Request Catalog

Create a Catalog Request

You can request a catalog to be mailed to the customer either when creating a customer or for an existing customer. These requests are automatically processed and written to a Catalog Request Outbound Advanced Data Queue and no longer generated through an output file. The name and address data can be retrieved for sending specific catalogs to customers.

1. From the More Options menu (), select Request Catalog. The Request Catalog drawer opens.

2. Select or enter a Source code. Drop-down selection displaying list of available source codes but supports typing to filter the selection list. Only those source codes with Display in Order Entry set to Y (selected) and Restricted set to N (unselected) appear in the selection list. Manual entry of a source code that is not already included in the drop-down list is permitted, if Restricted is set to N. Only one source can be selected. The source code assigned to the catalog request indicates how the customer came to contact you.

3. Select or enter the Offer. Drop-down selection option displaying list of offers but supports typing to filter the selection list. Only one offer can be selected. This is the code for the catalog that the customer is requesting. When selecting an offer, it is not required that the catalog request date to be within the offer date range, nor does the selected offer need to be associated with the selected source code.

4. Number of copies field is defaulted to 1. ALLOW access to secure feature Allow Number of Copies to Maintain in Catalog Request (A75) is required to increment the value (maximum 99) otherwise the field is read-only.

5. Click OK.

A Snackbar Notification indicates the catalog request has been submitted. Information such as name, address, customer number, source code, offer number of copies and so on, is written to the catalog request (CATALOG_REQUEST_OUT_OUT) data queue. Retrieve records from the queue and send out the catalogs.

Catalog request records can be selectively retrieved from the catalog request data queue, based on filtering for the following fields: Company Number, Request Date, Customer Number, Source Code, and Offer. The retrieved data can be used to create mailing labels affixed to the specific catalogs requested and mailed to the customers.

Catalog Request Process

As catalog requests are successfully requested, an internal web service sends the data to the backend. For each request, the following historical updates are made:

• Catalog Request History table: Writes an entry for each unique request (company, date, source) and increments the quantity by 1 for each request submitted. If a customer requests 3 copies of a catalog, the system increases the total by 1, not by 3. 

• Source Code table: For each catalog request, the corresponding source is updated to increment Gross Circulation, Net Circulation & Requests Mailed.

• Customer Mail History table: A new entry is added for each catalog request.

• Customer Order History table (source and last mail date): Updates Source to source associated with catalog request and updates last mail date.

• Customer Sold To table):

  Updates Current Mail Type to C (Catalog Request).

  Updates Source Code to the source associated with catalog request only if the value was S.

  Updates Original Source to the source associated with catalog request only if it was blank.

  Updates Last Change Date to current date.

• Customer Sold To Entity table: When Track Customer History At Entity Level (F89) system control value is set to Y):

  1. Creates a new record if none exists for the Customer (Original and Current Mail Type =C if creating first entry)

  2. Updates the Last Source field if there is an existing entry.

The web service also:

• Writes a CI (Customer Inquiry) Marketing Download trigger record.

• Writes each request to the new data queue.

• Writes an entry for the catalog request within the app.log.

The catalog requests can be selectively retrieved from the catalog request data queue using the filters described above. See Advanced Queuing in the Implementation Guide for more information for retrieving requests.

Catalog Requests in error continue to be managed through the Working with the Catalog Request Interface (WCRU) menu option. Once the record is corrected, it will automatically be written to the Catalog Request Outbound Advanced Data Queue.

Request Catalog Drawer Fields

The Request Catalog drawer contains the following fields:

Customer Name and Address: All customer name, company and address data display without field labels and cannot be edited here. The phone and email data is not shown.

Source Code: Required. See Create a Catalog Request for additional details.

Offer: Required. See Create a Catalog Request for additional details.

Number of Copies field: Defaults to 1. See Create a Catalog Request for additional details.