Overview

A Guided Offering is a structured, multi-step guided request form in the self-service portal. Portal users navigate through the steps in sequence, then review a summary before submitting (and edit steps via Edit-link).

• Each step references an existing Form, the Form's fields become the input fields for that step. 
• Submission creates a request bundle (which includes associated data cards) in Service Management Tool according to Order Settings, visible as a single case in My cases.

Prerequisites

• Service Management Tool Admin access with permission to manage Self-Service settings.
• Self-service version 26.2.0 or later.
• The Forms you intend to use as steps must already exist in General Forms.
• Access Groups configured if you want to restrict visibility to specific user segments.
• Self-service order settings must be valid. The Guided Offerings list view shows a warning if order settings are missing or invalid.

Creating a Guided Offering

Navigate to Admin Settings → Self-Service tab → Guided Offerings and click New Guided Offering.

Name - Enter the name displayed to portal users. Required in the default language, can be translated to other languages in the Localization-settings.

Keywords (optional) - Add per-language search keywords to improve findability in portal search, beyond the offering name. Example: a Guided Offering named New employee setup might have keywords onboarding, new hire, laptop. Add translations for each language as needed.

Icon - Select an icon for the offering. The same icon set used for Forms is available.

Guided Offering Content - Add one or more steps, by clicking Select Steps... and then using the dialog window to add, remove and arrange the steps (maximum 10). Each step references an existing Form, select the Form from the list. The Form's fields become the input fields for that step. Each step uses the source Form's name by default.

Localization - Localization for Guided Offering Name, Keywords and Step Names. To give a step a different name, enter a custom name. To do it per language; add translations for each supported language (en, fi, de, etc.). The name change applies only within this Guided Offering, the source Form is not renamed.

Step (order) - Defines the sequence users navigate through. Step order can be rearranged by drag & drop, or by using the arrow buttons on the Select Steps dialog.

Set the Guided Offering to Published, by toggling Publish Guided Offering when ready. Unpublished Guided Offerings are not visible in the portal.

Note: A referenced Form does not need to be published as a standalone portal item. Portal users access the Form's fields through the Guided Offering's authorization, not through direct Form access.

Steps and Fields

Each step references an existing General Form. The Form's field definitions are the input fields shown in that step. Steps do not define their own fields.

Tips:

• Keep step names short and action-oriented.
• The confirmation screen groups filled fields by step in defined order, clear step names help users verify input before submitting.
• Note that both Published and Draft forms can be added as guided offering steps. Even if the form is draft, it can be published via guided offering if the guided offering is published.

Adding to Portal Homepage

Guided Offerings are surfaced via the homepage or categorization tree (Category Management → Panels/Panel Groups), the same structure used for Forms.

1. Navigate to Admin Settings → Self-Service → Homepage / Categorization Management.
2. On Homepage, add link pointing to Guided Offering
3. Select the target category (or create a new one).
4. Add a Link item pointing to the Guided Offering. It appears alongside other link items using the Guided Offering's localized name and icon.

Note: Links to unpublished Guided Offerings are automatically filtered out from the portal. The link item stays in the admin tree but is not shown to users until the Guided Offering is published.

Access Management

If Access Groups are not used, a published Guided Offering is visible to all portal users. Enable and assign it to one or more Access Groups to enable and modify its visibility.

When a Guided Offering is assigned to Access Groups:

• Only members of at least one assigned group see it in the categorization tree.
• It is excluded from portal search results for users outside the group.
• Direct-link access is also blocked for users outside the group.

Access Groups and Form Steps

A user's access to a Guided Offering is determined by the Guided Offering's own Access Groups, not by the Access Groups of the individual Forms used as steps. This means:

• A user who has access to a Guided Offering can fill in each step's Form fields, even if that Form is restricted by Access Groups or not published as a standalone portal item.
• Authorization flows from the Guided Offering level down to its Forms. A user who cannot see a Form directly in the portal can still submit it as part of a Guided Offering they have access to.
• This allows administrators to bundle restricted or internal Forms into a single guided workflow without exposing the Forms individually.

To manage access: open Admin Settings → Self-Service → Access Groups, open the relevant group, locate the Guided Offering in the categorization tree, enable access, and save. Also, you need to give access to the offering itself separately on the Guided Offering tab.

Note: The portal uses a permission cache for access checks. Allow a short propagation delay (typically seconds) in high-availability deployments.

Search

Published Guided Offerings are automatically indexed and appear in portal search results alongside Forms. No extra configuration is needed.

• Guided Offering hits are labelled Form in search results, consistent with other structured-request items.
• Access filtering applies at search time, users only see offerings they have access to.
• Indexing triggers automatically on publish or update. No manual re-index is required.
• Drafts (unpublished) are not indexed and do not appear in search results.

Improving findability with keywords: Each Guided Offering supports optional per-language keywords. These are indexed alongside the offering name and help users find the offering with synonyms or related terms. Set keywords in the Guided Offering editor, per language.

Troubleshooting