High Level
Changes since V4 at a glance:
Crisisworks ID: provides a single ID for signing into all your Crisisworks sites, and is SSO-ready for organisations wishing to use their corporate SSO solution. Crisisworks ID supports multi-factor authentication for increased security.
User Interface: a new, fast and friendly user interface does away with the slow parts of Crisisworks 4, and introduces improvements in nearly every part of the system while retaining familiarity for existing users.
Faster: the system is much faster in nearly every operation, from signing in, going on duty and everyday use through to running reports, performing mail merges, uploading imports and sending communications.
Updated forms: forms and workflows have been upgraded to be easier to use and more consistent.
Working across events: fast event switching and an improved “All Events” mode improves the experience working across multiple events at the same time.
Fast switching between multiple sites: you can now fast switch between all your Crisisworks sites without signing in multiple times.
New mobile app supports a better offline experience and more offline record storage
Other improvements and changes
Public form improvements: public forms are now easier to activate and can support multiple events in the same site with multiple active public forms of the same type.
A&TSI: improved data collection, with Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander fields now mandatory in relief and recovery forms
Communications: comms now supports direct reply to SMS with a number e.g. 1 for available, 2 for not available.
Positions: Changes to a number of position names and slight changes to access.
Data grid improvements
Simplified advanced searching
Bulk actions improvements
Recovery case Merge docs :Correspondence
Merge Docs support for Word templates (for simpler merge needs)
Request Tasks
Simplified resources
Dark mode support
Report Searching added
Detail for above items
Crisisworks ID
Crisisworks ID is the name of your central sign-in account.
It is based on your work email address. You will need to be able to access your email address to sign in for the first time, and for password resets.
Your single Crisisworks ID will be able to access multiple sites, based on your Crisisworks ID’s email address matching a user in that site.
You can strengthen your account protection with multi-factor authentication — both SMS and authenticator apps are supported
Preparing for Crisisworks ID:
All users of Crisisworks 4 will get a Crisisworks ID
If you work across multiple councils, decide on a primary email address to use and align all your user accounts in each site to that single email address
VPR will not use Crisisworks ID at initial launch, however it will be upgraded to this over the course of the year. Q1-Q2, 2025
In the event a user configures MFA and then loses access to that device, Datalink support will need to be contacted.
Users can manage their Crisisworks ID by editing the contact record on their primary site. The primary site is the initial site used to initially create the user’s record.
Joining and switching events
Joining events is now much faster and more efficient.
Switching between events is fluid and takes only moments.
A refresh button quickly loads new events, in the case a user cannot see a new event added moments earlier by a coordinator.
Working across events is more streamlined.
Creating events
What’s new:
A one-step full event form creates new events quickly.
New events can now be created from the mobile app, using a streamlined template-based approach.
Searching and filtering your data
Filters:
Counters are now called “filters”
Most Filters no longer show the record count; this makes way for an improved dashboard system to summarise and display your data. Some key filters will have a counter soon
The search system has been condensed into a single-field search system.
Some key filters will get counter numbers again, and a dashboard view will summarise your data in statistical form as an improvement over the older counter system. V5.17
Search improvements:
All filters are now based upon the search technology known as Crisisworks Query Language (CQL). This is exposed in the search box whenever you click a filter, allowing you to extend, customise and combine filters.
Searching can be as simple as typing a few words to search upon — this activates the full-text search system.
More complex searches can be built up by typing in “field:value” combinations, or by using the field selector to help build your searches.
Advanced searches can perform boolean operations, search within related records, perform geospatial area searches and more, all from the one interface.
Data grid improvements and changes:
The data grid can be customised, by adding, removing and reordering columns.
Columns can be grouped
Rows can bulk-selected by shift-clicking
The grid can be set to automatically refresh
Every search can be shared or bookmarked by simply performing a search and then copying the URL in the browser and sending it to your colleagues. This allows for simple and effective saving of common searches right in your browser.
The “select all” feature in the grid now only selects the visible page. This is a key difference to Crisisworks 4, however bulk actions
Map changes
Switching to the map now shows it in full screen
The mapped data is the current filter or search; changing this in the sidebar will update the map.
Roadmap:
Additional views of your data will be added in addition to grids and maps Q1-Q2,2025
We have planned support for a calendar view for rostering your records, a kanban board view for supporting agile workflow practices, and an analytics view to graph and summarise your data. Q1,2025 - Q2,2025
Bulk actions
The bulk actions system has been overhauled to be more convenient, faster and more powerful.
Bulk edit supports more fields, as well as dependent field changes (e.g. if changing a status activates a required field, that field can also be changed)
All bulk actions start immediately, run much faster than before, and provide richer feedback when they’re finished.
Bulk move is now part of bulk edit
Compatible bulk actions can be applied to “all records in the result set” by selecting no records. The supported bulk actions will be named to reflect that they apply to all records — for example, “Export All to Report” vs “Export Selected to Report”.
Most bulk actions from V4 are now in place, with Copy IDs being a notable exception for now. V5.17
Correspondence
The correspondence system has been upgraded to provide support for both MS Word documents (simpler but less powerful) and PDF documents (advanced but harder to configure).
This system can be used to both generate bulk and individual correspondence to many registers, specifically:
Contact
Recovery Case
Fire Prevention
Permit
Operations
The operations module is the heart of Crisisworks, containing modules such as requests, information, offers, contacts and more.
Request
The following summarises the key changes to the request system.
Requestor selection
Requestor selection has been improved, designed to cut down on duplication and increase a common operating picture.
You will now search before creating a new contact
Searching can “include similar sounding names” to find misspellings
Ability to verify the search result before selecting the contact
Proposed changes
Remove the “Use my details as the requestor” option; users can still search for their contact record to add themself.
Allow assignment to both users and positions
What are your thoughts?
Request Tasks
Requests now support adding Request Tasks
Request tasks allows a request to be broken down into the tasks required to fulfil it, with multiple tasks that are each individually assigned
Assign to either a position or a user
Optionally also assign a resource to track its utilisation and track costs
Resource simplification
Resource tracking within requests has been simplified.
Resources are now optionally added to task records
As the task is directly assigned a user or position for management, there is no need to configure a chain of resource → organisation → position → user to have a contractor manage their records.
A single category list is used for resources and tasks, making it simpler to create resources and make them assignable to tasks.
Offers, volunteers and resources are integrated together, meaning you can assign an approved volunteer or offer to a request task.
Offers and volunteers can now have costs assigned.
Request task costs are summed into the “total cost” field under Financial.
This helps to improve cases where you have a single manager for a category of fulfilment, with multiple resources available.
Example: an “accommodation manager” (position) can be created to manage all accommodation tasks across your multiple providers and properties (resources).
Assignment when working across events
When working across events, you need to select the event before assigning a position. The assignment field will update with the available positions and users for the selected event. The field will be greyed out until an event is selected.
When changing an event in a form, the assignment field is cleared and should be re-checked. This is normal behaviour, and happens because each event will have different assignee options based on duty and involvement.
Currently requests can only be assigned to positions (this is unchanged from Crisisworks 4), however Datalink is exploring the option of allowing users or positions in this field.
Summary
Information
The information register remains largely unchanged, with the following key changes:
The information register uses a common “source” field that works the same as requests. This is designed to promote the re-use of contacts and avoid duplication.
An assignment field now allows for a user or position to own the record. This user will be notified when the record reaches an expiry date, for example.
Logs
The key difference between information and logs is that logs are private by default, while information is designed to be shared.
The logs register is unchanged, other than the removal of Crisisworks 4’s quick log entry system (in the right-hand sidebar, if exposed).
Proposed changes:
Datalink is considering merging logs with information now that the assignment field is in place on that register. This would make “log” as a type of information, rather than a separate register, and would simplify the system.
Alternatively, adding an assignment field to this register will allow it to become a position log sharable with others having that position, and will maintain it as its own register.
What are your thoughts?
Aiming for Q1: 2025
Resources
Key changes:
The new resources system brings together resources, volunteering and offers.
Volunteering records can now be added by users (previously they could only be added via the public form)
The contact details section of the form is now unified with the same style of search + select approach used by resources and information.
Offers and volunteering share the same, unified category system with resources. This allows for offers and volunteering to be assigned just like resources, and it allows for a richer selection of resource categorisation.
Important resource changes:
The resource system has been simplified
We have removed an alignment of a resource to an organisation, and removed the concept of resource manager users.
Resources can be stored in either your current event, or into a global event if it is to be re-used.
Resources are now only used for tracking costs and usage, and separate positions now need to be created for each of your external contractors if they need to be assigned tasks.
If you have active events with external contractors accessing records, please let us know and we can assist in setting this up for you. We have opted to not automatically add positions for all resources, as this will lead to cluttering the positions system more than it already is.
Contacts
The contacts and users system remains largely unchanged, apart from a refreshed data grid and bulk actions.
Key changes:
All your users will have a Crisisworks ID created and associated.
You authorise your users to your site as you did previously — enable a user account, add positions and optionally send a welcome email
If your users change their email address, you can edit their contact record and change their email address to align the records. Only administrators can change a contact’s email address for this reason.
User management changes:
You can no longer reset a user’s password. They must reset their own password by following the forgot password option at sign-in.
Bulk managing positions, bulk creating or removing users from contacts and bulk setting communication preferences are now merged in the bulk edit tool.
We’ve improved the messages when a user account is being added to a non-global event.
Expertise
The expertise records in Crisisworks 5 are unchanged in functionality over Crisisworks 4.
Only limited testing has been conducted on this module.
Other observations
It’s not easy to search for contacts having expertise (it is possible in CQL but not intuitive).
The recommended approach will be to search the expertise register, and then link to the contacts you find
Idea: a bulk action on a register that can show matching records in another register by transforming CQL V5.17
Permits
Recovery
Key changes:
Recovery Tasks are now assignable to positions, not resources. Resources can also be added where it makes sense for the task.
Correspondence generation has been added
Proposed change:
Currently specifying contacts is using the existing V4 form, however Datalink is exploring using the same style of contact search used in requests. This would aim to promote search over entry, and help to cut down on duplication. This would apply to both Relief Registration and Recovery Case. V5.18
What are your thoughts?
Fire Prevention
Key changes in the Fire Prevention module:
Bulk mail merge has been updated.
FPN Tasks are now assignable to positions, not resources.
You will need to create positions for each contractor to allow assignment of tasks to them.
Proposed changes
A correspondence field can be added to allow ad-hoc generation of letters other than the bulk notice V5.17
Other features
Communication
The communication module has the following changes:
Email and SMS delivery is now much faster
Responding to an SMS is now done by the recipient replying to the SMS
Responding to an email is now done by clicking a link
The opt-out system now runs at a system-wide level due to anti-spam laws and requirements
You can opt a user back in by using “Override communication preferences“, but use this feature carefully.
Correspondence
What’s new
Improved support for MS Word document templates
Can now mail merge recovery cases
Library
The library works the same as previous versions of Crisisworks 5.
Reporting
The reporting system has been overhauled:
A new UI consolidates all reports onto a single screen.
All reports download as CSV and are designed to be opened in MS Excel.
For reports that support “Group By”, grouping by a field will now sum all the detailed lines for each group.
Specialist reports that create PDFs or other file formats are still supported.
Reports will begin running in under a minute, and will complete much faster
Troublesome reports in CW4 where there is a lot of data will now complete quickly and support a high volume of data.
General changes
Form changes
Change: Date fields no longer support typing relative dates or times. A date and time picker allows for entry.
Fixed: status fields in sub-forms now only show the next statuses, where previously they showed all statuses.
General
Dark mode is now available on the web application (beta)
Information security
All attachments are scanned for malware immediately upon uploading
App changes
Generally much faster
No wait time for the initial post-event spinner
Can now reset a forgotten password from the mobile app when signing in
Improved offline resilience, supports thousands of offline items and hundreds of thousands of assets
CW4’s “star” items feature is now a bulk download feature in CW5