Kategorie: Business

Bottom Line: Material Requirements Planning (MRP) software helps to keep manufacturing operations in balance by managing all inventory requirements and resources necessary to meet production demand while maintaining lean inventory levels.

Getting orders shipped on time at the highest quality levels possible is the goal of all manufacturers because everyone wants to keep the customers they have and gain more business from them today. Knowing there is enough inventory, skilled labor, machine or equipment, and work center availability is key. Many manufacturers I’ve spoken with recently rely on their MRP systems to assign the best possible production technicians for a given product being produced using specific machinery in their plant. Manufacturers who choose to have their MRP and ERP systems share a single database eliminate data silos and costly third-party integration.

Why it’s Important to Adopt Material Requirements Planning (MRP) Software Today

Having all accounting, finance, and manufacturing data on a single database is giving manufacturers the insights they need to see how manufacturing decisions impact their bottom lines. That’s one of the several reasons why MRP continues to be at the center of nearly every manufacturers’ operations today. The following are the advantages of adopting MRP software in manufacturing today:

• Having the same planning window for purchasing and production improves on-time delivery performance while improving inventory planning. Manufacturers say this is the most valuable benefit because it makes synchronizing purchasing, production, and inventory easier than using any other manual or semi-automated approach. Manufacturers report more on-time deliveries, less cash wasted on inventory carrying costs, improved perfect order performance, and better visibility across the shop floor. MRP excels at evaluating material availability based on the required manufacturing date while taking into consideration current demand and material lead times.

• Using Advanced Planning and Scheduling techniques to optimize how raw materials and production capacity are managed to improve production yields further. In high volume, low margin production environments, Advanced Planning and Scheduling helps to optimize the allocation of raw materials at the best possible levels to meet demand. When evaluating MRP systems for your manufacturing operations also see how automated raw material ordering, hard and soft allocation, and ideal versus existing analysis can contribute. It’s also a good idea to evaluate if Min/Max planning can potentially help to improve production further yield rates, on-time delivery, and perfect order performance.  

• Know if and by how much the variances of standard versus actual labor hours are impacting production efficiency and costs.  Discrete and job shop-based manufacturers rely on Labor Capacity Planning to measure standard labor hours against the required hours to see if allocations by work orders and production schedules are accurate. Leading MRP systems will support scheduling labor hours by week, day or shift, based on work orders and labor schedules. Calculating available labor by category and qualifications and scheduling operators by skill level is a must-have for improving Labor Capacity Planning as well.
• MRP systems improve asset utilization rates by supporting Auxiliary Equipment Planning for each machine on the shop floor.  Balancing inventory, labor, and asset utilization goals are why many manufacturers are adopting MRP systems today. It’s common to see batch, discrete, and process manufacturers move to a second-generation MRP system as their business model changes and become more complex. Manufacturers say they need greater accuracy and control over triangulating between inventory, labor, and machinery optimization rates for newer, more complex products. One challenge they also often mention is evaluating and solving conflicts of auxiliary equipment linked to the bill of material, which can be solved with Auxiliary Equipment Planning integrated into an MRP system. Look for an MRP system that also supports Rough Cut Capacity Planning, which compares available work center time based on the shop calendar versus required hours for each machine type.

• Improve Machine and Work Center Capacity Planning. The best MRP systems evaluate machine availability by taking into account variables that affect production capacity. Examples of these variables include maintenance, setup, teardown and reconfiguration. If the job cannot be run within the requested time frame due to capacity limits, the system determines the first available time and date the work center can have the requested number of items completed. Look for an MRP system that supports views of availability by type or individual machine by day, week, or month.

The post Advantages Of Material Requirements Planning Software appeared first on IQMS Manufacturing Blog.

Bottom Line: Defining the perfect mix of cloud apps, platforms and secured endpoints to create compelling online learning experiences customizable to students’ learning strengths is how schools are overcoming the challenge of virtual teaching.

There are over 56 million students in the U.S. alone who are relying on remote learning apps, platforms and autonomous endpoint security to protect them as they pursue their education. School districts, online educators and teachers quickly realized the move to 100% online classes could mean the end to outdated mechanized approaches to teaching. Eager to teach using technologies that tailor individual learning programs to every student’s unique learning strengths, schools are combining cloud, e-learning and endpoint security with strong results. Combining technologies gives every student regardless of their socioeconomic background a chance to excel. The goal is to provide unique personalized instruction at scale using a teaching technique called scaffolding. Scaffolding stresses creating an individual learning plan for each student complete with reinforcement for each lesson.

Why Cybersecurity Is The Cornerstone Of Online Learning 

Tailoring the latest technologies to the diverse needs of online learners is the easy part of creating an online learning program. Far more difficult is choosing the right endpoint security strategies to protect their identities, every one of their video conference sessions with peers and teachers and thwarting breach attempts. Parents, teachers, students and administrators all need to trust an e-learning platform to make it work. The bottom line is an e-learning platform needs to create and grow trust while being adaptive enough to meet students’ unique learning needs.

Interested in learning more about how leading online educators are bringing together the latest cloud and autonomous endpoint security technologies to help students learn online, I recently interviewed Eric Ramos Chief Technology Officer at Duarte Unified School District and Dean Phillips, Senior Technology Director, David Atkins, Director of Marketing and Communications and Jennifer Shoaf, Deputy Chief Academic Officer at PA Cyber.  Duarte Unified School District (USD) serves the educational needs of 3,400 scholars at the elementary, K-8 and high school levels. The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School (PA Cyber) in Midland, PA, is one of the most experienced and successful online K-12 public schools in the nation serving over 12,000 students. Together the group of education professionals provided valuable insights into how educators can combine cloud, collaboration and cybersecurity applications to create more personalized, effective learning experiences for students. David Atkins of PA Cyber says that their approach to e-learning is succeeding because they take a fully holistic view of the student, their family and their situation. “Our collaboration with the student starts from the very moment that there’s interest in having some sort of cyber education. And we go from enrollments, all the way through any issues of that students could have, or the students family could have and take them all the way through graduation’ David said. “We take the time to listen and see the student as a complete person.”

The following are the key insights based on our conversations:

• Choosing to make cybersecurity the highest priority treats students as customers, protecting their unique online learning experiences while providing excellent access across all socioeconomic levels. That’s when online learning experiences excel. What’s impressive how committed the team of educators I spoke with is about making technology work as a catalyst to help every student achieve their educational goals across all socioeconomic levels. They’re also the most advanced at tailoring complex technologies to deliver customized online learning experiences with PA Cyber serving 12,000 remote students at once. “Each of our students is different and they’re looking to accomplish different things and they learn in different ways. We have a different classroom options that they can choose from. And we have a lot of different scaffolding options in place when it comes to our instructional platform, “Jennifer Shoaf, Deputy Chief Academic Officer at PA Cyber said. Eric Ramos, CTO at USD says that he and his staff “reach out to teachers and staff members and provide them with the latest cybersecurity alerts and make sure they are aware of how their autonomous endpoint security platform is securing every laptop and making their job of staying in compliance to security protocols easy.” Eric continued saying that, “having an undeletable digital tether gives my staff, senior educators and me peace of mind, especially with summer here and the need to keep track of the Chromebooks out with students and families.”
• The more resilient the autonomous endpoint security on the laptop, the easier it is to secure, upgrade and locate each of them if they’re lost or stolen. Duarte Unified School District provides Chromebooks to students for use all year long, often also providing an Internet HotSpot as many students’ families don’t have Internet access. PA Cyber provides students a Dell laptop and an entire technology kit that includes printers and peripherals as well. Having an undeletable digital tether to every laptop makes it possible to keep every system up to date on security and system patches. Dean Phillips, Senior Technology Director at PA Cyber, says that it’s been very helpful to know each laptop has active autonomous endpoint security running at all times. Dean says that endpoint management is a must-have for PA Cyber “We’re using Absolute’s Persistence to ensure an always-on, two-way connection with our IT management solution, Kaseya®, which we use to remotely push out security patches, new applications and scripts. That’s been great for students’ laptops as we can keep updates current and know where the system is. Without an endpoint management solution on student laptops, it is very difficult to manage endpoints without that agent. So Absolute absolutely helps us with that as well. That’s been a big plus.” Eric Ramos, CTO, says that “Absolute has been great, especially when student calls in and says they can’t find their laptop. I don’t know where it is. It’s lost or maybe stolen. We’re able to pull that up, figure out the last time it got pinged and we can locate that usually. Nine times out of 10, the student finds it by next day by just having that information. So that’s been crucial. It’s always been something we love having.”
• Standardize on a secure cloud platform that is flexible enough to support scaffolding or individualized learning yet hardened enough to protect every laptop connected to it via an undeletable digital tether. A major challenge both online schools face is keeping their cloud platforms adaptive enough to support students’ varying skills yet also secure enough to protect every student online.  Dean Phillips, Senior Technology Director at PA Cyber, says that it’s best to “keep technology as simple as possible for the students and families. Standardization is key, I think, with everything you do from a technology standpoint. Making sure that you build from the inside out from the core. Your applications and networks and making sure that that’s consistent all the way to the endpoint, I think that’s extremely important.” PA Cyber’s lessons learned creating a secure and adaptive e-learning platform makes the goal of providing personalized instruction for every student achievable at scale.  Jennifer Shoaf, Deputy Chief Academic Officer at PA Cyber, explains how the school personalizes online instruction for every student. “It all starts when the student first comes to PA Cyber and we try to get an understanding of where they are and where they should be and where they want to see themselves, whether it’s in a month or in a couple years, or when they graduate from our school. So one of the things that we pride ourselves on here at this school is allowing for multiple modes of instruction for our students,” Jennifer said.
• Capitalizing on the excellent asset management reporting autonomous endpoint security solutions have, CTOs and senior IT directors are gaining new insights into how to improve learning effectiveness. Having resilient, persistent connections to every endpoint with an undeletable digital tether also provides invaluable asset management data. Eric Ramos of Duarte USD and Dean Phillips of PA Cyber are leaders in this area of e-learning today. Eric Ramos says that asset management and activity reports made possible by the autonomous endpoint platform he is using from Absolute makes getting prepared for senior management meetings easy. “During principal meetings, I’m able to pull up these reports and say, look, these were the goals at the beginning of the year to use these four products at this amount of time. And here’s where you’re at on a small window. Or you can look at it over time and saying, this has been an increase here, this is a decrease here, these sites are doing really well with it, these sites may be not. But let’s now talk about what’s working for you. What are your teachers liking about the particular program? Or, program aside, how are your results coming about?” Eric Ramos, CTO said.

Conclusion

Delivering an excellent online learning experience needs to start with a cybersecurity strategy that includes autonomous endpoint security. Duarte USD and PA Cyber are leaders in this field, being among the first to see how combining core technologies while having an undeletable digital tether to every laptop is a must-have. Earning and growing the trust of parents, students, teachers and school administrators start with an endpoint security strategy that can adapt and grow as an e-learning program does.

Improving Online Learning Experiences One Secured Endpoint At A Time is copyrighted by Louis Columbus. If you are reading this outside your feed reader or email, you are likely witnessing illegal content theft.

Enterprise Irregulars is sponsored by Salesforce and Zoho.

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is not a new concept for Food & Beverage manufacturers. In fact, when IIoT first became a buzzword, many manufacturers in the F&B space yawned at the conversations. Using technology to monitor processing and filling equipment so operators know when a piece of machinery needs maintenance or if it’s operating safely has always been a critical piece to a modern food plant.

However, what many companies are
understanding now is how IIoT can help increase the overall operational
efficiency, and not just within the plant, but from the farm all the way to store
shelves. With IIoT, it’s possible to have a holistic view of the operation, monitor
how the product was packed, where the product is on the delivery truck, even
what temperature the product is being stored in. This full view of operations
can impact business in a big way. This includes ongoing data that can be
analyzed for efficiency, predictive maintenance, and more.

It’s no secret the state of the industry is in flux. And with the
lingering uncertainty brought about by COVID-19, F&B companies are
prioritizing IIoT and other tools for digital transformation to keep their business
attuned to changing expectations, regulations, and new business models. When it
comes to digital transformation, understanding how new expectations and ways of
working can impact existing operating models is essential to successful
implementation.

A New World of Expectations

COVID-19 has, without question, transformed
the way the world operates. For F&B manufacturers, in particular, changing channels
to market, uncertain demands, and unexpected plant shutdowns are not the only
areas disrupting typical operational processes: vendor expectations are also
forcing F&B companies to rethink their operations.

What does the food industry look like when
human interaction is decreasing? In the restaurant business, there has been an
obvious impact on how restaurant owners continue to serve customers and drive
revenue. Yet, how does this shift translate into the retail environment? Will
we see more cases of check-in lines without cashiers, or touch screens that no
one wants to touch, or an increase in Amazon Go-type shops?  Will we see businesses completely changing
their models to support this shift, and how will this impact the supply chain
for manufacturers?

Typically, F&B manufacturers ship their
goods directly to a distributor or manage distribution themselves through
direct store delivery, and the process from farm to the manufacturer to the customer
has been pretty straight forward – until now. New COVID-19-related changes in
the channels to market have created an urgency to revisit business models and
expand servitization.  Foodservice
suppliers have been particularly hard hit while some typical CPG companies have
found themselves unable to meet demand. All of this is creating an evolution of
expectations and needs from distributors, customers, and vendors. Some firms
have been moving towards a full-service approach. These kinds of changes amidst
an outdated ERP system can be dire for business and lead to a lack of
efficiencies. IDC’s report also stated that at least 40% of companies worldwide
are stuck in heavily customized ERP systems. This can work in certain niche
micro-verticals; within F&B, however, amidst this pandemic, businesses that
are quickly changing operations must have the capability to change the way that
they work and fast. With outdated systems or a matrix of excel sheets, some are
struggling.

Adopting Automation: A Balancing Act

Without question, a company with an
integrated, modern cloud-based ERP that leverages IIoT will give truly
actionable insights for faster response to a changing environment, help cut
costs, and raise margins. In the post-COVID world, F&B manufacturers must
be more flexible and agile than ever before.

To date, F&B companies have prioritized
efficiency above all else to stay ahead of the competition. The ability to
operate quicker and more accurately remains key. Yet, with market fluctuations
from Covid-19 and impending uncertainty, F&B manufacturers must also
balance between efficiency and agility. A business operation that can easily
pivot to support vendors changing expectations, such as manufacturing
ventilators in the face of social need and lower business demand for their own
products, has become critical to keep the business going amidst uncertainty.
Understanding what the future holds from a regulatory perspective also has
become important. These regulations oftentimes add additional, unforeseen layers
for certain manufacturers that they had otherwise not accounted for; their
digital operating and tracking procedures have to temporarily adjust to new policies
and must be able to do so quickly.

As businesses start to adapt existing
operations around such sudden changes, they must determine the correct balance
between flexibility and efficiency. As a first step, manufacturers should ask
themselves: Do I need to have multiple channels to market? How many different
suppliers do I need so as to reduce the risk of shortages?  What do I do when my employees can no longer
report to work? Some may decide there are certain parts of the business that
are straightforward, while other parts of the business that need to be flexible
to the market, vendor, and regulatory changes. 

As manufacturers move further towards
automation, IIoT will be vital to predictively maintain equipment and utilizing
data gathered from operations to make sure that the business is operating at
peak efficiency. Yet manufacturers need to understand – fundamentally – what is
the balance between efficient automation for processes that are not expected to
change and automated business operations that may need to be adjusted to meet
new expectations and policies. 

The Ideal Business Environment, Now

The Food & Beverage industry is said to be the only industry poised for growth in 2020, but that doesn’t mean F&B manufacturers that are doing well can rest on their laurels. The barriers to entry can be small in the F&B space, so it is very likely that new competitors jump into space, as investors keep their eyes on opportunistic growth.

There’s no denying that COVID-19 has in some cases completely changed the way that manufacturers are looking at how they operate. Many are speeding up their investment into IIOT, ERP, and other digital technologies. These technologies may prove paramount during this time to give facilities the ability to quickly shift focus, while still maintaining maximum productivity. Machine Learning in particular can use AI to optimize processes from top to bottom. One thing is certain in the modern age of digital transformation: the F&B manufacturing sector is speeding up even as it becomes more agile, data-driven, and efficient.

To keep ahead of increasing competition, F&B
manufacturers must ensure their business models can adapt to the changing
expectations unfolding, while also continue on their digital journey towards
operational efficiency.  

The post F&B Manufacturing in an Uncertain Time: Staying Ahead of the Curve appeared first on ERP News.

Computers and automation have been part of the manufacturing scene for some time – in fact, they were the signature technological development that characterized the 3^rd wave of industrial innovation. But then came Industry 4.0 building on what had gone before and enhanced it with smart systems fuelled by data and machine learning.

A key element of this progression has been the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) – which can refer to many scenarios where everyday objects are connected to the internet but the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is where the magic happens. Those interconnected sensors, instruments, and devices – networked together – allows the collection of data that can then be analyzed and exchanged, leading to improved productivity and efficiency.

For
those blazing the trail, the benefits of these breakthroughs are being felt
here and now while for many others it’s a matter of finding the best use cases
for their own individual situation or industry.

Every business has its own set of objects that can provide meaningful information about their everyday operations. By connecting them to the internet, they can begin collecting and analyzing information in ways that are useful for them.

Endless
Possibilities for Use

One
of the most exciting things about the IoT is the endless possibilities for use.

For
example – using sensors to gather data on overall equipment health in a factory
or facility – making it possible to predict any equipment failure before it
happens. Equipment downtime costs the average factory between 5% and 20% of its
productive capacity with unplanned downtime affecting manufacturers by an
estimated $50 billion annually. By turning maintenance from something reactive
into something proactive – time and money can be saved.

But
it doesn’t have to be in a traditional factory setting. In fact, we recently
heard about a Housing Corporation which had installed sensory devices into
their facilities – it was being used to track among other things room
temperature to detect anomalies. Linked to their ERP system – which happened to
be SAP Business ByDesign – it was
able to capture data that enabled them to detect issues when a certain
temperature threshold was exceeded. If the sensors detected that the temperature
had got too high then a service request was automatically issued and the
relevant staff received an e-mail. The nature of the problem could then be
investigated to see if further action was required.

It should be emphasized that this was something created via the flexibility of the

SAP Cloud Platform into the midmarket solution Business ByDesign – so not a huge ERP system – but even at this level you now have the flexibility to build your own applications for your specific business needs, handling your data entirely as you wish. This kind of flexibility is the way things are going to be done in the future.

The
internet of things can work very well with a midmarket cloud ERP solution and
can be easily scaled up to include a multitude of sensors and to process large
amounts of data. The solution will allow you to create detailed reports and
analyze your operations with every sensory data imaginable. It can also allow
you to spot anomalies in your operations even before they have happened and
handle them pro-actively.

So,
as you see, the possibilities are endless.

Here are our top 5 use cases for the Internet of Things in
the Industry 4.0 era

• Predictive
  Maintenance of Equipment

With sensors on the manufacturing equipment reporting back, using some AI/Machine Learning you could enable predictive maintenance on equipment which then be scheduled proactively, minimizing impact to production rather than reactively having the production line halted.

For certain materials used in production in bulk, or difficult to replenish or expensive, via sensors on the storage units the system could capture inventory usage and automatically place replenishment orders to again minimize downtime.

Important
for some industries, e.g. clean environments, so ensuring the right conditions
are maintained

Remote monitoring of assets in dangerous environments minimizing the risk to employees

• Amazon
  button style solution

Allow
production operatives to quickly request items e.g. consumables at the push of
a button rather than complex online forms

This
technology is not new, but recent advances have dramatically improved the
efficacy and functionality available. As IoT platforms mature, the relative
cost of monitoring devices has gone down, while the ability to not only
monitor, but manage devices remotely has grown remarkably.

As we have seen, the current buzz is around predictive analytics. With enough data over time, algorithms can actually predict when a piece of hardware will fail, which is obviously extremely useful for minimizing downtime. But it is also worth remembering that this is all within the grasp of the growing band of midsized cloud ERP users. With a flexible Cloud Platform like the one developed by SAP, you can integrate data and business processes – to open up a whole world of IoT possibilities!

The post How Cloud ERP of all sizes can enable IIoT in Manufacturing Including Top 5 use cases for the Internet of Things in the Industry 4.0 era appeared first on ERP News.

Industry 4.0 —the fourth industrial revolution that is bringing an increasing level of digitization, automation, and inter-connectivity to the manufacturing sector—is well underway. Cloud computing, big data, greater capabilities in analytics and business-intelligence, advances in artificial intelligence, as well as the continued development of the industrial internet of things (IIoT) are all driving change in the manufacturing industry.

Manufacturers need to both understand and
embrace these changes in order to stay competitive. Companies that have already
started to adopt new technologies, such as IIoT, are seeing a 7% revenue growth
advantage over their peers, according to a report by McKinsey.

And the economic and social downturn caused by
the current COVID-19 crisis will only deepen the divide between manufacturers
who have just started to digitize, and those who are much further along on
their digital journey.

Luckily many manufacturers already have a tool
in their arsenal that is helping them to embrace Industry 4.0, and putting them
on the right side of the digital divide: An ERP system.

Today’s ERPs aren’t just about replacing
back-office functions and systems like inventory management, accounting, order
fulfillment, and shipping: Today’s ERPs not only include these important
functions but also automation, analytics, and business intelligence—all
important elements of Industry 4.0.

ERPs—and learning to harness the full power of
an ERP system—are one the most important steps manufacturers can take towards
Industry 4.0.

The
Digitization of the Manufacturing Industry

The first digital revolution to disrupt the
manufacturing industry was in the late 1960s when computers were introduced and
completely changed how manufacturers did business.

Now technologies such as big data, IIoT, and
cloud computing are vastly increasing the connectedness of computing
technology—and are changing the game again. As Industry 4.0 unfolds, computers
will continue to connect and communicate with one another, and ultimately make
decisions without human involvement.

Perhaps Forbes summed it up best when they
said: “Industry 4.0 optimizes the computerization of Industry 3.0.” 

Manufacturers need to take these innovations
seriously and start thinking about how they will impact their business.
According to Deloitte “Overall, just over 20 percent of manufacturers rated
themselves as ‘highly prepared’ to address the emerging business models the
fourth industrial revolution brings. The coming year is one that is expected to
separate the digital leaders from the followers, and it could leave some
companies dangerously behind.”

Forbes predicts that in
2020 spending on IoT technologies, solutions, and apps will reach 267 billion
USD, with much of this boom in spending coming from the manufacturing
industry—as manufacturers continue to digitally transform and connect their
business processes. Expect everything from shop floors to supply chains to become
more connected, making manufacturers more efficient and productive.

Embracing digital
technology will be an important factor in determining which manufacturers stay
strong and competitive, and which lag behind in the new world of Industry 4.0.

How to
Use Your ERP System to Harness Big Data

Learning how to collect, but also transfer,
store, and analyze data is one of the biggest things that manufacturers can do
to embrace Industry 4.0.

Data is one of the key drivers behind industry
4.0, and manufacturers need to learn how to harness the data that they already
have coming into their shops to both become more efficient now—and to set them
up to deal with future trends and technologies.

If a manufacturer is using an ERP to manage
their manufacturing shop, they already have access to a large amount of
real-time data. But, unfortunately, when it comes to analytics, many plants
still rely on manual processes and Excel spreadsheets to determine asset
availability, draft maintenance schedules, or make critical decisions.

However, using the full capacity of an
integrated ERP solution will connect a shop and give manufacturers better
control over their data—and the important business processes and decisions that
rely on it—making shops run smoother and more efficiently.

Without an integrated ERP system,
manufacturers need to comb through numerous spreadsheets and systems to pull
out relevant data, and then analyze the data to create meaningful reports and
actionable items. Not only is this time consuming, but it also leaves a lot of
data out of play, meaning manufacturers aren’t getting the full picture—or
optimizing operations.

But an ERP makes it simple, as it can sift through data for manufacturers, and create customized reports to better understand operations and processes—and help manufacturers make better business decisions. Data can show where there are gaps or inefficiencies in production lines, and help improve manufacturing processes to increase cost-effectiveness.

Using the business intelligence features of an
ERP to their full extent will help manufacturers become even more efficient,
lean, and productive organizations—as well as will also help them to continue
their digital transformation, and be prepared to adopt and embrace other
digital technologies like automation and IIoT.

Using business intelligence to improve
operations has a major impact on a business’s bottom line. According to the
Aberdeen Group ERP software that provides accurate, real-time information about
daily operations help companies reduce operational costs by 23% and
administration costs by 22%.

Closing
Thoughts

Many manufacturers have been sitting on reams of data coming out of their machinery and systems for years but didn’t know what to do with it.

Learning how to use this data to create more
efficient—and smarter—shops is what Industry 4.0 is all about.

Greater connectivity and analytics helps
manufacturers avert quality issues, improve efficiency, and increase
throughput—all while reducing costs. Additionally, getting comfortable with
data today will help prepare manufacturers to use the connected technology that
will come with Industry 4.0.

How
does Cloud ERP Enable IIoT in Manufacturing

IIoT is all about connectivity, just like
cloud ERP solutions.

Cloud ERPs give manufacturers more flexibility and connectivity to collaborate, manage operations, monitor production—and take advantage of new technologies like IIoT. At the end of the day, technology is about enabling manufacturers to become more efficient and more productive, to better serve their customers. That’s our goal and only goal.

The post Harness the Power of Big Data and Embrace Industry 4.0 appeared first on ERP News.

Providing support for visionary CFOs, Sage Intacct has been made available to customers in four new regions, outside of the USA, in less than 12 months

ATLANTA – Aug. 6, 2020 – Sage, a market leader in cloud business management solutions, has today made its cloud financial management platform, Sage Intacct, available to customers in South Africa.

By making the product available in four new regions^[1] outside of the USA in less than 12 months, Sage has enabled customers across five countries to benefit from the award-winning Sage Intacct cloud software, which empowers businesses to improve performance and make finance teams more productive.

For the past four years, Sage Intacct has achieved the highest product score for Core Financials for the Lower Midsize Enterprises Use Case in the Gartner report ‘Critical Capabilities for Cloud Core Financial Management Suites for Midsize, Large, and Global Enterprises’. Sage Intacct has also been named a Leader in the new IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Midmarket Finance and Accounting Software Vendor Assessment (doc #US45837220, April 2020).

Sage Intacct provides finance professionals with:

• A platform designed for and by CFOs and Finance Professionals: Sage Intacct is a powerful cloud financial management platform, providing deep multi-dimensional accounting, automation for efficient financial operations and sophisticated visibility for real-time decision making
• Best of breed integration: Sage Intacct’s technology uses open APIs, making it easy to connect with third-party cloud applications, including Salesforce, providing a highly extensible and scalable platform
• Lower cost of ownership: Sage Intacct is a modular solution where customers pay for what they need, get more efficient and cost-effective implementations, world-class security backups and disaster recovery delivering a lower total cost of ownership

Furthermore, Sage Intacct consistently achieves high marks for customer satisfaction. G2, a leading marketplace for business software and services, named Sage Intacct a Leader in their Midmarket Grid Reports focused on both ERP Systems and Subscription Billing. Sage Intacct achieved the highest customer satisfaction score amongst all solutions on both reports.

“We are strongly committed to the continued global expansion of this product,” said Marc Linden, EVP, and GM, Medium Segment Native Cloud Solutions for Sage. “As we adjust to the next normal, organizations of all kinds must be prepared to make choices about how they recover or even reinvent themselves. Navigating difficult times is a pivotal point in most finance leaders’ careers and having a cloud-based system like Sage Intacct puts the right digital tools at their fingertips to drive greater agility and better current and forward-looking visibility for improved decision making.”

Update on international availability

Service Fabric has accelerated the entry of Sage Intacct into new markets by delivering reusable services at speed. By using a set of common capabilities and services, the product was ready for international markets two years faster than planned.

Service Fabric and local teams helped unlock technologies and use existing expertise to make Sage Intacct relevant and available through the following services:

• Banking Service (Bank feeds)
• Payments Service (Payments Out)
• Compliance Service (Regulatory reports & Government submissions)

U.S.A.

Sage Intacct has been a fixture in the U.S. market, delighting CFOs for over 20 years. First launched in 1999, Sage acquired Intacct in 2017, using its service fabric technology to bring the product to market in four additional regions, with local statutory and legislative requirements available as standard.

Halloran Consulting Group, a top life science regulatory, quality, and clinical consulting firm switched to Sage Intacct and achieved impressive results. The firm increases its project margins by 12%, expanded billable utilization by 36%, and generated an additional $4 million USD from a new billing model based on insights from Sage Intacct. [Halloran Case Study]

“The visibility we have through Sage Intacct is great. It’s helped us improve profitability and make faster, better decisions because at literally the click of a button, we can see what’s going on in the business,” said Tania Zieja, CFO of Halloran Consulting Group.

The Seattle Indian Health Board, a community health center specializing in the care of Native people, upgraded its financial systems using Sage Intacct. The non-profit organization increased finance team productivity by 50%, cut their close process from two months to just three weeks, and gained real-time access to key data using performance dashboards. [Seattle Indian Health Board Case Study]

“Moving to Sage Intacct has made a night-and-day difference. The ability to track, plan, and measure data and get information into the hands of decision-makers to ultimately benefit the community we serve has been invaluable,” commented Ben Luety, CFO of Seattle Indian Health Board.

Canada

In Canada, Sage Intacct is sold and implemented through value-added resellers, with certified Canadian business partners.

“We were really focused on making sure we had a cloud-first solution. But, the big difference for us that made the decision was the API integration,” said Corrine Hua, CFO at Traction on Demand. “The best thing I like about Sage Intacct is that our employees love it. That’s what matters the most to me. They enjoy working on it every day. It makes their jobs easier.” [Traction on Demand Case Study]

Scott Carney, a controller at AIM Environmental Group, said: “It simplifies the accounting process, unifying different departments and facilities into one consolidated, cloud-based system. Part of the initiative at AIM is to become as innovative as we can. Sage Intacct was really a perfect fit for us to grab that next level and start integrating some of those systems into one ERP.” [AIM Environmental Group Customer Video]

Australia

Sage Intacct, which was launched in Australia in August 2019, is sold and implemented through value-added resellers, with certified Australian business partners; Akuna Solutions, Alphasys, Giuntabell, Progressive Banking Technologies, Forpoint Solutions, Cattledog Digital, Leverage Technologies, Microchannel, Thrive Technologies, Synergy Information Systems, Axiom Business Systems, CitySoft, and Aptus Business Solutions.

Since its launch to the Australian market last year, Sage Intacct is servicing 26 new customers, including ASX listed fund management company 360 Capital.

“Since implementing Sage Intacct, our ability to monitor and report asset-level performance across our funds has improved significantly due to the enhanced use of the dimension functionality. This was one of the key business requirements that attracted us to the product, so it’s great to see Sage Intacct is delivering.” Said Glenn Butterworth, CFO, 360 Capital Group

United Kingdom

Sage Intacct was launched in the UK in November 2019 and is sold and implemented both direct and through the Sage Partner Channel.

Correlation Risk Partners (CRP), an insurance distribution business based in London, and L W Cole, a white goods distributor based in Sutton Coldfield, were the first two UK customers to go live on the solution. These solutions were sold and implemented through the Sage Partner Channel via Acuity Solutions and Solutions for Accountants, respectively.

“You can’t underestimate the importance of having a truly automated and data-sophisticated software solution. We now have a more efficient finance team and a clearer view of the entire business with one system in operation. This means greater sharing capabilities due to working in real-time, a more accurate understanding of the company, and fewer errors; all of which result in time efficiencies.” Said Debbie Allery, Correlation Risk Partners (CRP).

Mike Newton, Finance Director, from L W Cole (Distributors) Limited, said: “For us, Sage Intacct was integral to the successful running of our business that we had full integration of our financial management software and our front office solution. The introduction of Sage Intacct has meant no timely and error-prone rekeying of information. We now have a single source of truth knowing that all relevant information between the two systems is always up to date.

Additionally, bank file payments out of Sage Intacct, with the associated automated approval processes, greatly simplify our previous supplier payments’ process. As well as this, the multi-entity environment also allows for consolidated reporting across the Group and has introduced uniformity to each entities’ accounting processes.”

South Africa

Available as of today, Sage Intacct is sold and implemented through value-added resellers in South Africa. At the point of launch 12 certified VARs are available to support customers with sales and implementation.

About Sage

Sage is the global market leader for technology that provides small and medium businesses with visibility, flexibility, and efficiency to manage finances, operations, and people. With our partners, Sage is trusted by millions of customers worldwide to deliver the best cloud technology and support. Our years of experience mean that our colleagues and partners understand how to serve our customers and communities through the good, and more challenging times. We are here to help, with practical advice, solutions, expertise, and insight.

The post Sage Continues International Roll Out of Award-Winning Sage Intacct – Now Available in South Africa appeared first on ERP News.

Prophix Software, a global leader in mid-market Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software, today announced President and Chief Operations Officer Alok Ajmera has been appointed Chief Executive Officer to lead the company through its next phase of growth. Ajmera steps into the CEO role previously held by founder Paul Barber, who remains with Prophix as Executive Chairman. Ajmera will also retain his Presidency title and will work closely with Barber to ensure a seamless leadership transition for customers, partners, and employees.

“Since Prophix’ inception, my vision has been to create a scalable model for our company’s continued growth and long-term success,” said Barber. “This includes investments in our product roadmap to remain competitive in the years ahead and recognizing and grooming remarkable leaders like Alok who share this same passion for innovation and excellence. Through his proven leadership in building exceptional operations teams, driving customer satisfaction, and exceeding growth targets in the cloud and AI, Alok is the ideal person to lead the next chapter of Prophix as we work to transform the CPM industry.”

Stepping into his role as COO in 2014 and president two years later, Ajmera’s appointment to CEO marks a deliberate succession plan to ensure ongoing strong leadership as Prophix continues tracking towards its goal of $100M in annual contract value by 2023. Revenue from Prophix’ cloud business has increased by more than 170% this year thanks to new customers and additional cloud migration from existing customers.

“At Prophix, we are fully invested in our customers and always looking at new ways to help midmarket finance leaders utilize advanced technologies, including AI and machine learning, to more strategically plan and manage their businesses for competitive advantage,” said Ajmera. “The pandemic has reinforced the value of cloud-based CPM tools for real-time scenario planning and forecasting during volatile times, enabling finance professionals to reframe their business challenges into genuine opportunities. I’m excited about Prophix’ opportunity to drive the CPM market forward through technology disruption while fulfilling our strategy for long term growth.”

Since founding the company in 1987, Barber has transformed Prophix into a leading CPM solution that empowers financial professionals to take a more strategic and proactive approach to budget and planning. Prophix became a Cloud SaaS vendor in 2016 and introduced the industry’s first AI-powered Virtual Financial Analyst (VFA) in September 2019 to further position finance professionals to play a more strategic role in their organizations. The VFA leverages Natural Language and ML for increased CPM efficiencies, including deeper chart insights that eliminate time-consuming manual tasks, as well as anomaly detection features that help financial professionals quickly conduct “forensic analyses” of their data to spot and mitigate any potential risks that might have escaped detection.

Prophix has received top marks in third-party reviews by Gartner Group, Trust Radius, BPM Partners, Dresner, and Nucleus Research, and continues to lead in the industry in high Customer Net Promoter scores.

About Prophix

Your business is evolving. And the way you plan and report on your business should evolve too. Prophix helps midmarket companies achieve their goals more successfully with its innovative Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software. With Prophix, finance leaders improve profitability and minimize risk by automating budgeting, planning, and reporting and puts the focus back on what matters most – uncovering business opportunities and driving competitive advantage. Whether in the cloud or on-premise, Prophix supports your future with a platform that flexes to suit your strategic realities, today and tomorrow.

The post Prophix Software Names Alok Ajmera President and Chief Executive Officer appeared first on ERP News.

The pandemic is here and it seems that it would be around for a long time ahead. Even as the world opens up after months of lockdowns, businesses have to embrace the new normal. Unless you are willing and able to realign, you cannot expect to make it through safely. There is a lot of emphasis on business resilience right now, for very obvious reasons. Ideally, you need a resilience plan that focuses on survival in the short term and growth in the long term. Here are some steps you need to take for realigning your existence and building resilience.

Don’t assume
“back to normal” 

While some organizations and niches
are affected more by the pandemic, it is clear that none is spared. Very
evidently, COVID-19 has changed facts on the ground and things will not be back
to normal in the foreseeable future. You can expect demand to be lower than
usual, while supply chain disruption will continue as well.
Resilience is all about being prepared for the challenging circumstances
characterized by lower demand, disrupted operations, and higher costs.

Gear up for
a relaunch

A plan for the relaunch is vital to
business resilience through the pandemic era. While you go ahead with
relaunching your businesses, it would be wise to bear in mind the changed
expectations, needs, and preferences of your customers. There will be new
regulations as well, particularly for businesses that have International Shipping as a part of their
operations. You will need to realign the product offers, services, and customer
interactions for matching the changing environment. This will require some
planning but it is all worthwhile to cut down your risk and relaunch the
business successfully.

Restore
trust for employees and customers

The next aspect of business resilience in the new world would be winning the trust of your employees and customers. With employees trusting the management, it becomes easier for organizations to get back on their feet. The same goes for customer trust as it brings them back to your business and gets you on track with sales. Go the extra mile to reassure the employees about workplace safety. Similarly, invest in best practices to ensure that the products, services, and delivery processes are safe enough for your customers.

Keep agility
on priority

An agile approach supports business resilience. A business that is quick to respond to the changing circumstances has better chances of survival in the long run. While you realign operations, focus on flexibility and rapid response to change. Although this may be easier said than done in a dynamic situation, business leaders can play a key role when it comes to driving agility for their organizations.

Accelerate
your digital transformation

It is clear that digital-first
entities have coped better with the crisis, whether by adjusting to remote work
models or moving over to online ordering to enable social distancing. Right
now, digital transformation emerges as the best thing
to do for businesses that want to stay relevant and ready for the pandemic era.
By investing in the right technologies, you can expect to be more capable of
facing the challenges that lie ahead.

Adjusting to the new norm remains
critical for businesses that want to stay alive and kicking through the crisis.
Here, it is vital to understand that the resilience you attain today shouldn’t
be a one-time thing- rather you need to retain it for the future too.

The post Business Resilience In The New Normal- Realigning Your Existence appeared first on ERP News.

Starting with Proposition 215 and the first Medical Cannabis legalization law in California in 1996, regulatory bodies, law enforcement, and governments have been struggling to maintain control over the legal and illegal cannabis business. Even now, as the industry has exploded with over 30 states and almost 30 countries worldwide allowing either medical use or adult-use cannabis, the mandate remains how to monitor, tax and control the legal trade, while limiting the grey or black market.

In each
case, the governing body has required a “seed to sale” protocol or monitoring
system to record the cultivation, manufacturing, disposal, and ultimately sale
of cannabis products to the dispensary or retail locations.

With a rush of a new industry, many new software companies sprung up to support the market, and, in many States, the government-mandated a specific singular platform to better collectively manage and report the data. Unfortunately, the ability to move almost all the early companies from the grey and black market into the regulated regime caused a significant hurdle for many producers to adopt. When coupled with large data and security breaches from the initial versions of the leading Seed to Sale company’s platforms, the industry and governance were caught switching between programs and creating bottlenecks in the ability of these producers to legally cultivate or move product to market.

The basics of a “seed to sale” system are similar to that of a traditional ERP, however, the particular legal requirements of cannabis production require that the product, in all forms, from biomass to flower, to extraction, to disposal, to always be recorded. Basically, every ounce of material produced, transformed, or disposed of in a facility must be accounted for. However not all cannabis is the same and a particular strain or genetic profile can vary considerably both in the yield, but also the potency and dominant cannabinoid constituents.

Further to
that the cultivation methodology, be it a greenhouse, outdoor, or hydroponics,
all have a dramatic impact on the yields to say nothing of the skill and
knowledge of the master grower. As cannabis is often sold and therefore taxed, as
a relative product of the cannabinoid strength (for example products containing
above 20% tetrahydrocannabinol or “THC”) and quality of the delivered product,
the basic tracking of weight was an insufficient metric to govern seed to sale.

As states
and counties evolved their understanding of the intricacies of the cannabis
business, new protocols were required to better track the business. Radio-Frequency
Identification (RFID) tags and limited batch processing with SKUs uploaded to
government portals for approval, were added to better manage the different
types of cannabis businesses.

While the governments struggled to maintain control of the business and the associated tax revenue, the industry grew, and small farmers became big farms and big brands, operating over multiple states. These Multi-State Operators (MSOs) were faced with a new challenge — each state and even county may have a different seed to sales system mandated, different requirements, and different software to manage. These larger MSOs would then have silos of businesses running different systems and then a master system or traditional ERP running the collective. 

Convergence
in the industry has started slowly but has recently begun to gain some speed.
With numerous versions of seed to sale systems in the market, companies like
Akerna Corp and Helix Technologies Inc. have begun to amalgamate several
systems under their own platforms. Akerna also recently announced they have
developed specific APIs to communicate more effectively with METRC which has
the largest install base with State mandated systems, including 13 current state
agreements, for better cross-platform tracking and reporting. 

The future however is still difficult to predict. The inherent nature of the cannabis industry was taking a product, predominately produced illegally, into medical and/or recreational markets. Complexity, tax pressure, and oversight have not made this a smooth road to success. The many States have large illicit production still eroding tax revenues and exposing the public to increased risk of untested and even dangerous products.

In 2019 a
series of vaping related illnesses and deaths were in large part attributed to
illicit THC used in these vape pens, with the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) going so far as to claim illegal THC was “fueling the
epidemic”.      

For a
future seed to the sales system to operate effectively it will also have to
eventually be tracked and traced over the state and country borders.
International shipments of THC and Cannabidiol (CBD) products are already
taking place between places like Columbia, Canada, Australia, and Germany. In
these cases, a Certificate of Analysis (COA) and proof of license is required,
but exceedingly difficult to prove on products like refined isolates or oils
which may have multiple producers’ products mixed in.

Chain-of-custody at every point on the supply chain requires a definitive indicator of authenticity and point of origin. The true provenance of material will be a collaboration between data and tags using molecular technology on the plants, oils, finished products, and even packaging. Blockchain systems, unique molecular tags, safe and undetectable by counterfeiters will pair with seed to sales systems to bring global transparency to the industry.  The future of seed to sale will need to get much smaller and much bigger to meet the challenges of a global cannabis market.        

About Cannabis Advisor for Applied DNA Sciences        

Applied DNA provides its CertainT® platform to cultivators, processors, wholesalers, and other cannabis product manufacturers the ability to use molecular technology to Tag, Test, and Track its products through its supply chain. This allows for true transparency, traceability, and trust with consumers that the claims being made are authentic and can be proven with science.

The post What is the Future of Seed to Sale in Cannabis ERP? appeared first on ERP News.