Chapter 36: Updating Customer Addresses Across Companies

Purpose: If you work in a multi-company environment, a number of your customers may order from more than one of your companies. CWDirect provides the ability to identify customers across companies, so that you can apply an address update for the same customer automatically in each company where the customer's record exists.

Setup requirements: In order to automate cross-company customer updating, you must:

• Assign each company that shares a group of customers to a common maintenance group. You do this in the Company file by entering the same code in the Cross company maintenance group field for each company in the group. The actual code is not validated by the system; however, all companies within the group must have the same group code for the system to apply customer address updates among them. See Installation Chapter 2: Setting Up Companies (WCMP).

• Make sure that each company within the maintenance group uses the same formula to compose the standard match code (match code value of M). The system uses match codes, which are made up of characters from the customer's name and address, to identify similar customer records. See Chapter 19: Setting Up Match Codes (MMCH).

Note: If you change the match code logic for your customer base within an existing company, the system must regenerate match codes for all customers within the company. This can be an extremely time-consuming process, and you will not have access to certain files until it is complete.

Process overview: The process of updating customer addresses within a maintenance group is as follows:

• Each time you process a name or address change for a customer in any company assigned to a maintenance group, the system records this information in the Shared Customer Changes file (CSSCAP).

• Use Identify Customer Changes Across Companies (ICCC) to locate matching customer records in other companies within the company's maintenance group. If the customer name and address is an EXACT match, the system processes the change automatically; otherwise, the system writes the address change information to the Pending Shared Customer Updates file (CSPSUP).

• Use Process Customer Changes Across Companies (PCAC) to review customer address updates matches that the system selected with the Identify Customer Changes Across Companies function. You can choose to bypass updating any target customer if it does not seem to be a true match for the source customer. You also use this function to process the address updates.

In this chapter:

• Identify Customer Changes Across Companies (ICCC)

• Process Shared Changes Screen

• Sample Process

• Customer Address Changes Report

• Process Customer Changes Across Companies (PCAC)

• Display Pending Changes Screen

• Processing Updates

Identify Customer Changes Across Companies (ICCC)

Purpose: Use this function to identify customer address changes that may apply to customer records in other companies within a cross-company maintenance group. See Updating Customer Addresses Across Companies.

Process Shared Changes Screen

How to display this screen: Enter ICCC in the Fast path field at the top of any menu or select Identify Customer Changes Across Companies from a menu.

CSR0654 ENTER Process Shared Changes 5/31/96 16:08:53 Submit Job - to identify and process cross company address changes Press Enter. F3=Exit F12=Cancel

Submit job: Press Enter to submit the PRC_CHGS batch job. This job:

1. Compares the contents of the Shared Customer Changes file (CSSCAP) with the customer records in each other company within the same cross-company maintenance group. This file contains the old name and address for the customer before applying the update.

2. If the job finds a customer in another company within the group whose match code is the same as the source customer's, it determines if the two customer name and address records are an EXACT match.¹ If so, the job automatically updates the target customer. If the match codes are the same but the name and addresses are not an exact match, the job writes the source and target customer information to the Pending Shared Customer Updates file (CSPSUP). You use Process Customer Changes Across Companies (PCAC) to review and/or process the changes. The job discards any source customer information whose match code does not match another customer's within the group.

3. Finally, the job produces the Customer Address Changes Report, which lists all the updates in a pending status.

Note: When you run this job, it identifies and updates customer records within each cross-company maintenance group on your system.

Sample Process

You have five companies on your system, each with the following value in the Cross company maintenance group field in the Company file:

Company #	Cross Company Maintenance Group
1	A
2	A
3	(blank)
4	B
5	B
6	B
7	B

You receive a change of address for the following customer in company #4:

 

Mr. Leopold R. Smith

10 Speen Street

Framingham, MA 01701 USA

Delivery code: B (business)

PO Box: N

Match code: LEOSMI1SP01701M

 

The system automatically records the customer's old address in the Shared Customer Changes file because you have a value in the Cross company maintenance group field in the Company file. Examples of the logic that the system uses when you use the Identify Customer Changes Across Companies function are provided in the table below:

if the target customer record is:	and the company number is:	the system:
Mr. Leopold R. Smith 10 Speen Street Framingham, MA 01701 USA Delivery code: B (business) PO Box N Match code: LEOSMI1SP01701M	5	selects this record because the match code is the same as the source customer record's. It then evaluates each field of the name and address. They are an exact, letter-for-letter match, so the system processes the address change to the target customer.
Mr. Leopold Smith 10 Speen Street Framingham, MA 01701 USA Delivery code: B (business) PO Box: (blank) Match code: LEOSMI1SP01701M	6	identifies this customer as a match because the match codes are the same for both source and target. However, the target customer is not an exact match to the source, because there is no middle initial and the PO box field is blank. The system writes the target customer record to the Pending Shared Customer Updates file and includes the record in the Customer Address Changes Report.
Mrs. Leonard Small 10 Spring Road Framingham, MA 01701 USA Delivery code: R (residence) PO Box: (blank) Match code: LEOSMI1SP01701M	7	also identifies this target customer as a match to the source customer record, although not an exact match; it writes the target customer record to the Pending Shared Customer Updates file and includes the record in the Customer Address Changes Report.
R. Leopold Smith 10 Speen Street Framingham, MA 01702 USA Delivery code: B (business) PO Box: (blank) Match code: RLESMI1SP01702	5	does not identify this customer as a match to the source customer record, because the match codes are different.
Mr. Leopold Smith 10 Speen Street Framingham, MA 01701 USA Delivery code: B (business) PO Box: (blank) Match code: LEOSMI1SP01701M	3	does not identify this customer as a match to the source customer record, because this customer belongs to a company that is not within the cross company maintenance group.

Process Customer Changes Across Companies (PCAC)

Purpose: Use this function to review customer address updates across companies that were not exact matches, to select false match address updates that you want the system to bypass, and to submit a job to process the updates.

Display Pending Changes Screen

How to display this screen: Enter PCAC in the Fast path field at the top of any menu or select Process Customer Changes Across Companies from a menu.

Note: This screen displays all source and target customer address records selected by Identify Customer Changes Across Companies (ICCC). The information that displays is not restricted to your current company, or to your current cross-company maintenance group See Updating Customer Addresses Across Companies.

CSR0673 DISPLAY Display Pending Changes 5/31/96 10:38:13 Main Order Company Op S Cmp Cust# Name Cmp Cust # Select options, press Enter 5=Display Source Cust 6=Display Target Cust 7=Do not Update 8=Update U 27 296 DINAH BROWN - WORCESTER MA 123 12532 P 27 339 ELISE KAPLAN - WORCESTER MA 123 12530 B 27 377 WENDELL WINTER - FRAMINGHAM MA 123 12542 B 27 377 WENDELL WINTER - FRAMINGHAM MA 555 12554 P 123 12527 SARAH BROWN - WORCESTER MA 27 291 U 123 12529 ROSE KAPLAN - TOMS RIVER NJ 27 302 P 123 12538 SALLY BROWN - WORCESTER MA 27 94 B 123 12541 DONALD DUGAN - FRAMINGHAM MA 27 376 U 123 12541 DONALD DUGAN - FRAMINGHAM MA 555 12553 U 555 12552 ROGER REED - FRAMINGHAM MA 27 375 U 555 12552 ROGER REED - FRAMINGHAM MA 123 12540 F3=Exit F7=Process F12=Cancel F21=Print List

Field	Description
S (Status)	The status of the address change. Valid values are: U = unprocessed. The Identify Customer Changes Across Companies (ICCC) function identified this address change, which is now pending processing. P = processed. The Identify Customer Changes Across Companies (ICCC) function found an exact match with this address change and processed the update to the target customer automatically. B = bypass processing. You have entered 7 next to this address change to indicate the update should not apply to the target customer. Alphanumeric, 1 position; optional.
Cmp (Source company)	The company of the source customer record. Numeric, 3 positions; optional.
Cust# (Source customer number)	A unique number to identify the source customer within the company. Numeric, 9 positions; optional.
Name	The first and last name of the customer, and the customer's city and state, separated by a hyphen. Alphanumeric, 35 positions; display-only.
Cmp (Target company)	The company of the target customer record. Numeric, 3 positions; display-only.
Cust # (Target customer number)	A unique number to identify the target customer within a company. Numeric, 9 positions; display-only.

Screen Option	Procedure
Display information on the source customer	Enter 5 next to the address change to advance to the first Display Customer screen. See Chapter 28: Creating and Updating Sold-to Customers (WCST). Note: The name of your current active company displays on the first Display Customer screen, regardless of the source customer's company.
Display information on the target customer	Enter 6 next to the address change to advance to the first Display Customer screen. See Chapter 28: Creating and Updating Sold-to Customers (WCST). Note: The name of your current active company displays on the first Display Customer screen, regardless of the target customer's company.
Indicate that a target address should not be updated	Enter 7 next to a pending (status = U) address change to indicate that the address update should not be made. The status changes to B for bypass, and the system will bypass this address change when you press F7.
Indicate that a target address should not be bypassed	Enter 8 next to a bypassed (status = B) address change to indicate that the address update should not be bypassed. The status changes to U for pending, and the system will process this address change when you press F7.
Process the address updates	Press F7. See Processing Updates.

Processing Updates

When you press F7 at this screen, the system submits the job PRC_CHGS. This job:

• processes each address update that had a status of U on this screen.

• prints the Customer Address Changes Report. This version of the report lists each address update processed when you pressed F7. The status of each of the address updates on the report is UPD (update).

• clears all records from the Pending Shared Customer Updates file (CSPSUP).

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1. To be an exact match, all name and address information for both customers, including the Delivery code and PO box fields, must be identical.