Claromentis Intranet Software Blog

We have completed the initial testing of our new extension of InfoCapture e-forms onto PDAs and Mobile phones.

Previously, although you could enter data to start an automated Process Manager workflow from your phone, you were basically using a browser and had to have an internet connection.

We now have a downloadable application solution for both the  mobile windows and Symbian platforms, to enable users to enter data into forms that start the workflow process.

The user no longer needs to be connected to the internet – they can keep collecting data and as soon as a connection is available the data is entered, the issues reported to the server and the workflows take over.

Process manager data entry

This is a significant enhancement to the Claromentis process manager solution.

Corporate News, Products, intranet applications e-forms, process manager

As we continue to work on the definition of what will become Claromentis 6.0 I feel that it is important that we ensure ideas can migrate without effort between applications. For example they mature from initial idea shouts on collaboration walls to collaborative exchanges and onwards to execution as a Project.

collaboration

As an intranet software supplier we are always driven to ensure each application is intuitive and fully functional -  but in the post 2.0 world an important aspect within an integrated framework like Claromentis is to make sure that the transition between applications is effortless, and does not require regeneration of information already captured and exchanged.

In some areas we are strong, but in general I feel we need to have more  awareness of the living evolution of a single idea into something that can be executed by an identified team. We are strong for example at making sure a Project in Project Manager has integrated forums, document management and resources – but not so strong in enabling with a single click the creation from a forum or blog an actual project, as an idea moves from collaboration to execution - with no loss of information.

Corporate News, General Intranet Posts, People and Cultural Issues, Products, intranet applications intranet applications, intranet ideas

Recently a lot has been written about project based collaboration, ranging from thought provoking articles about their position in open/closed vs. flat/hierarchical analysis to simply promoting one tool over another. Vendors have really struggled to meet the varied requirements of different projects, while preserving all the advantages of a single information layer and a truly integrated application stack.

With Claromentis Project Manager the company has leveraged everything in the framework to really bring a user selectable range of deeply functional applications to bear on any project, all through the flexible and powerful permission system.

Project Manager Portal

It will be fascinating to watch developments here – as the company now has two flagship products that have extraordinary potential – InfoCapture and Project Manager. Both are related – indeed InfoCapture projects can be integrated in any Project within Project Manager, to report anything within a project and control resolution through any workflow.

With plans to make InfoCapture an integrated complex workflow engine for any Claromentis objects, and Project Manager providing such a deep range of project based functionality, it is a tough call as to which will become the flagship product for 2009.

Workflow illustration

Maybe they both will.

General Intranet Posts, Products, intranet applications collaboration, e-forms, project management

The title of this blog could have been a question, but I prefer it to be a heading.

We had a corridor conversation a few days ago, Mike and I, and I mentioned  that I wanted him to think about how we might extend InfoCapture so that we can report Process Manager issues on a PDA, those processes to upload to the Claromentis server as soon as it is connected. A great many processes in certain industries start with PDA input of initial data, and then complex work flows need to take over. For example office surveys, certain types of audits.

Within the context of my chat, I was expecting some kind of possibly in 6 months, what version of Claromentis – series of discussions. The normal priority setting of what should make a Claromentis release, and what should miss out.

It is now a few days later and he has the application installed on his Nokia  phone, with the developer now coding the mobile windows version.

We have never met the developer – Mike just put out the work on an open source developers recruitment platform, and it’s done. No fuss, no headache – minor investments and great functionality.

What an amazing leap in our software, from talented people unconstrained by any limitations.

The heading of this Blog could not have been a question – because it doesn’t have an answer.

Corporate News, General Intranet Posts, Open Source Intranets, intranet applications

The recent development plans for the Project management application are extremely thought provoking.

We are now delivering a true collaboration hub, where individuals defining a new project can very easily select powerful collaboration tools that are appropriate for their requirements. These elements form the collaboration hub.

They may select from a Gantt Chart based approach because task management is critical, or version controlled document management, news channels, forums and form based work flows for any conceivable set of requirements. The Claromentis framework provides all of the permissioned access required to ensure users have exactly the access they need, without becoming cluttered and overloaded and that clients can engage with staff, suppliers and partners as required.

This is truly exciting – we are delivering collaboration hubs within a programme managed framework. Every project has an overview area, and each user can specify their preferences for receiving information by email when information changes in the project. Because the Claromentis framework is so comprehensive we can assemble for anyone involved in collaboration exactly what they need, with a very deep functionality set that extends across all areas of customised information management.

Corporate News, Products, intranet applications online collaboration, project management

I have recently been working on one of our large clients intranet deployment in the USA and I wanted to write how amazed I am when I see a client finding different ways of customization our intranet software to suit their needs.

As of Claromentis 5.4, we have developed a new feature called Smart Objects. This feature helps Claromentis users importing content to their intranet pages from different sources within Claromentis, such as News, Forum messages and Document lists. No longer will users have to navigate to separate areas to see application files as opposed to web based content, for example. A dynamic view of disparate content and objects is possible from just one location.

This company is part of one of the worlds largest clothing manufacturers, and they are using our software to improve the communication between different departments within the organization, as well as simplifying the process of managing documents securely, all within one instance. Departments varies from variety of sources, such as Sales, Finance, Warranty, RD&D, EMEA and more… Without a doubt, a web based intranet solution like Claromentis was the best choice for an international company. Having its employees across the world makes the importance of communication and document management through the Internet was an appropriate choice.

Because Claromentis is permission based intranet software, it is possible to hide your content from different departments using the same intranet software. You simply create groups and roles within Claromentis and identify your content (documents and news) to be shown to a certain number of users.

As you can imagine, a company like this literally has tens of thousands of documents stored within the software, so making these files to be found easily is not an easy job. That’s where the Smart Objects feature is going to make this process a lot easier than our competitors’ solutions.

Let me explain how different parts of Claromentis can work in collaboration to solve complex intranet problems. In this example, I would like to share a document folder containing financial sales targets of this month and a list of products needs to be highlighted during sales campaigns. I would also like to share news belonging the sales department and I need to show all of the above content visiting the Sales Department home page.

In the above example, I am actually aiming to solve my problem by sourcing the content from the following corporate solutions.

• Document Manager
• Content Manager
• Permission Based Intranet Management
• Permission Based News Management

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, Smart Objects enables you to show contents from different parts of Claromentis, and this is exactly how this client actually solved this complex collaboration issue.

1. Define Groups and Roles (SALES > Sales Managers | Sales Team) and assign users to the appropriate level.
2. Using Document Manager application, store my files into one folder created for the special sales campaign.
3. Change the permissions of all my files and make the “financial sales targets” viewable only by Sales Managers and the remaining files viewable by people belonging the SALES group.
4. Using Web Based Content Management Solution, create an intranet page and fill up the content areas, such as TITLE, SUMMARY, GOALS, REWARDS.
5. Using Smart Objects, embed the document folder containing my files into an appropriate space within my intranet page.
6. Again Using Smart Objects, embed the Sales news (blogs) channel.
7. Save the page and share the web address of the page with my staff.

What will happen is people who has an access to view the page I just created will only need to remember one web address (which can be pasted into an e-mail message) and when they click on that link, all of the information they have a permission to see will be visible to them. Remember that we have embedded one single folder containing both financial targets as well as documents containing products need to be highlighted? Because I set the permissions for my documents, Sales team will only see the files they need to see and managers will also be able to access the financial target documents, even though they are in the same folder and I have embedded that folder into my Intranet Page.

All within one single page. How Smart is that?!

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The most published department in the UK government, the Department for Communities and Local Government, has purchased Process Manager - the e-forms solution from Claromentis.

This will be a fascinating project for Claromentis as Process Manager is a focus Product for 2009 and working together with the Local Government Department will allow us to ensure  the product receives the feedback to ensure it is developed to met the real needs of our business process driven clients.

Claromentis around the world, Corporate News, intranet applications e-forms, government e-forms

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

Open Source Intranets, Services, Technical Support, intranet applications 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….

Intranet Development and API, Products, Technical Support, intranet applications e-forms, extending, infocapture, plugins

We have always been careful to acknowledge that customisable intranet solutions are an area where terminology can create confusion for the customer.

But as soon as you add e-forms – to enable paper based processes to go online – the possibility misunderstandings and the need for patient listening and careful explanations becomes much more acute.

It just seems that there is so much potential for a natural disconnect. Customers might be under the perception that :

* Forms are documents
* E-forms are just like web forms
* All paper based processes should be automated instead of those that deliver value if they are moved online.

None of these are true.

Fortunately we have the staff to listen, to be advocates, and to explain what we can deliver.

General Intranet Posts, Products, intranet applications eforms, intranet, software