Since we released our GFI Max beta yesterday we've been overwhelmed by the response! We're now seeing thousands of devices being monitored with alerts automatically imported to the Accelo requests module - and today we're releasing another update: the ability to write back to GFI Max from Accelo.
Here are the highlights of today's feature upgrade: if you'd like to join our beta, make sure you've already registered for an Accelo trial account (the Try Accelo FREE buttons on the right is the easiest way) and then email [email protected] and let us know you want in.
Now when you close a request in Accelo, we can clear the alert in GFI Max.
The setting is optional (but encouraged) and when you close the request you'll see your GFI Max dashboard updated within a minute or so. We also put a simple note in the GFI Max system saying which Accelo user cleared the flag.
When an alert triggers and gets turned into a Request you might want to turn it into an Issue (which some folks call a Case or a Ticket - totally up to you), so you can log billable time against it, move through the business process, etc. With today's upgrade the process of Converting a Request into an Issue is easier, with the title and description of the original GFI Alert coming across into the issue automatically (you can of course edit it); then you're able to define more custom fields, types and assign the issue to someone on your team to solve.
When you've converted a Request into an Issue to do real work on it, it makes sense to have the alert clearing process follow the Issue through to completion. Similarly to clearing the Alert when a Request is closed, Accelo can also be configured now to clear an alert in GFI Max when the underlying status of an Issue in Accelo is resolved or closed.
Since Issues have a "resolution" field, we're also able to push/publish more meaningful notes back into GFI Max.
There are four options:
If you've chosen to enable the "Auto-create Accelo Clients from GFI Clients" option, if we find an alert from a GFI Max client that doesn't match a company in Accelo, we'll create the company and a placeholder contact to put the request against.
Unfortunately, we also know there's going to be times when the client name you enter into GFI Max is different to the one you want in Accelo; the real client name could be "Acme Services" (which is what you put in Accelo) but you might shorthand it in GFI to be "Acme".
The first time we import an alert from the "Acme" client in GFI we won't find an exact match, so we'll create a new company. Doh!
The solution is pretty easy - Merge the two companies in Accelo - and then merge the default/primary client tech contact in Accelo with the placeholder "Default GFI Contact".
With today's update, we'll remember all of these changes, so next time the alerts are run, we'll actually put the Request against the right client (Acme Services) in Accelo and you'll be able to reply to alerts just as if the client had sent you a request email directly. Magic!
