An Australian study has found that many laser printers emit high levels of small particles that can be harmful to human health, with the highest-emitting machines rivaling the small-particle pollution of cigarette smoke. Some printers are better than others, and even newer models are included. The study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, found that particle emissions varied enormously depending on make, model, and age of the printer, as well as the type and age of the toner cartridge. Newer cartridges emit more particles, as does printing graphic-heavy files. They give a list of printer models tested listing high, mid and non-emitting printers. If you have health concerns or you work in a small enclosed space with a laser printer, you should be aware of this. Try an internet search for “lungs” + “laser printer” and see various articles on this issue.

Sage Mas90/200 version 4.20 has some nice new features for AP Vendors.

* You can set the remit-to-address to be updated automatically when the matching Vendor address is changed. See the AP Options Additional screen on the AP setup menu to activate this option. You may choose to make the changes automatically, or choose the “prompt” option if you want operators to be prompted before the address is changed.

* Prevent Incorrect Entry of Invoices for Goods Received. If invoices for some vendors will be received in Purchase Order Receipt of Invoice Entry instead of AP Invoice Data Entry, you can now select to be prompted during AP Invoice Data Entry to prevent double entry of invoices for goods received. See the right side of the Vendor Maintenance Additional screen for the checkbox which activates this option.

* View Invoice Transfer information from the originating Vendor. You can view the credit-card vendor information for transferred invoices. Previously only the receiving vendor displayed the originating vendor’s information. Now references from both the originating and receiving vendors simplify reconciliation. In Vendor maintenance or Inquiry, drill down on an invoice and select the payments tab. Click on a payment line and look for the additional icon displayed on the right. That will tell you the credit-card or payment-agent used to make the payment. It’s a helpful feature to have.

Sage Software invited all of its customer and resellers and prospects that use or were considering using Sage MAS 90 ERP or Sage MAS 200 ERP to a free event in Atlanta June 21. I attended and met James Mapes, the guest speaker, who talked about “Quantum Leap Thinking”. James is a popular speaker who specializes in teaching skills to organizations and individuals that stimulate innovation, enhance creativity and increases productivity. James teaches individuals how to allow organizations and those in them, to allow more change.

His main message is that by changing how we “see” what is going on in our lives, we can lower our anxieties and become motivated to choose to do whatever we want! Quite a proclamation. Yet the rewards for living such a life are so great that ignoring the message is done at one’s own peril. I recommend James Mope’s book “Quantum Leap Thinking” to you.

Friendly Systems encourages “Quantum Leap Thinking” by all its employees. Our job is to help our allies to become more creative about the way they use their Sage MAS 90 ERP, Sage MAS 200 ERP, Sage Businessworks and Sage Accpac ERP. We do that by suspending judgment and listening real hard to what you need. We help our allies to envision and then implement their goals.

Let Friendly Systems’ staff help you to make a “Quantum Leap” in the way your business uses your Sage Businessworks, Sage MAS90, Sage MAS 200 or Sage Accpac ERP software.

The answer to the ultimate question of Life the Universe and Everything, is 42! (From “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams).

And now on to more mundane questions to ask yourself about whether you need Friendly Systems to help you to be more profitable and happy.

1. Are you entering the same data into two or more places in your computer system?

This results in lower employee productivity AND introduces errors that could be avoided if entered only once. . .. very costly stuff to leave the way it is. Friendly will be happy to come out and do a Return on Investment (ROI) calculation to help determine whether fixing the issue(s) involved with entering the same data in multiple places is worth changing.

2. Do you have spreadsheets that are key to the company’s functioning still being used by your organization?

Spreadsheets, while easy to set up, don’t usually have many internal controls in them. It is also difficult to have an audit trail in such a system, so that makes it hard to identify where the errors in the spreadsheet came from. Usually, only the person who created the spreadsheet really knows how it works and if they leave, so does the knowledge that is required to keep the spreadsheet working.

3. Are you happy with the level of service that your current business software ally provides or do you have to wait very long to get answers to your questions? And when you get answers, do they make sense?

Friendly Systems customers rave about the great service they get from us. See some letters from our allies.

Many of our customers already had their Sage MAS 90 ERP or Sage MAS 200 ERP software installed and running for several years before they gave up on their current resellers and called us and asked us to replace their software vendor. Better late than never, they finally realized that they were not really buying business software. They should have been shopping for a reseller that could ADD VALUE to their purchase.

We give business software orphans a Friendly hand that they can count on being there when needed. And not there when not needed.

4. Does your current business software vendor say “No, You Can’t Do that on your system!”?

Then call Friendly Systems. We think it’s Friendly to say “Yes, we can do that for you!” As Master Developers for Sage MAS 90 ERP and Sage MAS 200 ERP, we are authorized by Sage Software to add enhancements to their software for you!

5. Do you wish that your warehouse or make to order manufacturing operation had a bar code system that worked with your Financial/ERP software system?

Then let us speak with you. Friendly can get your warehouse automated the way you want it to work. Yest it comes out of the box with integration to Sage MAS 90 ERP and Sage MAS 200 ERP, but we can also tweak it so it can work the way YOU want it to.

6. Do you have a way to be alerted by your computer system as soon as key events occur in your organization, just like in the really big companies?

Friendly Systems knows how to easily create business alerts that can help easy your worries about what is going on at the company. We call it the “Worrying Module”.

Bottom Line - if you are unhappy with your current reseller, call us for a free on site visit. You’ll be glad you did.

The Question is: Why do I have to enter the same information 2 or 3 times in my company’s business software applications? Why can’t they talk to each other?

A major need that our allies and prospects need to have taken care of is for their business software to link all of their data together. Our customers only want to enter a piece of data one time. Then, that data should be available to the appropriate people in whatever system they work with. One example is entering a new phone number for an existing customer in a salesperson’s contact manager and then re-entering it into that customer’s accounts receivable file in the business’ accounting’s financial management package. Another example is freight charges being entered on the shipping document and then re-entered on the customer invoice. There are many other examples.

Friendly Systems offers the Sage CRM product for both the Sage Accpac ERP and Sage MAS 90 and Sage MAS 200 product lines. We also can offer links to ACT! from MAS 90 and MAS 200, as well as to Sage Businessworks.

Let us kn ow what you are entering more than once and let us see if we can help you elimate the need to enter the same information over and over and make you and your organization more productive.

Do you worry that your vendor is trying to sell direct to your costumers? Are you tired of telling your customes that “we can’t get that made the way you want it. ” One way to deal with these issue is to focus some of your resources into enhancing the product you distribute and/or by doing some light manufacturing of your own. Sound familiar?

Ron Verni, the CEO of Sage Software said recently:

” . . . We’re also seeing the traditional models of manufacturing and distribution melding, with distribution companies doing light manufacturing and manufacturing customers engaged in more traditional distribution,” . . . ”

Friendy Systems is great shape to help those companies that are visionaries in their field, to make their journey by offering a fully integrated ERP amd MFG solution along with expertise at delivering business intelligence that makes it all work the way each business needs and wants it to work.

The future of distribution will be to ALSO do some light manufacturing, so that the distributor can differentiate themselves from their competition. These “DistMfgrs” can offer products that their local market needs but is not readily available from the very large manufacturers whose products they already offer. And this strategy works!

Friendly knows that to successful offer more products and services, you need software that can help you to do that AND you need people to help you impliment that software so you can use it to achieve your goals. We have seen dramatic increases in the bottom line, for our allies who implemented integrated solutions that addressed these concerns.

We have done this with others, let us help you, too.

Friendly Systems is in the business of providing business solutions, NOT software. Our job is not to just provide software that improves a company’s bottom line, but to help them learn how to use it to do just that. Otherwise , when you purchase and ERP or Manufacturing system, you just have one more thing to worry about. Just what you did NOT need!

There is a lot of difference between buying an ERP and/or Manufacturing system and then knowing how to use one well. That is the business solution we provide. It is why Friendly Systems was selected to be the business software ally since 1982. We worry with you and then we figure a way for all of us to worry less. Do you need 143 reports to look at or do you need vital information anywhere and anytime? Friendly can provide that for you, if you let us.

It was not just the software, but allowing us to becoming part of their team, that helped our most successful allies obtain the right tools to keep management focused on the parts fo their jobs that were vital to their success amd that of their business.

Think of Friendly Systems as your “worrying module”.

Reduce your worrying and just give us a call.

The dream of enterprise resource planning systems is that a single application can track and monitor all of a business’s functions in a way that makes sense to all who use it . In a perfect world, a manager opens a single ERP app to find data about any aspect of the business, from financials to HR to distribution schedules to customer relations.

This is easier to do than in the past, if you are a “mid market” sized business. This means you have less than $100,000,000.00 in sales and probably only work in 1 or 2 or 3 countries. If you are the owner, you are wearing more than one hat and not spending enough time on planning where you want to be or in developing the managers of the future.

The reason most companies are not there yet is not because the software cannot handle their needs. Sage Software and Friendly Systems have several good choices for businesses that want that kind of integrated information system. What holds up the implimentation of the ERP integrated system is the lack of middle management expertise that knows how to use information systems to monitor their areas.

Many mid market managers we deal with are “seat of the pant”‘ managers. They want to hear what is going on. They live in the present and the future and have not any time to look at “where we have been”.

Sage now has a good tool for those kind of managers. It is called “Insight” and it provides a dashboard which can give managers a snapshot of the condition of their business.

Call us and let us show you how you can use the Sage Insight toolbox to get your company to the next level.

Which data to convert?

This is a question we often get from businesses who are contemplating a change from their existing business software systems. There is lots of data already captured and some of it is needed and some of it is not.

The cost of converting the data needs to be compared to the benefits that are gained from having historical data moved to the new system. A fixed price for the conversion is a key factor in your decision about converting data. If you can identify what you need and what you don’t, then your prospective reseller should be able to give you a dollar amount to convert the data desired.

When possible, get the cost to convert data that you consider “optrional”. Then you can more easily determine the return on investment (ROI) for that decision. For example, if you only compare your financials for the current and prior year, do you really need to bring over all the detail from the past 5 years? If your inventory balances are out of whack, do you need then moved to the new system?

Remember that usually you can keep the older system running, while you also use your new software system. This can give you the best of all possible worlds. In some cases, reports can be prepared using data from both the old and new systems if the basic data fields are storing the same types of data, using programs like Crystal Reports.

Call Friendly Systems and let us show you how easy it is to move to a more efficient ERP and Manufacturing system without losing your important data.

How important is your software reseller when you buy software?

There are many companies that can sell you software that will help you to run your business. While we sell the Sage Accpac ERP, Sage MAS 90 ERP, and Sage MAS 200 ERP, so do many others. So why should you pick Friendly as your reseller?

For an answer you could talk to the many “orphans” who did purchase these products from other resellers who could deliver the software but could NOT deliver the service needed to make it meet the needs of the company who purchased it.

We joke about being an “orphanage” for many, many MAS 90 and MAS 200 customers who found they really needed an “Ally” and not a “Reseller”. Part of our success is due to our people being around a long time. Friendly has never had ANYONE leave our company to go work somewhere else in the 24 years that we have been in business.

Another reason for our success is that our service is provided by owners to your employees. We know the kind of service you demand. You want it fixed yesterday! That’s the kind of service we would expect and that is the kind of service Friendly Systems provides.

What I am saying is that the software is almost secondary to the ability of the reseller to help you to implement and support you in the process of setting up your system and then using it to get the return on investment you deserve.

Check out our website for testimonials to that fact:

http://www.friendlysystems.com/testimonials.htm