Island Web Works

We have been reluctantly quiet on the blogging front over the last couple of months, and it’s not for want of talking about what we are doing and how we enjoy working with our clients on projects. The problem about being busy is that you are not able to find the time to blog about being busy and the benefits that brings to projects both active and future. We are a small team and as such our service is personal. We invest a lot of time in our client relationships and we can see that this has positive effects on both our clients’ and our business. Blogging is in addition to this relationship building but no less important.

Thinking about the size of our company, I was reminded of how other businesses find time to blog on a regular basis, work on the latest in technologies and maintain their customer relationships and investment in projects. This can be a challenging proposition, and it has a lot to do with how large the company is and how the cost of that time is passed on to the customer.

I had cause to go across to the UK last weekend and I was able to meet with former colleagues. Former colleagues that work within the same industry sector as ourselves and have essentially developed their careers alongside, though independently of, mine. What was interesting was how the size of the company plays a large part in the ability of the company to blog and work on projects that may not have a direct financial benefit to the company.

Through our discussions, it was clear that we represented businesses of a small, medium and large nature. The larger multi-national company was able to work on technologies such as Java that have a greater impedance in terms of speed of development, but had the staff to support these changes and development of internal procedures and software. The other two smaller companies were clear in their commitment to using Microsoft technologies due to the speed of development that they provide, resulting in a lower cost to the client. The relationship between project cost and project price is clearly more closely aligned within the smaller development company.

What was clear that each one of us, regardless of size of business, was excited and motivated by the possibilities the technologies we employed offered us. While this had the negative effect of boring the non-technical people with us, it is clear that the industry moves fast and it is every company’s responsibility to keep up with the latest developments and technologies and to achieve this requires employing enthusiastic developers. Though this enthusiasm often “leaks” into our social circles reducing our ability to adequately hold a conversation in everyday life (!), it is clear in the work we produce and writing around the subjects we work in that our businesses are committed to providing a great product for clients. How the business gets there depends on size to a large extent, but this in no way affects the quality of the result.

While it would be nice to have departments we can allocate to certain projects, or individuals charged with solely developing internal processes and software that the client will never see in a bid to improve efficiencies, the reality of most businesses is that project cost directly influences project price. As such the client must be respected insofar as they should not be expected to absorb this cost. At Island Web Works, we have put various systems in place including a support-ticket system, structured automated testing programmes and a continuous improvement process with regards our code, documentation and client contact. These improvements go alongside our existing work and as such directly influence the result in a positive manner but at minimal cost.

Bringing together people within the team who are individually motivated within their area (customer relations, design and programming) we can each bring the very best of our areas to the table. My own contribution has been of formalising procedures, improving quality assurance and introducing appropriate technologies into the business’ portfolio of skills. These have come from my own enthusiasm for these areas both within and without the working day. Our lead designer Andreas can put life in the most dry of topics and as a comprehensive portfolio of work. Finally, our managing director brings a passion for working with individuals within companies rather than faceless users behind a series of board meetings.

It is clear that while size can matter, the enthusiasm for the employees within a software business is the key to successful project delivery for clients. Island Web Works may not have the assets of larger multi-national software consultancies, but we have just as much enthusiasm and are all the more agile in responding to requirements of us. From the excitement of having the initial whiteboard sessions within the office to delivering the final product, pride and commitment remains a constant.

Nathan Articles Java, Microsoft

Cards on the table, I [personally] am not an Apple fan. That is not to say they haven’t had some amazing success with their iPhone/iPad products. The smart-phone market really needed that charismatic device to give it a boost and Apple seem to have achieved this very well.

Smart-phones are phones that try to provide much of the functionality your laptop or desktop does, but in a mobile footprint. With features such as emailing on the go, synchronising with your desk-bound computer’s contacts or playing games for time-suckage they were very definitely a niche market for power-users and geeky-types. They were never really easy to use, and industry politics fragmented the market just as much as they did with the browser wars of the 90’s. If you were a Microsoft user, you’d use Windows Mobile, if you were in Europe, you’d remain loyal to Nokia and if you were a business user, you’d use BlackBerry.

Apart from the trickiness in setting up their internet with your network provider, internet access was difficult. Browsing web-sites on mobile devices was not a very enjoyable experience. Web site developers didn’t think (or care) that people would access their site on a mobile device, with a 3inch screen, so didn’t put the thought into how their site should behave. What resulted is a mess for both the web-site and web-browser. The web-browser would try to accommodate the developer’s shortcomings and try to make sites work, often by mimicking a desktop browser interface. Zooming pages down, resizing pages, etc. were some of the techniques which, in my opinion, were wrongly used to fix what was essentially a problem of the web developer. In much the same way, Internet Explorer can often be a horrendous development experience because of the little “fixes” added to the browser to overcome deficiencies in the web-site mark-up.

Since the Apple iPhone, web-sites have started to do things how they should be done … properly. When developing a site, some consideration should be made for alternative platforms (mobile phone, tablet, projection, television) and sites are approaching this using one of two techniques:

• Developing their site according to web standards and mobile-aware stylesheets. Therefore, a mobile user sees the same site as a desktop user, but with an optimised layout. This is the preferred method.
• Developing a specific web-site for the mobile interface. This essentially doubles the work, but can result in a more optimised experience though confusion between two essentially different web URLs may result. This is a method employed by the BBC, Twitter and Facebook, all complex sites so reducing the “noise” (and therefore data charges).

The down-side of the Apple iPhone/iPad/i* model is the concept of the “app”. An App is an application that fulfils a discrete function, and tends to be small, cheap and easy to install for the user. Brilliant idea.

This is where I must be missing the point.

Apps are essentially proprietary. If you have an Apple device, you can only use apps on the Apple app-store. If you have an Android, you can’t access the apps on the Apple app-store, due only to the developer’s decision - which may be due to resource, device accessibility, preference or ability. The user suffers. A web-page (maybe an “HTML5 app“) is accessible by all.

Apps are difficult to update. If an app is released and a security hole is identified, or a bug found that requires urgent attention, it becomes difficult to “push” that update out to the users. The app becomes subject to the politics and workflow associated with its respective store. In the case of the Apple App store, updates are particularly difficult to deploy, even for minor fixes. Issuing a fix on a web-page is done exactly once and is visible to all instantly. Users suffer with bugs.

Apps require wider skill-sets. Developing apps requires a programmer able to access the development skills and resources of the target device. For Apple, it’s Objective-C, for Windows Phone, Silverlight and .NET, for Android it’s Java. These tools are essentially free, but for how long and how much did it cost to train up that programmer? Users suffer if the developer isn’t completely “clued-up”, businesses have to pay for same functionality many times.

Apps are political. The politics behind the respective app-store for the device will ultimately define your user experience, the delivery of your app and your ability to effectively support your users. Politics and the freedom app-stores create for developers range from the “open” Android store to the dictatorial Apple store. “Thou shalt not use any environment other than Objective-C” meaning iPhones can’t access Flash or Silverlight content. (Though Apple are not alone in this restriction.) Users suffer due to missing content. Income streams may be wiped out, overnight.

Many apps require internet access for functionality to be available, and there are many examples of this. The BBC iPhone/iPad app - isn’t that just sucking in an RSS feed? Facebook for iPhone - again, just using an internet data-source and rendering content? There is surely no need for these apps? Why isn’t a web-page sufficient, particularly as both sites have dedicated mobile sites. The only reason why I would imagine that they would need an “app” would be for offline access, a “cache content and look later” model - but HTML5 defines a standard for local file storage which is implemented on iPhone which would achieve this.

Perhaps the app offers an improved user experience using the native user-interface API, but that itself is not a strong enough reason. If the user is browsing using an iPhone, use an iPhone skinned CSS stylesheet, likewise for Windows Phone, etc. If it’s accessibility of the web-site that’s the issue, the phone OS should allow bookmarks of sites to become first-class citizens within the OS user experience. Windows Phone 7 does this excellently with pinnable “tiles” representing bookmarked sites on the Start screen. Thumbnails instantly identify the purpose of the site.

For me, the only reason an application should be developed is if the functionality is not available within a web browser. And that would be access to local resources or OS features. The Facebook for BlackBerry application integrates with the phone’s Contacts application to allow access to Facebook profiles, for example. This would clearly not be possible from within a web-browser but offers a seamless user experience. Facebook for Windows Phone 7 is similarly a first-class citizen within the phone itself, though not via an “app”.

So what explains this tendency for every site to reproduce identical functionality and content to the original web-site? I can only think that “sex sells”. The “there’s an App for that” model is seen to be sexy, cool and easy to use. Few companies are as guilty of over-marketing the banal and simple as Apple, and they have achieved it right here. They have developed an eco-system, a culture and a platform that stifles innovation, widens the gap between the developer and the user and acts anti-competitively towards key rivals. I remember another company getting its hands very publicly slapped for similar practices, but Microsoft just weren’t “sexy” enough.

Nathan Articles Android, Apple, iPad, iPhone, User Experience (UX), Windows Phone 7

World politics and web design are two unlikely bed-fellows, but if you have used a web-form with a list of countries, or are living in a “semi-recognised” country (for example, The Isle of Man), you will appreciate the issues. Add to the equation the complications of postage, taxes, sanctions and embargos and it can get quite complicated.

Defining countries can be a sensitive issue, with some countries not being recognised by others and local usages and naming styles also causing problems. That is why we lean towards the formal when we work with lists of countries. We use accepted international standards as a source for our lists, which allows us to take a widely accepted view of country names around the world, hopefully without causing offence.

This list presents us with problems, however. Consider the screenshot below from a list of countries for a large site we are currently working on:

'Leaking' drop down list with wide country names

The first problem is the large amount of horizontal space used by the entries, which causes the drop down list to be expanded artifically. This makes it difficult to fit in some designs. This is highlighted by the purple arrow. This width is determined automatically by the longest entry in the list, in this case “MACEDONIA, THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF”. Far be it from us to assert our right to change a country’s name, we need to hit a compromise. This can either be changing the design to accommodate the wider data or - at a last resort - changing the data (in this case, we could use the commonly accepted “FYR” abbreviation).

I was asked why all the countries are in capitals. “Well, that’s how they come in from the original standard”, I replied. The thing is, capitals require wider horizontal space and it does feel like you’re shouting. I imagine the ISO standard is capitalised to avoid another thorny issue; what exactly should be capitalised in a country name? While “Macedonia, The former Yogoslav republic of” may be technically correct, it may not be politically correct. We decided to stay with the CAPS. Another reason to stick with the CAPS is because users are traditionally used to seeing country lists in capitals. When was the last time you entered your country and it was lower-case? By retaining capitals, we build on this albeit uncomfortable convention.

Semi-recognised Countries and transient states are also difficult to navigate. The world is constantly changing and countries are born, extinguished and forgotten even in modern politics. On The Isle of Man, we are in a position that is little understood away from its shores. While we are a crown dependency, and a country, we are not regarded as a sovereign state. So, we tend to be lumped into “United Kingdom”, even though technically, we’re not actually in the UK. Web users on the Isle of Man have become used to going for “United Kingdom”, as opposed for hunting down the Isle of Man within the “I”s.

I remember this being particularly contentious when I was working for an e-Commerce web-site provider. While we should provide “Isle of Man” as a country option for reasons of correctness, postage, etc., we couldn’t rely on that data being correct because Isle of Man users may just be used to using “United Kingdom”. If we avoid including “Isle of Man” from the selection, we might have incorrect data, but at least it isn’t inconsistent.

It can be a minefield, as you are always keen to avoid offending your users at the very least in trying to create a positive web experience. It’s also important to lean towards convention when designing user experiences, as your experience is only one in hundreds that may have used and millions on the wider internet.

Nathan Web Site Development User Experience (UX), Web Design

I’m probably the biggest advocate for social media in our office and when I’m not coding, I’ll probably be banging on about the benefits of Facebook, Twitter, etc. Getting the benefits of “the social” to corporate ears has been a challenge but one which is yielding results in the form of some exciting ideas. Imagine my surprise and - should I say, pride - when I returned from my annual Wimbledon sabbatical to be told that Charles was just finishing his latest blog post.

We all have access to this Island Web Works blog, which allows us to represent ourselves and the company professionally, giving users an insight into what we can tell people about the exciting projects we are working on. We have an internal policy which promotes openness and inclusion. If someone wants to blog, they are welcome - so long as it is at least vaguely related to our work!

We all tweet using the Island Web Works @iww_iom ID.

For the content that isn’t work-related, we now all have our own blogs and I’m going to take this opportunity to publicise them a little more.

Andreas - The Greatest Show on Earth

Andreas is a biologist at heart and we have some fascinating discussions in the office about nature, evolution and humanity. His blog develops on some of these discussions and adds his own views and questions on the reasons behind life, the universe and everything.

Andreas is also tweeting as @heinakroon.

Charles - WalkingMann

Charles is a keen walker and we regularly chat about his latest adventures on this lovely island. There are hundreds of footpaths criss-crossing the island and Charles seems enthusiastic about treading each one. His blog covers these walks, his experiences and impressions. He also includes some great photographs of landmarks along the routes and a very useful series of route maps.

Nathan - Live to Work

My “main” blog is my view on politics, work/life balance and gadgetry. I attend a few events a year which excite me enough to blog about them and I also try to include my recommendations on gadgets which I have found useful. This blog was started in 2007 in conjunction with a previous project I was involved with and has covered a variety of issues including Police accountability, voting reform, the BCS and public transport - fascinating!

Nathan - Blogging About .NET

This blog is quite a lot quieter but is focussed more on my professional coding side of my work. If I have been working on something sufficiently challenging that I feel others can benefit, it’ll probably end up here. My blog is but one of many on this site, and is indeed a site full of .NET coding geniuses.

I am also tweeting as @programx.

Of course, the posts and comments on these blogs and Twitter streams are personal to the respective authors and are therefore entirely unrelated with this blog.

We have some exciting plans for expanding blogging on the island which we hope to announce in the next few months.

Nathan Social Media Blog, Wimbledon

The internet is a great medium for users to be able to access choices in just about anything they can think of. One of these choices is the application used to browse the web, the web browser. There have been battles in this area for years, often resulting in court action and sometimes in the demise of the product. Just like you “know” your detergent is better than all the others, you also know your chosen web browser is the most secure, fast and friendly browser available.

There are a number of web browsers available at the moment, such as the incumbent market leader Microsoft Internet Explorer and the “new kid on the block”, Google Chrome. Other browsers exist, each targeting specific features such as speed, platform (mobile phones, etc.) or privacy. The chart below from MarketShare illustrates the performance of each browser in the last 2 years or so. (Download the PDF)

Browser version market share since July 2008 (click to zoom)

As various versions of the web browsers are released and market-affecting court action is announced, it is clear how browser share is affected, particularly with the decline of Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6 and 7 (towards version 8 ) and the increase in adoption of alternative browsers. The recent European Court ruling that users should be given a choice has resulted in Windows 7 users being presented with a browser election screen will be more forceful in that choice, giving users who wouldn’t otherwise be aware of alternatives the opportunity to move away from the “operating system browser”, Internet Explorer.

This choice is good for the user, but presents us with challenges. We need to embrace the latest technologies such as those offered by HTML5, but this needs to be tempered by implementation of those technologies by browsers and ability for older browsers to be able to provide an equivalent experience for users. A challenge any web developer [should] have is being able to facilitate users of Internet Explorer 6 (”IE6″). IE6 has been around for years. Shipped as part of Microsoft Windows XP, it is “stuck” in that users of Windows 2000 who upgraded to IE6 cannot upgrade to IE7 and corporate/enterprise users can’t perform upgrades themselves and as such are restricted to whatever the IT department dictate. Therefore, there will be a “hardcore” contingent of IE6 users for years to come yet, particularly as official support for Windows XP (and therefore IE6) only ends in July. These users need to be catered for, regardless of your market persuasion.

This morning, Scott Hanselman drew attention to a CNN article claiming that Internet Explorer 6 was about to die for good, having decreased to 4.7% of browser market share in the US. This seemed to be very optimistic, based on the figures we have seen.  Our understanding, provided by MarketShare and being a global metric, is that IE6 continues to retain 17.13% of the browser market share. (Which also illustrates the disparities in statistics collection) So while its death is surely coming, it’s too early to arrange the wake and we will continue to support IE6 in the meantime for the sites we develop.

Nathan Web Site Development Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 6, MarketShare, Scott Hanselman, Windows 2000, Windows 7, Windows XP

Can you remember the last web-form you completed on a web site? Can you remember what you entered? My guess is that it was at least a username or email address and a password. Now imagine what a malicious user who “listened in” to your input could access. The odds are that you used the same password as most other sites you visit, just to get it done. So you’ve just compromised not only the site you logged in or registered with, but just about any account you have online. If I was a hacker, I’d start expanding my attack to big players, like Facebook, Twitter and maybe a few banking sites, just for a laugh.

Everytime you complete a web-form on a web site, you are placing a lot of trust in the various parties involved in that connection to the internet, and you won’t know about all of them. Consider the following parties involved in your web-form submission:

Your own computer: When was the last time you did a virus/mal-ware check, and with up-to-date definitions? Viruses are no longer bits of code that produce cutesy messages and graphical effects, they are silent, subversive and distributed. If you have a virus that logs your keystrokes, it could be sending every keystroke to computers all over the world. Your secure connection and password is now useless as basic pattern matching can reveal you just entered your email address and password on a particular web-site.

Between you and the web-site: When a relative reacted with surprise that her emails were not secure, I realised that if you are not internet-savvy, users will approximate their interaction with services and users on the ‘net as the closest thing they have experience to - a telephone call, or a letter. Between your email client or web browser and the recipient or web site is an essentially infinite number of connections consisting of cables, routers, switches, servers and firewalls  none of which can be trusted. Each and everyone of these can look at your submission and store it for later use. Of course, no ISP or internet routing agent would do this - knowingly - would they?. That’s why HTTPS was developed, which creates a secure, encrypted and certificated connection between parties. But HTTPS only works if you have sufficient trust in the issuer of the certificate, the certificate is itself valid, the submission of data is also encrypted (your URL may say “https”, but your submission may go in “plain-text”, using “http”). Which one of us checks all this before sending our data?

The web site: While you may like to think we only go to reputable web-sites, there are times when we stray off the well-trodden path to buy that unique gift, sign up for that cool service, etc. When you submit details to a web-site, you are placing trust in that site to capture that information and securely store it. We like to think that our submission goes straight into the database, never to be seen again except electronically when we need it - but what guarantee have you? Without looking at the source-code of the web-site, which would challenge even the most technical of users, you would never know if they were harvesting passwords, credit card numbers, selling email addresses, etc. And what if some malicious software has infected the site itself?

The authorities: The digital revolution is occurring very fast, and faster than the authorities can keep up. Public authorities, whether executive, law-enforcing or intelligence-gathering all have a degree of inertia as they are always playing “catch up”. This results in rapidly developed legislation, which is not always well thought through. Consider the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act 2000, or the Digital Economy Bill currently rushing at light speed through parliament as I type so it completes before the General Election. Such legislation is often rushed at the cost of adequate and fair consultation and implementation. Your data is subject to searching, retrieval and submission by your ISP and nominated public authorities.

As a company specialising in quality web-sites, we are aware of issues such as security and trust when users enter data in web-forms. While it isn’t possible to manage the entire communication (for example, we could never check your own computer remotely!) we will do what we can by adopting best practices in capturing your data and storing it securely. Recent projects we have worked on require highly sensitive information, which are central to the user’s identity and the viability of a business as an agent of trust. Therefore, it is essential that we implement everything we can to manage the risk of compromising of data.

Our approach starts with recommending clients who have a web-form which requests sensitive data (including username and password) purchase an HTTP/SSL certificate. This encrypts and signs the communication and acts as one layer of trust. When we store passwords, we store them in a hash, so they cannot be restored. So your password cannot be recovered even if the database was compromised. (This is why it can often be a pain to retrieve a forgotten password from some sites - they don’t know your password either, so need to prove your identity first before resetting it for you.) We employ best practices in anti-cracking to prevent or restrict the opportunity and effectiveness of techniques such as buffer overflow, cross-site scripting and cross-site request forgery. Finally, we recommend how the hosting infrastructure is implemented, so security is reflected physically. This involves splitting servers across firewalls to limit the possibility of a compromise and the extent of damage should it occur.

No web-site can be 100% secure. Working with user-submitted data is about managing risk, rather than preventing it. There are many techniques that can be adopted ranging from technical to the social. You might not realise it, but these tools are already in use at sites you regularly visit. Online banks use subtle techniques when asking for your memorable word to defeat key-loggers, web-sites use CAPTCHAs to prevent automated attacks and login forms don’t differentiate between “unknown username” and “unknown username and/or password” to avoid publicising that an account exists to try and crack. There is a toolkit of anti-cracking techniques, the strength of the professional is employing them tactically and effectively for the application.

Nathan Web Site Development Security

This post is part of a MIGTurbo CRM 2 series that will highlight the key improvements and features in the new product that we’ll be running over the next few months. You can also follow our Twitter account @migturbo for regular updates on progress.

When we blogged about the new client/server model of MIGTurbo CRM 2, we gave a hint as to how we see users interacting with the product. This post discussed how the database server was “hidden” behind the MIGTurbo application server. But if the user cannot connect to the MIGTurbo database directly, how can they use MIGTurbo?

MIGTurbo CRM 2 brings with it a comprehensive API for extending the product both at the server level, and at the client-level. Using this API, we can provide secure access to MIGTurbo data using nothing more than a server URI, a username and a password. We’re going to include two “clients” out of the box.

MIGTurbo CRM 2.0 Silverlight Client

The MIGTurbo CRM product demands a rich user interface that is a pleasure to use, as it is often the key component on a user’s desktop. We were keen on retaining a web user interface, but we didn’t want to find ourselves working around the complexities of web pages and utilitising toolkits that were stretching the web experience to its limit. We developed a number of mock-ups using web page-based user interfaces but felt that we still lacked the killer customisation and user-driven experience we required. Until we created a mock-up in Microsoft Silverlight.

Microsoft Silverlight is a rich internet application (RIA) platform that allows development of web experiences that combines the mashing together of web data and technologies and a rich user experience. While it is implemented in much the same way as Adobe Flash, it is actually a richer and more comprehensive platform. Silverlight brings with it a subset of the .NET Framework, building on existing APIs such as WCF and WPF. Much of the code between server and client can be shared, and using the Microsoft stack, we were able to create an attractive and extensible user interface on business data. We’ve remained loyal to our user interface, too, as you’ll see in upcoming screenshots.

Using Silverlight, it is also possible to “install” MIGTurbo locally. This “out of browser” experience creates an icon in your Start Menu that behaves in most ways as if the software was installed locally on your own machine. This reduces the gap to the server, but it is important to note that MIGTurbo will continue to run in all the major browsers on the Windows platform (Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, etc.) and also the Apple Mac platform.

Silverlight remains amongst the most secure application platforms available on the internet today. It also is not standing still. The upcoming release of Silverlight 4 promises interoperability with desktop applications, webcams and more. Rumours abound of Silverlight appearing on mobile devices being announced in the MIX10 event from the newly rebranded Windows Phone to Symbian devices. If you’re in doubt, check these trends out for people investigating Silverlight as opposed to ASP.NET on Google.

MIGTurbo CRM 2.0 Office Client

Not all users will need to use MIGTurbo for their day-to-day work. And not all users work in a web browser silo to fulfil their function. That is why MIGTurbo CRM 2.0 will extend the successful Outlook Toolbar add-on to provide more functionality direct from Microsoft Office.

Users of our Outlook Toolbar have seen how integrating with MIGTurbo and MIGTurbo DocuMentor has made their job dealing with items in their inbox much easier, especially when relating communication back to clients, respondants and candidates. We’re building on this functionality to dig deeper into MIGTurbo, providing features from across the product including any plug-ins. The MIGTurbo toolbar will appear in Microsoft Outlook and will also soon appear in Microsoft Word and Excel. You won’t be far from MIGTurbo, whatever your role may be.

This is possible using the MIGTurbo CRM 2 API. We’re already starting to hear expressions of interest on how our clients can utilise this API for themselves to extend our existing user interfaces and build entirely new ones for their own specific purposes. The API is secure and uses the Microsoft stack so will be readily portable onto desktop, web and portable devices.

These posts discuss features of MIGTurbo CRM 2. While we have every confidence that these features will appear and work as discussed, these blog posts do not represent a final product specification. We will release final product specifications at launch.

Nathan MIGTurbo CRM 2 MIGTurbo 2.0, MIGTurbo Outlook Toolbar, Silverlight, User Experience (UX)

This post is part of a MIGTurbo CRM 2 series that will highlight the key improvements and features in the new product that we’ll be running over the next few months. You can also follow our Twitter account @migturbo for regular updates on progress.

Over the past year, we’ve been hard at work developing the new evolution of our key business intelligence product, MIGTurbo 2.0. MIGTurbo is a successful CRM product running in many client sites both on and off the island. During its lifetime, we’ve come to understand what our users want and how they work. One aspect we have come to learn is how users configure their servers.

A key trend that has developed in the last 5 years is virtualisation. Virtualisation allows companies to extract more efficiency out of their existing hardware platform by creating virtual instances of servers running on the same physical hardware. If implemented well, this can result in benefits such as:

• efficiencies in leveraging under-used CPU cycles by planning and scheduling server activity accordingly
• separating server processes to provide a layer of protection from configuration issues when processes compete for finite resources
• provides redundancy and an additional backup strategy to maximise uptime and reduce maintenance costs

Having virtualisation in mind when working on MIGTurbo 2.0, we were able to re-architect MIGTurbo to work well within both virtualised and existing physical environments. A key change we have made to this new version is to extract the “engine” of MIGTurbo from an IIS-hosted application to a self-contained server process. This allows MIGTurbo to operate independently of IIS and its configuration for its core operation, and providing a host for autonomous activities such as workflow, caching, index building and security services.

A key benefit for us is that as MIGTurbo develops, we can decide whether features are user-oriented, or system-oriented. System-oriented features such as security indexes can be built and maintained on the server at no cost to the user’s experience.

This positions MIGTurbo in the ideal position for businesses of just about any size. From a one-man business with a server in the corner to an organisation with thousands of users across different sites, MIGTurbo has a deployment model that will work.

The diagram below illustrates a typical “top-end” installation.

MIGTurbo Server deployment

The diagram shows three servers managing the MIGTurbo installation. These can be independent physical boxes, some or all of them could be virtualised on a single box, or different processes can be brought on to the same box as required by the company and available on the existing infrastructure. The Web Server continues to be the “point of contact” for MIGTurbo users who will fire up their browsers in the usual manner to interact with the software. Using the new API, new user interface clients can be created which interact with the web server or directly with the MIGTurbo server engine itself, for added performance.

A final benefit to this is that it moves the sensitive raw data further away from the end user. In a security conscious organisation, firewalls can be implemented between each server to maximise the security of the SQL Server databases used to store business critical and highly sensitive data. We’ve also used secure communications between the client and various components of MIGTurbo to further increase security. The diagram below shows that MIGTurbo maintains a secure database even when deployed over the internet using a DMZ configuration:

MIGTurbo working within a DMZ firewall

Moving the MIGTurbo engine out of IIS also allows us to provide additional functionality that would otherwise have been difficult from within the security-restricted context of IIS. Services such as instrumentation using Windows Performance Monitors can be created to allow real-time monitoring of MIGTurbo performance along with other functions that require deeper interaction with the operating system. Configuration is also made easier as IIS dependencies are reduced to only those services required to support the user interface.

Profiling MIGTurbo using Windows Performance Monitor

We believe that this change will form an important platform to allow us to take MIGTurbo to a new level. MIGTurbo has been growing with your business since v1.8, now it can grow with your IT hardware policy to maximise performance for individual users.

These posts discuss features of MIGTurbo CRM 2. While we have every confidence that these features will appear and work as discussed, these blog posts do not represent a final product specification. We will release final product specifications at launch.

Nathan MIGTurbo, MIGTurbo CRM 2 MIGTurbo 2.0, Virtualisation

Yesterday saw the Isle of Man section of the British Computing Society host a talk by Gabriel Karawani on Sharepoint and the benefits it can bring as a Document Management  solution. The BCS regularly host events such as this, which range from soft-skills to harder, technical topics. Overall, a wide mix that should suit most tastes.

As a regular attendee, I was keen to invite Charles down to the presentation to see how other people implement and use Microsoft SharePoint.

The presentation consisted of a fair chunk of marketing-speak, with a brief case-study thrown in. I found it interesting when Gabriel (the presenter) asserted that most people spend a lot of their day interacting with Microsoft Outlook. To this end, he demonstrated SharePoint as an add-on to the standard Outlook interface.

The question is, do people use Outlook because it is a reliable and effective interface for working with other applications such as document management, client management, etc., or because as Outlook is a de-facto business standard which leaves them feeling as if they no have other choice? The interface that was demonstrated felt a little clunky as a result.

What became clear from the presentation is that utilising SharePoint is hardly a case of  ”turn it on and go”. The product represents the foundations of what you could accomplish, given sufficient time and allocation of IT resources whether internally or externally.

When you put it alongside other, more feature complete, systems we deal with such as our own DocuMentor product which comes as part of MIGTurbo CRM, or the Laserfiche Document management solution, it becomes clear that businesses don’t necessarily work the way Microsoft think they do - or should. Nor do they have the resources required to “complete” the job.

We’ve had a number of discussions within the office about the MIGTurbo experience, and where it should lie. Should we leverage the existing power and user experience built around the Microsoft Outlook/Exchange product, or develop a product alongside it that itself would form the hub of a user’s day? The answer is a mix of these. What is key, however, is being able to draw on our experience with working with businesses to facilitate a working procedure that mirrors their business processes and requirements.

In moving forward, we’re certainly going to maintain our focus on the MIGTurbo CRM product as being the force mejeure behind many of our client’s businesses, but we will keep a keen eye on what infrastructure is already within the business, such as Microsoft Exchange for working with scheduling and communications and Microsoft SharePoint when working with documents. It seems to be a logical move to be able to provide users with the option of combining MIGTurbo with their existing infrastructure, which may have its own eco-system of plug-ins and processes essential to the business. MIGTurbo CRM 2 is certainly going to be an exciting product.

Nathan MIGTurbo Document Management, DocuMentor, Exchange, LaserFiche, MIGTurbo 2.0, Outlook, SharePoint

Like it or not, the social media era is upon us and now users have got bored of sharing photos, playing FarmVille and poking each other, businesses are starting to get in on the act. Facebook is not just a site for wasting time, but is fast becoming a way for companies to interact with their followers.

I was asked today why companies take the time and effort to create Facebook Pages when they have perfectly good web sites. The answer is simple: Engagement with your clients.

Building a community around your brand or company is difficult. Building that community on your own web site which people may not know about is even harder. That’s why major companies like Microsoft, Red Bull, Harley Davison and VW turn to Facebook to engage with users, because the Facebook Community is already huge.

Creating a presence on Facebook is pretty simple and involves going through a short procedure to generate an initial page. You can then add content such as news discussions, photos, videos and any other content Facebook supports.

The next step is to market your Facebook presence. You can add badges to your existing online presences such as your web-site, and also add links to your out-going emails, press-releases and marketing material.

As users discover you, they can become “Fans” of your page and participate in discussions on your page. As a company, you can push out marketing messages, news and invite discussion that you find interesting to these users. For example, the cut-out from my own feed on the right shows Wimbledon and The University of Salford engaging with me as a user. By becoming a Fan, I have “opted in”, which makes me to be a very viable target for marketing.

Another reason is that even if you have the best site in the world, users do forget about your site - it’s natural. Facebook marketing is an ideal way to remind users of your activity. I no longer forget about what happens at Wimbledon except for two weeks and I’m still interested in what is happening at my old University even though I left it … well, I’m not saying how long ago!

Using your Facebook channel effectively can be challenging, particularly when identifying what benefit your Facebook and social media activity is having on your bottom line.

If you want to combine your web-site with Facebook as a marketing channel give us a call and we’ll help you navigate the minefield. Or, you can join me and the rest of the island’s Social Media Club every Third Thursday at Paparazzi at 12.30pm (held by Strive PR) where we help introduce people to the benefits of social media and chat about the hottest trends.

Nathan Social Media Facebook, Social Media