Adding a Related Activity

Essentially, all that makes activities related or linked to one another is how you create multiple activities for the same event such as in our example of three telephone calls to a customer on the same day. An event might be called one stream of thought. Our unrelated example is based on making one telephone call to a customer for a particular purpose, discussing a forthcoming discount on product. Suppose it took three telephone calls to reach the customer and each of those activities were related to one another. Following that example this is how you would have created all of the related activities and activity notes:

Presumption: is that the original unrelated activity had been on Dave Cunningham's contact record and therefore on your ToDo list and today is the day that you want to telephone him. Press V (View) T (ToDo) to display your ToDo list. Choose Dave's outbound telephone activity from the list by placing your cursor on the activity bar and pressing enter. You are now on Dave Cunningham's record, in the PID group for ABC Company. The original unrelated activity for the telephone call is highlighted. Press D (Dial) to start recording your telephone call to him. You get through to his line but listen to a voice mail message saying that he is at lunch everyday at this hour. Your use F9 to update the activity note to show that you tried to call him and Press H (Hangup) to stop the timer and complete the telephone activity. The completed activity will look like this:

Date	When	Target	Author	Pty	Type	Method	Code	SID	Status	Ver
MM/DD/YY	12:00a	userID	userID	B 3	ACTN	TELE O	15% Disc	CUNNINDJ	COMPLT	2
MM/DD/YY xx:xxa - userID - sales call to discuss next month's 15% discount offer. Let Dave know that he will save money on his next order so that he has a chance to order more product. ## MM/DD/YY xx:xxa - userID - Dave is at lunch each day at this hour, will have to call later.

You have created an additional activity note under the original activity note by Pressing F9, typing "Dave is at lunch each day at this hour, will have to call later.", and pressing enter. The original unrelated activity is now completed and no longer on your ToDo list but you have to call Dave later. You need a related activity to continue the event of telephoning Dave.

You can create a related activity in several different ways. The most common is with a prompt window that is setup by your System Administrator and occurs after you complete an activity. The prompt window looks like this:

Next Action?

Enter Selection

1. add an Unrelated activity U:

2. add a Related activity R:

3. No further action N:

Selection: 

 Key R (Related activity) into the Selection space and Press Enter. An Add Related Activity prompt window opens:

  Add Related Activity Prompt:

Field:	Defaults:	Options:
Date	Today's Date	You can key any date desired. 1D, 1W, 1M is a shortcut for 1 day, 1 week or 1 month for automatic corresponding dates. You can change the number for day, week or month any value, 2D, 3W, 2M or you can key the exact date you want.
Target	UserID	This is the person who will have the pending activity on their ToDo list
Type	Actn	You may choose one of five types, Actn, Info, Resp, F/Up, ????
Priority	B 3	Two fields expressing Importance with values of A, B, C and Urgency with values of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 9 (on hold list)
Msg to Tgt/Aut	N N	Two fields with possible values of Y (Yes) or N (No). Urgency values of 1 or 2 will automatically be set to Y. Yes means that a break message will be sent to either the Target (1st field) or Author (2nd field) whenever the activity is changed or completed
Method	T	Tele, Hdoc, Fdoc, Vist, Iact. Iact means internal action. It is the default for method for activity types Info, Resp, F/Up, and ????
Direction	I	Inbound, Outbound, None. N means None. It is the default for direction for activity types Info, Resp, F/Up, and ????

All of these defaults are acceptable EXCEPT Direction. This new related activity is an outbound call to Dave. Change the direction from I (Inbound) to O by typing O (Outbound) in the Selection space, Press enter.

You have now created a new related activity on Dave Cunningham's record. You have a new pending activity on your ToDo list for another try at reaching him about the discount promotional. You will also note that there is a + (plus sign) next to the version number in the activity bar. Use F9 on this new related activity to add an activity note. Type, need to talk to Dave about pending discount, Press enter after you have typed the note.

The activity bar on Dave's record now looks like this:

Date	When	Target	Author	Pty	Type	Method	Code	SID	Status	Ver
MM/DD/YY	12:00a	userID	userID	B 3	ACTN	TELE O	15% Disc	CUNNINDJ	PENDNG	1+
MM/DD/YY xx:xxa - userID - Need to talk to Dave about pending discount.

Note the plus sign next to the version number. That indicates a related activity. To view all other activities related to this one, use F2 to see the Related Activity Assembly screen. This display picks out all related activities to the one that you highlighted on the contact record and displays them in a group starting in chronological order. The screen will look like this for our two related activities:

Related Activity Assembly

Date	When	Target	Author	Pty	Type	Method	Code	SID	Status	Ver
MM/DD/YY	12:00a	userID	userID	B 3	ACTN	TELE O	15% Disc	CUNNINDJ	PENDNG	1
MM/DD/YY xx:xxa - userID - Need to talk to Dave about pending discount.
MM/DD/03	12:00a	userID	userID	B 3	ACTN	TELE O	15% Disc	CUNNINDJ	COMPLT	2
MM/DD/YY xx:xxa - userID - sales call to discuss next month's 15% discount offer. Let Dave know that he will save money on his next order so that he has a chance to order more product. ## MM/DD/YY xx:xxa - userID - Dave is at lunch each day at this hour, will have to call later.

To move back to Dave Cunningham's contact record, Press enter. To assemble related activities, highlight an activity with a + (plus sign) next to the version number and Press F2. Some related activities are pending for the exact same date and time. If that is the case than those related activities will be stacked on top of one another. When that happens you will not see a + (plus sign) on the related activities. It is only when they are separated by date or time that the + (plus sign) appears. Either display of related activities use F2 to assemble all related activities in that group. Let's finish our example and make the next telephone call to Dave:

Press V (View) T (ToDo) to display your ToDo list. Choose Dave's outbound telephone activity from the list by placing your cursor on the activity bar and pressing enter. You are now on Dave Cunningham's record, in the PID group for ABC Company. The related activity for the telephone call is highlighted. Press D (Dial) to start recording your telephone call to him. You get through to his line but listen to a voice mail message now saying that he is at a 1 hour meeting every day from 1pm to 2pm (your call was at 1:15pm). Update the activity note using F9 to show that you tried to call by typing "Called Dave and he is in a meeting everyday from 1pm to 2pm, still need to talk to him about the discount", Press enter after you have typed the note and than Press H (Hangup) to stop the timer and complete the telephone activity. The prompt window, Next Action? appears, choose R for (add a Related activity), update the direction field to O (Outbound) and Press Enter. Use F9 on this new related activity to add an activity note.

If you were to use F2 on this last pending related activity your screen would look like this:

Related Activity Assembly

Date	When	Target	Author	Pty	Type	Method	Code	SID	Status	Ver
MM/DD/YY	12:00a	userID	userID	B 3	ACTN	TELE O	15% Disc	CUNNINDJ	PENDNG	1+
MM/DD/YY xx:xxa - userID - Need to talk to Dave about pending discount. Also need to find out best time to call him to discuss his account.
Date	When	Target	Author	Pty	Type	Method	Code	SID	Status	Ver
MM/DD/YY	12:00a	userID	userID	B 3	ACTN	TELE O	15% Disc	CUNNINDJ	COMPLT	2+
MM/DD/YY xx:xxa - userID - Need to talk to Dave about pending discount. ## MM/DD/YY xx:xxa - userID - Called Dave and he is in a meeting everyday from 1pm to 2pm, still need to talk to him about the discount
Date	When	Target	Author	Pty	Type	Method	Code	SID	Status	Ver
MM/DD/YY	12:00a	userID	userID	B 3	ACTN	TELE O	15% Disc	CUNNINDJ	COMPLT	2+
MM/DD/YY xx:xxa - userID - sales call to discuss next month's 15% discount offer. Let Dave know that he will save money on his next order so that he has a chance to order more product. ## MM/DD/YY xx:xxa - userID - Dave is at lunch each day at this hour, will have to call later.

Press enter to close the Related Activity Assembly screen.

Last try of the day to call Dave Cunningham, Press V (View) T (ToDo) to display your ToDo list. Choose Dave's outbound telephone activity from the list by placing your cursor on the activity bar and pressing enter. You are now on Dave Cunningham's record, in the PID group for ABC Company. The related activity for the telephone call is highlighted. Press D (Dial) to start recording your telephone call to him. You get through Dave, finally, and have a great conversation about his account. He advises it is best to call him between 2:30pm and 3:30pm everyday - he is always available at that time. Update the activity note using F9 to record what was discussed, "Called Dave, he was actually preparing his order for next week. I let him know that we were having a 15% Discount on all orders starting next month. Since his order is usually placed on Monday and the new month starts on Tuesday, he will delay the order by one day to take advantage of the discount. He was very grateful that I called and will increase the order so that he can increase the savings. I also told him that placing the order on Tuesday will have no effect on the shipping date. It still will go out on Thursday as normal. He told me that he loves doing business with our company because we save him money and have wonderful products and very good customer service. We make his job easy. I made him laugh because I told him he makes my job easier because he always knows what he wants and his company always pays on time. He advised that the best time to reach him each day is between 2:30pm and 3:30pm - he says he is always available if I call at that time". Press enter after you have typed the note and than Press H (Hangup) to stop the timer and complete the telephone activity. The prompt window, Next Action? appears, choose N for No further action and Press enter.

Now if you were to use F2 on this last highlighted related activity your screen would look like this:

Press enter to close the Related Activity Assembly screen.

There are other ways to create a related activity besides using the prompt window. Let's say that now you have talked to Dave, you would like to let Mary in your order entry department know about the conversation so that she can anticipate a larger order and also make sure Dave gets the promised 15% discount. Mary uses ActionWare also so all you have to do is create a related activity on Dave's contact record so that she can see the the conversation you had with him today. You would want to create a related activity because you need her to see the telephone calls and the results of those calls so that she is aware of the conversation. You also don't need her to really do anything, you just want to impart information to her.

You can add another related activity by highlighting the last completed telephone activity and pressing F6. F6 will allow you to use a Designated Target Users pop-up window: Key I (Info activity) into the 1st space under the display of your last activity, also key Mary's userID, in this case we are using Mary. Press Enter to view the Add a Related Activity prompt window. You will note that the default target user is now Mary and that the newly related activity is Informational. Press enter, and use F9 to add an activity note to Mary, Type: Mary fyi. Mary will now have a pending info activity on her ToDo List pointing her to Dave Cunningham's contact record and because you have related your telephone activities to her information activity - she'll see the whole picture all on one screen by using F2 to assemble the related activities. When she gets to her activity all she will have to do is press F15 to Complete the activity after she reads all the details. A Completed INFO activity is the same as initialing an interoffice memo to witness that you read the memo.

Designated Target Users
Distribution List _________ ________ F4 for List
or Enter options, press Enter.
A=Actn I=Info F=Follow up ?=Inquiry R=Reply
Opt	User ID	Description
A	userID	Name of user
I	Mary	Mary McKay
___	______
___	______
___	______

 Using the F6 Designated Target User prompt window is also a good way to distribute meeting minutes to all attendees and to those who didn't make it to the meeting. An example would be:

You would need an internal set of records for your company along with a contact record with a SID (Secondary ID field) for SALES (or your department name) and you can also make the TID (Tertiary ID field) be Meeting.

The date and time stamp of the initial unrelated activity plus the activity notes are used to detail the meeting. What the agenda was, what decisions were made, relevant comments, assignments resulting from the meeting, etc.

One of the features available when you use F6 Designated Target User (prompt window) is the ability to use a Distribution List. Your System Administrator is responsible for setting up the lists. Using F4 in the prompt window at Distribution List will display a listing of all distribution lists, typically these lists are by departments. In this example all of the employees in SALES would be part of the SALES distribution list. You would only need to choose that list and press enter to have all of the userID's for those employees listed for you in the prompt window. Pressing enter will result in a related activity for each of those users - pointing to the minutes of the meeting.

You would use F15 to complete the original unrelated activity that has the meeting minutes (activity note). Every user who uses F15 to complete his or her information related activity will be letting you know that they have read the details simply by completing the activity. They won't be able to claim that they didn't see the memo! A date and time stamp of completion will remain on the SALES meeting contact record as history. They can if they like add an extended activity note using F9 to comment on the minutes or add details (press enter after typing note).

There is yet another way to create related activities. Using F7 (+contact) function key while in any add an activity prompt window will allow you to add activities across multiple contact records. When you press F7 in any add an activity prompt the Target Contact Records prompt window appears:

Target Contact Records
Enter options, press Enter.
A=Actn I=Info F=Follow up ?=Inquiry R=Reply
Opt	Pri ID	Sec ID	Company Name	Contact Name
A	ABC	CUNNINDJ	ABC Company	Dave J. Cunningham
A	ABC	CUNNINDJ	ABC Company	Dave J. Cunningham
A	ABC	CUNNINDJ	ABC Company	Dave J. Cunningham
I	PROMO	15%MMYY	PROMO	15%MMYY
___	_________	________	___________________	_________________
___	_________	________	___________________	_________________

Continuing to use our previous telephone calls to Dave Cunningham as our example we would expect to see three ACTN activities already existing in with a Company Name of ABC Company and a Contact Name of Dave J. Cunningham. The spaces under the existing related activities are where you would type additional values to create a new related activity on a different Pri ID (PID) and/or Sec ID (SID). Key the desired activity type in the first column under Opt (Option), key or a new PID or use F4 to prompt for a list in the second column under Pri ID. The SID corresponding to your chosen PID will automatically appear in the third column (under Sec ID) along with the Company Name and Contact Name for your choice. Rather than typing or picking a new PID off the F4 list you may want to use a new SID instead. In that case the corresponding PID for the SID that you chose would appear in all the relevant columns.

In this case, for an example only, we have chosen to place an informational related activity on a contact record that was setup to track individuals who want to participate in the discount promotion. The PID of that survey contact record is PROMO and the SID is 15%MMYY (MM for Month & YY for Year). Placing and completing an information activity on that contact record will allow Managers to create paper reports using the activity bar as the data source to track how many customers participated in the promotion. You would update the Code field in the new related activity with the PID data of, in this case ABC, and the SID data would by typed in the extended activity screen (use F10) under description, in this case CUNNINGDJ. When the report is written there would be data showing the promo name, the userID of the person reporting the use of the promo, the date the INFO activity was added and the PID and SID of the customer using the promo. Using this data the report would show how quickly people responded to the announcement of the promo, how many customers were interested in the promo and which customers used the promos. It would also show because of target userID which sales employees contacted the most customers about the promos. The related activity would remain on the PROMO contact record for history. The next promotion that you undertake would have a new contact record with a SID of whatever that promo was called and an extraction of the date it started such as PID, PROMO and SID, 10%MMYY. Remember the SID's must be unique within a PID group, no duplicates are allowed. If you have multiple promotions within the same month you will have to design a SID that is unique to all the others.

You can relate unrelated activities after the fact. On any highlighted activity, Key F2 Related Activity Assembly screen and move your cursor to the activity that you would like to relate, Key F7 to mark single activity or F19 to mark all activities, Press enter and move your cursor to the activity that you would like related, Key F10 and the originally "marked" activity is now in a related group of activities.