Key Ops Dispatch
June 2005
Vol. 5, No. 2
Included in this issue:
1 Reserve Newark Rooms Now for East Coast Users Meeting
2 Version 8 Set for General Release in Early 2006
3 Software Expiration Requires Version 7.10 or Higher
4 National Users Meeting Set for April 2006 in Fort Worth
5 What’s New in DS-DDMS Version 5.05
6 How To Get Started With Notes Everywhere
7 System Suffering Slow-Downs? Service Your Server!
8 Tell Us What You Think
1 Reserve Newark Rooms Now for East Coast Users Meeting
The ECi East Coast Regional Users Meeting, set for June 24-25, 2005, in Newark, NJ, offers a blend of business information and technical training.
For office products dealers, the East Coast Regional Users Meeting features classes such as advanced flow, financials, customer management, and more, in addition to basic software training. There will also be a hands-on software lab where you can practice what you've learned and have your questions answered by the experts.
The registration fee for the ECi East Coast Regional Users Meeting is only $295 per person for two complete days of classes, with breakfasts and lunches included.
To attend the conference, you will need to:
• Register each attendee from your company. You can register online or download a faxable registration form at www.ecisolutions.com/customers/events/reg/ec05/regEC05.asp
• Reserve your hotel rooms. A special rate of $99/night plus tax for single occupancy has been negotiated for you at the Wyndham Newark Airport. The hotel is located at 1000 Spring Street, Elizabeth, NJ 07201 (www.wyndham.com/hotels/EWRNJ/main.wnt). To receive the group rate, reservations must be made by June 16, 2005. Reservations received after this date are subject to space availability and at prevailing room rates. To reserve your room, call the hotel's reservations line at 1-800-996-3426 or 1-908-436-4600. Be sure to identify yourself as a guest attending the DDMS Regional Conference.
• Make your travel arrangements. The Wyndham Newark Airport is conveniently adjacent to the Newark Liberty International Airport, and the hotel offers complimentary shuttle service. The Wyndham Newark Airport is just two miles from the New Jersey Turnpike, 10 minutes from downtown Newark, and 12 miles from New York City.
ECi plans to host two more regional users meetings this year:
• South Central Regional Users Meeting, August 26-27, 2005 - Fort Worth, TX (Special topics: machines & equipment, commercial office products)
• West Coast Regional Users Meeting, October 21-22, 2005 - San Francisco, CA (Special topic: commercial office products)
We are in the process of finalizing arrangements for the remaining 2005 meetings. Hotel locations, class curriculum and additional information will be posted at www.ecisolutions.com/customers/events/regmeetings.htm as soon as it becomes available.
2 Version 8 Set for General Release in Early 2006
ECi plans to ship the Version 8 General Release to all DDMS customers in the first part of 2006.
It will include all the enhancements from the Version 7 maintenance releases, plus additional features that volunteer dealers have been beta testing.
For more information on the features in Version 8, see What’s New in Version 8.
3 Software Expiration Requires Version 7.10 or Higher
For several years, all DDMS business system software has included an expiration timer. This timer is reset to one year each time you load a new general release software version.
The software expiration timer displays a warning message beginning 90 days before your current software version is due to expire: "Software Version Expires on MM/DD/YY". Dealers who first loaded Version 7 in June 2004 are already seeing the software expiration message on the Master Menu.
Recognizing that the Version 8 General Release is not due to be shipped until after most dealers’ software expires, we released code that resets the timer in Version 7.10.10 and higher.
If your system displays the “Software Version Expires” message, please email a request for the latest release to ddmssupport@ecisolutions.com. We will ship the software on request via standard UPS Ground.
If you allow your software to expire, the software will no longer operate until you update your software to Version 7.10.10 or higher. To avoid any impact on your business, we recommend that you request the latest software update as soon as the “Software Version Expires” message appears on your Master Menu.
4 National Users Meeting Set for April 2006 in Fort Worth
Join us on April 20-22, 2006, for the ECi Direction 2006 Users Conference, a national meeting for all ECi customers using DDMS(tm) business systems.
ECi Direction 2006 is THE event for DDMS users in 2006. The conference offers software training with sessions on both basic system operations and more advanced topics, as well as dealer-led sessions that focus on applying the software to real-world business issues.
Learn how your peers are using ECi products to improve efficiency and increase profitability in their day-to-day operations. You will also learn about new and upcoming products, meet with ECi management and staff, and have opportunities to share ideas with your fellow dealers.
As in the past, the ECi Direction 2006 Users Conference will be held in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. We will announce the exact location of the meeting when we complete negotiations for hotel meeting space and accommodations.
We look forward to seeing you next April!
5 What’s New in DS-DDMS Version 5.05
ECi released Dealer Station® DDMS Edition Version 5.05 on May 21 with several major enhancements:
• New Authorized Monthly Dollar Limit
• New Category Search Option
• Improved Global Search Box
• Faster Search Results
• Checkout From Zip Order
• Display Separate Canadian PST and GST Taxes
• New Order History Columns
In addition, this version has several corrections:
• List Price Display Fixed in Quick Order
• List Price Decimal Place Display Fixed in the Cart
• Shipping Charges Fixed on Order Printout
• Item Management Fixed for Short Description
• Add User Fixed for Super Users
• Change Styles Page Streamlined
For more information about the new features and where to find documentation on each feature, see What’s New in Dealer Station DDMS Edition 5.05. You'll find the updated documentation on our Dealer Station Documentation page:
• Dealer Station Admin Manual
• User Manual, Understanding Online Purchasing
To view the manuals, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader version 4 or above. You can
download it free from Adobe.
6 How To Get Started With Notes Everywhere
With Notes Everywhere, you can create an unlimited number of free-form text notes that can be displayed in real time as you work. When you retrieve a customer, vendor, invoice, or other supported record, the system automatically shows the first attached note in a semi-transparent window that floats on top of other system applications. You can sort, limit, and organize notes by type, reference number, code, and priority.
This feature gives you easy access to all of the relevant information about a customer, vendor, furniture project, and so on.
If you are on product package C, D, or Platinum, you are automatically authorized to use Notes Everywhere when you install Version 7.8 or higher.
If you have product package A, B, Base, or Xtended, and would like to take advantage of Notes Everywhere, contact ECi Sales at 866-374-3221 or info@ecisolutions.com. For more information, see Workflow Xtensions or What’s New in Version 7.
To use Notes Everywhere, your client workstations require new software components that must be installed directly from the DDMS software update CD-ROM. Installing the DDMS software update from your server does not distribute these components across the network to the DDMS client workstations.
If you intend to use Notes Everywhere, you must update all client workstations from the CD-ROM the first time you install DDMS Version 7.8 or higher. Otherwise, your client machines will not support Notes Everywhere.
Updating client workstations from the CD-ROM is only necessary when loading these new software components for the first time. Once the required software components have been loaded onto each client workstation, you can simply run future software updates from your DDMS server.
For detailed instructions on installing the software update on your client workstations, see the instructions on pages 23-24 of Installing Version 7 DDMS, which was included with the DDMS software update CD-ROM. For more information about Notes Everywhere in particular, see Setting Up & Using Notes Everywhere.
7 System Suffering Slow-Downs? Service Your Server!
System maintenance is a topic that applies to all our customers. Based on the positive feedback our support techs receive after advising callers on DDMS server maintenance, we would like to direct your attention to two previously published articles on this subject.
As time goes by, your Microsoft® Windows® server’s hard drive may fill up with temporary files you no longer need. Frequently used files may actually become fragmented, or scattered over different areas of the disk. This slows disk access, making it difficult for your DDMS software to locate the necessary data quickly to respond to users’ operations, and can contribute to degraded performance.
Just as you change your car’s oil on a regular basis, you should perform regular maintenance on your DDMS server. For example, you should clean up the disk; diagnose, repair, and compress DDMS files; analyze your disks and defragment if necessary. You can even set up Desktop shortcuts to some system maintenance tools to make it easy to get to them on a regular basis.
Note: Veteran DDMS customers may remember when weekend MB compression was a standard period-end procedure for the PGD operating system. The Disk Defragmenter performs the same function in Windows, but can be performed less frequently, perhaps monthly.
To learn how to clean up unnecessary files and streamline system performance, see File # 242: Housekeeping for Your DDMS Server.
Anti-virus software can also slow the performance of Windows applications. It can cause noticeable delays in applications that open a number of files, such as order entry and inventory in DDMS.
Although anti-virus software is certainly necessary, you need to balance security concerns against performance when setting scanning levels for your anti-virus package.
To learn what you can do if your anti-virus software is slowing your DDMS system, see File #129: Is Your System Up to Speed?.
8 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 also 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 at www.DDMS.com/support/doc_feedback.htm
To submit Support requests, please enter detailed information about your problem at www.DDMS.com/support/supportcall.htm
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 page: www.ecisolutions.com/company/default.htm#contactus
Key Ops Dispatch, an e-mail newsletter, comes free of charge to all DDMS customers.
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