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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA>Folks,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA>If you haven’t done your monthly reporting – hold off until I release another update. I am currently waiting on the LCBO, as it looks like my ranting emails are resulting in an imminent template update. Surprisingly, I have received the potential template update to provide feedback back to the LCBO – and it looks to be addressing the major timing issue with the current reporting template.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA>As some of you may have noticed with the latest winery reporting template V26.6 (for April reporting)– it is extremely slow to populate the VQA licensee sheet.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA>If you don’t have VQA wines, it is not an issue, and you wouldn’t see this timing problem.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA>If you have a reasonable number of VQA wines, and a relatively slow computer, you will see the report generation spinning – seemingly halted – during report generation. Some computers – depending on the operating system – may actually halt the execution of the POS software – saying that the POS is hung.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA>The timing issue is beyond my control, as the LCBO controls the templates. The LCBO introduced a formula change, that takes excel approx 3-5 seconds to run (depends on your computer), on every cell on the VQA licensee sheet. You can test this yourself by opening the template, typing in one of the cells on the VQA page (eg row 21, column A-G) and pressing the tab key to move to the next cell – it will take 3-5 seconds before the cursor moves to the next cell.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA>So, to fill out a single wine on the licensee sheet can take 20-30 seconds (or 15-30 minutes for the sheet). As an FYI, normally it would take the POS software 0.02-0.03 seconds per cell and 3-5 seconds for the entire sheet. So the formula change introduced a massive timing increase.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA>I have been working on an update to address this issue, by breaking the report generation up into tiny segments and providing more feedback back to the POS software so that the operating system will not halt the program. Although, with the LCBO actually appearing to fix the reporting template, this work may have been a bit pointless.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA>I have sent a number of emails to the LCBO, with the latest one going up the LCBO chain of command. That seems to be the one making things happen this week.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-CA>Recent history of templates:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-CA><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>1.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-CA>V26.3 (released March 2022) – no timing issues. There are other issues, but no timing issues.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-CA><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>2.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-CA>V26.4 (released Jan 2023). Major issue. Wouldn’t work unless you had Microsoft Office 365 subscription with the latest patches installed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph><span lang=EN-CA>I sent an email in January explaining the issue. It took the LCBO three weeks to respond and admit that the template did not work<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph><span lang=EN-CA>But, as a result, I knew the email of the person in charge of the templates at the LCBO<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-CA><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>3.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-CA>V26.5 (released March 2023) – Major issue. Every cell on every sheet took 3-5 seconds. So, the LCBO introduced a formula change that ran every time any cell in the workbook changed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph><span lang=EN-CA>So this template was un-usable.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph><span lang=EN-CA>I sent an email showing the time to populate each cell on template V26.3 vs V26.5 directly to the person in charge.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph><span lang=EN-CA>Their response was that they thought that the template was a bit slower, but had no way of analysing their formula changes in terms of timing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph><span lang=EN-CA>But they thought that they found an issue with the formulas.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span lang=EN-CA><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>4.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span lang=EN-CA>V26.6 (released late March 2023) – Major issue. They fixed all of the formulas, except the ones on the VQA sheet.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph><span lang=EN-CA>I sent an email showing the new timing analysis, and received a thanks, but get lost email, expressing that the previous formula changes were just a courtesy – nothing more, and that the remaining issues were my problem, not theirs.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph><span lang=EN-CA>I sent another email earlier this week – a bit more assertive – and asked for manager’s and corporate affairs contacts.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph><span lang=EN-CA>That seems to have done the trick.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph><span lang=EN-CA><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:0cm'><span lang=EN-CA>I still have an issue with the LCBO release strategy, as they don’t seem to have any test procedures, or testing capabilities. Everything seems to be adhoc, at best – which is worrisome. I will be sending another email expressing these concerns once the update is out.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:0cm'><span lang=EN-CA><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:0cm'><span lang=EN-CA>Cheers,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:0cm'><span lang=EN-CA>Rob<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph><span lang=EN-CA><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>