CM is feature-rich, and our staff are client focused. Read on for the definitive list as to why CM should be your choice.
Our Software – Overview
How many users can I have?
You can have an unlimited number of users. We do not charge on the number of users in your system and it has been designed so as many users as you need can access CM simultaneously.
How many Projects can I have?
You can have an unlimited number of Projects within your CM Enterprise system.
Is document storage free?
In an Enterprise system, you can store as many documents as you want for free.
How do you charge?
We charge on the number of records in your system. This means that you only pay for your use of the system. Total records are the count of all main entities in the system: Stakeholders, Properties, Team Members, Events, Actions and Documents.
How can my team access CM?
CM is a cloud-based platform that is accessible across multiple web browsers including Internet Explorer, Apple Safari, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. No software needs to be installed at your end to access CM. You can also access CM in the field using both iOS and Android apps.
Our Software – Detail
Customisable Platform
Your CM system can be customised to suit your needs. Given this ability though, you will most likely find that it will handle everything you need ‘as is’. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, CM is established software, having been around now for over ten years, and secondly, CM was developed in conjunction with Stakeholder Management Professionals, who fed into CM all their hopes and dreams, well not really, but all their stakeholder management needs anyway.
Private Website and Isolated Database
Your CM Enterprise will be accessible from its own web address and have its own dedicated database, isolated from our other clients, giving you peace of mind.
Single or multiple Project login
In real time you can log into one, many, or all Projects in your CM Enterprise system. So, if you want to see what your Stakeholders have said about a single Project, you can. Or, if you want to see what they have said about your entire organisation, you can.
View, edit and report on a Stakeholder’s details in a single screen
Understand your Stakeholders. The Stakeholder profile shows on a single page and includes the Stakeholder’s personal details as well as related interactions (events), properties, documents, Stakeholder groups and actions. Multiple Stakeholder profiles can be open at any one time for easy viewing, reporting or editing allowing for astonishingly quick response times.
Represent Stakeholder data across broad profiles or groups
CM allows for tracking of any Stakeholder across one or multiple Stakeholder groups. A Stakeholder can be linked to new groups as Projects or business needs evolve over time.
CM supports evolving business and Project needs
CM Enterprise is an unlimited Project, unlimited user and unlimited document storage model combined with world-class Account Management and Support. Create as many Projects and add different users as your organisation needs evolve and change, in most cases without paying a cent more.
Cater for confidential Stakeholders
The Stakeholder entity by default is a global entry (across all Projects) as generally Stakeholder interest spans greater than a single Project. However, the interactions (events) specific to that Stakeholder are confidential and are restricted to the related Project/s. Where a Stakeholder may be considered sensitive, the Stakeholder information can be privatised in the system and refined to a specific confidential Project.
Cater for confidential Projects
A lot of our clients have one or more top secret Projects that are to be accessed by just a handful of staff. CM handles this easily. Access to any Project is driven by the Team Members added to it and the individual permissions given to them by your Enterprise Administrator. If a Team Member isn’t added to a Project, it won’t show in their Project list and they won’t even know the Project exists in the database.
As many Team Members as you want with different permissions on each Project
There are various levels of user access that can be given. A user can have different access levels across different Projects in your system. For example; on a ‘strategic corporate’ Project read only access may be sufficient, however on another ‘program delivery’ Project read-write access may be required. And if a user isn’t given access to a particular Project that Project won’t appear in their menu at all.
Your other offices can have access, your home-based staff, and even consultants
CM is cloud-based and a collaborative system. If you span a number of offices, have staff working from home, or work closely with other organisations, you can set logins up for everyone.
CM ensures that critical deadlines are kept, and nothing falls through the cracks
Stay on top of everything. The Action entity in CM allows users to keep on top of any actionable items. Actions have an inbuilt notification system to ensure that all items are closed out prior to their deadline. This stops critical issues from falling through the cracks. The time taken to complete Actions is tracked if you have the need to report on KPI’s and reporting provides an overview on what’s completed and what remains outstanding.
Powerful, multilevel searching
Ask for a demo on this. Our search allows you to keep questioning, to dive deep through your data, layer after layer and dredge up the results. This allows you to answer critical questions fast. Say you are on an infrastructure Project and you feel that a critical issue is surfacing more and more frequently in a particular suburb amongst a certain group of Stakeholders. You can search on that issue, then add a time period, say a month, then drill down to the suburb, and then finally add that Stakeholder group to your search… getting exactly the results you are looking for.
Saved search
Have regular reports or lists you want to run? Simply save the search for next time.
Dashboard – information at your fingertips
Staying on top of everything is easy with CM’s dashboard. Project statistics, event and action calendars, quick training videos, support and quick links, they are all here.
Flexible data linking
Link anything to anything. It sounds strange when you say it, but it’s the key to just how powerful CM is. For example, linking a Stakeholder to a meeting and then to a document with the notes of that meeting, and then to the other Stakeholders attending the meeting and the issues raised in that meeting gives you a full history trail of everything that occurred. And this is then easily outputted in CM’s reports.
Flexible categorisation
You create your own categories for everything, so CM is customised to suit your situation. Don’t worry, we’ll assist you with this. We’ll help you set up Stakeholder groups, event types, issue categories etc. It’s easy, and it all makes sense.
Duplicate data sensing
As you enter fresh information into CM its smart tools stay on top of everything, warning you that you may be entering duplicates, and if you do…please see the next point…
Duplicate data merging
If you do, then you can quickly take care of that with intuitive data merging tools, so you can easily keep your database clean. And if you need any assistance with any of this, we are right on the end of the phone.
Data cloning
A real time-saver, you can easily clone anything in CM if you are entering multiple variations of the one entity.
Sentiment field
Capture the mood. This is a widely requested option within CM enabling you to track the tone of the particular event or engagement.
CM works with your email client, integrating it seamlessly
If you use Microsoft Outlook, and Word and Excel for that matter, you can install our Microsoft Office toolkit. Once this toolset is installed, a CM icon is added to Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook integrating them seamlessly into CM. This allows you to upload emails, documents and spreadsheets directly into CM without having to leave your desktop or even open CM. And if Lotus Notes is used, we have a plugin for this as well.
IOS and Android Apps for Mobile Devices
Access Consultation Manager data while in the field, view and send documents, access maps and street views of properties, and even use voice to text to enter data while on the move. You can even use CM to guide you to your next appointment and review any interactions you’ve had to date with the Stakeholder before you meet with them. Note that the iOS app is both read and write, while the Android app is read-only.
eNews and SMS Communication
Proactively engage with your Stakeholders at the click of a button. You can use CM to send branded, customised eNews campaigns or direct emails to Stakeholders and/or users simultaneously. Not only that, but it will allow you to track that they’ve opened it and whether they’ve clicked on any links within it. Finally, CM will even record that you’ve sent this email against each Stakeholder, so you can ensure that you are on track with your communications.
Similarly, you can do the same with SMS messages, and again it will record this interaction against each Stakeholder as a historical record that you’ve sent this to them. So, if time is of the essence and you need to get something out instantly to a group of people, CM will do all the work for you.
Quotations: Submissions Analysis within CM
Allows for quick analysis of key issues across large submissions. You can highlight part of a Stakeholder’s comment and link it to specific issues for richer submission analysis. This enables an extra layer of reporting excellence within CM.
Integrate your own document storage system with CM
Document storage is completely free with CM Enterprise. However, if you already have a preferred solution you don’t need to replace it. You can simply link the two together so that you aren’t saving documents in two areas.
Integration with other software
CM has a powerful API enabling you to keep working with all the software your organisation has invested in. So, you can tie it in with your existing systems and keep working with what you have. We can help you with this.
Extensive Audit trails
Whatever is done within CM is tracked and very easy for you to keep tabs on. Whoever logs in, whatever they add, delete, report on, everything.
How easy is it to get data into CM?
One of the main reasons databases fail is because of the time-consuming process of data entry. At CM we’ve worked tirelessly on this problem to come up with the following ways to help you. Information can be input by various means including manual data entry, webforms, CSV imports, Outlook, Word, Excel, Lotus Notes plug-ins, and even voice to text in the iOS app.
Microsoft Office Toolset
Once this toolset is installed, a Consultation Manager icon is added to Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook. This allows you to upload emails, documents and spreadsheets directly into Consultation Manager without having to leave your desktop or even open Consultation Manager.
How does CM assist in consolidating existing distributed data sources?
We understand that Stakeholder data may exist in various forms (sometimes captured inconsistently). During implementation, Account Managers work with your organisation to consolidate these data sources, provide relevant framework structure and work with you to get your existing data into CM. This will allow for immediate access to data through the search function, workspace and reporting tabs.
Webforms, Supercharge your data entry
So popular, so good. A webform goes on your public website, your visitors can fill it out, and it feeds this information directly into CM. The benefit of this is twofold; it reduces the need for data entry at your end, and it promotes a more engaged group of Stakeholders, as they have taken the time to put their own details in and so are more invested in your organisation.
Import your own existing data
CM allows the importing of data using a CSV template. Stakeholder, event and properties can all be imported easily at any time.
Social Pinpoint
MySite acquired Social Pinpoint, a software company that integrates seamlessly with CM but that is public facing. Social Pinpoint is multi-award-winning software that enables the community to get involved and participate in local planning, design and infrastructure Projects. It allows Stakeholders to communicate and provide feedback by dragging and dropping an issue pin on a specific location, offering users a unique opportunity to publicly post feedback, concerns and ideas in a moderated environment. Designed specifically for community engagement, Social Pinpoint’s tools are proven to increase participation rates and improve the quality of public feedback.
Social Pinpoint also do ‘landing pages’ and surveys which can be used as a way of keeping the community up to date and engaged with your project, or even as a full project website.
Clients use Social Pinpoint to present complex information in a simple way with interactive mapping tools, so it is easy to understand for everyone. This enables our clients to inform and educate by presenting complex information with ground maps and overlays, generate ideas on these, gain and review feedback and collaborate with the community. And the data can feed seamlessly into CM, allowing us to offer a complete, end-to-end engagement solution.
Social Pinpoint is licensed separately to CM, however the integration with CM is free. Please contact us to have it enabled on your platform.
CM’s outputs, where it all counts
You’ve collected lots of lovely data, you’ve tracked issues and you’re managing your risk with CM. How about reporting on it? How do we stack up? Read on.
Powerful, search driven reporting
We didn’t write CM to make you coffee, and likewise we didn’t want to replace Microsoft Office. We want to work with all the best in class software. So, when you need to do a report in CM, it comes out in either Word or Excel, and you can instantly incorporate it with your existing processes and reports.
And how powerful and flexible are these reports? Incredibly powerful, and very flexible. Why? Because we start with an extremely powerful search engine that enables you to build search after search, allowing you to drill down deep into the data, and dragging up your results. From there you can choose what to display and output. This results in a virtually infinite combination of reports you can produce, both qualitative and quantitative.
So, if you want to put an anonymous report on public display that demonstrates your issues management and Stakeholder comments but hides people names and addresses, that’s so easy. Want to graph your top 15 issues? No problem. Need to see instantly every dealing you’ve had with a certain person? Easy. Your problem will be working out what to ask CM next. And, of course, you can even save your preferred reports, so you don’t have to recreate them every time.
It’s no wonder CM is the industry standard, and our reporting outputs are mandated by Government authorities throughout Australia.
Export results to Excel
Any search in CM can be exported direct to Excel with one click. That’s it. So easy and so powerful.
KPI reporting
Want to keep on top of your team and ensure they are performing to your organisation’s standards. KPI reporting is built in so you can ensure that everything is completed on time, every time.
Mapping
Want to display the results of a search on a map? No problem. You can use CM to map issues relevant to your organisation. Say you use CM for an airport and you have many people complaining about noise. Perform a search and then in a single click map the affected area and make decisions on how to alleviate it.
Or say you want to see the electoral boundaries, or the median wage in an area? CM ties directly into Google maps and contains ABS Census overlays so you can visually plot your data.
Want to integrate your own map layers into CM? Of course you can.
And want to integrate CM with your own GIS system. We can do that as well.
Security FAQs
Data Sovereignty
Data Sovereignty
All data is stored and processed in Australia using highly secure data-centres.
Data Ownership
You always own the data you store in CM. If you ever wish to leave us, we will assist you. Likewise, when you want to return, we’ll be there to help you do this.
Privacy
We are acutely aware of the sensitive nature of your data. Our staff do not access your data unless explicitly instructed by you in the context of user training or support and our Privacy Policy is available at consultationmanager.com
We have ISO accreditation in two critical areas
ISO 27001:2013 (Information Security) and ISO 9001:2015 (Quality Management). ISO 27001:2013 is an international security standard that specifies security management best practices. To become certified to these standards, and to continue to keep our certifications, we must:
-
Systematically evaluate our security risks
-
Demonstrate how our information security controls address these risks
-
Continuously review our practices to ensure that our information security controls continue to address these risks
-
Have our information security practices audited annually and verified by an independent auditor
256-bit SSL Encryption
Whenever data is sent over the internet it is encrypted during transit to ensure your data is secure.