Close your eyes for a second and think of a global tech city.

A few obvious choices spring to mind: San Fran, Tokyo, Berlin, London, Dorchester.

Oh wait, Dorchester?

Well, as of January 2018, Dorchester is a global tech hub – yer that's right, you heard correctly. Well, at least it's where this year’s Twine Product Summit went down: deep into Dorset, just off the A35 in a lovely little town called Poundbury.

Being a semi-remote team (we have team members working away from our London HQ full-time), days like this are all too valuable. It's a chance to have a frank talk about what worked and what didn't in the year past, and what we want to achieve in the year to come.

It also gave us a chance to push the limitations of remote working to the limits; answering emails whilst moving 50mph down a country lane was a new one.

Very remote working pic.twitter.com/AvUUfOxnh2

— Rob McWhirter (@Rob_McW) January 30, 2018

For customers current and customers soon-to-be, here’s the low down of what went down, and what’s on the horizon for Twine.

Better integrations

The intranet can't stand alone amongst your other workplace apps and tools. In fact, it should tie them all together. That's why we're committing to big improvements in how Twine hooks up with major file management systems (think Google Drive etc.) and the other popular workplace tools, so keep your eyes peeled for updates on this area, particularly for the first half of this year. We've actually already released out first integration for this year: Eventbrite; more about this coming soon.

A powerful Knowledge Base

In 2018, a good Knowledge Base is essential for any workplace. It's the place employees can rely on to provide accurate, up-to-date information that they can trust. Knowing the importance of this, in 2018 we're going to see a much-improved text editor,  full revision history and better integrations with the big file management systems (as mentioned above).

A beautiful user experience

This is a beautiful intranet that isn't a pain to use. We don't charge for huge training packages or provide a 100-page user manual – the idea is that you can just get up and running and work it out yourself. This year we're going to make sure that this remains the case, taking time to think things through, poring over the details and adding in those sprinkles of loveliness that make Twine such a joy to use.

An updated Dashboard

Many of you will be waiting with bated breath for this one. Getting the Dashboard to deliver more oomph is regularly requested by current and prospective customers, so we're looking to give more power to admins regarding what content appears here, how it looks and who sees it. Watch this space.

Fresh air and freer working

And finally, one for our own team. If our trip down to Dorset taught us anything, it's that getting away from the office once in a while is a great thing. In 2018 we'll spend more time speaking to our customers, working from different environments and getting out of the city. A better working environment means we can make a better product, which is what this is all about at the end of the day.

A team fit for 2018

Our product team will be expanding over the next year which means we can act faster on your feedback, fix any niggles and make Twine even more useful in your everyday workflow.

It’s an exciting time to be part of Twine. If you’re onboard already, it’s great that you’re part of it. If you’re still to get on, what are you waiting for? ?

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