All posts by Daniel Krentz

Advanced Shipping Notice (ASN) Technology with Your Partners

Filed in:Data | Elections | Security | Solutions

A critical aspect of managing your election infrastructure properly is an efficient and accurate process for receiving and recording new inventory and equipment. As such, a pre-shipment alert often referred to as an Advanced Shipping Notice (ASN), is essential to helping with speed and accuracy during the inbound process of election items.

A pre-shipment alert like ASN is imperative, making certain that your IT team is prepared to receive the assets. The following are some of the highlights of working with Wireless Data Systems, Inc. (WDS):

  • Critical data regarding identification fields for the equipment, i.e. serial numbers, software firmware versions, model numbers, MAC addresses, and warranty dates/period
  • Fast and accurate scanning and validation of manufacturer-provided unique identifiers (i.e. serial numbers) as the county asset tags are being applied. Thereby creating the permanent systematic bond/relationship between manufacture ID and county or state IDs.
  • Accurate method for meeting financial responsibilities from budget departments (i.e. proof that systems are in place to provide accurate intake and accountability of purchased hardware/assets – sometimes required by the state or provider of the funds/budget).
  • Sets groundwork for an accurate and fast-tracking, chain of custody, and accountability of equipment from the beginning of its entire lifecycle.

At Wireless Data Systems, Inc. (WDS), our systems are able to support a multitude of Advanced Shipping Notice methods depending on our customer’s current and planned data infrastructures, including:

  • Text Files with Pipe Character Delimiters: This is by far the simplest of formats that involve simple file transfers. While not the most-efficient, this process can achieve the benefits of ASN technology in small to medium-size operations.
  • XML Files/Web Services: The XML format is a more efficient format that allows large amounts of data to be imported via API or Web Services. (An alternative is to send/copy an XML formatted file, which is preferred over the Text file format, to an SFTP location to be retrieved by our system.)
  • EDI ASN 856 templates (preferred method): The IEEE x12 EDI ASN standard is robust and efficient. Our systems can receive the EDI 856 ASN. This process can be implemented in small to the most-complex elections operations.

With WDS, we’ll provide you with complete chain of custody of your assets and real-time visibility throughout the election cycle of your election-critical items. Our team works with your IT team to coordinate scheduling and make sure that every aspect of the election infrastructure is handled with speed, accuracy, and efficiency.

Data Integrity & Security

Filed in:Data | Security | Solutions, ,

A company’s data is now considered one of its most valuable assets, so it should make sense to do everything possible to protect it. Data loss also includes losses in productivity and data restoration costs. Operating systems, software, and even hardware can be replaced, but data is not so easily recoverable or replaceable.  Data integrity is a must for businesses of all sizes.

Just as a business owner will purchase insurance to protect their physical business assets, a backup acts as “insurance” against data loss incidents. Backing up ensures that data is easily recoverable and operations aren’t affected as much.

Backup best-practices:

  • Maintain at least 3 copies in different formats such as physical media and cloud
  • Backups should be encrypted to ensure only authorized users can access it
  • At least one backup should be kept offsite and off-network
  • If time for full-backup becomes an issue, consider prioritizing the most important data and data that has changed

Maintain security patches. Staying updated on your security hardware and software is crucial to ensuring that its working at its highest performance capability. Automatic updating keeps your system working with the most current anti-malware and antivirus signatures

Secure all aspects of your business including:

  • Using spam filter on email
  • Ensure firewalls and anti-virus software is maintained and up-to-date
  • SSL security on company website
  • Reviewing access control and roles for all employees and who can access what
  • Remove outdated and unused software from servers and users machines.

Other tips:

  • Be sure to securely wipe old devices of data. If a device or hard drive is damage, make sure the data on it can never be accessed.
  • Test your back up and security processes to make sure they are doing their intended purpose. Test the recovery data process to make sure data can be restored properly in a timely manner.

Just as with your personal health, prevention today will save you and your company a lot of time and money should there be a security breach. Consult a professional if necessary.

WDS products are built with security and data loss prevention at the heart of the system. Whether our systems are deployed onsite or on the cloud, we can provide guidance and direction to protect the integrity of your data. Contact us today to see how we can help your company.

Beware of Bloated Custom Software and Its Inherent Problems

Filed in:Problem-Solving | Security | Solutions,

Many software companies have come and gone trying to provide custom software and semi-custom software. A successful software provider that delivers custom software is typically staring with 80% of the solution in a base system, and then has a team of design engineers, system architects, project managers, and developers to tweak that base system into a “client-specific” solution that fits the operation like a glove. This “semi-custom” solution approach requires a complete and absolute “Problem-Solving Mindset and Culture.” A canned solution provider hires marketing teams, sales teams, and packaging teams….and builds their business primarily by working to deliver the same solution in as many instances as possible. “Development” is rare, if ever, and usually is only provided as a market-wide system upgrade. The interval for these updates is usually every one or two years. Customer requests for changes are typically added to a wish list of sorts from all current clients, and the requests that the software provider deems “justified” will then be scheduled and added to the queue for the next released upgrade.

Conversely, a semi-custom solution provider (like WDS), responds immediately to customer requests. Within days a team is assigned to the request to deliver a Level of Effort (LOE) estimate, create the specification, and spin up the solution in QA for testing, sign off, and then move to production. This results in the quick elimination of the pain point or bottleneck for the client, the immediate realization of the additional efficiencies expected from the change, and an immediate realization of the ROI that justified the requested modification.

The benefits of a semi-custom solution provider are significant for the client. The software is designed to “specifically” address their unique needs and requirements, and as the system and its benefits become an integral part of the operation, the ROI is dropping dollars to the company bottom line, and in most cases, those saving are reinvested in additional custom modules or functions, that then exponentially increase the savings delivered by the system.

Bloatware, Months of Configuring and Training:

One other observation about canned solutions is that most canned software companies try to build in as many hooks and switches into their software to try to solve all possible scenarios or client requirements. Unfortunately, this creates bloatware, with screens, logic, and data that individual customers will never use or need. The negative impact is at many levels. First, the sheer complexity of the configuration screens can take months to get right (if ever), training user on the complex interrelationships between modules in use and modules turned off create confusion on user interface screens, and the client pays at least a percentage for modules they will never use, and in the end, most clients will only using 25% of the complete solution for which they paid.

Trusted Advisor/Consultant:

The semi-custom solution is a far better approach, because the overall cost for the system is gauged on only the modules the client needs, and can be implemented quickly. A software company that commits to this problem-solving model is agile and responsive, their entire team is typically always in the solve problems mode and becomes a trusted advisor/consultant team as much as a software provider. Responsible companies will be willing to say no to customer requests if there are forces or prerequisites that might decrease the probability of a successful implementation and use. For example, a responsible problem-solving company will understand the inner workings between departments I an organization, and how the different departments and teams may or may not help with the success of the solution. And that is not to imply a negative approach by some of the internal team (although this does happen), but staff size, company policies (or habits), and departmental turnover rates can make it difficult for the solution to deliver 100% potential. As such, a “responsible” organization will ask the proper questions, will “learn” everything possible about the client’s operation and teams, and will see early on, any challenges that will jeopardize the solution. At WDS we take a brutally honest approach to these conversations, and challenge both sides to explain and acknowledge these issues and whether they can be overcome.

WMS Software Helps Eliminate Hidden Costs

Filed in:Data Visibility | Security | WMS, , ,

Building efficiency into every aspect of an organization’s system is critical to maximizing both productivity and profits. From supply chain to customer operations and from finance to marketing, each aspect must be coordinated with accuracy. In doing so, companies are able to look at each element in their operations in order to identify weaknesses and capitalize on strengths.  WMS Software is key to ensuring cost savings are maximized.

Data visibility lays the foundation for not only detecting hidden costs, but developing ways to save money in the process. Integrating features like real-time visibility and on-demand cycle counts creates a new avenue for cost-efficiency that will trickle into every department in the organization. A well-design system has the capacity to recognize hidden costs and generate strategic solutions.

Some of the most commonly seen hidden costs stem from the following situations:
1. Shipping the wrong items to a customer
2. Issues with space in the warehouse of a rapidly growing company
3. Dead money in old inventory that is sitting and not selling

The actual hidden costs typically come in the following forms:
1. Losing customer goodwill and the cost of shipping the items back or giving steep discounts to the customer in order to keep them and avoid the shipping back costs
2. The cost of moving to a new warehouse to sustain the rapid growth of the company
3. The dead inventory likely never sells

Clearly, all of the above scenarios and resulting hidden costs are killers for companies, from both a monetary and operational standpoint. The solution, however, is as simple as a well-designed, cutting-edge WMS software platform.

Fighting Hidden Costs with the TSX™ WMS Software

From the simplest to the most complex supply chain systems, a structured management system must be flexible, scalable, and profitable. The above situations are extremely common and must be considered when choosing an inventory solution.

For instance, a rapidly growing company will eventually have to consider moving to a new warehouse. However, an efficient system would cut down inventory safety stock and dead stock. As a result, those areas would be exposed and it would to allow them to delay or completely eliminate the need to move to a larger warehouse, which is a very costly endeavor.

In addition, having exposure to dead money gives companies the ability to move it. Thus, freeing up cash and making the bank much happier. With an efficient system in place, assets are stored for a shorter amount of time, this creates more space through turnover and reduces carrying costs. These changes satisfy both CFOs and banks.

The TSX™ Solution Driven By Data

A well-designed system will incorporate many paths to cycle counting the inventory in order to facilitate maximum real-time visibility to the current on-hand inventory, its movement, and accuracy. For example, the TSX™ WMS solution incorporates on-demand cycle counts during picking. Bins that are low will auto-trigger replenishment tasks that restock the locations quickly and efficiently. Even more powerful are the TSX™ cycles counts, which are driven by “fresh data” allowing focus on the money-maker items, while exposing the slow or dead stock to allow creative thinking on how to move it out and free up valuable warehouse space.

In addition, with the TSX™ AI logic, users are empowered with on-the-fly real-time information to move more efficiently through the counting and validation process. The combination of these TSX™ algorithms and designs reduce the overall cycle counting and recounting times drastically. Most clients experience a 70%+ reduction in user time spent on inventory counting tasks. When inventory visibility is at the max, you are empowered to “proactively” manage your overall inventory position, and eliminate the day-to-day reactionary situations that we have highlighted above.

Data Management with WDS

Since the architecture in TSX™ revolves around your data, not the system, your company is better qualified to make strategic, cost-effective decisions. At WDS, we are driven by the revolutionary complexity of data management.

Are you ready to increase efficiencies while lowering costs? Contact us today to learn more!