GDPR and Infoplex

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It doesn’t matter where you are in the world or what type fo business you run.  Let’s be honest. There’s no escaping it. What are we talking about? The EU’s new data privacy laws – the GDPR.

We hear you. We’re as fed up with it as you are. No, really. We’ve given up hope of having any semblance of a normal life for the next month or so as we work towards compliance. We are not immune to it.

That’s why we’ve been sending out emails right, left and centre to all and sundry in the last weeks. It’s just one element in our GDPR strategy. Yes. We have a strategy. Quite frankly, we’re as surprised about it as you are.

So, what is it exactly that we are doing? Glad you asked…

  1. Consent for marketing. The new rules mean that we are not allowed to get in touch with you to advertise new products or services unless you tell us that we can. We can contact you about software updates. We can contact you about security patches. We cannot contact you about our products (such as MultiTAS or eTAS) unless you say “Yes please, Infoplex. Tell me more.” We cannot tell you that we’re offering a 25% discount unless you say so. That’s why we’ve emailed everybody we know to make them aware of the changes and to ask them to agree to hear from us. So far, we’ve sent out 4 emails and if you haven’t already seen one, then maybe check your junk mail folder. It may have slipped in there.
  2. Updating our privacy policy. The GDPR is there to make things clearer for you and for us. It will make it easier for you to see what information we have about you, how we obtained it and what we do with it. From our perspective, it makes it easier for us to know what we can and cannot do with it. In keeping with the theme of simplicity, we’ve updated our privacy policy. We’ve ripped out the boring legalese and made it as simple and transparent as possible. It tells you who to get in touch with at Infoplex to discuss your data (Hello Douglas! *waves*), tells you what types of data we may have about you (contact details, technical data, etc.), what we do with it, where we keep it and what you can tell us to do with it.
  3. Accessing your data. Taking the whole simplicity and transparency theme a bit further, we’ve come up with nifty way to help you gt in touch with us and find out what we know about you. With the help of our friends at Paperform, we’ve built a simple online form that you can use to contact Douglas and ask about your data, make any corrections to if there’s a problem with it or even delete it.
  4. Helping you with your database. This is a funny one. We realised that when you get in touch to discuss a problem, we usually hop on to your computer, rummage around behind the scenes and fix the problem with TASBooks. We’ve always assumed that you know that we do this – not least of all because it’s in the Terms & Conditions. How else are we going to fix the problem otherwise? We’ve now tightened up on and it has a real impact upon you. From 25th May, you will be required to fill in a form online before we can help you. The form makes clear that you are asking us for help and that you consent to our accessing your database to help you. If you do not fill in this form, we will not help you. It doesn’t matter if you have a support contract or not. You have to fill in this form first.

That’s about it really. If you’re familiar with what your business is doing for GDPR compliance, then you’ll know that there’s a whole raft of measures in the background that are also being implemented. That’s what we’re doing to. Privacy assesments. Risk assessments. Shopping lists. Oh! You were paying attention. That’s good to know.

These are the steps that will impact you the most. These are the steps that are designed to help you as much as they are us. Fingers crossed, everybody, that they don’t change their mind again next year!

Bespoke reports for MultiTAS

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Businesses collect vast amounts of data everyday. Just take a few moments to think of the data that your business collects. Customer profiles. Payment details. Financial records. Sales orders. Historic data. Works orders. Component records for each and every item your produce. Compatibility records. Distribution schedules. The list goes on. And on. And on.

Now take a moment to think of how that data is maintained and used. How is it stored? How is audited or traced? Is it useful? We can’t answer all of those questions but we can answer the last one. Yes. The data is useful. Most businesses don’t realise that every bit of data that they have available to them can be used to inform business decisions and help to maximise profitability.

That’s why we’re introducing MultiTAS Reports.

MultiTAS Reports can pull together real-time data from every part of the TAS database and present it in ways that can help your business make the right decisions. MultiTAS Reports can help to break down data into relevant action points and let businesses explore and understand raw data in a meaningful way. MultiTAS Reports remove the complexities of sifting through this data manually. Organizations can make actionable, data-driven decisions with ease.

We’ve built a library of essential business reports that span the TAS and MultiTAS databases to provide users with the data that they need anytime they want it. Our reports can extract data from the Sales Ledger or from the Manufacturing module and present it to you in a variety of formats.

But we’ve gone further that. We know that are customers are unique. Their businesses differ in ways that you can’t imagine. That’s why we can build custom reports for you that go beyond the capabilities of our standard reports and manipulate data in ways specific to your business.

So… if you’ve ever wanted to unleash the true potential of TAS – and MultiTAS – now is your chance. Now you can with MultiTAS Reports.

Office 365, VOIP and Infoplex

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Software has changed considerably in the 20 plus years we’ve been in business. In truth, it’s changed beyond all recognition. No more boxes with a succession of 3.5 inch discs to install a program; no more (multiple) CDs to install Microsoft Office; and no more complicated PBX telephone systems. Today, it’s all out there, up there and in the cloud.

That’s why Infoplex is looking at ways in which to help you make an informed choice about your software needs. As you know, we use the Microsoft Office suite of applications quite a bit (CSV imports anybody?) Over the coming months we’re seeing how best to integrate Office 365 – the latest version of Microsoft’s productivity suite – with MultiTAS and TASBooks. What does that mean? Well, to begin with, it may mean no more importing and exporting via CSV. It may mean that with a press of a button the data appears in either Excel or in MultiTAS as required. It may mean that reports are generated in Microsoft Word and populated with new graphical content. And it may mean that for the first time MultiTAS may be offered with a CRM (customer relationship management) facility.

But there’s more to it than just that. We’re looking at VOIP communications systems too. Instead of an old-fashioned telephone, a complicated PBX, multiple lines and extortionate bills, how about a phone system that works via the internet instead? How about a phone system that connects with MultiTAS so that when you click on a customer’s number it calls them directly and makes sure you have all of the information to hand?

That’s just some of the work in the pipeline over the coming months as we look to bring you new services that complement MultiTAS and Infoplex. Feel free to let us know what you think!

How to… series

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Did you see that post? How to… set up MultiTAS Finance is the first in a (hopefully) long series of posts we’ll be publishing regularly. They are designed to help you out with some common issues and explain the basics of MultiTAS and the Infoplex suite of products. Think of them as… well, MultiTAS for Dummies (but without the bright yellow cover).

Our intention (yes, the road to hell and all that) is that we’ll have a new post in the How to… series every week. That sound you just heard, by the way, is Douglas banging his head on the table. But as we’re still writing down everything we (Douglas) knows it will take a few weeks to get up to speed. In the meantime, if there’s something you want/need/would like to know, you can always send an email to Support or call us.

June 2016 Briefing: MultiTAS v4; Documentation site

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MultiTAS v4

MultiTAS v4 has been generally available for a while now but hasn’t yet had a blog written about it, so lets fix that. With v4, the installation routine has been revamped completely – you now no longer need to install (our old pal) System Integration Manager first. Everything can be handled via MultiTAS – from choosing which companies to use the software with to setting up users and access rights. There is a short Installation Guide available which explains how to deal with updating computers that already have MultiTAS on and installing MultiTAS on a fresh computer.

The software is available from http://support.infoplex.co.uk and follow the links for downloads.

Queries can be emailed to support@infoplex.co.uk – the update is free for our awesome users who keep their Cover Plus subscriptions going.

A limitation: this version will not work with Windows XP (which is unsupported by Microsoft anyway so if you are still using XP, well, good luck to you)

(Geek note: the new installer was built with WiX, the same technology Microsoft Office uses for its installers. Quite a steep learning curve!)

New Documentation

Pleased to also let you know we’ve been working hard on our documentation. At present, our documentation consists of more Microsoft Word files than you would believe. These are stitched together into PDFs. The whole process is frustrating, time consuming and a task I generally dread hence the lack of updates.

Meet our new mini site: http://docs.infoplex.co.uk

At the moment, it consists of two items – the MultiTAS Data Transfer File Specifications and the TASLink reference manual (newly updated!). Gradually all our documentation will appear on this site. As it uses simple HTML its much easier to update and we make use of version control so changes can be tracked effectively.

(Geek note: it uses Github Pages, markdown and Jekyll. Very straight forward, gentle learning curve)

New MultiTAS update

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We released a new update (v3.5.80) for MultiTAS last night and it’s now available for download.

Changes incorporated into it include a rewritten Stock Adjustment form (521) plus the following bug fixes:

  • Fixed an issue in Sales Order Entry (611) that produced an error when products had been created in TASBooks rather than MultiTAS
  • Fixed an issue in EDI Order Import (683) where the specified price of the first line of an EDI order was overridden by the TASBooks price no matter what
  • Fixed an issue in Build Assembly (565) where an endless loop was encountered when building the last assembly of the assembly list (sorry Suzy!)
  • Fixed an issue in the Product Report (531) where the extended description was not being exported

If you don’t already have it you’ll need to download and install SIM v4.65 first.

Finally – we’ve created a public Trello board to map out future MultiTAS development and allow customers to up/downvote ideas. See https://trello.com/b/1rbfVEjV/multitas-development – you’ll need a free Trello account for voting!

TASBooks v6 info

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The changes in TASBooks v6, released 6th March 2015, include:-

  • New feature to allow the customisation of the text when email(s) are sent via TAS
  • New Foreign Currency Transactions settings in Program 0.1.2 > System > Miscellaneous
  • New option to customise whether inactive/discontinued records appear in Lookups (Program 0.1.2 > System > Lookups/Mapping)
  • New ‘Update Profit And Loss Account’ setting (Program 0.1.2 > Purchase Orders > Entry/Costing Options)

There are bug fixes too which include:-

  • Fixing a Runtime error 380 when running Program 4.4.4
  • Enabling Order Acknowledgements to be printed for Sales Orders where the order number is 7 digits long

New – A public roadmap for MultiTAS development

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A public roadmap is a great place to engage with our community, get input from power users, share the product’s development, and keep people up to date on any issues or releases. And we have recently been playing internally with Trello – a web based Project Management solution – which seems ideally suited to this task. So here goes.

https://trello.com/b/1rbfVEjV/multitas-development

There are six lists setup; each list contains one or more cards

  • Contribute to MultiTAS – an introduction to how this thing works and how you can contribute
  • Exports/Integrations & API’s – a list of 3rd party systems and API’s MultiTAS is integrated (or integrating) with
  • Under Investigation – a (hopefully short) list of reported issues that have yet to be confirmed
  • Known Issues – these are confirmed bugs that we are aware of and would normally progress from the ‘Under Investigation’ list
  • In Progress – things we are working on, both bugs and enhancements
  • Ideas – things we are looking into adding to MultiTAS in the future

So that our community can be a part of the development process, there is the added facility to comment and up vote items.

NB – this is a work in progress. It won’t be perfect for a wee while – any bugs we are already aware of will be added shortly.

Apex Fire streamline with MultiTAS

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Apex Fire have joined the ranks of satisfied Infoplex customers and are now taking full advantage of our efficiency and time-management solutions.

Apex is Ireland’s leading provider of processes and systems for fire detection, protection, training and fire safety consultancy. They export their invoices from their Advanced Field Solutions software and they are now able to import them into TASBooks with our MultiTAS solution.

This has offered them significant benefits such as eliminating the double‐ and/or re-keying of data and doing away with double‐keying errors.

Ireland-based Caraden Construction adopts TASLink

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Another company with in-house development skills has taken advantage of TASLink, the leading application for real-time bi-directional TASBooks integration, to streamline their accounting processes.

The Ireland-based Caraden Construction have worked with Infoplex, Europe’s leading TASBooks developer, to develop further their in-house Sales Order Processing system. Using the real-time features of TASLink, Caraden have integrated their custom-built IT systems with TASBooks.

Using the Infoplex TASLink solution has enabled Caraden to integrate our systems with our TASBooks accounts… in turn allowing us to post our invoices from our bespoke system directly to  TASBooks in real time.

Yet another example of having the ability to custom-develop TASBooks’ integration with other applications using TASLink.