Original publication date:
July, 2008
Softshare eCenter Direct Version 1.2
On June 20, Softshare released a new version of Softshare eCenter Direct. Version 1.2 offers more customization than 1.0 and has some nifty new features. Notable enhancements for the new version include:
More Customizations
You’ll love the ability to customize the sign-up form, designate center display information, and assign referral centers:
- Customize the sign-up form. Softshare has significantly beefed up the new client sign-up form. Not only are many more sign-up fields available, but the form is configurable. That’s right. You get to decide which sign-up fields are mandatory—or even visible. But wait! There’s more: sign-up forms are configurable per center so that, if multiple centers are represented on eCenter, each center can now design its own sign-up form. Where does all this magic happen? You can do it right from the center record in WebCATS, as shown here
.
- Designate center display information. Also configurable from each center record in WebCATS, as shown here
, centers can now identify exactly how information should display on eCenter for their center.
- Assign referral centers. If your center is not public on eCenter, you can now assign (again, from the center record in WebCATS) a referral center to act as a substitute for your center. When a client from your center logs into eCenter, eCenter will fully behave as if the client was a contact of the referral center, not their true home center. Of course, if your center is public on eCenter, its configurations will drive the client’s eCenter experience.
Event Registration Improvements
These improvements enhance the event registration experience for both you and the registrant:
- Retrieve password. If a client finds themselves on the training event pages before having logged in, they now have the convenience of being able to request their password right from an event page. The ability to log in from an event page has been present for a while for quick registration, but until version 1.2, forgotten passwords had to be retrieved by backing out to the main login page.
- More accurate tracking of full status. Clients that sign up for an event from eCenter now automatically contribute to the maximum attendee count, helping with real-time tracking of a conference’s full status. Non-clients that sign up for an event from eCenter, however, won’t contribute to the attendee count until their conference request has been manually accepted.
Tighter Data Control
We’ve tightened up the data that is transferred from eCenter to WebCATS for better audit and data requirement control:
- Electronic signature capture. When a new client signs up via eCenter, their electronic signature is now captured and stored in their subsequent client record, along with signature time and date, as shown here
. This data can’t be edited, making it reliable for audit trails.
- Record-locking consideration for investment records. If a client reports an investment via eCenter’s survey feature, the investment data is now verified against the record-locking data specified in WinCATS, if any. If the investment data provided by the client is older than the record-locking date, the current day’s date is assigned to the newly created investment record (the original user-specified date is inserted into the investment record’s comments) and the client’s counselor is notified via e-mail. This behavior was previously in place for award records created via eCenter, but not investment records.
Odds & Ends
There’s still more to discover! Log into Softshare eService for a full accounting of all enhancements and fixes that went into eCenter 1.2.
How to Upgrade
Some of you have already upgraded to eCenter Direct 1.2. For those of you who haven’t, it’s free so all you need to do is contact us when you’re ready for it. Because eCenter tightly integrates with WebCATS, you’ll also need to upgrade to WebCATS build 423 and the latest build of Softshare WinCATS at the same time.