

February 2008 Company News \| From the Desk of \| Industry News Special Offer \| In-Depth Learning Meet Rusty Barto Zerion’s product is its people. Since it’s rare that our friends and clients get to meet all of the outstanding professionals that make up our company, this month we’d like you to introduce you to Rusty. Residence: Asheville, North Carolina Hometown: Albany, Georgia Position with Zerion: Consultant What did you do before joining Zerion? Just prior to joining Zerion, I was an Eclipse Trainer for Hughes Orlando. Before that I spent over 20 years as a Branch Manager with Hughes, Wesco, and CED in Columbus, Georgia. What is your specialty at Zerion? Because of my extensive branch level experience, I often focus on sales, warehouse management & branch operations. What is the best location you’ve traveled to for your job? Scottsdale, Arizona is my favorite. The terrain is picturesque, with mountains and desert; and, I got to visit the Grand Canyon while I was there. What do you like best about your job? There are several things that I love - meeting new people, helping hard-working individuals learn a new distribution software package, and traveling. What is your favorite “customer success” story? I did an install in Nashville for a fire protection distributor and was able to train a gentleman who suffered from Gulf War Syndrome. My Dad was retired military and I was thrilled to help a member of our troops that defended our country. It was an honor and he did great. How do you spend most of your time when you’re not working? I enjoy working around my house and cooking. What is a little known, interesting fact about you? I played tennis in Junior College. Favorite book or movie and why: I lost my grandmother to cancer when she was 98, so Lance Armstrong's book about beating cancer, “It’s Not About The Bike,” was a real inspiration for me. In one sentence, describe your philosophy on life and work: “Live life like you were dying.” I just got through reading the abovementioned book and at the age of 53, I just try to enjoy every day, one day at a time. Back to Top We take great pride in the Zerion team and we hope you’re enjoying getting to know them a little better with our employee profiles, which we’ll be doing throughout 2008. We keep our team staffed with a mix of seasoned talent and hungry, energetic individuals who look to challenge conventional wisdom. Our goal is to have the best people in the industry so that we can provide unmatched service to our clients. We were reminded of the qualities we look for when we participated last week in our third Professional Association for Industrial Distribution (PAID) career fair at the Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. You may not know that the university has one of the nation’s few, and most respected, Industrial Distribution programs in the country. We’ve had the pleasure of developing a relationship with the staff and speaking to several of the undergraduate classes. The program produces graduates that are prepared and focused, with an understanding of our industry, and this year’s group was no exception. We met over 50 students that were either seeking internships or pounding the pavement for their first job. It is always refreshing to see young faces that are eager to come into your organization and make a difference, and at the same time remember what big shoes they have to fill. Alonzo Williams, Vice President 321.239.4509 Back to Top What’s happening with distribution, software and business? Zerion is committed to being a resource for our clients and friends. In the newsroom on our Web site, we have an RSS feed supplying new articles all the time. We also have some links to industry news. Here are some of the recent articles we found most interesting: Channel Sales Up 31 Percent In '07 Activant Introduces Eclipse Mobile Advanced HD Supply’s deal with Watsco falls through Oracle Launches Data Integration Suite Want more news? Visit us at: www.zeriongroup.com/newsroom/industrynews.html Back to Top Get a Free Audit of your Product File Our in-depth learning piece this month is about Eclipse's Product Data Warehouse, so we're offering a free audit via webinar of your product file or PDW. Contact Tony King at 321.229.1089 or by e-mail to sign-up. Offer available until March 22, 2008. Back to Top February White Paper This month, we’ve prepared an educational white paper about the Eclipse Product Data Warehouse (PDW). Exploring PDW: Tips, Tricks and Benefits By: Shara Carr, Consultant The Product Data Warehouse, also referred to as PDW, provides instant access to detailed information about any product a distributor could ever want to sell. This provides a myriad of benefits to many companies, not the least of which is improved system performance. Of course, it's best to understand the program and its benefits, as well as get some tips and tricks, before using it. Overview First, let’s review the basics of the PDW and how it works. It is a file system that keeps track of all product-related data. It’s a “warehouse” or storage and tracking mechanism for your product information. In order to use the program, you have to load data into it that coincides with the products you sell. Data can easily be imported from self-created spreadsheets or obtained from industry data providers, such as Trade Service pricing, I2 EdataFlex, ASA, and IDW. It can be done using several formats: Compact Disk (CD) Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Flat Files (when used with I2 EDATA FLEX attribute data or IDW multi-file format) Benefits of Using the PDW There are many reasons to use the PDW, but the most popular is for accurate pricing information. Eclipse’s PDW companion product stores millions of product records in the system and helps facilitate timely, accurate pricing. It can also be used clean up your product file and remove products with insufficient sales histories. Another typical reason a lot of distributors use the PDW is to help in the process of creating non-stock products if an item is not found in your product file. Because the data is mapped, each time a non-stock product is created, the information updates from the PDW file structure into the Eclipse Product File structure in a standard fashion. For example, if a sales person needs to create a non-stock product without the PDW, this process can usually take several minutes and the product may contain a bad description with incorrect price line and buy line information. The pricing used on the product may also be incorrect. Thus, instead of manually creating a non-stock, a user would be able to choose the appropriate product from the PDW and will have the correct information filled into the non-stock creation screen. This process takes less than a minute and will ensure that you have accurate data in your product file. Tips and Tricks Having some basic tips at your fingertips before you start can be helpful when maintaining the PDW. It can also ensure ease of use and help bring quicker results for your business. One tip for using the system is to employ the “Sample Item” hotkey in the Default Export Map. (From the PDW Main Menu / PDW Export Maintenance menu..., select PDW Data Export Maintenance to display the PDW Export Maintenance screen.) You can use this Sample hotkey to view the actual data items that will be mapped according to the defined map instead of doing a preview for a whole price line. The PDW Data Sample screen displays: • The dictionary item which receives the information. • The branch or territory to which the information is mapped. • The actual value exported into the Eclipse Product File. • The export map used to export the data. Another useful trick is the “Filter” hotkey. When importing data from a vendor disk, this increases the speed of the import, because Eclipse only searches the particular “vendor” metas to match the records instead of searching the whole PDW. A tip that is often helpful with data imports is learning how to take advantage of the FTP Request PDW Update. This downloads data files from an FTP website and automatically imports the file into PDW. This process can also be scheduled to run after business hours so that it doesn’t interfere with your operations. When the FTP download is complete, the user is messaged the size of the file and that the FTP is complete and the import started. When the Import is finished the user is messaged again. Now that you understand how the PDW works, how it can benefit you and a few tips for using it, you should be ready to turn it on and start improving the performance of your Eclipse system. If you need more information or even more tips and tricks, contact us. Back to Top	This month we offer a tip with the Alt key in E-term and Solar Eclipse. In E-term, you can hit Alt (lower left of your keyboard) at the same time as the “~” key (upper left of your keyboard) to quickly see your GL postings when you’re in the body of a sales order, purchase order, transfer order, or adjustment. In Solar Eclipse, you can use the Alt key coupled with the Tab key to navigate all open windows. When you hit both keys at the same time, you can see all of the windows that are available.

February 2008

Company News | From the Desk of | Industry News
Special Offer | In-Depth Learning

Meet Rusty Barto
Zerion’s product is its people. Since it’s rare that our friends and clients get to meet all of the outstanding professionals that make up our company, this month we’d like you to introduce you to Rusty.

Residence: Asheville, North Carolina
Hometown: Albany, Georgia
Position with Zerion: Consultant

What did you do before joining Zerion?
Just prior to joining Zerion, I was an Eclipse Trainer for Hughes Orlando. Before that I spent over 20 years as a Branch Manager with Hughes, Wesco, and CED in Columbus, Georgia.

What is your specialty at Zerion?
Because of my extensive branch level experience, I often focus on sales, warehouse management & branch operations.

What is the best location you’ve traveled to for your job?
Scottsdale, Arizona is my favorite. The terrain is picturesque, with mountains and desert; and, I got to visit the Grand Canyon while I was there.

What do you like best about your job?
There are several things that I love - meeting new people, helping hard-working individuals learn a new distribution software package, and traveling.

What is your favorite “customer success” story?
I did an install in Nashville for a fire protection distributor and was able to train a gentleman who suffered from Gulf War Syndrome. My Dad was retired military and I was thrilled to help a member of our troops that defended our country. It was an honor and he did great.

How do you spend most of your time when you’re not working?
I enjoy working around my house and cooking.

What is a little known, interesting fact about you?
I played tennis in Junior College.

Favorite book or movie and why:
I lost my grandmother to cancer when she was 98, so Lance Armstrong's book about beating cancer, “It’s Not About The Bike,” was a real inspiration for me.

In one sentence, describe your philosophy on life and work:
“Live life like you were dying.” I just got through reading the abovementioned book and at the age of 53, I just try to enjoy every day, one day at a time.

From the desk of Tony King We take great pride in the Zerion team and we hope you’re enjoying getting to know them a little better with our employee profiles, which we’ll be doing throughout 2008. We keep our team staffed with a mix of seasoned talent and hungry, energetic individuals who look to challenge conventional wisdom. Our goal is to have the best people in the industry so that we can provide unmatched service to our clients.

We were reminded of the qualities we look for when we participated last week in our third Professional Association for Industrial Distribution (PAID) career fair at the Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. You may not know that the university has one of the nation’s few, and most respected, Industrial Distribution programs in the country. We’ve had the pleasure of developing a relationship with the staff and speaking to several of the undergraduate classes.

The program produces graduates that are prepared and focused, with an understanding of our industry, and this year’s group was no exception. We met over 50 students that were either seeking internships or pounding the pavement for their first job. It is always refreshing to see young faces that are eager to come into your organization and make a difference, and at the same time remember what big shoes they have to fill.

Alonzo Williams, Vice President
321.239.4509

What’s happening with distribution, software and business?
Zerion is committed to being a resource for our clients and friends. In the newsroom on our Web site, we have an RSS feed supplying new articles all the time. We also have some links to industry news. Here are some of the recent articles we found most interesting:

Channel Sales Up 31 Percent In '07

Activant Introduces Eclipse Mobile Advanced

HD Supply’s deal with Watsco falls through

Oracle Launches Data Integration Suite

Want more news? Visit us at: www.zeriongroup.com/newsroom/industrynews.html

Get a Free Audit of your Product File
Our in-depth learning piece this month is about Eclipse's Product Data Warehouse, so we're offering a free audit via webinar of your product file or PDW.

Contact Tony King at 321.229.1089 or by e-mail to sign-up. Offer available until March 22, 2008.

February White Paper

This month, we’ve prepared an educational white paper about the Eclipse Product Data Warehouse (PDW).

Exploring PDW: Tips, Tricks and Benefits
By: Shara Carr, Consultant

The Product Data Warehouse, also referred to as PDW, provides instant access to detailed information about any product a distributor could ever want to sell. This provides a myriad of benefits to many companies, not the least of which is improved system performance. Of course, it's best to understand the program and its benefits, as well as get some tips and tricks, before using it.

Overview
First, let’s review the basics of the PDW and how it works. It is a file system that keeps track of all product-related data. It’s a “warehouse” or storage and tracking mechanism for your product information. In order to use the program, you have to load data into it that coincides with the products you sell. Data can easily be imported from self-created spreadsheets or obtained from industry data providers, such as Trade Service pricing, I2 EdataFlex, ASA, and IDW. It can be done using several formats:

Compact Disk (CD)
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
Flat Files (when used with I2 EDATA FLEX attribute data or IDW multi-file format)

Benefits of Using the PDW
There are many reasons to use the PDW, but the most popular is for accurate pricing information. Eclipse’s PDW companion product stores millions of product records in the system and helps facilitate timely, accurate pricing. It can also be used clean up your product file and remove products with insufficient sales histories.

Another typical reason a lot of distributors use the PDW is to help in the process of creating non-stock products if an item is not found in your product file. Because the data is mapped, each time a non-stock product is created, the information updates from the PDW file structure into the Eclipse Product File structure in a standard fashion.

For example, if a sales person needs to create a non-stock product without the PDW, this process can usually take several minutes and the product may contain a bad description with incorrect price line and buy line information. The pricing used on the product may also be incorrect. Thus, instead of manually creating a non-stock, a user would be able to choose the appropriate product from the PDW and will have the correct information filled into the non-stock creation screen. This process takes less than a minute and will ensure that you have accurate data in your product file.

Tips and Tricks
Having some basic tips at your fingertips before you start can be helpful when maintaining the PDW. It can also ensure ease of use and help bring quicker results for your business.

One tip for using the system is to employ the “Sample Item” hotkey in the Default Export Map. (From the PDW Main Menu / PDW Export Maintenance menu..., select PDW Data Export Maintenance to display the PDW Export Maintenance screen.) You can use this Sample hotkey to view the actual data items that will be mapped according to the defined map instead of doing a preview for a whole price line. The PDW Data Sample screen displays:

• The dictionary item which receives the information.
• The branch or territory to which the information is mapped.
• The actual value exported into the Eclipse Product File.
• The export map used to export the data.

Another useful trick is the “Filter” hotkey. When importing data from a vendor disk, this increases the speed of the import, because Eclipse only searches the particular “vendor” metas to match the records instead of searching the whole PDW.

A tip that is often helpful with data imports is learning how to take advantage of the FTP Request PDW Update. This downloads data files from an FTP website and automatically imports the file into PDW. This process can also be scheduled to run after business hours so that it doesn’t interfere with your operations. When the FTP download is complete, the user is messaged the size of the file and that the FTP is complete and the import started. When the Import is finished the user is messaged again.

Now that you understand how the PDW works, how it can benefit you and a few tips for using it, you should be ready to turn it on and start improving the performance of your Eclipse system. If you need more information or even more tips and tricks, contact us.

This month we offer a tip with the Alt key in E-term and Solar Eclipse.

In E-term, you can hit Alt (lower left of your keyboard) at the same time as the “~” key (upper left of your keyboard) to quickly see your GL postings when you’re in the body of a sales order, purchase order, transfer order, or adjustment.

In Solar Eclipse, you can use the Alt key coupled with the Tab key to navigate all open windows. When you hit both keys at the same time, you can see all of the windows that are available.