VRM moves toward major vacation rental software upgrade

    Staff here at Virtual Resort Manager has been working for a number of weeks at upgrading our background vacation rental software from the original dot-net (.net) one-point-on (v. 1.1) language to the latest dot-net four-point-oh (v. 4.0) configuration. This has been something that everyone has wanted to do for a couple of years, but something has always gotten in the way of progress. Finally, in the early fall, we made the commitment to set everything but emergency fixes aside and go forward full-bore with the project. This over the objections of yours truly, who is always thinking of the bottom line, and by nature would rather see people working on things which produce revenue, rather than on things that raise expenses!
    Well, last Thursday afternoon, I got my first real look at the changes that .net 4.0 are going to bring to VRM, and I am now totally excited about the project. The impact on the productivity of our clients’ employees is going to be significant. And our ability to modify and improve the software functionality going forward is going to be greatly increased.
    The big improvement that everyone will see is a much more user-friendly interface, with smooth screen transitions, larger fields in places where data gets entered, making managing information far easier, and faster page loading times. You’ll also see a newer contemporary look and feel, without sacrificing the basic navigational features that your employees have become accustomed to. Browser compatibility has also been built in, meaning that you should be able to better navigate the admin console if you’re using Safari, Firefox, or Chrome. And, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor will be incorporated into all email and property description pages which presently are HTML friendly, making incorporating special effects and graphics into those pages far easier.
    Of course, there’s lots more, but you’ll have to wait to see for yourself. Not that long, however. The beta version of the new functionality is scheduled for release in mid-January, with the alpha version slated to be deployed to the full Virtual Resort Manager family a few weeks later. We’re excited: now you should be, too!