Annual Update from the SSAA

Merry Christmas from the Dev. Team

Greetings, %%Facility name%%. Welcome to our massive Christmas edition, also known as eNews issue #39. We've got stacks of great articles for you this month - including Christmas messages from our staff & guest bloggers, as well as updates from the SSAA and a host of other bits & pieces to keep you occupied.

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

Regards,
Andy & the StorMan Software Team

We all spend a lot of time in meetings, either formally scheduled or just quick ad-hoc conversations. Meetings allow for a unique form of direct communication and will help get everyone on the same page to move a project or organization forward.

Unfortunately the word “Meeting” often triggers eye rolls and exasperation, with many of us writing off the time as wasted. According to the Wharton Center for Applied Research, the average CEO spends 17 hours per week in meetings, senior executives an average of 23 hours and middle managers 11 hours. Even worse, only 56% of these meetings are productive. Continue reading Edwin's blog on our website...

Please find below the operating hours for our Australian, New Zealand, UK & USA offices over the 2011 Christmas and New Year period. Over the festive period (as per dates outlined below), we will be operating with a skeleton staff.

Only Sitedown support (where users are unable to log into StorMan) will be attended to over this period. All other enquiries will be attended to when normal support hours & service levels resume.

Australian Office

• December 23rd: Open as usual (last day of normal hours)
• December 26th (Christmas day public holiday): Closed
• December 27th (Boxing day public holiday): Closed
• December 28th: Closed (Sitedown support only, but during our NZ operating hours)
• December 29th: Closed (Sitedown support only, but during our NZ operating hours)
• December 30th: Closed (Sitedown support only, but during our NZ operating hours)
• January 2nd (New Years day public holiday): Closed
• January 3rd: Closed
• January 4th: Open as per usual

New Zealand Office

• December 23rd: Open as usual (last day of normal hours)
• December 26th (Christmas day public holiday): Closed
• December 27th (Boxing day public holiday): Closed
• December 28th: Closed (Sitedown support only, but during our NZ operating hours)
• December 29th: Closed (Sitedown support only, but during our NZ operating hours)
• December 30th: Closed (Sitedown support only, but during our NZ operating hours)
• January 2nd (New Years day public holiday): Closed
• January 3rd: Closed
• January 4th: Open as per usual

United States Office

• December 23rd: Open as usual (last day of normal hours)
• December 24th - January 3rd: Closed (Sitedown support only, but during our NZ operating hours)
• January 4th: Open as per usual

United Kingdom Office

• December 23rd: Open as usual (last day of normal hours)
• December 24th - January 3rd: Closed (Sitedown support only, but during our NZ operating hours)
• January 4th: Open as per usual

This month, we flashback to our December 2009 eNewsletter, which featured some fantastic stories from StorMan staff, as well as everyone's favourite... Christmas food recipes.

We wanted to do the same for this year's edition, but given the amount of content we've got in this issue, we just couldn't fit it in... maybe next year!

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the new and existing StorMan users around the world... especially those who I have contact with in the UK, Europe and USA. Thank you for your continued support and for making my working life pleasurable, satisfying, and challenging! Continue reading Chris's blog on our website...

2011 Annual Update from Luisa Natoli - Membership Services Officer, SSAA

After the August Convention and Trade Show in Melbourne, it feels like the year has gone by so quickly.  During the months of October and November, we capped off the last of the SSAA Regional Dinners across Australia and New Zealand for the year.

The SSAA hosted these in Adelaide, Auckland, Wellington, Melbourne, Queensland, Perth and Sydney, with Melbourne Cup Day and a Digital Marketing Workshop thrown in the mix as well, for good measure! Our venues included a luxurious refurbished politician’s estate, a teppanyaki restaurant, a river cruise and a hotel’s buffet breakfast.

This year we also hosted a Strategic Planning Session open to members for the very first time. This was held in Melbourne and attended by over 50 members from around Australia. The interactive workshop allowed members to contribute opinions as to the future strategic direction of the Association. Continue reading Luisa's blog on our website...

The Banks & 2012 - by guest blogger Malcolm Collins (Collins Westlink Consulting)

The Reserve Bank’s last reduction in the official cash rate is, amongst other things, recognition of the multi-speed economy affecting Australian business and its customers. The uncertainty created by the GFC and its aftermath has included the withdrawal and tightening-up of traditional financing and credit sources over time by the major banks to the property and investment communities.

Self storage as an industry has weathered this period of low confidence better than most due to the unique operational issues that insulate good performers from the worst of a downturn. Continue reading Malcolm's blog on our website...

Frequent readers should, by now, know the importance of making a regular backup of their data - particularly your StorMan database, email & any other important files that you may have on your computer.

What does this have to do with "now" being a good time to buy a hard drive? The recent flooding in Thailand affected many peoples lives - including the workers at most of the world's largest hard drive manufacturers. Most of the factories we inundated with floodwaters (see photos). As such, hard drive stocks around the globe will dry out and supply shortages will begin to take effect - driving up the price of hard drives in the coming months. Continue reading Andy's blog on our website...

The Christmas Season is upon us once again! For many this means a notably slower period for rentals as most folks tend to focus more on family and gift giving than moving and storing. To others, it’s time to deck out the rental office with festive holiday decorations, offer up hot cocoa with marshmallows to anyone who visits them and play endless Christmas music on the radio.

To many it’s an opportunity to celebrate the important religious meaning of the holiday. Still others begin their annual rites of tradition which include baking cookies, shopping for gifts, being more kind and generous to those with needs, and to my wife and two daughters it’s some of the best sales of the year in the stores! Continue reading Charlie's blog on our website...

Dust off the decorations, un-box the tree, start making lists of who gets what… Christmas, ready or not, is upon us! As always, this is a time of year that reminds us to step back and reflect. So just what is my reflection?

The last 12 months, much the same as last year, will probably be one that most people talk about for many years to come. For many it will be filled with tales of challenges, struggles & natural disasters offset to varying degrees by examples of success against these adversities.

For StorMan the organisation, it has been no different. We have like so many others had to take a long hard look at the “how’s” and “whys” to many aspects of our business in order to refine systems & processes and develop a more streamlined approach. We are pleased to report that with these changes have come many enhancements in our various departments. Continue reading Aaron's blog on our website...

Merry Christmas and happy New Year from myself and all the staff at StorMan! This year has seen a few challenges for our industry and yet we still continue to show our resilience. Firstly this year we had the challenge of the Queensland floods and their impact on some of our members followed by the earthquakes in New Zealand that affected many more.

Through all of this I was somewhat amazed to find people very optimistic with regards to how their businesses were going to cope and get back on their feet. Since then, we have had operators re-open flooded stores and continue where they left off, we have had many people re-open earthquake damaged stores and be supported by their clients both new and old. It certainly seems that as an industry we have and continue to support fellow competitors and stores and I think this reflects our fantastic spirit. Continue reading Ben's blog on our website...

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.

Hide-A-Key sprinkler: Need to hide a key but don't want to place it under the doormat? Try the Hide-A-Key... disguised as a popup sprinkler head! For about $6 USD, you can't go wrong with this clever (and potentially insurance-policy voiding) idea.

The Hide-A-Key Sprinkler is available here at ThinkGeek (PS: Some of the Australian StorMan staff recently ordered from the abovelinked ThinkGeek and can happily verify that the products arrive quickly [under a week] from the USA and are well packed!).

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 or fun for your own use...

As we near closer to the end of the year and the silly season begins it’s important to remember one thing: keep yourself as well as your business safe.

One of the most important daily/weekly routines of any business is the backing up your data. Without a secure backup of your data that you can easily obtain and access in a time of need i.e. should your current data become corrupt due to unforeseen circumstances, then your business is constantly at risk. Imagine how you would cope not knowing whose renting at your site, how much they are billed, how much they owe or how many units they rent for example. Continue reading Scott's blog on our website...

Things have been busy in development, we have spent the last year beta testing our upcoming new version that we spoke about last year with some of our major & minor customers. This is the longest we've ever run a beta before to try and ensure that the final release early next year will be as stable as possible. Continue reading Robert's blog on our website...

What does this represent?

Answer to this brainteaser: As this is our last issue until February 2012, we'll include the answer to this month's brainteaser in this issue. The answer is: "Lemonade" (highlight the block between the quotes with your mouse to read the answer; try our web version if it doesn't work for you).

Answer to last month's brainteaser: "Repeat after me".

Each Christmas, I like to reflect back on the year in News & Blogs on our website to bring you the Top 10 posts (in terms of hits). Here they are - with the most popular post appearing first...

1. Why do people leave Bluetooth turned on? (by Andy)
2. 2010 Movers & Storers show (by Timm)
3. The Taxing Issues of Subdivision (by guest blogger Eddie)
4. PTI Storlogix Software is now Windows 7 & 64-bit Compatible (by guest blogger Ben)
5. The vicious retail cycle (by Andy)
6. Queensland Floods (by Andy)
7. Sign-up new customers from an iPad! (by Andy)
8. Nardia's World's Greatest Shave (by Nardia)
9. 2011 SSAA Convention & Tradeshow (by Andy)
10. Happy Birthday StorMan! (by Andy)

I would like to thank all our valued StorMan clients around the country for the continued support Collins Westlink Consulting has received this year. Our business has again grown strongly and we look forward to providing the same high level of personal service to you in 2012. Continue reading Malcolm's blog on our website...

According to our myStorMan statistics, the top 5 knowledgebase articles for 2011 were (with the most popular post appearing first)...

1. Introduction & Fundamentals for new users
2. The difference between StorMan types of Sales
3. How to install the StorMan Remote Support software
4. How to setup a Notice
5. Exporting to MYOB

We're not quite sure if this is a wise idea...?

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

Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming sits on the site of an ancient supervoclano. It erupted around 2 million years ago, 1.3 million years ago, and 640,000 years ago. If it follows the same pattern, another eruption is due any time now.

Wow... this has been a huge eNews; thank you for reading through until the end!

We've had so much going on lately that we couldn't fit everything into this newsletter, so if you're looking for some extra reading, feel free to continue reading some of the articles that we didn't make it in this issue, via our News & Blogs website.

Thanks and have a safe & merry Christmas!