Elcom launched its newest product, IntranetManager.NET this week.

IntranetManager.NET is part of the Elcom suite of products.

The successful launch provided attendees with an insight into the functionality, features, and benefits of IntranetManager.NET.

IntranetManager.NET is a secure, versatile, easy-to-use software solution that enables easy intranet maintenance by streamlining document management, publishing and archiving, facilitating online collaboration and enabling efficient task completion.

Elcom Technology can integrate other modules from its suite of business tools to assist you to leverage off your intranet investment.

On the right is a photo of some of the Elcom team at the IntranetManager.NET Launch.

Learn more about IntranetManager.NET.

Elcom loves to support charity and this month some of the Elcomites have been taking part in Movember.

The Movember event raises awareness of men's health issues and donations for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue - the national depression initiative.

On the right is a photo of the Elcomites and their Mo's.

To read more about Movember, click here.

If you would like to support the Elcom Movember Team called Elcomoes, click here.

UTS:INSEARCH has launched a new website developed by Elcom.

Elcom's Enterprise Content Management System, CommunityManager.NET is powering the new UTS:INSEARCH website.

The new website has been designed to provide flexible and efficient ways to map UTS degrees to INSEARCH diplomas and courses, therefore making the site easy to use for the students.

This has been further implemented with a modern engaging design. The website provides the student users with relevant, useful information.

Have a look at the UTS:INSEARCH Website.

Below is an image of the UTS:INSEARCH homepage.

Elcom will be officially launching its newest product, IntranetManager.NET on Tuesday 18th November 2008.

The free seminar will include presentations from industry experts including Derek Jardine and Stephen Collins. Orica will also present the use of IntranetManager.NET for their intranet.

Find out more and register for the IntranetManager.NET Launch.

Read more about Elcom's Intranet Solution, IntranetManager.NET.

Read our previous related post: New Product Announcement - IntranetManager.NET

Elcom has been working to develop a new product, IntranetManager.NET.

IntranetManager.NET is a secure, versatile, easy-to-use software solution that enables easy intranet maintenance by streamlining document management, publishing and archiving, facilitating online collaboration and enabling efficient task completion.

IT analysts IDC estimate that the volume of unstructured corporate data will grow at an annual rate of 63% through to 2011. The capture, storage, management, security and retrieval of this information are often a series of conflicting objectives and up to 90% of companies struggle with the balancing act.

IntranetManager.NET is Elcom's intranet solution to the unstructured data issue. It's based on an intranet solution with powerful tools to capture and maintain documents.

• Online Forms
• Workflow
• Corporate Compliance
• Collaboration
• Induction & Training
• Corporate Directory
• Enterprise Search & Document Management

Benefits of IntranetManager.NET include:

Improve information dissemination throughout the organisation

Knowledge and information is quick and easy to find

Securely manage and publish documents

Encourage and foster online collaboration

Single intranet can service many internal departments needs

Customisable

Learn more about how IntranetManager.NET can power your organisations Intranet.

Elcom is proud to announce the launch of CommunityManager.NET Version 6.

CommunityManager.NET Version 6 is a major upgrade that includes a range of new features and enhancements.

Benefits of CommunityManager.NET Version 6 include:

Your website, intranet and extranet are now even easier to manage
A user-friendly interface that runs quickly and smoothly on your web browser
Increased functionality to cater for every aspect of your business and online scenario needs
Even more customisable with the API
Save time, reduce bottlenecks and expedite business processes with Parallel Workflow

Some of the Key Enhancements for CommunityManager.NET Version 6 are:

Completely revamped User Interface Redesigned from the ground up, the new admin user interface streamlines all administration and content management tasks, providing a consistent interface, dramatically enhanced usability and much quicker response times.

Parallel Workflow The CM workflow engine now features true parallel workflow, with unlimited numbers of workflow ‘baskets’ and workflow branches, all managed via a new slick GUI screen. Workflow has been Community Manager’s fastest growing module in terms of enterprise uptake, and with parallel workflow now fully supported, Enterprise processes can be even further improved.

Corporate directory V2 The corporate directory module has been significantly enhanced with additional search capabilities, extra fields, and intelligent linking capabilities.

Want more information about the features and enhancements?

Keen to download a brochure to read more?

Have a look at the CommunityManager.NET Version 6 page.

Elcom is proud to announce that the community portal for Caroline Springs has gone live.

Caroline Springs is a community development in Victoria by Lend Lease.

The new community portal is powered by Elcom's Enterprise Web Content Management System, CommunityManager.NET.

A few of the many benefits that the Caroline Springs Community will experience include:

• Increased communication with other community members
• Easy to share information and news around the community
• Ability for the community to interact in an online environment
• Simple method for the community to plan events
• And many more ...

View the Caroline Springs Online Community Portal.

Other Lend Lease Community Portals that Elcom has developed include Varsity Lakes Online, Mawson Lakes Community and OurRouse Community. Watch this space as more community sites go live.

For more information, please Contact Elcom, and find out how CommunityManager.NET can power your website, intranet or extranet.

Elcom is proud to announce that our flagship Enterprise Content Management System (ECMS) CommunityManager.NET works seamlessly with Google Chrome, Google's new web browser.

Google recently released Google Chrome. As Google's website says, "Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier."

You can read the Google Chrome Cartoon to find out more about how Google Chrome has been developed.

You can be confident that your website will work smoothly on Google Chrome with Elcom's CommunityManager.NET.

If you have any questions, please Contact Elcom, and find out how CommunityManager.NET can power your website, intranet or extranet.
Download Google Chrome
Find out more about CommunityManager.NET

Today we launched the new Elcom website.

The new website features a design that is aimed at giving the user the best experience on our website, while making information easy to find and simple to read.

As can be seen on the website, the top navigation directs users to Elcom's products, Elcom's services, Corporate information about Elcom and a Elcom contact details. Each of these direct the user to information about the various categories.

The homepage cleanly displays Elcom's 'Featured Products', 'Your Scenario' and 'How Can We Help You'. 'Your Scenario' is information about how Elcom can help provide you with the ability and tools to make the most of your internet portal, intranet and extranet. The information is also specialised depending on your role in your organisation and how Elcom can help you in your role.

Our new website features client projects allowing you to see some of the work we have done.

The new Elcom website journey has just begun. We hope you are as excited as we are.

If you have any comments or feedback about the new website, please leave a comment on this post or go to our contact form, we would love to hear from you.

Enjoy using our new site!

Elcom is proud to announce that the new LoanAustralia Website has gone Live.

LoanAustralia is a 100% Australian owned and operated company formed in 2004 to establish itself as an originator for loans, and to have effective control over the operation and management of loans sourced through LoanAustralia while providing clients the comfort that the loans are funded by secure sources.

The project involved a complete redesign of the website, making the website easier to update and navigate.

It was a great project to work on, and LoanAustralia were very happy with the result.

The IT Manager of LoanAustralia said, "The new LoanAustralia website, developed and hosted by Elcom, is modern, easy to navigate, and simple to update. We were delighted with Elcom's professionalism, their "can do" approach and their ability to deliver an excellent product in a very short time frame. Since the site was launched the time customers spend on the site has increased substantially with a corresponding increase in the number of customers re-visiting the site. Congratulations Elcom on a brilliant job."

For more information on the project, read the LoanAustralia Case Study  that includes information on the project requirements, the solution and the benefits that LoanAustralia has experienced...

On Wednesday 20th August Elcom held its CommunityManager.NET User Group at the Australian Technology Park.

The user group was a great opportunity for CommunityManager.NET users to meet, interact and gain a better understanding of how other clients were using CommunityManager.NET in their businesses.  

This user group featured presentations from two of our clients, Sydney West Area Health Services and Lend Lease.

During the user group we also previewed our latest version of CommunityManager, CommunityManager Version 6. You can find out more by reading our CM v6 Sneak Peak post.

There was a great turnout of clients at the user group, with lots of interaction and participation. It was great to see our users so excited and enthusiastic about our product CommunityManager.

The user group also provided a great opportunity to network with our clients in a range of industries.

The feedback was great and we are looking forward to our next user group.

If you are interested in attending the user group, comment below expressing your interest or email usergroup@elcom.com.au

We look forward to seeing you at our next user group.

As Craig mentioned we're about 8 weeks out from the launch of Community Manager version 6. It has many great new features and we'll be doing sneak peaks over the next few weeks. In this entry we'll be taking a look at my personal favourite - the redesigned admin interface.

Our customers spend a lot of time on the admin pages and we really wanted to make it fast and simple for them to get their jobs done quickly. With this in mind our goal was to improve performance and provide better usability.

We started by removing the unnecessary weight of the front end banner and menu wrapper that was carried through into the admin area. Theoretically the wrapper makes it easy to navigate between the live site and admin pages but in reality this increases page weight which results in a slower performance .

In place of the wrapper we've implemented a low bandwidth design with consistent navigation and improved cross browser compatibility and accessibility.

Usability testing showed that it was important to maintain fast access between the admin and live site so we've revamped our admin tool bar. It now has a view site link and users are free to add their favourite links. The admin toolbar stays with users across all pages for quick access back to any of the functions, it also has access to the Elcom Forums and Reference site.

Implementation of consistent global navigation and section relevant menus means less round trips and faster access directly to the function or set of functions needed to get the job done quickly.

Stay tuned for more version 6 sneak peaks over coming weeks....

Announcing Community Manager version 6.0

We’re excited to announce that our next major version of Community Manager is coming in September 2008. The development team is working hard to put the finishing touches on our biggest upgrade yet.

Sneak peak

Over the coming weeks we’ll be giving you a sneak peak at some of the new features.

Timeframe

We have an internal release date of 13 August 2008, and then we’ll start rolling it out to clients. Our official release will be in early September.

What’s included?

Some of the new features we’ll be covering include:

• Completely revamped Admin interface
• Parallel workflow
• Enhanced security control
• New forum module
• Corporate directory V2
• Calendar overlays
• Training Manager pathway GUI
• Developer API
• and plenty more…

Stay tuned – more details coming soon.

Another Lend Lease site has gone live today.

As you may know, Elcom has been working with Lend Lease to build all their community sites around Australia (there's twenty of them currently being developed). Varsity Lakes is the third to go live recently, and is a good example of the community involvement that Lend Lease is fostering.

Take a look at the site and you'll get the idea. Instead of just building houses & apartments and then going into marketing overload, Lend Lease have taken the proactive approach of building an entire community. It's an interesting concept, and for me (biased as I am - they are our client after all) a commendable one. It has a wonderful, inclusive feel.

Their About us page gives the overview of how they approach community. It's a free membership site, with a ton of links, resources, maps, business directories, safety campaigns, weather forecasts and more. It kinda makes me want to live in an area like that.

The site was designed and built by the Elcom team, and is powered by our Community Manager.NET CMS.

On a recent pitch we were asked how URLs were handled in Community manager when a page was moved. In particular, what happens if a site visitor attempts to access an old URL.

I penned a response and thought it may be useful to post it on the Elcom Blog...

There are 4 types of URL handling in Community Manager which can be enabled by the administrator

1. Parameter
2. Short path friendly URL
3. Full path friendly URL
4. Vanity URL

Parameter
Parameter is the underlying format for URL’s. Each folder and article is assigned a unique ID and this is used in the URL to access that article.
e.g Folder ID 10 and Article ID 5 would be represented as
http://www.afc.gov.au/default.aspx?folderid=10&articleid=5
This format is considered unfriendly because it is somewhat meaningless to users and search engines. When using this format the article and folder can be moved and renamed and links to it will not break because the parameter based name never changes.

Short path friendly URL
Using this method the friendly URL converts the parameters into something more meaningful but only uses one level.
e.g it takes the title of articleid=5 i.e “Careers” and inserts this into the URL
http://www.afc.gov.au/careers/default.aspx
If this article is renamed, then links to it would break
If this article is moved, then links to it would not break

Full path friendly URL
Using this method the full canonical path of the folder structure is represented in the URL in a friendly way
e.g “careers” resides in the “about us” folder therefore the URL would be
http://www.afc.gov.au/aboutus/careers/default.aspx
If this article is renamed, then links to it would break
If this article is moved, then links to it would break
HOWEVER: Community Manager has a Full Path URL service which can be kicked off by an admin at any time and runs through all content and updates links with the new URL. Additionally the URL service can converts short path URLs to full path if a customer decides to move from short URL to full URL.

Vanity URL
The vanity URL allows the user to create a very short URL, usually for marketing purposes or usability reasons.
e.g http://www.afc.gov.au/aboutus/careers/default.aspx can be changed to http://www.afc.gov.au/careers
If this article is renamed, then links to it would break
If this article is moved, then links to it would break

Elcom recommend that organisations use full path friendly URL when implementing Community Manager

If a visitor attempts to access an old URL which no longer exists they would be presented with an article not found page. This page can be customised in order to give the user some further options e.g search, back to home etc...