HelpDesk OSP For Outlook And SharePoint - New Update

Yesterday kalmstrom.com Business Solutions published an update of the newly released version 3 of HelpDesk OSP, the Outlook add-on that connects Outlook to any SharePoint site. Most Community Members have already upgraded their installations, and with so many new users something happened that we don't like: bugs were discovered. We test our software thoroughly, but still some problems slip through now and then.

The problem concerned Outlook 2007 and 2003, where the HelpDesk OSP buttons in Outlook for default list did not work as they should. Therefore users had to select list for conversion even if they wanted to use the default list, and for a blank ticket they were asked to select caller from the Global Address list instead of being prompted with the new Caller dialog.

As many of the HelpDesk OSP users have Outlook 2010, it took a while before we got the first report about the issue. It came Monday, and in a remote session with the Community Member Tuesday our eminent lead developer saw where the problem was. And Wednesday it was solved and an update was released!

The kalmstrom.com developers even had time to add a new feature, requested by another Community Member: support for sub sites to Office 365 SharePoint. I recommend HelpDesk OSP users with Outlook 2007 or 2003 or users of the Office 365 SharePoint sub sites to upgrade.

Have you not tried HelpDesk OSP yet? Please do, if you need to publish from Outlook to the company SharePoint site. HelpDesk OSP enhances both Microsoft products, and with the kalmstrom.com subscription system you will always have a well functioning software adapted to the latest technologies. As this example shows we fix bugs very quickly!   

kalmstrom.com Develops Cloud-Connected Outlook Add-ons

To stay strong and be able to meet future development requests, the kalmstrom.com team has taken on a task that will change our products profoundly. User's don't have to worry, because they will still recognize the product they like and are used to, but the architecture behind it will be much different. The reason for this long term investment, is of course the technical development of the products we build on but also general changes in the business world. We see a future where teams continue to get more mobile and geographically dispersed, and therefore we want to re-build all of our applications for more web-based usage.

All of the kalmstrom.com Outlook add-ons have relied heavily on Outlook public folders or mailboxes for information sharing. This still works well in most organizations, and we will continue to support that usage. However, if we stand still, keep the current architecture and only add new features to our products, there will come a time when they have become old-fashioned. We don't want to wait for that day to make the necessary changes, because then we will prevent Member organizations from meeting and embracing the future. Members of kalmstrom.com Community deserve better! The products from kalmstrom.com must always be a help to make business more efficient.

Our developers have started with the comparatively simple application KBase. This is a knowledge base that is totally integrated in Outlook. The articles may also be embedded in a SharePoint site or OWA or be published to web pages with just a click of a button. The new KBase will have an ASP.NET MVC back-end and an SQL database, which will contain all of the tickets. We will supply this database for free if the user organization does not have an in-house or hosted SQL server or uses SQL Azure. Version 3 of KBase will have both a fully featured web interface and also, of course, an Outlook-interface. In addition, we will also make the web interface fully mobile and touch-friendly.

The new technique will also mean that our products will support the 64-bit version of Office 2010. Some Member organizations have asked for this, but we think most users will stay with the 32-bit version anyway. There are very few add-ons on the market that support the 64-bit version of Office, and the 64-bit version is only needed in special cases. However, for those who need it we want to give that support also.

The kalmstrom.com developer team has been working with this project for over a month, but I did not want to tell about it until we knew that the brilliant ideas of our CEO Peter was possible to realize. His understanding of how different techniques can be combined to create something new is the basis for kalmstrom.com Business Solutions, and now he has once again proved his skill.

kalmstrom.com Uses, Resells And Develops For Office 365

The kalmstrom.com team is geographically distributed, so our intranet is a vital place for sharing and cooperation. It simply must work, and therefore only the best is good enough. We begun using SharePoint very early, and as our CEO Peter is a Microsoft certified SharePoint specialist he has been able to configure the site to make the most of it.

When Office 365 was introduced Peter saw the advantages of this cloud based service, which also has SharePoint 2010. A subscription was necessary anyway, because we need to test our products with Office 365, but Peter decided that we should use Office 365 for our internal purposes too.

We manage our support e-mails with our own product HelpDesk OSP, and today we have it running all the time on a server, automatically converting e-mails from our OWA on Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite into tickets on our SharePoint site in Office 365. We will however soon start testing our new HelpDesk OSP Azure. It will run on Windows Azure and convert e-mails received in our Office 365 Outlook into list items on our Office 365 SharePoint site.

As you understand the kalmstrom.com team has a deep understanding of Microsoft's cloud-based platforms. It was a logical step to apply for authorization to resell Microsoft Online Services. We were granted this right in July, and we have already sold Office 365 to one company after advising them on what subscription and configuration would suit their needs. Always feel welcome to contact us for consultation!

New kalmstrom.com Trainee Helps In .NET Framework Project

As I told you a couple of weeks ago kalmstrom.com has decided to take on more trainees, and today I am happy to introduce Sunil Patel. He is Master of Computer Applications, which is a three-year Professional Master's degree in Computer Science awarded in India, and he joined the kalmstrom.com team in the beginning of July.

Sunil already had experience from several projects where he worked as a developer/programmer when he chose to become a trainee at kalmstrom.com to learn more. We appreciate his ambition and believe our cooperation will be good for both parties.   

During his first weeks Sunil has transferred the PF HelpDesk web form code into ASP.NET, a Microsoft server side scripting technology which enables scripts embedded in web pages to be executed by an Internet server. Sunil's work is part of our long-time plan to make more extensive use of the .NET Framework environment. Our youngest application, HelpDesk OSP, was built on the .NET platform from the beginning, but our other products still use some older technologies that we need to replace. This transfer will give us great possibilities for future development of our products.    

Sunil has of course also participated in the study sessions that Peter and Jayant have held with the younger team members. Ongoing education has always been important for kalmstrom.com, but we have now taken it a step further and set apart certain work hours for common studies and discussions. I am sure this will reflect in the kalmstrom.com products and benefit our Community Members in the long run.

Sunil is very interested in cricket. During his studies he was a member of the college team, and now he plays for for the Star Cricket Club in Indore. Welcome to the Team page, if you wish to read more about Sunil and the rest of us.

Microsoft Pinpoint Lists Products From kalmstrom.com

For several years Microsoft's Office Marketplace has been an important marketing channel for the kalmstrom.com products. It has given us many new visitors to the website ‒ and also many customers, since those visitors often are just the skilled IT professionals we want to reach. Now Microsoft has given us another opportunity to introduce our products to this group of people: Microsoft Pinpoint.

Microsoft Pinpoint was introduced in the U.S. a couple of years ago as a way to help small and midsize businesses to connect to Microsoft partners like kalmstrom.com Business Solutions. However, that first version of Pinpoint was more locally aimed and not as interesting to us as Office Marketplace. Recently Microsoft changed their Pinpoint site, and now we can showcase our applications in a better way and also more efficiently explain how they extend and enrich specific Microsoft products and platforms.

All kalmstrom.com products are now listed in the 51 English speaking countries supported by Pinpoint and in the only Swedish speaking one. Soon we hope to be on the pages for Spanish and German speaking countries also.

When we were accepted at Microsoft Pinpoint we were also given a chance to be presented at special platform marketplaces. Some testing and verifications are needed, though, and our dedicated junior developer Vijayant Rimza is busy with that task right now. It will take some time, but so far PF HelpDesk has passed the test for the Windows Azure Marketplace, and HelpDesk OSP is already listed on the Microsoft Office 365 Marketplace. We will continue the work!

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.

Connect Office 365 To Cloud-Based HelpDesk From kalmstrom.com

In the blog post from 6 June, "kalmstrom.com Goes Cloudy", I mentioned that we have started developing a totally cloud-based version of HelpDesk OSP, the kalmstrom.com add-on that connects Outlook to SharePoint. The new version will be called HelpDesk OSP Azure, and  today I can tell you more about it.

HelpDesk OSP Azure will run on Windows Azure and convert e-mails received in Exchange 2010, in-house or online (Office 365), into list items on a SharePoint site. This conversion will be automatic and happen 24/7 with a minimum of configuration. Just like with HelpDesk OSP it will be possible to decide in what way the e-mails should be converted ino tickets, and you can of course use your custom SharePoint list fields also.

You will access HelpDesk OSP Azure directly via the web, and above you can see the user interface for the login page. On the HelpDesk OSP Plans page, Peter explains in an animation how HelpDesk OSP Azure will work. Welcome to have a look into the future!

PF HelpDesk With Support For Office 365

The development of support for cloud solutions continues at kalmstrom.com Business Solutions. Our Outlook helpdesk was recently updated to a new version, Public Folder HelpDesk V11.2. It has full support for Russian and several other enhancements, but above all it gives the possibility to use Microsoft's cloud-based SQL Azure database for tickets and settings. Now the kalmstrom.com team takes one step more towards the clouds by making PF HelpDesk compatible with Office 365 also.   

Microsoft’s cloud based Office is still only available in Beta, but far-seeing  Community Members have already shown an interest in using our products with Office 365. HelpDesk OSP and TimeCard already work with Office 365, but the products that have a folder homepage in Outlook must be rebuilt.   

PF HelpDesk may be installed in any Outlook folder, and the folder homepage solution has been used ever since the application was created more than ten years ago. It has many advantages: it gives a nice graphical interface, displays the views and provides a handy search capability. The homepage is also involved when you create a new ticket ‒ but it cannot be used with Office 365.   

Since the folder homepage solution does not work with Office 365, we have to find new ways to give these functions in PF HelpDesk. At the same time we cannot accept that Members who don't want to use Office 365 gets something that is not as good as before. Ideally the next version should be better for them also. This is not an easy task, but our developers are experts on ingenious solutions. They already have a plan for how to both replace the homepage and make PF HelpDesk even better for all.
  
Most changes are made “behind the scene”, and many users will never notice them. What the helpdesk staff will see is the new search dialog and the addition of a gallery control. This control will show all custom views, and you can easily switch views from there. And to create a new ticket? Isn’t that the most important feature of all? Yes, it is, and don't worry - we will solve that also :-)   

Since Community Members are already waiting to use PF HelpDesk with Office 365, we have made the development of the new version a high priority task, and we hope to release it soon. I will come back with more info about this exciting project later.

kalmstrom.com Goes Cloudy

As you might have understood from previous posts in this blog, we are very excited about cloud-based services in general and  Microsoft´s offerings in that area in particular.

We just released a new version of  PF HelpDesk, the kalmstrom.com issue tracking tool for Outlook, and it has support for the cloud-based SQL Azure database. This is not because many have been asking for it yet, but because we felt the urge to learn the new technology. We attempt to stay ahead of the curve and understand what our customers want before they even request it!

Now Community Members and Evaluators are asking if our applications work with Office 365 every day. The answer is that HelpDesk OSP and TimeCard already supports Office 365, and we will very soon update PF HelpDesk and Calendar Browser to support it too. However, they still work on the client-installed Microsoft Office applications we all know and love - not directly from a cloud-based service. That is where we are heading, though. We will of course continue to use and support client-based technologies, but we will expand into cloud-based services also.

One experiment-project we just concluded was a synchronization-engine between the cloud-based Office 365 and the likewise cloud-based ERP-system Fortnox. We used the Exchange Web Services and Fortnox´s API to enable synchronization between the ERP system and an Outlook Contacts list in Office 365. This was exactly what the Swedish building company Melander Bygg AB needed.

We will continue to build upon this experience to enable a variant of our other issue tracking product, HelpDesk OSP, to run entirely in the cloud, converting e-mails received in Office 365 to tickets in a SharePoint ticket list. We will of course retain the control of how the e-mails are converted, support for custom fields  in SharePoint and more. I will come back with more info about this product later on.