Release Notes: Version 7.77

Version 7.77 of the EchoSpan platform will be released on January 16th, 2021. This release includes a number of enhancements to our reporting and development resources, as well as security features and other updates to the administrative tool. As always, new features for the platform are included at no additional cost in their respective EchoSpan editions.

Brief summaries of each update are included below. Once the release is published, we'll make additional documentation on each of these items available in the product guides. You can also sign up for a live session to review the new features with one of our client managers on Tuesday, January 26th at 2pm ET , or Thursday, January 28th at 9:30am ET .

Thank you to all of the program administrators who offered suggestions and feedback that helped us identify these enhancement opportunities. We're grateful for the perspective that you offer in continually improving the EchoSpan platform!

7.77 Release Highlights

(P= Professional Edition, E = Enterprise Edition, A = All Editions, EE = Employee Engagement)

Reporting and Development Enhancements

Rater Group Merging (E): administrators can now combine the results from multiple relationship groups if any of those groups do not meet a designated minimum number of responses. When the results are combined, they will appear in a unique relationship group that can be set to only appear in the report if the rater group merging rules are triggered.

Managerial Export (E): when managers are granted access to generate PDF reports for their direct reports from their dashboards, the project can also be configured by EchoSpan admins to allow managers to download an excel file with the scores and comments for all of their direct reports in the system, based on the hierarchy or managerial rater assignments.

Reading Suggestions and Action Guide Logic (P,E): we've enhanced the Recommended Reading Suggestions and Development Plan Action Guides report components with settings that enable the administrator to select the logic that will be used to identify the resources that are pulled into reports. Resources can be identified based on the highest or lowest rated competencies, blind spots or hidden strengths, or competencies that are scored above or below the benchmark scores for the project.

Development Plan Auto-Population Setting (P,E): we've also updated the Development Planning module with a setting that enables the admin to determine the logic for identifying development items when a user populates the plan automatically. The items may be pulled in based on the highest and lowest rated items or based on the blind spots and hidden strengths.

Security Enhancements

Single Sign On with Local Login Password Replacement (E): this feature enables administrators to send email messages containing their custom SSO link, as well as local login credentials that might be necessary for external raters that aren't included in the employee database. The system will reference the employee directory and automatically hide local login password from showing in email messages for database employees who should be accessing the tool via SSO.

Single Sign On Link for Auditors (E): when a project is configured to route a target's rater list to an auditor for approval, the system will remove the local login URL from auditor summary messages, when the auditor is verified in the user database.

Report Download Security Setting (P,E): administrators can now require targets or managers to be logged into the tool in order to download and access reports that are distributed via email.

Other Updates

Multiple Choice Pie Chart Indexing (EE)

Revised Report Distribution Options (P,E)

How to Upgrade

Once released, the version 7.77 update is automatically applied to any new, blank projects you create. You can also update an existing project by opening the project and clicking Upgrade Project in the top right of the project's homepage. This option will only be visible if an update is available for that project. Upgrades are available to clients without existing customizations. Note that if you clone a project that uses an older version of code, the new project will also be based on the older code and require a manual update.

As always, we appreciate your feedback on our product and services. Please remember that we offer a question and answer session each week that is an open forum for customer questions. One of our Senior Client Service Managers leads the interactive session and will address any product questions you have. You can sign up for these recurring weekly sessions below:

https://www.echospan.com/qa.asp

Thank you for choosing EchoSpan for your employee feedback and review needs!