10 Reasons We Like Entellitrak for Case Management – A Development Team’s Perspective

As Senior Full Stack Developers, we have had the opportunity to write a lot of code in just about every imaginable language.  We’ve designed and implemented new systems as well as jumped in to help make modifications to existing ones.  We’ve written user interface code, SQL code, backend server code and everything in between.  Recently, our Team was awarded a contract to provide configuration and software feature enhancements for a large military case management information system project that is built on Tyler Technologies’ (previously MicroPact) Entellitrak platform.

Entellitrak is a commercial off the shelf (COTS) application which promises to be a low code application development platform for case management and business process management.  It is intended as a rapid application development platform that is used to build and configure web-based applications, with a focus on US Government and Fortune 500 corporations.  Architecturally, it is a web application server (Entellitrak application/apache/weblogic) and database server (SQL Server or Oracle) with an Entellitrak database instance.  It is a complete application platform, with unified development and run-time environments.  There is also a mobile component that can be used for Entellitrak access/use on mobile devices, such as tablets and phones.

In no particular order, here are the top 10 reasons why the Development Team at IDEAMATICS likes Entellitrak as a development platform for case management systems:

Tyler Technologies has excellent on-site and virtual classes to learn Entellitrak quickly and comprehensively.  These classes are hands on where you test your learning by doing.  Fortunately for our team, IDEAMATICS sent us to all the onsite classes prior to beginning work on the project.

In addition to training, IDEAMATICS gave us the opportunity to achieve two of the certifications that Tyler offers:  Administrator and Developer.  This is important to IDEAMATICS, and it’s also important to each of us for our own professional development!

This is ‘simply’ a test of knowledge in how to configure the case management system and to administer it.  There is a strong focus on role permissions and security, system settings, user management, access to system reference data, scheduling jobs, and utilities such as System log viewers.  The emphasis on security is paramount in the work we do here at IDEAMATICS!

This certification is tough, but by the end of the accomplishment, the candidate has not only passed a fairly tough knowledge exam, but has completed a comprehensive work product that is designed to test the candidate’s practical knowledge.  The work product drives home all the major points needed to immediately jump in and work effectively using the Entellitrak platform.  It also teaches the candidate the ‘lingo’ to work with other developers using the correct terminology to refer to parts of the platform.  This is essential for being able to discuss requirements and accurately assess work, as done in an agile environment.

Entellitrak offers a good mix of out of the box features and ample opportunity to write custom case management code.  Many other case management systems that we have used recommend utilizing mostly out of the box functionality.  Not so with Entellitrak.  Application Engineers are encouraged to do what is best for the user.  The Entellitrak front-end is written in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript/JQuery and the back-end is written with Java.  There are plenty of examples for all developers to follow when writing custom code, which reduces the time it takes to effectively learn Entellitrak.

The structure of the Entellitrak platform enables developers to quickly and easily make changes to the content in the user interface, allowing for customer feedback early in the development cycle.    This is useful when creating new data objects, modifying existing ones, or simply changing elements for a better user experience.

Another plus to Entellitrak is well documented Best Practices that can be found throughout the Entellitrak documentation. Whether it be the Community documents or company sponsored documents, there is a recommended best practice for just about anything.  This is helpful to create a consistent working solution!

Tyler Technologies products comply with best practices and standards as defined by Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act.

For those developers that enjoy using Eclipse for their IDE, there is an Entellitrak plugin.  This allows developers to check out code from the Entellitrak instance, work on it within their IDE, then check it back in.  Although Entellitrak provides for all this function within its development environment, developers have favorite tools, and IDEs are no exception.

Entellitrak has a built-in feature that allows you to query your database quickly, without switching to external client software, like Oracle SQL Developer.  The EntelliSQL query designer is divided into 3 areas:  query entry, table listing, and data dictionary.  This is very useful, not only for developers, but for testers as well.

The email utility provided by Entellitrak provides a user interface for the configuration of email templates and replacement variables by a system administrator.  These replacement variables can also be used in form letters that are designed using the form letter generator utility.  We used generated emails for some types of alerts and bulk emails that were sent via schedulers.

It is always important for developers to have the ability to find out things about the code and data quickly and easily.  We find many of the developer utility components packaged within Entellitrak useful, especially when learning about large, complex, already written case management applications where we are tasked to implement new functions or features or to fix a pesky bug.  Entellitrak comes with many utilities. Some of our favorites are – Code Search, Tracked Data Object Graph, Log Viewer, View Update Log.

The tools and documentation available here are effective in accelerating development of Entellitrak applications. Tyler Technologies maintains an active community website that allows developers to keep aware of new developments in Entellitrak. It is split into sections for the Platform, Documentation, and a Marketplace. The Platform section provides access to the software distribution and relevant release information. The Documentation area includes documentation for the Entellitrak platform, the Entellitrak Platform Server, and the Eclipse Plug-in. The Marketplace contains community-contributed templates, components, and reusable code that can be added to any Entellitrak application.

Check it out: https://www.micropact.com/blog/detail/micropact-unveils-entellitrak-community-and-marketplace/

References:

1. PitchBook  https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/62273-53#overview
2. Entellitrak Community – https://community.entellitrak.com/etk-community-portal/page.request.do?page=page.erpLanding and https://www.micropact.com/blog/detail/micropact-unveils-entellitrak-community-and-marketplace/
3. Class Handouts and Notes from Tyler Technologies’ on site Entellitrak Training Classes.