Tag Archives: Notifications

Lightly Used Features – 1 of 3 – Notification Email History

November 2, 2011 by Arlene 0 Comments


In this three part series on Lightly Used Features, we will take a peek at some capabilities that are sometimes overlooked in Maintenance Connection. Or, as MC Support would say, features that elicit the “Oh – I didn’t know we could do that” response! This week’s blog will cover the ability to view email notification history on a work order. In the next two topics in the series, we will cover how to connect a User Defined Field (UDF) to a custom lookup and how to create pre-defined “comments” to add to the labor report or task completion comments.

Notification Email History

Customers use the Rules Manager to set up automated notifications for a variety of circumstances. Notifications are triggered based on the occurrence of an “event”, such as a new work order request, work order assignment, or work order completion. What many customers do not realize, however, is that MC maintains a history of these notifications that can be viewed from the perspective of the work order.

For example, let’s say you have set up a rule to notify the individual initiating the request when work has been completed. To verify what notifications have been sent, you can just open the work order and access the Work Order History Tab. The Work Order Event History will display a record indicating when a notification email was sent:

Clicking on this record brings forward a dialog displaying the email content and recipients:

Since notification emails are dynamically generated behind the scene, it is quite helpful to have this visual verification of the content that was sent.

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Rules Manager – 2 of 3

May 31, 2011 by Arlene 0 Comments


In addition to sending email notifications upon completion of a specified “event,” Notification Rules can be enhanced with two valuable features: Attached Reports and SQL Script Execution.

Attached Reports

To provide recipients with additional information of value, reports can be attached to the email. As an example, let’s create a Notification Rule that lets the originator of a service request know that the work was complete, attaching the Work Order Report to provide additional information about the request:

  • Select Tools->Rules Manager from the Menu Bar.
  • Select the Notification Rules Tab and click the New Button at the bottom of the dialog. The New Auto-Email Rule Dialog will display, prompting you to select an event.
  • Scroll down to the Work Order Events and select “EVENT: Work Order Status Change to COMPLETE”

  • Click the Save Button and you will be returned to the Notifications Rules Tab with your new rule displayed on the list.
  • Click on the new rule to select it, and then click on the Edit Button. The Edit Auto-Email Rule Dialog will display.
  • Click on the Associated Recipients Tab to specify the recipient. Check inside the “Requester” box to indicate that the individual originating the request should receive the notification:

  • Click on the Attachments Tab to specify the report that should be attached to the email.
    • Select the Work Orders (No Grouping) Report.
    • Leave the Set Criteria Using Control to “Event Record”, signifying that the report should include only the completed work order triggering this event.
    • To display the report contents in the body of the email, leave the “Display first Report in Email Body” indicator checked. It should be noted that when this indicator is checked, the report content displays instead of the content defined in the Message Tabs.

  • Click Save when you are finished. The generated email might appear as follows:

 

SQL Script Execution – Advanced Tab

The Advanced Tab of the Rules Manager can also be used to define SQL scripts that execute database commands upon completion of the event. Common examples include the creation of a new work order based on a work order failure, or the automated update of field values upon occurrence of a particular event. For more information about using this feature, contact MC Support.

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Version 5.0 Release – General Enhancements

February 16, 2011 by Arlene 1 Comment


In this last in the series on the Version 5.0 Release, we will highlight a few general enhancements that will be of special benefit to customers. These enhancements include Background Processing for Manual PM/Projection Generation, Extra Password for Delete Confirm and New Recipient Options in the Rules Manager.

Background Processing for Manual PM/Projection Generation

While most customers take advantage of MC’s automated capabilities for the generation of Preventive Maintenance Work Orders, the “manual generation” process is sometimes used to deal with special circumstances or to generate Work Order Projections. This “manual generation” feature has been enhanced to allow for background processing to improve efficiency and eliminate possible “time out” errors when large batches are generated.

A new PM Preference is available to indicate that you wish to generate Manual PM and PM Projection Work Orders in the “background”:

Once the preference for this has been set, requests for generation are put into a queue allowing you to continue to work elsewhere in Maintenance Connection until the process is complete. Once the PMs/Projections have been generated, a brief notification will display in the lower right of your screen.


Extra Password on Delete

The ability to delete records in MC is controlled by permissions and users are always prompted to “confirm” any deletions. However, customers have often asked for an “extra” step to ensure users pause and verify that they wish to delete the identified record. You can now set a new preference that prompts users to enter an additional “delete password” when attempting to delete records. Once your system is set to “require” this new password, the “Yes” option on the “Delete Confirm” will not display until the correct password is entered.

 

New “Recipient” Options for Notification Rules

The Rules Manager now includes an option to send a notification to the “Assigned Labor (Pager)”, which can be used to send a text message to the technician. To use this feature, you must determine the domain that is used by the technician’s wireless carrier. For example, for Verizon Wireless, the domain “@vtext.com” is used. As such, to send an automated text message to a Verizon subscriber with the number 916-555-1212, you would enter 9165551212@vtext.com into the technician’s Pager Email Field.


Notifications can now also be automatically sent to the individual who recorded the work order (“Taken By”).

Version 5.0 Upgrade
Customers with onsite installations of Maintenance Connection will be receiving an email shortly providing instructions for requesting the software upgrade. If you have questions in the meantime, do not hesitate to contact MC Support.

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Introduction to Notification Rules

January 23, 2009 by Tom Rocco 0 Comments


Many of you may already know that Maintenance Connection includes an automation tool called the Rules Manager. The Rules Manager has two very distinct features. These features are Auto Assignment Rules and Notification Rules. In the following video, we are going to give a brief introduction to the Notification Rules. Using this tool within Maintenance Connection can help your organization automate the process of communication and alerts.

As you can see, the Notification Rules are very customizable and have the flexibility to meet the most demanding of needs. As always, our support staff and your Implementation Consultant would be glad to answer any questions you may have about this subject. For a hard copy of the information from this video please download the following PDF file.

Notification Rules

Reminder! Our Annual Customer Survey will remain open for one more week, so take a couple minutes to let us know your thoughts about your experience with Maintenance Connection. We want to be sure that each need is addressed personally by our support team. After the survey is closed, all entries will go into a drawing for a FREE iPod Nano – so don’t delay!

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