New facilities in Impact Explorer™ version 3

Audience response system benefits

Impact Explorer™ 3 brings big benefits for audience response system use in the form of the Agenda management facility. This allows you to prepare your meeting in advance, while still allowing the ability to create an activity at any time if it suits the meeting. The Agenda has a full set of extra activities too so that you can plan discussion time and meal breaks.

Impact Explorer now allows you to control PowerPoint presentations using the agenda too. You simply add a switch to PowerPoint activity, and when it is activated PowerPoint will be brought to the front. But the integration does not stop there - with the master keypad, you can press a key and Impact Explorer will move the slide forward. Keep pressing, and you now have a remote control for PowerPoint. All the time, Impact Explorer is monitoring the slides, and when it sees the "cue text", it will automatically switch back to the front and move to the next agenda item, perhaps to start a vote. This means that you can maximize the power of both tools, rather than being limited by one.

Further enhancements to the graph displays mean you can now show results split by a previous response. This allows you to use demographic questions, and then show the results according to the responses. So, for example, you could ask whether the participants are "managers" or "workers", and then ask if they were for or against an action by the company. You can then see how workers voted compared to managers.

The details of these enhancements are shown below. As the product develops further, you can use the new automatic update facility to ensure you have all of the powerful facilities available.

Full agenda management system

Version 3 introduces the full agenda planner system so that you can prepare and configure activities for a workshop in a central location. Previous versions used a system of "presets", and if you load a version 2 file they will automatically be imported into the new agenda. You can also print the agenda to hand to participants if you wish.

New activities for complete meetings

As well as the interactive activities, like voting and matrix assessment, Impact Explorer 3 provides new facilities to complete a meeting. You can now show statements, have timed breaks, import automatically from Decision Explorer, and interact with PowerPoint. These all work together to allow you to plan a complete workshop.

PowerPoint Integration Enhanced

Combined with the master keypad, the PowerPoint control allows you to easily integrate PowerPoint and Impact Explorer to provide seamless switching between the two. Using the agenda, you can specify when PowerPoint should be activated. Impact Explorer will watch for a cue in the slides, and at the appropriate time will switch back and move onto the next agenda item. After the vote, you can automatically switch back to continue the presentation - all without going near the computer!

Master keypad

The master keypad is a major new facility to assist you in controlling the software remotely. It allows you to perform standard operations, such as moving to the next agenda item or next assessment, by pressing keys on one of the remote keypads. Depending on the licence purchased, you can fully customise the actions for each key. Being able to remotely control your audience response system assists in allowing the participants to feel more in control and less run by computer.

Demographic displays

Demographic displays allow you to see how the results are affected by the make-up of the participants. For example, if you start with a question that asks whether people are male or female, you can later see how the results of other questions are affected by the attendees sex.

Automatic updating

The automatic update facility allows you to update your software to the latest version very easily - no messing about finding it on the web site. If you have a problem with the software, you can update your installation easily to see if it is already fixed. If not, then please let us know and we will resolve the issue. And then you can obtain the fix easily using the auto update facility.

Editions available

Impact Explorer™ 3 is available in different editions, each with different capabilities. The primary differences are:

Lite edition: provided with some off-the-shelf keypad systems, this is a limited version which can have up to 10 items in lists, 10 activities in the agenda, and does not support all of the activities (matrix mode is not available in particular).

Standard edition: the entry level for most users, this allows the matrix mode up to 5x5 and supports 25 items in lists, and 25 activities in the agenda. Full control over the master keypad, and printing of agendas is enabled.

Professional edition: the top level for professional use, this allows all facilities. Unlimited list items, up to 5,000 activities in the agenda, and demographic display support.