User and Contact Administration

Overview

The system is designed for multiple uses, with each use case requiring different levels of access. This access is managed through Positions.

• Users are a special type of Contact that can sign in to the system. However a user cannot access anything without Positions and Duties.

• Only users with at least one Position associated with an event will have access to the event. Other users will not even know the event exists.

This allows your organisation to use the system for many activities ranging from emergency management, event coordination, inspections, risk management, after hours call outs, business continuity, staff expense tracking and timesheets, rostering and much more.

Before managing users, it is essential to understand the concepts around how users sign in and access events. See Your User Account for more on this.

Access

To manage users you will need to sign in with the System Admin - User Management position.

You can find and manage users through the Contacts register under Operations > Contacts.

Viewing User Accounts

To view a user account:

1. Navigate to the Contacts register under Operations

2. Filter or search the datagrid for active Users:

   1. Filter by Type - Users, or the Users - Active Users

   2. The 'Is User' column in the datagrid

3. Open the record using the ID, Status or Name

User Account Settings

The User Account settings can be found in the User Account section at the top right hand side in view or edit mode.

User Account

Enable user account for this contact

The Enable user account for this contact setting determines whether a user account exists for the contact. If ticked, the contact has a user account and can sign in to the system.

Positions

This field is used to manage position(s) that the user can sign in with, along with their organisation if applicable.

Copy from Email Field

This setting indicates whether the user sign in email is the same as the contact email. They can be two different emails if necessary. It is recommended that they are the same email so that the user contact doesn't forget their sign in email.

Send user a welcome email

This indicates whether the user should have received an email notifying them of their user account and how to update their access credentials. Administrators can use this field to trigger a welcome email to remind the user of their access details.

Email Subscriptions

Email Subscriptions allow you to opt contacts in or out of communications from Datalink. We send communications on the software updates and news, maintenance updates and system outages. Depending on which of these options is set you may receive more, less frequent or no updates from us.

Advanced

This section is typically only available for Users.

Avatar

The Avatar field is used to upload a users photo or other image in jpeg format that represents them visually. For more information about uploading files refer to the File Upload field type.

Signature

Signatures are used with templates, such as those for compliance. It supports the upload of a JPEG or PNG file.

Signature Text

The Signature Text often accompanies the signature, for example in compliance templates. This is usually the person's official title.

External ID and External Source

These fields are used to identify the user from an external system. Contact Datalink if you need to do this.

Current Duty Status

Shows the current duty status if known for the User.

User ID

The User ID is a unique identifier that is sometimes used in place of the Sign in Email. It is rare that you will need this setting. Sometimes Datalink may request this for technical reasons.

Creating User Accounts

To create a user account:

1. Navigate to Operations module Contacts register

2. Create or edit a Contact using the New Contact button or option from the New Item list

3. In the General section, set the Contact Type field to Individual

4. Complete the contact details including Phone and Email. Note that Email is used by default as the user's Sign Iin Email.

5. In the User Account section on the right, tick the box that says Enable user account for this contact

6. In the Positions field Add one or more Positions. You can do this by typing the position name into the field and selecting it from the lookup. See Adding and Removing Assigned Positions.

7. In the Sign in Email field, put the email address you wish the user to use as a sign in. If the user is using the Primary Email, tick the Copy from Primary Email field. It is best practice to tick the Send user a welcome email to notify them of their new user account.

8. Complete the additional sections for:

   1. Workflow section. When setting up new users the Contact should be Active by default and the Event should default to the event you're currently on duty for.

   2. Communication Preferences and Email Subscriptions sections (refer to Contacts Settings for more info)

   3. Advanced, optionally upload an Avatar or photo (refer to Contacts Settings for more info)

9. Save

Testing Access

A good way to test users is to have a test account that you can use in a second web browser. You can change the position in this test account if you want to confirm or test it out. This is a good way to simulate user's access which will be less than yours. If you need to make changes you can switch to the first web browser, make the changes then test in the second web browser.

Editing User Accounts

Users can be edited from the Contact Register datagrid.

1. Navigate to the Contacts register

2. Locate the User Contact you wish to edit by using the Edit button

3. Make the necessary changes to the settings

4. Save to save your changes

Adding and Removing Assigned Positions

Positions are assigned with the Positions field under User Account. You can do this by typing the position name into the field and selecting it from the lookup. They can be removed with the x.

Activating and Deactivating Contacts

To activate or deactivate contacts, use the Contact Status field.

Set to Inactive to deactivate (hide) the contact.

Set to Active to reactivate deactivated (hidden) contacts.

Automated Account Deactivation

A key security feature is a scheduled daily process that run that deactivates inactive accounts that have not been used for more than 24 months.

A user will be sent a deactivation email notification 30 days prior to the 24 month period, asking them to log in an update their user profile details. Seven days prior to deactivation, if the user has not logged in, they are sent a final reminder. If the user does not log in, their account will become inactive on the 24 months. In the future, this period may be reduced for some or all sites.

Site ‘User Administrators’ will be sent a summary notification when users receive the 30-day warning, and again if the account is deactivated.

Setting a user's communication preferences and Email subscriptions

Users can set their own notification preferences or user administrators can set them on their behalf.

Communication Preferences

A contact user can have multiple phone numbers (Primary Phone and Secondary Phone) and email addresses (Primary Email and Secondary Email) and which of these to use when sending communications is set using the fields SMS Communications and Email Communications.

Whether or not the user receives email and SMS communications is controlled by the options Receive communications by SMS and Receive communications by Email.

Communications are sent either via a communication message or automated emails to alert users of key events, such as item assignment. A coordinator can bypass these user options when sending urgent communications.

Email subscriptions

Datalink sends a low volume set of emails that keep users update, informed and trained in the product.

Bulk Actions

The following additional bulk actions can be performed by administrators in addition to those that can be performed on standard Contacts:

Importing Users

Users can be imported as contacts and then converted in bulk.

See: Importing Contacts