Industry Issues Letter from the President

2512 Eberhart Road
Whitehall, PA 18052
Volume 1, Issue 3
July 2005
Letter from the President
Inside this issue:
Letter from the
President
1
Industry Issues
1
Inventory Pro Q&A
2
Technology Notes
2
What’s New?
2
Summer has arrived in the Lehigh
Valley, and as the weather heats up
so does our team at CISS Ltd. We
have been working on many new
features and ideas that you, our
valued customers, bring to us every
day…keep them coming.
We are hearing more and more
about RFID, .Net, and e-commerce
and we are listening. We take your
suggestions and we keep abreast of
industry needs by attending seminars, conferences, tours, and trade
shows so that we can bring you the
cutting-edge technology you need.
We expect to have our new .Net
product available in our web-based
Inventory Pro Online product soon
and you can learn more about its We always go the extra
benefits in our “What’s New”
mile... and it's not because
Column. I think you’ll love the
more user-friendly graphical user we missed the last exit!
interface and the user functionalare finding more and more uses
ity we have added to the reporting
for a wireless PDA/scanner every
feature will make it simple for
day.
your to manipulate your data to fit
your needs.
Please contact us with your comments and suggestions. We are
We are also forming alliances
always interested in learning what
with accounting system value
features and functionality you
added resellers in order to be able
would like to see in IP4Win and
to supply you with a full turnkey
IPOL.
system that includes accounting
systems to meet all levels of
Thank you for your business-needs with tried and tested exit is greatly appreciated.
perts. Our Inventory Pro Mobile
Ben
product seems to have created a
lot of interest and our customers
Industry Issues
Congratulations to our
contest winner, Barbara
Deaver from Apollo
Press, Inc.
Multiple David’s
versus Goliath
Quote from our winner:
There has been an ongoing debate
over best-of-breed solutions
(David’s) versus ERP systems
(Goliath). CISS is considered a
best-of-breed solution linking its
strong inventory control software
with multiple breeds of business
software. From accounting to
human resource software CISS
can interface with most best-ofbreed solutions that allow for
integration.
“The updates provided by
Inventory Pro to keep the
software up to date is a
real plus. In addition
to the up to date software
solutions the customer
service and prompt
attention when help is
needed is unsurpassed!”
- for full quote visit us at
cissltd.com
A best-of-breed solution generally
means choosing the best product
available for each business function
and may take advantage of software
already in place. Companies that are
seeking to remain agile and flexible,
that want to compete more effectively in new, evolving, or fastmoving markets, and that value
flexibility over total efficiency view
best-of-breed solutions as the best
way forward, because of the speed
of implementation and the tangible
evidence of what will be delivered,
showing quicker business results.
With our superior functionality,
customization ability, and fast
evolving rate, Inventory Pro is a
perfect match to interface with an
accounting or other software to
conquer the ERP giant.
Inventory Pro
Q&A
Latest Upgrades
We have released many builds of
Inventory Pro over the past year. Below
we list several value-adding features appearing builds 44 through 52.
• Inventory Leasing allows you to
transfer inventory items to a customer while still tracking them and
their value. When the items return
you can transfer them from the customer back into your facility.
• The Audit Trail Report shows the
chronological history of an item ID
(receipts, issues, moves, leases, and
more).
• The history of an item ID can now
be displayed when you add the item
ID to a shipping order as well as the
item master list. The Transaction
History button shows you the last
few transactions (and the value) of
the item with the ability to see the
entire history.
• Shipping Orders will now allow
adding of multiple kits to an order.
• Pictures can now be stored as a link
in the item master list and assets
screens, therefore stored outside of
the application lowering the overall
size of your database.
• Defining bar codes help you receive
items into stock when the bar code
contains two or more fields of data
in Inventory Pro.
• New Work Order/ Component Reports: Indented BOM, Indented Assembly Cost.
• You can now return items against a
purchase order or correct a previously posted receipt against a purchase order.
• Configurable Reports allows you to
take our reports, make a few changes
to the SQL statement and customize
it for your own purposes.
Call CISS to learn more about these
features!
If you plan to upgrade, please remember
to back up!
Upgrading requires a support plan with
CISS. Call for more details if you need a
new support contract.
Do you know your critical system files?
Technology Notes
Backing Up Your
MSDE Database
CISS offers its Inventory Pro
system with an Access,
MSDE, or SQL Server
database. Included with our
MSDE system is a freeware
utility called DbaMgr2k,
which allows our customers
the equivalent of SQL
Server Enterprise Manager
for administering their database.
DbaMgr2k offers a similar
interface to Enterprise
Manager, including the
ability to back up your
databases. This is vital for
protecting critical data.
Unforeseen problems can
occur at any time, so you
need to be able to store your
inventory system’s data. In
this issue, we will walk you
through how to back up your
MSDE database using the
DBA Manager.
Step 1: Open DbaMgr2k.
You can access DbaMgr2k on
the Windows Start Menu by
going to Start=>Programs
=>DbaMgr2k=> DbaMgr2k.
Step 2: Connect to your
MSDE server. You will see a
label that says “SQL Server.”
Double-click the label, and a
window will open for
connection properties. If your
MSDE server is local, click
the second three-dot button,
otherwise click the first threedot button, and select the
server that has “\MSDE” at
the end of it. Enter “cissltd”
for the password and click the
“Connect” button.
Step 3: Select your database
for backup. Click the database “InventoryPro” and then
right-click it. You will see a
menu appear. Click the
option “Backup Database.”
Step 4: Specify backup
options. You can provide a
name and description for your
backup. Make sure you leave
the option selected for
“Database – complete” in the
Backup box. For the
destination, click “Add,” then
choose a file location by
clicking “File Name” and
selecting a file location.
Step 5: Schedule backups. To
schedule backups, click
“Schedule” in the
“Destination” box. Type in a
name for your schedule, then
specify the days, times, and
frequency for your schedule.
DBA Manager defaults to a
weekly backup every Sunday
at midnight, but CISS
recommends that you back up
your MSDE database daily to
have the most recent available
inventory information for your
business. Click “Ok” when
you’re done.
Step 6: Once you’re done
specifying options, click “Ok”
to back up your database, or
“Close” to save your database
backup job, and you are done!
What’s New
.NET
CISS, Ltd., is anxious to complete our new .NET web-based
inventory management system
for you. In it you will find
increased usability and functionality.
First, let us briefly tell you
what .NET is all about. It is
software that integrates information, people, systems,
and devices. It is a software
development tool used to enhance the capabilities and
For standard Inventory Pro MS Access
and MSDE editions:
Ipc_XXXX.mde = Inventory Pro code file
Ipd_XXXX.cur = Inventory Pro data file
Ipa_XXXX.cur = Inventory Pro archived
data file
Ipl_XXXX.cur = Inventory Pro local file
System.mdw = Inventory Pro security file
functionality of software
applications. It consists of a
framework that supports
over 20 different
programming languages,
manages the infrastructure
that is involved in developing software, and makes it
easier to develop high
performance applications
and in turn provides our
customers with a more
feature-rich, robust, intuitive
system.
Some of the enhancements
you can expect to see in
our .NET release are user
interface design features, search
functionality, and increased
integration capabilities. This
format is expected to be the
widely accepted development
tool that will increase the
performance of web-based
applications, promote interoperability, decrease time to market,
and increase scalability.
CISS, Ltd., is committed to
staying on the cutting edge of
technologies that will enhance
the performance of the systems
we provide to you.
CISS introduces the MC50 by Symbol
•
•
•
•
•
Inventory Pro Mobile: Issue, Locate, and Receive
Wireless: 802.11b
Full QWERTY keyboard
PDA and Barcode Scanner: 1D, 2D, Imager
Quick Show of Return on Investment!!
COMING SOON!!!
One standard edition of Inventory Pro!
Upgrade to 11.1!
Phone: 800-796-0101
www.cissltd.com
Email: [email protected]