June / July 2014 Newsletter

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 & 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.

LSchmidt@cardwellgroup.com or 800-395-1410.

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

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 this Forum link 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.