ServiceDesk 4.6.16 Update 06/26/12

Recently we heard from a user that Samsung has imposed a limit on the quantity of parts that can be returned, within any given month, and return credit received.  The limit, we understand, is 5% of whatever is the total purchased. 

OUCH!!!!!!

This means if you've done $10K in purchases in a given month, your returns cannot exceed $500.  It's a pretty tiny limit, and means you could potentially be stuck with some losses, if ServiceDesk did not do its best to help you (even then you might, but at the least ServiceDesk should do all that it can). 

That's what this release is about. 

We have added a new HoldLoc category in the PartsProcess system, as follows:

The idea is, if you need to return an item and either lack quota space for the return within the current month or you want to delay until deciding how to juggle items within your max quota, place the PartsProcess item into this new category.  It can then be reviewed and managed, under that particular and new category, via the various "To-The-Grave" management functions, just as is applicable with other categories. 

In this case, there is an added and further special function.  You are likely familiar with the fact that when a user is working to special-order a part (and when the same part number happens to exist in inventory), the system attempts to interdict the order.  Basically, it injects a message informing your user that the part is in inventory, and it would make far greater sense to use the instance that's in inventory, as opposed to special-ordering the item. 

So, here's the further logic.  If you can be assisted in using a part that you'd been hoping to return (by having notice provided when a user is about to re-order the same item), it not only means more quickly satisfying what had been perceived as an order need; much more powerfully, it means there's no longer a need to fit that return within your very skinny return allowance (thereby making potential space for other returns within said allowance). 

So, what we've done is added to the same behind-the-scenes call that looks within your inventory to see if an about-to-be-processed special-order request can be satisfied from inventory.  That same call now makes a further check, to see if there are any special-order items in the Special-Order system in this new status, and from which the request can be satisfied.  If so, it presents a message similar to the following:

Nothing is needed for implementation of this new feature, save using the new category.  There is, however, one caveat.  The system creates its behind-the-scenes ready-access list (that is consulted for this check) each night as part of the Auto-Archive process.  This means that if in a current day you have just added an item into this new category, it is not available for producing any of these new alerts until the following day.