So, you ask: "What happened with all those great ideas generated at the Advertising Forum in May of 2008?" (Previously reported in the June 2008 eVantage) I'm glad you asked!  Here is a summary by release.

• 2009r1   In this first release of the year, ADM's financial accounting feature was converted to use account mappings.
• 2009r2   This release provides a new ADMDAT workspace and simplifies the order database for reporting.
• 2009r3   ADM's Short-rate/Rebate feature is added to the ADMDAT workspace in this release.

Certainly the star of the show is the ADMDAT workspace, which replaces six screens that contained over 100 different functions – one screen alone had 41 different functions.  This "new-style" screen allows you to do all your Advertising work in one area.  The A/R view from customer service (SVCDAT) was also included so that you can look up that information in the same workspace.

The Data Entry Script feature was incorporated so that you can control how you want to use the many data elements involved with an Advertising order.  You can create as many scripts as you want – each prompting for the data elements appropriate for the transactions you are working on.  This is particularly helpful with the production data elements, which are numerous and used in different ways by each client.

Several new features were added along the way.

• Ad Rate – As you enter an order, you can access the Ad Rates limited by what you know about the ad the customer wants to place – enter ‘1/2' in the size field and then get a list of all the half-page ad rates, for example.  Select one, and it pops in the applicable codes to identify that ad.
• Searches – For Ad Orders and Ad Insertions a customer-search style search capability was added.  Nine of the major look-up fields can be filled in and you get a list of transactions that satisfy your criteria.  Click on one to "select" that advertiser/agency/contract.
• Tabbed views – Like SVCDAT/PRO and SVCDAT/CIR, ADMDAT allows you to much more quickly access information about an Advertising order.
• Insertions – Insertions are like order-lines for Product Order – an advertising order can have multiple insertions.  A new view was provided focusing on insertions.  This view allows you to quickly get a list of the ads you want – who is running covers for the rest of the year, for example.  The list-frame approach allows you to quickly select those and paste them into a spreadsheet.

Many thanks to the clients that have been with us along the way.  Your feedback on the design document, development schedule and WebEx views of ADMDAT as it began to take shape were invaluable.  Special thanks to the folks at Kalmbach Publishing who are in the midst of an upgrade to 2009r2 as this is being written.  The upgrade has been much more exciting for the Advertising team, to say the least.

Do you have Advertising transactions?  Consider getting a demonstration of the new and improved Advertising module.

Later this month, Corey Mantel will be presenting a no-cost demo on the new Customer Service Notes Management enhancements.  This feature provides an alternative means of "working" customer service notes through a new note activity workspace.  A supervisor workspace has also been made available to allow organization of customer notes into folders, which allow for folder-specific rules to be defined.  Registration will be opening soon. 

The second "multi-session webinar" of the year is already under way.  Daryl Vautour is presenting the second of a two-part webinar on "Data Entry Scripting: Setup and Order Entry" May 15th.  The first session was on May 13th.  These multi-session webinars offer a more in-depth training avenue.  We're also including a quiz and/or exercises to refine the skills learned in the multi-session webinars. 

To see the latest listing of available webinars, and to register, visit the Advantage Webinar page.