Popup ads?

[SkyeHa]

is anyone else getting these popup messages when they get in their workfront instance? Are they just going out to admin level license holders or to all users? -skye

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Confirmed, Skye (as SysAdmin). Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore

[VicAl]

Yes just got it this morning for the first time and confirmed my users are also getting it.

[Heather_Kulbacki]

I was logged in as a non-Admin this morning and got it.

[EileenWom]

My whole user base received it and now I am trying to field calls. Is there an option to turn this type of in-app advertising off? Or at least give the system administrators the heads up and ability to opt in to that advertising? This has caused a huge headache for my team, and has now been counterproductive to our workday. Eileen Womelsdorf SEI Investments Inc.

[SkyeHa]

thanks everyone for responding. I would not be surprised to hear of some customers having a no-big-deal reaction to this--it doesn't even raise my blood pressure to close the popup--it's harmless and innocuous. However, if you're feeling a certain disquiet, here might be why: (and feel free to add to my list.) Setting a precedent: now that Workfront has done it once they'll just assume they have carte blanche to do it all the time (see 2 and 3 below). Relevancy: we control how we do things-this is what governance is all about. This includes what integrations we use. The decision isn't supposed to be made one user at a time, no matter how innocuous someone else thought the message was. With all the recommendations, webinars, and Leap sessions Workfront has invested in for introducing the concept of governance, this kind of popup could be interpreted as being a little tone-deaf (in my opinion). Noise: (waste time and energy) Most users either have an extra keystroke to close the popup, or a keystroke and then they read whatever page they are sent to. Additionally the first time something different happens in a system you use every day there is an "alert" reaction ("is something broken?"); For this specific example, (other) system admins have been contacted by their users and had to field additional communications as a result. For all of the three above: this is just not how I pictured "mastering modern work" was going to go. -skye

[KarhyM]

It's not the click that is annoying it's having to field the calls about what to do ---- it's counterproductive! Kathy McLaughlin

[Christina_Jarosz]

I agree 100%! Pop-up messages like these in our company are ONLY used for critical need-to-know-it-will-impact-you-regardless information. From a marketing perspective, you really water down how impact your messages are when you use them for advertising purposes.

[jeremyflores]

Good morning! We appreciate you taking the time to voice your concerns about the recent productivity in-app guide. The intent of this guide was to educate you, our valued customers, on the new and exciting integrations we have available as well as inform you about the associated training found on the Experience site. Our aim is to enable you to do your best work, and we apologize if the presence of this guide caused temporary confusion or negatively impacted productivity in any way. We will incorporate this feedback, as well as work to give you System Administrators a heads up, as we move forward with future enablement plans. Thank you for understanding. Jeremy Flores

[MichelleBo1]

As others may have mentioned, this can be a governance issue. There are also support issues involved that system admins would need to get prepared for in order to field calls when theses integrations don't perform as expected. Michelle Bowden Fiserv ETG

[JamesMa4]

Thanks for this response Jeremy. I agree with Skye on the relevancy of this particular ad to our general user base. I would have been okay if it only came to our System Admins. So a heads up on these, and/or the ability to opt in would be very helpful. James Matsubayashi Toyota Financial Services

[JasonDA]

It's preferred that Workfront doesn't push these integrations on our users. As mentioned above, some of these integrations don't work as expected - the Adobe CC & MS Outlook integrations aren't as robust as one might hope they would be. For example - Last I checked, the Adobe CC integration has what some would see as a huge flaw in that the file is uploaded straight to WF instead of also existing on one's file server once exported. This can leave a hole in how the company manages files. Due to this fact, some customers don't bother with the Adobe CC integration. To everyone else's point - Governance. Jason DAquin

[CalvinFold]

Chiming in too...Governance. We don't support Adobe CC integration and the corporation outlaws Google products (officially). As the admin, I should get to say what my users should and should not be exposed to and what I will support. I have a tough enough time with users going off the rails and using features we aren't supporting (because I can't just shut them off); please don't add to my headaches. Sending me the little in-system "blue notifications" (and just to me as owner/admin) is fine. Inform *me* and let *me* disseminate as needed. Jeremy, some of us admins are herding cats...please don't randomly throw catnip and feather toys at them. ;-) THANKS! Kevin Quosig

[SarahNau]

I 100% agree with Skye - I put in a Workfront support ticket to see if there is a way we can turn these off for our end users. We are not on a compatible version of Outlook and we can't use the integration so now I'm fielding calls and having to explain this to multiple end users. Sarah Nau

[BobSl]

I can only add my concerns here too! In what world do Workfront live in, where they think pushing this kind of information to end users of an enterprise is an appropriate or useful method? I'm not going to write up the many reasons why this is not an acceptable decision - Workfront should not be pushing any info regarding my company's choice of toolset towards my users without my internal Workfront team's explicit agreement, period. What assurances will Workfront give that this will not happen again Regards Bob Sleigh BT Group

[MirandaRa1]

Hi Jeremy, We have strict data and infosec depts - trying to get the outlook and teams plugin into our software centre took me 7 months. So, I have 2 things... 1) I did find the link useful, as the videos (for what people could use) helped me out. 2) The issue is we don't use slack, for example - therefore, I would prefer to be able to configure the pop-up to what is relevant to our instalation. Thanks! Miranda Rais

[BobSl]

Thanks for your reply Jeremy I escalated this issue through my account management team yesterday, but I note sadly that today my users are receiving "How likely are you to recommend Workfront to your colleagues" survey messages. I class these in the same category as the integration messages we have been receiving – that is, as an unacceptable, unannounced intrusion into my enterprise's workspace. Please can you confirm that all these types of unsolicited messages have now been halted until we can agree an appropriate approach. To help inform that discussion on what is acceptable, I would suggest from my company's perspective, I don't just want a heads up on your future enablement plans, I want an opt-in solution, provided to my Admins, which as Miranda suggested should be granular enough for me to decide which parts of which messages I want which of my users to see, and comprehensive enough so I can decide to have none of the messages if I choose. Regards Bob

[Christina_Jarosz]

Has there been an update to this? I'm seeing another pop-up today about LEAP. This should not be appearing in our home screens. Very frustrating. This is information that is used for announcements - why does it need to also be pushed as a pop-up ad?

[CalvinFold]

I got the same thing. It wasn't even on my Home screen, I was just merrily working and looking at my project list and BAM! across my screen. I cannot express my displeasure strongly enough. Bad enough we have the giant "banner ad" on the login page (which I also think is really egregious given how much we pay for Workfront), but popups like this are beyond aggravating. Now if you want to take a cue from iPhone apps and give Workfront to us for free, or 20% the full cost or something, in exchange for seeing ads... Kevin Quosig

[Heather_Kulbacki]

I haven't seen that yet and I've been logged in as several different users this morning as well as myself. Is it possible they've targeted this one to Admins who aren't yet registered? Not sure if either of you are registered for LEAP, I am so maybe that's why I haven't gotten it...?

[EileenWom]

I would like to know of an update on this topic as well. Granted, the Leap popup hasn't generated as much chaos as the integrations popup (yet!). I would still prefer the option to allow or opt out of this type of advertising to my entire user base. Eileen Womelsdorf SEI Investments Inc.