Having trouble displaying this newsletter? Click here or visit http://www.pa.com.au/mbs/aus_news/june_aus_newsletter.htm
Welcome to the June Issue of Professional Advantage News!

In this issue:

Year End is Approaching
Use support email and website for faster response times

Almost 70% of our clients have a financial year end date of the 30th of June. This means that our Customer Service Team is approaching their busiest time of the year. During this period of increased activity, remember that there are more than one way to contact the Customer Service team. Apart from the telephone, you can use:
- support email: mailto:%20mbshelp@pa.com.au
- Internet: www.pa.com.au/mbs and then follow the link to our Online Customer Service Centre.

If you do not have your login details for this service, a customer service representative can provide them for you.

Year End and Support Desk

Congratulate your peers on winning awards from Microsoft!

"What's new in Microsoft Great Plains v. 7.5?" - online demo

Mark your calendars: Upcoming events!

Microsoft Business Solutions Financing offers

Microsoft Great Plains and Windows 2003 server

Professional Advantage is the first Microsoft Gold Certified Business Solutions Partner in Australasia

Contacting us by one of these methods will guarantee that you will receive a response within 1 hour during normal support hours.

Is your Year End the 30th of June? Help is coming!

  • Through this time, our support hours have extended to be 8.30am - 5.30pm, including Friday
  • TrainingOnline session "Year End procedures" is scheduled for the 20th of June. To register click here. Please note, this session is at $75 per connection
  • Would you like to receive individual assistance with your Year End process? Book a consultant for an on-site consultation.
  • Need Year End documentation? Visit the "Offers" section of our Online Customer Support Centre, following the corresponding link from our website: www.pa.com.au/mbs

Congratulate your peers on winning awards from Microsoft!
Two Professional Advantage customers, A-Gas and Cessna Pacific, have won awards at the Microsoft Business Solutions customer conference.

A-Gas - Award for Innovation - recognises customers whose innovative use of technology within their business management system delivers measurable benefits to their organisation.

A-Gas uses a number of Microsoft technologies to drive business efficiencies. Their tight integration to third party products ensures a flow of real-time radio frequency updates into their Great Plains back-office system. A-Gas is also using innovative ways to roll out an application using digital dashboard, .Net, and XML. OLAP business intelligence solution Webhouse has been implemented and wireless technology is used to streamline data entry by internal shop floor staff.

Cessna Pacific - Award for Evangelism - is presented to customers who have best evangelised their solution by sharing information with others and by helping improve the solutions they are evangelising.

Following the implementation of an integrated inventory and financial management solution, Cessna has saved one week per month in processing as well as gained better inventory and debtor control. Cessna Pacific has been a great evangelist for Microsoft Business Solutions and their partner through a video case study, presenting at their partners' seminars and being a reference site.

Do you have a story to tell? We invite you to participate in next year's awards! Simply email Tatiana at tatiana_kiblyk@pa.com.au to express your interest.


Scott Miller and Faye Connors of A-Gas with Professional Advantage team and Errol Schoenfish of Microsoft Business Solutions


Jane Wellard of Cessna accepted award for Evangelism, pictured with Errol Schoenfish of Microsoft Business Solutions (left) and John Hibbett of Professional Advantage
Microsoft Business Solutions financing offers
Take advantage of the three financing options to purchase additional user licences or modules - valid until 26 June 2003

The offer covers MBS software, add-on software and hardware

Offer #1
90 days deferred payments - On a 3 or 5 year package you make no repayments for the first three months. Repayments are based either on 33 or 57 month periods

Offer #2
150 days no payments - On a 3 year package you make no repayments for the first 5 months. The first 3 months are covered under the 33 month repayment plan, and MBS and Professional Advantage will cover the payments in months
4 and 5.

Offer #3
180 days no payments - On a 5 year package you make no repayments for the first 6 months. The first 3 months are covered under the 57 month repayment plan, and MBS and Professional Advantage will cover the payments in months 4, 5 and 6.


Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft's latest server operating system Windows 2003
Will Great Plains run on the Windows 2003 server?

The answer is 'yes' for Great Plains starting from version 6.0 running on Microsoft Windows Server 2003.
For those releases that run on Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Business Solutions will only support Microsoft SQL Server 2000 SP3 or later on Microsoft Windows Server 2003.

Do you need a quote for your operating system or database upgrade? We can help you with all Microsoft products. Please email your query to Mark Miller at mailto:%20mark_miller@pa.com.au

Mark your calendars: Upcoming events:

User group meetings:
This time we are hosting our user group meetings off site, with a full cooked breakfast - to help you through the hard times of year end!

Melbourne:
When: 18 June 2003, 8am - breakfast;
8.30-10.30 am - presentations
Sydney:
When: 19 June 2003, 8am - breakfast;
8.30-10.30am - presentations

To be presented:

  • Microsoft Great Plains v.7.5 overview
  • Microsoft Business Portal demonstration
  • Microsoft's latest technology update
  • Year End processes
  • Freight management solution from IFS

To register, please click here: www.pa.com.au/mbs/events

Online presentations and training:

13 June 2-3pm How to perform system maintenance
TrainingOnline*
register
20 June 3:30pm Year End procedures

TrainingOnline*
register

24 June 2-3pm Webhouse - analysing your Great Plains data for business decisions
DemoOnline
register

TrainingOnline* is charged at $75 per connection

Public Training Courses Schedule
For upcoming training courses, please follow this link: http://www.pa.com.au/mbs/training_public_courses.htm

Professional Advantage is the first Microsoft Gold Certified Business Solutions Partner in Australasia
The first to achieve double gold certification!

Professional Advantage is proud to announce that the company has become the first Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) Gold Certified Partner in Australia and New Zealand.

Flemming Beisner, Director of Microsoft Business Solutions, Australasia said that Professional Advantage had a long track record of investing in its systems and people to ensure that it delivered the best available service.

"The Gold accreditation process is a tough challenge for any partner organisation, including our largest partner Professional Advantage, and we congratulate them for their achievement."

The accreditation supports Professional Advantage's business strategy to be unique in terms of the breadth and depth of Microsoft solutions that the company can offer - particularly for those organisations that want to be serviced by one provider for all their Microsoft needs.

The accreditation confirms that we are one of the leading organisations in this region to implement an MBS solution. It also makes us more attractive to customers seeking the security of a stable vendor and reseller who can deliver a complete solution from one organisation.