Departments

Add client facing departments to Blesta

 3 minute read

The purpose of creating departments within Blesta is for Blesta clients to be able to open tickets. Departments within Blesta will map to a Cerb Group and Bucket. By adding the department functionality within Blesta, a single Cerb instance can be connected to multiple Blesta companies or a separate Blesta instance, all without any special configuration done at the Cerb side.

Add Departments

Departments may be created under:

  • [Admin Portal] -> [Select your Company] -> [Cerb] -> [Departments]
  • Click [Create Department] button
OptionDescription
NameThe name of the department as shown when creating a ticket
DescriptionThe description of the department when creating a ticket. HTML is allowed
GroupThe name of the group new tickets will be assigned to
BucketThe name of the bucket new tickets will be assigned to
Custom Fields - TypeThe type of custom field that will be shown within Blesta
Custom Fields - NameThe name of the custom field that will be shown to the Blesta client
Custom Fields - VisibleWhen set, this custom field will be shown when creating and viewing tickets
Custom Fields - RequiredWhen set, this custom field will be required when creating a new ticket

Best Practices for Multi-Company Support

If you are connecting your Cerb instance to multiple Blesta companies or even a separate Blesta instances, best practice would have your Cerb Buckets and Groups organized as such:

  • Group: Sales
    • Bucket: Company/Brand A
    • Bucket: Company/Brand B
    • Bucket: Company/Brand C
  • Group: Support
    • Bucket: Company/Brand A
    • Bucket: Company/Brand B
    • Bucket: Company/Brand C

This allows Cerb workers to be assigned to a group, such as sales, that can span multiple brands. Note in this configuration once a worker is assigned to a Cerb group, they would have access to all the buckets within it. This setup works well when workers have knowledge of each brand.

However, their are other cases where a worker might not know every brand. In this setup, you might want to organization your group and buckets in the reverse:

  • Group: Company/Brand A
    • Bucket: Sales
    • Bucket: Support
  • Group: Company/Brand B
    • Bucket: Sales
    • Bucket: Support
  • Group: Company/Brand C
    • Bucket: Sales
    • Bucket: Support

This allows workers to to be assigned to a group within a specific company, A for example, and some or all questions based on the bucket they operate in.

Lastly, you can make a hybrid of both layouts. The possibilities are endless within Cerb why creating departments in the Blesta-Cerb plugin allows you to map to what ever style works today and in the future.


Last modified August 1, 2020: (9e61bb7)