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UNICOM®
Systems, Inc. has announced the release of Focal
Point version 7.6.1. Focal Point is a comprehensive
portfolio planning solution that
market-driven teams can use to make
collaborative, objective decisions to deliver
products, projects and services while offering the
highest customer and business value. Focal Point
reduces the complexity of managing information
from various sources such as emails, documents
and spreadsheets and provides a collaborative
centralized environment for requirements,
products and project data.
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Focal Point 7.6.1 - What's new in
this release? |
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Focal Point version 7.6.1 brings significant enhancements focused on bolstering security, refining access management, enhancing search functionality, and improving the overall user experience and navigation.
Here are some of the major upgrades in this release:
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Global Search |
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In Focal Point, data is organized into multiple workspaces, each acting as an independent cluster of information with limited interaction between them. Traditionally, users needed to log into individual workspaces to complete their daily tasks.
Focal Point version 7.6.1 introduces the new Global Search feature, which enhances how users search for information. Here are the key aspects of the Global Search feature:
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Multi-Workspace Search: Users can perform searches across all configured workspaces from a single page, eliminating the need to search each workspace individually. |
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Configurable Inclusion: Only workspaces with the "Global Search" setting enabled in their configuration will be included in the global search results. |
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Grouped Results: Search results are grouped by workspace and view, making it easy to locate and identify relevant information. |
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With Global Search, Focal Point 7.6.1 significantly enhances the ability to quickly find and access information across the entire database, improving productivity and user satisfaction.
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Quick Links |
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Ease of locating data is crucial for users working with multiple workspaces and views. Focal Point 7.6.1 addresses this need with the introduction of the 'Quick Links' feature.
Key features of the Quick Links functionality include:
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User-Created Links: Users can create and maintain their own quick links, storing URLs to any Focal Point resource, such as homepages, display views, add views, and individual elements. Quick links can be given convenient names for easy identification and use. |
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Centralized Menu: The 'Quick Links' menu in the main user interface lists all quick links, grouped by the workspaces they belong to, providing a centralized navigation tool. Clicking on any quick link will take the user directly to the respective resource, streamlining access and improving efficiency. |
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Sharing Capability: Users can share their personal quick links with other users or user roles, promoting collaboration and making commonly used resources more accessible. |
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By incorporating the Quick Links feature, Focal Point 7.6.1 significantly enhances navigation and ease of use, enabling users to quickly access their most frequently used resources across multiple workspaces and fostering better collaboration.
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Default Login Action |
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To enhance the user experience, Focal Point 7.6.1 introduces the ability to define a default login action for each user. This user preference setting allows users to specify their landing page upon logging into Focal Point.
The available options for this preference setting include: |
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Choose the homepage of the last logged-in workspace as the landing page. |
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Choose the homepage of any workspace as the landing page. |
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Choose a display view from any workspace as the landing page. |
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By offering these options, Focal Point ensures that users can quickly access their most relevant workspace or view, improving efficiency and user satisfaction.
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Automatic User Roles Management |
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Access management is more critical than ever in today's environment to reduce identity access risks. Previously, user administration and access management required dedicated support from an experienced Focal Point administrator. Focal Point version 7.6.1 enhances automatic access management capabilities, reducing administrative efforts and security risks.
Key features of this enhancement include: |
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LDAP Integration: LDAP group information of users is now regularly synchronized with Focal Point. |
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Role and Permission Automation: The synchronized LDAP group information is used to automatically assign roles and permissions within different workspaces, ensuring appropriate access controls. |
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By automating user role management and integrating with LDAP, Focal Point version 7.6.1 ensures efficient, consistent, and secure access control.
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Copy Filter Across Views |
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Filters provide a quick and easy way to work with a subset of elements and attributes in a view, making them essential for users in their daily tasks. Focal Point version 7.6.1 introduces the ability to copy existing filters to multiple views within the same module.
Key features of this enhancement include: |
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Copy Existing Filters: Users can now duplicate filters across various views within the same module, streamlining their workflow and ensuring uniformity. |
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Global Filter Application: Administrators can create pre-defined global filters and apply them to multiple views, further improving efficiency and consistency. |
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By enabling the copying of filters across views, Focal Point 7.6.1 significantly enhances the user experience and operational consistency.
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Miscellaneous Enhancements |
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Focal Point version 7.6.1 introduces several miscellaneous enhancements to improve functionality and user experience: |
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SMTP Server Authentication: Users can now specify SMTP server authentication details directly in the SMTP settings page, enhancing email configuration options. |
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System Performance Monitoring: A new REST endpoint is provided to monitor system-level performance in Focal Point. This endpoint reports resource utilization and information about online users, aiding in system management and optimization. |
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Background Jobs Enhancement: The 'Background Jobs' feature now includes support for Module export/import functionality, allowing for seamless management of data across the platform. |
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LDAP Integration Enhancement: LDAP integration is enhanced to enable the creation of new users in Focal Point, even for SAML-based authentication setups, ensuring compatibility and flexibility in user management. |
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These enhancements contribute to a more robust and efficient Focal Point system, addressing various user needs and improving overall performance.
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Focal Point, along with System Architect®,
is a key player in the Enterprise Architecture
and Product Portfolio Management domains while
helping customers make strategic decisions at
the enterprise level and provide increased
business value at delivery. Additionally, UNICOM
has the Universal Gateway (UniGW®),
a management dashboard designed to provide
real-time views into operational business
performance that will complement Focal Point.
This approach enables strategic decision making
and correlates the massive amount of data
erupting from new technologies such as big data,
video analysis and IOT.
To request this new release of Focal
Point, please log in or register on the UNICOM
Customer Portal, or email to focalpoint.support@unicomsi.com.
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At UNICOM, our commitment is to ensure that
ongoing research and development continue for
all UNICOM software solutions and to maintain
the highest standards of technical support for
you, our customers.
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