eLink UK

eLink Lite migrated to Amazon's Cloud Service

2009-10-26T11:14:00.004Z

An update on our eLink Lite service, where we use Cloud Hosting and open source software to provide a lower cost hosted eLink service to our customers.

Originally we set this service up on a cloud hosting service called Flexiscale. At the time we launched this service this was the only provider that would support Windows Server operating systems. We need Windows Server to run some of our key server side programs. However, this provider proved to be unreliable, with server images often corrupting and needing to be rebuilt from backups frequently.

Many months ago now Amazon's EC2 cloud hosting service started supporting Windows Server operating system images. We gave it a few months to bed in and then we started testing our service hosted on Amazon. First impressions were that it was more reliable, and also considerably faster in use. We migrated all our eLink Lite users to this service two months ago now and the reliability since then has been rock solid.

The Amazon service is more expensive than the Flexiscale service (particularly as we use their Europena hosting rather than their US based hosting) but has proved to provide our customers with a better service.

Managing your suppliers and document management

2009-02-25T15:26:00.002Z

Here is a little example I experienced today about the usefulness of a good document management system when it comes to negotiating with your suppliers:

Twelve months ago I got a new mobile phone on a 12 month contract. In fact I haggled and managed to get the same price and deal as an 18 month contract. Then, in order to keep up with the latest technology (or just because I like new gadgets?) I diarised a note to pop up 12 months later to remind me that my contract was finished. I could then upgrade to a nice new gadget/phone.

Today, the action popped up in my to-do-list so I rang my mobile supplier to find out what I could upgrade to. He looks at his records and says I'm on an 18 month contract. As I've just had my system remind me to ring up, I'm pretty confident that I'm right and they're wrong. So I browse down the document history for this supplier. I see a document from a year ago that I called 'despatch note'. I click it open and see a scanned copy of the despatch note and lo and behold it states in the description: 12 month contract. Another click and I can send him a copy by email.

A couple of minutes for the operative to now dig deeper into their records, and I'm offered a discount on my bill or a new phone. New gadget now in the mail, due to arrive tomorrow...

Using eLink to improve cashflow

2008-12-18T17:15:00.003Z

I thought it would be useful to write a quick list of ways eLink can be used to help improve credit control and thus cash flow.

Use invoice templates to get your invoices out faster. Setting up document templates that pull key fields from eLink, such as the Contact name, Company details and invoice references, amounts and product descriptions means faster more accurate generation of invoices;
Project cost control 1 - use a query in your MyPortal (or receive an emailed report) to detail your gross margin summary per client project. this means you're always well informed and thus know when to invoice for further payments from your clients;
Project cost control 2 - using the Timesheet module you are informed exactly when you have done the contracted for amount of work and hence when you can ask for more money;
Customise your MyPortal to show recurring contracts that are due for renewal and ensure you invoice for the next year on time;
Receive a daily list of your outstanding invoices/aged debtors automatically and you can chase up the tardy payers very quickly;
Chase up late payers with emails sent to them automatically. Have a series of emails set up with different wordings that get harsher as time goes by. These emailed chase ups leave only the very worst payers to be chased up manually.

Swiss colleagues website revamp

2008-12-09T16:35:00.006Z

My fellow eLink provider Valthicha in Switzerland has just relaunched their website. They tell me the new design was inspired by our own eLink UK website, blog and wiki :-)

I also let them use our own video tour of eLink on their site, I think they're pleased by the time saved the, even though that it is English rather than in French.

Please take a look: http://www.valthicha.ch/

An eLink User interview

2008-12-08T12:41:00.003Z

I try and contact our customers regularly and discover what they are getting out of (or not getting) using eLink. My latest feedback was from Eliot Clarke, Risk Management Executive at ASG Risk Management Ltd.

I asked Eliot what he uses eLink for and he stated that he finds eLink's file management system: "Brilliant. It reduces the amount of [physical] storage I need, and I can quickly access my documents." Eliot accesses the system 95% of the time from his office, but occasionally looks up a key document from home or from a client's site.

Eliot's response to how he would rate our customer service?
"Very good, 9 out of 10. No complaints about the service, you always answer the phone, and I get a quick response."

SP3 for eLink 2008.2.0.0 now available

2008-12-04T16:46:00.002Z

Service Pack 3 (SP3) for eLink 2008.2.0.0 has just been released. This fixes the following issues:

1. Correction of a bug in eLink: document merging was not functional with Office 2007.
2. Using AutoLookups with custom fields on relation tables is now functional.
3. Correction of a bug in eLink Trinity : windows positions were not always saved and loaded.
4. Correction of a bug in the DBQualityTool service which was unable to read its INI file.

Golden Image for eLink Lite servers

2008-11-21T16:58:00.001Z

We have now added and successfully tested a new level of support for our eLink Lite servers. This is a useful bit of functionality that comes with our Cloud hosting called a 'golden image'. At least that's what it is called by our hosts Flexiscale. What we have done is taken a working eLink server (one with all the services configured and running and with links through to client databases) and taken an exact copy of the whole server, a software snapshot you might say.

This enables us to create an instant working eLink server at the flick of a switch, meaning we can add extra servers to cope with peak loads incredibly quickly. It also means that if there is a problem with a particular server we can now replace it almost instantly with one we know works, speeding up recovery times immensely.

New service status twitterfeed launched

2008-09-01T14:42:00.001+01:00

We have now launched a new support feed where you can get the latest updates and status of our eLink service. This is available at http://twitter.com/elinkstatus.

It is also available as an RSS feed, the link to put into your RSS Reader (I use and recommend FeedDemon from Newsgator) is http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/16065290.rss.

This is also displayed in the right hand column of this blog http://elinkuk.blogspot.com/, however, this does seem to take longer before it shows the updates.

New Video Tour of eLink available

2008-08-22T11:27:00.004+01:00

We now have a video tour of eLink available to view. It gives you a real feel for how to navigate through eLink and what areas of your business it might be able to help in. You can view the video by clicking on the image below now:

New eLink Client - Procentus Consulting

2008-06-10T12:50:00.003+01:00

We're pleased to welcome Procentus Consulting as a new eLink customer. Procentus Consulting have selected our eLink Lite with Marketing module and Nomad client as their CRM solution. For more information about Procentus Consulting and their management training and performance development services please visit http://www.procentusconsulting.com/

New eLink Client - Global Property Portfolios

2008-06-10T12:43:00.004+01:00

We're pleased to welcome Global Property Portfolios as a new eLink customer. Global Property Portfolios have selected eLink Lite with our Marketing module as their CRM solution. For more information about Global Property Portfolios and their time saving services for property investors please visit http://www.globalpropertyportfolios.com/

eLink Lite now available

2008-06-04T14:24:00.004+01:00

We have been developing a Web 2.0 version of eLink aimed at small businesses and the self-employed. The Beta of this is now available for the first thousand people who request it.

eLink Lite is a version of our popular eLink business management software that we have now made available online. The first user of each eLink Lite database will be FREE for life (this includes the cost of hosting the application and your data). Additional users and addon modules are available for a low cost.

Please let me know if you are interested in trying out eLink Lite by sending an email to me at petejenkins@elinkuk.co.uk.

eLink 2008.2.0.0 due for release in June

2008-06-04T14:18:00.003+01:00

We've been testing the beta of the next version of eLink for a while and I can now inform you that the new version elink 2008 2.0.0 will be available later in June.

One of the most important new features is that our integration with Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word and Excel) has been completely revamped and now works incredibly well with Office 2007!

Link For Windows Support to be discontinued

2008-05-02T16:40:00.002+01:00

Back in the mists of the 90's eLink originally began as software that ran on Windows networks, this was known as Link For Windows. It has evolved over the years into the product known as eLink which runs through a browser (so can run on a network or over the internet). A Link For Windows version has been supported alongside eLink for all this time too.

Now, due to the popularity of the eLink version (most Link For Windows users have migrated to using the browser friendliness of eLink) there are so few Link For Windows users that support for this version is to be discontinued with effect from 31st December 2008. This stills gives us plenty of time to help those last few users get used to the different look and feel of eLink.

Drag and Drop files into eLink!

2008-04-17T16:07:00.005+01:00

We upgraded our internal use eLink to version 2008.1.0.1 yesterday and discovered that it contains a feature we've been hankering after for a long time...

you can now drag and drop files from your desktop into an eLink Document folder which will automatically upload it to the database.

Drag your document onto the icon the red arrow below is pointing at:

Click on the image above to see it in better definition.

Different clients, different records

2008-04-15T18:36:00.003+01:00

I was looking at the stats on how we and our clients use eLink and I was intrigued to discover that the highest record numbers in each category were held by different clients. So it seems to relate to business processes and not business size. For instance:

Contacts: 22,908 contacts' details held :: this record is held by one of our smaller clients (in terms of numbers of eLink users) but their business process is completely contact focused. They gather and look after thousands of contacts, with tailored mailings going out to subsets of these contacts monthly and even weekly.

Actions: 277,265 to-do's and diary entries :: this overseas property sales company has saved an audit trail of every communication ever made with each of their clients.

Companies: 6,162 companies' details held :: to be honest this one is won by ourselves, over the last 8 years in the B2B market we have met all of these companies (mostly in the South-East).

Documents: 31,528 folders with 1 to many attachments, from Word documents, pdf's through to whole powerpoint presentations :: this software company has made their entire knowledgebase available through their eLink intranet wherever the users might be physically based.

Projects: 3,234 active client projects with custom data held against each record :: this voice technology company manages many projects for each of their clients and eLink helps them keep a track of it all successfully.

Well, I found it interesting :-)

New eLink wiki launched

2008-02-07T10:05:00.000Z

We have just launched our eLink UK wiki. This site is aimed at becoming a knowledge base for all things to do with the eLink software suite. Whether it is hints and tips for users, for administrators or for developers of the software. If you have something to add to the total knowledge of eLink users then please do so. The wiki is available here: http://elinkuk.wetpaint.com

eLink 2008 Trinity - Company & Contact Dashboards

2008-02-01T10:53:00.000Z

There is now a dashboard of ‘recent’ actions, documents, projects, sales opportunities, emails and helpdesk displayed on each contact and company you look at in eLink 2008 Trinity. This is great as it means that you can view the most recent activity at a glance when you are talking to your customer or supplier. Yet another time saving option in our latest version of eLink!

New eLink logo unveiled to the world

2008-01-31T15:41:00.000Z

As promised, here for you now, get a look at the new eLink logo. We think it's great.

eLink 2008 Trinity - Sales To-Do's

2008-01-29T11:06:00.000Z

Another really useful feature of this latest verison of eLink is the one click Sales To-Do list. From your list of Sales Opportunities, at a click of a button, you get a view of just those actions you've got to do relating to Sales you are working on. Brilliant, makes it much easier to progress your Sales!

eLink 2008 Trinity - Searching

2008-01-28T11:27:00.000Z

A new feature of eLink 2008 Trinity that already I can't live without is the search bar at the bottom of the screen. It is a quick and easy search that you can use without opening up new search windows and it is able to search inside ‘attachments’ held in the eLink database. Plus, it has a much improved presentation of the search results.

eLink 2008 My eLink Dashboard

2008-01-24T08:24:00.000Z

Another great new feature of eLink 2008 Trinity is the ‘My eLink’ dashboard. On first logging in you get four smart panels each containing today’s diary, actions, most recently looked at contacts and companies, plus scroll-down to your company's sales performance, pipeline and turnover, all together on one screen.

eLink 2008 - Trinity

2008-01-23T12:24:00.001Z

This week we started using the new eLink 2008 version of eLink internally. We are particularly taken with the new 'Trinity' look and feel available to users. It has a more tabbed approach to browsing eLink, so you end up with far fewer open browser windows on your screen.

New eLink logo coming soon

2008-01-23T12:22:00.000Z

I can report that there is a new eLink logo on its way. The new one involves a 'swoosh' encapsulating the collaborative way that eLink works.

Castlegate Technology recruits another new client

2007-09-12T12:21:00.000+01:00

Castlegate Technology has signed another new client to use eLink: Lewes Property Development Ltd