Review These Key Parameters
For First Quarter 2010 O/PUS Load

Dear O/PUS Customers:

Thursday, Dec. 31, 2009 — With the release of the vendors' 2010 printed catalogs, vendors typically make significant changes to units of measures, unit of measure names, as well as addition or deletion of items. Because of the amount of changes the vendors will make this quarter, we would like to highlight a few parameters that are especially helpful for your 1st quarter load. As in all other quarter loads, we recommend that you always review all your SIMPLE parameters to ensure they are set to best fit your business's needs.

First Page of SIMPLE Global Parameters

• ADD NEW ITEMS TO MY INVENTORY
  With the release of a new year’s printed catalog, vendors take the opportunity to add new product lines and additional SKUs. Selecting this parameter allows new items, carried by your selected vendors, to be added to your DDMS Inventory database.
• RETAIL, LIST, BUY – UNIT OF MEASURE SHOULD BE USED FOR NEW ITEMS
  This parameter is used in conjunction with the previous “add items” parameter to determine which unit of measure is used when new items are added to your inventory database (this does not change your existing items’ unit of measure).
  • RETAIL is the smallest unit of measure possible — many times the RETAIL unit is an EACH, which can be much smaller than the unit of measure carried by the wholesaler.
  • LIST is based on the manufacturers' packaging unit and sometimes will be larger than the unit of measure carried by the wholesaler.
  • BUY is equal to the unit of measure in which your wholesaler sells the item to their dealers. Most dealers prefer to add new items using the BUY unit as the master selling unit, because they want to sell the new items in the same unit in which they must purchase them from their wholesaler.
•  [  ] IS THE STOCK CLASS FOR NEW ITEMS ADDED TO MY INVENTORY
  This parameter is used to determine which item stock class is used when new items are created in your inventory database (this does not change your existing items' stock classes). Some dealers prefer to use a unique stock class, which they are not currently utilizing to classify items in their DDMS system, to make it easier to identify the new items added to their inventory. Or, you may choose to specify the same stock class you are currently using to identify the items that are fulfilled by your wholesaler.
• UPDATE ITEM NUMBER CHANGES FROM VENDORS
  

  This prompt allows SIMPLE to change old stock numbers in your files to the new stock numbers the vendor is now using. The simple load will automatically convert the keys of related files, (such as on-hand quantities, history, contracts etc) from the old number to the new number.

  NOTE: The third page of the Global parameters gives you the option to exclude certain items, based on their stock class, from being changed by OPUS.  You may enter stock classes that you DO NOT want OPUS to update specific fields or you can choose for specified stock classes to not be updated at all.

Second Page of SIMPLE Global Parameters

• UPDATE CONSUMER CATALOG PAGE NUMBERS
  

  With the release of the new 2010 catalogs, most dealers will want to update their Primary Wholesaler’s page numbers in their DDMS database. Choosing this prompt will allow you to reset the catalog page numbers to match those provided by the vendors for their 2010 catalog.

  NOTE: By default, SIMPLE loads the page numbers from the vendor’s General Line List Price Catalog. The page numbers field in the item’s Primary Wholesaler’s record will be updated with this information. For dealers that do not use the General Line List Price Catalog at all, may choose to use the +IU after SIMPLE to replace the General Line List Price catalog page numbers with an  alternative catalog’s  page numbers. See details on using the +IU in Viewing Page Numbers from Special Catalogs
  www.ddms.com/resources/support/faq/opus/OECatPgNum.pdf

• RESET MY SELLING UNIT WHEN UPDATING LIST PRICE
  

  Selecting this option will allow changes to be made to the name of the unit to match its pricing category. For example, a vendor might change a unit of measure name for a package of 2 batteries from card [CD] to pack [PK]. The unit in which they sell it has not changed (2 batteries), only the name of the unit.

  NOTE: This parameter does not change your selling Unit of Measure—only the name.

• RUN MAKE-BUYS AFTER THE UPDATE
  

  Selecting this parameter will allow the SIMPLE program to convert your DDMS Master selling UOM to match your primary wholesaler’s buy unit. By default, this option will convert your selling unit of measure when the wholesaler’s BUY UOM is larger than your DDMS master selling UOM. You also have control over which items are converted by listing the item stock classes you DO want to convert.

  The Make-Buy function does more than just convert your selling units to buy units. It also:

  • Adjusts your costs and prices to reflect the new selling units
  • Adjusts the relevant inventory quantities: on-hand, backorders, on-order, allocated, month-to-date sold, and so forth
  • Recalculates the weight for the new selling unit
  • Recalculates your contracts in the [ET] screen, or Customer Price Plans Program, based on the new selling units
  NOTE: A separate parameter gives you the option to also convert your selling UOM when it is larger than the wholesaler's BUY UOM. See parameter below - "Convert your items with Larger Sell UOM to Match the Whlsrs Smaller Buy UOM"
• Make-Buys - ENTER UP TO 10 STOCK CLASSES YOU DO WANT TO CHANGE THE SELLING UNIT OF MEASURE
  This parameter allows you to control which items are converted. Only the items that match the stock classes you enter in these spaces will have their selling unit converted by the Make-Buys program. You may enter individual stock classes, or using the first three spaces, enter a range of stock classes. To enter a range, use the first space as the stock class to specify the “From” portion of the range, place a dash in the second space, and use the third space for the stock class specifying the “To” portion of the range. When using the first three spaces for a range, stock classes entered in the fourth through tenth spaces will be in addition to those within the range specified. Examples:

  [2] [Y] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] = updates the 2 and Y stock class
  [Ø] [-] [Z] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] = updates ALL classes
  [A] [-] [L] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] = updates classes A thru L
  [A] [-] [L] [O] [P] [U] [S] [ ] [ ] = updates classes A thru L, and classes O, P, U, S

  Note: You must specify at least ONE stock class if using the Make-Buys program. Leaving the stock ranges blank will NOT convert any items.
• CONVERT YOUR ITEMS WITH LARGER SELL UOM TO MATCH THE WHLSRS SMALLER   BUY UOM
  By default, the Make-Buys program adjusts your selling UOM to match your primary wholesaler’s buy unit when the buy UOM is larger than your DDMS master selling UOM. By selecting this parameter, you may choose for the Make-Buys program to also adjust your selling UOM when it is larger than the wholesaler’s BUY UOM.

  For more details on running the Make Buys program, see Handling Vendor UOM Changes with Make-Buys  
  http://www.ddms.com/resources/support/faq/opus/uomchanges.pdf

Parameters in the Vendor Specific Screens

•  ADD ITEMS SHOWN IN THE [VENDOR] CONSUMER CATALOG ONLY
  Some of the vendor specific parameter screens in SIMPLE give you the option to only add the new items if they are included in the vendor’s General Line List Price catalog. If you select this parameter, there will be some items that are carried by the vendor that will not be added to your database.

For documentation covering all of the basic quarterly catalog update concepts and procedures for DDMS, see Loading O/PUS
www.ddms.com/Resources/Support/faq/opus/OPUSload.pdf

Sincerely,

ECi DDMS Technical Support