Oranged Software has released Studiometry 9, a major upgrade to their business management software for Mac and Windows. It costs $199.95, with upgrades available for $59.95. Studiometry helps you organize, plan, track and invoice, providing you with the tools needed to keep tabs both on clients and projects.
New to the 9.0 release are more than 140 new features and improvements. Oranged notes that many of the enhancements are focused on Customer Relation Management (CRM). Direct integration with Apple Mail has been added, and e-mails can now be imported, logged and linked within Studiometry data.
PDF exporting capabilities, cost-rate tracking, Growl support, speed and stability improvements, iCloud and MobileMe calendar support, enhanced Gantt charts and other new features round out the major enhancements.
A 30-day free trial is available for download. Also check out the Studiometry Touch software for iPhone and iPad.
Looks like a clean, full-featured, well thought-out app for a small business…UNTIL you get to the part where they’re charging $39 per device per year, to run an iPhone or iPad client against your own data, hosted on your own hardware/network. FAIL.
We decided to go with that approach because of the App Store’s lack of a discounted upgrade process. We listen to and respond to user feedback for our desktop and mobile apps very actively, hence the frequent updates.
Without a yearly fee for the separate mobile app we would either hemorrhage money as a small software company, or confuse users by flooding the App Store with multiple version of the same program (Studiometry Touch 1, Studiometry Touch 2, etc).
The mobile app is completely optional, and the desktop app license never expires and does not require any type of subscription. Hope this helps!
This is not the first time I’ve seen a negative review based on price. Here’s my take:
I just downloaded the trial and set up my business in a couple of hours. I run a small production facility (video, photography, post) with 6 staff. Small yes, so I was looking for something that is quick and easy to use – definitely not as heavy as something like FoxOMS Facilities Management. Even Light Blue Photo which we’ve also tried. I don’t know what it is with those apps – I suppose, yes, if you had someone FULL TIME behind the app configuring it every day then the apps would really shine. But for small-medium sized businesses my experience with Studiometry so far has been first class. I’ve tested so many now and I was about to give up hope (or hire that extra person to manage the manager). So… for all those who think that this is expensive, consider the real costs of getting organised.
And as for the yearly fee per device… well, think of it as having a personal assistant assigned to EVERY member of staff, in their pocket. Hmmm, starting to sound a little less daunting. If you can’t afford it then maybe you don’t need it? Please tell me what alternative you’re using so I can try that too because I won’t stop until I’ve found the perfect studio management app. Tonight, after testing Studiometry for the first time (and loving its real intergration/sync with iCal, Apple Mail, AddressBook) I think I might be able to stop looking, finally!
One last thought for anyone else who stumbles upon this review. I’ve noticed that Studiometry are very quick to find reviews and respond to issues. I’ve read a couple issues on the prior version and had to do a double-take to realise that their support staff were dealing with support right there in the forums (like this one). Uh… a company that actively looks for users and helps them WITHOUT waiting for an official request? That’s gold people! Use the software first instead of reading the feature list and being reactionary to the price.
For the record, I’m a real studio owner (in the Caribbean, THANK YOU for including my currency and tax flexibility and automatically updating the live exchange rate… I could hug you!)… not some fake reviewer! Google jtography to find us.
One love.
I agree with James. Studiometry has its quirks, but it is a good solution for a small studio. STM is very flexible. And yes, currencies, currencies, currencies… and network capable… We don’t find the price to be too excessive. And support reacts usually pretty fast…
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software is a large class of software programs essentially designed to help businesses manage their customer information. Before making a commitment like this, every business should ask if they require a full CRM Software program.