Zia is currently helping an online university automate its business processes using Alfresco.  Currently, a small portion of the school’s content is managed in Alfresco.  The bulk of the content (quizzes, assignments, etc.) is stored in Moodle, unmanaged.

Zia has built web services for the 1.9.x Moodle servers that allow Alfresco’s automated workflows to backup/restore a Moodle course and to grant/deny access to a Moodle course for a particular user.

Moodle 2.0 provides some out-of-the-box Alfresco integration, but no services like the ones outlined above.  There is, however, greatly improved web service support with Moodle 2.0.

Zia’s extensions to Moodle allow their client to implement the following business process:

1. A professor, using the Alfresco user interface, requests to make a change to a course.
2. Alfresco (by calling a web service) grants the professor write access to a development copy of the Moodle course.
3. The professor makes the desired changes in Moodle, and then goes into Alfresco to submit the changes to the editorial team (by marking the workflow task assigned to him as complete).
4. Alfresco then removes the professor’s access to the development Moodle course, to prevent him/her from making changes during the review process.  An automated workflow step pulls the content from the development Moodle instance and the production Moodle instance and compares the two.  The document that summarizes the changes is attached to the workflow.  A workflow task is assigned to the editorial team to review the changes.
5. A member of the editorial team then approves or rejects the change.  If the change is approved, an automated workflow step backs up the production Moodle course and checks it into Alfresco.  Then the development Moodle is backed up and restored into production.

This automation provides several key advantages to the university:

1. Improved turnaround time.  The automated process is much faster.
2. Reduced error rate.  The system won’t forget a step, or accidentally modify the wrong course.
3. Improved editorial control.  The editors don’t have take the professors’ word for what changed; the system shows them the changes.
4. Revision control of course content.  The school now has a revision history of the changes to the course, and can “roll back” to a previous version if necessary.

Please conatct us if you’re interested in learning more about Moodle integration with Alfresco.

It took us a little longer to get the code out onto a Google Code project, but it is available now. The Android version is coming soon.

http://code.google.com/p/freshdocsalfrescoiphone/

Fresh Xpense, a Zia Consulting iPhone application for XPenser, was demoed at DEMO Spring 2010.   ( watch demo )

KMWorld article “Open source ECM platforms bring mobility to market” talks about Zia’s Fresh Docs application – http://bit.ly/998jEk

This tax is not just a software tax on the software industry. Every person, every business, every industry will pay this NEW tax for all software used by Colorado employees – which creates a tax only for jobs in our state.

HB 1192 creates a NEW tax and is different from the other tax bills because that which is proposed to be taxed has NEVER been taxed. This new tax is a clear violation of TABOR and SHOULD require a vote of the people.

This new sales tax applied to software is not limited to the 2.9% state sales tax rate; statutory cities and counties will impose their own local sales tax with home rule cities soon to follow – resulting in a 8 – 10% tax depending upon where you live.

HB 1192 will slow venture investment in Colorado’s software and IT industry. This bill creates an environment which is less appealing for investment than other states – this new tax will drive businesses and jobs out of Colorado.

Key growth industry sectors, cornerstones of Colorado’s economy, like bioscience, aerospace, financial services, health care, and renewable energy rely heavily on software and will take the blunt of this new tax and make it more difficult to drive innovation and stay competitive in the global marketplace.
HB 1192 is a brand new tax on which Colorado taxpayers will not have an opportunity to vote – a direct violation of our state Constitution.
This new software tax is being lumped together with twelve other exemption/credit reversals in an effort by the governor’s office to rush this through legislation. The new software tax is a separate and highly problematic new tax that will have a devastating impact to Colorado’s economy.
Of the 13 tax exemptions rushed through the House Finance Committee on Thursday night, Representative called HB 1192 the most damning, in terms of the impact it will cause to jobs.

This bill is vague and poorly written – the trickle-down effect of this bill could be endless, and the loss in revenue

HB 1192 will cost Colorado jobs and give us the reputation of being unfriendly to business.
The more than 175,000 professionals in this industry earn an average of $88,000 per year – more than twice the median salary of all Colorado professionals in the state. Within that industry, employers are announcing plans to cut jobs or leave the state if this bill is passed.

This bill will raise taxes on ALL businesses in Colorado who use technology.
Your veterinarian, your favorite restaurant, your bakery, your hair salon, your telephone company, your cable company, your brewery, etc. This could stifle new job growth and cause existing/new jobs to go elsewhere.
While Governor Ritter is estimating $20.4 million revenue from this tax in the next year, we expect the revenue loss from the technology industry to far surpass that amount.

In addition to the impact this new software tax will have on the technology industry if passed, all Coloradans need to be concerned about what this bill means for our job growth and economic recovery. This bill will raise taxes on ALL businesses in Colorado who use technology; your veterinarian, your favorite restaurant, your bakery, your hair salon, your telephone company, your cable company, your brewery, etc. This could stifle new job growth and cause existing/new jobs to go elsewhere. We’re encouraging supporters to visit our web site, coloradotechnology.org, for more information on how to ACT TODAY and contact their representative to tell them why this new tax will be devastating for Colorado’s economy.

All Coloradans need to be concerned about what this bill means for our job growth and economic recovery. Renewable Energy, Aerospace, Bioscience all require software, and many Colorado companies develop and sell this critical software to run the pillars of our economy!

If passed, this job-killing legislation will place a new tax on any software purchased or installed in Colorado, which will have devastating impacts on job growth and our economic recovery.

The technology industry is a critical cog in Colorado’s economic wheel. There are more than 5,500 software/hardware/IT services businesses and nearly 175,000 well-paid professionals in Colorado’s software industry who provide more than $1 billion – in taxes alone to the state of Colorado. Why does Governor Ritter want to hurt that? Why do our legislators want important IT jobs to move OUT of Colorado? We were just starting to see the economy rebounding, and now we have this?!

HB 1192 will cost Colorado jobs and give us the reputation of being unfriendly to business. Why does Governor Ritter want to impact our state’s ability to recover?

Economic developers from neighboring states like Wyoming and Utah already have daily conversations with Colorado’s software companies about moving projects and jobs to their states. If HB 1192 passes, companies will start to listen. Why does Governor Ritter want to send jobs to Wyoming and Utah and more than 35 other states who will have less confusing and far less costly taxes for software companies and IT professionals.

Although this new tax will have the most devastating impact on the software industry, no business will be immune to its negative affects. Other industries that rely heavily on software – including aerospace, renewable energy, bioscience, telecommunications, financial services and tourism – will also be hurt in a major way. Why do our legislators want them to fall backwards?

HB 1192 is a brand new tax on which Colorado taxpayers will not have an opportunity to vote – a direct violation of our state Constitution.

If passed, Colorado will be one of only 12 states with this type of tax; of the 11 other states, most have offsetting incentives to keep technology companies within their state. Colorado will have no incentives to keep and encourage new technology companies in our state.

HB 1192 will actually end up costing Colorado money. Ironically, although Governor Ritter’s budget office projects an additional $15 million per year in tax revenue thanks to this legislation, the long-term impacts would result in a net loss of revenue to the state and would greatly hinder our economic recovery.

Key Members of Colorado Appropriations Committee:
Rep. Kathleen Curry, Appropriations Committee
303.866.2945, kathleen.curry.house@state.co.us

Rep. John Kafalas, Appropriations Committee
303.866.4569, john.kefalas.house@state.co.us

Rep. Jack Pommer, Chair, Appropriations Committee
303.866.2780, jack.pommer.house@state.co.us

Rep. Joel Judd, Appropriations Committee
303.866.2925, repjoeljudd@joeljudd.com

Rep. Mark Ferrandino, Appropriations Committee
303.866.2911, mferrandino@yahoo.com

Rep. Randolph Fischer, Appropriations Committee
303.866.2917, randy.fischer.house@state.co.us

Rep. Sal Pace, Appropriations Committee
303.866.2968, sal.pace.house@state.co.us

Rep. Jim Riesberg, Appropriations Committee
303.866.2929, jim.riesberg.house@state.co.us

It isn’t the most exciting representation, but it is fun to look at who is downloading the app the most.

+----------------+-------+
| name           | units |
+----------------+-------+
| United States  |   126 |
| France         |    31 |
| Germany        |    22 |
| United Kingdom |    21 |
| China          |    18 |
| Russia         |    18 |
| Japan          |    17 |
| Spain          |    12 |
| Canada         |    12 |
| South Korea    |    10 |
| Switzerland    |     8 |
| Italy          |     8 |
| Belgium        |     7 |
| Australia      |     6 |
| Netherlands    |     6 |
| Austria        |     5 |
| Singapore      |     5 |
| Vietnam        |     5 |
| Poland         |     4 |
| Norway         |     3 |
| Sweden         |     3 |
| Hong Kong      |     3 |
| Pakistan       |     3 |
| Hungary        |     3 |
| India          |     3 |
| Israel         |     3 |
| Thailand       |     3 |
| Greece         |     2 |
| New Zealand    |     2 |
| Chile          |     2 |
| Turkey         |     2 |
| Denmark        |     2 |
| Taiwan         |     2 |
| Croatia        |     2 |
| Colombia       |     2 |
| Czech Republic |     2 |
| Brazil         |     1 |
| Slovenia       |     1 |
| Mexico         |     1 |
| Romania        |     1 |
| South Africa   |     1 |
| Saudi Arabia   |     1 |
| Luxembourg     |     1 |
| Portugal       |     1 |
| Ireland        |     1 |
| Slovakia       |     1 |
| Argentina      |     1 |
| Malaysia       |     1 |
+----------------+-------+

CMIS iPhone and Android App picked up by CMIS Biz. A really nice article chatting us up.

http://www.cmis.biz/2010/01/08/implementation/cmis-clients/cmis-iphone-app-fresh-docs-for-alfresco/

Zia was recently recognized for their iPhone and Android application called Fresh Docs for Alfresco. You can find out more information on the Alfresco Wiki.