support/feature frustration before buying

[LuffmanA]

I have several lengthy questions and have been attempting to call someone to no avail. Since I am forced to use the forum, I will, but it makes me wonder what kind of support I will receive when I really need it.

1) We will have 5-10 'admin' people, all working from a shared database. We will have an additional number who want to read but will not be able to add/modify anything. Some of these are onsite, some will connect via VPN or ASP page, a few with have all options available. Is your software compatible with what we need?

2) Is there any way to e-mail things from UR? Currently, we have many documents in folders which we simply attach to e-mails as needed. It sounds like we may need to continue to maintain that instead of allowing it to be absorbed into UR. Is this correct?

3) Is there a way to 'lock' portions of the tree? We are wanting to build a database including technical info (for service/customer service), articles and sales tools (for sales) and project tracking (for admin types). The first two categories would need to see only their branch of the database, admin would need access to all of them. Is this possible?

4) If #3 is not possible, is there a way to easily replicate only a portion of the main database for each department? I would prefer if this could be automatic (via linked databases) or automated.

5) What is the limit of concurrent connections to the database?

We have not committed to purchase UR yet but it is leading the pack as far as features go. If the above questions can be answered/resolved, it would make it easier for us to come to a consensus about the purchase.

Thanks.

[kevina]

We check our voice mail regularly and respond to all messages left. We also promptly answer all email inquiries and forum posts. Email questions can easily be submitted @ http://www.kinook.com/contact.html.

1) Ultra Recall is not a 'client-server' application and therefore is not optimized for multiple-user access, nor does it work well over a link slower than the typical LAN (< 10MB/sec). Multiple users are supported, but there are some limitations which are outlined below.
- Changes made by other users may not be visible until the display is refreshed (Shift+F5) or Ultra Recall is restarted.
- Locking errors can occur if multiple users perform a long-running update on the same database at the same moment.
- if these remote users are accessing a remote database over a slow link (as outlined above) they will likely see unacceptably slow performance. Remote users can get acceptable performance if they are using Terminal Services or Remote Desktop for remote access.

2) Yes, there is a way to email stored contents of Ultra Recall data. Simply select the items to send, then use File -> Send (on the menu).

3) No, user access rights/visibility is not managed in Ultra Recall.

4) It is easily to copy/move portions of one Info Database to another Info Database, but Ultra Recall currently does not provide a way to automate this process or keep them up to date (synchronized).

5) Ultra Recall isn't client-server and isn't designed as a multi-user system, but can accomodate multiple users within reason. Within reason depends on the nature of your data, how many concurrent editing users you will have, how often users will be editing the same information, the speed of the user's connection, etc.

You will probably need to install Ultra Recall on several machines and test how it works for concurrent and/or remote users in your environment with your data. If you need an extended evaluation key to faciliate this testing, just let us know (via email @support@kinook.com).

[LuffmanA]

Thanks for the answers. Additional information about each is listed below. Initially, we were only looking at UR for 2-4 people but management was so impressed with the application that it quickly escalated to the ultimate answer for sharing info.

1) Number of people actually editing at any one time - 2 or 3
Number of people accessing for lookup features - up to 20 but probably not all at the same time.
Admin users might like to access from off site but can be limited to admin only when hard connection to LAN is available.

2) Great - I could not find a reference to this in your manual or help files.

3 & 4) we'll have to figure a way to deal with it. Would you consider this for a future version?

5) While the majority of POTENTIAL users are off-site they would not be accessing the database on a daily basis and would never need to edit (reader version for them). Almost all users who would be accessing continually are connected to the LAN via desktop machine. All admin types are connected by LAN although 2 would like to access from off-site when traveling.

Most files will be small: one page docs, XLS files, text FAQ's, links and PDF.

All of this brings up a few new questions:
A) if we have people using the reader version, can they have it open in the background (accessing only occasionally)? Will this affect the response time for admins if most connections to the database are idle?

B) is it possible to link to the database (residing on a 'public' drive) from the internet? If not, this would eliminate almost all off-site users. They currently access data through the secure website or ASP (java) page. Only a handful have VPN access, Remote Desktop is not an option, we might investigate Terminal Services but, catering to the lowest denominator, that is probably too complicated for most of them.

Thanks again for the answers. I will download a second trial copy and begin working with a co-admin on adding info and testing.

[kevina]

We do have additional synchronization capabilities on our todo list for a future version of Ultra Recall.

We don't currently have managing user rights on our todo list, that is somewhat of a departure from the design philosophy of Ultra Recall. We will add it to our customer requested features list and track how often this feature is requested...

Yes, an unlimited number of users can have read only access without impacting the performance of the read/write users.

Since Ultra Recall isn't client/server it can be accessed in any manner that a file can be accessed (by Windows). This can include mapped drives, UNC (\\server\sharename\path\file), etc. I don't know exactly what you are referring to by a "public" drive on the internet, but if you can place a word document on this internet "drive" and open it with Microsoft Word, then Ultra Recall should be able to do likewise.
Note the previously mentioned necessary bandwidth required (near LAN speed) for Ultra Recall to open remote Info Databases (*.urd files) with reasonable performance. You will certainly want to verify the useability of these remote Ultra Recall users...

[LuffmanA]

By 'public' drive, I meant a place on our secure server that off-site people can access via VPN or other secure methods. From within the company, it is considered 'public' because any employee can access it without restriction. The restriction, in this case, would be what version of UR they had installed.

At the very least, it sounds like off-site people would be limited to only those with good high speed connection and even then it will be slow. I think we could start with shipping them a copy of the database on CD.

Thanks for the help,
Amei

[kevina]

You previously reference using an ASP page for remote file access for remote users. You should be able to provide access to Ultra Recall files this same way (basically identical to a Microsoft Word file).

If the Ultra Recall files being used are small enough to quicly download, the user could simply access the file directly from the ASP page (which would cause the latest file to be downloaded opened in the associated application: Ultra Recall if it is installed locally).

If the files are large enough to require a significant time to download, you could simply notify the remote users when they need to retrieve the latest file and have them retrieve the it to their remote workstation (via the ASP webpage, VPN, etc) and always use that local copy.

Just wanted to clarify that in case there was some confusion.