Welcome to the July 2023 Product Release Notes. This article describes the details of the different features and improvements included in the July 2023 Product Release. For additional questions and support please contact customer success at: helpdesk@boreal-is.com. 

 

 

Featured

Analytics Reports Improvements

Borealis Analytics has been designed to unlock the potential of data-driven insights and gain invaluable understanding of your stakeholder behavior, preferences, and engagement levels that help you and your team make informed decisions, and foster impactful relationships for sustainable business success.

In this release we are introducing the following improvements that focus on a more streamlined user experience that better integrates our Reports and Widgets features:

 

Edit Mode

• Add / edit report filters
• Add an existing widget
• Create a new widget
• Edit widgets filters
• Add a label
• Add a page break

Note: When in Edit Mode, all changes made to a report are saved automatically. 

 

New Workflow for Widget Creation

A new, improved workflow for creating Widgets has been introduced. Now, widgets are not saved but until the configuration has been completed. This will will also help avoid the creation of unused widgets The new widget creation workflow is:

• Click "Create Widget"
• Select the widget type and form
• Click on "Next"
• Configure the widget as usual
• When ready, click on "Save"

 

Create a Widget from a Report

Now users can create a widget without leaving a report. A new action "Create Widget" has been added to the (+) Add buttons. 

When selecting the "Create Widget" action a "Create Widget" window will appear. Users should follow the process described on the New Workflow for Widget Creation section above.

 

Add a Page Break

A new "Add Page Break" option has been added to the (+) Add button. Page breaks will allow users separate specific sections of a report when exporting to PDF. 

Note: Page breaks do not have any specific functionality when viewing the report in Borealis.

 

New Workflow - Widget Duplication

When duplicating a widget, the widget configuration window will be displayed. The duplicated widget is not automatically saved until the configuration is completed.

The new duplicate widget workflow is:

• Select "Duplicate Widget"
• Configure widget
• Click "Save"

 

Edit a widget from a report

Have you ever wanted to edit the configuration of a widget in a report that its owned by another user or is a system widget?

Now users can edit widgets in a report even if those widgets are system widgets or are owned by other users. The new option "Edit widget" located on the action menu of each widget allow the following actions:

• If the widget is owned by the active user:
  • The system will show the widget configuration page where the user can then make the necessary changes in the configuration. When saved, the user will be taken back to the report. WARNING: Please remember that the changes made in the configuration will affect all other reports where the widget is used.

• If the widget is a system widget or it is owned by another user:
  • The system will create a temporary duplicate of the existing widget in the report. Users can then change the configuration of the widget. If the action is canceled without saving, the existing widget remains in the report. However, is the temporary widget is saved, this new widget will automatically replace the existing widget in the report with a new version owned by the active user.

 

Report Filters improvements

The following improvements have been made to the report filters section to provide greater flexibility and usability:

• New report filter options: Subject category and Project.
• Each report filter now has its own icon on the report filter section.
• The report filter configuration form, now shows the different widgets in the report grouped by source.
• A red dot will appear on the report filters and a text notice on the widgets as a signal of unapplied filters. Note: For those widgets where filters do not apply, the "Does not apply" option should be selected on the report filter configuration. This will remove the red dots and text notice mentioned before.

 

Create reports from template

Creating an impactful analytics report is often not an easy task. It requires not only understanding the information in the system but also the ability to distill complex information into clear insights that drive informed decision-making.

To help users in this process, we are introducing the new feature "Create reports from template". When creating a report, users can now select a template. These templates provide a standardized structure, predefined sections, and visual elements, offering prebuilt charts, graphs, and tables, and streamlining the report development process. 

Users will then be able to customize their reports, add new widget or edit the existing to fit their particular needs.

 

Scheduled report options by recipient

We understand that the value of creating relevant and visually stunning reports would not be complete without the possibility of automatically sharing them with other users. The Scheduled Reports feature has helped users around the world share the insights of their work in an efficient way and therefore we want to introduce a new option that will enhance the Scheduled Reports even more.

Now, users are able to select the information displayed on a scheduled report with the new "Output Type" option. The "Output Type" field offers two options for the scheduled reports:

• General Report: When selecting a General Report, each recipient will receive the same version of the report. The permissions of each recipient are not taken into account and the report is sent as viewed by the sender.
• Personalized Report: When sending a Personalized Report, each recipient receives a different version of the repost adapted to their specific user and profile. The permissions of each recipient are taken into account and any report filters set to "Current User" will use the recipient as its value.

 

Local Employment and Procurement Add-on

Does your company have local employment and procurement schemes aimed at fostering local economic development or as a result of commitments acquired with local communities? Do you need to report on the positive economic impact created by local employment and procurement in the area surrounding your operations? We are happy to introduce the Local Employment and Procurement Add-on. 

The Local Employment and Procurement is an optional Add-on for the Stakeholder Engagement module. When active it incorporates the following features:

 

Local Employment

A new Local Employment section will appear in the Individual record menu which includes the Candidates and Contracts components. 

• Add as Candidate
  • To participate in Job Offers and Contracts, Individuals need to be added as candidates. A new action "Add as candidate" has been aded to the actions menu. It can also be found under Candidates in the Local employment section of the Individual record menu. Specific details can be added in the candidate section such as: Competencies, Employment Status, Curriculum Vitae, Education, Experience, etcetera.
• Job Offers
  • A new type of engagement plan "Job Offer" has been created which contains specific information and sections for Local Employment.
• Identify Potential Candidates
  • Potential candidates can be identified in the "Candidates" section of the Job Offer. There are 3 ways of selecting potential candidates:
    • Manual
    • Automatically based on Competencies and Location
    • By creating an analytics widget if additional details must be considered.
• Assign Contracts
  • Once the candidates have been identified it is possible to add a contract in the "Contracts" section of the Job Offer. 
  • The contracts can be assigned to one organization and one candidate each and include additional details such as: 
    • Position
    • Contract type
    • Contract Value
    • Contract Start and End dates

Local Procurement

Two new sections will appear in the Organization record menu:

• Local business development: Includes the two main elements of the local procurement feature:
  • Business Information: To be able to participate in contracts, the organization must be added as a business. 
  • Contracts: All awarded contracts can then be managed through the Contracts section. Each contract includes information such as:
    • Purchase order
    • Contract amount
    • Date awarded
• Local employment
  • This section includes the detail of all contracts related to local employment related to the organization.

NOTE: The Local Employment and Procurement Add-on is a billable feature that requires additional configuration. If you are interested in the Local Employment and Procurement Add-on please contact your account director or customer success representative.

 

Offline application Add-on

Does your stakeholder engagement team often works on remote locations where internet connectivity is unavailable? We understand that capturing information in an efficient and systematic way is one of the central processes around the value created by Borealis. The inability to capture information "on the spot" because of internet limitations creates the risk of missing important details or even not capturing information at all. This is why we are releasing the Offline Application Add-on.

 

The Offline Application Add-on allows users to perform the following actions:

 

Create a Communication

When users are offline, now they can create communications which will stay locally on the phone until internet connection is reestablished. 

Excepting the address, all other fields from the communication creation form are available, including the possibility to use the phone coordinates and attaching documents and photos.

 

Create an Individual

When creating a communication, if the individual is not found on the list, users can create a new one with the following fields:

• First name

• Last name

• Email

• Phone number

Note: All other fields are limited while offline.

When the internet connection is restored and the communication is sent to Borealis, the system will verify if the stakeholder already exists using the name, email and phone number. If it does, it will select it and link it to the communication. If it does not exist, it will be created and linked to the same Project as the one from the communication it participated in.

 

Sending Communications to Borealis

When using the Offline Application Add-on, each user can choose how the offline communications are synced to Borealis by choosing from the options in the settings.

Once the communications are sent to Borealis, they become normal communications in the system, and will no longer be available when offline.

NOTE: The Offline Application Add-on is a billable feature that requires additional configuration. If you are interested in the Offline Application Add-on please contact your account director or customer success representative.

 

Other Improvements

Stakeholder Engagement - Communications

• The header section of a communication now shows more information about date and time:

• • For date with time for the present day : hh:mm AM/PM (XX time ago)
  • For dates less than a year ago : mmm dd (XX days/months ago)
  • For dates more than a year ago : mmm dd, yyyy (XX years ago)

 

• The "Communications - Participants" excel import file now includes a column to enter the stakeholder "Sentiment".

Stakeholder Engagement  - Grievances and Issues

• Grievance Portal
  • It is now possible to use HTML formatting in some labels
  • When creating a new grievance, the checkbox to receive notifications is checked by default
  • Now the stakeholder can choose the operation th which the grievance belongs to and the system will assign it to the right project when it is sent to Borealis.
  • It is now possible to configure the text of the email notification sent to the grievant.
• Grievance record
  • A new field "Process Duration (business days)" is now available. It will show the number of business days since the reception of the grievance.
• Issues
  • Now users can select the Issue subject categories at the moment of creating the issue record.

Stakeholder Engagement - Overall usability improvements

• The Save and View button is back as the default option when creating a new Individual, Organization and Communication. This allows you to review the information in the newly created record and add additional details in fields not available on the creation form. Note: you can still switch to the simple "Save" button by holding the Alt key.
• The search top bar now can find an individual record by entering its address. 

Social Investment

• It is now possible to link land units to Community Contributions, Strategic community investments, and Capacity building records.
• It is now possible to configure an email notification sent to members of a review committee when a Strategic community investments is sent for review.
• There is a new column in the Excel import template for Strategic community investments  to load Beneficiaries.

Compliance Management

• It is now possible to link Conditions to Communications, Issues, Grievances and Commitments.
• It is also possible to link emails to Conditions directly from the Outlook Add-in and Gmail add-on.
• An email notification can now be sent to the person responsible when an Inspection program is started. It will contain the details of the first inspection of the program.

Land Management

• A new action "Link to Engagement plan" is available for Company assets. It can be done on a single or multiple company assets.
• There is now a Description field in Land units
• It is now possible to create a report filter based on Land units in Analytics
• Land units can now be linked to emails directly in the Outlook add-in
• It is now possible to tag Team Members to a Company asset to identify the person/s responsible for the engagements linked to the asset.

Analytics

• Superusers are now able to view and edit all reports and widgets, including private reports and widgets from other users.
• Bulletin widget now shows the color for selection list values if there is one defined.
• Adjustments made to Widgets and Reports labels to increase language consistency.

Tasks

• When creating a communication from an activity related task, the new communication it is automatically filled with the relevant information (staff member, stakeholder, title, date, description, parcels link, etc.). Reduces the amount of time required to complete a task.
• It is now possible to link Parcels (Land management) to tasks. The tasks now show on the map when they are linked to Parcels.

Maps

• There is a new button that allows you to center the map on your current location. You must accept to share your location in your browser for this new button to work.
• Pins, lines and polygons now show the name of the record they represent directly on the map.

Smart Communications

• There is a new section under the Engagement plans - Communications record menu showing the list of Smart Communications related to the Engagement plan.
• The new action "Use existing template" allows users to reuse a template from a previous Smart Communication.
• A new option allows limiting smart emails to be only "Email with opt-out". This also affects distribution lists, as the only option available becomes "Subscription based".

Configuration

• Users: There is now a new action "Batch update" that allows adjusting the "Projects" access of multiple users at once.
• Data dictionaries: You can now export all values and descriptions in 3 languages using Analytics.
• SAML: It is now possible to enter a second SAML certificate to make the transition from an expired certificate to a new one smoother.
• Language: Russian language is now supported for the Stakeholder Engagement, Social Investment and Land Management Modules.
• Corporate view: The borealis REST API is now accessible directly form the corporate view, allowing access to the whole dataset to export to a corporate reporting tool.