Executing Projects successfully and on time requires solid teamwork and thorough communication with your team members who are working on-site.

Primary Project Communication begins with assigning Tasks to Field users and scheduling them as Events. Project Communication may also be required between Office users or between Office and Field users to provide support in any way possible before or during the Project Tasks.

On D-Tools Cloud, you can choose from a wide range of Project Communication capabilities. You do not need to configure anything in the app to enable the communications capabilities. They are enabled by default.

Email communication is typically used when you don't expect an immediate response. On D-Tools Cloud, Email notifications are pushed to users when you involve them in Opportunities and Projects.

Emails contain a link with the purpose of the email, and users can hop onto the Cloud app by clicking the link. Actions that result in Email Notifications also generate In-App Notifications and entries on the Cloud Dashboard.

Email notifications are generated in the following scenarios:

Emails are sent to the owners when you assign them Opportunities and Projects. Even the contacts you add to Opportunities and Projects receive emails.

Tasks define the core project work done as part of the labor hours allotted for a Project. Tasks are primarily intended for Field users.

Events are how you schedule the Tasks and assign them to your team members.

Emails are sent both when Tasks are assigned, and Events are scheduled.

Learn more about adding and managing core Project Tasks.

“Activities” is a chronological list of all changes made in an Opportunity or Project throughout its lifecycle. For example, changing the Opportunity Stage, adding and editing Quotes, marking a Proposal as Accepted, and scheduling Project Tasks as Events.

In many ways, Activities provide an audit trail for Opportunities and Projects.

You can manually add Activities to support the work required on Opportunities and Projects. These are not core Tasks but Tasks to remember, oversee, inspect, track, or support the core Tasks in any other way.

You can add two types of Activities:

Notes and @ Mentions

Notes functionality can be used for quick communication with your team members during Quoting, Project Scheduling, or Project Tracking. You can also add important supporting information in Projects as Project Notes.

You can use a built-in Text Editor to add Project Notes. Notes also provide the “@ Mention” functionality to get the attention of one or more specific team members. Adding @ mentions in a note sends an email to the mentioned users.

For example, A Note with a @ mention for the Depot Manager to check the Product Delivery status and update it in the app.

Learn more about using Notes and @ Mention

To-Dos

To-Dos are like notes but with options to set Priority and Due Date and assign it to one or multiple team members. To-Dos can be added in the Opportunities, Quotes, and Projects view.

For example, a To-Do for the Installer to check Products availability at the depot a day before the Installation Task.

To-Dos do not include the @ mention functionality. However, emails are sent to assignees when you add To-Dos.

Learn more about using To-Dos

Email Notification preferences can be configured at the level of a user account. You can enable notifications only for the most important activities and suppress notifications for others.

Check out this article about configuring Email Preferences for more details.

Use Interactive communication when your team members require quick clarifications and solutions to issues, mostly while at the site. For example, an Installer finds out that a Product is defective and wants to ask the Project Manager if the Product can be replaced tomorrow. The Project Manager can then schedule the Event for replacement.

While you can always use phone calls,d third-party video conferencing, and chat tools for real-time communication. If you want to communicate inside D-Tools Cloud, use our Real-Time Chat feature.

Chat supports both one-to-one and group communication. Chats provide a rich messaging experience with support for file and multimedia Attachments, static Geolocation Sharing, Reactions, and a wide range of Emojis.

Learn more about Real-Time Chat.