Monday 19 November 2018

Integrate with GPS Providers for your Asset Locations


We're proud to announce that TrakIT now supports GPS integration with multiple GPS Tracking providers. Whether you're just using a single provider or multiple providers, we can connect to the provider's API and get location information about your assets and display them on a single map.

When location tracking is enabled, the Last Location column is displayed in the Asset List along with a 'View Map' link. The Assets can be trucks, trailers or even portable GPS devices directly as shown in the example below.



The Last Location column displays the time when the last location update was received from the GPS provider. A green light indicates that the location was received less than an hour ago. An orange light means the location was received more than an hour ago but less than 12 hours ago. A location older than 12 hours is displayed as red.

Click the 'View Map' button to view the location of all selected/filtered Assets on a map.




If you wish to push asset locations to TrakIT via an API or web-hook, we support that too.

Please contact TrakIT Support if you need to integrate with your GPS provider.


Thursday 20 September 2018

Departments to merge into Roles

With the introduction of the new Role Management module, there is an overlap in the functionality of the Department functions in TrakIT.

Currently users can be assigned to Departments and Events/Data fields can also be assigned to departments. Events/Data fields that have been assigned to departments can only be updated by users belonging to that department.

Going forward, Workflow Events & Data will no longer be assigned to departments but rather to Roles. By default, each Event and Data item will be accessible to all roles. It will be possible for users to restrict Events and Data fields to specific Roles - whether completely hidden, read-only or update-able.

These changes will be released on individual installations, while porting the existing "Departments" into User Roles. If you face any issues with access to Events or Data fields, please let us know immediately.

Eventually, "Departments" will be deprecated from TrakIT completely.

Thank you for your cooperation. Please contact TrakIT Support for any questions or concerns.

Thursday 6 September 2018

New User Role Management (for Admins)

This article is a 'must read' for TrakIT Administrators for major upcoming changes in TrakIT.

Over the past many years, we've received many requests for enabling or disabling some features or sections in TrakIT for specific users or groups. Until now, TrakIT had a few fixed operations roles that the users could have - namely: Read-Only, Operations, PowerUser, Admin and SysAdmin. These roles had fixed accessibility and permissions across the application. In addition, we had several finance roles for various actions in the finance module.

As TrakIT keeps evolving, newer requirements and newer modules are added to the system. Maintaining the same amount of flexibility with fixed roles has been increasingly more challenging with clients having very specific requirements about users roles and the actions they are permitted to make.

We have been working very hard over the last few weeks on a completely new User Role Management module that will give you unlimited flexibility over how you can control what users see and can do in TrakIT. Over the next week or two, we will releasing the new Role Management Module.

The previous roles (with the exception of the SysAdmin), will be deprecated from TrakIT. The SysAdmin, as before will have complete and unrestricted access to all sections of TrakIT. Therefore, it is imperative and there are only one or two SysAdmins for TrakIT in your organization.

Roles will not be fixed any more and they can be created and modified by the SysAdmin. Additionally, each action for a role can be defined in a comprehensive list of actions available for the whole application.

User Role Management

The Admin > Role Management page is accessible only by SysAdmins. The page has three sections:
  • User Role Assignment
  • Role Customisation
  • Role Masters

Assigning User Roles

When creating a new user, you can specify an initial Role for the users, subsequently, you may assign more roles. A user can now have multiple roles.



To assign a role to a user, simply select the user on the left table, click the 'Add Role' button, select the role and click 'Add'.

To remove a role, click the remove icon next to the role. The changes are immediately applied to the user's profile even if he is logged on. The user does not need to logout and login again for the role changes to have effect.

Role Customisation

To customise the actions that a role may make, you first need to select the Role you want to customise form the drop-down list.

Every action that can be taken in the TrakIT is listed in various Sections, which are then grouped together. There are currently five major groups, listed alphabetically.
  1. Admin
  2. Finance
  3. Operations
  4. Reports
  5. System
Each Group has multiple sections listed. Clicking on a Group expands the Group and displays all the sections within the Group. Clicking on a Section expands it and displays all the actions within that section.

Shown below is an example where the SysAdmin is customising the 'Basic Access' role. The action for uploading a file for bulk update has been granted. The Upload action belongs to the Bulk Updates section that belongs to the Operations Group.



Once you assign/remove actions for the role, you must click on the 'Update' button to save changes.


Role Masters


The Role Masters tab allows SysAdmins to create new roles or remove roles as required. The previous roles in TrakIT will now be visible as "Fixed" roles that cannot be renamed. Eventually, these will be unlocked as well.



Summary


The new User Role Management module will provide unlimited flexibility in how you can control what users do. Every action in TrakIT can now be controlled and can mimic your company policies on what users can or cannot do. This will greatly increase the security of your data as well as prevent un-authorised or accidental updates or changes in TrakIT.

If you face any issues with user permissions or if you have any questions, please contact TrakIT Support.


Wednesday 29 August 2018

Getting the distance between Depots

TrakIT can use the Google Maps API to calculate the driving distance between two depots. To enable this feature, make sure you have set the locations of the depots in Admin > Geography & Access. Only Administrators have access to do this.

On the Work Order where you need to calculate the distance, make sure the Origin and Destination depots are set in the Header. Then, click 'Depot Distance' from the WO Menu.



This opens a popup displaying the Origin and Destination Depot locations as well as the addresses (if found).



It displays the kilometer distance as well as the driving time between the two locations. The driving time is based on current traffic conditions. Click the Open Routing in Google Maps link below the map to open another window in which you can see the full details of the route and also plan alternate routing.

If any of the depots is missing from the work order or doesn't have its location set, the distance cannot be calculated.

For any questions or information, please contact TrakIT Support.



Saturday 11 August 2018

Entity Data Fields

With the latest update, we have added Data Fields for Entities. This option has been added for all the entities under Entity management and is to be used for storing any extra data about entities that isn't present in the header fields.

For example: Contract Expiry, Account Manager, Secondary Address, Etc. You  can create any number for data fields for each Entity Type.

To create Entity Data Fields, go to Admin > Master Tables and select "Data Field Definitions". Select "Entity Fields" and then the Entity type from the drop downs. Click the create button to add new Fields each with a unique name and code. 



All these data fields will be shown under Entity Data tab on the Entity Detail page for specific entities.





For any questions or concerns, please contact TrakIT Support.