Richmond Systems. Self Service Portal

Transcription

1 Richmond Systems Self Service Portal

2 Contents Introduction... 4 Product Overview... 4 What s New... 4 Configuring the Self Service Portal... 6 Web Admin... 6 Launching the Web Admin Application... 6 Setup Console... 8 Customer Settings... 9 RFC Add Customer Auto Registrations Customer Bulletins Customisable Text Legacy Web Settings Configuring the Document Knowledge Base Introduction What is a Knowledge Base Catalog? Creating a New Catalog Creating a Customised Contact Us Page Login via NT Authentication Using the Self Service Portal Creating a new User Account Managing User Accounts To Activate a User Account To Change a Users Login Credentials Logging into the Self Service Portal... 60

3 Logging in via NT Authentication My Home Page My Incidents My Knowledge Base Overall Incident Status Summary User Bulletins The Main Toolbar The Incident List Searching for Incidents Incident Details Tab Layout Incident to Me Raising a New Incident The RFC List Raising a New RFC The Knowledge Base Searching Knowledge base Knowledge Base Article Details File Attachments Article to Me The Contact Us Page My Account Logging out of the Self Service Portal File Attachments Uploading File Attachments Downloading File Attachments... 85

4 Introduction Welcome to the Richmond SupportDesk Self Service Portal user guide. This document describes how to use and configure the product in order to help you get the most from the features and options available. You should refer to this document prior to installing the software and you should ensure that you fully understand the installation process and the upgrade procedure (if necessary). Product Overview The Richmond SupportDesk Self Service Portal is an additional module which forms part of the Richmond SupportDesk product suite. It is a web-based product and enables organisations to expose the service desk environment to their customers in order to promote the idea that customers can proactively self serve. Built using the latest technologies, the Self Service Portal is fully customisable and gives you complete control over the information that your customers are able to view and which functions they can perform within the service desk environment. A fully customisable user interface and knowledge base allow you to easily create a more user-centric experience for your customers and target them with specific bulletins or knowledge base articles which help you promote the idea of self service and free up valuable service desk resources. What s New Users of the existing Customer Web Interface will now benefit from the following new features when upgrading to the Richmond SupportDesk Self Service Portal: 1. Multiple Customer Settings Groups. Users can now be assigned to individual Customer Settings Groups. These groups contain all configuration settings for the users enabling you to customise the product on either a per-user level or globally depending on your requirements. 2. Field-level Visibility. The level of information that users are permitted to view can be configured at field level. This enables you to specify exactly what users can see and when they can see it. 3. Fully Customisable Appearance via CSS. Applying a different visual style to the product has now been made simple by the use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Each user group can have its own CSS style assigned making it possible to customise the visual appearance of the product on a per-user level if required.

5 4. Hierarchical Data Access. Users can now view details of Incidents assigned to configuration items (CI s) at other locations the within Navigator. As an example of this powerful new enhancement; more senior users such as department managers can be granted access to all Incidents logged against their department and/or staff. 5. Redesigned User Interface. Based on the.net Framework, the user interface has been re-designed to provide a rich user experience which is both functional and modern. 6. Self-Mapping User Registration. New users can now be automatically mapped to a specific user group when registering a new user account. This mapping is based on the domain name provided as part of the users address User accounts can also be placed into a default Awaiting Verification status whereby service desk administrators must first verify and enable the users account before they can login to the service desk. 7. User Specific Knowledge Base. User groups can now be mapped to a specific knowledge base catalogue; allowing you to develop more customer-centric knowledge base articles aimed at the user group in question. The knowledge base also monitors the top five most popular articles viewed for the specific user group and presents this list at login so that users are automatically made aware of any new issues possibly affecting the group. 8. Change Management Functionality. Users now have the ability to raise new RFC s (Requests for Change). These are then placed in the queue ready for Service Desk approval. 9. Automatic CI Association. When users raise a new Incident, it is now possible to automatically associate any number of their parent CI s (Configuration Items) at the point of logging; removing the need for the service desk to manually associate the CI s afterwards. 10. Enhanced Browser Support The Self Service Portal has been designed to work with the most popular web browsers available today and so you can be sure that your target audience is not going to be restricted by their choice of browser software.

6 Configuring the Self Service Portal This section describes how to configure the Self Service Portal ready for use. Web Admin The Web Admin application is installed with the Self Service Portal and is a Windows-based application which allows you to configure the initial database connectivity for the system. Launching the Web Admin Application 1. Click on Start Run Richmond Systems Richmond SupportDesk Web Admin from the Windows Start menu. 2. The Web Admin application will appear. At this point, the main options will be disabled as you are required to browse for the Self Service Portal s configuration file called Web.config. This is an XML file which contains all application settings for the system. Note: The application will attempt to load Web.config automatically when it is started. If this does not happen; the file can be found in the root directory of the SupportDeskSSP website (i.e. C:/InetPub/wwwroot/ ) 3. In the Database Connection Settings frame, enter the required SQL Server and database name.

7 4. Click on the Test button. If the test is successful; you will receive the following message: If not; you will receive this message: In this event you must ensure that you have entered a valid SQL Server and database name and that the machine you are attempting to connect from is able to connect to the SQL Server in question. 5. The Advanced Database Options allow you to fine-tune the database connection pool and should only be changed if you are expecting more than 100 concurrent users to be connected to the system at any single point in time. If this is the case, you should increase the value of the Maximum Pool setting by the required amount. Warning: Setting the Maximum Pool to a value which is too low could result in users experiencing database connectivity problems and so it is recommended that the default value of 100 is used for most installations. 6. Once you are satisfied with the settings, click on the Save button to update the configuration file and exit the application. Note: The settings specified with the Web Admin application are only loaded when the Self Service Portal application is started. If changes are made whilst the web application is running then it will be necessary for you to restart it before the new settings are applied. This will cause any active user sessions to be lost.

8 Setup Console The SupportDesk Setup Console is part of the SupportDesk Windows Client and should first be installed from the product installation CD. This section concentrates on only the areas relevant to the SupportDesk Self Service Portal as displayed in the screenshot below: For further information on the other areas of the Setup Console, please refer to the SupportDesk Setup Console User Guide.

9 Customer Settings The Customer Settings screen is where the individual user groups for the Self Service Portal are configured. Each user group contains a variety of options and settings which allow you to tailor the product in order to suite different types of user. For example, your organisation may be a Managed Service Provider; responsible for providing service desk operations to a number of different companies, in which case you could configure a single customer settings group for each of these companies and apply a unique look and feel to each by applying the companies corporate colours, logo and font to the Self Service Portal. In addition to this, you could also provide department managers for these companies with their own specific group by cloning the existing one and assigning further user privileges to it such as the ability to see their staff members incidents and the ability to raise Change Requests. When the Self Service Portal is first installed, a single settings group is created. This is simply named Default Settings. If only a single settings group is required then it will only be necessary to configure this group. If further groups are required, then simply highlight the required group from the list and click on the Clone New Group button:

10 Enter a name for the new group (i.e. Company 1 Ltd) and click on the OK button. A new group will be created and its settings will be inherited from the original item. The Customer Settings screen is categorised using a number of tab pages. Each tab relates to a specific configuration setting as described in the following section. General Customer Registration These settings apply when a user belonging to the selected customer settings group registers a new account with the service desk.

11 Registration Style. The inventory style template to be used when users register with the Service Desk. Default Status (Pending Verification or Verified). The default account status of users who register with the Service Desk. Default Navigator Parent. The default location within the SupportDesk Navigator where new users are placed once they have registered. To change the location, click on the [! ] button and the following screen will appear: Drill down through the Navigator to locate the required CI. To select the CI, click on the OK button. Display Settings These settings apply to the visual appearance of the selected customer settings group. Template Type (Standard or Custom). The name of the CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) to be applied to the group by default. Knowledge Base These settings apply to the document knowledge base for the selected customer settings group. Indexing Service root catalog. The name of the default Indexing Service catalog to be used when users query the document knowledge base.

12 Custom Toolbar Button Each customer settings group can display a custom button which appears within the Self Service Portals main toolbar. These settings apply to the custom button and allow you to specify the image used and the buttons destination URL. Image URL. The URL of the image to be used for the customisable toolbar button (if displayed). Destination URL. The destination URL of the customisable toolbar button (if displayed). Toolbar Settings This tab allows you to specify which buttons are available for users on the main toolbar of the Self Service Portal. The available buttons are shown in the list view. To hide or show a toolbar button; simply check or uncheck the relevant button as required.

13 Add Incident This tab allows you to specify the availability, visibility, and default values for each field in the Self Service Portal s Add Incident screen. The available fields are listed on the left along with the following options on the right: Enabled. Specifies whether or not the selected field is enabled or disabled. Visible. Sets the visibility state of the selected field. Mandatory. States if the user must specify a value for the selected field when raising a new Incident. Please note that this option is not available on all fields as some of these are always specified as mandatory such as Status and Priority. Default Value. If the selected field is specified as either disabled of hidden then a default value must be specified. Select one of the entries from the drop-down list provided in order to select a default value for the field.

14 Incident View This tab allows you to select which fields and tab pages are available to users within the Self Service Portal s Incident Details screen as well as the default Action Type that will be used when a user updates an Incident from it. Incident Data Visibility Configuration Each available field and tab page is listed here. Simply set the visibility state of the item by checking or un-checking the checkbox next to the item description. A description of each of the items available is given in the table below: Item Field or Tab Page Description Incident Actions Incident Activities Incident Associations Incident File Attachments Tab Page Tab Page Tab Page Tab Page Tab page containing details of all Actions for an Incident. Tab page containing details of all Future Activities for an Incident. Tab page containing details of an Incident s associated CI s. Tab page containing a list of

15 Incident Category Field Incident Custom Field Field Field all file attachments associated with the Incident. From here, users can also upload and download file attachments. The Incidents selected Category. The Incidents custom classification field. This field will only be displayed if it is visible and if SupportDesk s Custom Classification feature is enabled. Incident Details Field Field The Incidents Details field. Incident Escalate Time Field Field The Incidents escalation time (if applicable). Incident Group Field The Incidents selected Group Incident Logged By Incident Log Date Incident Priority Field Rescode Incident Resolution Field RFCs Incident SLA Field Incident Specialist Incident Statistics Field Field Field Field Field Tab Page Field Field Tab Page The ID of the user who first logged the Incident. The date and time at which the Incident was logged. The Incidents currently selected Priority. The Incidents selected Resolution Code (if applicable). The Incidents Resolution text (if applicable). Tab Page containing a list of an Incidents associated RFC s. The Incidents selected SLA / Escalation Type (if applicable). The ID of the Incidents selected Specialist. Tab page containing all statistical information related to the Incident.

16 Incident Status Field Field The Incidents currently selected Status. Summary Field The Incidents summary text. Incident UDF Tab Incident Customer Add Comment Tab Page Tab Page Tab page containing details of any user-defined information associated with the Incident. Tab page which enables a user to update an incident with additional information in the form of an Action of the specified type. Incident Update This section allows you to specify the Action Type that is used when a user updates an Incident. Users of the Self Service Portal can add text-based updates to an incident and these are done so by creating an Incident Action. Simply select the Action Type from the drop-down list provided. Incident List

17 This tab allows you to specify which fields are available to users when viewing the Incident List from within the Self Service Portal. The Incident List contains details of all Incidents that the user is permitted to see. To set a field s visibility state; simply check or uncheck the required item from the list. A summary table of each of the fields and the data they represent is shown below: Field Data Type Description Active Attachments True/False Number States if the Incident is in an active or inactive Status. Shows the number of file attachments associated with the Incident. Category Text The Category of the Incident Custom Classification Escalate Time Group Logged By Logged Date Primary Association Priority Resolution Code Resolved Responded To Text Date Time Text Text Date Time Text Text Text True/False True/False The Custom Classification of the Incident (if applicable). The Escalate Time of the Incident (if applicable). The Group that the Incident is assigned to. The ID of the user who first logged the Incident. The date and time that the Incident was first logged. The Alpha1 field of the Incident s primary association. The current Priority of the Incident. The Resolution Code of the Incident (if applicable). States if the Incident has been resolved or is pending resolution. States if the Incident has been responded to or is pending a response.

18 SLA Text The SLA type of the Incident (if applicable). Specialist Text The Specialist of the Incident. Status Text The current Status of the Incident. Summary Text The Summary of the Incident Tip: It is worth taking into account that the Incident List may appear quite full if every available field is displayed to the user. Therefore; it is recommended that users are only provided with the most relevant information in the Incident List so that it is more legible. Users can then be granted rights to view more in-depth information from within the Incident Details screen. Automatic Incident Closure Incidents logged by users of the Self Service Portal can be automatically assigned to a nominated inactive Status such as Closed after a user-defined period of inactivity has elapsed. This feature is particularly useful if you wish to avoid a scenario whereby Incidents remain in a particular status for too long such as With Customer.

19 Automatic Incident Closure Requirements To enable this feature ensure that the Enable Automatic Incident Status Update checkbox is selected. In order to qualify for automatic closure, Incidents must meet the following criteria: The Incident must have been logged by a user of the Self Service Portal. Incidents logged in this way will have Web as the entry for the Logged By field. The primary association for the Incident must be the Self Service Portal user that logged it. The Incident must have at least one Incident Action. The Incident Status must be one of the Statuses selected in the Statuses to automatically close list. The user-defined time period must have passed since the date and time of last Incident Action and Incident Log entry. Note: Automatic Incident closures are processed by the SupportDesk Escalation Service which must be running in order use this feature. General Settings Time before Incident Status update occurs. This specifies the period of inactivity (in service hours) that must have elapsed before Incidents are moved to the new Status. Inactive Status to move Incidents to. This specifies the target Status to assign Incidents to. Only inactive statuses are shown here. Statuses to automatically close This list contains all available active Statuses. Ensure that each Status upon which you wish to enable automatic Incident closure is selected by using the checkbox next to the required item.

20 Advanced Settings This tab allows you to configure additional settings for the Customer Settings Group. Default Navigator Incident Visibility Settings These settings specify how many levels a user can traverse both up and down the Navigator from their own location within it. Users will then be granted access to view the Incidents associated with CI s at the specified levels within the structure. This functionality is particularly useful for Department Managers who may possibly require access to all of their sub-item s Incidents as well as their own and those of their departments. Visually, a user will not notice any difference about being granted access to this functionality other that having more entries shown in the Incident List. Number of levels to traverse up the Navigator. This is the number of levels up from their own position in the Navigator that user s can view the Incident s for from within the Self Service Portal. Set this value to 0 if the feature is not required. Number of levels to traverse down the navigator. This is the number of levels down from their own position in the Navigator that user s can view the Incident s for from within the Self Service Portal. Set this value to 0 if the feature is not required.

21 An example of this scenario is shown below whereby Manager A can view Incident s 1 level above and 3 levels below themselves:

22 [Navigator Root] +--- [Company A] +--- [Department A].... Level Up: = [Manager A]..Level = [Staff]. Level Down = [Staff Member A] Level Down = [Computer A].Level Down = [Staff Member B] Level Down = [Computer B].Level Down = [Department B] +--- [Department B] Default Navigator Level Incident Association This setting allows you to specify the number of CI s above the user s position in the Navigator to be automatically associated when a user raises a new Incident. An example of this whereby the number of levels to associate with an Incident has been set to 3 is shown below: [Navigator Root] +--- [Company A]

23 +--- [Department A].... Level Up: = [Manager A]..Level Up: = [Staff]. Level Up: = [Staff Member A].....Logs Incident at Level [Computer A] +--- [Staff Member B] +--- [Computer B] +--- [Department B] +--- [Department B]

24 From this example you can see that Staff member A (at level 0) raises a new Incident and is set as the Incident s Primary Association. Staff (at level 1), Manager A (at level 2), and Department A (at level 3) will also be associated with the Incident automatically. Setting the value for this setting to 0 will ensure that only the user raising the Incident is associated with it and that no other automatic associations will be made. Notifications The notification options relate to when a new user of the Customer Settings Group registers a new account with the Service Desk. Notifications set here are sent via to the required Specialist or Specialist Group. Notify on registration of a pending account Specialist The ID of the Service Desk specialist to be notified when a user registers a new account which by default is placed into the Pending status. Group The Service Desk Group to be notified when a user registers for a new account which by default is placed into the Pending Status. RFC Add

25 This tab allows you to specify the availability, visibility, and default values for each field in the Self Service Portal s Add RFC screen. The available fields are listed on the left along with the following options on the right: Enabled. Specifies whether or not the selected field is enabled or disabled. Visible. Sets the visibility state of the selected field. Mandatory. States if the user must specify a value for the selected field when raising a new Incident. Please note that this option is not available on all fields as some of these are always specified as mandatory such as Status and Priority. Default Value. If the selected field is specified as either disabled of hidden then a default value must be specified. Select one of the entries from the drop-down list provided in order to select a default value for the field.

26 RFC List This tab allows you to specify which fields are available to users when viewing the RFC List from within the Self Service Portal. The RFC List contains details of all RFC s that the user is associated with. To set a field s visibility state; simply check or uncheck the required item from the list. A summary table of each of the fields and the data they represent is shown below: Field Data Type Description Creation Date Due Date Impact Owner Date Time Date Time Text Text The date and time at which the RFC was first raised. The date and time at which the RFC is due to be completed. The Impact of the RFC (if applicable). The Specialist flagged as the Owner of the RFC. Priority Text The Priority of the RFC.

27 Status Text The current Status of the RFC. Summary Text The Summary of the RFC. Members The Members tab shows a list of all users belonging to the currently selected Customer Settings Group. This is purely a visual tool to quickly identify group members and provide a quick overview of the group. The assigning of users to a Customer Settings Group is done either via a new user registration within the Self Service Portal, or from within the SupportDesk Windows Client s Item Details screen.

28 Alerts The Alerts tab allows you to configure exactly when and how alerts and notifications are raised when a particular type of event occurs for the Customer Settings Group within the Self Service Portal. Alerts are sent by either Alarm or depending on the type of user and SMS text messaging functionality will also work when an alarm is set if it is configured to do so. Alert Settings Alert Type This drop-down list contains all available types of event that can cause an alert to be raised. These items are: Raise Incident. Is triggered when a user raises a new Incident via the Self Service Portal. Update Incident. Is triggered when a user updates an Incident via the Self Service Portal.

29 Incident Attachment Added. Is triggered when a user adds an attachment to an Incident via the Self Service Portal. Raise Quick Incident. Is triggered when a user raises a new Quick Incident via the Self Service Portal. Raise RFC. Is triggered when a user raises a new RFC via the Self Service Portal. Options The various alert options for each type of user event are: Alarm Appropriate Specialist The required Service Desk Specialist will receive a new alarm. Alarm Appropriate Group All Specialist s of the required Service Desk Group will receive a new alarm. Appropriate Specialist The required Service Desk Specialist will receive a new . Appropriate Group All Specialist s of the required Service Desk Group will receive a new . Primary Association The Primary Association of either an Incident or RFC will receive a new . All Associations Each association of either an Incident or RFC will receive a new . Subject If an notification is to be sent, it is possible to customise the subject line by modifying the text in the box provided. Note

30 In order for notifications to be received, the SupportDesk Service must be running and must be set to process outgoing mail. Notification recipients must also have a valid address configured. If no address exists; no notification will be sent. Default Settings Group The checkbox at the bottom of the Customer Settings screen indicates if the currently selected group is the default. This will be used by users who register that are not automatically mapped to a specific group. By default the Customer Settings Group used for this purpose is called Default Settings and is created when the Self Service Portal is first installed. Customer Auto Registrations When new users register with the Service Desk, it is possible to map them to an existing Customer Settings Group by utilising the domain name which forms part of their address. This eliminates the need to manually assign new users to a Customer Settings Group after they have registered and ensures that all users from a specific organisation will be assigned to their correct Settings Group. Configuration of this functionality is simple:

31 1. Enter the partial segment of the address you want to map in the partial text box 2. Select the Customer Settings Group you wish to assign new users to by using the Customer Settings Group dropdown list. 3. Press the Update button to save your changes. When a new user now registers; the system will see if string occurs at any point in their address (i.e. j.doe@richmondsys.co.uk). If it does; the user will be mapped to the specified Customer Settings Group automatically and will inherit all of this group s settings and policies. If a lookup on the user s address returns no matches then the Default Settings Group will be used instead. Customer Bulletins This screen allows you to create targeted bulletins for users of the Self Service Portal. These bulletins can be assigned to 1 or more users at either Customer Settings Group level or globally. Bulletins offer an easy and efficient way of notifying your users on key issues affecting quality of service at the touch of a button and without the need for or telephone calls.

32 Creating a new Customer Bulletin Creating a new bulletin is a very simple process: 1. Click on the Add New button at the bottom of the screen. You will then be asked to enter a summary for the new bulletin: Once entered; click on the OK button to continue. 2. Enter a description for the bulletin. 3. Click on the Options tab.

33 Select the appropriate settings. These are described below: Bulletin From. The ID of the Service Desk Specialist that the bulletin will appear as being sent from. Users MUST acknowledge Bulletin. States whether the recipient s of the bulletin must acknowledge it (via a checkbox) before it will not appear again. Show this Bulletin every time user s login. States if the bulletin will be shown to the selected recipient s each time they login to the Self Service Portal. Schedule this Bulletin. Allows you to schedule the bulletin so that it is not shown until the specified start date and time. The bulletin will then stop being shown at the specified end date and time. 4. If you wish to publish the bulletin to all users of the Self Service Portal, proceed directly to step Select a Customer Settings Group from the Group drop-down list.

34 All users belonging to the selected Group will be shown in the tree structure along with a checkbox next to each user. 6. Click on each user you want to receive the bulletin. Clicking on the top-most node of the tree will select all users within the group. Repeat this process for users belonging to any other Group that you wish receive the bulletin.

35 7. Click on the Update button to publish the bulletin. Note: If no specific users were selected and the bulletin is to be published to all available users, you will receive the following message to confirm when clicking on the Update button.

36 Updating an existing Customer Bulletin To update an existing bulletin; you must first select the required entry from the drop-down list at the top of the Bulletin Settings group. The bulletin can then be amended as required before clicking on the Update button. If you wish to cancel your modifications at any time; click on the Cancel button at the bottom of the screen and confirm the cancellation. Note: If 1 or more users have already read the selected bulletin, you will be asked if you wish to re-publish it to them. Click on Yes if you wish to do so or click on No to ignore the message. Deleting an existing Customer Bulletin Bulletins can be deleted at any time by first selecting the required entry from the drop-down list at the top of the Bulletin Settings group and the clicking on the Delete button. You will be asked to confirm the deletion before the entry is removed and bulletin deletions cannot be undone.

37 The Read Receipts tab This tab page allows you to view when a bulletin was first read by each user. A read receipt entry will only be added when the user first reads the bulletin. To view read receipts; select the required bulletin from the drop-down list at the top of the Bulletin Settings group. Next, click on the Read receipts tab to view each available entry.

38 Customisable Text This screen allows you to customise the text displayed in certain areas of the Self Service Portal so that it can be further tailored to suit your requirements. For the majority of installations, all the will need to change is the text relating to the Self Service Portal s Contact Us page so that it displays your own organisations address details and telephone numbers etc, however; items such as the Add Incident wizard s step text and the Add RFC screen can be modified if necessary. To modify any of the available application dialogs; simple select the required entry from the list and change the text to be displayed using the textbox provided. Lastly, click on the Save button to update your changes.

39 Legacy Web Settings Note: The settings on this screen relate to the older SupportDesk Customer Web Interface product and do not form part of the setup procedure for the new SupportDesk Self Service Portal. This screen is still available purely for users still using the older product. Configuring the Document Knowledge Base Introduction The Self Service Portal s document knowledge base is a cost effective and easy way to provide users with comprehensive knowledge management capabilities. Built around the Microsoft Indexing Service ; the document knowledge base can be tailored for different user groups. Each Customer Settings Group can be assigned a unique knowledge base catalog. Once configured; each catalog can contain a range of knowledge base articles in a wide variety of formats which will be indexed and available for users to search against when querying the Self Service Portal s document knowledge base.

40 Because each catalog is unique; you will be able to create customer-centric knowledge base articles which are specific to each Customer Settings Group. This is particularly useful if you are responsible for providing Service Desk operations to multiple organisations. What is a Knowledge Base Catalog? In simple terms; a catalog is a collection of documents containing text which can be indexed by the Microsoft Indexing Service. Once indexed, these documents form part of the Self Service Portals knowledge base and can be searched by users in order to find solutions to specific problems The types of documents that can be indexed include: Microsoft Office documents HTML documents Text / Rich Text documents Documents that generate their content dynamically such as asp pages should not be included in a catalog because the Indexing Service will be unable to create an index of their content. Image files will also not be indexed. Once new content has been added to a catalog; the operating system will re-index the content automatically at a convenient time so that any new content will be available to users as soon as possible. The Microsoft Indexing Service is a free product and is installed with Windows XP and Vista operating systems as standard. All Indexing should take place on the web server hosting the Self Service Portal and so any document directories to be indexed must be available to the server in question. Creating a New Catalog The Microsoft Indexing Service must first be installed on the web server running the SupportDesk Self Service Portal.

41 1. Navigate to Start Settings Control Panel Administrative Tools from the Start Menu. 2. Open the Computer Management Console

42 3. Expand the Services and Applications node and click on the Indexing Service item. 4. Right-click on the Indexing Service node and select the New Catalog option from the pop-up menu. 5. Enter a name for the Catalog such as Company1 and enter the location of the knowledge base content. For this example a basic document was created using Microsoft Word and was placed in C:\KnowledgeBase\Company1\

43 6. Click on the OK button and the new Catalog will be created. If the Indexing Service is running; you will receive the following message: 7. Expand the new Company1KB catalog and navigate to the Directories node.

44 8. Right-click on the Directories node and select the New Directory option from the pop-up menu. 9. Click on the Browse button and browse for the folder containing the content to be indexed. 10. Ensure that the Include in Index - Yes option is selected and click on the OK button. You will now see that the specified directory has been included in the Catalog.

45 11. If your specified content directory does is not already a sub-folder of the SupportDesk Self Service Portal web directory then you must now ensure that the catalog is web-shared on your application web server. To do this; locate the root folder for your knowledge base (i.e. C:\Knowledgebase\) or catalog (i.e. C:\Knowledgebase\Company1\) using Windows Explorer and view its properties.

46 12. Navigate to the Web Sharing tab page and click on the Share this folder option.

47 13. Click on the OK button and a new virtual directory will be created on your selected web site which acts as a pointer to the specified knowledge base folder. 14. Click on the OK button and return to the Computer Management window.

48 15. Right-click on the new catalog and select the Properties option from the pop-up menu. 16. Click on the Tracking tab and select the web site that the catalog should run under using the WWW Server drop-down list and click on the OK button. 17. Right-click on the Indexing Service node and select the Stop option from the pop-up menu. 18. Again, right-click on the Indexing Service node but this time select the Start option from the popup menu. You may be prompted by the following dialog: 19. From within the new catalog s Directories node, right-click on the new content folder and select the All Tasks Rescan Full option from the pop-up menu.

49 20. Click on the Yes button and the Indexing Service will begin scanning the specified directory to create an Index of the directories content. This can take a while to complete depending on how much content there is to be indexed but generally, this process is quite quick. 21. After a few minutes, refresh the view and you should see that additional virtual directories have been indexed in our catalog. 22. This happens because our knowledge directory was shared on our web server and so additional virtual directories (at the same level) are now appearing also. To stop the content of these additional folders being shown when users search the knowledge base, you must double-click on each unwanted item in turn.

50 23. From the properties dialog, ensure that the Include in Index option is set to No and click on the OK button. This will exclude the specified directory from our catalog so that user s cannot search against it. 24. When you have finished, the catalog will look something like this: 25. It will now be possible to test the catalog by conducting a search against it. Simply click on the Query the Catalog node beneath the catalog.

51 26. Enter a search criteria into the box provided and click on the Search button. The results will be shown below and in this example, you can see that our example knowledge base document for company 1 has been shown:

52 Note: If you do not receive any results, it is possible that the Indexing Service has not yet indexed the content. Therefore, you should wait for a while and try again. 27. Repeat the procedure for each subsequent catalog that is required and update the required Customer Settings Group from within the SupportDesk Setup Console so that each group is configured to use the required catalog. Creating a Customised Contact Us Page By default, the SupportDesk Self Service Portal simply displays basic contact information which can be modified from with the SupportDesk Setup Console. For most applications this will be acceptable however; it is possible to create your own HTML-based contact page to suit your own requirements. In order to enable this functionality: 1. First design your Contact Us page using an HTML editing package of your choice. 2. Name the page ContactUs.htm and copy the file to the Self Service Portal s application directory on your web server. 3. Ensure that any images used in your page are also published to the required folder on the web server. 4. When users now navigate to the Contact Us area of the Self Service Portal, your customised page will be shown instead of only the text-based content. 5. You customised page can be modified at any time as long as it is still titled ContactUs.htm. Login via NT Authentication It is possible for users to login to the Self Service Portal using NT authentication if required. This can be done by using the method below: 1. Assign the user s fully qualified domain name to their user id and password fields from within the SupportDesk Windows Client. (i.e. MyDomain\J.Doe) This can also be done automatically when

53 users are imported from Active Directory by using the SupportDesk Directory Synchronisation Module. 2. Turn off anonymous access to the Self Service Portal website from within the IIS Control Manager. If you require a mixture of NT and non-nt users, turn off anonymous access on the file LoginNT.aspx only. 3. For users requiring an NT-based login, direct them to the page LoginNT.aspx as the initial starting point for the Self Service Portal and the system will attempt to automatically authenticate their Windows login credentials against those stored on in the Service Desk. If login is successful, users will be directed to their home page automatically. Using the Self Service Portal This section describes how to use the features of the SupportDesk Self Service Portal and assumes that all required configuration of the system has already been completed via the SupportDesk Setup Console. Creating a new User Account Users requiring a new account can do so by using Create New Account Wizard from the main login screen. A user will not be able to login to the system until their account has been created and if necessary; verified and activated by the Service Desk. 1. From the main login page (Login.aspx), click on the Click here to create a new user account hyperlink.

54 2. The user will be directed to the Create New Account Wizard start page. 3. Click on the Next button and enter your address and click Next.

55 After a address has been provided the Self Service Portal will attempt to match the user to a specific Customer Settings Group is required to do so. 4. Next, enter a user id and password and click Next

56 5. Next, enter all required additional information and click Finish 6. Once registration is complete, you will receive the following confirmation. In addition to this, an confirming your account details and account status will be sent to the address you provided. 7. Click on the Please click here to return to the login page hyperlink.

57 Depending on the configuration setting used, you will receive an containing one of the messages below: Thank You for registering. Your account is now active and you may now login to the Service Desk. This message indicates that your new account is ready for use and that you may login to the Service Desk straight away. Thank You for registering. Your account is currently awaiting verification and you will receive a notification when your account has been activated. This message indicates that the Service Desk must first verify your new account before it is activated. Once this task has been done, you will receive a follow-up from the Service Desk informing you that your account is active. You will not be able to login to the Service Desk until your account has been verified. Thank You for registering. Your account is currently suspended at this time. This message indicates that your account has been disabled. This could be for a variety of reasons and so you must contact Service Desk for further information. Managing User Accounts The task of managing Self Service Portal user accounts is performed from the SupportDesk Windows Client. From here it is possible to manage: The user s login credentials. The Customer Settings Group they are registered to. Their account status. The number of levels both up and down the Navigator the user can traverse when viewing Incidents. The number of levels up the Navigator that are automatically associated when the user raises a new Incident.

58 To Activate a User Account 1. Login to the SupportDesk Windows Client. 2. Select the Utility Customer Web Management option from the main drop-down menu. 3. All users awaiting verification will be shown in the list on the Customer Accounts Pending Activation tab. 4. Highlight the required user from the list. Further details for the user (in their correct registration style) will be shown in the Customer Details frame. 5. Click on the Activate Account option from within the Account Activation frame. An automatic E- mail will then be sent to the specified user notifying them that their account has been activated. Using this method, it is also possible to suspend or delete a user s account if required by using the additional options provided. 6. The Advanced Customer Account Settings tab allows you to configure additional settings for a user and is shown below:

59 To Change a Users Login Credentials 1. Login to the SupportDesk Windows Client. 2. Locate the required user in the Navigator and load their details into the Item Details window.

60 3. Click on the System ID s tab. 4. Modify the user s credentials as required using the fields within the Web Interface Credentials frame and click on the Save button when finished. Logging into the Self Service Portal 1. Navigate to the main login page (Login.aspx).

61 2. Enter your user id and password in the fields provided. 3. Clicking on the Remember me checkbox will ensure that your user id is remembered the next time you visit the login page. 4. Click on the Login button. 5. If your login credentials are correct, you will be redirected to your Self Service Portal home page. If however, you have entered an invalid password; a new hyperlink will appear titled Forgotten your password? Click here.

62 6. Clicking on this hyperlink will redirect you to the password recovery page. 7. Enter your user id when prompted and click on the Submit button. Providing that your user id is correct; an automatic will be sent to your own address containing your user account details. Make a note of these credentials and try logging into the Self Service Portal again by clicking on the hyperlink at the bottom of the password recovery page.

63 Logging in via NT Authentication Users logging into the system via NT Authentication should access the site via the page titled LoginNT.aspx. For further information on using NT Authentication to access the Self Service Portal; see the section of this manual titled Login via NT Authentication in the chapter titled Configuring the Self Service Portal. My Home Page This is the first page users will see once they have logged into the Self Service Portal. The page is designed to provide the user with a real-time visual overview on the areas of the Service Desk that are relevant to them. Note: The overall look and feel of the site will depend on what style sheet has been applied to their user account.

64 My Incidents This provides the user with their 10 latest Incidents in descending order for quick and easy access. This eliminates the need for the user to first search for their most recent Incident and takes them straight to in Incident Details window. Note: The information shown in the My Incidents list shows only Incidents where the logged on user is the primary association regardless of how many levels above or below their position in the Navigator they are permitted to view. My Knowledge Base As other users of the same Customer Settings Group search for and view knowledge base articles; a league table is maintained. This monitors the most popular knowledge base articles and presents the top 5 in descending order to the user. Clicking on any of these links will redirect the user to the Knowledge Base Article Details page for viewing. Overall Incident Status Summary This provides a graphical representation on the Status of all Incidents the user is permitted to see. The Status summary is displayed to the right of the chart. Double-clicking on a segment within the chart will redirect the user to the Incident List screen and will automatically populate the Incident List with all Incidents matching the selected Status. User Bulletins

65 Bulletins will be displayed to the users when the My Home Page screen is first loaded. These will appear in the form of a pop-up window which contains the details of the bulletin. The Main Toolbar The toolbar appears at the top of each page within the Self Service Portal. The buttons available to the user and their appearance depends entirely on the settings configured for the user s Customer Settings Group. Home Clicking on this button takes the user back to the My Home Page area. Add Incident Clicking on this button takes the user to the Add Incident page. Incident List Clicking on this button takes the user to their Incident List. Raise RFC Clicking on this button takes the user to the Raise RFC page. RFC List Clicking on this button takes the user to their RFC List. Knowledge Base Clicking on this button takes the user to the Knowledge Base search page.

66 Contact Us Clicking on this button takes the user to the Contact Us page. My Account Clicking on this button takes the user to the My Account page where they can manage various aspects of their user account. Logout Clicking on this button logs the user out of the Self Service Portal and takes them back to the main login page. Note: If the custom toolbar button option has been enabled for the user s Customer Settings Group; the button will also appear here with its specified button image. The Incident List

67 The Incident List allows provides users with information on all of the incidents they are permitted to view. The columns which appear in the Incident List depend on the configuration of the user s Customer Settings Group. Users can group the information displayed by dragging and dropping the required column onto the Group by area of the grid: Users can view the details of an Incident by double-clicking on the required entry in the list. This will open the Incident Details window where the full details of the Incident can be viewed. See Incident Details for further information. Note: Each user s column ordering and group by preferences are stored so that the Incident List s appearance is retained the next time that the user visits the screen. This layout can be reset by the user from the My Account page.

68 Searching for Incidents This Incident List screen is separated into 2 tab pages. The first (Incident List) contains the actual Incident List whereas the second of these (Search Incidents) enables the user to search for specific Incident s within their list. The search fields available to the user will depend on what columns they are permitted to view within the Incident List itself as defined by their Customer Settings Group. To search for Incidents; select the required values from any of the available fields and click on the Search button. The Incident list will then be displayed and will contain any matching results from the search.

69 Incident Details The Incident Details screen is where the full details of an Incident can be viewed. The information displayed here depends on the configuration of the user s Customer Settings Group. See Incident Data Visibility Configuration for more information on the fields and tab pages available. Tab Layout The Incident Details tab page is used to display various types of information relating to an Incident. These tabs are summarised below: Details. This tab is used to display the Incident s details and resolution data. User-Defined Fields. This tab displays any additional user-defined information for the Incident.

70 Update Incident. This tab provides the user with the ability to add a text-based update to the Incident. When an Incident is updated by a user of the Self Service Portal; a new Incident Action is created and the required specialist(s) are notified. Actions. Displays all completed Actions for the Incident that are not flagged as private by the Service Desk. Double-clicking on any entry in the Actions List will display a pop-up dialog containing the full text-based description of the Action. Future Activities. Displays all Future Activities currently logged against the Incident. Double-clicking on any entry in the Future Activities List will display a pop-up dialog containing the full text-based description of the Activity.

71 Associations. Displays a summary of all CI s associated with the Incident. Attachments. Displays all available file attachments for the Incident. From here, users can upload and download the attachments as required. Double-clicking on any entry in the Attachment List will display a pop-up dialog containing the full text-based description of the file. RFC s. Displays all RFC s that the Incident is associated with. Double-clicking on any entry in the RFC List will display a pop-up dialog containing the full text-based summary for the selected record.

72 Statistics. Displays various statistics relating to the Incident. Incident to Me Users can click on the Incident to Me button at the bottom of the screen when viewing an Incident s details. This will send an containing the details of the Incident to the user for their reference.

73 Raising a New Incident Users can easily add a new incident by using a wizard driven process. The text and fields shown during the wizard are customisable, as previously mentioned. 1. Incident Classification. The user is prompted to select the category of their problem. If there are quick incidents defined then this option will also be available on this screen. 2. Specific Questions. This step in the wizard ensures the user completes any questions that are defined as part of the Category User Defined Fields. The fields in this list can be pre populated to ensure easy selection for the users.

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75 3. Specific Fields. This step in the wizard allows the user to select some of the more advanced incident options such as the incident priority and the name of the specialist to deal with the incident. It is usually the case that during configuration, these fields will be defaulted to specific values and then hidden from the user. If all of the fields are hidden then this step will not be bypassed. 4. Incident Description. This step in the wizard allows the user to freely type in the nature of the problem they are experiencing. There is an embedded spell checker provided to aide their text input. Once the user clicks the Finish button, the incident will be saved.

76 5. Incident Saved After the Incident has been saved this fact is confirmed to the user and they are presented with their incident ID number. By clicking on the button, they will be taken to the incident details where they can add additional information and attachments to the incident.

77 The RFC List The RFC List displays all Service Desk RFC s that the user is associated with. The columns displayed here depend on what settings have been applied to the user s Customer Settings Group. See RFC List for more information on configuration. User s can sort and group information in the same way as when viewing the Incident List. Note: Navigator traversing that applies to Incidents does not apply to the RFC List and users are shown only RFC s which they are associated with.

78 Raising a New RFC Users can easily raise a Request For Change by providing some core information about the RFC. The text and fields shown are customisable, as previously mentioned. The different types of field presented to the user are: 1. Selection Fields. Category, Priority and Owner are selectable. These fields can be defaulted and hidden from the Setup Console. 2. Text Fields. Summary, Description and Reason allow the entry of text for the user to adequately describe the change they are requesting. 3. Due Date The due data date field allows the user to specify the desired completion date for the RFC. This date can be overridden by the change owner at a later date.

79 The Knowledge Base The Self Service Portal Knowledge Base utilises to different data-sources for its content. 1. From the Internal Service Desk Knowledge Base which is maintained and configured from within the SupportDesk Windows Client. 2. From user-defined catalog s that are running as part of the Microsoft Indexing Service. From the Knowledge Base screen; users are provided with a drop-down list which contains the top 5 most popular knowledge base articles for their specific Customer Settings Group. Each of these entries can be selected and viewed by selecting the required item from the drop-down list. The 2 checkboxes near the top of the screen allow the user to specify which knowledge base they wish to perform their search against.

80 Searching Knowledge base 1. Enter the required search criteria into the Search Criteria text box and click on the Search button. 2. Any matching records will be shown in the knowledge base tree. Each article found is ranked and this score appears next to the article title. 3. Hovering the mouse pointer over articles listed under the Service Desk Matches node will display further a tool tip containing further information on the article including; the Category of the article, the number of file attachments and a summary of the keywords available. 4. Click on any of the results in the tree in order to view the full article.

81 Knowledge Base Article Details The Knowledge Base Article Details screen displays full article information to the user. There are 2 variations of this screen to support both type of knowledge base. Figure 1: Service Desk Knowledge Base Article Details

82 Figure 2: Document Knowledge Base Article Details The contents of the document are displayed within the page itself. File Attachments File attachments are only available for Service Desk Knowledge Base articles. These can be accessed by clicking on Attachments button from within the Article Details window. Article to Me Users can Service Desk knowledge Base articles to themselves if they so require; buy clicking on the Article to Me button at the bottom of article details window. This will trigger the generation of an which will be sent to the user containing the full details of the article and any file attachments associated with it. The Contact Us Page The Contact Us page displays Service Desk contact information to users. This page can be customised if required. See Creating a Customised Contact Us Page for further information.

83 My Account The My Account screen allows users to manage basic aspects of their user profile. From here, users can perform the following tasks: Change their login password. Change their address Reset their Incident List s layout. This will re-apply the default groups and sort order to the list. Logging out of the Self Service Portal Logging out of the Self Service Portal is not required by default as the user s session will timeout after a period of inactivity, however; it is good practice encourage your users to logout of the system cleanly as this will cause the user s session to be closed immediately instead of having to wait for a session timeout to occur. To logout, users must simply click on the Logout button from the main toolbar. This will automatically redirect users back to the application s Login page.

84 File Attachments File attachments are available from the Incident Details and Knowledge Article Base Details screens. Users are permitted to both upload and download file attachments as required. Uploading File Attachments 1. From the required screen; click on the Add Attachment button. 2. From the Add Attachment window; click on the Browse button and select the file you wish to upload. 3. Click on the Upload button. By default, the maximum file size permitted by users for upload is 1MB. If the file you are attempting to upload exceeds this limit; you will receive the following

85 error. 4. If the file upload was successful; you will receive the following message indicating that the file upload process is complete. 5. Click on the Close button to finish. Downloading File Attachments Downloading an attachment is simply a case of selecting the required file and clicking on the Download button from the appropriate screen. Both the Incident Details and Knowledge Base Article Details screens make file attachments available for download from within the Self Service Portal.