We have added a nice little feature that allows you to setup the text and background color for each product category in order to provide a visual aid to your sales staff.  The colors are visible when you’re adding items to an order.  Here’s how to set this up:

1. Click on Setup > Categories

2. Search for the category that you want to setup and click “Edit”.

3. Change Text and Background colors.

Click on the text box and choose the color for the text and the background.

4. Choose colors.

You can view a real time sample of how the product will look like in the inventory.  To choose the color that you want simply play with the color picker control and click on the multi-colored sphere on the bottom right corner to save your changes.

5. View colors in action.

Go to Order Entry > New Order > Add Items.  Notice how the product shows up in the inventory.

That’s it!  This will help you identify products quicker when selling.  Please let us know your thoughts.

Best regards,

Alex

We have been working hard to make sure that the system runs smoothly on mobile devices so that you can take full advantage of your mobile workforce.  Being able to access the system from a mobile device (such as an iPad or other tablet computers) just like you do on your desktop offers the following benefits:

• Review customer accounts while on the road prior to meeting with a customer or with your customer (you can easily open the customer dashboard to view the key performance indicators).
• Sell from any location at any time.  You just need your tablet and an internet connection.
• Check your daily, weekly or monthly sales.
• Review the overall company sales through the main dashboard.

Here are a couple of screenshots directly from an iPad:

What is a mobile workforce?

So what’s all the fuzz about mobile workforce?  Well, for starters a mobile workforce can be defined as people that are linked to your organization who don’t have to be physically in the same location.  This allows salespeople (or any other staff) to be closer to their key markets (e.g.: west coast, mid west and east coast sales reps) or simply work from where they’re more efficient (home anyone?).  There are many experienced salespeople that simply don’t want to live in Miami (the advantage of using Komet Sales floral software is that anyone can access the system by simply using a browser and there’s no need for expensive remote desktop software, servers, VPNs, Citrix applications, etc.).  Users simply go to the website, log in and do their work.

An additional way to take advantage of this is by equipping your staff with tablet computers so that they can be truly mobile.  This will allow your staff to engage with your customers while performing on-site visits or during trade shows.  Managers can also be on the road while always being able to check the status of the company on a real-time basis.

Just give it a shot.  We’re sure you’ll like it.

Enjoy,

Alex

We have released a new version that allows you to setup box dimensions by grower.  With this new feature you will be able to do the following:

• Specify the box dimensions and the weight for each box type per grower.
• Add exceptions for a specific category.

Example

Let’s say you have a vendor called MyFarm that ships items in HB and QB.  You purchase both carns and aster from MyFarm and each product is shipped on a half box that’s slightly different.  The carns are shipped on a 41 x 10 x 10 and the aster is shipped on a 41 x 10 x 8 box.  In order to have the system automatically use the correct box dimension you would add two box dimensions in the system: one HB 41 x 10 x 10 for the carns and an additional HB 41 x 10 x 8 for the aster.

How to setup box dimensions

To setup box dimensions simply go to the Setup > Box Dimensions menu item.  You must be an administrator in order to change these settings.

Why worry about box dimensions?

By entering the correct box dimensions the system will be able to accurately display this information (as well as the total cubes) in the Bill of Ladings.  For customers that purchase items that go through Miami and are received at their facility in the US or Canada this can help control the freight charged by the carriers since you’ll be able to compare the billed cubes against your cube estimates from the Komet system.  This will also help your customers to check their freight bills against your shipments.

Stay tuned for additional upgrades!

Alex

On Friday we deployed a new version that allows you to enter comments on a per item level on both Prebooks and Standing Orders.  This is extremely useful for combo or assorted boxes where the customer expects to receive a specific breakdown.  It also makes it easy for the farms to follow the instructions since the item notes are printed under each line item in the Purchase Orders.

How to add notes

After you have created a new Prebook or Standing Order and you’re ready to add items you’ll notice a new “Add Notes” link that’s located under the Product text box.  When you click on this link a large text area is opened where you can enter the notes / breakdown.  Items that have notes will display a yellow “comment” icon like this:

How farms view the notes in the PO’s

Once the farms receive the PO’s they’ll get to see the notes (breakdown, colors, or any note that you entered) underneath each product.  This makes it easier for the farms to keep track of the specific requirements set by your customers.

This new feature will allow you to save detailed information on a per item level helping you and your vendors supply the products specifically requested by your customers.

Best regards,

Alex

We have added a simple feature that allows you to manage your company information just in case you switch to a larger office! To update your company info simply do the following:

1. Click on the “Setup” tab.
2. Click in the “Settings” option.
3. Update your company information and click “Save”.
4. Done.  Have a beer.

As always please let us know if there’s anything that we can help you with.

Thanks!

Alex

Today we have launched a new look and feel for the system that is smoother and easier to use than the previous one.  We’re not making any navigation changes (don’t worry, no need to PANIC!!!) but we’re enhancing the colors, the layout and the search options.

In addition to this we’re adding a very requested feature that’s extremely simple yet very useful: when entering a date Komet required the full mm/dd/yyyy to be entered.  With this new update you will only have to enter the mm/dd and Komet will automatically fill in the current year.  Pretty small change but a definite time saver for those of you that work a lot with dates (well – most of you!).

We’re eager to hear your feedback!

Have fun,

Alex

Last weekend we threw our annual Christmas Party in Rionegro (where lots of our customers buy flowers from) which is about 45 minutes away from our office in Medellin.  The weather had been ruthless for the last couple of weeks since it had been raining non-stop day and night BUT that day we got extremely lucky and we had no rain whatsoever.  The party started at 3pm and lasted until 3am and as you can probably figure out from this snapshot we were having a REALLY good time.

Vertical Technologies 2011 Christmas Party

Left to right: Dan, David, Raul, Robert, Camilo, Alex, Cata, Maria, Juan (Johan is missing but he lives in Madrid, Spain so he had a bit of trouble making it…)

The good news is that it’s mid-month and we still have other parties to crash!!!

Happy holidays,

The Vertical Tech Team

Starting in January we will be adding a new feature that will allow your customers (and by customers we’re only referring to the GOOD customers that you want to give access to this feature) to login to the system, view your inventory and place orders.

Here’s how this will work:

1. You will create a user name  for  your customer which will be linked to the customer’s account in the system.
2. The customer will receive an invitation from Komet Sales (on your behalf) with the instructions to login to the site and with the password.
3. The customer will login, view the inventory and place any orders.
4. You will have the chance to review the customer orders in case you need to make any adjustments or modifications.

Additionally you will have the following options:

• Limit the maximum quantity that is displayed for all items.  For example, if you set the max to 20 then the customer will only see 20 boxes for any given item regardless of the amount that you have in the inventory.  This will allow you to “disguise” the real number of boxes (say if you have over 100).
• Once an order is placed the invoice will have a prefix of “W” for “web orders”.  You will be able to review the orders prior to confirming them for shipment.  In case you need to make any changes you can do so from the existing “Add/Edit Order” page.

This is just the beginning since we plan to add additional features once we start getting feedback from you and your customers!

Happy holidays!

Alex

After a very long wait (much more than it should’ve been) we finally managed to setup the blog (it really took like 20 minutes).  We’ll be updating the blog periodically with tips, planned features and tutorials so that you can maximize the use of all the existing features in Komet Sales.  We’re looking forward to getting your feedback so that we can keep improving Komet Sales so that it makes your life easier!

Thanks for your support,

Alex