Release of TimeCard for Outlook 4.4 With Report On Behalf Of

kalmstrom.com Business Solutions is happy to announce the release of TimeCard V4.4. The main new feature, Report on behalf of, is by its nature only for the workgroup version of TimeCard, but as there are some smaller improvements also we have published a new Single version too.

Report on behalf of
The latest new feature has been sponsored by the South African Community Member Hollard, and we are grateful for their support and confidence. The Hollard assistants and secretaries often need to report on behalf of other people, and with the new feature they can do that and still get the correct name into the statistics. Some of these people do not even have TimeCard installed!

It is very easy to use Report on behalf of. The administrator needs to check a box in the Common Settings dialog, and then a new dropdown with names will show in the Reporting dialog. So just go into the calendar you wish to report from, and report as usual. TimeCard shows by default the owner of the calendar as the first alternative in the new name dropdown, so normally you never need to touch it.

More info about TimeCard enhancements
I have written two earlier blog articles about the Report in behalf of feature, "Report on behalf of" feature added to TimeCard for Outlook and How TimeCard Can Report Time For People Who Don’t Even Use TimeCard, so please study them if you want to know more. Also refer to the TimeCard Revisions page for a full list of the improvements in version 4.4.

Free upgrades
Members of the kalmstrom.com Community are entitled to upgrade their TimeCard Workgroup installations without cost. For Member organizations with many users we will be happy to supply an MSI package for the client upgrade. Just contact our support department, and they will send you a download link.

Try TimeCard!
kalmstrom.com Business Solutions gives as much as 60 days of free trial for TimeCard Workgroup, so that you really have time to test the reporting properly.We give support to evaluators, so very welcome to contact us if you encounter problems with the trial or have questions about TimeCard.

First users in a Swedish town
Peter Kalmstrom, the creator of the kalmstrom.com Office applications, made his first TimeCard for Outlook when a Swedish town ordered a time reporting system that would be reliable but also easy for the users to learn. As they were already planning their time in Oulook calendars it was a natural step to build on that platform, and since Peter was an Outlook expert even at that time he could create what the clients needed. They have now been happily using TimeCard for over ten years, through update after update, and seen more and more features being added to "their" product. And our work will continue!

Microsoft's Weapon against Apple gives new marketplace for kalmstrom.com

This week Microsoft has presented their plans on a Windows Store, that will come with Windows 8. This is very interesting news for the kalmstrom.com team. Next year, when the new operating system is launched, it will be possible to buy applications for Win 8 based PCs and tablets online directly from within the system.

Windows Store - A New Sales Channel For kalmstrom.com
For Microsoft the motive is of course to take up the fight with Apple and App Store, but for kalmstrom.com the Windows Store gives new possibilities. We will explore them thoroughly and certainly find the best way to take advantage of them for the kalmstrom.com Office applications. Windows Store will be global, and Microsoft invites us developers to sell our apps in 231 markets and in more than 100 languages. At release 20 languages will be supported. I am not sure Swedish will be among those first 20, but I am positive that English will!

Better than App Store?
At a first glance Windows Store seems to have some advantages over App Store. We are happy that users will get a chance to try the apps first, just like they can with the current kalmstrom.com products. For our success it is also important that Microsoft will give developers a bigger share of the sales than Apple, that we can use third-party payment partners and that we will be allowed to sell the apps from our own platform also. We cannot do that with the iOS apps we now market on App Store.

Perfect for TimeCard Single
TimeCard Single seems to be very well suited for Windows Store. Today the kalmstrom.com time reporting tool for Outlook is mostly used by big organizations, but I am sure more one man companies would find TimeCard Single  valuable if they only knew about this kalmstrom.com Outlook-addon. It is very convenient to keep track of how time is spent directly within the Outlook Calendar, and by using Windows Store we can give many more single users a chance to do that.

Peter is enthusiastic
Our CEO, Peter Kalmstrom, is excited over the news and already full of plans. His aim is to have something ready for the Windows Store when it launches with the Beta version of Windows 8 by the end of February. By that time we will have learned much more about the Store in Windows 8 and be well on our way to explore this new sales channel.