Most business software shows you lists. NETICS Office shows the same workspace as a building you can turn, zoom and click through. Every part of the console is a room, your team sits at desks by department, your leaders have offices of their own, and when you ask NETICS something you can watch it walk to the department doing the work.
The office first opened on 16 October. Over the next two days it gained offices for leaders by job title, a home on Team & access, a proper phone layout and zoom that works with fingers, a mouse or a touchpad. This post covers the full release.
How to open it
There are two ways in:
- Go to User Management > Team & access. In the Team workspace header, owners and admins see a NETICS Office button.
- Ask NETICS. Typing or saying "open the NETICS Office" takes you straight there.
The office fills the whole screen, outside the usual console layout. Back to workspace at the top left returns you to where you were. NETICS stays docked beside the office, so it is the same conversation you use on every other page.
What you see
Rooms line the four walls, a corridor loops past them, and reception sits at the entrance.
- A room for every module. Conversations, NETICS CRM, ERP, User Management, AI & Knowledge, Analytics and Platform each have a room with NETICS desk agents, and so do Ads Center, Website Builder and My Enterprise. A room for something your plan does not include is drawn locked. Click a room sign to open that part of the console.
- Your team at their desks. Everyone on Employees sits on the open floor with their department. A person counts as at their desk when they have been active in NETICS in the last five minutes; otherwise their card says "Away, last seen" and when. An empty floor says "Add your team under Employees and they sit here."
- Leaders in their own offices. A CEO, MD, CTO, COO, CFO or head of HR gets an office in the executive suite, decided by the job title on Employees. The first of them takes the big corner office.
- Business agents in the executive suite. The Executive Assistant, Business Analyst and Operations Agent each have an office. An agent's card says whether it is on, its schedule (for example "On, every day at 07:30") and what it last found. The Business Analyst and Operations Agent come with Growth; the Executive Assistant comes with Enterprise. See Business agents.
- Three chips over the office: "NETICS is ready" or "NETICS is working", how many people are in the office, and how many business agents are on.
Click a person, a desk agent, an executive or a room sign to open its card or its page.
Watch NETICS work
When you ask NETICS a question, a robot leaves reception, walks the corridor to each department its tools work in, waits there while the work runs and walks back. The answer appears over the room it came from. Ask about stock and it visits ERP. Ask the Business Analyst something and it goes to that agent's office.
If NETICS has prepared an action that needs your approval, the room shows Needs your OK. Nothing happens until you press Confirm in the conversation, the same rule as on every page.
You can also ask who is around. "Who is in the office?" gets each team member with their department, at their desk or away and since when. Ask about your CFO and the robot walks to the CFO's office. Ask about the team and it heads to User Management.
On a phone
The office was rebuilt for small screens on 18 October:
- NETICS opens as a sheet under the office instead of covering it, or beside it when the phone is held sideways.
- An upright screen gets a higher camera along the building's long side, so the whole floor fits.
- Drag to turn, pinch to zoom, two fingers to move, double tap to reset. The hint on screen names the finger gestures.
- Room labels that would land on each other give way to the more important one, and an answer box stays on screen with its pointer on the room.
- Leaving the office folds NETICS back to the orb, so the page underneath is visible.
Zoom that works
Zoom now goes toward your fingers or your pointer and reaches 7x. A pinch with one finger resting on a room sign still zooms instead of turning the office, while a tap on a label still opens it. A touchpad pinch gets a step big enough to feel. Without gestures, use the Zoom in, Zoom out and Reset view buttons. On a computer: drag to turn, scroll to zoom, double click to reset.
Good to know
- The office reads the same records as the rest of the console. Looking around changes nothing.
- A browser without 3D graphics (WebGL) gets a flat grid of the departments instead.
- People and leaders come from Employees, so keeping names, departments and job titles current there keeps the office accurate.
To see what each plan includes, see pricing, and to talk to NETICS from any page, see NETICS Chat.