It’s Alive, It’s Alive!!!

Just a quick blog entry, and apologies for a longer gap that I had wished since the previous blog entry, however I have been tirelessly working towards the release of the Terian ID System. Whilst the Terian ID System (now to be called Terian ID Creator) is not yet released, I have just released the Terian Image Capture System in two varieties; Terian Image Capture Standard (ICS), and Terian Image Capture Pro (ICP).

Terian Image Capture Standard and Terian Image Capture Pro:

These applications will enable an operator to quickly and easily capture group photos as required in the case of school ID Cards, or corporate ID Cards. The standard version provides simple image capture functionality, where as the Pro version provides data integration to allow for more efficient bulk capturing. For more info, check out the all new Terian Image Capture web site

Other News – Employee #1:

While I have been busy finalising the software for release, I have also taken on a new employee (my first) to look after the web development. There were all sorts of new business things I had to undertake to become an employer, most of which can be done on-line which is great.

• Register as an employer with IRD
• Register as an employer with ACC
• Sign up employee for KiwiSaver
• Organise a Payroll
• Check indemnity insurance cover

A month in and it’s all relatively straight forward now, with little more required than paying additional taxes related to the employee and ensuring I pay them too.

With the employee being an undergraduate there is also a lot of learning on the job, and so far there is sufficient motivation and interest to keep everyone happy. However, it has quickly become apparent that there is more work than hours available to do it in.

Work a Plenty:

With Phase 1 of ummm… errr… “Heaps” complete with the Terian Website rollout, and Image Capture System release we can now move onto the next step which includes additional website functionality, and of course the continued testing/updating of Terian ID Creator.

So definitely plenty of work still to be done.

Advertisement

Terian ID System – Live Testing / Migration Complete

Well I’ve done it. Yet another special milestone has been achieved with live testing finished at the end of last week, and I successfully migrated the remaining card types to the new system over the weekend.

Testing Timeline:

23/Jul/2013 – Initial live testing begins with two card types.
24/Jul/2013 – Major Issue uncovered, requiring fundamental change to system.
25/Jul/2013 – Updated System rolled out including fundamental changes.
14/Aug/2013 – Migrate 50% of Card Types to the new system, and continue testing.
04/Oct/2013 – Complete testing and sign off to migrate remaining card types.
06/Oct/2013 – Migration Complete.

Minor Issues and Batch Printing:

Only a few minor issues were discovered during testing since the second rollout, and these were quickly rectified. Along with fixes, additional functionality was also added to the system. The main hurdle for completing the migration was be inclusion of the Batch Printing Functionality.

Batch Printing Functionality is required to handle larger client card types where manually producing each card would be extremely time consuming. In order to successfully deploy the batch printing functionality I had to ensure there were no remaining issues relating to the card printing process, as batch printing would use the same printing process. After migrating half of the card types (Aug 14th) I paid close attention to any issues relating to printing, as any issues with the printing process would be magnified with batch printing.

Confident with the stability of the printing system, I began development of the Batch Printing Functionality at the beginning of September and rolled it out to production last week.

It’s Alive… It’s Alive…

While the ‘Live testing’ is complete, the system is Live in the production environment, and there is still quite a bit of functionality that will need to be added to the system. However, the exciting point is that the old system is no longer in use, and everything is being produced from the new Terian ID System. Having used the new system for almost two months, the operators are impressed by the improvements it brings over the old system.

The Next Step:

Along with additional functionality being added to the system, I now need to consider website and marketing aspects as the product continues to evolve towards being a sellable product.

Terian ID System – Live Testing Continues…

Since our second rollout for live testing, the system has performed very well with only a few minor issues needing to be fixed.  The system has performed better than expected, and I have been able to bring forward the next step in testing by two weeks.

The Next Step:

Initially the plan was to run the system in live testing for a full month with the two test card types previously migrated, then at the end of the month increase the migration of card types to 50%.   However, with the success of the testing so far, I am confident I can move to the next step early.

The plan is to now migrate 50% of all card types (completed this evening), and continue to monitor and update the system as required for two months before taking the migration process to 100%.

Side Note:

In relation to the issue regarding storing images in the file system rather than the database, at 50% migration the database backup is only 75mb, which is well within the allowable storage limits enforced by the clients virtual server configuration.  So when it comes time to migrate 100% of the card types storage will not be an issue.

Related articles:

• Terian ID System – Live Testing Take 1 – Major Issue Uncovered
• Terian ID System – Live Testing Begins…

Terian ID System – Live Testing Begins…

Today marks a special milestone, as we rolled out the Terian ID Production and Management System for live testing.

We are fortunate enough to have a client that is willing to be our test subject (favourable licensing conditions to follow naturally), so it was a great opportunity to get the system up and running in a production environment with a limited capacity.

Initially only two Card Types have been migrated to the new system. We are limiting the live testing to not only ensure all issues can be dealt with in a timely manner but also ensure the client does not suffer any downtime. (A lesson I’m sure Novopay has since learned).

So fingers crossed there are no major bugs, and we can slowly ramp up the testing over the next few weeks/months as we migrate additional card types to the new system.