Continuing Saga

 "...and the beat goes on...and the beat goes on..."

For the past year I have been an employee in Linda McHenry's enterprise LJM Services.  Linda underwent some serious medical procedures. She has bounced back well, but we have had several discussions about legacy planning for LJM Services.  That brings us to a new place where she and I will jointly own LJM Services;  so that we back each other up creating a more secure future delivering services to your company.

To reflect these changes in our business relationship we are changing the name we do business under from LJM Services to ROI Connections.  Many of us have fond memories of the ROI Systems Inc. days.  We like the focus of Return On Investment, investing in software development, consulting services and training, providing a return to pay for itself; an investment, not an expense. A particular interest of mine is the connection of Manage 2000 to the surrounding technological ecosystem. And a particular interest of Linda's is our connection to you, the users of Manage 2000.

I am personally excited about REST service and web service projects connecting Manage 2000 to external services and resources.  This might be Manage 2000 functions that directly connect with 3rd party shipping services like FEDEX and UPS, or building integrations between other in-house technologies like an IGA system and the Manage 2000 backend.  It could be application integrations like Excel ribbon components and action panes that pull data directly from Manage 2000 and allow accountants to post journals right out of Excel, or it could be streaming data directly into Power BI to refresh visualization data.

Linda is excited to continue her service creating and upgrading custom web functions as well as customizing standard Manage 2000 functions. I also detect some excitement about the prospect of teaching technical folks in the field about Manage 2000 development tools so that client technical staff can have some of the fun. It is a gig that we have both enjoyed for decades, and that might be refreshing in your organization due to personnel changes or an increased desire to develop and maintain more technical independence.

I am looking forward to working with Linda McHenry as ROI Connections, bringing our respective Manage 2000 talents to your company.

Let us know if you are interested in investing in any of these services ROI Connections can provide to your company:

• Manage 2000 Software Development Classes
• New or customized Web Functions
• New or customized PWS Functions
• Internal or External Systems Integration

Training Services

Software Services

Join me for NUGM 2026 at Epicor in November

Retirement from EPICOR

Today is my last day with EPICOR. I expect to still be reachable at pnewby@epicor.com during the coming year, but you can also find me at Peter.M2k@gmail.com.

Serving in the Custom Code and Tools groups of the Manage 2000 product team comprises the defining chapters of my professional career. I am deeply grateful for having had the opportunity to work with absolutely amazing people on an absolutely amazing product for 38 years.

It is with satisfaction and fond memories that I let go of my part in the great story of Manage 2000, its creators, supporters, and users.

Best wishes to those who remain and keep our creation alive. I will not be far away and am happy to help as I can.

With deep respect for the Manage 2000 community,

Peter Newby

Manage 2000 Release 8.1 Service Pack 7 Now Available

 General Availability for Manage 2000 8.1 sp7 was announced May 6, 2025.

Service Pack 7 includes a number of significant feature developments and infrastructure renewal.

Here is my Top Ten list:

1. Multiple product photos may be attached in ITEMS.MISC and may then appear in image carousels in Item based portals like StockStatusPortal, ItemInfoPortal, PlannerScheduler, MasterScheduler, WoStatus, as well as in various ESOP pages
2. A major Javascript renovation has replaced the prototype.js and scriptaculous.js libraries with modern native Javascript and bootstrap.js 
3. Purchase Requisitions routing improvements allow web page approvals in place of ECA.TXNS Notify approvals.
4. Cycle Counting has received enhancements
5. CUSTOMERS documents PDF option
6. EFT Payment enhancements 
7. REST API Authorization Support
8. Major restructuring of the INTRANET menu providing module organized access to portals
9. MSO Extended Last Key expressions
10. COMPANY.NAME switch overriding the 240 day date warnings, allowing sites to extend the date range allowed before warnings are issued

Ask the helpline for the complete list in the FEATURE.SUMMARY if you are interested.

Throughout all your endeavors keep good company

 25 years ago a particular sort of woman sat in the front row of  my Manage 2000 Development Tools programming class and asked an inordinate number of questions; starting with obvious issues and working into arcane detail.  I made it my mission to answer ALL of her questions, and 25 years later I am still not done!

Some of you may know that particular sort of woman as Linda McHenry; who has been my sidekick through thick and thin ever since.  We have taught, learned, laughed, cried, trouble shot, developed and presented together for over two decades.  When not solving Manage 2000 custom development puzzles, Linda is assembling jig saw puzzles, solving Sodoku puzzles, or playing her part in one of 5 or more community bands.  There is also the small matter of the QPR, the extremely organized and detailed cubbies that make up her Quilting Project Room. Linda IS the Master Patterner of Earthsea.  

So when I started to think about getting back to the work I began as a member of ROI Systems Custom Code group, Linda was the first person who came to my mind as good company to keep on this journey.

We intend to have fun.  We intend to build useful extensions to Manage 2000. And we intend to keep good company.

We hope you will be part of our good company.

Times they are a changin'

After 37 years working on Manage 2000 I have decided to ease back to ½ time. For 20 hours each week I will continue to fix treasures, perform maintenance on Manage 2000, and assist our great helpline folks. That will give me 20 hours a week to devote to personal pursuits.

I started out working on Manage 2000 in the custom code department, sometimes called Special Client Services. It was a small group including Teri Scheper, Warren Jacobsen, and Lane Johnson.

The year was 1987.  It was the third day of August, a warm cloudy Monday with a passing thunderstorm.

We worked on ADP 40 terminals wired into an Altos minicomputer and delivered customization to client computer systems by way of a cantankerous communication batch processor named The Magic Bus.

Yes, life was different then. It was the time of Castlevania and Zelda. Michael Jackson was Bad, Whitney Houston was Whitney, and U2 was up the Joshua Tree. Aretha Franklin became the first woman to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

The Twins defeated the Cardinals four games to three to win the Series. Twins pitcher Frank Viola was named as the 1987 World Series MVP.

The radio introduced us to "Walk Like an Egyptian", "The Way It Is", and "Livin' on a Prayer".

Important debuting cultural works included "The Princess Bride", "Spaceballs", and "Predator".

And we were all captivated by the baby Jessica McClure rescue saga unfolding in Midland, Texas where at the age of 18 months she fell down a well and was trapped. Rescuers worked for 58 hours straight in order to rescue the child. And all three networks covered every hour.

I was oblivious to most of this due to the sleep deprivation that accompanied our first child. That and the mental distortion of stepping onto the ROI Systems juggernaut named Manage 2000.

Ben has been an architect for the last decade.  Michael is a mechanical engineer.  Matthew does some kind of underwriting voodoo that keeps health insurance solvent.

Now I need to take some time to meet the next generation and watch the magic happen again without the sleep deprivation.

I also hope that some of you may want to invite me back to my custom code days to work on projects of value to your organization.  

I am particularly excited about REST and web services in and out of Manage 2000 8.1.  There can be magic here too.   Excel integration with Ribbon components that are aware of Manage 2000 and directly pull/validate data.  PWS functions that read and post directly to FEDEX or UPS REST services.  Integration projects that let other software in your network leverage Manage 2000 data and processes. 

Time to semi-retire and start having more fun.

Wish me luck!

Javascript Lifecycle

Once upon a time Volkswagon put out an advertisement mocking folks who thought Volkswagons never changed.  The Beetle did look like a Beetle for decades; then again even when it was retro'd.  Change is antithetical to software endurance and yet we write code in a rapidly changing environment.  And our users expect it to continue working for years...decades in the case of Manage 2000.

The W3C has been a conservator of Internet technologies like HTML, CSS, and Javascript. The underlying standards of TCPIP, FTP, and Telnet have been steady for decades.  But there is enormous pressure to 'improve' the user interface technologies that power browser experiences.  And now that the browser wars have consolidated technological components and users are updated with the latest version of a few shared script  engines continuously, browsers can quickly adapt to changes in the definition of Javascript.

ECMA Script 6 was a giant leap forward. It was adopted in 2015 and implemented in most browsers by 2017.  But the European Computer Manufacturers Association (now Ecma International) is moving the Javascript standards forward every year; JS 2016, JS 2017, JS 2018, JS 2019, JS 2020, JS 2021, JS 2022, JS 2023, JS 2024.

Turns out I don't know Javascript.  I know what Javascript used to be.  But I don't know what it can be in this moment. Check out the new methods and properties and whole new language elements:  w3 schools js versions.asp

I guess it is time to give up pretending I know how to program in Javascript and start believing I can figure it out and look it up on Google or Stack Overflow and construct my knowledge of coding in Javascript "Just-In-Time" as I am working through projects.  Oh yeah, I know, AI will help me out  providing Javascript coding techniques in real-time as I type, Javascript coding techniques which are changing with every new project I undertake.  Will I feel like I am in control of the horse, or just hang on to the saddle horn and try not to fall off?

NUGM 2024: A Real Live User Group Meeting!

NovoROISystems' first in-person post-covid user group meeting came off without a hitch. 

 An intimate group of about 20 customers participated, some bringing experience in search of new ideas, others bringing novel points of view and a hunger for experienced perspectives. 

Bud Brown brought his deep well of system administration knowledge. 

Linda McHenry and I shared our custom and standard development experience. I took a deep dive into Manage 2000 as a REST consumer and also as a REST provider.  Linda pulled back the curtain on creating and modifying Manage 2000 web functions.

Marc and Trey and Joanne covered NovoROISystems software as well as several standard Manage 2000 topics. 

And special guest, Ian Foster, brought an introduction to Embrace ERP, which is a going and growing concern with an APICS core similar to Manage 2000.

It was short but sweet.

Really heart warming to see old friends still succeeding in manufacturing using Manage 2000 as a rock solid ERP solution.

And encouraging to see new faces just beginning their journey with Manage 2000 or in some cases experienced Manage 2000 6.5 users looking into the face of the Manage 2000 8.1 world.

Frodo Lives!