Dear Systems People, TruServ members, System analysts for various vendors,Unity System developers, consultants, and people who read reports generated by TruServ.

We send relay orders to TruServ using the traditional book-page-line numbers. These numbers contain check digits. Thus, the warehouse sku 177904 item is identified for relay advance order purposes as 02 01-4 03-4.

When the reports from TruServ come out, the 177904 item has the relay book-page-line number expressed as 02-01-03 where the "check digits" have been dropped. However, the member... if the member inputs these numbers in the store system to order... has the number expressed with the "check-digits." So, when the delightful and personable Hortencia of the TruServ order entry department calls to inform me that I have ordered 30 lawn mowers instead of 3 I thought I entered, her report lists only the actual book-page-line numbers expressed without the check digits. We are talking two different languages. The report she works with usually does not have a warehouse sku number. It’s troublesome.

Now, I am looking at a member high quantity error report (RY2R243) run on 1/06/99. This does include a warehouse sku number, also known as an item number. It does not have check digits.

The point here is that members and corporate have to use the same numbers to talk about the same things. I would like to see systems in the future make these troublesome numbers go away or be buried in the background while still providing the functionality and control.

TruServ will be rolling out a new A-copy system at some point. So far as I know, a major feature of the effort will be the commingling of relay and warehouse merchandise. If the numbers don’t match up, there will be disasters of biblical proportions.

Since the only anchor point between a non-TruServ warehouse item offered on relay and an item on file at the local store level... as well as between the warehouse item on a relay order and the purchase order at the store.... and since relay orders are now outstanding through the April promotions... orders should be in the store systems with the proper relay number format.

It is my fear that new software will miss some key point, or benefits which we should have ASAP are delayed several months until "things cycle through."

By the way, where is the ERP (electronic receipt posting) for relay?

FYI: Triad’s promotional relay subsystem does handle the purchase order creation function quite well, and minimizes the relay bk-pg-ln and cost posting work. FREDWARE has a nice feature to strip out relay check digits so the number format matches the current TruServ A-COPY format... without the check digits. At some point after the merger, I wrote up a promotional relay procedure with a purchase order number scheme and ways to handle TruServ in the "TRIAD" environment. This might still be on John’s Server in the HARDLINES website.

Would somebody please make all the chaos go away so I can sell hardware and make money?

Regards,