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Quick Tips and FAQs on the PRO-MAIL^® System

Providing support is an important part of helping our licensees get the most out of the PRO-MAIL^® System.  Here are some online tips on our most frequently asked support questions as well as some other helpful advice on maximizing the features inherent in the PRO-MAIL^® System. 

     Quick Tip of the Week

Demonstrating to your client - Part Two: Automatic Email Notifications

When demonstrating to a prospective client, you want to make sure to show how they will benefit from increased communication.  One of the many ways the PRO-MAIL^® Fulfillment Solution helps communicate between your internal staff, your clients, and your customers is with automatic email notifications.  Explain to your prospects that you can keep everyone informed with email notifications automatically generated for a variety of transactions.

Here’s a list of a few of the many emails created by the PRO-MAIL^® Fulfillment Solution:

For the customer:

• Order Confirmation with a link to order status information

• Shipping Confirmation with a package tracking link

For the licensee:

• Inventory Receipt Notification

• Under Stock Notification

• Inactive Inventory Notification

• Order Approval Request 

For the client:

• Any of the above can easily be sent to your client

More Quick Tips

Week of November 8, 2002

Demonstrating to your Client Part One: Ease of Use

One of the first things a prospective client wants to know is how easy is it for their CSRs, product managers, marketing staff, and customers to use your software system.  Is extensive training necessary? Can they easily enter orders online?

You can assure your prospect that the PRO-MAIL^® Fulfillment Solution is easy and intuitive to use.  Their staff can quickly learn how to inquire on products, run reports, and check inventory levels right from their desktop browser.  If the project requires online ordering, you can either create an easy to navigate web shopping cart or interface with a pre-existing one.  You can even save shipping information for pre-registered dealers and customers to help speed checkout. 

So don’t forget to show your prospects how easy it is to use the PRO-MAIL^® Fulfillment Solution and get the information they need.

Week of October 28, 2002

Patience is a Virtue, Especially in Sales!

In today’s challenging business climate, companies often focus on about keeping their pipeline full of qualified prospects and pending sales.  Sometimes salespeople can become frustrated if the client seems to be hesitant making a decision.  But even in a booming economy, building a profitable relationship with a prospective client takes time.  The bigger the fulfillment project, the longer it takes to close.  This especially holds true for long-term fulfillment projects.  If a client is going to give you a 2-3 year long project, they want to get to know you first.

In the recent Sales Training Seminar at Software Marketing, Tom Quinn discussed how the sales cycle can last 6 months to 2 years or longer for the big projects.  But the end result is worth the wait!  The effort you put into closing the first sale with a client lays the groundwork for making the next project easier to sell.  So keep your name in front of your clients and don’t give up hope.  Your effort with pay off in the end!

Week of October  14, 2002

Create Distribution Lists to Update your Staff on Support Questions

Now the Licensee Support System enables you to keep your staff updated on the progress of specific support questions.  For each support issues you submit, you can create a distribution list of users registered with the Licensee Support System from your company.  When email updates are sent regarding your support issues, everyone on your distribution list will receive a Carbon Copy.  In this way, you can keep your staff members informed with progress reports on important support issues. 

Week of September 23, 2002

Save Money and Time with Inventory Accountability

Reinforce to any of your potential fulfillment clients just how accurate the PRO-MAIL^® function of inventory accountability really is. A client may gain access to their product levels via the web at any time, reducing the need to perform huge cycle counts or full blown inventories. High priority items can be monitored monthly, weekly, even daily if need be, and any discrepancies can be resolved in a much more expedient fashion.

PRO-MAIL^® also allows you to monitor and adjust your inventory levels based on actual usage. This is accomplished through the use of automated reorder point notifications. Why have excess inventory of slower moving product taking up valuable space in your warehouse, when it could be replaced by a higher priority or more profitable item?

With PRO-MAIL^® in place you can look at the product history for any given period of time, establish minimum and maximum inventory levels, and accurately forecast when the next order needs to be placed. Excess inventories will be eliminated, and large cost savings will be realized.

Week of September 9, 2002

Download the Latest Patch Directly from SMA’s Website

Now instead of waiting for an email, licensees can download the latest patch directly from SMA’s website.  To download the latest patch, logon to the Licensee Support System from the Licensed User Corner and click the link to “Get Latest Patch” under the Utilities menu.  From this page, you can:

• See when and who last downloaded a patch

• Get information on the current patch

• Get patch loading instructions

• Download the latest patch

• View enhancements added since your last download

This new feature allows you get all the information you need to load new patches and get on with your workday.

Week of August 26, 2002

Harness the Power of Images

Simply adding product images, company logos, and graphics can make your web-shopping carts and order management systems look more sophisticated and easier to use.  As a result, we frequently receive lots of questions about using images in the Version 5 PRO-MAIL^® Fulfillment Solution.  Below are a few suggestions to help you use the power of images for your fulfillment projects:

1. Upon installing the V5 PRO-MAIL^® Fulfillment Solution, the system creates a default directory for your images called “sqlimages/(your company name)” on your SQL server.  This default image directory is displayed in Setup > System Information.  In order to organize your images, we suggest that you create a separate directory for each of your customers (i.e. “sqlimages/BikesInc”).   TO change your local directory, go to Utilities > Update Local Image Directories. This utility will change all LOCAL directory paths, in Offers and Views, from one name to another.

2. To view the images you already have, click on the Browse Image button to display all the images you have stored in your SQL Image Directory

3. For the Thumbnail Image ID and Full Image ID setups, the system is expecting either a "jpg" or a "gif".  You cannot use a "pdf" in these fields.

4. As a starting point for sizing thumbnails, we recommend 50 to 60 pixels in height and width for creating thumbnails.

Week of August 19, 2002

Use Warehouse Waves to Maximize your Productivity 

Maintaining efficient warehouse production is crucial to a successful fulfillment project.  With PRO-MAIL^®’s Warehouse Waves, you can maximize operational efficiency by determining when and how your work is processed.  This feature allows you to:

• Segregate your fulfillment work by system origin, Request Types (e.g. Regular & Rush Shipping Orders), 

          Product Types, and Freight Carriers

• Determine Processing cycles (Automatically, Daily or Hourly)

• Determine if you will use Staging Areas

• Sort and batch your fulfillment transactions

• Determine which outputs (Picking Slip, Staging Manifest, Assembly Manifest, etc.) are printed and where

• Determine Shipping tracking levels

If you have multiple warehouse waves, you can prioritize them so that more urgent orders and time-sensitive items can be processed first.  Using warehouse waves enables you to organize your warehouse production while providing your clients with accurate, efficient, and speedy service.

Week of August 12, 2002

Confirm your Manifest and Keep your System Up-to-date

We all know that communicating with our co-workers is crucial, but what about communicating with your PRO-MAIL^® System?  If you are pulling products or building kits in your staging area it is important that you confirm the transactions.  If you attempt to ship prior to confirming, PRO-MAIL^® will tell you there is an insufficient quantity to fill your request.  This is because, from the system’s point of view, you have not pulled the items to the staging area.  The shipping process attempts to reduce the quantity in the staging area where the picking slip indicates to pick from.  By not confirming the manifest the quantity in staging is not updated properly, leaving the products in their bulk locations.  Confirming your open manifests keeps the PRO-MAIL^® System updated and makes your job easier.

Week of August 5, 2002

Enhanced Support with the New Online Licensee Support System 

Faster, more efficient support is now available through the online Licensee Support System!  Ask questions, access V4 & V5 documents, register new systems, post and review issues and check your current release level all in one convenient place.   Audit trails for questions and issues are kept to aid in quicker response time and issue resolution. 

For more information on:

The Licensee Support System

Licensee Support System User Guide (pdf)

Week of July 29, 2002

Configuring Your Web Server to Work Outside a Firewall (pdf)

Provides links to Microsoft white pages that guide you through configuring your web server and troubleshooting firewall issues.

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