Category: News

This update will include the following:

Brand New WMS Library Functionality

To WMS Support Service Users and all of Ezone Software’s Clients!

I am happy to report that Ezone Software will be providing an improved Festive support package this year. The WMS Support calendar for the Festive period December 2011 to January 2012 is as follows:

– Up to and including 21st December
Normal WMS support

– 22nd and 23rd December
Full support capabilities but reduced hours and speed (morning and late afternoon covered)

– 24th to 27th December
No WMS support

– 28th to 30th December
Full support capabilities but reduced hours and speed (morning and late afternoon covered)

– 31st December to 2nd January
No WMS support

– 3rd January onwards
Normal WMS support

If you have content you need added WMS Unlimited will be available throughout the Festive period on the above dates. However turnaround times may be longer than usual and may need to be re-scheduled to January 2012.

Please email [email protected] if you have any questions on Ezone’s Festive WMS Support Package

Best Regards and Merry Xmas!!!

Stuart Ferguson – WMS Support

Season’s Greetings to WMS users and all of Ezone Software’s Clients!

We would like to announce the latest WMS Upgrade which will be launched early January 2012.

This update will include the following:

– Brand new WMS Library functionality

– Support of IE9 and IE10 has been significantly improved when using the WMS

– As well as a number of general fixes and improvements

FAQs and training options on the new WMS library Functionality will be available closer to and after the upgrade launch.

We will be emailing you and posting on the Ezone Software Blog with more information closer to the launch – so watch this space!

As usual we will be available to provide support for you on this and any other WMS matter at [email protected]

Wishing you a very Merry Xmas!

Ezone Software

Please gather round! We would like to announce the arrival of “WMS Unlimited” our new WMS content editing Service! Available at no additional cost to the current WMS subscription.

As well as using the WMS to add content yourself you may want to get us to do it for you. You can then spend your work hours doing something else. Essentially you can send us any amount of content and we will add it to your website via the WMS for no additional cost. This includes image resizing and you can use the service as many times as you want.

We operate a fair usage policy on this service which means that your content is scheduled into an available time slot so it may not be possible to add the content immediately and the more content you send us the longer it will take.

To use this service (or for more information) please email [email protected] (or open a support ticket through the WMS) and attach the content you want added. Please include all the content you want us to add (including images, PDF, hyperlinks etc) and guidance information on any specific way it should be added.

If you have already purchased Edit Credits these can be converted into bankable WMS development hours.

Much as I think “the cloud” is just another annoying buzz word that doesn’t really represent much; there are now a plethora of online services that can provide a much better, more cost effective solution to problems that traditionally required something physical in the office.

Being a software as a service company ourselves we have always been fully aware of the huge advantages of these solutions and over the last year we have started to use them even more.

So here is a quick summary of what we currently use and why:

Google Apps (www.google.com/apps)
Email for our own domains, using the excellent gmail web interface, that is very cost effective. Tie that in with calendars, Google docs and all the other Google offerings and it really is an excellent solution. Why wouldn’t you? A heavy investment in something like MS Exchange just does not make sense here, IMHO.

Freshbooks (www.freshbooks.com)
An excellent invoice and time tracking solution. Although the time tracking & reporting is not as fully featured as some other solutions, the fact that it is linked directly to invoice generation and the outstanding estimate/invoice/expense management features have been really great for us. Freshbooks also has excellent integration with many other apps (including Highrise & Basecamp) and a good API that we use for the WMS.

Highrise (www.highrisehq.com)
Very straightforward CRM. The wonderful 37signals mantra of simplicity here is one of the main advantages for us. It fits easily into our everyday work process; which means we actually use it! This is important as a CRM is only useful if the data is up to date and it is part of your day to day and minute to minute work.

Also has a handy API which allows us to keep contacts in sync with the WMS.

Dropbox (www.dropbox.com)
File sharing that is easy and reliable. We use this to make sure that everyone and every PC (for example laptops and desktops) have access to the most up to date documents. This also significantly reduces the need for an office file server and all the admin that comes with that (backups, power & connectivity, VPN’s for remote access etc); it is great when a load of problems just go away!

Dropbox also has good version control of all documents which helps avoid data loss and multiple copies of old documents. I’m also finding the Andriod app very good.

Tender Support (www.tenderapp.com)
An excellent, very straightforward helpdesk application. We use this both with our main product (The WMS) but also for specific client support. Good email integration and a simple web interface with single sign on support make this app an important part of our service.

Once again this is complemented by an API which we use to full effect.

Tender’s integrates closely with a partner product (Lighthouse) for development and issue tracking; which we also use.

Beanstalk (beanstalkapp.com)
This is the newest one for us; hosted source control which includes good collaboration (code review) features. Moving from SVN based on a server in the office was a big decision; but so far it has been great. We got rid of yet another admin task (not that managing SVN & backups is a biggie, still its nice to have one less thing to think about) and gained some productivity by integration with Lighthouse.

Beanstalk was incredibly simple to set up and (once I had tweaked the CruiseControl configs) fitted incredibly smoothly into our development process.

The WMS (www.thewms.co.uk)
And finally, we use our own application, of course! Simple, powerful, web based content management for our every web need. It’s the best there is 😉

Tonight’s WMS update included a couple of cool little new features to the WMSElement definitions used in our template system:

1. The ability to set a default component value that is preselected for all new pages. This should prevent needless editing when new pages are created.

2. The ability to set a menu element definition to start from a specific “level” in the tree. This is useful for site designs where the navigation menus are separated into different places on the page.

See the updated template reference PDF (under Help in the WMS) for details. Of course this is only useful for Template Editors!

We have also included a small update to the Project Timeline page, all the project update message are now visible on one page (no need to click on each separate milestone).

This was the last WMS update for which Mira was lead developer; sadly (for us) he has now moved on to his next exciting challenge. Mira was an outstanding member of the team for many years and we wish him all the best (and, as he’s still in Edinburgh we expect to see him in the pub from time to time 🙂