AKS-Labs

Compare Documents Easily with Compare Suite

The Compare Suite project was started back in 2003. From the very beginning it was not designed as another tool for software engineers. Instead Compare Suite was developed for office professionals. These are the professionals who don’t know much about using command line, running Linux or writing console applications.

Did we achieve our goal? Yes! More over, even the above mentioned software engineers sometimes forgot about their Unix toys and invested in Compare Suite PRO. It is hard to say now who is the user of Compare Suite.

Comparison of Excel Spreadsheets

For sure, there are some functions that make the difference. For example, as mentioned comparison of Excel spreadsheets is not just text comparison. Compare Suite works smarter, it will tell users what the difference is between two numbers and will calculate this difference in percentages.

If the program finds different dates, it won’t just report the difference, but it will calculate what the difference is in days or months. In a number of forums Compare Suite is mentioned as a best choice for comparison of Excel files.

3rd Party Compare Tool for DMS System

What we had to have in mind when developing Compare Suite is that the document doesn’t end its life on a user’s desktop. Normally, there is a long story behind any document. In some cases it was extracted from a company’s Document Management System, and the name was pasted as a parameter to Compare Suite (we call it integration with DMS). In other cases a user simply dragged and dropped the file on Compare Suite’s form.

Compare Files From Archives

The program has to fulfill all of the needs that a professional might have. For example, Compare Suite can extract files that you need from zip or a rar archive or download data for comparison from your FTP server.

Comment on Changes and Report

What happens with two documents after they were compared? Users might simply review differences visually and close the program, or he or she might generate a HTML report with all the details about differences found and send it to their colleague.

There is a place for critique. Once two documents are compared, it is possible to write comments on certain differences found. Your boss might ask you why you have changed this in the draft of the document or you might ask your boss why these changes in requirements were introduced.

Ignore Text That is Not Relevant

Integration with the document management systems that we mentioned above is just a part of integration in work cycle that Compare Suite provides. For example, when comparing documents regularly you might face the problem that time stamp in the footer of the document always distracts you from changes that matter. In this case you can adjust Compare Suite’s ignore functions. These functions gives a flexibility to ignore certain lines or lines with specific marks.

Compare By Words and By Keywords

We know that during the work day professionals might face impossible tasks. We have to be prepared for this as well. What about comparison of two documents that have nothing in common? No common ancestor? No lines to compare? For this very case the “by keywords” function was introduced. Try it to compare the text of two articles about the same topic copied from different websites. Doing this simple keyword analysis you’ll learn a lot about language that different journalists use. And off course, this is the fastest way to compare two documents and to get an idea about the difference between them.

Merge Two Documents into One

This is great tool for creative people. Do you want to get two versions of the document and compile a new one that will incorporate all the best from both documents? Sounds like a tough task and it is. Technology can help you. In Compare Suite you will find a merge function that will help you with combining two documents.

Compare MS Office Documents

What is the file format of the documents that you normally deal with in your office? Is it PDF, MS Word or Excel Workbook? Do you use files created by free Open Office? Do you have a presentation designed in PowerPoint? Compare Suite supports various file formats so you don’t need to worry about compatibility. The program will process the most popular file formats and show you the difference.

When we start talking about processing of files users always ask how the files are processed and if it is secure. We do understand this concern. Today when everything is in the cloud it is important to keep business critical information in your company not on the cloud server. Compare Suite processes all data locally without using any web services. What you open in Compare Suite stays on your PC only.

Compare HTML: Code and Web Page View

Among our users are web designers as well. They like Compare Suite as it can compare not only HTML code

but also web pages as it looks in web browser.

Compare Images and Multimedia

Another reason why professional designers and home users like Compare Suite is that it allows you to compare images and multimedia files. With images it can show you a changed part of the picture. For a multimedia file, it can compare all the information incorporated inside the file such as when you need to choose which file has better encoding quality.

Compare and Synchronize Two Folders

We were talking about files only, but Compare Suite is as good with folders as it is with files. The program allows you to compare and synchronize two folders so that if you have to work on two different PCs you can always have a fresh copy with you.

3-Way Comparison

These who need even more functions will be impressed with 3-way comparison released in Compare Suite. You won’t use this feature everyday, but if you have a specific case when you need to see 3 files together with differences between them at once, then Compare Suite is ready to help you.

Introducing File Search Assistant from AKS-Labs, the all-in-one file search utility that allows you to:

• Quickly find exactly the text you need, no matter what kind of file it’s in.
• Search for plain text or special symbols, target exactly the folders you want,
• Filter your search by file size and date, and
• Preview your results in context.

You can even:

• Index your files,
• Analyze your disk usage, and
• Save your results, so your next search will be even faster.

First, choose your search terms.  You can search for one or more words, whole phrases, or use regular expressions, like “+cats +dogs” or “+cats

• Search for UNICODE text, or for special symbols like line breaks.  Or, search for special characters by HEX code.

• Then, choose where you’d like to search.  You can search a single folder or a group of folders, on your hard drive or your local network.  Include or exclude individual folders from your search.  Even filter your search to find files of a particular size, or files that were modified on a particular date.

Search all kinds of files, regardless of format or encoding. Of course you can search MS Office documents, like Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations.  But you can also find any matching text in your OpenOffice documents, Adobe PDF documents, RTF (Rich Text Format) documents, and in the text and meta tags on your HTML web pages.  Search the tags on your images, videos, and multimedia files, as well.  Search password-protected documents.  Even search files inside WinZip and WinRAR archives.
And Preview your results. File Search Assistant doesn’t  just show you a list of your matching files.  It shows you a preview of each of those files.  You’ll see exactly where your keywords were found.  You’ll even see the surrounding text.  You can preview one file at a time, or preview all of your search results at once.

And File Search Assistant also includes several additional features.

• Index your files, to make your next search even faster. Choose fixed indexing for files on your hard drive, or portable indexing for files on a thumb drive.  Choose dynamic re-indexing, to update your index every time your file changes.  Or, mix and match your indexing options: choose fixed indexing with dynamic re-indexing for files you use every day, or portable indexing without re-indexing for files on a CD-ROM.

Analyze your disk space, to use your computer more efficiently. File Search Assistant can quickly spot the largest folders on your hard drive, as well as any duplicate files.  Then, you can delete or move any files you don’t need.

Or, save your search results, so you only have to run your search once. You can save a list of the files you found, generate a report with relevant quotations from each file, or even print out a copy of your folder structure so you can easily organize your system.

Shred Agent file shredder utility

Shred Agent is a file shredder utility that makes deletion secure and prevents information leakages. Shred Agent was designed to replace in-secure file deletion with secure file wiping. It works in background and can see all files that are deleted, including temporary and cached files.

Shred Agent works on hardware level, thus wiping the files completely, eliminating the possibility of ever recovering them. 
With Shred Agent. Use command line interface to run free space wipe function to make secure previously deleted files.
Wiping free disk space is necessary to make irrecoverable all previously deleted files.
Configure filters to wipe only the files with certain extensions or belonging to a specific directory.  
Configure options and assures complete file removal with no efforts at all on the part of the owner.

Shred Agent Benefits

Shred Agent is a file security utility that makes deletion secure and prevents information leakages. It was designed to replace in-secure file deletion operations with secure file wiping. Main features of Shred Agent includes:

• Wiping on Hardware Level. Shred Agent works on hardware level, thus wiping the files completely, eliminating the possibility of ever recovering them. 
• Fine tune file shredder. Configure filters to wipe only the files with certain extensions or belonging to a specific directory.  
• Wiping with no efforts. Configure options and assures complete file removal with no efforts at all on the part of the owner. 

With the wider use of encryption systems, an attacker wishing to gain access to sensitive data is forced to look elsewhere for information. One way to attack is the recovery of supposedly erased data from hard disk or random-access memory.

Shred Agent is designed to protect your privacy. When you delete files in Windows it is possible to undelete or recover them using different file recovery utilities. If you want to make sure that the file you delete cannot be restored by any means, Shred Agent is the right tool for you. 

To make sure nobody else has access to your private files, you might use some encryption software. But encryption is useless if the original plaintext can be recovered. Wiping is the process of writing some information directly into the space where the old file was located. 

Shred Agent works on hardware level, thus wiping the files completely, eliminating the possibility of ever recovering them. What makes it different from most file wiping utilities currently available on the market is the capability to control the wiping of files in the background. For example you can configure the corresponding filters to wipe temporary file created by office programs. 

If Shred Agent is installed on a server and a remote user is trying to delete a file from the "Include" list, Shred Agent will wipe the file via network. 

Shred Agent can be customized to suit just your needs. Configure filters to wipe only the files with certain extensions or belonging to a specific directory. Make sure Shred Agent is launched every time you switch on your computer. Record all the information about the files being wiped to a log file.

Automate visual testing

RoutineBot is a visual test automation software that provides a user with the opportunity to create and execute tests based on image patterns.

Key Benefits of RoutineBot:

• Allows you to automate visual testing by two methods – manual script design or automatic script recording;
• Supports Pascal, JavaScript and Basic scripting languages;
• Can automate a variety of events – mouse events (clicking, moving), keyboard events (entering text), taking screenshots, loading and saving data, downloading files, working with applications and windows;
• Supports wide range of functions to log events which includes advanced htm log with screenshots of test cases;

How to Test “Hello World” Application with RoutineBot

Manual testing: testing engineer needs to open the application, pass certain parameters and click certain buttons, then make sure that the expected results exist.

With RoutineBot: testing engineer creates image patterns and writes scripts that will click certain buttons, then check if expected results were obtained.

In terms of time and money, manual testing is faster, but it should be considered an expenditure, as you need a testing engineer each time a test is performed. Automated testing should be considered an investment, although you spend more time on designing test script, it can be used in the future.

Example: “Hello World!”

This is the application that we want to test. If you click on the “Say Hello!” button, it should show some text.

Here is the application that we want to test. If click the button the "Hello" test should appear.

We need to take a snapshot of the screen and then crop the image and save it with the button:

Make snapshot of the button you need
Cropped image will be saved under the “Hello” name:


Crop and save the part of snapshot you need to click
Now, we assign the “MouseFocus” event to this image in order to make RoutineBot find the image pattern on the screen and focus in on it:

Program My1Prg;
begin
MouseFocuse(‘hello.bmp’,10000); // MouseFocuse event will try to find “hello” image
end.
Then, we need to add the “MouseClick” action, so that RoutineBot does not just focus, but clicks the button:

Program My1Prg;
begin
MouseFocuse('hello.bmp',10000);
MouseClick; // MouseClick event will emulate the mouse click
end.
Now, we need to add the expected pattern:

Program My1Prg;
begin
MouseFocuse('hello.bmp',1000);
MouseClick;
result:=MouseFocuse('check_hello.bmp',1000); // result = 1, if the image "check_hello" was found, =0 if image not found
end.

Now, we will improve our code to add more opportunities to the log event which will help us debug the application. The resulted code is:


Program My1Prg;
begin
MouseFocuse('hello.bmp',1000);
MouseClick;
result:=MouseFocuse('check_hello.bmp',1000);

if result=1 then begin
LogMessage(‘hello word test – passed’); // we are adding message into default log
ShowHint(‘Passed!’); // we are showing hint in the system tray
end
else
begin
LogMessage(‘hello word test – failed’);
ShowHint(‘Failed!’);
LogImageUnderCursor(100,100); // if execution failed we want to know what image was actually under cursor
end;

end.

BSC Designer

Professional Balanced Scorecard Software and Training

Any organization needs a strategy to overcome challenges, and any strategy needs to be properly defined and described on a strategy map, as well as communicated and monitored with KPIs. BSC Designer® software helps with this!

Examples of Balanced Scorecard, Strategy Map, and KPIs

It is easier to get started with the Balanced Scorecard when you have some good examples and templates. Check out some examples of real projects, and then find their KPIs for various business domains, strategy maps, and graphical templates for your presentation.

15 Balanced Scorecard Examples

Any business scorecard is about the description of your strategy using such tools as strategy maps, KPIs, business objectives and specific action plans. We’d like you to explore some examples of the business scorecards. You can use these examples as a starting point to design your own business scorecards or implement them into a specific company department.

Common examples

Here are some examples for the business units that exist in most organizations: HR, Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, etc.

1. CEO Balanced Scorecard

2. Customer Service Scorecard

3. Marketing KPIs and Strategy Map

4. HR Balanced Scorecard

5. IT KPIs + Example of the Balanced Scorecard

6. Sales BSC and KPIs

Examples for more specific business domains

Here are the examples of the scorecards for the specific businesses and typical business challenges.

7. Hotel Balanced Scorecard

8. Energy Production Scorecard

9. Dental Practice Balanced Scorecard

10. Balanced Scorecard for a Startup Company

11. Nonprofit Balanced Scorecard

12. Training Project Scorecard (+screencast videos)

13. Content Marketing Strategy Described with Balanced Scorecard

KPI Scorecards

Here are some examples of KPI Scorecards.

14. A Scorecard with 10 Standard HR KPIs

15. Employee Engagement Scorecard

Working With Examples

Here are some tips that will help you to explore all the details of these examples:

• Use the “Download .BSC Project File” link.
• Go to the “KPIs” tab, you will find a list of suggested KPIs
• On the “Business goals” tab, you will find examples of business goals and objectives that this scorecard might address
• On the “Strategy map” tab, you will find the map that visualizes business objectives and KPIs

Finally, check the description of the project. You can access it from menu File -> Document Properties. You will find there a link to an article that explains why the suggested scorecard is a good option for addressing specific business problems.

Examples of “bad” scorecard practices

While discussing some good examples of BSC that one can follow, I think it also makes sense to share some “bad” practices about balanced scorecards that you need to avoid.

Bad practice 1.1: Using 1st generation BSC model

Have a look at the diagram below. Does your scorecard look like this? This is an example of what a 1st generation BSC looks like.

30% of participants still use the 1st generation model. If you have just this diagram without any supporting documentation that explains your strategy (hypothesis that you are trying), then you are in trouble! Move to the BSC based on the strategy map.

Bad practice 1.2: Paper version only

Normally such scorecards are prepared by strategy consultants. It is a nice-looking 1-page document that includes key parts of the scorecard: mission/vision, strategic themes, 4 perspectives, strategy map, measures, targets, initiatives. But such approach has certain problems: it is hard to maintain this scorecard, it is not linked to live data, due to the space limits it doesn’t include all the required details.

Bad practice 2: Cause-and-effect connection problem

A Strategy map is a key part of the Balanced Scorecard. It explains a cause-and-effect connection between business goals, and how these goals contribute to the stakeholders’ interests. That’s why:

• Any goal on the map needs to contribute to or be contributed by some other goals
• A chain of goals should go from the top perspective (Finance or Stakeholder Interests) down to the bottom perspective (Learning & Growth)
• A consequence of the previous: there should be no dead-ends

Here is an example of the strategy map with the mentioned problems:

Bad practice 3: Focusing too much on metrics that don’t matter for your business

On the balanced scorecard you should focus on the KPIs that are relevant to the strategy.

Operational vs. strategic

The KPI part of the balanced scorecard is responsible for the performance measurement. The most typical problem is mixing operational KPIs with strategic ones. As a result, the balanced scorecard is overloaded with metrics that are not relevant to the strategic ideas that were discussed.

For example, on this scorecard we can see that some low-level operational indicators are mixed with strategic ones:

There are two solutions:

• Put operational KPIs into a separate scorecard/dashboard
• Cascade the scorecard to the respective business unit or person

Lagging indicators problem

Another frequent problem is that most indicators are lagging ones. They measure what already happened, but don’t give you a clue about how to improve the results. Have a look at this scorecard, what indicators help to manage the situation rather than control the results?

Paying too much attention to the KPIs

This is not obvious, but what matters is your strategy and business goals. KPIs are important, but don’t focus on them too much. When dealing with KPIs it is important to keep the big picture in sight.

Bad practice 4: Beware of spreadsheets

We’d like to warn visitors to our website about the scorecards designed in the spreadsheets. These scorecards might look nice, but there is one big pitfall about using them:

• When you need to change your scorecard, add some new data, or update an existing one, you will face the problem of its maintenance.

Spreadsheet tools are affordable, as Excel or OpenOffice’s versions are on each desktop, but it is not a recommended tool for a business scorecard.

Guides for KPIs and Balanced Scorecard implementation

You have some examples of what a Balanced Scorecard might look like, but this is just the beginning of the implementation. It’s not as easy, as just creating some KPIs and asking everyone in the company to track them.

Balanced Scorecard is about strategy execution, so you will need to analyze your business challenges, come up with a good strategy, describe it on the strategy map, and add some tracking in the form of the metrics.

It doesn’t make sense if you do all this alone, so you will need to involve your team in the early stages.

How exactly should you involve your team? It depends on many factors and there is no one-size-fits-all recommendation.

Graphical templates for Balanced Scorecard and KPIs

We have designed some templates for Balanced Scorecard. These templates make it easy to represent KPIs and Perspectives of Balanced Scorecard visually. Check out some examples of balanced scorecards’ templates below and download the file with templates for free.

Inside Balanced Scorecard Templates

How could Balanced Scorecard templates help your business?

• The most important: representing data in a visually appealing way makes it easier to convert data to the information;
• Ready-to-use templates for Balanced Scorecard save your time, you don’t need to hire professional designer – you already have what you need for a quick start;
• Templates are great way to focus on data mining and information analysis rather than on graphical design;

Download Free Balanced Scorecard Templates

BSC Templates are available as PPT and PDF files:

PRODUCTS

Compare Suite

 Compare Suite is a file and folder comparison software.

Compare Suite Standard

Price:64.06 EUR
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Compare Suite PRO

Price:128.12 EUR
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File Search Assistant Standard

 File Search Assistant provides quick and efficient search within text documents

Price:64.06 EUR
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QuickWiper

QuickWiper is a file wipe utility and a system cleaner.

Price:31.12 EUR
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Shred Agent

Protects privacy by secure wiping of sensitive files in the background mode

Price:64.06 EUR
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RoutineBot

RoutineBot is an interface automation testing software.

Price:136.36 EUR
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BSC Designer

 Balanced Scorecard Designer is business performance measure and control software

BSC Designer Standard

Price:247.09 EUR
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BSC Designer PRO

 The Professional version of Balanced Scorecard Designer includes all features of BSC Standard and some other functions like strategy maps and reports that makes it really useful for business professionals.


Price:783.38 EUR
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