Communications

This page explains what every team member (Unicians) needs to know in order to effectively contribute at Unicis.

Unicis organizes a meeting called the “All hands” every month. All team members, both internal and external, are required to attend the monthly “All Hands” meeting. All meetings are recorded and team members who can’t attend should watch the recording within a few days.

You can read about company positioning and product strategy in Unicis Strategy (private).

We monitor the capabilities of competitors and adjacent products on our Comparison webpage.

Unicis website is built with Docusaurus. Therefore, if you wish to make changes to the components, you will need access to the private repository.

The technical documentation of Unicis is written in Markdown file in a hierarchical format and is generated using the versioning CLI to generate a new documentation version.

Blog articles can be published using Decap CMS - an open source content management system, via following link.

We only use open source marketing solutions, such as Matamo for web analytics to track online visitors and Mautic for marketing automation.

We use Mautic to communicate with our community and people who sign up for our newsletter. Use the Unicis template to make a Mautic e-mail campaign and send it.

The biggest asset of Unicis is its user community. Social media conversations give contributors a chance to answer technical questions and get feedback.

Unicis doesn’t focus on selling itself. Instead, conversations are already happening in our social spaces that allow Unicis to connect with the community.

Here are some ideas for social media posts:

• Unicis the Product: Updates, new features, and user testimonials about Unicis.
• Internal Progress: Highlight team achievements, milestones, and glimpses into our work.
• Highlighting Community Contributions: Showcase the contributions of our users and celebrate their successes.
• Highlighting Unicis and Industry Accomplishments: Share the major accomplishments and awards Unicis has received.
• Industry News about Our Field: Share news and information about our products and services.
• Upcoming Events, Interviews, and Podcasts: Promote upcoming events, webinars, interviews, and podcast appearances by - Unicis and its team members.

The Unicis company page can be used to promote original posts on LinkedIn by Unicis staff. Follow these steps if you think your post would be effective in front of a larger audience:

1. Create a Post note: Make a note on the Nextcloud and tag it with LinkedIn.
2. Provide Context: Include any context in the note to explain why the post is important.
3. Await Approval: Please keep an eye out for approval. Your post will be reviewed by the team and used in a promoted post if it’s deemed appropriate.

Unicis employs advertising to disseminate information to a broader audience and encourage greater involvement within communities. The more people who actively use Unicis or contribute, the better Unicis will be.

One of the most effective methods of promoting Unicis products and solutions is through participation in events. This presents an opportunity to directly engage with potential users and contributers, build partnership, relationship, gather feedback, and create a stronger sense of community and trust.

Right now, Unicis doesn’t have a podcast, but we plan to do it in the future. We invite podcasters to invite us to participate in your sessions and promote Unicis and what we are building.

Unicis uses Vimeo to keep the community informed about new products and demo videos. These videos provide community engagement, educational resources, and essential information about Unicis and the people who use it.

• Join the meetings on time. At Unicis, we start meetings promptly and don’t wait for late arrivals. Since we usually use the Jitsi conferencing tool, make sure you join with a working microphone and camera. Being late for a few minutes can cause problems and make your meeting colleagues wait longer. When in doubt, try to join a few minutes early.
• Turn on your camera. Enabling your camera makes communication more complete and easy. You are welcome to keep your camera on or turn it off when joining meetings with new participants you may not be familiar with yet. But make sure to turn on your camera when you lead or cohost a meeting or when you show off your work during a demonstration.
• Be warm. The first minute or two of a meeting should be spent being present and engaging in small talk. Since we work remotely, we often miss out on the informal conversations and human connections that happen in physical workspaces. In the first minute of the meeting, say “Hi!” and connect before going over the agenda.
• Take notes. Every meeting should have a designated responsible person to ensure that:
  • The agenda is made or prepared in advance.
  • A designated notetaker is assigned to the meeting.
  • All action items are recorded and assigned to the right people.

• Create a new event via Nextcloud Calendar
• OpenProject meeting related to your project: - Classic meeting: allows you to manage and document your project meetings, prepare a meeting agenda together with your team and document and share minutes with attendees, all in one central place. - Dynamic meeting: allows you easier meeting management, improved agenda creation and the ability to link work packages to meetings and vice-versa.

When scheduling external meetings, please provide external participants with a link to the Unicis intranet applications to schedule with the relevant internal participants. See how to configure public calendar appointments.

In order for the internal team to be able to schedule a meeting, it is important to set your working hours in Unicis Intranet and block out any personal time/events, so that the team members do not inadvertently schedule a time when you are not available.

You can edit, duplicate or delete an calendar event by using the following steps.

With Unicis Intranet - Nextcloud it is possible to share calendars.

At Unicis, skip-level one-on-one meetings are designed to foster open communication, enhance transparency, and build stronger relationships between employees and senior leadership. These meetings provide an occasion for team members to discuss their experiences, provide feedback, and collaborate on company objectives directly with senior managers, bypassing their immediate supervisors.

We use Jitsi for online meetings at Unicis. It’s important that everyone on the team feels comfortable using it. The Jitsi settings are the same for all team members. Please read the user guide for more information.

Example:

• Username: [username]@jitsi.unicis.tech
• Password: [your Unicis SSO password]

Recording meetings at Unicis is an important practice that improves transparency, accountability, and continuity within the organization. It ensures that team members who can’t attend can access and review important discussions and decisions. At Unicis, we suggest to use OBS to record (e.g. browser window) our meetings and make these recordings available to the entire company. This is especially important for meetings with external participants, such as customers, prospects, or community members. Recording these meetings helps create great sales and customer success teams by giving them a reliable source of information and training. If a team member with recording privileges attends such meetings, they are in charge of recording the session and making sure that key information is kept and available for all relevant stakeholders.

The video recording session should be uploaded to the Recordings group folder in the Unicis intranet.

At Unicis, all information is classified according to the Security Policy and the categories define who can access the information.

• Public: Share with anyone, anywhere in the world
• Internal: Share only with team members who’ve signed an NDA, consulting agreement, or employment agreement
• Confidential: Share only with founders of Unicis, business operations, and/or the people involved. e.g., social security numbers during hiring

At Unicis, several special email addresses automatically send messages to the right people, ensuring efficient communication and quick responses. Each email address has a minimum response time (“Min RT”) and a direct responsible individual (DRI) who is in charge of reading and responding to emails. This system (FreeScout) ensures that inquiries and issues are promptly addressed, thereby enhancing efficiency.

At Unicis, we don’t email each other inside the company. Instead, we use Element to talk to other Unicians.

At Unicis, we use Element to communicate. We encourage the use of channels over direct messages and encourage the use of threads within the Element whenever possible. Threads help reduce noise and notifications for others who are following the channel. We also don’t use global tags in channels to keep the environment respectful. Employees are encouraged to post polls or inquiries in the relevant channel and mention their teammates.

We use Discord to connect with open-source community members and contributors.

For the product and documentation, we have two different sources of truth. GitLab is used for private purposes and allows team members to interact, while GitHub is public and allows community members to interact with Unicis.

Unicis uses special characters or words to organize and categorize GitLab issues.

At Unicis, spending company money follows a simple approach.

1. Responsible Spending: As you would your own money, make wise decisions and avoid unnecessary expenses.
2. Efficiency: Just buy what you need to do your job well and quickly.
3. Autonomy: You can make purchases in the company’s interest without permission. It’s best to tell your manager as soon as possible if you’re not sure.
4. Guidelines: Refer to our company’s expense policy for more information about responsible spending practices.

We make sure that company money is used responsibly and effectively to help us reach our goals at Unicis.

In response to security questionnaires, Unicis strives to provide full transparency through our security policies, trust, and application security documentation. You may also want to refer to the vendor questionnaires page. Contact the C-level to address any pending questions.

To have the contract signed, you must request an approval in Unicis Intranet by tagging the document with signature tag.

The CEO must approve each contract. Only internal Unicians can ask for contract review. Each request for approval has the option of being accepted or rejected. The Intranet adds an approved or rejected tag to the document.

We use an open source LibreSign Nextcloud app for document and contract signing.

In a Trust center we talk about the Security and Technical and Organisational Measures (TOMs) that we have implemented at Unicis for compliance requirements.

We track how much time you spend on issues and merge requests as described in this GitLab guide.

Each invoice addresing to Unicis needs to include the below company details, otherwise it will be invalid.

Unicis is an open-source project, and anyone is welcome to contribute at any time. Before the start date for a core team member, they are welcome to contribute, but they are not expected to. Here are some recommendations for new team members:

We welcome to Unicis!

1. Read about the company.
2. Take the time to get trained
3. Get used to the tools.
4. Become immersed in the world of .

At Unicis, we use a structured process to hold performance feedback sessions.

1. Scheduled Meetings: Feedback sessions are held every six months.
2. Preparation: Managers and employees think about their successes and challenges.
3. Two-Way Dialogue: Feedback sessions involve a discussion where both parties share their thoughts.
4. Setting Goals: Managers and employees establish SMART objectives that align with company objectives and personal growth.
5. Continuous Support: Support is given to employees to help them reach their goals and address performance issues.
6. Documentation: Feedback discussions and objectives have been documented for future reference.
7. Follow-Up: Progress tracking and additional support are ensured through regular check-ins.

This approach fosters a culture of continuous learning and growth at Unicis.

Unicis currently does not provide company equipment or software licenses.

Learn how to communicate at Unicis, including guidelines for the tone of voice, our approach, grammar and mechanics, and more.

Writing

Design:

Color:

color-primary: #0052cc;
color-primary-dark: #142b5f;
color-primary-darker: #0046ad;
color-primary-darkest: #00398f;
color-primary-light: #005ae0;
color-primary-lighter: #005eeb;
color-primary-lightest: #0a6dff;
code-font-size: 95%;
navbar-background-color: #0043a8;
navbar-link-color: #ffffff;
navbar-link-color-hover: #c5e9fb;
navbar-link-color-active: #bdbdbd;
navbar-link-background-color-active: #145cc4;
navbar-link-background-color: #043581;
dropdown-background-color: #3080ea;
footer-background-color: #142b5f;
heading-font-family: 'Esphimere';
menu-color: #d9faff;
button-background-color: #ebedf0;

Font: We use company wide font Esphimere or dafont.com.

Icons: We use the following library @iconify/react and select ONLY the “Commercial use is allowed” from iconify.design.

We use an open-source tool LanguageTool that checks grammar and style in company documents. Access and instructions for usage.

At Unicis, we use Markdown syntax and conventions. Here are some examples and a Cheat Sheet for Markdown. We can also use Frontmatter to add metadata and options.

Commonly used terms at Unicis.