Release 2.8 features:

• Statistics Overhaul
• Reassigning Groups for Admins
• Hidden and GeoCoded Groups
• Location moved to Groups
• Void Reports
• Injury Trend Graphs

Details:

Statistics Overhaul

Over time the statistics area has grown to have many different graphs, sometimes very similar in nature.  We have overhauled this to make the interface much more consistent and at the same time providing more detailed time periods, right down to a daily range.

All of your graphs are still there, but they might be under slightly new headings, so take a look around.  if you need help finding one of your favorites, never hesitate to call/email.

Reassigning Groups for Admins

As report groups are entered, spelling mistakes inevitably crop up.  Previously you would need to find all of the reports with the misspelled group and then change them, then remove the group from the available choices.  We have consolidated this into 1 action – in the Admin Settings, Report Groups area, when you delete a group, you are given the option of reassigning instead of just deleting (removing) it from the reports it appears on.  In the following case, I want to ensure that “3CIS” (with capitals) is used instead of “3cis”:

Hidden Groups and GeoCoded Groups

Also new in the group area are Hidden Groups.  These groups are allowed to be entered and seen by administrators only.  Some care is needed, however, when generating PDF reports, as if you generate it with the new option of adding hidden fields, that will be put in the PDF and therefore might be seen by others.

GeoCoded Groups allow you to specify a lat and long for each group, if you would like to add the report to a map.

Location moved to Groups

Closely related to geocoded groups is the move of Office Location, previously its own stand alone field to just be another group.  This greatly simplifies things while still allowing you to use it in the same manner as before.  When we looked at Location and how it was being used, we eventually realized that it should have been in the Group section all along, so this now fixes that.

Void Reports

Many industries have the notion of a VOID report, which is a report the want to track, but which is pretty much invisible when it comes time to tally stats.  You can now mark a report as VOID and keep it in the system without fear that it will show up on TRIF or in quarterly stats.

Injury Trend Graphs

Following up on the detailed injury fields that we added a while back, we now have new graphs to show injury statistics.  This is under Statistics -> Graphs -> Injuries.  We have started with a small set, but as you have ideas for new graphs, please let us know and we can add them.

We are very excited about these changes and they lay the groundwork for even more additions in the future.  We have a long roadmap with our user suggestions and we continually strive to add features to bring more and more value to our customers.

Thanks – The IncidentCheck team

• Custom Reports – monthly, quarterly, and yearly PDF reports
• A more polished Report PDF
• Small changes to the report entry form to make reprot entry that much faster and easier
• Small bug fixes and small enhancements

Custom PDF Reports

Under the Statistics menu item, you will now see a new item called “Reports”.  From here you can pick monthly, quarterly, or yearly reports.  These reports allow you to choose graphs to display and provide titles and a narrative for those graphs to provide a beautifully presented document for showing your organization where things stand.

This is the first step of many enhancements in this area, and we are soliciting feedback on how this area can be developed to provide you with the information you need.  So, if you have any suggestions, feel free to let us know.

Report PDF Changes

We have changed the design of the PDF report for individual incidents – the previous design had too much whitespace and the new design addresses that issue as well as cleans up the typography and general layout.  We think this is a huge improvement over the previous design and would be curious to hear any feedback from our users on this.

Streamlined Report Entry

We have changed the report entry to make it easier and faster to enter the initial details of a report.  This makes better use of the space in the form and eliminates scrolling on most devices that was previously necessary.

This also sets the stage for new upcoming changes with more personalization.

We feel Incident Check is the best incident management system out there and it continues to get better with each release.

Check out the screenshots for a taste of the difference:

Before:

After:

To that end, the newest features include exports of the tabular summaries to Word, a new way to view your account organization, and a list of all outstanding corrective actions.

We use Report Groups as a “tag” for reports, leaving this generic enough for our many varied companies to use as they see fit.  Some examples are companies tagging reports with Divisions, Truck #, Crew #, Project ID, Rig #, Supervisor, and many many more.

While Incident Check always had email alerts, now administrators will have the ability to send emails based on the Report Group, allowing for increased flexibility in alerting your users.

This post will outline the basics for setting up GLA.

Step 1: Decide what criteria to use to define access levels

This portion is done by the safety administrator(s) and is a decision about what category you would like to use to set up access groups. For example, at 3CIS, we have 3 distinct divisions – Wireless, Cabling, and Software.   This is the logical choice for us to set up access for non admins to see things happening in their own area.

Other companies may have divisions, reporting units, operating companies, Unit #, Rig #, etc.  This can be anything that makes sense for your particular situation.

Step 2: Set up a Report Group

Now, after logging into Incident Check as an administrator, go to Settings and choose Report Grouping.

Create (or find) the report group you decided on in step 1 and click it.  On the right, you will see an option that says “Used For Group Access”.  Check this and it will now allow you to assign users.  For 3CIS, this is “Division”.

It is best practice, though not strictly necessary, to have the group locked and mandatory as well.  If in doubt, set both of these.

Under Groups, add the different groups that apply.  Again, for 3CIS, these are “Cabling”, “Wireless”, and “Software”.

Step 3: Add/Modify users

When you are happy with the setup, it is now time to add users to that group.  Click Settings…User Accounts, and choose (or create) someone to whom group access applies.

In the Access Level drop-down, there are now 3 choices:

• Reporter
• Group Access
• Admin

Choosing Group Access now enables the Group Access area.  You will see the group that you specified in step 2.  For 3CIS, this is Division, and in that drop-down, there is Wireless, Cabling, and Software.  Pick the one that applies for this person and click one of the Save buttons.

End Result

For the newly set up person, they will now only see Incident, Near Misses, and Hazards that are part of that group.  And, when creating a new report, the report is automatically tagged with the groups they are in.

You will see what group a person is part of in the top right of the menu, giving a clear indicator of what reports that person is seeing.

Note: Not all companies require or use GLA. If you do not have this ability but would like it, please contact us to turn this on for your company.

Many of our customers need to limit access to reports for different divisions of their companies.  Currently, we have two access levels – Reporters and Administrators.  Reporters add and edit their own reports and can only see what they have entered, whereas Administrators see and have access to everything.

However, there is an in-between access level that we have now addressed.  The challenge from the technical point of view was how to provide this functionality in a way that supports all of our various customers from the many different industries that have a strong safety component to them.

We have done this through our report groups, the current mechanism for ‘tagging’ reports with company specific information – things like Division, Contractor, Operating Company, Supervisor, and many others defined by our users.  Now you can assign users into one or more of these groups and they will only see the appropriately tagged reports.

For people contemplating using this mechanism, all that is needed is to decide what characteristics you would like to use to restrict access, and then use the Settings area (available to admins only) to make this a locked and mandatory group.  Then simply add people to that group.

We are very excited to hear how our customers start using this feature and we are looking forward to feedback.

However, the concept of “mining the pyramid” is one where you look into all of the recorded near misses and incidents and begin identifying those that are high risk.  The intention is to drive out more of the trends that your company needs to focus on – those near misses and incidents that are serious but might be lost among all the other reporting.

We at Incident Check are looking to provide tools to facilitate this process – underlying every incident, hazard, and near miss report is the risk matrix with the severity and the liklihood of reccurrence giving the overall total risk.  We are now working on ways to highlight this inside of the existing Acident Pyramid to provide a strong visual representation of these events.

By defining your own incident types, you gain more control over exactly what is reported, as well as being able to see more in-depth trends and analysis, ultimately giving you better prediction tools for the future.