What is the difference between Portals and the Workbench?

Question

I have seen the terms Workbench and Portal used in Thentia Cloud. What's the difference, and what does each one do?

Answer

Thentia Cloud consists of two distinct parts: the Portals and the Workbench.

The Portals are the websites that members of the public use to access licensing and related services. There are separate Portals dedicated to individual, business, and education licensing, where applicants and licensees can apply for licenses and manage their existing licenses (e.g. renew a license, update personal information. etc.). There are also Portals designed for non-licensees to access useful services, such as looking up the licensing and disciplinary status of an individual or business, or submitting a complaint about a licensee. Finally, there is also a Portal where regulatory inspectors can manage their inspections.

The Workbench is the administrative backend where regulatory agency administrators and staff (and, in some cases, the board) work. Administrators use the Workbench to configure the way Thentia Cloud works, including the Portals and the workflows that they contain (e.g. application, renewal, etc.). Agency staff use the Workbench to perform tasks related to licensure, such as processing applications, investigating complaints, processing fee payments, and more.

While the Workbench and Portals work together, they are separate systems with separate user accounts: a Portal user can't use their account to log in to the Workbench, and vice-versa.