In consultation with Eclipse Product Development, the Enhancement Committee has made some changes to the Ideas Site.  First, for all members that are using the Job Management Companion product, we now have a NEW Ideas Community for you to record your enhancements.  As Job Management does not fit neatly into any other category, we decided to make a new one! 

Second, we all know that mobile is the future for all of us so Eclipse is very active in updating the Eclipse Mobile Companion product.  Historically, we have not had much activity in the E-Commerce Community so we are combining both into one.  On the Ideas Site, you will now find the Eclipse Mobile & E-Commerce Community.  Please direct all your Eclipse Mobile enhancements to that community!

As always, don't forget to VOTE!

Enhancement Spotlight - just select the community and search for the subject to vote.

Order Entry Community:  Display Contact Email in Header of SOE

On the Header tab in SOE and POE there is a Phone field, but no Email field. Email is just as often used for communication as the phone is in our business.  Without the Email field displayed, how do you know if you have a customer or contact's email address? It takes many clicks to get to that information. If this field were on the header you could ask for an email address while still on the phone with a contact that has not yet provided one.

If the customer has an email address, we would want the field populated from the email field in Customer Maintenance. We have the Ordered By field validated against customer contacts, so after choosing a contact we would want the Email field populated by the email address as saved in Contact Maintenance, just as the Phone field is filled by the contacts phone number.

Finally, to make it easier to save the information where it belongs, perhaps if you enter an email address in this field in SOE it would be saved to the entity, or if you validate the Ordered By field against contacts in your system then the email address would be saved to the Ordered By contact.

 Systems & Utilities Community: Call Tracking Update Utility

Some of the best customer service experiences are those during which the person you are speaking with knows how to quickly find information, even with very little to go on. You can provide more of these great experiences to your customers by learning how to find a bid, order, or invoice when the customer has limited information. The following tips will help you to find a bid or order when all you know is the customer and part number, or find an invoice when all you know is the customer and a general idea about the part number, or just have the invoice total.

C)  If you don't see the part, click on the customer's Name in the widget - this will create a new Bid

D)  On the Sales Order Entry window, enter Qty of 1 and tab to the Product Description field.

E)  Enter the part number that you are looking for 

F)  While on the line item right click and select Inquiries>Future Ledger, or in Eterm do Alt+Q then Alt+F. The Future Ledger shows FUTURE shipments. The default view shows purchase orders that have not been received, and sales orders that have not shipped.

G)  Make sure the Branch matches the customer's branch

H)  Change the Show Only field from ALL to Bids (Alt+S in Eterm), then hit Enter to select All in the next window. Now you can see all open bids for the part.  Find your customer in the list and double-click on the Bid Number (Alt+V in Eterm) to open the bid. If you can't find a Bid for your customer and the part, close the Future Ledger window.

I)  Maybe the part you are looking for has already shipped. Go to Inquiry>History Ledger, or in Eterm Alt+H from the Sales Order Inquiries screen.

The Inventory History Ledger shows receipts and shipments of the product over time.

J)  To limit the results to just your customer, enter the customer name in the Entity field. If you know your customer's account number, you can enter that here starting with a period. 

How often do we get those calls where the customer doesn't know the exact part number- just that they bought it from us before?

A)  From the Main Eclipse Menu Bar select Orders>Inquiries>Customer Inventory History Ledger

B)  At the top of this window you can select the customer, then click the Update button

a)  The list that results shows all invoiced releases for the customer.  To filter the list by part number go to Selection>Select Criteria (Alt+S in Eterm)

b)   In the Select Pattern field enter a term to search for that might appear in the Product Description, for instance RED LED

c)   After clicking OK the list is reduced to items that have 'RED LED' in the Description

 3)  CUSTOMER AND AN INVOICE TOTAL 

Customers who paid with a credit card may not receive an invoice for the transaction, and will call to get one. All they have is the amount that was charged to their credit card and the date. 

A)  From the main menu, go to A/R>A/R Ledger. If you don't have the A/R menu in your main menu, start a new sales order for the customer, then on the Body tab go to Inquiries>A/R Ledger (in Eterm Alt+Q then Alt+R)

B)  Go to Selection>Select Criteria.(Alt+S in Eterm). Here you can specify a date range, a dollar range, a PO number, etc. to filter the view. 

Because Thrive's award winning system will generate unprecedented measurable efficiencies in your inventory purchasing process.

Specifically, Thrive will add 5 points to your profit margin, transform your inventory buying process from a labor intensive subjective process to a strategic streamlined intelligence based workflow, and permanently strengthen your company's operations giving you an edge over your competitors.

So how does the Thrive system do all this?

Most distribution companies don't measure their forecast accuracy, but our experience has been that the forecast accuracy in Eclipse and other ERP systems is typically less than 50%.  No wonder companies constantly struggle with the double whammy of out of stocks and dead stock!

Thrive's patent pending forecast engine significantly increases forecast accuracy to 90% or more, so you have the products your customers want to buy in stock, and not the ones that no one is buying.

A large automotive distributor reduced lost sales by 70% using Thrive's demand forecasting to supplement their existing ERP and replenishment system.  With Thrive's 95% forecast accuracy, this company eliminated the buildup of dead stock due to normal replenishment.  Reducing lost sales and dead stock generated a measurable 5% improvement in profit margin.

 

2.  PROACTIVE INVENTORY INTELLIGENCE

 

Thrive transforms typical inventory buying from a reactive subjective process into an intelligent proactive workflow based on strategic goals.  Our experienced replenishment consultants start our structured implementations by understanding our clients' strategic goals so that we can set the parameters in the software to support those goals.

  

For example, we set the software up one way if a company wants to maximize profits (which will strategically allow some items to stock out).  And we will set it up another way if a company wants to maximize service level (which increases the amount of inventory that must be carried).  Either way, we provide the projected dollar impact of the settings so the client can make intelligent educated decisions on their strategic inventory policies.

  

Once the system is configured to align with the company's strategic goals, the buyers get trained on the new exception based workflow in Thrive which alerts buyers to issues before they occur, and creates optimal order quantities that become purchase orders and transfer orders.

Thrive is designed specifically to support the distribution buying process.  It automatically pulls data from Eclipse, gets latest inventory balances, open PO's, etc.  Then it guides the buyers through the various buying decisions they make on a daily basis such as optimal deal buying from vendors, automatic buying to pricing tiers, overstock transfers, new item supercedes, buying to vendor minimums and filling out trucks / containers.

  

Thrive provides the buyers and senior management with visibility to projected forecasts, inventory balances and purchases so everyone is better equipped for planning purposes, and issues can be proactively addressed before they occur.

  

3.  PERMANENT STRENGTHENING OF YOUR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

 

Once the inventory purchasing process has changed to Thrive's optimal buying workflow, the benefits continue to strengthen your company's competitive advantage.  Senior management will have the ability to modify future inventory levels by easily changing the inventory policy in Thrive.  If you service large clients, Thrive will analyze your inventory cost and profitability for each key customer and provide accurate projections by customer.

 Thrive generates analytics and provides high level simulation capability.  For example, managers can simulate warehouse additions or subtractions and impact on inventory levels.

 

Ongoing financial benefits that Thrive provides include improvement of service levels by 5 to 10 points, increase on inventory turns by 20%, reduction of your interest costs and cash flow / credit line requirement.