If you have been using Operation Tulip for some time, you know we kept the servers up and running during this unfortunate covid-19 pandemic. Apart from some minor downtime, we have successfully kept the services functional, and we have kept the sign-up possibilities running without exception.
The last two years
There is one thing keeping the site and servers running and something completely different to keep developing the service. Approximately at the same time as the covid pandemic hit most countries, we were planning to offer a premium tier to our new users.
We made preparations to use Stripe.com as the payment provider and our programmer wrote the code needed to implement the payment solution on the user dashboard.
But then covid hit us all, and operation tulip became partly stagnant for almost a year and a half. All of us have families and regular jobs so the work on operationtulip.com is on the side of our regular work. The pandemic changed our ways of living (and organizing family life) at its core and to our team, that meant that the development of operation tulip got less prioritized. We had to figure out how to make everyday life work for us as spouses, parents and professionals.
We have added some additional apps to our Next Cloud implementation and changed the home page. We have also kept developing the hardware that operationtulip.com is running on.
The present
In the beginning of November 2021, the team met up in Stockholm to re-start the work on making operation tulip the cloud storage provider we were planning on before life as we knew it took an unexpected turn. FYI – we live in different cities in Sweden, so the plan is to mix business with pleasure and do some serious work and have a great time.
To offer a sustainable cloud service, we need to generate revenue. Like many of you, we’ve been busy adapting to working from home and make life work, but we have not abandoned the project at any point.
In the pipeline – things we are working on right now
Besides making sure that our payment solution work as intended, we want to be absolutely certain that it is secure before we go forward and provide a premium service.
Another thing that we are working on is a ticket system for support questions–we believe that paying customers have the right to a working customer support.
We are looking into optimizing the hardware that operationtulip.com is running on while planning for scaling up to provide an even more stable, quick and reliable user experience.
And then there’s the blog…
In its current stage, the blog is a disgrace and needs some serious love and attention. We know some posts contain broken links and that some posts provide no value to our readers (unless they’re historians). So the blog will have a makeover in a not so distant future.
We are also planning to provide more tutorials and material that make it easier for users to get started on using our services. Did you know that it’s possible to synchronize the calendar over operationtulip.com? We believe that there are features that users could benefit from learning.
The future
We are talking about a re-branding of operationtulip.com
We are also looking into the possibility of using AI to provide support directly in the browser.
But as all start-ups, we are seriously understaffed in all departments and we need to make money before we can hire.
Last but not least
We want to send our love to all of our users and we appreciate every one trying us out. We appreciate every referral to our services and hope that all of you that use Operation Tulip also want to spread the word about us to friends and family.
Stay safe, keep distance, use hand sanitizer, keep at home if you feel somewhat under the weather and be kind to yourself and everyone around you.
Sincerely
The operation tulip team
Sweden, January 2022