IDCI is the acronym for ION Development Company Inc.
IDCI develops and markets information management software programs which electronically deliver information. All of our products begin with the word ╥ION.╙ The product you are using today is called ION News. It enables electronic delivery of any form of information whether it is a newspaper, newsletter, sales report or general information.
`Welcome to electronic delivery of the future!
Welcome to IDCI's ION News! Since you are reading this newsletter, you have already seen some of the descriptive material on the ION News product, but you may not have tried all of the features. Before you set up your first newsletter download from the ION News Server, we suggest that you take a few minutes to become familiar with the controls of the ION News reader.
The ION News reader was designed to make access and reading easy. First, the VISI-Tree and the summary pages allow a quick visual browse of the information. Second, moving through the information is efficient because of the ability to select and scale the size of the type for best legibility on the rapid turn, multi-column pages. The extensive use of icon buttons and the intentional effort to avoid keyboard input make the system usable with only a mouse for control. (Of course, for those power Macintosh users, we have shorthand keys as well! IBM shorthand keys will be in the next version.)
`IDCI Critique Team
We have designed ION News to be as simple as possible. If you have suggestions for improvement, we would like to hear from you! Please either call or write to:
Jill Ortmann
4433 DuBois Creek Rd.
Bloomsdale, MO 63627-9411 USA
314-937-9094
Fax 314-937-1828
(Please include your name, the company name, address and phone number)
We will respond to your suggestion within two business days and, if we decide to implement your suggestion, we will ship you the upgraded product free of charge and will formally acknowledge your contribution in our newsletter.
`BusinessLine uses IDCI software.
The following article appeared in the Center For Business Innovation's (CBI) monthly newsletter. CBI is an incubator for small businesses in the Kansas City area and has won national recognition in May of 1993 with the National Incubator of the Year award for the United States. They publish over 20,000 hardcopies of their newsletter and have contracted with IDCI to publish and deliver information electronically with ION News!
"IDCI has established the CBI BusinessLine, an electronic information service utilizing IDCI's software. The service is available to users with a Macintosh or a PC running MS-Windows. The CBI BusinessLine facilitates computer-to-computer distribution of information on the SBA Microloan Program for Missouri small businesses.
The Small Business Administration recently announced the establishment of the SBA Microloan program in Missouri. Through this program, the SBA makes direct loans to intermediaries who use the proceeds to make short-term, fixed interest rate micro loans to start-up, newly established and growing small businesses. CBI has been chosen by the SBA to be the Microloan intermediary in the state of Missouri. Under this program, CBI will be able to loan up to $1,300,000 to Missouri small businesses through loans ranging from $500 to $25,000. Businesses may apply for these loans by accessing the CBI BusinessLine or by calling Priyankur Roy of CBI at (816) 561-8567, to request an application.
The CBI BusinessLine will include technology commercialization opportunities, CBI press releases, newsletters, client application forms, Kansas City Entrepreneurs Club application forms and a state wide entrepreneurs event calendar. Request your CBI BusinessLine start-up software disk and free month trial subscription by contacting CBI at (816) 561-8567 and asking for the BusinessLine representative. During the introductory phase, BusinessLine will be offered to users free of charge.
IDCI has offices in St. Louis and Kansas City and expects to introduce other BusinessLine features such as "Ask CBI" which will allow companies to ask questions and receive answers over the BusinessLine relating to business start up, financing, management, marketing and other business issues and gateways which will allow BusinessLine users to access other databases. If you would like to start an electronic information center for your organization, call Jill Ortmann at (314) 937-9094 or (816) 756-3747.
`Need Help?
Don't tear out your hair or think you are the only one with the question - Just call our technical support line at 719-260-9916. It is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 to 6:30 CST. You can call 24 hours a day and leave a message and we will call you back as soon as possible.
`Purchasing ION News
If you would like to start an electronic information center for your organization or company, contact Jill Ortmann at:
St. Louis Office
4433 DuBois Creek Rd.
Bloomsdale, MO 63627-9411 (314) 937-9094
Fax (314) 937-1828
OR
Kansas City Office
4747 Troost Ave.
Kansas City, MO 64110
(816) 756-3747
Fax (816)756-1530
~IDCI INFO.
`New ideas produced in new ways
ION Development is committed to achieving innovative products through non-traditional, or as some call it, ╥cutting edge╙ methods. When an employee of IDCI was asked how he felt about working for the company, he replied, ╥Working for ION Development has been the most extraordinary thing to happen in my life. Where else can you go to work dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, shoot some basketball while waiting for a document to print out?" In a nutshell, this is what ION Development is all about.
ION is one of many companies that is leading the way in new styles of doing business. These styles are known collectively as the team concept and outsourcing. Outsourcing is contracting out work to businesses or people who specialize in a certain area. Outsourcing allows for the associate to work at any time of the day. This flexible time helps them achieve their full potential by allowing them to work at their own rate and time. ION Development has taken this outsourcing approach by contracting work to outsourcers from all over the country. IDCI has traditional full time associates to coordinate outsourcer activity and manage day to day business operations.
The full time employees are combined with the outsourcing associates to form production teams. These teams are self directed by the members, not by an upper management unit. ION Development has found that by eliminating the ╥middle man╙ and giving full responsibility and credit for the work directly to the teams, that the production rate is greatly increased. This team concept also helps the associates to get a feel of togetherness. As the employee above put it, ION Development is more of a family unit than a white collar business.
`IDCI and Our Programming Philosophy
IDCI's programming team have the shortest mission statement in business today: KISS. This acronym stands for Keep ION Super Simple.
Our Communication products were conceived with the idea that all forms of data communication should be as easy to use as a telephone or a fax, as easy to access as a dictionary, and as handy as a personal genie.
~Extra Features Found in ION News
`Text resizing
Whether you like to read in small type or large type, you have your choice! Simply choose "Text Resize" under the "Edit" menu (Mac users can use the shortcut of Command-E). You may resize as often as you like and the computer always remembers the selected size from newsletter to newsletter!
`Page turning
Have you ever thought of the reason why it is difficult to read on a computer screen? One reason is the constant refocusing your eyes must do when text scrolls. ION News turns pages to make your on-screen reading more pleasurable.
`Multi-column
A second reason why reading on a computer screen is frustrating is the left-to-right eye movement. It is so hard to maintain the left-to-right eye movement when the text is displayed all the way across the screen. Journalists have applied the reading research to the printed word. ION News has applied this research to the computer screen by presenting the reading material in a multi-column format. You can have as many columns as you have room on your screen.
`Justification On and Off
We believe the reader has the right to choose their own reading style. Hence, you can choose if you want the text to be justified both left and right (like a newspaper) by clicking the "Justify" icon. This does slow down the screen drawing but it looks great! If column justification doesn't matter to you, click the "Justify" icon again and the text becomes left justified only and appears much faster!
`Printing
Even though reading on the screen is a pleasurable experience, let be realistic - everybody needs to read on the go at sometime! Choose "Print" under the file menu and the entire newsletter will be printed for you. Remember, the size of the type on the screen is the same as the printed size! IDCI recommends changing the size of the font to the smallest allowed to get the maximum printing capability. The printing clarity is much greater than most screens so a readable size of type on the screen is LARGE on a printed page. (Unless of course you are one of the lucky souls who have a high resolution monitor, then both the screen and printer can be the same!)
~Grab Bag
`What is in store for version 2?
Of course we don't want to give away all of our secrets, but the following articles provide a sneak peak at the future, just a few months away!
`Interractivity
Users will be able to send information back and forth in a usable form. NO NOT JUST ANOTHER EMAIL!! Imagine being able to receive a form or fill-in-the-blank application, fill it in OFFLINE and schedule the time for the computer to send it back. And it only takes three clicks to do this.........
`Modular Modular Modular
Because of our style of programming, we are increasing our "cafeteria menu" of features our clients can choose from. Imagine being able to choose the features you want your server to have. Now have the program customized to your industry! Sounds too good to be true? Try us!
`Graphics
I don't want to give any programmers ideas, but suffice to say that full color graphics will be small and merged with text effortlessly.
`Publishers Dream
Having had experience in the publishing industry, I know just how much fun (?!?!?) it is to train new people on publishing software. NOT!! If your employee knows how to use a word processor, they can build a newsletter in ten minutes. Why should we make it complex? No one wants to spend two days learning a new program much less reading the manual! With the publisher's problems in mind, we designed the software to be super simple! The next version will allow dynamic formatting and templates.........
