Configure the Client (Customer) Portal
This feature is included in Professional and Ultimate XTRF Plans.
Introduction
The Client Portal is designed to improve how you and your client conduct business together by reducing the overall amount of necessary communication.
From the Client Portal, your clients can:
Update the personal data
Request quotes
View the statuses of the quotes
Check the statuses of the projects
Manage project files.
All actions available for clients on the Client Portal are customizable, so you can decide which user's rights to give to a specific client.
There are a few areas of configuration that influence the Client Portal. The following article shows you how to enable, configure and customize your Client Portal on the XTRF Platform.
I. Client Portal in the Home Portal configuration
To enable and configure your Client Portal, perform the following steps:
Sign in to the XTRF Home Portal.
Go to the Configuration menu → Portals → Client Portal.
Click the Edit button at the bottom of the page.
Check the Enabled box to make the Client Portal accessible to your clients.
Make sure that the URL in the Client Portal URL field is correct. It should be similar to your Home Portal URL with the word ‘customers’ at the end, e.g.,
http://yourcompany.xtrf.eu/customers/.
Decide what services, specializations, and languages should be available for selection on the Client Portal:
To allow your clients to use all active services, specializations, and languages, check the All Active … Available boxes.
To select only specific services, specializations, and languages, uncheck the All Active… Available boxes, and move the selected services, specializations, and languages to the Selected Items list (double-click on an item or use the Add button).
(Optional) Uncheck the Show Information about Net Prices box to hide the Net Price field on the Client Portal.
(Optional) Uncheck the Show Resources box to hide the Resource Files tab in the Projects module on the Client Portal.
(Optional) Uncheck the Show Approximate File Statistics box to hide the File Statistics tab in the Request a quote and Launch a project pop-ups on the Client Portal.
(Optional, for Classic projects only) Check the Show Log Files box to make the CAT analysis files visible in the Resource Files tab in the Projects module on the Client Portal.
In the Disclaimer on Sign-in Page section, decide whether you want to add an informational disclaimer to the sign-in page. To change the disclaimer text, do the following:
For on-cloud XTRF, please contact our Help Desk.
For on-premise XTRF:
Go to the XTRF hosting server and follow the /
home-portal/resources/custom-localization/resources/
path.Locate the file for the desired language, e.g., custom_en_US.properties for English (US), custom_de.properties for German (DE), etc.
Open the file and locate the key: customerPortal.loginPage.disclaimer.
Edit the string after the equation mark.
Save the file.
To apply the changes, restart the XTRF Platform. To learn how to do that, see the Restart XTRF on Windows article.
In the Default Settings for New Clients section, decide whether you want the new clients to get access to the Client Portal by default.
In the Landing Card section, you can customize the card that appears at the top of the Client Portal dashboard page.
The landing card will only be displayed if both title and content are provided.In the Display Landing Card section, decide whether you want the landing card to appear on the Client Portal.
In the Title field, provide the card’s title.
In the Content field, provide the desired content.
Click the Save button.
II. Configure the client groups and rights
Client groups are used to determine what rights clients can have on the Client Portal. When you create or modify a client group, you decide whether to allow access to the Client Portal to clients assigned to this group and which areas of the Client Portal they are allowed to access. Then you may manage the access rights for a particular client by assigning them to the desired client group.
To configure client group rights, perform the following steps:
Go to the Configuration menu → Portals → Client Group and Rights.
Select a group you want to configure and click the icon to open it in edit mode.
Check the Access Allowed box to grant access to the Client Portal to this client group.
In the permission matrix, assign the access rights to this client group. Select the checkboxes in domains relevant to your clients to assign the appropriate rights:
Browse - allows data filtering.
Display - simply displays data, but searching options are unavailable.
Create - enables the creation of new items in the system.
Edit - allows users to make modifications.
Delete - allow to remove items.
Export - enables the export of data, for example, downloading CSV files.
Customize - allow to customize the views.
Click the All button to select all checkboxes in a column.
Click the None button to deselect all checkboxes in a column.
Click the Save button. You have configured the rights for a client group.
III. Configure the Client Portal in the Client's Profile
Not all clients may be interested in all services your company provides. Therefore, to make the quote request process easier for a client, you can configure your Client Portal settings to match the requirements of a given client:
Go to the Clients module.
Locate the client in question in the list of clients using the filters on the top.
Open the client profile in edit mode.
Go to the Portal Settings tab.
In the Available Services section, decide what services you want to offer to this client. To select only specific services:
Uncheck the Use default settings box.
From the Add new service drop-down list, select the desired services.
Note: To change the default workflow of a service for this client, uncheck the Use default settings box in the Available Workflows/Process Templates column. Now you can select another workflow/process from the drop-down list for each service available for this client.
In the Available Specializations section, decide what specializations you want to offer to this client. To select only specific specializations:
Uncheck the Use default settings box.
Move the selected specializations to the Selected Items list (double-click on an item or use the Add button).
In the Available Languages section, decide what languages you want to offer to this client. To select only specific languages:
Uncheck the Use default settings box.
Move the selected languages to the Selected Items list (double-click on an item or use the Add button).
In the Available Price Profiles section, you can decide whether you want to preselect a price profile for this client or let them choose the price profile on the Client Portal.
To preselect a price profile, uncheck the Let client choose price profile box and select the desired price profile from the drop-down list.
In the Show Information about Net Prices section, you can decide if the net prices should be visible for this client, regardless of the general settings.
Uncheck the Use default settings box.
With the radio button, select the desired option.
In the Show Resources section, you can decide if the resources should be visible for this client, regardless of the general settings.
Uncheck the Use default settings box.
With the radio button, select the desired option.
(For Classic projects only) In the Review section, you can allow this client to leave a review in the project’s workflow. It's only possible when the client has a vendor account, so you need to create one.
Click the Enable Client Review button.
In the Linked Vendor’s Name - Edit pop-up window, you can change the vendor’s name generated automatically for this client.
Click the Apply button.
The Review section changes. Now you can see that this client has a linked vendor with an active status. You can change the name and disable the possibility of leaving a review by clicking the Change or Disable Client Review buttons.
Click the Save button. You have adjusted the Client Portal settings for this client.
IV. Share Reports in Your Client Portal
You can allow clients to get visual reports illustrating a specific aspect of their business activities with your company. The chart and the data can be adjusted to the needs of your client. As the Client Portal is linked directly with your Home Portal, any updates made to a client's report in your system are also applied automatically to the reports in the Client Portal. Thus, by simply visiting the Client Portal, a client can view his latest reports without having to ask your company to manually send or revise them in the Client Portal.
To share a business report in your Client Portal, perform the following steps:
Go to the Reports module → Business Reports display.
Locate the reports available on the Client Portal using the Categories filter.
From the list of all available reports, select the one you would like to share with your clients in your Client Portal.
Click the icon to open the selected report in edit mode.
In the Report Definition tab:
Go to the Filtering Setting section.
Check the Logged-in User box.
In the Execution Permission tab:
Go to the Client Permission subtab.
Check the This report can be viewed by clients box
In the Shared with section, add the client groups you want to share the report with to the Selected Items list (double-click on an item or use the Add button).
Click the Save button. This report is now shared with the clients from the selected client group(s)on the Client Portal.