Alternates

Well-- been a while since anyone posted here - lets bring this back to life

Alternates --HOW MANY can you list -- well - at first glance it would seem you can only post ONE part -- but if you post more in alternates --you will see a SCROLL BAR appear and you can scroll down to see the extra's -- better than nothing

Now - how do you handle multi-store alternates - so you don;t have to type in duplicate info...

guess how many sku;s you have in your file ?

Mike Washington told me they where floored when they had well in excess of TWO MILLION sku;s in their Exploris. They found this out when they where moving the data to their new Eagle system

I was just told by Bob Miller that he tried to dump all sku;s with just the mvt code data ...so I could have a look. After 24 hours it jammed at 730,000 and was only 1/3 of the way thru .... OMG .... the issue of only having one data base without a slush file to hold the rest of the sku;s ( Like J-Con does with their Part Source file ) has to be an issue that has to addressed at some point (sooner please )

How many sku's ( part numbers ) do you have in your exploris ?

Should EXPLORIS have a SLUSH FILE ??

What is a slush file --- well in J-Con it was called the Parts Source file that we got a copy of monthly. A SLUSH FILE is a big file of all parts available that on MIGHT sell - so you have pricing and the counter staff find it seamless to sell - they don't recognize the data is not in the normal system.

EXPLORIS has no such slush file -- that means a couple of things -- your active files will become HUGE. When the Washington's moved from EXPLORIS to EAGLE they found out they had more than 2,000,000 - yeh -- two million parts in their file in Exploris. And since we are asking how you DELETE parts from Exploris -- we have an interesting situation that will become messy in a few years.

Ian from Alliston wants to point out that if you see a part that is NOT in your system - your Exploris will NOT go negative ...so when your incoming paperwork arrives --you system will ADD ONE once it adds the part number and you count will be wrong ... ouch. On top of that Ian feels the tracking is not up to J-Con standards to make things simple to see where an error occurred.

Some computer systems allow users to MODIFY their slush files ( we have experience with ACS computer ) -- so you could add X lines to your slush file --want to add FRAM filters -- why would you want to add every part number to your active files --add to the slush file and pull out IF and WHEN you have a sale. This is very handy for secondary lines - so in the example of Fram - you stock CARQUEST but that once in a while you need fram * for whatever reason) - you have all the data in your system and the staff make an easy sale without having to know prices and markup logic. Of course you have to maintain the data -- so you have to know how to use Excel and apply markup logic to their price updates ... but having first hand experience doing this for many secondary lines from 1996 thru 2003 - it can be done - easier if you have a couple of stores or large sales volume (to cost justify the job).

Tip from Brandon - selling Cores to fellow Jobbers

This was posted on the CARQUEST Jobbers message board *** click here for forum main page - you must REGISTER to see this post ***

Brandon let us copy for other CQ Jobbers to share on Exploris .... thanks Brandon

Backstory...
Here in my area we have a few friendly CQ stores that we deal with when we're out of stock or looking for a item that we wouldn't think of stocking, but they may have a niche market for.

It was brought to my attention after a few months of running exploris that we had been charging a mark up on our cores (only lines DSA, CAL, and REB). I found this surprising since it was explained to our BT that installed our Exploris system that we trade items back and forth between these stores and we do not want any markup on the items. I was feeling lazy last night so I decided to use the BT help line, talked to a tech, he said he'd get back to me about how to find a solution to the core mark up. I got bored of waiting so I proceeded to try to find a solution to the problem myself. Needless to say it took a good 2 hours for him to get back to me, by that time the solution was already discovered by myself, the tech fixed it remotely (and wrong might I add) so I had to fix it again.

At any rate, if you have a friendly store that you trade back and forth you should check the billing of your cores, to do this it's quite simple (Not needing 2 hours to figure out the problem). Go to your F4 screen, type in the customer, on the bottom left hand corner there is a button named PRICE PLANS click on that. On the left side of the screen, fourth item down, there is a heading CHARGE CORE, on the drop down menu this should read CORE COST. Ours was set to the default of CORE PRICE which is incorrect (mark up), the BT line set it to NO CHARGE, which means we'd be losing money. Take a look to see if it's set correctly. And if it's not, have fun crediting back your days profits for cores sold in the last year or so.

Brandon

how to dump pricing plans to Excel ...

On a recent Ontario Jobber change group conference call it was mentioned that you CAN NOT dump your pricing plans to get the data... then a day latter I was talking with Mike Washington from Ohio ( Mike is a smart guy who tinkers to see how everything works to try to make it better ) and he mentioned in an unrelated point how you CAN dump the data .... hmmm .... do Cdn jobbers not try things ... ??

Anyways = see image - her are the steps
1) click Customer Pricing button
2) pricing mode -- to GROUP
3) group plan --to the one you want ....
Mike comments that when you export thru Crystal Reports to Excel -to make sure you sue 'excel data' as option ...this is something that you have to work with and get better

Here is link to the Exploris message board - there you can ask & answer questions on this thread topic

This does not answer WHY --just that fact that you can do it ... This applies to non-JV stores only

GP ERROR ON PN CODE REPORT

Talk to Exploris on this and they say it is the wrong calculation. And here I thought I was getting rich. No scheduled release to fix the problem.

OH WHERE, OH WHERE HAS MY 8.18 GONE

Just can't believe Im walking blind to all of my weblink customers. In J-con we had a report called 8.18 that you could access anytime to see what your customers were doing/hits/Po's etc. Exploris does not have this function and from what I hear there is no future release with it. Now I have to depend on CQ to get me the reports from data warehouse, which is very slow. Well I just got a report yesturday showing that some people have been abusing it for four months, this is unacceptable!!!!! CAULK ONE UP FOR J-CON!!!!!!!!

SOME IMAGES FOR INV MASS UPDATE

If anybody as done forecasting that was not aware of the DNR bug, then I would do this for all lines. It takes about 10 minutes and it may seem that your computer is locking up but just let it run and go grab a coffee. But beware this tool can be very Dangerous and you can never go back SO BE CAREFUL!!!!

A MUST KNOW ABOUT EXPLORIS FORECASTING

If anybody uses Exploris forecasting you need to know that any of these non-sku part numbers highlighted in red are added to your system through forecasting it will NOT take the DNR flag of the part. There is a way to remove all the flags to a line or multiple lines all at once by using INV MASS UPDATE which Ian as mentioned on Dec 15th. Makesure if any AE's are doing your forcasting that they are aware of this because I would bet many are not.

WHY WAREHOUSE SALES DATA IS IMPORTANT

Well about a month ago I might of put these number into my inventory, but as you can see it is bad data because the warehouse hasn't sold any. This raises another question, Why is the part number data wrong? I find any part in exploris that has a PN code .0 is like this. And they say why do we need warehouse sales data?

======= note -- updated by Greg ========
Hi It is 1-8-09 and Bob is on his way to London (yeh - that London ) for 10 days - I do not know if he had a chance to figure out the reply from Mike Deal ... but here is Mike's reply ..... I don't understand it ...it does seem to say that we will TRY to get the caliper but the warehouse won't have it -- so we just make a bit more work for everyone ...

--reply follows ---
I can "sort of" help with this. These 2 caliper numbers were marked for deletion in our Adis system, which means they were discontinued by our
supplier and our Product Manager placed an X in our status field. The X means delete this part number from our system on the next purge. The
problem is a part is NOT supposed to be marked for deletion before the movement code is changed to 0 because the Progress Database stops updating
all numbers marked for deletion. The movement code was 4 when these numbers were marked for deletion, but changed to movement code 0 later. Since
Progress stopped updating these numbers, Exploris still thinks that they are movement code 4.

Mike Deal
Director - Classification
General Parts International / CARQUEST

====== note -- updated by Greg -- after talking with Mike Deal ========

Ok --think I have it now -- there are steps and if a step get done out of order we get the above problem
1) part is identified as 'going to be obsolete'
2) part mvt code must be set to ZERO first
3) then the column can be set to X for delete part (probably after all stock gone)

Here the X was marked before the mvt code was set to zero - and this will cause problems for EXPLORIS users -- as the new data base .. called the Progress Data Base is==will not update ... this is NOT a problem for J-Con users as J-Con is updated from ADIS -- not this new data base ( Progress Data Base).

It does hi-light the complexity of the issues and reinforce the need for GROUP meetings to solve problems

I run into many examples in Canada of the part NOT having a ZERO movement code -- when it is a obsolete part .... For example since we in our 3 stores dump all data into excel --we don't use the product recall sheets --we just sort all parts to see what matches -- this is how we know some parts are NOT moved to mvt code 0. This will; have to be solved ... or annoy BOTH the Exploris users and the WAREHOUSE as these parts will try to order and the warehouse won't have them...

I was just told how to fix a setting problem like the one we had for ecc. I had in several part numbers the display item flagged ( this then produces price stickers for that part number) , many of which should not have been flagged. You can do a mass update to remove that flag. You need to be careful as this tool could create some havoc in your system if used incorrectly. To remove the flag go to invoice, then to part utility, to inventory mass update. This goes to a new screen, enter your line code, click on the first number bean ( then choose the top number, as this is the first number in the file), click on the last number bean ( choose the top number it is the last part number in the file). On the right hand side there is a bean that says update or if you click on it changes to " clear mode". Click on clear mode, check off the do not display box, then click on the update button. The system will ask if you want to update this file, click OK, spacebar and you are done

the BET is on

there is a $10 ( US funds too boot ) bet on with Normand (head of IT in Canada ) and Greg H --that the J-Con f-9 type warehouse sales will NOT be in Exploris by Dec 31,2008

Greg thought this was a pretty safe bet when made at the London Owners Meeting recently --any side bets ?

************* L A T E B R E A K I N G ****************

damm -I lost the bet -- money has been paid ...knew I should bet on the billing schedule "gross profit' program -that was delayed until 1st qtr of 2009 .... so if you see busy Jobbers -it is because they have to do SO MUCH work to adjust pricing plans in Exploris ( and it still is so easy in J-Con )

I have just created a new line item and found that updating prices by the gp, to be very easy, and quick. It is not necessary to workout all your prices. Just make sure that you are consitent in the price that you are going to use as your base. Go to menu, then to invoice/ part utility/ price%. The screen will come up , you choose whether you want to adjust by % or GP. Choose the price levels you wish to adjust, next column put in the price field you wish to create you prices from ( ie: field 6), next column choose your gp % that you want. Check the preview button to see what it looks like. If everything looks ok, check the write to database box, update and your prices are set. You can check preview to make sure you like it. If not, do the process again

error on 47

Bob Miller is telling me that trying to do a X line PO creates an error on 'des not meet criteria'

How many more errors are there ( hint - other guys )

does it hurt when you post ?

You might think it costs money to post - we have a handful of jobbers et to post here - but they find it easier to exchange e-mails with a smaller group,

Some times these issues need to be said for all to see,...

Come on Bob & Ian -- post these issues

missing Warehouse sales =-- is a BIG THING

Just wrote yet another e-mail to Rick Young & Joe Zucchero pointing out their stubborn refusal to show warehouse sales in EXPLORIS hurts jobbers.

Background --in J-Con you can see warehouse sales in F-9 screen from point of sale -it is handy to make single product decisions on to stock or not ( and could be useful in other ways if data was to be included on reports - but save that for another day)

The image here ( click to enlarge ) is a part that Bob Miller brought to my attention -- Bob writes some things for the blog and has been on Exploris for some time. Bob was promised that v46 would have warehouse sales ... there must be someone with a growing nose with all these lies aka Pinocchio

The part is shown as being a mvt code 2 - clearly it is wrong -- but we ONLY KNOW this since as an OLDER J-CON user we have access to the warehouse data that is part of Activant's Parts Source monthly CD. We have spotted similar mistakes and the class guys at Ralieghh get them corrected quickly ... but is we can;t correct-then stores will add the WRONG PARTS --and 6 or 9 or 12 months latter want to return them ... who wins then ...?

Give us the warehouse sales in Exploris ( and on Eagle, too )

Double Post stock order

Who has exact details on the day in Aug where the stock orders DOUBLE POSTED. The resulting chaos in your inventory counts has to be EXTREME

Why was there so poor feedback on what caused this HUGE mistake and how it will never happen again ( one would hope )

How good is your on hand count?

Source - Roger - Timmins ON

Multi-store address book ??

While we wait for the Multi-Store parts of Exploris one question asked today from Mike is 'how do you share contact info for suppliers with all staff in all stores??"

IF you have a good solution - and would like to see it posted here -- drop a line to info 'at' dtauto dot ca (written this way to avoid spammers.

One way we have used with moderate success is to get a FREE account in Plaxo ( www.plaxo.com ). Pick a user name and a password that you will have to SHARE with all stores.

Click on the attached image to see a sample layout

Hints - we try to use WORK and not Home for the address and phone #'s
- we do NOT use a personal name - just the company it seems to sort better - if you need the rep's name -- add it to the address and in the NOTES tag - where we add other info like prepaid levels and any other special details

One downside is that Plaxo keeps changing and adding features - we don't use these features. If you add personal names it will try to have to LINK to a buddy list ( that is too personal - just need the facts )

The J-Con had NOTHING to help multi-stores prepare list of vendors ... in fact you can't even standardize the vendor number in J-Con as they use a 'first in' for vendor numbers. We would expect Exploris to allow multi-store to set VENDOR NUMBERS to make it easier for those re-order PO's to be run and reviewed.

What do you use for multi-store supplier data ??? care to share ... ??

Avoiding the obvious - letting users help users ....

Senior management at GPI have steadfastly ignored the obvious - the POWER of message boards ( sometime called discussion boards or forum ).

A token attempt had 20 users from Exploris user advisory council try ... 20 is not large enough. That was dismal

Take World Pac ... the single lonely ( and almost totally un-noticed board for the next gen e-cat ) is available at the bottom of speedDIAL main page. Then compare that to the message boards at the 'garage' user for Worldpac - truly a dynamic board with TONS of activity ( you need a non-CARQUEST account to see these message boards )

Click on images to see difference

Message boards allow users to ask questions and help one another ...oh ...yeh ...there is some bitching that goes on ...but once you have a healthy environment the bitching simmers down and the work gets underway. If you don't try any message boards --you owe it to yourself to pick a passion or hobby and seek out a message board on the topic -( hint -- try travel or cars ). Just google it.

Once better --if you have computer problems - lots of great message boards. Note --there is an etiquette for new users to follow - first you 'lurk' --or just look and pick up on the tone of the group. One big 'faux pas' is to TYPE WITH ALL CAPITALS ... users will think you are SHOUTING.

Imagine a forum for power users to really get good - or a separate forum for new users to learn faster?

OK Bloggers --how do you do this ?

See the J-CON blog --links on the side to see how you can get the defective ratio for all customers ...so how do you do this in EXPLORIS ??

More data is at CQ Change article on defect ratio's Our regular staff blog