HARDCAT – Latest Release 3.30E Now Shipping!!

Tuesday, 13 December 2011 14:46

The start of a new year is a good time for users to consider moving their production version of Hardcat to the latest 3.30E release.

This upgrade is being shipped on request to those customers who have maintained their annual software assurance cover.

Simply call or email our support team at Hardcat (+61 3 9695 5400 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) to find out more about the latest system upgrade. They will be able to answer any technical queries or questions about functionality.

There are many major enhancements in this latest release and 3.30E also encompasses all of the functional improvements from previous updates, which means that you do not have to ‘step through’ any interim releases – the upgrade manages that for you automatically.

Key new features available in 3.30E are as follows:

1. HardcatWeb Enhancements
2. Domain Control for Hardcat Windows
3. Improved Depreciation Functionality
4. Enhanced Export Capability

HardcatWeb Enhancements

HardcatWeb continues to be one of the key areas of extension and improvement in Hardcat release 3.30E.

For those users who need to track equipment movements between locations and/or people (e.g. construction, police, defence users), HardcatWeb now boasts an all new interface for the rapid issue and return of barcoded assets and stock inventory using a barcode scanner.

• Differentiates between “Issue” and “Return” behaviour (items being issued to and from a “store” location)
• Issues assets and stock from within the one screen
• Designed to rapidly record transactions with a barcode scanner, and without use of a keyboard or mouse
• Offers multiple options governing exception handling

Advantages

• You no longer need to alternate between Stock and Asset movement screens to record transactions
• Barcode scanner-driven interface allows instant recording of transaction simply by scanning the barcode of the item being issued/returned
• Streamlined interface encourages the recording of transactions, unlike other systems where the laboriousness of recording the transaction leads to transactions not being recorded at all
• Hardcat’s powerful reporting will allow you to quickly see what items are currently in store/out of store, assigned to whom, overdue for return, etc.

Benefits

• Allows you to efficiently manage equipment loans
• Reduces theft and misappropriation of “portable and attractive” items – improves the bottom line

Domain Control for Hardcat Windows

This feature allows the automatic filtering of asset data based on the Workgroup to which a user belongs and this prevents users in one group having visibility of data (e.g. assets) that belong to other workgroups.

At Hardcat, we refer to this feature as “Domain Control”. This feature has been available in HardcatWeb for quite some time and many customers have asked that it be included into Hardcat Windows and so, this feature is now available in 3.30E. As a result of further customer requests, we have now also extended domain control to have the option of limiting Work Order and Problem listings by Engineer, as well as options to limit selections of locations and cost centres for asset or job re-assignment to only those within the user’s domain.

Improved Depreciation Functionality

While 2010 and 2011 were significant in terms of adding IFRS compliant functionality to the Hardcat depreciation module, user feedback has led to small but significant fine-tuning to some of the depreciation reports in 3.30E.

Enhanced Export Capability

Hardcat release 3.30E now allows Hardcat users to automatically export a file from Hardcat using pre-defined search criteria. This feature will be very useful and welcomed by users who wish to schedule an export of a defined set of data from Hardcat for review or even import by other applications. This export facility is in addition to the existing ODBC and API-based method of accessing Hardcat data and is called from the command line with specific arguments.

In addition to the CSV export mentioned above, there is a new audit report that details assets captured , audited and details of all exceptions found and this has now been made available in a format that is optimised for review in Excel for those users who wish to do further processing of the data for statistical reporting or other purposes.

Season’s Greetings from Dan Drum - Managing Director of Hardcat

Tuesday, 13 December 2011 14:38

As another year draws to a close, the purpose of this note is to say a big “Thank You” to all of our valued customers for their continued support, whose numbers now represent Hardcat implementations in over 120 countries.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge that this success has been founded on the loyalty, feedback, encouragement and ultimate customer satisfaction of our clients, who have allowed Hardcat to become a great Australian export success story.

This year has been a milestone for Hardcat as it marks the 25^th year that Hardcat has been delivering highly regarded asset management solutions to the marketplace. During this time, the business problem remains the same – what have I got; where is it, who owns it and where has it been?

While the problem remains the same, you will read below that our technology continues to develop with our current release ‘3.30E’, and our future product roadmap for 2012.

2011 has been a significant year in terms of product development as we have made many important additions and enhancements to the Hardcat software, and these improvements are available now in the latest 3.30E Hardcat upgrade.

Our software roadmap for 2012 promises some very exciting new functionality. Just by way of a “teaser”, two of the features due for release in early 2012 are a powerful graphical business intelligence component which is visually very impressive, and secondly the ability to integrate Google Maps into Hardcat with some very exciting and innovative processing functionality.

We have also achieved quite a ‘feather in our cap’ with the successful rollout of an Exhibits Forensic Information Miscellaneous Property System (EFIMS) for NSW Police in Australia.

We will be letting you know a lot more about our new release for 2012 as we get closer to release time.

For now, on behalf of the Hardcat Board, and all of the Hardcat team, I wish you a healthy, happy and enjoyable holiday season and a prosperous 2012.

Hardcat Receives ISO Certification

Monday, 21 February 2011 19:12

Hardcat is fast becoming a major player in the delivery of tier one applications for our customers. We are delivering larger and more complex systems every day, working with our customers to ensure they can meet all their governance and quality standards. To effectively deliver the outcomes and quality to our customer base, we have ensured that our processes and systems pass the most stringent audits and tests. As such, Hardcat Head Office and Administration have succeeded in implementing a Quality Management System and have achieved ISO9001:2008 certification. As of February 2011, our customers can be assured that our solutions (and the processes and methodologies utilised to delivery our solutions) are all part of a standard, verified and certified Quality Management System.