What's New in Monsoon OMS 8?
Stone Edge Version 8 is
a multiple warehouse solution, which splits the processes of order management
and order fulfillment between the Stone Edge Order Manager (OM) and the
Stone Edge Fulfillment Manager (FM) applications. The Order Manager and
the Fulfillment Manager communicate with each other through a new component
known as the Synchronization Manager (SYM). The Order Manager and the
Fulfillment Manager each contain Sync Manager-code which generates and
processes messages flowing between the two applications. Messaging can
be configured to use a basic UNC folder path if both applications reside
on the same LAN, but do not
use mapped drives. Alternately, you can configure the system to send messages
through a third-party application which uses FTPS (File Transfer Protocol
Security Extensions), such as Filezilla. A file synchronization application,
such as Dropbox, could also be used to exchange messages between the Sync
Managers.
The main office runs the
Order Manager application, while the Fulfillment Manager application is
installed at each warehouse location. The Order Manager has a global view
of orders and inventory, while each installation of the Fulfillment Manager
is only aware of the orders and inventory for which it is responsible.
Warehouses have no knowledge of other warehouses, and warehouses can only
be associated with a single Order Manager store.
Orders from any number
of channels are created, reviewed, and approved in the Order Manager,
which seamlessly routes the entire order, or individual line items, to
one or more warehouses based on product availability and warehouse ranking.
This solution can improve throughput by its ability to dynamically direct
orders/items to the warehouse best equipped to fill and ship them in a
timely fashion.
For more details, see the
Summary of Changes section
of this guide.
ATP:
(Available to Promise) the units of a given catalog item that can be listed
for sale through the Order Manager (the sum of each warehouse’s QOH for
a given item)
Catalog:
list of all items the merchant offers for sale
Item
–Source record: maps items in the catalog to a given warehouse so
Stone Edge can track and maintain a record of the items a warehouse has
in stock.
Fulfillment
Manager: the Stone Edge component responsible for packing and sending
shipments, as well as managing quantity on hand counts for all products
Order
Manager: the Stone Edge component responsible for order creation,
approval and routing, customer management, and management reporting
Payment
Module: the Stone Edge component (Monsoon Commerce Payment Module)
used to process electronic payments
Quantity
on Hand: physical inventory of an item at a given warehouse (not the
same as ATP)
Reroute/Optimize:
the manual process of changing the warehouse
route from one warehouse to another
Route
State: the systematic management of the warehouse
route (in version 8.0, “Allocated” to “Committed” to “Shipped”)
Routing
System:the Stone Edge component that determines the warehouse or warehouses,
to which an order, or parts of the order, should be sent for fulfillment
Sync
Manager: a background
component of the Order Manager and the Fulfillment Manager which manages
the communication between the applications
Warehouse: a place that stores
inventory and ships inventory to customers to fulfill orders
Warehouse
association: the process of mapping products to warehouses in the
Order Manager, all warehouses do not need to stock the same products
Warehouse
rank: determines the order in which the order routing system searches
warehouses to determine if they have stock to fill an order
Warehouse
routing: the resulting determination made by the routing system as
to which warehouse or warehouses fill the order, or parts of the order
Operating system for workstations
Operating system for servers
- Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows Server
2012, with all available service packs applied.
Microsoft application software
- Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0 or higher with
all service packs available applied.
- MS Access or Office 2010 or higher with all
available service packs applied.
- SQL Server 2008 or SQL Express 2008 R2 or
higher with all available service packs applied.
Optional application software for communication between Sync Managers
- File synchronization application such as Dropbox,
OR, an FTPS application
such as Filezilla
- You do not have to use either of these types
of applications if you have a Wide Area Network (WAN) and use UNC
paths to shared network drives. Do not use mapped network drives.
- Dual or Quad core processor with 4GB RAM
- Do not
install the Fulfillment Manager and the Order Manager on the same
workstation at this time.
- Presently, there is no utility to convert
an existing Stone Edge store data file to the Version 8.0 format,
but one will be available in a subsequent release.
- It is necessary to create new SQL databases
for the Order Manager and Fulfillment Manager and configure the system
from the ground up.
- System Parameters must be configured manually,
but product data can be imported from text files into the Order Manager,
which in turn passes it on to the Fulfillment Manager. Product QOH
information can be imported from a text file into the Fulfillment
Manager. Once the bulk of the product information is stored in both
databases, any new products are created in the Order Manager, which
sends the product information to all of the associated warehouses.
Each warehouse is responsible for maintaining an accurate QOH count,
which are used to calculate the product ATP in the Order Manager.
- Currently, the POS system is not supported
in Stone Edge Version 8. If you have walk-in customers, use Manual
Orders to take their orders and collect payments.
- Rate Shopping is not currently available in
the Order Manager, which affects those who use the Manual Orders screen.
As a workaround, define static shipping rates in the Order Manager
instead. See the Knowledge
Base for more information.
For a c
- Both the Order Manager and the Fulfillment
Manager have batch printing capabilities, however, the Order Manager
is only able to print invoices, credit slips and mailing labels in
batch mode. Pick lists, packing slips, and shipping labels are printed
through the Fulfillment Manager’s batch print feature at a given warehouse.
- An SQL database must be used to house your
order and product information.
- Since the Order Manager’s store data file
can no longer be a Microsoft Access database, the Archive Data, Backup
Data File, Compact Data File, Convert to SQL Server, and Re-import
Archived Orders functions are no longer supported.
- The Global Editor and Multi-Record Editor
cannot edit ATP (formerly QOH).
- All email from Stone Edge is sent by the Order
Manager. The Fulfillment Manager does not
send any email at this time.
·
- Inventory
must be tracked in Version 8, you do not have the option to turn inventory
tracking off (CheckInventory=False).
- The
Change SKUs feature is removed from Version 8.
- All
tasks related to the management of the inventory catalog
take place in the Order Manager, such as defining SKUs, kits, assemblies
and warehouses.
- Assemblies
are only built or broken through the Fulfillment Manager.
- FIFO is initially unavailable,
but will be added into Order Manager in a later release.
- It
is no longer possible to see the unit cost when breaking or building
Assemblies, as the Fulfillment Manager has no knowledge of FIFO costs.
- Kits
can have parts in different warehouses.
- Inventory
lots are only built or broken through the Fulfillment Manager.
- The
“Don’t do fulfillment field” on the Inventory form is removed. Item
records are either assigned to a Fulfillment Center or they are expected
to be filled through your warehouses, you cannot temporarily override
the assignment and ship a Fulfillment Center item from your warehouse.
ATP for Fulfillment Center items can be edited through the Order Manager’s
Inventory screen.
- The Order Manager is only aware of the ATP
of each product, which is the sum of the QOH values from each warehouse.
The QOH of individual products is managed by Cycle Counts at each
warehouse location.
- It is no longer possible to import product
QOH from a web store. Likewise, it is not possible to manually adjust
the ATP values of your warehouse inventory through the Order Manager.
- ATP for items which are shipped from a Stone
Edge-defined Fulfillment Center (not FBA) can be edited in the Inventory
screen of the Order Manager. However, items can no longer be assigned
to a Fulfillment Center and
also be shipped from your warehouse stock. Items can only be fulfilled
one way or the other, not both.
- The
functionality of the Purchase Order system is split between the Order
Manager and the Fulfillment Manager applications.
- Product images in Inventory records must reside
on the web at this time.
- Ctrl+Shift+E
(clear tracking table), Ctrl+Shift+D (open database) and Ctrl+Shift+Z
(zip data file) have been removed from the program.
- Based on warehouse associations and ranking,
the Order Manager routes the entire order, or individual line items,
to warehouses for fulfillment.
- Once an order is routed to a warehouse, the
order must be unapproved in the Order Manager before any changes can
be made, such as adding or deleting a line item, changing the routing,
etc. The warehouse must be contacted and instructed to place the order
on Hold so it is not shipped before the order is unapproved and the
changes are made in the Order Manager.
- Pick lists, packing slips and shipping labels
are no longer printed by the Order Manager, so it is no longer possible
to print these documents when an order is approved.
- The Multi-Order Processor cannot add shipping
labels to the Order Manager’s batch printing queue as they are printed
through the Fulfillment Manager at the warehouse from which the order
is shipped.
- You are not currently able to shop for shipping
rates at Manual Orders. Define static shipping rates in the Order
Manager as a work around.
· When
placing a manual order, you cannot add a kit to the order without also
listing the kit parts at this time.
- The Fulfillment Manager does not support Notes
or Tasks.
- It is no longer possible to collect payments
at the Pack and Ship screen,
which is now part of the Fulfillment Manager.
- Stone Edge uses a newer version of PDF Writer,
which requires users to go to a website and download an installer
for Ghostscript during the Stone Edge installation process. Ghostscript
is required for PDF Writer to function properly.
- The installer removes the old version of PDF
Writer before installing the new version.
- The printer OM2PDF is also defined during
the process.
- The Purchase Orders system now has components
in both the Order Manager and the Fulfillment Manager.
- Purchase order creation and invoicing takes
place in the Order Manager, while purchase order receiving takes place
in the Fulfillment Manager.
- Communique Lite is no longer distributed
with Monsoon
Order Manager,
but if you have it from a previous version you can still use it through
Main Menu>Run My Reports>Open
External Reports.
- Returns and exchanges are created in the Order
Manager. The items are received by the Fulfillment Manager at the
warehouse, which in turn notifies the Order Manager when the products
arrive.
- All returns and exchanges created in the Order
Manager are automatically assigned an RMA number.
- Returning items to multiple warehouses requires
a separate RMA for each warehouse.
- Once an item is received as a Return by the
Fulfillment Manager, it cannot
be Unreturned. Up until that time, you can change or cancel the return
or exchange.
- Unsolicited returns (no RMA number) can be
processed by the Fulfillment Manager. If an order number is entered
during this process, it must be the Order Manager order number. Entering
an order number is optional. There is presently no user interface
where you can manually review this type of return.
- This feature is not supported in Monsoon
Order Manager
Version 8.
- All functions related to picking, packing
and shipping warehouse stock now takes place in the Fulfillment Manager
and have been removed from the Order Manager. Shipping status, packing
records and tracking numbers are reported back to the Order Manager.
- It is no longer possible to collect payment
for orders at the Pack & Ship screen. All payments are collected
through the Order Manager.
· Some
shipping integrations or features have been dropped from Stone Edge Version
8:
DAZzle
Batch
Postal
Package Partner
ShipWire
Shipping
Export Templates
UPS Online
Tools – use ShipRush for UPS to print labels through Stone Edge
USPS
Web Tools
The
Shipping Setup in Order Manager has changed dramatically. It is now
used to define shipping method names in the Order Manager which match
those used in your shopping carts. Eventually, those method names
are mapped to the shipping carrier’s method name in the Fulfillment
Manager.
It is no
longer possible to have the program process DAZzle tracking numbers
immediately after the labels are printed. They are only processed
when the Process Tracking Number function is executed. System parameter
DazzleProcessTrackingNumbers
is removed.
Shipping
carrier information must be supplied when importing tracking data.
The program no longer attempts to determine the shipping carrier from
the tracking number.
Additional Information
Updated:
08/19/15
Published:
08/19/2015
