Cattlesoft Blog

If you have ever wanted to “get under the hood” and work directly with your CattleMax records, the CattleMax Access Companion is exactly what you have been waiting for.  Sometimes it’s as simple as tweaking a report created in the Report Wizard… other times it’s incorporating data into a complex accounting system.  Either way, you now have this flexibility with CattleMax and the CattleMax Access Companion.  The Companion can be found on the Reports tab of the CattleMax CS ribbon bar.

We spent some time updating our Microsoft Access Resources page over on the CattleMax website. This list contains links to books, software, and communities where beginners and pros can learn more about using Microsoft Access.

If anyone is currently using the CattleMax Accesss Companion and has a story they would like to share, let us know over at the Power Users forum.

VMWare just released VMWare Fusion 2.0 for the Mac, so I wanted to take the time to let everyone who is currently using a Mac or considering a Mac learn how you can use CattleMax.

Penny and I moved over to MacBook Pro laptops earlier this year and have been very pleased.  Of course, CattleMax uses Microsoft Access 2007 technology so we still needed Windows.

We get a lot of questions from customers who aren’t sure if they can use CattleMax on a Mac, so we wanted to mention the available options, and share what we have found to work best.

I evaluated VMWare Fusion and Parallels and found the best performance with VMWare Fusion.

Setup is fast and easy with the step-by-step wizards.  Several retailers even sell VMWare pre-installed when you by a new computer.  Using VMWare is easy and requires no rebooting to use - just open the application and click the Run button.  The speed and performance are great and we haven’t come across any compatibility issues with CattleMax during the past six months.

Is anyone else using CattleMax on their Macs?  If so, let us know.

CattleMax on VMWare Fusion

When Penny and I first met, everyone wondered how we would turn out - her degree in Agriculture,  mine in Information Technology & Business.  The question was answered during our senior year at Texas A&M University when we combined our skills and created a cattle database for her family to manage their cattle.  Cattle and technology - it just made sense to us even though it didn’t to many others.  Even to this day when I attend conferences outside of agriculture, people are surprised when I say “cattle software”.

As Cattlesoft grew, our customer service volume increased to where we needed to hire more help.  There aren’t too many people out there who understand cattle production and also can troubleshoot computer software, so this makes finding and training customer service representatives challenging, especially for a company that touts its exceptional customer service.

Last Summer, we had a predicament on our hands - most of our customer service reps were graduating from Texas A&M and moving on.  We asked ourselves “How are we going to find several customer service reps and have them trained on CattleMax for the Fall?”

It was one evening when we were out checking cows that we came up with the idea of mentioning the job listings in our customer newsletter.  Within one week had over 50 applicants for 3 positions.

After many great interviews, we hired Ken, Nathan, and Lana. Not only were they familiar with CattleMax having used it for years, but they also understand what it’s like to be on the other end of the phone.

That’s not the kind of thing you can train for, it has to be experienced.

Greetings

We wanted to let everyone know about the new CattleMax CS 4200 Update that we released yesterday.

As ranches who have used previous CattleMax versions know, the new CattleMax CS version includes a new reporting system, known as “Customizable Lists”, which addressed feedback from many customers who were seeking a way to customize reports without the need to use the Report Wizard to make custom reports.  This new style works great for many because producers could dynamically resize the columns, add and remove their own columns, and change formatting styles.

However, one of the downsides of this new reporting is that it lacks certain functionality of the reports in the CattleMax 2006 version.  We came to the conclusion that both options were needed in CattleMax CS so that you have the right tool for the right job - sometimes we want to customize and sometimes we just want it to print.
So, a summary of reporting options in CattleMax CS 4.2.4200 and later

• Customizable Lists - basic lists where you can change columns and formatting
• Preset Reports - based on CattleMax 2006 reports, advanced functionality, nicer looks, columns can’t be customized
• Report Wizard - Located in the Access Companion, this lets you create your own reports from scratch, including selecting columns, sorts, and formatting.  You can look at it as Customizable Lists’s big brother.  Microsoft Access is not required for this part of the Access Companion.
• Microsoft Access - The MS Access Companion, accessible from the Reports tab in CattleMax, lets those familiar with MS Access work with their own reports and queries.

If you are a new customer or not as tech savvy, the Preset Reports and Customizable Lists are a quick and easy way to get the information you need.
Other significant updates/changes in this update:

• Enhanced Electronic ID Tag list import from files, vendors, and readers
• Improved international date formatting
• Export button now on customizable lists
• New breed interfaces for Red Angus, Gelbvieh, Maine-Anjou, and Yak
• Updated breed interface for Brangus
• Easier backing up and restoring of custom reports and queries in Access Companion

Currently using CattleMax CS?  Download the update and let us know what you think

Thanks

Terrell & Penny Miller and the Cattlesoft Team