This is the fourth in a series of short blog posts that will each very briefly cover one of the many, many new features of the upcoming ContaxCRM Version 3. They are presented in no particular order. Today we are looking at Data Tools.

All database based software should come with tools to enable the owner of the data to make changes, perform updates, do housekeeping tasks, examine the database structure etc. After all, it’s your data, not ours.

The images below give you a preview of some of the Data Tools available within ContaxCRM Version 3. All these tools are available within a single window which is opened from the Utilities menu.

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Tags: ContaXCRM, V3, ContaXCRM V3, New Feature, Software Development, Software Release, Software Update

This is the third in a series of short blog posts that will each very briefly cover one of the many, many new features of the upcoming ContaxCRM Version 3. They are presented in no particular order. Today we are looking at Email Snippets and Text Substitution Variables.

The pictures below should enable you to understand the use of Email Snippets and Variables and to appreciate just how useful they can be. Templates are good !

Of course, as with any other email sent from ContaxCRM, the full details of the email is recorded against the recipients contact record.

Steven Cholerton
Arten Science
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Tags: ContaXCRM, V3, ContaXCRM V3, New Feature, Software Development, Software Release, Software Update

This is the second in a series of short blog posts that will each very briefly cover one of the many, many new features of the upcoming ContaxCRM Version 3. They are presented in no particular order. Today we show the ability to change the window background to a more exciting colour than grey, and introduce a gradient effect for good measure

Steven Cholerton
Arten Science
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Tags: ContaXCRM, V3, ContaXCRM V3, New Feature, Software Development, Software Release, Software Update

This is the first of a series of short blog posts that will each very briefly cover one of the many, many new features of the upcoming ContaxCRM Version 3. They are presented in no particular order. To start we have a feature that is far simpler to use than it is to explain … See the images below, the second image is the text area zoomed so you can read the explanation.






Steven Cholerton
Arten Science
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Tags: ContaXCRM, V3, ContaXCRM V3, New Feature, Software Development, Software Release, Software Update

ContaxCRM Version 2.5 will be released in May and below I have written about one of the new features:

Direct Email

Here is a short video overview: http://www.artenscience.com/movies/ContaxCRM/CENA/index.html

I have also included a couple of images at the end of this posting.

With Version 2.5.0 of ContaxCRM (if you have been given access to an interim release - 2.4.8 - you will also have this functionality) you can now choose whether you wish for the email to be created and opened in your default email client program, or whether you wish ContaxCRM to do the heavy lifting and send the email directly. This second option requires that you setup the SMTP settings in the Preferences.

You can send the email in Clear Text by clicking the Send button in the Toolbar, or you can Encrypt and send it securely and privately using the Encrypt button. The encryption key used is the one setup within the Additional section of the contacts information.

You can attach as many CC or BCC contacts to this email as you require, again, using the appropriate Toolbar buttons.

You can attach files using the Attach button or just by dragging and dropping them into the Files area on the email window.

You can schedule a Follow Up for this email by specifying the date you wish to action the Follow Up. This Follow Up is recorded into ContaxCRM and also iCal (Mac OSX) or Outlook (Windows).

I used Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010 from Microsoft as well as Apple Mail as a guideline and influence on the design of this email window so that hopefully familiarity will reduce the learning curve. An exact copy of the email window from any of the above programs would be 1) Illegal 2) Inadvisable and 3) Inappropriate in the context of ContaxCRM.

You can setup a default signature in the Preferences and overwrite it if necessary by clicking the Option tab. The Option tab also contains the ability to select whether or not this email event is written to the Contact history. The default is yes.

Using the Received Email tab you can also reply to any received email from this contact at any point in the past.

We have worked hard on this feature, I hope you enjoy it

Steven Cholerton
Arten Science
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Tags: Contact Relationship Management, ContaXCRM, Software Release

ContaxCRM 2.4.0 was released yesterday and is a significant upgrade. As usual this upgrade is available free of charge to existing users. I have highlighted a few of the significant enhancements below:

Financials Tab

There is now an additional tab called Financials. Against the contact you can now store a lot of additional financial related information. See the image below:

Contact Query Builder

The new Query Builder allows you to create, save and then use database queries without any knowledge of SQL. This tool will become even more powerful in future revisions of ContaxCRM. See below:

Wherever you see this icon ...

You can select it to load any previously created and saved query.

Data Dictionary

The Data Dictionary will be of use to advanced users of ContaxCRM who are producing sophisticated reports or queries.

Mail Merge

This facility allows you to create a file that you can then use to create a Mail Merge with the Word Processor of your choice, Word, Open Office, Pages etc.

Categorised Document Management

As previously you can drag and drop documents of any kind into ContaxCRM where they will be stored with the relevant contact. Now however you can also put these documents into user defined categories and apply a name and descriptive notes to each document.

In addition you can now choose to either MOVE or COPY *INTO* Document Management and MOVE (Delete) or COPY *OUT* of Document Management. See the image below.

Geographical Information

The Geographical tab has been removed and the information can now be accessed by clicking the ‘World’ icon on the Address section of the Detail tab. In addition you can now view many of your contacts on the same map giving a useful ‘geographical proximity’ view.

Enhanced Searching

When typing into a contact search box the following fields are now automatically searched:

User ID - Integer, Exact Match Only
First Name
Last Name
Company Name
Email Addresses
Type
Town
Post Code
Country
Tags
Reference 1
Reference 2
Free Text
Industry
Position
Telephone Numbers
Nickname

There are many other small enhancements in this update as well as a few bug fixes. It’s a big release, we have worked hard on it, and we hope you like it.

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Arten Science
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Tags: ContaXCRM, Software Update, Software Release

ContaxCRM was updated to version 2.2.0 today and ooSooMpro was updated to 1.3.0.

The updates were mainly about providing a better ‘first time user’ experience. For a start the data files are now created in a structure within the users Documents folder, rather than in the program folder. The data folder structure now looks like this:

...Documents
........ContaxCRM
................Databases
........................ContaxCRM_DB
........................ooSooMpro_DB
................Documents
................Images
................Logos

These folders are created and populated only if they do not already exist, therefore the user does not have to be concerned with overwriting their data-files, or moving them elsewhere. Program updates use the structure shown if it already exists.

The software default options have also been reviewed and altered where necessary.

There is also now an 'Online Multi-User Demonstration Edition' which allows potential customers to test drive the software using a pre-created database hosted on the internet. I will be offering this option via the website soon.

Finally, all software windows will now fit nicely even on the MacBook Air 11'' Model

This is a free of charge upgrade to our existing customers. Enjoy

Steven Cholerton
Arten Science
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Tags: Contact Relationship Management, ContaXCRM, Software Release, Software News, Arten Science

ContaxCRM was updated to version 2.1.6 yesterday. A number of fixes and features were incorporated into this release. See below for further details of the most important changes.

New Dynamic Connection via Status

Contact Status has been added to the Dynamic Connection options. All contacts with the same Status as the current contact will be listed instantly if this option is chosen.

Detach the Map window and View yourself and Multiple Contacts on the Same Map

This is a useful feature for looking at the relationship between contacts, geographically. In the image below I am showing two network contacts (identified by the icon), a customer and myself on the map. I expect to expand the functionality here significantly over future versions.

New Icons for Type = Member and Type = Competitor

The complete set of icons used for Contact Type are shown below, from left to right:

• Supplier
• Prospect
• Customer
• Personal
• Network
• Member
• Competitor

Encrypt History Notes option

History notes can now be protected from prying eyes using up to 384 bit Blowfish encryption provided by the award winning R10Cipher encryption engine.

Encrypt Incoming Email option

When using ContaxCRM to automatically catalog and record your incoming email, and also using the manual control option which allows you to choose which email are filed and which are not (this level of control is setup within the Preferences) - you now get the option to accept an incoming email for filing, but choose to encrypt it using up to 384 bit Blowfish encryption provided by the award winning R10Cipher encryption engine.

Additional Document Drop Zone in the Documents Area

You can now drag and drop documents directly into the Documents area of your selected contact.

Those are the highlights of the 2.1.6 release of ContaxCRM.

This is a free of charge upgrade to our existing customers. Enjoy

Steven Cholerton
Arten Science
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Tags: Contact Relationship Management, ContaXCRM, Software Release, Software News, Arten Science

Today we released Version 2.1.0 of our Premium Contact Relationship Management software, ContaxCRM. 2.1 has many additional features as well as overall speed increases and a few bug fixes. The list of updates can be seen below:

Significant enhancements to the Main window

• 2 Halves - Contact Specific / Non Contact Specific
• New ooSooMpro Tasks & Calendar Overview tab
• The Charts tab has been relocated
• Text Buttons now Graphical Buttons
• New Navigation Menu

To complement our Mac OSX and Window Cross Platform CRM system, ContaxCRM Suite, we recently released a Launcher for those that like the idea of launching the separate Suite applications from one convenient place.

The Launcher is available free of charge and can be downloaded from here.

You can view a movie of the Launcher in action here:

http://www.artenscience.com/movies/ContaxCRMSuite/T0002/index.html

Steven Cholerton
Arten Science
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Tags: ContaXCRM, Launcher, Software Release, CrM , Cross Platform

Our US Distributors yesterday launched ContaxCRM Suite Version 2.0. We expect a boxed version of the product to appear in selected stores shortly.

Press Release
Application Systems North America Website
ContaxCRM Suite UK Website



Steven Cholerton
Arten Science
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Tags: Software News, Software Release, Software Update, R10BatchMail, R10Cipher, OoSoMpro, ContaXCRM

Note: Apologies for the ‘nerd speak’ in the title, but I was running out of room UX = User Experience. For example using an abbreviation like UX is a good example of what not to do when trying to create a good user experience ...

Several new releases from Arten Science today.

R10Cipher 2.3.3
R10BatchMail 4.3.0
ooSooMpro 2.0.1

The biggest release was ContaxCRM 2.0 and the ContaxCRM Suite, but I’ll talk about them in a different post.

The three products listed above have all been updated to make the trial procedure better for the potential customer and more profitable for Arten Science

When the 30 Day Trial period is over and the potential customer trys to run the program, two things happen. Firstly, the browser is opened pointing to our online store for the appropriate product, encouraging the potential customer to purchase.

The second thing that happens is that a screen similar to the one below is shown, thanking the potential customer for trying our product and allowing them to enter a serial number and user id when they have purchased one

Like everything else in life, make it easy and straightforward and people are more inclined to use it. An easy and smooth experience should be experienced from the first look at the website to the everyday use of the purchased product.

A major project for Arten Science going forward involves looking at every facet of our business and trying to improve the user experience. I am convinced the time invested will pay dividends.

Another improvement to these three products in the latest releases is to do with downloading the trial version and also upgrading an existing version of our software.

From today onwards the download from our site and those of our distributors will include the complete version of the product, needing only a user id and serial number to change the product from Trial to Full. When upgrading to the latest version from within the application though, only the files that need updating are downloaded for you. These files can then be dragged and dropped into the product folder, after making sure you quit the program first. These small changes will make living with our products simpler and more straightforward than previously.

All of these updates are of course free of charge.

Steven Cholerton
Arten Science
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Tags: Software News, Software Release, Software Update, R10BatchMail, R10Cipher, OoSoMpro, ContaXCRM

Very busy at the moment here at HQ - just enough time to post a picture of our Macintosh OSX Installer for ContaxCRM Suite which will be launched imminently - the gold master goes off for distribution this weekend ... More information soon - if you want to stay posted on development remember you subscribe to this feed with the RSS link to the left. - Steve


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Arten Science
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Tags: Contact Relationship Management, ContaXCRM, Installer, Software Release

ContaxCRM Version 2, and the boxed version of ContaxCRM Suite are imminent. Due to the amount of effort involved with making this happen I haven’t had much time for blogging recently. This morning I’m changing that. Twit TV is playing on iTunes, I’ve got a hot cup of coffee and I’m going to tell you about one of the recent enhancements to ContaxCRM.

By default ContaxCRM uses your local timezone information when writing data to the database. If you are running the Multi-User Edition and you have users located in different timezones then using the local timezone could cause confusion. In this scenario you have the option of using UTC (Zulu) time taken directly from the server. This means that data entries that are time stamped can actually make sense from a chronological perspective.

In addition, there is an option that can be set to produce the time and date information in the format required for ISO-8601. You can see an example below:

2010-09-09T10:50:00Z

There are many, many enhancements in Version 2.0.0, I’ll find the time to tell you about some more of them soon.

Steven Cholerton
Arten Science
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Tags: ContaXCRM, Contact Relationship Management, Software Release

Updates have been released to both R10Cipher and cuteCipher today. Both products now have the option to ‘Delete Original File after Successful Encryption’. This update is in response to user feedback, and will please many people

In addition as mentioned in the recent Press Release, R10CIpher and cuteCipher have been ‘de-bundled’ (Have I invented a new word ?) and are now available separately at £9.99 each, making them ever better value.



Steven Cholerton
Arten Science
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Tags: R10CipherIV, CuteCipher, Software News, Software Release, Software Update, Encryption, Security Software

Today I released updates to both cuteCipher and ContaxCRM.

cuteCipher Version 1.1.0

Redesigned Graphics
40 Trials Allowed Now
Speed Increases Throughout
Utilities Menu, View Window Settings

ContaxCRM Version 1.9.5

The Modules Menu has a Link to other CRM Suite programs.
Trial Limitations Relaxed: 40 Logons now Allowed with the Trial Version
Trial Limitations Relaxed: 1000 Contacts now allowed with the Trial Version
Bug in the Compose Email window - Fixed
Some Menu Items re-arranged for better consistency and user experience

Steven Cholerton
Arten Science
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Tags: ContaXCRM, CuteCipher, Software News, Software Release, Software Update

I have been asked why I often go through a patch of frequent updates to a product, for example ContaxCRM has had four updates in the last week or so.

The reason is quite simple. From a customers perspective they can choose when to update based upon the features that have been added, they are not forced to update every time I upload a new version. For those customers however who are waiting for a particular feature they can have it immediately with no waiting around for a particular ‘scheduled update’.

From my point of view it allows me to do several weeks or months on a product and see the results of my work ‘out in the wild’ where customers and prospects can give me immediate feedback.

Another reason is, because I can. I think the fast development, immediate distribution model is where we need to be nowadays to stay relevant and current and to give our customers value for money. This is where a small company like mine can add value over the larger companies, our ship can be turned on a dime, their ship has a lot more inertia and finds it difficult to turn quickly to react to changing market and customer needs.

Steven Cholerton
Arten Science
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Tags: ContaXCRM, Update Frequency, Software Release, Software Update

Version 1.9.3 of ContaxCRM is now available. This version features the following enhancements:

• 'Order Received' Option Added to History Event Types
• Enhancements to the TLRS Display
• Full Screen Mode now available
• Update your Twitter Status from within ContaxCRM
• Send @Reply Messages to Contacts, Recorded to History
• Consistent Window Effects
• User Interface Improvements
• Bug in the Compose Email window if Subject had more than one word - Fixed

We released 1.5.5 of ContaX today. This is probably the last release prior to the MySQL Multi-User version which is due soon (I said this last time, but I was mistaken ).

1.5.5 has the following small but useful update:

Attached Vault documents from ooSooM are now shown against the appropriate contact within ContaX and can be opened in their original application by double clicking them.

You can see this in the annotated screenshot below:

This is a small but useful feature that gives added value to the document management features of the ContaX CRM solution.

Steven Cholerton
Arten Science
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Tags: CrM, ContaX, Software News, Software Release

Thanks to our customers ooSooM has been very successful. In only a few short months ooSooM has been registered well over 2000 times. It's great to know that so many people are using and enjoying the product.

ooSooM is available Free of Charge and we make revenue from the Encryption / Decryption security features that are enabled by purchasing either an R10Cipher or ooSooM Pro license. For those that don't want or need these features ooSooM is entirely free, with no strings attached.

As a registered user you may receive an email from us every few weeks telling you about the latest offers from Arten Science, but you can unsubscribe to that very easily, and you won't hear from us again.

I think any customer of ooSooM who has been using it since version 1.0 will see that the product is now far better and more sophisticated than those early versions, your feedback has been very positive.

Products have to evolve and change to improve and ooSooM is reaching the point where the features that we would like to put in the product and the features we are being asked for by our customers, as well as our commitment to the R10Office suite mean that the next version of ooSooM is no longer viable to be released as a free product. Developers also need to eat The current free version however will remain supported for at least the next 12 months.

The next version of ooSooM will be called ooSooM Pro. Anybody with an existing ooSooM Pro license can use this license with the new product. In addition anybody with an R10Cipher license can apply for an ooSooM Pro license free of charge.

The cost of an ooSooM Pro license will increase when the new product is released, so if you are toying with the idea of upgrading to an ooSooM Pro license for ooSooM, you should do it soon while the price is still very low.

ooSooM Pro will offer a more complete, more reliable and better looking experience that the current version of ooSooM. Some of the features that we have either already completed or we have in progress or planned are:

Separate Journal Function
Multiple locations for Digital Filing
Encryption for the filed Documents
Recents Option
Tags and Tag Search
Tab Delimited and XLS Export
Attachment Names included in Quick Search
Post to Twitter
Text Processing Capabilities
Basic Project Management Capabilities

ooSooM Pro is going to be an exciting product for us, able to easily compete with our competitors. ooSooM Pro will also remain Cross Platform for Macintosh and Windows. Linux is also being considered, let us know if this is of interest to you.

If you have any comments or questions, please use the new forum: http://getsatisfaction.com/artenscience






Steven Cholerton
Arten Science
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Tags: Software News, Software Release, OoSooM