In today's workplace, timely and effective communication is essential. Whether it's a company-wide policy update, an urgent security alert, or a critical announcement that can't wait, getting the right information to the right people at the right time is paramount. That's why we're thrilled to introduce a powerful new feature to Ichicraft Boards: push notifications for urgent messages.

Stay Informed, Instantly

With our new push notification capability, organizations can actively alert users about urgent matters directly through Microsoft Teams. These notifications appear in the activity feed on both desktop and mobile devices, ensuring that important messages are seen promptly, no matter where your employees are working.

Imagine the convenience of reaching your entire organization instantly with a crucial update, without worrying about messages getting lost in overflowing inboxes or delayed in communication channels. A single click on the notification takes users straight to Ichicraft Boards, where they can read the full content of the urgent message and respond accordingly.

Tailored Messaging for Maximum Impact

We understand that not all messages are meant for everyone. That's why our push notifications are designed to respect your existing audience settings. When you send an urgent message, the push notification targets the audience you've defined. If the message is scoped at the board level without a unique audience, it defaults to the access settings of the shared board's visitors group. This ensures that your communications are both efficient and relevant, reaching only those who need to see them within your organization.

Empower Your Administrators and Board Owners

Control and flexibility are key components of effective communication management. In the Ichicraft Boards admin center, administrators have the power to activate push notifications and configure their availability to shared board owners. This means you can delegate communication responsibilities appropriately, allowing those closest to the information to disseminate it swiftly and accurately across the organization.

Integration with Microsoft Teams

Our push notification feature leverages the robust capabilities of Microsoft Teams, providing a unified and familiar platform for your organization's communications. By deploying Ichicraft Boards as a Teams App, you ensure a smooth user experience where urgent messages and push notifications work in harmony within your existing workflow.

Experience the Benefits

• Improved Responsiveness: Deliver time-sensitive information directly to your employees' devices, reducing delays in critical situations.
• Enhanced Engagement: Keep your organization connected and informed, fostering a proactive and collaborative work environment.
• Customized Communication: Target your messages to specific groups or roles, ensuring relevance and reducing unnecessary noise.

Get Started Today

Enhancing your organization's communication strategy is as simple as activating push notifications in your admin center. Equip your workforce with the tools they need to stay informed and responsive in today's dynamic work landscape.

Don't let important messages go unnoticed. Embrace the power of push notifications with Ichicraft Boards and experience a new level of efficiency and connectivity in your digital workplace.

💡Note: This new feature will be available starting week 43 (October 21 - 25).

We are excited to announce the launch of our new Admin Changelog, designed to keep you fully informed about updates to Ichicraft Boards. This tool provides admins with clear visibility and control over all recent changes—from feature enhancements to bug fixes—ensuring you're always up to date with new deployments.

Access the Changelog on the New "About" Page

As part of this update, we've added an "About" page to the admin center, where the Changelog is now available. This page serves as a central hub for all update information, offering a comprehensive record of recent changes. With a clear, organized list detailing every update, admins can easily see what's new, what's improved, and what issues have been resolved. Each update is clickable, opening an in-depth dialog with detailed information about the change.

By utilizing the Changelog on the "About" page, you gain immediate clarity on system updates, eliminating any guesswork. You'll know exactly what has changed and why, empowering you to manage your environment more effectively.

Detailed Change Information at Your Fingertips

For every update listed on the "About" page, simply click on the item to access a detailed description. This opens a dialog that breaks down the specifics of each change, including new features, fixes, and how the update impacts your digital workplace. This level of transparency allows you to fully understand each update without needing to search for details.

Real-Time Visual Notifications

To ensure you're instantly aware of new updates, we've added a visual cue: whenever a new feature or fix is deployed, a red dot appears in the top-right corner of the admin center's menu, signaling that something has changed. While the Changelog on the "About" page is your main tool for tracking updates, this visual cue ensures that nothing slips through the cracks.

Stay Informed and In Control

We invite you to explore the new Changelog on the "About" page in the admin center. Stay informed, stay in control, and experience the benefits of streamlined update management with the Admin Changelog.

The Ichicraft Boards Search Widget redefines how users interact with their digital workplace by offering a versatile and customizable search experience. This powerful tool provides quick and efficient access to critical information. With its ability to support multiple scopes, advanced filtering options, and personalized configurations, the Search Widget integrates into any workflow, making it easier for users to find exactly what they need, when they need it.

The search widget can be accessed in two forms:

• Search Box in the Header: This search box provides access to a search panel, with all configurations handled by the search widget, but without taking up space on the user’s board. Always visible, it allows users to quickly search across different areas without leaving their current page.
• Search Widget on a Board: This can be added to the user’s workspace, offering flexible search options. Users can search across multiple systems simultaneously or focus on a single system for more specific results.

Search Box in the Header

The global search box in the header of Ichicraft Boards provides users with quick access to the search functionality from anywhere within the platform. It offers a unified search experience, allowing users to search across all available scopes or select specific scopes like People, Files, or News.

Dialog with results

When a query is entered, the search box opens a dialog displaying multiple results from each scope, such as People, Files, Knowledge Base, News, and more. Recent search queries are also accessible from the dialog, making it easy to revisit previous searches without re-entering the query. The search can be performed across all scopes or focused on specific ones, depending on the need.

Scopes and Custom Filters

To refine search results, a specific scope can be selected by clicking on one of the available tabs, such as People, News, or Sites. Administrators can define and manage custom filters within each scope, allowing users to further narrow down their search results based on specific criteria. Additionally, Ichicraft Boards supports filtering based on hierarchical term sets, which is especially useful for organizations that organize information by categories such as department or project type. This ensures a more structured and efficient search experience.

Configuration Packages (Admin feature)

Administrators can control the visibility of the search box through Configuration Packages (formerly known as Navigation Policies) and determine which scopes are accessible to users. The search box remains persistently available in the header, allowing users to initiate searches without interrupting their current workflow or navigating away from their tasks.

Search Widget on Boards

The search widget is another way to begin your search journey in Ichicraft Boards. While the search launched from the board header is also powered by the search widget, placing this widget directly on a board unlocks additional possibilities. The widget can be added to a board in three different variants, offering multiple ways for users to interact with and refine their search results, making it a highly versatile tool for accessing the information they need.

1. Recent Search Access: The widget includes a layout to directly access your recent searches, allowing users to revisit their previous queries quickly. When clicking on a recent search the search dialog is immediately opened and the results are presented.

2. Single-scope Search: The widget can be configured to focus on a specific scope, such as Azure DevOps. People Search or ServiceNow, making it an ideal entry point for users who need dedicated access to one particular system.

3. Multi-scope Search: Different scopes, such as People, Files, Knowledge Base, and News, can be toggled to view results specific to each data type. This option is especially useful if you want to make multiple scopes directly accessible without context switching. Results can be further refined using the filter menu located in the widget's header. This filter menu allows for narrowing down search results based on a variety of criteria.

Configurable Search Scopes (Admin feature)

Administrators can fully customize which search scopes are available to different user groups or roles, allowing for a more focused and relevant search experience. Through the admin center, Ichicraft Boards provides a variety of pre-defined search scope templates, including Files, News, People, Teams Messages, and Sites, among others.

Admins can also create custom search scopes that align with the specific needs of a department, role, or project.

Create and Edit Scopes (Admin Feature)

The Create Scope dialog in Ichicraft Boards allows administrators to customize search experiences for different teams or roles. Admins can name the scope, provide a description, and choose whether it should be part of the global "All" search, along with assigning an icon for easy identification.

Access can be managed by specifying which users or groups should see the scope, and the scope can be pushed to selected audiences by default.

Under Query Settings, admins can select a data source, define a query using Keyword Query Language (KQL), enable wildcard search, and apply initial filters to refine results automatically. They can also enable custom sorting for more specific results.

In the Filter Settings section, a filter menu can be added to let users refine searches further by applying predefined filters such as creation date, file type, or content type. Custom filters can also be created.

Edit Filter (Admin Feature)

As shown in the Edit Filter Panel below, admins can configure filters by assigning them specific property names and selecting the filter type. The following filter types are available:

• Aggregation
• Date Range
• Person
• Search Bar

Additionally, Ichicraft Boards supports filtering based on hierarchical term sets, which can be particularly useful for organizations that categorize information in a structured manner, such as by department or project type.

Fully Responsive Design for Search Across Devices

The search feature is fully responsive, ensuring that users can access their search results from any device, whether they are using a desktop, tablet, or mobile phone. This allows access to critical information on the go, helping employees stay productive no matter where they are.

Conclusion: Personalize and Optimize Your Workplace Search

The Ichicraft Boards Search Widget and the option to integrate search into the board header through Configuration Packages offer a powerful, customizable search solution tailored to the specific needs of every user within an organization. With features like multi-scope widgets, KQL-based filtering, custom search filters, and admin-controlled configurations, individuals can quickly and efficiently find exactly what they need.

We’re thrilled to announce that Ichicraft has officially achieved ISO 27001:2022 certification! This milestone means our commitment to top-tier information security is now globally recognized, ensuring our clients’ data is safer than ever.

What’s the Big Deal?

ISO 27001:2022 is the ultimate standard for information security. Achieving this certification shows we’ve got rock-solid systems in place to protect sensitive data and that we’re continuously improving to stay ahead of security challenges.

A Huge Thank You!

This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without our incredible team. They worked tirelessly to upgrade our security practices, undergo rigorous audits, and ensure we met the highest standards. We couldn’t have done it without them!

What’s Next?

We’re just getting started! With this certification in hand, we’re more committed than ever to keeping your data secure while continuing to innovate and grow. Thank you for trusting us on this journey—here’s to a safer future together! 🎉

At Ichicraft, we understand that effective management of digital tools is critical to optimizing workflow and productivity. Our latest enhancement to Ichicraft Boards introduces the ability to assign admin roles to specific widgets, offering a higher degree of control and flexibility within your digital workplace.

The Need for Granular Admin Control

Previously, the admin role in Ichicraft Boards was all-encompassing, meaning that a single admin was responsible for the entire board and all installed widgets. While functional, this setup often led to inefficiencies, particularly in larger organizations where different departments or teams manage different aspects of the board. The ability to assign admin roles to individual widgets was a much-requested feature, and we are excited to deliver this enhancement.

Widget-Specific Admin Roles: How It Works

The new feature allows board admins to delegate administrative responsibilities for specific widgets to designated users or groups. This functionality is accessible via the Widget Library, where admins can manage each widget's settings.

Steps to Assign a Widget Admin:

• Navigate to the Widget Library: From the admin center, select the "Widget library" option from the left-hand menu.

• Select a Widget: Choose the widget you wish to assign an admin to. In the example provided, we are looking at the "Apps" widget, a launcher for frequently used web applications.

• Manage Access: Within the widget's settings, locate the "Manage access" section on the right side of the screen.

• Assign an Admin: In the "Widget administrators" field, enter the name of the user or group you wish to assign as the admin for this specific widget.

• Save Changes: Ensure you save any changes made to apply the new admin settings.

Real-World Application

Imagine a scenario where your organization utilizes Ichicraft Boards for various purposes. The HR team might manage widgets related to employee onboarding and information, while the IT team oversees widgets for application access and technical support. With widget-specific admin roles, each team can configure and manage their own tools without interfering with each other, streamlining operations and improving workflow.

Reduced Admin Center for Widget Admins

Widget admins are granted access to a simplified admin center that exclusively provides entry to the admin widget library.

This focused interface ensures that widget admins can efficiently manage their designated widgets without the complexity of broader board administration tasks. Furthermore, widget admin configuration is easily accessible through the widget menu, which can be opened directly from the widget header, allowing for quick and straightforward adjustments.

Conclusion

The introduction of widget-specific admin roles in Ichicraft Boards marks a significant step forward in enhancing the flexibility and control of our platform. This feature empowers organizations to better manage their digital workplaces, ensuring that the right people have the right access at the right time.

We invite you to explore this new feature and see how it can benefit your organization. As always, our support team is available to assist with any questions or setup requirements. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to enhance the Ichicraft Boards experience.

We’re pleased to announce a significant update to Ichicraft Boards: the introduction of a multi-resolution setup guide for shared board owners. This new feature is designed to help you create and modify boards that look great on any device, ensuring a consistent user experience.

How It Works

When setting up a shared board, you can now access a menu that lets you switch between different resolutions, such as widescreen, laptop, tablet, and mobile. This allows you to preview and make necessary adjustments, ensuring your board is perfectly tailored for each screen size.

This update makes it easier for shared board owners to design boards that meet the needs of all users, regardless of the device they’re using. With this feature, you can maintain the visual integrity and functionality of your boards, enhancing the overall digital workplace experience.

Key Features:

• Switch between resolutions (widescreen, laptop, tablet, mobile)
• Preview and adjust layouts
• Ensure consistency across devices

Explore this new feature in Ichicraft Boards and see how it can transform your shared board setup process.

We’re pleased to unveil an enhancement to our Countdown Widget: the Count-Up feature! This new functionality allows you to count the days, hours, and minutes since a specific event, providing a powerful tool for tracking ongoing achievements and milestones.

How the Count-Up Feature Works

The Count-Up feature is perfect for various scenarios, such as motivating teams with safety records or celebrating continuous operational success. For instance, tracking the number of days without any incidents in a factory can boost morale and emphasize the importance of safety.

Example of a personal board showing the Countdown Widget now capable of counting up.

Easy to Set Up

Setting up the Count-Up feature is straightforward. Navigate to the Countdown Widget settings, and select the "Count-up" option from the Display type dropdown menu. Input the start date of the event you want to track. You can also customize the title, subtitle, and colors to match your organization's branding.

Example of the Countdown Widget configuration, showcasing how to set up the Count-Up feature.

Practical Applications

• Safety Records: Track the number of days without incidents in a factory.
• Project Timelines: Monitor the duration of ongoing projects.
• Operational Metrics: Measure continuous operational achievements.

Conclusion

The new Count-Up feature in the Countdown Widget is a powerful addition to Ichicraft Boards, enabling you to track and highlight significant milestones effectively. Whether you’re focusing on safety, project timelines, or operational success, this feature keeps your organization engaged and informed. Try out the Count-Up feature today and take your digital workplace to the next level!

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to enhance Ichicraft Boards with features that meet your needs.

P.S. – Who said a countdown can't go up? It's like watching your safety record soar to new heights every day! 🎉

Our latest update introduces Admin Configurable Filters for the People Search widget, giving you greater control over who appears in your search results.

How It Works

With Admin Configurable Filters, administrators now have the ability to exclude specific individuals from search results based on predefined criteria.

Here are a few example filters that can be applied:

• displayName: This is the user’s displayed name. For instance, if you apply the “Doesn’t contain” operator with the value “John”, all users whose display name includes “John” will be excluded from the results.
• userPrincipalName: This is the unique identifier for the user. If you apply the “Doesn’t begin with” operator with the value “admin”, all users whose principal name starts with “admin” will be excluded from the results.

In addition to displayName and userPrincipalName, it’s also possible to filter accounts based on Department, companyName, and jobTitle.

Note: By default, all disabled and guest accounts are filtered out from your search results. This means you’ll only see active, regular users in your search results, making it easier for you to find the people you’re looking for.

How to Get Started

Getting started with Admin Configurable Filters is easy:

1. Navigate to the People Search widget within Ichicraft Boards.
2. Access the widget admin configuration, where you can define your exclusion criteria. (only available for administrators).
3. Apply the filters, and instantly see the impact on your search results.

We're excited to see how this feature empowers you to find the right people quickly and efficiently within your digital workplace. As always, we value your feedback, so please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions, suggestions, or concerns.

Get ready for an even better experience with the latest enhancements to our App Launcher widget! We've been busy fine-tuning your digital workspace, and we're thrilled to introduce some significant improvements that will simplify how you access and interact with your apps.

New Layout Options

One of the most exciting enhancements is the introduction of new layout options. We understand that everyone has their own preferences when it comes to organizing and accessing their apps, so we're giving you even more flexibility. With the addition of a new List layout and a Compact spacing option, you now have four distinct ways to view your apps within the App Launcher.

Here’s a sneak peek at the four layouts:

User and administrator configuration

Whether you prefer the traditional Grid layout, the streamlined List layout, or something in between with the Compact layout spacing, you'll find the perfect setup to suit your needs. Plus, admins can set a default layout for consistency across your organization, while individual users have the freedom to customize their layout according to their personal preferences.

Here's how you can change the layout of your App Launcher:

Improved Fly-out Behavior

We’ve also revamped the behavior of the fly-out. It’s now considerably less intrusive but still displays more information about an application if available. The fly-out will only be displayed on the new information icon that appears when you hover over the app. This way, users unfamiliar with an application can dive into more details if needed.

Here’s how the new hover style looks:

We believe these updates will significantly enhance your experience with Ichicraft Boards. As always, we’re eager to hear your feedback. Let us know what you think!

We are thrilled to introduce the latest innovation in our personal digital workplace solution, Ichicraft Boards - the Marketplace Widget. Stay tuned as we delve into the exciting features of the new Marketplace Widget.

Marketplace on Your Digital Workplace

The Marketplace Widget allows companies to offer a Marketplace within their digital workplace. This feature transforms the workplace into a more engaging and social platform. For instance, employees can share books they’ve read, sell unused items, or even offer services like carpooling.

Dialog with all details

All adverts are clickable, opening a dialog with all the necessary information. For instance, if a colleague is selling a Nintendo Switch, clicking on the advert will display images of the Switch, a good description on what is on sale and provide a contact button to message the seller.

User-Friendly Advert Creation

With the new widget, users can create adverts directly. This feature simplifies the process of posting an advert. For example, an employee can quickly post an advert about selling a used office chair right from the widget.

Admin Actions on Adverts

Admins can check all adverts and, if needed, perform admin actions like editing or deleting adverts. This ensures that all content aligns with company policies and maintains a professional and respectful marketplace environment.

Advert Categories

Admins have the ability to create Advert Categories. This feature allows for better organization and easier navigation of the marketplace. For example, admins can create categories like ‘Books’, ‘Furniture’, or ‘Electronics’ to group similar adverts together.

💡How to Get Started:

Install the Marketplace Widget: If the MarketPlace Widget isn't available in your Widget Library, fear not! Simply follow these steps to add it:

• Navigate to Board Administration
• Select Widget Library
• Click on "Install Widget from Ichicraft."
• Find the Marketplace Widget and click "Install."

Once installed, the Marketplace Widget will be readily accessible for use within your organization.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the new Marketplace Widget is a significant enhancement to Ichicraft Boards. It not only adds a social aspect to the digital workplace but also promotes user engagement and interaction. We believe this feature will be a valuable addition to your digital workplace deployment.