Bridgewater Bank is the only Canadian Chartered Bank with head office located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The bank is wholly owned by the Alberta Motor Association (AMA), the largest membership service organization in the province. With assets more than $3 billion, employing more than 215 employees and serving over 60,000 customers, Bridgewater Bank continues its expansion with wide-range of product service offering from Mortgages, High Interest Saving Account and Credit Cards.

Partnering with Claromentis since 2010 we’ve been working on the highly complex and sophisticated portal deployment for a banking industry, and we are delighted to see the project has been well received by the executives, staff, brokers and their customers.

“I went through the app from start to finish including saving and re-entering to edit. Very slick application and user friendly process. I like it., I want to thank you for the time and effort you put into this over the past week to get it done.”

Peter Flannigan │ Director, Customer Solutions

All Star Broker Portal

All Star Portal is the result of Bridgewater Bank’s commitment to their brokers and their business. Having visited several broker houses in Canada and understanding their day-to-day job provides tremendous insight of what they actually need, instead of just working of the requirement documents. The result is outstanding the broker loves it and the project has been a great success. Here are some of the key features:

• Secure and Robust Permission
• Ease of Access (any browsers, PC, Mac, Smart Phones, Tablet)
• Real-Time update
• Drag-and-drop secure document upload for mortgage application
• Automatic email notification
• Auto-sync with third party Mortgage system

Broker Information System

Broker Information System is the back-end of central database for Bridgewater Bank ‘s Brokers. We have done complete transformation on what it was difficult to use in-house software into an integrated web app with the portal itself.

Key Features:

• Broker’s profile database
• Broker-Sub Broker
• Ratings & Super Broker Concept
• Red Flag warning
• Commenting facility
• Integration with Google Map
• History
• Fully integrated with Broker Deal Management

New Website

We are also working with their team giving their tired public website a new live with complete redesign and implementing Claromentis CMS.

Smart Applications

For the ‘cherry on top’, we’ve created custom web-form allowing web visitor applying to their products such as Mortgage and Smart eSaving Account through the built-in easy to use web form

Features:

• Strong Field Validation
• Saving application to submit later
• Auto secure password generator
• Email Notification system
• Real time application status

At Claromentis we believe that user experience is paramount and cannot be compromised, however sophisticated the technology we always put human aspects behind it.

If you would like to know more about this project and find out more on how we can help you. please contact us.

Intranet-Extranet, Services, Solutions bank, bespoke development, Design, intranet consultancy, online collaboration, portal, user interface

One of the biggest riddle using Microsoft Projects is the confusion between Type : Fixed Work, Fixed Duration, Fixed Unit.

If you ask any hard-core Project Manager who uses Microsoft Project every day they will be able to explain it to you immediately but if you are newbie I can guarantee you will be still confused.

Here are some of the quotes I gathered from numerous forum & blog post:

Project.net

“When creating a task, you have the choice of fixed units, fixed duration or fixed work. Most use fixed work tasks, but what exactly do these terms mean? “

“In order to get my mind around it, I had to rewrite it in my own words and try to work out example cases for each type in order to try to understand it.”

TheDailyReviewer.com

“it is, I now a famously tricky concept to get hold of or to teach”

Tek-Tips.com

“I am confused about Task Types in project planning. I am using MS Project for a requirements project. Up till now we have not utilized any formal project structure to get this job done.”

Take a look at the option of adding a task in Microsoft Project there are 5 tabs and at least 30 options to choose from not to mentioned options within options.

It is a real issue, Microsoft Project is just too complex for most of the projects we’ve undertaken, yes it is a sophisticated tool but you probably need a week course before you can use it.

Recently I read about  “Designing the Obvious” by Robert Hoekman Jr. on my kindle and the principles in designing a software is the fact that the software must be able to

• help users to get started quickly
• hide advance & unnecessary features out of sight
• deliberately persuades users to take a specific action.

We are currently developing a web-based project application, powerful enough to manage complex project yet it must be easy enough to use.

Check out the video below showing how we’re planning to solve the same problem with a simpler solution.

Solutions Design, online collaboration, Prod-Project, user interface

Recently we’ve developed an attractive way to read a policy online. Some of the blog reader might be familiar with ‘Bookshelf’ one of application from Quality Management Product that allows you to create and publish policies & procedures online (as web pages).

Bookshelf user can now choose from standard available themes, read in full screen, changing font-size in real-time, ease of navigation.

Intranet-Extranet, Products Design, quality management software, user interface

Recently we’ve been busy working on revamping the free live demo experience. Using the same username and password generated when you are signing up you can now experience 3 different products:

• Intranet – The most versatile business Intranet
• Quality – Quality Management System & Compliance
• InfoCapture – Business Process & e-Forms Software

All of these products are created based on Claromentis Framework.

This demo also a sneak preview what’s coming in the Claromentis 6.0 Framework.

Universal Tagging
Modular Applications
SOAP Interface
And many other improvements…

As well as our branding exercise which will be reflected on our main site very soon

Stay tuned….

Products, Services Claromentis, demo, Design, user interface, web 2.0

Does it sound familiar? It’s a human reaction when we encounter a system which is difficult to use or doesn’t work as we expected it to.

When usability touches a personal level the effect of a simple usability error feels like it has been multiplied tenfold. This post reminded me of one of the best usability books by Steve Krug “Don’t Make me think”. Usability is simple, it’s just common sense yet it’s also an incredible form of art.
I’ve spent more than 8 years working as an Information Architect, designing complex web-based software and many times I feel that I am still learning. Things that are obvious and logical from a technical point-of-view may be totally wrong from the novice users perspective.

We’ve just completely revamped our holiday planner application and one of our clients is currently running a beta test for the application. From a technical point-of-view the new holiday planner is much better than the old one. Some of the new features include an interactive holiday calendar, overview screen, automatic calculation, and a team/manager dashboard.

Apparently things are not going so well with our users. They don’t appreciate all of these wonderful features, what they care about is one thing and one thing only “Their holiday allowance”.

Here is a snapshot of the screen showing a user booking a half-day holiday.

Taking a closer look you might notice several things:

1. The icon representative a half day holiday is correct, a half red square indicating that the user only booked a half day holiday.
2. Duration is shown as 0.5 day, which is correct but in brackets (1 calendar day) which is causing major confusion.
3. Users are very sensitive to their holiday allowance, when they book a half day they only want to see a half day, without any reference to calendar days.

Here are some reactions from the users:

• “Why is duration showing 1 day, I booked a half day only”
• “What is calendar day? How’s that different to a normal day?”
• “Does it mean if I took a half day off, the system took 1 day from my allocation?”

Again, from a technical point-of-view, the reason we display calendar day is simply to give useful information about the overall duration of a users holiday.  For example you may have booked 2 half-day holidays, which means 1 day has been taken out from your holiday allocation. But you may want to know that you have booked 2 calendar days with each half-day holiday.

I can see this piece of information is actually quite useful but having to display both day types has caused major confusion to the user, after all, when a user books their holiday the only thing they care about is their holiday allowance.

Intranet-Extranet fun, humor, intranet development, user interface

What an interesting point mentioned in the video above, in the business realms we are trained to execute the best possible plan and punish failure, instead of continuously prototyping and learn from mistake as you go along just like what the kindergarten kids do.

It seems we’ve not learnt our lessons that the best possible plans will always have flaws and there is nothing can substitute the reality. In the software world we tend to create the ultimate plan and concept, which looks good on paper so we can secure funding. This is usually leads to either the result is not fit for purpose or we tend to over complex the situation and not get the basic rights.

In Claromentis, we’re now embracing prototyping worlds, create endless revisions until it’s right, even when the software is developed and deployed the project is not finished, deploy early and quickly learn from it. The  whole point is to create a continues improvement, what works in one environment may not works with others, every situation every problem is unique in many ways and we want to create something that fit to that purpose.

Intranet-Extranet, Services fun, information architecture, intranet 2.0, intranet development, intranet software discussions, user interface

Recently there are many discussions among our existing clients and partners about possibility extending granularity of the permission in Document’s folder within Claromentis.

This is our current standard permission where having “Edit” rights to a folder means you simply have rights to add and edit both documents and sub folders.

Some of our clients think that current “edit” permission is not flexible enough, they would like to split simple “edit” into sub-folders and documents.

After digging into our enhancement request database, I discovered that this is just one of the many request around the same subject.
Some says that having permission to view content of the folder should be different from permission to view folder’s properties and audit of the folder (usage statistics).

Others want to have flexibility where not all users with edit permission can run workflow on the same folder.

For a second I thought, “Hey this is getting ridiculous!”  Let’s mock-it up and see what happen if we accommodate all of them:

Can you see something is definitely not right, usability has been compromised to accommodate more granular permission, causing complexity to perform simple task which in most cases we just want simple “Edit”.

This issue raise a philosophical question, “Are we all so stupid so everything has to be over protective?” What’s wrong with a low-tech solution called “discipline”.

My niece is going to celebrate her 1 years old birthday next week. She starts cruising, walking short distances from object to object, she falls often and has many bumps and bruises, but she learns very quickly.

Aren’t we always told that allowing one or two bumps is a good thing?

Solutions Design, document management, fun, humor, intranet software discussions, user interface

Document Management System with Submission Wizard.

Maintaining consistency and integrity of the technical documents is a business critical issue for Crondall Energy Consultant. Crondall Energy is a Floating Production System consultant which helps their clients in many areas ranging from Strategic planning, Market analysts up to Project Delivery and Training.

Claromentis Document Manager

Utilising built-in Claromentis Document Management system, we recently develop bespoke document submission wizard based on specification and guideline from Crondall Energy.

The document submission wizard is not only helping users submitting document into the right storage path (folder), it also automatically creates documents with the right name convention and automatic numbering system.

The same wizard can also be used to make strict control on making revision to the existing documents.

Intranet-Extranet, Products Design, document management, intranet consultancy, user interface

Deploying an intranet within organisation can be a complex project. The fact is that a single system has to be created to cater for requirements from individuals with different needs and objectives.

During the Intranet project implementation we often have brainstorming session with representatives from each department and we ask them what is an ideal intranet according to them if they can ignore others and only focus on what they want to see and get from the system.

Here are some interesting examples of intranet design according to their brief.

Executives

Business performance and KPI is something that Directors and executives have inside their head all the time. This type of busy folks don’t have enough time to drill down the detail, they simply want to see everything at glance without hassle.

Designer/Marketing

The look and feel is something that this type of audience cares the most. Sometime they are a bit too creative for their own sake, ignoring the main purpose of the site.

Legal & HR

Distributing information efficiently, securely and compliant is more important than everything else. This is an example of intranet design according to them.

FootNote:

Claromentis supports multiple visual interfaces, enabling the creation of completely different intranet experiences according to the type of user. In most cases we always ended up with a compromise, not the extremes like the examples above.

Intranet-Extranet Design, humor, user interface

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