Newly Redesigned Hub: Transforming Engagement for Franchise and Multi-Location Businesses
We are proud to announce the release of the new Hub, a robust engagement platform designed to transform how franchise and multi-location businesses connect, collaborate, and engage.
This redesigned solution focuses on delivering simplified workflows, enhanced communication, and streamlined access to resources, enabling teams to operate more efficiently and effectively.
Centralized Overview for a Seamless Start:
- Start your day with key updates, insights, and tools that keep your teams aligned and focused.
- View company announcements, recognize achievements, and track important resources in one centralized location.
- Access frequently used resources quickly for a seamless experience.
Spaces: Organizing Resources for Instant Access
- Consolidate key resources into categorized areas such as Marketing, Training, and Operations.
- Easily locate materials for specific needs like campaign launches or compliance checks.
- Designed to save time and ensure operational efficiency.
Library: Streamlined Content Management
- Store operational, training, and policy documents in one easily navigable location.
- Ensure all team members—from new hires to experienced managers—can find step-by-step guides and key materials for consistent standards.
- Improved layout supports faster access and regular updates for relevancy.
FranBuzz: Engaging and Empowering Teams
- Celebrate wins, share updates, and brainstorm ideas within an interactive and refreshed interface.
- Foster cross-location collaboration with group discussions, success stories, and shared learning.
Teams: Simplified Collaboration Tools
- Manage discussions, assign action plans, and track progress in real time.
- Simplify the management of initiatives like regional marketing campaigns or training programs.
- Ensure alignment and goal achievement across locations.
Why the New Hub is Essential for Your Business
The new Hub offers:
- Clear Communication: Timely updates for better organizational alignment.
- Improved Collaboration: Stronger teamwork and efficiency across locations.
- Stronger Engagement: A connected and motivated network for business success.
- Streamlined Operations: Simplified workflows for improved productivity.
Early Access Feature: To enable this feature, contact betatesting@franconnect.com.
Learn More: Overview of The Hub
Newly Redesigned Operations: Driving Operational Excellence
The new Operations application is here, built exclusively for operational teams in franchise and multi-location businesses.
It’s designed to simplify workflows, ensure compliance, and enhance accountability, equipping teams with tools to manage visits, tasks, and performance metrics effectively.
Centralized Dashboard for Operational Clarity
- Gain a clear overview of daily priorities with actionable insights.
- Track overdue tasks, breaches, and high-priority items.
- Assign corrective actions with clear ownership visibility to prevent oversight
Visits: Structured and Scalable Management
- Inspections: Maintain quality and ensure compliance with brand standards.
- Business Reviews: Evaluate operational performance and identify opportunities for growth.
- Audits: Streamline all historical visit data for easy access and actionable insights
Self-Assessments: Empowering Accountability Across Locations
- Encourage proactive ownership with self-assessment tools tailored to brand standards.
- Enable franchisees to evaluate their operations based on pre-defined standards.
- Use results to identify gaps and guide improvement efforts.
Incident Reporting: Faster Resolutions, Greater Transparency
- Log, track, and resolve incidents with ease, ensuring transparency and timely follow-ups.
- Capture incidents based on type for better tracking and analysis.
- Assign corrective actions and monitor progress to ensure resolutions are completed quickly.
Tasks, Corrective Actions and Playbooks: Simplified Execution for Teams
- Track breaches, corrective actions, and infractions helping teams prioritize effectively.
- Standardize processes and ensure priority tasks are completed on time.
- Highlight overdue or high-priority tasks to address urgent needs first.
Why the new Operations is a Must-Have for Operations Teams
The new Operations application offers:
- Improved Visibility: Access real-time data for faster decision-making.
- Stronger Accountability: Equip teams with tools to ensure tasks are completed.
- Consistency Across Locations: Standardize visits, tasks, and workflows for operational excellence.
- Proactive Problem-Solving: Identify and resolve issues early using actionable insights.
Note: The Enhanced Operations introduces Type and Subtype categories for Visits and Self-Assessments. Additionally, we’ve added Incident Reporting capabilities. Users can now map Types and Subtypes directly to Forms for better organization. By default, all existing forms and visits will be mapped to the Visits > Audits.
In the REST API, the Type and Subtype details will also be included when fetching Visit Details, ensuring consistent data across platforms.
Early Access Feature: To enable this feature, contact betatesting@franconnect.com
Learn More: Introduction to the New Operations Module
Custom Unit Views: Enhanced Exporting and Data Visibility
Gain greater control over exporting and data display with new capabilities in custom views, including advanced export options and enhanced entity visibility.
- Advanced exporting: Export unmerged datasets in CSV format with email notifications for seamless data retrieval.
- Enhanced data visibility: Display Entity Owner, Parent Entity, and Parent Entity Owner within custom views for improved contextual analysis.
- Export privileges: Enable export options for custom views to streamline collaboration and reporting.
Applicable module: Information Manager
Learn More: How to Use Custom Views in Unit Summary
Analytics: Franchise Awarding and Opening Progress
Gain visibility into franchise awarding, projected vs. actual openings, and initial franchise fees with advanced filtering and performance metrics.
- Agreement Insights by Type: View breakdowns of awarded franchises, including the number of locations sold, projected openings, and actual openings for Growth, New, ADA, and other transactions.
- Financial Performance Tracking: Compare expected and actual initial franchise fees to evaluate revenue outcomes across deal types.
- Trends and Progress Analysis: Analyze monthly trends in deals signed and track actual vs. projected franchise openings with intuitive visuals.
Applicable module: Franchise Sales and Analytics Dashboard
Master Franchisee Royalty Management
Streamline master franchise financial operations for aggregated sales data reporting and advanced royalty calculation rules.
- Aggregated data rollup: Roll up sales and royalties at the master franchisee level, selecting specific franchises for aggregation and applying flexible logics like growth-based calculations and min/max caps.
- Service-level royalty calculations: Calculate royalties at the service or sales line item level for service-based franchise brands, ensuring precision in master royalties.
- Customizable calculation rules: Configure master royalty formulas with options tailored to your business needs, supporting diverse franchise models.
Note: Introduced a new type of calculation in master agreement version and it appears as a field attribute on the master AV page.
This field will appear for existing customers as well, but set to default value.
Applicable module: Royalty Manager
Early Access Feature: To enable this feature, contact betatesting@franconnect.com.
Late Fee Adjustment via Line Items
Address unique invoice adjustments effortlessly by leveraging the line items feature to manage late fee components.
- Late fee adjustments: Adjust the “Late Fee” component directly within the line items feature, alongside existing categories like royalties and additional fees.
- Flexible invoicing options: Maintain flexibility to modify agreement items, additional invoice amounts, and total fees, now including late fees.
- Role-based access: Current permissions for adding or editing line items will remain in place for the new late fee component, ensuring secure and compliant adjustments.
Note: The line item adjustment dropdown currently brings all the agreement items but not the Late Fee component.
With the release, the Late Fee component (if enabled) will start to appear in the dropdown for all customers.
Applicable module: Royalty Manager
Other Updates
‘See What’s New’: Access to the Latest Release Notes
The URL linked to the 'See What's New' link will be updated to redirect users to the new help center at: https://help.franconnect.com/hc/en-us/sections/21181362474523-Release-Notes. This ensures users always have access to the latest release information.
Analytics: Enhanced Lead Status and Category Filters for Lead Engagement Dashboard
The Lead Engagement Dashboard now includes a global filter for lead status and lead status categories, allowing users to display and analyze this data seamlessly in both snapshot and table views.
Analytics: Enhanced Ownership Visibility for Unit Opening Dashboard
The Unit Opening dashboard now includes "All Unit Owner Details" and "Task Owner" fields, improving clarity and accountability.
Gain clear visibility into unit and task ownership for streamlined progress tracking and enhanced accountability across teams.
Information Manager: Brand Filter for Targeted People Search
Enhanced People search by using a "Brand" filter, to narrow results efficiently. Improve decision-making with brand-specific insights and streamline navigation for an optimized experience.
Information Manager: Owners Management Label Updates
In the Owners tab of the Store Summary, the action label for owners will be updated from "Delete" to "Disassociate". This change clarifies that the action removes an owner from a location without permanently deleting their record, ensuring more accurate representation of the functionality.
Information Manager: Segment Webhooks for Unit Association Tracking
The enhanced segments webhook response provides detailed unit modification updates, improving efficiencies for segment management workflows.
- Identify changes to unit or segment listings with new attributes unitListingChanged and segmentListingChange.
- Access granular details directly in the webhook response to streamline API usage and avoid redundant calls.
Note: This changes introduces two new attributes in the segment "update" webhook and will appear for all customers after the release.
Information Manager: Enhanced APIs with Granular Permissions
Improve system integrations with precise access controls such as granting vendors read-only or write-only capabilities. Enhance security and streamline workflows by tailoring permissions to specific roles and requirements.
SMS Campaigns Bit.ly Integration: Branded URL Shorteners for Reliable Delivery
Enhance reliability by avoiding carrier blocks, strengthen brand identity with Bit.ly-powered customized URLs, and improve engagement through trusted, branded communication.
Note: Previously shortened links, used in Sales & CRM > Lead Management and SMS Campaign will retain Bitly's original public URL domains (i.e. bit.ly). With this release, all newly shortened links in these modules will use the new branded URL domain. The new domain is "fcsms.net". Brands can request this link to be updated to their own branded bit.ly link.
World Manager: Dynamic Role Management for User Account Groups
The enhanced "World Manager Account Group" streamlines role assignment and access control, ensuring consistent role management.
- Automatically populate account groups based on user type, with Owners accessing GM and SM groups and Employees accessing Employee groups.
- Control the creation of owner-type users using the new "Can Add Other Owner Users" permission, enhancing administrative oversight.
Important Update: New Unit Summary Views for Location Management
FranConnect has streamlined how franchise location data—previously spread across multiple pages in Info Manager (such as In Development, Terminated, Franchisees, and Corporate Locations)—is now unified under Info Manager > Store Summary. This section organizes locations by lifecycle stages, providing a simpler way to view detailed information. Additionally, The Dashboard, previously in the Info Manager module, is now located in the Command Center, offering a streamlined view of all data insights and metrics at a glance.
Please transition to the new Store Summary by October 2025 for uninterrupted service.
Other Resources:
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For feedback: email betatesting@franconnect.com
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API Documentation: docs.franconnect.net
- Latest Release Notes: Release Notes