What?

It's summer and at finalsite that means software enhancements and additions for you, our valued clients. We call it our Summer Release and it’s headed your way in just a few weeks!

Why?

We use your feedback from Community Voice and from staff interactions to gain insight on what you are looking for next in our software. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done this year, as the following list of improvements and additions are in part due to your input. Keep those suggestions coming!

From feedback you have provided in the past, we have found June and July the best time to roll out major updates and upgrades that impact your faculty since this is the most “off-season” time of the academic year. We will continue to release weekly maintenance and inform you in advance of other upcoming software enhancements throughout the year.

When?

The rollout will be a phased implementation between June 27 and July 15, 2011. Administrators will receive an email with your school’s specific implementation date several days in advance of your upgrade. During the conversion process - which should require less than five minutes - your public website will remain available, while admin and portal login capability will be temporarily disabled. Administrators will receive a popup notification and an email when the process is complete.

What's New?

1. Group Space Enhancements

A. Recent Activity
Gone are the days of individually scanning each of your Group Spaces to find any new changes. You will now be able to simply log in to your portal to view “recent activity” across ALL of your Group Spaces, conveniently collated in a new Activity Stream Portal element.

• Additions and updates to Group Space Blogs, Bulletin Boards, Calendar events, Discussions, Drop Boxes, Media, Resources, Overviews, RSS and Content elements will be reported.
• Recent Activity will be displayed in descending date/time order (by default, a maximum of 10 items will reported over the previous two weeks). A “show older” option is available to view older activity. 
• Each reported item will be hyperlinked to provide quick access directly to the specific content (or area of the Group Space).

B. New Look and Functionality
We have modernized the look and feel of Group Spaces, improving navigation and better organizing information with a new tabbed layout. We have also added some great, new functionality:

• The end user will land in the Group’s Dashboard tab, which contains the following elements: Overview, NEW Activity Stream, Calendar, Bulletin Board, NEW embedded Media, NEW incoming RSS, NEW custom Content elements.
• A new Media tab includes a full player and navigation to other Media associated with the Group Space.
• A new Blog tab allows Group Admins to maintain a Group-specific blog.
• A new Quiz tab provides access to the full Quiz Manager, which will pop-up in a new window and allows Group Admins to create, edit and schedule quizzes as well as to review results. Scheduled quizzes will be listed in the Quiz tab for Admins and Members as well as the Group Calendar.
• Other tabs include: Resources, Calendar, Drop Box, Discussions, Members.

C. Quiz Manager
We've adapted our Forms Manager technology as a first step at giving teachers an easy way to create online quizzes in their Group Spaces, and we’ll be looking for your feedback. You must have purchased Forms Manager to use the quiz feature.

• Manage and create quizzes easily, with an easy-to-use wizard for adding single, multiple-choice, or text entry questions.
• Schedule quiz activation and expiration time via a calendar event.
• Choose manual or auto-grading, securely view and export results, and share quizzes.
• Students access new and past quizzes via calendar or quiz tab in Group Space.

2. All New eNotify

This new version is a ground-up rewrite providing improved usability, reliability, and scalability, and incorporating many of the features you have requested in the past. All your existing data will be automatically converted to the new system.

• More granular permission structure for eNotice editing, sending, and list management.
• Better statistics - Now track WHO clicked in addition to the number of clickthroughs, view summaries by folder, and enjoy enhanced charting and exporting.
• Improved recipient management and searching.
• Set approved “From” email addresses, and control who can send them.
• Select from multiple Constituent email types (home, work, primary) to be added to a list. Constituents may elect to receive eNotices at multiple addresses.
• Preview eNotices with templates, and edit messages inline to get an accurate sense of final appearance.
• Centralized recipient management allows you to quickly view subscribed, unsubscribed, bad-address status, bounceback history, and recent mailings, all without searching through individual lists.
• Better list list management with new Categories, Internal Notes, and Public Descriptions.
• New eNotify Page type displays a self-updating archive of sent eNotices for individual folders.

3. Forms Manager Updates

We've made several changes to Forms Manager to aid in data collection, result viewing, and other tasks.

• Expanded Prefill Options for Logged-on Constituents
  All Constituent fields (except SSN) may be used to pre-fill text fields, text areas, and hidden fields in your forms. This includes grouped fields like “Primary Address”.
• Publicly Accessible Forms Results
  
  • New Forms Results page format allows viewing of results without a Forms admin account, and provides the benefit of page security settings to protect results.
  • Allows all the functionality of a Forms Results admin (excluding editing and deleting submissions).

• Updated Forms charting engine provides improved performance, rendering and scaling of visual charts.

4. Site Members > Public Users

Site Members and their Groups are moving to Constituent Manager and Group Manager for more streamlined data management. We will be converting Site Members - accounts that users can create to sign up for alerts, commerce and event registration - to Constituents in the new “Public User” role. Subscriptions, order histories and event registrations will be transferred during the conversion. Instead of using the default Member Home page, you may now configure a Group Space for your Public Users to land in upon login; if you are using portals, you could alternately create a portal page tailored especially for your Public Users.

5. New Multi-Content Page Type

This new page type allows the addition of multiple content entries to a page.  Formats include expanding lists, a grid view, a horizontal scroll, and slideshows.

What Do I Need To Do?

1. Watch for an email notifying you of your site’s summer release implementation. Again, this should occur between June 27 and July 15, 2011.

2. Then, log in and check out the new eNotify!  All your existing data will be preserved.   Review the new Bad Email Manager, Reporting and Tracking, and Email List Management tools.   Upload list formatting has changed slightly with the addition of a new column to specify email types, so you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the new four-column format before the school year begins.   Also review your eNotify and list level permissions, and add “From” addresses and permissions.

3. Plan how to communicate the new Group Space capabilities to your faculty, students, and parents. Add the new “Activity Stream” element to your Constituent Portal pages.

4. Brainstorm how you can take full advantage of these enhancements and additions at your school!

Where Can I Go for More Information?

Documentation is available on each of the enhancements and additions. In addition, you can get acquainted with these enhancements after June 21 at our finalsite Academy Sandbox - View the Beta FA Sandbox by going to the admin toolbar on your school’s website and rolling over the yellow question mark at the top right corner of your screen. Knowledge Base articles and other documentation will be made available leading up to the release period, as well. Finally, look for webinars in the fall on these and many other finalsite topics!

We hope you are as excited as we are! Be watching for your site’s implementation and as always, thank you for your continued partnership.