Customization
Enterprises demand that the applications they use can be adapted and modified to suit their changing business needs. They don’t want to share these customizations with other organizations, and the result is that they each have their own customized versions of applications. Unfortunately, this creates major challenges.
The first problem is the technical, support, and management challenges of having dozens of customers who need customized versions of the product. The problem is compounded further when the business decides to upgrade to a more recent version. All the changes need to be reapplied, often requiring months of development effort and consulting.
The LiveTime Approach
LiveTime takes a totally different approach. Customizations are actually configurations of the application. Since LiveTime is based on a powerful Configuration Management Database (CMDB) 80% of all changes involve modification of CMDB attributes. These changes can be performed using the simple built-in attribute editor. This includes setting the field type, required attributes and even popup menu selections.
Global Configuration
LiveTime customization is performed via global configuration options.
Beyond CMDB and custom field attributes, LiveTime also has global options to control virtually every aspect of the product, from request queue management and notifications through to technician assignment, workflows and live chat. These often require a simple toggle or popup menu option.
The power of this approach is evident when companies upgrade to the latest revision with a single click. This routinely takes several minutes to perform and all current changes are applied.
Organizational branding of the application is achieved through simple banner uploads by the LiveTime administrator.
For even more in depth customization it is possible to customize every string in the application. LiveTime has externalized all user interface strings into an easily customizable text file. A separate text file exists for each supported language so there is no limit to what can be achieved.
Style Sheets
The next level of customization is available via direct edits to the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) within the system. The CSS provides multiple levels of control for changes to the look and feel of the application. That is, you can choose to customize only the public areas, customer logins or just the technician interface.
Using LiveTime’s “Customization and Style Guide”, it is a very simple process to tailor the product to your needs with complete control of every font, menu and window in the system. All that is required is some knowledge of CSS Level Two.
With complete separation of content from style, LiveTime makes it possible to control the entire layout of the product so that major elements can be moved around if desired. You can even control the background tiles on each window to provide a unique look for your organization.
Content level customization provides the greatest level of control and access to every template within the product. This is for advanced users only, and provides complete access to every page and its content. This level of customization is available to consultants and partners only and requires specialist training from LiveTime personnel.
