1DayLater - The Blog

Help me find a word!

I need your help!

Part and parcel of being a programmer is that good naming conventions are important to us, hell, we often get riled up about it! Which is why I really need you to help me find the right term, right now… lest I die from madness

So, we’re working with Codeworks to create a custom reporting system to help them better explain how their time and resources are spent on their various clients. One of the things we realised is that there is a massive difference between the man-hours dedicated to a client and the amount of time the client actually receives.

Imagine you’re a company being assisted by Codeworks and you have a 4 hour “session” with their team. Fred, Jimmy and Ian are present for different parts of the session, like so:

While there are 7 man-hours put into the session, the session is only 4 hours long. This “session” is what I’m having a hard time naming - it needs to be abstract enough to apply to many scenarios (meeting, conference, hackathon etc)… so far I’m calling this overlap time but I know it’s not right!!! If anyone can help me I will be forever grateful.

*sigh*

Exciting New Tender For Programmers

If you’re a local (North East based) programmer who would like to work on an exciting new project we might have something just for you!

Local quango (quasi-autonomous non governmental organisation) and centre for Digital excellence - Codeworks are pioneering a new timesheet system for their employees. The new system will bring data from Outlook into 1DayLater which will then be used to carry out reporting functions. Cool or what!

We need an experienced programmer who can help develop the Outlook side of things. This will involve creating a desktop application which can collect data from Outlook and transfer it to the 1DayLater API in a suitable format.

The project is guaranteed to be exciting as you will be working alongside both Codeworks and 1DayLater to create something pretty unique.

Maximum project size: £10,000

Project duration: Up to 10 weeks (specified by supplier)

Quotation due date: 19th Feb 2010 (12.00 noon)

Contract award date: 26th Feb 2010

Invoicing: Fortnightly

As you can see the closing date is drawing near so make sure you get your skates on if you’re interested. The full tender brief can be found here

Take it on!

Paul

Our Ambitious Vision for 2010

1DayLater have enjoyed a great 2009, and look forward to celebrating this Christmas and New Year. But before we go, here are a some exciting things to look forward to in 2010…

• A Full feature set — with outputs including invoicing, mileage claims, export, more in-depth analysis, and 3rd party add-ons.

• Mobile phone & desktop app development — you’ll be able to log your activities on the move, and our handy desktop app will remind you to log them while you’re working at your pc.

• The launch of our market intelligence campaign — by London-based firm, Kingpin Intelligence. That means MORE FEEDBACK which essentially means better end service for you

• Development of an Outlook application for 1DayLater — A useful Outlook ‘skimmer’ being created by our friends at local Centre for Digital Innovation - Codeworks as part of their new Dev scheme.

- check out David doing ‘The Proposition’ pose, perfect for corporate photos!

Aaand if none of that other stuff tickled you, we’ll also have…

• Integration of 1DayLater with Sage Sales Logix (CRM) & Sage Accounts — Using the expert guidance of our friend Derek Curtis & his company Bond Solutions, the leading NE supplier of Sage software products

• A ‘secret charity based project’ — supported by our friends at Sunderland Software City, Newcastle’s Culture Lab, Codeworks & Bond Solutions - more info to come soon!

• A discounted ‘Time Recovery Tool’ for 1DayLater members — A tool to help you save time which has been created by time-management coaches, Cadenza associates.

Wow!

Writing it down like that just made me realise that next year is going to be epic. I don’t know about you lot but I can’t wait :)

Codeworks to Beta test 1DayLater

We have some fantastic news - We’ve mentioned before that local giant Codeworks have agreed to be the very first testers for 1DayLater, and tomorrow they are stepping up to the task!

We couldn’t have asked for a better business to do this, Codeworks are regarded by many as the guardian angels of Software in the North-East, as well as having a highly intelligent team, they also connect many business to each other with advice, networking events and have great ties to the funding bodies. In fact because they’re involved in such a wide variety of activities it’s hard to do them justice when summing up what they do.

But in their own words:

“Codeworks work with technologists, digital companies, entrepreneurs, university researchers, venture capitalists, economic developers, rationalists and visionaries in the development and creation of digital companies”

For us, they have been there to act as a sounding board for our ideas, to help us with our market research and to introduce us to the right kind of people in the industry. And if the upcoming trial goes well, they’ve agreed to be our very first customer! Not to jinx it, but I think this is perfect for us.

This will be the first time our software has been truly put “to the test” so David and I are somewhere in-between nervous and excited. It’s like when you watched Dr Who as a kid, when those Daleks were about you dived behind the sofa taking a nervous peek over the top, excited to seehow it goes, but ultimately petrified of the possibilities. Sort of like that anyways…