WORKetc CRM BLOG

Projects Update... Getting Closer...

Daniel Barnett — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 07:07:47 UTC

We've made some big leaps with the new project module. Conceptually, the biggest change is the ability to work with a project, inside of a timeline view. So, with the old project management and indeed every PM tools I've played around with, there are basically two types of views: - An agenda view which lists all the activities and assets in a long list down the page. This is Basecamp style. - A timeline view which lists all activities along a project schedule, otherwise known as a Gantt chart. Think Microsoft Project.The existing WORKetc allows you to switch between the two methods, but they never felt particularly integrated. It was basically a timeline view with an agenda view stuck in below it. Now, with this next release we use lot of Ajax trickery to bring agenda-type functionality directly into the timeline view. But we also still allow you to minimise (hide) this view if you are more of an agenda/flow type of project person. The other key changes in this release include: - Sub project dependency. Create a sub project and lock the start date until another (parent) project is completed. Automatically send an alert to members once a dependant sub project is ready to start. - Single project page. Every element of a project can now be viewed on the single page. Previously you had to click through to the next page to view a sub-project or task. - Better Gantt chart. The new timeline/schedule view is slick and clean. - Rapid project creation. Soon you will be able to create a sub project or task by simply clicking on a free line in the Gantt chart. Previously you had to click through to a new screen. This change means you can rapidly click -> create ->click -> create your way to create your project structure. - Progress, People and Budget views. The current project management software just displays the activities. The next release has activities as the default view, but lets you switch that view to clearly show progress across the ...

Weighing in on the ... Why Distributed Teams Are Less Effective Debate.

Daniel Barnett — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 09:39:24 UTC

This is a bit of a deviation from my usual product updates, but bear with me … It is a subject very close to the hearts of most of our customers and indeed ourselves. Are distributed teams functional? Can you build a successful business with your key people in different parts of the world? Debate around this question is quickly growing out of comments V.C. Mark Suster made in a recent post entitled “The Power of ‘In Person’ – Why Distributed Teams are Less Effective”. Mark essentially argues that if you want to become a big business, if you want to attract VC investment (at least from Mark’s firm) then you better make sure that the key players in your team work from the same location. Distributed teams are out. As are offshoring and outsourcing. In a very short response, Simon Mackie @ WebWorkerDaily, supports some of Marks’s statements, but ends with the a (state-the-obvious) comment that, thanks to the Internet and technology, “working in a distributed team is now easier than it ever was before”. Initially, Mark’s article and the responses that are popping up everywhere annoyed me. I can see where he is coming from, but I also know that 99% of our customers who run distributed teams are successful. I know this because the customers increasing the number of users on their account each month far, far outweigh customers decreasing their seat count. Now, the fundamental issue that many people have missed is that Mark is talking about well-funded start-ups that aim to become very big businesses. The next Facebook or the next Google. But, for most business owners and most feet-on-the-ground start-ups, “big” sits on a very different scale. A million dollar turnover inside of 12 months is big. A ten million dollar turnover inside of 5 years absolutely huge. Hell, just being in business and paying the bills next month can be a big deal. Most, if not all WORKetc customers operate distributed teams, this is part of the appeal of WORKetc - ma...

Sneak Preview: New Project Management

Daniel Barnett — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 06:13:59 UTC

A huge part of the current release we're working on is a new and enhanced project management module. The tricky thing about developing project management software is that everyone wants practical usability within a business. Every feature request, every great idea propels the product forward, but also ads layers of complexity and what may work for one customer, may not work or even hinder another. So, a few months ago I started this process we use of downloading our store of project management requests, weeding out duplicates, sorting by priority and relevance to the greatest number of customers and finally arriving at a semi-final plan. I use the phrase semi-final as what looks good in print doesn't always work as planned in code. Simon has since been belting out some demon code and together we're getting close to a public beta - something we're really pumped about. The project component of WORKetc is just so important to so many of our customers now and so important to our business - we have always used WORKetc to manage the WORKetc business. This is a screenshot of the new streamlined interface: This screeshot doesn't do justice to the nuts and bolts sitting behind and doesn't show the level of interaction now possible. For example, you can drag and drop tasks, click and create dependant tasks and click and enter detailed settings. There is a lot going on, but from the design I think we've managed to keep it looking simple and intuitive. In a later post I'll include a list of all changes (there's a lot!) but for now here is a brief overview of the top four enhancements coming: - Rapid project structures. Quickly set up a new sub project or task by just typing in a new column. Previously you would need to work through a detailed set up screen, but with this version you can tab through lines creating a project structure and then if you need to, view the detailed setting screens later. - Dependent sub projects and tasks. This is probabl...

New Beta - Google Calendar Sync 2.0

Daniel Barnett — Wed, 19 May 2010 10:33:35 UTC

We quietly released a new beta last week - this is an update to Google Calendar sync using the newish G. Calendar API. To access this, go to Settings -> Event Calendar Settings, select the calendar you want to sync and then enter your details: and then... Again, this is a beta so please take some care. I would hate for anyone to miss an important meeting because something didn't work (although I'm assured this just can't happen!) Subscribe here for more product updates.... or follow us on twitter...

Exclusive PR Opportunity for WORKetc Customers

Daniel Barnett — Mon, 17 May 2010 03:29:26 UTC

Based on the popularity of our Micro Mulit-national discussion late last month, we've secured a series of articles to be published on a top 10 small business blog. The general direction of the series is an ongoing discussion and exploration around Micro Multinationals as an emerging business class. Just to recap, a micro multinational is a small business that is not hindered by geography. They have employees, suppliers and customers working from all corners of the globe and use technology in some capacity to bring it all together. The opportunity So - the opportunity is for a select few WORKetc customers to be profiled for inclusion in the series. You get to talk about your business for publication in a top 10 small business blog! If you’re not a WORKetc customer but have a great story to tell, let us know anyway (and then sign up for a free trial ...) How to be considered… We’re looking for business owners with great Micro Multi-national stories to tell. Think you don’t have a story to tell? We want to hear what you love about running a business that isn’t anchored to the one location - what makes you and your business special: - Are you running your business from an unusual location? Remote from key markets or customers? - Does your business setup promote a better -work life balance? What does this mean to you and your family? - Do you work with the best-value or best qualified contractors, regardless of where they are located? - Do you take advantage from operating across multiple time zones If you’re interested in some free PR, please pitch your story in 1 or 2 paragraphs and send to support [@] worketc.com with the subject “PR Opportunity”. Don't miss out on the next great opportunity - subscribe to the WORKetc CRM blog here... Here's a preview of our new promo video (note - it is a draft...!) :

Contacts now available for Public Beta

Daniel Barnett — Wed, 12 May 2010 03:43:11 UTC

From today, all accounts will be able to access the new contacts module, bookmarks tool and streamlined interface. To switch between the old and the new, simply click the new link in the top right hand corner of your screen: Once we've worked through any bugs (hopefully none!) we'll create a walk-through video highlighting all the new cool stuff. But for now bullet points.... Interface: - Any pages on which you do something can now be bookmarked. This means that the page is always accessible from the right hand panel. - This right hand panel can now be collapsed to make more horizontal space for your work. - The top menu bar is slimmer and the WORKetc branding less intrusive - The top menu bar is always clickable, reducing the number of clicks needed to get around. - Most pages have breadcrumb navigation to help get a feel of where you are in the application and to easily let you bounce around pages. - A lot of functionality is now available in a floating window, rather than loading a new page.Contacts: - Contact directory is now presented in a table format for better presentation and sorting ability. - Any contact row can be expanded to quickly access frequent contact details - Contact detail screen now requires much less scrolling, making better use of the screen space available - We bring to the forefront the contact history tool. This is actually one of the most powerful features of WORKetc, but until now we've kind of hidden away ....Contact History Tool: The contact history tool lets you view your businesses entire interaction with a customer. More on this shortly....

New Contacts Management Software - Beta available soon

Daniel Barnett — Tue, 04 May 2010 01:59:53 UTC

We're just putting the final finishing touches on the new contact management tools and are aiming to make these available as an opt-in beta later this week. This opt-in beta will be a simple link in the existing WORKetc interface that will let you switch between the existing and new versions (obviously without any data loss!). As you can see below, most of the changes are around making the interface more compact, intuitive and faster to find what you are looking for. Contacts Directory: The above screen snap is the new main Contacts directory. It allows you to instantly access most common contact fields: - Clicking on the star will bookmark this contact. - Clicking on the [+] will expand for more detail - Clicking on the contact name will open a detailed view page.Expanded Contact Detail View: In the view above, we've simply clicked the [+] icon to get a more detailed view of the contact. The expanded view includes: - mulitple telephone numbers - multiple street addresses. These show up as extra tabs on the address box. - a hotlink for each address to launch location in Google Maps - any tags assigned to this contact - the ability to quickly create a new item such as an invoice, timesheet, or directly send an email to the contact, via the "Create New" drop down menu.Detailed Contact View The detailed contact view now includes a much tighter layout and about a 100 fold reduction in the time taken to view that contacts activity history (tested up to 10,000 events). A whole lot of changes on this screen: - You can now quickly change a contact's WORKetc Tags, Permissions and Preferences on this screen. - Most fields can be edited inline - If you are using FireFox or Safari, fields that you are editing now have a blue glow to help focus (Internet Explorer doesn't support this code yet) - We now make a feature of the Activity Search function. Previously "history" search was hidden down the bottom of the screen and you co...

Bookmarks and Breadcrumbs

Daniel Barnett — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 12:42:26 UTC

Coming soon is a great new feature that a few customers have suggested - bookmarks! What this means is that you can bookmark any page on WORKetc and that bookmark sits on the right hand panel. So - if you always find that you are going back to the same project, or the same contact (or whatever) it will now always be a single click away. Also, in the new user interface are breadcrumbs that now display under the menu bar. Breadcrumbs are a simple system to help users instantly understand where they are, inside of the WORKetc menu structure. Again, this came about from customer feedback...!

We're for the micro-multinationals!

Daniel Barnett — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 01:36:43 UTC

We recently started working with Bernard Lunn, a technology entrepreneur with 20yrs in the industry, to help us define and progress our marketing efforts. We got to talking aboout a new breed of entrepreneurs and small businesses that are not confined by geography (and ultimately how most WORKetc' customers fit this mould) Bernard: This is the era of tiny networked companies that operate globally. These micro versions of multinationals outsource almost everything to specialists all over the world and sell to people all over the world through the Internet. This is "multinational 2.0". For a long time we have had the concept of virtual companies, which has tended to mean that there is no physical office that everybody commutes to. The problem for those of us who have actually worked with these fine companies is that the term "virtual company" sounds negative. It sounds unreal, or insubstantial. These companies are very real, with real products/services that their customers rely upon, real revenues and profits and the people who work there rely on getting paid by these companies to pay their bills. Daniel: You’re 100% right here. So, my first business, Virtual Impact, was a web design and marketing business when the word “virtual” was in vogue – circa 1999. A constantly displeased (think high maintenance) customer yelled down the phone line one day, “Is that why you call it Virtual Impact – because you deliver virtually nothing for virtually no-one?” Ouch. So yes, the word Virtual definitely has negative connotations.But like many of our customers, Worketc is definitely one of the new micro-nationals. Our "head office" (myself) is in Sydney, Australia, and we have dedicated staff in Phoenix (USA), Manilla (Philippines) and Halifax (Canada) and customers across 28 countries. I would never say that we’re virtual, yet somehow saying we are a small business just makes me think of tupperware parties and diet supplements. We are so much more than...

Recent updates & streamlining the WORKetc Interface

Daniel Barnett — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 01:48:10 UTC

So, we are working on a progressive upgrade of all the WORKetc tools, something we've loosely been calling version 2.6 (although given the enormity of the changes, we should probably be calling it version 3.0!). Some of these changes are creeping into the current release, particularly improvements to the user interface. Last week I explained the new on-page create function that we needed to push through to the current version. This week we have a new "expand advanced options" button. WORKetc has already made a lot of options available, allowing our users maximum flexibility when it comes to creating things like projects and timesheets. However, if you’re not using these options, they still display on set up screens, taking up valuable screen real estate and distracting you from the work at hand. We now hide these “advanced options” by default. If you need to use them, simply click to show and hide. And the really cool thing is that WORKetc will remember your last, saved default. So if you always use Advanced Options, they will always show until you decide to collapse the screen. We have a bunch of other interface changes coming shortly, notably a re-designed sidebar that includes an awesome bookmark function. More on this over the next week. Other WORKetc Updates We’ve also released the following minor changes over the last month: - Address Types "Personal", and "Street" have been re-labeled back to their original/internal naming convention of "Home" and "Work". Thus we have 3 address types called Home/Work/Billing which is once again consistent with other addressbook software. - Projects, ToDos, Events and Support Cases now have an ability to be archived, even when Progress % is not complete. This is useful if you have a project which is stalled and you might want to disable it for a while, but you don't necessarily want to lose your Progress data on all of the sub-projects. - Businesses can also disable the default automatic arch...

Click Fatigue … and feature announcement

Daniel Barnett — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 11:22:28 UTC

WORKetc is a big application, there’s no denying it. Right out of the box it does maybe 80% of everything a small business needs to operate. That means a lot of code and a lot of tools. But, no matter how comprehensive an app is, how robust the code is or fast the infrastructure, it is meaningless if it isn’t easy to use. And this is compounded within WORKetc as most users are logging more than 5 sessions per day and doing everything from creating sales leads, to managing projects and logging time. If software isn’t simple to use, fast to use, then within a few weeks users inevitably suffer from click fatigue. From click fatigue comes mounting frustration and from frustration is borne a general contempt toward the product (particularly if you're already stressed or just having a bad day - we all know that hurl-the-laptop-across-the-room feeling). Awareness of the click fatigue pandemic is fast spreading – Microsoft recently changed default settings of a critical Windows 7 security feature because users balked at clicking more than two prompts per day. Amazon has been ahead of the curve for years with its 1-Click patent. So far ahead of the curve that Apple was forced to license this technology(!) for use in the iTunes store. And unfortunately, some of our users started reporting click fatigue within WORKetc Soooooooooo – late last week we quietly introduced an interface change that massively streamlines entering data. This one simple change took less than 8 hours to code yet the impact on usability is profound. It took one of our customers, iDonny, to point this out to us. And I'll admit I'm a little dumbfounded that we've been using WORKetc internally now for 2 years and it never occured to any of us. In fact, I'm pretty sure it had never been suggested before. 37Signals (Basecamp) famously pulls out the "forget feature requests" - but if we had followed that advice, we would never have got here in the first place. So yes, we read,...

WORKetc Crushes That...

Daniel Barnett — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 12:27:13 UTC

Just a bit of fun as we play around with our marketing message. My goal is to own the "one web app for all" debate, that is use WORKetc to run your entire business, rather than signing up for different web apps for different parts of your business. Video and animation seems a more compelling medium for getting the WORKetc message across. The issue I've always struggled with is WORKetc does so many things and appeals to so many businesses. It's difficult to distil that down into an engaging message without focussing on a single feature or single industry. This animation took at most 90 minutes from concept to upload, using Xtranormal. This web and desktop app does "text to animation". Really simple: - Select a stage and characters - Drag and drop to position - Type in dialogue for each characters - Insert camera angles and actions into the dialoge - Publish and uploadOh - and Xtranormal is responsible for the Social Media Guru video that is doing the rounds. Doubly amusing as I'd received a quote from such a guru last year - north of $20k!

Public Beta: Email Drop Box

Daniel Barnett — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 02:46:15 UTC

Earlier in the week we opened up the email drop box concept for public beta. What this means is that you can now interact with your WORKetc account, simply by sending an email. For example, if you are out and about and think of an important task, simply fire up your smartphone and send WORKetc an email. WORKetc will receive that email, understand your request and go ahead and create the To-Do. Some scenarios available in this pre-release: - Create a To-Do for yourself and others - Create a new event or meeting in the calendar, for multiple people - Record an expense - Create and invite people to participate in a new project After we have a few weeks feedback on the drop box, we’ll be adding in the following scenarios: - Create a new contact via email - Create and update a sales lead via email - Attach emails and documents to contacts via email - Any other cool concept that are suggested. Read more on how to get using the drop box. And as usual – please post any feedback on that forum This is going to be a massive productivity improvement for everyone (me included!)

Timesheet Widget - Beta Now Available

Daniel Barnett — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:03:19 UTC

UPDATE: The Timer Widget (beta) is now available. Just go to http://.worketc.com/tools.aspx to install the app. Please post any feedback over on this forum. We're maybe 2 or 3 days away from making the WORKetc timesheet widget available for public beta. The widget is built in Silverlight and should work flawlessly on both Apple and Windows desktops. Why Silverlight? It's fast, it looks good, it is cross platform and in theory will work seamlessly on Windows Mobile and on Apple iPhone sometime in 2010. Here are some sneak previews: Silverlight Widgets as a Platform Depending on how the Timer Widget is received (and how well it works on mobile devices) we may look to bring additional functionality to the widget: - Addressbook lookup - Quick Contact creation - Calendars - To-Do List - Sales ActionsI'll update this post when the timer is available for public beta and how to access it from your account.

New Year, New Servers, Network

Daniel Barnett — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:28:01 UTC

Starting this Thursday (January 7) we'll be progressively migrating all accounts to new and improved hardware and a faster network. Its not that we've had any issues with the current setup, its that we're planning for 2010 and beyond. For those that are interested, we're moving to higher spec'd dedicated servers at Peer1, who run what they call Supernetwork(tm) with 16 Data Centres and 21 Points of Presence across the USA, Canada and into Europe. For our Australian customers the datacentre is just a skip across the pacific in California - and from my tests (in Sydney) so far, it is indistinguishable from any locally hosted service. We also move from a 3 - 5 day backup routine to a daily backup of all customer accounts meaning that your business data is safer than ever. At the same time, we're upgrading the WORKetc core from Windows 2003 server to the latest 2008 server and SQL server to the latest 2008 release. This will give us the performance and security overhead to continue to grow. Bottom line is that this move will result in a faster experience for all customers, better overall security and data back up. Once the move is complete, we'll also be announcing more storage space for all customers. What to expect other the next few days... Simon has written a cool application that will automate the transfer of customer databases from the existing server to the new server and then perform a number of checks to ensure there are no issues. This process takes about 10 minutes for each account and wherever possible, we'll be scheduling these for after midnight. However, for us to know when your midnight is, you need to ensure you have the correct timezone set in your WORKetc Settings. Just go to Settings -> Logo, Language & Location and make sure have your local timezone set. If by chance you do try to log into WORKetc whilst the transfer is active, you'll see a simple explanation screen and a suggestion to go for a coffee :-) The only...

WORKetc in Spanish & iPhone Calendar Sync

Daniel Barnett — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:00:00 UTC

We're lucky enough to have some fantastic ("legends" in Australia-speak) WORKetc customers who have given up some of their time to help us build out some features of WORKetc. iPhone Calendar Sync. Firstly, John from Solany Document Management in Colorado, USA, has successfully sync'd WORKetc calendars to iPhone v.3.0 software and provided us with a quick how-to. Check out the iPhone Calendar synchronization for details. Spanish Translation Xavier, an Architect based in Barcelona, Spain, has painstakingly translated the WORKetc interface and help manual into Spanish Español! If you want to try out the Español version, simply go to Settings -> Logo, Language & Locations and then change the user interface menu to Spanish. Welsh Translation Andrew, from multimedia/web developer Tantrwm in Aberdare, South Wales, United Kingdom has also finished a translation into Welsh Cymraeg! See above on how to switch your interface into Cymraeg. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - We are still looking for a WORKetc customer who has iPhone app development skills and would be interested in a project to work with us on our app... More soon...

Quick Update - We've been busy in the background...

Daniel Barnett — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 12:00:00 UTC

It just dawned on me that whilst we've been so focused on working on WORKetc, I've completely neglected the WORKetc blog! It has been 2 months since I last posted an update and to stop the reek of ghost town advancing any further, here is a brief update on what we've been up to: - Support has been consolidated and revamped. We now have an expanding library of training videos and a lot more buzz around the support forums. Anyone can view our support area, but you must be logged into your account to participate: http://admin.worketc.com/Community/Videos - We have a new, cleaner web site coming soon. The new site will include a bunch of demonstration videos as well as taking the WORKetc blog in a completely new direction. - We have completed a rewrite of the document management tool that will allow all our customers a better upload/download experience. - We have set a time-line for migrating WORKetc to a private cloud-computing environment which will give us total hardware, network and geographic redundancy. Our uptime has been 100% for the last few months, but we are building for the future here. - Simon and I have been compiling a huge list of enhancements and new features for a version 2.6 release of WORKetc around December this year. We'll be publishing this list over at the forums for comments shortly, but if you want to get involved before then, please post your ideas at http://admin.worketc.com/Community/Forums?Forum=2 - iPhone App. We are working toward an early 2010 release of a native WORKetc application for the iPhone, to be followed by a Windows Mobile and Blackberry release. We like to use the services of our customers, so if you are a WORKetc customer with iPhone application development experience, please get in contact.Also, we are working on translating WORKetc into a number of different languages. A Spanish version is almost complete, with French and Italian on the way. If you would like a free, unlimited copy of WORKetc ...

5 Critical Business Insights That Save Your Business

Daniel Barnett — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:00:00 UTC

A lot of CRM information gets shuttled around your business on a daily basis. New project information, timesheets, invoices, contracts . . . with all of the information, you would think you’d know what the smart steps are to take next to solidify your company’s position. The problem is, none of this information is organized to help you draw conclusions. You don’t know which clients are the most profitable, or whether certain kinds of project management are more effective than others. Heck, you don’t even know exactly how much revenue you’re going to pull in this month. WORKetc can help with that problem. The WORKetc software keeps track of all of your business information and lets you generate real-time reports using whatever parameters you need to investigate. If you have a question about employee productivity, for example, WORKetc can create a report that shows you how much each employee has accomplished over the last month. That’s information you can use to make smart decisions for your business’ growth. Use WORKetc real time, company wide reporting to find out: - How much money you’re expecting to invoice this month – or next month, or over the next six months. You pick the time frame, WORKetc will find the information. - Whether your customers are profitable. If you have a low margin profit, just a few customer support inquiries could wipe out a year’s profit. Use WORKetc to identify those problem customers before they damage your profit. - Whether your projects are getting done on time. If you don’t know how much time is being spent on each project, then you don’t know if that project is profitable. Track progress daily and take steps to eliminate problem projects. - Which employees are pulling their weight. You can use WORKetc to find out which employees are the most productive, the most innovative, and the most capable by studying their productivity and project management. - About problems with your product or service. Tracking cus...

7 More Hidden WORKetc Tools

Daniel Barnett — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:00:00 UTC

We just told you about six great tools you may not have been aware WORKetc was capable of. Surprise, surprise – we’ve got seven more, and they’re time and effort savers on par with their highly impressive predecessors. As we’ve said before, WORKetc is a pretty complex machine, and the more you know about what’s under the hood, the more spectacularly it can perform for you. Here are seven more fantastic tricks this system can do. - Search Your Company, Not Just Your Website. Your current website may have a search engine, but we’re talking about one for your business. Every contact, project, document, customer note, sales lead and support enquiry is instantly searchable inside WORKetc. It’s the secretary with a photographic memory you never had. - Go Local with Regionalization. WORKetc comes pre-regionalized for your location no matter where you are – the UK, the USA, Australia , Europe or Asia. You’ll be able to set local tax rules, timezones, date formats, currency symbols, and even business literacy differences. Those customizations will go on all of your data automatically. - Get Real Time Reports. As soon as you enter data into the WORKetc system, you can use it to generate reports on the fly. See how this last project has affecting employee productivity, find out the real-time status of accounts and WIP, compare one project’s management with another’s. WORKetc has the answers. - Keep Your Data Safe and Portable. At any time, you can download the entirety of your WORKetc data for your peace of mind onto a backup. You also don’t need to worry if you decide WORKetc isn’t for you – your data is always ready to go wherever you need it. With flexibility like that, though, we can’t imagine why you’d want to leave us. - Create Document Folder Templates. Different clients need their information presented in different ways. With this tool, you can create a template structure for your documents and assign that template to all new folders. You’ll never hav...

Revealed: 6 WORKetc Tools

Daniel Barnett — Sun, 17 May 2009 12:00:00 UTC

WORKetc is a simple and intuitive application for users, but under the hood is a massively complex engine. It does a lot of things, from web based CRM through to time sheets, billing, reporting, contacts, etc etc etc! This is what makes selling WORKetc a tricky proposition. It does a *lot*, but if we try to sell new customers on all the features, they quickly become overwhelmed. So - what happens is some of the really cool stuff that WORKetc does, gets quickly overshadowed by the glamor tools. Here are six really cool features that are already built into WORKetc - it is their time to shine... - Live Chat – Customers like immediate gratification, and you can give it to them with live chat. WORKetc includes a live chat tool that you can use for sales or customer support, giving them the answers they need to decide to make that purchase. - Tagging – You’re probably already using our address book, but it’s more than an index of names. You can set custom tags to divide up your contacts any way you choose. Late payers, future customers, interested in XYZ – whatever category you need, you can create easily to find the people you’re looking for. - Embedded Forms – Gathering information is hard enough, but sorting it can be hellish. WORKetc lets you create forms on your website that connect directly back to the WORKetc database. They’ll get sorted so you can easily manage leads or customer support. - RSS Feeds – Almost anything on WORKetc can be made into a secure RSS feed. Keep your employees and clients up to date on project notifications, calendar events, time management, and tons more. It’s an easy way to keep everyone up to date that won’t get lost on their desk or in their email. - Permissions – With all the information WORKetc is helping you gather, there’s bound to be a few things you’d rather keep to a few select employees to prevent office drama. Any of the WORKetc tools can be turned off or on for specific employees, so no one has to know ...

Customer Review: Version 2.5

Daniel Barnett — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:00:00 UTC

We just had to share this! Below is an unsolicited review from Chris Meidell from Modevation. Chris tried out Version 2 of WORKetc for a few weeks and decided it wasn't quite ready for his business to use full time. Version 2.5 changed everything: Hi Daniel, I wanted to let you know that we have decided to go with WorkEtc We have been looking for months to find an affordable solution that would really work with our video production business workflow and we think WorkEtc is going to be a great solution for our company needs. We have been evaluating ZohoCRM, SalesForce.com and SalesBoom.com but decided to use your system Here are some of the reasons why we picked WorkEtc.FAIR PRICING to be honest you probably could get away charging more per user... Some of the solutions we looked at charged over $140/user per month, but you guys have a great rate for a smaller company like ours with 4 people. Being able to add additional people at a lower rate gives us confidence that we can grow with the system without destroying our cashflow. AWESOME INTERFACE Web 2.0 style features - Tagging and a clean interface mean a lot -- the solutions above I mentioned are pretty Web 1.0 looking. The system is really easy to use.EASY TO CUSTOMIZE INVOICES AND QUOTES I was able to start making modifications to the Invoices using standard HTML within the first two hours of using the system -- AWESOME! Creating Quotes and Invoices is really well designed! COMPLETE FUNCTIONALITY So many solutions on the market have just "parts" -- For example Freshbooks great invoice system-- timetracking + invoicing but no sales or project management Pipeline Deals -- Great CRM system -- but no projects or invoices Sales Boom / ZohoCRM / Salseforce (Do it all) - but the interface isn't as nice or flexibleFLEXIBILITY In my opinion, it blew me away that I could mix projects of different billing types and have the system manage that just fine -- Some of my projects are fixed billing, some are timesheet, I...

WORKetc 2.5 is Live

Daniel Barnett — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:00:00 UTC

I'm pretty chuffed, relieved yet exhausted, to announce that we went live with WORKetc 2.5 last week. Chuffed because it represents a pretty major update to the usability of the application as a whole. Relieved because our current users are loving it and exhausted because it was a lot of work (but definitely worth it). Here are some real life comments from WORKetc 2.0 users who were upgraded to version 2.5: "WORKetc 2.5 looks great and I very much appricate the free upgrade." "The new system is GREAT! Thank you for ALL of these changes. It is like light-years of improvements." "We are loving the update. The interface is snappier and importantly for us we can simply create a project from a sales lead!" WORKetc 2.5 is now available to all new customers and all existing customers have been upgraded. All up we documented 193 changes, the most significant being subtle usability changes and a massive overhaul to sales automation, projects and billing. We don't plan on stopping at v2.5 either. Over the next few months we have a number of additional UI changes to roll out; these are really subtle changes that by themselves will hardly be noticed, but in combination result in a universally intuitive interface. A more detailed list of changes can be found here.

Are your customers paying on time?

Daniel Barnett — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:00:00 UTC

Slow payers (and even no-payers) are some of the worst customers a business can have. Until the client's invoice is paid, your business needs to pay costs and expenses for the project out of pocket. Spending time chasing down those slow payers also hurts a business's bottom line. When your business is a small one, those out-of-pocket expenses can hurt. And you know what, you're not a bank! When a customer is late to pay, you are effectively extending them credit - giving them an unsecured, interest free loan! Side note: Norm Brodsky writes a great chapter on this in his book, The Knack - How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up. Definitely recommended reading. When we developed WORKetc, we wanted to make sure business owners were saving time, not spending more of it doing routine tasks. Realising the obvious that time is money, we intentionally devoted part of our efforts to helping businesses bring in that money. Here are tips to use WORKetc's system to turn those slow-payers into pay-sooners: - WORKetc offers one-click reports that let you keep track of overdue payments. You won't forget about an unpaid invoice, it won't get lost in the shuffle and you can monitor the account so that the situation doesn't get out of hand. - Making it easy to pay means more clients pay faster. Offering more ways to pay means your customers are happier, too. So we made sure to integrate easy payment options like Authorize.net, PayPal, Google Checkout and 2Checkout right into WORKetc's system to make sure you get paid. - Reminders work. There are plenty of clients who don't have bad intentions; they're just busy, and they forget to pay you. WORKetc takes care of that. The system automatically generates reminder notifications for clients on the day payment becomes overdue. You don't have to worry about forgetting to follow up, and you won't have to feel like a nag, either. - WORKetc generates a monthly list of late payers so you can cal...

Version 2.5 is on its way.

Daniel Barnett — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:00:00 UTC

Just a quick note to let all our customers (and all future customers!) know that version 2.5 is only a few weeks away. As always, every WORKetc account will be automatically upgraded (so there's no reason to delay getting on board with WORKetc ...). Most of these changes have been suggested by our customers,and in fact most of the functionality already existed in WORKetc. It was just buried deep within detail pages and menus. What we have done is to bring some Of this functionality to the surface; making it more readily accessible within the interface. Why I am excited about version 2.5: - We have completely rebuilt the settings and preferences area. In version 2, we had settings sitting in a number of long pages and the odd preference could be found in well, odd places. All settings are now consolidated and extended and are logically categories by toolset. This will make setting up WORKetc even more hassle free. - We have actioned a major overhaul of the sales tools, including streamlining workflow. In the new version a single click will progress a contact from a lead to a quote through to an invoice, project and more. Previously this required a number of clicks and was something that annoyed a few of our customers. We listened and bought this ease of use right to the top of the interface. The lead management toolset has been extended to allow better visualisation on the progress of a lead. In the revised system you can see exactly what sales actions were actioned against a sales lead, by whom and when. This improves accountability and provides an instant understanding at where a lead is at. We've also built in an option to allow a simple lead status (ie cold, warm or hot) and a detailed lead status that can be matched to the way your business's workflow (ie propsal submitted, contract prepared, contract returned etc). We also made the quote functionality more tangible. Creating a quote or an estimate is more like creating a draft invoice...

Top 5 Recession Busting Tips for Small Business.

Daniel Barnett — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:00:00 UTC

Pay close attention to accurate billing, pursue leads relentless and make every cost accountable if you want to come out of the recession alive. A tough economy often means tough times for small businesses and freelancers who may already be struggling. Even if there is no struggle, there's always concern about encouraging income, cutting back on expenses and surviving until the situation is more favorable for business. Having run a number of small businesses before building WORKetc, I understand this all to well. But it is always more than just weathering the storm. You want to come out of this recession flying! Staying ahead of the game (or at least, staying in the game!) means working harder, but it also means thinking smarter. With a calm, cool attitude and a mindset of seeing what you can do to make sure your business survives without giving into panicked worry, you'll be there to greet new customers when the situation picks up. Here are six ways to shore the supports of your small business so that it can weather the tough times - and make it through the storms - and I'll be straight up here, it all loops back to using WORKetc. Fundamentally you need to put in place systems and work toward automating those systems. - Pay close attention to accurate billing. When times are good, business owners often wave off small charges, round down when billing to be nice with clients, or let slip a few forgotten minutes that didn't make the first invoice. WORKetc helps you easily tighten up loose operations so you can make sure that detailed timesheets are carefully filled in to capture every bit of revenue you can. - Stay on top of your accounts payable. Don't wait to bill clients, as they may not always be able to pay if you are lenient with payment terms. Try to implement deposit or retainer policies to avoid spending time (and wasting money) chasing late payers. Even better, with WORKetc, you can monitor accounts payable in real time and auto generate ...

Will WORKetc replace our accounting software?

Daniel Barnett — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 12:00:00 UTC

This is a question we get asked often - I thought I would provide a detailed answer below. WORKetc will take care of all of your customer-related finances. What this means is you can generate your invoice. Once a payment has been received by the client you actually get to record the transaction date, # and amount, and WORKetc will record it into your Accounts Receivable and adjust the invoice balance etc. Any invoice which a balance of $0 is automatically marked off as paid. You might also look into offering PayPal, GoogleCheckout or Credit Card payments through your WORKetc system. As with manually recorded payments, these online payments automatically get tracked under your Finances area. The benefit here is that it gives you an instant, real-time view of the progress of your business without having to refer to an outsourced book keeper or accountant. With our Disbursements/Expenses tools you can select a supplier, and choose whether or not that expense ends up on your customer's invoice or not. For basic accounting in a simple, small business, service-type business, you might almost get away without even needing to use a separate package unless you have an accountant that demands a certain format or if you need to manage payroll. For most businesses though, we recommend you work with your accountant and book-keeper - remember that WORKetc exports to Quicken and a number of file formats to allow easy integration.

Enhancements to Billing Tools

Daniel Barnett — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:00:00 UTC

We've changed a few things to help you get those invoices paid a bit faster. Hot off the press are a few changes to the Invoice E-Mailing feature... We've made it a little quicker/easier to change the default invoice recipient. Contacts which look to be somewhat related to the company you've billed will be displayed for immediate access. A new comment tracking option lets you store a note against the client. This way you have a record of when a bill was actually sent, who it was sent to, and which employee actually sent it.

PayPal Payments Pro and Express Checkout added

Daniel Barnett — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:00:00 UTC

Like the title says, you can now configure your WORKetc system to accept payment through PayPal Payments Pro, or Express Checkout. Head on over to Settings > Merchant Integration to configure your Express/Pro PayPal Integration mode. Naturally, Website Payments Standard is still available. Express Checkout is available to any PayPal business, all you have to do is create some API credentials as in the example below: Once this is all configured, your clients can pay you through your secure customer area.

Lead system enhancements

Daniel Barnett — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:00:00 UTC

We've received a lot of great feedback from numerous customers with regards to the Lead editor over the past few months, and today we've deployed a number of improvements to the Lead Profiles tool based on your comments. Notable changes include; - Ability to edit the prospective client's full contact details, right inside the lead editor. - Record a referring contact. - Record an unlimited number of "other" related contacts. - Define a persisted Lead description/summary, in addition to the standard comments/discussion tools. - A more streamlined layout for better readability.

Improved Entry Selector

Daniel Barnett — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:00:00 UTC

The ability to quickly filter and select a specific object from an infinitely large pool of many different types of things presents a big design challenge. Today we've released an update to the Entry editor. Remember, an Entry is inherited by Tasks, Support Cases, Events, Timesheets, Projects, Disbursements and even Subscription purchases. This is what gives WORKetc fantastic scalability and provides you the option to "attach anything to anything". Below is a screen shot of your new Entry Selector: As you can see, you have a number of features at your disposal to make isolating that particular parent item quick and easy. - "Find as you type" with keywords that filter by Entry and/or Contact name or even Entry # if you know it. - Filter by a specific Entry type. - Sort by Type, Item Name, Customer or Entry #. Newest stuff is always listed first by default. We hope this will be a good productivity improvement over the previous more cumbersome "Tree View" approach.

New Contact Editor Enhancements

Daniel Barnett — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:00:00 UTC

Today we've deployed a big update the main contact/address book editor. We hope you'll find the new layout and features a pleasure to work with. Feedback so far has been great, so please keep it coming. Among better readability than the previous version you should find we've also grouped together information in a much more meaningful way. Numbers and Addresses are always related, but it's quick and easy to see which number is for which location etc.

Easily Duplicate (template) Projects and Tasks

Daniel Barnett — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:00:00 UTC

A number of users have requested the ability to quickly duplicate a set of Projects and/or sub-tasks for reuse against different clients. This feature was released earlier today. If you navigate to the project you want to make a copy of, you'll find a new link to perform the duplication. As illustrated above, you have a couple of options for how you perform the copy; - Just the project - The project and all of it's sub projects - The project and all of it's sub-projects as well as Tasks

Customer Project Collaboration

Daniel Barnett — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 12:00:00 UTC

We're happy to announce that WORKetc users can now share projects with customers. If you're already taking advantage of the other Customer Area features such as invoice payments, support ticketing and knowledge base, all you have to enable this feature is open the Project you want shared, and turn on the new Client Access option. This feature will allow the client to view descriptions, dates, progress and comments. They can also post comments and upload files and pictures within their comments for quick and easy collaboration.

Make Smart Software Choices (and not cheap choices)

Daniel Barnett — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:00:00 UTC

I was just reading a blog post over at Internet Redux. Titled Basecamp not for you? Check out Wrike, the author extols the virtues of a project management software because of its price, $3.99 per user per month. For $12/month,this author can get his 3 employees all using the same project management tool. I don't know about you, but the thought of trusting the very guts of my business to an operator who wants to charge $3.99 a month scares me. I've worked hard at running the numbers on WORKetc. With our program of constant development, redundant hosting infrastructure and A1 support, we would be bankrupted pretty quickly. So, if you are a small business owner looking for the cheapest solution on the market, please be weary. Going cheap and the risks of doing so would easily out weigh the cost saving. More importantly, we believe we have a far superior product offering - look at the whole offering and not just the charge on your credit card. This is what one of our very real customers had to say about support: ...add to this a friendly and responsive support team and you have a solution you can trust. Small Business Blogs - Blog Catalog Blog Directory

WORKetc Reviewed on Web Worker Daily

Daniel Barnett — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:00:00 UTC

Scott Blitstein over at Web Worker Daily has just posted a great review of WORKetc. What is great about this is Scott was a user on Veetro, which was essentially WORKetc version 1, so he knows first hand how far we have come: I recall evaluating Veetro in the past and finding the interface lacking, but this new version 2.0 brightens things up considerably and adds improved navigation and lots of obligatory AJAX to make things easier to use. Interestingly, Scott also touches on one of our key challenges building WORKetc, that is, how to integrate a range of tools, without letting any one tool not get the full WORKetc treatment. The total value of WORKetc is only as much as the weakest tool. If a single tool isn't up to the mark, then the whole application falls short. The fear with this sort of approach [all in one solution] is that the individual apps might not stand up to their standalone counterparts but I certainly didn’t feel that I was using a “lite” version of anything. Features vary even in standalones and in most instances I found that the individual WORKetc apps are really quite feature rich. You can read the full review at Web Worker Daily.

Single Purpose Web Apps Are Dead!

Daniel Barnett — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:00:00 UTC

That's right. We don't believe single purpose web applications have much of a future. It doesn't make sense. Why would a business owner use one application for billing, another application for CRM, another app for uploading documents and who knows how many other applications, just to run their business day-to-day? Multiple web apps quickly lead to lost productivity and probably a migraine from having to remember all those password combinations! Oh and lets not even mention the cost of training staff on each system and all the licensing fees. One of our good customers, Peggy Murrah (www.peggymurrah.com/), summed this up recently: WORKetc has allowed me to consolidate 4 of the separate services I was using and tech support is phenomenal. That's what we are on about. One system to manage your small business. One interface to learn, one place for data entry, one place where you can run reports and keep on top of managing your business. We believe that small business owners want to integrate a range of tools into the single, easy to use platform. That's what we've built. And although our tools are incredibly simple to use, they are also incredibly powerful when used together. So, if you're sick of using numerous tools to run your business, or if you are still using Excel and Email to manage, it is time to sign up to WORKetc and start benefiting from efficiency of having just one system.

New Sales History, Authorize.Net integration and Reporting

Daniel Barnett — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:00:00 UTC

We’ve been incredibly lucky the last few months to have received a ton of great feedback from many of our customers. Much has improved since WORKetc soft-launched a few months ago so I thought I’d post a little news. Simple Sales History Management You can now review every billable Entry (now remember, an Entry is *anything* - a support case, project, product sale, timesheet or even a meeting) under a new Sales -> Purchase History screen. Simply follow the Entry edit links which take you right to the detail page. Keeping with our “you can attach anything to anything” design mantra, you can append comments, tasks or whatever you like. Authorize.Net integration If you have an Authorize.Net merchant account, you can now let you customers pay you by credit card through your SSL secured WORKetc customer extranet (in addition to PayPal/Google Checkout.) To set up your payment gateway settings, check out Settings -> Merchant Integration. Reporting This is something we’ve purposefully left for last. We wanted to hear from our end users exactly which report data would be most meaningful. A new reporting credential is now in place and a couple of preview reports are already available. We will be continually adding more reports as the requests come through, so please keep them coming!

Now integrates with Quickbooks

Daniel Barnett — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:00:00 UTC

Just released into every WORKetc account is the ability to export your invoices directly to Quickbooks. Your book-keeper is going to love this. Just go to: Finances -> Export to Accounting Software and you're away.

WORKetc reviewed on KillerStartups

Daniel Barnett — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:00:00 UTC

We just got a positive review on KillerStartups: This is a very complete solution for small and medium business that allows increased efficiency through improved organization. Look for Worketc to become a popular solution for those looking to streamline their business. If you're interested in reviewing WORKetc for your blog, newsletter or publication, please let us know. We'd be happy to set you up with a review account. Check out KillerStartups for the complete review. And while we're at it, also mentioned at Emily Changs eHub review.

Private Beta is Go.

Daniel Barnett — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:00:00 UTC

We've finally finished up our internal beta / debugging process and are sending out invites to the private beta early next week. If you have contacted me about participating in the private beta, you're already on the list. We are running a private beta only to control the volume of feedback we expect to receive. If you would like to participate, we'll be opening another few slots the following fortnight. Just fill out our contact form.

Introducing WORKetc. Veetro R.I.P.

Daniel Barnett — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:00:00 UTC

With the release of version 2 of our software, we've decided to change our product name, company name and brand. The new name is WORKetc. The new logo looks like this: Why the new name? Two reasons. Firstly, we received a copyright challenge over the name Veetro. It seems there is a company making business software for mobile phones with a phonetically similar name. Rather than spend our limited cash reserves challenging it, we thought it safer to change the name. Secondly, the timing was perfect, the challenge even a blessing in disguise. Veetro 2.0 has turned out to be so much more advanced than Veetro 1, that it seems fitting to give it a new name and a new brand. The term WORKetc refers to the products ability to help manage everything you do in your small business. To learn more about WORKetc, take the 1 page tour.

Document Management Preview

Daniel Barnett — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:00:00 UTC

We have had the new document management module completed for a while now, but haven't had the time to blog about it. The system includes a number of cool features: - Full text search of all documents. - Apply a template structure to a folder. Say, for example, you have a number of clients. Under each client folder you might have sub-folders called Contracts, Correspondence, Projects, Design and Proofs. The template tool lets you automatically create this folder structure every time you add a new customer. - All folders are viewable as a directory tree. Directory tree remembers your last view. - All recently uploaded or accessed documents are listed in a "Recent Files" list. If you are frequently accessing the same few documents, this makes finding them each time that much faster. - A catalog of files lists all documents, images and files used in other parts of Veetro such as the project management or blog tools. (Click on the image above for a full view)

Draft Pricing - What's it worth?

Daniel Barnett — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:00:00 UTC

As we get closer and closer to launch, there have been daily emails asking us, "when?" and "how much?", in precisely that order. With version 1, we followed all the current web 2.0 buzz surrounding the freemium business model and took a punt that this model would work for small business software. Give your service away for free, possibly ad supported but maybe not, acquire a lot of customers very efficiently through word of mouth, referral networks, organic search marketing, etc, then offer premium priced value added services or an enhanced version of your service to your customer base. We discovered pretty quickly it wasn't going to work for us. Sure, it works for social networks such as Facebook and consumer tools such as Flickr, but didn't work for us. We couldn't get the initial scale to drive enough advertising revenue to fund more marketing which in turn drives more scale. And we were doing it the hard way to boot. No angel investment, no VC investment. [Note: Existing users never need worry about Veetro closing down and losing your online business data because a) it costs us maybe $200/month to host Veetro v1, the software is so robust we haven't had to fix a bug in version 1 since its release 18 months ago and at any time you can download all your data.] So, even with 1733 active Veetro accounts, we made barely $100/month in Google adwords revenue. The positive side of this is that we accumulated an enormous amount of feedback and invaluable insight into how our (future) customer use the current Veetro and how to make it better in version 2. With the positivity of hindsight, we couldn't have afforded to pay expert UI groups or even a handful of focus groups to give us such detailed and varied feedback. All of this was boiled down and planned into into version 2. To be profitable, to better support the product, to pay ourselves some wages and keep all the servers humming, we're going to be charging a monthly subscription for Veetro ...

Veetro's new Rich Text Editor

Daniel Barnett — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 12:00:00 UTC

Fresh with the impending launch of Veetro 2, is a new, better equipped, easier to use and more accurate rich text editor (R.T.E). The RTE is used every time you enter copy into your company's Veetro Intranet. This means more options to insert images, links, documents and even other Veetro tasks and projects directly into your content. For example, if you are working on a new project entry, you can instantly link to an article in Veetro's knowledge base, attach a document from a client library and upload a diagram. Whats' more, the diagram can be resized on the fly, linked to a full-scale image and even captioned. Here's a preview:

Tasks & Project

Daniel Barnett — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 12:00:00 UTC

A major change of methodology in Veetro 2 is that time sheets, calendar entries, documents and contacts are now intimately part of projects. This means that from a project view (see below) you can now view everything related to that project. Another key differentiator between Veetro 2 and other project management applications is that the new interface takes buried comments and brings them to the top of the project stack. The benefit of this is that every time you log into Veetro, you are presented with the latest comments about a project or activity as well as being presented with a list of activities that you haven't viewed yet. This makes getting up to date on a project (especially if you've been taking a few days down time!) really painless. Best of all, you can keep track of progress via RSS. Everytime a comment is added, a document uploaded or a task completed, Veetro will push that development through to your blog reader.

Project Editor Revamped

Daniel Barnett — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:00:00 UTC

Here's a sneak preview of the new project management tool. As you can see from this screeny, we've taken on board a lot of feedback. You can now colour code projects and milestones, the milestone editor itself is infinitely more intuitive than Veetro 1.0's "Phases" table. Also there are no AJAX related performance issues/freezing. Adding a new milestone is as easy as click & drag to highlight your project region, punch in a name and you're done. If you need to resize a milestone, you can simply grab it's ends to adjust, or you can shift the entire thing anywhere along the gaant chart. Easy as pie. This whole new approach to project management makes setting up and modify a project insanely flexible. Sign up to be the first to try it out.

Enhanced Address Book

Daniel Barnett — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 12:00:00 UTC

With Veetro 2 comes a greatly enhanced Address Book and Contacts navigator. The big change here is the ability to tag a company, a person or an employee. For example, your business might have 10 suppliers for office stationary. Some suppliers may deliver overnight, others may be a discount supplier or may only have a limited product range. When an employee new to your business comes to place a stationary order, the tags immediately help them identify who to order with. Another scenario may be sales prospects for your business. By tagging leads with the name of your employee who is the contact for that opportunity, other employees know who to go to before making an approach. Tags can then be used to compile email marketing lists, direct mail pieces and to report on. From the sneak preview below, you can also see how much cleaner and intuitive the new interface is.

Sneak Preview Part 2 - built in support.

Daniel Barnett — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 12:00:00 UTC

There is nothing worse than getting half way through a task and realizing you don't know what to do next. So much of the web 2.0 software I've played around with doesn't provide adequate documentation. For example, you might be halfway through creating an entry in a blog and realize you don't know how to embed a Youtube video into your post. You're then forced to leave what you were doing and search around for the answer. We've addresses this common complaint in Veetro 2 by embedding support directly into the Veetro 2 interface. On every screen, support for that tool can be accessed on the right side panel. Take a look here: Technorati Profile

Sneak Preview - new menu system

Daniel Barnett — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:00:00 UTC

One of the big stumbling blocks with Veetro 1.0 we discovered was the steep learning curve, which was largely a function of complex user interface. Even though all the tools were categorised and neatly grouped by related functionality, people found it difficult to remember were tools were located. Also - there was no quick and easy way to skim through the menu items to find a tool quickly. We've gone right back to the drawing board with version 2.0. Completely redesigned the user interface and menu system. Over the coming weeks, we'll reveal through this blog how the newly designed tools are shaping up, but for now, here are some samples of the new menu system.

What's coming in Veetro 2.0?

Daniel Barnett — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 12:00:00 UTC

Welcome to the first public announcement for Veetro 2.0.Whilst this is the first public announcement, we've been working in the background almost since the release of version 1, 18 months ago. We've taken 18 months of feedback, 18 months of customer suggestions and 18 months of learning as we go and brought it all together in version 2.0. Two of the major changes include: - A vastly improved user interface. One of the common suggestions from version 1.0 was that the menu system was not intuitive. It took a while to learn and could be confusing. With the range of tools we bring together as Veetro's Small Business software solution, it was always going to be challenging to get it right. We've overhauled the design, refreshed the code and have come up with a simple, but extremely functional system. - Better Integration. Better Classification. No business is the same. Businesses have their own unique vernacular, their own processes and personalities. Version 2.0 introduces the concept of "tagging" and language. By tagging an object such as a contact, you can provide more descriptive depth which in turn allows better searches, better profiling and more detailed profiling. Changes to the Veetro language library also means you can adapt the Veetro tool language to suite your organisation. Customers can be called clients, partners can be changed to affiliates, resellers, licensees etc.As we continue to develop version 2.0, we will release more information and invite feedback. Stay a part of Veetro 2.0 by subscribing to this feed and pre-registering for the Veetro 2.0 launch.