Development Update - May 2021
This month:
The month of May has been a bitty one in the dev team.
New feature ideas come from all sources. As you might imagine, most are spawned from our customers but many are generated by staff and some are simply dictated by industry change.
The priority of each feature idea can vary for numerous reasons but two common traits considered are "How long will it take to develop?" vs. "How many customers will it help?".
As mentioned, for one reason or another, this month it's the 'bitty' features that have taken our priority. They're relatively quick to develop compared to the showstoppers but when combined, you have a set of new features that will hopefully help the many.
Read on to find out more about each of these features.
Supplier Pricing Participation
You can now mark whether a Supplier will be participating within a tender/custom pricing request. Suppliers can also update the flag within their portals. Ideal for keeping on top of who will be quoting on pricing day.
Built for: UKUSASupplierLinks
Parent/Child Pipeline UI
We've updated the system interface to make it much easier to review your Parent/Child portfolios. You can now use a collapsible grid to easily view all child contracts linked to a single parent contract.
Built for: UKUSASupplierLinks
Show rates in dollars rather than cents
We've listened based on your feedback and updated the system accordingly. Rates in the USA system can now be shown in dollars as well as cents.
Built for: USA
Other bits and bobs...
We've also added the following other bits and bobs...
System Export enhancements
Numerous columns have been added to data export across the entire system, providing a more detailed level of reporting.
Built for: UKUSA
History Logging - Leads and Contracts
History logging within Leads and Contracts have been improved to help you monitor even more changes with your data.
Built for: UKUSA
Business Type added to Contracts, Tenders & Sales Exports
Business Type has been added to Contracts, Tenders & Sales Export reports.
Built for: UKUSA
User Type access applied to Employee Payments section
Based on customer feedback, we have added User-Level access to the Employee Payment section of the system.
Built for: UKUSA
Option To Exclude Completed Activities from Activities Export
A tick box has been added to the Activities Export page to allow you to exclude completed activities from the report.
Built for: UKUSA
Suppliers with no relationships excluded from matrix pricing
We have amended the system to only show by default matrix pricing for suppliers that are marked as No Relationship within the supplier section.
Built for: UKUSA
Other field added to Supplier Contacts
A new field called Other has been added to Supplier Contacts so that you can also add contacts that don't fit into our pre-set categories.
Built for: UKUSA
Bug fix - changing meter/account usage
We have fixed a bug that was causing an error screen when changing usage figures within a tender/custom pricing request
Built for: UKUSA
That’s it for this month.
Our software evolves at such an exciting rate so please feel free to get in touch to discuss any of the functionality we’ve added since you last saw it. We’ll be more than happy to arrange a demo to show you around!
A Waffley Big Problem
How do
YOU
cook your potato waffles?
If you listened to the latest Energy Waffle podcast you will have heard that we inadvertently stumbled into what we think could be a potential green issue.
Toasting our waffles saves a considerable amount more energy over the more conventional conventional oven (iterative pun intended).
Crunching the numbers:
On the back of a packet...
Instructions from the back of a packet of waffles dictate you can either pop them in the toaster for 5 minutes or oven at 220degrees for 15 minutes.
A standard toaster needs considerably less power than an oven. What's more, the oven needs a good 5 minutes to preheat, making the potential oven cooking time 4 times as long!
Even without factoring in preheat time, we estimate the power difference to be 525 wh.
If we then assume that around half of all waffles are cooked in the oven (estimated to be around 5,000,000) then we've got...
A total of
1,312,500 kWh
wasted every year!
(Every great campaign needs a great poster)
Is this a joke?
Ok, so there is of course a good bit of levity with all of this... but there is an important point here too.
We as an industry talk a lot about the importance of climate change but do we take enough individual responsibility? As well as championing the latest green trends, could we also collaborate creatively to spark alternative solutions?
Energy management will undoubtedly become a massive part of all our roles over the coming years, so spending some time and energy (no pun intended this time) on our own initiatives can only put us (and our customers) in good stead for the future.
If each of us here derives a campaign that could potentially save the world 1,312,500 kWh, then surely that could have a massive positive impact on our world?
#NoneInTheOven
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