Platform Overview
Support Portal by Altores is a conversational operations platform designed for organizations that require structured,
auditable, and scalable customer communication. It consolidates interactions from multiple channels into a unified
workspace where agents, teams, and AI Modules collaborate to resolve customer inquiries.
Operational objective
This article provides a high-level understanding of the platform's architecture and capabilities. It is intended for
administrators, operations managers, and agents who are beginning to work with Support Portal and need to understand how
its components relate to one another.
Core architecture
Support Portal operates around four primary constructs:
Workspace
The workspace is the top-level organizational container. All configuration, user accounts, conversations, and data
reside within a single workspace. Each workspace is isolated, ensuring that data and access controls do not cross
organizational boundaries.
Inboxes
Inboxes are the connection points between external communication channels and the workspace. Each Inbox represents a
configured integration with a channel such as email, website live chat, WhatsApp, SMS, Facebook, Twitter, Telegram,
Line, or a custom API endpoint. When a customer sends a message through any connected channel, the platform creates a
conversation and routes it to the appropriate queue.
Agents and Teams
Agents are the users who handle conversations. Each agent is assigned a role — Administrator or Agent — that determines
their level of access to platform features and settings. Teams group agents by function or department, enabling
conversations to be routed to an operational group rather than a specific individual.
Conversations
A conversation is the fundamental unit of work in Support Portal. It represents an interaction between a customer and
your organization, regardless of the originating channel. Conversations carry status indicators (Open, Pending, Snoozed,
Resolved), can be assigned to agents or teams, and accumulate a full history of messages and internal notes.
Key capabilities
Omnichannel message handling
Support Portal normalizes messages from all connected channels into a consistent conversation interface. Agents respond
from a single Dashboard regardless of whether the customer initiated contact via email, live chat, or a messaging
platform. Replies are delivered back through the customer's original channel.
Conversation routing and assignment
Conversations can be assigned manually to individual agents or teams, or routed automatically using automation rules.
Automation supports event-based triggers and condition evaluation, enabling routing logic such as language-based team
assignment or keyword-driven escalation.
Labels and classification
Labels provide a tagging system for categorizing conversations by topic, urgency, department, or any operational
dimension. Labels are available as filter criteria in the conversation list, as conditions and actions in automation
rules, and as reporting dimensions.
Canned Responses
Canned Responses are pre-authored reply templates that agents invoke using shortcodes during conversation handling. They
reduce response time for frequently asked questions and ensure consistency in messaging across the team.
Custom Attributes
Custom Attributes extend the data model for conversations and contacts beyond standard fields. Organizations can define
attributes such as subscription tier, account number, or service region, and use them for filtering, reporting, and
automation.
Contacts and segmentation
The Contacts system maintains a record of every individual who has communicated with your organization, along with any
manually imported contact data. Contacts can be filtered by standard and custom attributes, and saved filter
configurations can be stored as segments for repeated use.
Reporting and analytics
Support Portal provides reporting across multiple dimensions — agents, teams, inboxes, labels, and conversations.
Available metrics include first response time, resolution time, resolution count, and CSAT scores. Reports can be
filtered by time period and exported for external analysis.
Help Center
The built-in Help Center enables your organization to publish and manage a customer-facing knowledge base directly from
the Dashboard. Articles can be organized into categories and portals, and referenced during conversations to provide
self-service resources.
Automation
Automation rules allow administrators to define event-driven workflows that execute without manual intervention. Common
automation patterns include assigning conversations based on channel or content, applying labels based on message
keywords, and sending notifications based on conversation status changes.
AI Modules
Support Portal supports AI Module integration for automating portions of the conversation lifecycle. AI Modules can
handle initial greetings, route conversations based on intent, and provide suggested responses before escalating to a
human agent.
Platform navigation
The Dashboard is organized around a persistent sidebar that provides access to:
- Conversations — The primary workspace for viewing and responding to customer interactions.
- Contacts — The contact directory with filtering and segmentation capabilities.
- Reports — Operational analytics and performance metrics.
- Help Center — Knowledge base management.
- Settings — Workspace configuration, agent management, inbox setup, team management, and automation rules.
Getting started
To begin using Support Portal, proceed through the following configuration sequence:
1. Account Setup — Provision your workspace.
2. Personal Profile — Configure your agent identity.
3. General Settings — Set workspace-level parameters.
4. Adding Agents — Provision your operations team.
5. Adding Inboxes — Connect your communication channels.
6. Adding Teams — Organize agents into functional groups.
7. Notifications — Configure notification preferences.
For a hands-on walkthrough of core platform operations, see the Quickstart Guide.