Please note that many of the headings, coloured text and logos in these notes are hyperlinks, so please do click them for lots of supporting information.
Here's the full v30 release schedule + supporting info. Join the Mercury Community for lots of extra FREE help and resources.
Phase 1 Mon 08 Jul > 0900-1700 BST > Sandbox Customers will have v30 deployed to their Sandbox environment only.
Phase 2 Sat 20 Jul > 0600-1800 BST > All other Customers will have v30 deployed to their Live Production environment.
Phase 3 Sat 27 Jul > 0600-1800 BST > Sandbox Customers will have v30 deployed to their Live Production environment.
Welcome to the Release Notes for the latest version of Mercury - v30. We're launching some great new enhancements in this Quarterly Core Release and in our Bi-Weekly Updates. We'll highlight features of the Mercury platform that we believe can significantly enhance productivity and help Recruiters be more efficient and deliver better outcomes. We'll also be showcasing some new features not part of this release, but that are due out shortly - for more information on these please speak with your Customer Success Manager.
We are thrilled to bring you a number of improvements all designed with our guiding principles in mind:
Make people more effective • Make it faster • Make it consistent • Make it intuitive • And always ask Why
You can use the links below to jump straight to the area you are interested in, but here are some highlights from v30 to whet the appetite!
v30 CORE RELEASE HIGHLIGHTS New Forms and Views - Enhanced Commission Split process - Improvements to 'Last Contacted'
BI-WEEKLY RELEASE TRAINS We release lots of extra updates every 2 weeks across the Mercury platform, on top of the quarterly Core releases.
In this release for Mercury Core > New Features & Functionality and UI/UX Enhancements - Software Fixes - Itemised summary of all v30 changes
In this release for Integrations > Legacy Daxtra Search button can now be hidden - Daxtra and Textkernel software fixes
Coming up soon! More new developments that we're currently working on > Analytics via Mercury Core - Daxtra On-Demand Parsing - AI Essentials
All Release Notes - Mercury feature videos - Special Mercury Minutes video series exclusively for Community members
Mercury Product Brochures Click the burger menu at top left of page, then click the Editions tab for the full suite of brochures.
xv30 CORE RELEASE HIGHLIGHTSx
New Forms and Views xTell Us What You Think?x
We’re really excited to be bringing you brand new Forms and Views for the Client, Contact (Person), Vacancy and Placement areas of Mercury. This will make it easier than ever to work with the data in Mercury and help you to take action directly from the screen that you are working in, rather than jumping in and out of different pages in Mercury. These forms are available in v30 alongside the current Views so you can try them out side by side and give us feedback on what you would like to see from the new features going forwards.
>> MORE INFO >> KNOWLEDGE BASE ARTICLE
Enhanced Commission Split process
We know that Commission Splits can be complicated and so we have made some improvements to how these are handled in Mercury to make them easier to manage. We’ve created a new Commission Role to allow non-Administrators with that permission the ability to set up Commission Splits. You can now add more than 4 splits, and things such as Currency, Percentages and Amounts being automatically calculated and cascaded throughout.
>> MORE INFO >> KNOWLEDGE BASE ARTICLE
Improvements to 'Last Contacted'
Based on your feedback, we have made a number of improvements to the “Last Contacted” function in Mercury:
• Mailshots will update Last Contacted.
• Information records can now update Last Contacted.
• Voicemails no longer update the Last Contacted record.
>> MORE INFO
New Features & Functionality and UI/UX Enhancements
Making Mercury intuitive and consistent means that it is easier for you to use. We have enhanced some UI/UX areas in this release and will continue to do so going forwards. At Mercury we're continually looking to improve the performance and general useability of the software. These improvements can sometimes be small but are also highly impactful. Below is a summary of the latest changes and enhancements that we have made to the product in this release.
New Forms and Views
As part of our commitment to providing you with an easy to use and consistent experience throughout Mercury, we have created new Forms and Views across the platform. As part of this development, we have introduced colours on the relevant Status Reasons to make them easier to understand at a glance. These are available as of v30 and will be in addition to the existing current Forms and Views. We will be looking to deprecate the existing forms but will give sufficient notice before this happens. Please note that any local customisations will be retained during this deprecation/replacement process.
The new forms are within preview at the moment and there may be some features/fields missing when compared to existing Mercury Forms (UCI Forms), however we wanted to get these new forms out to you for your feedback and to show the direction we are going in with this development.
We have plans in place to include additional items and ensure feature parity, however if you do notice anything, please let us know.
Key Features
Improved user experience across Mercury with new forms which are accessible via the Form selector:
• Clients – now called Mercury Account (this will eventually replace the existing UCI: Main form).
• Contact – now called Mercury Contact (this will eventually replace the existing Person form).
• Placement – now called Mercury Placement (this will eventually replace the existing UCI form).
• Vacancy – now called Mercury Vacancy (this will eventually replace the existing UCI form).
NOTE: We have also updated the view in the Candidates tab so that users can select between Active In Progress, Inactive and Rejected when looking at Shortlists associated with a Vacancy; this will make it easier to see the progression.
Updated/renamed System Views for the following
Vacancies - the following System Views are now available:
• All Active Vacancies
• Closed Vacancies
• Live vacancies with statistics
• My Active Vacancies
• My Closed Vacancies
• Vacancies I Follow
Client - the following System Views are now available when looking at Clients from the site map:
• My Active Accounts (Default)
• Active Accounts
• Inactive Accounts
• Accounts I Follow
We have also implemented a consistent approach to columns within these views:
• Client Name (sorted A-Z)
• Main Phone
• Address City
• Primary Contact
• Work Email
• Primary Contact
• Client ID
• Client Status
• Owner
We have taken the decision to hide:
• Active Clients
• Active Prospects
• Active Suspects
• Awaiting Credit Check
• Client Info Quick View
• Client Missing Finance Account Ref
• Client Missing Tax Code
• My Connections
• Parent Clients Only
• Previous Clients
Contacts - the following System Views are now available when looking at Contacts from the Site map
• Candidates Active (previously Active Candidate Contacts)
• Candidates Inactive (Previously Inactive Candidates)
• Candidates I Own (Previously My Active Candidates)
• Candidates I Follow (Previously Candidates I Follow)
• Candidates I Own in Progress (Previously My Candidates in Progress)
• Candidates I Own who are Placed (Previously My Candidates on Placement)
• Client Contacts Active (Previously Active Client Contacts)
• Client Contacts Inactive (Previously Inactive Client Contacts)
• Client Contacts I Own (Previously My Active Client Contacts)
• Client Contacts I Follow (New - needs creating) (Status = Active, As A = Client Contact, Who I Follow)
We have also implemented a consistent approach to columns within these views:
• Full Name (sorted A-Z)
• Current Client
• Job Title
• Personal Email (Switch with Work Email on Client Contact Views)
• Personal Mobile
• Availability
• Situation
• Home Address City (Switch with Work Address City on Client Contact Views
• Candidate ID
Related development item numbers > 49968, 49966, 49967, 53609, 53610, 53611, 53612, 59616, 60114 >> CLICK TO SEE MORE INFO
Enhancements to Commission Splits
The current method of splitting Commission is limited to 4 and can prove difficult when reporting on them. We have designed and implemented a new method of splitting Commission on Fees, Vacancies and Placements, which will allow you to not be limited by the number of splits, have the ability to create Commission Roles and have the auto-generation of Commission on creation of those records.
Key Features
• People with the Security Role - Mercury Super User are able to create a new Commission Role, give it a name, along with setting what entities it is valid for. Commission Roles can be valid for multiple entities.
• Users can now create a New Commission line on Fee, Vacancy and/or Placement via the Commission tab on that entity. Please note that the existing Commission fields will remain. You are able to hide these through existing Configuration.
• When adding, the Owner of the Parent (Fee, Vacancy or Placement) record will be set as the Owner. You do have the ability to change this.
• Ability to automatically create a Commission Line after specifying the Defaults on the Commission Role.
• If Commission changes on a Fee, Vacancy or Placement, any Commission Lines will be automatically updated to reflect the change.
• When cloning a Vacancy or a Placement, the relevant Commission Lines will copy over.
Related to development item numbers 54842, 56932, 58759, 58760, 58761, 59797 >> CLICK TO SEE MORE INFO
New Description field on Activity Purpose
In order to provide guidance to a Recruiter as to what key things they should consider for a particular activity, the ability to add a description has been added to the following activities - Phone Call, Task, and Update. The Description will then be cascaded to the relevant new Phone Call, Task or Update activity.
Related to development item numbers 43322, 43325 >> CLICK TO SEE MORE INFO
Enhancements to 'Last Contacted'
We’ve made some improvements to the items that do and do not update the Last Updated feature, based on feedback from our User Community.
Key Features
• Added Last Sales Email field - please note Sales emails update Last Sales Email Candidate or Last Sales Email Client, Last Emailed, Last Emailed By and Last Contacted By.
• A Sales Email to a Client Contact does not update the Last Contacted on the parent Client.
• Last Contacted is now updated automatically from an Info record.
• If a Call is marked as Left Voice Mail it will not update the Last Contacted information on Client and Contact.
Related to development item numbers IDEA-01020, IDEA-01024, IDEA-1074 >> CLICK TO SEE MORE INFO
Improvements to Postcode visibility
Depending on the Country selected, the Postcode field will display in the Address section for Address, Client, Contact, Fee, Placement and Vacancy. You can now also choose to hide or show the Postcode on the Candidate Company address information.
Related to development item numbers IDEA-01103, 59356 >> CLICK TO SEE MORE INFO
Improvements to working with CVs
You are now able to search for an anonymised CV when looking at Spec Send, in addition to searching for it when looking at Candidates. Simply input the CV Name (e.g. CV0001) into the search, and it will return results where the CV was sent.
You now also have the option to change the displayable CV on a Contact. You no longer need to re-parse the CV to make a change to which CV is viewed. Simply choose which CV you would like to display in the drop-down above the CV in the Experience tab of the Contact (Candidate).
Please note that you will need to have uploaded the CV to SharePoint for the Candidate to be able to select it.
Related to development item numbers 55840, 58131 >> CLICK TO SEE MORE INFO
Find Candidate (legacy Daxtra Search button) can now be hidden
You can now hide the Find Candidate button via the new config item HIDE_LEGACY_DAXTRA_SEARCH.
Related to development item number 58156 >> CLICK TO SEE MORE INFO
In this release for Integrations
Please note that access to any Integration is subject to Customers agreeing Commercial Terms with the Solution Provider. A request to Mercury will then be needed to switch on the Integration.
Software Fixes
Here are details of some general software fixes that we have rolled into this release. You may not have experienced all, or indeed any of the issues that we have fixed, depending on your particular use of the Mercury software, however, it is worth a read just in case there is something listed that will help you.
57541: Plugin error when changing addresses
There was an error that was shown when trying to save an address for a Country or State on the parent entity (i.e. Client or Contact). This has now been resolved.
58172: Country not populating on Placement
After v29, Country and State were not carrying across from the Client invoice address to the Vacancy or Placement. This has now been resolved
57112: Shortlist Updates failing - Personalisation Date separator "."
We have updated the web resource to ensure that Shortlist Updates splits the date using the correct date separator when created using flows.
58921: Daxtra Reformatter not launching correctly
There was an error with the Daxtra Reformatter where the URL built was incorrect. This has now been resolved.
58941: Placement Validation fields incorrectly included when cloning (possible extending)
Placement validation field value was being copied across to cloned or extended Placements. This has now been resolved.
56442: Textkernel CV document loses part of filename
We have resolved an issue where part of the CV filename was getting lost when uploading a file via Textkernel parsing, which meant the file would not open.
59144: State not mandatory on Candidate creation
Previously, the State field was not showing as mandatory for Countries which have States when adding a Home Address. This has now been resolved in the Contact Person and new Mercury Contact forms.
recruit_address2_state would need to be added to the respective Configuration Items in the Value - string field if you would like the State to be mandatory > MANDATORY_FIELDS.CRIMSON_CANDIDATE and MANDATORY_FIELDS.CONTACT.
44506: Contact Data Import Template doesn't work
Users are now able to download the Data Import template for the Contact entity.
48380/IDEA-01053: Shortlist source not populating on Extension, Clone and on initial Save
When cloning/extending a Placement you can now populate the Shortlist source method based on the original Placement.
55158: Duplicate financial transactions (Staged Fees)
There was an error meaning that Financial Transactions were duplicating when a new Placement was created. This has now been resolved.
57261: Mandatory Financials for Offer Made > 0
It is now mandatory to include financial information on the offer in order to progress the Candidate.
NOTE: This only applies to the Update Candidate function > New Progression method > Please see related Knowledge Article KA-01568.
58221: Inconsistent 'Daxtra Search' button visibility
The visibility of the Daxtra Search button on the Contact grid was inconsistent. This has now been resolved.
Coming up soon! More new developments that we're currently working on
Here we look ahead to more great Mercury Developments and Innovations that we're working on for future releases, including new Integrations, where we are continually looking at select Partners who offer high quality and complementary technology that we feel will add real value to our Clients. Integrations will be available as per the Mercury Core version stated in each case, and subject to Commercial Agreements being in place.
Here are some of the things that we are planning on bringing you soon - please contact your Mercury Customer Success Manager if you have any questions about timescales.
Accessing Analytics through the Core Mercury platform
We recently released a suite of Analytics reports, designed for Recruiters, and we are currently working on making these accessible from the Core Mercury platform. This will make it easier for you to access the reports in context. You can find out more about Mercury Analytics here.
Daxtra On-Demand Parsing
We are also working to enhance the Daxtra integration, which will allow for you to parse CVs on demand.
And there’s more…
AI Essentials
We are so excited about the suite of AI tools that we are bringing you over the next few months. There are currently 4 key AI tools in the toolkit including:
>> KNOWLEDGE BASE ARTICLES
• Activity AI which enhances Consultant efficiency by automating follow-up activities and capturing information, as well as generating next actions.
• Vacancy AI that uses generative AI to allow Recruiters to quickly create enriched job ads, qualification questions and answers and vacancy explainers.
• Shortlist AI which generates concise summaries of Candidate suitability from shortlisted vacancies, with full customisation so you can still edit and review before submission.
• Summary AI that provides a general summary of Candidates, their experience and provides speculative introductions to hiring managers.
Mercury AI Essentials is a package that is available as an add-on to your existing Mercury platform - please contact your Mercury Customer Success Manager for more information.
You’ll be seeing a lot more about Mercury AI Essentials over the coming months and we can’t wait to share it with you.
Alongside the quarterly Core releases, we also have a fortnightly release cycle for modules and non-core components of the platform which allows us to bring you enhancements and improvements every 2 weeks. Here are some of the key items that have been released through this process since we released Mercury Core v29.
Search
We are in the process of scheduling the release of Search, and we will be in touch with you in due course to discuss this with you. In the meantime, you can take a look at all of the key features here.
Analytics
As part of v29 we launched the new suite of Analytics dashboards. Alongside this, we are working on a new data model which will make it easier and quicker to both create and use the reports. We have also introduced the ability for Team Leaders to see performance data for their teams, in addition to the individual data they could already see. Here is the current library of all Knowledge Base articles for Analytics.
Did you know?
By purchasing your Microsoft licences through Mercury, you will have one trusted supplier and benefit from our competitive pricing, ensuring you receive the best value.
Please get in touch with your Mercury Customer Success Manager to find out more about Microsoft licensing through Mercury.
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