HotLine Manager Usage

1. Connecting to HotLine Manager.

Open your favorite browser and navigate to the URL you've setup, for example http://myserver/hotline (Screen shot)

If it's the first time, you must logon with "Admin" as Operator ID, and "Admin" as password. This is the default values and you must at least change the password of this operator. Better is to create a new operator with Administrator rights (see chapter 2 below).

Otherwise, enter your operator ID and password to go to Main Menu (Screen shot). Main menu depends on your operator profile.

2. Configuring the product.

You must be logged on under an Administrator operator ID.

Select "Configure HotLine Manager settings" to go to the Settings menu (Screen shot).

2.1. Managing Help Desk operators.

Help Desk Operators are people from your company who can use HotLine Manager.

Select "Manage Help Desk Operators" to go Operators menu (Screen shot).

Here, you can update/delete an operator by selecting his name to display his properties or register a new operator (Screen shot).

NB: Remenber the 3 operator levels:

• Operators can only register Calls or Cases, and manage Cases (update a answer or workaround to the question or bug, update the status, update the priority...).
• Managers have Operators permissions, but can also register Companies and Contacts (add, remove, update).
• Administrators have Managers permissions and can manage Hot Line settings (Help Desk operators, Softwares for which customers can request support...).

NB: Operators are not really deleted from the database. They are just unactivated to have an history of calls and cases they have treated.

2.2. Managing softwares.

Your Help Desk service can manage calls for an unlimited number of softwares. For example, you will define a new software when you will add a new version of a software to your Help Desk service.

Select "Manage the Softwares" to go Softwares menu (Screen shot).

Here, you can update/delete a software by selecting his name to display his properties or register a new software (Screen shot).

Caution: When deleting a software, all related calls and cases are also deleted from the database. Use it with care !

2.3. Managing software objects.

Software objects are parts of managed software opened to improvement or bugs, like setup, graphical user interface, management rules, documentation, database reciprocal actions, etc...

Select "Manage Software Objects" to go Software Objects menu (Screen shot).

Here, you can update/delete an object by selecting his name to display his properties or register a new object (Screen shot).

Caution: When deleting a software objects, all related calls and cases are also deleted from the database. Use it with care !

2.4. Managing call statuses.

Call statuses symbolize the current state of a an action to take. For example, some people tell you have a bug in a software. So the first state will perhaps be to search a workaround, then, when it's found, you may want to do a hotfix, and when all is clear, the case can be closed.

Select "Manage Call Status" to go Call Status menu (Screen shot).

Here, you can update/delete a call status by selecting his name to display his properties or register a new call status (Screen shot).

Caution: When deleting a calls statuses, all related calls and cases are also deleted from the database. Use it with care !

3. Registering calls and cases.

When you receive a customer call for support, you first choose to "Register a new call and search the knowledge base" to answer.

1. The first step is to choose or register (only by Manager or Administrator level Help Desk operators) the company from which customer is (Screen shot).
2. You select or register (only by Manager or Administrator level Help Desk operators) the customer name, i.e. the contact, (Screen shot).
3. Then, you can search the knowledge base (the cases already registered) by selecting criteria indicated by customer (Screen shot), and display cases search results (Screen shot).
4. You can display the detail of a result by clicking the result ID (Screen shot). If the case displayed answer to customer, you can register the call by selecting the "Close call" button and wait for another customer call.
5. If no answer is found, then you must register a new case by selecting "Register a new case" from cases search results screen.
6. You must select the affected software (Screen shot) and then enter a description of the customer request (Screen shot).

You can then end the customer call and search the answer, or pass it to another colleague.

4. Managing cases.

When you've received a call and where unable to find an answer at the moment (you've registered a case), you can search the answer later, and then come back to HotLine Manager for entering the answer, and retreiving customer informations to recall him.

Choose the "Manage case for a software" from the main menu.

1. First, select the software for which you've opened the case you want to update (Screen shot) or search the database.
2. You get a list of call (Screen shot)
.
3. Then, open the desired case and update/delete it (Screen shot).
4. You can display customer informations by clicking the corresponding button to recall him.

5. Managing companies and contacts.

This menu is allowad only to Manager and Administrator level.

Here, you can register customer companies and their contacts, or delete one of them.

Select "Manage Companies and their Contacts" to go Companies menu (Screen shot).

Here, you can update/delete a company by selecting his name to display his properties or register a new company (Screen shot).

When displaying one company properties, you can also access the company Contacts menu by selecting "Registered contacts for this Company" (Screen shot). Select a contact name to display/update/delete (Screen shot) or register a new contact for this company.

NB: Companies and contacts are not deleted from the database to have an history of calls and cases. They are just unactivated and, as is, are not shown when registering calls and cases.

6. Displaying statistics/accounting.

Statistics and accounting are available for every Help Desk Operators.

Select "Calls and cases statistics" from the main menu to display statistics general menu (Screen shot).

You can then show statistics:

• for Calls (Screen shot). This includes all calls, including those which have been treated as cases.
  • grouped by companies (can be used for accounting).
  • grouped by softwares.
  • grouped by Help Desk operators.
• for Cases (Screen shot).
  • grouped by Nature (error, evolution, question, info).
  • grouped by Software Objects (the objects you've defined in the settings).
  • grouped by Error type (Cumbersome, heavy, blocking, none).
  • grouped by Case Statuses (the statuses you've defined in the settings).
  • grouped by Softwares.
  • grouped by Help Desk operators.

For each statistics, you have values for the current year, the current month and total.