3. Configuration
The Configuration area is the brain of the operations. In here is where you will set up all your agents, groups, queues, mail rules, etc. We highly recommend that you only give access to the configuration area to Administrators. Although it would take a bit to render the helpdesk unusable, limiting access to this area ensures that changes aren't made by someone who doesn't have a good idea of what they are doing. We'll start off this section by explaining the main display of the configuration area.
a. Main Page
The first page you will encounter after entering the configuration area consists of the Helpdesk Environment listing and the Client/Server Environment area. This is mostly an informative page for your helpdesk.
b. Settings
This section allows you to upload a customized logo for your helpdesk if you wish to replace the default InBoxHQ Helpdesk logo. It only contains one section, Upload Logo. You may type in the location of the file or you can also browse to the file you would like to upload as your logo. Note that the image must be in GIF format, and has a limit of 100 pixels for the height with a variable width.
c. Queues
The Queues section is where you will be editing and deleting your queues for use in the system. By default, we have set up and named 5 queues.
Edit/Delete Queues
In the edit/delete queues section, you can edit the queues you have already set up, or delete any existing queues.
Select the queue you wish to edit, in this instance Billing.
The first option you will be able to edit is the Email Friendly From field. This is the email address that will appear in the reply to address when you respond to customer email support request. You can also set the prefix that appears before ticket numbers in the queue. In this example, the tickets in the queue will have "ticket" in front of the ticket number.
Autoresponse template tokens are tokens that you may insert into your autoresponders to include information specific to the current ticket.
Responses that can be automatically sent to customers that submit emails/tickets to the helpdesk include when a new ticket is created and/or when the ticket is resolved. If this is enabled, customers will be sent an email with the response you provide within the configuration screen when the ticket is created and/or when it is resolved.
You may designate the queue either Open or Gated.
You may also set default response times for customers not covered by SLA.
You can set up an autoresponse to customers who may not be authorized to send to a specific queue.
Set group permissions for the queue.
You may set up the email addresses that will deliver to this queue here. If an email address is not included in the queue configuration, the email will be simply dropped by helpdesk. The first address that you added to the queue will normally be the default reply to address when you reply to tickets. However, you may
You may designate the queue as a subqueue of another queue here as well.
Once you have completed the configuration/edit of your queue, make sure you submit the changes.
d. Agents
The section where you will create new agents for use in your helpdesk. Here you will assign agents/groups to queues, create new admin accounts, and create groups for these agents.
Creating a New Agent
When creating a new agent, you will come upon this screen that will show you fields such as: Agent Name, Agent E-mail Address, Agent Login Name, Agent Password, and Agent Group. It is important to note that the Agent E-mail Address should NOT be a queue address or else you may receive duplicate tickets or mail loops.
Edit/Delete Agents
Much like how the Edit/Delete Queues section worked, you may select agents which you would like to delete or edit. Clicking on a agentname will bring you to the same screen as creating a new agent.
e. Service Level Agreement (SLA)
Service Level Agreements are integral parts of many businesses today. The application of an SLA plan is to make it so that your company has a set schedule of when to offer support, and in turn it lets customers know when you are available for support as well. Generally SLA's are used in conjunction with fees to guarantee response times or support. The SLA plans in InBoxHQ Helpdesk allow you to give precedence to tickets from certain companies and also allows you to restrict certain queues (also called 'Gated' queues), to customers/companies with the appropriate SLA plan.
Managing SLA Schedules
Schedules are used to maintain the working hours of your queues. The SLA plans depend on these schedules to set due dates.
After clicking on the Create New Schedule link, you will be taken to a new page where you can enter the Schedule name and set the hours for each day of the week. For the time options you may set it to 24 hours, closed (gated), or customize the hours.
Managing SLA Plans
This section will allow you to manage different SLA plans. If you already have plans set up, you can edit or delete the existing plans, you can also create new plans.
After clicking on Create New SLA plan, you will be taken to a new screen which will show a blank field for the Plan name and will also list the queues in your system. The queue modes are open and gated: Open means the queue is available for use by any requestor, Gated queues are restricted to the SLA plan.
f. Search Indexes
From when you first start receiving tickets, your helpdesk will automatically index all the tickets and knowledgebase articles created. If for any reason you need to update those indexes, the search indexes section will be where you do so.
Reindex Articles
If you would like to reindex just the articles in the knowledgebase, clicking this button will open a new window that shows the progress of the reindexing.
g. Knowledgebase
This section will allow you to configure the base levels of the knowledgebase. You can make new, edit, or delete knowledgebase categories. This section will also allow you to approve/reject Article Comments if you have that option set.
New Category
In this section you will be able to create a new knowledgebase category. You will need to enter a name and select the section to which this category belongs to. Select 'None (Top Level)' to be the top of a tree (e.g. Support, Billing, etc).
Editing/Deleting Categories
You may edit any categories you have created in this section. You may rename the category or select a different category parent.
Approve/Reject Article Comments
If you have selected the option that knowledgebase comments require approval in the global settings section, you will be able to view any comments made that needs to be approved here. Any comments that are awaiting approval will be listed and show the Agents e-mail address, their IP address, the date and time, and the category and article in which the comment resides. You may select multiple comments to approve or reject. Any rejected comments will be automatically deleted.
h. Maintenance
This section will allow you to purge dead tickets, clean up attachments and purge temp files. If you feel you are having a slowdown, you can try optimizing your database tables to see if that helps.
Purge Dead Tickets
To remove dead tickets from the system, click the Perform button on this section. Tickets marked as dead can only be purged if it meets the time requirement set under Global Settings.
Clean-up Attachments
To remove/clean-up attachments that are no longer needed and slow your database, you may search/filter attachments based on set criteria and then delete the attachments.
Purge Temp Files
Database performance may also be improved by purging temp files no longer in use
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i. Parser Config
The parser config section contains two subsections, Parser Mail Rules, and Parser GUI Log.
Parser Mail Rules
In the parser mail rules, you can create rules to be executed as mails come in, before an e-mail message enters the helpdesk or after an e-mail message has been transformed into a ticket. Much like how a filter works for your regular e-mail client, you can set up rules to put specific senders into respective queues, or have spam mails automatically deleted.are run before an e-mail message enters the helpdesk. You may also select the order that a rule will be executed by moving the select rule up and down in the list.
Currently there are 7 different rule criteria and 6 different rule actions. The 7 rule criteria are as follows: Sender Address, E-mail Subject, Destination Queue, E-mail is New, E-mail Re-opens a Ticket, Attachment Name, and Spam Probability. The rule actions include Redirect E-mail to, Reply to E-mail with Message, Don't Send Queue Auto-Reply, Don't Send Notifications, Don't Create a Ticket From E-mail and Stop Processing Remaining Rules.
Parser/GUI Error Log
If your system experiences any errors, you can view the error logs here. Should you need support for these errors, the InBoxHQ Helpdesk Team may ask to see any errors that have occurred.
Block Senders
In the block senders area you can view all the e-mail addresses that are already being blocked. You may also search for an e-mail address if you can't seem to find it.
Export Addresses
The export addresses section allows you to export addresses from the queues in which you select. You also have the choice to select a comma or a line return delimiter, and whether or not you would like to export the addresses to a file, or print it to the screen.
