Manage Your Contracts in the Cloud


In today’s paperless world, organizations of all sizes still face the challenge of storing and managing contracts efficiently. Locked file cabinets have given way to digital storage, but shared folders often become disorganized and lack the access controls and security businesses need.

Many companies turn to contract management solutions. We did too. But after exploring the options, we found that none offered the right balance of simplicity, security, and flexibility for our needs. So we built our own.

Altova ContractManager is a secure, cloud-based contract management app that’s feature rich, highly-customizable, and affordable for firms of any size. Here’s how it checks all the boxes.

Altova ContractManager: a cloud-based contract management solution
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CbC Reporting Made Easy


The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) mandates that large, multi-national companies file annual Country-by-Country (CbC) Reports with local tax authorities. These reports must be submitted in a specific XML format that conforms to the OECD’s official schema, ensuring consistency and comparability across jurisdictions.

Though this mandate has been in place for almost a decade, producing compliant CbC XML reports remains a technical challenge for corporate tax departments that rely heavily on Excel or traditional accounting systems.  As deadlines approach each year, organizations face renewed pressure to convert financial data into properly structured XML, often without the in-house tools or expertise to do so efficiently.

To address this gap, Altova offers an easy-to-use, cloud-based solution that automatically generates a valid, properly formatted CbC XML report based on existing data. Users can enter data manually or via an Excel template, and the Altova CbC Reporting App does the rest. Let’s take a look at how it works.

 

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How to Build Apps for Barcode Scanners


Handheld barcode scanners are indispensable in many sectors today, from retail and logistics to healthcare, shipping, and manufacturing. These devices play a critical role in capturing real-time data, such as inventory updates, order tracking, and customer details. However, integrating scanned data seamlessly into backend systems is just as important as collecting it. Barcode scanner apps can bridge the the gap with the ability to transfer scanned information to databases and business systems.

While the need to integrate barcode scanner data into mobile apps is a common requirement, building scanning apps is often a challenge. Traditional development methods require specialized expertise and can take too long, especially in industries that demand rapid deployment.

Support for connecting to barcode scanners in Altova MobileTogether changes all of that. With this low-code app development framework, you can create, test, and deploy barcode-scanning solutions in a fraction of the time compared to conventional coding approaches.

A worker in a warehouse scanning a barcode to send data to a tablet
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The Easy Way to Track GDPR Compliance


GDPR is an acronym that has been top of mind for of privacy officers, CIOs, and even marketers across the EU since the early months of 2018. Now that it’s been a few years since the regulation went into effect, organizations should have a handle on what type of data is impacted and how to handle compliance. The ongoing challenge is tracking and documenting the steps required for GDPR compliance as a business evolves over time.

While numerous one-off templates to create GDPR reports based on a moment in time are available, Altova has created the first long-term solution for documenting and tracking the entire GDPR compliance management process.

Let’s take a look at what GDPR compliance entails and how the Altova GDPR Compliance Database makes managing it organized and straightforward.

An easy way to document and track GDPR compliance
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How to Build a Data Entry App


Data entry is a vital activity for businesses and organizations across every vertical. While much data entry has been automated thanks to advances in technology, there are circumstances where manual input is still required. Whether entered data is for reporting financials, tracking research, documenting health data, or managing inventory, end users need easy-to-use tools that help them quickly enter valid information.

As apps have evolved, so has data entry software, offering users new options for getting the job done in the field, in the lab, or at a desk – on the user’s device of choice. App developers are challenged to quickly customize data entry apps with advanced features for automatic field population, validation checks, and reporting tools.

No-code app development frameworks offer a viable solution for building data entry apps for all platforms quickly and without a huge investment. Let’s take a look at some best practices and how no-code solutions can help tick the boxes.

Person using a tablet for data entry
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A Great App for Cataloging Collections


If you’re a collector – and let’s face it, we all are – of anything from books to stamps to video games, you’ve got to check out the Altova MyCollections app.

This is a free app available for Android, iOS, and Windows, and you can actually install it on all three concurrently. I love using this to, for example, enter collection info on my Windows laptop and access it on the go on my phone. It’s easy to share your collections with friends or make them public, and you can even list your items for sale or rent.

Check out this quick demo video to see how it works.

The best way to see how MyCollections works is to try it out yourself. Download it from your favorite app store using the links below.

Download on the App Store
Download on Google Play
Download from the Microsoft Store

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Developing and Debugging User Functions in Mobile Apps


Recently I came across this note in a senior developer’s code review of a colleague’s work: “Slightly revised the user function to work correctly when languages other than English are used.” This was a surprising comment–the code is the code and it shouldn’t make a difference what language the developer or the end user speaks! A user function is simply an expression that may accept input parameters and returns a result.

Altova MobileTogether supports user functions in a cross-platform mobile development framework that combines drag-and-drop UI design and standardized functional programming for data selection and processing. Several MobileTogether demo applications are highly dependent on user functions and the MobileTogether Designer includes features that greatly assist creating and validating user functions.

Let’s take a look at user functions in mobile apps by examining one of these demo apps.

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A General Counsel’s Take on Contract Management Tools


Contract management is an important issue for most businesses, large and small. Given the breadth of approaches and tools in use, deciding on a solution can be a daunting task.

My take is simple: we use the Altova ContractManager for all of our contracts. We modified some fields to accommodate tracking of deadlines for trademarks and patents and storing copyright registrations. If you have a deadline or need to store odd documents, ContractManager can be modified to meet your need. It is a great platform that is flexible and easy to use. Perhaps I am a little biased since, well, I am the General Counsel of Altova and helped during the product design – which is an interesting story in and of itself.

Contract management case study
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Altova Enters SaaS Market with New Cloud Apps


We are excited to announce a new SaaS subscription model for Altova legal, financial, and regulatory apps. The Altova Cloud offers a seamless experience for users to simply log in and start using one or more Altova apps, without the need to download or install any software.

Let’s take a look at some advantages of choosing Altova cloud apps and what makes the Altova Cloud different from other SaaS subscription models.

Introducing the Altova Cloud for SaaS
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Simplified Security Options & More in MobileTogether 5.1


The latest release of MobileTogether, Altova’s low-code, cross platform mobile app development framework, offers a simplified method for requesting and implementing SSL certificates by utilizing Let’s Encrypt integration. Now, developers can secure communications between the backend server and user devices quickly, seamlessly, and for free.

Other updates include support for the latest versions of Android and multiple new options for flexible app development. Let’s take a look.

What's new in MobileTogether, Altova's low-code app development framework
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Flexible Collection Curation with MyCollections 4.0


MyCollections, the easy-to-use app for cataloging and sharing your collections, has been updated with flexible new tools for customizing the way your published collections are displayed.

Whether you’re using the MyCollections app for iOS, Android, Windows, or the web, the new options in MyCollections 4.0 make it even easier to show off your collections exactly as you’d like to.

MyCollections app for cataloging and sharing your collections
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Push Notifications Headline Latest MobileTogether Release


The latest release of MobileTogether, Altova’s framework for cross platform mobile app development, adds easy-to-use tools for defining push notifications, the ability to embed apps inside web applications, and more.

Let’s take a look at these new features, which only add to the long list of functionality available for building today’s sophisticated, data-centric mobile apps.

MobileTogether 4.0 Adds Push Notifications

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