Department Isolation

The idea behind it

With the department isolation feature, you can assign entities such as templates, devices, codes, and customers to individual departments of your organization, thereby restricting access to the members of those departments. This also means that all associated tickets, video sessions and statistics can only be viewed by department members. Department isolation allows companies, e.g., multinationals, to internally separate their activities on the platform.

How to get there

1. Select MY COMPANY from the side menu.
2. Select the Settings tab.
3. In the Privacy section, look for the setting "Isolate Data by Department" (picture).

How it works

• Employees are assigned to individual departments of the organization (picture)(picture).
  • Note: Employees can be assigned to one, multiple, or no department at all (picture).
• Templates, devices, codes, and customers are assigned to individual departments of the organization (picture)(picture).
  • Note: Every entity can be assigned to one, multiple, or no department at all (picture).
• Depending on the selected isolation mode (picture), users can see only (1) entities that are related to their department(s) or (2) entities that are related to their department(s) or not related to any department at all.
• Employees who do not belong to any department, e.g., global managers, have access to all available information on the platform.

Implementing a Department Isolation

Goals

• Employees of each department can only see content related to their department(s)
• Company leaders can see content of all departments
• Templates are shared among all departments

Option 1 - Basic Department Isolation

1. Activate department isolation mode "Show related entities & entities without any relations" (picture)
2. Create departments (article)
3. Assign employees to their respective departments (picture)
4. Leave company directors / global managers without department relations, so that they have access to all departments
5. Assign all departments specific entities (e.g., customers, devices, codes) to their respective departments
6. Leave templates without department association to make sure all employees have access to them

Option 2 - Strict Department Isolation

1. Activate department isolation mode "Show related entities only" (picture)
2. Create departments (article)
3. Assign employees to their respective departments (picture)
4. Leave company leaders without department association
5. Assign all departments specific entities (e.g., customers, devices, codes) to their respective departments
6. Assign all departments to each template to make sure all employees have access to them (picture)

Important difference between the two options:
The strict department isolation is not suited for adding external service providers to the platform.

Important Notes

• Employees, templates, devices, codes, and customers can be assigned to departments.
• Only administrators can assign departments to employees.
• Members can assign departments only to devices and codes.
• Users (any role) can only assign departments to which they belong (picture).
• Users without department association can assign any department.
• When a new entity is created, it automatically has the same "Related Department(s)" as its creator. Example: If an employee of the "Italy" department creates a new device, the new device is automatically assigned to "Italy".

"Related Departments" Synchronization 

Issues may arise if entities (Customer/Device/Code) that are linked to each other are assigned to different departments. To avoid these problems, the system automatically synchronizes the “Related Departments” when customers, devices, and codes are linked to each other. 

Important: Synchronization means that existing configurations are overwritten.

A hierarchy determines which entity inherits the department(s) of the other. The lower ranked entities inherit the “Related Department(s)” of the higher ranked entities. 

Hierarchy: Customer > Device > Code

Examples:

1. A “Related Department” is added to/removed from a customer. 
   • All devices and codes linked to this customer inherit the customer’s new configuration. Their existing configurations are replaced.
2. A device is linked to a new customer. 
   • The device and the code linked to it inherit the customer’s current configuration.
3. A device and a customer are unlinked from each other. The device is not linked to a new customer.
   • Device and code keep their current configuration.
4. A “Related Department” is added to/removed from a device. 
   • The code that is linked to the device inherits the new configuration of the device. The configuration of the linked customer does not change!
5. A “Related Department” is added to/removed from a code. 
   • The configurations of the linked device and customer do not change!

Additional Information

• New entities automatically have the same “Related Departments” as their creator.
• “Related Departments” are not synchronized between templates and devices.
• When a "Related Department" is assigned to a department of a corporate customer, it is also automatically added to the customer's main department.

Working with External Service Providers on the Platform

Goals

• External users are integrated into the platform to process service cases
• External users are prevented from viewing information outside their area of responsibility
• Service cases can be handed over from external service providers to internal company employees

1. Follow the steps outlined in "Option 2" above
2. Create a new department to use for the external users (picture). Suggestion: Name after external company
3. Create new employees and add the external users (article)
   
   Important:
   • Make sure these employees are assigned to the external user department before sending their invitations (picture)
   • At least one external user should have the role of a moderator so that he/she can hand over tickets and video sessions to internal employees if necessary (picture)
4. Select at least one internal employee to whom service cases should be handed over. Add this employee to the department of external service providers (picture)
5. Select all devices for which external service providers should be used, and add the "external" department as a related department. Thus, the external members of this department can access these devices and their tickets and video sessions
6. Done! You can now add the external users directly to the fleet management groups of templates and devices, or even meta teams (picture) (picture)

How it works

• External users receive offers when new service cases arise for devices in their area of responsibility
• External users can process service cases or hand them over to internal employees. To do this, an external user with the role of a moderator must select an employee from the fleet management list and "request" or "assign" this user (picture)