Best Practice Library: Refreshing Your Plan - FAQ

1. When would I copy from an existing plan?

Copying from an existing plan is a very convenient way to reduce the amount of work that you need to do to set up a new plan, or to make changes to an existing plan, in addition to maintaining the look and feel of a Public Dashboard. You can always delete a copied plan, if you’re unhappy with the result. You may want to copy from an existing plan when:

1. Your organization has made some changes to the upper-levels of an existing plan as part of a refresh. This occurs when new elected officials or board members would like to make their stamp on your organization's plan or when you’re extending the life of an existing plan without going through the process of creating one from scratch.
2. The upper-levels of your existing plan are not changing but you do not want to see the previous years’ operational elements as you move forward with the new version.
3. You want to retain the design of your existing Public Dashboard, while making plan changes.

For more information on how to copy from an existing plan, read our Help Center article called Create New Plan from an Existing Plan.

2. When I copy from an existing plan do I work with the copy or the original?

A common strategy is to archive the new copied plan and make changes to the original plan. This is a smart solution because your plan users would not have to switch from the old version of the plan to the new version in the drop-down plan selector. If your organization has not settled on a new structure for the next version of the plan, you might want to copy the original and test different options with the copied version, leaving the original as your working document.

3. If I copy from an existing plan what do I do to the version that I am no longer using?

The version that is no longer in use can be archived. For more information on archiving a plan, read our Help Center article called Managing your Plan's Mode.

4. What is an archived plan?

Plans may be archived if they are no longer in use. In organizations with many plans, archived plans do not appear by default in the plans drop-down menu and need to be accessed by going to Manage Plans.  Archiving a plan prevents updates from being made and no new reports can be created, although historical reports can be accessed. An archived plan serves as a record for your organization and it can be switched to Active or Planning mode to allow for updates or to create new reports.

Your plan may have a Public Dashboard and when this plan is archived, the Public Dashboard will still display, serving as a final record for the public. If you no longer want the Public Dashboard to display, remember to unpublish it before archiving your plan. You may do this if your plan was intended to be in effect for only a limited period of time, such as an ARPA plan. If you are launching a new version of an existing plan that will continuously be in effect, such as a Strategic Plan, you may want to wait until your new plan’s Public Dashboard is published before unpublishing the old Public Dashboard and archiving the old plan.

5. What happens to my plan’s Public Dashboard when I launch a new operational plan?

Existing Plan

When new operational plan elements are added to an existing plan with a Public Dashboard, either directly or as cloned-in plan elements, the new plan elements will appear once a SYNC has been performed on the Public Dashboard. The URL for the Public Dashboard will remain the same.

Copied Plans

If your new operational plan is housed within a brand new plan that you cloned from an existing plan, as is done in organizations that conduct strategic and operational planning at the same time, you can choose to copy the Public Dashboard from the old plan. Public Dashboards that are attached to new plans copied from existing plans are not automatically published, requiring a Public Dashboard Administrator to click on the Publish button or to set up automated SYNCs that publish the Public Dashboard. The URL for the copied plan’s Public Dashboard will be different from the original.

New Plans

New plans that have not been copied from an existing plan require full configuration of the Public Dashboard and the selection of a publishing option.

For more information on (un)publishing a Public Dashboard, read our Help Center article called Understanding Preview, Publish and Unpublish.

6. How do I promote my Public Dashboard and are there resources for doing so?

A Public Dashboard is simply another page on the internet and unless people are enticed to view your dashboard, it may only be seen by those who search for it. Establishing a new operating plan is definitely a good excuse to drum up more interest in your plan. We have a whole suite of resources, including press releases, sample social media content, and more,  that you can use to drive traffic.

For more information on driving traffic to your Public Dashboard, read our Help Center articles in the Promotion and Engagement section.

7. Now that I have a new operational plan, who updates it in Envisio?

New plans will be in Planning mode, allowing all members to edit all parts of the plan. Existing plans that are in Active mode will have restrictions on who can add plan elements. The best practice is for there to be an official approval of the new plan and for a Plan Owner to add the plan elements. This ensures that the resulting plan will conform to the approved version, plan element descriptions are written consistently. It usually does not take that much time to add the details of a plan.

8. How do I direct users to the new plan?

For an existing plan that has been updated with new operational elements, there is nothing to do. Users will see an existing plan automatically when they login to Envisio or when they receive email notifications asking them to provide updates. It is always best practice to give them notice that they will see new items. In the case of a new plan, they’ll have to use the drop-down menu to change plans.

9. Is there anything else I could do to ensure users are engaged with the new plan?

The launch of a new version of a plan is a great time to reinforce its importance. This could involve the executive sponsor, project manager, and department leads. Communications from each of these parties should underscore why this plan is critical to the organization,  recap  accomplishments achieved in the previous planning period, look forward to what will be different in the new plan, as well as include information about who will be reviewing plan progress and if there are any new processes put in place to ensure plan goals are achieved.

For more information on messaging and other communication tools that you can use to relaunch or reinvigorate engagement in your plans, read our Help Center articles in the  Focus and Accountability section.

This is also a good opportunity to provide training on how to make plan updates. With new staff, and existing staff with new plan responsibilities, there may be knowledge gaps in how to use the software to provide updates. Contact your Customer Success Manager to schedule an Update Training, where we will guide your users through a training call on how to provide updates, or an Update Workshop, where time is set aside for users to make updates on an informal call that we host (pro tip: make the call optional if users complete their updates before the workshop).