SmarterStats 8.x BETA Now Available

January 24, 2013 by

We’re excited to announce the BETA of the next version of our popular business analytics product: SmarterStats 8.x. Over the last few major releases we focused on providing a Web interface for SmarterStats that administrators and end users would find as simple as it was powerful.  With this latest release, we kept the same look and appearance but rewrote the underlying architecture with the latest Internet technologies to dramatically improve the speed, reduce the size and increase compatibility with all the latest Internet browsers and tablets.

In addition, SmarterStats 8.x brings several new features, server side optimizations and fixes that continues to make SmarterStats compatible with the latest Internet trends.  As with all releases, we worked closely with customers and partners and while we couldn’t incorporate everyone’s ideas into this release, we prioritized our users’ wants to create a new version of SmarterStats that we think you’ll really like.

So let’s take a look at what’s new…

Tremendous Performance Increases

We spent a great deal of time benchmarking SmarterStats and then making changes to increase the level of performance across the board. In many instances we’ve seen increases of 70% or more in the speed and responsiveness of the SmarterStats 8.x interface. We’ve also seen huge decreases in memory and CPU usage, not to mention much faster importing of log files, even under extremely heavy loads. All of this means that the product runs much quicker and much more efficiently than previous versions. Some of the changes we’ve made include:

  • Re-factored and completely re-wrote many areas of the web interface to reduce the amount of JavaScript code, CSS and HTML, making the entire web interface much faster, much more responsive and much lighter weight.
  • CSS files have been converted to LESS, making stylesheets much smaller and more efficient.
  • The button bars were re-factored to be lighter weight controls.
  • The context menus were re-factored to be lighter weight controls.
  • The date pickers were re-factored to be lighter weight controls.
  • The tree view controls were re-factored to be lighter weight controls.
  • Greatly increased the performance of the Web interface.

As we mentioned in a blog post late last year, we feel efficiency IS a product feature, and SmarterStats 8.x really proves that point.

Auto-detection of Log Files

One of the major hassles with setting up a site in SmarterStats is accurately labeling the log file type that the site uses. This is especially a problem when managing a mixed-platform environment: Linux and Windows servers. SmarterStats 8.x greatly simplifies the process of adding in new sites as it will now auto-detect the log file type when the site begins processing. Having SmarterStats auto-detect the log file type will make setting up mixed-mode sites much easier for most System Administrators.

New Support for Rotating Logs

It’s no surprise that log files can take up a lot of valuable disk space. In some environments, particularly those running Linux and Apache, System Administrators conserve system disk space by rotating log files. That means they will allow a log file to grow to a certain size or for a certain time, then move it and rename the file (most commonly by adding a date stamp) and instruct the web server to begin writing a new log file for data. While it is a simple way to conserve space, it can be difficult to report on those rotated logs. SmarterStats 8.x now fully supports the rotation of log files and can easily manage, import and report on rotated log files.

Greater Support for International Customers

SmarterStats is a truly international product. With customers in well over 120 different countries, support for languages other than English is a priority. In addition, as SmarterStats’ adoption across the globe continues to rise, support for non-Western character sets is also essential. With SmarterStats 8.x we’ve not only included support for right-to-left languages in the management interface and on the portal, but we’ve also gone through the entire product and greatly simplified our language strings to make things much easier for automated translations and for customers who create their own translations files.

Is that it?

Of course not! SmarterStats 8.x has many more features and improvements. You’ll find them in the release notes we’ll post in the SmarterStats 8.x BETA forum, but here are a few more that might be of interest:

  • The list of sites sites can now be filtered by server in SmarterStats Enterprise, making it much easier for administrators to review sites from server to server.
  • Geographic reports now include Unique Visitor counts.
  • Email reports will now wait until data is available before they are sent out.
  • SmarterStats will now detect the integrity of SEO searches, and update automatically if search engines change.
  • Status messages and tip text now drops down from the top of the page and no longer disrupts the page flow.
  • Geographic database updated with new IP information.
  • Renamed or compressed log files will no longer be re-imported as if they were new.
  • Exporting report data now saves the file as the report’s name rather than “ExportedData”.

Getting started with the BETA

To get your hands on the BETA simply visit the SmarterTools BETA forum, where you’ll see how to:

  • Sign up for the BETA
  • Get a special BETA license key
  • Download the latest BETA release (we update it regularly)
  • Communicate with other BETA testers and the SmarterTools development team
  • Stay up-to-date on the latest release note and BETA news

Sign up for the BETA

Filed under SmarterStats, SmarterTools Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Google’s Winter of Discontent

December 19, 2012 by 3 Comments

Source: Pocket Now

Source: Pocket Now

Late last week, Google announced that, as part of its “Winter cleaning,” they would be eliminating, or “closing”, some the less popular features from their free products and services. Examples of these include the ability to create calendar events via SMS or to check your calendar via SMS.  And who knew about Punchd, an Android app that keeps loyalty punch cards on your smartphone? Apparently not many people as it is getting axed as well.

Source: iMore

Source: iMore

However, some other features that they’re eliminating are a bit more surprising. The one getting the most attention is Google Sync, Google’s implementation of Microsoft’s Exchange ActiveSync for syncing Google Mail, Calendar and Contacts. EAS is the premier syncing technology for mobile devices that run Apple’s iOS and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8. Microsoft even added EAS support for Outlook 13, the update to their popular desktop email client. While it’s true Google is only “closing” Google Sync for new users of their free mail service after January 4, 2013, it will still cause a lot of headaches for a lot of people. They also state that, with their implementation of IMAP for syncing mail and CalDAV and CardDAV for syncing calendars and contacts, that users of their free mail service won’t really be affected.

Source: The Verge

Source: The Verge

There’s just one problem with that line of reasoning: Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 doesn’t support CalDAV or CardDAV as it relies solely on EAS for calendar and contact syncing. Therefore, anyone who purchases a Windows phone after Google’s Winter cleaning is completed won’t be able to sync their phones with their free Gmail accounts – well, at least not their Google calendars or contacts. As a result, many in the tech community are projecting that this is an escalation of the platform wars surrounding Microsoft and Google. In addition, it’s clear that Microsoft may have been taken by surprise at the Google’s revelation and is doing whatever they can to spin people from Gmail to Outlook.com, their own paid email service.

This is all extremely entertaining for those of us in the mail server business. While the big guys all slug it out, pointing people away from free services and funnelling them toward paid services, our products become even more important parts of the discussion. For example, when looking at the paid options from Microsoft and Google, SmarterMail’s price point really comes into its own, even with the Exchange ActiveSync add-on factored in.

As an example, let’s use a 15 employee business, which is the sweet spot for both Google and Microsoft. Below is a pricing matrix comparing Outlook.com’s price with Google’s Apps for Business paid service, and SmarterMail’s Enterprise licensing alongside. The numbers speak for themselves.

Outlook.com
$6/user/month		 Google Apps
$50/user/year		 SmarterMail
Enterprise
Monthly Fee $90.00 $62.50 N/A
Yearly Fee $1350.00 $750.00 $499.00
EAS Add-on N/A N/A $199.00
Yearly Total $1350.00 $750.00 $698.00

What this doesn’t factor in is that, with SmarterMail (or any SmarterTools product), yearly renewals of upgrade protection are extremely discounted – up to a 60% savings. So, year 2 would look like this:

Outlook.com
$6/user/month		 Google Apps
$50/user/year		 SmarterMail
Enterprise
Monthly Fee $90.00 $62.50 N/A
Yearly Fee $1350.00 $750.00 $199.60
EAS Add-on N/A N/A $199.00
Yearly Total $1350.00 $750.00 $398.60

That means SmarterMail Enterprise, with EAS, is almost half of the cost of Google Apps for Business. When you start adding employees, those savings become even more apparent as SmarterMail’s overall cost doesn’t increase until you hit 25 employees and need to increase your EAS subscriptions. And even if you don’t need EAS for syncing your Apple or Android devices, let’s say you’re a die-hard Windows fan and will cling to your HTC 8 or Nokia Lumia 920 until end of time, SmarterMail can accommodate you as well. That’s because SmarterMail natively supports IMAP, CalDAV and CardDAV so you can still get enterprise-level mail service for an even greater discounted price. Then there are the other things that come included: anti-spam and anti virus that keep mail servers, and users, secure; instant messaging and live chat, even when using external clients; shared contacts and calendars; industry-leading webmail interface, and much more.

So, go ahead, guys. Keep doing what you’re doing. We’ll sit on the sidelines with our popcorn and watch how things unfold…and we’ll just keep building a fantastic line of products that match and some ways exceed your offerings, but at a fraction of the cost.

Filed under SmarterTools, Technology Reviews Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Apple throws down the social gauntlet

June 13, 2012 by

There’s already a ton of press about Apple’s WWDC, and a lot of discussion about the next generation MacBook Pro, iOS 6, Mountain Lion and more. Some things of note: Engadget has a good review of the new MacBook Pro, John Gruber at DaringFireball breaks it all down into 3 main takeaways, and of course, there’s all the coverage from the Verge. I won’t rehash any of what’s been discussed, but there are a couple of things that I found particularly intriguing that don’t seem to be getting much coverage.

Apple made a big deal about being able to share maps, photos and web pages through social networks and the integration of Twitter (the deeper integration, that is) and Facebook that’s coming in iOS 6. This means that more people will be able to share things with their existing social accounts. Not terribly earth shattering, but it’s something that all of the iOS users I know have been clamoring for. In the background, however, is something that’s even more intriguing.

The first is Apple’s sharing capabilities beyond just Facebook and Twitter. Apple is placing a ton of  importance on Apple IDs and the complement of Mountain Lion and iOS 6 seamlessly integrating the desktop and mobile experiences. Take a picture on your iPhone and it appears on your desktop. Create a document on your desktop and you can not only view it on your mobile device, but edit it as well. Microsoft is moving in this direction with Windows 8, but from what I’ve seen and heard, their efforts aren’t nearly as seamless. Apple is truly blurring the lines between the desktop and mobile in a way the others can only hope to do.

Beyond that, however, and even more interesting, are the new sharing features for photo streams. You will soon be able to share pictures with people in your address book, and those people will not only get a shared album in their own photo stream but they will be able to comment on these photos as well. That is HUGE! That means that Apple users have the ability to share with true friends – NOT Facebook friends, or business associates, people you knew in the 7th Grade or other acquaintances and followers that you’ve accumulated since you signed up for Twitter and Facebook. These are actual friends of yours. These are people you regularly call, message and interact with. This, more than anything else, is the beginning of the Apple social network.

Look at it this way: one of the major uses of Facebook is photo sharing. However, photo sharing was never easy in Facebook. Have you ever tried to share a photo with just a few Facebook friends? It’s difficult at best. Photo sharing is so popular that Facebook bought Instagram and then released their own camera app (and what platform got the Facebook camera first?). However, the iPhone is one of the most popular cameras out there and with the new sharing and commenting features in photo stream, Apple takes the primary Facebook hook and brings it back into iOS and the desktop. Users can now share pictures with JUST true friends and the people they are closest to. They are filling in the gap between sharing with “friends” and sharing with friends.

Finally is Passbook. This is Apple moving into Square and Google Wallet territory. It can’t be anything but…especially since it already mirrors Square’s Card Case. The implications of this are huge, and Dan Rowinski over at ReadWriteWeb does a much better job of breaking it down that I could. Suffice it to say that Apple is moving towards processing transactions, just as a Visa or Amex do, but couple that power with the ability to provide services that neither Visa or Amex could ever hope to provide.

There are some that are saying that Monday’s keynote at the WWDC was an attempt to throw down the gauntlet with Google. Well, that could be, but it may have been an even subtler jab at Facebook. Apple looks to be moving towards creating their own social network. I guess only time will tell.

Filed under SmarterTools, Technology Reviews Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Microsoft building an ecosystem with Barnes and Noble investment

May 1, 2012 by 2 Comments

Microsoft is one of the largest players in the next generation of platforms and operating systems but it’s the only one with out an ecosystem. That is, it’s the only one without revenue generating services that can help power and guide those platforms

In a previous blog post, “Windows 8 will succeed, but Microsoft could still fail“, I talked about Windows 8 and the impact it could have on the antiquated business model Microsoft has for their Windows Division. Specifically, I talk about how their business model is in trouble due to pressures on providing free upgrades like Apple and Google do for the iOS and Android platforms. I further propose that, without additional revenue generating services, Microsoft is going to have a difficult time competing in the platform space moving forward. In order for Windows to succeed in the Post-PC era, Microsoft needs to build an ecosystem that provides their main source or revenue in the consumer space.

Oddly enough, it seems Microsoft understands this and its recent injection of money into Barnes and Noble is proof.

It’s no great secret that Microsoft is years behind Apple, Amazon, and Google in providing online services. In addition, Microsoft will not be able to build these services in a reasonable amount of time and, to be honest, their track record has proven they aren’t necessarily very good at it. They have attempted multiple music services, either through building it themselves or via partnership, and none were very successful. In addition, their implementation had a long lasting impact on users because they took down DRM servers making some music no longer able to be played.  Bing has been somewhat of a bomb and continues to cost Microsoft money.

The “funding” of a new Barnes and Noble digital and educational company is brilliant. This allows Microsoft to complete against all three major e-book players on a fairly level playing field very quickly. Without Barnes and Noble, Microsoft would be in a world of hurt, plus they have added another piece to their ecosystem.  Microsoft is already planning to come out with an App Store for Metro, which will provide some decent revenue opportunities, but having access to the Barnes and Noble customer base and providing their e-reader on all Windows 8 versions is a step in the right direction.

Now the question is, where is Microsoft going to get video?

A friend of mine, Jeff Hardy, sent me an email and suggested, albeit sarcastically, that Microsoft buy Netflix. The funny thing is, I agree 100% with the idea.  Netflix is in trouble. They don’t have enough money to get enough content and they’re stuck.  Companies such as NBC, CBS, FOX, Showtime, HBO, etc. don’t like the Netflix model. Plus, Netflix has another issue: their model works great for older content but you can’t sell customers on older content. New and ever-changing content drives revenue. That’s why CBS, NBC, et. al. have their own apps and websites for customers to consume “new” content.

Microsoft has the perfect opportunity to get into the TV and movie service, immediately and across ALL platforms.  Microsoft could go from zero ecosystem to a complete ecosystem, across every device and platform available, practically overnight. Once Microsoft has their new media service (i.e., post-Netflix), they will have the money and the leverage to bargain with the NBC, CBS, HBO and other media companies. Microsoft will now own the platforms – Windows Mobile and Windows for desktops and tablet – and will have the ability to extend Netflix into a rental service as well, just as Apple has with iTunes and Amazon with their Prime service. The Amazon model is really the one everyone needs to move to. What’s holding Amazon back is that their video can only be played on limited devices and the service is very dependent on Flash.

So that leaves Microsoft with a need for a music service, and it sounds like they’re going to try to develop their own solution again. This time it should be simpler both because they’ve tried it before, and this time there are a few good models to use moving forward.

Investors, and even politicians, are giving Microsoft a lot of heat for sitting on nearly $60 billion in cash. This might have been a very smart decision and will give Microsoft a lot of flexibility in their direction and development of online services as there are some very well established companies that can make Microsoft very relevant very quickly, for the right price.

It would be a pleasant surprise if Microsoft could erase their consumer failures over the last 5 years. Apple’s iOS has had the same look and feel for the last few years and I don’t think Apple has felt pressure from Google and Android from a “user experience” standpoint. Microsoft, especially with there Metro interface, might be the nudge that Apple needs to evolve their very functional, but somewhat boring, mobile platform.

After all is said and done, what do you think of a Microsoft acquisition of Netflix? Does it make sense? Do you think Microsoft has what it takes to build a comparable ecosystem to Apple, Amazon and Google?

Filed under SmarterTools, Technology Reviews Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why SmarterTools Eats Its Own Dog Food

October 12, 2011 by

Google Management's Public Use of Google+

Click for full-size image.

Although overshadowed by Steve Jobs’ death, last week’s revelation that Google’s management doesn’t use Google+ is a pretty big deal. So much so that Mashable’s Ben Parr called the technology giant out and challenged its senior managers to eat their own dog food in his op-ed, “If Google’s Management Doesn’t Use Google+, Then Why Should You?”

It’s an excellent question—one that the senior management at SmarterTools has asked since the company was founded in 2003. You see, everyone at SmarterTools, from our CEO Tim Uzzanti to our sales and support staff to our graphic designer, uses the products we develop on a daily basis. We send messages from SmarterMail, answer sales and support requests with SmarterTrack and evaluate our website statistics and SEO rankings with SmarterStats every single day. Call it what you want: “dogfooding,” “ice creaming” or “drinking your own champagne.” The bottom line is we do it. The next obvious question is: Why?

Well, our developers (and customers, for that matter) know that our management team has a lot of trust in our products when our day to day business operations rely on the quality and usability of our internal software. Since we use our software daily during all stages of development—from ALPHA to BETA to production—we’re able to test the products in real-life scenarios, which gives us the information we need to fix bugs faster, improve usability and identify potential features for future versions. As a result, we’re able to deliver a higher-quality production release to customers because we’ve identified as many bugs and improvements as possible in the pre-release versions of the products.

Perhaps more importantly, we’re delivering software solutions that actually fix some of the problems small businesses face. Believe it or not, SmarterMail, SmarterTrack and SmarterStats were created because our management team couldn’t find comparable software on the market that met our business needs. Odds were, they reasoned, other businesses felt the same way. And so, from the very beginning we not only developed software that we wanted to use, but that we do use.

And in the grand scheme of things, isn’t that the point? If you build something—doesn’t matter if it’s a house, a vehicle, or even a software solution—shouldn’t you use it yourself? Shouldn’t you be using it every day, kicking the tires, slamming the doors, and performing blank text field searches just so that you know, deep down, that what you’ve built is not only functional but that it actually does what you set out to do? Besides, wouldn’t you think twice if Alan Mulally, Ford Motor Company’s CEO, drove a Chevrolet? Would that give you any confidence in the company? At SmarterTools, we actually use what we build and we build what we want to use. Thankfully, a lot of other people think that’s a good way to set about building a company.

This post was written by Tiffany D., a marketing and technical communications specialist for SmarterTools. If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to the SmarterTools Blog so you don’t miss an update.

Filed under SmarterTools Tagged with , , ,

← Older posts

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 182 other followers