françaisSeptember-October 2010
Major Project Goes Live at Our Sunday Visitor
The Publishing division at Our Sunday Visitor (OSV) has been happily using Advantage for many years and the Curriculum division was brought online in 4th quarter of 2009 with a successful implementation. The remaining division, Offertory Solutions, recently went live on Advantage after an extensive development and implementation project. Offertory Solutions primarily prints and sells offering envelopes to churches, and although there are some features in common with magazine and book sales, the vast majority of the functionality is unique and required development.
The new system replaces several other outdated systems, as OSV was looking to advance their technology both in the office and on the production floor. As of July 19th, all of OSV--the Publishing, Curriculum and Offertory Solutions divisions--use Advantage for their business applications.
ACS Welcomes New Employee: Rob Elliott
We are pleased to welcomeRob Elliott, who joins ACS as a programmer in the Product Development group led by Howie Brooks. Rob is a graduate of the University of Michigan: Dearborn, where he earned a degree in Computer and Information Science (CISI). Rob grew up in Holly, Michigan, where he wrestled, ran Cross Country, and was a vital member of the Quiz Bowl team. Rob has four much older siblings, so was raised essentially an only child, with strong logical influence from his father.
Welcome to ACS: Sean Leslie
We are pleased to welcome Sean Leslie, who joins ACS as a programmer in the Product Development group led by Howie Brooks. Sean is a recent graduate of Florida International University in Miami, Florida, and earned a degree in computer science there. Sean has always been interested in computers, although his early interest was focused on playing games on them (something he still likes to do).
NEW! Modifications Posted on Message Board
Have you ever looked at a new feature in Advantage and thought to yourself "Oh, I wish they had just done this one little additional piece?" We have heard this enough times that we are trying something new. Effective immediately, ACS is posting descriptions of modifications that have been approved for development on the Advantage User Community Message Board at the Support website.
What does this mean to you? Well, now you will be able to read about coming features while they are still in development (actually the posting will be before programming). Look them over and get in touch with us if you have any suggestions that you think would improve the feature. Or maybe you would want to have some functionality added on to a modification. Contact Tim Martin of the ACS Modifications Team with any input, advice or requests along these lines.
Bob Gray: The Voice of Experience
Bob Gray has the distinction of having more years of seniority at ACS than the company has been in business. That’s because Bob was working at one of the firms that merged to become T & B Computing (the original name of ACS) and was allowed to count his years of service there when T & B Computing was formed.
In his 30+ years here, Bob has witnessed remarkable changes in operating systems, programming languages and software technology. When he first began his career in computing, he programmed in Fortran for a mainframe computer, even using card decks on occasion, and had to debug using core dumps (or hex dumps). Access to the computer was through shared terminals in a terminal room, where they were connected via phone modems running 300 baud. Reports and data were printed out on green-bar paper.
By the time T & B was formed, the programmers got desktop terminals, which was a huge deal, Bob recalls. From mainframes, he went to Prime mini-computers and was involved in writing the General Mailing System, which was the forerunner of today’s circulation functionality. Over the years, the software was ported from Prime to VAX VMS, to UNIX and then to Windows.
Highlights of 2010R3
Here are some of the new features you will receive with the 10R3 release of Advantage, which is scheduled for release in October. Click on "Read More" for more information.
- Additional flexibility for Access Management and Billing discounting
- Free days on AMB agreements
- Modification push-button at SVCDAT/CIR
- Default Coupon in promotion options setup
- City name a direct search field at SVCDAT
- Specify a call-bak time on a customer note
- Call list component for AMB now in Telesales
How to Enter Product Returns Easily
By Molly Mathe
Typically, Advantage product returns are entered at MSTDAT/FST, using an order type of "C". There are numerous methods of entering the return, including specifying the invoice number only, specifying the item number only, etc. The steps for entering the return in these different scenarios vary slightly. As of 2009R1, users can enter applied returns at SVCDAT/PRO (or MSTDAT/PRO).
Locating the order at SVCDAT/PRO
Users locate the order at SVCDAT/PRO using normal search methods:
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Bill-to Customer
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Order Number
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Control Group
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Status (although only posted orders can have returns entered against them)
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PO Number
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Ship-to Customer
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Docket Number
All About the Advantage Support Center
Here to serve you, the Advantage Support Center is always available to provide assistance. The center is staffed during normal coverage hours (8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, excluding holidays). In addition, after-hours support is easily accessible outside these hours.
Access methods and contact information are listed below.
Normal Coverage Hours Support
During normal coverage hours, support issues may be reported to the Support Center via any of these three methods:
Telephone:
Call the Support Center hotline at (734) 327-2340 and your call will be routed to a Support Center analyst or the Support Center Manager.
Webpage:
Support issues may be logged at the ACS website: www.advantagecs.com .
Use the "Open New Service Request" link on the "Support Login" page to initiate a request. (Note: the maximum size of an attachment is 4MB.)
Email:
Send email to SUPPORTatadvantagecs.com
The support inbox is monitored by Support Center staff during normal coverage hours. An analyst will log a request (CSL) and contact you. For tasks requiring immediate attention, include the word "URGENT" in the subject line. For tasks needed by a specific date, include the phrase "NEED BY" followed by the date.
Advantage Alerts
By Angie Markel
When maintaining office records in Advantage, CDSCMP/OFF creates a new version of the office each time it is added or changed. Older versions have a status of "O".
You also use CDSCMP/OFF to define the jurisdictions in which a business unit is subject to tax. You identify states, provinces, or countries where a business unit is taxable at the second and third tabs of the Office Maintenance dialog box at CDSCMP/OFF.
Be careful when maintaining your office setup, however, because deleting an obsolete version of an office record will also delete all corresponding taxation setup.
You can find more information on this issue by reading Alert 262055.
You can review other alerts that affect your Advantage revision by logging into the ACS support website and using the Knowledge Base links at the left. Note that critical alerts are emailed directly to your inbox.
