Vehicle order processing may be carried out using the Ebbon-Dacs on-line procurement system. Any vehicle that is required to be sourced from a dealer network is added to a pool of vehicles on the Ebbon-Dacs Leaselink site. This is the area where vehicle suppliers are able to automatically respond to the vehicle enquiry offering their envisaged cost and lead times.
All quotations raised on Kestrel and accepted by the customer are flagged as Ebbon-Dacs and automatically passed to Ebbon-Dacs for sourcing. This is achieved by the passing of interface files between Kestrel and Ebbon-Dacs. Responses to the vehicle enquiry from the supplier are also automatically processed by the passing of two further interface files from Ebbon-Dacs to Kestrel. The first of these files uses the Update Progress from Ebbon-Dacs process which updates the Progress Tab. Once an order is up and running on Ebbon-Dacs and a supplier has been allocated, any progress status changes to the order on Ebbon-Dacs are filtered back automatically to the Kestrel system. The Receive Ebbon-Dacs progress update process extracts this data from Ebbon-Dacs and update the progress log within Kestrel for the corresponding orders. Each time a new status update is applied to an order on Ebbon-Dacs it generates an update file that needs to be sent to Kestrel. This file is then used to update the Kestrel order records.
The interface process uses SOAP (simple Object Access Protocol) which is a lightweight XML-based messaging protocol used to encode the information in Web service request and response messages before sending them over a network.
All records transmitted to and from Ebbon-Dacs are recorded in a log file (FO.edlog). This file is available for reporting across in order to track the records processed through these interfaces. The main events audited in this log as errors are: File corruption; Missing data in required fields; Unknown order number in file; Unmapped status description in file. Successful file processing is logged in this file without an error message.
Note: The options for the passing of interface files may be run manually from within Vehicle Purchasing / Miscellaneous Options; however, these options are more typically set up to run at a given frequency each day within Timed Operations. This means that we can set this to run automatically at any interval we wish and send the data to Ebbon-Dacs. For example it could be that this routine runs every hour between 09:00 and 18:00 without user intervention (intervals can range from every one minute up to once per month). This process searches all vehicle purchase order records and validates the following: the vehicle agreements status is equal to Accepted; the Submit Order to Ebbon-Dacs flag is ticked and the Date Sent to Ebbon-Dacs field is blank. If these conditions are met then the order details are added to the file that is transmitted to Ebbon-Dacs.
What do you want to do?
To access Update Progress from Ebbon-Dacs:
From the Master Menu, select the Vehicle Purchasing option and Company required.
The Vehicle Purchasing Menu is displayed.
Select the Miscellaneous Options option.
The Miscellaneous Options menu is displayed.
Select the Process Ebbon-Dacs Progress Option.
The Update Progress from Ebbon-Dacs form is displayed.
This form is divided into four parts that are as follows:
In addition to displaying the screen name the Title Bar displays other useful identification criteria and buttons.
The Update Progress from Ebbon-Dacs dialogue box consists of a description outlining the procedure that is to be carried out for adding vehicle order progress updates to the Ebbon-Dacs transmission file.
The following step by step process should be followed:
Before the Ebbon-Dacs interface may be used at all, the Allow Ebbon-Dacs? flag within the Ebbon-Dacs Tab in System Parameters must be ticked. Vehicles that do not require sending to Ebbon-Dacs may continue to be processed using standard Kestrel functionality.
Additional parameters must also be set at this time.
Flag Vehicle Purchase Order record as Ebbon-Dacs
Locate the required Vehicle Purchase Order. The agreement must be at an Accepted Status.
Select the ED
icon from within the Order Tab. The Edit Ebbon-Dacs Details form is displayed.
Tick the Submit Order to Ebbon-Dacs checkbox and leave the Date Sent to Ebbon-Dacs field blank so that the system knows that this is an unprocessed record that is to be added to the Submit Orders to Ebbon-Dacs file interface process.
The options for the passing of interface files may be run manually from within Vehicle Purchasing / Miscellaneous Options; however, these options are more typically set up to run at a given frequency each day within Timed Operations. This means that we can set this to run automatically at any interval we wish and send the data to Ebbon-Dacs. For example it could be that this routine runs every hour between 09:00 and 18:00 without user intervention (intervals can range from every one minute up to once per month).
This process searches all vehicle purchase order records and validates the following: the vehicle agreements status is equal to Accepted; the Submit Order to Ebbon-Dacs flag is ticked and the Date Sent to Ebbon-Dacs field is blank. If these conditions are met then the order details are added to the file that is transmitted to Ebbon-Dacs.
Once the routine has identified records that need sending it prepares a file in accordance with the Ebbon-Dacs file layout requirements to ensure all required information to allow successful ordering is present. The file prepared within this routine will be sent to Ebbon-Dacs electronically as an XML formatted file. At the same time the system flags the vehicle order records selected as sent to Ebbon-Dacs by updating the Date Sent to Ebbon-Dacs field (designed for this purpose) with the date the routine was run. This prevents these records being re-sent.
Receive Ebbon-Dacs progress update
The options for the passing of interface files may be run manually from within Vehicle Purchasing / Miscellaneous Options; however, these options are more typically set up to run at a given frequency each day within Timed Operations. This means that we can set this to run automatically at any interval we wish and send the data to Ebbon-Dacs. For example it could be that this routine runs every hour between 09:00 and 18:00 without user intervention (intervals can range from every one minute up to once per month).
Once an order is up and running on Ebbon-Dacs and a supplier has been allocated, any progress status changes to the order on Ebbon-Dacs should be filtered back automatically to the Kestrel system. The Update Progress from Ebbon-Dacs process extracts this data from Ebbon-Dacs and update the progress log within Kestrel for the corresponding orders. Each time a new status update is applied to an order on Ebbon-Dacs it generates an update file that needs to be sent to Kestrel. This file is then used to update the Kestrel order records. The Update Progress from Ebbon-Dacs routine is added to the Kestrel timed operations schedule allowing updates to be captured and processed at regular intervals in a similar fashion to the order enquiries sent out from Kestrel. The updates are held on the order progression and displayed in the order Progress Tab. Updates will show the status code applied to the order on Ebbon-Dacs and the Expected date will match the most recent expected delivery date also saved to the on-line order. For simplicity and to ease congestion on the order processing screen, these status updates are applied to the Vehicle order line only.
Set-up Progress Code Cross-Reference File
Before the Update Progress from Ebbon-Dacs interface may be used this table is used as a cross reference between Ebbon-Dacs status messages i.e. the Status description and Kestrel order Progress codes for progress files returned from Ebbon-Dacs. Typically Ebbon-Dacs order progress updates are in a character text format and this text has to be identified and cross-referenced into a code that Kestrel can validate as a true progress code. This is done in the Progress Grid held in the Ebbon-Dacs Tab within System Parameters.
Any additions/amendments to these codes within Ebbon-Dacs going forward should then manually be entered into the grid to ensure a successful match. By mapping the Ebbon-Dacs status descriptions to a Kestrel progress code a detailed level of reporting will be possible directly within the Kestrel system.
Receive Ebbon-Dacs order update
The options for the passing of interface files may be run manually from within Vehicle Purchasing / Miscellaneous Options; however, these options are more typically set up to run at a given frequency each day within Timed Operations. This means that we can set this to run automatically at any interval we wish and send the data to Ebbon-Dacs. For example it could be that this routine runs every hour between 09:00 and 18:00 without user intervention (intervals can range from every one minute up to once per month).
The Update Progress from Ebbon-Dacs interface above is used for importing progress updates. The Receive Ebbon-Dacs order update process is required for confirmed orders. This file contains details of the vehicle once confirmed such as the registration number, chassis number and key numbers etc. Each time an order is moved to a confirmed status within Ebbon-Dacs the order is flagged as ready to be sent to Kestrel. This file is then used to update the Kestrel vehicle order records.
A number of updates are carried out when importing into Kestrel. The order notes record (FO.otext) for the vehicle should update the following fields: Confirmed Date and Delivery text (postcode). The vehicle master record should be updated as follows : Registration number, Chassis number and Key number. It should be noted that the updating of the above fields follows the existing system rules for the Amend registration routine. This includes logging of the previous registration number and creation of an audit record (plus movement tracking record where appropriate).
