About Customers

A customer is an end user, either an internal employee or an external individual, who relies on CSM to initiate/fulfill a Service or Product (example: A person reporting a lost password or requesting a new phone).

If configured, a customer can access CSM data and perform self-service activities using the CSM Portal. A customer is assigned to one, and only one, Security Group (so they can access specific functionality and data) can log in using their default Role (so they can have a personal Customer View) and can belong to one or more Workgroups (so they can share CSM items, such as Dashboards).

Each customer has a Customer Profile (called a Customer record) that stores the pertinent details and properties for the customer, including:

• Identification information: Name, department, title, manager, etc.
• Details: Contact information, SLA level, social media information, etc.
  The Customer record Fields are configurable and are stored in the Customer Info Business Object (called Customer - Internal in the Starter Database).

Customer records are created in the CSM Desktop Client and are managed (searched for, edited, deleted, etc.) using the Contact Manager. A Customer record does NOT store account credentials, so any customer requiring a CSM Portal login must also have credentials to store:

• CSM Portal login credentials (username and password).
• Assigned Security Group.
• Account details (password resets, etc.).