COMPULIFE. Software, Inc.The July 2000 disk update will be processed Tuesday, June 27th and Wednesday, June 28th 2000. Disks will be shipped Thursday, June 29th.
You should have the July Update in your office Monday, July 3rd.The Internet monthly update will be posted some time on June 29th to our two monthly update websites.
Unless you have made arrangements to purchase your diskettes, please return your “May disks” ONLY AFTER you have successfully installed this June 2000 Update. May disks are your backup in case you should have problems installing the June edition.
Internet Monthly UpdatesFor those who hate returning disks there are two alternatives to eliminate the problem. One alternative is to switch over to obtaining monthly updates by Internet. Not only will you not have the expense and hassle of returning disks, you will save $50 per year in license fees.
Before switching to updates by Internet we require that you complete a special addendum to the license agreement called the “Internet Update Endorsement“. Once you return that to us we will send you the “Internet Master Disk” which you will need to be able to process the “MONTHLY.CMP” file that you will then be downloading each month.
If you want to switch over to Internet monthly updates, please call our office at (800) 798-3488. Our staff will send you the Internet Update Endorsement.
Disk Purchase ProgramThe other way to avoid returning disks each month is to pre-purchase them for $21 per year ($1.75 per month). If you do so you can keep them for future reference, throw them away or return them for a credit (once each year) when you are invoiced for the next twelve boxes. This is less than it costs to mail back disks each month.
Price ReductionsCompulife is reducing prices for its software. We are offering an opportunity to those who recently paid the old prices for software (those invoiced January 1st or later) to take advantage of the new price by “topping up” their subscription. The deadline to “top-up” your subscription is June 30, 2000 and so you need to act immediately.
There will be no reconsideration of this deadline. If you miss it, you miss it.
Base Price ReductionThe base price for a one year subscription to Compulife has been lowered from $379 to
$349. The personal use reduction is still $100 per year and so the personal use price has been lowered from $279 to
$249.
Two year subscription prices have remained unchanged. A two year agency subscription is $599, which is $220 for the second year. A two year personal use subscription is $399. That’s $120 for a second year.
These prices are for those who receive diskettes each month and the older sets of disks must be returned EACH MONTH. To avoid returning disks, see the first part of this bulletin for details.
Internet Price DiscountOn January 1st Compulife decreased the Internet update discount from $50 to $30 due to the difficulty that we were having with technical support questions. Since then we have addressed most of those problems by creating the “Find Compulife Update File”. This feature is found in Master Menu choice 4, “List or Modify Product Database”.
Frequently those who download and save a Compulife update file to their computer put that file in a folder (sub-directory) that is not the \COMPLIFE folder. The Compulife program only looks in the \COMPLIFE folder for update files when it starts. It would consume inordinate amounts of time if it searched the entire disk drive on every start-up. However, the “Find” feature allows you to initiate an entire disk drive search anytime the program can’t find an update file that you know you’ve downloaded.
Due to the way that this new feature has resolved most problems with downloading, and due to the fact this has cut our support calls, Compulife is going back to our original $50 Internet update reduction.
New Internet Update PricesThe annual fee for an agency version of Compulife, updated monthly by Internet, is $299. The annual fee for a personal use subscription is $199. These represent a price reduction of $50 per year over the previous price.
Two year subscription prices have also been lowered. The two year subscription price for an agency system has been reduced from $539 to $499. The two year subscription price for a personal use system has been reduced from $339 to $299.
Topping Up SubscriptionCompulife subscribers who were invoiced January 1st or later, for the higher prices, can contact Compulife and have their one year subscription extended to a two year subscription by paying the difference between the old one year price paid, and the new two year price.
For example, you paid the old $249 one year price for a one year Internet personal use subscription. The new cost of a two year Internet subscription is $299. You can pay $50 to top up to another 12 months.
How can we do this? Simple, most people don’t read these bulletins and most people will miss this top-up opportunity. The deadline of June 30, 2000 is firm.
Another top-up example: You paid $349 which was the old price for a one year Internet subscription. The new price for a two year Internet subscription is $499. $150 will top you up to another 12 months.
Once again, those who purchased a one year subscription after January 1st can take advantage of the top up option (but you must act before the deadline of June 30th).
Further, if you paid a two year Internet subscription since January you can call Compulife and we will bonus your account with additional months. But only if you do so before June 30, 2000. Note, anyone who bought a two year Internet update subscription from Compulife before January 1, 2000 paid the same price that we are now charging.
Lite Price ReductionThe one year price for a Compulife Lite subscription has been cut from $149 to
$129 for a year. The two year price for Compulife Lite remains the same: $239. Lite prices include disks, so Compulife Lite disks do not have to be returned each month.
Bulk Price ReductionThose buying additional Compulife systems can do so at a discount. We have eliminated the volume requirement to obtain our best prices. Internet monthly updates have been discounted deeper than before.
Any Compulife subscriber who is buying one system at the retail price, can obtain additional systems for the following prices:
An additional personal use subscription, updated monthly through the Internet, is $140 per year. Updated monthly by disk: $175 per year. Disks must be returned each month unless the extra $21 annual fee is paid.
An additional agency use subscription, updated monthly through the Internet, is $190 per year. Updated monthly by disk: $225 per year.
Compulife Lite’s can be purchased for $99 per year. Because bulk purchases of Compulife Lite are invoiced annually on a single invoice, for all sub-users under the same subscriber, mid-year purchases are invoiced at $8.50 per month for the balance of that year.
New Windows ComparisonsWe have made further enhancements to the new Windows comparison program. This is currently available to subscribers as the “UPDATE3.CMP” file at our mid-month update page. Anyone, including Compulife Lite customers, is welcome to download the UPDATE3.CMP file and try the new Windows comparison program. Lite customers who do so need to realize that once that file is no longer available at the website, they need to cease using it with their Lite program. We cannot guarantee that an old Windows version will remain compatible with the data files.
More DOS HarmonyInitial reaction from some who have tried the new Windows version is “I can’t figure it out.” For example, when you press F3 you will immediately get a comparison from the category that you last selected. The comparison will be for the current person entered into the client information. If you want to change the comparison category, you click the down button to the right of the category (at the top left of the comparison window) and select a new category. The new comparison will be immediately calculated and displayed.
To X-ray an individual product from the comparison, you move your pointer to the product that you want to see and double click. I suspect there are those who don’t understand (even though we are using the famous “Windows standards”; right!) and so we have now implemented the DOS version’s keystrokes.
The up and down arrow will move the highlight line on the comparison results. The ENTER key will pop up the individual product window. Another ENTER key will pop up the Pick 5 windows file list and another ENTER key will file the product to the Pick 5 list. Sounds like the DOS version doesn’t it?
Now you may think you’re stuck. You have three windows all open at the same time. At that point you can click on the comparison window, and continue on as you do now with the DOS program.
There’s a Better DOS/Windows WayLast year we implemented an improved Pick 5 filing system to our DOS version. I suspect that most people (the group who don’t read bulletins) don’t use that function. Once again, here’s how it works: When you have your comparison results on screen, highlight the product that you want to file. Two right arrows will file the product to the next vacant spot in the Pick 5 list.
That’s true for DOS and it’s now true for Windows. When your line is highlighting the product that you want (in the comparison), one right arrow key pops up the Pick 5 list window, and another right arrow pops the highlighted product into the next vacant spot in the Pick 5 list. Here’s an improvement in the Windows version:the Pick 5 list does not go away after the second right arrow. You can move the comparison highlight line to another product, and one more right arrow (or right click of the mouse) adds that product to the Pick 5 list.
Enough For NowAt this point I’m going to stop writing. You need to play with the new Windows version. If you have questions call us and we’ll walk you through it. It is this interaction with subscribers which has led to the improvements discussed here. We believe that further improvements will come from the continued interaction with subsribers trying the new program.
Fall Back PositionAnd finally, for those wanting to give the new program a try, and we hope that many will, there is still an important safety valve in the new Windows program. You can select, from the Master Menu’s option menu, either the Windows comparisons or the DOS comparisons. In other words, you can go right back to having the Windows version call the DOS comparison module just as it does now. If in doubt you can flip back to the DOS module and double check your values. If you are satisfied that the Windows version is working properly, you can flip right back to using the Windows comparison. We like the safety of our built-in Windows/DOS redundancy.
Finally, the free month offer for being the first to find a rate error stands. This means that if you use the new Windows program, and find a rate quotation mistake, you get a free month for being first to report it.
