Communicator module of Dynamics SL works along with the project series, providing a more robust & sophisticated way of identifying the pending issues before they arise and alert concerned individuals. Communicator module with its power & authority, perform analysis of the problems and generate notifications.
Employee and Resource Maintenance
- Open SL –> Project Controller –> Maintenance –> Employee and Resource Maintenance
- Enter the Employee ID , Name , Email user name and select “Both” option in “Send mail To” drop down. This setup will let the communicator system send notifications as Communiator messages and also as Emails.
Alert Manager
Alert Manager analyze the events and generate Communicator notifications when it detects an exception condition.
The event conditions should be maintained as rows of an alert group. When the Alert Manager process runs, it processes the entire alert group. It generates a notification message only if we set Select to Yes. Within an event, we can select the recipient(s) of the message, the project to evaluate, event to analyze, and the parameter values used for the analysis.
- Create groups for (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) to send notifications and associate the Event Id in each line.
- The alert groups can also be created using the Code file maintenance for the Code Type ALTG.
- Enter or select an employee ID in Employee to which the alert will be sent. To send notifications to a group of managers, select one of the manager types that appear in the Manager dropdown.
- The parameters and the values can also be entered
- Hit “Save” and “Begin Processing” to send notifications to the group.
Given below are the standard events of communicator module that the Alert manager is using.
- COAR100 – Open Invoice > x days old and balance > y$
- COCN100 – Pending Project Change Orders where the current system date is greater than the change order date by at least x days
- COCN200 – Expiration date of any insurance stored in the Subcontractor Vendor table (PJSUBVEN) is expired or will expire within x days
- COFB100 – Invoices in process >= x days old; in this context, in process means a status other than printed (PR) or posted (PO)
- COFB200 – Unbilled (and unselected) invoice items >= x days old. These items have not yet been selected onto an invoice draft and do not contain a hold status of PG (logical purge)
- COMB100 – Estimated Post Date of milestone billing/revenue recognition = x% of Estimate at Completion
- COOV300 – Project-Account category expense >= x% of Estimate at Completion
- COOV400 – Project-Task-Account category expense >= x% of Estimate at Completion
- COPC100 – Entered % complete for project that differs from calculated % complete by x or more
- COPC200 – Entered % complete for task that differs from calculated % complete by x or more
- COPR100 – Project margin below budget margin by at least x%
- COPR200 – Current period margin < previous period margin by at least x% • COREV00 – Project-Account category revenue (sum) >= x% of Estimate at Completion
Send Messages
Send Messages screen in Dynamics SL allows the user to type the messages and send to the concerned employee as a Communicator message.
- Open Send Messages (CO.MMT.00) under Foundation –> Communicator.
- Enter the employee ID in from field. The employee ID can be secured by setting up employee passwords using Password Maintenance.
- Enter the employee ID of the recipient in To field.
- Enter the message in the Message Text area and Click Save
View Messages
- Employee can view the notifications using View Messages (CO.CMD.00) screen, which displays all messages to the selected user. The employee ID can be secured by setting up employee passwords using Password Maintenance. This is to restrict the unwanted access of the messages sent to other employees.
- When a new message arrives, the status will be “New”.The user can change the message status from New to Save to flag it.
- Each type of Communicator message can have different buttons associated. The buttons that appear beneath depend on the type of message.
- Approve – appears when the user select a message from Timecard Entry (TM.TCE.00) when an employee has completed and submitted a timecard for approval. Hitting the button opens Time Review and Approval
- EAC Maint – appears when the user select a message from Alert Manager pertaining to budget information. Hitting the button opens EAC Maintenance
- Invoice – appears when the user select a message from Flexible Billings when an employee has completed and submitted an invoice for approval. Hitting the button opens Invoice Review and Approval
- Invoice Inquiry – appears when the program detects an invoice of a user-specified amount becoming overdue by a user-specified number of days. Hitting the button opens Invoice Inquiry
- Project Net Profit – appears when the user select a message from Alert Manager pertaining to overall project information. Hitting the button opens Project Net Profit
- Reply – available at any time to send a message back to another employee. Hitting the button opens Send Messages
- Task Net Profit – appears when the user select a message from Alert Manager when he included Task in the selection criteria. Hitting the button opens Task Net Profit
- Timecard – appears when the user select a message about rejecting the timecard in Time Review & Approval. Hitting the button opens Timecard Entry.
Communicator to Mail
- Communicator notifications can be delivered through Email using the Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO)
- VSTO allows Microsoft Dynamics SL screens to communicate with Microsoft Office Outlook through an add-in called Microsoft.Dynamics.SL.OutlookAddin (installed with SL)
- The user can define the intervals to check unsent mail.
- User can choose to process notifications manually by hitting “Mail Messages” button.
