Web Updating

A new feature was implemented in Move Administer recently, web updating!

Web updating is becoming more and more popular amongst software today, so we decided to jump onto the band wagon too.

Basically, rather than sending out updates of Move Administer on CD, we now upload the latest version to our web server. On the Help menu of Move Administer there is now an option to ‘Check for Update’, and when selected Move Administer will run our web update client, which communicates with our web server to find out if a newer version of Move Administer exists, and if so will ask if you would like to download and install.

The great advantage of our web update client is that it will only download those files that are newer, so although Move Administer currently consists of 40Meg of files, it may only need to download 2Meg of newer files, and even then the files will be compressed using compression comparable with WinZip.

This feature was put into action today amongst our testers and so far so good, with those upgrading finding it a very simple and efficient process indeed.

An enhancement to this which we are thinking of implementing is running the web update client automatically every ‘x’ number of days, alerting the user when a new update is available, rather than waiting for the user to select the ‘Check for Updates’ on the Help menu – but one step at a time eh?

Testing, Testing, 1. 2.. 3…

Since we announced Move Administer back in April we have been inundated with regular calls monitoring our progress from customers of old, and potential new ones to whom we have been recommended (thanks everyone).

Well the finishing line is getting forever closer and I’m pleased to inform you that Move Administer is currently installed and being tested in 7 companies in 8 sites at various locations around the UK (with another being installed this week), re-uniting Richard and I with customers of old.

Testing on Move Administer commenced early in August, and reports to date have been nothing but positive. Many new ideas and enhancements have been forwarded to us, although, and I’m very pleased to add, hardly any bugs, and those reported have only be minor!

Some of the ideas and enhancements have already made their way into the final cut of version 1, and the rest have produced a list as long as my arm, again! This is mainly due to experimenting with new ideas, where those testing would like to take the ideas even further.

Most of our testers have also taken up our offer of converting their current data with great success, which has made testing very easy for them. We currently have a data converter for one of the existing systems available on the market today, with another 3 data converters underway very soon. So, whichever system you may want to jump from, we may have a data conversion solution for you.

We are keeping the names of our testers very close to our chest indeed, as we don’t want to upset the apple cart between them and their current suppliers, but we will announce them in a press release when the time is right.

But, at the time of typing this 2 of the testers are aiming to go ‘live’ on December 1st, with 1 of them running in excess of 25 users!!! YIPEE