Toolbox

This article is intended to provide some best practice ideas to promote your Openbravo Modules. First thing to take into account is that new modules must be promoted no matter whether they are "commercial" or "open source " modules. Every single module needs promotion.
The key thing here is for you/your team to decide what best promotion actions are depending on the module but for sure most recommendations listed below should be taken into account.
Once you have a clear understanding about the promotion actions you believe it makes sense to take, just make them happen.

Here are some recommendations:

Documentation

Remember that a good documentation is the mean to a successful module. The wiki of the project in the Openbravo Forge is an excellent tool to make this manual available for everyone.

Functional and Technical Specifications as well as User Documentatio Guide are a must. Every single module needs that we create the corresponding documentation.

Module Definition

Before publishing the module, make sure you provide a useful help and description of your module, as this is the first information the users will get about your module. It is also very important to add an URL to the module, so that the users can navigate to the documentation.

As a summary make sure you provide useful module information listed below while creating your module in OB application path: "Application Dictionary - Module - Module" as well as while creating the corresponding project in the Forge/Wiki:

Module name:
Module description:
Module language:
Module url
Module help
Module author
Module license
Module update Information

For more detailed information about things to do before publishing your module in production central repository please follow this [[ | checklist]].

Release Notes & Roadmap

Should be available especially for huge developments like SPLP which consist of several deliverables, as this is not a must for modules but Packs.

It is recommended to follow standard Release Notes Template with reasonable changes for a particular project.

News

Openbravo Forge provides a tool to publish news related to the projects. Post a new whenever something comes up: at project creation to welcome users, when the module is published, whenever a new versions is released, etc.

Writing an e-mail to.... you could even get a "news" published in Openbravo ERP project itself.

This is also a must and it is an easy thing to do while creating the project, when the module is published, whenever a new version is released..etc..Keep users up to date on your modules or packs.

Communication to Partners

For important (especially commercial) modules communication to partners through Marcom should be organized.

Blog

Blog about the new feature. Write an article where the new capabilities are explained both from a functional and a technical perspective. Here are several examples ([1], [2] and [3]) of module promotion blogs.

Have a look at Blogging guidelines and recommendations at Openbravo following this link.

Mailing List

This is also a must and an easy thing to do.

Please feel free to e-mail people to let them know a new module/pack has been released, it's content and a brief description of the feature/s implemented and a link to the project in the Forge. We could use this one to let "Consulting" & "Support" as well as rest of "Engineering" team know what we do.

Additionally, an e-mail could be sent to openbravo-development mailing list providing a summary of the feature the module implements and a link to the project in the forge and the article in the blog.

Webinar

And last but not least in case a module/pack is important enough, a webinar could be prepared by you/your team as this is a time demanding promotion action but really useful as promotion tool.

Webinar webpage

Please find below a link to the last webinar Localization Team has arranged and presented.

http://wiki.openbravo.com/wiki/ERP/2.50/Extension_Module_Demonstrations_Videos

Schedule

Timing

The optimum time to potentially maximize the number of attendees from America, Europe and Afrika is scheduling the webinar at 18:00CEST/CEST. This means, however, that it will be late for Asia and Oceania. Depending on the interest the webinar might rise it could be worthwhile to repeat it so that both sides can assist in comfortable schedules.

Public announcement - 2 weeks in advance

Main announcement message
- Ask Ismael to generate Adobe Connect Session link (only administrators of the system can do it and we have limited number of such licences).
- Do not forget to include the benefits of attending online.
- This message should include a link to easily add the event to the reader's calendar. Here you have the instructions to add a link for Google Calendar Google Calendar - event publisher guide.
- A template can be found here: Contributor's_Guide/ModulePromotion/Webinar_Announce_Template.
- Steps:
  - Post a message in the Extension Module Webinars forum with the details of the announcement.
Related announcements
- All notifications should link to the main post in the Extension Module Webinars forum to count the number of visitors.
- A template can be found here: Contributor's_Guide/ModulePromotion/Webinar_Announce_Link_Template
- Steps:
  - Send a mail to communication@openbravo.com - to Marcom (partners, clients),
  - Post a message in ERP popular forums: Developers, Functionality, Help, and Spanish Help
  - Send a message to the Openbravo Development mailing list.
  - Post an small message in your corporate blog with a link to the main post.
  - Post a new message in the News section at the Module Project.
  - Send a message to staff@openbravo.com . In this message you can include all the details of the webinar.

Reminder - the same day in the morning

Related announcements
- All notifications should link to the main post in the Extension Module Webinars forum to count the number of visitors.
- A template can be found here: Contributor's_Guide/ModulePromotion/Webinar_Reminder_Link_Template
- Steps:
  - Send a mail to communication@openbravo.com - to Marcom (partners, clients),
  - Post a message in ERP popular forums: Developers, Functionality, Help, and Spanish Help
  - Send a message to the Openbravo Development mailing list.
  - Send a message to staff@openbravo.com . In this message you can include all the details of the webinar.
  - Send a twitter message. (if you have a twitter account).

Activities after the presentation

Upload the recorded session and presentation to the wiki
Create a new wiki page with all the details of the recorded session. You have a template here ERP/2.50/Extension_Module_Demonstrations_Videos/Initial_Data_Load.
Place the link to the page with the details of the recorded session in the following places:
- ERP/2.50/Extension_Module_Demonstrations_Videos.
- In the forus as a reply of the initial announcement message of the webinar Extension Module Webinars Forum.
- In the forge project.
Monitor the forums of the project the next days of the delivery of the weiblnar, usually there will be an peak of activity in the forums.

Preparing the demo

Material needed

This is the material recommended to deliver the webinar

Laptop with windows installed. There is needed a Windows machine because Adobe connect only allows to share the desktop in Windows. There exist in engineering an small laptop running Windows XP ready to deliver webinars with all the needed software installed.
Presentation document. Use a presentation in .ppt because the small laptop prepared has only Office installed. Here you have a template for the presentation WebinarTemplate.ppt.
Speech document. It is a good idea to have the full speech of the presentation printed. This way you will do less errors.
Headphones and microphone.

Organization of the presentation

The presentation of the webinar is divided in three sections plus a questions & answers (Q&A) section. The sections and the time spent on each one can vary depending on the presentation delivered. The titles of the sections and the proposed duration for each section are:

Functionality and Demo, 15 minutes. In this section we describe the main functionality, the benefits, problems solved, future plans, ... of the module we are presenting and also deliver a demo of the functionality.
Process and Tools, 15 minutes. In this section we decribe one or several process or tools used in the development of the module. Try to focus on that processes or tools that can be reused for creating new modules.
Development Technique, 15 minutes. In this section we describe one of the techniques used in the development of the module. Also try demostrate technices that can be useful for the creation of new modules.
Q & A, 30 minutes. In this section, the participants of the webinar send questions using the chat about the module.

Tips preparing the webinar

Have a first PUBLIC rehearsal at least 3-4 days in advance to tune the content. Record the session for reviewing. Use a watch to measure the time spent in each section and try to acommodate the content and the time spent on each section.
After that you should have at least 2-3 private (on your own) rehearsals with reviewing recordings before final one in order to make it fine tuned.
Have a final rehearsal 2 days in advance.

After 3-4 rehearsals the presentation will be very good and ready for delivery, you received a lot of feedback from the colleagues that attended the rehearsals and also you will feel more confortable the day of the presentation.

Using Adobe Connect

Adobe connect is a plugin for web browsers that allows to deliver presentations (image and voice) to an audience. Ismael is the administrator of Adobe connect you have to ask to generate an Adobe Connect Session link. You must have this link before publishing the main announcement message.

This are the suggested check list to follow to deliver the webinar.

Test in the laptop used to deliver the webinar, the presentation and all the demos you will deliver. Keep open all the tools and files you are going to demostrate not to delay the demos.
Log in the webinar session as administrator .
Clear the chat window.
Test the audio.
15 minutes before the hour of the webinar, start accepting guests. It will be good that another person assist the presenter accepting guests.
5 minutes before remind the attendents that the webinar will start in 5 minutes.
To record the webinar turn on session recording (Meeting --> Record Meeting ...). Set the name and be sure to uncheck the box Record audio from speaker phone.
Press Share desktop.
Welcome all participants and start the presentation
Deliver the presentation
Give thanks to all participants and remind them about the next webinar and also announce when the recorded session will be uploaded.
Stop recording the session pressing on the red button that is places in the upper, right corner.

Here are some tips when using Adobe Connect

To activate the microphone you have two options.
- Press the Talk button to talk and release to mute.
- Press the locker on the right of the Talk button to lock the microphone on and press it again to mute.
When you are in the Q & A section maximize the chat window pressing on the Discussion button.

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