1. What's the total cost of ownership?

In addition to your one-off license for IdeasTracker, the following may be costs:

• Customisation (if relevant) - incorporation of your look and feel into the design of IdeasTracker, or any changes and additions you'd like to have made to the software
• Administrative costs - initially, before you begin to realise efficiencies administrative employees will likely be spending perhaps an hour or two a week evaluating ideas. As time savings begin to be made, their working day will be less hectic and therefore the administration will just be another part of their job
• Training costs - IdeasTracker is easy to use, but you'll have to familiarise some people with the application
• Equipment compliance - ensuring your employees' computers run the correct software
• If your company has a large number of staff without Internet access, kiosks with access to IdeasTracker can be supplied for your workplace
• The optional support plan will cost you approximately 15% of the purchase price per year. You don't have to buy the support plan, but if you do it offers you one year of email support where we guarantee to get back to you within 24 hours. If you don't buy the support plan we may charge you to offer support.

2. What is the administration overhead of running IdeasTracker?

The initial account administration is minor - approving an account request is a quick and easy process. An Opportunity Director needs to be assigned by your company to monitor ideas and prepare them for evaluation. If you have a small company this will be a few hours a week. If you have a large company you may need someone full time. Administration is required to ensure ideas are being followed up and implemented, and the savings from them will more than pay for the extra person.

3. What's the best way to implement IdeasTracker in my company?

Documentation and ideas on the best ways to implement IdeasTracker are provided at installation. Briefly, the easiest way is to start with a department that has a definite need then let it spread. This is more manageable for a larger company. If you have a small company (less than 100 people), you'll be able to roll it out all at once.

4. Should I offer rewards for ideas?

There are three types of employee: those motivated by the challenge, those motivated by the money, and those that aren't motivated. Those motivated by the challenge tend to prefer the kudos of recognition. Those motivated by money tend to prefer material rewards for being creative. Those that aren't motivated can sometimes be motivated if a reward and challenge is set that appeals to them.

5. What if we get so many ideas it gets out of hand?

If you get an enormous amount of ideas, congratulations. You should be able to turn them into millions of dollars of extra revenue. There will be an initial flurry of ideas. After this it will die down to become a more steady stream. The Japanese have a culture which encourages suggestions. The average Japanese worker makes around 72 a year. Westernised societies do not have this culture, and the average worker in the US makes less than 7 suggestions a year. Obviously some of these will be able to be removed immediately due to unsuitability, whereas others will take more time to evaluate. The result, though, will be a more efficient, more profitable workplace where dealing with creative ideas will be a part of everyone's job descriptions. So, prioritise your ideas using the statuses that come with IdeasTracker. This way you can work on the ideas which will give the best return for you.

6. Will it integrate with my existing systems?

IdeasTracker is programmed in PHP, runs on most operating systems, and is compatible with most databases. It can also export and import some data. IdeasTracker can be used over an intranet, extranet or the Internet. Call us for any specific enquiries.

7. What size database will it create?

It's highly unlikely you will need any more than 500Mb of disk space for ideas. Each suggestion will be less than 15kb plus any files uploaded to it, and large companies tend only to receive tens of thousands of suggestions at the most. Twenty thousand suggestions would equate to around 300Mb. In reality, many of these will be removed and not archived. For the knowledge section you will need to evaluate how much knowledge you are creating, and what type it is - i.e. are you going to be uploading documents or video files?

If you're starting out with an internet service provider hosting IdeasTracker for you, begin with a 50Mb account, then monitor it from there.

8. Can I easily upgrade the number of users allowable in my copy of IdeasTracker?

Yes. All that's required is for you to buy more users. The price is the difference in price between the two versions plus a $50 administration charge. You'll receive a new serial number via email which will unlock the required number of users.

9. How many users will I need?

IdeasTracker comes with one account built in: the Systems Administrator. You'll need one HR Administrator and one Opportunity Director. The remainder of your license can be used for User accounts. For example, when you buy a twenty-user license for IdeasTracker you'll need to use a minimum of two of them for administrative users, leaving you eighteen for other users. If you add another administrative user it will use one of your twenty.

10. Is IdeasTracker available in different languages?

We're considering a German version. If you are interested in a particular language (including German so that we have more motivation to complete it), please contact us.

11. Is IdeasTracker encrypted?

The code is encrypted on the server. The level of security of data you put into the database is more determined by your systems policies and network security, rather than anything in IdeasTracker. See 21.

12. What's your refund policy?

If, after 2 months from purchase, you feel that IdeasTracker isn't going to make you more than it cost you, we'll give you a refund minus transaction costs. Your license cost is converted to NZ dollars. Due to changes in the exchange rate we cannot guarantee that if you buy in US dollars the exchange rate will be the same. In some cases you may get a refund larger than what you paid - we pay back the converted amount minus transaction charges only.

You have one week from the two-month anniversary to apply for a refund. You can do that via our contact form. You'll need to disable IdeasTracker and not use it again.

13. Do I get a free upgrade when the next version comes out?

You may be eligible, at our discretion, for a free upgrade if you have purchased IdeasTracker up to three months before we release a new version. If we make a subrelease to fix a bug or add some minor functionality, these will be free. Major upgrades will be discounted to existing clients for a few months after release. If you have a modified version, note that your modifications may not be carried over to the new version.

If you are renting IdeasTracker, any upgrades will happen automatically.

14. What are your plans for upgrades and enhancements?

Version 3 is already in development..

15. What are the license restrictions?

Any of the licenses you buy entitles you to one installation only on one server. If you wish to run IdeasTracker on another server you'll need to purchase another license. You cannot lease, rent or onsell IdeasTracker unless you are an authorised service provider or reseller.

16. What databases does it work with?

It is thoroughly tested with MySQL (available from www.mysql.com), however, with some slight modification (which we can make) it should work with almost any database.

17. Why MySQL?

For what IdeasTracker uses the database for, MySQL is second only to Oracle. It's also free to download, and robust.

Using MySQL has no limitations - it will cope with however many ideas and knowledge documents you submit.

18. But I want to use it with a different database

Contact us - we may have a version available, or may be able to make the tweaks necessary. Check out the product information pages to find out potential database compatibility.

19. Why PHP?

PHP does not tie us to using any one operating system - it's compatible across a wide range of servers. It is also exceptionally robust and quicker than Microsoft's equivalent for what IdeasTracker does. And it's free.

20. Can I change the look and feel of IdeasTracker to suit my company's branding?

You can add your company logo at the top of each page. Any further changes must be made by us and will be quoted accordingly.

21. What's the Ioncube decoder?

We use Ioncube's encoder for two reasons:

a) It makes the software run faster

b) It encrypts the files so they are harder to pirate.

Your server must either load the Ioncube decoder into php.ini, or be able to allow runtime decoding to decode the files - this is a standard decoder similar to Zend, and is available or here (Ioncube). Runtime loaders are bundled with IdeasTracker for Windows and Linux. If you prefer to use Zend, please contact us and we'll supply you a Zend-encoded version. There is very little difference in performance between the three as they are the industry benchmark products.

22. Why does IdeasTracker use Macromedia Flash?

If you want a version without Flash, please contact us and we'll supply you one. IdeasTracker is programmed with Flash to make it easier to add functionality to custom versions for customers needing extra features. The standard version of IdeasTracker only uses Flash for the in-page help, the menu, and dynamically creating headings.

23. Does IdeasTracker work with Macintoshes?

Yes, IdeasTracker works on the Macintosh platform.

24. Does IdeasTracker work with Citrix

Yes.

25. What web browsers does IdeasTracker work with?

Currently the application is optimised for Internet Explorer, but also works in Safari in Mac OSX.

26. Why don't you guys offer a free trial of IdeasTracker?

IdeasTracker is server-based, and therefore difficult to provide as a working demo.

Also Idea management takes commitment and that commitment can be too easily forgotten unless you've made a small investment. For just US$499 it's likely that the first idea you get through the system will more than pay for it.