The Status of DDMS® Graphical Software

Our DDMS® Business System Software continues to grow and improve at a rapid pace. To keep you informed of these changes, we will update this page with the latest improvements, indicating which features are available now in our graphical user interface (GUI), and which features will be coming soon.

• Advantages: Features Available Only in DDMS Graphical Software
• Graphical Applications Currently Available
• Newest Features We Are Adding to DDMS Now
• See also: Program Updates (change log), and Release Notes (known issues)

Advantages: Features Available Only in DDMS Graphical Software

ECi DDMS Product Management and Development teams continually seek ways to take advantage of Microsoft's modern programming and database architecture. Our graphical applications offer features and capabilities that simply were not possible with our text-based software. If you are still using text-based Distribution Professional applications, you are missing out on significant improvements.

• Divided Into Tabs and Tasks. Tabbed and wizard-like graphical windows step you through procedures and offer easy ways to undo actions, rather than trying to squeeze every task into one multipurpose screen of text, while still offering you familiar keyboard shortcuts.
• Save paper. Spreadsheet-like data views and reporting allow you to move columns around, click column headers to sort, highlight changes, preview, and save to various file formats, saving you reams of paper every week over the text-based reports screens.
• Find them fast. Advanced search and indexing capabilities — look up customers by account number, contact name, company name, location, or even phone number.
  
• Find items by category. Search for items by category — for example, click on "binders" for a drill down to different types of binders. This feature categorizes three to four levels deep.
• Quick changes. Change, add, delete and search customer records, vendor information, pricing, etc., quickly, easily, and consistently.
• Mouse or Key. Navigate using your choice of mouse or keyboard (function keys or ctrl-key combinations).
• Detailed Histories. Powerful and flexible order history feature — view detailed information about orders.
• Catalog explorer. Order items from catalogs with ease and flexibility.
• At a glance. View on-hand quantities for all locations and multiple vendor information at a glance.
• Order away. Drop ship in order entry and create P/Os on the fly.
• Disputed Invoice flag. Exclude disputed invoices from A/R aging totals and statement totals.
• Customer Price Plans. Protect your margins. Unlike its predecessor (ET) screen, you'll enjoy a wizard-like interface as you build what-if scenarios, watch the effects of different pricing percentages — without affecting your current price plans — until you are ready to assign them as contracts to one or more customers.
• Price Modeling. Measure the profitability of past sales as compared to initial pricing. Unlike its predecessor (SG) [J], Price Modeling has amazing spreadsheet ability to model by item category or customer department, then filter (for example) by year to date hits above a certain number or in a certain range, and try out new pricing options. Save your work for future price modeling, or as a new contract, or export to a Microsoft® Excel® file.
• G/L Postings on the Fly. G/L Chart of Accounts has new menu option, Close G/L Period. It's easier than ever to close general ledger on the final day of the fiscal year. Although you can't release a batch to a closed business period, you can reopen it, release postings to it as needed, add new G/L accounts as needed, and close again.
• Manufacturer Exceptions. No more manually comparing line-by-line from your original purchase order to your furniture manufacturer's acknowledgment, with all the room for error that implies. With the Communicate P/O window, you'll find exceptions reporting options, automated reconciliation, and streamlined purging. Manage just the items that require your attention.
• Toner Yield. Track toner cartridge performance and compare it to the manufacturer’s claimed yield. This information is invaluable for renewing service contracts and pricing your supply-inclusive contracts.  When you complete a work order billing or a supply billing, the system prompts for toner on hand quantities and order quantities. The system also automatically calculates the projected next reading and date. Customer service reps can easily see how much toner has been shipped for a particular machine.
• Flexible SQL Reporting. The Preview Report application offers a growing number of standard SQL Reports, some based on existing text-based standard reports, others built to take better advantage of new capabilities. See when each report was last run at a glance. Save new filters and sorts. Set up access so that allowed users see only the reports assigned to them, rather than having to scroll through multiple pages of reports.
• Web Coupons. The Promotion window lets you combine three different types of Order Requirements with six different kinds of Benefits for 18 different coupon or promotion combinations. This, along with a number of other thoughtful options that give you tremendous flexibility in designing coupons. Promote coupons so your customers can enter them during Web checkout on your ECinteractive site.
• Bird's Eye Views. ECi DDMS now extends modern SQL and spreadsheet-like graphing capabilities to a high-level overview of your business — the new Executive Dashboard. You can easily monitor your company’s cash flow on the fly, customize the display of charts and columns, and assign read-only access to different sets of employees.

For more information on migrating your team to graphical applications, see Go Go Graphical (pdf).

Graphical Applications Currently Available in DDMS

The graphical applications listed below are available in your DDMS business system software:

Newest Features We Are Adding to DDMS Now

Here is a list of features we're currently testing: