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Launch: Sync for iPhone

Feb 2nd, 2009 in Product Enhancements by Lizetta Staplefoote

When the iPhone was first released, we jumped at the chance to develop a tool on this great new platform. This happened at the same time that we were really focusing on building up our relationship with Funambol. So what better way to do both, than to go to Italy for two weeks and work alongside their developers on the project?
In April 2008, that’s exactly what I did. I spent two weeks in Pavia, Italy discussing with Funambol how we can work more closely. At the same time, I worked with their team on the core code base of the Funambol iPhone client. The trip was amazing. Since then, we’ve continued to work closely with Funambol on new and old projects.
When I got back to Blacksburg, we set to work customizing the iPhone client for our own users. After many months, and intense coordination efforts with Apple, we’re finally ready to launch. This client is probably the easiest to use of all of our clients, and we are proud to give our valued customers the ability to sync their Noteworthy contacts directly with their iPhone or iPod Touch!
If you are a current customer using Noteworthy you can download the iPhone client from the App Store through iTunes or follow this link.

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Funambol Developers’ Conference

Jan 30th, 2009 in Company News by Lizetta Staplefoote

When Funambol invited me to talk at their first ever Developers’ Conference, I immediately said yes but had no idea what to present. After some back-and-forth, they asked me to present about process. But which process, I asked myself. The process of building new and exciting software? The process of working with a company whose developers are based in Italy? I eventually settled on the process of working with and contributing to open source software that integrates with private, proprietary software.
As I began working on the presentation, I realized the best way to do this was to also talk about our system architecture. The final presentation gives a great overview of how we use Funambol’s open-source software to integrate with our proprietary email platform, Noteworthy. I focused on the lessons we learned along the way, how we tackled them from a scalability perspective, and the ways we’ve tightly integrated the two solutions while keeping them clearly separated.
When it was time to give the actual presentation, technical difficulties prevented me from being able to give the talk live. With only a few hours before I was scheduled to talk, I ended up doing a screencast of the entire thing, so the video you can watch is the exact same video the attendees of the conference got.
You can watch the video here.
Warning: Technical content ahead!

Launch: New Sync Client for BlackBerry

Jan 28th, 2009 in Product Enhancements by Lizetta Staplefoote

The Sync client for BlackBerry was the first mobile to desktop synchronization client we developed in-house almost entirely from scratch. When we started more than a year ago, we’d just finished launching Sync for Outlook, our first sync service. We learned a lot from the project and were excited to do something new. But we made one critical mistake in the first versions: we re-invented the display from scratch. After we launched Sync for Windows Mobile, the BlackBerry client stood out as being very different from our other clients.
We’ve gone back to fix that, plus re-engineered the whole project to bring you a more unified look and feel. In the process, we went back through all our code and rethought everything to be more maintainable. The end result is a sync client that looks totally new and fresh from all directions – the display and the code.
We also wanted to tackle the problem of how to better support our mobile sync clients. The most painful part of supporting sync is that it runs on your phone and not on our servers. And, we can’t look at your phone to find out what’s wrong. Getting the logs from the client is the only way to know what’s going on. Most clients are fairly simple. But for the BlackBerry, it’s about 12 painful steps and very easy to do a step wrong or miss it entirely. The bottom line: The process can be frustrating for everyone involved. Now, it’s a one-click process to submit sync logs from your phone! If you encounter an error, just select “Send Logs” from the menu, and you’ll receive a confirmation email within seconds giving you further instructions.
So, if you’re a user of Sync for BlackBerry, today you’ll be able to enjoy a new display with a look and feel similar to Sync for Outlook or Sync for Windows Mobile. And if you’re a customer interested in getting started with Sync for the first time we can show you how. It’s also easier than ever to get help for any problems you have a long the way. If you’re a curious developer, as always our sync clients are open source. Feel free to look at the new, better organized code.
Feedback? Email mobile-sync [at] mailtrust.com

Lost in the translation?

Dec 15th, 2008 in Fanatical Support by Lizetta Staplefoote

To reduce labor costs, many businesses are relocating customer support operations to places like India, China, or Eastern Europe. The move may trim corporate bottom lines but customers often pay the price in the form of communication disasters and potential security issues. Trying to communicate regarding mission critical activities with someone who lacks a firm grasp on the English language can be maddening. With offices located on the other side of the world, distance and lack of control over day to day operations may prolong the identification of problems and leave holes in security. For example:
• Dell made the decision to transfer customer support overseas, they saved money but immediately felt the ire of customers who had difficulty communicating their issues and getting resolution from reps whose primary language is not English. They promptly moved their support activities back to the U.S.
• After moving customer support overseas, a skateboard manufacturer quickly found the terminology in their demographic changed so rapidly that the foreign reps could not keep up. While they spoke English, the reps could not effectively support customers because they did not understand the nuances and slang of the language.
• As of July 2008 India, a major outsourcing location, had no comprehensive privacy law relating to securing private data. So, if your private information is compromised by an Indian company, it may result in the loss of a contract but not legal penalties.
The Mailtrust Support Team spans secure offices in Texas and Virginia. We know that the most important part of support is communication. So, when you are choosing a partner for outsourcing vital parts of your business, look beyond price. Be sure you investigate who is going to answer the phone when you need help or you may find yourself lost in the translation.