Tag Archives: email second round

Lesson #171

Help – Suggest Ideas function

When you get an idea for improving RB9, you can ensure your idea has the best chance of being implemented by getting it discussed and voted for in this online forum. All RB users can participate in improving RB9 by using this function. Submit your suggestions, respond to other users’ ideas, and vote for those you would like to see incorporated in RB9. OMTI’s development team monitors this forum (previously called Idea Collaborator) and considers these suggestions when developing new RB features and functionality.

Suggest Ideas strategy

Because ideas with the highest scores are more likely to be implemented, it’s best to check the forum first for ideas like your own before submitting your idea. That is because having similar ideas in the forum runs the risk of diluting each idea’s score. So always look at what other RB users are suggesting first. You can add your input to these ideas — for example if an idea is similar but not exactly like your idea then add your unique aspects in a comment on the idea — and vote for the ones you would like to see implemented.

If you can’t find an idea like yours, then submit it to the forum — follow the guidelines to increase its likelihood of success, such as only one idea per request — and monitor how it does. You can see what other users say about your idea and respond — plus answer any questions the development team has about your idea. You can also check your idea’s status to find out if it is accepted, in development, implemented, or rejected.

Review existing ideas

The default view in Suggest Ideas is all ideas that have been submitted by any user — except those that have been implemented or rejected by OMTI’s development team. You can sort the list in ascending or descending order of any column by clicking the column’s header. Export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, share, use in other applications, or print as a report.

Use the search filters to find specific ideas. You can search by:

• Who suggested an idea: Everyone, just yourself, or just your company
• Where the idea is in the development process — for example: new ideas, implemented ideas, rejected ideas, and ideas the development team is considering, is implementing in a future version, or that they have questions about.
• All modules or a specific module.
• All functions, all functions in a specific module, a specific function in a module, or a new function for the selected module.
• Idea number
• Idea title

The list of ideas includes each idea’s title and description, category, current status, how many votes it has gotten, and when it was last commented on.

Comment & vote on existing ideas

You can view, comment on, and vote for any ideas listed in this function. When you view an idea’s details you can see a thread of comments by other users and the development team. If you enter a contribution to the discussion you can format the text of your comment, add URLs, and include screenshots and other images. If you like an idea, be sure to leave a comment on it and vote for it.

When you submit a comment, it appears in the suggestion’s threads and RB9 sends you an email acknowledging your comment. If you voted, your vote is added to the Votes/Score counts in the suggestion. Votes and scores are different categories: Votes are the total of all users who voted for an idea. Score counts unique agency votes. So the 1st person from an agency to vote for an idea gives the idea 1 Vote point and 1 Score point. If another user from the same agency votes for that same idea it gives the idea another vote, but doesn’t increase the score.

Votes help OMTI keep tabs on how many people overall view, respond, and like ideas. Score tells OMTI how many agencies like an idea, which is one of the metrics used in considering which ideas to research and develop.

Submit your own ideas

If you don’t find an existing idea like yours, use this function to submit your idea directly to OMTI’s development team from within RB. You will have a record of your suggestion, its development status, and other users’ comments and votes. Plus you can have a dialog with the development team about your idea if they reach out to you.

When submitting an idea, start by selecting the RB module that your idea applies to, then the specific function that your idea applies to. If you want to suggest adding a function instead of improving an existing function, you can indicate that instead.

When you select those options, ideas submitted previously for the same function appear. This gives you one more chance to check that your idea isn’t a duplicate. If you do find a similar idea, you can comment and vote on the existing idea instead of adding a new suggestion.

If you do not find a similar idea to piggyback on, then enter your new idea following the guidelines on the screen to increase the likelihood of your idea’s success. Your idea will be posted in the forum with a status of New.

TL;DR: Submit your ideas for improving RB. View, comment on, and vote for others’ ideas. Ideas with the most community approval are more likely to be incorporated into future versions of RB9.

RB concepts in this lesson

Module: Group of related work functions.

Lesson #170

Help – Report Issues function

Ask questions and make requests online with support tickets that maintain a paper trail of your issues and RB support responses. After making an inquiry, you can track its progress and continue the discussion with us online. When the issue has been resolved, close the ticket. You can re-open closed tickets to resume the conversation whenever you want.

Start a new ticket

When starting a new ticket, you just need to enter its topic and details. You want to give it a descriptive title so it will be easier to find when you have multiple inquiries. Write a detailed description too which will help us understand your inquiry and resolve it sooner. You can format your description, add hyperlinks, and include screenshots or other images to help communicate your issue.

When you submit your ticket, it is issued a number and placed in your queue.

Quickly follow up on existing issues

The default view in Report Issues is a list of any unresolved inquiries so you can immediately see the status of an issue and follow up. Each ticket listed shows its ticket number, topic, current status, when it was issued, and when it was last acted upon. If you cannot find the ticket you want, you can search your tickets by:

• Whether it is open or closed (resolved).
• The date or date range when it was issued.
• Its topic — you only have to search for part of the title.

Report Issues will display all of your tickets that meet the search requirements. Sort the list in ascending or descending order of any column by clicking the column’s header. You can export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, share, use in other applications, or print as a report.

Review any ticket’s details and respond/add more information. Each ticket has a conversation thread that includes all responses with their date, time, and responder’s name so you can easily follow the discussion. When commenting you can format the text, add hyperlinks, and include screenshots or other images just like when you entered the initial description.

When an issue has been resolved or you no longer need it to be an active inquiry, you can close its ticket and include the reason. You can always re-open the ticket at a later date if you want to continue the conversation.

TL;DR: Find step-by-step tutorials for many functions as well as solutions to error messages and other problems.

Lesson #169

Help – FAQ/KnowledgeBase function

Find answers to common questions about RB9, RB Lite, and RB Connect. Step-by-step tutorials for many RB functions as well as solutions to error messages and other problems are some of the articles you can find here.

The FAQ/KnowledgeBase function groups all of its articles by RB module, plug-in, or other category so you can search for information by general topic area. The list of these subdivisions includes how many articles are in each of them.

Selecting one of these areas reveals a list of all the related KnowledgeBase articles. Each article in the list includes an excerpt to help you located the information you are looking for. You can sort the list in ascending or descending order of any column by clicking the column’s header. You can also export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, share, use in other applications, or print as a report.

Some articles — such as tutorials — include screenshots and other images to make the contents more understandable. You can read any article within this function or send  articles to yourself and others via email directly from within RB. You can include other files in your RB repository as attachments to the email if desired.

TL;DR: Find step-by-step tutorials for many functions as well as solutions to error messages and other problems.

RB concepts in this lesson

Module: Group of related work functions.

Lesson #168

Tools – RB Networks function

If you would like to share work with other agencies and related businesses that use RB, this function (formerly RBXchange) lists contact information for all of the RB users who have agreed to join this roster. Find full contact information including the primary contact’s name, preferred phone number, driving directions to their offices, and their email address. If you want to email them, you can do it directly from within RB.

Find a member

Search for all of the registered RB users in a state or narrow your search further to a particular city. Search results include:

• Name of the agency
• City and state they are located in
• Physical area they cover

RB lists the users in alphabetical order but you can sort the order of this list by clicking one of the results headers — for example group by city so you can quickly scan for all users in adjacent cities. You can export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, share, use in other applications, or print as a report.

Contact a member

Click an agency’s name in the list to view their details and contact them. Contact information includes their:

• Physical address with links to their location in Google Maps, MapQuest Maps, and Bing Maps so you can view their location on a map and get directions.
• Primary contact’s name
• Phone and fax numbers
• Email address that links to RB’s mail composer so you can send them an email directly without leaving RB.
• Company URL
• Coverage area

To be able to have other users exchange work with you through RB Network, you must first sign up and enter your contact information in System Preferences.

TL;DR: Look up contact information of other RB users to share work with and network.

RB concepts in this lesson

Contact: Person who works for a firm you do business with — such as attorneys, paralegals, secretaries, legal assistants, claim adjusters, and court clerks.

Lesson #167

Tools – Signature Proxy Usage function

When you apply reporters’ digital signatures to RB-PDF Transcripts as their proxy, RB9 records the application in this log. You can access these records for any time period. Each reporter can access the log of your application of their signature to their own transcripts on ReporterBase.com.

Get basic information quickly

In this function you can view your signature proxy usage in a monthly overview that lists the number of instances in each month and year by reporter with grand totals for each reporter, month, year, and overall for the date range you searched. The default is all instances you applied a signature to a transcript this month, but you can search any date range. If you search a long time period, you can “collapse” the view to see only year and grand totals.

You can also choose to view instances based on the date of the job the transcript covers instead of the date you applied the signature.

View more details

If the overview doesn’t give you enough information, you can generate a detailed report which lists every instance you applied reporters’ signatures. For each instance it lists:

• Date the signature was applied
• Job number and date
• Case
• Witness
• Resource

You can sort the list in ascending or descending order of any column by clicking the column’s header. And export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, share, use in other applications, or print as a report.

View the details of any job listed by clicking its job number. When viewing a job, you can also edit its details.

NOTE: This is an RB9-only function. It is not included in RB Lite.

TL;DR: Track how many times you applied each reporter’s digital signature to RB-PDF Transcripts in any time period.

RB concepts in this lesson

Job: Usually the reporting of a deposition. More >

RB-PDF Transcript: PDF version of a transcript with built-in transcript-specific features and customization options. More >

ReporterBase Digital Signature Proxy (RB-DSP): Free digital signatures for reporters and agencies that agencies apply to RB-PDF Transcripts. More >

Resource: Person or thing that provides your business with a service — such as reporters.

Lesson #166

Tools – Send Invitations for Signature Proxy function

ReporterBase Digital Signature Proxy (RB-DSP) is the way to apply reporters’ digital signatures to their RB-PDF Transcripts through the normal production process while maintaining the integrity of the signature. Before you can apply reporters’ digital signatures to RB-PDF Transcripts, reporters must grant you permission. Invite reporters to sign up for free digital signatures and grant you proxy to use their digital signatures.

For their part, reporters must:

1. Sign up on ReporterBase.com.
2. Generate a digital certificate.
3. Upload a file of their “wet” signature.
4. Grant you permission to use their signature.

They can then monitor your use of their signature and rescind proxy or cancel their account at any time.

Find reporters to invite

To find the reporter(s) in your RB database you want to invite, use the search criteria, singly or in combination:

• Full Name, First Name, Last Name, or a/k/a (their preferred nickname or business name if they are independent contractors)
• City
• State (single, several, or all)
• Resource Type (single, several, or all)
• Priority Level (single, several, or all)
• Resource number
• Active resources only or all

Send invitations

In the list of reporters your search returned, you can select one, several, or all to send email invitations to. If you are unable to select a reporter in the list, they either already granted you signature proxy or they do not have an email address in your RB database. You can sort the list in ascending or descending order of any column by clicking the column’s header. And export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, share, use in other applications, or print as a report.

Send reporters your standard invitation — which you set up previously in System Preferences — or you can customize it by editing the contents, writing something different, uploading attachments from your RB repository, selecting a different From address, and/or including Cc and Bcc addresses.

When you send a reporter an invitation, RB9 records the date the invitation was sent.

Monitor proxy designations

You can use this function to see if the reporter(s) you invited to join have granted you proxy yet. Search for reporters by the date or range of dates you sent invitations — or any of the other search criteria. In the results returned any reporters who have granted you proxy will have a checkmark in the Signature Proxy column so you can see at a glance who has responded and who you need to follow up with.

NOTE: This is an RB9-only function. It is not included in RB Lite.

TL;DR: Invite reporters to share their digital signatures with you so you can apply them to their RB-PDF Transcripts.

RB concepts in this lesson

RB-PDF Transcript: PDF version of a transcript with built-in transcript-specific features and customization options. More >

ReporterBase Digital Signature Proxy (RB-DSP): Free digital signatures for reporters and agencies that agencies apply to RB-PDF Transcripts. More >

Resource: Person or thing that provides your business with a service — such as reporters.

Lesson #160

Tools – Notes Templates function

Instead of typing the same notes for each case/job — or copying and pasting the info from a Word doc — create templates of boilerplate text to fill the notes fields in cases and jobs. 

With the Notes Templates function you can create templates of text for different types of notes. Create as many templates as you want for specific notes fields in cases and jobs — such as scheduling notes for different types of jobs or even for specific firms or contacts. Style the text in your templates with different font treatments (e.g., font weight, size, and typeface) and colors.

Then select the appropriate template when scheduling a job/setting up a case/etc. If needed you can edit the note to fit the case/job you applied the template to — but that will still be less typing than starting each note from scratch.

Notes templates are saved on the RB server and are available to all of your RB registered users. You can edit your saved templates to update them as needed.

Contextual notes templates

Notes templates are organized into Notes Groups so that when selecting a template in a Notes field only the relevant ones appear. For example templates saved in the Cases-Remarks Notes Group will be available to select in the Remarks field in a case listing.

Notes templates are organized into the following Notes Groups:

• Case-Remarks
• Job-Confirmation Notes
• Job-Production/Billing Notes
• Job-Resource Notification Notes
• Job-Scheduling Notes

Notes Groups are preset by RB9 — you cannot edit or add new groups. You can search for notes in a single Notes Group, several groups, or all groups at once. Export your search results as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, print, share, or use in other applications.

NOTE: This is an RB9-only function. It is not included in RB Lite.

TL;DR: Save time entering notes by setting up templates of boilerplate text you can apply to notes fields in cases and jobs.

RB concepts in this lesson

Job: Usually the reporting of a deposition but can also be any kind of service you provide with your reporters or other resources. More >

Resource: Person or thing that provides your business with a service — such as reporters.

Lesson #153

Personal – Notifications and Messages function

Receive automatic notifications from the system, and send and receive messages from other RB users using the same system in a format similar to an email system. 

In Notifications and Messages you can:

• Receive automatic notices and alerts from the system.
• Exchange messages with others within your RB system.
• Send messages to pre-determined groups of RB users.
• Delete old/unneeded messages to manage your message list.

Notifications and Messages works like email but is not an email system — you can only exchange messages with other RB users in your company.

Access messages

When a message arrives for you, RB displays an alert dialog box in the notification area of your browser — which will take you directly to the Notifications and Messages function. You can also check messages anytime by selecting the function in your personal menu.

The default view in the Notifications and Messages window is your Inbox with messages listed from most recently received first.

• Priority messages are marked with a red flag. RB automatically flags rush Turn In notifications and also displays their Subject line in red.
• Unread messages are marked so you can see at a glance which messages you haven’t read yet. And the total number of unread messages are displayed onscreen too.
• Listings include the sender’s name, the subject line, and date and time sent.
• Reminder messages have the followup date and time listed so you can see at a glance which messages are reminders.

From this main screen you can access any message listed. You can also send a new message to any RB user or message group in your company. And you can view messages you have sent and messages you have moved to the trash but not removed from the system yet.

Reading & acting on messages

When you select a message from the list to read, you can click on any hyperlinks in the message — such as a job number or entity name — to view more information/act on it. You can also reply to the message or forward it to other RB users, either individually or to an entire message group at once.

When you reply to a message, RB automatically fills in the recipient. You can change the recipient and/or add other RB users and groups from the attached list. You can also add carbon-copy (Cc) and blind carbon-copy (Bcc) recipients from the same list.

Like most email systems the  subject line defaults to Re: [subject] of the original message in replies and Fw: [subject] of the original message in forwarded messages, and is editable. Also the message defaults to include the original message.You can edit and format the information as you would an email.

If you want to compose a message now but send at a later time, you can schedule a delivery date and time. You can flag messages so your recipient sees in their Notifications and Messages listing which messages are important before reading them. You can also request a receipt to have the recipient automatically acknowledge receiving your message.

When you send a message, your message is saved to your Sent Message directory where it is stored for a set amount of days determined in System Preferences.

If you do not need to save a message after viewing it, you can delete it. You can also select multiple messages in your Notifications and Messages inbox to delete at the same time. Deleted messages are moved to your Trash directory where they are stored for the same set amount of days as your sent messages.

TL;DR: Receive reminders and other messages from the system and other RB users. Act on messages by clicking hyperlinks within messages. Send messages to other users in your company.

RB concepts in this lesson

Entity: Individual, business, place, or discrete part of your company — such as revenue centers or branch offices. More >

Groups: Categories of RB users that define who can access which functions in RB, what they can do within accessible functions, and what kinds of notifications and messages group members receive.

Users: You and your staff who directly access RB. Contacts and resources are different entities — not users in RB — and access RB9 through RB Connect or RB Connect Mobile.

Lesson #159

Calendar – Jobs (Weekly View) function

Weekly View displays a week’s worth of jobs at once in a week-by-week format. Similar to the Monthly View calendar, Weekly View is a visual calendar format displaying a week at a time.

Weekly View defaults to all jobs for the current week — grouped by day (including Saturday and Sunday) so you can quickly access the week ahead. Each day’s header includes:

• Date
• Day of the week
• Total number of jobs scheduled and canceled for that day

Each day’s list of jobs scheduled/canceled appears in chronological order by start time. In addition to the start time each listing shows the job number and a third option of your choice — ordering firm, case, or witness. Listings are color coded based on their job status.

Rolling over any entry pops up details about the job. Clicking an entry opens the job’s detail window.You can page back and forth through weeks — or jump to a particular week by entering a date.

If the row of 3 elements in a job listing is longer than the width of its day’s space, it will be cut off (there is no word wrapping) — but details are easily visible if the user rolls over the listing. If there are more jobs scheduled for a day than fit vertically, the day’s space will include a scroll bar so you can access the jobs that are not visible at first. If the whole week is not visible, you can use your screen’s scroll bars to view hidden sections.

You can restrict the listings to jobs for:

• A single ordering firm
• An ordering contact
• A scheduling contact
• One or more job statuses
• One or more job types
• One or more of your business units
• One of your sales reps
• A case
• One or more case types
• A parent firm
• A job location
• A job location city
• One or more job location states

From the calendar you can add a new job, or view/update/turn in/cancel/reschedule existing jobs.

Weekly View customization

Each Weekly View job listing shows its start time and job number. Those are fixed data and cannot be changed but you can select the third type of information that appears in job listings to identify jobs in System Preferences.

You can also set the height of the weekday boxes in rows from 5 to 15. Each row lists one job. The weekly calendar will display each weekday with enough space vertically for the number of rows you set (Saturday and Sunday will be half the height set). If there are more jobs scheduled for a day than the maximum you set, the day’s space will include a scroll bar.

NOTE: This is an RB9-only function. It is not included in RB Lite.

TL;DR: Use Weekly View to see a week’s worth of jobs at a time with brief descriptors of the jobs. 

RB concepts in this lesson

Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately.

Case Type: Categories of cases by work type, e.g., Civil or Personal Injury.

Job: Usually the reporting of a deposition, but can also be any kind of service you provide with your reporters or other resources, such as realtime, videoconferencing, or read & sign. More >

Job Status: Stage the job is in, e.g., New or Cancelled.

Job Type: Category of jobs requested by clients, such as Deposition or Real-Time.

Ordering Firm: Firm that is responsible for a job with your company.

Ordering Contact: Contact at the firm that is responsible for a job with your company.

Scheduled By: Contact who initiates a jobs with your company. Can be different from the Ordering Contact.

Lesson #144

Connect – Approve Time-Off function

If you allow it, resources can submit time-off requests through RB Connect and RB Connect Mobile (RBCM). Requests can be for any time frame — from a few hours for a doctor’s appointment, to a personal day, a long vacation, or a semester of classes that repeat at a specific time for a set period. Resources can provide all the details needed for you to make a decision in their requests. Use the Approve Time-Off function to manage time-off requests made online.

Give resources access to the Availability function in RB Connect; then set preferences for:

• How soon in advance resources must make their requests.
• What your email responses to requests say.
• Who on your staff will be alerted when a time-off request comes in. The staff you list here can use this function whenever they are alerted to a request or as fits their work process to view and approve or deny time-off requests received online.

Manage online time-off requests

The default view is all outstanding requests, so you can quickly get to work resolving time-off requests. You can restrict the results to see requests pending from a single resource, and/or requests for a specific time period. You can also view requests with other statuses: Approved, Cancelled (by resource), and/or Denied.

The results list all requests that fit your search criteria. Each listing includes:

• Resource’s name
• Type of request
• Request’s current status
• Date(s) and times the resource is requesting
• Resource’s reason for the request and any further explanation
• When the request was made
• Who last acted on the request and at what time

You can sort your results in the grid by one or more columns in ascending or descending order (but when you exit the function, RB9 will revert back to the default order). Export the results as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, share, print, or use in other applications.

To grant a resource’s request, you only have to click the resource’s hyperlinked name, then click Approve. If there is a schedule conflict —you tried to approve a resource’s time-off request for a time when the resource has already been assigned a task — a warning window appears and RB9 does not allow you to approve the request. If no warning appears the request is approved, RB9 updates the request’s status, and notifies the resource via email and in their RB Connect Availability window’s Time-Off panel.

If you select Deny instead — to turn down the resource’s request —RB9 requires you to enter a comment/explanation before you can complete the denial. Then RB9 updates the request’s status and notifies the resource via email and in RB Connect.

The Approve Time-Off function is limited to viewing, approving, and denying time-off requests made through RB Connect/RBCM only. If you need to make any changes to a time-off schedule or want to manage/monitor all time-off requests, use Resource Availability. You can view any resource’s schedule and planned time off, and change their schedule — adding or reducing hours of availability and time off.

If you have RB Connect and allow resources to use it to request time off, Approve Time-Off is a faster way to approve/deny requests than Resource Availability because the resource has already entered all of the request details — plus RB9 will notify you as soon as a request is made.

NOTE: This is an RB9-only function and requires RB Connect. It is not included in RB Lite.

TL;DR: When resources request time off through RB Connect or RB Connect Mobile, approve or deny their requests and have RB9 automatically notify them of their status through email and RB Connect/RBCM.

RB concepts in this lesson

RB Connect: Online repository, calendar, and access to your office for clients and resources. More >

RB Connect Mobile: Clients and resources can access your RB Connect on their smartphones and tablets in an interface optimized for mobile devices. More >

Resource: Person or thing that provides your business with a service.