enrich V5.6.40 Highlights

January, 2006

Quality: New Internal Processes

The biggest part of the enrich v5.6.40 release has been in the application of a series of new quality control processes within the software development, test and release cycle. Although this effort is not reflected in any specific enrichment, the benefits will accrue across the software and to all of the users of enrich.

 

Over the course of the last year, RSG has implemented a series of changes to its development and testing cycles which ensures that each new release of enrich will result in seamless and reliable upgrades. These changes include:

  • The addition of 2 new resources within the Quality Management department.
  • The adoption of a change management process, developed from the latest and best practices of the software industry, which provides for increased documentation and regular customer communication throughout the cycle.
  • A threefold increase in the time and effort allocated to testing.
  • A new release strategy which will endeavor to reduce the time to deliver enrichments to meet specific customer requirements and still extends a large measure of flexibility to allow customers to choose their own upgrade path.

Equipment Maintenance & Materials:

  • Update - VMRS 2000 - The updated version of code key 33 (2005 quarter 3) is now available.
  • New - Sublet Invoice Posting - Ability to post multiple invoices against a single sublet purchase order.
  • New - PO tracking - Users can now identify both the types of purchase orders and up to 4 steps in the processing of purchase orders and the posting of invoices for the purposes of audit reporting. A new report is available that details the actions taken and the variance of the purchase orders.
  • Enhancement - PO Pricing - Purchase order cost can now be modified on parts that have not been received.
  • Enhancement - Attaching PMs - When specific units are detached from equipment groups, the group will now maintain the PM template for all new units added to the group.
  • Enhancement - Warranty Triggers - New fields have been added to the equipment master to identify the start date and mileage for warranties. The system will check these new fields first before checking the in-service date and mileage.
  • Enhancement - PM Currency Report - New options for selecting alternative calculation methods.
  • New - Optional Data Field - New functionality allows users to define an unlimited number of data fields for additional data entry against the work order header and/or work order line. The new user-defined data is stored in a file that can be downloaded for further analysis. The data consist of a description field and a free form alpha / numeric field.
  • Enhancement - Warranty triggers - When parts are scanned using bar coding, the triggers now display on the Bar Code Access screens.
  • Enhancement - Repair History View - Additional view of the `Equipment Repair History' allows the repair history to be sequenced by unit, descending WO# and VMRS.
  • New - Open Work Order Prompt - When opening a new work order, enrich makes an automatic check by facility/unit combination for existing work orders. The user has the ability to add work order lines to an existing work order(s) or create a new work order(s).
  • New - Purchase Order Link to Work Orders - Create parts purchase orders and receive parts directly from work orders.
  • Enhancement - Comment Structure - Work orders now use a more flexible and comprehensive comment structure (currently available in the Lease/Rental module) which includes an audit trail, print on invoice option (yes/no), and defaults based on comment type, etc.
  • New - Sublet Parts Tracking - When working with sublet work orders, users now have the option to enter the parts detail, labor details and rates that allow for improved warranty tracking and vendor management.
  • Enhancement - Warranty Clearing - The process is now streamlined to allow payments for multiple warranty claims to be processed from a single vendor check.
  • New - WO Edit Tracking - The system will now track the last 5 edits to the work order. The audit stamp will contain who, when, and what actions they performed on the work order. This is in addition to the current audit information.
  • New - Warranty Start/End Date - Users can identify a start and end date for warranty programs. If the unit's in-service date falls outside the date range, the unit will not be attached to the warranty program. This is useful when warranty programs from the OEM change within the same model year and for customers who do not have the year as one of their identifying fields in the equipment group code.
  • Enhancement - Reset Work Order - Users can now reset a closed work order from the main work order screen. Previously, they had to go into the work order approval screen to reset the work order.
  • Enhancement - Out Of Service Menu - The out of service (OOS) option has been added to the EMMS menu options for quicker and easier access. This is a GUI-only enhancement.
  • New - VMRS Tax Exemptions - A new tax table has been added to allow users to define VMRS code, equipment types, or units that are exempt from specific VMRS codes; for example, towing.
  • Enhancement - Work Order Approval Views - Two new views of the work order approval screen will allow customers to easily access customer information and the customer locations screens.

Asset Management:

  • New - Guaranteed Buy Back (GBB) - The user can now track the GBB against each unit. The GBB information can be added at any time and is accessible through the action list. GBB is displayed on several of the asset management reports and is used in the calculation of proceeds when disposing of the unit.
  • Enhancement - Used Truck Sales / Disposal - Additional features have been added to the used equipment functionality which allows users to: (a) run a "pre-select" list of soon-to-be-available equipment for sale, (b) add a PM from the sales list, (c) set price categories and other functionality to improve the reporting and management of the used truck sales, and (d) run a used equipment extraction report.
  • New - Date for Sale - The new field "Date for Sale" has been added to the equipment master display / edit screen.

Lease / Rental:

  • New - Rental Rates Listing - New functionality allows the users to trace and query customers' rates to determine what rates are charged based on equipment type on a rental agreement. This is useful when the customer is part of a scope list or has rates that are pulled from multiple scopes.
  • Enhancement - Miscellaneous Customer Select - Users have the option of selecting from multiple miscellaneous cash accounts for the purposes of driving the AP transaction. This would allow having different cash accounts for miscellaneous rental customer, for disposals, for work order invoices, etc.
  • Enhancement - Customer Comments Prompt - Users can now store comments by customer and set a business parameter to prompt users to view those comments when the customer is selected.
  • New - "Wet Contract" Option - New contract sections types will allow users to define additional sections on the standard contract that will allow a customer to be billed for a fuel MPG (miles per gallon) charge. The calculation will take the billed miles for the billing run and divide by the "rated distance fuel volume" and then multiply by the fuel price.

Insurance:

  • Enhancement - Insurance Checking - Two new insurance section types have been added. During the reservation and rental agreement process, the system can now determine: (a) that the net book value (NBV) of the unit being rented does not exceed the maximum allowed by the insurance policy; and (b) that the unit being rented must have specific features as defined by the insurance policy (e.g. anti-theft device).
  • New - Agreement Defaults - When the system does not find a valid customer insurance policy and customer insurance is required, a new contract rule will default the customer insurance flag to BLANK and a warning message will appear on screen.
  • New - Policy Expiry Rule - For lease only, a grace period can be added to the expiry date for Customer insurance policies and used in the automatic validation of customer insurance.
  • New - Insurance Rate Adjustments - Users will be able to review and adjust insurance premiums for lease customers who are covered by the lessor's insurance policy.

Financials:

  • Enhancement - Drill-Down Capabilities - Users can now drill down from cash logs into the source payment transactions (Reservations, Rental, Disposals, Payments on Account).
  • Enhancement - Accounting Levels - The search order for labor, material, and sublet labor and materials has been changed to provide more flexibility to the users for determining which accounts drive the costs.
  • Enhancement - Payment Application Rules - New payment application rules have been added to reduce the number of entry errors.
  • Enhancement - "Pay To" control - "Pay To" vendor functionality has been enhanced for easier processing of payables.

Interfaces / Automated Uploads:

  • New - Equipment Standards Upload - A new upload is available to load standard repair times by equipment group.
  • New - Mileage Import - A new interface format is available for importing mileages from `on-board' GPS systems.
  • New - Fuel Interface Uploads - Two new fuel interface files have been created to allow uploads of non-billed fuel (customer pay) or billable fuel for the purposes of completing unit (customer cost) history / mile per gallon analysis. The CWA module has an option that would allow customers to perform these uploads themselves.

Reports

  • Enhancement - Miles Billed Report - Two new options have been added to the report selection screen: "Show billed revenue" and "Only units over allowed contract mileage."
  • Enhancement - Cash Posted by Facility Report - The "credit card number" field has been added to the output.
  • Enhancement - PM Forecast Report - Option to exclude any child PM on the forecast report if it is already on a work order.
  • New - Customer With No Activity Report - A new report listing all active customers that have a zero open balance and no invoice activity since the date specified on the report selection screen.
  • Enhancement -Productivity Report - has been re-named to Work Order Labor Analysis report.. Additional fields have been added to the output of the report and the calculation has been changed when multiple employees are on the same line.
  • Enhancement - Mean Time Between Failure Report - An option has been added to allow users to select either all units or active units only.
  • Enhancement - Cancel Permit Report - The General Ledger (GL) year and period have been added to the report selection screen so the cancel permit transaction can be reconciled to the GL period. Additional fields have been added to the output of the report.
  • New - Parts Margin Analysis Report - A new report to calculate the margin on parts sales.
  • Enhancement - Equipment Cost & Performance (ECP) Report - A reason code selector field has been added for all 7 sub-reports.
  • Enhancement - Permit Cancel Report - New options to allow users to identify specific year and period. This report can then be used to reconcile the permit GL accounts in the financial module.

Other Management Tools

  • Enhanced search capabilities (on-line inquiries) including new fields and sort sequences in the following panels: equipment master, available equipment, vendor maintenance, rental rate review, rental agreement, entity name, outside rental validation, units on schedule A, and guaranteed buy back.