EMS Version 44: What's New?
Overview Videos
Part 1 – Enhancements to UDFs and Booking-Level Check-In
Part 2 – Automated Reports, Notification Rules, New Desktop Installation
These notification rules do not apply to EMS Professional.
EMS Version 44 Overview
New functionality and feature changes are summarized below. Follow links to documentation for further detail.
Enhancements to User Defined Fields
User defined fields now allow dependencies. See Configure User Defined Fields (UDFs) for more information.
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Dependent User Defined Fields (UDFs) are triggered based on answers to List Type UDFs.
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Multi Select User Defined Fields are available for List Type UDFs. This allows users to select more than one answer to a UDF. If one or more of the Multi Select UDFs has a dependency, it will still trigger the dependent UDFs.
New Booking-Level Check-In Option
This allows administrators to send notifications to users to remind them to check into specific bookings, and if the bookings are not checked into before the start time, they can also now be automatically canceled. See Enable Booking Check-in for more information.
This new functionality replaces Building-Level Check-In.
Enhanced Automated Report Delivery
EMS Reports can now be set up to run automatically on a user-configurable schedule and sent via email. See Configure Automated Reports for more information.
Enhanced Notification Rules
Notifications can now be triggered based on Setup Types. User-defined field dependencies can also trigger notifications. See Configure Notification Rules for more information.
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Service Orders can now trigger notifications based on Service States, Groupings or Resources.
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New, changed, or canceled Bookings can now trigger notifications if tied to Setup Type(s)
Excludes EMS Professional.
New Web-Based Deployment Process for Upgrades or New Installs on Individual Workstations
With the new EMS Desktop Client Web Deployment, the client is installed from a web page which is hosted on the web server. See Upgrade Instructions for more information.
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Installation of the client does not require administrative privileges.
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The client is auto-updated whenever the client package is updated on the web server.
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Easy switching from one database to another.
The existing conventional installer will be also be available as an optional method to install the EMS Desktop Client, however the conventional installer does not support auto-updating and easy switching from one database to another.
In preparing an upgrade from EMS Version 43 to Version 44 or 44.1, administrators should note that the EMS Web Client has been discontinued after 43. OS X users will now have to use alternative methods to connect to EMS, such as Citrix environments, RDC Terminal Servers, and so on.
The EMS Web Client (V43) is a browser-based version of EMS Desktop Client. In version 43, EMS offered a browser-based version of EMS Desktop Client, which was used for administering EMS on OS X and Linux-based systems, and on mobile Apple devices via Safari, Chrome, or Firefox browsers.
EMS Desktop Web Deployment (V44+ and V44.1) is an alternative method for installing EMS Desktop Client locally on individual user machines
This solution is not a replacement for the EMS Web Client, but rather, it is an alternative to using Microsoft® methods of deployment, such as SCCM. Administrators can use it to host EMS Desktop Client on a web server, with the ability to push the URL to any EMS Administrators so they can download EMS Desktop Client without needing Administrative Privileges on their local machine.
Enhanced Room Optimization for Existing Bookings
Using this new option will cause the optimizer to take into account bookings that are already in EMS when finding rooms. This feature will only work with bookings in “Booked Space” status. Searching or assigning rooms after the optimization has run (or during pre-assign) with this option checked will also display the spaces as in use. See Overview of Room Assignments and Optimization for more information.
API Changes
All the above functional changes and enhancements have equivalent updates on the APIs and integrations.
EMS Web App Changes
The Request Only (“classic request”) mode for Web User Templates has been removed. This mode remains available for unauthenticated users (i.e., guests).
