Software Industry Announcements and News
Spiceworks Adds Features to Help MSPs Manage Multiple Client Networks
[ No Comments ] Posted on 08.09.10 under ASP Member Companies, Network & Internet
Free Software Integrates Centralized Help Desk with Time and Cost Tracking for Client Sites
CompTIA Breakaway 2010
SAN ANTONIO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today at the CompTIA Breakaway 2010 conference, Spiceworks™, Inc. announced the release of a new version of its free IT management software with features specifically designed to help Managed Service Providers (MSPs) better service their client networks.
Some of the top new capabilities requested by the 150,000 IT service providers using Spiceworks include customizable client portals as well as a centralized help desk that allows multiple client service requests to be managed from a single console. In addition, the upgraded help desk provides ways for MSPs to track and bill for time and new technology purchases authorized by clients. These features are available in the latest beta release of Spiceworks 5.0 and can be downloaded for free at http://www.spiceworks.com/5.0.
“Managed Service Providers no longer have to pay thousands of dollars for software to run their businesses and manage client networks,” said Scott Abel, co-founder and CEO of Spiceworks. “The multi-client centralized help desk was the number one feature requested by our MSP user community. By including it in the latest release of Spiceworks, more MSPs can get into the business and existing ones can expand the services they offer.”
Spiceworks is enabling ‘Social IT’ by combining network management, network monitoring and help desk software with a rapidly growing and active Facebook-like community of IT professionals. Organizations of all sizes use the free Spiceworks IT management software and integrated online community to collaborate with each other and support the management of both cloud-based and on-premise technology products and services. Additional details on the new capabilities available to MSPs in this latest release of Spiceworks include:
* Centralized Help Desk – allows MSPs to manage help desk tickets for multiple clients through a single console, including the ability to assign tickets by client, priority and other attributes. Help desk requests use Active Directory for authentication and SSL for encryption.
* Custom Client Portals – give IT service providers the ability to create a custom portal and email alias for each client.
* Ticket Time & Billing Tracking – lets MSPs track the time spent on service tickets and the cost for each along with any associated equipment purchase costs. Reports can be exported for invoicing and accounting purposes.
* Help Desk Management Dashboard – gives service provider executives a simple way to manage and track the help desk activity their organization is overseeing, including team member ticket assignment and productivity information.
“Spiceworks has revolutionized how we do business by eliminating the cost of the software we need to serve more clients and grow,” said Lawrie Dalman, IT Director, Lawrie Dalman Consulting. “The newest features are specifically designed to make it simple for us to manage multiple client sites from one Spiceworks installation, which will help us to greatly expand our business.”
With more than 1 million users – including 150,000 IT service providers – in 196 countries, Spiceworks is the most widely deployed and fastest growing IT management application in history. The Spiceworks user community currently supports 35 million workers, manages 60 million computers and devices, and spends over $180 billion annually on technology products and services.
More information on Spiceworks can be found at http://www.spiceworks.com. Follow Spiceworks on Twitter: http://twitter.com/spiceworks. Connect with Spiceworks on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Spiceworks.
About Spiceworks
Founded in 2006, Spiceworks™ develops the first free social IT management application that combines network management and help desk software with a “Facebook-like” online community of IT professionals to help over 1 million IT pros and 150,000 IT service providers simplify everything IT. Spiceworks makes it easy for businesses to manage IT products and services on-premise or in the cloud, collaborate to solve technology problems, and find the IT knowledge and products they need day-to-day. Through its Voice of IT™ market research program, the company enables direct conversations with IT professionals, conducts surveys and provides insight on important technology usage, staffing and purchasing trends by small and medium businesses worldwide. Spiceworks is a privately held company headquartered in Austin, Texas with funding from Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), Austin Ventures and Shasta Ventures. For more information visit http://www.spiceworks.com.
Discover a More Vivid Way to Value Your Memories
[ Comments Off ] Posted on 07.27.10 under ASP Member Companies, Desktop Publishing, Graphic Apps
PearlMountain Soft has announced immediate availability of CollageIt. It allows you to form inspiring collages for all your favorite photos in seconds. The program creates templates for any number of pictures, requires no additional training and transforms ordinary photo viewing into a much more amusing experience.
Let’s admit it, looking through familiar photos or showing them one by one to friends and relatives over and over again isn’t that exciting. Is there a more vivid way to value your memories? Yes, there is. CollageIt was designed to give everyone an opportunity to brighten up one’s photo collection. In a matter of seconds, it will turn any ordinary set of photos into an impressive array of collages.
Read the rest of this entry…
Manage Tasks, Projects, Schedules, and Reminders with TaskMerlin 3.0
[ Comments Off ] Posted on 06.20.10 under ASP Member Companies, System Utilities
Interfathom has released TaskMerlin v. 3.0, an intuitive and easy-to-use Windows application that makes it simple to organize notes, tasks, and schedules, and share them with colleagues. Unlike other task managers that lock you into a fixed format, TaskMerlin offers complete flexibility for naming, structuring, and viewing your tasks. TaskMerlin’s flexibility makes it ideal for project and management teams’ collaboration, as well as for workers who follow David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) workflow methodology.
The major new feature of v. 3.0 is TaskMerlin’s Calendar. Create a new appointment with a single click or keystroke. Quickly add reminders to any task or appointment. To reschedule an appointment, you can drag and drop it, or use your mouse to change its size on the Calendar. TaskMerlin’s new Calendar is fully integrated with Microsoft Outlook, and provides scheduling, appointment, and reminder functionality with fewer keystrokes and less work.
With TaskMerlin, it is easy to store, organize, manage, and retrieve information. This information can be as simple as notes and appointments, or as complex as multi-person, multi-year projects. You can track due dates, the person assigned to each task, its priority, and the time spent working on it. It’s easy to retrieve and display tasks based on these attributes, or on any text found in the task descriptions.
You can become productive with TaskMerlin in minutes. Create project folders, and drag and drop tasks into them. Modify status information and content in place, with no need to navigate menus or open additional windows. You can even edit multiple tasks at once. There are many pre-defined task types and status descriptions to choose from, or simply create your own.
Use the built-in editor to create task information, or copy and paste text and images. Add hyperlinks to related tasks and to web pages. All of your information is fully searchable, and you can sort and filter the information that appears on your screen. Choose from more than 40 columns of information that are built into TaskMerlin. When creating a new task, its name is the only required field. It’s simple to fill in additional information when it is convenient.
In the Professional Edition, all users can log into TaskMerlin, and update the fields that they have been authorized to change. Each user has their own password, email settings, popup reminders, filter definitions, and display options.
Whether you’re a manager who needs to track deadlines and deliverables with your project team, a GTD enthusiast who wants task management software that conforms to the GTD structure, or an Outlook user who requires a Calendar that is more powerful and more convenient than the one provided by Microsoft, TaskMerlin has the tools that you need.
TaskMerlin v. 3.0 runs under Windows 7/Server 2003 and 2008/Vista/XP/2000/Me/98. The Personal Edition, for use on a single PC, costs $49(US). The Professional Edition, with multi-user simultaneous database access, costs $99 for a single-user license. Multi-user discounts are available. To learn more about TaskMerlin, or to download the trial version, visit http://www.taskmerlin.com/. Interfathom, New York, NY. Email: admin@taskmerlin.com
Software Developers’ Trade Organization Modernizes Its Name
[ Comments Off ] Posted on 06.18.10 under ASP Member Companies
After 23 years of serving the software development industry as the Association of Shareware Professionals, the ASP has changed its name to the Association of Software Professionals. The new name reflects ASP’s influence in converting nearly all of the software publishing industry to the try-before-you-buy model, as well as ASP’s commitment to continue to guide independent software publishers in innovative new software development and marketing strategies.
“ASP began in 1987 as the trade organization for software developers”said ASP’s current president Mike Dulin of SharewareJunkies.com. “Back then, the ASP was a small band of independent underdogs who defied the traditional software distribution channel, and created the try-before-you-buy model. Today, the entire software industry has adopted the shareware system, and there’s no need for our organization to keep a name that is tied to the past.”
The ASP has evolved into an international organization of 1,000 software developers who are pioneering cloud computing, software as a service (SaaS), smartPhone development, and desktop/laptop development on all of tomorrow’s popular computing platforms.
ASP’s newsgroups are constantly buzzing with discussions about new ways to market software. In past years, ASP members were at the leading edge of using press releases to publicize their software, using search engine advertising to increase sales, and using the Internet to market their applications.
“Today, ASP’s developers work together to optimize their programs’ registration incentives, protect their intellectual property, and optimize innovative software sales methodologies,” said Adriana Iordan, ASP’s PR Chairperson. “We use our newsgroups, newsletters, and blog to work together for the good of the industry, and to strengthen our members’ businesses.”
“With fewer and fewer developers calling their applications ‘shareware’, software buyers have become confused about the meaning of the term,” explains Rich Holler, ASP’s Executive Director. “And since nearly all software developers today, from the smallest micro independent software vendor (mISV) to the largest software publisher, offer trial versions of their programs, the term ‘shareware’ has become less useful.”
Shareware is a marketing method. ASP’s members develop and market software. And the ASP will be called the Association of Software Professionals as it moves into the future.
ASP’s spam-free private discussion groups save members countless hours and minimize frustration by delivering information on the most difficult business, technical, and marketing issues. Visit the ASP’s website – asp-software.org – to learn more about how the ASP can help your software business grow.
If you’re a software buyer, please visit the ASP’s download site – downloads.asp-software.org – to find some of the finest software available today.
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About ASP
ASP is the world’s main trade organization for independent software developers and vendors, focused on providing know-how through various events and resources. Software professionals have access to helpful business information, and archives providing useful assistance to newcomers. ASP also functions as a liaison between software authors, microISVs, beginners and leaders, distributors and marketers facilitating contacts and sharing experience.
New software allows up to 50 mouse cursors to collaborate on one desktop
[ Comments Off ] Posted on 06.15.10 under ASP Member Companies, Desktop, Education
Bartels Media GmbH has released MultiMouse, a multi-user Windows application that lets up to 50 users use the mouse and keyboard on their PCs to control the desktop of a central computer. MultiMouse lets users work together on the common desktop of the central PC for training, brainstorming, collaboration, or document building.
Each user moves their mouse cursor out of their desktop to make it automatically appear on the common computer. Each mouse cursor has a customizable name tag, making it easy to know who is pointing to what on the shared computer screen.
Educators and trainers can use MultiMouse to work together with groups of students. MultiMouse turns a static classroom into an interactive learning environment, where each student can participate and contribute with classmates on a common SmartBoard. The teacher can use MultiMouse’s control panel to invite or block individual students.
Project teams can hold meetings that encourage two-way information flow.
Brainstorming increases the flow of fresh ideas, and problems that take weeks to solve in isolation can be solved interactively by the group in hours.
MultiMouse uses the wireless or Ethernet network connection to transmit each user’s mouse position and text input, with no additional hardware required. MultiMouse’s network communications are configured automatically. There’s no need for a network administrator to assign IP addresses or port numbers.
MultiMouse works on any combination of laptops, netbooks, desktops, or tablet PCs running any mix of Microsoft 32 or 64-Bit Windows 2003/XP/Vista/7.
Prices start at $139(US) for a 5-remote-user license, with 25- and 50-user versions available. Teachers are invited to request educational discounts. You can download a trial version of MultiMouse from http://www.multimouse.com/ .
For more information, contact Bartels Media GmbH, Im Treff 20, 54296 Trier, Germany Phone: +49 (651) 999 19-50 Email: info@multimouse.com
Internet: http://www.multimouse.com/.
Software Industry Conference in Dallas in July, 2010
[ Comments Off ] Posted on 05.27.10 under ASP Member Companies
The 20th Annual Software Industry Conference (SIC) will be held on July 15 – 17, 2010 in Dallas, Texas at the Hyatt Regency DFW Hotel.
The Software Industry Conference is a three day event that culminates with a Networking Gala Dinner that gives software developers and publishers an opportunity to form partnerships and alliances. The conference also includes dozens of informative, educational breakout sessions covering a wide variety of topics that are critical to the success of Independent Software Developers (ISVs).
The conference includes more than forty educational seminars and presentations that are designed to help developers sell more software. Presentations by industry experts include topics such as profiting from Google Adwords, marketing more effectively, providing income-producing customer support, working with translation and localization services, sending press releases, developing Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, avoiding legal pitfalls, reducing chargebacks, and creating affiliate networks.
The conference allows plenty of time to network with other software developers and software industry service providers. The conveniently-located daily breakfasts in the Hyatt Regency DFW Hotel make it easy for conference attendees to meet and socialize with fellow industry members. You can even attend the annual meetings and luncheons of two industry trade associations, ESC and ASP.
The casual SIC conferences are known for their family-friendly atmosphere. Many software developers turn their trips to SIC into mini-vacations.
As always, the conference will present awards to honor developers in several key software categories. SIC’s Exhibit Night features the best software development products and services from leading industry vendors.
Registration at the door costs $299(US), or costs $249 if you register online http://www.sic.org/register.asp by July 13. Deeply discounted hotel rooms at the Hyatt Regency DFW are available to all conference attendees.
About SIC
The annual Software Industry Conference has been presented continuously since 1991. Each year, the conference focuses attention on the try-before-you-buy software development industry, its people, and the many fine applications that come from it.
The conference has grown dramatically since in recent years. In addition, the conference honors software developers with a series of annual awards, recognizing new and innovative software products created and marketed by smaller development companies.
Current sponsors for the 2010 SIC include Alta Web Works, asknet AG, Association of Software Professionals, Avangate, Inc., cleverbridge, Digital River, DP Directory, Inc., Elfring Fonts, Inc., Emurasoft, Inc., K Software, Lincoln Beach Software, NotePage, Inc., Paypro Global, Inc., Plimus, SoftCity, Software Promotions Ltd., The Utility Factory, and TRIUS, Inc.
For more information about SIC 2010, visit http://www.sic.org/