Technology Services Answers Knowledgebase

Technology Services Answers - (External/Public)

Technology Services Answers - (Internal)

KB Admin Console

To request activation of an article:

• Complete edits to article in the "Editing Document" page in KB Admin according to the Article Content Standards
• Scroll to the bottom of the "Editing Document" page:
  • In the "Status" section select In Review (awaiting activation)
  • Expand Show additional fields and describe changes in "Change Summary" section
• Click Submit

For help with the following visit Tech Service Answers Request. Requests are typically handled within 5 business days:

• Access requests (Viewing permissions and role requests)
• KB Incidents/something is broken/technical issues/specific problems
• APIs and other connectors
• Stats access / data / reporting requests
• Functionality / branding and layout changes / enhancement requests
• Request for review or help for existing or new articles
• General inquiries

For help with the following, submit request via the KB Admin at the bottom of any article. Visit ⁠KnowledgeBase, Submitting Feedback and Suggestions for more information:

• Article activation requests
• Article feedback comments
• Article keyword suggestions

The KnowledgeBase (KB) Team is responsible for supporting Answers for Technology Services. 

The KB Team is composed of 2 groups that provide different kinds of support:

• The Admin Team (Tech Services Admin & Business Apps - Admin Support)
• Knowledge Management Team (Tech Services Help Desk - Content Support)

The KB team works closely with Tech Services Leadership/Management to set policies and processes surrounding audiences for articles.

Tool, not a provided Service

The Tech Service instance of Answers is not a service offering in the Service Catalog to be provided to Illinois campus units, but is instead a tool leveraged by Tech Services for knowledge management. Because of this, the KB team supports only the Tech Services instance, yet still provides information to Illinois campus units about the Answers resources and provide communications about Answers that would impact any instance of Answers.

If your instance of Answers is experiencing a degradation or issue, check Status at Illinois and visit Tech Service Answers Request to submit a request.

There is no limit to the number of users or roles for Answers, however our policy is to limit the ability to publish to just the KnowledgeBase (KB) Team. The following is a list of audiences that can have access to the Technology Services Answers. Ownership / Resource accounts are available to manage multiple articles, but limited to Tech Services employees only.

Users:

• Tech Services Employees
  • Editor access during on-boarding
  • Internal and External article viewing permissions
• IT Pros/Staff/Faculty external to Tech Services
  • Internal article visibility to specific articles to assist with job duties
  • External article visibility
• Students
  • Student Workers
    • Tech Services
      • No Editor Access, unless through an exception approved by FTE Supervisor
      • Internal article viewing visibility for Tech Services owned articles to assist with job duties (or all internal documents)
    • External to Tech Services
      • Internal article viewing permissions to see Tech Services owned articles specific articles to assist with job duties
      • Internal article viewing permissions to see their Campus Unit's articles within the Tech Services Answers
  • General Student Population
    • External article visibility

Roles:

• Admin/Publisher
  • Only for Tech Services KB Team, Supporting Answers
    • Authorized to publish articles without being initially reviewed by Knowledge Management Team
      • All articles are eventually reviewed by Knowledge Management Team
    • Access to all articles
    • Editor / Viewer permissions
    • Access to Stats in KB Admin
• Editor
  • Owners of articles, Training for Editors in development
  • Tech Services Employees
    • Default for new hires; Viewer permissions
    • Editing permissions to create and edit an article
    • Must request access to Internal articles
  • External to Tech Services (Faculty, Staff, and limited Students)
    • Limiting edit permissions per article to either a group or individual
    • No publishing permissions
• Viewer (Internal Articles)
  • Student workers
    • No Publish permissions
    • No Edit permissions (KM Team: There may be exceptions)
  • Faculty/Staff/IT Pros external to Tech Services
    • No Publish permissions
    • No Edit permissions (KM Team: There may be exceptions)
• Ownership / Resource Accounts
  • A way for a group to own/manage multiple articles
  • No permissions because you cannot sign into Answers with these accounts, must be an authenticated Shibboleth personal account.
  • Used for email notifications

How To Get Access

• Individuals or establishing an instance of Answers for your Campus Unit 
  • Visit Tech Services Answers Request
    • Student Workers
      • Requests for Viewer or Editor roles for Student Workers must come from a Full Time employee.
      • Include NetID of student(s) in request.