"I highly recommend Winning Solutions Inc out of Ames, Iowa and Ft Myers, Florida. They are revamping our site right now. Extremely pleased with the customer service they offer."
Samantha Houston
WSI and Manure Works LLC. have been featured in the Iowa State University Extension's fall copy of Community Matters. The article talks about how WSI collaborated with ManureWorks to create an application to support agriculture and the environment in Iowa. Here is a quote from that article.
"Now that the initial development is done we are moving into the marketing phase. WSI has staff who have marketing expertise to help us design PowerPoint programs for trade shows as well as Web design. It is very helpful to have the same people that designed the program work on the marketing, as they already understand the product you are trying to market. WSI has been a one–stop shop for all of our needs on this project and I could not be more pleased," (Mike) Sexton (Manure Works Founder)
To read the full article see Page 9 of the Iowa State - University Extension Community Matters PDF.
To find out more about Manure Works visit www.manureworks.com.
WSI has become a sponsor of the Ames, Iowa Octagon Center for the Arts.
Everyone in America attends, consumes, encounters or creates some kind of art each and every year. Since 1966, the Octagon Center for the Arts has continued to provide the greater Ames community with quality arts education. More than 25,000 people are served annually by their participation in Octagon classes, workshops, exhibits and special events such as the Octagon Art Festival...
To learn more about the Octagon, visit their website at www.octagonarts.org. And stay tuned to our website to learn more about upcoming events related to this partnership.
Short answer: Yes, but…
Welcome, in September of 2009 our short answer to this question was no. But as of now, December 2009 the answer has changed to yes! Windows 7 has shipped, so in most cases a new PC will come with Windows 7. You may not be aware that Windows 7 versions such as Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate, etc. come in two versions 32bit and 64bit. 64bit has the advantage of being able to support more memory (plus other things), so we say go with that one, but check to be sure your software and hardware will work with it by visiting the respective manufacturer's websites.
Click here to read more about buying a new computer...
Many times we want to post images or photos to our website. The most common mistake made in doing this is posting images before they have been formatted correctly for display on the web. This tutorial will walk you through the process of formatting an image correctly before posting it on the web.
Click here to start learning how to resize images for the web...
We often get asked after developing or designing a website, "What next?" That question has lots of possible answers but the best step to take after creating your website is to submit it to search engines. This process is pretty easy and can be completed by anyone. We have included a list of links in this article where you can submit your website.
Click here to view the list of search engine submission pages...
As part of Winning Solutions, Inc.'s community involvement
WSI donates a significant portion of the professional services it provides to the
Iowa Games each year. www.iowagames.com
Once again this year Winning Solutions, Inc. was honored at the 2009 Annual Iowa Sports Foundation Reception for Sponsors held at the White Oak Vineyards in Cambridge, Iowa. Mark Steffen (center) of Winning Solutions, Inc. is pictured accepting a plaque recognizing WSI’s service to the Iowa Sports Foundation from Former Governor Terry Branstad (right). Jim Halihan Executive Director of the Iowa Sports Foundation (left) Former Iowa Governor Robert Ray, among others was in attendance.
WSI provides a variety of information technology support services to the Iowa Games and Iowa Sports Foundation which is based in Ames, Iowa. Winning Solutions, Inc. provides web programming, database development, web site hosting and web design services.

The Iowa sports Foundation, Inc. (ISF) was created June 20, 1986 as a non-profit entity.
Iowa is one of 40 states nationwide which feature Olympic-style sports festivals known as State Games. New York held the first State Games Festival when in created the Empire State Games in 1978.
The Iowa Games began in August of 1987 as a weekend event, featuring 16 sports and 7,104 participants (nearly a record number at that time for a first-year state games). For the first time, weekend athletes, school children and senior citizens could experience the thrill of great performances and satisfaction of doing their best in a statewide Olympic-style competition.
Long answer: You need to consider that Windows 7 will be shipping on October 22, 2009. Although you get a Windows 7 coupon with the Vista or XP license that is included with most PC’s purchased now, this may not be a good value. The reason the coupon is a poor value is that most experts recommend performing a clean install of a new operating system. If you’ve ever done a clean install you know this means re-installing all of your applications. This can be a very tedious process. Please note that it is technically possible to install Windows 7 over Windows Vista. According to Microsoft Windows 7 may not be installed over Windows XP.
Click here to read more about buying a new computer...
Manure Works, LLC a new start up company founded by the team that started Twin Lakes Environmental Services of Rockwell City, Iowa, has launched a new web based system for creating manure spreading records. Twin Lakes Environmental Services, LLC, specializes in writing Manure Management Plans (MMP) and Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans (CNMP) to ensure environmentally sound agriculture practices and manure application in compliance with all state and federal regulations. Manure Works, LLC will not only offer its new web based recordkeeping service to clients of Twin Lakes Environmental Services, LLC, but will also make the service available to other producers through environmental service provider companies throughout the United States.
Click here to read more about Iowa Companies and the ISU Extension.
WSI is pleased to announce the release of the Wallaby's Bar and Grille website. This site features a custom design capturing the sports bar feel of one of Ames,
Iowa's favorite restaurants. Flash, HTML and
XML were utilized to create a site with rich images
and great information.
Check out the new Wallaby's Bar and Grille.
As part of Microsoft's drive toward web 2.0 they introduced a web site development technology referred to as Master Pages. Master Pages allow web developers and web designers to separate elements of a web page into individual pages or a single page that is reused through out an entire site. This form of development has been around for years in the form of includes. But Master Pages take the classic include process one step further.
Click here to read more about master pages...
Generally speaking managed services is a system where you pay a computer support company so much per month, per desktop PC, per server for support and certain proactive services. You need to carefully review what services are included and what restrictions are stipulated. If you are overwhelmed and would like a company experienced with the technical aspects of these agreements to review the agreement you are being offered you may contact WSI for a quote on reviewing your agreement. Typically it requires 1-2 hours per agreement for the review and to provide you a written summary of the strengths and weakness of the agreements.
Click here to read more about managed services...
If you have contracted with a programming company or individual programmer to write a computer program for you, you need to be sure you receive the source code. For those of you who are unfamiliar with source code, it is the actual lines of instructions written by a programmer. A program called a compiler transforms the source code into object code which makes it execute faster. Object code is not easily modified, techniques to "de-compile" object code back to source code are problematic at best.
Click here to read more about source code...
WSI was part of the team that developed
the new www.polkcountybank.com
website. The site was recently submitted for review by a group of industry
leaders and compared to other submissions in the same business category. The
Polk County Bank website came out on top, winning a gold award for banking and financing.
The WSI team is proud to have been part of the development and training team and will continue to provide all our clients with award winning design, development and most importantly, service.
Congratulations.
Not everyone has the same version
of Adobe Illustrator but that doesn't prevent us from wanting to share files with
each other. Fortunately, Adobe Illustrator will allow us to save out older
versions of files so that users can still open our files.
Click here to read more about saving older versions of Adobe Illustrator files...
WSI worked with the Hickory Park
staff on a limited budget to revamp their website. Hickory Park is a favorite
restaurant of Ames and central Iowa residents. Their great selection of BBQ
menu items and famous ice cream desserts are great for a business lunch or family
night out. They also offer bulk carry out and catering services.
Check out the new Hickory Park Website.