Help Manual & Documentation Personal Helpdesk

Transcription

1 Help Manual & Documentation Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 2003/2007/2010 AssistMyTeam SMB Solutions Revision 29 A comprehensive helpdesk system entirely integrated seamlessly within your Microsoft Office Outlook, transforming it from a simple client to a fully fledged service provider

2 2 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Personal Helpdesk System Welcome to the only comprehensive helpdesk system entirely integrated seamlessly within your Microsoft Outlook, transforming it from an client to a fully fledged service provider. This is an elaborate help documentation that will guide you how to install, configure, and work with support cases in matter of minutes. Graphic illustration and screenshots of the screen/forms are used with proper marking wherever they are required to drive down the point of the relevant topic.

3 3 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1.1 How does it work? 1.2 Major Features 1.3 Benefits 1.4 Requirements 1.5 Installation 2. Personal Helpdesk Outlook Folders 2.1 History folder 2.2 KB folder 2.3 Ongoing Cases folder 2.4 Resolved Cases folder 2.5 Schedules folder 3. Working with Personal Helpdesk System 3.1 Personal Settings 3.2 Access Control 3.3 Assets List Manager 3.4 Technicians List Manager 3.5 Problems List Manager 3.6 Callers List Manager 3.7 Templates Manager 3.8 Notification Manager 3.9 Monitoring 3.10 Predefined Answers 3.11 Custom Fields 3.12 Mobile Messaging 3.13 Automation Options 3.14 Advanced Settings 3.15 Web Access 3.16 Service Level Agreement 3.17 Case Options 4. Working with Personal Helpdesk UI 4.1 Toolbars 4.2 Context Menu 4.3 Navigation Shortcuts 5. Working with Support Request form 5.1 Case Detail 5.2 Time Spent 5.3 History 5.4 Notes 5.5 Assets 5.6 My Fields 5.7 Logs 5.8 Other cases from this caller 5.9 Common Tasks 6. Logging new support cases 7. Automatic logging of support request s 8. Automatic Notifications 8.1 notifications 8.2 Mobile SMS notifications 9. Sending SMS 9.1 SMS via HTTP Gateways

4 4 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 9.2 SMS via Skype 9.3 Sending SMS to a caller/technician manually 9.4 Automatic SMS reminder 10. Making Calls 10.1 Configuring Skype to make calls 10.2 Configuring an attached phone to make calls 10.3 Making calls to a contact 11. Outlook views 11.1 Personal Helpdesk specific views 11.2 Customizing a view 12 Knowledge base 12.1 Outlook knowledgebase form 12.2 Creating a new knowledgebase 12.3 Applications of knowledgebase articles 12.4 Publishing knowledgebase to web 13. Using predefined answers 14. Searching and Reporting 14.1 Searching from Personal Helpdesk toolbars 14.2 Searching via dialog 15. Working with Administrative Tools 15.1 Statistics Overview Understanding the User Interface Working with OLAP Grid Working with the OLAP Chart Visual Analysis Predefined Reports Printing and Exporting 15.2 Summary Reports 15.3 Export to Database 15.4 Archive Cases 15.5 Demo Cases 16. Customer Web Service (CWS) 16.1 How does it work? 16.2 Requirements 16.3 Setup and Configuration Step 1: Setting up an IIS webfolder Step 2: Set network permission to the IIS webfolder Step 3: Extract web service files to IIS webfolder Step 4: Set ASP.NET permission on Temp subfolder Step 5: Configure Web Access Settings in Outlook Step 6: Write/Update XML metadata setting files 16.4 Submitting a new support request via webform 16.5 Checking Case Status via webform 16.6 Web Knowledgebase 16.7 Caller Web Access (CWA) 17. Contact Manager 18. Removing Personal Helpdesk System 19. Licensing 20. Important links

5 5 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 1. Introduction Why a helpdesk system? Simple as a means of providing customer support is often insufficient and unreliable. If you are a helpdesk manager, ask yourself the following questions: Is our support team overwhelmed by the support s? Am I concerned whether customer queries are being answered on time? Are the most time-consuming and repeated queries being answered manually? Are we using the right technology to increase productivity for our helpdesk? Are we keeping the callers in communication loop once a support request is logged? If such questions are in your mind, then it's an indication for the need to implement a good helpdeskmanagement system to automate the support processes in your organization. But how do you arrive to the decision of choosing a particular helpdesk? Do you need a helpdesk database system that works standalone within your local network? Or do you need a web based helpdesk to enable your scattered support personnel to work on troubled tickets? Or do you require a helpdesk that make uses of your existing infrastructure such as Microsoft Exchange? Typically, an ideal helpdesk system should support the organizations' internal logic and workflows, integrates easily and leverage existing infrastructures, caters to the support technicians on the move, enables automation and processing based on customizable rules and most importantly, should be easy to use with little or no training requirement. But why in Microsoft Office Outlook? You use Outlook extensively - all day, every day for communications, appointments, contacts, tasks etc. When you have relied that heavily on Outlook, why not support tickets or calls in Outlook, without ever leaving Outlook? When you have your address books, mailboxes and public folders stored on a central Exchange server, why would you want to use another unfamiliar, expensive application with external database, just to log in tickets? The problems with helpdesks based on Outlook Microsoft Outlook itself is highly optimized for personal exchange often falling short when it comes to providing a complete history of an event over time. When an has been forwarded on to another helpdesk team member, the original owner loses insight into the progress. This has a serious implication, that is, in its original state, Outlook simply lacks the automation, reporting, reminders, and workflow to manage a support ticket request, which is critical for growing helpdesks looking to optimize and uniformly improve support staff/customer interactions.

6 6 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook The Solution - Extending your Outlook The Personal Helpdesk System answers these limitations by integrating itself within the Outlook process (as an add-in) and extending it as an ideal platform to collect, track and resolve trouble tickets while sharing this information with your entire team, all with ease. It brings all of help desk functionalities and automation and tightly integrates with the easy workflow of Outlook, thereby allowing users to work in the same way they do with s. What you would get as an IT manager is high rate of user acceptance, yet low cost of operation, training and maintenance. Introducing Personal Helpdesk for Outlook A fully featured and automated issue tracking system, Personal Helpdesk is an ITIL guided helpdesk with integrated asset management that is available as an add-on for Microsoft Outlook. It is the only comprehensive helpdesk system entirely integrated seamlessly within your Microsoft Outlook, transforming it from a simple client to a fully fledged service provider. Using Microsoft Exchange or Local PST as repository for storing support cases, it provides support staffs with all the necessary tools to log, collaborate, analyze and assist in the resolution of help desk issues. Various medium of communication supports automated messaging and notification requiring no human inputs. Apart from , the ability to send SMS and make phone calls directly from your Outlook extends the exchange of information to a new level, thereby, making it possible to integrate customer relationship management (CRM) processes in core help desk functionalities. With inbuilt support for advanced statistics and varied reporting options, support managers can evaluate the performance of the helpdesk and in-turn ensures timely decision making for improved service. Furthermore, caller can submit new support requests via a web form, login to caller web access to track and escalate support cases, check status, or search through the knowledge base, all via a web browser for first level support. To sum up, Personal Helpdesk improves your efficiency to enable faster response time and higher productivity for your organization at lower operating costs. After all, the bottom line for your help desk team is for your end-users to receive better and timely service.

7 7 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 1.1 How does it work? Personal Helpdesk makes working on support requests very easy by seamlessly integrating the process of submitting, assigning, tracking and fulfilling support requests all inside your much used Microsoft Outlook! The application is installed on individual computer as an extension to Microsoft Outlook and only relies on Microsoft Outlook for the front-end and your exchange server as the back-end. No database, file server is required. Manager configures admin contents You define drop-down lists such as callers, problems, assets, as well as s SMS templates, predefined replies; messaging options, web access etc. Caller contacts support team Caller requests for support by sending an , by making a phone call or simply, by filling a web form. These support requests are then logged and converted to cases in Outlook. Further details and drop-down lists (such as the classification of problems the request falls into) can then be set.

8 8 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Work to resolve the case When a new case is generated, you are automatically assigned as the technician to work, fulfill and resolve the case. Further correspondence to the caller might follow (in the form of s, SMS, phone calls). All activity related to the case are logged and you can fill time spent. Relevant asset information and fixes related to the case can be accessed and tracked right from the case form itself. Caller follows-up on their support cases via or web access The caller then can escalate, withdraw, reopen or simply track the history of their support cases online with Caller Web Access (CWA). Alternatively, caller can reply back to from the helpdesk and the response automatically triggers an escalation on that particular support case. Close case Certain pre-defined Outlook views can be used to track the progress of cases. Once every parameter of the caller's request has been fulfilled, a case be is closed. Add to knowledge base A closed case can be a good source of future reference and you can create a new knowledge base entry based on the case. It is then available in the list of articles categorized and sorted, ready for you to draw from when similar issues arise. Inbuilt statistical and trend reports To identify problem areas and increase helpdesk efficiency, you can run the statistical tool from time to time, collecting valuable intelligence and trends and generating meaningful reports.

9 9 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 1.2 Major Features Total Microsoft Outlook Integration and supports Outlook 2003, 2007 and No script behind Personal Helpdesk specific Outlook forms thereby allowing preview pane support on case/knowledge base item in folder view Use a local PST, public folder or a shared mailbox Import callers from local address book or GAL/Active Directory Automatic notification of s and SMS to helpdesk events Customize and notification templates Use rich text, formatted HTML, images in case with supports for all kind of file formats as attachments. Use Outlook inbuilt editor to format any part of the case description field Incoming monitoring & automatic conversion Notification Manager Automatic Notifications Convert appointments, tasks to support cases User customizable /sms templates Asset Tracking and Management Integrated Contact Manager Integrated Archiving Tool Short Message Service (SMS) via HTTP Short Message Service (SMS) via Skype Phone Calls via Skype Phone Calls via attached modem Automatic SMS Alerts on help desk events Inbuilt knowledge base AJAX enabled ASP.NET sites - Customer Web Service (CWS) including Caller Web Access (CWA) Export support cases to a database of your choice (Access, MSSQL, Oracle, MySQL) Generate Summary Reports Integrated OLAP statistics and reporting tool Reporting, Charting, and Data Analysis 30 Outlook views specialized for help desk Search Outlook views Embed case Outlook link in s sent to technicians so that technicians can directly click the link to open the case and start working on it Quick Actions in folder view (Reply, Call, SMS, Close, Convert to KB, Print, Delete etc.) Add due date appointment to your default calendar (automatic/manual) Add due date task in your default task folder (automatic/manual) Use a dedicated mailbox for all outgoing s for all technicians Due date monitoring and automatic reminders when the case is about to be overdue Support for Outlook 2007/2010 ribbons Support for Outlook 2007/2010 form region in folder view (on both Ongoing and Resolved folders) Help desk functionality tightly integrated with Outlook contacts Import callers list from Outlook contacts and global address list Choice of hourly rate (technician/problem/department) for calculating cost to support a case List Manager - compatible with Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheets. Support direct copy and

10 10 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook paste Drag-and-drop raw s to Personal Helpdesk Ongoing folder for automatic case generations Mail enable Personal Helpdesk Ongoing folder to convert any incoming s to support cases Install/uninstall support - conveniently install and uninstall from your machine Printing support and customizable print template Support custom fields Works without needing any change in Outlook security settings Personal Helpdesk Productivity is the mantra! Centralized tracking of support requests - cases are available enterprise-wide for quick collaboration and resolution. Automate labor intensive helpdesk tasks and processes such as logging in support cases from s, sending notification s, assigning technicians to cases etc. which otherwise would have performed manually. Resolve some of the basic problems of telephones and on support requests - answering the same old queries, tracking calls on past history and a feel of disconnect between the so called helpdesk and support team. Allows you to track the history easily on caller/asset queries. Have reports of customer queries answered, open cases, or those on high-priority by days, weeks, months or years. Attends and serves your internal customers (employees) especially in supporting the most common problems they face with the IT assets such as network, their PCs, software etc. Build a knowledgebase of answers to the most common types of queries over a period of time as the number of queries increases. So, whenever the same query comes in, the support staff simply has to dig up the knowledge base and send the readymade answer. Generate an entire web based website from the knowledge base answers (in exchange) to be put up on the website for customers and end-users to access them. Being on the Web means it s available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Eliminates a lot of redundancy, and the support staff can focus on the more important queries. Supports new technologies for customer support - telephones, s, mobile messaging (SMS), Skype Calls and messaging, HTTP SMS gateways.

11 11 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 1.3 Benefits Benefits for your organisation: Work on cases in your Outlook as if you would work on s Single enterprise-wide view of support cases, callers, problems and resolutions Little or no training requirement on the part of your support technicians Centralized data storage on Microsoft Exchanger (mailbox or public folder) - efficient platform for collaboration Enable integration with Active Directory Common point-of-call for your callers Structured workflow for all helpdesk activity Freeing up valuable human resources by automating cases logging, sending notifications etc. Higher productivity and increased "up-time" for support staffs Organized state of cases means faster tracking requests Identify problem areas and increase helpdesk efficiency "Do more with less" - affordable one-time fee with enterprise-wide license Benefits for your callers: Always in communication loop via the power and ease of automated /messaging Inspires confidence to the help desk service A knowledge base that a caller can search through for resolution to their query Check on the progress or status of the case via web Request support in a standardized way through , phone calls or web form submission Case get resolved in a timely manner and hence customer satisfaction Helps in building trust and loyalty in your brand

12 12 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 1.4 Requirements Personal Helpdesk for Outlook is available right inside your Outlook unlike any other stand alone application and web based help desk software. It can be easily deployed through an installer (manually or via a group policy object with MSI) across the entire organization. Please make sure that your system meets the following requirements before installing Personal Helpdesk for Outlook: For Personal Helpdesk for Outlook: Windows Version: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7. Both 32 and 64 bit OS are supported. Outlook Version: Outlook 2010, Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2003 (SP2 or above). Personal Helpdesk operates directly inside the Microsoft Outlook application (using Microsoft's "COM add-in" technology). Only 32 bit version of Office is supported as of now. Outlook Express is not supported. Microsoft.NET Framework 2.0 Skype version 2.5 or above with credit - Optional for making calls (learn more..) and sending SMS (learn more..) from Personal Helpdesk. For Personal Helpdesk Web Access website: Microsoft Internet Information Server - Optional (for enabling web access, webform submission, case status enquiry etc.) Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 installed on the IIS server - Optional) A valid account with a SMS provider (HTTP gateway) on the web for sending SMS from Personal Helpdesk - Optional (learn more..)

13 13 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 1.5 Installation & Configuration Installation consists of copying the application files and creating the Personal Helpdesk Outlook folders. Download the installation setup from and run it to install. Step 1. Run the PersonalHelpdeskSetup.exe to start the installation. Click Next to Continue. If Outlook 2003 (SP2 or above) or later is not installed, the setup wizard will not be able to proceed. Please also ensure Outlook is shutdown (if already running or active in the task manager) as the setup has to install an Outlook add-in. Step 2. In the 'Installation Option' dialog, select the language for the Personal Helpdesk folders and forms to be used and click Next. By default, English is the selected language.

14 14 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Step 3. In the 'Customer Information' dialog, you will be prompted to select if the application has to be installed for all users or only for yourself (current user). - The application will be installed for all users of the system i.e., every user in that particular system will be able to use the installed application. This requires local administrative rights on the part of the current user. Also, note that, the application will be installed under the Program Files folder by default. (eg. C:\Program Files\AssistMyTeam\Personal Helpdesk for Outlook). - The application will be installed only for the current user (yourself). With this option, the application will be installed under the user's application data subfolder by default. To use the application by another user on the same system, the user needs to again install the application on their own application data subfolder and will be available for that user only. For examples: On windows XP C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\AssistMyTeam\Personal Helpdesk for Outlook On windows Vista/Win7 C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\AssistMyTeam\Personal Helpdesk for Outlook.

15 15 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Step 4. Select the appropriate destination folder where the application files will be installed. If you change the default folder path, please make sure you have appropriate permission. (Note: by default, it will be installed under your program files folder) Step 5. Once you have verified the previous steps, click Next to continue the files extraction. It may take a few minutes to complete the whole copying process

16 16 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Step 6. Click 'Finish' to proceed to the server configuration in Microsoft Outlook. This ends the files installation process in your system. Step 7. Start Outlook (restart if it was already running during the files installation). As soon as Outlook is loaded, you will be prompted with the following small dialog box, offering you two choices: Create New Personal Helpdesk folders Click this button to create new Personal Helpdesk folders (i.e., Ongoing Cases, Resolved Cases, KB, Schedules and History) which are customized with Personal Helpdesk specific fields, views and forms. Follow step 8 to further go ahead with the configuration. Use Existing Personal Helpdesk folders Click this button to use existing Personal Helpdesk folders (i.e., Ongoing Cases, Resolved Cases, KB, Schedules and History) which had been already configured

17 17 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook earlier. You will be given the option to select the existing Ongoing Cases Personal Helpdesk subfolder. Either you can auto scan (a) to search for the first available Ongoing Cases subfolder. If you already know the location of the existing Personal Helpdesk folders, you can simply click the Browse (b) button to specify the Ongoing Cases subfolder from your Outlook. Once you have selected the path to the Ongoing Cases subfolder, click Continue. Steps 8 and 9 would are not applicable, with this route. Step 8. A folders Installation Wizard dialog (as seen below) enables you to customize the name of the parent Personal Helpdesk folder that will be created. By default, it has a title of 'Personal Helpdesk'.

18 18 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Step 9. Clicking 'Next' button would enable you to select an Outlook parent folder where the specified Personal Helpdesk root folder would be created. If Microsoft Outlook is not already opened, it would be started automatically. The tool would then copy Personal Helpdesk subfolders, forms & designs, views etc. from the Personal Helpdesk PST template file (PersonalHelpdeskPST.pst). It would look like the followings layout: The screenshot below lists all the files that are installed on the system.

19 19 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook

20 20 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 2.Working with Personal Helpdesk Folders Once you have installed Personal Helpdesk, you will find that there are a couple of subfolders in the main parent folder. Each folder serves a specific purpose and the very name reflects the kind of items it holds. You can of course; change the subfolder name to anything that you want it to be and it would not break the working of the Personal Helpdesk System.

21 21 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 2.1 Personal Helpdesk Folders - History History The history subfolder holds all of the originating s and subsequent replies from the caller. When you open a support case, there is a tab ' History' and it lists all the replies in chronological order that were received from that caller. Every help desk staff would require having editor permission over this folder to work with support cases. The History folder includes a custom Personal Helpdesk view (as shown below) that group replies from caller based on case number.

22 22 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 2.2 Personal Helpdesk Folders - Knowledge Base (KB) KB This subfolder house a complete knowledge base system inside your Outlook and is closely integrated with the Personal Helpdesk help desk. The KB articles are available for inserting into replies, on cases and even appointments and tasks. An Outlook toolbar option is also shown and has buttons to create a new empty knowledge base, forward it to an address or publish the whole knowledge base on the world wide web (AJAX website). Any default posting to this folder would take the custom form with message class 'IPM.Post.AMTKnowledgeBasePersonal'. Create a new empty knowledge base item Forward the selected knowledge base item to a contact A Question and Answer format is used to intuitively display Knowledge Base Articles. Each Article may have any number of file attachments associated, rich-text elements, and hyperlinks to other web pages. All articles are tagged with a related problem category and problem type. This enables the articles to be grouped by category and type in the KB folder view making it easier to find a particular article at time of needs. The Outlook preview pane (if enabled) displays a preview of the description field of the selected knowledge base item. When you open an existing knowledge base item, Outlook will display it with the Personal Helpdesk KB custom form (having the custom message class 'IPM.Post.AMTKnowledgeBasePersonal').

23 23 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 2.3 Personal Helpdesk Folders - Ongoing Cases Ongoing Cases This is the most prominent folder where technicians will be working the most! As the name implies, this folder stores all the ongoing cases and, most probably would be most visited and used Personal Helpdesk folder. Any new case, either created manually or generated from out of an would be stationed here, waiting to be attended to by the assigned technicians. An Outlook toolbar housed various drop downs options and buttons related to these folder items. A custom form (message class 'IPM.Post.AMTSupportCasePersonal') is embedded to this folder and by default; any posting to this folder would use the custom form. This folder also comes with Personal Helpdesk specific Outlook views numbering to around 30 or more. Search the 'Ongoing Cases' folder for items (support cases) with keywords. The searched result is effectively applied to the Outlook folder view (by means of Outlook filtering) which would result in only displaying those support cases that meet the searched criteria. Click the 'Clear' button to clear the search in the folder view (and revert back to the selected view effectively). Show/toggle the advanced search options - Apart from the free text search by keywords, Personal Helpdesk also implements an advanced search and reporting options with an array of filters available to extract only the required support cases quickly within the folder view itself. Quick contact menu lists all the possible shortcuts to communicate with the caller/technician (eg. via , phone call, SMS etc.) and enables the helpdesk managers/technicians to initiate a communication medium in single-click without having to open the respective support case item.

24 24 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Create a new empty support request case. Mark the selected cases as resolved (closed). Cases marked resolved are then moved to the 'Resolved Cases' folder. Delete the selected cases from the folder. If the deleted case has any replies, they will be also deleted. Print the selected cases using the customizable 'print HTML template'. Create knowledge base items out of the selected cases. Run statistics tool to analyze helpdesk data and get better insights on support cases. The 'Ongoing Cases' specific Outlook views are the primary interface with which most technicians will scan through for relevant cases in this folder. The drop down menu lists all the available views for this particular folder. Each view is organized to group and filter support cases to make a particular feature of your information obvious at first glance.

25 25 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook The folder view listing all support cases grouped and sorted as per the current selected view (eg. Technicians - Table). Each group also shows the number of items it holds as well as number of items that are unread. Selecting anyone of the case item displays the problem description in the Outlook preview pane. The Outlook preview pane displaying the problem description of the selected case item. In Outlook 2007, it also displays a Personal Helpdesk specific form region on the bottom of the preview pane and includes helpdesk (user-defined) fields which otherwise can only be seen in the Personal Helpdesk case Outlook form.

26 26 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook When you open an existing support case item, Outlook will display it with the Personal Helpdesk case custom form (having the custom message class 'IPM.Post.AMTSupportCasePersonal' for ongoing case and 'IPM.Post.AMTSupportCasePersonal.Closed' for resolved case). The support case form in Outlook does not contain script behind, rather the help desk logics are tied to with the Personal Helpdesk add-in dynamically. This arrangement allows for technicians to view the case details in the preview pane (without having to open the form). It also introduces added security to the already vulnerable Outlook platform.

27 27 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Information catering to the support cases, caller, technicians, problems, work done, assets etc are all laid out in sections in a modular way to allow for easy navigation and reach. Contact fields such as , phone or mobile numbers are accompanied by relevant buttons for quick communication. Fields such as problem category, type, status and department are available in drop down list (which are already configured by the helpdesk manager) so as to limit the choice the technician can select for such fields.

28 28 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 2.4 Personal Helpdesk Folders - Resolved Cases Resolved Cases This is pretty much similar to the 'Ongoing Cases' folder in term of structure, custom form and contents. The difference is the message class and that cases in this folder are marked complete and are not available for direct edit, i.e., the case form will only be available in read-only mode. To work on a resolved case, it would first have to be re-opened (which will then move the case to the 'Ongoing Cases' folder). The default custom form is - 'IPM.Post.AMTSupportCasePersonal.Closed'. Most of the Personal Helpdesk Outlook views in this folder are similar to the 'Ongoing Cases' folder except for some specific views that are particular for resolved cases. Search the 'Resolved Cases' folder for items (support cases) with keywords. The searched result is effectively applied to the Outlook folder view (by means of Outlook filtering) which would result in only displaying those support cases that meet the searched criteria. Click the 'Clear' button to clear the search in the folder view (and revert back to the selected view effectively). Show/toggle the advanced search options - Apart from the free text search by keywords, Personal Helpdesk also implements an advanced search and reporting options with an array of filters available to extract only the required support cases quickly within the folder view itself. Quick contact menu lists all the possible shortcuts to communicate with the caller/technician (eg. via , phone call, SMS etc.) and enables the helpdesk managers/technicians to initiate a communication medium in single-click without having to open the respective support case item.

29 29 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook With the Archive cases tool, helpdesk managers can archive old support cases periodically to a local PST file that are older than a certain (user-selected) date.. This is an important maintenance step that would improve the efficiency of the Personal Helpdesk System (as well as for Exchange storage). Re-open the selected resolved cases by marking the items as 'Ongoing'. Re-Open cases are then moved to the 'Ongoing Cases' folder. Delete the selected cases from the folder. If the deleted case has any replies, they will be also deleted. Print the selected cases using the customizable 'print HTML template'. Create knowledge base items out of the selected cases. Run statistics tool to analyze helpdesk data and get better insights on support cases. The 'Resolved Cases' specific Outlook views are the primary interface with which most technicians will scan through for relevant cases in this folder. The drop down menu lists all the available views for this particular folder. Each view is organized to group and filter support cases to make a particular feature of your information obvious at first glance.

30 30 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook The folder view listing all support cases grouped and sorted as per the current selected view (eg. Technicians - Table). Each group also shows the number of items it holds as well as number of items that are unread. Selecting anyone of the case item displays the problem description in the Outlook preview pane. The Outlook preview pane displaying the problem description of the selected case item. In Outlook 2007, it also displays a Personal Helpdesk specific form region on the bottom of the preview pane and includes helpdesk (user-defined) fields which otherwise can only be seen in the Personal Helpdesk case Outlook form.

31 31 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook When you open an existing support case item, Outlook will display it with the Personal Helpdesk case custom form (having the custom message class 'IPM.Post.AMTSupportCasePersonal.Closed'). Unlike an ongoing case, a resolved case when loaded in a form is available as read-only i.e., to make any editing/changes to a resolved case, the case first needs to be re-opened.

32 32 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 2.5 Personal Helpdesk Folders - Schedules Schedules This is an optional folder that Personal Helpdesk will use if you decide to maintain the due date schedule for cases. The idea is to enable you to check for your availability for a particular time slot before a due date can be assigned to finish the case. A calendar (having the same name as that of your name) within this folder will be maintained and whenever a new due date is assigned or an existing one is changed, it would be reflected in the calendar as well. If a case is closed (marked complete), the corresponding due date from that calendar is removed. When due dates are assigned or changed in support cases, appointments are added or updated in these calendars. The purpose of these calendars is to allow you to lookup these calendars for a suitable schedule such that the assignment of due date take into the consideration other assignments which may already existed. This will help prevent due date clashes and increase your helpdesk efficiency.

33 33 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 3. Working with Personal Helpdesk System The Personal Helpdesk System include list managers to customize the contents of all drop-down boxes on the help desk form, predefined answers, templates for outgoing s and SMS, notification options, incoming s monitoring, messaging, custom fields etc. Besides managing the settings and drop down lists, it is responsible for monitoring folders and mailboxes for automatic processing of incoming s to support cases, as well as processing web requests coming Customer web Service (CWS) website. Personal Helpdesk Menu The Personal Helpdesk menu serves as the gateway for launching most of the functionalities and tools available in Personal Helpdesk for Outlook. In Outlook 2010, you would find the Personal Helpdesk menu in the backstage file button, as shown below.

34 34 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook In Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2003, the Personal Helpdesk System menu is located in the explorer menu bar after the Help menu. Contact Manager Search cases Statistics Export to database Archive Cases Summary Reports Demo Cases Settings - Launch the contact manager dialog to quick scan through Personal Helpdesk internal list of callers and technicians and make a contact ( , sms, or a call). Learn more - Launch the advanced search manager dialog to query for both ongoing and resolved cases without needing to open the respective folders. Learn more - Launch the statistics OLAP tool to analyze support cases data and extract mission critical help desk information and intelligence. Learn more - Launch the export manager tool to push cases from exchange folders (via Outlook) to database such as Access, MSSQL, MySQL or Oracle. Learn more - Launch the archive manager tool to push resolved cases from exchange folders (via Outlook) to a PST file. Learn more - Launch the Summary reporting tool to generate reports on cases created, closed, or due in a particular interval of time. Learn more - Get a quick test run of Personal Helpdesk by populating demo settings data, cases and knowledge base articles. Learn more - Access to the administrative tools via submenu Click each link below to learn more on each setting. Personal Settings Access Control Asset list

35 35 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Technician List Problem List Caller List Print\ \SMS templates Notification Options Monitoring Predefined Answers My Fields Mobile Messaging Automation Options Advanced Options Web Access Service Level Agreements (SLA) Case Options Navigate To Help Topics Check Updates License Visit home page About Personal Helpdesk Shutdown - Shortcuts to Personal Helpdesk folders in single-click - launch the help documentation on Personal Helpdesk System - Check if there is any new update available - Launch the registration dialog box - Takes you to the product home page of Personal Helpdesk for Outlook. - Show the About dialog box - Shutdown only the Personal Helpdesk addin in Outlook

36 36 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 3.1 Personal Settings The personal settings, as the name suggest, are each technician's settings that are applied to Personal Helpdesk System locally, i.e., the change in the personal settings are not affected to the workflow of other technicians. The personal settings differ from other administrative settings in the followings: It is saved locally to the system's registry, whereas other administrative settings are saved on the exchange (Personal Helpdesk Settings item) It is not affected by access control mechanism (if enabled) It is not affected by folder permission issue. Allow Phone Calls Personal Helpdesk has built-in support for making phone calls either using Skype or attached phone to callers, technicians or contacts in your address book. Each technician can choose either one of these technique. Skype can be used to make internet phone calls (VoIP) with a valid SkypeOut account. The international call charges are reasonably prices and make sense if you have a good internet bandwidth for a quality voice over calls. Only Skype version 2.5 and above are supported. More on making calls with Skype Each technician can also use a standard phone connected to the system via a modem to make outgoing calls from Personal Helpdesk. If you select this option, you will also have to specify the particular communication port where the modem is installed (COM). You can easily find that out by going to Control Panel > Phone and Modem Options > Modems tab. More on making calls via your attached modem

37 37 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 3.2 Access Control Personal Helpdesk menu > Settings > Access Control Allow conversion of non-mail items to support case - The manager can also define which particular type of Outlook items are possible candidates for generating support request cases. By default, support requests can be generated from mail items only. To enable other Outlook item types, select the appropriate checkboxes - Post, Meeting or Task. Disable balloon popup notification - Disable a balloon popup notification when a major event occurred in Personal Helpdesk System. By default, it is unchecked. Open Support Case form automatically when it is generated from other Outlook items - Enable this option to display/open the inspector window of the support case just created. This is only applicable when the case is generated manually from an or other Outlook item. Open knowledge base form automatically when it is generated from other Outlook items - Enable this option to display/open the inspector window of the knowledge base just created.

38 38 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 3.3 Assets list Personal Helpdesk menu > Settings > Assets list Assets The helpdesk is a vital part of the company who wants to get the most out of it's IT assets. The assets list allows you to track and manage support request from your internal users for quick resolution to the case. There are 5 asset fields available out of which 4 are customizable according to your need. Out of the 4, 2 of them are drop-down fields. In the above screenshot, we have taken the example of computing resources used by internal staffs. We have customized the 2nd and 3rd fields as Asset type and Asset OS, which takes a drop down list. Both the drop down lists are available on the right. The 4th and 5th fields (eg. Asset IP, Asset Make) take the normal text data. The titles of these customizable fields can be set in 'Asset Fields' settings.

39 39 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 3.4 Technicians list Personal Helpdesk menu > Settings > Technicians list Technicians list - Personal Helpdesk System needs to maintain the detail of the technicians that would be working on support cases. The technician name and address are mandatory fields and should be unique for each technician that you entered. If there has to be calls to technicians from within Personal Helpdesk (say, from the outlook form), the phone and mobile needs to be filled up. There is also an option of making the mobile number of the technician as the primary contact (e.g.. when making Calls, Personal Helpdesk will use the mobile number instead of the phone number). The mobile field is also necessary to receive SMS notifications they are enabled.

40 40 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 3.5 Problems list Personal Helpdesk menu > Settings > Problems list Problem categories list - Gather all the problem areas that your support team will be attending to and feed them into the 'Category' field. You can also specify the default hourly rate for each problem category, so that, when using statistics, you can consider this category rate, besides the other two rates - technician, caller department. Problem types list - The problem types are sub-category items that fall within the domain of a problem area/category. Hence, each problem category has a specific list of problem types that a technician/manager can choose from and tag a support request case. In the Outlook case and knowledge base form, when a technician selects from the problem category drop down, it will load this tier of problem type lists in the type drop-down box. These nested tiers of categories/types are complete customizable to your organization's support model and act as somewhat of a guiding decision tree for the caller (when submitting online service request) and technicians etc. These also assist in providing high-level information to help desk managers in automatic assignment of cases to the correct technician. Default values - You can also defined three default values of a combination of Problem Category and Type: Default time (in minutes) under which the particular problem is expected to be fixed/resolved. Default SLA under which the problem fits into. Problem statuses list - As technicians start working on assigned cases, over time, they may need to update the state of the tagged problem so that senior technicians or managers can track and plan additional resources if needed to resolve that particular case. Such a list of status flags can be specified. Automatically add non-existent problem to list - Enable this option to allow technicians to accept problem items that are not available in the problem lists. In doing so, the new problem item will be added to the problem lists for future use.

41 41 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 3.6 Callers list Personal Helpdesk menu > Settings > Callers list Caller categories & departments - Specify what all internal departments your help desk team would support incoming service requests from callers. You can then use a category/department to associate each caller. You can also specify the default hourly rate for each department, so that, when using statistics, you can consider this rate, besides the other two rates - technician rate and problem category rate. Callers list - Personal Helpdesk can maintain the detail of the callers that request for support. The caller's address is a mandatory field and should be unique for each caller that you entered. If there has to be phone calls to callers from within Personal Helpdesk (say, from the outlook form), the phone and mobile need to be filled up. The mobile field is also necessary if callers have to receive SMS notifications in their mobile device. The department field has a restricted range (as being a drop down field) i.e., it can take only take a value from the caller categories. Caller Web Access (CWA) Password - To access the Caller Web Access (CWA) site from a web browser via the internet, the caller requires a password. This password is defined by the helpdesk manager when a new caller is added. Alternatively, it can be generated automatically when a new, non-existent caller is added to the Personal Helpdesk callers list. The password can then be set to insert into the notification/confirmation sent out to caller first time when a support case is logged from their /call/web submission. Import callers from Global Address List/Active Directory - Most likely, you might already have contact details of the callers in the exchange global address list. Use the 'Import...' button to display the address book and select those contacts that you want to import. The contact's name, , department, company, address, telephone, mobile fields would be then automatically filled in the grid.

42 42 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 3.7 Templates Manager Personal Helpdesk menu > Settings > Templates Manager Personal Helpdesk uses various templates ( s as well as SMSs) for sending out notifications and reminders to callers and technicians - both manual and automatic. notifications take HTML format whereas SMS notifications use plain text. There are a whole lot of notification options for different events such as when a case is created, changed or resolved, or when a technician is assigned to the case, or when the due date has lapsed etc. Automated s are sent out directly when a relevant event occurs and the whole exercise is transparent to the technicians. Same is the case of automated SMS messaging. A list of all templates used for print, or mobile SMS. The followings are the available templates: Template Purpose New case - HTML template used in logging new support request case (applicable on both manual and automatically created cases) Print - HTML template used when printing the support case item in Outlook caller from case form - HTML template used when contacting the caller of a case technicians from case form - HTML template used when contacting the technician responsible for a case caller on case allotment - HTML template used in the automated to the caller to notify about the successful logging of the support request caller on case closure - HTML template used in the automated to the caller to notify about the successful resolution to the allotted case

43 43 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook technicians on case assignment - HTML template used in the automated to the technicians to notify when a case is assigned technicians on case reopening - HTML template used in the automated to the concerned technicians when a resolved case has been re-opened technicians on due-date lapse - HTML template used in the automated to the concerned technicians when the due date of a case is about to be overdue caller on technician assignment - HTML template used in the automated to the caller when a new technicians are assigned or existing ones changed technicians on caller reply - HTML template used in the automated to concerned technicians to inform about new replies from the caller supervisors on SLA breach - HTML template used in the automated to helpdesk supervisors to inform about SLA breach occurrence Technicians on KB publication HTML template used in the automated to all helpdesk staffs to inform about new KB publication SMS caller from case form - Plain text template used when contacting the caller of a case SMS technicians from case form - Plain text template used when contacting the technician responsible for a case SMS caller on case allotment - Plain text template used in the automated SMS to the caller to notify about the successful logging of the support request SMS caller on case closure - Plain text template used in the automated SMS to the caller to notify about the successful resolution to the allotted case SMS technicians on case assignment - Plain text template used in the automated SMS to the technicians to notify when a case is assigned SMS technicians on case reopening - Plain text template used in the automated SMS to the concerned technicians when a resolved case has been re-opened SMS technicians on due-date lapse SMS caller on technician assignment Plain text template used in the automated SMS to the concerned technicians when the due date of a case is about to be overdue Plain text template used in the automated SMS to the caller when a new technicians are assigned or existing ones changed SMS technicians on caller reply - Plain text template used in the automated SMS to concerned technicians to inform about new replies from the caller SMS supervisors on SLA breach - Plain text template used in the automated SMS to helpdesk supervisors to inform about SLA breach occurrence SMS supervisors on SLA breach Plain text template used in the automated SMS to

44 44 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook all helpdesk staffs to inform about new KB publication A list of all placeholder variables available for inserting into a particular template. In runtime (that is, when the actual or SMS is generated from the template), the enclosed variables will be substituted by their corresponding values. The followings list all the supported variables: Variable Purpose SDO_CASEDESCRIPTION - Description of the support request case SCO_ BODY Body of the caller SCO_CASENUMBER - Case Number of the generated support case SCO_SUBJECT - Subject of the or the support case SCO_CASEAUTHOR - The help desk staff that created/logged the support request SCO_DATERECEIVED - Date and time the was received SCO_DATECREATED - Date and time the support case was created/logged SCO_PROBLEMCATEGORY - Problem category to which the case belongs to SCO_PROBLEMTYPE - Problem type to which the case is related with SCO_STATUS - Status of the case with regards to the problem SCO_ _HISTORY_LISTING - history listing on the current case SCO_TIMESPENT_DESCRIPTION - Description on each time that a technician spent in working on the case SCO_TOTAL_TIMESPENT - Total time spent (in minutes) on the case SCO_LOGS - Log listings related to the case SCO_NOTES - Nodes added on the case by technicians and managers SCO_CALLERNAME - Name of the caller who had requested for help SCO_CALLER - address of the caller SCO_CALLERPHONE - Telephone number of the caller SCO_CALLERMOBILE - Mobile number of the caller SCO_CALLERDEPARTMENT - Department to which the caller belongs SCO_CALLERADDRESS - Full address of the caller SCO_TECHNICIANS - Technicians assigned to the case SCO_DUEDATE - Due date assigned to the case within which the case has to be resolved SCO_PRIORITY - Priority of the case SCO_ASSETNAME - Asset name related to the case SCO_ASSETCOMMENTS - Comments on that particular asset SCO_NOW - Current date and time SCO_CUSTOMFIELD1 - Custom Field 1

45 45 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook SCO_CUSTOMFIELD2 - Custom Field 2 SCO_CUSTOMFIELD3 - Custom Field 3 SCO_CUSTOMFIELD4 - Custom Field 4 SCO_REPLIED BODY - Description body of the caller replied SCO_REPLIED SUBJECT - Subject of the caller replied SCO_WEBACCESS_LOGIN - Caller login details for web access SCO_WEBACCESS_URL - The web URL of the Caller Web Access (CWA) site SCO_KBBODY - Description body of the newly published KB article SCO_KBSUBJECT - Subject of the newly published KB article SCO_KBPROBLEMCATEGORY - Problem Category of the newly published KB article SCO_KBPROBLEMTYPE - Problem Type of the newly published KB article SCO_KBLINK - Outlook link of the newly published KB article clicking which will open the KB article SCO_KBCREATEDDATE - Creation date of the newly published KB article Note: Some of the variables might not be available for embedding on certain templates when not applicable. A SMS notification message is limited to 160 characters Subject of the active template. It is also customizable and can take placeholder variables. A WYSIWYG HTML editor with which you can customize the contents, apply HTML formatting as well as insert the placeholder variables. The look and feel as well as the buttons and functionalities are similar to Microsoft FrontPage authoring tool. The actual template in its raw state.

46 46 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 3.8 Notification Options Personal Helpdesk menu > Settings > Notification Options Automatic and SMS Notifications - Automatic notification and SMS alerts are essential for keeping callers and technicians informed with the progress and status of the case. Personal Helpdesk offers a whole lot of notification options for different events such as when a case is created, changed or resolved, or when a technician is assigned to the case, or when the due date has lapsed etc. The template for such a notification or SMS is available for customization as discussed earlier. Automatic s are sent out directly when a relevant event occurs and the whole exercise is transparent to the technicians. Same is the case of automatic SMS messaging. Check the box of the corresponding notification that you want to enable and then click 'Save' button.

47 47 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 3.9 Monitoring Personal Helpdesk menu > Settings > Monitoring Automating the support request logging from incoming s is perhaps the most time-saver feature for a help desk. Personal Helpdesk enables monitoring any number of shared mailboxes and mail-enabled public folders to automatically generate support requests as and when the s arrive. Processed s then can be moved to another folder or can be moved altogether to the Personal Helpdesk history folder. Contact information is automatically populated and the summary and description fields are filled in. Select this option to add an exchange users' mailbox to the Personal Helpdesk monitored folders list. Select this option to add an exchange public folder or a shared folder to the Personal Helpdesk monitored folders list. Allows you to select a mailbox from Global Address List (GAL) or a folder from your Outlook. The selected mailbox or folder waiting for your confirmation for inclusion into the folders list. Click this button (+) to add the selected mailbox/folder into the monitored folders list. Remove the selected item from the monitored folders list. List of all mailboxes and public folders monitored by Personal Helpdesk System for new incoming s. The name of the common exchange mailbox (used for all outgoing communications from Personal Helpdesk System). If this mailbox is specified by helpdesk manager, it is automatically monitored for replies from callers. Disabling the common mailbox for outgoing s would automatically also disable the monitoring of s in this particular mailbox. Monitor the Personal Helpdesk 'Ongoing Cases' folder - If the 'ongoing cases' folder is mailenabled, Personal Helpdesk can monitor for any incoming s to that public folder and convert into support requests. Any s dragged to this folder will also be processed automatically the

48 48 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook same way.

49 49 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 3.10 Predefined Answers Personal Helpdesk menu > Settings > Predefined Answers Predefined answers - Personal Helpdesk can maintain a list of predefined answers to most asked help desk questions. These answers can then be used to reply to frequent asked questions quickly without needing to compose redundant information again and again. Each predefined answer can be specified to belong to a problem category and type. This is particular helpful to build an organized library of answers that is easy to find in time of need. When are Predefined answers used? - The predefined answers list is most prominently used in the outlook case form. When launched, the predefined answers dialog box displays questions which are arranged and grouped in a hierarchical tree (e.g. problem categories and types) allowing the technician to select an answer and reply to the caller. The predefined answers can also be used to select an appropriate answer and reply directly to s (even outside of Personal Helpdesk folders). In fact, they are available in appointments, tasks as well.

50 50 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 3.11 My Fields Personal Helpdesk menu > Settings > My Fields Custom Fields You can use the custom fields available in the outlook form to feed additional information on the caller, case or on the problem itself. Four (4) fields are available and the titles can be edited to get the proper meaningful label that signifies the information the field store. The first three fields take a line of text as data, whereas the fourth field takes a drop-down list from which a value can be selected. Optionally, the fields can be made mandatory, so that without filled, the support request case cannot be closed. If a field is marked mandatory, it would appear red in color when viewed in the outlook form.

51 51 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 3.12 Mobile Messaging Personal Helpdesk menu > Settings > Messaging Short Message Service or popularly known by its acronym as SMS, is used by billions of people and is the most pervasive use of data on mobile phones. SMS is convenient and cost effective for a number of reasons. When compared with the cost of airtime for voice calls or wireless web access, SMS is a real bargain and messages are immediately delivered directly to your phone. Hence, due to the various advantages, it is no wonder that Personal Helpdesk supports SMS messaging just as it supports s! SMS alerts can be automatically dispatched to callers or technicians based on certain help desk events such as when case is resolved or when a case is assigned to a technician. There are two ways in Personal Helpdesk to enabling messaging service: 1) Using a SMS HTTP gateway provider - Many SMS providers offer simple HTTP SMS posting, allowing one to send SMS text messages directly through their gateways. Sending SMS via internet frees the support team from having a cellular carrier and individual mobile phones. Configuring support for a HTTP gateway in Personal Helpdesk is very easy. Just select a provider (from the drop down list) and input the connection URL and user credentials and you are ready! The following SMS providers are support as of now: SMS Gateway Country/Region USA Australia UK India India India

52 52 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook India India Italy UK UK UK UK UK US US/UK 2) Using Skype (version 2.5 and above) - If technicians have Skype installed and have a Skype credit, Personal Helpdesk can be used to send SMS directly through Skype. This functionality is done programmatically which means Skype is seamlessly integrated with Personal Helpdesk. The technicians won't even notice the Skype is being used during the whole process of SMS messaging.

53 53 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 3.13 Automation Options Personal Helpdesk menu > Settings > Automation Options Enables Personal Helpdesk to add/update an appointment into the concerned technician's mailbox calendar when the helpdesk managers assign/change the due date on a support case. Any change in the due date of that case at a later stage will be automatically updated to the existing appointment in the mailbox. This appointment is removed when the corresponding case is closed. The Personal Helpdesk due date appointments appear in summarized form on the main 'Outlook Today' page when the technician starts Outlook. This way, the technician gets to know which new cases are being assigned to him/her. In the default calendar, the due date appointments appear as any other appointment. The case number and the subject of the assigned case in the appointment subject differentiate it from other personal appointments.

54 54 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook When the due date appointments are about to be overdue, Outlook automatically displays reminders popup to the technician. This way, the technician is alerted about the pending cases which need his/her attention. The details of a due date appointment added from Personal Helpdesk to the technician's mailbox calendar: the case number and case subject is available in the appointment' subject the due date of the case is the same as that of the start time and end time of the appointment In the appointment description field, there is a link to the actual case, clicking which would open the case from the Personal Helpdesk 'Ongoing cases' folder. The appointment description also informs the technician about the caller, and a summary of the problem

55 55 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Enabling this option also allows helpdesk managers and other technicians (provided they have permission to access your mailbox) to lookup your personal calendar so that the helpdesk manager can assign a particular due date on which you are available to work on the case.

56 56 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Enables Personal Helpdesk to add/update a task into the responsible technician's mailbox task folder when the helpdesk managers assign/change the due date on a support case. Any change in the due date of that case at a later stage will be automatically updated to the existing task in the mailbox. This task is removed when the corresponding case is closed. Enables Personal Helpdesk to maintain a schedule calendar for each technician such that all due date of support cases are listed in corresponding calendar (bearing the technician's name). When due dates are assigned or changed in support cases, appointments are added or updated in these calendars. The purpose of these calendars is to allow helpdesk managers or other technicians to lookup these calendars for a suitable schedule such that the assignment of due date take into the consideration other assignments which may already existed for that particular technician. This will help prevent due date clashes and increase efficiency of the helpdesk staffs. Enable this option if you want Personal Helpdesk to automatically assign the default technician (specified for a particular caller in the callers list) to a support case (which is logged from an sent by a caller that exists in the Personal Helpdesk callers list). By default, this option is enabled. Enable this option if you want Personal Helpdesk to auto-generate a random password for any addition of a new caller to the callers list. By default, this feature is enabled. Specify how the due date of newly created support cases should be assigned - either take the current date/time when the case was created, or advance it to a manager defined days. Choose if you want to move the original s or copies (from which the support requests were logged from) to the Personal Helpdesk History folder. Automatically assign the current technician to the newly create case When a technician creates a new case, or generate a case from an , enabling this option, would automatically set the current user as the technician responsible for that case. Automatically calculate open duration of the case window and add it over the Total Time Spent. If enabled, this option will automatically add the opened duration of the case window (in minutes) over the time spent when the window is closed. If the duration is less than a minute, it is ignored. You can also check Only add open duration if there were any changes made to the case prevent addition of time spent for now work done on the case.

57 57 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 3.14 Advanced Options Personal Helpdesk menu > Settings > Advanced Options Specify a dedicated exchange mailbox (common) account to send out any s from your helpdesk team e.g. support@somecompany.com. This mean, all your technicians, when replying to callers on their assigned support cases, will use the common account in the "From:" field of the outgoing s. This helps in having a central account that Personal Helpdesk can not only send out s, but also monitor for replies from callers, thereby enhancing the overall response speed to support requests. Note: To work with this feature, the helpdesk manager has to explicitly grant 'Send on behalf' of rights to the technicians. You do that from the windows server: Active Directory Users and Computers > Common account > Properties > Exchange General > Delivery Options. Specify which hourly rate to use in statistics - technician rate, problem rate or department rate. Enables Personal Helpdesk to maintain an history folder where all incoming replies from callers are stored. By default, this option is enabled. Check this option to only process support requests coming from callers that already exist in the Personal Helpdesk caller list. Any s from outside the caller list are simply ignored. For monitored folders and mailboxes, s that are not from the callers list are moved to a subfolder 'Unprocessed s'. Please note that, to use this feature, technicians would need to

58 58 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook have a higher permission (such as Publishing editor or owner) over the monitored mailbox or folder. By default, this option is disabled. Checking this option would prevent technicians from marking support cases as closed if the total time spent field is empty (nil). By default, this option is unchecked. Allow assignment of a support case to multiple technicians so that each technician can work on a sub-task. By default, only a single technician is allowed per case. This option enables a technician to convert multiple selected Outlook items such as s, appointments or tasks to support request cases in a single-click. Use the 'Convert to case(s)' button to achieve this. By default, Personal Helpdesk processes a single to support case, no matter how many s were selected. This option enables a technician to batch-process any support case specific operations such as marking as resolved, deleting, printing, re-opening etc. on multiple support cases. By default, Personal Helpdesk processes a single support case when such operation is initiated.

59 59 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 3.15 Web Access Personal Helpdesk menu > Settings > Web Access To allow general customers (end-users) to submit online support requests, Personal Helpdesk provides them an easy web interface accessible through a web browser on the internet. For this feature, the web access files are placed under a new virtual directory in your IIS server with appropriate permission over the web folder. The Customer Web Service (CWS) websites are AJAX enabled ASP.NET 2.0 applications and provide a rich set of tools and interactivity with the live data in the exchange folder. Customers and end-users can submit new support requests via a webform, check status of a support case and check out the knowledge base for possible workarounds to their problem before requesting for support. Furthermore, existing callers can login to the Caller Web Access (CWA) website to track all their support cases, escalate or withdraw ongoing case, re-open closed case etc. Let you specify the IIS network folder path where the Customer web service (CWS) website is located. You can then create/update all requisite web access XML metadata files in that web folder. You can also allow Personal Helpdesk addin to automatically update these XML files into that webfolder when any changes take place in Personal Helpdesk settings (read as 'Exchange'). Please note that you will need write permission over this web folder to update the files. Learn more on Customer Web Service.

60 60 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 3.16 Service Level Agreements Personal Helpdesk menu > Settings > Service Level Agreements (SLA) Personal Helpdesk System allows helpdesk managers to set and maintain SLA standards in the organization. Within the Outlook case form, managers can enforce or change a SLA on a support case based on escalation requirements. Additionally, SLAs can be assigned automatically to newly created cases. For example, in Customer Web Service (CWS) website, end-users submitting support request via a webform would select a problem category and type along with other information. When the submitted support request is processed in Personal Helpdesk in Outlook, the default SLA specified for that combination of Problem Category and Type fields is enforced to the case. As a support case approaches an SLA Management breach, the case item appears red in the Outlook view, as well as escalation alerts, either as or SMS message are sent out to the concerned technicians and supervisors. This prevents any issue or request from ever falling through the cracks and allows your team to effectively stay on top of any support cases approaching the breach of a Service Level Agreement. A SLA have two main parts - response time and priority level. The priority options are - Low, Normal and High (as available in Outlook). The Response Time can take any one of the following values: 1-hr 2-hrs 3-hrs 4-hrs 5-hrs 6-hrs 7-hrs 8-hrs 9-hrs 10-hrs 11-hrs resolve within an hour resolve within 2 hrs resolve within 3 hrs resolve within 4 hrs resolve within 5 hrs resolve within 6 hrs resolve within 7 hrs resolve within 8 hrs resolve within 9 hrs resolve within 10 hrs resolve within 11 hrs

61 61 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 12-hrs 15-hrs 20-hrs 1-day 2-days 4-days 5-days 6-days 1-week 8-days 9-days 10-days 11-days 12-days 13-days 2-weeks 3-weeks 1-month resolve within 12 hrs resolve within 15 hrs resolve within 20 hrs resolve within a day resolve within 2 days resolve within 4 days resolve within 5 days resolve within 6 days resolve within 1 week resolve within 8 days resolve within 9 days resolve within 10 days resolve within 11 days resolve within 12 days resolve within 13 days resolve within 2 weeks resolve within 3 weeks resolve within a month When a SLA is enforced to a support case, the due date of the case automatically adheres to the specified response time of the SLA. The Importance field of the case also gets affected as per the specified priority level of the SLA. If the case is not fulfilled within the response time, a SLA breach would occurs, which would in turn send escalation s or SMS to the supervisors. This drop-down lists all the available technicians of the helpdesk. Adds the selected technician to the supervisors list. Removes the selected supervisor from the list The supervisors list - technicians who would be notified when a SLA violation occurs.

62 62 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 3.17 Case Options Personal Helpdesk menu > Settings >Case Options Reset Case Number count to zero This might be useful on certain situations such as when you are finished testing the demo cases, and want to start afresh. Note though, this action can t be undone. Change the Case Number counter Enables you to alter the current case numbering count to your specified number. Comes handy if you want the case numbering to start from a particular number. Eg instead of 1 (default). Status of Resolved/Closed case Specify a status value from the drop down list which be set to the case automatically when it is marked complete. Status of Re-opened case Specify a status value from the drop down list which will be set to the case automatically when it is re-opened.

63 63 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 4. Working with Personal Helpdesk UI 4.1 Toolbars Personal Helpdesk displays a toolbar on the Outlook explorer window depending on the items content of the current active folder. This enables Personal Helpdesk to target functionality specific to each Outlook item such as mails, posts, appointments, tasks and contacts. Mail and Post Items toolbar Outlook 2003 and 2007 On Outlook 2010 Calendar/Task Items toolbar Outlook 2003 and 2007 On Outlook 2010

64 64 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Contact items toolbar Outlook 2003 and 2007 On Outlook 2010

65 65 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 4.2 Context Menus In Outlook 2010, most of the Support UI commands are also available in the context menus, such as when you right click an or a task item in Outlook.

66 66 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Above: Context menu in the Personal Helpdesk Ongoing Cases folder.

67 67 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Above: Context menu in the Personal Helpdesk Resolved Cases folder.

68 68 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 4.3 Shortcuts Menu Item Ongoing Cases Folder Resolved Cases Folder Knowledge Base Folder History Folder What does it do? - Navigation shortcut to Personal Helpdesk Ongoing Cases public folder or shared mailbox folder - Navigation shortcut to Personal Helpdesk Resolved Cases public folder or shared mailbox folder - Navigation shortcut to Personal Helpdesk Knowledge Base public folder or shared mailbox folder - Navigation shortcut to Personal Helpdesk History public folder or shared mailbox folder

69 69 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 5. Working with support request form New service requests in Personal Helpdesk are logged and existing ones are viewed and worked using a customized Outlook form having the message class 'IPM.Post.AMTSupportCasePersonal' (for ongoing cases) or IPM.Post.AMTSupportCasePersonal.Closed (for resolved cases). Information catering to the support cases, caller, technicians, problems, work done, assets etc are all laid out in sections in a modular way to allow for easy navigation and reach. Contact fields such as , phone or mobile numbers are accompanied by relevant buttons for quick communication. Fields such as problem category, type, status and department are available in drop down list (which are already configured by the helpdesk manager) so as to limit the choice the technician can select for such fields. Automatic notification messages (either via or SMS) are sent out immediately to the concerned technicians once the case is assigned or a due date is specified or changed. Optionally, a due date appointment or task can also be added to the personal mailbox of the technicians. From directly in the case form, a technician can quickly browse and preview those knowledge base articles or integrated FAQs and insert a relevant solution directly to the case problem description or make a quick reply to the caller. When logging in a new phone case, an existing caller, either from the caller list or from global address list (GAL) can be selected and it will automatically populate all other caller fields. More on each section: Case detail Time Spent History Notes Assets My Fields Logs Other Cases from this caller Common Tasks

70 70 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 5.1 Case Detail - Core support request fields The first section of the support request case form consists of fields related to caller, assigned technicians, problems, due date etc. There are also numerous buttons at the end of the fields such as address, phone, etc., for quick communication. The unique number (referred to as case number) generated for this particular support request. Personal Helpdesk uses an iterative count to generate new support requests. Every communications out of Support to the callers are tagged with the corresponding case number such that subsequent replies from the callers retain the same tag for Personal Helpdesk to identify and perform various automations like adding the replies to the particular support case. Internal communications to technicians in the form s, SMS, due-date appointments, tasks etc. are also tagged with the corresponding case number. The date/time the support request was logged, either from Outlook items such as or phone call. The date/time the support request was last worked on. Shows the duration (in days) the support case is active. The support staff (or technician) take was responsible for logging this support request. Note that, the assigned technician need not be the author of this case. Signifies the source of the support request. The following are the possible values: Mail Item - the case is logged from an Outlook mail item. Post Item - the case is logged from an Outlook post item.

71 71 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Task Item - the case is logged from an Outlook task item. Appointment Item - the case is logged from an Outlook appointment item. Phone Call - the case is logged from a phone call. Address Book - the case is generated from a contact in the address book. Web Access - the case is created by a remote technician using Personal Helpdesk Web Access Web Form - the case is created from a web form submitted by an end-user. A drop-down field that consists of the problem category list. Specify the problem category to which the support request belongs to. A drop-down field that consists of a type list (sub-category) for each problem category. The type list changes depending on the item selected in the problem category drop down field. Problem Category-Type: Apply default technician - This check button gets enabled when a combination of Problem Category and Problem Type is selected from the drop-downs. This means, checking this button would automatically assign the default technician (specified for that selected problem) to the current support case. If the helpdesk manager had restricted changes to the assigned technicians of the case, then the functionality of this button is grayed out to technicians with non-admin access. Problem Category-Type: Apply default SLA - This check button gets enabled when a combination of Problem Category and Problem Type is selected from the drop-downs. Checking this button would automatically enforce the default SLA specified for that selected problem to the current support case. Both the importance and the due date of the case would be then affected. A drop-down field listing all defined Service Level Agreements (SLA) of the organization. When a SLA is enforced to a support case, the importance of this Outlook item is automatically set to that defined by the SLA as well as the due date is adjusted to reflect the response time of that SLA under which the case should be resolved. This is the same Outlook importance field that takes one of these values - High, Normal and Low. The due date field enables helpdesk manager to set a time before which the support request case should be resolved. There are lot of automatic notifications and reminders options that can be sent to concerned technicians when a new due date is specified or updated. For example, when a new technician is assigned, Personal Helpdesk can send out notification or SMS informing technicians on the due date of the support request. Personal Helpdesk can also automatically add/update a due date appointment or task to the personal mailbox calendar of the concerned technician.

72 72 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook When deciding to set a due date for a particular support request case, helpdesk managers can lookup the schedule calendar/personal calendar of a prospective technician in order to find availability of the said technician. (Note: for personal calendar, the managers need to have access rights to the technician's mailbox) This is a drop-down field that consists of the problem status list (customizable by technicians with admin access). The address of the caller. This drop down field houses all the address of the callers defined in the Callers list manager. This is useful when the technician had to manually log a new support request case, say when caller is on the phone. Selecting an address automatically populates other fields such as caller name, address, phone etc; thereby reducing time spent trying to log every single detail on the caller. Open a new populated with details on the support request (as defined in configurable template) addressed to the caller. A new compose window will be loaded on which further inputs can be made before sending it. Directly send an to the caller containing details (as defined in configurable template) on the support request. The is sent directly with no window displayed to edit or add any comments.

73 73 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Caller: Apply default technician - This check button gets enabled when a caller address is selected from the drop-downs. Checking this button would automatically assign the default technician (specified for that selected caller) to the current support case. If the helpdesk manager had restricted changes to the assigned technicians of the case, this functionality of this button is grayed out to technicians with non-admin access. The full name of the caller. For new (empty) support request, a technician can easily pick a contact from the address book (eg. GAL) and that populates all other caller details automatically. Allows the technician to pick a user from the address book (eg. global address list) The telephone number of the caller. If the caller exists in the Personal Helpdesk Callers list, a telephone number can be specified and it automatically gets listed in this field. If the caller has been picked from the address book (eg. GAL, AD), this field would also get populated (provided the primary telephone of the picked user is specified in GAL or AD). Call the telephone number of the caller The mobile number of the caller. If the caller exists in the Personal Helpdesk Callers list, a mobile number can be specified and it automatically get listed in this field. If the caller has been picked from the address book (eg. GAL, AD), this field would also get populated (provided the mobile number of the picked user is specified in GAL or AD). Call the telephone number of the caller Send a SMS message to the mobile device of the caller

74 74 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook The organization/company to which the caller works for. This field gets populated automatically when caller is specified from the Personal Helpdesk Callers list or picked from the address book. The full correspondence address of the caller. This field also gets populated automatically when caller is specified from the Personal Helpdesk Callers list or picked from the address book. The internal department/category to which the caller is assigned to. This field also gets populated automatically if the caller exists in the Personal Helpdesk Callers list or in the address book (eg. GAL, AD). The technicians who are assigned to this support request case. By default, only one technician can be assigned to a case. But that of course can be bypassed by the helpdesk manager by simple enabling an option in administrative settings. During new support case logging, there are two ways Personal Helpdesk may populate this technician field automatically: 1. When a new support request is submitted from a web form by an end-user, depending upon the selected problem area, the default technician linked to that problem area (that is, in the problems list manager) would be assigned to this case. 2. When a support request case is generated from an incoming (auto-conversion mode), if the sender already exists in the Personal Helpdesk Callers list and if a default technician is assigned for that particular caller in that list, then the technician field in the support case form would be populated automatically. In both scenarios, the notification /sms or reminder options in the technician's mailbox calendar would be triggered automatically as a consequence. Select a technician from a list

75 75 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Remove the selected technician Open a new populated with details on the support request (as defined in configurable template) addressed to the selected technicians. A new compose window will be loaded on which further inputs can be added before sending it. Directly send an to the selected technicians containing details (as defined in configurable template) on the support request. The is sent directly with no window displayed to edit or add any comments. Call the telephone number of the selected technician. Send a SMS message to the mobile device of the technician. Add/update the due date appointment to the mailbox calendar of the selected technicians. If successful, it automatically triggers a reminder popup on that technician as well as get added to Outlook today page. Add/update the support request task to the mailbox task folder of the selected technicians. If successful, it automatically triggers a reminder popup on that technician as well as get added to Outlook today page.

76 76 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook The subject field of the support request. Notice that appended case number in brackets for easy recognition when displayed in calendar and timeline views. The problem description and resolution field. It supports all the HTML formatting supported by Outlook. You can insert links, images, files as attachments etc. to make a rich content.

77 77 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 5.2 Time Spent The Time Spent section lists all work sessions performed on the support case by the technicians, managers. This time spent field can be made optional or mandatory before marking the case as closed. By default, it is optional. Also, to calculate cost of supporting the case in statistics, Personal Helpdesk needs to have a valid work time from the concerned technicians. The grid view listings of all work time invested by the assigned technicians to the case. Add a new time to the case. A dialog window pops up allowing the technician to select the time duration from the drop down or enter one. Edit the selected time in the grid view. A dialog window pops up allowing the technician to amend/change the time spent entry.

78 78 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Remove the selected time from the grid view. This will automatically adjust the total time spent figure of the case. The total time spent figure in minutes (sum of all the work time entries).

79 79 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 5.3 History The History section lists all correspondences received from the caller on a support case. The s are order chronologically with the newer s at the top listing. Notice that each item listed has a Personal Helpdesk case number tagged to the subject for tracking and identification. Three ways of adding replies to a particular support case: 1. Automatically - when Personal Helpdesk monitors the particular mail-enabled folder or mailbox. 2. Manually - when the technician selects a particular (having the case number tag in subject) and click the 'Convert to case' button (from the standard Personal Helpdesk toolbar). 3. Manually - when the technician selects a particular (with no case number tag in subject) and click 'Add to existing case' (from the standard Personal Helpdesk toolbar). In all the above scenarios, the or a copy of the would be stored in the ' History' folder. The will be tagged with the specific case identity internally so as to associate it with a particular support case. The grid view listings of all replies from the caller. Both the subject and date received fields are listed. Open and display the selected in Outlook. You might want to read and follow through past conversation on the caller's problem. Disassociate the from the case and remove it from the ' History' folder. Reply to the selected conversation. If the subject of the does not have the support case number tag, it would be automatically appended. Forward the selected conversation. If the subject of the does not have the support case number tag, it would be automatically appended.

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81 81 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 5.4 Internal Notes The notes section enables the technicians to add private notes to the support case for internal use. Input in a new note. Add the new note to the case. The new note will be appended to the existing notes (if exists). The existing notes that had been already added by technicians and managers. Each note snippet is tagged by the technician and the date/time it was added.

82 82 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 5.5 Assets Associating problems and incidences with actual hardware and software inventory is crucial to maintaining proper preventative incident management and finding the core problem to repetitive issue or problem that is plaguing a large group of end-users. Personal Helpdesk provides a means for the technician (in Outlook and web) or the customer (via web form) to create this hard-link between a troubled asset and a case. The assets section in the support case provides fields for all of your organization's hardware and software inventory. An asset may be cataloged and categorized by Asset Types. All the asset fields except for the asset name can re-titled to adapt and take any of your organization s intrinsic properties of inventories such as Make, I.P. Address or OS information; providing invaluable information directly from trouble case to the technicians resolving the support request. The unique name of the asset. This is a drop field control that has all the list of assets as defined in the Personal Helpdesk Assets list. Each name identifies a particular asset in your organization. Selecting a name automatically populates the other fields which in the above screenshot are Type, OS, Make and IP. A drop down field that can take a customizable list. In the above screenshot, it is titled as 'Type'. Another drop down field that can take a customizable list. In the above screenshot, it is titled as 'OS'. A static text field. In the above screenshot, it is titled as 'Make'. A static text field. In the above screenshot, it is titled as 'IP'. Comment on the particular asset. In the above screenshot, it is used for listing the configuration of the asset.

83 83 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Open and display the selected case. The grid view list of all support cases that shares the same asset name.

84 84 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 5.6 Custom Fields (aka My Fields) You can use the custom fields available in the outlook form to feed additional information on the caller, case or on the problem itself. Four (4) fields are available and the titles can be edited to get the proper meaningful label that signifies the information the field store. The first three fields take a line of text as data, whereas the fourth field takes a drop-down list from which a value can be selected. Optionally, the fields can be made mandatory, so that without filled, the support request case cannot be closed. If a field is marked mandatory, it would appear red in color when viewed in the outlook form. The first custom field entitled as 'Associate ID' in the form above. The red color on the label signifies that its mandatory field i.e., the case cannot be marked complete or closed unless this field is filled. (text field) The second custom field entitled as 'Associate Name' in the form above. (text field) The third custom field entitled as 'Associate Phone' in the form above. (text field) The last custom field entitled as 'Category'. This is the only custom field that supports a customizable drop-down list.

85 85 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 5.7 Logs The log grid lists all the important correspondence logs such as s, SMS, calls made from the support case to the caller or technicians. Each log entry has a small description field, the date/time of the action as well as the technician who is working on it.

86 86 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 5.8 Other support requests from the caller The 'Other cases for this caller' section lists all the ongoing and resolved support requests (if available) logged for that particular caller so the responsible technicians can have a panoramic view of all past problems history. The grid listing of all support requests (apart from the current case) that had been logged to the same caller. Each entry in the grid consists of the case number, the date/time it was created and the status of the support request. Display the selected support request case. Merge the current support request case with the one selected. Using this option would append the problem description of the currently displayed case to the selected case as well as other fields such as time spent, asset comments etc. Once merged, the current case is removed.

87 87 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 5.9 Common Tasks Technicians can also perform various other tasks in the support request form - print, reply to the caller with a knowledge base or a predefined answer, publish the case to files or to a knowledge base, mark support request as resolved etc. Save any changes made to the form and exit the inspector window. Publish/save the support request case to: As filtered web page (.htm) As web-archive single file (.mht) As Word document (.doc) As Adobe document (.pdf) As Microsoft XPS (.xps) Mark the current support request as complete. This closes the case and is moved to the 'Resolved cases' folder. Notification about closed case is sent to caller, if enabled. Enable 'edit mode' for the problem description field. By default, the HTML description field is locked. Select a predefined answer and insert into the problem description field. A dialog pops up and allows you to browse through the available predefined answers by problem category and type. Select a KB item and insert into the problem description field. A dialog pops up and allows you to browse through the available KBs by problem category and type.

88 88 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Select a predefined answer and insert into a new (generated using the ' to Caller' template) and reply to the caller. Select a KB and insert into a new (generated using the ' to Caller' template) and reply to the caller.

89 89 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Generate a new knowledge base out of the current support request case. The generated knowledge base will be stored under the 'KB' folder. Print the current case using a template.

90 90 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 6. Logging support cases Support cases can be generated from diverse source such as incoming s, appointments, tasks, phone calls, web forms etc. and are available instantly to all members of the helpdesk team via Outlook or web browser. Cases generation can be automated by allowing Personal Helpdesk to monitor any number of mail-enabled public folders or shared mailboxes. This is particular useful when you have a dedicated support mailbox (for eg. support@yourcompany.com). From s, appointments, tasks Just select those s and click the 'Convert to cases' button to convert into support request cases. If the selected is a reply from caller based on some earlier conversation initiated from the technician and has the support request tag embedded in the subject (eg. Re: SupportCase [1973]:Troubleshooting the MacBook Air SuperDrive), then it would added to the existing case (eg. 1973) else, a new support request would be created. Under Outlook explorer Under Outlook 2007 ribbon of mail inspector Automatic processing of incoming s to support cases is supported only on Outlook s - Personal Helpdesk can be configured to intercept incoming s from any number of shared mailboxes and mail-enabled public folders and automatically generate support cases out of the s. Processed s then can be moved to another folder or can be moved altogether to the Personal Helpdesk history folder. Contact information is automatically populated and the summary and description fields are filled in. From Web form submission Many help desk requests submitted by can be ineffective if the caller has not given appropriate information relevant to the problems for issue tracking! The fact is there is a constant battles when trying to simply mine for the critical information that support technicians need to resolve the service request; not to mention resolving the request in a timely, efficient manner! So instead of many communication chains with the caller to pull for critical information, how about having those information pushed to technicians in one go! This is where a web form comes handy to collect information in a structured way. The Personal Helpdesk web case submission allows for your end-users and customers to submit their service request through an intuitive, easy-to-use web form interface; needing only their favorite web browser. Submitted information is then automatically ed to a mailbox monitored by Personal Helpdesk, which will eventually get converted to a support request case in the 'Ongoing cases' folder. From Personal Helpdesk Web Access For remote technicians who cannot access and work on support cases in the public folder or shared folder of the company's exchange server, Personal Helpdesk provides them an easy web interface accessible through a web browser on the internet. A new support case can be then logged from within the web interface and submitted which would then get ed to a dedicated mailbox monitored by Personal Helpdesk. So eventually it would be then stored into the 'Ongoing cases' folder.

91 91 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 7. Automatic support requests logging When a service request is received, it needs to be converted into a trouble ticket or service work order. In typical service desk environment where the is the main medium of correspondence, there is a feel of a 'disconnect' between the technicians and the ticket tracking system. The reason is that a technician has to manually create and log in new support case from and this can be a major drawback if there is considerable s traffic. It can increase response time affecting the overall performance of the help desk. Note: For automatic processing of mails to support cases, you need to install Personal Helpdesk System tool. Automatic logging of support cases from s in Personal Helpdesk Personal Helpdesk can intercept incoming s to automatically generate support cases out of the s, all instantly i.e., as and when s hit the inbox. Helpdesk managers can set Personal Helpdesk to monitor any number of exchange mailboxes and mail-enabled public folders and perform the auto-generation of support cases from the incoming s. With this kind of setup, the managers are freed from having to monitor inboxes manually every now and then. Additionally, Personal Helpdesk can be extended to even assign default technicians to newly logged support cases on the fly based on the pre-defined association between technicians and the prefilled fields such as sender and problem areas. This automates the support case logging and assignment entirely on its own. The generated support cases are then stored under the exchange folder. Any file attachments will be automatically attached to the problem case (Outlook item) as well; making distribution of inbound requests simple and informative. This way, all support submissions are captured and centralized in order to execute efficient and effective customer service. Permission on Mailboxes and public folders A right set of permissions are required for helpdesk technicians over the monitored mailboxes/public folders. Without it, the monitoring for incoming s would fail, and the mailboxes would be overwhelmed with unprocessed s.

92 92 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook For monitored shared mailboxes, all helpdesk staffs need to have 'Full mailbox access'. This can be set under the Active Directory (AD) by the domain administrator. Setting mailbox access for each technician can be cumbersome especially when there are many of them. In such scenario, the best solution is to create a domain exchange group consisting of all helpdesk users and then setting the mailbox access permission to that group. For example, in the 'Mailbox Rights' screenshot on the right, the group 'ServiceDesk' is given 'Full mailbox access'. More on Assigning Mailbox Rights in MS Exchange Using the Mailbox Rights button on the Exchange Advanced tab, you can assign rights to the mailbox of a recipient to users or to groups, add users to the list, and then allow or deny them the following rights: Delete mailbox storage - The mailbox from the mailbox store can be deleted. By default, only administrators have permission to do this. Users cannot delete their own mailboxes. Read permissions - The specified user can read or change the permissions on a mailbox. Change permissions - The user can modify or remove permissions on the mailbox. Take ownership - The user is granted ownership of a mailbox. Full mailbox access - The delegated user has the same access rights as the owner. (This is what all helpdesk staffs should have) Associated external account - This option is used when a user's Windows account resides in a different forest than the Exchange mailbox. For monitored public folders, there are varied permission levels that can be specified by the folder owner. In the context of Personal Helpdesk, it is recommended that the folder owner grant 'Editor' or 'Publishing Editor' to the all members of the helpdesk. If granting permission to each technician is cumbersome and time consuming, then it is advisable that you create a domain group whose members consist of all helpdesk users such that

93 93 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook permission can be granted to that whole group. For example, in the 'Permissions' tab on the right screenshot, the group 'ServiceDesk' is granted 'Publishing Editor' by the folder owner.

94 94 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 8. Automatic notifications Automatic notification and SMS alerts are essential for keeping callers and technicians abreast with the progress and status of the case. Personal Helpdesk offers a whole lot of notification options for different events such as when a case is created, changed or resolved, or when a technician is assigned to the case, or when the due date has lapsed etc. The template for such a notification or SMS is available for customization as discussed earlier. Automatic s and SMS are sent out directly when a relevant event occurs and the whole exercise is transparent to the technicians.

95 95 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 8.1 notifications notification to caller when technicians get assigned or changed - A simple example is when a new case is generated, and the helpdesk manager assigns it to a new technician. As soon as it is saved and exited out of the case, Personal Helpdesk automatically send out the notification to caller (using a customizable template) informing about the assignment of the new technician. If existing technicians are changed, the same notification would trigger and the caller is updated to put on the communication loop. Sample the caller will receive when technicians are allotted/changed

96 96 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook notification to caller when a support case is logged from an /call - As soon as a support case is logged with Personal Helpdesk and saved in Outlook/Exchange, a notification is send out automatically to the caller (using a customizable template) informing about the detail of the generated case including the case number. Sample the caller would received when a support case is logged from the notification to caller when a case is closed - When a technician marked a support case as fixed, it is closed and move to the 'Resolved cases' folder. At the same time, a notification is send out automatically to the caller (using a customizable template) informing about the closure of the case. Sample the caller would received when the support case is closed

97 97 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook notification to assigned technicians when a closed case is reopened - This scenario would happen when the caller reply back to a support case that had been already marked as resolved in Outlook/Exchange. Personal Helpdesk would then automatically reopen the case and sent notification to the assigned technicians. When reopened, the particular case would be moved from the 'Resolved Cases' folder to the 'Ongoing Cases' folder. Sample the concerned technicians would received when a closed case is reopened notification to assigned technicians when the due date of the case is about to overdue - This scenario would happen when the caller reply back to a support case that had been already marked as resolved in Outlook/Exchange. Personal Helpdesk would then automatically reopen the case and sent notification to the assigned technicians. When reopened, the particular case would be moved from the 'Resolved Cases' folder to the 'Ongoing Cases' folder. Sample the concerned technicians would received when the due date is about to lapse

98 98 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook notification to technicians when a case is assigned - An automatic notification would be sent out to the assigned technicians when cases are assigned. Sample the concerned technicians would received when a new case is assigned notification to concerned technicians when caller replies back - During the course of support case, there most probably would be many communications to and fro between the helpdesk and the caller. So, when a caller replies back, Personal Helpdesk then processes the s and links it to the appropriate support case number. Optionally, Personal Helpdesk can be configured to send notification to the concerned technicians informing about the arrival of replies from the caller, thus giving reducing response time to the support request case. Sample the concerned technicians would received when caller replies back

99 99 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 8.2 SMS notifications SMS notification to caller when technicians get assigned or changed A simple example is when a new case is generated, and the helpdesk manager assigns it to a new technician. As soon as it is saved and exited out of the case, Personal Helpdesk automatically send out the notification SMS to caller (using a customizable template) informing about the assignment of the new technician. If existing technicians are changed, the same notification would trigger and the caller is updated to put on the communication loop. Sample SMS the caller will receive when technicians are allotted/changed

100 100 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook SMS notification to caller when a support case is logged from an /call As soon as a support case is logged with Personal Helpdesk and saved in Outlook/Exchange, a notification SMS is send out automatically to the caller (using a customizable template) informing about the detail of the generated case including the case number. Sample SMS the caller would received when a support case is logged from the SMS notification to caller when a case is closed When a technician marked a support case as fixed, it is closed and move to the 'Resolved cases' folder. At the same time, a notification SMS is send out automatically to the caller (using a customizable template) informing about the closure of the case. Sample SMS the caller would received when the support case is closed SMS notification to assigned technicians when a closed case is reopened This scenario would happen when the caller reply back to a support case that had been already marked as resolved in Outlook/Exchange. Personal Helpdesk would then automatically reopen the case and sent notification SMS to the assigned technicians. When reopened, the particular case would be moved from the 'Resolved Cases' folder to the 'Ongoing Cases' folder. Sample SMS the concerned technicians would received when a closed case is reopened

101 101 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook SMS notification to assigned technicians when the due date of the case is about to overdue This scenario would happen when the caller reply back to a support case that had been already marked as resolved in Outlook/Exchange. Personal Helpdesk would then automatically reopen the case and sent notification SMS to the assigned technicians. When reopened, the particular case would be moved from the 'Resolved Cases' folder to the 'Ongoing Cases' folder. Sample SMS the concerned technicians would received when the due date is about to lapse SMS notification to technicians when a case is assigned An automatic notification SMS would be sent out to the assigned technicians when cases are assigned. This includes for technicians assigned automatically due to relationship defined between a default technician and a problem type/caller such as support request submitted via web form or when existing a caller sends an . Sample SMS the concerned technicians would received when a new case is assigned SMS notification to concerned technicians when caller replies back During the course of support case, there most probably would be many communications to and fro between the helpdesk and the caller. So, when a caller replies back, Personal Helpdesk then processes the and links it to the appropriate support case number. Optionally, Personal Helpdesk can be configured to send notification SMS to the concerned technicians informing about the arrival of replies from the caller, thus giving reducing response time to the support request case. Sample SMS the concerned technicians would received when caller replies back

102 102 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 9. Sending SMS Short Message Service or popularly known by its acronym as SMS, is used by billions of people and is the most pervasive use of data on mobile phones. SMS is convenient, available globally and cost effective for a number of reasons. When compared with the cost of airtime for voice calls or wireless web access, SMS is a real bargain and messages are immediately delivered directly to your phone. Hence, due to the various advantages, it is no wonder that Personal Helpdesk supports SMS messaging just as it supports s! SMS alerts can be automatically dispatched to callers or technicians based on certain help desk events such as when case is resolved or when a case is assigned to a technician. Personal Helpdesk for Outlook supports sending SMS messages using two different technologies/platforms - HTTP SMS gateway and Skype.

103 103 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 9.1 SMS via HTTP SMS gateways A SMS service provider provides a SMS gateway for its users to send SMS messages to. This SMS gateway will then route the SMS messages to another SMS gateway or SMSC (Short Message Service Center). Unlike wireless carriers, many SMS service providers provide detail information about their SMS connectivity service on their web site. For example, you may find the cost of the service, network coverage, protocols supported, developers' guide, etc, on the web site. Thus, the service of different SMS service providers can be compared easily. If you are not happy with, say the price or network coverage of a SMS service provider, you can simply leave its web site and find another SMS service provider. Another advantage of using the SMS connectivity services of SMS service providers is that their network coverage is very good. They work hard to cover as many wireless networks as possible so as to make their services attractive. Some SMS service providers can send SMS messages not only to GSM wireless networks, but also to CDMA and TDMA wireless networks. SMS service providers can be divided into two categories depending on how they require you to pay for their SMS messaging service: Credit-based - You purchase a number of credits from the SMS service provider's web site. Sending one SMS message will cost you one or more credits, depending on the country you send the SMS message to. For example, sending an SMS text message to UK might cost you one credit while sending an SMS text message to the US might cost you two credits. SMS-based - You purchase a number of SMS messages from the SMS service provider's web site. The cost per SMS message is the same for all destinations. For example, if you purchase ten SMS messages, you can send at most ten SMS messages no matter the destination is UK or the US. The cost per SMS message sent depends on which SMS service provider you choose and how many SMS messages you purchase. The more SMS messages you purchased, the lower the cost of sending one SMS message, i.e., for most of the SMS gateway providers, the cost for sending one SMS message decreases with your purchasing amount. Personal Helpdesk for Outlook supports the following providers. SMS Gateway website

104 104 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook How to get started? It is easy to send SMS messages with an SMS service provider. Here are the typical steps: First select one of the SMS provider from the above list of support providers Register for an account on the SMS service provider's web site. (An SMS service provider may allow newly registered users to send a few free SMS messages for testing its service quality.) Log into the account. Buy a number of credits or SMS text messages online. Many SMS service providers support credit card payment and some also support PayPal. Input the login credential given to you in the Administrative Mobile Messaging in Personal Helpdesk Settings. Personal Helpdesk would then send SMS messages using a protocol / interface (e.g. HTTP, , FTP) supported by the SMS service provider. For example, JohnNash, who has an account with SMS provider would enter the credentials as shown below in the screenshot. Once configured (by the helpdesk manager), the effect of it is global i.e., every technician would be able to send SMS manually to callers or other technicians or to Outlook contacts. The instance of Personal Helpdesk addin running in the technician's Outlook would support sending automatic SMS notifications (for those events on which the helpdesk manager had defined). Individual technicians are not required to make any settings.

105 105 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 9.2 SMS via Skype Sending SMS via Skype (requires version 2.5 or later) is another way of enabling support for messaging functionality in Personal Helpdesk. It is cheap, convenient, seems relatively reliable too! Every technician needs to have Skype installed with valid credits to send SMS to mobile phones. There is no specific settings that needs to be configured in Skype. The only requirement is that it should be running with valid credits. Skype is seamlessly integrated with Personal Helpdesk i.e., the sending of SMS via Skype is done programmatically (through Skype API) which means the technician does not perform any manual steps during the process. The technicians won't even notice the Skype is being used during the whole process of SMS messaging. For more on Skype SMS, visit the Skype website at How to get started? First the helpdesk manager (or technician with administrative rights) enables 'Allow SMS messaging' and then select the option 'Use Skype to send SMS'. Once set, it is done for all technicians. For the first time, when a technician tries to send an SMS (or call) to a mobile or phone number, Skype would automatically pop up a message asking you if to allow the Outlook Application (Outlook.exe) access to that Skype functionality. You will have to select the first option 'Allow this program to use Skype' and then click OK to continue. This setting is performed only one-time per user; subsequent access happens seamlessly to the technicians, i.e., Skype remembers the selected option and would allow access as long as the user don't explicitly unset it under Skype > Tools > Advanced > Manage other programs' access to Skype.

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107 107 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 9.3 Sending SMS to a caller/technician When the SMS option is enabled; either using SMS provider or Skype, technicians then can start sending self-composed SMS to caller or other technicians based on the helpdesk requirements. To send to a caller: To send to other technician: To send to an Outlook contact: Notes If the message is longer than the standard 160 characters, the text is split up into several messages and you may be charged for more than one message.

108 108 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 9.4 Automating SMS reminders Apart from notifications, Personal Helpdesk can also send out automatic SMSs based on different helpdesk events such as when a case is created, changed or resolved, or when a technician is assigned to the case, or when the due date has lapsed etc. This whole exercise is transparent to the technicians and needs no manual intervention from the technicians. Refer to 'Automatic Notifications' for more details. Notes If the message is longer than the standard 160 characters, the text is split up into several messages and you may be charged for more than one message

109 109 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 10. Making Phone Calls Sometimes, technicians may need to contact callers via a phone call on emergency support requests. Under such scenarios, Personal Helpdesk provides two ways of making calls to any telephone/mobile number anywhere in the world right inside your Outlook - using a phone attached to the technician's system or either using Skype.

110 110 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 10.1 Configuring Skype to make calls Personal Helpdesk can use Skype to make internet phone calls (VoIP) with a valid SkypeOut account. Voice over IP (VoIP) is a protocol that allows users to transmit voice data over an internet connection, essentially allowing you to make phone calls to someone without going through your telecom provider. There are many types of VoIP solutions, some requiring dedicated hardware and others based purely on software such as Skype. Skype is a free VoIP application that uses a peer-to-peer networking scheme to route users' calls. However, to make calls and send messages to telephones/mobile phones, you would need to buy credits. The international call charges are reasonably prices and make sense for your helpdesk needs if a good internet bandwidth is available for a quality voice over calls. To learn more on calls from Skype, visit How to get started? Unlike other Personal Helpdesk helpdesk settings which are performed by helpdesk manager/admin and saved in Exchange public folder, the phone settings are performed by individual technician and saved to the system registry of the system. For the first time, when a technician tries to make a call (or send a SMS) to a mobile or phone number, Skype would automatically pop up a message asking you if to allow the Outlook Application (Outlook.exe) access to that Skype functionality. You will have to select the first option 'Allow this program to use Skype' and then click OK to continue. This setting is performed only one-time per user; subsequent access happens seamlessly to the technicians, that is, Skype remembers the selected option and would allow access as long as the user don't explicitly unset it under Skype > Tools > Advanced > Manage other programs' access to Skype.

111 111 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 10.2 Configuring an attached phone to make calls To enable Personal Helpdesk to use a telephone to make phone calls, the particular computer needs to have a voice/speakerphone modem. You can either use the telephone itself to converse and speak to or use a headset attached to the computer. How to get started? Personal Helpdesk needs to be feed with the communication port where the modem is installed (COM). You can easily find that out by going to Control Panel > Phone and Modem Options > Modems tab. You then need to manually select the correct COM port number from the drop down in Personal Helpdesk.

112 112 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 10.3 Making Calls to caller/technician With support for making outgoing calls enabled, either using Skype or attached phone, technicians then can start making calls to callers, technicians and Outlook contacts on a click of a button, all inside Outlook. Technicians can easily use the buttons and menu items available in the Personal Helpdesk ongoing and resolved toolbars, Outlook case form, contact folder etc. Making call to caller When making calls using an attached modem phone, a status dialog (above) would popup that allows to hang up the call when done. Making call to technicians Making call to caller/technician from within the 'Quick Actions' drop down menu Making a call to an Outlook contact (Skype only as Outlook has already provided inbuilt support for making calls to attached modem phone) Note Please note that calls made from Personal Helpdesk are not recorded, but are logged (available in the log section of the support case form).

113 113 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 11. Outlook views The Outlook views are a wonderful tool to automatically sort, quickly find information and rapidly rearrange messages in any folder. They are the primary interface with which most technicians will scan through for relevant cases when they work on the Personal Helpdesk folders. Views can also be organized to group and filter support cases to make a particular feature of your information obvious at first glance. Hence, it is no wonder that Personal Helpdesk extends the power and flexibility of Outlook views to provide better sense and understanding on information when it is required the most! All Personal Helpdesk views are organized in a way that they bring out some sense out of the cases - patterns, associations, occurrences or dependencies. But sometime, a technician would want to refine the view by means of keyword search on any fields. With the simple and advanced search options available with Personal Helpdesk right in Outlook, you are never handicap from the finding the right information in right time. Personal Helpdesk for Outlook makes use of the different types of views as described below: Table/List view All modules contain some version of the Table view - a rectangle made up of rows and columns. Some Outlook menus also refer to this arrangement as a List view. In either case, if you create a new item (by adding a new task to your Tasks List, for example), a new row turns up in the Table view. You see one row for each task in the Table view. Other Table view names start with the word By, which means that items in the view are grouped by a certain type of information, such as entry type or name of contact. Icons view Icons view is the simplest view - just a bunch of icons with names thrown together on-screen. The only Icons views that come with Outlook are for viewing notes and file folders. Timeline view Timeline view shows you a set of small icons arranged across the screen. Icons higher on the screen represent created items or tasks that began earlier in the day. Icons farther to the left were created on an earlier date. The Timeline in the Tasks module also draws a line that represents the length of time needed to perform a task if you specified its starting and ending times. Cards view Cards view is designed for the especially for the Contacts module, but can be used for displaying messages in non-contact folder also. Each item gets its own little block of information. Each little block displays a little or a lot of information about the item, depending on what kind of card it is. It is used by default in all Contact folders. Day/Week/Month view Day/Week/Month view is designed particularly for the calendar, but can be used for displaying messages in non-calendar folder also. Like a Timeline view, this view adds Day, Work Week, Week, and Month buttons to the toolbar, enabling you to switch between views easily. All these views also display a monthly calendar. You can click any date in that calendar to switch your view to that date. Also read more.. Workgroup Outlook views 'My Cases' view Customizing an Outlook view

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115 115 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 11.1 Available views Based on different needs and scopes, technicians can switch to any pre-defined cases view. For example, the 'problem category-problem type' view is very useful when technicians want to group cases on line of problems in a hierarchical tree, so that it is easy to have summarized information as which problem type has the maximum and minimum cases. Similarly, a manager can have a generalized information on the case life span (eg. the day it was created to the day it was resolved) in a timeline view by choosing one of the calendar view. There are more than 30 or so views available in each support cases folder, namely, 'Ongoing Cases' and 'Resolved Cases'. Most of the views are common to both folders except for few such as Date Closed - Calendar' view which is only available in the 'Resolved cases' folder. You can easily change the view in two ways: through the Personal Helpdesk toolbar through Outlook view menu As there are a staggering number of views in Personal Helpdesk, describing each one of them is out of the scope. However, some of interesting ones are discussed below with relevant screenshots. Case Number This view sorts the cases in the folder by Case Number (or Case ID) in descending order. One drawback of Outlook field that employs a numeric data type is sorting, that is, often when you sort a numeric field; the sorting is performed by string (alpha-numerically) rather than numerically resulting in the 'Case ID' field out of sequence. But this is taken care of in this view and you will always find the 'Case ID' field in sequence no matter how many digit figures the 'Case ID' is in.

116 116 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Cases Worked today - Table (Filtered) This view only displays the support cases that were worked (or modified) today. This is useful for helpdesk managers to keep tap on the progress of the recent cases. For example, when they want to know which technicians had worked on what cases at the end of the day. All other cases that are not worked on today are hidden (can be verified easily from the '(Filter Applied)' tag at the right corner of the title bar. Date created - Calendar This takes a calendar view and displays all the support cases based on the creation date. The cases listed in the calendar view can be arranged in the same way as that of appointments in your default calendar - day/week/month. The only difference being that when you double-click the item (case), it would be opened with the custom case form, instead of the appointment form. Date Range - Calendar (Created Date - Due Date) This is a special calendar view that displays all support cases in a range format, taking 'Created Date' as

117 117 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook the start time, and 'Due Date' as the End time. Problem category This is table view that groups all support cases in the folder by 'Problem Category' and then by 'Problem Type', resulting in an hierarchical listing of cases. Technicians This is also a table view that groups all support cases in the folder by 'Technicians'. Date Range - Timeline (Date Created - Date Closed) This view takes a timeline view (one that is used in Journal folder) and lists all support cases in lines and

118 118 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook icons with 'Date Created' set to Start time and 'Date Closed' set to End time.

119 119 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 11.2 My Cases view Personal Helpdesk provides a special view 'My Cases' which filters the folder to show only those support cases that are assigned to the current user (technician). That is, a technician would only see support cases in the folder that are his/her.

120 120 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 11.3 Customizing a view The Personal Helpdesk views can be modified to suit the team's taste and fields requirements. If you are an Outlook expert, you can even create new views and publish them for all your team in the folder. But detail descriptions on creating new views are out of the scope in this document. However, you can find various resources on the web that especially deals with extending Microsoft Outlook views. To customize a Personal Helpdesk view, let us take the example of 'Technician - Table' view (which is currently set as the default view in the folder). Once you clicked the 'Customize Current View...' menu item, a dialog box popup with the options to select Personal Helpdesk fields, define group, sort and format columns. Discussions in Filter, Other Settings, and Automatic Formatting options are intentional left behind because they are advanced features of Outlook and touching down through them would infuse unnecessary confusion to most users. For advanced users, of course, you can go ahead using them, but to keep things simple, only relevant Outlook settings are focused here. 1. Fields - refers to fields that would be added to the current view. For our purpose, you need to select the specific form first which is 'AMTSupportCase'. Selecting it from the drop down would list all the Personal Helpdesk fields into the 'Available fields'. You can then select fields to be added to the current view by means of the 'Add ->' and '<-Remove' buttons.

121 121 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 2. Group By - here you can specify a field that will be used to group all support cases that has similar values. To group items using a Personal Helpdesk field, you would first need to select the particular form 'AMTSupportCase' from the drop down 'Select available fields from'' (located at the bottom). Then, that action would load all the Personal Helpdesk fields into the 'Group items by' drop down. For example, the in the screenshot below, 'Case.Technicians' is specified to group all support cases by technicians. 3. Sort - use this dialog to define a field with which sorting would be performed to the view. As in the previous 'group' dialog, you would first need to select the 'AMTSupportCase' form from the 'Select available fields from:' drop down, and then select the appropriate field from the 'Sort items by' drop down. You can also specify if the sorting has to be performed in ascending or descending order. In the screenshot below, the field 'Case.CaseNumberS' is selected to sort support cases in ascending order. (Notice, there is also another field 'Case.CaseNumber').

122 122 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 4. Format Columns - allows you to specify your own titles for the fields you have selected for the view. The specified titles would then be shown in view in the folder. By default, it takes the same field name as the titles. For example, a custom label 'Case #' is specified to be used as title for the Personal Helpdesk case number field 'Case.CaseNumber'.

123 123 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 12. Knowledge base The inbuilt knowledge base in Personal Helpdesk allows help desk team to document best practices and solutions to common problems so that they can be used when replying to time-consuming and repeated queries. Any support case is eligible to become flagged as a KB Article. A technician recognizing a repetitive support issue, can easily flag a resolved case as a knowledge article. Thus, it acts as an effective knowledge sharing medium, boosting support productivity by leveraging collective knowledge and providing invaluable KB Articles to support techs in a snap! It also helps in improving the average "First Call Resolution" timing significantly, as technicians find resolution to problems quickly. Knowledge base items in the KB folder are arranged in hierarchical tree (by group KB items into 'Problem Category' and then to 'Problem Type'). This arrangement makes it very easy to browse for a particular knowledge base at the time of need. Also read more.. Outlook knowledge base form Creating a new knowledge base Using knowledge base Publishing knowledge base to web

124 124 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 12.1 Outlook Knowledge base form Understanding the Outlook knowledge base form It is very easy to use the knowledge base in Outlook. A Question and Answer format is used to intuitively display Knowledge Base Articles. Each Article may have any number of file attachments associated, richtext elements, and hyperlinks to other web pages. All articles are tagged with a related problem category and problem type, so it is easy to find a particular resolution at time of needs. Non-editable field - displays the name of the current user who created this knowledge base item. Non-editable field - displays the date and time the knowledge base item was created. Editable field - drop down list of all available problem categories defined in Personal Helpdesk problems list. You can select a value from the list to mark the category to which the current knowledge base item belongs to. Editable field - drop down list of all available problem types (sub-categories) of the selected problem category. When you select from the problem category drop down, another tier of problem type lists will be loaded in the type drop-down control. These nested tiers of categories/types are complete customizable to your organization's business model and act as somewhat of a guiding decision tree when you search for a particular knowledge base item in the folder. Editable field - the subject (or a question or a summary) of the current knowledge base. Click this button to edit/revise the description content of the knowledge base. By default, once a knowledge base article is created, subsequent accessing displays the KB in read-only mode. Click this button to forward the current knowledge base item (including attachments) to a contact. Click this button to save any changes made to the current knowledge base and close the inspector window. Click this button to close the inspector window implicitly (without displaying any confirmation message) irrespective of any changes made to the knowledge base.

125 125 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook The description field of knowledge base item. It may have any number of file attachments, HTML formatting, and hyperlinks to other web pages etc. You can use the default Outlook formatting tools (such as bold, font, fore color etc.) on this field.

126 126 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 12.2 Creating a new knowledge base An empty knowledge base can be created directly from the KB folder, in which case, it would have to be fed manually. A knowledge base can also be generated from an existing Outlook item such as , task or appointment. Generated knowledge base item will then inherits the body (and its format) as well as any number of attachments. Technicians or helpdesk managers would then tag with a problem category and one of the types available for that selected category. Empty knowledge base From s/Tasks/Appointments

127 127 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 12.3 How to use the knowledge base A knowledge base solution can be used for replying to s, support case or for embedding into an appointment/task or for simply forwarding it to an Outlook contact. A dialog window allows the technicians to browse through the existing knowledge base items, even preview it before it can be chosen for embedding into the particular Outlook item ( , appointment, task, support case etc.) Steps to embed a knowledge base to a new , appointment, task or a support case. Select a particular outlook item ( in the screenshot below) and click the 'Reply with a KB' button to display the KB selection dialog. Browse through the listed KBs by problem type and category. Click a KB subject from the treeview to preview the content. Finally when you have found the appropriate knowledge base item, select 'Insert'. The selected knowledge base would be then embedded to the body field if the selected Outlook item is of appointment or task types or on the body field of reply compose inspector, if the selected Outlook item is of mail types.

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129 129 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 12.4 Publishing Knowledge base to web The knowledge base articles in the KB folder can be published to your website so that end-users and customers experiencing technical challenges can self-service the answer to their problem by accessing the web-based knowledge base. The web-based knowledge base is a subcomponent of Customer Web Service (CWS) website and hence no explicit configuration is necessary. To generate/update the web knowledge base, just open the web access setting dialog (Personal Helpdesk menu > Settings > Web Access) and perform the following steps: Step 1: Check the option 'Update knowledge base data XML files' available under the Customer Web Service (CWS) section. Step 2: Update the metadata XML files for Customer Web Service (CWS) Once on the Knowledge Base web interface, end-users may click through the tiered problem categories and types to find the self-service answers they are looking for. Self-Service articles may also be searched via keywords.

130 130 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 13. Using Predefined Answers There might be times when technicians just need to answer briefly to a frequently asked question from callers. Instead of framing the answer over and over again, just imagine how easy it would be if you can compose a predefined answer lists with relevant answer categorized by problems. With such a setup, it is very easy to reply to a support request by just selecting the appropriate predefined answer and embedding it to the . Creating a predefined answer - A new predefined answer can be created using the predefined answers manager. With supports for HTML formatting and a graphical designing WYSIWYG interface, all answers are saved under Personal Helpdesk setting. An answer can also be tagged with a problem category and type. Inserting a predefined answer into the support case - A technician can select an existing predefined answer and insert into a support case. A dialog window allows the technicians to browse through all predefined answers, even preview it before it can be chosen for embedding into the particular support case. Steps to embed a predefined answer to a support case. Open a support case and click the 'Insert a predefined answer' button to display the predefined answers selection dialog. Browse through the listed questions listed by problem type and category. Then click a question from the treeview to preview the content. Finally when you have found the appropriate answer item, select 'Insert'.

131 131 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook The selected predefined answer would be then embedded to the problem body field if the selected support case.

132 132 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Replying a predefined answer to an /outlook contact - Predefined answers are not only limited to support cases. They can be used to reply to normal s or forward it to an Outlook contact. Replying a predefined answer to an Sending a predefined answer to an Outlook contact

133 133 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 14. Searching & Reporting So you have a repository of support request cases logged into an exchange folder. As the number of logged cases multiplies, finding the right information at the time of need is crucial for helpdesk team. For example, more so then often, technicians would require querying information based on particular cases, assets, callers etc. Hence, a comprehensive search capability with rich filter sets and techniques are imperative. But the inbuilt Outlook search functionality provides few options to search non-default fields (i.e., custom fields) and is only good to search the subject of the support requests. So to overcome this handicap, Personal Helpdesk implements its own search feature with support for diverse usage scenarios like search on all helpdesk fields as well as description body or search based on predefined list (such as caller, technician, department etc). Results of search performed from within the Personal Helpdesk toolbar (in case folder) are displayed in the folder view whereas results performed via the 'search dialog' are shown in a separate window. Also read more.. Searching from Personal Helpdesk toolbars Searching via dialog

134 134 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 14.1 Searching from Outlook toolbars In 'Ongoing Cases' and 'Resolved Cases' folders, a search field in the toolbar accepts keyword(s) to make a query to all support cases in that folder. Search is performed on inbuilt Outlook fields as well as helpdesk specific fields such as caller name, caller , department, problems, assets etc. The matches of the search are then automatically displayed in the folder view in Outlook itself using the relevant filter (while restricting those items from showing up in the view that does not fulfill the search). For example in the screenshot below, a keyword 'DVD' is searched in all the support case in the 'Ongoing Cases' folder, returning 4 cases. Three of the cases have the searched keyword in the subject itself, whereas, the one remaining case has it in the message body field. Multiple keywords search are also supported using the AND (+) and OR (,) logic. For example, to search for cases that has both 'DVD' and 'CD' keywords (not necessarily in sequence), you may enter something like DVD + CD. Likewise, to search for cases that has either 'DVD' or 'CD' keyword (in any fields), you will enter DVD, CD. Outlook displays 'Filter Applied' when the current view is in restriction mode. To search, enter keyword(s) and press return key. To clear the current search and come back to all items, just click the clear button (next to the search field). Advanced Searching and Reporting Apart from the free text search by keywords, Personal Helpdesk also implements an advanced search and reporting options with an array of filters available to extract only the required support cases quickly within the folder view itself. Currently, there are 12 filter types available in the advanced search and reports. You can choose any of these from the drop down menu (the first button). Created On Search and report those cases that were created on the specified date. You can feed the date by clicking on the 'Pick' button. A popup dialog with a month view calendar allows

135 135 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook you to select a date. Created Between Search and report those cases that were created between a specified date range. You can feed the date by clicking on the 'Pick' button on each From: and To: field. A popup dialog with a month view calendar allows you to select a date. Due on Search and report those cases that are due on the specified date. You can feed the date by clicking on the 'Pick' button. A popup dialog with a month view calendar allows you to select a date. Closed on Search and report those cases that are closed on the specified date. You can feed the date by clicking on the 'Pick' button. A popup dialog with a month view calendar allows you to select a date. Closed Between Search and report those cases that were closed between a specified date range. You can feed the date by clicking on the 'Pick' button on each From: and To: field. A popup dialog with a month view calendar allows you to select a date. Technician Search and report those cases are assigned to the selected technician from the drop down list. Problems Search and report those cases belong to the specified problem category and type from the drop down list. If no type is specified, then it would show all cases that belong to the specified problem category. Caller Name Search and report those cases that are logged from the specified caller (by name) from the drop down list.

136 136 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Caller Search and report those cases are logged from the specified caller (by ) from the drop down list. Author Search and report those cases that are created/logged by the specified technician from the drop down list. Assets Search and report those cases that match that specified asset name and type from the two drop down lists. Status Search and report those cases that have the specified status from the drop down list. Departments Search and report those cases that belongs to the specified department from the drop down list.

137 137 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 14.2 Searching via dialog Support cases search can also be performed using the exclusive search dialog available as an administrative tool under Personal Helpdesk main menu. Just like the integrated search on Personal Helpdesk Outlook toolbars, this search dialog also offers an array of filters and case options for extracting the right information in single click. The main advantage of using this search dialog against the search via the toolbars (and hence folder view) is that the technician don't have to be in the specific outlook folder (i.e., 'Ongoing Cases' or 'Resolved Cases') to make a search. The other advantage is that option of consolidated search on both 'Ongoing Cases' and 'Resolved Cases' folders or in either one of them. It is also much easier to perform a particular common task on multiple cases such as marking as complete (closed), removing, reopening, printing etc. Select the filter option that will be used for making the search. Available filters are: Keyword - search by specifying keywords (free text search on all fields) Technicians - search in the technician field only Problem Type - search in the problem type field only Callers - search the specified caller in the caller field only Created By - search the specified technician in the author field Case Origin - search by origin of the support case (phone, , task, appointment, contact, web submission, webaccess) Assets - search by specifying asset name The user interface (UI) of the selected filter. For example, in the above screenshot, the technician filter is selected in the 'search by' drop down (point 1), and as a consequence, a technician drop down list is available as the filter. Select what types of cases should be queried for the search. Possible values are: Ongoing, Resolved or Both Start the search.

138 138 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Print the current previewed support case. Printing will use the print HTML template. Re-open the current previewed support case. This button is only enabled if the previewed case is already closed, otherwise, it is disabled. Re-opening a closed case would move that Outlook case from the 'Resolved Cases' folder to the 'Ongoing Cases' folder. Mark the current previewed support case as resolved (closed). This button is only enabled if the previewed case is still opened, otherwise, it is disabled. Closing a case would move that Outlook case from the 'Ongoing Cases' folder to the 'Resolved Cases' folder. Exit out of the search dialog. The result of the search - support cases (can be both ongoing and resolved cases) The preview of the problem description of the selected support case. It is read-only.

139 139 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 15. Administrative Tools Personal Helpdesk provides tools for administrators to analyze support request statistical data create summary reports, export support cases to a database, archive old and resolved cases or load demo cases. All of these tools can be configured to be accessible only by helpdesk managers (eg. administrators). Also read more.. Statistics Summary Reports Export to database Archive Cases Demo Cases

140 140 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 15.1 Statistics - Enabling Business Intelligence With the integrated Online Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) tool, helpdesk managers can analyze the support request data in multidimensional view and extract mission critical information and intelligence that will enable better decision- in your helpdesk and organization. The tool supports the ability to explore large complex data sets and allows displaying in grids, charts and graphs and support most common operations such as pivoting, drill down/slice and dice, filtering etc. With such arrays of information, the organization can reengineer their help desk processes, reinforce resources and forecast problem areas and exploit all these factors for competitive advantage. Why OLAP? Real strength of OLAP is its ability to examine and view data in ways not ordinarily possible. By allowing varying levels of granularity during data inspection and visualization a lot of information can be revealed that would otherwise be hard to attain. Given that most business models are constrained by more than three dimensions, it is hard to fully evaluate a business without the ability to inspect each dimension in detail while preserving context eliminating all guesswork. OLAP is perfectly suited for this purpose. Now it s easier than ever to spot new trends and discover unknown problems in your data flow. The statistical tool will help you gain an insight into your data and make new discoveries. Comes with various inbuilt reports specific to Personal Helpdesk Cases. Reporting made easier - The statistical tool's simplistic point-and-click interface will ensure managers easily achieve the high-level views of information they require. Additionally, the OLAP client makes creating reports destined for different management levels a simple task - eliminating managers' dependence on IT personnel. By unifying data analysis needs on a single platform, it provides an unparalleled array of reporting tools for web portals, intranet applications, websites, and other data-rich applications. Look and Feel - You can set up a look and feel of the component selecting from the standard color schemes like MS Office 2003, Windows Vista, etc., or defining your own display style. In addition to the styles you can always override the standard appearance using many painting events an unlimited ability to make up your own special appearance. Printing capabilities - you can print your report to share it with others using the built-in Print Preview window. You can tune your page/printer settings before printing. Also if you feel like sharing the report through the net or by you can easy export it to a wide range of formats including PDF, XLS, CSV, JPG, etc. Copy to Clipboard - Select any data range in Chart/Grid and copy to clipboard. Then you ll be able to paste it in an Office program for further analysis. You can also paste the chart like a picture to illustrate your investigations. This greatly simplifies the task of creating detailed, data-rich documents. Save Reports in file - At any stage managers/technicians can save the report and distribute it to another person for analysis by network or , so when the recipient gets the file he can open it and see the same OLAP slice. Launching the statistics tool: Via the Personal Helpdesk main menu via the 'Resolved Cases' toolbar

141 141 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Via the 'Ongoing Cases' toolbar As the support request cases are stored in your Exchange, Personal Helpdesk first needs to collect data from your public folder or shared mailbox. You can also specify what type of cases are to be included - ongoing cases, resolved cases or both. The retrieval process typically takes few seconds before loading up the statistics tool. The statistical tool has a customizable user interface with all the functionalities to analyze and understand various parameters of your helpdesk operations such as overall performance, response time, recurring problems, cost etc. The predefined reports are arranged in a treeview and help you get started instantly. Most of the helpdesk Outlook fields are available as hierarchies and measures in the cube structure tree and you can use them in any combination based on the statistical requirements. Chart View

142 142 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Grid View

143 143 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Understanding the User Interface The statistical tool presents an easy-to-use interface for operating an OLAP-slice. The basic data is displayed in the Working area. The environment tools for managing the content and characteristics of the slice are placed on the pivot panels. You can set the panels' layout the way you like. To drag a panel to a different location, you need to capture and drag its header with the mouse. At that, all the possible locations, where it can be dropped to, will be highlighted. You can detach a panel from the component; it will be displayed as a float window. Instrumental panels can be: attached to any side of the component; placed into any existing panel; displayed as bookmarks on any panel; set as auto-hidden panels; Used as float windows. You can change the view of the slice by relocating measures and hierarchies within the environment panel. When you start dragging an element, all the possible locations, where it can be dropped to, will be highlighted. Most elements have context menus that duplicate the mouse actions and provide additional control functions for managing the slices' view.

144 144 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook The File menu The file menu consists of the following commands: a) Open Offline Cube from file - While generating a live cube from Outlook always provides the advantage of analyzing live data, often, you might be away or disconnected from the network. In such scenario, you have the option of connecting to an offline cube, which was previously generated and saved to your local folder using this utility. An offline cube file has the extension.offlinecube and can be either in compressed or uncompressed format. An offline cube gives the same functionality as that of a live cube (which is generated from the Outlook data at real time), except that the data in the offline cube is only current to the time the cube was saved to file. This provides the flexibility to continue analyzing the cube and writing reports etc, while you are on the move. b) Predefined Views - Pre-defined reports are available under Assets, Cases, Callers, Date/Time, Problems, and Technicians nodes. Clicking one of child node report

145 145 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook loads the statistical analysis of that report, the resultant of which will be displayed in the Grid or Chart (depending on the current active view). c) Load report file from Favorite You can customize or create your own views and save them to the favorite. Once saved, your views would be saved under the C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\Personal Helpdesk Reports\Views folder (in windows Vista and 7). For windows XP, it should under My Documents. When you open the favorite from this menu, you can choose to load your saved view.

146 146 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook d) Open report view from file - Once a particular snapshot of the statistics is achieved, you may want to save it for future reference or share it among your team members. A report view is the current state of the statistics in the Grid/Chart working area, with specific member fields on the pivot panels (Rows and Column areas) and measure fields in the values area. It has a file extension.olapreport. e) Save report view to favorite You can save the current view of the statistics (grid or chart) to the favorite, by specifying a name of the view. f) Save report view as - If you want to share a report view with others, you can simply save the current report (state of the statistics along with the pivot details) to a file folder of your choice - could be a network folder also.

147 147 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook g) Save to offline Cube Once you have loaded a live cube from the Personal Helpdesk folders (ongoing and resolved cases folders), you have the option to save the entire cube data to a file (with the extension.offlinecube) for offline use, when you are disconnected from Outlook or network. Offline cube can be saved in compressed or uncompressed format, the former option being able to reduce the file size considerably. h) Same as g. (above) i) Close the cube - This option closes the cube from the OLAP Statistics and free up the memory for loading another cube. View Menu Contains actions that you can perform on the current report view. a) Reset Chart/Grid - Empty all the member fields from the pivot as well as the data from the working area of the chart/grid. This is useful if you want to start over on a new report view. b) Synchronize Chart/Grid - This option allows you to reflect the state of the statistics between the Grid and the chart. It is particularly useful, for example, when you have build up a grid with aggregated data, but want a mor visual representation of the statistics in form of graphs and bars. Also note that, the synchronization will be don the other part (grid or chart) based on the current interface. For example, if you are in the grid view, and if you pressed Synchronize Chart/Grid it would read the state of the Grid view and impart the same state (same members and measures) to the Chart view and vice versa. Each of the Grid and Chart view can be worked independently as long as you don t press this synchronize option.

148 148 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook OLAP Grid panel The OLAP Grid control is comprised of a multi-dimensional table with expandable nodes. These nodes group and display data according to the hierarchies used to define the measures and dimensions upon which the underlying data has been organized. Unique features of control allows for building the OLAP-reports of the exceptional level of complexity. In tandem with the OLAP Chart, the OLAP Grid provides an ideal means of clearly conveying data to the user. OLAP Chart panel While OLAP Grid allows working with numbers, the OLAP Chart allows representing the helpdesk data graphically. This gives technicians and managers a unique opportunity to analyze their business data visually, dealing with charts rather than numbers, which is much easier to perceive. Cube structure panel The panel contains the Cube structure - measures and hierarchies as a tree. The measures are grouped in the set, displayed in the branch. All the rest of the tree nodes are the dimensions that contain hierarchies. - Measure - Dimension - Attribute hierarchy - Multilevel hierarchy To select a measure for display you need to drag-ndrop it to the Measures panel or the data area. To select a hierarchy for display drag-n-drop it to the hierarchy area or the pivot panel (rows or columns area). Measures are grouped in the Measures category. Hierarchies are sorted into folders - dimensions. If there's only one dimension in a hierarchy, it will be displayed in the tree root. Both hierarchies and measures have their own menus. Right click will call the context menu that

149 149 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook gives you an option to place the element where you like. You can also filter the selected element (see Filtering hierarchies and measures) or place it to the selected panel. Pivoting panels A pivot table lets user design the report online by dragging and dropping measures, dimensions and levels into the pivoting panels. Note that the column panel may contain no more than one (!) measure. Panel elements can be dragged with the mouse to other panels. To filter elements, press the Filter button (see Pivot panel view) or use the appropriate items from the context menu. Measure panel Measure panel consists of groups of measures that make up the charts' vertical axes (see Measure panel components). Each group of measures corresponds to a set of charts in the data area. Groups of measures are situated in the main part of the panel. You can drag measures from one group to another, or extract measures from groups to delete them. To create a new group, you need to drag a measure to a place on the panel not occupied by another group or to the <drop an item to create a new group> panel.

150 150 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Clicking a mouse button on measures will call the context menu. From here, you can move a measure to one of the pivot panels or to the modifiers axis, or assign a measure filter. Also, you can assign the marker type of a chart point and its color. Filters, Groups, and Sorting The statistical tool allows for easy selection on what data you want to see and what you don t. You can apply powerful filters to anything including hierarchy members, and measure values, thus leaving out the unimportant data. You can sort the data to see, for example, the top 10 values and then you can gather the rest values into a single group, so you only have what you really need. Quick filter panel The panel is applicable for quick filtering of elements. You can filter just one hierarchy or one measure at once. To assign a quick filter, use the context menu. Quick filtering of a hierarchy is a simplified version of the Hierarchy filtering editor. You can show or hide hierarchy members, while selecting them from the Hierarchy tree. All the changes will be displayed in the Grid upon checking the "Preview" button. If a non-empty filter is assigned, it will be shown in the Filter panel. To delete a filter, select the "All Members" node and choose the "Delete filter" command on the Filter panel. Quick filtering of measures is a fine way to hide some of the values in the Chart. It doesn't mean you create a measure filter in the Filter area. Repositioning of the trackbar sliders will be reflected with a slight delay (~0.4 second), you can set its threshold values in the input boxes. To clear a filter, check the "Clear" button.

151 151 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Filter panel The filtered elements (hierarchies and measures) are automatically transferred to the Filter panel. To assign a filter, you have to move an element to the Filter panel. If the element hasn't been filtered the appropriate editor will be called (Hierarchy Filter Editor for hierarchies and Measure Filter Editor for measures). In the Filter panel, you can call the Filtered Element Editor individually for each element. On the hierarchy levels' captions area panels you can find the Hierarchy Editor buttons. If the button looks like this, it means that there are hidden members in the hierarchy. Pressing the button calls the Hierarchy Editor. Working Area The OLAP-slice data is displayed in working area. In its upper part there is a menu for the quick access to the frequently used commands². The rest is occupied by the current OLAP-slice and consists of the following parts - Cube Axis headers, Cube Axes, Data Axes, Data Axis headers, Chart Panes

152 152 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Working with OLAP Grid The OLAP Grid view is comprised of a multi-dimensional table with expandable nodes. These nodes group and display data according to the hierarchies used to define the measures and dimensions upon which the underlying data has been organized. In tandem with the OLAP Chart view, the OLAP Grid view provides an ideal means of clearly conveying data to the user. It is highly navigable and quickly provides detailed information to the user. The speed with which data recall occurs and the strong formatting the grid enforces ensure data is always presentable and easily understandable. Consequently, OLAP Grid views can easily be ported to spreadsheet applications for report compilation purposes. Additionally the OLAP Grid view allows users to effortlessly add and remove categories, filter and sort categories, and drill up or drill down on data using powerful built-in menus. One of the greatest benefits this affords is that it allows users to explore, navigate and refine data until the desired snapshot is achieved. Once in place this snapshot can then be reflected in a complementary chart. This is possible as OLAP operations in Grid view can be synchronized with Chart view. These two data views can then be deployed side-by-side or on top of one another. Data Visualization Unicode support. Simultaneous display of several different measures in the Grid. Simultaneous drilling down based on different parameters: up to the nearest child, up to the next level, up to the next hierarchy. Saving and restoring the current OLAP-slice. Hierarchy members grouping (including multilevel and parent-child hierarchies). Separate sorting on different hierarchy levels. Possibility to override any sorting method. Ascending or descending sorting based on the cell values in any column of the Grid. Filtering of hierarchy members with or without applying these filters to the OLAP calculations.

153 153 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Auto filtering of the hierarchy members depending on their values in the Grid. Major/minor members selection, either based on their rank or on the Pareto principle. Replacing hierarchy members by drag-n-dropping them within the Grid. Auto sizing of cells depending on their contents. Flexible export to MS Excel, HTML, GIF, JPG, PNG, BMP, CSV, TXT, PDF formats. Operating the OLAP-slice The OLAP-slice data are displayed in a table, whose appearance may be amended to some extent. For operating the current OLAP-slice there are the following functions available: 1. Navigation 2. Selecting and copying data 3. Drilling, sorting and moving hierarchy members 4. Operating context menus 5. Filtering data 6. Editing data 7. Setting the column width 1. Navigation - You can easily navigate the data using the keyboard: Button Home End PageUp Action Move to the first cell of the row Move to the last cell of the row Move one page up PageDown Move one page down Ctrl+Home Move to the top left cell Ctlr+End Move to the bottom right cell Using the mouse, you can scroll the table up and down. Mouse Action Scrolling the mouse wheel Scrolling the mouse wheel with the Shift button held down Component Action Vertical scrolling of the table Horizontal scrolling of the table 2. Selecting and copying data - The data area in the component can be selected like everything else in Windows: select all the cells pressing Ctrl+A; capture the area with the mouse; Change the boundaries of the selected area with direction buttons, holding down the Shift button. You can copy the data from the selected area to the clipboard by pressing Ctrl+C. If there s no selection, pressing these buttons will copy the whole OLAP-slice to the clipboard.

154 154 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 3. Drilling, sorting and moving hierarchy members - To perform the drilling of the hierarchy members press buttons on the Grid cells. If there s only one drilling button in a cell, then, instead of pressing it, you can double-click the cell itself. By default, the drilling buttons are shown only in the cells under mouse. To see all the buttons, press the Ctrl button. The last cells in the column area of the hierarchy members allow showing the sorting direction. A pointer that indicates the descending order of data illustrates it. You can manage the sorting modes by single clicking on the cells of the specified area: they are changed cyclically [descending sorting] -> [ascending sorting] -> [no sorting]. 4. Operating context menus -The context menu, called by right clicking a table cell, partly duplicates the OLAP-slice control functions. Hierarchy levels' menu The view of context menu of the hierarchy levels' area. There is a list of commands available in the context menu of the hierarchy levels area:

155 155 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Command Show totals first Show totals last Don t show totals Default sorting Sort ascending Sort descending Aggregate all hierarchy members Aggregate visible members only Drill all down\ to the next hierarchy Drill all down\ to the next level Drill all down\ to the same-level children Drill all up Clear filter Filter on captions Show empty cells Create new group Copy selection Conditional formatting Function Show the aggregated cells before all the rest Show the aggregated cells after all the rest Do not show the aggregated cells Range hierarchy members by default Range the hierarchy members by values from the bottom to the top Range the hierarchy members by values from the top to the bottom Aggregate all the hierarchy members (including hidden) Aggregate the visible hierarchy members only Drill all down to the next hierarchy Drill all down to the next level Drill all down to the same-level children Collapse all the elements of this level Remove any applied filters Set the filter for measures Show the cells with no aggregated values Create a new group. It will appear at the first level of the hierarchy Copy the selected area to clipboard Show the Conditional formatting menu

156 156 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Hierarchy members' menu The functions of the hierarchy members' area menu: The view of the context menu of the hierarchy members' area Command Drill down to the next hierarchy Hide this member Hide all members except this Hide all members above this Hide all members below this Show only the top Show only the bottom Filter on captions Create new group.. Copy selection Conditional formatting Function Open the node up to the next hierarchy in the current area, ignoring all the lower levels of the current hierarchy Hide the member Hide all the members of the hierarchy, except the selected one Hide all the members of the hierarchy above the selected one Hide all the members of the hierarchy below the selected one Show the top elements of the level. Their number is specified in the sub-menu. If you specify a percent value there, then the picking of members will be such that their total value does not exceed the one, specified in the sub-menu. You can choose a threshold value from those offered in the appropriate menu item or set your own one, selecting Other from the menu. Show the bottom elements of the level. Their number is specified in the sub-menu. If you specify a percent value there, then the picking of members will be such that their total value does not exceed the one, specified in the sub-menu. You can choose a threshold value from those offered in the appropriate menu item or set your own one, selecting Other from the menu. Set the filter for measures Create a new group on the current level Copy the selected area to clipboard Show the Conditional formatting menu

157 157 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook The menu for groups of hierarchy members The context menu that appears above the group cell: Command Hide this member Hide all members except this Hide all members above this Hide all members below this Show only the top Show only the bottom Filter on captions Create new group Delete this group Clear this group Function Hide the selected member Hide all the hierarchy members except the selected one Hide all the hierarchy members above the selected one Hide all the hierarchy members below the selected one Show the top elements of the level. Their number is specified in the sub-menu. If you specify a percent value there, then the picking of members will be such that their total value does not exceed the one, specified in the submenu. You can choose a threshold value from those offered in the appropriate menu item or set your own one, selecting Other from the menu. Show the bottom elements of the level. Their number is specified in the sub-menu. If you specify a percent value there, then the picking of members will be such that their total value does not exceed the one, specified in the submenu. You can choose a threshold value from those offered in the appropriate menu item or set your own one, selecting Other from the menu. Set the filter for measures Create a new group Delete the selected group Clear the selected group

158 158 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Rename this group Copy selection Conditional formatting Rename the selected group Copy the selected area to clipboard Show conditional formatting menu Measure values' menu The context menu that appears above the group cell: Command Sort ascending Sort descending No sorting Filter on captions Hide this measures Show as Copy selection Conditional formatting Function Range the cells in the column by values from the bottom to the top Range the cells in the column by values from the top to the bottom Remove any sorting Set the filter for measures Hide the selected measure Specify the display mode of the current measure in the Grid: default percent aggregated value in the row percent parent element of the row percent parent element of the column percent total aggregated value Copy the selected area to clipboard Show conditional formatting menu

159 159 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 5. Filtering data - The filtered elements (hierarchies or measures) are automatically placed on the filters' panel. To start filtering, move the element to the filters' panel. In case the element has not been filtered, the appropriate editor will launch (the Hierarchy Editor for hierarchies and the Measure Filter Editor for measures). In the filters' panel, you can launch an editor for each element independently. The buttons for launching the editor ( ) are placed on the panels in the Hierarchy levels area. If the button looks like this ( ), it means the hierarchy had hidden members inside. Pressing the button starts the Hierarchy editor. 6. Setting the columns' width - You can change the width of columns in the data display area by dragging the right boundary with the mouse. If possible, these changes will be saved during other operations with the table (like drilling, sorting, etc.) To return to the original width, double click the right boundary of the column where it is visible. In case there were such changes in the table that saving the assigned width of the columns was impossible (for example, if as a result of the Collapse drilling, the column with the assigned width has disappeared), it will be set automatically. Unfortunately, if you operate a big table, calculating the columns width takes up too much time. This is why if there are more than 10, 000 cells in your table, their width will be set to default, but it can be corrected later.

160 160 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Working with OLAP Chart While the Grid view allows working with numbers, chart view allows representing your helpdesk data graphically. This gives you and other managers a unique opportunity to analyze helpdesk data visually, dealing with charts rather than numbers, which is much easier to perceive. Now it s easier than ever to spot new trends and discover unknown problems in your data flow. The statistical tool will help you gain an insight into your data and make new discoveries. Tools panel This panel houses all the frequently used operations on the OLAP chart - save, export, print and display options. Button Function Load the Grid state Save the Grid state Export OLAP-slice data Print OLAP-slice data Preview Undo Redo Switch axes Select the docking panels layout Set the scale of Chart display Select the color palette for measures

161 161 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Modifier panel Modificators are easy and powerful options of data representation. You can choose your data be shown in different colors, using different shapes and sizes, so that you can easy distinguish them in a single graph. You can simply place a dimension or a measure on a modificator s pane and get the graph showing different values in a different manner. For example, you might place the "Problem Category" dimension on Color pane and get the Chart showing problem categories in different colors. Or you can place the "Cost" measure on Color pane to highlight the top rates of supporting the service requests. The same can be done for Shape and Size so that you can make your data perfectly distinguished. The layout of panels and hierarchies on the Modifier panel allows you to change the appearance of the displayed slice. When an element is placed to the modifier panel (except for Details), its legend will contain the display parameters. If you modify the color and shape of an element, the appropriate parameters can be amended. Modifier The changes made upon placing a Chart element to the modifier area of... a measure a hierarchy Color Size Shape The color of the Chart elements will be chosen from the standard set of gradient colors The elements with the minimal value will be painted with the first of the gradient colors, and the elements with the maximal value - with the last one Depending on the value of the measure the size of the Chart points will vary from the minimal to the maximal. Forbidden Hierarchy members will be painted with the colors from the current palette N/A Hierarchy members will differ in size Hierarchy members will differ in shape. If the number of hierarchy members will exceed the number of

162 162 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Details Forbidden available shapes, some of them will be used more than once The panels will display series for all hierarchy members If a measure is placed on the Color pane, its values range is mapped to the given colors range so that it s tremendously easy to spot the top/low values. If you select the discrete gradient type, you'll be able to set threshold values for filling the Chart elements. While the continuous gradient will let you evaluate the trend as a whole. To select the gradient type and tune its content, turn to the legend panel. The Legend panel The panel contains descriptions of the modified elements. The value, shape and color of a legend element can be edited. Setting the Color legend To select a color, simply double-click the appropriate element and choose a color from the pop-up editor. Setting the Gradient legend To edit the gradient, double-click the element and tune the settings in the editor. In the Gradient Editor there are: a set of pre-made gradients; selecting gradient option (continuous or discrete); creating a gradient with a set number of intermediate colors option; setting threshold in per cent and measure values option; Selecting threshold color option.

163 163 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Setting the Shape legend The shape selection is made through the context menu. This option is available only for points or lines Charts. If the number of hierarchy members exceeds the number of available shapes, they will be repeated. Chart Panes The bulk of the OLAP-slice data are placed into cells with Charts. Each measure group has its own set of panes. Measure groups with corresponding Charts in the working area

164 164 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook In the upper left part of each Chart, there will appear a context menu for selecting its type. Chart type menu The size of Charts can be changed to some extent. To expand a Chart along either one of the axes, you need to capture its boundary with the mouse and drag it. You can change the size along both axes (and return to default) through the tool menu in the upper part of the working area. Hot keys for changing the scale Ctrl+* Reset Scale to 1:1 Ctrl+Num+ Ctrl+Num- Zoom In Zoom Out Navigation If the content of the Grid exceeds the client area, the scroll bars will appear. You can scroll down the data using the mouse wheel. To scroll the Grid in the vertical direction, turn the mouse wheel, while holding Shift. Selecting Data You can select Chart points with the standard Windows' method. Holding down the Ctrl button, you can add selected points, holding down the Shift button, you can select the horizontal range. You can filter the Grid's points while selecting. In that case, the corresponding hierarchy members will be filtered automatically. Selecting and filtering parts of Charts a. Selecting some of the Chart points

165 165 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook b. Selecting the Filter command c. The result

166 166 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Note: When moving the mouse cursor over a data axis, you are able to select a continuous range of members (if the axis is composed of them) or a range of values in Charts. Filtering hierarchies In case you need to collect data not from the whole Grid, but just from a part of it, the component has a few functions at your disposal: they let you select or remove elements from the slice. Also, there is a standard option of exporting data into a number of formats and printing out the content of OLAP-slices. The simplest way of selecting data is through the context menu. When you click a hierarchy member on the Cube axis, there is a set of commands for quick operations with members: Hide this member Hide all members except this Hide all members above this Hide all members below this Filter on hierarchy level The Filter area of the Editor becomes visible only in case if filtering by hierarchy levels is available. To apply a filter to hierarchy members, you need to select a hierarchy level (if there's more than one) and assign the Filter condition in the Filter menu. In the same menu, there's a command to clear filter. Filtering hierarchy members If the search field is not empty, the "Find" command will make the component perform a search for hierarchy members, whose levels contain the specified string. You can narrow the search results by checking the "Exact matching" box. Filtering a single member of a hierarchy By default, the Editor is able to select any number of hierarchy members. To switch to the single-select mode, uncheck the "Multiselect" box. In that case, only one the hierarchy member with all its parents and members will be selected.

167 167 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Filtering measures There is a number of available parameters for filtering measures. In the same Editor, you can clear the filter.

168 168 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Visual Analysis with OLAP Chart The visual OLAP-analysis is an advanced technology that creates graphical OLAP-data slices suitable for visual manipulation of data to reveal "hotspots", hidden interrelation between different kinds of data and form graphical reports. The screenshot below illustrates two ways of presenting the same data: textual and graphical, so that you can see the difference between them. Textual presentation of data is more precise, but seriously lacks clearness The approximation of graphical presentation is easily compensated by its clearness Graphical and textual OLAP-analysis is based on the same technology: presenting data in the form of OLAPslice that can be pivoted (pivoting is rotation of the Cube), drilled, filtered, sorted or grouped. In addition to that, the graphical OLAP has its unique technologies, such as: Visual analysis and comparison of measures, using an adequate presentation of data; Revealing interconnections between measures in consideration of influential factors; Revealing clusters. Visual comparison of two measures - For example, Cases Count and Total Cost in view of problem categories by financial years. Revealing correlation between Tax Amount and Gross Profit measures in view of the products divided into sales channels. As you can see, there is a clear correlation between these two measures for the products sold through the Internet, but there is none for those sold by resellers

169 169 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Selection of the products that bring the most significant gross profit. Later we can apply a filter that will leave out only the elements of the selected area, or view and, if necessary, copy the information about the selected objects This is the easiest way of revealing hotspots in the analyzed data. With the correct way of graphic representation, an experienced analyst will evaluate the situation at a glance and make the necessary decision. Diagrams of cost per problem category, summed up by half-years. Moving the mouse cursor over the point in the diagram, you can get the detailed information about it. The summed up cost by technicians. The tree most significant regions are highlighted. Density of distribution of the cost summed results by department. Revealing the interconnection between the measures in view of the inflectional factors Using all the facilities of the graphic OLAP-analysis implies that you understand the methods of processing data OLAP-slices. Placing different measure to the X and the Y axes, lets you detect the correlation between the measures even with different detaining conditions. For such analysis of data, place one of the measures into the Rows area, and the second into Columns. The detailing hierarchies are situated in the Color, Shape and Details areas. For example:

170 170 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook This chart presents a clear correlation between the 'Cost' and the 'Time Spent' measures in view of problems (the Details axis), where the Cost is directly proportional to the Time Spent. Analysis may reveal other correlation types, such as: A fuzzy direct proportional relation A fuzzy inversely proportional relation No correlation

171 171 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Revealing Clusters This type of analysis reveals groups of the detailed positions and their influence on the measure values. For example, for the Cost and the Average Time Spent measures in view of problem categories, we get the following chart: As we can see, the points are grouped in clusters, within which they have approximately the same corresponding axis values. Select one of the groups and watch the information about the selected points (click the chart, after the area is selected, click the right button of the mouse and choose "Show Underlying data"): As we see, all the selected points have the same value in the "Problem Category" and "Problem Type". Let s suppose all the other problems are grouped according to the same principle. To confirm our idea, let s place the "Problem Type" to the color modifier and the "Problem Category" to the shape modifier.

172 172 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Predefined Reports Predefined reports allow you to quickly and easily retrieve information for common inquiries. Reports play a vital role as far as a Help Desk product is concerned. Requests that are open, closed or overdue at any instant of time, which person or department is sending the most number of requests & who is attending to the requests can all be known from the readymade reports available with the statistical tool. Each predefined report works in both OLAP grid and OLAP chart view. There are several predefined reports in each of the report categories, and each report is run directly on a mouse-click from the tree view. Around 40 reports are made available for instant details about the help desk activities. Any of the predefined reports can be also be edited so you can customize the report to return specific results: Reports by Assets Reports by Cases Reports by Callers Reports by Date/Time Reports by Problems Reports by technicians All these categories have reports available based on Department, Priority, Requester, Technician, Category and Request Date.

173 173 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Time spent on Asset Cases Count by Origin

174 174 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Average time spent by caller Due date Cost per problem category

175 175 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Time spent by technician

176 176 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Printing, exporting statistical data and charts Now that you have successfully designed a report, you might want to save it for future reference or share it with others. Reuse your work! You can now save data snapshots to HTML, BMP, CSV, GIF, HTML, JPEG, PDF, PNG, TIFF, TXT, XLS and XML as a simple way of reusing your data for documents and spreadsheets. Depending on the active view (Grid or Chat), the saved file would either take the grid data or the chart. Available export formats in Chart View Available export formats in Grid View Printing You can print your report to share it with others using the built-in Print Preview window. You can tune your page/printer settings before printing. Also if you feel like sharing the report through the net or by you can easy export it to a wide range of formats including PDF, XLS, CSV, JPG, etc.

177 177 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Export Settings -This tool allows you to customize the appearance of the reports to be printed or saved to a file format. You can specify the page size, orientation, headers & footers and color of the fonts and page background.

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179 179 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 15.2 Summary Reports Helpdesk summary reports play a vital role in keeping informed managers about recent cases - that were created, worked, overdue or resolved. Personal Helpdesk provides an inbuilt tool that generates reports on support cases based on a specified interval such as today, this week, this month, last month etc. Any fields can be selected for inclusion into the reports and can be saved as a web page or printed for sharing and easy distribution. Select a time period from the drop down list for which a summary report is to be generated. The following periods are available for selection: Today Yesterday This Week Last Week This Month Last Month This Year Last Year Date Range.. The last option 'Date Range..' allows for user selection of start and end date.

180 180 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Select what to include into the report. The following sections are available for inclusion into the report: Case Created Case Resolved Case Opened Case Worked Cases Due List all the support cases (both ongoing and resolved) logged into the specified time period. List all the support cases resolved in the specified time period. List all the ongoing support cases within the specified time period. List all the support cases last worked (modified) within the specified time period. List all the support cases due within the specified time period. Select which all fields (related to the support case) are to be included into each selected section of the report. The following fields are available: Case Number Date Created Asset Field3 * Subject Date Modified Last Asset Field4 * Problem Category Date Due Asset Field5 * Problem Type Date Closed Custom Field1 * Caller Name Technicians Custom Field2 * Caller Status Custom Field3 * Caller Company Origin Custom Field4 * Caller Address Caller Phone Caller Mobile Author Time Spent Asset Name Caller Department Asset Field2 * * - the actual user specified titles will be displayed instead.

181 181 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook The report document area. At the top of the document, the technician/manager name is automatically inserted as well as the time the report was generated. The report can be saved to file (as a HTM web page file) or can be printed.

182 182 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 15.3 Export support cases to database With the export utility, cases from Personal Helpdesk folders (from Outlook) can be exported out to Microsoft Access, MS SQL or other ODBC- compliant database such as Oracle, MySQL etc. Choose what type of cases are eligible for export - ongoing, resolved or both. You can choose any number of fields of your interest including the case body field (with HTML format) for export. Exporting cases to a relational database serve many purposes, one primary reason being able to extract reports and statistics on Help Desk activity, as well as for in-house data warehousing and mining requirements. Select the fields to be exported to the selected database. The following fields are available: Case Number Date Created Asset Field4 * Subject Date Modified Last Asset Field5 * Body Date Due Custom Field1 * Problem Category Date Closed Custom Field2 * Problem Type Technicians Custom Field3 * Caller Name Status Custom Field4 * Caller Caller Company Caller Address Caller Phone Origin Author Time Spent Asset Name Caller Mobile Asset Field2 * Caller Department Asset Field3 * * - the actual user specified titles will be displayed instead.

183 183 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Enable export of the HTML body field. There are two formats that is available for the body field - plain text or HTML. Select the case type to export - Ongoing, Resolved or both. Specify the database type to export. The following databases are supported: Microsoft Access Microsoft SQL Server Oracle database MySQL database For Oracle database and MySQL, you would require the proper ODBC driver installed on the particular system. The database server name. This is not applicable if you have selected a Microsoft Access database option. Specify the name of the database. If a database exists with that specified name, it would be overwritten. Specify the user name credential of the database server. Specify the password credential of the specified user.

184 184 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 15.4 Archive Cases As time passes by, your exchange folder will be accumulated with support cases mostly resolved ones. With the Archive cases tool, helpdesk managers can archive old support cases periodically to a local PST file that are older than a certain (user-selected) date. It moves the support case items out of the exchange resolved folder and places it into another.pst file specifically. By doing so, it keeps the exchange folder from getting too big and unwieldy, which could cause Exchange/Microsoft Outlook performance to slow down. Specify the file path of the Outlook PST to be used for archiving the selected support cases. Browse the folders to choose an existing Outlook PST file. Create a new Outlook PST file for archiving. Select what date filter to used to determine which all cases are to be archived. There are two filters available: 1) Till this date - Allows you to choose a specific date that would be used to return all support cases that were closed before that particular date.

185 185 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 2) Date range - Allows you to choose a start and end dates so that all support cases that were closed between that dates are returned and available for selection for archiving. Show all support cases that satisfies the specified date filter. The support cases that are available for archiving are listed in the list. The list is arranged by case number, subject and date closed. Before archiving could be performed, you need to mark each case item for archiving. You do that by checking each box of the item. Checking this option would use or create a subfolder in the archived PST that has the same name as that of the specified date filter so that all the selected support cases can moved to this subfolder. Allows you to select or create a new subfolder within the archived PST so that all the selected support cases can be moved.

186 186 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 15.5 Demo Cases If you are installing/using Personal Helpdesk for Outlook for the first time, it is recommended that you load some demo cases and settings data so that you will be able to test drive the helpdesk functionalities and features in few minutes. You can specify the number of cases (ongoing and resolved) as well as knowledge base items to be loaded to the Personal Helpdesk folders. If you decide to load demo cases over an existing settings (that is, you or other technicians had already started using Personal Helpdesk without the demo cases data), you will be prompted with a warning message that your existing settings (like lists) will be overwritten with that of the demo example. Specify the number of ongoing cases to be loaded to the Personal Helpdesk ongoing folder. Specify the number of resolved cases to be loaded to the Personal Helpdesk resolved folder Specify the number of knowledge base items to be loaded to the Personal Helpdesk knowledge base folder. Start loading the demo examples based on selected options and numbers.

187 187 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Demo data - helpdesk of an Apple store The demo cases uses a helpdesk for an Apple store. Hence, the problem, technician, caller, asset lists are all centred around the products and services of the Apple store. All demo cases source their data from these lists (the choice of data being randomly assigned). Please note that the loaded cases may not necessarily be mapped with the right products in the problem categories and types. This example is only for demonstration purposes only. The problem areas are categorized by products and services and further sub-categorized by types. The technicians list in the demo example. The callers list in the demo example.

188 188 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook The assets list in the demo example.

189 189 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 16. Customer Web Service Customer service has taken center stage recently in response to highly competitive market conditions and an improved understanding of the true value of a customer. Successful organizations are using the Internet to gain competitive advantage by offering customers the ability to perform post-transaction activities online, and by doing so are improving customer satisfaction, strengthening their value propositions, and gaining deeper insights into customers needs. For product companies, Web-based customer service means online product support using selfservice knowledge bases. Most sizable brick and mortar companies provide customers with the ability to search databases online, whereas in the past they would have to telephone a customer service representative for the same inquiry. Many support requests submitted by can be ineffective if the caller has not given appropriate information relevant to the problems for issue tracking! The fact is there is constant battles when trying to simply mine for the critical information that support technicians need to resolve the service request; not to mention resolving the request in a timely, efficient manner! So instead of many communication chains with the caller to pull for critical information, how about having those information pushed to technicians in one go! This is where a web form comes handy to collect information in a structured way. The Personal Helpdesk web case submission allows for your end-users and customers to submit their service request through an intuitive, easy-to-use web form interface; needing only their favorite web browser. Why is Online Customer Service Important? Web-enabled customer service provides a variety of benefits. In addition to the fact that many prospective customers will refuse to do business with an organization if they don't offer some level of online support, benefits include:

190 190 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 24/7 customer service capability immediate response to customer inquiries meeting/exceeding constantly evolving customer demands improved customer satisfaction and customer relationships cost savings automation of repetitive tasks make it easy for customers to do business with you re-allocation of customer service staff to value-add tasks acquisition of invaluable customer feedback and requests Also read more.. How does it work? Requirements Setup and Configuration Submitting a new support request Checking Case status Caller Web Access (CWA)

191 191 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 16.1 How does it work? The Customer Web Service (CWS) is a collection of ASP.NET webpages that cater to the helpdesk end users on the web. It consists of a structured support request submission webform, a support case status querying form, a self-service knowledge base and a special web interface exclusively for existing callers to access their support cases online. All these sections are available to any users accessing the customer service website except for the Caller Web Access (CWA) site, where only existing users are allowed to do so from the web. Allows end-user to enter information on their problem on a structured web form. Allows end-user to check and track the status of their support cases online. Allows end-user to browse or search through the web-based knowledge base articles to find a solution on their problem. Allows existing callers to access their exclusive member area online such that they can view support cases history, submit new support request directly, escalate or cancel ongoing cases or reopen existing resolved cases.

192 192 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 16.2 Requirements To install, setup and use Customer Web Service (CWS), the followings list the requirements on both the web server and the client system. On the web server Microsoft Internet Information Server Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Enabled Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX* Extensions 1.0 installed on the IIS server (ASP.NET AJAX Extensions 1.0 enables ASP.NET AJAX features in ASP.NET 2.0. It integrates client script libraries with the ASP.NET 2.0 server-based development framework.) Write permission for ASP.NET users on a temporary subfolder Note: As there is no direct interfacing between the SWA and your Exchange server, the IIS web server does not need to be on the same windows server as that of your Exchange server, but should be under the same windows domain. On the client Web browser (IE 5.01 or later) Internet Connection * - AJAX (sometimes called Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a way of programming for the Web that gets rid of the hourglass. Data, content, and design are merged together into a seamless whole. When you click on something on an Ajax driven application, there is very little lag time.

193 193 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 16.3 Setup and Configuration Before endusers and callers can start using Customer Web Service (CWS), the helpdesk administrator needs to first setup and configure certain settings, in the web access administrative panel in Personal Helpdesk Outlook, and then on the IIS web server. The followings list all the steps required to be performed to get CWS website running in few minutes. Step 1: Setting up an IIS web folder as virtual directory (or a website) Step 2: Set appropriate network permission to the IIS shared folder Step 3: Extract/Copy all Customer Web Access application files to the IIS web folder Step 4: Set ASP.NET permission on Temp folder Step 5: Configure web Access specific settings in Personal Helpdesk add-in Step 6: Write/Update XML metadata files from Personal Helpdesk for Outlook

194 194 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Step 1: Setting up an IIS web folder as virtual directory The first step in setting up the Customer Web Service (CWS) site requires creating a new website or virtual directory under your IIS server. In this document, we discuss the configuration of a virtual directory of an existing website, such as your default website under IIS. Under your windows server system, goto Start >Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. Select your existing website in your IIS manager tree and right-click to choose New submenu and then 'Virtual Directory...'. You will be prompted with the 'Virtual Directory Creation Wizard' that will guide you to create a new virtual directory on your existing website.

195 195 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Click Next and type the alias for the virtual directory, say, CWS as shown in the image below. Click Next and specify the physical folder on the local server to map to this alias. In this case, the physical folder on the server is D:\Inetpub\wwwwroot\CWS. The image below shows that.

196 196 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Click Next and specify permissions for this Virtual Directory as shown in the image below.

197 197 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Click Next and finish the virtual directory creation wizard. The images below displays the result. You can see the new virtual directory, CWS, with a gear symbol in the IIS wizard.

198 198 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Step 2: Set appropriate network permission to the shared folder The just created 'CWS' IIS virtual directory or website now needs to be set as a shared network folder for all the helpdesk technicians that uses Personal Helpdesk for Outlook. Data interchange between the customer web access and the Personal Helpdesk addin in Outlook uses XML formats and are written to a temporary subfolder 'temp' under the virtual directory folder. Due to this requirement, all helpdesk technicians working in Outlook will need to have full control over the 'CWS' network folder. In step 1, we have created a physical folder 'CWS' under the default root folder eg. D:\Inetpub\wwwroot\. Right-Click the folder (eg. CWS) and select 'Sharing and Security...' to invoke the properties dialog as shown below. We need to grant full control to this folder (eg. D:\Inetpub\wwwroot) in both Sharing and Security tabs. Let us start with the first one. Click the Sharing tab and select the option 'Share this folder'. This will enable the intrinsic fields such as 'share name' comment, permission etc.

199 199 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook - This option shares the webfolder 'CWS' on the local network. - Click this button to specify permissions over the webfolder. Once you are in the permissions dialog, you will see that by default, any users on the local network have read permission over the shared folder. For our needs, we need to allow all helpdesk users to save/update files under this folder. So, either you can add individual user or a group (if you have it defined). In our example, we have defined a group 'ServiceDesk' comprising of all helpdesk users so that setting permission for all users can be done in a single click. Check the option 'Full Control' to allow all

200 200 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook technicians in the helpdesk team to save/update 'Customer Web Service' specific metadata XML files. Likewise, add the same helpdesk group (eg. ServiceDesk) under the Security tab and grant 'Full Control' access.

201 201 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook The shared folder would now appear with a hand icon on folder icon to signify a shared resource over the network.

202 202 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Step 3: Extract all Customer Web Service (CWS) application files Now that we have created an exclusive web-enabled physical folder on the server and granted full control to all helpdesk users (step 1 and 2 respectively), the next step is to extract all the files and subfolders from the Customer Web Service zip archive (eg. CustomerWebService.zip) from the installation folder (located under the Program files folder of the system) to the shared network IIS folder. Goto the installation folder of 'Personal Helpdesk for Outlook', which should typically be under Program files\assistmyteam. If you have opted the managerial portion (server tools) during installation, you would find that there is a zip archive file named as 'CustomerWebService.zip' under the installation folder, the contents of which are shown below: Extract all the files and subfolders under the zip (eg. CustomerWebService.zip) file to the network shared web-enabled Customer Web Service (CWS) folder. For example, \\ \CWS where ' ' is the windows server and 'CWS' being the web-enabled folder (either configured as a website or virtual directory under an existing website in IIS).

203 203 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook If step 2, if the permission (eg. full control) was successfully set, the files and subfolder would be extracted/copied to the network share.

204 204 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Step 4: Set ASP.NET permission on Temp folder. The Customer Web Service functionality is built upon ASP.NET 2.0 and AJAX technology. Typically, an ASP.NET application requires read, execute, and list access for the ASP.NET account for the web site root (for example: D:\inetpub\wwwroot\CWS or any alternative site directory you may have configured in IIS), the content directory and the application root directory in order to monitor for configuration file changes. The application root corresponds to the folder path associated with the application virtual directory in the IIS Administration tool. Goto the windows server system (where the IIS manager is hosted), and navigate to the physical folder (using windows explorer) for which the Customer Web Service virtual directory or a website was created in Step 1). The folder already consists of various web files and subfolders that were extracted/copied in the previous step. The special interest that we have now is for the 'Temp' folder, as this is the folder that saves uploaded attachments from support request case temporarily. Hence, the ASP.NET account needs to be configured to have full control over this 'Temp' folder. You do that by right-clicking 'Temp' folder > 'Sharing and Security..'. In the security tab, select the ASP.NET account. Different version of IIS has different ASP.NET account name. For example, in IIS version 5 (windows 2000 server), it is ASPNET, and in IIS version 6 (windows server 2003), it is IIS_WPG group whereas in IIS 7 version (Windows 2008 server), it is IIS_USRS group. In the screenshot below, we have IIS 6 version and hence, the IIS_WPG group is allowed 'Full Control' over the 'Temp' folder.

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206 206 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Step 5: Configure CWS specific settings from Outlook The Customer Web Service (CWS) site does not make use of a database to store the helpdesk settings and lists. Instead, the data and settings are stored as XML metadata files and are saved/updated from the Personal Helpdesk add-in interface in Outlook (by helpdesk managers/technicians). The document takes you to finer detail on various web access settings that need to be configured in the administrative tool, before saving/updating the XML metadata files in the IIS folder. Displayed below is a part of the Customer Web Service (CWS) settings dialog. To save/update the CWS specific XML metadata files from Outlook to the shared network web-enabled folder (on the server), it needs to know the full UNC folder path. If the network folder resource requires a network credential, then you will be prompted to enter one. Check this option to update the CWS specific settings metadata automatically when there is any change in the Personal Helpdesk settings in Outlook/Exchange. The Personal Helpdesk lists and settings (eg. problem categories and types) would surely change/update in due time. The helpdesk manager would need to update the web service XML metadata files accordingly, so that data used in the web service application is in synch with that in Outlook. Though the helpdesk manager can manually update the data files for web service, it would be a tedious task if the settings in Outlook are to change every now and then. In such scenario, it is recommended to allow Personal Helpdesk (in Outlook) to automatically update CWS specific metadata XML files in the shared network folder, when there is any changes in the lists and settings in Outlook. Check this option to create/update knowledge base data XML files in the web-enabled CWS network folder. Check this option to make the custom fields available in the support request submission web form. Check this option to make the asset fields available in the support request submission web form. The Caller Web Access (CWA) site, which is a part of the Customer Web Service (CWS) site, requires a user credential for caller to access their support cases online. Helpdesk managers can define this credential (eg. password) in the Personal Helpdesk Callers list dialog. Alternatively, a random password can be generated automatically when a new caller is added to the Callers list.

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208 208 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook Step 6: Write/Update XML metadata files from Outlook The last remaining step is to save/update the Customer Web Service (CWS) specific XML metadata files in the CWS network web-folder. The XML metadata files contain the required Personal Helpdesk lists and settings defined by the helpdesk manager in Outlook and these files feed data to the Customer Web Service applications when end-users submit new support requests via webform or when callers login to load their support cases. Before any XML data files can be updated, the helpdesk manager needs to specify the network share that was configured in Step 2. If the appropriate permission was set, clicking the 'Update data' button generate all the required XML files. What is web.config? The ASP.NET Web.config file is used to define the configuration settings for an ASP.NET application. ASP.NET and the.net Framework use.config files to define all configuration options. The.config files, including the ASP.NET Web.config file, are XML files. The web.config file is also updated everytime in the network share along with the XML metadata files. Personal Helpdesk specific data are saved under the <appsettings> section as illustrated below: - <appsettings> <add key="assetfield2title" value="type" /> <add key="assetfield3title" value="os" /> <add key="assetfield4title" value="make" /> <add key="assetfield5title" value="ip" /> <add key="myfield1title" value="associateid" /> <add key="myfield2title" value="associatename" /> <add key="myfield3title" value="associateaddress" />

209 209 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook <add key="myfield4title" value="associatetype" /> <add key="myfield1mandatory" value="0" /> <add key="myfield2mandatory" value="0" /> <add key="myfield3mandatory" value="0" /> <add key="myfield4mandatory" value="0" /> <add key="timespentmandatory" value="0" /> <add key="allowmultipletechnicians" value="0" /> <add key="duedateinterval" value="0" /> </appsettings>

210 210 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 16.4 Support Request web form New support requests are submitted in Customer Web Service (CWS) site via a web form. The form consists of a HTML WYSIWYG editor, fields for caller contact details and fields the end-users can select to specify a related problem from the populated drop-downs. End-users can also upload any number of files as attachments. When an end-user submits a support request, it is flagged to be processed by one of the technician running Personal Helpdesk in Outlook at that point of time. Once a new support case is logged, a confirmation is then sent out to the caller. The can contain caller credentials (eg. username and password) that caller can use to login to the Caller Web Access (CWA) site to track their support cases online. WYSIWYG editor The WYSIWYG editor has a convenient editing environment and serves the followings: Fast loading. Features a new tabbed toolbar - providing convenient access to your most-used tools. Fullscreen editing mode (doesn't open a new window). Floating dialogs for special editing (changes can be seen immediately). Realtime toolbar status. Dropdowns with formatting preview. Supports Microsoft Word keyboard shortcuts. The problem description retains the same formatting and looks (as in Outlook) in the web case form. If there are any active knowledge base articles, the relevant articles would show up based on the selected problem category/type. This facilitates the end-user to lookup the related articles for possible solution to their problems before submitting a new support request. It not only addresses the problems of the end-users instantly, but also prevent any recurring/redundant problems to be reported to the helpdesk, thereby, making the helpdesk resources available to other tasks.

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212 212 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 16.5 Case Status web form Very often many support cases are logged quickly, but the resolution to the problem may take some longer (in days, weeks) when the support technician starts working on it. In such situation, it might not be feasible to get the caller in the communication loop regularly. More importantly, the helpdesk might be overwhelmed with the status queries on the pending support case and it may unnecessarily divert valuable resources and time. With a web based status tracking, anticipating caller can check the status and other details online very quickly without having to write/call the concerned helpdesk. It also avoids burden on the helpdesk and let the technicians to focus on problem solving rather than answering status of case. address of the caller. Case number of the particular support case allotted to the caller. To retrieve the status and other details of a particular support case, both the specified caller ' ' and the 'Case Number' should be valid i.e., the specified case number should have been allotted to the caller . This means, if the case number specified exists, but not allotted to the specified caller , then its an invalid pair.

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214 214 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 16.6 Web knowledge base The knowledge base articles in the Personal Helpdesk folder (in Exchange) can be published to your website so that end-users and customers experiencing technical challenges can self-service the answer to their problem by accessing the web-based knowledge base. End-users may click through the tiered problem categories and types to find the self-service answers they ar looking for. Self-Service articles may also be searched via keywords. Primary category dropdown that lists all available problem areas. Secondary sub-category drop down that is defined for each primary category. Search for relevant knowledge base articles via keywords. The knowledge base articles listing in a tree that matches the specified category/sub-category or the searched keywords. Each article link can be clicked to load the corresponding knowledge base.

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216 216 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 16.7 Caller Web Access (CWA) The Caller Web Access is a set of ASP.NET web interfaces through which callers can login to track the progress and status of their support cases. Allowing callers to have access to their helpdesk cases through the comfort of a web browser, not only provide self-served information exchange in matter of seconds, but also relieve the helpdesk staffs from diverting their valuable time in replying to non-critical calls and s back and forth with the callers. These instead help the helpdesk to concentrate on its critical goals and missions. The site requires caller to authenticate their credential by inputting their address and password that was provided by the helpdesk staff via /sms. Caller web login page Once logged on, the caller would be able to see all the support cases allotted to him/her under the 'My Cases' member area over a period of time. The cases are sorted by the last modified date/time in descending order. The caller can click any one of the support case and open the selected case in a new window to have a detail view. With the Caller Web Access, a caller can: Submit new support request Escalate ongoing support case Withdraw ongoing support case Re-open closed support case

217 217 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 'My Cases' member area of Caller Web Access (CWA) The case form in CWA consists of many fields including custom fields that might be used for in-house properties. Most of the fields are read-only, and only few such fields such as those of caller information are editable by the caller. However, to furthe escalate the case (holds true if the problem is still ongoing), there is a WYSIWYG editor with which a new description related to the problem can be composed and submitted instead of the hassle of composing s and forwarding it to the helpdesk address. Callers also have the flexibility of uploading any number of files as attachments to the current case. If the caller has already found a solution to the problem, or was helped by a solution recommended earlier from the helpdesk, he/she can simply close/withdraw the case.

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219 219 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 17. Contact Manager The Contact Manager is a consolidated view of all available contacts in the caller and technician lists, listing the address, mobile and phone numbers. A quick correspondence can be initiated to a particular contact in a single click via , SMS or phone call. Compose an with the contact address already populated in a new inspector window. Allows you to choose a knowledge base article and then insert it on a new with the contact address already populated. Allows you to choose a FAQ answer and then insert it on a new with the contact address already populated. Compose a SMS message to send it to the mobile number of the contact. Make a call (either Skype or attached phone) directly to the mobile number of the contact. Make a call (either Skype of attached phone) directly to the telephone number of the contact.

220 220 Help manual for Personal Helpdesk for Outlook 18. Removing Personal Helpdesk for Outlook To uninstall the Personal Helpdesk System from your computer, follow the steps outlined below: Removing Personal Helpdesk System Step 1: In Windows XP, open Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs. In the case of Windows Vista or Windows 7, go to Control Panel > Programs And Features. Scroll down to select 'Personal Helpdesk for Outlook and click Uninstall as illustrated below: Step 2: A dialog confirmation follows asking for confirmation. Click Yes. Step 3: The Personal Helpdesk setup will now start the un-installation process. Make sure that Microsoft Outlook is not running (even under the task manager). You can click 'Cancel' to exit the current setup.