WinView Enquiry Desk

by Ian Shannon for ViewPoint Software

WinView Enquiry Desk is a full featured Enquiry System into your existing MAX (and Dynamics) database. It is the latest in a line of enquiry products from ViewPoint Software to be commissioned by Kewill(uk - now K3) over the last 12 years. In the UK it is supplied as a non-optional MFW Module and the product range now has a well established user-base with over 300 registered sites.

WinView gives you a new level of control over your data. It puts any information you want just a few key clicks away. It allows you to explore and experiment with your data. It helps you to improve Customer and Supplier relationships. And it can dramatically improve your Customer Service response times.

WinView enhances the existing Enquiry Function in MAX. What is the Enquiry Function? - In the context of a computer package, enquiries are how the user extracts information from the package and view it on-screen. To enquire is to seek information. The function of WinView Enquiry Desk is to help users to seek information. The Enquiry function is by definition read-only, so Enquiry Screens can be used with no fear of changing anything by mistake. In WinView all MAX tables are opened as read-only so this is not an issue.

Many users only ever need to look at the data in MAX. Until WinView the only choices were

• to buy a MAX licence for every user
• to set up static Crystal Reports for those users that do not need to update data
• to develop programs yourself to do the enquiries you need

With WinView all users have live access to all MAX data, only those users that need to update data need to use a MAX licence. Full featured? WinView lets you easily search for any field, with numeric and date ranges and partial character searches. As well as standard enquiry lists, WinView has Enquiry versions of most of the Data Entry forms in MAX. For comparison, the Inventory Control Menu in WinView has 30 options, covering all Inventory data from Multiple Cost Sets to Scheduled Prices. Compare this with the 3 Inquiry options in the MAX Inventory module. Obviously you can inquire using the standard MAX Data-Entry forms, although searching is always limited to indexed fields. How do you currently answer questions like?

• Which Customers don't yet have a fax number set up in the database?
• Which Customers do we allow to place back-orders?
• Give me a list of all our Customers outside the USA
• Which Customers use DHL Overnight?
• Which Inventory Items have been out of tolerance more than twice?
• Which Inventory Items have not had a transaction this year?
• Give me a list of all 'Keyboards'

You probably run (or even write!) a report? With WinView, in a couple of mouse clicks or key presses, you can load an Enquiry that contains the information you want. Click into the field you want to search and type the selection: -

Question	Load	Click Into:-	Type:-
Which Customers don't yet have a fax number set up in the database?	Customer Enquiry	Fax	'= '
Which Customers do we allow to place back-orders?		Backorder	'N'
Give me a list of all our Customers outside the USA		Country	'<>*USA'
Which Customers use DHL Overnight?		ShipVia	'03'
Which Inventory Items have been out of tolerance more than twice?	Inventory Enquiry	Tolerance	'>2'
Which Inventory Items have not had a transaction this year?		Last Trans	'<01/01/2001'
Give me a list of all 'Keyboards'		Inventory Description	'*KEYBOARD'
(or any contents or range of any other field!)

then you get a temporary list of matching records - as simple as that. And when you have the list showing all the records that you are interested in?

• Use it to select records - just click the record you want in the list and details are shown in the enquiry
• Use it like a 'to-do' list, with a single click > dock it to the side of the screen and save it.
• With a single key you can 'publish' the list into Excel, or directly into your WEB Browser.

WinView allows you to search on any part of any field - it doesn't have to be in an index. Use the Right-Mouse button over any List and you can select which index order you want to use. The inventory file has 13 indexes available.

WinView consists of many Component Windows - either Enquiries or Browsers. All the components can be used on their own, but when used together they are automatically linked. Select a Customer record in a List and any other Components that are using Customer 'Links' will reflect the changes. This is Live and multilevel, if you have Customer, Sales Order, Stock, Purchase Order and Supplier Components open then the Links can take you through from Customer to Supplier. The Links are also two-way, so change the Supplier and the Links can work in reverse - back through to Customer. The Links can also be cross-product, select a MAX Customer Enquiry and show Sales transactions for that Customer from Dynamics!

WinView is a 'personal' Enquiry System. It remembers how you set up each component, where you put it and what size you make it. This is for each user, so when you call up a partial stock enquiry, it will always be how you left it the last time you used it. Included is WinView Notes, its own very simple user-definable database that adds Notes to many of the Main supported Data Files. Users can set up the headings used for the fixed fields (for example to add several additional customer phone numbers), and to add rolling Notes. When Components are used together, they can be saved, as a 'scenario'. Here is an example of the steps involved in creating a Scenario to improve an area of service that all companies strive - Customer Service. A customer phones, asking about an existing order.

1	Identify the customer.	Load Customer Enquiry	Search via any info the Customer gives you
2	Find out who said what and when to the customer.	Load Customer Notes	Read existing Notes
3	Check Customers Orders	Load Orders	Select Order from List
4	Check The Order Lines	Load Order Lines	Select Line from List
5	Check Stock for Order Line	Load an Inventory Enquiry
6	Add comment to Customer Notes	Click into Notes	Add Comment to Customer Notes

Steps 1 to 5 involve loading WinView Components and arranging them on the screen so that you can use them together. Once done, this sequence can be saved as a Scenario and put onto a single Windows Hot-Key. Then whenever a Customer phones, press <alt-C>, and whatever you are doing, you will be ready to support the Customer.

WinView adds features to MAX that can only come from the flexibility of an external specialised system.

WinView Enquiry Desk is a family of products. For Dynamics users, the (soon to be completed) version for Dynamics will provide a truly integrated enquiry system covering all data from both products. (The trial version includes Dynamics Sales).

What do you want to get out of your database? Visit our WEB site and download the free trial. This is a fully functional program that you can use as a single-user for up to a month. The download is very quick and simple, and it even includes the on-line manual. As soon as you want to enable the program for all your users, order the product and we will send an activation key. For more information and the free trial, visit www.winview.net