Adding New Users

As a Borealis Superuser, it is your responsibility to manage the users for your organization, so you’ll probably need to add new users in the system from time to time.

If you haven’t done this before, don’t worry! It’s a simple task, but there are a few things to keep in mind... for example, the type of access an individual needs, the permissions they should have, and the authentication protocols implemented by your organization.

Let’s look at everything you need to know about adding new users in Borealis.

Managing access rights with Custom User Profiles

If you manage user access for a large or ever-changing team, you’ll appreciate custom user profiles, which were introduced earlier this year. This helpful feature allows you to define a set of permissions once and then assign them to your users in one step. Custom user profiles take a lot of the guesswork out of assigning access rights to help you create new users quickly and easily.

Before creating a new user

Make sure you have the information that is required to create a new user (this generally includes first name, last name, and email address). You’ll need to create a username for the person and a password, which they can change when they log in to their account. Be sure you know which project(s) the user can access and which profiles or permissions to assign.
Determine whether the person needs full access to work in Borealis (in which case they’ll be a “regular user”) or if they simply need to enter communications without accessing the system (as a “read-only” user).
Make sure that users who will work in the system have been trained to use Borealis.
And finally, check to confirm that your organization still has user licenses available. (If not, contact your Account Manager for more information about additional licenses.)

Creating a new user

Please note that if you need to create multiple users at once, we have an import template you can use to add them quickly as a batch.

If you just need to add one or two at a time, here’s what you need to do:

From the main menu, click on the “Users” icon and select Users. Next, click on the green “+ Create” button to open the user creation window. From here, there are a few different considerations, depending on the type of user you need to create and the protocols used by your organization.

User type

A regular user is anyone who will work in Borealis and needs to have access to some (or all) features in the system. Regular users can be internal or external to your organization. (If a user’s email domain differs from the company’s they are considered an external user. These people may be consultants, staff members with different email domains, or anyone who is not part of the company.)
A read-only user won’t actively work in Borealis, they only need to enter communications in the system. Please note that a read-only user can’t be changed to a regular user later; should the need arise, you will need to create a new profile for the user.

The user creation process is the same for regular users and read-only users. To create a read-only user you simply need to check the box that says, “Only allowed for email Bcc.”

Read-Only (BCC) users

Since your read-only users won’t be able to access Borealis, you’ll need to provide them with an email address for each Engagement Plan they’ll be working with.

Each Engagement Plan has its own unique email address. When users send (or forward) an email to this address, Borealis saves the message as a communication linked to that Engagement Plan.

To find the email address, simply open the relevant Engagement Plan, click on the “Share” icon in the top-right corner, then select “Copy email alias” from the menu. Provide the address to your new user, and they’ll be able to enter communications in the system by simply sending or forwarding by email.

Special Cases

There are a few additional considerations you’ll need to keep in mind if your organization uses authentication protocols or the Corporate View add-on:

Be sure to check our Help Center if you’d like more information about how to Create and Edit Users and Deactivate a User.

Tip of the Month

To make sure that potential issues are managed quickly and proactively, it’s a good practice to designate someone (or more than one person) to manage mail handler errors. Here’s how:

From the main menu, click on Configuration then select General parameters > Email > Mail handler notifications managers. Select the person who will be responsible from the list (you can select multiple people by holding CTRL), and then click Save.

If any mail handler errors occur, the people you have designated will receive a copy of the error notification by email.

You can also activate an option in the General Parameters section to notify Superusers in case of mail handler errors.

Announcements

Special Webinar: New Developments in the Land Management Module

If you work in land, ROW, community or indigenous relations, or permitting, we hope you’ll join us for a special webinar on November 2nd at 11 am (EDT). We’ll discuss best practices in stakeholder engagement for linear asset projects, and give you an advanced look at the new tools and features we're developing. The presentation will be hosted in partnership with Trans Mountain and their consultant, Beniva. It will focus primarily on demonstrating how the coming improvements to our Land Management module can help organizations accelerate the project preparation phase and minimize business disruptions. Register now!

Upcoming Training Webinars

If anyone on your team could benefit from some extra training, please invite them to register for one of our upcoming webinars Sessions are offered in English, French and Spanish, and in a variety of different time slots to meet the needs of our global audience.