My newsagency software company, Tower Systems, is participating in the review of progress to-date of the new XchangeIT platform. I requested a review to assess some customer service issues and, in particular, the timeliness of support and newsagent communication. I am glad that XchangeIT agreed to the request.
Newsagents, magazine publishers, magazine distributors and newsagent customers all rely on the service and software provided by XchangeIT. Enough newsagents are using the new platform to make a review of this and the supporting infrastructure to be useful.
If anyone has feedback they feel would be useful, please email this to me directly at mark@towersystems….
Hopefully, the review will facilitate continued improvement of the new platform and benefit those newsagents yet to switch.
Hi Mark,
Have upgraded to XchangeITLink last week.
Have not received any EDI Invoices for Network since Monday. Phoned on Monday and Today (Wed) and I have been told that they are looking at the problem
Where is Network to day ,files still here
Hi Mark
We did the up grade on tuesday we have not got any of the EDI files for thursday as yet
Upgraded to XchangeIT Link last week – couldn’t send sales data to NDC, finally resolved 3 days later.
Couldn’t send EDI returns to NDC – resolved by resending when they finally showed up in Unsent folder – now working but no acknowledgement “within 60 seconds” as promised.
No NDC invoices received for today’s deliveries – still not here at 6.35pm despite being told at 9am they would be resent within the hour. Manually arrived all Network, finished at 4pm.
All I get is the run-a-round between NDC and XchangeIT with lots of finger pointing but little resolution.
Am I happy – NO!!!
Update to my previous post –
After successfully sending sales data to NDC for a few days it’s stopped again. Have just checked the XchangeIT log and bugger me, sales data successfully sent to Gotch and RDS but NDC data is sitting there in the Unsent folder again so have manually resent.
After all the talk about how much better life will be for all of us with this new system in place, it is bitterly disappointing and frustrating for these problems to be still occurring. What particularly galls me is the explanation I was given by one party that “with all of these newsagents going live, what do you expect? Of course there will be problems”.
Well excuse me, but I thought stress testing is what the test phase of any systems development was supposed to cover.
Don’t get me wrong – I am all for any technology based improvements we can achieve but once again, it seems that the end-user i.e. newsagent will bear the brunt of the problems as suppliers and XchangeIT point fingers at one and other instead of returning support calls!
What we are noticing at Tower is that stability which was experienced in the frist few weeks has slipped recently. Hence the review we called for.
Thanks for this and the feedback sent privately.
I too have had issues primarily in getting edi files in from all 3 distributors. Some files i have been sent contain no data.
I have had to ring and ask the distributors to resend which all bar Network have willingly done. Net told me to ring XchangeIT as they had sent the files already.
After many messages left with Xchangeit and several emails over the course of a week I am yet to get a response.
So far the roll out has not lived up to the expectations i had for it and i am disappointed with the support provided during this time
Hmmm…. after receiving a call from Gotch to upgrade “as soon as possible” I was going to do roll over this weekend but after reading all the issues above I am now are REALLY hesitatant.
B, The new XchangeIT is going well overall. There have been some changes in the last 24 hours to improve support from the XIT end and we saw an improvement yesterday as a result.
Getting EDI fiiles is not a widely experienced issue.
Ok thanks Mark. Am going to give it a go tomorrow. Fingers crossed!!
the onlyproblems we have had are with ndd files but after the first week everything has been going great
WELLL i take that back ..lol i have no files for NDC teething problems have to be expected i think
no files for friday xchangit says no problem on their end ring tower. tow er to busy or lost my phone number to return support call. so just have to go back to manual arrival.new xchanit has been like telstra got my money no service
be,
I am in Cairns at the ACP Connections conference. The Network people running XIT for the company became aware of the problem late today. It is not a Tower problem as newsagents on a variety of systems have been affected.
We have spoken to a Network representative tonight. You and the many others affected should ahve your files by tomorrow morning and if you do not, please contact XIT.
It was not a Tower issue.
In terms of a call back, the timing of a call back depends on the priority of the call andd their call traffic. Unfortunately, Tower gets swamped by calls that should go to XIT.
Mark
I must admit that we were very anoyed and frustrated when we changed over to the xit several weeks ago. We had many unanswered calls to xit and when we did speak to someone they treated us as idiots(maybe we are). They kept telling us it was a tower problem. It is very anoying when everyone keeps telling you its someone elses problem. And after attending the GNS fair and speaking to Net everything seems tobe working. My suggestion to anyone changing over to xit GO FOR IT as soon as possible. Expect a few hiccups but you will find it all works a treat in the end.
Mark, one more thing. We would be lost without the support and help from the staff at Tower. Its the best system anyone could wish for.
Here we go again – two deliveries in a row with no NDC invoices.
Lucky I’ve got nothing else to do today except sit on the phone for hours waiting for
a) XchangeIT to answer with yet another condescending explanation of why it is not their fault and
b) NDC to promise to resend the files “within the hour” without actually specifying what hour they mean.
I guess I can fill in the gaps manually arriving NDC mags!
SUPRISE SUPRISE,FILES MISSING AGAIN, VERY SLACK XCHANGEIT
WHO DO WE ACTUALLY CALL THE SUPPLIER OR XCHANGEIT?
Still no files
Am i the only one stiil to receive them
5.12pm here and still waiting for NDC files.
Had a conversation with a very harassed sounding person at XIT this morning who promised that my call would be treated as urgent – I’d hate to be in the “normal” queue!
We had similar problems, and in our case, I guess it is something to do with Microsoft Windows update.
I had 2 computers installed XchangeIT 3.2, one on server and the other on a register as a backup. The Server and the register has user-controlled windows updates.
On 14 Aug, my server failed to send and receive any delivery and sale data for 3 days. On Monday 17 Aug Moring, I use the register download all delivery data and send out sale data.
XchangeIt and Tower help desk suggested that installation of XchangeITLink might solve the problem.
I installed XchangeLink on Server, it has the same problem, while on the register, XchangeITLink works perfectly.
The only noticable difference is on Server, we just done all Windows updates ( included Net Frameworks 3.5 Service Pack1 KB951847) , while this update is not installed on the register yet.
Cheers,
Sunny