This issue features important news and information for PREFERENCE/PHOENIX managers, system administrators and authors. We hope you find this information to be valuable, and we would love to know how you think we're doing.
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PHOENIX/PREFERENCE DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME COMPATIBILITY

In February 2007 SumTotal Systems issued a statement of PHOENIX/PREFERENCE software compatibility with the daylight savings time (DST) policy, contained within the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 changed the time change dates for Daylight Saving Time in the United States.  Starting in 2007, DST begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. 

Please click here to view the PHOENIX/PREFERENCE DST software compatibility statement.

Additionally, a product Memo was sent to customers confirming ‘that there are no known compatibility issues with currently supported releases of PHOENIX/PREFERENCE and the new Daylight Saving Time policy.

If you have additional questions about the DST compatibility please drop us a line at techsupport@sumtotalsystems.com.

CONTACTING TECHNICAL SUPPORT

We are proud that PHOENIX and PREFERENCE users have enjoyed a high level of technical support over the years and SumTotal is committed to maintaining this level for a long time to come.   Here are a few basic reminders that will help expedite your next  technical support request.  Whether you are facing a critical ‘system down’ situation or a simple how-to question, remember:

• Options for contacting technical support are as follows:
  
  
• North American telephone support line:  800-932-6322
• International telephone support line: 00800-32688320
• Submit/update your incident via our support portal at: support.pathlore.com
• E-mail requests for support to: techsupport@sumtotalsystems.com

• When contacting SumTotal regarding a new technical support issue it is important to use the standard communication options listed above rather than directly contacting a specific individual. By contacting tech support through the standard channels:
  
  
• Ensures your issue is entered into our data system appropriately and handled as quickly as possible
• Prevents you from leaving a message on a reported problem directly with a tech support rep who could be tied up in an all-day meeting, or unavailable for some other reason, and cannot immediately help address your issue.

• Your feedback is very valuable to us. If you have any concerns or you are not 100% satisfied with your Technical Support experience, please contact Mike Keppel, Manager of the technical support group supporting PHOENIX and PREFERENCE at: 614-781-7264 or by email: mkeppel@sumtotalsystems.com.
  
  
• If you have a contract issue, rather than technical support, please contact Senior Account Representative Christie Davis at 614-781-7270.

• Need to order a product upgrade or a new authorization code? Simply access the following web site and use the appropriate form at:
  
  
• http://www.pathlore-mainframe.com/customer/order_forms.asp

  TECHNICAL HINTS, TIPS & FORMAT CHANGES ADDED TO WEBSITE!

• Seven (7) new technical hints and tips have recently been added to the SumTotal mainframe web site. PLUS, while we were out there we realized it was time for a little re-organizing to help our users quickly locate the material you need. Now instead of a single list of tips, we have grouped our 'Hints and Tips' into the following five (5) categories:
  
  
• System Error Messages
• Authorizations and Upgrades
• Online PHOENIX Courses
• Online PREFERENCE Volumes
• PREFERENCE Help Requests

Note: Most of the new 'Hints and Tips' are included under the PREFERENCE Help Requests category and include a number of troubleshooting aids, including a tip on: “How to Use the Rbuild Command” – Find this handy tip included in this issue!

Be sure to check out the PHOENIX/PREFERENCE Technical Tips and Hints web page at: www.pathlore-mainframe.com/customer/technical_tips.asp.

>> Have a suggestion or a tip of your own to share? Send it to us at totalconnection@sumtotalsystems.com

PREFERENCE Users: The rbuild (rebuild rules table) command is used to rebuild the internal PREFERENCE Transaction ID table used in rules processing, and is the “master" table of all Transaction IDs referenced in the PREFERENCE system. In this master table, Transaction IDs are sorted by volume name and in the order listed in the individual volume’s Transaction Descriptors table.

• TIP: The transaction table may need to be updated with rbuild command when:
  
  
• PREFERENCE writer activity includes adding, deleting or modifying transaction id entries.
• PREFERENCE volumes are renamed with the reassembly command, deleted, or added to the system with an offline process such as GSPCOPY while the online system is active.

When the PREFERENCE system is brought up, the internal PREFERENCE transaction table is built automatically.

• When trouble-shooting ‘rules problems’, it never hurts to invoke this command. To do so, simply follow these instructions:
  
  
• Access the PREFERENCE Supervisor command line.
• Type rbuild and press ENTER. When the process is complete, the following prompts will appear:
  
> DIRECTORY CONSTRUCTION COMPLETE
> RULES TABLE CONSTRUCTION COMPLETE

If you are attempting to resolve a PREFERENCE rules problem, immediately retry your help request after invoking rbuild. Additionally, you can execute a Transaction ID search, noticing whether or not the results differ before and after invoking the rbuild command.

Should you have a question about this tip drop us a line at: techsupport@sumtotalsystems.com

We are excited to announce an important enhancement to PHOENIX and PREFERENCE that is now available and will also be included in the upcoming release of 8.0:The New GSPUMNT Utility.

• GSPUMNT is a new offline utility that streamlines user maintenance activities, allowing the identification and removal of inactive students and readers. GSPUMNT will perform these tasks:
  
  
• Generate a listing of courses and/or volumes with students or readers that have been inactive since a specified date.
• Generate a report of all users who have not accessed a specified course or volume since a specified date.
• Remove all users who have not accessed a specified course or volume since a specified date. Additionally, a listing of the users removed by the utility is generated with data including user ID and name, start and last dates, elapsed time and class number.

By identifying and removing inactive users from the system, this new utility provides a way to quickly ‘clean up’ and reclaim space in the system user file. The listing of users removed by the utility provides a valuable audit trail in the context of administration of inactive users.

Are You Ready for GSPUMNT? If so, you’ll be happy to know you won’t have to wait for release 8.0 of PHOENIX or PREFERENCE to utilize this new product feature. GSPUMNT is NOW available from the mainframe website and is compatible with all currently supported releases, as well as with future releases. The GSPUMNT Utility is available to licensed customers under active maintenance and in good standing at no additional cost!

For more information please contact Senior Account Representative Christie Davis at 614-781-7270.

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