On the Estate Settings web pages: you configure some basic contact information; upload the estate logo(s); control who has access to the estate; share estate documents and reports; and can check your subscription details.
- OTISS lets you divide an estate into several ‘sites‘ (e.g. property, campus, highway, a groups of fields, etc.). Read more about sites…
- Over time, you build up a set of surveys for these sites. Either one-off surveys or periodic safety surveys providing an audit trail and history for each tree. Read more about surveys…
Estate Details
- The basic details about the estate (estate name, main contact, telephone, email, postal address, etc).
- The Estate logo(s) that are used on the webpages and the reports.
Estate Users and Access
Apart from the Estate Manager (who ‘owns’ the estate), you can optionally pay for and setup Estate User accounts (e.g. grounds staff, rangers, office staff, volunteers, etc.) to help carry out surveys, maintenance work and manage the trees and outdoor furniture on the estate.
If you work with outside arboricultural consultants and they have their own OTISS account, then you can allow them access to the estate, so that they can carry out survey work and aid you in maintaining the tree stock.
The Estate Access webpage provides:
- A list of all the registered estate users and arboricultural consultants that have access to the estate.
- You can change each person’s access level as appropriate to what they need to do.
- A Register User button for any new estate users. Your subscription limits the number of estate users you can have at any one time. See section of ‘Staff Turnover’ below.
- The Add User button is to add arboricultural consultants who already have their own OTISS account. You can do this at any time – no extra charge or subscription is required.
- The Send Email button provides a convenient one-click option to send emails to all the people working on the estate. You can configure who gets the emails in the table.
- When you need help from one of the OTISS support team, the Support Staff button allows you to give them temporary access to the estate so that they can see the maps, photos and survey data and they can help to resolve any issues you may have.
Staff turnover
When a member of staff leaves and a replacement is needed, then we recommend that you remove the original user from the estate and then Register a new OTISS account for the replacement user and setup the appropriate access level. This approach has the important advantage that all the survey and work done by the original user will remain linked with their name. We recommend that you DO NOT let the new user login as the ‘old’ user and that you DO NOT simply change the account name – these will lose the definitive audit trial and introduce confusion and doubt over who actually did what surveys and works.
Send Emails
Estate management is often a team effort. Depending on the nature of your organisation, the team could include; estate manager, groundsmen, rangers, caretakers, supervisors, office staff, arboricultural consultants and contractors; and possibly senior management, head teachers, governors, trustees, etc. Good communication within the team is vital.
The various Send Email buttons (located around the website) provide a convenient one-click option to send emails to all the other OTISS users working on the estate. Your normal email application (e.g. Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.) is used and a partial email is composed. The subject line includes the site name and the tree’s or item’s reference. You complete and send the email as normal. Use the Estate Access webpage to configure who is on the To: and Cc: lines of the email.
Its only a little feature! But hopefully it makes communication easier within the team.
Share Documents and Reports
OTISS provides some storage for documents, reports and files so that they can be stored on the OTISS server and shared with all the estate users. Just one of the many benefits of using an online system.
Typically, organisations will have their own document/file storage servers and associated security/access permissions – OTISS should not be used to replace the these arrangements. The OTISS document storage is intended to be used solely as a means of sharing documents with outside arboricultural consultants or stakeholders that would normally not have access to the organisation’s main file servers.
In addition to the files shown on the Estate Documents webpage, each tree/item can also have photos (and documents) linked to them – these are shown separately on the Photos web page.
Subscription Details
The Estate Subscriptions page shows details of your current OTISS subscription and provides a PayPal button to renew the subscription for another year.
The estate can also be upgraded to allow more users, more trees, more photos, etc. The Estate Subscriptions page shows what options are available.
