CMDBuild Newsletter nr. 82

After the release did last September of the new versions of all the products of the CMDBuild Suite, presented as well during the CMDBuild DAY 2020, we have updated the roadmap of the activities for the next months.

The CMDBuild 3.3.1 version is already under development and will be released in January 2021.

This version will include an important feature, concerning the possibility of creating views with joins between classes in a visual way (described in detail in the third article here below), and some minor improvements including CSV import with multiple keys, full text search in document attachments, inclusion of dynamic images in reports and contextual help in process steps.

Following this, we will immediately start with the new major release, CMDBuild 3.4, which is expected to be released next summer.

In version 3.4 we will strengthen the interoperability mechanisms with external IT systems, making available a new control layer, through which centrally manage and synchronize the integration functions and the sharing of information (connectors, queues, notifications, etc.).

We then plan to introduce integrated messaging solutions, new types of attributes in the classes, global search functions among data, emails and document attachments, and other innovations that we will present to you along the way.

We will also work on the IFC BIM viewer, to make it increasingly integrated with the asset management application functionalities.

In the first half of 2021 new extensions of the new Mobile APP are also planned, related to geo-reference functions and to the possibility of operating in offline mode.

In the same period some “minor versions” of the vertical solutions CMDBuild READY2USE and openMAINT will be released, both extended with new application functionalities.

The CMDBuild DAY 2020 was held on October 28^th as a videoconference. This was the sixth edition of the event born in Udine in 2010 as a meeting of the first users of the system, and then continued every two years.

In this edition as well we were able to present ten important case histories of users of our applications, completed by two speeches, held by industry experts, about the IT Governance and the Facility Management markets, sectors where CMDBuild READY2USE and openMAINT operate.

All videos and slides have been published on this page of the CMDBuild website.

Over 300 people from 60 different countries registered at the event, which lasted over six hours.

During the day, some video presentation of the new versions of the CMDBuild Suite products were also proposed, now available on the respective websites.

During the CMDBuild DAY 2020, two one-to-one meeting sessions were also organized, in which the participants of the event were able, in special virtual tables, to both talk to each other and discuss technical and commercial aspects with the Tecnoteca representatives.

We invite you to check the material made available, we thank the people and companies who made this event possible by presenting their case histories and we give you appointment in 2022 for the seventh edition of the CMDBuild DAY.

One of the needs of those who use CMDBuild, or the pre-configured applications CMDBuild READY2USE and openMAINT, is to query in the most flexible way the data of interest, consult them and possibly obtain outputs in PDF or CSV formats.

This is already possible for system administrators able to write SQL queries and then create views or reports based on those queries, or, in a more limited way, for users who can create filters on the data of a single class and choose the attributes of interest to export.

The new functionality adds important new possibilities, allowing users to directly extract data from multiple related classes, defining views configured in visual mode with different options available.

In particular, each user, having selected a class from the menu, will be able to:

• choose the classes to be linked to the current class, displaying those linked through relationships and selecting those of interest, at an unlimited number of levels;
• choose the attributes to be extracted from each class, potentially aggregating them in fieldsets and defining a custom layout;
• apply filters to the extracted attributes;
• define the sorting criteria of the resulting data;
• insert the new view in a position of choice in the menu.

On the new object of “view from join” type, it will then be possible to consult the complete data of each extracted record, perform searches with quick and advanced filters, obtain a PDF report, extract the data in CSV format, apply the import / export templates, configure additional contextual menus.

The same configuration mode of “views from join” will also be available for system administrators, who will also be able to operate in visual mode and make the resulting views available in the user menus.

This new functionality has been developed with the contribution of IZSAM Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise (Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Abruzzo and Molise).

We summarize the contents of the case histories presented at the CMDBuild DAY 2020, in order of presentation, as a guide for those wishing to deepen some of them by checking the videos or consulting the slides:

• Paolo Colombo and Giuseppe Placucci of IMA Group, world leader in the production of packaging machines, talked about how openMAINT is used to manage the maintenance of buildings and plants in their production plants and has been integrated with SAP ERP for forwarding data necessary for economic reporting (video).
• Siegfried Bergmann of DLR-GfR presented the central role of a CMDB system in their Organization, for Asset / Space / Lifecycle / Documentation / License Management, etc. The German company DLR Space Applications Institute mbH (DLR-GfR) monitors the operation of Galileo, the European global satellite navigation, timing and positioning system (video).
• Vittorio Benintende of FCA Services Italy described how CMDBuild was configured in a custom way to manage the configuration database of the entities involved in their RPA system (Robot Process Automation, automation of repetitive tasks using robot software) and preventive checks in case of Change on those entities (video).
• Vincenzo Curci of the Italian Senate described in an interview the migration, performed with the support of Tecnoteca, from CMDBuild 2 to the new CMDBuild 3 version of their instance, which is one of the most complex in terms of number and type of processes managed (video).
• Peter G., of a leading industrial supply distribution company based in the USA and serving all North America (who prefers to remain anonymous for company policy), presented their project with CMDBuild READY2USE and the importance that this is having in their large and complex organization (video).
• Riccardo Carraio and Alessio Boaretto of CAV Concessioni Autostradali Venete talked about how openMAINT was introduced in their company for the management of technical data cards and the monitoring and inspection activities of the motorway infrastructures managed (video).
• Luca Catti of the Emilia Romagna Region presented an important “restart” project of a CMDBuild solution already in use for Asset Management, to cover the entire set of ITIL processes of the Service Desk (Incident Management, Request Fulfilment, Change Management, Problem Management), with over 300 services (Service Catalogue) provided to approximately 6.400 regional employees by over 400 technicians (video).
• Adriano Di Pasquale of IZSAM Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Abruzzo and Molise described how he and his collaborators have implemented in CMDBuild, using the native functions of the platform, a support system for scientific projects for the control of the health and the quality of animal origin food (video).
• Audun Wangen of Hedmark IKT, a Norwegian IT company owned by 7 municipalities and which provides services to these municipalities and as well to many other public companies, talked about their implementation of CMDBuild “from scratch” (video).
• Michael Collins of Applied Science Inc., a United States leading supplier of medical devices and one of the largest producers of blood donation devices in North America, spoke about the development of a Service Desk, the HemoFlow Service Portal, the integration of CMDBuild with another Inventory System and possible further future developments (video).

The"CMDBuild" Mobile APP is the new application developed to be able to use CMDBuild, CMDBuild READY2USE and openMAINT on smartphones and tablets.

The application has been developed following the standards of Material Design and paying particular attention to usability aspects.

The APP implements the main functions of the desktop application and uses the REST web services to manage the data of the CMDBuild, CMDBuild READY2USE and openMAINT reference instances.

The main feature are:

• creation / modification / cancellation of records;
• display of lists and data cards;
• search of cards through filters or QR Code;
• consultation and download of reports;
• workflow management;
• use of custom pages, widgets and contextual menus;
• upload of attachments (including photos taken with the device);
• email management in workflows;
• Barcode and QR Code reading;
• choice of language.

The APP is available for Android and iOS devices, can be downloaded from the respective  Google Play and APP Store markets and can be activated by users who have a maintenance contract with Tecnoteca.