INFONETICS, Inc. - 1729 Gateway Circle - Grove City, OH 43123 - Phone: 614-875-2006
On the web: www.infonetx.com - email: info@infonetx.com - Fax: 614-875-7761
January 2001
-- From The President's Console -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 enormous headache of
putting together a simple, but useable and effective Internet Catalog that you can host on your web site. Read more about it in this newsletter,
and CALL IMMEDIATELY if it strikes your fancy as we're taking names of those interested in joining the launch of it in March.
"iCat" is likely to occupy a good deal of our attention over the next few months. We're hoping to run a series of INFOGROUP users group
meetings in conjunction with the NWSA's Spring Management Conferences this year to focus on this new product. These INFOGROUP
meetings, introduced a couple of years ago, were quite well received. Since then we've hosted seven more INFOGROUP training sessions here
in our Grove City offices, each one sold out. It's time to take it "on the road again", so be watching for information on how to sign up soon.
Finally, I'd like to welcome a new employee here this month; Karon Betz. Having used computers for several years, Karon didn't start learning
about their inner workings until her husband began building and upgrading machines from home. She was even more interested when he
started designing WebPages. After learning HTML from the web, she came to work here at INFONETICS and is helping design WebPages for
our customers. She enjoys traveling and when she can find the time will easily drive 3 hours north to Michigan to spend time with her family
and friends. P.S. Karon's husband, Daniel, also works for INFONETICS as PC Technician/Web Master.
INFONETICS IN ARKANSAS!
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 to tie these two stores together and help them better serve the needs of their customers.
In addition to Bentonville, Fayetteville and three counties in Northwest Arkansas, Ozark services the neighboring states of Oklahoma and
Missouri. On the hard goods side of things Ozark is a full-line independent distributor of such machines as Miller, Lincoln, and Hobart. For
gases Ozark not only deals with one of the large, national gas producers, but also has a fill site of their own where they fill their tanks with a
variety of gases including oxygen, CO2, and nitrogen. On any given day you can be sure you’ll see these tanks loaded on one of the three
routes trucks Ozark currently uses for deliveries to their customers.
INFONETICS is proud to announce Ozark Welding and Industrial Supply as the newest member of their family of customers. Welcome
Rodney, Joe and the gang at Ozark!
INFONETICS, Inc. - 1729 Gateway Circle - Grove City, OH 43123 - Phone: 614-875-2006
web address: http://www.infonetx.com - e-mail: info@infonetx.com - Fax: 614-875-7761
Page 1
January 2001
THE QUICKEST WAY TO FIND...
STOCK IN OTHER STORES
This month’s installation of “The Quickest Way To Find…” shows you how to see if another warehouse (branch) has an adequate supply of a
particular product. Remember to pass this article around so everyone knows how to check quantities at the other stores.
The quickest way to see the stock levels at your other locations? Easy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Go to your Post Orders or Post Invoices screen (one of your screens should already be there)
Enter the part number in question in the Part ID field
Hit <ENTER> to move your way over to the Sold field
Hit your <VIEW> key to view inventory status for each warehouse as they stand at this moment – Displayed will be the current On
Hand, Available, Back Ordered and Ordered (from vendor) quantities. (Note: depending on which warehouse you are working out of,
you may have to press the <FIRST> key to re-index the list from the first warehouse.)
VIRUSES-IT'S MORE THAN JUST COLD SEASON
It’s cold out there and more than just humans are catching colds these days. We have had several of our customers call in with some very ill
computers. Turns out that the popular virus that is going around this year is W95 and several other variations of this same virus. If you have
a Windows PC that can access the Internet and/or Email, it's simply a requirement to have good, current anti-virus scanning software
installed.
Here is a horror story from the front lines of our service department. In the past three months, we have received calls from three different users
indicating that their computers were acting really strange, and were not functioning correctly. After going over all possible solutions over the
phone, we had the users send in their machines. Upon further examination, we found a major out break of virus on their machines. No less
then 500 files were contaminated which ended up crippling the machine. The sad part is, these viruses could have been avoided if the user had
just kept their anti-virus software up to date.
The first thing that you might think is, “I already have anti-virus software so I don’t have to worry”. Sorry, not so. If your anti-virus software
is not updated on a routine basis you could be leaving your machine wide open to infection. So how do you keep your anti-virus software upto-date? All you have to do is make sure that you have a current copy of Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus (NAV) software package licensed and
loaded on each PC. Once installed, simply click on the "Live Update" button and NAV will speed out onto the Internet, visit Semantics' web
site, and pickup the latest programming enhancements, all automatically!
In fact, Semantics' latest version (NAV-2001) automatically visits their site on a periodic basis and checks for updates. If you're not sure when
your PC was last updated, simply startup NAV (click Start, Programs, Norton AntiVirus, Norton AntiVirus). The main status screen shows the
date of your current virus definitions. It should also indicate the last time you did a full scan of your PC's files for viruses, and whether the
"automatic live update" feature is enabled.
Once you've got current virus definitions downloaded to your system, make sure to do a full system scan. While NAV operates as an excellent
front line of defense by scanning everything that comes into your machine through email, your network or diskette drives, it's possible a virus
snuck in while you weren't looking. So make sure to do a full scan at least monthly.
One final note; your INFONETICS UNIX server does not suffer from virus attacks the way the typical Windows PC does. So there's no need
to worry about it.
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January 2001
INFONETICS, Inc. - 1729 Gateway Circle - Grove City, OH 43123 - Phone: 614-875-2006
web address: http://www.infonetx.com - e-mail: info@infonetx.com - Fax: 614-875-7761
"iCat" INTERNET CATALOG!
INFONETICS, in partnership with United American Sales, Inc. and Westgate Sales, Inc. (UASI) have launched an innovative new Internet
Catalog for welding supply distributors. Code named "iCat", it's development was targeted at providing the Internet equivalent to UASI's
popular promo catalog. Published every three to four months, this catalog offers distributors promotional pricing on 26 pages of featured
items in combination with UASI's always popular memorabilia; such as a Steve Carlton autographed collectors baseball, Bill Elliott
autographed Nascar replica, and a Gale Sayers autographed football!
The new iCat went live in November, 2000 at
www.uasi.com and experienced a growing amount of traffic
almost immediately as distributors discover this handy way
to place orders with UASI any time of the day or night. To
experience it yourself, just visit the site and click on the
Catalog button. You'll need a login and password as the
catalog contains confidential distributor cost information.
Use the "Contact" button to fill out a request form for the
login/password from UASI. As you surf the catalog, you
can click on an item's Part ID, Description or Price, and it
will place itself on an order form. Order more items,
change quantities, the order form automatically recalculates and displays what promo you've qualified for.
You can even type in parts that aren't in the promo catalog.
When you click the order form's SUBMIT button, an email
order is packed up and sent off to UASI for fulfillment.
THE BIG NEWS HITS THE WEB, MARCH 2001!
INFONETICS has extended the "iCat" programming to offer a retail version that can be hosted on distributor's web sites as their own. Your
customers can now shop on-line ON YOUR WEBSITE! UASI's name will not appear anywhere on the promo, just YOUR company name. All
orders will come directly to YOUR email account, not theirs.
Here's how it works.
First, UASI compiles a new retail promo catalog. They choose the items to feature, and the promo retail pricing. They do all the catalog
layout, typesetting, printing and compilation. The popular memorabilia aspects of UASI's wholesale catalog will be carried over to the retail
catalog, allowing you to offer an interesting new twist to your customers in the form of collectibles. UASI's name is left off the catalog
completely!
INFONETICS then turns it into an Internet Catalog. A copy of the catalog is linked to your web site, using your logo, not UASI's. If you don't
have a web site, INFONETICS can develop and host one for you
with the catalog integrated right in. If you don't have PC's,
Internet Access and/or email, INFONETICS can assist you in
those areas as well.
In addition, 100 printed copies of the UASI retail promo catalog
will also be made available to you. And more can be
purchased. Then simply slap your company sticker on it and
hand it out as your own! INFONETICS will also design
marketing posters to display at your retail sales counters along
with the printed catalogs to alert your customers to the new ecommerce capabilities of your web site.
As customers browse your new Internet Catalog, they'll have no
knowledge of the behind the scenes work UASI and
INFONETICS have contributed. When they click the
"SUBMIT" button on the order form, it'll pack up an email order
and send it off to YOUR email account. You'll then fulfill the
order in your normal fashion.
INFONETICS, Inc. - 1729 Gateway Circle - Grove City, OH 43123 - Phone: 614-875-2006
web address: http://www.infonetx.com - e-mail: info@infonetx.com - Fax: 614-875-7761
Page 3
January 2001
Every 3 to 4 months, a new promo catalog will be introduced. Selected new items will be featured both on iCat and the printed copy. Existing
items will remain on iCat, though their pricing will be reverted to a more normal retail price as set by UASI. Therefore, the Internet version of
the catalog will grow over time.
An introductory price of $1,900 for the first year has been selected. This includes the initial setup on your existing website, updates and
changes for the summer and winter promotions and 100 printed catalogs for each of the three releases ($300 value). Continuing costs in the
2nd year are expected to be quite low, on the order of $200-300 per promo catalog.
If that's not enough, INFONETICS can craft additional custom "iCat" pages of items complementary to UASI's catalog specifically for you.
These pages can be incorporated in the iCat index on your site only, thereby enhancing/differentiating your catalog offering.
Call us at 614-875-2006, e-mail us at info@infonetx.com, or fax us a note at 614-875-7761 if you'd like to sign-up or get more information on
iCat, the Internet Catalog.
2001 INTRODUCTORY PRICE:
$1,900
Starting with March 2001 Promotion, your customers can shop UASI's retail promo on-line
from your website. United American Sales' name will not appear anywhere on the promo, just
your company name. All orders will come directly to your email account, not UASI's.
Our internet provider, INFONETICS, will do your initial typesetting and programming to
setup the retail promotion on your existing website.
Price includes initial setup through INFONETICS on your existing website, updates and
changes for the summer and winter promotions ($300 value), PLUS 100 FREE printed
versions of ALL THREE 2001 Retail Promotions!
INFONETICS, Inc.
1729 Gateway Circle
Grove City, OH 43123
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January 2001
INFONETICS, Inc. - 1729 Gateway Circle - Grove City, OH 43123 - Phone: 614-875-2006
web address: http://www.infonetx.com - e-mail: info@infonetx.com - Fax: 614-875-7761