The SmartSimple Blog

We've officially released our October 2013 upgrade! Read on for a rundown of the latest enhancements, features and upgrades that have been added to your SmartSimple system this month. For more information, check out the upgrade section of the SmartSimple Wiki . Global System Upgrades These features are available immediately to all SmartSimple users with the application of the October 2013 upgrade to your server. Configuration Error Log Available under Global Settings, the Configuration Error Log is a new tool that troubleshoots errors generated by the system when configuration changes. New Calendar Format  The system calendar has been enhanced with a new look, as well as the ability to click and drag events into different days.   Google Maps & Street View Users now have the ability to view the Google Map and Street View location of a company or contact by hovering their mouse over that contact's street address.  Recent Viewed Objects List Now En...

Welcome to another installment of  Chin's Musings ! In this series, Systems Controller Chin Chuah will create helpful rundowns of various system features and processes to help you better understand the SmartSimple platform. These articles are geared toward experienced SmartSimple system users. For further information about the SmartSimple Variable Processor , please visit our Wiki page or click on any of the accompanying links in this article.  The Variable Processor is used to dynamically replace various values throughout the system with context to the current user or the object being viewed. While the Variable Processor is a very powerful and useful tool, one must understand the basics behind how it functions to configure it properly. In general, any time that you retrieve a variable for use in a calculation, evaluation, or assignment to another standard field , you need to always encapsulate it within double quotes. In Template Formulas Problem 1: @l...

Our Employee Spotlight series will highlight a different member of the SmartSimple crew every week. Take some time to get to know the wonderful and diverse team behind the SmartSimple platform! Brad Robertson is a Senior Relationship Manager and has been working at SmartSimple since October 2012. We've asked him a few questions so our blog readers can get to know him better. Brad circa high school! Productivity or subject matter expert tip: Always prepare and distribute an agenda before you facilitate a meeting and always request an agenda prior to attending any meeting. What is your favourite part about working for SmartSimple? I truly enjoy the diversity of my role. What are your hobbies? They’ve changed over the years. Ages 5-10: Coins and stamps 11-30: Baseball, Hockey, Golf 30+: My three sons. What is your favourite movie? Kelly’s Heroes . Random fact about you that most people wouldn’t know: I have an Orange belt in Karate. Want to know more about...

SmartSimple will be hosting a free webinar to demonstrate the power, flexibility and usability of our grants management system , GMS360°. This webinar will take place on November 1, 2013 . Please email sales@smartsimple.com to register today . All participants will be sent a WebEx link and login details closer to the date. This webinar will be geared toward Community Foundations who seek a platform which manages their entire grants lifecycle from a holistic browser-based system. We look forward to hearing from you! Visit our main website to learn more about GMS360°. Don’t hesitate to contact us at 1-866-239-0991 or sales@smartsimple.com if you have any questions or require more information.

In this series, Technical Community Support member Arthur Lathrop updates us on new and updated articles of interest in the SmartSimple Wiki ! Read on to check out the latest Wiki news. Showsave / Hidesave Implementation Specialist Sandor Dasko has prepared new pages spelling out the use of a JavaScript function. Role-Based Custom Fields A new page has been prepared which defines the use of Role-Based Custom Fields. Delete Redirect Template The Delete Redirect Template page instructs users on how to customize landing pages after an entity has been deleted UTA Provider/Consumer Relationships Our Quality Assurance Specialist Ciaran Donnelly has also provided articles defining UTA Provider/Consumer Relationships for your consumption. Questions? Comments? Don't hesitate to contact us at 1-866-239-0991, email us at info@smartsimple.com , or visit our main website .

SmartSimple will be attending the Technology Affinity Group (TAG) 2013 Annual Conference from November 11-14, 2013 at the Four Seasons in Austin, Texas. The TAG Conference is geared toward technologists in the field of philanthropy. Presentation and session topics include grants management, emerging technologies, cloud computing, engaging communities with social media, and the changing landscape of tech funding. SmartSimple will participate as an exhibitor with representation from Cameron McLean ( President of SmartSimple Ltd. ) and Gary Modlin ( Director of Business Development ). Please visit our booth in the Exhibit Hall, where we will showcase the power and flexibility of our grants management platform , GMS360°. About TAG TAG is an active community of professionals who are responsible for information and communications technology in the philanthropic sector. They seek to promote the understanding of how information and communications technology can help their community...

Welcome to another installment of  Chin's Musings ! In this series, Systems Controller Chin Chuah will create helpful rundowns of various system features and processes to help you better understand the SmartSimple platform. These articles are geared toward experienced SmartSimple system users. For further information on correct data formats in your SmartSimple system, please visit our Wiki or click any of the accompanying links in this article. What are data formats and why are they important? When storing any information into any system (not just limited to SmartSimple) it's important to understand what type of information you're dealing with and how to format it accordingly. The purpose of this is to store information in a meaningful way such that you can perform calculations or analysis on it. Take the example of someone's name. The easiest way to store this would be to have a single field called "Name" for us to store our full name into. However, ...

Our inaugural SmartSimple NYC Community Conference on October 8th was a great success! We sincerely enjoyed meeting with our American clients and partners and hearing all of their questions, thoughts, and feedback. Our team was on hand to showcase system updates and new features, such as Quick Edit and various enhancements to Reporting functionality. For those who were unable to attend, we've provided the full agenda and list of discussed topics via Prezi : We thank all of those who made the effort to visit us in New York City, and hopefully, we'll see everyone again for our next SmartSimple conference or event. If you have any questions about the NYC Community Conference, or wish for a more in-depth exploration of the topics covered, please contact us at info@smartsimple.com or 1-866-239-0991. Visit our main website to learn more about SmartSimple. SmartSimple is heading to CASRAI Reconnect 13 from October 16-18  in Ottawa. Please read our announcement and j...

In accordance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), SmartSimple has created a Customer Service Accessibility Policy which is now publicly available for download (right click, save as). AODA is a statute that was enacted in 2005 to improve accessibility standards for Ontarians with mental and/or physical disabilities. On October 3, we partnered with Sarah Vokey of Robinson Heeney to present our policy to SmartSimple employees in accordance with AODA standards. Please visit the AODA section our website to learn more about the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and SmartSimple's compliance. For more information on SmartSimple, visit our main website , email us at info@smartsimple.com or call us toll-free at 1-866-239-0991.

Congratulations to Brian Lai (Business Analyst) for being the very first recipient of the SmartSimple Innovation Award! Left to right: CTO Keith Yau, Brian Lai, and COO Michael Reid. According to Michael Reid (Chief Operating Officer), " SmartSimple is all about innovation for everyone: our clients, our communities and our staff.  When someone discovers a new, innovative way of using the platform that benefits all, that person will receive the SmartSimple Innovation Award. " This award is given on an occasional basis by Michael and Keith Yau (Chief Technical Officer).  Anyone in the company or the community can nominate staff member(s) for this award, but the innovation must meet the following criteria: Can only use existing functionality and does not require system enhancements. Must have the potential to benefit the entire customer community across all vertical markets. Brian received the award for his stellar work on the  PDF Parser , which is capabl...

Technical Community Support member Arthur Lathrop will be updating us on new and updated articles of interest in the SmartSimple Wiki ! Read on to check out the latest Wiki news. Submit Buttons - Quality Assurance Specialist Ciaran Donnelly has prepared an excellent set of instructions on the configuration of Submit Buttons and has improved the Submit Logic page. Updated Instructions for UTA Calendar Template - Improved instructions on enabling and configuring a calendar view of activities in SmartSimple's Universal Tracking Application have been added. Workflow Task Types - The pages containing instructions for the different Workflow Task Types have been fleshed out. User Role - A page has been created spelling out the different features of the Edit Role page in detail. Aggregation UTA - An Aggregation Universal Tracking Application™ "facilitates creating reports that span multiple related applications by defining the association between equivalent fields in ea...

Fall is a busy time for SmartSimple, with several exciting conferences and events related to our served markets occurring within weeks of each other. Read on for a summary of what SmartSimple has attended and upcoming conferences later in the fall. Council on Foundations Fall Conference Director of Strategic Accounts Todd Lapin and Relationship Manager Sarah Jane Nicholson attended the COF Conference in San Diego from September 22-25. Todd and Sarah Jane were on hand to demonstrate our grants management system, GMS360°, and learned the unique needs of several diverse community foundations. Todd Lapin playing cello with the COF conference band, Trio Gadjo. We had a fantastic time at COF this year and hope to pursue the many connections and relationships we were fortunate enough to foster. CASRAI Reconnect 13 Earlier this month  we announced that we will be attending CASRAI's second annual Reconnect conference, which will take place  October 16-18, 2013 ...

Welcome to another installment of Chin's Musings ! In this series, Systems Controller Chin Chuah will create helpful rundowns of various system features and processes to help you better understand the SmartSimple platform. What are Template Formulas? Template Formulas provide a method for updating standard/ custom field values on an object behind the scenes upon saving. They let you perform extra calculations after saving an object. They can be handy because they let you: Update an object and perform calculations after it's been saved (i.e. support ticket subjects). Say you want to combine an autonumber field with the Level 1 subject, but when you first create the Level 1 the autonumber hasn't been reserved and stored yet until after you save. (For more information about the Universal Tracking Application ™ and the different Level Entities, read our wiki .) Affect objects at different levels (i.e. a Level 2 formula can be used to update a Level 1, an Level 1 fo...