Welcome to Laurel. Our implementation is designed to integrate Laurel safely within your environment. This article describes the resources our team needs to ensure Laurel operates as you expect. A checklist for your team to review has been included at the end of this article.
Please provide the following for our implementation work to begin:
An end user account, provisioned by your SSO provider, so that Laurel can test our platform as an end user within your environment
A virtual workspace that mimics the space a timekeeper works in at your firm
A service server we can install a Boomi atom within (our ETL tool) that runs 24/7
Creating an end-user account
Laurel requires an end-user account in order to test our tracking and time entry release process. To complete this, please:
Create an end user identity using your SSO provider and primary domain with the title Laurel Tester
Ensure this user has the privileges to release time within your practice management system, including a timekeeper ID, Outlook license, Exchange identity, Zoom or Teams login, and login to any other daily used software by a normal end user.
Note: If your firm prefers, you may recycle an older timekeeper ID. We'll be sure to communicate test time entries that are released that can be deleted
Note: Please do not give the test user access to sensitive production information including document management systems and online storage, such as dropbox or onedrive,
Ensure this user has all the normal privileges a typical end user would have within your environment.
Note: We typically request the ability to install new apps (or sideload) with in the end user VM in order to test new versions of our assistant.
This end-user account will be used to test our SSO integration and will be used to test our capture within your end-user environment.
Providing a virtual workspace
Laurel contains a desktop agent that must be installed locally to test our tracking technology. We also release updates to our tracking agent, which will be tested within your firm's environment before release. To complete this, please:
Provision a virtual environment for our team to access
This is commonly provided to us in the form of a Citrix or Windows Remote Desktop environment that our team can access remotely.
Ensure all programs within this environment best mimic what an end-user at your firm works in.
Please ensure Microsoft Office Suite is installed, with privileges to create emails and documents
Please ensure a browser is installed and the work station can access the internet
If your firm uses Outlook, please make sure all plugins that are available for an end user are installed as well.
If your firm uses any additional applications or tools, please install these as well.
Providing a service server
ℹ️ Note: If you've chosen to integrate Laurel through an API, this step will not be needed. This step is required for firms that use an on-prem database.
Laurel uses Boomi, an on-premise runtime tool, to import clients/matters. To ensure our system stays in sync, we require a service account that has privileges to read your on-premise database and import changes accordingly. to complete this step, please:
Provide a server that can stay running 24/7
Provide a service account that can be saved within our Boomi atom, with specific permissions to access data sources for ingestion
Please refer to the following document to understand how to run the atom as a service account.
Laurel will provide your team with an atom to install.
Please review this document for minimum system requirements.
Install Microsoft SQL server, with read access only
Laurel requires MS SQL server read access to review released time entries and understand your firm's database schema.
JDBC and ODBC SQL Drivers: We also support data ingestion via JDBC and ODBC SQL drivers, allowing for integration with a wide range of SQL databases. Ensure the Boomi runtime user has the necessary read permissions configured in the database.
For SQL access we can access via a username / password combination or using a windows authentication credential, the latter being the more secure and preferred method.
Note: Please keep in mind that this is not our current standard supported platform but the Boomi iPaaS platform supports these database drivers.
Note: Please make sure to provide the Boomi Service "local admin" on the server to avoid any permissions issues.
If your practice management system allows time entry export using an API, please provide a windows service account or API account with permissions to call SOAP APIs over HTTP(s).
Our integration must be configured to use OAuth2 tokens for authentication. Please provide a username/password (NTLM Authentication).
Note: Basic authentication using a username and password is also supported for API access.
Note: We currently do not support Kerberos authentication for SOAP/REST APIs.
Checklist
The following checklist ensures you've completed each step outlined above
Create an end-user account titled Laurel Tester, which has a valid timekeeper ID
Provide Laurel with a remotely accessible end-user environment that mimics a typical workspace for a timekeeper at your firm.
Provide a service-acct server, with privileges to read your on premise database; allows installation of our boomi atom and allows for MS SQL server access to your on-premise database.