We’ve been talking with a company that’s sharing a familiar story.

This is an old, established company, with their first century anniversary not far in the future. They sell high-end goods, and they’ve been online for more than a decade. Now they’re ready to expand their e-commerce options. With a high-traffic PR5 website, they’re in a strong position.

So they’re talking about wholesale ordering, a friendlier shopping cart, and integrating with accounting (they use Peachtree) and inventory.

Right now, staff waste time entering the same data twice or even three times: in an email, in Excel, in the accounting system. Reports require multiple sources of data, and experts who can look at them and fit them all together mentally before preparing a new report that combines them all. Papers pile up. Errors are more likely to be made — and even if no errors are made, the extra stress involved in avoiding them and double checking for them can be tiring.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

The solution here is an integrated system. When point of sale and inventory management mesh with accounting and both interlock seamlessly with the e-commerce system, it means the end of the repetition, the stacks, the double checking, the stress. It’s like replacing an obstacle course with a ballet.

More work gets done without requiring more staff time. Key people are freed from repetitive tasks and empowered to take on more creative work. The workflow improves — and if it’s done right, this happens without a steep learning curve or intensive efforts at change.

Everybody knows that integrated systems are better. But they can be hard to create. It’s rarely a matter of pulling a couple of boxes off a shelf and hoping they work together. That’s like throwing a lot of vegetables together and hoping they become soup.

The story is familiar, but we’re just as excited about it every time, because we know that we can help. We specialize in integrated systems, and particularly in integrating accounting systems into the workflow. We’re not saying it’s easy — but it’s easier when you know how.

We know how.

And it’s always easier to change the environment than to change the people. There’s a lot of satisfaction for us in hearing clients say that we’ve changed not only their workflow but the atmosphere in the office.

Could integrated systems make a difference for you? Call us at 1 888 494-1260 to discuss the workings of your business.

Hearing about someone’s new brochure can be on a par with hearing about their new car or their new puppy — you’re happy for them, you’re willing to admire it, but it doesn’t really affect you.

Now, we hope it does affect you. It would be great if you’d been wondering about just what Clevertech does, or wishing you had a brochure of ours so you could show it to that friend or colleague you know would benefit from our services. If so, you can have one immediately — just call or email and we’ll send you one.

Even if you haven’t had “Get a Clevertech brochure” on your GTD list, though, we think there are some worthwhile lessons to be gained from the process we went through to create ours.

We started off with this look. This is the bridge from our website header — a symbol of how we bridge the gap between tech and business — which was developed by designer Tom Hapgood from a Creative Commons licensed photograph. After quite a few renditions by designers Marcel Sendrea and Anne Burker, we came up with this one.

In business, it makes sense to use all the resources available, and to bring in expertise from multiple areas. It also makes sense not to get emotionally attached to one solution early on. An unnecessary sense of ownership and misplaced loyalty can get in the way of discovering the best solution.

A sense of ownership, in the sense of taking responsibility, and loyalty to the company, product, and team can do marvelous things.

Another page we spent a lot of time on was our Services page. Again, we had several designers working on it — designer Jay Jaro, Marcel, and Anne all contributed to this one — but the challenge of this page was in making our services more concrete, more tangible than they often seem.

A lot of our work is about insight. It’s about taking time to talk with you, visit your place of business, and fully understand what challenges and opportunities you face. Then we develop a custom-tailored strategy that gets technology to work for you.

That’s a lot more slippery than “web design.”

We wanted to create a clear image of what we do, taking up the least space and time. A lot of what’s valuable in business is a matter of making complex things work simply, and using the fewest resources possible. Often, we automatically go for the more robust, complex, impressive option. Then we regret it.

The best solutions are simple, elegant, and effective.

We created case studies next. These involved a lot of decisions. We had to determine, out of all the myriad things we’ve done recently, which were the most informative for new and potential clients. We’ve been doing a lot of WordPress lately, yet we never plan to stray away from the high-level accounting solutions we’re known for. We needed to show both ends of the spectrum of our work without making it look scattered.

In business, it’s essential to stay focused, while also being aware of new opportunities.

We also wanted to show prospective clients all about our work, while still maintaining discretion for our current clients. Transparency and security of data are both essential elements of business in the 21st century. It took technical skill on the part of a number of team members to achieve this for the brochure. We use our technical skills to achieve it for all our projects, too.

We hope you now want a copy of the new brochure, and perhaps that you’re ready to think about how Clevertech can help your business. Call or email us today.

We all want growth for our business. Sometimes fast growth gets exciting. We may have to work extra hard to keep up with changes, demand, and the exhilarating pace of the opportunity. We may need new people, processes, and systems.

Here’s what we don’t need: having to call the webmaster or the IT department every time we want to make a change at our website.

When we’ve got company news, an idea for a new service, a new product rolling out fast, new staff coming on board — we shouldn’t have to wait for months to get to the top of somebody else’s list. And we don’t really want to pay an arm and a leg every time we need changes, either.

Here’s a real-world example: MD Skincare, a company that started with one product made and sold by a dermatologist from his office.

When we met them, they were earning $40 k a year. They were accelerating, though, and it was becoming a heady experience. Errors were on the increase as the doctor tried to make his old system work with the new pace of business. Clevertech built a new ecommerce site with back-end functionality that made things work better.

Another example: Progressive Promotions, Inc.

CEO Julie Levi was recently named a 2010 WBENC Women’s Business Enterprise’s Star. She wanted to get that information onto the web site fast. And the fact that they were featured in a Bloomberg news webinar. And that picture of Marcia Cross in her PPI apron. Something’s always happening at PPI these days. Unfortunately, the cost of getting the constant updates on the website was out of line with PPI’s plans. So Clevertech gave them control over their own business website.

That’s a basic for us: empowering you to run your business the way you want. You shouldn’t feel stuck, waiting for someone else.

The secret to these two websites’ success is WordPress. If you thought WP was just for blogs, you’re behind the curve. WP has been downloaded more than 10 million times, and plenty of current WP sites are a far cry from being “just another WordPress blog.” It’s a very well-designed content management system, and that’s the key to being able to update your site on your own.

Here’s what’s so great about WordPress:

• If you know what you’re doing, you can make a WP site look any way you want, including just like your old site that you couldn’t get into without special permission from the IT department. Clevertech likes to  convert sites to WP, specifically so that our clients have power over their sites. It’s not a design decision; it’s a content management system that works for you.
• If you don’t know what you’re doing yet, you soon will. We train our clients to use their new sites, so we know they’re not putting hours into the changeover or suffering with a steep learning curve. If you can handle Facebook, you can handle a WP site.
• WordPress sites do what you want with the greatest possible efficiency. There’s a huge community of WP developers. That means that there are lots of plug-ins and widgets and ideas out there to work with. This allows us to build your site at a fraction of the time and cost of building a custom site. With no loss of functionality. We just don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
• WP works intelligently. The content is separate from the design and display. That means that you can change things in the database without disturbing the theme. You can serve your site to different people with different themes. You can play around all you want without committing yourself — and without losing any information. In addition, daily automatic backups — plus the option of saving your folder at any point — keep things up to date and safe.

There’s much more to this idea than we’ve been able to include in this single discussion. Call Clevertech at (888) 494-1260 to explore the ways that a WordPress conversion  or a new WordPress website could benefit your company.

We’ve been speaking recently with a clothing designer who needs some new custom software to fuel the growth of her company. Her business has really begun to gain traction, and of course she’s excited.

A new business opportunity is exciting. There are no givens, no constraints you have to work with, no existing structures to take into account — and no warts. No problems, that is. In your imagination, it’s all smooth and efficient and pleasant.

So our client, in the thrill of the new idea, wanted a complex custom retail software solution with lots of fancy features. Frankly, she couldn’t afford it. Fortunately, she also didn’t need it.  Instead, we suggested building only the critical features. A simple but elegant shopping cart experience with SEO capabilities and basic checkout all built on standard software. The cost was a fraction of the large software, but if in 12 months her sales continue to grow and she wants to migrate to something more like her initial vision, we can ensure a smooth transition that critically will not lose her SEO benefits.

In another case, we had a client with a problem. His business had security issues; he needed to be able to supply information via his website, but to make sure that the  information was only accessible to actual customers. Still, there had to be enough information access to encourage browsers to become customers.  He jumped to the idea of requiring preregistration, deposits, and contracts. We foresaw that barriers like that would scare potential customers off, and came up with a system that allowed searches and showed limited data. Visitors could see that there was a wealth of useful stuff there, but couldn’t actually get it till they signed up.

In both cases, we’re looking at the same principle: we have to define the problem well before we can solve it.

When you’re used to buying software off the shelf, you may have a shopper’s mentality when it comes to your tech needs. “We need a CRM!” you think, or “We need  a shopping cart!” You might need either of those things, or both, But that’s not the first step. Jumping right to the name of the item you want is likely to give you something that doesn’t really do what you want.

We at Clevertech like to take the time to understand your business and tease out the central need. The clothing designer in the first example had an idea she wanted to make into a reality, within her budget. Our solution gave her that. The client in the second example needed to show clients what he had to offer without either giving away the shop or making his visitors feel that they were buying a pig in a poke. Our solution gave him what he needed, too.

In both cases, we’re talking about saving people money. Not by being a discount option — far from it. When you find the simplest, most elegant solution to a need, you also create the best return on your investment.

Part of this is the result of custom solutions. When a company builds software for everyone, they’re building it for no one in particular. They have to add features that will catch the attention of the buyer, things people expect, things their competitors include… the list goes on.  At Clevertech, we build software for an individual company, so we just include exactly what’s best for the business. We’re businesspeople ourselves, so we know how to do that.

But the larger point is that it makes sense to define the need precisely before doing anything else. Build what’s needed to meet that need, test it, and work from there. The search for solutions begins with a clear understanding of the problems and opportunities.

Creating invoices can be complex:

• information about the person being billed and perhaps other people being served has to be gathered
• products chosen and their pricing information has to be gathered
• inventory or availability information may need to be adjusted
• special additions, adjustments, or other details may have to be tracked down
• calculations have to be made
• payment history and billing information has to be checked
• billing addresses have to be found
• the invoice has to be generated in the accounting program
• the invoice to be sent to the customer may have to be filled out, created, and/or printed

It doesn’t have to be complex. Follow us through an Invoice Builder to see how simple the process can be. Click on any image to enlarge it for a better view.

Clevertech has created Invoice Builders for a number of clients. With our Invoice Builders, creating invoices is streamlined. The example here, developed for Passover Grand Getaways, starts with a simple overview page, which you can see above. The tour operator can see at a glance the number of rooms already booked, the number of invoices and quotes delivered, the amount of money to be collected, and any alerts — such as individuals who need a reminder about a payment, or who haven’t responded to a quote.

Typing in the first few letters of a guest’s name brings his or her information page up. All the details, from name and address to relationships with other guests, are on that page. There’s no need to shift from one program or file to another. To create an invoice for the customer, the operator simply clicks on “Create Invoice,” bringing up the worksheet at left.

There’s no need to type in the type of room or price, either. Using a drop-down menu, the operator can quickly select the room type, and the price is automatically filled in.

For the hotel in this example, there are a number of different kinds of rooms. The operator can set these up and change them as needed, to fit the specific details of a given hotel or package. In this case, the operator has chosen a connecting room for children under 12 — any level of detail needed can be accommodated by the program.

Clicking on “Add Room” allows the operator to add additional details about the guests, including the names and ages of all family members, special needs such as a crib or rollaway bed, or handicapped accessibility.

Some of these elements affect pricing and availability of special additions. For example, it’s important for the hotel to be aware of the number of cribs needed, and not all rooms may be equally accessible to people with disabilities.

It’s also essential, in case of emergencies, to have complete information readily at hand. With the Invoice Builder, one program maintains all the information. All the details are immediately accessible at any time. Since this is an online program, the information is also accessible from any place with a computer — no problems arise with time zones, office hours, or access to files in a particular drawer or a particular computer.

The Invoice Builder automatically prices all the items in the guest order, and the operator can quickly generate an attractive custom invoice, ready to be printed and mailed, or to be emailed to the guest.

Since all the necessary data is resident in a single program, it’s just a matter of clicking an icon on the guest’s page.

Once the invoice is sent, the Invoice Builder will automatically alert the operator at pre-selected intervals: in this case, after 7, 14, and 21 days. Follow-up is automatic, so no one has to carry around thoughts like, “I’d better follow up on that” or “Has everyone paid?”

One of the important side effects of an efficient system is that workers are freed not only of repetitive tasks, but also of the need to keep myriad details in mind. The system will do that, so stress on human workers is significantly reduced.

The operator can run reports of many kinds. It’s easy to see how much money needs to be collected, for example, and how many rooms are still available.

Another side effect of highly efficient systems is that your company looks reassuringly efficient to customers and other stakeholders. A question about any of the data in the system can be answered with speed and certainty.

Clevertech designed this Invoice Builder specifically to meet the needs of a client in the hospitality industry. We’ve done the same for companies in a variety of other industries. The key is the way we can user our business training and acumen to understand your business completely, and then use our technical skill to create the technological systems that will completely meet your needs.

Preparation for Passover requires meticulous cleaning not only of the kitchen and dining room, but of all spaces that might have contained food — it’s like spring cleaning on steroids. An alternative is the Passover program or Passover getaway: a visit to a hotel which has been specially prepared for Passover. Rabinically supervised cruises, hotel stays, and resort visits require complex preparations on the part of the tour operator or company that makes the arrangements.

Not only are there rooms to book, but there can be complex relationships among the rooms, as families travel together and one invoice may cover a number of rooms. Additional guests not staying at the hotel may join the Passover meal, and there may be special needs, from allergies or accessibility issues to birthday cakes and seating preferences at meals. There are multiple activities from golf to religious studies, and different price points for different ages and room arrangements.

Organizers of Passover programs also have to be able to accept deposits and payments and keep track of them. They have to have information for the hoteliers and for the guests. And naturally they want to be sure to have continued contact with their satisfied customers, in order to plan for next year.

This used to be a matter of sheaves of paper. Not any more.

We thought it was high time for an online system for Passover program operators. So we created one, initially for Grand Getaways.

The advantages of web-based systems for arrangements of this kind are impressive:

• Immediate access 24/7 from any standard web browser, anywhere in the world. For the travel and hospitality industry, this is a must.
• Constant access to up to date information. No need to check in with the desk clerk or the people in the home office, nor to work from last night’s data.
• A higher level of security than is generally possible with systems based on paper or requiring frequent emailing of data.
• A program that can handle the complexity of the arrangements without massive and expensive software downloaded to multiple computers.

Clevertech developed an integrated system for the Grand Getaways Passover vacation at the Waldorf Astoria in Orlando, Florida. The system includes project management, accounting, and customer relationship management elements, all combined into a single, highly user-friendly admin site.

The system has a number of special features:

• Alerts for accounts that haven’t been touched in seven, fourteen, or twenty-one days
• In-depth information for each guest, with view and edit formats
• A highly customizable system that can adapt to different packages, room types, stay dates, pricing plans, and hotels
• Invoices that combine maximum flexibility with speed and simplicity
• Ability to generate and email invoices, integrated with accounting functionality
• Reporting with a high level of control, allowing quick access to targeted information

While the specific functionality of the system is designed for optimum workflow and efficiency — that’s what we at Clevertech do, after all — the online nature of the system gives it a level of usefulness that simply wouldn’t be possible with a software package that lived in a single computer.

Is an online system what your business needs? Meet with me at one of my favorite coffee shops to discuss your particular needs. I’ll buy you a cup of coffee and we can begin the conversation that will lead to improvement in your workflow and your bottom line.

There was one woman who knew everything. When a delivery arrived at the warehouse, she would sit down with the customer, a calculator, and a piece of paper, and work out all the details and the costs. Without her, that process couldn’t be done. Even with her, it was a lengthy process, but it was part of the experience.

Hall Street used a computerized system, a DOS program that required that everyone key in commands. Again, only the experts who knew the commands could use it, and it was a lengthy process, but it worked well enough.

Until February 15th. The system stopped working, and Hall Street couldn’t send out the February bills. They called Clevertech.

We went to visit them. We looked at their operations, listened to their concerns, got to know their business thoroughly, and in less than a month we built them a warehouse management system that takes care of their inventory and accounting.

Now, when a delivery arrives, anyone can key in the details on the warehouse receipt form. The shipment is assigned a lot number and a location according to its need for refrigeration or freezing or dry storage, the weight or number of items is entered, and the costs are automatically calculated. When customers come to collect their inventory, a delivery ticket shows how many items have been removed, and automatically recalculates the charges. Recurring costs are automatic, too, and every customer has an account with a running total.

Hall Street can check on a given item, on a particular room, or on a customer. If there is a recall of an item, they can easily see where each item is and when it arrived. They can see how much space is available in each room so deliveries can be routed to the best place for optimum use of their storage. Customers coming to examine their inventory or to retrieve their goods can be directed to the right place immediately.

The process was painless. We met with them weekly during development to get their feedback and to move the system ever closer to their ideal.  We replicated what was familiar and comfortable: “Things are called what they wanted it to be called, ” as developer Brad Newman puts it.

We fixed what they didn’t like. For example, it used to be impossible for Hall Street to see a customer’s account information without printing out a statement. For this green company, the waste of paper was an extra frustration added to the time spent. Now, they can pull a customer up on the screen.

We fixed some things, too. Better reporting has made a difference for Hall Street already, and will continue to do so. Clevertech was able to export the historical data from the antique software system and migrate it into the new one, so Hall Street now has a wealth of data which they can analyze in ways that haven’t been possible before. The expert’s intuitions are still important, but now data-driven decisions are possible.

Hall Street Storage is a perfect example of a case in which an expert’s specialized knowledge could be incorporated into a custom software solution, thereby adding value to the business. Processes are more efficient and less frustrating, costs are reduced, and the entire workflow is streamlined in ways that improve life for the staff and for the customers.

As for the expert, her intensive knowledge of the business can be directed toward more creative tasks, instead of the routine business of calculating the costs of each delivery. Clevertech worked with her to get her knowledge into the warehouse management system, where it now constitutes valuable capital for the business, and she is freed up for more challenging work that takes better advantage of her years of experience.

Clevertech can do this for you too. Call us to begin the conversation.

You need to keep in touch with colleagues, clients, prospects, and customers. If you had all the time and all the staff you could ever need, then you could do this with paper and pen. Or a spreadsheet and email. But you don’t have unlimited resources, so you choose a a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. The object is to stay organized, to document your contacts with all these people, and to make sure the contacts actually get made.

There are essentially three web-based options for CRM.

First, there’s Salesforce, ubiquitous among enterprise companies. Salesforce is a cloud-based CRM system that does an impressive assortment of things. It collects and sorts your sales leads, routes them to the appropriate member of your sales team, offers a variety of dashboards for each department  that integrate with other online applications so you can see Google maps of all a prospect’s locations and their credit info, maintains a content library which allows you to update Power Point presentations –

Most companies aren’t using all the features. In fact, most of the companies we’ve spoken with who are using Salesforce are frustrated with it.

What’s wrong with having a system that does more than you need?

• It increases the learning curve. Most of us use about 15% of the capacity of ready-made solutions — but we still have to learn all of that software before we can tell which 15% is the part we really need. What’s more, the entire staff needs to learn it. Add up the training hours — more for the less tech-savvy in the company — and you’ve got a sizable investment of time.
• It leads to hacks and workarounds. We end up trying to fit the way we work to the software, instead of working in the way that’s best for us and for our company. Salesforce is designed for enterprise-level companies, with multiple departments which may not be well integrated. Using it can force smaller, more agile companies to think like big corporations, which may not be what they want.
• We have to pay for all of it, even though we don’t need all of it. Salesforce runs $65 per user, per month. In a year, your growing company can pay $30,000 to $50,000. And you won’t own anything.

Compare that with Solve360. Solve360 combines CRM and project management capabilities in a simple system of shared virtual whiteboards in a shared online workspace. Sales leads are kept where everyone can see them, not routed to the executive in charge of that division. The main screen lets team members keep track of everything that’s going on, instead of doling out information according to departmental membership. You can upload files, use Google Docs and other familiar systems, and hold discussions right there in the shared space.Your company can use the service for a year for a couple thousand dollars.

We also like the fact that, when we went to get acquainted with the system, the CEO of the company walked us through it. That says something about the company.

Highrise is another nimble tool from 37signals, the outfit that brought you Basecamp. Combining a way to keep track of contacts with clients and prospects and a way to keep track of scheduled tasks, Highrise meshes with your personal GTD system as well as with other tools and systems your company may already use. You can use it on your smartphone to check a client’s previous interactions with your company while you make a call, review all the interactions between two companies, or see where everyone is with assigned tasks related to an individual. You can set up text reminders for future contacts, too. The cost is a small fraction of the cost of using Salesforce.

Highrise and Solve360 are alternatives to Salesforce. They’re more nimble, and give more flexibility. They’re less of an investment, too. Are they going to be perfect for you and your company?

Possibly not. You know a lot about how to make your business successful. What if you could get that information into your CRM? Not only would that improve your immediate workflow and systems for greater productivity and efficiency right now, but it will also increase the value of your company. Integrating that intellectual capital into your software systems makes those systems into assets for your business.

And that’s where the third option comes in. Clevertech can customize the functionality of any of the solutions we’ve discussed to make them perfect for your company’s needs now and in the future. This is one of our services: building things just the way you need them.

If your company is prepared to spend $30-$50k (the cost of using Salesforce for one year), then you should have us build exactly the right thing for you. Need a smaller customization? We can make your CRM work just right for you with that special application. Call us at 1 888 494-1260, or contact us with our simple contact form and we’ll call you.

Here’s proof:

• 75% of business leaders recognize the critical importance of IT.
• 30% identify IT needs when developing strategies
• 8%  are held accountable for IT  success.
• Internal technology is one of only four items that measurably affects firm performance
• It’s #16 out of 20 on a survey of the things business leaders believe will improve performance.

Is it really that business leaders dislike IT? We think that the negative feeling toward technology stems from not knowing how to work with it.

Here’s another number for you: only 27% of business leaders feel smart about IT. How much do you enjoy doing things that make you feel stupid?

At Clevertech, we have tech people with top business school degrees. We know how rare it is to be equally proficient with both. Our marginal utility is in translating the management and financial speak into technology.

We do this for our clients with custom software and systems. But we’re planning to share our proven abilities in this area in a seminar in the near future.

We’re currently preparing the seminar, “How to Get More Out of Your IT,” for the New York City area.We’ll be focusing on both personal productivity and business productivity, through technology.

First, we’ll be looking at ways that readily accessible technology can increase personal productivity, reduce stress, and improve your work life:

• Why the browser you choose matters, and how extensions can amaze you.
• Ways your phone can be something you swear by — not at.
• The inside tricks that make your computer your partner in productivity.
• Free tools and services that enrich your workday.
• Things your mail program can do for you that you never knew it could.

Then we’ll be looking at business technology — whether you do it yourself or go to your IT department and say, “Why don’t I have this?” — that will supercharge your company’s productivity:

• How defining processes properly can fast track the rest of the process.
• The difference the user interface makes.
• What iterative processes and exception handling can do for you.
• Why your IT department should be using Javascript to make your life easier.
• How data visualization can revolutionize your systems.

And much more. If you’d like to stay in the loop on the details of this event, contact us and we’ll make sure you get the word.

Put the wedding reception onto a calendar filled with similarly complex and important events, add a large staff and numerous different venues, and you have the situation faced by RAM Catering, an elegant kosher caterer in Manhattan.

We’ve said that this is a challenge for humans, but the truth is, in many ways it’s more difficult for a spread sheet. No wonder many caterers rely on a barrage of Post-It notes, files bristling with notes, and a lot of extra time to sort everything out.

Ram took a different approach: they called Clevertech.

We built them a rich interface application that solved the problem. The interface has multiple screens that suit the way RAM’s managers like to work. Each manager has a dashboard — you can see an example at the top of this post — that shows the events coming up and has a project management element allowing a quick check that the contract has been sent, the contract and deposit have been received, etc.

From this dashboard, the manager can go in and set the menu:

The menu screen contains all the necessary details right where they’re needed, and it has drag-and-drop functionality connected with RAM’s extensive database of recipes. The manager can see at a glance how the dishes work together and how they’ll be served. A sudden change from chicken to lamb is no emergency: a click to bring up the lamb dishes and the manager can drag a new option into the menu.

Details of the arrangements are available from the dashboard.

Beyond the individual events, it’s also easy to pull out particular information RAM often needs, from the newest dishes to the valet info for the upcoming week’s events.

There are lots of little extra touches in this RIA that make it fit perfectly into RAM’s workflow. The calendar screen below highlights a few.

At the upper left, you can see that it’s possible to filter the events by location. At the upper right, notice that you can print the calendar, and choose to filter what’s printed in some useful ways. These features prevent information overload and allow staff to zero in on the information they really need.

The calendar shows the current month at the top, and the following two months in thumbnails. On the lower right, the search box — like all the search boxes — gives suggestions. Type in the first few letters of a client’s name and choices pop up.

There’s a lot of information on this one screen, but since it’s been designed and arranged with the specific company’s workflow in mind, it makes the whole process easy. Even so, the Legend at the side reminds users of the color coding so the learning curve stays gentle.

While this looks like a luxurious solution –and it is — the reality is that the savings in time, reduction of errors, and increased staff and customer satisfaction give an excellent return on investment for a custom solution like this one.

A RIA may be just the solution for your business, too. Call Clevertech at (516) 869-4970 to discuss the challenges your business faces. You may find that our technology offers the perfect solution.