Configuring Timeline Zones

A timeline zone is a zone that may be configured on the account or customer information tabs of Control Central. This type of zone contains one or more "lines" where each line shows when significant events have occurred. For example, you can set up a timeline zone that has two lines: one that shows when payments have been received from a customer, and another that shows when bills have been sent to the customer.

Fastpath: For a complete description of the numerous features available on a timeline zone, refer to Timeline Zone.

Configuration is required to enable a timeline zone. A timeline zone is made up of one or more algorithms where each algorithm returns “events” for a certain type of record (payment or bill for example). The product delivers several algorithm types for the timeline zone to include “events” for many different transactions in the product. Each algorithm type uses the Account or Person in context to retrieve the related information.

Refer to Configuring Timeline Zones in the framework portion of the administration guide for information about the type of detail each event may return. The base provided algorithm types include many parameters to allow the implementation to configure much of this information as desired.

Many of the algorithms support supplying a BPA script to launch when a user clicks on an event on a timeline. Be sure to review each algorithm type to see what types of events support a BPA script. For each event, determine if your business practice warrants the development of a BPA script.

After configuring the algorithms per your business needs, the following additional steps are needed:

Set up a zone that references these algorithms. The zone will reference the F1-TIMELINE zone type.
Link the zone to the appropriate portal(s) (e.g., Control Central - Account Information or Control Central - Customer Information).
Update your users' portal preferences and security rights so they can see the zone in the desired location on the portal(s).

You can set up many timeline zones. For example,

You might want different zones to appear on a portal depending on the type of user. For example, you might want one timeline for billing clerks, and a different one for customer service representatives.
For aesthetic reasons, you might want multiple simple timeline zones to appear on a given portal rather than one complex timeline zone.
You might want to set up context specific timeline zones. For example, you might want to have one timeline zone that is premise-oriented and another that is person-oriented.