This manual describes all configuration steps in the Requestor application. The functions described in this document are available only to the users with administrator rights. These functions are not available to other user roles.
The initial settings in the Requestor application allow you primarily to set the parameters of the provided service and to create user accounts. The following chapters describe each step of the initial settings. They also show how to change the settings once you start using the application.
The initial settings consist of:
1) Basic settings - allows you to set the time zone and the default language. See chapter 1.2.
2) Creation of a service catalog - the service catalog allows you to define specific services provided, to specify which customers are to have access to the services and to assign operators to the specific services. Each service can be set to have specific groups of clients, customers and operators, who solve individual tickets. See chapter 1.6.
3) Creation of operator groups - this step is optional. Operator groups make assigning of the services and tickets to the corresponding operators easier. The ticket is therefore assigned not only to a single operator, but to all members of the group. The ticket, which is assigned to an operator group, is accessible to all operators in the given group. See chapter 1.4.
4) Customers - this step is optional. This function provides you with additional means of defining the customers during the ticket processing. It also enables you to allocate end user accounts more effectively. For example, SLA can be individually defined for each customer. See chapter 1.5.
5) Creation of user accounts - you must create an account for every user of the application. User accounts comprise all types of application access rights: the administrator, the operator and the end user. See chapter 1.3.
6) SLA definition - allows you to set parameters of the SLA. Allows you to assign priority to each service and customer and to enter additional details about the standards of provided services. See chapter 1.7.
7) Customization of Forms - this step is optional. The application lets you expand the default request form with custom fields. Custom fields are used to gather additional information from the clients. See chapter 1.9.
8) Additional settings - this step is optional. Additional settings allow you, for example, to define service hours for each day of the
week, to customize e-mail notifications, or to adjust the appearance of the user portal. These settings are described in more detail in the chapters 1.8 - 1.13.
You can find basic settings of the application behavior and the appearance in the Administration section under the Global Application Settings option. Here you can set the default language and the time zone that is to be used by the application.
Note: Time zone settings determine which time will be set by default. You can set the time zone for new users by accepting their email in the system, or from the information posted in the customer portal. Time zone settings also determine the time axis in Reports. These settings, however, do not determine SLA time data. It is possible to set the time zones individually for each SLA.
To change the global settings:
1. Click on the Administration option and click on the Global Application Settings option.
2. In the Time Zone section, click on the drop-down menu and choose the time zone for the corresponding application.
3. By ticking the box in the Welcome Setup Page section you can enable the welcome setup page, so that it will be visible when an administrator or an operator logs in (in the case you have disabled it before).
4. Click on the Default Language drop-down menu to choose the default application language. This language will be used in e-mail notifications for users who have not chosen their language of choice in their profiles.
5. To confirm the changes click on the Save button.
Note: Logged-in users may customize the default application language via the drop-down menu in the right upper corner of the application window. Options that are set in the Global Settings are used only as default settings (i.e., when creating new accounts).
The Requestor application supports three user account types (or roles). They differ in the authorization levels and usage. You may create and use the following roles:
Users with Operator and End User roles cannot change the application settings. They may only adjust their user profiles and change their language settings.
Operator accounts can be arranged into Operator groups (see chapter 1.4) in order to make assignment of the services easier. User accounts of defined Customers can be arranged into groups as well.
In order to create a user account you have to log in with the account which has the role of the "administrator".
To create a new user account, you have to:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Users option.
2. The list of the existing user accounts will be shown. Click on the Register new user button.
3. On the New User Registration screen, enter the required information.
4. In the Profile section, enter the account holder's particulars. This is an optional step.
5. In the Roles section, choose the user role. This step is mandatory.
6. If you have already created an operator group or a customer group, the option to assign the user account to the group will appear according to the selected role. Assigning users to groups is optional. If you do not want to assign the newly created account to a group, select the --None-- option. Or you can select the relevant group from the menu:
7. And finally, enter the login information in the Application Access section (All fields are required):
· Save the login information for later use. The Requestor application does not send user names and passwords to new users.
8. To complete the new user account, click on the Register button.
9. The new user account is now created. Send the login information to the user.
The Manage all users screen shows the list of all user accounts. Arranging and filtering the accounts can make the search for that specific user easier.
The list contains the following information:
How to work with the list:
The existing accounts can be edited only by the administrator or the owner of the account. The account editing interface is different from the interface that is used for creating new accounts. Also, the user name cannot be edited.
To edit a user account:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Users option.
2. In the user list, find the user account that you wish to edit and then click on the Edit button in the Actions column.
3. The account editing screen will appear. You may edit the following options:
To change the application access:
1. Click on the Application Access option.
2. The account editing screen will appear.
3. The Main Account Data section allows you to change the default e-email address of a user:
· Change the value in the Email address field and click on the Save email button to confirm the changes.
4. The Membership of roles section allows you to edit the user login information:
· To grant the administrator rights to the user, you must select the Operator role first and then tick the Administrator box.
5. The Authentication section allows you to reactivate or temporarily deactivate a user account:
6. The Account Activity section shows the last activity of the user account (has only the informative value; it cannot be edited).
7. All changes are saved right after you click on the corresponding button. You can leave the screen when you are done with the changes.
To change a user's password:
1. Click on the Change user's password option.
2. The Change user's password screen will appear.
3. Enter a new password or use the Generate random button to automatically generate a random password.
4. To confirm the new password, click on the Change Password button.
To edit a user's profile:
1. Click on the User's profile option.
2. The edit profile screen will appear.
3. In the Personal info section, change or enter the user's personal information:
4. In the Information section, you can edit or enter additional information about the user. The following information is showed in the user's profile:
5. In the Time zone section, you can adjust the time zone from which the user logs in. This enables you to set the time settings for each user (i.e., different than default application settings).
6. To finish the changes, click on the Save button, to cancel the changes, click on the Back button.
To change a user's photo:
1. Click on the User's photo option.
2. The "Upload a new photo screen" will show.
3. Click on the Browse button next to the Path to a photo on your file system field.
4. The standard dialog for selecting files from a local drive will show.
5. Choose the required photo (in the JPG or PNG format) and confirm your selection by clicking the Open button.
6. Upload the chosen photo in the Requestor application by clicking the Upload button.
7. The change will be visible right after the successful upload.
To change the e-mail notifications:
1. Click on the Email notifications option.
2. The notification selection screen will appear. The range of options available differs according to the role assigned to a user.
3. To enable the specific notification, check the box in front of it. Uncheck the box to deactivate the notification. You will find the detailed description of the individual notifications in the chapter 1.11.4.
4. To confirm the changes, click on the Save button, to cancel the changes, click on the Back button.
Note: some of the essential notifications cannot be disabled. They are permanently enabled for all users.
If you delete the user account from the Requestor application, all login information of the user is deleted. Only the tickets that the user entered/managed stay in the system. If the user still has some unsolved tickets his/her account cannot be deleted.
Note: Once the account has been deleted, it cannot be restored. Be careful before deleting any accounts.
To delete a user account:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Users option.
2. In the user list, find the user account that you want to delete and then click on the Delete button in the Actions column.
3. The dialog "Confirm the account deletion" will show.
4. Click on the OK button to confirm the deletion of the account, or click on the Cancel button to cancel the operation.
To mass-assign operators to the individual services, create any number of Operator groups. After that, you can assign whole groups of operators to services and not just the individual operators. One operator can be a member of multiple groups.
An operator can be added to the group while his/her account is being created, or later at any time via settings of the specific group. During the operator's account creation, you can add the operator to a single group only. It is easier to use the second option, which is to assign the operator to a group via settings of that particular group.
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Manage Operator Groups option.
2. The list of the existing groups will appear. Click on the Create new button to create a new group.
3. Enter the Operator group's name (Name), this step is required and the name has to be unique within the application.
4. You can also specify the description in the Description field.
5. Confirm the input by clicking the Create button.
6. The newly created group will appear in the group list.
Operators can be added to the already created group while their accounts are being created, or they can be added via the setting of the particular operator group. In the first case, an operator can be added to a single operator group only. In the latter case, multiple operators can be added simultaneously. It is also possible to add one operator to multiple groups by using this method.
To edit to which group/groups is the operator added:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Manage Operator Groups option.
2. In the group list, find the group that you want to delete and click on the Edit button in the Actions column.
3. The group settings screen will appear.
4. In the Operator Group Users section, you can see two lists with the names of the operators:
· The Available Users list shows all users than can be added to the group.
· The Operator Group members list contains the operators, which are currently assigned to the group.
· You can search both lists for operators by entering the name into the Filter field. To remove a filter, click on the X button next to the relevant Filter field.
5. To add an operator to the group, click on the operator's name in the Available Users list and add the operator to the group by clicking the Add >> button.
6. To remove an operator from the group, click on the operator's name in the Operator Group Members list and remove the operator by clicking the << Remove button.
7. To finish the changes, click on the Save button , to cancel the changes, click on the Back button.
Note: Both lists allow you to select multiple operators at the same time by holding the Ctrl key and clicking on the names.
Note: If you want to create a new user directly on this screen, click on the Register New Operator Group User button. The dialog for creating a new user account with the preset operator group will show. All unsaved changes on the group settings screen will be canceled.
If you delete an operator group from the Requestor application, only that particular operator group is deleted. The accounts of the operators assigned to that group remain untouched, only their connections to the group are deleted (as well as the group itself).
Note: Once the group has been deleted, it cannot be restored. Be careful before deleting any groups.
To delete a group:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Manage Operator Group option.
2. In the group list, find the group that you wish to delete and click on the Edit button in the Actions column.
3. The dialog "Confirm the group deletion" will show.
4. Click on the OK button to confirm the deletion of the group, or click on the Cancel button to cancel
the operation.
To make the end-user account management and the SLA allocation process easier, you can create any number of Customers (Customers are analogous to Operator groups). A customer group also allows you to temporarily block access to the application for all end users who are assigned to the customer, so there is no need to deactivate the individual user accounts.
An end user can be added to the group while his/her account is being created, or later at any time via settings of the specific customer.
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Manage Customers option.
2. The list of the existing customers will appear. Click on the Create new button to create a new customer.
3. In the Customer section, enter:
4. Confirm the input by clicking the Create button.
5. The newly created Customer will appear in the customer list.
Customers can be added to the already created customer group while their accounts are being created, or they can be added via the setting of the particular operator group. The second option is described here.
To edit which user/users are assigned to a Customer:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Manage Customers option.
2. In the customer list, find the customer that you want to edit and click on the Edit button in the Actions column.
3. The edit customer screen will appear.
4. In the Customer Users section, you can see two lists with the names of the end users:
· The Available Users list shows all users than can be added to the group.
· The Customer Members list contains the users that are currently assigned to the Customer.
· You can search both lists for users by entering the name into the Filter field . To remove a filter, click on the X button next to the relevant Filter field.
5. To add an end user to the Customer, click on the user name in the Available Users list and assign the user to the Customer by clicking the Add >> button.
6. To remove an end user from the Customer, click on the user name in the Customers Members list and remove the user by clicking the << Remove button.
7. To finish the changes, click on the Save button, to cancel the changes, click on the Back button.
Note: Both lists allow you to select multiple users at the same time by holding the Ctrl key and clicking on the names.
Note: If you want to create a new user directly on this screen, click on the Register New User button. The dialog for creating a new user account with the preset Customer will show. All unsaved changes on the group settings screen will be canceled.
If you wish to temporarily stop providing services to a specific customer, you do not have to delete the customer from the application, you only need to set the customer as inactive. At any time, you can restore the customer's access without the need to create a new customer account and the related SLA definition.
To temporarily deactivate a customer:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Manage Customers option.
2. In the Customer list, find the customer that you want to delete and then click on the Edit option in the Actions column.
3. The customer settings dialog will show.
4. In the Customer section, check theDisable this Customer field.
5. Click on the Save button to confirm the changes, or click on the Cancel button to cancel the operation.
To re-enable a customer, uncheck the Disable this Customer box.
If you delete a Customer (that is, a group of accounts) from the Requestor application, only that particular Customer (group) is deleted. The accounts assigned to that group remain untouched, only their connections to the group are deleted (as well as the group itself).
Note: Once the customer has been deleted, he/she cannot be restored. Be careful before deleting any customers.
To delete a customer:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Manage Customers option.
2. In the Customer list, find the customer that you want to delete and then click on the Delete option in the Actions column.
3. The dialog "Confirm the customer deletion" will show.
4. Click on the OK button to confirm the deletion of the group, or click on the Cancel button to cancel
the operation.
Services represent the basic tool for sorting requests from customers and allocating them to operators. It is also used to determine the definition of the specific SLA. Individual services can be limited for selected customers or end users. You can also define operators responsible for processing the tickets within these services. In the Incident management, you can define two lines of operators to each service: the standard operators and the specialists. This allows you to filter the received requests and to use the specialists only in the more difficult scenarios (see chapter 1.6.1 for further information).
Services in the Requestor application represent logical groups that are defined in the SLA. These groups correspond with a specific field (HW/SW Support, User Support, Training etc.) and belong to operator groups. There is a manager (an operator) who is responsible for each group.
To create or edit a service:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Manage Service option.
2. The tree list containing the existing services will show. Click on the Create new Service button to create a new service; to edit the existing service, click on the Edit option in the Action column.
3. The service details screen will appear.
4. In the Basic settings section enter or edit the basic parameters of the service:
5. In the Customers section, you may limit the access to a service to the selected end users or customers. To limit the access to a service, check the Limited access option. The next settings will appear:
· To specify the access for the customer groups, click on the Add/Remove Customers button. The customer selection dialog will appear. Select the customer who is to have the access by checking the box. To restrict the access for the customer, uncheck the box. Confirm the changes by clicking the Select button.
· To add a user, click on the user name in the list on the left and add the user by clicking the Add >> button.
· To remove a user, click on the user name in the list on the right and remove the user by clicking the << Remove button.
· Confirm the changes by clicking the Select button.
6. In the Incident Management section, select the operators responsible for the incident solving in the scope of this service:
7. In the Request Fulfillment section, select the operators responsible for the service request resolution in the scope of this service:
8. in the Problem Management section select the operators responsible for the problem management in the scope of this service:
9. Confirm the newly created service by clicking on the Create button, if you made changes, click on the Save button; click on the Back button to cancel the changes.
If you want to temporarily deactivate a service, you do not have to delete it from the service catalog. You just have to tag it as deactivated. The deactivated service will not be available to customers but the tickets and their solutions that has already been entered stay in the application. If you re-enable the service, it will be available with all its settings.
To temporarily deactivate a service:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Manage Service option.
2. In the service list, find the service that you want to edit and click on the Edit option in the Actions column.
3. The service settings dialog will show.
4. In the Basic Settings, check the Disable submitting field.
5. Click on the Save button to confirm the changes, or click on the Cancel button to cancel the operation.
Each service, except for the root service, can be deleted. It is simple if the given service has no requests registered under it - you can simply delete it any time. However, if the service has some requests registered under it, these requests have to be properly closed first. Only then the service can be deleted. Archived tickets stay in the system.
To delete a service:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Manage Service Catalog option.
2. In the service tree list, find the service and click on the Delete option.
3. Confirm your decision to delete the service.
4. If the given service has not any requests registered under it, it will be deleted. Otherwise you will be informed about which requests registered under the service are still opened.
Note: Only the services which are at the end of the service tree can be deleted, so that the service hierarchy is not disrupted. If you want to delete a different service, you need to change the sorting of the services in the service tree first so that the service which you want to delete is at the end of the branch. You can change the service hierarchy by editing relevant nodes and by changing the Parent service option.
SLAs - Service Level Agreements - are the core functionality of the Requestor application. Tickets entered by the customers are distributed to the individual operators and groups on the basis of the SLAs. The SLAs also determine the solving time of the individual tickets. The behavior of the whole application is directed by these SLAs. Ticket solving time is the maximum time during which the ticket is being solved by the provider. The time it takes the customer to respond to the ticket is not included in the ticket resolution time.
In the Requestor application, you may define any number of SLAs and assign them to individual customers or end users. Each SLA may be defined for specific services. You may also set different maximal resolution times for each of the five priority levels. If you have an application with a defined SLA, you may fully customize the service agreements that you have with the individual customers.
Each SLA allows you to define:
The Requestor application allows you to define several SLA types. They differ in the degree of detailed settings available. From the SLA which is defined for the specific service and the specific customer to the universal Default SLA, which is used when there is no specific SLA available. After the application accepts the ticket, it verifies whether there is a specific SLA for the specific customer and/or service. The application then sets the ticket processing according to that specific SLA. The search for the most suitable SLA is directed by the following hierarchical structure:
1. The SLA defined for the specific customer and service,
2. The SLA defined for the specific customer,
3. The SLA defined for the specific service,
4. The Default SLA.
The application has the default SLA which is valid for all customers and services. This SLA cannot be deleted, it can be only modified. This SLA is used when the specific customer or service do not have its own SLA defined. When creating a new SLA, you have to select a customer and/or service, because the Requestor application will not allow you to create another default SLA.
To create a new SLA or to edit the already existing one:
1. Go to the Administration screen and choose the Service Level Agreements option.
2. The list of the existing SLAs will appear. Click on the Create new button to create a new SLA; if you click on the Edit button in the Actions column, you can modify the selected SLA.
3. In the Default SLA section, enter or modify the basic SLA information :
4. In the Incident Resolution section, enter the maximal incident resolution times (as contractually agreed upon) according to their priority. You have five priority levels at your disposal (1 being the highest priority):
· 4 Low
5. At each priority level:
6. In the Service Request Resolution section, enter the maximum ticket resolution time for a service request according to this SLA:
7. To confirm the entered SLA conditions, click on the Create button, (or click on the Save button if you only edited information). To cancel without saving the changes, click on the Back button.
Deletion of a SLA definition is final. Please be careful. If you delete a SLA by mistake, you will have to create it again (see chapter 1.7.2). The default SLA, which is valid for all unsorted tickets, cannot be deleted. You can only modify it.
To delete a SLA definition:
1. Go to the Administration screen and choose the Service Level Agreements list.
2. The list of the existing SLAs will show. Find the relevant SLA and click on the Delete option in the Actions column.
3. The dialog "Confirm the SLA definition deletion" will show.
4. Click on the Confirm button to confirm the deletion. Click on the Cancel button to cancel the operation.
To define the maximum resolution time under a SLA, you may create any number of calendars with a detailed schedule of work days and service hours. In the calendar, you can specify the work hours for every day of the week and freely define work days and non-work days.
Created calendars are then sorted to the corresponding level of each defined SLA. The application determines the contractually defined ticket resolution time on the basis of the defined SLAs.
In the Requestor application, you can create any number of calendars. To make differentiation easier, enter only calendar names and descriptions that are unambiguous. You may modify calendars at any time but remember that each modification will affect all SLA levels to which the calendar is assigned.
To create or edit a calendar:
1. Go to the Administration screen and choose the Manage Calendars option.
2. The list of the existing calendars will appear. Click on the Create new button to begin creating the new calendar; to modify the existing one, find the calendar and click on the Edit option in the Actions column.
3. In the Calendar section, enter the Name and the optional description. The name field is required.
4. In the Week section, enter the week time schedule:
5. After you entered all the information, save the calendar by clicking the Create button (or click the Save button if you were only making changes).
Calendars are assigned to SLAs when are the SLAs created or defined, as described in chapter 1.7.2.
Default forms of the Request application contain two basic items - the Title and the Description. This standard form is used for all request types (a service request, an incident, a problem). Only in some cases the form contains additional options (a request transfer inside a department etc.). Functionality of the default form may be freely extended by adding custom fields which are used for adding additional information. These custom fields are then displayed in all types of forms. Their form of display or the method that is used to fill in these custom fields is the same in all cases.
In the Requestor application, the following types of custom fields are available:
The following features and requirements can be applied to the custom fields:
All field types are created similarly, they differ only in additional settings which depend on the field type. The following text describes all possibilities how to create a field.
After the field is created, it will show in all request forms and it will be available to all operators (or end-users, if you allow it). Once the custom field is defined, it cannot be deleted from the application. It can be only deactivated so it will not show in the request forms.
To create a field of the following type: Text, Multi-line text, Number or Decimal number:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Custom Fields option.
2. The custom field list will appear. Click on the Add a custom field button. Now you can choose the field type.
3. Click on the required field type. A screen for entering additional data will appear.
4. In the operator section, enter:
5. In the end-user section, enter:
6. To finish, save the changes by clicking on the Create button.
To create a field of the "selection list" type:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Custom Fields option.
2. The custom field list will appear. Click on the Add a custom field button. Now you can choose the field type.
3. Click on the Selection list field type, a screen for entering additional data will appear.
4. In the operator section, enter:
5. In the end-user section, enter:
6. In the Items section, enter the individual items on the list:
7. To finish, save the changes by clicking on the Create button.
To create a field of the "check box" type:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Custom Fields option.
2. The custom field list will appear. Click on the Add a custom field button. Now you can choose the field type.
3. Click on the check box field. A screen for entering additional data will appear.
4. In the operator section, enter:
5. In the end-user section, enter:
6. To finish, save the changes by clicking on the Create button.
To create a field of the "regular expression" type:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Custom Fields option.
2. The custom field list will appear. Click on the Add a custom field button. Now you can choose the field type.
3. Click on the check box field. A screen for entering additional data will appear.
4. In the operator section, enter:
5. In the end-user section, enter:
6. To finish, save the changes by clicking on the Create button.
Examples of the regular expressions:
Standard syntax is used for regular expression. The application inserts the initial character and the end character automatically. Pay attention to the spaces in the expressions and do not forget that the regular expressions are case sensitive in the Requestor application.
To change the position of the field:
You can freely change the position of the fields in the form, including the Subject and the message fields. To change the field position:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Custom Fields option.
2. The list of the defined custom fields will appear.
3. To change position of the fields, click on the arrows next to the each field.
4. The change will show immediately, there is no need to confirm it.
All custom fields (apart from two system ones) can be modified at any time. Change will show in all request forms in the application, including still unresolved tickets.
To change the already defined fields:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Custom Fields option.
2. The list of defined custom fields will appear. Find the field and click on the Edit option in the Actions column.
3. Depending on the field type, the relevant settings will show.
4. Make the changes and confirm them by clicking the Save button.
If you temporarily do not require your forms to contain some of the defined fields, you can easily deactivate them. However, you cannot completely delete them. Contrary to deletion, the deactivated field stays in the application and the data which the field contains, stay in the tickets (they will only be hidden). You can re-activate the field by applying the same method.
To deactivate/re-activate a field:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Custom Fields option.
2. The list of defined custom fields will appear. Find the field and click on the Deactivate button in the Actions column to deactivate the field's visibility or click on the Activate button to enable its visibility.
3. Changes will show immediately in the application.
The Reports section which you can find in the Administration section and in the main application screen displays an overview of the activity of the application and the operators. The Reports section displays summary information and statistics of the entered, resolved and unresolved tickets including well-arranged sorting by customers, services, time etc.
To see the Reports, click on the Reports link in the main application screen, or click on the Reports option in the application's Administration. The appearance of the Reports section is the same in both cases.
o All - everything,
o Today - only the today's activity,
o Yesterday - only yesterday's activity,
o This week - only this week's activity,
o This month - only this month's activity,
o This year - only this year's activity,
o Previous week - only the previous year's activity,
o Previous month - only the previous month's activity,
o Previous year - only the previous year's activity,
o Incidents by Customers - shows incidents by the individual customers,
o Incidents by Customers - shows incidents by the individual services,
o Incidents Timeline - shows incidents in a timeline,
o Incidents Handling SLA - shows incidents and their SLA compliance status by their priority,
o Incidents Escalations - shows the number of escalated incidents by their priority,
o Operators Solved Tickets - shows the solved tickets and their operators,
o Operators Taking from queues - shows the operators taking tickets from the queue,
o Operators Escalations - shows the tickets which have been escalated by the individual operators,
o Operators Handling SLA - shows the SLA compliance status of the tickets that are being solved of have been solved by the individual operators.
Email management contains all settings for sending and receiving of emails by the Requestor application. This settings concern both notifications sending to operators and end-users, and receiving emails with requests as well. To ensure proper functionality of the application, you need to set the parameters correctly for both types of communication - sending and receiving of emails.
In the Email settings section, you can see the following settings:
In this part of the settings, you can edit the email sender and set the default URL address of the Requestor application. This address will be used in the links of the sent emails.
To set the general email features:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Email management option.
2. On the next screen, choose the Email properties option.
3. Set the default email settings:
4. To finish, save the changes by clicking on the Save button.
These settings enable you to set the parameters of the outgoing emails. Without the right setting, the application will not be able to send notification emails.
To set the SMTP server:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Email management option.
2. On the next screen, choose the SMTP settings option.
3. Enter the parameters of the SMTP server which you use (your network administrator will provide you with details):
4. After you have entered all the information, test the connection by clicking the Test connection button. A confirmation message will show in case of a successful connection. If the connection is not successful, a message about why the connection failed will show.
5. To finish, save the changes by clicking on the Save button.
Incoming email settings enable you to receive requests to any number of email boxes via the POP3 protocol. Emails that are sent to these email boxes are converted by the application to a defined service request. If a customer sends an email to any of the defined email addresses, the title and the body of the message is converted to a defined service request. The customer is then kept informed about further processing of his request.
Anyone who knows the email address assigned to the given service can enter email requests. That means the client (the customer) is not required to have the end-user account in the Requestor application. All communication with the client is via email.
All email messages (received and sent) that are processed by the Requestor application will show if you click on the Event Log button in the list of the incoming email addresses.
To enter or edit the incoming email address assigned to the specific service:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Email management option.
2. On the next screen, choose the Incoming email option.
3. The list of all defined email addresses will appear. To add a new address, click on the Create button. To edit the existing address, use the Edit button in the Actions column.
4. The "Incoming email settings screen" will appear.
5. In the Mailbox account section, enter or edit:
6. To test the entered data, click on the Test Connection button the application will test the entered data and if applicable, show you the errors in your input.
7. In the Email replies section, enter how the Requestor application will identify itself in replies to incoming emails:
8. In the Behavior part, choose the specific behavior setting:
9. After you have entered the needed data, save the new address by clicking on the Create button or, if you have just edited the existing address, confirm the changes by clicking the Save button. To cancel the changes, click on the Back button.
To delete the incoming email address:
Warning: Once you delete the incoming email address it cannot be restored. If you delete the address by mistake, you have to enter all data and settings again.
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Email management option.
2. On the next screen, choose the Incoming email option.
3. The list of all defined email addresses will appear. Click on the Delete button in the Actions column.
4. The "Confirm deletion" dialog will show. Confirm the deletion by clicking the Confirm button. To cancel the deletion, click the Cancel button.
This part of the settings allows you to edit all templates of the predefined notification email messages which are sent by the Requestor application to users and customers. Here you will find a message editor that allows you to edit the predefined messages in the supported languages. The messages contain a static and dynamic text. Dynamic text inserts specific information about the given request or action to the messages.
Email notifications are unified for every user of the application. They are sent to the users according to the profile settings and the tickets/actions to which the users are assigned. Users have the choice to disable the sending of messages in their profile, apart from notifications that are marked as required.
To change the e-mail notifications:
1. Go to the Administration screen and click on the Email notification option.
2. The "Email notification settings screen" will show.
3. In the Type section, you can modify:
4. In the Email section, edit the email template.
5. In the Body and Subject fields, apart from the static text, you can use variables too. In the email, variables are replaced by a specific value (by a text). You can use the following variables:
6. Confirm the changes by clicking on the Save button.
The types of email notifications in the Requestor application are:
o New reply - a new reply to the message,
o New reply - an edited reply to the message,
o New Ticket - a new ticket,
o New Ticket by Operator - a new ticket entered by an operator,
o Ticket converted - the ticket type has been changed,
o Deadline warning - a warning that a deadline is coming,
o Operator changed - a change of operator responsible for the ticket (a transfer).
o Incident assigned - an incident has been assigned to an operator,
o Refused assigning - operator has refused to be assigned to the incident,
o Confirmed assigning - operator has confirmed that he/she has been assigned to the incident,
o Suspended - incident solving has been suspended. Waiting for the information from the client,
o Completed - incident solving has been resumed, the client has supplied the needed information,
o Finished solution - the incident has been solved,
o Solution refused - the solution of the incident has been refused,
o Solution accepted - the solution of the incident has been accepted by the client,
o Function Escalated - the incident has been escalated to the next support level,
o Function Escalated taken from queue - a specialist has accepted the escalated incident,
o Reactivated - the ticket has been re-activated (after its closure).
o Service Request assigned - the service request has been assigned to an operator,
o Refused assigning - operator has refused to be assigned to the service request,
o Confirmed assigning - operator has confirmed that he/she has been assigned to the service request,
o Suspended - service request resolution process has been suspended. Waiting for the information from the client,
o Completed - service request resolution process has been resumed, the client has supplied the needed information,
o Postponed - service ticket resolution process has been postponed,
o Postponement stopped - the postponed service request resolution process has been resumed,
o Finished solution - the service request resolution process has been finished,
o Solution refused - service request resolution has been rejected by the client,
o Solution accepted - service request resolution has been accepted by the client,
o Reactivated - the service request has been re-activated (after its closure).
o Problem assigned - the problem has been assigned to an operator,
o Investigated - the problem has been investigated,
o Postponed - the problem has been postponed,
o Postponement stopped - the problem has been returned to further investigation,
o Reason found - the cause has been found,
o Reason refused - the cause has been refused,
o Reason accepted - the cause has been accepted,
o Created RFC - a request for a change has been created,
o RFC completed - a request for a change has been completed,
o Reactivated - the problem has been re-activated (after its closure).
o Email accepted - an email has been processed and filed into requests,
o Email not accepted - email has not been processed, a refusal.
In Administration under the Scheduler link you will find a list of all activities that are carried out by the Requestor application according to the scheduled intervals. Scheduled tasks are a part of the application; they cannot be edited, nor can you create more. This section has only informative value and it shows an overview of actions that are carried out automatically.
You will find the following items in the list:
Status of each task in the list is specified by these columns:
If you click on the Send queued emails option in the scheduled task list, the list of all sent emails will appear.
The list contains the following information:
How to work with the list:
If you click on the Receive emails from mailboxes option in the scheduled task list, the list of all received emails will appear.
The list contains the following information:
How to work with the list:
In this section of Administration, you can change the appearance and behavior of the customer interface of the Requestor application. The customer section serves for entering and tracking of requests by the users with the end-user role. Here you can edit the visual appearance and content of the customer section. All changes affect only the end-user interface and they do not affect the operator and administrator interface. Performed changes show immediately in the preview section you can see the result before you save the changes.
To edit the appearance and content of the user interface:
1. Go to the Administration screen and choose the Customer Portal option.
2. The "User interface settings screen" will appear.
3. In the Settings section, check the Activate portal field to activate the customer portal. If the field is not checked it the customers will see the standard interface of the Requestor application.
4. In the Text section, you can edit the content of the customer portal:
5. In the Colors section, you may change the colors that are used in the customer portal. You can also change the color of the fonts, links and the background of the individual sections. Color can be changed for these items:
6. To set the color of an item:
Or:
7. All performed changes will appear immediately in the Preview section. In the Preview section, click on the link in the header to switch between the home page and the login page.
8. To finish the changes, click on the Save button.