One characteristic of a successful distributor is providing unique products or services that go beyond what their competitors offer. Many times this results in distinctive demands on their internal systems. While Eclipse has many features that provide for these, companies may find that some aspects of the system don't exactly meet their specific needs.

Adding specialized enhancements to Eclipse enables companies to remove the barriers or "rough edges" that previously caused a glitch or limitation on their business operations. Here are three areas in which a relatively simple enhancement can make a significant difference in a company's efficiency or effectiveness:

1. Customized Reporting - Simple changes to standard reports give you the information you need to more effectively run your business.

       - adding new columns to a report

       - changing the way a current report functions

       - developing a new report that isn't standard in Eclipse

2. Data Checking - Ease access to specific functions or uncover potential problems before they cause delays.

       - regularly check new customers or products being entered and correct missing or inconsistent data

       - quickly perform some action without drilling down into screens (i.e. setting customer hold status)

3. Exporting Data - Get more out of data generated by Eclipse by exporting it in the precise format needed for other applications.

-   email periodic price changes to salesperson or customer

-   send order acknowledgements in a different format (i.e. csv, xls, doc)

-   automatically send orders, pricing, etc. to customer via ftp or web services

Here are some real-world examples of issues that multiple companies have encountered:

Price Change Notifications

It's important to keep customers updated as product prices change, and an enhancement to Eclipse can automate this process. One approach is to regularly send customers a complete price list as a CSV, tab-delimited or XLS file for products they commonly purchase. The list of products is based on what they've purchased in the last year, plus any products for which they have an override in the price matrix. This list can be emailed or transferred to their system via FTP.

Another approach is to send only the products with prices that have changed between two dates (i.e. the previous notification date and the current date). Typically, this is provided in the body of an email and can be sent to either a sales rep, who can forward it after review, or directly to the customer.

Measuring service levels has become increasingly important in order for distributors to be competitive. However, the standard fill rate report in Eclipse isn't able to handle the case in which customers request their order be sent in multiple shipments unless the required date on each generation is correctly entered. Since require dates often are not consistently maintained, the fill report doesn't provide an accurate picture of service levels.

The issue is how to distinguish between items that have been backordered due to insufficient stock quantities and those that have been split into multiple shipments at the customer's request. An enhancement to Eclipse allows you to factor in the current stock quantity when the report is generated. Each shipment of a given line item is a separate line on the report and is evaluated based on the quantity left to ship, what was actually shipped and the current stock level for that product.

Summary

Tailoring Eclipse through the addition of enhancements enables companies to maximize the software's effectiveness for their business. This translates to efficiencies in time and effort, while providing staff and customers with the information they need in the way that best suits their specific business.

Ponderosa Innovative Solutions is the former Eclipse group of Optimum Solutions. Focused exclusively on Eclipse users, we develop enhancements and connectivity solutions tailored to the specific needs of our customers.

Ponderosa is seeking the input of UFO members like you on the development of enhancements that would be beneficial to your business. Please see the requests page our website www.pondersolutions.net/requests to suggest an enhancement.

Our contact info is:

Ponderosa Innovative Solutions, LLC

34036 Columbine Circle

Evergreen, CO 80439 

Phone: 303-716-9844

Email: info@pondersolutions.net

Website: http://www.pondersolutions.net

Now that Epicor Insights is behind us, for those of you attending, hopefully you attended at least one of the sessions where the Eclipse roadmap was discussed with the major enhancements for the next year.  There are definitely some significant and welcome improvements coming but one of the missing aspects of that roadmap is the inclusion of your ideas from the Ideas site.  I want to assure you that your Eclipse Users Group Board of Directors represented your interests and stressed the importance of using the ideas from the site and incorporating them into the roadmap.  We believe our collective voices were heard and we will see a stronger focus on Eclipse Development utilizing the Ideas site to add additional improvements coming from your ideas.

Another positive from Insights is the exposure the Ideas site has received.  The volume of activity has spiked in the couple of weeks after Insights.  Keep up the good work and remember to vote.  I also encourage you to ensure you have a team of people at your company to review the Ideas Site.  Each person on your team monitors the communities that interest them and therefore we get feedback from the people regularly using the features represented by those communities and have a better understanding of the ideas posted.  

Thank you for your continued support!  

Featured Ideas

1) Accounting: Change Log needed in Tax Code Jurisdiction Maint.

Tax Code Jurisdiction Maintenance is one of the very few areas of Eclipse where there is no change log.  We really could use a change log in this screen.  We recently were audited by a couple of states and could not explain some errors since the error occurred in the Tax Code Jurisdiction Maintenance.  We couldn't see how long the error had existed or when it was corrected. 

2) Systems and Utilities: New Branch Wizard 

Why doesn't Eclipse create a new branch wizard? This may be an idea that someone else has come up with but there has to be an easier way to add new branches to the system.

To vote yea or nay, just search for the idea on the community!

Dear Uncle Frank,

                I have customers that seem to order the same stuff all the time. I am constantly reentering the same items on orders each day. Can this 'smart' Eclipse computer help me?

                Counterman Charlie from Chattanooga

 Dear Charlie,

                There are at least two ways to make your job easier and quicker. First is the use of Price Line Inquiries or Product Families. The other way is to use the Reorder Pad.

                When on the line of an order, enter a quantity of 1 and then for the product use '/[PRICELINE]' you will see items in that Price Line with a lot of information such as last sale date, last sale quantity, quantity available, last price, price now, etc. You can just enter quantities in the right spot and when you leave this area, ALL those quantities and items will be on the order.

                Similarly, when you use the Reorder Pad, you see ALL the items that the customer purchased in the last year. You have the ability to Sort the list in various ways and with various Selections. Again, enter quantities and they will become the order.

                For Solar, the Reorder Pad is on the Edit Order menu OR you can just hit CTL-'O'. For Eterm, use Alt-'A' from the body of the order.

                When in the Reorder Pad, use your 'F11' Help key to learn more about this feature.

                Regards,

                Uncle Frank

Kore Technologies provides integrated data warehousing, eCommerce, and enterprise integration solutions for the Eclipse user community. We specialize in modernizing Eclipse through integrated best-in-class solutions to complement and extend the functionality of Eclipse.

Kore Technologies makes the DBTA 100 

Kore Technologies is honored to have been selected for inclusion in the inaugural "DBTA 100", a list of the most important companies in data today.  

To read the full story, which includes Ken Dickinson's (managing partner and co-founder at Kore) "View from the Top" article, please visit www.dbta.com.

Enterprise Data Warehousing and Integration

Unleash Your Eclipse Data for faster, easier, and better reporting and analysis.

Kourier Integrator with SQL Accelerator plus Kore's Operational Data Store (ODS) for Eclipse is a turnkey solution for building and maintaining a Microsoft SQL Server data warehouse from the Eclipse database. Unleash your Eclipse data with a near real-time SQL data warehouse using Kore's Net Change Technology enabling you to create time sensitive reports and dashboards from your critical business data. In most cases your data warehouse can be up and running in less than a week using Kore's Fast Track Implementation program!

Kourier Integrator can also help you integrate Eclipse with other business applications and databases used within your company using its Enterprise Application Integration capabilities (EAI). Popular examples include: CRM systems, Pricing and Inventory optimization, Forecasting, etc.

New Kourier Integrator Release Information

Kourier Integrator - Release 4 is expected to be available in June and will offer many new features and product improvements. Two often requested enhancements included the next release are:

1. Native support for Microsoft SQL Server 2012 and Integration Services (SSIS), providing increased performance to meet the enterprise customers' requirements to move large amounts of data quickly.
2. The ability to seamlessly integrate and consolidate information from multiple data sources used within the enterprise (such as MySQL, Oracle, Microsoft Access, and text files) in addition to UniData/UniVerse. This will provide companies the ability to manage data from their islands of automation using a single ETL/EAI solution.

Please visit the Kourier Integrator home page for more information.

KommerceServer webStoreFront is designed for manufacturers, distributors, and retailers with support for business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) environments. Most importantly, it's integrated with your Eclipse application to provide a comprehensive eCommerce solution that is modern looking, highly-functional and cost-effective.

The KommerceServer webPortal is an enterprise customer information portal that provides a complete view of information that originates from the webStoreFront and from the Eclipse application. Empower your customers with 24/7 secure, self-service access to their Eclipse order status, order history, in-transit shipments, and invoices.

Please visit the KommerceServer eCommerce Suite home page for more information.

New KommerceServer Features

Here are some recent key enhancements to the KommerceServer eCommerce Suite designed for distributor s and manufacturers:

Kore Technologies -- "Solutions that work. People who care." 

Thanks for stopping by!

On behalf of the marketing committee, I would like to thank everyone for stopping by the UFO booth at Insights!  I personally enjoyed meeting new people and connecting with colleagues.  I want also to thank those who volunteered to make the UFO booth a reality.  Most notably Cyndi Skweres and Charlene Locke who stepped forward for the event planning.  And of course, Mary and Suzanne who are the backbone of the UFO operation!

Drawing Winners!

We hope that everyone had the chance to stop by the booth to enter into our nine drawings for a $50 gift card.  We would like to congratulate Dan Ediger of Kriz Davis, Julie Driscoll of Connor Co., Martin Lockwood of Aaron and Co., Nathan Jarmon of Texas Plumbing Supply, Patrick Dohogne of Cape Electrical, Sam Sparks of Wiseway Supply, Terry Burton of Womack Electric, Dawn Tanseco of US Supply and Michelle Thompson of Johnstone Supply.  All were winners of $50 American Express gift cards.  Check our Facebook page for pictures of the winners!

Upcoming Event

Don't forget to sign up for the Eclipse Users Group Training & Networking Conference to be held in Las Vegas on September 19 & 20.  There are tracks for purchasing, inventory, product life-cycle & dead stock, warehouse management, PDW, pricing in addition to user & management topics.  This event will be unique to Insights in that it will only be attended by Eclipse users.  Click here to see the flyer for complete info.  

Opportunities to Contribute

Also, don't forget that we're paying you to share your expertise with the Eclipse Users Group membership in the monthly newsletter.  If you have a tip or process to share, send a summary to Mary at edufo@eclipseuser.com to be reviewed and scheduled.  When your completed article is used in the newsletter, we send you a $50 gift card for your contribution.  It's just our way of saying thank you.

We have over 58 attendees registered for the Las Vegas Training and Networking Conference which is a great start, but not all of you have made your hotel reservations.

You need to make your reservations right away because we only have a set number of rooms in the current block. We do have the ability to add rooms however, we need to do that as quickly as possible before someone else takes them.

New

B&S Electric Supply, Atlanta, GA

Denney Electric Supply, Ambler, PA

Johnstone Supply #53, JR Balsan, Downingtown, PA

Schumacher & Seiler, Timonium, MD

Returning

Power & Bolt, Ft Myers, FL

Sonepar, Philadelphia, PA