Blog - Team Solution Software » Development Update

We’re Picking Up Again

admin — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:38:23 +0000

After nearly a year of absence, we are resuming our work on Team Solution Software. We’ve begun using the system in earnest for our business, and are finding it well suited to the times. TSS has all of the features of a “Virtual Office” but with none of the physical office expenses, and we have become invigorated once again to pick up where we left off in development last spring.

To be honest, we ran out of development money and had to put completion of the system on hold. In these tough economic times, that development money has been very hard to find, and although we are still in the process of raising all of the cash we will need to finish the system (about $10,000, and 6 weeks of serious programming edits), we are optimistic about finding it.

The “Virtual Office” aspect of TSS makes it well-suited for today’s small business. So many of us are trying to find ways to cut our overhead and ride out the storm. Giving your staff the ability to stay on the same page and work together from home, or creating a mix of in-house and telecommuting team members, saves the overhead of physical space. An account in Team Solution software offers you those means:

Full-featured Project Management Tools; full-featured Task Management Tools; Shared Calendar; Full File Sharing and File Storage ability; Secure Internal Messaging; Time Tracking for Team Members, Projects and Tasks; Editable Products and Services with Due Date Renewal Tracking; Client Information Storage; Contact Information Storage; Tickler System tied to Projects, Tasks, and Calendar Events; and so much more.

With an account in TSS, a Skype Account for VoIP with your Team Members, and a Vonage telephone line, you and your Team will have everything you need to manage and operate your business from anywhere. It has the potential to reduce your overhead expenses by more than 90%, and who wouldn’t benefit from that?

So, Team Solution Software is once again active and moving toward completion. Check back to follow our progress. We expect our price point when the system is completed and launched to be $25 per user per month. This makes it competitive with other web-based systems in price, but with far more features. Future development plans include “Live” Conferencing and a simple invoicing system tied to the time tracking and product/services features already a part of the TSS system.

TeamSolutionSoftware Progress Report

admin — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 15:06:42 +0000

Progress continues on the resolution of known issues in the Team Solution Software system. Our development team is busy attacking that list, and our private beta testers continue to use it daily in their operations. That beta testing use has helped substantially in tracking down those known issues in the system, and also given us an opportunity to make very small adjustments in the user interface to accommodate those glitches. Want to know what that means?

In the development of custom software, there is always a difference between what you originally design for user interfaces and what you ultimately decide upon for the version 1.0 release. What appeared to be a good idea on a mockup doesn’t always translate well in to a friendly interface that works well, smoothly and in an orderly way. Once you start using a custom software system, there is the inevitable “I like this, but, I’d like it more if . . . . . ” and the list begins to grow. Those kinds of tweaks are easy to make cosmetically, but there is always the programmatic change behind the curtain that has to be worked in order to make the cosmetic change fully integrated into the whole thing.

This is where we are right now in development. These tweaks and edits will continue for another couple of weeks, and then we anticipate releasing the public beta version. We have several companies who have agreed to be our public beta testers, and we’ll be setting up those accounts shortly. In the meantime, KISS Computing, Inc. continues to use TSS for its daily project management tool, and we are liking its features.

We’ll be back here soon to tell more, and then in April the system will be available for public use. We’re fairly excited about that.

Development Update for the week of September 3rd

admin — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 18:26:25 +0000

It’s been almost a month since our last Development update, and much has happened to the TSS system, although most of it is behind the curtain.

Our development team continues to upgrade, edit and improve the Private Beta and is looking forward to the final write off and the Public Beta stage.

Work this past week has focused on the Projects interface (editing of content) and a whole host (12-15) of issues reported the previous week in Mantis (our bug tracking software). As these changes are made, they will be moved to our Beta server where the team will again review and give the final sign-off or send back for more adjustments.

Here’s a screenshot of the ‘in place editting” on the Project page (just double click the field to edit, and click the save button when done, all accomplished without a page reload):

Development Update for the week of August 6th

admin — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 18:32:30 +0000

We’re wrapping up a tough week (mostly due to a 90% finished beta) with a rainy friday and a server move. Early this morning the move from our testing environment to our main server occured, and pre-beta testing will now begin and continue for the next week. Coming up next is the Clients and Contact section, here’s the first of 3 screenshots:

This will be the top part of a client view page, with related contact notes, files, product and services, billing data and notes. Below this will be a listing of Projects assigned to this particular client.

Development Update for the week of July 30th

admin — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 11:36:51 +0000

The Calendar is done, and development is working with Projects now. Yesterday we revised the design mockups to integrate the “add project” functionality inline. I think it came out rather slick, although development needs to make it fly before we pass final judgement.

We’re officially late now as it is August 01, but we’re still pleased with the overall progress and are looking forward to finalizing the Beta for a private go around.

Here’s a shot of the new Add Project interface and some more of the Projects screen.

Development Update for the week of July 23rd

admin — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:48:52 +0000

The excitement and buz from last week’s Alpha release has died down as work has continued on Alpha bug reporting and our march towards a private Beta release. The development team is hard at work on finishing up the Calendar function with only a few remaining logic issues to be worked out.

Here’s a screenshot of the mockups we prepared for the Calendar:

Development Update for the week of July 16th

admin — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 12:34:07 +0000

A little late but we have some pretty exciting news to report; We’ve reached the Alpha stage! Late Friday the development team gave out access to the team here at TSS and we got a sneak preview before the weekend of some working system modules.

The team is currently in the process of reviewing several modules of the system such as Messages, Settings, and Files and reporting bugs into our bug tracking software Mantis.

Here’s a screenshot of the upcoming Projects section;

Development Update for the week of July 9th

admin — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 17:24:36 +0000

July has been a busy month around the Team Solution Software offices, as we’ve been rushing to both promote and complete the Beta version of TSS CRM. Development last week was centered around Messages, that being complete development has moved onto the Files section and it’s related functionality.

Here’s a peek at a portion of the File screen and some of the relevant navigation…

Development Update for the week of July 2nd

admin — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 18:35:05 +0000

A furious pace continues on Team Solution Software as our PHP developers race to finish the Alpha and soon-t0-be-released Beta for internal testing. This week we’re focusing on the client and contact detail pages, as well as putting the finishing touches on the entire messaging system.

Here’s a sneak peek at a design mockup screen for the client details section:

Developer’s Update for Week’s End Progress

admin — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 20:17:52 +0000

Progress continues at a brisk pace on Team Solution Software, a small/medium business system designed to keep all team members on the same page. Most of the system admin settings panels have been completed this week. Additionally, we’ve come close to finishing the individual account admin features – - the account owner will have a control panel to grant various levels of permissions to different aspects of the account for staff access. We want our account owners to be able to exercise system management authority in establishing chains of command as well as tiers of responsibility among team members. Here’s a sneak peak at some of those control settings at the “god-level” in each account:

The thought occurred to us that team captains might not want to delegate access to all company information to all team members, and so it just made sense to include the ability to control access. These features accomplish that goal – - whether it be for Messaging, File Sharing, Project/Task Tracking, Time Cards, Client/Contact Management, Reporting, Calendar, or some other feature we haven’t mentioned yet. If you want to know what those “other features” might be, you’ll just have to check back often.