Built using the Joomla Content Management System, the info@hand Customer Portal provides a customer self-service portal for your info@hand-enabled business. The Customer Portal is included free with info@hand.

With the info@hand Customer Portal installed, your business moves to the next level - as your customers are now able to collaborate directly with you. With 24/7 self-service customer access to sales and service, your customer support load is reduced, expenses are reduced, yet your customers are happier than ever.

The info@hand Customer Portal enables customers of businesses that have implemented the info@hand Business Portal to collaborate with their supplier on a wide range of topics. Customers using the Customer Portal may perform many tasks. Some of these tasks require that the user be logged in, using username/password credentials you provide to them.

A customer can perform these functions without login information:

• Request a login to the Customer Portal, or request other sales information
• Lookup contact information for the business
  
• Link to the business’s public web site
• Register to use the info@hand eStore, included with the Customer Portal (see more on the eStore here)
  
• Register for Marketing Events, Newsletters and Seminars

A customer must be logged in to the Customer Portal to perform these additional functions:

• Update their own contact information at any time, directly within their supplier’s master records kept by the info@hand Business Portal
• Update their own password for access to the Customer Portal
• Access Invoice and Payment history to check their account balance and status with your business
  
• Access Quotes you prepare for them, and review and comment on them
  
• Access Knowledge Base articles (only those designated for customer exposure) by searching with content tags. Articles may also have file attachments.
  
• File service Cases directly within their supplier’s info@hand Business Portal, and return at any time 24/7 to review updated information
  
• File Software Bugs directly within their supplier’s info@hand Business Portal, and return at any time 24/7 to review updated information
• Collaborate on a Project:
  • The customer can see all the project tasks identified (although some may be hidden from the customer by users of the Business Portal), and the progress % to date
  • The customer can see all Documents linked to the project, and can add new documents themselves
  • The customer can see Notes related to the project (although some may be hidden from the customer by users of the Business Portal) – and may add additional notes themselves – optionally with attachments such as Microsoft Office files
  • The customer can see all Contacts related to the project
• Participate in Customer Forums – a full forum system is included within the customer portal
• Review Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and their answers

The Customer Portal communicates with the core info@hand Business Portal using SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) – a common protocol used to connect web services.

The Customer Portal is built using the Joomla Content Management System (currently version 1.5.3 – but the components have been made compatible with other Joomla releases using an abstraction layer over the Joomla API), and it may be integrated within an existing Joomla-based website.

See the Customer Portal User Guide here, and Installation Guide here, or try out the portal using the online demo here (username and password are both demo). This links to the database of our regular demo site, so you can check what is happening in the CRM by accessing the regular public demo site here (admin/admin to login).