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| Thursday October 15 and Friday October 16, 2009 |
Minotaur’s annual User Conference is fast approaching and you won’t want to miss out, so
be sure to register early to reserve your spot. A full schedule of the sessions offered at this
year’s conference is located on page two. As one of the benefits of your annual support
contract, attendance is free.
This two day event will give you the opportunity to check out new developments
in Minotaur technology as well as give you a glimpse into what directions we
are taking in the future. We will also be offering several hands-on training
sessions on advanced features like our report writers. Laptops and study
materials will be provided for all hands-on training sessions.
During our upcoming user conference we will be offering industry specific
sessions for the industries we serve. Each industry is dynamic with increasing
demands by both your customers and the government.
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Join us for an open discussion of industry needs and how Minotaur is adapting to meet those needs. Bring your ideas and questions as you can have an impact on our industry specific development and you can learn from others in the room how they have practically managed using Minotaur in their plant, warehouse and office. We will be offering separate sessions for the Food, Meat and Beverage as well as the Chemical industry. If your company does not fall into either of these two industries, we are pleased to offer a general open discussion session for all other industries. These sessions will provide you with the opportunity to connect with other Minotaur users in the same industry and discuss how to best utilize your Minotaur system. Minotaur Account Managers will be available during each session to answer any questions you may have about how to get the most out of your system.
Vince Capello of Minotaur will be showcasing what’s new with Windows 7. There will also be lunch time demonstrations
of Hand Helds for warehouse management by Real World Communications Inc.
To register visit our website at www.minotaursoftware.com and follow the User Conference links. Space is limited so
be sure to register early. We look forward to seeing you at this year’s conference! |
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Funds Gone for This Year
July 16th marked the closure of the Ontario Growing Forward grant program until April 30,
2010. Due to the large number of applications received by that date, they decided to close
the program for this fiscal year and only applications received by that date would be processed
this year. The Growing Forward is a four year program and funds will become available
for more projects next year but we know now that there will be many applicants vying
for those funds so be sure to get your applications into grant programs quickly. Expenses
from April 1, 2009 may be eligible for submission to projects approved next year so if you
didn’t make the deadline this time, be sure to save any applicable invoices and be ready to
submit as soon as the application window opens up again. |
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE |
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If you are interested in attending any of the training sessions offered, register today. Simply visit our website at www.minotaursoftware.com
and follow the User Conference Links. Don’t delay as space is limited!
Session: Flexible Financials Training-Level 1 & 2
When: Thursday October 15 Time: 9:00-12:30
This session will cover hands-on basic instruction on creating flexible financial statements. Users will first work through setting up the row
design without considering parent accounts. Once users are familiar with the basic report setup, the course will go on to look at parent accounting
and how it can be leveraged by flexible financials to simplify report modifications.
Session: Did You Know?
When: Thursday October 15 Time: 9:00-11:00
This session explores features that may be in your current system that you may not be aware of as well as tools to increase productivity.
We will also look at some new and existing configurations that can enhance the way you work with your Minotaur system.
Session: Women of Minotaur Networking Lunch
When: Thursday October 15 Time: 12:30-1:30
Join fellow women Minotaur users for lunch with a structured networking game designed to help you connect and learn from others in the
room. Women like to share and learn and we hope that you will open up with your questions and solutions for managing your roles within
your company, work/life balance and career development.
Session: Flexible Reports-Level 1 & 2
When: Thursday October 15 Time: 1:30-5:00
This hands-on session will review extracting Minotaur data from a single Minotaur table to create a simple list report. It will then go on to
cover the use of Minotaur key fields to link extra files to create multi-level flexible reports.
Session: Minotaur Open Table Discussion (Food & Beverage Industry)
When: Thursday October 15 Time: 1:30
This includes open discussion of Food and Beverage industry needs and how Minotaur is adapting to meet those needs. Bring your ideas
and questions as you can have an impact on our industry specific development and you can learn from others in the room how they are using
Minotaur in their plant, warehouse and office.
Session: Flexible Sales Reports-Level 1 & 2
When: Friday October 16 Time: 9:00-12:30
This hands-on session will cover an overview of the basics of report design. It will go on to look at user defined calculated columns and how
they can increase the power of your sales reports.
Session: Automatic Production
When: Friday October 16 Time: 9:00-10:30
An overview of several different types of automatic production we have made available as custom functions. Of course, touch screen production
as demonstrated at previous user conferences. Production recognition from files transferred by third party weighing machines such
as Bizerba. Assembly and Disassembly production recognition from Minotaur handheld scanner functions. Production recognition at shipment
processing time. Focus will be on non touch screen options.
Session: Minotaur Open Table Discussion (General)
When: Friday October 16 Time: 10:30-11:30
We continue to develop the Minotaur Business System and welcome your feedback in planning our future development projects. This session
will give you an opportunity to voice your ideas for development of the Minotaur Business System and through an open discussion of
attendees, allow you to learn from other Minotaur users how they successfully integrated their plant, warehouse and office.
Session: Data Loading
When: Friday October 16 Time: 1:30-3:00
This session offers hands-on training. It will cover a general overview of the process involved in setting up Excel and text files and how to
load them into Minotaur.
Session: Minotaur Open Table Discussion (Chemical Industry)
When: Friday October 16 Time: 1:30
This includes open discussion of chemical industry needs and how Minotaur is adapting to meet those needs. Bring your ideas and questions
as you can have an impact on our industry specific development and you can learn from others in the room how they have practically
managed using Minotaur in their plant, warehouse and office.
Session: Advanced PRP Training
When: Friday October 16 Time: 3:00-5:00
This session covers functionality not supported by the Flexible Report generator. Typically the report writer will be used to create the basic
structure and then a file editor will be used to finish the report. Topics will include advanced formatting and linked lists. Linked lists enable
the user to generate matrix reports. The session will consist of a 1 hour power point session on the functions followed by a 1 hour work shop
where users will apply the information to create their own reports. We suggest users come prepared with a wish list of at least 2 reports they
would like to create. |
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As most of you are aware, the Minotaur system has evolved over time to be very customizable with respect to default system
functionality. As users have proposed alternate ways of processing options, we have generally implemented the alternate
mechanism through the use of system parameters.
So, for example, most of our original system users did not want to be bothered with a report when processing a non-inventory
customer credit (keystrokes CIN). At some point, some of our customers requested that some type of paper trail be provided.
So we established a system parameter PRINONIV which could control whether or not the system would generate a paper
trail for that transaction. If system parameter PRINONIV has not been activated in your system, no paper trail will be offered.
If system parameter PRINONIV has been set up and has been assigned a value of Y, the system will provide the user an
opportunity to generate a paper trail.
While this system parameter approach allows us to tailor many functions within each customer’s system to their needs without a
requirement for reprogramming, some customers have noted that while flexible, this approach is not as flexible as they would
like it.
One area where this might come into play is at the order desk. If your system has the Customer Due Date field available on
order entry screens, you will know that the system will default the Customer Due Date to be a certain number of days after the
Order Date. Of course, the Order Date defaults to and should generally be left as the current system date so you can accurately
identify the date on which the transaction was entered to the system. While in some cases the Customer Due Date
should be the same as the Order Date, in other cases, you might want the Customer Due Date to default to be a few days after
the Order Date. System parameter IOONCUDU controls the number of days between the Order Date and the default Customer
Due Date. Of course, the user can always override the default value if that proves necessary.
In some organizations, order desks may be set up so that some users process orders which are expected to be delivered immediately
and others process orders that are expected to be delivered the next day. In such organizations, there can be a struggle
because if you set up IOONCUDU to be 0, the users processing today’s orders are happy as they do not need to reset the default
Customer Due Date, however the users processing tomorrow’s orders are unhappy as they have to reset the default Customer
Due Date every time. Conversely if you set IOONCUDU to 1, the situation is reversed.
We have recently developed a new function which allows each user to set up their own value of IOONCUDU. So a user can
specify that they want IOONCUDU for them to be 1 while the rest of the company retains an IOONCUDU value of 0. This can
be done on a permanent basis so that, until the user makes further adjustments, their IOONCUDU value is 1. Alternatively, the
IOONCUDU value can be set on a temporary basis so that it is valid only until the user signs off their Minotaur session, after
which it will revert back to the standard company value. This is useful for users that normally process today’s orders so want a
setting of 0 most of the time but later in the day they will start taking orders for the next day. So, each afternoon, they can temporarily
set their IOONCUDU value to 1 but as soon as they sign off it reverts back to 0 to be ready for the following morning.
This user specific system parameter is available for most parameters. If you are interested in this functionality for a specific parameter,
we suggest you discuss your requirements with your account manager to verify that the specific parameter is available.
First, there is an administrator function which allows an administrator to assign rights to specific system parameter control to
each user. The user will either have rights to modify a specific system parameter or they will not.
There will be an option for users to access where they can adjust the value of the system parameters to which they have been
granted access. As outlined previously, they can select to change the parameters permanently or temporarily.
There will be an administrator function to allow an administrator to adjust the values of parameters for a user as necessary.
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Minotaur Social Networking |
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| Minotaur has a customer forum which many of you are
familiar with for retrieving updated copies of the manual
and for getting your Minotaur updates. We have recently
set up company groups on both facebook and Linked In
that we invite you to join as another way of connecting
with fellow Minotaur users. |
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If you are interested in this functionality please contact
Wendy Pineo to discuss integrating it with your system. If
you like the idea but want it for a specific system parameter,
please advise us which specific parameters you might
be interested in and we will confirm if it is available. If there
is some function you would like to make adjustable by user
but are not sure whether a system parameter already exists
for that function, please advise us as to what you would like
to do and we can review how best to address your requirement. |
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| Take our Back to School quiz for your chance to win a $50 gift card for Staples-Business Depot.
Fax or email your answers back to Minotaur by October 9, 2009. |
| 1. Rachel is shorter than Erika. Tim is shorter than Rachel but taller than Joe. Who is the tallest? |
| A. Erika B. Joe C. Tim D. Rachel |
| 2. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words. |
| True or False |
| 3. What comes next? 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 X |
| A. 26 B. 34 C. 32 D. 24 |
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Fax your entries to 905-458-5585 or email to michelle@minotaursoftware.com
Name: _____________________ Company: ___________________ |
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| On July 25th, Terry Eagles, Vice President of Minotaur along with his wife Pat hosted Minotaur’s annual summer party at
their cottage in Haliburton. This fun filled day was enjoyed by employees of Minotaur along with their spouses. |
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Congratulations To July’s
Contest Winner |
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Congratulations to Mary Hayes of
Pestell Group for winning July’s Sizzling
Summer contest. Pestell Group
of Companies has been using Minotaur
for 7 years to run their Minerals &
Ingredients and Pet Products divisions.
Mary has worked at Pestell for
over 18 years in the Accounting Department
and enjoys playing baseball
in her spare time.
Congratulations
Mary. We hope you enjoy your gift. |
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| Back to School |
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| Judith joined other Executives in August as she embarked
on part-time studies at Queen’s University in the MBA
program. |
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| She will spend the last two weeks of August in residence in
Kingston, returning home to attend classes alternate Fridays and Saturdays
in Mississauga. Wendy Pineo, our Sales Engineer, will be stepping
up to help cover Sales calls while Judith is in class. |
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| Judith is hoping to apply the broader business knowledge she gains
through this program to help ensure Minotaur develops to better serve
our customers. |
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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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