Question: I know we can use Roles to do things in the portal, but I don't know how to set them up, or why I even should. Can you help? And what if I want to create separate start pages for different portal roles and some employees are part of more than one role?

Answer:  Role precedence is the BEST!  Here is how you set it up:

Role precedence allows you to assign different "portal parts" to different roles, and ensures that an employee in more-than-one Role is assigned to the proper portal parts. (Say THAT 10x fast!!)

Examples of Portal Parts than can be set by Role include : Start Page, Layouts (side bar, header, footer), and Banners.

For example, if you wanted to create different Banners for different groups, you have the ability to assign those Banners based upon the Roles. But... some individuals may be assigned to more than one Role, and this is where a conflict may arise.

For Example…

You have your All-Staff Banner and the role of Employee has been assigned that Banner when they log in. 

Bob Smith, a member of the Executive team, has asked that a special Banner be created just for Leadership, which includes a few hyperlinks, not on the All-Staff banner. Cool!

• You create a new Role called "Executive Team" and add all of the members of your Executive Team, including Bob Smith.
• You create the new Banner and upload it to the Portal.

Here's the problem : You made Bob member of the newly created Executive Team Role. Bob is ALSO in the Employee Role. You can't remove either one! How does the Portal know which Banner to give Bob?

This is where Role Precedence comes in.

Simply can make the Executive Team Role a higher precedence than the Employee Role. Do do this, you assign the Executive Team Role a LOWER number then the Employee Role.   Think of it like the rankings of a footrace... #1 comes in before #2 or #3. (Lower number is HIGHER precedence)

Bob, and all users in the Executive Team Role will now see a new Banner!

***Also, check out this training video on roles, and this video on Role Planning!