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News from the Kore
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Summer 2003 Issue
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Kore
has a Plan!
With football season fast
approaching, the Kore team maps out a strategy to get to the SuperBowl
-- fully recognizing that the only real hope involves buying
tickets. From left to right: Rob Morrison, Paul Trebbien, John
Bosley, Eric Yarbrough, Mark Dobransky, Ken Dickinson, Chuck Verran,
Paul Bressler. Not pictured: Frank Kertai and Frank Busalacchi.
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Tech
Tip: Another way to fix a file
that is corrupted.
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Paul Trebbien
pault@koretech.com
Senior Support Technician
Kore Technologies, LLC
The standard
way to fix UniVerse files is to run the UVFIXFILE command. However,
the other day I ran into a problem with a Type 2 file on an NT/Universe
system where a basic program when writing specific records would abort and
disconnect the user from the system. Since this was the Universe
DBMS we ran UVFIXFILE to see what that discovered and there was no
reported problem with the file. It is documented that UVFIXFILE will
not find every file problem -- apparently this was one of those
situations.
The process
that was causing the problems wrote records to a file with ID’s like
123*1 123*2 123*3… After much research, we found that the process
would abort when a record whose item-ID ended with *10 was being
written. This was very odd as records 123*1 to 123*9 were written
without a problem. We tested writing a record with the *10 ID and
got disconnected.
Now what do you do? You use a solution that is
as old as the PICK Operating System! We created a temporary file and
counted the number of records in the corrupted file:
>CREATE-FILE TEMP-PAUL 1 1001
>COUNT FILE1
85637 records counted.
We next copied the records from the corrupted file to
the temporary file:
>COPY FILE1 * (IN
TO:(TEMP-PAUL
85637 records copied.
Fortunately, it copied the same number of
records. Next, we cleared the original file, and then copied our
data back:
>CLEAR-FILE DATA FILE1
File "FILE1" has been cleared.
>COPY
TEMP-PAUL * (IN
TO:(FILE1
85637 records copied.
Next we tested the file by trying to write a record
with exactly the same ID as one that failed – It worked:
>ED
FILE1 123*10
New record.
----:
Last, we got rid of the
temporary-file:
>DELETE-FILE
TEMP-PAUL
Now, there was lots of data to
fix – lots of orphaned records and summarized data that was overstated,
but at least the system would allow us to work on that file!
Note - These commands
will work on UniData with the same syntax except that you may not wish
to use an “I” option with the COPY command as the “I” option
will list all items being copied while on Universe it suppresses that
list.
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Integration
in Demand: Kore Keeps Customer Supply Chains Humming
The big news of
the last quarter is hardly news at all: customers are finding more and more
reasons to integrate their ERP systems, either with other in-house systems,
or with vendor or customer systems. As a result, customers have been
keeping Kore busy at one of its leading areas of expertise: integration.
Integrations are
particularly challenging, since in most integrations commonality has to be
found at several levels: physical connection, communication protocol,
messaging protocol, messaging format, and message content. Often, the
layers that most people focus on, messaging format and message content, are
the easiest parts of the integration. The challenge often turns
out to be in the other layers, e.g. this summer Kore has successfully
integrated two "standard ftp integrations" that weren't standard
and one "standard AS2" integration, that didn't actually include
AS2, among several others. The outcome of all of these integrations is
that Kourier, the most capable integration environment available in the U/2
space, has even more capabilities! Our favorite: Kourier talks to Amazon!
What will we do
when all of the systems in the world are integrated together?
(If you have a
need for integration work, give us a call at 858-678-0030 or email us at sales@koretech.com.)
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EDI
and Forms: Davis Instruments Finds a Better Way to Connect with
Customers!
Hayward,
CA –
July 18, 2003
– Davis
Instruments knows technology: they are a leader in weather and
automotive monitoring systems, and marine boating accessories.
Although Brad Andriese, Davis’s IT Manager, has a small
staff, his team is successful in maintaining a progressive
information systems environment.
Last year, one of Davis’s key customers, West Marine,
informed Davis that EDI was in their future.
Given the complexity of EDI, Brad knew he was going to need
help from a strong partner in order for his team to complete their
existing projects, including a large bar code hardware
implementation, and EDI at the same time.
After collecting proposals from several vendors and
consulting with another West Marine vendor (Marinco – see success
story), Brad felt there was only one logical choice:
Kore Technologies.
From
the time the project kicked off in early December until completion
of final testing in February, Davis and Kore worked with West
Marine’s EDI vendor to implement five EDI transactions.
“After the testing was done, we went live, cleaned up a few
things, and that was it: there were no additional problems.
The system just worked the way it was supposed to, and the
entire project was on-time and within budget” Brad noted.
“We
enjoyed working with a professional organization like Davis’s IT
department. EDI is
challenging, and a capable organization can accelerate progress,”
observed Ken Dickinson, Managing Partner at Kore Technologies.
Kore’s
electronic forms package, which provides the ability to
automatically email and fax existing pre-printed forms, was another
reason Davis chose Kore. “After looking at Kore’s solution, it
was a ‘no-brainer’ for us to expand the scope of the project and
include electronic forms” Brad said.
The design and the tight integration of Kore’s forms
package with Davis’s existing systems was a key deciding factor
for Davis.
“Keeping
things simple is key to maintaining reliable operations.
Kore’s solution was the simplest, and its tight integration with
our existing ERP and also EDI made Kore the only logical choice."
-- Brad Andriese, IT Manager at Davis Instruments
In
a short period of time, Davis eliminated most of its pre-printed
forms, giving its customers more accurate and up-to-date information
when they need it. Davis also plans to expand its use of EDI for
other customers and large suppliers. With a quick ROI, Davis’s IT
organization has once again demonstrated that a small IT staff can
generate big returns!
About Davis Instruments, Inc:
Headquartered in Hayward, California, close to high-tech Silicon
Valley, Davis instruments is known for its innovative line of
consumer electronics, including a complete line of wireless weather
monitoring stations, and award-winning automotive monitoring systems. For
more information, see the Davis
Instruments website.
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Do
You Need an ERP Implementation Tune Up?
Has it been too long since
you looked at how your company's core business processes operate?
Many companies bring more focus
on their core business processes during an ERP implementation than at any
other time. Inevitably, the challenging demands of implementing an
ERP system while running the business, coupled with the lack of knowledge
about the details of the ERP system, lead to limitations in the depth of
implementation that a company can achieve when it first starts using a new
ERP system. Statements like "We'll work on that after the
initial implementation" are made, but few companies follow
through. As time goes by, personnel turnover further reduces both
the quality of the implementation and the depth of understanding of the
software. Before anyone is conscious of the change, the promising
"New ERP System" has become the "Old obsolete ERP
System", even though the vendor has been busily enhancing to make
sure that it remains state-of-the-art! Chances are, if it has been more
than two years since you implemented your system, you will recognize some
or all of these perspectives in your own company!
Some companies respond to this
problem by throwing out the old system, bringing in the new system, and
then repeating the process. Other companies resign themselves
to working with a system that is "obsolete". Are
these the only choices?
Possibly the best reason to
upgrade your system is the opportunity it represents to readdress your
implementation. Although the upgrade will provide new functionality,
the newer version will still be an evolutionary update, so the
knowledge that your implementation team would bring to the upgrade process
would not be obsolete. Thus, there is a real opportunity to
reexamine and deepen your implementation in a way that is not possible
when shifting software.
Even if you are not due for an
upgrade, it might still make sense to act like you are by doing an
implementation audit and revisiting the decisions you made a while
ago. Why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars getting to a better
system, when chances are what you are looking for is already largely
available in the one you have?
If you would like help in
auditing your implementation, or in getting additional training in
applying ERP fundamentals to your system, or in just investigating what
might make sense, please feel free to give us a call at 858-678-0030, or
e-mail us at info@koretech.com,
and we would be glad to help you look!
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It has
been a busy time since our last newsletter, so we will only cover the
highlights!
Kourier
News
Business
Intelligence
We
have just completed our latest module that combines the power of
Microsoft Data Transformation Services (DTS) and .NET to make moving
data from a U2 database to SQL easier than ever! The SQL data tables
and DTS packages are automatically created from a simple data export
definition in Kourier. (Look for more announcements in the area of
business intelligence from Kore in the coming months.)
Electronic
Forms Management
A
great addition to the Kourier Publisher application is the ability to
archive PDF documents to a designated file share. You no longer
need to print extra copies of Invoices, Sales Orders, etc. for that
file cabinet in the back room. Simply store them electronically
on-line. For those of you with the KommerceServer (or another
storefront with equivalent capabilities), you can give your customers
access to these on-line documents as well.
Electronic
Data Interchange
Kourier EDI now supports AS2 communications (in conjunction with our
EDI products partner Inovis). Now, you can use the Internet
safely and securely for your EDI or EDI-like transactions. With this
extension, we believe Kourier-based EDI provides the strongest set of
capabilities available to the U2 market.
KommerceServer
News
webServiceCenter
The big news is that KommerceServer has a new application: webServiceCenter.
This application allows you to better manage one of your company’s
most valuable assets: your customers. Track service calls, create sales
orders, RMAs, and manage outside service technicians all from an
intuitive web-based interface. Use webServiceCenter to e-mail,
capture phone conversations, and
collect important documents related to each customer. webServiceCenter provides a comprehensive view of your customers so you can see
past and present activity at a glance. Moreover, it makes that information
available to service people anywhere they can get access
to the Web -- with security control so they only see what they need to
see. We will be demonstrating this exciting new product at Perspectives,
so stop by and log a service call!
KommerceServer
Framework
We’ve created a new Forms object that makes developing new input
forms, or customizing existing forms, both quick and easy -- we are
finding it cuts development time by 75%. The form object supports
database update, validation, GUI controls, search pop-ups, and
event-based processing with very little code. By using it to create the
webServiceCenter application, we were able to significantly reduce
overall development cost, and improve quality and consistency at the
same time. We will be using the form object to update the other
KommerceServer applications as they get enhanced. We are very
excited about this new capability, and we’re leveraging it for a new
application that no company can be without! To be unveiled soon…
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Paul's Corner
 A Belated Happy
Father’s Day! Father’s Day always reminds me of the greatest
Father’s Day gift I ever received. It was many years ago when
my son Ben was about seven. On the Saturday afternoon before
Father’s Day Ben, carrying his Tool Box, announced that he was
working on a gift for me and I could not come out into the backyard.
He was out there for quite a while, came in, and had a conference with
my wife who went to help him. He was out back for maybe a couple
more hours until finally I had to close my eyes while he moved the
‘gift’ from the backyard to his room where he wrapped it.
Sunday finally arrived and he proudly brought me his gift. I
opened it and he told me it was a new Key Holder. My wife later
explained that poor Ben had spent an hour trying to saw a piece of wood
in half, but then after their conference decided to find a piece of
wood the right size. She said he spent the next couple of hours
hammering 5 nails into it, and attaching a string to it so it could be
hung on the wall. She said he was so serious about the planning
and the work. My greatest gift is still hanging in my kitchen;
it’s one of my treasures.
Programmers,
have the Materials Managers been asking for a screen that will allow them
to ‘Delete’ specific 0 balance Inventory records? Possibly, in a
WIP type inventory there are 0 balance records that do not belong and the
Inventory Location cannot be flagged to Delete all of the 0 balance parts
as they need to see the ‘valid’ Floor Stock records on the Floor Stock
Valuation report. Why not create a screen that will allow this?
In the screen, be sure to make sure the Part# is a valid PARTS record,
there are no Commitments and no WO Picked quantity, and there are no
quantities in the Bin Locations. Be certain to remove the reference
to that Inventory Location from the INV record. I’d be happy to
lend a hand with this, just give me a ring. Also, I was alerted that
a Personnel record can be deleted in the Miscellaneous Deductions screen
(reported to Epicor) – this seems a little dangerous to me and you may
wish to change both the Personnel and Miscellaneous Deductions screen to
not allow deleting a record ("x" option in Preview). Check
the Benefits Entry screen too.
For
the record, my stolen truck was never found. I settled with the
insurance company and now have a new truck with more bells and whistles
than the old one – I’ve named it Clyde after my brother’s old dog.
Also.
Perspectives is coming up in October this year.
Mark Dobransky, Ken Dickinson, Frank Busalacchi, Frank Kertai, and I will
be attending so please stop by our booth we'd love to meet you.
Please remember, “Great
Service to your Customer is always rewarded”.
Paul’s
Questions
and Answers
I always enjoy answering
your questions! So
everyone, if there’s a question you have on how something works, email
it to me – pault@koretech.com.
I hope you find these useful:
Question:
We
cannot receive on a DataFlo Purchase Order. One screen says the
status is ‘I’ and another screen says the status is ‘N’, why is
this?
Answer:
The
status thing is a little odd but when we tried to Authorize that PO we
received a message that there were no changes. Ah ha! Since
there are no PO changes we ‘Canceled’ the last PO Change and the
Receipts screen was happy to receive on our PO.
Question: We've
converted one of the Sales Order reports using the SOD file to use the
user specific work file and have found another report that uses the SOD
file. You had mentioned there are 5 DataFlo reports that use the SOD file,
which 5?
Answer: On
the MSO-R-00 menu: MSO-R-07 & MSO-R-10, on the MSO-D-00 menu:
MSO-R-48, FS-R-61, & MPC-R-24.
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October
19-22, 2003 –
Perspectives 2003, Las Vegas, NV
The
premier Epicor conference is returning to Las Vegas -- and Kore is returning to
the premier Epicor conference! Once again we will be presenting two topics
of general interest to the greater manufacturing community: "What is Six-Sigma?" and "Getting
the Most out of Your Inventory Dollar". We will also be participating in the Partner
Pavilion. Last year's program offered a whole lot for everyone, and this
year's conference promises to be equally outstanding. Come and join us to
learn more about how to make the best use of your systems -- and to have a lot
of fun.
See perspectives.epicor.com
for more information.
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If you have any questions or comments on our
newletter please contact
Frank Busalacchi.
We're here to help!
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