Enigin Digital

A decision for Enigin developers: onsite or offsite BI server?

The development team here at Enigin have a decision to make regarding the new Business Intelligence (BI) server platform I mentioned a few days ago. Do we buy an in-house server to run the system on our local network or use a remotely hosted server?

Here are the main benefits of each

In-House Server

+ One off hardware cost
+ Faster local network access

Remotely Hosted Server

+ Lower monthly payments
+ No additional load on local network resources
+ 24hr hardware callout included in monthly fee
+ Faster Internet connection
+ On the same LAN network as our other servers
+ Accessible from any Internet-enabled computer in the world

So we have a clear winner!

Happy New Year from an Enigin Developer

Happy New Year everyone! We did it, we got through it… the Christmas break is over and it’s back to work at the Enigin office on Monday.

I always have mixed feelings about returning to work after a break. I love my work but once I stop, I find it difficult to get back into things after having so much time off. It’s been a good holiday and i’ve spent a lot of time with friends, family and gigging. Our last gig of the year was in a posh restaurant and we went down a storm!

It’s going to be a great year. My first task next week is to work with Business Development Manager Calvin on the new Enigin Knowledge Base due for launch shortly. Our Knowledge Base is going to change the way which our Distributors receive support from us and contain many articles, FAQs and video tutorials to help them run their independent Energy Saving business.

I wish all of our Enigin Distributors the very best for 2010. Get out there and make it happen!

2009 has been a great year for Enigin

I think everyone agrees that 2009 was a great year for Enigin PLC and Enigin Distributors, especially the development department! Nikolai and myself joined Enigin in June this year and here’s a selection of the projects which we’ve completed and launched:

• Eniscope 4.0 Software
• Eniscope Public Display
• Numerous New Distributor Websites
• Enigin .com redesign
• Enigin .co.uk redesign
• Blog site for Ian Wrigley
• News Authoring System
• Energy Saving Blog
• Enigin .TV video site
• The Energy Saving Association website
• Telesales System
• Emailer System
• My Enigin Blog!

I’m sure there’s more, but that’s all I can remember at the moment without trawling through my project lists!

I have a feeling that 2010 will be an even more productive year!

New Enigin BI Platform in Development

As a holiday project for myself, I’ve taken on the job of rewriting our Business Intelligence platform. The Enigin management team use this platform to view statistics about the business in terms of lead generation for Enigin and lead generation for our Distributors.

Developing BI ‘dashboards’ can sometimes be a complex and time consuming task as it requires obtaining information from a number of sources (in our example 20 different sources across 3 Enigin servers). Once this information has been extracted, it needs to be processed into the required format and loaded into a database. From here, we can then display the data in a way which is visually-pleasing and easy to understand.

Once the new Enigin platform is live, I’ll upload some screenshots with explanations.

Enigin Eniscope 4.0 Software

The last major Enigin project of 2009 has just drawn to a close and we are very proud to announce the release of our new onboard Eniscope software.

Eniscope 4.0 features a completely redesigned real-time viewing interface and makes your energy usage even easier to visualise in an easy to understand way.

To read more about the version 4.0 software, head over to our Enigin corporate website on the following link:

http://www.enigin.com/features/eniscope-4

Here at Enigin, we thrive on customer feedback so if you’ve got any questions or suggestions then we’d love to here from you!

Enigin Love Web Apps: The Apps we use

Not only do Enigin build web applications to support our Distributors, I/we also use a number of third-party web apps to help us collaborate as a team. Here they are!

• Basecamp - We use this simple project management application from developers 37Signals to collaborate on projects.
• Tada List - Another 37s app to manage a simple task list
• Beanstalk - A source-control (SVN) hosted solution to allow the Enigin developers to work together on our code base
• Google Reader - I use this simple app to read all the latest industry news from the websites I subscribe to.
• Campaign Monitor - This app is great for sending email campaigns. It’s very easy to use and has the ability to provide extensive reporting on the number of recipients opening your campaign
• WordPress - We use WordPress to power our corporate and staff blogs
• Google Apps - I personally use Google Apps for handling Email, Word Processing, Spreadsheets and online Calendar

Using online software has the following benefits:

• Access for everyone - Your team can access your business software from any Internet-enabled computer in the world! Great for home-based teleworkers
• Your Data is Safe - All your data is backed up on remote servers and the responsibility of the software providers
• No Upgrading - All upgrades to your software are handled by the creators. So no more holding your breath when performing software updates!

The web is the perfect platform for business software applications. So, if your business is still relying on OS-based software, then it’s time to try something new! Enigin have!