Folio Cloud Blog

Adjustment of Fabasoft partner agreements

Sandra Hofmann — Sun, 5 May 2013 22:00:00 +0000

The Fabasoft Cloud Broker Agreement and the Fabasoft Cloud Affiliate Marketing Agreement have been revised and adapted. For your information, here is an excerpt of the relevant parts of the respective agreements.

Adjustment of Cloud Broker Agreement

The following items have been added to the Cloud Broker agreement:

consolidation of legal terms and notations
scheme for the resale of service packages

1.2 The Broker shall operate as an independent company to purchase Service Packages offered by Fabasoft for the Broker’s customers. In addition to this, the Broker shall provide services and software products connected with these Service Packages for their customers. For purchasing Service Packages the Broker will be granted a resale price.

2.1 Fabasoft authorizes the Broker to mediate business agreements between Fabasoft and the Broker’s existing and future customers based exclusively on Service Packages. In the case of an imminent such business transaction, the Broker shall acquire one or more Service Packages accordingly to sell these Service Packages to the customer in turn.

The character and properties of the Service Packages are described and specified in their most up to date form in the Fabasoft Cloud Partner Shop.

2.2 Fabasoft shall operate a service structure via the IT infrastructure implemented in its computing center that enables customers who have registered and activated Service Package software products via the Broker to submit support queries to Fabasoft, and these shall be forwarded to the Broker for processing via this service structure.

The character and properties of the service structure are described and specified in their most up to date form at http://www.fabasoft.com/cbs.

3.4 The fee to be paid by the Broker for a specific business transaction will be determined as follows:

3.4.1 The Service Package agreed with the Broker and the current price at the time of completion of the contract are decisive for determining the fee due to Fabasoft. This price (including the relevant currency) can be seen in the Fabasoft Cloud Partner Shop. For this price Fabasoft guarantees the Broker a purchasing margin, which can also be seen for each Service Package in the Fabasoft Cloud Partner Shop. Payments can only be made in the currencies quoted in the Fabasoft Cloud Partner Shop. The stated prices do not include sales tax.

3.4.2 The agreed fee is fixed at the conclusion of the Contract and remains unchangeable for the duration of the payment period. For any following payment period, Fabasoft withholds the right (for the first and all subsequent new payment periods) to set a new fee for the use of the Service Package, which then applies from the start of the new payment period. If the price of a new payment period is increased by more than 5% in comparison with the last fee charged, the Broker may terminate the contractual relationship within 14 days of the start of the new payment period with the increased price conditions (of more than 5%) in writing to become effective at the end of the month following the charge of the new price. In the case of termination of the contractual relationship by the Broker due to price increase, Fabasoft will charge the Broker the price applicable prior to the price increase for the duration of the notice period.

3.4.3 Upon completion of the contract, the fee is to be paid in advance within 30 days of the receipt of the invoice. Upon request, it may be possible for the Broker to pay the agreed fee by automatic bank transfer, direct debit or other similar payment method.

3.4.4 If the Service Package selected by the Broker involves an activity-based fee then a time limit exists within which the activities are to be carried out. The applicable time period is stated in the Fabasoft Cloud Partner Shop.

3.4.5 The Broker shall not be permitted to offset any receivables to which he is entitled from Fabasoft against payment of the fee. The payment obligation remains effective regardless of whether the requested user accounts are actually used.

3.4.6 Fabasoft expressly reserves the right to terminate or suspend the services being provided, without prejudice to any other rights, in the event of late payment by the Broker. As agreed by both contracting parties, a default interest of 8% above the base rate applies. In addition, the Broker shall reimburse Fabasoft for any collection costs. Furthermore, Fabasoft shall be authorized to permanently delete data stored by the Customer in the Fabasoft Cloud data centers.

Adjustment of Cloud Affiliate Marketing Agreement

The following items of the agreement have been modified:

the specific use of websites has been removed
the exclusivity in relation to services of competitors has been removed
spellings and legal concepts have been consolidated

2. The Partner ~~operates one or more proprietary websites and~~ has an interest in using or promoting Service Packages ~~Fabasoft Cloud service packages~~ within the context of collaborations with its business partners and customers.

By correctly completing the registration process as a Partner via the Internet (http://partner.fabasoft.com) and agreeing to this Fabasoft Cloud Affiliate Marketing Agreement (also referred to in the following as the ‘Contract’), the Partner submits an offer to enter into an agreement with Fabasoft according to the conditions of this Contract. Fabasoft accepts this offer by sending ~~transferring~~ a confirmation email to the email address provided by the Partner. The ~~partner may open, read, save, and print the~~ current version of this Contract can be found online at ~~agreement in English and German by accessing the link~~ http://www.fabasoft.com/affiliatemarketingagreement.

4.3 The Partner shall promote the distribution of Service Packages to the best of their ability, shall actively protect this interest, and shall meet their obligations according to this Contract with the due care of a professional businessman.

To this end, the Partner may integrate and maintain a link, provided ~~as indicated~~ by Fabasoft, on their ~~the~~ websites ~~operated by him~~ for the duration of the contract term. Via ~~and~~ this link the Partner’s customers shall be able to register for Service Packages. Fabasoft shall operate a service structure via the IT infrastructure implemented in its data centers that records all registration processes attributable ~~process that registers and activates the partner’s customers~~.

~~The characteristics and properties of the service structure are described and specified in their most up~~ to the Partner. The Fabasoft Cloud Affiliate Marketing Services are detailed ~~date form~~ in appendix ./2 (http://www.fabasoft.com/cams).

Fabasoft shall separately record each registration process using the Partner’s Affiliate Marketing ID ~~partner’s website~~ that registers and activates the Partner’s customers as users of Service Packages. Such business ~~Fabasoft Cloud service packages. Business transactions between Fabasoft and the partner’s customers that take place via use of the partner’s website~~ shall qualify as transactions that the Partner has commercially mediated, unless

the registered and activated user was already a registered and activated user of a Service Package in the twelve calendar months prior to the current registration process that is being evaluated and/or

the email address indicated during the registration process cannot be assigned to an actual customer of the Partner (e.g., the address belongs to a fictional, non-existent natural or legal person).

The Partner shall be entitled to remuneration for all business transactions ~~that are completed during the contractual period~~ between the Partner’s customers and Fabasoft which are completed during the contract term and which refer to the ~~previously indicated definition of the partner’s~~ commercial activities defined in this Contract. The claim to remuneration shall be valid as soon as the transaction mediated between Fabasoft and the Partner’s customer becomes legally binding.

The claim to remuneration shall be voided if ~~omitted in case it is determined that~~ the Contract between Fabasoft and the Partner’s customer does not become legally binding (e.g., due to withdrawal from the Contract by the Partner’s customer, ~~by the power of~~ consumer protection policies or equivalent provisions) and Fabasoft is not responsible for these circumstances.

4.5 The Partner shall at any times provide Fabasoft with any information that is required by Fabasoft in order for it to be able to provide the Partner’s customers with satisfactory business services.

Where appropriate and within the provisions of this Contract, the Partner shall support separate distribution activities on behalf of Fabasoft ~~to a suitable degree according to the provisions of this contract.~~

The Partner partner shall not directly or indirectly support products or services that directly compete with a Fabasoft Cloud service package or that represent a substitute product for the duration of this contract.

Within this context, the partner confirms that he (at the time of signing this contract) is not contractually involved with any other company in a manner that would violate the previously indicated obligations concerning competition.

shall not disclose any of Fabasoft’s business secrets that may be revealed over the course of this cooperation to third parties, and vice versa.

The Partner may only use intellectual property rights, especially with regard to trademarks and company image, etc. belonging to Fabasoft, within the context of and for the duration of this Contract and in accordance with clause 6 of this Contract.

…

7. Fabasoft explicitly reserves the right to amend or expand the appendices referred to in this Contract (links). The broker shall regularly review the most recent version of these appendices (links). In accordance with the above provisions, reference is made to the most recent descriptions in each case in the form of a dynamic reference. The referenced documents and links are integral parts of this Contract.

~~7. All appendices connected with this agreement form an integral part of this agreement, provided this agreement does not explicitly indicate otherwise.~~

~~Examples provided herein shall not limit the meaning of the provisions of this contract.~~

New Cloud Apps in April

William Wallace — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 22:00:00 +0000

A new month brings brand new Cloud Apps to the Cloud App Store - let us present you the latest newcomers and who knows, maybe you find the application you've been waiting for!

And don't forget that you can test all Cloud Apps for 3 months free of charge...

Notification Management

With this app, you can define an e-mail notification for any object. If you need to submit a document on a particular date, for example, then you can set up a series of email notifications to remind you to complete, review and submit the said document. You can also do the same for a team room and set up email notifications to remind you of certain deadlines and milestones. You can send notifications to yourself, to contacts or to entire groups/organizations/organizational units. The recipients receive the notification in their registered email inbox.

Simply select the relevant object (team room, document, contact etc.) and open the "Tools" menu. Then select the menu point "Notification"...

Fill out the form to determine who should receive the notification, when they should receive it and of course write the message that you want to send...

You can also manage the notifications for an object via "Manage Notifications" in the "Tools" menu...

Within the manage notifications dialog you can see all active notifications created by you for that object and edit them if needed. The button "Show all" also displays notifications that have already been sent...

The email notification includes the message and a link to the relevant object so that the recipient can access the document/team room etc. directly from the notification...

Activate the Cloud App!

Administrative Tasks and Logs

This is the Cloud App for the management of your administrative tasks – e.g. when it comes to the daily operation of IT solutions. Log relevant circumstances to remember them later on - just like a diary.

Once you've activated the Cloud App, you can create an "Admin-Task Desk". This is the central element that allows you to define your "Targets" and manage your "Tasks" and "Logs".

Tasks can be planned and assigned and you can record logs. Tasks and logs always refer to a target and can be created simply via the context menu of the relevant target...

A read-only CalDAV integration enables the logs and tasks to be viewed on mobile devices or on external apps such as Apple Calendar.

With the pro edition you can create sub-targets, which improve the structure and overview within your task desk and lead to better quality of documentation. All changes to a log are traceable.

Integration with the App "ITIL Desk" will be available in May 2013. This integration (admin task desk referenced in the ITIL desk) will enable ITIL changes, incidents and problems to be automatically logged to the relevant target (referenced in ITIL desk or underlying ITIL service) once completed.

Note: This Cloud App is only available for Folio Cloud allegro users. Find all advantages of this edition here.

Activate the free Cloud App! Test the Pro Version!

Measure Factory

This is a Cloud App for the management of your measuring systems and subsequent captured values. Measurement data can be submitted via SOAP/JSON integration, by importing a CSV/XLS file or by manual editing.

You first have to create a "Gauging Site". A "Gauging Site" consists of any number of stations, which in turn consist of any number of sensors. You can configure a type for each sensor, which defines what data it delivers and its corresponding limit. If a value is within 10% of its limit, the sensor's state is yellow (i.e. warning). If the data value lies outside of its defined limit the state is red (i.e. danger). If a station contains sensors with warning states, the station itself takes on the worst case color i.e. if one sensor is yellow and one red within a station, the station has the status red.

You first need to set up a "Gauging Site" - this is the hub for your measuring system within which you can configure the settings for your stations and sensors...

Under the "Stations" tab you can create your measuring stations...

You can also create sensor types, which define the limits for your sensor values (i.e. at what point the sensor turns yellow or red)...

The app also provides a webDAV integration so that you can use your calender to view the measuring days. The measuring values of your sensors are contained within the body text of the meeting.

Test the Cloud App!

View Your Own Cloud Timeline!

William Wallace — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 22:00:00 +0000

Displaying the history of team rooms and individual objects has taken on a whole new dimension. You can now clearly view the relevant events relating to a specific team room or object in a graphical timeline, thereby enhancing the transparency and traceability of Folio Cloud even further. Read more to find out how...

Open the context menu of the relevant team room or object and select "Show History":

Under the tab "Timeline" you can now view the events in a clear graphical timeline. Using the dynamic filters on the left-hand side you can restrict and filter the displayed events - according to a particular month, for example. The events are intuitively linked to the respective objects so that you can navigate to a specific document or team room directly out of the timeline. Related events are also grouped together on the timeline to improve the overview effect - you can click on the event to view the full list of individual events.

The further tabs "History", "By Object", "By Category" and "By User" remain of course available to you.

The Cloud As Your Personal Currency Converter!

William Wallace — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 22:00:00 +0000

With Folio Cloud you can now save a conversion table to your CRM system that lets you manually or automatically manage the exchange rates that are relevant to your business.
Find out below how it works...

Open the properties of a CRM Confirguration:

Open the conversion table properties via the context menu:

You can choose to manually add the currencies that are relevant for your CRM and update the values manually at any time:

You can select an external service for your conversion rates, for example the European Central Bank as shown below, for the automatic import and update of conversion rates. You can also define how often and when these values should be imported. By checking the box "Add Missing Rates", all conversion rates from the external service (in this case the ECB) are imported into the table. Otherwise only those currencies manually entered into the currency list shown in the previous step are imported/updated.

You can manually trigger an update of the exchange rates via the external service via the context menu "Update Exchange Rates":

You can open the conversion table to reference or view the different exchange rates at any time via the context menu within the CRM Configuration settings:

Try it out in CRM

You can activate the free 3 month test for the Cloud App CRM and try out the currency converter now!

EuroCloud Brunch with Fabasoft

William Wallace — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 22:00:00 +0000

On 17th April the sixth EuroCloud Brunch took place in the Fabasoft Art Cafe. For the first time cloud users, EuroCloud members and cloud providers convened outside of Vienna to exchange news and views on the topic of cloud computing.

Leopold Obermeier, MBA, opened proceedings, led the audience through the program and presented the study on the acceptance of cloud computing by Aschaffenburg University.

Mag. Ápárd Geréd (EuroCloud Austria) presented the cloud guidelines and DI Wolfgang Aigner informed businesses of how they can take part in the EuroCloud Awards 2013 with their cloud solutions.

Dr. Tobias Höllwarth also gave an overview of what's new in the world of EuroCloud along with information on planned activities both in Austria and internationally.

Andreas Dangl presented Folio Cloud and impressively demonstrated boundless business solutions with the assurance of knowing where your data is.

The event concluded with the presentation of two start-ups: Reinhard Novak's LineMetrics for production analysis as a service.
And Dr. Martin Vasko's expressFlow, which enables data encryption in the cloud by drag & drop.

The brunch afterwards gave guests and speakers the opportunity for some intensive networking... all in all a successful event in the Fabasoft Art Cafe!

Fabasoft would like to thank all guests for attending the EuroCloud brunch and looks forward to welcoming those interested back at future Fabasoft events.

New Android App "Excellent"!

William Wallace — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 22:00:00 +0000

The new Folio Cloud Android App version 2.0.5 has been released into the Google Play Store and received an "excellent" quality seal from independent app reviewer media Test digital!

Directly based on user feedback we made the app faster, more stable and more reliable - and the improvements have been confirmed with the awarding of the top mark of 5 stars in the app review. The examination of the app involved extensive testing of the user friendliness, design, functionality and information support. Each aspect was awarded a mark out of 5 (1 being the best) to produce a final result that corresponds to a number of stars (a top mark of 1 = 5 stars). Read on to find out exactly how the Folio Cloud app scored...

Marks

Criteria	Mark
User friendliness	1.15
Design	1.40
Functionality	1.15
Information and support	1.00
Final result	1.15 (★★★★★)

Description

The "Folio Cloud" app from Fabasoft is a cloud storage app that is particularly suitable for business use thanks to its high security standards. It shines with its many features and large support offering.

After downloading the Folio Cloud app onto an Android smartphone or tablet the user must sign in. This is done easily using either email address, social media ID or digital ID. Once logged in, the user can securely upload and manage files in the cloud, from a PC via a web browser or directly via the app. Alongside images, music, videos and other files types, documents from other applications such as emails can also be uploaded into the cloud.

In addition to the simple uploading and editing of files it is also possible to make documents available offline, even without internet connection.

A further useful feature are so-called "team rooms". Documents can be saved and contacts invited to team rooms. Users can accept or reject invitations to team rooms and add comments to documents. The support offering can also be very positively evaluated. Contact is possible via phone and email. There is also a Q&A database, tutorial videos and extensive FAQs.

Conclusion

Folio Cloud achieved an excellent score in our test. The app offers a wide range of features that cover almost everything you could ask of a cloud service. The synchronization works quickly and perfectly. Furthermore, our lab test found no problems in the security check, which makes it ideally suited for business use. The use of team rooms for the management of documents within working groups/teams is further proof of this business orientation.

Activate the app for free!

You can find the Folio Cloud Android App in the Google Play Store and activate it for free.

To the Google Play Store

Read the full test report at apptest.de (German only)

Manage Your Digital Assets in the Cloud!

William Wallace — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 22:00:00 +0000

Advertising agencies such as "The Bank" in the UK use Folio Cloud for the management of their digital assets and for the secure exchange of multimedia content with clients. The Cloud App Digital Asset Management converts image, video and audio content into different formats and ensures the effortless and efficient use of multimedia assets.

Convert audio and video files...

Convert your images, videos and audio files into different formats. With this new app, you always have your multimedia files in the format you need!

Save your videos as MP4, OGV or WEBM directly in the cloud via the context menu. This makes the different formats, which are also needed for HTML 5 video, quickly available to you.

Speichern Sie Ihre Audiodateien als MP3 oder OGG...

The conversion runs in the background and how long it takes depends on the size of the source file involved. The converted formats are then available in the properties under the "Content" tab. You can find further instructions in the user guide. In the user guide you can also find out how to delete formats that are no longer needed.

...and play them in your browser

You can play video and audio files in compatible formats such as MP4, OGG and WEBM directly in Folio Cloud.

Modern browsers support different video formats. If you convert your videos into MP4 and WEBM then you cover all current common browsers.

Video support in common browsers
	IE	Firefox	Safari	Chrome	Opera	iPhone	Android
OGG	·	3.5+	^†	5.0+	10.5+	·	·
MP4	9.0+	·	3.0+	5.0+^‡	·	3.0+	2.0+
WEBM	9.0+^*	4.0+	^†	6.0+	10.6+	·	2.3+
* Internet Explorer 9 supports WEBM if the user has installed the codec.
† Safari plays all formats that can be played by QuickTime.
‡ Google Chrome has announced that it plans to no longer support MP4.
Source: Video on the web: What works on the web

Convert images

With the Cloud App you can export your images in different formats and sizes either to a file system or to the clipboard.

Follow the steps below to download an image:

Select the relevant image in an object list.
Open the menu "Clipboard" and click "Download Image".
Set the desired width, height and format (png, gif, jpeg etc.).
The following options are available for the export: "Copy content to the clipboard"; "Copy link to clipboard"; "Download image".

Additionally, you can find the options "Copy image for presentation" and "Copy image for email" in the "Clipboard" menu. This then makes the selected image available for use in presentations (1024px wide) and emails (512px wide) respectively via the context menu.

Try it out yourself!

The Cloud App Digital Asset Management is available here for you to test for free!

Take Off With Your Bike in the Cloud!

William Wallace — Mon, 8 Apr 2013 22:00:00 +0000

As the temperatures finally creep above freezing and we no longer wake up the glistening of freshly frozen ice and snow on the early morning roads, the cyclists among us haven't been able to hide the smiles from their frost-bite threatened faces.

To celebrate the start of the (fair weather) cycling season - yes some hardy souls have braved the icy winds and roads on a saddle for the duration of the extended winter period - Folio Cloud app developer and cycling supremo Michael Jörg Wimmer has a new Cloud App to help you log your cycling exploits and even manage campaigns to get whole communities on their bikes...

...let us introduce you to Bicycle Diary!.

The Cloud App allows you to log your bike journeys over a defined period of time, to set yourself goals, to see how far and how often you've cycled and to see the extent of the positive impact your efforts have on the environment (CO₂ saving).

The app consists of 3 main components...

Bicycle Campaign: Creating a bicycle campaign allows you to define extensive settings for subsequent bicycle diaries. You can configure a time frame, set up a calendar and customize what corresponding diary and trip forms should look like (i.e. what information you want to be entered).

These campaigns can be for your own private use or you can make them available to wider communities simply by granting read access rights to all those who you want to be able to take part in the campaign. You could grant read access to your entire organization, for example, or make the team room "public" if it should be available to a wider public audience.

You can also set up a campaign for teams, where groups of a up to a defined number of people can compete against each other to see who can cycle the furthest distance or the most often. There's nothing like a bit of "friendly" sporting competition!

Bicycle Diary: A bicycle diary is essentially a logbook within which you can save your bicycle trips. You can configure your bicycle diaries to contain the information you want via campaigns (you can assign a bicycle diary to any available bicycle campaign and it adopts the corresponding settings). You can, for example, set the average distance per trip so that when you create your individual bicycle trips this value is automatically entered by default (is then changeable per trip).

Bicycle Trip: A trip is a journey that you make with your bike and is saved within a bicycle diary. How much information you want to log per trip is again defined by the bicycle campaign to which the bicycle diary is assigned.

Supporting cycling initiative in Linz

Every year the city of Linz runs the initiative "Linz fährt Rad" (Linz cycles) to encourage the people of Linz to cycle to work between the March and October. Teams of 3 can be formed within companies in Linz and their collective distance traveled is compared with other teams within the same company - the winning teams are rewarded with prestigious-looking trophies and generous sums of vouchers (see photo below of last year's Fabasoft winners!). Previously, the cycling data was compiled manually using spreadsheets.

Cloud App developer Michael Jörg Wimmer, inspired by the successful defense of his Fabasoft title in last year's competition, has produced an app that enables the complete management of the initiative in the cloud. The app has been adopted by the city of Linz for the management of this year's initiative and has been greatly received by participants and organizers alike.

Fabasoft award ceremony: Winner and Bicycle Diary developer Michael Jörg Wimmer second from left

A bicycle campaign was created for the initiative and made publicly available. Participants can easily record their trips within their specially configured bicycle diaries and team members can keep track of both their own and their team's progress.

Tutorial video!

See the Cloud App in action and find out how to create a campaign, diary, trips and teams...

Activate the app for free here!

Compliance Through Dynamic Watermarks

William Wallace — Sun, 7 Apr 2013 22:00:00 +0000

Cloud App "Watermarks"

The Cloud App "Watermarks" extends Folio Cloud with dynamic watermarks. This gives you a new dimension of security at document level.

Even if a document leave the secure team room environment, it remains clear and traceable where the document is from and who exported or printed it out.

And this is how it works: Create a Watermark Definition in the team room, configure the necessary settings and select a standard document. If you define that only released versions should have a watermark, the content of the saved standard document is displayed for documents without a released version.

All users with read only access then receive the document with the configured watermark. The settings apply therefore to the team room and not to a specific object.

Add watermarks (annotations) to PDF documents to protect them from unauthorized actions - even outside of the cloud! You can also define a password for the opening of PDFs.

Restrict the permitted actions. The following are available:

Changing document assembly
Extracting content for accessibility
Changing document
Printing
Extracting content
Filling form fields
Commenting
Printing in low resolution

You can find the Cloud App Watermarks in the Cloud App Store and test it for free here.

New Cloud App "Forms"

William Wallace — Wed, 3 Apr 2013 22:00:00 +0000

Since the beginning of April the new Cloud App "Forms" has been made available to all Folio Cloud medio users.

The Cloud App “Forms” editor offers an extremely intuitive interface with which new forms can be designed using drag and drop. This enables existing object classes to be easily extended with custom properties without any need for programming knowledge.

Creating forms

Forms are created in context of team rooms. If you are in a team room, the entry Form is provided in the “Development” category of the “Create” dialog.

Create a form and define the desired fields with drag and drop. To spread the fields on multiple tabs the new “New Page” button is provided.

For testing purposes an object based on the defined field can already be created (“Forms (Draft)” category) within the team room.

6.4.2 Modifying templates

By default, the fields are added to an Object With User Data. To add the fields to an existing object that will serve as template, edit the properties of the form and enter the desired object in the Template field.

6.4.3 Releasing forms for publishing

After successful tests or after reworking the form, release the form for publishing (context menu command “Release Form for Publishing”).

6.4.4 Publishing forms

A team member with at least read access can publish the form for groups, the team member belongs to (context menu command “Publish Form”). Thus, all group members can create corresponding objects (“Forms” category).

Note: The context menu command “Publish Form” can also be used to revoke the publishing.

Get the benefits of the "Forms" for your organization with Folio Cloud Edition medio!