Solutions
by Softech
Premier
Edition - December 1995
Softech
Solutions, Inc. 300 North C.R. 427 Suite 100
Longwood, FL 32750
1-407-331-TECH (8324)
1-407-331-5570(Fax)
SSI@SoftechSolutions.com
Welcome to the first periodic edition of Solutions by Softech. Before you begin reading the good stuff, let us bore you for a minute with a little first time information. Notice the word ‘periodic’ above. This is because we are not sure how often we will do this. All we know is we want a medium to use that will allow us to stay in touch with you, our customers. We welcome any comments, criticisms, etc., that you may have. In the future, if you do not wish to receive this newsletter, please fax us at the above number. We would also like to know if there is anyone else in your organization who would like to receive it. If you have anything that you would like to ‘publish’, please feel free to send or fax it to us at the above address/number. We hope you enjoy this first issue and we hope y’all have a wonderful and happy holiday season! One last thing, feel free to copy, reproduce, distribute, electronically or otherwise, anything in this newsletter.
Thought - What would the world be like with no hypothetical situations?
The Year in Review
And what a year it was! Our first year in business and we went non-stop from January thru December. Thanks to all of you who made it possible. A brief look at the year shows that we worked on 24 different projects for 7 different customers, in 3 different countries, 6 states, 2 continents, 1 galaxy (we’re working on that one). We have written conversion programs, developed modifications to many of your applications, written applications from scratch, taught technical training classes and produced documentation (yes, we even do doc!) We have also developed several generic enhancements to your products which we believe to be beneficial to the general card and finance industries. For more detail on these enhancements please fax or call us at the above numbers. We also have been working to get our new EIS System to market (see StatMan).
Besides being experts in the credit card and financial software arena, we are well versed in Mainframe PC Development, IBM Mainframe Operational and Performance Analysis, PC/Mainframe integration, Wang VS software development and operations, as well as software development on many other manufacturer’s platforms. We have installed and currently maintain our own LAN internally, utilizing Windows For Workgroups 3.11 and Windows95 over a 10BaseT Ethernet hub in a peer-to-peer environment.
More thoughts - Why are there
interstate highways in Hawaii?
How does the guy who drives the snow plow get
to work?
What’s in a Name?
Since we spent a considerable amount of time in selecting our company name we thought we’d share with you some of that experience. We all agreed that we wanted to have a name that in some way stated the nature of the company. We initially were going to use Software Resources Company, which had been the name of Bill’s company since 1983, but, when we went to incorporate that name, we found it was already used. Sitting around a table at lunch one day, we were discussing exactly what it was that we wanted to accomplish with this new company. We all knew that we were technicians at heart and we wanted a company where we could flourish without the typical non-technical BS that usually drives technicians crazy (short drive) in a normal software company. We played around and came up with several iterations of names utilizing Software, Technical, Resources, Computer, Solutions, etc. The possibilities were endless, acronyms abounded, some suggestions bordered on the ridiculous, some on the obscene. Perseverance, however, brought us to Softech Solutions, Inc., a combination of Software, Technical and Solutions, along with the government required appendage, Inc. We hope that when your solutions require Software Technicians, you’ll think about Softech.
Keep thinking! - Why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways?
StatMan: Shortly after founding our company, we realized that we all were packaged software junkies and that we should be developing a package or two for us to market and support. It did not take us long to realize that a major hole exists in the credit software arena, and that is an Executive Information System which is easy to install and use, graphical in nature, requires minimal mainframe overhead, and can be easily modified. After some preliminary conversations with executives at several major card processors, we decided to produce a prototype system to be able to show potential customers. We hope to generate enough interest to enlist several funding partners to complete the design and implementation of the system. As of this writing we are talking to several prospects and expect to be coming to market with a product in 96. If you are interested in participating in the development, or would like more information on the StatMan product, please contact us.
Brief Bio’s
For those of you who don’t know us, we thought we would give you a brief biography on each of the partners in Softech. Softech is a Florida Sub-chapter ‘S’ Corporation formed in December 1994 by four former CCS employees - Scott Cowan, Ron Merrell, Ed White and Bill Torrey. Scott has over 18 years experience in the software industry with over ten at CCS. He was responsible for the design and implementation of several CCS applications, including Collections (CTA), Retail Merchants (RMS), and Credit Decision Management (CDM). Scott is a CICS specialist and also keeps us in line with his fierce enforcement of programming standards. Ron has over 25 years experience (yes he is rather old) with more than 8 of those years at CCS/TranSys. He has held various jobs within the CCS organization including being in charge of both the CardPac and Vision21 product lines at different times. Ron wrote most of the assembler sub-routines for all the CCS applications and was responsible for the design and implementation of a major part of the Trams system. Ron is a PC development expert with the CA Realia and MicroFocus products and he also keeps us in line with his rigid exercise and diet regimens. Ed has over 22 years of experience with over 10 at CCS. Again, Ed was responsible for the design and implementation of many CCS applications, including Authorizations (OLA and CAS) Collections (CTA), Cardholder Merchant Processing (CMP), and the Credit Management System (CMS-Vision21). Ed is also an expert in CICS, systems tuning and operational analysis. Bill has over 25 years of experience (even though he is not as old as Ron) with 2 ˝ years at CCS as R&D manager and over 10 years of running his own software consulting company. In addition to Bill’s strong COBOL skills (that may surprise many of you who only know Bill as a manager), he also is an expert in Wang VS systems and installed our PC Lan network here at Softech. Bill, Ron and Ed all previously worked for the Kirchman Corporation (Florida Software Services) and have other financial software experience prior to that.
Virus
Alert!
We
have just discovered 2 of the newest PC viruses
that have been devastating PC’s across the
country - the first is the AT&T virus - it
interrupts you every three minutes to remind you
what great service its giving you; the second is
the MCI Virus that usually follows close behind
the AT&T virus - it also interrupts you to
remind you that you’re paying too much for the
service you are getting from AT&T! Both
viruses are harmless but time consuming.
Techie Tips:
Over the course of time all technicians come up with little things that they wish they had learned sooner. The intent of this column will be to pass along what we consider to be our "Wish I had known that sooner".
TIP 1 - as a bunch of former (and not so former) mainframe bigots, we need to share this with each and every one of you -
IF YOU ARE STILL DOING SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT ON THE MAINFRAME . .
STOP!!
IMPLEMENT A PC DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM IMMEDIATELY!!!!
We mean it, and there isn’t a dime in it for us. Put in CA Realia, put in MicroFocus COBOL, put in whatever you want, but do not continue to develop on the mainframe. The productivity gains will pay for the entire cost of implementation, including Pentium 133’s for everybody, in less than one year! (don’t chintz on the PC’s.)
Now please don’t think that we are suggesting that you get rid of your mainframe. Au contraire, mon ami, we believe that the mainframe will outlive Rock N’ Roll. We are only talking about off-loading your program development. You can edit, compile, link, and debug programs on a PC exponentially faster than on a mainframe. When you are done, you can take the code, recompile it on the mainframe and, voila, you’re ready to go. There are very few, if any, changes that need to be made to make programs run on you PC. Call us if you’d like to talk about it.
One more thought - If your vehicle is traveling the speed of light, what happens when you turn on the headlights?
Non-Techie Tips:
Yes, even though we bill ourselves as technicians, we don’t want to forget our non-techie friends so . . .
Here’s another "Wish I had known that sooner".
Have you ever been driving on an interstate highway for the first time and, as you are approaching your exit, you realize that it is a left hand exit instead of a right hand one!! Before you know it, you’ve missed the exit.
Well, here’s how you can avoid this in the future. . . Look at the exit sign below. Notice the placement of the smaller ‘Exit 37’ sign at the top LEFT hand side of the bigger exit sign - this means that Exit 37 is going to be a LEFT HAND EXIT!! (if it was on the right, it would be a right hand exit.) Yes, can you believe it, it’s been a mass conspiracy on the part of the Departments of Transportation all over the country to hide the fact from us!! Please pass this along to friends, relatives, strangers, and especially to those three lane traversers who you run into (literally) on our lovely interstates.
Copyright © 2000
[Softech Solutions, Inc]. All rights reserved.