New File Manager for XLsuite

XLsuite Elevator Pitch

Check out XLsuite.com

Ohloh says we're worth $7.4M

Gotta like that, I'll be taking buyout offers if anyone wants to get a good deal now, before we write another $5M worth of code.

http://www.ohloh.net/projects/xlsuite

Time Fly's

Time flys
Originally uploaded by Waponi

We've been hard at work here at iXLd media trying to monitize our business model. Building things and selling things are two very different beings and while we're very good at conceptualizing and building things, somehow the art of marketing ourselves is often the hardest to master.

While we've been focused on the "growing our business" stuff, it's sometimes hard to see what's under your nose.

We'll be contacting many of our current installed clients to ask them what first brought them to us and why they were interested in XLsuite to begin with.

From that point, we should be able to find the ones that are interested in moving to the next step and trying out a lot of our newer functionality, including the new product catalog which should be going into beta rotation this week.

Watch our progress on http://template.xlsuite.com

Web Publisher Expresses Delight

Christmas is always a slow-time. Seems much harder to get things done through that season. Since the New Year, it has been one heck of a flurry. Major pieces of XLsuite are coming together, as are interested parties who are discovering how this business-in-a-box available anywhere there is an Internet connection can help them succeed and manage their business.

Look, I'm not even going to try and convince you. Listen to this one example from a typical start-up business owner instead:

As a site Publisher myself for years, I've been frustrated by the limitations of publishing tools. I've been agonized by the repetitive task of emailing a few hundred people from Microsoft Outlook, or by paying some other third-party for their email application. Then I'm using MS Outlook to manage contacts, and a variety of other online systems that I have to subscribe so I can get a job done.

Since the creative side took over I haven't been that sharp on the business management stuff to begin with. Maybe the tools wouldn't have made a difference, and maybe they would have. Business management tools aside, my real passion was sharing empowering and inspiring writing with my web audiences. Each time I'd write some clever new piece, I created a new table-based-layout web-page, FTP it to my host, copy a clever bit of the text, create an email message, hot-link the Read More tease to the web-page, and save it as a draft. Why a draft? Because now I have to email this teaser to about 300-400 email subscribers and I've just found it easier to click and shoot from the one central place I do manage my contacts: MS Outlook.

As you can see, that is a lot of tedious work. It almost takes the reward out of publishing your own site content, regardless of how inspiring it is. Then along comes XLsuite. Initially, even though I saw the possibilities of what I was hearing and seeing, it wasn't there yet, and I was still dubious of many things. As months went by, I kept involved and watched what would unfold.

Now I'm chomping at the bit, feeling the ants-in-my-pants, and I want to use this tool to launch a number of exciting web-site properties for some very exciting ideas of serving people and community.

Oh, and of course, it has to earn its' keep - and mine! ;)

XLsuite Engine behind Tradeshow Offerings

The boys have been working hard on furthering the development of the XLsuite product. As with every worthwhile goal, we have our bumps and obstacles on our road to success. This past week, we got to participate in presenting a couple of new Verticals launched with the XLsuite back-end.

StrataXL.com
AgentXL.com
LiveInStrathcona.com
LiveOnCommercialDrive.com
LivinginMountPleasant.com
BlueAgent.ca
SellFM.com

Participating in those events clearly demonstrate interest in the technology, the social values, the ideas, and visions held by the creative force behind IXLD New Media.

New XLsuite UI and Features

I've created a video which looked a lot better on my screen than it does once it's been uploaded to google video. Regardless, I'm sharing it here and will work on getting the quality of these screen casts to go up.

The code for XLsuite is available here: http://xlsuite.org although the modifications you see here are not yet deployed as they are still internal code.

XLsuite Features Reviewed

XLsuite Features

Contact Management

The contact manager includes 3 views.

Contacts List View

Contact list allows you to view your contacts in a list view. Names and quick contact info like email and phone numbers are available for quick reference.

Contacts General Page

Contact Page (General View) shows you a detailed view of the contact in question. Things like their password, history, comments and testimonials are all available by clicking the tabs at the top of the contact screen. Data entry is smooth and fast using AJAX calls to save the data live when a use tabs out of a field or hits return. A desktop feel was the goal with the contact entry and editing. Additional fields can be added using the “Add Fields” link.

New Contacts:

New Contact page is accessed from the top “Contacts” menu or from the text link at the top of the General view. This allows you to see all the available fields for a fast contact entry experience. Tag fields let you easily categorize the contact and the referral field lets you link the contact to an existing contact in the database. This makes it easy to track how your contacts came to you as well as future integration with things like affiliate programs and commission tracking for sales agents (inside and outside).

Import Manager:

Import File:

The import module allows you to import contacts from any datasource.

Simply save your data in the .CSV format. Browse to the .CSV file on your computer and upload it to the system.

Data Mapping View:

You will then be shown a visual representation of the data on the left side, and the fields in your XLsuite database. Simply pick up the XLsuite field name in question and drag it to the corresponding field name in the CSV that you are importing. You can manually configure all of the data to import into the specific fields that you want to use. This is good for bulk imports from lead generation sites, your contacts from Outlook or other CRM's or even an excel spread sheet of your members.

Search Functions:

Search Functions:

There is a “quick search” that is available at the top right hand corner of the screen at all times. This quick search will search the field names. It's good for finding things like contacts, specific forum posts and general information (like type Vancouver and get all your contacts in Vancouver, as well as any forum posts that mention the word Vancouver).

By clicking the word “SEARCH”, a more advanced search will pop down from the top right corner. This allows you to search with more detail. Each field in the database can be separately searched, simply type in the first few letters of a field name and the available fields will drop down from the list.

Saved Search:

Once you've created a search that you will want to do frequently, you can save that search for future use by clicking the “save search” button. From then on simply clicking the “saved search” word will display your list of saved searches, so it becomes a quick matter to find things like leads in a specific area or for a specific sales agent. It's also great for creating reports, carefully stacking your search for the right criteria will allow you to create powerful reports that will give you business metrics at the click of a button.

Resources Section:

Content Management System (CMS)

The resources section has the Content Management System as well as information about how to use the system and information about XLsuite.

CMS Layouts View:

Within the CMS the “LAYOUTS” view allows you to set up constant elements of your page. The background image, navigation, header, footer, sidebar... the look of every new page you create. Multiple layouts can be used to define sections of the site.

CMS Pages View:

The “PAGES” view allows you to create and edit the pages inside your website. “ADD CHILD” to your main page, inherit the layout from the page you are creating, you can create as many pages as you need and group them accordingly.

CMS Page Editor View:

The specific pages can be set up to use plain text for maximum flexibility. Other options include using Textile markup or even a Rich Text Editor using the FCK Editor (we recommend using plain text or textile over the Rich Text editor since the code that it spits out will work, but is pretty “bloated”)

Of particular note is the “SLUG LINE” function that let's you place your page exactly where you want it in the URL. This is excellent for SEO purposes as it does not show any extensions and displays dynamic pages simply as URL addresses like : Xlsuite.com/training/how-to-use-the-cms

Please see the “how to use the CMS” document for detailed “how to” information.

Near Future Additions:

On deck soon is an addition to the CMS to include the snippets module, which will allow further content segregation and easy placement of repeat elements.

Content Section:

The CONTENT section has several planned features for things like banner ads, links, polls, forms and other elements you'll use on your site. Currently implemented functions include:

RSS Feed Importer:

This allows you to import feeds from multiple sources and tag them. You can then publish those feeds on your site as a quick way to create dynamic content. Setting up the feeds is as easy as plugging in the feed URL and selecting what you'd like to TAG it.

You can add multiple RSS feeds to your feed reader and tag them with multiple tags. So for example, if you enter 6 feeds from various sources, you can tag them all “industry_news” and then display the industry news on a page on your site. The 6 feeds will be merged into one new news feed that can be displayed either in order, or even randomly (which adds big points to your SEO value). This is a powerful way to integrate with other sites as well, feeding things like project changes, favorites, expense reports or forum posts to a side bar or page on your site.

Please read the “XLsuite Render Feed Syntax” post in our Documentations forum for more info:

http://xlsuite.com/admin/forum_categories/1/forums/5/topics/165

ADMIN Section:

The admin section holds the account payment information as well as the “my account” link which will quickly bring you to your account general contacts page.

The Groups and Permissions sections are also located here.

Groups Manager:

Groups section allows you to set up various access groups for your domain. Things like Client / Prospect / Moderator / Supplier. You can use these groups to quickly define who has access to various parts of your website and content.

Permission Sets:

Permissions allows you to assign permission sets. This is a way to group certain permissions together (like edit contact / edit estimate / view payments (but not edit)) into quick permission sets that you can use with your groups or assign to specific parties.

What's next?

We're working hard to bring you full email integration, template engine and a file manager next.

More features will follow including all of the content sections (as snippets) sequential mailing for lead generation automation and of course our integrated MLS listings manager for our Real Estate Clients.

Import Manager Module

Thank you Harman for a very functional import manager. We'll have to get some CSS work done on it, but overall it's very nice.

You can load a CSV file into it, have a visual representation of the data (see the field data), and then drag and drop the XLsuite database fields so that they line up the way you want.

It's a very intuitive design and while it only works right now for contacts, you can see how we'll be able to extend it for things like the product catalog, email and even blog and forum postings and other "imports" from external systems.

All this should make it much easier for users to get their current client information into the system and start to use it effectively and quickly.

Next up? Francois has made good headway on both the RETS integration and it's listings section as well as taking a good first stab at the asset manager, which is now functional in XLtester.com but hasn't been ported over to the live version on XLsuite.com

Harman is focused on getting our mail integration happening. Both on the personal email level, and on the mass mailings front. The two should come together next week some time and be available to users soon.

Google Partner Edition has Launched

This is big news for us, we've been looking forward to this day for close to a year now, to be able to formally integrate our open source ruby ERP XLsuite into google docs will both save us a ton of codding time as well as help us to leverage the security and brand awareness of Google.

We're very happy to hear this news and look forward to the integration process, I'm absolutely positive that this will be looked at as a major turning point in software and hosted SAS solution adoption by the business community.

Here is the official news from Googles Blog:

Google Apps Partner Edition

5/18/2007 08:42:00 AM

Posted by Hunter Middleton, Product Manager

From the beginning, we envisioned making Google Apps available to any organization that might want to offer this innovative set of services to its employees, customers, students, members, or any other associates of the organization. Today, we're excited to take another step in that direction by releasing a version of Google Apps specifically designed for ISPs, portals, and other service providers, whether you have a few thousand subscribers or over a million. This new version, which we're calling the Partner Edition, makes it easy for large and small service providers to offer your subscribers the latest versions of powerful tools, like Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs & Spreadsheets, without having to worry about hosting, updating, or maintaining any of the services yourself. All you have to do is point and click in the easy admin control panel and figure out what branding you'd like to layer on top of the products in order to create a customized look and feel. You can quit spending your resources and time on applications like webmail -- and leave the work to our busy bees at the Googleplex.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/google-apps-partner-edition.html

The price of fixed cost software development.

There is a theme that keeps recurring in my life.

People want to know how much things are going to cost.

That's not unreasonable. When you are planning your annual marketing budget, you'd like a nice round number that fits in the box you have for how much you're going to spend.

As a business man, I understand this need to allocate funds and budget for things, it's logical and prudent and the right thing to do.

The reality however is that unless you are purchasing off the shelf software that does everything you want right away out of the box... this simply isn't possible with custom software development.

Let me rephrase that. It's not a wise move to have a fixed cost allocated to your custom software project. While that may seem counter intuitive, let me give you a little window into the soul of the coder.

The coder would like to do top quality work. Like an artist, a good coder takes pride in his creations and wants to see them reflect all of his abilities. However, like all of us, a coder has to feed his family and pay the rent also, so at times, you are forced to make compromises in your work in order to pay the rent. Again, just like an artist, sometimes you are put in a situation where it is very hard not to "sell out".

As clients, there is often no real understanding of what is going on behind your machine. Most drivers now a days don't change the oil in their cars themselves, they simply drive it to their mechanic every 5000 (or so) KM and get it done.

Likely you've never opened the source code visible on your website or blog. You might have selected a new theme at one point, but it's not likely that you as a client examined the database structure to decide if it was optimally build and could scale easily, or if it was creating a ton of useless extra fields every time someone posts something or uploads something to your site.

The software may look fine to you on first examination and perform adequately until you start to get more traffic and handle heavier sales volumes. The last thing you need at that point is for your servers to tank, people call to tell you they couldn't put orders through, or worse, they're going through and then crashing the system because one section of your database has crashed but the website is still running so no one is immediately aware of it.

Budget over runs are legendary in the construction business, yet you could argue that you know how many floors you're putting on, how many posts, door knobs, elevators, you can calculate it down to a final number that makes sense.

Good custom software doesn't develop on a fixed budget. it evolves. While you can spend all the time you like at the start of the project to map out the project requirements and the features needed... until you have the software working in the environment that it will be in, you have no real idea of how well it will perform.

Will the users understand the interface, does a certain process need to be broken down more, has the true functionality been captured, or are there wasted or missing steps in the process that are slowing things down.

In order to get these things right, you can't tell a coder that he has 2 months and $20K to build these features. He'll give you what 2 months and $20K have brought him to, and whatever band aids and shortcuts he needed to take along the way to get the project in on time and on budget.

Rather you need to take the approach of what are the features that we need NEXT. Don't think of the project as being finished, it's never finished. There are always more things that can be done to make it better. The only question is when do you need to implement those new features. When does it make sense to open the hood of your machine and start tinkering with the engine again.

Can you live with the way the system is now? Can your staff adjust to using a work around, or is it really a necessity that it get done next as it will increase efficiency, productivity, sales or even moral.

Approaching software as an ongoing expense like your rent, marketing budget or salary of your book keeper is a much more prudent way to think about your custom software project. This encourages realistic and manageable deadlines as well as ensuring that you are intimately involved in the process of developing that software, it meets your needs because you'll be using it daily to make sure that it does.

Does this lend itself well to small business or organizations? Not really. But that's why there are open source projects and commercial software packages. Without sharing the load with other like companies and individuals (be it through open source collaboration or through commercial reselling of a developed package), truly functional software that does everything you want under one roof, has to evolve and not have the same types of limitations that a construction project would have.

There are lots of talented coders out there that collectively are able to do amazing things. The open source model of collaborative software development has proven itself viable, as a vast portion of the worlds internet backbone can attest to.

Finding a team of people that are working on a project that fits your needs is an excellent way to make the cost of developing that software more "budgetable". Contributing financially to the development of that software and adding to the team with your own resources are excellent ways to make sure that your needs are reflected in the direction of the project, without shouldering the whole cost yourself.

Of course if you are in a small to medium size business that has a need to improve your work flow and you are looking at web based solutions, I encourage you to have a look at our ruby on rails ERP system called XLsuite

Mac vs. Vista = Linux Wins

It's interesting to see that Apple is taking a direct shot at Microsoft customers in their latest advertising. They've always positioned themselves as better, but this email really made me laugh since its something that I've been giving a lot of thought to.

Here is the copy that they sent out:
It's time to get a Mac. If you're thinking of upgrading to Vista, you'll probably need a new computer. Why not get a Mac? It's simpler, more secure, and way more fun. And it works with the stuff you already have, like printers and cameras. So before you upgrade anything, you owe it to yourself to check out a Mac.

Microsoft's latest upgrade and the level to which the hardware industry and their license holders and OEM partners are going to be holding the average consumer hostage and lead them down the expensive path of entirely new hardware upgrades when most users still will not be using multitouch geomapping 3 dimentional free form graphic displays or anything much more powerful than editing together a video of the kids for grandma or taking out a lurker in ultima online.

In the case of XLsuite and our development plans, I've been thinking about the fact that as a browser based application, it's no longer dependent on that whole MS upgrade path as in reality, a Linux configuration would probably be more stable and reliable and have a lower TCO and less administration needed to run. You could use firefox and maybe open office instaled at most, no more spy ware attacks from the girl in accounting opening smiley.exe that she found on the internet site freetrojans.com

Nice to see that I'm thinking the same way apple is