One of the advantages of a cloud-based application is that product improvements can be streamed to customers in frequent and regular intervals.
In the case of Blueprint we tend to put out a new release every 6-8 weeks. But just because the updates come regularly doesn’t mean that they’re all equal, some releases are bigger than others. The Spring ’09 release that went live over the weekend is definitely one of our biggest. (BTW: In case you’re wondering what’s up with the tiger above, following our code name schema –an alphabetic listing of cheesy 80′s bands — this release was code named: Survivor.)
What’s the Big Idea?
The idea behind Blueprint has always been to provide a tool that was easy-to-use and collaborative so that the people actually involved in a process, as opposed to just the process ninjas who could work the complicated tools, could contribute directly to the documenting and improving of their process. With Saturday’s release, however, we’ve taken these concepts “to 11.”
Participants
To make Blueprint available to an even wider audience, we have introduced a “Participant” view. Unlike the “Author” view that allows users to create, edit and comment on processes, the participant view presents the user with read-only views that they can annotate and comment on.
The number bubbles on the boxes let viewers know the number of comments on each step.
The new participant licenses are perfect for taking Blueprint beyond your organizational walls to partners and suppliers who are integral to your processes and can give you valuable feedback on how they are actually working, or not working, as the case may be. The participant view also works well within your org for those people who may not have the time to map or edit a process but have the time and knowledge to give feedback.
Getting Social (er)
Although Blueprint has featured built-in IM chat since its beginning, we have borrowed more from the world of Social Media for the latest release. As soon as you login, you’ll notice that like Facebook, you are presented with a list of those processes that you are associated with that have been published, changed or commented on.
This new Activity Feed helps you to discover relationships between what you do and the rest of the company. Now you’ll know when something changes two steps upstream from you that will affect your job, or that the person in the next building over does something similar that you leverage.
Back to the Big Idea
With Saturday’s release, now more than ever, Blueprint takes the practice of process from the hands of the few and spreads it through out your and your partners’ organizations. It in effect becomes the central communication platform for collecting, sharing and improving how work gets done in your organization.
But don’t take my word for it, sign up for a free 30-day trial and see for yourself. 
Learn More
To learn more about this new release, check out Blueprint Product Manager Dave Marquard’s details of the new features or watch the 38-minute webinar and Q&A.
Pau for now…
Posted by Barton George 
