Flexibility & Extensibility
Table of Contents
- Built for Flexibility
- Extending the System
- Experiences
- User Modes
- Templates
- Defining Security
- Applying Security
- Custom Modules
Built for Flexibility
STARTA is one of the most customizable systems you will ever run across. Most of our modules allow for a high degree of customization right "out of the box," and all modules can be completely altered to meet your needs via custom programming (at a per-hour charge). This level of configurability brings you the relevance of completely custom-developed software without the wait or the extreme cost. You can read in-depth explanations about how to configure your view of the system in our Online User Manual, but overviews of some of our common concepts are listed here.
Extending the System
STARTA is so flexible that often times companies that think they need to extend really do not--sometimes the customization options which already exist are more than sufficient. We'll work with you to determine how best to meet your individual needs, and determine the most cost-effective approach.
We're always looking for new ideas for system features, so feedback is always welcome. Throughout the year we add new enhancements based on client suggestions, so keep an eye out for new functionality that you can take advantage of for free.
When your company does need specific additions or extensions to the system, we have custom programming options available that are very affordable. In these cases, all work is done at our standard custom programming rate. We are almost always able to provide a low-cost solution by leveraging our extensive system framework, which limits the amount of back-end "plumbing" work that we have to do for each individual client. We're always busy on custom programming for someone, so call today to get onto our schedule as soon as possible. .
Experiences
Experiences are one of the most powerful configuration tools within STARTA. Experiences are applied to each workspace you create, and define how that workspace works, what the workspace is called, and specifically what fields and functionality that workspace contains. All of this configurability is accessible through the front end for administrators of your account. Experiences allow you to hide or rename any data field to match your normal nomenclature, and alias, customize, or otherwise alter many other parts of the system.
User Modes
STARTA has a huge library of features, and sometimes the sheer volume of it all can be overwhelming to novice users. Using our "User Modes" feature, unneeded functionality can easily be hidden from certain people or certain groups of people, so that they receive a more focused view of their work while they are still learning.
Templates
We love templates, and we think you will too once you see how they work in our system. For many modules Starta provides some baseline templates, and for all relevant modules you can define your own centralized templates for doing work. These templates are shared by all your people, and can be automatically applied or can often be applied by authorized users at will. Many of our modules allow for further customization at an individual workspace once a broad template is selected.
Defining Security
One of the key features of our Business Operating System (BOS) concept is the existence of an integrated security model. Our model is task-based, but with role-based assignments. Even better, a basic security schema is centrally defined by our own administrators, which always gives you intelligent defaults to fall back on. When you first start out our basic schema is in place, but you're free to completely override it immediately or over time, or to just override those parts which specifically don't meet your needs.
Applying Security
Once you've chosen your security schema, you need to identify which specific people fall into which roles, so that they can start working. This can be done individually or by custom teams. Normally, your security schema is set up centrally, and then individual role assignments are made on a per-workspace basis. We also have both a full and a read-only "super-user" access level which lets authorized individuals have full or read-only access to all parts of your business, if you have a more open approach or need all-powerful administrators.
We have a number of features that help you to automatically apply different security setups, vary your user assignments by region or branch office, or otherwise automate a process which can become time consuming in other systems. It's our belief that after you set something up once, you shouldn't have to go back and set it up again unless you're changing something--and when you change something, you should only have to redo the parts you're changing.
Custom Modules
STARTA allows for Custom Modules to be defined for use by individual clients whenever the standard functionality just won't work, when a client's request is simply not applicable to other clients of the system, or when the requested functionality is considered proprietary. These modules can be inserted by our programmers at any point in the system, or can even replace existing functionality. All custom module work is done at our standard custom programming rate