Best Of

Hello everyone! Keith Crosslin here. I’m a Board Customer Success Manager for Board Switzerland. Often, when I talk to customers about the possibility of upgrading to Board 14 (B14), they ask me what other customers are saying about it. To answer that question, I interviewed three Swiss customers who shared their experiences with me and, by extension, with you. 

The three customers are from different industries, one a Wealth Management Bank, the second an Energy Production Company, and the third a Software Company. All three are using Board to run financial FP&A applications, doing budgeting, forecasting and analysis. Each of the three customers has been a Board customer for at least two years. Two of them started their Board journey with either Board 10 or 11, and the third began with Board 12 (B12). All three upgraded to B14 from B12 and all three managed the upgrade themselves, with one of the three getting assistance from a Board consultant. Finally, one of the customers is running in the Cloud, whereas the other two are on-premise. 

For all three customers, upgrading to B14 brought measurable performance improvements, and the upgrade process was relatively painless and quick. In some cases, it was completed in less than one day. All noticed immediate improvements with the responsiveness of front-end capsule screens and components, as well as general performance improvements in pretty much everything. Continue reading for more details about the upgrade process and the benefits these customers experienced. 

B14 Performance Benefits 

While B14 brings many benefits to back-end database and application developers, the customers I talked with all highlighted usability and user performance benefits as the main drivers for them to upgrade. In one case, the Board CoE wanted to wait for a couple of releases, but users wanted Flex Grid now and convinced them to upgrade sooner Here’s what the customers had to say: 

• Flex Grid, particularly with the B14.3 features, has enabled them to create more simple application workflows while providing more complex functionality.  
• Enhancements to both the engine and the front-end interface have resulted in a much “snappier” user experience. 
• Other improvements in the user interface, such as better entity selectors and design mode features, were very appealing. 
• In addition to the upgrade, improvements were made to the way procedures were built, further enhancing performance. 
• Developers like the design mode improvements, including alignment guides and the ability to bring the screen list to the front. 
• Users found the new version to have a fresh look, and they appreciate the new features. The ability to change the screen settings directly on the screen is also favorable. 
• Users no longer complain about performance issues, indicating a successful upgrade in terms of responsiveness and efficiency (I love this one!). 

Upgrade Process 

All three customers upgraded successfully, experienced a relatively painless upgrade process, and received great assistance from Board Support when they ran into issues. The customers confirmed that B14 is a simple upgrade-in-place, and it doesn’t require any migration steps which were necessary to move to B12 from earlier versions. Two of the customers highlighted that it is possible to reverse the upgrade back to B12 if needed, which greatly reduces the risks of upgrading.  

These three customers followed a similar upgrade process, starting first with non-production instances, doing some basic testing, and after resolving a few minor issues, continuing to upgrade their production instances. None of the three completed extensive regression testing of every screen or procedure, but rather, they checked a few key processes and confirmed that their integrations with external systems were still working. One of the three customers started the upgrade directly with B14.0, and they did experience a few more issues and found a bug which was resolved in the B14.1 patch. The customers all commented positively about the rapid response they received from Board Support to help them quickly resolve the issues they experienced. 

Some of the specific issues that were encountered include: 

• Connection issues were encountered due to incompatibilities with IT settings, but these were quickly resolved, demonstrating the smoothness of the process. 
• An error in SAP Reader in version 14.0, which was fixed in version 14.1. They identified this issue during testing, and it was fixed when they applied 14.1. 
• There was an issue with the B14.3 configuration files, which needed to be manually adjusted with the help of Board Support. 

These customers recommend waiting for the first patch release on a new version to allow for initial bugs to be resolved. 

Should you upgrade? 

The customers that met with me offered the following points to others who are thinking about upgrading to B14: 

• The significant performance improvements in Board 14, both in the engine and the front-end interface, were highlighted as key benefits of upgrading. 
• Users love Flex Grid, and it can be a game-changer to provide new application functionality. 

These first two points are great hooks for end users who feel that they are receiving a big jump in the application functionality they use every day. 

• With a good test plan, even without full regression testing, you can complete the upgrade with confidence, particularly given the ease of reverting to the previous version if critical issues arise, making the upgrade process less risky compared to other systems. 
• The experience of three customers who did not face serious issues completing their upgrades hopefully will reassure others to not wait and upgrade now. 

Room for Improvement 

While all three customers were incredibly positive about their experiences successfully upgrading to B14, they highlighted the following areas where they are hoping for continued improvements in the future. 

• Features such as dynamic headings in layouts and automatic scaling of graphics are still missing (consider voting on related Idea Exchange VARIABLE TAB NAME - Board Community). 
• While it is great that users can easily adjust the screen to page width or fit-to-screen, users cannot save their preferred screen settings, and they must adjust each time they access the screen. 
• While easily switching from play mode to design mode is an excellent feature, it is now too easy to inadvertently override important selections that may be needed on the screen – this needs improvement to prevent this issue (there are two related posts that you might want to vote on: B14 - Reset Selection to Screen default - Board Community, No transfer of selections made in play mode into design mode without having been asked - Board Community). 
• Chat functionality needs simple improvements, such as scrolling and being able to sort chats properly. The sorting logic seems random if you have more chats that fit in the window; not all will appear on the screen. 
• Closing the screen list menu requires multiple clicks. Users suggest that pressing escape or clicking outside the menu should close it more efficiently. 

To my Product Management colleagues, I will schedule time with you to give you more on the feedback above. 😉 

Closing 

Are you ready to upgrade? Do you still have concerns? What's stopping you from upgrading? What questions do you have? 

Here's where you can find more information: 

• Board 14.1 Upgrade instructions 
• There is much Board 14 content in the Board Academy. Examples include: 
• Board 14 Essentials – End User 
• Board 14.3 Release 
• Quick Layout 
• Flex Grid 
• Sign up for June webinar on B14: 
• Reimagining the Planner Experience | Board 

Thanks again to my three customers who took the time to share their experiences. I would like to close with a big shout-out to my Support colleagues for the great job they are doing. All three of the customers I interviewed specifically mentioned their gratitude and appreciation for the help they received from Board Support – Support Team, you rock! 

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Featuring: Fethi Zerara, FP&A Consultant and Community Captain

Learning how to use Board is a journey but one that can yield truly incredible results. This installment of the Community 3 Questions series is a conversation with one of our more experienced members, Fethi Zerara, as he shares his thoughts on the Board platform and lets us know some of the exciting projects his team is working on. Take note of the valuable insight and advice Fethi gives us, and find out how learning to use Board shares some of the same principles as learning how to use math!

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We are pleased to announce that the Board 14.3 release is here! 🚀 

The new Board 14.3 release includes significant improvements for Developers, Administrators, and Planners (End Users). Board 14.3 proudly introduces new improvements to the Flex Grid Object, including the additions of Data Entry, a Detail By-like feature called “Column By”, Range Charts, and Drill Down. The new Board Signals add-on is also incorporated into the Board Platform. Makers configure Screens more easily and faster with less clicks and Slides with improved Notes, while end users have more helpful interactions like Print and Export as well as tracking changes in a Presentation. Please find all the enablement materials linked below.

What to expect in the new Board 14.3 release 

Improved features to Board’s new Flex Grid Object 

With 14.3 we are enhancing significantly the Flex Grid object to deliver the following benefits to our users: 

• Uncompromising performance, delivering a superior solution compared to any other grid table on the market. 
• Intuitive experience, similar to working with an Excel Pivot Table. 
• Spreadsheet-like approach, offering unmatched flexibility and empowering end-users. 

In particular, in this version we are adding to Flex Grid the following: 

• Spreadsheet-like Planning is now possible on a Flex Grid 
• Bottom up and top down data entry is now possible, including new interactions like  Data Entry on Row Headers  
• Flex Grid now supports ROLAP and BLOB type Cubes 
• Introducing the "By Column” feature which is a largely enhanced version of the Data View “Detail by” 
• Drill Anywhere is now possible on a Flex Grid , and the resulting drilled view will also be displayed as a Flex Grid. 
• Enhanced Range charts, empowering users to create self-service charts 
• Other Flex Grid small enhancements, like a new Filters tab on the Flex Grid object makes filtering much easier 

Presentations enhanced for corporate reporting 

• Enhanced Notes, allowing customizable type and an enhanced editor 
• Introducing Custom Changes Tracking so users can track what changes have been made to a Slide that is not in the original Screen 
• Metadata Transparency 
• Enhancements to creating a new Slide from a Screen and from a Presentation 

The new Board Signals add-on 

• This add-on provides industry-tailored solutions to improve economic insight analyses  
• Signals provides you with pre-packaged Capsule containing economic indicators that can be added to existing applications to enhance forecasts, identify emerging trends, and help make informed decisions  

Other Improvements for the Planner experience 

• Print and Export 
• Selector interaction improvements 
• Session Expiration improvements 

Other Improvements for Admin and Developers 

• @ProcedureID Substitution Formula  
• Admin Portal access and UI improvements 
• New APIs to read and extract audit logs 

Main new features to Flex Grid 

Flex Grid Data Entry now allows you to leverage the power of the Flex Grid Object and incorporate data entry at any level. In particular, differently from the Data View, Flex grid now allows an intuitive and spreadsheet-like interface for bottom-up planning exercises using Data Entry capabilities in combination with Pivot Mode, filtering, sorting and many other functionalities.  The By Column addition to the Layout Editor of the Flex Grid object allows for more flexible representation of datasets and by columns break down of data. It offers capabilities similar to the Detail By feature found in a Data View, however it takes this to the next level with the possibility to have multiple entities as column groups, expand/collapse interactions, management of totals at each level and maximum flexibility in headers display. 

Flex Grid Data Entry on Cells and Row Headers 

Flex Grid now offers Data Entry both on the cells and the Row Headers, providing powerful leverage to Planners in order to add individual changes at the member level or make bulk changes to data quickly. Benefits include: 

• Simplification. Data Entry on Row Headers removes the requirement for complex data model configurations to achieve the same use cases (e.g. new products management, 0-based budgeting, etc.) 
• Full Spreadsheet like experience. Every cell is editable, which makes data entry on values and totals very easy and intuitive 
• Efficiency. The ability to change large attributes of datasets, saves Planners valuable time 

Flex Grid By Column 

Flex Grid now introduces the new feature "By Column" which gives users more data display flexibility. Benefits include: 

• Data display flexibility. More flexibility in breaking down data by column, displaying the headers, deciding how to show totals allowing users to achieve the data display that best fits their needs 
• Interactive. More expand/collapse interactions are now possible 

Enhanced Flex Grid Range Charts 

Flex Grid's Range Charts have improved with the following key benefits: 

• Improved Insights  
  • Enhanced data visualization leads to better understanding of trends and patterns 
  • Aggregated functions provide quick summary views of complex datasets 
• Customization  
  • Greater flexibility in chart appearance and data representation 
  • User-driven chart creation enables end users to generate custom visualizations on the fly for specific scenarios, empowering self-service exploration 

Flex Grid Drill Down and Drill Anywhere 

Drill Down and Drill Anywhere for Flex Grid are now possible. The drill-down functionality integrates smoothly with the spreadsheet-like experience of the Flex Grid, offering an intuitive interface for analyzing data in greater depth, providing the following benefits: 

• Interactive Data exploration. Users can easily explore deeper layers of data directly within a Flex Grid without navigating away from it 
• Simplified navigation of complex hierarchies. Users can easily drill into any type of data structure with clarity and precision 
• Enhanced drill flexibility. The drill down on a Flex Grid is opens another Flex Grid Object, allowing end users to use the pivoting functionalities also in the drill for an unmatched level of customization and insight 

Other enhancements 

In addition to the main features, Board 14.3 has numerous other enhancements to look forward to. Some of these improvements include: 

• Selector interaction improvements 
• Presentation improvements 
• Substitution Formula 
• Print and Export 
• Admin Portal 
• APIs for Audit Logs 

Board 14 Family FAQs 

Looking for answers? Read our FAQs about the Board 14 release (access under community log in).  

Board 14.3 Enablement Materials 

• Board has grown—and so has our Knowledge Base! Check out what’s changed and how to find the info you need.  
• Review the [Official] Board 14.3 Release Deck is attached at the end of this post.
• Find the Customer Webinar available on June 11th here. We’ll explore how we’ve reimagined the planning experience, with Board 14.3
• Explore the B14.3 training course here.
• Watch the detailed 14.3 enablement recording here:

Release Notes and Bug Fixes 

You can review the full Board 14.3 release notes now on the Board Knowledge Base as well as on the dedicated page here on Community. Read more details about the most recent bug fixes on our Community’s dedicated page.     

Install Files  

To download the latest installer files, please visit the Board 14.3 Download page. You must sign in to view and download the files.   

Upgrade Instructions  

The upgrade instructions are the same for 14.1. Visit the upgrade instructions page of the Board knowledge base to learn about the upgrade process. 

Review the Official Board 14.3 Release Deck below!