FOM updates: charging policy, bug fixes

February 8, 2017

As the Facility Online Management (FOM) software has been utilized to facilitate the Core equipment management, I would like to explain our charging policy and introduce some tips and future functions in FOM so that our users can avoid unnecessary charges.

1)      Users can always monitor their usage charges in their own FOM account by clicking “User Report” link and inform me for any questions.

2)      Please try your best to appear in your reserved time; if not, you can cancel the reservation 24 hours ahead without cancellation fee. No cancellation allowed if your time is up and your reservation will be charged even if you are not using instruments.

3)      If previous user is taking your reservation time on instruments, both you and the previous user will be charged. So the users from different groups should always keep your time within the reservation window. For users in the same group, to avoid overcharging, you can log into the instrument and let your lab mate to continue data collection.

4)      To avoid accidental cancellations by users, we will ask FOM company to create a final cancellation confirmation window with “Yes” or “No” buttons and charging warning.

5)      There is a bug currently in FOM that allows day-time users to access instruments in off-peak hours and extend the reservation from your current time, say 8 pm to 9 am the following day. We have found related overcharges in our west campus research groups. Please check your user report and let me know for similar charges. FOM company is working on creating a message window on instrument window that will redirect unauthorized users back to the initial FOM screen lock window. This bug only exists in FOM screen locker, so it won’t affect SEM reservation.