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Major Functional Changes to Team Elements in making ConcourseConnect
Posted by Matt Rajkowski on February 17, 2009, 4:20 PM EST
This is the second post in a four (4) part series exploring ConcourseConnect. Part 1 can be read here: Introducing ConcourseConnect to Team Elements Users.
The following summary of changes encompass the major shift from private project-managed data to open, community-driven data, without sacrificing the need for privacy...
The most noticeable improvement when switching from Team Elements to ConcourseConnect is that the user arrives at a home page in which interesting data is rolled-up and presented. The home page aggregates recent and popular information. It also introduces users to the rest of the system by providing information content. Previously Team Elements defaulted to a login page and through customization a simple set of rather static content pages could be created. The new ConcourseConnect home page leverages dynamic content as the system grows.
Probably the most important improvement is that the system is no longer limited to just "Projects." In addition to Projects there are now Groups, People, Places, Events, Ideas, Businesses, Organizations, Products, Solutions, Partners, and more! Each of these categories has its own personality and a landing page which aggregates underlying information. The items added to a category are generically referred to as "listings."
The search engine has done away with the typical list of long-winded search results and instead presents results in a categorized format. The search results can be drilled down by category. Highlighted terms are still used for advanced searching.
What's still present is the obsessiveness over permissions, however, each category comes with pre-defined settings, and as always each listing within the category can be controlled. What's new are simplified entry forms for creating listings, as opposed to the rigid nature of starting a project.
Customization is also much improved. There are global configuration settings to add a company logo and change colors, as well as category and listing look and feel settings. Default entries can now be set so that forums, document folders, and wikis are created every time a listing is created, which is a good time saver and establishes consistency.
Read these other posts in this series:
