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La Crosse Nextgen
Game Shows Are Very Entertaining at Business Conferences! 
What's more fun than playing a trivia question game show with a bunch of business software developers and customers? Absolutely nothing! Well, this wasn't one of the questions that came up in the game show that was played on Wednesday evening, but it was the style of entertainment for the night. In addition to the fun and games provided by Kid Again Game Shows of La Crosse, there were several hot topics and features that captured the attention of those attending the Fall 2006 La Crosse Customer Conference. The biggest change from last season was that the conference lasted a total of 4 days this time. This not only gave customers more time to cover important material and ask more questions about the content, but it also helped instructors to give special attention and time to participants, thereby helping them to understand vital operational aspects and proper procedures for the most efficient use of the software.
Among the classroom sessions and topics offered were Tech Raptor, Sales Raptor, Contract Freight/Fuel Surcharge, Nextgen Dashboards, Night Auditor, Web Crystal Reports, EZ Products, and Nextgen Enhancements/Updates. There were also the usual courses that dealt with management and operations, such as Inventory/PO, Contracts, Service, Orders/Billing, Financials, AR/Collections, SQL Scripting, Crystal Reports, and SQL Server Administration/Maintenance. We were also very fortunate to have guest speakers Robbie Haverstick and Brent Saari from Comsquared come and speak to us about a great imaging automation product called Active Remittance, which can be used to streamline payment posting and bank deposit preparation using the latest check processing technologies.
Congratulations to the big winners of the evening, which were Mike Pivec from Taylor Made Water Systems who won an 80 GB iPod, Cody Shadwick from Miller Office Equipment who won a free onsite review trip, and Dan Coffey who won a free onsite Crystal Reports seminar. We thank all of you for taking the time to join us for the education, experience, and fun. We will continue to do our best to provide quality training of our software products. We hope to see you at our next customer conference in April 2007!
Upcoming Trade Shows and Dealer Meetings
Current News Nextgen Makes a Splash with Water Companies 
Did you know that some water purification system dealerships are using Nextgen to manage their business? That's right. Taylor Made Water Systems of Concord, California and A&B Pure Water of Sioux Falls, South Dakota are two companies that use Nextgen software from La Crosse Management Systems. They provide their customers with water filtration and purification systems for clean better tasting water and coffee. And if that is not enough, Nextgen is also being used to automate dealerships that sell banking equipment, telephone dictation systems, as well as electronics. This just goes to show the versatility and flexibility of how La Crosse Nextgen can effectively manage businesses other than copier dealerships. If you want to see what water purification systems are all about and you are in the Orlando, Florida area October 25-27, 2006, come on out and see us. We will be attending the 2006 NAMA National Expo. This is a trade show dedicated to coffee and beverage service products and practices.
Moving Ahead with World Expo 2006 
The World Expo show at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas on August 23-25, 2006 was a great event. Recharger Magazine was the sponsor and they did a fantastic job as usual.
The 3-day event featured over 300 exhibitors in the print management and toner remanufacturing/recharging industry, which easily makes it the largest imaging supplies industry show and the biggest IT business to business trade show in Las Vegas. This was the second year that La Crosse Management Systems exhibited, and you can bet your bottom dollar that we will be present and ready for this show again in 2007. ITEX 2007 is Right Around the Corner 
The people at Imaging Network show no signs of slowing down. Preparations and planning have already begun for ITEX 2007, the imaging technology industry's largest and fastest growing trade show of its kind. Things happen quickly in the technology realm, and before you know it, this event will be upon us once again.
According to their sources at Imaging Network, the business and document solutions market is estimated to grow to nearly $40 billion dollars by 2007 (an increase of $1.5 billion from 2006). Now that is some serious money to be made in the document solution market. Stop by and see us in Las Vegas March 20-23, 2007 at the Las Vegas Convention Center for an unforgettable event. See our exhibitor profile on the ITEX website. User Tips Opening and Closing Periods There have been some support issues lately about opening and closing periods in Nextgen. In some cases, the issue results from posting transactions in AR Cash Entry to a closed period. For example, the following error message is displayed when trying to post cash to a period that is not open yet: "Period Oct 06 not open." The resolution is to open the period for each ledger. How to Open a Period for Each Ledger
Change Ledger Period
Closing Remarks View from the Top A sincere THANK YOU to all customers and business partners who attended the Fall 2006 La Crosse Customer Conference! We appreciate your time and effort taken to do so. The conferences gain effectiveness by providing a faster return on investment for you, every time we host one. A quick note to decision makers of those customers not attending: Your employees are not happy! They are not happy because they feel you are not interested in helping them gain knowledge to implement and use the tool that helps you make money. Prior to the fall customer conference, we sent more than 3,600 emails, mailed more than 500 letters, and solicited more than 400 phone calls inviting you and your employees to attend. The reply we received more than 25% of the time was "the owner is not interested in spending money on administration or operations!" How can you ever expect to attain industry revenue per headcount ratio or pre-tax profit percentages if you do not train your staff on how to do more in less time? You invest cash to train sales and service, but quite a few of you have a revolving door in operations/ administration and finance that chews up your profit. How much cash are you losing because something as simple as contract billing is not done properly, a monthly rate billed annually, or not set up at all or cancelled without a chargeback on the service calls? The percentage of annual sales in lost revenue dollars is usually in the half of 1% range. This makes a trip to La Crosse for four days or 32 hours of training look very lucrative! Come on, it’s La Crosse, not Las Vegas. There is nothing to do here but learn. Get on board! In closing, we have products and services you may not be aware of, and you have features and capabilities on your system for which you are not using that will provide return dollars and be beneficial to your company. There is absolutely no logical reason to not schedule time for your employees to advance their knowledge. Please take advantage of it! Thank you for allowing us to be your partner in education, training and development. Until next time,
Contact Information La Crosse Management Systems, Inc.La Crosse International, Inc. 200 Main Street Suite 220 La Crosse, WI 54601 Phone: 608-784-8400 Fax: 608-791-5660 Email: info@lacrossesoftware.com Website: http://www.lacrossesoftware.com
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