News and Updates

Since we rolled out the new Good Idea Club online system in September of 2016 we've made a few tweaks here and there, but we plan to make some bigger changes in 2019 - many suggested by TeamMates using the program! Take a look at the list of pending improvements, and keep an eye out for their effects in the near future!

Phase 1 New Features - Q1 Rollout

• General Bug Fixes - Responding Manager Fields, Multiple Submissions, Calendar, etc.: These are quick fixes to how Responding Managers fill out responses to prevent fields from being missed; also included are fixes to prevent ideas from being submitted multiple times in a row due to button presses, and improvements to the calendar redirect system, among others.
• Anonymous Good Idea Feature: Requested several times, this will allow TeamMates to submit their idea with annonymity to other TeamMates and Responding Managers.
• Responding Manager Reports: Currently available as a bi-weekly email report delivered to Responding Managers, this will move the functionality to the website allowing records to be retrieved whenever needed.
• Additional Email Notifications: To improve Responding Manager response times to "Considering" and "In Development" ideas, new emails will go out in advance these suggestions being late. Faster responses = faster implementation = faster rewards!
• Ability to Gift Rewards to Others: In the future, when you purchase a reward, you will have the option to gift it to another TeamMate, cutting out the middle-man and getting awards done faster.
• Ability for Users to Reset Passwords: An often requested feature will be implemented for a TeamMate to easily reset their password when it is forgotten.
• Idea Status on Forum Page: Currently you can only see the "Acceptance" status (whether or not a suggestion is counted as a "Good Idea" for the Monthly Drawing), and the "Implementation Status" is only visible in your list of ideas. The new improvement will list this information on the idea page as well.
• Board List by Department: A new feature will display submitted ideas in separate "Boards" for each department. Each TeamMate will automatically load into the board based on whatever department they’re in, however, there would be a link back to the board list, so you can view the ideas for other departments as well, along with an “All Departments” board that would still list every idea.
• Manager "Highlight" Comment Feature: We are adding an option for Responding Managers to “Highlight” another user’s comments in an idea they’re responding to. This would indicate that the comment helped them make their decision and would tie this to a single coin reward to the commenting TeamMate. Use your voice and get rewarded!
• Copy Others on Idea Response: A feature from our previous Lotus Notes version of the Good Idea Club, this will allow Responding Managers to copy others on a response for communication, follow-up, etc.
• Add Attachment to Response: Requested by the Responding Managers, in order to provide more detailed responses, they will now be able to add files to their response.
• Comment Visibility on Forum Main Page: Replacing the "Votes" column on the forum main page, this will total the number of comments an idea has received instead of number of votes. Votes will still be visible inside the idea, but comments provide a better indicator of TeamMate debate.
• Search by Tags: In addition to general bug fixes improving the search efficacy, there will now be an option to search and filter ideas by their tags.
• Images for Calendar: The calendar will now include new icons for each event to add a visual representation to the event.
• Larger Reassignment Button: Some ideas are missed just because they don't make it to the right Responding Manager in time. To help them out, the button used to reassign ideas to other Responding Managers will be made bigger and brighter!
• Form to Email TeamMate Referrals: We will replace the current format for the TeamMate Referral program with an online version that doesn't require an email client (currently our kiosks and public company computers cannot be used for referrals because of this reason).

Phase 2 New Features - Q2 Rollout (More Details Later)

• President’s Award Nomination Module
• Good Idea Club Mobile-Exclusive Features
• Kaizen Card Module
• Kiosk Auto-Login via Employee FOB

If you have any questions or comments, just get a hold of me!

Thank you,

Zack Dickerson - Operational Excellence Engineer
Whirley-DrinkWorks!
Ph: 814-723-7600 x1170/1173
Web: www.WhirleyDrinkWorks.com