We’re planning some quite ambitious projects for 2019, and this newsletter is part of our first objective – to communicate better with our clients.

Transparency

​We've been working hard to make our client communications more detailed, proactive and meaningful. You rely on engage|ats to help you source great candidates for your business and, if our technology is having a hiccup, it can be frustrating. To help with this, we're planning on making some changes:
 
1. More regular communication
We're always here to chat if you've got questions or an issue, but we know you'd sometimes like to hear what we're working on in the background. To help with this, we'll be bringing back our quarterly newsletters and will use these to tell you about any new and exciting news, as well as updating you on our 2019 goals.
 
2. More proactive communication
No matter the size of the system, technology of any sort can have issues now and again, particularly when there’s constant change and new devices, platforms, browsers and operating systems on a seemingly daily basis. In future, we’re aiming to ensure we tell you about an issue before you need to ask us.
 
To help us manage this, we’re planning on creating a 'Status Page' that will let you see instantly if any parts of the system are having trouble or running slow, as well as any details of upcoming maintenance (like our bug fix releases). You'll also be able to sign up for alerts to be immediately notified by email for any of these events.
 
It's our way of making sure you're in the know, as quickly as possible!
 
3. More meaningful communication
We want to make sure you're completely clear about what's happening with your system and what we’ve done to fix an issue, so we're making a big effort to change the way we communicate this.
 
Most of the regular communications that you have with us will be through our Helpdesk Team of ticket solving masters! However, in the past, we’ve told you that we've fixed something without always explaining the ‘how’ and ‘why’.

We're now going to make a much bigger effort to explain the reason why something has happened, and, if it’s something you're able to do yourself, provide you with details on how you can do it and what to do to avoid the issue happening again. We know that you don’t always need to know this, but appreciate it can help to explain a problem to stakeholders and help you to manage issues internally. We want to make sure you feel confident with our answers and empowered to make changes in the future.
 

Rackwhat update??

By now you should have seen our communications about the big changes we’re making in March to upgrade our server infrastructure with our hosting provider, Rackspace. 
 
Our current hosting setup has worked well for us over the years but, as with most technology, things have moved forward so, to keep pace with change, we’re refreshing our equipment. This will bolster the stability of engage|ats, and open new avenues of development and upgrades for you in the future.
 
The development will all be happening in the background during March and we’re trying hard to ensure the impact of the changes on your everyday use of the system is as minimal as possible. 

Sharing ideas to move forward

​​We now have 100 clients from a range of sectors and industries – all with different challenges and requirements. It’s this kind of collective brain power that we’re keen to pick up and act on and, whilst we try to meet all our clients on a regular basis, we know that sometimes you might think “if the system just did that, it’d save me loads of time!”.
 
So, to encourage sharing ideas and a more active input on how we develop the system, we're planning  a few more innovations that we hope you'll find useful and interesting. We need to get your honest feedback if you recognise something that isn't going well or could be done better and, on the flip side, we want to know what you think we're doing well (so we can do more of it!).
 
Client Surveys
We're going to start sending you a client survey every quarter to check in, see how things are going and collect any feedback you have at the time. Each survey will touch on different areas of the system – we'll ask about any big changes you have coming up and more, so you won’t get the same questions every time!

 
Product Roadmap
We're hoping a few of you cheered when you read this heading, as we have had many requests over the last year for a more publicly available list of features and functionality that we're developing or planning for the future.
 
In 2019, we're going to develop a Product Roadmap that all system owners will be able to see and, more importantly, actively contribute to.
 
This will give us a much more structured and proactive way to identify and prioritise your needs, as well as let you see what we're working on and what to expect.

This will be a big project for us, but it is very exciting too!

​“Oh, how did I do that again?” 

​​We know there are times when you may not have used the system for a while or there’s that little thing that you did last time that you just can’t remember. It happens to all of us!
 
To help you in times like these, our Helpdesk Team are currently working hard to create more of our ‘how do I’ support articles that you can find in the Helpdesk system. The team have been working through past queries and creating walkthroughs for some of the tasks and more frequently asked questions. We’re keen to get your input on these articles and what you want them to cover, so we'll be adding a new item on the helpdesk menu soon, so you can request a new article to support you and your team on those tasks you might need a little reminder of now and again!

Wrapping up

We know this is quite a lengthy update – well done if you’ve managed to read this far!
​
We can’t help it, as we're just so excited for the work we're doing this year! We hope you can tell that this year is all about strengthening our partnerships with our clients, supporting you more, listening to what you need, adding value, and updating and improving the system so that it works best for you.
 
To summarise our 2019 plans:
 
Transparency
- Bring back quarterly newsletters
- Develop our 'Status Page'
- Create more proactive communications

Sharing Ideas
- Send client surveys to gain your feedback
- Share our Product Roadmap
- Start collecting ideas for product improvement

​Technology
- Complete the Rackspace Migration
- Expand the client knowledge base with more detailed articles