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April / May 2014 Newsletter

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Linda Schmidt
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Connections Online April / May 2014 Newsletter

 

Connections Online Users Roundtable!
September 25-26
Starts with a Kick-Off Dinner on Wednesday evening, September 24th 

Our Connections Online Users Roundtable will be held in Orlando, Florida.  We hope you will be able to join us.  We have some really exciting solutions to share with you this year: 

New Performance Management Module

Since last year’s Users Conference we have been actively working on finalizing the new Connections Performance Management module. 

We have put a lot of our own thinking into this solution, combined with feedback from our beta-testing group. The end-product is a simple, time-efficient, adult-to-adult process that will improve performance through focused employee coaching and development.   It will also provide information you can use to drive pay and promotion decisions.

Join us in September to see how integrating Performance Management into Connections makes Connections a must have.  We will roll out the total solution and provide an opportunity for some Q and A with Cardwell and our Users who have piloted this module.

Dream Factory Solutions

DaLand Solutions LLC (www.dalandsolutions.com) is planning to introduce a suite of “Dream Factory” solutions at our Users Roundtable this year to benefit COL Users by plugging into the Connections Online Web Service (COWS).

PowerTools for Project Managers
The first application, referred to as “PowerTools,” is a project management desktop/device native application designed to empower project management professionals and general COL gurus to more efficiently, effectively, and easily manage COL projects. 

Core Data Connector (to Symitar/Episys, DNA, etc.)
The second DaLand “Dream Factory” solution (which will be deployed and managed through PowerTools) will be a core data connector (i.e. to Symitar/Episys, DNA, etc.) to allow credit unions to query data directly from the host processor for automatic population and updating of critical metrics. 

Collaborate with other Credit Unions via a Collaborative Hub
Finally, have you ever considered just how much valuable information is stored in your COL site?  What if you could collaborate with other credit unions and share or exchange non-sensitive project, initiative, metric, or other information via an online collaboration hub?  Soon, your organization will not only benefit from your usage of COL, but you’ll be able to learn from and participate in what others are doing within COL, amongst other exciting innovations. 

COL New Features Added and Getting Your Feedback

We will also be updating you on new functionality within the basic program and getting your feedback on what you need.

Please let Linda Schmidt know if you are planning to attend (or tentatively planning) so we can get an idea on the number to plan for lschmidt@cardwellgroup.com or 800-395-1410.

We are looking forward to seeing you at our Users Roundtable!

 

New

Connections Online Security and Technical Overview - Updated  
For all of you who would like an updated, complete list of our Technical features, for your own audit and outside regulatory purposes, please print off a copy of this updated Technical Overview:  (Link to document:  http://go.col4.com/tech-pdf)

Connections Online Announcements

 

Connections Online Not Affected by Heartbleed

Please use this link to our support site for a complete explanation about Heartbleed and Connections:  https://connectionsonline.zendesk.com/entries/51663897-Connections-Online-NOT-Affected-by-Heartbleed

Connections Online is not affected by Heartbleed. Not only do we not use Apache or OpenSSL, we have already implemented Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) as recommended by US-CERT.

References

 

Stewart Collins Has Joined Sypher Technology

Stewart Collins has joined the staff at Sypher and will be assisting in help support tickets.  You may be receiving notifications from him for support tickets you were listed on as he goes through old tickets to close the solved tickets.

 

March 12 Update - 4.1 & Beta Sites

FIX for an issue with the dialog report that caused Internet Explorer to crash when the report was printed.

 

March 4 Update - 4.1 & Beta Sites

FIX: Underlining in text editors

FIX: Using ordered lists in editors via HTML (<ol></ol>)

UPDATE: Buttons for numbered lists and bulleted lists were added back to the text editors

 

Keep Up-to-Date on All System Announcements

 

Users who would like to be automatically notified by email when the server is down, or when there are other updates, must subscribe to these Forums.  To subscribe, simply go to these Forum links: for system announcements - https://connectionsonline.zendesk.com/forums/384646-System-Announcements and for update announcements subscribe to this link:  https://connectionsonline.zendesk.com/forums/377724-Announcements - Go to each link and click on the “Subscribe” button in the upper right hand corner of each Forum (you may need to be logged in to Connections for the Subscribe button to show).  You will then automatically receive an email when any update announcements are posted on the forums. 

You can also click on any of the other Forums and subscribe to the ones for which you want to stay informed of any new posts.

 

Tips and Additional Help Documentation

 

Project Resource Utilization Report on Site Page (by Department)

There is an All Department Resource Utilization Summary report that lists a composite of all projects.  This summarizes all departments on one report based on the Resource Utilization By Project.  You will find reports listed on the lower right side of the Connections page.

 

Project Activity Report

One benefit of this report is being able to find out how often a project end date is extended and how often an end date is late.  You can look at the Project Activity Report and see how many times the dates have been changed, which you will find on the “reports” section on each project.  There is also an activity report on the site page.

Simply open the project, open the activity report, set the dates (start to end dates), drag the “type” column header to above Date/Time and you will see the “project” category come up on the report, and then you can see when and by whom the date(s) were changed.  You can also drag and drop the other columns to change the views of the project activity.   See below.

You can also open the “All Projects Report” on the Organization/Department tab to see what projects are past due – they will each have a red ball.  On this report, you can also see project details.  You will find reports listed on the lower right side of the Connections page.

To Copy a Focus Box

First – Do not copy and paste from Word as this can cause problems.

  1. Open the focus box you want to copy from
  2. Click the pencil for edit mode
  3. Click on the html tab below the edit box
  4. Highlight and copy the html code
  5. Go to the department you want to copy the focus box to
  6. Click the pencil for edit mode
  7. Click the html tab below the edit box
  8. Paste the code into the focus box
  9. Click the Design tab (next to html tab) – if it looks right, click update.

 

Connections Online 4.1 Recorded Introductory Webinar

Use this link for a previously recorded webinar that is an introduction to Version 4.1 http://link.connectionsonline.net/COL-V4.1-Webinar.   Use this link to print a copy of the Quick Reference Guide to Version 4.1 http://link.connectionsonline.net/Version-4-1-QRG.doc.

Client Care Notes

To view previous Connections Online Newsletters, go to http://www.connectionsonline.net/News/Newsletters.aspx 

Section Two:  Webinars

Connections Online 4.1 Application Training Webinars

1:30 ET on Wednesday, April 16th / or Wednesday, May 14th / or Tuesday, June 17th

This 60-minute training webinar dives deeper into an overall “how to use” Connections Online 4.1.
Click here to register for April 16th  

Click here to register for May 14th 

Click here to register for June 17th 

 

Connections Online 4.1 Advanced Features Webinars

1:30 ET on Thursday, May 15th / or Wednesday, June 18th

This 30-minute training webinar highlights advanced functionality of Connections Online 4.1 with Q&A.
Click here to register for May 15th 

Click here to register for June 18th 

 

Connections Online 4.1 Security Training Webinars

1:30 ET on Wednesday, April 23rd / or Wednesday, May 21st / or Tuesday, June 24th

This 60-minute training webinar is for Site Administrators – setting security on the site page and throughout the application.
Click here to register for April 23rd

Click here to register for May 21st 

Click here to register for June 24th 

 

Past Educational Webinar Recordings  For a listing of our past Educational Webinars, use this link: http://www.connectionsonline.net/news/events.aspx  

 

Informational Webinar

If you know someone outside of your company who may be interested in learning more about Connections Online, we have an informational webinar scheduled on the following dates. 

Please pass these links on to them to register for the:
April 24th Webinar at 1:30 ET – https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/514540394

May 22nd Webinar at 1:30 ET – https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/740787090

June 25th Webinar at 1:30 ET – https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/957655002

 

Connections Online
24481 Detroit Road, Suite 300
Cleveland, OH 44145

(440) 892-1410 or (800) 395-1410

www.connectionsonline.net

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