Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
Charles, I am looking at 'Freeside' billing system from Jeremy Davis Maximum Technology. I am interested in your 'Merchant Services', (I understand it is part of the Freeside System) I have Service Stations and other businesses that should be interested in lowering their Merchant Services costs. How can we work together? Ron Wallace Hahnron, Inc. 220 S. Jackson Dt. Addison, MI 49220 Phone: (517)547-8410 Mobile: (517)270-2410 e-mail: rwall...@newgenet.net rwall...@tigernet.bz -Original Message- From: Charles Wu [mailto:c...@cticonnect.com] Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 11:38 AM To: 'WISPA General List' Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. As for merchant services, we have a very nice system in place through ourlocal bank. We're quite happy with it and we're getting very good rates.Good for youRemember, credit card rates are all based upon fraud risk (e.g., a swiped card has a lower transaction rate than a phone order / keyed card) -- that said, there are specific rate structures that were implemented about 4-5 years ago to account for the fact that ISP/Telco/CableCos bill the same people every month and that they have extremely low chargebacksYour bank (and I'd say 99% of the credit card industry) doesn't differentiate between this and I can say with 100% certainty that you're being labeled as an Internet/Ecommerce provider.Additionally, to take advantage of this rate structure, Visa/MC require the implementation of enhanced data requirements; this can only occur with direct integration into a billing platform (e.g., need to get rid of the gateway)We've engaged over 300 service providers since the summer, and in EVERY SCENARIO, we have been able to properly reclassify them to take advantage of the recurring ISP/Telco/Cableco rates and reduce their payment processing fees by 10-40%-CharlesThis message is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivery of the message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by telephone at 630-344-1586.WISPA Wants You! Join today!http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wirel...@wispa.orgsubscribe/Unsubscribe:http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wirelessArchives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
BillMax www.billmax.com Scott Lambert wrote: On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 09:42:46AM -0400, Martha Huizenga wrote: Both Platypus and Wombat run on Windows NT server. Is there anything out there that will run on a Linux server? or on the PC as a straight client app? http://www.freeside.biz/freeside/ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.0.238 / Virus Database: 270.11.24/2018 - Release Date: 03/23/09 06:52:00 -- Scott Reed Sr. Systems Engineer GAB Midwest 1-800-363-1544 x4000 Cell: 260-273-7239 WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
I'll throw in another thumbs up to Platypus. I can't live without it, tech support is great, it does autoprovisioning with my mailserver (ModusMail) and integrates with RADIUS (VopRADIUS), has a web-based customer interface built-in, easy integration with Wombat (help-desk that we integrated a few months ago - love it too), has capability to do DNS autoconfigure if I remember right, but I think that takes a little bit of work to get that done. Wouldn't trade it for anything and if I had it to do over again, the only thing I'd change is that I would have dropped the money for Wombat long before I did. The price (for both Wombat and Platypus), to me, is reasonable and it makes my life so much easier. I would have to pay an extra person at least part time to take care of what Platypus does automagically for us, and when I look at the honest truth in that, I realize that what I'm paying is a drop in the bucket compared to what an additional person would cost. -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Mark Nash Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2009 1:30 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. I agree with you on that. So many fixes that create other bugs. Hopefully with the new Bertram ownership, this will stabilize. They have been more responsive lately, though, when we do find bugs. Mark Nash UnwiredWest 78 Centennial Loop, Suite E Eugene, OR 97401 http://www.unwiredwest.com 541-998- 541-998-5599 fax - Original Message - From: John McDowell j...@boonlink.com To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 2:24 PM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. You guys should read the threads on the Moto list. Lot of people tired of the way the company is doing it's customers. And tired of testing beta software full of bugs with every release. This includes us. A Powercode customer of 2 years. Sent from my iPhone On Mar 21, 2009, at 11:54 AM, Mark Nash markl...@uwol.net wrote: Marlon, I looked at Intrameta and PowerCode and chose PowerCode for bang for buck. You really should look at them. It has its faults, but it's like a drug that we can't do without. It handles alot for us. Do a demo one day and check it out. Mark Nash UnwiredWest 78 Centennial Loop, Suite E Eugene, OR 97401 http://www.unwiredwest.com 541-998- 541-998-5599 fax - Original Message - From: Marlon K. Schafer o...@odessaoffice.com To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 8:12 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. http://intrameta.com/ They are a vendor member and good guys. I've talked to them (David Wilson got us hooked up) quite a bit. It sounds like they have a nice system. But the costs are higher than I can justify at this point and last I talked to them they didn't have a billing mechanism in place. marlon - Original Message - From: Charles Wu c...@cticonnect.com To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 7:58 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Hi Marlon, In no particular order, here's a list of some of the more popular ISP/WISP billing packages that we see in the market Platypus/Tucows PowerCode Rodopi BillMax Freeside Emerald / IEA Software Every package has their strengths and weaknesses -- ultimately, it comes down to personal preference and business processes to see what's a best fit Whatever it is that you end up with...be sure to check out ip pay (www.ippay.com) for your back-end payments =) -Charles P.S. -- in all seriousness -- QuickBooks does a really good job of hosing merchants (especially ISPs) on their payment processing -- we actually just helped another ISP/WISP pay for a new billing system with the $400 / month we were saving when they switched from QuickBooks Merchant Services to IP Pay -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless- boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Marlon K. Schafer Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 9:52 AM To: WISPA General List Cc: memb...@wispa.org; Odessa Office 509-982-2181 Subject: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Hi All, I just got a notice that Quickbooks is going to REQUIRE an upgrade in order to continue to keep sending out bills via email. And we have all of 1 month or so to get it done I HATE Intuit and would like to replace them. Here's the work flow in our office. New customer calls in. Fill out signup sheet with all needed customer data. Assign static ip to customer. Enter customer billing info into Quickbooks. Enter all customer data into Access. Enter customer username and pass into RADIUS. Enter customer email account(s) data into email server. Enter customer data into Postini (if they purchase the filtering). Type customer signup sheet
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
Hi All I was wondering if anybody has experience with the Logisense product. I see that many are using Platypus so I was wondering how it compares to the Logisense. Thank you Hi All, I just got a notice that Quickbooks is going to REQUIRE an upgrade in order to continue to keep sending out bills via email. And we have all of 1 month or so to get it done I HATE Intuit and would like to replace them. Here's the work flow in our office. New customer calls in. Fill out signup sheet with all needed customer data. Assign static ip to customer. Enter customer billing info into Quickbooks. Enter all customer data into Access. Enter customer username and pass into RADIUS. Enter customer email account(s) data into email server. Enter customer data into Postini (if they purchase the filtering). Type customer signup sheet info into word doc and store in customer folder. Generate installation work order. Fill out check list showing what steps have been completed. This has worked nicely in the past and only takes about 30 minutes to accomplish. But now we're growing too fast and have gotten too big to maintain this. Between tech support calls etc. the office manager is having to bring in extra help. It's only a day per week and it's good for there to be two people there at least part of the time. No one should work alone all of the time. Plus, if she wants to take some time off she will have someone trained in the basics so we'll likely need to keep some extra help around no matter what. This mechanism also gives us a lot of double checks, redundant data points etc. With Access and Quickbooks we can run a very nice mix of reports etc. We do NOT have a customer trouble ticket mechanism other than the file on them. We don't track customers on a per call basis. That's not too bad because we're still small enough that we can normally remember problem customers. This would probably be a good time to change everything though. In my perfect world, I'd have a billing system (that handles all of the taxes for different communities etc.), trouble ticketing, auto server configuration AND deconfig. I'd want good reporting capabilities. I've looked at some of the commercial systems out there, but at $1 or more per month per sub for a full blown system I'd rather keep putting that money into the local labor pool. Freeside looks pretty good but I don't do programming or server admin work in-house. I don't mind hiring someone to set it all up etc. and to take care of the server. But it has to be an affordable solution too. What are people using? Do you like it? If you had it to do all over again, what would you do? Vendors please feel free to hit me up. marlon 509.988.0260 Or talk to Apryl in the office 509.982.2181, she'll know more about what she does day in and day out. WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- Ing. Paolo Di Francesco Teleinform S.p.A. Sede Legale: Via Francesco Paolo Di Blasi 1, 90144 Palermo Unita' Operativa: Via Regione Siciliana 49, 90046 Monreale Tel: +39-091-6408576, +39-091-6404501 Fax: +39-091-6406200 http://www.wikitel.it http://www.teleinform.com WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
Jason Hensley wrote: easy integration with Wombat (help-desk that we integrated a few months ago - love it too) Jason Do you use Wombat for dialup or wireless subs? I'm curious because I was going to add wombat a few years ago but held off, Lately I was considering checking out wombat to see if it would be a benefit, but I couldn't find enough info on it. George WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
Use it for both, as well as hosting, email only, fiber customers, etc. Wish I had a way to integrate it for my computer sales and repair customers, but I haven't figured out a good way to do that yet without making Platypus my primary billing system for all of that as well, which I really don't want to do. -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of George Rogato Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 8:30 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Jason Hensley wrote: easy integration with Wombat (help-desk that we integrated a few months ago - love it too) Jason Do you use Wombat for dialup or wireless subs? I'm curious because I was going to add wombat a few years ago but held off, Lately I was considering checking out wombat to see if it would be a benefit, but I couldn't find enough info on it. George WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
Both Platypus and Wombat run on Windows NT server. Is there anything out there that will run on a Linux server? or on the PC as a straight client app? Martha Huizenga DC Access, LLC 202-546-5898 */Friendly, Local, Affordable, Internet!/**/ Connecting the Capitol Hill Community /* Jason Hensley wrote: Use it for both, as well as hosting, email only, fiber customers, etc. Wish I had a way to integrate it for my computer sales and repair customers, but I haven't figured out a good way to do that yet without making Platypus my primary billing system for all of that as well, which I really don't want to do. -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of George Rogato Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 8:30 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Jason Hensley wrote: easy integration with Wombat (help-desk that we integrated a few months ago - love it too) Jason Do you use Wombat for dialup or wireless subs? I'm curious because I was going to add wombat a few years ago but held off, Lately I was considering checking out wombat to see if it would be a benefit, but I couldn't find enough info on it. George WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
[WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
For those of you using QuickBooks. Look at http://www.thebillingsoftware.com/new/isp.htm This is a very simple billing system. Limited in some aspects but able to easily Bill all 400 of my clients in 5 min. sending emails receipts and many other features. It is not Perfect nor will it integrate with much. Simple windows (access) billing system. Steve Barnes Executive Manager PCS-WIN RCWiFi Wireless Internet Service WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
One of the big advantages of Platypus and Wombat is it allows you to maintain separate client information. We provide helpdesk support, billing and payment processing services to other ISPs and city networks. Each account requires detail accounting for their customers. Tucows' products were the only one we could find that would handle this easily and without special programming. Paul D. Kralovec President Unplugged Cities, LLC 511 11th Ave. S Suite 241 Minneapolis, MN 55415 W: 763-235-3001 F: 763-647-7998 C: 952-270-9107 www.unpluggedcities.com -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Jason Hensley Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 8:38 AM To: 'WISPA General List' Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Use it for both, as well as hosting, email only, fiber customers, etc. Wish I had a way to integrate it for my computer sales and repair customers, but I haven't figured out a good way to do that yet without making Platypus my primary billing system for all of that as well, which I really don't want to do. -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of George Rogato Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 8:30 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Jason Hensley wrote: easy integration with Wombat (help-desk that we integrated a few months ago - love it too) Jason Do you use Wombat for dialup or wireless subs? I'm curious because I was going to add wombat a few years ago but held off, Lately I was considering checking out wombat to see if it would be a benefit, but I couldn't find enough info on it. George WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
We currently use QuickBooks - I believe the billing person likes it for it's simplicity. We are trying to move to PowerCode, though... Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 Those who don't understand UNIX are condemned to reinvent it, poorly. --- Henry Spencer On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 11:08 AM, Paul Kralovec pkralo...@unpluggedcities.com wrote: One of the big advantages of Platypus and Wombat is it allows you to maintain separate client information. We provide helpdesk support, billing and payment processing services to other ISPs and city networks. Each account requires detail accounting for their customers. Tucows' products were the only one we could find that would handle this easily and without special programming. Paul D. Kralovec President Unplugged Cities, LLC 511 11th Ave. S Suite 241 Minneapolis, MN 55415 W: 763-235-3001 F: 763-647-7998 C: 952-270-9107 www.unpluggedcities.com -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Jason Hensley Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 8:38 AM To: 'WISPA General List' Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Use it for both, as well as hosting, email only, fiber customers, etc. Wish I had a way to integrate it for my computer sales and repair customers, but I haven't figured out a good way to do that yet without making Platypus my primary billing system for all of that as well, which I really don't want to do. -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of George Rogato Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 8:30 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Jason Hensley wrote: easy integration with Wombat (help-desk that we integrated a few months ago - love it too) Jason Do you use Wombat for dialup or wireless subs? I'm curious because I was going to add wombat a few years ago but held off, Lately I was considering checking out wombat to see if it would be a benefit, but I couldn't find enough info on it. George WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
Platypus is probably the best of the lot. Good support, very easy to self-extend in terms of auto-provisioning, very powerful, and good interface. Also includes helpdesk / etc... so it's a single, well integrated package. Very stable and reliable as well. On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 11:08 AM, Paul Kralovec pkralo...@unpluggedcities.com wrote: One of the big advantages of Platypus and Wombat is it allows you to maintain separate client information. We provide helpdesk support, billing and payment processing services to other ISPs and city networks. Each account requires detail accounting for their customers. Tucows' products were the only one we could find that would handle this easily and without special programming. Paul D. Kralovec President Unplugged Cities, LLC 511 11th Ave. S Suite 241 Minneapolis, MN 55415 W: 763-235-3001 F: 763-647-7998 C: 952-270-9107 www.unpluggedcities.com -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Jason Hensley Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 8:38 AM To: 'WISPA General List' Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Use it for both, as well as hosting, email only, fiber customers, etc. Wish I had a way to integrate it for my computer sales and repair customers, but I haven't figured out a good way to do that yet without making Platypus my primary billing system for all of that as well, which I really don't want to do. -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of George Rogato Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 8:30 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Jason Hensley wrote: easy integration with Wombat (help-desk that we integrated a few months ago - love it too) Jason Do you use Wombat for dialup or wireless subs? I'm curious because I was going to add wombat a few years ago but held off, Lately I was considering checking out wombat to see if it would be a benefit, but I couldn't find enough info on it. George WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
I use Quickbooks for my store side (computer sales, repairs, etc). I can't imagine trying to use it for my ISP side billing. What nightmare that would be!! Marlon, what you mentioned you go through in provisioning for a new customer when they sign up that you said takes 30 minutes or so, well, it takes us about 2 minutes with Platypus - just to put that into perspective for you. -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Josh Luthman Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 10:12 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. We currently use QuickBooks - I believe the billing person likes it for it's simplicity. We are trying to move to PowerCode, though... Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 Those who don't understand UNIX are condemned to reinvent it, poorly. --- Henry Spencer On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 11:08 AM, Paul Kralovec pkralo...@unpluggedcities.com wrote: One of the big advantages of Platypus and Wombat is it allows you to maintain separate client information. We provide helpdesk support, billing and payment processing services to other ISPs and city networks. Each account requires detail accounting for their customers. Tucows' products were the only one we could find that would handle this easily and without special programming. Paul D. Kralovec President Unplugged Cities, LLC 511 11th Ave. S Suite 241 Minneapolis, MN 55415 W: 763-235-3001 F: 763-647-7998 C: 952-270-9107 www.unpluggedcities.com -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Jason Hensley Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 8:38 AM To: 'WISPA General List' Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Use it for both, as well as hosting, email only, fiber customers, etc. Wish I had a way to integrate it for my computer sales and repair customers, but I haven't figured out a good way to do that yet without making Platypus my primary billing system for all of that as well, which I really don't want to do. -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of George Rogato Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 8:30 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Jason Hensley wrote: easy integration with Wombat (help-desk that we integrated a few months ago - love it too) Jason Do you use Wombat for dialup or wireless subs? I'm curious because I was going to add wombat a few years ago but held off, Lately I was considering checking out wombat to see if it would be a benefit, but I couldn't find enough info on it. George -- -- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -- -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- -- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -- -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- -- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -- -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
Same here with PowerCode. I'm interested in seeing how Platypus differs from PowerCode. I keep hearing about it. I don't want to change, as it is painful, but if there's something better for us in the long-term we should at least consider it. We like PowerCode for its customer service features, scheduling of service calls and installs, billing, etc. Since everything is integrated around one customer account, this software allows our person who answers the phone to not only be a tech support person, but can take a payment from a customer, check phone logs, ticket logs, check the schedule to see when we're supposed to be there, anything. There are detailed logs of most transactions that take place, and those logs are exposed on the main customer screen (it logs details such as if you change their phone number...who made the change, when the change was made, from phone # what to new phone #). It logs emails you send out through the system such as delinquent account notifications, support broadcasts, etc. Mark Nash UnwiredWest 78 Centennial Loop Suite E Eugene, OR 97401 541-998- 541-998-5599 fax http://www.unwiredwest.com - Original Message - From: Jason Hensley jhens...@mozarks.com To: 'WISPA General List' wireless@wispa.org Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 8:48 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. I use Quickbooks for my store side (computer sales, repairs, etc). I can't imagine trying to use it for my ISP side billing. What nightmare that would be!! Marlon, what you mentioned you go through in provisioning for a new customer when they sign up that you said takes 30 minutes or so, well, it takes us about 2 minutes with Platypus - just to put that into perspective for you. -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Josh Luthman Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 10:12 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. We currently use QuickBooks - I believe the billing person likes it for it's simplicity. We are trying to move to PowerCode, though... Josh Luthman Office: 937-552-2340 Direct: 937-552-2343 1100 Wayne St Suite 1337 Troy, OH 45373 Those who don't understand UNIX are condemned to reinvent it, poorly. --- Henry Spencer On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 11:08 AM, Paul Kralovec pkralo...@unpluggedcities.com wrote: One of the big advantages of Platypus and Wombat is it allows you to maintain separate client information. We provide helpdesk support, billing and payment processing services to other ISPs and city networks. Each account requires detail accounting for their customers. Tucows' products were the only one we could find that would handle this easily and without special programming. Paul D. Kralovec President Unplugged Cities, LLC 511 11th Ave. S Suite 241 Minneapolis, MN 55415 W: 763-235-3001 F: 763-647-7998 C: 952-270-9107 www.unpluggedcities.com -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Jason Hensley Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 8:38 AM To: 'WISPA General List' Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Use it for both, as well as hosting, email only, fiber customers, etc. Wish I had a way to integrate it for my computer sales and repair customers, but I haven't figured out a good way to do that yet without making Platypus my primary billing system for all of that as well, which I really don't want to do. -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of George Rogato Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 8:30 AM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Jason Hensley wrote: easy integration with Wombat (help-desk that we integrated a few months ago - love it too) Jason Do you use Wombat for dialup or wireless subs? I'm curious because I was going to add wombat a few years ago but held off, Lately I was considering checking out wombat to see if it would be a benefit, but I couldn't find enough info on it. George -- -- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -- -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- -- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -- -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 09:42:46AM -0400, Martha Huizenga wrote: Both Platypus and Wombat run on Windows NT server. Is there anything out there that will run on a Linux server? or on the PC as a straight client app? http://www.freeside.biz/freeside/ -- Scott LambertKC5MLE Unix SysAdmin lamb...@lambertfam.org WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
I agree with you on that. So many fixes that create other bugs. Hopefully with the new Bertram ownership, this will stabilize. They have been more responsive lately, though, when we do find bugs. Mark Nash UnwiredWest 78 Centennial Loop, Suite E Eugene, OR 97401 http://www.unwiredwest.com 541-998- 541-998-5599 fax - Original Message - From: John McDowell j...@boonlink.com To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 2:24 PM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. You guys should read the threads on the Moto list. Lot of people tired of the way the company is doing it's customers. And tired of testing beta software full of bugs with every release. This includes us. A Powercode customer of 2 years. Sent from my iPhone On Mar 21, 2009, at 11:54 AM, Mark Nash markl...@uwol.net wrote: Marlon, I looked at Intrameta and PowerCode and chose PowerCode for bang for buck. You really should look at them. It has its faults, but it's like a drug that we can't do without. It handles alot for us. Do a demo one day and check it out. Mark Nash UnwiredWest 78 Centennial Loop, Suite E Eugene, OR 97401 http://www.unwiredwest.com 541-998- 541-998-5599 fax - Original Message - From: Marlon K. Schafer o...@odessaoffice.com To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 8:12 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. http://intrameta.com/ They are a vendor member and good guys. I've talked to them (David Wilson got us hooked up) quite a bit. It sounds like they have a nice system. But the costs are higher than I can justify at this point and last I talked to them they didn't have a billing mechanism in place. marlon - Original Message - From: Charles Wu c...@cticonnect.com To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 7:58 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Hi Marlon, In no particular order, here's a list of some of the more popular ISP/WISP billing packages that we see in the market Platypus/Tucows PowerCode Rodopi BillMax Freeside Emerald / IEA Software Every package has their strengths and weaknesses -- ultimately, it comes down to personal preference and business processes to see what's a best fit Whatever it is that you end up with...be sure to check out ip pay (www.ippay.com) for your back-end payments =) -Charles P.S. -- in all seriousness -- QuickBooks does a really good job of hosing merchants (especially ISPs) on their payment processing -- we actually just helped another ISP/WISP pay for a new billing system with the $400 / month we were saving when they switched from QuickBooks Merchant Services to IP Pay -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless- boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Marlon K. Schafer Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 9:52 AM To: WISPA General List Cc: memb...@wispa.org; Odessa Office 509-982-2181 Subject: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Hi All, I just got a notice that Quickbooks is going to REQUIRE an upgrade in order to continue to keep sending out bills via email. And we have all of 1 month or so to get it done I HATE Intuit and would like to replace them. Here's the work flow in our office. New customer calls in. Fill out signup sheet with all needed customer data. Assign static ip to customer. Enter customer billing info into Quickbooks. Enter all customer data into Access. Enter customer username and pass into RADIUS. Enter customer email account(s) data into email server. Enter customer data into Postini (if they purchase the filtering). Type customer signup sheet info into word doc and store in customer folder. Generate installation work order. Fill out check list showing what steps have been completed. This has worked nicely in the past and only takes about 30 minutes to accomplish. But now we're growing too fast and have gotten too big to maintain this. Between tech support calls etc. the office manager is having to bring in extra help. It's only a day per week and it's good for there to be two people there at least part of the time. No one should work alone all of the time. Plus, if she wants to take some time off she will have someone trained in the basics so we'll likely need to keep some extra help around no matter what. This mechanism also gives us a lot of double checks, redundant data points etc. With Access and Quickbooks we can run a very nice mix of reports etc. We do NOT have a customer trouble ticket mechanism other than the file on them. We don't track customers on a per call basis. That's not too bad because we're still small enough that we can normally remember problem customers. This would probably be a good time to change everything though. In my perfect world, I'd have a billing system
[WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
Hi All, I just got a notice that Quickbooks is going to REQUIRE an upgrade in order to continue to keep sending out bills via email. And we have all of 1 month or so to get it done I HATE Intuit and would like to replace them. Here's the work flow in our office. New customer calls in. Fill out signup sheet with all needed customer data. Assign static ip to customer. Enter customer billing info into Quickbooks. Enter all customer data into Access. Enter customer username and pass into RADIUS. Enter customer email account(s) data into email server. Enter customer data into Postini (if they purchase the filtering). Type customer signup sheet info into word doc and store in customer folder. Generate installation work order. Fill out check list showing what steps have been completed. This has worked nicely in the past and only takes about 30 minutes to accomplish. But now we're growing too fast and have gotten too big to maintain this. Between tech support calls etc. the office manager is having to bring in extra help. It's only a day per week and it's good for there to be two people there at least part of the time. No one should work alone all of the time. Plus, if she wants to take some time off she will have someone trained in the basics so we'll likely need to keep some extra help around no matter what. This mechanism also gives us a lot of double checks, redundant data points etc. With Access and Quickbooks we can run a very nice mix of reports etc. We do NOT have a customer trouble ticket mechanism other than the file on them. We don't track customers on a per call basis. That's not too bad because we're still small enough that we can normally remember problem customers. This would probably be a good time to change everything though. In my perfect world, I'd have a billing system (that handles all of the taxes for different communities etc.), trouble ticketing, auto server configuration AND deconfig. I'd want good reporting capabilities. I've looked at some of the commercial systems out there, but at $1 or more per month per sub for a full blown system I'd rather keep putting that money into the local labor pool. Freeside looks pretty good but I don't do programming or server admin work in-house. I don't mind hiring someone to set it all up etc. and to take care of the server. But it has to be an affordable solution too. What are people using? Do you like it? If you had it to do all over again, what would you do? Vendors please feel free to hit me up. marlon 509.988.0260 Or talk to Apryl in the office 509.982.2181, she'll know more about what she does day in and day out. WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
Hi Marlon, In no particular order, here's a list of some of the more popular ISP/WISP billing packages that we see in the market Platypus/Tucows PowerCode Rodopi BillMax Freeside Emerald / IEA Software Every package has their strengths and weaknesses -- ultimately, it comes down to personal preference and business processes to see what's a best fit Whatever it is that you end up with...be sure to check out ip pay (www.ippay.com) for your back-end payments =) -Charles P.S. -- in all seriousness -- QuickBooks does a really good job of hosing merchants (especially ISPs) on their payment processing -- we actually just helped another ISP/WISP pay for a new billing system with the $400 / month we were saving when they switched from QuickBooks Merchant Services to IP Pay -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Marlon K. Schafer Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 9:52 AM To: WISPA General List Cc: memb...@wispa.org; Odessa Office 509-982-2181 Subject: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Hi All, I just got a notice that Quickbooks is going to REQUIRE an upgrade in order to continue to keep sending out bills via email. And we have all of 1 month or so to get it done I HATE Intuit and would like to replace them. Here's the work flow in our office. New customer calls in. Fill out signup sheet with all needed customer data. Assign static ip to customer. Enter customer billing info into Quickbooks. Enter all customer data into Access. Enter customer username and pass into RADIUS. Enter customer email account(s) data into email server. Enter customer data into Postini (if they purchase the filtering). Type customer signup sheet info into word doc and store in customer folder. Generate installation work order. Fill out check list showing what steps have been completed. This has worked nicely in the past and only takes about 30 minutes to accomplish. But now we're growing too fast and have gotten too big to maintain this. Between tech support calls etc. the office manager is having to bring in extra help. It's only a day per week and it's good for there to be two people there at least part of the time. No one should work alone all of the time. Plus, if she wants to take some time off she will have someone trained in the basics so we'll likely need to keep some extra help around no matter what. This mechanism also gives us a lot of double checks, redundant data points etc. With Access and Quickbooks we can run a very nice mix of reports etc. We do NOT have a customer trouble ticket mechanism other than the file on them. We don't track customers on a per call basis. That's not too bad because we're still small enough that we can normally remember problem customers. This would probably be a good time to change everything though. In my perfect world, I'd have a billing system (that handles all of the taxes for different communities etc.), trouble ticketing, auto server configuration AND deconfig. I'd want good reporting capabilities. I've looked at some of the commercial systems out there, but at $1 or more per month per sub for a full blown system I'd rather keep putting that money into the local labor pool. Freeside looks pretty good but I don't do programming or server admin work in-house. I don't mind hiring someone to set it all up etc. and to take care of the server. But it has to be an affordable solution too. What are people using? Do you like it? If you had it to do all over again, what would you do? Vendors please feel free to hit me up. marlon 509.988.0260 Or talk to Apryl in the office 509.982.2181, she'll know more about what she does day in and day out. WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ This message is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivery of the message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by telephone at 630-344-1586. WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
Well you either use freeside at no cost but you pay for the programming, someone on this list is an expert freeside programmer by the way, or you use Platypus which is not free but needs less programing. There are others like Platypus, billmax rodolphi etc. You may want to search the archives. grin Marlon K. Schafer wrote: Hi All, I just got a notice that Quickbooks is going to REQUIRE an upgrade in order to continue to keep sending out bills via email. And we have all of 1 month or so to get it done I HATE Intuit and would like to replace them. Here's the work flow in our office. New customer calls in. Fill out signup sheet with all needed customer data. Assign static ip to customer. Enter customer billing info into Quickbooks. Enter all customer data into Access. Enter customer username and pass into RADIUS. Enter customer email account(s) data into email server. Enter customer data into Postini (if they purchase the filtering). Type customer signup sheet info into word doc and store in customer folder. Generate installation work order. Fill out check list showing what steps have been completed. This has worked nicely in the past and only takes about 30 minutes to accomplish. But now we're growing too fast and have gotten too big to maintain this. Between tech support calls etc. the office manager is having to bring in extra help. It's only a day per week and it's good for there to be two people there at least part of the time. No one should work alone all of the time. Plus, if she wants to take some time off she will have someone trained in the basics so we'll likely need to keep some extra help around no matter what. This mechanism also gives us a lot of double checks, redundant data points etc. With Access and Quickbooks we can run a very nice mix of reports etc. We do NOT have a customer trouble ticket mechanism other than the file on them. We don't track customers on a per call basis. That's not too bad because we're still small enough that we can normally remember problem customers. This would probably be a good time to change everything though. In my perfect world, I'd have a billing system (that handles all of the taxes for different communities etc.), trouble ticketing, auto server configuration AND deconfig. I'd want good reporting capabilities. I've looked at some of the commercial systems out there, but at $1 or more per month per sub for a full blown system I'd rather keep putting that money into the local labor pool. Freeside looks pretty good but I don't do programming or server admin work in-house. I don't mind hiring someone to set it all up etc. and to take care of the server. But it has to be an affordable solution too. What are people using? Do you like it? If you had it to do all over again, what would you do? Vendors please feel free to hit me up. marlon 509.988.0260 Or talk to Apryl in the office 509.982.2181, she'll know more about what she does day in and day out. WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
Thanks Charles. I've heard of most of those, and a few more, but haven't talked to many people that use the. I probably know Freeside the best because that's what Matt Larsen uses. He's showed me some of what he's doing (customer monitoring etc.) with it and I'm very impressed. But he's much more server side talented than I am As for merchant services, we have a very nice system in place through our local bank. We're quite happy with it and we're getting very good rates. laters, marlon - Original Message - From: Charles Wu c...@cticonnect.com To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 7:58 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Hi Marlon, In no particular order, here's a list of some of the more popular ISP/WISP billing packages that we see in the market Platypus/Tucows PowerCode Rodopi BillMax Freeside Emerald / IEA Software Every package has their strengths and weaknesses -- ultimately, it comes down to personal preference and business processes to see what's a best fit Whatever it is that you end up with...be sure to check out ip pay (www.ippay.com) for your back-end payments =) -Charles P.S. -- in all seriousness -- QuickBooks does a really good job of hosing merchants (especially ISPs) on their payment processing -- we actually just helped another ISP/WISP pay for a new billing system with the $400 / month we were saving when they switched from QuickBooks Merchant Services to IP Pay -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Marlon K. Schafer Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 9:52 AM To: WISPA General List Cc: memb...@wispa.org; Odessa Office 509-982-2181 Subject: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Hi All, I just got a notice that Quickbooks is going to REQUIRE an upgrade in order to continue to keep sending out bills via email. And we have all of 1 month or so to get it done I HATE Intuit and would like to replace them. Here's the work flow in our office. New customer calls in. Fill out signup sheet with all needed customer data. Assign static ip to customer. Enter customer billing info into Quickbooks. Enter all customer data into Access. Enter customer username and pass into RADIUS. Enter customer email account(s) data into email server. Enter customer data into Postini (if they purchase the filtering). Type customer signup sheet info into word doc and store in customer folder. Generate installation work order. Fill out check list showing what steps have been completed. This has worked nicely in the past and only takes about 30 minutes to accomplish. But now we're growing too fast and have gotten too big to maintain this. Between tech support calls etc. the office manager is having to bring in extra help. It's only a day per week and it's good for there to be two people there at least part of the time. No one should work alone all of the time. Plus, if she wants to take some time off she will have someone trained in the basics so we'll likely need to keep some extra help around no matter what. This mechanism also gives us a lot of double checks, redundant data points etc. With Access and Quickbooks we can run a very nice mix of reports etc. We do NOT have a customer trouble ticket mechanism other than the file on them. We don't track customers on a per call basis. That's not too bad because we're still small enough that we can normally remember problem customers. This would probably be a good time to change everything though. In my perfect world, I'd have a billing system (that handles all of the taxes for different communities etc.), trouble ticketing, auto server configuration AND deconfig. I'd want good reporting capabilities. I've looked at some of the commercial systems out there, but at $1 or more per month per sub for a full blown system I'd rather keep putting that money into the local labor pool. Freeside looks pretty good but I don't do programming or server admin work in-house. I don't mind hiring someone to set it all up etc. and to take care of the server. But it has to be an affordable solution too. What are people using? Do you like it? If you had it to do all over again, what would you do? Vendors please feel free to hit me up. marlon 509.988.0260 Or talk to Apryl in the office 509.982.2181, she'll know more about what she does day in and day out. WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ This message is intended only for the use of the individual
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
http://intrameta.com/ They are a vendor member and good guys. I've talked to them (David Wilson got us hooked up) quite a bit. It sounds like they have a nice system. But the costs are higher than I can justify at this point and last I talked to them they didn't have a billing mechanism in place. marlon - Original Message - From: Charles Wu c...@cticonnect.com To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 7:58 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Hi Marlon, In no particular order, here's a list of some of the more popular ISP/WISP billing packages that we see in the market Platypus/Tucows PowerCode Rodopi BillMax Freeside Emerald / IEA Software Every package has their strengths and weaknesses -- ultimately, it comes down to personal preference and business processes to see what's a best fit Whatever it is that you end up with...be sure to check out ip pay (www.ippay.com) for your back-end payments =) -Charles P.S. -- in all seriousness -- QuickBooks does a really good job of hosing merchants (especially ISPs) on their payment processing -- we actually just helped another ISP/WISP pay for a new billing system with the $400 / month we were saving when they switched from QuickBooks Merchant Services to IP Pay -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Marlon K. Schafer Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 9:52 AM To: WISPA General List Cc: memb...@wispa.org; Odessa Office 509-982-2181 Subject: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Hi All, I just got a notice that Quickbooks is going to REQUIRE an upgrade in order to continue to keep sending out bills via email. And we have all of 1 month or so to get it done I HATE Intuit and would like to replace them. Here's the work flow in our office. New customer calls in. Fill out signup sheet with all needed customer data. Assign static ip to customer. Enter customer billing info into Quickbooks. Enter all customer data into Access. Enter customer username and pass into RADIUS. Enter customer email account(s) data into email server. Enter customer data into Postini (if they purchase the filtering). Type customer signup sheet info into word doc and store in customer folder. Generate installation work order. Fill out check list showing what steps have been completed. This has worked nicely in the past and only takes about 30 minutes to accomplish. But now we're growing too fast and have gotten too big to maintain this. Between tech support calls etc. the office manager is having to bring in extra help. It's only a day per week and it's good for there to be two people there at least part of the time. No one should work alone all of the time. Plus, if she wants to take some time off she will have someone trained in the basics so we'll likely need to keep some extra help around no matter what. This mechanism also gives us a lot of double checks, redundant data points etc. With Access and Quickbooks we can run a very nice mix of reports etc. We do NOT have a customer trouble ticket mechanism other than the file on them. We don't track customers on a per call basis. That's not too bad because we're still small enough that we can normally remember problem customers. This would probably be a good time to change everything though. In my perfect world, I'd have a billing system (that handles all of the taxes for different communities etc.), trouble ticketing, auto server configuration AND deconfig. I'd want good reporting capabilities. I've looked at some of the commercial systems out there, but at $1 or more per month per sub for a full blown system I'd rather keep putting that money into the local labor pool. Freeside looks pretty good but I don't do programming or server admin work in-house. I don't mind hiring someone to set it all up etc. and to take care of the server. But it has to be an affordable solution too. What are people using? Do you like it? If you had it to do all over again, what would you do? Vendors please feel free to hit me up. marlon 509.988.0260 Or talk to Apryl in the office 509.982.2181, she'll know more about what she does day in and day out. WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ This message is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If the reader of this message
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
Grin. I know that this has come up from time to time. I'm after current info and thoughts. laters, marlon - Original Message - From: George Rogato wi...@oregonfast.net To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 8:01 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Well you either use freeside at no cost but you pay for the programming, someone on this list is an expert freeside programmer by the way, or you use Platypus which is not free but needs less programing. There are others like Platypus, billmax rodolphi etc. You may want to search the archives. grin Marlon K. Schafer wrote: Hi All, I just got a notice that Quickbooks is going to REQUIRE an upgrade in order to continue to keep sending out bills via email. And we have all of 1 month or so to get it done I HATE Intuit and would like to replace them. Here's the work flow in our office. New customer calls in. Fill out signup sheet with all needed customer data. Assign static ip to customer. Enter customer billing info into Quickbooks. Enter all customer data into Access. Enter customer username and pass into RADIUS. Enter customer email account(s) data into email server. Enter customer data into Postini (if they purchase the filtering). Type customer signup sheet info into word doc and store in customer folder. Generate installation work order. Fill out check list showing what steps have been completed. This has worked nicely in the past and only takes about 30 minutes to accomplish. But now we're growing too fast and have gotten too big to maintain this. Between tech support calls etc. the office manager is having to bring in extra help. It's only a day per week and it's good for there to be two people there at least part of the time. No one should work alone all of the time. Plus, if she wants to take some time off she will have someone trained in the basics so we'll likely need to keep some extra help around no matter what. This mechanism also gives us a lot of double checks, redundant data points etc. With Access and Quickbooks we can run a very nice mix of reports etc. We do NOT have a customer trouble ticket mechanism other than the file on them. We don't track customers on a per call basis. That's not too bad because we're still small enough that we can normally remember problem customers. This would probably be a good time to change everything though. In my perfect world, I'd have a billing system (that handles all of the taxes for different communities etc.), trouble ticketing, auto server configuration AND deconfig. I'd want good reporting capabilities. I've looked at some of the commercial systems out there, but at $1 or more per month per sub for a full blown system I'd rather keep putting that money into the local labor pool. Freeside looks pretty good but I don't do programming or server admin work in-house. I don't mind hiring someone to set it all up etc. and to take care of the server. But it has to be an affordable solution too. What are people using? Do you like it? If you had it to do all over again, what would you do? Vendors please feel free to hit me up. marlon 509.988.0260 Or talk to Apryl in the office 509.982.2181, she'll know more about what she does day in and day out. WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
Here's a thought, been using Platypus for years, supports my isp very well. I'm happy. Marlon K. Schafer wrote: Grin. I know that this has come up from time to time. I'm after current info and thoughts. laters, marlon - Original Message - From: George Rogato wi...@oregonfast.net To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 8:01 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Well you either use freeside at no cost but you pay for the programming, someone on this list is an expert freeside programmer by the way, or you use Platypus which is not free but needs less programing. There are others like Platypus, billmax rodolphi etc. You may want to search the archives. grin Marlon K. Schafer wrote: Hi All, I just got a notice that Quickbooks is going to REQUIRE an upgrade in order to continue to keep sending out bills via email. And we have all of 1 month or so to get it done I HATE Intuit and would like to replace them. Here's the work flow in our office. New customer calls in. Fill out signup sheet with all needed customer data. Assign static ip to customer. Enter customer billing info into Quickbooks. Enter all customer data into Access. Enter customer username and pass into RADIUS. Enter customer email account(s) data into email server. Enter customer data into Postini (if they purchase the filtering). Type customer signup sheet info into word doc and store in customer folder. Generate installation work order. Fill out check list showing what steps have been completed. This has worked nicely in the past and only takes about 30 minutes to accomplish. But now we're growing too fast and have gotten too big to maintain this. Between tech support calls etc. the office manager is having to bring in extra help. It's only a day per week and it's good for there to be two people there at least part of the time. No one should work alone all of the time. Plus, if she wants to take some time off she will have someone trained in the basics so we'll likely need to keep some extra help around no matter what. This mechanism also gives us a lot of double checks, redundant data points etc. With Access and Quickbooks we can run a very nice mix of reports etc. We do NOT have a customer trouble ticket mechanism other than the file on them. We don't track customers on a per call basis. That's not too bad because we're still small enough that we can normally remember problem customers. This would probably be a good time to change everything though. In my perfect world, I'd have a billing system (that handles all of the taxes for different communities etc.), trouble ticketing, auto server configuration AND deconfig. I'd want good reporting capabilities. I've looked at some of the commercial systems out there, but at $1 or more per month per sub for a full blown system I'd rather keep putting that money into the local labor pool. Freeside looks pretty good but I don't do programming or server admin work in-house. I don't mind hiring someone to set it all up etc. and to take care of the server. But it has to be an affordable solution too. What are people using? Do you like it? If you had it to do all over again, what would you do? Vendors please feel free to hit me up. marlon 509.988.0260 Or talk to Apryl in the office 509.982.2181, she'll know more about what she does day in and day out. WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
As for merchant services, we have a very nice system in place through our local bank. We're quite happy with it and we're getting very good rates. Good for you Remember, credit card rates are all based upon fraud risk (e.g., a swiped card has a lower transaction rate than a phone order / keyed card) -- that said, there are specific rate structures that were implemented about 4-5 years ago to account for the fact that ISP/Telco/CableCos bill the same people every month and that they have extremely low chargebacks Your bank (and I'd say 99% of the credit card industry) doesn't differentiate between this and I can say with 100% certainty that you're being labeled as an Internet/Ecommerce provider. Additionally, to take advantage of this rate structure, Visa/MC require the implementation of enhanced data requirements; this can only occur with direct integration into a billing platform (e.g., need to get rid of the gateway) We've engaged over 300 service providers since the summer, and in EVERY SCENARIO, we have been able to properly reclassify them to take advantage of the recurring ISP/Telco/Cableco rates and reduce their payment processing fees by 10-40% -Charles This message is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivery of the message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by telephone at 630-344-1586. WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
OK, what are the rates you get people? We're at 2 or 3% last time I looked. Most companies wanted 4% or more, so I didn't move from our old win95 based system until a year or two ago. marlon - Original Message - From: Charles Wu c...@cticonnect.com To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 8:38 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. As for merchant services, we have a very nice system in place through our local bank. We're quite happy with it and we're getting very good rates. Good for you Remember, credit card rates are all based upon fraud risk (e.g., a swiped card has a lower transaction rate than a phone order / keyed card) -- that said, there are specific rate structures that were implemented about 4-5 years ago to account for the fact that ISP/Telco/CableCos bill the same people every month and that they have extremely low chargebacks Your bank (and I'd say 99% of the credit card industry) doesn't differentiate between this and I can say with 100% certainty that you're being labeled as an Internet/Ecommerce provider. Additionally, to take advantage of this rate structure, Visa/MC require the implementation of enhanced data requirements; this can only occur with direct integration into a billing platform (e.g., need to get rid of the gateway) We've engaged over 300 service providers since the summer, and in EVERY SCENARIO, we have been able to properly reclassify them to take advantage of the recurring ISP/Telco/Cableco rates and reduce their payment processing fees by 10-40% -Charles This message is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivery of the message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by telephone at 630-344-1586. WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
What version of QB are you using now? Frank Muto - Original Message - From: Marlon K. Schafer o...@odessaoffice.com To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Cc: memb...@wispa.org; Odessa Office 509-982-2181 off...@odessaoffice.com Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 10:51 AM Subject: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Hi All, I just got a notice that Quickbooks is going to REQUIRE an upgrade in order to continue to keep sending out bills via email. And we have all of 1 month or so to get it done I HATE Intuit and would like to replace them. Here's the work flow in our office. New customer calls in. Fill out signup sheet with all needed customer data. Assign static ip to customer. Enter customer billing info into Quickbooks. Enter all customer data into Access. Enter customer username and pass into RADIUS. Enter customer email account(s) data into email server. Enter customer data into Postini (if they purchase the filtering). Type customer signup sheet info into word doc and store in customer folder. Generate installation work order. Fill out check list showing what steps have been completed. This has worked nicely in the past and only takes about 30 minutes to accomplish. But now we're growing too fast and have gotten too big to maintain this. Between tech support calls etc. the office manager is having to bring in extra help. It's only a day per week and it's good for there to be two people there at least part of the time. No one should work alone all of the time. Plus, if she wants to take some time off she will have someone trained in the basics so we'll likely need to keep some extra help around no matter what. This mechanism also gives us a lot of double checks, redundant data points etc. With Access and Quickbooks we can run a very nice mix of reports etc. We do NOT have a customer trouble ticket mechanism other than the file on them. We don't track customers on a per call basis. That's not too bad because we're still small enough that we can normally remember problem customers. This would probably be a good time to change everything though. In my perfect world, I'd have a billing system (that handles all of the taxes for different communities etc.), trouble ticketing, auto server configuration AND deconfig. I'd want good reporting capabilities. I've looked at some of the commercial systems out there, but at $1 or more per month per sub for a full blown system I'd rather keep putting that money into the local labor pool. Freeside looks pretty good but I don't do programming or server admin work in-house. I don't mind hiring someone to set it all up etc. and to take care of the server. But it has to be an affordable solution too. What are people using? Do you like it? If you had it to do all over again, what would you do? Vendors please feel free to hit me up. marlon 509.988.0260 Or talk to Apryl in the office 509.982.2181, she'll know more about what she does day in and day out. WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
Marlon, I looked at Intrameta and PowerCode and chose PowerCode for bang for buck. You really should look at them. It has its faults, but it's like a drug that we can't do without. It handles alot for us. Do a demo one day and check it out. Mark Nash UnwiredWest 78 Centennial Loop, Suite E Eugene, OR 97401 http://www.unwiredwest.com 541-998- 541-998-5599 fax - Original Message - From: Marlon K. Schafer o...@odessaoffice.com To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 8:12 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. http://intrameta.com/ They are a vendor member and good guys. I've talked to them (David Wilson got us hooked up) quite a bit. It sounds like they have a nice system. But the costs are higher than I can justify at this point and last I talked to them they didn't have a billing mechanism in place. marlon - Original Message - From: Charles Wu c...@cticonnect.com To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 7:58 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Hi Marlon, In no particular order, here's a list of some of the more popular ISP/WISP billing packages that we see in the market Platypus/Tucows PowerCode Rodopi BillMax Freeside Emerald / IEA Software Every package has their strengths and weaknesses -- ultimately, it comes down to personal preference and business processes to see what's a best fit Whatever it is that you end up with...be sure to check out ip pay (www.ippay.com) for your back-end payments =) -Charles P.S. -- in all seriousness -- QuickBooks does a really good job of hosing merchants (especially ISPs) on their payment processing -- we actually just helped another ISP/WISP pay for a new billing system with the $400 / month we were saving when they switched from QuickBooks Merchant Services to IP Pay -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Marlon K. Schafer Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 9:52 AM To: WISPA General List Cc: memb...@wispa.org; Odessa Office 509-982-2181 Subject: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Hi All, I just got a notice that Quickbooks is going to REQUIRE an upgrade in order to continue to keep sending out bills via email. And we have all of 1 month or so to get it done I HATE Intuit and would like to replace them. Here's the work flow in our office. New customer calls in. Fill out signup sheet with all needed customer data. Assign static ip to customer. Enter customer billing info into Quickbooks. Enter all customer data into Access. Enter customer username and pass into RADIUS. Enter customer email account(s) data into email server. Enter customer data into Postini (if they purchase the filtering). Type customer signup sheet info into word doc and store in customer folder. Generate installation work order. Fill out check list showing what steps have been completed. This has worked nicely in the past and only takes about 30 minutes to accomplish. But now we're growing too fast and have gotten too big to maintain this. Between tech support calls etc. the office manager is having to bring in extra help. It's only a day per week and it's good for there to be two people there at least part of the time. No one should work alone all of the time. Plus, if she wants to take some time off she will have someone trained in the basics so we'll likely need to keep some extra help around no matter what. This mechanism also gives us a lot of double checks, redundant data points etc. With Access and Quickbooks we can run a very nice mix of reports etc. We do NOT have a customer trouble ticket mechanism other than the file on them. We don't track customers on a per call basis. That's not too bad because we're still small enough that we can normally remember problem customers. This would probably be a good time to change everything though. In my perfect world, I'd have a billing system (that handles all of the taxes for different communities etc.), trouble ticketing, auto server configuration AND deconfig. I'd want good reporting capabilities. I've looked at some of the commercial systems out there, but at $1 or more per month per sub for a full blown system I'd rather keep putting that money into the local labor pool. Freeside looks pretty good but I don't do programming or server admin work in-house. I don't mind hiring someone to set it all up etc. and to take care of the server. But it has to be an affordable solution too. What are people using? Do you like it? If you had it to do all over again, what would you do? Vendors please feel free to hit me up. marlon 509.988.0260 Or talk to Apryl in the office 509.982.2181, she'll know more about what she does day in and day out
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
We just got activated yesterday. We used Authorize.Net / Chase processing. The rates were better w/IP-Pay and we get better reporting from it. It would take Authorize.Net 3 days from now to show transactions that we did today, regardless of business day. IP-Pay has a real-time option where you can see exactly what happened with a transaction you just made. That was worth switching right there. (not to mention that when I set up the Authorize.Net account, they recorded my cell phone # and it's THAT phone # that shows up on everyone's bill. Sheesh... I have worked very hard to keep my cell phone numbers from all but 2 customers (have to have some resemblance of a life). Auth.Net just would not take that off of our account! So I started getting calls at all hours. Hopefully now that will reside...) Mark Nash UnwiredWest 78 Centennial Loop, Suite E Eugene, OR 97401 http://www.unwiredwest.com 541-998- 541-998-5599 fax - Original Message - From: Charles Wu c...@cticonnect.com To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 8:38 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. As for merchant services, we have a very nice system in place through our local bank. We're quite happy with it and we're getting very good rates. Good for you Remember, credit card rates are all based upon fraud risk (e.g., a swiped card has a lower transaction rate than a phone order / keyed card) -- that said, there are specific rate structures that were implemented about 4-5 years ago to account for the fact that ISP/Telco/CableCos bill the same people every month and that they have extremely low chargebacks Your bank (and I'd say 99% of the credit card industry) doesn't differentiate between this and I can say with 100% certainty that you're being labeled as an Internet/Ecommerce provider. Additionally, to take advantage of this rate structure, Visa/MC require the implementation of enhanced data requirements; this can only occur with direct integration into a billing platform (e.g., need to get rid of the gateway) We've engaged over 300 service providers since the summer, and in EVERY SCENARIO, we have been able to properly reclassify them to take advantage of the recurring ISP/Telco/Cableco rates and reduce their payment processing fees by 10-40% -Charles This message is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivery of the message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by telephone at 630-344-1586. WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
Butch Evans and Jeremy Davis are getting me set up with Freeside (partly because quickbooks did the same thing to me). I am not using it yet, but I sure do like that for X per hour I can say, "Hey Jeremy, make freeside do this, and he says ok". Brian Mark Nash wrote: Marlon, I looked at Intrameta and PowerCode and chose PowerCode for bang for buck. You really should look at them. It has its faults, but it's like a drug that we can't do without. It handles alot for us. Do a demo one day and check it out. Mark Nash UnwiredWest 78 Centennial Loop, Suite E Eugene, OR 97401 http://www.unwiredwest.com 541-998- 541-998-5599 fax - Original Message - From: "Marlon K. Schafer" o...@odessaoffice.com To: "WISPA General List" wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 8:12 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. http://intrameta.com/ They are a vendor member and good guys. I've talked to them (David Wilson got us hooked up) quite a bit. It sounds like they have a nice system. But the costs are higher than I can justify at this point and last I talked to them they didn't have a billing mechanism in place. marlon - Original Message - From: "Charles Wu" c...@cticonnect.com To: "WISPA General List" wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 7:58 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Hi Marlon, In no particular order, here's a list of some of the more popular ISP/WISP billing packages that we see in the market Platypus/Tucows PowerCode Rodopi BillMax Freeside Emerald / IEA Software Every package has their strengths and weaknesses -- ultimately, it comes down to personal preference and business processes to see what's a best fit Whatever it is that you end up with...be sure to check out ip pay (www.ippay.com) for your back-end payments =) -Charles P.S. -- in all seriousness -- QuickBooks does a really good job of hosing merchants (especially ISPs) on their payment processing -- we actually just helped another ISP/WISP pay for a new billing system with the $400 / month we were saving when they switched from QuickBooks Merchant Services to IP Pay -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Marlon K. Schafer Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 9:52 AM To: WISPA General List Cc: memb...@wispa.org; Odessa Office 509-982-2181 Subject: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Hi All, I just got a notice that Quickbooks is going to REQUIRE an upgrade in order to continue to keep sending out bills via email. And we have all of 1 month or so to get it done I HATE Intuit and would like to replace them. Here's the work flow in our office. New customer calls in. Fill out signup sheet with all needed customer data. Assign static ip to customer. Enter customer billing info into Quickbooks. Enter all customer data into Access. Enter customer username and pass into RADIUS. Enter customer email account(s) data into email server. Enter customer data into Postini (if they purchase the filtering). Type customer signup sheet info into word doc and store in customer folder. Generate installation work order. Fill out check list showing what steps have been completed. This has worked nicely in the past and "only" takes about 30 minutes to accomplish. But now we're growing too fast and have gotten too big to maintain this. Between tech support calls etc. the office manager is having to bring in extra help. It's only a day per week and it's good for there to be two people there at least part of the time. No one should work alone all of the time. Plus, if she wants to take some time off she will have someone trained in the basics so we'll likely need to keep some extra help around no matter what. This mechanism also gives us a lot of double checks, redundant data points etc. With Access and Quickbooks we can run a very nice mix of reports etc. We do NOT have a customer trouble ticket mechanism other than the file on them. We don't track customers on a per call basis. That's not too bad because we're still small enough that we can normally remember problem customers. This would probably be a good time to change everything though. In my perfect world, I'd have a billing system (that handles all of the taxes for different communities etc.), trouble ticketing, auto server configuration AND deconfig. I'd want good reporting capabilities. I've looked at some of the commercial systems out there, but at $1 or more per month per sub for a full blown system I'd rather keep putting that money into the local labor pool. Freeside looks pretty good but I don't do programming or server admin work in-house. I don't mind hiring someone to set it all up etc. and to take care of the server. But it has to be an affordable solution too. What are people using? Do you like it? If you had
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
Marlon, I got a notice like that from Quickbooks maybe 6 months ago. I irked me because I didn't want them to be able to force me to upgrade when my 2004 edition was doing just fine. I started using the following workaround. 1. Rather than emailing invoices directly from QB via their email gateway, I now save each completed invoice as a PDF in the subdirectory of the client that I'm invoicing. 2. From my email program, I then originate an email to the client and attach the PDF invoice. This process may take a few more seconds than the older, mail-from-QB process but it has worked out well otherwise and I feel that I am less of a victim of Intuit's marketing machine. Also, when I need to follow up with the client regarding payment status (which happens all too often these days) I can just go back to the original email that I sent them and forward it to the client along with a polite inquiry as to the payment status. jack Marlon K. Schafer wrote: Hi All, I just got a notice that Quickbooks is going to REQUIRE an upgrade in order to continue to keep sending out bills via email. And we have all of 1 month or so to get it done I HATE Intuit and would like to replace them. Here's the work flow in our office. New customer calls in. Fill out signup sheet with all needed customer data. Assign static ip to customer. Enter customer billing info into Quickbooks. Enter all customer data into Access. Enter customer username and pass into RADIUS. Enter customer email account(s) data into email server. Enter customer data into Postini (if they purchase the filtering). Type customer signup sheet info into word doc and store in customer folder. Generate installation work order. Fill out check list showing what steps have been completed. This has worked nicely in the past and only takes about 30 minutes to accomplish. But now we're growing too fast and have gotten too big to maintain this. Between tech support calls etc. the office manager is having to bring in extra help. It's only a day per week and it's good for there to be two people there at least part of the time. No one should work alone all of the time. Plus, if she wants to take some time off she will have someone trained in the basics so we'll likely need to keep some extra help around no matter what. This mechanism also gives us a lot of double checks, redundant data points etc. With Access and Quickbooks we can run a very nice mix of reports etc. We do NOT have a customer trouble ticket mechanism other than the file on them. We don't track customers on a per call basis. That's not too bad because we're still small enough that we can normally remember problem customers. This would probably be a good time to change everything though. In my perfect world, I'd have a billing system (that handles all of the taxes for different communities etc.), trouble ticketing, auto server configuration AND deconfig. I'd want good reporting capabilities. I've looked at some of the commercial systems out there, but at $1 or more per month per sub for a full blown system I'd rather keep putting that money into the local labor pool. Freeside looks pretty good but I don't do programming or server admin work in-house. I don't mind hiring someone to set it all up etc. and to take care of the server. But it has to be an affordable solution too. What are people using? Do you like it? If you had it to do all over again, what would you do? Vendors please feel free to hit me up. marlon 509.988.0260 Or talk to Apryl in the office 509.982.2181, she'll know more about what she does day in and day out. WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- Jack Unger - President, Ask-Wi.Com, Inc. Serving the Broadband Wireless Industry Since 1993 Cisco Press Author - Deploying License-Free Wireless WANs WISPs - Do you know where your customers are? For wireless coverage mapping see http://www.ask-wi.com/mapping FCC Lic. #PG-12-25133 LinkedIn Profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/jackunger Phone 818-227-4220 Email jun...@ask-wi.com WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
That may work for a smaller amount of customers, but when dealing with a significant amount of customers that can not be cost/time efficient thing to do. Frank - Original Message - From: Jack Unger jun...@ask-wi.com To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 3:19 PM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Marlon, I got a notice like that from Quickbooks maybe 6 months ago. I irked me because I didn't want them to be able to force me to upgrade when my 2004 edition was doing just fine. I started using the following workaround. 1. Rather than emailing invoices directly from QB via their email gateway, I now save each completed invoice as a PDF in the subdirectory of the client that I'm invoicing. 2. From my email program, I then originate an email to the client and attach the PDF invoice. This process may take a few more seconds than the older, mail-from-QB process but it has worked out well otherwise and I feel that I am less of a victim of Intuit's marketing machine. Also, when I need to follow up with the client regarding payment status (which happens all too often these days) I can just go back to the original email that I sent them and forward it to the client along with a polite inquiry as to the payment status. jack Marlon K. Schafer wrote: Hi All, I just got a notice that Quickbooks is going to REQUIRE an upgrade in order to continue to keep sending out bills via email. And we have all of 1 month or so to get it done I HATE Intuit and would like to replace them. Here's the work flow in our office. New customer calls in. Fill out signup sheet with all needed customer data. Assign static ip to customer. Enter customer billing info into Quickbooks. Enter all customer data into Access. Enter customer username and pass into RADIUS. Enter customer email account(s) data into email server. Enter customer data into Postini (if they purchase the filtering). Type customer signup sheet info into word doc and store in customer folder. Generate installation work order. Fill out check list showing what steps have been completed. This has worked nicely in the past and only takes about 30 minutes to accomplish. But now we're growing too fast and have gotten too big to maintain this. Between tech support calls etc. the office manager is having to bring in extra help. It's only a day per week and it's good for there to be two people there at least part of the time. No one should work alone all of the time. Plus, if she wants to take some time off she will have someone trained in the basics so we'll likely need to keep some extra help around no matter what. This mechanism also gives us a lot of double checks, redundant data points etc. With Access and Quickbooks we can run a very nice mix of reports etc. We do NOT have a customer trouble ticket mechanism other than the file on them. We don't track customers on a per call basis. That's not too bad because we're still small enough that we can normally remember problem customers. This would probably be a good time to change everything though. In my perfect world, I'd have a billing system (that handles all of the taxes for different communities etc.), trouble ticketing, auto server configuration AND deconfig. I'd want good reporting capabilities. I've looked at some of the commercial systems out there, but at $1 or more per month per sub for a full blown system I'd rather keep putting that money into the local labor pool. Freeside looks pretty good but I don't do programming or server admin work in-house. I don't mind hiring someone to set it all up etc. and to take care of the server. But it has to be an affordable solution too. What are people using? Do you like it? If you had it to do all over again, what would you do? Vendors please feel free to hit me up. marlon 509.988.0260 Or talk to Apryl in the office 509.982.2181, she'll know more about what she does day in and day out. WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- Jack Unger - President, Ask-Wi.Com, Inc. Serving the Broadband Wireless Industry Since 1993 Cisco Press Author - Deploying License-Free Wireless WANs WISPs - Do you know where your customers are? For wireless coverage mapping see http://www.ask-wi.com/mapping FCC Lic. #PG-12-25133 LinkedIn Profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/jackunger Phone 818-227-4220 Email jun...@ask-wi.com WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
06 pro I think. marlon - Original Message - From: Frank Muto frank.m...@secureemailplus.com To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 9:41 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. What version of QB are you using now? Frank Muto - Original Message - From: Marlon K. Schafer o...@odessaoffice.com To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Cc: memb...@wispa.org; Odessa Office 509-982-2181 off...@odessaoffice.com Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 10:51 AM Subject: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Hi All, I just got a notice that Quickbooks is going to REQUIRE an upgrade in order to continue to keep sending out bills via email. And we have all of 1 month or so to get it done I HATE Intuit and would like to replace them. Here's the work flow in our office. New customer calls in. Fill out signup sheet with all needed customer data. Assign static ip to customer. Enter customer billing info into Quickbooks. Enter all customer data into Access. Enter customer username and pass into RADIUS. Enter customer email account(s) data into email server. Enter customer data into Postini (if they purchase the filtering). Type customer signup sheet info into word doc and store in customer folder. Generate installation work order. Fill out check list showing what steps have been completed. This has worked nicely in the past and only takes about 30 minutes to accomplish. But now we're growing too fast and have gotten too big to maintain this. Between tech support calls etc. the office manager is having to bring in extra help. It's only a day per week and it's good for there to be two people there at least part of the time. No one should work alone all of the time. Plus, if she wants to take some time off she will have someone trained in the basics so we'll likely need to keep some extra help around no matter what. This mechanism also gives us a lot of double checks, redundant data points etc. With Access and Quickbooks we can run a very nice mix of reports etc. We do NOT have a customer trouble ticket mechanism other than the file on them. We don't track customers on a per call basis. That's not too bad because we're still small enough that we can normally remember problem customers. This would probably be a good time to change everything though. In my perfect world, I'd have a billing system (that handles all of the taxes for different communities etc.), trouble ticketing, auto server configuration AND deconfig. I'd want good reporting capabilities. I've looked at some of the commercial systems out there, but at $1 or more per month per sub for a full blown system I'd rather keep putting that money into the local labor pool. Freeside looks pretty good but I don't do programming or server admin work in-house. I don't mind hiring someone to set it all up etc. and to take care of the server. But it has to be an affordable solution too. What are people using? Do you like it? If you had it to do all over again, what would you do? Vendors please feel free to hit me up. marlon 509.988.0260 Or talk to Apryl in the office 509.982.2181, she'll know more about what she does day in and day out. WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
You guys should read the threads on the Moto list. Lot of people tired of the way the company is doing it's customers. And tired of testing beta software full of bugs with every release. This includes us. A Powercode customer of 2 years. Sent from my iPhone On Mar 21, 2009, at 11:54 AM, Mark Nash markl...@uwol.net wrote: Marlon, I looked at Intrameta and PowerCode and chose PowerCode for bang for buck. You really should look at them. It has its faults, but it's like a drug that we can't do without. It handles alot for us. Do a demo one day and check it out. Mark Nash UnwiredWest 78 Centennial Loop, Suite E Eugene, OR 97401 http://www.unwiredwest.com 541-998- 541-998-5599 fax - Original Message - From: Marlon K. Schafer o...@odessaoffice.com To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 8:12 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. http://intrameta.com/ They are a vendor member and good guys. I've talked to them (David Wilson got us hooked up) quite a bit. It sounds like they have a nice system. But the costs are higher than I can justify at this point and last I talked to them they didn't have a billing mechanism in place. marlon - Original Message - From: Charles Wu c...@cticonnect.com To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 7:58 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Hi Marlon, In no particular order, here's a list of some of the more popular ISP/WISP billing packages that we see in the market Platypus/Tucows PowerCode Rodopi BillMax Freeside Emerald / IEA Software Every package has their strengths and weaknesses -- ultimately, it comes down to personal preference and business processes to see what's a best fit Whatever it is that you end up with...be sure to check out ip pay (www.ippay.com) for your back-end payments =) -Charles P.S. -- in all seriousness -- QuickBooks does a really good job of hosing merchants (especially ISPs) on their payment processing -- we actually just helped another ISP/WISP pay for a new billing system with the $400 / month we were saving when they switched from QuickBooks Merchant Services to IP Pay -Original Message- From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless- boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Marlon K. Schafer Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 9:52 AM To: WISPA General List Cc: memb...@wispa.org; Odessa Office 509-982-2181 Subject: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Hi All, I just got a notice that Quickbooks is going to REQUIRE an upgrade in order to continue to keep sending out bills via email. And we have all of 1 month or so to get it done I HATE Intuit and would like to replace them. Here's the work flow in our office. New customer calls in. Fill out signup sheet with all needed customer data. Assign static ip to customer. Enter customer billing info into Quickbooks. Enter all customer data into Access. Enter customer username and pass into RADIUS. Enter customer email account(s) data into email server. Enter customer data into Postini (if they purchase the filtering). Type customer signup sheet info into word doc and store in customer folder. Generate installation work order. Fill out check list showing what steps have been completed. This has worked nicely in the past and only takes about 30 minutes to accomplish. But now we're growing too fast and have gotten too big to maintain this. Between tech support calls etc. the office manager is having to bring in extra help. It's only a day per week and it's good for there to be two people there at least part of the time. No one should work alone all of the time. Plus, if she wants to take some time off she will have someone trained in the basics so we'll likely need to keep some extra help around no matter what. This mechanism also gives us a lot of double checks, redundant data points etc. With Access and Quickbooks we can run a very nice mix of reports etc. We do NOT have a customer trouble ticket mechanism other than the file on them. We don't track customers on a per call basis. That's not too bad because we're still small enough that we can normally remember problem customers. This would probably be a good time to change everything though. In my perfect world, I'd have a billing system (that handles all of the taxes for different communities etc.), trouble ticketing, auto server configuration AND deconfig. I'd want good reporting capabilities. I've looked at some of the commercial systems out there, but at $1 or more per month per sub for a full blown system I'd rather keep putting that money into the local labor pool. Freeside looks pretty good but I don't do programming or server admin work in-house. I don't mind hiring someone to set
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
Thanks for the suggestion Jack. I don't think that would work very well for 500 to 600 invoices that all come out on the same day every month marlon - Original Message - From: Jack Unger jun...@ask-wi.com To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 12:19 PM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Marlon, I got a notice like that from Quickbooks maybe 6 months ago. I irked me because I didn't want them to be able to force me to upgrade when my 2004 edition was doing just fine. I started using the following workaround. 1. Rather than emailing invoices directly from QB via their email gateway, I now save each completed invoice as a PDF in the subdirectory of the client that I'm invoicing. 2. From my email program, I then originate an email to the client and attach the PDF invoice. This process may take a few more seconds than the older, mail-from-QB process but it has worked out well otherwise and I feel that I am less of a victim of Intuit's marketing machine. Also, when I need to follow up with the client regarding payment status (which happens all too often these days) I can just go back to the original email that I sent them and forward it to the client along with a polite inquiry as to the payment status. jack Marlon K. Schafer wrote: Hi All, I just got a notice that Quickbooks is going to REQUIRE an upgrade in order to continue to keep sending out bills via email. And we have all of 1 month or so to get it done I HATE Intuit and would like to replace them. Here's the work flow in our office. New customer calls in. Fill out signup sheet with all needed customer data. Assign static ip to customer. Enter customer billing info into Quickbooks. Enter all customer data into Access. Enter customer username and pass into RADIUS. Enter customer email account(s) data into email server. Enter customer data into Postini (if they purchase the filtering). Type customer signup sheet info into word doc and store in customer folder. Generate installation work order. Fill out check list showing what steps have been completed. This has worked nicely in the past and only takes about 30 minutes to accomplish. But now we're growing too fast and have gotten too big to maintain this. Between tech support calls etc. the office manager is having to bring in extra help. It's only a day per week and it's good for there to be two people there at least part of the time. No one should work alone all of the time. Plus, if she wants to take some time off she will have someone trained in the basics so we'll likely need to keep some extra help around no matter what. This mechanism also gives us a lot of double checks, redundant data points etc. With Access and Quickbooks we can run a very nice mix of reports etc. We do NOT have a customer trouble ticket mechanism other than the file on them. We don't track customers on a per call basis. That's not too bad because we're still small enough that we can normally remember problem customers. This would probably be a good time to change everything though. In my perfect world, I'd have a billing system (that handles all of the taxes for different communities etc.), trouble ticketing, auto server configuration AND deconfig. I'd want good reporting capabilities. I've looked at some of the commercial systems out there, but at $1 or more per month per sub for a full blown system I'd rather keep putting that money into the local labor pool. Freeside looks pretty good but I don't do programming or server admin work in-house. I don't mind hiring someone to set it all up etc. and to take care of the server. But it has to be an affordable solution too. What are people using? Do you like it? If you had it to do all over again, what would you do? Vendors please feel free to hit me up. marlon 509.988.0260 Or talk to Apryl in the office 509.982.2181, she'll know more about what she does day in and day out. WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- Jack Unger - President, Ask-Wi.Com, Inc. Serving the Broadband Wireless Industry Since 1993 Cisco Press Author - Deploying License-Free Wireless WANs WISPs - Do you know where your customers are? For wireless coverage mapping see http://www.ask-wi.com/mapping FCC Lic. #PG-12-25133 LinkedIn Profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/jackunger Phone 818-227-4220 Email jun...@ask-wi.com WISPA Wants You! Join today! http
Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
Well, that could make for a long day. :) Marlon K. Schafer wrote: Thanks for the suggestion Jack. I don't think that would work very well for 500 to 600 invoices that all come out on the same day every month marlon - Original Message - From: "Jack Unger" jun...@ask-wi.com To: "WISPA General List" wireless@wispa.org Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 12:19 PM Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software. Marlon, I got a notice like that from Quickbooks maybe 6 months ago. I irked me because I didn't want them to be able to force me to upgrade when my 2004 edition was doing just fine. I started using the following workaround. 1. Rather than emailing invoices directly from QB via their email gateway, I now save each completed invoice as a PDF in the subdirectory of the client that I'm invoicing. 2. From my email program, I then originate an email to the client and attach the PDF invoice. This process may take a few more seconds than the older, mail-from-QB process but it has worked out well otherwise and I feel that I am less of a victim of Intuit's marketing machine. Also, when I need to follow up with the client regarding payment status (which happens all too often these days) I can just go back to the original email that I sent them and forward it to the client along with a polite inquiry as to the payment status. jack Marlon K. Schafer wrote: Hi All, I just got a notice that Quickbooks is going to REQUIRE an upgrade in order to continue to keep sending out bills via email. And we have all of 1 month or so to get it done I HATE Intuit and would like to replace them. Here's the work flow in our office. New customer calls in. Fill out signup sheet with all needed customer data. Assign static ip to customer. Enter customer billing info into Quickbooks. Enter all customer data into Access. Enter customer username and pass into RADIUS. Enter customer email account(s) data into email server. Enter customer data into Postini (if they purchase the filtering). Type customer signup sheet info into word doc and store in customer folder. Generate installation work order. Fill out check list showing what steps have been completed. This has worked nicely in the past and "only" takes about 30 minutes to accomplish. But now we're growing too fast and have gotten too big to maintain this. Between tech support calls etc. the office manager is having to bring in extra help. It's only a day per week and it's good for there to be two people there at least part of the time. No one should work alone all of the time. Plus, if she wants to take some time off she will have someone trained in the basics so we'll likely need to keep some extra help around no matter what. This mechanism also gives us a lot of double checks, redundant data points etc. With Access and Quickbooks we can run a very nice mix of reports etc. We do NOT have a customer trouble ticket mechanism other than the file on them. We don't track customers on a per call basis. That's not too bad because we're still small enough that we can normally remember problem customers. This would probably be a good time to change everything though. In my perfect world, I'd have a billing system (that handles all of the taxes for different communities etc.), trouble ticketing, auto server configuration AND deconfig. I'd want good reporting capabilities. I've looked at some of the commercial systems out there, but at $1 or more per month per sub for a full blown system I'd rather keep putting that money into the local labor pool. Freeside looks pretty good but I don't do programming or server admin work in-house. I don't mind hiring someone to set it all up etc. and to take care of the server. But it has to be an affordable solution too. What are people using? Do you like it? If you had it to do all over again, what would you do? Vendors please feel free to hit me up. marlon 509.988.0260 Or talk to Apryl in the office 509.982.2181, she'll know more about what she does day in and day out. WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- Jack Unger - President, Ask-Wi.Com, Inc. Serving the Broadband Wireless Industry Since 1993 Cisco Press Author - "Deploying License-Free Wireless WANs" WISPs - Do you know where your customers are? For wireless coverage mapping see http://www.ask-wi.com/mapping FCC Lic. #PG-12-25133 LinkedIn Profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/jackunger Phone 818-227-4220 Email jun...@ask-wi.com
