With the most recent release of Infralink/IMMS (v.3.5.29), we are happy to offer the following new features and functionality.

SMS Text Notifications via AWS SNS Integration

InfraLink notification features have expanded to now support SMS (i.e., text messages) in addition to traditional email notifications.

Users receive email notifications based on Case or Work Ticket assignment, subscriptions at the Case level, instance-wide notification rules, or User Profile notification rules. There are situations, however, when urgent response is required by recipients who may not be in front of their email. This may occur when email access is not available on mobile devices or after normal business hours.

As an extension to InfraLink's existing email notification feature, Users can now receive work progress notifications (i.e., those associated with Cases, Work Tickets, and Tasks) via SMS. This text message delivery is dependent on the following:

SMS delivery must be enabled at the Instance level via a setting in application.properties.
A notification-triggering event must match the SMS Notification Rules set at the Contract level to initiate SMS notification.
A User must meet the recipient (i.e., "Send SMS to") criteria configured for the SMS Notification Rule.
A User must have verified mobile telephone number within their User Profile.

SMS delivery must be enabled at the Instance level for the UI to display notification criteria configuration tools at the Contract level.
Contract-level SMS Notification Rules do not impact email notification settings. Rather, these rules define which triggering events also send SMS and which Users receive that text notification in addition to email.

This initial implementation relies on AWS Simple Notification Service (SNS) for the delivery of SMS (text) messages. Additional delivery options may be considered in the future.

What You Will See in the User Interface:

When SMS delivery is enabled on an InfraLink Instance, a SMS Notification Rules section appears within the Contract Details panel. Here, Contract Administrators can Create, Edit and Purge Contract-level SMS Notification Rules.
- Please note, the Contract-Update Permission is required for SMS Notification Rule Management.
Selecting the New button, within the SMS Notification Rules section of the Contract Details panel, will open the New SMS Notification Rule form.
To receive SMS Notifications, a User must include a valid mobile telephone number within their User Profile. The mobile telephone number must be entered according to international number formatting. For example, the +1XXXYYYZZZZ format is used for mobile numbers in the United States, and the +44YYYYZZZZZZ format is used for mobile numbers in the United Kingdom.
Administrative Users with the appropriate Permissions can access the SMS Log via the System drop-down menu. The SMS Log is a standard grid view with Filters along the left side and a Details panel to the right.

Rules for Default Activity Start Date/Time

InfraLink allows Users to log Activities (e.g., labor hours, travel time, etc.) for various Work Tickets, Cases, and Tasks, and sometimes Contracts. This information then propagates directly to M.C. Dean Timesheet via an integration service. This integration saves time, improves the accuracy of work records, and results in a comprehensive display of Users' weekly Activities.

Users can log Activities at multiple points within the web application user interface (UI) and the mobile application UI. For example, Users can log Activities when performing Updates or status transitions for Cases and Work Tickets, and if the Instance is configured to support Contract-level Activities (i.e., labor hours not associated with a specific Case), these can be logged via the "Log Activity" widget in the top-level navigation bar (web) or the "Add Activity" option within the Settings menu (mobile).

Regardless of where Users log Activities, the form fields are generally consistent, allowing Users to define the Start Date/Time, Time Spent, Activity Category and Assignees (i.e., who the Activities were performed by).

When logging Activities, the Start Date/Time with the Activities form has traditionally defaulted to the current date and time. As a rule, Activities are logged upon completion. Therefore, the current date and time will never likely be the start date/time. For this reason, and to streamline the User experience, the default Start Date/Time within the Activities form will be set according to the following rules:

If another Activity was logged for the same User that same day, the Activities form Start Date/Time will default to the end time of the last logged Activity.
If no Activities were logged for the same User that same day, the Activities form Start Date/Time will default to Start Date/Time from the first logged Activity of the preceding work day (based on the Contract Work Calendar), provided that time is earlier than the current time.
If neither of the above apply, the Activities form Start Date/Time will default to the start of the business day, as defined in the Contract Work Calendar, provided that time is earlier than the current time.
If rules 1-3 do not apply, the Activities form Start Date/Time will default to the current time minus 1 hour.

What You Will See in the User Interface:

When logging labor hours in InfraLink, the default Start/Date Time within the Activities form will vary based on previously logged Activities and Contract Work Calendar.

Web Application Support for Case Creation and Case Display on Pin-Enabled Drawings

The Job Connect mobile application has supported pin-enabled Drawings. Pins act as a visual means of identifying where a Case is in relation to a Drawing. Case Placement has allowed Job Connect Users to drop a pin onto a Drawing, in effect creating a Case associated with that geographical region of the Drawing. The Root System Element of the Drawing will become the System Element associated with that pinned Case. Not all Drawings support pin-drop functionality. Drawings configured for pin-drop functionality will display "Drawing Enabled for Case Placement" directly under the Drawing name. Is is important to reiterate that pinned Cases are related to Drawings only in terms of geography. A pin-enabled Drawing cannot be altered or edited because the pinned Cases will not move with the new Drawing.

With the release of InfraLink v.3.5.29, Users can now create and view Case placements within pin-enabled Drawings via the web application.

What You Will See in the User Interface:

When viewing pin-enabled Drawings, a Case placement widget appears above the Drawing.
Cases are displayed as pins (i.e., downward pointing triangles) within the Drawing.
Hovering your mouse over a pin will highlight it, and clicking the pin will select it, highlight it and open the corresponding Case Details panel.
Filters along the left side of the screen allow Users to refine which Cases (i.e., pins) are displayed on the Drawing.
Clicking the Case placement widget will change the mouse/cursor to crosshairs.
Left-clicking the crosshairs anywhere within the Drawing will place a temporary pin and open the New Case form.
When creating a Case via pin placement, the Drawing's Root System Element will be automatically be the System Element associated with the new Case.

Please note, upon opening a pin-enabled drawing, it may take 10-15 seconds for the Case placements (i.e., pins) to load.

Milestone Progress Report View

Complex System configurations often include individual components, which have their own life cycles and work progressions. In InfraLink, these are represented by Components and Links/Connections, as well as the associated Terminations. These dependencies, while represented in hierarchical and topological formats, were never directly aggregated within any specific views, reports or dashboards.

To know the end state of a System, it is necessary to also know the state and work progression of all dependences of that System. The introduction of the Milestone Progress Report allows Users to quickly and accurately view (in percentage format) the outstanding work for a System, including the tasks that require completion for a System Element and/or the dependencies defined for the associated Components, Links/Connections and Terminations.

The view functions similarly to other grid views with a Filter Panel to the left hand side, the main grid view in the middle, and a Details Panel - upon record selection - to the right hand side. The grid view itself is split into two sections: the top half displays a summary of tasks completed or statuses reached by Location and the bottom half (the Device/Equipment List) displays a summary of tasks completed or statuses reached per the Systems status life cycle. The Device/Equipment List portion allows Users to customize the column display as well as create and share saved views.

To view Monthly Progress Reporting for certain work, the associated Contract must support Milestone Progress Reporting. This General Contract Properties setting can be enabled via the New/Edit Contract form.

For a System Element Type to be included within Milestone Progress Reporting, the System Element Type must be properly configured. Enable Milestone Progress Reporting on each System Element Type via the Manage System Element Types grid view.

What You Will See in the User Interface:

The New/Edit Contract form now includes an option (i.e., checkbox) for Milestone Progress Report support under the General Contract Properties.
For System Element Types, the New/Edit Type form now includes an option (i.e., checkbox) for Milestone Progress Report support.
Access the Milestone Progress Report from the Production stack within the Main Menu.
The Summary by Location section displays the percentage of work (or tasks) left to be completed according to the Location of the System Elements, while the Device/Equipment List section displays the percentage of work (or tasks) left to be completed according to the System Elements and associated life cycle statuses.

The view is blank until a System Element Type selection is made in the Filters panel. Once a type is selected from the Filter Panel, the Device Equipment List column options will expand to include the statuses of that System Element Type’s life cycle. Only statuses associated with that System Element Type's life cycle will be available for selection and Users must add the statuses to the Device/Equipment List half of the grid view via View → Columns to see any records in the grid view. Once added to the Device/Equipment List section, the columns will automatically populate in the Summary by Location section.

In order for dependencies to be counted in the amount of work left to complete for a System, a Default Status Dependency must be configured within a System life cycle.

Highlighted features include: SMS Text Notifications via AWS SNS Integration; Rules for Default Activity Start Date/Time; Web Application Support for Case Creation and Case Display on Pin-Enabled Drawings; and Milestone Progress Report View.

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