Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Horizon Trucking Software - Dispatch Training

I was looking at the results of the Dispatch poll and found it interesting that one of the responses was that it was tough to find the right truck or driver for a load.

I looked into our default installations and realized that Load Planner is installed but not activated. If you activate Load Planner by choosing Add in the Manage Services area, choose LOADPLAN.SVC and then you have a great tool for finding what driver/tractor is closest to a shipment or what units are near a pickup or current location.

I've put together a little video of it here.

Horizon Trucking Software - Dispatch Training

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Dispatch Administrator Training

We've added a new section to the Dispatch Training on the web site.

For those administrators who want to learn how to customize the dispatch screen sets or set up business rules, we'll be posting more training videos there.

The first one, Using Dynamic Color Coding with Dispatch, lets you set up multiple conditions for colors in the Customizer quickly and easily.

Horizon Trucking Software - Dispatch Training

New Custom Billing Update for Multiple Revenue Code Line Item Details

A new update was posted on July 12th for Custom Billing.

This update resolves a problem where invoices that use multiple revenue codes for line items may not have their line items appear in the same order after processing.

This has been corrected. Please use the Horizon Installation Manager to download the most recent version of Custom Billing, which is version 2.0.38.


Release List

Saturday, July 09, 2005

Minor Updates Made on July 7th, 2005

Some new updates were posted on July 7th. Be sure to download the most recent updates by clicking What's Available in your Horizon Installation Manager.

These updates are primarily fixes for problems noted in the new release and include the following:

Custom Billing 2.0.37.0
EXTRA LINE ITEM DETAILS LIKE ITEM # AND ACK # NOT SAVING ALL THE(4600)
The additional fields on the Billing Detail line item screen will now save correctly when adding new lien items in Horizon Billing.

Fix Journal File 2.0.6.0
does not record the transaction date correctly for cash payment (4610)
The Fix Journal File utility will now use the transaction date from the Cash Receipts and Adjustments file when necessary.

Horizon Circle of Service 2.0.53.0
Exceptions not found until manual process (4582)
The Automatic processing in Horizon Circle of Service has been improved to prevent possible lockups.

Horizon Settlements 2.0.42.0
lkupfull.prg is not included in default installation (4586)
Lkupfull, a function used by several Trip Settlement reports is now built-in to the application.

Purchase Orders 2.0.4.0
PROBLEM ENTERING PO NUMBERS (4494)
Similar PO#s over 10 characters long will now save and display correctly in the Purchase Order entry screen.

Stops 2.0.13.0

NUMBER OF STOPS ON SHIPMENT NOT UPDATING (4611)
The number of Stop offs contained in the Shipment file will now be updated correctly when using the X to close out of the Stops screen.

Sunday, July 03, 2005

Steve's Transitions Journal: Customer Service and Sales Support as "Message Central"

I often get calls directly to my office from customers looking for assistance on a particular issue or wanting to know if a solution exists.

I always try to help out as much as possible but often get pulled away by other meetings. In many of those times, I say "have you asked support?" This isn't a brush-off - it's a valuable question because when a query comes through me, I will try to log it but it may be answered so quickly, it doesn't get logged or it may be one of those "hmmm....let me think about it" type of questions.

On the other hand, when something goes in through support, it really does get treated as the "message central" that Steve describes so well in this post. It is logged - but more importantly, it gets measured.

In recent demonstrations, our sales team cries out "what gets measured gets managed". But we try to do this internally as well. When a call comes into support, it gets logged into our tracking system but it also shows up on our daily statistics page (which is similar to ExecView).

While it might be nice if EVERY call you made to anyone at MTI was tracked that way, sometimes it's just not feasible. I may be on the road when I take your call or in the middle of another demonstration (the fact that I can multi-task in that circumstance is often NOT a blessing).

I always look for easier ways to ensure everyone hears the message of all the calls. For example, I mentioned RSS in a recent post, and I actually have RSS feeds for every call that gets updated from our Track system. That means, when a customer calls Dale or Peter or anyone, or if Todd or Tommy updates a call, I can find out about it - without waiting for details.

So when you see those emails coming out from support or anyone that says "refer to this number", don't think of it as simply assigning an issue to a number = think of it as your own personal telephone number for the problem you're having. That ANYONE at MTI can find out what's going on. And when you get off the phone with someone, anyone in the company, make sure you have that number. That way, you know, everyone's in the loop on what you need done.




Steve's Transitions Journal: Customer Service and Sales Support as "Message Central"