BLOG: Hilltops IT now on Twitter

We've all seen the growth of interest in social networking websites such as Twitter for individuals and increasingly business' too. If you believe the hype, then Twitter is (or will be?) the next "killer app" to revolutionise our use of the internet and communication methods...

So, as a technology company that puts itself to the forefront of software and website development practices. we thought it about time we jumped on the bus!

You can view our tweets and follow the company twitterings here: http://twitter.com/HilltopsIT

The plan is to post strictly business updates on new products, services and development projects which Hilltops IT are involved in. We hope that existing and prospective customers alike will find it a useful way to keep up to date on how Hilltops IT can help their business.

Steve (Mr. Hilltops IT!) has also added his own personal Twitter account to share his thoughts and provide an insight into Hilltops IT's day-to-day activities. You can view the tweets and follow his twitterings here: http://twitter.com/StephenSiggs

Both accounts are something of an experient at this stage to see how we can apply Twitter for business purposes. We'll no doubt be blogging (and tweeting!) on the trial in due course!

QUOTEWERKS: Synnex Online Ordering Module setup

Aspire Technologies (authors of QuoteWerks sales quotation software) have released complete instructions for setting up the Synnex Online Ordering Module integration.

http://quotewerks411.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/quotewerksonlineorderingmodulesetupsynnex/

QUOTEWERKS: beta testers for SugarCRM integration required

Aspire Technologies are currently looking for beta testers for the new QuoteWerks integration with SugarCRM: http://quotewerks411.wordpress.com/2009/05/26/quotewerksacceptingbetatestersforsugarcrmintegration/

QuoteWerks has just released an interim build and is accpeting beta testers for the new SugarCRM integration. This new integration will function similar to the other contact manager integrations. Users will be able to test out the following features:

• Search SugarCRM for contacts or accounts contact information and pull into quote
• Create/Update linked document
• Create/Update follow up call
• Create/Update sales opportunity

Users can also utilize the QuoteWerks DataLink feature to pull additional information into the quote.

Those interested in beta testing this new integration should contact tech support at support@quotewerks.com or call +1 (407) 248-1481 ext. 3.

QUOTEWERKS: Aspire re-issue info on free QuoteWerks add-on utilities

Aspire Technologies (authors of QuoteWerks sales quotation software) have released a summary of information on the free QuoteWerks add-on utilities which are available from the QuoteWerks.com website.

Details can be found at the following URLs:
http://quotewerks411.wordpress.com/2009/05/22/quotewerks-dell-import-utility/
http://quotewerks411.wordpress.com/2009/05/21/quotewerks-rounding-utility/
http://quotewerks411.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/quotewerksexcelutility/
http://quotewerks411.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/grouppartnumberbuilderquotewerks/


Each of these utilities is available completely free of charge from the QuoteWerks.com website along with installation instructions.

If these utilities perhaps aren't quite your looking for in terms of enhancing QuoteWerks functionality, then please get in touch with us regarding our QuoteWerks development services. We have a large number of internally developed QuoteWerks add-on utilities, so we can cost-effectively provide solutions which fit your business' requirements. Email us - development@hilltopsit.co.uk - or give us a call on +44(0) 1782 465252. We look forward to hearing from you!

DEVELOPMENT: Microsoft Visual Studio Team Studio 2010 beta released

Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2010 Team Suite is the next generation of Microsoft development tools. It provides the ideal set of tools for every team disciple who is working on your project: architects, designers, developers, database experts, and testers. When a team is building skills and getting guidance at every step of the project life cycle, they will collaborate better than ever.

Overview
Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4 mark the next generation of developer tools from Microsoft. Designed to satisfy the latest requirements of developers, Visual Studio delivers key innovations in the following areas:

Democratizing Application Lifecycle Management
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) crosses many roles in a development organization. Traditionally, not every role has had an equal part in the process. Visual Studio Team System 2010 continues to empower an organization to build a platform for functional equality and shared commitment across its ALM process.

Enabling emerging trends
Every year the industry develops new technologies and new trends. With Visual Studio 2010, Microsoft delivers tooling and framework support for the latest innovations in application architecture, development, and deployment.

Inspiring developer delight
Ever since the first release of Visual Studio, Microsoft has set the bar for developer productivity and flexibility. Visual Studio 2010 continues the tradition by significantly improving the experience for all software development roles.

Riding the next generation platform wave
Microsoft continues to invest in the market-leading operating system, productivity applications, and server platforms to deliver increasing customer value. With Visual Studio 2010, customers will have the tooling support that is required to create amazing solutions around these technologies.

For more information about Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4, visit the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Web site.



Web installer download available here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=85520793-68fc-4361-a8b6-dc2cff49c8d2&displaylang=en

ISO download available here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=255fc5f1-15af-4fe7-be4d-263a2621144b&displaylang=en

.net framework 4.0 training kit download available here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=752cb725-969b-4732-a383-ed5740f02e93&displayLang=en

ReadMe here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/A/0/7A023209-096F-4F7D-B2BC-831ECC68FF5B/VS2010Beta1Readme.htm

Support and feedback forum here: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/VSPreRelease,netdevelopmentprerelease,visualstudioprerelease,vstsprerelease



Is there anything that we have missed!? Please let us know if there are any other useful downloads or information that you've found. Please also share your thoughts and experiences in Visual Studio 2010 - the latest software development environment from Microsoft.

CONNECTIT: ConnectIT-WebCart beta released

We are very please to announce the release of the ConnectIT-WebCart beta. This utility links an online web shop to QuoteWerks, Sage 50, Sage MAS and Microsoft Dynamics RMS (retail management solution).


Over the years, we have created several bespoke software development utilities which link a businesses web shop to their back office system. Utilities for QuoteWerks, Sage and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. When we were approached to create a link for Microsoft Dynamics RMS as well it was a natural extension of these utilities. Plus, in a market place where high street shops are increasingly moving their business' online for the cost-saving and globalisation opportunities, strategically it was a good project to take on.



With our culture of constantly innovating and looking forward for new opportunities, rather than tackle the project as just another bespoke utility, we took the decision to wrap up all the previous work into one ConnectIT product. Followers of the blog will remember that we had a prototype version of ConnectIT-WebCart back in the early part of the year. With focus drifting onto other projects, this got put to one side, but we felt that with this project it was time to pick it back up again.

This first beta release focuses on the Microsoft Dynamics RMS link in order to satisfy the requirements of this particular project. However, given that this is built on the same data structures and code base as the other bespoke projects, then links for QuoteWerks, Sage 50, Sage Instant and Sage MAS won't be too far behind!

For more information on the ConnectIT-WebCart product, please direct your query through your QuoteWerks or ConnectIT partner. If they are unable to help, then please don't hesitate to contact the ConnectIT development team direct: development@connectit-online.co.uk

SAGE50: Sage 50 Accounts 2009 Update 1

Sage 50 Accounts 2009 Update 1 service release was pushed out today. This wraps up several minor enhancements and issue resolutions.

For further details, please contact your Sage reseller or Sage Customer Services directly on 0845 111 5555.

CONNECTIT: ConnectIT-Sage v1.10.1 released

This new release of ConnectIT-Sage QuoteWerks to Sage 50 Accounts link includes the following updates and bug fixes:

UPDATE: replaced the files for the SDO (Sage Data Objects) which allow ConnectIT to integrate with Sage 50 Accounts 2009 for the revised ones released by Sage 12/5/2009. This revision allows up to 6 simultaneous SDO connections without the need to purchase additional Sage licenses.

FIXED: discrepencies seen in the Tax on Sage Purchase Order line items - ConnectIT was using the selling price tax value, not the cost price tax value when writing Purchase Order information to Sage.
FIXED: a tax amount for Carriage may show on a Purchase Order even though the ConnectIT Configuration had the Purchase Document Carriage Tax Code set as "T0" - ConnectIT was ignoring this setting when creating Purchase Order documents, the QuoteWerks document tax rate was always applied to Purchase Order carriage.
FIXED: Conversion from string "" to type 'Boolean' is not valid error when running ConnectIT - this could occur if the user had not opened ConnectIT Configuration to check the new settings added in version 1.10.0 and pressed "Save".


After more than 2 years of having no bugs in a production release, the ConnectIT development team were mortified to find out that a bug had been found in the software. As is stereotypically the case, the ConnectIT software development team have a love for fast food (second only to their love for programming!). By way of self-inflicted punishment for the bug (which was ultimately a school boy error in the code) they are banning themselves from fast food for 1 month!!! (I just hope they survive! - Ed.)

For more information on ConnectIT-Sage and the other products in the ConnectIT suite of time and labour saving products, please see the ConnectIT website here, contact your QuoteWerks / ConnectIT reseller or email info@connectit-online.co.uk

DEVELOPMENT: meeting users expectations and easing frustration

A few tips from Justin James at TechRepublic on ways that developers can meet users expectations and ease frustration.

Introduction
It’s no surprise that users have expectations that, if not met, make those users angry and frustrated. User-friendly applications are much more likely to generate revenue, from sales of the software, sales enabled by the software, or some other revenue model. Yet for whatever reason, a significant portion of applications don't meet user expectations in a number of areas. Here are 10 common user expectations and what you can do to meet them so that you'll have a happy group of users.

See the full article here: http://i.techrepublic.com.com/downloads/dl_10_user_expectations.pdf

BLOG: Vistage Regional Group meeting

Today (13th May 2009), I (Steve Siggs) had the privilege of attending the Vistage Regional Group meeting at the Forest of Arden Country Club along with approximately 140 other Vistage group members. It was a very well organised and thoroughly enjoyable event. The focus for the day was "Outside In - New Thinking for Extraordinary Times". Primarily ways and benefits of taking a look at your company from your customers' point of view, plus looking at yourself from both your customers' and your employees' point of view.

With keynote presentations from some of the countries leading business experts - Peter Fisk, Dale Williams, Roger Martin-Fagg, Jeff Grout and Marcus Child - plus group discussion and networking opportunities. As is always the case with Vistage: it was an exhausting, but thoroughly invigorating day. And again - as always - I left with another list of things to think about and implement to help build Hilltops IT's success!

Onwards and upwards! :-)

If you'd like any more information on Vistage, how it works and the benefits I feel that I have attained from membership, please don't hesitate to get in touch: steve@hilltopsit.co.uk

CONNECTIT: now offering increased user support

We've just been notified by Developer Services that now more ConnectIT-Sage users can link to Sage accounts without having to upgrade or purchase additional Sage licenses.

From Sage Developer Services:

With exception to Sage 50 Accounts Professional, all connections to the Sage 50 Accounts database via the software development kit (Sage Data Objects (SDO)), are currently limited to the number of licensed Sage 50 Accounts users.

Given that Sage 50 Accounts and Sage 50 Accounts Plus are only available with single user or 2 user licences, the opportunity to accommodate multiple third-party add-ons and integrated multi-user applications, can prove restrictive. For example - with a 2 user licence, only 1 x Sage 50 Accounts user login and 1 x SDO connection may be established. With a single user licence, an SDO connection will not be permitted if a Sage 50 Accounts user is already logged in, and vice versa.

Now you can manage up to 6 simultaneous SDO connections

In response to feedback from our customers, Business Partners and of course our Developer community, SDO has been enhanced to manage up to 6 simultaneous connections to the Sage 50 Accounts 2009 database. For example - if 1 x Sage 50 Accounts user is logged on, a maximum of 5 x SDO user connections will be permitted.



So what does this mean for ConnectIT users?

Once this SDO update has been installed, Sage will allow you to have more users accessing the accounts files through ConnectIT. So there's no need to buy additional licenses for Sage and no need to log out of Sage in order to transfer documents.

For existing users: contact Sage support, they will be able to supply you with the updated SDO installation files with instruction on how to install them.

For new users: we will be releasing a new version of the ConnectIT software later this week which will have the updated SDO files included as part of the installation.

And what about partners?

This means new opportunities for ConnectIT-Sage sales! For any companies that you may have spoken to in the past that rejected ConnectIT due to the expense of an upgrade to Sage, now here's the answer!

More information

For more information on the updates, please contact your ConnectIT or Sage reseller or email us: support@connectit-online.co.uk

For more information on the increasing range of ConnectIT products and how they can help deliver efficiencies to your business, please see the ConnectIT website here.

QUOTEWERKS: free example report

A recent post on the QuoteWerks Support Forum reminded me of an example report we have which illustrates the difference between counting line items and documents. If anyone would like a free copy, then please email support@hilltopsit.co.uk

We use the report as part of our QuoteWerks Reporting training course which we have successfully delivered to QuoteWerks users both in person and worldwide over the internet using gotomeeting screen sharing software. If you are a new user to QuoteWerks or would like some advanced training to unleash the power of QuoteWerks business intelligence reporting, then please get in touch now on +44(0) 1782 564252, +44(0) 844 357 7360 or email info@hilltopsit.co.uk

We look forward to hearing from you!

BLOG: New vacancies live of Graduate Advantage

Marketing Assistant (part time summer placement): http://www.graduateadvantage.co.uk/placement/396

Software Developer (part time summer placement): http://www.graduateadvantage.co.uk/placement/397

Business Development Manager (full time 12 month placement): http://www.graduateadvantage.co.uk/placement/398


Graduate Advantage (funded by Advantage West Midlands) help students and graduates find and apply for paid full-time and part-time work placements, summer internships, graduate placements, and free employability training. They offer placements in all sectors of industry and business across the West Midlands.

Hilltops IT is working with Graduate Advantage in order to find suitable candidates to fill the above positions. "The Graduate Advantage scheme works for us on so many levels." says Hilltops IT CEO, Stephen Siggs "Not only is it an opportunity to work with local colleges to give the students there the chance to work with a commercial enterprise, but also from a business perspective we can get temporary contract staff to work on a couple of projects we simply haven't had time to complete ourselves. What Graduate Advantage in terms of their screening and grant funding also make this a very cost-effective solution which will contribute to the local community."

Our existing graduate employees say that they would have loved to work for a commercial business during their summer breaks. Unfortunately (according to Graduate Advantage) it is not uncommon for students educated in the West Midland to move outside the area in order to get work. There is a focused effort from government and local projects to retain these skilled individuals in the West Midlands. You never know - maybe Hilltops IT will be giving the next Bill Gates, Sir Alan Sugar or Max Clifford their first opportunity in business!

BLOG: Trainer Certification from Glasgow CC

For our Business Computing and Website / E-Commerce training services provided to businesses throughout the UK and to recognise the work which we have done with business in Glasgow specifically through their Business Training Grants Programme, Glasgow City Council has awarded Hilltops IT a Trainer Certificate. Well done to Vivienne Watts, Stephen Siggs and Steven Porter for their work in delivering exemplary training courses for our clients.

For more information on our ACT! and QuoteWerks training, plus website services please phone now on +44(0) 1782 564252 or +44(0)844 357 7360 or email info@hilltopsit.co.uk

For businesses in Glasgow and any other region, we can also help with practical advice on getting training grants for your business, plus we have all the paperwork to hand in order to move smoothly through the grant application procedures.

We look forward to hearing from you!

DEVELOPMENT: Cannot obtain the schema rowset "DBSCHEMA_TABLES_INFO" for OLE DB provider "SQLNCLI" for linked server

Running a query from SQL Server 2008 over a linked server connection to a SQL Server 2000 server causes the following error:

OLE DB provider "SQLNCLI10" for linked server "mylinkedserver" returned message "Unspecified error".
OLE DB provider "SQLNCLI10" for linked server "mylinkedserver" returned message "The stored procedure required to complete this operation could notbe found on the server. Please contact your system administrator.".
Msg 7311, Level 16, State 2, Line 1
Cannot obtain the schema rowset "DBSCHEMA_TABLES_INFO" for OLE DB provider interface, but returns a failure code when it is used.

Or

The stored procedure required to complete this operation could not be found on the server. Please contact your system administrator.
Msg 7311, Level 16, State 2, Line 1
Cannot obtain the schema rowset "DBSCHEMA_TABLES_INFO" for OLE DB provider "SQLNCLI" for linked server "". The provider supports the interface, but returns a failure code when it is used.


Firstly, SQL Server 2000 SP4 (service pack 4) must be installed.

Then the system stored procedures must be manually upgraded.

Note that when manually upgrading the system stored procedures, we used SQL Server Authentication mode which requires the syntax:
osql -U [adminlogin]-P [adminpassword]-S [linkedservername]-i [location]\instcat.sql

We first entered the line as:
osql -U sa -P myPassword -S myServer -i C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Install\instcat.sql

But this just bought up the osql help /? list of parameters. To avoid this, make sure that the -i path is in speech marks!
osql -U sa -P myPassword -S myServer -i "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Install\instcat.sql"

Note that the manual upgrade takes a couple of minutes to run and there are a whole bunch of message and numbers displayed in the command window as it executes. If the process is successful, then the last but one line will read "instcat.sql completed successfully".

In our experience, the SQL Service did not need to be restarted, the fix worked immediately and we were able to query the SQL Server 2000 server from SQL Server 2008 over the link immediately:
SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM myLinkedServer.myDatabase.dbo.myTable

We hope that this tip helps others new to SQL Server 2008 development!

Please see our website for more information on our software development services and software development resources.

DEVELOPMENT: rsReportServerDatabaseUnavailable on Reporting Services 2008

Trying to connect to the SQL Server Reporting Services reports server for the first time using http://MyServerName/Reportserver, we got the following error:

The report server cannot open a connection to the report server database. A connection to the database is required for all requests and processing. (rsReportServerDatabaseUnavailable) Get Online Help. SQL Server does not exist or access denied.

Using http://localhost/Reportserver opened a login dialog, but the administrator username and password didn't work.

Discussing this with the company who supplied the server, it came to light that the server name had been changed after SQL Server Reporting Services had been installed.

We resolved this by using the rsconfig utility:

Opening a Command Prompt and executing a line like this:
rsconfig -c -sMyServerName -dReportServer -aWindows -uDomain\Account -pMyPassword

Followed by resetting IIS (Internet Information Services)
iisreset

We hope this helps!

DEVELOPMENT: SQL Server 2008 - saving changes is not permitted

After installing SQL Server 2008 we were unable to save updates to any of the existing database tables. Every time we tried to save a change to the table, we got the following error:

Saving changes is not permitted. The changes you have made require the following tables to be dropped and re-created. You have either made changes to a table that can’t be re-created or enabled the option Prevent saving changes that require the table to be re-created.

To resolve this, click the SQL Server Management Studio Tools Options Designers option and untick the "Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation" checkbox.

We hope this helps anyone else that's new to SQL Server 2008 development!

CONNECTIT: ConnectIT-Sage v1.10.0 released

The new release of ConnectIT-Sage QuoteWerks to Sage link adds support for Sage Instant 2009 Accounts and Accounts Plus.

Sage Instant Accounts is easy-to-use accounting software designed to make managing your money, including VAT, end of year accounts and invoicing, as quick and easy as possible. You’ll have all the information you need to manage your business at your fingertips.
Sage Instant Accounts is a simple bookkeeping package that gives you all the tools you need to successfully manage your finances, accounts, customers and suppliers.

Now Sage Instant Accounts users can take advantage of ConnectIT's time saving capabilities, allowing users to create Product Sales Order, Product Invoice, Product Credit, Service Invoice and Service Credit document types in Sage from the information in their QuoteWerks document.

For more information, please your QuoteWerks reseller or contact us on +44(0) 1782 564 252 or email info@hilltopsit.co.uk

Business Development Manager wanted (Stoke-on-Trent)

A new full time position is available for a sales person selling computer software products and services. This is an excellent opportunity to join a small, ambitious, highly motivated and positive team of individuals in a growing business and offers excellent career prospects for the successful candidate.

The role will be predominantly working from the office managing and developing a portfolio of prospective and existing customers locally, nationally and internationally. The successful candidate must be well organised, an excellent communicator over the phone, motivated, confident, highly professional, excellent at building lasting relationships, be able to demonstrate excellent computer skills and have an understanding of the software industry. You will report to the Managing Director and be expected to deliver the agreed levels of revenue and profit, whilst adopting a solution lead, consultative sales approach to ensure that customer requirements are met.

Ideally, you will have experience of dealing with small and medium sized businesses. Experience of contact management, quoting and accounts packages, website and software development processes will also be an advantage.

To start as soon as possible. Candidate must have their own car. Package negotiable, commission based (uncapped).

Please apply in writing to Hilltops IT, Lymedale Business Centre, Lymedale Business Park, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, ST5 9QF or by email enquiries@hilltopsit.co.uk. Please include your up-to-date CV and covering letter.

Strictly no agencies.