Well here we are, the night before the night before Christmas. It's quiet here at MISys, not a lot of phone calls and it seems like many of our customers and potential customers have hit the road early. We at MISys wish each and every one of you a joyous time of the year---Christmas, if you're Christian, Hanukkah if you're Jewish, Solstice if you're Druidian---I don't really care, we all know that this time of year is special, especially in our northern climes. The long dark cold nights, icicles viewed in the moonlight, wood smoke up the chimney, wreathes on the door, and, for my family, a beautiful tree in the living room.

And next week we'll all celebrate the kick-off to a new and prosperous year. We like the feeling we get that we contribute to our users' prosperity. People feel empowered knowing what they have, where it is, what it cost, when it's due, with all that kind of information drawn together in a way that makes making the right business decisions, fraught with peril as they are, easier and more sound.

So, for you out there making things, Happy New Year, a prosperous New Year, and if you don't have MISys in your plant, well, call me January 2. That's 802-457-4600 x228!

Speaking of trial copies (were we?) the very first copies of the MISys SBM (Small Business Manufacturing) Product have gone out to a small select group of MISys business partners. Their mission: try to break it.

We're very excited about this major next step, and yesterday reminded us of expectant fathers pacing up and down the hospital hall. We'd have lit cigars when the beta was finally uploaded to our server, but none of us smoke cigars.

As I write snow is falling steadily here in Vermont, and it's 16 days to Christmas. Tonight we'll get our tree. Our big present to the world is a new product soon to be generally available to thousands and thousands of small manufacturers using Quickbooks, Microsoft Office SBA, Simply and Adagio. Our present back is the satisfaction of a job well done, meeting a signifigant need of small manufacturers. If this is your first read about SBM, please let me know at al@misysinc.com, and I'll get you information and at the very least a video presentation. Soon Trial Copies will be available easily over the Net to anyone interested, and we can hardly wait!

New request came in for our rules-based Custom Configurator:

MISys Custom Configurator - Silver Edition To: santa claus toyland north pole north pole, NP 05762 United States of America Telephone: 802-457-4600 Fax: 802-457-4600 Email: santa@misysinc.com From: Sales Department Manufacturing Information Systems, Inc. #4 Maxham Meadow Way, P.O. Box 795 Woodstock, Vermont 05091 United States of America Telephone: 802.457.4600 Fax: 802.457.4602 Email: sales@misysinc.com Thank you for requesting an End-user Trial copy of MISys Custom Configurator v5.3 for Pervasive.SQL or IBM DB2 Universal Database. Before you do anything else, please print and read the Custom Configurator Demonstration Guide which will give you detailed instructions on how to install and run the software. Click this link to begin the download of MISys Custom Configurator. The Installation Wizard requires you to enter a Serial Number and Installation Code. Please use the codes provided below: Serial Number: Installation Code: Installation of the End-user software and its accompanying sample data starts a 30-day free trial. At any time, you may purchase a permanent license by accessing the MISys Custom Configurator License Manager.

We'd be very happy to have Santa a proud user of MISys, and I'll keep you informed if they decide to go with MISys. They've been using an Access database and Excel, but just can't keep it running well with a few billion customers and a few million products.