Stealth Mode

Alright, who are we kidding — we went into stealth mode months ago and there is a very good reason for that.  The Giggle blog posts, newsletters, etc have slowed to a crawl (our last one was in November … I believe) and I’m betting many of you are chomping at the bit to know what we’ve been up to.  The good news is that you won’t have to wait too much longer!

The GigBooks development team has been working tirelessly to bring you the new version of GigBooks called “Refreshed”.  We won’t lie … it has been a challenge every step of the way.  First, we had to decide how best to proceed in developing GigBooks and there were many difficult decisions to be made.  At the beginning of 2009, we were no longer happy with our development partner and therefore brought everything in house in order to have complete control over how GigBooks was being developed.

The next major initiative related to the existing code base which was not where we wanted it to be.  We had to decide whether to begin gradually rewriting GigBooks one module at a time in order to finally have an application that was as nimble and maintainable as it should have been in the first place OR scrap the entire thing (including all the time and money we spent over a year and half) in favor of starting over.  As with any important decision, both options had significant pros and cons that were weighed carefully.

At this point we had established an internal development team at our headquarters in Erie, PA and ultimately decided to begin the process of rewriting from the ground up.  This decision afforded us several awesome advantages:

1. We free ourselves entirely from the limitations of a code base that wasn’t properly designed in the first place so that we can be as innovative and creative as those of you that use GigBooks on a day to day basis.
2. The focus of the rewrite would be placed on usability and user experience — the things our members were telling us they wanted to see changed the most.  We could do anything we want in order to make GigBooks the most intuitive business management tool for creative and service based businesses.
3. Once released, we can continue to quickly and regularly release new features and functionality aimed squarely at streamlining the things you do on a day to day basis.
4. Peace of mind that GigBooks can continue growing and enhancing the application that many have come to rely on to run their businesses.

And so we set out on a mission to begin anew and I am happy to say development is moving along superbly!  We will gradually begin releasing GigBooks Refreshed in the next couple months.  We are currently working on a plan for launching the new application that includes a transition period where current members will be migrated over to the new platform.  More information will be shared as we finalize the details.

Here is what you can expect at the launch of GigBooks Refreshed:

• A greatly improved user interface/experience based on direct feedback from all of you over the last year and a half.  We have brought on a talented group of web application designers and I am certain you will be pleased with the results!
• The #1 request by members and prospective members alike has been related to the GigBooks calendar.  We heard you loud and clear.  For photographers, GigBooks Refreshed will launch as the only studio management application to provide native support for true bidirectional, web based synchronization with your external calendars such as iCal, iPhone, Google Calendar, Outlook, etc.  Lots of other great Calendar related functionality will be available as well!
• Restructured modules that are designed to be simpler and more intuitive.  For example, Leads, Contacts and Clients from the original system have been merged into a single module tentatively called Relationships and the functionality has been expanded to allow for management of Vendors, Employees, Subcontractors, Partners and any other type of relationship you might establish with a person or organization in the course of running your business.
• The Pricelists area of GigBooks is being completely reworked and rethought so as to allow for quick and easy setup of products/services/credits, packages and the pricing of each of those items.
• Invoicing is being augmented with a brand new Estimates feature that will tie into Agreement generation and brings the entire process of quoting, contracting and billing clients full circle.
• Favorite features such as electronic signatures through EchoSign still exist and are also being enhanced with new functionality.
• Ultimately, Jobs/Projects (whatever you want to call them) will utilize a new workflow engine.
• Mass emails will become a reality.
• New integrations with other innovative software companies will be possible.

We are extremely excited about the future of GigBooks and are in a better position to serve your business management needs than ever before.  Continue watching your email and the Giggle blog for more details!

Happy Thanksgiving (Even if a Little Late)

Happy Thanksgiving to all GigBooks members and anyone else reading our blog!  Sorry for the lateness of this post, but life has been exceptionally busy over the last month.

We hope you enjoyed the holiday with family and are beginning to look forward to the coming booking season that is sure to leave you even more thankful.  As always, let us know how we can help and keep watch for some exciting announcements from us!

San Diego PUG

Kicking off the Summer 2009 PUG tour was San Diego and as usual SD was warm and sunny! Getting to San Diego wasn’t without its challenges though.  First, I was supposed to get up bright and early at 2:45AM EST in order to drive to Pittsburgh for my 6:17AM flight; however, I woke up to the wonderful chirp of birds and light beginning to flood my bedroom @ 5:45AM. The airline was unusually willing to help out and allowed me to standby for another flight and got me out on the next one, but that wasn’t before I managed to take out a turkey with my Expedition on my drive to Pittsburgh!!

When I did arrive, Jared Bauman of Bauman Photographers and ShootDotEdit was kind enough to pick me up at the airport and take me to dinner.  I honestly don’t remember the name of the restaurant, but the food was good.

We then met up with San Diego PUG leaders Jeff & Erin Youngren of The Youngrens at their beautiful home and the location of the PUG meeting. It’s always great to catch up with Jared, Jeff & Erin when I’m in town and if the cost of living weren’t so darn high — I think their friendships would be enough to have me packing the bags and moving out to San Diego.

Kevin Mudd of Cool Cake Photography kicked off the meeting with a great studio spotlight and did a great job of unknowingly building a lead in to my presentation for the evening. For our second PUG tour we decided to introduce a new presentation format that consists of an open discussion on sales techniques and how improving and streamlining the entire sales process can lead to revenue and profit growth. Feedback was positive and I took the new format with me to LA the next evening!

Kevin's Studio Spotlight

The New GigBooks Presentation

Thanks for another great PUG in San Diego!

Erie Wedding Professionals – June Meeting

Life at GigBooks has been so crazy over the last two weeks that I am just finding the time to post about the fabulous Erie Wedding Professionals meeting Amanda and I hosted on Monday, June 1st!

Let’s start by explaining that June 1st was my 27th birthday and the group had decided to hold the meeting without prior knowledge of this fact.  When it came to light; however, it seems that some of our great friends thought it would be fun to celebrate my birthday in a unique way:-)

First there is a beautiful cake that Cindy’s Let them Eat Cake made for the occasion.  By far, the most awesome birthday cake I’ve ever had!  See for yourself.

Amanda is holding the cake while everyone else sings. Awww!

 

Then there was the Mohawk incident…. evidently Jerry Ricci decided it would be a good idea to bring along some hair gel and get the guys to participate in some humorous mocking of my hairstyle:-)  I think Heather and Christine take the cake on this one though!

Heather Mencer in "Mocking the Mohawk"

Notice all the Mohawks (and Duct Tape Soul Patches too!)

 

Thanks guys!  I appreciate the effort and it was hilarious!!

Bumper Cars on the Bayfront

Yesterday was one of those days.  You know — the sort of day where in order to pull everything off each task has to happen so succinctly that there is simply no way in hell it’s going to?  It was one of those.

Justin’s March 17th Schedule

6AM – Get up, feed dogs, de-poop dogs, shower, etc
8AM – Office Time (Prep for Demo’s, PUG and trip to Oklahoma City)
10AM –  GigBooks Demo via WebEx
11:30AM – Phone Consult with Groom
12PM – Ship Package via UPS & Travel 45 Minutes to Peek’n Peak for B&G Consult
1PM – B&G Consult at Peek’n Peak (then drive back) 
            —–> Insert Bumper Cars on Bayfront
2:30PM – GigBooks Demo via WebEx
7PM – Pittsburgh PUG

Things did not go quite as planned.  Demo’s were started late, B&G consultations took longer than expected and I decided to play Bumper Cars on the Bayfront i.e. smash into the backend of a Jeep that was doing nothing but minding its business at a red light.  Crash!!

It sounds dramatic, but in reality it actually reminded me very much of riding bumper cars as a kid sans the 6000lb Expedition I was driving at the time.

I was mindfully sitting at the stop light; eating a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut Express, when I caught the glimmer of a Green light (er.. arrow) out of the corner of my eye.  Instinct and my desire to get to the office to start my second GB demo of the day on time kicked in and before I knew it there was a loud thud and I see the smile of a very nice young woman looking back at me through her driver side mirror.

If I were a kid — I would have probably intended to smack into the back end of her car, but as an adult I find that is typically frowned upon.

We drove down the Bayfront Connector a ways until we came to an exit, pulled off into a parking lot and kindly exchanged information and laughs.  Fortunately, the damage wasn’t significant and a good old fashioned buffing will probably take care of her bumper.  My beast wasn’t harmed at all.

I know you want to the see the pix I snapped with my new iPhone so here they are.

Scuff Marks from Bumper Cars

This is why certain countries have outlawed eating while driving!

Everyone should Giggle now and again.  This laugh is on me!

Happy New Year!

A very Happy New Year from everyone at GigBooks! Thanks to all of our members for making 2008 a phenomenal year for all of us.

A quick recap of 2008:

• Beta testing began in January
• GigBooks v1 launched in early June
• We visited more than 30 cities from June 2nd through the end of October and shared GigBooks with our Pictage PUG friends
• Our first tradeshow was Pictage Partner Conference and we enjoyed seeing our friends and meeting so many new people
• Our second tradeshow was Photo Plus Expo in NYC with more photographers than we’ve ever seen in one place!  Lots of fun.
• Thanks to all of you we now count hundreds of photographers, disc jockeys, graphic designers, videographers (and others) as members!

Those are just a few highlights from 2008.  In a year where we put in so much effort and found so much success, we are grateful to each member and are looking forward to an even better 2009.

We have some exciting features set to launch in the next week or so and throughout 2009 you can look forward to many more updates and upgrades to GigBooks.  Our development team is working hard and we’re sure you’ll be pleased with the results!

So, from everyone at GigBooks — we wish you a happy and prosperous New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Everyone at GigBooks wishes you and your families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Justin and I had a great day with our family today. We had a wonderful time eating, laughing, and opening gifts. Our hope is that you all had a great memory making day with the ones you love!

Be Merry!
Amanda

Uses for your Sticky Notes