October 31, 2007   Volume 6 - Issue 3

TDCI.com | MAC-PAC | Training | TDCI Contacts   

In this issue:
»   News and Announcements
»   Perspectives 2007 Recap
»   Special Section - EOY Processing Reminders
»   Enhancement and PTF Update
»   Tip of the Month

News & Announcements

Cosmolab Set to Deploy MAC-PAC XE™ Priority Manager
Cosmolab Inc. (Cosmolab), the largest private label manufacturer of color cosmetics in the U.S. , and a MAC-PAC user since 1989, has licensed MAC-PAC XE Priority Manager (Priority Manager) on the annual usage fee basis recently announced by TDCI Inc. (TDCI). This affordable licensing option has been made possible by TDCI's investment to acquire the rights to the product from Systems Plus for the MAC-PAC XE user base.

“Our production and materials people have been interested in Priority Manager for quite awhile, but until now the software cost was just too high for us,” says Julie Johnsey, Cosmolab Scheduling Supervisor. “We are very pleased that TDCI has acquired the rights to Priority Manager. We see the new low-cost annual usage fee option as a major benefit of having a MAC-PAC XE Maintenance and Support Plan.”   More>>

ERICO International Signs MAC-PAC XE™ Maintenance and Support Agreement
ERICO International (ERICO), a MAC-PAC user since 1995, has recently signed a MAC-PAC XE Maintenance and Support Agreement with TDCI. Even though ERICO has remained an active MAC-PAC XE user, the company had been off maintenance since Andersen Consulting turned support over to TDCI in 1998.   More>>

Watlow Electric Offers Webinar on MAC-PAC XE and Lean Manufacturing
One of the most popular sessions at the recent Perspectives 2007 conference was a session titled “MAC-PACXE in a Lean Environment” presented by Jim Susic from Watlow Electric. In this session, Jim presented a review of practical data setup and usage changes Watlow has implemented to improve the way MAC-PAC XE supports lean manufacturing within their company.

Because so many people were interested in seeing this presentation again and/or wanted additional people in their company to see it, Jim has kindly agreed to present the session again as a webinar. It is scheduled for:

Day: Wednesday, November 28th
Time: 11:00 Eastern Standard Time

If you would like to participate, just contact Shelley Horn to register and get login details.

User Advisory Boards Expanded and Renamed
TDCI is pleased to announce changes to the makeup of the MAC-PAC XE user advisory board, as well as the formation of a new user advisory board for the BuyDesign product.

Also, since there are now two ‘user’ advisory boards, we will now refer to them as the MAC-PAC XE Advisory Board (MPAB) and the BuyDesign Advisory Board (BDAB).

Both advisory boards will provide executive-level input and act as sounding boards for TDCI on issues related to their respective products and associated services. The original User Advisory Board has been a valuable communication channel among TDCI and TDCI customers, and we expect to continue and improve upon that process with this new focused structure.    More >>

MAC-PAC XE Solution Partner News
Several TDCI solution partners currently have special programs or promotions going on for MAC-PAC XE users. These include:

• Independent Systems
• MAPSYS, Inc.
• Nutech Systems
• Quadrant Software

MAC-PAC XE Webinar Series Coming in Q1 2008
TDCI and TDCI solution partners will be hosting a series of webinars on various MAC-PAC XE products and services January – March, 2008. Topics will range from solution overviews to user case studies and interactive input sessions. All webinars will be free, and you can easily attend from the comfort of your own office or conference room. Watch for an e-mail announcement with specific topics, dates, times, and registration information in December.

ITR Industries and Temtrol Select BuyDesign®
Two more manufacturers have selected TDCI’s BuyDesign Guided Selling and Configuration solution for integration with various ERP systems. Read the press releases:

ITR Industries Selects BuyDesign Guided Selling and Configuration Software – Leading Toilet Partition Manufacturer to Use BuyDesign to Streamline Dealer Quoting and Ordering Process

Temtrol Selects BuyDesign Guided Selling and Configuration Software from TDCI – Commercial/Industrial HVAC Manufacturer Set to Enhance Sales Processes for Custom-Tailored Air Handling Units and Coils

TDCI Announces BuyDesign Public Training Schedule
With the steadily growing base of companies using TDCI’s BuyDesign Guided Selling and Configuration solution, TDCI recognizes the need for regularly scheduled public BuyDesign classes companies can use to train employees on how to use key BuyDesign capabilities to perform their jobs. Two classes are now being offered on a monthly basis:

• BuyDesign 5.0 Configurator Studio – a 4-day class for BuyDesign Configurator rules developers
• BuyDesign 5.0 InTouch – a 3-day class for Customer Support personnel and BuyDesign System Administrators

Visit http://www.tdci.com/buydesign/services/BDtraining.htm for class descriptions, schedule, and registration details.

MAC-PAC XE™ and BuyDesign® Users Gather at 10th Annual TDCI Customer Forum

Perspectives 2007 Marks 10th TDCI MAC-PAC User Meeting

Perspectives 2007, held September 16-19 in Columbus, was by all accounts another very successful TDCI Customer Forum. With over 150 attendees from more than 50 companies, customer attendance once again grew over 30% from the previous year. The number of complementary solution providers was also up over 2006.

This year’s Customer Forum was the 10th annual TDCI user conference. The first conference was the initial TDCI-run MAC-PAC user meeting held in 1998 shortly after TDCI took over customer support from Andersen Consulting.   Read the full recap >>

MAC-PAC XE Production Management, Reporting, and Configurator Solutions Featured at Perspectives 2007

Three important new MAC-PAC XE solutions were featured at Perspectives 2007:

• MAC -PAC XE Priority Manager
• Insights for MAC -PAC XE, including a new Inventory Analytics component
• BuyDesign Configurator for MAC -PAC XE

BuyDesign 5.0 Demonstrated at Perspectives 2007

Launched in July, BuyDesign Release 5.0 delivers numerous functional, technical, performance, and ease-of-use enhancements driven largely by input from the growing community of BuyDesign users in the building products, equipment, machinery, and specialty vehicle markets.   Read about these featured solutions >>

Solution Partners Present, Demonstrate, and Discuss Complementary Solutions for MAC-PAC XE™ and BuyDesign® Users

Solution Center Features Broad Range of Complementary Solutions and Services

Representatives from a growing range of complementary solution providers exhibited and presented solutions that extend MAC-PAC XE and/or BuyDesign at Perspectives 2007. These included:

• Independent Systems
• MAPSYS Inc
• Mincron Software Systems
• Nutech Systems
• Pacejet Logistics Inc.
• Quadrant Software
• Systems Plus
• Top-Down Systems
• Vertical Solutions Inc.
• Vizion Solutions

Special Section – End of Year MAC-PAC XE Processing Reminders

EOY Processing Reminders

As the end of 2007 approaches, remember to prepare for your year-end activities. Although your specific procedures may vary, the basic MAC-PAC procedures are documented in detail on the support website. The timing of these steps is critical, so please take some time to review the procedures before the New Year arrives. Many steps can be performed before the last day of the year, others must be done on the last day, and others must take place after the New Year starts. Year end activities need to be a joint effort between IT and Accounting to insure a smooth transition into 2008.

The procedures include but are not limited to the following topics:

• 1099 processing for your vendors
• Standard cost changes and accounting cost generation
• Changes to calendars – shop floor, purchasing, sales, accounting
• Database audits and audit trail activities
• Final period posting

The specific details can be obtained by visiting the support website and accessing Helpful Hints and then Year End Procedures - http://www.tdci.com/support.htm.

Enhancement and PTF Update

New MAC-PAC XE PTFs Available

Many new MAC-PAC XE core application PTFs have been completed in the last few months. Problems resolved are:

New MAC-PAC XE core application enhancements completed in the last few months:

Full descriptions of these and other MAC-PAC XE enhancements and PTFs are available for download at www.tdci.com/macpac. Click ‘Support Login' at the top of the screen, then click either ‘Enhancements' or ‘Software Fixes' after logging in.

MAC-PAC XE Online Support is available 24x7 to companies that are currently active on the TDCI MAC-PAC XE Maintenance & Support Service. 

Tip of the Month

Each MAC-PAC Tip of the Month is a selected Expert Reference Note (ERN) from the MAC-PAC ‘Helpful Hints' database in the MAC-PAC website. You can get the full text of this note or search the database by logging in to Support, then selecting ‘Helpful Hints' at www.tdci.com/macpac.

Q:   Does MAC-PAC provide part cost audit trails?

A:    Prior to enhancement KB25, the audit trail file DE100BP5 - Audit Trail Report Record - Change Cost, would only audit changes to one of the eight Part Cost Maintenance Header fields (current rollover code flag, simulated rollover code flag, standard cost rollup code flag, average order quantity flag, current labor - this level flag, current overhead - this level flag, standard labor - this level flag, and standard overhead - this level flag).

Enhancement KB25 will provide the ability to record changes made to any manually maintained cost field through Part Cost Maintenance, Workcenter Rate Maintenance, Miscellaneous Cost Maintenance, Warehouse Costs Maintenance, and Configuration Code Maintenance. Additionally, this enhancement will provide the ability to record cost generation request for Accounting Cost Generation, Configuration Cost Regeneration, Cost Generation /Simulation, and Cost Rollover.

Enhancement KB25 adds nine new audit trail/transaction register files. Eight of the files create audit trails and transaction registers for manual cost changes in modules Design Engineering, Expert Configurator, Inventory Control, and Manufacturing Engineering.

The ninth file is used by the Common Features module to provide an audit trail for changes to costs due to cost generation or cost rollover requests that are not recorded by any of the other eight new files. This portion of the enhancement provides the ability to record cost change generation requests in modules Product Costing, Expert Configurator, and Inventory Accounting.

Search Helpful Hint # CBAE-64CRSS on the MAC-PAC Web Site for full text of this tip.

Tell us your wish!

Now you can easily submit any idea you have for any MAC-PAC XE component to TDCI development. Just send an e-mail describing your idea to the appropriate e-mail address for the product you wish to see enhanced. TDCI will acknowledge receipt of your input, review it, and take it into consideration in future planning. Please be as specific as possible when describing your request – the clearer your request, the easier it will be for us to consider.

e-mail addresses for MAC-PAC XE products are as follows:
> Core MAC-PAC XE applications: macpacwish@tdci.com
> BuyDesign: buydesignwish@tdci.com
> TDCI Integration Server: iswish@tdci.com