lots of recommendations

[sapsford]

i would like to see the following features added to commit

1) when you create a ticket it automatically gets added into the calendar ready to sync to outlook, therefore you don't have to drag it in. its easier to move things around in outlook after sync.

2) at the moment when you drag a ticket in the dispatcher into the outlook calendar it only uses the description information, i find myself having to change every entry, by adding the ticket number and customer name before the description. otherwise in your outlook diary you only see the description of the job and have no idea what customer it is for, very annoying

3) i believe there should be an option to turn on permanently the sync with outlook, rather than have to turn it on every time you login into CommitCRM. set it once and be done with it and let it automatically sync.

4) what about a feature to automatically set the time in the diary for a ticket as the billable time, eg,

im onsite for 2 hours at a customers premises, i update my outlook diary with the time i spent there via various methods, laptop, phone, OWA, VPN etc or when back in office

once outlook and CommitCRM have synced i can go to the diary and say right click the diary entry and turn it into billable hours quickly for that ticket

this saves time setting the start and finish date of the job and only have to choose the item and enter the description


5) i believe at the moment that outlook integration should be continually improved upon as the outlook client is easier to edit from various sources

eg when i walk into a customers premises, i edit the calendar in my phone with the start time, then when i leave the end time

this syncs back to the office, and then to CommitCRM. it would be great then be able to turn this into billable hours as explained in point 4 above


6) i would like to see when you create a ticket the email server automatically sends an email to the customer with the new ticket information.

the email connector/server currently does this for emails turned into tickets but its not available from tickets created manually.

its saves a few clicks but also enables you to use better response content that is available in the connector/server only


7) when tickets are set as complete and saved and exited, the email server should email the ticket to the customer, without having to do this manually like step 6 above


8) the same goes with non finished tickets, i believe that any change to a ticket, the customer should receive an email automatically with the updated info. lots of time could be saved here and could simply be a on/off global setting


i've got stacks more but thats enough for now

Steve

[Support Team]

Re: lots of recommendations

Hi Steve,

Thank you for all of your great suggestions. I have added some comments below, which can be helpful, as some of the ideas are actually already exist in RangerMSP.

1) when you create a ticket it automatically gets added into the calendar ready to sync to outlook, therefore you don't have to drag it in. its easier to move things around in outlook after sync.
The idea of the Dispatcher is to easily schedule tickets which are actually supposed to have a scheduled appointment (not all tickets do), to the most available technician. The Dispatcher view allows you to see all of the technicians' calendars at once and see who is most available. After dispatching the ticket, you can easily sync with Outlook, and it will sync the appointment for the relevant technician. I actually find the dispatching phase is essential for proper management of the appointments for tickets.

2) at the moment when you drag a ticket in the dispatcher into the outlook calendar it only uses the description information, i find myself having to change every entry, by adding the ticket number and customer name before the description. otherwise in your outlook diary you only see the description of the job and have no idea what customer it is for, very annoying
You can actually already add the Account information to dispatched appointment automatically! Go to Tools > Options > Calendar, and check the "Attach Account Details to Description" checkbox. This will automatically add the account information to the ticket description. I logged you comment regarding the ticket#, as I see how it can be helpful as well.

3) i believe there should be an option to turn on permanently the sync with outlook, rather than have to turn it on every time you login into RangerMSP. set it once and be done with it and let it automatically sync.
Yes the auto-sync feature currently works for the current session only. This was done in order to prevent annoyance where the auto sync starts working when you do not intend it to, stopping the normal activity, and other considerations. Anyway, I can understand how it can help and I believe this may be supported in one of our future releases.

BTW, to achieve even more automation on this, you may consider running RangerMSP on your server (you can login with the same user at the same time from multiple computers), and set it to Auto-Sync so the session will stay open, even when you are out of the office.

4) what about a feature to automatically set the time in the diary for a ticket as the billable time, eg,
im onsite for 2 hours at a customers premises, i update my outlook diary with the time i spent there via various methods, laptop, phone, OWA, VPN etc or when back in office
once outlook and RangerMSP have synced i can go to the diary and say right click the diary entry and turn it into billable hours quickly for that ticket this saves time setting the start and finish date of the job and only have to choose the item and enter the description
Good suggestion! This actually already exists in RangerMSP. Just as you described, you can update the appointment with work performed and details, and sync it back to RangerMSP. InRangerMSP. you can right-click the appointment in the calendar window, or from the appointments list, and "Charge Appointment". This will copy the appointment's start-end time, and the description into the charge. This is indeed a very helpful tool. Check it out!

5) i believe at the moment that outlook integration should be continually improved upon as the outlook client is easier to edit from various sources eg when i walk into a customers premises, i edit the calendar in my phone with the start time, then when i leave the end time this syncs back to the office, and then to RangerMSP. it would be great then be able to turn this into billable hours as explained in point 4 above
As mentioned above, this is indeed supported. You can update your calendar from your laptop, PDA, etc., sync back to RangerMSP and easily turn this time into billable time.


6) i would like to see when you create a ticket the email server automatically sends an email to the customer with the new ticket information.
the email connector/server currently does this for emails turned into tickets but its not available from tickets created manually.
its saves a few clicks but also enables you to use better response content that is available in the connector/server only
7) when tickets are set as complete and saved and exited, the email server should email the ticket to the customer, without having to do this manually like step 6 above
Yes, this already exists when using the Email Connector module. this module automatically creates tickets from incoming customer emails (email-to-ticket), and also sends an automatic response, with the ticket details to notify the customer. We will probably add additional automation for other updates in the system, which will send notifications to customers, and we definitely see how this can be helpful. At the moment, as you mentioned, you can send the email in a click from the application, by clicking the email icon in the ticket's tool bar. This will automatically copy information from the ticket, and the customer's email address into the "To" address.

8) the same goes with non finished tickets, i believe that any change to a ticket, the customer should receive an email automatically with the updated info. lots of time could be saved here and could simply be a on/off global setting
As mentioned, we will probably add automatic notifications for customers, for some or all events. As you probably know, clients can also currently view their tickets status via the customers' Web Interface, which allows the to see open and closed tickets, and their related activity. I agree that pushing alerts (like we do for technicians, using the Alerts Server) has its benefits, and it will probably be supported in one of our coming releases.

Thanks again for your super helpful input. I hope the answers help, and that you will find the existing features helpful.

Sherry