Greetings!

Welcome to the November edition of Jacana eNews. Some of our readers have reported not receiving a complete or viewable copy of Jacana eNews due to their firewalls and other virus protection software corrupting the format. If you experienced any problems like this please let me know (rbrooks@jacana.com) and I will arrange to forward a PDF version. 

Let me quickly tell you what's in this issue of Jacana eNews! Our main article looks at how one of our customers has implemented our reporting suite (including PrepPs) to improve efficiency, deliver timely and accurate information via email and save on costs. Aided by Momentum’s Services team they were able exploit some of the advanced capabilities inherent in the reporting suite in ways they wouldn’t have considered to satisfy critical business requirements that their management wanted solved. Also in this issue are all the regular features - JuMP into the JuMPZone (covering creating extracts for PC applications), Hints and Tips for Jacana, and our technical FAQ which steps you through an example of Run-Time Variable Sorting (building on the Parameters and Select/Omit Criteria topic covered last month). To all of our readers in North America enjoy a Happy Thanksgiving holiday later this month.

Rachel Brooks
Editor, Jacana eNews
Momentum Utilities

In this Issue
	Customer Experience - Improving Information availability and delivery Jump into the JuMPZone - Extracting Data for PC Applications Ask the expert - Jacana Tips Technical FAQs

Imaginative implementation improves information availability and delivery

THE BACKGROUND - The customer runs a retail-chain automobile servicing enterprise with around 350-400 outlets located within, or adjacent to, the parking facilities of suburban shopping centers. A point-of-sale (POS) system handled on-line invoice production as well as the recording of stock movements and ad hoc stock acquisitions. Data was transmitted from each outlet to a central computer processing operation at the end of each business day. At this central point, data from all outlets was consolidated to an application that supported financial and inventory management. However, the application provided little business reporting! THE PROBLEM - The management structure comprised Area Managers reporting to State Managers who, in turn, reported to National Management. Computerised reporting to the Middle management levels was limited and untimely. To overcome business reporting delays, a practice had evolved whereby Area Managers would contact the outlets, for which they were responsible, by telephone each day and pass on manually compiled sales reports to State Managers. The use, by middle management, of an assortment of spreadsheet formats, which were built by manual data entry, inevitably led to inaccuracies and considerable inefficiency. In addition, inventory management was constrained by inaccurate and untimely information. This led to a higher than necessary incidence of 'nil-stock' items required at sales outlets. The extra cost associated with ad hoc stock acquisition was impacting the bottom line. THE SOLUTION - On a limited budget, a new management team sought to improve profitability by tightening inventory control and improving the information flow. While a budget was allocated to acquire a low-end ERP package running on a modestly configured i-series model 270, the cost of improvements was to be contained by replacing as little as possible of the existing infrastructure. A very small in-house IT team would be supplemented by use of Momentum expertise in the reporting area.  Momentum's Jacana reporting suite was chosen to facilitate rapid expansion of business reporting capability without the need to ramp-up IT staff levels. Momentum's Services Group was brought in at an early stage - well before the new ERP system was due to go live.  The first step was a careful analysis of the requirements …  The second step … Jacana reports (extracts) were built-in at the back-end of the daily data transmission from the POS system to simplify the conversion of code values to match those of the ERP system. In this way, Jacana extracts were used to automate the delivery of converted data from the POS system to the DB2/400 data base of the ERP system - minimizing the need for bespoke programming.  The third step involved working with the client's IT team to develop data subsets and business reports. This included applying custom data access security within the data subsets, designed to ensure that a single report or data file extract definition could be accessible to users in all business divisions without compromising internal data security rules. This was challenging but achieved by Momentum creating special macros for use in the data subsets. In practice this meant that a single report could deliver a common reporting format, but contain only the data relevant to the business division within which the requesting user worked - even though data for all business divisions was held in the same files.  Of course, National head office managers could be authorised to view data for all divisions - thus, their report requests would consolidate data for all business divisions. In summary, the security filtering of report content was transparent to users who would simply run the report of their choice. The report output would instinctively tailor itself to represent their security access rights.  Another consideration … Jacana report formats needed to replicate as closely as possible existing report presentation to minimise disruption to the business as a whole. This was straightforward.  The final step was automation of report distribution. Momentum's PrepP suite was employed to seamlessly convert printer output to PDF and deliver this to users via AS/400 e-mail server facilities within the client's WAN. THE RESULT - Within weeks, in excess of fifty daily, weekly and monthly reports were ready, concurrent with the "go-live" for the new ERP application, to provide comprehensive business reporting to all levels of management in all divisions of the business.  If you want to know how Momentum's Service Group could help your company please contact services@jacana.com

Jump into the JuMPZone - Extracting Data for PC Applications

To run JuMP's you will need to download a small codec file. This is a once only process and can be done by clicking here. Extracting Data for the PC - Produce an Excel file from an inventory database showing stock on hand and date of last stock take for each product at each warehouse.  Click here to stream from the website  Click here to download to your PC Advanced PC Download - Produce a CSV file from an inventory database, includes working with the record layout of the file to be produced. Click here to stream from the website  Click here to download to your PC There are more JuMPs in our JuMPZone. To find out more and how to register check out the JuMPZone Quick Link.

Ask the expert - Jacana Tips

If there's anything you'd like to know how to do in Jacana but aren't 100% sure how, ask us. We will respond to you immediately and look to share your question in a future newsletter.  Jacana Tip 8: If you hold down the shift key while dragging a field into the layout, Jacana will add the column headings for the field. If you hold down the Alt key, Jacana will add totals. You can customise which keys add components, Choose Options from the Tools menu and then select the Page Layout tab. Show me Jacana Tip 9: When displaying the preview magnifier in the ReportWizard Gallery and the Report Template Gallery, you can increase or decrease its size. If you are dragging the magnifier with the mouse, press the Up or Down keys to expand or contract the magnifier. If you are holding down the CTRL key, hold down the SHIFT key as well before pressing the Up or Down keys. Show me Jacana Tip 10: A single Jacana report can contain more than one sheet. For example, you can have one sheet that prints the details and another with just summarized totals. Choose Sheets from the Report menu to add, remove or change existing sheets in your report. Show me

Technical FAQs

Run-time Variable Sorting - Let the user choose It often happens that a particular report format is attractive to more than one audience. For instance, a monthly sales performance report is provided to the National Sales Manager who likes to see it sequenced by Sales Territory. The VP of Marketing is equally interested in the sales figures, but likes to see the report presented by Customer Group.  You can build this kind of flexibility in a single report by using calculations and parameters. Here's how to approach the task:  First identify which Subset (or other data source) you need to access the data you require. Now, identify the particular fields that you need to control the output sequence for your two audiences. For this example, let's assume that the first is "Sales Territory" - a 10 Character field and the other is "Customer Group" - a 6 Character field.  Using Jacana, create a new report and base it on a template rather than using a wizard - you can use the wizard later to design the page layout.  Firstly, create a calculation (CALC00001) to base a parameter upon (you only need this field to choose the report output sequence so a character field of length 1 is sufficient). Now, via the "Parameters" tab of the report specifications dialog, add it to the report Parameters. Use the "Run-time Interface" button from the toolbar to add text to the parameter that will explain to the user what run-time choices are available and how to make their choice. For example:  TEXT: Choose output sequence:  TEXT: By Territory - Enter "1"  TEXT: By Customer Group - Enter "2" PARM: _______________? Show me Now create another calculation to hold the value which will be used to sort the output. From the "Properties" dialog, use the "General" tab to set the length of this calculation. Choose a length sufficient to contain the longer of your 2 possible sort control values. In this example, you need a 10 Character field to hold the Territory Code. Show me  Add a condition to this calculation to test the parameter. Assign the Territory Code into the calculation when the parameter is equal to "1" and the Customer Group code when it is not.  Tip: Given that you expect the parameter to contain either 1 or 2, you should only test for "1" and let the "2" case be handled by the "else" condition of the calculation. By doing this, you make sure that your report adopts reasonable "default" behaviour if the run-time user makes an error. Thus, test for "1" and assign the Territory Code to the calculation. Place no further condition on the calculation and set the "else" case to assign the "Customer Group Code" to the calculation (i.e. when the parameter is not "1"). Now, if the run-time user accidentally types "3", the report will be produced in its "default" output sequence - "Customer Group Code".  Now run the report wizard and design your report page layout. In the Sorting dialog, choose CALC000002 as your sort control (remember, CALC00002 will contain Territory Code if the run-time user types "1" or "Customer Group Code" if the user types anything else.) In the layout dialog, choose Territory Code to be printed first - do not choose Customer Group code at all. Complete the wizard until you are in the Jacana layout window with the page layout in view.  Now, copy your detail line (and/or your CALC00002 sort lines) and paste it after the existing line. Alter this second line by removing the Territory code and inserting the Customer Group code. Now, with the cursor on the "Territory line" use a right-mouse-click and choose the "Line properties" option. In the Line properties dialog Show me, access the "Conditioning" tab and set this line to print only when the parameter holds the value "1".  Repeat this process for the "Customer Group" line setting the condition to only print when the parameter does NOT hold the value "1" (again, ensuring valid "default" behaviour even if the user accidentally types "3"). Show me If you have more than 2 alternative sort sequences, simply allow for further possible values of the parameter when you specify the conditioning for CALC00002 and for the print lines. Remember to choose a "default" value and only test for the other possibilities - assume your "default" value in your ELSE case.  Now copy the column headings so that you have one set with the first column headed "Territory" and one with the first column headed "Customer Group". Condition these heading lines to match the detail lines.  Finally, for completeness, copy say, heading line 2 and add text to these lines to explain the report sequence. Again, repeat the conditioning used on the detail lines to ensure consistency in the printed output. For example, one of these lines will be conditioned to print only when the parameter is "1" and this line will contain the text, "Sales By Territory".  Be sure to check that the conditioning in the calculation is consistent with the conditioning that you specify against the various print lines. You now have one report which serves both purposes. Each user of this report can set up their own Valet Run-set with their personal preference built-in to the parameter. Do you have any specific questions you'd like answered? Let us know momentum@jacana.com

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