Automation with Event / Data Actions

With the latest update of TrakIT, workflow automation has taken a new dimension!

For every event or data field in a workflow, you can now define one or more actions that take place immediately, conditionally or at a scheduled time. These action can send out emails, chat messages or SMS messages for a variety of content types to customisable recipients.

Lets take a look at defining an action:

Creating an Action for an Event or Data Field

Go the Admin > Workflow and select a workflow. Click on the Detail icon for the Event or Data field you want to define the action for. You will see a new tab: Actions.

Click on 'Add Action'. You will be required to define the details of the action. You may define any number of actions for each event or data field. The details for each field is give below:

The Action Trigger

This defines how the action is triggered. There are three options available:

On Change - The action is triggered whenever the Event or Data field changes. It is triggered on any change, even NA or TBA or blank values being entered.

On Condition - The action is triggered whenever the value of the Event or Data field changes and a pre-defined condition is met. You will need to specify the condition. 'Value' must be used to test the condition. For example, you can specify the condition as: VALUE='Truck' or VALUE='Train' . In this case, the action will be triggered only if the Value of the field matches Truck or Train. Conditions can be complex as well. Please contact TrakIT Support if you have queries on this.

On Date/Time - The action is triggered a pre-set number of hours before or after the time specified in the Event of Data field (For Data fields, this is applicable only for Date fields). You can specify the number of hours before or after the event, the action must take place. For example, you can trigger the action 24 hours before the ETA of a vessel or truck, or 48 hours after Delivery of Goods.

Action To Take

This defines what action is to be taken. There are three self-explanatory options available. More options will be added in the future. For sending SMS messages, your TrakIT installation must be configured to send messages through your SMS gateway. You may need to define one or more SMS templates in Admin > Master Tables > Message Templates. Please contact TrakIT Support if you need to configure this.

Content Type:

Once you've selected the action to take you can define what must be sent. Depending on the option selected for Action to Take, you will have a number of options available.

Simple Message - You will be able to specify a simple message to be sent. Some placeholders are available as shown.

Message Template - You will need to select a message template defined in Admin > Master Tables > Message Templates

Form PDF  - You will need to select a pre-defined form. The form will be automatically generated and attached to the email as a PDF.

Form Text, HTML - You will need to select a pre-defined form. The form will be automatically populated and inserted in to the email as plain text or as an HTML based email.

Recipients

Based on the Action, you be able to define multiple recipients or select one or more entities from the work order whose event/data field caused the action.

In case of SMS Messages, you can specify phone numbers directly as long as they are preceded with a plus symbol (+) and the country code. Example: +91-9876543210

TrakIT will extract the phone number or email from the selected Entity as needed.

How the Action Applies

When you create an Action - it will affect only those events or data fields that are saved after the action has been created. The action takes place based on the trigger defined.

You can see the details of individual actions under the Event or Data field details by clicking on the 'i' icon next to the event/data name in the work order.

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Actions are very powerful tools for automation. Please contact TrakIT Support for assistance. And as this is a new addition to TrakIT, please do let us know about any issues, bugs or unexpected behavior and we will resolve them asap!

Thank you for your support!

Asset Management in TrakIT

With the latest update of TrakIT, we have added a new Asset Management module to help you manage your assets used for work orders in a more systematic way.

The first step is to define the types of Assets for your organisation. Any number of Asset Types can be available. For e.g. Trucks, Trailers, Drivers, Products, GPS Units, Ships, Office Equipment, Forklifts and so on.

In the example below, we have 3 assets types defined. Please contact TrakIT Support with the list of Asset Types you would need in your TrakIT installation.

Each Asset Type can have Categories as well as Fields that are defined in Admin > Master Tables > Assets Master. Select an Asset Type and create the categories and data fields for the Asset Type. The Data fields for the asset are similar to the Data items created for a Work Order. There is no limit on the number of Data fields for an Asset Type.

Once you have created the categories and data fields for each Asset Type, you can open System > Asset Management to add assets.

All the assets will be listed as per the Asset Type selected. You can search for assets using the filters provided. 

To view the details of any Asset, click on any asset from the list. The Asset Detail page will open:

If you want to link this asset to any other asset, click on the plus icon and select the Asset Type and Asset Name where this asset needs to be linked. For example: a trailer and driver can be linked to a truck. All the linked assets will be listed under 'Linked Assets' tab.

All the Asset data will reflect under 'Asset Data' tab, more fields can be added here by adding them in in Assets Masters under Master tables.

Adding Assets to Work Orders

Assets can be linked to work orders in TrakIT. In order to achieve this, you must first enable Assets in the Workflow definition. Go to Admin > Workflow Definitions. Select a workflow, modify the header and enable Assets.

Once this is enabled, an 'Assets' section appears under the Header section on a work order. Click the icon to add a new asset. Select the Asset Type, Asset Owner and the Asset. The selected asset is displayed in the Asset section. Any number of assets can be added on the work order. When an asset is added to the work order, any other assets linked to the asset are also added at the same time.

Details and Fields of assets that have been linked to work orders can be exported in Advanced Reports and Forms.

Assets also support location updates via APIs. For more information on updating Asset Locations, please contact TrakIT Support.

We will be adding more features to Asset Management in the future. If you find any issues or have suggestions or feedback, please do let us know.

For any questions or concerns, please contact TrakIT Support.

Introducing TrakIT Chat!

With the latest update of TrakIT, we have added TrakIT Chat to ease information sharing and communication process between users.

You must have noticed a message indicator on the bottom left side of the main TrakIT window. When you receive a new message or messages, the indicator starts flashing with the number of messages received.

To open TrakIT Chat window, click on the message indicator. The below window opens:

All the internal users will be listed on the left side of the window. Count of users who are online on TrakIT Chat will be shown above the list of users. You can search of any TrakIT user with there first/last name as mentioned in the list. A green light () next to a user means that the user currently has the TrakIT Chat window open. A yellow light () indicates that the user has TrakIT open but the Chat Window is not open. The gray/off light () indicates that the user it not using TrakIT.

To start a chat or view messages from a user, just select the user to view the conversation with that user. Enter the message in the message box and you can start or continue your conversation.

If you want to link any work order, enter it's 11-digit container number or enter the work order number in the format WOxxxx (e.g. WO12345 or TMPU1234567). TrakIT will automatically recognize the container number or work order and add a reference link to the work order (as shown in above screenshot).

We will be adding more features to TrakIT Chat in the future (including receiving System Notifications and Alerts). If you find any issues or have suggestions, please do let us know.

For any questions or concerns, please contact TrakIT Support.

Populate Data when creating new shipments

With this latest update, you can now notice the new 'Data' tab when creating new shipments. This tab gives you an easy way to update the shipment details that you already know.

Only those Data fields that apply to the Shipment will appear here. Data fields that are work order specific will not appear here.

An important point to note is that there may be validation rules in place for the Data items. If any of the values entered fail the validation, they will not be added to the work order(s) created and there will be no notification for the same. This validation cannot be done prior to the creation of work orders as there may be complex rules dependent on the work order parameters.

For any questions or concerns, please contact TrakIT Support.

Delivering Reports By FTP

Among the custom development we do for our clients, we have had a few cases where reports were needed to be delivered to a server using the File Transfer Protocol. These were implemented as customized development for those who required it.

With this latest update, you can now deliver reports (any format) to a specific FTP location by specifying the credentials for the location.

FTP is available only with Advanced Report Subscriptions. To setup FTP delivery for reports, select 'FTP' under the 'Delivery Mode' option.

When you select FTP, the options for FTP are displayed: FTP Server URL, FTP User/Password and FTP Options. Fill up these settings as required.

TrakIT will validate the FTP server when saving the subscription. If the FTP server is not available at the time of creating the subscription, just select the 'Bypass FTP Validation' checkbox to enable TrakIT to save the settings without checking if the FTP server exists.

The report is delivered in the format specified and as per the time schedule.

For any questions or clarifications, please contact TrakIT Support.