What's the latest verdict on TAMonline?

Lance Weaver · December 19, 2012, 08:25:26 PM

Going to visit a 30-user TAMonline agency tomorrow. Looking forward to checking out TAMonline in person, with real agency data.

Some questions though:

We use 3 monitors at our CSR workstations. I talked to Applied Tech Support today and they told me that the TAMonline environment supports no more than two monitors. Is this true? Are any of you using more than two monitors in the TAMonline environment? I am currently supporting one 3-monitor CSR station on my own Terminal Server using an application called SplitView, so I don't know why Applied couldn't make this happen also. Especially since the Applied Tech told me that Applied is also using the Splitview application in the TAMonline environment (does anyone know if AS really uses SplitView on their RDP servers?). If I remember correctly, the max spanning resolution is handled by the RDP client and not the server. The SplitView app is simply there to created seperate "screens", the number of which you can choose and change at will, as we do from time to time when someone goes from their 3-monitor pc at work to their 1-monitor pc at home. I am confused...

Lance

brinkerdana · December 19, 2012, 09:32:37 PM

Currently using only 2 screens on TOL. But, I can view multiple smaller images on one screen and have something else (TAM) open on the other if I need to see 3 things at once.

GeorgeW · December 20, 2012, 10:52:52 AM

Just glanced at my signature and realized there was a typo!!! We have 268 licenses, not 2680!!! LOL, wow!

Quote from: Jeff Golas on December 19, 2012, 05:06:50 PM

Just looked at your sig and I'm curious how this lays out?

Alice Mooney · December 20, 2012, 12:10:27 PM

Quote from: GeorgeW on December 20, 2012, 10:52:52 AM
Just glanced at my signature and realized there was a typo!!! We have 268 licenses, not 2680!!! LOL, wow!

Quote from: Jeff Golas on December 19, 2012, 05:06:50 PM

Just looked at your sig and I'm curious how this lays out?

wouldn't that make you a stock holder then?

Lance Weaver · January 09, 2013, 01:57:15 PM

Visited the 30-user agency that I mentioned and they love TAMonline. They seemed to be a much different environment than us though. I suspect that we demand quite a bit more out of our hardware and software systems.

The person that showed us the system kept saying that the thing that really makes TAMonline fast for them is the solid-state hard drives in their PCs - is there any truth to this? They use a cable Internet connection, which isn't known to be all that reliable in my area (the carrier does continue to improve...). They were not really paperless so I didn't get much info about TAMonline and scanning. How well the front-end scanning process works with TAMonline is one of my larger concerns (we do quite a bit of scanning).

Lance

Bloody Jack Kidd · January 09, 2013, 03:51:05 PM

SSDs in a local system should have little effect on the speed of any kind of terminal session RDP/ICA etc. If it's fast, they have a good network connection and ASI is keeping things up on their end in the data center.

Ric · January 09, 2013, 03:51:47 PM

+1 what BJK said

Quote from: Bloody Jack Kidd on January 09, 2013, 03:51:05 PM
SSDs in a local system should have little effect on the spend of any kind of terminal session RDP/ICA etc. If it's fast, they have a good network connection and ASI is keeping things up on their end in the data center.

Mark · January 09, 2013, 03:52:51 PM

+1 y'all beat me too it!

Ric · January 09, 2013, 03:57:31 PM

JohnGage · January 10, 2013, 08:33:50 AM

As an agency that just recently made the switch from LAN to TAM Online I can give some insight into the frustrations that exist within the TOL environment.

Fax@vantage only available within TOL environment - workflow to fax a piece of paper also frustrating
Workflow to email a piece of paper without using Outlook on local station
Inability to see if a connected user is working or just forgot to logoff @ end of the day (may be different if you purchase the private cloud product)
Printing issues when trying something a little advanced, such as printing to multiple trays from a single document
Inability to ever work past 1AM - Certainly understand the need for a maintenance period but has gotten in the way a few times

brinkerdana · January 10, 2013, 05:52:27 PM

•Inability to ever work past 1AM - Certainly understand the need for a maintenance period but has gotten in the way a few times

Oh, just go to bed, John!

Nobody needs to be working at 1 AM!

Charlie Charbonneau · January 10, 2013, 05:58:20 PM

There are times that an all nighter is necessary unfortunately!!!

Hans Manhave · January 10, 2013, 11:39:12 PM

What about time zones, working while out of the USA, when one has a bright idea (I know, those are rare, but I had one at 4am earlier this week).

JohnGage · January 11, 2013, 09:03:29 AM

Regular maintenance periods are 12-4 CT Mon-Fri and 12-6 CT Sat-Sun. Add in extra time for TAM upgrades or the occasional infrastructure upgrade.

In our office I have always tried to allow users to work as late as they want, their efforts are appreciated. Then I do the backroom IT work later in the evening. That's just not possible when all utilities need to be completed prior to 1 AM ET.

Lance Weaver · January 11, 2013, 01:06:21 PM

John,

We are PST and I was told that for us, maintenance windows would be Midnight-2:00A PST M-F and Midnight-6:00A PST SAT-SUN. I guess it must depend on what server you are on... ?

Lance

Quote from: JohnGage on January 11, 2013, 09:03:29 AM
Regular maintenance periods are 12-4 CT Mon-Fri and 12-6 CT Sat-Sun. Add in extra time for TAM upgrades or the occasional infrastructure upgrade.

In our office I have always tried to allow users to work as late as they want, their efforts are appreciated. Then I do the backroom IT work later in the evening. That's just not possible when all utilities need to be completed prior to 1 AM ET.