As of today, Exact Synergy Enterprise product update 248 is generally available, which marks the end of the controlled release period which started in the mid of December 2011.

Please see below what the main highlights of this product update are:

• Realigning features for users with the CRM role, that offers now full functionality in the CRM module. Please watch this video to learn about other improvements to this role.
• Numerous enhancements to Exact Synergy Office Integration based on direct customer feedback. For a complete overview of enhancements, please click here and choose tab ‘General’; you can also watch this video to find out more.
• Improvements to the Exact PSA solution, among others by enhancing the project planning board that offers a more interactive way of planning with a drag-and-drop interface. The Work Breakdown Structure is now merged with budgets to simplify work of a project controller and project managers. Please watch this series of videos to find out more.
• With Central Master Data Management you can now easily centrally manage people, in follow-up of the earlier introduction of supporting accounts, items and general ledger accounts (video)
• The possibility to save pivot analysis for opportunities as templates based on a direct customer feedback (video)

Moreover, the new Exact Service Management solution that helps wholesale and manufacturing companies who service the products they sell to optimize their service activities is currently in extended controlled release. Please watch our introduction video to find out more about this solution.

The Exact Synergy Enterprise Configurator will remain in controlled release with this product update until the end of January. Please read more about Exact Synergy Enterprise Configurator in the previous announcement.

For a full overview of all new functionalities, please refer to the release notes for product update 248 and the Product Update News page.

Should you have any questions regarding this announcement, please do not hesitate to comment on this blog post.

On behalf of product management I’m happy to announce that as of today, Exact Synergy Enterprise product update 248 is in controlled release. This new product update is planned to be generally available in the mid of January 2012.

The main highlights of this product update are as following:

• Realigned features for the CRM role, that offers now full functionality in the module CRM. An important addition to the CRM role is the ability to perform delegation.
• Improved ease of use and speed of Exact Synergy Office Integration. You can now automatically save emails from certain folders directly to Exact Synergy Enterprise, based on a template set for those folders. You also have a possibility to deactivate option of automatic mapping of a contact person when saving an email. Moreover, Synergy Office Integration has been enhanced with numerous features, such as option to save multiple emails at once and pop-up notification to ask user to save an outgoing email. For a complete overview of enhancements, please click here and choose tab ‘General’
• Changes to the Exact PSA solution, among others enhanced project planning board that offers a more interactive way of planning with drag-and-drop interface; Work Breakdown Structure merged with budgets to simplify work of a project controller and project manager.
• Additional features in the new design of Exact Synergy Enterprise, such as expanding self-service wizards, ability to select themes, SDK support on mega menu, top right menu and search entities
• People supported in Central Master Data Management, please see this video to find out more

Based on a direct feedback from our customers, we are continuously improving our products. This product update includes features mentioned above for CRM role and Exact Synergy Office Integration. Moreover, we offer now possibility to save pivot analysis for opportunities as templates.

As of this product update Exact Synergy Enterprise Configurator will be available. This toolset is meant for consultants and partners. It can be used to create and implement pre-configured templates, in pre-sales trajectories to ‘quickly’ realize a demo showing the Exact Synergy Enterprise features. Moreover, it can also be used in configuration of customer specific solutions to support the primary and secondary business processes. 

For a full overview of all new functionalities, please refer to the release notes for product update 248 as well as articles on our Product Blog.

Should you have any questions regarding this announcement, please do not hesitate to comment on this blog post.

On behalf of product management, I’m proud to introduce Exact Globe Next that combines and integrates different Exact solutions.

Exact Globe Next offers one menu which functions as a shell to combine and give access to several solutions: Exact Globe, Exact Synergy Enterprise, Exact Event Manager and integration with SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). Combining all these products into one provides you with a complete solution with which you can effectively and proactively run your business, but also it enables you to see which direction your business is heading. You will gain more control over your company and processes, and stay on top of your business.

If your company is already using Exact Globe, with addition of Exact Synergy Enterprise functionality it will be much easier for your employees to collaborate online more effectively, for example by creating tasks for one another, search for people and accounts and read news about the company on the intranet home page and even submit vacation request. All employees can access Exact Synergy Enterprise with the Synergy user, but more license roles can be purchased for employees if extra functionality is needed. If you are already using Exact Synergy Enterprise all functionality you have right now will be also available with Exact Globe Next.

Thanks to the integration with SSRS you can view dashboards and reports that will give you strategic insight in your organization’s key performance indicators. With Exact Globe Next you will get a default set of dashboards that will help you to gain maximum control over your business at any time.

Exact Event Manager helps to identify and respond to critical conditions which have been defined within your organization. And with Exact Globe Next you will be able to make use of this automatic alert function, having 8 default events with an option to purchase additional event packs.

Now you might be asking yourself what it means for you in practice. With Exact Globe Next you can count on:

• The new insight: always having the latest information at your fingertips is a prerequisite for doing good business
• The new overview: set the right priorities with Exact Globe Next. This innovative business software thinks with you.
• The new collaboration: collaboration with each other is easier than ever before.
• The new convenience: work faster and more productively with the user-friendly Exact Globe Next.

Those are only the high level benefits of Exact Globe Next, please visit the Exact Globe Next website where you can get more information about this solution, watch videos and see how you can request the upgrade.

We will be providing more information about Exact Globe Next on the Product Blog, so stay tuned!

I am very glad to announce that in the next product update 248 (planned for January 2012), we are making a first step to support SDK on the new design of Exact Synergy. SDK is supported on the following elements:

1. Mega menu
2. Top right menu
3. Search entities

This means for instance that you can add (company specific) menus, adjust the content of menus, add entities to the search bar and so on. Of course, in the documentation we will describe all the possibilities in detail. For product update 249, planned to be available mid-2012, our main focus is SDK support on the cards. At the moment we are doing research on the best approach.

What else can you expect in product update 248? I will give you an overview of the highlights:

• We offer style sheets to change the theme of the new design, which can be controlled by the administrator;
• Your company logo can be shown in the left upper corner (height is maxed at 35 pixels);
• ‘Add new’ button in the Documents and Requests tabs, so that you can quickly create new documents and requests, where some details are already prefilled. For instance if you click on ‘Add new’ in the Documents tab of an Account card, the account is already linked to the document;
• Administration page for users with administrator rights to setup Exact Synergy settings;
• You can now offer to every employee a company startpage, which appears in the dashboard container. The startpage opens automatically when the user logs in.

If you have any feedback on the new design of Exact Synergy, please use the ‘Feedback on our new design’ button which you can find in the top container. Your feedback is very valuable. We use it to make our product even better!

As of today, Exact Synergy Enterprise product update 247 is generally available. This marks the end of controlled release period which started in the end of August.

Based on customers’ feedback, we have focused on multiple developments in the following license roles: Exact Synergy user, Employee Self-Service, Incoming Invoice Register and users with CRM role (video). For the customers who make use of Exact Synergy Office Integration we have introduced calendar management that allows you to link your project, account and contact to your appointment you create in MS Outlook (video). Moreover, as of this product update quotations are now fully integrated with Exact Globe, so the item information can be retrieved from Exact Globe and you can now select a division to be linked to your quotation.

All Exact Synergy Enterprise users who work with the standard functionality can now switch to the new Exact Synergy design that includes new features, such as customizable dashboards and enhanced mega menus navigation. Furthermore, the Exact Synergy Enterprise PSA solution make it now possible to plan people against a deadline and register costs of approved hours and expenses in Exact Globe.

Exact Integration launched in August has now new features, such as supporting the batch update of items and restoring database. To follow earlier introduction of Central Master Data Management for accounts and items, as of this product update it is possible to centrally manage General Ledger accounts (video).

Based on a direct customer feedback, we have also implemented a number of small enhancements, among others:

• Directly set status of project during creation
• Set opportunity status from Won to Undecided
• Full name of users displayed in timestamp
• New criteria to search for opportunities 

A full overview of all new functionalities you can find in the release notes and some additional information on the Product Update News page. Please also refer to previous articles on the Product Blog.

We would like to thank all customers, partners and colleagues who contributed to this product update.

Should you have any questions regarding this announcement, please comment on this blog post.

As of today, Exact Synergy Enterprise product update 247 is in controlled release. This new product update is planned to be generally available by the end of September 2011.

The main highlights of this product update are as following:

• License roles improvements: Synergy user, Employee Self-Service User, Incoming Invoice Register user and users with CRM role (video)
• Calendar management with Synergy Office Integration to link your project, account and contact to your appointment
• Quotations fully integrated with Exact Globe, so the item information can be retrieved from Exact Globe and you can now select a division to be linked to your quotation
• New Synergy design includes new features, such as customizable cockpits and enhanced mega menus navigation
• Exact PSA solution with new functionalities and numerous improvements, such as planning people against a deadline and registering costs of approved hours and expenses in Exact Globe
• Exact Integration with new features, such as supporting the batch update of items and restoring database
• Central Master Data Management makes it now possible to centrally manage General Ledgers (video)

We have also implemented a number of small enhancements based on a direct customer feedback and suggestions, among others:

• Directly set status of project during creation
• Set opportunity status from Won to Undecided
• Full name of users displayed in timestamp

For a full overview of all new functionalities, please refer to the release notes for product update 247.

Should you have any questions regarding this announcement, please contact Bert Siekmann (Manager Product Management) at bert.siekmann@exact.com.

We are constantly working on improving the new user interface. In product update 247, which will be generally available in the fourth quarter of this year, we are focusing on the following things:

• Supporting all available roles Synergy Enterprise offers. This means that every single person who works with the standard functionality of Synergy is able to work in the new Synergy environment. The user can easily switch back to Synergy Enterprise via the link ‘Switch to Synergy Enterprise’;
•  The work processes of the Synergy User and Employee Self Service roles are fully aligned with the new interface. We only present functionality (buttons, links, menus, etcetera) related to the roles and rights of the user. For these types of users it is really easy to start working in the new design;
• Cockpits. Depending on your Synergy license, you as a user can easily create cockpits yourself. We offer you a wizard with a lot of widgets in various categories and also four pre-defined templates: CRM, HRM, Projects and Finance. You can generate as many cockpits as you want, and also maintain them;
•  A Reporting Services Widget will be available which you can add to your homepage or cockpit. In this widget you can show reports which are created in Reporting Services. By doing this, you always have actual data on you dashboard at your fingertips. For further details about Reporting Services Integration in Synergy, please read the blog post of Sunil Girdhari;
• A new Mega menu structure which is aligned with the functionality we offer in the menus of Synergy Enterprise. To achieve a suitable layout of the content, we did research among different types of users.

The plans for product update 248, which will be available next year, are to focus on three main topics:

1. Customization of the new Synergy design;
2. CRM User role fully aligned with the new interface;
3. Offering style sheets or a color picker.

Your feedback on the new Synergy design is always welcome! Please do not hesitate to contact us through ux@exact.com or comment on this post.

Did you know that you can stay informed about any request even though you are not an actor in the request process?

Instead of searching for the request in order to see which changes have been made or what the status is, you can use the notification feature. With a simple click on the ‘light bulb’ icon, you can activate the notification and receive a copy of the request in your workflow. Whenever the request is updated, you will get a copy of the request in your workflow. You can recognize a request notification in your workflow by the word ‘check’ in the action column.

Watch the video to see how to make use of this functionality which gives you a great control over the information that is important to you.

Image credit: idowns.net

Based on your feedback after the introduction of the new user interface in product update 244, we did some major enhancements. As of the product update 245 we did, among others, the following improvements:

• Mega menus display options of what you have access to based on your license roles
• The Right top menu includes for example alert menu which displays your ‘to do’ list, document menu to view or create documents and a list of your recent contacts
• We have added a Quick links section in the right bar with links to for instance reports and activity
• Self-service wizard has been moved to the right side and includes now time-off, personal file and new wizard for medical leave and expense claim
• We have standardized the layout for account, project and personal card. They include a business card view and quick links. You can now adjust the tabs on the card according to your needs by simply dragging and dropping them

Watch the video below to see other changes we did in the product update 245.

We are constantly working on improving the new user interface and we highly value your feedback. If you have any suggestions or comments please submit them by clicking on the feedback button in Exact Synergy Enterprise or by sending email to ux@exact.com.

I already posted a few articles on specific functionalities in the new design of Synergy. Every feature we are adding to the product is the result of creative development processes and research. In this blog post I would like to inform you about the development of the new Synergy design.

The foundation of the new design is the great diversity of possibilities that Synergy offers. The look and feel is only part of the overall development process. To really grasp design is to intuit what you as our customer want. We intend to offer the new design of Synergy Enterprise based on needs in your daily work and to help you to make your work easier and more comfortable. We collect information via workshops in which we zoom in on certain specific elements of our product. Obviously the responses we receive via the Exact product blog are also very valuable for our development process.

The next step after we have collected all the information is to create wireframes. Wireframes are simple, schematic representations of undeveloped pages. We usually test our ideas with end users during one-on-one interviews, when we also present these wireframes. This often results in an interactive session. It is possible that we repeat the process if it happens that the wireframes need to be drastically changed. In general we have a good and clear idea of how you are using our software and as a result we are often on the right track. And that is what makes our job so interesting every single day.

One of the processes we are using in the Project team is User–centered design (UCD). UCD is a process in which the needs, wants, and limitations of end users are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process.

In this process, we also take the suggestions and ideas – which we receive from you via the feedback button in the software – into account for further development. As you probably already noticed there is also a feedback button in the preview version of the new design in Product update 245. Your feedback is always welcome! Please do not hesitate to contact us through ux@exact.com or comment on this post.