Last Updated: July 29 2024
Simpro Product Portal
Overview
Over the years, ideas and feedback from Simpro’s clients have been instrumental in keeping our products relevant and useful in an evolving industry.
We receive a lot of valuable feedback from our users around the world submitting feature ideas to our Simpro Product Portal every day. While we would love to respond to and implement as many changes as we can, we sometimes need to say ‘no’ more than we would like.
We want to be transparent about how we keep up with and action this feedback, which is why our Product Team has answered a few questions you may have about how Simpro prioritises, reviews, and implements the great ideas submitted and supported by the Simpro community.
While all of the ideas submitted to the old Ideas Portal have been exported and retained by the Simpro Product team, the previous Ideas Portal is no longer accessible from Simpro Premium or the URL.
Product Development Approach Shift
The Product Portal brings a new proactive approach to product development. While continuing to gather customer ideas, the Product team will now be able to better understand impact, detect themes and identify trends at scale based on a feedback and rating system. We are thankful to our customers for adding over 6,000 ideas to the previous Ideas Portal, however the experience in product development with this system was reactive; solving problems one at a time. Now with the Product Portal, we will be able elevate single ideas in a strategic manner with the objective of developing solutions and delivering tools to enhance customer business growth outcomes.
Every submission will be reviewed and we will publish the most impactful ideas after analysis, looking for themes and trends to scale, and then we will gather further feedback from customers, as with other items on the Product Portal. Submitted ideas may change in scope to encompass or broaden the original idea, thus when looking for your idea to appear it may not look the same. We value every idea, every idea contributes to the improvement and development of our products.
To access the Product Portal you must be logged into Simpro Premium. Hover over Help in the System menu and click Product Portal.
If you share the link to the product portal, it is only accessible if the user it’s shared to is also logged into the same Simpro Premium build. If you attempt to access the Product Portal while not logged in, or attempt to access the portal using a link from another Simpro Premium build, you will receive a 404 error message and the page cannot be reached.
Before you submit a new idea to the Simpro Product Portal, make sure you:
- Check the Simpro Release Notes to see if your idea is due to be rolled out as a feature in the most recent release update.
- Ensure a version of your idea isn't already under consideration. Learn more in How can I view existing ideas?
- Show support by leaving feedback for an idea if it is similar to the one you wanted to submit. Alternatively, add more value to the existing idea by commenting with enquiries or further input. Learn more in How do I show support for an idea?
Feature ideas can be submitted from the roadmap on the Simpro Product Portal. Roadmaps are organised based on the Simpro range of products. You can view the roadmap when you access the Simpro Product Portal.
To submit an idea:
- In Simpro Premium, go to Help > Product Portal.
- Click Submit idea.
- In the Submit new idea pop-up window, explain your idea under What would you like to be able to do? How would that help you? text box.
- Describe the outcome or goal of the proposed feature, and then provide extra context with use cases or scenarios.
- Remember to contain your idea to one topic, rather than packing in several ideas in one submission. Refer to the Simpro Product Portal contribution guidelines to ensure your idea contributes to a welcoming and collaborative product portal environment.
- Under How important is this to you? select from NOT IMPORTANT, NICE-TO-HAVE, IMPORTANT or CRITICAL based on your requirements.
- Enter an email address to associate with your idea.
- Click Submit.
- You will need to verify the email address provided for your idea to be submitted. You will then receive an email to complete this process after which your idea will be sent to the Product Team.
If you have an idea to improve how you use Simpro Premium, you can submit an idea in the Product Portal for the Simpro Product Team to review and consider for future releases.
While we aim to implement the most popular requests, there are several important factors we need to consider when determining which features to develop, including:
Client feedback | Our product owners, trainers and support staff regularly communicate with Simpro users and share their feedback with the Product Team. |
Industry expertise | We regularly engage industry experts to advise us on changing trends as well as legislation in the industries we operate in. |
In-product feedback | We test specific features before and during product development by providing some clients with access to Beta programs and engaging with focus groups. |
Technical feasibility | We only consider projects that are technically feasible and do not impair the performance of the software. As an example, sending unnecessarily large attachments may impair the speed of a mobile device. |
Product strategy | Our product strategy is the foundation of our product plan and determines many of our product decisions. For example, at Simpro we have decided to focus on the electrical, plumbing, HVAC, data, security, solar and fire industries. |
Because of the above factors, we will also continue to work on features requested through channels other than those submitted in the Product Portal.
We will also continue to implement other small but significant changes for continuous improvement of our solutions. Remember, while a new feature may not initially provide much value to your business, it can dramatically improve the user experience for many other businesses using Simpro Premium.
Roadmaps are organised based on the Simpro range of products. Access the relevant roadmap in the Simpro Product Portal, as required.
Any information communicated through the Product Roadmap is intended for information purposes only and is subject to change, due to:
- Changing client needs
- Features being more complex than initially anticipated.
For this reason, we only publish the ideas under consideration, in progress or planned.
When considering purchasing Simpro products, we recommend making these purchasing decisions based on existing features and not features planned for the future.
- If an idea is being considered for implementation it is listed in the UNDER CONSIDERATION tab of the roadmap. You can click the features to leave feedback and indicate how important they are to your business. Learn more in Leave feedback and rate ideas.
- Check the Simpro Release Notes to see if your idea has already been developed and released. Look out for the icon to view ideas suggested by your fellow users that were reviewed and developed into the final product.
You can only access the Product Portal through your Simpro Premium build, but you can still post ideas for Simpro Mobile, eForms, Simtrac, or integrations with Simpro Premium.
The Product Team regularly reviews all ideas and will typically watch those with more feedback and those that have been rated with higher importance closely.
This allows us to prioritise and develop the ideas deemed the most crucial by the Simpro community, providing they correspond with Simpro’s product strategy. Learn more in Leave feedback and rate ideas and How does Simpro choose which ideas to develop?
To rate an idea:
- In Simpro Premium, go to Help > Product Portal.
- Navigate to the UNDER CONSIDERATION, PLANNED or IN PROGRESS tab and click the required feature.
- Under How important is this to you?, select NOT IMPORTANT, NICE-TO-HAVE, IMPORTANT or CRITICAL to rate an idea.
- You can then enter your feedback or comment, as required in the Why do you need this? text box.
- Enter an email to associate the feedback with and click Submit.
- A verification email is sent to your email address that must be actioned before the rating or feedback is posted.
We appreciate the energy and passion of Simpro Premium users in developing Simpro solutions that help you achieve success.
To ensure the Product Portal remains a welcoming and collaborative environment, we encourage you to observe the following contribution guidelines:
- Contain ideas to one submission each, rather than packing several ideas into one submission.
- No obscene, indecent, hateful, offensive, defamatory, abusive, harassing, or profane material.
- No spam, advertisements, or otherwise inappropriate comments or ideas.
- No personal attacks. Effective collaboration comes from courteous, respectful, and engaged communication.
Simpro reserves the right to suspend or remove comments or subscribers that do not adhere to the contribution guidelines.
If your business requires a solution that has not yet been developed, you may wish to consider the following alternatives:
- If the feature is business-critical, you may wish to speak to our Sales team about potential customisation work for your Simpro Premium build. Learn more in Customisation FAQs.
- You can get in touch with your local Simpro Professional Services Team using the contact details below to discuss your business needs and potentially find alternative solutions or workarounds within Simpro Premium.
Australia |
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1300 139 467 (Free call) +61 7 3147 8777 |
professionalservices@simpro.com.au |
New Zealand |
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0800 100 854 (Free call) +64 9 8010 445 |
professionalservices@simpro.co.nz |
United Kingdom |
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0800 622 6376 (Free call) +44 203 137 4580 |
professionalservices@simpro.co.uk |
United States |
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+1 855 338 6041 |
professionalservices@simpro.us |