Increasing Revenue with CubeTree Polls

What takes three minutes to create, less than 30 seconds to respond to and enabled one CubeTree customer to increase revenue?

The answer is CubeTree Polls

We've all done it, sent out an email to our colleagues asking for their input on a project we're working on. We've written IMPORTANT and PLEASE RESPOND in the subject line as a plea we hope will be noticed in a sea of inbox emails. In the end we end up with low response rates and incomplete information. Yet collecting input from our teams on issues critical to the business is an important part of virtual collaboration.

The customer I am writing about is a law firm and their business manager needed to know each lawyer's availability in order to increase utilization. The business manager was trying to collect information via a bulk email that would go out once every two weeks to the 250 lawyers in the firm and found it difficult, if not impossible, to get responses and correlate them in a way that would help identify and assign additional work.

Then the business manager saw how quickly and easily people could build and respond to poll questions and knew there was a better way. He started using CubeTree polls. Response rates went up and the administrative time to collate the information went down. The lawyers were able to easily find the poll, respond with three clicks and the business manager increased utilization that drove additional revenue for the firm.

Polls are a great alternative to email for teams to collect information. They improve the ability of a team to collaborate virtually, coordinate data. They can be created by anyone in CubeTree and they allow the group to contribute in real-time without the risk of losing responses in a busy inbox.

If you haven't tried out a poll for yourself yet, I encourage you to do so the next time you're about to send that email out to your team with PLEASE RESPOND in the subject line.

See how to create a Poll in about a minute.

Do you have a great story about using CubeTree to solve a problem and get work done at your company? If you do, I'd love to hear it. I'll give you a CubeTree Snarky-T if you tell me your story and I blog about it. Just drop me a line at patchen at cubetree dot com.

Release Notes - June 25, 2010

Email Preferences Page

Email is an important part of how you and your colleagues communicate and CubeTree is both a way to reduce email "spam" (information getting sent to you regardless of your interest in it) but also as a way to improve the quality of emails that you do receive (choosing the topics and information you care about). To help users fine tune the email notifications that they receive from CubeTree, we've made some changes to the Account > Email > Email Preferences Page. All of the "immediate" email notifications have been organized into groups by priority (high, medium and low) to assist users in deciding which ones to receive and which ones to turn off. We've also added a global check box for each category so users can quickly subscribe or unsubscribe to an entire category of notifications at once. Remember, if you turn off the email notification for a category, you can still see the feed posts on your Follows Feed, your @user feed, Profile Wall and Group Walls.

Wiki Editor Enhancement

We heard from users that when they create or edit wiki pages it would be useful to be reminded of the Group Name and Group Type associated with the wiki. In response we've added "Save To:" information at the bottom of the wiki page editor. It indicates both the Group Name and Group Type (Public, Private or Private-Cross Company) where the Wiki page is being published.

Mobile Site

Many users access CubeTree from a mobile device via the mobile site because it is optimized to respond quickly at mobile bandwidth speeds. When you access www.cubetree.com on a mobile device it automatically detects your device and redirects you to the Mobile Site: www.cubetree.com/m. Some users, including those of you lucky enough to have an iPad, prefer to access the Full Site on their mobile devices. If you get redirected to the mobile site, and want to get back to the main site, you can use the "Full Site" link at the bottom of the page.

Enterprise 2.0 Wrap Up - It's About Business Execution

The Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston wrapped up nicely last week. Attendees included a diverse group of practitioners, analysts and vendors who gathered to discuss the best ways to collaborate with employees, partners, and customers. The big take-away for me, and the most notable difference from past events, was a decisive shift from "Enterprise 2.0 solutions are interesting and I think I need to explore them" to "These tools solve real business problems and we must integrate them into our processes to stay competitive."

I think the source of this change in attitude was the realization that success with Enterprise 2.0 comes when collaboration tools are combined with a business process to solve a specific problem. The litmus test of course is business results. Here are two examples that I heard during the expo:

Many companies use recruiting management software to get the right people in the right jobs - these tools are process driven and assist in identifying positions, posting to job boards and recruiters, organizing interviews, collecting feedback and processing offer letters and other messaging along the way. By adding an E2.0 collaboration tool to the end of the recruiting process, companies can extend the benefits of successful recruiting and engagement to employee on-boarding. A new employee can create a profile, locate mentors, easily find information, connect with key contacts and other new employees, join groups and projects that are critical to their new role. It helps the new employee get up to speed faster with the connections and tools they'll need to get work done. It's an integrated process flow from recruiting to on-boarding that provides success metrics for the company and a welcome introduction for the new employee where they can begin to build their "career" brand.

Goal management software is being used by companies to communicate corporate strategies and track individual employee goals. It's a common sense process--to achieve success, everyone on the team has to know how success is defined and how their work contributes to the company objectives. Many times goal execution involves colleagues working together in ways that cross departmental and even organizational boundaries; often to analyze an existing process or create a new process. With CubeTree members can come together, have conversations, create content and produce real results. A collaboration platform is what enables employees to get work done efficiently, using it in conjunction with a goal management process is what makes sure that outcomes are aligned with the business strategy.

Conference goers made it clear that using E2.0 collaboration tools together with business processes for solving business problems is the key to driving E2.0 adoption within companies. This also accounts for the growing sentiment that an enterprise collaborative solution is no longer a nice to have, but critical for accelerating a company's overall business performance.

Release Notes - June 18, 2010

Navigation Changes

Home > My Follows Feed: We have made it easier for you to manage the My Follows Feed refresh behavior by moving the options to the top of the page (instead of the bottom) and changed the controller to a toggle that will remember the setting you have chosen until you change it.

• Threaded is the default view and groups the original feed item with related Comments. This view requires that you refresh the page to see newer feed items.
• Real Time displays each feed item as it is entered into the system and does not require a refresh.

Groups > My Groups: We have added the ability to see if you are Subscribed or Unsubscribed to a group on the My Groups list and have enabled you to change this status by clicking on the current state (similar to the Following and Stop Following controls). To make better use of the page we have moved the Group description below the group name.


Email Notifications

Direct Messaging Enhancement: You have told us that you really like the ability to highlight important posts using the direct message capability (@user) which results in the user receiving an email and the item going to the member's @user feed. Have you ever posted something critical and wished that you could quickly direct message everyone in the group rather than have to specify each member separately? Good news if you have, using the special keyword "@@email" you can now direct message everyone in a group (if you are posting to a group wall or on an object within a group) or all of your followers (if you are posting to your profile). The related feed item will also show up in everyone's @user feed on the Home page.

If you would prefer that the system not send you email (but still places the feed item in your @user feed on the Home page), you can use the "Direct Messages" setting (found on the Account > Email > Email Settings page) to block the emails. You can also turn these emails off by clicking on the "Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of an email you received because you were direct messaged.

Group Subscription Email Controls: We have added the ability to manage your Group Notifications on the Account > Email > Email Settings page. The new "Group Notifications" section shows the current status for each group and you can choose to enable Subscription (check the box) or Unsubscribe (uncheck the box).

Group Subscription Email Contents: Many of you have taken advantage of the Subscription feature in Groups that allows you to indicate that you want to receive emails when there are items posted to that group. We know you are using this feature, because you noticed that the Subject of the emails sent only indicated that there was activity in the Group and did not include additional details provided in other emails that we sent. We worked on these emails to ensure they are consistent and provide the additional information.

Site Admin Improvements

Password Reset: Site Admins have requested an easier way to help users who have either forgotten their password or have reported that their passwords were compromised. We have added a button on the Administrators user details page that will send a forgot password link to the member. To navigate to this page, Site Admins can click on Admin > Users (default) and locate the User. Click the associated "edit" link and click on the "Send Password Reset Email" button in the Basic Profile Information section.

The password reset email will include the member's email address in the body of the email and they should ensure that this is the email that they are using when logging in. We have seen situations where users have multiple emails aliased (e.g. patchen@cubetree.com and pnoelke@cubetree.com) or received an email that was sent to an email distribution list and used it to log in. If this is the case, the Admin should work with the user to create a new profile (invite them again) using the correct email address.

The Road to the Enterprise 2.0 Conference

I'm on my way to the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston this week to present, demo and share CubeTree with conference attendees and industry pundits. It's very exciting to be headed to a conference where I can talk in-person to people figuring out how to improve collaboration and communication to improve business execution. In the past this conference fostered many conversations about adoption strategies and road-maps for adopting Enterprise 2.0 collaboration tools and I am looking forward to more of the same.

The conference this year is titled "Business Powered by Collaboration" and is packed with presentations and content from key luminaries in the industry. We'll be presenting too, and sharing the best practices and tips we've heard from you about adopting collaboration tools. We're going to participate in an innovative panel discussion called "Social Vendor Idol", an "American Idol" style contest between several vendors of enterprise collaboration platforms. It should be a feisty session and healthy competition in the name of helping attendees find the best collaboration platform to meet their needs. If you plan on attending, be sure to cast your vote!

Next week I'll share what I learn at the conference. In the mean time here's what I'll be discussing with conference goers. These are the top five business challenges you've told us you're using CubeTree to solve:

Email Overload - Employees receive too many emails a day, many times because the sender wants to make sure the information is not missed, but the sender doesn’t consider if all recipients really need it. Enterprise Social Networks enable you to filter out unnecessary content by letting you decide what information you want to follow.

Innovation - Innovation comes from throughout an organization, not just from the top. When all employees are engaged and information about organizational goals is readily available, better decisions are made. Enterprise Social Networks support collaboration and break down departmental silos.

Engagement - The new global workforce has grown up with, benefited from, and knows how to use these tools. Deployment of Enterprise Social Networking technology is key to attracting and retaining these workers.

Coordinating Work - Work, especially that done by knowledge workers, is project driven. Coordinating projects over email with a sender to receiver list is not clear and too cumbersome. Tools like MS Project with complex dependencies and Gantt charts are too resource intensive and difficult to adapt to changing business needs. Enterprise Social Networks that provide task management and ad hoc groups enable knowledge workers to work smarter and get more done.

Security - Employees need collaboration tools to get their work done, but consumer grade solutions don’t provide the security that enterprises require. Enterprise Social Networking platforms enable IT organizations to maintain and control their data and ensure its security.

Release Notes - June 11, 2010

Group Enhancements

New Group Members Page Layout - We have heard from our customers that when groups get large, it can be difficult to find members and for Group Admins to manage the roles for the team. This week, we re-organized the Group Members page and now provide the following:

• Information is displayed in a table format with Name and Title, Role (i.e. Group Admin, Member), Contributed (last time the member generated a feed item in the group), Company (if in a cross company group), and Actions.

• We provide a filter so you can decide if you want to see All (by default) or just Pending Invites, Members, or Admins)
• We now allow you to sort using the Name, Contributed and Company column headers.

• Name - default by first Name.
• Contributed - initial sort will be the most recent contributions with pending invites appearing at the bottom of the list; click again to sort by oldest contribution with pending invites at the top.
• Company - for Cross Company Groups - by Company domain name.

• By default we show 50 users per page, but you can choose to "Show All" members if you like (scroll to the bottom of the list to select). You can then choose to "Show Less".

Group File Upload Policy - Customers have requested that we provide a way that they can restrict who can upload files to the Group. We have now added a "Upload Policy" control to the Group options. All existing groups will have the previous file upload policy applied (i.e. we are not changing the behavior of existing groups). Group Admins and Site Admins for Public Groups can change the Invite Policy.

• Public Groups:

• All Members - all active members in the Company.
• All Group Members - only members that are following the group.
• Only Group Admins - only members that are Group Admins (Group Creator or Group Admin).

• Private Group

• All Group Members - only members that are following the group.
• Only Group Admins - only members that are Group Admins (Group Creator or Group Admin

• Private Cross Company Groups:

• All Group Members - only members that are following the group.
• Group members from domain.com - only members from the Company that created the Cross-Company Group.
• Only Group Admins - only members that are Group Admins (Group Creator or Group Admin).

CubeTree Mobile Site Enhancements

Lots of our members are on the go and use their smart phones to interact with their colleagues. We continue to add functionality to our Mobile Site to make these interactions easier and support their collaboration needs.

• We have added the ability to browse Groups and Wiki pages and updated the Home page:
  
  
  • The Home page now includes Groups as well as Follows Feed, Company Directory, Profile and Wikis links to access these sections of the app. You can also update your status from the Home page.
  • Groups will take you to the Group List page that shows a list of your Groups (sorted by last activity) and also allows you to search by Group name. Click on a Group name to be taken to the Group Wall where you can now Post a comment to the Group Wall.
  • Wikis will take you to the list of Company Wiki pages where you can see the Name of the Wiki page, when the last activity occurred and the last Editor. You can also search Wiki pages by name.

Improved Invite Acceptance

Our support team has reported that they receive many inquiries from members who successfully signed up for CubeTree but are unable to log in the next time they visit CubeTree. We have found that this typically occurs because they are not aware of the email address that was used when they signed up (this can happen when the invite is sent to an email address that they don't normally use but has been aliased to reach them - for instance bmaxwell@cubetree.com is mapped to bud.maxwell@cubetree.com).

In order to help avoid this problem in the future, we have modified the initial log in screen and added the email address that was used in the invite as well as the ability to correct the email address that is used.


If you change the email address, a new invite will be sent to this new email address that the user should use to sign up for CubeTree.

Profile Photo Controls

Some customers have employees spread around the world where there are different regulations that affect whether they can display profile photos. To support these companies, we have added the ability for the Site Admins to disable profile photos. On the Admin > Features left navigation, there is now a check-box labeled "Enable Users to Upload a Custom Profile Photo" which by default is On. Admins working in these environments can un-check this option. Users will no longer be able to upload profile photos and we will display the "shadow member" image. Please note that if members had previously uploaded a profile photo, those photos will be removed from the feed items and the profile, the next time the system performs a refresh of the cache (we do this once a week).

Release Notes - June 3, 2010

Features included in this weeks release:

Billing

• Some international customers have had their credit cards rejected because we were not prompting for the CVV and passing it along to our processor. We will now prompt for this information and pass it along to the processor for the initial transaction. Note: In accordance with PCI requirements, CubeTree does not store the CVV.

Simplified the Cross Company Group Invite Process

• As customers expand their use of the CubeTree Private Cross Company Group functionality, we have heard requests to streamline the invitation process. In this week's release, we have done the following:
  
  
  
  • Improved the Group creation flow and combined the "Add Internal" and "Add External" processes to create a single place to invite new members to join.
    
    
    
    • New Group creation flow is now only two steps (instead of three).
    • The left nav for Cross Company Groups now has a single action called "Invite Members".
    • The Invitees field can contain a comma separated list of either existing Company members (start typing the name or email address to engage auto-complete) or email addresses from external domains.
    • If there is an error with one of the email addresses, we will display an error message and retain the text that was provided so that you can review the list to determine the error. We will not invite anyone from the list unless all the addresses are valid.

Default Group Task Assignee

• When we added the Group Task capabilities last release, we included a feature to allow Group Admins to set the Default Task Assignee for the group. Unfortunately, it seems that we did not make it very easy to find this setting. To address this, we moved this setting to the Member page where the other roles and actions are found. So, you will now have the option of "make default task assignee" and "remove default task assignee" in addition to the "make group admin", "remove group admin" and "remove from group" for Members and the "send invite reminder" and "cancel invite" for Pending Invites. Also, if you choose "make default task assignee" and there is already another user assigned as the default assignee, the previous user will have that role removed.


• If you choose to make an member that has not accepted the invite yet the default task assignee, they will only assume this privilege once they have accepted the invite.

Auto Subscribing to Groups

• Users have found that the ability to subscribe and unsubscribe to Groups in order to receive email notifications when new feed items are generated to the group is very useful. We have added a new setting in the Create Group and Edit Group pages called "Auto Subscribe" that allows the Group Admin(s) to determine the default setting for group members. If this setting is enabled (checked), which it is by default for any new groups that are created, members will be Subscribed to the group after they join. They can still choose to Unsubscribe, but we wanted to be sure that the Group Admin could make sure that members were aware of activity that was happening in the group.

Add Photo Thumbnails to Emails

• Thumbnails for photos in the feed have been received very well. So, we thought, we could add these to the html email notifications when the email references a new image. This will include email notifications when you are tagged in a photo, when someone Likes a photo, and when members upload new photos.

CubeTree Mobile Site Enhancements

• If you use a smart phone, you can access your CubeTree account using your mobile browser. Just go to http://www.cubetree.com and our site will detect you are on a mobile device and forward you to the mobile site to log in (www.cubetree.com/m). In this release we have added several enhancements, including:
  
• Added a new mobile landing page that allows you to quickly select your Follows Feed, access the Company Directory, View your Profile or Access the Company Wiki page. You can also update your status from this page.
• Added Profile photos to the feed items.
• Enhanced Wiki page rendering.
• Boosted the performance
  
• Don't forget you can do many things including the following using the Mobile Site:
  
  • View and interact with feed items in your Follows Feed (including Liking, Comment, update your status and View conversations.
  • View and interact with feed items on your Profile Wall (including Liking, Comment, update your status and View conversations.
  • Access the Company Directory and Member's contact details.
  • Navigate to other Member's Profile Wall.

Email Power User's Guide for CubeTree

When you're on the go it can be difficult to feel like you are engaged with the rest of your organization. But did you know, if you've got access to your email you can use it to stay connected to your co-workers through CubeTree? Many CubeTree members live in email and they use it extensively to post updates, comment, find other users and keep up to date and aware of all the projects they're involved in.

If you're not yet familiar with how to use email with CubeTree, this post is for you. I've gathered together tips and tricks that email power users can use to post comments, create tasks and respond to activity on CubeTree. It helps you stay connected and get work done, even when you're on the road.

Your Status Update:

Set your personal profile status by emailing an update to your CubeTree account. Every user on CubeTree has a specific email address to use to post a status update. You can find it by going to your "Account" page and looking for it at the top of the page.

Whatever you put in the body of the email with show up on your Profile wall and be used anywhere your status is displayed. Its an easy way to let your co-workers know what you're working on. For example here's an email I sent to my CubeTree account with my current status, letting my co-workers know that "I'm wrapping up the quarterly report today, if you've got info to add please get it to me asap."

Here you can see how it appears in the CubeTree feed as my current status. Now anyone who's following me will know that I'm wrapping up the report today and have a chance to get in any last minute info. It helps me communicate with my team, even when I'm working hard to wrap up a critical project.

Responding to Comments via Email:

You can respond to many of the CubeTree email notifications you receive (e.g. comments and direct messages you receive from the objects and people you are following). To do so, reply in email to any of these notifications and whatever you put in the body of the email will show up in the feed as a comment you've added to the feed item.

For example, here's an email I received from CubeTree, notifying me of a direct message from Beth regarding a wiki page we were collaborating on: "@patchen Added highlight to the area to focus on."

By replying to the email, my direct message back to Beth "@beth Thanks. Just finished up adding additional content, thanks for the help." will appear in the Feed for that item as seen below:

Now you know how to use email to interact with CubeTree. Even when you're heads down on projects and pressed for time, you can stay connected to the people you work with and the events that matter to you through email.

Using CubeTree Groups to Collaborate on Projects

Businesses today must accomplish their goals and deliver results faster and with fewer resources. As organizations respond to these demands they are turning toward globalization, off-shoring and outsourcing to reduce costs. To execute in this new environment, enterprises require better communication tools that enable collaboration and the ability to quickly and easily form project teams of the right people.

We understand this need, which is why we offer special Group functionality. There are three types of groups - public, private and cross-company - that can be created in CubeTree to support the different needs of project teams.

• Public groups are open to anyone in the organization, content, comments and feed items posted to the group are search-able and become a permanent resource. The openness of a public group is often beneficial for the simple reason that ideas and effort can be contributed from anywhere in the organization. You never know where innovation will come from and a system like CubeTree helps unlock hidden resources. (Example: a group of engineers, designers and project mangers who are working on the next release of a product.)

• Private groups require an invitation from a Group Administrator/Owner in order to receive access to the content. Data in a private group is only available to members of that group and is a great place to work on sensitive projects or on early drafts of information that is not ready to be made public. For example, preparing for and delivering financial data for board meetings; discussing performance plans with a manager; or creating engineering resource plans for an upcoming release.

• Cross-company groups allow you to include vendors, partners and customers from outside the company into a secure, private group where the members can be from within the company domain as well as external domains. These groups are similar to private groups where they require an invitation and only members have access to the Group content. Members from multiple domains can collaborate toward a single goal in a secure environment. An few examples of how these groups are used include companies that create a group for each of their external clients and post and collaborate on deliverables; HR and hiring managers working with an external recruiter to review and comment on candidates; two companies working together to complete acquisition due diligence tasks.
  

The hidden power of CubeTree Groups is their ease of use. It's easy for knowledge workers to create groups and invite members. All you need to connect to a new group is access to the internet.

Whatever the type of Group that is used, knowledge workers leverage all the CubeTree applications they need to support the objectives of the team. Groups have similar features to personal profiles in CubeTree: They have comment feeds, allow documents, photos and links to be shared, wiki's can be created and modified, and tasks can be assigned from within them. In addition, Groups add discussion forums, blogs, real-time chat rooms and polling. CubeTree Groups are flexible and adapt to the evolving needs of a project. When new people join, they can come up to speed on the project by reviewing the discussions, documents, links and all the information stored in the group for that project.

Getting work done in an organization is about completing projects on time with available resources that are aligned with organizational goals. For organizations with increasingly dispersed workforces CubeTree provides a fast, easy and secure place to come together in Groups and work on those projects. Its where organizations can get the right people together with the right tools to get work done.