Referee Assistant Product Blog

Your assigning process just got easier.

Over the last two years, the makers of Referee Assistant having been working to provide a new web-based assigning service that reflects the needs of the assigning community and its referees, is cost effective and is drop-dead simple to use!

We are pleased to announce that our new assigning product, assignr.com is ready!

We are so excited about this product and the rave reviews of our beta testers that we have decided to make the product available now…  all you need to do is log in and get to work!

As a Referee Assistant customer, you are certainly well aware of all the hassles of the current setup: being tethered to a single computer, switching data files between computers, keeping up to date with software updates, and hoping a hundred other things don’t happen while you’re trying to get those assignments out.

assignr.com makes all of that go away!

assignr.com allows you to manage your games and assignments using just a web browser and nothing else. This means:

• Nothing to install.
• Nothing to maintain.
• Nothing to back up (we take care of that for you).
• Use it anywhere on any machine at any time.

All you need is a browser and internet connection.  In addition assignr.com offers:

• An incredibly easy-to-use and secure interface.
• Tightly integrated messaging, notifications and accept/decline features
• Improved availability options: referees choose when they “can” work, instead of when they can’t.
• Saved searches.
• Support for iCalendar feeds, so your referees can keep their calendars up to-date  automatically

We are offering up a 14-day free trial site, where you can take our software for a road test and check it out for your self – at no charge. You don’t even need a credit card to get started.

Can I get my existing data imported into assignr.com?

If you decide you want to make the switch, as a Referee Assistant customer we will convert your data for you and we will do it for free.  All you have to do is ask.

How do i switch?

If you are interested in switching, just visit this address:

www.assignr.com/signup

If you have a Referee Assistant data file that you’d like us to import for you, assignr.com supports imports of games and referees using comma delimited files (Excel spreadsheets). However, if you have a Referee Assistant data file, we can import that file into assignr.com. Contact us at support@assignr.com and we’ll provide you with a secure upload URL.

At the end of your trial period, you’ll need to provide a credit card number to continue using your site.

Will Referee Assistant continue to be supported?

Over the last few years, with the Internet becoming more a part of everyone’s daily lives, we have found that the demand for desktop software has decreased, with more and more people using web-based services to manage a myriad of activities.

Referee Assistant Web Services is being discontinued in favor of our new product.  We will continue to honor existing Web Services customer contracts until the end of your contract. Renewals to existing Web Services contracts will not be offered or supported.

Our plan is to continue to support Referee Assistant Professional Edition (the desktop software) until July 1, 2010.  If you purchased Referee Assistant after July 1, 2009, you may be eligible for an extension of this date.

We believe this is a shift in the right direction.  This will make your experience as an assignor using our service much better, and it will allow us to keep you up-to-date without any effort on your part.

We have just released an  update to Professional Edition.  The most recent build is now build 205.  This is a maintenance release, and fixes several bugs.

If you are a registered owner, you can log into our e-commerce site here:

https://referee-assistant.com/secure

From this page, you can either login with your e-mail address and password, or you can reset the password using the e-mail address you used to purchase the program.

A couple of other updates:

• For those of you using our Web Services service, we have set up a Twitter account.    If for some reason our site becomes unavailable, we will get in touch with  you via e-mail, and we will post on our twitter account, http://twitter.com/refasst.
• We’re hard at work on our new web-based assigning service.  Stay tuned for more information, I think you’ll be really happy with what we’re planning.

Good luck with your season!

Well, I thought this would be a quick transition to a bigger/better/faster server, unfortunately that has not been the case. We’re still working with our web provider to resolve the issue with restoring SSL (encryption) to our website.  As of 10:45pm Monday night, they are still working on getting this up and running.

Unfortunately the Web Services sites have been in-and-out. Your data is safe, but the service itself has been on and off this evening.

Your data is secure. We have been doing regular off-site backups to ensure the safety of your information. Even if our web service burns to the ground, we can restore your information.

All web services sites are online and fully functional, but must be accessed using the non-secure address (use http:// instead of https:// in the URL) .

For assignors, it is safe to upload your information to the website.

If we thought that we’d still be dealing with the changeover 24 hours later, we would have made other plans. This certainly does not meet our standard for service to our customers, and we apologize profusely to anyone who has been impacted by this changeover.

eapps.com is working hard to resolve the issue, and we hope to have this resolved shortly. Thank you for your patience.

Note: this was resolved on July 1, 2008.

On Sunday night, a web database upgrade was completed. Web Services was down for a bit longer than I had anticipated (from 10:15pm until 11:30pm Eastern time), but everything seemed to go really smoothly.

The database upgrade was performed because there were a couple of assignors who were having an occasional problem with uploading and downloading from the site.

Initial reports seem to suggest that the upload process is quite a bit faster than it was before.

As with any upgrade, we’ve tested things out and everything appears to be working. If you are a customer and experience any issues, make sure to contact us and we’ll get right on any problem you might have.

It’s hard to believe it, but in 2008 we’ll be celebrating ten years meeting the needs of sports assignors everywhere!

Referee Assistant started off as a simple Microsoft Access project, which I put together after I could not find a reasonably priced assigning database anywhere.

A couple of years ago, I made some minor tweaks to the program, and made it accessible to customers that did not own Microsoft Access.

After working with many assignors, I started taking a lot of the most requested features into a completely new version of the database, Referee Assistant–Professional Edition.

2007 was a very exciting year for Referee Assistant, with the release of Professional Edition, as well as a Web Services feature that allows assignors to post assignments and manage accept/decline, all on the web.

What’s next for the future?

Standard Edition made assigning simple. Professional Edition implemented your requests and new features.

Web Services brings your assigning to the Internet, where you can post assignments on the web, allow referees to manage day & time availability, as well as accept/decline assignments.

With our current offerings, we have pushed the limits of what Microsoft Access can really do, implementing some great e-mail and web features.

We have some big things planned for the future. For those of you who are current customers, you are probably used to dealing directly with me. I’ve recently added a new team member, who is focused on development of new solutions for referee assignors. Together, we’re planning some terrific things for the future.

Future development can best be described with one word: usability. We want to make the assigning process incredibly easy. You have better ways to spend your time than wrestling with software or configuration.

Stay tuned. I think you’ll like what we have planned.

Jeff Wigal

Last week we let Web Services customers know about a server upgrade that would cause some downtime for Web Services and the entire Referee Assistant website. Our web host has informed me that they were unable to perform the maintenance, and that it has been rescheduled.

On Tuesday, December 4, 2007, we will be performing necessary upgrades to the server you are on, from 12:01 AM – 2:00 AM Eastern Standard Time (GMT-5). This is a two hour maintenance window.

Site downtime should be no more than 20 minutes.

As you may have heard, Referee Assistant–Professional Edition was released in January of this year. This summer, we stopped selling Standard Edition, so that we could focus our attention on our new product.We strive to deliver the best referee assigning product to our customers by investing time and money in technology that makes Referee Assistant better and easier to use. One of the ways we are able to do that is to manage the time and financial costs associated with supporting older releases. We believe this enables us to provide you with the right level of service, while still providing a quality solution to our customers.

So that we can maintain our focus on our current and future products, we will be ending all support for Referee Assistant–Standard Edition on May 30, 2008.

Can I continue to use Standard Edition?

If you are currently using Referee Assistant–Standard Edition and do not need support, you can continue to use the software as you have been. However, if you would like to continue receiving technical support, you will need to purchase and install Referee Assistant–Professional Edition.

Why should I upgrade?

In addition to the discontinuation of support for the program, Professional Edition offers a number of new features that make your assigning much easier.

• E-Mail. Keep your stamps in your desk drawer, RefAsst Pro can e-mail assignments directly to your referees. RefAsst Pro also supports e-mail to individual referees, to a specific officiating crew
• Assigning. Numerous assigning enhancements have been added, including maximum games per day, back-to-back assignments on the same day/venue, geographic zone assigning, and auto-assign undo.
• Enhanced reports. New reports, and an enhanced report generation screen. Reports can now be filtered on any number of criteria

Referee expenses, referee notes, tracking of game changes, all this and much more… download a free demo today, and give it a spin! The best way to experience all that the Professional Edition has to offer is to give it a try.

• Download a Demo: http://www.referee-assistant.com/download
• More Info: http://referee-assistant.com/products/pro.php

How can I upgrade?

Just follow this link: https://referee-assistant.com/catalog/

How much does an upgrade to Referee Assistant–Professional Edition cost?

With the upgrade coupon code, an electronic download of Referee Assistant–Professional Edition costs $159.95 ($199.95 less a $40 discount). If you would like to have a CD-ROM version of Professional Edition, this costs an additional $6 plus actual USPS postage.

To get your $40 discount, contact support to obtain a coupon code. Note: coupon codes will not be offered after October 31, 2008.

How can I get more information?

Click here to contact support.

I am pleased to announce that Referee Assistant–Web Services is here! Now you can bring your assigning into the information age. Are you ready to give your referees twenty-four hour access to their schedule? Automatic notifications for new game assignments? Download referee availability to your database? How about accept/decline of assignments on the web?

You can do this with Referee Assistant Web Services. Web Services is an new feature that allows assignors to post assignments, games and referee information to a secure interactive website. This website is accessible to the assignor, as well as to the referees.

Check out the demo here: http://demo.referee-assistant.com

On this website, referees can:

• Update contact information
• Choose whether to display personal information to other referees
• Edit availability (the day(s) and time(s) you cannot work)
• Accept or decline game assignments
• View game assignments
• Search for games, including games that are still open
• Download assignment information into a vCal compliant calendarprogram (such as Microsoft Outlook or Palm Desktop).
• Subscribe to an RSS feed for late-breaking news.

Assignors can

• Download availability information directly into the Referee Assistant database
• Download accept/decline data into the database, and remove declinedassignments automatically

Referee Assistant Web Services also generates e-mail reminders for:

• Referees who have an upcoming assignment in the next 24 hours
•  Referees who have new assignments to accept/decline
• Assignors when a game has been accepted/declined

All interactions with Web Services are secured with a 128-bit SSL connection.

Web Services is a yearly subscription-based service that must be purchased separately, and requires the purchase of a Referee Assistant desktop database (Youth, Standard or Professional Edition). Web Services is hosted on the referee-assistant.com website.

If you have purchased Referee Assistant–Professional Edition, the functionality is already built in.

If you are a registered user of Referee Assistant–Standard Edition, you’ll need to upgrade to the latest version of the Standard Edition. See instructions at the bottom of this e-mail.

More Info: http://referee-assistant.com/products/websvcs.php
Buy Now: http://www.referee-assistant.com/catalog

Referee Assistant has been involved with software for referee administrators since 1998. Our current product is a cross between a desktop database and a web interface.

We are investigating whether it would be feasible to enter the market with a completely web-based product, as there are many others currently available. If you are a referee/umpire assignor, we would like to hear from you!

Click here to take our assignor survey.

Please offer as little or as much information as you care to share. Thank you for your time, and good luck with your season!.

It’s finally here!!! I am pleased to announce the release of Referee Assistant–Professional Edition. The Professional Edition is a brand new assigning database, based on many of the concepts of Referee Assistant–Standard Edition, but completely rebuilt from the ground up with some great new features.

• E-Mail. Keep your stamps in your desk drawer, RefAsst Pro can e-mail assignments directly to your referees. RefAsst Pro also supports e-mail to individual referees, to a specific officiating crew
• Assigning. Numerous assigning enhancements have been added, including maximum games per day, back-to-back assignments on the same day/venue, geographic zone assigning, and auto-assign undo.
• Enhanced reports. New reports, and an enhanced report generation screen. Reports can now be filtered on any number of criteria

Referee expenses, referee notes, tracking of game changes, all this and much more… download a free demo today, and give it a spin! The best way to experience all that the Professional Edition has to offer is to give it a try.

• Download: http://referee-assistant.com/download
• More Info: http://referee-assistant.com/products/pro.php
• Buy Now: https://referee-assistant.com/catalog

Since this is a brand new program, the Professional Edition is not a free upgrade. Owners of Referee Assistant–Standard Edition can use a coupon code during checkout for a $40 upgrade discount on the purchase price.