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- Already released
Smart Folders in Next® with extended flexibility and efficiency
Over time, blazingly fast and easy to use Search forms has taken over from the good old folder structure in Next®. Why would you navigate to the Customers folder, then search for folder 1084 TED Japan, to see all the documents related to this customer. When instead, you just click Customer documents, and type 'TED'.
As searches in Next® are just as fast as looking up the content of a folder, and way more flexible, we have for a long time focused on Search forms. And to some degree neglected folders. Leaving behind a lot of the great features you have in the hitlist from a Search form.
But no more. Now we are reinventing the folders in Next®. Not because we've lost faith in searches and facets. But, because we acknowledge that out there in 'real life', you have structures that are highly hierarchical and most easily presented in a folder structure.
Coming to Folders
- Columns setups and view policies (May'21)
Individual setups for each folder type - List actions (May'21)
Allowing Export to Excel™ and Combine PDFs for an entire folder - Cards views
Multi line cards as you know them from Next® Go
All new features
- Add your own folders
Manually adding a new customer, or simply having a personal area for your own stuff. - Add metadata (Information bearing folders)
Keeping all data on project, a customer, or a product. - Change folder name
Correcting mistakes, or reflecting a change in real life - Smarter search for and in folders
Search for the project folder based on project manager, and sort them based on status. - Share a folder
Send an entire project to a colleague. - Hide a folder
Limit your list to only those relevant to you. - Make a folder a favorite
Click to mark your personal projects as your favorites.
More than just new features
This - Smart Folders - is about more than just new features. It is a completely reimplementation on how we handle folders in Next®. One of the reasons why we disliked folders was the static nature of a documents filing into the folder. If your Next® was setup to archive Sales invoices in not only the Customer folder but also the Product folder, then Next® would create a filing object for each of the items on every Sales invoice. This filing object took time to create, took up storage space, and contained a static filing description that would not be updated ever. All of this makes little sense, when we today can use a Search form to find each Sales invoice with a reference to any given product, without any of this overhead. And equally fast.
Behind the scenes, or under the covers, this is exactly what we do with Smart Folders. We eliminate the overhead of creating filings. And use the eminent search capabilities of Next® to dynamically list the content of your folders. Faster, cheaper, and much more flexible.
Future enhancements
Smart Folders is going to be released in several phases throughout 2021. The May '21 release contains all the infrastructure work needed to realize the new features, and allows you to implement list actions and dedicated view policies as a start.
For the techies
When the initial version (May'21) is installed, Next® will automatically create definitions to match the current folder and filing setup. Immediately following the update, Next® will automatically start to generate the folders needed to recreate the original views.
We advise that you before the update, go through the setup to see if all the folders still make sense. Even if folders are now way cheaper and smarter, Search forms often make more sense. Don't keep folder just because you once needed them for integration. Folders only make sense if the hierarchical structure is important. Or if going forward, Next® is the place where the 'entity' and it's data is kept.
Please remember that a Folder in Next® is NOT the same as a simple folder on a file server. A Folder in Next® is NOT a container for documents. It is a view to selected documents. Protecting access to the Folder does not protect access to the documents. This is the very idea behind an enterprise archive. To protect a document, you classify the document it self. Then Next® will protect it no matter where you find it - in Next® or outside.
Replicating best practice from a file server in an enterprise archive is a fatal mistake.
Commercial terms and conditions
This basic feature is available at no additional cost, to users with an active service plan. Any consultancy assistance will be invoiced.
The new products, the ability to add metadata to folders, and the ability to share a folder will come with a separate license fee.
Disclaimer
Despite our best efforts, we may be forced to change both content and expected delivery of future product updates without notice.
Details
Title:
Smart Folders in Next® with extended flexibility and efficiency
Type:
New feature
Status:
Released
Expected release:
May 2021
Affected products:
Next® Bank Statements
Next® Contracts
Next® Emails
Next® Enterprise Archive
Next® ExCustody
Next® Invoices
Next® Mailroom
Next® Processes
Audience:
Admin
Consultant
Classification:
Public
Responsible product manager:
Kim Hellum
Updated:
18.05.2021
By:
Kim Hellum