tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23700060916372003342011-12-22T23:11:30.486-08:00AppShore is lead by a team of software executives from USA, Japan and Europe with a depth of experience at both start-ups and big companies. Our big company experience taught us how to develop and market world class software products. Our small company experience taught us that most of those products are too complicated and expensive for many small business owners. The AppShore Team is in this venture for the long haul. You can depend on us as a reliable, long-term business partner.AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.comBlogger281100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-79952201012388626612011-12-22T23:11:00.001-08:002011-12-22T23:11:30.516-08:00<div class='posterous_autopost'>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. <p />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!!!<br /> <ul><li>6 months of subscription will get  a 5% discount.</li></ul><ul><li>12 months of subscription will get even more with 10% discount.</li></ul>And even better these discounts are here to stay all year round!!!<p /> The AppShore Team <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/subscribe-for-6-or-12-months-and-get-a-discou">AppShore</a> </p> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-7995220101238862661?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-88335183949480399772011-12-12T18:14:00.001-08:002011-12-12T18:14:22.019-08:00<div class='posterous_autopost'><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://getfile3.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/appshore/xwsCsQ5eEN2FvPYOoRUyf75aovMFGU2gUQqDEKucIi7kdD6cWmZbIg95n5Tb/multi-select.png"><img alt="Multi-select" height="316" src="http://getfile4.posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/appshore/78OIXxBDzWUXcDv8tliGmfWVOXG6RzGpQP7gv1JNmQlpHUZEfK68jSfdewx8/multi-select.png.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div> <p></p><p style=""> 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.</p><p style=""> <strong>Custom dates:</strong></p><p style=""> 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.</p><p style=""> The new feature allows to set a custom period before or after a date or between two dates.</p><ul style=""> <li>Enter ..Mydate to search on all dates up to Mydate </li><li>Enter Mydate.. to search on all dates from Mydate </li><li>Enter Mydate1..Mydate2 to search on all dates between Mydate1 and Mydate2</li></ul><p style=""> Limits are included in the search range.</p><p style=""> Mydate is a valid date within the date format set in the user&#39;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.</p><p style=""> <strong>Multi choices drop down lists:</strong></p><p style=""> 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. </p> <p style=""> The image below shows how to use both of these features.</p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/new-search-features-in-appshore">AppShore</a> </p> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-8833518394948039977?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-73740860367335425392011-07-31T22:05:00.001-07:002011-07-31T22:05:54.240-07:00<div class='posterous_autopost'><p>Around 3:00AM GMT this morning, one of the hosts we are using to run our services has become unresponsive. The data center support team has decided to reboot it.&nbsp;The downtime was 19 minutes.</p> <p>We apologize for any inconvenience.</p> <p>The Appshore Team</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://status.appshore.com/solved-one-system-down">AppShore Status</a> </p> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-7374086036733542539?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-26947421269893466822011-02-22T01:00:00.001-08:002011-02-22T01:00:21.634-08:00<div class='posterous_autopost'><span style="line-height: 15px;">The Chrome Web Store (<a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore">http://chrome.google.com/webstore</a>) is an online marketplace where you can find thousands of applications, extensions and themes for Google Chrome. </span><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 15px;">Some of these applications will be installed locally on your computer, others like your beloved AppShore service are online applications.</span><p /><div><span style="line-height: 15px;">Chrome Web Store makes easy to search and discover great applications. Each of them have a dedicated page where you can read reviews or leave your own rating and comment.</span></div> <p /><div><span style="line-height: 15px;">The AppShore service has been added to the Chrome Web Store February 21st, 2011.  You can give it a try by installing it into your Google Chrome browser. Click the link </span><a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nncfflnlcfapbpdfkjjhhopjlpfknokd">https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nncfflnlcfapbpdfkjjhhopjlpfknokd</a> that is landing page of AppShore in the Chrome Web Store.</div> <div><div><p /><div>Also you should take the opportunity to let a review about the AppShore service. Don&#39;t be shy, tell the World what you often like and sometimes dislike about AppShore!!!</div> <p /><div>The AppShore Team</div></div></div><p /><p /><div><a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/appshore/aDFK4b82spdag4kFwq50HnfbFDQe96N9FyQIWDOnCHEAdXbNjhP2wYMZ9K4y/GoogleChromeWebStore.png'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/appshore/wPUECCDUaMUkkDDL7lA4czezpCsiNja2NO6rDvXaR5ijnE7XDvgqMZ6RZePc/GoogleChromeWebStore.png.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" height="188"/></a> <br /></div> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/appshore-added-in-google-chrome-web-store">AppShore</a> </p> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-2694742126989346682?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-16449241157386758442011-02-14T20:43:00.001-08:002011-02-14T20:43:59.685-08:00<div class='posterous_autopost'><p>From our Hosting Service Provider:</p> <blockquote class="posterous_medium_quote"> <p><strong>&nbsp;</strong>The Fremont &amp; Newark facilities will undergo minor network maintenance between 8:00pm and 11:59pm EST, Tuesday February 15th 2011. We do not expect any downtime during this maintenance, however a brief period of increased latency and/or packet loss may be observed.</p> </blockquote> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://status.appshore.com/network-maintenance-february-12-2011-800pm-an">AppShore Status</a> </p> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-1644924115738675844?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-22892061863291444692011-02-11T21:32:00.001-08:002011-02-11T21:32:14.466-08:00<div class='posterous_autopost'>Last Saturday, we added reminders to Activities. After one week without issue, it is now the turn of the Cases and Opportunities applications.<p />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 a due date of the case. With opportunities, this is the closing date of the opportunity.<p /> In each of these applications, users will find a sub menu called Preferences. <span class=""><span class="hps" title="Click for alternate translations">This</span> <span class="hps" title="Click for alternate translations">form</span> <span class="hps" title="Click for alternate translations">allows you to</span> <span class="hps" title="Click for alternate translations">define</span> <span class="hps" title="Click for alternate translations">default</span> <span class="hps" title="Click for alternate translations">values</span> <span class="hps" title="Click for alternate translations">for</span> <span class="hps" title="Click for alternate translations">some selected</span> <span class="hps" title="Click for alternate translations">fields</span></span>. Below the Preferences form in Opportunities.<p /> <a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/appshore/7Jd8QVEHAmBK4FLb7A4ikO55xIXjJuyucTqPNiNhdahJL2TJm28uAYE57LZH/Opportunities-preferences.png'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/appshore/yG5nwY7CjKqT9cUwDoaOt7HzMFxvNizKEaLKiJlSD95bEQBLhjkfhoZe5Gbp/Opportunities-preferences.png.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" height="188"/></a> <p /><br />As usual, the update is fully transparent so this new feature will appear automatically in your AppShore account.<p /> Do not hesitate to contact us to raise any issues and give us some feedback. <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/reminders-added-to-cases-and-opportunities">AppShore</a> </p> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-2289206186329144469?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-59488567574137356342011-02-04T17:52:00.001-08:002011-02-04T17:52:12.414-08:00<div class='posterous_autopost'><p>Few months ago, we implemented a new <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/last-upgrade-notification-banners-and-prefere" target="_blank">notification system</a> 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.</p> <p>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:</p> <ul> <li>Email reminder</li> <li>Popup reminder</li> </ul> <p>Email reminder will send an email to the user's email address defined in his profile. Email reminders are sent once.</p> <p><a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-02-04/mEdEwgiDtohtItqEFrdmkGdgmdDruHIsFJfgpagBplxJhoyadlizHmJwisBu/email_reminder2.png.scaled1000.png'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-02-04/mEdEwgiDtohtItqEFrdmkGdgmdDruHIsFJfgpagBplxJhoyadlizHmJwisBu/email_reminder2.png.scaled500.png" width="500" height="188"/></a> </p> <p>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.</p> <p><a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-02-04/wEmhBCcrmEjGsbCaAjxFweDaIgypfyhleqycJzjbqozlfjIGlFJuHtxwfkpr/popup_reminder2.png.scaled1000.png'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-02-04/wEmhBCcrmEjGsbCaAjxFweDaIgypfyhleqycJzjbqozlfjIGlFJuHtxwfkpr/popup_reminder2.png.scaled500.png" width="500" height="188"/></a> </p> <p>To handle reminders in an activity, two new fields have been added to the Edit and View forms.</p> <p><a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-02-04/chGmEspxlhggjzDeqmqzCuCkvxJgwuoHkvqEuHCsIeetDccbBEjGbekGkclh/activities_reminder.png.scaled1000.png'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-02-04/chGmEspxlhggjzDeqmqzCuCkvxJgwuoHkvqEuHCsIeetDccbBEjGbekGkclh/activities_reminder.png.scaled500.png" width="500" height="188"/></a> Also in Activities &gt; Preferences, the user can set default values to these reminders.</p> <p><a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-02-04/GuqgzmGdbrvEzrpxlawaHiJaDopojyEvHnvwHywACuxvBpmFdgGfsjowChfJ/activities_preferences2.png.scaled1000.png'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2011-02-04/GuqgzmGdbrvEzrpxlawaHiJaDopojyEvHnvwHywACuxvBpmFdgGfsjowChfJ/activities_preferences2.png.scaled500.png" width="500" height="188"/></a> </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Reminders will be extended to other applications shortly.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/new-feature-reminders-in-activities">AppShore</a> </p> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-5948856757413735634?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-40289921202816739652010-12-03T10:29:00.001-08:002010-12-03T10:29:16.773-08:00<div class='posterous_autopost'><div>We have added a small feature that will help those who like to share or dispatch their CRM information between their users. </div><p /><div>It is called notification on update and assignment. A notification email is sent:</div> <div><ul><li>when a record is assigned to a new user in the edit form</li><li>when a record is updated by a user who is not its owne in the edit form,</li><li>when a set of records have been updated or assigned to a new user from the bulk form (Apply On).</li> </ul><div>Check on the images below how it works in the bulk and edit forms.</div><p /><p /><p /></div> <p><a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/appshore/F978LjCFhyIzIemqRrOyBJA61pYyq019FZDdMfG0MHvGLhdipPp5lv2DsQyl/bulk.png'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/appshore/u78eG7YahomHGgFCjqd2BCNBgSCLux8PeWPL2RtuBzgMbCi0PASIg7AFmPMf/bulk.png.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" height="188"/></a> <a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/appshore/9BTdfsUM99hZRICCWrQRPUzRYSqWk7hFl1FvRerfk8ApAuKl30XB8rCvGHD6/edit.png'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/appshore/V14QrE6JqgCkDFjlkTMvEjW2JL77JGMXvwiaqGFzNTmMJkkIkdrfU7gAoLNI/edit.png.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" height="191"/></a> <div><a href='http://blog.appshore.com/notifications-on-update-and-assignment'>See and download the full gallery on posterous</a></div></p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/notifications-on-update-and-assignment">AppShore</a> </p> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-4028992120281673965?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-41372373442696897402010-08-25T05:24:00.001-07:002010-08-25T05:24:24.898-07:00<div class='posterous_autopost'>Our hosting service provide is currently experiencing a light network slowdown. Their network squad is working on it.<p />At AppShore service level, this means that some pages or forms may be slow or even interrupted (blank). <p /> As usual, we&#39;ll keep you updated quickly on this issue.<p />We appreciate your patience.<p />The AppShore Team <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://status.appshore.com/network-connectivity-issues-reported-by-the-h-0">AppShore Status</a> </p> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-4137237344269689740?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-80255487320104653192010-08-14T15:08:00.001-07:002010-08-14T15:08:50.087-07:00<div class='posterous_autopost'><a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/appshore/UVYwaFWQXmZSwqB9u2CkPnxOqbX6bTx2KcKAJvBRdArPboLmKkgjfgEoGjLa/webmail_accounts.jpeg'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/appshore/f8uGE8idLdQWo3XYf59gDR5rt1HOcSMRsyvFyj5PI3x7tG2TuemTolALA5lC/webmail_accounts.jpeg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" height="379"/></a> <p><span class="long_text"><span title="" style="">This weekend we added a significant new feature to the Webmail application: Receiving emails from external email accounts.<p /></span><span title="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Each user can configure up to five external email accounts. </span><span title="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">These external accounts must accept POP3 connections in standard or secure mode (SSL/TLS).</span><span title="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Once the parameters of an account have been saved, the user can check the connection. W</span><span title="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">e provide some examples of settings for the most popular email services.<p /> </span><span title="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Receiving emails is triggered by the user when he clicks the sub menu <i>Check Mailboxes</i>. Only new emails are retrieved and uploaded. </span></span><p /> 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.<p /> 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.<p /><br /></p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/inbound-emails-with-the-webmail-application">AppShore</a> </p> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-8025548732010465319?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-51727051180658881952010-08-09T16:22:00.001-07:002010-08-09T16:22:02.412-07:00<div class='posterous_autopost'>Our provider of Domain Name Service has been the subject August 7th of a massive Denial of service attack (DDoS). While we didn&#39;t detect any downtime, it might be possible that some of our customers experienced difficulties to reach us. Below an extract of the incident report:<br /> <i><br />On August 07, 2010 DNS Made Easy was the target of a large multi Gb/s attack against all of our name servers.   The attack started at 8:00 UTC and was fully mitigated by 14:00 UTC.  During this time period there were regional outages from some or all of our name servers.  Regional outages means that certain regions of the world were not able to resolve your DNS and other regions of the world were resolving normally.  When all name servers were not reachable a DNS query would have been lost, when some name servers were not reachable then DNS performance would have been slower than normal but still operational.</i> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://status.appshore.com/ddos-attack-incident-report">AppShore Status</a> </p> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-5172705118065888195?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-28897480933625214752010-07-17T12:32:00.001-07:002010-07-17T12:32:01.208-07:00<div class='posterous_autopost'><a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/appshore/BZXuk30vAwrcHh9FStCsMjfHQs6Y8HFEu6GDZsrwdIZNQpNdB2X7Q5UyyCYU/panelets1.png'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/appshore/CXTVB15toS9MlHBNHCoTpReg3dv7fBT6HpApbE0V5OubhealdVZoHAOsWlhv/panelets1.png.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" height="376"/></a> <p>A new small feature made its way to your AppShore CRM account: dynamic panel.<p />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. <p /> Users can customize its own panel by adding, removing or moving dashlets (we called them simply boxes here). Each modification is transparently stored in your user&#39;s profile so you&#39;ll find them back at your next AppShore session.<p /> Send us some feedback about this new dynamic panel and let us know what kind of boxes you would like to have.<p /><p /><br /></p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/new-dynamic-panel">AppShore</a> </p> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-2889748093362521475?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-40056905481459219192010-07-05T06:34:00.001-07:002010-07-05T06:34:30.864-07:00<div class='posterous_autopost'><p>You know the adage "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_picture_is_worth_a_thousand_words" target="_blank">A picture is worth a thousand words</a>".<p /> So we've added some charts in the Forecasts applications. They are dynamics and will react to the filter set in the search form.<p /> The first chart displays the Sales people performance according the following parameters:</p> <ul> <li>Sales quota</li> <li>Expected amount</li> <li>Forecasted amount</li> <li>Won amount</li> </ul> <p>Expected amount is the amount as set in an opportunity.<br /> Forecasted amount is the same amount but pondered by the probability to win the deal. It is a more realistic (lower) amount.<br /> Won amount is related to the opportunities won, invoiced, paid.<br /> <a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2010-07-05/vinDxDgdnastFCzhnnmjGgpEtcHlreHvxdFngjEyklfcxvmmyCbvuiCChFld/forecasts_performances.jpg.scaled1000.jpg'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2010-07-05/vinDxDgdnastFCzhnnmjGgpEtcHlreHvxdFngjEyklfcxvmmyCbvuiCChFld/forecasts_performances.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" height="303"/></a> <br /> The second set of chart displays the opportunities according 3 variables:</p> <ul> <li>Their respective weight in amount in the pipeline</li> <li>Their stage</li> <li>The Sales people</li> </ul> <p>Here yet we distinguished between Expected and Forecasted amounts.</p> <p><a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2010-07-05/wrDyntEmforEekulJHEkwAbgbpcJIDFqvyAdiadfqerbGlqqDoIJislbCnie/forecasts_list.jpg.scaled1000.jpg'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2010-07-05/wrDyntEmforEekulJHEkwAbgbpcJIDFqvyAdiadfqerbGlqqDoIJislbCnie/forecasts_list.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" height="342"/></a> </p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/charts-in-forecasts-application">AppShore</a> </p> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-4005690548145921919?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-7740398683854028942010-07-04T17:43:00.001-07:002010-07-04T17:43:57.907-07:00<div class='posterous_autopost'><div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">In this 4th of July, after the announcement of the new release of the offering, we have more news to share with you.</span><br /> <p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Pricing policy:</span></b></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">We have revised our pricing policy which will result in a significant decrease in the cost of our services. Several reasons led us to make this decision:</span></p> </div> <ul> <li><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The CRM market is becoming a commodity wit<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">h stronger</span> competition.</span><p> </p></li> <li><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">We expand our services to countries where the economic resources of the small businesses are more stringent than in Europe or North America. As we wanted to keep a single pricing (with the exception of Japan where the business model is different), we needed to adapt to these factors.</span><p> </p></li> </ul><div> <li><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">We wanted to simplify our offering and streamline our development efforts by merging the Professional and Premium versions. All our customers will benefit from the Premium edition features. Please read more on our blog for technical details. <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/new-technical-release-of-appshore" target="_blank">http://blog.appshore.com/new-technical-release-of-appshore</a></span><p> </p></li> <li><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The per-user billing model was quite restrictive for many of our customers because it did not allow them to add easily some temporary users without having to modify their subscription. Now they can freely adjust within their users quota. It also prefigures the new features we want to offer in a near future like the possibility to invite external users (consultants, partners, customers) to access some applications in a controled manner.</span></li> </div> <div> <p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Here is our new price list also available at <a href="http://www.appshore.com/?&amp;op=editions.pricing.base.start" target="_blank">http://www.appshore.com/?&amp;op=editions.pricing.base.start</a> :</span></p> <ul> <li><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Solo: $9/month for one user</span></li> <li><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Team3: $24/month up to 3 users</span></li> <li><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Team7: $49/month up to 7 users</span></li> <li><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Team15: $84/month up to 15 users</span></li> <li><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Team30: $129/month up to 30 users</span></li> </ul> </div> <p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"> As you can see, this is an impressive discount.<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b /></span></span></p><p>System of payment: </b></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Last month, we changed our payment system which in addition to Paypal can now accept payments through Google Checkout.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">To take in account the new pricing, all customers with an active multi months subscription will get one extra month per remaining quarter. Please check your subscription and contact us at <a href="mailto:sales@appshore.com" target="_blank">sales@appshore.com</a> if you detect a problem.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Sales and technical support:</span></b></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Since five years, AppShore has been praised for its customer support. The support is mostly done by the people that develop the product. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">As for pricing and product, we must streamline our support methods. We have decided to no longer offer phone support which is time consuming, quite ineffective for monitoring tickets and absolutely a nightmare when we deal with timezones.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The email addresses <a href="mailto:sales@appshore.com" target="_blank">sales@appshore.com</a>, <a href="mailto:support@appshore.com" target="_blank">support@appshore.com</a>, the tickets application in your AppShore account and <a href="http://www.appshore.com/" target="_blank">www.appshore.com</a> are the best ways to get in touch quickly with us. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">You can also follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/AppShore" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/AppShore</a> where we report global technical issues, products and company news. <br /></span></p> </div> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <p> </p></blockquote> <span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"></span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Stay tuned!</span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"></span><br /> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/new-impressive-pricing">AppShore</a> </p> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-774039868385402894?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-1812296854483215732010-07-04T11:03:00.001-07:002010-07-04T11:03:11.490-07:00<div class='posterous_autopost'>Today, we are releasing an update of the AppShore offering. <p />As usual, this is a (mostly) transparent operation. Here the major new technical features:<br /><ul><li>A new image field type that can will be used as a standard and custom field.<br /> </li><li>IP access control to increase the security of your account</li><li>Improved dashboard with a simplified settings and more dashlets</li><li>Charts in Forecasts, this is still quite modest, more will come later<br /> </li><li>AppShore API, check the documentation at <a href="http://www.appshore.com/?&amp;op=developers.base.start">http://www.appshore.com/?&amp;op=developers.base.start</a></li></ul>2 topics need your special attention:<p /> New standard field Avatar in Contacts and Leads:<br />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:<br /> <ul><li>Go to Administration &gt; Customization &gt; Applications and select Contacts in the first drop down list and View mode in the second list</li><li>Here you have 2 options: </li><ul><li>if your form is the original one (not modified by you) then click restore to update it to the default layout.</li> <li>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.</li></ul><li>Repeat the operation for each form where you want to see the avatar (results, edit, ...)</li> <li>Repeat the operation for Leads.</li></ul>The field type Image can also be used as a custom field. One or many can be added to your forms. <p />Improved dashboard:<br />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&#39;t bring much. <p /> 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.<p /> 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.<p />During the upgrade, we weren&#39;t able to keep the layout so you will have to rebuild your own set of dashlets. Don&#39;t forget to add the two new dashlets called AppShore Blog and AppShore on Twitter.  They will keep you informed on the AppShore offering.<p /> If you experience issues with this upgrade or the new features, do not hesitate to contact the Technical Support at <a href="mailto:support@appshore.com">support@appshore.com</a>. <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/new-technical-release-of-appshore">AppShore</a> </p> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-181229685448321573?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-72527227071715096292010-06-27T07:10:00.001-07:002010-06-27T07:10:13.345-07:00<div class='posterous_autopost'>AppShore API for developers was promised (and ready) long time ago and yet stayed invisible because we procrastinated to finish the mandatory documentation to use it! At last, the documentation is published online at <a href="http://www.appshore.com/?&amp;op=developers.base.start" target="_blank">http://www.appshore.com/?&amp;op=developers.base.start</a>.<p /> For those who don&#39;t have yet jump to the link above, here what we say in the overview:<p />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. <p>The following services are currently offered within the API:</p><ul><li><a href="http://www.appshore.com/?&amp;op=developers.authentication.overview" target="_blank">Authentication</a> and authorization to access data according your defined Role Based Access Control policy</li> <li><a href="http://www.appshore.com/?&amp;op=developers.common.schema" target="_blank">Data schema</a> to discover the specific implementation of your data sources</li><li>The 4 standard CRUD functions: <a href="http://www.appshore.com/?&amp;op=developers.common.create" target="_blank">Create</a>, <a href="http://www.appshore.com/?&amp;op=developers.common.retrieve" target="_blank">Retrieve</a>, <a href="http://www.appshore.com/?&amp;op=developers.common.update" target="_blank">Update</a>, <a href="http://www.appshore.com/?&amp;op=developers.common.delete" target="_blank">Delete</a> with some advanced features</li></ul><p>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. </p><p>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. </p>Example of call with XML through a secure SSL connection: <p class="devSource" style="margin-left: 40px;"><i> <a href="https://demo.appshore.net/">https://demo.appshore.net/</a><b>xml</b>.php?&amp;sid=TOKEN&amp;op=accounts.retrieve </i></p>Example of call with JSON: <p class="devSource" style="margin-left: 40px;"><i> <a href="http://demo.appshore.net/">http://demo.appshore.net/</a><b>json</b>.php?&amp;sid=TOKEN&amp;op=accounts.retrieve </i></p>Example of XML return:<br /><div style="margin-left: 40px;">&lt;API&gt;<br />   &lt;accounts&gt;<br />      &lt;accounts_item&gt;<br />         &lt;account_id&gt;1&lt;/account_id&gt;<br />         &lt;account_name&gt;Account 1&lt;/account_name&gt;<br />          . . .<br />         &lt;user_id&gt;azerty&lt;/user_id&gt;<br />      &lt;/accounts_item&gt;<br />      &lt;accounts_item&gt;<br />         &lt;account_id&gt;2&lt;/account_id&gt;<br />         &lt;account_name&gt;Account 2&lt;/account_name&gt;<br />          . . .<br />          &lt;user_id&gt;qwerty&lt;/user_id&gt;<br />      &lt;/accounts_item&gt;<br />         . . .<br />       &lt;items_count&gt;123&lt;/items_count&gt;<br />      &lt;status&gt;ok&lt;/status&gt;<br />   &lt;/accounts&gt;<br />&lt;/API&gt;<br /></div><br />Example of JSON return: <br /><div style="margin-left: 40px;">{&quot;api&quot;:{&quot;status&quot;:&quot;ok&quot;,&quot;sid&quot;:&quot;TOKEN&quot;}}<p /></div> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/appshore-api-for-developers">AppShore</a> </p> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-7252722707171509629?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-288040260648450702010-05-17T04:28:00.001-07:002010-05-17T04:28:11.014-07:00<div class='posterous_autopost'><p>Over the week end, we have upgraded two features of AppShore offering. <p /> 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. <p /> 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.<p /> Here the different types of banner available, quite simple:<p /> * Green banners are for INFORMATION  and successful actions from the user like when a record has been created, updated or deleted successfully. <br /> <a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2010-05-17/adnweyuyxxxGsxnckxkHqcmIEEvzisJmbnavwArqkpGJqxrwyroeuvgIpmzm/information.png.scaled1000.png'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2010-05-17/adnweyuyxxxGsxnckxkHqcmIEEvzisJmbnavwArqkpGJqxrwyroeuvgIpmzm/information.png.scaled500.png" width="500" height="125"/></a> <a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2010-05-17/zFvraCCeFhogFuGervJJdrpgszwnHlHchpvfwqaIzsIGtAfziupccrfoshel/notification.png.scaled1000.png'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2010-05-17/zFvraCCeFhogFuGervJJdrpgszwnHlHchpvfwqaIzsIGtAfziupccrfoshel/notification.png.scaled500.png" width="500" height="125"/></a> <a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2010-05-17/vxfDvbgrIcfmvbmsgbmddeGzgoBlwItnbGefkrsFFJoAzzymBjytbAzJcIda/warning.png.scaled1000.png'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2010-05-17/vxfDvbgrIcfmvbmsgbmddeGzgoBlwItnbGefkrsFFJoAzzymBjytbAzJcIda/warning.png.scaled500.png" width="500" height="125"/></a> <div><a href='http://blog.appshore.com/last-upgrade-notification-banners-and-prefere'>See and download the full gallery on posterous</a></div><br /> * Orange banners are for WARNING when some action is requested to the user. Often these banners will contain a link and will invite the user to click on it. <br /> <a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2010-05-17/GCJjwibcJklzHzdtvhgyucBofwmdxjjIyFDHvFugBIbkIwhxHnnzoFFAgkad/warning.png.scaled1000.png'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2010-05-17/GCJjwibcJklzHzdtvhgyucBofwmdxjjIyFDHvFugBIbkIwhxHnnzoFFAgkad/warning.png.scaled500.png" width="500" height="125"/></a> <br /> * Red banners are for ERROR. They are always sticky with or without a link.<br /> <a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2010-05-17/mHxxdDeJgqxhqHAibczrItJqFmsajeeowvhtaeeJwHsqzbcfhxnCsIaivJpE/error.png.scaled1000.png'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2010-05-17/mHxxdDeJgqxhqHAibczrItJqFmsajeeowvhtaeeJwHsqzbcfhxnCsIaivJpE/error.png.scaled500.png" width="500" height="125"/></a> <br /> In Preferences, the user is now able to set the location of the banners on his screen (top left, top center, top, right, bottom left, bottom center, bottom right).<p /> More banners will come shortly with a batch of new features, here a glace at one of them: Activity reminder.<a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2010-05-17/aDJgrzBqceilCflzJkobvxGJfGtHvJjrsJyolFvdBGnsFmgCnBHfiGBpncav/notification.png.scaled1000.png'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2010-05-17/aDJgrzBqceilCflzJkobvxGJfGtHvJjrsJyolFvdBGnsFmgCnBHfiGBpncav/notification.png.scaled500.png" width="500" height="125"/></a> <br /> Second upgrade is related to the Activities/Calendars application. we have added a new sub menu called Preferences where the user can define parameters of the calendar and the default settings of a new activity:<br /> <a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2010-05-17/okpcEIJDFwevtEoHEkzsmaBwBgrCEfvzlcGAIhJcldpelwiCnBACfIsGprqC/preferences.png.scaled1000.png'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/temp-2010-05-17/okpcEIJDFwevtEoHEkzsmaBwBgrCEfvzlcGAIhJcldpelwiCnBACfIsGprqC/preferences.png.scaled500.png" width="500" height="219"/></a> </p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/last-upgrade-notification-banners-and-prefere">AppShore</a> </p> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-28804026064845070?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-58788818263377315942010-04-05T08:25:00.001-07:002010-04-05T08:25:39.808-07:00<div class='posterous_autopost'><p>This week&#39;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!  <br /> </p>Most of the hiring is now coming from large companies, which is not a bad thing. But until the engine of small business starts to purr again, we cannot expect to make significant gains in the recovery. It is always the small business sector that leads the early stage of an economic rebound. Since the vast majority of our customers and prospects are small business owners, we and they have reason to be optimistic for the first time in a long, long time. <p />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&#39;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.<p />In a future post we&#39;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&#39;s all about a return to the basics of business management. Stay tuned and feel free to comment. <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/back-to-basics-78">AppShore</a> </p> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-5878881826337731594?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-39063719764670736552010-03-08T08:10:00.001-08:002010-03-08T08:10:41.718-08:00<div class='posterous_autopost'>AppShore offering is available in two editions, AppShore Professional and AppShore Premium. A customer can from his private AppShore space decides to upgrade or downgrade from one edition to another one. What will change is the monthly price paid by user. $14 per user per month for Professional, $24 per user per month for Premium.<p /> 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:<br /> <ul><li>Shared calendars which are the graphical representation of the activities by day, week or month.<br /></li><li>Saved search filters. Premium users can name, store then reload personalized search filters. Lot of time saved on repeating tasks.<br /> </li><li>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.</li><li>Your company is international and you need appropriate translation for your custom fields and forms, Premium gives you the opportunity to do so.<br /> </li><li>A bigger disk space available to store documents, images and email attachments, 1024MB per user against 512MB.</li><li>More data records per user, 20000 against 10000.</li><li>More daily email slots, 2000 emails per user per day (that&#39;s gigantic!) against 500 (already a huge number).</li> <li>One to one online training session to ease the kick off of your AppShore space.<br /></li><li>Phone based support for those who want more than email and web based support.</li></ul>New features will continue to be delivered to both of these editions in the coming months. We do not intend to give up one or the other because they respond to different business requirements.<p /> 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! <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/professional-vs-premium">AppShore</a> </p> </div> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-3906371976467073655?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-71061786235247557902010-02-25T08:44:00.001-08:002010-02-25T08:44:14.961-08:00<div class='posterous_autopost'>Few weeks ago, we announced in this blog the last release of AppShore (<a href="http://blog.appshore.com/few-things-you-should-expect-from-appshore-fo">http://blog.appshore.com/few-things-you-should-expect-from-appshore-fo</a>).<p /> 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.<p /> 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. <p /> You can have a full trial of this new release at <a href="http://demo.appshore.net">http://demo.appshore.net</a> or better register for the 30 day trial at <a href="http://www.appshore.com">http://www.appshore.com</a> and set up your own private AppShore account. <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/migration-in-process">AppShore</a> </p> </div> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-7106178623524755790?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-6696764288401006852010-01-20T08:17:00.001-08:002010-01-20T08:17:10.334-08:00<div class='posterous_autopost'>Social seems to be the new "hot" kid in the CRM block. Not so new in <br />fact, this is a buzz word since early 2008 but the big push of the <br />social networks and Web 2.0 technologies last year makes it more <br />appealing from a marketing (and investors) point of view. <p /> I won't dare to give a definition of Social CRM because I have still <br />to figure out what is the full extend of social network in the CRM <br />field beyond Twitter and Facebook applications. Try to Google "Social <br />CRM" with your favorite browser and search engine then make your mind <br />up with the advices of the best experts. <p /> One of the most important aspects of a CRM system is its role as a <br />central repository for structured information. While unstructured <br />information are already part of the game, Social CRM will bring a lot <br />of them with the risk to overflow an orderly space. To give the lie to <br />the proverb "Too much information kills information", we need more <br />than a Twitter alike interface full of cryptic messages. <p /> My purpose here is not to make fun of Social CRM or the highly <br />successful Twitter. As a provider and developer of online services, we <br />try to understand what features are most relevant for our customers. <br />Behind every trend, there is always something positive. At the same <br />time, it is quite important for us to avoid wasting time and money on <br />useless gadgets. <p /> In the previous post, I mentioned the upcoming features in 2010. The <br />availability of the API to open AppShore to third party applications <br />and reciprocally the development of interfaces to access external web <br />services should give customers, partners and us the technical means of <br />spicing up the current AppShore offering with some Social features. <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/spice-up-your-crm-with-social-network">AppShore</a> </p> </div> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-669676428840100685?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-51380483444606255332010-01-07T06:23:00.001-08:002010-01-07T06:23:27.754-08:00Beside our revamped web site, here a list of few features we are working on this new year:<br /><ul><li>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&#39;ll work on a migration procedure to make it available to all existing customers. We&#39;ll come back later on the new features available on this v2.2 release.</li> <li>An extended API (Application Programmatic Interface) to allow more interaction and data exchange between your AppShore account and external applications.</li><li>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. Others more business oriented services are also in the wish list. All depends of the availability of an open API on the distant side.</li> <li>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.</li><li>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.</li> <li>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.</li><li> 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.</li> <li>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.</li><li>Another custom field type requested is Computed field. It should come along some interface improvements of the custom fields and forms designer.<br /> </li></ul>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. <p />This is an open list so do not hesitate to contact us to express your needs, expectations and also frustrations. Customer&#39;s opinions have great impact on the planning and release date.<p /> Happy New Year 2010! <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/few-things-you-should-expect-from-appshore-fo">AppShore</a> </p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-5138048344460625533?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-23943093891511767892009-12-29T06:22:00.001-08:002009-12-29T06:22:59.079-08:00To start 2010 in great shape, we will launch the first of January a revamped version of <a href="http://www.appshore.com" target="_blank">www.appshore.com</a> web site. It was a needed task to achieve since the former one started to look old and dull. The faces on the home page will take a welcome retirement, they were tired to show up every day...<p /> Nothing too much fancy or spectacular, this is still a business web site not some marketing circus for celebrities. We have added detailed products information, a visual features tour and more forms to better interact with our customers, prospects and partners. <p /> Social networking becoming a must have, we will try to keep up to date the new company blog at <a href="http://blog.appshore.com">blog.appshore.com</a> as well as our account at Twitter (<a href="http://twitter.com/AppShore" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/AppShore</a>). We should add more social networking, social CRM features during the coming year. <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/appshorecom-web-site-revamped">AppShore</a> </p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-2394309389151176789?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-59220174000526611252009-12-23T03:49:00.001-08:002009-12-23T03:49:31.715-08:00Unless you are calling yourself Google, Yahoo, Amazon or your company is financially backed by a too generous venture capitalist, most of the businesses like AppShore rely on hosting and network service providers to run their online services. <p /> At AppShore, we host our online services on servers located in the USA. These servers are rented to a Hosting Service Provider or HSP. This provider itself rents some rack spaces in one or many data centers then installs and maintain its own servers. Data centers are connected to the Internet by network providers and telecommunication companies.<p /> I keep it simple but it is easily to see that more layers can be add up. Some of these companies can operate as a kind of virtual middle man, renting large amount of resources (network, rack space, servers, ..) then subletting for a higher price to smaller businesses.<p /> At the end between the user in front of his computer and AppShore, there are lot of technologies managed by many intermediates. Time to time, one of these will fail and the consequences are often immediate, no more access to the beloved AppShore service! At this stage, starts the race against time to find the point of failure and to request the right people along the hosting chain food to intervene. Generally the failures are detected, diagnosed and repaired in few minutes.  Most of them are even not seen from the user side since backup equipments are automatically activated to insure continuity of service.<p /> Considering how heterogeneous and complex is the World Wide Web, it is quite reliable, efficient and an oddity for such large general public service open to all providers no matter their size. <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/the-online-hosting-chain-food">AppShore</a> </p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-5922017400052661125?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-48405118594131425632009-12-21T05:45:00.001-08:002009-12-21T05:45:14.952-08:00AppShore Japan was launched few days ago. The overall design and marketing content is a little bit different from <a href="http://www.appshore.com">www.appshore.com</a> to adapt to the local market. <p />The pictures included are made by a local graphic designer, Emiko Kashima. You can find more of her work at <a href="http://aswa-x.seesaa.net/index-4.html">http://aswa-x.seesaa.net/index-4.html</a>. I like these draws and think they give a cute and original atmosphere to the web site.<p /> More pictures willl be added later. Check a preview.<p /><p /> <p><a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/appshore/P9grerMsjFH0fKBqgOOpmuhaZJD3CIeg86NmhEbpK5J08s5zuO5vu792TV0T/2.2_kanso_after.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/appshore/8I6gdXgtWZY5Ltq0QG8E6SinwFBwuLUBMrOgVOIQeToM73l1adPsFvQUbE8h/2.2_kanso_after.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" height="351"/></a> <a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/appshore/yTkEdOoxhOBxcwMDDT0N6bJNXAUoCnI0YJm9MdRINvTlvjN5HccJ3ErxVhYz/1.2_kyoyu_after.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/appshore/RR5EDuUTea2ZYcVftWP7YEbrCZwNRkpLUlyTPgamioiHKoUM4jEK00aRhIzn/1.2_kyoyu_after.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" height="351"/></a> <a href='http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/appshore/MR8aECU1grbsvsCyHHUUqWof9UGlImhiT0oyJ87KKVvyApWNNue7XhbYpJxx/2.1_kanso_before2.jpg.scaled.1000.jpg'><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/appshore/vLw22ZBZvczUCbj4UI9QEuDTdqyRmki19rKFrMAsytwhYxUqXCRZx2ICY0tf/2.1_kanso_before2.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" height="348"/></a> <div><a href='http://blog.appshore.com/nice-graphics-at-wwwappshorecojp'>See and download the full gallery on posterous</a></div></p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/nice-graphics-at-wwwappshorecojp">AppShore</a> </p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-4840511859413142563?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-29040977918951369952009-12-18T02:32:00.001-08:002009-12-18T02:32:53.646-08:00Since five years, my laptop is powered by Linux like all our servers. First it was just another bootable partition side by side with MS Windows then when the virtualization technology became good enough, Windows moved into a virtual machine.<p /> I keep Windows for only two reasons but they are critical for our business:<br /><ul><li>AppShore offering must work on the most common browsers so we repeatedly test it on IE7/8 (the painful IE6 was dropped few months ago), Safari, Firefox, Opera and Chrome.</li> <li>Two of our online service providers (bank and accounting) support only IE or Firefox running under MS Windows and block access from whatever else. </li></ul>Considering that lot of small online service providers like us make the non negligible effort to support their customers with their own tools we could expect the same from large companies. <p /> Is it too much to ask for? <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/too-much-to-ask-for">AppShore</a> </p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-2904097791895136995?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-26254020308201501582009-12-16T14:11:00.001-08:002009-12-16T14:11:42.973-08:00<p>Today I came over this article in&nbsp;<a href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9142341/Lawmakers_want_more_H_1Bs_new_Founders_Visa_" target="_blank">computerworld.com</a> and the short essay <a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/foundervisa.html" target="_blank">The Founder Visa</a> written by Paul Graham, a well known programmer/entrepreneur in the IT sphere. <p /> When we set up AppShore Inc back in 2005, the idea was to move the whole founding team to California which is certainly one of the best places to seed and to grow a start up. <p />Over the years and between the daily tasks, we initiated twice the classical H1B process with the help of local immigration lawyers. Twice for different reasons we didn't end up with the expected visa.<p /> If this hasn't stopped us to develop the company, it has certainly defined how we shaped AppShore business model. A US team dedicated to sales and customer support, an international technical team and a willingness to build a presence worldwide with the help of local knowledgeable entrepreneurs.<p /> AppShore's story is far from being over, we are here for the long haul, so who knows how things will evolve but clearly focus is to reach customers located wherever our services make sense.</p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/the-founder-visa-a-brilliant-idea">AppShore</a> </p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-2625402030820150158?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2370006091637200334.post-88941784094674492062009-12-16T14:05:00.003-08:002009-12-16T14:05:30.969-08:00<p>Back in February this year, the family and I lived in mainland China since 3 years. We love the country and the people but we needed a serious break. After a long debate with the daughter, we settled for 2 weeks of vacations in Japan (her choice) spread across different places to taste various aspects of the country:</p> <ul> <li>Osaka where we have some friends. </li> <li>Kanazawa, a mid sized city with a strong samurai history. </li> <li>Nosawa onsen, a traditional mountain village not far from Nagano.</li> <li>Tokyo</li> </ul> <p>While in Nozawa onsen, for a too short 4 days ski trip, we met another family and we started to sympathize and to talk about the snow, the weather, the food, the kids and a little bit about our respective businesses then we exchanged emails. Few days later while in Tokyo, I received an email from the "other" family man,&nbsp; He proposed to meet before our departure to China to discuss a little bit about AppShore... <p /> Fast forwarding, AppShore Japan LLC is incorporated in Tokyo. The offering has been fully translated and localized by a brilliant team of CRM consultants. First customers helped us to test the offering during the few months of the beta period. Website is setup and ready to take orders.</p> <p>Congratulations Guys, you did a great job!</p> <p><a href="http://www.appshore.co.jp" target="_blank">http://www.appshore.co.jp</a></p> <p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://blog.appshore.com/how-to-transform-your-vacations-in-business">AppShore</a> </p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2370006091637200334-8894178409467449206?l=appshore.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>AppShore Inchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18384835885348932936noreply@blogger.com0