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| MACS mail order
customers scramble to weather UPS changes A change in the United Parcel Service online rate systems had Smith-Gardner & Associates’ HP 3000 sites scrambling to do weekend updates in early February. UPS made using its online rate service mandatory and then added a new residential tier of rates. The revisions forced users of the SGA mail order application into a complex process to synchronize UPS-Online PCs with their HP 3000s delivering the goods. Customers reported receiving SGA tapes with more than 40 files to update, tapes that included the wrong files, and rate information missing from other files. SGA posted a Web site address for customers to get a complete file of the new rates: browse to http://home.adelphia.net/~sekul ar/ups.htm and download the UPSLOAD file. Customers can call SGA’s support manager Lori Gansel at 561.265.2700 ext. 110 for counsel on the process. The last-minute process forced customers into updating parts of their application overnight they would ordinarily test for several weeks. Sites were talking about getting MACS and UPS together to put the next set of UPS changes directly into SGA code instead of relying on update tapes. UPS has PC-based online software to handle such changes that isn't integrated with MACS or the HP 3000. Some customers are still hoping that UPS might delay the enforced utilization of its new rate schedule once it realizes how many high-volume customers they’re disrupting. HP 3000 MACS users can show the UPS how much they ship. Users should report their volume of packages to UPS’ Keith Froelich, Customer Automation Vendor Program Manager, whose e-mail is nbd1kaf@is.ups.com. UPS says that with enough response from MACS users, it could modify UPS-Online so it could create update files on the HP 3000 and transmit them directly to UPS via the Telamon engine. UPS didn’t do this because it isn’t aware of the volume of merchandise shipped using the 3000-based MACS software. It’s substantial; just one MACS customer, catalog-based public safety equipment supplier Galls Inc., ships more than 4,000 UPS packages a day. The SGA customer base includes hundreds of companies, putting the total UPS shipments above a million each month. Copyright The 3000 NewsWire. All rights reserved |
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