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A Few Words from Our Director of Sales
Paul Aspinall |
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These first few months have been a busy and exciting start for me at Minotaur. Between exhibiting at tradeshows, visiting existing customer sites and connecting with new companies, I have been able to gain tremendous insight into the industries that we serve.
Minotaur is well known in the industry for their reliability and support. These are paramount qualities for any company in the software industry. This instills a strong sense of confidence and enables me to perform my sales and marketing duties with greater ease. |
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Lot code traceability is an issue for many food producers. In light of recent food recalls, we can expect increasing pressure on companies to quickly and competently perform accurate recalls by lot number. In fact, depending on your industry, accurate recalls might already be required in order to comply with government regulations. Retailers are likely to start to demand this recall ability from their suppliers long before governments require it by law. They will be under enormous pressure to reassure their consumers on product safety issues.
The Ontario Government recognizes this and many companies will be able to take advantage of the grant money available for increasing a company’s lot tracing capabilities.
As a Minotaur Customer, lot and serial number traceability is easily addressed with the Lot and Serial # Control Module. With this module your company can easily run full lot and serial # trace reports; from supplier to customer invoice (Field to Fork Traceability). Please call or email us for details or a demonstration on this, or any other feature of Minotaur.
In an effort to further support our customers, Minotaur Software will be involved in a number of industry associations and events throughout the year, in addition to our annual user conference to be held in October. As we proceed through 2007, I look forward to meeting many of you.
At any time, please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments. |
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Regards,
Paul Aspinall |
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| Minotaur Welcomes Our Newest Customer |
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Gelato Fresco brought Italian gelato tradition to Canada in 1985. Located in North York, Ontario, this manufacturer of premium ice cream, dairy ices and fruit ices has been quoted in the Toronto Sun as, “one of Toronto’s most luxurious treats”. |
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| These flavorful desserts are available at upscale restaurants, catered functions and a number of retail locations. Stop in at La Pusateri’s, Loblaws, Real Canadian Superstore, A&P, Dominion or Sobeys and bring home some Gelato tonight! |
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| By Vince Cappello |
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It's taken five years, enough lines of code to span the globe several times, countless thousands of hours of developer time, and so many builds, betas, and release candidates that you'd need a cluster-based supercomputer to keep track of them all -- but Windows Vista is finally here.
The recommended system requirements to run Vista successfully are a 1GHz or faster CPU with 1GB of RAM and a 128MB Pixel Shader 2.0 compliant graphics card. Upgrading to 2GB will improve running many applications simultaneously.
Experimenting with a dual-boot system (loaded with Windows XP Pro and Windows Vista Business), here are some observations :
Overall, Vista is 5-25% slower then Windows XP. Having a dual-core processor helps Vista catch up or even pass Windows XP for some multitasked programs.
Vista is optimized for multitasking.
The Aero interface does not seem to slow things down. The Aero Interface is the graphical user interface of the operating system. This interface is intended to be cleaner, more powerful, more efficient and more aesthetically pleasing, giving your computer a whole new look and feel. Two new features are Windows Flip and Windows Flip 3D, allowing you to rotate through your open windows with ease. Systems unable to run the Aerospace Interface (enhanced graphics and window flipping abilities) will simply run in Vista’s basic mode.
Virtually any Java-based application that bundles the Java runtime (i.e. Minotaur’s GUI) will automatically run in Vista’s Basic mode, which is essentially the same as Windows XP without the graphical enhancements provided by the Aero Interface.
Assuming the Vista launch follows the timeline of past Windows launches, drivers will be scarce for the first few months. In fact, drivers may never be offered for older hardware.
Conclusion: Vista isn’t perfect right now. New applications will be written that take advantage of Vista’s new features. As with Windows XP, once service pack one has been released, Vista should be ready for business use. |
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| Minotaur Supports Trade Associations |
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| Judith Kirkness has joined the Expo Committee for the 2009 Food Industry Expo, a tradeshow for Ontario Food manufacturers, by the joint organizations The Ontario Independent Meat Processors (OIMP) and the Alliance of Ontario Food Processors (AOFP). |
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| Good Luck Judith! |
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| If you have any comments regarding the next Expo show, send Judith an email at judith@minotaursoftware.com |
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We were there—Minotaur extends their congratulations to all award winners of the Society of the Chemical Industry 2007 which were presented on Thursday March 1st at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto. For details on this years award winners, visit www.cheminst.ca |
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| Minotaur Offers Containerization Abilities |
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| What is a container? A container is a serialized item that may contain a single item or a variety of items. It can be a box, pallet or trailer. For instance, a pallet can contain multiple items and once setup in the system as a container, the container can be moved around the warehouse and shipped to customers with the ease of a single item. The system keeps track of all items, quantities and lot numbers contained on the pallet. Pallet labels, shipping documents and invoices can be generated with all the required information. One container can be placed in other containers. For instance, a box on a pallet in a trailer. When used with the inventory module, detailed history on each item is maintained even when the user only sees the container level of the transaction. Containers can also be used to assign bin numbers, thereby increasing warehouse efficiencies. If you would like more information on incorporating the use of containers into your system, please call your account manager for details. |
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| Minotaur’s New Look for Tradeshows |
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With the addition of Paul Aspinall, Director of Sales, and a renewed presence at industry trade shows, Minotaur felt it was time to revamp their tradeshow booth graphics. Judith and Paul worked hard with designers to come up with a back drop that captured Minotaur Software’s essence. No longer just for the office, Minotaur continues to integrate production and warehouse technologies into the core business system.
We exhibited at the CACD (Canadian Association of Chemical Distributors) semi-annual meeting in November, the Food Industry Expo in February, as well as the HACCP tradeshow in March.
Our giveaways which were a huge hit with attendees. |
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| TRADE SHOW WINNERS |
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At the recent tradeshows, we gave away 3 virtually indestructible keyboards. They were very popular among the attendees at both shows. These keyboards are flexible and enclosed so they can be wiped down. They’re great for messy or dusty environments.
Visit www.tigerdirect.ca to get one of your own!
Congratulations to:
- D&S Meat Products Ltd.
- Hanson Meats
- Oakrun Farm Bakery Ltd. |
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| Minotaur Happenings |
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As some of you may know Liz will be going on a one year maternity leave in May. Liz and husband, Ted, are very excited to be adding baby number 2 to the family.
Vince, who joined Minotaur earlier this year, will be assisting Project Managers while Liz is away. You can reach Vince at vince@minotaursoftware.com.
We wish Liz, Ted and family all the best! |
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| February’s Contest Winner |
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Congratulations to Tisa Katz of British Fasteners for winning our February newsletter contest. Tisa has won two $25 gift cards from Laura Secord.
British Fasteners, located in North York, Ontario, specializes in the production and distribution of concrete fasteners and other fastening products.
Tisa has been with British Fasteners for over 8 years and is the Office and A/P Manager. She enjoys weight lifting in her spare time.
We hope you enjoy your Gift ! |
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| Out of the Maze is published to inform our current and potential customers of the latest events and happenings at Minotaur. |
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| The information in this newsletter is provided to customers to use at their own risk. It is not intended as a substitute for professional advice. |
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