DO YOU TRUST YOUR DATA BACKUPS...?

I am sure you will agree that the data within your service management and stock control system is an extremely important part of your business.

Although I set up and monitor the internal backup of your SQL databases (which are then stored on your main pc / server), the archiving of this data to an external, off-site location has always been down to you. There is a saying in the IT industry that data isn’t considered backed up unless it is stored in at least 3 separate locations. And if you keep your external USB drive or flash key next to your pc / server, this is NOT CONSIDERED SAFE, as a fire or theft will likely claim this as well. You must either use a cloud-based backup location, or take your USB drive / flash key home (rotating them on a daily or weekly basis).

Therefore…

If you haven’t yet subscribed to an in-the-cloud storage solution for your Mercury Systems databases, or if you’re not confident that the external backups to your USB drives or flash keys are being performed correctly, OR IF YOU DON’T HAVE ANY BACKUPS AT ALL, then why not consider using my new fully automatic utility to backup of all your databases, customized reports and system files each night to a private location on my secure web server.

As I am able to check the status of the external backup, I can take the appropriate action in case of any problems meaning you don’t need to worry.

I am deliberately keeping the cost for this new service as low as possible to ensure you can all benefit …only £4.50 per month (just £54 per year).

If this is of interest, please contact Hatchgate Software today.

Vacation…

I am away on vacation from Monday 11^th November until Saturday 23^rd November inclusive.

During this time I should be able to respond to emails and occasionally hold a voice conversation using Skype, as I am taking a spare laptop with me.  I should also be able to connect to your pc’s / server’s in the event of an emergency.

As most of you know, it is my policy to not issue program updates for a couple of weeks before going away, so updates are going to cease in the next few days.

Therefore, if you have any issues that cannot wait, please phone or email me now.

Hatchgate’s now on Twitter…

Hatchgate Software is now subscribed to Twitter – I will be regularly tweeting notifications about update releases, new features, general news etc. plus more mundane items such as holiday dates.

If you are already subscribed to Twitter, you can follow me at @HatchgateSW, or visit Hatchgate Software’s homepage at www.hatchgatesoftware.com (the Twitter feed follow button is towards the bottom of the screen).  I will follow you by return…

Vacation…

I am away on vacation from Saturday 11^th May until Wednesday 29^th May inclusive.

During this time I should be able to respond to emails and occasionally hold a voice conversation using Skype, as I am taking a spare laptop with me.  I should also be able to connect to your pc’s / server’s in the event of an emergency.

As most of you know, it is my policy to not issue program updates for a couple of weeks before going away (as I don’t want to risk introducing any new problems beforehand), so updates are going to cease in the next few days.

Therefore, if you have any issues that cannot wait, please phone or email me now.

If you use the Mercury ServiceWeb website…

Currently, the Mercury Background Tasks (MTask) utility sends data to the ServiceWeb website only once or twice per day.

However I have recently improved the utility to make the sending of data more efficient, thus we can now send updates to the website every 20 minutes.

This means your account customers can now see progress / updates to your service job records no later than 20 minutes after you modify the records on your office database.

(This is available on MTask version 146 and higher).

Colour coding automatic status assignments…

Some of you already assign colours to job status descriptions so that jobs can display a different colour according to their current status.

A new feature within Mercury Systems (build version 172 and higher) allows you to also assign colour to automatic status descriptions (e.g. Job created; Job assigned to…; Job moved to…;  Job deleted from…).

How to set this up – Using any code you like, add the following status descriptions within F8 Status Codes Maintenance (these entries are case-sensitive so enter them exactly as below, without quotations):-

“Job created”

“Job assigned to”

“Job moved to”

“Job deleted from”

(Note the capital ‘J’, the rest is lower case).

For each new entry, assign a colour in the usual way (do not tick any boxes); click New/update to save the colour setting.

Once your system has been updated to at least version 172, the new colour assignments will begin to work.

Changes to reports screens…

I have added some new features within the reports screen for both Mercury Service Manager and Mercury Stock Manager, available in build version 170 and higher.

New Feature #1

There is a new tab called ‘Primary Reports’ (in addition to the usual General Reports, Admin Reports and Library).  Within this tab, you can add all of your favourite reports so that they are easily found.  Simply select a report that you use often, click the ‘Edit Report Settings’ button, and change the Report Category to ‘Primary’, then hit the save button.  Repeat this for all reports you wish to re-assign.  Note that the Primary tab will be appear empty until you populate it.

New Feature #2

Since there are over 80 standard reports, you can now hide the reports you do not use.  Using the ‘Select’ column, tick all reports that are not needed and click on the ‘More’ button, followed by ‘Mark Reports As Hidden’.  Similarly, you can reverse this and make hidden reports visible again by selecting one of the other options within the ‘More’ button.

Changes made with these two new features affect all users.

Please contact me if you wish to be upgraded to this latest version.