Improve your Data Quality

It is quite common for users to miss updating some fields in TrakIT. These could be header fields, events or data fields. This leads to incomplete shipment data, resulting in inaccurate or incomplete reporting to customers and others.

With the latest update of TrakIT, we've implemented a new feature to help improve data quality. Events in a corridor can now require other data fields to be populated before TrakIT will allow the event to be populated. This can be set for each event independently via the Corridor Definition page.

For example, you can specify that the event "ETA Vessel" can only be populated once the name of the vessel has been entered in the data field. Or, you can specify that the event "Loaded on Truck" requires that the Transporter has been specified in the header.

Once a requirement is set, TrakIT will not allow an event to be populated with a date or "NA" until the requirement is met. It is, however, still possible to populate the event with "TBA".

Other Changes

These are some of the other changes in this update:

1. The size of Item List field for Data fields has been increased to 500 characters to allow for longer lists.
2. When performing a bulk update via email, you can now specify and additional keyword "IgnoreSequence" (without space) in the subject line to disable sequence checking when updating events. This will work only for users with "PowerUser" role or above.

For any questions or concerns, please contact TrakIT Support.

Zipped Reports and Mandatory Header Fields

This new update of TrakIT bring the following features among others:

1) Zipped Reports

In the last update of TrakIT, we updated the main Excel component that generates Excel reports. Unfortunately, this has caused some false positives on some email filters for a few customers that caused the Excel reports to be removed from the email. Oddly enough, the emails were let through if the Excel files were zipped and attached.

For such instances, we have implemented a zip feature on Custom, Advanced and SQL reports. When creating the subscriptions for these reports, a "Zip Report" option is now available. When selected, the attachment file is zipped into the standard .zip file format.

Please note that the report will be zipped only when sent via email. Previewing the report within TrakIT will not generate a zip file.

2) Mandatory Header Fields

In many instances, users forget to populate important header fields such as Carrier, Origin Depot,  etc. when creating work orders. To prevent this, we've added new functionality within the corridor definition whereby Admins can select which fields from the work order header should be mandatory when creating work orders.

Go to Admin > Corridor Definitions, select a corridor and then select the "Mandatory Header Fields" section. A list of header fields is displayed (not all) where you can select the ones you want to be mandatory when creating work orders. Remember to click 'Save' once done. The "Shipper/Receiver" field is always mandatory.

3) Create Work Order Page Redesign

The page for creating new shipments has undergone a slight re-design. It now uses tabs to prevent users from having to scroll down too much. The corridor selection has been moved to the top and the user must select the corridor before anything else is shown.

For any questions or concerns, please contact TrakIT Support.

"New and Improved" Delay Tracking

With the latest update of TrakIT, The 'Container Tracking' module has changed to Delay Tracking with the addition of one major feature.

Previously, when a user populated an event in a work order that was designated as a ‘Container Tracking Entry Event’, the container was added to the list of the active containers (if not already there). Thereafter, TrakIT calculated the allowed and actual days as well as the total cost until the time the container "exited" the tracking. The issue with this was that TrakIT could track only one kind of a charge with one container. It was not possible to track the same container for multiple types of charges.

A new field called Tracking Type has been introduced. This field can take one of several types that are defined by System Administrators in Master Tables > Delay Tracking Type. Any number of Tracking Types can be added here. By default, the following are present:

All events that were previously set to trigger entry or exit from the 'Container Tracking' section will now trigger entry or exit for the 'Carrier' tracking type in the Delay Tracking page.

Administrators can now specify the trigger actions for any event based on the Tracking Type. A single event can trigger multiple entries for the same container into the Delay Tracking module.

As an example below, the 'Discharged' event will trigger Delay Tracking of both 'Carrier' and 'Port Storage'.

When the Discharged event is populated with a date in a work order, two entries of the container will be added to the Delay Tracking module - one for Carrier and one for Port Storage.

The delay slab rates and free days can be specified as usual via the Delay Tracking Costs section in the Corridor Definition.

The Delay Tracking page now has a new filter - Tracking Type

And the Tracking Type column is displayed as the first column.

It is possible to have multiple designated entry event and exit events in a corridor. You can have same containers multiple times for different ‘Tracking Types’.

As before, the rates, free days and exit work order number and date for a particular container entry can be modified by clicking on the 'Modify' action in the row menu.

Containers that are active in the Delay tracking module will also show up on a new tab in the corresponding work order for that container.

For any questions or concerns, please contact TrakIT Support.

More about Functions

Although users in TrakIT have different roles and responsibilities, they can make updates on all events or data fields in a work order if their role and location assigned allows them to.

However, in many circumstances, not all events should be update-able by a user who has access to a work order. For example, you might not want a user in sales updating events that are supposed to be updated by Operations.

With the help of ‘Functions’, Administrators can assign specific rights to events so that only the events or data which match a user's functions can allow the user to update them.

When an event or data field is assigned to one or more functions, only those users who are assigned to one or more matching functions can update that event or data field.

Functions are defined by System Administrators in Master Tables > Function Definitions.

Assigning functions happens in two steps:

1) First the event should have one or more functions assigned to it. As an example below, the 'Shipping Order Received' event can have as many functions as you want to assign. Select ‘Functions’ from the row menu in Corridor Definitions and then you will get complete list of functions.

2) We can assign functions to users via User Management. Assigning functions to a user can be done while creating user profile or by editing user profile. Users who are not assigned to functions, will not be able to edit event or data fields that are assigned to functions. They will, however, be able to view them. 

For any questions or concerns, please contact TrakIT Support.

A Fresh New Website

We've update the TrakIT web site. Our new site is fully responsive (adapts to mobile devices) and has a fresh site design with minimal clutter and an easy layout.




We hope you like it! Suggestions are welcome :)

http://trakit.in 

Custom Reports Improved

Among other changes in the latest update of TrakIT, the Custom Reports page has been re-designed and improved.

'Corridor Selection' has been removed and reports from all corridors display together. A new filter section has been added to enable users to find specific reports based on various fields.

As usual, when the a report is selected, the report details (Fields, Customer & User Subscriptions) display below the report.

For any questions or clarifications, please contact TrakIT Support.

Get Events Relevant to Customers Only

Until now, there was no dedicated way to have only the events relevant to the customer set as the status of the events. Reports that had the "Last Event" field that were going out to customers, would include internal workflow events that were not relevant to the customer.

With the latest update of TrakIT, two new header fields have been introduced for Custom & Advanced Reports: Customer Status and Customer Status Date. These fields work just like the Last Event and Last Event Date fields, except that only those events that are relevant to the customer will appear here.

The work order header now displays the event information as shown below:

You can now add these fields in Custom and Advanced Reports:

Defining Customer Relevant Events

How does TrakIT know which events are relevant to the customer? This can be set in the event definitions in the corridors.

When creating a new event or modifying it, set the field "Customer Access" as required. The field has three options:

NoAccess - The event is not relevant to customers
Visible - The event is relevant to customers and the event can be set as the status of the work order.
Updatable - The event is visible and also updatable by the customer.


Customers who are registered for Status update emails will only get emails when the Customer Status event changes, and not when other events are updated.


For any questions or concerns, please contact TrakIT Support.

Recipient of Which Reports?

With the latest TrakIT release, users can see what reports have them listed as a recipient.

Go to Report > My Reports. Your favorite reports are now displayed under the relevant tab and the list of reports in which you are a recipient is displayed under the 'Report Recipient' tab.

Please note that this list shows only those reports where you have been added as a recipient using your TrakIT profile. If your email was added directly as a report recipient, it won't display here.

To remove yourself as a report recipient, just click the red cross icon. To add your self back, you will need to go to the report subscription and add yourself as a recipient.

For any questions, concerns or suggestions, please contact TrakIT Support.

Report Recipients - A new way forward

Entering report recipients in TrakIT was, so far, a bit cumbersome to say the least. A single field contained all email addresses separated by , or ; that users needed to type in.

With the latest updates, we've designed a new module for entering recipients for a report. This has been implemented for Custom Reports Customer and User Subscriptions as well as Advanced Report recipients.

A new row menu action called 'Recipients' is now present for report subscriptions. (This is only visible to users who have the permission to set recipients)



Selecting this option opens a box where you can specify the recipients of the report just like you would in a regular email. "To", "Cc" and "Bcc" fields are present and you can start typing a name, user id or email address in one of the boxes.



As you type, a list of matching TrakIT users is displayed. The list is made by matching the typed text with the User ID, Name or Email Address of TrakIT users. Selecting the user from the list adds the user as the recipient of the report.

For adding non-users or external email addresses you can simply type the whole email address. Once TrakIT recognizes that the user has typed a full email address and no matching user is found, a button to add the email address will appear. Click the button to add the email address directly as a recipient as shown below.

Directly entered email addresses have a grey background and TrakIT users have a purple background. Recipients can be removed simply by clicking on the small red "x".

Having email addresses stored individually enables TrakIT to not send emails to locked users and it is easier to locate and remove non-existent or invalid email addresses that were previously bouncing back.

Important Note:
IE 8 users may have trouble accessing the recipients module. This is due to bugs in the IE 8 browser.
We strongly recommend you use IE 9 or later or use a modern browser such as Chrome or Firefox.

For any questions or concerns, please contact TrakIT Support. Have a great day!

Introducing SQL Reports

At TrakIT Support, we regularly receive a significant number of requests for data or reports that are beyond the scope of Advanced Reports - which were designed for shipment related information only.

To provide users access to complex and ad-hoc reports of any kind, the latest update of TrakIT now includes SQL Reports. SQL (Structured Query Language) is the means by which TrakIT performs all database operations. An SQL report directly uses pre-defined SQL to generate the report and is not limited by any condition as other reports are - even non-shipment related data such as user logon statistics, customer statistics, etc.

However, as users are likely not familiar with SQL, we will take care of writing the actual query as per the data requested by the users. And, due to security issues, we cannot expose the actual query to users. But, once the report is ready, users will be able to generate the report any time they wish or even set the report to be sent at scheduled intervals to selected recipients just like Custom or Advanced reports.

SQL Reports can be accessed from Reports > SQL Reports. Each report now allows recipients to be set as either direct (To), carbon-copy (Cc) or blind carbon-copy (Bcc). TrakIT users can be set has recipients directly by just typing and selecting their names. Other email addresses can be set once typed properly and added. This is also a new feature in TrakIT that will be soon extended to other report types as well.

This is the first release of SQL Reports and we will continuously improve upon the report based on feedback from users.

For any questions of clarifications, please contact TrakIT Support. 

Customer Filter for Interactive Reports

With the latest update of TrakIT, the interactive reports now have a new filter: Customers. With this filter, you can now select single or multiple customers to filter the report output by.

With the exception of the "User Engagement Report", all interactive report now have this filter. The customer filter matches work orders where the Shipper/Receiver field matches the selected customers. Contractual customers are currently not matched.

Type in the name of a customer in the text field and the bottom and select a customer from the list that displays. Multiple customers can be added this way.

There were a couple of other issues with the interactive reports that have also been resolved.

If you face any issues with any of the reports, please contact TrakIT Support as soon as possible.

New Logo and TrakIT Mobile Beta version released

The TrakIT Logo gets a make-over as well as a new Android app on the Google Play store.

The Android app is currently in Beta and being tested. If you would like to test, please download the app on your smartphone using the link below.

TrakIT Mobile on Google Play Store

For questions or concerns, please contact TrakIT Support.