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April Newsletter...

HOW DO YOU "USE" SOUTHWARE?

WHICH SOUTHWARE LOOK & FEEL FITS YOU?

Over the years, SouthWare's development team has done an excellent job of improving their product without limiting / discontinuing previous versions or forcing change upon an individual user.  As computer power has increased, and the use of Windows and Web features have expanded, they have carefully integrated these technologies into their software to provide maximum user flexibility and choice.  Every year they look at the current popular robust technologies available and incorporate them into their standard product.  With every change, SouthWare has carefully retained their strong core system functions.

The goal of this newsletter is to encourage you to look at some of the features that have been added to SouthWare over the years.  We suggest you consider changing the way you currently access data, and become aware of the new tools available to make you more efficient and productive.

Functional core changes to SouthWare are usually supported by both the text and graphical modes.  The new technologies and enhanced user screens (i.e. financial viewer, FYI reporting tool, exporting to Excel), however, are only supported in the graphical mode.

If you are not utilizing these new features, you are not using SouthWare to its full potential.  Not all departments will use every feature, but new technologies have greatly enhanced the financial, service and sales user screens.

Currently, in Rev. 14, users can access system data three different ways: traditional menus, the Windows tree style structure and via personalized Portal screens.  If you utilize NetLink's e-commerce solution, you can also access system data via internet web pages.

Many of our clients, who have been with SouthWare over 20+ years, feel most comfortable using the traditional menus, whether  in classic or graphical mode.  More and more owners and managers are getting excited about the flexibility and simplicity of the graphical personalized Portal screens which were introduced in Rev. 11.  These screens are primarily based on job functions and allow a user quick and easy access to their daily tasks.  They also provide an overview "snapshot" of financials, sales orders, inventory, service requests, and customer data depending on the user's security levels and access.

For the person who is adding information to the system, the traditional menus and screens still provide a simple data entry method.  For the manager looking to see the big picture and drill down to the details, nothing is better than the personalized Portal screens.

HOW DO YOU ACCESS YOUR DATA?

Remember, individuals users in your system can choose which access screens they prefer and automatically login to that start page.  Easier access to job related information will make users more productive and efficient.

As a manager, it is important to be able to extract relevant and timely information from your system.  Have you tried some of the new standard features readily available to you?

  • Personalized Portal screens provide an overview of all aspects of the business in easy screen shots.  This saves you time.

  • The new FYI report tool lets you create new reports, extract data to Excel, edit or update data on the fly.

  • The financial viewer gives you up to date details which can help you spot trends in your business.

SouthWare's development team is continually enhancing their software to give you and your staff better tools, insight and capabilities to make your business run smoother.  If you are not familiar with these tools or would like some assistance with them, please don't hesitate to call us.

REV. 15 -- INTRODUCING "ACTIVE PORTALS"

As we have told you in previous newsletters, SouthWare's development team has incorporated several new technologies into Rev. 15 and has greatly enhanced the look and feel and data interaction of the user screens.

Rev. 15 will introduce a fourth user access in the form of the new Active Portals.  In February's newsletter, we placed several static screen displays on our website for those people interested in a brief preview of this new spectacular look.  SouthWare has now released a preliminary introduction to Rev. 15 on their web site and the following link can be used to take you to this screen.

http://www.southware.com/REV15

This screen shows an overview of new features as well as showcasing an improved NetLink shopping cart.  For those of you who are using or considering NetLink, please take a moment and look at the new tools available to enhance the shopping cart experience for your business to business internet presence.

Over the next few months, we will take some time to work with each of you and focus on some of the specific improvements in Rev. 15 that we feel will have a direct impact and benefit on your business.

The timing of this new user interface is perfect as we all need to be more proactive at reviewing our business and reacting quickly by using timely and accurate information.