Trackvia – Online Database Blog

Online Database Blog

Archive for March, 2009

TrackVia Partners with Jamcracker to Offer Online Database to Communication Providers and Resellers

March 31st, 2009

TrackVia, the leading provider of online database software, and Jamcracker, the world’s largest Software as a Service (SaaS) aggregator, today announced that TrackVia’s SaaS database is available immediately for resale through the Jamcracker Services Delivery Network (JSDN).

According to Chris Basham, TrackVia CEO, “Inclusion of our online database in Jamcracker’s portfolio of on-demand services will make it possible for us to leverage their global network of service providers and resellers. This strategic partnership will play a significant role in growing TrackVia’s global distribution channel.”

Check out the press release to read more about this partnership.

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Posted in general

Tags: jamcracker online database

Announcing the Launch of the MediaOnTwitter Database and Contest

March 30th, 2009

Are you a media contact currently on Twitter or know of a media contact on Twitter? If so, read on for your chance to win a Kindle 2.

The MediaOnTwitter Database is a collaborative effort powered by TrackVia in partnership with @prsarahevans, @skydiver, @melissahourigan, and @edunigan to create an online database of media and prominent bloggers on Twitter. The database is populated by Twitter users, vetted by editors and FREE to the entire community. Users submit information via an easy-to-use web form (see form at bottom of post) where entries go directly to site editors for approval. Journalists will also be reminded to populate the list when submitting a query for the popular Help a Reporter Out (HARO).

We will be running a two-week contest to encourage PR professionals, bloggers and journalists to submit Twitter ID’s to the growing global database. Here is how it works:

• Submit a media/blogger name in the form below. Include your email address and Twitter ID as well for the drawing. (Note we will only use submitter’s email address and Twitter ID to contact you if you win).

• After you have submitted your media/blogger name, send a tweet with the hashtag, #mediatweet, mentioning the contest. Note: promoting the contest on Twitter is a requirement for the Kindle 2 contest.

• On Monday, April 13th we will hold a random drawing of all individuals who submitted media contacts and helped promote the database on Twitter. One select individual will be awarded a Kindle 2 for participating in the database project.

• At the conclusion of the contest, TrackVia will donate the use of its online database to keep powering the MediaOnTwitter Database. You will be able to find the media list and make ongoing contributions at the conclusion of the contest on the following sites: PRSarahEvans and Digital Idea Media

In the meantime, you can find a comprehensive listing of MediaOnTwitter submissions on TrackVia.

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Posted in general

Tags: Media MediaOnTwitter twitter

Spam Score – What’s Your Number?

March 27th, 2009

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the top ten email campaign tips to get your message through to the user’s inbox. The last hurdle in this process is the spam filter, which warrants more explanation about how it works.

SpamAssassin is one of the leading open source spam filters that is widely used, and will serve as our example product about how it figures out if a message is spam or not. When a message comes in, it examines its content, structure, and format and applies a series of rules to evaluate it. Each rule has a number of points associated with it, which can be modified by each email administrator. The default setting is that if a message has more than five points, it is considered spam.

Here are some of the rules and their default point values:

Rule	Points
Structure
Html and text content within the email differ	0.739
Message only has html part	1.457
Delivered by host with no reverse DNS entry	0.1
From is blank	0.760
From starts with numbers	1.499
Header contains unclosed bracket	2.206
Date header differs from received time	0.44 to 3.199 depending on difference
Very long headers	2.5
Missing blank line between header and content	2.5

Content
80% or more blank lines	1.0
Https link to ip address instead of domain name	2.897
Talks about price per dose	1.623
“no perscription needed”	2.619
Subject has ! and ?	1.390
Subject contains G.a.p.p.y-T.e.x.t	1.020
Subject contains “as seen”	1.000
Subject starts with dollar amount	1.421
Subject contains “Your family”	1.043
Subject contains “Your bills”	2.622
Subject talks about losing pounds	1.466
Subject is all caps	2.077
Local part of the To: address appears in subject	2.020
HTML content font color similar to background color	0.124
HTML font face is not valid	0.884
Includes html form to send email	1.0
Has images with words in them	1.526 – 2.460 depending on quantity
Malformed HTML	0.994 – 1.334
Contains “Dear “+ something (old letter greeting)	1.605
Talks about lots of money	0.63 – 1.875
“ACT NOW”	.0792
“guaranteed!”	0.939

And hundreds more! See a complete list at SpamAssassin

If your message looks like spam, it probably is. If you want to get your message through to the inbox, use a system that will take care of the structure components properly, like TrackVia’s Email Campaign feature. Then send content that isn’t spam and doesn’t look like spam according to these rules.

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Posted in email campaign

Tags: email campaign Spam Score

How an Online Database Can Streamline the Hiring Process

March 25th, 2009

With unemployment rates breaking records, hiring companies are being bombarded with applicants. National media outlets recently covered an open janitorial position at a school in Ohio that received 835 applicants for a full time job that pays $15 to $16 an hour with benefits. With numbers like these becoming more the norm than the exception, it becomes almost impossible for hiring managers to find the needle in the haystack.

During a recent conversation with one of our customers in the outplacement business, we learned how some hiring managers are dealing with the record number of candidate resumes that have been pouring in recently. The customer pointed out that hiring managers should view the thousands of resumes received as an opportunity to find the best candidate and a resource to build a candidate database for future positions rather than a never ending maze of paperwork.

After my discussion, I thought it would be worthwhile to share the advantages of using on online database with email collection to streamline the applicant review process:

1. No need to manually re-enter applicant emails received into your database. Enable online database’s email collection feature to automatically collect emails received from company’s career email address (careers@company.com) and applicant database records will automatically be created in your database and resume attachments will be uploaded into the notes section.

2. Don’t worry about forgetting to send out acknowledgment of resumes received. Enable the auto reply to automatically send out an email acknowledgment once a resume has been collected.

3. Categorize and organize applicants through the use of powerful database field types. Create fields to track progression of the applicant through the hiring process and record notes on the applicant.

4. Easily find the needles in the haystack. Use the powerful search functionality to search the entire database for key words or phrases used in the cover letter text included in the body of the collected email.

5. Control access to applicant data. Assign user permissions to give the hiring team the appropriate permission levels to view candidates in the pipeline. For example, if human resources should only view certain fields, you can restrict access to these fields.

6. Coordinate interview schedules within the database. Create a calendar view and set up a email campaign and mail merge feature to send out emails to those candidates who did not meet the qualifications for a particular job opportunity.

If you are hiring, I’d like to know how you are handling the volume of resumes being submitted to your company. Also, if you’d like help getting your applicant process on track with TrackVia, give me a call.

Read following case study to find out how an outplacement firm is using TrackVia:

Outplacement Firm Customer Case Study

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Posted in features, use case

Tags: applicant database applicant tracking resume

Green IT – Is Packaging and Design Enough?

March 24th, 2009

GreenIT A new study by The Green Factor identifying Dell as the leading Green IT Brand caused me to look back at a post I wrote during CES where I asked, what makes an electronic product green? I’m still not clear on what makes an electronic product green, but this recent study got me thinking green again.

I was not surprised by a quote on the Green Factor site that said, “Apple held its position in the top five for designing products that are perceived to have a green look and feel.” The perceived look and feel of a product as being healthier due to its packaging was a common theme I heard from consumers while working as a brand consultant for consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies. Take a stroll down the grocery aisle and you will see a growing number of items packaged to resemble the natural, homemade, artisan look and feel in hopes of conveying a healthier product to the consumer regardless of the product’s ingredients.

I hope it does not only take the perception of green for IT buyers to believe a product is green, however if it does I would not be surprised to see more IT products packaged and designed to look as though they belong on the shelves of Whole Foods vs. the shelves of Best Buy. A few trends you may expect to see if the IT packaging world follows the CPG world:

• Less is more in both packaging and text.
• Packaging that lets you see the product.
• Products packaged and designed in warm, natural colors not loud vibrant colors.
• Use of the phrase “Made with Recycled Materials” without noting the true % of recycled goods included.
• Labels only containing words you can pronounce.

While the majority of grocery shoppers are easily persuaded by the look and feel of packaging, consumers are becoming more educated about the importance of the ingredients inside. I encourage IT manufacturers to go beyond the green perceived look and feel when promoting green products and educate the consumer on why their product truly is green.

How does your company market green?

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Posted in general

Tags: Green IT

Facebook Redesign Creates March Madness

March 23rd, 2009

Whether I was at a bar watching my Horns lose in the NCAA tourney or reading live-streaming updates from friends in Facebook, I could not escape the question, “What do you think of the new Facebook design?” Seems like no matter where I go, everyone is talking about the new Facebook design, even in the height of the NCAA tourney. Working for a SaaS-based company myself, got me thinking about how companies can prevent such a widespread revolt.

Change is never easy, however with SaaS (Software as a Service) you can expect change, like it or not. In fact, the ability to receive new product features and enhancements as they happen is one of the major benefits of SaaS solutions. I suspect most users of Facebook don’t realize Facebook is a SaaS application and take it for granted that they did not have to download any software to reconnect with old and new friends or pay a fee for new features.

While change should be expected from SaaS, there are ways to implement changes that will minimize a user revolt like the one currently being led by Facebook users. All businesses, not just SaaS providers, should keep in mind the following Final Four Customer Tips when implementing change:

1. Know Your Customers– Don’t assume since a competitive offering is taking off, your users want the same experience. Differentiate with features that will appeal to your user base. It is true Twitter is growing rapidly, however was it the right choice for Facebook to take on a similar live stream approach like Twitter?

2. Listen to Your Customers– Show you value your customers by listening to their wants and needs. Not all needs can be incorporated in your offering but at least acknowledge that your customers have been heard. It has been reported that Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, stated that disruptive companies don’t listen to their customers. Companies can be disruptive and still listen to customers.

3. Communicate with Your Customers– Give a heads up that change is coming and be prepared to conduct webinars and develop training materials highlighting the changes made. Explain the rationale behind the changes. Make sure the communication is two-way, not one-way.

4. Respond to Your Customers – If customers voice concerns over changes, be proactive and address their concerns. Continue to make changes and revise previous changes if needed. You cannot please everyone, but when over 90% are unsatisfied, it’s time to consider a compromise.

We continually update our online database and do our best to follow the four steps above to keep our database innovative and relevant to our user base. And unlike Facebook, we listen to our customers and believe that the future of our database depends on a positive user experience.

So back to the original thought, how would you handle a public customer revolt? Listen and react or move forward with the current design.

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Posted in general

Tags: Facebook redesign

TrackVia Database Review

March 20th, 2009

Earlier this week, Bill Ives wrote a post reviewing TrackVia’s online database. In his post, he reviews TrackVia’s excel import functionality, robust search tool, and many other database features.

You can check out his full review here: “TrackVia Provides Ease of Use with Useful Functions”

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Posted in general, industry trends

Tags: online database

Binghamton University Shoulda Had TrackVia

March 19th, 2009

It appears the information security officer and other administrators responsible for securing data at Binghamton University went on Spring Break a little early this year. A reporter exploring one of the most trafficked lecture halls open to the public recently discovered a door taped open and unlocked to a two-story storage room filled with unlocked filing cabinets. Given the evidence, it became clear that filing cabinets, which held student payment information (Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, tax documents, salary information) that dated back at least ten years, had been compromised. It is estimated that the breach may have impacted over 100,000 people.

Sad to say this was not the first time a breach occurred on campus; however, I hope it will be the last time. While some businesses may feel more secure having their data on premise, this story illustrates a potential vulnerability of data kept under the mattress.

At TrackVia, we know how important securing one’s data is and would encourage Binghamton to investigate securing student data in a secure online database. A few of the reasons Binghamton shoulda had TrackVia:

Access to data could have been restricted to designated IP addresses.
Hard copies could have been scanned and uploaded into a document field type. Documents could then have been shredded vs. stored in unlocked filing cabinets
User permissions could have been set on fields, records and features restricting access to information.
Change history notes would have indicated who changed what/when.

Data security is one class that should not be skipped. If you decide to keep documents on premise, lock the file cabinet and the door.

Additional Shoulda Had TrackVia Posts:

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Posted in TrackVia Database, online database

Tags: Binghamton University Breach online database TrackVia

Media Influence on Twitter

March 18th, 2009

Where do you get your information?

Many of you have probably noticed a recent change to Facebook’s homepage to take on a Twitter-like approach towards live update streams, making it easier for people to give and receive information immediately. Even LinkedIn offers status updates, which makes it clear that we as a society need to know what is going on at that very moment and preferably in 40 characters or less. Interestingly, two-thirds of the world’s Internet population who visit social networking or blogging sites account for almost 10 percent of all Internet time, according to a new Nielsen report. Given this, will Facebook and Twitter quickly become today’s version of yesterday’s newswire?

The saying “If you can’t beat them, join them,” seems like the best advice for our favorite media outlets and many are doing just that. To get in front of their audience with new article updates, interesting observations etc., many are creating Twitter profiles, adding social networking tools on their web sites and social bookmarks to each article and blog post. But for the purpose of this post, we will quickly look at where the media ranks onTwitter.

Out of curiosity, we looked at Twitterholic for the top 100 profiles on Twitter overall and found that only six of the top 100 profiles belonged to, what we would consider, traditional media (see the screen shot of the data collected in a TrackVia database). Also interesting, it appears as though NPR and the Guardian are the only ones actually following others

Then we looked at the top 50 Twitter profiles (by followers) to understand which profiles have the greatest influence. For the sake of this project, we categorized the profiles by traditional media, non-traditional media/blogs, entertainment, celebrities, internet/business personalities, government, and organizations.

It is clear that the media has some work to do to reach the masses again as an information source. We believe that there is definitely room for the old guard in social media. Stay tuned for more on this subject…