13 Sep 16 Responding to Customer Feedback – What’s New in our Latest Release of MentorNet

MentorNet has been established for some years now, which gives the infrastructure stability, but also meant we needed to refresh the look and feel, whilst maintaining the intuitive way of working that you are used to. Here is an overview of some of the new features:

1. Revised Look and Feel:

   The screenshots below highlight some of the main differences:

   
   Some of the highlights of the revised design include:

   • More prominent branding:
     • Your logo is more prominently displayed at the top left of the portal. The MentorNet logo has been moved to the footer
     • You can add a background image to the site so that you can add your own branding or image to the portal
   • More modern colour scheme: The colour scheme has been refined to be more pleasing on the eye
   • See functions more easily: The commonly used functions (eg home, messaging, news) have been re-positioned more prominently, with their own icons, in the header at the top right of the screen. They will also remain visible while you scroll up and down the page.
   • Refreshed mobile version: Now provides a more modern look and feel – see screenshots below:
   • Customisable Login Page:
     This is how the new login page can be customised to include your own background image:

2. Enhanced Matching Process Workflows

   This version introduces some significant enhancements to the matching process, including the following:

   • Scoring matches: When a mentee requests a match with a mentor, the mentee is able to add comments with a scoring
   • More flexibility in matches: The mentee is now able to review and edit match requests that he/she has made and to edit comments/scores and delete a match request
   • Viewing mentee comments: The mentor is able to view the comments the mentee has made for a match request, but is not able to see the scoring – that is kept for the administrator
   • Email alerts for new matches: If the mentor is authorised to accept matches, then the mentor is now sent an email alert when a mentee requests a match
   • Personal comments for mentees: The mentor is able to make a personal comment when rejecting a match
   • View match requests via the Admin Dashboard (see below): Through the dashboard, the administrator can accept or reject multiple requests with a single click and the original “Matching Requests” screen now allows more control

3. Admin Dashboard

   MentorNet now includes a dashboard to help the administrator with common tasks and to highlight action that needs to be taken. When an administrator logs on, he/she is now taken straight to the dashboard (instead of the user profile page) which summarises pending actions:

   The dashboard currently has four panes, as follows (and see screenshot above):

   • New Users
     This lists all the users who have self-registered but who have not yet had their registration authorised. The administrator can select and authorise or reject multiple new users in a single click.
   • Match Requests
     The administrator can view a list of match requests and accept or reject multiple requests with a single click.
   • Locked Accounts
     This pane lists all the accounts that have been locked. An account is automatically locked if a user enters an incorrect password 5 times.
   • Moderation
     This pane summarises the number of private messages and forum posts which are in the moderation ‘quarantine’. You can then click through to the detailed list of messages and posts and take further action on each message.

4. Improved Self-Registration Administration

   As described above, under the “Admin Dashboard” section, it is now much easier for an administrator to identify those users who have self-registered and then to take action to accept or reject the registration.

5. Automatic Generation of Usernames

   During self-registration, you may not want a user to be allowed to choose their own username. It is now possible for the username to be automatically generated by MentorNet, based on a pre-defined format.

6. Increased Confidentiality of Names

   If your mentoring program involves young people or if you have other confidentiality concerns, MentorNet can now use a pre-defined ‘display name’ throughout, instead of displaying the full “firstname lastname”.

7. Passing Parameters to Self-Registration Forms

   Currently prospective mentors and mentees are able to self-register by clicking the “Register” link on the MentorNet login page. You are also able to embed this link in your own website. It is now possible to add parameters to this link, so that you can make the selection process easier.

   If you are running multiple mentoring programs then you can define a link to register for a specific program, rather than allowing the user to choose.