Lesson #171
Help – Suggest Ideas function
When you get an idea for improving RB9, you can ensure your idea has the best chance of being implemented by getting it discussed and voted for in this online forum. All RB users can participate in improving RB9 by using this function. Submit your suggestions, respond to other users’ ideas, and vote for those you would like to see incorporated in RB9. OMTI’s development team monitors this forum (previously called Idea Collaborator) and considers these suggestions when developing new RB features and functionality.
Suggest Ideas strategy
Because ideas with the highest scores are more likely to be implemented, it’s best to check the forum first for ideas like your own before submitting your idea. That is because having similar ideas in the forum runs the risk of diluting each idea’s score. So always look at what other RB users are suggesting first. You can add your input to these ideas — for example if an idea is similar but not exactly like your idea then add your unique aspects in a comment on the idea — and vote for the ones you would like to see implemented.
If you can’t find an idea like yours, then submit it to the forum — follow the guidelines to increase its likelihood of success, such as only one idea per request — and monitor how it does. You can see what other users say about your idea and respond — plus answer any questions the development team has about your idea. You can also check your idea’s status to find out if it is accepted, in development, implemented, or rejected.
Review existing ideas
The default view in Suggest Ideas is all ideas that have been submitted by any user — except those that have been implemented or rejected by OMTI’s development team. You can sort the list in ascending or descending order of any column by clicking the column’s header. Export the list as an Excel spreadsheet or a CSV (comma-separated values) file to save, share, use in other applications, or print as a report.
Use the search filters to find specific ideas. You can search by:
- Who suggested an idea: Everyone, just yourself, or just your company
- Where the idea is in the development process — for example: new ideas, implemented ideas, rejected ideas, and ideas the development team is considering, is implementing in a future version, or that they have questions about.
- All modules or a specific module.
- All functions, all functions in a specific module, a specific function in a module, or a new function for the selected module.
- Idea number
- Idea title
The list of ideas includes each idea’s title and description, category, current status, how many votes it has gotten, and when it was last commented on.
Comment & vote on existing ideas
You can view, comment on, and vote for any ideas listed in this function. When you view an idea’s details you can see a thread of comments by other users and the development team. If you enter a contribution to the discussion you can format the text of your comment, add URLs, and include screenshots and other images. If you like an idea, be sure to leave a comment on it and vote for it.
When you submit a comment, it appears in the suggestion’s threads and RB9 sends you an email acknowledging your comment. If you voted, your vote is added to the Votes/Score counts in the suggestion. Votes and scores are different categories: Votes are the total of all users who voted for an idea. Score counts unique agency votes. So the 1st person from an agency to vote for an idea gives the idea 1 Vote point and 1 Score point. If another user from the same agency votes for that same idea it gives the idea another vote, but doesn’t increase the score.
Votes help OMTI keep tabs on how many people overall view, respond, and like ideas. Score tells OMTI how many agencies like an idea, which is one of the metrics used in considering which ideas to research and develop.
Submit your own ideas
If you don’t find an existing idea like yours, use this function to submit your idea directly to OMTI’s development team from within RB. You will have a record of your suggestion, its development status, and other users’ comments and votes. Plus you can have a dialog with the development team about your idea if they reach out to you.
When submitting an idea, start by selecting the RB module that your idea applies to, then the specific function that your idea applies to. If you want to suggest adding a function instead of improving an existing function, you can indicate that instead.
When you select those options, ideas submitted previously for the same function appear. This gives you one more chance to check that your idea isn’t a duplicate. If you do find a similar idea, you can comment and vote on the existing idea instead of adding a new suggestion.
If you do not find a similar idea to piggyback on, then enter your new idea following the guidelines on the screen to increase the likelihood of your idea’s success. Your idea will be posted in the forum with a status of New.
TL;DR: Submit your ideas for improving RB. View, comment on, and vote for others’ ideas. Ideas with the most community approval are more likely to be incorporated into future versions of RB9.
RB concepts in this lesson
Module: Group of related work functions.
