Making The Decision To Automate Your Software Testing

Writen by Danna Henderson

Not every software testing project can or should be automated. Before your department accepts a new test automation project, you should establish a process by which projects are reviewed and either accepted or rejected. This can be done with a simple Test Automation Acceptance Checklist.

Repeatable Test Cases with Static Data

The true cost benefit of test automation is achieved only when the same scripts are executed multiple times. The first execution is very expensive because it includes the one-time cost of the automation tools and 100% of the Test Automation engineer's time. When the scripts are executed again, the cost of test automation declines sharply. The tool has already been purchased and the scripts have already been coded. If there have been changes in the application, the scripts may require maintenance before being executed. Maintenance on minor software updates should be minimal.

Because test automation is only successful when the scripts can be executed multiple times, only application which require the same test cases to be executed with the same data are good candidates for automation. For example, a mortgage application that needs to be regression tested on a weekly basis could be a good candidate for test automation. Script maintenance is minimal and the scripts can enter a mortgage application using the same group of test data in a fraction of the time it would take a manual tester to test the same functionality.

On the other hand, a mortgage origination system, which cannot use the same test data for each iteration would not be a good automation candidate. Due to the nature of mortgage systems, data could be staged in various states of approval or rejection, based on the current data and the departments who have already processed their part of the mortgage application. If the script cannot easily figure out what data to enter in the software, it is not a good automation candidate.

Another problem with automating this type of complex system is that the test environment often contains a sampling of production data that is refreshed on a periodic basis. Sometimes this can be overcome by rebuilding the test data when the test environment is refreshed. The feasibility of rebuilding test data on a regular basis depends on the complexity of the application. You will have to make that decision on a case-by-case basis.

Application or Environmental Stability

Environmental stability is crucial to a successfully automating a software testing project. Scripts cannot be coded in a timely manner if the application environment is unavailable, experiences frequent down-times, or excessive defects and errors.

Little or No Application or Environment Downtime

It takes longer to write scripts than it does to manually test the same functionality. Most automation tools are watered down version of C or Visual Basic, which means that writing automated scripts is essentially programming and takes adequate time and specialized skills. Unlike manual test cases, which can sometimes be written based off requirements and mock-ups, automated tools require the actual application. When a test environment is unavailable, automation engineers cannot create scripts, which prolongs the project and ends up costing more.

Excessive downtime can consist of any of the following:

Unstable Environment
Lack of Infrastructure Support
Frequent Application Updates
Buggy Code

Effects of Environment Instability on Script Development and Execution

When an application or environment is unstable, scripting progress is dramatically slowed or stopped altogether. In some cases, it's possible to continue scripting, but this may causes more work at a later date. For example, if you are scripting in buggy code, you may have to script around error messages and the scripts will have to be revised at a later date. Or, you may only be able to create scripts to a certain point and finish them at a later date. To help avoid and decrease environment instability, read the chapter on Service Level Agreements.

Timely Defect Fixes

Application defects do not have to be detrimental to an automated software testing project. When defects are fixed in a timely manner, scripting can continue without significant downtime. When estimating an automated testing project, it's always best to add some buffer time that will accommodate for defect reporting and revisions.

When defect fixes take an excessive amount of time to resolve and are causing the automated software testing project to be delayed, it's time to pull together a meeting. Invite all the major players and discuss the root of the problem and what everyone can to improve the situation. Maybe development is spending too much time trying to reproduce the problem and having your automation team enter better description would help them turn the defect fixes around faster. Maybe you can work together to classify defects and establish reasonable fix times for each classification. For example, a Critical defect needs to be fixed that day while a High defect needs to be fixed with in 24 hours.

Responsive Contact Person

When your team takes on a new automated testing project, you will need a contact person. This person is responsible for making sure you have the business requirements and answering questions about how the application works. This will not be his or her main job, so you will need to make sure he or she is responsive. If you cannot get adequate business requirements, test data, or questions answered, your automation project will not be successful.

Copyright 2004. Danna Henderson. All Rights Reserved.

Danna Henderson has helped many organizations automate their software testing with WinRunner. For information on creating robust, data driven scripts, and successful automated testing, visit WinRunner Experts.

Microsoft Dynamics Gp 90 Great Plains Customization Integration Reporting Amp Development Faq

Writen by Andrew Karasev

Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 has multiple improvements and "Project Green" innovations. One of the new key words, Microsoft Business Solutions people like to introduce and increase the frequency of using is eConnect. eConnect object and methods will have more exposure for Visual Studio.Net C# or VB developers through XML web services. Also emphasis shift will be in the field of Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Portal, this is also understandable – Microsoft has to deemphasize former legacy proprietary technologies, such as Microsoft Dexterity (former Great Plains Software Dexterity), Navision C/SIDE (this is in case of Microsoft Dynamics NAV – former Navision Attain), step-by-step phasing them off and replacing with open-source .Net web development. In this small article will touch the "top of the iceberg" in Microsoft Great Plains 9.0 customization, development and integration.

• Microsoft Dexterity Source Code Program reopening. When Microsoft bought Great Plains Software five years ago – it quickly closed Great Plains Dexterity source code program for new enrollments, leaving it open for existing VARs. One of the reasons in our opinion was Microsoft optimism in quick Microsoft Business Solutions product merge: Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, Solomon. It didn't happen with the expected speed and now it is clear that serious development for Microsoft Dynamics GP requires Microsoft Dexterity skills and experience and access to the source code (DYNAMICS.DIC with Dex sanscripts codes). If you plan your custom application to work with Microsoft Dynamics GP "fat client" – it is DEX.EXE with DYNAMICS.DIC, Dynamics.set and your custom dex dictionary – the Microsoft Dexterity is the tool of choice.

• Microsoft Dynamics GP Integration Manager. Former Microsoft Great Plains Integration Manager – versions 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 7.0, 7.5, 8.0 were based on OLE technologies, deploying Dexterity application as OLE server, and so using Great Plains Forms to implement integration. The result was moderate and slow performance. Now Integration Manager is in the process of being rewritten in eConnect – eConnect will have majority of Microsoft Dynamics GP forms and objects: SOP, POP, IV, Payroll, AR, AP, GL, BR, Manufacturing, BOM. Some drawback of this nice innovative feature – if you are using heavy customization if former Microsoft Access based IM database – you should consider rewriting your customization in new IM.

• Reporting. ReportWriter will stay, however Microsoft SQL Reporting Services will be the reporting tool of choice over former Crystal Reports. You should expect phased change from Crystal to MSSQL Server RS.

• Tables Structure. Will stay – this will mean certain legacy eCommerce programs staying in business reassurance. SOP10100, SOP10200, SOP30200, SOP30300, GL00100, RM00101, PM00200 and other tables will be around for the next … 10 years or so

Please do not hesitate to call or email us: USA 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com
http://www.greatplains.com.mx
http://www.enterlogix.com.br ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally. We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Dallas, San Diego, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Minneapolis, Washington, Baltimore, New Orleans, Austin, Kansas City.

An Introduction To Time Clock Software

Writen by Thomas Morva

Time clock software is a software solution that processes time and attendance. This software forms an integral part of the automated time and attendance system by automatically calculating pay rules, reducing unwanted overtime and increasing organizational accuracy. Poor time attendance tracking can ruin any type of business' financial budgets.

Automating time and attendance for your small business has never been easier or more affordable than now. You can now safely say goodbye to those old-fashioned time clocks and manual time cards and put calculated payroll data right at your fingertips with these powerful Time and Attendance Systems. As there are several time keeping software packages available, it is always a good idea to make sure you've determined your time keeping requirements and implemented a trial version before you choose your time keeping software solution.

Depending on your business needs and the time keeping software that you have chosen, you can hope to gain several benefits from utilizing time keeping software in your business environment. Some of the benefits include: increased accuracy in time collection and attendance, increased control of hours being paid out and decreased inaccuracies in calculating pay.

Time clock software streamlines the time and attendance processes. It also significantly reduces the gathering time and attendance costs. Time clock software can also provide up to the minute reports to minimize labor costs. With tremendous competition and fast-paced businesses, many entrepreneurs have taken to time clock software to make time tracking faster and more efficient.

Time clock software has not been around long, but the advances in time clock software have grown in leaps and bounds in the last 5 years. The software is usually extremely easy to operate and even non-technical employees would have no trouble punching in and out with time clock software. The time clock software makes conventional time and attendance systems look like things of the past.

Time Clock Software provides detailed information on Time Clock Software, Employee Time Clock Software, Payroll Time Clock Software, Networked Time Clock Software and more. Time Clock Software is affiliated with Free Timesheet Software.

Microsoft Word Business Writing 1 Stop The Hairtearing Frustration Of Word

Writen by Carol Bentley

Direct Response Business writing is different to ordinary business writing and many of the automatic features in Word are an absolute nightmare!

I use Microsoft Word to write all my material; books, articles, letters, adverts, newsletters – you name it I use Word to write it.

And because I have done so for the last 15 years of my 30+ years in business life I am well aware of the irritating, hair-tearing frustration Word gives you when it won't do what you want it to.

Here's a series of mini-articles showing you how to 'get a grip' on the program and make it do what you want, not what it 'thinks' you want.

In this first article are 4 'preparatory tips' that make it easier for you to work with the program.

(Valid for Word 97 and later)

1) Turn off the Automatic Formatting Features:

From the menu: Format, AutoFormat, Options
Check the options selected in AutoFormat, AutoFormat as You Type and (in Word XP) Smart Tags

NOTE: After Clicking OK you return to the original AutoFormat dialogue box.
Click Cancel to close the dialogue box, otherwise your current document will be processed.

2) Switch off Widow and Orphan Control.

When a paragraph reaches the end of a page Word automatically prevents a line being left on its own. A line at the end of a page is known as a 'widow'; one at the top of the next page is an 'orphan'.

If you are writing a Sales letter you are happy to have a single line at the end or beginning of a page because it encourages readers to turn the page.

From the menu: Format, Paragraph, Line and Page Breaks. Remove the tick against Widow/Orphan Control

3) Add the 'Skip Numbering' option to a shortcut menu

You can use this to stop the automatic numbering/bullets whilst keeping the paragraph formatting the same as the previous paragraph.

From the menu: View, Toolbars, Customize, on the Toolbars tab, select Shortcut Menus
On the new toolbar that appears, Click on Text then Lists
In the Customize dialogue box Click the Commands tab, select All Commands
Click & Drag the SkipNumbering option from the right hand box to the Lists menu

4) Using the 'Skip Numbering' option on the shortcut menu

Suppress numbering for a paragraph, alternate (right) click on the new paragraph to display the quick menu and choose Skip Numbering

NB You can also use Shift & Enter instead of Enter to suppress the numbering in the next paragraph, but this is not suitable for justified paragraphs.

Restart paragraph numbering. If the numbering continues from a previous numbered section, alternate (right) click to display the quick menu and choose Restart Numbering

In the other articles in this mini-series I share another 21 tips:

* Formatting as you type – including a couple of neat tips that save time.

* Page formatting including Page borders; page numbering (starting at the number YOU want); and a brilliantly easy way to create underlines for forms (No, it is not the line drawing tool!) amongst others.

* Creating Contents lists; quick tips for spell checking and hyphenation

* More on Paragraph numbering and spacing (to stop your numbers and bullets disappearing when you want a line gap between paragraphs!)

©2005 Original Work by Carol Bentley

Learn more about Persuading People to Buy... Subscribe to your free reports, with no obligation, at http://www.CarolBentley.com.

Carol is the author of 'I Want to Buy Your Product... Have You Sent Me a Letter Yet? (How to create powerful sales letters, advertisements, flyers, brochures, web pages and newsletters that persuade hundreds, or even thousands, of additional customers and clients to buy from you!) by Carol A E Bentley (Rated 5-star on Amazon.co.uk) This book is available at a special offer at http://www.CarolBentley.com/offer.

Carol is one of the highest paid direct response copywriters available. If you would like to talk to Carol's office about having her work on your current or next sales project you can use the contact form on her website http://www.CarolBentley.com/contact.asp.

How To Remove Spyware For Good

Writen by Jason Frovich

Spyware and adware often slows your computer down or you begin to notice that you are seeing pop-ups every time you use your computer. You also discover that someone has access to your identifying information such as IDS, passwords, credit card information, or even that suddenly your homepage has changed, which is known as hijacking.

It is important that you know how to remove spyware, what to do if hijacked and what tools you can use to get rid of spyware.

How to remove spyware

The first method of combating spyware or adware is asking people you know questions like where can I find free spyware software or where can I find free adware removal websites. If your friends or family members cannot help you in this area, you should turn to search engines to help find the answers.

One excellent program for removing spyware is Spy Sweeper. Spy Sweeper allows you to keep your computer safe from spyware even while downloading things such as videos, music, or pictures and surfing the internet. This program delivers the highest form of computer protection available today by removing spyware programs that have infected your computer, as well as blocking any from ever entering again.

Why do we need anti-spyware protection?

Without anti-spyware protection, your computer is vulnerable every time you surf the web. Any time you access the internet, without some form of protection, like Spy Sweeper on your computer, you are putting yourself at risk for infection. Spyware is extremely malicious and can significantly slow down the processes of your computer, your internet performance or the very worst scenario might be completely rendering your computer useless.

When wanting to learn how to remove spyware and why we need anti- spyware, Spy Sweeper is a great place to start. Not everyone who uses a computer can detect which type of download might be infected; Spy Sweeper can do that for you. It will always provide you with protection thanks to their Smart Shields, which keep the emerging and known threats at bay while using the internet. This program has the capabilities of detecting, removing and blocking more than 140,000 variants of spyware, greater than any other anti- spyware program available on the market.

Where can I get the latest free spyware removal software?

Your favorite search engine is a very valuable tool when it comes to searching for anti-spyware programs. There are many available. However, you will want to be careful of which one you choose to download. While many will advertise removal, in reality, they may actually install the spyware. So be sure to get recommendations from people you trust. Some great programs include Spy Sweeper, Microsoft Defender, Spybot and Ad-Aware.

New forms of malicious Spyware and Adware are constantly created and in order to protect your computer from infestations you must choose a high-quality program and keep it updated. Supportcave.com is the perfect place to help you find out how can I get a free spyware remover.

Cd Copier Software

Writen by Kent Pinkerton

Many kinds of software are available, which make it possible to customize each copied CD or DVD. For manually operated copiers, software should be installed on the attached computer. But modern copiers have hard discs of their own, so software can be installed on that hard disc.

CD burning software is available to copy many CDs or DVDs at once. This software not only copies the file onto many CDs at once, but it also changes the format of the files such that it may be copied faster. Software is also available to zip the files while being copies and unzip them later. Software is designed to reduce the time required to burn CDs.

For music CDs, there is plenty of software available to convert audio files into Mp3, wav, wma, CD, etc. CD copiers use Mp3 encoders to convert audio files into Mp3s, which can be dumped within a small space on the CD. Most of these programs are compatible with all music players such as Windows Media Player, Real Player, DivX, Sonic Focus, etc. These programs can also reconvert downloaded Mp3 formats into normal CD format to be played back.

Similarly, there is software to convert DVD into VCD and vice-versa. Converting a VCD into a DVD not only changes the file extension, but it also enhances the video quality of the program.

Software enables the user to customize the CD that is copied. Each CD can be given a serial number. Other information such as date, title of the CD and the name of the author or the company can be fed into the CD. These graphics can be made to appear as beginning or end titles on the CD, or as subtitles when the CD is being played. It can also be inserted as a slide in between.

Much of the software is compatible with both CD-Rs and CD-RWs. Software also depends on the operating system of the computer. Windows based software is much different than Linux based ones.

CD Copiers provides detailed information about CD copiers, CD DVD copiers, CD copier software, CD copier downloads and more. CD Copiers is the sister site of DVR Cards.

How To Make Good Use Of Spreadsheets

Writen by Abdallah Khamis Abdallah

Most computer users use spreadsheets software such as Microsoft Excel in their daily home and office. However very few are aware of the potential of spreadsheets in helping them in financial accounting and statistical analysis.

There are many uses of spreadsheets beyond the simple arithmetical and data analysis we are used to. Spreadsheets can assist us in many tasks with accuracy and speed.

Before we look at some of the uses we can put Spreadsheet software to let's look at a few of its features, which make it unique and useful.

The most important features of any spreadsheet are the calculation of figures using arithmetic signs or functions. While not completely unique to spreadsheets, this feature is particularly more visible and word processing software.

For example in Microsoft Excel, there is a formula bar for typing or displaying typed formulas. The formula can be inserted in this bar or in a specific cell preceded by an = (equal) sign.

You need not insert actual figures, as that would be cumbersome. You simply specify a function such as SUM, AVERAGE, e.t.c and enclose into brackets the beginning column and row numbers and the ending column and row numbers.

The use of functions helps to easily perform calculations. Not only would the computation be accurate but it helps to simplify an otherwise complicated calculations process.

As we have seen, Spreadsheets have many useful features, which make calculation of figures simpler. Now let's look at some of the uses you can put spreadsheets to:

Whether at the office or at home, drawing and maintaining budgets is important. Not only will you be focused and be able to pursue your financial objects clearly with a budget, but you can compare your actual versus planned performance. You can easily prepare a detailed budget with spreadsheets. The calculations can easily be done by entering appropriate formulas and getting the totals and differences.

So you can prepare a cash flow analysis for Monitoring and predicting likely income and expenditure to keep in track with financial affairs of your office or home.

Similarly you may easily predict changes in values such as effects of a price change on costs, discounts and profit. A fixed table can be prepared to show these changes but more significantly the figures could be changed from time to time to reflect new situations with same formulas in place.

Perhaps the most frequent use of spreadsheets is in financial and cost accounting. Many businesses use spreadsheets to calculate balance sheets, profit and loss accounts and cash books.

You can perform bank reconciliation, calculate jobs costs, taxes, schedule payments, forecast profits and control stocks. In all these tasks the spreadsheet proves a very important tool in simplifying the computation process and production of the results.

In data collection and analysis, spreadsheets can be used to record, present and analyses the results of polls, surveys and research. With new gadgets such as handheld, laptops and computerized. Mobile phones, you can do all that while on the road and getting the results instantly.

For teachers and students, in addition to the foregoing, spreadsheets can be used in class work and research activities.

In mathematics and the sciences, spreadsheets could be used to convert temperature figures whether in Celsius or far hermetic, metric to imperial measurements, pounds to kilos, exchange rates among a host of other measurements.

You can also calculate trigonometric and logarithmic functions, standard deviations and critical path analysis.

In addition, the computations may be presented in table on graphic form. There are buttons you can click to make your data appear in table format or in the form of graphs and charts. These enhance the presentability and understanding of the data.

I could give you a hundred or so uses of spreadsheets. However, the few I have mentioned are the more important. Suffice it to say that spreadsheets software is some of the most important application software used at the office and home.

About The Author

Abdallah Khamis Abdallah is a freelance copywriter and ghost writer. To find out how you can enhance your business's sales and profits through credibility and viral marketing solutions visit his website at: http://www.qualitywritingsolutions.com/

quantumpro@lycos.com

Creating Universal Systems

Writen by Tim Bryce

"There is only one problem with common sense; it's not very common." - Bryce's Law

GENERAL DISCUSSION

In this day and age of "globalization" more and more Information Systems are crossing geographical boundaries. Because of this, serious consideration should be given to making systems universally applicable to any country. Some might consider this an impossible task, but it is actually easier than you might think. It just requires a little common sense and some planning.

The biggest problem in making universal systems is that programmers tend to bury too many of the details of a system down in the program source code, which is not a good place to tinker around in. Instead, certain elements of the system should be placed in separate files thereby making it convenient to translate. Consideration should be given to creating separate files for:

PRINT MAPS - An output, such as a report or printout, can be decomposed into various sections (records). When a program is executed, one of the parameters should be the desired language (e.g., English, Spanish, German, French, Japanese, etc.). Based on this parameter, pertinent print maps are called from a "Print Map File" to assemble the requested output.

SCREEN PANELS - This is similar to the "Print Map File" whereby the sections or a screen can be decomposed into its various panels (again using records). As a program is executed, pertinent panels are called from a "Panel File" to build the screen.

MESSAGES - Messages are too often buried in source code. Instead, they should be placed in a separate file for printing or display in a screen.

HELP TEXT - Help text should also be maintained separately for easy retrieval.

Separating Maps, Panels, Messages, and Help text from program source code, makes it easy to translate to foreign languages. Further, it encourages developers to share and re-use resources, thereby contributing to integrated systems.

A serious consideration in the Far-East is the Double Byte Character Set or DBCS which is used to accommodate Japanese and Chinese Character alphabets with voluminous characters. To construct one such character, two bytes must be stored in a single byte (hence the name "DBCS"). Fortunately, the technology has evolved and DBCS is implemented in most operating systems today. However, developers should be cognizant of this requirement, particularly as they are designing Inputs, Outputs, and Files. Check with your hardware or operating system vendors for specifics. Better yet, check it out on the Internet.

INPUT/OUTPUT DESIGN

During design of the Inputs and Outputs, consideration should be given to the expression of certain types of data elements; for example:

• DATES - How dates are to be expressed may vary from country to country; for example: Nov 13, 2004 - 13 Nov, 2004 - 2004-11-13. How a date is presented to an end-user is different than how it is physically stored.

• TIME - This is similar to dates; some people like to see AM/PM, others like military time, e.g., 14:30 (2:30pm)

  NOTE: Regardless of how Dates and Times are to be physically presented to the user, standards should exist to express how dates are to be physically stored, such as "YYYYMMDDHHMMSS" (Year/Month/Day/Hour/Minute/Second). Failure to do so caused the horrendous Year 2000 (Y2K) problem a few years ago.

• TIME ZONE - Representing local time.

• CURRENCY - What form of monetary values should be expressed; Dollars, Yen, Marks, Pounds, Euro Dollars?

• MEASUREMENTS - Accommodate different units of measures for weights (pounds vs. grams), distances (miles vs. meters), and temperatures (fahrenheit vs. centigrade).

• TEXT - The Western world prefers viewing text horizontally from left-to-right, but as we go into the Eastern countries, they like to see text vertically, sometimes right-to-left.

Many operating systems today provide the means to capture such settings. However, it might be necessary to establish a separate "Personal Settings File" for a particular Information System.

Attention should also be given to DEFAULT settings, particularly at time of input. Further, where applicable, consider auto "UPSHIFTING" or "downshifting" text as needed. For example, most Internet addresses (such as a URL or e-mail address) should be downshifted.

The techniques mentioned above are simple and effective to implement. It is important that a translation strategy be considered as part of the system design. During design, your mantra should be "Know your audience; make it usable; think Global."

Tim Bryce is the Managing Director of M. Bryce & Associates (MBA) of Palm Harbor, Florida, a management consulting firm specializing in Information Resource Management (IRM). Mr. Bryce has over 30 years of experience in the field. He is available for training and consulting on an international basis. His corporate web page is at: http://www.phmainstreet.com/mba/

He can be contacted at: timb001@phmainstreet.com

Copyright © 2006 MBA. All rights reserved.

School Management Software Aims Plus

Writen by Amit Sen

Last month I bought a School Management Software AIMS PLUS for my friend's school. I found the software is very useful to my friend's school administration. It was above my expectations and I am very satisfied with the performance of the software till date. The software is designed by keeping in mind the complexities my friend used to face in his day to day activities in school.

I think most of the schools will be benefitted from the features provided by the software. I am not marketing on behalf of the company whoever has developed this software but I am sharing my experience with the software to the people who are going through this article.

My friend was benefitted from the software in more then one ways. Earlier he needs to deploy a large number of employees to the administration related tasks, but now all these jobs are done by the software. Now the whole staff are fully deployed for the study and grooming of the students in different aspects.

The reports generated by the software can be customised according to the need of the hour, which is very useful for my friend's school. The software generates full fledged dynamic reports. The interface forms used to feed data are so user friendly that a user does not have to be an expert computer savvy, all the features available are menu driven and can be operated by any one with minimum computer knowledge.

I was amazed to realise that i got such a useful software in a very competitive price $2500 for the offline version. My friend still does not believe that he is running such a wonderful software in that amount of price.

If you want to know more about the School Management Software AIMS PLUS you can Visit to http://aims.dgstonline.com
URL - http://aims.dgstonline.com
E-Mail - info@dgstonline.com

Money Managing Basics

Writen by Mansi Aggarwal

Human beings are scaling new heights in almost all the spheres of life. The work that used to consume good amount of time earlier can now be comfortably finished within a few seconds. There are several parameters to evaluate human progress, money management through software being one amongst these.

The software has more than a dozen advantages. The easy and instant record maintenance of the cash inflow and outflow, error free, user friendly, and convenient to operate even for those who have petite knowledge of accounts etc. to name a few. Keeping the innumerable merits and significance of money management software in today's lives, there are different packages available in the market. But you get only what you spend for. For instance if you just aim at a checkbook operator, your package will be confined to maintaining or updating your checkbooks and nothing else. While if you desire the added functions like investment planning and retirement solutions, you ought to pay some more. So there are different features that vary with the cost of the package. However, some of the simple packages may not be attuned to various banking and financial planning websites.

The needs and so the kind of software package to go for varies from individual to individual. Some of the significant and widely used packages or features in high demand are listed below:

• Budgeting- is perhaps the foremost and most basic requirement of all the consumers especially those who cannot afford to hire an accountant. This feature keeps a track of all your savings and outlays and can help you with the details any time you log on to it. The financial planning software turns out to be a blessing for many. The reason being it keeps a record of all your small and large expenses which one most often forgets in the hurly burly of life.

• Investment Planning and Retirement Solutions- this organizes the passage of your money such as how much to spend in your kids' education and how much to set aside for your old age. The Intuit Inc.'s Quicken and the Microsoft Money are the two most widely used packages in this context. They will judiciously plan investments and retirement plans. Allocation of funds becomes a child's play due to their aid.

• Tax preparation is another feature largely used and conspicuous feature of the financial planning software. The tax preparation software has made it immensely easy to deal with taxes.

• Mortgage and real estate software features act as a guide when it comes tasks to estate planning and the like. This saves many of your precious dollars that you would have diffidently spent on attorneys and agents.

• The package that aids in allotment of assets and preparing of wills is also in great use. The expense on this package is significantly less than the consistent payments made to the attorney.

• Purchasing and selling stocks- this feature exempts you from the huge brokerage that you pay every time in buying and selling your stocks. This makes it much comfortable for people to sit at home, have a view of the market rates and sale and purchase stocks.

Apart from these there are many other relevant features that are not mentioned here but that certainly add to our convenience.

Mansi aggarwal writes about money management Learn more at http://www.moneymgmtsoftware.com

Microsoft Great Plains Chicago Erp Market Overview

Writen by Andrew Karasev

In this small article we will review Chicago ERP market: Chicago with suburbs, Northwest Indiana, downstate Illinois and St. Luis. Let us begin with small introduction.

Microsoft Business Solutions has recently renamed its products – new unifying brand name will be Microsoft Dynamics. Project Green should end up in interface unification and probably database merging for all former products (Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, Solomon) – but obviously at this point nobody knows the details. So, we will be dealing with Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics SL and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Let's go to the topic and consider the specifics of Chicago Mid-West regional market:

• Downtown Chicago businesses: Here we see Financial, Hospitality, Recruiting & Payroll outsourcing, Retail headquarters, Distributors, Non-for-profit, Government (Cook county offices), Exchange & Brokerage. All these businesses and organizations are very good prospects for Microsoft Great Plains, we will talk about implementation challenges below

• Chicago Suburbs, St. Luis, Northwest Indiana businesses. This region specializes in distribution: metals, recycling, transportation & logistics, light final assembly & manufacturing. St. Luis region has Oil & Gas facilities: Oil Refineries, Power Plants, etc. Downstate Illinois has manufacturing plants: machinery, chemicals, auto assembly (Rockford area)

• Springfield. Government offices plus non-profit organizations: loan processing for farmers, rural communities, agriculture, etc.

• Great Plains ERP. As you should expect, nowadays ERP requires customization and altering to fit unique business needs and considering the specific of Chicagoland you should expect Services, Finance & Distribution modules and custom pieces for Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains: Service Management Suite, integration with Microsoft CRM Sales & Service, Transportation & Logistics custom pieces: settlement report, bill of ladings

• Legacy Applications Integration. Chicago area businesses should be considered as traditional and established ones, this is not a California high tech area (however Rockford is trying to attract high tech businesses). You might need Microsoft Access, Unix, Linux, Java/EJB, Oracle, SAP, Siebel, IBM Lotus Notes/Domino, DBII applications integration and heterogeneous reporting

• Dexterity Customizations. This is very painful question – we know that many businesses had kind of renaissance time at the end of XX century and this was time when you were sold a lot of Great Plains customizations: Dexterity, VBA/Modifier, ReportWriter, VB, ASP. In order to recover and upgrade these custom pieces you need to find Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains Partner who has access to Great Plains Source Code (DYNAMICS.DIC with Dexterity scripts)

Please do not hesitate to call us: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technology ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) Chicagoland consulting company, serving clients in Chicago, Aurora, Naperville, Schaumburg, Warrenville, Lake Forest, Evanston, Gary, Oakbrook, Downers Grove, Lisle, Bolingbrook, Romeoville, Joliet, Morris, Sandwich, Sterling, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Columbus, Toledo, Detro

Taking Advantage Of Open Source Php Mysql Applications

Writen by Tikiri Wicks

One obvious solution is to approach a software development company and obtain a custom built product. However to take this approach one needs to first know what features and functionality is desired. Then on the other hand in some instances the need does not warrant the cost of commissioning a custom application.

A plethora of free open source web applications exist today. Regardless of the specific circumstances of the need these applications can quite often prove to be a valuable resource.

http://freshmeat.net is one of the best online directories of open source applications. A quick search on freshmeat.net for say "intranet", "cms" or "groupware" will yield pages of results. Browsing these results any application marked beta, stable or mature is a possible solution. A large majority of the available web applications would also state PHP + MySQL as the platform.

Oh well I need to have some Linux Server and it's way too hard is a common reaction. Fortunately this is not entirely true. If you wanted to host a large scale production site then the chances are that a custom Linux server may well be a requirement. However just evaluating on your own PC, or setting up a solution on your LAN for anywhere between 1 to 100 users can be easily realized without custom Linux servers.

The solution is in another open source free product known as WAMP server. The acronym stands for Windows Apache MySQL PHP server. WAMP is extremely simple to install and a good platform for either evaluating PHP + MYSQL applications or operating the same for up to a few hundred users.

Visit http://www.wampserver.com Or http://www.wampserver.com/en/ for the English version First it is important to note that most open source PHP + MySQL applications will not run correctly on the latest versions of PHP and MySQL. For this reason instead of the downloading the latest version of WAMP server click on "downloads" from the left menu and then click on "older versions at sourceforge" This will take you to https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=116092 scroll down and select "WAMP5 1.4.3". Download the WAMP5_1.4.3.exe file and install it on your computer with default options.

Once installed and started a new icon will appear in the icon tray near the date/time on your task bar. Left click on this icon to activate it's menu which allows you to restart or edit the configuration files.

Changing the web server port if necessary.

One common reason for wanting to edit configuration file is in case you already have a web server running on the same computer. In this case you would need to change the port address used by apache to something other than 80. In this case 8080 would probably be a good alternative choice.

-------Changing the web server port address Begin-----------

Click on the WAMP server icon and from the menu under "config files" select "httpd.conf". A long text file will open up in notepad. In this file scroll down to the line that reads "Port 80" and change this to read "Port 8080", Save the file and close notepad. Once again click on the wamp server icon and select restart all services. One more change needs to be made before we are done. In Windows Explorer find the location where WAMP server was installed which is by Default "C:Wamp". Next goto the subfolder named "www". Inside here you will see another subfolder named "phpmyadmin". We are looking for a file named "config.inc.php". In a default installation this file will be at "C:Wampwwwphpmyadminconfig.inc.php". Open this file in wordpad and find the line that reads $cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri'] = 'localhost/phpmyadmin/'; Change this line to read: $cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri'] = 'localhost:8080/phpmyadmin/';

-------Changing the web server port address End-----------

Now open a web browser and access http://localhost . Or if you changed the port address to 8080 then goto http://localhost:8080/ You should be greeted by the WAMP welcome page. For each application that you wish to install create a new folder inside the "www" subfolder of where WAMP was installed. Lets assume that WAMP was installed at "C:Wamp".

Let say for example you wanted to install Mambo (www.mamboserver.com)
1) You would download the .zip or .tar.gz or .tar.bz2 file and uncompress it using winzip or winrar into "c:Wampwwwmambo".
2) You would access the wamp welcome page http://localhost/ or http://localhost:8080/ and access phpmyadmin. In here you would create a new database for mambo.
3) You would then access the wamp welcome page http://localhost/ or http://localhost:8080/ and from the list at the bottom of the page you would click on Mambo
4) You would then be greeted by the mambo installer which is a simple 5 step process. (the default username for MySQL is root and the password is blank as in an empty string)

Let say for example you wanted to install oscommerce
You would download the .zip or .tar.gz or .tar.bz2 file and uncompress it using winzip or winrar into "c:Wampwwwoscommerce".
5) You would access the wamp welcome page http://localhost/ or http://localhost:8080/ and access phpmyadmin. In here you would create a new database for oscommerce.
6) You would then access the wamp welcome page http://localhost/ or http://localhost:8080/ and from the list at the bottom of the page you would click on Mambo
7) You would then be greeted by the oscommerce installer which is a simple process. (the default username for MySQL is root and the password is blank as in an empty string)

And so on and so forth.

Any PHP + MySQL web application which does not provide an automated installer is most likely not a very mature application.

Good luck

TCWicks
http://www.zapstrategy.com

TCWicks

Web Application Development by Zap Strategy

Johnson Amp Hill Staffing Gains Hundreds Of Productive Hours With Managed Services

Writen by Ashley Jones

Based in Springfield, Massachusetts, Johnson & Hill Staffing Services, Inc. recently celebrated their tenth anniversary. What's the secret to their long-term growth? They realized the need to be at the top of their field technology-wise.

Andrea Hill, Managing Partner of Johnson & Hill, states, "We look for operational efficiencies so that we can do more with less. We look towards technology as one of our tools to differentiate ourselves from our competitors."

Hill would like to grow their two offices and the professional and administrative niche of their business by 20 percent within the next year.

"It was crucial to our business that our staffing software has the flexibility we need in any situation. We had to be comfortable that it can handle whatever we need," said Hill.

At the beginning of 2005, Johnson & Hill switched from their legacy software to StaffSuite®, VCG's premier fully-integrated front and back-office staffing software solution.

"When we decided to make the transition to StaffSuite, it was clear we needed to make a change to meet our growth goals," said Hill, "our previous software just didn't have what it took to help us compete effectively within the staffing industry and take us to the next level."

To kick start their new program, Johnson & Hill went through a comprehensive training program that led to a smooth implementation.

Hill says, "VCG took our training very seriously. There was no lip service to our needs, rather strong action. There was a lot of follow through and sincerity from people that have worked for years within the staffing industry."

Additionally, June Liberty, Director of Operations for Johnson & Hill, was especially pleased at the teamwork displayed by VCG staffers during the training.

Liberty adds, "It was important that we had a thorough training period. VCG's comprehensive approach was helpful when it was time to go live."

During this period they came to another realization. Did they really want to have the technical expertise in house to maintain their system? Could they be more effective by focusing on their core strengths -- making sales and filling staffing orders? So Hill decided to take advantage of VCG's managed services offering. With managed services, Johnson & Hill no longer had to worry about housing its server or staffing software application. VCG was responsible for maintaining both at a 24/7 monitored, multi-level physical security environment with a 99 percent uptime guarantee.

VCG ensures system security, backups, data integrity, timely software updates and more, so that Johnson & Hill could focus on filling orders and landing new business.

Hill says, "The most amazing benefit of managed services is not having to even think about technical issues with the server or software – we even take it for granted when the software enhancements are added."

Because management no longer has to spend their time putting out 'technical fires,' they have had more time to do their jobs and increase business.

"Either June or I would have to take time out from our day to fix whatever crisis was going on with our previous software," says Hill, "it was lowering both of our abilities to be productive."

VCG managed services put an end to the worries and even enabled Johnson & Hill to operate successfully with a leaner staff thanks to StaffSuite's ability to improve staff efficiency and productivity.

"In the past, we had to anticipate technical difficulties and staff accordingly," says Hill.

Liberty adds, "Not only do we have a leaner, more productive staff, but I no longer get pulled away from my job which is to win new business, not patch up any technical problems. And those problems might take four hours out of my work week when I could have been filling orders."

While four hours a week might not seem like a lot, within a years' time it's 208 hours of lost productivity.

Hill emphasizes, "I don't even want to know how much business we lost in the past because we were taking care of technical issues."

With Johnson & Hill's new technological investment, they will be poised to meet its 20 percent growth goal.

"We have superior software and technical support and we are ready to grow with the technology as it continually improves," says Hill.

One wonders if they might surpass their growth goal for the year.

Ashley Jones is the public relations specialist for VCG. For more information on StaffSuite or managed services, please visit: http://www.vcgsoftware.com.

Free Business Software Alternatives To Microsoft Office

Writen by Paul W Wilson

The cost of using 'paid for' business software has become prohibitive. Both businesses and home users are focusing on new and affordable avenues.

The options include free software:

• StarOffice: The code base can be accessed at OpenOffice.org. This is the group coordinating the development of the product. OpenOffice .org runs on Windows, Linux, Solaris as well as Mac.

• Version 5.2: enhances browser compatibility and has the latest security and performance related enhancements.

• 602ProPC suite: Free after registration it is MS office compatible.

• EasyOffice Freeware: For personal use, it has ten applications; a text speech program and Adobe PDF file creation.

• GNOME Office: A part of the free GNOME Desktop for UNIX, many of the applications are stable to use but in development.

• K Office: Runs on UNIX, Linux, and FreeBSD, the office suite has eight important applications.

• OpenOffice.org 1.0: Based on StarOffice 5.2, this is a complete system offering word processor, spreadsheet, drawing program, presentation program, and equation writing. Compatible with Windows, Linux, and Solaris.

• RagTime Solo: Designed for desktop publishing, built in functions include: word processing, spreadsheet, and graphics. This is free for personal use.

• SOT Office 2002: Runs on Windows and Linux and has, a word processor, spreadsheet, a drawing program and a presentation program.

These are just a few examples from the many options available. Most of the above are high quality and glitch free. There are no initial costs or upgrading pressures. Most work efficiently on older computers which means, one can exit the cycle of constant forced upgrades.

Free software offers a freedom for the user to run, copy, understand, as well as modify the software. There are no restrictions, the program can be adapted to suit specific needs, and, it can be distributed along with the adaptations/improvements. The term free denotes access to the source code and not just to costs.

The advantages are:

• Cuts down capital outlay.

• Is constantly evolving as users provide valuable inputs and feedback.

• One can make modifications. Go beyond the interface and understand the workings. Plenty of user group support is available.

• Access to the source code increases user options. Permits unrestricted use of software, permits free sharing, as well as individual modifications.

• No obligations to the company. Freedom from dependencies on multinational companies who create a monopoly.

• Little or no maintenance and upgrade problems. Extends the lifespan of older hardware.

• Many are fast, hardy, as well as reliable. This can be credited to the open system of development, implementation, and testing.

However, one must find out if there are any disadvantages to the free software selected for use.

Consider:

• Is the software established?

• Are updates, patches, and new features freely available?

• What about support?

• How widely is the software in use?

• Is documentation understandable and complete?

• Are there any maintenance costs?

• Is there a forum that helps in case of problems?

Make a detailed study of your needs, then study all the options in operation, if a related business is using a particular system find out their experience and why they chose the system. Knowledge is power and a reliable guide.

Paul Wilson is the content manager for http://www.1888SoftwareDownloads.com the premier website to find Free Software Downloads including free anti-virus software, free spyware detection software, free toolbars, free chat software and more. He also manages content for http://www.1888FreeOnlineGames.com

7 Top Tips For Microsoft Word Users

Writen by Mike Seddon

Microsoft Word is an extremely easy tool to start using. However there are lots of interesting features "under the bonnet". Some of these features can save you a lot of time when producing documents. I am amazed that they are not as well known as they should be. These top seven tips are my favourites and I cannot imagine life with Microsoft Word before I found them!

1. Oops. I left Caps lock on!

We all know that feeling. You are typing away merrily and then you look up at your screen to realise that you had hit the Caps Lock button. Now everything you just typed is in the wrong capitalisation. Don't despair. Highlight the text and go to the Format menu and select Change Case from the drop down menu. Then just select your desired case from the list provided, which will probably be tOGGLE cASE.

2. While we are talking Cases.

Some useful shortcut keys:

Highlight your text and click Control Shift A to set it all to Upper Case.

Control Shift K will set it to Small capitals.

3. Moving quickly around your document.

Try these shortcuts to get around your document quickly.

Control Alt Page Down: Next Page
Control Alt Page Up: Previous Page
Control Home: Go to the top of your document
Control Alt End: Go to the end of your document

Also, with later versions of Word there is a clever little button beneath the vertical scroll bar called the Select Browse Object. Click on this and select one of its options to browse through your document going straight to the next table, graphic, heading etc.

4. I'm lost. Where was I?

Forgot where you just made a change in your document? Try pressing Shift + F5. This will take you back to the last place you made a change. You can do this two more times to go back to the two previous changes.

5. One click find

One of the annoyances of the Find screen when you are looking for occurrence of text in your document is the fact that it always seems to appear right over the text your are looking for! However there is no need to keep the screen open. Once you have used the Find command to find the first entry, close the Find screen. You should notice that the small double arrows below the vertical scroll bar on the right of Word have changed to blue. Click on these to go up and down your document finding your text.

6. Numbering the rows in your tables

How many times have you created a table where you just want the first column to be a numbered list. It's easy to do this quickly. Simply select the column and click on the Numbering button on your Word toolbar. The same thing works if you select a row and want to have numbering across your columns

7. Fast Page breaks

My final tip is really simple and is probably the one I use the most. To insert a page break quickly, simply use CTRL + Enter.

Mike Seddon is a founding member of Kutchka Limited which specialises in providing software to help people get the most out of Microsoft Word. Find out more at http://www.kutchka.com/

Life Insurance Software

Writen by Steve Valentino

A reliable insurance software program allows agents and insurers to use the Internet for life insurance purposes. They can determine eligibility rate, quote, bind, document issue and collect payment – in very short period of time. This reduction in time allows for increased sales and reduced rates for the consumer.

The following are some very reliable programs that get a positive review at knowledgestorm.com:

WriteNow is an easy to use system that allows insurance agents to qualify, rate, quote, bind and deliver policy documents on the Internet in minutes.

FINEOS Claims Manager is designed to optimize claims for life insurance, disability and Workers Compensation with a unified customer-centric application. It is available on IBM platforms.

ID3 by Fiserv Insurance Solutions ID3 is a complete life, health and annuity policy administration system fully integrated to support every step of the insurance value

These life insurance programs usually provide a comprehensive end user training course, comprehensive online help text, and web accessible operating procedures designed to meet your corporate educational needs. The training will teach you how to use the program including setting up plans, issuing new policies and processing claims. There also exist a great many other websites devoted to providing information about life insurance software. Shop around online, read the reviews that past users have posted, do your research thoroughly, and then narrow down the list of prospects to one or two software programs. Talk with a representative of the software company to find out if they can meet your needs as a life insurance specialist, and then make your decision.

Insurance Software provides detailed information on Insurance Software, Insurance Billing Software, Health Insurance Software, Litigation Insurance Software and more. Insurance Software is affiliated with Stock Trading Software.

Use Jewelry Software To Control Inventory

Writen by Cheree Dohmann

To predict the demand for jewelry items in the future, you must have knowledge of product performance of the past. And that is one of the important functions of a well-designed jewelry software program.

Of course, no matter how well designed, a jewelry software program cannot totally eliminate intuition and luck. But having a well-organized and accurate history of sales provided through jewelry software reports, will take much of the guesswork out of inventory management.

A jewelry software program will help you look at a number of forecasting factors such as product history and the expected demand. The reports generated by your program should give you an in-depth analysis of numbers, both for historical sales and ongoing sales curves. At the very minimum, you should be able to rely on your jewelry software reports for 60% of your forecasting decisions with 20% based on experience and 20% on intuition.

Naturally, the more you become familiar with your jewelry software, the more reliable your inventory planning will become. You will never obtain 100% accuracy but 90% is an achievable goal.


Don't be timid about customizing your jewelry software

Jewelry software programs are customizable. So after purchasing a good jewelry software program, it will probably need some tweaking. For example, every jewelry store has its own forecasting process to suit its particular needs. Therefore in order to be successful, the program must work for you...not you for the program. So don't hesitate to adjust the jewelry software program to fit your exact needs.

You will probably find customizing easy with any of the top jewelry software programs now on the market. Not only do the developers want you to customize their software but will help you do so. A well-written and easily understood manual is a must for this activity. Lastly, a good customer support program should back the software.


Use your jewelry software program every day

Inventory management should never be a once a month or once a week activity. You should be looking at the figures generated by your jewelry software program every day. This will help you develop a more accurate understanding of your daily business flow, be able to quickly spot the need for inventory adjustments and greatly increase your forecasting accuracy.

Remember, a well-designed jewelry software program is the first step toward reducing overstocks and preventing out-of-stocks. You will find it to be one of the best inventory tools available for the successful operation of a jewelry store.

Cheree Dohmann is an internet marketing consultant that works with individual companies to build branding, search engine visibility and create online advertising opportunity for small businesses. Cheree has worked with IBIS for the past 2 years to promote their jewelry software. To learn more about IBIS, please visit http://www.ibis-net.com.

A Brief Biography Of Donald Ervin Knuth 1938 Present

Writen by Lee Armstrong

Author of "The Art of Computer Programming"; creator of TEX and METAFONT; and inventor of the strangest software versioning systems ever. Well known for many reasons, famous for a few; Donald Ervin Knuth is most certainly a legend in his own lifetime.

His series of books, The Art of Computer Programming ['TAOCP'], was first introduced to the public in 1968. It is still in production. Volumes 1 to 3 are available at all good bookshops, with volume 5 currently scheduled for release in 2010. Advance order your copies now. Once he completes volume five, Donald thinks that the time will be about right for a revision of volumes 1-3. Don't expect this any time soon.

Knuth offers $2.56 to each person that alerts him to an error in one of his published works. Why $2.56? Well, because that's the number of pennies in a hexadecimal dollar, of course.

In between writing what is arguably the most famous and respected computer science text ever produced, performing the duties of a retired professor, being an accomplished organist, and winning a plethora of awards, Knuth produced the TEX software and METAFONT language.

The versioning systems used for his creations are unique and somewhat quirky. New versions of TEX are numbered with versions approaching pi; METAFONT's versioning system similarly approaches e. Once Knuth passes from this realm, the development of the software and language will stop, with any remaining bugs remaining as "features". This appears to be the inspiration behind much of the development of the Windows Operating System which contains an ever increasing array of interesting "features".

A quote from the man himself: "Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it".

About The Author
This article may be freely distributed provided the following text is included with the distribution: Lee Armstrong is heavily involved with Perfect Coding (http://www.perfectcoding.com), a UK based IT consultancy specialising in software and web development and services. In addition to their professional services, Perfect Coding offer relevant, interesting and FREE articles in their soon to be released "FYI..." series. Check back regularly for updates!

Medical Billing Software

Writen by Marcus Peterson

Dealing with insurance is one of the many hassles continually faced by the medical industry. Today there are billing software programs available to at and address these problems. Billing involves gathering required data for insurance claims forms and entering it into a patient or practice management accounting software program. The data includes insurance card duplicates, patient information, super bill copy etc.

Medical billing software is one example of software programs that are currently available for smooth running of a medical office. Doubtless some training is required for the proper handling of the software, but there is no question that these kinds of software programs make billing efficient and error-free.

The following are two of the more competent medical billing software programs. Medisoft Version 10 is one of the more popular medical billing software programs. This program is actually taught in medical billing schools to train graduates and residents for proper handling of the software on the job. The benefits of this software program are manifold. Medisoft Version 10 produces patients' statements automatically; it makes sorting files easier; it can automatically give statements based on the pre-defined requirements of the user; it offers the user the facility of creating or editing new forms based on their requirements etc.

Lytec 2006 is the latest version of this extensively used billing software. Lytec 2006 has the capacity to manage insurance claims; report outstanding balances for insurance companies and patients alike; alert employees of those patients owing balance; give a wider range of security options; evaluate the productivity of the referring physician network etc.

Medical Software provides detailed information on Medical Software, Medical Billing Software, Medical Practice Software, Medical Record Software and more. Medical Software is affiliated with Chiropractic Office Software.

Job Shop Software Manufacturing

Writen by Jason Gluckman

Job shop manufacturing is a complex field that involves a lot of scheduling. Companies undertake multiple tasks from multiple clients. Scheduling all these jobs by priority, resources, labor and kind of product involves a lot of intricate planning.

Job shop manufacturing software is meant to make the entire manufacturing process easier to manage and control. With systematic scheduling, allocation of resources, allocation of tasks, efficient tracking, costing and accounting being handled by a single software system, job shop manufacturing becomes extremely easy and efficient. The most important aspects in a job shop are job scheduling, allotment of resources for jobs, and tracking of job to ensure compliance to quality and time. Customer and company management, quotes and order management, contract management, job/ inventory/ invoice management, employee management, customer management and job scheduling are some of the main categories handled by job shop manufacturing software. Manufacturing software tools do all these jobs, and much more. These tools can manage complex databases containing histories of every quote and every job undertaken by the company. They can generate inspection lists so that every person is accountable for the time, resources and materials used. Since the data is continuously updated, all the information available is real-time, making decision-making a lot easier. For instance, if a particular worker enters a change in the inventory by using certain materials for a particular process, the change is immediately accounted for in the database, along with the costs. Job shop manufacturing software can generate purchase orders, requests for bids, quotation modules, sales orders, deadlines, invoices, inventory, packing slips, commission tracking, certifications and a wide range of other reports.

There are hundreds of job shop manufacturing software tools available today. Prices start at $200, and depend upon the features of the product.

Job Shop Software provides detailed information on Job Shop Software, Job Shop Scheduling Software, Job Shop and Tracking Software, Job Shop Software Manufacturing and more. Job Shop Software is affiliated with Employee Scheduling Software.

Side Effects Of Badly Configured Services

Writen by A Singh

Windows operating system has a set of services that are constantly running in the background. These services are process that provide support and help to the operating system. Some of them start up automatically and some have to be configured to run along with the system. Many of these windows services are needed for the system to run efficiently and some are not needed at all except for running programs like Internet telephony and the like. Many of these services can considerably slow down your system and cause a great deal of harassment to the user. Windows registry cleaner can identify some of these services and clean the system of fine tune the registry to load only the ones that are needed.

Downloading Programs Can Lead To Registry Clutter

Sometimes when you download programs from the Internet like the telephony program mentioned above the program will reboot the system once the installation is complete. Here is where the program plays around with the windows registry. It will configure the windows services to support the telephony software. Here it will make changes to the services configuration as well as to the system Registry. Now when you uninstall the software it leaves the changes in the registry. These changes have to be removed with a reliable windows registry cleaner. There are many free registry cleaner software available on the Internet.

Free Registry Cleaners Are Worth A Try

Even though you can enable or disable the windows services from the registry manually it is not advisable to do so. Let on of the free registry cleaners do the job by scanning the registry and search for the services that are not linked to any program and are in fact, not needed. The windows free registry cleaner will remove the services or rather disable the services for you. This will speed up the system considerably. This will eliminate the problem that is caused by disabling the services that are vital to the system if the services are disabled manually.

You may not have understood the concept of the registry. You may not even know anything about software. But this knowledge is not required to clean up your registry. Knowing that cleaning up the registry can speed up your system and make it more efficient should be incentive enough to go on the Internet and get yourself a free registry cleaner. It is easy to use and requires just two clicks of the mouse to get the job of cleaning the registry done. It also takes just under three minutes to scan and repair the system registry.

A Singh is the Technical Head of PCMantra, a leading company in the business of development of computer security and PC performance enhancing software such as Registry Cleaner, Window Cleaner, and Anti Spam Filter. The author is an expert in the issues related to Registry and PC performance. You can read all the articles written by him at Registry Cleaner Resources.

Try Out A Registry Cleaner Speed Up Your System

Writen by A Singh

Windows operating system has a database repository for all information pertaining to a computers configuration. This information will include the data regarding the hardware and the software of the system. It will also include information regarding the users and what permissions they have on the system.

The system registry keeps on growing automatically as programs are added and deleted. As the registry keeps growing it gets loaded with unnecessary information and data. This gradually clutters and fragments the registry over time. The constant growth of the registry can also degrade the performance of the PC and cause the system to crash. A good registry cleaner will defrag the registry and make it more compact by cleaning the registry of all the redundant entries that are slowing the system down.

Registry Cleaners Are a Must Have

Many registry cleaner software such as windows XP registry cleaner, windows free registry cleaner, PC registry cleaner and the like Scan the system registry and locate the obsolete information that is clogging and slowing down the system. This information can include broken links and redundant programs that serve no purpose to the system at all. The registry cleaners try to fix these broken links by locating the programs that can be associated with them or if the programs are already associated then the registry cleaner will delete the broken link altogether. This frees up space in the registry and leaves spaces that need to be filled by bringing the registry entries closer together. This is called compressing the registry. The purpose of a registry cleaner is to make the system run faster and error free. Most of the registry cleaners achieve this with ease.

Backup Function Is Most Important

Registry cleaners have a registry backup function that needs to be run before cleaning up the registry. This is because the registry is the backbone of the system and in case anything goes wrong at least the system can be restored to its previous working level. Many registry cleaners and registry repair software have a startup management tool built in. This permits the user to select the programs that start up automatically when the system boots. Though this can be achieved by typing the famous MSCONFIG command at the RUN dialogue box the registry tools keep you up-to-date with the programs that are in the startup of the system every time you run the registry cleaner on your system.

So to cut a long story short it is sufficient to say that PC users have found that the use of Registry Cleaners is a boon to the PC. The registry cleaner software keeps the system running fast and efficiently all the time. The only job left for the user to do is to manually run the Registry cleaner from time to time.

Author is admin and technical expert associated with development of computer security and performance enhancing software like Registry Cleaner, Window Cleaner, Anti Spam Filter etc. More information can be found at http://www.pcmantra.com To know about the Registry Cleaner visit at http://www.pcmantra.com/registry-cleaner.htm.

Codec Definition

Writen by Kevin Whales

A program or a device capable of performing encoding and decoding on a digital data stream or signal is known as Codec. The stream or signal for transmission, storage or encryption are encoded and decoded by the Codecs. In the video camera, the ADC converts its analogue signals to digital signals, which after passing through the video compressor for transmission or storage are decoded by the DAC for analog display. An audio compressor converts analogue audio signals to digital signals for transmission or storage. The de-compressor at the receiving end converts the digital signals back to analog for playback. Essence is a term commonly associated with the raw encoded form of audio and video data.

Codec is an algorithm used to code and decode the voice conversation in case of VoIP. The voice and sound that we hear is in analogue form and needs to be converted into a digital form for transmission over Internet. On the other side, it needs to be decoded once again to make it easy to hear for the recipient. The coding and decoding can be done in different ways by utilizing compression to reduce the bandwidth of the conversation. It is pertinent to mention that with VoIP, encoding with heavy compression takes more time and delays the conversation. It is here that the codec becomes eminent for it not only maintains good quality with compression but also does the encoding and decoding in a reasonable time.

Different VoIP clients support different codecs and each VoIP service provider supports the subset of a codec. In simpler terms when a VoIP call is established, you need to use a codec that is supported by both the parties and the provider. It is imperative to understand codecs so as to enable you to have a better understanding as to why some VoIP service providers are better than others and also why audibility through IPS with some service providers is better than others. In the following paragraphs, the different types of codecs and their utility are elaborated.

There are basically three types of codecs namely Audio codecs, Video codecs, and Data codecs.

Audio codec – A computer program which compresses/decompresses digital audio data is known as audio codec. Most of these codecs are implemented as libraries that act as an interface to one or more multimedia players such as Winamp, XMMS and Windows Media Player. At times, the audio codec can refer to a hardware implementation or sound card. In such a context, the term audio codec actually refers to a combined audio AD/DA converter and a fine example of this would be the Intel Corporation's AC'97.

Video codec is the device or software module that enables the use of data compression for digital videos. Initially, videos were stored on magnetic tapes as an analogue signal. However with the evolution of compact discs, it became feasible to store and use video in a digital form. A combination of audio and video calls for customized methods of compression. There lies the complexity between video quality bit rate, the complexity of coding and decoding, robustness of data loss and error, random access and the art of compression.

The Digital video codec are found in DVD, VCD in emerging satellite and terrestrial broadcast systems and on the Internet. Online video encoding has led to the availability of codec packs with installer as a software package for PCs.

Data Codecs – Data that is not automatically handled by quick time media operations and can be compressed and decompressed with the help of data codecs. Quick time media would automatically compress and decompress video and sound tracks with the help of image and sound codecs but it will not automatically compress or decompress sprites. Data codes are useful for compressing and decompressing sprites, 3D models and arbitrary blocks on data from other sources.

Kevin Whales is industry expert, author of articles for newbies. The website is VoIP systems - wireless VoIP, VoIP protocols - http://www.the-voip-systems.com

Free Spyware Removal Tools

Writen by Alison Cole

There are many pseudo spyware removers out there, which intend to infiltrate your system under the pretence of an effective spyware removal tool. Many such spyware removal tools lured users and trapped them inside their own computers. Systems slowed down, crashed or were filled with spam. This reiterates the fact that users have to be extremely careful in choosing their free spyware removal tools.

Tools for effective spyware removal include those which scan, detect, eliminate and protect the system from potentially dangerous stuff. The first of these is of course, a spyware scanner like Spybot which routinely checks your system for unwanted material. Make sure you use a pop-up blocker for your internet browsing engine.

Spyware Doctor is a powerful anti-spyware tool that can be downloaded for free into your system. It prevents any malicious and dangerous software from installing themselves on to the computer. This tool enhances your PC protection three fold by advanced scanning, blocking real-time threats and making your system immune to many known spyware. Some of its key features include the Spyware and Adware Scanner, Pop-up Blocker, Malware Immunizer and the Browser and Spyware Cookie Guard.

Trend Micro Anti Spyware is a free online tool that checks and treats any spyware infections on your computer. To use this tool, the computer will need an installation of Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher.

TZ Adware Spyware Removal Tool will perform entire system scans to protect your user information on the internet. It recognizes almost all kinds of spyware known to experts today and cleans your registry, memory and hard disks. And all it takes is a click on the mouse. It also has a Startup Manager and features multi-language support. You can also create a back up of removed items and restore valuable information, in case they have been removed. This is effective against Trojans, Adware, Trackware, hijackers, dialers and viruses.

Free Spyware Removal provides detailed information on Free Spyware Removal, Free Spyware Removal Downloads, Free Spyware Removal Software, Free Spyware Removal Tools and more. Free Spyware Removal is affiliated with Simulation Software.

Microsoft Ecommerce Webdevelopment Great Plains Econnect Net Highlights For Programmer

Writen by Andrew Karasev

In our small article we'll consider Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains Sales Order Processing module as eCommerce backend. Plus we'll cover what is possible and impossible in eConnect and why. Microsoft Great Plains is one of the most popular ERP in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, Latin America, UK and South Africa. Due to the MBS strategy – Great Plains Dynamics was pulled from other markets, such as continental Europe (Germany, France, Russia) – where Navision and Axapta are the promoted and recommended solutions. If you have Navision or Axapta – please read our publications on these products on Alba Spectrum Technologies publication site.

• Great Plains Platform – Great Plains Software Dynamics is written on GPS proprietary platform in Dexterity program language. Dexterity is based on very shrewd application development philosophy – ERP application will stay decades if it is independent from the graphical computer environment and database platform. Back in 1992 C programming language was believed to be the rescuer and be cross-platform.

• Great Plains Architecture. Here we need to give you highlights on Great Plains Dynamics initial design. General Ledger (GL) was intended as core module, then you see modules, posting directly to GL: Receivables Management (RM), Payables Management (PM), Payroll, Inventory Control. The next level – modules, posting to GL through other modules: Sales Order Processing (through Accounts Receivable), Purchase Order Processing (through Accounts Payables), etc. The second principle – Great Plains would never allow you to post the batch of transactions behind the scene – only via the user interface – checked and approved by the user.

• eOrder – this IIS ASP application was initially available for all the platforms: MS SQL Server, Ctree and Btrieve (later on Pervasive SQL 2000), in 1998 Great Plains Software made it available for MS SQL server only. eOrder was predecessor of modern eCommerce sites and all the attempts to customize eOrder were dubious in the version upgrade.

• .Net paradigm. Instead of inventing and making you use standard eCommerce solution - .Net gives you the choice to select from variety of products available on the market. This means that no more eOrders – you just need the connector which will allow you to address Great Plains objects from your eCommerce application. As usual you are free to use your language of choice: VB or C#

• eConnect. Yes – exactly – it was initially developed for eCommerce programmers. Later on eConnect was extended on the majority of Great Plains modules, including distributions

• Restrictions. As you see above – Great Plains allows you to address work tables only – this means that you can not post transactions using eConnect. Other reported issues were related to Sales Order transfer to Invoice/Backorder

• Custom Stored Procedures. Right – you have to use these custom SQL scripts to post transactions, created with eConnect.

If you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-630-961-5918 or 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving Chicago, California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Georgia, New York, Australia, UK, Canada, Continental Europe, Russia and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK

Fashion Design Cad Cam Software Overview

Writen by Saar Machtinger

Computer Aided Design is used at various stages in the apparel and textile industry. The fashion design CAD/CAM software can be broadly classified into following categories, each relating to a different design and manufacturing stage.

Categories and manufacturing stages are:

Designing/ Range Planning – before the start of any fashion season, all apparel manufacturers plan the range of garments which they are setting up to manufacture. Most of the designing and range planning is still done by the buyer or the owners of the brand because they are closest to their actual clients; it is easier for them to understand the specific needs of their target market. To some extent, this has now changed with more and more manufacturers allowing vendors to dabble a bit in designing, based on their specific inputs in terms of colors, yarns, fabrics, prints, silhouettes etc.

Prototyping/ Sampling – once the designs have been finalized, a prototype or sample has to be made, because the scalability of the end product (garment) very much depends on the fit of the garment.

In a study conducted by an independent research agency, which monitored and observed the reasons of dissatisfaction or returns of garments sold - fitting problems topped the dissatisfaction list.

Considering the importance of a good fit, it becomes imperative for a manufacturer or retailer to achieve the best fits possible. Considering the complexity involved with different fabrics and silhouettes, a CAD system takes away much of the pain from prototyping thus decreasing the time to market.

Mass Production – comes with its own challenges. Unlike most other products, apparel manufacturing, even today very much depends on people – especially when it comes to tailoring or assembling. A mistake anywhere down the line in the prototyping or cutting process becomes very difficult and often impossible to rectify. This is where a CAD system comes in, to deskill some of the processes involved in mass manufacturing, namely the pre–production processes so that perfectly cut parts are fed to the operators. Additionally, the fabric saved in bulk cutting while using a CAD system is enormous.

Retailing – A 3D solution allows 3D files to be uploaded on to website for clients to choose from. 3D files can be opened and viewed in any MS office application or Internet explorer.

Mr. Saar Machtinger, Director Business Development, OptiTex™ Fashion design software, which specializes in the development of innovative, easy-to-operate, 2-Dimensional, and 3-Dimensional CAD/CAM Fashion Design software. http://www.optitex.com

Microsoft Great Plains Multicurrency Overview For Implementation Consultant

Writen by Andrew Karasev

When you first think about multicurrency – you probably have in mind the revaluation question. Currency triangulation – which was the need when European currencies were fixed to Euro is not an issue any more.

1. Sales and Purchasing multicurrency – when you are selecting accounting package with multicurrency, you need first understand if it has multicurrency on the Sales and Purchasing modules level, not just in GL. The problem behind is like this. When you have sales in foreign currency – you will probably get the payment later on when currency may potentially lose some value against your functional currency (like US Dollar or Euro – however in our days Dollar is very good candidate to do so, but this is outside of the scope). Then – even if you do have payments upfront in foreign currency – you probably don't plan to convert this currency to functional for repatriation, you probably keep it in the local bank and so your foreign money is subject to fluctuation in comparison to functional currency

2. Unrealized and Realized Gains and Losses – gain or loss is unrealized when transaction is not yet settled (like payment is not received and not applied – but you would already like to know if you have unrealized gain or loss). When transaction is settled – then realized gain or loss might be in place – this is simply the difference of what if you would get immediate payment and got payment now.

3. Revaluation – this is when you decide to recalculate your Sales, Purchasing transaction and post realized and unrealized gains or losses. As the result you usually want GL transaction to be created

4. GL Multicurrency – is simplified version. You may have transactions entered directly in GL with foreign currency selected – in this case it is subject for possible revaluation.

5. Microsoft Great Plains Multicurrency – it is on the level of the following modules: GL, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Sales Order Processing, Purchase Order Processing, Bank Reconciliation, Project Accounting. So it is full-featured multicurrency.

Happy implementing! if you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-630-961-5918 or 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving Chicago, California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Georgia, New York, Australia, UK, Canada, Continental Europe, Russia and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is Microsoft Great Plains Certified Master, Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

Running Windows Applications On Linux

Writen by Rob Pirozzi

The perceived inability to run windows applications on Linux is what keeps many individuals from trying Linux. It turns out that it is possible to run many popular Windows applications on Linux PCs using one of several software technologies. Products that will allow Windows applications to run on Linux include:

• Cedega from TransGaming Technologies Inc.
• CrossOver Office for Linux from CodeWeavers Inc.
• QEMU from Fabrice Bellard
• VMware from VMware, an EMC company
• Win4Lin from Win4Lin Inc.
• Wine from the Wine Project

Cedega

TransGaming Technologies bills themselves as "the global leader in the development of software portability products for cross-platform gaming". Their flagship product, Cedega, allows games originally created for Windows to run on Linux, "out-of-the-box".

Cedega runs on Linux Kernel 2.4 or higher.

Cedega is available on a subscription basis from the TransGaming web site (http://www.transgaming.com/). TransGaming also offers a 14-day trial of Cedega on their web site.

CrossOver Office

CrossOver Office from CodeWeavers allows many popular Windows applications to run on Linux. The list of applications that CrossOver Office allows to run on Linux is quite extensive and includes applications such as: Microsoft Office, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Project and Visio, and graphics applications such as Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, Flash MX, and Adobe Photoshop, and much more. CrossOver Office also allows individuals to use many Windows Web browser plugins, such as QuickTime and Shockwave. CodeWeavers uses Wine technology in its CrossOver Office Products (see the Wine description later in this article).

CodeWeavers maintains an extensive list of applications that can run on Linux using CrossOver Office with a ranking of how well they run. The list can be accessed on their web site (http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/browse/name).

CrossOver Office has been tested on many Linux distributions. The complete list may be found on the CodeWeavers web site.

CrossOver Office is available in two versions, Standard and Professional. The Standard version is intended for home users and Linux enthusiasts, while Professional is more for commercial users and builds on the functionality of Standard by adding enhanced deployability features, as well as the ability to run CrossOver Office in shared mode from a single machine.

A 30-day trial of CrossOver Office is available from CodeWeavers and may be obtained from their web site (http://www.codeweavers.com/).

QEMU

QEMU is a generic open source processor emulator that was developed by Fabrice Bellard. It is available for free. QEMU allows a user to run one operating system, such as Windows, within another one, such as Linux.

QEMU is available for Free and may be downloaded from Fabrice's web site (http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/download.html).

VMware

VMware comes from VMware, Inc., an EMC company. VMware allows users to to run multiple virtual machines on a single PC. Each virtual machine can run a different operating system. The net result is that VMWare allows a user to run multiple operating systems on a single Intel-based PC. Using VMware, a user can run a Windows virtual machine and Windows applications on a Linux PC.

VMware Workstation supports a long list of Linux distributions as the host operating system. You should check with the VMware web site for the specific releases and kernel levels supported.

A free 30-day trial of VMware Workstation may be downloaded from the VMWare web site (http://www.vmware.com/download/ws/eval.html.

VMware also provides the VMware Player for free. The VMware Player can run virtual machines created by VMware Workstation, GSX Server or ESX Server. Pre-configured VMware virtual machines may be obtained from the VMWare Virtual Machine Center (http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/vm/).

Win4Lin

Win4Lin from Win4Lin Inc. provides a Windows virtual computing environment that runs on Linux allowing Windows applications to run on Linux. Win4Lin comes in three versions that would be appropriate for the home user:

• Win4Lin Home, which is targeted for the home or small business user.
• Win4Lin 9x (Formerly Win4Lin 5), which is targeted for the home user/hobbyist, or business users who do not require Windows 2000.
• Win4Lin Pro, which is targeted at power users who require Windows 2000 or XP.

Win4Lin runs on most 2.4.x or 2.6.x Linux distributions. Win4Lin 9x and Win4Lin Home require a modified kernel to work. For most users, the Win4Lin graphical installer will select, download, and install the appropriate binary replacement kernel, making patching the kernel unnecessary. However, there are some distributions that may require users to compile a vanilla kernel from source. Such distributions include Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 and 4, and Fedora Core 3 and 4. Some Linux distributions include Win4Lin support in their default kernel or make a Win4Lin enabled kernel available, including: Gentoo, Linspire, SimplyMepis, and Xandros. Win4Lin Pro does not require kernel modification.

Wine

Wine, which stands for Wine Is Not a (CPU) Emulator, is an Open Source implementation of the Windows API (application programming interface) that runs on Linux and POSIX compatible operating systems. Wine is a compatibility layer that allows Windows programs to run on Linux. Wine is still under development, and it is not yet suitable for general use, however, many individuals use Wine to run Windows applications on Linux. WineHQ maintains an Application Database (http://www.winehq.com/site/about) of individual's success and failure reports running Windows applications with Wine. Other products mentioned in this article are based on Wine, including CodeWeavers CrossOver Office, and Cedega from TransGaming Technologies. Wine is Available for Free.

Rob Pirozzi is a freelance writer who provides timely, quality professional writing of all types. He is also the publisher of the web site Low-Cost-Computing.com which provides information on low-cost computers and low-cost or free software for the average home or small business computer user.