Help Desk Feature Set - List of general features used in Support Fusion's software.

FEATURES

Support Fusion builds 100% web-based, database-driven solutions. Below are a list of features that run across our products:

Support Fusion Feature Set
Security	*Profile-Based* - Every user that is entered into the system is assigned a Profile. Profiles can be shared across users and are the primary way of identifying the user's functions in the system. A Profile is made up of a Security Level, a Site Wrapper, a set of Site Parameters, a Dynamic Menu, Menu Attributes, a WorkFlow, a Field Level Security set, a set of Forms, and a KBase Layout. Each of these items that make up a profile are also distinct and can be shared among other profiles. They are explained below. *Protected Pages* - Every page in the system is wrapped with code that effectively gives it a security level. This means that if a user or non-user tries to access a page that is above their assigned security level, they will be denied. Page security levels can be changed by a system administrator via the web interface. Pages can also be set so they are available to a user that is not logged in or a user that is not entered into the system.
Navigation	*Dynamic Menus* - The system comes with three sets of menus, one for a Customer, one for a Representative, and one for an Adminstrator, but you can add as many as you want. These menus are completely dynamic and can be changed by an Administrator. Menu items can be removed, renamed, and added (to point to any web address). Pages tied to these menus can be opened in a separate window or made to be the opening page on login. Menus can also be created in different languages and manipulated to only show relevant features. Menus are tied to users via their Profile. *Treeviews* - This navigation method allows for the user to group data in variety ways giving them quite access to the information.
Look and Feel	*Site Wrapper* - This is HTML that defines the header and footer of the page. An unlimited of number of Site Wrappers can be created. Sitewrappers can be created to match your web site or your partner's web site. Site Wrappers are tied to users via their Profile. *Site Parameters* - Controls certain items in the system for users tied to that particular Site Parameter set. From what colors and fonts are used (which manipulates the style sheet, this can also be overridden in the Site Wrapper) to turning certain functionality on and off. Site Parameters are tied to users via their Profile. *Menu Attributes* - Controls colors, fonts, padding, and highlighting for the menus. Menu Attributes are tied to users via their Profile.
Contact Management	*Contacts* - Contacts in the system may have unlimited email addresses, phone numbers, and mailing addresses. They are given a profile, userid, and password. The system tracks when they enter and exit the system, what emails they receive from the system, issues they are tied to, activities they created, and attachments uploaded. They only can see the issues they have created and ones created on their behalf along with any Knowledgebase issues made available to them. *Companies* - Companies can also be created and contacts tied to them allowing contacts to see all the issues created by anyone from that company.
Issue Management	*Dynamic Forms* - Dynamic Forms allow you to basically define any business process that you want, such as Sales Force Automation, Software Defect Management, Customer Support, HR Provisioning, Partner Management, and more. Unlimited custom fields (below) can be tied to different forms giving them the necessary uniqueness. Business Process forms can also be tied to profiles. *Custom Fields* - You can create an unlimited number of custom fields in the system. These fields can take several forms, a textbox, dropdown list, date field (with pop up calendar), or a multi-item field. In creating these fields you can make them required, filter them off each other, require a minimum or maximum length, and/or require a prefix for a value. Custom fields can be tied to forms and/or products. *Field Level Security* - Field Level Security allows you to enable, disable or hide certain fields from a form based on the user. This means the form may only show a subset of fields on the form for a customer as opposed to a rep. Field Level Security sets are tied to users via their Profile. *WorkFlow* - Workflow allows accountability to be transferred to other people based on a status change. Once a state change occurs the system will automatically determine who gets it next. Workflows are tied to users via their Profile. *Smart Routing/Load Balancing* - Businsss Processes that are initiated whether via the web or email can be routed to an appropriate destination (person, queue) based on flexible criteria you set (such as product, contact, etc). Smart Routing also emulates a standard phone Automated Call Distribution (ACD) system assigning the process first to people that are logged into the system and available. This functionality also load balances issues assigning them to the person or queue with the least amount of open items, if more than one matches the criteria. *Built-in Rich Text Editor* - You do not need to know HTML to build beautifully formatted web pages for your knowledgebase. Our Built-In Rich-Text editor lets you manipulate text, add tables, and more. *Activities* - Every issue is made up of a set of activities. Some generated by the system and some created manually. You can set up an unlimited number of activity types in the system. An activity's type determines if the activity will generate an email and who will get that email. Activities can also have time associated with them allowing you to determine how much time is spent on an issue. *Attachments* - Attachments can be documents, spreadsheets, images, zip files, etc. and can be uploaded to any issue. They can be made public so the customer can see them and download them or kept private for internal use only. *Tracking* - Tracking allows people other than the Originator of the issue and the internal person assigned to the issue to track its progress via email. *Associate* - Allows business processes to be associated to any other issue. *Status Alerts* - Sometimes sending email via activities is not enough. With Status Alerts you can create custom emails that can be emailed at a specific time or generated repeatedly. This is a great way to add automatic, follow-on activity to any business process. *Security* - Business Processes can be made more security with security. Raising the security on an business process will limit who is allowed to view it. Details about business processes can also turned directly into Knowledgebase articles making them immediately available for distribution.
Email Management	*Email Monitor* - With our Email Monitor you are able to process email from an unlimited number of mailboxes. When tie an email account to our email monitor all email sent to that address is processed based on email exceptions that you define. Each email that gets read first checks itself against these exceptions. Exceptions can be defined to check an email based on its sender and/or subject line. Only email you want processed by the system will be processed. You can control what emails are forwarded, replied to, deleted, left in the mailbox, and/or processed. Processed emails are converted into issues and routed to the appropriate representative. A log of all emails is also maintained. Email attachments are also processed and added to the issue. You can also control what type of form is generated in the monitor. *Email Blaster* - Email Blaster gives you the ability to send email to multiple recipients by selecting them from your contact list. Blasts can be sent immediately or saved and scheduled to be sent at a future time. Email Blaster also utilizes our Rich-Text Editor so creating nicely formatted newsletters is a snap.
KBase Management	*KBase* - Building knowledgebase articles is as easy as checking a box within a business process form. Only people of a particular security level (which you define) are allowed to approve processes to the KBase. Once approved they can be made accessible to anyone that comes to your site or just users that have log in ability. You can configure KBase articles to be rated, emailed, saved as favorites and printed. There is also the ability to report on how many times a KBase article has been opened. You also have the ability to define what additional fields can be displayed, as well as segmenting the KBase based on category. *FAQs* - FAQs are a variation of a KBase article that are heavily utilized. Like typical KBase articles which are usually greater in number and require a serach to be done, they can be displayed on your site's login page much like we have done (see the Client Login link above).
Partner Management	*n-Tier Representatives* - With our system you can add partners and give them the same access as an internal representative. This is a great way to give a partner internal access to your support system (which you could even charge them for) while carving out a customer-base for them to support directly. This capability also enables your Partners to manage their own companies and contacts to effectively facilitate OEM and Reseller agreements.
Reporting	*Flex-Port Report Writer* - Our Flex-Port Report Writer allows a user to generate and save reports using pre-defined views (which present the user with column names) or freeform SQL for users who have better understanding of the database structure. These reports can incorporate drilldowns via hyperlinks deeper into our system or into external systems. You can make the reports public or private and set a security level on them. You can specific filters and also allow for additional filters upon running them. *Easy-Port Report Writer* - Our Easy-Port Report Writer is a bit simpler. It only allows reports to be built from pre-defined views and does not allow for drilldowns. Reports can be filtered, security set on them, and saved but cannot have additional filtering when being run. These reports are easy and faster to generate and in many case will be just as effective as reports generated with the Flex-Port Report Writer.
Error Management	*Error Detection* - Part of Support Fusion's code base includes a base class that is used on every page. The code in the class is utilized everytime a page is rendered. It determines who the user is, if they are allowed to see the page they are trying to access, and renders the page's header and footer. Another important function it provides is error management. If the system ever encounters an unexpected error, the user is shown a page with a general description of the problem, but behind the scenes the code in this base class is packaging up this error complete with a system dump, timestamp, and information about the user that encountered it. It is then automatically emailed directly to the development team at Support Fusion. So before a customer can even notify us of a potential problem, we already know about it.