What is kommuns? Core concepts
Everything you do in kommuns is built on a handful of concepts. Read this page first and the rest of the guide will be much easier to follow.
Organization
An organization is your company's account in kommuns. (Some screens also call it a kommun; it is the same thing.) One person can belong to several organizations — for example their own company and a customer they work for. After you sign in, the Lobby lists your organizations; click the one you want to work in.
When you create an organization you choose its type:
| Organization type | For whom? |
|---|---|
| Inventory Owner | Businesses and institutions that own the inventory (buildings, facilities, equipment): hotels, plants and workshops, office buildings, retail, restaurants and cafés… |
| Expert Organization | Companies that provide maintenance, service, periodic inspection, engineering or consulting to other companies |
Expert organizations get an extra Expert menu for working with their customers. On a customer's work orders an expert organization either does the work or acts as the Consultant (review and final approval); the customer chooses which when attaching the company to its inventory. Expert organizations can also manage inventory of their own (office, warehouse, vehicles) just like an inventory owner.
The inventory tree
Your inventory is recorded as a four-level tree:
- Location: a building, site, branch or warehouse, recorded with its address and map position.
- System: a technical system at a location (HVAC, electrical, fire and life safety, elevators…).
- Equipment and Sub-equipment: the physical assets you maintain and their parts.
You can attach files, photos and tags to every level and name an inventory manager for it.
Assignees and permissions
An assignee is anyone who can act in kommuns. There are four kinds: a user (employee), a team, a team member and a company (a business partner such as a service contractor).
A permission definition is a list of what someone may do (e.g. Technician: sees the inventory, opens work orders, works on them). You assign an assignee to a place in the inventory with a permission definition. There are no fixed roles in kommuns: a person's permission on a location, system or piece of equipment is computed from the assignments on it and above it. We call this the dynamic permission model.
Permission definitions differ by scope:
- An Organization definition is assigned on the organization itself.
- A Location, System, Equipment or Sub-Equipment definition is assigned on that inventory and (if the definition allows it) passes down to the inventory below it.
- An In Team definition is given to team members.
See The dynamic permission model for the details.
Work orders and forms
A work order is a job to be done on a location, system or piece of equipment: maintenance, a repair, an inspection, cleaning… A form (checklist) can be attached to it. The assignee fills in the form; if the work order has a consultant, the consultant reviews the result and gives the final approval.
For periodic work you define a recurring work order, and kommuns creates the work orders on your schedule. Anyone who notices a problem can leave feedback (an issue report), which can be turned into a work order.
Work orders appear in lists and in a calendar view by their target date. See The list and calendar view.
Working with business partners
What sets kommuns apart is that facility owners and expert companies work on the same platform:
The owner gives the expert company permission only on the inventory concerned. The expert company can pass that permission on to its own team. Both companies see the same work order, the same form and the same history. See Working with business partners.