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The OpenEngagement DMS Interfaces
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Local and Hosted Solutions
There are three interfaces to the OpenEngagement DMS, a web browser interface, the Go-Between and the Quick Upload. The Go-Between provides an interface to OpenEngagement DMS from CaseWare Working Papers. Quick Upload will generally be used by firms only once, to perform the initial population of the DMS and KMS.
The OpenEngagement DMS may be running with any number of web browser or Working Papers interfaces connected to it at any time. With Local Solutions, firms can explicitly start and stop the DMS. When the OpenEngagement DMS first starts, there are initially no interfaces to it. The OpenEngagement DMS is, nevertheless, running, and may be accessed through a web browser or Working Papers interface at any time. Hosted Solutions behave equivalently: they are running at all times, waiting for users to access them through a web browser, Working Papers or the Quick Upload.
The OpenEngagement DMS supports two web browsers, Internet Explorer (IE) and Mozilla Firefox. Most other web browsers work as well, but some may show some drawing errors.
If you are using a Hosted Solution, firms will be given the URL to access the site through a web browser and configuration settings for the Go-Between and Quick Upload by OpenEngagement.
If you are using a Local Solution, the URL is generally the name of the computer on which the OpenEngagement CMS was installed, followed by /CMS. For example, if you are on the same computer on which the OpenEngagement CMS is installed, you would enter the URL http://localhost/CMS. If the OpenEngagement CMS is installed on another computer than the one you are now using, use the network computer name. For example, if the OpenEngagement CMS is installed on a computer named europa, you would access the OpenEngagement CMS through a web browser by entering http://europa/CMS as the URL. If you are outside the network, and the site is accessible, use the full URL, as you would when accessing OpenEngagement’s demo site, http://www.openengagement.com/demo.
Generally, each firm that uses a Local Solution will have one person install the OpenEngagement CMS, and that person will indicate to all other OpenEngagement CMS users in the firm how they are to access the OpenEngagement CMS, both through a web browser and through Working Papers. They would also likely give each OpenEngagement CMS user their username and initial password, though it is also possible to have the CMS generate random passwords and email these to the new users as their accounts are created.
It is possible to open two or more browsers on the same computer to work with the OpenEngagement CMS if this is convenient. One limitation to this, though, is that all browsers must be logged in as the same user account. If you wish to log in as two different users simultaneously, for example to test the security settings, you may use IE and Firefox at the same time. Firefox is an excellent, free, open-source web browser, which is very easy to download and install. It is also possible to open two or more web browser interfaces on different computers to work with the OpenEngagement DMS.
Regardless of how many web browsers are currently open and using the OpenEngagement DMS, users can also access the OpenEngagement DMS through any number of instances of Working Papers. The Go-Between and Quick Upload are installed in the same manner and behave the same regardless if the firm uses a Local or Hosted Solution.
Generally, within a firm, most users would access the OpenEngagement DMS primarily through Working Papers, using the Go-Between to upload and download client files. Most users will work primarily with the Go-Between, searching for engagements relevant to their work, downloading them, working on them for some time, and uploading them when finished, or uploading several times will still working, in order that their work will be backed up safely by the OpenEngagement DMS. These users will likely use the web interface only occasionally.
Other users, who will have greater permissions within the OpenEngagement CMS, must perform other tasks only possible through the web browser interface, such as creating users accounts, defining the site structure, assigning users roles and so on. They will also be able to use the OpenEngagement CMS, through the web browser, to easily get an overview of the firm's work. They can perform tasks such as seeing how many engagements a given person is working on currently, how may engagements are currently in the preparation stage, or review stage, which people a given engagement is waiting on, and so on.
There are no tasks that can be done only through the Go-Between other than downloading Working Papers Client files, as is discussed in this documentation; otherwise anything that may be done through the Go-Between may also be done through a web browser, though the Go-Between is generally a more convenient interface. It allows the user to perform the most common actions: navigating or searching the DMS to find an the engagement they wish to download, signing-out engagements, downloading editable copies, downloading read-only copies, and uploading with or without signing-in engagements.