Microsoft Great Plains Customization Recovery & Upgrade for Large Corporation
May 10, 2008
Four Desktop Tools To Drastically Increase Your Productivity
May 9, 2008
Sticky Notes
http://www.deprice.com/stickynote.htm
With StickyNote 9.0, you can create beautiful 3D notes on your desktop or send them instantly over the Internet.
StickyNote also enables you to adhere notes to documents or windows AND to attach documents to your note.
StickyNote eliminates the clutter and confusion of keeping up with the reminders and phone numbers that never seem to be where you left them. Forget jotting down messages and let StickyNote deliver them for you. You can even customize a note’s texture, color and priority with a few simple clicks, and you can set an alarm to have notes appear at a certain time or at regular intervals.
Cute Reminder
http://www.deprice.com/cutereminder.htm
With the help of Cute Reminder software you can easily create desktop sticky notes and make reminders for an appointment, birthday, phone call, bill payment, meeting, oil change, TV show and other events or tasks. Take a pill reminder, break reminder, gift reminder, etc., and you will never miss anything important. The program automatically tracks the history of related events and stores the information into archive. Individually colored skins, support for audio files in various formats, schedule, linking files and Web pages to reminders and printing. The user-friendly interface provides comfort at your workplace whether at the office or at home.
Review of TikiWiki Content Management System
May 9, 2008
TikiWiki is open source software - it is written in PHP, uses phpAdmin for mySQL database administration, and uses the Smarty Template Engine.
Installation - Since our host installed the TikiWiki, I cannot comment on ease of installation.
While TikiWiki has many features, only the features used on the Spotlight on Lake website will be reviewed.
Administration - It is hard to determine what some features are and do, such as the Ephemerides feature. Documentation is sadly lacking! The most complete documentation is for Version 1.6, and Version 1.9 is the current release - so many of the newer features do not have any documentation. While there are Forums and a documentation website, the “Search” feature does not work for either site! Many Forum questions are not answered in a timely manner or incorrect information is supplied. Asking a question with IRC chat may also be an exercise in futility or frustration. On the plus side, it is a simple process to turn features on and off by unchecking or checking a box.
User Rights - It is easy to set user rights to groups or individuals.
The Dirt on Screensavers
May 8, 2008
Remember back in the days where screensavers were the coolest thing at the office? You could stare at your co-worker’s "fish in the ocean" screensaver at the cubicle next door for hours and actually have a full afternoon of conversation about that one screensaver.
Well, screensavers are still "in", but not as "in" as they used to be. In fact, back in the old days, screensavers were essentially used to keep monitors from getting their images "burned in". Back in those days, the phosphors could be burned out of a monitor by leaving items displayed on the screen. Nowadays, we don’t have that problem. Our high resolution screens don’t get "burned in" anymore.
In fact, when you use screensavers, you hog important resources on your PC. Not only does it take up unnecessary space, but you will need at least 64 MB of RAM and a card that displays 256 colors just to run a screensaver. It’s especially important to make sure that if you should choose to download a screensaver, to make sure it’s from a trusted source. You wouldn’t want to download viruses along with your cute screensaver.
Getting Patched with Windows Service Pack
May 7, 2008
Are you one of those people that keeps track of recalls, just in case one of your most recent purchases gets recalled? Well, some of us do, but many of us don’t.
For those of us who don’t keep up with recalls in general, it’s just as easy to be unaware of the fact that Microsoft Windows offers us this wonderful service called a Service Pack, which is essentially a recall service for Microsoft Windows. Most people are not aware of service packs, what they’re for, and how to use them. Let’s talk for a minute about how service packs can help save or even lengthen the life of your PC.
First, you’ll need to set up your PC to receive those service packs on a regular basis. This keeps your computer safe from hackers. Oftentimes, Microsoft discovers faulty code or loopholes in the operating system which also, unfortunately, gets detected by hackers. If your computer is not serviced and updated, you open the door for hackers to step in and take over.
7 Things to Consider Before Buying Small Business Accounting Software
May 6, 2008
The world of small business accounting software can be a minefield for any business owner. However choosing the right package is one of the most critical business decisions you will make.
Here are the seven things you must consider before making a purchase that will help you achieve your businesses goals.
1. Scalability
Businesses change over time so it’s critical that the small business accounting software you choose can change too. Some things that often change are the number of products and services offered and the number of employees. When you choose your package try and imaging the business in 5 years or 10 years time and how different it will be. Use this information to guide your purchase decision. It may well be better to pay a little more now for the software knowing that it can be easily upgraded when needed with minimum disruption and cost to your business.
2. Support
It is important that any software has great support for when something goes wrong (and it always does). Most major companies offer support but you also need to think about support in your local area. It’s often much easier to have someone locally come in and do things you need done with your software than have someone trying to help you over the phone. Make some enquiries with other businesses about the package they use and who helps them.
Selecting Corporate ERP: Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains ? Estimation Parameters
May 5, 2008
As we could imagine, if you are reading this article ? you are in the decision making mode, probably replacing legacy system with the new one or abandoning either Unix/Mainframe or Apple direction for your corporation. In any case, nobody should make an outside influence on your decision ? you should be maximally objective. Let us give you our estimates and the parameters to check on the pool of the possible ERPs/MRPs.
? Lifecycle. Each application has its lifecycle: from inception and initial fighting for the "place under the sun", to maturing and then slowly or rapidly declining. Great Plains Software Dynamics, which is prototype of our days Microsoft Great Plains was released in 1994-95 as the first Graphical Accounting/MRP application, working on the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. Plus Great Plains Dexterity ? Dynamics platform was designed as both computer graphical platform as well as database platform independent (to some extent of course, especially when we talk about tuning it to the database platform for performance reason). So, technically Microsoft Great Plains has 10 years of history and is currently in the maturity phase.
Blind CC (Bcc): Master Its Use When E-Mailing
May 4, 2008
If you use Microsoft Outlook (or similar applications) for e-mailing, then you are familiar with the fields at the top of a new mail message, right? Of course, in the “To…” field, you enter the name of one or more persons you intend to receive your message. Use the field labeled “Cc…” (for Carbon Copy - remember how they did it back in 1978 BC, “before computers”?) for anyone who needs to view your e-mail but is not the addressee.
But there’s an additional field that you should know about, labeled “Bcc…,” which stands for “Blind carbon copy,” or the updated version, “Blind courtesy copy.” This field is for the names of anyone that needs a copy of your e-mail without the other people (in the “To…” and “Cc…” fields) knowing about it. That’s why it’s called “Blind.”
Corporate ERP: Microsoft Great Plains For The Plant In Brazil ? Overview For CIO
May 4, 2008
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains as new ERP for multinational corporation manufacturing facility in Brazil.
If your company plans to outsource manufacturing in Brazil by purchasing existing facility there, the first step would be to implant new management team and revise business processes and procedures. The way there comes through the new ERP/accounting system implementation from scratch. We’ll show you the way to implement new system on the base of Microsoft Great Plains. You may have two reasons to place Great Plains, first ? you company has Great Plains implemented in the headquarters and this is worldwide policy, second ? if you have high end ERP at the headquarters, such as SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft ? it might be too complex/expensive for Brazilian facility. Looking at the Brazilian ERP software market you will find out that the leader there is local ERP application ? Microsiga and it is relatively easy to implement it there, however you will have language barriers, plus differences in reporting and tax rules, when you consolidate the statements to the corporate report. Let’s review Microsoft Great Plains option:
Microsoft Great Plains: Annual Enhancement Program ? How To Be Re-Enrolled
May 3, 2008
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is mid and even corporate market ERP and as being relatively complex and difficult to do self-support in-house, Microsoft Business Solutions requires you first to have so-called VAR of record, or your MBS partner and second ? pay annual enhancement program, which is typically 16% of you software price list. Enhancement program allows you to get new version of the product as well as purchase and add new modules you might need. Plus you get discounts on the technical support cases placed to Microsoft Business Solutions technical support directly.
In the recession time of recession 2000-2004 ? a lot of clients decided not to pay the enhancement program and save some money, needed for staying in business. Among them were mostly small and mid-size businesses, however we see corporate clients as well with 40 users Great Plains eEnterprise and more. In 2004-2005 the economic situation improved substantially and businesses are back to IT investments. In this small article we’ll show you your options to re-enroll into enhancement program and upgrade your system:
