It is with great pleasure that I announce the latest additions to the SlimSoft team! Effective January 1st, Barry Stewart, Dan Hinchey, and Mike Crutch have taken the position of MES Project Manager.

Barry Stewart, based out of Cincinnati, OH has over 10 years experience working in Control and Computer Integrated Manufacturing and over 4 years experience implementing with Proficy Plant Applications. Barry brings with him a wealth of experience and a great deal of potential. Barry's excellent knowledge of control systems and PLCs will also be a great asset moving forward to fill out our overall process expertise.

Dan Hinchey, based out of Halifax, NS, Canada, has over 18 years experience in Process Control and Computer Integrated Manufacturing and over 5 years experience working with Proficy Plant Applications. Dan has implemented solutions using Proficy in a number of industries in both Europe and North America and we look forward to that experience further strengthening our company's expertise in MES.

Mike Crutch, based out of Vancouver, BC, Canada, joins us with a very diversified background. Mike has over three years experience working with Proficy Plant Applications and previously has been an IT Manager of a Pulp Mill in Indonesia, as well as being a Certified General Accountant (CGA). Mike's mix of industry experience, coupled with business and finance experience is a tremendous asset to us moving forward. The role of MES Project Manager requires a blend of both and Mike will bring an excellent perspective to our projects which will help to ensure that our customers will benefit both technically and financially from the solutions we implement.

Please join me in welcoming Barry, Dan and Mike to the team. Renata, Brent, and I are ecstatic to have them on board. This is a great way to start a new year and we look forward to a great 2006 and beyond.

At SlimSoft we have embraced the virtual office concept for our employees. We all work from home, except Costa Rican's who will be working from an office, and we hire people were they live. This has resulted in our company having to incorporate in three different countries (Canada, USA and Costa Rica) and register in one US state (Ohio) and 3 different Canadian provinces (British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia). So with companies in 3 different countries and an option of having employees spread all over the world one of the biggest challenges so far has been figuring out what to do with our paper mail.

Bills are not too bad; most utilities and home services like internet and cable have the option of automatic payment and an electronic invoice. The challenge here is to have a central location where to view them all. E-Post in Canada has a good solution, but not all vendors are signed up with E-post so the virtual user has to have many logins and passwords to keep track of all the electronic invoices.

Bank correspondence is another challenge, most banks these days support e-banking which allows the virtual user to view statements online, but they do not have a good history. RBC in Canada for example holds 3 months of regular account statements and 1 month of credit card statements. When you are running a business this is not adequate, I would like to have at least the past 16 month available for searching and reviewing.

Government mail depends on the country; our experience so far with the B.C. government in Canada is very good, we have been able to obtain any information we need and pay our taxes and permits through the internet, the challenge here is that the assessment notices still come in the mail, go figure why can't those go to E-Post as well. As for the other two countries, Costa Rica and the USA we are still learning, the incorporation process so far has been web based.

Vendor invoices and payments like accountans, lawyers and insurance companies, are also an issue, only one of our vendors invoices us through e-mail and only one accepts credit card, the ideal for us would be to get invoices electronically and be able to pay the bills with a bank transfer...maybe some day, it is possible in Europe already.

Lastly customer payment via cheque is also an issue, some of our customers pay with a wire transfer but a few still use the old fashioned method of a cheque, which makes it difficult for us since we are not always in Vancouver.

So in the mean time, while the world catches up to our virtual needs we have engaged a company called Lason to receive and scan our mail. Lason will open all our mail, send us an e-mail notice if they have received a cheque or something that needs inmediate attention and will scan and e-mail the rest, all mail will receive a file number so it is easy to find at a later date. Mail will be filed and stored in boxes in Lason's vault until it is picked up by one of us. So no matter where we happend to be in the world Brent, Andrew and I will be able to deal with our business obligations...but for the time being we still have to carry a cheque book.

Since all the papers and magazines are publishing their "Year in Review" articles now, I figured that we should get in on the action.

2005 marks the first full year of active operations for SlimSoft. The company began active operations on November 22, 2004. At that time, Renata was SlimSoft. We went through our first phase of explosive growth on February 1st. The company doubled in size as I joined as well!
We were very fortunate in that almost immediately, we had more than enough work to keep us busy. Renata and I had a good vision of where we were heading, and were pleased that step one of our plan (paying the bills!) was taking shape quite quickly.

We headed to Costa Rica for a test trip during March and April to see if the longer term plan of establishing an office in Costa Rica would be practical. We came back from that first trip pleased with the potential and looking forward to the experience. Little did we know how soon it would begin to take shape.

Around the time we came back from Costa Rica, we began to discuss adding our first employee. On June 1st, Mike Vanderveer joined us. Mike represented another aspect of our master plan... A virtual office for our North American resources. Mike is based out of Ottawa, and has given us the opportunity to learn what's involved with bringing a remote resource up to speed. I'm happy to say he is doing great!

More growth was soon in store for SlimSoft. And this was a big one. Around the time we were just bringing on Mike, I began to have discussions with Brent Seely about joining our company. Brent joined SlimSoft on July 1st and with him brought a great deal of industry experience and respect. Most importantly of all, having Brent on board allowed me the flexibility to begin to shift focus towards execution of our Costa Rican plans. This was a game changer and allowed us to accelerate our plans significantly.

Since Brent joined the company, we have been busy on a number of fronts. Costa Rica is quickly becoming a reality for SlimSoft. We have incorporated a Costa Rican subsidiary, leased an office space, and are getting ready to begin recruiting employees. We are confident that once our operations are up and running, that these resources, coupled with some high end North American consultants (more on that later...), will be a game changer for the MES and Manufacturing IT solutions space. "North American Quality at Near Shore Rates" is our mission and we are confident we will succeed.

For those of you who frequent our website, you know that we have been advertising for the past few months to attract new North American talent to SlimSoft. On January 1st, we will be announcing the addition of 3 new resources. Renata, Brent and I are extremely pleased with the individuals who will be joining us and look forward to our customers benefiting from their experience moving forward.

So, for those counting, SlimSoft will be 7 people on Jan 1st. 700% growth in one year! :-). My crystal ball for the year to come is a very optimistic one. By this time next year, we hope to have our Costa Rican offices in operation with somewhere between 10 and 20 employees. Our North American team will be in full swing providing the high end consulting and design solutions needed to allow our customers to fully leverage our Near Shore team.

In closing, I would like to thank everyone who has believed in us over the past year. We will continue to do whatever it takes to ensure that your faith in us continues to grow.

Happy New Year and see you in 2006!

It seems like the appropriate time of the year to draw a parallel between developments at SlimSoft and the Christmas tradition of the Advent Calendar. Almost every day we receive feedback or information that confirms SlimSoft is heading in the right direction. Without going into any details, the last couple months have been very exciting in terms of partnerships, customer relationships, expansion into Costa Rica and new hires. Much of this work started many months ago and we should be able to make some announcements within a few weeks. All in all, it is an exciting time.

My electronic Advent Calendar happens to work through instant messaging. Every day, it seems there is a message from Andrew or Renata that starts with "You there? Guess what?". Not as sweet as a piece of candy, but much more satisfying and longer lasting.

Happy holidays to you all and best wishes for 2006.