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.

Resources-Technical Claromentis, document management, Prod-Intranet, update, user interface

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 antenna 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.

Prod-Sales Case Study, crm, Prod-Intranet, software

As an integrated framework that provides significant applications it is great to see how easy it has become to link between them – and how pragmatic and useful the resultant functionality is for companies.

One great example is the use of Claromentis for managing a customer relationship – from initial lead processing, through to sales management and onto the implementation using Project Manager. In all cases the integration is simple, effective and efficient.

• Lead processing : managed using InfoCapture auto responders and using notifications and SLAs – the leads are responded to and useful information provided. At any stage manual interaction can take place, and auto responders are then set on hold. When gates are passed and the lead qualifies as relevant and appropriate – one click generates a company, opportunity and contact record in the relevant Sales Manager territory.

• Sales Management : from this point all relevant information, activities and documents are captured as the new account moves through a customizable sales cycle.

• As soon as the project is approved, a direct link form the sales Manager record is generated to the new Project in the correct Programme in Project Manager to deliver the products and services that have been ordered.

For completeness the project metadata can link back to the Sales Manager records – so there is no need to duplicate relevant documents and data in project manager.

This level of integration and support is a pleasure to use and really offers the sales and project managers an integrated platform of information on which to ensure success for both our company and our new clients.

In our own company as we continue to accelerate our rate of customer acquisition this platform also allows us to scales up our delivery side with no loss of quality. It is becoming one of the most critical sides of our business as we continue to grow – which is particularly satisfying when we recommend this approach to our own clients.

Products efficiency, integration, Prod-Intranet

Claromentis Intranet & Extranet manager provides several ways to collaborate and share information within an organisation. We have application called ‘Documents’ (Document Management System), ‘Publish’ (Content Management System) ‘Wiki’, and our new member of the family ‘Bookshelf’ (online policies & procedures).

In early phase of intranet deployment we frequently being asked by our clients, “Which tool is the best to share and collaborate a piece of information or should we  just stick with an existing company shared drive?”.

There isn’t one solution to all problems

The good starting point is to be aware of the pros, cons and applicability of individual tool available.  Unfortunately as an Information Architect we always says “There isn’t one solution to all problems”. The idea is by having the right solution (with right technology) to a specific problem, we can make everyone’s lives easier.
Let’s start with…

Shared Drive

Typically before an organisation deploys an intranet they have existing growing unmanageable shared drive(s). Shared drive is relatively easy to setup but it suffers from these issues:

• No version control – You ended up having similar files with version number scripted at the back of the file name for example:  “MyPresentation_ver2.doc” not to mention the frustration of someone overwriting the file you’re currently working on.
• Searching – Does everyone feel that it is easier to search information on the internet than on the share drive?
• Limited Access – When you’re not in the office, say on the road or working from home,  you either have to use slow & complicated VPN software or not having access to the company files at all.
• Security – There is no easy way to setup permission on a shared drive, typically it opens to everyone or if you have permission it’s so complicated to set up and configure.
• Audit - You can’t easily check who did what, when and where.
• Duplication – since a single physical file cannot exist in two places at once, you ended up with duplication everywhere.

Documents – Document Management System

Claromentis document management system is designed to address all of the common issues with company Share Drive. The heart of it is the application called ‘Documetns’ It provides built-in version control, searching & indexing, permission layer, easy access, and many enterprise features.

What are the Cons?

• It is not suitable for managing extremely large files. (Larger than 30Mb)
• Files are kept in native format, which means users need to have the application to open / view and edit the file.  For instance not all users within organisation have AutoCAD software needed to open a *.DWG file.
• Speed to upload and download the file stored in Documents are limited to the speed of your network / internet connection
• Extra steps may be required to edit a file. Typically you have to download it (temporary), make changes and upload them back in, although we have several solutions to make this relatively painless such as webdav.

Publish – Content Management System

Using publish, users with no web publishing skills can collaborate & create web pages easily.

• Better access – Information displayed as web pages are widely accessible. Users don’t have to download the file or installing software to view. They can simply read them online.
• Information Hub – everything can be connected in publish page, link to documents, link to other pages, or links to external website. For example you can create a health & safety page which may have link to ‘health & safety assessment guide.PDF’ which is store in Documents as well as link to HSE websites.
• Mash-ups – Publish allows you can embed rich media such as online videos, podcast, web widgets and much more.
• Enterprise features– Publish has everything you need to manage online content, from built-in version control, security & permission, reminder, audit trails, multi lingual and much more.

It may sound like a good idea to convert all documents into publish pages, but there are several points to consider:

• There is not much point converting complicated document such as spreadsheet into a publish page, you probably better of store them in Documents and just link it from a publish page.
• Content for publish page should be relatively short, concise and to the point. Remember the information is designed to be read on the screen just like web pages.

Wiki

A wiki is designed to enable everyone with fast and volatile collaboration. Claromentis integrates with Media WIKI, one of the most popular open-source wiki software. Wiki focuses on fast and real-time collaboration by minimising complexity in content creation. There are several issues to remember here:

• Wiki tend to have open access for everyone – You have to keep sensitive and proprietary data off the wiki.  Avoid posting sensitive data such as financials.
• Wiki syntax to learn, Wiki may focuses on simplicity but there is whole new syntax to learn. Wiki is typically very popular within IT department but what’s popular in one department may not be suitable others.

Bookshelf

Bookshelf is the application behind Claromentis Quality Manager; it is the latest addition to the information layer suite. Bookshelf is designed specifically for managing Company Policies & Procedures. It allows online procedures creation making sure that there is one version of the truth across entire organisation.

• Bookshelf allows company procedures and policies to be maintained online allowing true collaboration of subject matter expert.
• Once the policies or procedures are created online, it can then be read online or exported in various format such as MS Word and PDF.

Summary

These are just a few of the tools available in Claromentis Framework. There isn’t one perfect solution to all problems but at least you can choose ‘the best kit for the job’.

Any comments and feeback welcomed.

Solutions collaboration, document management, intranet consultancy, intranet software, online collaboration, Prod-Intranet, quality management software

It is a shocking reality, many major corporations still running their entire business on Excel.  Let’s admit it,  Excel is being used on almost anything,  from managing company database, claiming our expenses, accident reporting or perhaps ordering lunch ? Don’t get me wrong Excel is a powerful tool but it gets over-used in business.

Recently one of our clients, a major out-door clothing brand is taking a leap from a tired, out-of-control spreadsheets to a complete web application. We developed a store audit application where a tech rep who visited retail stores can write, and sending an audit report directly to the central database through a web form.  Appropriate finance managers will get notification allowing them to complete the financial details. Data submitted are audited, stored in central database, accessible through corporate Intranet, ready to be extracted by appropriate managers for monthly or quarterly reporting with a simple click.

Now try to get that on Excel !

Products Add new tag, e-forms, internal customer communications, online collaboration, Prod-Intranet, software

We all love intranets (at least in Claromentis). Intranets don’t just allow you to manage and organize your precious data in your corporation, but it also encourages your users to get involved in the workplace; if it is used correctly. In this article, I am going to list the 7 common mistakes that an intranet administrator shouldn’t do. I hope this helps you optimize your intranet and make it work more efficiently for both you and your users.

Keep It Simple, Yet Efficient

We all are busy, aren’t we? Nobody wants to come to an office and see a load of irrelevant documents nagging them and announcements that they have no interest with. You wouldn’t want them to spend tens of minutes looking at a single page and assume them to find their way around.

It could be pretty painful for the end user if you keep your intranet’s user interface cluttered. Try to have a clean and well structured user interfaces; both on your internal pages and public pages.

Use Intranet Permissions, Groups and Roles

Most of our users have been enjoying the comfort and luxury of the extensive intranet permissions system of Claromentis. By using this powerful yet innovative feature of Claromentis Intranet Software, you can filter your documents, files, pages, announcements, news and almost everything else for your target audience. Our software allows you to keep your intranet elements well efficiently organized and gives your workforce a clean and well-thought environment to work on. By preventing them seeing the unnecessary elements of an intranet, they will be more likely to be focused on the actual work itself.

Do Not Assume Your Users Are Computer Literate

Try to be precise on your descriptions and guidelines, particularly if you are trying to explain a part of your intranet. Don’t assume them that clicking on the “Submit” button after filling all of the information is obvious. Write it down and make it clear every single step they should follow. If you are not lucky enough by not having a user friendly intranet software, well, change your provider if it is still not too late or push your service provider to provide you a better interface.

Encourage Your Users to Communicate

Most of the intranet software suites provide a functionality to enable your users to communicate each other, one way or another. Be it an instant messaging, e-mailing or forums; encourage your users to communicate each other. This will not only reduce the workload of your support team but your users will also pick things up quicker by trying themselves. If you have a collaborative intranet solution, then use the many of the features provided. Allow users to comment on your news, allow them to write blogs, certainly use forums for both personal and corporate matters.

Use Short, Precise Surveys

Every week or so, create a survey and try collecting an information from your users. With the advantage of a permission based intranet, you can have different surveys for different audiences all within the same intranet. Sometimes try to ask something about a national event or something out of a business matter. Don’t have long and boring surveys as most of the users will not bother filling the information correctly, if not at all.

Keep Your Language Simple and Easy to Understand

If your organization is big and have many levels of knowledge between the different areas of your intranet, try to keep your writing language simple and easy to understand. Use short and grammatically correct sentences. This especially applies to your news, announcements and e-mails sent to masses. If you are going to write about a very specific topic which will be interesting for only some of your departments, assign reading permissions to people who belong only those departments.

Try to be Innovative

It has always been encouraging for us to see some innovative uses of our intranet software by some of our clients. Don’t be afraid of expressing your ideas to your manager or your intranet software provider. In most cases, there is always a way to achieve what you are after and it is usually easier than you think.

What are your ways and best practises for improving your corporate intranet’s user experience? Share it with your comments.

Services intranet, intranet software, intranet software discussions, Prod-Intranet

I had an interesting conversation today with a potential client in Minnesota and I was reminded yet again of the potential for confusion, even about such a basic concept as a contact database.

•    We have a contact system in our people application
•    We have of course complex contacts – territory and permission based, in our Sales Manager software

But interestingly to meet this requirement – to store contact data per permissioned group of users, allow them to input new data, search, filter and review their own contact data – and allow head office to review all contact data – the simple solution was to use InfoCapture – the main application in Process Manager  – our form based workflow solution.

This is on the one hand surprising – why isn’t such a simple requirement best delivered by one of our main applications? But then when you stop thinking about forms, and think of the data in the form – you realize the power of Process Manager to provide exactly what a simple requirement like this needs.

It is a mental leap though – it is hard enough for our own staff to think about what Process Manager can do within an intranet environment – imagine how hard it is for a potential customer who has never used any of our applications, and is still trying to develop an understanding of what they need.

When they are looking for a contact management system they would look to our applications that contain contact management – which in this case was the wrong place to look.

Prod-Intranet Prod-Intranet

Once again today I was talking to a potential intranet customer and I was asked “how many applications do you have?”

This is a challenge we have met many times, and that I think we will continue to face.

One of our core values is clarity – so we are re-launching our website tomorrow to be as clear as possible about our products – the fact that we now offer our intranet clients a choice of 7 major products that address the following significant pure open source extendable areas of functionality:

• Intranets and Extranets
• Processes
• Sales
• Projects
• Quality and compliance
• Content management
• Document management

So what does this mean for a client trying to understand what collaboration framework to invest in?

I think that once again it is all about clarity. We have to explain that having a pre packaged form for staff to order a cheese sandwich is not an intranet application – it is a tiny customization. We have to engage our potential customers at the appropriate level where we can make a difference to the achievements of their company.

Unfortunately it is a hangover from the understandable local software world of “what exactly do I get for my money” and “feature comparisons” that understandably some customers still adopt this mindset when looking for significant business impact from a powerful and customizable collaboration framework like Claromentis.

Our challenge at Claromentis as always is to be transparent, clear and engaging with everyone who has an interest in how we might be able to impact their business.

The challenge for our potential customers is to see the process of ordering a cheese sandwich for what it really is – a simple match between users and a temporary object of desire. This requires about 5 lines of code and a database table.

Is this a major software application that is going to make a significant difference to my business?

No it is not …

… Easy to say when you aren’t hungry.

Prod-Intranet Prod-Intranet

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.

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.

Solutions intranet ideas, Prod-Intranet

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?!

Resources-Technical complex intranet management, document management, intranet, intranet blogging, news management, permissions, Prod-Intranet, smart object