Posts Tagged ‘SmibsNet’
Reaction to the Smibs Launch
Friday, December 5th, 2008This has been an extremely busy week for Smibs with our launch into full public beta. The response has been epic, and we would like to thank all of the private beta users that have given us endless support and suggestions to get our applications to this point. As well, Smibs would like to formally welcome all the new members of SmibsNet and Doorbell users that have joined us over the week.
Finally, we would like the thank TechCrunch and contributor Jason Kincaid for all the positive coverage during this and prior launches. TechCrunch is considered a leader in news and technology websites and we would like to express our appreciation for their continued support of our Canadian start-up. See you on SmibsNet!
The Un-Business Plan
Thursday, December 4th, 2008Â
Corresponding with our launch into Public Beta, Smibs has sent the top venture capital firms a copy of our ‘Un-Business Plan’ for our application, Doorbell. This is a business plan like no other, in that we are not seeking investment or raising capital. Recently Smibs has been receiving some interest from investors to which we respectfully decline. The ‘Un-Business Plan’ is our counter-offer, signifying our intention to remain independent and focused on helping small businesses rather then maximizing the bottom line for potential investors.
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At Smibs, we are dedicated to the growth and development of small businesses. We take pride in the software we produce and we have seen the applications save our current users’ time and the frustration associated with routine business processes. We know that there are hundreds of business tools on the web, all vying for attention and your money and we hope that our ‘Un-Business Plan’ shows our commitment to the owners and employees of small business.Â
Take a look at the ‘Un-Business Plan’ yourself and know why we truly believe in our motto, to help your business ‘Grow Smart’.
Is your software too fast?
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008One of my primary roles as a developer is to look for ways to optimize software. It’s sort of my job, right? When we were developing the portfolios for SmibsNet profiles, I discovered that if code works too quickly, people can miss critical events. We had already developed the drag ‘n’ drop interface for resorting multiple portfolios, and were trying to figure out what kind of indicator would do the trick. It had to be something to make it clear to people that the resorting was being processed, and something that would prevent users from continuing the changes until the new order had been saved properly. Peter came up with the idea of having a translucent cover fading in over all the portfolios with an animated GIF indicator.
Screen shot of portfolios being reordered
This solved everything, except for one little nagging issue. While the indicator had to be there for slow connections, the average time for this re-sort was fractions of a second. The moment the new order was saved, the cover would disappear. I wanted our users to be able to get back to work as soon as possible, rather than being slowed down by in-the-way animations. The consequences of this decision were dark flashes over your portfolios when a user would re-sort.
It turns out the solution was to slow things down. After adding some effects it now fades in over a second, and then fades out over a few seconds. While this would seem like two seconds wasted, no one seems to have a problem with this. In fact, we have received great feedback about this effect. Many people ask me if all the portfolio stuff was coded in flash, to which I can answer, “nope, just good old fashion javascript.” Next time I’m faced with a confusing interface problem, I’m going to ask myself if the action has to be this fast. Maybe the best way to optimize the program is to slow it down.
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What other examples have you seen of software slowing down for the better?
We Have Successfully Launched into Public Beta!
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
It took a few late nights and more then a couple pots of coffee, be we have successfully launched SmibsNet and Doorbell into Public Beta. We definitely need to thank the tireless work from our programmers, designers and writers that helped to release the software. Our gratitude also goes out to Yellow Pencil and Toybox Media Inc. for technical and media support during our launch process.
We also would like to recognize all the great feedback we got from our users while in Private Beta. Your suggestions helped us to create a truly intuitive and interactive product.
We certainly appreciate all the press coverage we have been receiving so far from influential blogs like TechCrunch, TechVibes and Ryan A Graves. Here some of the things they have been saying so far:
“I created an account and found the entire process to be fairly painless. Setting up my personal profile and creating a company was simple – the interface is friendly and easy-to-understand.†Mack Male, TechVibes.com
“This is exactly the type of startup that will work and survive in this economic environment. They have a product that will help so many small business work more efficiently and provide value to these businesses.†Ryan A Graves, ryanagraves.com
If you get a chance, please check out our newly designed website and sign-up for an invitation to the Public-Beta release of SmibsNet and Doorbell!
Smibs Launches into Public Beta
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008Today we are excited to announce the invite-only Public Beta launch of SmibsNet and Doorbell! Inspired by the advice of our testers, we have worked hard since our Private Beta launch in June to refine our product to meet the unique needs of our users, maximizing the efficiency and usability of our interface and applications.
As I mentioned, our Public Beta will be invite only, giving our current users the ability to invite their friends to join them on our system and to find out how SmibsNet and Doorbell seamlessly integrates networking as well as contact and opportunity management.
We built SmibsNet and Doorbell because we saw a need for “sales software for non-sales peopleâ€â€” now we want to know your needs. Instead of building and perfecting our system in isolation, we want you to help us create an evolving product, tailored to its users.
Hope to see you all very soon on SmibsNet!
Peter Urban
Founder
Smibs Inc
View Press Release:Â http://www.smibs.com/media/media.html
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