Newsletter 2005-04       Go Back December 2, 2005 Highlights: BJ Electric Installs  Wireless Warehouse Holiday Schedule

BJ Electric recently ordered our new Wireless Warehouse package.  Initial installation has begun at their Madison, WI location.  As presented at the recent Power Plus Users' Meeting, the Wireless Warehouse replaces our older offering of Activant's the Paperless Warehouse for bar-coding.  Not only is Wireless Warehouse significantly less costly than TPW, but the really nice thing is that it runs directly on your Clear/Path server, and updates the Plus database like any other transaction processing program.  This eliminates the need for file transfers, dedicated servers, etc.  The Wireless Warehouse includes: PO Receiving Picking Cycle Counting Physical Inventory (ties into the standard physical programs) Bin Maintenance The payback on using bar-code and portable handheld computers in your warehouse lies in error reduction and improved productivity.  Several new enhancements have been completed in the past few months.  Some of these were reviewed at the Users' Meeting in October, and some of them were New Feature requests made at that meeting.  New CYCLECOUNT program, IN/624,  run with WFL/IN/CYCLECOUNT/WORKSHEETS/AUTO.   This version starts with a user specified item number or bin location and then selects X number of items.  Upon completion of the selection, it then automatically sets up the parameter file with the starting bin location and item number for the next run. In other words, you only need to set up the parameter file once initially, and then it becomes self perpetuating.  The various “browsing” type of sales history inquiries, such as SI75, 85, 10, 30, etc. now have the option of specifying a minimum dollar amount of sales for inclusion on the inquiry.  Most distributors have several customers, vendors and product lines with relatively trivial levels of activity.  This new feature allows you to skip over those and focus on the records with more activity. A new program, FM/320, run with WFL/FM/INACTIVE/SHIPTO, which will automatically mark ship-to’s as inactive if they have not been used on an order since a parameter specified date.  Inactive ship-to’s stay on the file for historical inquiry purposes, but do not come up on the ship-to menu in order entry. A new inquiry, II57, for listing all items below ROP regardless of vendor. Combined quantity break pricing has been activated.  If you put a Y in the “Combined?” field to the right of the price class on the warehouse maintenance screen, the system will now accumulate the quantities for the common price class and recalculate the prices at the end of the order.  For example, if there is a quantity break for buying 6 tools, and the customer orders 3 different items for 2 apiece, it will give them the 6 unit quantity break at the end of the order. New IA75 screen for recalculating inventory balance fields such as IW-CUST-ON-ORDER, IW-QTY-INPICKING, etc.  Takes the place of running WFL/IN/BALANCE/AX. New In/Out Board Programs FM/981 automatically checks out people at the end of day if they do not explicitly check out FM/811 extracts employee in/out info for import into payroll spreadsheet Option to select cut wire pieces directly in order entry, and have these deducted.  This saves the step of having to do separate Cut Wire maintenance.  Ability to copy orders (rather than being restricted to quotes only) on the OP91 screen.  Changes to rebate amounts made via the OM45 screen are now captured in an audit file and reported on.  The report also subtotals the various costs on those line items that were not adjusted until after billing.  We will be closed Mondays December 26th and January 2nd for the Christmas and New Years Holidays.