Import/Export Preliminary Setup

When working with an outside service agency or fulfillment company, it is necessary to establish "compatible" file formats between your M.O.M. system and the computer system of the outside firm. To insure a smooth flow of information, follow these three steps in advance of your actual use of the Import/Export Module.

Step 1. Establish Data Layout and Data Format

To facilitate order import from an 800 service or order export to a fulfillment service, you and your service firm must agree on the data layout and data format used in transferring order and customer information.

Data Layout

M.O.M.'s data layout for the customer and order information is contained in the Import/Export Data Table for MOM Enterprise or MOM XL. The fields in this table represent all of the possible customer and order information used in M.O.M.. The table also identifies the position of each field and the type of information contained in that field. The 800 service must have this table available to establish its order taking and/or order receiving parameters to ensure your M.O.M. system and their system use the same information for each order and customer.

Hint: Because they are almost always using their own computer system for order entry, 800 services often assign their own unique customer number and order number when they take orders for you. Your M.O.M. system also assigns unique numbers to each new customer and order. To enable these two sets of numbers to be cross referenced, in your M.O.M. database, your M.O.M. system provides for an alternate customer number (ALTNUM) and alternate order number (ORD_NUM) in the Import/Export Data Layout. Because the numbers assigned by your 800 service do not match the M.O.M. assigned numbers, it is a good idea to map any customer and order number assigned by your 800 service to the alternate fields in the M.O.M. database. Both the assigned numbers and alternate numbers are available for customer and order lookup in M.O.M..

Data Format

Data format describes how data fields are arranged in a record for transfer from the 800 service computer to your computer. IEM supports four types of data format: comma delimited, dBase III+, fixed length (also known as standard data format) and XML.

Step 2. Establish Storage Paths for Import and/or Export Files

It is important to remember that the IEM import and export processes are not performed online; i.e., you are not dialed in or hooked up to your service firm. When you import using IEM, you are importing into M.O.M. a file that you have already received from the service firm and stored on your computer's hard disk drive. When you export using IEM, your are creating a file and storing it on your computer's hard disk drive in preparation for transfer.

Files can be received for import or sent for export using either modem transmission or diskette. In both cases, you must determine the location on your computer's hard disk drive where the import and/or export files are stored. It is a good idea to store import and export files on a specific directory or subdirectory, for example, G:\MOM\IMP for import files. You might also consider a naming convention for the file names to identify the date of the file, for example, EXP1120.TXT for an export file sent on November 20th.

Step 3. Establish Communication Method and Schedule

As previously mentioned, you can receive or send files to your service firm using modem or diskette. In either case, you should schedule pickups and/or drop offs as often as necessary or as often as your service firm requires. If you use a modem to transmit files to or from a service firm, you must plan transmission time for each batch of orders being imported or exported.