Key terms/definitions Common terminology used in the system and support articles
Your data within CM is usually segregated into six (6) major categories, including stakeholders, properties, events, actions, documents and team members. These are most commonly referred to as Entities, which can all be interrelated. For example, it's common to have multiple Events and Actions linked to a Stakeholder.
Note: Depending on your system configuration, you may have more, or some may be renamed. For further information on those, contact your Enterprise Administrator.
Stakeholder
Stakeholders are the individuals you and your team interact with. All information relating to Stakeholders can be captured, such as contact details and relevant Stakeholder groups, which help tag groups of Stakeholders with common interests to find them easily.
Property
Properties are any physical location (house/flat etc) and these will usually be associated with a stakeholder (for example, a stakeholder may own or rent a property).
All relevant details, such as the location, references, and Property Groups can be tracked on a Property Profile.
The nature of the relationship between the Stakeholder/s and Property can also be captured, to ensure you're speaking with the appropriate people.
Properties can be geocoded and plotted on a map for geographical reference.
Event
Any interaction between stakeholders and your users is considered Events. These can be configured to suit your individual business requirements and frequently include phone calls, emails, meetings, letterbox drops, marketing campaigns, etc.
Additionally, Events can be tagged with relevant Issues, or topics that have been raised for easy reporting.
Events are typically only viewable to the relevant Project it's linked to, to ensure sensitive interactions remain confidential.
Action
Actions are tasks or “to do” items assigned by a User to themselves or another, usually when a follow-up or action is required. Actions remain active until they are resolved.
An Action can be related to other records in the system, such as Stakeholders or Events in order to help fulfill the specified task with as much detail as possible.
Document
Documents are electronic files (e.g. Word, Excel, PDF, etc.) uploaded to CM or links stored within CM to external document management systems. Within the Document record, you can relate the document to other Entities such as Stakeholders and Events, to track and view the relationships that are relevant to the specified document. A common example is capturing meeting minutes from an interaction that occurred as a related document to an Event.
Users (Previously known as Team Members)
Each member of your team is classified as a user. Often, they are organisational employees and project contractors. However, any person requiring system access can be created as a user.
Custom Entities
CM4 also allows you to have additional entities created to suit your organisation's needs. You would create a new entity if you needed to track and record against something that sits outside of the standard entities above. An example of a different kind of entity you could use within the system is 'Organisation'. An Organisation sits outside of a Stakeholder or of a Property, but both of those entities can and will relate to your Organisation. By creating Organisation as a new entity, you can track and record all Stakeholders/Properties/Events/Actions against the Organisation as a whole, and quickly and easily report on that. Other examples of additional entities could be Complaints, Incidents, Training, Assets, Pets etc.
If you’re interested in creating custom entities, we can certainly work together with you to create a custom solution. Reach out to your Account Manager, or our support team for more details.
Record
Any new entry in the system, such as an individual stakeholder, property, event, action, document, team member, project or team is considered a record.
Project
CM uses a project-style structure to effectively establish boundaries and data segregation. Projects can be further grouped into project groups so that you can report on a segment of projects at once.
System Structure / Framework
The overarching system configuration is referred to as your system structure or framework. These are specific groupings, types and categories (called classifications) around which data is captured, such as Stakeholder Groups, Issues and Event Types.
The framework is tailored to suit an organisation’s requirements and reporting outputs and is also completely configurable.