Studio Manager Bulletin

Administer Studio Manager from your iPhone or Treo

If you currently use FileMaker Server to serve Studio Manager to your users, you need to know about this product. It will let you administer FileMaker Server from your iPhone or Treo.

The product is called AdminAnywhere and FileMaker is featuring it here. FileMaker lists it for $49!

You won't have to go to your desk or the server room to handle a server admin task anymore. You can even monitor and run your backups from your phone.

Click here or on the photo to enlarge it to full size.

Studio Manager 9 is Designed to be Customized

When you are out shopping for the mission critical softare that will be at the heart of your creative services business, think about this. Will you get a one-size-fits-all black box system or a modifiable database that you can shape and control? Black box systems are those that are programmed with such intricate complexity that the developers don't let the customer under the hood. Period.

The set it and forget it nature of a black box system might seem appealing, but most firms make sure they can modify their own mission critical software. They want their most important business software to closely fit their needs and mirror hard won business practices. They want to be able to modify the software over time as their needs change and evolve.

The software you pick may be web-based involving PHP, Javascript, Java or other web-oriented languages. If so, it will not be easy or quick to modify or extend. Maybe the software underneath the surface will be a regular programming language like Real Basic. Again, forget customization. Forget modifying or extending it in any significant way.

Studio Manager is based on FileMaker Pro, an incredibly easy-to-use database development environment. Databases are a lot easier to customize than traditional programmed software. FileMaker is the easiest database tool out there. This sounds a little crass, but it is a lot cheaper to develop with FileMaker.

Cheap translates to affordable customizing. Using a tool like FileMaker as the basis of your mission critical software gives you a level of control and flexibility that is remarkable in the software world. For example, you can easily add or modify reports. You can add, resequence or delete tabs that your don't need.

When you compare features between different pieces of software, don’t forget to think about the platform you have signed up for. Group your options by platform. For example, you could have groups for web-based, programmed, FileMaker-based, Other database.

Open vs. Closed. One last thing, most vertical market software is closed even if based on FileMaker. They may offer customization services. But you won't be able to choose your own consultant or do it yourself. Studio Manager is in the open category with 99.9% customizability - not just a few user-modifiable options. We strongly believe that FileMaker, an end-user-oriented development tool, is meant to be open.

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.

Studio Manager Bulletin Has a New Look

Wow! TypePad just expanded their themes and I found this one that I really like. So much for white backgrounds. I just love this. I'm hoping that enjoyment won't fade quickly. We'll see. Hope you like the new look.

One of the things I like about TypePad is their strength in design. That's why I'm on TypePad for my blogging service. You aren't stuck with a generic theme either. You can add your own CSS into the page to override theme CSS.

By the way, I use CSSedit these days. Fun to use and effective! Today I'm using the theme unedited. After I examine it in more detail, I'll start tweaking.

One thing I have to do is go back and change some of my graphics to have transparent backgrounds. Black aint going to work anymore. Argh! Cutting corners sometimes bites you in the butt later.

Studio Manager 9 Demo Manual v2 Up

All right, we just spent about $2500 user testing, improving and revising the demo manual for Studio Manager 9. Please consider the demo manual as a helpful introduction to the functionality of Studio Manager. The demo manual can be a handy training resource for new employees. Perfect for getting a thorough overview of the product. It has lots of screenshots so you can see what the instructions are talking about.

If you haven't checked out he Getting Started tutorial, we also recommend it for a hands on walk-thru. Step by step. Getting Started is 12 pages. The demo manual is 24.

Please let me know if you have any questions about the manual, Studio Manager or this post. I'll be notified if you post your question as a comment here. Or you can email me. Or, feel free to call us at 415 789-5219. We're open 8 am to 5:30 pm week days Pacific time.

Tutorial: Using the Scripts Menu

This article is going to be brief but it is worth mentioning that there is a Scripts menu in Studio Manager that has handy shortcuts that will help you get around. Each of the menu items has a corresponding keyboard equivalent listed in the menu.

Light users who may be entering time and noting the completion of tasks can zip around Studio Manager with the first 6 shortcuts.

Heavier users may want to use the first seven shortcuts religiously to save time and mousing wear and tear.

Entry Screen and List Screen. The first 2 shortcuts give you a way to toggle back and forth between the entry screen and list screen. If you've gotten away from your home base, you can quickly get back to the entry screen with Cmd-1 and the List screen with Cmd-2. The most common use here is to work with a list of contacts or jobs and then view the entry screens for particular contacts or jobs to work in more detail. When you are done, get back to the list screen in a hurry with Cmd-2.

Contacts, Jobs and Timesheets. The three most popular places to hang out in Studio Manager are Contacts (command-3), Jobs (command-4) and Timesheets (command-5). If you want to quickly get to your timesheet or lookup a contact or job details, these shortcuts get you there fast.

Home Base. We aren't playing baseball, but now that Studio Manager has links and views of all your data like your current and overdue tasks on your employee screen, it's handy to be able to get there without delay. Type command-6 and you'll get back home. Many users find having a home base a nice point of orientation to the whole system. We hope this helps. By the way, those who prefer a menu can click the little target icon at the top of the righthand button bar to go Home as well.

Studio Manager 9 Demo Manual Up

We have the first version of our Studio Manager 9 Demo Manual Up. We've updated the screenshots and added coverage of Studio Manager 9 features. It is currently 24 pages. We highly recommend the demo manual as a learning tool for new Studio Manager users. Great for new employees or for employees new to Studio Manager.

Our 13-page Getting Started manual is also a good learning tool and has been redone for Studio Manager 9. Getting started is more of a walk through at the detail level, walking you through creating a job, creating an estimate, write correspondence, etc.. The Demo Manual is more conceptual, giving you a tour of Studio Manager with more context in terms of explanation, features and benefits.

We are still at work on an even better version of the demo manual based on user testing. Stay tuned.

Studio Manager 9 Out, Demo Up

Just out this morning. Come see the demo, the new features page and the New Features guide on our Studio Manager site!