July 12, 2022
This notification is primarily intended for administrative users
A major upgrade is coming to the Desk Tracker systems. There is some action required on your part to use the new system, but we're here to help, and I promise it will be worth it! The upgrade will be applied one account at a time, so we can pick a time convenient for you. We hope to finish with academic clients by mid-August, before the fall rush.
We've completely rebuilt Compendium's systems on a new platform, and the result should be faster, more convenient, and more modern in every way. It will also allow us to be more responsive at improving the system and adding new features.
Functionally, not much is changing on the statistics side. You'll see the same old "tabs" (they're more like buttons now) and similar report options. Some aspects of stats form and user management will change, but as always, we're happy to assist with any customization if you get stuck. If you'd like to preview the new system, just let me know and we can schedule a demo.
There will be changes to public contact forms and ticketing, but I hope you'll agree it's a major improvement:
Thanks,
Ben Myers
President
Compendium Library Services LLC
Contact Us
This notification is primarily intended for administrative users
A major upgrade is coming to the Desk Tracker systems. There is some action required on your part to use the new system, but we're here to help, and I promise it will be worth it! The upgrade will be applied one account at a time, so we can pick a time convenient for you. We hope to finish with academic clients by mid-August, before the fall rush.
We've completely rebuilt Compendium's systems on a new platform, and the result should be faster, more convenient, and more modern in every way. It will also allow us to be more responsive at improving the system and adding new features.
Functionally, not much is changing on the statistics side. You'll see the same old "tabs" (they're more like buttons now) and similar report options. Some aspects of stats form and user management will change, but as always, we're happy to assist with any customization if you get stuck. If you'd like to preview the new system, just let me know and we can schedule a demo.
There will be changes to public contact forms and ticketing, but I hope you'll agree it's a major improvement:
- Hosted forms. Previously Desk Tracker Plus/Live ticketing system relied on contact forms built and hosted by users, which then submitted requests to our servers. For security purposes and based on modern web practices, this will no longer be possible. All contact forms will be hosted and maintained in Desk Tracker. This is a good thing, because you'll be able to manage forms yourself as you do DT statistics forms, then either link directly to the form or insert the forms on your website via a handy HTML widget. More on this below.
- Ticket reporting system. The ticketing reporting system
will be merged with Desk Tracker's statistics reporting. This
should make it much easier to filter and visualize ticketing
data. Where possible we can manually rebuild your saved ticket
reports in the new system as part of the switch.
- Broadcast email tools. Desk Tracker Plus/Live included
tools to manage email lists and send broadcast messages. This
will go away, but you can still easily share send surveys and
forms by including links in the email system of your choice.
- Security Rules / Security Groups. The old
system gave the option of very granular, rule-based control over
staff access to pages, menu items, etc. The new system will have
simplified and hopefully less confusing set of permission
options. If you rely on very granular control over staff
account permissions, let me know and we can discuss a solution.
- Before the switch:
- Send a list of contact forms to be rebuilt, along with
any special concerns. All external contact forms must be
rebuilt within your new Desk Tracker account, and we're happy
to do that for you as part of the switch. Please send us a
list of these with URLs. If you feel you you have a situation
where a contact form must be hosted on your website,
or have other concerns, please let me know and we will discuss
a solution. All of your statistics forms (or "tabs") within
Desk Tracker will automatically be migrated over.
- Save any "drafts". The new system will handle saved
drafts of ticket responses differently, and any currently
saved drafts you have will be lost. Boilerplate text will be
migrated over and does not need to be saved.
- Save any email lists and messages. Since broadcast
email tools will be going away, you'll need to move any lists
and messages you may have in DT to a different platform.
- After the switch:
- Change your Desk Tracker bookmarks to a new URL. I
will reach out individually to schedule the date and time of
your URL change, and it can be done off-hours. There will be
short (hopefully less than 10 minute) disruption while we
disable your old account and sync the data over to the new
platform. As with anything of this nature, the unexpected can
happen, but we'll be here to help.
- Add emails to accounts. Email addresses will
be required for every admin-type user account, optional but
strongly recommended for non-admin user accounts. If you'd
like to send a list of usernames/emails, we can take care of
it for you.
- Change passwords. Each user will need to
change their password when signing in for the first time.
Strong passwords will be enforced, but the "remember me"
option will be improved, so desk staff shouldn't need to sign
in again.Â
- Review staff account permissions. User account
permissions will generally be migrated over as-is. For
example, if an account has or does not have access to
ticketing, reporting, administration, or certain service
points, that will continue to be the case. However since
"security rules" are going away (see above), you will want to
review staff account access if you currently use these.
Thanks,
Ben Myers
President
Compendium Library Services LLC
Contact Us