System Overview

Why Track Events

It is important for a business to track critical business-related events. These events may be Information Systems related or may related to any ongoing event in any department. Failure to monitor events may result in loss of business, loss of goodwill, systems down time, and most often added expense. All too often, critical dates are missed, and no one is notified until an unplanned expensive solution must be quickly implemented.

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Common Tracking Methods

• mental notes
• Outlook or other PC calendar methods
• Excel or other spreadsheet solution
• Access or other database solution
• informal tracking system
• information is documented somewhere
• rely on suppliers and integrators to track events
• solution is already incorporated in an enterprise-wide application

Problems With Common Tracking Methods

• knowledge of the event is typically not shared, nor is the outcome shared
• events tracked by one person can not benefit from the knowledge of group involvement, nor can they be monitored by a third party
• consolidation of vendors and equipment if often ignored in multi-location environments
• no formal follow up is required, nor is there an escalation process. This allows expired events to occur.
• imbedded solutions are often too complicated to use and do not provide a complete feedback loop
• data is typically lost when the person in charge is no longer responsible for the task
• data is stored on-site and subject to deletion or corruption
• vendors tend to send out one notice via snail mail, and in some cases email is used. The name of the recipient on the notice depends on how the "warranty" card was filled out. Little effort is made beyond the intial contact attempt.
• In many cases system integrators are charged with the responsibility to complete all paperwork related to a sale. The integrator may show the end-consumer as the customer, or may show the integrator as the customer. It is very possible that the vendor is not aware of the end-consumer. Problems arise when the integrator is no longer in business.

The cost of not tracking events

Failure to track events can result in inconvenience, but most often result in unplanned expenses. Common examples follow:

• Failure to renew maintenance contacts often result in the following:
  • equipment can be renewed after a costly "recertification" process.
  • equipment can be renewed at a higher annual maintenance price
  • equipment can not be renewed at any price, forcing the purchase of new equipment. This tactic allows vendors to remove old products from their supported equipment list.
  • in some cases your agreement is automatically renewed at the old rate, or a new rate. In some cases your agreement automatically terminates.
• Failure to perform preventative maintenance on equipment reduces the life expectancy of most equipment. Future repairs may or may not be covered under warranty.
• Failure to track registrations can be fatal and can result in the loss of your domain name, certifications, business license, etc.

What kinds of companies can benefit from improved event tracking

• good approach for companies with new staff or high office turnover. Typically the "old" staff did not document as the should have.
• good approach for companies with unskilled staff who typically do not know what they should be aware of
• good for companies with experienced staff. Event tracking becomes more of an exception-based approach than an everyday occurrence
• good for companies in an acquisition mode, forces identification and cleanup of practices
• good for companies in a downsize mode, allows more to be done with less people. A downsize environment tends to loose key people with detailed knowledge. The discovery process forces this knowledge to be uncovered and documented.
• good approach for low technical environments all the way to highly technical environments
• good approach for a one office setup or multi-location environment
• good approach for private sector or government sector
• good approach for one department within a large company or for the entire enterprise
• good approach for companies with large centralized back offices and minimal remote-site staff

What is an ASP Model

An ASP (application service provider) model implies that a software solution is actually hosted off-site and that users access the application via the Internet. Any defined user who has access to the Internet, anywhere in the world, can use the software. Typically the solution can be implemented without the need to involve your IT department.

Why an ASP model

The ASP (application service provider) model has become a cost effective solution due to the acceptance of the Internet in today's business environment. Most businesses are permanently connected to the Internet or have on-demand Internet access. The ASP model allows businesses to take advantage of Internet-based solutions without the internal cost to develop or maintain new applications.

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Overall application logic

Company, Providers, and Event Information

• Company Hierarchy: - Several screens are used to define general company information as well as departments, locations, users, user group (roles), and the user associated with each role.
• Providers: - Several screens are used to define service providers and the contacts associated with these providers.
• Events: - There are three components of an event. The event itself, date related actions, and action notifications.
  • General Event Information: - General information regarding the event is defined here.
  • Event Actions: - One event may have unlimited event actions. An action may be a contact renewal date, a price review date, an equipment maintenance date, or any other critical date you wish to track.
  • Event Action Notifications: - Every event action triggers event notifications. There can be an unlimited number of notifications sent out to different roles, at different times, announcing that an event action is about to occur.

The Notification & Escalation Engine

• Event Actions which need initial notifications sent
• Notifications that need a follow-up reminder
• Event Actions which have passed their action date
• Notification email which has been returned due to a bad email address