IMPLEMENTATION GUIDELINE(for Stylite workshops)
Create users and groups
- List of users and groups. Which kind of groups are needed and useful regarding access rights, use of applications and exchange of information?
Applications
- Which applications each group is starting with? Does every user / group need all available applications? Too many can be confusing in the beginning.
- Which applications should be used to share information effectively? Examples: Regarding knowledge management: use of Wiki or Knowledge Base, or both? Regarding task management: does the sales department use the address book in combination with InfoLog as a CRM, while other departments (e.g. a service team) use the tracking system for process monitoring?
Distribution of rights / access control
- Access plan for groups in each module. How much each group is sharing information, on which level and to whom?
- Right to read, edit, add or delete information has to be granted on level of each group in each application separately.
- In general access rights are granted by a group and/or an user to other groups and/or users. It is recommended to grant access rights on group level (rather than on user level) to keep track of the access rights situation in the company.
- Note: granted rights for example between two groups are not automatically a two-way- road. A read right granted by Group A to Group B means not, that Group A has a read right for information of Group B. Those access rights have to be organised explicitly according the above mentioned access plan.
Categories
- Categories are used in EPL to label and discern data to filter information easily.
- It's recommended to create categories on application level (module categories) rather than EGroupware global categories.
- Example: address book might need other kinds of categories to tag and describe contacts than in the calendar (categorise events or appointments).
Email application
- EGroupware offers a powerful IMAP client for efficient email management. It has to be decided whether EGroupware's email client will be used for effective information management on the web platform.
- The email module opens interesting organisational opportunities by converting incoming or outgoing emails on click to EGroupware tasks, which can be embedded into further processing.
- Furthermore the email client is multi-IMAP enabled and can manage as much different IMAP email accounts as needed on user level.
- In combination with openLDAP EGroupware works as your Email management interface to reduce the administrative effort to maintain email accounts significantly. Stylite EPL hosting together with Stylite Mail provides that solution consequently. By setting up a user in EGroupware the email account is created automatically.
Preferences
- Preferences predetermine the look and feel as well as the functionality of each module.
- The Administrator has to decide about the level of predefinitions for users.
- Stylite Managed EPL hosting packaged include a useful set of predefined ready-to-go preferences.
- "Forced preferences", which cannot be changed by the user vs. ''default preferences", which can be overwritten by the user's personal preferences.
- Reduce complexity by forcing as much preferences as possible on level of each application and for EGroupware in general (e.g. date format, languages, display of user data, user selection).
Notifications
- Plan the level of notification density. Several applications allow notifications about changes of the data. Form (e.g. as email) and extensiveness have to be agreed with the users.
- The content and the level of notification messages are customised in the module preferences.
- Example: Calendar: Notification about an invitation or change of appointment. InfoLog: Notification about delegation, start, due date or changes in a task.
General questions
- Address data import /address maintenance /address books
- Setup of file manager: common data structure and content
- Access to file manager by desktop operating systems like Microsoft
- Custom fields and types for example in address book and InfoLog
- RTF/ODT/DOC forms for use in the address book for groups/users (e.g. serial letters, label print).
Team agreements and conventions
- In a team management suite like EGroupware it is important to specify in advance how certain data and information will be proceeded. Team agreements on base of a common understanding of the capabilities of the software are helpful to obtain the best possible result.
- As an example: Infolog (task management) – a task was delegated to a user. This user can add notes and process information to this task or could add a sub-entry to proceed. If users work on a task together, it is advisable to add e.g. a time stamp (date) and user's initials at the beginning of an entry, to identify who added information and when.
- New information can be added either on top or underneath existing entries, depending on the agreement.
- By converting emails to tasks (InfoLog entries), information can be distributed on the web platform easily by delegation without the need to spread information by copying using email distribution lists.
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