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Thursday, May 04, 2006
Over the last 2 years or so, I have been far more excited by the programming side of my business than the sell/modify/service/support side. It's not that there were not great improvements in the products available - some of which are exciting. A number of things have come together over the past few years that have made it possible for me as a programmer to unleash the hidden potential in my clients' data stores. To name just a few:
But the real winner is the business owner. The opportunity of creating and occupying a new niche has never been so easy or universal. And the opportunity to use data to your competitive advantage is limited only to the boundries of one's imagination.
Having said that, I would like to present a list of projects that should help to expand your view of this universe. Some of these I have executed for clients, some I have executed for myself, some are amalgamations of ideas & techniques I have developed, and all are within my capability to deliver. I break them out into three main areas: 1/ Web Development, 2/ Desktop Development, and 3/ Automation:
1/ WEB DEVELOPMENT:
Build or Redesign your Web Site: A web site should be easy to navigate from any page. It should clearly from the first (home) page lead the visitor to the services or product you provide. If you are providing a service it should have a privacy policy and a disclaimer. It should facilitate communication with your customers. Your company's contact information should be easy t0 find. Page layout should be consistent.
Add an Online Store: You do not have to go to a lot of expense to have a shopping cart or to accept credit cards. Services such as PayPal will shoulder that burden for you. TaskMan has experience interfacing with the PayPal back end, allowing you to devote your development budget to creating a first class front end for your business.
Online Customer Service: We can assist you in creating a first class customer service portal, combining online self-service with automated routing for requests that need staff assistance. Track requests and disposition on a per-case basis. Spend less time on the phone and speed resolution of customer issues.
Online Document Center: Give your customers and sales representatives the documents they need, on-demand. Create a central repository for critical business documents. Gain the ability to print, fax or e-mail these documents from anywhere.
CRM: Customer Relationship Management. Keep track of your customers, sales reps, products, orders, invoices, sales pipeline, calendars, etc. We have both open source and custom solutions available. And - best of all - we can interface with most accounting & inventory systems.
Handheld Order Entry: Using the EVDO high-speed Internet access provided by Sprint and Verizon, we now have the capability of providing use-almost-anywhere mobile phone applications. We are no longer limited to Hot Spots or Wireless LAN range. The new Windows Mobile 5.0 gives us the capability of programming the device itself, and gives your users a familiar Windows interface - cutting down on necessary training & support. In addition, web pages may be miniaturized, so that those applications may be accessible from mobile phone devices, PDAs, and the conventional desktop (Windows, Linux, Apple and any other operating system with a reasonable standard browser).
Handheld Warehouse Inventory: Similarly, EVDO mobile phone coverage frees us from the constraints of a wireless LAN in the warehouse. If you would like to count inventory or provide lookup capabilities in your warehouse, Pocket PCs, PDAs & Ultra-Mobile PCs are made to order. They are inexpensive (as little as $295 per device) and the airtime is nominal (Sprint charges $15 on top of their regular phone bill for unlimited EVDO Internet access). If you need printers or barcode scanners, you would need to look at a more expensive solution, of course.
A Web-based Product Catalog: These may be maintained either with or without pricing information, on your web server or through services such as Google's Froogle (more on that in the automation section below). If you want the world to beat a path to your door, you should be doing everything you can to publicize what you have inside.
Corporate Blog: You are reading a blog right now - and the great news is how easy it is to create your own! This blog is currently published through Google's Blogger service, which is free. We have it publish to our own server, but you don't even need a web server - you can use Google's real estate at no charge.
Corporate Knowledgebase: We can help you setup a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section on your web site, or you can take it to the next level with a full-on Knowledgebase. Intellectual capital is one of the most important assets a business can possess, and a good Knowledgebase is a great way of preserving & disseminating this Intellectual Property. This may be deployed on an internal (corporate) or an external (web) server, with either public or limited login access. Specific areas may even be restricted to specific groups within your company or customers/vendors.
2/ DESKTOP APPLICATIONS:
Fax Daemon: An application that runs in the background waiting for documents to arrive in a specific folder, for purposes of faxing. We will set you up with PDF print drivers that will allow you to "print to disk" for this purpose. File naming conventions may be used to specify customer, or a fax number may be embedded in the file name.
Internal Communications: Think of this as a sort of internal corporate IM (Internet Messenger). Alert specific users, groups, or all users globally to specific events and announcements that "pop up" on your employees' screens. Send meeting announcements. Tell the sales staff to push the left-handed smoke shifters today. Tell everyone to exit the accounting system for maintenance.
Product Catalog: Automatically generate product catalogs for your customers directly from your accounting system on demand. These may reflect customer specific or tiered pricing. We can build in filters and groupings as needed.
Export to Spreadsheet: This has been one of our most popular enhancements: custom exports of specific data - sorted, filtered, totalled, grouped - as needed. If you are doing the same labor-intensive spreadsheet analyses over and over again - or if you feel this sort of analysis is beyond your reach - this is the automation you need. Let us do the hard part - so you can spend your time refining & analyzing the result.
Trend Charts: Generate Trend Charts from your accounting system. Track sales, costs, profit, inventory onhand, or other indicators within your system.
3/ AUTOMATION:
Daily Inventory Levels: Let us write an application that will output inventory information on a daily basis to the destination of your choice: a spreadsheet, an e-mail, a fax, a disk file, a printer or a viewer. You tell us what you need: on hand? on order? in transit? allocated? work in progress? etc.
Orders Entered: Automated daily routine: E-mails or faxes copies or lists to your customers and/or sales representatives. Set to run at midnight or any other convenient time.
Shipment Notifications: Automated daily routine: E-mails or faxes copies or lists to your customers and/or sales representatives. Set to run at midnight or any other convenient time.
Invoices: Automated daily routine: E-mails or faxes copies or statements to your customers and/or sales representatives. Set to run at midnight or any other convenient time.
Daily Managerial Indicators: Automated daily routine: E-mails or faxes a print-out of important numbers from your accounting system to one or more managers.
Daily Online Posting of Items for Sale: Automatically post items (and prices and stock levels if desired) on your own web server or through services such as Google's Froogle. We can setup filters to limit which items are posted online.
CAVEATS:
- The universal connectivity provided by the Internet
- The evolution of the graphical user interface
- The interoperability of programming languages and operating systems
- The advanced programming tools available
- The increasing sophistication of the user base
- The emergence of Web Services
But the real winner is the business owner. The opportunity of creating and occupying a new niche has never been so easy or universal. And the opportunity to use data to your competitive advantage is limited only to the boundries of one's imagination.
Having said that, I would like to present a list of projects that should help to expand your view of this universe. Some of these I have executed for clients, some I have executed for myself, some are amalgamations of ideas & techniques I have developed, and all are within my capability to deliver. I break them out into three main areas: 1/ Web Development, 2/ Desktop Development, and 3/ Automation:
1/ WEB DEVELOPMENT:
Build or Redesign your Web Site: A web site should be easy to navigate from any page. It should clearly from the first (home) page lead the visitor to the services or product you provide. If you are providing a service it should have a privacy policy and a disclaimer. It should facilitate communication with your customers. Your company's contact information should be easy t0 find. Page layout should be consistent.
Add an Online Store: You do not have to go to a lot of expense to have a shopping cart or to accept credit cards. Services such as PayPal will shoulder that burden for you. TaskMan has experience interfacing with the PayPal back end, allowing you to devote your development budget to creating a first class front end for your business.
Online Customer Service: We can assist you in creating a first class customer service portal, combining online self-service with automated routing for requests that need staff assistance. Track requests and disposition on a per-case basis. Spend less time on the phone and speed resolution of customer issues.
Online Document Center: Give your customers and sales representatives the documents they need, on-demand. Create a central repository for critical business documents. Gain the ability to print, fax or e-mail these documents from anywhere.
CRM: Customer Relationship Management. Keep track of your customers, sales reps, products, orders, invoices, sales pipeline, calendars, etc. We have both open source and custom solutions available. And - best of all - we can interface with most accounting & inventory systems.
Handheld Order Entry: Using the EVDO high-speed Internet access provided by Sprint and Verizon, we now have the capability of providing use-almost-anywhere mobile phone applications. We are no longer limited to Hot Spots or Wireless LAN range. The new Windows Mobile 5.0 gives us the capability of programming the device itself, and gives your users a familiar Windows interface - cutting down on necessary training & support. In addition, web pages may be miniaturized, so that those applications may be accessible from mobile phone devices, PDAs, and the conventional desktop (Windows, Linux, Apple and any other operating system with a reasonable standard browser).
Handheld Warehouse Inventory: Similarly, EVDO mobile phone coverage frees us from the constraints of a wireless LAN in the warehouse. If you would like to count inventory or provide lookup capabilities in your warehouse, Pocket PCs, PDAs & Ultra-Mobile PCs are made to order. They are inexpensive (as little as $295 per device) and the airtime is nominal (Sprint charges $15 on top of their regular phone bill for unlimited EVDO Internet access). If you need printers or barcode scanners, you would need to look at a more expensive solution, of course.
A Web-based Product Catalog: These may be maintained either with or without pricing information, on your web server or through services such as Google's Froogle (more on that in the automation section below). If you want the world to beat a path to your door, you should be doing everything you can to publicize what you have inside.
Corporate Blog: You are reading a blog right now - and the great news is how easy it is to create your own! This blog is currently published through Google's Blogger service, which is free. We have it publish to our own server, but you don't even need a web server - you can use Google's real estate at no charge.
Corporate Knowledgebase: We can help you setup a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section on your web site, or you can take it to the next level with a full-on Knowledgebase. Intellectual capital is one of the most important assets a business can possess, and a good Knowledgebase is a great way of preserving & disseminating this Intellectual Property. This may be deployed on an internal (corporate) or an external (web) server, with either public or limited login access. Specific areas may even be restricted to specific groups within your company or customers/vendors.
2/ DESKTOP APPLICATIONS:
Fax Daemon: An application that runs in the background waiting for documents to arrive in a specific folder, for purposes of faxing. We will set you up with PDF print drivers that will allow you to "print to disk" for this purpose. File naming conventions may be used to specify customer, or a fax number may be embedded in the file name.
Internal Communications: Think of this as a sort of internal corporate IM (Internet Messenger). Alert specific users, groups, or all users globally to specific events and announcements that "pop up" on your employees' screens. Send meeting announcements. Tell the sales staff to push the left-handed smoke shifters today. Tell everyone to exit the accounting system for maintenance.
Product Catalog: Automatically generate product catalogs for your customers directly from your accounting system on demand. These may reflect customer specific or tiered pricing. We can build in filters and groupings as needed.
Export to Spreadsheet: This has been one of our most popular enhancements: custom exports of specific data - sorted, filtered, totalled, grouped - as needed. If you are doing the same labor-intensive spreadsheet analyses over and over again - or if you feel this sort of analysis is beyond your reach - this is the automation you need. Let us do the hard part - so you can spend your time refining & analyzing the result.
Trend Charts: Generate Trend Charts from your accounting system. Track sales, costs, profit, inventory onhand, or other indicators within your system.
3/ AUTOMATION:
Daily Inventory Levels: Let us write an application that will output inventory information on a daily basis to the destination of your choice: a spreadsheet, an e-mail, a fax, a disk file, a printer or a viewer. You tell us what you need: on hand? on order? in transit? allocated? work in progress? etc.
Orders Entered: Automated daily routine: E-mails or faxes copies or lists to your customers and/or sales representatives. Set to run at midnight or any other convenient time.
Shipment Notifications: Automated daily routine: E-mails or faxes copies or lists to your customers and/or sales representatives. Set to run at midnight or any other convenient time.
Invoices: Automated daily routine: E-mails or faxes copies or statements to your customers and/or sales representatives. Set to run at midnight or any other convenient time.
Daily Managerial Indicators: Automated daily routine: E-mails or faxes a print-out of important numbers from your accounting system to one or more managers.
Daily Online Posting of Items for Sale: Automatically post items (and prices and stock levels if desired) on your own web server or through services such as Google's Froogle. We can setup filters to limit which items are posted online.
CAVEATS:
- There is a certain overhead to getting started with new accounts. If you are an existing client, this will be less expensive and less complicated than for new clients. Most of what is said herein is well known by our existing clientele, so this is addressed largely to prospective clients.
- We require a deposit on all development work, and large projects require progress payments. We require final payment on delivery, and limit debugging services to within 30 days after deliver for non-retainer clientele. See our Standard Client Agreement for more information.
- We require high-speed remote access to all stations which you wish for us to service and/or be responsible for. We do not travel unless amply compensated for such.
- A retainer is the best value for any company that uses us more than occasionally. See the TaskMan Rate Schedule for more information.
This was originally published in my KillerOrange Blog.
I have never been a great proponent of tape backups, because they are opaque (it can literally take hours to pull up a list of what files are on a particular tape), because you never know if you have a good backup unless you restore it (the validate backup is sometimes wrong, in my experience), and because you must rely on human beings to rotate the tapes offsite.
I feel that the ideal solution is an automated backup to an online repository - one which issues a success/error e-mail to the various concerned parties upon completion. I am working on such an automated offsite backup solution for a client, and have identified a number of online document storage & backup providers.
If you have a hosted web server, you probably have an FTP account which could be used for this purpose. But most web hosts have limited bandwidth and hard disk space - which would be inadequate for workstation or network backup purposes. These plans are generally geared towards average low-volume web activity, not wholesale backup of hard disks.
Here is a list of online storage providers that may be of use as the back-end to an automated solution:
Elephant Drive - Presently provides unlimited storage with military-grade encryption and large scale disaster recovery techniques. This beta service is currently free, but they plan to charge a fee at a later point in time.
GoDaddy, a company I think highly of, has a service called Online File Folder. "Store, access, and share presentations, spreadsheets, reports — even large files like music, photos and video clips — from any Internet-connected computer. Plus, you can access online files directly from your desktop, transfer files with drag ‘n drop simplicity and even synchronize files on your computer with your Online File Folder so you’re always working on the latest version!" 2 Gigabytes is just $20/year.
iFolder is a Mono/.Net framework project sponsored by Novell. "iFolder is a simple and secure storage solution that can increase your productivity by enabling you to back up, access and manage your personal files-from anywhere, at any time. Once you have installed iFolder, you simply save your files locally-as you have always done-and iFolder automatically updates the files on a network server and delivers them to the other machines you use." If you are a developer, this is a system you can tweak to your specifications and give back to the community through your efforts. However, it does not appear that anyone is offering free hosting, so if you want to take advantage of the intermediary server, you will probably have to setup your own.
Kanosis's COIL is a multi-level marketing MLM community service which, among other things, will provide (starting May 1st?) secure upload facilities. It is unclear to me at this time what the scope or cost will be. "Using COIL, you store your important data on a server which is professionally backed up and scanned, you have a layer of insulation from common security issues such as viruses, computer crashes and hackers. All the information in COIL is stored in multiple world-class data centres with 24/7 security. PGP personalised encryption is available so that you can encrypt all your data before uploading it to COIL. All of your contacts and uploaded files are private and only you can view them, that is unless YOU decide to give permission to other people."
ShadowStorage is a commercial system with several tiers ranging from personal to corporate. "ShadowStorage provides a full suite of features for individuals, project teams, small businesses and enterprises to store, access, manage and share their documents, files and faxes.... We provide reliable networked, accessible secure storage as a service but its our simple—yet powerful—user-friendly browser interface combined with powerful features that make what you store valuable to you or your business.... You can transfer files to our secure server to store and organize them in digital boxes and folders. Access your files wherever you are. Easily and securely distribute information of any size to anyone. Send and receive faxes anywhere without a fax machine."
StreamLoad provides up to 25 GB of secure storage for FREE, but there is a 100 MB limit on downloads with the free plan. You can, however, upgrade to tiered personal and commercial accounts that provide more bandwidth. "How it works: Security protects your privacy and control of your files.... You can upload files or receive files from email or other Streamloaders.... You are now free to send, receive, access, store and stream files of any size from anywhere and at anytime." It is unclear to me what happens if you choose a free or bottom tier account for backup - then discover that you need to take advantage of restoring more data than your plan's bandwidth limit. Maybe you simply upgrade to the upper tier in the unlikely event that you need to restore an entire hard disk?
I do not think it unreasonable that most of the above services ask for payment, and there are business advantages to going with a commercial solution. For-fee services are generally better supported, and are more likely to have adequate bandwidth as well as quick support. Neither is there anything necessarily wrong with "free", except that if you only get what you paid for (nothing), you are in no position to complain. There are rumors that Google plans to offer a "G-Drive" system, that may be free. But everyone's bread gets buttered in some way or another. It remains to be seen if there is any long-term viability to the diskspace & bandwidth-for-free business model.
An alternative methodology might be to sync files between devices in different physical locations - such as your business and your home. Microsoft's FolderShare is a (at present) no-cost service that allows you to do just that. You designate the folders which you wish to synchronize, and anytime that both devices are online, they automatically sync. FolderShare supports Windows XP and OSX, but it does not appear that Windows Mobile has any support at this time.
Backing up your data offsite is critical - I have seen fire, water damage, and smash-and-grab situations in my client base over the years, and their backups "saved their lives". Business insurance is great, but if you don't know who owes you what, you may lose thousands of dollars to uncollected receivables. You also stand to lose sales contacts, contracts, and custom applications, among other digital valuables.
I have never been a great proponent of tape backups, because they are opaque (it can literally take hours to pull up a list of what files are on a particular tape), because you never know if you have a good backup unless you restore it (the validate backup is sometimes wrong, in my experience), and because you must rely on human beings to rotate the tapes offsite.
I feel that the ideal solution is an automated backup to an online repository - one which issues a success/error e-mail to the various concerned parties upon completion. I am working on such an automated offsite backup solution for a client, and have identified a number of online document storage & backup providers.
If you have a hosted web server, you probably have an FTP account which could be used for this purpose. But most web hosts have limited bandwidth and hard disk space - which would be inadequate for workstation or network backup purposes. These plans are generally geared towards average low-volume web activity, not wholesale backup of hard disks.
Here is a list of online storage providers that may be of use as the back-end to an automated solution:
Elephant Drive - Presently provides unlimited storage with military-grade encryption and large scale disaster recovery techniques. This beta service is currently free, but they plan to charge a fee at a later point in time.
GoDaddy, a company I think highly of, has a service called Online File Folder. "Store, access, and share presentations, spreadsheets, reports — even large files like music, photos and video clips — from any Internet-connected computer. Plus, you can access online files directly from your desktop, transfer files with drag ‘n drop simplicity and even synchronize files on your computer with your Online File Folder so you’re always working on the latest version!" 2 Gigabytes is just $20/year.
iFolder is a Mono/.Net framework project sponsored by Novell. "iFolder is a simple and secure storage solution that can increase your productivity by enabling you to back up, access and manage your personal files-from anywhere, at any time. Once you have installed iFolder, you simply save your files locally-as you have always done-and iFolder automatically updates the files on a network server and delivers them to the other machines you use." If you are a developer, this is a system you can tweak to your specifications and give back to the community through your efforts. However, it does not appear that anyone is offering free hosting, so if you want to take advantage of the intermediary server, you will probably have to setup your own.
Kanosis's COIL is a multi-level marketing MLM community service which, among other things, will provide (starting May 1st?) secure upload facilities. It is unclear to me at this time what the scope or cost will be. "Using COIL, you store your important data on a server which is professionally backed up and scanned, you have a layer of insulation from common security issues such as viruses, computer crashes and hackers. All the information in COIL is stored in multiple world-class data centres with 24/7 security. PGP personalised encryption is available so that you can encrypt all your data before uploading it to COIL. All of your contacts and uploaded files are private and only you can view them, that is unless YOU decide to give permission to other people."
ShadowStorage is a commercial system with several tiers ranging from personal to corporate. "ShadowStorage provides a full suite of features for individuals, project teams, small businesses and enterprises to store, access, manage and share their documents, files and faxes.... We provide reliable networked, accessible secure storage as a service but its our simple—yet powerful—user-friendly browser interface combined with powerful features that make what you store valuable to you or your business.... You can transfer files to our secure server to store and organize them in digital boxes and folders. Access your files wherever you are. Easily and securely distribute information of any size to anyone. Send and receive faxes anywhere without a fax machine."
StreamLoad provides up to 25 GB of secure storage for FREE, but there is a 100 MB limit on downloads with the free plan. You can, however, upgrade to tiered personal and commercial accounts that provide more bandwidth. "How it works: Security protects your privacy and control of your files.... You can upload files or receive files from email or other Streamloaders.... You are now free to send, receive, access, store and stream files of any size from anywhere and at anytime." It is unclear to me what happens if you choose a free or bottom tier account for backup - then discover that you need to take advantage of restoring more data than your plan's bandwidth limit. Maybe you simply upgrade to the upper tier in the unlikely event that you need to restore an entire hard disk?
I do not think it unreasonable that most of the above services ask for payment, and there are business advantages to going with a commercial solution. For-fee services are generally better supported, and are more likely to have adequate bandwidth as well as quick support. Neither is there anything necessarily wrong with "free", except that if you only get what you paid for (nothing), you are in no position to complain. There are rumors that Google plans to offer a "G-Drive" system, that may be free. But everyone's bread gets buttered in some way or another. It remains to be seen if there is any long-term viability to the diskspace & bandwidth-for-free business model.
An alternative methodology might be to sync files between devices in different physical locations - such as your business and your home. Microsoft's FolderShare is a (at present) no-cost service that allows you to do just that. You designate the folders which you wish to synchronize, and anytime that both devices are online, they automatically sync. FolderShare supports Windows XP and OSX, but it does not appear that Windows Mobile has any support at this time.
Backing up your data offsite is critical - I have seen fire, water damage, and smash-and-grab situations in my client base over the years, and their backups "saved their lives". Business insurance is great, but if you don't know who owes you what, you may lose thousands of dollars to uncollected receivables. You also stand to lose sales contacts, contracts, and custom applications, among other digital valuables.
Welcome to the TaskMan Development Blog
This Blog is the intellectual property of TaskMan Industrial Consulting, based in Orange County, California.
The information herein is provided without warranty of any kind. If you need assistance with the implementation of any technology highlighted herein, please contact Keith Weber via e-mail keith@taskman.com or at my office (714) 664-8900.
The information herein is provided without warranty of any kind. If you need assistance with the implementation of any technology highlighted herein, please contact Keith Weber via e-mail keith@taskman.com or at my office (714) 664-8900.
