The version 17.1 release reflects McLeod Software’s commitment to continuous ongoing product development by expanding the core functional capabilities of these products.
Birmingham, Alabama (PRWEB) May 01, 2017
EDI Automation
McLeod Software’s EDI Automatic Order Creation now has decision support tools to assist during the automated order acceptance process. Users can now add partner specific rules that allow for auto-acceptance and auto-creation of orders on specific tenders received from a partner that meet a more detailed set of pre-defined criteria. The ability to configure these rules for auto-acceptance, with great specificity based on the relationship with each customer, saves valuable time and resources that would have normally been required to manually review and accept each EDI order into the system.
McLeod IQ Financial Analysis
McLeod Software has expanded the best business intelligence solution for the transportation industry. McLeod IQ has added access to the LoadMaster and PowerBroker General Ledger and Subsidiary journal account activity across fiscal and calendar date series. McLeod Software customers now have more ability to analyze their financial activity for each individual company or in a consolidated view. These new enhancements provide an opportunity to track operational revenue and expense items all the way through the batch postings to the specific GL account level. The IQ Financial Analysis enhancements include the ability to report on items that are in the sub-journals and have not yet transferred to provide a view of what’s about to hit the ledger. The ability to evaluate each general ledger account segment has also been added, so users can look at activity broken out for each sub-account.
New Rating Methods Added to PowerBroker LTL
Within the PowerBroker LTL Module, two new rating methods have been added to the tariff based rating engine: Handling Unit and Product SKU. Handling unit differentiates between pieces, spots, and the physical handling units or packaging of an order. The tariffs can now be set up to rate based on the number of handling units, and charges can be calculated by specific product SKU. This allows for multiple base charges for an order per product SKU. A new attribute for Cubic units has also been added, which overrides the dimension fields of a per item entry for rating purposes. These new fields and attributes can be received through EDI and printed on invoices.
New Features to Help Refrigerated Carriers with FSMA Compliance
In response to the Food Safety Modernization Act, McLeod Software included in Version 17.1 the ability to configure specific load requirements at the time of order entry, pre-assignment, and dispatch. These requirements are based on a new auto-match process using order attributes, such as Customer, Shipper, Consignee, Commodity, Revenue Code or Order Type. These Equipment Match capabilities provide users greater control of the timing and enforcement of these items during pre-assignment or dispatch. To aid in planning for the additional equipment requirements, the order planning screen now shows the required equipment on available orders and assigned equipment for Tractor, Trailer, and Drivers.
These new requirements for equipment match process allow for carriers and brokers to specifically set default temperature requirements based on commodity, customer, shipper or consignee. Additionally it allows for other equipment items on the trailer or driver record to be present before dispatch is allowed in LoadMaster. Examples of requirements may include, driver certifications, trailer specifications, such as flooring materials and other specific loading/unloading processes to be followed as required. For brokers this ensures that carriers can comply with the customer requirements, such as specific carrier and trailer items based on a commodity for that customer. These features are the first of many McLeod Software has planned to help refrigerated carriers manage the work required for FSMA compliance.
CRM Sales Pipeline Report for Forecasting
A new sales pipeline report has been added to McLeod’s CRM module and shows sales opportunities with a percentage of completion and potential dollar amount, giving Sales managers the ability to better plan and forecast for new opportunities. This information will help sales managers who actively use funnel or pipeline management concepts to see the information they need more quickly and easily.
Embedded Google and ALK Maps
McLeod Software has added more web browser support within LoadMaster and PowerBroker application screens. With this additional browser support, users are now able to view the Google or ALK maps as an additional tab on screen without opening a completely new window.
SQL Health Check
McLeod’s SQL Health Check is a system designed to monitor the overall health and performance of the LoadMaster/PowerBroker database server. This component periodically captures a set of performance metrics from the database server, and compares the current values to a set of threshold values based on Microsoft Best Practices, as well as historical values for each site. Should any metric exceed its associated threshold, email notifications are sent alerting support personnel of the issue. The SQL Health Check is configured to detect the following database server conditions:
- CPU Pressure
- Memory Pressure
- I/O Pressure
- SQL Agent Job Failures
- Excessive database/file growth events
- Execution duration for static test queries
- Database file size and % of free space
- Average index fragmentation %
The data from each customer site is transmitted to the McLeod system and inserted into the Health Check database, so that each metric can be analyzed over time. The system also generates a report showing the results of the analysis. This new automated remote diagnostic ensures that McLeod users will see many database bottlenecks coming ahead of time, and allow them to take proactive action to head off some performance issues before they appear.
Support for Canadian Hours of Service (HOS)
New functionality has been added as part of the LoadMaster Multicurrency module to support the Canadian HOS rules. The new additions include setting default rule set values in the dispatch control file with the ability to override at the individual driver level. Enhancements have also been made to the HOS rules used in the Driver Hours Display, Feasibility and ETA/OOR services.
Enhanced Integration Solutions for LoadMaster Enterprise and PowerBroker
McLeod Software has added new integration solution with SaferWatch with MyCarrierPackets for onboarding carriers. The new interface helps manage setting up new carriers in PowerBroker, providing general carrier information, cargo hauled, lane and email preferences, along with images of carrier agreements and W9 information.
McLeod Software has created a new module to integrate LoadMaster with video safety monitoring companies, such as SmartDrive. This module transmits driver data to synchronize the setup and maintenance of this information in both systems. LoadMaster also transmits driver login and logout events from Mobile Communication Hours of Service (HOS) application data helping to streamline the video safety reporting back with accurate tractor and driver information.
McLeod Software’s Symphony Mobile Communications now integrates with Geotab’s HOS solution to automate the driver hour updates within the LoadMaster Dispatch module. The automated retrieval of the driver’s HOS data for time logged per status category, along with the available drive and on-duty hours, provides McLeod Software customers with critical information to better manage driver availability and feasibility within the order planning process. The HOS integration with Geotab enhances productivity by improving visibility into ETA of in-progress dispatches, providing opportunities to decrease late deliveries, and gain insight into early arrivals for increasing driver utilization.
McLeod Software’s interactive fuel interface with Comdata has been enhanced to allow users to setup a one-time and daily limit for miscellaneous products. Users can configure which fuel products are available for Comdata card use. The default limits can be created at the Comdata subaccount level with an optional override option by user. These default limits can be copied to all cards or just a single fuel card.
McLeod Software’s Symphony Mobile Communications module has added support for workflow-based dispatch process with Blue Tree Systems. These in-cab enhancements include trip-based assignments to drivers, intuitive form linking based on Geofence events and user-definable features for auto arrival and departure radius values.
McLeod Software’s Omnitracs Enterprise Services Workflow interface now supports Workflow for IVG units. This base IVG Workflow template was developed by Omnitracs in conjunction with McLeod for certification, and it is based on the default McLeod LoadMaster Workflow template of the MCP50.
McLeod Software’s PeopleNet Mobile Communication interface now includes the ability to process trailer drop and hook events. The ability to capture signature information has also been added, which can be stored through the integration with DocumentPower™ imaging. New support for PeopleNet’s alarms data has been added, and the number of elements retrieved in the PerformX screens has been expanded.
About McLeod Software
Transportation companies that work with McLeod Software find the best ways to improve customer service levels and operating ratios, attract and retain the best drivers, and drive automation to destroy inefficiency. McLeod Software is the leading provider of transportation dispatch, accounting, operations and brokerage management software, and document management systems. Specifically developed for the trucking industry, McLeod Software's advanced management solutions and services enable transportation companies to increase their efficiencies while reducing costs. Visit us at http://www.McLeodSoftware.com.