Studio Manager Bulletin

Several New Blog Posts about Studio Manager 10 Features

Just in case you are checking here and haven't seen my new blog posts at Studio Manager Story, I'm posting a list here. If you are interested in Studio Manager, you'll probably find it fun to watch as we reveal the new features coming in Studio Manager 10. Here's what we've revealed so far:

Monthly Calendar

Employee Dashboard

Capturing Relevant 1-off Emails

Calendar Week View

Task Assignments go from 1 to 4 slots per task

Contact Address Summary

Find as you Type

We've Posted Upgrade Prices for Studio Manager 10

I went through the pricing for Studio Manager 9 and made minor adjustments in your favor. Then I came up with this general set of discount rules for upgraders:

During December 2009 you get another 25% off. 

So, for example, if you currently own Studio Manager 7, you get 45% off of the new price for Studio Manager 10. And, then you get 25% off of that number if you buy before January 1st!

A detailed price schedule is available at: Studio Manager Story Upgrades tab.

Studio Manager 10 is About to be Released

 We're aiming for early next week but it may be as late as Friday, December 15. We are polishing, testing, writing stories about the new features, putting up web pages, and sending emails right now. Studio Manager 10 is a major new release and we are blogging about it at Studio Manager Story. There are two posts on Studio Manager 10 over there right now. More to come asap.

Part of the Studio Manager Story is that Studio Manager 10 takes advantage of new features in FileMaker Pro 10. Those new features and how we've taken advantage of them is the subject of some of our next blog posts on Studio Manager Story.

December Sale: 25% Off on Studio Manager

 
We haven't had a sale like this ever in Studio Manager's history. There is a first time for everything and we think the current economy, as much as it seems to have bottomed out, is still worth a good sale to rally the troops and help you make up your mind to do something good for your team's information infrastructure.

Our 25% discount is across the board for both new purchases of Studio Manager and for the already low upgrade prices we have in our current price list. We haven't changed our price list, you'll need to do the math with your computer calculator or iPhone, but we think you'll like your numbers. Just take 25% off what you see on our Pricing or Upgrades pages at Studio Manager Story.

Studio Manager 9.2: Adding FM10 features, Still FM9 Compatible

We've just completed two major changes in Studio Manager.

First, we added dedicated table view layouts with subsummaries to 10-plus Studio Manager tables. All the major tables have this new interactive, browse-mode-oriented summary tool. These layouts work fine in FileMaker Pro 9, but they shine in FileMaker Pro 10 because the subsummaries work in Browse mode, not just in a Preview. You see your headings and subtotals while you edit your data (See my FileMaker Fever Posts here and here to see why this is very cool).

Second, we modifed the entry screen form factor a bit so that FileMaker 10 users can fit the entry screens with the 1" toolbar on top within the height of a 13" monitor. We wanted to support Macbooks on FileMaker 10.

The adjustment was small. The entry screens are 15 pixels wider and 14 pixels shorter. We expect our FileMaker 9 users not to notice but for FM10 users with 13" screens, the change will be critical to avoid a vertical scroll to see the whole screen.

We added a 3rd FileMaker 10 feature in SM 9.1. The FileMaker-native tabs in Contacts are now *smart* on their own. When you select a tab, the records filter to the type of Contact you are selecting with the tab. Click Clients and you get clients, etc.. This only works in FileMaker Pro 10. If you are in FileMaker Pro 9, you need to double-click the tabs in Contacts to get the automatic filtering.

Studio Manager 9.1 Demo is Up

In case you aren't also checking in at our main Studio Manager page, you may have missed our Demo announcement on Monday. The new demo is compatible with FileMaker Pro 10 now and still runs fine with FileMaker Pro 9. You can download a free trial version of FileMaker Pro 10.

We added a FileMaker 10-only improvement which makes the Contact tabs filter the records to be approrpiate for the tab with a single click. This feat isn't possible with FileMaker's new tab controls without a new feature in FileMaker Pro 10 called script triggers.

We already had and fixed bug #1 in SM 9.1. The first implementation of this demo put up on Monday had a bug in this new feature which has now been corrected. If you got the demo before Jan 22 09 3 pm, you may have the bug which causes you to land on the wrong contact sometimes. Glad we do testing on our software before and after we post it. 

Introducing ScreenSteps for Studio Manager 9

We have something new for you today. We are switching over to live web-based documentation for Studio Manager 9. We just opened our account today and have put up a few Studio Manager lessons that are available for public access.

Shortly we will be putting up a lot more lessons that will only be available to Studio Manager customers. What that means to you if you are a Studio Manager customer is that you'll need to register for an account.

Because some of our FileMaker consulting work is not for Studio Manager, we've opened the account under the name "tokerud" and the public URL is: tokerud.screenstepslive.com. We are hoping to use ScreenSteps whenever we have a need to explain how to do something in Studio Manager, FileMaker or the Mac.

One cool feature of ScreenSteps is that the user can download a PDF of a single lesson and be guaranteed of getting the most up to date information on that subject. You don't necessarily have to print a big manual all at once. Print as needed or just download PDFs of sections you are working on. Don't keep too many too long. Better to come back and get the freshest version of that lesson when you need it.

Unlike getting a full user manual that is current as of a single date, you get each lesson updated as recently as can be. We want to put up documentation as it is written rather than waiting for months to write the entire manual from start to finish.

Another thing we like about ScreenSteps is that each lesson is like a blog post with a comments area at the bottom. That means when you read a lesson and have a question, you can post it there. We then have the option of (1) writing a comment of our own to clarify or (2) improving the lesson to handle your question.

If we do our ScreenSteps documentation at the level of excellence that we are shooting for, we hope to attract a lot of comments and useage from our customer base. Our not so hidden agenda is to create a thriving community around Studio Manager that communicates. We want you guys to help each other and share knowledge.

Studio Manager Support Packages Available

As we discussed in our recent post about creating Studio Manager support packages, we think support packages are a good idea as long as (1) they are optional and (2) you get a better deal than you would buying support ad hoc. We spent some time working over the numbers and here's what we can offer:

AD HOC SUPPORT::
You can buy time in as small as 10-minute increments. The truth is the majority of our support requests are handled in 10 minutes. Keep in mind that most phone support is done by Janet with Sally handling more routine questions when Janet isn't available.

Janet $180/hour or $30 for 10 minutes. UC Berkeley MBA, 20-year speciallst in providing FileMaker-based systems to creative services businesses. Architect and chief developer of Studio Manager. Working full-time on Studio Manager, Janet delivers phone, email and remote access support to our customer base. She also does upgrades and customization projects.

Scout $90/hour. Scout spent 2 years as the product manager for Studio Manager and has been working with Janet since 1989. Before that Scout worked in printing and as a production graphic artist. She has written most of Studio Manager's technical documentation and participates in product planning, design and development. Works mostly on Studio Manager testing, documentation and customization projects.

Sally $60/hour. The newest member of the Studio Manager team, Sally does admin, customer support, testing, documentation and beginner level Studio Manager training. She has a Masters degree in education and is helping us beef up all of our documentation and training. As she masters Studio Manager and FileMaker, Sally will be doing more and more of our customer training.

SUPPORT PACKAGES::
You are going to want to purchase support packages for four reasons: (1) to have it budgeted for, (2) to make a commitment to use Studio Manager to its fullest, (3) to pay for upgrade and customization projects that will take several hours to complete and (4) to get a discount.

The blocks of support hours below are quoted at Janet's hourly rate because she does the bulk of customer support. However, since we structure our rates to be easily calculated, you can divide by two to see the rate you will pay for Scout's contributions and divide by three to see what you'll pay for Sally's time.

Studio Manager Support Packages Coming

Up till now, we've been doing support on an hourly basis with occasional sales of blocks of time. We've decided that our customers more often than not skimp on support. They don't budget for it at the time of purchase and then try to get along with little to no extra help. Because of this, some of our customers aren't getting as much as they should out of Studio Manager.

One option would be raise the price of Studio Manager so that we can offer more support with the product. Right now you get one hour of free support. We could raise the price of Studio Manager by a few hundred dollars and give you 5 hours of support. But that would penalize those of you who prefer to do things on your own with your own local or in-house FileMaker talent. Studio Manager is very popular among firms who are already using FileMaker. We aim to please, so we are going to attack the support issue by offering you incentives. Yeah, that's right, discounts!

Here's what we are thinking right now. Provide the following discounted chunks of service that can be purchased in advance: 5-hours, 10-hours, 25-hours and 50-hours. If you need a different number of hours, you can add additional hours to any one of these plans. If you want 35 hours instead of 25, for example, we'll sell you all 35 hours at a better discount than you would get by buying both a 10-hour and 25-hour package.

Discounts will range from about 5% for the 5 hour block of time to a little over 20% off for the largest block of hours. You will have 12 months to use your hours. We are working on the support packages this week and should have something firmed up by week's end.

If you happen to see this post before we've finalized our support packages and pricing, please let us know what you think. We would love the input.

Supporting You with Screen Sharing in OSX Leopard

Now that Apple has released the second update to OS X Leopard, 10.5.2, the promise of Leopard is being realized. We are enjoying being able to almost instantly see and manipulate local computers in the office. I can reach out to my iMac from my MacBook Pro and see the screen and run programs. I can open our business database if it isn't open. All this is ultra easy now.

In this world of remote desktop that Apple calls Screen Sharing, we can Screen Share with you in either direction if you are also on a Mac running OS X Leopard. We can demonstrate things on our Macs while you watch and we can also remotely control your computer when you have so authorized and make changes or add things to your custom version of Studio Manager. Pretty slick.

It's sometimes been a challenge to explain things on a graphical user interface by phone. Leopard screen sharing can make things much easier. If you ever call us for tech support or have a question that requires looking at your Mac screen running Leopard, please let us know so we can augment our conversation by seeing your screen or vice versa.

Please note that if you are using remote desktop on a Tiger based machine, we can also use remote desktop to accomplish much of the same thing. It's just a wee bit easier in Leopard.