Rocket Rental - Next Generation Video Software

MIGRATING FROM VIDEOMINDER TO ROCKET

- getting yourself prepared

Users of CustomSoft's VideoMinder can migrate to ROCKET at a discount price. This means you can swap your VideoMinder licence for a ROCKET licence, as well as carrying over the balance of your 24 hrs/day software support plan to the new program. Your VideoMinder data is converted to ROCKET automatically (with some question and answer help from you) in conjunction with the installation of the new program.

Details of the migration program and pricing are available from CustomSoft, for contact details click here.

The following are technical notes to assist prospective users to prepare their existing data files for conversion to ROCKET, and to modernise their hardware to enable ROCKET to run adequately.

What hardware you will need

What operating system you will need

How will older machinery handle ROCKET?

How much data will I get across from VideoMinder?

What preparation must I do in my VideoMinder files?

1. What hardware you will need

	1-2 users	3-4 users	5 or more users
Win XP	Home (SP2)	Home (SP2)	Pro (SP2)
File server	P4 3.0+/512 Ram	P4 3.0+/1 gig Ram	P4 3.0+/1 gig Ram Dedicated file server
Workstations	Recommended: Celeron 2.8+/512 Ram	Recommended: Celeron 2.8+/512 Ram	Recommended: Celeron 2.8+/512 Ram
Back-ups	CD Burner	CD Burner	DVD Burner
Resolution	1024 X 768	1024 X 768	1024 X 768
Network	Cat 5	Cat 5	Cat 5
If you currently have more than 25,000 each of members and titles, then a DVD burner is recommended for backups

2. What operating system you will need

Windows 2000 or XP must be loaded on all machines. If you have more than four machines in the network, you will need to install XP Professional rather than XP Home. Windows 95 and 98 are not suitable for ROCKET.

A WARNING!

It�s important that you should time the purchase and installation of a new Windows operating system and new hardware in preparation for ROCKET in conjunction with when you actually expect to begin using the software. This is because there could be problems with your running some peripherals and plug-in devices in conjunction with VideoMinder in the period before you change to ROCKET.

While VideoMinder works well with Windows XP and Windows 2000, there are issues with the following peripheral devices, which are designed primarily to operate with a Windows program and are thus not entirely compatible with DOS-based programs such as VideoMinder.

v     USB devices
DOS programs do not in any way talk to USB cash drawers, report printers, receipt printers, etc. Do not replace your peripherals with USB devices until you have upgraded to ROCKET.

v     Report printer - DOS compatibility
Many laserjet-type printers will not communicate with a DOS based program. Make sure the printer you buy is DOS compatible, that it can plug into a standard printer port (LPT, not USB), and that it will understand �HP Laserjet� commands.

The printer we currently recommend is a Hewlett Packard 5550, which works without problem using the printer driver supplied. Just install the printer under Windows, and that�s it.

v     Serial devices
Under Windows 2000 or XP, a DOS program can not talk to serial cash drawers, report printers and receipt printers. These devices can not, therefore, be used with VideoMinder on Windows XP/2000.

v     Parallel devices
Parallel cash drawers, parallel printers and receipt printers can be used with VideoMinder under Windows XP/2000, but you will need to adjust the system settings to minimise the time delay before the cash drawers open. Even adjusted, the delay can sometimes still be several seconds (click here for more details ).

3. How will older machinery handle ROCKET?

As ROCKET is client/server technology, the most important computer in the network is the server. This machine �serves� all workstations with the results of any data queries, and in this environment workstations do very little work, unlike VideoMinder.

We have tested older machines as workstations running on fast servers (AMD 400/192RAM � equivalent to a Pentium II) and found them to be just adequate as a counter machine. As a file server, though, this model machine was totally unacceptable.

Peripheral devices currently in use with VideoMinder

When VideoMinder �talks� to a cash drawer or printer, often there was no need for Windows to have a driver installed for that device. With ROCKET, Windows handles all the communications and often requires the device driver to be installed. The driver can often be obtained from the website of the original manufacturer.

Also, serial cash drawers that worked perfectly with VideoMinder may now also require a power pack, as Windows-controlled devices do not get their power from the computer (unlike DOS-controlled devices).

For barcode scanners, the programming manual for the device may be required if you need to reprogram; all scanners purchased from us are supplied with the programming manual.

Under rare circumstances your existing cash drawer may not work with ROCKET and will require replacing.

4. How much data will I get across from VideoMinder?

All members, titles and stock lines will be taken over, as will items on hire, amounts owing, overdue fees, etc, with all their relevant details.

However the most important area of the conversion is the amount of history that will be converted, and this depends on your history retention settings.

Take note of the history retention that you have set up in VideoMinder as this is the basis for the transactional conversion.

For example, if you have 200 days set as your TRANSACTION DETAILS retention setting then you will get 200 days of daily transactional data converted. If you have seven days, then you�ll only get seven.

If the members history is set to the last 100 hires and sales, then you�ll get this amount of information converted.

It is a good idea to check this now and update to at least 365 days for transaction details retention and 100 for member history retention.

5. What preparation must I do in my VideoMinder files?

Before starting you must clean up your existing data. The following is a suggested plan, in order.

v Bulk delete members who have not been in for a chosen time. There is no point in converting data for members who have not been in your store for two or more years, as they and their history will be re-created in ROCKET. Members who have items on hire, are barred or still owe money are not deleted in this routine.

v Bulk delete hire items that are sold or damaged before a chosen date. Again, these will clog up the system and can not be deleted inside ROCKET.

NOTE: If you are on a revenue share scheme, make sure you comply with the studio rules about deleting old records.

v Delete stock items that are no longer available or that you no longer carry. Only items that have a stock level of zero can be deleted. Take particular note of �dummy� items that you have entered to use with promotions, etc.

NOTE: A cleanup routine to assist with deleting stock is available to support customers. Please call the Help Desk for details

v Re-align Member history. This routine will delete history for members who are no longer on the system.

v Run a Check File Integrity across all files.

v Pack and re-index your data.

v Run the Clean up Address routine, to make sure your members� addresses agree with the suburb table in VideoMinder. This will save having ROCKET add all the various spellings on a suburb to the table, instead of just the correct one!

v Check that the suppliers that you are using are valid. Test data has shown that many hire items have been coded with suppliers that are not in the Supplier table, and are often rubbish, eg, A, **, or Blank. ROCKET will add all suppliers found to a supplier table, so it is prudent to ensure that they are valid before starting the conversion.

v Check that the Ratings you are using are valid. Test data has shown that many variations of the same rating are often used.

NOTE: A cleanup routine to assist with Suppliers and Ratings is available to support customers. Please call the Help Desk for details.

v Check that titles of the same name do not have extra characters at the end of the name line, as each of these spellings will come across as a master product into ROCKET. For example, �Gladiator ** Sold� and �Gladiator� will be treated as two master products rather than one product with two copies.

v Change the supplier code on all revenue share stock that is no longer on a revenue share plan. ROCKET will add hire items coded with BUE, FXX, TSR and WNR as revshare stock and attach to the correct revenue share plan.