Administrator s Guide ALMComplete Support Ticket Manager

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This guide provides an overview of

ALMComplete’s Support Manager with setup instructions.

Administrator’s Guide ALMComplete Support Ticket Manager

SoftwarePlanner Release 9.6.0 and higher

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ALMComplete Support Manager

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Overview

Support Manager gives your customers or users the ability to submit issues directly to your Support Team without logging into ALMComplete or being ALMComplete users. Customers posting support issues do not consume a license so it won’t interfere with your team. Issues are posted to

ALMComplete Defects in a project and folder that you designate. Emails are automatically generated to your support team.

Using the Support Manager setup, you decide what your support request will look like and what data you need to collect.

Support Manager Customization

Using the Support Manager setup, you can customize the appearance of your Support Manager request form, including branding with your Logo, using a CSS Style Sheet, and modifying the fields and prompts to improve your users’ experience.

You can create Support Managers for any of your Projects. With Support Manager set up, you decide which Project, what Folder in Defects, what Logo and other appearance options best suit your needs.

Defects

Support requests submitted through the Support Manager request form become Defects in ALMComplete. By setting the Folder location, Status, and other default values, your Support Team can easily respond and track Support questions.

Support Manager sends automatic emails to the customer and to your support team. Each email response posted through the support ticket emails is added as a Note on the support ticket defect.

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Preparation

Before configuring your Support Manager, you need to gather some specific information:

 Logo – Select your Logo for branding your Support page. We recommend a small logo no wider than about 250 pixels, because it will also be used in the default email to your user.

 Project – You can create a Support Manager for each of your Projects. Which one do you want to start with?

 Defect Folder – You’ll need to designate a Folder for holding your Support Tickets in Defects.

 Default Values – Determine which fields on the Support Ticket need a default value.

 Required Fields – You likely have Required Fields in Defects.

IMPORTANT: Every Required Field in Defects needs to be included in Support Manager setup so that your Support Defect includes all the necessary data.

To verify your Defect Required fields, go to Setup / System Configuration / Screen Layout and select Defects. Look at the Required Fields tab.

Keep in mind that if you use Workflow, there may be additional required fields to consider. Click Workflow and State Transitions and check each Status for additional required fields.

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ALMComplete Support Manager Next, create a folder in Defects that will house your Support Tickets.

Go to Defects, Click on Folders, then click Add to create your Support Ticket Folder:

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Support Manager Configuration

Once you’ve gathered the information requested above, you’re ready to configure your Support Manager.

Security

Permission to the Support Manager setup is controlled by a Security Setting.

Go to Setup / Security and select the Security Group that needs permission to create and maintain your Support Manager.

Scroll down to the Other Areas section and grant permission to Support Manager Setup:

Submit your changes.

For more information on Security Group Privileges, please see our User’s Guide.

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Support Manager Setup Step 1

After you grant permission to Support Manager Setup, continue with the setup.

Go to Setup / System Configuration and select Support Manager.

To create your first Support Manager, click Add New Manager.

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On Add New Manager – Step 1, give your Support Manager a name in the Save Manager As: field.

 Check the Is Active? box.

 The Entity drop down determines where the submitted ticket will go. Currently, this is available for Defects only.

 Select the Project for your Support issues

 Select the Folder that you created for your Support Ticket Defects.

 You can enter an optional Description.

 Click Next to continue.

Once you have Support Managers created, you can select from the Saved Managers drop down for modification.

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Step 2 determines the look of the request form where your customer posts a support issue. You can set a logo, use your own text, and upload a CSS file to modify the appearance of the form.

 Manager displays the name of the Support Manager configuration from Step 1.

 Entity displays the selected Entity for the Support Issues. Currently this is set to Defects only.

 In the Logo field, use the Browse… button to select the logo that will appear on the upper right of your Support submittal page and in the response email. We recommend a small file, less than 250 pixels wide, since this also appears in the response email that goes to the customer.

 You can upload a CSS file to modify the page appearance.

 Ticket Name appears as the title in the body of the response email to your customer

 Login Caption appears in the heading of the log in form.

 Support Team Name appears on the signature line of the email to your customer

 Support Email is the from email address used on the response email to your customer.

 To make your Logo clickable, put the desired URL in Top Image Link. When your customer clicks on your Logo, they go to this URL.

 Allow Attachments gives your customer the ability to post up to 5 attachments when submitting the Support issue. If you don’t need attachments, uncheck this box.

Click Next to continue.

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Step 3 determines the fields, the order and default values for the fields that appear on your support request page. This is where you need your list of Required fields in Defects – be sure to add a row for every Required Field.

 The default Required fields that appear are Title, Description, Steps and Status.

 Additional fields for Priority, Severity, Assigned To, Issue and How Found appear. Select the Default Values for each field.

 Hide fields by toggling between the green check mark and red circle in the Visible column.

 Use Add Row to add the other fields that you need on the support submittal page. You can drag them up and down to change the order in which they appear.

 Use the Tool Tip column to give your customers some help with each field. The text here appears above the field on the submittal form.

Important: Be sure to include any fields that you have designated as Required in Defects - Screen Layouts.

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In this example, we set Default values for Status, Priority, Severity, Assigned To, Issue Code and How Found. Since our customer does not need to see these fields, we uncheck the Visible? column.

Title, Description and Steps to Reproduce are required fields in Defects, so we rows for each, made them Visible and marked them Required.

The Tool Tip is the text that will display above each field when our customer submits a Support Ticket. Make this text as helpful as possible for your customers.

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Once you’ve defined your Support Manager, a URL is automatically created. You’ll find it on the Support Manager Setup list. This is the URL to use as the hyperlink to submitting an issue on your company’s support or customer page.

Copy the COMPLETE URL to create your link on your company web site for your customers’ use.

Best Practices: We recommend you create a page or place on your company website for your

customers. Add the link to your Support Manager using the FULL URL displayed here (keeping in mind this URL could change). Give your customers a link to your company’s page, where they can click on your Support Manager link to submit issues.

Also, from the Support Manager list, you can select any existing Support Manager to edit or change the configuration.

You can add a new Support Manager starting with a copy of an existing Support Manager by clicking Add New Manager – then select the Support Manager that you want to copy in the Saved Managers drop down, then put a new name in Save Manager As. You can make your changes to the copy and save.

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The Support Experience

Customer Login

When you customer clicks on your Support Manager link on your web page, they see your login form:

The caption on this form comes from the Login Caption that you defined in Support Manager Setup.

After your customer enters an email address, Support Manager checks for information on this user. If nothing is found, the user gets a new user form to complete. The information on this screen is posted

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and Opened By Company. These are system controlled fields that you won’t see on the Support Manager Setup.

After registering, the support ticket submittal page appears:

If you allowed Attachments in your Support Manager Setup, the user can browse and upload screen shots, documents and other files.

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When the Support Ticket is submitted, a number of things happen:

 A new Defect is created for the Project in the Folder that you set up.

 An email goes to your Support Team at the email address you supplied in setup.

 A confirmation email goes to the customer letting them know the ticket was submitted.

When a Support Ticket is submitted, the user will see a response page giving them the option to create another ticket or view the one just submitted.

From this window and from within the automatic email responses, your user can click a link to review the status of any submitted ticket.

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Review all my Tickets takes your user to a list of Support Tickets where they can review the details and status – all without consuming an ALMComplete License.

Support Emails

Additionally, email alerts are automatically fired – one to your user and one to your support team.

Links in the email allow your Support Team to respond directly, and each response is added as a Note on the Support Ticket Defect.

Your customer receives a verification email showing the Support issue details and links that will go directly back to the Support issue for updates:

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Your Support Team receives an email with the details, contact information AND a link to respond directly to the customer through the email – they don’t even have to log into ALMComplete.

Effective Communication

When using the links in the emails, each new email generates a new Note on the Support Defect and each reply from your customer or your support team includes all of the Notes so that your customer and your team can communicate clearly and effectively.

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ALMComplete Support Manager And your Support Team sees an acknowledgement that the response was sent.

In ALMComplete

Each Support Ticket is posted as a Defect in your Support Ticket folder.

Each email response that posted through the support emails is automatically added as a Note on the Support Ticket defect.

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For additional information about ALMComplete, please see the User's Guide.

Administrator s Guide ALMComplete Support Ticket Manager

This guide provides an overview of

ALMComplete’s Support Manager with setup instructions.