managing tracelink operations student guide · pdf file... service administrators...

Managing TraceLink Operations Student Guide

Managing TraceLink Operations 3 August 2016 Copyright © 2015 TraceLink

Table of Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................ 4

About the Course .............................................................................................................................................. 4

About the Course Exercises .............................................................................................................................. 5

Related Courses ................................................................................................................................................ 6

Module 1: Roles and Responsibilities ..................................................................................................................... 7

Lesson 1.1: Staffing Considerations .................................................................................................................. 7

Lesson 1.2: Responsibilities for Each Role ........................................................................................................ 7

Lesson 1.3: Responsibilities During and After Implementation ....................................................................... 8

Module 2: Troubleshooting with Info Exchange ................................................................................................... 10

Lesson 2.1: Monitoring Transaction Exchanges Using Info Exchange ............................................................ 10

Exercise: View Transaction Exchanges in Info Exchange ................................................................................ 10

Lesson 2.2: Message Status ............................................................................................................................ 13

Lesson 2.3: Understanding Info Exchange Results ......................................................................................... 15

Lesson 2.4: Info Exchange Error Messages ..................................................................................................... 18

Lesson 2.5: Troubleshooting Issues in Info Exchange ..................................................................................... 20

Lesson 2.6: Resubmitting Messages ............................................................................................................... 23

Exercise: Resubmit a File................................................................................................................................. 23

Exercise: Resubmit a Message ........................................................................................................................ 24

Lesson 2.7: View Canonical File for a Transaction .......................................................................................... 25

Exercise: Download the Canonical File ........................................................................................................... 25

Lesson 2.8: Info Exchange Data Extracts ........................................................................................................ 26

Exercise: Create an Info Exchange Data Extract ............................................................................................. 26

Exercise: Create an Info Exchange Bulk File Extract ....................................................................................... 26

Lesson 2.9: Email Notifications ....................................................................................................................... 28

Exercise: Enable Email Notifications ............................................................................................................... 28


Module 3: Data Best Practices .............................................................................................................................. 30

Lesson 3.1 File Naming ................................................................................................................................... 30

Lesson 3.2 Opening CSV Files Without Losing Leading Zeroes ....................................................................... 30

Lesson 3.3 Viewing ASNs in a Readable Format Using Notepad++ ................................................................ 31

Appendix A. Sample Outreach Email .................................................................................................................... 33


Introduction

About the Course

Audience TraceLink Operations specialists responsible for day-to-day processing and troubleshooting of TraceLink messages.

Duration 2 hours

Prerequisites Participants must have experience with the life sciences supply chain and working with systems that manage shipping and receiving.

System Requirements

We recommend that students have a TraceLink account on their company’s test instance so they can perform the exercises in this guide. To log into a test instance, enter the following URL in your browser: https://itest.tracelink.com/login.

If you don’t yet have a TraceLink account, contact one of your company’s TraceLink Company Administrators.

Course Objectives Welcome to Managing TraceLink Operations. After completing this course, you will be able to:

Identify and understand the roles and responsibilities of TraceLink users.

Troubleshoot messages using Info Exchange.

Implement best practices for working with your data.

https://itest.tracelink.com/login


Module Objectives The following table describes the objectives for each module:

Module Objectives

Roles and Responsibilities Differentiate between the Company Administrator, Service Administrator, and Service Member roles, and who on your team should have these roles.

Describe best practices for each role to work effectively with TraceLink.

Identify what you are responsible for and what TraceLink is responsible for at each stage of your implementation.

Troubleshooting with Info Exchange

Monitor transaction exchanges using Info Exchange.

Differentiate between successful and unsuccessful transmissions.

Diagnose common errors and take steps to resolve them.

Resubmit messages.

Enable email notifications of error messages.

Data Best Practices Develop effective file naming conventions.

Use Excel and Notepad++ file processing strategies to prevent corruption of message files.

About the Course Exercises

The course demonstrates the procedures you’ll use to manage TraceLink Operations. The course also contains exercises so that you can try the operations yourself on your TraceLink test instance. If you don’t yet have an account on your test instance, contact a TraceLink administrator at your company.


Related Courses

This course describes the responsibilities of those who support track and trace initiatives in your company. The procedures are described in a series of courses specific to the each company’s role in the pharmaceutical supply chain. To access the courses, select the Education Center for your company’s role in the supply chain:

Manufacturer Education Center: http://www.tracelink.com/LandingPages/education-center-manufacturer

Wholesale Distributor Education Center: http://www.tracelink.com/LandingPages/education-center-wholesaler

Dispenser Education Center: http://www.tracelink.com/LandingPages/education-center-dispenser

Serialization Education Center: http://www.tracelink.com/LandingPages/education-center-serialization

http://www.tracelink.com/LandingPages/education-center-manufacturer

http://www.tracelink.com/LandingPages/education-center-wholesaler


http://www.tracelink.com/LandingPages/education-center-dispenser

http://www.tracelink.com/LandingPages/education-center-serialization


Module 1: Roles and Responsibilities

Learning Objectives

At the end of this module, you will be able to:

Differentiate between the Company Administrator, Service Administrator, and Service Member roles, and who on your team should have these roles.

Describe best practices for each role to work effectively with TraceLink.

Identify what you are responsible for and what TraceLink is responsible for at each stage of your implementation.

Lesson 1.1: Staffing Considerations

Many departments in your organization will use TraceLink, such as IT, logistics, supply chain specialists, and so on. Rather than task a single department with all of the responsibility, we recommend building a “center of excellence” – a group of people who understand the whole of what’s involved with a system like TraceLink and who know which group to turn to and when. Understanding both the business context and the IT considerations of such a system is vital to ensuring success.

You’ll need to assign someone to be a Company Administrator. A Company Administrator has full access to all aspects of the system and handles tasks such as user creation, adding or updating product information, and entering partner company information. A recommended practice is to assign this role to at least two people in your company. See the Managing Users and Administrators course for information on how to grant a user Company Administrator privileges.

You must also make at least one person in your organization a Service Administrator. While Company Administrators have full access to the system, Service Administrators only have the ability to grant users access to particular TraceLink modules. To do so, Service Administrators “invite” users to a module’s service. Each TraceLink module such as Product Track and Serialized Operations Manager has a service. Each of these services can have multiple Service Administrators who can invite other users to access its corresponding module. When a user is invited to a service and accepts, the user is considered to be a Service Member. Most people in your organization who use TraceLink will be Service Members.

Lesson 1.2: Responsibilities for Each Role

Company Administrator

Company Administrators create new users on the system. After you’ve created a new user, your Service Administrator must invite the user to join a TraceLink service.


Service Administrator

A Service Administrator’s sole responsibility is to invite other people to join a given service such as Product Track or Master Data Exchange. Once a Company Administrator has created a new user and the user has activated their account, a Service Administrator adds the user to the service as a Service Member or Service Administrator. Refer to the Subscribing to a TraceLink Service course to learn how to add users to TraceLink services.

If you are a Company Administrator, you can add yourself to a service. See the Adding Yourself as a Service Administrator course to learn how.

Master Data Administrator

Your company needs one or more users to administer Company, Partner, and Product Master Data. To update Master Data, a user must be granted Service Administrator access to the Master Data Exchange service. The Master Data administrator is responsible for keeping your company’s Master Data up to date. Master Data comprises the products your company manufactures, distributes, and receives, as well as the companies you send and receive products from. In order to keep the system in compliance, you need to ensure that this data is kept current. Each time your company releases a new product, stops producing an existing one, or does business with a new company, you need to add that information to Master Data. If you don’t update the Master Data, you will not be able to send compliance information for that product, or to that company. Refer to these courses for information on how to work with Master Data:

Granting Access to Master Data

Managing Company Master Data

Managing Product Master Data

Managing Partner Master Data

Lesson 1.3: Responsibilities During and After Implementation

Your company and TraceLink share responsibilities for your company’s success with TraceLink. This section breaks out who is responsible for which activities during implementation and on an ongoing basis.

During Implementation

TraceLink is responsible for:

Setting up your company on the network and creating any Business to Business (B2B) connections

Demonstrating how to load Master Data by importing data files


Configuring services

Reviewing and assisting in the testing of integrations between TraceLink and your systems

Monitoring files during the “hypercare” period—the period after go-live when TraceLink assists in supporting your company’s TraceLink operations

Developing and updating maps as needed

You are responsible for:

Entering Master Data

Creating user accounts

Setting your password policy

Establishing service links to your partners

Building transaction interfaces as needed

Developing test plans and test cases, and executing them against interfaces

Contacting your partners to get them connected to the network

(See Appendix A for a sample outreach message.)

Post Implementation

TraceLink is responsible for:

• Creating B2B connections for new partners

• Developing and updating maps as needed

• Creating service-to-service connections for new partners

You are responsible for:

• Adding to and updating Master Data

• Adding and managing users

• Creating new ServiceLinks

• Monitoring file exchanges

• Exception management, including voiding transactions, and resubmitting files

• Updating maps as needed

• Managing EDI settings


Module 2: Troubleshooting with Info Exchange

Learning Objectives


Monitor transaction exchanges using Info Exchange.

Differentiate between successful and unsuccessful transmissions.

Diagnose common errors and take steps to resolve them.

Resubmit messages.

Enable email notifications of error messages.

Lesson 2.1: Monitoring Transaction Exchanges Using Info Exchange

TraceLink Info Exchange transmits messages between your company and your partners and maps data formats as necessary. Info Exchange lets you view all messages your company has exchanged with its trading partners in the TraceLink system, as well as the status of those messages.

You can use Info Exchange to:

Verify that a given message was successfully received by its intended recipient.

View error messages generated by failed transactions.

Manage exceptions and resubmit messages to resolve issues when necessary.

Import and export files.

Exercise: View Transaction Exchanges in Info Exchange

1. Log in to TraceLink and select Info Exchange from the Modules menu.

Note: You can access Info Exchange from the Admin menu, as well, by moving your mouse over the name and selecting Admin > Into Exchange. Use the version accessed through Admin > Into Exchange for advanced administrative functions such as configuring EDI settings and Info Exchange profiles.

2. Ensure that the Search Criteria section of the page is expanded. Click the expand icon if necessary.

3. In the Service menu, select a service.


4. Set the date range or keep the default range, which is the last three days.

In addition to filtering by a date range, you can filter by these values:

Search Criteria Description

Input File Specify a file name to filter results to transactions with the specified input file name. (Wildcarding is implicit.)

Processing Status Select a status type to filter results:

All

Failed – All

Failed – Map in Failed

Failed – Processing Failed

Failed – Map Out Failed

Failed – Blocked

Failed – Needs Investigation

Success – All

Success – Delivered

Success – With Warning

By default, Info Exchange shows all failures (Failed – All).

Business Process – Transaction Type

Select a transaction type to filter search results.

The transaction types are the transactions supported for the business processes within each TraceLink module, for example:

Product Track

All transactions

Transaction History type (shipment, receipt)

Shipment type (3PL, serialized sales, SOM serialized sales)

Return type (returns, return receipts, return destroyed)

Transaction type (pick/ship, create initial transaction, update)

Transaction History inventory (report request, report response)


Info Exchange

All transactions

Acknowledgements (EDI, inbound EDI)

Processing responses

Partner Click the drop-down icon and select one of your company’s trading partners to view exchanges with that partner only. For a trading partner to be listed, it must be in Partner Master Data.

If you type part of the partner’s name, TraceLink autocompletes the name.

5. Click Search.

The Info Exchange search returns a list of matches:

The Info Exchange search lists up to 10,000 results. To refine your results, search by a specific date and time.


Lesson 2.2: Message Status

Info Exchange lets you view all messages your company has exchanged with its trading partners in the TraceLink system, as well as the status of those messages.

Message Status Icons

The message status icons that appear in the left column of the Info Exchange table are defined in the following table:


Successful Transmission

Here’s an example of a successful transmission:

Failed Transmission

For failures, Info Exchange displays a Processing Status link with the name of the error. In the following example, the error is Map In Failed.

When you click the link, an error window with a detailed description of the error is displayed.

In this example, the transaction failed because the partner is not defined – it is likely that the partner has not yet been created in Master Data.


Lesson 2.3: Understanding Info Exchange Results

Each exchange displays as a row in the results table.


This table defines the column contents of the results table:

Column Description

Last Updated The date and time of the transaction’s most recent operation.

Processing Status The status resulting from the most recent operation:

Map In Failed: Failure during the mapping of the inbound feed from the sender’s format to TraceLink’s generic (canonical) XML format.

Processing Failed: The message was received successfully but failed during processing. Failed messages trigger email notifications for users configured to receive them.

Map Out Failed: Failure during the mapping of the outbound feed from the TraceLink’s generic (canonical) XML format to the format required by the receiver.

Blocked: The message cannot be processed at this time, usually due to system resources. Info Exchange retries blocked messages every two hours for 49 hours. If it’s still unable to process the message, the transmission fails.

Needs Investigation: The message failed, usually due to a duplicate File Control Number. Info Exchange provides feedback to assist troubleshooting. If you determine that the file is correct, click the Continue Processing link in the Actions column.

Processed: Message was successfully processed in TraceLink.

Delivered: All phases of transmission and processing have completed successfully.

Review Status If the transaction has been configured to be reviewed before being delivered, the review status displays:

Pending Review

Delivery Allowed

Delivery Stopped

Company Administrators can specify whether transactions are to be delivered automatically or whether a user must request delivery (Services > Transaction Delivery Rules tab).


Sender The company that sent the transaction.

Recipient The company to whom the transaction was sent.

Service The service through which the transaction was sent (includes the company and the TraceLink service type).

Business Process The TraceLink module that generated the transaction.

Transaction Type The type of transaction. Each business process has its own transaction types. For example, for transaction histories, the transaction types include transaction history shipments and transaction history receipts.

Input File The transmitted file. Click the filename to view.

Last Output File The last file to be delivered, given that one or more transactions have been delivered successfully. Click the filename to view.

Actions Click a link to perform the specified action:

Deliver Output File: Reprocess a feed that failed to reach the partner (delivery stopped).

Redeliver Output File: Reprocess a feed that was successfully delivered to the partner.

View Transaction Details Click this link to see all events for the transaction.


Lesson 2.4: Info Exchange Error Messages

When you click View Transaction Details for an exchange, an error window displays. Learning to diagnose the error messages is vital to keeping your compliance transactions running smoothly.

Some errors are self-explanatory one-line messages such as “The parameter shipmentDate is missing or had an invalid value.” Others are more involved and are generated in a structured format. The best approach to these sorts of errors is to begin by locating lines that begin with Detail[Text] or Description. These lines provide the reasons for the failure and serve as a starting point for your troubleshooting efforts.

Example: Output Data Presentation Mismatch

Here’s an example that shows a data presentation mismatch:

A data presentation mismatch occurs if data was received in a format other than the expected format.

① shows the data that was received.

② shows the expected format of the data.

③ shows the detailed error message.

In this case, a date was received in the M/D/YY format instead of YYYY-MM-DD ②. To resolve this, the user corrects the data and resubmits the message.


Example: Input Presentation Mismatch

In this example, the user included extra characters accidentally when submitting the data.

① shows the error category.

② shows the error message description.

③ shows the data that was provided.

④ shows the expected format of the data.

In this example, the user included a series of commas following the Z ③. The commas are the source of the parsing error. To resolve this, the user corrects the data and resubmits the message.


Lesson 2.5: Troubleshooting Issues in Info Exchange

Master Data Issues

The most common causes for failure messages in Info Exchange are caused by:

Missing product information

Missing partner information

To avoid these issues, be sure to keep your Master Data up-to-date.

Common Errors and Troubleshooting Tips

Below is a list of some of the messages you may encounter in the Detail[Text] or Description sections of an error message, along with a suggested approach to resolving them.

Status Error Suggested Resolution

Delivery Could not find service configuration for company

You are not connected to the destination company. Set up a Service Link with that company, or contact TraceLink’s network success team.

Delivery Failed AS2 Send Failed Contact your customer and ask if they are having B2B system issues. The file can then be resent via Info Exchange. Otherwise, contact TraceLink support.

Map In Failure Unable to read input data for business object 856 due to a FFD Error.

Either the format is unreadable or some of the required data segments are missing. Typically this is caused by errant spaces, special characters or carriage returns. Or the file is poorly formatted and needs to be corrected.

Map Out Failed Mandatory Field /ISA/GS/ST_Loop/HL_Loop/YNQ/YNQ02 does not have data.

A mandatory field was not completed. Enter a value for the field and resubmit


Map Out Failed The output data does not match with target presentation.

A field was not formatted properly. Refer to the additional details of the error message for the data that was found and the format it was expected in. Contact TraceLink support.

Map Out Failed Unit of measure for quantity shipped to date is required

Ensure the Quantity Ship To field has been populated and resubmit

Map Out Failed Valid ship-to party ID type in source N103 is required

Ensure the Ship to Party field has been populated and resubmit

Processing Failed No NDC attributes were provided and NDC not found in Product Master Data

Ensure the product’s NDC is present in the Product Master Data

Processing Failed Process: Bad NDC value. For US - NDC542, the ItemCode must be 11 digits, specified as either all numbers, or with hyphens in the 5-4-2 format. For example, acceptable values are 12345123412 and 12345-1234-12.

Correct the NDC in the Product Master Data screens.

Processing Failed Delivery Number XXXXXX already exists for a previous inbound shipment.

Multiple shipments with the same delivery number have been received. Contact the shipper and ask them to provide an updated shipment number.

Processing Failed Process: No Transaction Histories found matching NDC NDC542 XXXXXXXX, at Location COMPANYSITEID XXXX.

No transaction histories for this particular NDC could be found at the specified location. Check your internal inventory systems and confirm.

Processing Failed Process: Error processing Transaction History data for Delivery XXXX NDC542 XXXXX Required Transaction History field LotNumber was missing or populated incorrectly.

The Lot Number was not provided. Contact your vendor and ask them to resubmit the ASN with the Lot Number.


Processing Failed Process: Receiving quantity X exceeds Transaction History pending receipt quantity. Original Transaction History Quantity: X. Remaining Quantity to Receive: X.

TL does not have TH inventory for NDC and quantity in PendingReceipt status

Processing Failed Process: No Transaction Histories pending receipt for NDC NDC542 XXXX Lot XXXXX and Delivery Number XXXXXX at Location --.

No THs in TL for NDC, Lot and Delivery # in pending receipt status.

Check your inventory system and resubmit.


Lesson 2.6: Resubmitting Messages

Many errors require you to correct data and resubmit a message. You can resubmit messages you sent only. For messages sent from trade partners, request that they update the files and resubmit.

You can redeliver files for transactions with these status values:

Delivered: The file was delivered successfully. In some cases, a customer might request that you resend a file.

Map Out Failed: TraceLink received and processed the file but was unable to map the output into the format required by the recipient. For Pick/Ship files, Map Out failures can be caused by invalid entries in shipments. See the Troubleshooting Issues in Info Exchange lesson for examples of Map Out failures.

Delivery Failed: TraceLink was unable to deliver a file due to a configuration issue. For example, the recipient is not entered in your company’s Partner Master Data or your company has not configured Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) settings.

Exercise: Resubmit a File

1. Log into Tracelink and move your mouse over your name in the top right of the TraceLink window and select Admin > Info Exchange.

Important: To resubmit files, you must access Info Exchange from the Admin menu. The Resubmit File links do not appear if you access the version of Info Exchange accessible from the Modules menu.

2. Use the Search Criteria fields to locate the transaction you want to redeliver.

3. Click on the View Transaction Details link.

4. On the View Transaction Details screen, click Redeliver Output File.


Many errors require you to correct data and resubmit a message. You can resubmit messages you sent only. For messages sent from trade partners, request that they update the files and resubmit.

To resubmit a message, you’ll export the input file from Info Exchange, update the file, and import it back into Info Exchange.

Exercise: Resubmit a Message

1. Export the file that failed:

a. Move your mouse over your name in the top right of the TraceLink window and select Admin > Info Exchange.

b. Enter search criteria to locate the input file that failed and click Search.

c. Click the input file name to download it.

2. Edit the file to make the necessary modifications.

3. Import the updated file:

a. In Info Exchange, click Import File.

b. For Service, select one of your company’s services.

c. For Transaction Type, select the type of transaction you’re resubmitting. The Transaction Type is shown in this transaction’s row in Info Exchange.

d. For File Format, select CSV – TraceLink’s Format if you are submitting a CSV file based on one of TraceLink’s predefined templates; otherwise, select Configured Format.

e. For File to Upload, click Choose File and navigate to the file.


f. Click Import File.

Info Exchange displays a success message when the file is imported.

Lesson 2.7: View Canonical File for a Transaction

When TraceLink receives an ASN from one of your upstream partners or sends one to a downstream partner, it converts the ASN into a special XML file called the canonical file. You might need to review this file to assist in your troubleshooting efforts.

Exercise: Download the Canonical File

1. Move your mouse over your name in the top right of the TraceLink window and select Admin > Info Exchange.

2. Use the Search Criteria fields to locate the desired transaction.

3. Click the View Transaction Details link.

4. To download the canonical file, click its link:


Lesson 2.8: Info Exchange Data Extracts

You may wish to download a list of the errors encountered in Info Exchange so that you can perform additional reporting or analysis on those errors using a third party tool. TraceLink allows you to download a CSV file containing those error messages by performing an Info Exchange Data Extract.

Exercise: Create an Info Exchange Data Extract


2. In the Go To menu, select Download Info Exchange Data.

3. Click the Create Data Extract button.

4. Enter parameters to customize the report and click Submit.

TraceLink generates the file and displays it on screen as soon as it is ready.

Exercise: Create an Info Exchange Bulk File Extract

You can create a bulk file extract for transactions that match search criteria. This allows you to review all the files related to a particular transaction or set of transactions. To do so:


2. In the Go To menu, click Download Info Exchange Data.

3. Click the Bulk File Extract button.


4. Enter parameters to locate the desired files and click Search.

5. Check the input files you want to extract and click Submit.

You can check Input File, Canonical File, or Last Output File in the header of the list to extract all files of the selected type.

TraceLink creates a zip file containing the transaction files you selected.


Lesson 2.9: Email Notifications

You can configure TraceLink to notify you if transaction errors occur in Info Exchange. By default, the notification settings apply to all of your company’s TraceLink services. You can select a particular service to receive notifications for that service only.

Note: Serial number requests sent through a SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) integration do not trigger email notifications.

Exercise: Enable Email Notifications

1. Move your mouse over your name in the top right of the TraceLink window and select Application Settings > Info Exchange.

2. To receive a notification if there are messages that cannot be routed, select Destination ProcessLink/Service could not be determined.

3. For ServiceLink Notifications, configure your email notification settings for all services or for individual services.

To set notifications on all services, in the Notify Me When Messages column, select the conditions for which you want to receive notifications.

To set notifications for a particular service, click the Set for Individual Service link, select a service from the menu in the Apply to column, and in the Notify Me When Messages column, select the conditions for which you want to receive notifications.

The following table lists the options available in the Notify Me When Messages column:

Notify Me When Messages

Sent from my company fail

Sent by my partner (to my company) fail

Sent from my company need investigation

Sent by my partner (to my company) need investigation

Sent from my company succeed with a warning

Sent by my partner (to my company) succeed with a warning


4. Click Save Changes.

TraceLink emails you when the conditions you set apply.


Module 3: Data Best Practices

Learning Objectives


Develop effective file naming conventions.

Use Excel and Notepad++ file processing strategies to prevent corruption of message files.

Lesson 3.1 File Naming

It’s helpful to name your files using identifiers that are meaningful to you. For example, creating file names using your Location ID, Delivery Number, and Date can make it easier to search for them later on in the event of an error.

Lesson 3.2 Opening CSV Files Without Losing Leading Zeroes

If you have NDCs, PO numbers or other identifiers that begin with a 0, you may have noticed that Excel strips those 0’s off when you open a CSV file. This is expected behavior in Excel, as it treats these values as numbers to be used in mathematical equations rather than identifiers. To correct this, you need to open the CSV file in a special way, which will tell Excel to treat specific columns as text rather than numbers.

Exercise: Open CSV File in Excel

1. Launch Excel with a blank workbook.

2. Click the Data tab.

3. Click the From Text button.

4. Browse to the CSV file you wish to open.

The Text Import Wizard is displayed.

5. On the Step 1 screen, click Next on the first screen of the Wizard.

6. On the Step 2 screen, under Delimiters, check Comma and click Next.

7. On the Step 3 screen, indicate the columns with leading zeros you wish to keep:

a. Locate the column containing identifiers with leading zeros and select it by clicking on the column header.

b. In the Column data format area, click the Text radio button.


c. Repeat this for all the columns you wish to treat as text.

8. Click Finish.

Excel imports the data and the leading zeros will be preserved.

Lesson 3.3 Viewing ASNs in a Readable Format Using Notepad++

Notepad++ is an open source editor that handles many different types of files. Notepad++ has many plugins that make it versatile, including an XML plugin you can use to read your ASN files.

Exercise: Install the XML Plugin

Installing the plugin is a one-time operation. If you’ve already done it, you can skip this section.

1. Install and launch Notepad++.

2. Go to Plugins > Plugin Manager > Show Plugin Manager.

3. In the Plugin Manager window, check XML Tools and click Install.

4. When the installation is complete, restart Notepad++ if necessary.

5. Confirm the installation was successful by selecting the Plugins menu and verifying that XML Tools is displayed in the menu.

Exercise: View an ASN using Notepad++

1. Launch Notepad++.

2. Open the ASN file you wish to view.

The data will be displayed in one continuous block.

3. Click Plugins > XML Tools > Pretty Print (XML only – with line breaks).

The XML block will be re-rendered in a more readable layout.


Congratulations

You’ve learned how to use TraceLink as part of your day-to-day operations. More training courses are available on these sites:

Manufacturer Education Center: http://www.tracelink.com/LandingPages/education-center-manufacturer

Wholesale Distributor Education Center: http://www.tracelink.com/LandingPages/education-center-wholesaler

Dispenser Education Center: http://www.tracelink.com/LandingPages/education-center-dispenser

Serialization Education Center: http://www.tracelink.com/LandingPages/education-center-serialization

http://www.tracelink.com/LandingPages/education-center-manufacturer



http://www.tracelink.com/LandingPages/education-center-dispenser

http://www.tracelink.com/LandingPages/education-center-serialization


Appendix A. Sample Outreach Email

Dear [Company] Trading Partner,

This communication is intended for the IT Manager, Regulatory Manager or the Person In Charge (PIC) at your organization. If you are not the correct person, please forward this to the right person.

The Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA) came into effect as of January 1st, 2015. Title II of the law, the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), creates tracing, verification and serialization requirements for all drug products across all changes of ownership from manufacturer to dispenser. In our efforts to support compliance, [Company] has partnered with TraceLink to provide our DSCSA solution.

The TraceLink solution enables the sharing and storing of DSCSA-related information. [Company] can share the information in one of two ways which are outlined below.

1. TraceLink Web Portal: If you do not currently exchange documents electronically, such as ASNs, you will have access to view the regulatory information by logging into TraceLink. When [Company] is ready to send you the information using TraceLink, you will receive an email with directions for creating your account and logging into TraceLink. If you already have access to the portal, you will receive an email informing you that you will now be able to see [Company]’s information as well.

2. B2B Connectivity: If you are EDI capable, you can be integrated with TraceLink so that you can receive this information through your normal electronic transaction. It is important that if you are already integrated with TraceLink that you complete the form so you will be configured to [Company]’s service as well.

Action Required

If you have not already been in communication with TraceLink about gaining access to the Tracelink portal, please complete the following form which consists of two questions to provide us with key information that we need to begin the process: Request Portal Access. TraceLink will reach out to you within 5 business days upon form submission.

To learn more about the regulation and the TraceLink solution, we have included access to the TraceLink Trading Partner Program Education. This link will allow you to view webinars about the regulation and portal functionality.

TraceLink Trading Partner Education Resources

Links to Other Helpful Educational Information:

• A copy of the full law can be found on the U.S. Government Publishing Office site: click here to view.

• A detailed webcast of the DSCSA regulations and business requirements for the supply chain can also be found here.

[Company] looks forward to working with you on this initiative. Should you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Best regards,

[Name]

[Company]

[Title]

[Email]

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/tracelinkportal-dispensers

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/tracelinkportal-dispensers

http://tracelink.com/network-enrollment-education?utm_campaign=Enrollment%20Prog%20-%20RegConfirm%20-%20Common&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&elq=7706ed188bf3481aadbcce2c2c2584fd&elqCampaignId=

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-113hr3204enr/pdf/BILLS-113hr3204enr.pdf

http://tracelink.com/DQSA-Drug-Quality-Security-Act-Regulations-Requirements-Readiness-Webinar-0314

managing tracelink operations student guide · pdf file... service administrators...

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