Understanding the ConcourseSuite User Interface

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The user interface of ConcourseSuite is divided into two parts, global links and module-specific links. The major part of the user interface is utilized for the module-specific links. The module-specific links are explained in individual chapters.

In this section, explanation of global links and a brief introduction to the modules of ConcourseSuite are provided.

Understanding the Global Links

Icons at the top right of the interface are the global links, as shown in Figure 1. The following are available:

Website - access the Website module.
Reports - access the Reports module.
Admin - perform the Administrator activities, for example, managing users and roles, systems, modules, and so on. This link is visible only if you are authorized for the Admin link.
Settings - change your personal and access information. For more details, refer to Controlling Settings.
Print - print a copy of the current page.
Help - access help on the currently opened module.
About - view the version information of ConcourseSuite and the list of third-party libraries included.
Logout - logout of the application.

 

Website_Beta_icon

Figure 1 ConcourseSuite User Interface

Custom Editor, displayed at the bottom of the page, is shown in Figure 2.

 

custom_editor

Figure 2 Custom Editor

The following links present under Custom Editor provide a description about the current page or module that is being accessed:

Tab Introduction - displays introduction, general features, business rules, notes, and tips for the current page. You can add new features, business rules, notes, and tips for the page and edit the introduction, as shown in Figure 3.

 

QA_page

Figure 3 The Page Description

Help Page Content - displays brief and detailed description of the current module. You can edit the descriptions, as shown in Figure 4.

 

QA_module1

Figure 4 The Module Description

Icons and links at the extreme right enable you to perform the following tasks:
Search the system
Take quick actions. For more details, refer to The Quick Actions Window
Access your items and recent items you have visited or created

The Quick Actions Window

The Quick Action window is displayed on the right-hand side of the screen, as shown in Figure 5.

 

quick_actions

Figure 5 The Quick Actions Window

It contains shortcuts to frequently used actions:

Log an Activity - All interactions (emails, phone calls, meetings, and so on) with prospective or existing clients are called activities. You can log and schedule an activity in ConcourseSuite. This option is available in the Contacts, Pipeline, and Accounts modules. For more details, refer to Log an Activity.
Schedule an Activity - You can also schedule activities with your clients. This option is available in the Contacts, Pipeline, and Accounts module. For more details, refer to Schedule an Activity.
Add a Contact - The prospective clients are contacts. This option is available in the Contacts module. For more details, refer to Adding a Contact.
Add a Lead - A prospective client who might give business to the company is known as a lead. This option is available in the Leads module. For more details, refer to Adding a Lead.
Add an Account - The existing clients of the company are referred to as accounts. This option is available in the Accounts module. For more details, refer to Adding an Account.
Add a Task - You can schedule a task list for yourself for a day or a week. This option is available in the Home module. For more details, refer to Managing Tasks.
Send an Email - You can send an email by clicking this option. This option is available in the Home module. For more details, refer to Viewing the Mailbox.

There are more options available in the More menu:

Add a Quote - Quotes are the estimates of the price that you send to a perspective client for your product or service. This option is available in the Quotes module. For more details, refer to Adding a Quote.
Add a Ticket - Whenever you want to request help from Help Desk, you must create a ticket. This option is available in the Help Desk module. For more details, refer to Creating a New Ticket.
Add an Opportunity - An opportunity is the possibility of doing business with a person or company that you know. This option is available in the Pipeline module. For more details, refer to Adding an Opportunity.

Controlling Settings

The Settings icon enables you to control personal settings within ConcourseSuite, as shown in Figure 6. You can select from the following options:

Update my personal information
Configure my location
Change my password
Accessing Web Folders

 

Settings

Figure 6 Settings

To view the Settings page, click Settings beside Home on the top menu, as shown in Figure 7.

 

setting_icon

Figure 7 The Settings Icon

Editing Personal Information

ConcourseSuite allows you to change all your personal (or employee) information, including the following attributes:

Name
Title
Email addresses
Phone numbers

Click Update to commit or Cancel to quit. A sample of the information that can be modified is shown in Figure 8.

 

Update_personalinfo

Figure 8 Updating Personal Information

Changing Location

The only variable you can change under Location is your time zone. ConcourseSuite automatically translates time to your local time zone if you have set this variable, as shown in Figure 9.

 

Config_location

Figure 9 Configure Location

Changing Your Password

To change the password, follow the steps given below:

1.Click Change my password.

The Update Password page is displayed, as shown in Figure 10.

2.Type your current password and your new password twice (the second time to confirm).
3.Click Update.

 

Update_password

Figure 10 The Change Password Form

Accessing Web Folders

To access the files and folders stored in ConcourseSuite under various modules, you must navigate to the respective modules. Click Web Folders to connect to ConcourseSuite externally. Once you successfully connect and authenticate yourself, you can access folders and files as if they were available on a shared network drive. You can quickly add and remove entire folders and files.

To access the web folders, you must have a WebDAV Client. Some WebDAV clients that have been used and worked with ConcourseSuites Web Folders are:

Mac OS X Finder
Windows Web Folders
Red Hat Konqueror Browser

Note: This feature uses WebDAV, a well-known protocol that allows users to access files and folders with editing and versioning capabilities on a remote server.

To connect to ConcourseSuite's Web Folders using Mac OS X Finder, follow the steps given below:

1.In the Mac OS X Finder, from the Go drop-down menu, select Connect to Server.
2.Select the server, as shown in Figure 11.
3.Click Connect and the solution requests authentication, as shown in Figure 12.
4.Enter the name and password and click OK.
5.Select the required file, as shown in Figure 13.
6.Select the contact, whose file you want to access, from the list, as shown in Figure 14.

 

Conn_webfolders

Figure 11 Web Folders Server

 

Aunthent_webfolders

Figure 12 WebDAV File System Authentication

 

Navigate_docs

Figure 13 Document and File Upload

 

View_contact_vCard

Figure 14 Contact vCards List

All of the top-level modules in ConcourseSuite that have documents are displayed as folders. You can navigate through each module folder to access files specific to the module. You can download or add new files based on your read/write permissions.

The synchronization folder displays the following features:

Calendar
Contacts

The Calendar folder displays a list of the Home module calendars. The list essentially contains your calendar and those of employees who report to you. You can download any of the calendars for viewing them offline.

The Contacts folder displays a list of Contact vCards (contacts that you have access to in ConcourseSuite). You can download any vCard into your local address book application if it supports the vCard format.

Understanding the Modules of ConcourseSuite

This section provides a brief introduction to all the modules of ConcourseSuite.

Note: The Admin module is available to those users who have been assigned privileges to configure the application. If you do not view the Admin icon, contact your ConcourseSuite administrator for access permission. Some modules have dashboards that are setup in the Admin module.

The modules are available as tabs across the top of the ConcourseSuite interface and also at the top of the page as icons (only Website and Admin).

Home

Home enables you to get a concise view of what is happening in the organization, in a dashboard format. In this module, you can find the following information:

Alerts and reminders of actions or tasks for which you are responsible
Assignments you have been given
Critical customer information, such as expiring contracts due for renewal

You can also change your password and perform other simple administrative functions. The more complex administrative functions are the responsibility of the administrator.

Website (Beta)

The Website (Beta) module enables you to create and modify website. You can create as many websites in the Website (Beta) module and activate one of them. You can showcase your companys profile and previous experience on the website.

Leads

The Leads module enables you to manage lead information and track prospective customers before the prospects are converted into accounts. You can import leads into your Leads dashboard and also export them from the dashboard to other locations.

Contacts

The Contacts module enables you to manage information about people you know, or have met. A contact can be an individual associated with an account or a general contact. Contacts are searchable, can have a variety of attributes and classifications, and can have a rich set of information attached to them, such as messages, activities, and opportunities. The contact record provides a chronological view of all dealings with any contact.

Pipeline

The Pipeline module enables you to enter and analyze information about opportunities on which you and your organization are working. This module provides both dashboard and detailed views of what you think your revenue potential is in the future, and gives you a place to actively work on the closing of those opportunities.

As in all of ConcourseSuite, the system models your corporate organization, so that individuals higher in the organizational chain can view the items in the pipeline of those who report to them.

In the Pipeline module, you define opportunities, and save a variety of data about them, such as estimated amount, term, and probability of success. You can also attach documents, such as presentations or proposals to opportunities.

Accounts

The Accounts module manages the information about customers. In this module, you not only view the usual name and address records, but also integrate all sales opportunities, activities, documents, contracts, assets, and help desk items pertaining to the account in one place, so you can have a holistic view of each account. For a sales organization, the Accounts module is the nerve center of the CRM system.

Products

The Products module stores information about the companys products. Using this module, you can add products, their pricing details, and other information. You can also categorize products and view the list of products. You can also bulk-import product information into this module, from data files.

Quotes

The Quotes module enables you to prepare quotations, based on your product catalog, for customers who show interest in one or more products. Quotes can go through several revisions, so this module provides quote versioning to keep track of a quote and all its revisions.

Communications

The Communications module serves as a multi-dimensional campaign manager, enabling you to perform the following tasks:

Interactively build a group of contacts with whom you want to communicate
Design a multimedia message you would like to send
Determine how (e-mail, fax, hard copy, or a combination) and when you want to send the message

Messages you send are kept in each contact's record, so you always know what each contact has been sent. Messages can also have special attachments, such as interactive surveys that you can design. The results of surveys are automatically tallied and presented.

Projects

The Projects module is a complete distributed project management system. In this module, you can build the following project-related resources:

Project plans
Teams
Discussion forums
Brainstorming lists
Trouble tickets
Documents

The Projects module allows you to build as many projects and teams as you want. You can also invite outsiders to view or contribute to projects.

Help Desk

The sales process is a part of the overall customer relationship. Post-sales service is critical for keeping and growing customers. The Help Desk module provides a powerful and complete help desk, call center, and trouble ticket solution. Help Desk is tied to Accounts and Contacts, and incorporates many advanced features, as listed below:

A full action history of everything that has happened concerning a ticket.
An activity log describing actions taken on the unresolved tickets and time spent in solving the issue.
E-mails in your Inbox can be accessed.
Folders where you can design new forms to collect, store, and report on information, the basic system does not contain. You can add tables to the database without programming expertise.
Documents can be attached to help desk items.
Help desk items can be assigned to the concerned person for resolving the issue.
Workflow scenarios that can be generated which describe Service Level Agreements (SLAs), escalations, or other special situations.

This module also allows you to perform the following tasks:

Easily generate maintenance notes against a contract or asset.
Assign tasks associated with the unresolved ticket to employees.

Documents

The Documents module enables secure management of documents, using the Document Stores concept, that can efficiently store documents and categorize them for easy access. You can configure a document store to have a team of users with access permissions.

Company

The Company module stores the information about employees. You can find the following information about employees in your organization:

Names
Addresses
Phone numbers
E-mail addresses

Reports

The Reports module is a sophisticated reporting module that underlies all of ConcourseSuite. ConcourseSuite comes with 30 stock reports. This module allows you to build custom reports according to your requirements.

Admin

You can configure ConcourseSuite in the Admin module. The main functions of this module are:

Create roles, which define fine-grained access to every utility in the system
Define users and grant permissions
Modify system parameters
Create folders to extend the capabilities of the database without programming
Configure the modules of ConcourseSuite
Manage portal roles and grant access
Examine system usage statistics, including the number of logins, information transferred, faxes sent, and used disk space