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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 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.
 

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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 200 days for transaction details retention and 100 for member history retention.

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

Please note:  You must be running VideoMinder 6.4a or 6.4b to run the conversion to ROCKET.

v    Bulk delete members who have not been in to the store for a chosen time. There is no point in converting data for members who have not been in for, say, two or more years, as they and their history will be re-created in ROCKET. Members who have items on hire or who still owe money are not deleted by VideoMinder’s Bulk Delete function

v    Bulk delete hire items that were sold or damaged before a chosen date. Again, these will clog up ROCKET.

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

v    Make a decision about items that are still out on rent and are unlikely to be returned. We suggest you return them and then mark as Stolen.

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

v    Clean up your ex-rental copies if you were not using the VideoMinder 6.4b method of selling in a transaction. Eg, if you had marked all ex-rental copies as Sold in the titles file then added them as stock, you will need to mark the current ex-rental copies with an unused status (say, Unavailable or Lease returned) before conversion.  When they are converted to ROCKET they can then be bulk changed to the new ROCKET Ex-rental status.

v    If you have added your ex-rental titles to your VideoMinder stock file, these should be deleted before the conversion.

v    Print out the Member and Tape Profile Analysis report and check that:

 1.  Formats are attached to the correct price codes
 2.  All price codes used have a description
 3.  Only relevant categories have been listed as used
 4.  The member types used are relevant
 5.  You have no stock in other locations

If you have anything listed that looks incorrect, use your Title and Member reports to list just those price codes, categories, etc, then change these records to the correct setting.
 

v    Run the Clean up Addresses function, to make sure your members’ addresses agree with the suburb table in VideoMinder. This will save having ROCKET add all the various, incorrect, spellings of each suburb to its table. This is a very important step.

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 data, such as A, **, or blank. ROCKET will add all suppliers found to a Supplier table, so it is prudent to make sure 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 called MinderCleaner is included on all ROCKET master disks. This will assist with suppliers and ratings. The routine is  also available to support customers who have not yet purchased ROCKET.

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.