1 Introduction

Introduction

vtenext supports management of all customer-related flows, from acquisition to assistance, allowing also intelligent internal/external communication. Customer activities and communications are stored and available for consultation: vtenext centralises all information around the customer, in particular, information that is unstructured by nature (events, emails, documents, messages), thus increasing the value of the company's database. Furthermore, integration towards external systems (mobile, email server, ERP and e-commerce software and so forth) makes vtenext an ideal single working environment.

vtenext is released in two versions:

vtenext is the leading open source CRM platform on the Italian market, with more than 19,000 registrations logged to date;

Issued with AGPL-3 license, which provides access to the unencrypted and editable code that can be released to the entire development community;

Can be integrated with the main systems:

1.1 Examples of vtenext application areas

Customer Acquisition & Sales

Communication & Marketing

Customer Service & Projects

Reports & advanced tools

BPMN and company processes mapping:

1.2 Flows managed by vtenext

Customer acquisition cycle

Acquired customer cycle

Assistance cycle

Purchasing cycle (vendors)

 

1.3 Notes on the manual (Disclaimer)

The images and functions of vtenext shown in this manual may be subject to minor changes with the release of updates and described according to the version and the current graphic theme.

Screenshots may vary (colours, icons) depending on the configuration.

vtenext Business 18.02 Release Note

USER PREFERENCES

New Language Packs
Four new language packs have been added to the user preferences: French, Russian, Polish, and Spanish.

New NEXT Design Selectable Among Themes
The NEXT theme has been added alongside SOFTED in user preferences. This theme introduces a completely modernized design, aligned with current trends:

Process Module
This provides a list view of all processes in Vtenext.

Search
The global search and module-specific search are unified under one button. The module-specific search adapts based on the module being used.
Example: While in Customer Support, you can search globally across the CRM or only among available tickets.


BPMN

Advanced Functions for BPMN Process Design/Scheduling Campaigns via BPMN
Creating BPMN processes in Vtenext allows for greater interaction between modules with N-to-N relationships (unlike the previous 1-to-N limitation) and eliminates the need for an initial condition (refer to the BPMN Manual for details).

Rewind Processes and Replay Execution
Within the entity affected by an active process, users can return to a previous step by selecting from available options (for more details, refer to the BPMN Manual).


REPORTS

New Reporting Options (Newsletter and Clusters)
The Reports module has been updated with the following features:


CONFIGURATION

Configurable REST Client Webservice
REST webservices enable integration between Vtenext and external platforms that support this protocol. Configurations can be done without requiring SDKs for external database updates. URLs can also be called with parameter passing.

Version Control and Import/Export Functions for Modules, Processes, Roles, and Profiles
Configurations for modules, processes, roles, and profiles can be saved as versions (e.g., v1.0). Versions can be exported or imported for added security during setup.

PHP 7 Support
Vtenext is now compatible with PHP 7.

Table Fields
In the Module Manager > Layout Editor, a new Table field type can be added. This field consists of grouped fields displayed on a single row for optimal data viewing. By default, it appears with one row and headers. Users can add rows by clicking Add Row, and rows can be duplicated or deleted.


TARGETS

Automatic Target Synchronization
Targets now update automatically, eliminating the need for manual refreshes for newsletter management. Two modes are available:

  1. Incremental: Adds names to the target based on the original filter, ignoring exclusions from filter changes.
  2. Complete: Adds or removes names based on the filter.

MESSAGES

Multiple SMTPs Linked to a Single Email Account
SMTP settings for outgoing emails can now vary for each account within the Messages module.


MOBILE APP

Activity Tracking from the Mobile App
The mobile app now includes activity tracking to create calendar events or tickets automatically.


OUTLOOK ADD-ON PLUGIN

vtenext Business 18.05 Release Note

The update to version 18.05 includes the addition of a section dedicated to functionalities for proper management of the GDPR directive.

All features and new additions are detailed in chapters 7 and 18.3.3 of this manual.

vtenext Business 19.10 Release Note

Automatic Updates via Interface
This feature simplifies keeping the system up-to-date, ensuring that new functionalities are released more frequently, with milestones for technical constraints (e.g., PHP version requirements).


BPMN Engine Enhancements

  1. Deadline Management: Dynamic time periods can be set for timers, e.g., 3 months before a contract expiration date.
  2. Notification Sending: The centralized notification system can be triggered by processes, for single notifications or looping over a table field.
  3. Transfer Relations: Allows transferring (1:N) or copying (N:N) related entities from one record to another.
  4. Loop Through Related Entity Tables: Enables looping through a table field in a record related to the current process record.
  5. Date Functions:
    • International date formatting
    • Current date (formatted)
    • Date difference calculations
  6. PDFMaker: Enables selecting entities and records for PDF generation and supports multilingual templates within processes.
  7. Attachments via Dynamic Forms: Upload files directly from dynamic forms/popups and link them to the parent record of the process.
  8. Extended Attribute Reading for Web Service Client: Handles multiple JSON results from web service calls and accesses all first-level attributes of the returned object.
  9. Improved Process GUI Editor: Enhancements for usability and compatibility.
  10. Filterable and Sortable Process List: Easier navigation through process listings.
  11. Interactive Right-Side Indicator: Displays pending user tasks (web/mobile). Clicking the icon opens a complete list of pending processes.

Figura 1

Human-Readable Process Activity History
Provides a narrative list of process execution steps, as an alternative to the classic BPMN view.


Customer Portal SDK Extensions

  1. Wizard for EditView Creation
  2. Support for Custom Modules
  3. Automated Calendar Slot Booking

Desktop Notifications

When new messages or conversations arrive, a system notification appears. Clicking it opens a detail tab for quick viewing.

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Dark Mode

Introduces dark mode for both web and mobile versions, aligning with modern OS aesthetics while removing legacy and unoptimized code.


Mobile App Updates

  1. Dark Mode Support
  2. Highlight pending processes in the top menu.
  3. Zoom functionality for messages ("a-A") and improved accessibility view.
  4. Minor improvements and bug fixes.

VTEsync for Information Platform

Native synchronization with Salesforce® via OAuth2, supporting bidirectional communication for:


Performance Optimizations

  1. Native support for MySQL master-slave architecture for reports, list counts, global searches, relationship counts, and data exports.
  2. Reduced cache footprint from single to global APC/memcache.

System Requirements

  1. HTTP2 support.
  2. PHP FastCGI support.
  3. Minimum PHP version: 7.0.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Native integration with Klondike:


Miscellaneous

Over 100 new features and improvements were implemented as part of 10 months of continuous bug fixing. The detailed changelog is available for review.

vtenext 20.04 release notes

BPMN engine improvements

1. Process History in detailview. In addition to the tab “Process graph” the user can find the additional tab “Process History” were can read in detail the execution of the process and it is possible to view which user performed a certain action and when.

2. Function relate email in ProcessMaker. It is possible to decide the entity to which relate the email sent by the process in more ways:
• Default -> The email will be related to the main entity of the process
• Other -> The user choses the entity

4. Log debug conditions. We added the possibility to activate the log debug with the aim to facilitate the dubug of eventual issues noticed when running the process.

5. Email send (Notifications, Processes, Email from Tickets) via new tail. The Email sending process follows now the standard procedure by following the sending tail. By doing so the execution time of the process is reduced because it doesn’t have to wait the sending.

6. ProcessMaker: added related entities in actions Delete, Relate, RelateStatic.

7. Added relations in the Document module


Process’ Product block actions

1. Copy line: it is possible to copy the product block from an inventory module to another, avoiding to use the SDK to report the product block from one entity to another.

2. Cycle product block rows and for each one row: create entities/enter rows/delate rows/send emails/sending notifications. It is furthermore possible to cycle the information of a product block in a table field and vice versa.

3. Add line from static/dynamic data directly in the products block. The function is similar to the one performed in a table field.

Message module

1. Scheduled email sending: it is possible to postpone the sending of an email deciding the new time and date.

ehHCompose.png

2. Creation of contacts in the CRM for unknown email addresses: when responding to an email that contains an unknown address vtenext automatically creates a new contact

3. Messages Out of office reply

4. imap parameters and PEC option in mail converter: from mail converter it is possible to define a PEC email address and in the way the ticket will be created with the original mail, that is to say the one contained in the .eml attached file

5. Unified folds for different email addresses

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General / CORE / Performance

1. RabbitMQ support. To manage tails and obtaining immediate response when saving the record

2. Global cache for vte_field and workflow. We added caches for some frequently used tables like vte_field and the workflows on, to avoid repeated readings of the same data

3. OWASP top 10 compliant. We added the anti-CSRF according to the OWASP standard

4. Variants of SKU products. Using the new module configurable Products it is possible to define a new generic product with variables attributes
es. T-shirt with Size attribute (XS/S/M/L/XL) or Colour (Red, Green, Yellow)
Every variant of the product is univocally defined by a SKU code (stock keeping unit)

5. Next theme softening

6. Editor drag and drop newletter/email templates

7. Activation of non-contextual licenses

8. Ubuntu 20.04 LTS support (php 7.4/mysql8)


Sync connector

Standard connectors available for the following systems:

All synchronization are in Beta version, therefore some fields and values may not be supported.


Klondike connector

Plugin available in settings to connect vtenext with the Machine Learning engine Klondike:

• Process discovery agents: analyses and identifies which are the commonly used processes in vtenext. Once discovered can be imported in the Process Manager to be further developed
• Classification manager: uses AI to guess the value of a field. Example: when creating a ticket the Category is guesses by analysing title and description.

TeAKlondike_VTENEXT_20_04.png
Klondike from Settings

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Classifier

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Process discovery Agent

Klondike---Settings-3.png
Process discovery


Process list


Projects Module

A new module, Job Orders, has been created to contain all Project Tasks.

Project_20_04.png

Job Orders mask

Project mask

Project Gantt

Operations in detail

Calendar for the resources involved

A resource view has been added to the calendar to help manage the team's weekly activities

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Final events tracking

In project task is now available the new fields block “Budget Information” to deliver Project, Pack or Consumptive services, the worked hours will be scaled using the activity tracking system.

Order report example

Example of project execution process

vtenext 21.01 release notes

General improvements

1. European national holidays support on Calendars.

User-calendar-VTENEXT-21-01.png

2. Improved centralized audit trial and activities export.

Settings-VTENEXT-21-01.png
Audit Trails view, located in settings

3. Centralized email Signature with possibility to differentiate it according to the Business Unit.

usersignmail.jpg

4. New “Bookme” feature in email signature. The user can define the available time slots in its calendar, adding a book me event type, the external users will so be able to book an appointment. The Book me box in the email module allows the user to enable/disable the feature.

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User settings view

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Email composer view

5. Temporary document saving uploaded on the database if the filesystem is not available or in read only mode (good for NAS/web storage style)

6. Office365 OAuth2 for Imap mail

7. AutoDetect of external HTML links for calendar events: largely used by online meeting platform invitations (eg. Zoom, GoToMeeting, etc.). This new feature allows the possibility to report the meeting link directly in the calendar event

8. Activities ran in background: activities that used to take a lot of time, like the telemarketing records’ creation, are now ran in background in order to avoid the time out

9. The data import now supports the product variants, introduced in vtenext previous release. In this way the product import, from ERPs or other platforms, is facilitated.

10. Bug fixing.


Processes

1. The product variants are now available in the Process Maker

2. It is possible to cycle the records related to another record like as if it was a table field

3. It is possible to start a process when a record, N a N related to another record, is related (e.g. a process can start when a Contact is related to an Account)

4. The Emails sent from the process are now automatically related to the record

5. All the documents linked to a record can be sent via Email automatically by the Process

6. Emails are transferred from a record to another, via process, in a simplified manner

7. The Process Helper allows the display of documents linked to the parent record

8. From this release on it is not possible to create Workflows. The module will still be available in read only mode.


Synchronization

1. In the new release are now available new types of integrations with external platforms.
Already existing integrations:

2. Additional integrated modules:

3. The synchronization also involves the following new ecommerce:


Elastic Search

With the 21.01 release the new feature Elastic Search is introduced to all vtenext modules. It allows to display the search results in a faster manner.

vtenext 21.10.1 Release Note

NEW add Mexico timezones
NEW add support to check european tax numbers
NEW solar/working days in processes date operation
NEW added support for PDFMaker custom functions to email template fields
NEW possibility to upload images for uitype 209
NEW button to sort picklist values
NEW attach the file when sending email from documents
NEW infrastructure to support fast csv report export
NEW vteprop flag to disable all outbound communications
NEW script to quickly change color of vte
NEW clickable location in calendar

vtenext 22.05 Release Note

Here are the news of the new release:

vtenext 23.08 Release Note

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User Portal Profile Details

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Button configuration details for portal homepage

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Ticket details - Customer Portal.png

Interface details for new customer portal

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User Preferences for Two-Factor Authentication Activation

User - Administrator [1] - VTENEXT 23.08 (1).png

Details for Two-Factor Authentication PIN Entry

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Configuration Screen Details for Zapier

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New button for lead conversion.

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Furthermore, during the conversion, it will be possible to choose whether to link the data to an existing record.

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Setting a logo for the Login page

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Setting the logo for the internal left sidebar in vtenext

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Setting a logo for the login page of the new customer portal

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Setting a logo for the internal left sidebar of the new customer portal

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Setting the background image for the login page of vtenext

WILSON APP

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vtenext 24.08 Release Note

New Web Features

New Features in Processes:

New Features in Mobile APP