Island Web Works

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.

Early on in the MIGTurbo CRM 2 development we asked ourselves if the current graphical user interface (GUI) was in fact the best one, or if we should consider taking another approach.  We had numerous discussions where we batted around different ideas, and ended up trying out several prototypes before committing to the final GUI.

Taskbar interface

In our first approach, we wanted to link back to the familiarity of Windows by making the interface taskbar-centric.

A main menu button would trigger a start menu, from where you could select different modules to be displayed in separate windows.  Each module window would have a button in the taskbar, from where it could be restored if it had been minimized or obscured by other windows.

Whilst it had obvious benefits in being very flexible and working a lot like the Windows GUI, several problems soon arose.  The main one was the confusion of having a second taskbar in addition to the Windows taskbar.  Another problem was clarity - with multiple windows active at any one time, potentially overlapping or obscuring each other, it would be difficult to get a quick overview of what information you have available.

Accordion interface

To address the problems with the taskbar interface we came up with a GUI with expandable/collapsible panels in the style of an accordion interface. 

Vertical lists of panels could be expanded by collapsing other panels in the same vertical ‘lane’.  Multiple tabs could also be combined to form tabbed panel areas.  This way we could utilise as much of the screen real estate as possible without making the interface too cluttered.

This approach worked to a degree, but turned out to offer less flexibility than we’d anticipated.  It was, after all, just a fixed layout of panels.  Also, the idea of having to constantly hide panels to display others felt counter-intuitive and cumbersome.

Docking interface

Our third approach was a docking interface, where panels could be docked to form tabbed panel areas, tucked away as pop-out tabs or left as floating window panels.  This gave us a high degree of flexibility - recreating the classic layout of MIGTurbo 1 series was a piece of cake, for instance.  At the same time, this approach really maximised the use of available space.  Different layouts could also be saved for instant recall, allowing the operator to open an ‘end-of-month’ view for the monthly summary, or a marketing view when sending out email shots.

From prototype to final GUI

Once we tested the third prototype, it was quite clear we had a winner.  Ease-of-use combined with flexibility and clarity put the docking interface way ahead of the others.  That it could be made to look like the MIGTurbo 1 series GUI was a nice bonus, as it would reduce the learning curve for our existing user base.  So, as it turned out, we did have a good interface in the older versions of MIGTurbo, but the new docking functionality will bring it to a whole new level of usability.  Exciting times indeed!

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.

Andreas MIGTurbo, MIGTurbo CRM 2

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.

With the development of version 2 of MIGTurbo, we soon realised that we needed to revitalise the MIGTurbo branding to reflect both the major leap in technology and the potential present in the new version.  After all, this is our first full version upgrade with a completely new code base (we’re not using a single line of code from the previous 1.x versions).

The first thing we needed to address was the MIGTurbo logo itself.  The logo had undergone a slow and gradual evolution over the years, but essentially stayed the same square white and blue badge as it was in our first release in 2002.  For the new version we wanted to illustrate the solidity and adaptability of the software, but at the same time hint at how easy MIGTurbo is to use.  After much discussion we agreed on replacing the badge with a glassy sphere.  The shape of a sphere is simple, smooth and efficient, and making it look like glass gives it an impression of being heavy and solid whilst at the same time being transparent and clear.  The name MIGTurbo was also moved out of the logo and placed alongside to make it easier to read.  In addition, the abbreviation ‘CRM’ was added to clarify the purpose of the product.

With the logo now in place, we moved on to the supporting branding.  For the last couple of years we’ve been using our ‘Blue sky’ concept together with the tag line ‘Simply a better way…’ which has served us well.  This would not work with our new logo however; a different concept was needed.  The fact that MIGTurbo is business critical for many of our clients gave the idea that MIGTurbo is like the DNA of a business; a centra-lised carrier of  information necessary for everyday operation.  That resulted in the tag line ‘MIGTurbo - The DNA of your business’.  That, in turn, gave us the concept of DNA strands and we tried out several different backdrops based on that idea until we finally settled on a multi strand swoosh sprinkled with bubbles representing DNA base pairs.

The end result is a brand that feels modern and fresh but still distinctly business-like.  We are rather pleased with it.  What do you think?

We are planning to integrate the new branding on our Twitter channel and our MIGTurbo web site.

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.

Andreas MIGTurbo, MIGTurbo CRM 2 Branding, Logo, MIGTurbo 2.0

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