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Electronic Production Order

R

robnokshus06

In an effort to bring our production department into the 21st century, I would like to create an electronic production order. Yes indeed, we are still running a piece of paper upstairs and downstairs in order to facilitate getting a commercial produced and on the air!

What I would be interested in learning is what kind of system some of you are using. It needs to be something simple. An icon on the salesperson's desktop, that all they have to do is click, fill out and click send and off it goes to traffic and production.

A Java aplet maybe? Some sort of email template? What's working for you?

Thanks in advance!
 
Microsoft Access would be perfect for this. You could create a database, with each production order as a record. You can create custom forms, sort on any field (like "status" or "end date"), and create custom reports for different people.

The downside is that you need to learn Access. I highly recommend books by Robert Grauer and Maryann Barber for a quick way to get up to speed. Search for them on Amazon, or your favorite book site.

Alternatively, you could find a local Access geek and pay him/her to do your bidding. You might even find on in-house. Make sure that you know what fields you want, what reports you want, and what you want the form to look like.
 
Another alternative would be Filemaker Pro. It's fairly easy to learn, and very powerful. Once you create the form you want, which is the hardest part, you can not only sort according to a line or column of data in the database and generate custom reports, but you can quickly search orders through Filemaker's internal search engine. Plus, your reports can be exported in a lot of different formats, including Excel.

As with any database program, it's all about the form you create, making sure you have all the fields you need for what you going to want to do. One good thing about Filemaker is it does allow you to modify and redefine the form without having to reenter any of your data.
 
Access, Filemaker Pro - pick your favorite database. The reason that I suggested Access is that most stations already have it as part of their Office package and won't have to buy new software or licenses. This is a reasonably basic use of Access, and you can also copy or link Access tables directly into Excel - or Excel spreadsheets directly into Access tables. You can also modify the forms, tables, etc. - as well as generate an executable that OTHER people CAN'T modify - either intentionally or accidently.

Get "Access for Dummies/Idiots/Neophytes/the Insane/etc.". You could be proficient enough over a weekend to get this done.
 
Thanks for the suggestions! I will probably have to go with Excel as it doesn't appear that we have Access on our machines.

Its interesting though that no one seems to actually be urilizing some sort of electronic PO. It would be nice to not have to re-invent the wheel. So, if anyone IS using something like this, let me know!

Thanks for all of the input so far!

Rob
 
Since 2000, all PO's sent from traffic to production are via email. No template needed...traffic simply sends a new email with client, run dates, ISCI code, and tag info. They can also attach the MP3 or script of the spot sent by the agency if needed.

I have all salespeople sending me their scripts directly via email with any special instructions and the date needed. The paper shuffling has been almost removed.

I am looking at the online form creators where the salesperson can go to on the web, fill out the online form and click send. I haven't found an online form creator that I like yet.
 
Demodave said:
I am looking at the online form creators where the salesperson can go to on the web, fill out the online form and click send. I haven't found an online form creator that I like yet.
Click to expand...

Access can do all of the above, and put it either on your intranet, which could be accessed from outside via VPN, or on the Internet - as long as you can exercise access control. An Excel spreadsheet can also be saved as an interactive webpage.
 
You're on the right trac.
Of course the pun is intended! Off the board write to the folks at [email protected]. I have a group of seven that have been electronic since 2000.
 
i created a production order template in microsoft word, and put it on all the sales people's computers, with a shortcut on their desktop. they click the shortcut to open a new document, fill in the appropriate info, save the PO (so they have it for their records), and e-mail it to me. or they can still print it out and drop it off (either way it still has to get printed out for traffic and filing. we're not that savvy yet).

seemless... they like it... and it helps for those AEs who have horrible handwriting.
 
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