Groups Module

The Groups Module

Divide your organization into distinct sections using the Groups module.

Two Line OfieReach out to your Customer Success Manager if you're interested in this module or, if your organization is already using this module, to take advantage of any of the features described in this article.


The Groups module allows you to divide your organization into distinct sections, helping each Group accomplish its work independently with less clutter from unrelated functional areas. Groups exist within a single KaiNexus instance, meaning they share the same URL.

The purpose of Groups is to place barriers within an organization, restricting what a user sees in the system depending on what Group they are in. For example, a user in Group A can sign in to KaiNexus and only see completely different Items, Boards, and Reports from a user in Group B.  This allows the Groups to work independently, designing their own Roles, Templates, Network, and more. 

In summary, Groups create a unique experience for users and are ideal for organizations with distinct business areas that function separately. 

Keep reading to learn about:

The benefits of using Groups

  • Groups help you divide areas of your business into distinct units. Organizations with independent divisions love using Groups because they allow each division to customize its improvement system without compromising with a different division's priorities. 
  • Users are less overwhelmed while using Groups. They only interact with information relevant to their Group, cutting down on clutter in the system. This streamlined experience improves user adoption and engagement. 
  • Groups allow you to prevent users, including administrators with advanced permissions, from seeing sensitive or secure information within another Group. You can design a user's permissions to be comprehensive within their own Group while blocking them from seeing data in another Group.  
  • Reporting is easy with Groups. Groups can report on their own data independently, and users in multiple Groups can compare metrics between them. 

How do Groups work? 

Ofie Profile PicREQUIRED: You and your Customer Success Manager will need to work together to decide what Groups will function best for your organization. 

After Groups have been created for your organization, they can be assigned to three key elements of KaiNexus:

  • Templates
  • Locations
  • Roles

When a Group is assigned to one of these elements, it and its related elements will adopt the Group.

A great example of this is users. It would be tedious to assign a Group individually to every user in the system. Instead, you only need to assign Groups to Locations. Because every user in KaiNexus has a Location, they will automatically adopt the Group of their Location. 

Assigning Groups to Templates, Locations, and Roles creates an experience where users only see elements in the system belonging to their Group.

Ofie Profile PicPRO TIP: If any element in the system is not assigned a Group, it will be visible in all Groups. For example, if a Template doesn't have a Group, then users in all Groups can create Items using that Template. 


In the following three sections, we will discuss each element to which a Group can be assigned and the impacted downstream elements. Your Customer Success Manager will help you through the process of assigning Groups to Templates, Locations, and Roles. 

Templates

Ofie Profile PicREQUIRED: Reach out to your Customer Success Manager for help assigning a Group to a Template.

When a Group is assigned to a Template:

  • Users will only be able to create Templates that are in their Group.
  • Users will only be able to filter Item Lists by Templates that are in their Group.
  • All Fields and Attributes present on the Template will inherit the Template's Group. This means users will only see the Fields and Attributes belonging to their Group in the Administration section, Item Filters, and other drop-downs in the system. 
    • Attribute Values, which are the selection choices beneath each Attribute, do not automatically inherit the group of the Attribute. This allows Groups to have their own unique Values on an Attribute shared between them. 

Ofie Profile PicPRO TIP:  Because Attribute Values do not have a Group by default, a Group must be assigned to the Attribute Value before users with the "Quality Administrator" permission can edit them. Reach out to your Customer Success Manager if you need to assign a Group to an Attribute Value.

Locations

Ofie Profile PicREQUIRED: Reach out to your Customer Success Manager for help assigning a Group to a Location.

When a Group is assigned to a Location:

  • All users within that Location will inherit that Group as their own.
    • Users will only be able to see other users that are in their Group(s) in People Lists, in user filters, in Team Role selections, when sharing Boards, on the "by Person" Reports, and throughout KaiNexus.
    • If a user has multiple Network Locations and those Locations are assigned different Groups, then the user will have more than one Group. 
  • Unless specified otherwise, all Locations nested beneath the Location will inherit the Group of the Parent Location. 
  • Users will only be able to see Locations that are in their Group(s) in the Network diagram displayed in the Administration section, the Location Filters in the Boards, Reports, and the People section, and throughout KaiNexus. Therefore, users will only be able to choose from Locations in their Group(s) when selecting Responsible and Originating Locations for their Items, adding Locations to their Boards, or adding Locations to another user.
  • All Items will adopt the Group of their Responsible Location. The Item will be visible only to users in that Group and will be pulled into Reports for that Group.  

Roles

Ofie Profile PicREQUIRED: Reach out to your Customer Success Manager for help assigning a Group to a System Role.

When a Group is assigned to a Role:

  • Users with the "Role Administrator" permission will only see Roles assigned to their Group in the Administration section. 
    • When editing Roles, they can only add System Roles within their Group to a "Global User Administrator" or "Local User Administrator's" Grantable Roles. 
  • Users with the "Global User Administrator" or "Local User Administrator" permission can only grant users Roles that are within their Group. This is true even if their System Role says they can grant "Any" Role. 

Ofie Profile PicPRO TIP: When designing System Roles, remember that "Everywhere" only includes Network Locations within the user's Group. 

Groups and Boards

A Board can be exclusive to one Group or shared between multiple Groups. This provides flexibility on whether each Group wants to design Boards specific to their processes or whether a Board could be mutually useful among Groups. 

A Board's visibility between Groups depends on with whom the Board is shared.

  • A Board's Owner will always be able to view and edit the Board, regardless of their Group.
  • Users with the Board Administrator System Role Permission in the Board's Location can view and edit the Board. 
  • Board Editors will always be able to view the Board and edit the Board's Cards.
  • Any Locations, Roles, or users specified as Board Viewers can view the Board. 
  • A Board's Subscribers can only view the Board if they are also included in the Board's Viewers. 

When a Board is visible between multiple Groups, its contents (Item Lists, Reports, People Lists, Comments, Widgets, etc.) of the Board will be filtered based on the Group of the current viewer. 

Ofie Profile PicPRO TIP: A Board's Location does not control which Groups can view the Board. It only determines which users with the "Board Administrator" permission can edit the Board. Even if you are a Board Admin "Everywhere", you can only edit a Board if a Location within your Group is listed as one of its Board Locations.


Groups and Reports

While viewing a Report, you will only see Templates, Locations, People, Items, Attributes, etc. belonging to your Group included in the data. For example:

  • Users will only see users within their Group when accessing the User Engagement Summary, User Participation Summary, and "by Person" Reports.
  • Users will only see Attributes within their Group when accessing the Attribute Reports.
  • The Activity, Impact, and Attribute Reports will only pull data from Items within the user's Group. 
Users in multiple Groups will see People and Items from all their Groups in Report data.  They can use the Location Filter to narrow the data.

What can not be assigned a Group? 

Although many KaiNexus features can be given a Group, some features cannot be assigned a Group, including:

  • User Attributes such as Titles, Positions, Countries, and Certifications
  • General System Settings such as Terminology, Text Customization, Security, and Branding
  • Badges
  • Login Notices, though Login Notices can be restricted to specific Locations
  • Impacts
  • Weighted Scores
  • Standard Work
  • API Keys
  • Workflows