Optimise Systems Limited

NEWS LETTER November 05
It’s a Happy Birthday	Although Optimise was first registered in August 2004 we did not start to trade until the 1st November 2004. So it really is a Happy Birthday to Optimise Systems and take it from me, there are many more to come.
	I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the founder members, and customers for their support, for without that support and a lot of sacrifice from the staff, this first anniversary may not have happened. We can now look forward to the next few years with a sense of real pride.
Power Cuts	Earlier this month some of you may be aware that we appeared to have gone “absent without leave”. Not so. A certain provider of power to the business park was called to attend a problem within the new switch station. The story goes that they deduced water was in one of the switches. So they decided to dry it out. How did they do this? By sending a massive surge down the line. It may have worked but they haven’t had the courage to come and say. Did they tell anyone on the Business Park, what they were about to do? NO. Now you have to remember that the companies on this site are high tech, ADT, CiTell not to mention Optimise, and do not use the reliable Abacus any more, just the common everyday computer which we all know is easily replaced along with the masses of data store! The result was total chaos, loss of power and phones for the whole day and of course it required all personnel to be returned kicking and screaming to their loved ones.
Nick’s Column	The newsletter is not really the place for detailed technical articles, but here are a few tips to help you run your system more securely.
	Backups	Server Computers are just machines and although very reliable they can go wrong. In many cases the engineer can fix problems without prejudice to data, but sometimes, thankfully rarely, there will be a need to restore the backup.
		On Prodigy Servers the backup produces a report on the spooler that warns of failure. With backup automated to run overnight these reports can be easily forgotten. Best practice is to make sure that backup reports are regularly viewed and any issues they raise logged with Support.
	Screen Handling	We asked Matt what technical problem was most commonly reported and he highlighted frozen screens as an issue. The cancel key in Prodigy is Ctrl/X and this is very close to Ctrl/S which will hang the screen. Pressing Ctrl/Q will release the screen. Additionally, if a screen looks corrupted due to a communication error, Ctrl/R will redraw the screen.
		Your users may find the advice useful. Please note that this applies to the Prodigy environment and not necessarily to other software.
	Prodigy Procedures	BACS
		The central BACS interface for making payments is changing soon and your BACS software supplier should have contacted you about the steps needed to make the change.
		At time of writing we are not aware of any systems where changes have been needed to the configuration of the data file produced by Prodigy, although some customers have required help with identifying where the output file is stored when implementing third party upgrades.
		Please make sure that you have discussed the status of your BACS software with your supplier.
		Finally, if you have any questions about the above advice, please contact Optimise Support. They will be only too pleased to assist.
	Detailed Technical Bulletins will be issued on system backup procedures shortly.
Marketing	Of late we have been very active in targeting the Fresh Produce and Contracting Industries and have been pleasantly surprised at the response to this latest campaign. After contacting less than half of the 30 companies we have received very favourable responses from over 35%.
	Textile, Manufacturing and Seed sectors of the market place will be the subject of our next campaign.
	You should all have received a letter from us regarding Escrow Agreement. We have had a good response to this but would urge all those who have not responded to assess its benefits and implications.
	You will also have noticed that we are being proactive by making regular visits in order to keep ourselves abreast of your needs and business situation. However if you feel that you are missing out on visits or wish to discuss issues please call and we can arrange to visit at any time convenient to yourselves.