ECi Announces the Release
Of DDMS® Version 7.12
DDMS® Version 7.12 is now available upon request to all DDMS customers as of Thursday, Dec. 22, 2005. This message covers the following timely topics:
What's New in Version 7.12?
DDMS Version 7.12 includes the following enhancements:
- Customer Price Plans (Limited Pre-Release). ECi has reinvented the Customer Price Plan application with an intuitive, task-based interface using our new .NET and SQL architecture. It is the easiest way to build, update, and assign customer contracts, price plans, or pricing matrices. more below»
- Modify Furniture Order. The Modify Order window in Furniture Order Entry now presents item data similar to the way you view it through specifier software, and lets you perform different pricing scenarios with cost, selling price, and list price. more below»
- Picking Manifest. We’ve added the ability to create multiple non-bulk and bulk picking manifests in the (TM)[N] screen. more below»
- Client .NET/SQL/SmartClient Installation. As we release more applications using the new programming architecture, we must update the software installation so that the client workstations are in synch with the DDMS server. The first time you install Version 7.12 or higher, you will need to install a client software update from the CD directly on each workstation that operates DDMS applications. As long as you perform the required inital installation from the CD on each client, subsequent software updates will automatically update the client software from the server.
This list of enhancements above is not exhaustive. You can find more information on DDMS.com:
- IMPORTANT: Before you load any software update, check our Web site for last-minute changes that may affect you on Release Notes.
- For information about all released changes, use Program Updates on our Web site to look up all corrections and enhancements released in Version 7.12, Version 7.12.0, and other versions.
- For information about enhancements released in the DDMS Version 7 software, see "What's New in Version 7 (PDF)".
- For additional information about specific features, use your online help after you load the software update. Tip: You can search for keywords such as "Minimum Order" for fuel surcharge, and "Additional Volume Discount" for holiday promotion gifts.
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How Do I Request the Software Update?
If you want to take advantage of the new features in Version 7.12, we will be happy to ship the software update and instructions to you via United Parcel Service (UPS) Ground.
Please email a request for Version 7.12 to ddmssupport@ecisolutions.com, and include your DDMS account number, contact name, company name, shipping address, and phone number.
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How Has ECi Reinvented Contract Maintenance?
ECi has reinvented the Customer Price Plan application with an intuitive, task-based interface using our new .NET and SQL architecture. (Note: Selected dealers who apply to participate in the limited pre-release of this application will be required to sign an agreement. more below»)
The new Customer Price Plan application is the easiest way to build, update, and assign
customer contracts, price plans, or pricing matrices. The information you need to develop plans that protect your margins and
ensure your profitability is displayed on screen in real time, including:
- Sales history for a customer or a specific contract
or price plan
- Which items customers are buying on a specified price plan
- Margins on individual items
- Items with cost or price changes that affect your gross profit percentage or discount percentage—
highlighted in red
- Comparisons of proposed pricing changes with the
original plan pricing—quickly see the potential effect
of a change in pricing
- Plan data that can be sorted by column, enabling you
to group items that need to be recalculated
Buildling, refiguring, and maintaining contracts and price plans has never been easier! Set up what-if scenarios on screen without affecting your current price plans. Modify costs and prices to reflect new pricing percentages while retaining your original pricing. Modify and recalculate until you have the pricing you want. Changes do not become part of the actual price plan until you click Save.
With a click, you can see all the customers using a
particular contract or price plan. Add, change and
substitute price plans en masse to customers.
Plan data is displayed in an Excel-style grid with fully
customizeable columns. Rearrange columns as you
prefer, and sort data by clicking a particular column.
Changes are saved by user login, so your preferences
follow you, regardless of the machine you use.
The Customer Price Plan application has unparalleled
printing capabilities, including complete font control and
header text options. Use your regular network printer.
Because Customer Price Plan is built with Microsoft® .NET technology, price plan data is fully portable. Export
your data to Adobe .PDF, HTML, text, Excel .XLS or rich
text .RTF formats.
For detailed instructions, see your online help.
Limited Pre-Release Availability
The new Customer Price Plan application will be available initially only on a limited, pre-release basis in Version 7.12 of DDMS® Office Products Edition. Although this feature requires authorization, there is no additional charge to any new or existing DDMS user.
Selected dealers will be required to sign an agreement for the limited pre-release authorization, and will be instructed to install the DDMS client software on the workstations of the personnel who will be using the application, before an ECi Technical Support team member can authorize the software at the server and turn on the application for each installed client.
If you are interested in applying to participate in the limited pre-release of the Customer Price Plan application, please email a request to ddmssupport@ecisolutions.com.
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How Can I Try Various Pricing Scenarios on Furniture Orders?
When you modify orders in
Furniture Order Entry, you now have an enhanced view of item information similar to viewing information
through specifier software, and can perform different pricing scenarios by mass changing the cost, selling price, and list price.
The Modify Order window gives you the ability to
view the following item information:
- You can easily see all the selling prices,
costs, and list prices for the items on the order.
- You can verify that
the quantities, costs and extended costs are accurate.
- You can easily view specials for each line
item.
The Modify Order window also allows you to
mass change the cost, the selling price, and the list price for all items
on the order. Mass changing lets you quickly change all or several line items on the order without the necessity of changing each line item at a time.
- Increase or decrease the cost by a
dollar amount or percentage.
- Change the sell price by a
dollar amount, percentage or by the gross profit percentage. This lets
you change the pricing that comes from the specifier to the actual
pricing you want to use.
- Specify that the system recalculate
the actual/average cost on the manufacturer’s discount for all line items on the order.
In the Print Preview window, you can even save the information to a
file.
For detailed instructions, see your online help.
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How Do I Create Multiple Bulk or Non-Bulk Picking Manifests?
We’ve added the ability to create multiple non-bulk and bulk picking manifests in the (TM)[N] screen.
You do this by specifying Y at the Assign Bulk Items to Separate Manifest prompt. The system uses the number of lines or number of orders per manifest you specify to know how many manifests to create.
For example, if you create 20 orders containing both bulk and non-bulk items and specify that each manifest contain four orders each, the system creates five different manifests at once. This eliminates the necessity of accessing the screen to create five separate manifests.
While creating manifests in the (TM)[A] screen, the system prompts you to include items pulled from bulk items so you can specify to create picking manifests that contain only bulk items. In this case, two separate manifests print: one containing bulk items, and one containing only non-bulk items. Later when you specify to add to an existing bulk bin only manifest, the system prompts you to append to the order.
When adding, changing, deleting, or final-verifying an order, the system displays the Include, Exclude or Only Bulk Manifests prompt as well as the Include, Exclude, or Only Incomplete Manifests prompt. These prompts let you limit the display to include only bulk manifests and/or incomplete manifests. This makes it easier to view only those manifests that contain bulk items or are not yet completed.
When you are ready to complete the manifest, the system lets you change the order puller number, as well as the start and end times.
In addition we’ve improved the picking manifest program to recognize a bulk item with a quantity that differs from the sell quantity. Therefore, if you sell boxes of paper in a quantity of one and the selling unit is one, the system prints the bulk manifest with the bulk label.
To use this feature in Version 7.12 and higher, follow these steps:
- Set Up Your Bulk Items in (EK) Bulk Item Update screen.
- Set Parameters in the (L8P) Picking Manifest Parameters screen: You use this screen to specify if you want to limit the number of line items or the number of orders per manifest. For example, you can specify that the system limit the number of orders included on each manifest to 10 or the number of line items per manifest to 100 and so on.
- Set Parameters in the (L8P1) Additional Manifest Parameters screen: You use this screen to enter a beginning bulk manifest number. If you want to create multiple manifests when limiting by the number of orders or line items, set the Create Multiple Manifests if Limiting to # of Orders or Lines field to Y. You can also enter categories you want to exclude from the manifest as well as exclude uncatalogued items. This screen also lets you enter the bulk manifest selector and printer you want to use.
For detailed instructions, see your online help.
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