Built using the Joomla Content Management System, the info@hand Self-Service Portal provides a customer self-service portal for your info@hand-enabled business. The Self-Service Portal is included free with info@hand.

With the info@hand Self-Service Portal installed, your business moves to the next level - as your customers are now able to collaborate directly with you. With 24/7 self-service customer access to sales and service, your customer support load is reduced, expenses are reduced, yet your customers are happier than ever.

The info@hand Self-Service Portal enables customers of businesses that have implemented the info@hand CRBM to collaborate with their supplier on a wide range of topics. Customers using the Self-Service Portal may perform many tasks. Some of these tasks require that the user be logged in, using username/password credentials you provide to them.

A customer can perform these functions without login information:

• Request a login to the Portal, or request other sales information
• Lookup contact information for the business
• Link to the business’s public web site
• Register to use the info@hand eStore, included with the Portal (see more on the eStore here)
• Register for Marketing Events, Newsletters and Seminars

A customer must typically be logged in to the Self-Service Portal to perform these additional functions:

• Update their own contact information at any time, directly within their supplier’s master records kept by the info@hand CRBM
• Update their own password for access to the Self-Service Portal
• Access Invoice and Payment history to check their account balance and status with your business
• Access Quotes you prepare for them, and review and comment on them
• Access Knowledge Base articles (only those designated for customer exposure) by searching with content tags. Articles may also have file attachments.
• File service Cases directly within their supplier’s info@hand CRBM, and return at any time 24/7 to review updated information
• File Software Bugs directly within their supplier’s info@hand CRBM, and return at any time 24/7 to review updated information
• Collaborate on a Project:
  • The customer can see all the project tasks identified (although some may be hidden from the customer by users of the CRBM), and the progress % to date
  • The customer can see all Documents linked to the project, and can add new documents themselves
  • The customer can see Notes related to the project (although some may be hidden from the customer by users of the CRBM) – and may add additional notes themselves – optionally with attachments such as Microsoft Office files
  • The customer can see all Contacts related to the project
• Participate in Customer Forums – a full forum system is included within the self-service portal
• Review Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and their answers

The Self-Service Portal communicates with the core info@hand Business Portal using SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) – a common protocol used to connect web services.

The Self-Service Portal is built using the Joomla Content Management System (currently version 1.5.3 – but the components have been made compatible with other Joomla releases using an abstraction layer over the Joomla API), and it may be integrated within an existing Joomla-based website.