DataWedge December 2009 Newsletter

It's the end of 2009... in fact, the VERY end of 2009... and for this newsletter we decided to wrap up the year by putting out a collection of unrelated snippets of DMS features.... some of the niceties provided by the DMS program that some folks might not be aware of, or have missed somewhere along the way.

Using the Order Journal

Initially, the Order Journal was a debugging tool only used by DataWedge in the event of tracking down a bug during Order Entry.

When it became clear that RDS managers could make use of the Order Journal in their attempts to re-assemble the HISTORY of an order in terms of how it related to the CSR/Customer interaction, we opened it up in the program.

The Order Journal records nearly all events that occurred during the order taking process, down to each menu item that was placed on an order.

This allows an manager to actually SEE step-by-step the process an order went through... item by item, and version by version.

To fastest way to access the Order Journal is to RIGHT-CLICK on the order in the dispatch screen, and select "View Order Journal". A quick list of every single recorded step on the order is brought up, allowing the quick visual re-construction of the order's assembly and history.

To help conserve space in the database, the order journal is purged for orders over 90 days old during nightly maintenance.

DMS Can email Orders to Restaurants

There are a few restaurants out there that are keeping up with the 21st century, and wish to have their orders EMAILED to them instead of FAXED to them.

If you place an EMAIL ADDRESS in the FAX NUMBER field for a restaurant, DMS will EMAIL the order to the restaurant using the provided address instead of using the fax during the dispatch process.

Edit Customer Records directly from Demographics

Sometimes editing customer records and doing "call backs" can be a chore... to help make it easier, "double-clicking" on a customer record in a demographics report brings up the individual customer record for editing. This can help make the process of correcting customer data "on the fly" much easier when making repeated calls to your customers and keeping the data tidy.

(Note: In addition, "double-clicking" on many Grid reports open up additional data... for example, "double-clicking" on a line item in the Order Log allows you to view the individual order... "double-clicking" on an adjustment report allows you to view the individual adjustment).

Delete Expired Credit Cards

Does your datbase contain an increasing number of credit cards that have since expired for your customers? Rather than having to go through each individual customer record and delete them "as you go", you can use the "Delete Expire Credit Cards" option under "Management".

This feature allows you to go through the entire database at once, keeping your list of credit cards small and tidy.

Sift through massive amounts of menu/restaurant/employee data

Have you ever run a report and see a wholesale price reflected that has an obvious typo?

Using the "Data Proofs" section of the reports allows you to see ALL data in a VERY LARGE Grid report, and sift through VERY LARGE sections all at once.

For example... you suspect that someone entered in $1000 for a price somehwere in a menu, when in fact, it should have been $10.00.

Go into your Data Proofs, and run the report for your menu. Sort the Grid Report by PRICE, and start scanning the menu items.

Looking at large chunks of data in this way allow to you QUICKLY find which menu price is substantially "out of whack" from the other pricing levels on your menu.

You can write a BATCH file for "extended" operations?

We all know that backing up the database is an essential part of good business practice. But having to manually COPY your DMSBAK.BAK file from your data directory to some other location can be a tedious process.

The nightly maintenance process has two additional "spots" reserved for running batch files.... one batch file is run JUST PRIOR to DMS nightly maintenance... and one batch file is run JUST AFTER nightly maintenance.

Batch files are nothing more than TINY little automated macros that can perform automated functions for your operating system.

For example, your IT person (or yourself, if you are handy enough with batch files) can quickly craft a batch file to COPY the DMSBAK.BAK file AUTOMATICALLY to something like a plugged in memory flash-drive or USB stick automatically after every nightly maintenance routine.

Combine this with 7 different memory sticks from your local Office Depot... and you have an essential business operation reduced to just remembering to trade out/rotate the memory sticks at the end of the day... (taking one home with you to make sure it's OFF SITE in the event of a fire/flood/massive disaster).

The configuration screen to tell DMS which batch files to run is located in Setup -> General Setup.

(Just make sure you double-check that the files are actually COPIED to your memory stick from time to time!).

If you have other tips/tricks you would like to share, or if you want to see how other RDS's are using the DMS program, we encourage you to visit the DataWedge discussion forums, located at: http://forums.datawedge.com

As we enter into 2010, DataWedge wishes each and every one of our customers continued success and properity, and thanks you for your continued support!

DataWedge Services

Web Services...

The process of caring and feeding your own web server on your local network can be an expensive and daunting task. Not many companies have the financial resources to purchase and maintain the hardware necessary to run a web server out of their office, in addition to the technical savvy necessary to keep it secure from hackers on the internet.

DataWedge created an On-Line Ordering engine to help solve some of these problems. Your restaurant and menu data is uploaded and hosted securely on a DataWedge professionally hosted internet server, away from your office internet connection - giving hackers no place to scratch away at your network.

DataWedge Sample Site.
The DataWedge system is a "pay-for-what-you-use" system. This means for as little as $30 per month, you can have a professional web presence available on the internet including restaurant information, menus, and on-line ordering. Use of our templates and get on the internet in a matter of days! For an example of a template site, you can click here, or click here.

Do you have an existing web site, but just want to include on-line ordering functionality? No problem... our On-Line Web engine has the ability to be wrapped inside a frame. Measuring only 720 pixels wide, you can easily integrate your own web site around an instance of an ordering engine, and have the ability to push DMS data out to the internet, and have orders push directly into your system. To see examples of companies that have integrated their own web sites with our ordering engines, you can click here, or you can click here.

If you would like more information on our on-line ordering engine, please don't hesitate to contact us (208) 874-4185 .

FoodGetters...

FoodGetters.com represents our new aggregated web site, aimed at being firmly planted as a national on-line food ordering portal.

Because DataWedge utilizes a "pay-for-what-you-use" billing system, it's in our best interest to drive as many transactions as we can towards your service.

FoodGetters.com currently is in beta with our brand new web engine, and hopes to go live in January of 2010 with as many RDS's that wish to join. At this time we are not accepting any new members for our BETA period.

If you would like more information on being a part of FoodGetters after the BETA period, please contact us (208) 874-4185.

Credit Card Processing...

DataWedge has teamed with Nova - the nation's second-largest credit card processing system - to provide a seamless charge authorization system that accepts a full range of bank and T&E cards. The DataWedge/Nova partnership offers a number of advantages over other card processing alternatives:

Low transaction/discount charges resulting from the purchasing power of one master contract for DMS clients
Elimination of ICVerify as a card processing gateway. DMS is certified with the NOVA system for direct data transmission to their system.
The ease and efficiency of a "seamless" process from order entry to authorization to funds transfer into your account

If you would like to know how much you can save over your existing credit card services, please click here and fill out our request form