Fika* with Membrain are live webinars where we highlight the most recent additions and improvements to Membrain, and give you a chance to ask questions and chat with us about all things Membrain.

*Fika [fee-kah] Swedish (v.) To slow down, have a coffee, and appreciate the good things in life.

For the December "Fika with Membrain" we took a look at the new Content Cards, a very useful feature with unlimited possibilities. We presented improvements on the graph and analytics side of things, with a focus on performance graphs. See below for more details, as well as the recording of the session.

Content Cards

This new capability gets an instant facelift with headers that help make Content Cards easier to scan for the eye ahead of, during, or after key activities and meetings. 

• Competitive information - Help the team identify strengths, weaknesses, and other insights against the competition
• Internal processes - Outline key policies and routines that may not relate to a specific process or step. This could be negotiation policies, steps to manage when a customer churns
• Value Propositions - Equip your team with your value proposition, elevator pitches and help them more easily explain the unique value you bring to your customers
• Call scripts - Want to make sure your new hires have everything they need to make a great first impression? Build interactive call scripts, and link them together to common questions, objections, and similar.

These are just some examples of what Content Cards can help your team achieve! We're looking forward to hearing your feedback on this exciting addition to Membrain.

Performance Graphs

Creating performance graphs that help you connect the team's performance to their sales goals, effectiveness objectives, and activity metrics have always been incredibly powerful. However, previously these graphs have only been possible to visualize with line graphs. In the session, we went through several examples and use cases of these brand-new visualizations!

• Track the sales of each team member or team compared to their goal, or year-on-year
• Visualize the quota attainment to see not in absolute numbers, but instead as a relative percentage of their goal
• Keep pace on key activities during the week or month and visualize them using donut, column, line, number, or table graphs!
• And of course: Share all this on a TV in the office or embed it on your intranet to share all the exciting progress with the team using a Live Dashboard!

Recording

It was great to see so many join in for the live session, but if you couldn't make it, here's the recording.

Stay tuned, we look forward to seeing you at the next Fika with Membrain!

- The Membrain Team

As many have noticed, there was in the software world a recent discovery that a commonly used software library called "Log4j2" had critical vulnerabilities. Let's take a look at what's happening. 

Understandably we have gotten some questions from our customers and partners if Membrain has been affected by this. We'd like to share some information on what the the incident is about, what it means, and a clarification that Membrain is unaffected by this vulnerability.

The team here at Membrain is aware of the situation related to the newly discovered security vulnerability connected to "Log4j2" (CVE-2021-44228). We will continue to provide updates to this issue as it develops in this post. 

• Membrain do not use Log4j2 as a logging tool.
• As a software Membrain is not susceptible to or affected by this vulnerability.
• Your data in Membrain remains safe.

So let's take a closer look at what this is all about.

What is Log4j?

Log4j is a widely used library for logging in software applications (for example for error messages and similar). It is used in enterprise software applications, including those custom applications developed in-house by businesses, and forms part of many cloud computing services.

Essentially, it's a practical and time-saving resource for software developers to minimize the efforts needed to build these types of tools internally. As a policy we at Membrain, for this very reason, try to minimize any dependancy on third-party components to ensure the security and integrity of our customer's data.

What is the vulnerability?

On December 9, 2021, the vulnerability CVE-2021-44228, also known as Log4Shell (more details safely accessible here) was reported. It could allow a system running Apache Log4j 2 version 2.14.1 or below to be compromised and permits Remote Code Execution (RCE). This allows attackers to execute arbitrary code on the host (more technical information safely accessible here).

So what does that mean?

Remote Code Execution essentially means that an attacker has the ability to send and run anything they want on your system, effectively giving them full access to all your data. 

This gives hackers a wide array of tools to cause harm, including stealing system credentials, getting deeper access within compromised networks, and stealing data. This issue is a monumental event that you will likely hear more on in news outlets for months, if not years, to come.

Is Membrain affected?

No. Membrain does not utilize this library and our customers can be confident that you can safely use Membrain, and that the safety and security of your data is and always be a critical priority for us.

Our technical team will continue to review and monitor any updates as it related to this on-going issue in the software world.

Sending custom quotes is a central part of any complex B2B sale. To make this process easier for salespeople, we’ve added an option to quickly and easily send a quote directly from within a Sales Project.

Creating a quote is easy! Just hit the new Share as Quote option now available from our Products tool.

How does it work?

• The content of the quote is based on the Products information in that specific Sales Project, so there's no need to manually add information. It's all right there, ready to go.
• Add a title and an optional description to include more details in the quote, or personalize it for your audience. 
• Use the Preview Quote option to review the quote before sending it. And even share it internally to get feedback from your colleagues before you send.
• Looks good? Great! The quote can now be easily shared with Stakeholders already selected in the Sales Project. The email includes a personal link to every selected individual, which they can then use to access the quote. 

Want to give it a try?

If you have the Sales Analytics+ add-on you can get started with this new feature straight away! Reach out to us at support@membrain.com and we'll be happy to help you get started.

If you don't have the Sales Analytics+ add-on, start a trial and see for yourself how Products and Shareable Quotes can transform your quoting workflow. Administrators - go to the Account Details page in Membrain and turn on a free, 14 day trial today!

No one likes a cluttered inbox. So in order to trim down the number of individual emails you receive from Membrain, we have introduced the Membrain Guide Update Email.

The Membrain Guide Update Email essentially provides a snapshot of the Membrain Guide content, bundled in to a summary email, and sent to you periodically throughout the day.

It includes the important contents of Membrain Guide, such as comments & mentions, red & yellow flags on projects, Membrain Meet requests, and lots other interesting notifications like when an email or content has been read, plus more!

Think of it like a summary of all the important information you need to know, without the clutter of less important notifications.

The email is sent only if:

• There is new or updated content in Membrain Guide
• You have not been active in Membrain for the last 30 minutes*
• The current time is during your default to working hours*

Its customizable* to your liking:

You have full control over when you would like to receive a Membrain Guide Update Email. To review or edit your settings, go straight to your Profile in Membrain and set your own preferences. Here you will find Membrain Guide settings, with options to select which days you wish to receive the Guide Update Email, how often, and at what time of the day. 

We hope you're happy with this change, and are enjoying a less cluttered inbox. If you would like to learn more about Membrain Guide and the Membrain Guide Update Email, take a look at this article in our help center.

Back by popular demand - our Fika* with Membrain live webinars are where we highlight the most recent additions and improvements to Membrain, and give you a chance to ask questions and chat with us about all things Membrain.

*Fika [fee-kah] Swedish (v.) To slow down, have a coffee and appreciate the good things in life.

Last week, we hosted November's "Fika with Membrain". This time around, we took a look at the new Beacon Forms, Content Hub notifications, Timezone improvements, Product "Quotes" and new Integrations. We also gave a sneak peek about the new Content Cards, coming up soon.

It was great to see so many join in for the live session, but if you couldn't make it, here's the recording.

Stay tuned, we look forward to seeing you at the next Fika with Membrain!

- The Membrain Team

One of the many strengths of Membrain is our powerful and easy-to-customize process steps that guide your salespeople through your unique sales process. Now, we’ve given you the power to go even deeper with the ability to create side projects from a process step.

This new feature allows you to create a new prospect, sales project or account growth project from within an existing project step, and let the opportunity continue to seamlessly flow through other workflows or departments in your business.  

Here's where it can be used: 

1: Add a new, parallel Sales Project for Implementation or Onboarding, once you're in the final stages of the Sales Project

2: Start a new Prospect from an Account Growth Project quarterly review,  when you identify new possible opportunities for upselling to your Key Accounts

3: Create a new Account Growth Project at the end of a contract if the customer successfully renewed their agreement

To learn more about setting up projects and process steps, read our help center article here. 

Reach out today to support@membrain.com and let's brainstorm together on how we can find a solution that works for you!

Keep your workflow in one place with this powerful tool that lets you create and follow up on your Docusign Agreements directly within Membrain.

No more extra steps outside of Membrain that require you to upload a separate document into the sales project. Stay in Membrain and start to see a positive impact in your business due to:

• Eliminating paper, hassles and wasted time with a seamless process in the cloud
• Signing documents anywhere from any device
• More security than paper
• No overnighting, faxing or waiting
• Manual and duplicate data entry reduced by Docusign agreements populated with information already identified and captured in your sales process.

Get notified inside Membrain when somebody has viewed, signed, or rejected your contract. You will also save hours of time tracking down clients to complete contracts with automatic reminders for advertisers to sign. 

The cost savings, speed and convenience of keeping your workflow in one place is proof that we are committed to making our customer's lives easier. It's simple to use and just requires that at least one of the Agreement signatories has access to the Docusign Workspace. 

In just 3 easy steps you can have your digital agreements signed, sealed, and delivered:

1:  Create the Docusign agreement - no more duplication of data entry in two systems. The integration pulls relevant information from Membrain and adds it directly into your Agreement templates in Docusign.

2:  Send the agreement - Once you're happy with it, its good to go!

3:  Track its status - Membrain will show you the latest status of your agreement, so everyone can see where its at. 

Ready to get it set up? Check out this help center article here. Or reach out today to support@membrain.com and let's brainstorm together on how we can find a solution that works for you!

You may be currently experiencing some problems accessing your Membrain account.

Unfortunately, our hosting provider is observing technical problems that are resulting in some customers being unable to connect to Membrain.

We're sorry for this inconvenience. As we learn more, we will keep you updated here.

LATEST UPDATES, NOV 8

Issue Summary: On Nov 8, 8.13am GMT, some of our customers experienced issues accessing Membrain. We now understand the source of the issue to be a malfunction in a UPS battery pack at our Hosting Providers site. This malfunction caused a power outage and a redundancy failure, resulting in loss of access to some of our customers.

By 10.31am GMT, access had been restored for all affected customers.

Thank you very much for your patience while we worked through this. Please reach out to us at support@membrain.com if you have any queries or feedback.

11.45 GMT - We've verified the actual duration of this issue to be between 8.13am and 10.31am GMT. The timestamps of these updates have been edited to reflect this. We'll be back with a summary of this issue shortly.

10.31 GMT - Access is gradually being restored, with all customers now able to log in to Membrain. Some email services remain unavailable, and work is continuing to bring everything online. 

10.08 GMT - Technicians are onsite, working to fix the problem and find the root cause.

9.30 GMT - We are currently working with our hosting provider to find the root cause of the problem and restore access to Membrain as soon as possible. 

Thank you for your patience. We do apologize for any disruption this is causing.

If you have any queries or would like to discuss this, please contact us on our Customer Support line in Sweden +46 8 446 888 82 or US +1 646 741 2797.

The Customer Success Team

Back by popular demand - our Fika* with Membrain live webinars are where we highlight the most recent additions and improvements to Membrain, and give you a chance to ask questions and chat with us about all things Membrain.

*Fika [fee-kah] Swedish (v.) To slow down, have a coffee and appreciate the good things in life.

Last week marked the comeback of our popular "Fika with Membrain" webinar series. This time round, we took a look at the new Engagement Matrix, the Account Growth Timeline and how Trend Graphs can be used to spot key changes in your account growth projects like strategic account management, channel management, customer success and more.

It was great to see so many join in for the live session, but if you couldn't make it, here's the recording.

We look forward to seeing you at the next Fika with Membrain!

- The Membrain Team

Membrain's "Performance Analytics" now gives you even deeper insights with the simple click of a button. Management can view a team’s overall performance, the performance of individual team members, and now, select all team members at once for a deeper look. 

This comes in handy for managers who want to work with individual salespeople to understand their impact on the overall team.

Previously, if you selected “Team A” in a dashboard graph or performance view, you would only see the data points for the overall team combined. Now with the Team "individual" option, you still see the team, but it is further broken down to an individual level.

Here’s an example of the two different views. 

View 1: The overall performance of an entire team.

View 2: The performance of each individual team member.

This update accomplishes 3 things:

• Makes it much easier (and quicker) to select just one option from the graph selector (rather than before, where you would have to select multiple salespeople individually and customize your graph).
• It helps keep your teams organized and eliminates the effort of trying to remember who is in which team.
• As salespeople move around from team to team, the graphs will update themselves without you needing to manually update a thing. 

How to use it!

Team (individually) and All (individually) options are now available in two different places within your Membrain instance:

• Performance Views (as shown above)
• Dashboard Performance Graphs (custom built graphs, as shown below)

The custom graphs dashboard also lists 'My Team Individually' and "All Individually" as pre-set options so you can quickly select from the dropdown list in the graphs library.

We hope you like these new options! Let us know your feedback or reach out to us support@membrain.com if you would like some more power user tips on building customized graphs and analytical views in an instant.