Ziata! and the OOD Concept

Ziata! is just so powerful that we love explaining what it does, and how it can really make your life easier. It’s a revolutionary, not an evolutionary, business workflow product.  Ziata! is too powerful to be called a personal information manager, has too much breadth to be a database, and more depth than a telephone messaging system. We almost don’t know how to categorize it because it fulfills so many workgroup and data management functions!
 
Ziata! is a new product that represents a paradigm shift.  There's just nothing like it.  Even if you find another product that has some of the functionality of the E-MSG!® Pad, the staff In/Out tracking, the MindSaver, or the electronic publication mailer, for example, none of them are built upon the OOD technology--which is the future of data mining.

So, get a cup of your favorite java, have a seat and read on.

Here's why we invented the OOD concept for Ziata!.   In short, there was no existing product which could manage unlimited relationships between or among entities in a clean organized manner, with no data redundancy.  This can be as simple as a small family of individuals all living at the same address, or as complicated as multiple multi-national corporations with hundreds of employees and multiple parent-subsidiary relationships, with no data redundancy.   With Ziata!, a company can have unlimited business relationships (whether employees, subsidiaries, licensees, etc.), unlimited locations, each of which location can have unlimited telecommunication addresses; a person can have unlimited companies, unlimited familial relations, etc., etc., etc.  Even for each entity-to-entity relationship, that is, Gregg Zegarelli to Zegarelli International, for example, each relationship can have multiple titles (such as President, Board of Director member, etc., etc., etc.).  No limits.  Ziata! was originally developed to meet the needs of attorneys and accountants, who require precise entity management, so you know it had to be clean and powerful, then was made customizable and industry independent.  And, frankly, there is no reason you should not have the same ability to manage your data.

As you will see, Ziata! is very to use, but, because of the paradigm shift, you need to understand the new functionality--which is sometimes purposely hidden to make a very powerful interface ergonomically pleasing. 

Ziata! treats people, companies, locations and telecommunication addresses as separate data objects. First, you create the data object. Then, you give the data object properties (such as a birthdate for a person object), then, you just connect and reuse the objects, in any combination, without limitation. Now that the objects are entered once, you’re set. Create once–use many. In fact, even the connections between objects are objects.  See a screen shot of Ziata!, See a screen shot of OOD, or see a short example.

For example, a husband and wife live at their home with their five children. At that address, they have a home business, which is incorporated. The husband is the president and a board of director member, but not a shareholder. The wife is a shareholder, the secretary and treasurer, and the other board member. Each of the five children is also a shareholder. Okay, ask yourself. In order to track this information, how many times do you have to enter the names, the location, the phone numbers, the relationships? Maybe you could not even track the data.  In Ziata!, you enter each only once, then connect them. Once you connect the telephone number to the location, any person to whom you attach the location inherits those telephone numbers. This is what we call "data inheritance."

Re-use the Objects. Reusing the objects is really where it becomes powerful. For example, after entering the husband, you can enter his birthday, social security number, etc. Then, when you connect him to other corporations, you’ve already got his personal information. Database professionals call this a "highly normalized" database; business professionals call this "no data redundancy"; you can just call it "effective."

No Limits. Also, most databases give you the opportunity to enter up to 3 or so telephone numbers, etc. In Ziata!, it’s all unlimited. There is no limit to how many telephones can be "attached" to people, companies or locations; no limit on location attachments, etc. Even the drop-down lists come from customizable text files. No limits!

Finding Data. Find data with just the click of the mouse. Let’s say you know the name of a person, but can’t remember the company with which he or she is affiliated. It’s easy. Lookup the name, and you’ll see all companies with which he or she is affiliated. Better yet, look up a company, and you’ll see all the employees, etc. Look up a telephone number, see all locations to which it’s attached. It goes on and on. This is what we call our proprietary Pronexus™ database engine. It’s outrageous. And, it’s all point and click.

E-Mail Messages. We took the Pronexus™ database logic and built upon it. Another problem was taking phone messages, so we developed a message pad that provides a front-end to the data base. The phone message is then sent by the e-mail protocol on your system. It makes the little e-mail phone pads distributed as shareware look like a joke. The E-MSG!® Module lets a receptionist take phone messages, suggests names from the database, then updates the database with new information. And, the phone message pad itself is the best we’ve ever seen. It’s live real-time data updating, as well as messages by e-mail!  See a screenshot of the E-MSG!® Pad.  See a screenshot of the E-MSG!® Notice.

Common Lookups. Okay, taking phone messages with the message pad is cool, but what happens when more than one receptionist takes messages and sends them via e-mail? If you call into the office, do you have to ask each receptionist for your messages? (Presumably, your staff doesn’t have access to your email file, so they wouldn’t know if another person took a message for you.) No. E-MSG!® tracks every message taken by any user in a common database for lookup purposes.

In/Out Employee Tracking. In all businesses, staff are in and out of meetings. The receptionist needs to track them. E-MSG!® does it, automatically. With In/Out, employees can sit at their desk and log themselves in and out. When someone changes his or her in/out status, the receptionist is automatically notified by a popup message. Also, in the E-MSG!® Pad, when the receptionist takes a message, if that person is flagged as an exception (i.e., you are not available, except for ...), then the receptionist will be automatically notified with the waiting message form. For example, the receptionist can then put the caller on hold and find the employee so he or she can take the call. Also, if multiple employees have exceptions for the same potential caller, the receptionist can respond to each employee separately with e-mail messages.

The key is that the receptionist does not have to remember who is in, who is out, who are exceptions, etc.
—finally, it's all automated, for the first time, in history.

There’s really so much more.

There’s client and file tracking, with e-mail messaging when status changes. There’s scheduling of deadlines with automatic e-mail notification (even to clients over the Internet), and resource logging. Think about these great features, for which you can find more information and screen shots in the online Manual:

    The First OOD-Based Data Base: Complete Data Flexibility!

• Create unlimited persons, companies, locations, telecommunication information
• Relate persons, companies, locations, telecommunications without limits
• Prevent redundant data entry
• Quickly find all relations between or among the objects in any direction
• In each module, easily edit the properties of the objects

    Complete Office Data Management!

• Track each piece of postal mail in the office environment
• Track the location of each library book
• Create unlimited clients/customers
• For each client, create files, subfiles and the documents contained therein

• Log shared resources so that common use is managed
• Count days between dates
• Send clients and staff automated mail about upcoming deadlines

• Establish unlimited to-do’s with MindSaver™
• For each MindSaver™ to-do entry, create unlimited associated dates
• Each MindSaver™ entry and each date has complete separate properties
• Use the Internet to notify clients of deadlines, etc.  See a screenshot of the MindSaver Notice.

• MindSaver automatically notifies staff that they have overdue books
• MindSaver automatically notifies staff that they have overdue files/subfiles
• MindSaver automatically notifies you of birthdays and annual meetings

• Perform unlimited mass electronic mailings, with virtually no effort
  If fact, we might not sell this module to everyone, because it's just too powerful!

An electronic version of the Manual is on-line, but it is not intended to be the latest and greatest version. It will, however, show you much of the core functionality!

Ziata! is a feature-rich product that has been time-tested. Whether you use one or more modules, you’ll love it. We do.

We really hope and expect that you will enjoy our product.

 Gregg Zegarelli

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