This weekend we are releasing our March 2012 release. Here's a quick preview.

Heres a bit more information:

Ad-hoc Reporting: 

• includes project directory businesses and contacts. Ad-hoc reports may be filtered, grouped or sorted by business, discipline, contact and their job.
• includes the Location & Design Attributes custom field expansion.
• includes the Project Classification custom field expansion.
• apply sorting independent of grouping.

Location Master:

• location master: 200 custom fields including the addition of multi-select fields.
• project classification: 100 custom fields including the addition of multi-select fields.

Photo Library:

• upgrades user interface to eliminate pop-ups.
• upgrades user interface to increase usability on touch devices.
• upgrades user interface to integrate selection of thumbnails and view of detail photo onto single page.
• decreases page load times for photo library lists and photos.
• download all photos as single PDF document.
• upload photos to existing or new libraries via email.

Document Uploads Via Email:

• email single or multiple file attachments directly to project folders.
• upload of new versions of existing files with auto-matching

Photo Library Uploads Via Email

• email single or multiple photos directly to photo slideshows.
• create new photo slideshows via email photo attachments.
• support upload of embedded photos in email from iOS devices.

Email Archive and Discovery

• archive emails by project on any outgoing or incoming message.
• simply include one or more archive email address.
• capture the email thread as a single file with multiple versions.
• easily access all email threads within the document folder structure or fully-indexed search.
• protect email archives with flexible security.
• download entire email archive as a single ZIP file.

Various Updates

• IE9: photo library thumbnails now render
• Project Documents: user alerted when changing permissions and remove their own access
• Project Directory: v-card download now includes Country and Postal Code.

In this next video we show how easy it is to update an existing report to meet the needs of your team members. In less then three minutes we take an existing report, add a project count, add columns, rework the grouping by quarter, save as and export the results to excel.

Easily access and manage your real estate development program via the cloud. As my eight year old says. "Easy Peasy"

Visit our Youtube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/sitefolio

Argon Already?

Just 6 weeks after our last major release Chlorine,  we delivered Argon on Friday. Argon enables our customers to centrally track their Business Partners Diversity and Qualifications in a flexible and meaningful manner.  This flexibility means the standard configuration of fields can be renamed, extended and suppressed while security rights can be granularly assigned.

Standard Configuration

Diversity:

• Size
• Type
• Gender Classification
• Ethnicity
• Certifying Agency
• Certificate Number
• Certificate Issued
• Certificate Expiration
• NAICS Number
• DUNS Number
• Custom Text Fields
• Custom Date Fields
• Custom Pick List Fields
• Custom Multi Select Fields

Qualifications:

• Type
• Status
• Rating
• AIA Date
• Currency
• Bonding Cap
• Bonding Aggregate
• Average Volume
• Locale
• Custom Text Fields
• Custom Date Fields
• Custom Pick List Fields
• Custom Multi Select Fields 

We  missed renovation realities again this Friday night while we upgraded another physical aspect of our hosting infrastructure.

It’s important. We like to stay ahead of the curve ensuring our solution is highly responsive and available.(So do our customers) As you will see evidenced in the blog several times a year we upgrade various aspects of our delivery platform.

The last upgrade were the SQL servers. The focus this weekend was upgrading the capacity of our current document storage. We increased our capacity over four times. We have plenty of headroom allowing our clients to host as many CADD, Revit, PDF, Word, Excel, (well you get it... any file type)  they desire.

When working with site|folio - everything just works.

September 2011 release (Chlorine)

This weekend we released a major upgrade to our contract administration module which focused on 1) usability 2) configurability 3) seamless integration into capital budgting.

Miscellaneous

Enhancement:

1. Schedules: calculation offset value input box size extended from 3 characters to 5 characters

2. Project Setup: blank entry added to ’Requested By’ field eliminating required selection

Bug Fixes:

1. Submittal Log: submittal view page elegantly handles situations where multiple enterprises share data

2. Static Saved Search: correctly displays results of saved static search

3. IE9: attachment window save and cancel options are viewable

4. Project Overview: schedule upcoming elegantly handles the associated schedule template; displaying expected topics

5. Project Document ILPs: ensures a user with the project security administrator ‘e’dit permission can edit document folder ILP's

Ad-Hoc Reports

Enhancement:

1. Ad-hoc Reports: group and sort ad-hoc report date fields chronologically

2. Ad-hoc Reports: Gantt chart respects ad-hoc report grouping and sorting

3. Ad-hoc Reports: excel export retains grouping headers

Change Request (Prototype Management)

Enhancement:

1. Project CR: ’acknowledged by’ pick list configuration options expanded

2. CR Field Labels: simplified to increase usability and eliminate enterprise configuration naming conflicts

Contractor Contracts II (New)

Enhancement:

1. Contracts: suppress retainage fields when users do not have payment application permissions

2. Contracts: suppress markup percent when change orders do not support markup

3. Contracts: suppress "Revised Contract Finish" when contract days extension configuration is disabled

4. Change Order: allow approvers to edit the change order type dropdown across workflow

5. Attachments: allow approvers to manage COs, COPs & Pay Application attachments across workflow

Have questions? Contact Cristy Rousey-Clement at 206-553-9853

We will be working late Saturday night upgrading aspects of our hosting infrastructure. No NASCAR or Renovation Realities for us.

It’s important. We like to stay ahead of the curve ensuring our solution is highly responsive and available.(So do our customers) This isn’t a one-time event. Several times a year we upgrade various aspects of our delivery platform.

For example earlier this year we lit up our second colocation facility enabling geographic redundancy. If any catastrophic situation occurs at our primary facility we can point our customers to a mirror image located in Spokane, WA. The focus this weekend is upgrading our SQL clusters. What was once fast, will become faster.

Companies considering SaaS providers need to consider both the responsiveness and availability of the solution. Who has time for SLOW?

That’s it. Our maintenance window is from 7PM to 10PM EST with an expected downtime of 30 minutes.

Let us know who wins the race.

We are excited to release a major upgrade to our master schedule edition and can now confidently say this solution is best in class. With our easy to use centralized interface and introduction of real-time impact analysis it's time to toss your collection of Excel and MS Project files out the window. There is a more efficient way.

In about a month we will have another exciting announcement concerning major updates to our fully-integrated capital budgeting and contract administration editions.

Stay tuned....

Upgraded Schedule Interface: 

• Easy to Understand: see more across a condensed, fast, and clutter free view.
• Easy to Update: quickly update durations, dates and notes.
• Real-Time Analysis: as durations and actuals adjust, instantly identify impacts.
• Duration Wizard: employ simple questions to help project managers simplify complex conditional logic.
• Conditional Calculations: simplified management of powerful conditional calculations.
• Improved Templates: centrally manage and distribute changes to a highly and quickly configurable solution.
• Upgraded or alternate interface – if you grew fond of the previous interface, no worries, it’s still available.

As always pictures are worth a thousand words. If you want to see this first hand in action, give us a call.

Easy to Understand: see more across a condensed, fast, and clutter free view.

Easy to Update: quickly update durations, dates and notes.

Real-Time Analysis: as durations and actuals adjust, instantly identify impacts.

Duration Wizard: employ simple questions to help project managers simplify complex conditional logic.

Conditional Calculations: simplified management of powerful conditional calculations.

Although most of our clients use either Internet Explorer 6, 7, or 8, sitefolio supports other popular browsers as well, including Firefox, Chrome and Safari.  Competition in the market has led to higher browser standards across the board -- and we’re excited that Microsoft’s latest version, IE 9, will soon be available.  The release will be a watershed moment.

Still, IE 9 might come later than expected.  And it will work only on computers with Windows 7 and higher.  This will leave many of our clients in the dark, as their IT departments take time to test their corporate systems to ensure newer browsers and newer operating systems work with their internal operating needs.

To account for this transition, site|folio now supports Google Chrome Frame - an open source plug-in that seamlessly brings Google Chrome's open web technologies and speedy JavaScript engine to Internet Explorer.  This allows everything to operate as normal.  You can still use Internet Explorer; but when you come across a site like site|folo that is optimized for Google Frame, IE will politely ask to use the Google Frame plug-in to speed things up. You’ll be blown away.

Sounds great.  How do I install Google Chrome Frame? Click this link and follow the installation prompts.  Once the installation is complete, click here to re-experience site|folio.

How many emails do you send each day.  Dozens?  Hundreds?  You know they’re important, but there’s a good chance some of them get ignored in overstuffed Inboxes, especially the automated variety.  Our automated emails make notifying your team really easy - and sometimes even automated. We allow you to quickly select recipients, add to the body of the email, and include relevant links and attachments. 

In our most recent release we included an enhancement that is simple but powerful - custom subject lines.  Whether your using site|folio to send a folder update, a date change, or a request for information, the ability to also personalize the subject lines will ensure your automated emails get the attention they deserve.  This request comes straight from our clients - and we were happy to oblige.

In the past a notification subject line might have looked like this: ‘Notification: RFI 0005 Tenant Improvement Regency Mall’’ -- and it might have gotten lost in the shuffle.  Now, before sending, you can append a subject line.  Add ‘IMPORTANT!’ or ‘Please read tonight’ to make sure your email gets the attention it deserves.

Now our clients can have confidence their message gets through.

One of the most effective ways to present real estate site conditions and progress is through photos. But emailing them as attachments, putting them into folders, or uploading them into PowerPoint presentations is tedious, time consuming  work.  Plus, the sheer size of 4 megabyte photos drains email and server storage.

When we review clients’ storage needs too often precious space is taken up by cumbersome, unorganized photos.  To standardize the photo sending and accepting process, site|folio offers location and project libraries.  Our libraries automatically compress and organize photos into slide shows.  Some of our most successful clients run their weekly progress meeting via the most recent set of slides.   

In our next update we’re taking site|folio libraries to a new level.  Now clients will be able to:

• Add a single photo to an existing slide show.  In the past, once a group of photos was uploaded, no new ones could be added.  Now clients can add single photos to augment a slide show, or simply upload one photo as an entire show.
• eNotify team members of new or updated slide shows with links directly back to the library embedded in the email.
• Add notes directly on the photo detail sheet, making it easier to prepare a solid representation of conditions/progress.

Note: the original site|folio library features will still be in place:

• Upload, compress and create a muli-photo slide show in 2-4 clicks.
• Organize photos within each slideshow by sorting, adding and removing.
• Watermark each photo with custom text.
• Print the entire slideshow or download as a ZIP