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Symmetrical Solutions is pleased to announce that the YMCA of Metropolitan Fort Worth has joined our family for support and development services. The Fort Worth YMCA has many talented individuals that have been working with the application for many years. All of us look forward to working with the entire team at the Fort Worth YMCA in providing quality support and exciting new software systems.
Symmetrical is actively working with seven other client prospects at this time. Due to confidentiality reasons we cannot discuss the associations, however we will keep you updated as the clients join our family in the months to come.
The developers group users conference was held in Washington DC on March 25th and 26th. There were a total of 13 people that attended the conference and it was a huge success. We also had our partnering company Innovative Solutions at the conference to discuss our newest development project for web registrations called Easy to Enroll. The developers group had a full two day agenda and the highlight of the conference was prioritizing the Symmetrical Inbox of quick wins. The top seven items that our team will be working on during the next several months are discussed under the software development section below. Symmetrical Solutions would personally like to thank everyone involved that made this conference a success especially Leigh Kron, Bill Teachum and Pearce Miller.
Symmetrical has just completed the most intense software development initiative since PS98 was introduced six years ago. This software development initiative is called Application Clean-Up and is considered "Phase II and Phase III" of Version 6. You can find out more information about this topic under the software development section below.
To eliminate confusion with product naming and version control numbering of other products, Symmetrical will soon assign a new name for the products and services we offer. At the time of the new name assignment, we will also start the version control numbering at Version 1.0, Build 1.
With the creative help of Innovative Solutions, we are finalizing our new web page design look and feel. We have contracted with Innovative to design our web pages and basic flow of the entire menu system. We will be using their content management tool "Web Craft" to maintain the pages after they have released the initial version to us. Look for our new appearance in the weeks to come!
Regarding the ASNA Datagate/400 7.0 upgrade announcement... We want to remind all clients that you don't need to perform the upgrade to run any of the current windows based programs including Key Indicators, Mail Center, MRM or any of our "Easy to" products. This ASNA version is designed more specifically to work with the Microsoft .NET environment. Based on recommendations from our development partners and partnering vendors, we have decided that ASNA will no longer be used for future development initiatives including those being done in the .NET environment.
** ARCHIVE ALERT ** While working with the YMCA of Rochester several weeks ago, we discovered an error with the archive process as part of the original release of version 6 more than one year ago. Although the quality assurance testing provided by TRG and the Beta sites failed to identify the issue during the warranty period, we felt it necessary to inform everyone of the issue and provide the resolution. On April 19th, we made this issue known to Bill Ludovice of the Transition Co-op. Since we have not received any responses, we wanted to make certain that all associations were aware of the issue and the resolution. Please contact us with any questions and note that we will gladly assist you in applying the patch at no cost.
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Client Name |
Support Tickets Opened 04/2004 |
Support Tickets Closed 04/2004 |
Support Tickets Opened Y-T-D |
Support Tickets Closed Y-T-D |
Support Tickets Currently Open
|
|
Fort Worth |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Philadelphia |
2 |
2 |
31 |
30 |
1 |
|
Pittsburgh |
3 |
3 |
17 |
15 |
2 |
|
Rochester |
6 |
5 |
38 |
37 |
2 |
|
Sarasota |
4 |
5 |
27 |
28 |
1 |
|
Washington |
8 |
7 |
21 |
20 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total |
23 |
22 |
134 |
130 |
8 |
Open Ticket Details:
Philadelphia
> Section/Division/Team/Campaigner are not copied correctly from previous years.
Status: Mary has come up with a way for us to solve this problem. It involves assigning "00" numbers to the codes when the campaigner code being copied already exists in the new year.
Pittsburgh
> Create a new payroll report datamart that contains information from five payroll files.
Status: We are working with the staff in Pittsburgh to design and build this enhancement for them.
> Install Easy to Track™.
Status: Easy to Track is the software tool that we use to track every piece of client information that we can, especially in the area of support tickets. Everyone at the conference asked if we could install this freeware onto their machines so that they can track their branch requests. We will install this software as soon as we make some necessary changes to work for the branches.
Rochester
> Request to maintain campaign worker information during the copy to a new campaign.
Status: This is the same problem that Philadelphia is having. (see above) Once we correct the campaigner "copy" issue, this problem will be solved.
> Install Easy to Track™.
Status: (see above for definition of Easy to Track™) We will install this software as soon as we make some necessary changes to work for the branches.
Sarasota
> Assist Ernie with creating an environment for testing the new credit card payments processing for V6R2M0.
Status: We are working with Ernie to setup this environment by the end of next week.
Washington
> The "subsidy amount" field in PGMSTAT1 includes 3rd Party Amounts.
Status: We are testing and have determined that many transaction amounts/types for the datamart are being added into the same financial columns. This has been an issue since PS98 and we are talking to determine the best way to solve this problem.
> Install Easy to Track™.
Status: (see above for definition of Easy to Track™) We will install this software as soon as we make some necessary changes to work for the branches.
"New Product Name" Version 1.0, Build 1: The new enhancement and modification release (name announcement soon to come) Version 1.0, Build 1 will be distributed to Rochester and Philadelphia in a beta version by the middle of next week. This new version is considered phase II and phase III of Version 6 which has been labeled "Application Clean-Up". Application clean-up involves the cleaning up of the base application by removing legacy files, programs and screens from Member Management version 2.0/2.1 and forward until version 6.1.3. Although this new version contains mostly back-end changes not visible to the end user, it was important that these changes be completed so that our future development was not dependent on older technologies and legacy files. Below are some statistics:
- Identified over 150 files in YMETROF to be removed.
- Over 1,400 computer programs removed.
- Over 1,600 computer programs changed or created.
- All files that are not supposed to be in YMETROF library will be moved to another library.
- Utility has been created to help identify queries using obsolete files.
- Almost 5,800 computer programs existed in base application before we started this project.
- New Application will consist of about 4,600 computer programs.
Easy to Enroll™: Easy to Enroll™ is the web registration system that is designed to be the stepping stone for all of our systems in the future. The first phase of this system will allow members to register at home with journal checking, personal information updating and even a scholarship and subsidy system. Symmetrical has partnered with Innovative Solutions (http://www.innovativesol.com) to build the at home user front-end. Symmetrical was at the Innovative offices two weeks ago to officially kickoff this project. So far we have completed the front end selection pages including a class summary and detail with pictures and video clips of the primary category selected (for example: Aquatics). This web initiative uses the AS/400 as the database and business rules holder and serves the information to a web server through sockets using ASP for .NET and Visual Basic for .NET. While Symmetrical believes that the ASNA toolkit for Windows programming using Datagate/400 is excellent, we have decided to eliminate the need for ASNA and the ASNA web toolkits for this project. At the recommendation of our development partners and Innovative Solutions we will let the AS/400 and sockets program communicate directly with the web server and the at home web client. Phase I of this project will be in beta by September/October 2004.
GO Software: As many of you know, GO Software is the automatic credit card verification process that verifies member's credit card payments directly from the AS/400 over the internet. Rochester has purchased this product and we will begin development of the integration of Cash Receipting and EFT with the GO Software programs in the weeks to come.
Symmetrical "Inbox" (From the Washington DC conference): The top seven items/quick wins that our team will be working on during the next several months are as follows: 1) Print statements for individual members. 2) EFT billing records flagging issues when item has been returned. 3) Create one logical view of all demographic information in one flat file. 4) Create new RPG based menu system with user defined security for each menu option and for each user. 5) Enhance program table files with alternate views. 6) Enhance program sales with default periods by activity type. 7) Cancel a class and email the notification to all participants attending the class. We will report on the status of these items at our next developers conference users group meeting. See Upcoming Events section below.
Summary list of new software completed since March 2003: The list below represents major enhancements completed since March 2003. If you are interested contact us at info@symmetrical-solutions.com and we will be happy to send information to you.
- Easy to Access™.
- Easy to Secure and Connect™.
- Easy to Print™ Membership Due to Renew Notices.
- Easy to Monitor™.
- Membership Activity Report.
- Weekly A/R Reporting.
- Member Statements with Weekly A/R Aging.
- Miscellaneous Program Registration Enhancements.
- Miscellaneous Shift Control Maintenance Enhancements.
- Complete rewrite of the label printing process. (See Sample Screen Below)
- Turn any AS/400 database file into an Excel spreadsheet and then email or save on the network.
- Turn any AS/400 report into an Excel, HTML or PDF document and then email or save on the network.
- Ability to create an executive dashboard system.
- Membership Entry screens rewrite with joining fees verification.
- A/R and Statement Aging process rewrite.
- Activity Ledger Aging. (See Sample Screen Below)
- Application Clean-Up.
Symmetrical Solutions Developers Conference:
Symmetrical Solutions Developers Conference:
Our team is preparing for the November 2004 developers group users conference. At our conference in Washington DC, we discussed the meeting being held in Philadelphia. We have learned that the YMCA National Conference/APD Conference will be held in Phoenix, Arizona the same time in November. We think it is important that we go to this conference and since some of you will be attending the APD conference anyways, we thought it would be an advantage to hold our conference November 8th and 9th in Arizona. Traveling to one place will help many of us save costs on airfare and other traveling expenses.
We are working with Innovative Solutions in purchasing a booth for the Phoenix conference so that we can showcase all of our products and services especially the web registration and front desk replacement system.
We will work on transportation, hotel, meals and an outing. Once we receive more information about hotel names, phone numbers, etc. we will let you know.
Please let us know your thoughts on this subject.
How do you find the preferred address, phone and email for any person in the system?
Question from many clients in the last three months:
We need to create a special report query that lists program registration information along with participants name, preferred address, phone and email. How many files do I need to join in query to accomplish this task?
Answer:
The files that you will need in the query are: KICMREG1, MEMBERL8, ADDRESSJ1, PHONEJ1 and EMAILJ1. The matching fields in these files are member number and family ID.
Description of Files:
KICMREG1 - Program registration primary file.
MEMBERL8 - Member name logical file with hidden members already removed.
ADDRESSJ1 - Person address join logical file with only preferred address information by family member.
PHONEJ1 - Person phone number join logical file with only preferred phone information by family member.
EMAILJ1 - Person email join logical file with only preferred email information by family member.
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