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Like most business people today, you're probably aware that computers can help you run your business more effectively.
No doubt talk to friends and associates and have a general idea of what you'd like a computer to do.
I had a feeling that it was important that I be computerized to stay competitive.
We wanted to make sure that we got a system that wouldn't lock us out, that we would be able to communicate with other systems.
We needed a computer and we needed to automate our accounting.
And more than that, we needed to put together a professional business plan and financials that would show that we were a very serious woman-owned and operated business.
Well today, we'd like to show you how you can use Macintosh to help you run every area of your business with more ease and control than ever before.
There are two parts to this video. In the first part, Success Stories, you'll hear from successful business people like yourself,
who are using Macintosh computers to help them with virtually every aspect of their business.
The second part, A Closer Look, will demonstrate how a variety of Macintosh applications can help you run your business more effectively.
If you want to go back and review certain demonstrations in A Closer Look, look for these color codes at the beginning of each section.
So that's what lies ahead. We hope you enjoy it.
Why put a computer in your business? And why a Macintosh?
Well, the best way to answer that is to listen to some people who've done it.
We'll let them tell you the kind of results they get from Macintosh and the kind of impact it's had on their bottom line.
We'll start in Chicago. A1 Box and Paper is the company.
As you're about to see, Macintosh helps them serve their customers better, helps them manage their cash flow, and it raises the productivity of their office staff.
My name is Candy Wertheimer, and I'm president of A1 Box and Paper Company.
We are a woman-owned and operated box plant. Right now we have 23 employees.
The moment of decision that we needed a computer was we realized with our cost accounting system, we needed job costs and we needed estimating.
We were making far too many mistakes manually, and what we needed more than anything was consistency.
And that's when we knew we had to have a computer.
And what we have to do is measure it, and we have to also be doing an estimate on the computer.
The Macintosh has been wonderful and growing with us.
Dorothy is our inside sales correspondent. She was on the Mac within one day.
She'll write up the orders, she'll draft the specifications. She also does the estimating.
She uses it every day, every minute of every hour. In fact, I think that's an extension of her hands at this point.
Cathy handles all the orders, all the inventory, the cash receipts, accounts receivable.
All of the women have been cross-trained on the Macintosh.
You need at least twice as many people in the office if you didn't have the Macintosh computer.
And that's worth everything. That's just worth its weight in gold.
My mom is a great salesperson. She goes out, she does things for customers that are beyond the call of duty.
She works with the computer, she works on all the reports for the computer, especially with the accounts receivable, the aging.
We've gotten our receivables down because of the Macintosh, from 65 days to between 35 and 45 days.
She's great. Many times I'll get a crisis phone call from my customer.
I need boxes, I have my widgets coming down the line, and I need boxes in 24 hours.
And that's what kind of service I can provide by knowing what is on the floor at all times.
And that's the advantages of a Macintosh.
The one thing that made me decide on the computer was my husband Michael.
He had been hired as our accountant. In fact, that's how we had met.
A person came to me today and said, I'm going to buy a computer, where do I start?
Get a consultant and get a good dealer and talk to all of them.
And I know what your answer is going to be. You're going to buy a Mac.
On the Macintosh computer, we implement not only the standard accounting packages of general ledger accounts, receivable accounts, payable inventory and payroll.
We also have modules that handle order entry, purchase order, and more detailed inventory management.
My favorite module is executive advisor.
It is a graphic representation of the database information that's available from the various modules.
The Macintosh has eliminated the accountants in this place, with the exception of an end of year review.
All of the information is being handled by regular people.
You've seen the Macintosh in our office, and in a couple of years, it'll be out on the production floor used by our employees.
In fact, I can tell you a cute story about our maintenance man, Frank O'Meara.
Frank has been in the business for 45 years. He's a genius when it comes to fixing things.
He came in about a couple months ago and said, you know, I need an inventory reporting system for all my parts.
We said, fine, we'll put it on the Excel program.
We'll use it on Friday, and let me tell you something, it's impossible for us to get it back.
The reason why I use Macintosh in accounting is because it's not a computer for accounting.
It's a computer for people.
I'm an accountant. I have five different calculators. Each one does a trick.
But I can only have one computer, and that computer's got to be a jack of all trades,
and it's got to be used by all kinds of people. That's why we have a Macintosh.
Chicago's a great city. I love the action. I love the people, and I love my job.
The happiest people are the people who discover that what they should be doing and what they are doing are one and the same.
And the Macintosh has literally made my company survive and has made it thrive.
I can tell you that the Macintosh has made me very, very happy.
You can begin to understand why we call this section success stories.
Ease of use is one of the things people mention most when they talk about Macintosh.
And as you'll find out in this next story, it's important not just to beginners.
In fact, it becomes even more important as you keep learning new kinds of software.
My family has lived here in New Hampshire for over five generations.
The quality of life here can't be beat anywhere else in the world.
My name is John Robinson. I'm a design builder here in the lakes region of New Hampshire.
The first thing I do in the morning before my first cup of coffee is turn on my Mac to see exactly where I am and get down to business.
I build quality homes. I stress quality all through my business.
You did a great job, Jack.
Mac has really helped me develop my creative abilities.
With the Mac, I can try multiple what-if situations that really help me improve the design capabilities.
I don't find anything real mystical about the Mac.
I think that the Mac is another tool in my toolbox, like a saw or a hammer. It's a tool.
I'm vice president of a chapter of the New Hampshire Home Builders Association, and we use the Mac for monthly newsletter.
We have an advertisement section where subcontractors and builders can advertise.
We do all the layouts on the Macintosh.
We use it for real estate brochures, for accounting, for design work, for project scheduling.
In fact, I would say the Mac is my project manager.
You know, I couldn't imagine doing payroll without that computer.
We know exactly how many hours each man spent on different phases as we move through that job.
Before I had a Mac, I tried working with an MS-DOS and just was not happy with that kind of environment
because I just had to remember how to use the machine.
Every time I sat down on the machine, I had to retrain myself.
When I talk to architects or engineers or other professionals in my business,
the question of incompatibility arises, and I just feel there is no such thing as incompatibility.
I can take an MS-DOS disk, insert it into my data file, and translate it over into the Macintosh environment.
MLS is a multiple listing service that's available to all the brokers in the Lakes region.
As a real estate broker, my wife Leslie can access those listings directly through the Macintosh.
She'll put together an analysis that she'll take off the MLS computer showing what's sold in that price range
and be able to import the information from the MLS into professional documents
without having to shuffle through paper and retype information.
Another really nice feature of the Macintosh that we find really handy, particularly in working with buyers,
and it's very impressive, is the amortization schedule that we can pull up instantaneously on the computer.
That shows people what their monthly payments are going to be based on a certain percentage rate,
and it will tell them what they can afford to take out as a mortgage. So it's a really handy tool.
I believe that without the Macintosh, with the recession that we're in in New England,
I wouldn't have the ability to be on top of the profit and loss statement the way I am now.
I have to stay in business. There are some people out there who are bidding jobs at below cost.
I believe that they're doing that, honestly, but I can't bid a job at below cost.
I want to stay in business, and with the Macintosh, I have that ability.
The Macintosh is my estimator, my design assistant,
my project manager,
my accountant,
my document producer.
It's my silent partner.
For our final story, we're going to visit a law firm.
The 12 lawyers at Johnson & Montgomery are new Macintosh users,
but they haven't been slow to put the machine to use.
Within just a few weeks, Macintosh has transformed the way they manage communication and information.
The thing that attracted me about the sport of triathlon was, just like the practice of law,
you get the opportunity to excel in a lot of different areas in three sports rather than just one event.
We looked for computers that could do a lot of different things rather than just one thing,
and the Macintosh was a natural answer to that question.
It's a computer that a user who has basic knowledge can do a lot of different things with
once you learn how to turn the machine on.
The Apple dealer that we have worked with came in, did an evaluation of all the things that we wanted to be able to do with the computer.
The sport's been tremendous. We managed to get the entire office wired for our network on one Saturday.
There were three guys that came in, wired across three floors. Just worked real well for us.
I'll have to say over some skepticism, on Friday afternoon we had no network, and on Monday morning it was up and running.
Sid Johnson is one of the founding partners of the firm. For the past six years he's been serving as the DeKalb County Attorney.
The jury verdict we feel, which has already been overturned in that case.
In this office, which is six or eight miles removed from my firm office, I conduct the county attorney's business.
We found it was impossible to get in touch with each other by telephone.
So with the Macs and Quickmail we were able to carry on two levels of conversation, one by telephone and one by computer.
I find that the Mac has given me a more comprehensive ability, a deeper reach into the documents without having to pull documents themselves.
We can reach into the deposition looking for particular subject matters without having to sit down and read page by page.
We look at everything in terms of production. A law firm is in many ways just like any other business.
We produce paper and we produce the results from paper instead of tin cans and widgets.
And the ability to move from one piece of paper, one document to another, to pull documents together, to compare documents quickly and easily and comprehensively aids us in that production in ways that we have not been able to experience before.
It's very difficult for any firm, much less a medium-sized firm like ours, to maintain a library that's going to have all the information that you might possibly need.
One of the things we've done on the Mac is to make that available on every lawyer's desk so that now virtually any legal writings are available for research right there on your desktop.
You're able to be a lot more creative in how you present things and how you make arguments.
We can use graphics programs to prepare trial presentations and displays.
Westlaw is the database that we use.
We're now able to cut and paste and edit in the same way that you would any other Mac interface.
And so we can go to a case, pull a quote or a paragraph out, copy it, and paste it directly into a brief. It's really been remarkable.
Among your duties as an employee...
...for trial you've got to be able to see the information and get to it quickly.
It may be necessary to locate a point of law or a point of evidence at any time during a trial from a large database that's been developed during the several years in which a case is being prepared for trial.
Macintosh gives you the opportunity to do that.
Being in the courtroom is a lot like being in a race.
It is a competition and the guys at the other table are your competition.
One of the things we have focused on all the way through our evaluation on the Mac is that when you go to court you're going to do battle.
When we go to do battle we want to smoke them.
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Now that you've seen how some companies are using Macintosh computers to improve the way they do business,
we'd like to show you examples of how powerful Macintosh business programs can help you develop and manage your business better.
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With the pictures, with the graphics, I know what to do, I know what to say, I know how to get where I'm going.
From the beginning, the Macintosh graphical user interface was designed specifically to work the way you work.
That goes back to Apple's fundamental design premise that a personal computer should be personal.
In addition, all Macintosh programs are designed to work in the same consistent intuitive way.
So once you've learned one, you have a good idea how all the others work too.
You always begin with the familiar Macintosh computer desktop,
where you'll find all your applications and files in a very familiar form, either as folders or individual documents.
Just like your real office desk, you can organize everything on your Macintosh desktop to suit you.
These are file folders created for different business functions, for example, accounting.
You can organize all your individual files simply by dragging them into folders.
At the top of the screen are pull-down menus.
Use the mouse to point and click on any of these menus to display your options.
For example, to open a folder, simply use the mouse to select the folder you want by pointing and clicking.
Then position the pointer on File in the menu bar, hold the mouse button down until it highlights Open, and release the mouse.
These pull-down menus are similar in all Macintosh applications.
Macintosh allows you to keep several applications open at the same time,
and easily move back and forth between programs with a single mouse click.
You quit each of them the very same way by selecting Quit from the pull-down menu.
Now, let's say you want to copy a document to a disk to give to a co-worker.
Just select the document and drag it to the disk icon.
Your document will automatically be copied to that disk.
Throwing away a file is just as easy.
Simply drag it to the trashcan icon.
Other computers require you to memorize complicated commands that are different with each task or application.
With Macintosh, you'll never have to memorize codes or commands.
So you'll be free to concentrate on what you need to do, not on how to get a computer to do it.
Macintosh has been the greatest thing for developing our business.
And I know that it can develop other businesses because I see through Michael's clients how much it has helped them.
To start with, let's look at some of the things you can do to develop your customer list.
With Target Marketing Software, you can pinpoint your best prospects and create your own direct mail lists.
You can analyze prospects by geographic areas and by type of business to determine where your best prospects are located.
You can also select businesses by annual sales and by number of employees.
Once you have defined your list, you can preview it.
Location, size, number of employees, annual sales, and type of ownership are just some of the kinds of information you can have for every prospect on your list.
Once you've selected names for targeted mailings, you can use the detailed records to create mailing labels, reports, or export the data to a database for further manipulation.
If you're working with an outside list broker or anyone else with an MS-DOS computer, no problem.
Macintosh can read from and write to MS-DOS and OS2 systems.
In fact, if you need to, you can actually run MS-DOS applications directly on your Macintosh.
So it is easy to share information no matter where it comes from.
Now that you've seen how Macintosh can help you create or expand customer lists, let's look at how you can manage your own customer database more efficiently.
Modifying a customer record is as easy as pressing a button and making a selection.
You can maintain the exact information you need on each of your customers quickly and easily.
Of course, you can track more than just your customers' names, addresses, and phone numbers.
How about what products or services they bought and when? The names of key contacts.
Here is a running account by date of all your customer contacts, which you can review and update at any time.
Macintosh makes it easy to merge customer information from your database with letters and other documents in your word processing application.
This process is called mail merge, and it allows you to quickly produce personalized letters for your customers.
When you write a letter for a mail merge operation, you insert placeholders where the specific database information will go, such as name, address, city, state, zip.
These placeholders can go anywhere in the document.
Before we send this letter, let's make a few changes to show you how easy word processing is on the Macintosh.
To begin, let's move the paragraph about special discounts from page one to page two.
First, highlight the paragraph with the mouse. Then go to the edit menu and choose cut.
Once you position the pointer where you want the paragraph inserted, you paste it in place. And there it is.
You can also cut and paste information from other applications.
If you're used to using a DOS system or manual layouts, you'll really appreciate how easy this is to do.
To create emphasis, you can highlight words by underlining or by changing plain text to bold or italics.
And you can easily make type larger or smaller.
For larger documents, you can automatically number pages, create a table of contents, change from single columns to multiple columns, and much more just by clicking the mouse.
Now that you've added some style, your letter is ready to print and mail.
When you select merge from the file menu, your Macintosh will print a letter customized for each person on your mailing list.
Macintosh will make your business development more profitable and will enhance your company's professional image too.
A business has to be run on a daily basis and as well as you have to have all your financial information at your fingertips on a monthly basis.
Macintosh offers a wide range of powerful accounting, financial analysis, and reporting programs.
They're designed to help you improve your financial control and save you hours of accounting time.
In all Macintosh accounting software, accounting is organized by a function or a task.
To make a journal entry, you select the journal menu option.
To fill in a form, like a purchase order, credit memo, or invoice, you select the forms menu option.
The invoice is a good example of how accounting on the Macintosh is both fast and flexible.
Notice how Macintosh accounting screens look a lot like the forms you're used to using manually.
First, let's add the customer's name. It's easy. Just select it from your customer list.
Once you select the name you want, customer details such as address, terms, and discounts are automatically entered in the invoice.
Now, click on the first line of the invoice and press the tab key and the inventory list pops up automatically.
Then double-click on the inventory item to enter it onto the invoice. That's all there is to it.
Macintosh accounting programs let you create a wide range of reports.
Of course, you can create the standard reports such as trial balance, income statement, aging report, and payroll reports.
But additionally, Macintosh allows you to create your own customized reports.
You get the exact information you need to make sound decisions.
Say you want to look at your customer's credit history before continuing with your next invoice.
Just choose a time period and the way you want the information arranged and your report is ready.
You can now resume processing your invoices.
When you are ready to make an entry in your sales journal, you'll see a screen like this.
To record a payment, just enter the amount and click on the invoice being paid.
You can even allocate one payment across many invoices if you wish.
Macintosh accounting programs are integrated, so when you add transactions to accounts payable,
your aging reports, suppliers' accounts, and inventory are all automatically updated.
Likewise, changes in accounts receivable will be easily updated in your trial balance sheet.
As you can see, Macintosh is a valuable tool for managing your company's cash flow and financial status.
The first thing every bank wants to know besides standard financials are they want your history,
but they want to know where you're going.
We didn't know where they were going, but we could draw them a picture of what it would look like when they got there.
This portion of A Closer Look will show you how Macintosh Spreadsheets and project management software
will help you manage your business better.
You can use Macintosh Spreadsheets software to figure everything from sales projections and cost benefit analyses
to loan payment tables and appreciation charts.
And as we'll see, Spreadsheets are great tools for doing what-if analyses.
For example, what if you raised a product's price by 5%?
What if you leased new equipment rather than bought it?
Here's what a spreadsheet looks like on a Macintosh.
Horizontal rows and vertical columns define cells that you work in, such as C6.
Spreadsheets allow you to write formulas that easily calculate changes in data.
You can enter text, numbers, or several kinds of formulas depending on your need.
If you want to see what will happen if you make a change in unit price, just type in the new number.
The spreadsheet will automatically recalculate to show you the impact on total sales and variable costs.
With a spreadsheet, you can format the data in a variety of graphs.
Sometimes simple bar and pie charts are the best way to show your information.
But for a more dramatic presentation, you may want a three-dimensional view.
And if your numbers change, your chart is automatically updated to reflect the change.
Representing data graphically can help you interpret it more easily.
And you can present information more powerfully and persuasively than ever before.
Like many applications on a Macintosh, once you start using spreadsheet software, you may wonder how you ever got along without it.
Another way Macintosh can help manage your business is project planning.
When you're managing a project, the one thing you can count on is changes.
But with Macintosh, it's a lot easier to adapt quickly to changes and still meet your deadlines and stay on budget.
To begin a plan, you put the main steps in project table form.
As the project begins to take shape, you can expand upon it.
From there, you can display your critical path on a chart like this.
Now you can easily see the big picture, where everything is going and how it all must fit together.
With project management software, you can also show your plan as a bar chart.
Macintosh helps even the best project manager get better results.
When a date changes, it can immediately tell you how that impacts your schedule, costs, resources, or income.
With this kind of information at your fingertips, you can make decisions now to save time and costs later.
We do a lot of what I call desktop publishing. I don't know if that's the true definition.
We don't get very sophisticated, but we do all our ad layout.
We do proposals that look very professional because of the layout on the proposals.
You're probably aware that Macintosh has set the standard for desktop publishing.
You may have thought programs like this were only for graphic professionals,
but regardless of your graphic skills, you can use them to produce high quality printed materials with your own Macintosh.
And when you manage all your design and production in-house, you can save both time and money.
Here's a layout for a brochure.
You can choose from a variety of ready-to-use templates that will give your materials a professional and consistent look.
When you add copy, it automatically flows into the columns of the layout.
Then you can easily move it around and adjust it until you're satisfied with the results.
And you can add photos.
First, you put a photo through a scanner, which automatically copies it into the Macintosh.
Then you can position the photo wherever you like.
Depending on the quality you require, you can take the output from your Apple LaserWriter to a print shop.
Or for the highest possible quality, a service bureau can generate true typeset quality masters directly from your Macintosh disc.
And in addition to enhancing your professional image, pieces like this can help improve your bottom line.
Demonstrations you've just seen have probably given you a lot of new ideas of how Macintosh can help you in your business.
And we've shown you some of the things that set Macintosh apart from other computers.
I'd like to take a minute here to review the most important ways that Macintosh is better.
First, it's consistent.
It's not only easy to learn your first program, but you'll find that all Macintosh programs work in virtually the same way.
And setup time is minimal, so you'll be up and running in no time and can see increases in productivity right away.
Second, Macintosh computers offer a wide range of compatibility.
With the use of Apple File Exchange, you are compatible with MS-DOS and OS2 systems.
In addition, you're able to read from and write to Apple II systems.
So you can quickly access information you need from coworkers, vendors, or clients, no matter what kinds of computers they use.
Third, Macintosh computers are flexible.
They can do many jobs at once, just like you do.
If you're working in your spreadsheet program analyzing your quarterly cash flow, and you have to check something in inventory in your accounting program, it's easy.
Finally, Macintosh is a sound investment.
To begin with, you'll have a powerful, state-of-the-art system with thousands of business software programs available, no matter which model you buy.
It's easy to learn, so training time will be minimized.
And as new technology evolves, Macintosh is designed to expand and grow with you as you identify new needs.
Consistent, compatible, flexible, and a sound investment.
It's a hard combination to beat.
Now that you've really had a closer look at Macintosh, we have some parting words from the business people introduced in the first part of the tape.
People ask me all the time why I use the Macintosh.
The Macintosh has allowed me to run the business the way I want to run the business.
Once you learn how to use just the basic things, you can do a lot of things.
I just want the system to work for me the way I want to work, and I feel the Macintosh does that.
Since we've gone totally Mac, we have noticed a measurable increase in our productivity.
Mac has changed my business and improved my life.
Thank you.