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Best practice guide to launching Glasscubes
Best practice guide to launching Glasscubes

Set up, configure and launch your platform with ease

Updated over a week ago

Who is this for?

This guide is designed to help new Glasscubes Administrators like yourself, set-up, configure and launch their platform with ease. It’s a step-by-step guide to ensure that you have considered all of the options available to you. It also provides best practice advice, based on the experience we’ve gained on-boarding 1,000’s of clients with challenges similar to your own.

Glasscubes simplifies the way businesses share files, manage projects and communicate with each other. On the surface the interface is very simple and intuitive to use. However the platform is incredibly versatile and there are several things to consider before launching it to your users.

It’s crucial that you give new users a good first experience of the platform, as this will encourage future adoption. Unfortunately, you only get one chance to make a good first impression, don’t waste it.

What skills do I need?

If you can surf the web, you can configure Glasscubes. There is no technical knowledge required.

If you have any questions or need some assistance please contact us. We also have support pages that can be accessed from your account if you prefer.

Configuration fundamentals

Glasscubes offers an extremely comprehensive suite of tools and can be configured in countless ways.

The most important piece of advice that we offer new clients is, ‘if there are features that you aren’t going to use immediately, remove them’. The rationale behind this is to keep the interface as clean and uncluttered as possible.

Leaving functionality in the platform that isn’t going to be used will only confuse new users. If you are unsure whether a feature is going to be used or not, remove it. It can easily be introduced later after users have had an opportunity to become familiar with the core functionality of the platform.

Your workspace structure

Fundamentally, Glasscubes is a platform that contains secure workspaces. Each workspace will have its own distinct purpose and select group of users. It’s a good idea to decide from the outset how you will structure your workspaces, so that you can clearly communicate the purpose of each workspace when you invite users to join the platform. 

Workspace templates

If you regularly need to create workspaces with the same content, you can create workspace templates to expedite the process. Populate the template with users, folders/files, tasks, discussions and calendar entries. Then create your workspace in seconds.

Grouping workspaces

If you are using lots of workspaces, you may want to create workspace groups to help organise them. Groups can be expanded and collapsed by users, making it easier to navigate large lists of workspaces.

User permissions

If you only have a few users to add to your platform, it is very straight forward and there’s no need to document their permissions beforehand. We recommend sending the initial invitations from Settings>User management. Click here for more information.

To administer larger groups of users it can be useful to create a spreadsheet that has the following column headings.

  • User – The users email address which will become their username to login.

  • Administrator – Will the user have Administrator rights?

  • Invite new users – Give permission Yes or No?

  • My Tasks – Allow access Yes or No?

After creating the above columns add a column per workspace. Then populate which permission level each user should be allocated to that workspace, using the following codes, WO (Workspace Owner), CO (Contributor), CC (Can Comment), RO (Read Only) or left blank if they shouldn’t have access.

If you are adding large quantities of users that have the same access rights you will find it much easier to administer them in groups. To do this you assign them a team. A team of users will all have access to the same workspaces and share the same level of permissions. If you need to make changes to their permissions you can do that at team level without having to change each individual.

External users

If you plan to invite users to your account that are external to your own organisation e.g. suppliers, partners or clients, you should consider the following:

  • Make sure that the company Dashboard messaging is suitable for external guests. Alternatively, if you have an Enterprise subscription you can use the Extranet User Management feature.

  • We recommend creating specific workspaces that are used as extranet portals for external users.

Branding & Customisation

We understand the importance of promoting your brand and realise that it should be reflected in everything you do. It’s easy to customise your account, workspaces and communications to promote yourself, rather than us. In addition to this, our Enterprise Edition can be totally white labelled, creating added value by promoting Glasscubes as an extension of your organisation's own technology.

TIP: Give your platform a name that users can identify with. Then only refer to it by that name e.g. The Hub, The Loop, The Vine etc.

Here are some of our branding options. Please contact our Customer Success Team if you need any assistance with this, we have a free design service that’s available to all clients.

  • Account branding – Add your logo and brand colours, edit your dashboard header banner and add your company messaging.

  • Workspace customisation – Each workspace has several components, About, Discussions, Files, Tasks, Calendars and Members. Each workspace should only contain the elements that are needed.

  • Workspace branding – Add a welcome message, header image and contact details. Each workspace can be branded and tailored to the group of people or project it contains.

  • Update your profile – Add your picture, contact details and update the 'About me' section.

  • Quick links – Add quick links to sites that you want to link to. Links can be added to your dashboard banner and also the drop down list from your profile icon on the top navigation bar.

  • Populate the update/news feed – This is the perfect place to publish news and updates. Consider making an announcement to welcome new users to the platform. It will appear in a colourful card, to the right of your dashboard activity feed.

  • My stuff (optional) – This page is dedicated to your work and is tailored to each user. Including actions that require your attention, calendar events for the week ahead and any tasks that have been created or assigned to you, regardless of the workspace they originate from.

Other account configuration

  • Password control – Set the minimum required password length, at least one number and on letter is required. You can also enforce how often users must change their passwords.

  • Adding a disclaimer – You have the option of adding a disclaimer that every user must accept when joining the platform.

Final preparation before launch

The final step is to decide who the initial invitation is going to be sent by. Ideally it should be sent by the most Senior Stakeholder. Whoever it is, make sure that they have uploaded a profile picture. It makes the invitation more personal and encourages other users to add their profile information. Also, add a personalised message to the invitations. Explain to the user what business challenge the platform is going to help them with and why it’s been employed.

Post launch

Try to engage with users during the early days. You can do this by updating the news feed regularly, make company or workspace announcements/polls or post new discussions.

  • After 14 days send out a poll to members asking for their initial feedback on the platform.

  • After 21 days send a reminder invitation to anyone that hasn’t accepted yet. Automated reminders are sent 7 days and 14 days after the first invites are sent,

Additional application

  • Desktop Connect - This free application makes it much quicker to open, edit and save files directly back into your account.

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