With Xmas and New Year Eve at the corner we thought about doing something nice for our customers to thank them for their continuous support since 2005.

Sending an electronic greetings is fine but usually the mailbox is full of unwanted emails. So we decided to go for an offer that nobody will discard to the spam box: an extra discount on top of our already highly affordable service!!!

• 6 months of subscription will get  a 5% discount.

• 12 months of subscription will get even more with 10% discount.

And even better these discounts are here to stay all year round!!!

The AppShore Team

PS: We have added a new feature to the Saved Search described in the previous post. In each application, you can now define a saved search as your default search and use it automatically. The new button "Reset" will recall it when clicked.

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Over the week end we have added two new features to the search form presents in each application. Both of these features were highly requested by customers.

Custom dates:

A user has already the opportunity to select a predefined date from a list that appears when he double clicks on a date field. He can also select a precise date from a popup calendar.

The new feature allows to set a custom period before or after a date or between two dates.

• Enter ..Mydate to search on all dates up to Mydate 
• Enter Mydate.. to search on all dates from Mydate 
• Enter Mydate1..Mydate2 to search on all dates between Mydate1 and Mydate2

Limits are included in the search range.

Mydate is a valid date within the date format set in the user's preferences.   12/06/2011.. will search from Dec 6th 2011 in the user set MM/DD/YYYY format or from June 12th 2011 is the format is DD/MM/YYYY.

Multi choices drop down lists:

It is now possible to select none, one or many items in a drop down list when running a search. While it is a quite simple feature from the user point of view, it has required some heavy updates on the server side to handle more complex requests that are in the case of AppShore build dynamically. 

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The Chrome Web Store (http://chrome.google.com/webstore) is an online marketplace where you can find thousands of applications, extensions and themes for Google Chrome. Some of these applications will be installed locally on your computer, others like your beloved AppShore are online services.

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Last Saturday, we added reminders to Activities. It is now the turn of the Cases and Opportunities applications.

While in Activities, reminders work on a full timestamp that combined a date and a time, in these two applications, reminders are applied on a date only. With Cases this is the due date of the case. With Opportunities, this is the closing date of the opportunity.

In each of these applications, users will find a sub menu called Preferences. This form allows you to define default values for some selected fields. Below the Preferences form in Opportunities.

Reminders work on date and time. If you wish to have them triggered on time, it is important to have your timezone parameter set correctly. Go to your global Preferences > Presentation and check this parameter as well as the date and time regional format.

As usual, the update is fully transparent so this new feature will appear automatically in your AppShore account.

Do not hesitate to contact us to raise any issues and give us some feedback.

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Few months ago, we implemented a new notification system better integrated with the applications layout. Today, we are launching a new feature that will complement this notification system and improve the usability of the AppShore offering.

Reminders are triggered are the user's demand ahead the start of an upcoming activity. Reminders can be trigeered minutes, hours, days or weeks before the upcoming activity. Two kind of reminders are available:

• Email reminder
• Popup reminder

Email reminder will send an email to the user's email address defined in his profile. Email reminders are sent once.

Popup reminder will raise a standard notification box with an activite link pointing toward the related activity. A Popup reminder will appear until the user dismiss it. To dismiss a popup reminder, user must click the X on the right side of the notification box or set to blank the reminder in the activity form.

To handle reminders in an activity, two new fields have been added to the Edit and View forms.

Also in Activities > Preferences, the user can set default values to these reminders.

Reminders will be extended to other applications shortly.

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• when a record is assigned to a new user in the edit form
• when a record is updated by a user who is not its owne in the edit form,
• when a set of records have been updated or assigned to a new user from the bulk form (Apply On).

Bulk form:

Edit form:

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This weekend we added a significant new feature to the Webmail application: Receiving emails from external email accounts.

Each user can configure up to five external email accounts. These external accounts must accept POP3 connections in standard or secure mode (SSL/TLS). Once the parameters of an account have been saved, the user can check the connection. We provide some examples of settings for the most popular email services.

Receiving emails is triggered by the user when he clicks the sub menu Check Mailboxes. Only new emails are retrieved and uploaded.

Management of external emails is quite a complex process. Our extended preliminary tests have been positive but there is a wide variety of cases to validate. We will run a real life test period for few weeks. Please do not hesitate to report technical issues, visual glitches in the display of the incoming emails or request of improvements in this new feature.

During the beta test period, we do not allow the deletion of emails on the external email account while they are retrieved. In all cases, this is a feature that is not recommended to activate so one can continue to check and manage his emails from his default email client.

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A new small feature made its way to your AppShore CRM account: dynamic panel.

Two weeks ago, we revamped the Dashboard application to make it nicer and more user friendly. Today we have updated the left panel (or right if you are using AppShore in Arabic) that is visible on most of the layouts with some similar behaviors and dynamic objects.

Users can customize their own panel by adding, removing or moving dashlets (we called them simply boxes here).

Each modification is transparently stored in your user's profile so you'll find them back at your next AppShore session.

Send us some feedback about this new dynamic panel and let us know what kind of boxes you would like to have.

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You know the adage "A picture is worth a thousand words".

So we've added some charts in the Forecasts applications. They are dynamics and will react to the filter set in the search form.

The first chart displays the Sales people performance according the following parameters:

• Sales quota
• Expected amount
• Forecasted amount
• Won amount

Expected amount is the amount as set in an opportunity. Forecasted amount is the same amount but pondered by the probability to win the deal. It is a more realistic (lower) amount. Won amount is related to the opportunities won, invoiced, paid.

• Their respective weight in amount in the pipeline
• Their stage
• The Sales people

Here yet we distinguish between Expected and Forecasted amounts.

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Today, we are releasing an update of the AppShore offering. As usual, this is a (mostly) transparent operation. Here the major new technical features:

• A new image field type that can will be used as a standard and custom field.
• IP access control to increase the security of your account
• Improved dashboard with a simplified settings and more dashlets
• Charts in Forecasts, this is still quite modest, more will come later
• AppShore API, check the documentation at http://www.appshore.com/?&op=developers.base.start

2 topics need your special attention:

New standard field Avatar in Contacts and Leads:
Existing customers will need to do few manipulations if they want to see the new fields Avatar in Contacts and Leads. During the update, our routine do not modify the forms because we want to avoid to break any customization made. So if you want to have these fields visible here what to do:

• Go to Administration > Customization > Applications and select Contacts in the first drop down list and View mode in the second list
• Here you have 2 options:
  • if your form is the original one (not modified by you) then click restore to update it to the default layout.
  • If your form has been customized, then click on the Avatar field (on the right panel), drag it where you want in the form then save the form.
• Repeat the operation for each form where you want to see the avatar (results, edit, ...)
• Repeat the operation for Leads.

The field type Image can also be used as a custom field. One or many can be added to your forms.

Improved dashboard:
The dashboard has been simplified in its layout and settings. Now we have only 2 columns of equal width, managing different sizes was quite a nightmare and didn't bring much.

All the dashlets (boxes) are selected from two drop down lists (one per column) and removed by clicking on a cross on the top right. The layout can be personalized by dragging and dropping the dashlets with the mouse.

We will add more dashlets shortly and we expect to offer customizable dashlets in few months. Let us know if you have some ideas of the subject.

During the upgrade, we weren't able to keep the layout so you will have to rebuild your own set of dashlets. Don't forget to add the two new dashlets called AppShore Blog and AppShore on Twitter.  They will keep you informed on the AppShore offering.

If you experience issues with this upgrade or the new features, do not hesitate to contact the Technical Support at support@appshore.com.

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For those who don't have yet jump to the link above, here what we say in the overview:

The AppShore API allows third party developers to build interfaces between external applications and the AppShore platform. The AppShore API is secure, powerful, easy to use and covers all the features needed for accessing and managing the data in your AppShore instance.

The following services are currently offered within the API:

• Authentication and authorization to access data according your defined Role Based Access Control policy
• Data schema to discover the specific implementation of your data sources
• The 4 standard CRUD functions: Create, Retrieve, Update, Delete with some advanced features

The AppShore API gives access to data through simple HTTP POST or GET. If needed and with a little loss of performance, developers can decide to use a secure SSL connection (https) instead of a standard http for API calls. Calls and results are executed and delivered in XML or JSON format at the developers choice.

Examples of usage of the AppShore API are as neutral as possible. They can be executed from a web browser, a Curl command line or adapted to a specific programmatic language. Results are mostly displayed in XML to make them more readable. It is up to the developers to transpose them in their own context.

https://demo.appshore.net/xml.php?&sid=TOKEN&op=accounts.retrieve

http://demo.appshore.net/json.php?&sid=TOKEN&op=accounts.retrieve

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Over the week end, we have upgraded two features of AppShore offering.

First the visual notification system. Notifications are the short colored messages that appear on top of the screen to inform the user about an event, the result of an action or an issue.

Most of the new banners are now timed based which means that after few seconds they will automatically disappear. When it is necessary to insure that the message relayed by the banner has been seen by the user, the banner will stay (sticky) on the screen as long as the user acknowledges it by clicking the closing button or another link. Banners can also have link inside and in this case they will also stay sticky until the user takes action.

Here the different types of banner available, quite simple:

* Green banners are for INFORMATION  and successful actions from the user like when a record has been created, updated or deleted successfully.

More banners will come shortly with a batch of new features, here a quick look at one of them: Activity reminder.

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In a prior post we examined the rocky path that we and and our customers have traveled over the past couple years of economic decline and highlighted some positive signs we see emerging in the small business market. Drilling down a bit deeper, using our customers as a microcosm of the larger small business market, there are very specific indicators of reinvigorated efforts to reach out to current customers and find new ones. To this end we see existing customers requesting training on our bulk email Campaign management application with the intent of renewing marketing efforts, or to send out monthly newsletters, or customer surveys. We see renewed interest in our Reports application for use in analyzing the information our customers have stored in the AppShore data base and leveraging it more effectively. We see folks starting to manage and organize their time more effectively using our shared Calendar application. We see renewed interest in streamlining the lead management process by capturing leads directly from web sites using our web lead capture feature. Overall, we see a refreshing return to the basics of business; get to know your customers both personally and professionally, build strong and lasting relationships with them, and continuously strive to identify new ways to add value to your solution based on the feedback they provide. Most importantly, we all need to keep our communications well organized and well documented for future reference. This is of course one of the primary functions of CRM applications like AppShore.

How has your business been effected by the economy? What positive trends do you look for to indicate things are turning around in your business? Feel free to share. Some times it feels good just to express your hope (or frustration) in writing. And remember, you are not alone. Hang in there and let's get this thing rolling again. Small business is the engine that drives our economy - the nation depends on you!

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As mentioned in a previous post, we are now starting to see positive signs of renewed growth in the U.S. economy. Today the Conference Board announced a higher than expected rise in the index of leading economic indicators. The increase of only 1.4% may not sound too impressive but it is the highest it has been for 10 months. And, key indicators including consumer retail spending, employment, and corporate spending on technology are all up.

As the economy has begun its recovery, we see similar optimistic signs in our own business. Our cancellation rate has returned to normal and in fact we are now seeing customers adding new users to their licenses - a sure sign of new hiring and growth. We see long time customers coming back to get re-trained. We see requests for training of new users within existing accounts. We see new customers expressing greater confidence in the future of their ventures. We see a lot of former customers coming back to us as they begin brand new ventures. We see former customers who have been forced to change jobs or careers recommending our solution to their new employers. And, most encouragingly, we are seeing a noticeable increase in the number of word-of-mouth recommendations, which had slowed to a trickle over the past year. That means people are starting to ask their friends and colleagues about tools and methods to better manage and organize their businesses. This would not be necessary if they did not have, or at least foresee, increased opportunities to be managed.

In the next post we will dig deeper and discuss the specific features and functions of the AppShore solution that are enabling our customers to restart their businesses and build momentum going into the future.

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This week's job report from the US Labor Department provides a hopeful signal that maybe, just maybe, our long, miserable economic nightmare is finally starting to come to end. The report indicates the US economy added 162,000 jobs for the month of March. Although about a third of the gains came from government hiring of census workers, the private sector also added 123,000 jobs for the month. Although 123,000 jobs is no more than a drop in the ocean, it is the highest number of jobs created in one month since May of 2007. Think about that, May of 2007! 

Americans are now in the process of getting back to basics in the day-to-day management of their personal lives by reducing debt and increasing savings. The same is true in the small business community. A common theme of many of the recent conversations we've had with customers and prospects is one of renewed recognition of the value of a CRM program like ours, especially during times of economic distress. During these times it is even more essential to stay in close communication with customers and build lasting relationships that will sustain the business in the long run - a fundamental element of any successful venture.

In a future post we'll examine the ways our customers are utilizing the AppShore platform to restore and rebuild their business in response to the current economic conditions. It's all about a return to the basics of business management. Stay tuned and feel free to comment.

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These two offerings are using strictly the same technical framework to ease the development and the maintenance of the applications. To justify the higher price, still very reasonable compare to most of our competitors, Premium edition boosts many extra features. Here a quick list of these goodies:

• Shared calendars which are the graphical representation of the activities by day, week or month.
  
• Saved search filters. Premium users can name, store then reload personalized search filters. Lot of time saved on repeating tasks.
  
• Custom forms and fields. A must have when you need to personalize your data model and the associated screen forms to reflect the specificity of your business.
• Your company is international and you need appropriate translation for your custom fields and forms, Premium gives you the opportunity to do so.
  
• A bigger disk space available to store documents, images and email attachments, 1024MB per user against 512MB.
• More data records per user, 20000 against 10000.
• More daily email slots, 2000 emails per user per day (that's gigantic!) against 500 (already a huge number).
• One to one online training session to ease the kick off of your AppShore space.
  
• Phone based support for those who want more than email and web based support.

Also we like to read from our customers about what we should add in our offering. So go to your AppShore space, hit the support icon and let us know all about your expectations!

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The new customers were the first ones to use it since it is always easier to start from a clean sheet than to upgrade a data space full of data, custom forms and fields. This last release has proved itself to be well accepted. Some bugs have been detected and promptly corrected. There is certainly few of these little annoying things around but nothing that could prevent our existing customers to benefit from this new release.

Since last week, we are migrating our existing customers by small batch. The process is nearly automatic like most of our upgrades but we want to be sure that nothing wrong happens or could disrupt the service so we give our support team the time to handle each case individually. This migration process should last few weeks until end of March.

You can have a full trial of this new release at http://demo.appshore.net or better register for the 30 day trial at http://www.appshore.com and set up your own private AppShore account.

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Social seems to be the new "hot" kid in the CRM block. Not so new in fact, this is a buzz word since early 2007 but the big push of the social networks and Web 2.0 technologies last year makes it more appealing from a marketing (and investors) point of view.

I won't dare to give a definition of Social CRM because I still have to figure out what is the full extend of social network in the CRM field beyond Twitter and Facebook applications. Try to Google "Social CRM" with your favorite browser and search engine then make your mind up with the advices of the best experts.

One of the most important aspects of a CRM system is its role as a central repository for structured information. While unstructured information are already part of the game, Social CRM will bring a lot of them with the risk to overflow an orderly space. To give the lie to the proverb Too much information kills information, we need more than a Twitter alike interface full of cryptic messages.

My purpose here is not to make fun of Social CRM or the highly successful Twitter. As a provider and developer of online services, we try to understand what features are most relevant for our customers. Behind every trend, there is always something positive. At the same time, it is quite important for us to avoid wasting time and money on useless gadgets.

In the previous post, I mentioned the upcoming features in 2010. The availability of the API to open AppShore to third party applications and reciprocally the development of interfaces to access external web services should give customers, partners and us the technical means of spicing up the current AppShore offering with some Social features.

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Beside our revamped web site, here a list of few features we are working on this new year:

• A new release poetically called v2.2 is available for all new created accounts since January 1st. Being new, we consider it subject to few improvements in the comings weeks. Then we'll work on a migration procedure to make it available to all existing customers. We'll come back later on the new features available on this v2.2 release.
• An extended API (Application Programmatic Interface) to allow more interaction and data exchange between your AppShore account and external applications.
• Along with the API, we will extend import/export feature for contacts information (and other type of records when relevant) with the leading web based email/contacts systems. Google Contacts, Yahoo Contacts and Microsoft Live Contacts are amongst the targets. Other more business oriented services are also in the wish list. All depends of the availability of an open API on the distant side.
• Today we lack some serious feature when it is about inbound emails in the Webmail and Campaigns applications. This is a fairly complex subject that we expect to see handled in the coming months.
• To allow better time management of the email Campaigns, we will add a scheduling mechanism. Later this should lead to a complete customizable email/form notification system widespread across all applications.
• Emails sent through Campaigns application will also include the option for recipients to opt out from campaign lists. Likewise, we will add an opt in web form similar in its usage to the leads web capture form.
• The search filter form allow to build some fairly elaborate search requests. It is sometime a pain to have to rebuild the same filter over and over. So most of search filter forms will have the option to be saved and shared amongst users.
• In forms, a new field type to store images, graphics will be added. It will be available as a new standard field in Contacts, Leads and Accounts as well as a custom field in all applications.
• Another custom field type requested is Computed field. It should come along some interface improvements of the custom fields and forms designer.

In term of new applications, Projects management, Products management and Workflow system are on the wish list but we wait for more feedback to decide how and where to go ahead.

This is an open list so do not hesitate to contact us to express your needs, expectations and also frustrations. Customer's opinions have great impact on the planning and release date.

Happy New Year 2010!

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