Custom 'Others' Events...

As we move along, we just finished a modification that allows the users to generate an alarm at certain time/day out of any panel. This type of event is called “Others” and it can be used in countless scenarios. Before we go in deep, let’s first discuss some minor changes on the Events screen.

First, the Type selection has been changed to a drop/down list (rather than a radio group). This will save form space, keep simplicity and allow us to add more types. Also the ‘Other’ type has been added.

Second, the day selection has been changed to a drop down. This will save form space while keeping consistency with CSID Zone Overrides day selection.

Third, the ‘Others settings’ has been added.

The ‘Other’ type… This type allows the users to setup the software to generate an alarm at a certain schedule. When ‘Others’ is selected, the software will generate an alarm based on the Signal (and/or Zone)… at this stage the software does not know/care if this alarm will be displayed to the operator or not. This setup will still be on Panel Zone/CSID Zone and can be affected by the overrides.

Usage…

1. Keep my operators up at midnight… Simply setup an alarm at 2 am, another at 4am… give it a low priority (8 or 9), if there is a real alarm it will take priority over this one, otherwise this alarm will ensure they are there… if they don’t acknowledge, then ‘Unattended Alarm’ will be generated
2. Panels that generate test events per hour (only when panel is armed)… some panels have the capability to send test package in small gabs when the panel is armed (mostly banks) in this case we can setup a test event with a start and end condition, and setup 2 ‘Other’ signals to be generated to trigger those conditions.
3. Remote Guards trigger… in a soon to be released version, the central station can generate alarms that will allow the operator to connect to a remote premise and glance around the cameras (in an automated way). In this scenario the signal should be setup to generate a ‘GT*’ (Guard Tour)
4. Just wake me up!!!! Generate a passive signal that has a record on the notification list (Communication Module), the software will generate the alarm and send the email, all in a totally automated way.

Email me that appointment!

One of the new features that will be included in the upcoming release is the ability to email any appointment from the tech schedule screen (and employee calendar). By right clicking the appointment, a new menu option called ‘Email’. Out of that menu there are 2 sub menus, ‘Email’ and ‘Email (With attachment). The second one will attach a pdf file with the work order assigned to that appointment (if the selected appointment is a work order appointment).

If the message is intended to a cell phone as a ‘text message’, then the first option should be selected, however if the message is intended to a full email (or a smart phones) the second might be selected (to include work order itself).

What’s coming down the pipe? 4/2/2010

After busy back to back events (User Conference and ISC West), it’s time to prepare for a new version. This will include many requested items from the “round table” (no longer round) as well as some sales request.

One of those modifications is to integrate mapping technology with our addresses around our software. To accomplish this we have utilize the free API from Google ®. With this API the users will be able to click a button from many places around the software and see it on a standard Google map.

The first implementation will target the primary address locations, Subscriber, Prospect, Vendor, Contacts (People To Call), Work Orders, and Tech Schedules (for those unscheduled services).

The maps contain standard Google tools like zoom in/out, satellite/hybrid views.

Enjoy!

Report Engine 2.0

New Report Engine 2.0

During the current quarter there is a new enhancement for our software. This is actually a set of features that will apply to a set of reports within different modules on our system.

Those enhancement wont be on all the reports, however if you feel that there is a missing one that will impact most of our customer, feel free to request it free of cost.

Enhancements:

• Remove “Modal” screens – This mean that the report will not force u to close it in order to access other part of our software. In essence the report became just another screen within our software, rather than a popup that prohibit the user to access other part of the software.
• Capability to run the report multiple times – Because of the non-modal modification that means that the user can call the report again and run it with different parameters, and even have them side-by-side for comparison purpose.
• Data view (with export capability) – Because of certain query restrictions this won’t be on all the report, but basically allow the user to see the raw-unformatted data in a grid view. Also will allow the user to export to either cvs, excel, and html format.
• Direct access to subscriber (and some other records) information. – by clicking inside the report (over subscriber id) the software automatically open a subscriber and lookup that subscriber!

Some of the reports on the list are (and subject to change)

• Alarm Activity report
• Accounts Receivable
• Non Restored Alarms
• Excessive Signals
• Failed To Test
• Invalid Phone Numbers
• Panel with no signals since

Soon we are going to review the Receivables and Service module reports that will be affected with those enhancements… stay tune!

Dealer Billing from our Central Station

Within the many uses and configuration supported by our software, one that has recently gained some recognition lately is the capability to manage the receivables of your dealer within the same software (primarily bill and receipts).

Millennium is capable to define dealers as ‘Divisions’ and therefore every invoice printed to that customer will contain the dealer “division” information. Some of the reports has the options to print by divisions (Accounts Receivable, Cash Receipts, Recurring Revenue Preview, Sales Taxes Collected/Invoiced, others) so that you can provide the dealer with reporting information about their account.

Also recently we added a set of new fields in order for the central station to define how much does the central station keeps from a recurring revenue record called Wholesale Rate. With this field the central station can define that (for example) 5 dollars our of the 20 dollars charge on a monthly based are for the central station, and the rest for the dealer.

In addition to Wholesale Rate we added a new report ‘Wholesale Billing Report’ This report will list (by division) all of the account billed for defined month/year/cycle. This will list the invoice (by line item) with the amount billed, and how much the central station will keep, and therefore how much will pay to the dealer. This report plus the Cash Receipt will help central station to provide just one more service to their dealers, giving them more advantage over their competitors.

Hidden treasures in our central station software…

Recently one customer complain about how to go thru all his saleitem list to pickup one at the end of the list… knowing that we order by id, and that you can start typing and the software will assist u searching for that item I was not worried about it… that until came to common knowledge that this customer have hundreds of items, and that many of them use similar start character.

Solution: Advance Sale Item Lookup… This form is currently accessible from Invoice/Proposal/Job Cost (inventory section) and can be accessed by pressing ALT + F2 when cursor is in the saleitem field.

With this form the user can refine a filter for group, vendor, item type (inactive, inventory, kids, recurring) and type the sale item ID, allowing the user to filter down to whatever the user feels like…

Custom Dropdown Search - Initial Implementation

As many customers crave for more ways to select information during the data entry process, many of them had express to lookup information by code, other by description (or other available fields). There has always been a struggle to find the perfect lookup field… Well, I think we found it… you select what field you want to lookup by… simply right click the dropdown, select ‘Search by’, and select the field that you want to use.

Whathever u select, this setting is stored per user; therefore every millennium user will select different fields to lookup by within ur system.

Important to mention that not all drop down use this engine, only selected multi-column one will do it for now, however any request is welcome!

Sample code

Original ‘Code’ selection…

Right click and select ‘Description’

Search by description!!!! :@)