TOPS Home E-Zine

Issue #11 - January 2003

January 2003, Inside TOPS Home:

1. TOPS Web Sites Announcements
2. Impress Your Board Members with TOPS Web Sites
3. Web Programming Conference Yields Great Things
4. Brandon Kelley Joins the Web Support Team
5. What's New on TOPS Community Web Sites
6. Feature Teacher: eBulletins
7. Spotlight: HOAMCO
8. Support: Using eBulletins
9. Support: No More Resale Headaches
10. Download of the Month
11. Call for Ideas

 

Announcements:

Welcome back to TOPS Home, the web site e-mail magazine (e-zine) for the TOPS Community Web Site Service. This month, we are focusing on the eBulletins feature of your community web sites. Read all about it in our Feature Teacher and Support sections. Be sure to read about all of the new changes that have been made to your web sites in the past month. We have done a lot! And that's not all! This month's issue is so jam packed, we just know you are going to enjoy it.

TOPS Meets SQL Slammer: TOPS Software was recently affected by the SQL Slammer worm, causing our internet and email services to go down. If you sent an email to TOPS Software or submitted an online form between Friday, January 24th and Monday, January 27th, please resend or resubmit.

New Web Support Technician: We have a new employee on the web support team! His name is Brandon Kelley, and he is turning out to be an excellent addition to the web support team. You can read his bio later on in the e-zine.

As always, enjoy your reading, and if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact us. We look forward to speaking with you!

TOPS Web Sales:        (800) 556-7852             WebSales@topssoft.com.
TOPS Web Support      (800) 899-5689             WebSupport@topssoft.com.

 

Impress Your Board Members with TOPS Web Sites

We'd love to start working with you and your associations using the TOPS Community Web Site Service. So many of your colleagues have found the service to be a time saver at the management office, that they're actually bragging about it!

Some of the features exclusive to the TOPS service are the ability for the residents to see their own account balance, last payment, status of work orders, architectural request status, and the ability to upload financial reports for board member review. This functionality alone impresses your association Boards. When you add on the ability to see when the clubhouse is reserved, the ability to e-mail important news out to residents, the fact that residents and board members can share their thoughts on the message boards, and all the other cool functionality; your Boards will be blown away by the fantastic service you can offer, and at such a reasonable price!

We will be happy to provide you with a CD presentation that is branded with your company name and logo. We can even place your company's logo in the splash screen that pops up when the CD is run. This is a great way to sell 'Your' community web site service to your board members.

E-Mail us at WebSales@topssoft.com to request a full information packet. We guarantee you and your board members will be impressed!

 

Website Programming Conference Yields Great Things

In early January, TOPS web site programmers, web support technicians, and web site sales engineers met in a 2-day conference to determine which features would be built in to the TOPS Community Web Site Service in the year 2003. This conference was deemed a huge success, and we came away with a list of more than 50 distinct new features that we will be building into the website product over the course of the year. Here are a few of the exciting new features that will be coming to Community Web Sites in 2003:

• Add 12 month history option that owners may print for their account.
• Add spell checker to TOPS Form Letter program.
• More interactivity between CC&R/ACC and website: Allow owners to make an architectural request or report a violation online and that data will download into TOPS 2000™
• More interactivity between Work Order and website: Allow owners to create a service request and that data will download into TOPS 2000™. Manager may then choose to add as a service request or upgrade to a work order.
• Add interactivity between Gate Security and web sites: Allow owners to enter visitors and vehicles online. This data will download into TOPS 2000™ and populate running versions of TOPS Gatehouse.
• Add interactivity between Pool Pass and web sites: Allow owners to enter passes online up to a limitation defined in TOPS 2000™. This data will download into TOPS 2000™.

These are just a sampling of the many exciting things coming down the pike for the TOPS Community Web Site Service. Get on board today to begin taking advantage of the many wonders a TOPS Community Web Site can afford you!

 

Brandon Kelley Joins the Web Support Team

Hi, my name is Brandon Kelley. I'm the new web site support technician here at TOPS software. I've been working on web sites since 1995 and have worked in other areas of IT, as well. I've worked for companies of all sizes - from technical support for such large companies as Hughes Network Systems and America Online to being a web site administrator and fencing coach for smaller companies such as Virginia Academy of Fencing.

Having worked in the service industry for years, I've developed a way of doing things that I feel will only improve customer satisfaction. I believe that the goal of support is to empower the customer with knowledge. The more knowledge a customer has about the software, the more control they have over it. And that is what makes someone love the product. By treating every customer (whether current or potential) as my favorite customer, I like to develop a connection with them, which in turn helps me better understand their needs. I look forward to being a part of the TOPS team.

You can reach Brandon at WebSupport@topssoft.com. Feel free to drop him a line.

 

What's New on Your Community Web Sites:

This section is dedicated to listing the new features that have been added to your web sites each month. The following changes were activated on all TOPS Community Web Sites in January.

1. We have changed the way that TOPS 2000™ relates resales to community web sites. This change removes all problems or extra steps previously associated with performing a resale. See the support article for more information.
2. eBulletins now contain a feature allowing you to include a resident's unique login name and password whenever you send out an eBulletin. This is an excellent way to improve resident traffic in your web site. See the support article for instructions.
3. eBulletins may now be sent to just residents of a specific sub-association within a community. This is great for master associations that have events or news for one particular sub-association. We've already seen it used by Social Committees within a Master association and by someone who needed one of their subdivisions to know about a new garbage pick-up day!
4. We've enhanced the "What's New" feature so that now New Homes for Sale, New Homes for Lease and New Homesites for Sale display as their own entries.
5. A "posted date" has been added on Homes for Sale and Homes for Lease to indicate what day the listing was added to the web site. This will make it easier for people to see that a listing has gotten old and needs to be updated. Don't forget, Homes for Sale and For Lease also have an "end date" so the home listings can always be FRESH.
6. In the eforms area you can now save an eForm result to a database then export it out. Way cool! People can now use the eforms to create sign ups for a softball team, for a class, etc. The results are saved to a database and then exported out to another program and manipulated. Form submissions are saved in the database for three months.
7. You can now see the current security settings of every feature on your community web site. This functionality is available under the Site Statistics Menu.

Feature Teacher: eBulletins

This section of the TOPS Home e-zine was implemented in response to a suggestion we received to help you learn not only how to use a feature, as the support articles do, but also why a feature is great, and what it can do for you. Each month, we spotlight a feature that is built in to your community web sites, and tell you how it can help you.

Using eBulletins to overcome resident apathy

Congratulations! You've just created a TOPS community web site and are ready for your community to use this great new web site. You already know that a web site is only as good as its content, so you've uploaded some useful documents, photos from some local gatherings, and links to some of the most useful local web sites you could find. You've even put up a flier at the entrance to the community. For some reason, though, no one's using the web site very much. And those that do seem to go to the same areas every time.

One of the great ways that you can get your residents to fully utilize your web site is through the use of the eBulletins feature. Paper notices are very useful for getting the initial word out about the web site (in fact, they should never be completely replaced because there may be someone who has internet access but their email address is not in the Address Book). But eBulletins provide a direct link to your web site. Instead of having to type in the web address, residents can simply click on the address in their email in order to access the site. By sending them their login and password information, you can make it even easier for your residents to access the site. (See the support article below for instructions.)

Your residents still need a good reason to be there, though. Many users may be uncertain of how to use certain features of the web site and so will avoid those features. Just as we send you this e-zine with tips on how to run your web site, you can sometimes send out an email bulletin with tips or instructions on how to use a particular feature of the web site. It's also a good idea to let residents know what you want to use a particular feature for. Suggesting a particular use for the web site is much easier with eBulletins because you know they will get the message. Here are a few examples of eBulletins that encourage residents to use a particular feature:

Announcements:
"The maintenance team will be working on 86th Avenue from Jan 22 - Feb 2. Please see the Announcements section of the web site for any changes to the schedule and to stay up to date on this issue. To get there, login to the web site and then click on the Announcements feature on the left. Then click on the Maintenance category on the right to see any updates on this issue."

Event Calendar:
"The board of directors has set this coming year's schedule and posted it on the Events Calendar section of the web site. Please review the calendar to see if there are any conflicts in your schedule. To use the calendar, click on the Events Calendar on the left. Then, click on a particular day of the month to see what events are listed for that day. Also, at the top of the calendar you can select a different month to review or even select to review only certain types of events."

Hot Links:
"Many of our residents have expressed interest in putting together a group-vacation to Florida this year. To help out, we've added several links to travel agencies' web sites under the Hot Links section of the web site. To use these, go to the Hot Links feature on the left side of the web site. Then, select the Vacation category on the right to see our links to some travel agency web sites."

 

Customer in the Spotlight: HOAMCO

HomeOwners Association Management Company is located in Prescott, Arizona, but their web site reaches far beyond that one location. HOAMCO has worked hard to make sure that their web site reflects their management philosophy, and they have succeeded. The HOAMCO web site is a testament to the management service they provide. Along with all of the standard features that you have come to associate with a TOPS Community Web site, HOAMCO offers a number of articles geared to board members in the Documents section, a brief explanation of the different kinds of association management (complete with advantages and disadvantages), a complete listing of services, and more! See for yourself at http://www.HOAMCO.com

 

Support: TIPS for Using eBulletins

Using email bulletins to send out login and password information

Even though you have already used TOPS to send a form letter to all of your owners informing them of their login names and passwords, this data can be easily forgotten or misplaced. A great way to keep residents regularly informed of their login information is to use the eBulletins feature. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Log in to the community web site as Administrator.
2. Click the eBulletins link on the left navigation menu.
3. Toward the bottom of the screen, right below the button that says "Save Changes" is the link to send out a new email bulletin. Click on the link to create a new email bulletin to send out.
4. The top half of the screen will help you select to whom you want to send the eBulletin.
   NOTE: If you want to send your eBulletin out to everyone in the address book who has an email address, you can put a check mark in the box that is the second field on the page.
5. Enter the text of your message. See the article above for some suggestions.
6. Click the checkbox to select to send the login and password information with the message, and each recipient of the email will receive their own unique login and password information with the email.

Selecting to whom to send an email bulletin

No one likes to receive e-mails that don't relate to them, so you'll want to make sure you select to whom you wish to send your eBulletins. There are three different ways to select who received your email bulletin. All three of these options are located on the top half of the screen when you click on Send a New email Bulletin.

• The first option lets you select a particular category to which you can send the eBulletin. Only subscribers to that category will receive the email bulletin. This is the best way to send out a bulletin that only relates to certain people.
  NOTE: This is often referred to as 'Opt-In', since residents must subscribe to that category to receive any eBulletins sent to it. Some examples of eBulletin categories might be 'Announcements' 'Community Events' and 'Golf Digest'.
• The second option is a check mark box that, if selected, will send the eBulletin out to everyone who has an e-mail address in the Address Book. This is the best way to send out very important messages as well as login and password information.
• The last option lets you select a particular subdivision of the community to which to send the eBulletin. This is useful for maintenance issues and announcements that may only pertain to a certain geographic area of the community.

 

Support: No More Resale Headaches

You may already be familiar with one of our biggest headaches for the TOPS Web Site product: performing resales. The problem was that whenever you performed a resale in TOPS, the new owner did not automatically update to the web site. In fact, you had to do a whole series of steps for every resale that you performed in TOPS 2000™.

Well, NO MORE, my friend! Our programming staff has worked diligently in the past month to make all of your resale headaches go away, and they have succeeded brilliantly! From now on, whenever you perform a resale in TOPS 2000™, the data is automatically updated in the files that get uploaded to the web site, so the next time you perform an upload, the old owner gets deleted and the new owner gets added. Automatically. You do not have to do anything at all! TOPS 2000™ will even generate the form letters with the correct login name and password before you have done an upload.

In order to activate this new feature, you will need to update your web files so that you have the newest versions of the web related files. You will need to do so even if you have already installed TOPS 2000™ version 3.1. Here are the instructions for updating your site. This entire process usually takes less than 10 minutes:

1. Close TOPS 2000™ on all machines on your network, including your own. (This step is very important. Failure to do so may cause certain key files not to get updated.)
2. On the computer from which you perform uploads, go to www.TOPSHome.com and click Downloads
3. Click Program Files, and then click Check Files.
4. Click Open, and wait for the program to download.
5. When the check files program prompts you, click Update Now.
6. Wait for your files to update. When the update is complete, click Close.
   NOTE: Your files are now updated. If you do not have any communities, or if you have not performed any resales in TOPS 2000™, you may stop here.
7. Open TOPS; select any community that has a website.
8. Click Utilities, Rebuild Owner Access Data. You will need to perform this step for each community that has a web site.
9. Click Internet, Setup Options, Communities*
10. Make sure every community that has a web site is in the Selected Communities area on the right.
11. Check the box labeled Update All Records.
12. Click Update Now.

Once the upload is complete, your communities should all have current, correct data for any resale you have performed in the past. This is a one time procedure. From now on whenever you perform a resale your online data will automatically update in the next scheduled upload.

*If you have not yet upgraded to TOPS 2000™ version 3.1, you may not be able to access the Internet options required in step 9. If these options are grayed out, please contact WebSupport@topssoft.com to request an updated Internet Key.

 

Download of the Month:

This month, we have created a flier in MS Word that you can customize, print out, and distribute to community officers at board meetings. The flier is called "Increase Communication in Your Community" and is located in the downloads section of our web site: www.TOPSHome.com/topshome/Administrators/downloads.htm

 

Call for Ideas--Your Input is Valuable:

As you have seen in this and previous issues of The TOPS Home E-Zine, TOPS Software is dedicated to providing you with the best web site service in the industry. To achieve this goal, we are constantly adding new features to our community web sites and to the TOPS 2000™ Internet functionality. If there is a feature or change that would make your life easier, please send your feedback to WebSupport@TOPSSoft.com. We keep track of every suggestion we receive, and many of these have already made their way into TOPS Community Web Sites!

 

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

Susan Sanders is your Community Web Site Sales Representative
Matt Hardy is your TOPS Community Web Site Support Representative
Brandon Kelley is your TOPS Community Web Site Support Representative
Andrea Master-Drennen is the Director of Publishing and Standards at TOPS Software

 

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