Version 5.0, Windows
Slated for introduction at this year’s Conference ‘98, Version 5.0 was put together with major input from our users at Conference ‘97. With the core of the product basically complete, we have had time to back up and put in some of the "nice" things that you have been asking for. Included in this year’s update is:

l Graphs
l Hot keying to Data Bases
l Time Scheduling
l Support of most pricing services
l Pricing support for most distributors
l Bi-product review in audit trail
l Cleaner audit trail editing
l More

With the improvements that Version 5.0 gives to the existing WINDOWS products, it is said that the product is stronger and has more capabilities than any other estimating product on the market today.

McCormick wishes to thank those Contractors that have provided input as well as supported us through the past four years of development as much of our effort was targeted at the Windows products.

The Windows development team included Tom vanStiphout, Gary Winslow, and Derrick Boyce. Testing was headed up by Dana Smith.

McCormick Support
Support for all of McCormick’s product is from our office in Arizona. Working in a team environment, Support not only handles requests for help with McCormick products, they are also heavily involved with other other support calls including price updating, printer configurations, WINDOWS, and other tasks too numerous to list. Got a question and are current on support, call one of our people. They have the answers. (they also like easy questions)

McCormick Web Site
Recently completed and updated weekly, McCormick Systems invites you to spend some time browsing our website. This highly informative site contains information on:

l The Company
l Upcoming trade shows
l Conference information
l Class information
l Product information

In addition, if you are current on support, you can download the latest releases from the site.

This site, which seems to improve on a daily basis, contains many of the articles that have been published by McCormick as well as some of the awards and customer comments regarding the product.

You can also drill down to the product level and see a simple walk through of our product as well as go down deeper and see almost all of the forms that make up the WIN 3000, 6000 and 8000 product.

Work is underway to provide information on our latest product, PC Scale for Windows. Our home page is located @ WWW.McCormickSys.Com

Meet Lou LaForteza
Lou came to McCormick’s Oregon office in January of 1988 as a support person. With the ability to pick up technical challenges very easily, Lou was involved with the McCormick Apple product as well as the McCormick "P Code" product, DOS Product, and Windows product.

Although hired in Oregon for support, Lou comes from a sales background and in 1990, transferred to the Arizona office and moved into sales. Although Lou enjoyed sales, his heart was in computers, software, and what he could make them do. With the closing of the Oregon support office in 1991, Lou moved back into support to head up that division. That worked for a time however, Lou was being pulled more and more from day to day support to getting more involved in the "Super Challenges". After a period of time, when Lou was trying to juggle support as well as our major support issues, McCormick moved him out of Support and Lou starting working full time with major accounts.

Over the past several years, Lou has traveled for McCormick to almost every state in the Union as well as Canada, Australia, Mexico, and Bermuda. Yes, Lou does have an office in Arizona however, it is used mostly for filling out his expense report from his last trip.

Lou is an Island boy, (Long Island City, NY) and has two grown sons and enjoys mountain climbing, Mexico, and of all things, working the web.

Custom Specs and reports
With the WIN 6000 and 8000’s ability to be changed to meet your specification and report needs, McCormick now provides technical persons trained to analyze your needs, prepare a report on recommendations, and make the changes that you might need.

With this service provided both in Phoenix as well as in your office, these technical persons that specialize in this can set you up in a fraction of time that most users can

In addition, McCormick can also work with you on a one on one basis setting up menus, workspaces, and tool bars to make your product much easier and faster to use. Contact the office in Arizona for more information.

Conference ‘98
With this year’s Conference almost here, the preliminary schedule is as follows:

Monday, April 27
    Optional DOS and WIN classes
Tuesday, April 28
    Optional DOS and WIN classes, cont
Wednesday, April 29
    Optional DOS and WIN classed, cont
    McCormick Masters Golf Tournament
    Opening Reception at McCormick’s
Thursday, April 30
    Opening session
    Third party presentations
    Break out sessions at noon
    Computer Lab opens at noon
Friday, May 1
    Break out sessions continue
    Computer Lab
    Closing session starts at noon
    Dinner with the Buffalo People
Saturday, May 2
    Computer lab open all day.
    Official close of Conference ‘98

This Conference, which has been held continuously since 1983 and is in its 16th year, will be held at the Sheraton San Marcos located in Chandler Arizona. It’s three hundred acre grounds contains two swimming pools and hot tub, lighted tennis courts, and one of the oldest 18 hole golf courses in Arizona. Located downtown Chandler, there are many other things to see and do.

We at McCormick are looking forward to seeing old friends as well as making new ones. See you at the San Marcos.

See McCormick
McCormick is scheduled for the following trade shows in 1998.

February 9, Las Vegas
Electric West

April 27, Chandler
Users Conference

May 27, New York
Electric East

September 27, Boca Raton Fl
IEC

October 18, Las Vegas
NECA

In addition, we will be participating at other regional trade shows and meetings

Mergers and Acquisitions

Mark 1997 and 1998 as the years of the merger. Over the past several months, there have been no less than two "rollup" mergers. The Companies, as we believe them to be:

Consolidation Capital Corp.
    Riviera, Denver CO
    Tri-City, Orlando FL
    SKC, Lenexa KS
    Wilson, Scottsdale AZ
    Garfield, Cincinnati OH
    Town & County, Appleton WI

Integrated Electrical Services
    Houston Stafford, Electric Supply Company
    Mills Electric
    Bexar Electric
    Calhoun Electric
    Pollock Electric
    Muth Electric
    Daniel Electric
    Amber Electric
    Charles Bagby
    Summit Electric
    Thurman & O’Connell
    Rodgers Electric
    Hatfield Electric
    Ace Electric
    Reynolds Electric
    Thomas Popp & Co.

All of the above are open shop contractors and many use McCormick software.

Silver State Classic
Well, Team McCormick was all set to race the spring running of the Silver State Classic when the State of Nevada put a real snag into our plans. Normally held on the last weekend of May, the State informed the organizers that they would be doing major improvements to the road and they would have to move the race up a month. In fact, they had to move it up to May 2, the same weekend as McCormick’s Conference ‘98 wraps up so....looks like we will miss the first race of the season however, we will be in Mexico in June and back up to Ely Nevada this Fall.

The producers of Speed Vision have contacted us requesting video footage of the last Silver State Classic. It appears that they like the clips that they have seen and want to use more.

Class Schedule
The schedule for training for 1998 is as follows:

January ‘98
    WIN, January 28
February ‘98
    DOS, February 18
    WIN, February 25
March ‘98
    WIN, March 25
April ‘98
    WIN, April 1
    DOS, April 27
    WIN, April 27 (2 at Conference '98)
May ‘98
    WIN, May 27
June ‘98
    DOS, June 17
    WIN, June 24
July ‘98
    WIN, July 29
August ‘98
    DOS, August 19
    WIN, August 26
September ‘98
    WIN, September 30
October ‘98
    DOS, October 7
    WIN, October 28
November ‘98
    WIN, November 9
December ‘98
    DOS, December 9
    WIN, December 16

The above dates are tentative and additional classes will be added based on demand. In addition, for the Contractor that finds it more cost effective, we provide in-house and group training in your area.

Check with the Arizona office for availability.

PC Scale for Windows
With its release in December, shipments of PC Scale for Windows now exceed 300 systems. The product is complete in every way and includes a small electrical data base, count and length probes, and ninety days of free support.

The product is much the same as the popular DOS product with many enhancements of which the biggest enhancement is assembles.

Additional features include a "Jobs" area, a "Takeoff" area, an "Extension" area, and a "Bid Summary" area. In addition, it offers extension reports and graphs, both on screen and on paper.

The program was designed to use the full capabilities of Windows and, all of PC Scale’s forms can be opened up at one time so that as you enter items and or assemblies in takeoff, you see the extension and bid summary in real time.

Priced at $1,500, it is the ideal starter package for the small contractor or for someone who wants to start out small and work up. During its initial promotion, special pricing is available for existing users of PC Scale (DOS). If interested, contact the Arizona office.

To Mexico
Well, as of March 2, most of McCormick Staff has had, over the past year, the opportunity to fly by private aircraft halfway down the Baja (Mexico) to the small and remote town of Mulege. This trip found twelve persons on a three day trip, all enjoying the real Mexico as all did as little or as much as they wanted. With our base at the Hotel Serenidad, some spent time by the pool, some spent time in the village square and some spent a lot of time doing nothing.

Food and drink was abundant with the only wake up call being the sound of rosters crowing and church bells ringing.

Perhaps the highlight of the trip was the side trip from Mulege over to Laguna San Ignacio by aircraft where we then boarded pongas (small boats) to go out into the Lagune to see (and pet) the great Grey Whales.

No one was disappointed. The whales were there and they did put on a show. Most came back a little wet as the whales were breaching, spyhopping, and splashing us with their flukes. In retrospect, we were in 27 foot open boats watching 100 ton whales that have speeds capable of 20 MPH all in the same Lagune. What a trip. Now, all are wondering what the next great adventure will be....

DOS Products
McCormick Systems, at this time, has about two thousand contractors with about four thousand estimating "kits" on the DOS estimating product. McCormick will continue to enhance and support this product however, in the next period on months, we will be putting together an aggressive upgrade program for those that wish to move from the DOS to the WINDOWS format.

Although we see advantages as well as disadvantages in both formats, we at McCormick believe that the real future will be in a windows type environment. As both WINDOWS (Bill Gates) and McCormick improve and mature their products, you will see more and more possibilities.

From the single user to the 32 station networked contractor using NT spread across three or four offices, we are coming up with solutions that make it happen.

This is not to say that the DOS product will not be around for some time. It is a good product. Although I hate to admit it, we are still supporting several contractors using the McCormick Apple II estimating software that was sold to them fifteen years ago. Edsel, are you listening? What does the future call for? We don’t know. First was the Apple, then "P Code", then DOS, and now WINDOWS. As we work to add more and more to the Windows product, we eagerly think and plan for our next challenge....