The iService system has business rules that define how the system functions. These business rules are enforced at the web services level, which allows the user interfaces to operate somewhat independent of one another and to be used directly be other applications. The most important of these business rules are defined below.
Contacts –
•A contact is synonymous to a person. They are external users of the iService product sometimes referred to as customers.
•Each contact must have membership with (i.e., be associated with) at least one segment.
•A contact may be associated with more than one segment.
•The Contact Standard Details fields are available to everyone that has rights to view the contact, regardless of their segment. That is, the standard contact details (Name, phone, address, email, organization) are shared among all segments.
•Interaction History for contacts will be viewable based upon the Segment in which the interaction took place. Agents without privilege to see history related to a particular segment cannot view that information.
Departments –
•Departments are used to simplify the management of agents.
•Agents that are assigned to a department (e.g., sales, support, human resources) will inherit the attributes of the department. That is, Departments may be assigned skills and segment access, and this privilege will be delegated to all of the agents in that department.
Segments –
•A Segment is a grouping of information within iService that supports separate levels of security and presentation. Segments are often used to separate Contacts of different business units.
•Segments are defined as Standard or Information Only. Information only segments do not have topic trees or mailboxes. They are used to manage access to contact properties and provide hierarchy in the segment configuration only. Interactions (customer email, notes, etc.) cannot be entered into an information only segment.
•Each Standard Segment must have a Default Mailbox. A mailbox may exist in only one segment of the tenant.
•Each Standard Segment has a Topic Tree that is used to categorize incoming questions, and present articles in the iService knowledge base (Find Answers tab).
•Agents are routed calls from any assigned Segment if they have the necessary skills to answer the call.
•Details within the Global Segment (default fields) are shared across Segments. For instance, a phone number entered for a Contact in Segment 1 is visible when the same Contact is viewed by an agent that only has access to Segment 2, as long as the Contact is associated with Segment 2 in addition to Segment 1.
•Segments may have additional Contact Properties that are separate from the Standard Contact Properties. These contact properties are viewable based upon whether they are shared or private. If the property is shared, all users with access to the contact can view them. If the property is not shared, only users with access to the Segment may view those properties.
•Customer Info Search Results are limited based on the Segments to which the Agent has access. (i.e., searches performed within the Customer Info – Search tab).
•Find Answers Search Results are limited based on the Segments to which the Agent or Contact have access.
•All interactions (customer emails, tickets, agent emails, etc.) are tied to a specific Segment and topic within that Segment.
•Parent Segments are automatically granted access to the information (contacts and details) from their child segments.
•Each tenant has a global hidden segment that is not visible to administrators. This segment contains the standard contact details that are shared with all segments.
•Contact properties and interaction properties may be populated for a Contact or Interaction even if they are not a member of the segment that the properties are in.
Tenants –
•A tenant is a separate database within iService that contains all the configuration information and database tables necessary to use the iService system.
•Tenant information is completely isolated from other tenants. As a result, it is not possible for a user logged into one tenant to see any information from other tenants.
•Reporting is designed to be on a tenant by tenant basis, without the ability to generate reports that combine more than one tenant.
•Tenants have the ability to configure their iService system any way they choose, without regard to how other tenants configure and use their systems.
•Tenants share a common website, but may customize the interface via a customized Cascading Style Sheet (css).