Serenic Navigator 2009 Gives Users Intuitive System Navigation and Task Management Tools
"We captured what people do most often, so they can go to their home pages and
have a queue of items that are updated. It gives you a shortcut to what needs to
be done each day. Users are really excited about this feature...”
- Rebecca Newton – Manager of Systems and Operation, RSF Social Finance
New Role-Tailored User Interface and Web Services Features Provide Paradigm Shift for Nonprofit Organization
RSF Social Finance, based in San Francisco, offers investing, lending and
giving services that generate positive social and environmental impact while
fostering community and collaboration among participants. Since 1984, RSF
has made over $200 million in loans and over $90 million in grants to nonprofit
and for-profit social enterprises in the areas of Food & Agriculture, Education
and the Arts, and Ecological Stewardship. Today RSF has more than 1,000
clients helping to create a shift from financial transactions that are complex,
opaque and anonymous to those that are direct, transparent and personal,
based on long-term relationships.
RSF first implemented Serenic Navigator in 2004, allowing the organization to
better track and manage its diverse funds – from its planned giving programs
to investment vehicles. The following year, Serenic DonorVision was added to
provide a more comprehensive contact management system than what RSF
had previously used to track and manage its important donor relationships.
RSF was the first organization to install Serenic Navigator 2009 and benefit
from its enhancements. The updated software system applies Microsoft
Dynamics NAV 2009 technology and functionality to Navigator’s core features.
Navigator 2009 includes a new User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX)
through the use of Role Centers that leverage productivity features within the
newest Dynamics NAV platform. Within days of implementing Navigator 2009,
RSF’s employees were benefitting from the system’s great simplicity and new
features.
Customized Role Centers Transform User Experience
Within Serenic Navigator 2009, Role Centers present specific information
based on employees’ job functions to help people easily prioritize tasks and
make quick business decisions. With an intuitive user interface similar to that
of the Microsoft Office system, Role Centers help users navigate quickly to
the information, reports and actions they need. Navigator 2009 has content
specific to its customers’ organizational requirements, and employees can
easily personalize their Role Centers to fit their own unique work styles and
information needs.
For example, a Role Center for a typical accounts payable clerk includes visual
cues of the work she needs to perform, giving the individual user a single,
integrated view of the job-specific information and tasks she can see right
on her desktop. Notifications and alerts initiated by automated workflows are
displayed in each Role Center to keep critical tasks and projects on track. A
link for a “new vendor” takes the clerk straight to what she needs to enter for
a new vendor relationship and becomes part of a managed list of vendors she
is responsible for in her Role Center. An alert saying “28 invoices due today”
helps prioritize tasks and manage deadlines.
When Navigator 2009 was installed, RSF created seven different roles defined
by groups of employees and their main activities. “We captured what
people do most often, so they can go to their home pages and have a queue
of items that are updated,” said Rebecca Newton, RSF’s manager of systems
and operation. “It gives you a shortcut to what needs to be done each day.
Users are really excited about this feature and that it incorporates Outlook.
One user used to keep her task list on an Excel spreadsheet, but she moved
it into Outlook so she can see her to-do list in her Role Center and check off
tasks as she completes them.”
RSF created Role Centers in Navigator 2009 including:
- Accounting Manager
- Client Development
- Controller
- Junior Accountant
- Philanthropic Services
- Staff Accountant
- Strategic Development
Personalization of Role Centers accommodates organization-specific functions.
For example, RSF’s Philanthropic Services Role Center automatically
queues up the week’s pending grants to be reviewed and processed, making
this weekly task much more efficient. Philanthropic Services also created
saved views to quickly display the information required to answer frequently
asked questions– providing easier “at-your-fingertips” access to information.
Views are created by utilizing multiple filter levels to display only the data a
user wants to see. The filter settings used to create the view are then saved
for future access. This allows the user to return to an updated pre-filtered
view of the data at any time by accessing the saved view. Data is automatically
refreshed to show only current information each time the view is accessed.
Personalization also allowed RSF’s Strategic Development role to be shared
by its CEO and Strategic Development Manager to enable easier access to
information they both need, including links to prospects’ websites and custom
reports residing on internal servers.
Easy-to-Use Interface is Familiar
Typically, changing an organization’s UI results in down time and lost productivity
among frustrated users who have to change everyday work habits. At
RSF, however, users have found 2009’s UI very easy to use, and the new look
and feel of Navigator 2009 has helped them get up to speed quickly.
The familiar UI offers intuitive navigation and makes it easy to find information,
helping to minimize training time. Even RSF employees who weren’t able
to attend training sessions prior to the system going live, have had few questions
about how to use the UI, which is more visually appealing as a result of
the extensive research and development that Microsoft built into the underlying
framework. They have used 2009’s navigation lists to find information and
readily answer their own questions.
“The UI lets you use a search box to find what you need, so you don’t have
to know where information lives within the system,” Newton said. “Users are
finding the new UI is a lot more intuitive. It has the navigation feel of many
websites with tool bars in action panes. Since all of us are hooked on the Internet,
it feels more familiar.”
Improved Remote Access Provides Real-time Updates
Serenic Navigator 2009 provides RoleTailored access to real-time, integrated
data and analysis tools that can help individuals make fast, informed decisions.
Role Centers give people visibility into relevant business activities, such
as tasks, notifications, lists, key performance indicators (KPIs), and reports.
Thanks to a new three-tier thin-client architecture and the use of industrystandard
Web services, information stored in Navigator is more accessible
through a Web browser, thereby enhancing accessibility, availability, and performance.
RSF plans for its CEO to access Navigator remotely through his Role Center to
stay current on constituents’ needs in real time.
“We are creating his dashboard to include what he needs to look at, such as
the people he needs to call before an event, so he doesn’t have to navigate
through the system and just gets what he needs,” Newton said. “Previously,
we would have to email data to him or compile information in a spreadsheet.
Now his tasks outside the office can be more integrated with the tasks he’s
doing while in the office and he can access by simply connecting to our SQL
Server via VPN and launching the RoleTailored Client from his desktop.”
Basically, the user connects to the server via VPN and then launches the RoleTailored
Client from his or her laptop (stored locally) and connects to the
server by specifying the IP address. The remote user connects the same way
as someone in the office, via the RTC, with the exception of having to establish
a connection to the SQL Server via VPN.
Simplified User Experience Saves Time
RSF employees saw the value of working from their Role Centers right away.
Having a visual map with elements specific to their own job has taken the
complexity away – providing the power of an ERP system without the sometimes
overwhelming sense of difficulty. Fields and functions not required by a
specific role can simply be hidden. This has made user adoption fast, as Role
Centers simplified tasks across the organization.
“Before, you could get into the database and still have to navigate to get
what you want,” Newton said. “Now, you’ll get a robust list of what you use
most often in the system. So people like our CEO can be more informed and
not have to wait for others to look information up for him. This will encourage
folks who used to use our system just a few times a month to get info they
need more often. They will eliminate a lot of back-and-forth in their days.”
Newton notes that for RSF’s accounting team, there is a lot of opportunity to
save time with reports they used to print out. With Navigator 2009, “pending”
information is much more visible in the system. RSF’s accounting manager
can look at her dashboard to see what’s not posted yet and can easily
review and post.
“Everyone is taking ownership and making it their own,” Newton said. “I was
surprised at how easy this transition to the new UI was – everyone was using
the new system and finding the information they need with very few questions.
It was business as usual, and it’s really fun to use. Everyone is having
a good time with it!”