Re: Billing re-print automation -- BPCS-L

<chuckle>

Okay, you're forcing me to defend the honor of my erstwhile employer! Back in the 80s and 90s when I was the Manager of Architecture at SSA, I had a pretty solid insight into the delivery of the product. We never delivered software "unfinished" in order to gin up business for our associates. However, there were areas that we expected to be modified. For example we didn't put a ton of work into making a beautiful invoice because we knew that was the first thing that every one of our clients customized - and that no matter how fancy we made it, nobody would be happy.

I will say, though, that our first release of a PRODUCT (e.g., Finite Forward Scheduling, or JIT) might be pretty bare bones. That was a corporate philosophy: get the product out the door with basic functionality and let the field tell us what was needed. Typically it would take one release cycle for the product to be what I would consider to be fully featured.

Joe

Once upon a time SSA did much of its sales via 3rd parties, and it was
rumored that BPCS was deliberately shipped in an unfinished condition, so
the 3rd parties could make money finishing the job. But the story I am more
likely to believe is when a company does most of its sales via 3rd parties,
it tends to lose sight of what real customers need.

Search BPCS archives for more links to BPCS documentation.

Al Mac (WOW) = Alister William Macintyre
via WOW WAY.com ISP
2012 April I had a serious PC melt down, from which I am still recovering
-----Original Message-----
From: bpcs-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bpcs-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Paul Scyner
Sent: Monday, September 03, 2012 2:25 AM
To: 'bpcs-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: Re: [BPCS-L] Billing re-print automation

Hi Al,

Thanks for the pointers to the BPCs documentation - I'll have a look at that
today.
As a side-line we've been using our modified invoice re-print for years
(using a prompt for an invoice range). As we have a fairly straight-forward
setup here we can request an invoice number and it will always be the right
one. I've always felt SSA/Infor/whoever_next need to get their combined
heads together and work out what customers want and not what's easy for them
to code - but I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one to think that!

Best regards,
Paul

Paul Scyner
IT Manager

Tel: 01698355723
Fax: 01698372505
Sales Direct Line: 08450607607 (UK Only)
Service Direct Line: 08450603603 (UK Only)
Email: Paul_Scyner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Web: www.daiwasports.co.uk
Daiwa Sports Ltd.
Netherton Industrial Estate,
Wishaw,
ML2 0EY
UK

This e-mail and any attachment, is confidential. If you received it in
error, please delete it from your system, do not use or disclose the
information in any way, and please notify me immediately. The contents of
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Sports Limited, unless specifically stated.
Daiwa Sports Limited, Netherton Industrial Estate, Wishaw, ML2 0EY
Registered in England - Registration No. 1295286

Please consider the environment before printing this email.

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Today's Topics:

1. Re: Billing re-print automation (Al Mac Wow)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

message: 1
date: Thu, 30 Aug 2012 14:45:05 -0500
from: "Al Mac Wow"<macwheel99@xxxxxxxxxx>
subject: Re: [BPCS-L] Billing re-print automation

I am on version 405CD and somewhat familiar with this from long past
efforts.

I believe SYS656 is associated with verification that the person running the
BPCS tasks is in fact one of the authorized BPCS users. When we sign onto
BPCS interactively, through BPECEMENU CL, this calls into our library list
and Job description, a cacophony of conditions and settings associated with
our BPCS profile settings.

When we launch a BPCS job to JOBQ from our interactive reality, it carries
with it this cacophony of settings and authorizations, so everything works
fine. Someone trying to setup something outside of BPCS, to launch some
modified software, which might be invoked by CALL CMDSCDE or other System
i/400 capability outside of BPCS, needs to understand and replicate that
cacophony. This is explained in BPCSDOC file, which we can access via PDM.
Look for the member SSALOG00 which is a logic manual explaining how BPCS
works, including the cacophony of weird settings needed by people doing
modifications and add-ons to BPCS.

I feel there is a need for a BIL561 version which could reprint a string of
invoices based on a date range, cust# range, etc. It seems to me that
BIL561 has a prompt-like program to get the info needed to reprint ONE
invoice, so what is needed is a parallel program to get a string of such
info packages, and be connected to a spool file which does not end getting
added to until all the inner pieces have quit running.

Al Mac (WOW) = Alister William Macintyre via WOW WAY.com ISP
2012 April I had a serious PC melt down, from which I am still recovering
-----Original Message-----
From: bpcs-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bpcs-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Paul Scyner
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2012 6:15 AM
To: 'bpcs-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: [BPCS-L] Billing re-print automation

Hi,

I'm trying to create an automated process that uses the BPCS reprint program
BIL561. However, it's crashing with an error that points to program SYS656CC
and I a tad confused about it. I think it's to do with a job failing to send
a message to a workstation message queue, but I wondered if anyone had
already done something similar and how they approached it.

By the way, we're on version 6.0.02.

Regards,
Paul

Paul Scyner
IT Manager

Tel: 01698355723
Fax: 01698372505
Sales Direct Line: 08450 607607 (UK Only)
Service Direct Line: 08450 603603 (UK Only)
Email: paul_scyner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:paul_scyner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Web: www.daiwasports.co.uk<http://www.daiwasports.co.uk>

[Daiwa - Feel Alive]

Daiwa Sports Ltd.
Netherton Industrial Estate
Wishaw
ML2 0EY
UK

This e-mail and any attachment, is confidential. If you received it in
error, please delete it from your system, do not use or disclose the
information in any way, and please notify me immediately. The contents of
this message may contain personal views which are not the views of Daiwa
Sports Limited, unless specifically stated.

Daiwa Sports Limited, Netherton Industrial Estate, Wishaw, ML2 0EY
Registered in England - Registration No. 1295286

[cid:imagecff697.GIF@03933e25.46a28790] Please consider the environment
before printing this email.

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