Greentrees Beta Program

Greentree from Focus ready for Australian Beta test program
JADE based, Australasian developed accounting package nears completion, resellers invest in support.

Sydney – 16th October, 1998 - Focus Software Corporation, the Australasian-based developer of the widely used CBA accounting package, today announced the commencement of the beta test program in Australia for their new Windows financial package; Greentree.

Developed by Mr Don Bowman and most of the original team behind CBA, Greentree is based on JADE, an entirely new object orientated database and development tool from New Zealand’s Cardinal Group.

Overall eight Australian and NZ based resellers will undergo Greentree training in New Zealand during November that will qualify them to begin product trials with key corporate clients on completion. Participating end-users in the beta program range from smaller Australasian companies with $10 million turnover, to some of the regions largest corporations, all of whom are keen to examine the advanced features of Greentree and experience how it can improve their business.

Mr Richard Jones, General Manager of Focus in Australia commented, "while offering users similar functionality to the CBA product, Greentree is a huge leap forward in providing mainframe-type features in lower-cost Windows and NT operating environments. JADE provides the Greentree product with an integrated language and database, fully object orientated. Users benefit from a reliable, 24X7 operating environment with full scalability from a single user, to well over a thousand. Full commit and rollback functionality and automatic database recovery in the event of power shut- down are indicative of the power behind Greentree," he said.

The Cardinal Group has invested in Greentree by assisting Focus in the design and technical support areas, including assistance with the reseller training program now underway in Auckland, and support for a full Australia-wide program in 1999. "We are very excited to see Greentree enter the beta test phase," said Keith Cowan JADE Business Manager at Cardinal. "Don Bowman and his team at Focus have created a world-class product which will rival the best delivered by foreign companies, at a fraction of the cost. We enthusiastically support Greentree and will be working hard with Focus to ensure its world-wide success," he added.

Resellers around the region report enthusiasm for Greentree and Focus expect to have around 20 sites in beta test of Greentree during November. Greentree will also be shown to the public for the first time in Australia at the GartnerGroup Symposium in Brisbane from October 28th to 30th.

Focus have announced that Greentree Version 1.0 will be available in Australia late in December this year. It will comprise modules for General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Cash Management, Foreign Currency and Systems Tools. Version 1.1 of Greentree is planned for a mid-1999 release and will include Inventory, Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, Fixed Assets, Payroll and Job Costing.

Richard Jones from Focus explained that Greentree will not replace the incredibly popular CBA character based package which will be upgraded to CBA 2000 Version 3.0 later this year. "We will continue to support CBA as long as demand for a character based solution exists, with over 10,000 licences sold it is still a popular and powerful package. Those wishing to move to Greentree however, will be supported by an attractive upgrade policy," he said.

Information supplied by Focus Software Corporation

Focus Announces CBA2000 Version 3

Focus Releases Version 3.0 Of Popular CBA Accounting Package.
Shows long-term commitment to character-based version.

Sydney – 22nd October, 1998 - Focus Software Corporation, today announced details of a new version of their popular CBA 2000 accounting package designed for Australasian business.

The new version of the package, sold to more than 10,000 sites around the region, builds on the expanding needs of a very diverse user base.

"We incorporated more than 50 user-requested enhancements in this new version of CBA 2000," said Mr Richard Jones, General Manager of Focus in Australia. "Feedback on Version 3.0 from our user and dealer base is that we have been successful in honing our character-based product to the highest level of functionality," he added.

Enhancements in Version 3.0 include a new "Indent Ordering" facility that allows sales orders to be dynamically linked to particular purchase orders. This new feature helps organisations that need to make one-off or high value purchases, ensuring the ordered goods are delivered to the right customer, at the expected price.

A number of new reports have been added to the system, allowing better use to be made of the historical data that has been captured about customers, suppliers, stock and expenses. These include a new "Top Customers" report which lists the best performing customers for this year, last year and the previous year, while a new "Top Stock" report lists the best selling stock items over a similar period.

A new margin report highlights stock items that currently have a selling price which falls below defined margin levels. This useful report helps the user to monitor cost increases that may require selling prices to be adjusted.

A wide number of enhancements have also been made to CBA’s powerful payroll system to allow for even more flexible calculation of annual, sick and long service leave types. Used by both small and large organisations CBA payroll is able to cater for 10 –10,000 employees.

Initially released over 10 years ago, CBA was recently acquired by the original developers (now at Focus) from Platinum’s Custom Software Division. "Our users have given great support to our recommitment to the CBA product, with a large percentage upgrading from older versions and many new users joining the fold. They, and our dealers, tell us the functionality and features of CBA 2000 is without peer in the addressed market," said Mr Jones.

"Fully Y2K compliant and locally developed for handling GST and other accounting issues particular to our region, CBA 2000 will continue to be supported and developed by Focus not withstanding the imminent release of Greentree, our new Windows/NT product based on the JADE Object Orientated Database," said Mr Jones. "Many CBA users are more than satisfied with a character-based solution and cannot see the business case for a move at this time to a Windows based product. Many like the simple screens for data entry, and find CBA 2000 is more than adequate for their current needs."

Focus has announced that CBA 2000 product will be supported and improved for as long as customer demand exists.

"We have also made it easy for existing clients with current maintenance to upgrade free-of-charge (other than support company costs) to version 3 of CBA 2000. Also those new clients investing in CBA 2000 now, who plan to move eventually to Greentree, will receive a credit against their future purchase," said Mr Jones.

CBA 2000 will be widely available from all authorised Focus reseller networks around Australia and New Zealand during December 1998.

Information supplied by Focus Software Corporation

Arrow and IBM Join Forces

Arrow Research teams with IBM to deliver ArrowNet accounting solution integrated with IBM Software for Windows NT
Small- and medium-size businesses will benefit from initiative that provides Web-enabled accounting solutions

Melbourne, Australia – July 31, 1998 – Arrow Research Corporation (ARC) has announced a joint initiative with IBM to deliver ArrowNet*, a pioneering Web-enabled e-business accounting solution for the small- to medium-size business market. ARC will integrate ArrowNet with IBM Small Business Suite for Windows NT+ (which is due for release in the fourth quarter 1998). The IBM Small Business Suite for Windows NT incorporates Lotus Domino** with IBM’s DB2*** Universal Database for Windows NT, respectively providing an Internet-enabled interface that allows ARC customers to leverage electronic commerce as well as workflow/knowledge management capabilities.

"This joint initiative provides ARC with the ability to maintain focus on our strength of developing premium market-leading accounting software and utilizing the expertise of other market leaders like IBM and Lotus, while in pursuit of our goal of providing a leading e-business accounting solution,"stated David Millward, Managing Director with Arrow Research Corporation. "Arrow has capitalized on the strength of IBM’s specialist technical expertise database technologies and e-commerce, and has recognized the enormous benefits to be gained by our association with a respected global market leader. This association has the potential to expand our current Australasian distribution channel to potentially a global network."

Announcing the joint initiative, IBM’s Australia and New Zealand General Manager, Software and Cross Industry Group Andrew Dutton said " To fully succeed in e-business, companies of all sizes need data transfer integrity – particularly when it comes to Internet transfers of data. IBM’s Contributions to ArrowNet via IBM Small Business Suite for windows NT and DB2 Universal Database yields a dynamic solution with the kind of rock-solid data integrity that can only come from IBM. Furthermore, the inclusion of Lotus Domino makes ArrowNet a reliable, interactive Web application with powerful messaging and Internet storefront capabilities."

ArrowNet will be a fully integrated financial software solution consisting of the following modules: Cashbook, Debtors, Creditors, Stock, General Ledger, Payroll, Job Costing, SalesOrders, Purchase Orders, Bill of Materials and Fixed Assets. The solution will provide timely financial information such as outstanding debt collection, projected cash commitments and reports which analyse stock turnover and value – and the information is immediate and as up- to-date as the last transaction entered.

Information supplied by Arrow Research Corporation.
* Indicates a trademark or registered trademark of Arrow Research Corporation
** Indicates a trademark or registered trademark of Lotus Development
*** Indicates a trademark or registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
+ Windows NT is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation
++ Other product mentions may be trademarks of their respective manufacturers

Nexus Diamond Series Version 2

Nexus Business Software releases that next step in its Nexus Diamond Series strategy. The philosophy behind the Diamond Series Release 2 is two fold. It is important to ensure that the product is at the fore-front with market-driven technologies and the new Graphical look and feel throughout all screens satisfies this objective. Whilst Windows look and feel is critical in some environments, the feature set of the product is at least as important. This new release has many new features applicable to all platforms and users.

Some new features include:

• Fully year 2000 compliant.
• "Cashflow" report - this report links reports from AR/SO and AP and current outstanding transactions to show anticipated dollar requirements for the coming periods.
• Inter-company accounting.
• Graphical representation of sales and supplier history.
• Prescribed payments system.
• Allow multiple warehouses within one order/invoice.
• Process Control
• WIP with full integration to General Ledger.

Information supplied by Nexus Business Software.

Year 2000
Most of this issue will be devoted to the question of "what will happen" on January 1st, 2000. There has been a lot of media coverage lately, so you should all be aware that a potential problem exists.

For most of you, the single most important item of software that your business uses is your accounting software. There is a timetable of compliance for the major accounting software packages that we support on page 2. We hope this newsletter helps clarify some of the information available on the year 2000 for you.

Why has the year 2000 become a problem?
Years ago computer memory and disk space was much more expensive that it is today. Calculations and data transfers were much slower. By removing the century from the date field of all data, programmers were able to save time and money on the operating systems and applications they wrote (including the data created from these applications).

This technique became standard and the practice continued even as resource prices declined.

Will it affect me?
The Millennium Bug, as this problem is sometimes called, will affect all businesses to a certain extent. Directors of companies should be aware that they could be held responsible for their company’s non-compliance.

The millennium bug affects the three major components of all computer systems:

1. the computer BIOS (basic input output system). This is the small piece of software that comes on the computer that allows it to recognise keyboards, monitors, etc. Without this software the computer won’t operate at all.
2. the operating system (Windows, DOS, etc.)
3. application software (accounting software, databases, payroll, spreadsheets).

What can I do about the problem?

Hardware
It is not that simple to test your computers’ BIOS. You can’t just use the date/time commands in the computer setup utility to change the date to 31-12-99 and the time to a couple of minutes to midnight. Special software tests are required to ensure that you don’t damage your system.

Operating systems
Popular wisdom says that all operating systems that are post-DOS version 5 are safe. However, we would advise caution with this "wisdom". If the hardware doesn’t comply, the operating system can’t.

Application Software
As can be seen below, all of the accounting products that we deal with will be compliant by the end of this calendar year. It will be important to ensure that you have taken advantage of the upgrades mentioned, especially if you are working with expiry dates on batches, issuing or accepting forward orders, and setting up assets that depreciate past the turn of the century. Other application software may be less forgiving in the way that they handle the new millennium.

Where to now?
We have tested a software package called "Check 2000". We have six computers that we have tested it on.

It appears to provide an accurate assessment of the hardware and operating system in relation to the year 2000. It even tells you how far away it is! It also checks approximately 7,000 other programs for date dependencies.

We have the name and phone number of the supplier if you are interested. For $100.00 they provide the software (with full help facilities) as well as after test advice as to how to avoid a problem with the your particular hardware/software combinations.

You should check with the suppliers of your other core software applications as to the availability or otherwise of upgrades to make the software Year 2000 compliant.

Accounting Software Year 2000 Timetable

Arrow Accounting Software
Arrow Version 4 is now available for sites on the maintenance policy. This version is fully Year 2000 compliant. Please call to organise your upgrade.

CBA
The latest release of the Platinum CBA product (v2.2), which has been branded as "CBA 2000", is now installed on most of our CBA sites. Those sites that have not upgraded should contact us as soon as possible to organise an upgrade.

Nexus
All Nexus sites running Diamond Series V2 are already Year 2000 compliant. Sites running Diamond Series V1 have the choice of upgrading to V2 or having a "mini-upgrade" completed that will make V1 compliant. All other versions of Nexus will need to be upgraded to allow for compliance.

Platinum for Windows
Version 4.6 was released in late December 1997. All clients on maintenance would have automatically received the upgrade from Platinum. Please contact us if you have not yet completed the upgrade.

Platinum for Windows

The release date for Version 4.7 has been confirmed as the end of December 1998. There are a number of new features, including:

• Serial Lot tracking
• Drop shipments
• Kit support
• New Crystal Runtime Reports
• Enhanced template support
• A choice of database engines - the traditional Btrieve or Pervasive.SQL 7.0
• If using Pervasive.SQL 7.0, AuditMaster is supplied as part of the system manager.
• FRx Version 5.5 with support for Microsoft Access V8.