Are you new to FirstClass?
Would you like to see how FirstClass can help you stay connected to your messages anytime, anywhere?

This tour will take you through a "day in the life" of a FirstClass user.  From obtaining your messages to scheduling meetings and resources, FirstClass improves communication in any organization.  

Your messaging platform should make your life easier by allowing access to messages via the telephone, fax machine, email, cellular phone or even a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).  

This tour will show you how.

A Day in the Life of an IT Project Manager who uses FirstClass
FirstClass was designed with the philosophy that we can unify the collaborative aspects of communication, and let users manage the chaos that results when information overload occurs.

John Flint is an IT Project Manager with HuskyPlanes.com;  an online travel organization which helps Travel Agencies implement online order systems.  He is married with one child, and travels extensively throughout North America in his current position.

Follow John through his day, as he utilizes FirstClass for:

Desktop
Email
Collaboration
Calendar/Scheduling
Unified Communication
FirstClass and the Internet

as well as collaborating with colleagues and customers, organizing his appointments, meetings, milestones, and staff.  

FirstClass provides the tools that reduce time lost playing phone tag, and missed communications.  With society "on the run", the benefits of FirstClass are apparent once you experience them.

John is running late today.  He needs to be at the airport in two hours, and his laptop died this morning.  He has important email to check prior to meeting with his customer today.

While his laptop is being repaired, he decides to check his email from a colleagues laptop, which is running the FirstClass client.  This is possible because all data is kept in his FirstClass account, which means that the original files and email are all kept on the server.  John can access his account from any computer, whether this be at the office, or at a kiosk at the airport.

Desktop
The Desktop is the starting point in using FirstClass, and is the central location that helps you organize your work environment.  It can be fully customized to include any type of conference that you deem necessary.    

John can view his own customized FirstClass Desktop, even from a colleagues laptop.



John uses FirstClass for a communications tool and an organizational tool.  He can create as many conferences and folders as he desires.  He has access here to his personal calendar, and an address book with a list of his contacts.  He has his own mailbox that receives incoming email, voice messages, and fax messages.  He has even created links to some of the other departments that he works with so that he can access them from one location.  

This FirstClass Desktop allows the user to access different types of information stored in numerous locations from one interface;  this provides John with customized control over his information and workflow.

Email
John receives a large number of email every day.  Despite this, and the fact that he is using a colleagues computer, he is still able to manage his messages by utilizing the sorting, storing, and searching capabilities of FirstClass.  John prefers electronic communications to fax, phone messages, or even print, because of the power of his FirstClass tools, he can manage the communications he sends and receives.





John has set his FirstClass mailbox to sound a tone whenever new messages arrive.  He can then respond immediately via email or he can move the conversation to a "chat" where a clarifying conversation can be had.  

Because information is kept on the FirstClass server, John does not have to worry about back-ups.  If his information is stored on the FirstClass server, he will be able to obtain his files from anywhere.  Although John has documents on his laptop, he knows that the original documents are still on the server.  He can go to another machine, even if it doesn't have FirstClass and use a web browser to access his mail.  He can see and respond to all of the messages from customers and other staff.

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Collaboration with Teams
John is working on several projects with teams of people in his organization.  Each person on the project teams are responsible for different aspects of the project:  forecasting, marketing, training, implementation, and finance.  John's colleagues need to know how their work fits into the current status of the whole project.



One of the most convenient features of FirstClass is conferencing. A conference lets a number of users exchange information online. John uses conferences which lets a number of users exchange information online.  He can send a public message to a conference as easily as he would send a private email to another user.  He can open conferences, read and respond to messages posted by others.  This makes a conference an ideal place for ongoing discussions when more than two people are involved.  This FirstClass feature has helped to reduce the amount of personal email John receives each day.

FirstClass conferences are used as a solution in order to allow the individuals and groups to work together.  Conferences are shared workspaces where groups of people can work together, post documents, participate in discussions, and store project information.  Using FirstClass conferences, the team can store all information, drafts, and communications in sub folders.  Each person is able to access the team's activities at a glance.  In the conferences, John and his teams discuss issues in real-time and keep discussions in an area where others can participate and review the group's results.

John has also created different levels of conferences, which is a useful strategy for reducing information overload, and keeping the message base manageable.  

In this way, users can work interactively on projects and keep track of related materials - all while freeing up their unique mailbox for communication that relates directly to them, or requires special attention.

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Calendar/Scheduling
As a FirstClass user, John has access to a secure calendar, which he can assign access as needed to various people.  For example, his administrative assistant has permission to add, edit and delete appointment for him.  If John chooses, the assistant can also see events that he's added.  

To help staff members schedule appointments and contact the project managers, John has asked his staff to place their schedules inside a Department Calendar.  This calendar is a strong time management resource for all employees that have contact with his team.  



His calendar is accessible at the office on his computer, on his laptop, or from any Internet connected computer via the World Wide Web, or from his Palm Pilot (or other PDA).

The calendar eliminates "version control", where he needs to coordinate entries among all of his physical calendars, PDAs

Essentially, his calendar allows him to book resources along with his events.  For example, he can schedule a meeting in the boardroom. If he requires a video projector, Internet connection, speakerphone, or other paraphernalia, they can be reserved at the time he sets up the event.  He can even schedule a "reminder" note for each person or one group of people that he is inviting.



Even organizational groups can share a calendar to manage the collaborative work schedule.

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Unified Communication
FirstClass Unified Communications is the collaboration of all FirstClass messaging products, essentially creating one unified Mailbox for all message types, including voice, fax and text messages.  Through FirstClass Unified Communications your phone and fax messages can be accessed as email messages from the FirstClass Client or a Generic Web Browser.  Incoming phone messages can still be accessed using a phone, or the could file can be played through any FirstClass client or web browser on any computer equipped to play sound.  

John's laptop is ready for his customer visit.  Once he arrives, he is able to access his original files, perform revisions and edits, and post the files back to the server where the project team can evaluate them.  He can send functional specs as attachments to the engineering team back at the Head Office.  

While at the customer office, he uploads his calendar, from his Palm Pilot, to FirstClass.  This information then becomes a FirstClass calendar, and is no longer limited to his laptop.  He can access it from any web-enabled computer and can share the calendar with colleagues.  John almost does not have to travel with a computer.

With FirstClass Unified Communications, John has the ability to set rules for how each method of communication interacts with the other.  When a phone call comes in for him, a voice message attachment is created, and shows up as a message in his mailbox.  Using the information in his address book, their name shows up as the sender.  If the address book does not recognize the caller, their phone number will appear in the From: area on the message.



If John's wife calls, he can leave a specific greeting for her with his itinerary information, new contact information, etc. John knows what his schedule will be like, so he has recorded a customized greeting which will play at different times, with calls automatically forwarded to the appropriate phone numbers.  He will be:
- On the road in the morning
- At a customer site between 11am and 3pm
- on the road in the afternoon

He has set up scheduled greetings for the different timeframes so that the calls will redirect automatically to his cellular phone when he is traveling and at a desk phone at the customer site.

With FirstClass Unified Communications, John's voicemail is propagated to his mailbox, with the phone number and the sender as the address, visible for him to see.  The messages, even is they are long, are compressed attachments, and open easily for him to listen to on his computer or cellular phone.  He can play and replay the message, and even file them in logical folders for future use.  He can reply with a voice message by pressing eh reply button on the message, and speak into his laptop.  The capabilities for maintaining control over the communication that needs immediate response is readily available.  

Messages can reach John via email, voice, text on a cell or PDA.



FirstClass architecture is designed to allow John to communicate with any method and device that is available now, and those to come.  It doesn't matter whether he requires information from his voicemail, fax, cell phone, pager, Palm Pilot, or email  FirstClass will get the message to him.  

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FirstClass and the Internet
A strong feature of FirstClass is the ability to support web sties and personal home pages.  Any information that exists on your FirstClass system can be put on the company website, including calendars, presentations, and upcoming events.  This provides a company resource to managers, employees, and even customers.



Employees such as John can log into the FirstClass system from their home computer or even a computer kiosk at an airport using a generic web browser.  John can view his private and group calendars this way.  

All of the resources that John uses are available over the Internet.  FirstClass offers two important features:  speed and storage space.  FirstClass messages have been designed so that each user, regardless of the number of users on a server, share only one single copy of that message.  Each employee or project member team can access the messages, rather than having multiple copies go to everyone's mailbox.
  
By placing projects on the web, customers can evaluate future project plans and even participate when appropriate.


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