Engaging

If you can buy it, it’s a shtick. If you must grow it, it’s a system.
—Venkatesh Rao, Writer & Consultant

Using our open-source Engaging OS platform built on PostgreSQL, Directus, Apollo and Nuxt, we deliver integrated role-based work systems that help run enterprises.

Benefits

An integrated system helps avoid the following problems:

• Data trapped in silos
• Poor customization
• Outmoded UI
• Redundant data entry
• Multiple logins for users

As such, an integrated system can support morale, nurture productivity, help improve decision-making, encourage innovation, and strengthen key relationships.

Process

To deliver an integrated work system, we:

• Model your enterprise’s operations and configure your system to express them
• Seed the system with your data
• Develop the system based on a prioritized list of your needs
• Employ a critical mass of design patterns that add up to a system with personality that users enjoy
• Continue working with you to support, develop, refine and enhance the system

Architecture

Engaging OS serves to intermediate between the enterprise’s Persons (users) and Items (objects), ie, the people who act on things — whether staffers, partners or customers — and the things that they act upon, such as products, services and lower-level items. A Person is granted one or more Roles, each Role being a time-based instance of a Position within a specific Organization. An example of a role would be President (Position) of the United States (Organization) during 2025–2028 (duration).

To let Persons interact with the system, each Position has these primitives:

• Areas of Activity
• Consoles
• Ports
• Privileges

Each of a Person’s role screens shows one Area of Activity at a time, each of these comprised of a set of Consoles. A Console is an interface — usually a table — listing Items typically ending with one or more Conduits. A Conduit is an action link to a Port, a screen for interacting with a specific Item.

The wording of each Conduit — e.g., Add Expenses, Submit Expense Form — is derived from the Position’s Privileges and the Port’s selected Collection or alias for that Collection. Another user, or even the same Person via another Role, may see the same Item but with different Conduits, such as Approve Expense Form.

Privileges determine the actions that a user may take on a particular item. A Privilege specifies:

• The Action that the Person can undertake
• The Collection from which Items can be acted upon
• The Port(s) permitted for performing the action (could be any)
• The Status of the Items
• Other Conditions to filter items that can be acted upon (eg time-related)

That’s it! What with tables linking to single-entry forms, the setup echoes that of a Content Management System, albeit with a handful more dimensions. These are how Engaging OS enables people to do the work their various roles require.

Directus serves as the solid, innovative, delightful and powerful backbone.

Pricing

Most organizations prefer our fixed monthly pricing, where, with no upfront development costs, we’re with you for the journey as your organic system grows.

We work mainly with US-based clients but are happy to work with people anywhere in the world.