- Customization Encouraged and Supported
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ICommander is designed to allow for Custom and User-Requested Extensions being
continuously added. Our software continues to offer more features each year as
a result. Totally Custom Programs and Systems are fully supported in the same
way as the general ICommander Systems.
Most Customer-Specific Additions fit into the normal ICommander Menu System on Substitute and/or Additional Menus. Facilities for creating these are part of the ICommander System Control and enable seamless integration with the general systems.
Our approach to Customization eliminates the risks often associated with such programs due to the ability to support Custom Programs just like the general programs. The base ICommander Systems are very well-proven from many years of usage and our small size enables you to work directly with the designer and experienced programmers who understand accounting--not just programming.
- Custom Extensions to General Systems
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Much of what started out as requests from specific customers for extensions and
new features in ICommander is now incorporated into the general systems that are
available to all users.
Our general policy on customer requests that require significant amounts of development time is to bill the requesting customer for the time to plan, design, program, test, and implement enhancements tailored to the specific needs identified. We provide estimates when requested for the time and charges for such work and disclose that the enhancements will become a part of our general systems when we can see that others will also benefit.
This results in continuing addition of new features. Making such enhancements available and useful to all users often requires some additional work on our part due to the initial development being very specific to the needs that the requesting customer had. It is part of the reason you see MANY options in most of the ICommander Systems. Enhancements get implemented in a manner that avoid their use when they are not applicable.
- Custom Additions Unique to Specific Customers
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Some needs for Customization are of the nature that they will only apply to the
Specific Customer who has them. Such programs co-exist with the general
ICommander Programs on our Development Server but are only installed and used
by the Customer to which they apply.
We keep either a point in time copy of the applicable Customer's data files or a test Company to enable ongoing development and support of the Custom Programs. We also encourage all customers running ICommander on their own ICommander Linux Server to enable us to set-up Secure Remote Access to their Server. This further aids our development and support as we can observe exactly what users are experiencing and can download a copy of data files for testing/diagnosis of problems when needed.
We can also develop completely Custom Systems for unique needs. However our experience over several years has found few instances where this works better than adding a new general system that is initially tailored to the needs of a specific customer.
- Custom Tailoring without Programming
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Customization with ICommander often includes much tailoring of each system to
the specific needs of a Customer via extensive Control and Options Files in each
system. It is how we can use the same software for businesses of many types
while at the same time using it for governmental and non-profit entities. The
accounting needs of almost all types of entities are common at some level.
It has been interesting also to experience over the years that features first added, for example, for a school district, proved to be very useful to a large oil and gas well servicing company and vice-versa.
Many of the Information Management capabilities of ICommander are also fully configurable to specific needs. The ICommander File Manager especially allows simple addition of highly useful non-accounting functions. This also extends to ICommander support for an integrated Intranet. Although the Intranet Integration originated to give access to ICommander Accounting Information to those who do not use ICommander itself, it provides full-fledged web page development facilities. No significant knowledge of HTML or other web technologies is required.
Many web utilities have been developed by ICommander and are provided as a part of each Intranet installation. ICommander staff can tailor such scripts to meet specific need as well as implement new utilities very simply. This includes assistance with public and private Intranet areas to tailor to the needs of applicable users.