Who this is for. Everyone, before their first session. Access. Included for everyone at an organization whose subscription covers SmartResearch, whatever their role. No permission needs to be assigned. See Roles and Access Reference.
The SmartResearch workspace is a single screen: a header that fixes what the answers are drawn from, a sidebar that holds your conversations and Skills, and a question area in the middle. Almost everything you do happens in the middle; almost every scoping mistake comes from the header.
This article names each control and says what it affects, so that when an answer looks unexpected you can tell in a few seconds whether the cause is the question or the workspace around it.
Figure 1. The workspace before a question is asked.
Open SmartResearch
In the navigation rail, select SmartResearch.
Select SmartResearch.
The workspace opens on an empty conversation. Nothing is carried over from your last session except your saved preferences and your chat history.
Where the tenant has no instance, the workspace opens on No SmartResearch instance is enabled instead, with the note that SmartResearch needs an instance to reach your ERP systems and mailboxes. Select Set up an instance to go and create or enable one, then return. Until then no question can be asked.
Figure 2. The workspace before an instance is enabled.
The narrow rail on the far left is platform navigation rather than part of SmartResearch. The control at its top switches workcenter and is covered in the Administration and Platform Guide.
Header
The header decides what the answers are drawn from. It is worth a glance before every session, and always before you quote a figure to someone else.
Table 1. Header controls
Control |
What it does |
|---|---|
Tenant name |
Names the tenant in scope, at the top right. |
Notifications |
Opens the notification panel, between the tenant name and the account avatar. The panel has a Downloads tab with its own search box and All and Unread filters, and reads No downloads yet until something arrives. |
Account avatar |
Opens the account menu: your name and email, the role you are acting as, the company, the tenant ID, Change password and Logout. The role is a control rather than a label, and selecting it opens the roles held on this tenant. The tenant ID has a copy control beside it, which is the quickest way to quote it in a support ticket. |
SmartFlow Instance |
Selects the agent instance answers are drawn from. Reads none until you choose one. |
Connection sync status |
Reports whether the connections behind the instance are healthy. |
With no instance selected, nothing is in scope and questions cannot be answered. If a tenant runs several instances, the one selected decides the system of record and the mailbox, so the same question asked against two instances can legitimately return two different totals.
Sidebar
The sidebar holds everything that persists between questions: your conversation history and the Skills catalog. Collapse it to icons when you want the full width for a wide data table.
Table 2. Sidebar controls
Control |
What it does |
|---|---|
Open sidebar / Close sidebar |
Expands the sidebar, or collapses it to icons. |
New Chat |
Starts a conversation with no history. Use it when you change subject. Follow-ups are answered against the conversation so far, so a fresh subject in an old chat can inherit scope you did not intend. |
Chats |
Opens the conversation list. |
Search chats |
Finds an earlier conversation. |
Skills |
Opens the Skills catalog. |
Recent |
Lists recent conversations. Reads No conversations yet until you ask something. |
User Preferences |
Opens your personal defaults. Pinned at the foot of the sidebar. |
Question area
The empty state greets you by your first name, as it appears on your user profile. The wording rotates between several greetings, such as What can I help you with, Jordan? and Where did we leave off, Jordan?. The variation carries no meaning and does not indicate any change in state.
Below the greeting sit the message box, Send message and Upload files, and three starter questions: Current DPO, Top vendors by spend and Overdue AP aging. The starters are a useful first test of a new tenant, because each exercises a different part of the stack.
Your personal defaults (entities, time range, fiscal year, formats and response guidance) are applied to every question from this workspace without being restated. If a total looks smaller than expected, check User Preferences before you doubt the data.