Coverage of
The 2002 Exact Software Conference
By Geni Whitehouse, CPA, CITP

Break out Session on Distribution

On Saturday May 19th, I attended the Distribution Break Out session. The session was conducted by Tom Leaders (Product Manager) and Jeff Lininger (Distribution and Manufacturing Support). The resellers were very attentive and were filled with questions about desired features.

As Carlton has already described click to read, the main product change this year was the migration to a single database containing both the e-Synergy front-office information and the former Macola Progression back-office information.  This migration was accomplished in a short period of time (about a year) with virtually no loss of functionality in the Distribution and Manufacturing area.

Some of the highlights of this session:

• More than 70 enhancements have been made to Order Entry.

• Inventory - currently has a replication step for connecting to the main database.  This will be migrated to one single database like the rest of the Macola ES product.

• Additional pricing options and whole order discounts have been added.

• More keyboard shortcuts will be added.

• Cost and Pricing data can now be copied between locations.

• Serial Lot Control has been added at the Item Master level  - this means that serial numbers can be assigned sequentially based on item.

• New passwords attached to "logical scenarios". These scenarios are coded within the applications based on the values in the data that is being processed. In addition to the logical scenarios the user has the ability, using the screen set designer,  to set a password on any screen, field, or button. 

• New "Bill of Resources" combine the functionality of the bill of materials with engineering change. The Bill of Resources also adds the ability to view and maintain the routing and value added costs.

• Designer tools are still available in the distribution and manufacturing areas, but are not available in the financials areas.  (This is the result of two code bases being merged into one application.  The former Macola modules retained their customization capabilities.)

• Shipment tracking is available through iship.com

• Tax schedules have been added to the Purchase Order screens, although the total weight is not displayed.

• Purchase Orders can now be edited, although changes to a PO will not take effect until the PO is printed (you  probably should listen to those European developers on this one.  Paperless is the way to go.)  In general, requiring a print step before a process will complete is not one of our favorite techniques.

Other new capabilities include:

• New warranty date field 

• Super Kits 

Field sizes have increased as follows:

• Item master – 30 characters

• Cust/Vendor and Job # are now 20 characters

• Human Resources are now a 9 character field

Weird Terminology 

Cultural differences can sometimes lead to unusual terminology and special programming challenges.  Exact has developers in the Netherlands, Malaysia, and Marion, OH.  We want to know which country is responsible for this term -"Prolongation Invoice".  (This is apparently what us folks down here in Georgia refer to as a "recurring invoice"  used for  invoicing support agreements and the like. )

In addition, because of e-Synergy's European heritage, the developers report that adding checks and bank reconciliation features to Macola ES was something of a challenge.  The suggestion that US customers should be instructed to "just stop using checks" was made on at least one occasion. 

The Crowd Reaction

Announcement of a new view of Inventory Items by Bin drew a round of applause from the audience.  Formerly, you could look at an item and see it's bin location but you could not open a bin and view all items contained therein.  (The excitement was matched only by the crowd response when one instructor coughed loudly into his microphone.) 

Summary

Like the rest of the Macola ES product line, the distribution area benefits from the advanced e-Synergy technology and workflow capabilities.  Enhanced drill downs and improved flow between modules are obvious benefits of the new table structure.  Document attachments (in many different formats) can now be added to the master record of items, customers, and vendors.  These documents are stored in the database and accessible system-wide .  This means that users accessing the e-Synergy front-office application via a browser will be able to view the same documents as the back-office team working in Macola ES. 

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