Does anyone remember when we used to call activities "diaries"?
Indeed it was some time ago that we went to a bit of effort renaming this creature throughout the Accelo interface. However, the database, design and functionality of activities was not changed. Around 8 weeks ago our development team took the plunge to upgrade this core element of Accelo properly - as it was holding us back from making big improvements to other modules. As we approached the last leg of this quarter, it became clear that we'd pulled a big thread on a knitted jumper, with the work increasing in complexity and scope, leading us to look more widely at the fundamental ease of use matters surrounding Accelo.
We'd also been detecting a slight agitation from some of our users, who have helped us see the error of our ways: Focusing too much on features that admins and decision makers care about, and not focusing enough on the people at the coal face every day - trying to do work, manage tasks and log time.
As a result, we've decided to double-down our efforts on features that end users - both your staff and your clients - will get the most value out of for the remainder of this quarter. Here’s an update on how we’re progressing:
This really has been an epic job - our team are not only upgrading existing areas but also have to scrutinize features currently in development to ensure they’re respecting the new activities module structure!
Some highlights that will make a real difference to the way you work are:
Yep, this wasn’t exactly on the Q2 roadmap - we were just planning a few light improvements to tasks as part of the projects module upgrade - but with time running short, and users suffering daily with the limitations around tasks, we’ve resolved to tackle a proper tasks upgrade ahead of the projects upgrade!
You can expect a lot of awesome improvements, like:
Personally, I can’t wait try to this - as someone who keeps an eye on support, it will allow me to just view an email and quickly see if someone has replied to a support email - no more need to check the requests queue or find the contact in Accelo! Once the team are familiar with this, the amount of cc noise should greatly reduce too.
Development progress has been solid considering this feature also relies heavily on API improvements and the activities upgrades. Here are some feature highlights:
Instantly know, within Gmail, whether someone has already replied to an email:
Developing a client portal for a product as horizontal as Accelo is quite a mission. In some ways it has an extra layer of complexity around setting the permissions for what the end-clients should be able to see. As a result, developing a much stronger and more flexible permission scheme for the portal has been our biggest hurdle. We are close to having this ready, and will soon be building out many of the new screens and features.
Some highlights for the new client portal will be:
A surprise bonus! Running effective email marketing campaigns is actually an important need for our business as well, and we’ve been wanting to expand functionality in this area for some time. Considering suggestions from our users for alternatives to Campaign Monitor, we are working on:
The changes above mean that we've had to push back a few items to Q3:
However, we strongly feel that this is the best approach - not only from a product design perspective, but because it will help reduce the friction for new users who are trying to familiarize themselves with a new product - which in turn makes it easier for an administrator to get their whole team on-board!
So, after a focus in Q2 on things end users love/need to manage their daily work, we'll be re-focusing in Q3 in things that make the business easier than ever to manage.
