Web App: Juvely

As James announced yesterday, in 20 days time (eeek), we are planning to launch the first beta version of Juvely. In this post I am going to go over what features will be available with this beta, what we still need to do, and what we are going to do to help the beta.

For now with this version of the beta we are going to just have the ticket section functional. The knowledge base section is mostly done, but needs a redesign and the chat section hasn’t even been started. The ticket section is the main bit though, so we think this will be alright. We are going to make a few minor changes to this to get it finished off (mainly just changing text around to make it clearer) and also add a couple of settings pages. The beta will be free so we don’t need to worry about billing or different types of account just yet.

Here are a list of features we hope to have available for the first beta:

• Users can create tickets by accessing the support centre or sending an email to the support address.
• Staff members can then reply to these tickets, change the priority, reassign them or close them.
• Users will recieve an email reply when a staff member replies to a ticket, and can then reply by email or by accessing the support centre.
• Staff members can opt to recieve an email when users reply to a ticket, otherwise it will be shown at the top of the ticket list as being updated.
• Tickets in the staff centre can be filtered by various options and also ordered by various fields.
• Tickets can be searched or live filtered by entering terms into the relavent boxes.
• Users and staff members can subscribe to RSS feeds of their tickets.
• The support centre that users access can be customised, and by default is a white label system. No Juvely logos or any mention (execpt for T&Cs and other legal mumbo jumbo). You will be able to customise this and add your own company logo.
• A smart, simple and elegant user interface that uses modern techniques such as AJAX to enhance the page, but not restrain usability.

In the near future we also plan to add SMS replies, but at the moment we still need to look more into it and the best way of charging for its use.

Right that is what we are going to have for Juvely, so let me also tell you what we are going to have to help the beta along. First of all we are going to get a proper website for Juvely rather than just a holding page. James is working on it as we speak trying to decide what design to use. He is also going to put together a press package with various info on Juvely so interested parties don’t have to trawl through the blog. We will also probably be moving to the MediaTemple DV (Dedicated Virtual) server as their GS (Grid Server) system sucks….. (see comments below)

To enable us to get feedback on the beta and for users to get support we will be putting in links to non entrusive forms that enable us to send us a message. We will also be setting up a forum for users to discuss any issues they are having, this will probably not require registration so you don’t need to remember yet another username and password. On the day of the launch we were thinking about setting up a Campfire room so that if anyone has any questions they can easily get in touch with us.

As things progress we will go more into detail about what we are doing so keep watching!

Hey everyone! Luca and I have just spoken about when we feel we should launch the beta. After deciding that we need to set a date to apply a little pressure on ourselves to get things done, we decided for the 18th of July, so thats 21 days away! There is still a quite a bit to do so we’re going to be working solidly for the next few weeks aiming to get it ready.

The thing we’re looking forward to most (apart from the launch) is to get feedback from the users. We’re really intrigued with where the app could go from its (soon to be) current state. We’re making it easy by adding in a little feedback button on each page which will present an unobtrusive feedback form. We will listen to the users, obviously we will not implement every little feature everyone wants but we’ll make damn sure theres a happy medium!

We have a small number of people on the signup list (about 40) which should be good! We’ll also be announcing the product elsewhere such as blogs and target industry forums etc. I’ll also be blogging the next few weeks quite closely, I’m hoping for a post every couple of days to let you know whats going on. Anyway tell all of your friends! Every beta user helps, there will also be deals for people who use the product in transition from beta to the release.

Much love.

Well since my post in January about the business side of things, nothing has really been done. We still have yet to register a business or decide for definate on a name, but I have been looking more into the business structure and what needs to be done to run it.

I think for now we are definately going to have a limited liability partnership structure as this is relatively easy to setup and run, and also has a number of benefits such as abbreviated accounts can be sent in rather than a full set. I also found out that as we are handling personal information we will need to register with the Information Commissioner’s Office under the Data Protection Act and pay £35 per year.

As for a business bank account HSBC looks good. They have an account that is near enough free (they only charge you for cheques and some other things I doubt we will need) and also provide online banking. We will probably end up going with Paypal for their merchant tools, to start with, as it looks relatively easy to setup and isn’t too expensive.

Another thing that I should probably note is that at the moment I am not really thinking about having anyone else (i.e. solicitor or accountant) to help with the running of the business as we start out. Having looked over all the information it doesn’t seem as difficult as I first thought, and I think managing the business side of things should be rather simple as we will have very few different things we are paying for or being paid for.

Anyway, for now nothing is set in stone, and we still have an app to finish before we need to set up a business so I shall let you all know how it turns out in due course.