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: 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.

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.

DEVELOPMENT: Google launches API for Google Analytics

Google has announced the release of an API for Google Analytics. This means developers will be more tightly integrate information into users back office, web and mobile applications.

Announcement Headline: A Google Analytics API has long been one of our most widely anticipated features. Today we're pleased to announce that the Google Analytics Data Export API beta is now publicly available to all Analytics users!

What's so exciting about an API? The API will allow developers to extend Google Analytics in new and creative ways that benefit developers, organizations and end users. Large organizations and agencies now have a standardized platform for integrating Analytics data with their own business data. Developers can integrate Google Analytics into their existing products and create standalone applications that they sell. Users could see snapshots of their Analytics data in developer created dashboards and gadgets. Individuals and business owners will have opportunities to access their Google Analytics information in a variety of new ways.

For the full announcement, please see the Google Analytics Blog post.

For more information on Hilltops IT's software development services and to speak with one of our development team about the possibilities for integrating Google Analytics information into your business support systems, please contact us by phone on +44(0) 1782 564252 or by email: development@hilltopsit.co.uk

CONNECTIT: ConnectIT-MAS90 QuoteWerks to Sage MAS90 and MAS200 v1.1.1 released

ConnectIT-MAS90 QuoteWerks to Sage MAS90 and MAS200 v1.1.1 has been released today - Friday 13th March 2009.

This new release wraps up several enhancements which ConnectIT users and partner resellers have requested as follows:

UPDATE: transfer the Contact name selected for the Address fields from QuoteWerks to the Confirm To field in the Sage MAS document
UPDATE: support for names and descriptions, etc in QuoteWerks that are longer than those in Sage MAS. ConnectIT will now trim the QuoteWerks field to match on just the left 'x' characters, allowing a match to be found.
UPDATE: new ConnectIT icons

Existing users with current UMP: download your copy from here - http://www.connectit-online.co.uk/download.aspx?p=CITMAS90

New customers or users without UMP: please contact your ConnectIT / QuoteWerks reseller or email sales@connectit-online.co.uk for further information.

To request new features that would help your business process run more effectively, please email development@connectit-online.co.uk

For more and up-to-date information on the ConnectIT suite of products, please see the website here: http://www.connectit-online.co.uk/

The ConnectIT Development Team has a proven track record in producing quality products and utilities for QuoteWerks, Sage 50 Accounts, Sage MAS and Microsoft CRM. They will be happy to help you with any enquiries you have relating to developments on these products or stand-alone solutions and websites.

DEVELOPMENT: tips for developing applications for "the cloud"

Cloud computing, which involves accessing applications and services on hosted servers over the Internet, certainly has become the hot tech trend for 2009. The volume of cloud applications can only be expected to grow, and this fact brings both new benefits and responsibilities for developers.

While cloud deployments can save developers from having to deal with infrastructure issues, there are some new nuances they must deal with as well. These include changes in how developers work with databases, an emphasis on stateless applications, and dealing with different frameworks.

for more information, see the article from here: http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/09/03/11/10NF-cloud-app-dev_1.html

CONNECTIT: ConnectIT-Sage QuoteWerks to Sage 50 Accounts v1.9.0 released

ConnectIT-Sage QuoteWerks to Sage 50 Accounts v1.9.0 has been released today - Monday 2nd March 2009.

This new release wraps up several enhancements which ConnectIT users and partner resellers have requested as follows:

ADDED: the ability to select which Suppliers Purchase Orders are created for.
ADDED: the ability to transfer Comment lines into Sage as Message lines.
ADDED: the ability to transfer Group (Bundle) Header lines as Comments into Sage as Message lines.
ADDED: a check on whether a customer or suppliers credit limit has been exceeded. The prompt can be suppressed by ticking the Configuration Advanced "Suppress prompts that Customers or Suppliers Balance exceeds their Credit Limit" tick box.
ADDED: the ability to transfer a value into the Sage document line item Comment 1 and 2 fields

UPDATE: if the "Override Product Tax" field is ticked in the Sage Supplier record, then use the Default Tax Code and corresponding Tax Rate from Sage on all lines when creating Purchase Order documents (works for all supported versions of Sage 50 Accounts). Note that the user must be using the "Supplier Address information is maintained in Sage not QuoteWerks" Configuration option.
UPDATE: if the "Override Product Nominal" field is ticked in the Sage Supplier record, then use the Default Nominal Code and Department number from Sage on all lines when creating Purchase Order documents (works for version 14 - 2009 - of Sage 50 Accounts only, this option is not available in earlier versions). Note that the user must be using the "Supplier Address information is maintained in Sage not QuoteWerks" Configuration option.
UPDATE: include all Document Header fields in the Configuration Customer Account Reference, Documents Sales Doc Number, Purchase Doc Number and Creation Date field drop down selectors
UPDATE: new ConnectIT icons

Existing users with current UMP: download your copy from here - http://www.connectit-online.co.uk/download.aspx?p=CITSAGE50

New customers or users without UMP: please contact your ConnectIT / QuoteWerks reseller or email sales@connectit-online.co.uk for further information.

To request new features that would help your business process run more effectively, please email development@connectit-online.co.uk

For more and up-to-date information on the ConnectIT suite of products, please see the website here: http://www.connectit-online.co.uk/

The ConnectIT Development Team has a proven track record in producing quality products and utilities for QuoteWerks, Sage 50 Accounts, Sage MAS and Microsoft CRM. They will be happy to help you with any enquiries you have relating to developments on these products or stand-alone solutions and websites.

DEVELOPMENT: Fortnightly digest - what's happening at Hilltops IT and the world of software development

Development Team Diary


Most of the effort this last couple of weeks has been on some of our own software products in the ConnectIT suite. With last weeks ConnectIT-WebCart prototype release and a new beta release of ConnectIT-Sage QuoteWerks to Sage 50 Account link out today.


Other smaller projects include a bespoke software development utility for a client which validates QuoteWerks fields for values entered in particular fields. Commercially available utilities to do this were unfortunately cost-prohibitive because they contain far more features that the client actually requires. Fortunately we have been able to develop the solution for less than half the price, which the client is over the moon with!!!

For further information on our software development services, please do not hesitate to contact us on +44(0)844 357 7360 or +44(0)1782 564252 or email development@hilltopsit.co.uk

We look forward to hearing from you!

BLOG: Hilltops IT attend Promota Promotional Merchandise Trade Association show

The Promota Promotional Merchandise Trade Association show is the annual show for promotional gifts industry supplier and distributor members to meet, network and do business.

Exhibitors commented on the quality of the contacts made over the two day show. The eye-catching Promota show bus in the centre of the hall gave members the opportunity to meet the service providers and find out what the association is doing to support your business in difficult trading times. Both new and long-standing members found ways to protect their company and reduce overheads.

Today representatives from Hilltops IT attended alongside Sourcing City to present and talk about the new and existing products and website services which we have been heavily involved in developing. Plus it was a good opportunity to meet and greet many of our own clients from within the promotional gifts industry.

The solution offerings which had the most interest from attendees include the imminent Sourcing City website development (the current version of which was awarded BPMA Website of the Year 2008), Dynamic Office - a QuoteWerks based software solution tailored for use in the promotional gifts industry, Sourcing Planet - a website optimised promotional gift sourcing tool for end users, plus miscellaneous queries on bespoke back office system customisations and website developments.

Note to non-promotional gifts industry readers: please don't think that our solutions are exclusive to the promotional gifts industry! Our solutions are fit for "any" business that manages customer or supplier relationships, sells products or services or requires a website.

For further information on our website and software development services, please do not hesitate to contact us on +44(0)844 357 7360 or +44(0)1782 564252 or email development@hilltopsit.co.uk

We look forward to hearing from you!

CONNECTIT: new product added to suite

Internally, we released a new prototype product to fit into the ConnectIT suite today.

This new product transfers information from an online ordering database into QuoteWerks, Sage 50 Accounts, Sage MAS 90 or Sage MAS 200. So, rather than manually re-entering your website orders into your back office system, ConnectIT now takes the hard work out of it for you!

As with the other products in the ConnectIT suite, this new application will save significant time and effort with the manual re-entry. Plus save the cost of mistakes that are inevitably made.

The product is built on the same .net development technology used for other ConnectIT products and leverages some of the techniques utilised in other bespoke software development and website development projects which we have been involved in. The prototype links to a .net web service using XML to transfer the information.

For more information on the features, integration options and release schedules, please contact development@connectit-online.co.uk. On release, full details will be made available on the ConnectIT website.

Finally: we haven't decided on the name yet - possibly ConnectIT-WebTransfer, ConnectIT-WebCart or ConnectIT-Trolley - if you've got a snappy idea for a name, then please email sales@connectit-online.co.uk. If your suggestion gets taken up, then you'll win a free copy of the final released software!

DEVELOPMENT: Fortnightly digest - what's happening at Hilltops IT and the world of software development

We've been writing on the blog now for several weeks about the SQL Server Reporting Services bespoke Business Intelligence reporting bespoke development project which we have been developing. This also involved some SQL Server Integration Services work - the two go hand-in-hand in many ways for larger reporting database projects.

For anyone interested in SSIS, there is a useful introductory article here which explains many of the concepts: http://www.sql-server-performance.com/articles/biz/SSIS_An_Inside_View_Part_1_p1.aspx



For further information on our website and software development services, please do not hesitate to contact us on +44(0)844 357 7360 or +44(0)1782 564252 or email development@hilltopsit.co.uk

We look forward to hearing from you!

BLOG: Hilltops IT launch new website

For anyone that knows us or reads the blog regularly, you'll know this has been a while coming and now it's here! The "new and improved" Hilltops IT website. It has taken a little longer than expected, but that's only due to our commitment to putting our customers first and satisfying their requirements and timescales before our own internal projects.

Now that it is here, the new website represents our company much better. The old one was "ok", but having simply "evolved" over three years, we have to admit that it was getting a bit confusing.

Reflecting, taking a step back, and looking at our company in relation to how we present ourselves on the web and redesigning the logo has been a refreshing experience. The new website focuses much better on the products and services we focus on to give it a cleaner presentation. Having brought more experienced website design and development skills into the business and working alongside them, sharing ideas, we have produced a website which is much more visual and easier to navigate than the previous one.

See the new website for yourself here: http://www.hilltopsit.co.uk/

If you'd like more information on our experiences of re-branding our company or for further information on our website design and development services, please do not hesitate to contact us on +44(0) 844 357 7360 or +44(0) 1782 564252 or email info@hilltopsit.co.uk

BLOG: Hilltops IT customer wins award for their website

Sourcing City has won BPMA Website of the Year 2008. Hilltops IT worked alongside Akiko Design to develop the site – each company focussing on their strengths in a project which involved automatic database and FTP synchronisation between remote data sources, complex search functionality, user tracking through the site, plus (of course!) a slick user interface.

Says David Long (Chairman, Sourcing City): “Thanks and congratulations to all of the team that have contributed to our Award; I really appreciate what you do to get us to the top. Many people put a lot of effort into making sure we are the best at what we do and now it has been officially recognised by our National Trade Association. I think we all have every reason to feel really proud of what we have achieved together. To put thing into perspective, we are now officially the Best Website in the £1 Billion Promotional Merchandise Industry.”

Says Stephen Siggs (CEO, Hilltops IT): “It’s fantastic to have been associated with this project and the award. It is particularly exciting in light of the imminent release of a new site, which has improvements in every area plus lots of new features. Wait until your customer-base and BPMA get a load of that!!!”



About the Site
The current site allows users to search (and find!) promotional merchandise products and suppliers thereof from a database of over 80,000 products. Over the five years since its original launched, Sourcing City has become an increasingly utilised tool for Distributors in the Promotional Merchandise industry to find products and for Suppliers to advertise their products.

The site has several product categorisations to help users find products and suppliers. It also has features which allow the user to email information on the product direct to their client.

As well as having a significant design facelift, the new site has hugely improved search functions to help users search and find different and innovative products for their clients’ promotional activities. With this alongside the reporting, ‘page turning’, ‘real-time branding’ and ‘lite’ quotation tool features, users can look forward to a significantly enhanced experience.



Technical Specifications
The current website was originally developed using SQL Server 2000 for data storage (subsequently upgraded to SQL Server 2005) with a Visual Studio 2005 .net 2.0 with AJAX developed front end and content management system (CMS).

The new website (due to be launch imminently) uses the same SQL Server 2005 database for data storage, SQL Server Reporting Services for reporting with a Visual Studio 2008 .net 3.5 with AJAX developed front end and content management system (CMS).

The data which ‘drives’ the site is automatically synchronised from Sourcing City’s [in-house system] plus statistics on “who’s clicking on what and when” are captured as part of the site for market analysis purposes.



Further Information
If you'd like more information on our experience with website design, website development or business intelligence reporting services, please do not hesitate to contact us on +44(0) 844 357 7360 or +44(0) 1782 564252 or email info@hilltopsit.co.uk

DEVELOPMENT: Fortnightly digest - what's happening at Hilltops IT and the world of software development

Hilltops IT Developer's diary

Since last fortnight's post, most development activity has been on the following projects:

• Website development - development work on our Hilltops IT website for re-branding. this has been the main focus for us - bringing together the design work with the "nuts and bolts" of the mechanics of the site. there are still a couple of tweaks to make, but the site is looking really good. Everyone internally is really excited about being able to announce the launch.


• Business Intelligence reporting - continued work on a bespoke project reporting on 3,000,000+ rows of data from disparate data sources using SQL Server Reporting Services.

Industry News

Development tools component makers see 2009 as a big year for MS platforms

Introduction: The gears are turning for implementations of Microsoft's next generation of platform technologies, and as a matter of course, component makers are the leading-edge innovators. In 2009, some of the latest Microsoft technologies will be gaining the most traction as Silverlight's star rises and developers rethink how they structure Web applications. Silverlight is rapidly becoming a popular platform for component developers to target. ComponentArt, ComponentOne, Developer Express and Infragistics are all making controls for creating business applications and filling in functionality that Microsoft has omitted.

See the full article here: www.sdtimes.com/link/33194

So as Microsoft Partners, leading edge software and website developers and providers of Microsoft platform-based business solutions, Hilltops IT are perfectly placed to take advantage of these new innovations.

Free e-book Introducing SQL Server 2008

Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 by Peter DeBetta, Greg Low, and Mark Whitehorn

ISBN: 9780735625587

Learn about major new features in SQL Server 2008 including security, administration, and performance.

Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008:

• Chapter 1: Security and Administration
• Chapter 2: Performance
• Chapter 3: Type System
• Chapter 4: Programmability
• Chapter 5: Storage
• Chapter 6: Enhancements for High Availability
• Chapter 7: Business Intelligence Enhancements

Download it here: http://csna01.libredigital.com/?urss1q2we6

For further information on our website and software development services, please do not hesitate to contact us on +44(0)844 357 7360 or +44(0)1782 564252 or email development@hilltopsit.co.uk

We look forward to hearing from you!

DEVELOPMENT: Fortnightly digest - what's happening at Hilltops IT and the world of software development

Hilltops IT Developer's diary

Since last fortnight's post, most development activity has been on the following projects:

• Website development - development work on our Hilltops IT website for re-branding. This has been the main focus for us - bringing together the design work with the "nuts and bolts" of the mechanics of the site. there are still a couple of tweaks to make, but the site is looking really good. Everyone internally is really excited about being able to announce the launch.
• Business Intelligence reporting - continued work on a bespoke project reporting on 3,000,000+ rows of data from disparate data sources using SQL Server Reporting Services.
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM - minor tweaks to an existing customer's MSCRM system for additional summary information in their Accounts screen.

Plus! We've been looking at the feasibility of a new product in the ConnectIT range. More on that soon.

Industry News

Microsoft Releases Windows 7 Beta

Microsoft have released Windows 7 Beta as a free download

For more details on what to expect from Windows 7, see the home page here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/default.aspx

To download the free beta, see here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx

For further information on our website and software development services, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us on 0844 357 7360 or 01782 564252 or email development@hilltopsit.co.uk

We look forward to hearing from you!

DEVELOPMENT: How are we so good!?

We had a bit of fun / team morale boosting in between Christmas and New Year. In amongst the increasingly negative reports on "depression", "the state of the world economy" and "global economic downturn", we wanted to feel good about ourselves! (Why not!)

Focusing on the things that we do well, why people should buy from us, and having already made a a conscious decision to "opt out" of the recession (what recession!?) we came up with the following list of "how we are so good" with our Software Development and Website Development services. Maybe considered arrogant by some, but as a relatively small but ambitious company, we need to keep our heads up, look to the future and focus on the positive!

We hope you get something out of the list and really hope that your company is "on the up". Try the exercise for yourself - the exercise itself is a great motivator and I'm sure we'll refer back to the list if someone gets a case of the Monday Blues! :-)

How Are We So Good!? Development at Hilltops IT

• We understand the need for a solution from a business perspective!
• We understand requirements from the user’s perspective!
• We understand that clients need flexibility for systems to grow with business!
• We fully understand what it takes to develop a solution! (Development Lifecycle)
• We have implemented many different systems across many different verticals!
• We have a proven track record in developing bespoke solutions!
• We have a proven track record in taking software products to market! (ConnectIT)
• We have a proven track record developing and deploying solutions worldwide!
• We have a wide range of development skills and use the latest technologies!
• We deliver professional services within affordable budgets!
• We keep to timescales and always deliver to schedule!

For more information on Hilltops IT's QuoteWerks, ACT! by Sage, Sage 50 Accounts, Sage MAS90, Sage MAS 200, Microsoft CRM, software development and website development services, please do not hesitate to contact us! you can reach us on +44(0)844 357 7360 or +44(0)1782 564252 or email development@hilltopsit.co.uk

We look forward to hearing from you!

DEVELOPMENT: Fortnightly digest - what's happening at Hilltops IT and the world of software development

Hilltops IT Developer's diary

Business Intelligence reporting - continued work on a bespoke project reporting on 3,000,000+ rows of data from disparate data sources using SQL Server Reporting Services.

ConnectIT-Sage - work on an interim release for a particular client's requirements. this feature will be rolled into a future build release for all users.

Website development - design work on our Hilltops IT website for rebranding.

Website development - prototyping work on our ConnectIT website for advertising using image banner ads.

Industry News

SQL Server 2005 SP3 released
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3 (SP3) contains all the cumulative updates for SQL Server 2005, and fixes to issues that have been reported through our customer feedback platforms. These include supportability enhancements and issues that have been reported through Windows Error Reporting.

Download the service pack here.

The read about what's new, click here.



Sage CRM Solutions 2010 Strategy
A very interesting insight into Sage CRM Solutions's thoughts on CRM and CRM solutions generally, plus future development roadmap plans.

INTRODUCTION
Since the inception of CRM, the balance of power has shifted dramatically between buyers and sellers, with the rate of change accelerating in the past five years. Today, companies must
offer extremely cost-efficient, differentiable customer experiences to acquire and retain profitable customer relationships. In our highly globalized economy, CRM is critical to enable businesses of every shape and size to fulfill the needs and expectations of their customers.

See the full article here.

For further information on our software development services, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us on 0844 357 7360 or 01782 721301 or email development@hilltopsit.co.uk

We look forward to hearing from you!