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Welcome to the Internet Software Sciences Newsletter #6.

The Web+Center user community continues to expand into users all over the globe who require a simple, configurable and customizable Help Desk and customer support solution. The product continues to grow in functionality with new added support for Pocket PC's, internationalization of labels and buttons and configurable customer surveys and extensive reporting features.

This newsletter will hopefully provide some important product information and informational articles about users, upgrades, support and partner programs.

This particular newsletter has (2) interesting User Spotlight articles highlighting Web+Center users from Florida County of Elections and online restaurant ordering support.

We hope you enjoy the newsletter. If you would like to submit an article for the User Spotlight section for future newsletters, please contact Kitty Peterson at KittyPeterson@inet-sciences.com.

Newsletter Index: Product News Web+Center 4.01 Release New Web+Center 4.01 New Features New Pocket+Center integrated with 4.01 release Upgrading from Version 4.0 Web+Center Users Spotlight Florida County Supervisors of Elections On-line Restaurant Order support Web+Center Software Updates Partner Programs

Product News

Web+Center 4.0/4.01 Release

Web+Center Version 4.0 production version has been available since January 2003. In May 2003, a minor version update was released called 4.01 and with this release is a new fourth application called Pocket+Center.

The Pocket+Center is the newest web-based component that integrates with the other suite of Web+Center components Customer+Center, Tech+Center, and Business+Center.

The Pocket+Center is a scaled down and re-engineered Tech+Center interface for the Pocket PC devices running a Pocket Browser.

This component allows remote Pocket PC users to log into the Web+Center application as a technician and perform most of the important tech functions such as customer searches, updates, and case tracking, management, and other calendar functions. This allows for real-time remote access to the Web+Center application with a handheld device. Remote connectivity options to your Pocket PC can be achieved with a local wi-fi environment or cell phone/blue tooth connectivity options.

Pocket+Center is an optional Technician applications to allow technicians to access the Web+Center application with Pocket PC handheld devices. There are two ways to test this component listed below: Testing with Desktop size Display Testing with Pocket PC Handheld PDA Device The URL to enter into your Pocket PC is:http://168.143.174.18/Sandboxpocket40/

Upgrading to Version Web+Center 4.01

The Web+Center 4.01 version is completely database compatible with version 4.0 but it offers the new Pocket+Center application (see below for more information on the Pocket+Center) and a few minor code fixes to the 4.0 version.

Please refer to appendix E of the installation guide for complete upgrade instructions for upgrading to 4.01 from any previous version.

Web+Center User Spotlight Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections

What does Web+Center and hanging chads have in common?

Web+Center is now being used to help track and record maintenance records for new electronic voting machines installed in Florida after the 2000 Presidential Election. Richard Meyers, System Administrator for the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections has written the article below as to how they use Web+Center.


Here at the Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections office, we have found ourselves in a constant state of change since the 2000 Presidential Election. Sarasota County had the lowest ballot spoilage (error) rate in the Florida, and the subsequent recounts showed only a 1 vote difference after the original tabulation of the punch cards. Our processes were solid, but had to change since the State de-certified the punch-card system. We selected to use iVotronic touchscreen equipment for our voters. This was a totally new process to us and it was like rolling out 1500+ computers for a day, then wiping them clean after a successful election and putting them away for the next time.

Along with these new machines, entirely new procedures were placed in Florida Statutes to address the keeping of all maintenance records for each of these units. After a long search, Web+Center was selected because of it's customization, flexibility, management, and ease of use. The web-based interface is highly portable, and allows quick entry of the service records with little training.

Prior to an election, we must manually clear and test every unit just before an election. After the election is over and vote totals certified, we manually clear the 1500+ units again. In the upcoming 2004 elections, we will do this process a total of 3 times in less than 90 days. Everything that is done is logged into Web+Center. Other counties and states who were contemplating buying a touchscreen system observed our process and applauded our thoroughness and procedures. We are looking forward to implementing the PDA interface this fall to allow even more portability.

Overall, Web+Center allows us to stay in compliance with State laws, provides piece of mind that records are well maintained, and that when these iVotronics go out on Election Day, every vote WILL COUNT.

Web+Center User Spotlight EZWaitress.com

EZwaitress.com is a company that allows restaurants to easily create an on-line menu web presence that takes on-line orders and delivers them directly to the restaurant as a fax order.

Statistics show that about 50% of restaurants have a web presence, but less than 1 percent have a online ordering system because of the high cost associated with creating a online ordering approach. EZwaitress provides a fast easy, affordable solution for a restaurant to get online with a state of the art ordering system.

Chris Smith, IT Director for EZWaitress.com describes how they use Web+Center:

We are currently using Web+Center for a FAQ's page, a knowledge base, and a trouble ticket system. Existing clients can use email to open trouble tickets with support or open trouble tickets through phone support. EZwaitress.com is using the time spent feature to track support call billing. The reporting feature is used to calculate the time spent on support calls and calculate average times for support call issues.

Web+Center Software Updates

Web+Center version 4.0+ includes links to an Web+Center software update tool that is always available to download the latest Web+Center modules. Included in each Web+Center installation is a documentation home page (http://hostname/docs40) which is a set of links to all of documentation including Installation Guide, Getting Started Guide, User Guide, Programmers Guide and Power Point Training modules. Below the documents links are additional links that say:

• Customer+Center Files
• Tech+Center Files
• Business+Center Files
• Language Directory Files
• Pocket+Center Files

If you click on any of the links, you will be transferred to the Internet Software Sciences Version Server where you can view and download any of the Web+Center folders and current versions of any of the files.

Figure #1 - Example online software updates screen shot

The files are color coded to show which files have been recently updated to allow you to easily identify which files have been recently released. Compare the dates of your file and the dates of the files on the online updates page and decide if a new file is required. To download a file, first backup your existing file in case you made some modifications to the file and then click on the file link on the online updates page and replace the file with your existing module.

Starting with Version 4.0, it is important that if you download any new files for the techcenter, customercenter, businesscenter or pocketcenter directories that you also check to see if there are any new files or updates in the language directory. When updates are made to the ASP application files, any new labels and language specific sections will be made to wclabels.inc or other labels files in the language directory.

Partner Programs

New Internationalization Options for Resellers

ISS offers a World Wide Web+Center Reseller Program for those interested in marketing and reselling the Web+Center product to customers anywhere in the world. With the new Internationalization options available with the 4.0 release, resellers will have an opportunity to create country/language specific versions of the software. There are currently 18 resellers in US, Canada, UK, Austria, Africa, Asia, and South America. To find out more about the ISS partner programs and authorized Web+Center resellers, please click on the Partners Link on the Internet Software Sciences website. For a complete list of authorized Web+Center resellers and system integrators, click on the Reseller List link on the partners page.

These resellers are authorized to sell the product and offer Web+Center consulting, configuration and support services. Some resellers offer Internet Hosting services for the Web+Center product for those requiring a hosted Web+Center solution.