OfficeStatus v2.0 is a major step forward forward in electronic in/out board software. One of the many powerful features it introduces is Return Time Assistance (also known as "Due Back" Assistance).

This capability uses the system's knowledge of each user's work schedule (there's also a default site-level work schedule) to dynamically compute potential return times during employee status change operations - saving employees precious time and improving accuracy. Here's a quick screen shot:



This new feature makes it trivial for users to specify when they'll be returning from their current status change. Now, with merely two button clicks, the user shown in the screenshot above can specify that they plan on returning to the office at the start of the next work day. This user's work schedule is then used to compute the precise date and time of their return.

And there's more - OfficeStatus Windows Client goes another step further and offers a new "Out & Returning" drop-down menu within the user status change window. This drop-down menu allows users to 1) specify that they're out of the office, 2) choose a computed return time as described above, and 3) close the status change window - all with only two mouse clicks!

Scheduled status changes (another feature new to OfficeStatus v2.0) can also use a subset of this computed date/time functionality to schedule status changes. More on scheduled status changes in a future blog.

OfficeStatus v2.0 provides a powerful new web-based in/out board interface, packed with extremely modern (AJAX enabled) capabilities. In this blog post, I'll explore just a couple of the new screens available.

First is the new user home page, which functions as a "landing page" for users after they log into the OfficeStatus v.20 web interface:



Each of the separate panels within the user home page update themselves automatically, on a periodic basis, without the need for a full page refresh. These auto-updating panels combine to form a powerful employee status dashboard, providing immediate visibility into the logged-in user's status, available notes, status of users being watched, and much more.

Next, a quick peek at the user status board:



This is another part of the OfficeStatus v2.0 web interface that you really need to experience in order to appreciate. Again, the contents of the employee status board update themselves automatically (there's also a refresh button, of course) without any need for a full page refresh. The status listing can be sorted, paged, and filtered by a range of qualifiers (including location, department, and status). Individual user entries can be expanded in order to gain access to employee contact information. You can also apply quick employee status changes by right-clicking on a user and selecting a status from the resulting pop-up menu.

Every page within the new OfficeStatus v2.0 web interface has been designed to be intuitive and easy to use, and every page has a prominent help link. The goal is to ensure that your users can being using the system immediately, with little or no training.

As you can probably see from these screenshots and descriptions, we've worked very hard to ensure that the OfficeStatus v2.0 web interface provides an extremely rich and flexible user experience - one that close resembles the elegance and utility of our OfficeStatus Windows Client. I'll continue exploring some of these new features in future blog posts.