Category Archives: Beta Trials

Online Time Tracking with Qlockwork Cloud

Posted on March 25, 2012 by admin| Leave a comment

Development continues apace with the new web version of Qlockwork. We are never going to stop development on our Outlook Add-in version of Qlockwork, but we’d also like to offer an online version for those folk who do not have Outlook.

We have completed the development and testing and are now getting an external security review done of the system. So far, we are very happy with what we have. It’s simple and low function compared to time tracking with Qlockwork for Outlook, but it’s a nice, usable product. We’re proud of it.

If anyone would like to join our beta testers for Qlockwork Cloud version, please let us know.

Posted in Beta Trials, Qlockwork

Going into the Cloud

Posted on November 21, 2011 by admin| Leave a comment

We’re always looking at new ways to add product functionality and a plan we’ve had for a long time is to introduce a cloud version of our product.

Why? Well currently Qlockwork is an Outlook add-in for time tracking, which is great. It means we get to leverage a great piece of software that everyone knows how to use. It’s very rare that I come across someone who has never used Outlook (though it happens occasionally!). So we get a lovely user experience and super-security (your data never leaves your email system). All great and we’ll never stop developing Qlockwork for Outlook.

However, you do have to have Outlook to use Qlockwork at the moment. Wouldn’t it be nice to track activities on machines that didn’t have Outlook? Our accountant uses Outlook Express and he’d really love to try out Qlockwork, why should we deprive him?

So, we are currently going into early testing on a web version.

For you techies out there, it’s based on the Django web platform and yes, it will still record your activities when you are  not online (it’s very clever). It will run side by side with the Outlook version and won’t interfere with it.

If you would like to join our beta, please drop us a line.

 

Posted in Beta Trials, Cloud Computing, Qlockwork, time tracking

Qlockwork 3.0 – Prettier time tracking for Outlook 2010

Posted on February 3, 2011 by admin| Leave a comment

One of the features of the new Qlockwork 3.0 beta, is prettier integration with Outlook 2010. Specifically, Qlockwork 3.0 has better integration with the Outlook 2010 ribbon.

The “ribbon” was one of the new features introduced by Microsoft in Outlook 2010. Unlike the other Microsoft Office applications like Excel 2007 and Word 2007, Outlook 2007 did not move fully to the ribbon as the primary way for users to navigate. In 2010, however, the ribbon is very much part of the Outlook experience.

With Qlockwork 2.0, your time is tracked fine in Outlook 2010 but to find your Qlockwork activity calendar, you needed to go to the “Add-ins” tab, which is rather clunky.

For 3.0, Qlockwork has it’s own tab in Outlook 2010, which is better looking and easier to use. 

Qlockwork time tracking & activity ribbon in Outlook 2010

Qlockwork ribbon in Outlook 2010

Posted in Beta Trials, Office 2010, Outlook 2010, Qlockwork

Crowd Testing – The Kindness of Strangers

Posted on January 28, 2011 by admin| Leave a comment

Qlockwork 3.0 has just entered Beta trial (http://www.qlockwork.com/beta-trial.html) and we are on the hunt for crowd testers.

Crowd testing is when a large group of perfect strangers try your product then give you phenomenally helpful feedback on usability, bugs and features. 

They don’t do this because they want to buy your product. They often have no intention of ever doing so. They just like giving useful product feedback and having it acted on.  As we say in Britain, they’re jolly decent chaps.

Crowd testing is not marketing. Existing and potential customers can be great testers, but the ones who really find those hard-to-hit issues are usually IT folks.  

When we first launched Qlockwork in 2006 one of our IT crowd testers found a nasty issue with the product running on Slovenian desktops. Would our test team ever have found that? No. We had to look up Slovenia on the map. Did we fix it? Of course.

If you are a company that really values the quality of your product, sometimes it’s a good idea to depend on the kindness of strangers.

Posted in Beta Trials, Qlockwork