Dynamic Lookups for hosted customers

The RefTracker Dynamic Lookups module allows customers to obtain information for use in RefTracker forms from a file external to RefTracker. For RefTracker systems that are installed on a customer’s own computer network RefTracker will be accessing data stored in other applications running on the customer’s own network. For RefTracker systems that are hosted outside the customer’s own network, such as those hosted by Altarama, the data being looked up needs to be on that hosted network. Altarama therefore provides a service whereby the data to be looked up can be provided by the customer and loaded onto Altarama’s network. The system also allows for regular updates to be sent so that the data being looked up can be kept up to date.

This service is called Dynamic Lookups for hosted customers. Under this service Altarama will:

• Work with the customer’s IT department to define the appropriate file layout and manually obtain the first copy of the file for setup and testing. The customer’s library will define what data fields they want included for each record, and Altarama requires that the first field is an update indicator and the second a record number. Altarama can do some reformatting of the data provided for example we can combine separate first and last name fields into a single field containing both first and last name.
• Load up to two files of data provided by the customer (usually Client contact information and Matter or Project information) onto the Altarama network. The load process can accept files in comma delimited (csv), pipe delimited and XML format.
• Create the SQL View and lookup that allows the data to be retrieved, for each file. The lookup is an SQL statement so the data in the file that is retrieved by a lookup can be modified somewhat if required, for example a particular lookup may only present contact details for staff from a particular department.
• Add the database/s and its lookup/s into the customer’s hosted RefTracker system.
• Adjust a Request form so that it is successfully performing at least an Auto complete and Dynamic population using the supplied data.
• Confirm with the customer that the lookup is achieving their desired result and adjust as necessary.
• Work with the customer’s IT department to create a system that regularly and automatically obtains updates to the lookup file from the customer’s FTP or SFTP server, and automatically applies them when received. Customers can upload to Altarama’s FTP server if they prefer.
  • At the conclusion of each upload, the load process will automatically send an email to one or more nominated email addresses (staff of the customer) summarising the load if it was successful, or advising any errors if the upload was not completely successful. These emails allow the customer’s staff to address any errors, and ensure that they know that the process is running regularly and successfully.
  • If it is suspected that the file held at Altarama is out of sync with the customer’s own data, the customer can supply a new complete file that Altarama will load to replace the currently held file.