TOPS Home E-Zine
Issue #25 - March 2004
March 2004: Inside TOPS Home
1)
Welcome to TOPS Home!
2)
Let Our Technology Work For You
3)
Re-Inventing the Wheel
4)
New TOPS Scheduler Utility
5)
New Features on Your Web Sites
6)
Appletree Management Group, Inc.
7)
Using Email Bulletins
8)
Moving Assistant Helps New Residents
9)
Important Warning: Beagle Virus
Read this issue and archived issues of the TOPS Home E-Zine online at:
http://www.topshome.com/topshome/Administrators/TOPS_Home_ezine.htm
Welcome back to TOPS Home, the web site e-mail magazine (e-zine) for the TOPS Community Web Site Service.
March has been a busy month in the world of Web Site Support as we released a major upgrade to the TOPS 2000™ web site programs, including a brand new scheduler. If you are responsible for the TOPS data uploads for your organization, and did not receive notification from us, please email websupport@topssoft.com to request that information. If you would like to know more about the new scheduler, read this month's NewsWorthy article by Brandon.
We have a lot to share with you this month! Susan kicks it off with her article for portfolio managers to 'share the pain' of association management through Community Web sites. To further that aim, we also have a great new board handout called "You Don't Have To Re-Invent the Wheel", and the programming department has released 11 new updates to the web sites in addition to those made to the TOPS 2000™ programs.
For your association newsletter, we have an article on Email Bulletins that introduces that feature to your residents. You can copy and paste the text of the article into your own newsletter, and then customize it for your community.
The spotlight this month falls on Appletree Management Group, Inc. of Moscow, Pennsylvania. Their site is a must-see for management companies just starting out, as they have done a great job of organizing all of the information on their site, and making it easy to get to know their organization.
On the support end of things, Brandon shares with us some details on the new Moving Assistant, and Andrea caps things off with an important virus warning for those of you that use TOPS to host your email accounts.
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.Let our Technology Work for YOU!
Portfolio Managers, this article is especially written for you!
We work with Portfolio Managers from coast to coast. When we initially present the Association Web Site Service, we're met with skepticism and some managers are even down right hostile! It all stems from the fact that managers think an association web site is going to be more of a burden on their shoulders than a benefit to them. We want to assure you that our web site service was written with you and your concerns in mind – and it really is a benefit to the association MANAGER!
One of the most important aspects of the Association Web Site Service is what we term the "Share the Pain" factor. Each association web site has up to 99 security levels so that the Board of Directors can add information to the web site, Committee Chairs can add their own information and even residents can populate certain features of the site! All of this sharing is being done without input from the Property Manager.
The site can be a useful place to store all of the documents that a resident needs access to and are often in a hurry to receive. Examples of this are the Architectural Control Form, Gate Pass Information and even Service Request forms. Imagine residents being able to fill these out on their own timeframe without having to get a copy from you to start the process!
Many managers we know have responsibility for booking the common area rentals in their associations. A calendar that is accessible by all residents stops those games of phone tag, and with the new ability to accept online payments, these can be reserved without having to wait for a check to arrive! It is win, win, win for everyone involved!
With the synchronization to TOPS 2000™ property management software, homeowners are able to see their 12 month payment history, status of work orders, pool passes, last check and so much more! All of these were items that managers told us they received calls about. Now their phones are not ringing for mundane items. They’re getting to use their professional skills to actually manage the association instead of doing clerical tasks.
TOPS will provide you with all of the materials you need to market the service to your boards. Just call us at 800-556-7852 and we'll put customized materials in the mail to you today!
Roll out association web sites to each of your communities and start letting our technology work for you!
Re-Inventing the Wheel
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 "You Don't Have to Re-Invent the Wheel" and is located in the downloads section of our web site: www.TOPSHome.com/topshome/Administrators/downloads.htm.
To customize the handout, simply download and save the MS Word document, find and replace the words 'Your Management Company" with your company's name, and VIOLA! Instant marketing materials to hand out at this month's round of board meetings.
New TOPS Scheduler Utility
TOPS Software has just made some great enhancements to the TOPS Scheduler utility. The scheduler utility is a tool that will automatically upload data at a scheduled time and on scheduled days. It can upload community web site data, perform automatic backups, upload CondoCerts data, and even update TOPS program files. Previously, the interface for the TOPS Scheduler utility consisted of two tabs - a green tab for community web site data uploads and a blue tab for internet backups. Now, we have completely redesigned the scheduler, and it has many enhancements in both flexibility and power.
The new program's interface displays a list of scheduled tasks to run. Each task will be a certain type of action with a scheduled time and days to perform this task. Instead of having only one time per day to perform the action, you can create different times by creating separate tasks. For example, let's say you want the web site uploads to go up at 5:30 pm Monday, Wednesday and Friday. But you want it to upload at 4:30 pm on Tuesday and Thursday (you leave the office a little earlier that day). You can create one task that runs an upload M,W,F at 5:30 pm, then create a different task that runs at 4:30 pm on T,H.
In addition to more flexibility, there are more types of actions that the new scheduler can perform than just web site uploads and internet backups. You can run a task that runs the TOPS Internet Updater utility at a certain time each day to make sure that you are up-to-date with the latest TOPS program files. You can also run a task that uploads data for the new CondoCerts interface for TOPS 2000(tm). You can even schedule a task that will reboot your machine at a certain time!
The new TOPS Scheduler utility adds a great deal of flexibility to your scheduled uploads, but it also greatly enhances the existing features. The community data upload, for example, now occurs within an interface that gives you a better idea of what is occurring in each step of the upload process. It still loads the web page that processes the data ("Loading TOPS data, please wait..."), but it does so within the same user interface so that you know that it is working correctly. It even keeps a success log of each web site upload to verify that the data has gone up!
The new scheduler has many enhancements over its predecessor, and even has the framework for potential growth. A common interface and stable environment make it ideal for many types of scheduled tasks related to TOPS 2000™. If you have any questions about the new TOPS scheduler utility, please contact websupport@topshome.com.
New Features on Your Community Web Sites
- Auto-responder emails from eform submissions now include the original eform request at the bottom so the submitter has a copy of their actual request.
- A new 'picture' icon will now be displayed next to listings in the homes for rent and sale list pages next to the notebook icon if there are pictures on a particular listing.
- Module tabs (CCR, Architectural, Work Order, Gate Security, Pool Pass) will only be displayed in Account Info if data exists for those modules. This is a community wide change, so if data exists for even one owner, all owners will see the tab for that module.
- Under Account Info, on the CCR Violation tab, we have changed the following labels: "status" to "record type" and "approval/close date" to "status"
- Fixed emails sent to subscribers of message board and board message board to not have "converted" single and double quotes in them.
- All phone fields (work, spouse work, fax, other) are now hidden from the public address book when "hide phone" is selected in user profile.
- Current date shows up distinctly colored in the events calendar even if it has events on it.
- In sending email bulletins, web sites now check if primary and secondary email address are the same. If so, only one email is sent.
- If the first entry in the events calendar is a recurring entry it no longer causes
an error.- Increased the font size of the "go back" link of numerous pages.
- Added 'named' color schemes to the color scheme selector.
- eRent Payer files are now accepted by the TOPS 2000™ lockbox program. This officially activates the new online payment feature.
Appletree Management Group, Inc. 'At A Glance'
Appletree Management Group, Inc. (aka Appletree Marketing & Realty) is a professional business firm specializing in Community, Resort and Real Estate Management. The Firm provides client services throughout the tri-state (PA, NY, NJ) area and, when feasible, to clients across the country. The Firm’s principal and owner, James H. Ott, CMCA, PCAM has been working in the Community Association Industry since 1973.
Appletree Management Group, Inc. prides itself in being an industry leader by actively participating in community association, real estate and hospitality organizations and programs. The Firm constantly invests time and money in key staff development, internal and external reporting systems and creating special partnerships with third parties to enhance the delivery of community, owner and client services.
One of Appletree Management Group’s most successful partnerships has been with TOPS Software. After conducting thorough research on available industry related software in October 2000, the Firm chose TOPS due to the software’s ability to enhance our Firm’s service delivery in the areas of: (1) financial administration, (2) web site hosting and maintenance, (3) work order management, (4) common area security, (5) individual account management, access and timely communications.
Our relationship with TOPS has been positively measurable; resulting in (1) timely delivery of services, (2) less non-essential communication into the main office, (3) fewer owner concerns, (4) enhanced friendly interactive communications via the web sites and (5) confirmation of services delivered. In some instances, client revenues have been enhanced via the ability to accommodate more work order service requests, web site advertising, program announcements, etc. In summation, all of the above could not be realized without the investment by our TOPS representative in continued development of our (and clients’) software needs. Flexibility, problem solving and creativeness have been key, combined with listening to your client. “The folks at TOPS are good listeners.”
All are invited to visit our web site at www.appletreemanagement.com
Would you like your web site to be spotlighted in the TOPS Home E-Zine? Send us a two or three paragraph email. Be sure to include a description of your community, tell us what led you to getting a Community Web Site, and let us know what features you like best. Send your spotlight to websupport@topssoft.com.
Keep Them Coming Back!
Many associations publish a community newsletter for their residents on a regular basis. In this section of the TOPS Home Ezine, we'll provide an article each month that you can publish in your newsletter (or in an email bulletin) to help promote your web site and let your residents know just how great their web site is, and how easy it is to sign on and get informed! Just customize the article by inserting your community web site domain name and cut and paste it right into your newsletter! If you have an article or idea you'd like us to pass on to other community web site administrators, please let us know--we get many of our best ideas from you!
Note To Administrators: Before you distribute this month's article, please check your site to make sure you have set up any email bulletin categories you want to make available to residents. You should have a few generic ones set up, such as Announcements and Events, since you can send to this category automatically when you create those items on your web site. However, you should also add ebulletin categories for any other community specific groups such as play groups, bird watching, clubhouse news, etc. This is a case of the adage 'If you build it they will come' holds true.
Using Email Bulletins
If you've spent any time at all online, you may have already discovered some of the may ways to communicate with other people on the Internet. Some people like to chat online, where they can communicate with another person live. Others like to talk on a message board where they can 'post' their own comments, and choose only to read or respond to topics that interest them. Still others prefer a more indirect method of communication: Newsgroups.
A newsgroup is kind of like an email message board where information is sent to you all at once via email, and you can choose to read it, respond to it, or ignore it without anyone else being the wiser. Newsgroups are a great way to get information delivered to your inbox without having to go online and look for it.
Our web site, [Community Web Site Address], contains all three of the features listed above. Perhaps the easiest of these three is the Email Bulletins, which are the equivalent of an online newsgroup. By signing up for an Email Bulletin group, you can automatically receive important announcements, news, and information about our community in your email inbox! What a great way to keep up with the community without having to constantly check the web site to see if there is something new! Email Bulletins let you know what is going on, and give you the option to visit the web site to read more.
To sign up for email bulletins today, go to our community web site at [Community Web Site Address], and login using your unique user name and password. Once you are in the resident portion of the site, click the Email Bulletins link to see the groups that are currently set up, and check the boxes next to the groups that you want to join. It's that simple!
If you are interested in starting an email bulletin group, please contact the administrator [Admin Name] at [Admin Email] for more information.
If you have a method of drawing visitors to your site that has been successful for you, please take a moment to share it with your fellow community web site administrators. You can send your tips to websupport@topssoft.com.
Moving Assistant Helps New Residents
You may have noticed a new feature on your community web site called "Moving?" It was mentioned in the What's New section of last month's TOPS Home E-zine. The feature, called Moving Assistant, helps new residents find local utilities and services in their local area, and even sign up for those services online.
The moving assistant is a great feature for new home buyers who will be moving into your community. Instead of being forced to keep up with a list of local service providers and provide that information to new home buyers, you can now direct them to your community web site, and a one-stop-shop to find and activate all of their utilities and services.
To use the Moving Assistant, click on the Moving? link, and the introductory screen will appear. You do not need to login, simply enter your address in the fields in the upper-right, and click continue. The site will run a search that will find the local utilities and services that are near your address and compile a list of them. When a new page comes up, it will first show you any special offers available for signing up for services. On the left-hand side, you will also see a long list of types of services offered for your address. Below is a list of some of the many utilities and services offered:
- Change of Address
- Electricity
- Natural Gas
- Cable/Satellite
- Local telephone
- Long distance
- Wireless Phone
- High Speed Internet
- Dial-up Internet
In addition, there are home improvement services, moving services, delivery services, etc. that can also be searched. Best of all, many of these utilities and services can be activated right from this site. For the services that cannot be directly signed up for, the moving assistant will provide a current telephone number for the vendor, along with any additional information on how to sign up for the service. This utility is a nice one-stop shop for new residents to get settled as quickly as possible.
Is there a feature that you would like to learn more about? Send an email to websupport@topssoft.com with your suggestions for our next Feature Teacher.
Important Warning: 'Beagle' Virus
If TOPS is your domain host for email, please be sure to read the following important virus warning:
We have recently received a number of questions from customers who received a potentially harmful virus that is being spread via email spoof attacks. These emails appear to be from an official source due to the "spoofing" of email addresses. The virus is called Beagle, and has been classified by Symantec's Norton Antivirus as a wild threat with a high distribution.
The email containing the virus will be sent from an address at your own domain name (such as support@mymanagement.com or administration@yourdomain.com or management@yourdomain.com). The email contains random content, but usually warns that your email account is being suspended, is about to expire, or is being penalized for sending SPAM.
The content in the body of the email is random, however, in all cases, there is a password protected zip file attachment with a virus inside. The email is then signed by "The (Your Domain) Team".
Please do not open the attached zip file. Delete the email at once.
We also recommend that you update your virus definitions for your virus software as soon as possible and ensure you keep them updated.
For future reference, all official communication from TOPS Software is be sent from the topssoft.com domain, not your own domain.
For more information on the Beagle virus, or to download the free removal tool, please see Symantec's virus information web site at:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.beagle.m@mm.htmlDid 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!~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~ + ~
Here is a list of some of the most common contact data for TOPS Software:
Department
Contact
Phone
Software Sales
Nicole Sezov
800-760-9966
Web Site Sales
Susan Sanders
800-556-7852
Technical Support
Jeanne Plennert
800-899-5689
Web Site Support
Brandon Kelley
800-899-5689
Accounting
Cande Estrella
301-869-8144
Designed by TOPS Software, LLC. Copyright© 2001-2004 TOPS Software, LLC, 364-C Christopher Ave, Gaithersburg, MD 2879. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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