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Cool Calendars in 2.1

Freeside 2.1 was released this week without much fanfare.  The fanfare will be coming, but with the trade show coming up, I’ve been focused on getting ready for that.  I’m going to take a minute though and point out a new feature in 2.1… Calendars.

Calendars

Freeside, through the integration with RT from Best Practical, now has support for iCal as well as a calendar report so that you can see the time line on a group of tickets.  For iCal integration, you will need calendaring software that supports the iCal feed.  There is a reasonably large list of iCal compatible software on Wikipedia.

To use calendaring, the first step is to create a search. For example you could search for all tickets that belong to you, or belong to a specific group of customers that you manage.  To get reminders too, you may want to add the following snippet (click the advanced link):

     AND (  Type = 'ticket' OR Type = 'reminder' )

Go ahead and run the search, and you should have a list of tickets and optionally reminders.  Now to do something with the dates…

First, for iCal, look at the upper right and there are a number of links for exporting the data.  You can download it via a spreadsheet, or get a feed from RSS or iCal.  Right-click on the iCal link and copy the link.  Then open your iCal software and past the link in the field for your iCal feed.  The system will export all of your due dates so that they will now show up on your calendar.  This is awesome for planning installation schedules.  Many applications will allow you to show multiple feeds ona single calendar, color coded – which is great for managers to ensure that they aren’t creating problems for the team.

The second thing that you can do with a list is get a calendar report.  if you look to the upper left, there is a calendar link.  This will show the start, end and due dates for all of the items in the current search.  This is really good for seeing how projects are progressing for a customer, or what the team has been working on.  To get a good picture for completed work, be sure to include all tickets, not just open tickets.

Being able to see what is coming up has been really helpful for me, and I hope that it will help you too.

-Peter

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Get the word out!

I am biased, but I think that Freeside is the best value in enterprise class billing platforms.  I’m not aware of another Billing and OSS platform that provides the same features and service as our software with configuration and support.  In a prior life, when I was a proprietary platform, We were paying about $1500/month for basic telephone support and annual upgrades.  Customization was astronomical @ $250/hour, and the hours they bid made my head spin.  We used to half joke that it was six-months and $1MM to get anything done in that billing system.  With that in mind, you can understand why I was so happy when, a little over seven years ago, I found Freeside.

I couldn’t believe that an installed and supported system was under $3,000, and telephone support for under $500/month! Seven years ago, it was even less.

Since then, I’ve been a huge advocate both of the open-source and paid installation path. I’ve gone to trade shows with Ivan, I’ve talked it up to almost anyone that would listen, which is why nobody was surprised when I joined Freeside.  Those who I have talked to can probably vouch for my infectious love of the billing platform, and I’m not exaggerating when I say, it changed my entire outlook on billing.

I have a problem though, It bums me out that we’re still relatively unknown.  Sure we get some airplay on mailing lists, and every now and then we’ll show up in a magazine article, (thank you to those who give us airplay and write magazine articles), but I’m looking for some help from the community.  I need evangelists who are willing to post a blog entry about our great billing system.  Friends that are part of a Linux Users’ group?  Do you belong to an ISP association?  A VoIP consortium?  Then spread the word – Tell people what you know… Freeside ROCKS!  Thank you for listening and thank you for sharing!

-Peter

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Cool Feature – Attach Documents

At Freeside, we use Freeside… of course.  There are a number of cool features that we use, and I thought that I would share some of them.  If you’re not using them try them out, and if you’re running an older version, it may be time to upgrade.  As a disclaimer, some of them may only be available in the cvs version, but they will be in the next release.  So without further adieu…

Attach Documents.

For WISP billing and VoIP billing, it can be handy to have the design docs when you’re installing or troubleshooting a customer.  If you are billing for a service as we do, it can be handy to have specifications available.  Freeside has a couple of ways to help with document management so that all of the appropriate people can get the doc that they need, when they need it.

First, you can attach documents to tickets. It’s great for things like specifications and documents associated with that ticket.  Tickets are linked to the customer, so you can look at the ticket to get the information, and that’s really cool.  It’s like having a folder of everything that is need for that ticket, and you can pass it around and add to it.  The only bummer is that when the ticket is resolved, it no longer shows up in the list.  You have to click on resolved tickets and then select the correct ticket, which can be difficult if the customer has a lot of tickets.  Which brings me to part two…

You can attach documents directly to the customer.  I attach the executed contracts to the customer record so that I don’t have to dig for it.  Then when I go to the customer, all of the documents are there.  You can also store network diagrams, schematics,  scope of work documents, escalation directories, proposals, or pretty much any other file that would persist longer than a ticket.  It’s awesome.

I am careful to manage scope.  If it is project or issue related, it lives in a ticket.  If it relates to the ongoing support and operation of a customer, it is attached to the customer.  Like most things, sloppy scope management creates a huge list of global documents that clutter up the customer and make it difficult to quickly find the document that you are looking for.

For example, a ticket may be for building a custom CDR import.  The ticket would have the scope of work, the contract, a couple of proposals as part of the sales process, the CDR specification,  and other documents related to the project.  The contract has the larger scope, so it would make sense to upload it to the customer, while the other documents persist in the ticket.

Being able to easily attach documents makes things go much smoother for us, and I hope that it will be useful to you too.

If you have a favorite feature, feel free to send a note to sales and who knows, it may become one of my favorite features too.

-Peter

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“Freeside’s new CEO” as interviewed at IT Expo

Peter Radizeski and I had a chat at the IT Expo and he blogged about it.  He’s right about the taxes and we are looking for VAR and integration partners. It’s a mouth full, but I think he did a pretty good job of summing up Freeside:

“Of course, Freeside is more than just a billing system, it is a BSS. Freeside is an open-source billing, CRM, trouble ticketing and provisioning automation software for wired and wireless ISPs, VoIP, hosting, service and content providers and other online businesses.”

The full text of the article is here (Opens in a new window):

Freeside’s new CEO

-Peter

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CIO Magazine lists Freeside on the Open-Source Billing Systems to Watch

Last November CIO Magazine (Australia) included Freeside as one of the Billing systems to watch.  They were right.  Since then, we’re even better after integrating a number of CDR formats, adding multi-tenant PBX support, and improving the self service interface and API.   They pointed out that:

The billing functionality includes real-time credit card and e-cheque processing using the popular payment gateways; e-mail, fax, printed and online invoicing; and flexible pricing and rating plans, like anniversary billing and usage based billing. Freeside also integrates Request Tracker, another open source project for support ticketing.

The message must be getting out.  The article is available here (opens in new window):

5 open source billing systems to watch

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Peter Interviewed at IT Expo East

While at IT Expo in Miami, I had a chance to sit down with Erik Linask.  He wanted to talk about the management changes in the organization, the open-source business, and the “sexyness” of billing.  After the camera stopped, he insisted that it was one of more fun interviews of the show.  You can also view it on the TMC.net site using the following link:

Freeside Interview with Erik Linsak at the 2010 IT Expo East

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Best of Show 2010, IT Expo Miami

Freeside was recognized as a best of show winner at the IT Expo show in Miami. I think that speaks volumes about our product improvements over the last year, and Freeside’s position as the premier billing system for VOIP providers.

We had a great time at the show meeting a number of customers and potential customers.  We had a demo of Freeside showing how VOIP billing works and discussing CDR rating and billing as well.  Thank you to everyone that made it a great show.

Links:

-Peter