CDR Link

Submissions from the Webform feed directly into CDR Link, an open-source technology designed to easily tag, edit, assign and respond to ticket submissions.

Signing In

The first step to access the CDR Link technology is to sign in using your credentials.

To access CDR Link you will be provided with a URL, and you will also need a username and a password. Open your browser and type in your customized URL.

You will see a “Sign-in” screen similar to the one below.

CDR Link is currently designed with Cloudflare which provides an additional layer of security. All users must be authenticated before gaining access to CDR Link. This option can be removed or changed based on your project’s desired needs.

Initial Screen (Dashboard)

Once you’ve signed into CDR Link your first view is the dashboard view or main screen. The main screen is divided into the following sections:

1. My Stats. This section is located in the center of the screen and shows the user’s performance on the platform, the number of assigned tickets, the tickets that have been escalated, the number of tickets in process, and the tickets that have been reopened.

2. First Steps. This tab is an interactive walk through of the platform created by the Zammad team.

3. Overview. Here users can find tickets which are filtered into categories. These can be customized in settings. This project’s overviews are: my assigned tickets, needs follow up, ready for review, all sensitive tickets, on-hold tickets and test tickets.

4. Activity Stream. This is a list of the more recent activities performed by you and your peers on the platform and it will help you stay updated on the day’s progress.

5. Recent Tickets. In this section, you will see the incoming tickets in the order they were created.

6. Account Profile. Here you edit or update your profile settings, sign out, change the frontend language, and see your last viewed items.

7. Reporting. A graphic report of the account’s activities.

8. Admin Features. Users with admin credentials are able to add, edit, and remove users and organizations, they can also manage communication channels, personalize the helpdesk views, and have access to System features.

9. New Ticket. From here users can create a new ticket from scratch, by typing the information into the system.

10. Search. Here users can search for tickets, users, and organizations. (Use the
    wildcard [*] to search for everything, and quotes for searching phrases).

11. Notifications. Recent notifications organized in order of creation.

User Overviews

CDR Link allows you to create different types of users according to the tasks they have to perform. Each user account has different permissions and access to different features. User accounts can be customized according to your organization’s needs.

CDR Link divides users into three categories, Customers, Agents and Admin.

• Customers are anyone who is submitting tickets to CDR Link. Customers have access to their tickets.
• Agents are anyone who is reviewing, processing, tagging and updating tickets.
• Admins are anyone with unlimited access to the CDR Link platform.

Admin Overview

Admin users have access to all the features in the technology, and they have more rights and permissions than any other type of user. They are the only ones who manage users and organizations, hosting, archiving, and related security issues.

If you have admin status you will see a gear icon in the lower left corner of your dashboard view, near your avatar. Click on the gear icon to access the Admin features.

The admin features are divided into four categories:

• Manage
• Channels
• Settings
• System

1. Manage:

This section provides access to all the information in the databases, reports, and tasks performed within the platform. It is divided into 15 subcategories:

• Users
• Groups
• Roles
• Organizations
• Overviews
• Text Modules
• Macros
• Tags
• Calendars
• SLAs
• Trigger
• Scheduler
• Report Profiles
• Time Accounting
• Knowledge Base

Users

Users are anyone who is submitting tickets or working within the CDR Link platform. Within this section, Admins can add, edit, search, and deactivate users from the system.

Note: If you wish to remove a user it has to be done in the back end.

The user management view is divided into 5 different sections:

1. Search. Allows searches of users by name, email, organization, or role.
2. Role. Allows you to navigate the user’s database by role. If nothing has been selected, all users are displayed. If you select one (or two) user roles, only the users that are assigned to this role are displayed.

3. Import. This feature allows users to update and create many users at the same time via an uploaded CSV file. To import a list of users from an external file click on the top right “Import” button. A pop-up window will come up with the options available to import the file. It will also allow you to select the file from your computer or paste the CSV data.

Once you’re done click on Import and the files will be transferred to the user’s database.

Note: To reduce the error rate of unwanted mass changes, a test import is carried out first and a summary appears at the end. If you agree with the summary, the CSV import can be executed.

4. New User. To add a new user to the database click on the New User button located on the top right side of the Users screen. A pop-up window will appear where you can type the user’s information. This window is divided into two sections, the top part is for the user’s information and password (which they can change after).

The bottom part of this section is to assign the User, rights and roles in the platform. User roles and rights can be modified by Admins if necessary.

5. Registered users overview. All users registered in the system.

Groups

Use groups to assign tickets by category to different teams in your organization. Each ticket belongs to only one group, and agents can have different permissions in different groups.

If you want to create a new group go to the “New Group” button.

A pop-up window will show up where you’ll be asked to provide the following information: (All fields may not be relevant to your project.)

• Name: Name for the group.
• Assignment timeout: If a ticket is assigned to an agent and the agent does not work on the ticket for a certain amount of time the ticket will turn back into unassigned.
• Follow up possible: What happens when a user replies to a closed ticket
  • Yes: reopen the ticket.
  • Do not reopen ticket but create new ticket: Ticket stays closed and CDR Link creates a new one.
• Assign follow ups: If a closed ticket that reopens due to a customer’s reply, does it stay assigned to the same agent?:
  • Yes: the ticket will remain to the last agent who owned it.
  • No: CDR Link will unassign the ticket.
• Email: Which email address will be used as the sending address of a specific group when agents reply to tickets.
  • Configure email addresses in Channels → Email → Accounts.
• Signature: Choose which signature to use when replying to tickets in this group.
• Note: Internal message(s) that can only be read by people with access to the management area.
• Active: This is the status of the group. In CDR Link, groups can not be deleted, only enabled or disabled.

Roles

Roles are assigned to users in order to determine the tasks they will be performing in the system. User Roles also align with certain permissions. It is possible for a user to play different roles in different groups.

There are various User Roles available in Waterbear. These User Roles establish different permissions and access. Roles are all customizable within the Waterbear ecosystem.

Examples:

• Partner Submitter: Users can create content and view their own tickets, but not edit them.
• Analyst: Users can edit, assign, and otherwise manage all tickets in the CDR Link system.
• Senior Core Admin: Users have administrative permissions and can add or remove users, and manage system settings.

Organizations

Use organizations to group customers, that way you will be able to have an overview of each customer’s tickets as well as the entire Organization. It also allows customers from the same organization to see and edit colleagues’ tickets.

Overviews

Use organizations to group customers, that way you will be able to have an overview of each customer’s tickets as well as the entire Organization. It also allows customers from the same organization to see and edit colleagues’ tickets.

Text modules

This feature allows you to create templates to save time while writing a response.

Macros

Macros allows you to automate sequences of steps on common tasks to save you time.

Tags

Create tags to organize and categorize tickets.

Calendars

In CDR Link the calendar is used to keep track of incoming tickets and the time they spend on the platform.

Trigger

This is an automatic response from the platform that lets the user know their request has been sent and received, every time he or she creates a new ticket. This feature of CDR Link offers a variety of customization options. For example, adding the word “urgent” to high priority tickets.

Scheduler

Allows users to create automated actions that the system will perform according to a schedule.

Report profiles

Use this feature to filter tickets and analyze them in small numbers.

Time accounting

Use this to track the time invested in a project.

Knowledge Base

Allows users to add FAQs, libraries, How-tos and internal SOPs.

2. Channels

The current Waterbear system uses the Webform channel as the only form of ticket submission. Upon request, you can customize your Waterbear system to include other channels for submissions of disinformation.

3. Settings

Access to security features, customization of the system, servers, networks, etc.

4. System

This section gives you access to the core functionality of CDR Link. From here you can see the integrations the platform features, enable or disable them, setup APIs, add new attributes to users, tickets, groups and organizations, make translations, perform maintenance of the system, monitor performance and fail reports, manage packages and monitor users’ sessions.

Note: Changes to this section could alter the performance of your CDR Link instance and should only be made by people with the required technical skills.

Tickets

What is a ticket?

Tickets are submissions of disinformation, created by partners using a Webform. They show on CDR Link in the order of creation with a sequential number assigned by the system. There are various features attached to the ticket view. They are as follows:

1. Partner Avatar If you place your mouse over the partner avatar you will be able to see detailed information of the ticket submitter, which can be customized according to your preferences. In the image below you can see the submitter Name, Organization, and Email.

If you click on the avatar you will be able to see all the tickets created by that user, the status of the tickets and the frequency in which this user is making submissions.

2. Ticket Title
3. Ticket Number
4. Time Stamp (Date Ticket was Created)
5. Ticket Information including, owner or who it’s assigned to, status, sensitivity and severity level and tags. *Some of these are customizable depending on your project’s needs.
6. Description and links from submission
7. Attachments submitted
8. Update saves any ticket changes

Dashboard Views of Tickets:

1. Notifications: To see new tickets, click on the notification icon, and a drop down list will show them listed by time of creation.
2. Recently Viewed: Tickets you’ve recently viewed or worked on appear in this list. If you hover over a ticket in this section you will see an “x” icon that allows you to remove tickets from the list.

Ticket Settings

There is metadata attached to each ticket that makes it unique and easy to manage.

• A ticket can be flagged as low or high priority
• Assigned to an agent
• It can be scheduled to look at later
• It can be open or closed
• It can be tagged
• It can be organized by groups

Browse for Tickets

To find tickets go to the “Overviews” section. Here you can see tickets filtered into to display six different categories:

• My assigned tickets. Tickets that have been assigned to you by other users or by yourself.
• Needs Follow Up. Tickets that need additional information, usually from the submitter. On the Webform users have the option to tag tickets as “Needs Follow Up” if the submission requires further inquiries.
• Ready for Review. All new tickets in the system which are ready to begin the review process.
• All Sensitive Tickets. Tickets that have been reviewed and tagged as sensitive. These tickets may need scrubbing of PII or are sensitive in content or nature.
• On Hold. Tickets that have been reviewed but they need to be reviewed by someone else before being rejected or sent to the QA tool.

Note: Overviews can be customized within Settings.

Search for Tickets

You can search for Tickets using the “Search” bar, the results will show right underneath listed by order of creation.

Reviewing Tickets

To Begin:

There are many ways you can open tickets to review them.

• You can select them from the activity stream on the right of the screen.
• You can open tickets from the notification menu at the top left
• Click on your avatar and use the recently viewed tickets
• Use the search bar at the top left

To open a ticket just click on it and you will see the ticket contents in the middle of the screen.

Modifying the Title

To modify the Title or Description of a ticket, click on it and the edit mode will be enabled. Type the description you want and click “update.”

Adding Comments & Attachments

To add comments and attachments, scroll down to the foot of the ticket and you will see a comment bar with your avatar next to it. Click anywhere in the white area of the rectangle to add comments. Click on the blue letters to add attachments.

Classify, Prioritize, and Assign

On the right side of the screen you will find a series of tools designed to help you classify, prioritize and assign tickets.

If you can’t see it, click on the chat icon on the right.

Note: Everything in this section is customizable.

• Owner. This drop-down menu will show you all the users that have access to that ticket. If you select a name from this list the ticket will be assigned to that user and it will show on the user’s notifications and assigned tickets.

• State. It defines where in the process the ticket is. This is customizable.
  • Archived. These are tickets that are missing information or do not meet the requirements for an investigation. These tickets may be considered spam.
  • Complete. These are tickets that have been reviewed and are ready to move to the QA Tool.
  • On Hold. Tickets that have been reviewed but need a second look, more information or a second pair of eyes.
  • Active. All new tickets in the system. Some ”active” tickets may be in the review process, but not complete or they have not yet been opened.
• Severity. This tag determines the priority of the ticket and helps analysts determine the order in which tickets should be reviewed. There are three different levels to choose from.
  1. Low. These tickets are the ones with the lowest impact and should be reviewed at the last.
  2. Normal. Normal tickets are impactful but do not require urgent attention.
  3. High. These tickets are the ones that require immediate attention and should be reviewed with highest priority, or first.
• Sensitive. If a ticket is marked as “Sensitive” It means it contains PII, or is sensitive in content or imagery. These tickets should be reviewed with special care to prevent information leaks.
• Select all the tags needed to identify, categorize, and classify this ticket and it’s contents. These will be especially useful during the investigation and analysis phase.
• Tags. There is space to add additional tags which are outside of the designated taxonomy. Type what you want and tap ‘return.’ You can add as many extra tags as you want.

Sending a Ticket to the QA Tool

Once the review and tagging process is complete, the ticket is ready to be sent to the QA Tool. In the QA Tool analysts will review it one more time to remove PII (Personal Identifiable Information), add or remove tags, and update the ticket title.

To send a ticket to the QA Tool:

1. Select Complete in the State section.
2. Click on Update at the bottom of the ticket.

The ticket will automatically be sent to the QA Tool within 5 minutes and it will disappear from the CDR Link list of tickets.