The Suretec Blog

Aberdeen-based communications company SureVoIP has just launched an innovative API (application programming interface) which will provide an even better service for customers and partners and allow 100% self-service and interaction with the SureVoIP suite of products and services.



To ensure communications with other products and services, the company has just launched what is believed to be UK VoIP’s first publicly available and documented Application Programming Interface (API) beta of this kind.



Commenting on the move, SureVoIP managing director Gavin Henry said: “It is vital for us to remain at the forefront of technology and it is anticipated that this API will further enhance our ability to provide the broadest possible spectrum to all customers and partners, existing or potential.



“The SureVoIP API can be used to send SMS messages, faxes, generate telephone calls, manage accounts and telephone numbers, subscribe to event notifications and use a feature called OAuth 2.0 which allows third parties to create Apps like those for Twitter and Facebook.



“Various partnerships have been put in place to maximise adoption and many of our existing customers are already incorporating this API into their Mobile App strategy. Because of this, SureVoIP has also started development work on its own mobile app for customers and partners as well as a long list of exciting new ways to make a telephone call.”



SureVoIP is regulated by Ofcom, is a member of the Internet Telephony Service Providers Association (ITSPA) and is a finalist in that organisation’s 2012 awards. The company is also the holder of an ITSPA Quality Mark accreditation. For further information visit www.surevoip.co.uk or call 01224 900123 or email sales@surevoip.co.uk



Notes to Editors



SureVoIP is a leading Internet Telephone Service Provider and is part of the Suretec Group. Based at Bridge of Don, Aberdeen the company has worked in locations as diverse as Canada, Nepal, the Netherlands and the Seychelles. The company is a member of the Internet Telephony Service Providers Association (ITSPA) and is regulated by Ofcom. For further information visit www.surevoip.co.uk or call 01224 900123.

Exciting news!

Our Communications Provider Identity ("CUPID") code application has been processed by Ofcom and we just received our number of 291.

The start of many good things to come with our own VoIP provider SureVoIP (brand and website being worked on now). We're also listed as an ITSP at ITSPA.

Thanks,

Gavin.

It's taken us a while to get round to ordering one of these Yubikeys from Yubico, but they do look great and have lots of documentation via the wiki.

We're going to be testing them via the pam module for SSH access (and of course using pam_ldap).

So, users in LDAP^[?] via pam, and a Yubikey, let's see how it goes!

(will be interesting for logging in a SIP handset via Asterisk or FreeSWITCH that needs one too and all the others technologies Suretec use and support (Catalyst, Perl, PostgresSQL, Squid and more....). We'll see....

It's been a long process, almost 6 weeks, what with the new laws regarding PCI DSS compliance as of the 1st of October 2009, PCI DSS Scans, Business plans, website terms and connditions and many more things we have a merchant account at last!!!

This is mainly for our new Internet Telephony Service Provider called SureVoIP which is currently live with various customers but has no front facing sales and marketing site yet, only the admin and customer portal.

We'll keep you posted with a proper press release in due course.

Thanks,

Gavin.

A quick update:

SureVoIP a new startup ITSP will be launched by Suretec very soon. It is currently in development and being installed in a Scottish datacentre using various enterprise grade Open Source products. Keep an eye out for when it goes beta and will be available at http://www.surevoip.co.uk

Suretec use RT and are currently on 3.6.7. Since it has just been announced, we thought we'd quickly install RT 3.8.1 and post some screens.

So here you go:

Continue reading "Request Tracker (RT) 3.8.1 Screenshots"

Shh. Don't tell anybody, but you can download RT 3.8.0...RIGHT NOW

RT 3.8.0 will be officially released on Monday, but a careless release
engineer seems to have uploaded the final release of RT 3.8.0 somewhat
in advance of the announcement. Now's your chance to be the first
person on your block to deploy the new RT.

On Monday, you'll likely see email and a blog post about all the great
new
features in RT 3.8 - including:

- a redesigned visual style.
- the ability to "star" your favorite tickets, just like
Firefox 3's bookmarks
- comprehensive support for signing, verifying, encrypting
and decrypting email with the Gnu Privacy Guard
- dashboards built out of saved searches, graphs and charts,
which you can share on the web and subscribe to by email
- new saved settings to control how often RT emails you
- pretty visual charts showing the relationships between
sets of tickets
- a WYSIWYG editor for composing replies to tickets
- calendar feeds of task due dates
- per-user timezone settings

...and a whole bunch more neat stuff.

You can download RT 3.8.0 at:

http://download.bestpractical.com/pub/rt/release/rt-3.8.0.tar.gz
http://download.bestpractical.com/pub/rt/release/rt-3.8.0.tar.gz.sig

Best,
Jesse

RT is an enterprise-grade ticketing system which enables a group of people to intelligently and efficiently manage tasks, issues, and requests submitted by a community of users.

Flexi Time Manager "in the pink" after shortlisting for National Business Award

Entrepreneur Louise Wreathall has been shortlisted for the ‘Best Mumpreneur’ award at the National mother@work awards 2008. Louise, creator of Flexi Time Manager, which offers an online flexi time recording service, launched her business last year and has seen it go from strength to strength. She will attend a reception at 11 Downing Street on 18th June, where the winners will be announced.

Louise says, “Being shortlisted for this award means so much to me. Of course I’d be thrilled to win, but reaching the final stage itself shows that my work in getting the business where it is today has paid off.”

As a working mother who returned to work after a career break, Louise knows how important flexi time can be. Working in the HR department of a charitable organisation, she was responsible for administering a time consuming flexi time system for 30 staff, using scraps of paper and mental arithmetic to calculate hours worked. When staff numbers doubled, she knew something had to change, and set about creating an electronic timesheet system. By 2005, Louise had set up the business and set about trialling her own online time management system. With the help of Enterprise North East Trust, and local networks Women Into Business and Aberdeen Entrepreneurs, she learned the fundamentals of business management, finally launching the fully tested web application in November 2007.

Suretec designed and implemented the Flexi Time Manager Solution.

I got back last night, after a somewhat hectic Flybe.com flight (long story).

I really enjoyed the conference, my first time speaking at one, bit nervous, but it can only get better

Tuesday:

Continue reading "Spring 2008 - a UKUUG Conference Review"

Dave Cross has published a Catalyst Book Review that was written by Jonathan Rockway and published by Packt Publishing.

...I knew that Catalyst was something that I should take the time to learn, but it always seemed like such a daunting task.

For that reason, I was really looking forward to reading this book. I'm the kind of person who learns best from reading a book and I hoped that with a few tube rides reading this book, coupled with a few practical sessions in front of the computer, I'd soon have Catalyst. I'm sorry to report that having read the book, Catalyst is almost as confusing to me now as it was before.

I don't think that much of the blame can be laid at the feet of the author. Jonathan Rockway is a member of the core Catalyst development team. I've read his blog and his contributions to various mailing lists. He obviously knows his stuff. I think he's been badly let down by his editors.

I have not read it so I can't really comment.

Thanks,

Gavin.

The Amanda 2.6.0 beta release offers some excellent new features. Ones that appeal to Suretec are:

• A Perl Interface


• Encryption methods (various techniques have been available previously) - Simple and GPG

There of course many other excellent additions and fixes.

So, why is the Perl Interface so cool? Well, a while ago we asked about using the Perl interface for use with an LDAP^[?] Configuration Backend, but at that time Amanda wasn't ready.

The Perl interface is a great addition and easy to understand why it was needed.

We'll keep you updated on how the betas progress and when we start hacking up an LDAP interface

Binaries and source can be downloaded from Zmanda.

We have had some interesting discussions about offering a locally hosted version of a Catalyst Web Application called Flexi Time Manager.

The question was also raised on the Catalyst Mailinglist, with no replies...so we raised it on the PerlMonks forums at Offering a locally hosted solution?

A very interesting response about doing an appliance: Continue reading "A Catalyst Appliance?"

Just a quick note to say that the Catalyst Advent Calendar is doing very well. Now at 7 entries

Being:

1. Getting started with ExtJS screen library


2. Get more REST - Using YUI and JavaScript for REST


3. Application Design Techniques


4. Catalyst + Open Flash Chart: Fancy graphs with minimal fuss


5. Adding Authentication to your Catalyst App


6. Inline Authentication Without Redirection


7. Rapid CRUD with Catalyst

I've really enjoyed them all so far and they are all well written and excellent quality. But the ExtJS, REST and Open Flash Chart I liked best.

It is true that Poorly written LDAP^[?] code can really affect your Portal, Suretec have seen it a few times:

A programmer who hadn't had much exposure to LDAP decided it best to do a base level search, for example, using ldapsearch:

CODE:

ldapsearch -x -b 'dc=suretecsystems,dc=com' '(objectclass=*)' -H ldap^[?]://127.0.0.1

he retrieved *everything*, then did all the searching/filtering etc. locally in the client! What's the point of a Directory Server!?!

Our partners Symas have also talked about similar encounters, mainly with Sendmail.

It all comes down to the level of LDAP understanding a programmer has.

Or could it actually be the Directory Server implementation, namely Oracle Internet Directory (OID)?

I know OpenLDAP wouldn't slow an app down like this, because it's very fast..very very fast

Flexi Time Manager is a web application that provides a cost effective and self-contained administration system for recording and calculating flexitime. Designed to help small and medium sized businesses introduce or extend flexible working for staff, the system can be accessed at a mere 54 pence per employee per week (£30 per employee, per year) and does not require specialist software or hardware, just an internet connection. Continue reading "Flexi Time Manager - A Cost Effective and Time Efficient Solution for SMEs to administer flexible working"