Introducing: Supercharged Task Management, SLAs, and Power BI-like Analytics
Big Updates: labs can now track tasks for the whole lab (rather than only for cases) but also create super-customizable dashboards using Power BI-like reports.
Uh-oh, two big updates at the same time! Yes, we heard you being happy about production and exception tasks, but sad about the fact that those were the only two types. We also felt your pain when it came to Pilot LMS reporting – it was clunky and too technical. This release addresses both!
Task Management
Let's start with what busy people will like – new organization tools. There are quite a few changes.
Lab Tasks
Lab Tasks are the new superstar – tasks can have name, description, lead days and duration, workstation assignment, user assignment, and an emoji icon for visual management. Tasks can be open or closed (we'll talk about statuses below), and you can “star” them to show their priority. You can start external conversations from tasks but also leave internal comments with attachments. You can label tasks with custom color-coded tags – this effectively allows to put tasks into lists.
Star tasks to surface what matters most.
Organize tasks into custom lists with labeled tags.
Leave internal comments or start external conversations directly from a task.
Attach files to comments for complete context.
Custom Attributes
Every Lab Task supports an unlimited number of custom attributes. These attributes can be set to be visible on creation and required to being filled out. You can add basic inputs (dropdown, checkbox, text, etc.), files, or selectors for most important entities (customers, billing accounts, invoices, statements, etc.)
Task States
Task States are customizable. There are four state types: Submitted, In Progress, Waiting on Customer, and Resolved. Within these four state types, you can create as many states as you want.
Submitted
In Progress
Waiting on Customer
Resolved
For example, you might want to differentiate between “Need more information” vs “Waiting on customer approval” within the Waiting on Customer type.
Resolved state doesn't mean the task is closed, but closing a task will ask if you want to put the task into one of the Resolved states or close it as is.
Exception Tasks
Exception Tasks are now a subset of Lab Tasks. If a task is an Exception Task, it will require case selection and will appear on the case view.
My Work Updates
This page received a facelift:
It now supports two types of views: table vs kanban. Kanban views support grouping by user vs grouping by state (for lab tasks-only).
There is now a sidebar with basic views: my tasks, mentions, and a view per workstation.
Both lab tasks and production tasks will be displayed.
Production Tasks Updates
Production Tasks now support internal comments with attachments and ability to tag your teammates.
Conversations Update
Conversations now support adding tasks and tracking their status directly from the conversation view.
SLA Support
Alright, we got tasks. Fancy.
The only thing that's missing now is some internal due date for when this task needs to be completed by. And before we move to the meat of this subsection, you know what else can be considered “tasks”? Conversations. Proper customer support also needs some milestone for resolving customer inquiries, ideally multiple milestones.
Both Lab Tasks and Conversations get SLAs. Every SLA Policy has four SLA targets:
This target is Conversation-only, and it's the time, within which your team has to reply to the customer inquiry for the first time.
This target is Conversation-only, and it's the time, within which your team has to reply to the customer's message in an ongoing Conversation.
This is Lab Task-only, and it's the time, within which a task needs to be put into a state of Resolved type.
This is for both Lab Tasks and Conversations, and it's the total amount of time your team can take to close a task.
Additionally, there's an option for Lab Tasks to pause the SLA if the task's state is of Waiting on Customer type.
Both task and conversation tables show the SLA badge — a time counter to the next SLA target. This gives you the ability to prioritize requests and operational to-dos based on their timelines.
Putting It All Together
In summary, now you have the following structure:
Conversations
— external communications.You can assign SLAs to conversations based on the inbox it lands or individually.
Tasks can be created off of the conversations. This is useful if a customer reached out and asked you to do something that can't be done right there and then.
Tasks
— to-do items.Could be case-specific.
You can assign default SLAs to each task.
Conversations can be created off of a task. This is useful if a doctor requested some external communication when a case was submitted or when whatever you're doing in the lab requires customer communication.
Production Tasks
— case-only steps to manufacture a restoration.Hint: If an inquiry can be resolved immediately, keep it a conversation. If it requires doing something that may take some time, create a task.
Analytics
On to the business intelligence update. If you've ever used Power BI, Looker Studio, or Tableau, you will find all of this familiar.
Building Reports
To make a report in a table format you typically select some metrics (values you aggregate) and dimensions (things you group by). Then you apply date and other criteria to this table as filters. For example, all revenue grouped by case type within quarter, all finished tasks by a specific user last week, total collections (invoiced amounts, payments, and credits) by month for the last year, or accounts receivable broken down by aging debt bucket. This is how you get a table report.
Tables & Charts
Table reports are good, but you can't visualize what the data looks like. That's why the report you build will always have two representations: as a table and as a chart. The chart is the same table data but visualized using one of the 8 provided chart types. Any report can be used in both forms. This way, you not only see your data but are also able to dig into specifics.
Dashboards
Great, now we have our small pieces of data. Let's say we have a bunch and we want to group these reports and see them all at the same time. We'll create a dashboard, drag-and-drop all the reports we created onto the grid, save it, and come back to this view any time. Neat, isn't it?
What's Next
The next cool thing would be to share the reports with specific people, and group reports into “folders”. Pilot LMS team is working on both of these features in the next updates, as well as the ability to use custom fields in the reports.
Share reports with specific people in your organization.
Group reports into organized folders for easy navigation.
Use your custom attributes as dimensions and metrics in analytics.
Customer support and task management tools incorporated into workflows and analytics.
Phew, that was a long one. For the remaining days of March, we're going to take a moment to consolidate all the recent changes: expand the support for customer inquiry channels, improve on some existing functionality, incorporate new customer support and task management tools into workflows and analytics, and ensure we can continue moving as fast.