About Softime
Softime was founded in 1991 and is an Italian software house specializing in the design, development, marketing, and maintenance of software for private and public real estate management and their related services and activities. One of our main products, SoftAmm Condominio, is aimed specifically for building administrators and the users can employ the software to record all the expenses incurred throughout the year, including various tax calculations, to produce clear, simple, and well laid out reports for their clients. The software is Java-based and has about 500 installations in Italy and several thousand users.
Problem
The end documents produced by our software are the results of the work done during the year by our customers and, importantly, should convey professionalism and demonstrate care and attention in their work. We had taken a lot of care with the output prints but we had never reached a result that was able to satisfy every client because of their differing requirements.
Moreover, we had a lot of problems with the formatting of the documents in particular with DOCX formatting, where the fonts got changed and we also faced compatibility issues with acrobat reader for exported PDF documents.
It was important to us that the reports can be edited and customized, so each customer can develop their own style. Our clients are unlikely to accept sudden changes or a new style and seldom accept ‘off the shelf’ solutions. This also can often be a problem for potential new customers who sometimes prefer to use obsolete software rather than change their old
habits.
So we decided that the only successful solution was to prepare a short, standard, and well-constructed report based on spreadsheets that can be easily edited and tailored to suit each individual client’s needs and preferences.
Experience
Previously we used iText which is a free and open-source library for creating and manipulating PDF files in Java, and Apache JExcel, another open-source library that allows developers to read, write, and modify Excel spreadsheets dynamically. But, neither solution could provide an acceptable end result. There were also issues with their demos and support.
We continued to search through the internet and found the Aspose products. We decided to try it and almost immediately realized that it was the perfect solution for us.
The functionality, speed, and ease of use, particularly in the Java development environment, were exactly what we were looking for and it is easily the best development tool that we have used. Support is also a big factor for us, and the help available through the Aspose support forums is as good as we could hope for.
Next Steps
We are planning to design new templates with more customizations, rich in prepared output prints, and with lots of different styles.
In response to customer demand, we are also planning new output with a visual designer, in order to create new templates with fixed text and a section with a menu characterized by multiple-choice data.
Summary
With Aspose.Total for Java, we have optimized the exporting of data on spreadsheets and created both a well-packaged report and maximum customization. Our customers can rely on high quality printed output, and for those who want a very individual style, we can now offer a high degree of design flexibility. We are also sure that we can count on a good
support team, clear online documentation, and well-timed technical updates.
