TOPS Home E-Zine

Issue #6 - August 2002

Inside TOPS Home:

1. TOPS Announcements
2. Web Site Upgrades Nearly Complete
3. Justify the Costs of Community Web Sites
4. Spotlight: Plantation HOA
5. Support: Using the 'View Account Info' Option
6. Support: Preventing Message Board Abuse

Announcements:

Welcome to TOPS Home, the web site e-zine for TOPS Community Web Sites. This month, we would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to you for being so patient with us during the recent web site upgrade. This was a major upgrade, and our support resources were definitely stretched to the limit, but everyone has been more than patient, and for that we thank you!

In addition to a status update on the upload, we have packed this issue with a number of topics that I am sure you will find fascinating. We have an article on justifying the costs of a web site to smaller communities, a support article on viewing account info for an owner, and information about stopping message board abuse in its tracks. Finally, we spotlight a new community, Plantation HOA who has put a great deal of work into making a high quality, information packed site.

As always, enjoy your reading, and if you have any questions or concerns call me at 800-760-9966, or e-mail me at WebSales@TOPSSoft.com. I look forward to speaking with you!

Matt Meiklejohn

Web Site Upgrades Nearly Complete:

To all of you who have been on and off the phone and e-mail with Lucy and me, we thank you. You have been more than patient with us during this upgrade, especially when we were not able to respond to you right away, or had to ask you to wait on a fix.

We have been stretched to the limit during this upgrade, but the good news is it is almost over! Whew. The timing could not have been better for Lucy Fox to join our web site team. I know I could never have handled this as well without her. A big round of applause for Lucy!

So here is the status. All of the community web sites and management site demo communities have been upgraded to the newest version. All that remains now is to upgrade the management sites, which should be a lot easier since we will not need to worry about data uploads for those. By now, you should have received notification that your sites have been upgraded. You can quickly tell by looking for a few key features:

• Under Admin Only, you should see a new menu option called "Statistics Menu"
• Under Admin Only, you should see a new menu option called "Feature Descriptions"
• Under Board Only, you should see a new menu option called "Board Reports"
• Under any owner record in the address book, you should see a new option titled "View Account Info"

These are just a few of the more than 60 new features on the web sites. For a complete list, go to http://www.TOPSSoft.com/dealer/downloads/TOPSHome/Summer_2002_Updates.pdf. If you have not received notification, or you do not have one of the features listed above, please send an e-mail to websupport@TOPSSoft.com, and one of us will contact you.

Andrea Drennen

Justifying the Costs of Community Web Sites:

Many of our management companies using TOPS Software have associations with fewer than 100 units. Justifying a web site that costs $50 a month can sometimes be a little tricky, especially if your management fees are under $300. Here are some ways to help offset the costs:

• Build the web site costs into the management fees. For a 50-unit association, charge an extra dollar per door per month.
• Charge a minimum fee for all of your associations whether they have 30 units or 5,000 units. This way, you can include the web sites in the fee and it is as though you are supplying a web site to your associations at no additional charge.
• Charge by feature. Offer a web site at no charge or a nominal charge and then charge for extras such as accounting information, electronic forms, community legal documents, etc. (You will be charged a flat fee whether you use one or all of the available features.)
• Sign up larger associations first. The two best ways to sell a web site to a board of directors are through word-of-mouth, and to show them what they are missing.
• Appeal to the owners. People are relying more than ever on web sites and the Internet for much of their personal business. Why not have a web site dedicated to the most important financial investment of their lives--their homes.
• Provide a one-of-a-kind service. Although there may be web developers able to design a web site for the community, only a TOPS Community Web Site allows you to upload owner accounting data and board reports to the Internet.
• Offer competitive pricing. A TOPS Community Web Site starts at $49.95 per month. This is only a few dollars more than you would pay in hosting fees with another provider, and you would still have to pay the up front expense of designing the web site, and the ongoing fees for keeping it up-to-date. All of this without the ease-of-use and unique uploaded information that TOPS provides.

These are only a few ways to help pay for community web sites for smaller communities. Many of our management companies are actually charging extra per association because they realize they are offering a superior service over what their competitors are offering. Communities are willing to pay extra to have a web site which keeps residents involved, communicates important information, and adds to the prestige of living in the community.

Because of the number of companies I work with that offer our web sites, I have learned a great deal as to what might be best for certain situations. Please contact me so we can discuss your situation, and determine what might be best for your company. By providing a better service to you, we can help you provide a better service to your clients. I look forward to helping you improve your service by improving our service!

So let's talk! Contact me, Matt Meiklejohn at 800-760-9966 or Websales@TOPSSoft.com.

Matt Meiklejohn

Customer in the Spotlight:

Plantation HOA

The Plantation HOA, www.PlantationHOA.com, is a self-managed community located in Florida. They have recently set up a community web site, and they have done a superb job. This web site includes an excellent use of the Facilities feature, complete with pictures of personnel and amenities. They have also created some customized eForms that allow owners to request to address the board, run for the board, and more. The Plantation web site demonstrates exactly how much the board and management care about the community. It is a pleasure to include The Plantation HOA's web site in this spotlight.

Andrea Drennen

Support: Using the 'View Account Info' feature

A number of requests have been made in the past to enable site administrators to view the owner account info that has been uploaded from TOPS without having to log in as a specific owner. The new "View Account Info" feature proves that we not only listen to your requests, we respond in spades!

This feature can be used by any site administrator simply by opening an owner record in the address book, and then clicking the "View Account Info" link located at the bottom of the user record. The applications for this feature extend well beyond simply checking to make sure that your upload worked properly.

This feature's view security level can be changed to any level that you request. This means that you could change it to level 15 to allow all your on-site managers to quickly look up an owner's balance or open CC&R's. Similarly, you could define the security level to 25 to allow board members to instantly access information on any owner. To change the security level of "View Account Info", simply contact WebSupport@TOPSSoft.com with the level number you would like to use.

Andrea Drennen

Support: Preventing Message Board Abuse

One of the most discouraging things that a web site administrator can encounter is a resident with his or her own agenda. Such a person may have no qualms using your community message board to advertise his own business instead of paying for an ad in the classified section. Even worse, the owner may try to use the web site to gather e-mail addresses for his or her own ready-made spam mailing list. What is a discerning web site administrator to do? We may just be able to help you thwart the culprit!

It is easy enough to prevent owners from gaining access to address book--it can simply be moved to the admin only section of your web site The site retains all functionality, but owners are prevented from listing everyone in the address book. Regarding message board abuse, there are several things that can be done to prevent abuse, ranging from the mundane to the drastic. I have recommended a few options below:

• First and foremost, you should have posted a clear definition of the rules and regulations. A simple way to do so is to add a "Terms of Service" (TOS) document to your Documents section. You can find a sample version of this that you can download and customize to your site on our downloads page: http://www.TOPSHome.net/TOPS/downloads.asp.
• Next, I would recommend that you put a disclaimer on the Message Board using the Feature Description text and tell people they can't use it for advertising. This is just a reiteration of the information in your TOS, but the more often you post it, the stronger legal standing you have. Alternatively, you could post a message on the board stating "The Rules" This should include a list of things that are or are not allowed on the site. If you would like to see a sample, go to http://pub57.ezboard.com/ftopssoftwarefrm5.showMessage?topicID=1.topic.
• Perhaps the easiest and least intrusive option that you have to keep your message board clean is to police the site. Anyone with security level one can delete messages posted to the board. If you cannot police it yourself, you can assign someone in the community to do so (perhaps a board member?). We can change the security of the message board to allow that person to delete the unwanted messages.
• When you find that someone has abused the site in spite of your admonitions, it is time to take swift action. As a warning to anyone that abuses the board, you can have us a create a security level to assign to the abuser that only allows him or her to look at the message board, but not post messages.
• Repeat offenders can be punished by simply revoking their access to the private side of your web site. To do so, simply locate that owner in the Owner/Maintain screen in TOPS 2000™, and check the box labeled "Disable Web Interface". This will remove the individual from the address book on the next upload, preventing him or her from being able to log into the site.
• If all else fails, and too many residents are abusing the feature, you can ask us to set the message board feature to Board Only so only the Administrator or Board Members can post the messages.

Andrea Drennen

Did you know that TOPS Software will provide you with a free community web site  CD demo?  Follow this link to apply for your free demo today!

 

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About the Authors

Lucy Fox is your Community Web Site Support Representative
Matt Meiklejohn is your TOPS Community Web Site Sales Representative
Andrea Drennen is the Director of Publishing and Standards at TOPS Software

 

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