Francis Dion on Software Process

Vive le Québec!

Today June 24^th is Quebec National Holiday.

Here are a few quick facts about us:

Quebec is a province (similar to a State) of Canada.

We are located in the North East quadrant of North America, a little over one hour flight from New York.

Google Map Link: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Montreal+Qu%C3%A9bec&sll=49.325122,-72.158203&sspn=51.538977,77.431641&ie=UTF8&ll=39.774769,-79.628906&spn=59.303575,77.431641&z=4

Primary spoken language here is French, although most of us, especially in business settings, are fluent in English.

Montreal, our largest city, is renowned for its “joie de vivre” and overall quality of life, with an exceptional mix of cultural and linguistic diversity.

Quebec benefits from lots of national resources, including clean hydro-electricity. It also has a unique pool of creative talent, from lead singer Celine Dion to Cirque du Soleil to a thriving software industry and world class game designing excellence centers.

Oh, and it is also the home of Xpertdoc Technologies Inc., global provider of document output solutions with a primary focus on the insurance industry… and proud to be “Québécois” J

Windows 7 Release Candidate

The RC (“Release Candidate”) version of Microsoft Windows 2007 is available since April 30, 2009. This is an important milestone in bringing to the general public the much anticipated update to this desktop operating system (OS).

 OK, what’s the deal?

Windows 7 might very well be the first OS in history to have LOWER system requirements than its predecessor and to actually run FASTER on similar configurations. According to Microsoft’s own development team, “this time, they got it”. Although it provides the usual bunch of user interface improvements and goodies, Windows 7 is simply a leaner, faster and more robust evolution.

Yeah, but what about what really matters?

Since you are like me fanatical about automated document output, you’ll share my enthusiasm about this feature improvement oddly overlooked by most other reviewers: With Windows 7 comes a new release of WordPad (a basic but free text processor) which now supports the Office 2007, OpenXML standard, DOCX file format.

We’ve tested WordPad with a Word document containing killer features (to the left), with reasonable results (to the right).

 

WordPad did very well with standard text formatting and images, OK with the table (losing some of its format) and could not handle headers, footers, table of content and charts. Still

Going back to Windows 7, should I install the RC?

Although the Release Candidate is impressively solid and stable, I do not recommend you install it on a production computer. Unless you really like toying with computers and living (somewhat) dangerously, you’re better off waiting for the general availability scheduled for October 22, 2009.

Windows 7 Official Web Site:

Download page for the RC

Minimum System Requirements:

1 GB of RAM for the 32-bit version

2 GB of RAM for the 64-bit version

Office 2007 SP2

On April 28th, 2009, Microsoft published the Service Pack 2 for the 2007 Office Suite. This SP2 improves the stability and performance of the product and includes cumulative patches published up to February 2009. One of the "neet" inclusion of this update is that it includes the save as PDF / save as XPS feature is now available by default, which is a welcomed change to having to download a separate extension.

Speaking of PDF and XPS, the SP2 also improves fidelity to the original document (which, in my opinion, was already outstanding).

The Service Pack can be obtained through the Windows Update service or downloaded directly from here. A detailed description is also available through the Knowledge Base Article 953195.

Some users have reported issues while installing the Service Pack. On one of our system, the installation seems to have frozen the computer. A simple reboot quickly resolved the issue.

As for users of Xpertdoc's products, no issues have been found to date in relation to this Microsoft update.

Xpertdoc Studio 10.5

Xpertdoc Studio is a state-of-the-art template designer for automated document output. Version 10.5 was released earlier this month, first to select clients and partners, then to the general public.

On the business side, this release adds the much anticipated capability of combining multiple documents together as well as rule-based assembly of smart document fragments.

On the technical side, it provides support for LINQ expressions as well as the ability to compile against the Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5.

Other enhancements include better support for Arabic text and improved code completion.

Here are the detailed release notes:

New: New tag of type Sub Document

This tag can be used to specify a static or variable path to an existing document which will be inserted at the tag's location during the merge (preview/execute) process.

New: New tag of type Sub Template

A Sub Template tag is very similar to a Sub Document tag, except that the inserted document is itself an Xpertdoc template, enabling shared or distinct data sources, merge fields and business rules.

New: Ability to compile using .NET Framework 3.5 compiler

A template property can now be set to determine against which version of the Microsoft .NET Framework to compile, opening access to the platform's latest features.

New: Support LINQ expressions

LINQ is a language-integrated, general purpose, object-relational mapping and query facility that can greatly accelerate development and maintenance activities. LINQ expressions can now be used in the Xpertdoc Studio Developer Edition programming environment.

Change: Improvements on the code completion control

The code completion feature of Xpertdoc Studio has been improved with more complete syntax coverage and a more ergonomic user interface.

Fix: Arabic text now keeps his right to left context

Under some conditions, Arabic text fragments inserted through Xpertdoc Expressions were losing their right-to-left setting. This is now fixed.

Fix: User interface glitches

Some user interface glitches such as resizing behavior have been fixed.

Fix: Arithmetic code in an Expression will now compile without any conversion

The Arithmetic component of the Insert Table feature now support more generic syntax, making it more accessible to business users.

You can find more product information, fully functional demo and samples on Xpertdoc Document Output web site.

W7O14

As you know we work closely with Microsoft as part of our commitment to deliver the very best, most current document output solution to be found this side – or the other side, for that matter – of the Rio Grande. As such we are monitoring the advent of the next operating system (W7 for Windows 7) and application platform (O14 for Office 14) that are “soon” to be released by Redmond.

Windows 7

Windows 7 is the next evolution of Microsoft’s operating system. Although no official date has been provided yet, everything points toward a late 2009 or early 2010 release.

In a nutshell, W 7 promises to be a “better Vista”, the much criticized current version. Personnaly, I like Vista and I would never go back to XP, but W7 should fix some of the most irritating glitches of its predecessor, most notably in regards to performance when running on low-end computers. This release will bring a few changes to the user interface but the intent is to make compatible with all drivers, applications and peripherals already compatible with Vista.

Official web site: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/

Available version: Beta1, since December 2008

Office 14

Office 14 is the next evolution of Microsoft’s productivity suite. Although no official date has been provided yet, rumors mention a release “at the same time or soon after the release of Windows 7”.

Interesting point: we’re going from version 12 (Office 2007) to 14. Did you see a black cat, anyone?

The overarching theme behind the development is said to be "dealing with the paradox of empowerment at the top and control at the bottom". Funny how nicely this goes with our own concept of Reporting 2.0.

Official web site: Not available

Available version : None

Anticipated impacts for clients of Xpertdoc: None!

We are monitoring these developments closely. Although we are not anticipating any significant impacts for our clients and partners, we pledge to quickly react if and when a situation occurs.

Françis Dion

Canadian Budget CCA Deduction for Buying Computers

The 2009 federal budget submitted this week to the Canadian parliament contains measures to stimulate the economy. One of these measures got my attention: accelerated capital cost allowance (CCA) for  computer purchases and related system software.

Disclaimer: I am neither an accountant nor a tax specialist. What follows reflects my own understanding which is not that of an expert. Any use and interpretation of this material should be first validated with a qualified professional.

The measure proposes a temporary CCA rate of 100% and a waiver of the half-year rule for computer hardware and software (class 50) purchased after January 27, 2009 and before February 1^st, 20011.

Here’s a brief comparison of the situation before and after the measure:

	Before	After
CCA rate for class 50	55%	100%
Half-year rule	Applicable	Non applicable
Impact on a 10 000 $ purchase	2 750 $ counted as an operation expense the first year	10 000 $ counted as an operation expense the first year
Tax savings for year 1, based on a 30% tax rate	825$	3 000 $

Please note that class 50 includes “computers, system software and related equipment” while class 12, which always benefited from a 100% CCA rate, covers “application software, […], medical instruments worth less than 500$ […]”.

The numbers I propose here are gross approximations and might even be totally wrong (:-), but this measure is still clearly positive for anyone doing business in Canada.

If anyone has information on what qualifies a software purchase for class 12 and 50 CCA, or can confirm / infirm the hypotheses I put forth here, your comments will be greatly appreciated!

Françis Dion

Heroic Performance

We’ve been exhibiting to quite a few trade shows this year and we’re all pumped-up by the raving reviews we got.

Here are some of the comments we received regarding Xpertdoc Studio Word-based document and report generator:

That's very cool
  - A.M., San Francisco, CA
  - A.G., Vancouver, BC
  - A.A, Ontario

Impressive
  - M.H., Sweden

Wow! Very intersting. I've never seen an approach like that
  - T.G., Fort Worth, TX

Howesome and neet
  - C.C., Irving, TX

Really good product!
  - D.C., Irvine, CA

Surprising product
  - L.R., Lakewood, CO

We have been looking for something like this for years. Out of despair, we were about to start developping this internally!
  - S.B., Dallas, TX

Bringing document automation into the fold of IT solves a problem that is as important for professional services firms as Y2K was for banks
  - L.B., London, UK

Of course, I would remiss not to mention the amazing performance of Louis-Philippe Perras, lead developer on Xpertdoc Studio, who won the Guitar Hero challenge both at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston and at the Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles, as well as doing a memorable performance of Marakas at the Office Developer Conference in San Jose.

Congratulations, Louis!

Francis Dion

Automate your Business Processes

A downturn economic environment presents its share of challenges but it is not without opportunities. Whether the slowdown is giving you time to work ON the business, or rationalizations and reorganizations are on the agenda, now is as good if not better than any time to launch an initiative to automate business processes. Here are 5 motivations to embark on such a project

1. Do as much with less
Maintain outpout levels while reducing costs
   - Reduction of operational costs
   - Rationalization

2. Do more with as much
Increase output levels without increasing costs
   - Reduced opportunity costs (for example, a strategic can be freed to work on more value-add tasks)
   - Increase capacity

3. Do more with more
Fuel and support growth
   - Enable the replication of the performance of your best practicians by capturing their expertise and embed it into a system; this will allow less experienced resources to achieve comparable performance levels

4. Do it faster
Reduce delays
   - Reduce the time it take to complete a task

5. Avoid errors
Increase quality
   - Avoid costly and/or ambarassing mistakes
   - Standardize outputs
   - Facilitate validation and verification

Automation is not the only nor the always the best way to improve a business process. It does however provide significant opportunities for qualitative and quantitative benefits like:
   - Elimination of repetitive tasks, which can in turn bolster morale and facilite retention
   - Reduce training costs and delays

The production of proposals is a good example of a business process that can benefit from being at least partly automated:
   - Reduction of the effort required to produce a proposal
   - Ability to produces and submit more proposals
   - Allow multiple resources to produce high-quality proposals
   - Reduction of the delays between a discussion with a client and the submission of the proposal
   - Avoid leaving the name of the previous client and arithmetic errors
   - Implement a self-service system (say: a web page) so that clients can receive their quotes in real time

Francis Dion

CRM

One of the cool project we completed recently is a Microsoft Dynamics CRM integration.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is a fully integrated customer relationship management (CRM) system delivering a fast, flexible, and affordable solution to client-centric business processes. We are using Dynamics CRM for our own client relationship activities, so it was only natural for us to develop our own Xpertdoc integration report.

What we did basically is we created and Xpertdoc data connection and commands to Dynamics secured views, relying on the Active Directory security settings to control access.

We then created a couple of tables from these views, and a graph for good measures.

Heres a look at the template we created:

And here is how the (partial) resulting document looks:

Cool stuff!

Open XML Primer

Open XML is at the same time virtually invisible to business users yet possibly the most important new piece of technology for the future of document intensive organizations such as insurance companies and professional services firms. Here is a quick primer on what it is and what it means for business.

Open XML (aka Office Open XML or OOXML) is the file format introduced by the Microsoft Office 2007 suite. For most users, its only visible manifestation is that file extensions now have an additional “x” at the end (“docx” for Word documents, “xlsx” for Excel spreadsheets, etc.).

Under the hood, an Open XML document really is a zip archive containing files (mostly XML data but also images and other inclusions) organize in a folder structure. Those who used to break open AM radios to peek inside and see “how it works” can actually do the same with these documents. Just take any “.docx” file, change the extension to “.zip” and open it via your favorite archive manager (Windows Explorer, WinRar, etc.). You’ll get something that looks like this:

The fact that this file format is compressed is already good news for network administrators and email systems for it makes these documents much smaller. The fact that its content is XML-structured data is even more important thanks to the rich document life-cycle scenarios that it supports. Open XML documents can be created, converted, signed electronically, indexed, searched, categorized and audited in a much more efficient and reliable way than what was possible with earlier formats. Over time, these capabilities will have increasingly important significance for document-centric and heavily regulated industries such as insurance and financial services.