Archive for the ‘Open Source’ Category
Written lovingly by Jake Stride on March 13th, 2008.
Tactile CRM has been live for a month now and we now have over 275 people using the system.
We want to carry on improving our CRM system and this is where we need your help. We want to start incorporating some of the new features from Tactile CRM into our Open Source product, EGS, and find out what new features and improvements we can make to Tactile. As an incentive to those of you who help us out with the improvements on the system (just sign up check it out, and leave comments, suggestions and feedback on our forum) we are offering three free months subscription to the Tactile plan you use.
We do value and listen to feedback that we receive, we have already implemented several new features that have been suggested by users since we launched, including:
- Internationalisation (opportunity values)
- Date formatting
- Timezones
- ‘Quick Complete’ for activities (one click to complete)
- Searching on Town and County/State fields
- and many others
and we are just putting the finishing touches to vCard imports and Google Contacts import using their new API which will be available shortly.
We know the importance of building communities around software (we have worked hard to do this with our Open Source Software EGS, and don’t worry we have some major new functionality coming including a new release and a full ERP/Accounting module for it) and we want you our users to take the lead and help make Tactile a powerful, easy to use system.
Posted in Business, Launch a Web App, Open Source, Tactile CRM
Written lovingly by Jake Stride on February 5th, 2008.
We updated the Senokian blog today to fall inline with the rest of the Senokian site. We also installed a few new plugins to make things easier:
Posted in Misc, Open Source
Written lovingly by Jake Stride on July 26th, 2007.
The new site for Tactile is now available at http://www.tactilecrm.com/.
At the moment it is the application for the private beta, so feel free to visit and sign up now!
Posted in Business, Open Source, Tactile CRM
Written lovingly by Jake Stride on July 18th, 2007.
So we are just about to release a new website for EGS, and Tactile will follow shortly. One of the key requirements for both is some forum software. We spent a while looking around and although there are lots of forum solutions out there all of them are quite bloated apart from Beast.
The problem with Beast is that it is built on Rails and we really wanted a PHP solution. So a cunning plan ensued!
Patrick started on Monday and we needed to bring him up to speed on EGS and the framework, so Greg and I thought writing a new forum would be good. In addition to a light weight forum solution, Patrick will be documenting the process for us internally to train new starters on EGS and externally for people to start using the framework.
It is now Wednesday and we have just spent the afternoon skinning the first version and will be releasing it soon (under the GPL of course). So watch this space and keep an eye out for Critter soon (we liked Beast so much we thought we would use the layout/functionality as a basis for the software so Critter is our nod in Beast’s direction to say thanks!).
Posted in Misc, Open Source
Written lovingly by Jake Stride on July 13th, 2007.
So I gave a talk about my experiences so far of running an Open Source business at PHPWM and mentioned LoopFuse (and did my bit to carry the LoopFuse torch!) as a really neat idea and concept that looks like it works really well for Open Source companies.
Several people have been asking about it since then so I have put this post up with the details so hopefully the LoopFuse guys will see the referrals in their system!
I have had the opportunity to talk to both Tom Elrod and Roy Russo over at LoopFuse and had a demo of the Enterprise version. As I have said a great concept and product, and definitely one we would like to get involved with - using, integrating and perhaps more?
Posted in Business, Open Source
Written lovingly by Jake Stride on July 13th, 2007.
OK, so its take a few days since Tuesday to get these up but I have my reasons! For those that are interested here are a copy of the slides that accompanied my ‘Open Business’ presentation at PHPWM.
I have also upload an OPML file of some interesting RSS feeds I read that are listed at the end of the slides.
Here is a list of sites that I read that might be useful to people since wordpress thinks that XML/OPML files does not meet its security guidelines:
Posted in Business, Misc, Open Source
Written lovingly by Jake Stride on July 6th, 2007.
The Open Source Showcase I spoke at the other week has been written up at Open Advantage by Elliot who helped organise it.
Posted in Business, Open Source
Written lovingly by Jake Stride on June 29th, 2007.
Just read a post about the new EU research to promote Open Source etc. I hope they sort out their website soon which returns an error as it is not the best advert in the world!
Posted in Open Source
Written lovingly by Jake Stride on June 21st, 2007.
So having got up slightly earlier than normal yesterday (not a problem really as I am an early riser and a morning person) I braved the M6 and Birmingham city centre traffic to attend Open Advantage’s excellent Open Source Showcase where I was doing a short talk on our EGS software.
As always there there was a great selection of people there doing presentations and a great turn out. It was also good to see the usual faces and both Dave Goodwin and myself were even wearing suits - a sight I am sure is not often seen involving either one of us (feel free to correct me on that one Dave!) - I am a firm believer in the idea that people don’t need to wear a suit to go a great job - I think it would be safe to say I am the only person at Senokian that ever wears one and not too regularly either.
I also had a great chat with Paul Cooper which was really useful. He gave me a few really good ideas to think about regarding the promotion and launch of Tactile CRM [and related products], he also mentioned Loopfuse, the second time I have heard about it in as many days, a few blogs and a few other things.
As the MD/CEO of a small Open Source tech company I always value these conversations and ideas and am hugely grateful to Paul for his ideas, they may have seemed obvious to him but hearing them from somebody else is always good as it helps to reinforce ideas I already have and add new ones to the mix too - Scott and Elliott also had some useful pointers and thanks to everyone at OA for the event.
The OSSC was not meant exactly meant to be a forum for this sort of conversation - the Open Coffee Club I am trying to launch in Coventry is more aimed at this - it is just a shame there is not more of this in the Midlands and UK as I know that lots of people in similar situations find it hugely useful.
Posted in Business, Misc, Open Source
Written lovingly by Jake Stride on June 21st, 2007.
Tactile CRM is a web 2.0 hosted version of the CRM module of EGS that Senokian are in the process of launching. There is a new interface and lots of usability enhancements resulting in a user friendly system offering:
- Companies
- Leads
- People
- Opportunities
- Activities
- Notes
- Attachments
- Sales Pipelines and reporting
- and much more
We are currently looking for people that would like to join the private beta that will start next month. If you are interested in using CRM for your start-up, interested in web 2.0 applications, CRM or just curious - we would love to here from you. As a thank you we will be offering the first years use of Tactile CRM (on a normal fee paying plan!) to all participants.
Contact us today to find out how you can be part of this next generation application and the benefits it can offer you and your organisation.
Posted in Business, Misc, Open Source
