Re: Fixed Assets assistance

From Al Macintyre

>  From:    rschmitz@gemko.com (Ronald J. Schmitz)

>  I have been asked to implement 4.05CD Fixed Assets.  
>  I'm looking for 2 things at this point:
>  1. Are there any gotcha's I should be aware of at the onset?

We are on 405 CD but not using Fixed Assets

>  2. We do not have a support agreement with SSA.
>      - Is there any documentation beyond the run book?

There are several 3rd parties that publish supplementary BPCS documentation.

Unbeaten Path's is good for how you supposed to do the application, but it is 
not good for how to cope when things get messed up, or if you want to develop 
any supplementary reports or inquiries.  DS is good for figuring out how the 
applications work behind the scenes to help MIS, but it is not good for the 
real users & it is for V6.  Others that I am less familiar with have been 
mentioned in BPCS_L in the past.  We subscribe to several intermittent 
interesting BPCS newsletters.

>       - Is there anyone I might call on for assistance without paying the 
>  $19K SSA wants for a one year support contract for 3 applications?

You get what you pay for & none of this is cheap, but there is healthy 
competition between consultants.

Visit MIDRANGE dot com & check out Midrange Resources ,,, there are a bunch 
of consultants linked there, including Nex Gen, which offers a variety of 
services including a help desk alternative to SSA, but I do not know what 
they cost.

Be aware that the mixture of help services are NOT the same as SSA.

Half the time SSA does not "get" the problem & we have to explain it several 
times before they understand it, if we want to bother pursuing it.  But OSG 
has a wealth of information if we can only figure out how to get at it.

http://www.crowechizek.com/

Crowe Chizek help support used to dial into our system on the IBM ECS to look 
at our specific orders to see what the problem is ... when we got desperate 
enough to ask them to help solve some problem ... they are expensive but they 
get the job done when we give up trying to solve it on the cheap.  I killed 
their sign-ons from when they helped us install BPCS because they believed in 
being master security officers & too many project team members knew their 
password & were using it & contributing to our troubles.

Some day we might need that kind of service in the future & we can get if 
from a consultant at the drop of a hat - voice phone call to the consultant & 
they are dialed into our system the same day & the problem solved in a few 
days & might cost us $1k but the problem is solved fast.  You can get that 
service from SSA but not that speed of communicating what the problem is & 
getting it solved & usually without any modifications.

I tentatively plan to create a new user called GURU to be used by whatever 
next consultant we ask to dial in on our ECS line, because every time it is a 
different technician & 405 CD has no vanilla support for cleaning out old 
user sign-ons.

http://www.unbeatenpathintl.com/NoExcuses%20helpline%20BPCSASSET.html
http://www.unbeatenpathintl.com/bpcsconsulting.html

Unbeaten Path info on their help support & their manuals ... the manuals cost 
$250 each, discounts on volumes & guaranteed or your $ back, I not know what 
the help line costs

The DS manual costs $500, discounts on volumes 
DS Solutions, Inc.
P.O. Box 304
Mequon, WI 53092

Phone:  (414) 512-9035
Email:  dslic@aol.com

Fax Number (414) 512-9036

You probably need a combination of 
education in the application
on-going support once it is up & running

Which means it probably makes sense to select a consultant that can give you 
the up front education, continuing training, on-going support, serving MIS & 
end-users, all at a reasonable price ... it can get expensive, whether it is 
costs you did not anticipate, or consequences of not having enough people 
properly trained.

If you get different services from different outfits, then there will be 
extra time & money explaining your business to each outfit before you can get 
meaningful assistance.

Look at the web sites of some of the most helpful folks on BPCS_L ... there 
are a wealth of consultants to choose from among.

Al Macintyre  ©¿©
http://www.cen-elec.com MIS Manager Programmer & Computer Janitor

Y2K is not the end of my universe, but a re-boot of that old Chinese curse.
The road to success is always under construction.
Accept that some days you are the pigeon and some days the statue.
Murphy's Mom brought wrong baby home from hospital so it should be Kelly's 
Law.
If consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, only geniuses work here.
When you want it cheap - you get what you paid for.
When in doubt, read the manual, assuming you can find the right one.
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