Summary
In this article, we summarise key product updates released in 2024
These include:
HubSpot v2 integration launched
New integrations for MySQL and PostgreSQL
You can automatically email Page (dashboard) PDFs
Launch of AI features: Conversation Summary and Writing Assistant
Enhancements to Workflows: workdays option in task steps, copy Team Members (Users) into email steps, and create Sequence Workflow Templates targeting the Company model
In 2024, we are concentrating on larger, longer-term projects - watch this space for exciting updates later in the year!
Who is this article for?
All Planhat Users
Series
Product updates summary - 2024 ⬅️ You are here
Article contents
Q1
Q2
Q3
Introduction
Here at Planhat, we have a culture of continuous improvement, and we update Planhat frequently.
The aim of this article series is not to detail every single release, but more to give you a high-level overview of some of the key customer-facing updates - functionality changes you'll see in the UI.
Our Developers also often make improvements to elements in the "backend" - infrastructure/architecture - to enhance performance (e.g. make things load extra quickly, or be even more robust/reliable). We are not going to list all these updates here.
In 2024, our Product Development team is concentrating on larger, longer-term projects - watch this space for exciting updates later in the year!
Q1
New integrations for MySQL and PostgreSQL
📝 Details
Planhat's integrations with MySQL and PostgreSQL allow you to sync time-series usage (metric) data to Planhat seamlessly, as User Activities or Custom Metrics
😃 Benefits
With these new connections, you have even more flexibility in the tools you can use alongside Planhat
Once the usage data is synced to Planhat, you can analyse this product usage data within Planhat, including in the context of other data types; you can then automatically take data-driven action
Email batch limit enhancements
📝 Details
Transactional email batch limits have been separated from personal email batch limits
😃 Benefits
This means that mass-sending transactional emails (typically used for marketing) is now even faster
Updating User (team member) email addresses
📝 Details
There is a new permission to "Manage all email addresses" (under "workflow permissions - features"), which permits a User to change other Users' email addresses, subject to some specific conditions:
The domain of the email isn't being changed
The User making the change has the same domain as the the User whose email is being changed
The User whose email is being changed does not have access to more than one Planhat tenant
Email addresses (your own, and other Users' email addresses) are now changed from the User Profile
For more details, check out our support article
😃 Benefits
This is useful new functionality for Planhat admins (e.g. CS Ops), which has been designed with security in mind
HubSpot v2 integration launched
📝 Details
New features include:
Expanded functionality in terms of which Planhat models / HubSpot objects you can connect, with bidirectional sync available on almost all sync sections
Filtering in both directions - you can set up complex rules for records to send to HubSpot, and simple rules for records to fetch
Near real-time sync (subject to rate limits); sync high volumes of data in a matter of seconds/minutes
Rate limit management - adjusts API requests based on limits
Query tool and logs - you can query by sync section x record ID to get a snapshot of the data on the HubSpot side, and you can see logs of when the sync is happening and when errors occur
For further information, you can read our guides starting here
😃 Benefits
This enhanced HubSpot integration enables you to quickly and easily sync your CRM data into Planhat, and sync data back from Planhat to HubSpot if desired
The new HubSpot integration is highly flexible, enabling you to configure it to suit your specific needs
It syncs quickly but also takes rate limits into account
Additional logs help with any troubleshooting required
Automatically email Page (dashboard) PDFs
📝 Details
😃 Benefits
This is a great way to share data insights from Planhat to team members (e.g. senior management / board members) who may not be regularly checking Pages in Planhat
Q2
Launch of AI features - Conversation Summary and Writing Assistant
📝 Details
You can use Conversation Summary to produce summaries of lengthy conversations at the click of a button
Conversation Summaries can be generated on email threads or support chats
Each Conversation Summary states when it was generated, so you can ensure it's up to date
Use Writing Assistant to summarise text, create action points, improve writing or translate
You can use this tool with notes (logged activities) or Issues
You can even take action on your generated insights by sharing them easily with the involved End Users via email
To start using these features, enable the free trial in your tenant, and then you can upgrade to a paid plan by contacting your CSM
You can control access to specific team members via role permissions if you like
For further details, check out our support article
😃 Benefits
Planhat's AI features are fantastic productivity tools for the whole team. They enable everyone to work a little bit faster and more effectively, by removing tedious manual work and enhancing outputs
Conversation Summaries are a great way for you to identify the important points of a long conversation much more quickly, so you don't have to scroll through long threads
A typical use case for Writing Assistant is to use it to improve your meeting notes, and then click to share them with the customer
Conversation Summary images
Writing Assistant images
Schedule "Workdays" in Workflow task steps
📝 Details
In Workflows, you can now set step timings of task steps in "workdays"
Previously, task step timings were always set in terms of "days", whereas email step timings could be set in either "days" or "workdays"
You can set this in the step details, and then when looking at the task table in a Project, mouse over the cell to see that "workdays" are selected
😃 Benefits
This enables you to easily schedule task steps in a way that avoids weekends (Saturday and Sunday)
Copy (cc) Team Members (Users) into Workflow email steps
📝 Details
In email steps in Workflows (End Users Workflows - typically Sequences), you can now copy in Team Members (Planhat Users)
This is a dynamic reference in the Workflow Template that will be populated with the correct email address in the actual Workflow
You could use a default Team Member field such as "Account Owner", or a custom Team Member field such as "Technical Account Manager"
😃 Benefits
This means you can, for example, automatically cc the customer's CSM when an automated renewal email is sent from Finance ...
... or cc the Technical Account Manager when Marketing shares technical enablement material
This helps improve visibility across your team - it's another way to ensure everyone is aware of important customer communication
Q3
Sequences targeting the Company model
📝 Details
Previously, Sequence Workflows, which are optimised primarily for automatically sending emails, were only available for the End User model, but now you can alternatively design Sequence Workflow Templates targeting the Company model
For each email step in a Company Sequence Workflow Template:
A single email will be sent to all recipients - rather than one email per End User as you have in Sequences targeting End Users
You choose an End User filter to specify who the email is sent to - for example, this could be Decision Makers, Main Users, Tech/Ops Contacts, or Billing Contacts
You don't need to create a version of this filter per Company, as the recipients will automatically be filtered by the Company the Workflow Template has been applied to
You can optionally select another End User filter if you want to copy (cc) a different set of End Users into the email
😃 Benefits
Company Sequences are designed for scenarios where you want to automatically email End Users, but you want to send a single email to multiple recipients, rather than having a separate email per recipient. This can streamline email communication by avoiding unnecessary email threads
While End User Sequences relate to actions of individual End Users ...
E.g. apply the Sequence when an End User has logged in but not watched a training video
... Company Sequences are perfect for events involving the Company as a whole
E.g. apply the Sequence when a Company has completed onboarding, or when a Company renewal is due in 90 days
They therefore have similar use cases to Company Projects (Projects being the other type of Workflow), the difference being that Projects are designed for tasks, whereas Sequences are optimised for automatic emails
Custom Automations can be triggered by the Task model
📝 Details
You can now create Custom Automations where the data change that triggers the Automation is on the Task model - previously, this particular data model was not available to use in an Automation trigger
😃 Benefits
There are a wide variety of potential use cases for this - for example:
When a specific Task in a Workflow is completed, then:
Send a Slack message
Or create an Opportunity
Or update the status of an Asset
Etc.
When a specific Task is completed (e.g. a Sales handover Task), create/apply an Onboarding Workflow
When a Task is created, or is overdue, notify the Owner
When a Task does not have specific fields filled in, notify the CSM to add them; or when a Task is created of a specific type, automatically fill in certain fields
And many, many more ...
Google and Outlook Calendar integrations sync 90 days into the future
📝 Details
The integrations for Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar now sync 90 days into the future. Previously, this was limited to 30 days. This has automatically been updated (rather than being a setting you need to change)
Background information: as opposed to email sync, which goes back in time when running the initial sync, calendar sync starts with today's date and syncs forward. The assumption is that you don't need your historical meetings to be Tasks ("Planned Activities"), since you've already completed them
😃 Benefits
This update means additional events are automatically synced in for you
It enables you to have a quarter of forward visibility
Easily convert between currencies using a Formula Field
📝 Details
A new operation is available in Formula Fields, to convert between currencies:
FX_CONVERTThe format of the formula is:
FX_CONVERT(from amount, from currency, to currency, date).Filling in details, an example is:
FX_CONVERT(<<arr>>, <<_currency>>, BASE, <<fromDate>>)The above formula, on the License model, will take License ARR, and the Currency system field ("_currency"), and convert it to your tenant's base currency (defined in the tenant settings), using the historical FX rate for the month of the License start date ("fromDate")
For further details, see this support article on this feature
😃 Benefits
With this update, you can easily convert revenue data to a single currency
This is really valuable if use multiple currencies in Planhat, and want to analyse and act on data using a common currency
For example, you might have Licenses with different currencies, based on the location of each customer. In order to report on, or filter, this data, you need first to convert all of the Licenses to a common currency - and now you can easily do this
You can use this Formula Field function on whichever data model you need - e.g. Opportunity or Asset, as well as the License examples above
Automation Templates to dynamically assign Companies to Users
📝 Details
Two additional Templated Automations are available to automatically assign Companies to Users (Users of Planhat, i.e. Team Members - you and your colleagues)
They are both highly customizable, so you can tailor them to suit your needs
You will see below that the logic of these Automation Templates starts the same as each other (with the same type of trigger), but then the assignment of Users to Companies works in a slightly different way
"Dynamically assign Companies to Users"
Structure: When a Company enters the [Company filter], assign it to the User in the [team] matching the [User filter] who has the [lowest/highest] [User property] via the [Team Member field]
Example: When a Company enters the Enterprise filter, assign it to the User in the EMEA Team matching the All Users filter who has the lowest ARR via the Owner field
"Dynamically assign Companies by Phase" (which is also for assigning Users)
Structure: When a Company enters the [Company filter], assign it to the User in the [team] matching the [User filter] who has the [lowest/highest] number of Companies in the [Phase] where they are the [Team Member field] via the [Team Member field]
Example: When a Company enters the Enterprise filter, assign it to the User in the EMEA Team matching the Enterprise TAMs filter who has the lowest number of Companies in Onboarding where they are the TAM via the TAM field
😃 Benefits
These Templated Automations unlock scalable Company assignment, as they automatically assign Companies based on criteria you define
They can be particularly useful for Scaled CS / Tech-Touch Customer Success (e.g. if you're working with SMB Companies)
They also enable dynamic lead assignment
They help you to be more efficient by removing a manual task so you can focus where you're really needed, such as strategy
Send more emails at once, as images don't count towards the size limit
📝 Details
There is a limit of 50 MB per bulk email distribution (a single "batch" of emails you're sending to multiple End Users at once), which is set to ensure delivery and increase reliability (by avoiding timeouts)
Click the image to view it enlarged
With this update, images in emails are no longer included in the 50 MB limit
😃 Benefits
This means that the number of emails you can send out should significantly increase - by about 100 times for emails with inline images! 🎉
Further reading
For previous product updates, see our article on 2023 Q4