REQUEST A DEMO

Author: Gary Sherman

Chief Technology Officer, Vice President of Products

Gary Sherman
Gary Sherman
About:

Subscribe to Gary Sherman's RSS feed and never miss a post.

Posts by Gary Sherman:

Prepping for a demo

May 20, 2009 I typically have a checklist of things that I go through before I give a demo or presentation. I know Scott Hanselman does as well: Have a Pre-Talk Checklist and Demo Reset The following is a set of checklist items and tips that I use before doing a demo. Demo Prep Close all apps that won't be used. I know this sounds like a duh!, but I've seen no shortage of Outlook toast popups, and Instant Message popups during someone's presentations and demos. Setup a one-click restore of my database. I have a simple BAT file for SQL Server that looks like: sqlcmd -Usa -Psa -Q "restore database dovetail from disk = 'C:db_backupsdovetail.bak' with replace" Start the apps that you'll be using - especially the slow ones. I know Visual Studio takes 4 minutes to startup on my laptop. 4…

Applying Game Mechanics to Customer Service and Support systems

May 12, 2009 I've been having an ongoing conversations over the last few months with Kevin Leahy around applying gaming mechanics on top of enterprise systems. I'm still trying to get my head around a lot of this, so I'm using this post to jot down some of my ideas, some of the background, and to use it to hopefully continue the conversation with others. It's far different than most of my how-to posts. Mostly, its a brain dump.   Can we use gaming mechanics to influence the behavior of users of our system?   Would this improve our service? Can we make work more fun? Would this lead to happier employees, thus leading to happier customers? What is a Game?   what is a game? “a rule-based activity involving challenge to reach a goal" (fromhttp://www.changemakers.net/node/1308) a more informal definition: a structured experience with rules…

Clarify / Amdocs / Dovetail access from a Google Gadget

April 27, 2009 I was playing with Google Gadgets a bit lately, and wanted to see what I could do with creating a gadget for Clarify / Amdocs / Dovetail.Gadgets are simple HTML and JavaScript applications that can be embedded in webpages and other apps.Google has good details on gadgets - how to use them, how to create them, etc.Here's what I came up with: What can we do with this gadget?Review my open cases:Review recent activity for your workgroup (in this case, the user belongs to the Administration workgroup):Work a case, including workflow (assign, dispatch, etc.) log phone notes, send email, review the case history, change status, close the case, etc. :  Search the knowledgebase (solutions), cases, or both:access the knowledgebase (solutions):There's a few other things you can do as well, but you get the point. How is this done?In all honesty, it's actually…

SMS notifications and alerts

April 6, 2009 Notifications and escalations generated by Rulemanager are an integral component of the Clarify/Dovetail system. Traditionally, email and in-application notifications are the most common notification delivery mechanisms. Digital pagers were popular years ago, but are pretty much non-existent today.   With mobile devices (iPhones, Windows Mobile, BlackBerrys, etc.) becoming almost ubiquitous, we can look to using these devices for notification delivery. And they all share a common communication platform - SMS. SMS (Short Message Service) is commonly referred to as text messaging.   So let's look at how we can use SMS as a delivery mechanism.   A while back, I detailed how to use Twitter as a notification channel, and then use Twitter to send SMS messages.   If we don't want to be coupled to a service like Twitter (which doesn't have guaranteed delivery, SLAs, etc.), we can use a very similar process, but instead…

The "From" Address of a Log Email

March 31, 2009 When sending an email out from a case (Log Email), Rulemanager is responsible for delivering the email. Rulemanager uses a template (com_tmplte) to determine the format and details of the actual email. These templates can be configured to specify a from address. Unfortunately, this configuration does not always work as expected when using the Clarify Rulemanager. Lets take a closer look at the template itself, as well as the differences in how Clarify Rulemanager and Dovetail Rulemanager each use this template.The send_email_about_obj templateWhen sending an email out, the send_email_about_obj com_tmplte is used.This template looks like:TO: <FOCUS.recipient>, <FOCUS.cc_list>FR: <FOCUS.sender>RE: Regarding Case Number <ADDITIONAL_INFO><FOCUS.message>Notice that the com_tmplte has an "FR:" token in it, presumably so that one can set the From address.Clarify RulemanagerWhen the Clarify Rulemanager sends an email, it does not interpret the FR: token as a From token - instead,…

How NOT to submit a cover letter

March 25, 2009   Received an email today in response to our job posting for a Senior Software Tester.         Needless to say, this person won't make the cut.   We're still looking, so if you're SERIOUS about a position here, and you possess a solid ATTENTION TO DETAIL, thenplease email us and tell us why you'd make a great addition to our team.

Dovetail is looking for a Senior Software Tester

March 19, 2009 Work for one of the most progressive software development shops in the US. We’re building a new software product line using pioneering practices and technologies, such as: WatiN Selenium StoryTeller (acceptance testing framework) Test-driven development Continuous integration Who we’re looking for Dovetail Software is staffing a new team for an innovative software project. We’re looking for someone who can help us achieve the most usable, highest quality software product. We're looking for people who can empathize with the user, question whether functionality actually makes sense. We're looking for people who can flush out defects, inconsistencies, and mistakes in the software. This person should also be thinking about how to automate as much as possible to constantly increase test coverage and enforce quality throughout the development process. Participation in the community (attendance of events, avid blog reader + commenter, or maybe…

How to notify additional people when a commitment expires

February 26, 2009 I was talking to a customer today, and they asked me about how to notify additional people when a commitment expires. For example, if a support agent makes a commitment to call the customer back at 4:00, but the agent goes home, we want to notify others within the department, so that someone else can call back the customer. When the commitment expires, Rulemanager uses a template to notify the commitment owner that the commitment has been missed. One way to accomplish this task is by customizing this commitment template. Baseline Commitment Template The baseline commitment template can be found with the following SQL: select * from table_com_tmplte where title = 'Commitment' You can also extract it using Dovetail ArchiveManager (or dataex) using a directives file that looks like: NO_EXPORT OBJECT ALL; EXPORT OBJECT com_tmplte   UNIQUE_FIELD=title   WHERE "title…

A feed for new Knowledgebase Articles

February 10, 2009 Kevin has put together an RSS feed for our most recent knowledgebase articles. The feed can be subscribed to using a feed reader (such as Google Reader), and any new articles will be delivered to you. Very cool. We eat our own dogfood here, meaning we use our Dovetail/Clarify system for our customer support team - including the knowledgebase (solutions). Being kept informed about new solutions is good for our support staff, but also for other members of our team - including Sales Engineers, the Product and Development teams, etc - as well as our customers who live in our products every day.  While I really like this specific example, I think the general idea of syndicating data from your Clarify/Dovetail system is totally rockin. Combine the code that Kevin laid out in his post, along with some Dovetail SDK…

My first ProductCamp experience

January 30, 2009 Last Saturday I spent the day at ProductCamp here in Austin. It was my first ProductCamp, and I'm sure it won't be my last.   What is ProductCamp? From the ProductCamp wiki: ProductCamp is a collaborative, user organized unconference, focused on Product Marketing and Management topics. At ProductCamp everyone participates: by presenting, leading a roundtable discussion, helping with logistics, securing sponsorship, or volunteering. ProductCamp is a great opportunity for you to learn from, teach to, and network with professionals involved in the Product Management, Marketing, and Development process from the Austin area!  The first ProductCamp Austin had over 130 people sign up, and over 90 participate.  Inspired by Austin's great participation, the ProductCamp concept has swept to other cities such as Toronto and Boston! Put simply: ProductCamp is a bunch of smart, passionate people coming together to discuss, debate, and…