Contract Item Usage Alert

The contract item usage alert is a task that sends information about actual meter totals and expected meter totals based on the yield settings for items sold under contract. This task analyzes whether a contract is over or under the expected usage and notifies you by e-mail. One of the limitations to this task is that many customers do not require meter readings when they sell supplies to their customers. This makes it impossible to calculate whether a specific machine is over usage or not. You can, however, pool usage for all equipment on a contract and then you can tell whether the contract as a whole is under or over yield.

Calculating usage limits requires set up in e-automate so e-automate knows:

Which items you want configured for usage limits

What meters should e-automate use for usage limit calculations

What the expected yield is for a supply item and is that yield the same for all machines in which the supply can be used.

What substitutes you want included in the calculation

For which contracts you want usage limits calculated and whether usage should be pooled across the contract.

If you want to configure your e-automate system for contract item usage limits, use the following steps.

Configuring Contract Item Usage Limit AlertsConfiguring Contract Item Usage Limit Alerts

Identify a contract for which you want to track item usage limits (e.g., Contract CT-5447).

Make a list of the unique inventory items associated with the equipment on the contract (e.g., IR7600 and IR2100, where both items are associated with Contract CT-5447 and IR2100 is only listed once even though two IR2100 items are associated with this contract).

For each unique inventory equipment item, make a list of the supplies that each item uses and the associated yield (e.g., for Item IR7600 has IRB-76 (yield: 5000), Sub-334 (yield: 4000), IRC-76 (yield: 3000), IRM-76 (yield: 3000), and IRY-76 (yield: 3000); and Item IR2100 has IRT-21 (yield: 3000) and Sub-111 (yield: 2700)).
Identify which items on the list can be substitutes for another item, if any (e.g., for Item IR7600, Item Sub-334 is a substitute for IRB-76; and for Item IR2100, Item Sub-111 is a substitute for Item IRT-21).

Once you have created your lists as described above, use those lists to complete the following steps:

Edit the contract (e.g., CT-5447-01). On the Edit service contract window on the Miscellaneous tab, check the Use e-agent contract item usage alerts for this contract checkbox.
If you want to pool item usage across the contract, check the Pool item usage across entire contract checkbox. This option allows you to see status of the contracts rather than simply individual equipment.

Edit the items that are considered supplies for your equipment (e.g., IRB-76, Sub-334, IRC-76, IRM-76, IRY-76, IRT-21, and Sub-111). For each item, on the Codes and Settings tab, check the Use contract usage limits for this item checkbox. While editing each supply item, identify in the Usage limit meter type field which meter e-automate should use in usage limit calculations.
To add substitute information, on the Substitutes tab, edit the items with viable substitutes (for Item IRB-76, identify Sub-334 as a substitute; for Item IRT-21, identify Sub-111 as a substitute).

Edit equipment items to identify supply items and yields on the Related items tab (e.g., for Item IR7600, on the Related Items tab, add IRB-76 (yield: 5000), Sub-334 (yield: 4000), IRC-76 (yield: 3000), IRM-76 (yield: 3000), and IRY-76 (yield: 3000); for Item IR2100 on the Related Items tab, add IRT-21 (yield: 3000), and Sub-111 (yield: 2700)).

Once you have configured your contract, items, and supply items for contract usage, you can then create your e-agent contract item usage alert.

How to Create a Contract Item Usage Alert TaskHow to Create a Contract Item Usage Alert Task

General Task InformationGeneral Task Information

From the e-automate Tools menu, select E-agent to open the E-agent - Tasks window.

From the e-agent toolbar, click [New]. E-agent opens the new task window.

From the list, select Contract item usage alert.

Click [OK]. E-agent displays the task setup window.

In the Task name field, leave the default name or enter a new name for the task.

Note: All tasks must have a unique name. If you are using multiple tasks for a variety of reasons, each task must have its own, unique name. You can schedule all tasks at different intervals.

In the Task engine field, use the drop-down menu to select the task engine on which you want to run the task.

In the Task user field, use the drop-down menu to select the user under which e-agent is to run this task.

To make this task operational, check the Enabled checkbox.

Options TabOptions Tab

Verify the Options tab is forward.

In the Don't alert unless the quantity of each item used per equipment is at least field, specify how many items must be used per equipment on the contract in order for notification to be sent.

Set Alert when actual meter usage / expected meter usage is to one of the following options:

Less than: When selected, an alert is sent when the meter usage is less than the identified percentage.

Greater than: When selected, an alert is sent when the meter usage is greater than the identified percentage.

In the Less than __ or Greater than __ field (depending upon the option you selected in the previous step), enter the percentage below which or above which, respectively, the actual meter usage divided by expected meter usage must be for an alert to be sent.

Schedule TabSchedule Tab

You can choose to schedule the e-agent task so that it runs on an interval and/or you can run the task manually whenever you choose.

To manually run the task, see the "Manually Running Tasks" section of the Task Functionality topic.

To schedule the task to run on a defined schedule, do the following:

Click the Schedule tab to bring it forward.

In the Recurrence pattern region, select Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Last day of month, or No recurrence to indicate the frequency with which you want e-agent to process this task.

If you selected Weekly in the previous step, e-agent displays a Run on region with a checkbox for each day of the week. Check the box for each weekday on which you want e-agent to process this task.

In the Start recurrence field, enter (or use the drop-down calendar to select) the date and time you want this schedule to begin.

Note: This field is not available if you set Recurrence pattern to No recurrence.

In the End recurrence region, do one of the following:

Note: The options in this region are not available if you set Recurrence pattern to No recurrence.

To have e-agent process the task indefinitely using the specified Recurrence pattern, select No end date.

To have e-agent process the task only a specified number of times using the specified Recurrence pattern, do the following:

Select End after __ occurrences.

In the End after __ occurrences field, enter the number of occurrences.

To have e-agent process the task through a specified end date and time using the specified Recurrence pattern, do the following:

Select End by __.

In the End by __ field, enter the date and time by which processing of this task is to end.

Completing the TaskCompleting the Task

In the Notification e-mail field, enter the e-mail address(es) of the person or persons the system should notify each time e-agent completes processing of this task. To notify multiple recipients, separate each e-mail address using the delimiter associated with your e-mail program (e.g., janedoe@company.com; johndoe@company.com; joe@company.com where the e-mail program accepts a semicolon as a delimiter).

Click [OK] to save the task settings.