| Once again, Minotaur took part in Heart
and Strokes Big Bike for Stroke. We had a nice sunny warm
day compared to the miserable day we had when we rode
last year. This year Minotaur was fortunate to team up
with Appleby's in Brampton to ride the challenging bike
together. |
We raised over $1000 for Heart and Stroke, got some exercise
and were able to take part in a great event that raises
money for a great cause. Minotaur would like to thank
all of our sponsors for supporting us in this event. |
This spring one of our customers was hit by a virus. This
virus trashed the hard drive containing the Minotaur data
bases. They attempted to restore their system from the
backup only to find that the backup procedure had never
worked. The next step was to hire a professional disk
recovery service. Unfortunately the disk was too badly
damaged and no useable information was recovered. In the
end Minotaur set up empty tables and the customer had
to initialize their system from scratch. |
We mention this incident to remind our customers of the
importance of a back up. In the past the main cause of
data loss was hardware failure or the occasional robbery.
Today damage caused by viruses appears to becoming the
major cause of data loss. |
We strongly recommend that you back up your system each
night. Even an idle Minotaur session has open data base
files. Since most back up procedures ignore open files
it is imperative that all users close their Minotaur sessions
at the end of the day. We recommend that an employee be
delegated to monitor the backup software log each morning
to establish if the backup was successful. The cause of
any failures should be investigated. The Minotaur database
tables are found in files with extension BTR. The failure
of the system to back up any file with extension BTR is
reason for concern. The absence of one table can to some
degree doom a successful data recovery. |
At least twice a year you should verify that you can recover
data from the back up. You should also do this after making
any changes to the back up procedure. A word of caution
is in order on recovery testing. Never recover the data
into your active directory. |
If you are experiencing difficulty with your backup system
we suggest you manually make a back up on the hard drive
of one or more work stations. |
Never use your last backup tape to make the next backup.
If the backup fails, you not only have no backup, you
have also destroyed the previous backup. If possible store
the back up media off site. In the event of a fire or
robbery the backups are frequently lost as well. It is
a good idea to systematically pull a tape from rotation
so that in addition to your daily backup tapes you always
have one from the previous week and the previous month. |
Since January of 1999, Concord Metal, located in Concord
Ontario has been using the Minotaur Business System. They
are manufacturers of clothing and other display racks
for retailers. As well they provide Sheet Metal that can
be used for many purposes. Concord Metal has been in business
since 1985. Their customer base includes major retailers
such as Wal-Mart, Canadian Tire, Winners, Home Sense,
Home Depot and Home Hardware. |
Concord Metal has been using the Minotaur Business system
for both the payroll and accounting side of their business.
They are presently in the process of implementing Minotaur's
Purchasing, Inventory Control and Manufacturing modules.
With these modules in place, Concord will have a fully
integrated software solution that will bring together
the accounting and manufacturing side of their business. |
Concord recently acquired the Minotaur's Graphical User
Interface (GUI) version of the Minotaur Business System.
The GUI and older console version of the software are
being used simultaneously against the same accounting
database. This way, new users and management users can
use the GUI version at the same time as users familiar
with the console system or those who have to do a lot
of data entry can continue to use the console version. |
Concord Metal have recently acquired a number of companies
that are similar to theirs which has somewhat expanded
their business. As they have chosen to run these newly
acquired businesses as separate entities, they have purchased
additional company licenses from Minotaur to run each
company independently. With Minotaur's Additional Company
License Minotaur can set up a separate data directory
for as many additional companies as required. Each company
will use the single set of Minotaur programs originally
purchased, but each company's data will be kept completely
separate, in its own directory. |
Minotaur enjoys working with Concord Metal and we look
forward to many more years of the challenges Concord Metal
brings our way. |
| Minotaur will be holding our second annual
user conference this winter. We will be personally notifying
all of our customers of the date of the conference. This
years conference will cover a variety of topics including:
Remote Access, E-mailing and Faxing from your system,
Latest Configurations, Enhancements to the look of the
GUI, Reporting and many more informative topics. |
The conference will be held at our new location, you will
be notified as soon as we know the date the conference
will take place. We look forward to seeing you ther |
At present, the Lot Analysis Report (keystrokes VVROA)
provides detailed lot number information. While the report
provides detailed information, Minotaur has found that
some customers would like to have easier access to the
information available. |
The following upgrade to the Minotaur system is available
to all Minotaur customers who are using Lot Control which
will grant you simpler access to lot information. |
We have modified our part selection lists to accommodate
a drill down to lot information. This functionality will
be provided both for the standard part selection list
(the one that appears if you do a simple part search after
entering a partial part code), and for the part selector
part selection list (the one that appears after you have
selected a range of parts using the F4 key part selector
function). In either case, once you have selected a part,
the system will prompt you as to whether you wish to use
the part or review it. If you elect to use the part, it
will simply be used in whatever data entry field you are
currently entering. If you elect to review the part, you
will be provided with a lot number list for the part.
The lot number list will contain the following information
for each lot number in the system, which currently contains
stock for
the part you have selected: |
- Location (warehouse) lot resides in
- Lot number
- Quantity in stock
- Receipt date
- Lot supplier
- Lot manufacturer
|
| Note that the above layout means that if
you have a lot with parts located in multiple warehouses,
the system will list multiple lines for that lot, one
for each warehouse that it is currently in. The quantity
on each line will be the quantity in the associated warehouse.
If you would rather see one line for each lot without
identifying the warehouse(s) it is in, Minotaur can configure
this feature to not display warehouse information. |
Once you have reviewed the lot number information, you
will be able to exit back to the part selection list.
You will be positioned at the part for which you have
just reviewed lot information. |
Recently some Minotaur customers have brought to our attention
that it would be easier and more efficient if the system
had the ability to allow the user to enter the date by
only using the number keypads and not using the letter
keys. Minotaur looked into this issue and has now configured
the system to allow users to enter dates with only the
number keypad. The keypad date entry feature allows you
enter January as 01, February as 02, etc. This feature
will save you from manually keying in the word 'JAN, 'FEB'
etc. |
To find out more information on this feature and the Lot
Look-up feature, call Michelle at 905-458-7575. |
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