Reflect | Connect, Inc: About

We’re Not Dead

December 17th, 2007

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Wondering why we haven’t blogged much recently? We’ve been busy making Backdrop feature complete and getting it ready for our beta studios and today we’re pleased to announce the official release of Backdrop Beta.

Over 20 new features were added to Backdrop in this release, but we hate talking about number of features, so instead I’m going to focus on a few things that really make running a studio simple and fun.

Export to Lab: After entering orders in Backdrop, employees can easily group several orders into a lab bag. Now you can ftp all the ordered images to your lab directly from Backdrop with one click! Since we archive your high res images, the data is sent out directly to the lab via our high-speed internet link instead of tying up your studio’s connection for hours.
Online Scheduling: We’ve made setting up and using online scheduling incredibly easy. Easily select a client group, date range, appointment types, and employees and you’ll have an instant calendar where your clients can go online and book their appointments. Clients will get customized email appointment reminders and an invitation to view their proofs online once they’re imported into Backdrop.
Retouched Image Storage: Store your retouched images directly in Backdrop! Backdrop will keep a history of all image revisions so you can always go back to the original if there is a mistake. When it comes time to export your yearbook images Backdrop will automatically fetch the latest retouched version.

Our beta studios are already cutting costs using these features. Want more info? Interested in becoming a beta studio? Let us know!

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DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself)

April 1st, 2007

One of the core tenets of programming is Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY). The logic being the more times you repeat yourself, the greater the chances of you making a mistake.

We’re bringing this concept to Backdrop. Many school photographers use CamLynx to acquire and manage their images as they’re photographing. CamLynx provides users with an easy way to manage and organize their photoshoot, tying in image data with student. If you use CamLynx and Backdrop you don’t have to enter any of this information twice. Any client contact information entered into CamLynx can be imported into Backdrop along with client images. Photographing a school has never been so easy!

Let’s see whats involved…

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In The Studio: Growing too fast!

March 13th, 2007

One of the most exciting times from I used to work in a studio was finding out that we had increased the number of High Schools we photographed by 50%. This was a huge boost for the business, and we quickly rushed to make sure we had all the hardware we needed to store and process all these new clients.

Excitement turned into fear when we found that several other schools had decided to use us as their photographer. Instead of increasing our senior business by 50% we expanded it by 100%! Our new equipment had some room to grow, but not to handle doubling our volume. What to do? Nothing other than bite the bullet and buy more hardware when the time came.

I don’t have to tell you that managing and predicting the amount of resources you need for digital photography can be a pain. Reliable, high performance storage is expensive. Buy too much and it goes to waste, too little and you get in trouble.

Backdrop is a complete paradigm shift in thinking about storing your digital assets. As you and your studio grow, we grow with you. If you find yourself needing more space simply upgrade your plan and you’ll get instant access to more storage space. There is no equipment to buy, install, maintain, worry about!

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In the Studio: Aaren Read

January 17th, 2007

If you venture over to our about page you’ll see that I used to work inside a photography studio. I had pretty unglamorous responsibilities, such as mounting negatives on a crop card (remember those?) and answering phone calls. During this job I was amazed at the amount of problems our poorly designed studio management software caused. I’ll be periodically sharing some of my experiences in little features called “In the Studio.”

I received a phone call from a father whose son had just graduated and he wanted pictures of his son. He knew exactly what he wanted (a package comprised of his yearbook picture) and asked if he could just give his order over the phone. No problem I say, let me just pull up his file…

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Backdrop: Studio Management Made Easy

January 15th, 2007

I’d like to welcome everyone to our new website and blog!

At Reflect | Connect we’re all pretty excited about Backdrop, our flagship product. Backdrop will be unlike any studio management software out there.

First we got rid of high upfront investments, insane server requirements, and the need to hire an IT department just to manage it all. All you need to begin using backdrop is a computer, an internet connection, and digital images. For a small monthly fee you get a studio management platform, support, and the most robust image storage available in a studio management product (more on this below!). No contracts and no commitments.

Next we shed all the ‘bloat’ that we’ve seen in studio management software lately. We’re software engineers and we got lost in some of our competitors products. Screens are filled buttons, tabs, and text… 95% of which people don’t use to run their studio. Backdrop focuses on simple, intuitive interfaces with features that make sense.

Have you ever worried what would happen to your business if you lost your studio? Client data, order data, and images all lost. With backdrop you can sleep easy. All your data resides in secure data centers, images are stored in multiple locations across the country, and you can download backups of your data anytime you’d like.

We’ll be having a private beta beginning in April 2007, if you are interested in checking out Backdrop for your studio fill out our contact form and let us know.

Posted in Announcements | 1 Comment »

We’re Not Dead

Backdrop Beta Released!

DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself)

In The Studio: Growing too fast!

In the Studio: Aaren Read

Backdrop: Studio Management Made Easy

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