Newsletters May - December 2001

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Communication in Action – December 2001 Newsletter

Christmas, other Celebrations and Holidays are here

We have reached the last month in the year and are gearing up in many cases for an extended break to recharged batteries for 2002. Matric exams are finished and new horizons are opening as school is left behind.

Communication in Action and its staff wish everyone the best

and safest of holidays and a very prosperous 2002.

Business Benefits 1: FREE Quotation Spreadsheet Are quotes the one thing that give you grief?

Doing quotations is the base of any business and none of us can avoid this task. If the process can be simplified and automated and you can trust the accuracy of the figures you give to your client, would your job be made more satisfying?

We will shortly be releasing a free Excel spreadsheet for producing general quotations. It will allow you to put in your own price list and then select items from those list when you produce a quote. If you register, you will be able to put your company name on the output.

You can get this quote sheet in one of two ways:

E-mail quotesheet@softwareafrica.co.za: We will e-mail the spreadsheet to you as soon as it is released (if you have queries, e-mail rick@softwareafrica.co.za, not quotesheet); or
Visit our web site on or after 10 December and download the spreadsheet.

Business Benefits 2: Pastelizer 6.0 is coming How would integration work for you?

If you are using Maximizer 97is, 5, or 6 with Pastel Accounting version 6.0, please note that we are upgrading Pastelizer to work with Pastel 6. Release is expected in January 2002. We can also make changes and enhancements to Pastelizer to give you greater productivity.

Where to from School?

Not just parents, but matric pupils (even those at Hogwarts!) confront this problem at this time of year. How to move from the protection of school and out into the “real” world? What jobs if any are out there? How do we obtain experience in order to qualify for the job? What qualifications will work best?

If you are not among the fortunate with university, technikon or college careers already mapped out and if you are short of the kind of money that is needed to passed an MCSE or N+, then you have a challenge!

Do you have computer experience? If so, approach employment agencies for assignments, present yourself well and make sure that you can perform simple actions in Word, Excel and Powerpoint, which prove that you are competent. Better still, approach a Microsoft Authorised Training Centre and find out about MOUS exams. In December, Microsoft is offering a free retry of each exam if you fail the first time!

What can you do with a MOUS Qualification?

A MOUS qualification proves that you are competent in Microsoft Office – it is a recognition of experience in using the product, which gives you a start into the working world. The packages covered are Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Access. If you pass all the exams, then you are qualified as a MOUS expert.

This qualification is less costly than MCSE, MCSD etc and it makes you employable!

Our favourite MOUS centre is Options in Training in Parktown – phone Anne there for all the details on (011) 484-4649

Novell Certification

This is not a cheap option but it is one that can bring you effectively to the status of employee or self-employed. Why? Because Novell engineers are scarce, unlike MCSEs!

Sales

The personality option – can you convince a customer that your product is the best for them, nurture the relationship and grow it? Then sales is for you. A good speaking voice, presentation and confidence make the salesperson. Our best salesperson was 20 years old and convinced us that he was older and more mature. He has moved onto more exciting things and we have been excited by his growth in the last 10 years! His initial success indicated that he would go far.

Yourself as an entrepreneur?

Have you always done well with convincing people that you have the best mouse trap? Then perhaps you have a product that you can make your livelihood from and be self-employed from day one.

If so, use distance learning to skill yourself with accounting and taxation knowledge plus marketing and planning so that you can succeed.

To protect yourself and learn about the pitfalls of running your own business visit https://www.crashproof.co.za/

Remember – You may have finished school, but you haven’t exhausted your capacity for learning – that goes on forever, if you let it!

Customer Relationship Management News

Where do you want to take your company today?

Marketing is a never ending process and when we see it as a process, then we are able to realise that our business depends on its effectiveness. Over the years, we have used many ways to get our products to the customers, but one rule appears to operate – stick out with a particular solution for a long time!

When we started using Yellow Pages, nothing happened! Now, three years down the line, we are finding that it works!

For small businesses, this low cost solution is viable for a long-term investment. We are watching our Internet advertising to see if this will also give us a return on investment further down the line.

Newsletters do work as well and more and more these are best delivered by e-mail! Back these e-mails with auto responder services, so that your customers and potential customers receive reminders and new information via these “silent” salespeople.

Handled well, your customer relationships are enhanced by such approaches and you build your business. All power to the bottom line in 2002!

Is Your Brokerage badly exposed to Professional Indemnity Claims?

If so and if you have 15 or more employees, Insurance Information eXchange can be implemented and ensure that you know exactly what is happening with your clients.

Talking about Sabotage

Have you recently audited your software? Do you have one licence per PC for Windows, Microsoft Office (or any competing Suite – WordPerfect or Lotus that you are using), antivirus, graphics packages etc?

The worst form of self-sabotage is not to have compliance with licensing requirements. Each PC Must have its own unique operating system licence – you may not by law transfer an operating system from one PC to another.

What are the implications of self-sabotage?

Heavy fines if the Business Software Association walks into your offices. They may even confiscate all the PCs. This could result in your business closing down!

Give yourself a Christmas present – check your licensing before the BSA checks you.

Licensing software

A useful service for Companies with 5 users upwards

We will assist if you want and supply missing licences at current prices based on discounts for the total number of users.

Implications of Telkom Local Price Increases

Do you connect to the Internet by dial-up? Is that how you collect your e-mail? Then watch out for the effects of the promised 23% price rise on local calls. Better still, send an e-mail to ICASA (or fax 448-1876) to complain about rampant and unwarranted cost increases. If enough of us do this perhaps our voices will be heard. On our bill 23% equals R500 per month extra – what does it mean to you?

Can you increase your prices to cover this increase? And with petrol costs going up and down as well, can we really let this increase slip pass unnoticed?

Particularly those of us who are SMEs, such a cost represents an unacceptable increase in overheads.

Tips from the Help Line:

Question: Our Smart Suite CD is missing, how can we reload it on our PCs?

Answer: By purchasing a new CD – and please make sure that you have one CD or licence for each PC. It is exactly the same as losing a music CD. You may be covered by insurance if you can prove theft.

Q: My PC was stolen, why does my supplier insist I buy a new operating system as well?

A: Because this is the law and they may not supply a PC without an operating system, even though you may have your operating system CDs still. Make sure that you claim for the PC and operating system. Insurance companies know that this requirement exists.

Q: Can I load Microsoft Office (or any other product except the operating system) on both my laptop and my PC?

A: Yes, if the 80/20 rule applies. The second machine may not be used for more than 20% of the time. To be absolutely sure of legality, buy two licences – one for each PC.

Q: Why are software manufacturers becoming so sticky about licensing?

A: And Microsoft particularly, we hear in this question. Because piracy is costing our economy and the world economies enormously in lost revenues and also the software companies are put into a situation where they have to charge substantially more for their products in order to continue developing them. This means that we end up paying more for new versions and for new products than we would have to otherwise.

Please note that it is not just in South Africa but throughout the world that the anti-piracy campaign is being waged and it includes all the software manufacturers, not just Microsoft. The US government just achieved a major strike against pirated products valued at some billions of dollars!

Look too at the clothing and sports goods industries – they are hot on piracy too!

Courses and Projects

The next Maximizer user course is 25 January 2002. We run one a month. If you want an administrator course – please let us know! We would also like to see where literacy skills are needed generally and would welcome suggestions from our readers as to what is wanted in the market place. Please contact us – we want to make a positive contribution into the future.

We will train members of the Community Police Forums’ administrative staff and staff of similar organisations at half price – please ask your local CPF if they need help.

Creating templates and complex documents in Microsoft Word – a real power users’ course that is run on demand. We require a minimum of 4 people on such courses.

Using Windows 2000 Pro – we are able to give courses at user level on this powerful operating system.

Please phone us for details.

Excel for Engineers and Scientists – for would-be power users of this package in the scientific and engineering fields. Please contact us about this course, which is run on demand and has happy graduates from Pretoria University and Umgeni Water among others.

Programming Excel – another successful course that is run on demand for Excel power users. It deals with Excel Visual Basic and how it communicates with the spreadsheet.

All the best for Christmas and the New Year

That’s all for now from the team! Bye!

Judith

Director, Communication in Action (Pty) Ltd PO Box 2077, Rivonia, 2128 South Africa. Tel: (+27 11) 802-2685. Fax: 802-4576. Cell: 083 626-5339. E-mail: info@softwareafrica.co.za

The entire contents of this newsletter Copyright© 2001 Communication in Action (Pty) Ltd. Please feel free to share this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site as long as it is left intact with all links unchanged and includes this notice. To unsubscribe, please e-mail info@softwareafrica.co.za and put " Unsubscribe" in the subject line.

Communication in Action – November 2001 Newsletter

News

Would you like to be a star in your supplier’s eyes?

One of our customers recently experienced this accolade from one of their suppliers when their new program prevented them manufacturing the wrong product line. The reports that they were able to generate proved that a particular line was not selling – so it was never put into production, potentially saving the supplier a substantial loss.

Is there an area in your business where a custom-written program may be of assistance in enhancing your business relationships?

How would changed staff attitudes help your business?

In these times of a sluggish economy, productivity and efficiency in the workplace are major concerns. Most small businesses cannot afford additional staff and need to motivate those they have to use existing resources to their full. After sending their staff on a Maximizer course, one company discovered a significant change in attitude towards the product by their employees. This resulted in far more effective usage of the product and increased sales. Our experience is that any training course breaks through the barriers that prevent people from doing their best. Simple acknowledgement is a powerful tool in the workplace and people feel valued if the company is willing to spend money on training them. This is apart from the obvious benefit that the trainees can do their jobs better after proper training.

Some Successes

After the course in August, Judith has passed the Microsoft Licensing Specialist exam and has the certificate to prove it.

To all of you who are Microsoft Certified Professionals – in case you hadn’t noticed – your qualification will not be retired! Microsoft will merely reflect the level of the exams passed – e.g. NT 4.0 MCSE. Obviously, if you do choose to upgrade to more recent products, that will reflect on your new certificates. A small step for you – a major achievement for everyone who is an MCP!

Watch the press for developments with the new Microsoft licensing move! Already Upgrade Advantage has been extended until July 2002 and the outcry against the annual costs of Software Assurance worldwide from customers may cause changes here. The EU is querying the legality of some aspects of Windows XP and .NET. There could be a very interesting few months ahead of us!

Customer Relationship Management News

Where do you want to take your company today?

Not into liquidation, we’re sure, but that’s what nearly happened to one company when their top sales staff left and took their prime customers and their records with them!

Could this happen to you?

If you think that it might, then look carefully at a CRM solution to protect your business from sabotage.

Talking about sabotage

What else could disaffected staff do to you? And oversights by your support company?

One company recently had a key file deleted – the entire customer base in fact – and then discovered that the daily backups were not working. They are now looking for the customers that they had attracted since May 2001, as that was the fall-back file that they still had. They may fortunately be able to recover some customers from their accounting package and from sales staff’s diaries.

Could this happen to you? What would be the effect on your business?

With off-site backup solutions and regular testing and checking of tape backups, you can avoid these disasters. We also recommend that companies do the following:

Backup all customer databases daily Do a full weekly backup and keep tapes for each of the 4 weeks of the month – preferably in a safe Do a full monthly backup and keep a year’s worth of these tapes off-site. Backup Storage will collect and keep tapes in a save store and deliver the next month’s tape when they collect.

Communication in Action can put you in contact with both eStorage and Backup Storage, if you are interested in looking at off-site solutions.

Licensing software

A useful service for Companies with 5 users upwards

Microsoft have provided resellers with licensing audit tools for them to help customers determine their real situation. If you want an audit done so that you can feel relaxed about your licensing situation or rectify it if necessary, please call (011) 802-2685 or e-mail Judith.

You saw the good news earlier in this newsletter. However, Microsoft have stopped all cross grading from WordPerfect Office and Lotus SmartSuite. Upgrade Advantage only works with Microsoft products.

Web Site

We have updated the Communication in Action web site to reflect our current products and services. We deliberately keep it simple on the basis that not everyone has a high-speed line and wants to wait for fancy 1 MB graphics to download. If you would like a similar uncomplicated, no-nonsense web site, we can do the same for you!

Tips from the Help Line:

Question: When I Export Address Book data from Maximizer for Excel, where does my file go?

Answer: Unless you specify a path along with the file name, Maximizer will save it into the same folder as the Maximizer data. If you're not sure where this is, run Windows Explorer and use Tools > Find from the root folder. Tip: When saving for Excel, use CSV format instead of the TXT file that Maximizer refers to as "comma-delimited": It saves Excel taking you through the Text Import assistant.

Q: I do a data export from Maximizer each month. Can I avoid having to set up the fields every time?

A: Yes.

Q: How?

A: On the dialog box "Select fields for Export", select your fields and then click the "Catalog" button. Click the "Add..." button and give the catalogue a name. Next month, don't set up fields, just click the "Catalog" button, click the name of your saved catalogue, and click "Retrieve".

Q: How can I prevent Microsoft Word hyphenating words at the ends of lines?

A: On the menu, click Format > Paragraph > Line and Page Breaks (Tab) and tick "Don't hyphenate". If you want to change the whole style, use Format > Style > Modify > Format > Paragraph > Line and Page Breaks (Tab) > "Don't hyphenate".

Courses and Projects

The next Maximizer user course is 16 November 2001. We run one a month. If you want an administrator course – please let us know!

We need to give the people working for us skills. If this nation is to win, that is what will lay the foundations. Communication in Action is considering running Saturday classes in computer literacy for employees whose companies will sponsor them. Would this appeal to you? We can accommodate 4 people at a time at a morning cost of R50 per person plus VAT.

We would also like to see where literacy skills are needed generally and would welcome suggestions from our readers as to what is wanted in the market place. Please contact us – we want to make a positive contribution into the future.

We do have a lot of old software how to books and guides plus quite a lot of old software products – do you know of a school or institution that may be able to make use of these? Again, please let us know.

We will train members of the Community Police Forums’ administrative staff and staff of similar organisations at half price – please ask your local CPF if they need help.

Creating templates and complex documents in Microsoft Word – a real power users’ course that is run on demand. We require a minimum of 4 people on such courses.

Using Windows 2000 Pro – we are able to give courses at user level on this powerful operating system. Please phone us for details.

Programming Excel – another successful course that is run on demand for Excel power users. It deals with Excel Visual Basic and how it communicates with the spreadsheet.

That’s all for now from the team!

Bye!

Judith

Director, Communication in Action (Pty) Ltd PO Box 2077, Rivonia, 2128 South Africa. Tel: (+27 11) 802-2685. Fax: 802-4576. Cell: 083 626-5339. E-mail: info@softwareafrica.co.za

Communication in Action – October 2001 Newsletter

News

Firstly, our condolences to all those who lost friends and family in the events of 11 September and our best wishes for the speedy recovery of those injured.

This disaster has brought the world to the brink of a possible war in which there will be no winners and many losers. When you read daily of the numbers of people threatened by loss of jobs, loss of their lives because of famine and disease, the addition of a war without the reason or the target having being fully defined only piles on the horror.

We are seeing our stock markets and our currency sink as the leading powers strengthen their currencies as they move into a war economy, whilst they shed jobs in the service sectors, partly from fear and partly from a possible need to move these people into their armed forces.

In the months ahead, South Africa will need perspective and resilience – both strengths which we have displayed in the past. We have and can drive forward in our economy by delving into our own resources and believing in our innate capacity to build a winning nation. It may be a time to stop and consider where we are going, but it is not a time to freeze with fear and destroy ourselves by doing nothing to grow our economy.

Consider a possible scenario – we may be one of the few economies left if the Northern Hemisphere destroys itself. Us, some of the Pacific Rim, Australia and New Zealand. Let’s start laying the foundations for the success of the Southern Hemisphere as the economic force of the future.

That’s my vision – from Judith!

Maximizer Customer Relationship Management Software News

Increasing the Sales Team’s Success - QwikQuote

To date, we’ve not mentioned any other add-on to Maximizer apart from Pastelizer, so perhaps a real sales tool is appropriate. QwikQuote has been developed to add-on to Maximizer and also other CRM packages.

Its strengths are easy quote generation, follow up and reporting. Over 100 000 stock items can be added to its database, quoted on and eventually closed. Let’s look at what it offers:

QwikQuote's Features

QwikQuote realize that it is impossible to provide their customers with an exhaustive list of QwikQuote’s features because of the customisability of the product. The list below is a compilation of some of QwikQuote’s more popular features:

Centralizes product / catalog information

Insert the contact from your contact manager with a single click.

Built-in Acrobat PDF generator lets you e-mail formatted quotes.

Intelligent printing wizard lets you include corporate logo, pictures, and customize unlimited documents, then preview before printing. .

Import lists of products and services from popular formats like Excel, dBase, Access, FoxPro and more!

Send and receive quotes between other offices / notebooks.

Design quotes, invoices, purchase orders, and more…

Custom columns let you track the information you need to.

Modify the printed quote format by specifying columns to print, headings to use, labels, company logo etc.

Supports any world currency by relying on Windows currency settings.

Use QwikQuote's Reporter 2000, Crystal Reports or any other report generator to generate customized reports from the Access reporting database.

Create product bundles.

Track product pictures, benefits, videos, weights, detailed information and more!

Up to 30 quantity price breaks for each product.

Specify the margin, mark-up or discount for each item in your quote.

When prices change, use the mark-up tool to adjust your profit margins

Customize your quote layout --including product pictures or your logo!

Retrieve the customer's name and address from ACT!, Goldmine, Maximizer, Microsoft Outlook, TeleMagic or QwikQuote's Contact List

Add fields from your contact manager, and place those fields on the Layout with QwikQuote’s design tools.

Know the profit on your products by tracking cost, price, and list price in the Analysis Box.

See what price your customer last paid for a product.

Describe each product on your quote up to 32,000 characters.

Create quote templates to save time when creating many similar quotes.

Create and use multiple product databases.

Use your contact manager to synchronize attached quotes, then create a centralized reporting database with QwikQuote File Organizer.

Choose products and services from your Price List (over 100,000)

Use the Optional link to QuickBooks to convert your quotes to QuickBooks invoices.

With QwikQuote, you'll spend more time with customers
and less time with paper!

Easier to learn and use

QwikQuote follows the logical selling process through four screens:

Retrieve the customer's name and address from ACT!, Goldmine, Maximizer, Microsoft Outlook, or QwikQuote's Contact List,
Choose products and services from your Price List (over 100,000),
Arrange your presentation and pricing strategy, and,
Customize your quote layout - including product pictures or your logo!

Improve your company's customer support

QwikQuote puts product information at your salesperson's fingertips: just double-click on a description to enter QwikQuote's Catalog - a support screen featuring scrolling Info Box, Key Benefits, extended description fields, Picture/Video Box, shipping weights, inventory levels, spec sheets, quantity pricing fields, and more. If you're in sales, you'll use this screen every day; if you're in marketing, you've found a better, faster, and less expensive way to distribute information about your products and services.

Totally customizable for your needs

QwikQuote handles every approach to pricing including margin, discount, mark-up, customer-specific, and even Dynamic Price Allocation: set competitive prices on key items and QwikQuote automatically allocates profit dollars to non-commodity items.

Use your existing data! Start quoting in minutes!

Import Price Lists from Excel, dBase, Access and other leading databases! QwikQuote's easy import routine allows you to line up fields in your existing price list for fast import, and even to save import routines for new data. Don't have a price list? Add products to your QwikQuote Price List "on the fly" to make it easier the next time you quote that product! Link to your contacts in ACT!, GoldMine or Maximizer!

QwikQuote links "live" to your contacts in ACT!, GoldMine, Maximizer, or Microsoft Outlook with DDE and ODBC links: just tell QwikQuote which contact manager you use and where it's installed: QwikQuote does the rest! No need to import or re-type contact names. QwikQuote even updates forecasts in GoldMine and saves quotes as attached files in ACT!, GoldMine and Maximizer so it's easy for your assistant to find and close a quote when you're out of the office.

Find the right products fast

Instant SQL searches - even free-text searches in seconds that take 20 minutes in other programs - will increase your responsiveness and close more sales faster.

Improves group sales performance and customer services

Sales people are often thought of as "the front line" or "road warriors" -- highly individualistic people who sometimes succeed in spite of the company. In a more complex, fast-moving world, though, companies are integrating relationship handlers, technicians, and inside sales people into more effective selling teams. The networked version of QwikQuote helps make those teams work better by offering faster response time, better technical support, and shared information.

Networked

QwikQuote's ability to write back to customer history files in leading contact managers provides instant response to customers inquiring about their quotes. All the information is available to each sales team member, whether or not the originator of the sale is in the building. The customer is served immediately.

No additional software required

Other quoting programs require additional spreadsheets and accounting programs. With QwikQuote, you've got everything you need to generate fast, customized quotations.

Interested in QwikQuote?

Then please contact us – pricing is in US Dollars and based on 3, 5, 10, 20 and 25 users.

Licensing software

Did you know that you can now rent your Microsoft software over three years? No more old software hanging around in boxes in storerooms taking up valuable space; no more so-called assets just a balance sheet expense to be written off before tax. No more wondering how to budget for that upgrade, as your software is automatically upgraded throughout the contract and you receive support as well for major incidents that your outsource people may not be able to solve.

Audits are performed on how many users your company has at the start and on each anniversary of the contract. Then numbers are set for the full year – you are sure of being fully covered for all users and numbers are revised up or down at the anniversary of the contract. No more piracy fears and complete control of your software from day one.

Ask Judith to speak to you and advise you on which licensing platform is the one for your company.

Tips from the Help Line:

Using your PC – a Basic Guide – We know the Dummies books, but would a small easy reference manual be of use to you, particularly at home? We have such a one and are happy to e-mail it to you. Let us know ...

Corporate Identity a problem? Are you finding that everyone sends out electronic material with their own style, so that customers relate to the person and not to your company? Customised templates protect your corporate identity, keep all documents uniform and can be further enhanced with standard reference numbers etc. If you want to do them in-house, maybe our course below would assist in giving the skills to your users. Otherwise, contact us and we will quote on producing templates to your requirements.

Course News

More than anything else, we need to give the people working for us skills. If this nation is to win, that is what will lay the foundations. Communication in Action is considering running Saturday classes in computer literacy for employees whose companies will sponsor them. Would this appeal to you? We can accommodate 4 people at a time at a morning cost of R50 per person plus VAT.

We do have a lot of old software how to books and guides plus quite a lot of old software product s – do you know of a school or institution that may be able to make use of these? Again, please let us know. The next Maximizer user course is 26 October 2001. We run one a month. If you want an administrator course – please let us know!

We will train members of the Community Police Forums’ administrative staff and staff of similar organisations at half price – please ask your local CPF if they need help.

Creating templates and complex documents in Microsoft Word – a real power users’ course that is run on demand. We require a minimum of 4 people on such courses.

Using Windows 2000 Pro – we are able to give courses at user level on this powerful operating system. Please phone us for details.

Programming in Excel – again a very successful course that is run on demand for Excel power users.

That’s all for now!

Yours sincerely

Judith Taylor

Director, Communication in Action (Pty) Ltd PO Box 2077, Rivonia, 2128 South Africa. Tel: (+27 11) 802-2685. Fax: 802-4576. Cell: 083 626-5339. E-mail: info@softwareafrica.co.za Web site: https://www.softwareafrica.co.za

Communication in Action – September 2001 Newsletter

Breaking News

With all the downs and takeovers in the IT industry both locally and worldwide, it’s beginning to look as if we’re all going back to typewriters! However, it’s really not that bad – voice recognition software is now maturing and enables any one to produce documents fast. This means that when integrated with Microsoft Office, Maximizer, or any other software, you can become independent of your keyboard and far more effective.

Since Maximizer also integrates seamlessly with Outlook, you can set up appointments in Maximizer which are passed to Outlook and then to your Windows driven Palm or other handheld device.

Added benefit – you can shout at your PC and see everything appear on screen – indicating that it’s heard you!

Maximizer Customer Relationship Management Software News

Increasing the Sales Team’s Success

Having a hassle trying to find a way to make your sales team more effective? Maximizer has a Strategy library in both the standard and Enterprise versions of 6.0, which links with the Opportunity Manager to help you define your customer by decision maker, decision influencer, other interested person/s etc, plus monitor the impact of your sales team on the customer. The strategies can be weighted to show the likelihood of closing the deal.

Looking at past opportunities, you can see what factors were influential in closing the deal or in losing it, thus strengthening your sales approach for the future.

Owning Your Customers

Is your company one with a large sales team who operate out of diaries and pieces of paper? What happens when they leave? Who owns your customers – you or your salesperson? Companies who have installed and maintain their Maximizer databases have discovered that they own their customers. Sales people leaving the company cannot walk away with their customer base because all their relationship details are recorded in the database.

Added Customer Care

What happens when someone calls in sick and they are either your key sales person or a technician with a heavy schedule maintaining your equipment in the field? Do they have to tell you their diary for the day or can you consult Maximizer to follow up with all their calls and quotations?

With Maximizer managing your customers, you are merely a click away from giving them the special service excellence that you want to achieve. All the appointments can be rescheduled with a few phone calls and no customer is left hanging wondering where your staff are.

Licensing software

Ask Judith to speak to you and advise you on which licensing platform is the one for your company.

Tips from the Help Line:

The importance of backup – this one is coming up with Maximizer files on the older versions. Please use the Maximizer backup utility at least once a week and keep at least three different sets. Why – because if a file becomes corrupted, then you need to restore it (and the rest of the database) into a new folder to recover your database.

Even when using other packages, make sure that you back up your key files to tape or disk, and write them to CD for archive purposes on a regular basis.

For real belt and braces solutions, try e-Storage - www.backupstorage.co.za - we are using their solution and know that each week our data is safely stored well off site.

Office XP – to upgrade or not? A hard question to answer as XP uses more resources than Office 2000 and hey, we only started using 2000 like yesterday. However, here look at your environment: Are your staff collaborating over documents? If so the more powerful collaboration tools are worth the extra hassle.

Remember that XP must be bought under the Open Licence scheme – the single user package is exactly that SINGLE USER! Multilicense agreements give you access to multiple keys for your users plus only one set of documentation and CDs needs to be purchased.

How should I license my training institution? This is a hard one and the question that we were asked referred to Visio and Project, which are not trained that often. The hard facts are that you must have the product that you are offering training on. What’s the best solution? Train on customer’s site so that you are using their software. Second best – are you registered with the Dept of Education? If the answer is Yes then we recommend Open subscription licensing for all your software from Microsoft, which gives you Visio and Project at a cost of ± R50 each per PC plus VAT per year.

If you are not registered, that has to be step one. OSL may be the solution any way as the cost will be lower, plus you will receive all the upgrades and support incidents as well.

Converting WordPro and 1-2-3 to Word and Excel – this is done from the Lotus package using File | Save As and choosing Word or Excel as appropriate. It is a lengthy job, however we have written bulk conversion software for 1-2-3 to Excel and could do it for Word Pro to Word. Many 1-2-3 macros will not work in Excel and some document formatting may need to be sorted out.

Freelance is worse – it doesn’t convert.

Bringing existing database information into Maximizer – an easy one! Maximizer accepts comma delimited files, Act, Goldmine and many other file formats directly into its database. All you do is match the fields from the old database with those in the Maximizer database.

Bring through the company information first and then the contacts with their unique information like cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses.

Chatting across the Internet – The MSN Messenger Service assists you for free in setting up chat sessions with friends and relatives across the world. You can download the latest software from www.msn.co.za and set up your hotmail account – then start setting up your buddies and chatting across the Internet. The latest version of Internet Explorer is also available now as well.

Templates – setting up templates in Word for all your users ensures corporate identity is preserved. Everything from font sizes to margin settings are held in a template as well as your company logo. Experiment with the templates that come with Word and then start making your own (or have us do them for you). Not sure of all the techniques? See below:

Course News

Next Maximizer user course is 21 September 2001. We run one a month. If you want an administrator course – please let us know!

Creating templates and complex documents in Microsoft Word – a real power users’ course that is run on demand. We require a minimum of 4 people on such courses.

Using Windows 2000 Pro – we are able to give courses at user level on this powerful operating system. Please phone us for details.

Programming in Excel – again a very successful course that is run on demand for Excel power users.

That’s all for now!

Yours sincerely

Judith Taylor

Communication in Action – mid-August 2001 Newsletter

Breaking News - Microsoft licensing update:

This has become both simpler and more complex. Microsoft is moving to the concept of software as a service not as an asset. This means that they wish users to purchase support and upgrade packages on a regular basis – two to three years in duration. The old paradigm of being able to buy upgrades two or three years down the line is to fall away starting on 1 October 2001.

What does this mean for you – the customer?

Basically, this means that you will have a number of options when looking ahead into 2002. The first is to purchase a package called Upgrade Advantage. This is paid for up front for two years and covers all your software upgrades during that period. It does not offer a support element. You can renew it with the package below.

The second is to move to a package consisting of Open Licence and Software Assurance, which will replace and include Upgrade Advantage from 1 October 2001. This does give some support cover and is a two-year contract, payable yearly in advance. It has the advantage of licensing all PCs during the year following an audit. Each anniversary, this audit is performed again to ensure that licensing needs are compliant with the user numbers. All software upgrades are included in this agreement.

Thirdly, you can opt to rent your software! This means that ownership does not rest with your company, so there’s nothing on the balance sheet. There is a signed agreement however, committing you to renting for three years, payable annually in advance. Support is also included as are regular updates. This agreement is fully renewable and the number of users is assessed on inception and then at each anniversary.

All three options give you security that your company is fully licensed to use the products installed, plus they are updated as required at no further cost. They also guarantee pricing for the year for new purchases.

What if you choose none of the above?

Then, when you want to upgrade your existing products, you buy brand new product as the then prevailing cost.

Other Considerations in this development

Please note that in terms of piracy of software, Microsoft have made it very clear that OEM and DSP operating systems’ licences – which now have to be supplied with EVERY new PC live and die with that particular PC. Consequently, if a PC is stolen or sold, you have to purchase a new operating system with the next PC purchased. Servers are included in this.

In fact any OEM software package’s licence is unique to the PC it is supplied with and cannot be transferred to any other PC.

Packaged product will also now only be loadable onto one PC. Businesses need to buy Open Business Licences or Volume licensing in order to be able to load Office or similar on more than one PC. The business operating system is currently Windows 2000 Pro to be replaced by Windows XP Pro in late October. Windows 95, 98 and ME editions are not upgradeable to Windows 2000 Pro or XP Pro, as they are not seen as business systems.

The aim here is to cover all users with legal licensing solutions and to cut out the piracy and hard disk loading scams that have seriously disrupted the market – remember that these contribute substantially to the price of the software that you buy. SA Piracy is 47% of the user base, consequently adding a penalty of 47% to the price that you and I pay.

With the bulk licensing offerings to business, the contracts available are geared to make software and support more affordable, plus tracking the number of licences easier. Substantial discounts are available currently as well.

For academic users, many products are covered at an attractively lower cost through the academic licensing offerings.

What should you do now?

Please contact me to assist you in auditing your software situation, so that you can make sure that you have subscribed to Upgrade Advantage before the end of September. This will mean that you can then be automatically upgraded to the Software Assurance program in October. If you are a small business of 10 users or more, then renting software is a valid option. Discounts against existing purchases are generous and a higher level of support is offered.

If you have less than 10 users, then I recommend Business-licensing options from 5 users upwards to be taken with Upgrade Advantage before the end of September. Note one good feature – if your company is closely related to another – shared ownership etc – then the two or more related companies can pool their purchases or rentals into one agreement, thus obtaining a price break plus easy administration and tracking of licences.

Looking forward to being of assistance

Yours sincerely

Judith Taylor

Communication in Action – August 2001 Newsletter

Breaking News

Microsoft is revising its licensing offerings and we are concerned that this may well adversely affect small companies. We have noticed that pricing is very high for Office XP/2000 Professional licences and we would call on everyone to protest to Microsoft that this will impact adversely on their anti-piracy campaign.

The launch of the new strategy is at the beginning of this month, so we will give you a mid-month update on how we see it being implemented.

New Offices

These are working well now and our e-mail is sorted out. The e-mail was the most difficult part as we changed from diginet to dial-up and had to reload Exchange Server plus learn a lot about connectivity in this mode again.

We are very busy now so you may find that it’s leave a message for us to return when we come back in again.

Emergencies – 083-626-5339!

Maximizer Customer Relationship Management Software News

Maximizer 6.0 in both the standard SME and the enterprise versions is proving to be a move in the right direction. Integration directly into Outlook for updating your handheld PC with calendar appointments from Maximizer is such a bonus. The Order Desk and Opportunity Manager being added to the standard version is also a useful feature

. We are now fully up and running on the installation side for multi-user sites, plus our training programme is going well.

Keep selling and keep in contact with Maximizer 6.0 – can you afford to be without it?

What’s bugging you?

As we love to help sort out problems and enable you to work smarter – let us know what’s not working and ask us if there is a way to do it better, faster or smarter.

Course News

Next Maximizer user course is 31 August 2001. We run one a month. If you want an administrator course – please let us know!

That’s all for now!

Yours sincerely

Judith Taylor

Communication in Action – July 2001 Newsletter

Breaking News

We have reorganised our offices, as we are out more and more often. Please bear with our electronic assistants and a few odd things happening with our e-mail as we iron out the problems! Our cell numbers are still 083-626-5339 for Judith and 083-626-6679 for Rick. We do respond to the message machine as well!

Microsoft Office XP – we are still looking! Watch this space for revues – and we know that the journos are very excited. The cool-headed user report is to follow!

Maximizer Customer Relationship Management Software News

Maximizer 6.0 is proving an excellent product now that we are fully conversant with installation. Please note that Enterprise comes with the Pervasive SQL server module plus many other extras. We are happy to install multi-user version 6.0.

Training on Maximizer is once a month until we build up demand.

Insurance Information eXchange

This product matures daily – why not make your insurance business work more effectively by investing in it now? It is a full document management and data warehouse system in one, so there is less paper work and more income. How about reducing all your paper to bits and bytes and spending less on expensive storage space?

With IIX, you never need another piece of paper again – it’s all on screen! Your customers think you are a mind reader when you speak to them and even recall the exact structure of their house or the number of their Mercedes! IIX is your secret agent in better customer service, improved income and clearer financial management in a shorter time!

What’s bugging you?

As we love to help sort out problems and enable you to work smarter – let us know what’s not working and ask us if there is a way to do it better, faster or smarter.

Tips from the Help Line: Problems we solved recently

Addresses won’t fit my labels!

When an address overflows the label you have two options – smaller font or a bigger label. We have designed templates for various labels, however, we cannot fit a long address to a small label – sorry!

Upgrading Organizer diaries caused “out of memory”!

When Organizer upgrades your diary to a more recent version, it chews your PC’s RAM. If you want the file upgraded, we have RAM to spare and currently run Organizer 4.1. (We are looking at upgrading our Smart Suite again so that we stay in line with the latest releases.) After converting the file, we then compact it for easier onward conversion – this process makes the file BIGGER!

Where’s our nearest software supplier?

Sorry, we can’t help here! We usually suggest Incredible Connection because we know they have to supply legal software – we get nothing from this referral.

Course News

Training Maximizer and loving it! Want to upgrade your skills and productivity? Come and join us on a course!

Looking forward to hearing from you and assisting you in developing your IT solutions for greater productivity.

That’s all for now!

Yours sincerely

Judith Taylor

Communication in Action – June 2001 Newsletter

Breaking News

Microsoft Office XP, the successor to Office 2000, is (according to rumours) due for a release similar to that done for Windows 95. We will be taking a good look at it soon and reporting back on version compatibility and other features in our July newsletter.

Maximizer SA are moving their offices from Johannesburg to Cape Town. Communication in Action will be filling the gap in Maximizer support and training.

Maximizer Customer Relationship Management Software News

Maximizer 6.0 and Enterprise 6.0 both work with the current version of Pastelizer (5.2). The new version of Pastel Accounting, version 6.0, is due out shortly. If there is sufficient demand we will upgrade Pastelizer to suit.

The Maximizer and Enterprise 6.0 versions have a really useful feature – the Order Desk. This enables you to track an enquiry through to order status and then process it. Even better, if you are able to receive orders via e-mail Enterprise can accept them online through your portal.

The e-commerce side is substantially updated on these packages too. Plus – remember with Maximizer products you don’t need to buy Microsoft SQL Server and licences to run the database across your LAN or WAN fast and effectively.

What’s bugging you?

As we love to help sort out problems and enable you to work smarter – let us know what’s not working and ask us if there is a way to do it better, faster or smarter.

Backup Security

Are you finding that backup devices and their tapes are too expensive for you as a SME (Small to Medium enterprise) or that your devices are not reliable? We have had this problem and have finally sourced a company willing to come on site ONCE to collect all your data and then you incrementally back up everything onto their safe Internet connection. You can contact Judith via e-mail – info@softwareafrica.co.za or phone (011) 802-2685

And what they say:

Electronic data storage – a leap into the unknown, or a vital survival strategy?

The storage solution from BSF’s new electronic division: e-Storage DIRECT [e-SD] allows customers to exploit advanced on and off-site technologies for highly developed data protection solutions. Backup Storage Facilities (BSF), regarded as the benchmark in specialised off-site media storage, has since its inception 14 years ago been the only specialised off-site data storage and retrieval operation in the country. The same business philosophy of no-hassle, secure on or off-site data storage is offered through either electronic storage solutions.

As pacesetters in off-site media management, e-SD offers specialised electronic storage solutions that are based on immediate business needs, with the ability to expand into new levels as the demand for data storage increases.

The uniquely developed product mixes were created to meet the level of data loss the client company can withstand and data is protected according to the level of impact on the business. We know that if we want to be current and keep pace, we simply need better levels of technology.

e-SD solutions do not need intensive input from IT departments with storage costs starting as low as R50-00 and going up to R200 per GigaByte depending on the nature of the solution required.

The solutions that e-SD provides fit the budget for any company and thus are able to service SOHO type operations all the way up to large multinationals. What really determines the solution is the nature of the business and the up-time it needs to ensure business continuity.

The three levels of data storage solutions identified by e-SD are an indication for companies to gauge what their first step should be when it comes to business continuity and disaster recovery.

Level Zero

Tape Media Storage deals with the vital step in ensuring that your data is safe – off site tape storage. This service is a must for any company with more than a few gigabytes of data on their servers. It is the first step in any business continuity or DR plan.

Level One

These Primary Data Storage solutions are aimed at smaller companies that want small packets of data or vital data/ files stored and retrieved off site via the Internet or a digital connection to our secure servers. It also offers a combined tape storage solution as an additional level of redundancy.

Level Two

The Business Continuity Insurance solutions at this level are for companies that need high data availability and a high percentage of uptime. The solutions here include server replication, Storage Area Networks and Clustering.

Level Three

The High Volume Data Storage & Management solutions offered at this level are for large companies or corporations that have very high end off site storage needs. The solutions here include off – site clustering and managed storage on demand.

Windows 2000 Pro or Windows ME?

Which to choose?

2000 Pro is now in Service Pack 2, which you can download from the Internet or phone Microsoft to supply (probably cheaper as it’s a 101MB file). For office use Windows 2000 Pro is a stable and user-friendly system with high levels of security. Make sure that you have administrator rights for your own PC for loading software, if you need to do this a lot.

Windows ME is ideal for the home user as it recognises new equipment easily and has all the home features you want. Security is low however.

Community Spirit

We’ve noticed that our sporty customers are getting ready for the FNB-702 Walk the Talk – are you? This is a major health boost for you and your team and a charity raiser for various causes. How about supporting Red Nose Day as well?

Tips from the Help Line: Problems we solved recently

I can’t connect to my diary/last open file etc!

When working on a network, check that you have logged on correctly and that no messages have appeared saying that your password has expired. Usually, when you can’t connect to something, it is because your password has expired. You may also receive a message to say that you cannot be connected to various drives and the network printer. If your password is working, then check that your network cable is plugged in and that the light is on where it plugs in at the back of the PC. If the light is off, then you need your network administrator to take a closer look.

My PC went bang and smoke came out of the back!

Please turn it off – this is usually the power supply finally giving up the ghost! By switching off and unplugging, nothing more can go wrong. Your hard drive should be OK and recoverable. Call your friendly service company (for PCs) and ask what they can do

. I cannot connect to a Windows 2000 Pro PC on the network!

Windows 2000 software (and we suspect ME too) has advanced power saving features. If you need to use resources from the 2000 PC and it keeps becoming unavailable, it is because the power saving is switching it off! Right click on the desktop and choose Properties | ScreenSaver | Power and make sure that the PC is Always On. Check through all the other power options to make sure that it is not turning anything else off!

Course News

Do you need greater proficiency on Microsoft products? Give us a ring. We can provide manuals for self help.

Looking forward to hearing from you and assisting you in developing your IT solutions for greater productivity.

That’s all for now!

Yours sincerely

Judith Taylor

Communication in Action – May 2001 Newsletter

Breaking News

The Fashion Agency Database is close to ready for full product release to customers. This development has been done over a number of months and provides agencies with a fully functional management system to cover sales, ordering and agents’ commissions amongst other things. It gives a complete solution for this type of business and runs across a network to serve all the agency’s staff in doing their work effectively.

If you have any queries about HP products and special offers, Judith now has all the information! HP ran an extremely good afternoon seminar on their product range and their solutions, which include some very interesting server solutions for Small and Medium Enterprises. They also have some extremely good and cost-saving software solutions for configuring PCs and servers.

Faxing made e-asy!

How about never needing to use your fax machine again? Thought it was only possible through expensive software solutions? Well it’s not with myfax.co.za!

This solution enables you to fax via e-mail to a server, which then sends out the document/s to the recipient’s fax machine. Incoming faxes go to the same server and are converted to e-mail for you to receive them. They also do merged fax runs in the same way.

This solution means less paper in your office and more information available electronically – so faster accessibility and easier to backup. For more information, contact Judith via e-mail – info@softwareafrica.co.za or phone (011) 802-2685

Backup Security

Worried about your backup tapes and their accessibility in a crisis? We all know that you can put them in a safe at the bank, but what if the crisis occurs outside banking hours? Then you have to wait to retrieve them and that could be 36 hours or more later. It does cost, but there is a company who will collect your tapes and place them in vaults for safety on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. In a crisis, they guarantee delivery within 90 minutes. Interested - again contact Judith via e-mail – info@softwareafrica.co.za or phone (011) 802-2685.

Software Licensing Options

Look out for the BIG change in licensing, which is coming with all new releases of products right across the software companies. Network licences will be on a concurrent user basis and additional users will not be able to access the product unless a licence is released or additional licences are purchased. Microsoft began this with their Direct Access product to their resellers, proved the technology and now everyone will be using it!

SO it’s back to the old days when you have to have enough licences to cover all your users or they will not be able to work!

In addition, Microsoft software will require an activation key, which you ring in for to them. Only two keys will be issued unless you have a very good reason for needing to have another later on. Two loads are allowed per key as we understand.

Community Spirit

You’ve all probably heard that the Truth campaign donated half of the proceeds to a school and a healthcare centre in the Eastern Cape. By buying and legalising all your software, this is the real impact that you can have on the country – more VAT paid across to the government means more money for upliftment, job creation and health and welfare.

An accolade and unsolicited testimonial from Sandton Precinct to Maximizer and Perry Norgarb was given at the Precinct’s AGM on Wednesday 2 May. They are finding the package invaluable in keeping members, supporters and donors up-to-date. Perry’s generous donation of the software is really making the Precinct

Tips from the Help Line: Problems we solved recently

"Memory Full" printing a document from WordPro...

...or in fact any word-processing package – this usually means that your document is corrupt. To recover from this problem, copy the whole document into a new document and save it with a new name. It should then print without a problem.

Follow up this move with a thorough scan disk, as it is likely to have been caused by a fault on the disk itself.

Numbering Problems in WordPro

Yes, this product has been really giving us headaches – legal numbering in WordPro can stop working if you cut and paste or copy and paste from other documents. Rather leave the numbering until the document is completed and then put it in. What seems to cause the problem is bulleting of intervening text, changing the bullets to level numbering overcomes it – but what a hassle!

Redfern Labels won’t load

We often have people phoning with this problem. The labels are pre-formatted templates which work with Word 97 and 2000. In order to install them, macros must be enabled. Word 97 asks if you wish to enable macros, whilst in 2000 you go to Tools > Macros > Security > Medium before running install.doc. The labels will then install fine into your user template directory. Access them through File > New on the menu and choose the label that you want.

Course News

Excel Programming

De Beers Diamond Research recently requested an Excel Programming course from us and some 14 people participated in two courses run over a four-day period. The reviews from the trainees were good – can we do the same for your company?

Excel for Engineers and Scientists

This is a two-day course, which explores the value of Excel for simplifying the work of engineers and scientists. It has been run successfully for Umgeni Water, the University of Pretoria and other companies. The facilitator is a civil engineer who is a qualified Microsoft Solutions Developer, with many years of experience working with spreadsheets and formulas. Would this be of service in your company?

Looking forward to hearing from you and assisting you in developing your IT solutions for greater productivity.

That’s all for now!

Yours sincerely

Judith Taylor

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