To demonstrate, I’ll actually use a real world example: ours.

When users sign up for a free trial on LongJump, a record is added in the backend, and we store the information about them as if they were a paying customer account. That record also has a TRUE/FALSE field called trial_account. Our payment system automatically flips that switch from TRUE to FALSE, once that customer converts (signs up for a paid account).

Because I’m a nosy marketing person, I wanted to know the exact moment that happens. It’s informative, but it also gives me a psychological lift of “Hey, we have a new paying customer!”

Now, I could have written a simple policy that said anytime that record is updated and the trial_account field is FALSE, send me an email. In fact, I tried that. But then anytime that record would be updated for any reason, that email would go out, and I was deluged with unusable notifications.

That’s where the PRIORVALUE function comes in. Here’s what it looks like. (Click on the screenshot if you want the full size view)

This is an action-based policy that runs whenever the record is updated and it compares the PRIORVALUE of trial_account to the current value using the formula-based criteria. The key is to build the expression to check for both the prior and current value.

(PRIORVALUE(trial_account) = TRUE) && (trial_account = FALSE)

When that change happens on a record, the policy executes a simple email notification action to me that includes the name of the company that converted and the number of users. I could also send this to multiple team members.

Of course, this basic logic could be used for a host of process situations and results. Let’s say you have an employee candidate that goes from prospective to hired. Or let’s say as part of this policy, I also want to update another field in the record. Or I want to start following that record in Relay. Or, through the beauty of LongJump’s data policies, you could string up multiple actions to take place. You can do a lot of process automation, simply by recognizing your historical values. PRIORVALUE can even be the basis for a view or report.

Have other examples of how you might use PRIORVALUE()? Submit a comment below as I’m sure we’d love to know about them.

For more information on Data Policies, go here. And for more on our Formula Expressions, go here.

Technorati Tags: change management, change notification, change tracking, formula

Web forms are ideal for streamlining lead capture and customer inquiries, newsletter subscriptions, request for quotes, simple surveys, more.

Now we give you even more control with the ability to include file attachments and image fields. Maybe you’re a talent agency and are collecting headshots from prospective actors. Maybe you want your customers to submit their own photos of them using your product. Maybe you’re building a database of cats asking to eat cheeseburgers. Using web forms, you can get that information into your LongJump database in a snap.

And once that record is in the system, you can automatically assign it to other people, run data policies or simply analyze it with reports.

Technorati Tags: database form, online form, web form

For government entities, compliance-heavy industries like healthcare and manufacturing, or even the growing Green Tech verticals, LongJump provides built-in support for digitally signing records to reduce paperwork while dramatically improving accountability. An example of when lack of certified oversight and accountability is a problem? How about test records from the oil spill in the Gulf? Without secured, certified processes in place, it’s going to be difficult to identify points of failure and establish liability.

The short video below provides an overview of how the Digital Signatures work.

To use digital signatures in LongJump, here is what you need to know:

• Signatures can be encrypted using public, private or certificate keys and provide complete control for compliance and audit requirements, such as those defined in the FDA’s CFR Part 11 or the EPA’s ECHO.
• Digital Signatures are set up by selecting specific fields that are signed for. For example, in a approval of meeting a test record with digital signature settings in place, you can set up a hierarchy of signature areas where the submitter must first sign the record before the user’s manager can access and sign the record.
• LongJump enables you to define who can sign a record by limiting who can see and edit the document based on their role, team, or specific users.
• When signing a document, users are asked for their password and pass phrase.
• A single record can also have multiple signing blocks consisting of fields and multiple users can sign a document as part of an approval process.
• Once a signature is in place, those fields cannot be modified without voiding the signature.

Of course, like all LongJump web-based applications, you will be able to easily report on records, as well as create policies for when signed documents do or do not meet certain conditions. LongJump also keeps a log on signature related activities for a complete audit trail.

You can learn more about enabling the digital signature feature from the Support Wiki.

Technorati Tags: bp, digital signature, epa, fda, gulf oil spill, PaaS

Many thanks to Adam Day, VP of Business Development at HRAnswerlink for his participation on describing how his firm was able to leverage LongJump’s on-premise PaaS to drive rapid deployment of their new SaaS offerings.

This follows past eSeminars including:

• Cloud Computing, SaaS and Its Impact on Channel Solution Providers

• New Strategies For Building Business Applications In 2010

If you’d like to view this eSeminar and any in the past that cover SaaS, PaaS and Cloud Computing, you can click here for recorded archives.

Technorati Tags: application development, cloud computing, enterprise, enterprise applications, isv, IT department, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service, saas, software-as-a-service

Be sure to visit our website to read about how American Mitigation Law Group, a loan modification company in Del Mar, California is helping homeowners keep their homes during the mortgage crisis. We spoke with Nick Hasselwander at AMLG about how they are using the LongJump platform and CRM to build a complete mitigation workflow for their clients in 30 states.

One of the most compelling points Nick makes is:

“Even though we saw the crisis coming, which is why we were in the market, everything was still happening so fast. Because the industry changed and rules were being added, managing processes was difficult. We would refine a process to a point that it was effective, and then have to scrap it because of new requirements. There were no software tools we could acquire that would instill any best practices. The one thing we could rely on was LongJump enabling us to make changes quickly and transition the team effectively as we continued to refine and redefine new processes.”

Nick and AMLG’s story was also featured in Inside Mortgage Finance (Subscription Required) in a story on Cloud Computing.

Technorati Tags: american mitigation law group, cloud computing, mortgage crisis, mortgage industry