kalmstrom.com Trusted By Microsoft's Office Marketplace

Microsoft’s Office Marketplace is an important meeting place, where selected software vendors may present their products to IT responsibles and others who are looking for suitable programs for their organizations. For several years already, around 20 % of all visitors to the kalmstrom.com website have found their way to us through the Office Marketplaces of different countries, so it is really important for kalmstrom.com Business Solutions to have good representation there.

Strict requirements
To be allowed to present the kalmstrom.com applications on Office Marketplace we must fulfill certain rather strict requirements. When these are reached we have to apply for each product at each country’s Office Marketplace. Earlier we had to renew the applications for each product and country every year. After the renewal the Microsoft staff of each country again examined our products and their presentations on the kalmstrom.com website, before granting us permission to continue showing our software at Office Marketplace for another year.

Trusted
Now I am delighted to announce that Microsoft staff in a number of countries have given us the confidence to stay much longer time on their Office Marketplaces without the need for renewal. For Germany we now have renewal dates in 2020, for Mexico in 2026 and for Canada and Australia even in 2029 for several products! This of course makes us happy and proud, and it also makes our job a bit easier!

Why this faith in kalmstrom.com?
We are of course grateful for the confidence Microsoft has shown us. Not only do they let us present our software on their prestigious sites but they also trust us to keep up the high quality for many years to come! Perhaps our Microsoft Silver Partnership plays a role, but the first extended presentation periods were actually given to us before we achieved the Silver Competence. I think our long time at Office Marketplace and the high ratings from users are more decisive factors. kalmstrom.com Business Solutions has been on Office Marketplace since 2006, and all our products have received very high ratings.

Five star ratings
On Office Marketplace visitors are given a possibility to rate products they know on a scale between 1 and 5, and it is a great satisfaction that many of the kalmstrom.com products have achieved the coveted 5 stars. See for example HelpDesk OSP, that connects Outlook to SharePoint or the time reporting tool TimeCard for Outlook ‒ or OLAP Reporting Tool, the statistics application that is integrated in nearly all kalmstrom.com products but also may be used as a separate product.

The kalmstrom.com team is acutely aware of the responsibility that comes with the trust Microsoft has endowed in us, and we will do our outmost to retain the high quality of both software and website presentations.

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!

New KBase Feature: Export Knowledge Base Articles to Excel

KBase for Outlook is a kalmstrom.com knowledge base that does not require a database. The articles can be saved in any Outlook folder, and they can also be integrated in a SharePoint site and exported to HTML web pages. Now there will soon be another possibility ‒ Export KBase articles to an Excel data sheet.

Sponsorship
Community Member Swiss Post needed to export their KBase articles to Excel, and they were willing to sponsor the addition of this feature to the standard version of KBase. This way they can be sure the feature is updated to support future versions of the Microsoft products that kalmstrom.com builds on. An extra plus is of course that many more Community Members may take advantage of the new KBase feature, and that fact is also part of the upgrade insurance! The more Members who need a feature, the more the kalmstrom.com team will prioritize its development.

Export selected KBase articles, categories, types or articles created by certain user?
In the kalmstrom.com knowledge base for Outlook the articles may be organized in categories and types, and with the new KBase Export to Excel feature you may export all articles of selected the categories or types. Other alternatives are to export one or more articles already selected in the KBase Outlook folder or to export all articles created by a given person.

Export attachments and HTML?
The KBase Export to Excel application also lets you decide if you wish to include article attachments in the export or not. The text version of the article body is always given in the Excel data sheet, but you may also opt to include the body in HTML.

New KBase coming soon
The image of the Export to Excel dialog above is in German, because that is the only version finished so far. As soon as the sponsor has approved of the solution we will add the other languages and release an updated KBase for all. It should not take long!

The kalmstrom.com Online Chat Gets A New Look

If you are a frequent visitor to the kalmstrom.com site, I am sure you have noticed our new chat icons. I hope you like the cartoon style created by our talented graphic artist Jitendra Joshi? Personally, I am fond of the little yellow mouse sticking out on one side. It gives just that little extra touch needed to make the image interesting.

The kalmstrom.com online chat is very popular among users and evaluators of our Outlook add-ons. For more complicated questions that require long descriptions the e-mail is better, but the chat is perfect for short inquiries. Website visitors get an immediate contact with a member of the kalmstrom.com team and are given quick answers to their questions.



The chat is also used extensively in remote sessions. While the kalmstrom.com developer studies the remote product configuration to find the error, he or she can get information from the user via the chat window. This is valuable cooperation and helps finding the solution to the problem. 

The kalmstrom.com team gets transcripts from all chats automatically. That way we have a record of what has been discussed in the chat, and it is easy to share interesting info within the group. If you have been chatting with kalmstrom.com and want your own transcript, just press the e-mail icon to send it or the print icon to print it.

 

We have chosen to place the chat icon on nearly all the kalmstrom.com web pages, so that visitors don't have to search for it. We don't have the chat manned around the clock yet, but if no one is able to answer you may instead leave a message for us. That message will of course be read and answered as promptly as when you send us an e-mail.

After the chat is finished, visitors are asked to rate the given support or sales info. The rates give important info about what we can improve and what is important to keep in mind. The kalmstrom.com team is often praised for quick and good answers, and we do our best to live up to all the kind words given in the comment field of the Rate dialog. Be sure they are read ‒ often more than once!

"Report On Behalf Of "Feature Added To TimeCard for Outlook

TimeCard is a popular Outlook tool for time reporting, both for single users and within organizations. Users just select some extra info from dropdowns in their Outlook appointments, and then they report both time and expenses to the database directly from their Outlook calendars.

Reporting for others with TimeCard
The South African insurance company Hollard is a Community Member that appreciates TimeCard. However, they had a problem when an assistant wanted to report time for someone else. This is possible in the current version of TimeCard, but the application will post the Outlook login name at the reporting occasion under Person in the database. To get the correct name on the report, an assistant who reported for the boss had to log in as the boss.

Sponsorship of new TimeCard solution
Hollard wanted to give their assistants a possibility to report time for several people more easily. The kalmstrom.com developers offered an elegant solution, and Hollard agreed to pay part of the development cost with a sponsorship. This way Hollard gets exactly the feature they need at a low price. They can also feel sure the new feature will be upgraded to support new Microsoft technology, since kalmstrom.com will add it to the standard product and offer it to all users.

New dropdown in the TimeCard Reporting dialog
Organizations who don't need the "Report on behalf of" feature simply avoid checking the box for it in the Common Settings dialog. Then their TimeCard applications will work just as before. If the box is checked, a new dropdown will appear in the Reporting dialog, like in the image here to the right. It will contain all the users from the database, and the logged in user will be the default choice.

Simpler procedure for "Reporting on behalf of"
With the new solution the Hollard assistants may quickly report time for other persons in this way:

1. Select the other person's calendar
2. (Mark appointments with metadata if this is not done)
3. Click the TimeCard Reporting button in Outlook to open the Reporting dialog
4.  (Make changes if necessary)
5. Select the right name from the dropdown
6. Report time and expenses by clicking the Post button

Each report will have the correct name, and the procedure is fast and easy.

For all TimeCard users
 We are sure more companies will like the "Report on behalf of" feature. Today a new TimeCard setup was sent to Hollard for their approval, and when the sponsor is satisfied we will release an updated TimeCard for all users. That way many people will benefit from this sponsorship!