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Simplified Tenant Level Admin Portal

Posted by moshe on Fri, 05/21/2010
Forums
Features Wanted

I would like to introduce the idea of a simplified tenant level portal, I know some will argue that the beauty of thirdlane is its complexity which lets you use in the way you ever want, that's why this should only be like a dumped down tenant level admin for simply functionally, to minimize customer setup, and avoid stupid setting errors which some times cause a lot of headache if not full system crash's due to customers laziness, inexperience or just for a lack of understanding the concept of PBX structure, their should also be a link Advance Portal for a more advanced user who does know his way around, (which could be activated /deactivated by the system admin, (or reseller admin) and vice verse from the advance portal a tenant should be able to switch back to the simply portal.

this concept is and should be subject to a lot of scrutinizing, since it something that might eventually affect all MTE users, so please share your thoughts on it and ideas how you believe the best way to approach it,

cheers

Submitted by moshe on Fri, 05/21/2010 Permalink

being a system admin where a majority of my customers log into their admin portal to try in setting up or implement changes to the system themselves (without even reading the outdated docs) and a most of time creating quite the mess, i have seen a few points of failure (just for lack of better term) where must of the issues arise

  1. starting with the layout and design structure (aside the fact that the system is still from the late 90's early 2000 kind of software design, with still pages)
    • where a admin have to jump back and forth to multiple pages (aside the page load issue) to setup a IVR or any inbound route for that mater,
    • if he need to trouble shoot he gets so confused where does he start at schedules or at in bound routes, and it ends up that he calls the system administrator where it use customer service time

    in short for a lame user its hard to set it and impossible to trouble shoot

  2. schedules are so confusing that need to be changed at least on the tenant level admin
  3. a tenant admin feels totally out pf control with no ability to see whether all his peers a re connected reachable
  4. personally i don't give tenants access to user extensions which causes that the tenant admin at times have no access to the user portal to monitor his extensions whether the voice mail where listened to forwarding status etc.
  5. customers are uploading wrong file format mp3's (which could cause crash's) or just wrong formatted .wav files
  6. the CDR is totally unusable for a tenant at all

that's why i thought of a tenant level portal that contains 4 or 5 pages max with flash and java to beabke to handle it on multi functionality on 1 page,

first page where it should have some thing like sip show peers like {tenantName} if it is possible to add monitor channels, Voice mail and queues. with a link to user portal for each extension, (issue #3,and #4 resolved) (i would take it up a notch if you are ready to consider FOP2 since tl will be a separate server , not sure if it would be possible though)

Second page should be DID Page where a customer should have option to choose week, calender, where a weekly schedule would give him 7 days and a 12 hour clock (am and pm) if he choose calender it will give him a 12 month calender and a 12 hour clock (am and pm) some more thought is definitely needed into the design it should be the user friendly
further down the page it should have the option to do what

  • Dial Extension
  • Dial Phone Number (with a check box option to accept reject, when selected should be written in follwme.conf)
  • Dial a group of Extensions (a hunt list should be written named as the DIDhunt
  • Dial a group of Phone Numbers (with a check box option to accept reject, when selected should be written in follwme based hunt list )
  • Play Invalid
  • Go to IVR this should create a IVR manue based on the DID name
      on the same page a sub category where a greeting box should show-up where the customer could choose from record now using a extension, record now using any phone number or upload
      than a page like the current IVR page have with the following options
    • Dial Extension
    • Dial Phone Number (with a check box option to accept reject, when selected should be written in follwme.conf)
    • Dial a group of Extensions (a hunt list should be written named as the DIDhunt
    • Dial a group of Phone Numbers (with a check box option to accept reject, when selected should be written in follwme based hunt list )
    • Play Invalid default for invalid extension
    • leave Voice Mail (with just a check box with word silent next to it
    • hangup default for time out
    • directory with a selector for by first or lest name)
    • sub directory where it should just create a submanu based on the DID and it should repeat on the page like IVR
  • all lines should have the option do a text to preppend to caller ID
  • all upload files should be verified if it is a working file before the upload completes (thirdlane should check its properties and if the format isn't working the file shouldn't be saved

when hitting save thirdlane should check for errors or warnings if there is it should relay the warning (so it will have to be with flash and java and all in 1 page issues #1,#2, and #5 resolved)

page 3
MOH with no option just the current MOH page without any option to choose just what the system admin set to default and thirdlane should check if the file is a playable format if it isnt it should not save it (issue #5 resolved)

Page 4
History
>>Call recordings
>> CDR this need to redefined i will try to dream about it some other

Trrrrrrr! my alarm clock just woke me that is a nice dream i have, not sure what is and what is not achievable, i hope all of em are and at the price of the any thirdlane functionality

any thoughts