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Fairport Technologies News September 2002
IN THIS ISSUE
Welcome
Staff Matters
PAM QA Plus News
www Site News
Rogers Ramblings
Multiple Installs of PAM
PocketPAM News
Maximise News
Dealer News -- AgBis -- Farmtek
In Closing
Welcome
Fairport welcomes all new clients who have come aboard since our last newsletter and hope that you are enjoying using our products as much as we enjoy producing them. We are honoured and pleased to welcome aboard all the QDPI Research stations. We now have all WA, SA, Vic, NSW and QLD agricultural research stations using PAM.
We would also like to thank all our Fairport Club Members for your continued support and feedback. This enables us to continually enhance our products to suit your needs and improve the quality of our service to all members.
The winter season has been very cruel to the majority of our Australian clients. For those of you lucky enough to have a winter crop to harvest, good luck with it.
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Staff Matters
All staff have been extremely busy since the last newsletter with the increasing interest in PAM QA Plus and the beginning of another financial year.
Ben has had a busy few months with enhancements and improvements to PAM QA Plus, while Paul (between support calls) has improved the PocketPAM Pocket PC program.
Jodie has been busy with the usual day to day matters… PAM QA registrations and the transfer of our accounts from Quick Books to MYOB.
Laurie and Darren have been working hard on enhancements to the Australian Agricultural Company's head office software. Laurie has also worked to improve the Mapping and FarmStar sections in PAM. Laurie had a well earned three week break in September where he had the chance to visit relatives in sunny Darwin.
John has been putting finishing touches on Maximise - the machinery and vehicle database system (See article page 2).
Roger and Paul visited the Dowerin Field Days in August with the Booth Technology team.
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PAM QA Plus News
Budget Export Facility
In conjunction with Agrimaster, we have developed a budget export facility. A budget prepared in PAM QA Plus (Version 3.1.0 and later), can be exported to the new version of Agrimaster. To use this facility simply prepare your year plans in a PAM budget and when done, click on the "Export…" button on the "Select a Budget" screen.
More interfacing with accounting software is on its way. Watch this space!Harvest Import Facility
Those of you in Western Australia will be able to import your CBH delivered loads from the CBH "Loadnet" site this harvest. All truck loads of grain which have paddocks assigned to them on the delivery docket can be imported. All PAM data including delivery destination, harvest class, tonnes, screenings, moisture, protein etc. is imported.
NSW EPA Report
Since the last newsletter we have increased the number of special QA reports. The new NSW EPA reporting on pesticide use has been catered for in a new report layout that can be found under the list of special QA reports.
Don't forget that if you are a current Fairport Club Member you can download the latest versions of PAM QA Plus from our website at any time in the duration of your membership. Please call us if you are unsure of the status of your membership.
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www Site News
Any time you have a support requirement at a time when our office is closed, please consult our web site. The site is regularly updated with the most current information on all Fairport products, frequently asked questions, pricing, your local distributors and more. For those technical and general support queries check the FAQ section on the Support page.
You can download the latest version of all of our products for a demonstration (20 run times) or an upgrade to your existing installation (Fairport Club members only).
Your feedback on our web site is always welcome. Please let us know if there are more facilities or information pages you would like to see on our site.
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Rogers Ramblings
As was mentioned above, I took a day out of the office in late August to attend the Dowerin Field Days, a two hour drive from Perth. For a poor season, the mood was quite buoyant and interest in technology was as robust as ever.
July and August disappeared at an amazing pace but September has seen me crossing Australia three times. In early September I attended a SPAA (Southern Precision Agriculture Association) precision farming workshop day at Roseworthy Agricultural College along with Gavin Sargeant of Farmtek and South Australian dealer, Craig Humphris. It was an excellent day and many good questions were being asked about the technologies on display. The day prior to the SPAA workshops, we helped the Roseworthy college bed in their PAM and Pocket PAM programs.
While in SA I also met with John Crocker of the SARDI horticultural research stations. They are having us do some custom development work to interface their PAM UltraCrop data with the research station accounts.
The following week I was back in South Australia for a meeting with BRL Hardy Wines who are soon to install PAM UltraCrop at another eight of their vineyards. Mick Lehman of Serve-Ag and I met with the Hardy viticulturalists, Brenton Baker and Alex Sas, for a very fruitful few hours.
Over the last week of September I met with Matt Meehan and 10 of the Agbis dealer team in Moree, NSW, for a day and a half of workshopping. On the second day we had a crowd of 25 local farmers and consultants join us for an overview of PAM and the FarmStar precision farming tools. It was good to catch up with some long term clients and to meet some of our new ones.
It seems that many more farmers are showing interest in precision farming technologies. Our recent and on-going developments in FarmStar are well-timed, it seems.
The months ahead are shaping up to be extremely exciting here at Fairport. With proposed developments in PAM and on other fronts, our time should be anything but dull between now and Christmas.
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Multiple Installs of PAM
With the release of PAM QA Plus came the release of the option of Data Merging in PAM. There are now three options to choose from when considering multiple installs of PAM.
Data Merging is suited to the larger operation where several data entry points are required (which are removed from each other) to enter data on the one dataset. For example, a family business with two separated households (ie. Computers) or for an owner with a property with a number of enterprise managers all entering data. Data can be merged using the special merging technology we have developed.
A standard site license is ideal for the smaller business that would like the one data entry point, but wants to use a lap top from time to time for out of the office data entry. Backup and Restore facilities are used to keep the data up to date on each computer.
A network install is appropriate for the office environment where there is a physical computer network for PAM to work over. Hence the data is 'live' to all users who are able to see changes as they are being made from different computers in the office.
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PocketPAM News
Great news for Pocket PC users … We are very pleased to announce that Paul and Ben have written a special system that enables us to avoid using the ActiveSync program which was giving us some problems. Now it's a single mouse click to complete a data transfer from a PocketPAM on a Pocket PC to PAM. The data transfer process time has been reduced by a massive 75%.
The Inventory program has now been released for the Pocket PC version and the gpsScout program is very close. Stay tuned.
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Maximise News
Maximise - the big brother to our MAX: Machinery and Vehicle database system, has been released to several interested clients for testing. John Wan has been patiently working on Maximise throughout 2002 to ensure old MAX data can be migrated across to it and he has also been creating more reports and generally de-bugging it ready for release.
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Dealer News
Serve-Ag Pty Ltd
Tim Woolley has joined the Serve-Ag team in a PAM UltraCrop sales and support role. Tim comes from an IT background and will provide a valuable technical resource to our existing and future PAM UltraCrop clients.
Tim has established a Serve-Ag Support Service, which is available to all PAM UltraCrop users.
Through access to Farmbi$, a joint investment by the Tasmania & Commonwealth Governments, financial assistance is available in training of farmers and fishers in business management, and natural resource management. Up to 65% of training costs can be reimbursed through this Government initiative.
Tim has established one on one, on-site PAM UltraCrop training courses, accessing this scheme. For more information please contact
Tim on 0417 331 801.Farmtek Pty Ltd
It's hard to ignore the weather conditions that have gripped much of the country this year. It is amazing how challenges bring the best out of people and that has been reflected in the training sessions Farmtek have run this year both in SA and Victoria.
Farmtek were on hand at Elmore field days in Victoria this year to discuss the exciting enhancements in the PAM QA plus release. The feedback was tremendous.
Many PAM users are wanting more and more out of the system to help ensure they are getting maximum returns on their properties despite the weather. The FarmBi$ program is providing assistance to growers to enhance their skills using PAM. If you would like to attend a training session, or organise an on farm visit, please contact your local PAM dealer, or contact Gavin Sargeant from Farmtek.
We would like to extend thanks again for your support this year, and look forward to working with you in the near future
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In Closing
Since our last newsletter, many of Australia's major Field Days have been held. We would like to thank all distributors and their associates for their efforts in exposing our products to the public.
The Fairport Team wishes you all the best for the remainder of 2002…
Until December…
Best Wishes from the Fairport Team !
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