To create a new support-analyst record, follow the instructions given here: 1. From the File menu, select New > Support Analyst to display the Add New
2. Complete all fields in the Details tab. They are as follows:
Analyst ID This field should contain the proposed user ID of the support
analyst, and will be the ID used by the analyst to log into Supportworks. (Note that only alphabetic, numeric and underscore characters are allowed in the analyst ID, with underscore not being permitted as the first character.) Any of five methods of authentication can be used: one specific to Supportworks, one based on Windows NT, one based on the Microsoft Active Directory service (ADS), one based on the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) often associated with Novell NetWare 5.0 and above, or one based on Novell NetWare Directory Services (NDS). All
If you opt for the native Supportworks method, you have to decide on a suitable analyst ID, and then type that into the field.
If you opt for NT authentication, you can click the NT Domain Account button to display a domain browser in which you would then select the relevant login ID from the displayed list either by scrolling and clicking, or by entering the ID in the Search field. When you close the list window, the login ID you selected appears in the Analyst ID field, the user’s name appears in the Full Name field, and the login-related fields at the bottom of the Details tab change appropriately.
If you opt for Active Directory service authentication, you have to decide on a suitable analyst ID (which may, for example, be the initial part of the User Principal Name), and then type that into the field.
If you opt for LDAP, you have to decide on a suitable analyst ID (which may, for example, be an appropriate part of the Distinguished Name), and then type that into the field.
If you opt for Novell NDS authentication, you have to decide on a suitable analyst ID (which may, for example, be the NetWare username), and then type that into the field.
Full Name This field should contain the name of the analyst, as you would
like to see it displayed in a tree browser representing the structure of the support team. You may wish to include a job title in the case of a group manager, for example. If you have selected a Windows NT login ID, as mentioned above, the Full Name field will have been filled in automatically (although you may still edit it).
Home Group From the pick list associated with this field, select the support
group to which the analyst primarily belongs. This is the mandatory group that will always appear in red in the Support Team tree for that analyst. Note that the full and unique versions of the group IDs are shown in parentheses against the group names in the pick list.
The contact-information fields Of these six fields, complete whichever are
necessary.
Authenticate login using The item in this field indicates the method of
authentication that Supportworks must use when the analyst logs into the system. By default, the setting is Supportworks Security Database, which is the method specific to Supportworks. With this setting, you will have to decide on an initial password for the analyst and then enter it in both of the password fields provided.
If you have selected a Windows NT account as the analyst ID (as mentioned above), the setting will have automatically changed to NT Domain
Authentication, and the password fields will have changed to a Domain field. You should check that the domain indicated is correct.
If you want the analyst to use the Microsoft Active Directory service (ADS) as the means of authentication, you should select Windows 2000 Active Directory via the drop-down list, whereupon the password fields change to one in which you must enter a valid User Principal Name (UPN). A UPN is similar in format to an Internet e-mail address.
If you want the analyst to use LDAP as the means of authentication, you should select Lightweight Directory Access Protocol via the drop-down list, whereupon the password fields change to one in which you must specify an LDAP server and a valid Distinguished Name. Enter the name or IP address of a suitable computer running LDAP (perhaps a Novell NetWare server), then type a forward slash (/), and finally enter the analyst’s Distinguished Name as recognised by the LDAP server. An example might be as follows:
SERVER01/o=hornbill,cn=steve.
If you want the analyst to use Novell NDS as the means of authentication, you should select Novell NDS Authentication via the drop-down list, whereupon the password fields change to one in which you must enter a valid NDS username or, if this is not unique within your organisation, a fully qualified NDS user ID. The latter option would be in the following format:
<username>.<context>.<tree>
where <username> is the lowest-level unit of the ID, <context> is any
number of levels of organisational unit (separated from each other by single dots, with the lowest level first), and <tree> is the highest-level
3. Click Apply to create a new record containing the information you have entered so far. This step is necessary so that you will be able to set the analyst’s e-mail privileges (as described below).
4. Click the Regional Settings tab if you need to adjust any settings that relate to the analyst’s own locale.
Supportworks does not use the regional settings provided by Windows. Instead, it uses settings you can set up for yourself independently of the operating system. You configure these settings within the Regional Settings tab. Note that some of these, such as Date/Time Format, can be overridden by more specific field-attribute settings in customisable forms. (For further information, please refer to the System Customisation Guide.)
Time Zone This specifies the time zone in which the analyst is located. When
the analyst is logged into the Supportworks system, any dates and times generated by the system will be displayed on the client in accordance with the time zone set here.
Local Standards and Formats The first field in this section allows you to
quickly set commonly accepted region-specific defaults for date and time formats and the currency symbol, or to select a Custom Settings option by which you can modify these (in the fields below) according to your own preferences.
With Custom Settings, the various coded elements you can use in the date and time format fields, together with their meanings, are as follows:
Element Meaning
HH H
Hours in 24-hour clock form with leading zero when less than 10 Without leading zero
hh h
Hours in 12-hour clock form with leading zero when less than 10 Without leading zero
mm m
Minutes with leading zero when less than 10 Without leading zero
ss s
Seconds with leading zero when less than 10 Without leading zero
dddd Day of the week as its full name
ddd Day of the week as a three-letter abbreviation dd
d
Day of the month as digits with leading zero when less than 10 Without leading zero
MMMM Month as its full name
Along with the elements above, you can enter any other displayable
characters, which the system will interpret literally. Thus, the following time and date formats might produce respective times and dates as shown: HH:mm:ss = 12:30:59
hh:mm:ss tt = 05:25:41 PM dd-MM-yyyy = 03-09-2007
dddd, dd of MMMM, yyyy = Tuesday, 03 of September, 2007
5. If the analyst is also a member of other support groups, click the Group Membership tab to define these additional memberships.
yy Year as last two digits (with leading zero when less than 10) tt AM or PM for 12-hour clock
6. The Group Selection area of this tab contains a pool of all the “true” groups (and sub-groups) defined on the system, while the Group Membership area is intended for showing the specific groups to which the analyst belongs. Notice that the home group you selected for the analyst on the Details tab is already displayed in the Group Membership area. To add a group to the analyst’s group membership, select the group concerned and click the Add button. The group immediately appears in the Group Membership area. In this area, only the home group’s name has an icon next to it, thus
distinguishing it from any optional groups shown.
returning to this tab. You would then find that you are able to remove the group as normal.
7. Click the System Privileges tab to select an appropriate role and data dictionary for the analyst, and to set specific operational and/or managerial permissions for that individual.
8. Adjust any of the following settings, available in the System Privileges tab, as appropriate:
Role You can select one of three roles for the analyst within the support
team: Support Analyst, Group Manager or System Administrator. Someone in the role of Support Analyst will be unable to create or manage other analyst records, and will be able to manage their own record only to a limited
manage their own record to the same extent. A System Administrator will be able to create and fully manage records relating to the entire support team. See Analyst Management Rights Relating to Each Role on page 119 for more precise details.
Data Dictionary A data dictionary is a system look-up table that defines
major elements of the Supportworks client’s appearance and operation. One or more data dictionaries (based on the Default or other templates) will have been created for you to produce customised versions of the client, suitable for your particular support operation or the different offerings available from it. Any such customised version is known as an application. If multiple applications (data dictionaries) are available, each may perhaps be intended for analysts in a different support group. It is also possible that analysts having multiple responsibilities may need to use more than one application. For the analyst whose record you are creating, you should select here the data dictionary that is relevant to them, or (in a multi-role case) the one that is relevant most of the time. Whichever data dictionary you select will be the one that is going to be loaded by default whenever the analyst logs into their Supportworks client account.
Permissions In Supportworks, there are a large number of rights, regarding
very specific client operations, that analysts can be given on an individual basis. They fall into the following categories: Call Management Rights (A and B), System Management Rights, Desktop Workspace Rights, Data Dictionary Rights, Global SQL Database Rights and Database Management Rights. By default, every new support-analyst record is initially set with most rights disabled, as depicted by the red crosses against the items in the scrollable list.
You have to examine carefully the list of permissions and decide which of these to enable for the analyst whose record you are creating. To give the right to perform a particular operation, click the item concerned. The red cross changes to a green check-mark. To subsequently revoke a right, click the item again. If you click a category, all permissions within it are enabled or disabled.
Max Assigned Calls If you wish to place a limit on how many calls the
analyst can have assigned to them at the same time, you can specify the maximum number here. A value of 0 (zero) would mean that an unlimited number of calls can be assigned.
Can backdate call actions If you enable this option, the analyst, when
updating a call, will be allowed to enter an update time that is older than the current time. Note that, if any Log Call form used by the analyst contains a log-date/time field, and you wish to give the analyst rights to backdate (and post-date) log actions specifically, you must ensure that the “Can backdate when logging new calls” option under Call Management Rights B is enabled.
Max Backdate Period If you have enabled the previous option, you can
specify here the maximum amount (in hours and minutes) by which the analyst will be able to backdate call updates.
9. Click the Application Rights tab to grant access to each application (identified as a data dictionary) that the analyst is going to be using, and to set application-specific permissions for the analyst.
10. The left-hand pane of the Application Rights tab displays a checklist of all available data dictionaries, where initially the one you selected in the System Privileges tab would be checked (assuming you enabled permissions in that tab). If the data dictionary is part of an application that has its own specific rights associated with it, the right-hand pane will display these rights. In that pane, if you can see application rights, click any red crosses representing the permission groups or individual permissions that you want to enable for the analyst.
To grant access to additional data dictionaries, click the relevant checkboxes in the left-hand pane. (Note that the original entry remains displayed in bold
If there are no applications, usable by the analyst, that have permissions associated with them, you can ignore the right-hand pane completely. 11. Click the E-Mail Privileges tab to give the analyst access to the required
mailboxes, and to set specific mailbox-related permissions for the analyst.
12. In the E-Mail Privileges tab, click Add Shared Mailbox to display the Available Shared Mailboxes dialogue box, which lists all the shared mailboxes that are available on your Supportworks system.
13. Select a shared mailbox that you want the analyst to be able to access, and click OK.
14. Repeat the above two steps for each additional shared mailbox that the analyst will need to access.
15. In the tree-browser area of the E-Mail Privileges tab, highlight the item under Personal Mailbox, which is actually the analyst ID, representing the analyst’s own mailbox. Notice the set of rights now displayed in the main right-hand pane. By default, all personal-mailbox rights are initially enabled in a new support-analyst record, as indicated by the green check-marks. To revoke any of the rights, click the relevant item. Notice that the check-mark changes to a red cross. To subsequently re-invoke the right to perform the action, click the item again. A quick way of invoking or revoking all rights on a given mailbox is to select All Rights or No Rights, respectively, from the pick list above the main right-hand pane.
16. Back in the tree browser, highlight each of the shared mailboxes in turn and adjust the rights as necessary in the same way as for the personal mailbox. 17. Click the Default Settings tab to set operational options for the analyst.
18. In the Default Settings tab, adjust any of the following settings, as appropriate:
When logging calls the following profile detail is required You can define here
the minimum number of problem-profile levels (if any) the analyst must specify when logging a call.
When closing calls the following profile detail is required You can define here
the minimum number of resolution-profile levels (if any) the analyst must specify when closing or resolving a call.
Default Options These define the default settings for options that the analyst
can enable or disable on a per-call basis when logging or updating a call. The most sensible policy for the defaults would be to enable the options that must be permanently set, as well as those that the analyst is likely to require for the majority of calls.
By default, every new support-analyst record is initially set with all default options disabled, as indicated by the red crosses against the items in the scrollable list. To enable a particular option, click the item concerned. The red cross changes to a green check-mark. To subsequently disable an option, click the item again. If you click the By Default item at the top of the list, all options are enabled or disabled.
19. Click the Library Resources tab if you wish to see the virtual root folders (shares) that have been made available by default to the analyst in their My Library view, or if you wish to modify these shares or create new ones. All shares point to folders on the computer where the Supportworks server is located.
20. In the Library Resources tab, if you wish to examine the permissions associated with a particular root folder, just select that share from the list in the top pane, and look at the items displayed within the Permissions pane. To change any of the permissions, you would click the relevant check-marks or crosses as usual.
If you wish to make a new share available to the analyst, you can create one by clicking Add. At the prompt that appears, enter a name or path for the share (which will ultimately appear in the My Library view), and then enter the actual path (on the server) that the share will represent. Click the Validate button to verify that the path you typed actually exists, and click OK at the
If you wish to modify the share name/path or the actual path for an existing share, you can do so by clicking Edit. You are presented with a prompt similar to the one displayed when you create a new share, except that the fields show the existing parameters.
If you wish to delete a share, you must first select it and then click Delete. Click Yes at the prompt to confirm.
21. Click the Skills tab if you wish to build a skill profile of the analyst. With such a requirement, it is probable that you would have already created records for all available support skills, as described in Skills on page 93.
22. In the Skills tab, click Add to display the Skill Chooser dialogue box. This is similar to the Manage Skills dialogue box.
24. In the Skill Status dialogue box, you can enter information representing the effectiveness of the analyst with regard to the selected skill. Firstly, from past records, you may be able to ascertain the number of incidents (calls) that brought this skill into play, and the number of these that the analyst was able to resolve successfully. Secondly, you may also have a note of the date when the analyst resolved the most recent incident of this kind. You can then combine these and other factors, by an assessment scheme of your own choosing, to form an overall skill rating. You should enter all these figures in the relevant fields.
25. Click OK. Notice that the selected skill now appears in the list in the Skills