Intranet Software by Claromentis
Choosing name for an Intranet
July 3rd, 2009
Choosing the right name for your intranet is probably one of the most exciting tasks for the Intranet Development Team. (By the time I am writing this I am still struggling to choose name for my baby, perhaps it’s not quite the same 
I am seeing there are few interesting patterns based on what our clients decide at the end, here is some example:
1. Greek mythology
Intranet system named after a Greek gods and goddesses, or Greek influence is definitely the most popular.
Athena - from the Greek goddess of wisdom, the arts, industry, justice and skill, It is the name of Intranet system at Nominet UK.
Atlas - Atlas was made to bear the weight of the heavens, or was it the earth, this is what will become our own Intranet, and perhaps we’re hoping atlas can help us bear the weight of daily project work and pressure from clients.
Odyssey – An ancient Greek epic poem attributed to Homer. Is the name of intranet for Prometheus Real Estate Company, keep it in-line with Greek theme.
Eureka – (I have found it) exclamation used by ancient Greek scholar Archimedes, appropriate name for Care UK intranet, it certainly has scholar and research flavour to it. Care UK is hoping their intranet will become the source of finding information for the entire organisation where every member of staff can say ‘eureka!’.
2. Net-isation
Putting ‘net’ at the end of a choosen word seems quite popular, it’s a hint to network, transmission, exchange information. Here is some popular example Infonet, datanet, skynet.
Or you can simply attach the company name with ‘net’ such as intranet for Hanover housing is called the h-net.
3. Synonyms & Popular Culture
Intranet is a virtual place where information is stored; recently many companies are pushing collaboration and application through their intranet. Given this nature these are of popular word to represent the Intranet itself:
he Matrix - Albany Group named their Intranet “The Matrix” apart from influence from popular sci-fi movie, in cyber culture matrix also means the Internet and other networks that flow into it are altogether.
Nexus - One of the most popular name for the Intranet adopted by many clients. It comes from the Latin “nectere” meaning “to bind.”. The Intranet is a collaboration hub.
Dimensions - Babcock Infrastructure Services named their intranet “Dimensions” Perhaps their vision is to make a multi-dimensional working space.
Basecamp – is the name of The North Face intranet where they visualise their intranet is the a basecamp of outdoor lifes.
4. “My”
Adding “my” in front of company name emphasise on the sense of belonging and ownership. There are several companies who named their intranet with MY+Company name, such as MySunPower or MyGFI.
5. Play with words & accronyms
Tiggle – is a clever acronym from “Tussauds Intranet Global Gateway Linking Everyone” – an Intranet name for Tussauds Group.
Inflo – Interesting play on word. It sounded like “Info”, Inflo is the name of the Intranet/Extranet system of Prefered Brands where they do flooring franchise business.
I am hoping this post will inspire many companies who are thinking about choosing name of the Intranet, why not runs naming competition to find out who came up with the best idea within your company.
Claromentis around the world, Clients, Communities and Case studies, Corporate News, General Intranet Posts
Intranet sales management software
by Nigel Davies
July 2nd, 2009
It is great when you join up a process and see seamless integration in software solutions to really support you across the whole process.
We use our own intranet software to deal with website leads and sales management of opportunities that result from them. Whereas previously we used Process Manager to manage the leads and Sales Manager to manage opportunities once meaningful interactions had occurred and an account manager needed to be involved - we had no clean implementation to produce a truly integrated approach. Recently two developments have really boosted our sales efficiency :
• We started to use Process Manager SLAs to act as auto responders, which meant people who had shown interest in our software were sent personal emails and useful data sheets via 3 emails
• If an interaction takes place we developed a Process Manager Plug-in to provide a one click process to generate a CRM company, contact and opportunity record in Sales Manager.
The net result has been a very significant increase in discussions with potential customers, and a really efficient enquiry handling process for our own business.
Corporate News, General Intranet Posts, intranet applications
Intranet speed of delivery
by Nigel Davies
June 29th, 2009
We are often asked how long a ‘typical’ intranet project takes to launch, and what factors can speed up the process.
Well of course firstly it is really hard to find a typical project, but we do know that from choosing Claromentis to be your provider to deploying phase 1 has over the last 5 years taken an average of 7 weeks.
Software as a service can be deployed within one day, using standard designs and our own infrastructure, if the requirements are simple.
I believe our world record is one week and I will refrain from discussing some of the longer projects, always extended by the demands of assembling and validating content, and nothing to do with technology.
In terms of what factors can speed this up, here are some of the most important :
- Provide a style guide and general instructions but let our team provide the interface. We have an established process and are just so fast at working within Claromentis.
- Restrict your project team to a manageable number.
- Expedite your sign off procedures for approval of designs or if relevant development.
- Keep phase 1 to what is really important, and not a very long list of functionality that is really only there ‘because we can’. This provides a sense of business focus and urgency.
- Provide a project manager yourselves and take the project management service from Claromentis. Then focus on the critical path, especially early on – prepare for all tasks that are on that path at the expense, if necessary – of those that are not.
- Use telephone conferences and webinars over physical meetings whenever appropriate to do so, they help preserve the focus on what needs to be done and are much shorter.
Finally – if it makes sense for your business to consider our Intranet Software as a Service solution that is the factor that above all else speeds up delivery – mainly because we don’t have to deal with your infrastructure, IT and active directory – but also because the lack of upfront investment makes it a less political project for our customers internally – freeing up motivated staff to just get the job done!
View Effective Permissions
June 29th, 2009
After applying permission to a folder or document, have you ever wonder that you need to make sure the right person can view the document? Let’s say you added Group:Marketing, until now there is no to find out who are the member of “Group Marketing for instance” unless you have to navigate away to ‘People’ application and run a search or filter.
But now in 5.6.1 we’ve got a nifty solution. It’s called “View effective permission”, as you can see you can now review the permission on every single permission dialog box to make sure the right people has the right permission.
Clients, Communities and Case studies, Design and User Interface, General Intranet Posts, Intranet Development and API, Technical Support
Client Appreciation
by Nigel Davies
June 23rd, 2009
It is always great when clients appreciate your work - but even more so when they send you a crate of Beer Lao to let you know!
Today Albany suprised us with exactly that to acknowledge the hard work the support team have put in recently for them, so thanks to Howard and the IT team at Albany, and here’s Julian about to consume the first one..
Cheers Albany!
Just don’t ask him for anything too technical later today!
Corporate News, General Intranet Posts, People and Cultural Issues, Services, Technical Support
Job Processing Software
June 23rd, 2009
Recently we have just completed a web-based job processing application based on Claromentis Sales Manager. For us this is one of the prime examples how a CRM application such as Sales Manager can be tailored to suit specific requirements.
The application is designed for Total Support Group - one of UK ’s largest service provider specialising in satellite/terrestrial antena installation, helping them managing and sorting jobs which has to be distributed through 6 regional support offices through post-code recognitions.
Built-in Claromentis strong permission system allows each regional office to view only the jobs relevant to their region while the head office can monitor them all in real time.
Next time when you buy a digital set-top boxes for your television and having an engineer to install it, it might be one of the many jobs managed by Claromentis. A small contribution to get UK goes digital by 2012.
Claromentis around the world, Clients, Communities and Case studies, Industry News, Intranet Development and API, Services, intranet applications
Intranets and Talking Heads Videos
by Nigel Davies
June 18th, 2009
We have many clients who enthusiastically embrace blogs and new media, which of course is engaging and excellent.
However with these clients I have seen a tendency to launch similar departmental intranet home pages, each of which has a video introduction to the department from the relevant VP or member of the management team, and the blog – along with of course rich and relevant departmental information – documents, self service, general contextual information and e-forms.
These can be very powerful templates – but what worries me is that talking head video from the VP is only interesting the first, or at best second, time you hear it. Therafter it can be very irritating, however relevant the message.
What I like is a component that checks if a user has seen that video, and if so switches it out for another relevant content or RSS feed that fits well with the design.
Intranets should be multimedia and rich – but they absolutely must be fresh!
Corporate News, Design and User Interface, General Intranet Posts, People and Cultural Issues, Products, Services, Visual Interface
Accessible Intranet Software
by Nigel Davies
June 11th, 2009
We make Claromentis Intranet Software available on a range of devices, according to our customers needs. However the truth is I have often wondered just how practical this is.
Then recently I found myself in the car park of a potential new client, having completely forgotten the names if the main contacts I was meeting with. We had arranged the meeting in somewhat of a rush and over the phone, so emails didn’t help me.
Within a few minutes I had logged onto our intranet on my i-phone, found the opportunity in Claromentis Sales Manager – and had everything I needed.
Sometimes it really is useful to have your intranet accessible from any modern device!
New Intranet Options
by Nigel Davies
June 7th, 2009
We are really sure now that we are making the whole process of selecting a design for a new Claromentis Intranet just too difficult for the typical company that joins us. For a certain type of company, with the relevant skills and indeed ambitions the existing process is fine – but not for many!
Precisely because Claromentis can easily be given a design that can be completely bespoke – exactly what you would like it to be – we have encouraged clients to think hard about what they would like the design to be.
But actually it seems that most new companies would prefer that we just tell them!
So we going now through an exciting process to develop questionnaires and models that will allow us to present the new intranet customer with a great design at the first pass – and then just let them comment on it and make minor changes.
What are the positives :
1. The client gets an intranet with a great and relevant design, fit for purpose, in very little time.
2. We know from experience most customers refresh their designs in year two or three anyway, after the experience of actually using it.
3. The client can focus on content, functionality, training and deployment issues – which is probably the best use of their time.
The truth is that we now know this is the best for all concerned – but we still find it difficult to move away from a completely bespoke and individual design for each client – because that is such a strength of Claromentis.
I am reminded of the fact that in previous engagements with intranet clients over the years we should say that certain clients just did things “because we can” – perhaps this is seeing our own process in exactly the same way. Just because we can deploy a completely individual intranet design for every customer does not actually mean that we should!
Corporate News, Design and User Interface, General Intranet Posts, Products, Services, Visual Interface
Document Workflow in Claromentis 5.6
by sweta
June 3rd, 2009
Document Workflow is one of the key modules of Claromentis Document Management System
There are three basic terminologies in Document Workflow:
Category: It is a grouping mechanism for Workflow. Permissions are set default through Category
Workflow: A Document Workflow containing set of States
State: State of Document, for instance “Draft, Initial Review, Revision, Ready to Publish, etc”
Each State has one “Action” and one “Transition”
Action: Here we are able to specify what action is to be taken on the document at certain State of the Workflow. There are following actions we can select from: “None, Feedback Request, Move to a designated Folder and Send Email”
Transition: Here we are able to specify what type of transition is to be carried out at certain State of the Workflow. There are following transitions we can select from: “Not Auto (Manual), Auto:Based on Approval (On All Approve, On One Approve) and Auto:Time Based(On Time Elapse, On Date/Time)”
By using Document Workflow, you don’t need to worry about manually chasing each user to look at the document and give there feedback or approve it, it’s all done for you
