kalmstrom.com Community - Satisfying Software Licensing For All

In the beginning of 2009, when kalmstrom.com Business Solutions had been selling software licenses for nine years, we experienced a growing feeling that we did something wrong. Our applications for Office, Exchange and SharePoint were fine, and our CEO Peter saw a great development potential in them. However, we saw problems with the payment model we used at that time: buy a license and then add a support contract if you wish to use the kalmstrom.com services after the first year.

Unknown users with traditional one-time payments
We sold a lot of licenses, and many of the customers continued to use our products and were known to us. But there was also a big, anonymous group out there who once had bought a license but whom we no longer had any contact with. Were they still using our product? What were they thinking about it? Was it helping them the way they had hoped when they bought the license? For whom were we actually developing our software?

Right to support and upgrades
Another issue was that all organizations were not prepared to pay for support and upgrades of their kalmstrom.com application. Instead they used old versions as long as possible to avoid the cost for a support contract. It did not feel satisfying to know that users were not having the best possible versions of their kalmstrom.com product, but we found it difficult to give free support and upgrades without finding a source of income to finance it.

The Community model
After many discussions within the team we decided to transfer to a subscription system for the use of our products. We would create a Community of user organizations, and Members of that Community would always get support and free upgrades. That way we could make sure that users of software from kalmstrom.com really had got the very best we could offer. Community Members would also have the right to unlimited use of all kalmstrom.com products. More users and products would create a stronger bond between kalmstrom.com and the Community Members, and that was exactly what we wanted to achieve.

The crucial question
Finally, in November 2009, we took the big step. We all felt certain that the Community model would be better for all parties in the long run, but it was still not an easy decision. Would customers be prepared to pay month after month or year after year for the right to use a kalmstrom.com product?

Peter, the creator of the applications, had confidence in their value to the users. But Sigge and I were worried that we would lose customers. And we did lose some ‒ old customers who did not want to transfer to the subscription system and potential new ones who only wanted to make a one-time payment. But we got other customers instead, customers who appreciate the security they get as Members of kalmstrom.com Community.

Improved customer relations
Today, after two years, we are happy we made the transfer. We have a solid base of Community Members, and that means we feel strong when planning for the future ‒ ours and theirs. Now we cooperate with the users in a much better way, because with the Community Members there are never any discussions about support contracts or the right to upgrade.

Instead we all work together towards a common goal: to solve problems and constantly enhance the kalmstrom.com Microsoft add-ons so that they even better meet the requirements from the Community Members. We say a warm thank you to all who have shown trust and faith in the kalmstrom.com team and in our products by joining kalmstrom.com Community!

Work For The Future When kalmstrom.com CEO Goes To India

Now it is decided and the journey is booked!

22 December kalmstrom. com CEO Peter will go to India and meet our employees in Indore. On the way there he will also make a stop in Delhi to see Gundeep Sachdev, head of the kalmstrom.com partner TimeRewards.

Last time Peter went to India it was for a wedding in November 2010. kalmstrom.com Lead Developer Jayant Rimza got married, and the celebrations and festivities were a great experience for Peter. This time will be different ‒ all work and education!

Since last year we have employed several young, talented technicians, and now Peter will take the opportunity do teach them the latest specialties needed for development of the kalmstrom.com Office and SharePoint applications.

Siret Toots will go with Peter to India, and while Peter and the developers are studying she will go around looking at offices. She has already begun preparing this with photos, floor plans and maps, to select the ones that are most interesting to kalmstrom.com. We hope to find a really good new office for our growing team, a place that has room for some more people also!

There will of course be time for getting together in a more relaxed way too, and both Siret and Peter are looking forward to meeting the Indian staff "live" and getting to know them better.

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.

From Trainee To Junior Developer With kalmstrom.com

kalmstrom.com Business Solutions has a new junior developer. If you follow this blog you might recognize Kanak Joshi, because I introduced her as our trainee in July. Kanak had then been with us for some weeks, and we had already seen that she performed her tasks willingly and quickly.

Now we have understood that Kanak is also a quick learner and a person who can find her own solutions. This is exactly what we need in the kalmstrom.com team, and therefore we were happy to offer Kanak a position as junior developer.

We are certain that Kanak will contribute to the kalmstrom.com development with new and clever ideas. When Kanak has learned our products better she will also take part in our user support. We prefer to have our technicians engaged in the support, to be able to give the knowledgeable service we are praised for and also to give them first hand understanding of any problems. Kanak will be a good help in remote sessions and second line support.