The 2006 MAC-PAC XE User Input Workshop held March 15th in Columbus, Ohio attracted a good turnout and valuable interaction. Most companies sent both a financial person and an IT representative to participate.

The focus of this workshop was on TDCI's plans for modernizing MAC-PAC XE's capabilities for business intelligence and analytics, and on specific enhancements in the area of financial information and activities. This focus was selected based on input received in the 2005 "MAC-PAC XE Modernization Ideas" survey.

As part of the agenda, Dinesh Dhamija, TDCI Vice President of Engineering and Chief Technical Officer overviewed tentative TDCI plans for a new MAC-PAC XE information access framework consisting of:

• Role-based information portals with metrics dashboards, access to business intelligence data marts, and flexible new MAC-PAC XE reports that include built-in sort and filter options.
• MAC-PAC data views/models to make it easier to produce reports.
• An extended MAC-PAC XE reporting database.
• SQL-driven e-mail notifications/alerts.

Linda Stroup and Kaushal Vyas then delivered a working proof-of-concept demonstration using the tools. The demonstration was very well received and TDCI noted user input such as:

• "Focus portals on 'actionable information' such as key indicators that are out of a pre-defined range or target."
• "Allow for very different views of the same information for different people/roles."
• "Allow information to be easily re-sorted by just about anything - e.g. for many types of information, the ability to sort by dollar value can make it much easier to quickly identify the items that are most important."

With the framework as a backdrop, the group discussed specific core MAC-PAC XE enhancement ideas to support information access and reporting in the areas of Accounts Payable (AP), Accounts Receivable (AR), General Ledger (GL), and Inventory Accounting (IA). Examples of some of the ideas identified were:

• "Provide the ability to maintain multiple contacts for customers and suppliers - this is often needed by collections and A/P personnel."
• "Provide the ability to link post-billing credit memos to the related sales order."
• "Provide a better way to keep track of customer call history for collections and other financial customer contact."

Another session focused on the nature and use of data marts. The contents of existing data marts for financial reporting and sales analysis were reviewed with the attendees. Criteria for when the flexibility of a multi-dimensional data mart is more effective than direct reporting from the MAC-PAC XE database was also discussed. One side point that became clear during this session was that better availability of information from Inventory Accounting (IA) would be valuable to many of the companies.

A general discussion period rounded out the agenda. In that session, TDCI solicited input about the value of adding a web services API for MAC-PAC XE, and the reaction from the attendees was very favorable. TDCI will therefore formulate a plan to get user involvement in defining this initiative as well.

Besides the formal agenda, participants had the opportunity to talk with each other and TDCI managers during breaks and lunch.

Participants felt the session was well worthwhile. Many said that their companies currently have various types of "business performance improvement" initiatives (e.g. Lean, Six Sigma, etc.) that require new information and measurements, and that the tools discussed in the workshop would be very helpful to those programs. One attendee commented: "The focus TDCI has chosen here for modernization of MAC-PAC XE matches our priorities very well. We're anxious to get our hands on some of these tools and enhancements!'"

TDCI felt the workshop was very productive, especially given the valuable input they received from the attendees. "We got some input that was more or less expected from this workshop, and some that was unexpected," said Gary Addison, TDCI MAC-PAC XE Product Manager. "We now have a good foundation and a variety of customer perspectives to help drive development of these new tools."

Based on the workshop and follow-on research, TDCI will present a refined vision of information access development plans, as well as details of specific enhancements, at Perspectives 2006 - this year's TDCI Customer Forum, August 20-23 at the Hilton Columbus Hotel in the Easton Town Center. An initial set of new capabilities and enhancements is targeted for availability by the end of 2006. Plan now to attend Perspectives 2006 to learn all about it!