October 24, 2008

Dear Grantees:

The purpose of this communication is to provide you with an update about recent ordering problems that a number of grantees have experienced related to the most recent releases of VACMAN so that you will understand the issues with the software. In addition, information is provided about two other issues that have contributed to recent ordering problems, including the importing orders functionality and VACMAN on Novell Networks.  Finally, some general VACMAN hints are provided.  

We know that this situation has been very frustrating for grantees, particularly coupled with the flu vaccine ordering season, and we apologize that problems with our current ordering system have been preventing state and local programs from being able to order vaccine for providers in a timely fashion. ISD and VACMAN/NIPVAC staff have been working closely together to address issues as soon as they arise, but there have been some delays in getting these problems addressed due to the large number of grantees who have requested help and the time required to investigate and identify the root cause of the problem before determining a solution.

We appreciate your patience and promise you that we are committed to working through ordering issues as quickly as possible and identifying long term fixes when we can.  We consider vaccine ordering to be a core component of our national immunization program and recognize that the program cannot reach its goals without this core function being intact.  If you are unable to transmit orders to CDC, please notify the VACMAN Help Desk (404) 639-8303 immediately.  

If you have questions about this document, please contact Karron Singleton at ksingleton@cdc.gov.  

VACMAN Software
All of you are painfully aware that we have had major issues in the past 2.5 months with the VACMAN software changes beginning with version 4.1.4. The new features introduced in VACMAN 4.1.4 included the ability to order less than the minimum order quantity for CDC-specified vaccines and an additional validation check against the orders prior to transmitting orders to CDC.

Upon pushing out VACMAN 4.1.4, we found out that the communications portion of the application software was not able to handle the change in the table that allows vaccines to be ordered in less than the minimum quantity.

The fix for VACMAN communications was sent out as VACMAN 4.1.4.1; however, this version would not allow you to transmit orders.

VACMAN 4.1.4.2 was intended to fix the order transmit problem; however, the new validate order process continues to create more issues for you than the benefit we had hoped to derive from it.  In addition, we found that the sanofi pasteur flu vaccine was not importing correctly because the cost has 4 positions to the right of the decimal and grantees were including only two positions to the right of the decimal.  The mismatch in the cost field was causing the import to fail.

VACMAN 4.1.4.3 will be released as soon as we complete testing.  This release will eliminate the second order validation process that is hampering the file transmit process.  Also, it corrects the import cost precision issue that was impacting the import of sanofi pasteur flu vaccine, and causing an error message on the multi-order screen. We had planned to have this update out by October 17; however, testing has not been completed and we are unable to make this date.

Internal development processes have been reiterated to the development team to ensure that reported issues are appropriately documented, thoroughly analyzed, approved by management, and scheduled for release.  Additionally, coding and testing procedures have been reiterated to the team to improve the quality of the code released.

Importing Orders
Orders are imported into VACMAN using several different file types.  The most commonly used file type is the Excel spreadsheet.  During the Import Function, if files are rejected, VACMAN creates two Excel files:  (1) an error file (proverrorsmmddyyyyhhss.xls) and (2) a reject file (provrejmmddyyyyhhss.xls).
The error file (proverrorsmmddyyyyhhss.xls) provides the reason an order is rejected; the rejected file (provrejmmddyyyyhhss.xls) is used to correct the errors and import back into VACMAN.  If you do not want to use the import function, the orders that were rejected will have to be re-keyed into VACMAN.  Common reasons an order will be rejected during Import include:
a.	Incorrect provider information (shipping instructions, provider address, etc.)
b.	Incorrect NDCs or other vaccine-related information (e.g., cost)

NOTES ON IMPORTS:  The Excel file that you want to import into VACMAN must be Excel 2005/95 or earlier format.  If you have a newer version of Office, then you can do a “Save As” function and save the file in Excel 2005 format.  Also, the Rejected Orders file does not always output the order date.  When entering the order date, please type it in the following format using a leading apostrophe:  ‘MMDDYYYY.  The import will fail if the order date is missing.  Also, in the Provider PIN field, place a leading apostrophe (‘) in front of the PIN (‘456789) so that it will import correctly.

Secure Data Network (SDN)
Grantee orders are transmitted to CDC over SDN.  Occasionally, you will be unable to transmit orders because the SDN server is down.  The SDN server outage can be very short in duration (matter of seconds) or very long in duration (several hours).  When the VACMAN Help Desk is notified that an SDN outage will be for a significant amount of time, we notify you via email.

VACMAN on Novell Networks
Many grantees on Novell networks have been experiencing significant problems when trying to use VACMAN.  The problems grantees are experiencing are caused by (1) file locking and (2) access privileges (Read Only versus Read/Write.)

When file locking occurs, the user will get an access denied message because the file(s) he/she is(are) attempting to access is locked.  File locking on the Novell network can also cause data corruption problems with the VACMAN dataset.

VACMAN users also will be denied access to the files in the VACMAN Data Directory if they are marked “Read Only.”  All files in the VACMAN Data Directory must be marked “Read/Write.”  To check the access level for a particular file:
(1) Highlight the file that you want to check;
(2) Right click the mouse;
(3) Select “Properties” on the menu;
(4) At the bottom of the window, if “Read Only” is checked, uncheck it and click the “Apply” button.
Please note: this issue is not unique to the Novell network.

VACMAN Novell Solutions:
(1)	For locked files, contact your IT Network Administrator and request to close all files that are open in the VACMAN data directory.  The VACMAN user should then be able log in to VACMAN and enter data.
(2)	Some grantees that have Novell networks have put VACMAN on a Windows operating system-based server to avoid the network issues.

General VACMAN Hints
(1) If you are running VACMAN from the Network (a network server), the application cannot be in the same folder as the VACMAN dataset.
(2) If you have a file corruption error, do the following:
a.	Run DataDoctor.datarepair
b.	Delete the VM400.txt file in the VACMAN Data Directory
(3) Ensure there is only one dataset (stock.dbf) in the VACMAN Data Directory.  Also, backup datasets should not be maintained on the same drive letter as the current VACMAN dataset.

(4) If you have a VACMAN configuration issue (you cannot access VACMAN), call the VACMAN Help Desk immediately.
      
(5) Instructions on how to properly upload and download files with CDC are contained in a PowerPoint presentation (VACMAN 4.x-Transmission) available at http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/programs/vacman/vacman4-x.htm.    

This document can be found on the CDC website at:
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/programs/vmbip/downloads/newsletters/downloads/newsletters/grant-comm-v4.rtf