Soft speak

It's never too late to make a difference

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:47:46 -0400

“600,000 kids on the brink of starvation. That should be a headline around the world” Anderson Cooper posted on twitter regarding the recent news coverage in Somalia.

Did you know that 1 in 4 kids struggle with hunger in America?

It’s a shocking and heartbreaking reality even here at home.

Share Our Strength is an organization working hard to change that.

Starvation is a terrible thing, but a child going hungry is just cruel. Children need nourishment for development, both in the physical aspect and mental. Simply, it has a great impact in the well being of a child.

At NGenSoft we believe in helping in great causes, so when a friend mentioned the Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation event, I jumped at the chance to help.

I’m the one on the left.

The event went off without a hitch, to a packed house. This is great, since 100% of ticket sales goes to support the No Kid Hungry efforts.

Money helps, but time is priceless. Volunteering, is not only good for the soul, but sometimes can have a bigger impact than anything money can buy.

I got to help a friend, help kids, and I had a great time. I gave my time, but I feel I got a lot more in return.

Find your own way to give back. There are plenty of great causes that you could make in difference in.

-Maria

What will it cost?

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 16:01:00 -0400

I know there may be some confusion based on some reviews we’ve received on the Chrome Web store and couple others, so just want to set some things straight.

SlateCRM will have a free plan, but will also offer premium features for a monthly fee of *$14.99. Of course we’ll notify all of our customers in advance when we will start offering the premium features. We don’t require a credit card at sign up, so register for your SlateCRM account.

- Maria

*NEW customers

Thanks Lain for letting me know I wasn’t clear enough :)

Cool website! Love the scrolling effect

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 02:27:57 -0400

Cool website! Love the scrolling effect

Click it

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 12:20:20 -0400

If you’re like me, you find it easier to click on a link than having to cut and paste. In SlateCRM you can do just that when you add a link on a task, status, or a note. You can add the URL or link, then save it. Then simply click it next time you have to go back to it.

I’ve created a short video for you to see how easy it really is.

-Maria

Tag you're it!

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 11:03:34 -0400

Well…we’re not really playing a game of tag, but we did just add the “tag” feature in SlateCRM.

One feature often found is the idea of folders, or groups. While this works fine at times we wanted to take a different approach.

Mainly, because we felt that things are often not “black or white”, but rather can be multiple things, and having a rigid classification system would force people to make unnecessary compromises. Instead, we chose to go with a tagging approach. Allowing you to tag your contacts, making easier to find later.

Say for example Tim is one of your contacts, he is both a friend and colleague at a partner firm. You can tag Tim with both, or add as many as the situation calls for.

Later, when you are quickly looking for friends, you can find Tim and many others. I’m sure you’ll find “tagging” a great feature, so try it out.

Do you need a demo? We have just the thing for you! A video showing you how to tag your contacts.

-Maria

A friendly face will make you happier

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 07:43:59 -0400

(Above picture from the Gravatars home page)

There is something psychological about about seeing the person’s face. Emotions are triggered, memories are recalled, you might even get a sense for the person even if you have never met. Many of us use or have used avatar’s in software applications for some time. However, being able to actually see what they look like, even when it’s an old photograph always makes it more personal.

Perhaps it has something to do with being identifiable.

The concept seems to be extend to using abstract avatars, whether popular Simpson’s styled character’s or movie characters.

More and more, I notice friends and colleagues updating their smart phones with the person’s actual mug.

We originally became aware of this as a side effect, while working on SlateCRM. We found that we enjoyed using the application more when there were actual pictures rather than the generic placeholder.

Adding a friendly face doesn’t just make for a better feature, but a better way of interacting with the app you use daily. Isn’t that what the social revoluation is about?!

So go ahead, add pictures to your existing applications such as Facebook, SlateCRM, or even the contacts on your phone. You’ll be happier for it.

-Eddy

Groups: For their eyes only

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 09:00:33 -0400

Sharing information with certain groups or individuals is an important part of a collaborative environment. With SlateCRM you can create “groups” to scope which colleagues to share certain sensitive or otherwise pertinent information.

I could tell you all about how this feature works, but I’d rather show you. So be sure to check out the new video on “how to create groups” and start making the most of your collaboration with others.

- Maria

ONETUG Presentation

Fri, 20 May 2011 23:31:27 -0400

ONETUG Presentation:

Pictures, slides and downloads from our recent presentation at a local user group (ONETUG).

The #NGenSoft pens we ordered arrived today. (Taken with...

Mon, 16 May 2011 17:20:38 -0400

The #NGenSoft pens we ordered arrived today. (Taken with instagram)

nGenSoft on YouTube

Mon, 16 May 2011 12:02:09 -0400

Tune in to our channel! We just created the nGenSoft channel on YouTube.

The opportunities of interacting and sharing with you, our customers and supporters are endless. We hope you’ll find the videos instructional and helpful, especially if you are using SlateCRM. We are currently aiming to keep the videos short, under 3 minutes, but we also know there will be some that expand further on concepts and will need to be longer.

We’re already working on more videos! In the meantime, if you have ideas for videos you would like to see email us (video suggestions).

As they say, if “a picture is worth a thousand words” perhaps a video is a few more.

Stay tuned :)

-Maria

Bring your Gmail contacts with you

Fri, 13 May 2011 17:13:32 -0400

So you don’t want to have to enter all those Gmail contacts you already have, right?? Well you don’t have to! We just added the import feature to SlateCRM. We created a video to show you how.

Check it out!

Enjoy!

-Maria

Secured!

Mon, 02 May 2011 19:12:18 -0400

We have been working hard to get SlateCRM secured with a SSL. As of the latest update to SlateCRM performed this weekend, all accounts will be automatically redirected to use https, ensuring your data is encrypted.

Privacy is our highest level of priority. You are entrusting us with your data and we take this trust very seriously.

We had been taking measures to increase our security even before the recent Sony debacle with the the PS3 being hacked. Now with the recent breach of their system, we are more certain that the extra hard work is worth it.

I’m proud to say that we will continue to invest in security and keeping your data safe from eavesdroppers. We’re working for you on every release so that you focus on your business and not on IT headaches.

-Maria

SlateCRM on Ziipa

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 16:36:00 -0400

I recently came across Ziipa. A site that rates applications and startups. It’s a great service with a beautiful and easy to use interface and lots of app reviews.

Oh and you can now find SlateCRM listed on Ziipa. Feel free to review, comment, or rate us.

Thanks Ziipa!

-Maria

Get SlateCRM Installed!

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 07:34:00 -0500

We have been ferociously updating SlateCRM. In fact, we are now on the Google Chrome Web Store.

The Chrome Store let’s you search, discover and install web applications much the same way mobile phones have app stores. You can find out more about the Chrome Web store here http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/more/webstore.html.

And don’t forget to install SlateCRM while you’re there.

-Maria

Adding contacts is as easy as pie Continuing on with our video...

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:20:00 -0500

Adding contacts is as easy as pie

Continuing on with our video series, we’ve created another video to show how easy adding a contact to your SlateCRM account really is.

SlateCRM makes it easy to share, update, and track your contacts in one place.

Enjoy,

Eddy

Don’t just work alone, invite a Friend or...

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 09:12:00 -0500

Don’t just work alone, invite a Friend or Colleague

We’ve been lucky to receive such a warm response since last week’s announcement, it has been an exciting few days for us.

However, we’re not content with resting on our laurels. Rather, we are now even more eager to make SlateCRM even better. We are already hard at work on the next set of features and we’ll be sharing more in the days to come.

Today’s post however, we wanted cover a feature that works different in SlateCRM than in most social networking sites. Namely, adding a user.

In SlateCRM, the only people who can see what you post, the notes you add or what you’re working on, are the people you invite to your account. Users from other accounts can not see your posts and you can not see theirs. Unlike networking sites where everyone can see everything you do, accounts are sand-boxed for each organization.

We consider each account to have it’s own unique workspace, meaning only users you’ve approved and invited can be part of it. You can further restricts what users can see by creating groups or setting items to private. We’ll cover these topics in a future post.

We’ve created a short video to demonstrate how this works.

Enjoy,

Eddy

Open for business

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 09:25:00 -0500

Yesterday marked the first day SlateCRM was open to the public. We fixed many bugs during the Beta and now look forward to serving you and helping you grow your business. We use the service ourselves to run NGenSoft and we hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we do.

We’re offering a special launch promotion. It’s for a limited time only, so hurry and go sign up.

Still here? What are you waiting for? Head over to SlateCRM and try it out for yourself!

Eddy

PS. Thanks to all who helped us with the Beta. You’re help was invaluable to help us reach this milestone.

Happy new year!

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 16:36:52 -0500

The new year has come and gone. We hope you enjoyed spending time with family and friends.

At NGenSoft we’re really excited about 2011 and all the great things we have in store.

Happy new year everyone!

Seeing the words clearly with World Lens

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 10:18:00 -0500

I was impressed by the Word Lens app. In their demo they show “on-the-fly video translations.” with an iPhone. The amazing part is you don’t even need internet or a phone connection.

Killer app to try out on your next vacation or business travel.

Check out their demo video.

-Maria

startupquote: You have chosen the wrong path if it’s not fun....

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 12:13:14 -0500

startupquote:

You have chosen the wrong path if it’s not fun. And you are probably not taking enough risk if it’s not hard and rocky sometimes.

- Marc Benioff