Greg Stout (ACS) and Roger Domras (APA)

It's a perennial question – where to meet in January to escape winter for a few days, where flight costs aren't prohibitive and where attendees might want to stay on for the weekend to enjoy some time away? The answer this year was Orlando, Florida – the city chosen for the 2009 Advantage User's Group meeting which took place on January 21-23. The weather was unseasonably cool, but still a welcome change from the frigid temperatures across much of the country that same week. And there was plenty of sun, even if the temperature stubbornly refused to rise much above 50 degrees.

About 40 attendees representing 19 Advantage clients flew to Florida to meet for two full days. This year's program started with afternoon sessions on Wednesday which involved presentations by Advantage on such topics as "Advantage as your Marketing Partner," a recap of the AMB Forum held in July 2008, and an update on the progress of the Business Intelligence Module, now in development. This year, the cocktail receptions on Wednesday and Thursday evenings were co-sponsored by Ektron and Gold Lasso.

 

Arabian Nights

After the networking reception on Wednesday evening, an adventurous group took in "Orlando's #1 Dinner Attraction"—Arabian Nights, billed as "the world's greatest show…on horses!" There are no words I can think of to describe it-- you have to see it to believe it. Andy Wright (Oxford University Press) came out of the show saying: "I wouldn't have missed this for the world!" You'll have to ask him what he meant.

Thursday's sessions included an address by keynote speaker Patrick Sheposh, Corporate Circulation Director at Crain Communications. Patrick provided a thought-provoking view on technology and change and where the publishing industry is headed. This was followed by an update from the Customer Services Division of ACS, and short presentations by the above-mentioned sponsors. The afternoon began with a presentation by Tim Swietek (Ogden Publishing) and Wade Elmblad (Kalmbach) on improving traffic to your website. Following this, Dan Heffernan and Dick Hile presented the ACS perspective on software direction and Mona Hidayet capped the afternoon with a look at some of the features in the latest rev of Advantage.

Friday morning brought us some roundtable sessions, allowing users to interact in small groups to discuss various topics in more depth, and to share experiences at various client sites. This year the roundtable topics were:

Neal Hawkins (OAK) rebels against the mouse ears.

• Using the AMB module
• Best practices for using web services & AIS
• Email service provider integration
• Upgrade strategies & best practices

After lunch on Friday, a User Group business meeting concluded this year's sessions, although a good number of attendees chose to stay in Florida for the weekend.

As always, the User Group was active, vocal and provided important input to the future direction of the Advantage application and how ACS conducts business. We at ACS greatly appreciate hearing your thoughts, ideas and priorities, and will be incorporating many of them in our plans.

Many thanks to the organizers for putting together an excellent event, and to all the speakers and roundtable presenters who shared their experiences and ideas. If you weren't able to make it this year, plan now to include the AUG meeting in your plans for next January. The networking and valuable ideas you will come away with are more than worth the cost.

I, for one, am looking forward to hearing about plans for 2010. Hey, to be absolutely certain of warm weather, how about somewhere south of the equator? Who's with me?

It is a cliché that software developers who become managers never fully let go of their need to program. Like a cough in a concert hall, there is no way to suppress the tickle that says it's time to design something, code it, test it, demo it, tinker and re-design.

This is why I appreciate my current opportunity to delve into the design and development of ACS's nascent Business Intelligence module. At the recent AUG meeting, we discussed the current status. The project holds enough technical challenges to keep me occupied for many months.

The literature on data warehousing and business intelligence is extensive, reflecting the software industry's decades long struggle to coax 'actionable intelligence' from databases that stubbornly conceal what they know behind a façade of obscure names and complex structures. My bookshelf is groaning under a stack of thousand page books explaining Key Performance Indicators, Slowly Changing Dimensions and debating the pros and cons of star schemas vs. snowflake schemas. Historically, many projects have failed.

The good news is that tremendous progress has been made recently. There is a growing consensus on the best methodologies to use to build a robust, scalable data warehouse that can deliver answers to a wide range of marketing and management questions – including the questions you have yet to formulate. Better still, the software tools are keeping pace with methodological advances. I've been pleased by the solid foundation Microsoft has built into their SqlServer 2008 suite of business intelligence tools.

 

The lurking suspicion that something could be simplified is the world's richest source of rewarding challenges. - Edsger Dijkstra

But a sturdy technical infrastructure is not enough. To succeed, a data warehouse must present just the right mix of data elements. Too few, and users cannot find the answers they seek. Too many, and users get lost trying to sift the relevant from the irrelevant.

This is where you come in. Help us define exactly which reports and pivot tables your decision-makers need in order to make your business hum. What data elements are critical for analyzing promotions and products? If you have built your own reporting site, we would appreciate learning from your experience. If you are currently wrestling with data accessibility issues, let us know how we can help. We look forward to hearing from you!

In these hard economic times, it's easy to think of reasons not to begin a new project. However, there are some very compelling reasons why right now is an excellent time to conduct an upgrade project. Upgrading to the latest revision of Advantage could not only increase operational efficiencies and reduce costs, but also improve customer service. In addition, implementing new features may well help you to generate additional sales. And when the economy improves, being ready to handle new business could be key to your success.
We at ACS can help you to determine if an upgrade makes good business sense for your company.

An Advantage upgrade project focuses on the delivery of a new software revision to your site. This delivery brings you:

• New features – all fully explained in the Release Notes

• New industry standards – such as credit card masking and encryption

• Adaptations to new technologies – operating systems, database, and web technology changes

• Better efficiencies – as evident in the new user interface to make the software more intuitive and user friendly and MSTDAT/FST to streamline order entry

• Operational optimizations – such as the new CDSREQ process request enhancements to more efficiently request and run reports, processes, and job streams

Reading the Release Notes is your key to understanding all the new features and enhancements. We make available a Release Notes 'Highlights' document that identifies the high-profile changes in the annual release and summarizes the feature for quick and easy reading. This document may be found on the client area of the ACS website, on the list of downloads.

Another key resource is your Account Manager—someone who is familiar with your business and can point you to those features that will make the biggest impact at your organization.

Change is inevitable. The business environment in the future will not be the same as it is today. By being on a regular upgrade schedule, you are assured that your organization has the most recent software, with the most effective tools possible to improve the efficiency of your operations. It positions you to be ready for change. You can anticipate new business segments and capitalize on that change in your business with a software package capable of identifying those opportunities, marketing to those customers, and handling those transactions. While change is inevitable, ACS' commitment to delivering updated software will remain steady.

This month, Customer Portrait presents Kalmbach Publishing in Waukesha, Wisconsin.  Kalmbach joined the Advantage community in 1982.

In 2008, Kalmbach Publishing celebrated their 75th anniversary as a special interest publisher serving a diverse set of hobbyist markets. Kalmbach provides information to their customers through a variety of media channels including books, events, magazines, television partnerships and web sites.

Kalmbach editors and many other staff members are active enthusiasts themselves, sharing the same passion and curiosity for their leisure time pursuits as their readers. This mutual enthusiasm fosters long-term relationships with customers, and their Advantage system supports that effort with extensive customer loyalty-building features.

Kalmbach's markets currently include model railroading—with the 75-year-old Model Railroader as the flagship—beading and jewelry making, astronomy, scale modeling, and bird watching. They produce 15 magazines and a host of special-interest publications (SIPs). The book division publishes about three dozen books annually, and they also maintain nearly 30 Web sites.

An independent and privately held publishing company in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Kalmbach continues to grow and diversify by acquiring and launching products, and by capitalizing on opportunities within their core markets. To support their growth strategy, they actively monitor trends and look for opportunities to acquire existing products and launch new ones. Advantage is an important tool in that effort.

Advantage has been a part of Kalmbach's success since 1982. At that time, Kalmbach was looking to expand and needed a system that could support their growth and help them build their special interest databases. Advantage fit the bill then and has supported their growth ever since. In 1982, Kalmbach converted less than 100,000 records onto Advantage, while today they serve nearly 1.5 million.

In addition to CIR (Circulation Management), PRO (Product Order) and other core modules, Kalmbach uses ADM (Advertising Management) and BDM (Bulk Distribution). They added the Web module in 1999 and CEM (Conference and Event) in 2004. CEM helps them to manage the Bead&Button show, which Kalmbach acquired along with Bead&Button magazine in 1996. They moved the show to Milwaukee in 2001 and it has grown to become the world's largest consumer bead show. The 2009 Show offers more than 500 beading classes and workshops and will feature nearly 300 exhibitors on the show floor. About 3500 seats were sold on opening day for class registration in January!

Nikki Lorenz, Business Systems Manager, has been working with Advantage since 1985, although she prefers not to be referred to as ACS' "oldest" client. "The Advantage product has really evolved since we signed on, as has the level of support ACS provides," says Nikki. "I have always been able to count on ACS to be there when I need them and to provide whatever services are necessary. We have developed a great partnership through the years."

Jim Schweder, Vice President of Technology at Kalmbach, has this to say about ACS/Advantage: "A true business partner. The ACS team has always been helpful and understanding as we expand our use of the Advantage system."

As a long-time Advantage client, Kalmbach has hosted many site visits for prospective Advantage customers. ACS is always happy to send prospects to Waukesha because Kalmbach's well-run operation never fails to impress other publishers. The company's strong emphasis on customer service is always noticed and remarked upon. Kalmbach employees know the Advantage software very well and use it to its full capacity, which also makes a very positive impression. These factors have made Kalmbach the leader in turning site visits into sales for Advantage. (We are still working out the sales commission details!)

 

As of revision 2008R2, Advantage calls a process notification procedure at the end of every process request and can be set up to send a variety of notifications, as you choose. Process_Notification.cap should be put in your advantage\local\custom_cli folder and then modified based on the types of notification desired.

When modifying the capsule, place the notification command before the RETURN TRUE line in the boolean Notify procedure. Remember, any capsules must be declared before using them.

// Called when a process ends
DEFINE BOOLEAN NOTIFY( // Status. FALSE on failure
CHARACTER 8 REQ_NAME, // Request name
DATE START_DATE, // date when the process started
CHARACTER 8 START_TIME, // time when the process started
CHARACTER 1 TYPE, // Type of the process (P or J)
CHARACTER 1 STATUS, // Status (D, E, etc.)
CHARACTER 8 JSM_NAME, // Report name
INTEGER USE_TIME) // Number of minutes that the request was active
// Place custom notification here.
RETURN TRUE
END-DEFINE

Possible Notifications:

•  Did the process end in error or warning? If so, send an email to the sysadmin:
  CAPSULE EMAIL EMAIL
  IF STATUS = 'E' THEN
  EXEC EMAIL.SEND('admin@yourcompany.com', 'Admin', REQ_NAME & ' has errored', REQ_NAME & ' has errored out - Please investigate.')
  ELSE-IF STATUS ='W' THEN
  EXEC EMAIL.SEND('admin@yourcompany.com', 'Admin', REQ_NAME & ' has ended in warning', REQ_NAME & ' has had an abnormal ending.')
  END-IF
•  Did the process run longer than normal? If so, send an email to the sysadmin:
  CAPSULE EMAIL EMAIL
  IF USE_TIME > 300 THEN
  EXEC EMAIL.SEND('admin@yourcompany.com', 'Admin', REQ_NAME & ' - Long runtime', REQ_NAME & ' ran for ' & USE_TIME & ' minutes.')
  END-IF
• When the process completes, run a custom .BAT file:
  IF REQ_NAME = 'ARP310' THEN
  MOVE "%CLIUTLLOC%/INVOICES.BAT " & REQ_NAME to SYSTEM_COMMAND SYSTEM SYSTEM_COMMAND '' LOG 104
  END-IF
• When the process completes, run a SQL statement.
  IF REQ_NAME = 'PRO310' THEN
  MOVE "%CLIUTLLOC%/PICK_TICKET.BAT " & REQ_NAME to SYSTEM_COMMAND SYSTEM SYSTEM_COMMAND '' LOG 104
  END-IF
• Send an email to the CIRC manager when the CIR410 finishes.
  IF REQ_NAME = 'CIR410' THEN
  EXEC EMAIL.SEND('cirmgr@yourcompany.com', 'Circ Mgr', 'CIR410', 'CIR410 has completed.')
  END-IF
• Send an email when a specific job stream finishes (where CDSEND is last process in job stream).
  IF JSM_NAME = 'ARPNITE' AND REQ_NAME = 'CDSEND' THEN
  EXEC EMAIL.SEND('admin@yourcompany.com', 'Admin', JSM_NAME & ' completed', JSM_NAME & ' has completed.')
  END-IF

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.