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Online Appointment Software

Each business functions differently. They don’t sell the same products or offer the same services. They cater to different wants and needs of the customer. This has created many choices, especially in appointment software (which includes online appointment software, medical appointment software and business appointment software. As every business has different needs, they can easily customize it to fit the requirements of every organization or individual.
While looking for online appointment software, you have to look for many features, which include those that you don’t desire. Select those that you would utilize and desire, to get the best within your budget.

FEATURES
Below are some of the features of online appointment software system:-
Dispatching automatic emails
The online appointment software and scheduling software system sends automatic e-mails to both the organization and customers, when these events happen:-
? When the appointment is changed for the client/customer
? When the customer buys a gift certificate
? When customers place themselves on waiting list
? When a customer cancels an appointment
? When a customer makes the appointment
? When the client or customer registers
Irrespective of whether or the scheduling software system sends them or not, you can create custom text for such e-mails and control.

Flexibility In Terms Of Reporting
Appointment software allows you to run the reports for specific service, specific customers, and specific staff members/writers including change of dates and much more. Thanks to appointment software, you can either run the appointments as standard HTML report or export them to Excel. You can also maintain the records of reports.
If you wish to print the list of the clients and data, you can do so any time. Appointment software also involves loyalty, sales, statistics and plenty of other reports.

Control How Far In Advance Could Customers Cancel and Schedule
Thanks to appointment software, you could easily control how far would you wish your clients to book the appointments (nearly 2 years in advance). Appointment software also allows you to set how close to the time of appointment are they permitted to cancel appointments.

Repeated Appointments
Online appointment software permits you to set the standing appointment for a regular customer. As soon as you create recurring appointment for the customer, you can separately handle each appointment. If the customer changes or cancels one of the appointments, they could do so.
Packages
If the business sells packages to clients, like 15 session package, appointment software permits both the customers and internal staff to know the amount of sessions left. The various packages that could be set up include flat monthly fee, dollar amount or number of sessions.

Outlook Export
As soon as the appointment is made in online appointment software and scheduling software system, the staff member who sets the appointment can export it to the Outlook calendar. The staff member associated with the appointment may also receive email with the outlook calendar attachment. Thereafter, they can click on it easily and include it in their calendar.
In addition to the scheduling software, the customers could easily export the appointments to Microsoft Outlook. They may receive the calendar attachment too, in the confirmation e-mail. At any time, they may log in to check their current appointments and export them to outlook calendar or print them.

Multiple Or Single Locations
Whether you have multiple or single location, appointment software works great. Some appointment software clients have plenty of locations, while most others simply have a single location. Just log in once and you could have easy access to all locations (if you are set up as the user type that accesses all locations). You could either function as stand-alone operation or set your location up to share the values (such as the services).

Require Log In Don’t Require Log In
There are few ways to configure the portion of appointment software system which your customers see. Before they log in, you can require them to register. As soon as they register, they assign a log in and password to themselves. Immediately thereafter, they can make the appointments. You can even set it so that after registering, they would get activated by the firm before setting appointments and logging in.
Post-registration, the firm is notified via mail. Another option is to not press the clients to log in. You could select an open time and allow them to view your open times.
And once they do that, they could get prompted for the contact information.

Status of Appointment
The online appointment software comes with default appointment status (completed, confirmed, scheduled and no-show). You may include as much additional status as you desire. Since each status is coded with color, you can tell the appointment status quickly while looking at the appointment schedule.post source:-http://www.article-buzz.com/Article/Online-Appointment-Software/486391

Finding offshore software development partner

One of the critical decisions in offshore software model is to identify the right offshore software development partner.

Given that a customer is venturing out “far far east” to identify the best outsourcing partner for the first time, it can be a daunting experience. The customer needs to establish a framework under which it will identify the software vendor and it will work with the identified vendor. We at eXtendCode believe that relationships need clarity, honesty and plain old hard work. Here is a list of a few things which a customer should think about before identifying offshore software development partner.

Management Team
When one invests in a company, it is important to look at the management team of the company. A company that is giving offshore development work to a vendor is investing in that company. It is highly recommended to look at the management team of the vendor to evaluate if the team has appropriate credentials, if they appropriate experience both at technology at cultural level. A management team with experience outside the country of current location should be highly preferred.

Communication
Communication is one of the most important factors for having a successful relationship with an offshore software development partner. A vendor may be highly competent on the technical aspect but if it cannot communicate effectively in terms of understanding customer’s requirements and responding using established channels, the project/service is doomed to fail. On top of all this, time zones and cultural aspect pose other challenges. Communication aspect is also related to the management team’s exposure to the international work environment.

Business and Technical Competence
A customer should evaluate if the offshore partner has business acumen and required technical skills to translate the business requirements into actual implementation satisfying critical success factors. The combination of business and technical skills is important even if the customer is managing the project remotely like in Time and Materials engagement model.

Customer Engagement Framework
It is very critical to evaluate if the offshore software development partner uses best practices and established processes to engage with customer. The lack of explicit customer engagement processes is the first sign of risk. One may argue that you don’t need such framework or processes, if the project is small. We at eXtendCode believe that an explicit customer engagement framework is must and one can always adapt the framework as per the project/service requirements.

Customer References
A list of good customer references is very important to evaluate where the offshore partner stands. The quality of samples, customer’s feedback and the location of customers should be used to evaluate the partner. References could also address issues like schedule adherence, trustworthiness, and responsibility, which cannot be judged by work samples, and are best resolved by previous customers.

Why eXtendCode?
1. eXtendCode has been in the business of providing outsourcing solutions for a global clientele for the past one year.
2. Although the company is relatively young, it has an excellent management team with more than 40+ years of aggregated experience all over the world (US, Europe, Japan, Mid-East, India).
3. We have been offshore software services providers for diverse platforms such as Microsoft, SAP and Open Source.
4. eXtendCode relies on its EODM (eXtendCode Offshore Development Methodology) to deliver projects/services in a consistent and predictable manner.
5. eXtendCode uses its client engagement framework ECIF (eXtendCode Client Interaction Framework) to manage client relationships, which is based on our Client Portal. Client Portal is our extensive web based portal service which is offered to the customer at no extra cost to collaborate and monitor the project execution.
6. eXtendCode has worked with more than 20+ customers in US, Europe and India.
7. Last but not the least, WE ARE COMMITTED! WE DELIVER!

Post source: http://www.article-buzz.com/Article/Finding-offshore-software-development-partner/489852