ADVANTAGE BLOG

Penton Media, formerly known as Intertec, just completed a comprehensive seven-month project that included an upgrade that took them from Advantage 7.0-0 to Advantage 2008r3. In addition to making an eight-year jump in Advantage revisions, the company consolidated the Penton Media Loveland, Colorado into the upgraded Overland Park, Kansas operation.  The two business units now co-exist in one happily united installation of Advantage at the Kansas location.  To make things even more exciting, the project also involved implementing two new modules, Conference and Event (CEM) and Access Management and Billing (AMB).  This involved several CIR to AMB conversions, some software modifications, and a complete rewrite of their web interface.  Additionally, Overland …

Smart Searches allow users to restrict the display of table entries to those of most interest to the user. Using the "Search For" field, you can enter a search string that would limit the display to only those entries that satisfy the string.  Using the "Search For" field There are different ways you can enter your search string, which will then result in different entries appearing: Entry of a string returns matches on the exact string (e.g., ZA will return all matches on that string). Entry of strings separated by spaces returns matches that satisfy all strings (e.g., Z(space) A will return all matches that contain both a Z and an A). Use of double quotes will perform an exact (literal) search on the string (e.g., "Z( …

Levi started his career at ACS as an intern in the customer service division (CSD).  He was working on his degree in computer science from the University of Michigan at that time, and although he enjoyed programming, he did not want to do that full-time.  He thought that the job in CSD might be better suited to his skills and abilities than an engineering position, and he was right.  As an intern, Levi worked in the Advantage Support Center, led by Ev Acton.  There, he began learning the software and becoming familiar with Advantage clients.  Upon graduation in the spring of 2007, he joined ACS full-time and moved to the Major Projects division under Tim Zapawa. Levi's primary job in Major Projects is managing implementations of Advantage for new clients.  Since …

Motor Information Systems, a Hearst Company, recently celebrated the successful launch of Crash Online?a database of repair estimate information on specific car models, which is used by collision shops to estimate repair costs. Previously, the data had been provided via quarterly print directories, which were time-consuming to update and costly to print and mail. Housing it online is much more efficient, and that is just the sort of application for which the Access Management and Billing (AMB) module of Advantage was created. MOTOR purchased the Advantage AMB module to handle the authentication of customers and manage billing and accounts receivable for the database customers. A large benefit of using AMB is its integration with the rest of the system. The …

This month, Customer Portrait presents Network Services Company, a division of ACP Magazines in Australia.  ACP joined the Advantage community in 2004. Network Services Company, a division of ACP Magazines, is Australia's leading distributor of quality publications providing both retail and subscriptions services to more than 100 Australian and International publishers including ACP Magazines. Some of ACP Magazines best known titles include the Australian Women's Weekly, Woman's Day, TV Week, Cleo, Cosmopolitan, Madison, Australian House & Garden, Gourmet Traveller, and Wheels. ACP Magazines is the magazine arm of leading Australian media and entertainment company, PBL Media. Network Services began looking for a Customer …

A coupon is a discount program you set up to offer a percentage or dollar discount on the order, based on certain parameters. You can allow use of the coupon based on such variables as the promotion code on the order line, the specific items ordered, the owning organization of the product ordered, etc. The discount is applied only to the "eligible" lines on the order (such discounts are spread proportionally across the eligible lines). In addition, you can set up a particular coupon to allow/disallow repeated uses by the same bill-to customer and access usage statistics for individual customers, as well as the general stats for a coupon "program"---number of uses, sales with and without the coupon discount, etc.CPNTBL/COU – Coupon SetupYou set up …

When it comes to Martha Krieg, the phrase "jack of all trades, master of none" needs a slight change. In her case, it's "jack of all trades, master of most." The skill set Martha brings to the table is remarkable and yet she is always eager to learn more. She delights in the opportunity to master something new. "Whether it involves tweaking renewal Invoice forms or working with System Upgrades over the years, Martha is thorough, conscientious, and keen on details," says Peter Loftus, of Standard Rate and Data Service (SRDS). "She is expedient in tackling problems and issues and she goes out of her way to make herself readily available. She has a great temperament and no job seems too big for Martha."Martha is a member of the Upgrades and IT department led by Ray Zick, …

Do you pay commissions to agents or sales reps? If so, you know how complicated it can be to compute commissions payments. Why not let Advantage do it for you? Advantage's Commissions Management (COM) module is integrated with the Circulation and Product Order modules, and allows you to automatically create commissions-due records for your sales representatives. These records can then be passed to an accounts payable system for the actual payout of the commissions. Using COM means that the payable commissions are calculated automatically, based on Advantage net order amounts. The Commissions Management module offers maximum flexibility for structuring your commissions. You determine how often a sales rep earns commissions, and at what rate. The rep can be paid a …