Administration and Setup
Proper setup of SME and ongoing maintenance is critical to ensure proper and easy use of the solution for all users. Time spent on the initial setup is time well spent. The main parts of the setup include User setup, technician setup, company information setup, and lookup lists.
Note: Much of the business process is designed into SME. One important aspect of SME setup is the Lists. See SME Lookup Lists for more information.
Administration consists of initial setup and then ongoing maintenance. The first section goes into initial setup, then the optional sync with QuickBooks, and then the second section discusses ongoing maintenance.
Initial Setup of SME:
All setup functions will be performed in the Setup Section. Go through all the setups. See the Setup help for detailed information. It important to setup Users prior to setting the option for "Require users to Log In" or "Use Passwords".
Note: If you plan to use SQLink to sync SME with QuickBooks, do NOT setup the Tax Codes, Tax Groups, or Terms. These will be controlled by QuickBooks.
The Lookup Lists require you to match the company business process with the Lists. For example, the Sales Stage list matches to the company sales pipeline. It is recommended that you review through the lists and how they are used. Then you should meet with the appropriate personnel who know the business process associated with the lists. For example for all the sales related lists, you would meet with the Sales manager and owner and capture the sales pipeline to use as the Sales Stage. While meeting with them, find out how they want to use Bid Codes, Business Types, Sales Actions, and so on.
Business Process Tips: Match the company business process AS IT SHOULD BE with the lookup lists. This will enable employees to follow the "should be" business process through the use of SME. Take the opportunity of SME setup to improve the company business processes.
The next step is to setup Users Groups. These will provide various rights for users and also hide areas of SME that the user group will not need to access. For example, a user group for Technicians would not need access to Sales or Receivable sections and you may want to hide customer balance information in the customer section. Likewise a user group for Sales would have access to Sales Section and Customers, but would probably not need most other areas, also Sales people like things very simple, so they would appreciate hiding many of the customer tabs.
User Setup
Setup the users and provide each with a Name, user name, password (optional), and select a user group for security and what SME features they can access.
Setup each user's email setting similar to Outlook settings. Namely the smtp or exchange server, username, and password.
Report Customization:
Your organization may want to customize reports such as proposals, service or install orders, or invoices. See the Report Customization help for more information.
Sync with QuickBooks (Optional):
This section only applies if you have purchased SQLink to link SME and QuickBooks.
You will sync with QuickBooks using the SQLink program. It is best to have SQLink run on the computer or server where the QuickBooks (QB) data is held and QB is installed. NOTE: Initial sync can take several hours and consume significant computer resources, it is best to run the INITIAL sync when users are out of QB. After the initial sync, it's fine to have users in QB, however the initial sync needs to bring over lots of past QB data.
See the SQLink help for more details.
User Training (Optional, but highly recommended):
Once you have completed the initial setup and optional sync with QuickBooks, the next step to to make sure everyone that will be using SME is trained. High 5 Software offers online training. A few hours of training will really help everyone's experience with SME. High 5 Software recommends each training session to be 1 to 2 hours only to hold people’s attention.
At the time of this writing, online training sessions are available for an hourly charge with unlimited users (up to 15 separate connections). To schedule training, email to training@high5software.com
For small organizations, it's recommended to have everyone attend one or two 1 hour sessions of training to go over all the aspects of SME. Small organizations tend to have people play lots of different roles, so it's best to have them cross trained for various aspects of the program.
For large organizations, it's recommended to have role specific training. For example, one session on Sales and other training session on Service Orders creation and Dispatch, etc.
Ongoing Maintenance:
Ongoing maintenance consists of the following items:
Backups: Backups should occur every night. Note that since SME is built on Microsoft SQL Server, special tools or scripts are required to perform the backup. You can NOT just copy the mdf and log files because MS SQL has a lock on the file. Special tools first stop the service or detach the database prior to backup. Also, the backup requires both the mdf and log files for a successful restore.
Business Process Tip: Always test the backup restore after setting up or changing the settings of the backup.
Updating Setup Lists: Users may request additional items for setup lists that you will need to add. It is recommended to never delete lookup lists that have been used, but instead make them inactive or change the name to something similar.
Reporting: The company may need you to create new reports or change existing customized reports.
Updating SME: The administrator user should have it set to "Check for Updates" to see if SME product updates are available. If an update is available, the administrator should plan to update off-hours.
Reindexing: Database reindexing will cleanup deleted files and streamline the database. Reindexing is not needed too often and usually happens with new updates. However it may be a good practice to reindex every month or so.