Over the past couple days I’ve highlighted some of the exciting new features and products we’re introducing in 2014, including Stratus Desktop, the Perfectly Clear integration, and the improved ProSelect integration. Today, I want to touch on some of the other enhancements you’ll see in the 2014 version.
Clients
First, we’ve given you the ability to manage “Business-to-Business” (B2B) client relationships, in addition to your more traditional “Business-to-Consumer” relationships. With a B2B relationship, instead of tracking family members, you can track contacts and job titles. The Clients hub has also been updated to include family members or business contacts in searches. New social networking fields let you track Facebook and Twitter feeds for consumer clients, and Website and LinkedIn pages for business clients.
Spectra can now automatically update the client status when a client books a session or places an order, updating them from “Prospect” to “Customer,” for example. We’ve also added a much requested feature – the ability to create a new client directly from a family member or contact!
Sessions
We’ve added the ability to set a default location (or room) for a session based on the session type (also true for appointments). You can also set up the average amount of time it takes to drive to an outside location. When you choose an outside location for a session, your drive time will automatically be shown. You can also record when the client has asked you to arrive for the event. This means the software can now track the Drive Time, Arrival Time, Session Start Time, and Session End Time. All these fields can be merged into the description shown on the calendar. A ton of new custom fields have also been added to the session record.
Invoices
In previous versions, you needed to use the Sales Presentation module to create or modify an order that included images with cropping or composites. Now, in 2014, you can do all your image viewing, selection, cropping, colorizing, and composite creation right from an invoice! This means that an order created from a sales presentation can be edited directly from the invoice. Or, when you take an order over the phone, you can select images, crop them, colorize them, and create composites – all from the invoice.
We’ve added a brand new UPS shipping integration for clients that ship via UPS. You just click Ship on the invoice to create the shipment in UPS’s tracking system and retrieve a unique tracking number. You can print a UPS shipping label and send an email to the client with the tracking information. You can also click the Track It button at any time to open the UPS tracking system.
Production Orders
The Production Order module has been completely rebuilt in 2014. New imaging features give your production department the ability to edit images prior to rendering. Adjustments can include re-cropping, building a new composite, or retouching with Photoshop – all directly from the redesigned production order. The Photoshop retouching windows has also been enhanced to give you more editing capabilities.
A new Communications ribbon tab makes it easy for you to send a communication to your client from the production order. POs can now be assigned to departments, in addition to specific users. Also, tasks can now be automatically created by setting up trigger(s) based on production order status changes.
Other Goodies
Another commonly requested enhancement has been added in 2014 – the option to advance the status of a group of clients, sessions, invoices, tasks, or production orders…all at once! Also, many of the software’s tools, wizards, and maintenance screens have been made more user friendly and updated with new features, including the Filter Builder. New reports have been added to the Dashboard to help you control your labor costs. Triggers include new features letting tasks and calls be auto-assigned to the primary photographer or assistant. You can also define more details for tasks that are created by triggers. To give you additional control, you can now define which triggers should be auto-processed by the Control Center and which ones will be manually processed by you.
The main grid-style hubs and the Workflow hub have received some significant performance enhancements. You can now filter, group, or total any number of records in your database with great speed. Images on the Workflow hub load much faster than in previous versions. Also, Spectra and Stratus Desktop include a key new feature that automatically detects when the software has lost its connection to the database (either on your server or in the cloud). When the connection is lost, the software will continually attempt to re-connect to the database. If the connection can be re-established, you’re good to go. If it can’t be repaired, the software will let you know what has happened before it shuts down. This feature is great for customers that experience network problems which affect their Spectra performance.
Spectra 2014 also has a new updated look! New style ribbons have been implemented throughout the software. The new ribbons are similar in style to MS Office 2013®. They’re clean and elegant! You’ll also notice new ribbon icons. The new icons are simple and embody a flat style. The result is a great new look, as well as improved performance.
We hope all of you enjoy and profit from the new features we’ve added in 2014. Almost everything we’ve added or improved is based on a suggestion from you, our customers. We are committed to listening to the requests you make! If you have a suggestion for a new feature, please send it to Suggestions@StudioPlusSoftware.com. For a complete list of all the new features added in 2014, click here. To download the Preview release of Spectra 2014, click here. To download the new Stratus Desktop, click here.