Product Updates

We can now prepare selections without it being visible to already registered users. This will allow you to prepare the selections in terms of job quantities (what is in the job), pre-selected items (selected during sales) and non-applicable selections (due to specific plan details). 

When you’re ready then tick the selections visible tick box to then trigger the selections available email to go to the client.

We can also control what the default is when integrating/creating jobs in Constructive so that Constructive Online 3D Selections fits with your business process seamlessly.

This works hand in hand with the 3D Client visible switch we introduced in the last release, allowing you more control of what is presented to the clients.

Features: Text Searchable Choices, User Entry Choices, Choices requiring notes, Preselected Choices, Progress Documents and much more!

1. Text Searchable Choices
To enable colour/prestart consultants to write up the colour selections as quickly as possible we have added the ability to select items directly in the My Selections listing screen. Not only that but also you can use the inbuilt text search to quickly find that specific colour.

Please note this is only available if you have the Addenda Module, and then only to Selection consultant role users.

2. Preselected Choices – Standard Items
The majority of selections are not customer choices and don’t change job to job. We now have the facility to pre-select choices without any manual work per job. This makes the selections write up much quicker.

Please note this is only available if you have the Addenda Module.

3. Custom Choices
Not every choice in selections is a product or needs an image. We have now added the ability to add a custom choice to any selection which is not a full blown item. It won’t have a price or an image, but it allows you those more ad-hoc type selection types.

Please note this is only available if you have the Addenda Module.

4. Default no item Selected Text by Report Layout
When printing off selections that are partially completed you want to display specific text e.g. ‘To be selected from builders standard range’ or similar. We now can do this specific to a report layout (e.g. Contract Addenda or specification sheet) and specification level. This will massively reduce duplication of effort allowing multiple uses for the selections template.

Please note this is only available if you have the Addenda Module.

5. Progress Documents
You can now configure documents to be auto-added to any job (based on brand, business unit and/or region) when progress tasks are completed. This is configured in the admin section under Documents->Shared Documents. This now makes it easy to manage all your standard literature and resources and delivers it to the clients at the relevant point in the process.

6. Client Visible 3D Checkbox
To allow for visible checking of per job 3D models we’ve added the ability to have 3D hidden from the client, but still visible by your company users, selections consultants etc. This allows for checking of the 3D model prior to providing to the client.

During integration, this can be defaulted to hidden or shown automatically.

7. Choices Requiring Notes
Some choices require additional notes, so we’ve now added a tick box to any choice to allow you to decide at a template level which choices have to have a note added on selection. No longer do we need specific items created in the library to require notes.

Features: Selection Layouts, Hidden Selections and Print Selection Area Grouping

1. Selection Layouts
We’ve added in the ability to have multiple layouts of selections. Imagine having one grouping and ordering of selections for the client at home, then another grouping and ordering for the selections print off, and another specifically targetted for your construction team (with their own grouping and ordering). This is now a reality all from the same selections information, no longer make compromises for each audience, tailor it to their needs to ensure clear communication.

If you wish to use this functionality please get in contact with me and I can arrange a training session. Video tutorials will follow.

2. Hidden Selections
To save you from having to tick every choice as hidden, we have now added a tick box at the selection level, to hide the whole selection. This will make it much easier to control. The user interface now visually shows the hidden selections to make it really easy to understand what the client will see.

Please see below for where you would tick to hide the whole selection from the client. Note, this does not hide it from the selections consultant.

3. Print Selection Area Grouping
Now we can order the house type areas in the house type screen. We’ve added the ability to group the selections by area under each selection group for a specific layout. The most common use case for this is grouping the sanitaryware by room first, and then by selection. Very useful for the trades and supervisor.

Features: Hidden Selection Choices, House Type Area Ordering, Targetted Job Panel and Manual Progress Task Removal

1. Hidden Selection Choices
We’ve been consistently working to enhance the functionality within the selections meeting. We’ve now altered the standard view for the company users (selections consultants and contract administrators) to show by default the hidden choices (the choices the clients don’t see at home). We’ve also changed the look of hidden items so they are not greyed out anymore, enabling a better user experience in the selections meeting.

Please remember that you can tick the choice as hidden from the client in the selections template screen against each individual choice. We will be simplifying this for hiding whole selections in our next release.

2. House Type Area Ordering
An often requested feature to enable ordering of the house area specific choices. We now allow you to drag and drop the areas within the house type to set the order of the areas. This order is used in the selections screens and in all print offs.

We also then allow manual reordering at the job level (so that you can manage the order of manually added areas to that specific job). Just go to the quants page in Job details and drag and drop the areas. Please note that if you set the order at the job level, house type ordering will no longer apply to this job.

3. Targetted Job Panel
We’ve since many requests for showing the admin users the last job they looked at, so they can jump back to it or jump into the detail screen for editing.

4. Manual Progress Task Removal
To help you solve problems and manage the progress tasks within the job details page, we’ve added the remove button to job progress. This removes it from the clients view. Use this for optional tasks like Planning or Developers Approval to ensure the portal progress page is specific to that client.

Other Small Improvements and Bug Fixes

• Display product codes when adding new items to the selection.
• Display previously added products in the add new choice screen to make it clearer what is already in the selection (shows as greyed out)
• An adjustable opacity of window glass in the 3D view
• Copy selections now copies the builder note and the admin note

Features: Admin screen for Job Progress and 3D improvements

1. Admin screen for managing Job Progress within the customer portal
We have steadily been enabling the ability to see the job information within the admin job details page, and today we’ve added a big piece of functionality. Job Progress. You can now record the start and completion dates within the admin screen. These completions will trigger the activity notifications and the customer surveys.

This screen is very useful for reference as well.

If you have been holding back from using the portal side of Constructive software because you’ve not wanted (or can’t) do integration with your tracking software, then this will no longer be an issue. Contact me to discuss further.

2. 3D Improvements
We’ve been working hard to make the 3D visualisations as flexible and as beautiful as possible. One important part of the elevation of the home is the garage door. We have now enabled logic to replace the garage door with models of the different profiles so that it looks more realistic and allows us to visualise the timber look style finishes.

Other 3D improvements

1. We now allow for houses of different orientations (such as multi unit development jobs)
2. We now allow for different selection mappings for different units within a multi unit development

Features: 3D Selection, Selection Notes, Copy Selections, Job Quants and Multiple Photo uploads

1. 3D Selection
We’ve now enabled the client to select the selection to choose by just clicking on the relevant part of the 3D model. There is now no need to hunt through obscure selection names to find the right one.

Just click on the relevant part of the 3D model and it will jump to the first selection applicable to that section.

This improvement also is applied to the Model admin screen making it much, much quicker to do any manual mapping, as you can now just click on the section not mapped and it will jump to that item in the list automatically.

Other 3D improvements

1. The client is now able to toggle the display of the selection description within 3D mode.
2. The 3D model is now visible after the selections have been completed, enabling the client to still enjoy the view of their beautiful new home.

2. Selection Notes
Since introducing the builder notes system into selections, it has been well used. We’re now enhancing it further to allow two different types of notes; client notes that they can make at home, and builder notes that only you as builders can make. This will help your client make notes for themselves, but still enable you to do the formal writeup note to go on any documentation.

I advise you to encourage the client to enter any notes as they go through online selections prior to the selections meeting.

3. Copy Selections
On the job details page you can now copy selections from another job to the current job you are looking at. An often requested feature to allow unit selections to copy from one another.

The two jobs must be the same selection template though!

4. Job Quants Improvements
Job quantities are the driving force behind making the selections specific to the job. Increasing customer satisfaction by not showing them irrelevant information.

Copy Area
It is now easy to create a new area with all the same quants as another area, just click on the three dots next to the area you want to copy from and then select the name of the new area. Easy!

Delete Area
Remove many quantities in a single click by clicking on the three dots and remove a whole area in one go.

Filtered Dimension Types/Quantity Types
No longer will you see irrelevant dimension types that are not in your possible list of selections. It now will show you a much smaller list based on what you use! You can still get back to the much longer list by ticking the box to show all. Again this is designed to make the process of job prep much quicker.

5. Multiple Photo Upload
Finally but by no means least, we have enabled multiple photo upload in one go. Making it much easier to upload large numbers of photos in one go. Supervisors rejoice!

1. Job Photos & Documents

Job Details screen now has two new pages.

Job Photos
The photos page shows all the photos visible to the client in the customer portal. It gives you three important controls: upload new photos, delete photos and edit the description of photos. For most of you the photos come direct from a source system, but if you are uploading directly to Constructive this gives you far more control.

Job Documents
Documents are typically uploaded from your internal document management system. With the new documents screen, you can now manually control documents, by deleting, uploading new documents and editing descriptions and names of existing documents. To add documents just click the big plus button!

With this new control comes new responsibilities. Please do not edit anything if you do not know the outcomes (especially on live sites). Please feel free to discuss any changes prior to at least the first couple of times!

2. Selection Improvements

We’ve made lots of enhancements to Selections:

Reload Selections Performance Improvements
As an action you do repeatably and has in the past taken some time, we have now optimised the reload selections to dramatically improve the speed.

Selection Template Editing Improvements
We’ve taken valuable feedback on the selection template edit screen to bring in two often requested features: drag and drop reordering of the selections or selection groups and expand and contract of the selection groups themselves making long scrolling a thing of the past.

Sell Price filter by Business Unit and Brand
We now have additional filters on the sell price screen to just filter to prices applicable to a specific brand or business unit. Please note this will still show those prices that are generic as they still apply to this business unit / brand.

Available Items Report Includes Choice Grouping
We added the ability to group choices together to make it easier for the client, and with this release, we have added these groupings to the invaluable ‘Available Items’ report.

Manufacturer Override
We can now override the manufacturer we display to the client under an item. This can be done at the Selection level (all choices show as the nominated Manufacturer/Supplier) or at an individual choice level. This gives you maximum control and deals with the reseller scenario.

1. Editable Settings
Company administrator level accounts will now have the ability to view all settings and edit some settings. Thus bringing far more control into your hands. If you want to update the FAQ or instruction texts you can do it right in Constructive.

With this new control comes new responsibilities. Please do not edit anything if you do not know the outcomes (especially on live sites). Please feel free to discuss any changes prior to at least the first couple of times!

2. Users
We’ve renamed ‘Access Management’ menu option to now be called ‘Users’. Hopefully, this explains better the function.