Introducing HelpSpot Hosting

Ever since we rebranded as EllisLab we’ve been looking for people with products, services, and a business mindset that fit with our community. We’re happy to introduce Ian Landsman, the owner of UserScape and its chief product, HelpSpot, “A help desk software solution, built for ease of use.”

We’ve known about Ian through his blog (powered by ExpressionEngine), where he writes intelligent things about doing business on the web, and through his use of CodeIgniter. When Nevin (CTO of EngineHosting) pointed out that Ian needed a new hosting solution for HelpSpot, we contacted him right away. Ian turns out to be as cool as we hoped and we quickly worked out a solution for his HelpSpot customers.

We think that working with Ian will lead to good things for the UserScape and EllisLab communities and hope that offering hosting is just a first step in this relationship. You can read Ian’s thoughts about it on his blog.

The interview below details Ian’s adventure from accountancy to web application development.

EllisLab: Hi Ian, thanks for doing an interview. What’s your background and how did you get started in application development?

Ian Landsman: I actually have a pretty varied background from Office Depot store manager to Academic Technology Director for a small NY college. My college degree is in Accounting, which has actually served me really well. Accounting is surprisingly like programming in terms of mindset. It’s also been very handy to have that background when starting UserScape. When you’re bootstrapping a company you need to wear every hat so I think having a background that’s exposed you to many different types of businesses is a huge help.

In terms of application development I really got started with that in earnest during my time with Pearson Education, a large textbook publisher. There I worked on many large scale systems serving hundreds of thousands of customers. From there I ended up doing a lot of consulting and freelance application development while working my day jobs until taking the plunge with UserScape two years ago.

EllisLab: Why did you start UserScape? What makes HelpSpot different?

Ian Landsman: I’ve always wanted to start a business. I’ve probably started developing 5-6 products over the years, but I would abandon them part way through development for one reason or another. I think it was mostly because I started developing without really understanding the industries I was developing for. Since I didn’t have a full understanding I would get scared part way through and abandon ship. With UserScape I really researched the help desk software industry thoroughly before I wrote one line of code. That deep understanding really allowed me to push through knowing I was going in the right direction. There was a real market need for a help desk software package priced between $99 unlimited user scripts and $100,000 enterprise software.

HelpSpot has a lot of unique features, the ones I’m most proud of though are it’s simplicity and it’s filtering power. I really wanted HelpSpot to be very easy to start using without any formal training. Most help desk packages really need training to use right and often training is a required part of the purchase by the vendor. I wanted most help desk users to be able to jump in and at least be able to create and manage requests without a big learning curve and I think we’ve been successful in that. There’s a lot of power in there, but it’s below the surface and unfolds as you delve deeper into it.

The filtering is a unique feature that is really key in most HelpSpot installations. Request filters allow staff to create filters or queues on the fly that enable them to see the requests in the system in nearly unlimited ways. There’s literally millions of possible combinations which you can use to pull out just the requests you need to see and you can save those filters for quick access in the future.

EllisLab: What HelpSpot feature makes you most happy?

Ian Landsman: Possible the most innovative feature in HelpSpot is the Live Lookup API, I really love this feature. Almost all help desk packages require you to upload your customer data into them if you want to be able to access that data while working on a request. This creates a lot of headaches trying to keep this data up to date and you inevitably can’t get all the data you need into the software. Live Lookup is a very simple XML API that allows HelpSpot to query your customer data system (any customer data system) in real time. So HelpSpot can display customer details on any data your staff needs without any data syncing or any worries about data being outdated.

EllisLab: Is there a HelpSpot feature that nobody seems to use but really should?

Ian Landsman: One that I think doesn’t get enough use is reminders. HelpSpot can send reminders to you for things you need to follow up on with a request or check on, perhaps a note on when to contact someone back, things like that. I really blame myself for this though as the interface isn’t that great for reminders. Version 2 of HelpSpot addresses this issue and makes reminders much easier to use.

EllisLab: What’s been the biggest surprise since getting into the Help desk business?

Ian Landsman: The biggest surprise to me has really been that the research I did initially was actually correct! There really was a need for a solid middle tier product. Sales have progressed much faster than I expected, especially considering HelpSpot doesn’t do any real advertising. It’s all been people discussing it on their blogs or traditional word of mouth.

EllisLab: We are certainly familiar with that advertising model! What’s next for HelpSpot?

Ian Landsman: Right now production is full speed ahead on version 2. I don’t like to give a lot of details on specific features, I’d rather under promise and over deliver. A few key features though are support for displaying and sending HTML emails and a full API for accessing HelpSpot programatically.

EllisLab: Thanks for the interview Ian. You can find more information on HelpSpot at UserScape and keep track of Ian on his blog.

Posted by Leslie Camacho on April 30, 2007

New Site Enhancements

We have a new bug tracking system in place to make it easier to report and manage bugs.  You can access it via the main navigation at the top of the site.  Please read the bug reporting guidelines before posting.

We’ve also added a projects page that lists sites that are built using CodeIgniter.  If you’d like to add your project to the list please submit it using the provided form.

Posted by Rick Ellis on April 26, 2007

Code Igniter 1.5.3 Released

Version 1.5.3 is primarily a maintenance release.  For a list of all changes please see the Change Log.  If you are currently running Code Igniter please read the update instructions

Posted by Rick Ellis on April 16, 2007

Building an Ecosystem

One of the driving forces behind our site redesign and new brand identity is to further strengthen our already excellent community.  Luke, over at Jambor-ee wrote an insightful blog entry about how ExpressionEngine has become its own cottage industry. 

We find ourselves at the epicenter of an ecosystem that includes designers, developers, business people, teachers, writers, and bloggers, so for us, it’s no longer only about selling software or providing hosting, it’s about building an environment that fosters symbiotic relationships between ourselves, our customers, and other professionals in our community.  Pragmatically it makes sense that if we can be the hub around which an amazing community grows, everyone associated with the community will benefit. 

I played chess a lot growing up.  One of the more basic concepts in chess is that by controlling the middle of the board you can control the game.  It’s a poor strategy to fragment your chess pieces, moving them out on the wings without support from other pieces.  Instead, it’s much more powerful to stage a unified advance toward the middle.

Similarly, it makes sense for us to invest in our community and expand our network into a cohesive, connected, and capable ecosystem, so over the coming months we intend to explore creative ways to do just that.

Posted by Rick Ellis on March 14, 2007

New Websites and a New Name!

As you might have noticed, we’ve launched four new websites:  EllisLab,  ExpressionEngine,  Engine Hosting, and CodeIgniter.

We set a goal to launch the sites before the South by Southwest internet conference on March 9th.  Of course web development is an inexact science so it was a mad scramble to the finish line.  Thanks to many late nights by our team we made it!  Without a doubt we likely missed a few things, so if you stumble onto something gone awry (broken links, typos, dead bodies) please let us know.

In addition to our new sites, we re-branded pMachine as EllisLab, and our hosting company is now Engine Hosting, previously known as pMachine Hosting.  pMachine is no more.  She’s dead Cap’n!

Why the name change?  pMachine was an outgrowth of our first, and at that time (six years ago), only product.  Both our company and software were pMachine.  A couple years later we released ExpressionEngine, which addressed some serious limitations of pMachine.  EE essentially made pM (the software) obsolete.  Our users agreed, switching to EE in droves and eventually compelling us to discontinue pM due to low sales.  Still, our company continued on as pMachine.

Over the past three years, ExpressionEngine has grown by leaps and bounds in popularity.  In fact, as a brand it had eclipsed pMachine.  So when we set out to define our 2007 goals we decided it was time to move ExpressionEngine to its own site.  And since I always felt the name pMachine was confusing given our discontinued app, we decided to re-brand the company (and our hosting company).

Initially I wasn’t crazy about the name EllisLab, which was suggested by Les; the name seemed a bit egotistical and I was using it already as my personal blog.  But after unsuccessfully scouring the ends of the earth for a suitable name that was free of trademark and domain issues, and after Derek and Paul expressed that they liked EllisLab the name stuck.

What made this redesign particularly challenging is that we decided to run all of our sites—each of which is located at its own domain—under one ExpressionEngine installation.  Normally this would be difficult to accomplish, but thanks to an interesting new ExpressionEngine feature that Paul wrote we were able to.  We’re not exactly sure yet how or when that feature will be released publicly, but it should at some point.

So why would we run all our sites using one EE install?  Well, it allows us to run one membership database across multiple sites and share ExpressionEngine resources across domains.  And as we bring other new sites online (yes, we have some interesting things in the works) we will be able to continue utilizing that single installation.

This approach will allow a member of one of our sites to take advantage of products and services at another site in the network without having to sign up again.  Once you are a member of one site, you’re a member at all sites.  And thanks to Paul’s brilliance we can even run separate, discreet discussion forums at each site, even though it’s really only one forum module in one EE installation.  Heck, we can run separate shopping carts or nearly anything else at each site from one master EE install.

Ah, the power of ExpressionEngine!  Try accomplishing that with another publishing system.

Lastly, I want to publicly acknowledge the great work of Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain, who created our new site designs.  I consider Jesse to be among the premiere designers in the world; he’s an incredible talent.  We are very pleased with his work.

So that’s the scoop on our redesign.  We hope you enjoy our sites and our new direction!

Posted by Rick Ellis on March 09, 2007