Spoiler Alert! FACTS has functionality to communicate set critical information and data. Alerts were not standard in FACTS until v7.8. Before v7.8 users relied on reports, handwritten notes for reminders, shouting across cubicles or just flat out didn’t communicate until there was a problem. Are you looking at a sticky note on your monitor right now reminding you of an out-of-stock item? Alert Control Center (ACC) and Exception Control Center (ECC) help put an end to the sticky note madness.
Alert Control Center (ACC)
The ACC and ECC are very similar, but each are designed for different users.
The ACC is set up for general and administrative system users to receive alerts. You can get to the program a few different ways. Access code ACC or click on the icon in the upper banner.
Review your alerts. When you click on an alert, it will bring you to a program to respond to the alert. As an example, “CrdHold” will bring you to sales order review. When you are done responding to an alert, be sure to close it. Manage your alerts and try to complete them daily.
The ACC allows users with security to use the System Alerts Dashboard. With security, you can get to the System Alerts Dashboard in User Preferences by using “My Alerts”. The system Alerts Dashboard allows users to subscribe themselves and other users to alerts. You can also subscribe to ECC alerts. For each alert, you can define how you want to receive an alert. The choice is either email or within ACC or both. It is recommended to subscribe to your alerts with just ACC and not email. At the point your alerts are manageable, and you prefer email, you can go in here at any time to subscribe via email.
FACTS 9.3 has several new alerts that get into detail of various programs. As an example, you can be alerted if someone changes a field in a File Maintenance. It may be helpful to be alerted if a user changes a customer credit limit or credit terms. Perhaps you want to be alerted if a user changes an item class on an item or you may want to know if someone was in a file maintenance. These alerts are available and can be programmed specifically to information you want to manage.
Exception Control Center (ECC)
The Exception Control Center (ECC) is intended for buyers. Users can get to the program with the ECC access code or in the Purchase Order (PO) module in the PO Entry menu.
It is highly recommended to review your alerts at least daily. If not a few times per day. Some alerts will alert you immediately, whereas others will alert you after the nightly alert miner process. A very common frustration is going into ECC and finding too many alerts to deal with. Users get overwhelmed and end up just ignoring them and may miss out on critical information.
At Aktion, we help FACTS users to both design alerts and help make alerts more manageable. We have 25+ alert enhancements already created and currently in use by our customers. Let us help you get your alerts under control and go from getting too many alerts a day to just a few that truly need your attention. I hope this article has given you better insight into both the ACC and ECCs in FACTS. Feel free to reach out and contact us if you need help getting your alerts back on track or want to learn more about one of our custom alert enhancements.
Kathy is an Aktion Application Consultant and former TUG board member with extensive experience helping Infor FACTS users optimize their application by providing experience, best practices, and related processes.