Automatic Alerts and Information Broadcasts from MAXIMO
Frequently Asked Questions
General
- What is dbNews used for?
- Which systems does dbNews work with? We'd like to send automatic notifications from Oracle Financials as well as our proprietary manufacturing software.
- What's required for someone to receive information from dbNews? Can it send messages to people that aren't on the same email system?
- We have hundreds of users in different locations. How would we rollout dbNews to them?
- What is normally involved in implementing and configuring dbNews and can we do it with our own IT staff?
- What new features are you planning for future releases of dbNews?
- What are the hardware and operating environment requirements to run dbNews?
Databases
- We have both Oracle and SQL Server databases - can dbNews work with both of them?
- How does dbNews connect to the database?
News Sources
Publications
- What's the difference between "subscription" and "direct mail" publications and when would each type be used?
- Can dbNews generate web pages that people can view on demand rather than send email messages?
Subscribers & Subscriptions
- Who can subscribe to receive news publications?
- Can I setup certain people to receive publications directly (without them having to enter a subscription)?
- What kind of security is there so that only I can change my subscriptions?
General
Q:
What is dbNews used for?
A: dbNews is a powerful, automated agent
that works behind the scenes to identify, extract, and communicate
targeted business information. Click here
to see some of the ways leading enterprises are using this versatile
tool to increase productivity, improve decision suport, and enhance
customer satisfaction.
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Q:
Which systems does dbNews work with? We'd like to send automatic
notifications from Oracle Financials as well as our proprietary
manufacturing software.
A: dbNews works with any database application,
whether it is a commercial system such as as SAP, Oracle, Peoplesoft,
etc, or an in-house system. The point and click interface walks
the administrator through setting up news sources and news publications
based on the underlying database table and column structure, so
dbNews can extend the functionality of any database application
you use.
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Q:
What's required for someone to receive information from dbNews?
Can it send messages to people that aren't on the same email system?
A: dbNews publications can send information
to any person with a valid internet email address. This means that
you can send information to your customers, vendors, business partners,
etc, in addition to people in your company. For security purposes,
however, you can specify that a publication may only be distributed
to certain domains (e.g. anyone at yourcompany.com).
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Q:
We have hundreds of users in different locations. How would we rollout
dbNews to them?
A: dbNews is made up of two primary modules: the dbNews
Studio and the dbNews Server. The Studio module is used by the person(s)
in your company responsible for creating news publications and the
dbNews Server module runs in the 'backoffice' as an application
server. This design means that most of your users would never need
to interact with the actual dbNews application directly. However,
they would be able to subscribe to publications which accepted subscriptions
(as opposed to direct mail publications) using the provided dbNews
Web subscription application.
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Q:
What is normally involved in implementing and configuring dbNews
and can we do it with our own IT staff?
A: dbNews was designed to be easy to implement and easy
to use. Our business model is based on selling you a valuable product
that you can use right away, not in selling you costly consulting
services to make the product work. Usually, dbNews customers can
install and configure the software themselves using the online help
guides or contacting us with questions as necessary. Contact
us about a fully functional dbNews evaluation version to see
how easy it really is.
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Q:
What new features are you planning for future releases of dbNews?
A: We're continually enhancing dbNews based on input
from our customers. A recent update included new enhancements such
as the ability to fully control message layout and formatting using
HTML template files, the ability to run SQL scripts to update or
migrate newsworthy data, and support for additional databases. Please
contact us directly to hear about what we're currently planning
for dbNews.
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Q:
What are the hardware and operating environment requirements to
run dbNews?
A: These can vary depending on the quantity of messages
that will be generated each hour, but in most cases the requirements
are:
|
Module
|
Type
|
Minimum Recommended Specifications |
|
Server:
|
Back
Office
(NT Service) |
Application Server running Windows NT/2000 (can be shared app server); Pentium II or higher; 256 MB Ram; 1 GB free space. |
|
Studio:
|
Administrator
Only
|
Workstation running Windows 2000 or higher; Pentium II or higher; 128 MB Ram; 500 MB free space. |
|
Web
Subscribe:
|
User
App (optional)
|
Web Server running IIS 3.0 or higher, with support for ASP. |
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Databases
Q:
We have both Oracle and SQL Server databases - can dbNews work with
both of them?
A: Yes, in fact, a single dbNews installation can connect
to multiple database server types concurrently if that's where you
have defined your news sources.
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Q:
How does dbNews connect to the database?
A: dbNews connect to the database using your database
vendor's native drivers. This offers the best possible performance
and also avoids ODBC setup hassles.
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News Sources
Q:
Your literature says that any database table or view may be defined
as a News Source, but what about situations where the data to report
on is spread across multiple tables?
A: When you define a News Source in dbNews, you can
define it as a single table or view and then choose the table name
from a list of tables in your database or you can define it as a
multiple table souce. If you specify multiple table, you can use
any number of tables and specify how they should be joined together
using standard SQL syntax. All of the columns from the joined tables
are then available to publications using that News Source.
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Publications
Q:
What's the difference between "subscription" and "direct
mail" publications and when would each type be used?
A: When news is found, a publication that is distributed
based on subscriptions checks to see who has registered to receive
the publication and then sends the issue to them. Direct Mail publications,
however, are defined with the news content associated in some way
to a recipient name or email address so when a direct mail publication
identifies news, personalized news messages are automatically sent
to the appropriate people. A single direct mail publication can
send personalized news messages to any number of people.
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Q:
Can dbNews generate web pages that people can view on demand rather
than send email messages?
A: Yes, any dbNews publication can publish the news
directly to HTML file rather than transmit it via email, allowing
you to automatically refresh web or intranet page content. In fact
by specifying a 'Break On' column, a single publication can generate
any number of HTML pages with personalized content. For example,
if you specified that a publication should break on the Supervisor
column, dbNews would create a separate HTML page for each supervisor's
news content and name the files based on the supervisor's name (the
break column value).
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Subscribers & Subscriptions
Q:
Who can subscribe to receive news publications?
A: Technically, anyone with an internet email address
can subscribe to publication of interest. However, you may want
to restrict who is able to subscribe to certain publications or
categories of publications. A self-service web subscription application
is provided which can be modified as necessary or can be selectively
made available to certain user groups for subscription to the appropriate
publications.
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Q:
Can I setup certain people to receive publications directly (without
them having to enter a subscription)?
A: Yes, the dbNews Studio allows you to create and manage subscribers
and subscriptions easily. You can also create Direct Mail publications
where the intended recipient's email address is available in the
database so no subscriptions are required.
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Q:
What kind of security is there so that only I can change my subscriptions?
A: When you create your dbNews subscriber account you
can provide a password. You'll then have to enter this password
in order to view or change your subscriptions in the future. If
you forget your password, you can enter your email address and a
password reminder email message will be sent to you.
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