VIP Professional 2009 - released 10 December 2009

---Release ID: r768---

Hi everyone. We hope your holiday bookings are coming along well! This is just a maintenance release with small fixes and tweaks:

• Updated: Report Builder -- Lots of improvements in layout and functionality based on the great feedback we've received. Thanks again to everyone who's been helping on this feature.
• Updated: Reservation Editor Guest List -- Previously, the list of guests for a reservation didn't have a default sort order (for when no View was assigned). The default sort order has now been set to sort in ascending order by guest name. Of course, you can still customize this easily through the Views for the guest list if you want a different default sort order. And for a temporary change in the sort order, you can still just click on any column header.
• Updated: Arrivals Manager - The Guest List Door Report is now available from the Arrivals Manager (previously, this report could only be accessed from the Daily Schedule). This makes it easier for you to run an attendance report right after updating guest activity for a date.
• Fixed: Table / room bug -- Fixed a small but serious bug relating to selecting tables / rooms for a reservation where the wrong table would get locked. Thanks to T. Martinez for pointing out this problem.
• Fixed: Notification time stamps -- Fixed the time stamp on notification emails. They were previously defaulting in some circumstances to Greenwich Mean Time, which meant they would be out of order in the email of recipients. This has now been fixed so that the time stamp on notifications is based on the time on the server (the computer that contains your database). Thanks to Paul Richards for catching this one.
• Fixed: Various small bug fixes and user interface tweaks -- spelling errors, minor layout tweaks, more understandable labels and pop-up tooltips, etc.

To upgrade an existing installation, just download the installer and re-install the application on each computer (start with your primary installation). When prompted, have the installer upgrade your existing database. As a safety precaution, don't forget to do a backup before upgrading.

As usual, thanks to all those who provided feedback on features and bugs - your help is greatly appreciated. Have a great holiday season!

VIP Professional 2009 - released 14 August 2009

---Release ID: r715---

Hi everyone! We've got a few new features / functionality for you:

• New: Report Builder -- Use our new, powerful report builder feature to create your own custom report templates tailored exactly to your needs. All of our pre-designed reports are still available to you, but now you can create your own too. When you create a report template in the Report Builder, it becomes available from the reports menu just like our own pre-designed reports. Your custom reports can also be added to notifications. You can share your templates with others, too! We think you'll find the report builder very handy -- please send us feedback / suggestions so that we can continue to make it better.
• Updated: Table / Room Status -- In the reservations editor, you can now see the status of all tables / rooms in the drop-down list. This makes it easier to determine what tables / rooms are available for the reservations (this was requested by a lot of you...!).
• Updated: Import / Export Content -- Importing and exporting content such as your lookup lists, notification templates, and so on is now easier and more reliable. There are now more ways to share your content with other users.
• Updated: VIP Professional is now regularly tested on Vista 64-bit as well as Vista 32-bit and XP.
• Fixed: Various small bug fixes -- spelling errors, minor layout tweaks, etc.

To upgrade an existing installation, just download the installer and re-install the application on each computer (start with your primary installation). When prompted, have the installer upgrade your existing database.

As usual, thanks to all those who provided feedback on features and bugs - your help is greatly appreciated.

VIP Professional 2009 - released 03 April 2009

---Release ID: r672---

Hi everyone! This release is a maintenance update - as usual, we are focused on making VIP Professional rock-solid reliable:

• Updated: Import functionality -- Thanks for the great feedback on the import functionality. We've streamlined the process and improved the range of data that can be imported. More feedback is highly welcomed!
• Updated: Help system -- We've updated the help system to better reflect some of the recent enhancements to VIP Professional.
• Updated: Reservation Door Report -- This report is now generated much faster. We've also optimized most of the other reports.
• Updated: Sample data -- The sample data that is installed by default has been expanded to better reflect the kinds of reservations generated in the 'real world'. We've also added reservations for multiple venues so that you can better see how multi-venue functionality works.
• Fixed: Various small bug fixes -- spelling errors, minor layout tweaks, etc.

To upgrade an existing installation, just download the installer and re-install the application on each computer (start with your primary installation). When prompted, have the installer upgrade your existing database.

As usual, thanks to all those who provided feedback on features and bugs - your help is greatly appreciated.

VIP Professional 2009 - released 29 December 2008

---Release ID: r600---

Our latest release is mostly internal changes that won't affect you (other than providing more application stability). The main functional change is an improvement to several of the standard reports.

• Updated: Week-in-Review Report -- We've changed this report almost entirely. It contains much more useful information on the activities of the previous week. The information is broken up into distinct sections and you can control which sections appear (via the Reports Manager). Thus, you can now create versions of this report that can be circulated more widely (by suppressing the more 'sensitive' sections).
• Updated: Yesterday-in-Review Report -- Same as with the Week-in-Review report, this report has an entirely new look.
• Updated: Today-at-a-Glance -- We've tweaked the layout of this report, improving the header, standardizing the displayed columns, etc.
• Updated: Week-at-a-Glance -- Same as with the Today-at-a-Glance report, we've updated the layout of this one.
• Updated: Stability -- We've made a number of internal changes designed to improve overall stability of the application.
• Fixed: Daily Schedule Views -- Our 20 December release added a nuisance bug to the Views functionality in the Daily Schedule (it wasn't always possible to change the active view). That has been fixed.
• Fixed: Various small bug fixes -- spelling errors, minor layout tweaks, etc.

To upgrade an existing installation, just download the installer and re-install the application on each computer (start with your primary installation).

As usual, thanks to all those who provided feedback on features and bugs - your help is greatly appreciated.

VIP Professional 2009 - released 20 December 2008

---Release ID: r591---

Our 20 December 2008 release adds some much-requested functionality as well as more streamlining:

• Added: Import Functionality -- our single most-requested feature... we've implemented an extensive import system that is extremely flexible. You can import guests into the Guest Directory, import a specific reservation, or import a list of reservations. The import process is highly flexible, giving you a lot of control over how the process works. Let us know what you think of it and don't be shy about suggestions / feedback! Expect this feature to evolve based on your comments.
• Added: 'Recipient'-type users -- You can now create an unlimited number of users who can be added to notifications as 'recipients'. These users cannot log into VIP Professional (and therefore do not count against your number of authorized users) -- but they can be added to notifications. That means you can now generate automated notifications for anyone in your operation that needs them without worrying about your licenses total.
• Updated: Subscription structure -- Many smaller venues and independent promoters requested that we reduce the number of licenses included in the base subscription so that there could then be a corresponding lower subscription price. We've implemented that. Now, the base subscription only includes one active user license (but the venues limit is unchanged: you can still have up to three active venues per license). We've reduced the monthly subscription rate to only US$39.95 per month. For most subscribers, the additional licenses were mainly used to create recipients for notifications (not for users who actually logged into VIP Professional). With our addition of 'recipient'-type users (see above), this has been addressed. For those needing more users / venues, additional licenses can be purchased (this mostly only affects larger venues). Any current subscribers can opt to retain indefinitely their existing subscription structure if they wish.
• Updated: Simplified installer -- We've overhauled our installer to make it simpler to use. There are less screens and more explanations of what each option does.
• Updated: Simplified configuration wizard -- We've also overhauled the configuration wizard. A lot of the screens have been removed so that only essential settings are included. Of course, every setting is still available through the System Options. We made this change mainly for first-time users -- now less decisions need to be made up-front (when first time users don't really know the implications yet).
• Updated: Lots of minor usability tweaks.
• Updated: Stability -- for this update, we spent a lot of time working on overall application stability and reliability. While it was solid previously, of course, you can never have too much stability! Stability and reliability are always are top priority -- as usual, if you encounter any problems please let us know!
• Fixed: Various small bug fixes -- spelling errors, minor layout tweaks, etc.

Wow - 2008 is just about over. This year just flew by! Since we're only days away from 2009, this release marks our first official '2009' version. You'll notice the year indicator has been changed.

To upgrade an existing installation, just download the installer and re-install the application on each computer (start with your primary installation).

As usual, thanks to all those who provided feedback on features and bugs - your help is greatly appreciated.

VIP Professional 2008 - released 25 September 2008

---Release ID: r541---

Our 25 September 2008 release includes a few handy improvements as well as a lot of streamlining to existing features:

• Added: Unnamed guests -- due to popular demand, we've added the ability to add unnamed guests to specific named guests. This ability has always been available for the organizer - but now you can do the same with other named guests. For example, if you add "Bob Smith" as a guest to a reservation, you can indicate that he also has two additional unnamed guests (aka "adds"). This really helps with guest list tracking for nightclub users.
• Added: Double-booked guest warning -- we've added a check that warns you when you are adding a guest to a reservation that is already a part of a different reservation. You can ignore the warning if desired (allowing the double-booking).
• Added: Printing of content specifications -- another feature that we've gotten a lot of requests for: the 'editors' for Views, Filters, and Durations now have a print button that allows you to print the specification for that item. Thus, if you've created a nifty View, you can now print a hard-copy of that specification for future reference.
• Updated: Sample data -- we've expanded the sample data included initially during the installation. This gives you more sample bookings to play with as you explore the features and functionality of VIP.
• Updated: Optimizations -- we are continuing to optimize VIP Professional so that it works faster and more reliably. We've added optimizations to many parts of VIP, including the Reservations Editor, Reservations Manager, and Guest Directory.
• Updated: Lots of minor usability tweaks.
• Fixed: Various small bug fixes -- spelling errors, minor alignment fixes, etc.

As usual, thanks to all those who provided feedback on features and bugs - your help is greatly appreciated.

VIP Professional 2008 - Released: 09 August 2008

---Release ID: r522---

Our 09 August 2008 release (r522) is now available. As always, updates are free for all subscribers.

This release has lots of new features, improvements to existing functionality, extra content, and more for you:

• Added: Import / export of content. You can now import and export Views, Filters, Durations, Lookups, Confirmations / Reminders, and Notifications. This makes it easy for you to share your content / templates with other users. And, of course, it means we can easily release new content for you without you needing to re-download / install VIP Professional.
• Added: We've added a "Did you know..." dialog that appears whenever you start up VIP Professional, with a new tip each time. We hope this will help new users learn some of the more advanced functionality of VIP Professional. Of course, you can turn this dialog off if you don't want it to appear.
• Added: Purge function, which allows you to remove all guests, reservations, user accounts, and similar data. The primary purpose of this is to allow us to include lots of sample data when VIP Professional is first installed. That will help new users familiarize themselves faster with what VIP Professional is capable of. The Purge function makes it easy to get rid of the sample data when you are ready to start entering real data for your business. Of course, you can also use the Purge function any time you want to start with a 'clean' database.
• Added: Sample data - since we now have a 'purge' function, we've added lots of sample data to show new users what you can do with VIP Professional.
• Added: "Do Not Show" option on dialogs. Most 'confirmation'-type dialogs now have a checkbox on them that allows you to tell VIP Professional to not use the dialog any more. If you are the type whose reaction to a "Are you sure you want to delete this guest?"-type dialog is "Arghh! Of course I'm sure, I pressed 'delete' didn't I?", then this option is for you! You can re-set all confirmation dialogs to their default status from the User Preferences. This is a user-specific setting, so each user can set their own preferences for this.
• Added: There's now an attractive 'splash screen' when the program is loading.
• Improved: Reports that are attached to notifications are now given meaningful names. That should make it easier to save archive copies (you won't have to rename them each time).
• Improved: Optimizations: We've dramatically improved the speed of VIP Professional, especially with large amounts of data. Changing tabs is instantaneous now. Dialogs open quicker. VIP Professional loads faster. And so on - lots of little speed improvements, too. Note: Internet connections are still much slower than we like, but we are working on it.
• Improved: We've extended the functionality of in-grid custom filtering. You now have even more options for creating dynamic "one-off" filters. Give it a try: click the little arrow on the right side of any grid column and choose 'Custom'. It is a very powerful and easy-to-use feature - a great way to drill down into your data.
• Improved: We've cleaned up the lists in the View Editor dialogs so that the listing of available column names is sorted more logically. The improved order makes it easier for you to find what you are looking for in the list.
• Improved: Error handling has been significantly enhanced to make VIP Professional as robust and stable as possible.
• Content: We've added and/or updated lots of Views.
• Content: We've added and/or updated lots of filters, too.
• Tweak: Added a link from the Windows Start Menu to the VIP Professional help system. This allows you to open the help system even if you aren't running VIP Professional.
• Tweak: Added a link from the Windows Start Menu to the Stratogistics website. Just in case you want to come visit... You're always welcome!
• Fixes: Lots of small bugs, spelling mistakes, etc. fixed.

Thanks to all those who provided feedback on features and bugs - it makes our job much easier!

VIP Professional 2008 - 04 June 2008

Our 04 June 2008 release contains small bug-fixes and minor improvements:

• Added: Print Preview now includes an option to export the report to a PDF file. This allows you to easily email reports to someone who doesn't have a user account in VIP Professional (and thus cannot get the report via notifications).
• Updated: Help system - we've expanded and updated the help content. Lots of small (and some not-so-small) improvements to the content.
• Updated: Merge Codes - we've improved the look of how 'lists' of information are displayed in plain text messages. For example, a listing of food requirements for a reservation. It is now easier to see at a glance the different items in a list.

As always, feedback on any issues you encounter with VIP Professional are highly appreciated. Let us know about bugs, deficiencies, desired features, or anything else you think would help us make VIP Professional more suitable for your needs.

VIP Professional 2008 - 30 May 2008

Our 30 May 2008 release contains small bug-fixes and tweaks to the pre-defined content (views, notifications, etc.).

• Added: Today-at-a-Glance notification
• Added: Week-at-a-Glance notification
• Updated: Standard view in the Reservations Manager
• Updated: Pre-defined confirmation / reminder template
• Updated: Tweaked the pre-defined Security Levels
• Bug Fix: Timing of the Notification Sentry -- notifications and confirmations / reminders are now processed faster
• Bug Fix: Fixed some inconsistent labeling
• Bug Fix: Fixed various small bugs (internal)

As always, feedback on any issues you encounter with VIP Professional are highly appreciated. Let us know about bugs, deficiencies, desired features, or anything else you think would help us make VIP Professional more suitable for your needs.