Flashback

Monthly Funny

Acronym of the Month

Greetings, %%Facility name%%. Welcome to eNews issue #26 - where we make up for last month's slimmer edition thanks to a brand new swag of articles and content from around the world... including some great blog posts from our guest writers & partners, a look at some upcoming events in the industry and our usual regulars.

As usual, if you have any comments, ideas or suggestions, just get in touch with me via andy@storman.com. Until next time, happy surfing! :-)

Regards,
Andy & the StorMan Software Team

By guest blogger Malcolm Collins - Westlink Consulting

I recently held a phone conversation with a major Bank property officer. He couldn't understand why adopting an established yield return per square metre, on a strongly performing and "proven" operator could be transferred to that facility’s next stage.

Whilst the overall unit mix would of course change, including the addition of many more ground level (drive-up) large units, chargeable at a premium, as well as other unit sizes to compliment the facility’s demand-based mix at present, he was in fact insistent that the figure should be much lower.

Not only did he not understand that the addition of more smaller units (at a higher yield per square metre) and the premium-price units would in fact uphold that rate, but he also did not comprehend that (subject to revisiting the valuation 12 months hence) this facility could out-perform this figure given its proactive management, rolling rent-increases through its client base over the year, and subsequent to the introduction of new customers, at higher rates as well...

As some of you may be aware, the tax rate (for the GST) in New Zealand increases to 15% as of October 1st. Well we are now well into (and in fact can see the light at the end of the tunnel) the GST updates and rollout process for our New Zealand customers and to say that it has been a hectic month in our office would be an understatement.

Nyree and Rob, from our development team, have done an amazing job of delivering the product to its current stage which we believe does a great job of addressing all the issues that we faced and then some more on top after our seminar in Auckland.

Thanks to those that attended and provided such valuable feedback to enable us to make the final tweaks. With regards to the rollout we believe that we have almost all our NZ customers on the GST build and again I thank the Nicks and all other support staff for their hard work and dedication to manage this process and so they could deliver on time for our customers.

What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, and has a bed but never sleeps? Stuck? The answer is in the next issue!

Answer to last month's brainteaser: Happy birthday

Have you ever wondered if your mobile or landline phone numbers spells something?

Enter your digits and find out, using this clever, free online tool from PhoneSpell.

It seems that October and November are the key months for association events, tradeshows, conventions and conferences.

With such a busy period ahead, we thought we would keep you in the loop with what's happening over the coming months. Here are the details...

LIVE IN-PERSON SESSIONS

• October 6 - 8, 2010: Self Storage Association of Australasia's (SSAA) flagship tradeshow & conference event in Wellington, New Zealand. If you're heading over, be sure to say hi and grab a StorMan chocolate at tradeshow stands 1 & 2. You can register for this event via the SSAA website.


• October 13 - 15, 2010: StorMan will be attending the Californian Self Storage Association convention. Find out more via the CSSA website.


• October 17 - 20, 2010: StorMan will be attending the Texas Self Storage Association Convention and Trade Show. Find out more via the TSSA website.


• October 18 - 19, 2010: StorMan will be attending the Connecticut Self Storage Association Conference. Find out more via the CTSSA website.


• November 3, 2010: StorMan will be attending the Californian Self Storage Association reception in NoCal. Find out more via the CSSA website.

ONLINE WEBCASTS (by StorMan)

• October 13th 2010 (11am AEST / 2pm NZT): Learn how Ezidebit integrates with StorMan for complete payment automation for credit cards and direct debits; 30 - 45 minutes in duration - register here. Intended for existing StorMan users.


• October 14th 2010 (11am AEST / 2pm NZT): Learn how Ezidebit integrates with StorMan for complete payment automation for credit cards and direct debits; 30 - 45 minutes in duration - register here. Intended for existing StorMan users.


• October 20th 2010 (9:30am AEST / 12:30pm NZT): Join Andy for a tour of the great new features & enhancements in the new-look myStorMan client portal & online help centre; 10 minutes in duration - register here. Intended for existing StorMan users.


• October 27th 2010 (9am PDT): Learn the basics and get to know StorMan Professional in this free 1 hour webcast - register here. Intended for new users.


• October 28th 2010 (6am AEST / 9am NZT): Learn the basics and get to know StorMan Professional in this free 1 hour webcast - register here. Intended for new users.


• October 28th 2010 (9am PDT): Learn the basics and get to know StorMan Professional in this free 1 hour webcast - register here. Intended for new users.


• October 29th 2010 (6am AEST / 9am NZT): Learn the basics and get to know StorMan Professional in this free 1 hour webcast - register here. Intended for new users.

By guest blogger Rob Baird - Ezidebit Payment Solutions

Hi, I'm Rob Baird the General Manager Sales & Marketing for Ezidebit. We at Ezidebit are very proud to announce that Ezidebit has partnered with StorMan Software to offer StorMan clients a fully automated, low cost payment solution that fully integrates with your StorMan software.

Throughout the last 6 months, we have been trialling the systems with a number of StorMan clients to ensure that the system is running smoothly and to gain feedback directly from users. All has progressed remarkably well and the solution is now available to the entire Self Storage market.

This has been an exciting time for us and we have thoroughly enjoyed working with the StorMan crew to get this solution to the Self Storage market. It is fully compliant with all financial regulations giving StorMan clients automated payment collections at a press of a button! Key benefits include reduced arrears and tiresome administration!

We are also looking forward to the upcoming Self Storage Association conference in Wellington. Don't forget to drop by stand number '19' to say hello to Richard, Natasha and myself!

StorMan Software will be running on adjusted operating times over the festive season. The operating hours for each of our worldwide offices are shown below...

Australian Office
December 24th: 8am - 12noon AEST
December 27th (Boxing day): Closed
December 28th (Christmas day): Closed
December 29th: 8am - 12noon AEST (urgent support only)
December 30th: 8am - 12noon AEST (urgent support only)
December 31st: 8am - 12noon AEST (urgent support only)
January 3rd: (New Years day): Closed
January 4th: Open as per usual

New Zealand Office
December 24th: 8:30am - 2pm NZT
December 27th (Christmas day): Closed
December 28th (Boxing day): Closed
December 29th: 10am - 3pm NZT
December 30th: 10am - 3pm NZT
December 31st: 10am - 3pm NZT
January 3rd: Closed
January 4th: Closed
January 5th: Open as per usual

United States Office
December 24th: 8:30am - 2pm PTD
December 25th (Christmas day): Closed
December 29th: 10am - 3pm PTD
December 30th: 10am - 3pm PTD
December 31st: 10am - 3pm PTD
January 3rd: (New Years day): Closed
January 4th: Open as per usual

United Kingdom Office
December 24th: 8:30am - 12noon UTC/ZULU
December 27th (Christmas day): Closed
December 28th (Boxing day): Closed
December 29th: 8:30am - 12noon (urgent support only) UTC/ZULU
December 30th: 8:30am - 12noon (urgent support only) UTC/ZULU
December 31st: 8:30am - 12noon (urgent support only) UTC/ZULU
January 3rd (New Years day): Closed

Most lipstick contains fish scales.

Nb. This month's tip is intended for computer powerusers.

Remember the time when games were 2D? Anyone who was born in the 80's (or earlier) may remember classics such as the Commander Keen series, Duke Nukem 1 & 2, Crystal Caves, Lemmings, Dangerous Dave (I loved that game!), Jetpack or Jill of the Jungle.

The nostalgia is not lost, thankfully, due to the fact that there are many websites which provide downloads to these classics - either shareware or demo versions & more.

Google will get you links to said classics, but pretty much all of them will only run on PCs - and they won't work on all versions of Windows. So... how to get around this? Enter DOSbox.

DOSbox is a DOS-emulator that tricks the application or game into thinking it's being run on a specific computer (ie: an older one, with DOS) - thus, allowing the old game or application to run on your current-spec computer - including a Mac! To find out more, check out the DOSbox website.

Now that's a bike!

Have you got a joke or funny pic to send us?
Please let us know!

This month's offer for StorMan eNews readers: Purchase StorMan Lite for just AUD$1970 / USD$1910 / GBP£1250 / NZD$2590 (excluding any local taxes).

This offer valid for new customers only, for uptake between 1st October 2010 - 31st October 2010. Upfront payment required. Support & other modules not included; product only. For details, please contact StorMan Sales via http://go.storman.com/contact/

Over the past few months, our web team has secretly been working on the new-look myStorMan website. Also known as our client portal, myStorMan contains our detailed online knowledgebase, help index, how-to videos, online store and many, many other resources for customers.

Long overdue for a refresh, the myStorMan portal is getting exactly that! Some of the features & updates include...

• Easier-to-read step-by-step instructions.
• Sections that fade / collapse when not in use.
• Better support for printing how-to articles.
• More how-to movies!
• More movies that feature closed-captions for the hearing impaired and those without computer speakers.
• More notes & examples alongside how-to articles.
• Now encompassing over 400 detailed how-to articles (and growing).
• Articles are now tagged with multiple keywords to help you find what you're looking for - because you may not always use the same terminology that we do!
• Larger screenshots.
• Updated look & feel to match existing websites.
• Larger font size.
• More white space & less clutter.

Be sure to keep an eye on http://my.storman.com next week for the launch - or join us for a free 10 minute webcast where we'll show you some of the new features & enhancements (see below for more)...

WEBCAST: What's new in myStorMan 2.0

• Topic: Join Andy for a tour of the great new features & enhancements in the new-look myStorMan client portal & online help centre.
• Date & time: Wednesday 20th Oct 2010 (9:30am AEST / 12:30pm NZT)
• Duration: 10 mins (approx)
• Registration: Please register here
• Cost: Free

This month's flashback takes us back to March 2008 when Steven Barker joined our Australian office as Technical Support Manager. He spoke of his time as a communications officer in the army and shared some fascinating stories with us.

Read more in Steven's post...

Hi there - I'm Darran, one of StorMan's Technical Support Agents. Each issue, I'll trawl through the deep depths of the internet to find you a funky piece of software, hardware or other interesting technological trinkets.

Crayon Pens

Free your inner child, with these crayon pens! Designed to look like crayon's, these pens write in blue, but come in a variety of shades (on the outside). As the distributor's website states, "Posh enough to sign a contract with and childish enough to be fun".

Nb. All 'Latest Gadget' information & imagery is sourced from online entities & supplier websites. StorMan generally doesn't endorse, own or test any of these products; we merely link to them as you might find them interesting for your own use...

Last month, we took a look at the RGB colour model. This month, we'll take a look at another colour model, known as CMYK.

The CMYK four-colour model is a subtractive colour model, used in printing. It is also used to describe the printing process itself. CMYK refers to the four inks used in some colour printing: cyan, magenta, yellow, and key black. Though it varies by print house, press operator, press manufacturer and press run, ink is typically applied in the order of the abbreviation. The “K” in CMYK stands for key since in four-colour printing cyan, magenta, and yellow printing plates are carefully keyed or aligned with the key of the black key plate.

You can read more about CMYK via Wikipedia...