Navigating Your Freezerworks Demo
In this continuation of our series on Visual Freezers, we'll look at Aliquots Entry and the new Freezer Graphic you’ll be using when creating and modifying Samples and Aliquots.
Navigating Your Freezerworks Demo
Here, we'll walk through a standard Freezerworks DEMO datafile. We'll log in, get a quick overview of how to navigate the software, and see some of the more notable features.
Introduction – 00:00
Hey guys, welcome to the Freezerworks 2019 Learning Series, your visual guide to our sample management software. Thank you for your interest in Freezerworks! Today, I'm going to take you through the standard demo data file. We’ll log in, I'll give you a quick overview on how to navigate the software, and show you some of the most notable features.
How to log on – 00:34
Now, Freezerworks is user-configured software, but to provide you a starting point for evaluation we've created a database with field and form examples and dummy data records, which we call the demo data file. Since you're watching this video, you probably received an email from your account manager with information about downloading the Freezerworks Demo. Follow that email now to install Freezerworks. Once installed, open the program and get yourself logged in. Use the username “demo user” with the password “demo.”
Homepages and Tiles – 01:07
The first thing you'll see is your Homepage. Every user has one Homepage that is either configured for them or that they made themselves. You can create your own Homepage by clicking the gear in the upper right-hand corner and selecting Create Private Homepage. Another notable button here in the top-right is the Help button, as it'll take you to our User's Guide, our Support page, and our online library of Training Videos. In the center, the Tiles that make up the body of the Homepage will take you to various places in the program. When properly configured, these Tiles move you through the program much faster than the menus at the top. On the left are some searches that we've created so that you can see how Freezerworks displays data. On the right are some of the most important tools in the software, such as Import, Move Aliquots, and of course, New Sample. You can also start creating samples by opening the Inventory Management menu and selecting Add New Samples.
Add Samples – 02:07
This is one of our examples of a Samples Entry Form. Click Change Form to change the form on the fly, and see our other examples. Your system can have multiple Sample Entry Forms for different use cases and Groups, as many as you need. Go ahead and enter data if you'd like and click Add Aliquots. Tell the system how many aliquots you want to create and click Continue. The bulk of this particular Aliquots Entry Form is taken up by the visual freezer graphic, where you can find a position to begin assigning all of your aliquots. Part three of our visual freezer series goes over this process in detail. When you return to the Samples Entry Form, your aliquots are now in the Aliquots Area list box. Click Create and you'll find yourself on the inventory list view, with a sample just created listed.
Searches – 03:00
Return to the Homepage now and let's talk about searching. On the Homepage, we've provided Saved Searches like I said before. You can start with one of these, or create one of your own by clicking the Search Builder or Saved Searches Tile. For Saved Searches, think about a search that you run on a consistent basis, possibly on a schedule. I've created one where I'm looking for all of the available aliquots with whole blood types and freezer positions. Execute the search and then you can further filter your results by using the search options on the right-hand side of the list view, or by right-clicking column headers. Doing this opens the filter tool, where you can check off undesired values, such as aliquots with a low Current Amount. You can see all the available search options by opening the Search menu at the top, the most interactive of which is Explore Freezers. Learn more about this tool in our Visual Freezers Pt. 1 video.
Workflows – 03:57
For now, let's discuss one of the most powerful tools in Freezerworks, the Workflow. This allows you to perform a multitude of preset actions on a group of aliquots in one move. To see how this works, find some aliquots (in Explore Freezers for example), highlight them, right-click, hover over Process Workflow, and select the type of Workflow you want to run. We'll do a Check Out, but feel free to try the other types. You'll then see a list of Workflow Templates that we have created for you. Select one and click Continue. The Process Workflow form will open. The left navigation pane will contain all of the actions configured as modifiable during processing, and pages with a red asterisk are required to process the workflow. Some actions have been configured to run automatically, such as removing these aliquots from the Freezer, and will not appear in the navigation pane. So, when I click Process Workflow, all of the following will happen to each aliquot I selected:
The Aliquot Status will be changed to Checked Out
The Number of Thaws will increase by 1
The Current Amount will be updated
A transaction will be created
…Lastly, the aliquots will be removed from the freezer, like so
All of this, through a single, prescribed action. We have a full video series on Workflows if you want to learn more.
Configuration Tools – 05:20
Finally, to configure fields and forms, open the Configuration menu and select Data Entry and Display. The fields and forms are here, but we've packed each configuration option with templates that you can start learning with and working from. This includes items not found on this mini menu, like Workflows and Groups.
Conclusion – 05:40
And that's it for today's dissection of the demo data file. If you need more assistance getting started with your demo, reach out to your account manager, but don't forget about our training videos and User's Guide. Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoy Freezerworks 2019!