Tag Archives: Coolspools Software

CoolSpools Case Study – Global Clothing Business

Posted on March 01, 2018at 10:26 am

Our client provides consumers around the world with its diverse portfolio of iconic lifestyle brands. Founded over 100 years ago, they are one of the world’s largest apparel, footwear and accessories companies with operations spanning numerous geographies, product categories and distribution channels.

CoolSpools is used in several ways at the company:

1. As an add on to their custom software, specifically for Inventory tracking and website feeds.
2. All Inventory reporting is emailed to many users (using CoolSpools’ email address lists) as spreadsheets, created from both DB files and SQLs using CoolSpools’ Conversion to Excel Spreadsheet software.
3. Several CSV files are sent to third party application suppliers, using CoolSpools’ Conversion to CSV software.
4. For daily website processing, an XML file, created using the database-to-XML mapping tool in CoolSpools, is sent to a third party.

The client’s Senior Systems Analyst comments “I wanted to thank you and your support staff for the invaluable help you have provided to me and my organization this year. At the organizations at which I previously worked, I had not worked with CoolSpools.  It would have saved innumerable hours (maybe months) in the initial creation and simple modification of files and reports!

You have a great product and you and the entire staff should be very proud of all the hard work that has been put into the (continuing) design and development of it.”

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Case Study: Take 2

Posted on March 03, 2017at 10:03 am

Take Two is a leader in providing automated information management products and services for administration in school districts and colleges across Canada.
Their Comprehensive Information Management System (CIMS) manages everything needed in a school division from Employee, Finance, Student, Public and Warehouse Management which enables Take Two to offer a very powerful combination of Software, Consulting, Development, Hardware Services, and Support. The business is celebrating it’s 30th year of operation in 2017 and prides itself in listening and reacting to customer needs.

Take Two sees Ariadne Software as a key business partner as it’s customers have successfully relied on the CoolSpools software suite for many years to convert their reports and images to pdfs, and to allow email/file transfer distribution from iSeries software. They have 11 districts across Canada from Manitoba to British Columbia using CIMS and CoolSpools, meaning thousands of users and millions of emails rely on it and couldn’t live without it!
CoolSpools Spool Converter and Email modules are 100% imbedded into the Take Two CIMS applications which:

• Customers auto-email daily student attendance from 100’s of schools to 1000’s of parents.
• Many emails convert reports and images to Microsoft Excel and Adobe PDF.
• Take Two rely on CoolSpools for email/file transfer distribution.
• And they create picture rosters:

Ariadne’s CoolSpools applications have been super-beneficial to Take Two who realised that CoolSpools was an ideal tried and tested development tool to integrate into all of their 5 CIMS modules.

And another huge benefit is a web application that draws from an original iSeries application that already had 100’s of reports created. Instead of re-designing they use CoolSpools convert spool file to PDF product and file transfer the PDF to their website to deliver to the end users…. 1000’s of reports a day that are now also enhanced with pictures!

Take Two rely on CoolSpools for email/file transfer distribution. And they create picture rosters:

Ariadne’s CoolSpools applications have been super-beneficial to Take Two who realised that CoolSpools was an ideal tried and tested development tool to integrate into all of their 5 CIMS modules. And another huge benefit is a web application that draws from an original iSeries application that already had 100’s of reports created. Instead of re-designing they use CoolSpools convert spool file to PDF product and file transfer the PDF to their website to deliver to the end users…. 1000’s of reports a day that are now also enhanced with pictures!

Commenting on Ariadne, Take Two said: “The CoolSpools product and support team are excellent – emails are responded to quickly and appropriately, instructions are always clear. CoolSpools is a major utility that our customers are dead without! You meet our high standards of quality and support. We are happy to have you as a key partner!”

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CoolSpools Converts i Series files to XML

Posted on February 16, 2015at 2:32 pm

XML files (eXtensible Markup Language) are now widely used to share information with many different types of computer systems, in a format which is usable on all of them. Many web services use XML, because it is a flexible and open method of exchanging data between a diverse range of applications. CoolSpools ( http://www.coolspools.com/) can facilitate the conversion of your data from i Series technology into XML, without you having to get involved in the detailed programming or different technology.

Business as usual

As a non-proprietary language, XML is available in the public domain and is ideal for producing queries, reports and database extracts, whether you need to send these to customers, across businesses to trading partners or internally to staff. The brains behind CoolSpools have produced a software suite to facilitate information and data transfer from i Series systems to XML files and others besides. The advantage of using CoolSpools to help set up your file transfer to XML is that you know you are in safe hands and you can just carry on as normal whilst we set it all up for you.

XML – a standard for exchanging data

The back to back exchange of data between companies is key to the growth and success of businesses today. The ability to automatically place orders with suppliers, to check and confirm 3rd party stock and to receive next day delivery is what we expect as standard. At CoolSpools we understand the importance of sharing information and we provide packages specifically designed to facilitate the distribution of your System i data. So wherever you need to send your information, whether it is internal or external to your business, CoolSpools can handle it.

Impatience & high demand for information across the nation

We all live in a world increasingly dominated by social media, fly on the wall documentaries, texts, hashtag, Twitter and so on; where the culture is to expect everything to be immediate. In this environment we forget how slow information distribution used to be. By using CoolSpools you can ensure your stakeholders need not remember either!

Give us a call today and find out how Cool Spools can facilitate your XML file conversion on + 44 (0)1625 547962 or email sales@ariadne.co.uk.

Do you wish you could convert your spooled files to PDF files?

Posted on February 16, 2015at 2:01 pm

Well, the good news is that you can! CoolSpools was developed primarily to convert all system i series and AS400 series spooled files into a variety of more manageable and usable file formats, including PDF.

Wave goodbye to the mountain of paper…

There are still many organisations worldwide where vast amounts of reports are produced and printed out on printers and then manually analysed and distributed to the appropriate staff. However, with the CoolSpools Spool Converter solution, you can automatically generate reports to PDF files and distribute them electronically or publish them in the cloud.

Bespoke PDF files that save time and money

You might currently extract separate sections of the data created on your system to send to different departments or individuals. This can be handled within CoolSpools as we have devised a system which allows you to select which lines or pages to include or exclude and which people you wish to receive each section of information. The CoolSpools Spool Converter will do it all for you on a weekly or monthly or annual basis depending on your business requirements. All you have to do it set it up and instruct it what to send and to whom and it will run all by itself (making you look even more efficient!).

Spool Conversion, Security and more besides…

However, the CoolSpools Spool Converter does more than just spool conversion. It provides easy to use flexible functionality to enhance the converted output. Apart from producing bespoke reports, the Spool Converter also enables the originator to password protect and encrypt the outputted PDF files, as well as adding restrictions to the PDF and including digital signatures to authenticate the report and show it has not been tampered with.

Nothing to lose and everything to gain…

So, in summary, the CoolSpools Spool Converter will definitely save your business time and costs whilst reducing its impact on the environment by saving paper. It will facilitate efficiency and transparency across your organisation and help your business to meet targets and analyse your operation in a more efficient manner. So what have you got to lose? Give us a call today and find out how CoolSpools can facilitate your information dissemination on + 44 (0)1625 547962 or email sales@ariadne.co.uk.

Is This The Most Powerful Spool File Converter Yet? Convert Your AS/400 Spooled Files With CoolSpools

Posted on April 24, 2013at 9:45 am

If you work within an AS/400 environment, wouldn’t it be great if you could take your spooled files and use them to communicate information across multiple channels? Wouldn’t you like to convert spool to PDF, or convert spool to Excel, and have the output files perfectly formatted and ready to go?

IBM experts’ Ariadne’s CoolSpools software (www.ariadnesoftware.co.uk) can provide your users with the right information, at the right time, in the right format. This powerful spool file converter can convert spool to Excel, iSeries PDF, iSeries XML and many other popular file formats. It provides a simple, reliable way to take an AS/400 data extract and turn it into end-user friendly documents whenever and however you need it.

But CoolSpools is no mere spool file converter. It offers powerful functionality that puts it way ahead of other AS/400 spool conversion tools. Here’s how it can help you transform the way you share information…

Split your spooled files into several documents

If you’re converting spool to Excel, for example for financial reports, you might want to split your System i Excel output files by date, region or product. Or perhaps you’d like to output AS/400 to PDF, but split into several System iPDF files. CoolSpools can split your AS/400 data extract into multiple documents – and each can be emailed to different recipients.

Merge and combine files

Maybe you need to merge several of your AS/400 PDF files into one document. You might want to append your converted AS/400 PDF to an existing PDF – one that wasn’t necessarily produced using CoolSpools. Or perhaps you’d like to add your newly-created AS/400 Excel file as a new worksheet in an existing Excel file. CoolSpools makes all of this simple – and as far as we’re aware, no other System i file conversion software offers you this functionality.

Format files however you like

After converting spool to Excel, you might need to format the document with color, borders, fonts or conditional formatting. CoolSpools can handle all of this, without having to reopen your Excel document to manually amend it. And after you convert spool to PDF, do you need to incorporate images such as corporate logos, watermarks or contact forms? CoolSpools has it covered.

Populate your website with AS/400 XML output

CoolSpools can do more than convert AS/400 spools for end user documentation. Its powerful iSeries XML conversion can output data that can be used to populate your website. No need to reprogram – just import the AS/400 XML direct.

So, do you need to convert spool to Excel? Convert spool to PDF? Or output XML? CoolSpools can do all of this and more – as well as formatting the output in a way that suits you.

And remember, CoolSpools software is created by Ariadne Software, well-established global experts in providing System i solutions – so you can trust it to be reliable as well as powerful.

Find out more at http://www.ariadnesoftware.co.uk.

What is a Spooled File?

Posted on April 09, 2013at 10:39 am

Spool is an acronym for simultaneous peripheral operations on-line.

Spooling is a function of your computer system that saves data for later processing or printing. The system saves this data in a spooled file.

CoolSpools (www.ariadnesoftware.co.uk) is the complete information management solution for IBM System i. With CoolSpools you can manage spooled files. Our software converts the spooled file to Excel, PDF and XML. This ultimately saves your time and money by moving your business away from paper-based documents and by distributing information via electronic formats.
CoolSpools is easy to use but immensely powerful. It helps you give your users and customers the right information, at the right time, and, just as importantly, in the right format. Our solutions address issues such as:
• sending documents to customers by email without having to change print programs
• publishing company reports on a corporate server so they can be archived and accessed easily from a PC
• producing Excel files from the System i without having to rely on users or operators to run file transfers
E-reading and the environment

Technologically, the world is moving to a place where documents are created on computers, distributed via computers and digested on computers. This trend can be seen in the lean towards tablets and e-books over paperbacks, and is quickly becoming the way we read and share our data. While there are still many of us who would rather read a printed document than looking at the same document on a computer monitor, the main benefits of CoolSpools are the money saved, the easy access you have to your spooled files and the positive impact on the environment by refraining from printing unnecessarily.

There is a direct correlation between the amount of trees that have to be cut down and the amount of money it costs you, and the initial cost for CoolSpools, is usually far surpassed by the savings in reduced paper for most businesses. Kenneth Mohn of Large US Dairy informed us that the use of CoolSpools had resulted in the company spending 20% less on paper.

Here at CoolSpools, we care about the environment, saving money and increasing efficiency. If you want to understand how our solutions can help your business, please contact us at www.ariadnesoftware.co.uk/contact, email sales@ariadnesoftware.co.uk or call us on +44 (0)1625 547 962.