The External Users subtable holds information on non-employees who may or may not be users of the system. Each External User record includes fields that associate the user with a company, contracts, events, and other activities.

Use Case

External users can be created manually by guests and members of the Base ServiceDesk, Contract Manager, Customer Manager, Guest, Marketing, Project Manager, Sales, Supplier, Business Admin, Admin Import, and Admin groups. They can also be created as the result of a conversion from a Lead or Contract record, as part of an import from another database. They can also be created via self-registration, such as with the supplier onboarding module.

If a new External User record is created (either directly or from a contract or contract party) without a login value, the system runs a rule that:

• Sets the user's login value to their email address
• Sets a default, unique password
• Blanks out the default team. This allows the user to be recognized if they respond to an email from the system without actually giving them the ability to login to the system

This rule can be modified if you want such users to belong to a specific team so they can access the system through an end-user portal.

Self-registration

Self-registration is available and allows users to create their own logins using the limited-access "register" account. By default, records that are created with the "register" login are added to the Customer Group and the Customer Team. If the self-registration was performed as part of supplier onboarding, they are added to the Self-Registered Supplier Group and Supplier Team instead.

To create a link to permit general self-registration, substitute the items in <brackets> below with the URL of your system, your KB Name, and the Exit URL you want to take users to. Make sure to remove the brackets after adding your information.

To create a link to allow suppliers to self-register, an additional parameter must be added to the above link.

This link allows the user to enter their contact information, and then logs them out. Users are not able to choose from a list of companies, but instead, type in their company name manually. For more information on how this hyperlink is constructed, see Hyperlink Syntax and Examples.

It is strongly recommended that these links be encrypted to protect the login and password details. See Hotlinks for more information.

When the user saves their record, an email is sent to the 1st Level Support Team informing them that contact has self-registered. The email also asks them to validate the user's access, as well as link them to the appropriate company in the system. This email template can be modified, as well as sent to anyone in your organization who might be responsible for vetting new users.

Automation

In the standard system demo, the External Users table contains eight active rules. These rules are accessed by expanding the External Users table in the left pane, selecting Setup External Users, and then selecting the Rules tab:

• Create: Delete spam bot records: This rule identifies and deletes records created by automated bots.
• Create: Contract Source Actions (web, API): This rule uses a saved search to find records in which the Source Contract ID field is not empty and runs a Linked record action to set  Party Main Contact ID as Contact Id in Contract table through an update action. It also runs an If-then else action to set Group and Primary Team for suppliers.
• Create: Set External User Info if Login is Empty (email, web, API): This rule uses a saved search to find records in which Login is empty and runs an If-then-else action to set Login, Password, Group and Team for the supplier.
• Edit: Sent Login changed to yes last modification. Send an email to contact with their login info: This rule uses a saved search to find records in Sent Login changed to Yes in the last modification and then runs an Email action to send user guide and login information to the supplier.
• Edit: Contract Source Actions (web, API): This rule uses a saved search to find records in which Source Contract Id changed in last modification and does not equal to null and then uses a linked record action to update Contact Id in Party Main Contact Id field in Contracts table.
• Create: Handle self-registered user (created by register): This rule uses a saved search to find records in which Creator Login equals register. If the 'Trigger Supplier Profile Creation' flag is set to 'Yes', it creates a new Supplier Profile. Otherwise, it runs an Email action to send a notification to 1st Level Support Team regarding account information verification.
• Edit: Sourcing Event Source actions (web, api): This rule uses a saved search to find records in which Latest Sourcing Event ID is not null and adds the user to the Supplier group and generates a Supplier Response record. It then appends the Latest Sourcing Event ID to a list of Invited to Sourcing Event IDs and blanks out the Latest Sourcing Event ID.
• Create: Sourcing Event Creation Actions (web/API): This rule uses a saved search to find records where Source Sourcing Event ID is not null and adds the user to the Supplier group and team, and also appends the user to the invitation list in the Sourcing Event.

Ownership

External User records are owned by the user with a login that matches the Login field of the record.