The Future of the Linchpin Intranet Suite

Linchpin Intranet Suite 5.1 was recently released with many performance related improvements. As you've probably already read in our blog post about the 5.1 release, our developers are currently putting a lot of time and energy into performance-related tasks. The recent release also includes some exciting new features and bug fixes.
You can find out more about the latest release in the blog post linked above and in the release notes.

The Linchpin Intranet Suite 5.1 is not the end of the story. And while the topic of performance will continue to be on our minds in future releases, we've also put together a publicly viewable and completely transparent roadmap for the Linchpin Intranet Suite.

New Features and Improvements in January 2022:

The roadmap for Linchpin Intranet Suite 5.2, which we expect to be released around January 2022, includes some exciting new features that are already being implemented.

Microsoft Teams integration

It will soon be possible to share selected news items in appropriate Microsoft Teams channels. Users can also look forward to viewing their colleagues' Teams status while in Linchpin. The ability to start a personal chat from within Linchpin will also be available.

Event Reminders

You shouldn't miss any event you signed-up for. That's why we are working on mail reminders for events. Linchpin will remind users of upcoming events for which they have registered. For anyone who can't or doesn't want to wait for an email, the event portal will offer an overview of all of your upcoming events.

Performance Improvements

Support for Internet Explorer 11 has been discontinued in Confluence. We will use global CSS variables going forward, which will result in system-wide performance increases. In addition, the development teams are working on improving the performance of the menus.

Visibility Testrictions for Profile Fields

In the Linchpin Intranet Suite, it will soon be possible to make certain profile fields visible only to authorized persons. Especially, but not exclusively, for users in an extranet context, this feature should be quite exciting. For example, you will soon be able to prevent external parties from viewing sensitive profile data (such as phone numbers, chat usernames, or locations).

Security, Performance, Optimizations - Topics We're Constantly Working On

New features are super exciting. We can probably all agree on that. Whether as developers or as users - we simply love to see new things. New things are fun!

Nevertheless, there are some very important topics concerning the Linchpin Intranet Suite that keep our developers busy. These are topics that are continuously under active development, regardless of plans for new features.

For example, the topic of performance is already the focus of Linchpin Intranet Suite 5.1, and performance will continue to be an important topic that our development teams will constantly address in the future. But topics such as security checks and security improvements are also ones that are present in our day-to-day work. In addition to our own analyses, we also participate in Atlassian's BugBounty program. This helps us to make and keep the Linchpin Intranet Suite secure and to keep it secure in the long term. The topic of security naturally carries a certain weight to it. That's why we check Linchpin thoroughly when new attack vectors become known, and do everything we can to lose potential security gaps.

In order for Linchpin to remain future-proof, it requires quite a bit of maintenance and upkeep. Technology often evolves rapidly and changes within Confluence. The rate of change impacts our apps and require code adjustments. Likewise, to stay on the topic of maintenance, support and bugfixing are also not to be forgotten. Sometimes you report bugs to our support teams. Of course, we take this seriously and also have our own demands of taking care of it quickly. Accordingly, sometimes new features have to wait.

Topics in the Evaluation Phase

Some topics are still in the evaluation phase. These are topics that we could envision for the Linchpin Intranet Suite, but for which we are still evaluating the effort involved, benefits, technical feasibility, etc.

Such topics and features include surveys in the microblog, a display for special occasions such as birthdays or anniversaries and challenges that motivate people to achieve goals together and at the same time strengthen the sense of unity within the company.

Is there anything else we should look at? Please let us know! At linchpin.canny.io you can submit your ideas on how to make Linchpin better! This can involve suggestions for new features or the improvement of existing ones. You can also vote on and discuss the submissions of other Linchpin users.

Stay up to date on the Linchpin Intranet Suite

In order to achieve this, you should take a look at our Linchpin Roadmap - https://seibert.biz/linchpinroadmap-en. This blog post provides a first insight into the current state of the roadmap, which could always change in the future. Among other things, it will be based on your feedback. (Nevertheless, the features we mentioned at the beginning are already being implemented, don't worry!) For the full roadmap, follow the link!