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Setting Up the Customer Data Model

Introduction to Setting Up the Customer Data Model Based on FlexCDM

With FlexCDM various customer data models can be implemented. Please refer to section Introduction to FlexCDM for a detailed introduction. To work with a new customer data model within a certain customer group (or in several customer groups), the following steps have to be performed:

  1. Create a customer data model.
    (This implies you have already decided whether this should be a one- or a two-level data model. In this example, we will create a two-level model.)
  2. Create a new customer group.
  3. Assign the customer data model to the group.

A customer data model comprises objects on three model levels:

  1. The customer data model definition
  2. The customer objects within this model
    A customer object can be of one of two types:
    1. Company
      E.g., an institution, but can also be a machine, a ship, or anything else which represents the company level.
    2. Contact
      E.g., a person, but can also be a machine, a hardware device, a product, or anything else which represents the contact level.
      If a company level is present, the contact is a sub-level of the company. For a simple customer data model, use only the contact object or only the company object.
  3. The customer fields
    These are the data fields for the customer objects, i.e., either the customer fields for company data (e.g., ZIP, address, phone) or the customer fields for contact data (e.g., surname, name, email address).

Managing Contacts and Companies Using the Admin Tool

To manage components of the customer data model, use the items in the navigation group Customers in the Admin Tool. Open the navigation item Data Models to set up a new data model or to edit existing models.

Figure 228: ConSol CM Admin Tool - Customers, Data Models: Customer data model definition

The figure shows the following sections:

To explain how to work with the customer data model, we will walk you through an example in the next sections.

Creating a New Two-Level Customer Data Model

To create a new customer data model you have to create the objects on all levels of the data model. In the following example, we will build a customer data model for partner data. We will create a customer data model with a company and a contact object, i.e., we will have to create the following objects:

After having defined an object, the parameters for this object can be (or rather should be) configured.

Step 1: Create the Customer Data Model with the First Customer Object

When you create a new customer data model, you have to add a customer object and the respective customer fields in one step.

To create a new customer data model, mark another customer data model (that way you select the level on which you want to work) and use the Add button to open the pop-up window.

Figure 229: ConSol CM Admin Tool - Customers, Data Models: Creating a new customer data model

You have to fill in the following fields:

Step 2: Create Another Customer Object

In the next step, you have to add the contact object. Select the object PartnersCompany (to set the correct level for the following Add operation) and click the Add button to open the pop-up window.

Figure 230: ConSol CM Admin Tool - Customers, Data Models: Adding a new customer object

You have to fill in the following fields:

Step 3: Configuring the Parameters for the Defined Objects

Parameters for the Customer Data Model

Double-click on the name of the customer data model (PartnersModel in our example) or mark the customer data model in the list and click the Edit button to open the pop-up window where you can define the parameters for the model.

Figure 231: ConSol CM Admin Tool - Customers, Data Models: Parameters for a customer data model

You can fill in the following fields:

Parameters for the Customer Object

Double-click on the name of a customer object, e.g., the PartnersCompany or select the object and click the Edit button to open the pop-up menu where you can configure the parameters for this object.

Figure 232: ConSol CM Admin Tool - Customers, Data Models: Parameters for a customer object

You can fill in the following fields:

Parameters for the Customer Field Group

Double-click on the name of the customer field group to change the technical name (only possible when respective fields in the customer data sets are empty) or to assign/unassign Dependent Enum Scripts for the group.

To define the customer fields, use the GUI elements on the right-hand side. In the following figure, an example for the definition of customer fields for the PartnersCompany is shown. Here, only one customer field group (PartnersCompanyData) is used. You can use as many customer field groups as you need in one customer object.

Figure 233: ConSol CM Admin Tool - Customers, Data Models: Parameters for the customer field group

The figure shows the following sections:

The definition of customer fields within customer data models is based on the same principles as the definition of ticket fields for ticket data. For a detailed introduction to the definition and management of ticket fields, please refer to sections Ticket Field Administration (Setting Up the Ticket Data Model) and Customer Field Management and GUI Design for Customer Data.

The available customer field annotations are listed in section Annotations. The annotation unit is a contact is no longer in use because the level of a unit (i.e., the company or contact) is defined by its unit type (company or contact).

Please make sure that the annotation field indexed is set for all fields which should be searchable. This affects the Quick Search, Detailed Search, and all auto-complete operations! See also section Search Configuration and Indexer Management.

Congratulations! When you have completed all the steps in the previous sections, you have created a new ConSol CM customer data model and can now go on to assign the model to one or more customer group(s).

Creating a New Customer Group Using the New Customer Data Model

When the customer data model has been defined, it can now be assigned to one or more customer groups. In the example, we will create the new customer group OurPartnerCompanies which will use the new PartnersModel.

Use the navigation item Customer Groups in the navigation group Customers of the Admin Tool to create a new customer group and to assign the desired customer data model.

Figure 234: ConSol CM Admin Tool - Customers, Customer Groups: Definition of a new customer group

You can fill in the following fields:

An engineer who has access permissions for six customer groups will see the following in the Web Client.

Figure 235: ConSol CM Web Client - Creating a new company and contact

Assigning Access Rights for Customer Groups with the New Model to Roles

In order to let engineers work with customer data from the new customer group, i.e., to create new partner data sets or to modify existing sets, you have to grant access permissions for the customer groups to one or more roles.

See section Tab Customer Group Permissions.

Assign the New Customer Groups to Queues

Please keep in mind that you have to assign the new customer group to all queues where tickets should be created for customers of this group. See section Queue Administration for details.

Deactivate Objects in the Customer Data Model

The following objects within a customer data model can be deactivated (this functionality is implemented only very rudimentary in current CM versions):

In order to deactivate a certain object, select the object on the desired level (be careful to distinguish between the entire data model, the company or contact level, and the customer field groups).

Figure 236: ConSol CM Admin Tool - Customers, Data Models: Deactivate a FlexCDM object (here: company object in ResellerModel)

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