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Tag Archives: Approval

Creating a Social Posts Approval Flow with Dynamics 365 Marketing and Power Automate

October 10, 2020   Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Dynamics 365 Marketing is a powerful application within Dynamics 365 that allows for the easy management and deployment of digital marketing campaigns. Included within this is the ability to create and schedule social media posts.. As part of Dynamics 365 and the greater Microsoft suite of business apps, Dynamics 365 Marketing allows for easy integration between Microsoft products. This includes the workflow automation tool, Power Automate, formerly known as Microsoft Flow.

Power Automate allows users to create automation flows within other Microsoft apps and some 3rd party applications. With the help of Power Automate, you can create a social post approval process in Dynamics 365 Marketing. This flow automatically sends social post drafts to a designated approver when marked for approval in Dynamics 365. The approver then receives an email with the name and text of the post along with a direct link to the draft in 365 Marketing. From there, the approver can schedule the post.

Create the flow

To get started making the flow, navigate to Dynamics 365 Marketing Social Posts and select New. On the editor page, there will be a Flow drop down on your top tool bar. Select new to begin creating the approval flow.

It will default as a common data service button, which is what you are looking for. Since we initiated it through the social post editor, it should have your first step set up already. If not, it should be titled “When a Record is Selected.” The environment can be left at Default and the entity should be “Social posts.” Next, create an “Initialize Variable” step. It is not fully necessary in this instance, but in longer flows with multiple of the same kinds of steps, you may want to rename them to something more specific. We can call this one “Post Link”. The name field should be “Post Link” and select String in the Type drop down. Value can be left blank. This step creates a variable that will be used in the process to give a link to the draft of the social post in Dynamics 365 Marketing.

The Process Scope

A scope step is essentially like a file divider. It keeps similar functioning actions together. Scopes keep your flow organized as you can collapse it when you are working on a different step. Rename this scope to Process Scope, or something similar that makes the most sense to you. This scope will be what sends the email to the approver. Add a “Set Variable” and “Send an Email(V2)” action. Either email action should work fine, however the original is no longer receiving updates. In the “Set Variable” action, enter “Post Link” in the name field. The value function may be confusing, but Power Automate makes it pretty easy to get through it.

When clicking into the field, you should see a Dynamic Content window appear. Within this window click the Expression tab. Look for a function called “concat(text_1, text_2,…).” In the next step you will replace the two placeholder texts. Open another tab and navigate to a social post in 365 Marketing. Copy the web address and paste it into Word document or notepad. It should look like this:

https://[Your URL]&pagetype=entityrecord&etn=msdyncrm_socialpost&id=c6e087e9-7209-eb11-a813-000d3a17769f

Delete the section after “socialpost&id=” and keep everything else. This will replace “Text_1” in the concat function. This is input as a string, so you will need to put apostrophes on both ends of the link. The second placeholder is much simpler. All you need to do is replace “Text_2” with the “Social posts” variable from the dynamic content window where you got the concat function.

Now, the flow will combine the static portion of the URL with the unique ID for each social post. With the Set Variable action complete, we can move on to the email. The email action is simple and completely customizable based on what information you want to include for the approver. Add the email address of the approver and give it a relevant subject. In the body, you can add dynamic content to give a preview of the post within the email itself. In our Flow, we use Name, Post Text, and the Post Link variable that we created.

The Failure Scope

This is technically an optional step, but we have found that including a failure scope in flows provides quicker notification if something goes wrong. Power Automate does give notifications if a flow fails, but it can sometimes delay the email, or try to bunch them together. This scope sends an email immediately upon failure of the process scope.

To add this, create a scope step and rename it Failure Scope. In the settings dropdown of the scope, which looks like an ellipsis on the right side, set the run condition to failure of the process scope. Add two actions into this scope. One will be an email and the other Terminate. Set the email up to send to whomever is your flow manager. Be sure to specify in the subject and body which flow has failed. On the Terminate function, you only need to set the Status field to Failed. Everything else is fine to leave blank. This action just makes sure the flow stops in case of failure.

This flow simplifies the process of sending social posts created in Dynamics 365 Marketing off for approval. With Power Automate, it is easy to create these kinds of automatic processes without requiring a super extensive coding background. If you have questions or want to learn more about what Dynamics 365 Marketing and Power Automate can do for your company, Schedule a 45-minute discovery call with a Dynamics 365 Consultant to talk through your situation and answer any questions you may have!

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Skydio gains FAA approval to conduct bridge inspections with drones in North Carolina

October 5, 2020   Big Data
 Skydio gains FAA approval to conduct bridge inspections with drones in North Carolina

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Drone startup Skydio today announced the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has granted the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) statewide approval to fly Skydio drones beyond visual line of sight to inspect bridges. Skydio, which describes the waiver as the first of its kind, says the NCDOT will be able to conduct maintenance activities without the use of visual observers like trained pilots or staff.

A recent study by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials found that taxpayer cost per bridge inspection can be reduced 75% by switching from traditional methods to drones. The Minnesota Department of Transportation found that using drones for bridge inspection offsets some or all of the costs, depending on the bridge configuration and location, with a trial of drone-assisted inspections saving an average of 40% over traditional methods and providing ostensibly superior data and reporting.

Going forward, the NCDOT’s inspectors can send Skydio 2 drones to inspect critical structures below bridges in North Carolina instead of conducting rappels or using “snooper trucks.” In a typical year, NCDOT employees regularly canvass over 13,500 bridges.

The NCDOT is the first to receive a statewide waiver under the FAA’s Part 107 rules, potentially paving the way for other states to leverage drones in bridge and infrastructure inspection. Under current Part 107 drone rules, companies still can’t exact payment for deliveries over distances beyond a human operator’s line of sight, at night, or with fleets over a certain size. But Skydio says the FAA’s decision signals a willingness to permit operations for drones with “elevated levels of autonomy.”

North Carolina is the site of the FAA’s UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP). IPP, which launched in 2017, aims to bring state, local, and tribal governments together with private sector entities, such as drone operators and manufacturers, to test and evaluate the integration of civil and public drone operations with the national airspace system. Other participants include Zipline, which is delivering personal protective equipment (such as masks) around the campuses of the Novant Health medical network in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Matternet, which is making medical deliveries between WakeMed hospital in Raleigh and its Healthplex in Garner in partnership with UPS.

In May, the FAA chose 10 winners from a pool of more than 160 IPP applicants interested in reimagining how drones can be used by governments and corporations. Companies like AT&T use drones for maintenance inspections and to assist in natural disaster zones, and dozens of local government agencies, such as the San Diego Fire Department (SDFD), have begun actively deploying drones in emergency scenarios. Meanwhile, telepresence drone piloting companies like Cape have begun to partner with first responders, including the Chula Vista Police Department and San Diego Fire Department, for field tests.

Beyond the NCDOT, Skydio counts the Civil Air Patrol, the Ohio Department of Transportation, and Japan Infrastructure Waymark among its customers. Skydio recently launched the X2 family of drones and software solutions designed to simplify inspections and enterprise-oriented workflows. It also began selling Skydio 2 Dock, a self-contained, weatherproof charging base station for Skydio 2 that enables persistent operations and fits in a carry-on suitcase.

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UPS wins full FCC approval to start commercial drone deliveries

October 2, 2019   Big Data
 UPS wins full FCC approval to start commercial drone deliveries

(Reuters) — UPS on Tuesday said it won the U.S. government’s first full approval to operate a drone airline, which gave it a lead in the nascent U.S. drone delivery business over rivals Amazon and Alphabet.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted UPS’ Flight Forward drone subsidiary a Part 135 Standard certification on Friday. The company said the certificate allows it to expand its delivery service in campus settings such as hospitals and universities, but added that residential deliveries are years away.

The certification allows UPS pilots to fly drones beyond their line of sight and opens the door for the delivery company to expand Flight Forward. The fledgling unit is immediately doubling the number of drone flights it does for its flagship customer, Raleigh, North Carolina’s WakeMed Health & Hospitals.

“We’ll easily get to 20-plus flights per day, per drone,” said Scott Price, UPS’ chief strategy and transformation officer.

“It’s a business, it’s not a prototype or a test,” Price said of Flight Forward, which is paid to ferry blood and tissue samples to WakeMed’s central laboratory from points around its main hospital campus.

UPS said its latest certification clears the way for Flight Forward to add other campus delivery projects without seeking government approvals for each one.

“There are hundreds of campuses in the United States,” said Price, who added that UPS is eyeing drone deliveries on hospital, corporate and university campuses as it builds Flight Forward.

“This is a big step forward in safely integrating unmanned aircraft systems into our airspace,” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao said in a statement.

Under the new FAA approval, UPS Flight Forward pilots may now operate multiple drones under one certificate.

Earlier this year, Alphabet’s Wing, the sister unit of search engine Google, was the first company to get U.S. air carrier certification for a single-pilot drone operation. It is testing home deliveries in a rural area around Blacksburg, Virginia.

Amazon, known for its splashy drone delivery tests, also has won experimental certifications to test its drones.

The FAA is writing rules for drone operations, including guidelines for sharing airspace with passenger planes and flying over populated areas.

Residential deliveries, Price said, are “years out.”

(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by David Gregorio)

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UPS forms new drone delivery subsidiary, will seek FAA approval to operate commercial flights

July 24, 2019   Big Data
 UPS forms new drone delivery subsidiary, will seek FAA approval to operate commercial flights

UPS is doubling down on a drone logistics and delivery market that’s anticipated to be worth $ 29.06 billion by 2027. Ahead of the company’s quarterly earnings call this evening, it revealed that it has applied to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration for Part 135 certification, which would enable it to orchestrate commercial drone flights under a newly formed subsidiary business called UPS Flight Forward.

Part 135 approval, which could come as early as this year, would allow Flight Forward to apply for FAA-certified flight operations beyond line of sight, at night, and without limit to the number of drones or operators in command. That’s because Flight Fordware would be legally designated as a certified air carrier, affording it far more leeway in fleet management than the FAA Part 107 drone rules under which UPS currently operates.

Alphabet X lab graduate Wing took a similar regulatory path to market. It announced in April that it had been certified by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration as a small-sized air carrier under Part 135 rules, giving it the green light to charge for service and paving the way for pilot programs in the Virginia towns of Blacksburg and Christiansburg,

UPS chief transformation and strategy officer Scott Price claims that Part 135 certification would not only enable faster scaling of the company’s drone deployments in targeted markets, but that it would lay the groundwork for one of the first fully certified revenue-generating operations in the U.S. UPS estimates that cutting off just one mile for the routes of each of the company’s 66,000 delivery drivers would amount to $ 50 million in savings.

“UPS is committed to using technology to transform the way we do business,” added Price. “UPS’ formation of a drone delivery company and application to begin regular operations under this level of certification is historic for UPS and for the drone and logistics industries overall.”

It’s yet another step toward drone delivery dominance for UPS, which earlier this year collaborated with drone platform provider Matternet to launch an aerial delivery service from WakeMed’s flagship hospital and campus in Raleigh. In 2016, it teamed up with Zipline and international health care alliance Gavi in 2016 to deliver blood products to remote locations in Rwanda. And in early 2017, it tested a drone that launches from the top of a UPS van to autonomously drop off packages as the delivery driver makes a separate delivery.

UPS is forging ahead against rivals like Amazon, which launched a trial of its Prime Air drone delivery service for select customers in Cambridge, England in December 2016. In the intervening years, companies like Microsoft and startup Flytrex have trialed airborne delivery services in cities like Holly Springs, North Carolina and Wichita, Kansas. In May, Uber announced plans to deliver food by drone in San Diego, and FedEx plans to develop a drone-powered aircraft inspection program in Tennessee.

Reports show the commercial drone industry is continuing to grow quickly, albeit from a small base. A 2017 forecast from Gartner projected the number of commercial drones sold that year would exceed 174,000. Moreover, about $ 454 million was thrown at UAV startups in 2016 alone, and the market is forecast to be worth $ 127 billion by 2020.

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Uber receives approval to resume self-driving car tests in Pittsburgh

December 19, 2018   Big Data

Just over eight months after one of Uber’s self-driving cars struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona, Pennsylvania’s Department of Transportation has given the company the green light to redeploy its fleet in Pittsburgh, the city where its Advanced Technologies Group — the division responsible for the bulk of its driverless vehicle research — is primarily based.

The Information earlier today reported that the agency had approved Uber’s petition to resume driverless tests, which it submitted in November, and a spokesperson confirmed some of the details in the report to The Verge this afternoon. Uber cautioned that it hadn’t begun the tests yet, however.

The Pennsylvania DOT issued new guidelines in July asking companies to submit details about their driverless systems testing. Only after plans are approved will it send “authorization letters,” it said at the time. Uber received its letter this week.

When the tests do resume, they’ll be at a significantly reduced scale. The company told The New York Times this month that its cars will operate along a mile-long route between two of its offices in Pittsburgh, and travel no faster than 25 miles per hour. They’ll also stay off the road in rainy weather and at night.

In the aftermath of the March crash, Uber halted self-driving tests in San Francisco, Toronto, and Pittsburgh shortly after Arizona Governor Doug Ducey suspended it from deploying cars in the state. More recently, it let go 100 of its autonomous vehicle operators, although it’s encouraging them to apply for new “mission specialist” jobs in Pittsburgh.

Uber started redeploying fleets of self-driving cars in the city late this summer, albeit with their autonomous systems disabled. In a blog post published in June, Eric Meyhofer, head of the Advanced Technologies Group, detailed newly implemented safeguards such as a second set of employees responsible for documenting “notable events,” a training program focused on safe manual driving, and aftermarket monitoring systems that sound an alarm and alert a remote monitor if a driver takes their eyes off the road.

The improvements came after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that Uber had disabled the automatic emergency braking system in the Volvo XC90 involved in May’s fatal crash. (In internal documents, the company said was to “reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behavior.”) The NTSB also found that the car’s perception system detected the victim about six seconds before impact, but that it didn’t determine emergency braking was needed until 1.3 seconds before impact.

According to a separate report from The Information, a former Uber manager raised concerns about its driverless cars’ road readiness in an email sent days before the accident

In a voluntary safety assessment filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Uber said that, with a separate systems engineering testing team, it’is better positioned “to reason over many possible outcomes to ultimately come to a safe response,” and will in the coming months form a self-driving safety advisory board of outside experts.

“At Uber, we believe that technology has the power to make transportation more efficient, accessible, and safer than ever before,” Meyhofer wrote. “Self-driving technology has the potential to make these benefits an everyday reality for our customers, but it’s not going to happen overnight. Building best-in-class self-driving technology will take time, and safety is our priority every step of the way.”

Uber is reportedly seeking to restart testing in San Francisco and perform new manually driven road tests in Toronto.

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Introducing PowerApproval: Approval Processes Built into Dynamics 365

October 11, 2018   Microsoft Dynamics CRM
powerapproval 300x225 Introducing PowerApproval: Approval Processes Built into Dynamics 365

PowerObjects is proud to announce the newest member of the PowerPack lineup – PowerApproval! This nifty add-on for Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement gives users the power to build and run approval processes inside of their Dynamics system. Multi-step approval processes can be easily built and applied to any Dynamics record, and each approval step can be approved by a specific user, a team, the manager of the user who submitted the approval, or anyone else – it depends on your desired process.

101018 1654 Introducing1 Introducing PowerApproval: Approval Processes Built into Dynamics 365

The add-on is also easily extendable, so users can set up automated notifications, automated approval kick-off, and additional approval tracking by using Dynamics 365 workflows, charts, dashboards, and more.

As with all PowerObjects PowerPack add-ons, PowerApproval can be imported and tried, free, for 30 days. After you’ve had a chance to give the add-on a try, it can be purchased for $ 1/user/month. Visit the PowerApproval web page for additional details, and to get started!

Happy Dynamics 365’ing!

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Webinar 12/7 -Using Microsoft Flow to automate a B2B approval process by Paul Schaeflein

December 5, 2017   Self-Service BI

Recently one of our Office MVPs, Paul Schaeflein, was asked how to automate a process to request and approve external users having access to content inside an Office 365 Group.   In this webinar Paul will go through how to use Microsoft Flow, Azure B2B and Microsoft’s Cloud services to solve this scenario.   Out of the box, Microsoft Flow allows you to connect to many cloud-services. But what about your line-of-business systems? With a JSON-capable web service, your employees can use Flow to automate their processes without development skills. Come learn how to connect Flow, APIs, Azure AD and Office 365 in this demo-heavy session.  Note: Note with PowerApps and PowerBI adoption of B2B this scenario will become mainstream.

 

When: 12/7/2017 10AM PST

Subscribe to watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIImcUZyP7U

 

 

 

Schaeflein Paul Webinar 12/7  Using Microsoft Flow to automate a B2B approval process by Paul Schaeflein

 

Paul Schaeflein is a solution architect/developer with more than three decades experience in architecting, designing and developing software solutions. This experience covers a vast range of technologies, languages and industries. Paul is an independent consultant, helping organizations of all sizes with their application development, ALM and SharePoint/Office 365 projects. Paul is a top-rated speaker, having presented at SharePoint Evolutions, the Microsoft SharePoint Conference and TechEd conferences, as well as user groups. In recognition of these community efforts, he is recognized as a Most Valuable Professional (MVP). Paul has a blog at http://www.schaeflein.net/blog, and is active on Twitter as @paulschaeflein. You can also reach him at paul@schaeflein.net.

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Enough is Enough in the Approval Process: When to Sign Your Name and Ship It

June 27, 2017   CRM News and Info
blog title signature 351x200 Enough is Enough in the Approval Process: When to Sign Your Name and Ship It

The old Abbott and Costello routine Who’s on First? is a classic gag. It’s seemingly endless, and also very funny.

Who’s Got the Authority to Sign Off and Approve a Piece of Marketing Collateral? may feel like just as much of a gag. It’s definitely endless, but it’s not so funny. Approval is like a hot potato – people don’t want to touch it and are reluctant to sign their name and hard-stamp something with “this is good to go.”

Personally, I think it comes down to fear. Fear of one’s initials being the last on the document – because the last to say “yes” becomes the first in line to receive blame should something go catastrophically wrong.

But without that “yes,” we are aimless. Somewhere, someone has to say “yes” – or else your copywriters and designers will soon be crying uncle. At some point it has to be “done.” Finite. Approved.

So, who should be the decider? Who signs off – and at what stage? And how many rounds of revisions should everyone expect, anyway?

Digital’s influence on the approval process

Today is a far cry from the old print-publishing days when we really had to get it right from the start. In that era, my boss and I spent hours hunched over proofs with red pens. We scrutinized and line edited. We also carefully selected what things we’d let slip through – because editing meant reprinting, which meant more money. Some things just had to slide. And once we signed our names, it was a done deal. Literally. The print shop took care of shipping and distribution for us, too. So our approval meant that the horse had left the barn.

In today’s digital age though, we have the possibility to be perfect – and we also have a massive perfection complex. There’s always room and opportunity for improvement, so it’s easy to feel like nothing is ever “done-done.”

I’ve encountered so many execs and higher-ups who are afraid to say “Yes – close it.” They fear that an error will reflect badly on them, so they shirk the final act of closure. They let endless loops of revisions take them down, missing a deadline in favor of fixing another headline or comma.

It’s maddening.

We can never move on.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that we strive for disorder and poor grammar. We should strive for greatness – or at least goodness. We should want our copy to be error free, our collateral to be polished, and our best foot put forward.

But sometimes, when you’re 20 revisions in (hands up if you been there too), it’s time to say “Enough is enough.”

What is the approval process and who’s in charge?

Approval, in today’s age, means someone with the correct level of authority steps out and signs their name – literally or proverbially – on the project’s dotted line. Gives it a green light. Ships that sucker.

Typically, the person at the top – or near the top – of the marketing organizational pyramid will be the one to give the final signoff.

Whoever wields that pen should have read the content (or reviewed the artwork/video/insert-your-medium-here), weighed it against everything that’s come before it to ensure it fits the brand and quality standards, and then given the go-ahead green light.

Incremental signoffs and mini approvals

In order to reach the final approval – the peak of that pyramid – take a tip from climbers: Try a milestone approach.

For example, let’s say your Chief Marketing Officer has final signoff in the approval process. Before the CMO sees it, make sure that whoever sits immediately below her – let’s say it’s the Director of Marketing – has a chance to sign off too (preferably a few days before the CMO, to allow time for any changes). Before it gets to the director level, make sure your Senior Marketing Manager also weighs in. And so on.

This is sort of like a work-back schedule: You know where you’re going, you just need to set achievable milestones along the way to ensure you get there, on time and with high quality.

Creating an approval process

I personally like that incremental approach so I know that I’m heading in the right direction.

I recognize that this isn’t always possible, however, especially on super-tight turnarounds or in a smaller organization. Sometimes you need to create a piece and lob it over to the executive to see.

You can still take cues from this model by setting mini milestones for yourself. Let’s say it’s just you and your boss – a mighty team of two – working on a project. She has final say and leaves the rest to you. Now, you could wing it and hope for the best. But instead, I’d suggest creating a mini approval process for yourself.

It might look something like this:

  • Brainstorm 10 campaign slogan ideas.
  • Narrow that down to the best three.
  • Write campaign copy for each of those three slogans.
  • Now, review your work and select two.
  • Put those two into layout and choose your art.
  • Step away and come back to an hour or a day later.
  • Which one pops? Which one speaks most to the brand, and is both engaging and unique?
  • Make your choice.
  • Consider that a milestone and move on. 

How many rounds of reviews should you expect – or allow – in the approval process?

Over the years, I’ve worked with business clients of many sizes. You’d think that the big operations – the corporations – would have this dialed, and the smaller guys would be tripping over themselves. I’ve actually seen the opposite. In many cases it’s the smaller businesses that are more buttoned up, careful to reduce churn, and get things out the door. Maybe it’s because they have less time to spend, and therefore every workstream must be efficient.

As you can probably sense by now, endless revisions are a pain point and a pet peeve in the approval process. At the same time, I recognize we are rarely done after just one round. It’s quite possible – and necessary – to flesh out a few ideas and try some things before you get to the good stuff. Sometimes reaching into the can for the second, third, or fourth idea is what reveals the best stuff.

But, in order not to get caught in an endless loop, I like to cap my revision rounds at three or four. It’s lofty, I realize. Sometimes – if time allows – you may give yourself a little extra back and forth with the boss to get things right.

Re-checking your work after four or five times is just time wasted, because something happens: Our brains go muddy. We’ve seen The Thing so many times that we become blind to otherwise obvious errors. We miss stuff. That’s not good, especially as you approach the deadline and executive signoff.

Endless rounds of revision also lend themselves to version-control issues. The more times you revise, and edit, and revise again, the more apt you are to lose version control. That’s a topic for another time, but believe me when I say it’s on my mind. A lot. Especially when I can’t keep the drafts straight and start to feel like a crazy person reconciling five simultaneous files to find “the latest” or discover that errors that we corrected in rev three were reintroduced in rev five or six.

And, productivity simply plummets when you get into double-digit revision rounds.

I had a recent project that went through more than two dozen revisions. I wish I were kidding. Usually I’m pretty good at keeping track in my mind of what we’ve done and still need to do – such as “Yes, we’ve fact-checked,” or “No, we haven’t yet brand-checked.” But by rev 20, I was fried and had lost all memory of what we’d done. I had to resort to double and triple checking the final document to make sure it was sound, and some bad stuff still slipped through. It made me cringe a few weeks later when I saw it.

So, the warning: If you must – and I really mean must – stretch into half a dozen or more revision rounds, be sure you bring in someone with a fresh set of eyes to see the thing before you ship it. They can help catch typos and other little errors that no longer jump out at you. 

Tricks of the trade

So, what now?

The first thing you should do is figure out who (or several whos) need to sign off. If you do nothing else, do that. I know a lot of companies are employing the “flat organization” structure these days, but please give someone the final red pen of approval.

Another step you can take is to follow a documented roadmap. Be that a creative brief or a creative workflow, having some kind of guidance to document the way things should be is helpful.

Letting it go

And then, surrender. Because at some point you really do need to let your work go out into the world. A great campaign slogan kept in a proverbial drawer never sold any product.

When you let it go, this also allows you – and your team – to move on. Instead of striving for perfection, you can harness that energy and use it on your next project. Because there’s never just one project. There’s always something else around the corner.

We can also learn from our mistakes, including what works – and what doesn’t.

And here’s the kicker: In today’s world, we truly do have opportunities to redo our work. Not always, of course – if you print something for a billboard or a brochure, that’s sort of a done deal unless you want to fork over the cost to reprint. But if you work in digital, you ostensibly can audit your channel in a month and decide, “Hey, let’s tighten this up and try it again.” You can revamp a campaign and course-correct any things that have been nagging at you since the initial release. You do have opportunities for fixes. Let that sink in – and let your shoulders relax a bit.

At some point you need to loosen the reins a bit and say, “It’s good enough. Let’s try it.” And see what happens.

As marketing guru Seth Godin says, “You don’t need more time, you just need to decide.”

Be the decider – or decide who is the decider – and get going.

Back to you: What’s your system for keeping your projects on track and revising your work wisely? Share your tips here.

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American Augmented Reality Gains Chinese Stamp Of Approval

July 4, 2016   Mobile and Cloud

American augmented reality technology company Meta announced the completion of its USD50 million round of funding and its major investors included Horizons Ventures Limited, Lenovo, Tencent, Banyan Capital, Comcast Ventures, and GQY.

In February 2016, Meta launched its new-generation product Meta 2. According to the company, Meta 2 is a natural machine learning system developed based on neuroscience principles. By creating user experiences that are completely in line with human instinct, Meta 2 will change people’s working, entertainment, communication, and interaction activities.

Meron Gribetz, chief executive officer of Meta, said that Meta integrates the leading optical solutions with an interactive system designed basing on neuroscience principles. Compared with traditional products, it is easier to use and features stronger functions for users.

Yue Bin, founding partner of Banyan Capital, said that Meta may be the only start-up that can directly compete with large companies such as Microsoft and Magic Leap in the AR sector. Other Chinese firms like Lenovo and Tencent added to the Sino flavoring of this latest round of investment.

After completing the new funding, Meta will continue to improve its hardware and software technical reserves. In regards to business expansion, technologies for its next-generation product Meta 3 are undergoing development in addition to related applications development. The company has not directly reported if the Chinese cash infusion will immediately lead to a China-based focus of its services.

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