Version 5.0 Release Notes - MC User Connect a project plan that includes ... Maintenance Connection, Inc. – Version 5.0 Release Notes v1.2 (01/2011) Project ... (Special Purchase-Lampshade

Refer to the following sections for information on the new features, enhancements and updates included in

Release 5.0 of the Maintenance, Repair and Operations WorkCenter:

New Project Plan Module

Work Order Module Enhancements

Preventive Maintenance Enhancements

Purchasing Module Enhancements

New Reporter Features

New Purchase Order Approval Process

General Enhancements and Issues Addressed

Version 5.0 Release Notes

2 | P a g e Maintenance Connection, Inc. – Version 5.0 Release Notes v1.2 (01/2011)

New Project Plan Module The Project Plan Module is a

powerful new feature that

automates the generation and

scheduling of a group of associated

work orders, allowing you to

define dependencies between

them. This feature is very beneficial for organizations that initiate recurring projects with a common set of

procedures, as well as any organization that manages complex projects that include dependencies.

As an example, cities often have a set of procedures that they follow each time a street is paved (i.e., Survey

Area, Dig Street, Inspect Pipes, CCTV, Pave Street, Inspect Pavement). Using the new module, the city could

create a project plan that includes each of these procedures, which would have predefined estimated labor

(crews, contractors) and parts. Using the dependency feature, they could specify that the work order to

“Inspect Pipes” shouldn’t be issued until the work order to “Dig Street” is complete. When the project plan is

generated, individual work orders would be created to “Survey”, “Dig”, etc. These work orders could then be

scheduled on the new “Project Calendar”. Each time a new street needed to be paved, the city could generate

the Project Plan to create all necessary work orders in one step.

To familiarize you with the

features of this new module,

let’s review a Project Plan for

Pipe Inspections.

Details Tab

Consistent with all modules of

Maintenance Connection, the

Project Plan ID and Name are

specified on a Details Tab.


Procedures Tab

The procedures to

be performed are

listed on the Project

Plan Procedures

Tab, indicating both

the sequence and

dependencies.

The highlighted procedure

to “Pave Street” is

dependent on two other

sequenced procedures (3

and 4). As such, the work

order to “Pave” will not be

“Issued” until the work

orders to “Inspect” and

“CCTV” are “Complete”.

If individual procedures

are tied to different

assets, this can be defined

on this popup.

Attach Tab

Documents and notes

can also be added to

the Project Plan for

reference purposes.


Generate Project A Generate Button is displayed at the bottom of the Project Plan Details Page to initiate the generation of

project plan work orders. You must specify a default “Asset” to be associated with any work orders that were

not tied to a specific “Asset” on the Project Plan Procedures Popup shown above.

The Preview Button allows you to preview the work orders that will be generated from the Project Plan, to

ensure that the plan has been defined correctly.

The Generate Button creates a work order for each defined procedure and associates these work orders

together in a project.


Project Scheduling After Project Plan generation, the newly created project will automatically open in the existing Project Module,

showing the default asset specified in our Project Plan generation (PIPES-2). The project will have a name that

concatenates the Project Plan and AssetID.

Using the new Schedule Tab, available for all MC Projects, the generated work orders can be scheduled using

standard “drag and drop” techniques. As with all MC Calendaring features, this will define/set the target date

for each work order as shown in the popup.


Project Management in Work Order Module The work orders generated for the project can then be viewed and managed in the Work Order Module.

The Group Tab will

show all work orders

associated with the

project.

As defined in the

Project Plan, the work

order to “Dig Street”

is automatically

issued once the work

order to “Survey

Area” is Complete.

Dependencies are listed in the Work Order Header so

that you are aware of them when viewing the work order.


Project Module Enhancements To support the new Project Plan feature, the Projects Module has been enhanced to allow for the identification

of a primary asset for each project. In addition, the new Schedule Tab provides an efficient method to schedule

work orders associated with any project.


Work Order Module Enhancements Version 5.0 includes a number of valuable enhancements to the Work Order Module:

Follow Up Work Orders on Failed Tasks A new feature has been added to the

Complete/Close Dialog that allows you to

create a follow up work order for failed tasks

(or separate work orders for each failed

task). A new preference is also available to

set the default value for the control.

Enhanced Complete/Close Changes The Enhanced Complete/Close Dialog offers a significantly faster

and more flexible method for adding parts. You can now search

for material by entering any characters or numbers that exist in

the Part ID or Name. MC will dynamically (and rapidly) display

the records that correspond. As you add additional characters,

the results will narrow, showing you the number of records that

match at the bottom.

In the example at right, “tank” was entered,

retrieving all parts with “tank” anywhere in the Part

ID or Name, not just at the beginning of the field.

In addition, you can now update the

actual quantity for estimated material

populated from a PM/Procedure.

New preferences are also available to prohibit the

completion of a work order until all tasks have been marked

as either complete or failed, and to set a default for the

“split labor hours” control on grouped work orders.


New Customization Options for Work Order Report The Work Order Report now includes numerous preferences that allow you to customize the appearance of the

Printed Work Order. You have control over the display of numerous fields, including some that were not

previously available, such as work order sub-status, asset address and additional details like model/serial #.

In addition, as shown at right for

the Labor Section, you can control

the number of blank lines to appear

when there are no corresponding

records, and can determine if

some columns should display,

such as the “start/end” and “account” columns. You can even now determine the “row height” for the “fill in the

blank” rows displayed.

There are also new optional sections for

signatures and approvals, and you can

even control the size of the entry area for

the Labor Report.


Preventive Maintenance Enhancements

The Manual PM and PM Projection Work Order Generation features

have been enhanced to allow for background processing to improve

efficiency and eliminate “time out” errors encountered when large

batches are generated. Once the available preference for this has

been set, requests for generation are put into a queue allowing you

to continue to work elsewhere in Maintenance Connection until the

process is complete.

Once the PMs/Projections have been generated, a brief

notification will display in the lower right of your

screen.

Default Problem Code for PM Work Orders There is a new preference to allow you to define a default Work Order Problem Code for PM Generated work

orders. This feature is especially helpful for organizations that wish to make the Problem Code Field required,

as a default value will now be populated.


Purchasing Module Enhancements New preferences are available to customize the appearance of the Purchase Order Report. There are

preferences to include new display fields, as well as preferences to “hide” fields previously displayed by default.

Of particular note, the line items section can display “Issue Units” and “Account/Sub-Account”:

The RMA/Exchanges Tab now

includes a reference to the Vendor

Item # and properly displays the

amount of the individual items

returned (rather than showing the

total purchase amount).

Line items added to a

purchase order through the

Manual Entry feature will

now show the “line item”

part description in any

associated Work Order Actual Material record (Special Purchase-Lampshade in above example).

If you wish to modify the explanatory information that is displayed below the

part description, you can modify the “Manual Entry” Part Description in the

Inventory Module as shown.


New Reporter Features Version 5.0 includes several valuable enhancements to the Maintenance Connection Reporter:

Export to PDF Reports displayed in the Report Preview Window can now be exported to a PDF.

The exported PDF is

automatically opened in a

browser, allowing you to

“Save” or “Print”.


Advanced Charting Options

New options are also available to create multi-series charts.

Save All Option in Smart Reports

A “Save All” Button has been added to

“Editable” Smart Reports, to allow

changes made to multiple rows to be

saved in a single step. After saving, the

page refreshes showing the records

that updated correctly in “green” and

highlighting rows with

errors in “red”:


New Approval Process – Purchase Orders A new approval process is available that allows you to define required approval levels based on the total amount

of the purchase order. You can define up to five different approval levels for each Repair Center. As an

example, you could specify that all purchase orders above $100 require Level 1 Approval, all purchase orders

over $500 require Level 2 Approval, and all purchase orders over $1000 require Level 3 Approval.

Each access group can be associated with a corresponding level of approval, so that the appropriate members

can provide the necessary approval. With the above settings, a purchase order for $1500 would need three

levels of approval (L3); one approval from a

member with Level 1 Approval Rights, one

approval from a member with Level 2 Approval

Rights, and one approval from a member with

Level 3 Approval Rights.

With this setting in effect, the Purchase Order Details Screen will

provide a summary of which levels have been approved, and which

levels are still pending approval.

The current approval process, which bases approval requirements on the “permissions” of the individual

creating the purchase order, rather than the amount of the purchase order, will continue to be available.


General Enhancements

New Recipient Options in Rules Manager The Rules Manager now includes an option to send a notification to the “Assigned Labor (Pager)”, which can be

used to send a text message to the technician. To use this feature, you must determine the domain that is used

by the technician’s wireless carrier. For example, for Verizon Wireless, the domain “@vtext.com” is used. As

such, to send an automated text message to a Verizon subscriber with the number 916-555-1212, you would

enter [email protected] into the technician’s Pager Email Field.

Notifications can now also be automatically sent to the individual who recorded the work order (“Taken By”):

Extra Password on Delete To provide an extra level of precaution when

deleting records, you can now be prompted to

enter an extra “password” when attempting to

delete records. If a password is defined in the

new available preference, the “yes” option does

not display until the correct password is entered:

mailto:[email protected]


Miscellaneous Items and Issues Addressed There are a number of additional items that have been incorporated into Version 5.0, including “fixes” to issues

identified by customers. Following is a list of additional items:

Work Orders and PM Scheduling

The Work Order Explorer has been augmented with the ability to filter by sub-status.

Work Order Rapid Entry includes new preferences that allow you to hide the Meter 1 and Meter 2 fields

from display.

Predefined task comments can now be added to tasks from a lookup table.

Task Readings (Final) have been enhanced to support all data types (text, numeric, and date) to prevent

work order locking resulting from invalid entries.

When adding material costs to a work order, you can now search for “Direct Issue” items that are

associated with the defined asset.

Updates to the Work Order Type field will no longer change the default preference for WO Type for

newly created work orders.

Issue that kept the Work Order # from displaying in email “subject line” when emailing requester has

been addressed.

Reports

There is a new permission available to control which access groups have permission to use the feature

that allows one to edit the options displayed in the Report Criteria Window.

The “email subject” on scheduled reports will automatically be updated when a “Report Name” has

been changed.

A “sender” name and email address can now be defined for Scheduled Reports.

Miscellaneous and User Interface

User interface and compatibility issues surrounding Windows 7 and SQL Server 2008 have been

resolved.

Enhancements have been implemented to address International compatibility issues.

Performance on Copy/Paste Asset feature has been enhanced to work efficiently with larger data sets.

The base currency preference is now honored on the Purchase Order Report.

The GIS Viewer Identify Tool now excludes RASTER images to allow for proper searching.