Software Updates

Important update for your free Purchase Order Software

If you have successfully installed the free version of SpendMap and the system is able to check for updates when starting up, you can ignore this blog post.
 
As you may know, the free version of SpendMap checks for updates/patches automatically.  When an update is available, it is downloaded automatically and you will receive a message to re-launch the system.  This ability to automatically update/patch the system is absolutely mandatory for a project like this, due to the large number of free systems in use.
 
Unfortunately, we’ve had a few support tickets from people who are not able to activate and/or update the software due to restrictions on their firewalls or proxy servers, so we have redesigned the auto-update utility in the hopes of making it more “firewall friendly”.
 
Like all updates/patches, the updated version will be downloaded and installed automatically the next time you run SpendMap.  However, if you are having trouble connecting to our update server, obviously you won’t get the update.
 
So, if you have SpendMap running but are not able to apply auto-updates, you can download the new version manually with this file…
http://www.spendmap-updates.com/updates/free1164/patch.zip 
 
TIP: If you are not sure if your SpendMap system is able to auto-update, you can test this by selecting the menu option Help > Check for updates – If it is unable to check for updates, you will receive an error message.

Instructions for IT person or System Administrator:  After backing up the system, just unzip the patch.zip file into the root folder of each of your SpendMap systems.  For example, if you’re using both the Evaluation and Live systems, you’ll need to unzip this twice, into both of these folders (the example below assumes that you installed SpendMap into the default folder of C:\FREEPROCUREMENT)…
 
C:\FREEPROCUREMENT\Eval
C:\FREEPROCUREMENT\Live
 
If, however, you were not able to get SpendMap going in the first place, you can just download a new SETUP.EXE (which has the new auto-update feature built-in) and install the system from scratch…
http://www.spendmap.com/Register_Download 
 
For clarity, if you are installing from scratch, there is no need to download and apply the patch.zip file, as its contents are already included in the SETUP.EXE.
 
Finally, if the new update utility does not improve things for you and SpendMap is still not able to check for updates due to restrictions on your firewall or proxy server, as a last resort you can manually download and install the patch.zip file from time to time.  Any new or updated files will be added to the ZIP file accumulatively, so you can download and install the files as often as you like, perhaps once a month, or if we make a post like this in the future about an important update.  To make sure that you are notified about important updates, please follow our blog.

New SpendMap Website – update your free Purchase Order Software

Our new corporate website www.spendmap.com came online yesterday.

Many hyperlinks in your free version of SpendMap will now be broken.  You can wait for the next automatic update (could be up to 7 days) or you can select  HELP > CHECK FOR UPDATES  from the Main Menu to update your system immediately.

In addition to a fresh design and updated content, the new website now incorporates The Free-Procurement Project into our core SpendMap brand.

You can read the press release here.

Thanks for your patience as we make this transition.

I’d like to make a special shout-out to the team at i4 Solutions who I think did a great job on the site and were wonderful to work with during the whole process.  This is the second project we’ve done with i4 and I’d recommend them for website design and web-based application development.

I’d also like to thank Jeremy Miller at Sticky Branding for his advice at the outset of the project (the Free project, not the new website).  While we didn’t formally engage Jeremy on this project, we appreciate his generous advice and encouragement as we set out to learn about social media marketing and organizing large groups of people.  Thanks Jeremy!

D.

Your Free Purchase Order Software is Here

Did you hear the “pop”?  That was us celebrating the arrival of the world’s first free e-procurement system.

You can download your copy here.

We’ve tried to predict your questions and we put that knowledge into the online help system and the first round of tutorial videos.  But we aren’t expecting to hit a home run right out of the gate, so please send us your feedback and let us know what else we can do to help.

And don’t forget to sign up for this Blog.  As we add to the software and our library of tutorials or other resources, we’ll be making blog posts to let you know that there’s something new to help.  If you don’t follow the blog, you won’t find out about the new stuff.

Thanks again for trying the free version of SpendMap!

Support System Now Online

The new support system is now online, so you can get free support for your free software.

I know, I know, you need the software before you need support.  We’re almost there.  Just working through a couple issues with the installer program, to make it as easy as possible for everyone to get the system up and running.

So in the meantime, while our developers are putting the bow on the package, the rest of us have had an opportunity to tie up some loose ends, like the new support system, finishing up a couple sections of the Online Help, and so on.

So the whole package will be a bit more polished, which I think you’ll all appreciate.

Hang in there everyone…we’re very close.

Starting to get the word out on free Purchase Order software

Reaching out to a handful of people who showed interest in our web-based product but who didn’t have an appetite for our enterprise pricing.  Hoping some will sign up for the blog, as a sort of preregistration list for when the software is ready to download in the next week or two.

Sure feels nice to be the bearer of good news!

 

Summer 2011 Release

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been 9 months.

Lots of work but the improvements in this summer’s release, especially the many “ease-of-use” features, along with the new Help System, will definitely help new users get up and running with the system fast.  A definite prerequisite for this Free endeavour.

Next step is infrastructure to support mass-distribution of Free version (downloads, automatic updates, etc.).

Very exciting!

The ball is rolling

A few weeks in and it’s starting to come together.

We’ve got the to-do lists together for what needs to change in the software, what will be needed for the support infrastructure and we’ve roughed in the marketing.  Content for new on-line help system also coming along nicely.

Biggest effort will be the software changes…it’s got to be much easier than in the old days when we could count on end-user training.

Next meeting is to axe what we can live without and pick a launch date.

Very exciting!