the following subsections.
241
2. In the first field of the Attributes tab, enter an appropriate name for the survey. This is the name by which you will be able to recognise the survey, once created, on the list in the Customer Survey Manager dialogue box and elsewhere in the client. 3. The URL field should contain the base URL (that is, minus the PHP queries) of the dynamic Web page that will display all the surveys. Carefully edit this field so as to replace the string <insert server name here> with the name of the computer on which your Supportworks Web server is installed. Do not change anything else in the given URL. 4. Notice that the Creation Date field is a read-only field provided for your information, and contains the current date. 5. In the Survey Invitation E-Mail area, check the default contents of the three fields to see whether they match your requirements for this survey, and change them where necessary. This set of fields constitutes the template for
242
the e-mail messages that will be sent to customers inviting them to take part in the survey. The first field contains the originating mailbox, the second contains the subject line, and the third contains the text for the body of the message. In the subject and body-text fields, you can, if you wish, type the following variables: $analyst_name! to represent the name of the analyst resolving or closing the call $callref! to represent the relevant call reference In the transmitted messages themselves, the full URL link to the Web page displaying the survey would be located below the body text defined in the template. If either or both of the above variables had been found in the template, these would be resolved to their current string values in the actual messages. 6. Click the Questions tab.
243
This is where you will now start to build the questionnaire for the survey. The first question you might wish to create would probably be an introduction of some kind, to be displayed on the initial survey page. Alternatively, for a single-page questionnaire, the introduction would normally be in the section header. If the survey is to contain answerdependent question sequences, you will have to create all the required sequences, each starting with a single-item-selection type of question. For survey termination, it is not necessary to create any announcement to that effect, as a standard one will always be generated. 7. To create a question, first click Add.
8. You have a choice of whether to base the required question on a specific template, or to build it from a blank starting point. If you know that a suitable template exists for the question/answer format you require, ensure that the first option is selected and then, under the relevant question type in the tree browser, find and select the template concerned. If, on the other hand, your question is to have completely customised answer choices, just select the second option. For the initial survey question (on a multi-page questionnaire), you may wish to select the Survey Introduction template under the Announcements question type.
244
9. Click OK to close the Add a Question dialogue box. Notice that an entry has been created for your new question in the browser list. When you select any question on this list, the information displayed in the Properties and Choices sub-tabs will relate to that question. 10. Select the new question and, in the Properties sub-tab, ensure that the required information is entered in, or selected by, the following fields and controls: Question Format This specifies the overall format of the question, indicating the mechanism by which it is to be answered, or whether it is to be purely an announcement or header of some kind. A section header or a matrix header, if selected, would display an Add button next to this field, allowing you to create subsidiary questions. See the subsections entitled How to Create a Section on page 248 and How to Create a Matrix on page 249 for further details. To Follow Your selection in this field determines the question, if any, that is to be displayed (on a survey page) immediately after this one. If you leave the setting as the generic default -----Next Question-----, the next question displayed on the survey page will literally be the question immediately below this one on the browser list. However, when you are creating a singleitem selection question, the meaning of -----Next Question----- here changes to now indicate that the following question will depend on the respondents choice (see step 12 below). If you are creating a new question for a new survey, you will not be able initially to specify a particular following question, as none will yet exist. However, once you have actually created the next question, if you come back to this one, you will find that you will now be able to make the required selection. For a single-item-selection kind of question, if you actually specify a particular following question here, this will prevail over any specified for an individual choice. If you are creating a question that will be the last one in the survey before the standard completion announcement, you must select the generic item -----End----- in this field. Question Text This constitutes the text of the question.
245
Mandatory This option applies to any type of question that requires an answer. It must be enabled if you want to prevent the respondent from submitting the page containing that question without having given an answer to the question. No output data The effect of this option, when enabled, is to prevent the question and its answer from appearing in the survey data. It would normally be used in a single-item-selection kind of question whose possible answers are, in themselves, of no interest, serving merely to open up alternative lines of questioning based on relevance. A typical example, say, in a construction firm would be a job-function question for which the possible answer choices are Architect and Builder, with the subsequent questions reflecting the different types of equipment they respectively use. 11. If you are creating a multiple-choice question, click the Choices sub-tab.
246
12. The Choices sub-tab allows you to create and manage the answer choices available for a given multiple-choice question. All created choices would be displayed on the list. If the question is based on a template, the relevant choices would appear here automatically. If it is not based on a template, you would have to create the required choices from scratch (see below). The management facility available for choices allows you to edit the choice text and to identify the next question in the sequence for each choice (once you have created the questions concerned). To access this facility for a given choice, first double-click the choice entry on the list. The following dialogue box is displayed:
In the Choice Text field, you can change the text if necessary. In the To Follow field, you can select the question that is to follow the answer expressed by this choice. Just as for the To Follow field in the Properties sub-tab, if you are creating a new question for a new survey, you will not be able to specify the next question until you have actually created it. As mentioned before, if you want a specific question to follow a specific choice, you must not only select that question here, but you must also ensure that the default setting -----Next Question----- is selected in the To Follow field in the Properties sub-tab. Click OK to close the dialogue box. You can also create any number of new choices for a question. To create a choice, click the Add button in the Choices sub-tab. A dialogue box similar to the above is displayed, allowing you to specify the choice text and the next message. Click OK to close the dialogue box, and notice that the new choice has been added to the list. 13. Repeat step 8 to step 12 for each further question you wish to add to your questionnaire. 14. At any time during the questionnaire-building process, you can use the relevant Move Up and Move Down buttons to reposition any selected
247
question or choice entry within its respective list. You can also delete an entry from a list by means of the appropriate Remove button; on clicking either of these, you would be prompted to confirm your deletion request. 15. When you are ready to test your questionnaire, click Save and then click Preview. Your Web browser opens on the first survey page, allowing you to work through the questionnaire exactly the way a respondent would, but without any reportable data being saved. If the questionnaire does not work in the way you would expect, keep making changes to it until you are satisfied with the results. Note that, in preview mode, when you submit a terminating survey page, the survey-completion message will be prefixed with an indication that you are in that mode. 16. Once the questionnaire is usable, click Close and then OK. 17. When you are ready to launch your new survey campaign, remember to inform all relevant support analysts that the survey is available, so that they can start selecting it whenever they resolve or close a call. You will then have to wait for your customers to respond to the survey invitations.
248
4. If the section is to be on the last or only page of the questionnaire (before the standard survey-completion announcement), select -----End----- in the To Follow field. Otherwise, select a specific question or retain the generic -----Next Question----- setting, as required. In the case of a specific question, you may need to come back to this field later and make the selection if the question does not yet exist. 5. In the Question Text field, type the text you require for the section header. 6. With the section header highlighted, click the Add button next to the Question Format field. A subsidiary question entry appears as a child item beneath the section-header entry in the browser list. 7. With the subsidiary question highlighted, set its properties and, if appropriate, its answer choices in much the same way as for non-headed questions. Note, however, that, for a subsidiary question, branching is not allowed (whether answer-dependent or otherwise). Therefore, its following question will always be the next subsidiary question (if any) within the section. 8. Repeat the last two steps for each additional subsidiary question you wish to create. You now have a new section in your questionnaire.
249
2. Select the Add a blank question option and click OK. Notice that a new question entry has been created in the browser list. 3. With that entry still highlighted, and the Properties sub-tab displayed, select Matrix Header in the Question Format field. Notice that an Add button has appeared, instead of the Mandatory option, next to this field. 4. If the matrix is to be on the last page of the questionnaire (before the standard survey-completion announcement), select -----End----- in the To Follow field. Otherwise, select a specific question or retain the generic -----Next Question----- setting, as required. In the case of a specific question, you may need to come back to this field later and make the selection if the question does not yet exist. 5. In the Question Text field, type the text you require for the matrix header. 6. Select the Choices sub-tab and use the Add button in that area to create each of the required answer choices for the matrix. This one set of choices will apply to all the subsidiary questions within the matrix. Note that it is not possible to define a following question for any matrix answer choice. 7. Return to the Properties sub-tab and, with the matrix header highlighted, click the Add button next to the Question Format field. A subsidiary question entry appears as a child item beneath the matrix-header entry in the browser list. 8. With the subsidiary question highlighted, set its properties in much the same way as for non-headed questions. Note, however, that, for a subsidiary question, branching is not allowed, which means that its following question will always be the next subsidiary question (if any) within the matrix. Note also that a subsidiary matrix questions answer choices will be those defined in the header (see step 6 above). 9. Repeat the last two steps for each additional subsidiary question you wish to create. You now have a new matrix in your questionnaire.
250
will obtain a warning message if you try to make changes to the survey, unless you first reset that campaigns data, as described in Resetting the Data Gathered from Survey Campaigns on page 258. Until you have reset the data, the surveys attributes and contents, although still viewable, will be read-only. To modify (or just view) a customer survey, select its entry from the list in the Customer Survey Manager dialogue box and click Edit (or just double-click the entry). The Survey Properties dialogue box, which is effectively the same as the Create a New Survey dialogue box, is displayed, giving you access to all the attributes and contents of the survey concerned. See the section Creating a Customer Survey on page 241 for information on what is available in this dialogue box.
251
Textual Report This displays, in textual form, for each multiple-choice question in turn, the number of respondents that have given each of the possible answers. Comment Report This displays, for each text-entry question in turn, the answer/comment given by each respondent. From here, you can display, in the same format as the Full Report, the submitted answers to all the questions that a chosen respondent was asked. Note that any question having No output data set in its properties will have itself and its given answers excluded from the above reports, both in the detailed sense and in the statistical sense.
252
The Full Report is laid out as a number of framed sections displayed below each other, where each individual frame relates to a specific respondent, containing all the questions that the respondent was asked, together with the answers given. 3. If you wish to view any of the other available reports for this survey, click the appropriate link at the top of the page. Each report provides a different analytical perspective of the question/answer data collected from the survey
253
respondents. A number of possible analytical scenarios are suggested in the following subsections.
Then, you can click any of the customer ID links to display a version of the Full Report showing the survey data purely for that respondent.
254
answers, you should click either the Graphical Report link or the Textual Report link. The former action displays a chart-based report, while the latter displays its textual equivalent. A typical Graphical Report might be as follows:
Notice that an ancillary textual version of the data for each question is displayed in the small box to the right of the chart. Whereas the charts themselves do not explicitly show answers that have not been chosen at all by any of the respondents, the small boxes are useful in that they do actually display such nulls.
255
As the charts in a Graphical Report are generated using the same mechanism as those in a normal Supportworks system report, the same facilities for modifying their visual characteristics are available. See Modifying System Report Chart Characteristics on page 169 for details. A typical example of a Textual Report (using the same data as the Graphical Report above) would be as follows:
Notice that this report shows the same information as the Graphical Report, but without any of the charts.
256
257
While you are looking at a particular respondents answer to a question, you may wish to quickly refer to that respondents answers to the multiple-choice questions in the same survey. If that is the case, all you need to do is click the relevant customer ID link, and a version of the Full Report will be displayed, showing the survey data for that respondent. You can then click Back to return to the Comment Report.
258
The data exported to XML files will consist purely of the survey attributes and questions. Respondent data gathered from the survey campaign will not be included in the export.
259
260
261
There are five Auto Responder commands that the system recognises by default, and these are as follows:
? logcall This command will automatically log a call on the system. The body of the message will be treated just like the text in the problem-description field of a Log Call form. The class, assign group, SLA and problem profile for the call will assume the defaults configured for this command (in the Log New Call rule). The status of the call will be Unassigned. The ability of a customer to use this command is governed by an option you can set in the Control tab of Customer Properties. ? updatecall Fnnnnnnn This command will automatically update the specified
call (which must relate to the customer concerned). The body of the message will be treated just like the text in the action-description field of an Update Call form. The ability of a customer to use this command is governed by another option you can set in the Control tab of Customer Properties.
? callstatus Fnnnnnnn This command will generate a mailback report containing the publicly enabled contents of the call diary for the specified call (which must relate to the customer concerned). The call is identified by the argument Fnnnnnnn, which is the call reference number. The leading zeroes in the call reference number may be omitted. The ability of a customer to use this command is governed by yet another option you can set in the Control tab of Customer Properties. ? opencalls This command will generate a mailback report containing a list of
the customers SelfService password. Your Supportworks system may have been configured with additional Auto Responder commands, and/or perhaps the default commands may have been renamed, in accordance with your organisations requirements. For example, there may be variants of a command that respectively generate differently worded sets of responses (perhaps in different languages), depending on the mailbox to which a message containing that command is addressed. You can see which commands are valid on your system by reference to the E-Mail Auto Responder tab in the Supportworks server configuration.
262
Note that Auto Responder e-mail commands are not case-sensitive, and that (in the case of the default commands) a space is always required after the ? character. Note also that e-mail messages containing valid Auto Responder commands are always intercepted by the system before they have a chance to reach the intended mailbox, and they would therefore never be visible in the shared mail view.
263
Each Supportworks shared mailbox has its own set of such response templates, which means that the response to a command message sent to one mailbox may be completely different to the response to the same command message sent to another.
264
where a range of self-service facilities are made available to them. Some of these facilities are of a similar nature to what is available to your customers via e-mail. SelfService is able to support multiple instances of the Web-access service, allowing you to create and separately configure services with different parameters and different displayed text. This would be useful, for example, in a large organisation with support teams in several countries, where there may be a requirement to display the Web pages in a variety of languages. In order to implement multiple Web services, you will need to have purchased the requisite number of licences one for each SelfService instance. When one of your customers logs into a service instance on the SelfService Web server, they are typically presented with a welcome page that includes (for an internal customer) a list of any outstanding issues that are currently being dealt with, and also a set of appropriate links. From that home page, they can click on a link to respectively read the issue details, look at their calls and update them, log a new call, or search the KnowledgeBase for information relating to their particular problem. On a Supportworks ITSM system, the issues listed would relate to service availability and network problems. Assuming you have already installed the Supportworks server, you will find, if your system is suitably licensed, that SelfService is fully set up and ready to try out. Depending on your arrangements with Hornbill, the individual service instances you require may already have been created and configured from the template supplied. SelfService HTTP access is handled by the Apache Web server that is part of Hornbill Core Services, and each service instance can therefore be linked to your website. From the Supportworks client, on the management form that allows you to update customer records, you can control the precise degree of call-related access on an individual-customer basis (just as for the Auto Responder). On the same form, for internal customers logging into SelfService, you can choose the means of authentication, which may be any of those used by analysts to log into the system via the client. You specify this in the customers password field on that form. Please see the template-specific Administrator Guide for a description of the customer form. All SelfService facilities are available, on the ready-configured default service instance, immediately after installation of Supportworks, assuming that at least
265
one such instance of SelfService is included in your systems licence. However, before you go ahead and publicise the URL of the SelfService Web server, you should first test the default service instance from the customers perspective, then tailor the Web pages that customers will see in accordance with the identity and requirements of your helpdesk, as well as suitably configure the default parameters that are to apply to customers self-logged calls. If you wish to offer more than one Web service, you must create them and repeat the configuration process for each of those instances. See the following subsections to find out how to perform all these actions. A technical account of how SelfService works is given in Appendix E: How SelfService Works on page 323.
266
1. From the Administration menu, select Manage SelfService Configurations. The Customer Web Access Services dialogue box is displayed.
2. In the displayed list, double-click the relevant service (or highlight it and click Properties). The Customer Web Access Service Properties dialogue box is displayed.
267
3. At the top of the Settings tab, adjust either of the following basic service parameters: Service Name This is the name of the SelfService instance that you are configuring. It must correspond with the name of the folder in which the files belonging to this instance reside. Session Timeout This specifies the maximum amount of time a customer will be allowed to remain logged into this instance of SelfService while being inactive. 4. In the Website Settings area of the Settings tab, adjust any of the following parameters:
268
Data Dictionary In Supportworks, a data dictionary is a customisation repository that holds a given set of field/column display names, drop-down list item names, and so on, that the application can use. Although these names normally apply to the client, some of them may also be used on the SelfService pages. You can specify which particular name set is to be used on those pages by selecting the appropriate data dictionary here. Site/Company Name This specifies the text that will appear in the header of each Web page for this SelfService instance, on the right (and also within the contact information on the Help page). The name of your organisation and/or helpdesk would normally be appropriate here. Telephone Number This specifies your helpdesks telephone number as it is to appear within the contact information on the Help page. Fax Number This specifies your helpdesks fax number as it is to appear within the contact information on the Help page. URL This specifies your helpdesks Web address as it is to appear within the contact information on the Help page. E-mail This specifies your helpdesks e-mail address as it is to appear within the contact information on the Help page. 5. In the Log Call Settings area of the Settings tab, adjust any of the following parameters: Call Class This determines the class of every call that will be logged via this SelfService instance. It therefore identifies the specific call forms (and possibly the call-action forms) that are to be displayed by the system when analysts properly log, examine or progress such calls using the Supportworks client. Assign Group This specifies the analyst group to which all calls logged via this SelfService instance will be initially assigned. Assign Analyst This specifies the analyst to which all calls logged via this SelfService instance will be initially assigned. Specification of an analyst is optional. You can only specify an analyst who belongs to the group you have specified. SLA This determines the SLA for every call that will be logged via this SelfService instance.
269
Profile Levels This specifies the maximum depth down to which SelfService users will be able to select a problem profile on the call-logging page. Status This determines the status that every call logged via this SelfService instance will initially assume. If you select Incoming, the call status, as displayed in a call list, will literally be Incoming. This means that such calls will still need to be internally logged by analysts before they can be progressed further. If you select Logged and you did not specify an analyst for assignment, the call status will be Unassigned. If you select Logged and you did specify an analyst for assignment, the call status will be Unaccepted. Selecting Logged for the status means that the calls will already be internally logged when they enter the system, and will need no further logging by analysts. 6. In the Other Settings area of the Settings tab, adjust any of the following parameters: Greeting This specifies the form of welcome greeting to be used at the top of the SelfService home page. You can select either a first-name or full-name greeting. Shared Mailbox This specifies the shared mailbox from whose address the e-mail messages informing customers of their forgotten passwords are to be sent. Show Hot/Known Issues If this option is enabled, issues marked as being publicly viewable will be displayed in the Noticeboard section of the SelfService home page. The customer will see these as a summary list of items, where the full details of each item can be displayed by means of a mouse-click. Note that this setting is only used on Supportworks applications that support Hot and Known Issues. Enable KnowledgeBase If this option is enabled, customers will be allowed to search the KnowledgeBase from the SelfService pages. Force KnowledgeBase Search If this option is enabled, the customer, when attempting to log a call, will first be diverted to a KnowledgeBase search page. This gives them a chance to possibly find the answer to their problem on their own, and thereby further reduce your support teams workload. 7. If you want to change the database table that the system uses to look up information on customers logging into the service, you will need to adjust
270
the parameters in the Access Control area of the Settings tab. First select the required table (which is userdb by default) from the drop-down list of the Table field, and then select the columns in this table that contain the information to be referenced (that is, the customer IDs, first names, last names, e-mail addresses, passwords and SelfService access rights). The relevant columns for userdb are as follows: Customer ID: keysearch First Name: firstname Last Name: surname E-mail: email Password: password Rights: webflag 8. When you have finished configuring the Settings tab, click Apply. 9. If you have finished configuring the service, click OK.
271
3. Ensure that the correct time zone is selected. This must be the time zone of the region in which your customers are located. 4. If you want the displayed date/time format to conform to that normally associated with the customers region, ensure that the appropriate language/ country is selected in the Predefined Formats field. Alternatively, if you wish to define a non-standard date/time format, select [Custom Settings] in that field. 5. If you have selected [Custom Settings] in the Predefined Formats field, edit the contents of the Date/Time Format field to precisely define the format you want. When you define such a custom format, there are a number of coded elements you can use, and they are the same as those that apply to a similar
272
field in the Regional Settings tab of the analyst-properties dialogue box, as described in Adding a New Support Analyst on page 101. 6. When you have finished configuring the International Settings tab, click Apply. 7. If you have finished configuring the service, click OK.
273
3. If you wish to modify the text appearing at the top of the page that lists the customers calls, click the Call List Paragraphs tab and edit either or both of the two paragraphs shown. (Note that this text is not used in the Supportworks ITSM application.)
274
275
The meanings of all the elements are exactly the same as their equivalents in the analyst Properties. However, you should understand that, in relation to a real analyst using the native client, some of these privileges are implemented clientside and alter the actual behaviour of the client. For example, if you revoke the Can update calls right for an analyst, the Update Call function is disabled (greyed out) everywhere it appears in the user interface. In addition to the client implementing analyst rights in this way, the Supportworks server itself checks the rights before processing any transaction. In relation to SelfService usage, the behavioural control of the interface is done via the access options in the customer record, since it is customer interaction we are controlling. However, when the customer performs an action that causes a server transaction or other action to be invoked, the server will check the SelfService (analyst) security context rights for that instance, as set in the
276
System Privileges tab of Customer Web Access Service Properties, to determine whether or not the action is allowed. You should be aware that, currently, the server checks rights only in the following categories out of the total available on the tab: Call Management Rights A Call Management Rights B Database Management Rights against the Open/Closed Call and Customer tables Thus, all rights settings other than the above will have no effect on SelfService. The reason why the rights nevertheless remain listed in their entirety is because, as functionality is developed further, as additional rights are added and as serverside checking of security rights is further refined, SelfService functionality will not inadvertently be disabled.
277
3. Decide on a name for the new SelfService instance you wish to create, and enter it in the Name field. Note that the name must be in lower-case. 4. Ensure that the required Create option is selected, depending on whether you wish to base the new instance on a previously created one or on the installation-default one. 5. Click OK, and notice that a new entry appears on the list in the Customer Web Access Services dialogue box. 6. Configure the new instance by the usual method, as described in the initial subsections of Managing SelfService Configurations. The new, fully configured, Web service is now available for your customers to access.
278
where <local server name> would be the intra-domain name of the computer on which the Supportworks Web-server environment is installed, <global server name> would be the fully qualified DNS name of that computer, and <service name> would be the name of the SelfService instance concerned.
279
280
281
allow multiple native-client login sessions per analyst to exist simultaneously, while using up only a single licence.) Note that a given named licence will apply only to the analyst nominated to use it, which means that the total number of possible named users will be strictly limited to the number of named licences you have purchased. If (on a non-Essentials system) you have purchased named licences, and you wish to take advantage of these, you will need to nominate the analysts who are going to use them. The requisite procedure is given in the next section. As far as licensing is concerned (again, on a non-Essentials system), the Supportworks server treats all Web-browser interface login sessions in exactly the same way, whether they are Analyst Portal or PDA Web Client sessions. Thus, a given named licence would apply to either of these kinds of login session. Note Concurrent licences are assigned to client sessions from a pool. When you log out of a session that was assigned a licence from that pool, the licence is immediately returned back to the pool ready for use by another analyst logging into the system. In other words, the licence is not freed up until you have logged out of your session. Whenever you finish using the system via the Web in particular, it is all too easy to forget to log out. Merely closing the Web browser will leave the licence assigned to that session for four hours. On a Supportworks Essentials system, the system allocates the named licences automatically. This happens whenever an analyst record is created.
282
analysts who are expecting to use any of the Web-browser interfaces. The procedure is as follows: 1. From the Administration menu in the main native-client window, select Manage Analyst Web Access.
2. In the Manage Web Client Access dialogue box, click Add. 3. In the tree-browser window that appears, double-click an analyst you wish to nominate as a named-licence user (or select the analyst and click OK). Notice that an entry relating to the analyst appears in the Manage Web Client Access list. 4. If you wish to nominate further analysts, just repeat the above two steps the requisite number of times. 5. Click Close. If, at some future time, you wish to remove an analyst from the named-licence user list, you should redisplay the Manage Web Client Access dialogue box, select that analyst and click Remove.
283
284
System Privileges
The permissions you can manage in this tab relate to a number of different aspects of general system functionality that the analyst concerned may or may not be allowed to access. They are displayed under the following categories: Call Management Rights A Call Management Rights B System Management Rights
285
Desktop Workspace Rights Data Dictionary Rights Global SQL Database Rights Database Management Rights
Also, there some permission-related settings displayed at the bottom of the tab. They are as follows:
Functional Area Call assignment Usually Enabled For Admin, Man Admin, Man Man
Settings
Comments
Calls cannot be assigned to this analyst Max Assigned Calls (zero for no limit)
These settings are intended chiefly for management, or for those who are not regular users of Supportworks. This is a permission that will allow the analyst to record an earlier date/time for any call update they may perform. This date/ time cannot be earlier than that of the previous update to the call, or than that allowed by the setting below. If the above permission is enabled, this setting provides a maximum limit for the backdating.
Backdating updates
Man
286
Actual Permissions
Comments
Can assign/transfer calls to others Can log calls Can update calls Can update nonpending calls Can resolve calls
Can close calls Can cancel calls Can place calls on hold Can take calls off hold Can reactivate closed calls Can modify the status of calls
287
Actual Permissions
Usually Enabled For All Varies All Admin, Man Admin, Man Admin, Man Varies All All
Comments
Can attach files to calls Can remove files attached to calls Can read files attached to calls
Call modification
Can change calls SLA settings Can modify the problem profile of a call Can modify call diary items
Workflow
Can delete workflow elements Can create workflow elements in calls Can change work-item assignments in their group Can change work-item assignments in any group Can modify other workitem details in their group Can modify other workitem details in any group
...their group means the group to which the person making the change belongs.
Varies
All
...their group means the group to which the person making the change belongs.
Varies
288
Actual Permissions
Comments
See Appendix B: Context Rights on page 305 for the precise effects of all four combinations of these two rights.
Can switch context to another support group Scheduled calls Can create scheduled calls Can edit scheduled calls Can delete scheduled calls Quick-log calls
Actual Permissions
Comments
289
Actual Permissions
Comments
This allows the analyst to record an earlier (or later) date/time for any call they may log, assuming that the Log Call form contains the necessary field.
290
Actual Permissions
Can manage workflow templates Can manage skills Can manage call classes Can manage customer Web access Can manage analyst Web access Can manage operator scripts Can manage Remote Queries Can manage calendars Can manage VPME scripts
Can manage SLAs Can add SLAs to customer records Can modify SLAs Can delete SLAs
Generic codes
Can add generic codes to hardware records Can modify generic codes Can delete generic codes from hardware records
291
Actual Permissions
Usually Enabled For Admin, Man Admin, Man Admin, Man Admin, Man Admin, Man Admin, Man Admin, Man Varies
Can manage call profiles Can add problem/resolution call profiles Can modify problem/resolution call profiles Can delete problem/resolution call profiles
Can add items to the Global Address Book Can edit items in the Global Address Book Can delete items from the Global Address Book
KnowledgeBase
292
Actual Permissions
Comments
Can view/run reports Can create/rename/delete report folders Can create/edit reports Can delete reports Can import/export reports Can schedule reports
Custom searches
Can create/edit custom searches Can run custom searches Can delete custom searches
Can search for calls in free-text mode Can change personal outof-office status Can send pop-up messages to other analysts
293
Actual Permissions
Usually Enabled For All All All All All All Varies
Comments
Can use personal MultiClip items Can use group MultiClip items Can edit personal MultiClip items Can edit group MultiClip items
Shortcuts KnowledgeBase
Can edit keyboard shortcuts Can search/browse the KnowledgeBase Can add new KnowledgeBase documents Can submit external documents to the KnowledgeBase Can edit KnowledgeBase documents Can delete KnowledgeBase documents Can manage KnowledgeBase catalogues
Varies
Varies Varies
Admin
294
Actual Permissions
Comments
This refers to functions in the relevant tab of Options and Settings This applies only to the Regional Settings tab in Analyst Properties (and not to the settings in scheduled reports).
Regional settings
Admin
Data export
Admin
Permissions
Can create new data dictionaries Can edit the current data dictionary Can switch to other data dictionaries Can delete data dictionaries
295
Permissions
Can run SQL SELECT statements Can run SQL INSERT statements Can run SQL UPDATE statements Can run SQL DELETE statements Can run SQL DROP INDEX statements Can run SQL DROP TABLE statements Can run SQL ALTER statements Can run SQL TRUNCATE statements Can run SQL DESCRIBE statements Can run SQL BEGIN/COMMIT/ROLLBACK statements Can run SQL GRANT/REVOKE statements Can run SQL CREATE INDEX statements Can run SQL CREATE TABLE statements
296
permissions for any required table either singly or as the full set. To access the individual permissions for a given table, just expand that tables root permission.
Permissions Can browse records in the table Can view records in the table Can add new records to the table Can update existing records in the table Can delete records in the table Usually Enabled For Varies with table Varies with table Varies with table Varies with table Varies with table
E-mail Privileges
The permissions you can manage in this tab relate to the aspects of e-mail functionality that you may or may not want the analyst to use. Each mailbox has its own independent set of e-mail permissions associated with it, and each set is
297
identical. To access the permissions for a given mailbox, just select that mailbox in the left-hand pane.
Functional Area Messages in mail views Usually Enabled For Varies with mailbox
Actual Permissions
Comments
Can View Can Send Can Delete Can Move Can Edit Can Mark As Unread Can Flag/Unflag Can Add Attachments
298
Actual Permissions
Usually Enabled For Admin, Man Admin, Man Admin, Man All
Comments
Can Add Templates Can Edit Templates Can Delete Templates Can Use Templates
This allows the analyst to select a template when performing a call action, and hence potentially enable the generation of a merged e-mail notification to the customer. These refer to the address book associated with the selected mailbox. This kind of address book should not be confused with the Global Address Book, whose rights are set in System Privileges > System Management Rights. This allows the analyst to select existing quick-log calls. This allows creation and maintenance of quick-log calls.
Address book
Can View Addresses in the Address Book Can Add Addresses to the Address Book Can Edit Addresses in the Address Book Can Delete Addresses from the Address Book
Quick-log calls
All
299
Library Resources
These rights control access to the virtual folders displayed in the analysts My Library view and determine the specific management actions that the analyst can perform on each of them. Each virtual root folder has its own independent set of permissions associated with it, and each set is identical. To access the permissions for a given root folder, just select that folder in the upper pane.
Permissions Can change into this folder Can create sub-folders in this folder Can delete files in this folder Can download files in this folder Usually Enabled For This permission is now obsolete My Personal Library: All My Teams Library: All System Administration folders: Admin Comments
This allows the analyst to open/execute files in the folder concerned, and to copy files from the folder to a selected location. This allows the analyst to see the contents of the folder concerned. This allows the analyst to see the folder concerned.
Can list this folder in a DIR/ LS operation Can rename files in this folder Can upload files to this folder
This allows the analyst to copy files from a selected location to the folder concerned (Paste).
300
Default Settings
These settings determine the specific modes of functionality that the analyst will experience when using the system. Most of these default settings can be overridden manually by the analyst at the relevant points in the client interface as and when necessary. Therefore, for maximum convenience, the choice for each default setting should reflect the more frequently required functional mode.
Functional Area Problem-profile depth Actual Settings When logging calls the following profile detail is required Meaning This defines the minimum depth of problem profile that the analyst must select for a call. You can choose from one to eight levels, or none. This defines the minimum depth of resolution profile that the analyst must select for a call. You can choose from one to eight levels, or none. If enabled, these will make the relevant call actions public by default. This means that when customers are using SelfService to view their calls, they will be able to see the call-diary records of these actions, including all the descriptions. Note that the hold and resolve/close settings, which are more specific, will take precedence over the generic diary updates setting. The analyst will always be able to manually override any of these default settings when actually performing a call action.
Resolutionprofile depth
Call diary updates are public Call hold details are public Call resolve/close details are public
301
Actual Settings Send customer an e-mail when updating a call Send customer an e-mail when placing a call on hold Send customer an e-mail when closing a call Send customer an e-mail when logging a call
Meaning If enabled, these will allow, by default, the generation of a merged e-mail notification to the customer whenever the analyst performs one of the call actions concerned. The analyst will always be able to manually override the relevant default setting at the time of the action. If enabled, this will allow the analyst, on resolving or closing a call, to be prompted by default to add the call to the KnowledgeBase. The analyst will always be able to manually override this default setting at the time of the action. If enabled, this will allow any call being resolved or closed by the analyst to be set as chargeable by default. The analyst will always be able to manually override this default setting at the time of the action.
KnowledgeBase prompting
302
Meaning If enabled, this will cause a callacceptance form to be displayed whenever the analyst accepts a call. The form will allow the analyst to enter appropriate information destined for the call diary, and will also allow the analyst a choice of whether or not to mark this acceptance as the official SLA response. If disabled, this setting will cause the display of a small dialogue box that simply allows the analyst a choice of whether or not to mark this acceptance as the official SLA response. If enabled, this will select by default the option to transfer a chosen problem profiles problem description to the call form. The analyst will always be able to manually override this default setting when choosing the profile. If enabled, this will select by default the option to transfer a chosen resolution profiles resolution description to the Resolve/Close Call form. The analyst will always be able to manually override this default setting when choosing the profile.
Auto-insert default problem text from call profile when logging a call
Auto-insert default fix text from call profile when closing a call
303
Actual Settings Default choice will be Resolve Call when closing/ resolving calls
Meaning If enabled, this will set Resolve Call as the default action to be taken on resolving/closing a call. The analyst will always be able to override this default setting on the Resolve/Close Call form by selecting Close Call. If enabled, whenever the analyst logs a call from an e-mail message, this setting will cause a copy of the message header and body text to be added to the calls problem description. Both of these settings relate to the Send customer survey option on the Resolve/Close Call form. If enabled, the first of these will fix this option at the setting given by the second.
Dont allow the Send Survey option to be changed by the analyst Send Survey option on by default
304
Context Rights
Analyst on Group on Analyst on Group off Analyst off Group on Analyst off Group off
Note that Analyst on, for example, means that Can switch to another support analyst is enabled.
305
Context Rights
306
307
308
Variable $ISSUEREF! $Firstname! $Lastname! $email! $faxtel! $password! $Problemtext! $Description! $timespent! $Analyst_id! $Analyst_name! (or $Helpdeskrep!) $analyst_telephoneno! $TIME! $DATE!
Display Name Issue Reference Customer First Name Customer Last Name Customer E-Mail Customer Fax No Web Password Problem Text Update Text Update Time Spent Analyst ID Analyst Name Analyst Telephone Number Current Time Current Date
Meaning Reference number of issue (if any) associated with the call First name of notified customer Surname of notified customer Customers e-mail address Customers fax number Customers SelfService password Description of problem/request as logged Description of update or fix Amount of time (in minutes) spent on log or update action ID of current support analyst Name of current support analyst Telephone number of current support analyst Current time Current date
309
Each of the Auto Responder templates supports a specific set of allowed variables. These are listed in the respective subsections below.
310
311
Display Name Time Call Reference Customers ID Customers Full Name Customers Last Name Customers First Name Update Description
Meaning Actual time when this response was produced Call reference number ID of customer for whom the call was updated Full name of customer for whom the call was updated Surname of customer for whom the call was updated First name of customer for whom the call was updated Description of update
312
Display Name Customers ID Customers Full Name Customers Last Name Customers First Name Update Description
Meaning ID of customer who made the call-update attempt Full name of customer who made the call-update attempt Surname of customer who made the call-update attempt First name of customer who made the call-update attempt Description of attempted update
$Customer_ID!
Customers ID
$Customer_Name!
313
Variable $Customer_Lastname! $Customer_Firstname! $CALLREF! $OwnerName! $GroupName! $LogDate! $AcceptDate! $Priority! $Status! $Problem_Text!
Display Name Customers Last Name Customers First Name Call Reference Owner Support Group Log Date Accepted Date Current SLA Status Problem Description
Meaning Surname of customer for whom the call was logged First name of customer for whom the call was logged Call reference number Support analyst this call is currently owned by Support group this call is currently owned by Date this call was logged Date this call was accepted (responded to) SLA for this call Current status of this call Description of problem as originally reported
The additional variables shown below relate to the Call Event Diary section itself within the report. To accommodate a varying number of diary entries, a repeat block, delineated by special macro commands, is used. Substitution of the variables placed in between the delineators will be repeated once for every diary entry.
Variable $UPDATE_REPEAT_BEGIN! $Update_Time! Display Name --Diary Group Start-GROUP: Update Time Meaning Marks the start of the repeat block Date/time of this diary entry
314
Display Name GROUP: Update Description GROUP: Time Spent GROUP: Group ID
Meaning Call-action description for this diary entry Time spent on action for this diary entry ID of the support group that currently owns the call ID of the support analyst who currently owns the call SLA for the call at this time Marks the end of the repeat block
$Update_RepID!
GROUP: Analyst ID
$Update_Priority! $UPDATE_REPEAT_END!
Note, in the default template, how a blank line is used to separate the diary entries from each other.
315
Display Name Customers Full Name Customers Last Name Customers First Name
Meaning Full name of customer for whom the calls were logged Surname of customer for whom the calls were logged First name of customer for whom the call was logged
The additional variables shown below relate to the Current Open Calls list itself within the summary. To accommodate a varying number of Open Call entries, a repeat block, delineated by special macro commands, is used. Substitution of the variables placed in between the delineators will be repeated once for every Open Call entry.
Variable $CALL_REPEAT_BEGIN! $CALLREF! $Status! $Logged_On! $Priority! $Problem_Description! $Last_Update! $Current_Owner! Display Name --Call Group Start-GROUP: Call Reference Number GROUP: Call Status GROUP: Date Logged GROUP: Current SLA GROUP: Problem Description GROUP: Last Updated GROUP: Current Owner Meaning Marks the start of the repeat block Call reference number Call status Date/time call was logged Current SLA for this call Original problem description Last diary update on this call Current support analyst working on this call
316
Meaning Current support group working on this call Marks the end of the repeat block
Note, in the default template, how a blank line is used to separate the Open Call entries from each other.
317
318
Variable $Reason!
319
320
321
their calls, and would therefore be the number to enter in the field. In the latter case, although the submitted Called ID would certainly identify the customer, it is obvious that the number could not be regarded as contact details, or be used to auto-dial the customer. In such instances, two separate telephone-number fields would be available for completion on the form, one whose contents would match the Called ID, and the other whose contents would be a suitable dial-out number. When entering a telephone number in a form field, you can use any customary punctuation and spacing. If the helpdesk team is spread across different countries, you are strongly advised to use the full international format, which is as follows: +<country code><space><number> It is important to note that a space is required after the country code. Please also note that outgoing local or national calls will always be correctly dialled (and charged at the correct rate) even though you have specified an international number.
322
323
(a) The browser initiates an HTTP session, either by submitting the SelfService URL, or (subsequently) by invoking SelfService via a relevant call-related request. (b) The Web server passes the script file relating to the requested page to the PHP interpreter for execution. In the case of the login page, for instance, this file would be index.php. (c) As the script runs, it executes the PHP code while sending the HTML components to the Web browser. Any call-related information and editable text referenced via variables in the code is taken from the database and incorporated in the HTML stream. (d) The SelfService application ends the HTTP session, and is then ready to accept the next request.
324