In order to use these functions you will need to install latest version of Java. If you don’t have Java installed or are not sure that it’s up to date, please visit http://www.java.com/en/download/installed.jsp, and click the “Verify Java Version” button. The Java site will let you know if you are ready to go, and guide you through installing Java if you are not. Go ahead and do the Java install now and come back to this post when you are done.

Now that Java is installed, let’s setup your label printer. If you have not installed your printer drivers, please install them now. If you do not have the drivers for you label printer, you can download them at http://www.zebra.com/id/zebra/na/en/index/drivers_downloads/drivers.html. Once you have the drivers installed we will need to rename the printer, to keep things uniform Lizzy expects the label printer to be named Zebra; to rename the printer, double click on the printers icon in Control Panel, then just right click on the printer and select rename and type Zebra.

If you don’t use a cash drawer that connects to your computer then your done. If you do use a computer connected cash drawer, you will need to install another module and configure Lizzy. First you will need to download a special driver from http://www.nizex.com/downloads/LizzyCashDrawerDriver.exe. Once the download completes, go ahead and run the installer. That is all that is need for now. I will be posting again soon with instructions on how to configure the cash drawer and Lizzy.

-Noel

Indy 2010 went very well for Lizzy™ and if anything, let everyone know that she has arrived. We were a bit disappointed in the attendance and size of the show this year however, but considering the economy and the bad weather we faced all weekend from various parts of the country, I guess it made sense. We gave away two 19″ flat screen TV’s to people seeing demos of Lizzy™ doing her thing. Congratulations to Shauna Sobel from Northwest Motor Scooters and Steve Hyde from Mount Holly Power Sports for their good luck during the show.

And for Lizzy™? Well, Lizzy™ ROCKED!

We had originally planned on running Lizzy locally off my Macbook. However, I forgot to copy some of the forms and things we needed to demo F&I. So instead, we demoed her running across a 3G cell phone connection and no one could tell the difference. The response was truly amazing and she performed perfectly all weekend. We got a few suggestions for things we hadn’t thought of and a few tweaks to make in the F&I module as well. Those things have all been completed and added to Lizzy’s™ processes. Overall the show was a huge success and there are no complaints.

Now for the update:
Warranty claims continue to be the sticking point for no other reason than we just haven’t gotten through it all yet. Purchase orders only lack the ability to pay major units which I’m planning to start knocking out today. F&I seems to be finished other than just testing it, and we’re going to start the process for printing all the forms within the next few days. The miscellaneous reports are starting to get ticked off our list as well.

Overall we’ve completed the things that have taken the most time and are in cleanup mode now, writing reports, tweaking interface elements, and finishing the Warranty claim module. We are all starting to relax a bit now that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We’re also quite excited with the way the program performed at the show. Everything that was asked was shown and she performed perfectly with not a single glitch along the way.

The Future is Here!

–glenn

The purpose of this article is to guide you through the process of installing the Mozilla Firefox web browser on Windows, Safari and Chrome will be separate articles.

The first thing you will need to do is click on the Mozilla Firefox link above, this will take you to a page with a “Download Firefox” button, go ahead and click the download button. At this point your browser will pop up a window asking what you would like to do with the file, click on the “Run” button. Depending on your version of Windows you may get a few security warnings, don’t worry, Firefox is safe to download and run.

Once the install file is fully downloaded on your computer, the Firefox setup wizard will appear on your screen. When the wizard appears, just click the “Next” button on the first page, this will take you to the second page of the wizard.

On the second page you will find two options “Standard” and “Custom”, you should select “Standard” and click the “Next” button. Now you are on the last page of the wizard, make sure that the “Launch Firefox now” option is selected and click the “Finish” button.

Now that we have completed the install, Firefox will run for the first time. During Firefox’s first run it is going to ask you a couple of questions, the first of which is “Do you want to make Firefox you’re default browser?”, we recommend that you do make it the default. If you do not want Firefox to be your default browser just select “No” and make sure that you check the “Don’t ask again” checkbox.

Now Firefox will ask if you would like to import your settings, password, cookies, and bookmarks from Internet Explorer, again we recommend that you let Firefox import everything by clicking next. The import wizard may take a minute or two depending on the speed of your connection, once it completes you will be presented with the Firefox browser and can begin using Lizzy™ or just surfing the internet.

Lastly we’d like for you to go to http://www.nizex.com in Firefox. This site uses flash and flash is not installed by default by Mozilla. When you get to the site you should see a bar across the top of the page asking if you’d like to install the flash plugin. Just click the Install link to allow Firefox to take care of this for you. Lizzy™ doesn’t use flash but our main website does.

Happy browsing,

-Noel

We’ll start with Financing as we know there are many of you interested in this particular aspect of Lizzy™. Eric has been doing an awesome job getting this part of the project completed and has actually finished all of the F&I processes. Currently he’s working on the algorithms for calculating taxes and a final total on the deal. All of the back end profits, quotes and other functions are completed. Once taxation is done the last phase will be writing reports which we don’t look to take very long with the processes we’ve put into place.

I’ll be laying out a video covering all the details in the next few weeks and getting the module to a few of you to start testing for us. So far the dealers that have had a chance to see it have been pretty impressed with its layout and ease of use. We’ll continue to tweak it as we start getting more feed back, so I suspect another month from now it will be even better than today.

We’ve started laying out the Warranty processes this week and hope to have it completed within the next 2 weeks. Hopefully before we get to Indy on the 12th. The warranty claim processes are greatly enhanced over those of TBA so we’re excited to get those in your hands as quickly as possible.

Major Unit processes are in the final stages of development and we hope to have them finished within the next week or so.

The payment form is getting a face lift this week and we begin testing the integrated credit card handling processes next week. All other payment processes are already working and ready to go including ACH/EFT.

We’re getting to the point that my list of what is left is getting pretty small. This has us all very excited and we’re looking forward to the future for this product and our relationships with our customers. We really believe that Lizzy™ is going to usher in a whole new world for us all. The things we’re able to accomplish and the tools that will be coming in the months ahead are going to completely revolutionize the Industries in which we compete.

Looking Forward

–glenn