The Online Workshop invites their customers to Christchurch, New Zealand for a special event.
As the owner/author of SmartAsset, we invite you to the first Annual SmartAsset and the fifteenth Annual FMMS User Conference.This event will be held on the 22nd – 23rd of April 2010.
Initially intended to be held at the International Antarctic Center, due to the number of registrations, the venue has been moved to downtown Christchurch at the Rydges Hotel.
The conference is an excellent opportunity to network, gain knowledge, swap experiences and share in the methods that have made other CMMS implementations successful around the globe. At the very least, the conference will give you something to think about and spur your train of thought and will potentially add value to the way you carry out maintenance management within your workplace.
The following are several compelling reasons to attend:
Meet other clients who have implemented SmartAsset. SmartAsset has been implemented at Port of Napier, AWB GrainFlow, Port of Auckland and Antarctica New Zealand.
Attend presentations on how to migrate from FMMS to SmartAsset directly from clients who have already done it and from the technical guys at The Online Workshop.
Find out how SmartAsset has been interfaced with MS Dynamics both from a user and technical perspective.
What deployment option best suits your needs? Find out about the various deployment methods including Web, mobile device, MS Office (Excel, Word, Outlook, Projects) and traditional client/server.
Why SmartAsset? Arm yourself with arguments to take back to your Company on why to adopt SmartAsset.
Why .NET and SQL Server? Find out from the authors the decision making processes which resulted in their commitment to SmartAsset and the selection of .NET as the development environment, and how this is good for you.
Find out the operating environment that SmartAsset runs under. Including which versions of product are compatible with SmartAsset and what hardware can be used.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
SmartAsset Microsoft Windows 7 Ready
Testament to SmartAsset's leading edge approach to design and architecture is the fact that after significant testing Microsoft have accepted the entry of SmartAsset in the Buy Australian Windows 7 Catalogue.
The Catalogue is an initiative of the AIIA and Microsoft. AIIA with the support of Microsoft developed the 'Buy Australian Software" initiative to promote the capability of the Australian software industry delivering Windows 7 Ready software and The Windows 7 Catalogue will be launched at AIIA's, Asia Pacific Digital Innovation Summit (APDIS) 16-17 December 2009. http://www.apdis.com.au/
We have signed up as an exhibitor at the Summit and delegates will be able to find us on the Microsoft stand where we will be demonstrating from one of the kiosks.
SmartAsset Unveiled on Win 7 at APDIS.
The Online Workshop will be unveiling SmartAsset on Windows 7 at the Asia Pacific Digital Innovation Summit (APDIS) and Exhibition which is to be held from 16 to 17th December 2009.
At this time Australia will welcome members of APICTA, ASOCIO and the Asia Pacific ICT industry to Melbourne for the Asia Pacific Digital Innovation Summit. http://www.apdis.com.au/
We are looking forward to the exposure APDIS will provide us as it brings together participants from 25 economies, represented by 37 associations for 3 days of technology exchange, ICT innovation, collaboration, trade partnerships and business for the ICT industry.
SmartAsset Goes Art Deco
You may recall from the Kiwi Travelogue of our last newsletter that SmartAsset was destined to be implemented for the Port of Napier.After several months of data preparation and two torrid weeks of uploading, testing, training and implementing, we are delighted to announce that SmartAsset is alive and well at the Port for the city that boasts some of the greatest examples of Art Deco architecture. The result of it being re-built after an earthquake levelled the place on February 3, 1931.
While the maintenance workshops and port facilities are functional rather than arty, they now play home to numerous PCs loaded with the Outlook Addin of SmartAsset to enable maintenance planning using calendars that are shared via MS Exchange, so that those needing to know can see the planned workload by major asset groupings. For the Port, these consist of mobile cranes, forklifts, wharves, vehicles, buildings and related services.
The Port is also the first SmartAsset customer to roll-out the Browser-deployed Job Request module enabling operations staff to report faults. The workshop planners receive these requests as emails and are able to raise and assign resultant jobs without leaving Outlook. Even the originator of the request gets an automatic email confirming this assignment and subsequent notification of job completion.
Training was conducted in the salubrious surroundings of the Port’s Board Room and consisted of a full-day planners training for 6, 2 half-days for training 12 job executors and 4 1-hour sessions for a total of 20 job requestors.Production data copied to a test database was used for the training. It comprised 4893 assets, 115 standard activities linked to 576 assets and 353 catalogue items.
The Port runs Dynamics GP for its financials and a real-time interface was delivered such that 
cost codes, supplier codes and CAPEX codes are validated directly against the GP database from SmartAsset. Purchase orders and subsequent receipts are posted back from GP to SmartAsset as material/resource costs and the costs of plant and labour as recorded via job resource feedback and timesheets (both entered via the SmartAsset Outlook addin) find their way back to GP as charges to the related Asset and material/labour recovery accounts.
cost codes, supplier codes and CAPEX codes are validated directly against the GP database from SmartAsset. Purchase orders and subsequent receipts are posted back from GP to SmartAsset as material/resource costs and the costs of plant and labour as recorded via job resource feedback and timesheets (both entered via the SmartAsset Outlook addin) find their way back to GP as charges to the related Asset and material/labour recovery accounts. While the two-week visit to Napier consisted mostly of hard work, this was somewhat tempered by the surroundings.
The walk to work of a morning was along a stretch of beach that has been enhanced with gardens (including a sunken one), a sound-shell, conference centre, skate park, aquarium and eateries.
For those of you that like to spoil a good walk by hitting (and sometimes missing in my case!) a little white ball, the region boasts a golf course that is rated 27th best in the world. The Cape Kidnappers course is a short drive south of Napier and includes some fairways that drop away to the ocean. While there was insufficient time to play a game, just visiting the place has inspired this author to plan a game there at some future date. Maybe the Port will one day play host to a SmartAsset user conference?
Christmas Message
It seems like only last week that we were forecasting a busy 2009 and no doubt this observation confirms that it truly was.
Within the space of a few days earlier in the year, The Online Workshop secured orders from the Ports of Auckland and the Australian Wheat Board for SmartAsset.
These activities have required a presence of our resources in New Zealand and in the wheat-growing regions of Australia for a period that would easily exceed 5 man-months in the provision of installation, training, user-acceptance and go-live assistance.
And this does not include the effort that was expended at our offices in Melbourne and Brisbane in the ongoing development process that has ensured the continued evolvement of SmartAsset.
And this does not include the effort that was expended at our offices in Melbourne and Brisbane in the ongoing development process that has ensured the continued evolvement of SmartAsset.
Additionally, the ACT Emergency Services Agency is poised to roll-out the hybrid FMMS/SmartAsset solution that sees the traditional Openroad Clients connecting to a SQL Server database that is also home to the SmartAsset Browser Deployment for requisitioning materials and raising job requests and the Mobile Deployment Capability that involves the use of PDAs for executing jobs in the field and for stock replenishment and stock take functions in central and satellite warehouses.
Despite all of this, Geoff managed to reduce his working hours in order to smell the roses, Keegan toured Europe for a couple of months, Anna wowed her teachers with an outstanding academic performance at university and Seya had a baby!
As per another article in this newsletter, Port of Napier have just implemented SmartAsset and we have commitments from two existing FMMS customer to migrate to SmartAsset during 2010.
So let’s all take a breath to enjoy the forthcoming festive season!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,
From the team at
KDR Creative Software
& The Online Workshop.
From the team at
KDR Creative Software
& The Online Workshop.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Christmas Invitation
Yes, we are once again celebrating the festive season with with our traditional Chicken and Champagne Breakfast and you are cordially invited to join us on the banks of the Yarra River for the celebration.
Date: December 24, 2009
Time: anytime from 7:00am
RSVP: dianne(at)kdr.com.au
Location:
We will be on the river's edge, between Swan St Bridge and Anderson St Bridge. Click on the map for a bigger picture
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
KDR Creative Software and The Online Workshop and Microsoft Exchange, the Story so Far.
KDR Creative Software have always had on the back burner the perceived need to introduce Microsoft Exchange into the office. There has been an intention to utilise shared calendars to keep a track of who is where and who is doing what.
Naturally this always remained as a nice to have project given that resources were always allocated to FMMS Support, FMMS development and of more recent times SmartAsset development.
Well with the introduction of SmartAsset and the Office Deployment Capability (ODC) the need to have Microsoft Exchange running in our office suddenly became a necessity and a reality.
Hence, began the project to introduce Microsoft Exchange to The Online Workshop.
Microsoft Exchange 2007 can only be run on 64-bit architecture and operating system, it does run in a 32-bit environment but it is not supported by Microsoft in a production environment.
We purchased a new Dell Server and installed Windows Server 2008.
We setup Active Directory and then installed Microsoft Exchange 2007.
We created a number of equipment mailboxes.
We used these equipment mailboxes to test shared calendar functionality in Microsoft Outlook.
Whilst we have utilised Microsoft Exchange to test SmartAsset ODC we are yet to adopt it into our office environment. There are still a number of outstanding issues to address.
Namely:
- Where does our mail sit before being downloaded by the client. ie. should we utilise an external web mail provider or should we have it delivered straight to our Microsoft Exchange Server.
- How do we setup outgoing mail via Exchange.
- Which equipment and resources should we setup as shared calendars.
- etc
With the work that we have performed via SmartAsset ODC we can see that the introduction of Microsoft Exchange into our fold can dramatically improve our office environment efficiency.
- When a sales person needs the data projector for a sales presentation they will simply check the shared calendar for its availability and then book it out as required.
- When a customer rings our office wishing to speak to a particular staff member who is not in the office we can simply check the shared calendar and let them know when they are expected back in the office.
- And many more possibilities.
Naturally this always remained as a nice to have project given that resources were always allocated to FMMS Support, FMMS development and of more recent times SmartAsset development.
Well with the introduction of SmartAsset and the Office Deployment Capability (ODC) the need to have Microsoft Exchange running in our office suddenly became a necessity and a reality.
Hence, began the project to introduce Microsoft Exchange to The Online Workshop.
Microsoft Exchange 2007 can only be run on 64-bit architecture and operating system, it does run in a 32-bit environment but it is not supported by Microsoft in a production environment.
We purchased a new Dell Server and installed Windows Server 2008.
We setup Active Directory and then installed Microsoft Exchange 2007.
We created a number of equipment mailboxes.
We used these equipment mailboxes to test shared calendar functionality in Microsoft Outlook.
Whilst we have utilised Microsoft Exchange to test SmartAsset ODC we are yet to adopt it into our office environment. There are still a number of outstanding issues to address.
Namely:
- Where does our mail sit before being downloaded by the client. ie. should we utilise an external web mail provider or should we have it delivered straight to our Microsoft Exchange Server.
- How do we setup outgoing mail via Exchange.
- Which equipment and resources should we setup as shared calendars.
- etc
With the work that we have performed via SmartAsset ODC we can see that the introduction of Microsoft Exchange into our fold can dramatically improve our office environment efficiency.
- When a sales person needs the data projector for a sales presentation they will simply check the shared calendar for its availability and then book it out as required.
- When a customer rings our office wishing to speak to a particular staff member who is not in the office we can simply check the shared calendar and let them know when they are expected back in the office.
- And many more possibilities.
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