Share the Enhancement Database.....

Al_NN4ZZ

Share the Enhancement Database..... I've seen several references like "that's in the enhancement database." Every time I see that I wonder what else is captured there. It would be helpful if the database (or an extracted list) was made available to the community. It would let folks know their idea is already captured and it would reduce some repetition. There shouldn't be a concern of unrealistic expectations if the list is prefaced with a few caveats. - these are ideas not commitments - there should be no expectation that every idea will be pursued - there should be no expectation of a specific release date Some added benefits - users could reference a particular idea by number add comments about it directly or by posting to the community - if the list was in a database or interactive format, users could vote - FRS could consider the users input in prioritizing features (Customers really like this!) - FRS could comment when an idea sounds good but is not feasible I don't see a native database or polling feature in the community structure like some of other forums have but think it could still be managed. What do you think? Regards, Al / NN4ZZ

Tim - W4TME

Al, All reasonable or innovative ideas that are generated by Flexers, our product management and our engineering team get put into a database for future consideration. Everything entered gets considered, but not everything will be a candidate for inclusion in SmartSDR. Obviously the idea has to have global appeal and value before it receives serious consideration. We do not have a way of providing selective user access into our software development management system and probably will not since a lot of the information contained in this database is considered company intellectual property. But we want user input and discussion about possible new features and enhancements and that is one reason why we started the community. You can start a new "Idea" topic and community users comment and can vote for it by clicking on the button beside the "X Person Likes this Idea" text. People are already doing this and the information collected in the community will be used for evaluating new feature candidates in upcoming releases of SmartSDR.

Al_NN4ZZ

Tim, Thanks for the reply....I figured you wouldn't want to provide access to your internal database for the reasons you mentioned. That's why I also suggested the option to provide an extracted list. We used to do the same thing, the report (or list) was automatically extracted and emailed to a Lotus Notes conference (similar to the community forum) for the users to review. It's usually pretty easy to write a SQL query that selects specific rows (i.e. enhancement records you want to share). The query can limit the result set to specific columns (the data about a record you want to share such as title, description, or the number of votes if you are keeping track of that). Another nice thing about an automated query is you can test it and verify it is sharing only what you want to share and not any of the proprietary columns. You are probably already aware of these capabilities and I'll bet your DEV team uses something like this now but I figured I'd summarize it anyway. It really would be nice to share a "customer facing" list with everyone so folks could see all of the enhancements in one place rather than searching through the posts to find what has been requested. It might not seem too tedious now but once there are thousands of posts here it won't be so easy. Does this address the concerns? Regards, Al / NN4ZZ