Resource Management Tool (RMT)

CONTENTS
Create New Call
Completing a Call
Search the Log
Quick Call Search
Change Call Data
Call Status
Ownership
Reminders
Adding Owners to Calls
Removing Owners from Calls
Accepting a Call
System Specification

Description

RMT is a web based tool that can record and display information in a way that aids in the management of resources required to deliver a service (or services). Service recipients and resource managers can easily and quickly track progress on outstanding requests, projects, equipment status and obtain information about staff work loads and priorities. RMT is particularly good at recording the relationships between multiple task owners and can display a history of every owner, when they were added to a call, when they finished their component of a call and who added or removed them from a call.

Features of RMT:

Uses standard HTML and javascript. Does not require client side software installation.
Rapid "search, change and create" call/task operations.
Use of MAIS person data and DNA phone data for automatic population of owner and caller fields.
Multiple, or single ownership of calls/tasks with parallel processing by multiple sub-owners.
Call/task owner history tracking and automatic upline status cahnge notification using email.
Sub-owner management by upline call/task owners (remove, add, notify).
Call/task closure with automatic closer on sub-owners (with sub-owner and upline owner notification).
Daily, monthly, annual or one-off email reminders can be attached to calls/tasks.
Data is stored in SQL format and public readable to the Murdoch network.
Four categories of users:

Public read only
RMT user - read, change and create owned calls/tasks.
RMT group supervisor:

Force closure of any call/task in supervisor group.
Forced removal of call/task owners from supervised group.
Replacement of owners in calls/tasks of supervised group.

RMT Administrator:

Add/remove RMT users.
Assign supervisor priveleges.

RMT is written in the Perl programming language.

Operating Procedures

Getting Started:

New call creation requires authentication. On the first attempt to create a new call, users will be asked for a username and password. These fields are identical to those used for a central login or a modem login.

Either Netscape (3.2 or greater), or Internet Explorer (4.0 or greater) can be used to open the URL: /rmt.html

Choices are:

Create New Call.

This will invoke the log-entry create page. Fields are:

Caller (Mandatory). Enter the person number of the caller. Person numbers are unique identifies assigned to staff, students, contractors. Click the button . By default, your person number appears in this field. Simply change it to the caller's person number. If the caller does not have a person number, then leave your number as the default and you can edit the details later through the call update function.
Call Type. Options are:

Call - is a user request for service.
Maintenance - is for something that needs fixing.
Project - is a request for a new task. Projects can be formal (ITMC strategic) or informal. Formal projects can generate considerable quantities of documentation which will reside in the "projects-active" directory on Condor. The RMT entries for projects should be limited to simple statements on progress with links to further documentation on the Condor directory.
THD - Specifically for thelephone helpdesk entries.
Hardware Failure - a history of hardware failures.
Software Failure - a history of software failures.
Reminder - Time based calendar reminders with e-mail alert.

Priority. Three priority levels are available. They are:

Important
Urgent
Critical

Add to Call. You can add another RMT user to the call at this stage, or you can add a group name to the call. You usually only add group names if you are unsure about which individual within a group that you should nominate. An email alert will be sent to the individual or the whole group.
Title (Mandatory).
Journal. This is a free format text area and contains the initial job description. More journal entries can be added under the update function at a later time.
Create Call. This button submits the form to the server for processing. A status window will display the success or failure of the new call request.
Reset. Reset all fields to their default values.

Upon successful completion of data entry, the next available call number is retrieved and allocated to the call.

Completing (closing) a Call

Your involovement in a call can be closed by selecting the "closed" status in the Call Attributes field while updating a call.:

Note the follwing:

If there are no other call owners (ie you are the primary owner), then the completed ('C') status is set for the call, and the time and date of completion are written into the log entry. If the call remains closed for 3 months, then it automatically becomes "archived".
If you have added sub owners to the call and they have not yet "closed" their entries, your action will cause them to automatically close and they will be notified by email of your action.
If you are a sub owner (ie you are NOT the primary owner), then your sub owners are closed (as above) and you are removed from the call as an owner. Your up link owner is notified by email and the call itself is not closed until the primary owner closes it.

Search the Logs.

Searching can be performed on :

Type of transaction (call or project, etc)
Discrete call number or call number range.
Discrete creation date or creation date range.
Owner's name.
Group name.
Caller's name or DSOU.
Call priority (Critical, Urgent, Important).
Call status (Outstanding or Completed or Archived).
Title or journal contents using "%" as a wildcard.

Headers only
Full detail (including all the journal entries).
Progress summaries only.

Quick Call Search

The Quick call search enables users to execute a simple URL that will quickly show the status of an existing call. This is useful for helpdesk staff who wish to inform users of call numbers such that the user can obtain call status without going through the complete search request page.

Quicksearch is activated by entering the following URL in the browser location box:

/cgi-bin/rmt?Action=Search&Call_Status=###
Where: ### is the call number

Or the URL to check for your outstanding calls:

/cgi-bin/rmt?Action=Search&status=O&own_num=####
Where: ### is your person number

Change or Update Call Details

You must be an authorised RMT user before you can add or change call information. You must be a call owner before you change any call information. However, you don't have to be a call owner to add journal entries.

Updates are done by either:

Entering a call number directly into the call number update field of the top level RMT page.
Searching logs (by selecting "search" from the top level RMT page) and scrolling down the display until the required call is displayed. Then click on the "call-number" hyper-text link to invoke the call update page.
Your past journal entries can be edited by clicking on the Date/Time link from the "History" sub-window.

Changes are made to the database when the "Update Call" button is clicked. To view your changes, refresh the browser page.

When adding new journal entries, other call owners may be notified by email of your journal addition be selecking the owner email from the "NotifyIf selected, the "notify" selection box (at the top-right of the journal entry area).

Status

Active calls have a status of "outstanding" and resides in an active database table. When marked as "completed" by the primary owner, the call remains in the active directory for 3 months. After this time, the call is marked as "archived" and moved to the archive database table.

Authorised users may restore archived calls by changing the call status from "archived" to "outstanding" from the call update page.

Ownership.

Calls are owned initially by the call creator (the primary owner) and then shared by adding sub owners. There is always a primary call owner. All sub owners are added by the primary owner or any other sub owner. A history of ownership is kept and may be viewed by clicking on the "history" button of the call update page.
Primary ownership can be relinquished only when there are no sub owners by adding a new owner and selecting ownership="transfer"by referral with the "ownership transferred" option selected on the call update page.

Progress Summary

Clicking on the "progress" button of the "update" page opens a progress sub window, which display a summary of call progress. The summary can be updated from the sub-window and entered into the log by clicking on the "Date/time" link.

Reminders

Reminders can be assigned to calls by clicking on the "reminder" button, on the update page The following sub-window appears with a range of options.

Reminders will be e-mailed to the nominated e-mail address with the selected frequency. Reminderes may be cleared by selecting a frequency of "None".
Reminders may be set by any authorised user on any call.

Adding Owners to Calls

You may add new owners to your calls. Owners can be either individuals, or other whole groups .

Owners may be added from either the "new-call" page or the "update" page.

Add individual owners by selecting the individual's name from the "Owner Management" area on call update page,

or from the "Add to call" area on the new call page.

Before submitting the request, a decision about call ownership must be made. If the "ownership/retain" option is selected (default), then submitting the call:

Adds the new owner to the "owner" field in the log entry.
Retains you as an "uplink" owner.
Despatches an e-mail notification to the new owner.

If the "ownership/transfer" option is selected, then submitting the call:

Adds the new owner to the ownership list.
Removes you from the ownership list.
Notifies the new owner by email.

Add Group owners by selecting the group name from the drop down lists described above. Group owned calls need to be accepted by an individual within the named group. To facilitate this, an email notification is despatched to the group email address, inviting individuals of the named group to accept the call..
Accepting a call requires the user to enter the call-update screen by either:

entering the call number directly on the top level RMT page (in the update text box).
Clicking on the "call-number" field from the search page
Hyper-linking to the "update" page directly from the URL in the e-mail notification.

... and ensuring that the call acceptance checkbox is ticked when you click the "Update Call" button.

Removing Owners from a Call.

You may only remove those owners from calls which you have previously added. You can view a table of owners that you have added by clicking the "history" button on the call update page, eg:

In the above example, John Horgan has three downstream sub owners (Eugene, Peter and Michael), and Eugene has two sub owners (Khoi, Chris). If John removes Eugene, then Eugene's downstream owners (Khoi and Chris) will become John's downstream owners.

Similarly, if Eugene removes himself from the call, then Khoi and Chris become John's downstream owners.

If John reomves himself from the call, then all of John's downstream owners are moved to Eugene.

Removal of owners is selected from the the "owner management" area on the call update page:

System Specifications

Directories and Files:

Directory	File Name	Description
/HTML	rmt.html	Home page
/html	rmt_frame1.html	Top horizontal frame of home page
/html	rmt_frame2.html	Left vertical frame (index) of home page
/html	rmt_frontpage.html	Right vertical frame of home page
/html	rmt_instructs.html	This page
/cgi-bin	rmt	Public access rmt (search engine)
/cgi-bin/secure	rmt_secure	Authorised access rmt modules
/cgi-bin/secure	rmt_cron	Timer management routines
/cgi-bin/secure	rmt_authbuild	Builds authority table from config table

Database Tables:

rmt_auth

Name	Type	Desctiption
pers_num	int(2)	MAIS Person Number (Primary Key)
pers_name	char(30)	Person Name (from MAIS)
central_id	char(20)	Central login-id
status	char(10)	"user" or "supervisor"

rmt_config

Name Type Description

pers_num int(2) MAIS Person Number (Primary key)

pers_name char(30) MAIS Person Name

call_group char(20) Group name

email char(40) Email address

dcode char(6) Division code

rmt_callnum

Name Type Description

next_number int(2) Next available call number

rmt_headers

Name Type Description

call_num int(2) Call Number (Primary Key)

created datetime Created date and time

closed datetime Closed date and time

owner_pnums char(80) Owner person numbers (comma separated)

call_group char(20) Group name of primary owner

call_type char(20) Call,Maint,Project,........

caller_pnum int(2) Person number of caller

caller_name char(30) Caller name

caller_phone char(10) Caller phone number

caller_email char(40) Caller email address

priority int(2) Call priority

dcode char(6) Caller dcode

status char(1) Call status

title char(80) Call title

rmt_data, rmt_progress

Name Type Description

call_num int(2) Call Number

entered datetime Date and time journal entry was created

owner_pnum int(2) Person number of owner who created journal

owner_name char(20) Name of owner who created journal

journal text Journal entry

rmt_links

Name Type Description

call_num int(2) Call number

from_pnum int(2) Person number of referrer

to_pnum int(2) Person number of referree

created datetime Date and time referral created

closed datetime Date and time referral closed

reason char(50) reason for closure/removal

rmt_reminders

Name Type Description

call_num int(2) Call number

owner_pnum int(2) Owner person number

frequency char(20) Once,Daily, Weekly,Monthly,Annually

value datetime At what date/time

day_of_week int(2) 0-6=Mon-Sun, 9=Include Sat&Sun

email char(50) Where to send notification