issue tracking
New Visualisation and collaboration features in tBits
We have recently few great features. One of these features help users view the various formats in browser.
Now, users dont have to download and install various softwares for seeing common files. At the moment it can view approximately 450 formats.
Users can also discuss and collaborate in real-time with other users.
This feature is specially targeted towards the Engineering companies where most the time of meetings goes in telling the customer to view at a certain area of drawing. Our customers are really excited about this feature.
Users can also do the redlining of the drawing. It stores this markup information in a separate file not in the drawing leaving the drawing intact.
One of the features with which I am really impressed with is comparing between drawings. User can compare the drawings side by side. And in the third portion of screen, it would only show the differences.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Daily Reports
tBits now sends the daily report to each user in a neat format.
This daily report essentially comprises of various upcoming tasks, overdue tasks and tasks without due date assigned to me.
So, everyone gets an email every day about their to do list.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )tBits gets outlook/Lotus notes plugin
The biggest hurdle any tracking system faces is getting the data into system. That was the reason why we integrated incoming mails. So to create an issue all users have do is send an email.
But how would a user specify assigee, category etc? For this, we devices EUCs (Email update commands) which look like this:
/category: xyz
/assignee: abc
/dueby: 01/01/2009
But do you think it is userly possible to specify these strange commands?
So, finally we deviced outlook plugin. While you compose an email, all you have to do is check “Track” checkbox and select category and assignees and click “Send”.
So, it becomes a breeze to track communication.
You got a task from customer and you want to delegate it to someone. All you have to do is click forward, say “Track” and Send. And you are done!!!
We have written a lotus plugin too on the similar lines!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )tBits for Academic Institutions
As we all believe that tBits can be used across all industries. Let us take a look as to what can the various applications be:
Housing Keeping and Facilities Management:There are usually lot of Requests with regards to the following:
repair & breakdown —>Say for example the bulb in any particular room is not working.
information required (Internal Clients)
Library & Learning Facilities Management:
Library, beyond doubt is one of the most important aspects of any educational institution. And most important is the management of all the books in the library. It is necessary that you have a consolidated list of all the available books. It should clearly be segregated on basis of the subjects and simultaneously its exact position in the shelf should also be mentioned. You can also have features like the new additions in the library. You would also have to manage the online magzine subscriptions.
suggestions about books, Case Studies, specific articles etc:
This can be of extreme help beacuse you can include new case studies depending on the subject requirements and also on the subject requirements.
External Projects:
Managing projects and deliverables is an extrmely important aspect. It gives you the facility to deleagte tasks, monitor the performance and ensure that it is completed witihn the stipulated time frame.Also you can place on record all the client interactions. Ad the best part is the visibility of project to all stakeholders.(which is extrmely essential but unfortunaletly is mssing in most of the project trams). Now Archival of project and retrieval of information by future batches is also possible. This facility is of extreme importance as it will help u get an access of any information which was disucssed before a long.
Academics:Now revaluation of answer-sheets, clarifications about topic with research scholars, etc forms an extremely important part of any educational institution.tBits can be of extreme help here.It can easily track the students greivances and the concerned faculty will have to justify the marks. It would be extremely transpaent process.
Executive Education, Admissions, Recruitment:
Here you can create a forum for Interaction with potential students, customers & companies. All the official communication would be in a structured format and would be sent to potential clients. This would be very easy to track potential clients.
tBits in Police Department!!!!
This was with reference to the recent news article that Bombay Police has decided to go digital. It is a well known fact that it is one of the best police force of the country. Now lets just think, what if Hyderabad police decides to become digital. Would it be of significant value addition to the people? And the most important question is whether tBits would be of help to them in that case.
Lets understand what do the police do? Well, as everyone knows, they track and solve issues of people. Now lets understand what does tbits do? tBits tracks issues. (tBits is primarily an issue tracking software). So probably we are really close on what the police and tBits do. That means both have a common purpose ie. tracking issues.
Now lets get into the details further. Lets go in a step by step procedure. First i will give the normal course whenever people file complaints with the police. And below it will be given what will the process be, if tBits is installed in the police department.
Step 1:
The aggrieved person comes with his complaint or issue and files an FIR with the police. All the details are manually noted down by the police.And a copy of the same is submitted to the person raising the complaint.
Step 2:
Police start tracking the case (in addition to the number of pending cases they already have). In the meantime the person who raised the complaint has to continuously follow up with the police for the progress on the case.(which is extremely frustrating)
Step 3:
Now the outcome would be obviously be if the case is solved or no. If it is solved the belongings are returned (if a case of robbery) or appropriate punishment is awarded to the culprit (by the court) in cases like kidnapping, murder etc. Or the other option is when the case remains unsolved or pending.
whatever be the outcome of the case the aggrieved party has to go through the following pains:
- Continuous follow up with the police on the progress about the case
- There is no concerned authority to answer all the doubts and queries
- Lot of scope of irregularities as there is extremely less accountability
- Even if the case is solved, sometimes the time taken is so long that solving the case becomes useless.
Now lets think from the police department’s point of view also. Lets see what are the pains that they have to undergo:
- Most of the cases are lost in the heaps of files being added year after year.
- Whenever they decide to know about the status of any case it becomes a tedious task to search from the heap of files.
- As the newspapers say, there are no special incentives for going the extra mile and cracking the case in a better way. In short, since there is no transparency it is difficult to monitor individual performance. This is one of the major causes of frustration in them.
Now lets see how the entire process changes if tBits is installed in the police department:
Step 1:
The aggrieved party logs a complaint with the police station in his area. Now there would be a thing like single window; there would only be a single person to log all the complaints. He will enter the issue in tBits the details of which will include the following:
- Name of the person registering the complaint
- Date of crime
- Date of logging the complaint
- Severity of the complaint (entered by the police personnel)
- Category of the complaint (like robbery, murders etc)
Now a print out of the same is given to the aggrieved party along with a login id and password.
Activities Internal to police department:
Step 2:
The concerned person will route the request to the concerned official depnding on the type of crime and the number of cases he is handling. He will be given a specific time frame to solve issue, failing which the issue will automatically be escalated to the next level above. The officer will however will need to update the actions taken by him in the particular issue and also any particular noting. These will be available to the complainer through his login id either on internet or also on phone).
Step 3:
The process will go on until the entire issue is tracked and solved.
Advantages:
- You will have a detailed analysis of each and every case
- You will have a track of how has the particular officer handled the case
- You can have a success rate of number of cases solved
- All the police stations in the state can be linked to each other so that sharing of information
- The citizen is extremely happy because he knows what is going on with his complaint.
In short, not only will tBits dramatically reduce the need for follow-up with the police as the system itself will do, but will also increase the productivity of the police mechanism to a great extent
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 3 so far )Why do construction and real estate companies need tBits?
By now all of us know what tBits is and what is does. But for starters, tBits is an Issue Tracking and Workflow Management Solution that enables organizations to do ‘managed communication’ and ‘track projects’.
In construction and real estate companies tBits finds an application primarily in following areas:
- Project Management:
Any project is always consists of a group of people with a project manager heading them. The project manager assigns tasks to its project members who are supposed to complete it within a stipulated time frame. Now using tBits the project manager can monitor and track the progress of each member. Also in case a task is not completed within the stipulated time frame the issue would be escalated to the next level.
- Pre sales:
Whenever the sales personnel meet potential clients they can post their leads (along with the status) here. It can be viewed by the concerned people from the marketing department and thus a strategy can also be decided to convert them into customers.
- Marketing domain:
In this domain you can have specific tasks assigned to the sales personnel who would update the status of the same at the end of the day. It can also be a kind of report going to the department head where they can track and monitor the progress of various sales personnel on various issues.
- Finance domain:
In this domain we can restrict the access to specific people only. We can have various categories like bills receivable, financial analysis of new projects, expected cash flows etc.
- Document Management:
Whenever a customer purchases any flat, there are lot of documents involved in the entire process. It so happens that keeping a track of all these indeed become a tedious task. We can create a domain where you have a track of all the required forms and of which how many has the customer submitted. These can accordingly be followed up with the customer.
- Customer Relationship Management:
Whenever a customer faces any issues he would log a complaint for the same. The customer would be given a log id from where he can view the action taken on his complaint. The complaint would be routed to the concerned person / department as per your organizational workflow. Incase the issue is not solved it would automatically be escalated to the next level. This would go on until the issue is solved.
- Requests for help, clarification, support etc.:
You are usually flooded with queries from prospective customers regarding the details of your new projects, facilities being offered etc. Using tBits we can route it to the concerned department and ensure that he promptly solves the customer query or there will automatically be an escalation for the same.
- Exception Management:
Inevitably, there are exceptions that require people to raise exception, seek inputs of others to resolve those exceptions. This requires extensive information interchange, collaboration to close these exceptions.
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What is an Issue Tracking System?
An issue tracking system (ITS) is a software application that allows an enterprise to record and follow the progress of every problem or “issue” that a computer system user identifies until the problem is resolved. With an ITS, an “issue”, which can be anything from a simple customer question to a detailed technical report of an error or bug, can be tracked by priority status, owner, or some other customized criteria.
An Issue Tracking System generally provides the user with the following:
- A way to report an issue
- Track progression towards its resolution
- Know who is responsible for resolving the issue
It also allows the manager of the system to customize the tracking procedure so that unnecessary documentation on the part of the problem solvers does not become a waste of time. Many kinds of enterprises use ITS applications, including software developers, manufacturers, IT help desks, and other service providers.
Examples of Various Issue Tracking Systems:
Various companies in the world have developed their in-house systems or have purchased external systems to track issues. Examples of the issues can include:
1. Client request: The issue tracking system meant for client requests forms the key feature of a CRM.
2. Purchase requests: The issue tracking system to track and take appropriate actions on the purchase indents can be called as a enterprise-wide purchase system.
3. Project Milestones: The complexity is mega projected is managed by dividing the project into ‘SMART’ (Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic and Time bound) tasks which can then be assigned to people and continuously monitored to ensure that all is in order.
4. Knowledge Management: The issues that are raised by the employees / clients for the help desk when resolved can be put into a searchable repository where what was learn can be reapplied and the time is saved in rediscovering the wheel.
5. Document Management: With the outsourcing boom and growth of contract employment companies, opportunity has arisen in the arena of management of documents especially like resumes, where one has to search and respond fast.
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tBits now compatible with main free email systems
Since tBits sends the beautiful mail and also accepts the replies, it becomes mandatory that tBits should be compatible with most of the free mail servers like:
- Gmail
- Yahoo
- MSN Hotmail
- Rediff
And with the email viewers:
- Microsoft Outlook 2002/2003
- Outlook Express
- Mozilla Thunderbird
- Squirrelmail
Now, users can view the beautifully formatted notifications mail in such all such viewers and systems. They can also reply using such systems.
The only problem is some email systems modify the actual content while composing the reply message such as:
“xyz wrote:”
“——Original Message—-”
In such cases, tBits just adds this line at the end of new reply.
Some even put an ‘>’ infront of the original message in reply. Thats the problem.
In such cases, although tBits appends the reply to appropriate request but also put the full content prefix by ‘>’.
Seems like sometimes creativity leads to the randomness:)
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Uh! Mail relay limitation
We are running tBits instances for our customers on our servers which are dedicated hosting from one of the biggest hosting provider.
This hosting servers had limitations on email Id’s. Some 50 relay per day. Urgh! thats crazy.
So I installed my own mail server (james – an amazing server written in java. I am really thankful to these guys. Will definitely donate once I start making profit.). It still has to go through their server but they told me that there is no relay limitation this way and I didnt believe them so I sent around 600 mails. It worked. I was happy.
But today I discovered that there is a limitation of 1000 relays. One tBits instance can’t send more then 1000 mails in a day!! Strange!
I need to figure out a solution. If you have any idea, kindly post a comment. It will be really a great help.
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tBits - A next generation workflow management system 