Issue 25

July-August 2004  

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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. 
In this issue:
What and when?
conferences and meetings
training: Legend, INFO 5, Director Series
 industry events 		Hot tips
 INFO 5
Meet the INFO 5 team
What's new at Karmak? About Karmak Compass
People in the news

What and when?
Karmak Dealers’ Conference - October 6-8, 2004
Register online today!


Karmak 2004 Dealers' Conference

Karmak is excited to bring you techniques to drive your company from good to great. Our all-new Karmak Dealers' Conference is guaranteed to steer your business, and your profits, in the right direction. 

We look forward to demonstrating the latest technology tools to maximize the performance of your business systems. And, you'll learn about the newest Karmak business system updates and how they can help you improve the efficiency of your business. Continued>

ProfitMaster® preview meetings - October 4 & 5, 2004
Karmak is hosting two information-filled days of preview meetings for the ProfitMaster Lease/Rental and Service Management modules. The Lease/Rental meeting will be held on Monday, October 4, 2004 from 1:00-5:00 p.m. The Service Management meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 5, 2004 from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Both meetings are being held at the Sheraton St. Louis City Center in St. Louis, Mo.

At these meetings, you will learn more about Karmak’s plans for the ProfitMaster Lease/Rental and Service Management modules, view product demonstrations, provide your feedback, and visit with Karmak’s designers, managers, and executives.

Attendance at these meetings is free of charge, and you are welcome to attend one or both meetings. Contact Angela Pauline at or 800-252-7625, for more details or to request a registration form. Contact the hotel at 314-231-5007 to reserve a sleeping room. Mention Karmak to receive the discounted room rate of $110.00. Deadline for registration is September 10, 2004.

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

New offerings through Karmak Training Center
 In addition to Legend and INFO 5 training classes, the Karmak Training Center is now offering webinars. A webinar is an interactive class conducted over the Internet. New Legend webinars include classes on Miscellaneous P/Os for accounting, at the counter, and in the service shop; creating and maintaining users accounts; and Request History Detail (AR472A). In addition, regional training for Legend system managers is coming to Springfield, Missouri. Visit the Legend and INFO 5 Training Center websites for all currently scheduled classes. 

Director Series training
 Classes for new Director Series customers are scheduled this September at the Karmak Training Center in Carlinville, Illinois. Visit the Director Series training site for more information. For ProfitMaker® customers, Director Series Upgrade webinars are available via the Internet. Call the Director Series Help Desk at 1-866-452-7625 to schedule a WebEx Upgrade Training date after Director Series has been installed on your server. 

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Upcoming truck industry events
Check out our TruckRealm.com calendar of events.
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What's new at Karmak?

Raise efficiencies by saving time with Bar Coding
No Initial License FeeProfitMaster’s Bar Code modules bring technology to your fingertips, raising inventory efficiency and dramatically improving service operations. Modules, including Bar Code Receiving, Bar Code Cycle Counting, Bar Code Time Entry, and Bar Code Point of Sale, are easy to incorporate into most service management areas and inventory-related procedures.

Bar codes improve inventory efficiency by speeding up mundane activities in the warehouse, while improving accuracy and simplifying the overall process. The quicker and more accurate counting produced by bar codes in your day-to-day routines of cycle counting increases the integrity of your inventory.

Labor entry is fast and easy when you use bar codes to track mechanics’ time to repair orders. It offers faster access to parts for repair orders and reduces time spent at the counter by those mechanics.

For a limited time, Bar Coding is available for the $3,000 training fee with no charge for the initial license. From July 1 to September 30, you too can raise your efficiencies with Bar Coding. Call your Karmak Regional Manager or 800-622-6311 today.

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INFO 5 Release 7.2 will be available soon!
Karmak is pleased to announce that INFO 5 Release 7.2 was recently released to beta and will be going to general release in the near future. This release reflects many fixes and enhancements to the software, the number of which has not been seen since Y2K modifications five years ago in Release 6.0. Some of the major enhancements you will see in Release 7.2 are:  Continued>
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Upcoming ProfitMaster with Sales Management release dates

ProfitMaster Sales ManagementThe ProfitMaster Sales Management module has many new and exciting features in store for you this summer. In an effort to get enhancement updates to you as soon as possible, we have broken them down into three releases.

Following is a list of the ProfitMaster version, the release date, and a high-level list of what you can expect with each release. Continued>

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Discuss ProfitMaster topics at http://discussions.karmak.com
Karmak has just launched the new Discussion Board for ProfitMaster customers. Designed for you to interact with other ProfitMaster users regarding software features, the easy-to-use Board is a tool to help make your use of ProfitMaster more efficient. In fact, sample discussions have been included on the site to initiate correspondence.

Don’t miss participating in http://discussions.karmak.com. Be sure to request your username and password today. You may complete the form located on our website, or you may contact Joyce Donaldson at or 800-252-7625 (Legend) or Heather Garnder at or 800-865-8991 (INFO 5).

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End-of-year sunset date set for ProfitMaker

Director SeriesKarmak’s ProfitMaker software is being replaced by our latest software offerings, PartsDirector™ and ServiceDirector™. 

Because we are continually working hard to provide you with the best software for your needs, we have incorporated the latest technology available when creating PartsDirector and ServiceDirector. Microsoft .Net framework has allowed us to include features in our new software that will enable you to more easily navigate the software and more quickly access data. Because of these benefits offered with Karmak’s Director Series (which includes PartsDirector and ServiceDirector), we are announcing the upcoming sunset date for ProfitMaker as December 31, 2004.

Karmak will continue to support ProfitMaker through the end of 2004. After that time, we will offer Help Desk Support and product upgrades only for our Director Series products, PartsDirector and ServiceDirector.
Contact Barb Mitchell, Manager of ProfitMaster Services, at or 800-252-7625, or your Regional Sales Manager with any questions.
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People in the news
Karmak Legend and INFO 5 customers named to Kenworth Service Council

Kenworth Truck Company recently named the 2004 Kenworth Service Council. These members were chosen from a group of leading service managers from Kenworth dealerships in the United States and Canada. The goal of the Kenworth Service Council is to promote service and product improvements. 

Karmak representatives on the Kenworth Service Council are: 

  • Chris Harrison, Central Illinois Trucks, Normal, IL, INFO 5
  • Jim Johnston, Kenworth of Tennessee, Chattanooga, TN, INFO 5
  • Dan Murphy, Tandet Kenworth, Kingston, Ont., Legend 
  • Kenworth dealer council representative John Sahling, Sahling Kenworth, Kearney, NE, INFO 5
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Karmak customers round out Kenworth Parts Council

Kenworth Truck Company has named the members of its 2004 Kenworth Parts Council. The council consists of leading parts managers from Kenworth dealerships in the United States and Canada. The goal of this council is to enhance communication between Kenworth and its dealer network. 

Karmak customers who were named to the Kenworth Parts Council are:

  • Chairman, Ted Rose of Truck Enterprises, Harrisonburg, VA, INFO 5 and ProfitMaster
  • Keith King, Kenworth of Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, Legend 
  • Dan Villeneuve, Tandet Kenworth, Kingston, Ont., Legend 
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Karmak manager assumes additional duties

Mike Root		 Mike Root, Manager of Systems and Vendor Communications Support, has recently assumed the duties of Legend New Accounts, Training and Installations. These areas were consolidated to bring the entire Legend implementation process into one department. Mike has assumed this added responsibility, in addition to maintaining his current role of Manager of Systems and Vendor Communications Support. This change was effective July 6, 2004.

ProfitMaster Services, which includes the Director Series products, will continue to be managed by Barb Mitchell. This realignment of responsibility has enabled Barb to focus more intensely on the current and future deployment of ProfitMaster products and modules.

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Hot tips
INFO 5 tip: e-mailing screen captures from Reflection

Here is a tip that will explain how to e-mail a screen capture from the INFO 5 system without having to copy and paste it. This is very helpful if you have a message or an error you need to send to someone in INFO 5 Support. To e-mail a screen, simply follow these steps:  Continued>

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Meet the INFO 5 team

INFO 5 Office Support

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

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  About Karmak Compass

This newsletter is designed to bring Karmak customers useful information using the convenience and speed of the Web.

Use our Feedback Form to send us suggestions, comments, or news items for publication.

To subscribe, update your e-mail address, or unsubscribe, use our Subscription page. Subscriptions are free to all Karmak customers.

 

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