If you are currently using CLIPxe (version 7.#.#) you will probably be wondering if you should upgrade/convert to CLIPitc (In the cloud - online version).
There are many advantages of upgrading to the ITC version. Some of them are the following:
Access from anywhere - since CLIPitc is completely online, any device that you have can be used to get to your CLIP. This includes computers, laptops, iPads, phones, anything that can get to the internet. This includes any Apple products, so if you like using Apple computers/laptops...this is the ticket for you!
There is no upload/download for CLIP2Go. The CLIPitc App is available to your crews with the permissions you set up, so they are working directly on your copy of CLIPitc, you can see where they are and what they are doing without any upload/download. Any changes you make to your schedule for the day, are immediately reflected in their app because everyone is hitting the same data base.
Backups/Updates/Maintenance is all maintained for you. You don't have to worry about the latest anti-virus interrupting your work flow, about having to make sure you have backups or downloading the latest update..... all of that is taken care of for you.
Support can see what you are doing without having to get into your computer system. You simply invite the support tech to look at your CLIPitc and Voila! that is it. In most cases we can even see what series of key strokes you did to see where any problem might have arisen.
"Ok, that sounds good, what is the process I need to go through to get my current CLIPxe up to CLIPitc?"
You will be taking a few steps:
Create an account in CLIPitc. You can do this directly from our website www.clip.com. We just need you to open an account, it can be the 30 day free trial one but get the level that will fit your company. For most of our CLIPxe users, that would be the Enterprise plan. We will need enough space to upload all of your customers.
Open a chat with support and let us know that you have an account and are ready to proceed with the conversion. We will want to get a backup copy of your CLIPxe and bring it into our offices. We run a conversion utility that checks the data, parses it out and gets it ready for populating into your ITC account.
After a couple of days (sometimes more depending on the size of your CLIP), we will let you know that it has been uploaded. Now you can go in and start playing around with the new interface with your data in it.
Once you are satisfied that you want to move forward with CLIPitc, you will want to chat with Support and then we can get a fresh copy of your data and re-convert it so that it is up to date.
You will want to run your CLIPxe along with your CLIPitc for at least a few weeks (best to do it for a month), until you are satisfied that everything is working the way you want it to.
Once you are fully satisfied, you can turn off the CLIPxe and go forward solely on CLIPitc.
"What data comes over from CLIPxe to CLIPitc?"
All of your customers
All of their jobs
All of their history
All of the programs and rounds
All of the notes
Pretty much everything in CLIPxe comes over. The exception to this is the scanned documents that you might have in CLIPxe and Projects information. CLIPitc combines the project information right into the Job Materials and Multi-day jobs so there is no continuation of Projects (per se) in CLIPitc.
"How long will it take me to learn CLIPitc?"
That is a good question and it varies with each person. The interface is different and will probably cause some confusion but the terms are the same and it functions the same so most people catch on very quickly.
"Why are things different? Why couldn't you just keep them the same?"
CLIPitc runs in a completely different environment. Developing for the web is not the same as developing for a Network type installation.
CLIPitc is our first complete rewrite of the software in 20 years. We used all of the knowledge that we have gained over the past 30+ years to design a brand new CLIP.
CLIP has been growing from its initial version back in 1988 to what CLIPxe is today.
We have added so many functions/modules/add ons.... It is an extremely powerful piece of software and a lot of power has come from you all with your suggestions/wants/needs.
With CLIPitc, we were able to start fresh and design the product we know is needed from the ground up. It has been a multi-year effort and it has given us a new foundation that we will be able to build on for the next 20 years. It is the program of the future and we look forward to continuing to work together!