Clients Overview

Definition

A client represents a person, a human - not a company, or a site.

In the HelpMaster environment, clients are the people that use your helpdesk/service desk/business as a service. They are the people that require or supply the support.

Icons used throughout HelpMaster

	Client / Staff member

Relationship with other HelpMaster entities

Clients can be linked one or more sites
Assets can be linked to clients
Clients can be linked to jobs, either as a primary client, or a regular client
When viewing any entity, click on the Links tab to view the relationships and linkages between each entity.

About clients

Each client has a Client ID. This ID is basically a short identification for that client that is used in the logging, retrieving, reporting and actioning of helpdesk jobs. Every client ID in HelpMaster must be unique, that is, clients cannot share client IDs. Client IDs may be manually entered, or automatically generated by HelpMaster. As one of the major HelpMaster entities, clients can be linked to a single site, multiple assets or multiple helpdesk jobs.

HelpMaster has been designed to store a lot of detailed information about clients. Some of the information that can be recorded include :

Contact - Business details. Name, company, addresses, phone numbers etc.
Personal - Birthday, spouse, hobbies etc.
Employment - Workplace details, job title, supervisor, contract details etc.
Links - The site, assets and jobs attached to this person.
Permissions - For clients who are Staff.
Notes - Any extra details which are required.
Custom - Include any of your user defined fields

Many of the fields that contain information about clients can be extended, added or modified via the System Codes administration screen.

Clients who are Staff

Each HelpMaster client has the ability to be marked as a HelpMaster staff member. This is acheived through the "Permissions" tab on the client details screen. A staff member is someone who works at the helpdesk and requires access to HelpMaster.

Further, a staff member ...

... is associated with a particular Skill Group and has a Logon and Password so that they can use HelpMaster.
... is able to log, view, update and action HelpMaster helpdesk jobs
... has a "Job Queue". This is a display of all the current helpdesk jobs that have been assigned to them for action

Once a client has been marked as a staff member, they need to be linked to at least one skillgroup, and be linked to job and application roles. This is done via the Staff Manager screen.