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:
  • 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.
Some functionality will be removed due to general lack of use and to provide for a more intuitive experience.
  • 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.
What you'll need to do:
  • 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 for your patience while we work through this major renovation. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Otherwise you'll be hearing from me in the coming weeks.

Thanks,

Ben Myers
President
Compendium Library Services LLC

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