The purpose of Karmak Compass is to keep all our customers informed of current activities within the Karmak family. This newsletter is designed for both technical and non-technical readers. 

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  Training: Karmak Legend^® - INFO 5^® - Director Series

Legend and INFO 5
The Karmak Training Centers have new course offerings and opportunities. Take advantage of the knowledge and expertise of Karmak trainers as they bring new and exciting training opportunities each quarter. See the following links for complete schedules of Karmak Legend and INFO 5 training classes. To register for Legend classes, contact Joyce Donaldson at 800-252-7625 or email . To register for INFO 5 classes, contact Jerry Cain at 800-865-8991 or email .

Director Series
Online training in our new Director Series software is now available for ProfitMaker^® customers via WebEx technology. Visit the Director Series website for the current schedule, or contact Director Series Services at 800-252-7625 for more information.

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Industry news and notes

• Class 8 truck market
• Midwest Wheel finalist for Distributor of the Year
• PACCAR recognizes Rush Truck Leasing
• Legend and INFO 5 customers round out Kenworth's 2004 Dealer Council
• Karmak customers named as Kenworth Award winners

Sales of Class 8 Trucks were up 33.9% for the month of January.

·         January completes the 3rd consecutive month of year-over-year increases in sales in the Class 8 truck market.

·         Major truck manufacturers all reported increases in Class 8 sales.

o        Freightliner sales up 48.9%

o        International sales up 2.8%

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Midwest Wheel Companies was named as one of five finalists for Truck Parts Distributor of the Year by Truck Parts & Service Magazine. The company was selected from a pool of 5,000 distributors.

Midwest Wheel Companies is a 93-year-old business out of Des Moines, Iowa, with 170 employees. Midwest Wheel has been a Karmak customer for 14 years.

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Rush Truck Leasing is named PACCAR's 2003 North American Franchise of the Year. PacLease Region franchise award-winners are:

• Coast Counties Peterbilt PacLease, San Jose, Calif., Western Region
• MHC Truck Leasing, Denver, Colo., Central Region
• Cooper Leasing, Charlotte, N.C., Eastern Region
• Inland PacLease, Langley, B.C., Canada Region

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Kenworth Truck Company recently named the 2004 Kenworth Dealer Council during their dealer meeting in Phoenix, Ariz. The council consists of leading executives from Kenworth dealerships in the United States and Canada.

According to Kenworth's company website, www.kenworth.com, the council's goal is to help promote program consistency across the network to ensure that a superior level of customer service is provided by Kenworth dealerships.

Karmak customers who were named to Kenworth's Dealer Council for 2004 are:

• Chairman—Jim Hartman, Truck Enterprises, Harrisonburg, Va., INFO 5
• Bob Mitchell, Kenworth of Birmingham, Birmingham, Ala., Legend
• John Sahling, Sahling Kenworth, Kearney, Neb., INFO 5
• Ron Whiteford II, Whiteford Kenworth, South Bend, Ind., Legend
• ATD Line Representative—Bob Sutton, Kenworth of Central Florida, Orlando, Fla., INFO 5

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Kenworth Truck Company recognizes the top Kenworth dealerships in the United States and Canada. These dealerships have excelled in many areas, including customer service and support after-the-sale. According to Kenworth's company website, www.kenworth.com, these awards are based on Kenworth's Dealer Excellence Standards and Kenworth's Annual Customer Satisfaction Survey.

Karmak customer Edmonton Kenworth was named as a Kenworth Gold Award winner, and was one of the five finalists for Kenworth Dealer of the Year.

Karmak customer Silver Award winners are:

• Canada—Kenworth Montreal, Montreal, Que.; Custom Truck Sales, Regina, Sask.
• Central—French-Ellison Kenworth, Pharr, Tex.; Wallwork Truck Center, Fargo, N.D.
• Northeast—Central Illinois Trucks, Normal, Ill.
• Southeast—Truck Enterprises, Harrisonburg, Va.; Cooper Kenworth, Durham, N.C.
• West—Central California Kenworth, Fresno, Calif.; Motor Power Equipment, Billings, Mont.

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What's new at Karmak?

• Karmak's new Director Series now available
• Karmak announces general release of Sales Management 1.1.5
• New INFO 5 Telnet support option is now available
• Distributors had fun mapping their way through Distributors' Conference
• From the President

Karmak's new Director Series now available

Karmak's most recent Windows-based software product, Director Series, went into general release on March 25. Director Series replaces the current ProfitMaker product and offers you even more functionality and revenue-generating enhancements.

The Director Series software allows you to better control your parts inventory and increase service shop efficiency. The advanced software is designed for fleets, parts distributors, and service shops.

Director Series has two main applications: PartsDirector™ and ServiceDirector™. With a click of the mouse, PartsDirector increases inventory efficiency and improves your parts sales opportunities. It is available as a standalone parts inventory application. ServiceDirector, which includes PartsDirector, raises your service operation profitability by tracking all preventive maintenance needs, analyzing repair orders, and tracking service time and parts.

Start putting your parts inventory and service operations to work for you today.

For questions on how to upgrade from ProfitMaker to Director Series, contact Director Series Services at 800-252-7625. You can also visit www.karmak.com/directorseries for more details about the software, to request a demo, or to request a quote.

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Sales Management 1.1.5, Reports Patch, is available for general release. Sales Management, part of the ProfitMaster series, is designed just for you—combining the user-friendly interface of Microsoft^® Windows with the power of your Karmak Legend or INFO 5 business system.

This release of Sales Management incorporates your report suggestions. We've applied your feedback and wishes, and Sales Management version 1.1.5 is the direct result.

To request an upgrade and schedule a time to load this release, contact ProfitMaster Services at . Visit Karmak's website at www.karmak.com/ProfitMaster.html for details on all of the innovative ProfitMaster products.

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New INFO 5 Telnet support option is now available

A new support option is available for any INFO 5 client that has a broadband Internet connection and a firewall. Karmak Support representatives can now connect to your AS/400 via a Telnet connection, which allows for faster response time, as well as multiple support representatives to be connected to your System at one time. Fixes can also be deployed faster. Contact INFO 5 Systems Support at 800-865-8991 or email for more information.

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With a theme like: Your Road Map—Driving Your Company to Greatness, you could never get lost. This year's conference attendees were treated to many new classroom sessions, roundtables, and software solutions designed to bring them success. 

We were glad to see some customers who hadn't been to conference for a few years come back, such as Sandy and Mike Eaton of Eaton Detroit Spring, and AAA Spring Specialist's Mike Holdaway. Continued>

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Did you know?

• The importance of bar coding and bar code cross-referencing data
• Cut your price file costs with Price File Transport
• Using the Legend DocWizard or INFO 5 FIDO documentation CDs
• Karmak statistics

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The importance of bar coding and bar code cross-reference data

Bar codes are everywhere and are being used in nearly every facet of retail, yet we have only scratched the surface of bar code utilization in our industry. Bar coding offers a fast and accurate method of data collection. Continued>

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Cut your price file costs with Price File Transport

Price File Transport is a process designed to transmit price files via the Internet. This method of processing file requests can cut your costs, eliminate freight and brokerage charges, and distribute the cost of your authorized price files over a 12-month period.

In general, Price File Transport processes price file requests from Legend or INFO 5 business system customers and sends the price files as compressed files via the Internet. The files are sent via File Transfer Protocol (FTP), unzipped on the business system, and then put in the proper directory.

Specifically, Price File Transport works by allowing customers to use an interactive program to request price files to be downloaded. Karmak is notified via email that a request has been made, and you receive verification that the request was successfully sent. The price file is then sent to you in compressed format using FTP. The file is uncompressed and moved to the price file directory. You are notified of a successful transfer via email and can then run your price updates as usual.

It is well worth your time to check out this cost-cutting price file procedure. Save your company time and money, and simplify your price file process. For more details, pricing, and specific hardware and software requirements, contact your Karmak Regional Manager or your Internal Sales Support Representative.

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Using the Legend DocWizard or INFO 5 FIDO documentation CDs

The Legend DocWizard and INFO 5 FIDO documentation CDs are designed with indexes that allow you to search across multiple PDF files, or documentation books. However, for this advanced search to be effective you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0.5 or higher installed on your system. 

You can install Acrobat Reader from the DocWizard or FIDO install CDs, or you can download the latest version free of charge from www.adobe.com. Both installation methods are free of charge.

For detailed instructions on installing and using DocWizard and Adobe Acrobat Reader, contact Alicia Meyer at 800-252-7625 or email . For FIDO, call INFO 5 Support at 800-865-8991.

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Karmak statistics

Current Karmak customers:

• 545 systems supported
• 1,624 locations
• 49 States
• 8 Provinces
• Mexico, Puerto Rico, Panama

Karmak employee length of service fact:

• 49% of Karmak's 178 employees have been with the company for more than 5 years!

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Important reminders

IBM hardware maintenance contract

Is your IBM hardware maintenance current? In order to maintain smooth day-to-day business transactions and increase your uptime, Karmak recommends having a current hardware maintenance contract. IBM Software Subscription covers software issues only and does not include hardware maintenance. You can verify the status of your hardware agreement by calling 800-IBM-SERV. You will need your machine type and serial number when making this call (for example, machine type 9406-170 and serial number 1054H13).

If you wish to prepay for hardware maintenance, Karmak can offer a discounted rate off the quarterly price paid directly to IBM.

If you have any questions or if you would like a quote on a prepay contract, please contact Kim Scott in INFO 5 Sales at 800-865-8991.

Karmak holiday schedule

Following are the dates that the Karmak offices in Carlinville, Il. and Springfield, Mo. will be closed in 2004.

• Monday, May 31—Memorial Day
• Monday, July 5—Independence Day observed
• Monday, September 6—Labor Day
• Thursday, November 25—Thanksgiving Day
• Friday, December 24—Christmas Eve
• Friday, December 31—New Year's Day observed

We will have staff available for emergency calls during each of these holidays. However, calls received during the holidays are considered after-hours billable support calls and will be billed at our holiday rate. You will receive reminder letters throughout the year, and Karmak will also have a pre-recorded message on our customer support lines reminding you of the holiday rate.

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Hot tips

• Windows tips:
  • Changing the Windows Explorer default folder
  • Order your free Microsoft Security Guidance Kit
• INFO 5 tip:
  • Viewing spooled files in an output queue
• Legend tips:
  • New parameter to print completion date in Open Repair Order List (RS180)
  • New core multipliers in On-Line Master Cross Table Maintenance (OM900)

• Changing the Windows Explorer default folder
  With some Windows operating systems, Windows Explorer, by default, always opens to your My Documents folder. It is possible, however, to make Windows Explorer open to any folder that you want. Refer to the steps below.

1. Right click on the desired Explorer shortcut and select Properties. This works for icons on the desktop or entries on the Start menu.
2. To have Explorer open to the root folder of the Windows drive, add [space] /e,/root, in the Target box after Explorer.exe.
3. After completing Step 2, the information in the Target box should be:
   %systemroot%\explorer.exe /e,/root,
4. To have Explorer default to a folder named My Data, the text in the Target box should be: 
   %systemroot%\explorer.exe /e,"C:\My Data"

• Order your free Microsoft Security Guidance Kit
  You may request a free Microsoft Security Guidance CD Kit v1.0 by visiting the website www.microsoft.com/security/guidance/order/default.mspx. This CD-ROM is complete with tools, templates, roadmaps and how-to guides in addition to Microsoft's prescriptive security guidance. The kit is designed to help you implement measures like automating security patch installation and blocking unsafe email attachments to help your organization.

You may also be interested in visiting Microsoft's Security Guidance Center at www.microsoft.com/security/guidance/default.mspx for information on additional security tools, training and a variety of security topics.

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When viewing spooled files in an output queue that has many pages, using some navigational aids can greatly help.

Once you use option 5 to view a spooled file from an output queue, you can page down to see subsequent pages; this can be very tedious if you need to see page 100 on a 500-page file. To help you navigate, use the Control field, which controls the paging, rolling and windowing functions.

Examples:

• To go directly to page 5, you can type P5
• To page forward 5 times, you can type P+5
• To page backwards 5 times, you can type P-5
• To go to the bottom, type B
• To go to the top type T
• If you want to shift the whole page to the left so that column 15 is on the left side of the page, type W15

To see more functions and examples, you can type F1 in the Control field to view IBM help information.

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• New parameter to print completion date in Open Repair Order List (RS180)
  A new central parameter line 10 (Include R/O complete date) has been added to allow the completion date to be included in any report that prints the repair order header information generated by Open Repair Order List (RS180). If central parameter line 3 (Print R/O detail?) is set to C, which is comments only, the new parameter has no effect. The default for the new parameter is N. If the parameter is set to N, the appearance of the report will not change.
• New core multipliers in On-Line Master Cross Table Maintenance (OM900) 
  This program now allows the set-up of on-line master cross tables by branch and allows the entry of core price multipliers. When adding cross tables, a prompt for the branch code and new fields for core price levels will be available. Using the On-Line Master to create exchange parts causes pricing to be established using the multipliers entered in the cross table. This change also affects the programs Part Number Display (IN601), Inventory File Maintenance (IN900), Non-P/O Fast Inventory Posting (IN165), Parts Order Entry/Processing (PO120), and Repair Order Entry/Processing (RS120).

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Meet the INFO 5 team

INFO 5 Applications Support

To help our customers learn more about who they talk to when they call INFO 5 Support, the next few issues of the Karmak Compass will feature profiles of departments here at Karmak that work with the INFO 5 customers. For this issue, we are featuring the Applications Support department. Continued>

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  About Karmak Compass

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© 2004 Karmak, Inc.
One Karmak Plaza
P.O. Box 680
Carlinville, IL  62626
www.karmak.com