What's an 'Ideas Portal'?

The Ideas Portal is a website for creating and tracking product enhancement requests for various Descartes Products. The portal allows registered users to create new ideas, users may also read, add comments to, and vote for other user's ideas. Product Managers change the status of ideas, allowing the entire community to monitor the progress of ideas as they evolve, are implemented or are rejected.

How Do I Log in To The Ideas Portal?

Go to https://descartes.ideas.aha.io/ideas and enter your email address to sign in to the Descartes Ideas Portal.

If you have not registered yet, go to the Descartes Customer Portal to fill-out the access request form (see section Requesting Access to the Ideas Portal).

How Do I Create A New Idea?

Click 'Add A New Idea' on the main portal page.
Select the Descartes Product for your idea from the dropdown.
In the resulting Add Idea dialog, give your idea the most descriptive name possible so that everyone can understand the concept just from the title. Similar ideas will be shown instantly, so you can consider voting or commenting on an existing idea that fits your topic.
In the detail control box, provide a clear description of the business problem that the idea attempts to solve, what the benefits would be, and any approach to a solution you think might help others understand the concepts better. Feel free to attach files that may help illustrate your idea using the Attach Files icon beneath the detail control box.
(Applicable to some products) Select a category that best explains the area of the product your idea most closely applies to.

Can I Add Comments To Other People's Ideas?

Portals are designed to provide a forum for community discussion, so please feel free to add your comments to other people's ideas. Engaging the entire community can expose concepts, connections, benefits, flaws, and risks that may not have been appreciated or articulated fully by the original idea author and allows ideas to evolve spontaneously.

What Are 'Votes'?

Every registered user can vote for any idea they feel is a good enhancement. Adding your vote gives product managers an understanding how widespread the support for an idea is to the greater community. To vote for an idea, click the blue 'VOTE' button. The button will fill and the vote count will be incremented by 1.

What Are Idea Statuses?

Every idea has a status that allows portal users to observe their progress. Statues are changed by Product Management as ideas evolve. Current idea statuses are:

Great ideas progress from an initial 'Needs Review' status to a final status of 'Shipped'. Ideas that are less 'popular' or more poorly conceived may end up in 'Unlikely to implement' or 'Will not implement' status.

Are There Notifications?

Yes - When a portal user creates, votes on or comments on an idea, they become subscribers to that idea. Subscribers are notified of important status changes to an idea via email. Ideas portal users can one-click Unsubscribe to portal email notifications if they do not want to receive notifications.

Additionally, there’s a weekly summary email that provides status updates on the ideas you are subscribed to and new comments on ideas you follow. A summary of the 5 most recent ideas and comments is provided to see what else is happening in the Ideas Portal. You can customize the content of this weekly summary in your user profile settings to focus only on activity from specific categories and Descartes solutions. You can one-click Unsubscribe from the weekly emails if you do not wish to receive them.

Requesting Access to the Ideas Portal

Access to the Ideas Portal is restricted and must be granted by Descartes upon request. If you are not yet registered, follow the steps below:

Go to the Descartes Customer Portal.
1. If you’ve previously contacted the Service Desk, you may already have access. If you do not have a login, click Sign Up and complete the registration form with your details.
After logging in, select Request.
In the search field, type “Ideas Portal”.
On the Ideas Portal tile, click Request Now.
Fill out the form with the following information:
1. First Name: Enter your first name.
2. Last Name: Enter your last name.
3. Company: Enter the company you work at.
4. Products you are using: Provide which Descartes product(s) you are using.
Click Place Request.

Your request will be reviewed by the Descartes team. Once approved, you will receive an email to setup your account on the Ideas Portal.

If you have questions or encounter any issues during registration, please contact the Descartes Service Desk (servicedesk@descartes.com).