Mark your calendars to join us in Austin, Texas from April 14th – 16th, 2013!

Visibility has chosen Austin to join in on the legendary live music, exuberant downtown and exclusive culture.

Attending VIEC will give you the opportunity to meet face-to-face with product experts, as well as learn more about the software you use to run your business, and interact with your peers. We take pride in making each and every customer interaction a personal one and your input about further enhancements is invaluable to us. Visibility looks forward to the opportunity to listen to its customers and provide you with hands on training of new technology.

Information on the agenda, hotel and registration over the next few weeks. If you have any questions feel free to call us at 978-269-6500 or send an email to marketing@visibility.com.

DON’T SHOW UP EMPTY HANDED JUST BECAUSE YOU WORK 40+ HOURS/WEEK!

                The average business person who works 40 hours per week (or more) often cannot find time to make a treat for a holiday, but no one wants to show up empty handed.   

Here are three Holiday recipe suggestions from folks in the Visibility office to help you through the festivities this holiday season.   Don’t show up empty handed!

Sausage Treats (Appetizer)

2- 16oz (1lb) packages of Jimmy Dean Saugus Meat

1-15oz Jar of Kraft Cheez Wiz

1 Package of Deli Party Breads (type is at the preferences of the chef)

1 Jar of Paprika

--Fry both packages of Jimmy Dean Sausage Meat in a pan until cooked.  Drain the Grease.  Melt in the full jar of Kraft Cheez Wiz until sausage and Cheez Wiz are well mixed.  Scoop onto party breads.  Sprinkle with Paprika upon Serving.  Best served if toasted briefly in the oven (on a cookie sheet) when served.

Corn Casserole (Dinner Side Dish)

1-15 & ¼ oz can of Whole Kernel Corn, drained

1-14 & ¾ oz can of Cream-Style Corn

1-8oz Package of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix

1 cup of Sour Cream

½ cup of Butter, melted

1 to 1 & ½ cups shredded Cheddar Cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease a 9- by 9-inch baking pan or a 2-quart casserole dish.

Mix together the corn, Jiffy, sour cream, and butter in a large bowl.  Stir in the cheese.  Pour into the prepared pan.  Bake for 55 minutes, or until golden brown and set.  Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Note: You can bake for shorter time in a 9x13, but the texture will be different than backing in the 9x9 or 2-quart casserole dish.  The 9x13 will be thin slices where the 2-quart casserole dish produces more of a corn pudding texture.  Either way is delicious.

Chocolate Trifle (Dessert)

2-round pre-made Angel Food Cakes (can bake your own if you prefer)

2-packages Chocolate Pudding, Instant

2-containers Cool Whip

Break Angel food cake into small pieces and spread a layer across the bottom of a large glass bowl (or trifle dish).  Spread a layer of pudding on top of the cake layer.  Spread a layer of cool whip on top of the pudding layer.  Repeat these layers until bowl is filled to the top.  If desired, sprinkles or candy can be scattered across the top for visual (and texture) effect. Serve cold. Note: portion sizes of ingredients vary depending on size of bowl. (This can also be made as a strawberry short cake by substituting packaged strawberries for chocolate pudding)

                The field of possible host cities for 2013 VIEC has been narrowed to two finalists:  Austin TX, and Memphis TN!

Our process of selecting the host city started with suggestions from customers at the 2012 VIEC.  Cities on the initial list included Miami FL, San Antonio and Austin TX, Washington DC, Atlanta GA, Nashville and Memphis TN, Charleston SC, and Orlando FL.

                VIEC has a great tradition of host cities and fabulous event nights. In 2012 we hosted in San Diego  and went to the World Famous San Diego Zoo.  In Tampa in 2011we  took over the Florida aquarium.  2010 Vegas VIEC event night included dinner at the Eifel Tower overlooking the fountains at the Bellagio.  And the Courtyard & Carriage House dinner at Princess of Monaco in 2009 VIEC host New Orleans gave us all insight into the history of the Big Easy.

                So it is exciting to turn our attention to two different possible host cities and what they have to offer for events in 2013.  Both of these cities share deep-rooted tradition and love for music.  Think of Austin, think the hub of live music, warm air, and Texas Bar-B-Q.  Think of Memphis and you think of ELVIS of course!!

               Austin is the world’s capital for live music.  Beginning with the well-known Sixth Street, we quickly found the perfect place for a possible event,  Maggie Maes.  Standing tall above Sixth Street, with its rooftop deck overlooking all of Austin, this historic venue is a fabulous representation of Austin.

                Graceland in Memphis, would be the natural draw for our event night if we host there.  Tour the grounds of Elvis’s home and experience his lavish lifestyle. Maybe Elvis himself will make an appearance! We would stay on the infamous Beale Street, the highest of Memphis’s nightlife.

           So…which will it be...Memphis or  Austin?  Please share your input, help us make the final call! We encourage you to e-mail Jessica at goode@visiblity.com with your thoughts.  We look forward to hearing from you.  And soon we will announce the winning 2013 host city and begin our conference plans in earnest!

www.visibility.com

Today the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics kick off in London!  Folks in the Visibility European Headquarters outside of Manchester UK office are very excited and we thought it would be interesting to pass along their perspective...so here are a few Olympic tidbits from our UK office:

• Over the last two months millions of people have turned out to see the Olympic flame on its 8,000 mile journey across the UK on its way to London.   Inspirational torchbearers have carried the flame in many ways, including on an abseiling rope (US translation:  rappel rope), a cable car and a punt (US translation: a long narrow, flat-bottomed boat), bringing the excitement of the Games to the entire region.
   
• Last week, special lanes were allocated across Britain’s motorways as athletes arrived in Britain for the Games, which caused complete chaos for commuters.
   
  
• Big Ben will chime forty times in three minutes today as part of a massive bell-ringing event of opening day. It is believed to be the first time the bell has rung outside its regular schedule since 1952. On that occasion, it tolled every minute for 56 strokes for the funeral of King George VI (he was 56 years old when he passed.  Queen Elizabeth II, who succeeded King George just celebrated her Diamond Jubilee of 60 years of reign  last month.)
   
  
• School children of Visibility employees are busy making banners and mock Olympic torches during the countdown to the Games, and studying the meaning and symbolism of the 2012 Olympic mascot, “Wenlock” seen below.  Toy Wenlocks are a hot seller in area stores!

One Visibility employee said, “We’ll all be gathered around the TV at home or in local pubs to watch as the games start and to see the long awaited opening ceremony. My daughter and all of her classmates are incredibly excited. It should be fun!”

The region is especially excited to cheer on Bradley Wiggins, the first Brit in history to win the Tour De France, earlier this year.  Mark Cavendish and Christopher Froome fill in the British team to give them the strongest cycling team in memory.

Visibility Corporation would like to wish Good Luck to all of the athletes participating in this year’s events!  We will keep you posted from our UK office as events unfold and new tidbits are passed along.

Cheers!     

Please contact Heather with any ideas or comments at Lindberg@visibility.com.

Visibility selected beautiful and sunny San Diego, California as the site of this year’s conference and what an amazing hit it was! We were surrounded by beautiful beaches lining the coast, shops, and prestigious restaurants. We got to experience a reception on the USS Midway, and saw exotic animals at the famous San Diego Zoo. April 15^th to the 17^th was not a long enough stay! However, many were able to extend their visit to enjoy the sites they didn’t get to see during the conference.

The VIEC is the biggest event of the year for us. We love listening to customers and exchanging ideas for future events. We had great pleasure in watching everyone enjoy the experience. Aside from providing many business related benefits such as training and the opportunity for one on one consulting with industry experts, our next goal is to keep things fresh, fun, and upbeat.

We asked customers at the conference where they would like to go for the next conference. To no surprise, “some place warm,” won again! We are currently putting our heads together and brainstorming destinations. Here is what we have come up with so far:

                Miami Beach, FL

                San Antonio, TX

                Austin, TX

                Washington, DC

                Atlanta, GA

                Nashville, TN

                Memphis, TN

                Charleston, SC

                Orlando, FL

Every year we try to alternate between the Eastern and Western US. Since we were just in California, somewhere in Eastern US will most likely be the area to target. But, “What city” is the big question. We are encouraging you to let us know what you think of the places listed above and would love to hear from you with any other suggestions on locations for us to consider. After all, we want everyone to have a say and enjoy the next conference as much as the previous one!

Please contact Heather with any ideas or comments at Lindberg@visibility.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Visibility has selected beautiful San Diego California as the site of 2012 Visibility International Education Conference (VIEC)!  It will be held on April 15-17, 2012.  We are currently in the process of selecting conference hotels and finalizing agendas.

At last year’s conference in Tampa, one customer said “pick someplace warm”.   Since we alternate regions of the country each year and were on East Coast last year, we considered west coast warm destinations…well, San Diego simply jumped out!  Beautiful beaches, shops, dining on the ‘catch of the day’, Sea World, the famous San Diego Zoo…lots to offer, along with some great conference hotels.

The conference is a huge event for us each year as we get to spend several days listening to customers and exchanging ideas.  Each year many great initiatives emerge from this event.

We will be unveiling VISIBILITY.net 9.0 along with hosting many great educational sessions and customer forums.  Stay tuned for the announcement of Hotel selection and detailed agenda, but the first steps of city selection and date selection are done and we can’t wait!

A real person now answers our phones!

At Visibility, Nikki started answering our phones today.  Yes, a REAL PERSON!  So when you call our company, chances are you will now speak to Nikki instead of the dreaded ‘auto-attendant’.  Will it make a difference to our customers?  We will soon find out. 

Oh, we will still use the auto-attendant now and again, if folks are out or on a break, but for now, real people are being re-introduced to our phone system.

So when you next call Visibility, be readyto have a real conversation instead of pushing buttons on your phone!  And please let Nikki or me know if it is a better experience for you …

Visibility customers can now deploy Visibility enterprise software on Amazon Web Services

Visibility Corporation (Visibility) today announced that Visibility enterprise software is now available to run on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). VISIBILITY.net ERP, VisMobile Shop Floor and Data Warehouse Suite and Visibility Business Intelligence Solutions are now supported and available on Amazon EC2. Customers who operate VISIBILITY software can now leverage the scalability, reliability, security and utility-based pricing model of AWS for production workloads with full support from Visibility.

Customers may use their existing Visibility licenses on Amazon EC2 at no additional license cost. New customers can acquire licenses from Visibility whose enterprise solutions are designed for complex engineering intensive manufacturers.

To increase speed of deployment for customers, Visibility will publish a set of pre-configured Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) to help reduce implementation times from months to weeks or days. Customers can start accessing their installation within minutes of purchase.  In addition, to minimizing installation and hardware maintenance costs, customers can also take advantage of existing features such as Amazon Elastic Load Balancing (ELB), Auto-Scaling, Security Groups, Amazon CloudWatch, Reserved Instance pricing, and many more when deploying Visibility applications on AWS.

“This is an exciting relationship for us,” said Jack Saint, Visibility President and Chief Operating Officer.  “Speed of deployment has never been faster and Amazon EC2 offers the utmost in flexibility, reliability, and availability. Our web-based product plays well in the cloud, and our templates make it easy to start using the product.”

“With the availability of Visibility software on AWS current and future customers will be able to take advantage of a low cost point of entry, coupled with cost savings in IT infrastructure for the long term, and the flexibility of growth and additional resources deployed as needed,” said Jackie Aldrich, Director of Account Management at Visibility. “We see the distinct advantages of this model which is particularly suited to today’s economic climate.”

For more information on running Visibility Applications on Amazon EC2 contact visibility at www.visibility.com.

Trademarks
Visibility is a registered trademark of Visibility Corporation and its affiliates. The names of companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Check back for more details!

One of my ERP customers likes Pearl Jam and he loved The Hangover Part II.  His hobbies include biking and going to the lake.  He really enjoys reading Science Fiction.

How do I know all of this?  Facebook, of course!  Just recently, Facebook signed up its 250 millionth customer and would now be the World’s fourth largest country based solely on membership.  People are now spending more time on Facebook than they are watching TV.  So should businesses start moving into this new world as well?

My Dad was in sales and would have loved Facebook.  He always talked about building relationships with his customers and getting to know them as people first.  He would have used this to build rapport during sales calls and meetings.  Not only could he now find out something about their likes but the information is fresh and up to date.  Where else can we find out that Mary just returned from a fabulous week in St. Lucia, Chuck is hoping this will be the Steeler’s year, Phil just attended his daughter’s wedding, and Brenda is still very happy that her daughter is finally entering her senior year in high school.

Social media is a veritable open book into who our trading partners are.  Social media has expanded in 2011 faster than the Internet itself grew in its early days.  Disney now has over 6 million likes on its Facebook page; the Company Facebook page is becoming as important as one’s web site at getting the message out.  And it is more interactive.  Discussion boards, comments, surveys, likes and dislikes, all help us listen and interact rather than just talk.  Listening to customers has always been important and Facebook lets us learn so much more about them.  Employers have been using Facebook to review potential hires and their backgrounds for some time now, but customer service and sales folks  are just beginning to see the benefits.

Where is this all leading?  We started accelerating the use of Visibility’s Facebook page recently to disseminate more information but more importantly, also to listen.  How are you using social media?  Have you had any great feedback or ideas either as a consumer or host of a corporate Facebook Page?  As always, I would welcome and invite comments or shoot me an email with your take on this social media thing!