StrategyBlocks, a credible cloud-based solution for strategic planning, portfolio management and execution, recently announced the latest release of its enterprise strategic management platform, StrategyBlocks 6 (SB6). After an overhaul of its interface and a redesigned homepage that offers greater clarity and ease of use, SB6 includes a new, proprietary ideation feature.
What is the market offering of StrategyBlocks 6 (SB6)?
As the premier solution in strategic software, StrategyBlocks 6 has been thoughtfully designed to address common concerns facing every organization, including how best to communicate, execute and track strategy, how to effectively generate reports for the executive team and board, how to navigate internal changes through the lens of strategic planning and execution.
Effectively communicating strategy throughout the organization and translating that communication into action has been problematic for organizations. Less than one-third of leaders responsible for executing strategy in the organization could list three of their company’s strategic priorities, and 14% of employees understand their company’s strategy.
To address this, StrategyBlocks purposefully integrates all facets of strategic planning into one, highly visual platform which is empowering companies and organizations to have better communication, easier reporting and more agility in strategic planning within their operations.
What is the value of the StrategyBlocks Ideas feature?
SB6’s newest feature, StrategyBlocks Ideas, empowers users to easily share their thoughts for strategic improvements with the team, review others’ ideas and follow everyone’s progress, compare different Ideas and approve Ideas for integration into the overall strategic plan.
StrategyBlocks Ideas helps organizations facilitate greater engagement across the team, making it easier to harness recommendations, proposals and opportunities at every level.
Ideas integrates with StrategyBlocks’ block scheduling features, allowing users or employees within the organization to efficiently estimate project duration, allocate workload based on availability and also manage the delivery schedule in an intuitive, visually compelling way.
What elements of the interface redesign are available?
In addition to StrategyBlocks Ideas, the StrategyBlocks interface has undergone a visual redesign to enhance the overall experience. This includes a reorganization of the main menu to provide a clear path for users to follow as well as the addition of a new Homepage. The homepage displays a user’s most frequently used assets, divided into several key panes:
- Object Pane: displays items owned or managed by the user
- Actions Pane: shows items that may require a user’s attention
- Previews Pane: displays more information about a selected object
- News Pane: provides updates to any recent changes to objects owned, followed or managed by the user.
Additional panes can be configured, including:
- Blocks Pane: shows work to be done
- Metrics Pane: focuses on outcomes to monitor
- Risks Pane: for hazard assessment
- Dashboards: for reports to be compiled
- Bookmarks: shows favorited items
The new soft blue interface and color palette, taken in conjunction with the reorganized navigation menu, keeps users’ attention focused on the center of the screen instead of being lost in a complex interface. Users can then interact more quickly with StrategyBlocks to share updates on delivery progress, monitor metrics or risks and check the status of their ideas.
What are the executive remarks about StrategyBlocks 6?
“Creating and evaluating a company’s strategy is no longer just a process that is done annually, it requires ongoing effort. Organizations right now require an evolution in the way they manage their strategic planning, and SB6 was thoughtfully designed to provide real-time insights into strategic performance,” said Craig Catley, managing director at StrategyBlocks.
“With a host of new and capabilities, SB6 effectively engages users and offers a highly visual, easily digestible look at how an organization’s strategic goals are being met. It is the only all-in-one solution that tracks work and risk management, metric analysis and innovation, reflecting our vision of making strategic planning and execution seamless and successful.”
“Strategic planning has become more essential in this day and age than ever before given the rapidly changing economic situation around the world. StrategyBlocks provides us with the ability to respond and quickly adjust our plan, and the new effective Ideas feature will allow our entire team to contribute, provide feedback and seamlessly integrate necessary changes,” said Angie Thiessen, Project Portfolio Manager, City of Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.
“We continue to be impressed with the intuitive nature of the platform, further enhanced by this redesign, and we are glad we have incorporated StrategyBlocks into our organization.”
