The updater for the application running on scanning devices has been enhanced and fortified so that it can now safely upgrade the system either from the local environment (client’s SAP Server) either from the SCAN4SAP Cloud. There is also an “update the updater” mechanism in place going forward. This means that any further enhancements done to the upgrade application are also automatically downloaded by each scanner when they become available.

We added a “thinking head” icon to several screens: Stock Transfer, Stock Transfer Request, Goods Issue, Picking – individually switchable on or off via configuration (depending on business requirements and if warehouse users should have access to them in a specific screen). What do the new buttons do? Glad you asked. They provide an “auto-select” functionality. This means that if the button is pressed in Picking, the user doesn’t have to scan the stock requested to be picked (in cases where barcodes are not available at picking or where speeding-up the picking process is desired). The screen automatically fills with the requested data to be picked and the user just has to confirm by checking the screen and pressing “Save”. In Stock Transfer, the “thinking head” button offers the same “auto-select” functionality: if they scan the “from” location and then press the button, the scanner will automatically populate the screen with all the items and quantities in that location. All the user has to do is scan where (s)he’s putting the stock to and press “Submit” (if the entire content needs to be moved). If only certain stock needs to be moved, then (s)he can amend the quantities on each row or remove certain rows and then press submit. It should be quite intuitive to use.

We can now accept (read) GS1 barcodes and generate SSCC numbers automatically for the shipped stock. As a note we started by adding the most used GS1 segments (like batch segment, expiry segment, quantity segment, etc). If more are needed, we can now easily support and add them to a future version upon request. This functionality is mostly used when dealing with pallets – either coming from suppliers or going towards customers. For the outgoing SSCC labels, they can be customer-specific if needed (automated via configuration).

All previous versions up until now worked with SAP Business One version 9.0, 9.1, 9.2 and 9.3, any patch level, SQL or HANA, simply by plugging into and using the correct SAP API version automatically. Some clients will know that when they upgraded SAP from one version to another there were no changes necessary to the WMS system. Simply stop using the scanners during the upgrade and continue using them straight after, just continue work. We are now bringing support for the latest version of the ERP: SAP Version 10. Please continue to drop us a message if you are planning an upgrade just to be on the safe side so that we can do quick validation tests for you immediately after the SAP upgrade (takes maximum 10 minutes).

If speed is the essence of your business we are introducing something called “Performance Mode”. If this operating mode is switched ON in the WMS configuration, certain features are automatically switched off or altered to increase operating speed. As it is just a toggle in the configuration, the activation of it carries quite a punch – just to give some examples on what this does: it automatically switches off the greeting screen that is presented during the login process and users are going straight in, immediately, and can see the menu. The number of documents in each category (in the menu) are switched off as well as only loading and presenting only the latest base documents. For “latest base documents“, this is what it means: consider adding a Goods Receipt PO against a Purchase Order; when opening the GRPO option from the scanner menu, one can see all the open Purchase Orders SAP has available. Under Performance Mode, the list is reduced to the latest 5 Purchase Orders only. This is only for the initial display towards the user. One can still search for an open Purchase Order in SAP by supplier and/or by document number. In other words, we’re just making the list of “search results” display maximum 5 records only. This means less data being carried between the server and the scanner, which in turn means less time to wait for the “spinning wheel” (wait animation) to retrieve the data. Rest assured, “Performance Mode” has minimal impact on the look of the application, most changes and enhancements are targeting the speed. If current operating speed is not an issue, please continue with the fully featured “normal” configuration. For high number of documents or records, we are introducing this new feature so you can work faster/better/stronger.