Dateline Woodstock
Several months ago, we wrote to you about Jacob Hammond and his brother Jeb who have been discussing ways to reduce the cost of air travel. It may interest you to know that the Hammond boys have decided to join forces and start their own airline. Their inspiration came from a television show on The Discovery Channel describing the vast supply of military aircraft languishing in the desert just outside Phoenix, Arizona. According to the plan, JJ Air (as they plan to call their new venture) will employ a fleet of planes utilizing state-of-the-art US Defense Department technology, thus rendering them -- and this is a critical element to the plan -- invisible to radar. Jake and Jeb figure a stealth airline can perform in ways not even industry-leader Southwest can match. Speaking from a upturned apple crate at Woodstock's Squat and Gobble (our local eatery) Jeb explained that the big problem with commercial aviation today is that conventional planes! can be detected by Air Traffic Control, which if you have watched CBS Sixty Minutes you know is run by severely overstressed people sitting in gloomy rooms drinking coffee from Styrofoam cups and staring at little radar dots. Naturally, air traffic controllers get grumpy, which is why they routinely order the daily Burlington VT to Boston MA flight to circle Mexico City just out of spite. They won't be able to do that stuff with JJ Air. They won't even be aware that a JJ Air flight is in the vicinity until one comes screaming past the control tower at Mach 2, requesting an emergency landing. Jake and Jeb plan to remove the restrooms from each plane to make room for an expanded wet-bar, so they figure that over 93% of all JJ Air flights will require an emergency landing. According to their initial press release, the details of the new air service will be revealed on CNN's Larry King Live show, or in case of a scheduling conflict with the next Michael Jackson Special, Woodstock Community Cablevision. If you can't catch WCC on your cable TV system, let us know and we'll report the results to you in a future issue.

Printing MISys User Manuals
In our recent user surveys, we've spotted a common theme indicating that more than a few users of our software are not aware that they can print the documentation for their own internal use. Now, mind you, that a printed manual can't be searched electronically the way the hypertext-based User Guide can, but we suppose it is possible that some MISys users want to curl up in bed with a few thousand pages explaining how to create and use a master production schedule among other things.

Start by opening the User Guide (click on Help Contents while you are running the program) then click the Print button. Following the instructions, you'll discover you can print and individual topic, or an entire chapter.

If you want to try it out, experiment by printing the Theory of Operation. In case you haven't already read this chapter, we think you'll find it a valuable overview of what the system does and how you use it.

MISys SBM 30-day Trial (Not!)

Rumor has it that a 30-day trial copy of MISys SBM can be downloaded from the MISys web site. Actually, that's a half-truth.

Fact is, a fully functional copy of MISys SBM can indeed be downloaded from the MISys web site. Contrary to popular belief, the Trial Copy is not limited to 30 days.

Maybe it's because so many other software companies of trial copies that implode after 30 days, people think that the MISys SBM trial must be the same.

Anyone who wants to have a look at MISys SBM (especially someone who wants to compare it to MISys SAE) is welcome to download the software and install it on their PC free of charge. The Trial Copy is limited to a single user and can only accommodate 100 inventory items but otherwise, it's the real deal. And it won't expire after 30 days!

If you've been reading this column all these many months and getting just a tiny bit curious about MISys SBM, why not download a copy today? Just click here to get the ball rolling.

Physical Inventory Faux Pas
A common mistake made by MISys SBM users when creating a Physical Inventory Batch is to enter the inventory count in both the Counted and Recorded fields.
Counted was intended to represent the quantity you counted (1, 2, 3, 4, 5...) during the physical inventory stock take. Recorded represents the quantity the system "thinks" you have in stock. MISys SBM uses a "net change" physical inventory system so that when the inventory is posted, the quantity in stock is adjusted by the difference between Counted and Recorded. This explains why posting a physical inventory batch with the same value in each field has absolutely no effect.

In MISys SBM version 4.0, the Recorded field can be hidden so you won't be tempted to enter a value there, but until the new version is released -- please take note.

Dateline Woodstock
Here in Woodstock this summer, the conversation at our favorite lunch counter, the Woodstock Squat and Gobble, has focussed on two subjects: 1) trying to figure out exactly how a governor of a state could "fight even harder for its people" by resigning the office, and 2) trying to come up with the best solution to health insurance reform. Having given up on Question #1, the boys over at the S&G are testing a plan they think most people can relate to. According to Buster Foley, owner of the S&G, the whole problem can be laid at the feet of doctors who get paid for the most complex solution they can dish out. Buster says he noticed, a few months back, that one side of his tongue was swollen. He tried all his home remedies -- asprin, nasal spray, beer, more beer -- but his tongue was still swollen. So he went to see the doctor. The receptionist began his treatment by parking him in a waiting room where he was asked to read a therapeutic article in the October 1981 issue of National Geographic. After 63 minutes of Treatment #1, the nurse moved Buster to a little examining room with a paper-covered table, which evidently emitted some kind of invisible healing rays because Treatment #2 had him sit there alone for an additional 43 minutes. To culminate the treatment, the actual doctor took a few moments from his busy schedule of renewing his subscription to National Geographic and renting more space for people to wait in came right into the room with Buster and actually looked at his tongue. After two minutes and 30 seconds together, the doctor told Buster that his problem was two Latin words that he later figured out meant swollen tongue. The doc asked Buster to come back in a week if his tongue wasn't any better. Buster considered suggesting that since he had already been there in treatment for a total of 108 minutes, maybe he should just spend the rest of the week in the examination room, but he was afraid this would anger the doc who might retaliate by sending Buster to the hospital for tests. Buster didn't want to go to the hospital because he says, from his experience, as soon as they get your Blue Cross number, they pounce on you with needles the size of turkey basters. We think Buster may be exaggerating a bit, but it does seem like those are the two most popular doctor options: tell you to come back in a week, or go to the hospital for tests. From an insurance point of view, the boys at the S&G think coming back in a week has its merits. They point out that, by and large, that option has worked fairly well for the last thousand years. And no one complained about health insurance premiums back then.

MISys SBM UX Survey Continues

MISys SBM users can be in the running for a $50 Home Depot gift card by answering 4 brief questions related to the usability of this software. Our development team is studying ways to make the software easier to learn, easier to navigate, and easier to use. Your comments and suggestions are most valuable to them. The next time you log in, just click the link in the InfoCenter pane which will launch the survey in your browser.

MISys SBM Maintenance Updates
We are frequently asked how much we charge for maintenance updates for our MISys Small Business Manufacturing software, how often we release maintenance updates -- and what if customers don't want to purchase maintenance.

In no particular order, we release updates for MISys SBM when we feel we have accumulated a sufficient number of bug fixes, or when those fixes can materially impact our customers every-day use of the software. For this reason, there is no set maintenance schedule.

Every currently licensed MISys SBM user receives notice of the availability of a maintenance update for which there is NO CHARGE. That makes mute the question regarding users who don't want to purchase maintenance.

We know there are users who choose not to install an available update, but we never quite understand why someone would favor using software with known bugs over an improved version in which those bugs have been fixed -- for free! There is nothing that forces a user to install available program updates, except that if you install an update on one client PC, you must install it on all client machines.