The holidays brought with them some major Táve 3 developments!

Those of you following @TaveStudio on Twitter may have seen that we launched our first Táve 3 studio on Monday. Of course my lovely wife and extremely talented Karen Lisa was the first to make the jump. We look forward to many new Táve 3 tutorials from her soon!

Since Monday, we’ve launched 5 more studios. Once these studios report that they’re all set up and actively using the system without any show stoppers, we’ll start inviting the rest of our 75 beta studios to go live with 3.0 “Early Access” as well. Then, once those studios have upgraded and report the same success and we have the system better documented, we’ll begin sending invitations out to existing Táve 2 subscribers to preview or upgrade their accounts. After that calms down we’ll put together a new public website and open up direct registration to Táve 3.

We’re calling it “Early Access” and rolling it out in stages because there’s still some important work to be done (such as mobile access), testing to be done (we haven’t done much testing outside of Google’s Chrome browser), and the 3.0 documentation is very limited. But even so, Táve 3 has advanced to the point that we believe it’s the better version for most of our users, especially considering all the amazing new features! Since we’ve designed the upgrade system to be user controlled and provide a way to preview your account in Táve 3, it makes sense to provide access earlier than if we had to meet the needs of all of our users at once for a system-wide simultaneous upgrade.

How long until everybody is invited to upgrade? That depends on how well each one of the steps outlined above goes, so there’s no way to say for sure, but we’re striving to get it out as quickly as possible. We’ll keep our Twitter account and Facebook page updated with the latest progress, so follow them if you want the latest details as we go. When you’re invited, we’ll send an email to your studio’s email address listed in Táve 2. If you don’t have a Táve 2 account, sign up for our Táve 3 newsletter on our homepage so you’re emailed when general registration is opened.

I try to include previews in our blog posts, but in celebration of the 3.0 Early Access release, why not check out an actual live Táve 3 demo questionnaire I created using the default brand theme?

Have a happy new year!

While we’re not ready to give an estimate on when 3.0 will be released, I’d like to shed some light where Táve 3.0 stands right now.

The New Release Plan

The last time we discussed how the 3.0 release was going to work, it was essentially the same as any other release in that all studios would receive the update the moment we published it. All studios would be on 2.9 one day, and then using 3.0 the next.

The feedback we’ve been hearing from our beta testers has generally been that 3.0 is absolutely amazing, but also such a large change that they’d really prefer to upgrade on their own schedule.

So we’re doing two things. First, we’re going to be opening up a Preview Release to all subscribers, so you have a chance to dive into it and get familiar with 3.0, complete with your 2.9 data.

In addition, since we have a worldwide userbase, the 3.0 release will inevitably end up being in some users’ busy season and some users enjoy being early adopters while others prefer to wait for an update or two to be released, we’re switching to an opt-in upgrade that will give studios plenty of time to make the jump. It also means we’ll be able to let those more adventurous users or those who are only looking for a particular feature, to start using 3.0 even earlier than we had planned.

The Roadmap

We recently switched to a new agile development process, called scrum, and with that change firmed up our roadmap. Once we get through another iteration or two we should have enough data to confidently discuss timelines, but until then let’s look at the release plan at a higher level.

If you’ve been following the blog you’ll know we recently released Beta 3 to our private beta community, and as I mentioned in my last blog post, Beta 4 will introduce a new workflow system and section (it also replaces the oldest piece of our application, the Products section). With Beta 4, the manager will essentially be at “feature complete” status. With Beta 5, the final beta, all the client-facing systems will also reach “feature complete” status and we’ll switch to primarily fixing bugs and addressing issues found by our beta testers.

The next release after B5 will be quite exciting; the Táve 3.0 Preview Release! The preview will allow all of our subscribers to preview 3.0 using their current data. As mentioned above, it’ll let you get familiar with 3.0 so you’re ready for its release. It’ll also let you help find any bugs or issues that could hamper your use of 3.0.

It keeps getting more exciting with each release, because the PR will be followed by Táve 3.0 Early Access, and as the name implies, existing users will be able to upgrade their accounts to use 3.0 at this point, prior to the final release (and new users will be able to create Early Access accounts directly without first setting up 2.9, though they’ll still be able to if they wish). For many, this will be no different than a 3.0 release.

The Early Access release will be followed by the final Táve 3.0 release: General Availability, the actual release with all the new documentation and videos, the new public website, and end of 2.9 registration. To those who upgraded during the Early Access release, this will seem more like a 3.1 release.

As I mentioned in the release plan section above, 2.9 users will be able to continue using 2.9 even after GA and will have until the end of the year to self-upgrade.

P.S. We Love You

It’s been a long journey and the road has a few more stops ahead, but only a few now. We may not post updates each step of the way, but we are getting there and I sincerely appreciate your desire to use 3.0 ASAP and I thank you for your patience and continued support as we work toward its release.

I promised to update the blog when Táve 3.0 went to beta, so I’m pleased to announce that we officially launched Táve 3.0 Beta 1 early this morning. As mentioned in previous posts, the T3 beta is limited to paid subscribers who have either participated in prior betas or hold lifetime memberships (which are no longer available).

We plan to release updated beta versions weekly moving towards final release as quickly as possible.

Only a select handful of our members have access to the private beta, so we’re going to start posting weekly previews of what’s new in Táve 3.0 so you can see what we’re doing to re-imagine the application that powers your business. To start that off, here’s a preview of the amazing completely rewritten New Lead wizard…

The Old “New Lead” box in Táve 2.9:

The New “New Lead Wizard” in Táve 3.0 B1

Among the highlights of the new “New Lead Wizard”: All the contacts and events are editable directly on the page, including new ones, and you can now list multiple contacts as clients. If you find yourself handing out identical proposals again and again, you can create proposal templates to automatically attach to new leads to save even more time. Last but not least, portrait studios can skip directly to booking the job by simply adding an order template and can even enter a payment on the spot.

Everything is faster in the completely re-imagined Táve 3.0!

Thank you for your patience and continued support! We are very excited about Táve 3, and look forward to releasing it to our beta testers soon with a general release as soon as possible after that.

Adrian and Jason are doing some incredible work, and I am blown away by what they’ve shown me. You are going to love our new quoting system, questionnaires, and contact manager, among many other awesome features!

We hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving and are looking forward to the winter holidays. If you’re still interested in a Táve 2.9 account so that you can get things set up, you can still create a Táve 2 trial account, but be aware that the entire user interface will be changing very soon!

Have a great week!
-Karen

We’re so excited to be sponsoring Faux/Tographers’ workshop and offering our Táve clients $100 off the next workshop in Columbia, Missouri, September 21st & 22nd.

Their first workshop in Santa Barbara, California was a HUGE success!  ”We loved keeping the workshop small so that each attendee’s business was able to be discussed and we could spend quality time with each photographer in regards to camera settings, lighting discussion and other important day of wedding details” – Sara Kauss.

Sara Kauss (http://sarakauss.com) and Josh Newton (http://joshnewton.com) have teamed up to create the ultimate in a wedding workshop.  Faux/Tographers is more than just a training session, it’s a hands-on experience for new photographers looking to get into wedding photography.  Check out their website for more details:  http://faux-tographers.com (and don’t forget the dash!)

Here’s a couple testimonials from their first workshop:

“I had such a blast with you guys… My mind cant stop spinning!” – Matthew Cotter

“I really enjoyed hearing your stories of how you started your businesses.  It was so encouraging and inspiring to hear your ‘beginnings’ and to see where you are today – INCREDIBLE! Overall, I am so encouraged about the photography profession as a whole and just wanted to thank you both for sharing your time and talent with the workshop group!” – Lisa De Jager

“I had an awesome time at the fauxtographers workshop in Santa Barbara. It was so great to be able to work closely with successful photographers and learn what steps they take on a wedding day, and other aspects of the business.” – Jamie Hudson

What are you waiting for! Visit their site and reserve your ticket today!

We’re going to be publishing Táve 2.9.0 soon, which replaces Táve 2′s internal frameworks with the new frameworks created for Táve 3 as part of our seamless upgrade path. No new user-facing features are currently included in the 2.9.0 release, but everything behind-the-scenes is completely new, which means extensive testing of every facet of the application is needed.

We’re looking for a few subscribers to help us review the change by logging in to a special testing server and verifying that everything is exactly the same as it is in production. If you have some time to spare this weekend and would like to volunteer, please email team@tave.com. Seats are limited. Due to the need to be familiar with the current production system, trial accounts are not eligible and Lifetime subscribers will have priority seating.

We know testing to make sure everything is exactly the same as before is a bit dull, so as a reward, active volunteers will be the first to be invited to test and review future (and far more exciting!) pre-releases.

Update: Wow, we didn’t expect so much interest! If you’re chosen to participate, you’ll receive an email from beta-announce@tave.com with instructions when we’re ready to get started (probably early tomorrow). Requests to volunteer will still be considered up until then.

Update 2: The beta signup is now closed and all seats filled. Thank you to all of our volunteers, you rock!

Update 3: We released 2.9.0 and are now at 2.9.2 (as seen at the bottom of the page inside the app). A few hiccups, but overall a great release!

This is the last week of the lifetime subscription offer being available online!

We’ll be removing the option from the website on Thursday (March 4th) when we leave for WPPI 2010.

If you’re attending WPPI, you’ll have a few more days as we’ll be offering the lifetime subscriptions in person on the show floor while supplies last.  The lifetime subscription will not be discounted or prorated at the show and we’ll only have a few to offer, so your best bet is to buy online this week.

If you aren’t attending WPPI, then you have just a few days left to take advantage of the unbeatable lifetime subscription option!

Our largest and most impressive release ever is just around the corner!

Visit our booth at the WPPI trade show in Las Vegas, March 8th – 10th, to take the new Táve 3.0 for a spin yourself.

Visit tave.com for more info and to sign-up for our Táve 3.0 newsletter.

As a reminder; since Táve is a web-based system, all accounts are always up-to-date with the latest fixes and releases at no additional cost.   So if you subscribe now, your account will be automatically upgraded once Táve 3.0 is released.

We’ve called it a game changer.

We’ve talked about a few of the new features, such as the advanced new quoting system, the unlimited questionnaires, an amazing new address book, a fresh new look, and streamlining everywhere.

But all that is only the beginning of what’s new in the most powerful studio management system, reimagined.

We’ve improved the lifetime subscription option for studios with fewer than 5 employees.  Instead of starting with the 5-user bundle, you can now purchase the lifetime membership at the low single-user base price and add on any additional users à la carte. Studios with five users won’t see a change in price, but for studios with fewer than five users; the savings are massive!

Lifetime Subscriptions now start at $995

Additional user accounts on the lifetime plan are just $200 each.

If you bought a lifetime subscription and have fewer than 5 employees, we’re going to refund the difference.  Yeah, we’re cool like that.

If you have an active monthly or annual subscription and your term isn’t over yet, we’re now prorating any unused pre-paid time you have and applying it to the lifetime subscription, so it’ll actually be cheaper than $995 for you.  Click here to see the rate for your studio.

Limited Time Only

The lifetime option isn’t going to stick around forever, so be sure to upgrade now.

Táve is happy to sponsor the For the Love Workshop being held this February in beautiful Tennessee:

This is a very different type of workshop from your usual photography workshop. “For the Love” is designed as an All-Inclusive retreat with the benefits of photography workshop. If you are longing for a break from the stress and a place for inspiration, then you should consider coming to “For the Love”.  This workshop will renew your mind, refresh your spirit, rejuvenate creativity, and open your eyes to new ways of seeing things.  You will remember why you signed up for this amazing career.  You will remember that it was all for the love…the love of God…the love of life…the love of creativity…the love of photography.

If this sounds like something you’re interested in, please make sure you visit the For the Love website and see if this workshop is right for you!