StorMan eNews Issue #13
August 2009 Edition |
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Greetings, %%Facility name%% - and welcome to eNews issue #13. This month's issue is packed with great articles and snippets, including some great staff blogs, a look at a software review recently undertaken by Kennard's Self Storage, as well as all of your usual regulars - including the link, facility, website and acronym of the month and, of course, the ever-popular monthly brainteaser.
If you have any comments, ideas or suggestions, please get in touch with me via andy@storman.com. Additionally, if you'd like to get involved with eNews - be it as an upcoming Facility of the Month or a cross-marketing project of some kind - just let me know. Until next time, happy surfing! :-)
PS: Don't forget to mark this in your diary... just past lunchtime on Friday the 7th of August, the date & time will read: 12:34:56 07/08/09 (aka 123456789)!
 Regards,
Andy & the StorMan Software Team
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Please be advised that our Australian support office will be closed on Wednesday 12th August 2009 for the Royal Brisbane Show public holiday.
If you require technical support on this day, please email support@storman.com and Technical Support Agent's from our other worldwide offices will be able to assist you. Thank you. |
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| Computer Tip of the Month |
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Hide desktop icons (PC)
If you're doing a sales presentation or if you want to take a clean, icon-free screenshot of your desktop, you may want to hide your desktop icons. Good thing there's a quick & easy way to do this then!.
1) Right click on the desktop and mouse over to "View"
2) From the pop-out menu, click on the option "Show Desktop Icons" to un-select it and hide your icons.
To then unhide your icons, follow the above procedure and your icons will return as normal. |
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| Kennards undertakes management software review |
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We here at StorMan are always proud of our software and its competiveness in a global market, however we were recently given a reason to be even prouder. In early 2008 Kennards Self Storage, based in Sydney, Australia went out to the global Self Storage software market with a view to, in their words "...driven by the compelling initiative to understand and research software options on a global level. The idea was to seek out a cutting edge software option, and a software provider that shared the same vision in taking our business and their product to the next level.” (KSS, 2009)
Over a period of 10 months which culminated in May 2009, Kennards Self Storage chose Storman Software above all others after a massive global undertaking to determine what would suit their business moving forward. StorMan Software was compared against many offerings from around the world. The most relevant being... “Site link-SMD Software, Rent Plus-Hitech, Self Storage Manager-Esoft, Task Master-Chamberlain Group, Space Control-Next Gen-Space Control, StorMan V8-Stellar Concepts, Sentinel-Sentinel Group, Self Storage Commander, Total Recall-DHS Worldwide, Store Enterprise-Centre SHIFT, Self Storage Software-Tredds, Syrasoft Management Software, AndraTech Software Corporation, Domico-Systems Corporation.” (KSS, 2009)
As part of the 10 months of testing StorMan was assessed using over 366 different criteria...
» Continue reading this article on our website. |
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| Hawaiian Un-conference Conscience |
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Wayne & Aaron of our Sales Team recently visited Hawaii for the Phonesmart Un-conference. Last issue, Wayne reported back with a detailed post about the amazing experience of participating in an un-conference.
In this issue, we take a look at Part 2 - as Wayne appoints himself the "Un-conference Conscience" to assist un-conference attendees in taking the next steps...
Wayne writes...
Hopefully by now, you will have had time to read my previous post about the Phonesmart Hawaiian Un-Conference. Thanks to some fantastic feedback, I have appointed myself the "Un-conference Conscience".
Just to show you I am a man of my word, as well as a man of action, I thought I would update you on my adventures with regards to two ideas (potentially of exceptional value to you and your business) shared in Hawaii, at StorMan's "Round Table"...
1) Finding a way to standardise some reports generated by management software
2) Beginning the process of facilitating real time statistic feeds to the SSA.
Phonesmart's Bob Francis was kind enough to refer me to Anna Canlas, of the SSA. Before I go any further though, this morning (whilst on the phone) I received a separate call to action that you need to be made aware of. The SSA wants to assist storage businesses in this environment by publishing an information article on re-financing in this economy. If anyone who receives this has access to some information that might help the SSA, please get in touch with me so that I can pass it on to the team (the SSA have a very tight deadline).
Whilst on the subject of finance and (in general) the economy (which has led to challenges where finance is concerned), last year I was lucky enough to see a presentation at the CSSA event in San Diego. The chap presenting seems to have an exceptional handle on things of an economic nature. One would think this fair and reasonable, what with him being a Doctor.
This article continues in the right-hand panel... |
The presentation was highly educational, and more than once since seeing the presentation have I used the information presented to my great advantage. The presenter’s name is Dr. Christopher Thornberg, of Beacon Economics (this referral comes to you because of the courtesy extended by Erin King, of the CSSA. Thank you Erin!).
Anyway, back to the story. The SSA have worked very hard together on projects designed to collect and publish industry data, for the benefit of industry. Anna (from the SSA), whom it seems feels most comfortable on the technical side of things, described to me the “baby-steps” approach she has used to break this mammoth job into do-able “chunks”.
The initial stage was for the SSA to identify exactly which data is most useful to collect and report on. Anna sent StorMan the related list and we are now looking at how we can incorporate reports to meet SSA’s requirements...
» Continue reading this post on Wayne's Blog...
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| And the winner is... retro! |
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For those unaware, there's a fortnightly poll over at myStorMan, where you can anonymously cast your vote on a new topic every couple of weeks. Our most recently ended poll put different music era's up against one another... asking whether you prefer music from the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, early 2000's or today.
The results are now in (and to be honest, we had anticipated this result) - the 80's won! I figure it's not too late to sell those old LP's (or "black laserdisc things" as my Generation-Z friend once called them) on eBay and earn a bit of extra cash.
Having been born in the era myself, I tend to agree with the winning choice. After all...
» Monday's were blue
» Girls just wanted to have fun
» Dreams were sweet
» 5-minute drum solos were in the air tonight
» KC & The Sunshine Band got down at night
» Nena had 99 balloons
» The Pointer Sisters were very excited (and just couldn't hide it)
» Love was tainted
» ...and Queen were riding bicycles
The fortnight prior, we asked about your method of transportation to work. 'Driving' won this poll, but catching public transport wasn't far behind.
Our current poll question is about movies - so be sure to cast your vote over at myStorMan today!
| Further reading: |
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Vote now @ myStorMan (the poll is at the bottom-right) |
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We're pleased to present another sneak-peek of a new screen from our soon-to-be-released version 8 software (the image below is a preview of the 'StorMan Facility Map' screen).
Version 8 is due for release very soon, so that's the last of our sneak-peak's on this release. Stay tuned next month for some very exciting v8 release information - including details on how to get it, a new-features highlights movie and a mini-exam you can use to test your v8 skills!
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July 20th 2009 marked the 40th anniversary of the first manned landing on the moon and, as such, this month's Link of the Month is NASA's microsite dedicated to this historic event.
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| Agent Darran's Latest Gadget |
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 Hi there - I'm Darran, one of StorMan's Technical Support Agents. Each issue, I'll trawl through the deep depths of the internet to find you a funky piece of software, hardware or other interesting technological trinket.
Scrolling LED Name Badge
Is your cash drawer full of old name badges from staff that you will never see again or don’t want to? Finding it hard to continually advertise for facility staff called "John" or "Irene" just to save you the expense of buying another $7 name badge?
There's now a solution to this problem (whilst at the same time proving your true "geekyness"). Available with red or blue LED's, these scrolling name badges can be programmed with up to 256 characters and can even advertise insurance add-ons or packaging sales for you whilst customers wait in your office for you to finish your sales phone call!
"John - Be right with you after this call" scrolling across your uniform looks truly like you knew the person was coming. Try "Jenny - Discount for Hawks fans" or "Amanda - Don't talk to me about football". You can also get scrolling LED belt buckles for the more adventurous!
» Holds 6 messages at one time, each up to 256 characters in length
» Onboard speed and brightness adjustment
» Messages are programmable on the back - no need for a computer!
» Comes with battery, badge and magnetic holder
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| Do you suffer from EHN (External Headphone Noise)? |
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This week’s blog comes from an experience Timm suffered at the hands of an early morning commuter. A typical commuter. You know the ones, standing (or a lucky one who got a seat and is sitting) in their own little world, iPod on full volume blaring out the worst kind of noise ...external headphone noise (or EHN for short).
Now you personally can’t quite hear it to sing along even if you wanted to, and it resembles a late night distraction by a mosquito that’s just annoying enough to keep you awake. These commuters are probably doing untold damage to their ears but more importantly are upsetting to all other commuters and subsequently damaging their life expectancy. Here’s the twist though, on this occasion the annoying commuter was Timm!
» Continue reading this post on Timm's Blog...
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This month's Facility of the Month is StorageOne, located in Upper Hutt (Wellington, New Zealand). We recently caught up with Alma for a quick chat...
AP: "How long have you been with StorageOne?"
AD: "The facility opened in June 2008 and I've been here since - so just over a year now. I was here for the initial set up... putting StorMan in, setting up the system, loading the units, adding the merchandise information and so on."
AP: "What's your current role at StorageOne and how many units do you manage?"
AD: "I'm the Branch Manager here, and we currently have about 160 units. A further 170 are about to open. The future vision is to build a 3 storey building facing the state highway with glass windows, to give us a total of 1,500 units."
AP: "Anything interesting about your area, or the building itself?"
AD: "This place used to be an old Mitre 10 hardware store - we gutted it and installed an additional floor to fit our 170 new units. There's also a drive-up ramp to the inside of the upper level."
AP: "Any interesting or funny stories to tell?"
AD: "At one of the previous facilities I managed (with a different company), a storer that looked very suspect storing machinery, motors and tools stopped me one day as he was wheeling out some tools and asked how safe our facility was. My comment was that 3 units in close vicinity to his were in the names of police officers. The next morning his unit was empty and he was gone. A quick and easy way to get a client to move on!"
AP: "How long have you been using StorMan for and what do you like about it?"
AD: "We've used StorMan here from the get-go - actually, I've been using StorMan since it was first invented, so I've really been able to see it grow and improve over time. I love the fact that it's so user-friendly for the part time staff that we employ and it's so easy to print off a letter or invoice for someone. Nothing is complicated and I can hand my boss the required reports at the click of a button!"
AP: "If you had to pick a favourite StorMan feature, what would it be?"
AD: "Just one? Hrm, where to start! Haha... well, it would probably be the fact that you can email invoices out of the system to easily. It's great when people come in and pay bills but they hate bits of paper flying around in their car or handbag - I can just receipt the payment and email the updated invoice to their address so that it's sitting in their inbox before they even walk out the door! It's a great money-saver too".
You can find out more about StorageOne via their website. Thank you to Alma and the crew at StorageOne Upper Hutt for their time and input.
If you'd like your facility to be featured as a Facility of the Month, please get in touch with us. |
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CPU stands for Central Processing Unit and is the core (or brains) of your computer. A CPU is also known as a Processor. Major CPU manufacturers include AMD and Intel. |
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This month's Secret StorMan Shortcut is CTRL + 1
...I wonder what it does! |
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What's black when you get it, red when you use it, and white when you're all through with it? The answer will be in next month's issue!
Last month's answer: Begin by cutting the cake in half (horizontally) and you're left with two round discs. Now cut the cake twice across the top (like a "+" sign) and you have the 8 equal pieces using only 3 straight slices of a knife! |
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This month's "Monthly funny" is the Vintage Keyboard, aka the "Caveboard".
Have you got a joke or funny pic to send us?
Please let us know! |
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StorMan eNews is a monthly publication designed & compiled by
Andy P. + guest writers, and is ©
StorMan 2009. E&OE.
We use publicly available sources (web sites, magazines, news
clips, etc) to help write our newsletters, and provide links where
possible. All prices quoted, if any, contain GST (unless specified otherwise). |
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Please visit us online at www.storman.com/contact/ for full contact information. |
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