What’s new in Helm CONNECT 1.26?
I’m happy to introduce Helm CONNECT 1.26!
Let’s take a closer look at our latest release, which is full of features and improvements that were inspired by and suggested by you, our customers.
Introducing Helm Analytics
First, let me introduce Helm Analytics! This exciting new module takes reporting in Helm CONNECT to the next level by providing key performance indicators and an analysis of your maintenance and compliance data:
- Quickly see the open items for your assets and crew and the percentage of how many items are currently overdue.
- Review your fleet performance over the past five years to analyze trends and demonstrate compliance.
- Visualize and filter your data, then share it with upper management and shore staff to increase performance awareness throughout your organization.
We’re turning Helm Analytics on for all our customers over the next few weeks. Once it’s turned on in your tenant, you’ll see a new Reports > Analytics > Analytics tab.
Check out this blog post for more details, and please reach out to your account manager if you’d like more information or would like to see a demo.
Use groups to manage your assets
Asset groups—which were previously available only to our Helm CONNECT Personnel customers—are now available to everyone!
From the new Management > Assets > Asset Groups tab, you can create a new asset group, determine the division to which it will belong, and add and remove assets from a group. From there, you can also share a group with divisions or specific users and control whether or not shared users can edit the group.
We also added a new Management > Assets > Assets Groups sub-tab so you can see the asset groups for a specific asset and add and remove that asset from a group. And, of course, we added Asset Group filters throughout Helm CONNECT to help you sort and find information based on asset groups.
For Personnel customers who used the earlier version of asset groups, the Setup > Personnel > Asset Groups tab will be removed after the upgrade to Version 1.26.
All existing asset groups will be automatically moved to the new Asset Groups tab and sub-tab and, by default, will be assigned to your top-level division.
Mark documents as favorites for easy reference
Our Helm CONNECT Compliance customers can now mark documents as favorites for easy reference from either the Onboard > Documents > Library or the Compliance > Documents > Library tabs.
The list of favorite documents is unique to each logged-in user so if an asset installation is configured for shared sign on (where all users sign on to the asset installation with the asset password), a single favorite list will be shared by everyone who signs on to that asset installation.
Control which fields are required for completion or billing
In Helm CONNECT Jobs, we made it easy to control which fields are required for completion or billing.
Required for completion
On the Setup > Orders > Trip Types > Trips and Setup > Orders > Trip Types >Jobs sub-tabs, there are two new options for your trips and jobs:
- Required to complete on asset: When viewing a trip or job from onboard, all fields configured as “Required to complete on asset” must be filled out before you can change the status to Complete.
- Required to complete on shore: When viewing a trip or job from shore, all fields configured as “Required to complete on shore” must be filled out before you can change the status to Complete.
Required for billing
There’s a new “Required for billing “ option on the Setup > Orders > Orders Configurations tab and the Setup > Orders > Trip Types > Trips and Setup > Orders > Trip Types >Jobs sub-tabs. All fields with this configuration must be filled out before you can generate billing for an order.
If any fields aren’t filled out when you click the Calculate button, the empty fields will turn red, a warning message will appear, and no billing will be generated.
Note: The “Required for billing” configuration doesn’t apply to interval billing. Billing fields with this configuration will only be required when billed with a non-interval based contract.
Use crew changes to generate payroll
In Helm CONNECT Personnel, a new Crew Changes payroll target on the Setup > Payroll > Payroll Schemes tab, allows you to generate payroll based on crew on and off times.
Email crew when personnel certifications are coming due
In the People Tracking module, a new Email Crew Member radio button on the Setup > Templates > Personnel Certifications tab allows you to automatically send email notifications to your crew when their certifications are coming due.
Crew members who can log in to Helm CONNECT and have a valid email address in the system will receive notifications when the following activities occur:
- When certifications reach any of their lead time milestones. For example, if a certification has lead times of 30 and 60 days, crew receive notifications when it’s 60 days from expiring and again when it’s 30 days from expiring.
- When certifications are submitted or renewed with expiry dates past one or more of their lead time milestones.
- For example, if a certification has lead times of 30, 60, and 90 days, and it’s submitted or renewed with an expiry date only 47 days from today, crew will immediately receive a notification that the certification is 47 days from expiring, because it’s already past both its 60 and 90-day milestones. Crew will receive another notification when the certification is 30 days from expiring.
Improvements to the Asset and People Tracking modules
We made so many great improvements to our Asset and People Tracking modules that I’m not sure where to begin! Here are just some of the highlights:
- You can now delete certifications as well as edit or remove their expiry dates from the Management > People > History and Management > Asset > History tabs.
- We also added new permissions to give you control over who can perform these actions.
- In addition to filtering by exact items, the Type filter on the Management > People > Tracking and Management > Asset > Tracking tabs now lets you perform broad or exact searches by entering any term or partial term you want.
- We improved the card views on the Tracking tabs and sub-tabs with the addition of Reference Number and Template fields.
- We made it possible to view even more information about certifications with the addition of several new columns on the Tracking and History tabs and sub-tabs, all of which can be hidden or shown with the help of the Column Selector icon.
- You can now export a list of a person or asset’s certifications to Excel from the Tracking and History sub-tabs.
Next Steps
Be sure to check out our release notes for more details about Version 1.26 and subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date on the latest Helm news. Your account manager would also be happy to answer your questions about anything in this release or to set up a demo for you.
Not in contact with one of our account managers yet? No problem! Get started with Helm CONNECT 1.26 today!
Stay safe, everyone, and happy Helm-ing!
