SQL Server Support through

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1 INSIDE: SQL Server Support Through velocity Clear Month To Date, Clear Year to Date What They are Saying About Release Top Ten Reasons to Upgrade Holiday Hours Times ARE Tough Who s your Vendor? Bailout Sale Happy Holidays DEBT$NET Quarterly is published by The Computer Manager, Inc. and is distributed free of charge to our clients and potential clients. Sales : Fax: Web Page: [email protected] [email protected] Copyright 2008 The Computer Manager, Inc. All rights reserved. WINTER EDITION Vol. 21 Issue 4 December 2008 SQL Server Support through velocity The Computer Manager has teamed up with Northwest Computer Support to offer you velocity, a unique SQL server support solution. velocity is a best practices approach to SQL server installation and ongoing server operations and maintenance. Use velocity to provide your in-house IT staff with the resources they need to continuously improve your network efficiency and reliability. Install SQL Server Express, Standard, or Enterprise using Northwest Computer Support s team. With a velocity package, certified SQL professionals will verify your hardware meets Debt$Net Release 7.0 requirements, patch to current industry specifications, create SQL maintenance plans to coordinate with Debt$Net protocols, and configure a backup system for your Debt$Net files. Once you are running, velocity SQL Server Support will provide monthly patch management, 24/7 SQL server monitoring, unlimited server helpdesk incidents, backup monitoring, and periodic test restores of backup data. While you may be able to find other companies that offer SQL support, the advantage of the service provided by Northwest Computer Support is their partnership with The Computer Manager. Working together we can provide a faster response and resolution by eliminating finger-pointing problems that commonly develop between application and network providers. Leveraging the partnership between Debt$Net and velocity allows you to concentrate on your strategic business missions without getting bogged down in day-to-day IT issues. This service is not just for SQL systems alone. Northwest Computer Support will also provide administration and monitoring support services for other types of networks and workstations. All their services are scalable, meaning you only pay for what you need. They are truly a full-service IT solution firm. Who do you call to get started? One of our favorite people! Cheri Carr is a Senior Network Consultant at Northwest Computer Support. Call (206) or her ([email protected]) today and learn more about velocity!

2 CLEAR MONTH TO DATE, CLEAR YEAR TO DATE It's once again time to zero out both month to date and year to date activity numbers in Debt$Net. Activity numbers keep track of many types of data, breaking activity down by the current month's numbers, current year's numbers and total activity numbers. Debt$Net tracks items like number of accounts assigned, total of accounts assigned, number of payments received and total of payments received to name a few. These activity numbers are updated for each client, collector and salesman every time there is activity associated with that item. One of the end of month processes is to run 'Clear Month to Date'. This is done monthly after printing off client activity reports, collector activity reports and salesman activity reports. This process zeros out all month to date fields so Debt$Net can start keeping track of the next months batch of business. How do I clear my year to date numbers? If you run the Clear Month to Date process anytime between December 16th 2008 and January 15th 2009 the year to date numbers will be zeroed at the same time the month to date numbers are. Be sure to print your activity reports before running this feature so you have your activity numbers for the year What They are Saying about Release 7.0: We now have a number of agencies operating Release 7.0. In implementing the upgrade, we have experienced minimal down time and a very fast learning curve. Our experienced team of programmers, trainers, and support specialists work together to make the upgrade to Release 7.0 a smooth transition. Their goal is a seamless integration of SQL technology with the Debt$Net application. Listen to what the agencies themselves have to say: Brent Marshall, of Amend Financial, L.L.C. in Phoenix, Arizona says, The conversion to 7.0 was made simple with the database conversion utility, the elite technical support, and the knowledge to foresee possible issues. During beta testing we helped to resolve some issues and add new features. The technical support was very fast to react and adjust to any issues. Now the system performs better than ever and the SQL database has many advantages. Many thanks for the convenient upgrade! Scott Kennedy, of Debt Check Recovery Systems in Shelby, NC says, I learned SQL was much different than FoxPro. I learned however, Debt$Net had made a very smart move and was looking forward in how to better serve it s existing customer base... For the Computer Manager, version 7.0 and moving to a SQL platform was the beginning of a new level of options and performance not yet offered in previous Debt$Net versions... TCM was methodic in preparing our agency and making certain our hardware and systems were where they needed to be in order to handle the platform change... The conversion aspect was a breeze. Top Ten Reasons to U p g r a d e t o Debt$Net 7.0 There are too many reasons to upgrade to Debt$Net 7.0 to list in this newsletter, so we ve compiled a list of our top 10 reasons to provide you with a peek at what you re missing if you haven t yet started your upgrade. 10. No more Reorganizing files. The SQL Server optimizes the data automatically, which means you'll never have to run Reorganize Files again. If you have ever had to stay after hours to run the Reorganize Files process you will love that the SQL Server re-indexes files automatically, all the time. In fact the server will work to anticipate what data the user will be wanting and make that available in the fastest possible way. The same is true for running stabilize on files. 9. No more stabilize. Just like with reorganizing files, SQL Server software does a great job at managing data. It has removed the main causes for running stabilize in previous versions of Debt$Net by eliminating caps on the size of note files, minimizing the possibility of file corruption and through the way it handles deleted records. The end

3 result: More uptime for collection activity. 8. Choose your own report writer! We ve received all kinds of requests for various report writers over the years, and we ve also received lots of feedback from those of you using Foxfire! Report Generator. We heard you loud and clear: you need more reporting options. In Debt$Net 7.0 you can implement any report generator that interfaces with SQL software, including Crystal Reports. 7. The new Account Query function provides advanced capability for the search, retrieval, display and update of debtor and account records. The advanced search tool allows administrators to retrieve records via customized search criteria. Debtor and account lists can be toggled to display flags (e.g., mail return) in a color-coded format. Like in the Account Scroll List, account data can be modified right on the list. 6. Backups. We are always talking about the importance of backups, so it s perfect that database backup options are built right in to SQL server, and backups can even be run while users are working. SQL Backup can also be scheduled to run prior to your regular tape backup running. 5. Stability. Network drops no longer are associated with full database file corruption. SQL only fetches the data requested by the user. If there was a network drop and data corruption was the result, only the records fetched by the user could be affected. 4. The Microsoft SQL 2005 Server Express Edition is free. There is no charge for databases that do not exceed 4 Gigabytes in size. If you do have to upgrade to another edition of server you'll find other features now that benefit your agency. 3. Ease in updating. Patching to the latest exec date is done on the fly as users log in to Debt$Net. This process is the same for adding items like ESO s or additional users. Getting everyone out at the same time is no longer necessary. 2. Built in reporting tools. More advanced editions of SQL Server 2005 have built in report generators (Express edition does not have this feature). These reporting tools can be used on their own or in addition to external SQL-compatible report generators. 1. The Debt$Net 7.0 SQL background that Ken in the Technical Support Department spent so many hours painstakingly creating for your viewing pleasure! Holiday Hours Its that time of the year when we take time out to share the season with friends and family. For us, this also means supporting our many users throughout the season. Thus, we will be keeping closures to a minimum. We will be closed on December 25 th st and January 1 only. We will maintain our regular business hours throughout the rest of the season. Times ARE Tough... Stop reading right now if you are currently paid up... BUT, for those few of you that are struggling out there in these tough economic times, remember, it is tough for us too. We love to support our collection agencies, but have no desire to turn into one. Please check your in-basket and make sure you are current with your TCM account. Who s Your Vendor? We don t have to tell you that partnerships with outside vendors provide powerful tools in collections. The availability of various vendors only adds to your odds of getting the best results. We have a good selection of interfaces already available as ESO s for all versions of Debt$Net. To get more info on our ESO s please call Mark Carlin in our sales office at If you are interested in working with a specific vendor that we do not have an ESO for, please let us know. We can talk with you about your options to create such an interface with that vendor. For more info on how to do this, please call Julee Warner at

4 The Bigger the Need the Bigger the Bailout... 10% off 1st User / ESO* purchased 20% off 2nd User / ESO* purchased 30% off 3rd User / ESO* purchased Offer expires 01/15/2009. Discounts will be applied to equal or lesser valued items, and can be used as many times as you need the bailout. Call Mark Carlin at (800) to see if you qualify for the bailout. *FoxFire! ESO is excluded from discount.

5 Back : Ron, Clay, Gary, Justin, Ken Middle : Jessica, Rennie, Mike, Rachel, Julee Front : Joyce, Mark, Our Tree, Tony, Kyle From all of us at The Computer Manager, Inc. have a safe and Happy Holiday.

6 The Computer Manager, Inc. P.O. Box 1961 Poulsbo, WA 98370