Couple of questions wrt Helios & Bookyourself

[salontech]

Here are my questions:

What is the minimum system requirement for Helios to run properly, one would expect the Helios website to have this information at least?

Bookyourself.com provides an online appointment site and from my website I have to set a link to the login page for my appointment book.

How can I modify the bookyourself login page to match my site at least in colors?

Where can I go to modify the salon logo on the login page of bookyourself?

Can I parse the login/password information to bookyourself from my own website, instead of having to use their login page?

Once a new person creates and saves an account with my salon thru bookyourself, why isn't there a link that allows them to reserve a bed directly, instead of having to go back to the main page and enter the login/password again?

Thank you in advance for any answers that you can provide.

Note: I am in charge of the technical aspect of the salon [computer trouble/web dev] and I was brought in after the owner has had a lot of issues with Helios.

[Andy]

The Helios Website will shortly ungoing an updating ... I agree, minimum system requirements should be provided there.

P4 1.8Ghz or better
256MB of RAM (recommend 512MB)
10GB of Free Disk Space
Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Windows 2000 operating system
External Backup Device
Appropriate Ports for Peripherals you wish to utilize

Hope this helps ....

Regarding your Bookyourself.com questions ... please call Tech Support 317-554-9911 on Monday morning at 9am ET.

[salontech]

Thanks for the reply Andy.

I got one more question with regards to Helios: per reading on this forum I had learnt that Helios had a backup feature, but was subsequently removed from the software. This lack of a backup feature from Helios had caused the salon owner to lose close to 4 months of client data [That's when I was called in]. I had to instruct and teach her to manually go into Helios folder and copy the data folder into a different drive as backup.

Short of adding new hardware [external drive] or software [ghost] to her computer for backup purposes, why did Helios remove the backup feature and more importantly will Helios re-introduce the backup function?

[Andy]

In older versions of Helios, V9 and prior, Helios did provide a backup utility. This concept related to older style backup devices such as ZIP drives. Since most computer during the last 3 years come with CD-RW drives with various software, it was illogical for Helios to attempt to predict what the client may be using and often these devices required specific software to appropriately write to these external devices.

Microsoft Windows provides a backup utility, external backup devices (CD, DVD, ZIP) provide software to backup and in many instances the task can be scheduled which is far more desirable than the older style backup that Helios provided in older versions of the software.

When Helios released V10 over two years ago, Helios did announce to users that they need to establish the procedure by which they would backup their important data and assisted many users do so. Many users were able to do this themselves and others retain the assistance of local vendors to establish appropriate backup on a timely basis.

With the advancement of the Helios WAN, Helios has incorporated a concept of Auto Remote Backup to allow users to by a scheduled event transfer a backup of all non WAN tables within the Helios Databases to the Remote Offsite Server. This approach allows the WAN tables (Client Profile, Transactions, EFT records, Client Notes) to be batched to the WAN Server as frequently as hourly and then the balance of the system, during non-operating hours. This utility can also be deployed for single location operators.

I personally would not view a backup to a different drive within the same computer as an appropriate backup. At a minimum it would require some form of external device. The Auto Remote Backup offers the further benefit of being offsite and only requires Staff to ensure that Helios is closed at the end of the business day.

[salontech]

I appreciate your time in explaining the whole thing to me, thanx.

I know that backup to another drive is not as safe as backup to an external device, but I had to find ways to make it easy enough for somebody with very little computer knowledge to perform until I can come up with a better method of doing things.

The Auto Remote Backup sounds very much like something that will be best for the owner. Where can I get my hands on a manual/documentation for the Helios Auto Remote Backup?

[Andy]

Totally understandable as a temporary measure, I have done it often.

With Auto Remote Backup you need Broadband internet connectivity at both the Salon and the Remote location.

The ARB utility utilizes the Helios WAN technology. The Helios WAN requires Microsoft SQL (for a single location MSDE can be used, and is available from Microsoft at no cost, but it has limitations - would work fine for a single and most likely 2 locations on a WAN). IIS needs to be installed on the remote location with FTP service activated.

Helios do the setup and configuration of this function for clients on both the Salon System and Remote location. You can contact Helios Tech Support for additional information.

_________________
Andy Thompson
Director of Training and Support - HELIOS LLC
Office: 317-554-3409
Cell #: 317-529-0041
andy@gohelios.com[ This Message was edited by: Andy @ MyATSO.ca on 2004-12-05 14:25 ]

[salontech]

Broadband is already there so that's not a problem, I will look into any security issues [if any] that IIS might raise.

Thanks for all the help and info, I will get in touch with Helios this coming week.

[Andy]

You need to ensure a Router is in place and Anti-Virus, but I assume you already have that in place is Broadband is connected to their system.

[hockey92]

Andy...
I have xp home edition, will that work? I have 512 mb and enough open gig space. Also I have dial up here now... Do you have to have broadband or dsl, etc.? I would also like a copy of the free demo to check your software out.

thanks
gina

[Andy]

You can install Helios on XP Home ... BUT HELIOS does not provide Software Maintenance and therefore Tech Support on XP Home.

XP-Home is lacking many functions and features that are applicable to portions of Helios.

The BackOffice module for one will not work on XP-Home. Many times ... with no consistent pattern the Hardware Protection Key does not authenticate properly thru XP-Home and it that happens you are dead in the water until you upgrade to XP-Professional.

You should upgrade to XP-Professional to ensure that all components of Helios are available to you and that you do not experience any undesirable delays in being able to use Helios - of course that would happen at the must undesirable time, right.

Also if you are purchasing a computer with XP-Home be caution that it in fact is a system intended for the extended use that your business will need of it. Residence computer (a sign if XP-Home is present) are often not intended to operate for the extended hours that you business will expect of them. Power Supply and other components will be of higher quality in machines intend for Business use.

The components that require Internet connectivity would require Broadband, but these are optional (desirable) components beyond the basic Point of Sales and internal reporting provided by Helios.

Gina, you can go to the Helios Website to request a Demo of the software. Please include myself (Andy Thompson) in the Referred by field. If you wish please give me a call to review the demo once you receive it.