Business Apps Hold Forth on Macworld Floor (
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Business applications for small and medium-sized businesses shared floor space with the Apple Mini and iPod shuffle demonstrations at Macworld.SAN FRANCISCO—Tucked away in discreet corners beyond the Apple Mini and iPod shuffle demonstrations at the Macworld conference here are business applications for small and medium-sized organizations.
Among the more prominent new products introduced at the show is FileMaker Inc.s Recruiter 2.0 application, which is a ready-to-use FileMaker Pro 7 package that helps corporate and professional recruiters identify and track candidates or communicate with clients and hiring managers.
Steve Jobs introduces the Apple and iPod mini. Click here to read more.
Recruiter 2.0 was heavily redesigned to work with the features in FileMaker Pro 7, which was introduced in spring 2004.
New features in Recruiter 2.0 include built-in security with predefined access privilege sets, the ability to import data from e-mail client address books and a quick view of outstanding actions on the home page, such as contact interactions, group interactions and searches.
Owners of Recruiter 1.x can upgrade to the new version for free. First-time buyers can acquire Recruiter 2.0 for $299 at FileMakers Web store.
Third-party application developers also demonstrated their software at FileMakers booth. For example, Base Builders LLC of Reno, Nev., introduced the full-feature version of its Praesto Jr.—a project scheduling application based on the FileMaker Pro 7 database.
FileMaker Pro 7 is an eWEEK Labs Analysts Choice winner. Click here to read the review.
The full edition is based on Praesto Jr. that Base Builders produced under contract to FileMaker. FileMaker worked with Base Builders to produce a starter project management application designed to work with creative professionals, such as advertising agencies, fashion designers, Web site designers, video producers, graphic artists and photographers.
Like all project management software, Praesto Jr. allows users to track project schedules, milestones, tasks, clients and contacts in the fast-paced creative services market, which sudden changes and schedule updates are the rule rather than the exception.
Praesto Jr. is part of the Creative Pro Starter Kit, a free bundle of five ready-to-use database applications designed to help creative professionals with scheduling, billing, job tracking and creating digital libraries that store images, sounds and video clips.
Also at Macworld, App4Mac introduced xTime Project 3.0, a general-purpose project management package for Mac OS X. The new version includes a redesigned interface running on a new project management engine for improved performance.
The new interface makes it easier to view and manage conflicts between resources. It also makes it easier to manage multiple projects.
The new version also provides improved import-export support for Microsoft Project documents. App4Mac, based in Millbrae, Calif., has also improved the ability to export project documents to Web folders along with better HTML management.
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