The EstiMate Software Blog

EstiMate 2011 Build 3.0.0.91 Just Published

Mark Smith — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 15:49:42 +0000

The rollout of EstiMate 2011 has highlighted a few things that needed fixing – and they’re fixed! We expect to roll out a build here and there over the next week or two that will correct any other issues that come up.

In the meantime, click Help > Check For Updates and download the new build.

The issues fixed in this build can be found in the release notes for 3.0.0.91.

What a day!

Mark Smith — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 00:00:27 +0000

Today was one hell of a day!

Orders for EstiMate 2011 have been flooding in, along with little final bug reports and an insane number of trial downloads.

All in all we have closed 95 customer service cases (orders, queries, etc) in the last 24 hours, as well as done battle with a mail server that crashed for 2 hours (wonder why?)… We are one tired crew!

As for those bug reports, I just released a new build that covers the more important ones. It turns out that if you use commas for your decimal separator, EstiMate 2011 would not upgrade your EstiMate 2 data properly… made me very happy that I built in a failsafe rollback if the upgrade failed. With the new build you are good to go.

But none of that is really the point.

I’d like to take a moment to publicly thank Nancy and Phillip for their dedication and hard work. These two have worked tirelessly to help bring this release to fruition with me, as well as stuck by EstiMate through a lot of change and transition, and I am extremely grateful to them. Please chime in and give them a shout in the comments!

There’s another important thank you here

And that’s to YOU. All the people who are excited, ordering, emailing, and asking questions. This release so far is a huge success and we are so grateful to all of you for your part.

Have a wonderful evening. Cheers!

EstiMate 2011 Is Launched!

Mark Smith — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 17:15:54 +0000

Today we released EstiMate 2011, a full four days ahead of schedule.

Time to break out the champagne! After several thousand hours of work and revision after revision of the codebase, EstiMate 2011 is finally here!

Over the next three days we will be rolling out the serial numbers and links to our EstiMate Freedom customers and to everyone who pre-ordered EstiMate 2011. The pre-orders have been a huge success and I’d really like to thank everyone who had enough faith to order EstiMate 2011 sight unseen. I’m always humbled by how many people believe in EstiMate and our mission of having software that makes you money every time you use it!

So far EstiMate 2011 is making many shops very happy with all the new features and abilities. The customer dashboard, the ability to add file attachments to quotes, purchase orders and job time sheets, and many more features are finally available to EstiMate users.

Feedback is coming in very strongly about how helpful the quick access to templates is when quoting jobs – apparently it’s speeding quoting up by about a factor of three!

Needless to say – we’re pretty tired! Next up for us is the SGIA show in Las Vegas, Nevada where we will make the public debut of EstiMate 2011. Come out and see us – we’d love to talk to you in person!

You can download a trial of EstiMate 2011 and until this Saturday you can place a pre-order and save a bundle.

Happy Pricing!!

Heads Up For Mac Users: VMWare Fusion 30% Off Until Friday

Mark Smith — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 00:37:57 +0000

I just saw this scrolling by on Facebook:

Get 30% Off VMWare Fusion 3 Through Friday, September 17

EstiMate is Windows software and runs flawlessly in VMWare Fusion.

As a matter of fact, EstiMate is developed on a Mac Pro running VMWare Fusion! So we know it runs really, really well that way.

Just thought I’d pass on the heads up.

EstiMate 2011 Feature Of The Day: File Attachments (Video)

Mark Smith — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:26:02 +0000

Today I’d like to show you one of my favorite new features in EstiMate 2011 – File Attachments.

This Enterprise-level feature allows you to attach any file to customer records, vendor records, estimates, and jobs.

Now you can keep all the paperwork related to a specific client attached to their record in your database, or all the paperwork related to a specific job attached to the job itself.

Attachments to customers and vendors can be accessed through a customer’s or vendor’s record directly or on the customer dashboard.

Attachments to estimates and jobs can be accessed directly from that estimate or that job.

Have You Heard About EstiMate 2011?

If you don’t know about EstiMate 2011 yet, read the complete announcement here.

Pre-Release Sale Pricing

Read the full announcement here about our massive pre-release sale for EstiMate 2011! You can save 30-50% off EstiMate 2011 from now until October 1, 2010.

Your Feedback Is Welcome

Please leave a comment about new features as we blog about them, and let us know what you like and don’t like about where EstiMate’s new feature set is headed. Our goal is to make EstiMate the most robust pricing and shop management software the sign and graphics industry has ever seen.

EstiMate 2011 Feature Of The Day: Group And Ungroup Line Items (Video)

Mark Smith — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 21:01:58 +0000

In EstiMate 2, line item groups were introduced that allowed you to create groups of items that showed up as a single item on your estimate. This was really helpful, except for when you’d created a group item and wanted to “unroll” it onto your quote – or if you had items on your quote that you wanted to “group” after you’d created them.

In EstiMate 2011, you can group and ungroup items at will. Watch this video to see how!

Have You Heard About EstiMate 2011?

If you don’t know about EstiMate 2011 yet, read the complete announcement here.

Pre-Release Sale Pricing

Read the full announcement here about our massive pre-release sale for EstiMate 2011! You can save 30-50% off EstiMate 2011 from now until October 1, 2010.

Your Feedback Is Welcome

EstiMate 2011: Customer Dashboard In Action (Video)

Mark Smith — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:55:30 +0000

When I first wrote about the new customer dashboard in EstiMate 2011, we got a flurry of requests for more information.

Today I’ve made a video that shows the Customer Dashboard in action for you, and some of the new features that are available with it, such as notes, file attachments, customer metrics, and the merging of customers and their histories. This overview shows you how this insanely powerful new tool can give you laser-like focus on your work, your customers, and their value to your business.

Have You Heard About EstiMate 2011?

If you don’t know about EstiMate 2011 yet, read the complete announcement here.

Pre-Release Sale Pricing

Read the full announcement here about our massive pre-release sale for EstiMate 2011! You can save 30-50% off EstiMate 2011 from now until October 1, 2010.

Your Feedback Is Welcome

EstiMate 2011 Feature Of The Day: Service Version Of The Multi-User Server (Video)

Mark Smith — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:29:15 +0000

The Multi-User Server is the program that allows multiple copies of EstiMate to all connect to the data files on one machine.

Due to the fact that it is an actual Windows program that must be running in the background, someone always has to be logged into that machine for it to be running. Not only is this a pain for the network administrator, who has to log in and start the server in the morning, but it’s also a security risk because that user has to remain logged in, reducing security to a password-protected screen saver.

With EstiMate 2011 we’ve written a Windows Service version of the server that, once installed, is “always on” and nobody has to be logged in for EstiMate users throughout the network to connect to it.

This 2 minute video demonstrates the service version of the server.

The Service Version Of The Multi-User Server

Have You Heard About EstiMate 2011?

If you don’t know about EstiMate 2011 yet, read the complete announcement here.

Pre-Release Sale Pricing

Read the full announcement here about our massive pre-release sale for EstiMate 2011! You can save 30-50% off EstiMate 2011 from now until October 1, 2010.

Your Feedback Is Welcome

How To Get Fast Support From The EstiMate Community

Mark Smith — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:05:55 +0000

We are very excited to announce the new EstiMate Software Customer Service Channel on GetSatisfaction.com!

For many years we have offered the EstiMate Cafe discussion group as a place for customers and friends to get together and discuss EstiMate support issues, ask how-to questions, and connect with each other. We’ve tried forum software of all different stripes, and ultimately have found that they are mostly cumbersome to use and don’t really provide the tools we’d like to offer.

Enter Get Satisfaction!

Get Satisfaction does exactly what we believe any company support site should do – it provides a customer-driven support experience that puts the you firmly in control of your support experience. Check out their Company-Customer Pact for an example of what I am talking about. These are values I can believe in, and the way I’ve always tried to run EstiMate.

What About The Cafe?

The EstiMate Cafe has officially been archived here. All the posts are now read-only, and new inquiries should be directed to our Get Satisfaction Channel.

Come On Over And Join In The Conversation!

As I write this post, the only item in our Get Satisfaction Channel is my announcement. Come on over and help get the community started – I look forward to seeing you there!

Customer Profile: Sunny Neon Sign Systems, Pleasant Hill, CA

Mark Smith — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:41:16 +0000

Interview With: Alice Miller & Matthew Kalyani, Owners

How did you get into the sign business?

My brother Oscar purchased the business in the late 80′s from the original owner, who established the business as a wholesale Neon Shop in the late 1960s. At that time, Matthew was employed to as an Apprentice Glass Bender.

In the early 1990’s Matthew and Partner Alice purchased the business from Oscar when he decided to pursue another career. At that time there were just the two employees: Matthew, Alice and the shop dog. Matthew was the primary contact for the sales and he would bend the glass while Alice would bombard and handle the office duties.

What is your favorite kind of sign work? Why?

Our favorite type of sign work has become the development and sale of LED Signs. Over the years this technology has grown popular and has become so easy to program and very affordable. Sunny Neon Inc., now has a sister company “SunRise LED Inc,” which solely concentrates on Research, Development, Manufacturing and Distribution of LED Signs around the world.

What types of work do you do?

Sunny Neon has evolved well beyond just a neon shop. We now retail and wholesale any type of sign imaginable. Our more popular requests have veered away from Neon. Now the most of our sales are made in LED, 3D Letters, monument signs, big format full color printing, banners and posters.

We now have corporate accounts where we produce a full spectrum of signs. Working with the architect we will manufacture and install all signs at a retail location from the exterior to interior retail marketing.

What are your biggest challenges in the sign business, day to day?

We face the same challenges as all small businesses today – “the Economy”. Last year we suffered the worst year since we’ve owned the business. We rely on businesses opening, expanding, and increasing awareness of their business with signs.

We are very fortunate to have some excellent, loyal employees. We’ve sold our boom-trucks and no longer have in-house service and installation personnel due to the unaffordable disability Insurance. We also find it very difficult to find reliable/affordable sources for installation and service calls.

Do you have any funny customer stories?

We had a customer Dental office that had a plywood sign with a spotlight, and they asked us to replace it with Channel Letters. Since they already had the spot light we didn’t check for power but in installation we found out that the power provided was with 70 feet of extension cord. When we said that providing the power is the customer’s responsibility, the customer hired an electrician and deducted the cost from our invoice. We took him to court but we lost! I’m not sure if this is funny but it is a good experience for others to do good surveys and mention that power is provided by the customer!

What’s your favorite thing about the sign business? Your least favorite?

My favorite thing about the sign business is the creativity. There are so many types of signs and so many ways to use them in creative ways. It’s always a changing industry, with new technology and applications.

My least favorite now is how we mirror the exact effects of the Economy. If businesses are not moving/expanding/growing, our business is a direct reflection.

What equipment / software / materials do you work with every day that you couldn’t live without?

SEIKO Large format printer with FlexiSign and of course our EstiMate Software and QuickBooks.

How do you use EstiMate on a day to day basis? What impact has it had on your operation?

We use EstiMate to price out: large format printing, channel letters, retail items, and wholesale items. EstiMate has truly been a key to our success. It has given us a proven tool to price signs in a consistent manner. It’s enabled us to add staff and allow them to produce estimates for projects immediately.

What advice would you give to someone starting out in the sign business?

Make clear as much as you can on a project with the customer approving everything in writing. Also… don’t bother… between the taxes and overhead it will SUCK YOU DRY.

If you wanted to be known in the industry for one thing, what would that be?

That we produce quality signs at affordable prices. We do not want to sell to a customer just once; we want to be their sign shop for life. We treat our customers with respect and our wish is to serve them well with a sign that will serve them well in return.

Where do you want your business to be in one year? Five?

Over the next year we are looking for some recovery in the Economy and the general sign business; however in five years we feel the sign business will be a whole new ball game. We plan to put our focus on technology – LED, LCD, 3-D.

Tell us something personal about yourself – your hobbies, interests?

For Matthew he would say his primary hobby is his work. He loves to build and create success. But, unfortunately he has also discovered golf about two years ago and now is a fanatic. Alice has played golf for years and urged Matthew to learn to play. He finally gave in when she bought him a set of golf clubs for Christmas two years ago.

A Gallery of Work By Sunny Neon Sign Systems (click to enlarge)

The Crew At Sunny Neon Signs

Sunny Neon Sign Systems
598 Patterson Blvd.
Pleasant Hill, CA 94523

925-939-9999
info@sunnyneon.com

www.sunnyneon.com

“My favorite thing about the sign business is the creativity.”