Appointment.com and accounting software API

For all those who are looking for an online accounting solution which is syncing the data from Appointment.com check out www.ClarityAccounting.com.
ClarityAccounting implemented our API and within a mouse click and entering your Appointment.com settings, the appointment bookings and customer information will get synced into your accounting software. No more double entry and you can create any accounting reports you need.

Seasons Greetings
Team Appointment.com

Demo videos for your customers

We were asked if we would create a demo video for companies to post on their websites, teaching their customers how to book and administrate appointments.

We thought this was a great idea and have created two videos, one for companies requiring login and one for public access calendars. These have been posted on YouTube for to view and use. Now you can either refer to the videos using a link or embed them (as per YouTube instructions) in your website.

Our videos are at

http://www.youtube.com/appointmentcom

Or see below the embedded videos

Remembrance Day update

Today is "Remembrance Day" in Canada and we have limited staff available.
support@appointment.com will be monitored for urgent issues. 

• At the same time, our "Live Support" chat and e-mail support is extending the opening hours to serve more timezones. 
  
  
• Appointment.com Consumer Portal directory is going live as well. If you would like to be listed, please log in as the "Admin/Vendor", go to "Vendor Admin" and select the categories that you would like to be listed under.  

System upgrade delayed until tomorrow

System upgrade delayed until tomorrow. 

Appointment.com Catches the Flu

Many of our customers will have noticed that site performance on Thursday was extremely and unacceptably slow. I wanted to fill you in on what happened and how we are resolving it.

We recently added as customers several vaccination clinics that are offering online appointments for H1N1 flu shots. Demand for the limited quantity of the H1N1 vaccines is so great that an enormous number of people all went to the site at the exact same time, creating a huge spike in traffic. Even once the vaccines were all gone, people were still trying to get appointments, so there was little letup in traffic over the course of the day. To be specific, we saw traffic spike by almost 20 times our normal traffic, and continue at the level for almost the entire day. Quite simply, we were overwhelmed by the suddenness and volume of this traffic, and many of you bore the brunt of this through slow or inaccessible calendars.

Due to this, we are adding additional server capacity. This will require a scheduled outage this Sunday night, November 8, from 8:00 PM to midnight PST; we have chosen these off-peak hours so as to inconvenience the least number of customers. Once this upgrade is complete, we are confident that Appointment.com will have sufficient server capacity to handle sudden spikes in traffic, and that this incident should not reoccur.

We appreciate your patience and forbearance more than you can imagine, and hope that you will find the performance improvements of Appointment.com a worthwhile addition.

Development update and getting ready for the flu shot season

Our development team is working at full capacity to complete the "Beta" stage of Version 3.0 for www.Appointment.com. The release date has been delayed to the end of this month because we have continued to add new features, but they will be well worth the wait!

In the meantime, Version 2.0 is running well and and we have seen an increase in the demand for many kinds of "Online Appointment Scheduling" tasks. There is particularly strong increase in the need for online scheduling with the upcoming flu season.
More flu shot clinics are using www.Appointment.com than ever before, with both the regular flu shots and now the H1N1 immunizations. Flu clinics who utilize online scheduling are benefiting because they have the ability to book multiple appointments for one time-slot, making the booking process very simple and easy for patients and providers.

P.S. follow our Tweets at our new Twitter URL at
http://twitter.com/appointmentcom

BookingCalendar.com is now Appointment.com

We started the idea of BookingCalendar.com in 1999, and since then, it has become one of the leading online appointment scheduling systems. I would like to thank all of our many loyal customers who, over the years, have helped drive us to create the most advanced online appointment scheduling systems available. Your comments and encouragement have truly been invaluable.

Now it is time for the next step in our evolution.

The most immediate change is a new name: Appointment.com. And over the next weeks and months, you are going to see some rather dramatic changes to the system, including:

• A new look and feel that is easier to use and understand
• Streamlined administration
• Enhanced reporting
• A consumer portal for scheduling appointments

We will be sending out a more detailed description of these changes, as well as our development roadmap, to our customers in the next few weeks, and look forward to your comments.

While an enhanced UI and feature set are significant, equally important is that Appointment.com is now part of the Epik network of web sites. Through this alliance, we have been able to expand our vision, ability to execute, and capacity to grow even more rapidly. Over the coming months, you will begin to enjoy the fruits of this relationship with Epik, including links to various directories and portals, improved SEO, site discoverability, and online lead generation.

This truly is an exciting time for Appointment.com.

Max Fanderl

Founder and COO, Appointment.com