Spring can’t come soon enough in Michigan, but webinars are already in full-bloom.  In fact, we’ve already kicked off the season with a free webinar of the 2010R1 New Features, presented by Mona Hidayet.

Just around the corner, on March 10^th, Philippe Rowland will be presenting an overview of the WEB module interface. He’ll discuss how the module components, capsules, and methods work together in Advantage.

A popular topic from last year is back. A multi-series webinar on ARP Reconciliation will be presented by Bob Thornton on March 17^th and 19^th. In this webinar, Bob will cover how order and payment transactions travel through the system from data entry to the general ledger, along with running a trial balance for A/R and how to tie-out.  Don’t miss out on this two-session webinar!

April webinars are also available for registration:

April 6^th – Email Addresses in Advantage; e-mail address functionality in Advantage, and the setup and maintenance of e-mail addresses.

April 29^th – GL Mapping Setup; demonstrates mapping setup and the financial control structure.

Visit the webinar registration page today to register and guarantee your spot.  Contact me, Doug Moore, if you have further questions or suggestions for future webinars.

It's Access Management and Billing (AMB) month! We've packed October full of sessions geared to give you the latest information on the most popular module of late. Using the AMB functionality, Advantage manages orders and access for all types of digital media, from your online newsletter to content databases.

October 15th and 22nd, Corey Mantel and Phil Montgomery will be demonstrating the AMB module. These are FREE sessions… don't miss out!

Later this month, John Sheehy will be providing in-depth training; "Administering the AMB module" on October 27th and "AMB Data Entry and Customer Service" on October 29th.

You can register online or contact Doug Moore to reserve your spot.

ACS is offering two multi-session webinars in late September.  Each webinar will consist of two different sessions, with an exercise or quiz to be completed after the first session in preparation for the second.

On September 21st and 23rd, Mike McCarren will provide information about setting up and maintaining Customer Service responses; both via E-mail and Mail Merge.  This was a popular topic last year.  Don’t miss out!

On the heels of this training session, Daryl Vautour will provide some in-depth training on reviewing process logs (proclogs).  He’ll also cover some techniques used to better review and handle nightly processing.  These sessions will be presented on September 30th and October 2nd.
Reserve your spot at the webinar registration page.

Spring into Advantage Webinars!

The April webinar series is well under way. On Tuesday, April 14th, Mike Miklosovic presented a webinar on "Reports and Jobstreams in CDSREQ".

Next on the agenda is a webinar on Wednesday, April 22nd presented by Eric Burbeck that will guide you in "Maintaining a Clean Advantage System". You will learn how to evaluate disk usage, reduce file redundancy, and effectively run the CDSCLN process. See the outline below or visit the Advantage webinar page for additional information.

CDSCLN: Maintaining a Clean Advantage System
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM on April 22, 2009

Defining a 'clean' Advantage system

• Determine which files are needed on a regular basis

• Determine which files are not needed

• Evaluate disk usage

• Reduce file redundancy

• Establish/review retention policies

Preparing to run the CDSCLN process

• Set system options for CDSCLN

• Report-only processing

Running the CDSCLN process

• Review the results

• Schedule the CDSCLN process

Hurry and you might still be able to catch the webinar on Encryption and Decryption of Credit Cards at 11:00 a.m. EST on March 17. Having a good understanding of this functionality is vital to maintaining compliance and providing proper organization of credit card data in Advantage. Philippe Rowland will be presenting on this topic. If you are interested in this topic but missed this time period, please contact Doug Moore.

SQL Reporting Services with Advantage is another popular topic back again this year. On March 25th, Levi Hyssong will demonstrate how to develop reports, create report models, view reports online, export and distribute these reports, and much more. He will be demonstrate this through the use of SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio and SQL Server Reporting Services Report Manager. Don’t delay – this topic fills up fast!

For more information or to register, contact Doug Moore or visit the Webinar page on the client part of the ACS website, under the "Training" tab. You will need your company log-in and password.

The first webinar of 2009 will be a two-part session on ARP Reconciliation, led by Bob Thornton on February 17 and 19. Each session will start at 11:00 a.m. ET and last about an hour.

More of these multi-part webinars will be offered throughout the year in order to cover topics in greater depth. Details will be sent your way when they are available.

Next on the schedule is a FREE webinar presenting the New Features and Highlights from 8R1 to 9R1. This session will take place TWICE on February 26 and will be led by Mona Hidayet. The 11:00 a.m. ET session is already full, but there is still room to attend the 5:00 p.m. ET session.

For more information or to register, contact Doug Moore or visit the Webinar page on the client part of the ACS website, under the "Training" tab. You will need your company log-in and password.

We’ve got some great topics planned for ACS Webinars in 2009. Some are repeats of popular subjects from 2008, while others are new. A new wrinkle this year is that some more far-ranging subjects will be covered in successive hour-long webinars over two or three days.

The sales team will also offer half a dozen or so demos of new release highlights and other software features. As always, the sales demos have no charge.

The first event will take place in the first or second week of February, and the announcement and registration materials will be sent via E-mail by the end of January.
Here is a list of planned topics as of now, in no particular order. The list may change after discussion at the AUG meeting later this month. If you have suggestions and are not attending the AUG meeting, contact Ken Nemerovski.

• SQL Reporting Services with Advantage data
• Config Management - Config Rotation, Compile Procedures
• CDSREQ - Requesting Reports, Job Streams
• Encrypting and Decrypting Credit Cards
• Disaster Recovery
• Duplicate Consolidation
• PCI Compliance
• Online Credit Card Functionality
• MSTDAT/FST Scripting
• Using CDSCLN - keeping system clean
• User Group Security in Advantage
• CIR - Circulation Data Entry 2
• AMB - Access Management and Billing 2
• Reviewing Proclogs and handling Nightly Processing 2
• Customer Service Email Responses/Mail Merge (advanced scripting) 2
• Using CDSDWS 2
• Creating OLAP Cubes 3
• ARP Reconciliation 3

Please visit the Webinar page for further registration information.

We are excited to offer some fantastic Webinars over the next month. You still have time to sign up for a FREE webinar Friday, November 14th at 11:00 AM EST; Corey Mantel will be demonstrating the latest features available in the 2008R3 release.

Also, in December we are presenting Webinars on User Defined Reports, Inventory Management, and Advertising Order and Entry. Registration is open for these webinars.

Please visit the Webinar page for further registration information.

We are excited to provide two new Webinars in the month of October.

Come discover the ins and outs of the Customer Service module. It's a great way to freshen up on the latest features or to simply find some hidden tips and tricks. The "Order-Entry Processing Integrity Checks" Webinar will be presented by Mike McCarren on October 22nd.

Later in October, we'll provide you with some in-depth trouble-shooting information that might come in handy when working with the WEB module. We'll also explore the Capsule Workbench and how it can be used to develop your WEB or API interfaces. Doug Moore will present this webinar on October 29th.

Please visit the Webinar page for further registration information.

Calendar-based Pricing is the first of three webinars offered in September. Calendar pricing offers a way to price over a fixed time period (calendar-defined) regardless of the number of issues involved. We'll review this pricing method and how it differs from the other publication pricing options; how to set it up; and we'll run through a few examples of this pricing method in action.

Also in September will be: Handling Backorders in Advantage and SQL Backups with Advantage DB and a free demo of Donations in Advantage. Please visit the webinar registration page to reserve your spot.

• 9/16/2008
  Calendar-Based Pricing, Mike Miklosovic

• 9/24/2008
  Handling Backorder in Advantage, Molly Mathe

• 9/27/08
  Demo: Donations in Advantage, Mona Hidayet (Free)

• 9/30/2008
  SQL Backups with Advantage DB, Bill Pinard