Documentation contents
Documentation
Connections
Around 23 services, three ways to connect any of them, and a route for the one that is not on the list.
Where connections live
Connected tools sits in the account menu, behind the avatar at the top right of the product. It lists every service the business can link, what is already linked, and which one still needs attention.
What there is to connect
Around 23 services are listed, covering the things most businesses keep their work in: mailboxes, calendars, accounting and invoicing, document storage, payment systems, e-signature, CRMs, and the common industry systems. The list is long enough that most businesses find everything they already use on it.
Nothing has to be connected at once. Connect what matters first and add the rest later; the desk's list of work does not depend on any connection being present.
The three ways a service connects
| Way | What you do |
|---|---|
| By a button | You are sent to the service, you sign in there, and you agree to let OutcomeDev in. The password is never typed into OutcomeDev. |
| By pasting a key or token | Some services issue a key instead. You paste it in, once, on the connection screen. |
| By the desk signing in as you | For services that only offer a sign-in form, the desk can hold the sign-in details and use the service on your behalf. Access is controlled by the permission panel. |
Details given this way are encrypted, and each business runs in its own database. A data processing agreement is available before anything is connected.
Connecting a mailbox is what lets the desk actually send. Until one is connected, the desk prepares and records everything but nothing leaves. That is the single most useful connection to make first.
Adding a service that is not on the list
Plenty of businesses run on something niche, or on a system the desk has never seen. You can add it yourself from the same screen. Three things are asked for:
- A name. What the service is called.
- A sentence about what it is for. "The portal the council uses for licence renewals" is enough. This tells the desk what kind of work happens there.
- How to get in. The address, and a sign-in or a key, whichever the service offers.
The desk then works that service the same way it works anything else. It can sign in to sites it has not seen before and operate the screens, which is how an unlisted system gets handled without any integration being built.
What the desk may do with a connection
What the desk may do, in the account menu, sets the boundary. It decides which of these the desk does on its own and which it asks about first:
- Reading a system and checking a status.
- Preparing a message.
- Sending a message.
- Submitting a form or a filing.
- Spending money, including paying a renewal fee.
- Signing in to a service as the business.
Anything you have not allowed is put in front of you before it happens. You can change the boundary at any time, and a change takes effect on the next thing the desk attempts.
When a connection will not work
Two things stop a connection being useful, and both are worth knowing before you rely on it:
- A one-time code or a CAPTCHA at sign-in. The desk stops and hands that step to you, every time. This is a deliberate stop, not a fault.
- A service that refuses this kind of access. Some do, at the sign-in screen or in their terms. Nothing can be done about that from inside OutcomeDev.
Both are covered in full on What OutcomeDev cannot do.