With the addition of Hannah to the support team, the attention and response times on our support tickets is now better than ever.

Last month Hannah broke the Claromentis record for ticket closures in a single month, smashing the previous record by 9 tickets. And despite only joining us 2 months ago, Hannah already looks set to be a strong contender this years “Top closer of the year” award.

In addition to that; even the best efforts of some of our biggest clients to swamp us with tickets is no match for the strengthening within our team. The Claromentis support team continues to knock-down the total number of outstanding support requests which has seen a steady decline from the start of the year. We are currently at our lowest figure of outstanding tickets for the last 3 years!!!

I firmly believe this is a result of great team work, mutual respect and good communication. The team effort has been outstanding, and the support/backing from the Dev and Design Teams has been second to none.

Long may this continue!!

Services discover, record breaking, support

I often ask myself how Claromentis continues to deliver quality solutions and meet deadlines that appeared impossible from the start. It’s only when I’m traveling and “outside the box” do I realize what it really takes to achieve the seemingly unachievable….

Here are the golden rules I see work for us at present:

1. At Claromentis, we refer to our staff collectively as “The Team”. We work together as a team; sharing delight, happiness, frustrations and success in all that we do within the workplace (and regularly outside of work also)

2. Every member of the Claromentis Team brings something different to the table, and everything brought to the table is considered as equal value – regardless of the weight or longevity behind the person presenting it. We are all equal.

3. We each share our opinions freely and contribute to tasks, discussions and problem solving that occur day-to-day – regardless of our direct involvement in the subject. No-one’s opinion is ignored, no opinion is ever incorrect/wrong.

4. We praise each other. If someone does something we like, we tell them. Praise creates a positive attitude and a sense of achievement. We all like positive feedback and rewards – so don’t ever hesitate telling someone they’ve done a good job

5. Freedom – Freedom of speech, creativity, flexibility and respect. Say what you feel, throw those wild ideas out there, throw-in an objective opinion, get involved with some scribbles/art/design on one of the 7 whiteboards, introduce something new to the way we work, go get a haircut outside of your lunch-break, respect the peace if someone needs it, be considerate of others (share sweets/chocolate and ice-cream etc)….

6. Conversation is crucial. We talk to each other throughout the day. We discuss projects, life, technology, jokes etc. This helps creative an atmosphere that everyone is comfortable with… a place that feels more relaxed, despite pressures of looming deadlines.

7. Ask questions – “If you don’t ask, you won’t get” – “If you don’t ask, you might deprive someone of the opportunity to help you”. We all ask questions; even if it’s something that we should know ourselves… just don’t ever be afraid of asking questions. We all do this at Claromentis, and it’s something that helps bring us together and create a sense of value.

8. If you don’t agree with it, challenge it. Claromentis allows anyone to challenge the things we do, the way we work and how we go about our business. A challenge is only “attacking” if it’s received like so. Without a challenge; an alternative opinion; you may never see or believe of a better way of achieving a goal.

9. Don’t stop learning, don’t stop teaching, and don’t stop sharing…. Claromentis pushing everyone to achieve things that might not believe he or she can/could/ever could. We encourage our staff to push their boundaries and extend their skills. This is beneficial for the individual as well as the company, and keeps minds active.

10. Support each other – Despite us all having our own domains to protect and serve, all Claromentis staff have an open ethos on helping others. Regardless of the topic, the time, the pressure of our own projects, we will always try our best to support a colleague in need.

These are just some of the things that keep our team culture alive and healthy (I could have gone on). All the points above give us a sense of belonging and value – something that I believe is crucial to creating a successful team; a successful organization.

So while I prepare for my second day of training in Calgary, Canada, I can sleep comforted by the knowledge that I have a team of highly skilled individuals backing me.

If I log a few issues with them tonight, I’m 100% confident that they’ll be resolved by the time I wake up tomorrow morning. This confirms to me that we have an unbeatable team…one that continues to grow, and one that will continue to strengthen.

Resources-Technical

Yesterday I went to Bond International to have a catch-up with one of my old managers. The purpose of the visit was for me to meet with with the Head of European Support and to pick his brains about how to grow a service desk inline with the growth of the company.

Being the world industry leaders in recruitment software, Bond International are undoubtedly a great company for me to model our support services on. Not only does the Bond Support Desk deliver an impeccable service, my old manager taught me most of the best practices that I still use today. Where better to go for advice, ideas and direction.

Not only did I find the experience very rewarding in terms of ideas, clarity and direction for the Claromentis Service, it also made me realize the importance of meeting people face-to-face. There is absolutely no way in my mind that the meeting could have been as rewarding and successful if our communication had been anything other than face-to-face.

As Claromentis continues to grow internationally, it’s becomes less common that we meet our clients face-to-face – at least until an on-site training session is given. Whilst we still manage to deliver successful projects using email and voice conferencing as our main communication tool, my recent experience does make me wonder….

How much more successful are projects that we get to meet the client face-to-face, in comparison with those that we don’t?

It’s a hard one to measure, if not impossible, since much of it is based on satisfaction and confidence levels, but I think we could all rate those areas in our mind.

My mind is made up… whilst a video conference could possibly get close, I just don’t see it achieving the same levels of satisfaction, understanding and rewarding as a face-to-face meeting.

Intranet-Extranet, Services

Zizzi (our favorite Italian restaurant in Brighton) ran a competition to win a selection of their outstanding Rustica Pizzas for businesses around the UK.

Claromentis were fortunate to win the competition, and have just been enjoying 8 of the finest Pizzas that have ever been consumed within the Claromentis office.

So even if England lose the football today, the Claromentis team still gets a result!

Thank you Zizzi!  You make amazing pizza’s!




This is also a great example of Corporate Social Networking. The result being free Pizza and happiness.

Intranet-Extranet

I come across an issue regularly when creating Infocapture (Process Manager) projects…

How to name the statuses appropriately?

I’ve so far concluded the following;

It depends on the project that you are creating

• How complex is the project
• How critical is the process that the project will control

It depends on the audience of the project and who will be interacting with the project

• Users with limited technical understanding or IT competence may require very simple status titles to ensure that they are not confused
• More technically competent users may be confused by a very simple status naming convention

It depends on the workflow within the project

• If the work flow is very simple, you are likely to  have statuses that reflect this.
• If the work flow is complex (perhaps even requiring an approval process), your statuses will be used to assist in the implementation of this.

Here is an example I’ve just run into…

The first status of almost every project is something along the lines of…

• New
• Submitted
• Received

All of those first status titles tells the users a single value of where the issue/ticket is at… but it’s static… it doesn’t say what it’s awaiting for…

What does “New” mean…other than it’s new… Who”s attention is it pending?  Is it pending attention at all?  Does it require approval?  If so, by who??

Sure, we can send notifications to the person it’s pending some attention from, but what about everyone else who see’s this… what does it mean to everyone else?

In an attempt to provide clarity on this to all users, I tend to create statuses with a dual title…

• New – Pending IT
• Submitted – Awaiting Approval
• Received – Being Processed by IT

However, in doing so, I think it’s easy to potentially get carried away and end up with a status such as…

• New – Pending further information from IT before being approved and sent to HR

My solution – A compromise…

1. Chose clear and meaningful statuses that are targeted to the audiences that will be involved in the project.  “Dual statuses” help achieve this… (see examples above)
2. Try not to define static statuses such as “New” or “Approved” – These are only likely to mean something to a percentage of the overall audience.
3. Use the description fields within the form to describe the work flow and process to all users.
4. Be clear in your notifications to users about what they should be doing in order to get the ticket moved forward

I would be interested in hearing alternative opinions and approaches…

Prod-Process e-forms, infocapture, processes, statuses

Despite having what seems like 30 different search engines running on my local PC, and having manually searched endless drives and folders for a file I still can’t find, I did come across a document that I created during the first few weeks at Claromentis.

It’s titled “The meaning of CLAROMENTIS”

And surprisingly enough, it actually contains some content.

I managed to find two translations of the word…

Latin Version:
Claro
claro : to make bright or clear, make clear in the mind.
clarus : clear, bright / renowned, famous, illustrious

Mentis
mens mentis : mind, thought, intention, intellect.

Thus: Claromentis = “Clear Mind” or  “Clear Intentions” or “Clear Thinking”

English version…..

Claro : A mild tobacco cigar
Mentis : Intellectual

Thus: Claromentis = “The Intellectual Mild Cigar”

However I interpret it, I always end up with a relaxed phrase or meaning.

Whilst the word “Claromentis” itself has no true meaning, I know it means a great deal to a collection of people around the world.

I’d really like to hear interpretations, view and opinions from other people about our company name, so please get commenting on this.

This isn’t market research, we won’t be changing our name any time soon, and there are no prizes for the best comment… but it should be fun.

Anthony

Services company, fun, general, humor

Managing and Maintaining user accounts is always struggle for an IT team.  They have to work closely with the HR department to ensure that new starters and leavers are granted and removed from the appropriate groups on the internal network.  This can often be a struggle even without an intranet; so introducing an Intranet to the business can cause additional complexities.  However… there are options available to ensure that this potential issue is reduced, or even eliminated entirely.

The Claromentis Intranet Software offers a variety of methods for ensuring that the Intranet user accounts are simple and easy to manage and maintain.

The options for manging user accounts within Claromentis are:

1. Manual User Creation and Deletion
2. Bulk User Import and Update using CSV
3. Auto Sync with Active Directory using LDAP

All of the options above have their pro’s adn con’s, but most importantly, the options are available, and you can in-fact use any combination of them, at any time.

Let me explain.

The IT department may not be prepared to introduce a syncronization option at the beginning of the intranet deployment process, so they may wish to begin with a bulk upload of a collection of users by using the CSV file import process.  If then at a later date, the IT department decides that they would like to switch to an automated synchronization process, the switch is simple. Claromentis can provide instructions and assistance with the switch; and I can tell you now, the process is relatively straight forward to complete. If then at a later date, the company decides that they wish to manage accounts on the intranet as a manual process; again, the switch to do this is again relatively straight forward.
The point is simple. Claromentis Intranet Software offers 3 very different ways of managing user accounts on the Intranet Software. Each of these methods is designed to sit neatly with a variety of existing network infrastructures and business models, from 5 user systems to 50,000 user systems. Whatever your implementation; Claromentis ensures that managing and maintaining access to the system is straight forward and simple.
If you are an existing Claromentis Customer, and would like to find out more about the items discussed in this post, please contact the Claromentis Support Team.

Services intranet, ldap, managing users

For those of you that don’t already know, LAMP is an acronym for Linux – Apache – MySQL – PHP. It’s a collection of software that can be used to run servers and dynamic websites. It’s one of the most popular alternatives to Microsoft, and according to statistics provided by netcraft.com not only is Apache holding around 60% market share in the delivery/presentation of websites, but it’s thriving on the open source platforms and continuing to grow and compete (successfully) against Microsoft. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that any piece of software that can even compete (let alone lead) in its market against a super company like Microsoft has to have something special about it. Well, it’s no secret why the LAMP solution is so popular, it just works, it works well, it’s reliable, it’s robust, it’s resilient, and it’s free.

Without going into all of the nitty-gritty debates about why you should and shouldn’t base a corporate solution on an open source platform (there are enough of these debates on the Internet already), it’s not hard to realize why Claromentis run all of their development on the LAMP platform. The LAMP platform allows the development team to manage all aspects of their programming environment without relying on Microsoft to ensure the stability of that environment. Depending on who you talk to, avoiding Microsoft can be complete suicide, or a dream come true. Personally, I’m a believer in the statistics, and if 60% of the websites are running on Apache, my money is on that platform to deliver the best of everything. And I’ve never met a PHP developer who programs on anything else.

However, Claromentis doesn’t believe in limitations, so we let you decide which platform you wish to run the applications on. The Claromentis framework is compatible with LAMP, Windows, and ORACLE, so it works the way you do, integrating easily with your existing IT infrastructure.

For more information about Claromentis and the platforms it can run on, please contact sales@claromentis.com or call us on 01273 666 355

Resources-Technical apache, LAMP, Linux, mysql, open source, php, platform, windows

If you didn’t know already, the Claromentis Infocapture application has the ability to extend it’s framework with the aid of plug-ins.  Plug-ins are add-ons to the application, allowing you to do almost anything with data that the application collects or manages.  You can use a plug-in to import data into the e-form automatically, export the data to 3rd party application/database or file, provide extended field verification and form checking, perform advanced calculations and data manipulation amongst an almost endless variety of other system process enhancing capabilities.

But the use of plugins doesn’t just stop there…

When you think about integrating the InfoCapture Application with another (or several) of the other applications within the Claromentis Framework, plug-ins step into a whole new league .

The InfoCapture Application can already integrate easily with Claromentis Sales Manager, to embed e-forms within pages about each company (to work in conjunction with Contact and Opportunity management), but combine that with InfoCapture plug-ins, and not only are you extending in the CRM system by intergrating with Infocapture, but you have the ability to extend it even further with the use of plug-ins.

I should also not fail to mention that InfoCapture and the Claromentis Document Manager application are also close friends, with linking to documents available within e-forms as standard(while still applying the correct document permissions!).

So where else can this go…

InfoCapture has envolved over the years to become such an adaptable data collection application, it could sit comfortably with so many of the Claromentis Applications.

You could use InfoCapture with other applications such as…

• Creating Special Calendar Events (Calendar)
• Booking meeting rooms (Room Booking)
• Booking holidays (Holiday Planner)
• Managing your email (Webmail)
• Managing your un-qualified sales leads (CRM)

The list could go on….

Imagine combining the Claromentis Project Manager Application with InfoCapture, and using plug-ins to extend the capabilities of them both.

The effectiveness of easily customizable and incredibly powerful e-forms solution combined with a project management application is a sure guarantee to gaining a decent ROI.  How many other project management applications allow such flexibility and extendability with the aid of an application like Claromentis InfoCapture and plug-ins?

So I ask the question again… how powerful are InfoCapute plug-ins??

And the answer appears to be… incredibly so….

Prod-Process e-forms, extending, infocapture, plugins

Pudsey the bear took a trip to the Claromentis office in Brighton this week as part of a fundraising campaign run by our client CareUK.

Pudsey traveled a total of around 450 miles on his trip to Brighton, and was reported to be suffering from tiredness at the end of it all.

Pudsey Bear said “It was a long trip, but I’m glad I took it.  The Claromentis Intranet Software is a great application framework and I’m pleased I was given the chance to see where it comes from.  I’m really tired after the trip, but to watch the sun going down over the South Coast was an amazing experience and I’m glad I did it”.

Claromentis looks forward to Pudsey returning again sometime in the near future.

Partners brighton, charity, Claromentis, fun