Portal usage calculation

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
    • Summarize
    Summarized using AI
    This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.

    Summary of Portal Usage Calculation

    Portal usage calculation helps track how customers and employees interact with the portal through session counts. The Customer Portal Usage dashboard provides insights into portal visits, accessible via All > Customer Service > Administration > Portal Usage. It's important to note that bot session usage is excluded from this tracking, which focuses solely on customer service portals based on user roles.

    Show full answer Show less

    Key Features

    • User roles tracked include external roles (e.g., snesmuser, sncustomerservice.requester) and internal roles (e.g., sncustomerservice.selfcontributor).
    • Session types include guest sessions (unauthenticated users), bot sessions (from bots and crawlers), and external sessions (authenticated external users).
    • Sessions are logged based on activity, where a session times out after 30 minutes of inactivity (modifiable via system property).
    • Usage metrics are calculated per session, per day, and per portal, with each login from different browsers or devices counting as separate visits.

    Key Outcomes

    Understanding portal usage enables organizations to analyze user engagement and optimize the customer service experience. By monitoring session counts and user activity, businesses can gain valuable insights into how their portals are utilized, which can inform improvements and adjustments in service delivery.

    Portal usage enables you to track how your customers and employees are using the portal. The Customer Portal Usage dashboard provides information about portal visits resulting in session counts.

    To view the Customer Portal Usage dashboard, navigate to All > Customer Service > Administration > Portal Usage.
    Note:
    You can ignore the bot session usage that is captured as part of this dashboard.
    Note:
    This definition tracks usage for customer service portals based on the user roles and ignores usage for non CSM portals or roles. Sessions are tracked for the following roles:
    • External roles: sn_esm_user, sn_customerservice.requester, sn_communities.community_user
    • Internal roles: sn_customerservice.self_contributor
    A user session is a period of activity on the Customer or Consumer Service Portal by any of the following session types:
    • Guest session: Session where the user isn't logged in
    • Bot session: Separate count of sessions generated due to bots and crawlers
    • External session: Session where the user is an external user, typically a customer, or consumer who is logged in
    The aggregate session count is based on the following calculations:The infographic displays the calculation for aggregate session count by subtracting guest sessions and bot sessions, and then adding external sessions..

    A user session times out after a specific period of inactivity.

    User access to the self-service portals is tracked as follows: per session, per day, and per portal. If the same user logs in from multiple browsers or devices, each login is counted as a separate visit. Each first call of a portal page starts a session and, the usage metrics are calculated for the 24 hours window.

    The default session timeout is 30 minutes. This setting can be adjusted using a system property. For more information about modifying the session timeout setting, see Manage user sessions.

    Site visit calculation examples

    A user logs in, logs out, and then logs in again.
    Table 1. Example of a site visit calculation for a user who logs in, logs out, and then logs in again
    Step User activity Billable count incremented
    1 User visits the portal as an anonymous or guest user Yes
    2 User logs in No
    3 User logs out No
    4 User logs in immediately after logging out Yes
    A user logs in and continues the session past midnight:
    Table 2. Example of a site visit calculation for a user who logs in and continues the session past midnight
    Step User activity Billable count incremented
    1 User visits the portal as an anonymous or guest user Yes
    2 User logs in No
    3 User session continues past midnight Yes
    4 User logs out No