SOC Hires New Professionals:

A Chief Technology Officer, Two Senior-Level Programmers, and a Quality Assurance Tester

SendOutCards has been a leader in the technology field from day one, and the marriage of existing technologies and hardware to accomplish the goals of card senders all over the world has been nothing short of amazing. Today, SendOutCards finds itself in a new technology battle, and that is the battle for efficiency and perfection in what we have done so well in the past. This battle is huge and has never been fought before.

Just imagine how many images are uploaded daily to SendOutCards and the number of custom handwriting fonts that are housed on our servers. Imagine how much paper, envelopes, stamps, gifts, boxes, gift cards and people-power it takes to accomplish a production day at SendOutCards. With all this activity, there is a constant need to add additional team members to the programming team, and we've recently taken huge strides towards managing our technology:

New Chief Technology Office, Mike Whitmire
We will be adding a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to our company that brings twenty-plus years of experience with him in addition to his Computer Science degree. Mike Whitmire is an experienced leader in technology industry and has even been the architect behind many software and hardware products that you either use today or are aware of. We're glad to have him aboard as the team leader of a talented group of programmers.

Mike is a member a LinkedIn where you can view his experience, schooling, and recommendation. Here's a few recommendations that we enjoyed hearing:

“I worked on several projects under Mike's umbrella. Mike has an eye for the detail and an eye on the big picture with the projects he manages. His clear head in stress demanding times of the project life cycle always proved to be a winning quality. I'd be honored to have Mike as one of our project managers or to work with him on a project again in the future if we were so lucky to have our paths cross again.”
-Daron Spicher, QA Automation Engineer, Strata

"Mike was an amazing product development manager while he worked at Ultradent. His ability to understand the scope of a project within minutes helped get product out the door quickly... I could contact anyone working under Mike’s direction and they were always on top of any request ... I always appreciated Mike’s candid attitude when tough decisions needed to be made. He has fantastic problem solving skills and this translated down to the efficacy of the people he managed at Ultradent.”
-Thad Bell, OEM Sales Manager, Ultradent

New Senior-Level Programmers
SendOutCards will also be adding two senior-level programmers to our team. These are individuals who bring with them the expertise they have gained in other technology groups and are experienced in launching new products and technologies to the field. We look forward to the extensive knowledge they'll bring to our programming team.

New Quality Assurance Tester
SendOutCards will soon be adding a Quality Assurance Tester to our staff who will help us re-define how we launch new products. This person who fills this position with have the responsibility to use the system in a way that many users would everyday; however, their ultimate goal is to attempt to break the system in order to test thresholds prior to release. This position is being filled by a software engineer who will be able to use their experience and skill to test the integrity of our technology-based products.

With an already amazing, online card-sending system in place, and a rapidly growing gifting program, we look forward to not only a higher-quality card sending system but to the amazing capabilities we'll be able to offer card senders in the years to come. As an internet-based company we need the best minds working for us, and we're very excited to announce these new additions at SendOutCards.

Chief Technology Officer and Senior Programmers Join SendOutCards!

Update from Joe Kenemore (COO)
Details on SOC's Tracking Analyst

I wanted to take a minute to clarify how TESA is functioning and where we see this technology going. Currently, TESA is a software program that ensures we are printing all of the cards that are ordered by our distributors and end users. TESA currently tracks the following stages of the card:

• When the “Send Card" button is clicked.
  
• When an image is uploaded to a card.
• When the card image is uploaded to the printer.
• When the printed card is scanned prior to insertion in the envelope.

The above list of items that are recorded have helped us tremendously as a company to become more efficient. This technology has also allowed us to really start thinking about how we can deliver more tools to the reps in the field. The following is a list if new items being addressed today:

• Installation of the “Intelligent Mail Barcode Reader.” The hardware has arrived and will be installed by the end of this week. The implementation of the hardware and the integration into TESA's tracking technology will follow shortly. This will allow us to track your cards and gifts to the post office.

• Installation of an intelligent camera system. This hardware has already been installed and needs to be configured to work with TESA. The basic function of the camera is to match the image that TESA logs when you click the "Send Card" button with the image that was printed on the card. This will insure that all of the images on the cards are what the card sender intended them to be.

SendOutCards intends on using the above technology to track efficiency at SendOutCards and to help the distributors in the field to feel confident that they know where their cards are at all times. I look forward to the day when you will be able to click on the fulfilled button and the information displayed will be an accurate tracking of your cards and gifts that include the all the stops along the way. The most exciting piece of technology is the day that you can accurately predict the day that your card or gift will be received. I am very excited to complete the above action items for all card senders at SendOutCards. I ask that you have some patience with us in the process.

Sincerely,

Joe Kenemore
Chief Operations Officer

Update from Kody Bateman

At SendOutCards® we’re sending out to give, and that’s only possible through an efficient system that prints, stuffs, stamps, and mails your cards for you. In June we performed an audit to ensure that every card was sent, and there were a few important items that came to our attention during this audit that I’d like to share with you.

It was revealed that from June 13-18, there were unprinted files which needed our attention. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, and I want to ensure anyone affected that we’ve already made sure these cards have been fulfilled. We’ve also begun contacting and refunding individuals who were affected.

Regular audits are one way we’re making sure each card sender has a positive experience. We’re on a crusade to help millions of people act on their promptings around the world. It’s an exciting thing to a part of, and I want to thank you for being part of the SendOutCards® family.

Your friend,

Kody Bateman

Minor Site Issue Experienced This Morning Now Fixed

This morning we experienced a configuration issue on one of our eight Web servers which may have effected the use of our Web site for a short period of time. We have since solved this issue and wanted to make everyone aware that this issue was not related to the new card editor or the migration of data over to the new editor.

If you have any questions or are still experiencing issues with our site, feel free to contact our customer service team for help at support@sendoutcards.com.

-The Programming Department

SendOutCards Switches Over to the New Card Editor

On Wednesday, April 22, at 9 a.m. MST, the new card editor will be switched over as our primary editor, and will be the default editor when you are logging into your account. We've gathered a few are most frequently asked questions and have answered them here on Technical Blog:

Will my action log show both new and old card editor cards sent?
Yes. When we shut off the old editor, all data will be be combined in the action log, and you will be able to locate cards sent in both the old and new editor.

Will all my campaigns, favorite cards, custom cards, and PicturePlus cards be migrated to the new editor?
Yes. If they haven't already migrated, they should by the end of this week.

When will the new card editor be the only editor?
We'll officially switch over to the new card editor only in a few weeks after everyone has had a chance to get used to the new card editor. We'll keep everyone updated on the exact date in the near future.

Enhancements Made to the New Editor & Other Company News

We have a few updates concerning the new card editor and other news you might be interested in. See the headlines below for the updates.

We hope this technical blog has been useful and that you'll take the time to share it with others who may have questions about the new card editor. It's also a great way to know if we are experiencing any issues with our Web site or if we'll be holding any downtime for maintenance work. You can subscribe to this blog by clicking on the "Atom" link in the right-hand column. Now on to the updates:

Company Name Field Only Printing on Greeting Cards
Though the Company Name field has been printing on greeting cards, there have been a few issues with it not printing on 3-panel cards or postcards. If you are experiencing this problem, please let us know.

SendOutCards Upgrades to Enterprise System
To increase our printing capabilities, we've upgraded our printing process to an enterprise system, a versatile and top-of-the-line printing software.

Adjustments Made to Spacing for Postcards
We've made a few adjustments for spacing with postcards to ensure that postcards will print exactly how they look in the new card editor.

Programming Department Grows
As a side note, our programming and technical department has grown. We've been adding new equipment, new faces, and are looking forward the progress that will be made in the coming year!