Automatically Assign Users to Requests

Requests are assigned to one or more staff members to process. There are two levels of responsibility for a particular request:

• Point of Contact (POC): Each request is assigned a single Point of Contact who is responsible for ensuring that the request is fulfilled. A Point of Contact for a request will close out a request once it's complete and will coordinate the work of any additional departments or staff Helpers. They will receive email notifications for actions on a request as long as they are assigned as the Point of Contact for that request. Please note, the POC will not also be added as Support Staff on the request.
• Support Staff: Support staff helps the Point of Contact process a request. Once someone is added as support staff they will receive email updates on the request and can perform actions such as uploading responsive documents.

A Point of Contact will automatically be assigned to every request that is submitted based on the organization and department defaults. Depending on the default settings, Support Staff may also be automatically assigned. This document covers how to configure the automatic assignment of requests based on organization and department settings. Review the Update a Request's Point of Contact article for more information.

Important Note

• Only Admins can set how requests are automatically assigned.

Set a Default Point of Contact

A "Default Point of Contact" is the person who will be automatically assigned to all requests by default. If the request is assigned to a department that has its own Point of Contact, then the department Point of Contact will be the one assigned.

Instructions

1. Sign in to your account
2. Click Portal Settings on the Admin drop-down menu
   
3. Select the Basic Information tab from the Portal Settings menu on the left-hand side, under the Organization Details heading
   
4. Select a user from the Point of Contact drop-down menu as the portal's Point of Contact
   
   Note: Only Admin users can be the point of contact for the portal.
5. Click the blue, rectangular Save button in the lower-left corner of the Basic Information section
   

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Set a Department Point of Contact

You can help distribute the responsibility and workload of responding to requests across your organization by automatically assigning a Point of Contact based on the assigned department(s). The Point of Contact can be set when the department is created but this is not required.

The Portal Admins Settings has a POC Automation tab under Policies to set your Point of Contact (POC) assignment preference.

• Point of Contact Automation slider is On:

  • When assigning a Department to a request without an assigned department, the Point of Contact for that request will automatically change to the Point of Contact from the newly assigned Department.

  • When the current Point of Contact's Department is removed from a request and more departments are assigned, the Point of Contact role will move to the next Department in the order they are listed.

  • If there are no more Department Points of Contact available, the Point of Contact moves back to the account's Overall Point of Contact.

• Point of Contact automation slider is Off:

  • When assigning a Department to a request without an assigned Department, the Point of Contact for that request will stay the same unless manually changed.

  • When a Department is removed from a request, the Point of Contact for the request will stay the same unless manually changed.

The steps below are for setting the Point of Contact for a department that has already been created. Review the Create and Manage a Department article for more information.

Instructions

1. Sign in to your account
2. Click Departments in the Admin drop-down menu
   
3. Click the Edit button (pencil) next to the department you’d like to set the Point of Contact for
   
4. Select a user from the Point of Contact drop-down menu
   
5. Click the Save button
   

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Automatically Add Support Staff to Requests

You can set users to be added as support staff (by default) to all requests. This setting is useful if you have staff, such as a lawyer, who wants to be kept updated on all requests but are not responsible for fulfilling the request themselves.

Instructions

1. Sign in to your account
2. Click Users on the Admin drop-down menu
   
3. Click the Edit button (pencil) next to the user you want to edit
   
4. Check the box Add as support staff to ALL requests portal-wide
   
5. Click the Save button below the Backups section
   

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Automatically Add Support Staff to Department Requests

You can set any user in a department to automatically be assigned to all requests that are assigned to that department. This is distinct from the Point of Contact who has primary responsibility for a request.

Support Staff can be auto-assigned to a department when the department is created. The steps below are for auto-assigning Support Staff for a department that has already been created. Review the Create and Manage a Department article for more information.

Instructions

1. Sign in to your account
2. Click Departments on the Admin drop-down menu
   
3. Click the Edit button (pencil) next to the department that contains the users you want to automatically add as support staff on department requests
   
4. In the Department Staff section, toggle on the Auto-Assigned as Support option next to the applicable users
   
5. The changes will update automatically

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