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ing reports on current pricing information. “Thisenables resellers to know what item and pricingchanges have occurred, and to keep their computersystems up to date with current item andpricing information,” says Kudia.Previously, a reseller who requested updateditem and price information would inevitablyencounter delays. A reseller would send an e-mailrequesting a report, the request was routed tothe appropriate individual, the information wasretrieved, and someone would respond. “Now,”says Kudia, “ICAPS provides almost immediateaccess to the information, and resellers can easilycustomize their request using a template thatallows them to specify the information they wantto update. This self-serve system can run a reportfor the user in three to four minutes, eliminating thetraditional wait time.”The primary mechanisms customers can use totap into United’s item and price information includea standardized file format called Unitape, whichfeeds information directly into the reseller’s computersystem. Resellers also have the option of creatingan Excel file or text file to retrieve updateditem and pricing information.“In addition to standard templates that Unitedmakes available, a reseller can easily customizea template to incorporate only the fields theywant to include,” explains Kudia. “United’s templateincludes all available fields, and the resellercan select which fields to use. Resellers can evendetermine the sequence of how their customizedinformation appears in the file.”Resellers can also schedule when they want toreceive updated information from United’s system—immediatelyor on a future date—as well asthe frequency for retrieving updates from United’ssystem—daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly.“For example, a reseller can set up the systemto retrieve pricing information every Friday withprices that will take effect the following Monday,”says Kudia. And resellers can receive updatedinformation using any of the three available deliverymethods: automatic e-mail, manual download,or posting to the reseller’s FTP site.System EnhancementsSince rolling out the system in April 2008, Unitedhas regularly introduced additional features basedon requests from users. “Two exciting enhancementsto the system start December 1,” says Kudia.“Previously, a change file informed the resellerwhat the price would be for a specified item. Butusers also want to know the previous price, soa reseller can now see both previous and futureinformation.”Another enhancement enablesusers to specify that they only wantto receive a change file if a specificparameter, such as price, haschanged. So if a customized templateincludes five columns of information,including price, the resellercan specify that they only receivea change file if the price changes.Other enhancements are nowincluded in ICAPS. Resellers usingResellers can better manage their margins by frequentlyupdating item and price information. Users can select daily,weekly, monthly, or quarterly automatic updates.OFF CEL NE41