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What better time of the year to start blue-sky thinking, with all the blue sky that's suddenly arrived (in Melbourne anyway), some 'spare' time coming up over Christmas and the New Year looming? Enjoy!
In this issue:
- Brilliant use of gaming technology for simulating navigation through new Westgate Freeway exits
- Client Spot: The Last Post - natural language searching and more...
- Movement towards Software as a Service increasing
- Client Spot: Karine Emanouel - couture shoe collection
Best wishes,
Heather Maloney
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Contact Point News - helping businesses keep up to date with changes in internet-based technology and how it can be used for business growth.
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Brilliant use of gaming technology for simulating navigation through new Westgate Fwy exits!
Melbourne people, and also those who visit from Interstate, will be very interested in this fabulous use of gaming technology to allow you to simulate which exit to take as the new freeway ramps are now in use. This was found for me by my husband, after I took the wrong turn for the third time in a row the other week! (NB: I was headed for different destinations each time...)
To try out the simulator point your browser to: http://www.mcwupgrade.com.au/omv/ You will probably need to install a component before you can play it (which takes awhile, so be patient!).
It's a simulator where you click first the direction you are approaching from, and then your destination at the other end of the system, and then you use the following keys to:
C to change view
Left Arrow to change lanes left
Right Arrow to change lane right
The technology used to provide the simulation is generally used for 3D gaming software. You can read about it here: http://a2.media.3ds.com/products/3dvia/3dvia-virtools/
Do you have a process that you would like to navigate your customers or staff through?
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 Client Spot: The Last Post - natural language searching and more... Contact Point was very pleased to be engaged by Logical Ideas Pty Ltd to assist with the creation of a new online service called "The Last Post", which allows people to find the details of today's funeral, and also future and past funerals, very quickly and easily. The service also allows families of deceased persons to create a Tribute Site, and have family members post their own personal tributes. We've been excited by the development which incorporates some very useful web technologies including:
- Natural language searching, with results sorted by relevance. This is a function that website users have come to expect due to the way Google operates, and we were able to utilise the latest version of mySQL's inbuilt capabilities in this area.
- Use of auto-complete in form fields allows the staff of The Last Post to much more quickly and consistently enter data about funerals occurring Australia-wide. There are already more than 16,000 funerals listed, which have all been entered by a rapidly appointed labour force around Australia, so ensuring ease of data entry and consistency of data is paramount.
- Allowing the responsible person for a funeral to create a Tribute Site for their loved one, with functionality similar to eBay in that they can choose a theme for their page (our designers enjoyed the challenge of creating a series of themes for this purpose), add a bold listing, add extra photos, add and format the text for their Tribute Site using a simple HTML editor, and of course view a preview of their Tribute Site before publishing. The responsible person can also return at a later date and add extra features.
- Slide-show of images dynamically generated on the fly with smooth transition of images loaded by the responsible person (no flash required).
Not only have we enjoyed working on the technology, we've been impressed by way the owners of The Last Post have gone about the development and execution of their idea. We look forward to the site being a great success.
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Movement towards Software as a Service (SaaS) increasing
Though it's been around for over 10 years now, the Software-as-a-Service model is becoming more prevalent, helped by the increasing launch of new web based applications such as Google Apps, and dare I self-promote, eNudge!
So what is Saas? Wikipedia describes it as "... a model of software deployment whereby a provider licenses an application to customers for use as a service on demand. SaaS software vendors may host the application on their own web servers or download the application to the consumer device, disabling it after use or after the on-demand contract expires." The model is pay as you use, for what you use.
There are lots of benefits, the most common being: cheaper software costs, paying for software just while you need it, without high costs of installation and purchase, and easier to work with others and remotely from your organisation through web-based applications.
I know that some of you are using SaaS applications to assist you to collaborate with virtual teams e.g. Google Calendar. So, I have three questions:
1/ Are you satisfied with the reliability and performance of the applications?
2/ Have you found them to be value for money?
3/ Are you considering utilising more SaaS applications in future e.g. are you considering using Google Docs (the SaaS 'equivalent' to Word, Excel and Powerpoint), Gmail for Business (rather than Outlook)?
Share your answers here.
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Client Spot: Karine Emanouel - couture shoe collection
 Contact Point have enjoyed working alongside Karine Emanouel as she launches her own collection of shoes, all manufactured in Australia, and delivered to customers using the Contact Point shopping cart system.
Our shopping cart system was modified for Karine Emanouel with the tracking of stock levels via the online administration to ensure that the limited stock per design, size and colour are not over sold.
The flash element on the front page, sales page and each collection page, draws product information from the online database, and facilitates the dynamic display of the chosen collection in an exciting way. You can click through and view a series of photos for each product, and then of course choose the colour and size required to purchase a new pair/s of designer shoes!
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 Filing emails as you send - if you're like me you use Outlook Email day in day out, and need to go back and find emails on a regular basis. To help me file emails into the right folder as I go along, I discovered a simple macro that prompts me whenever I send emails, asking where to store the copy of the sent message. If I don't choose to store the message in a particular folder, it just lands in Sent Items, and I can delete those later. To set this up, point your browser here and follow the instructions. |
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