Alerts
Alerts is a powerful project management tool that lets users set up a number of ‘threshold’ events that ShopPAK monitors, and when that situation occurs, alerts you with pertinent status information. The main benefit of Alerts is it lets you manage exceptions instead of constantly monitoring all your jobs, all the time. Using Alerts is like having a trusted assistant who works 24/7 for you. When ShopPAK spots something pertinent, it notifies you and summarizes what happened. Using Alerts not only saves time, it prevent critical events from ‘falling through the cracks’ and going undetected. Think of alerts as….. just in time project management!
There are 5 components of the Alerts system:
1. Global Setup
Set up alert system default behavior and turn on alert processing.
2. Definition
Each user defines alerts they are interested in and customizes them with appropriate threshold values and behavior.
3. Monitoring
Strewn throughout ShopPAK is logic to capture all possible alert events. As alerts are detected, they are forwarded along with pertinent information to the Alert Generator.
4. Generation
The Alert Generator is the heart of the alert system. It runs 24/7 on the server. It processes all the alert transactions captured and forwarded to it during the day. Moreover, it generates date alerts that are triggered when the date changes at midnight.
5. Notification
Alerts are communicated back to users in two ways: 1) Alert Browser and/or 2) email. The Alert Browser is a modeless dialog box (meaning it allows interaction with the main window below it). Users can filter, sort, and delete their alerts via the browser. A great feature is automatically opening and displaying pertinent records, such as work orders, purchase orders, and shipping tickets, from the browser. This is a big time saver. Users can also choose to have alerts emailed to them.