Key Ops Dispatch
September 2004

Vol. 4, No. 5

Included in this issue:

1 Graphical Machines & Equipment Software Training Requirements
2 Special Fort Worth Basic Training October 11-15
3 Reduced Room Rate for Philadelphia Users Meeting
4 Las Vegas Meeting Features Furniture & Machine Training
5 POS-partner Credit Service Requires Browser Upgrade
6 Emergency Preparation for Your DDMS System
7 Dealer Station Advisory Council Meeting: A Recap
8 How to Verify When Month-End Procedures Were Done
9 Purging Master Files Requires Reboot of TBLServer
10 Modify Furniture Orders to Mass Change List Prices, Discounts
11 DMI Supplies Network PSN Supports New Features in Version 7.6
12 Version 7 Online Help Updated on DDMS.com
13 Tell Us What You Think

1 Graphical Machines & Equipment Software Training Requirements

ECi has begun shipping Version 7.7 DDMS(R) software on request to DDMS customers.
This release includes the new graphical Machines & Equipment applications (formerly known
as the Serialized Module). These service management applications will be available to all
dealers currently using the text-based serialized module who have completed the required
training on the new graphical software.

To help ensure that your implementation of the new graphical machines & equipment
applications goes smoothly, we want to provide you with answers to several important
questions:

For details on these questions, see the Graphical Machines & Equipment Software Training Requirements email message.

If you are currently using the text-based serialized module, there is no additional
charge for the graphical Machines & Equipment applications. The only requirement is that
you must attend training on the new graphical software prior to implementing it in your
business.

If you are an equipment dealer but have not been using DDMS to manage your machine sales
and service operations, the new graphical Machines & Equipment applications are available
as an Xtension(tm) to your current DDMS software. For more information, contact Steve
Camp at scamp@eci2.com or (866) 374-3219, ext. 2266.

ECi will host special seminars for Machines & Equipment dealers at our Fort Worth, TX
facility on October 11-13, 2004. For more information and to register, see
Special DDMS Software Training Seminar in October

The DDMS West Coast Regional Users Meeting at the Alexis Park Resort in Las Vegas, NV,
will also feature special classes for machine and equipment dealers. These special
classes will start one-half day earlier than other users meeting sessions, at 1:00 pm on
Thursday, Nov. 4, 2004. Dealers must attend all of the Machines & Equipment sessions to
meet the training requirement for the new graphical software. Visit
the West Coast Regional Users Meeting Registration page for
comprehensive session, registration, and travel information.

On-site training is an option for dealers who cannot attend either the Fort Worth
training class or the DDMS West Coast Regional Users Meeting. A training consultant will
come to your site and provide personalized instruction on the new Machines & Equipment
applications. To arrange for on-site training, or for more information, contact ECi Sales
at info@ecisolutions.com or 866-374-3221.

To request your copy of DDMS Version 7.7, email ddmssupport@ecisolutions.com. To obtain
authorization for the graphical Machines & Equipment applications, first load Version
7.7, then email a request to autho@eci2.com. After you submit your request, our
authorization personnel will process your request, confirming both your Serialized or
Machines & Equipment contract and your attendance at the requisite training.
Authorizations will be handled during business hours 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM Central Time,
Monday through Friday. An ECi technician will call you regarding your authorization
request within 24 hours.

2 Special Fort Worth Basic Training October 11-15

ECi will host special software training classes at our Fort Worth, TX, facility on
October 11-15, 2004. These classes are the perfect training opportunity for:

To make the best use of your time, we have scheduled five different classes, including
Going Live training, over a five-day period. Each training class lasts one to two days.
Attend a specific class, or join us for the entire week – whichever is more appropriate
for your business. All of the classes offer hands-on training in the current version of
the graphical software; you will have the opportunity to learn by actually using the
software to perform everyday tasks.

Special rates are available for dealers attending the office products or machines and
equipment training and the graphical accounting class, or for dealers attending all five
days of training.

Class Schedule

The basic schedule for this training event is as follows:

Class Rates

Rates for the individual training classes are as follows:

Special Offer: Attend Two or More Classes and Save!

Special rates are available for dealers attending multiple classes:

How do I register?

For more detailed course descriptions and to register, see Special DDMS Software Training Seminar in October. Print and complete the registration form available from that page, and fax it to (703) 270-3775.

Since these are hands-on trainings, space is limited to 18 customers per class on a first-come, first-served basis.

3 Reduced Room Rate for Philadelphia Users Meeting

The ECi East Coast Regional Users Meeting will be held October 22-23, 2004, at the
Radisson Plaza-Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia, PA. In August, the hotel discovered that
while some ECi customers had been charged our negotiated group rate for their rooms,
other customers were charged much less. Due to a computer error, these attendees were
billed only $99 per night, far below any of the hotel's normal discount rates.

We are pleased to announce that the Radisson Plaza-Warwick Hotel has agreed to not only
honor the $99 rate for the attendees who had already booked their rooms, but also to
extend this rate to all ECi customers attending the meeting.

Again, the new room rate is $99 for single or double room, a $60 savings per night over
the previously announced rate.

Remember that the reduced room rate is only good for reservations made by September 30,
2004. Reservations made after that date are subject to space availability and at
prevailing room rates.

With a subsidized rate for training and a reduced rate for accommodations, the East Coast
Regional Users Meeting is an even more outstanding value.

The meeting offers a wide selection of classes to help you use the newly released Version
7 software, as well as hands-on software labs and an open Q&A session.

Visit the East Coast Regional Users Meeting Registration page for comprehensive session,
registration, and travel information.

4 Las Vegas Meeting Features Furniture & Machine Training

If you plan to attend the DDMS West Coast Regional Users Meeting in Las Vegas November
5-6, 2004, we urge you to make your hotel reservations as soon as possible.

The DDMS West Coast Regional Users Meeting will be held November 5-6, 2004, at the Alexis
Park Resort in Las Vegas, NV. In addition to basic software training, the West Coast
Regional Users Meeting features special classes for contract furniture dealers and for
machine and equipment dealers.

The text-based furniture applications are scheduled to be removed from the software in
early Fall. This meeting is the perfect opportunity for dealers still using the
text-based furniture module - as well as dealers who haven't yet implemented the
furniture applications - to obtain training on the graphical version of the software.

The classes for machines and equipment dealers will provide training on our new graphical
management software, DDMS(tm) Machines & Equipment Edition. Note: Classes for
machine and equipment dealers will start one-half day earlier than other meeting
sessions, at 1:00 pm on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2004.

Visit the West Coast Regional Users Meeting Registration page for comprehensive session,
registration, and travel information.

Important Hotel Room Information

ECi has negotiated a special rate of $109/night plus tax for single or double occupancy
at the Alexis Park Resort. However, the large number of customers who have already
registered for the West Coast Regional Meeting means that there is limited room
availability at the Alexis Park Resort. While there are still some rooms available in our
reserved block, it is filling up quickly and the hotel cannot guarantee availability of
additional rooms once our allotted space is filled.

To reserve a room at the Alexis Park Resort, call the hotel's reservations line at (800)
582-2228 or (702) 796-3322. Be sure to identify yourself as a guest attending the DDMS
Regional Meeting.

Alexis Park Resort - Las Vegas
375 E. Harmon · Las Vegas, NV 89109
Tel: (702) 796-3300
Fax: (702) 796-3354
www.alexispark.com

We have taken the precaution of arranging additional rooms at the nearby AmeriSuites Las
Vegas. The AmeriSuites is within easy walking distance of the Alexis Park Resort and
rooms are available at the rate of $139 for single or double occupancy. However, only a
limited number of rooms are available at this rate so we urge you to make your
reservations as soon as possible.

AmeriSuites Las Vegas
4520 S. Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89109-7111
Tel: (702) 369 3366
Fax: 702-369-0009

To reserve your room at AmeriSuites, call the hotel directly at (702) 369 3366. Be sure
to identify yourself as a guest attending the DDMS West Coast Regional Meeting.

If you have additional questions regarding the regional meetings, please e-mail
regionals@eci2.com or call (800) 959-3367 x3252.

5 POS-partner Credit Service Requires Browser Upgrade

DDMS® Approval Link™ 2.0 and Approval Link™ Plus serve as the gateway for credit
card authorizations between your DDMS software and the Vital® POS-partner payment
processing application.

If you use this credit card authorization service, you must upgrade the machine where you
installed POS-partner to the latest version of Microsoft(R) Internet Explorer by Monday,
November 1, 2004. You can do this by going to www.microsoft.com/windowsupdate.

This upgrade will protect the continuity and security of your credit card authorization
services, and will ensure that the machine complies with POS-partner’s minimum encryption
requirements.

Vital’s original announcement is as follows:

“Vital Processing Services requires the use of 128-bit or stronger ciphers for encryption when performing transactions across the Internet using VirtualNet Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Effective Monday, November 1, 2004, Vital will no longer permit SSL encryption-strength downgrades on the VirtualNet(R) SSL 1.0 (HTTPS) gateways. As of this date, merchants who use software that does not satisfy the 128-bit encryption requirement will not be permitted to access the VirtualNet SSL 1.0 (HTTPS) gateways. VirtualNet SSL 2.0 is not affected by this change.

“All merchants using POS Partner 2000 will be required to upgrade to the latest version of Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) to satisfy this requirement. Merchants may obtain the latest version of IE from Microsoft's website at www.microsoft.com/windowsupdate

“Merchants using third party SSL capable POS software or applications should contact their software or POS provider to determine any potential impact because of this change.”

Upgrading the Internet browser on your POS-partner machine will not have any negative
impact on your DDMS system. However, if you do not upgrade the browser on your
POS-partner machine, you risk failed credit card transactions. ECi strongly encourages
you to comply with Vital’s requirements.

If you have other questions about this announcement, please contact POS-partner Support
at 1-800-847-2772 or use their Web site at www.pos-partner.com.

6 Emergency Preparation for Your DDMS System

If you are preparing to evacuate your business in preparation for dangerous conditions
such as hurricanes or other foreseeable emergencies, here are some tips on protecting
your DDMS data and server.

It’s important to take recent backup data with you to a safe location. Follow these steps:

  1. Shut down TBL Server. (Since you will be performing a manual backup, this step is VERY
    important, because the backup program cannot copy files that are in use.)
  2. Back up the drive containing your DDMS data (usually D:\) on the DDMS server.
  3. Take the backup tape with you off-site.

For more information about performing backups, see File #243: Backing Up Your DDMS
Files.

To protect your server from potential damage, follow these steps:

  1. Shut down the DDMS server.
  2. Unplug all cables.
    • Label cables as to where they connect.
    • Try to keep cables and labels out of range of water damage.
  3. Take the entire DDMS server with you off-site.

We hope these tips will assist you in getting your business up and running after an
emergency evacuation. For information about restoring from a backup, see
File #92: Restoring Backups.

If you need any assistance in performing the backup, disconnecting the server,
reconnecting it, restoring data, please contact us:

7 Dealer Station Advisory Council Meeting: A Recap

We believe that customer involvement is essential in helping us plan our strategy for the
future. With that in mind, we are very pleased to announce the formation of a new Dealer
Station® Advisory Council. Similar to the advisory groups that already exist for ECi 's
back office business systems, the Dealer Station Advisory Council will play a key role in
establishing the future direction of the Dealer Station Web storefront.

Involving dealers throughout the development process will help to ensure that our vision
for future versions of Dealer Station is aligned with the needs of our customers. The
advisory council will work closely with ECi product managers and senior staff,
representing the concerns of the user base as a whole and helping us improve Dealer
Station for the benefit of all of our customers.

Continuing the development of Dealer Station is a priority for ECi . In order to fast
track additional development on the product, the advisory council met with ECi senior
management and product managers in Reston, VA on August 10, 2004. The purpose of the
meeting was to discuss and prioritize proposed enhancements to Dealer Station, including
all enhancements submitted to date by customers, as well as additional enhancements
suggested by the council.

The Dealer Station Advisory Council is intended to represent a cross-section of company
sizes and geographic locations of the dealers using the software. As with the other ECi
advisory groups, the membership will change periodically. The dealers who attended the
initial meeting are:

From a categorized list of all enhancements discussed at the meeting, advisors are being
asked to identify the 10-15 enhancements they consider the most critical. The product
managers and the advisory council will jointly create a final development plan based on
the expected level of work for each of the selected enhancements.

For office supply dealers, an integrated e-commerce solution is included in your product
package. If you don’t currently have an ECi Web storefront, you can sign up by
contacting ECi Sales (call 866-374-3221, or email info@ecisolutions.com).

For detailed instructions on installing, setting up, administering, and using Dealer
Station DDMS Edition, see Dealer Station Documentation.

8 How to Verify When Month-End Procedures Were Done

Situation: You need to verify if and when your month-end or other period-ending
procedures were completed.

Solution: The (MK) Period-End Functions screen displays the salesperson or order-writer
number of the last person to perform each procedure, as well as the date and time that
each procedure was last executed.

In addition, when you use the (MK) Period-End Functions screen to perform period-ending
procedures, the system logs the information to a file on unit 4 named PERIOD-LOG, which
you can print. On the printout, you can see the date and time each function within (MK)
was performed, and by whose salesperson or order-writer number, dating back to the first
procedure logged.

To print PERIOD-LOG, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the (ZD2) Print Disk File screen. (In the graphical software, double-click the
    Keyop Menu icon, and then double-click System Utilities. Make sure your CAPS LOCK key is
    on. Select the [D] Print Utilities type, and select Subset number [2]. Disk File.)
  2. At Enter File Name, type PERIOD-LOG
  3. If the cursor does not automatically move to the Enter Unit # field, press TAB.
  4. At Enter Unit#, type 4
  5. At Print the Entire File, type Y
  6. At Enter Width to Print, press Enter to accept the default width.
  7. At Enter Printer, press Enter to accept the default printer, P1, or enter the logical
    name for another printer.
  8. Review the printout to verify when various month-end procedures were completed and the
    order writer number used to complete each procedure.

9 Purging Master Files Requires Reboot of TBLServer

When you purge a master file such AP-MASTER, AR-MASTER, P-MASTER or PO-MASTER, the
recommended procedure is as follows:

  1. Since purging master files is a dedicated procedure, make sure no one else is using
    the system.
  2. To place your system in maintenance mode, go to the (ZE6) System Shutdown screen. (In
    the graphical software, double-click the Keyop Menu icon, and then double-click System
    Utilities. Make sure your CAPS LOCK key is on. Select the [E] View Utilities type, and
    select Subset number 6. System Shutdown. At the Enter Level prompt, select the [M]
    Maintenance mode shutdown level. Press Enter through the remaining prompts until the countdown begins. When the countdown is over, press any key.)
  3. In TBLServer, click Utilities on the menu bar, and then click Stop. In the event that
    someone does attempt to use the system, this will limit their access to some system
    functions, further protecting your data during dedicated procedures.
  4. Perform the purge. Depending on the size of the file, this may take a few moments.
  5. To verify whether the purge process is complete, click Users on the left-hand side of
    your TBLServer window, and then click your user name. The right side of the window will
    display a row with a blue ribbon for any TBL licenses being used to access a text-based
    screen. For the purge process, there will be a row without a blue ribbon that disappears
    when the process is complete.
  6. When the purge process is complete, you must shut down TBLServer and restart it.

Note: Some customers have asked whether simply stopping and starting Utilities in TBL
Server is sufficient. The answer is NO: if you do not restart, your DDMS applications
will continue to access a temp file instead of the original master file.

Windows creates temp files as time-stamped snapshots of the original files so that data
can be modified. If two people attempted to modify a file at the same time, the entries
would overlap, which would make the file unreadable. Temp files are just a way of
allowing multiple changes to one file.

This use of temp files is common to many Windows applications. For example, if you open a
Microsoft Word document, it creates a temporary version of the file while you work on it.
When you close the document and choose to save it, the temp file is saved back to the
original filename. When TBLServer restarts, it saves the temp files back to the original
master files according to their time stamp so that all updated data resides in the
original file. Simply stopping and starting Utilities will NOT clean up temp files.
Restarting TBLServer is the only way to clean up temp files and ensure the software
accesses the correct file after purging.

10 Modify Furniture Orders to Mass Change List Prices, Discounts

As of Version 7.1, you can modify furniture orders in Furniture Order Entry. This feature
allows you to mass change the list price for items on the order, increasing the prices by
a specified percentage. You can also have the system recalculaMonday, March 1, 2010 5:11 PMfor all line items on the order.

To use this feature in Furniture Order Entry, begin changing the order in the normal
manner. After the line items appear in the Change tab, click the Order Entry menu and
select Modify Order. The Furniture Order Change dialog box opens. You can use the Change
List By % box and the Mfg Disc 1 through Mfg Disc 5 boxes to mass change information on
the order.

When you finish, click Update to apply the changes. The cursor returns to the Change tab,
so you can continue to change the items on the order.

For detailed instructions, see the online help topic Modifying Furniture Orders

11 DMI Supplies Network PSN Supports New Features in Version 7.6

As of DDMS Version 7.6, Supplies Network's (DMI) PSN now supports attention lines
and end-user purchase order numbers on drop-shipments.

To learn how to update the Supplies Network (DMI) communication parameter table, see:
• Supplies Network PSN FAQs
or
• Setting Up and Using the DMI Supplies Network PSN

To request your copy of DDMS Version 7.6 or higher, email ddmssupport@ecisolutions.com. To
learn how to add Supplies Network (DMI) as one of your PSN vendors, see ECi PSN Services.

12 Version 7 Online Help Updated on DDMS.com

DDMS has released the Version 7 online help files in HTML format. These files have been
uploaded to the Web site, replacing the Version 6 online help HTML pages that were loaded
in December 2003. As a result, online help for the latest Version 7 features currently
show up in our Web site’s search results.

You can get to the online help from the following Web pages:
Documentation
Version 7 Documentation

Note: A separate .chm online help file is available to view or download. It is the same
help file that is accessed from DDMS.

13 Tell Us What You Think

Can you think of anything we can do to make ECi Technical Support even better? Please send any comments or suggestions to keyops@eci2.com.

If you have feedback or corrections to report for documentation, you can send a
simple email to docfeedback@eci2.com, but to help us find exactly what needs to be fixed,
please use the online documentation feedback form.

To submit Support requests, please enter detailed information about your problem on the Contact Support form. The online form provides your Support tech with information regarding your issue, which is helpful before returning your call. You can also call us at 800-366-4778 or email us at ddmssupport@ecisolutions.com.

For other ECi contact information, please see the Contact Us Web page.

Key Ops Dispatch, an e-mail newsletter, comes free of charge to all DDMS customers.

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