Common Sense on E-Cat issues ???

GPI & CARQUEST are really complex corporations to run -- but sometimes they need to listen to Jobbers MORE and we could simplify issues where it counts --at the Point of Sale ...

Issue -- E-Cat -- why show a SUPERSEDED PART if that store does not have any!!! Example in the images shown --the GOLD series is gone --stop showing it --it only complicates the purchase decision .... or at least do a SORT and put the old data at the BOTTOM of the data --way at the bottom

Issue -- E-Cat -- when you add a new line --the tough decision is HOW LONG to keep the OLD DATA ... Greg Guyitt mentioned this issue a few weeks ago ( and we hope he wrote about it to Raleigh ) ... the new RDP one price red pads .... fine -- but trash the older data since we have done a COMPLETE SWAP ...look at this data - the older red pad in this case where cheaper - do we need to remind our customer of this ? It undermines the effort to drop the higher priced pads ..... DROP the Red in FRI data ... and clean up the buying purchase decision making.

HELP in making e-cat better at the counter and shop level --where it really counts .... hello ....hear us ......

Trivia - how to learn the small things ?

Click here to see a trivia item that can cause some confusion.

Want to make a list of items we need to know --and that could become part of 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire - CARQUEST Exploris ( Nexpart ) Version " ??

Question -- for $10,000 --- in MAIN PART ENTRY SCREEN - if you go to al the related screens linked at the bottom of the screen ( Part Pricing - Order/Cost - Part History - UPC Setup ) and look up a part - will it look up the part in the non-sku file if you don't stock it?

Answer .... see the link above ....

TIME to look for parts in EXLORIS

Staff complain on how SLOW Exploris ( nexpart by WHI ) can be. In this example we will look in a line that has approx 6400 sku's and see why the normal counterman finds the wait INTOLERABLE.

Also remember -- Exploris ( Nexpart _ doesn't allow us to delete any parts from the inventory file - won;'t that be interesting in 10 years !

Exploris ( Nexpart ) reports- why so bad ?

I appreciate CARQUEST is trying to LIMIT the requests to the top 20 fields to have ADDED to make a make shift universal report writer to cover for the many holes in existing reports within Exploris ( Nexpart ) .... but the fact still remains ... IF we can EDIT any filed in a data file -- we should have the ability to have that field on a report - FOR ALL RECORDS.

Example ( image should show Acct Class - Acct Group & Report Group

EXISTING -- you can run a REPORT with ONE of the above set as the filter ... but what you can NOT do is run ALL customers to look for the customers with an ERROR in the field --in this example we shown Acct Class as a 1 ...wait ...damm ...it is set as an I ( eye ) not a ONE ...damm .... how would you ever spot that without running all and sorting --by sorting the errors usually bubble to the top or bottom.

Look at the sloppy way that Exploris took the J-Con data for reporting groups - this example is '4-FARM &" - is there a space after the & -- or two spaces before ? How do we add new customers and keep the errors out - we need to see ALL customers and :
1) clean up this transitional mess from J-Con
2) look for new customers mis-applied ( or with BLANK data! !

While I see your push to add a select number of extra fields -- we can make the point that ANY field we edit -- needs to have a report for ALL entries --so we can sort for errors -- to just run that one field doesn't help us spot for errors in the field.

Video Training Test

this is posted on our staff blog .... Click here for staff blog article if oyu want to see more details

Trivia details that can kill us

A couple of unrelated facts - that seem to be a bit worrisome

Point - in April Toronto brought out a new competitive position sheet for eKeystone speed & Custom - we started asking when the prices in our system would get updated -- today I talked with a VP and was told they have to putt he data update in dribs and drabs -- they can't do it all at once ---so here we sit -- we have NO IDEA how much of the file in our system has been updated --this is Aug and the change happened in April. Our issue is -- if we have a request for a part # -our staff will believe the price the computer tells us to quote - but that could be wrong as they have gone to variable margins.

Point - we asked for a CFI price re-fresh ( see previous image of a CFI number with no price in store #3 ) --we were told by Raleigh that the CFI line was TOO BIG to refresh. In J-Con you could ask for as many refreshes as you wanted ... hmm ... more to this story than we are being told.

Love to know the real story on Exploris ( Nexpart )

Adding a MADE UP number in a non-X line

Hey --what are the chances that we need to MAKE UP a part number in a non-X line ? Slim to none ? The image shown here should WARN YOU about making up that part # ... jr. staff will think we are pulling from the non-sku table -- wrong --we are making this number.

So - eventually the part will be added the CORRECT way by the other stores -- and you will get the 2nd image one store has a blank part - the other 2 of our stores have the proper part # with data ( and with prices ! )

There is a time you need to make up a part # -- but staff should be warned that it is a part number that will-may never be maintained.

Like in the last post -- we need to make sure the non-active sku table is looked up -if the part is there --fine - pull it into the active table -- but if you CREATE a part for a CARQUEST line code - you are asking for trouble. You need to MAKE UP a part # for an X line - but rarely if ever do you make up a part for a CARQUEST LIne

How would you rate the Multi-Store Editor ???

The Multi-store editor - in Exploris ( WHI Nexpart ) is better than nothing - but is that saying much? Recently we requested a few bugs and gliches to be noted on a call list by the help desk
-if you update ANY FIELDl - you must click 'somewhere' else with your cursor or it will not update - or press 'enter' - and you will see the green box change to a slightly different shade of green ( not sure if I have seen that on any other screen in Exploris ( Nexpart ) ??
-the names for the history periods could NOT be more Cryptic ... if you saw PHist and LHist and Hist - what year might you think you had ?
-instead of wasting up to 36 boxes with individual sales history - how about an OPTION for just 3 - the SIMPLE way - give us YTD - Last Yr & 2 Yrs ago
-if you call a part # - and only some ( but not all of the stores ) have it -- the stores without it will be grey - and it will indicate it is ADDING the part - there is a BUG -and it doesn't pull pricing and other details - this has been confirmed as a bug and we wait for Nexpart WHI to add this to some future release. This explains how we can see parts without any prices ( see next blog post for a sample) *** Note -- we tried to duplicate this bug but the parts were added with pricing ? --needs more testing as to when this bug happens ***

This and lots of other screens show the clunky way Exploris ( Nexpart ) handles multi-store as of 2010. We can only hope it gets better - could it get any worse ? The image here is a YUGO --- Raleigh might call it a sports car ... but ....

Release 50.1 ( bug fixes )

The image shows the differences from the copy I grabbed from the USA side - to the one I grabbed today from the Cdn side. Someone obviously posted the JV ( Joint Venture) doc on the USA Independent side - but to have so many differences will make for some interesting reading

I wonder what the BEST fix in the release will be ? Bob from Walker Rd had mentioned tab stops - he will be happy to see that fixed - whereas almost no one in our 3 stores has ever used tab stops in the inventory screen --time for some background training. This is one more reason why we need small tips on a regular basis to remind us of features that we might not otherwise know is there.

More to follow