Common questions/problems: Q. This program looks almost identical to a program called "Online Phone System Manager". What's going on? A. Our program has evolved from a simple phone directory manager to a very sophisticated information system, providing a means of tracking people, phone messages, reference information, business contacts, and appointments. What is planned in the future for this program make the new name "Corporate Information Manager" even more appropriate. Q. The program asks me for a userid and password. What do I do? A. Default userid's and passwords, as well as instructions for setting up security, nw user id's and passwords are included in CIM22N.DOC. (Hint: the highest level default security user id is "USER1", and it's password is "PASS1". All default user ids should be deleted for security purposes. The number of user Id/password combinations are limited by disk space. Q. When I go into some screens it goes to another screen that says "Action: Record will be added". Why does it do that? A. The first time you access a database, if the database is completely empty, it goes to the screen to add information automatically. If you don't want to add information, just depress "ESC" to back out. Q. Your program has a lot of features. Is the program new? A. This program has evolved since 1989, and many of the enhancements are based on suggestions from our customers (including many Fortune 500 companies). It is designed to provide high performance at low cost, and each version has more features, and is "upward compatible" with the prior version, so you don't have to worry about ever re-entering data. If it ever became necessary to change the file structure, we would give our registered users a "file conversion" utility to let the computer do the work. Q. How often do you come up with new versions? A. Every few months we have been upgrading the program. Also we are fast approaching the point where we will only be offering the upgrades to registered users, and not issuing evaluation copies. This means that registered users have knowledge of and access to the latest versions, as well as utilities to make more specialized reports, improve file management, convert other file types, and many other features. Also, these utilities will not be distributed as shareware, and will ONLY be available to registered users. Q. Why do you have both a LAN and a Standalone version, if the LAN version run on a standalone PC? A. Because of the file management overhead necessary for LAN use it isn't too efficient for standalone users. Also, the standalone/laptop version is less expensive. The standalone/laptop version has compatibility with the LAN version (with the exception of the user, message and license files), and lets your standalone PC users (such as home PC users, laptop users, field offices, etc) use the same files. Also, as the standalone version DOES NOT have phone message management, the security of the message base isn't compromised. Q. Why aren't ALL files compatible between the Standalone and LAN versions? A. Mainly to protect the confidentiality of information. The user tables to protect your programs "front-end" security, message files, as they are unnecessary in the standalone version, the private reference database, as on the LAN version it is used by the system administrator, the name/number/ description database that may be used for confidential information, and the License file to identify the program sources, etc. Q. Why would people off the network need the information? How can my organization used this standalone version? A. This program lets people have the latest version of the phone directory information while "on the road", or while they work from home. Sales organizations can use the reference information database to distribute sales bulletins, price lists, etc. They can also give their people a tool to track client info, and appointments. Service organizations can use the reference information database to distribute service information, parts lists, etc. They can use the contact information to track service clients, and site information. The appointment calendar can help keep track of service calls, follow-ups, etc. Managers and executives can use the reference information to receive memos, briefing information, policies and procedures, employee information, and much more. The databases can be distributed within particular departments, and can be totally different from another departments, if you choose. The latest versions of files can be distributed on floppy disk, or downloaded from a mainframe or corporate bulletin board. The uses of this tool, especially putting both the stand-alone version AND the LAN version to work for your organization, can make a major improvement in productivity, as well as communication. Its working smarter, not harder! Q. The program CIM is over 539 K bytes. How can I run this on a 512K machine? A. The program uses "embedded overlays". This means that the program is broken up into several "modules" that are only loaded into main memory from disk when needed, into a single shared "overlay area". This reduces the main memory requirement to less than 400K. Q. How are "embedded overlays" different? A. Embedded overlays put all the individual modules in one big ".EXE" file, rather than individual files. We use embedded overlays to give you maximum flexibility, using minimum main memory space (ram cram), and minimum disk space. Q. I've looked for other packages, and yours is unique. How can yours be so inexpensive? A. We don't have the marketing costs that the big software companies have, and are a small company. Q. Why do you encrypt the data files? A. The reason for encrypting the user file is for overall system security, but the other files are to protect privacy of messages. and prevent "intelligent modification" of the database. Q. What happens if I need technical support? A. All registered users are given a telephone number to receive technical support. We also publish technical bulletins to answer commonly asked questions and problems. Q. How much disk space should I allow for? A. That depends on the size of your company and the amount that you use each feature. We would recommend as a MINIMUM 1 MB, and preferably 2-3 MB. Q. What programs are you planning or developing? A. We are working on a sales tracking system, as well as a friendly E-Mail system. These are scheduled to be released during the first half of 1992. Q. How often do you come up with new versions? A. Every few months we have been upgrading the program. Also we are fast approaching the point where we will only be offering the upgrades to registered users, and not issuing evaluation copies. This means that registered users have knowledge of and access to the latest versions, as well as utilities to make more specialized reports, improve file management, convert other file types, and many other features. Also, these utilities will not be distributed as shareware, and will ONLY be available to registered users. Q. What if I want a custom version, or special reports? A. We do program customization, and our rates are very reasonable. As our programs "source code" and security systems are proprietary, we do not release our source code to anyone.