Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

Curtis Shows us simPRO on the Apple iPad

Friday, May 28th, 2010

As you may know, the Apple iPad was launched today in the UK.

We knew that there was a lot of interest in using the iPad as a tool for simPRO users – both for the engineers to record job data, times, materials usage etc and for management to be able to access all their simPRO business information no matter where they are. We wrote about the iPad previously and how it would run simPRO – but many of you wanted proof.

So, we sent out our intrepid head techie, Curtis Thomson, to get one as soon as it was available and put simPRO through it’s paces.

Curtis queued for hours and endured the company of Apple Fan Boys just to be able to bring this to you, for that we salute his fortitude!

Curtis_Waits_For_iPad

Watch the video below for the first look at simPRO running on the iPad.

The simPRO access via the iPad can be done in a number of different ways:

Engineers can access it through:

The standard `Employee’ login, or

The Ultra Mobile login – click here for more details.

Managers can access it through:

Their standard simPRO address and login.

The great thing about the simPRO system is that it will work immediately on the inbuilt web browser on the iPad. That means you can take the iPad out of the box, turn it on, open the browser and then open simPRO.

No need to download anything

No need for apps.

Like all parts of simPRO – it just works!

Note: That wasn’t really a photo from Curtis, I just found it on this website – just for a laugh.

Posted in Technology, Videos, simPRO | No Comments »

Xero Accounting Session – London

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

I attended the Xero session at the beautiful ICAEW building at 1 Moorgate Place London this morning and met Gary Turner (UK MD) and Rod Drury (Kiwi Co-Founder of Xero).

They gave an excellent presentation as to the where Xero came from, the entire philosophy of their business model and where Xero is going.

It was aimed at accountants and bookkeepers as Xero tries to encourage them to become partners and bring on new clients under the Xero Partner Edition which allows practises to really get active in managing and supporting their clients.

As a Developer Partner (and a Xero user for Acorn Software), I was most interested in hearing where Xero is heading. Here are some of the highlights that I noted down:

  • By September this year there will access to automated bank feeds to many thousands of banks globally thanks to an integration with some financial aggregator that pretty much all the banks use. That means for the UK that there will be approximately 80 financial institutions with direct feeds into Xero. Can’t wait for that.
  • Also it is expected that by about September that Xero will be able to produce final accounts – making another compelling reason to go Xero.
  • As part of the above change, online filing with HMRC will become available. I’m not too clear on the dates of that coming into play – but I hope that it will in the same sort of roll out time frame.

One thing about Xero that I wasn’t previously aware about was the fact that it manages both Cash & Accrual based accounting simultaneously. All the data is in the system, you choose which reports to run and it prepare the figures accordingly. What a breath of fresh air considering the tortured process of sending these details from simPRO to Sage that we have been experiencing.

It was also interesting to hear Rod talk about coming up with the business concept for Xero and how it came from the “fundamental shift” to cloud computing being driven by the `mass’ of consumers. But for a traditional business model it is hard to create a web based business for consumers as these consumers generally want everything free (think Gmail, Facebook, Twitter etc etc). So the next largest market to target was the small business (Gary mentioned that there were 4.7 million businesses in the UK, 2 million of them with very small often with only 1 employee). There is a mass of them out there with a decent percentage of them willing pay some money for a product that either

a) makes them more money, or

b) saves them money, or

c) gives them more time.

(more…)

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Posted in Accounting, Technology, Xero, simPRO | No Comments »

SSL Certificates Explained

Friday, April 16th, 2010

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates are certificates provided by your server to your web browser that encrypt your data transfer. This is particularly important when accessing your confidential information (such as simPRO or Internet Banking) from public locations such as wifi hotspots. SSL certificates must be created against a domain name (eg. simpro.co.uk). There are two types of certificates:

1)       CA Signed SSL Certificates – These are certificates that are signed by a Certificate Authority. When applying for a CA signed SSL certificate, you are asked to verify that you own the domain name and some providers actually require phone number verification. If you are a hosted simPRO customer (using our datacenter), you automatically get one of these certificates set up for you (eg. simproelectrical.simpro.co.uk). If you are accessing your hosted simPRO site over an ip address (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx), please contact the helpdesk for your .simpro.co.uk address.

2)       Self-Signed SSL Certificates – This is the type of certificate that comes by default with a dedicated simPRO server. They carry the same amount of encryption as a CA signed certificate, however to your browser it is viewed as “not trusted”, however the data sent to and from your simPRO server is still encrypted. Most browsers allow you to remove the SSL warnings, please visit our wiki at wiki.acornsoftware.com.au for tips on how to do this.

So what are the pros and cons?

CA signed certificates will remove the certificate warnings for all browsers. This is important if you have customers accessing your client side of simPRO to lodge jobs. However CA signed certificates are not free, and require renewal regularly.

Self-Signed SSL Certificates are free of charge, and the renewal period can be set as long as you require. They provide the same level of encryption as CA signed certificates. However they will display an error message in all browsers.

If you would like to discuss your options regarding SSL certificates, please contact the helpdesk via phone or email.

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Posted in Technology, Tips & Tricks | No Comments »

simPRO Digital Pen + Xero Online Accounting = The Xero Pen

Monday, March 8th, 2010

simPRO_XeroWe are very excited today to announce the release of our full integration of the simPRO Mobile Digital Pen with the online leader in accounting systems, Xero.

Put simply this new integration from the simPRO Mobile Digital Pen (that we internally nicknamed the Xero Pen) allows field based staff to complete an invoice sheet using a pen and paper and to have that instantly and electronically able to be updated into Xero.

Imagine the small trade service business completing their invoices at the clients site and having that invoice instantly available for a book keeper to update in Xero. Imagine a catering business delivering to their client and getting a signature on the invoice sheet before it is electronically sent and updated into Xero.

Delays in invoicing, late nights catching up on paper work and double entry of forms is now a thing of the past! Anyone in the business can now complete an invoice and have that available instantly for Xero.

The simPRO Mobile > Xero Digital Pen system works by utilising the Anoto based digital pen & paper technology to create invoice pages (either loose single sheets or duplicate sheets in pads) that are filled in using a digital pen. Once an invoice sheet is completed it is sent via Bluetooth to the users mobile phone and routed through the internet to the web based simPRO Mobile form portal.

In the form portal, the original invoice form is displayed in a PDF format showing all original handwriting and signatures and is also converted into a data file using powerful handwriting recognition software. The form is checked for accuracy and any errors can be fixed and additional items can be added if required. The form is then submitted which archives a copy in the simPRO Mobile form portal and then sends the data file to Xero where it is added in as a draft invoice.

simPRO to Xero Screenshot

We currently have a generic invoice form available in $, £ and € that is freely available to anyone (although it is designed to fit a service company). We plan to add other generic forms to the system over time.

Of course we can design, build and integrate any customised forms for any type of business. Forms are not just limited to invoices though, they can also be expense claims, asset registering or for any other function within Xero. And because the simPRO Mobile Digital Pen system can also send photos attached to the forms, you might be able to send copies of receipts, suppliers invoices, images of the assets being recorded etc into the simPRO form portal to accompany the forms for faster processing.

Below is a quick video showing the “Xero Pen” in action.

For any details on this, please call us:

UK & Europe – +44 2033 970 086

Australia & New Zealand – +61 7 3272 9366

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Posted in Accounting, Announcement, Digital Forms, Digital Pens, Invoicing, Technology, Xero, simPRO Mobile | 1 Comment »

And Now, The Google Tablet

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

Google TabletComing hot off the heels of the Apple iPad, we now have another serious contender in portable computing in the form of Google giving us their take on the tablet computer.

Using a sleek, ultra thin touch screen and running on the light weight Chrome OS, this device should really be a great thin client/web based computer.

Although there are no real specs about it yet, you will have to assume that they will go down the opposite path of Apple, meaning that it will be an open platform, will have the ability to multi task, will probably even have a USB port! Hopefully it will ship with 3G from day one.

Some of the specs that have been leaked recently say that it:

will sport a 10.1-inch TFT HD-ready multi-touch display, and would come with 64GB SSD, 2GB RAM and other bells and whistles such as WiFi, 3G, Bluetooth, Ethernet port, USB ports, webcam, 3.5mm audio jack, multi-card reader, etc.

This would be a better device than the iPad for those of us in simPRO as our whole business is web based and for e-mail, calendar, documents & chat we use Google Apps Premier – so I would make the bold assumption that they will be perfectly integrated as part of the entire system, bringing the hardware and software together in a perfect little Google ecosystem. Plus the benefit of an Ethernet port means that you patch into a network when Wifi & 3G are not available. If they add in an HDMI port as well, then it will be a ripper as it could be used for presentations etc.

We look forward to finding out more about the spec, pricing & shipping times and will keep you updated as we know more. But being a web based system, it is pretty safe to say that it would support all the simPRO systems – even the signature capture is quite likely as Google (unlike Apple) still support Flash.

See more about the Google Tablet and pictures here.

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Posted in Announcement, Technology, simPRO Mobile | No Comments »