Ownersite adds better maintenance & reminder integration, mpg per fuel record

We are in the process of wrapping up our customer survey and we wanted to thank everyone for their support, feedback, kind words and suggestions. Several hundred people replied, so I think the information we have collected is going to serve our users very well. Of the suggestions, two items were requested more frequently than any other:

1) add a column to the fuel display page that shows fuel consumption by record
2) better integrate the maintenance record and reminder functionality

I am happy to say that we have listened to your feedback and have made these very useful enhancements to Ownersite as a result.

There is now a column on the fuel display page that shows your fuel consumption by record. (we have maintained this information in the past on the fuel graph and text-based fuel usage report, but not on the main page) The column will include a value only if two consecutive fuel records are both fillups. (if they are not fillups there is no way to know accurately how much fuel was used for the calculation)



In what was probably the number one request, we have enhanced how maintenance records and reminders integrate with each other. Ownersite has been able to detect if a reminder already exists for a maintenance, tire or oil change record that has been added for a couple of years now, but it was handled by popup messages, which we suspect were simply not being seen as a result of popup blockers being on by default in most browsers now. We have done away with the popup and the functionality is now handled by standard screens. Combined with the recently introduced reminder reset feature, we suspect this will accomodate the needs of 95% of our users.

Here is the existing reminder...


Now let's add a maintenance record...


Ownersite detects if there is a reminder scheduled for this service..


The reminder has been updated to reflect maintenance record...


There are a couple of caveats to the integration right now, in that it only works for odometer-based reminders. It will also do its best to detect user-defined reminders, but in some cases differences between the maintenance labels and reminder labels will not be detected.

We hope these features enhance your experience with Ownersite. We are always looking for ways to improve the product and we are listening to your suggestions. (and we have more things in the works) As always, thank you for your support!

Ownersite adds Twitter support for quicker entry of fuel records

A lot of technology and website trends have come and gone since we launched Ownersite back in 2001. We have incorporated some of the more useful ones, like a mobile interface (including a specific iPhone version) and this blog, for example. But we had held off on creating a Twitter interface until now. Some of the more useful fuel logging sites/social networks (like MyMileMarker, FuelFrog & FuelClinic come to mind) have had this kind of functionality for a while, but our users had not requested it until recently. I am happy to announce that we now have it and I must say that it really is a time saver. I may be a bit "old-school" but by using OutTwit (Outlook Twitter client) I can enter my fuel records in seconds, without having to login to my Ownersite account (mobile or otherwise). I believe this functionality may convince some Ownersite users that are not logging fuel economy to start doing so. More information can be found here. Can we say that we are Web 2.0 compliant now?

Ownersite for your Health?

I heard an ad on the radio this morning (while listening to Neil Boortz) for MedsFile.com and I think it sounds like a great idea. In short, MedsFile.com is a web-based application to store your personal health record, including your medications, medical history, etc. I would equate it to Google Health, which launched with tremendous hype, but I don't personally think it has lived up to its initial hype.

What makes it different (other than what I consider a more attractive interface), based on what I can see on their website, they are independent and not affiliated with any particular insurance company or pharmaceutical company and their revenue model is based on subscriptions, like Ownersite and Home Ownersite, and not riddled with advertisements.

Why did I post this when it has nothing to do with cars or homes? Well, I guess when it comes down to it, the biggest personal asset you can manage is your health and this looks like a great product to do that. I wish these guys the best of luck with MedsFile.com.

(disclaimer: none necessary, I am not affiliated with this company in any way)

Home Ownersite, Disaster Planning & Jefferson Parish Chamber of Commerce

It is going to be a big weekend for us, as we are slated to participate in the 2nd Annual Jefferson Parish Hurricane Preparedness Expo at the Alario Center. We were asked to participate by RP Risk Advisors, a highly respected consulting firm in the business continuity and disaster recovery space, to talk about Home Ownersite and round out their message on the consumer side. We feel very honored and are excited about the opportunity to present, and to meet some folks down in the New Orleans area, one of our favorite parts of this great land. We feel we can offer these folks a great solution to one of the most important components of disaster planning, a comprehensive, off-site, home inventory.

Here is the press release from RP Risk Advisors:

Jefferson Parish Press Release RPRA FINAL 111708

Ownersite, Home Ownersite and Personal Asset Management

I admit it, I am one of those people that logs in every day to check my bank account for cleared checks, see what charges have posted to the old AMEX card and how the family investments currently stand. Based on the increased use (and trust for) online banking and personal finance tools, I suspect I am not alone. Desktop software products like Quicken have been around for years to satiate the desire to know what your money is doing (I even had my free copy of Microsoft Money 1.0 back in the day) and now thanks to powerful web-based products like Mint, you can go online and do something very similar. In my opinion, having that kind of focus on personal finances is important in this era of increased dependence on credit.

But what if families applied the same principals they apply to their money, credit and retirement accounts to most expensive items they are likely to ever purchase, their homes and their vehicles? Corporate America has recognized the importance of applying this kind of focus for years to protect and value their assets, with fleet management software and asset tracking tools, but little focus has been placed on doing something similar at the consumer level. That is, until now.

With Ownersite and Home Ownersite, we are starting to get people to think more critically about the overall importance and value of their vehicles and their homes, a paradigm shift that we refer to as "personal asset management."

We all know that a vehicle immediately loses value when driven off the lot, yet we still continue to make payments on it for several years. How can we maintain as much value as possible, while at the same time keep it in peak operating condition. Ultimately, it is incumbent upon the owner to have maintenance performed, but Ownersite reminds its users of when and why, provides an online repository to store service information and ultimately makes it simple to share that history (and receipts) with a potential buyer online come resale time. Fuel economy tracking, trip logging and comprehensive reporting tools help manage the ownership life cycle.

For most of us, our home is the most expensive thing we will ever own, but few of us take the care to document all the important contents within the home. In the event of a flood, fire or break-in that makes recovering a challenging process. Thanks to Home Ownersite, it is easy to document, and ultimately share with your insurance agent, what was taken or destroyed and get on with your life as quickly as possible. But inventory is just one component of Home Ownersite, with task reminders (change those smoke detector batteries!), an online journal, photo and file store, mortgage and tax document repositories and much more, the product is intended for the complete ownership life cycle of your home.

And what if you are a renter or own multiple properties? It is important to keep track of all the assets in your life, wherever they are, especially if they are out of sight most of the time.

Let's be honest, some of us check the balance of our 401k every day, but we don't rely on our 401k to drive our kids to school or provide our family shelter. Thankfully, more and more people are understanding the importance of applying this mentality to their homes and vehicles, as evidenced by the number of products out there competing with Ownersite Technologies on the desktop, for PDA's and online.

Online banking has now become ubiquitous. Web-based tools to track our personal finances are gaining popularity every day. Our goal since 2001 is to educate consumers on the importance and value of "personal asset management" with Ownersite and Home Ownersite.

Ownersite Recognized as "Top Tool" on Mashable

Even though Ownersite has been around since 2000, growing and improving every day, it still receives little ongoing recognition (with the exception of the always incredible Autoblog and the review noted below from Gear Diary) in the "Web 2.0" world. In part, this is likely due to our subscription-based revenue model in a world where so many people feel that if it's online, it should be free. Of course, the fact that we've been online and growing (and expanding our product line) for more than eight years, while others have tried and failed, I would say that the model works pretty well.

Anyway, with that in mind, I was overjoyed by the recognition and a resulting jump in traffic last week from a couple of very useful blog posts on Mashable. Many thanks go out to Sean Aune for including Ownersite in his collection of resources: 18 Tools to Track Car and Fuel Maintenance and 200+ Tools for Surviving the Economic Crisis.

Thanks, Sean!

Let's Take a Tour, Learn More About Home Ownersite

Home Ownersite provides a tremendous amount of functionality beyond the useful home inventory component. Because of this, it can be difficult to "sell" visitors on why they should consider subscribing. Now that we have our new product tour online at http://home.ownersite.com/TourMenu.cfm, visitors should be able to get a much better understanding of the "big picture" value of the product. We even included special tips for each section to help new and existing subscribers get even more value from the application. Since the tour went online about a week ago, we have received tremendous feedback and the free trial rates have reflected that feedback.