Nicecoder has a new direction and focus

[Bruceper]

Since I came to work for Nicecoder, I have been trying my best to offer quick responses to general questions and support requests. In addition I have been acting as a liason between the customers and the owners and programmers. I have tried my best to extend any communications that I could to Nicecoder users and clients.

I believe that for a company to be successful, they must communicate with current and potential customers and that someone must be held accountable. I have been doing my best to do the above in the past, and now hope to do even better in the future.

Recently, John, Dody and I spoke and I was made an offer which I couldn't say no to. This offer will allow me to help Nicecoder and it's customers at a new level, with greater abilities and responsibilities. John and Dody have now made me general manager of Nicecoder. This is another big leap for Nicecoder, it's clients, visitors, owners and myself.

My responsibilities would be much of what what I already do for Nicecoder, which includes the following;
Acting as a liason between the clients and programmers
Offering technical support on the forum and help desk
Answering pre-sales questions


My responsibilities will now include;
Facilitating communications between the programmers (yes all of them) and the public
Communicating with the programmers and getting updates on what they are working on
Ensuring product developent is on track
Assisting with the Nicecoder website
The addition of vBulletin Project Tools for the programmers to show daily progress of their work
Marketing assistance and facilitation
Improvements to the forum (many have already been done)
Being accountable to the clients


I promise to shake things up as much as I can without breaking anything or anyone and doing the best that I possibly can. You have my guarantee on that. I have a large list of recommendations and suggestions from various users and I will go through that list and do everything I can to get them done. This list will be posted online and will be addressed publicly. I may not be one of the programmers, but I will be assigning duties and if those duties are not completed then there will be consequences.

One of my first mandates is to stop development of products that have not been released yet and to focus strictly on IndexU for the next month. The month after that, development of other products will be limited to specific programmers so that IndexU development will not be stalled.

My second mandate will be transparency between the programmers and the clients through the vBulletin Project Tools. Please remember this is all new to me so I need to make these plans starting from ground zero.

I am very pleased and proud to have been given this opportunity and I wish to thank Dody and John for their belief and support in me.

Added August 20 2008
After a short period of negotiations I am pleased to announce that I am now a part owner of Nicecoder. This was the intent when the decision was made for me to act as manager but some time was needed to confirm the details.

I look forward to serving and helping customers just as I have in the past, with a renewed outlook and expectations of my new position.

[echo@]

Congrats Bruce

[esm]

well, you've stepped in it now, pardner...!

Congratulations and best wishes...!


.

[FSGDAG]

CONGRATS Bruce!!

I think this is a big step in the right direction for NiceCoder. Looking forward to seeing all the new changes

[Bruceper]

Thank you everyone, I hope to make a lot of changes for the better.

A number of changes have already been made, and I am awaiting the purchase and installation of the Project Tools. Many more changes are on the way very soon.

I have started a plugin request thread here. If you have any suggestions please feel free to reply to that thread.

[inspireme]

well at least the forum now has a point of contact that can actually get things done, something severely lacking the last 5 years.

Good luck

[Bruceper]

Thanks. Here is a quick breakdown of what has been implimented over the weekend. Obviously some thing depend on the vBulletin Project Tools but those should be installed soon.

Immediate Goals
- Speak with each programmer directly, via email
- Each programmer should have their own forum login

- Daily, each programmer will report their progress on the project tools
- Weekly, a meeting with the programmers for ideas, tracking progress, issues etc

Goals for August
- Release a new website, should be done by the end of the week. May be delayed as I will be doing grammar checking on it.
- Halting development of all beta projects and focus on IndexU
- The release of NiceTalk (livehelp program) with one programmer continuing development of a desktop app and any bugs found
- The release of 5 plugins for IndexU Deluxe
- The release of a few themes that were already in development
- Suspend iDesk development for 60 days (other than possible bugfixes)
- The release of the "how to write plugins" manual
- The addition of a level two support system within the helpdesk which will be answered by programmers. Level two support is not direct, it must be sent there from the General support category (escalated).


Goals for September
- Release a new version of IndexU Deluxe with all SVN updates and new plugins
- Release 4 plugins for IndexU Deluxe
- Resume development of some beta projects (with focus still on IndexU for this month)
- Development of at least one but hopefully two .mobi compatible themes

Goals for October
- Release 3 plugins for IndexU Deluxe
- The addition of more error checking within IndexU Deluxe
- resume development of iDesk


Allow me to speak on one issue that is still on users minds which is support by the programmers. Forum support by the programmers is going to be very limited. But by having the level two support in the helpdesk this still gives users the ability to speak with the programmers directly concerning issues.

The programmers are not there to write code for users because the user does not know how, they are there to answer difficult questions that is beyond my ability or expertise.

As for Dody he has now taken the role of lead programmer. Since I am running the business end of things he can now concentrate more on making the product better.

[esm]

well at least the forum now has a point of contact that can actually get things done, something severely lacking the last 5 years.

Good luck

Well, it will certainly be interesting in the coming months.

hmmmm... 12 plugins in three months...!


.

[Bruceper]

The plugins are an issue, since we have no idea what kind of plugins users want (hence the other thread).

[medbena]

Congratulations, Bonne chance.....T'es capable