 Watch Our New Web 2.0/AJAX CRM System Develop
By Michael McGrath
Ever wonder about the development of software? How the magic is performed that results in something you can use every day in your business life? How'd you like to look over our shoulders while we create a new application for small businesses?
We're offering that opportunity to anyone interested right now. KISS has had some new software under development since last fall, and we expect Version 1.0 to be available on or about August 15. It's a system designed for companies just like ours - - a mix of in-house staff and telecommuters. Numerous articles have been written over the last six months about the composition of companies today and in the near future, and I suspect many of us already know someone who works from home at least part of the time. This trend is expected to continue at an ever-growing pace in the next five, ten and 20 years.
The Internet has done this for us, of course. It began several years ago with the advent of “virtual” staff, independent contractors who sold their time (copy writers, programmers, administrative assistants) through such sites as Elance. But it's evolved well beyond that, and KISS is a classic example of that evolution. We've an in-house staff, folks who work with us at our Cape Cod, Massachusetts offices; we've also staff at our Dublin, Ireland, office. One of our staff has telecommuted from his home in Oregon since 2000, seven years, now; others from New York over the past year. Before they sold KISS in 2006, Ross and Amy Lasley logged in from their mountain top in Maine. We had built our own customer relationship management software in 2003, something we called KISSData, and we kept track of projects and clients and To Do lists on this web-based system. When the list of features we wanted to add to it became too long and complicated, we decided to begin fresh, from the first line of code up. That's where we are today.
Team Solution Software is a small/medium business system designed to keep all team members on the same page. It's a CRM system and more, and it's being designed for the current and future mixed office structure of in-house and telecommuting teams. A partial list of features includes:
- Time clock for punching in and out
- Shared calendar
- Shared task management
- Shared project management
- Secure internal messaging system with individual status control for availability
- Time tracking by task
- Time tracking by project
- Centralized file storage system with file sharing
- Read/write permission settings manageable at account god-level
- Individual user “To Do” lists
- Iindividual user Appointments calendar
- Shared client/customer/contact records
- RSS feeds configurable by users for industry-related feeds
Future development anticipates “live” team meetings, voice mail, payroll feed from time clock records, and an invoicing system based on task/project time tracking. These are down the road, expected in version 2.0 12 months out following version 1.0 launch. Although having features in common with basic CRM systems, Team Solution Software is intended to serve more as a company management system as distinguished from a customer-centric system. It will enable all company staff and team members to remain fully involved and invested in the details of company efforts, and to stay in daily touch with progress on tasks and projects, as well as task- and project-related document development.
Team Solution Software will be our own new system, and it's coming along nicely, we think. More than that, though, we want to involve all interested parties in its development process. We launched the sales site for TSS two weeks ago, and you'll find it here. An integral part of that site is the Developer's and News Blog. We're posting to it almost daily now, reporting progress and releasing screen shots of modules we've completed; we're also reporting our marketing efforts, search engine optimization work, link-building techniques, and the use of old-fashioned press releases. Please follow along with our postings and watch the progress. We're practicing everything we regularly preach to clients when it comes to web copy writing, search engine optimization, link building and social networking, and we're telling you everything we do along the way. It's not just words now . . . we're taking the actions for ourselves that we've taken for so many of our clients over the past several years, and we're counting on the magic to work for us, too.
Join us in the journey to V. 1.0 release. See how we do it.
What's New at KISS Computing
Anticipated July Launches
We've several projects just about ready for launch, and expect them to go “live” during July. Included on this list is a new site for The Cape Cod Challenger Club, a private, non-profit organization of volunteers providing events and activities for handicapped and challenged kids and young adults; a new site for the CPA firm of Thevenin, Lynch and Bienvenue, based in Brewster, MA and Brockton, MA, with a mix of private and municipal clients, including KISS; a new site for Top Hits Monthly, a distributor of karaoke music products, in-house produced CDs with the latest hits, based in Fall River, MA; and, new web sites for ourselves, KISS Computing, Inc. and KISS Computing Ireland LTD. While we have confidence the first two will launch shortly, and the third sometime later in July, we're not so sure about our own work yet - - that old saying about the cobbler's kids going barefoot. We'll include actual launch notices in our July newsletter. |
