Email and phone maintenance

Both our phone company and email provider have coincidently invoked a perfect storm of  maintenance today and both services may be unreliable. If you need help and cannot wait, please use the emergency number 07470 525348.  It’s probably best to assume that any emails and phone messages sent/left today may not arrive as intended.

Company document list

We have added a script to the library that allows you to list all your official company documents and images within Match-IT. Each document can have an arbitrary number of revision records. As well as being generally useful, it is attractive to auditors.

The data comprising the list (not the documents themselves) is stored within the Match-IT database so no ancillary backup procedures are needed. Documents are linked and can be viewed from the list. In reality any file can be added and linked including images and spreadsheets etc.

Get in touch if you would like us to install it for you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quite a lot of interest in this. One common request is to add a document class field and a filter on class, which we have now done.

Support ticket emails

It has become apparent that auto-generated emails to support ticket updates have not been delivered to our customers for the last week (ish). We’re not sure exactly when this started, but the problem has now been resolved with our ISP and we have added measures to catch it immediately, should it happen again. If you are waiting on an urgent ticket update, please get in touch so we can bring you up to speed.

DHL Invoice script

We have created a script that creates a CSV file from an invoice in a format required by DHL for Customs. Contact us if you would like it installed on your Match-IT system.

Converting to our SQL back-end.

During the remainder of 2022, we will be converting all customer installations to our SQL back-end, which has many advantages: far more reliable, WiFi friendly, accessible by websites and report generators etc.

We’ll call you to discuss a suitable time to do the conversion and undertake to target evenings/weekends to minimise your downtime.

Call us on 0333 1234 355 if you have any queries.

Changes added for Brexit

1. New OL module defaults available in all paperwork-

Economic Operators Registration Identification (EORI) number

European Control Classification Number (ECCN)

Government Contract number (GCN)

2. Country Of Origin (COO). Uses the existing country code class. New MC default as the backstop. Then optionally definable on a per supplier part basis. Available on sales dispatch and sales invoice line paperwork. This means that if you buy the same part from suppliers in different countries and resell it, the appropriate COO is pulled through on the dispatch and invoice paperwork.

3. Incoterms. New code class and SD default as the backstop. Then optionally overridden in each sales invoice. Available on Sales invoice paperwork. Default can be customer specific.

4. The NumBoxes and SizeandWeight fields already on sales dispatches have been replicated in sales invoices (and available on paperwork).

These changes will cover most scenarios (with some manual effort needed like invoice gross freight weight) and can be evolved to cover edge cases if needed. Qualifiers can also be added to the invoices and dispatches as needed for custom requirements.

Features update

1.  Patton Air enforce very stringent dispatch paperwork/labelling etc requirements, which we have successfully implemented at two sites in the UK.  We have also implemented similar requirements at other sites, including in the USA.  If your customers are also starting to enforce dispatch rules, please do get in touch with us to discuss a solution.

2. To kick off a committed effort to gradually improve CRM capabilities, we have implemented infrastructure that allows qualifiers to be displayed in existing lists.  For example, you may have created qualifier fields for your customer/supplier records.  These can now also be displayed in the list of all customers/suppliers.

3. We would like to try and get everybody up-to-date with the latest version, as it contains several stability improvements.  We are happy to do the upgrades ourselves in the evenings and weekends to avoid any extra down time for you.  Please contact support to arrange your upgrade.

4.  All the the latest changes to Match-IT can be found here:  http://match-it.com/software/release.htm#latest

Feature update

1.  SQL backend.  This was a huge undertaking by Dave Nichols and one customer has been trialling it for many months now without problems.  Having a SQL backend opens up Match-IT to generic report writing and the internet; for example your customers could create orders that appear in Match-IT and get their order’s status etc.  It’s also an alternative way of writing scripts if you have any coders in house.  We now have excellent in-house web skills ourselves (PHP, Javascript, node.js etc) and can help you build such interfaces.  We targetted PostgreSQL for it’s technical excellence and it is available for free at the link below.  If you would like us to set up a parallel SQL version of your system for you to trial it, please call on the support line and let us know.  It is available under your existing support agreement.

https://www.postgresql.org

2.  Cus/Sup reviews.  After feedback from auditors we have added a customer/supplier review system which forces you to review their details every N days (default 365).  They are considered to be unapproved if this is not done, which satisfies the auditing requirement.  This is available in builds from February this year.

3. A tip.  Many virus checkers target mapped drives which means that you need to exempt the Match-IT mapped drive on your PCs (imagine tens of PCs all having a virus checker targeting files on the server via a mapped drive).  This can cause problems when you get a new PC or update the virus checker etc.  The probem can be eliminated completely by deleting the mapped drive on the PC and using a “UNC path” in the shortcut to Match-IT instead.  i.e. instead of something like m:\sys\match_go.exe it becomes \\myservername\match_it\sys\match_go.exe.  If you would like this done, let us know your IT contact and we’ll speak to them.

We will leave it at that for now and detail more changes in the next newsletter.  Match-IT is in active daily development; including tracking upsets caused by Windows updates and a full list is always available in the link below; a useful shortcut to add to your browser toolbar maybe.

http://match-it.com/software/release.htm#latest

Version 21.5.3 Released

Build 21.5.3 has now been released and will be available to download from 30/06/16.

This build has been tested in-house, however we cannot guarantee it to be problem free.

Please trial the new system before committing to it.

NOTE: To install this release you must be running version 21.4.4 or later, if you are not already running that you must first upgrade to 21.4.4 before you can upgrade to 21.5.2. Version 21.4.4 can be downloaded from the download section. Continue reading