General Discussion

Community Spotlight: Natalie Tallon

The Community Spotlight is an opportunity to feature one of our amazing TrueContext Community members and learn more about who they are, how they got to be working with TrueContext, and about the great work they have been doing.

This episode of the Community Spotlight highlights Natalie Tallon, one of our Product Managers here at TrueContext.

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Who is Natalie Tallon?

Natalie Tallon grew up in Ottawa, Canada, and still calls Ottawa home. 

She studied Management Information Systems at the University of Ottawa, a degree usually taken by those who go on to become business analysts but has a very strong computer science element. Since graduating she has worked for many high tech companies in Ottawa, helping build software but always maintaining a level of customer facing responsibilities.

Natalie started her high tech career at Nortel as a developer, working on a team that built an in house tool for tracking Nortel's deliverables to their customers. After Nortel she went to BlackBerry where she worked on the team responsible for developing and launching BlackBerry's mobile application store. As a member of this team she helped build the policy outlining what applications would get accepted to BlackBerry's app store. Coincidentally, Natalie first heard of TrueContext (still called ProntoForms at the time) due to the ProntoForms app being in the BlackBerry app store.

After her time at BlackBerry Natalie knew that she wanted to continue in high tech but wasn't interested in getting into the networking or cyber security fields, which is where many of the high tech jobs are in Ottawa. It was through a job fair that Natalie specifically sought out the opportunity to talk to TrueContext (still called ProntoForms at the time) as she knew what this company was building and that it was something she felt was not only interesting, but valuable.

What does Natalie enjoy about being a Product Manager?

Natalie feels this role is perfectly made for her, and being a Product Manager specifically at TrueContext is even more so. She loves the vision of the company and the product TrueContext has produced. She also enjoys how willing TrueContext's customers are to talk with her and the other Product Managers. Having such personable customers who want to be involved and provide the feedback and ideas needed to help TrueContext continue to evolve a product that she is so proud of makes this her dream job.

What is the top feature, or top two features, that she hears about from the customers she talks to?

Dispatching is a very popular feature. This feature allows forms to get directed to the mobile device of a specific user. The customers she hears from who get the most benefit out of this feature are using it through TrueContext's API. Customers regularly talk about how powerful this feature is, especially when used in conjunction with something like a work order management system.

Data Destinations is another very popular feature. TrueContext specializes in collecting data from the field. The Data Destinations feature is what helps you put that data where you need it, automating data sharing and storage, and routing data in several different formats.

Dispatching

TrueContext's Dispatching functionality allows an administrator to direct a partially completed form to the mobile device of a specific user or users. The administrator of the dispatch selects the recipient user, the mobile form to use, and which questions on that form that will have pre-filled answers. This functionality is commonly used to allow an administrator to fill out customer or job information (like a name, job site, address, and contact information) and then send that form to a mobile user, providing them with important information and helping them arrive prepared for their next site visit. In addition to pre-filled answers, the administrator can also add Notes, Priority, Due Date, and Location metadata to help users prioritize jobs.

Full instructions on how to dispatch a form from the Web Portal as well as how to bulk dispatch jobs to multiple users is available in our Product Documentation: https://docs.truecontext.com/1374411/Content/LandingPages/DispatchFormsUsers.htm

Data Destinations

Data Destinations control where data is sent when a form is submitted. By using Data Destinations in your form, your data will automatically be routed to the chosen service in the format of your choice when the form is submitted. This makes data sharing and storage an automated process, saving your employees time both in terms of data entry, but also when using that data for other purposes, like analytics and reporting.

One Data Destination can be linked to multiple forms in the same FormSpace and multiple Data Destinations can be linked to the same form, allowing your data to be delivered to a variety of locations simultaneously.

Full instructions on how to set up a Data Destination is available in our Product Documentation: https://docs.truecontext.com/1374411/Content/LandingPages/DataDestinations.htm

Dispatch Data Destinations

The Dispatch Data Destination takes selected data from one form and automatically dispatches it to a target form and target users. This process is useful for a number of business functions, but is most commonly used for manager approvals of forms that users have submitted.

This destination streamlines workflows by allowing forms to be dispatched to users on-the-go from a mobile device. While saving administrators time by minimizing the need to access the Web Portal on a frequent basis, this data destination is also incredibly user-friendly, with no CSV files to download and upload.

NOTE: The Dispatch Data Destination feature is only available on the Advanced and Enterprise tiers.

Full instructions on how to set up a Dispatch Data Destination is available in our Product Documentation: https://docs.truecontext.com/1374411/Content/Published/217500148_DispatchDataDestination.html

Training through TrueContext University

In addition to our comprehensive Product Documentation, you can go through our free, on-demand training to learn more about how to set up and use Dispatching and Data Destinations in the TrueContext University.

Some of the courses available to you include:

• Dispatching
• Advanced Dispatching/API
• Data Destinations
• SharePoint Lists as a Data Source and Data Destination
• Google Sheets as a Data Source and Data Destination
• Dispatch Destinations

Participate in the Community Spotlight

If you would like to be featured in an upcoming Community Spotlight send us a note at community@truecontext.com. We would love to hear from you.

#CommunitySpotlight

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Pat Cooney
Community Engineer
TrueContext
community@truecontext.com
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