Ostendo Update Notes from 19 October 2007 – What’s New

Ostendo Update Notes from 19 October 2007 – What’s New

Discount Matrix (New Screen)

We have added a new screen (found in the Pricing Menu) for defining discounting rules to be used either in conjunction with price levels, or to be used as the sole means of calculating sell prices. The discounting rules apply to Items, Descriptors, Catalogue Codes & Labour Codes. Please refer to the reference help for more information on this new functionality.

Job Orders – Alter Mark-Up Percentages (New Screen)

We have added a new screen available from within the Job Lines tab for changing the Mark-up percentage for the entire Job, by Job Task, by Code Type or by Analysis Group. This screen also provides the ability to view the Existing and Revised Gross Profit by the various levels available. Please note that this will only be available if the Job Type has the Values Bar switched on, which is defined in Job Types screen.

Service Level Agreements in Call Centre

We have added the service level agreement logic into the Call Centre screen (If switched on in the CRM Rules screen). Previously we had added the ability to define Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) and their measures in the CRM Settings menu (A default SLA can be defined for the whole system – but a specific SLA’s can then be defined against each customer).

The concept is that you may wish to track and measure planned and actual responses to specific steps involved with that call (eg: Initial Follow-up & then the Resolution). Each step may have a planned response time (in Minutes, Hours or Days); the system then automatically determines the planned response Date & Time based on the Call Start Date & Time. In determining the planned response dates & times the Work Times (Defined in the General-Settings menu) and new Holiday dates are used. When entering the Actual Response Date & Time for each step – the system then back calculates the true time it took to respond.

Transferring CRM Contacts to Outlook

We have added the ability to transfer Contacts from the Contact screen directly to MS Outlook (A new button appears in the Contact screen). The idea is that you are able to filter the list of contacts (using the standard Filtering & Sorting capability) and then send the contacts in that filtered list.

Analysis View Mail Merge

We have added the ability to perform MS Word mail merging from within any Analysis view within Ostendo. For more information on how this works please refer to the reference help.

Exporting & Importing Reports & Views

We have added the ability to export & import specific reports and views from within the Report & View Developer. This means that if a report is developed in one database it can be exported (creates single output file which contains the queries and conditions) and then imported into a new database (if it is a report the report layout file also needs to be copied).

Customer Asset Hierarchy (New Screen)

We have added a new screen for defining Customer Asset Hierarchies (parent-child relationships between assets). We have also provided a tree view for displaying multiple levels of assets (this can also be found in the Customer Asset screen).

Desktop Dashboard Views

We have added the ability to define up to 4 independent dashboard type views (Analysis, Charts, Pivot Views) within the background of a users desktop. This is defined against each user in the ‘System Configuration-User Security & Options’ screen. Each quadrant can have its own auto-refresh rate (eg: You may wish to monitor Key Business Indicators and therefore set the refresh rate to say 5 minutes) which then automatically refreshes the view for that quadrant.

The uses for this style of interface are varied, but the most common use would be providing a big picture view of key information for the particular business (eg: Sales Trends, Open Order Values, Late Purchases or Deliveries, Orders Due Out Today, Open Calls, etc…).

We will be providing standard examples of views for Sales, Purchasing, Jobbing and Manufacturing in the next update.

Navigation Bars in Key Screens

We have added navigation bars into key master and operational screens to facilitate the moving through records without having to go back to the opening list. The navigation is also based on what has been filtered in the opening list (eg: If you were altering all Item Codes in a particular category, you would filter on that category in the opening list and move to the Detail Tab, where the navigation bar will take you through only those items for that category).

This feature is ideal for mass maintenance of records.

Item Receipting in the Job Order Screen

We have added the ability to receive a serial controlled Item into Stock from a ‘No Invoice’ style of Job (The set-up for this defined against the Job Type). The concept behind this is to allow for work, refurbishment or accessorising of a large ticket item to be carried out and then put back into stock. One of the key differences between using this method rather than an Assembly Order is the optional ability to cost all the parts and labour that goes into that Job at sell prices rather than pure cost (with the difference between the actual Cost and the Price of the Item is going to stock at, posted to a nominated cost centre – typically an inter-department income account). This is commonly used in the marine industry where the Sales & Service departments are treated as separate profit/cost centres.

Once the Job is closed the Item is automatically receipted into stock (based on the rules defined against the Job Type).

Holiday Dates (New Screen)

We have added a new screen for defining holiday dates that are then used for exclusion purposes when calculating duration for Jobs, Assembly Orders and SLA planned & actual response times.

Customer Assets – Manually Add Warranties

We have added the ability to manually add warranties to existing customer assets. You simply define the new warranty in the Warranty definition screen and then add the warranty from with-in the Customer Asset screen.

Bills of Material & Where Used Inquiry Tree Views

We have added the capability to view Bills of Material and the Where Used Inquiry screen via a multi-level tree view style. To expand or collapse all levels you are able to right-click from within the tree view grid.

Audit Logging of User Created & Modified for All Tables

We have added to automatic logging of User Created & User Last modified to all tables within the system. These fields will now be available to add to opening lists and any reports or views as needed.

Customer Statistics – Additional Outstanding Invoice Tab

We have added an additional tab to the Customer Statistics screen for displaying only outstanding customer invoices. Please note you are able to right click on this new grid to ‘Go To Invoice’ which will take you directly to the invoice (also available in the Invoice History, Payments & Deposits tab)

Point of Sale Functionality

We are in the process of finalising this, and there will be a specific update solely for this new module in the very near future.

Various Small Fixes & Improvements

Various other smaller issues and enhancements that have been reported to us have also been fixed in this update.

Ostendo Update Notes from 20 February 2007 – What’s New

Ostendo Update Notes from 20 February 2007 – What’s New

Custom Products in Job Orders. New functionality added

We have added in the same functionality available in Sales Orders to create Custom Products from Job Lines. This is very useful in environments where there is a combination of a custom manufactured/engineered product and then an installation style of job.

Call Centre. Functionality Extended

We have added the ability to have up to 16 additional fields (as is available for numerous other screens) for further defining the call taken.

Any style of document/file can now also be linked to a call (as is available elsewhere in Ostendo).

Item Copy Facility. New Functionality added

When creating new Items you are able to copy from an existing Item with the options of including Customer Pricing, Supplier Pricing, Add-on Sales and Forecasts.

Descriptor Copy Facility. New Functionality added

When creating new Descriptors you are able to copy from an existing Descriptor with the options of including Customer Pricing and Supplier Pricing.

Customer Asset Copy Facility. New Functionality added

When creating new Customer Assets you are able to copy from an existing Asset with the options of including the Planned Schedule.

Line Numbers in Task Bills & Kitset Contents. Functionality Extended

There is now a line number field in the both Task Bill and Kitset content lines. These will be copied through to Jobs and Sales Line Contents.

Inventory Availability (Additional Fields). Functionality Extended

We have added 3 read-only fields to the Inventory Availability screen: Supply Qty, Demand Qty & Available Qty (Can also be added to the opening list). We have also included the Available Qty when in Sales, Jobs and Assembly lines (added to the button that appears in the Line Info panel)

Global Data Merge Screen. New Functionality added

We added a new screen for merging master record to another. In other words, the ability to merge such things as: Customers, Suppliers, Items, Categories, Units of Measure, Warehouse’s etc.

Supplier Catalogue Major Improvements. New Functionality added

The Supplier Catalogue functionality has been enhanced significantly to include the following features:

1)       The ability to Update Item Pricing & Costing based on matching Item Code or Supplier Codes (In Item Buy Pricing screen).

2)       Extra fields for the catalogue lines including Standard Cost, Manufacturer, Brand, Substitute Code & Web Link

3)       When importing catalogues a check is performed for each catalogue code to see if there is a corresponding Item Code that matches, and it then populates that catalogue line with the linked Item Code

4)       There is now the ability to define price levels against the Catalogue (similar to what is available for Item Codes.

5)       There is a new facility to create Item Codes from Catalogue lines. You are able to multi-select catalogue lines and create Item Codes for those selected lines in mass (Note: You can also use the filtering in the grid to narrow down the lines and then by clicking the ‘Select All’ button will only select those filtered lines)

6)       When selecting Catalogue Codes from within Sales or Job Orders if there is a linked Item Code you will be asked if you wish to use the Item Code instead.

Scripting Engine Enhancements. Functionality Extended

We have extended the functionality of the scripting engine allowing for improvements in the Custom Products module and also making it a lot easier to integrate with other systems. A common use of this would for importing Supplier Catalogues (Over the next 2-3 months we will be making available standard scripts to import catalogues from major Trade, Marine and Engineering suppliers).

Another common use of this engine is for outputting timesheet information to payroll products (Again like the supplier catalogues we will be making available standard scripts for major payroll products).  

Custom Products. Functionality Extended

Due to the enhancements with the scripting engine we now have the ability to set default values for drop down lists associated with questions, but more importantly can now set the answer based on a previously populated variable (See example scripts in Demo Database for how this can be used to allow for changes to previously answered questions) NOTE: If you have updated Ostendo and require the latest DEMO database for the custom product examples – you are able to download just the DEMO database via the following link: Removed.

Creating Purchase & Assembly Orders. Functionality Extended

From the ‘Related’ Button in both the Job Order and Assembly Order screens you are now able to link directly to the ‘Create Required Orders’ screen. The Order number is passed and filtered automatically.

New Reports. A few new reports have been added and some old ones upgraded.

• Financial Batch Report (and Analysis View): Reporting on the financial transactions created within Ostendo by their status. Found in the General-Reports menu
• Standard Item Price List: The ability to print Price Lists by Price Level. Found in the Pricing-Reports menu.
• Revised Job Profit & Costing Reports: There is a lot more detail in the Job Profit and Costing reports. Found in the Jobs-Reports menu.
• Revised Job & Assembly Costing Sheets: If there are any linked Purchases or Assemblies for the order, they will appear at the bottom of this report.

·         History Notes Reports: Where History Notes can be entered a screen specific History Notes report is now available.