Newly released SI features include Workflow Rules and Notifications

As is always the case after attendance at industry shows where I get the chance to interact with our dealers, I often come away with the notion that many teams are simply too busy pursuing leads and capturing revenue to catch all the details of our latest product release (or even releases).  So, after talking with several teams about some of our new features, I thought it would be a great idea to repost one of my recent articles about a new SI feature. 

Based on a lot of the questions I fielded on the show floor, I decided that “Workflow Rules” and “Notifications” would be the best option but I will include links at the end of this post to another great new feature set that was asked about a lot and featured in prior “Tips of the Month” – Calculated Items. 

…So without further ado, please enjoy some great details about ways to improve your use of SI and the resultant benefits to your team’s operations.

 

D-Tools’ most recent SI release, “v12”, includes significant project management and workplace operational enhancements.  Two of these that will be of immediate interest to most of you are “Workflow Rules” and “Notifications”. 

These items will enable users to execute scenarios such as alerting other team members to various progress updates on a project’s status as well as requiring managerial approval for the progress of such status elevations.  Both of these elements foster better communication and overall awareness of developing details that can, at times, be crucial for users of SI to receive in a timely fashion.

So then let’s review the functionality of how your team can implement these changes:

Upgrade to “v12”:

Herein lies your first step to gaining access to these and other new features of our latest release.

               
While this may be a foregone conclusion, I would be remiss if I did not mention it as your first step in accessing these new features.  So, it’s out with the old and in with the new!  See this link for assistance: Upgrading to SI v12

Workflow Rules:

Because there are several options for how these new “rules” can be applied, here we’ll focus on an SI “Project” scenario that will highlight both – a certain workflow rule combined with a notification.
Let’s say a sales manager is required to review all projects where the overall mark-up is below 25%. 
First, we’ll need to make sure that all Users of SI are updated and that all appropriate Roles have been defined in the Users section of the Control Panel.

Then we’ll need to launch the Control Panel, double-click Workflow Rules, click the “new” button, and then select Project:

Once these selections are made, this screen will appear:

On the General tab, we can select which activity to “Execute On” for this rule – Create, Update, Delete, etc.

Next, as in all things “new” in SI, we need to name our rule.  Easy enough! 

From there, we need to select from the list of “Criteria”.  For this example, we are going to select a User, User Role, and our “Mark-up” parameter which in this case is “less than 25%.

(Keep in mind too, this is just a small example of the available Criteria within SI v12 related to this feature.)

Then, we need to set the notification details by clicking on the “Notify” tab in the top row.

                                               

From there, we need to select who will be notified as a result of the Workflow Rule.

Notice, not only can you select users related to the Project but you can also select users by Roles.  You can even add other SI Users by email address.  And further, you can add other or “additional” email addresses in the field just below there.

Now you can see in the space below “Message to display on email:” where you can add the appropriate message for the recipient(s) to see in the related email notification.

                               
Next, we need to set the required action for the rule via the “Actions” tab:

Last step, simply select the related action.  Here, it is either to Lock the Project or Lock the Reports.

Then, upon appropriate detail/parameter information being updated in the SI Project, both “in-app notifications” and emails can be reviewed pertaining to the Workflow Rule:       

Once the due notification is received, the appropriate action can be taken by the Admin/Manager level user to unlock the Project after it is reviewed and then your team can proceed with closing the sale and procuring payment!

In closing…

This is just scratching the surface of the new features in the latest product release from d-Tools!  For longtime users of SI, these new user enhancements are a most welcomed addition and will most definitely lead to increased productivity and functionality. 

For more information on these and other features of SI, please see this link:    D-Tools SI.
You can also get more detailed information about SI via our upcoming webinars or by enrolling in SI training with our PSG team.

Don’t forget, that’s why we’re here…to ensure your success with our product!  Be sure to check back here next month for more on SI!

And per the InfoComm inquiries, please see these links about Calculated Items for both Products and Labor.

Thanks again for all the great feedback on the show floor!  Look forward to seeing you all again soon!