Entity overview
HelpMaster has several main entities that are used to store data, and can be configured to interact with each other throughout the product. Think of entities as the building blocks of your configuration. Each entity can link to another entity to form relationships, and they overall contribute to the corporate knowledge that you will create.
Entities include:
- Clients
- Sites
- Assets
- Jobs
- Knowledge Base Articles
- Change Requests
- Templates
Clients
Clients are people. They are the people that use your business’ products, services, or otherwise require support from you. Clients can either be external to your company, but may also be the people within your company. HelpMaster has been designed with the definition that a Client represents a physical person - not a company, or a Site. Each Job that is logged by HelpMaster is associated with at least one Client. Multiple Clients can be linked to each Job. Clients may be linked to one or more Sites.
Staff members / Skillgroups
A Client can also be designated as a Staff member. This means that they become a queue holder within HelpMaster and can log in as a Staff member. Think of a Staff member as a person that works in your organization to provide support to your other Clients. Staff can log in to HelpMaster and log Jobs, edit and use the full power of HelpMaster (subject to security permissions).
A Skillgroup is a group of Staff members. Staff members may belong to one or more Skillgroups. Skillgroups are used for Job assignment and queue management.
Sites
A Site can be either the physical or logical description of either an office, building, organizational structure, or other place where your Clients or Staff reside or work. Once Sites have been created, you can link Clients to the Site. Linking Clients to Sites is a powerful way to produce meaningful helpdesk statistics and workflow. Think of Sites as collections of Clients.
Sites can be created into a hierarchical list that can be multiple levels deep. This can be used to map organizational structures, associated companies, or other structured company information.
Jobs
A Job is one of the main entities within HelpMaster.
It is the top-level container object that defines and stores all the information about the incident, problem, request or issue that a Client may have. A Job is always associated with at least one Client and can be linked to the other HelpMaster entities such as Sites, Assets, Knowledge Base articles, changes - even other Jobs. Once a Job has been “logged”, it can be updated via “Actions” (see below). A Job has a natural life cycle that includes creation, modification, resolution and closure.
A Job is always “Assigned” to either a technician, or to a skillgroup to be worked upon.
Common Job types can be implemented as a Job Template. This allows for common and frequent Jobs to be implemented quickly, consistently and in a standard and common way.
- Jobs can be viewed via the desktop, or the web portal
- Jobs can be automatically created or updated via the Email Manager when the originating source is email
- Jobs can be escalated and changed via the Priority Manager
Jobs can be linked together in a parent / child relationship to support complex workflows, project management, or implementing an Incident/Problem relationship.
Jobs can be linked together in a simple relationship. This is good for cross-referencing similar Jobs.
Request for Change
A Change Request is another of the main entities within HelpMaster.
A Change Request is the entity that defines the structure for a formal change within your organization. Each Change Request is always associated with a person (the requester), and contains details about the change - the definition, including when the change is proposed, the implementation process, the review process, and the final results. A change may also have a voting panel associated with it. Each voter in the change process can then vote on whether the change should proceed.
Unlike Jobs, a request for change has a very defined life-cycle that must progress through each stage (voting is optional).
Changes appear in the Explorer screen for Staff member to view, edit and action.
Actions
An Action is an update to a Job. An Action contains details such as what occurred, who did it, how much it cost, how long it took, when it was done and other details. Common Actions that are performed on a Job include reassignment, changing the Job status, closing a Job, or acknowledging a Job.
Common Actions (or updates) are usually implemented as an Action Template. This allows for common and frequent actions to be implemented quickly, consistently and in a standard and common way.
Assets
An Asset is a piece of equipment that may be used by a Client, or belongs to a Site, or something else. An Asset may represent the item that is the cause of a helpdesk call. An Asset may be linked to a Job, a Client, a Site, Request for Change or a Knowledge Base article. Assets can also be linked to other assets. An Asset is sometimes also referred to as a configuration item, or CI.
Knowledge Base articles
A Knowledge Base article is a document that contains valuable information about problems, issues or other relevant information to your organization. Knowledge Base articles can be linked to other entities and are an important entity in the resolution and pro-active support that you can provide your Clients.
Templates
Job Template. Used to log Jobs. Defines the structure of a new Job, the workflow, the classification codes, the assignment etc.
Action Template. Used to update Jobs. Defines the Job Status, Assignment, Time, Cost and Progress notes.
Email Template. Pre-made email content. HTML, can include attachments, email tags and links to survey, web and more.
Billing Templates allow you to define different billing profiles that can be used whenever a chargeable (billable) action is performed on a Job
The Template Manager - An administration screen to assist in building and linking your templates together
See Also
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