Announcing the New QAD Online Support Center!

QAD has introduced a new support portal, called the QAD Online Support Center - which will replace the current ServiceLinQ Web site. Based on your feedback, we have focused on improving your overall experience with QAD Support online. The new portal is faster, simpler and more tailored to your needs.

Major enhancements include:

• A faster engine which allows you to create incidents and find solutions quicker
  


• A single sign-on which eliminates the need for you to log in multiple times to access a variety of services on our website
  


• A new look and feel that is more intuitive and easier for you to navigate
  


• A new home page that will display items that you care about, such as your open incidents and your last Knowledgebase searches.

Sneak Peak

We will run both ServiceLinQ and the new QAD Online Support Center in parallel for some time, so you can test drive the new site and provide feedback. Watch support.qad.com for more information!

Are you considering converting to QAD 2007.1

Your company has decided that it is time to upgrade your system to the latest release of QAD Enterprise Applications, but you are not entirely sure of the best way to approach this seemingly daunting task. You want to make sure everything goes smoothly so that you are up and running in production, on schedule. You may even need to consider moving to a newer operating system and hardware system to keep up with the increasing demands of the business. Now you need to decide how best to perform the conversion so that you can meet your company's deadline.

To aid you down this path, the following answers pertain to commonly asked questions that many customers have when preparing for a conversion.

Is it really that important to do a test conversion?

Absolutely! By doing several test conversions on copies of your production database, you will catch any data problems that you may encounter in your database before you perform the live conversion. You will also get a good idea for how long your actual production conversion will take.

My database is fairly large. Can I do anything to make it smaller before I convert?

Yes. Consider archiving and deleting some of the older, unused data in your system. You may not realize how much room this takes up in your database but removing older unneeded data can go a long way to reducing the size of your database and making your database conversion run faster. Keep in mind, if you remove this data from your database and need it again after the conversion, you won't be able to load this back into your new database. Check with your finance department before doing any kind of data deletion. Always make sure you archive the data just in case.

I have a limited amount of time to convert. Is there a faster way to convert the database than a dump and load?

Within QAD Enterprise Applications, we have introduced two methods of converting your database: the buffer copy and the in-place conversion.

The buffer copy conversion method is similar to the traditional 'dump and load' method but the data is not written to disk. The data is copied from the source database and loaded into the target database using memory buffers. This method should be used on databases under 10 GB.

If your database is larger than 10 GB, the in-place conversion would be the best choice. The in-place conversion method will take the database and convert it 'in place.' No data is dumped from your source database; rather, the source database schema and data are manipulated within the existing database and not moved to a new database.

I have to convert the database on a different server from our production server. How should I approach this?

This will add additional time to the conversion but it is not impossible. The best way to approach this would be to recreate your source database on the new server and then do your conversion. In some cases, this is the only option because older operating systems won't support the latest versions of Progress and QAD Enterprise Applications.

With careful planning, your database conversion will run quickly and smoothly. Remember to use the QAD Enterprise Application Conversion Guide. It will take you through the entire conversion process, step by step.

How should I go about tracking QAD license usage on my system?

 QAD Support now offers the QAD License Usage Tool for active-on-maintenance customers. This tool is similar to the software used by QAD's User Count Assessment Group, and it helps to measure compliancy with QAD applications.

The License Usage Tool:

• Tells you how many licenses are consumed over a given period
• Provides the number of IDs accessing the system
• Can help you avoid "surprises" prior to an audit
• Costs nothing if you are an active-on-maintenance QAD customer

How do I obtain the QAD License Usage Tool?

Go to http://support.qad.com/ and search the Knowledgebase for ID qad54588. Here is the information you will receive:

To request the commercialized QAD License Usage Tool, email the QAD License Assessment Services team at assessment@qad.com or call at +1-856-840-2474 ( New Jersey , USA ).

QAD Enhancement Survey - Results are in!

Based on feedback from the QAD Customer Advisory Group (CAG), we launched a Product Enhancement Request Survey in late September, 2007. The purpose of the survey was to solicit your high-priority functionality enhancements based on business need, and map those into QAD's product plans. The survey listed more than 170 customer-submitted enhancements in six solution categories: Customer Management, Inventory Management, Manager Functions, Service and Support Management, Supply Visualization and Manufacturing.

Over 270 customers responded to the survey and the results were provided to QAD's Product Management and Research and Development departments. These groups reviewed and evaluated all of the enhancement requests and mapped them to our detailed short- and long-term product plans. The top 10 requests in each solution category were reviewed with the Customer Advisory Group in early December. Each of the CAG members will be evaluating and reviewing the results with their advisory groups, and providing feedback to us.

With the enhancement survey completed, and as we incorporate your requests into our design process, we continue our commitment to a customer-centric development process. Our joint development programs and customer development groups have helped to ensure a strong connection of customers' priorities with QAD product plans, as well. We look forward to continuing the open dialogue that the survey process has presented for us. If you have any additional feedback, please contact us at info@qad.com