System architecture of ConSol CM

Introduction to ConSol CM

ConSol CM is a process management platform suitable for a huge variety of business processes. The products CM/Ticketing, CM/Helpdesk and CM/Complaint are based on the platform and provide ready-to-use processes for handling customer inquiries, IT support requests and complaints. If you have purchased one of these three standard products, you can directly work with the processes or adapt them to your needs. Alternatively, you can use the platform to implement new processes which are tailored specifically to your use cases and requirements. The powerful workflow editor allows you to decide if the process flow should be rather strict or the users should have more flexibility.

ConSol CM includes many features to enable communication and interaction. In addition to the Web Client, used for the internal handling, ConSol CM also comes with the customer portal CM/Track and various extensions, interfaces and add-ons which provide additional features as reporting or integration with other IT systems using webhooks and a REST API.

This document provides an overview of the architecture and the system requirements of the main product ConSol CM and its optional extensions.

Scope of the manual

This manual covers the setup and operation of ConSol CM in a single-server environment. It guides you through the steps for setting up ConSol CM and the optional modules. Please check the system requirements before starting with the installation.

Architecture

ConSol CM consists of a backend server, and several web applications which serve as a front end. The data is kept in a relational database. Optional extensions provide additional functionality.

There are two ways of running ConSol CM:

• Application server: Deploy everything on one central application server.
• Containers: Deploy the backend and the optional extensions in separate containers, for example using docker or kubernetes.

Main product

The main product consists of the backend and two web applications. These are used in every ConSol CM installation.

• Web Client: Primary application for internal end users to work on cases
• Web Admin Suite: Primary application for administrators to configure the system and define the processes

Extensions

The following extensions are optional. They can be added to extend the main product with additional capabilities.

Web applications:

• CM/Track: Application for external end users to create cases and track their status. Needed to interact with customers or colleagues who do not work with the Web Client.
• CM/Archive: Application for internal users for viewing archived cases. Needed for huge installations where older cases are archived to reduce the size of the production database.

Desktop applications:

• CM/Doc: Application for end users to use document templates in the Web Client. Needed if the users should create word documents which are attached to cases in the Web Client locally in advanced document integration scenarios.
• CM/Phone: Application for end users to use CTI in the Web Client. Needed if incoming phone calls should directly open the page of the respective contact in the Web Client.
• CM/Outlook Addin: Addin for Microsoft Outlook (desktop variant) which allows end users to transfer emails to ConSol CM.

Internal applications:

• CMRF: Application for filling the ConSol CM data warehouse. Needed for CM/EBIA to consolidate data for reporting purposes and store it in a separate database.
• ETL Runner: Application for executing jobs and transformations created with Pentaho Data Integration. Needed to import and export runtime data for data transfers between ConSol CM and other applications.
• CM/Archive: Backend application which is needed for internal users for viewing archived cases. Needed for huge installations where older cases are archived to reduce the size of the production database
• CM/Phone: Backend application which is needed for end users to use CTI in the Web Client
• Portal authentication application: Application to handle authentication in CM/Track V3. Needed when CM/Track V3 is used regardless of the chosen authentication method.

info

Some of the extensions require a separate license.

Integration with third-party software

The following figure illustrates how the main product ConSol CM and its optional extensions integrate with third-party software. For details, please see the system requirements and the subpages for each extension under Installing extensions.

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Java refers to the server-side components. Java on the client side is also needed for CM/Doc.