Ed. Note: OK, we're big fibbers and it's not a typo. This issue is going out one day late due to the fact that I was on my hols ('vacation' to most of you) and forgot to set the machine to automagically transmit yesterday. Apologies.  --MO'D

SAFE/X Tip: Even More Locator Stuff: Ctrl-Shift-R!
Continuing on with the Swiss Army Knife that is the Locator, we now come to yet another little, but very handy enhancements to SAFE/X, namely the Row Value Locator hot key ( Ctrl-Shift-R). It's probably best explained with a short example:

You're in the Sales History Line Item Browse. A gazillion records are displaying (business is booming!) You have the Customer ID column selected and the current row's Customer ID is 'SMITH' (for 'Smith Bros. Company'.)

Now, press Ctrl-Shift-R.

This pops the value 'SMITH' into the Locator and the browse is instantly filtered to only display records with the Customer ID of 'SMITH'.

You're in the Product Browse. You have the Form Number column selected and the current row's Form Number is 'ENV.1002'.

Again, press Ctrl-Shift-R.

This pops the value 'ENV.1002' into the Locator and the browse is instantly filtered to only display records with the Form Number of 'ENV.1002', including:

ENV.1002
ENV.1002A
ENV.10020.REVC

SUMMARY
This may seem like 'no big deal', at first. It may even seem not worth the trouble to remember. But give it a chance. Everyone we've encountered who has committed it to memory now claims they can't live without it. Something of an exaggeration, perhaps, but still... It probably means it's worth a try.

Til Next Time!

Ollie Tip: Blast Mails!
As we've been discussing, it's very important to keep your users informed about the status of orders. One way to help your Admin User to do this is to use Ollie's Blast Mail feature. A Blast Mail is an e-mail message that an Admin User can send off to all their users in one fell swoop. A Blast Mail is purpose driven, so you can execute them from several different places in Ollie. In each case, the people who get sent to and the content of the message changes depending on that purpose. These include:

Item History: An e-mail is sent to the original User for each tagged Order. In the case of multiple orders placed by the same order, those items are combined together into a single message.

There are many uses for this. One broad category of uses would be to do 'in one fell swoop' what you would previously have done 'one at a time.' For example, you may want to alert all User(s) to re-order the tagged items. Another such Blast Mail might be to notify all Users which have Releases which have been delayed.

Open Order Viewer: An e-mail is sent to the original User for each tagged Order which has yet to be approved or processed. This alerts them of any necessary changes. As with Item History, in the case of multiple orders placed by the same order, those items are combined together into a single message.

User Manager: From this screen, you can send the same message to all tagged Users. Think of this as a 'broadcast' e-mail.

Products: This Blast Mail is a little different from the previous options. In this case, you're sending an e-mail which includes a list of tagged Products. You have the option to send the e-mail to a single User or to all Users which are linked to the Product (allowed to Order or allowed to Release.)

In each case, the procedure is the same; you tag the records you wish to e-mail, then click the Blast Mail icon to proceed. From there, it's simply a matter of typing in your message and pressing 'Send'.

SUMMARY
Blast Mails can be tremendous time-savers for Administrators. They can be used to send 'broadcast' messages, alert all users with open orders requiring attention, remind users of products that need to be re-ordered, and many other tasks that would previously have required repetitious typing of e-mails.

Til Next Time!
 

Ciaran's Corner: IT vs. Us
About once a year we engage in an ongoing cage-death match with an IT firm. Typically, this is a firm that a customer of ours hired without our imprimatur. What's that you say? The arrogance! 'Without your imprimatur'.

BACKGROUND
Many people who start small IT firms... the kind that you might hire, are a bit like ex-military who start their own private security firm. They are used to working with a paradigm of large firms. And it is, in fact, their big company experience that they are selling. Now in that world, IT rules with an iron hand. This makes sense because, in a larger firm there are usually many mission-critical applications that all must happily co-exist in order for the business to function. To manage this, corporate IT sharply limits everyone's access. Users, vendors, managers. Everyone. And there is a necessary beauracracy---a user reports a problem to IT. IT reports the problem to the vendor. The vendor reports back to IT. IT reports back to the user. It's slow, but it's the only way to make certain that someone (IT) manages 'the big picture'.

In our smaller world--with our typical customer profile? We tend to rule. And we like it that way, I guess. This is because, for the vast majority of you, SAFE is the mission critical application. We know what it takes to make it work properly with all common applications (eg. Microsoft, IBM, Corel, Novell) so we tend to cut out the middle man. We want total control over our application's little world. We want on demand access in case a problem needs immediate attention. And we want to make sure that whatever hardware or software you are installing is compatible with SAFE. In short, we want final say-so because you pay us to make certain that a mission-critical app is always running tip-top.

Boy, are we controlling sods or what? :D

Now many IT shops are totally OK with our approach. And why not? We're taking responsibility off their shoulders, plus they recognise that involving them in every aspect of SAFE support can horribly slow our ability to respond. Again, they realise that it's in everyone's interest to cut out the middle man. Occasionally, they'll have you or us sign a CYA agreement (I'm sure you know the acronym, but if not it's basically a letter absolving them of any responsibility should your system catch fire or be taken over by Barbary Pirates because they allowed Suntower Systems access.) But after twenty three years and zero incidents where a company was 'hacked' because of our applications we're not all that concerned any more and after a reasonable trial period, they stopped worrying as well.

And you shouldn't be concerned either... that's really my point. Go back a few sentences: we've had zero (the big donut) incidents where a server running SAFE was damaged either by external forces (hackers) or our misdeeds. Just hasn't happened. Dumb luck? Or maybe by now we know what we're doing. You make the call!

TOO MUCH?
On the other hand, some IT shops are unimpressed. They want to apply Big IT standards to your business. In fact, that's one of their main selling points. And as I said at the outset it is a selling point. Because what they are often selling is their big company standards as a kind of insurance. It isn't so much a selling point if they don't push this approach--even though it may be overkill for you,

Too much, you say? How can one have too much security? Too much care? Of course you can. You don't buy more insurance than you need. You don't buy locks that are too big for your doors. You buy the right amount of insurance. And the right size of locks. But when you interview an IT company, one of their most impressive credentials will be showing how rigorous they can be. It's tough for us to speak against this, because, again, it can be a very visceral thing; like trying to talk someone out of too much insurance; or too large an alarm system. More is better, right?

The problem of course, is that the more control they exert, the tighter your system is 'locked down', the harder it can be for us to do our job. They may want to limit our ability to update the software, or make it difficult to allow our remote control access. Both of these are noble ideals---making it tough to 'connect' is one way to keep out 'the bad guys'. A common strategy will be to only allow remote access using their software. And then it gets ugly.

EIGHT THOUSAND STORIES IN THE NAKED CITY
Last time I checked, there were over one hundred software packages that offer 'remote access' for business. We simply can't support them all. So we do the only fair thing--we support one of them---the one built into Microsoft Windows Server, which everyone has and which costs you nothing. Is it the fastest? Nope? Is it the most secure? Nope. Is it quite adequate? Yes, indeed. When properly configured it easily achieves a level of performance and security that many Fortune 100 and US government agencies trust. So what we insist upon is that any IT firm you engage configure your servers to allow us access using Microsoft's tools.

GETTING TO THE POINT
As I said at the opening, about once a year, we are confronted with a firm that we know you've hired in good faith, but which will simply not cooperate with that last sentence. They want us to conform to their standards--which, given our customer base is simply impossible. So then the customer is caught in the middle--who to believe? The conservative IT company down the street or the faceless 'Suntower' people far, far away? But at the end of the day, we always have to pull our trump card and it is this... You trust our software to run your business. So why not give us the tools we need to properly run the software!

LET'S WORK TOGETHER
What works best, of course, is cooperation. And the best way to insure that is to start the discussion before you buy anything or engage anyone else. Talk to us. We'll help you choose an IT firm. We'll happily spec the proper hardware... or sell it to you ourselves with a guarantee of performance. Our goal is not to be an IT shop or a hardware vendor or cut into the IT guy in any way. All we care about is that your network is set up to run SAFE tip-top. Frankly, we could care less who sets it up or who gets the hardware sales. There is no conflict of interest. But we have to work well together and that means that your IT company give us what we need to do our job.

Til Next Time!

Ciarān Marron
Technical Support Manager
cm@suntowersystems.com

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End of E-News From The Suntower, Volume X #15