News

By default, INFORRMS shows line items, product units, and extended prices on invoices. But by using print codes in the order, you can keep any or all of that information from being printed on the invoice copy you send to a customer. Conversely, INFORRMS does not show, by default, any …

Now that INFONETICS is a part of the Datacor family, the question we get most is “Will we be forced to switch from INFORRMS to Datacor ERP C\S and Trackabout anytime soon?” The short answer is no. The long answer is no, you won’t be forced. But, you might want …

Grove City, OH / July 2021 — INFONETICS, Inc., provider of business management software and IT consulting to packaged gas and welding supply businesses throughout the US, is pleased to announce it has been acquired by Datacor, Inc., a leading provider of process manufacturing and distribution software. As the newest …

Have you ever opened an INFORRMS-generated PDF on an iPhone or iPad only to find that sections are blacked-out, even though the exact same PDF looks fine when opened on a Windows PC? If you haven’t, chances are at least one of your customers may have encountered this odd problem. …

When South Park Welding Supplies in Marysville, Michigan, went looking for a solution to help them keep track of their cylinders and get control of their rental business, they turned to INFONETICS INFORRMS’s Serial Number System. After a year of use, they are more certain than ever they made the …

Last year, OKI Data announced they were pulling out of the Americas and would no longer sell printers in the United States as of March 2021. Well, that time has come, and gone, and it's now almost impossible to find a new OKI Data printer anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.   Almost.  …

The AIWD convention is always a great opportunity to catch up with old industry friends, and make new ones, but it seems like it’s been forever since the last time I was able to make it. That’s why I’m so excited that I’ll be there this year.  If you’ll be …

We’ve all slogged through the last year, hoping and wishing for the good old pre-pandemic days. Here in the tech biz, it’s been a whirlwind of new products, strategies, and coping. A quite busy whirlwind in fact.   Recently, my wife Mary and I became eligible for the CoVid vaccine …

It never fails.  It’s the New Year, I’m writing out a check, and I put last year’s year on it. Out of pure habit.  This usually happens until about the middle of March.  Super frustrating. And every time I do it, I curse the guy who came up with the …

When it comes to your data, it’s not important enough to just have backups, but to have those backups on storage media you can count on.  ERAM — Electronic Random Access Memory, better known as “Memory Sticks”, “Flash Drives”, “Thumb Drives”, and “Those computer thingies” — offer large storage capacities …

Having a video surveillance system is more important than ever. Having one you can depend on is essential. Walk into any Big-box store and you can find dozens of video surveillance systems, promising easy do-it-yourself installation at dirt cheap prices. They’re tempting, sure. But these consumer-oriented, off-the-shelf systems provide a …

Is your staff working from home more, lately? I know, dumb question. Of course they are. But are the PCs and laptops they’re using at home safe from viruses, malware, and other computer threats? Whether your staff is using company-provided PCs to work from home, or their own home PCs, …

60% of all searches are done on a mobile device, and that number is growing every year. In just the past year, search engine giants like Google are no longer ranking sites based on their content alone. Now, they’re also increasingly ranking sites based on how fast they display pages …

Is your business prepared for the new normal? As businesses throughout the country slowly begin to reopen, we hope, and even pray, that we won't see a second pandemic wave. But even if we don't, we all know we're not going back to the normal we left behind just two …

It’s 3:23 in the afternoon, on a Sunday, and your extension rings. Maybe it’s a supplier, or a customer needing a rush order. But you’re not at the office. Do you miss the call? Not with a 3CX VoIP (Voice Over Internet) phone system from INFONETICS, you don’t. Your office …

Other than remembering to pay the electric bill, backups are probably the most important thing you can do to protect your data.  ERAM — Electronic Random Access Memory, better known as “Memory Sticks”, "Flash Drives", and "Thumb Drives" — offer large storage capacities in conveniently portable packages. Thanks to their …

As a business that supports other businesses, we here at INFONETICS know that you depend on us to help keep your business up and running. We want to reassure you that INFONETICS is committed to remaining staffed and open for business during this extraordinary time.  We've made preparations to guard …

The software you rely on to power your business has a new name.  Since we released INFONETICS, our signature collection of point-of-sale, accounting, inventory, and rental modules, 36 years ago, it and our company have always shared a name. But as INFONETICS — the software — has evolved and INFONETICS …

As you know, we're constantly reviewing our policies and procedures to ensure we're exceeding industry best practices for user management, security, and service. As part of that review process, we have determined that we can no longer allow end-users to create, delete, or suspend G Suite/Gmail accounts on their own, as …

Bad addresses, problems with the recipient’s email system, and recipients accidentally marking emails as spam are some of the most common reasons why INFOMAILs can fail to reach their intended recipient. Luckily, they’re also some of the easiest problems to fix, using the tools provided by Sendgrid, the system INFOMAIL …

After more than twenty-seven years with us, our Dawn O’Keefe has decided she’s ready for the next chapter of her life and will be retiring from INFONETICS in the very near future. As a Software Support Specialist, Dawn has been an invaluable member of the INFONETICS team. Time and time …

Email used to be simple. You sent an email, it got there. But that was back before hackers, scammers and phishers got into the email game and ruined it for everyone. Thanks to the daily onslaught of unwanted emails, email service providers have become more aggressive in flagging emails as …

We're proud to announce the recent addition of Jim Greco to our staff as technical writer and webmaster. Jim brings over twenty-plus years’ IT, technical writing, and web experience to INFONETICS. Jim will be helping INFONETICS develop and expand customer access to the documentation for our INFONETICS SUITE of integrated …

INFONETICS has developed a reputation for offering new hardware technology at reasonable pricing without the need to replace softwares or peripheral devices. This is due, in large part, to INFONETICS early adoption of standard PC hardware technology. Many customers report that their former software vendor required a near complete repurchase …

The INFOPAGE forms imaging system generates actual forms as it prints Quotes, Invoices, Rental Invoices, Purchase Orders and Statements on a laserjet-compatible page printer. INFOPAGE eliminates the need for pre-printed forms thereby reducing forms stocking problems. Here's how it works. First, we typeset the equivalent of your existing pre-printed forms …

INFONETICS "classic" keyboard-oriented software has always provided an ultra-easy to use, fast and efficient user interface. Screens are easy to navigate, compact, and optimally tuned for keyboard data entry. Admittedly, novice/first-time users accustomed to typical "graphical" mouse-oriented software sometimes experience culture shock as they come to know our classic approach. …

Spring has sprung here in central Ohio, and so have numerous new products. A pair of significant enhancements are being readied for release in our next software update: Mouse/touch-enabling of our software, and handwriting/signature capture on delivery ticket images. This continues our strategy of taking the best of the text-oriented, …

One of the very first deployments of the new INFOPAD mobile computer was not out in a warehouse doing physical inventory. It wasn't on the rear deck of a truck recording cylinder serial number barcodes or UPC barcodes off hardgoods as the driver made a delivery. It wasn't even on …

The INFONETICS server is the specially designed center of your business network and care should be taken to make sure that above all else this piece of equipment works properly. Unlike many pieces of equipment such as personal computers, printers, and laptops, the server is not a universal piece of …

Many think of email addresses as a simple, even intuitive, concept. Yet, the proper way to denote an email address may well determine whether the mail reaches its intended party as well as how it presents itself to the recipient. Following are some guidelines on how to best set up …

Mobile solutions and the welding supply industry, a difficult challenge indeed. Some devices have been too delicate for the rugged environment of the welding distributor, while others have been durable but not functional past simple data capture. INFONETICS has developed a mobile solution that allows you to connect to your …

As everyone knows, the past several years have seen an increase in natural disasters that have had widespread affect on small and large businesses alike. And whether this increase is attributed to global warming or just the natural cycle of climatic conditions on Planet Earth, experts warn that Mother Nature …

Great things are happening here at INFONETICS. Deployment of our latest software upgrade, Version 2.21, has begun in earnest having passed beta testing with many compliments on the new features. Tops amongst those enhancements is a new screen printing utility that allows paging forwards & backwards, as well as searching …

A number of things have happened in the year since we last published a newsletter..... On the hardware front, our migration from SCO Unix to Linux as the server operating system of choice has continued strong with well over half our customers now proudly running RedHat Linux Enterprise Servers. Dramatic …

General purpose, high-speed Internet access is rapidly becoming available and has become the defacto method for connecting your branch operations and home-based users to your INFONETICS server. Fast, inexpensive and easy to setup, Remote Internet Terminal Access (RITA) and it's big brother Virtual Private Networking (RITA+VPN) has revolutionized connectivity. Remote …

Following are excerpts taken from the training journal of Mary, wife of INFONETICS president David, as she prepared for one of the largest events of her life - The Columbus Marathon. Many of you may remember reading in our October 2000 INFONETICS Update of David completing the Columbus Marathon. Well, …

An exciting year is unfolding here at INFONETICS.  Remote Access Limited Information (RALI), for special customer/partners, is gaining popularity and offers a powerful yet inexpensive way to extend access to your INFONETICS software and data. This is yet another way of using your INFONETICS software to provide value add services …

New sales tax regulations in the state of Ohio go into effect in Jan. '05 which require reporting taxes based on the county/city rather than just for the state as a whole. Following is a guideline of how to set up tax rates for different local tax jurisdictions within a …

A new version of the popular INFONET suite of PC to Unix networking software has been released by INFONETICS. The new INFONET-LX suite brings the following enhancements to PC connectivity. The new software suite, based on an open software implementation of the terminal emulator known as "PuTTY", by Simon Tatham, …

Marketing Specialist Jeff Roope recently experienced success away from the office on the golf course. Last Spring while serving as an assistant coach with the women's golf team at Otterbein College Jeff helped guide the Lady Cardinals to a second straight league title. The accomplishment has helped to solidify Otterbein's …

For some time now INFONETICS has been targeting outbound calls that we commonly refer to as Customer of the Day (COTD) calls. These calls are a chance for us to touch base with customers to whom we have not spoken in a while, follow up on issues we might have …

Found recently in the president's email inbox.... Once again - thank you so much for anticipating our needs and coming to the rescue! It does not get any better than this. Thank you. - Dee Wyatt, ETOX And, another.... Dear Jim and David, Great Job!!! I know that you always …

Dustin G. Frea: Assembly/Repair Technician INFONETICS is pleased to announce the promotion of Dustin G. Frea to lead Assembly/Repair Technician. Dustin successfully graduated from Bishop Ready High School this past June, much to the amazement and surprise of his parents. (Just kidding, they knew it was going to happen.) Dustin …

Obviously, the big news of the last nine months was the rollout of our new line of Linux servers. These speed demons propelled performance of our system well beyond the 100 user point, into what truly is the domain of "enterprise" systems. And just as easily, this system scales down …

Jeff Roope, long-time Marketing Specialist for INFONETICS, recently tried his hand at management of another kind. The opportunity to coach a local high school girls golf team was too good to pass up. Creative scheduling at INFONETICS allowed Jeff to flex his schedule, so he could “scratch his itch”. Here, …

INFONETICS has been fortunate over almost two decades of existence to serve customers in just about every state in the Union, but New Mexico had always eluded us. There was no real rhyme or reason for why we didn't have a customer there — we just didn't. However, some months …

I know, this edition of the INFONETICS Update newsletter has been a long time in coming. We took a six month sabbatical from publishing so that we could focus our resources on some enormous projects underway here in the R&D labs at INFONETICS. Since our last newsletter in February, we've …

The Internet has been long touted for its E-Commerce capabilities. Some even predicted the complete migration of customers purchasing from in-store, phone and fax to on-line in just a few short years. This view of the world has proven far too optimistic and unreasonable. There's no doubt E-Commerce will grow …

This month, INFONETICS will present an exciting new concept in conjunction the Gases and Welding Distributors Association (GAWDA, formerly NWSA). Monday, February 10th at 11:00am, EST, we will host a Webinar, live from our Dallas INFOGROUP users group meeting. Our major focus will be Virtual Private Networking (VPN). To participate, …

Webster's defines an "entrepreneur" as a person that organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture. Jim Daves defines it as a person that finally got tired of pushing a pencil and punching a calculator and decided it was time to do something else. Twenty-two years ago Jim …

INFOTERM is part terminal, part PC/Workstation. This small footprint PC/Workstation sports a 1.8 GHz Intel Celeron4 processor, 128 megabytes of DDR RAM, a 20 GB hard drive, CD-ROM, and built-in audio, video, and networking in a package that's only 3.5" high x 11" wide x 13.5" deep. Fitting neatly under …

The second annual INFONETICS Day at the Races enjoyed beautiful early fall weather and keen interoffice rivalry. As in 2001, INFONETICS personnel and their families headed out to Circleville Raceway Park to join the Conlin family in their hobby of go-kart racing or "karting". This year teams of employees were …

The INFONETICS family evolves! We're happy to announce additions to not just one, but three INFONETICS employees families. Dawn Mechling gave birth to Nathanael Paul Mechling on November 6th at 4:06pm. Weighing in at 8 lbs, 6 oz, "Nate" is the third child of Dawn and Paul. After a short …

Recently, significant advances in the Internet Access connecting INFONETICS web/email hosting platform to the Internet have placed INFONETICS at the leading edge once again. Three years ago, INFONETICS blazed the technological leading edge (sometimes called the "bleeding" edge) by implementing new "Cable modem" based Internet Access from Time Warner. Considered …

It's been said that everything is bigger in Texas! That's certainly the case when it comes to the number of INFONETICS users in the state. In early 2002 Texas Welding Supply Company in Austin, Texas decided that INFONETICS was the right choice to take their business to the next level. …

Frederick L. Scheltz, Shipping/Receiving Fred has worked on electronic equipment while serving the USAF for 5 years. His professional career was with NCR Corp, for 27 years, as a Computer Repairman (back in the days when computers still had vacuum tubes) and Technical Writer. Counting himself among the "retired, but …

The INFONETICS family evolves!  Fred Scheltz comes from the "retired, but not ready to retire" group. For many years, Fred worked at NCR as a technical writer for cash registers and whatnot. These days, he'll be manning our shipping/receiving and inventory control department making sure your packages stay out of …

For those involved in the welding supply and industrial gas industry, Sheron Carter has become a pretty familiar name and face. As the founder and former owner of Action Welding Supply in Jacksonville, Florida, Sheron saw his business grow from the ground up in 1970 to the 14 store, multi-state …

Recently, INFONETICS president and founder, David J. Frea, successfully completed and passed the Red Hat Certified Engineer course, sponsored by Red Hat, Inc., the premier Linux and open source solutions provider.     Frea commented that, while he had worked in the UNIX field since the late 70's, this course …

The INFONETICS family evolves! This month we'd like to wish a fond farewell to Phyllis Young, longtime software support specialist. She retires from her career here to take on a new endeavor as wife and stepmother of two teenage daughters. Phyllis joined INFONETICS nine years ago, shortly after her family's …

For an automobile it might be 100,000 miles. You can get nine or ten years out of a furnace. If the goldfish you won at the neighborhood carnival survives the ride home in the plastic bag filled with water you'd be happy. Everything has a life span. While you can …

The Garden State has produced the latest addition to the INFONETICS roster of users. County Welding Supply in Wharton, New Jersey recently replaced their existing system with the latest version of INFONETICS software. Having previously served as an executive with the incumbent software vendor, Steve Lash of County knew exactly …

With three children ranging in age from 15 months to 11 years old who oftentimes frequented the office, the last thing that Patricia Sanders needed was a computer system that gave her nightmares. Unfortunately, when Patricia and her husband Nunny took over Double S Welding Supply almost three years ago …

The INFONETICS family is growing! We're happy to announce the marriage of software support specialist, Phyllis Young, to long-time boyfriend (and local Judge) James Hall. James comes with two teenage girls so her life has become quite busy, not to mention rewarding. Further expansion is announced in the form of …

Known for it's rainfall, it's timber industry, and for being the birthplace of the late Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain, the city of Aberdeen, Washington now also serves as the home for the newest INFONETICS customer. Coastal Containment Welding Supply signed on with INFONETICS, the industry leader in software systems …

This coming month we re-launch our popular series of INFOGROUP training session with the ever popular Accounts Payable/General Ledger module on March 18th/19th. I'll be leading this session as we investigate these two modules and explore their use in depth. Call immediately if you would like to attend as seating …

Business strategies continue to churn along. The alleged economic downturn appears to be more imagined than real, though we're quite sure there are some genuine challenges scattered throughout the country. Layoffs from down-sized companies, especially those in the airline and travel industries, have made a dramatic, negative impact on some …

In the big business world of buy-outs, mergers, consolidations and takeovers, it's always nice to see a new business take root in the ashes of corporate policy. Cleveland Welding Supply in Cleveland, Ohio fits this mold, and INFONETICS was there to help. After spending countless years working in the welding …

The end of another year is always such an interesting time. Holiday preparations occupy our attention, as well as the last minute rush to spend time with family and friends. It's also a favorite time for reflection on the accomplishments of the previous year, as well as promises for the …

Imagine, you're sitting at home, surfing the Internet, and you need to lookup a piece of data in your INFONETICS server back at the office. Of course, if you were at your office, you'd simply hit <ALT><F1> and your INFONET/PC session would launch and automatically log in to your INFONETICS …

INFONETICS is proud to announce the addition of another West Coast member to their family of users. California Welding Supply Company, based in of Stockton, California, became the newest addition to the ever-growing list of welding supply distributors making the switch to INFONETICS. Established in 1950 by Doc Raymond, California …

I thought November and December were supposed to be slow. Historically, the period between Thanksgiving and New Years has been one of the weakest in our installation calendar. But this year, we look to be quite busy welcoming new customers to the fold. We're also looking forward to the release …

Put it on the web, and they'll buy it. That's been the motto of many a failed dot-com'r. And, incidentally, a motto we've been preaching against for many, many months now. Flying in the face of conventional wisdom is nothing new for us here at INFONETICS (for instance our no …

At INFONETICS, it just seems like we’re all business. Like your company, though, we try to get out and away from bits and bytes and keyboards and the phone once in a while. Account Specialist Jim Conlin, his wife Lynn and three daughters have been long time auto racing fans …

On September 10th the first edition of the INFONETICS’ Cylinder Control and Serial Number System (CCS/SNS) training kicked off at 9 AM at the Grove City, Ohio headquarters. Little did we all know that in less than 24 hours the United States would be facing one of the most horrific …

This month we’d like to introduce you to one of our newest installations, Smith Welding Products, Inc. in Holly Springs, Georgia and tell you a little more about them. Formed less than five years ago, Smith Welding Products has grown into a two-store operation that serves a 100-mile radius around …

In these times of economic uncertainty lurks opportunity. And INFONETICS has grabbed a piece of that opportunity with the recent hire of Jason M. Fairchild as Account Specialist Apprentice. Jason comes to us from a large Internet Access Provider who's facing difficult times ahead, including down-sizing and possibly bankruptcy. Their …

Getting to know Jeff Roope, marketing specialist here at INFONETICS, means getting to know his passions; golf and softball. Jeff and his golf mates from the class of '88, Scott Long and Rob Ebright, recently defended their open division champion golf title at the local Grove City High School Alumni …

Dustin Frea, son of INFONETICS owners David and Mary Frea, recently traveled to Australia as part of Australian Discovery 2001, sponsored by People to People Student Ambassador program. People to People was founded by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 in an effort to bring together citizens and work toward …

Led by INFONETICS President David Frea, the 2001 User’s Group proved to be another productive and informative gathering of customers, friends, and employees of INFONETICS. Held on June 25th at the Grove City, Ohio facility, this year’s User’s Group explored a wide variety of topics ranging from iCat-internet catalogs to …

Situated in Springfield, Massachusetts, Ivey Industries Inc. became the latest to join the ever-growing users of the INFONETICS software system. IVEY INDUSTRIES, SPRINGFIELD, MA. For three decades and two generations of the Iverson family, Ivey Industries has been meeting and exceeding the needs of the welding supply, industrial gas, and …

Summer once again is slipping away too fast. Vacations and fun times in the dog days of July and August will soon be replaced by the cooling temperatures of September and falling leaves. As such, we're ramping up to get our INFOGROUP training classes underway again. First up is Cylinder …

The third and final Spring Management Conference (SMC) was the best of the year. Chicago is always the most well attended proving it is not only convenient but a favorite of the NWSA Active Members - inspiring the question of whether more than one or two SMCs are necessary for …

Summer seems to have snuck up on us once again this year. Our final INFOGROUP event of the Spring/Summer rolls out this Monday, June 25th; the INFOGROUP User's Group meeting! It promises to be an exciting session, focusing on iCat our new Internet Catalog offering, as well as an overall …

Many years ago, Account Specialist Jim Conlin was followed home from the Chicago AWS show by a friendly little orange foam-rubber ball with the unusual marking of "Hobart" as his only distinguishing feature. For years the little orange foam-rubber ball was delighted to adorn the desk of Mr. Conlin in …

In an effort to increase international sales, our newest employee, Dustin Frea, will be spending three weeks in Australia this summer. Okay, we wish! Dustin is actually part of a select group of people from Central Ohio that will be traveling to Australia this summer. He was recently accepted into …

INFOGROUP meetings are in the news again this month. We've just concluded yet another successful Inventory Training class at our offices here in Grove City, Ohio, led this time by software support specialist, Phyllis Young. And plans are underway for a full-blown Users Group meeting next month. See the enclosed …

INFONETICS forms laser imaging system, INFOPAGE, has caught the attention of quite a few installations to date. We're able to print everything, from simple reports, to labels, invoices, rent bills and statements on Okidata's OKIPAGE page printer. It's fast, quiet, reliable and affordable. Better yet, in most cases, you don't …

INFONETICS is happy to welcome the newest member of the team, Dustin Frea. Dustin has recently moved into position formerly held by his big brother, Bryan. Bryan has moved on to other things, namely obtaining an Emergency Medical Technician degree from Columbus State Community College while finishing his senior year …

IMPORTANT NEWS FOR ALL NWSA CHICAGO Spring Management Conference attendees. We've decided to adjust our INFOGROUP Users' Group Meeting plans. Rather than host the popular event in conjunction with the NWSA meeting, we've decided to bring it back home to our offices in Grove City. We were finding too many …

Battery backups can mean the difference between a normal, peaceful afternoon, and all heck breaking loose.  A battery backup is designed to keep your main INFONETICS server running when power fails. Power outages, even very very very short outages known as brownouts can crash your server and even damage data. …

What a life INFONETICS Account Specialist Jim Conlin is living! Last November, while at a trade show in Cancun, Mexico, Jim had the good fortune of meeting Merrill Ward of Ward Supply Company. Faced with the prospect of coming back to the frigid Ohio temperatures for the winter or spending …

Come one, come all! Plan now to come to the Windy City, Chicago, for the next INFOGROUP users group meeting. This popular series is returning to NWSA Spring Management Conferences venues for an all new discussion of INFONETICS offerings including our classic software, Internet Access strategies, Internet Web/Email hosting & …

In 1983 Rodney Harmon and Joe Featherstone founded Ozark Welding and Industrial Supply and first opened their doors to serve the city of Bentonville, Arkansas. In 1999 they did the same for the city of Fayetteville, Arkansas by opening their second branch. In the year 2000, Ozark turned to INFONETICS …

This one is big. Our new Internet Catalog "iCat" is one of our latest development projects, and it's likely to really take off for us, and you. In a nutshell, we've partnered with United American Sales, Inc & Westgate Sales, two wholesalers many of you buy from, and tackled the …

Continuing his travels across the country, Account Specialist Jim Conlin recently signed on a new INFONETICS’ East Coast customer in the form of Miller Industrial Gases in Suffield, Connecticut. Miller Industrial Gases is headed up by Karen and Dave Miller and has been a distributor in the welding supply and …

Here's hoping you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration. As we steam our way towards the year end, Phyllis has penned a wonderful overview of the inventory physical counting process to ease your way in this necessary chore. In an update from one of our recent "raving fans" initiatives, I'd …

…That INFONETICS has converted approximately 1/3 of their customers from another software system? …That INFONETICS has written conversion programming to extract data from over 20 different software systems? …That INFONETICS has software installations in 34 states and Puerto Rico? …That INFONETICS currently maintains software installations for customers with as few …

INFONETICS recently had the pleasure of making our way back down to the beautiful pastures and farmlands in the Louisville, Kentucky/Ohio River Valley area to work with a new customer. Led by INFONETICS Account Specialist Phyllis Young, Arc Weld, Inc., came on-line as a user the first week of October. …

I MADE IT! 26.2 miles of the most grueling physical challenge I've ever undertaken. But, I made it! This past weekend I completed (note I didn't use the word competed) in the Columbus Marathon. It took me a little over 5 hours and was both the most excruciating and exhilarating …

We often hear of only the problems here at INFONETICS. Although a large part of our day is devoted to helping customers through difficult software/hardware problems, it is nice every now and then to hear from you when we do an exceptional job. Following is an excerpt from a letter …

Here's an update from the marathon training front. This past weekend, I ran in the Columbus Half Marathon. As its name suggests, it's a 13.3 mile run around Alum Creek reservoir in the northwest Columbus, OH area. I completed the run in just over 2 hours. And at this point, …

OK, I put it in writing last month; I'm planning on running the Columbus Marathon this coming October. Now, I've re-stated it so I HAVE to do it! Thanks to all of you for your words of encouragement and support. And no, I'm not daft, just a middle-aged man trying …

For the second time in the last year full-time Account Specialist/part-time racecar driver Jim Conlin has taken on an account in the state of Washington. While last year we welcomed Yakima Welding Supply, this time around Jim was able to sell A-L Compressed Gases of Spokane, Inc. on the merits …

OK, I'm putting it here in writing.  I intend to run in the Columbus Marathon this October.  There, I said it, now I have to do it.  Wish me luck. We're running short on space this month, and I have to keep up my marathon training schedule, so I'll keep …

We would like to welcome three new additions to the staff here at the main office in Grove City. Daniel Betz, Jr. was born and raised in the central Ohio area, and now resides here with his wife, Karon (no, that is not a misspelling!). In his spare time, not …

The phone call came in at 4:36pm.  A storm had come through the area, the electricity had gone out, the battery eventually ran down and so too did the INFONETICS server.  However, this time, a strange error message appeared on screen as the server was rebooting.  That's when they called. …

All INFONETICS users should be very familiar with the “.” Part ID that allows the Description line on the Post Orders and Post Invoices screen for use for notes or messages.  These messages generally offer further explanation of an item or order for the customer or communicate a special point …

We made it (again)! This past Mother's day weekend, my wife Mary and I rode in the annual Tour Of Scioto River Valley (TOSRV) bicycle ride from the statehouse in downtown Columbus to the Ohio river in Portsmouth. 210 miles round trip with over 14 hours of pedaling. This was …

INFONETICS’ Inventory Control System (ICS) training sessions proved to be a smash hit with those in attendance not just once, but twice this past month.  President David Frea led the inaugural class of INFONETICS users through the ICS training over the leap year, February 29th and March 1st.  Account Specialist …

Yep, we missed the March deadline for getting the newsletter out.  I know you're all out there waiting anxiously for each edition, and we regret any stress this may have caused.  Once every few years my wife insists we take a real vacation, so we did.  We took a week …

We're on a mission.  A mission from the Internet. INFONETICS is convinced that getting a real, full-time, easy to use connection to the Internet is a mandate for each of its customers.  The use of the Internet will soon revolutionize the way information is distributed to you.  Paper catalogs, literature, …

Y2K came and went without so much as a whimper. But rather than grouse about the over reaction society put into this potentially crippling problem, let's all take a moment and pat ourselves on the back for a job well done.  Perhaps never before did the global community come together, …

October 13, 1999 marked a watershed event for us here at INFONETICS.  We successfully began the migration of our customer web sites to our in-house server.  More interesting though, we're also now able to access our INFONETICS server, THRU THE INTERNET, to run our software.  While only in the beta …

INFONETICS held it's final INFOGROUP users group meeting(s) of the millennium on October 20th and 21st at its new facility in Grove City, Ohio. Attendees were introduced to the new INFOTERM-6400 PC/Terminal, PocketTrack handheld computing, and INFOPAGE forms imaging systems. INFONETICS President, David J. Frea, leads opening session of INFOGROUP-III …

Yes, for the first time in years, we missed sending out a newsletter in October.  So please enjoy this expanded edition.  As you'll see, we were quite preoccupied with preparations for not one but two INFOGROUP meetings sandwiched around our official Open House hosted in late October. And, on top of …

During our INFOGROUP meeting this past month, many attendees, including INFONETICS staffers Phyllis and Dawn, were surprised to see David go to the Edit Inventory Part File program to look up a price on some item for one of the interested customers. Wouldn't the parts' cost be displayed on the …

We made it! Our long anticipated move to our new building this past month went surprisingly well. We credit this to the many months of extraordinary effort put forth by the entire INFONETICS staff in preparing for it. The actual move was almost anticlimactic as it took only one Saturday …

We're down to the nitty-gritty.  We move into our new building at the end of this month. Cross your fingers, everything is still on schedule and under budget!!!!  There seems to be a thousand details to clear up between here and there (like phone lines, internet connection, furniture, a parking …

Almost every day businesses such as yours and ours receive and ship numerous things.  There is a checklist of sorts involved when shipping and receiving merchandise to make sure it arrives in one piece and undamaged.  With the equipment that we all ship comes certain protection procedures, to secure products …

My, how quick the world changes. Just a few years ago we registered our domain name www.infonetx.com on the Internet and posted our first home page. And we were one of the early ones.  A few months ago we started designing and programming web sites for our customers.  Now we …

Just a quick update on what's going on with the new INFONETICS building.The exterior walls are up, along with the roof, and the framework for the interior walls are progressing nicely.  We had a few problems with the placement of the electrical outlets on the blueprints which led to a …

Recently, INFONETICS took another step towards meeting the diverse needs of their customers by hosting their first-ever user group meetings called INFOGROUP. The first two INFOGROUPS were held prior to the start of the National Welding Supply Association's (NWSA) Spring Management Conferences (SMC) in Chicago on February 14th, and Boston …

The past few months have brought a flurry of new additions to the INFONETICS staff. Loel Larzelere, Grant DeLorean and Christina DeLorean have joined the roster, so let's introduce them to you. Loel H. Larzelere, Technician/Web Master Loel Larzelere is no stranger to many of our customers. He has been …

This past month we successfully hosted our 2nd-ever INFOGROUP users group meeting in conjunction with the NWSA's Spring Management Conference held in Boston.  The response to both INFOGROUP meetings held this Spring was phenomenal, and frankly has overwhelmed us with excitement, not to mention new orders, for our unfolding Internet …

Have you ever come in after a long weekend and, with the greatest of enthusiasm, started knocking out the work? You've got INFOFAXES queued up to go here, there, and everywhere. Before you know it you're all caught up with nothing left to do. But, there's an eerie silence in …

Another recent software enhancement to the Post Order/Invoices system involves the printing of detailed customer notes on the actual Packing Slip and/or Invoice.  This allows delivery instructions or special notes about the customer to be automatically pulled from the Customer Master File and included on the actual printed output.  It …

All the good sales books say you should do it.  And you probably do, do it everytime you talk to a customer.  But, do you remember to thank your customer for every order they place???  Especially in today's world of faxes and e-mails, it's easy to lose that personal touch …

This coming week, we host our 2nd-ever INFOGROUP users group meeting.  We had so much fun at the last one, we thought we'd try it again!  Seriously, we've been absolutely over-run by interest in PC/Workstations, Networking, Internet Access and Web Site design and hosting services after our 1st-ever INFOGROUP meeting …

FIRST-EVER INFOGROUP MEETS WITH OVERWHELMING APPROVAL Traditionally, February 14th of each year usually signifies the day most of us know as Valentine's Day. This year however, INFONETICS marked the occasion by conducting its' first-ever INFOGROUP users meeting. After years of suggestions and ideas presented to us by our current users …

What an interesting way to spend Valentine's day! This past Valentines day weekend we hosted our first ever INFOGROUP users meeting in conjunction with the NWSA Spring Management Conference in Chicago.  And what a grand old time we had.   And earlier in the month we participated in the official ground …

This is an amusing little tale that the folks at DuPuy Oxygen in Waco passed along to us. In the midst of all this talk of the impending Y2K problems, it puts it all into a slightly lighter perspective. Yogi Berra said it best: “It’s like déjà vu all over …

Registration is well under way for our first ever INFOGROUP meetings.  If you missed it in last month's newsletter, or didn't get Jeff's call over the last few weeks, we've scheduled our first ever pair of INFOGROUP "Users Group" meetings for February and March in conjunction with the NWSA Spring …

So it's month end, and you go to the closet to get that last box of Statement forms and whoops, it's not there. A quick call to Dawn at INFONETICS usually gets a fresh box on its way right away. But, you wonder, is there any way you could print …

Since 1984, INFONETICS has built its reputation as one of the welding supply/industrial gas industry's software leaders by focusing on one goal; satisfying our customers. We have provided exceptional (and free) technical support via phone, fax and e-mail, developed timely and meaningful software upgrades at a very minimal expense, and …

December's newsletter is always an interesting one to write, as we close the books on one year and anticipate events from the coming year. The year 1998 was a record setting year for INFONETICS.  We installed as many new systems this year as we had in the previous two years …

In our previous article we discussed the basics of Internet Access.  These foundation pieces are necessary before you can begin considering more advanced aspects of the Internet.  In this article, we'll look at the issues of Domain Name registration, web site hosting, domain based e-mail, basic home pages and more …

For 'nigh on three years we've been searching for a new facility to house our growing company.  This last year has seen some of the compromises of our current second floor cramped offices impose themselves on our efficiency and effectiveness.  We've had to move stacks of equipment from one corner …

It's official.  We've signed contracts for a new office building!  Those of you who have visited our cramped little second floor offices know first hand how badly we need more space for our growing business.  We now have contracts signed for an office building in a new office park being …

I'll have to be brief this month, as on top of everything else going on, my wife Mary has broken her ankle... Guess she shouldn't have tried that back flip after all.  We expect her to be back in the swing of things in a couple of weeks, but until …

Fall is on us, with winter bearing down hard right behind it.  Friday night high school football, and Saturday afternoons with Buckeye football here in central Ohio promise to turn a very busy summer into an unbelievably hectic fall, but we'll get through it I'm sure. As many of you …

This past month INFONETICS released the latest upgrade to its popular Point-Of-Sale software suite of Accounting Software.  The exciting new features are detailed here.  To upgrade to this latest version, simply call your Account Specialist and request an update tape. CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Customer Price Listing Reorganized listing to put …

They say that this column has been getting boring lately. They say I haven't talked about some of the other things going on in our lives around here, just work, work, work.  Well, with the way we've been swamped with work lately, that's about all we've been able to think …

Year 2000 compliance has been a hot topic of discussion lately, and rightly so. Questions continue to flood in regarding year 2000 compliance. And, with recent pontificating by the NWSA at its Spring Management Conferences, we felt it's time to restate our position on this problem. THE YEAR 2000 PROBLEM …

We're trying something different this month. In the past, we've always typeset this newsletter using a typical desktop publishing program (in our case, Aldus' Pagemaker). Then, we'd painstakingly convert it to "HTML" (hyper-text markup language) for posting on our web site. This month we've decided to go straight to the …

INFONETICS is pleased to announce that four of its technicians have recently completed training and received certification on warranty repair for 4 series of OKIDATA printers. Receiving certification were Alan Laser, Jeff Roope, Andrew Ewing, and Bryan Frea covering all of OKIDATA's dot matrix printers. INFONETICS is warranty service/repair authorized …

Do you think of yourself as a retailer? Recently, someone asked me why customers coming into a typical welding supply/industrial gas distributor come in expecting some type of special price on the goods being sold. The answer I offered is; the typical welding supply distributor does not think of himself …

For the first time in quite a while, we've added a number of substantial feature enhancements to our Payroll software system. Here's a taste of what's available; 1) Topping off the list of enhancements are the new tax caps on certain types of withholdings like FICA Social Security, and all …

It's time once again for many INFONETICS' customers to be setting up a new historic database. Here we'll review the concept for you. Periodically, all computer systems, even an INFONETICS system, need to be purged of old data. This is needed to conserve space, improve speed/access time, and generally clean …

Our latest software version, ver.2.19, released this past summer to rave reviews (no kidding, many customers have actually raved about it), is out in full distribution. Last count had over two-thirds of our customers having already upgraded. To our recollection, this is the highest percentage reached with a major release, …

Happy New Years! This month, just some simple reminders of things to do in the new year. First, all payroll software customers need to have new payroll tables downloaded for correct federal withholding. There are also major payroll software enhancements available if you're on version 2.19. Second, if you're not …

After going over some sales reports, we've discovered there are still a large number of our customers who have not purchased our INFOFAX software package. It may be the least expensive, but it's certainly not the least useful, of all our packages. There are many benefits of this package, in …

Seasons Greetings Snow is falling, the skies have clouded over, it must be winter in Central Ohio. The clouds will clear sometime next May, so until then, there's no better reason to go to work than the weather outside! One of the things we're working hard on these days, is …

ometimes it's the little things that matter the most. In a recent software enhancement, we've increased the number of lines available on the INFOFAX fax cover sheet from 3 to 5, each of them now 65 characters long. This more than doubles the amount of descriptive space available for entering …

Greetings from Grove City, With the annual NWSA convention coming up later this month, Jim Conlin and Phyllis Young are busy polishing up our booth, and looking forward to getting to see many of you once again. On a personal note, I've decided to try a more challenging long distance …

One of the most obvious changes Revision 2.19 brings is to the Post Orders and Post Invoices screen. Not only is there more information displayed on the screen but the performance and source of the information has been modified too. Here we describe what you can expect with the latest …

As some of you might have noticed, we have a pleasant new voice answering our phones. Mary Frea joined our team as of September 1. Mary will also help with shipping/receiving, INFOACCESS and with general office duties among the many other things to come in the future. Some of Mary's …

Well they say fall starts this month! I just don't know if I'm ready to let summer go. On the bright side, it means less time to be fooling around outside, and more time to be inside working on neat new computer projects. (Get a life, would you!) There certainly …

Have you notice the Nightly Automated Backup And Reorg (NABAR) messages no longer appear on you console screen. Furthermore, the console seems to pop up a fresh "Login:" prompt every few minutes. We all know how important it is to monitor whether NABAR is running normally, so checking the NABAR …

Introduced in Version 2.19 of INFONETICS software is an interesting new feature for managing the collections of Accounts Receivables. It's called the Receivables Notes feature, and permits logging of in-line notes in each customers Receivables Transaction history. These notes appear on view screens, Agings, Inquiries and Journals, and are therefore …

The dog days of summer are here. My travels this past month have taken me for the first time to visit a number of our customers on the East Coast. It was a pleasure seeing and meeting all of them, and it gave me a chance to install our new …

Numerous new features have been added to the INFONETICS Accounting Software suite in our latest release; version 2.19. Some of the more notable features include; OVERALL ENHANCEMENTS: Support for the YEAR 2000 has been added throughout the system, including the O.S. and compensation for abnormal year 2000 leap-year calculation. Updated …

By now you've all seen the fancy Intel Pentium commercials on TV, and you're being bombarded with a bewildering array of "Pentium" CPU models and names. What follows is one layman's interpretation of the various models and names being used. And, we could be wrong. So we apologize in advance …

Well it's done! Version 2.19 is officially done, and ready for release! We've completed installation at our third beta test site, and are ready for general distribution. As with all INFONETICS software releases, there is NO CHARGE for the actual software enhancements, only our time involved in installing it on …

This month a potpourri of mostly non-business items in this column. For those of you who follow Mary and my cycling endeavors, I can report successful completion of not one, but two double century rides since my last column. First, on mother's day last month, we were blessed with back …

The upcoming turn of the century has been getting a lot of attention lately in the press, and rightly so. Numerous computer systems and their software were designed with little or no preparation for this event. Worse yet, many of these systems no longer have the services of their original …

News from Grove City; Software development on our next major software release, Version 2.19, has really picked up speed. Programming has been completed to resolve all Year 2000 issues, as well as numerous other programming enhancements. And, a 2nd beta site test company has been launched to help us debug …

Progress! Substantial progress is once again being made in programming for our upcoming Version 2.19 software release. Recent enhancements include the implementation of a General Ledger lock feature that prevents any changes in prior period data once it has been updated to the G/L. Also, automatic creating of transfer orders, …

I'm back for good. It was just too much stress watching Sven the house boy dust and clean all day long so I decided that I needed a real job. David came to Alabama recently on business, we talked, and the rest is history. My new title with INFONETICS is …

The big news this month is; Phyllis is back! As most of you'll recall, Phyllis left us a little over a year ago to find a little less stressful life-style. Well, she's come back, this time as Support Specialist. We're especially pleased to have Phyllis back as she already has …

With the proliferation of electronic equipment attached to telephone lines these days, the value of a truly simplistic device called a teleprotector can easily be overlooked. Today's modern office has a fax machine, credit card authorization dialer, fax modem/software on their main computer (INFOFAX), fax modem/software on their Windows '95 …

It seems like we're just catching up after October's NWSA annual convention, and the Spring Conferences are already starting! Jim Conlin is busy putting together our booth, checking it twice, packing it up, and hoping it all gets to New Orleans for the first show on time! Make sure to …

Setting up a web-site can be an interesting project. We've recently completed the first phase of our world-wide-web site, and are experiencing first hand some of the challenges of the new information super highway. First, all of your basic marketing and corporate communications concepts and policies come into play. Questions …

Periodically, all computer systems, even an INFONETICS system, need to be purged of old data. This is needed to conserve space, improve speed/access time, and generally to clean out old unneeded information that tends to clutter up a database over time. This article describes a new technique we've developed for …

1997 Greetings, Yes, a new year is on us already. And while, the last couple of weeks of '96 gratefully quieted down for us (due to the holidays), it looks like '97 is off to a rousing start. We're currently busy preparing quotes and proposals for our just announced Workstation/Internet …

As 1996 draws to a close, I'm reminded to take a moment to look back and reflect on the events of the past twelve months. As always, we've taken on a quite a handful of exciting new software customers for our UNIX Accounting System. And, we've even had to ask …

The INTERNET is exploding all around us, and promises to dramatically change the way we live our lives and run our businesses. To prepare for these new challenges/opportunities, INFONETICS has developed a series of products/services to enable you to exploit these opportunities of electronic commerce on the net. WINDOWS '95 …

The INFONET package provides seamless integration between increasingly popular Windows '95 PC Workstations and INFONETICS UNIX-based accounting software system . The package consists of three critical components; Windows '95 TCP/IP ethernet networking for high-speed connectivity, TinyTERM for sophisticated terminal emulation, and Networked File System (NFS) support. TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL/INTERNET PROTOCOL …

E-Mail capabilities are finally up and running here at INFONETICS (sometimes the barber is the last one to get his haircut). You can reach us here at; djf@infonetx.com The interesting thing about e-mail is it's delivered almost instantaneously, right to our PC/Workstation. This allows us to receive and respond quicker …

Life is good. Our new SCO Unix compiler is in place and paying great dividends. It's wonderful to have the programming shackles off, and we're hard at work on our latest software release, version 2.19! We've completely rewritten the "WARNING: Old Unpaid A/R" feature to be independently configurable on a …

The evolution of the SCO Xenix and UNIX operating systems continues unabated, and as-such will be affecting all users of INFONETICS Accounting software. As such, we are providing this review of where we're at, and where we're headed. First, There Was Xenix We first started using Santa Cruz Operations (SCO) …

We hit the motherload. TWICE! All things happen for a reason, and as you learned from last months newsletter, we lost a couple of good people recently. Well, after weeks of interviews, we've hired not one, but two Internet Specialists! These guys come from radically different backgrounds, but both have …

At each and every training session we conduct, we stress the importance of cross training. We nag, prod, pull, entice, chide and generally make life miserable until you relent and ask a co-worker to join in the training of each and every software package we install. While this sometimes seems …

Boy, have we got our work cut out for us! In unrelated developments, we've lost the services of two of our staff. First, Curt has left us and moved on to a similar, but not quite as varied (or harried) a position supporting PC and Unix systems with a hospital …

We've recently made some rather significant enhancements to our INFOFAX software package, and felt you'd like to know about them. First, we've implemented a new version of the Trufax software used as the low level transport. This has improved the transmission/completion rate to some of the more finicky fax machines …

Greetings. INFOACCESS continues to grow in both installations, and content. As you'll find on the back page, we're making substantial headway on the publishing of MSDS's (which is, after all, where the whole INFOACCESS concept got its start). On the hardware front, we're continuing to beat our heads on the …

When most of us computer types use those two words together in a sentence, we're usually referring to being prepared in the event a catastrophe befalls your computer system. And we've seen more examples of this than we'd like to admit to. Everything from spilled Cokes in terminals to direct …

A recent software enhancement permits the printing of actual Service Charge Invoices as they are calculated/created by the Create Service Charge program. This new invoice should draw the customers attention perhaps better than a simple reference to a service charge on the existing statement. Furthermore, large corporations sometimes require an …

We've upgraded the Accounts Receivables' Service Charge calculation program to print an actual Invoice. And, actual saving of the Service Charge transactions in the database is now optional. Progress on our major development fronts continues to roll forward; A new Pentium Pro (200mHz) dual processor motherboard is in the works, …

A funny thing happened on the way back from Portsmouth on Mother's Day. As many of you might recall from last month's President's Console, I've been preparing for a long distance bicycle ride called the Tour of Scioto River Valley (along with 5,000 other riders). It's 210 miles from Columbus, …

It's been an interesting month! First let me tell you about new developments on the Internet. We've gotten ourselves hooked up to the Internet and have been excitedly browsing the World Wide Web (WWW). And, we've registered our own domain name (www.infonetx.com) and hope to soon launch our own home …

Springtime in central Ohio means another season of long distance bicycle rides has begun. It starts with a 50 mile ride last weekend, then a 100 mile ride this weekend, and culminates with the 210 mile Tour Of the Scioto River Valley (TOSRV) ride on Mothers Day weekend. It may …

A new shipper form design has been developed which some INFONETICS customers feel more closely meets the requirements of their state authorities. The changes are to the placement of the part information columns. In the new format, the "Product/Hazard Class/HMID" is positioned furthest to the left followed, left to right, …

Greetings. Last month, we leaked the word that we're starting on a new major software release. Now for a peek at some of the things we're thinking about; First up is an attempt to port our software to SCO's latest (and theoretically greatest) version of the UNIX operating system; Release …

The first NWSA Spring Management Conference was held in Atlanta, Georgia, February 18-20. Jim Conlin, Dale Gleghorn, and I attended and had a wonderful time. At the NWSA National Convention last October in Orlando, Florida, I only attended the contact booth portion and did not get the full effect of …

This month, a couple of housekeeping items. First, spring is soon to be on us (I hope), and as with every year it will bring thunderstorms and lightning strikes. Now may be the time for an overall hardware review to check out your surge protectors, both electrical (ISOBAR's) and communications …

THEY'RE HERE!!!!! The long awaited, and highly anticipated Iomega JAZ removable cartridge disk drives have arrived! This new device finally showed up in our office last week, and initial testing and benchmarking is very promising. At 1000 megabytes, or 1 gigabyte (1GB) in techno-speak, this removable cartridge disk drive is …

Well, tradition has it that the first newsletter of each year has us charting the course for the coming years' projects. So as not to disappoint, I'll lay out for you some of the projects on my mind for the coming months. High on the agenda will be improvements/enhancements to …