Introducing PowerBuilder
Power Views customization can be a considerable revenue generation service. Just ask any of the CIC firms that are heavily involved. Historically it was necessary to either learn HTML and CSS or hire someone who has. This can be a daunting challenge, though very useful in our field, which is usually gauged by the number of requests that come in.

With this in mind it became apparent (during the construction of a Power View actually) that the CIC community could benefit from a simple GUI driven application which would allow the user to produce Time Matters Power Views output files quickly while considering customer need. This was the inception of the PowerBuilder application.

We are almost in beta with the product and expect to have it available for purchase by November 1. We are currently offering a 25%  discount through October 22 if you sign up for the PMAC pre-order special through our Website.

Although PowerBuilder is chock full of goodies right out of the box, we will continue to produce FunctionPak add on utilities that can be purchased to develop the software into a tool specific to your particular needs.

Within just a few minutes you can complete a custom Power View for resale to your customers. Simply start the PowerBuilder application and choose the layout, record type and field selections and you are on your way:

The final product can be stored locally and used as a template for future projects or placed in the proper directory and viola:

An alternative to costly calls
Many of us use various online conference services in order to pull multiple callers together for support calls, product demonstrations and company meetings. As a newcomer to the CIC world, we have had our share of  various providers...

Our first foray into the conference experience was with Skype. Now we have a special place in our hearts for this (almost) free service and use it regularly with support calls but it posed several logistical problems for us. Pass.

Next we decided to use the product that came with our automated attendant and 888 number provider, ringcentral.com but had similar issues. It was just a little too bloated for our needs and the number of attendees was limited. Pass.

Our third attempt (isn't there an old proverb about the "third time"?) landed us on what we currently use which is freeconferencecall.com. Sign up was easy, we were given a permanent telephone number and we can get 96 participants on a single call. We can also record our calls and download them for storage. Score

The rate is right (did I mention free?) and the options are up there with pay for service providers. The caveat (c'mon, you didn't think we were done yet did you?) is that when each party dials in, they will hear a "This conference call provided by freeconferencecall.com" message. That's it. We have been very happy with this service in the few months and will continue to use it.

Get all MS has to offer at a very low price
Its true. Like it or not MS has the business world conquered. Most of our customers use Exchange, Windows and Office and we need to set up our labs to coincide with the environments that they work in. The down side to this is that software is not cheap. Creating a test machine for TM/Exchange synchronizations can be cost prohibitive. So how do we pull this off?

Microsoft has a partnership program that, once enrolled, provides you with the option of purchasing their Action Pack product. This is a set of software packages that you can download and use at your discretion. It comes with 5 user licenses which should be plenty.

Since this is an annual subscription, you will continue to receive updates and new features as long as you maintain it. The download only option is 299.00 per year. You can have MS send you the software on CD for 498.00 should you require it. Microsoft does require that you take an online class and pass a short assessment but this is easily attainable by anyone reading this newsletter.

The up side to getting in now is that you get a fully functional version of Windows 7. Now you can begin testing slightly ahead of the curve. This newsletter was written on Windows 7 and even has LNTPA and TM 10 running without issue.

So if you need to update your work machine or are looking to beef up your lab computers this is a cost effective method. In most cases the expenditure here would be less than buying a new single copy of Exchange or Office.