2011 - An Eventful kalmstrom.com Year

The year 2011 was a year full of action when it comes to world politics, and at the end of the year we have many worries and unanswered questions. You know them as well as I do, so here I will instead concentrate on kalmstrom.com. That makes it possible for me to write a happier blog!

120 blog posts in 2011
One year is a long time in the IT business, where changes happen quickly and we hear news nearly every day. In 2011 I wrote 119 blog articles, except this one, and most of them were about kalmstrom.com events. If you want more info about something I mention here, just use the Search function to the left to find the post or posts.

New staff
In the beginning of 2011 several new people joined the team, and this has had ‒ and will have ‒ a strong impact on the kalmstrom.com software. Most visible has of course been the work of graphic designer Jitendra Joshi, but our three new developers has contributed just as much.

Silver Competencies
One of the new developers, Vijayant Rimza, has tested our products for a Microsoft Silver Partnership. They passed the tests, and as we also fulfilled the other qualifications we could gain no less than two Silver Competencies, first Independent Software Vendor and then Business Intelligence. A warm thank you from the whole team to the Community Members who helped us with references for Microsoft. The Silver competencies, together with Peter’s personal Microsoft certifications, make kalmstrom.com Business Solutions stand out on the market, and we have already noticed an increased interest for our Office applications.

Product updates
All kalmstrom.com products have been updated, and most of them several times. HelpDesk OSP for Outlook and SharePoint and the resource booking application Calendar Browser have new major version numbers, V3 and V7, and PF HelpDesk has reached both 11.2 and 11.3. kalmstrom.com Outlook add-ons, The kalmstrom.com tool for time reporting from within the Outlook calendar had version 4.3 the whole year, but in January 2012 we plan to release kalmstrom.com Outlook add-ons, TimeCard V4.4 with new, interesting features.

iOS apps
During 2011 kalmstrom.com Business Solutions also published two apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod: iNameDays gives you name days in the standard calendar, and with ShareTask you get the SharePoint tasks into your handheld and can manage them with a finger.

Extended compatibility
When Microsoft introduces new platforms the kalmstrom.com developers are usually quick in making our products compatible. In 2011 we extended our product support to Office 365, and the Windows Azure database was added as a third alternative for our Outlook issue tracking tool PF HelpDesk. We also started the development of a new application, HelpDesk OSP Azure, which we first will use for the kalmstrom.com support before we start marketing it.

New Partner
In May kalmstrom.com begun cooperating with a new partner, and for the first time ever we agreed to market a product that is not our own: PamFax. Peter was involved in the development of the first version of this convenient tool for online faxing when he was product manager at Skype, though, and we also use it ourselves. I translated the application into Swedish, and our new Sales and Relations Officer, Siret Toots, made the Estonian translation.

More extensive Tips section
The Tips section of the kalmstrom.com website is popular, and during the year we have added a number of new articles. By the end of 2011 Peter made a series of demonstrations for various useful tricks with Excel and SharePoint.

Now we look forward to the new year with great confidence. There is no crisis in kalmstrom.com! I will come back with a blog post about future development next week, and until then I wish all blog readers a great New Years Eve!

New Square Logo for kalmstrom.com After Microsoft Remark

The regular kalmstrom.com logotype in the head of this blog is rectangular, but we have felt an increasing need for a good square logotype also. I therefore asked our graphic artist Jitendra Joshi to create a square logo for use with social networks as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, on Microsoft Pinpoint and in other places that require square logos.

 I wanted Jitendra to create something that would show that we built our applications on Microsoft's products, and he came up with a suggestion that we all liked. Unfortunately Microsoft did not like it as much as the kalmstrom.com team did!

The old square logotype was a mixture of icons that reminded of Microsoft icons for the platforms kalmstrom.com build on ‒ Outlook, Excel and SharePoint. Jitendra also added the globe present in the Tallstugan and the HelpDesk OSP logotypes, and that globe was the only part that could stay.

Here I show the old logotype, probably for the last time. It is not worth jeopardizing our good relationship with Microsoft because of a logo, so when the PinPoint staff complained about the logo with their icons we knew we must remove it. Jitendra had to create something new to replace the unsuitable logotype.

Siret and Jayant gave helpful suggestions, and the result was the logo you see above this blog post. For smaller sizes we chose a white band with the kalmstrom.com text. We think this new logotype is catching and tells how widespread the kalmstrom.com products are, so we feel satisfied with the change. The Microsoft staff also liked the new logotype, so now everyone is happy again!

HelpDesk OSP For Outlook And SharePoint - See The New Design

Soon kalmstrom.com Business Solutions will release a new version of HelpDesk OSP, and today I can show you the new slideshow for this incident management tool. Most screenshots come from Outlook 2010 and a SharePoint 2010 site on Offce 365. It might take some time for the slideshow to load, so I suggest you read this blog post before you take a look.

Version 3 has a new design, which we hope will make it very user friendly. After listening to input from Community Members, we have also decided to change the captions on two of the Outlook buttons, to better explain what it is all about. "Create ticket" has become "Convert e-mail", and "New ticket" is "Blank ticket" in V3.

The Blank ticket button now gives the alternative to create a totally new ticket, without picking  caller info from the Outlook Contacts or GAL. Also this feature comes after a request from a Member organization, where people wanted to use HelpDesk OSP for entering new list items to the company's SharePoint intranet directly from Outlook.

More new features have been added to the new version of HelpDesk OSP, and I will tell you about them when I announce the release. We have just a few small adjustments left, so it might even be this week!

New Senior Developer For Cloud Based kalmstrom.com Solutions

For quite some time kalmstrom.com has been looking for another developer, who can help us expand into cloud-based services. Now we have found the right person, and I am happy to introduce Kaushal Bharadia, who has been with us since the beginning of May. Kaushal will also help us develop new features for our products, and he will make it possible for us to accept more of all the requests for special solutions we get.

Kaushal Bharadia is a proficient developer with long experience of object-oriented programming and design. He is an expert in Microsoft .Net Technologies, so his skills are is just what the kalmstrom.com team needs. He is currently building the new version of HelpDesk OSP, called HelpDesk OSP Azure, which I described in the blog post of 22 June. Kaushal also did most of the programming for a special application requested by a Swedish building company, where we created a synchronization-engine between the cloud-based Office 365 and the likewise cloud-based ERP-system Fortnox.

Kaushal and I have a common interest: mountain walking. We both find this an excellent way to counterbalance work at the computers. You get exercise and fresh air, and at the same time you can enjoy a beautiful scenery ‒ and get nearer to the clouds! The photo above shows Kaushal at a cave on top of a mountain. If you wish to read more about Kaushal and other members of the kalmstrom.com team, welcome to the Team page on our website.

Outlook-SharePoint Publishing and Syncronization

The usability overview and redesign of HelpDesk OSP is finished. Now the kalmstrom.com developers have begun implementing the improvements, but it will still take some time before we can release the new version. I have however published the new logotype and banners on the website, and here I can also show you how the new HelpDesk OSP buttons will look in the Outlook 2010 banner. Nice aren't they?

HelpDesk OSP can be used for anything you wish to publish from Outlook to SharePoint or Office Live ‒ just select a suitable list for it. To make this clearer we have decided to change the captions of the two bigger and most used buttons into "Convert e-mail" and "Blank ticket". The "Convert ticket" button is of course used for e-mail conversion, and data is taken from the e-mail. Use the "Blank ticket" button when data should be filled out manually or taken from the GAL or Contacts.

Both buttons work in two ways: when you click on the button an item will be created in the default SharePoint list, but if you press the arrow all lists used with HelpDesk OSP will be shown. Then you can easily select the right one to publish to.

You may take advantage of your SharePoint site in many different ways. Today I have published a Tip on how to synchronize Outlook calendars, contacts and tasks with SharePoint. It is a quick and simple procedure that may be very useful, but the possibility may be overlooked if you don't know it exists.

kalmstrom.com Welcomes Graphic Designer

The kalmstrom.com team has a new member, graphic designer Jitendra Joshi, and today I am happy to present him to you. Jitendra has been with us for some weeks now, and we have all enjoyed working with him. He has not yet learned all our products, but he is responsive to our suggestions and understands how to implement our requirements into good design.

Currently Jitendra is cooperating with Alena and Jayant on redesign and usability analyze of HelpDesk OSP, and eventually all our products will have the same treatment. We hope for improvements of the website too, first a new and more interesting background. Jitendra will also help us with quick mockups for development suggestions, as on the Calendar Browser Plans page, so that both team members and sponsors more easily can understand how new features will look and work.

Jitendra's greatest interest is design and art, and he likes to do pencil sketches. You can see his self portrait above, and here below is another drawing from his varied portfolio. Cute, isn't it? If you wish to see a photo of Jitendra and read some more about him, welcome to the About us page!