E-WMS

E-WMS and ICL Services: purpose and specifics

Introduction

This document describes the purpose and specifics of the E-WMS and ICL services, as per release 408.

Description

E-WMS and ICL program parts and installation files are automatically downloaded with the Exact Globe Next product updater. This also includes the required installation files for the E-WMS and ICL services. These services can be used with E-WMS ASP to automatically read back, validate and process hand terminal transactions, or send orders picking (Auto queue). The ICL services are used to automatically handle transactions between the ICL companies.

Purpose

When installed and properly configured, these services act as standard Windows services, dedicated to automatic processing of transactions which otherwise would have to be performed manually. Default, the services 'poll' every 10 seconds for new transactions to process.

These services will perform the following tasks:

For E-WMS

sending orders to the picking queue
- 'Auto queue' was introduced in product update 403
- support for Sales orders, Purchase orders and Production Issues
- support for Replenishment from release 408
reading back transactions which have status 'ready'
- this is always done by a service when a hand terminal transaction is 'ready'; there is no setting to enable or disable 'reading back'
validation of 'picked' transactions
- depending on the setting 'immediate validation' in section 'Automatic validation', for the WMS module in question (should be enabled when using a service)
- this validation results in either status 'validated' or status 'picking error' for each transaction
processing of validated transactions
- depending on setting 'Immediate processing' in section 'Automatic validation', for the WMS module in question (should be enabled when using a service)
- processes the validated transactions into Globe, only after this the Globe shelf stock is changed
- includes automatic processing of sales order fulfillments, from product update 403.

For ICL

export of new sales orders from an ICL 'sales' company to an ICL 'central' company
export of new purchase orders from an ICL 'purchase' company to an ICL 'central' company
export of 'changes' in sales orders, from 'central' to 'sales' company (changed quantities or fulfillment date or added extra lines)
export of 'fulfillment' from 'central' to 'sales' company = creation of purchase order and receipt, status update of involved orders
automatic receipt of purchase order (ICL Purchase, when setting 'automatic processing receipt' is enabled)

Note: ICL 'export invoices' to create purchase invoices in the sales/purchase database is not handled by the ICL services.

For E-Mobile Sales and Purchase Transactions

Read back orders entered and 'ready' on the scanner
Create new sales- or purchase order

Where to find

After E-WMS or ICL is installed, the most recent service installation sets are available in the Exact Globe Next folders..\INSTALL\E-WMS\SERVICES and ..\INSTALL\ICL\SERVICES.

General specifics

the WMS RF services can only be used when using communication method 'Scanner - ASP'
The usage of the services is not mandatory, but without these services all (scanner) transactions still have to be read back manually, resulting in less 'real-time' stock (or in case of ICL: in manual export of orders and changes or fulfillments).
The services never print the E-WMS and ICL reports, but do print configured Bartender labels configured for E-WMS.
Error messages encountered during services processing, are visible in the E-WMS RF monitor (menu WMS, Reports, RF Monitor)
The process of 'E-WMS Inventory' (Counts) does not have a RF service due to the nature of the 'inventory' process
From product update 403, it is possible to process sales order fulfillments automatically using the WMS Sales Order Fulfillment service.
From product update 403, it is possible to automatically send new orders to the picking queue instead of having to select and send orders manually to be picked.
The E-WMS RF Receipts Service handles both scanned 'guided' receipts and 'free' receipts
If you are running database optimizing jobs at night, like re-indexing or other actions which would not allow users to start Exact Globe Next, please configure the services to stop SQL activity at that time. This is possible from product update 405.
From product update 405, the ICL and E-WMS services can support multiple databases per service instance. Before release 405, each database acting as 'central' ICL company needs its own set of services running independently.
The services are programmed to perform a controlled restart once every 12 hours (before product update 405 this interval was once every 30 minutes), this will show in the Windows application event log.
The ICL services must both be configured to connect with the central database only; the ICL sales- or purchase databases are determined from the central database (from the debtor ICL information)

System requirements

It is important to install and run the services on a dedicated PC:

Please read the following documents for the system requirements:

Available services

The following services are available for E-WMS and ICL (service setup file names as per product update 407):

E-MobileSetup.msi: E-Mobile Sales (Sales Transactions)
E-WMSAutoQueueSetup.msi: Autoqueue
E-WMSFulfillmentRFSetup : Sales order fulfillment
E-WMSProdIssuesRFSetup: Production issues
E-WMSProdReceiptsRFSetup.msi: Production receipts
E-WMSPurchaseTransRFSetup.msi : Purchase transactions
E-WMSReceiptsRFSetup.msi : Purchase receipts
E-WMSReplenishmentRFSetup.msi: Replenishment
E-WMSStockTransRFSetup.msi : E-WMS Stock transactions
E-WMSTransfersRFSetup.msi : E-WMS warehouse- and location transfers (including 'repacking' for SKU Management)
ICLExportSetup.msi: ICL, export of 'changes' and 'fulfillment' from central database to sales databases
ICLSalesExportSetup.msi: ICL, export of new sales/purchase orders from sales databases to central database