Stages typically are used to track stages of a process that require multiple people to touch a work order etc. It would be great if there was a way to set a timer (like Stage X Max days 1) and if it goes past that to flag in the list with color or an identifier for past due of some sort. This would really help multiple staff keep an eye on things and make sure progress keeps happening timely.
Additionally, it would be nice to send a reminder to someone you wanted to flag (like a manager) if the stage goes beyond the time frame.
I really want everyone to think deeply and carefully about the Stages feature. It has a lot of potential but I don’t want to make it to something convoluted.
I also want to add a Task feature to manage things that need to be done but are not going to be on a schedule board. Tasks would be for internal purposes too. An example might be to send an email. Tasks might also be made part of a work order, so that the work order can be broken down into pieces. One capability for a task is to require the completion of another task prior to allowing it to be completed (tasks with dependencies). For example, the land must be surveyed before it can be marked/staked and it must be staked before we can send the excavators. I don’t want to overlap the two features.
James, the task feature you describe is essentially how we are using stages right now. But Task sounds intriguing, because we do have many other “Tasks” that need to be completed during a stage and you don’t necessarily want to change the stage. I was discussing an insurance CRM software with a colleague this weekend that had “Activities”. The activities were all parts of communication with customers and sending certain documents, etc. Those activities could be assigned to certain members of the team. It helped verify that all steps, communications, etc were being completed. (Also as a side-note, a term like Activities opposed to Stage might help relieve some internal communication issues. I notice Status and Stage gets confused in conversation a lot because the words are so similar in meaning and phonetics.)
We would like to see this feature also. With the ability to tag users within the software if a stage correlates to ie “warehouse department, billing department, Project management. This feature would be huge in productivity and profitability with not having to search for things that may have falling through the cracks. This would allow a more seamless automation from one “stage to another” and allow each user involved a responsibility associate with the stage.
With a lot of the support features Bryan has suggested we have found these are things that we have requested or suggest in the past in conversations with you, Erick,, tech support staff and the original product feature request forum/Dojo.
Perhaps a round table with a few members that have offer suggestions with similar interest would be easier to convey and explain. Just a thought.