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.
3 | P a g e Maintenance Connection, Inc. – Version 5.0 Release Notes v1.2 (01/2011)
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.
4 | P a g e Maintenance Connection, Inc. – Version 5.0 Release Notes v1.2 (01/2011)
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.
5 | P a g e Maintenance Connection, Inc. – Version 5.0 Release Notes v1.2 (01/2011)
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.
6 | P a g e Maintenance Connection, Inc. – Version 5.0 Release Notes v1.2 (01/2011)
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.
7 | P a g e Maintenance Connection, Inc. – Version 5.0 Release Notes v1.2 (01/2011)
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.
8 | P a g e Maintenance Connection, Inc. – Version 5.0 Release Notes v1.2 (01/2011)
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.
9 | P a g e Maintenance Connection, Inc. – Version 5.0 Release Notes v1.2 (01/2011)
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.
10 | P a g e Maintenance Connection, Inc. – Version 5.0 Release Notes v1.2 (01/2011)
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.
11 | P a g e Maintenance Connection, Inc. – Version 5.0 Release Notes v1.2 (01/2011)
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.
12 | P a g e Maintenance Connection, Inc. – Version 5.0 Release Notes v1.2 (01/2011)
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”.
13 | P a g e Maintenance Connection, Inc. – Version 5.0 Release Notes v1.2 (01/2011)
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”:
14 | P a g e Maintenance Connection, Inc. – Version 5.0 Release Notes v1.2 (01/2011)
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.
15 | P a g e Maintenance Connection, Inc. – Version 5.0 Release Notes v1.2 (01/2011)
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:
16 | P a g e Maintenance Connection, Inc. – Version 5.0 Release Notes v1.2 (01/2011)
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.