Contact Manager  

Contact Manager is also referred to as the 'Sales Module' in IDPMS.  A valid license is required and once the settings are activated, the Contact Manager is available to use. The Contact Manager allows users to set reminders and appointments or traces on relation profiles and contacts (Guest, Company or Agent) and also on individual reservations or group reservations. To use the Contact Manager tool, trace actions and categories need to be set up by the hotel.  For more information on Traces, see Trace Type and Trace Action.

Users with active rights in IDPMS can utilize traces to assist them in following up with a specific relation or folio. Traces are used primarily by Sales and Marketing but can also be an excellent tool for operations to track various types of reminders that need to be linked to a Guest, Company or Agent, Contact or specific Folio in the system.

Trace reports are available in IDPMS under File > Reports > Relation > Sales Traces.

 This is the icon that opens the Contact Manager. The icon is available from all the relation windows as well as on the individual reservation screen and group reservation screen.

By clicking on the icon, from the reservation screen, the following message will pop up:

The Relation Profiles linked to the folio will be available for selection. In the example above, there is a Guest and company linked. Travel agent is greyed out because there are no agent contacts linked to the folio.

By selecting the checkmark, the contact manager window will open with the link to the selected relation. In this example company Amadeus.

To create/add a new trace click on the add/new icon in the top right corner of the Contact Manager window.

The following screen will open:

The data fields from the Contact Manager window are explained below:

Relation Contact Fields:

The radio button is selected opposite the relation type (guest above)

If a relation contact is linked (guest, company contact or agent contact) the icon to the left is active and can be used to go directly to the relation contact window.

The example below displays a company contact:

Time and Trace Fields:

Date: Defaults to current date and time defaults to current time.

Action date: Enter the date where the action or trace needs to happen. Time: enter the trace action time. Time is 24 hour military time format.

Trace Type:  Select the type of trace required. This pick list is created by the hotel on initial setup and installation. See Trace Type for more details.

User: Defaults to the current user (user logged on).  However, a different user can be selected and the trace can be created on their behalf and will therefore appear on their Trace action report.

Action Type:  Select the action type of trace required. This pick list is created by the hotel on initial setup and installation. See Trace Action  for more details.

Action: This field will be filled automatically based on the trace action selected (a description of the action is what is used).

Department: A trace can be assigned to a specific department if needed. It is then possible to filter trace reports per department if using departments.  The list of departments is compiled by the hotel at initial setup. For more details, see Agenda Department.

Priority Fields:

The trace can be assigned to a priority high, normal or Llw. The default is 'normal'. By setting a priority, it does not issue any warnings in the system. Priorities are displayed on trace action reports.

The trace can be marked as incoming or outgoing for internal purposes only.

Text Fields (example):

The text field allows the user to enter any information relating to the trace action. Text is unlimited and will also print on the Trace action reports.

Display Trace Fields: When contact manager is opened it is possible to select how traces are displayed.

Display Traces for Current User: Displays any traces on the relation created or for the current user logged on to IDPMS.

Display all traces for this relation:  Will display all traces created by all users.

The default is for current user.

Trace example:

Below the test window all traces are listed based on the display selected (current user only or all users) The column headings are explained below:

Paperclip: When there is a check mark below it means a document is attached to the trace. By right clicking below the paperclip you can find the attached documents and you can open the documents from here.

Date Open: The date that the trace was opened/created.

Time: Time the trace was opened.

User: The user that opened the trace.

Type: The trace type

Reference:- If a document number is assigned to the trace, it gets filled in this field.

In/Out : Specifies if it's marked as an incoming trace or an outgoing trace.

Priority: Show which priority was selected

Date Due: Trace action due date (when the trace should be acted upon).

Time: Trace action due time.

User: The user assigned to the trace.

Dept: Identifies the assigned department

Action: Description of the trace action.

Date Closed:  If a date is filled, it identifies the date that the trace action was closed.

Time : Time closed

User: Identifies the user that closed the trace action.

Contact Manager Icons:

 This icon is used to close a trace. Highlight the trace in the Contact Manager window and select this icon to close that trace action. The close date, time and user will automatically be filled in.

 This icon can be used to reopen a closed trace. Highlight the trace in the Contact Manager window and select this icon to reopen that trace action. The close date, time and user will automatically be removed.

 This icon is used to assign a document number to the trace. Assigning document numbers may be helpful for manual filing only. If the Trace is incoming, the document number assigned will have the prefix ID###,/ If  the trace is outgoing, the document will be assigned a number with a prefix of OD###. 

This icon is used to attached documents to traces. There is no limit on the number of  attached files and all files are supported. When a files is attached a copy of the file will be saved within a file. This file you can configure in IDPMS by going to:

Settings -> Options -> General -> Path Trace Documents

Once a file is attached it will saved in that specified folder and gets a random file name. Please be advised when renaming the file in the specified folder (within Settings -> Options -> General -> Path Trace Documents) you can't find it through the traces anymore.
A copy of the file path name where the document is saved to will be saved within our database.

This option will be available from IDPMS version 3.15.

 This icon is used to access the guest relation or contact profile directly from the contact manager window. If it is grayed out, there is no company or agent contact linked.

Adding traces to contacts:

A trace can be added directly to a contact. Contacts are linked to companies and travel agents. Contacts can also be assigned a status code and made inactive. In the example below, a company contact is being used .
To access the company contact first search and locate the company from within the company window. Select the contact icon the Contact Manager window will open.

The above contact has an 'ACTIVE' status and therefore the contact manager icon is available to add any new traces.

The above contact has an 'INACTIVE' status and therefore the contact manager icon is NOT available to add any new traces.

For more information on contact status - see Contact Status

Following up on traces:

IDPMS does not provide pop-up windows on traces and therefore the users are required to view and access traces by reports or directly from within the folios or relation profiles. All trace reports can be found under the following file path in IDPMS:

Reports -> Relation -> Sales traces

1. Action List:  This report shows all open and active traces for the specified parameters selected when printing the report.

2. Closed Traces: This report shows all closed cased based on the parameters selected.

3. New Traces: This report shows all new traces based on the parameters selected.

Possibility to create links to external documents.
As of version 3.15.2.xx  it is possible to link a document to a trace to find belonging information directly to the trace.

Therefor you can open in all traces screens:

In this example a document called “Traces_Attach_document.txt” is linked to this trace. A dialog is opened when clicking this button. Select the file you want to link.

After creating a link, in IDPMS a checkbox appears in the first field.  

The hint in the lower screen tells to right click to open the link.  

After clicking the file will open, when it is a link to a file with a known format. (pdf, pptx, docx, etc). Multiple files can be selected.