In the year since Objective Connect was launched, we have had a tremendous increase in the number of new users and many examples of how Objective Connect has solved real challenges for customers, where information sharing across multiple organisations is required as part of their business processes.
Today we are pleased to let you know about some of the new features that are now available in Objective Connect. These new features have been designed to meet the requirements that business users have when sharing information - be simple to use, controlled and accountable. I will also give you some insight into how customers are using Objective Connect and update you on how we will be packaging Objective Connect moving forward.
NEW FEATURES IN OBJECTIVE CONNECT
Information rarely exists in isolation and almost always needs to be shared as part of a business process. One of the key elements of those processes are the conversations that happen as the process is running. They can be informal or formal requests, commentary or even questions.
In this release of Objective Connect we’ve introduced “Conversations”. A sophisticated yet familiar feature that enables you to share ideas and commentary in the context of documents within a Share or related to the Share itself. The conversation is available to all Participants and includes the ability to easily reference other Share Participants or documents within the Share.
Importantly, the conversation lives within the Share, with the information, rather than in emails, phone calls or face to face discussions that typify such interactions today.
You can learn more about the Conversation feature here. Conversations will be included in a new upcoming Edition of Objective Connect (see below) and are available for you to use for a limited time as a Preview of the new Edition.
When you are using Objective Connect to faciliate a process beyond your organisation, there is often a need to grant different Abilities to individual Share Participants. In this release we have made it easy and intuitive to give your Participants new Abilities. Every Participant in a Share receives the control that you decide they should have.
If you don’t want people to be able to Comment, then you don't give them the Commenting Ability. If you would like them to be able to create sub-folders, then it's as easy as clicking the appropriate Ability icon.
Learn more about Participant Abilities* here. The capability to set the full range of Participant Abilities is available as a Preview feature of the new Objective Connect Edition (see below).
You can now add a new version of an existing document in a Share*, receive more detailed notifications about activity occuring in your Shares and set your timezone in Objective Connect.
*Note: For customers using Objective Connect in conjunction with their organisation's documents and records management system (via Objective Connect Link) you will notice that some of these new features are restricted to ensure that your ECM remains compliant with record keeping standards.
OBJECTIVE CONNECT: THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
It has been great to hear from many of you about how Objective Connect has been making specific business processes more efficient, and in some cases, helping the environment as well.
One scenario I have heard quite a few times involves sharing Board or Committee papers to external committee members. For one Committee it was estimated that between one and two reams of paper were printed and sent to each member of the Committee for every meeting. Objective Connect has allowed the organisation to save a significant amount of money in the printing and distribution of the papers. What's more Committee members have the papers instantly rather than waiting for the mail or a courier.
Other common scenarios we have seen Objective Connect being used for include simplifying procurement processes, sharing with external legal counsel, collaborating with partners, managing submissions and sharing information across community safety groups.
LISTENING TO YOUR FEEDBACK
We value the feedback that has been given about the scenarios you use Objective Connect for, potential new features and how you’d like to see us package Objective Connect.
As a result of this feedback, in the near future we will be making some changes to how Objective Connect is packaged and introducing new Editions of Objective Connect. These Editions will focus on supporting enterprise usage and infrastructure. As the launch of the new Editions approaches we will ensure that you have all the details.
For a limited period of time your Objective Connect account has Preview access to the new features described above which allow you to:
- initiate and participate in Conversations within the Share.
- give your Participants the ability to edit documents in the Share.
- create BCC Shares, where the Participants cannot see the other participants in the Share (this is especially useful for distributing information to Participants without divulging the names of the other Participants).
- give your Participants the ability to invite others to your Shares.
I would like to hear your feedback on these new features. To do that simply complete this form and select Product Suggestion from the drop down menu.
