Planful Fall16 Release Improves User Productivity and Support

We recently delivered our Fall16 release.  This release includes enhancements in several areas, including user experience, user productivity, and reporting.

Improved User Experience

This release includes additional features available in all supported browsers. Features newly added include the Block and Actual Data Templates in the Planning module, as well as Employee Export and Compensation Add/Edit functions in Workforce Planning.  The main benefit here is improved flexibility and more options for users.

Improved User Security

The Fall16 release also includes several user security updates, including time-limited access to external user accounts.  What this means is that when any external user, such as an auditor, is added to a tenant, the access is provided with limited time duration, such as a maximum of 30 days or another specified time period.

Enhanced User Productivity

The Fall16 release includes a number of enhancements designed to improve user productivity across all modules.

Within our Cloud Scheduler, users will now have the option to process Workforce Planning scenarios and delete scheduled, queued, and completed jobs.  These new features will improve accuracy, flexibility, and productivity of users.

Alternate hierarchies offer a powerful capability that enables our customers to consolidate and report on their data under different organizational structures – e.g., legal, management, statutory, etc. With this release we are now able to support a larger number of alternate hierarchies across multiple dimensions.

Building on our existing Google for Work integration, which enables users to export reports and templates directly to Google Drive, users can now load data into their application from Google Drive.   This enables users to schedule data loads without the need for Data Integrations.

Enhancements to the

Modeling

module include easier model administration and maintenance, improved reporting and data suppression, and a new data export API for sharing data with other applications.

Improved Reporting

This release includes a number of enhancements in Reporting, such as a conversion tool that converts Report Books to Report Collections.  Report Collections offers enhanced bursting, distribution, and scheduling capabilities for delivering period-end reports to large groups of users across the enterprise.

The Fall16 release also includes a number of usability enhancements to Dynamic Reports, as well as drill-through reporting improvements.  This enables users to drill-through to transaction details with more control and precision in terms of time periods that are in focus.

Improved End-User Support

CFL Central Integration – This provides one-stop shopping and a single point for customers to search for and access information about training, support, user help, release notes, and the customer community.

Integration with Zendesk – This allows the Planful CFL team to directly message users logged in to Planful and eliminates the need to send emails to users.  With the Zendesk integration the CFL team is able to notify users about upcoming maintenance, new releases, and help links.  It also provides visibility into which users have viewed the messages.

Learn More

As you can see, the Fall16 release builds on the innovations and new features we delivered in the Spring16 and Summer16 releases, enhancing the user experience and providing improved user productivity, as well as more powerful reporting and end-user support capabilities.

If you’re an existing customer and want to find out more, you can view the full release notes in our online help and discuss these new enhancements via our Customer Community.  You can also attend the Fall16 new feature release training on Monday, November 21^st to get more information.