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August 2007
The Ever-Present Asterisk

When viewing an order from the dispatch screen, you may notice those funny little stars called *asterisks* next to the customer's name, the restaurant's name or even in the map column.

Throughout the course of a conversation with CSRs, Dispatchers, and even RDS Owners the question always seems to come up: "What is that asterisk for?"

The asterisk in general society is used for many different reasons.... Visit Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for a history lesson.  To know why DataWedge uses the asterisk read on.

 DMS Software And The Asterisk.

In both DMS 2000 and DMS 7.0,  DataWedge uses the asterisk to *emphasize* three things on an order record or customer record. 

The asterisks can appear in the Customer column, the Restaurant column, or the Map column.

Why Is The Asterisk In  The Customer Column?

In the Customer Column, the Dispatch screen shows an asterisk as the first character when a SECRET MESSAGE exists on the customers account. (See picture #2 below). This lets the CSR or dispatcher viewing the dispatch screen know a secret message is on this customer's account, and additional relevant 'info' may exist for this customer.

The quickest way to view the secret message is to right-click on the order, and select 'VIEW SECRET MESSAGE'. A sticky note will pop open displaying the secret message. (See picture #1). You may also view the message or edit it by opening the order using the edit command, then go to Customer Info/Journal. You will see the secret message box to the left of the journal comments box.

sticky note

Picture #1

dispatch screen

Picture #2

the first column in blowup insert = restaurant, second column = customer.

Why Is The Asterisk In The Restaurant Column?

Like in the customer column, the Restaurant Column in the Dispatch screen displays an asterisk as the first character whenever house items are included in the order. (See picture #2 above).

This asterisk is placed in front of the restaurant name indicating the customer ordered items from the house menu. This feature exists as a reminder that there may be additional internal preparation for this order in the form of drinks, utensils, or other misc items not picked up at the restaurant.  A good dispatcher will notice the asterisk and notify the drives that house items are included so those items aren't overlooked or forgotten.

(Additional note:  In Assisted Dispatch, an asterisk will also appear on the driver's page on an order, as an indicator that house items exists on that order as well... this should be a hint to the driver that they might need to scroll down the entire page on ther phone to see the house items listed).

To view the house items that were ordered, right-click on the order then select 'VIEW ORDER'. To add, remove or edit house items, open the order using the edit command, select order info/house menu.

Why Is The Asterisk In The Map Column?

If an RDS is using Microsoft Mappoint 2004 or 2006, with DMS 2000 or DMS 7.0,  the Map Column on the Dispatch screen displays whenever an address has not been verified, and Latitude/Longitude coordinates have not been found.  (See picture #3 below).  This feature is an excellent tool for dispatchers, as it quickly allows them to determine whether or not an address has been double-checked against the MapPoint database.  A verified address adds directions to the order to assist a driver in finding his or her way to the customer's location.

dispatch window

Picture #3


Did You Know...

Keyboard Tips & Tricks

 

Window Hunting

Window Hunting is one of our favorite tricks. It saves a ton of time looking for the right window that's needed.

Ever have too many open windows? So many that you're not sure which button is which on your toolbar?

An easy way to switch between them is to hit ALT-TAB. A small box will pop up with icons for all the currently open programs (even settings windows that don't display on the tool bar - like display properties for instance).

Holding down the ALT key while hitting TAB allows you to scroll through the available windows until the window you're looking for is highlighted. Notice that as you tab, the title bar information is displayed below the icons.

display properties

(Hold down the ALT & SHIFT key while hitting TAB to go backwards through the list)

Open a couple of programs and try it. Happy hunting


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.

sample siteDataWedge Sample Site.
The DataWedge system is a "pay-for-what-you-use" system.  This means for as little as $50 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 .


Meal Monger...meal monger logo

Meal Monger represents our aggregated web site, aimed at being the target of national marketing campaigns.  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. 

We currently employ an aggressive marketing campaign utilizing a "keyword match and click-through" model on Google.  We also have "re-marketing" campaigns designed for customer retention.  These marketing efforts are designed to bring existing customers back to your delivery service, and are typically sent out prior to holidays or major events.  Example mailers can be see by clicking here, or clicking here.

If you would like more information on being a part of Meal Monger, please contact us (208) 874-4185 .


nxgen logo

Credit Card Processing...

nxgen logo

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


Off-Site Backup...

Too many times we have seen a client simply ignore the duties of backing up their system.  Make no mistake:  every single hard drive on the planet will eventually fail... it's only a matter of time.

DataWedge has pre-purchased the internet bandwidth and server capacity on the internet to offer off-site backup services to our clients.  For a small service fee of $35 a month, DMS can now upload an encrypted copy of your DMS Database to our internet server each night during the nightly maintenance routine. 

Each morning, our internet server then scans each upload and generates an e-mail notification that is sent back to each customer.  That means for roughly $1 a day, you can arrive at your office each morning and be notified that your data is safe and secure at an outside facility.

If you would like more information on this service, please contact us .(208) 874-4185


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