Ezone Software Blog

New WMS Support Ticket System

2012-05-22T12:45:00.002+01:00

As part of the upcoming WMS User Interface upgrade we are also launching a new WMS Support ticket system.

This will have the following improvements:

- Email based Support Tickets - The whole support ticket discussion will be visible within each ticket email notification from WMS Support. You can reply to the support ticket by replying to these notification emails. Therefore a support ticket discussion takes place just like a normal email discussion.

-WMS Support through Social Media – With our new support ticket system you can open tickets using Facebook or Twitter. We can respond to tickets on these platforms so the whole support discussion can take place in Facebook or Twitter through to ticket closure.

-Improved Email Notifications Acceptance – The occurrence of our support ticket email notifications going into your junk mail will be minimised.

And at our end:
- Improved ticket management features – we can deal with your tickets more efficiently which will improve our WMS Support service

We will continue to provide the Knowledge Base of articles on using the WMS. This will be called “Solutions” on our new support ticket system.

Watch this space for more news as we near the release date...

Improving the WMS interface

2012-05-08T15:53:00.003+01:00

For the last few months we have been working on some improvements to the design of the Ezone WMS, these will be ready for release very shortly!

So what are the changes? Well...

Better use of screen real estate

We've reduced the amount of screen space that the header and menu options use.

This further increases the amount of space on the screen for the important things!

Simplified main menus
We have reorganised many of the options into an extended tab bar.

The WMS has a huge range of functionality and we think this will make it even easier to find and use the features you need, when you need them.

Moving between sites
If you manage multiple sites in the WMS you may find this change useful. As well as making the name of the site you are currently working on even more obvious, we have added a new "Switch Site" menu that makes it easier to move between sites.

And more!
There are also a number of smaller improvements and changes as well as some bug fixes in this upcoming release.

Coming soon!
It has been several years since we last made these type of changes and we hope that you will find them useful and the WMS even better as a result!

Watch this space for more news as we near the release date...

EU Cookie Directive Update

2012-04-24T13:36:00.001+01:00

With the deadline of the 26^th of May drawing nearer, after which the new cookie laws will begin to be enforced, we wanted to look at how different websites are adhering to the changes in legislation:

The new cookie law states that:

“Those setting cookies must:

• Tell people that the cookies are there,
• Explain what the cookies are doing, and
• Obtain their consent to store a cookie on their device.”

Whilst there has been considerable debate as to what is an acceptable way to address these changes in the law there appear to be three solutions commonly being implemented:

To simply have a prominent link to your privacy policy on your home page and to provide detailed information within the policy regarding what cookies your site uses, what they do and how the user can adjust their settings regarding what cookies are allowed to be placed on their computer.
This seems to be quite a popular solution as it is the least disruptive to the browsing experience for the user.
Examples: http://econsultancy.com, http://www.waitrose.com and http://www.dominos.co.uk/
An ‘opt-out’ setup whereby the user is prominently informed on the home page that cookies are being used and given a link where they can opt-out of the cookies being used (or in some cases select what sort of cookies they want to allow).
These also include links to a detailed privacy policy.
Examples: http://www.magiq.com/, http://www.bt.com/ and https://www.gov.uk
A full opt-in plugin. In this case cookies are disabled by default and the user must choose to opt-in to enable them. This also includes a link to the privacy policy with details of what cookies will be used if the user does choose to opt-in.
For example: http://www.ico.gov.uk/

While the third approach appears to most strictly comply with the ICO guidelines it is also the most disruptive and it has been suggested that it may not be necessary if your site is only using cookies for purposes such as analytics.

However, if your website has more complex cookie functionality such as, for example, a login then the second or third approach may be more appropriate.

At Ezone Software we can provide the following 4 step solution:

1. An audit to see which cookies are running on your website.

2. The creation of a privacy page on your website (or alteration of an existing privacy page) - to state what these cookies are and explain what they do.

3. (Optional) The addition of a free third party solution to allow the site user to give informed consent that refers/links the site user to your privacy page (or which has this information on screen as part of its functionality) so that the user can make an informed choice.

4. A report will be provided on the audit findings and work done.

As an alternative to step 3 we can work with you to supply a bespoke solution developed at Ezone Software along the same lines of the third party solutions but more befitting the branding of your website.

If you would like us to carry out this 4 step EU Cookie Directive Audit or if you would like more information please contact support@thewms.net.

Domain Expiry can be a pain!

2012-04-20T10:09:00.005+01:00

You get used to your website being up and available, no problem for a couple of years until one day when you type your site’s domain into a browser and its not there! Your domain has expired and your site is down.

This happened recently to a client of ours. The reminders were going to an old email address and the domain wasn’t set to auto-renew. We had contacted our client to give a “heads up” but other day to day matters had monopolised their time. On Friday afternoon we received a support ticket reporting the site as down but we were seeing it as still up. The domain was in the process of lapsing and the site was on its way down for the weekend - not ideal for a hotel website to say the least.

So we got in touch with our client and after a couple of calls between us we managed to track down who held the domain and who had the login details to renew online. The site went back up later that night and was available over the weekend.

To prevent this happening the WMS as a courtesy service tracks all the domains registered within it and we get in touch with clients when domains are due to lapse. Also if your domain is about to lapse you will see the following when you edit your website in the WMS:

“The domain for this site will expire soon! See "View Domain Info" in your Site Properties for more details. “

So while we don't manage your DNS directly we can help remind you about domain renewal dates. You can also access your domain info yourself at any time in the WMS:

WMS > Admin > Manage Sites > Domain Info > DomainTools Whois

For all involved on this occasion it was a much nicer feeling to go home for the weekend a little later but with the site safely up again. But to avoid situations like this we recommend checking when your domain is due, heeding the WMS warnings and watching out for our reminder emails.

Best Wishes

Stuart Ferguson – WMS Support

WMS Support Feedback 2012

2012-03-22T13:58:00.006Z

Hello Valued WMS Support User!

We at WMS Support would like to get some feedback from you on your experience of using WMS support with the following 10 question survey.

This information is important to us to help us improve the WMS support service and experience for you.

Therefore please don't hold back if you have any criticisms! However also let us know where we are doing a good job so we don't try and fix something that isn't broken :)

Here is a link to the survey: Click here to take survey

If you have any questions about this survey either prior or post answering it - please contact support@thewms.net.

If you are able to fill out the survey then thanks for taking time to participate! If not then thanks anyway for being a WMS Support service user. We understand people don't always have the time for surveys - although this one may help us to tailor WMS Support more to your needs.

Thanks

Stuart Ferguson - WMS Support

Ensure Your Website Complies with New EU Privacy Laws

2012-03-13T10:25:00.018Z

On 26th May 2012 the ICO will begin to enforce the EU “Cookie” Directive. In the UK this EU Privacy Directive has resulted in changes to the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations. The directive came into being on 25th May 2011 however the ICO chose to give a year’s grace in the UK before they started enforcing it. Website owners can potentially be fined up to £500,000 for being in breach of this law.

According to the ICO:

“Those setting cookies must:

• Tell people that the cookies are there,
• Explain what the cookies are doing, and
• Obtain their consent to store a cookie on their device.”

This affects the vast majority of websites in the EU (for instance Google Analytics sets a cookie as will many third party integrations on your website). Due to the lack of guidance on exactly how the directive should be complied with most have decided to wait and see what trends develop to see if one common approach becomes clear. Currently none of the big sites such as Amazon or EBay have moved with their main solution.

The ICO website itself has a box at the top of the page where site users can check a checkbox to accept cookies before they run so a solution similar to this may be the safest option to ensure compliance with the Directive.

So at Ezone Software we recommend the following 4 step solution which we provide as an audit package:

1. An audit to see which cookies are running on your website.

2. The creation of a privacy page on your website (or alteration of an existing privacy page) - to state what these cookies are and explain what they do.

3. (Optional) The addition of a free third party solution to allow the site user to give informed consent that refers/links the site user to your privacy page (or which has this information on screen as part of its functionality) so that the user can make an informed choice.

4. A report will be provided on the audit findings and work done.

If you would like us to carry out this 4 step EU Cookie Directive Audit or if you would like more information please contact support@thewms.net.

As an alternative to step 3 we can supply a bespoke solution developed at Ezone Software along the same lines of the third party solutions.

As well as the EU Cookie Directive audit we also offer the following website audits:

Accessibility Audit
Speed Audit
Quality Assurance Audit

To enquire about any of the above please contact support@thewms.net.

Best Regards

Ezone Software

WMS Upgrade - Tomorrow (Thursday 5th January)

2012-01-04T10:36:00.019Z

Hello and a Happy New Year!

The previously advertised WMS Upgrade will be launched tomorrow (Thursday 5th January 2012 - 6pm to 10pm) see the Feature List below for the upgrade features.

There are new Knowledge Base articles covering this library upgrade which can be found here: WMS Library Functionality

An online training session covering these library changes will take place at 11AM on Thursday 5th January. Please email support@thewms.net to book a place.

The upgrade will take place on the evening of the 5th January during which time (6pm to 10pm) the WMS will be unavailable. Your website will be unaffected by this and will remain online, however during these hours you will not be able to edit it through the WMS. If you have content that you need to add to your website during this time please contact support@thewms.net and we will look to add the content for you either before or after this WMS down period.

Feature List

- Brand New WMS Library Functionality

Improved features – such as the ability to “cut” or “copy” folders and images from one place in the library to another (to enable you to manage your library files and folders more easily)

All files can now be previewed in a browser window (you can preview PDF files as well)

A great new image editor - allowing you to edit images within the WMS library (rather than having to edit images externally and then upload them to the WMS library)

Clicking on the “select” button in an element that is linked to the library (such as an image element) now allows you to upload images at this point as well as selecting images in the element. So you don’t have to go to the library first, you can:

Plus more. In general the new WMS library is much easier to use with a new User Interface

- Support of IE9 and IE10 has been significantly improved when using the WMS

- As well as a number of general fixes and improvements

Best Regards

Ezone Software

WMS Library Upgrade due January 2012

2011-12-28T17:25:00.011Z

Season’s Greetings to WMS users and all of Ezone Software’s Clients! A further update on January’s WMS Upgrade which is due early January 2012.

This update will include the following:

Brand New WMS Library Functionality

- Improved features – such as the ability to “cut” or “copy” folders and images from one place in the library to another (to enable you to manage you library files and folders more easily)

- All files can now be previewed in a browser window (you can preview PDF files as well)

- A great new image editor - allowing you to edit images within the WMS library (rather than having to edit images externally and then upload them to the WMS library)

- Clicking on the “select” button in an element that is linked to the library (such as an image element) now allows you to upload images at this point as well as selecting images in the element. So you don’t have to go to the library first, you can:

Click on “select” in the element on you page in the WMS which links to the WMS library
Upload the file from your local computer to the WMS library at this stage
Select the image in the element – a much quicker process

- Plus more. In general the new WMS library is much easier to use with a new User Interface

Support if IE9 and IE10 has been significantly improved when using the WMS

As well as a number of general fixes and improvements

FAQs on the new WMS Library Functionality can be found here: WMS Library Functionality

Further training options on the new WMS library functionality will be available closer to and after the upgrade launch.

We will be emailing you and posting on the Ezone Software Blog with more information the day before the launch - so watch this space!

An online training session covering these library changes will take place at 11am on Thursday 5th January. Please email support@thewms.net to book a place (15 places maximum – A second session can be scheduled if numbers exceed this).

As usual we will be available to provide support for you on this and any other WMS matter at support@thewms.net

Wishing you a Happy New Year when it comes!

Ezone Software

WMS Support - Xmas Availability

2011-12-19T00:48:00.007Z

To WMS Support Service Users and all of Ezone Software’s Clients!

I am happy to report that Ezone Software will be providing an improved Festive support package this year. The WMS Support calendar for the Festive period December 2011 to January 2012 is as follows:

- Up to and including 21st December
Normal WMS support

- 22nd and 23rd December
Full support capabilities but reduced hours and speed (morning and late afternoon covered)

- 24th to 27th December
No WMS support

- 28th to 30th December
Full support capabilities but reduced hours and speed (morning and late afternoon covered)

- 31st December to 2nd January
No WMS support

- 3rd January onwards
Normal WMS support

If you have content you need added WMS Unlimited will be available throughout the Festive period on the above dates. However turnaround times may be longer than usual and may need to be re-scheduled to January 2012.

Please email support@thewms.net if you have any questions on Ezone’s Festive WMS Support Package

Best Regards and Merry Xmas!!!

Stuart Ferguson – WMS Support

WMS Upgrade due January 2012

2011-12-15T18:30:00.014Z

Season’s Greetings to WMS users and all of Ezone Software’s Clients!

We would like to announce the latest WMS Upgrade which will be launched early January 2012.

This update will include the following:

- Brand new WMS Library functionality

- Support of IE9 and IE10 has been significantly improved when using the WMS

- As well as a number of general fixes and improvements

FAQs and training options on the new WMS library Functionality will be available closer to and after the upgrade launch.

We will be emailing you and posting on the Ezone Software Blog with more information closer to the launch - so watch this space!

As usual we will be available to provide support for you on this and any other WMS matter at support@thewms.net

Wishing you a very Merry Xmas!

Ezone Software

WMS Unlimited (content editing service)

2011-09-02T16:25:00.012+01:00

Please gather round! We would like to announce the arrival of "WMS Unlimited" our new WMS content editing Service! Available at no additional cost to the current WMS subscription.

As well as using the WMS to add content yourself you may want to get us to do it for you. You can then spend your work hours doing something else. Essentially you can send us any amount of content and we will add it to your website via the WMS for no additional cost. This includes image resizing and you can use the service as many times as you want.

We operate a fair usage policy on this service which means that your content is scheduled into an available time slot so it may not be possible to add the content immediately and the more content you send us the longer it will take.

To use this service (or for more information) please email support@thewms.net (or open a support ticket through the WMS) and attach the content you want added. Please include all the content you want us to add (including images, PDF, hyperlinks etc) and guidance information on any specific way it should be added.

If you have already purchased Edit Credits these can be converted into bankable WMS development hours.

Easy 301 redirect management plus making Template Editors lives easier!

2011-01-27T17:12:00.005Z

The WMS was updated last week, this was mainly a maintenance update; but there are also two new features that we are excited about:

Making it easier to manage 301 redirects
A "301 redirect" is a permanent redirect from one URL to another (there are several different types of redirect hence the need to specify that this is a 301). This is a part of some companies SEO optimisations of a web site. It is especially useful when a site is moved, upgraded or significantly change (moving or removing lots of pages).

On large sites, or those that change regularly it can be a headache to manage these redirects and there are also several different ways to implement these redirects, depending on the site's hosting and technology. This is were the new WMS feature comes in! All you need to do is build a CSV list in excel and upload it; the WMS takes care of all the hard work and generates the correct code for that site!

It is worth noting here that, this should only be a part of your SEO work. So if you are not sure there are plenty of other SEO optimisations you should consider first; the most important of these is to keep you site content fresh and relevant!

Making the job of a WMS Template Editors even easier!
The second new feature is actually two! Firstly check out the new "Furniture FTP" feature under your sites "Templates" menu. And then take a look at the new "Compare" tool when you are editing a template.

As always, please contact WMS support if we can help you in any way!

New Charity site: challengesworldwide.org!

2010-10-18T16:40:00.007+01:00

At Ezone we pride ourselves in our values; we firmly believe that the figure at the bottom of the financial accounts is just one aspect of our success. As one example of this we use our expertise and resources to help selected charities to gain the most from their web activities.

So, we are very excited about our newest charity site challengesworldwide.org!

Challenges Worldwide is a leading international development charity that recruits, trains and manages expert volunteers to carry out short assignments for social enterprise in developing countries. Challenges Worldwide uses its specially designed management tools to work with organisations to identify their operational strengths and weaknesses.

Other charities that we have helped include the Edinburgh Cyrenians and the Scottish arm of Music in Hospitals.

Check out this page for more details.

Forms, Survey's & Polls using 3rd Party Tools?

2010-09-10T20:02:00.000+01:00

The WMS has a very powerful item template and publishing system which makes it possible to integrate a great many 3rd party services into your web site.

If you are looking for sophisticated forms, polls or surveys for your website there are a number of options:

Ezone's Data Collector Module The Data Collector is a module which allows for the easy collection, storage and manipulation of data entered via an on-line form.
More...

Ezone's Polling Module Polling Module allows any question with multiple choice answers to be placed on a page with your site.
More...

SurveyGizmo Integration SurveyGizmo is the online survey tool that can be used for simple surveys, complex surveys, evaluations, polls, or HR studies. It has an excellent, simple user interface to design and build your own custom forms and surveys. These can then be easily integrated into your WMS managed website using a number of different methods (ranging from a simple link to embedded directly into your site).
More...

Other Integration? Do you have another tool or application that you wish to use on your site? The WMS can almost certainly do it!

Just open a new support ticket to find out more.

Using "The Cloud"

2010-09-03T19:35:00.011+01:00

Much as I think "the cloud" is just another annoying buzz word that doesn't really represent much; there are now a plethora of online services that can provide a much better, more cost effective solution to problems that traditionally required something physical in the office.

Being a software as a service company ourselves we have always been fully aware of the huge advantages of these solutions and over the last year we have started to use them even more.

So here is a quick summary of what we currently use and why:

Google Apps (www.google.com/apps)
Email for our own domains, using the excellent gmail web interface, that is very cost effective. Tie that in with calendars, Google docs and all the other Google offerings and it really is an excellent solution. Why wouldn't you? A heavy investment in something like MS Exchange just does not make sense here, IMHO.

Freshbooks (www.freshbooks.com)
An excellent invoice and time tracking solution. Although the time tracking & reporting is not as fully featured as some other solutions, the fact that it is linked directly to invoice generation and the outstanding estimate/invoice/expense management features have been really great for us. Freshbooks also has excellent integration with many other apps (including Highrise & Basecamp) and a good API that we use for the WMS.

Highrise (www.highrisehq.com)
Very straightforward CRM. The wonderful 37signals mantra of simplicity here is one of the main advantages for us. It fits easily into our everyday work process; which means we actually use it! This is important as a CRM is only useful if the data is up to date and it is part of your day to day and minute to minute work.

Also has a handy API which allows us to keep contacts in sync with the WMS.

Dropbox (www.dropbox.com)
File sharing that is easy and reliable. We use this to make sure that everyone and every PC (for example laptops and desktops) have access to the most up to date documents. This also significantly reduces the need for an office file server and all the admin that comes with that (backups, power & connectivity, VPN's for remote access etc); it is great when a load of problems just go away!

Dropbox also has good version control of all documents which helps avoid data loss and multiple copies of old documents. I'm also finding the Andriod app very good.

Tender Support (www.tenderapp.com)
An excellent, very straightforward helpdesk application. We use this both with our main product (The WMS) but also for specific client support. Good email integration and a simple web interface with single sign on support make this app an important part of our service.

Once again this is complemented by an API which we use to full effect.

Tender's integrates closely with a partner product (Lighthouse) for development and issue tracking; which we also use.

Beanstalk (beanstalkapp.com)
This is the newest one for us; hosted source control which includes good collaboration (code review) features. Moving from SVN based on a server in the office was a big decision; but so far it has been great. We got rid of yet another admin task (not that managing SVN & backups is a biggie, still its nice to have one less thing to think about) and gained some productivity by integration with Lighthouse.

Beanstalk was incredibly simple to set up and (once I had tweaked the CruiseControl configs) fitted incredibly smoothly into our development process.

The WMS (www.thewms.co.uk)
And finally, we use our own application, of course! Simple, powerful, web based content management for our every web need. It's the best there is ;)

Some fun WMS Stats

2010-08-13T13:06:00.003+01:00

We regularly monitor the WMS usage, so here are some headline stats from 2010 so far:

The busiest day of the week is Tuesday, closely followed by Wednesday
By far the busiest times are between 10am and 5pm (UK time)
The busiest month so far this year for WMS editing was March
On average new content is created every 28 minutes
On average content is edited once every 6 minutes
On average content is published once every 9 minutes
The WMS manages: 362 editors, 140 sites, 2789 templates, 17342 pages and 10647 components
On average a WMS content managed has site 126 pages (the largest has 1479)

Of course, the WMS gets busier and larger all the time! We use these figures (with more detailed analysis) to help us provide support and plan improvements to your web content management.

New Template Features

2010-08-10T17:52:00.005+01:00

Tonight's WMS update included a couple of cool little new features to the WMSElement definitions used in our template system:

1. The ability to set a default component value that is preselected for all new pages. This should prevent needless editing when new pages are created.

2. The ability to set a menu element definition to start from a specific "level" in the tree. This is useful for site designs where the navigation menus are separated into different places on the page.

See the updated template reference PDF (under Help in the WMS) for details. Of course this is only useful for Template Editors!

We have also included a small update to the Project Timeline page, all the project update message are now visible on one page (no need to click on each separate milestone).

This was the last WMS update for which Mira was lead developer; sadly (for us) he has now moved on to his next exciting challenge. Mira was an outstanding member of the team for many years and we wish him all the best (and, as he's still in Edinburgh we expect to see him in the pub from time to time :)

Fountain Court Apartments - Site Redesign

2010-07-20T17:14:00.007+01:00

The redesigned Fountain Court Apartments website went live earlier this month. It took the place of the previous FCA site in the WMS. There are some nice JQuery powered galleries and some nice lightbox video display functionality also. Design and video display functionality provided by Creative State.

So why not check out the newly redesigned Fountain Court Apartment site - you can find it here.

WMS Introduces Integration with Social Media - Twitter and Facebook

2010-07-16T09:03:00.060+01:00

The WMS - our content management software now offers integration into social networks !! You can now post updates or share your published pages with your audience twitter or facebook. And best of all, it is all free for you as part of our continuous upgrades to the system.

Sharing a WMS page on Twitter or Facebook could not be more simple. You just click on a new "Share" option in the main menu, fill in a message and send it all off. The WMS will look after the communication and posting and will remember your settings. That means you never have to leave the WMS to tweet about a new page that you have just published.

Why is it a big deal
Since 2009 when the internet experienced an apparent boom in Social Networks thanks to Twitter and Facebook (http://mashable.com/2009/04/17/web-in-numbers-social-media/), social networks have played an important part in every day life. Studies suggest that people use social networks more than email and over 60% time on mobile devices is actually spend on social media. In other words, there is a lot of buzz on the internet nowadays :-)

Here at Ezone we use Twitter to see what our clients and partners are up to and share articles and news that may be relevant to them. If you want to hear from us, follow us on @ezonesoftware !

Learning from our mistakes

2010-06-29T10:48:00.000+01:00

Over the last few months Ezone as a company has been going through some very significant changes; some good and some considerably less so. It is surprising just how much we have learned and as we near the end of this process of change we are now looking forward with some excitement again.

I thought it would be fun to do a post about this process of change and talk about some of the lessons learned and how we are planning to apply those lessons.

So let's start with the bad: in early 2010 we came to the inescapable conclusion that we needed to reduce the size of the team here at Ezone. Because we have such a great team, that was a really tough decision and a hard process to go through. Of course, everyone involved proved how amazing they were by the level of professionalism they treated the process with and by how quickly they spotted benefits for themselves. Personally I was constantly humbled and inspired by everyone.

Of course, without this happening we would not have made the other, really positive, changes to Ezone over the last few months.

So now lets look at the first of these: after a very in depth analysis of the process of implementing sites on the WMS (or redesigning or making other very large changes to a WMS managed site) we came up with a number of areas were we need to improve. Almost invariably these revolved around managing the process and communication with everyone involved.

Who knows what's going on?
The first area we identified as needing improvement was clear and up to date information on the status of the project and all its constituent parts. This needed to be available to everyone involved in an easy accessible way, and we needed a clear record of who said what when and what the agreed implications were.

We all do!
Internally, we solved this by switching to an excellent, simple and straightforward CRM (Highrise, from 37signals). This has had an amazingly positive effect on internal communication within the team.

To further improve on this we are working on our new "Project Dashboard" within the WMS which will allow our clients to view the status of ongoing projects, a summary of agreed changes and other important items. All this along side a clear time line so that everyone can see how the project is progressing and when each milestone will be completed!

The little things...
One of the next most significant areas that we needed to get much better at was managing all the little changes and additions that are a vital part of getting the best WMS managed sites up and running. Obviously we work hard with the client, designers, SEO specialists and other stake holders at the start of the project to make sure that we understand all the ins and outs of the site; and we have plenty of experience and expertise in the best way to technically implement a solution (on time and on budget). However, it is impossible to get 100% of the details right before you start work; and this should be an advantage rather than a problem of using the WMS.

With a system as powerful and flexible as the WMS we can can really add value to the final published site by implementing improvements and fixing issues as we go. The problem was that, especially in the final stages of a site build, we were finding that too many little things would affect the time-scales and costs of going live and create confusing communications with all the stake holders.

Of course, the answer was simple really; improve communication in the early stages of the project and give more opportunities for everyone to feedback earlier, when making changes has less impact. Combine that with some technical tweaks to the way WMS templates are implemented and a clear path to allow design or template changes after the initial launch and everything starts to flow much, much smoother!

Is that all?
These on their own would be a huge enough impact, but really they are just part of the changes that we have been putting in place. Some of the others include a new invoicing system (Freshbooks) that incorporates our time tracking and reporting, changes to our support & ticketing systems and integrating many of the different systems we use via their APIs.

WOW!
Yeah, I know, you are totally blown away... Seriously though, this has been a pretty dramatic time for Ezone and we hope that all our customers and partners will see benefits as much as we do internally.

The truly exciting thing for us now is how much more we want to do and the potential to learn more and further improve both the WMS & our service.

Integrating Invoicing Into the WMS

2010-05-18T09:01:00.000+01:00

You may have noticed that as part of our continuous effort to improve our process and service to our customers, we have recently changed the entire invoicing system. We can already see all the benefits and time-savings only three months after using the system.

We believe it is only right that our customers should also benefit from the new invoicing system. Therefore we decided to integrate the invoicing with the WMS!

Every account has now a "AccountFinance" role. Every user who is assigned to that particular role will have access to view all invoices in that account. The invoices appear as an additional box on the dashboard.

If you click on "View Invoices", you will be able to see recent paid invoices and invoices that may be still due.

Everything that you wanted to know about WMS and more

2010-05-13T09:02:00.014+01:00

While doing some maintenance work on the WMS database recently, I could not resist to check out few interesting details about the usage of the application. Since I'm the sort of person who sits around the table and loves to dish out random fun facts, I decided to share few of them with you.

Joking aside, the data we retrieve from the WMS is important - we use it to spot usage patterns and find out how the system is used. Ultimately, the goal is to improve the end user experience.

So here it goes:
Wednesday is the busiest day, closely followed by Monday.
Busiest time is between 11-12am GMT. However, almost 25% of the system activity happens outside the UK office hours.

There were 15 free upgrades in the last 4 months, yes that is almost one every week !

Hope you enjoyed them, we might be back with some more.

Do you know when your domain expires?

2010-05-03T09:01:00.003+01:00

Forgetting to renew a domain name is one of the most common reason web sites have outages. Perhaps you have experienced this first hand, or have heard about other sites having this problem (for example in March foursquare.com).

However avoiding those problems is so simple; if you have the right information to hand!

Although the WMS does not manage and is in no way responsible for your domain name registration; we do exist to make your web management as easy as possible. So have now introduced an exciting new feature, for Professional level accounts, that will monitor your main domain in order to help you ensure that no problems occur.

See "View Domain Info" in your "Site Properties" for more details.

In addition, if your domain is nearing expiry you will see a friendly reminder in the WMS :)

We hope you find this little addition to the WMS useful.

Introducing a Brand New Way to Upload Files

2010-04-30T13:47:00.000+01:00

The WMS release on Thursday incudes several significant changes to the system. The most obvious to the user is a brand new file upload system in the libraries. The main focus was to provide simple and reliable way to upload files regardless the size.

You will find a new button "Click here to upload new files" underneath the file list. This will open up a new popup, where you will be able to select the files to upload.

The progress bar
You will notice a progress bar that will keep you updated on the progress of your upload, current speed and estimated time remining. This is particularly useful when dealing with larger or multiple files.

Say goodbye to the time-outs
The new file upload is designed to eliminate the time-outs. That means even if you don't have a fast internet connection, it will not cut you off.

Increasing the limits
Thanks to the upgrade, you will now be able to upload much larger files and so we have increased the limits for your files. The limit is based on your WMS subscription type and is currently set to:

WMS standard: 10MB per file
WMS professional: 15MB per file
WMS with library suite: 35 MB per file

Find out more about the Library Suite

Tackling the speed of the WMS

2010-04-20T12:08:00.000+01:00

When the new WMS4 was initially released in November 2009, one of our key targets was the overall speed of the application. We realised very early on that were not happy how the WMS was performing and we were working hard to improve it ever since. Shaving few milliseconds here and there and seeing small improvements with every release (there were 15 releases in 2010 already !).

We knew WMS was performing very well in certain areas. If we take WMS3 as a benchmark, WMS4 is more than 3 times faster during Publish All and Publish Instructions! In page creation, site root load and page publish times WMS4 was a marginal winner. However, we realised it was slightly behind in page save and page edit loads.

Yesterday's release is a start of a major attack we launched on the speed of the editing interface. It should make a significant impact on the page and properties saves and multiple edits. However, this is not the end of our efforts - we still have loads of things in the pipeline.

In the next few weeks, you can look forward to further speed improvements, integrated invoicing in the WMS, brand new upload interface that will handle much larger files even at slow upload speeds, automated tree publish instructions and many more. Again, if you have your ideas of what would make your life with WMS better, share them with us !