TrakIT Tracks Time

Events in TrakIT will now include the time of the event as well. This will benefit "fast" shipments tremendously where events are separated in hours or minutes instead of days.

The time of an event will always be specified in 24 hour format as HH:mm, dd MMM yyyy. Example: 14:55, 18 Aug 2012. AM/PM will not be used. Furthermore, users must be aware that the time specified for an event is assumed to be the local time of the user entering the event. This fact will be significant for corridors where the origin and destination are on different time zones. Users can also enter an event time up to 6 hours in the future.

Having a time-stamp on each event will also allow managers to see the time difference between the occurence of an event and the time it is updated in TrakIT. This will help identifying events that are logged with delays or bottlenecks in the workflow process.

Entering the time is simple. The pop-up calendar will now include drop-down lists for hours and minutes (in intervals of 5 minutes). The user should select the hour/minute and then select the date. If the event is being updated in real-time, the user can simply click the 'Now' link to insert the current date/time. If time is not is not selectable by the drop down list (e.g: 14:53), the user can type in the time directly in the text box.

All existing and old events in the system will automatically get a time of 12:00 (noon) based on the local time of the user who entered the event.

Time can also be considered to be optional as the default time will be 12:00 for all events. So users who don't need to use time for events can simply select the date.

Any events exported from the Operations page will also include the time of the event (in the user's local time). Bulk updates for events will also be assumed to be the local time of the user making the update.

The time for event updates by email will be taken as the time the email is received on the server. (This will change in a future update)

Currently, KPIs will only be measured in days. In the next update of TrakIT, hour and minute based KPIs will be available as well.

For any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please contact TrakIT Support. If you notice any un-expected or erroneous behaviour, please notify us immediately.



Dynamic Dashboard

With the latest build of TrakIT (build 55), the Dashboard page is now dynamic with addition and removal of charts and graphs.

Users can not set their own charts and graphs on their Dashboard. Currently, the following types of charts are available:

Work Order Creation - This is the basic graph that was present earlier and displays the number of work orders created each month.

KPI Performance Graph - This is a trend chart that displays the average calculated days of a selected KPI over the selected time period. The KPI is selected from the Master KPI list.

Event Occurrence Trend - This is a trend chart that displays the number of work orders for a particular event occurring during a month. Although the selection of the event is made from a single corridor, the event code is used to obtain the events from all corridors selected in the filters. For example: If you selected the event 'Discharged' from the list, TrakIT will use the event code (default 'DIS'), and obtain the corresponding events from all corridors selected in the filters.

Top 10 Pie Charts - These display pie charts that previously existed as well as the addition of a few more charts.

Each chart can be removed by clicking the close button. And the source data for each chart can be exported to MS-Excel by clicking the Excel icon.

For any questions, please contact TrakIT Support.

Active Filters & Excel Filters

With the latest update, Build 54, released yesterday, below are two changes (among many others) that were released:

Visually Distinctive Filters - The filters on the Operations page are now displayed in a light red colour if they are playing an active role in obtaining the list of work orders that you see. This makes it very easy to visually see which filters are in effect.

Excel Export Template & Header Filters - In the Customs & Advanced Reports, you now have the option to choose an Excel File (that maybe contains your company logo) as a template to use for exports. Additionally, you can choose to apply filters on the header row for receipients to quickly filter down to the information they need.

For any questions or concerns, please contact TrakIT Support.

Update to Bulk Updates & Event Email Notifications

With build 51 of Trakit released today, two significant changes have taken place:

1) Bulk Updates

Previously, users had to copy and paste content from an Excel worksheet into a text box. TrakIT would scan the entire content against the database to look for changes. This was a time consuming and resource intensive process.

With the update released today, users must directly upload the Excel file for TrakIT to process. Changes to the data must be highlighted in yellow so that TrakIT need not compare every value against the database. Instructions are included on the Bulk Update page.

Furthermore, as the bulk update may take time, the result of the bulk update is emailed to the user instead of being displayed on the page. This allows TrakIT to process large excel files in the background instead of tying up the user.

Bulk Update Excel files can also be emailed to TrakIT with the subject 'TrakIT Update'. The attachment would be processed in the same way as if it was uploaded via the Bulk Update page.

2) Email Notifications

The alert subscription page has been renamed to 'Email Notifications'. Users can now subscribe to changes in event or corridor data in a work order for any corridor.

When an event or data item is changed in the work order, an consolidated email is sent to all subscribed users within half an hour.

For any questions of clarifications, please contact TrakIT Support.

TrakIT Build 50 Released

TrakIT Build 50 has been released today. This update contains a large number of changes, new features , improvements and optimizations. It is recommend that all users go through the below to familiarize themselves.

1) Re-design of Filters

The filters on the Operations page have been re-designed to be 'modular' and dynamically sized. This means there is no limit on the number of filters you can select. The filter box will get bigger to accommodate more filters.

The corridor filter is now permanent and will not be affected by the 'Reset' button. Each filter 'box' can be closed by clicking on the small gray close button.

However, it is recommended that you use the least number of filters required as using more filters results in bigger page sizes and consequently longer times to process/load pages.

2) KPI Performance Report

The KPI Performance Report has been modfied to include date selection as well as KPI selection. The report can now be grouped by Corridor or KPIs.

3) Work Order Close/Cancel Logic

Work Orders can now be cancelled or closed manually. Closed or Cancelled work orders become disabled and no further changes are possible (except by Admins). Cancelled work orders are not included in any reports. Work Orders are also automatically closed when all required events have been entered. Such work orders can be re-opened by Admins by removing one of the required events.

4) Selection of Containers on Forms

If you do not wish to print the complete list of containers on a form, you can now select or de-select the containers to be included in the form PDF. However, this selection is not saved and the list is reset if the form is re-selected.

5) Corridor Data Default Text

You can now specify default text for corridor data. This avoids the user having to enter data that is usually the same in 90% of cases.

6) Hierarchical Access List

You can now see the list of users who have access to a particular geographic location by virtue of heirarchy in the Geography & Access page. Just select a location and see the list of users on the right. The assignment / removal of users from locations as been moved down.

7) Work Order Status

The Work Order Status has been added to the top right corner of the work order page. The status of a work order can be any one of these four: Active, Abandoned, Cancelled and Closed.

8) Alert Snooze functionality in Ops page

Active alerts can be snoozed directly in the operations. Clicking on the alert icon opens a pop-up that lists all the KPIs and alerts for the selected work order or shipment. The user can enter a snooze date or clear any snoozed dates for active alerts.

8) Consolidate Daily Alerts

Users who have subscribed to Alert emails will now get daily emails every morning listing all active alerts they are subscribed to. Ideally, alerts should be snoozed once the user has noted it or taken action. Snoozed alerts are not included in emails.

9) Flashing Abandoned Work Order Icon removed
It has been noted that there are almost always some Work Order abandoned - thus making the flashing icon a distraction rather than a warning. It has been removed for the time being.

 

For any questions, clarifications or feedback, please contact your TrakIT administrator or contact TrakIT Support.