Today’s technology and application leaders are pressured to deliver functionality that drives efficiency, innovation, and growth—while reducing costs. As a result, technology and application portfolio management (APM) are top business priorities. Learn about a framework for implementing an APM program that can enable your company to monitor and analyze the impact of application changes and reduce portfolio complexity.
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Acts of cyber aggression could lead to a cyber war or worse. Capitol Hill is giving attention to this security issue, and vendors are creating new offerings and expanding existing programs—creating new opportunities in the defense industry and opening doors for new players. Learn more about the blurring between information security vendors servicing the private sector and those in the defense and intelligence industry.
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Currently, India’s population is approximately 1.0009 billion. The middle class is large and still growing; wages were low, but now are some of the best in various industries; many workers are well educated and speak English; and investors are optimistic and local stocks are up. Despite political turmoil, the country presses on with economic reforms. But for potential investors, there’s still cause for worry—find out why.
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Collecting, organizing, and reporting refrigerant gas usage is challenging and loaded with complexity. Often system auditing is confusing, and it’s difficult to remain in compliance with constantly changing regulations. Find out why staying in compliance is so important, and how you can save money, reduce emissions, and retain critical assets. Thrive in a carbon-constrained world while managing your refrigerants.
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Recent EquaTerra market research finds a consensus among western business leaders that increased globalization is inevitable—and that it will generally be beneficial. Quickly and efficiently leveraging opportunities created by globalization is the best way to avoid being overwhelmed by its challenges. Learn how to compare buyer and service provider data and get insight into developing a responsive global strategy.
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Web analytics has never been an exact science—which can make the process extremely frustrating. How can you be 100 percent certain that the data you’re working with is always accurate? To deal with this and many other questions that will arise, businesses must gain a better understanding of how well their analytics tools work with their existing data integration solutions, and how using testing platforms will help.
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When crafting an e-mail marketing campaign, a few guidelines should be followed in order to maximize its effectiveness. Believe it or not, e-mail marketing is not only an art, but a science as well. Carefully balancing the needs of the audience, properly communicating your inspiring message, and using the right technology to manage the interaction are some of the key ingredients needed to make it a success.
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When it comes to disaster recovery (DR) software, companies should think of it as an insurance policy—not just software that recovers lost data. Being prepared for disaster makes good business sense, but oddly enough, few companies are. Because Linux distributions don’t include DR tools, companies must look to a file-based recovery solution that can recover the entire system and eliminate the need to rebuild.
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The process of implementing a new enterprise solution is incredibly complex. This process can send your organization down a long road of beneficial—and sometimes painful—change. The good news, though, is that if the implementation is done right the first time, you won’t have to travel that road again. The key question: how do you do it right?
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Small to medium businesses (SMBs) need technology to survive in a competitive business environment. However, regardless of the business type, size, or industry, incorporating technology into existing frameworks involves risk—to productivity, customer service, operations, and the bottom line! The key to reducing risk and increasing productivity is thus the selection of technologies that will accommodate change in your business.
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Enterprises of all sizes are adopting Internet protocol (IP) telephony for cost savings and productivity gains—but high quality voice service takes more than just buying the latest equipment. Is IP telephony right for your organization and your network? Get the straight facts from an industry leader—along with a 7-step assessment and deployment checklist for a successful implementation.
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Effective communication uses many senses, but visual communication provides huge amounts of information, and can convey all sorts of meanings. Face to face, we can rely on visual cues; however, the amount of information transmitted via distant communication is limited by cost and complexity. And when the costs of transportation rise, broader use of remote visual communications becomes increasingly practical.
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There is a considerable need to understand how technical performance and the problems within the technical infrastructure impact the capabilities of the business itself. The majority of companies can only measure specific asset and application performance, whereas many issues within the infrastructure lie at the transport level, where packet switching can present both great opportunities and major issues.
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Information management, which includes both data and content management, is an essential element of service-oriented architecture (SOA). Taking a service-oriented approach to information data can thus help you achieve greater value from your information assets. Implementing master data management (MDM) services can provide a multiplier effect, by delivering high-value business services over and above information integration services.
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Domain name system (DNS) best practices are becoming more standardized. However, DNS services are often overlooked simply because they are so commonplace. The result is poorly configured services that are either not fully functional, or easily compromised. To ensure that the Internet remains a reliable medium for information and commerce, further implementation of secure and efficient DNS will be required.
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Small to medium businesses have typically built their own domain name system (DNS) and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) services, used Windows DNS/DHCP, or turned to a hosted service provider for these services. This approach may appear to offer tremendous savings, but contains many hidden costs and risks that are not always apparent until a catastrophic loss of service occurs.
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To understand the power of cache poisoning and pharming, imagine that you’re logging on to your Internet banking service. The page looks a little odd, but the address is correct, and it has the same fields as usual. You might enter your credentials without thinking twice. Unfortunately, you’ve just provided a criminal syndicate with the contents of your bank account.
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Accessing more real-time intelligence can give your company the flexibility and agility to win in the marketplace. However, multiple and disparate data systems, lengthy integration cycles, and isolated business processes may well be standing in your way. The question then becomes “What kind of IT platform is going to give me the kind of information I really need to have?”
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Mid-market companies can level the competitive playing field by using business integration technology. Integrated processes reduce costs by decreasing data entry errors, improving supply chain responsiveness, and increasing inventory accuracy—not to mention eliminating document processing fees and customer charge-backs. But how can mid-market companies leverage the capabilities of "high-end" integration solutions?
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The client: a US-based provider of reusable rack rental, recovery, and closed loop logistics management for bulk shipping and display of live goods, from nurseries to retailers. Faced with growing demand for its racks, the distributor required an enterprise-wide application that allowed flexibility for growth, while reducing operational complexity and maintaining the company’s excellent track record.
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A leading application service provider of business applications needed to develop a replica of enterprise resource planning (ERP) for veterinary practice. The application required customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), a financial accounting system, human resource (HR) management, and medical records management. Rishabh Software developed the solution using EJB, XML, Java servlets, JSSE, JBoss, and J2ME technologies.
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High-profile cyber-attacks are imprinted in the enterprise security worldview, and for good reason. Enterprises without sound intrusion prevention strategies across the three threat dimensions—undesired access, malicious content, and rate-based attacks—are exposed to unacceptable risks, especially from hybrid attacks. However, a three-dimensional protection (3DP) approach provides protection for clients, servers, and network infrastructure, while maximizing bandwidth for mission-critical traffic.
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IT departments play a key role in complying with the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). Without the right technological solutions to record and monitor access to networks, financial systems, and sensitive data, company management cannot ensure the integrity of the information in their financial reports. That’s why technology that helps with SOX compliance and internal control management is imperative.
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Grid infrastructure is maturing as an enterprise form of distributed computing—and with an increasingly wide range of applications able to make use of its high performance and lower cost, it’s not too late to invest in grid technology. However many “early adopter” investment banks now have multiple disparate grids, and face the problem of how to consolidate them.
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Unfortunately, the portfolio management processes that experts have advocated for years—and that many organizations have implemented—often take the form of semi-annual or even annual meetings. However, this often raises balance or alignment issues only after millions of dollars have been spent. What’s needed is real-time information that can be used to conduct continuous, automated assessment of portfolio status.
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Business management solution users spend most of their time “heads down” in the business application, but they also need to use communication and desktop productivity tools. Thus, business solutions need familiar, easy-to-learn user interfaces. They need to be “process-centric” and role-based. And they need to provide a bridge between the worlds of structured business applications and unstructured desktop productivity software.
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Planning is a crucial management discipline that enables organizations to optimally allocate their finite resources, and achieve maximum potential. The more intelligently these resources are allocated in response to changing conditions and objectives, the better the business will perform. Indeed, improved business performance is why so many companies are aggressively evolving their planning processes and embracing planning best practices.
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Today’s business users require more from their business performance management systems. From dashboards to scorecards, production reporting, ad hoc analysis, financial applications, and key performance indicators, it’s clear that businesses need one system that offers broad, diverse functionality. They want the interface to be intuitive and easy to use, and they want the system to integrate with their productivity tools.
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Word processing software was introduced to improve employee performance, and has become an integral tool for every business. In much the same way, dashboards and
scorecards will become the tools for improving business performance management and strategy execution. That’s why its essential for managers to gain an overview of dashboards and scorecards, including their benefits, strengths, and integration.
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The UN Standard Products and Services Code (UNSPSC), the global product and services classification standard, has been revolutionizing purchasing and supply management across the world. Whether you’re deliberating on the need for a common product and classification standard for your company, or an advanced UNSPSC adopter, revisiting the basics can help you improve your purchasing and supply management processes.
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One of the biggest “time-wasters” in not-for-profit organizations is the constant reentry of data from one system to another. For example, many organizations must manually reenter information from their fundraising applications to their accounting systems. This is error-prone, costs valuable time, and delays important reporting. The solution lies in finding efficient ways to share information—across the organization.
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Effective IP management requires proper allocation of address space for adequate address capacity as needed, as well as accurate configuration of DHCP and DNS servers. Along with flawless configuration and management of each of these foundational elements of Internet protocol (IP) address management, address managers must also integrate these management functions into the broader IT network management environment.
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To meet regulatory requirements such as the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), IT managers are now receiving the board-level visibility and budgets required to improve enterprise data security. For example, companies need secure and verifiable audit trails that track the activities of database administrators (DBAs) and other privileged insiders. But have you considered the seven essential elements of database security?
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Many companies are struggling to comply with a patchwork of regulations related to sensitive corporate information. As a result, companies are looking for new database security and auditing solutions to help prevent unauthorized access to confidential information—and to satisfy internal and external auditors—without the performance loss and insider security risk of traditional database management system (DBMS) logging approaches.
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The capacity for service-oriented architecture (SOA) to provide a framework for next-generation enterprise telecommunications services has become a reality through the maturing of Web services technology. Such communications services can now take their rightful place alongside collaborating business processes to allow enterprises to achieve a fully integrated SOA, an architecture that can grow with the business and grow with technology.
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Security is a vital consideration when evaluating enterprise Internet protocol (IP) telecommunications solutions. In addition to delivering business benefits, a voice over IP (VoIP) system may also become a target for unauthorized users, and must be secured against threats. Indeed, if threats and vulnerabilities are not addressed, the results can be devastating with respect to lost productivity, resources, and reputation.
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Project portfolio management (PPM) is a tool-supported process for optimally managing an organization’s “portfolio” of projects. And although PPM can provide real value, many organizations are finding PPM implementations difficult. However, there are key approaches that can increase your likelihood of success, as well as an effective step-by-step process for implementing PPM within your organization.
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Client relationship management (CRM) technology can help capital-markets firms streamline investment banking activities, increase brokerage trade volume, and meet compliance challenges. As a nerve center for information about clients, prospects, institutions, syndicate partners, and other contacts, the right CRM system enables capital-markets firms to share intelligence, coordinate activities, and derive advantage from an integrated body of corporate knowledge and relationships.
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A process manufacturing company has several options in its approach to deploying a single integrated clinical supplies or commercial product supply chain system. However, rolling a project out in phases is the most attractive option for many firms because it reduces risk, breaks the project into manageable and affordable stages, and spreads out resource demands over time.
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Many companies are finding they must build project management capabilities in order to meet business challenges in the future. They also understand that project management processes should be implemented consistently across the organization, leading to efficiency and better, faster, cheaper project delivery. Given the need for consistent project management, the critical question is how best to implement this environment.
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Effective correlation and accurate root-cause diagnosis have been key challenges for network and systems management solutions for many years. Indeed, these challenges have increased with the growing complexity of the software applications and services operating on top of the Internet and intranets. But at the same time, customer expectations of service quality and guaranteed performance remain as stringent as ever.
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Today’s n-tier infrastructures make significant demands on the problem management process. Isolation of performance problems in these environments is difficult at best, and traditional monitoring tools are not equipped to deal with the multiple dependencies and complexities they present. Indeed, even effective problem management processes may not be sufficient without improved tools.
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The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) provides a comprehensive and consistent set of best practices for IT service management (ITSM), promoting a quality approach to achieving business efficiency in the use of information systems. The key paradigm shift that ITIL s ITSM best-practices taxonomy seeks to achieve is the movement away from management of silos, towards management of services spanning multiple silos.
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As telecommunications networks grow in size and complexity, enterprises and service providers are faced with an increasing burden on operating expenses. In particular, the amount of power consumed and heat dissipated within even a single rack of communications servers is now a very real budget consideration. Clearly, lowering these numbers is the concern of all communication platform designers.
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Storage is a vital part of enterprise IT infrastructure, with Internet protocol (IP) telephony storage leading the way as an effective technology. With the increased adoption of open standards-based architecture by the enterprise telephony market, IP telephony storage will gain acceptance as an entry-level storage tool and a viable low-cost alternative to Fibre Channel storage area networks (SANs).
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How can you ensure that you make the right choice when purchasing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software? The answer: take all the critical components into consideration. ERP selection is not just about what different people in your organization want or don't want, it's about getting what you need for now and the future. Remember, you're not just buying software; you're buying into a vendor and its company culture.
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The most advanced business process management (BPM) applications bridge departmental and geographic boundaries, and manage the flow of documents and data according to sophisticated process rules. And while many would suggest that an on-demand BPM service offering would most benefit small businesses, a real case can be made that such offerings might be more valuable for medium and large businesses.
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Corporations share data with a variety of remote offices, trading partners, customers, and regulatory agencies. Sensitive data is transferred to and from entities around the world billions of times a day. Security breaches are frequently in the news, with reports of compromised customer data. However, business-to-business (B2B) workflow breakdowns are more likely to occur—and are potentially just as harmful.
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Certain lean initiatives can be hugely strengthened with a synergistic enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation—and vice versa. In other cases, the two efforts should be viewed as separate initiatives. But it doesn’t depend on “what you want”: specific lean initiatives will fail if specific ERP aspects are neglected. However, other lean initiatives and ERP functionality have little in common.
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Typically, useful network documentation requires a significant investment in time and effort. But because enterprise networks are in constant flux, many companies do not document their network on a regular basis. However, by adopting a sole source, service-based solution for network shapes and stencils, organizations can perform mission-critical documentation more regularly—in ways that are simpler, faster and more effective.
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Industrial machinery and components (IM&C) manufacturers are challenged by global rivalry, industry consolidation, and shrinking margins. And with more manufacturers vying for business, customers are demanding customized products delivered on short lead times—all at lower costs. At the same time, manufacturers are struggling to extend their supply chains to incorporate offshore manufacturing. So where can they turn for help?
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How can a professional services firm grow profitably while providing clients with the services and project pricing they demand? The firm must rely on best-practice solutions to gain control over every aspect of business—from business development to resource planning to billing. Firms that plan and staff projects by relying on combinations of spreadsheets and management instinct will fall behind.
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Achieving both customer satisfaction and profitability is critical to the survival of your organization. Without customer satisfaction, the long-term prospects for your business are bleak. And without profitability, your business cannot exist. Profitable-to-promise (PTP) solutions allow you to determine the profitability of individual orders by integrating supply chain management (SCM) and customer relationship management (CRM) processes with your financial data.
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Quocirca conducted two surveys separated by twelve months that looked at the data management infrastructure of UK and Irish businesses, and how this was linked to their ability to respond to the whims of the regulators. In the year between the two surveys, a lot had changed.
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Since there are multiple vendors offering hosted customer relationship management (CRM) applications, the buyer’s toughest decision is finding a vendor that offers the many benefits that come from a workflow engine similar to those used in multimillion-dollar CRM deployments. Truth be told, CRM alone is not enough, as not all providers have a workflow engine which enables full process automation.
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Traditional document management systems are geared toward control, discipline, and orchestrated workflow. Contrast this with the untamed world of ad hoc processes that drive so many of our activities. In this environment, teams are dynamic and agile. Imposing structure and formal processes almost always results in confusion, resentment, and lost productivity. The needs of distributed teams require a different approach.
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Given ever-increasing regulatory pressures, document life cycle management is clearly an issue every enterprise must resolve. Until now, documents stored on local machines and e-mailed outside the organization have presented a particularly thorny challenge. Fortunately, new technologies make it possible to extend document life cycle management to the desktop and enforce document retention policies across every computer in the enterprise.
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To many executives, health insurance cost increases are as predictable as death and taxes. That’s why best-in-class organizations are embracing strategies which optimize benefit cost per employee. To succeed, these companies focus on wellness programs, clear communications about benefits choices, and benefits automation as part of an integrated system. And to compete effectively, other organizations will need to follow suit.
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Significant management issues posed by multisite manufacturing environments include optimizing resource use at each site and delivering the lowest possible cost for each stage in the product manufacturing cycle. To facilitate meaningful results in achieving these requirements, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software must thus provide the right tools for ensuring that multisite processes come up to “best-in-class” standards.
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Lean manufacturing strategies and ever-lower tolerance for late deliveries are putting pressure on manufacturers to ensure that facilities and equipment operate at peak performance. While some companies are struggling to execute preventive and predictive maintenance procedures, better performers have implemented holistic asset management strategies enabling them to proactively ensure the health of plants, factories, and equipment across global manufacturing networks.
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Even though the technology has been around in some form since World War II, chances are that you think of Wal-Mart’s supply chain initiative when you hear the words “radio frequency identification,” or “RFID.” Wal-Mart is already seeing a return on their 2005 investment. But does RFID technology make as much sense for asset management as for supply chain management?
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While the idea of enterprise-wide data management is conceptually simple, it is extremely difficult to implement in most organizations, due to differences between heterogeneous databases and applications. However, conventional integration software is not required to achieve consistent management of customer data. In fact, integration appliance technology can greatly simplify and reduce the cost of master data management (MDM).
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Many organizations have made enormous investments in enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications such as JDE, PeopleSoft, and SAP. Designed to manage the daily
operations critical to their businesses, these systems are not, however, optimized for business intelligence (BI). Accordingly, data must be moved to optimized BI solutions for robust analysis. But which strategies are most effective for extracting this data?
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Today’s software developers face requirements that were previously unknown in the industry. Businesses now demand reduced time-to-market, lower costs, and greater stability. And although collaboration is key to addressing these issues, it’s not always as easy as it sounds. Thus, an automated change management system can help you increase the predictability, reliability, and speed of the software development cycle.
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Enterprise impact analysis is the heart of the incident management process. Unlike threat-based risk assessments, this analysis focuses on the business impacts, regardless of the cause. Delving into the functions of enterprise elements, the analysis evaluates how any interruption will affect normal functioning. It also provides a framework for determining what’s relevant—and what isn’t relevant—to managing the incident.
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For most companies, changing accounting software is a daunting challenge. Not only is transitioning the accounting function to a new software package tricky in itself, but it is usually catalyzed by one or more business challenges that are (hopefully) solved by the new system. Knowing that, how can you minimize the risks involved in selecting a new accounting application?
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The benefits of e-learning have been amply demonstrated and extensively documented. However, less attention has been paid to the business benefits of implementing learning management systems (LMS). The misconception is that LMS and e-learning are irrevocably linked. But that isn’t necessarily the case. In fact, an LMS can provide real benefits, in the broadest—and most critical—business sense.
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To respond to the demands of today’s highly competitive global environment, traditional linear supply chains are evolving into complex, global ecosystems. These “pull” (demand-driven) environments working in conjunction with traditional “push” environments are known as adaptive supply chain networks (ASCNs). ASCNs allow all supply chain stakeholders to share knowledge, make collaborative decisions, and sense and respond immediately to changing conditions.
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Vendors of electronic report distribution and content management solutions typically emphasize the paper and related printing cost savings their products provide. But in fact, the real value of these technologies far exceeds these savings. Maximum benefits from electronic document and report management technologies derive not only from cutting obvious costs, but also from enabling dramatic improvements in business processes.
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In 1999, specialty chemicals manufacturer Rohm and Haas Company wanted to move to a new platform to simplify the complexity resulting from over 300 disparate information technology (IT) systems. First, Rohm and Haas wanted to adopt common global processes to increase efficiency, and implement smart sourcing strategies. Second, management needed a better way to see customer trends and evaluate competitors.
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The ability of BASF AG—a leader in the chemicals industry—to proactively manage unexpected situations is key to its competitiveness. With its complex supply network dealing with unanticipated events is all the more critical. To address this issue, BASF implemented the SAP Event Management application to monitor ocean-freight logistics, from receipt of initial orders to final delivery of products.
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Recent changes in accounting standards and compliance, along with greater emphasis on managing risk and value, have introduced new key measures of bank performance and made it more important to coordinate the internal and external reporting of financials and risk. To meet these challenges, banks must do their utmost to more fully integrate their accounting data and processes.
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Banks face many challenges in today’s dynamic financial services marketplace. Banks must continuously enhance capabilities for risk and financial management to address market, credit, and regulatory environments that are increasingly complex. Thus, process support for your business strategies is crucial—which is why integrated tools are a must-have for financial accounting, cost controlling, risk management, asset-liability management, and profitability analysis.
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On any given day, your interactions with a few strategic customers will make a huge long-term difference. But which few customers? A new type of analytic application, customer value management (CVM), answers the need to identify, analyze, and predict customer behavior. Using CVM enables companies to shift from campaign-centric to customer-centric analysis, and develop more individualized and profitable customer relationships.
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As is generally the case with such issues as the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), the quick fix is often too good to be true. Leading companies are thus using SOX as an opportunity to restructure the way they run their business. What’s more, they’re finding they already have much of what they need—including the right people, processes, and technology.
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Chances are that SAP applications play a role in your enterprise. SAP’s prowess at managing large volumes of transactional data has made it the leader in enterprise resource planning (ERP). As of January 2003, SAP claims more than 56,000 installations. Yet despite their popularity, SAP applications in many organizations remain semi-isolated and untapped for the business intelligence (BI) they contain.
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To realize the benefits of enterprise performance management (EPM), the focus needs to be on facilitating collaboration between senior management and business unit management. In practice, most organizations do not programmatically incorporate two-way communication into the planning process. Yet this is where many organizations find the greatest benefit in improving business performance—and the most difficulty in making the change.
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Business intelligence (BI) is often an area of friction between information technology (IT) (who provide information) and the business users (who need it to do their jobs). By allowing you to connect goals, metrics, and people across the enterprise, an enterprise BI standard helps organizations manage and optimize information flows like other business processes, leading to improved alignment and transparency.
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Brady Corporation is a world leader in identification solutions that help companies improve safety and security. Founded in 1914, its divisions operate some twenty enterprise resource planning systems. However, even with Brady’s move to centralize about half its financial information on SAP R/3, serious data inconsistency issues were hampering reporting reliability. To resolve these issues, Brady turned to OutlookSoft Everest.
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When BellSouth and SBC merged to become Cingular Wireless in 2000, four issues concerned everyone: centralizing the storage of business information; improving access to, and reporting from, performance management processes; streamlining and standardizing analysis tools; and integrating data sources with different systems and platforms to create a "single version of the truth." The solution: OutlookSoft’s unified business process management application.
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A diverse company with multiple business units, US Sugar was looking for relief in the financial reporting and budgeting areas. Defining the related metrics and ensuring they were consistent enterprise-wide was thus a critical need. US Sugar required a comprehensive planning and performance management solution that would enable financial reporting, monthly forecasting, cost allocations, consolidations, actuals analysis, and strategic planning.
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During the past decade, organizations of all sizes have made significant investments in enterprise application software. Unfortunately, the level of integration between these systems has become less effective and more expensive than originally envisioned. The question is how to leverage the considerable investments organizations have made, in order to maximize the value of the information stored in these discrete infrastructures.
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With so many different enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications on the market, selecting the right solution can be extremely time-consuming and daunting. In fact, according to a recent study, nearly three-quarters of manufacturers are dissatisfied with their current systems. However, following a clearly defined selection process—and learning from the mistakes of others—can drastically improve your chances of success.
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While optical technology has become the default removable storage medium on the desktop (CD and DVD), in enterprise storage the evidence of failure is unmistakable. After fifteen years, optical technologies in the enterprise storage market account for only a fraction of 1 percent of enterprise storage hardware spending. There is a dramatically different future, however, for some optical storage subsystems.
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Companies establishing a pure Internet protocol (IP) environment can benefit from the capabilities that are only supported by IP telephony, including a simplified cabling infrastructure; dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP)-enabled IP telephones that provide easier moves, adds, and changes; and support for 802.11 wireless devices, as well as the support of unified messaging, unified management, and web-based call center applications.
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Professional services firms are not like other businesses. They have unique ways of working, unique challenges, and unique opportunities. While progressive project-based businesses have already embraced professional services automation (PSA)—achieving results and return on investment along the way—there are still many firms that have yet to fully automate their key business processes or integrate their knowledge base.
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Business process management (BPM) is ultimately about people, not technology. While technology enables BPM, it is people who lead, manage, and participate in business processes. However, BPM vendors have not traditionally focused on human-centric needs. A human-centric perspective can transform BPM from a cold automation system into an intuitive, user-friendly tool that eliminates redundancy and accelerates how work gets done.
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Business process management (BPM)—the discipline of modeling, automating, managing, and optimizing business processes—is one of the hottest market segments in the software industry today. Its rapid growth is driven by the increasing recognition that success is driven by the efficiency of your organization’s business processes. But what exactly is a business process—and how can BPM improve it?
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A full member of the Barclay’s Group, UK-based FIRSTPLUS Financial Group specializes in personal loans and loan refinancing. As with all businesses that experience rapid growth from the outset, its critical processes had evolved without much structured planning. That’s why FIRSTPLUS needed a strategic business process management (BPM) solution for structural process implementation and automation across different areas and functions.
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Bernstein AG, established in 1947 and headquartered in Porta Westfalica (Germany), builds and sells components and systems for industrial automation peripherals. In 2002, it began the task of selecting and implementing a flexible, web-based business process management (BPM) system. One of the most important technical requirements was the universal integration of the BPM suite into its existing IT infrastructure.
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The Biological and Biotechnological Research Council (BBSRC) is the UK’s principal public funder of basic bioscience research. BBSRC needed an automated business process management (BPM) system to handle grant application processes more efficiently. In particular, the chosen solution had to manage the complexities of the grant application and grant round processes, with 6000 applications within a 12-month period.
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To automate processes, business users and IT must work together as a team. The combination of technology infrastructure, process flow, and business requirements all needs to be translated into a process map to enable automation to occur. This process discovery effort, and adjusting the process map to manage change, is the most significant challenge of business process management (BPM) projects.
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Business process management (BPM) provides adaptability and agility to service-oriented architecture (SOA). The central nervous system in the architecture, it orchestrates the services provided by different applications that excel at what they do. And the more powerful the BPM solution used to manage these processes, the easier and more cost-effective it will be to adapt to unique business requirements.
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Any technology tied to the financial health of a business generates heated debate, and customer relationship management (CRM) is no exception. CRM has been bolstered, burned, praised, and maligned. One of the most animated arguments has centered on the “where” of CRM: whether to deploy the technologies in-house or “rent” them, outsourcing their implementation to an application service provider.
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Customer relationship management (CRM) applications have evolved from risky eighteen-month IT projects into productivity tools that any size of business can deploy. Indeed, many mid-market companies have chosen to roll out a “hosted” solution, whereby the solution is accessed over the Internet. However, going through the selection process has become more cumbersome recently, with more options available than ever before.
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There are many articles on customer relationship management (CRM) and its benefits. These articles are usually targeted towards large organizations, and don’t focus on the needs and objectives of small business owners. However, it’s essential for small business owners to know what CRM really is, and why and how CRM can help retain existing customers and help their business grow.
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Manufacturing analytics is fundamental to enabling an enterprise to run at peak performance. For management to achieve this condition, it needs to have an underlying data collection and management system that looks to the total enterprise. Data collected at the packaging line must be available and compatible with financial and operational data, so that maximum value can be achieved.
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The high capital costs of conventional application environments is a major problem for businesses. Some virtualization platforms provide a solution, but many data center resources that could benefit from dynamic management are simply not appropriate for virtualization. To address these issues, organizations need strategy that build on the capabilities of virtualization platforms as part of a comprehensive data center solution.
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As enterprise Java has become more and more pervasive, IT has used Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) technologies to build many of its most mission-critical applications, typically over-provisioning hardware to guarantee performance—at an extremely high price. Hence, the goal of automation and virtualization software: to enable IT to provide applications at required service levels and reduced costs.
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Installing software and patch updates can be frustrating and time-consuming for IT staff and users alike. But it's critical to update your computers regularly to keep security filters current. This need increases exponentially if your users are mobile and geographically dispersed. Should this continue to be the responsibility of your IT staff? Or should you outsource this function to a managed service provider (MSP)?
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Customizing third-party “vendor” source code is becoming increasingly common. But managing the incorporation of vendor application releases alongside customizations requires an additional layer of software configuration management (SCM) to integrate subsequent vendor releases. Traditional branch-based SCM tools require an unnecessarily complex branch-and-merge process. However, there is a more intuitive and efficient parallel development model for managing customizations to vendor code.
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Most software configuration management (SCM) systems rely on metadata annotations to support basic system operations, such as computing the contents of software configurations. With AccuRev, configurations are first-class objects called "streams," whose contents aren't defined in terms of metadata annotations at all. AccuRev relies on the chronology of SCM operations, enabling users to leverage the incremental nature of the process.
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Just behind fire and the wheel in a list of the world’s greatest inventions comes information lifecycle management (ILM). Without a doubt, ILM will revolutionize every facet of the computing landscape. And along the way, it will probably generate more hype than all the high-tech buzzwords of the past five years combined. But does it solve a real problem?
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A new trend is emerging in the world of storage management, and it’s called information lifecycle management (ILM). Just what it is, however, varies significantly from vendor to vendor. Generally, ILM is a strategy for policy-based information management. Its mandate: to provide centralized management of all information assets, aligning storage resources with the value of the data residing in them.
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While open innovation is a hot topic, capitalizing on opportunity requires a holistic strategy—not just increased collaboration. Companies must have repeatable, compliant, and responsive business processes. These processes must be supplemented by a global information infrastructure that provides a single source of the truth, along with alignment across departmental silos, and solutions that evolve without coding.
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The options available for mitigating e-mail spam in the enterprise are varied—as varied as the variety of actual spam definitions. These factors often lead to some confusion about what a particular anti-spam solution can or can’t do. In order to focus on the basics, you need to cut through the hype in the anti-spam market and its buzzwords.
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Product roadmaps can mean the difference between success and failure in product delivery. Done correctly, they can help win large customers, and guide strategic planning efforts. Unfortunately, most product roadmaps are created under pressure when company management makes a last-minute request. As a result, they don’t have the impact they should, and can be a source of product management misery.
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To function as a business partner, IT must deliver service at predictable levels—and also contribute to enterprise strategy, by planning for services that enable growth. That’s why IT needs end-to-end infrastructure views that reveal issues as they happen, and track trends that predict future needs. But how can IT create unified views of the environment without draining critical resources?
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Information technology (IT) executives are beginning to seriously re-evaluate their highly hyped, service-oriented architectures (SOA) strategies—and consequently, their IT outsourcing, hosting, and enterprise system management strategies. However, creating long-term strategies is complicated by the wide range of available service delivery models. That’s why it’s vital to uncover the important concepts—and decision points—relating to these different delivery models.
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By nature, outsourcing is highly imitative, with organizations attempting to duplicate the imperfectly observed successes of others. Indeed, the myths and simplistic beliefs revolving around outsourcing—along with the usual technological, organizational, and cultural barriers—seriously impediment the effectiveness of collaborative models. The key to successful collaborative teamwork in offshore outsourcing lies in understanding and leveraging project management best practices.
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Organizations often see a significant gap between their strategic plans and their ability to execute them, and many try to implement scorecards to solve precisely this problem. Unfortunately, most organizations look solely at the warning lights (how close are expenses and revenue to budget) rather than focusing on where they want to go—and how they’re going to get there.
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There is much discussion in the marketplace about outsourcing management and governance (OM/G). Many organizations mistakenly assume they understand the science of effective OM/G, but that’s often not the case. OM/G is a critical discipline enabling companies to achieve the intent of their outsourcing deal. In fact, without it, value leakage of 15 percent or greater is the typical result.
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Large-scale, complex outsourcing deals have produced equally complex management issues. Indeed, the leading cause of missed expectations in outsourcing is poor governance—after the deal is signed. For this reason, executives can benefit tremendously from outsourcing management tools, including third party vendors. Where and how do they work? And what is the cost in terms of time and money?
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Organizations undertaking information technology and business process outsourcing typically are very focused on "doing the deal." This involves assessing service providers, determining geographies from which to source services, developing contracts, defining service levels, and a myriad of other tasks. Yet arguably the hardest part of outsourcing occurs only after the deal is done—performing ongoing outsourcing management and governance.
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IT managers understand the difficulty of demonstrating returns on investment for technology projects. The issue is particularly acute for large multiphase deployments, such as IT infrastructure library (ITIL) implementations: massive projects which are hard to sell to management, and which promise returns many years in the future—after significant investment. So how do you get management to buy into your vision?
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When Katrina hit in 2005, Murphy was among the many companies impacted by the devastation. Although its servers sustained no physical damage, they were inaccessible, and Murphy could not reach or use its data until the waters receded and the servers were moved. After retrieving the servers from New Orleans (US), the company went directly to Virtuozzo for an evaluation.
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Historically, IT administrators have provisioned new servers with every new application, resulting in a large number of servers with utilization rates of 10 to 15 percent or less, commonly known as server sprawl. Server sprawl is responsible for a range of costs, including infrastructure, hardware, software, and management costs. So why hasn’t hardware virtualization solved your server sprawl issues yet?
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X1 Enterprise Edition lets users search enterprise data with desktop, mobile, or browser clients. Thus, when integrating X1 Enterprise Edition security with an existing Microsoft network installation, it’s important to understand how X1 security features are configured and deployed (including web server security), and how X1 and Microsoft Windows security layers work together at runtime.
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Today’s $12 billion (USD) knowledge management (KM) market provides comprehensive solutions to large organizations. However, implementing such solutions requires significant resources and depends on behavioral changes by employees. As a result, KM efforts often fall short of their goals. Shifting focus to end user features offers significant benefits to government organizations and their employees—and improves the odds of success.
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Performance reviews are typically based on the definition of what an employee was originally hired to do. However, appraisal systems fail to address the fact that jobs change as the business environment evolves. Performance management systems should thus deal with critical focus areas rather than basic functions. Appraisal without these objectives in mind risks being a total waste of time.
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Project portfolio management (PPM) is a hot topic, and there’s no shortage of related advice. However, much of the current advice is incomplete—or flat-out wrong. Before purchasing a tool, buyers should familiarize themselves with established theories for valuing projects. Armed with understanding, they can avoid getting "burned" by the unsuitable PPM tools that are being pushed in the marketplace.
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AstraZeneca, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, undertook an initiative to integrate
demand flow technology in logistical operations, leading to a major supply chain management (SCM) project at its packaging plant in Wedel (Germany). With an existing SAP technology platform, AstraZeneca project leaders opted for the mySAP SCM solution and the SAP Advanced Planning & Optimization component.
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Large or small, every company can profit from streamlined processes, insightful business intelligence, and systems that are flexible enough to grow with changing business needs. SAP Best Practices for Automotive comprise preconfigured business scenarios that cover the most important requirements of the automotive supplier industry, including enterprise resource planning (ERP), supplier relationship management (SRM), and a business information warehouse (BW).
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The airline industry is constantly undergoing change, and the ability to adjust swiftly is imperative. The need to improve safety while offering competitive prices is an ever-present challenge. That’s why the industry requires solutions in every crucial aspect of business—from accounting and finance, route profitability, human resources (HR), materials management, and enterprise management, to customer relationship management (CRM).
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The warehouse management system (WMS) concept has matured into a collection of time-tested technologies that reduce inventory costs and increase overall inventory management efficiencies. By implementing WMS technology, organizations can achieve a higher return on their software dollars and provide better service to their customers. A WMS can provide organizations with tangible benefits that improve warehouse operations without adding headcount.
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The Gantry Group, a strategic advisory and market intelligence firm, conducted interviews with nine companies that have deployed Sage MAS 90, 200, or 500. While every company is involved in distribution, they represent a wide range of industries. The aim of Gantry Group: a comprehensive analysis of return on investment (ROI) for Sage MAS 90, 200, and 500.
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Today more than ever, companies are looking for near-term return on investment (ROI)—and the sooner, the better. That’s why successful solution vendors must now use a much more analytical approach to selling. Customers want assurances that an investment will pay for itself over an acceptable time period—either by increasing the top line, decreasing operating expenses, or both.
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Outsourcing is increasingly embraced by manufacturers seeking ways to reduce costs, increase agility, and enhance market competitiveness. Yet poorly managed distributed manufacturing operations compromise visibility and quality control, which in turn erodes execution, management effectiveness, and profitability. To truly optimize the value of outsourcing, business systems and procedures must be deployed that create a collaborative, transparent information environment for manufacturing.
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Superior order management can provide you with a competitive edge across the board. To move closer to order perfection and a truly loyal customer base, you must cost-effectively eliminate the issues preventing on-time, accurate order fulfillment. This involves every process, including planning and forecasting, acquiring and creating accurate orders and contracts, handling order changes, and resolving fulfillment and post-delivery problems.
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Successful enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations can force organizations to reevaluate their business practices and processes, create a higher understanding of the need for data accuracy, and enable a more effective data-sharing environment. However, such high-level benefits require a new approach to project implementation—one that applies the lessons of the past to reinvent the systems of the future.
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When business uncertainties are frequent and compliance with regulations is mandatory, it can be a challenge to keep information technology (IT) synchronized with strategy for maximum business value—while reducing IT cost. An IT portfolio management framework, coupled with an IT governance framework, can provide visibility into projects and IT assets, keeping them aligned to business objectives at all times.
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Knowledgeable users of enterprise applications can improve the efficiency of entire business processes, not just of their individual contributions. But first, employees must know how to use their enterprise software systems—and how their activities support larger processes. Effective workflow learning platforms address both needs, and ultimately enable users themselves to improve the processes that provide a competitive edge.
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More than any other factor, ineffective training is responsible for inflating total cost of ownership (TCO) for software investments. Ineffective training approaches include starting too late; assuming go-live is the completion of the project; and failing to teach users about the processes the software is designed to support. Successfully lowering TCO means embracing e-learning, blended training solutions, and web-based simulations.
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Customer relationship management (CRM) is more than a product—it’s a philosophy. That’s why, when it comes to CRM systems, it’s important to understand all the benefits of an integrated application before beginning the selection process. After all, just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, a CRM solution is only as good as its implementation.
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One of the most important aspects of any business management application, including CRM applications, is its underlying architecture. An application’s customizability, adaptability, portability, scalability, and extensibility are all functions of its architecture. A well-designed architecture will thus accommodate growth and adapt to business changes—without affecting the performance of the application or requiring an exhaustive re-implementation.
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Today’s manufacturers are feeling pressures from many directions. Dynamic market needs, increased compliance requirements, more distributed manufacturing operations, and the transition to new technology are all manifested on the plant floor and throughout the enterprise—often leading to pleas for technology solutions. Integration and data utilization are thus the key issues to address in order to improve responsiveness and performance.
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Since its inception in the 1980s, remote control software has come a long way—evolving into sophisticated tools that provide much more than just simple remote control. But with the wide range of remote control products on the market, it is important to know which features are truly beneficial, in order to separate the good from the bad.
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Only a handful of firms have undertaken the challenge of integrating their supply chain management (SCM) and customer relationship management (CRM) processes. A big reason for this is the practicalities of everyday business. But in today’s era of technology-fueled competition, leading companies in nearly every industry are seeking an edge by focusing on strategies enabling SCM and CRM to coalesce.
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Gaps between enterprise resource planning (ERP) functionality and best-of-breed applications are diminishing rapidly. Deciding between the two may thus come down to overall IT strategy. If it is already segmented, it makes sense to add best-of-breed applications for specific operational areas. However, if a more rationalized common operating platform is the strategy, there are compelling arguments for supply chain ERP.
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Installing a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is both challenging and exciting. Yet many organizations do not recognize that one of the largest threats to such a project is a failure to focus on process improvement. If process change is not seen as a necessary element of the project, it will never be as successful as it should be.
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You have convinced upper management that flow manufacturing will enable your company to leapfrog the competition. You have appointed a flow process leader, and selected a line for your flow pilot. Now it’s time to physically perform your first line implementation. The big question is, what exactly do you need to do to make the transition from discrete to flow?
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Photon Dynamics, a manufacturer of test, repair, and inspection equipment for flat-panel display manufacturing, was finding it difficult to track orders, materials, and finished goods. It considered abandoning its mid-tier enterprise resource planning system, in favor of a tier-one application. But to justify the cost, the company decided to first make sure that the system was, in fact, the problem.
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With tight budgets and spending restrictions affecting education, there has been increased interest in using a tool that has achieved significant success in the business world—customer relationship management (CRM) for schools. This approach involves taking a "customer-concentric" view to develop strategic plans. The key, however, is to take advantage of these capabilities without creating additional "information technology" overhead.
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In the automotive industry, purchasing has become a critical business component. Some experts estimate that a 4 percent reduction in sourcing costs can add as much to profits as a 10 percent increase in sales. With intense global competition putting constant pressure on vehicle prices, many companies see improved sourcing and procurement as key to increasing margins, profits, and competitiveness.
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When enterprise architects first conceived and created enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions in the mid-1980s, their predictive genius was praised during successive dot-com eras as Nostradamus-like in reading the future market’s thirst for transactional-driven solutions. Today, those transactional systems look like aging athletes on steroids—over-bulked, over-paid, and with very real worry that they’ll be found out.
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Sermatech Manufacturing Group, a producer of precision components for the aerospace industry, was at a crossroads with its business management software. Its original 1980s software was outdated, and it needed a more robust system to guarantee company-wide access to real-time operations data. After researching numerous enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, Sermatech turned to Enhanced Systems & Services’ Finesse ERP system.
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The pressure to generate demand for consumer products is constantly increasing. Whether managing customer relationships, achieving increased sales, or introducing new products, the area of marketing expenditure is complex and prone to error. That’s why you need a solution drawing together all the activities needed to analyze, plan, sell, execute, validate, and evaluate your products in a closed-loop process.
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Enabling lean manufacturing and six sigma principles to improve operations requires a nontraditional approach. The old idea that lean manufacturing and six sigma principles don’t require IT isn’t valid anymore. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management (SCM) applications are critical for enabling holistic, lean manufacturing operations, and work hand-in-hand to better enable consumption—not forecasts—to drive replenishment.
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To better understand record management (RM) challenges related to regulatory compliance in the financial services and health care industries, it is important to know why the laws and acts were written and codified. This knowledge will help organizations understand why the RM team is creating and maintaining new records, and how report management can ease RM compliance challenges.
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There continues to be a wide variety of different approaches to building a solid data management solution for your organization, and just as many consulting firms across the globe willing to help you build them. However, it’s imperative for each data management solution to specialize to the unique needs of your organization’s business users, across varying functional areas.
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Intuit recently identified a need to better serve larger and growing users within and outside the QuickBooks base. Thus, Enterprise Solutions 7.0 was designed with growing businesses in mind. For current users, Enterprise Solutions offers a way to support growth with a familiar interface. For those not currently using QuickBooks, it may be a viable alternative to their current solution.
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Quaker Oats has been an icon in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (US) since 1901. In 1979, Quaker sought a system for the storeroom function and purchasing department, and selected CHAMPS. In 1991, the company implemented the CHAMPS maintenance management functionality. Its internal team interfaced CHAMPS with the existing accounts payable system, for seamless data transfer between the maintenance and accounting departments.
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Small and medium businesses (SMB) need to address inventory challenges by using a tightly integrated approach that reflects the dynamics of the extended supply chain. Data must also be available to other application modules within the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. An inventory optimization solution allows companies to effectively fulfill demand and identify how to gain additional profits from their inventories.
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There is a common perception that supply chain automation has created an environment in which transactions move quickly and efficiently in industries such as the retail supply chain and high-tech manufacturing. However, this perception is challenged by a recent research study, based on interviews with 400 management representatives of medium to large organizations in the USA, UK, Germany, and France.
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Although short message service (SMS) messaging is a cheap and efficient communication channel, many enterprises are still reluctant to deploy it as a corporate tool. At issue is its lack of reliability and security while transmitting information. The enterprise SMS market thus has to evolve from the person-to-person infrastructure into a model that supplies businesses with secure and scalable messaging.
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Technology decision-making in larger organizations is about making existing IT platforms as efficient as possible. However, there are weaknesses in the day-to-day operation of such environments, particularly in storage and information management. Positioning information lifecycle management (ILM) in the context of infrastructure management provides an understanding of where we are today—and of how much further there is to go.
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The US Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) addresses the issues of corporate fiscal accountability, accounting standards and practices, and reporting, as well as investor confidence in publicly owned corporations. SOX thus presents challenges to satisfy regulatory requirements, as well as opportunities to improve processes. That's why SOX compliance can be aided by an integrated, automated enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.
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For many organizations, there is a disconnect between strategy and day-to-day activities. Strategy, resources, and risks are discussed at the executive level, but day-to-day activities and performance metrics are not connected to them. As a result, organizations can measure performance, but can’t manage it. The key to breakthrough performance management is tying performance metrics, resources, and risks to strategic objectives.
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As companies demand more from their decision support systems, unified business performance management (BPM) will play an increasingly important role in planning and decision-making. Thus, predictive analytics, applied with BPM, bridges the gap between real-time activity monitoring and calculated execution. Before embracing predictive analytics, however, companies should know that only a unified solution can help capitalize on this promising technology.
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Integration projects that attempt to fuse processes with application and system interfaces are likely to fail. A more pragmatic approach involves service-oriented architecture (SOA), where integration is determined by business requirements rather than technology factors. However, SOA alone is insufficient. Composite adapter services provide a layer of abstraction between service requestors and service providers, enabling cost-effective and versatile enterprise integration.
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Organizations of all sizes are tasked with increasing efficiency and revenues in a timely manner. Naturally, this leads them to consider automation. The critical question then becomes: is it more beneficial to build a time and expense management solution or to buy one? Overwhelmingly, organizations have proven that buying a solution results in greater value and success.
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IT today is often caught between a rock and a hard place: its budget has been reduced, while expectations remain undiminished. Moving beyond this paradox requires fresh approaches to IT management and governance. Today’s IT operations must remain aligned with strategic organizational priorities, deliver promised results with control and predictability, and transparently report problems in time to act on them.
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Pulse is a global leader in the design and manufacture of electronic components. With its far-flung design centers, manufacturing facilities, and customer care centers, Pulse sought to adopt a global supply chain management strategy, integrated with demand planning and manufacturing operations. The benefits, Pulse reasoned, would include faster order response time, lower inventory costs, and more intelligent planning and scheduling.
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Switzerland-based Firmenich has been researching, studying and creating fragrances and flavors for more than a century. As part of an ongoing project to cut cost and increase throughput and margins, Firmenich sought a supply chain management application to eliminate information silos and automatically address other issues such as excess inventory, load imbalances, customer service, forecasting, and other, potentially expensive inefficiencies.
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In 1988, Gulistan Carpet, one of America’s leading carpet producers, implemented a custom enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to understand its business planning issues. But management soon realized this was not enough, and wanted to find a way to link this information with actual plant floor production operations at its three main plants. For a solution, it turned to Adexa, Inc.
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The markets served by Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL), India’s largest consumer goods company, require flexible planning, production, and distribution scenarios on the manufacturing side of operations. In 2000, HLL identified improved supply chain management as a critical business priority. It sought a solution that would increase supplier and distributor responsiveness, reduce inventory buffers, and optimize planning and scheduling.
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Despite its success and profitability, Samsung’s network division—operating in a rapidly changing, highly volatile sector of the technology industry—nonetheless faced a continuous series of internal manufacturing challenges. In 2000, recognizing that it faced multiple opportunities for improvement, Samsung initiated a strategic campaign to revamp its supply chain management efforts. It turned to Adexa for a solution.
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Customer relationship management (CRM) is the first and foremost strategy and corporate philosophy that puts the customer at the center of business operations so as to increase profits by improving customer acquisition and retention. It involves identifying high-value customers and automating processes so that sales, marketing, and service efforts will be more efficient and effective. However, to ensure the success of a CRM initiative, upper management must have a clear vision and establish a customer-focused culture.
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In the UK, government IT has a poor track record. Too much money is wasted on complex projects which fail to deliver the anticipated benefits. However, it is possible to deliver IT projects successfully in the public sector if sensible business and technology strategies are combined within strong project management frameworks to promote a spirit of mutual understanding and respect.
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Adaptive manufacturing enables companies to produce goods efficiently and manage variability proactively. However, it must be managed as an end-to-end, closed-loop process with tight linkages between manufacturing applications, adjacent enterprise applications, and—most importantly—the technology behind these applications. Such integrated networks enable the process visibility and collaboration capabilities that, ultimately, are the key to building an adaptive manufacturing enterprise.
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Wholesale distribution operations are becoming more complex, with ever-changing customer requirements, global and electronic marketplaces, multiple distribution channels, and compliance initiatives adding to the perennial challenges of accurate delivery. Traditional warehouse management or enterprise resource planning solutions are simply not enough. Operational efficiency is the key to increasing inventory turns, improving order fulfillment rates, reducing cycle time, and eliminating charge-backs.
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Achieving operational excellence is fundamental for Yanacocha, the largest gold producer in South America. In 1999, Yanacocha decided it needed an online system linking its principal management areas (operations, maintenance, logistics, finance, and human resources), in order to optimize efficiency in administering its assets. It turned to Mincom Ellipse as its corporate management system, allowing standardization of its operations worldwide.
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The move to radio frequency identification (RFID) integration may result in high costs, arising from the need to maintain multiple interfaces between RFID and other enterprise systems. This means implementing a software architecture that encompasses current and future technology, combined with a data architecture that enables you to manage massive amounts of data at a low total cost of ownership.
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E-mail is more important to companies than ever, since sensitive information is e-mailed both inside and outside the organization. However, growth in overall e-mail volume, driven by more sophisticated spamming attacks, as well the need to ensure content is suitable for purpose, means that we now must reconsider how we view e-mail management within the organization.
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Utilities have always held information about their assets, but traditionally this has been held in different parts of the business and not integrated into single coherent systems. Good asset management is increasingly about being able to feed information from business processes across the company into an asset management system, and using information from that system for financial and operational improvement.
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IT management and governance systems have entered the mainstream, joining enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, human resources, and e-mail as part of the standard enterprise applications landscape. This has led to fundamental changes for leading chief information officers: their first consideration is now to make sure their own organization is systemically supported before systemically improving their customers’ organizations.
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Many technology sales cycles get bogged down in the IT department. But while it is unlikely that a sale will get anywhere without IT management buy-in, IT approval is no guarantee of success. Getting a “yes” requires accessing and influencing other decision-makers, especially in the finance department. And along the way, there are plenty of others who can say “no.”
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Given the challenges facing governmental human resources (HR) departments, HR organizations need to take a hard look at their operations, and face the realities of what works—and what doesn’t. Shared services are the largely predominant organizational structure for delivering HR, and public sector HR executives must determine what must be done to take their organizations to the next level.
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Over 90 percent of human resources (HR) professionals rate employee performance management (EPM) as a top priority. Yet considerably fewer have EPM systems deployed within their organizations, mostly because of concerns about presenting a persuasive case for such projects to executive management. However, a structured approach to selecting, planning for, and implementing an EPM solution can help alleviate those concerns.
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Do you spend all your time chasing new customers instead of taking care of the ones you already have? Most customer relationship management (CRM) projects focus on customer relationships but fail to address customer experience as a loyalty driver. In part two of a two-part series, learn about best practices recommended by customer experience management (CEM) experts, and how they can help you improve long-term loyalty.
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St. Marys Paper Ltd. is a pulp and paper mill located in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario (Canada). In 1989, it implemented a CHAMPS computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to help reduce costs and improve efficiencies. In 1998, St. Marys decided to investigate potential vendors for a maintenance system upgrade. After reviewing several vendors, the mill again turned to CHAMPS.
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No longer are customers simply sideline participants. Organizations are empowering them with a wealth of knowledge to engage in more informed decision-making. A customer relationship management (CRM) solution that encompasses all aspects of your business gives customers unprecedented visibility into the actions that impact them. Ultimately, this leads to greater accountability within the organization, and greater satisfaction among customers.
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Enterprises looking to understand their Internet provider (IP) telephony implementation costs must go beyond simple analyses of return on investment. A total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis is required to help drive the bigger picture, as it considers both tactical and strategic goals, including management of the overall IT budget (annual operational and capital expenditures), risk assessment, and strategic objectives.
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Conventional enterprise resource planning (ERP) falls short in a few areas: competitive pressures are making it clear that business is still in need of more effective solutions. ERP II, however, delivers on the original concept of ERP. No longer is corporate information isolated in departmental silos, but it is housed with all corporate information, used to benefit the entire organization.
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Located in Algona, Iowa (US), and founded in 1989, Sbemco is a world leader in custom safety floor matting. As business grew, however, the company needed to strengthen back-office systems to provide more visibility into the supply chain process. The company accomplished this by transitioning to Exact Macola ERP and integrating it with Exact e-Synergy, a web-based business management solution.
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The medical marketing agency AlphaMedica, based in New York, New York (US), is a fast-growing business. It needed an accounting system that could keep up with a flurry of activity, generate quick payments and reports, and link smoothly to the in-house systems used to manage the more specialized aspects of its business. For help, it turned to QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions.
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Relationship marketing is about understanding customers’ needs and building a marketing strategy around them. The nurturing process helps businesses define the process of generating better leads through a clear set of principles, tactics, and related metrics for attracting new customers. Enterprise marketing management (EMM) has also emerged as part of this process, and is critical for marketing consistency and discipline.
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The Internet industry is intensifying day by day as it becomes the basis of communication for businesses. With the introduction of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), communication costs have been greatly reduced, and the Internet industry is thus introducing variant services to consumers that were unthought of before. One of these emerging ideas is direct inward dialing (DID).
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Current enterprise resource planning (ERP) system implementation methodologies give too much attention to the ”hard core” technical side of the project, and too little to the organizational change needed to complete the project successfully. Because of the complex nature of these projects, different experts are required—not only ERP or IT experts, but also experts in managing organizational change.
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Document and records management software has many benefits that can appreciably improve organizational efficiency. Since these applications are complex systems that represent a solid investment, organizations should carefully evaluate their current and future needs beforehand.
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Companies spend staggering investments to make and keep their offerings competitive. By providing a centralized location to store account history and detailed contact information for every buyer and automating what had been manual tasks, sales force automation (SFA) and customer relationship management (CRM) have begun to positively impact sales efforts.
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Customer relationship management (CRM) is growing in importance as a competitive tool. However, a successful CRM solution must consider many factors, including a well-defined implementation strategy, the people factor, and the need for integration with the incumbent enterprise resource planning solution. If these conditions are met, CRM can have a dramatic impact on internal processes, customer satisfaction, and company profitability.
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Customer churn rates are higher than ever: although businesses say they are devoted to loyalty, their management systems and budgets do not support that claim. But in a landscape of similar products, cutting down on defection—or churn—is vital. There are in fact four steps to improving loyalty and retention which, if focused on the appropriate customers, will improve profitability.
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Customer churn rates are higher than ever: although businesses say they are devoted to loyalty, their management systems and budgets do not support that claim. But in a landscape of similar products, cutting down on defection—or churn—is vital. There are in fact four steps to improving loyalty and retention which, if focused on the appropriate customers, will improve profitability.
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Essai is a leading US manufacturer of semiconductor test products. But Essai needed a solution that could support rapid business growth, maintain stringent quality requirements, and support the development and design of high-mix products. Essai worked with Microsoft Certified Partner Oztera, which implemented Microsoft Dynamics NAV 3.7 and customized the solution to achieve complete automation of all business processes.
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Webcom Limited is a Canadian book manufacturer specializing in custom book production. Its heterogeneous IT infrastructure was resulting in discontinuous information flow, which impeded staffers’ abilities to collaborate throughout the steps of a book’s production. But when Webcom Limited migrated to an integrated Microsoft business management system, it saw a 33 percent improvement in the automation of job production workflow.
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The Yosemite Association is a US-based not-for-profit organization that was operating disparate financial systems that didn’t integrate data across the organization, resulting in data it could not trust. It chose to implement an integrated business management software solution based on Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The organization has now gained better management of its financial information, with access to reliable, real-time information.
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Analysis and reporting services are an important part of the enterprise resource planning process. Microsoft Dynamics NAV has been designed to give users options for optimal analysis and reporting, and to leave room for partners to provide customized solutions. With the correct reporting tools and Microsoft Dynamics NAV, practical analysis and reporting is available and adaptable to individual users’ needs.
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Jasper Seating, an Indiana (US)-based manufacturer of wood furniture products, faced intense pressure from Asian imports, rising raw material prices, and a shortage of skilled labor. But the company achieved significant business improvements after implementing the Made2Manage Enterprise Business System in 2003. These results included expansion into new markets, and a 25 percent increase in revenue over a two-year period.
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Based in Cleveland, Ohio (US), Fuserashi International Technology, Inc. is a manufacturer of precision nuts, bushings, inner metals, piston blanks, and specialty cold-formed steel products. The company achieved significant return on investment within the first two years of using the Made2Manage Enterprise Business System. In fact, as revenue climbed, F.I.T. made a name for itself as a quality benchmark leader.
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Intuit recently identified a need to better serve larger and growing users within and outside the QuickBooks base. Thus, Enterprise Solutions was designed with growing businesses in mind. For current QuickBooks users, Enterprise Solutions offers a way to support growth with a familiar interface. For those not currently using QuickBooks, it may be an alternative to their current solution.
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The recent explosion of virtualization as a technology coincides with the trend of consolidating systems on to less, but more powerful, hardware. With more robust hardware, consolidation makes cost-effective sense. And given the reduced management overhead and more efficient hardware use, virtualization makes a great deal of sense indeed. However, it’s also important to be aware of its dangers.
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Like many health care providers, Wisconsin (US)-based Aurora faces pressures to improve care quality, while monitoring its bottom line. Asset optimization remains elusive for most such enterprises, but Aurora devised a plan to use a centralized service management call center to facilitate service requests, and dispatch resources. Aurora was thereby able to attain higher efficiency, and still strengthen service levels.
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Two models exist for implementing project portfolio management (PPM) systems: the engagement profitability model, and the budget alignment model. The former uses projects and programs as vehicles for managing revenue-generating engagements. The latter is an operational environment where project value varies, and project costs constitute an expense overhead. PPM can align these models to shorten engagements through standard implementation plans.
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When a project management office (PMO) operates well, the impact can be extraordinary. All too often, though, the PMO doesn’t become a clear asset. In order to avoid the worst-case scenario, PMO team members often become internal advisors with marginal impact and no authority. What can be done to avoid this? And what are the keys to successful PMO implementations?
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The most realistic and attainable approach to IT governance is a "lean" approach via project portfolio management (PPM). The lean approach requires a light footprint life cycle, rapid implementation of proven practices, and centralized data. It is based on simplicity and achievability, building on what works while establishing headroom for continuous improvement.
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We have all heard the phrase: “garbage in, garbage out.” When any company evaluates a customer relationship management (CRM) system, this is always one of the first expressions to come up. And yet we see company after company for which this is the exact problem. How can you make sure that this doesn’t happen to you?
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Making the leap to customer relationship management (CRM) doesn’t have to be a difficult process. But many companies have difficulty knowing how to get their CRM initiative off to the right start. There is, however, a simple, step-by-step process which will help guide your CRM implementation project in the right direction, even if you’ve never implemented a CRM system before.
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Your company has just selected a new customer relationship management (CRM) system for your company. Congratulations should be in order. However, your work has really just begun. You know that in order for your CRM initiative to be successful, you’ll need buy-in from your users. What steps do you need to take to ensure buy-in and achieve real implementation success?
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It may come as a surprise to you, but every organization that brings a product to market already has a product lifecycle management (PLM) system in place. And the choices as to which software tools or system an organization should employ in its initiatives should be entirely based on the review and assessment of its current PLM system.
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The history of telecommunications management is rife with examples of good technology failing to meet business requirements. Historically, while business has needed management of service definitions, technology has focused on element management, leaving a gap between what is desired and what is possible. If operational expenses are to be lowered, this gap must be closed.
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Bandwidth managers can provide the basis of a large-scale solution for a quality of service (QoS) that can support public switched telephone network (PSTN)-grade services. A key aspect of the solution is the ability to be integrated with multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) traffic engineering capabilities, to provide a highly scalable, resilient, and rigorous solution for end-to-end quality of service.
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End-to-end performance monitoring on signaling and bearer links, and on inter-networking between service and transport provider domains, are the most complicated and necessary areas of a new management networks paradigm. The testability of next-generation networks (NGNs) and their components should thus be addressed in the context of the performance and fault management functional areas of the telecommunication management network (TMN).
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Given the types of overload scenarios encountered within traditional networks, similar traffic principles requiring overload management will be required within (NGNs). What, then, are the characteristics of overload protection within real-time communications servers? And what types of overload management methods are available for optimizing server performance?
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Network-level behaviors can impact the determinism of call admission control decisions for a particular bandwidth management deployment. However, different network routing and forwarding models can have different impacts when used in conjunction with the bandwidth manager. We examine these models, considering their ability to provide the deterministic admission control capabilities available within the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
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Leveraging corporate knowledge and intellectual property (IP) across the organization is a complex challenge. But an IP management system can help cut through the complexity, capture inputs from all relevant sources, and offer control over the entire process. The solution should be comprehensive, while conferring the right mix of process control and flexibility. (Part Two of a two-part series.)
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A company’s IT assets account for the largest portion of its overall IT budget; properly managing and accounting for these assets is therefore crucial. By implementing an effective IT asset management program, companies can view every asset in their enterprise, allowing them to control and manage IT assets, eliminate waste and redundancy, and comply with ever-tightening government compliance regulations.
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Implementing enterprise software solutions raises numerous obstacles, which can all be attributed to a single cause: users are unable to properly use the software. This is because users grapple with barrages of training methodologies and approaches for each new application. The solution may be a "universal adapter," a synchronized learning content development platform for a wide range of enterprise applications.
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The risks of enterprise resource planning (ERP) upgrades are clear. However, progress has been made, and this is especially true for SAP customers migrating to ECC 5.0. But what are the risks associated with SAP upgrades? And what are specific risk-mitigation approaches? SAP’s ASAP upgrade methodology can help answer these questions to maximize the value of an upgrade investment.
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In today’s manufacturing environment, suppliers and manufacturers alike need to be highly selective when choosing an enterprise resource planning vendor to support their product-specific Lean value-streams. Technology is a key element in the success of Lean manufacturing, and should be selected with an eye to the entire value-stream. Infor examines all elements of a Lean value-stream in this must-read white paper.
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Product lifecycle management (PLM) implementation strategies are in many cases unique from company to company. However, it is not uncommon for companies to encounter some of the same obstacles or pitfalls along the way. Understanding where these nasty little pitfalls lie will hopefully help you steer clear of them, and improve your chances for PLM success.
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In the converging network and security infrastructure, relating what is reported from security products to what is observed on the network is critical. Q1 Labs’ network security management product, QRadar, combines network behavioral analysis with vulnerability assessment and security event correlation into one platform. Ultimately, this convergence reduces IT acquisition and operations costs, and enhances responses to network security incidents.
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When selecting or implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) solution, a mistake or error in judgment can be extremely costly. That’s why you should be aware of the ten basic steps to a successful CRM implementation. Even if you’ve already identified the reasons why your organization needs a CRM system, where do you go from there?
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Customer relationship management (CRM) solutions can range from simple contact managers (for a few hundred dollars) to multimillion-dollar enterprise applications that take years to implement. This is why over-buying a CRM system can be one of the most costly mistakes a company can make. But where should you start your research? And what steps should you take after that?
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Functionality comparisons for different enterprise resource planning (ERP) modules from different vendors often leads to unbalanced disparities among their approaches, which in turn makes it hard to properly evaluate the solution. On the other hand, a process-oriented ERP system is much easier to evaluate, and its degree of match with company needs is visible from the beginning.
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When Newport Corporation needed an integrated business system, it enlisted CSCG to help evaluate existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. CSCG leveraged innovative software assessment tools to help make a selection decision at a savings of $50,000 in project costs, mitigating risk by delivering key reporting capabilities based on impartial data. This case study shows how it was done.
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In the future, companies will partner for competitive advantage, building supply chains excelling in every aspect of their operation. But companies excelling in their own fields may find themselves excluded from these supply chains if their technical foundations are incompatible with popular standards. Technological adaptability is paramount, and Lawson’s M3 Enterprise Management System was developed with this imperative in mind.
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Imperfect product data can erode your gross margin, frustrate both your customers and your employees, and slow new sales opportunities. The proven safeguards are automated data cleansing, systematic management of data processes, and margin optimization. Real dollars can be reclaimed in the supply chain by making certain that every byte of product information is accurate and synchronized, internally and externally.
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Too often, project-driven organizations are faced with a difficult choice: they can choose best-of-breed business applications and integrate them at great cost, or choose a fully integrated solution that lacks functional depth in key areas. Success management of your business and its projects requires integrated tools that also provide deep functionality.
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Organizations spend millions of dollars in developing custom solutions to plug the gap between the demands of the business user and the available features of their enterprise systems. For this reason, it’s worth examining how the Microsoft SharePoint Server environment can help organizations efficiently deliver focused business solutions on a common business platform with a familiar interface and development methodology.
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In order to meet new performance targets mandated at the federal and state levels, the Department of Human Services in Chemung County, New York (US), deployed Salient Performance Management, a performance management solution from Salient Corporation. This solution helped streamline operations, allowing caseworkers, units, and entire agencies to meet and exceed the targets.
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Sales and operations planning (S&OP) provides the visibility and agility to improve product management and promotional planning, minimize unnecessary buildups of inventory, and predict revenue more effectively. S&OP works because it develops a well-coordinated operating plan in support of your customer demand, your business plan, and your strategy. So what is S&OP exactly, and how does it work?
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Technology and process upgrades at forward-thinking companies confirm supply chain excellence as a more widely accepted element of overall business strategy. To remain successful, companies need organization-wide buy-in to supply chain excellence, with key trends in mind: demand planning as an imperative; globalization; increased competition and price pressures; outsourcing; shortened and more complex product life cycles; and collaboration between stakeholders.
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Implementing technology without the proper people and processes in place only means bad service is delivered faster. Indeed, the employee brain trust is critical to succeeding in today’s knowledge economy and customer-centric environment. Yet according to numerous industry analysts, a staggering 55 to 70 percent of customer relationship management (CRM) and contact center projects fail to meet their objectives. Why?
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There’s a buzz in the automotive industry around the concept of “strategic workforce management”—getting the right people, for the right job, at the right time, to improve overall business results. Strategic workforce management goes beyond the traditional role of human resources: it’s a strategic initiative and competitive weapon to help today’s automotive companies drive corporate goals and objectives.
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Every core business process and strategic initiative requires a human capital management (HMC) business strategy for execution; improvements made in HCM systems and processes can notably impact an organization’s bottom line. Mentoring programs and other models for integrating work and learning are exciting avenues for stimulating professional growth, career development, staff morale, and quality of care within the workplace.
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The US Sarbanes-Oxley Act has significantly impacted budgets, personnel allocation, business processes, and documentation. But leveraging a technology solution can smooth the overall compliance process. By investing in a content-centric business process management solution, organizations can automate and improve their compliance. This leads to an effort that is more effective and more efficient, and that ultimately saves money.
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It is sometimes difficult to quantify the scope of spyware problems within corporate environments. The least noticeable effect of spyware is to slow network and desktop processing by tiny increments. But even the slightest slowdown, multiplied across the enterprise, adds up to a serious bottom line impact in decreased automated processing and worker productivity.
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The threat of spyware has risen to epidemic levels for many information technology professionals trying to protect their users and network. In response, many security vendors are creating anti-spyware software to seek out spyware and eradicate it from the enterprise network. Webroot's Spy Sweeper Enterprise is just such a product.
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Consider the case of two hypothetical companies—Company A and Company Z—each using an identical enterprise software package delivering identical core functionality. Company A has the same number of users, but the total cost of ownership (TCO) experienced by Company Z is about twice the TCO enjoyed by Company A. Why? We explain.
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Anyone even peripherally exposed to business media that touch on enterprise application technology has seen the term service-oriented architecture (SOA) bandied about in advertisements and articles. Given the central role of SOA in information technology, it is important to get beyond a buzzword level understanding. There are three key concepts surrounding SOA: granularity, Web services, and change management.
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Any enterprise suite will pay for itself faster if you work diligently to reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO). Those who interact with companies on implementing and maintaining their systems know that some project owners are very good at keeping the cost of their enterprise applications as low as possible. We’ll look at their TCO secrets.
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If you’re evaluating customer relationship management or sales force automation software, this Forrester report is a must-read. Featuring ratings on eight leading vendors based on over 150 criteria, the report is valued at over $795 (USD). Get your free copy from Maximizer Software, top-ranked in Forrester’s “current offerings” in areas such as product functionality breadth, setup, usability, integration, and cost.
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Most retailers can no longer compete on price alone; however, integrated retail solutions built on Microsoft SQL, and OPOS and ART Data Model standards offer a competitive advantage. They support holistic systems that integrate point of sale, enterprise, and even warehouse management functions, to deliver better service to customers.
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Retail departments enticed by software which promises to make them better and more accurate often fail to consider that they will need constant input and output of data in order for the software to work effectively. To improve the customer experience, a retail organization needs to fashion itself into an integrated enterprise that relies on a single database. But how?
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The current focus in operational risk management is on enterprise-wide data capture across loss events, key risk indicators and self-assessments, with follow-up actions based on triggers. A system should satisfy regulatory requirements, such as Basel II and the US Sarbanes Oxley Act, and be built in a manner that minimizes the impact of changing business management functionality.
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Southern Pump & Tank Company (SPACTO), is a value-added distributor specializing in liquid handling equipment for the petroleum and industrial marketplaces. By using SAP Service Management to track equipment at its customers sites, receive incoming service calls, dispatch work, and track labor and materials, SPACTO was able to lower inventory by 28 percent, and reduce slow and non-moving items by 70 percent.
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Seeking a solution to compress lead times and better customer service, Schumacher Elevator Company, a manufacturer and installer of passenger and freight elevators, implemented a SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. In doing so, it enabled online ordering and customer service, and boosted its competitive advantage in just nine months.
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This Business Engine white paper provides a technical account on the process behind scoring, selecting, and scheduling the technology portfolio. The document offers additional insight into weighting criteria that should be considered as part of the portfolio management and optimization process. The document further provides insight into considerations for alignment, and how to know if the portfolio is in fact properly aligned with business objectives.
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Implementing standard enterprise resource planning (ERP) products and other enterprise applications is risky. Industry statistics show that more than 60 percent of implementations fail. A common reason for failure is that the purchased software does not support one or more critical business processes. However, a change-on-demand system ensures that incomplete or changing business requirements are met through adjustments in the application model.
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Increased risk from unprotected user files and remote data is causing companies to re-evaluate their current remote backup processes. Managing remote data poses unique challenges, especially given the variability of networks, computing platforms, lack of trained IT staff at remote locations, and other issues. What are the issues, requirements, approaches, and best practices for effective remote data management?
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Human and intellectual capital management systems do not work in isolation. They need to be integrated with larger systems. Meta4 uses Internet and portal technology to integrate with Web and Internet standards. Learn how Meta4’s technology platform meets the execution, deployment, and integration requirements of different applications, and about Meta4’s development, maintenance, and upgrading cycles.
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Service oriented architecture (SOA) is a term that is still not well understood by many enterprise executives and managers; however, it requires direct interaction between these two areas. The relationship between enterprise resource management (ERP) and SOA is a meeting point for these areas. Business owners, executives, and managers can lead their enterprises to greater profitability and efficiency by understanding SOA.
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The globalization of discrete manufacturing is forever changing the notion of what a "small manufacturer" is. Even companies that are considered relatively small in revenue, employment, or client base, must now operate like the largest corporations when structuring and conducting their businesses. Infor examines how today's mid-market manufacturers are transforming themselves—focusing on business processes and employing ERP systems for their own operations.
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To comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), businesses need to be forthcoming to shareholders. Earned value management system (EVMS) is a set of best business processes and tools for enterprise project planning and control. Early warning signals and reliable information from an EVMS helps management ensure that material changes in the financial condition or operations of projects are communicated as required by SOX.
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Project portfolio management (PPM) has become a critical component in the IT business lexicon. It provides structure and consistency to the process associated with the planning, prioritization, management, and control of project portfolios. By using PPM, IT departments can align their IT and business strategies and improve performance in project-based work, and enhanced corporate governance.
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The goal of any support function is to become a "partner" to customer-facing business units of the enterprise. A strategic project management office is an indispensable part of the planning team. It is crucial to mature your PMO, so it can support each area of the company including governance and portfolio management, and benefits and cost management.
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It is essential for users to be able to create and deliver secure, professional-looking e-mail communications which present a consistent corporate image. PDF software meets these needs. However, when considering PDF, users must determine if the solution enhances communications for all network users, and whether the solution integrates PDFs with other software packages, including e-mail, accounts, and customer relationship management systems.
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Many companies strive to effectively measure and analyze their service operations. But while management struggles to measure too many (or too few) metrics, they often overlook the basic measurement question: what to track, and how? By using the concept metric perspectives to define what data provides the most insight, you can move closer to a comprehensive metrics strategy.
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One of the biggest challenges a project manager faces is the difficulty of tracking project progress once a project has been started. It can be difficult to keep track of each task and assignment as they are started, completed, or delayed. Fortunately, there are now new tools and methodologies, made available through PSNext 1.6, that help manage projects.
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North American Electric Motors needed an accounting software package that better met its growing needs. By implementing QuickBooks, the company was able to gain transparency into its warehouses and monitor inventory. Security controls enabled employees to process orders without access to sensitive information, and the company saved up to twelve hours a week when processing daily activities.
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Hiring and retaining top talent is the driving concern of human capital management (HCM) professionals today. This Aberdeen Group report, compliments of Lawson, reviews and analyzes data on human resources (HR) business pressures, technology directions, use of outsourcing and distinguishes the difference in workforce management strategies and their success levels.
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The high price and complexity of traditional, installed, on-premise enterprise software has left small and medium businesses (SMB) unable to obtain true integrated customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. On-demand, software as a service is changing all that. The lower costs and the short implementation period for an on-demand customer relationship management solutions make it lucrative for smaller businesses.
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Choosing an on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) vendor can be a daunting task, especially for the price conscious consumer who lacks the budget for intensive research. A true CRM vendor should have pre-integrated sales, marketing, and customer support. Look for easy access to software free trials, and beware of hidden fees. Ultimately, researching the alternatives can save your company up to 50 percent of a solution’s total cost of ownership.
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Today, more has to be done with less, and IT infrastructures require flexibility to deliver differential value. Upgrades, customizations, and back-end integration fail to suffice; companies need the ability to build applications on an as-needed basis. Composite applications fulfill this objective by helping organizations leverage existing enterprise applications, drive down the cost of change, and increase the pace of innovation.
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Because of new compliance and regulation, HealthSouth Corporation, one of the US largest providers of health care services, needed a comprehensive view of its security risks, automated reporting on compliance to ensure published security standards, and to prioritize the remediation of critical risks. Through Preventsys Security Risk Management System, HealthSouth was able to audit it facilities remotely, and reduce overhead costs.
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"Lean thinking" can cut down waste, enhance quality, and reduce lead time. This philosophy is part of an overall fitness campaign for the manufacturing sector. Businesses that are fitter are more flexible, responsive, and efficient. Navigating through the decisions required for Lean projects requires the decision support that only a well implemented enterprise resource planning system can provide.
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Alltech, a multinational biotechnology company providing natural solutions to the feed and food industries, needed to turn the data in its system into useful business information. Exact Business Analytics allowed Alltech to improve the management and distribution of business information. It eliminated approximately 1,200 different reports and turned Alltech’s 60 distinct databases into a valuable business asset.
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Human resource management systems (HRMS) and payroll vendors are entering the software as a service (SaaS) market en masse. Though much as been written about the benefits of SaaS, only now are the short and long term ramifications of SaaS being discussed. As long as the purchaser is fully informed, then a decision can be made that best meets the needs of the enterprise.
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To successfully obtain the budget and organizational support for an electronic documentation management systems (EDMS) and electronic records management system (ERMS) project you need to know the pain points of all the departments in your organization. By asking the right questions of each department you’ll be able to develop your business case and create a persuasive analysis on the cost benefit for EDMS/ERMS.
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Almost everything you know about human resources (HR) outsourcing is about to change. The future is about single-source integration, and there are key new technologies that herald this era: unified service for HR, time, payroll, and expense tracking; management dashboards; streamlined employee interfaces; synchronous data with a single database; and empowered reporting.
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There is a presumption that enterprise performance management and business intelligence initiatives must be supported by data warehouses. Conceptually, the data warehouse provides a central point where a copy of data from multiple locations is stored and optimized for reporting. In practice, however, it is possible to access powerful business intelligence, analytics, and reporting, without relying on a data warehouse.
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As much as 80 percent of day-to-day business activity is taken up by digitally-based messaging. Integrating telecommunications with your messaging environment is crucial. Second generation IPT leverages data networks, and increases productivity through voice application integration. It integrates directly with customer relationship management or enterprise resource planning systems, Lotus Notes, and Outlook, Word, and Excel, to digitally capture information for compliance and traceability.
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Almost $75 billion (USD) is spend on trade and promotion funds every year. Unfortunately most enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are not equiped to handle the complexities of promotion causing false reports and inaccurate invoices. Small and medium businesses (SMB) have had limited choices, until now.
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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires pharmaceuticals and medical device companies to comply with numerous standards. Medical device manufacturers have long embraced enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM), but primarily use them to achieve operational efficiencies. However these systems can play a significant role in their abilities to comply with strictly FDA regulations.
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Changing business scenarios, collapsing traditional barriers, and globalization are creating new challenges. Furthermore, mergers, acquisitions, and changes mandated by regulatory compliance are driving business change. The current competitive environment demands collaboration in real time, and organizations need a service-oriented architecture (SOA) that adjusts business processes and applications according to market requirements. Standards and best practices for adoption are crucial for a functional SOA.
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When vendors sunset test automation scripting tools without providing a forward compatible path for replacement, companies are forced to pay for change with no benefit. Most enterprise business processes span both old and new applications, and cannot be effectively tested without changing tools. Companies need to create a future-proof strategy for assuring that these costs never have to be repeated.
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Internet-based supply chain management solution provides Mitsui with technology that connects its entire global supply chain - from a single desk-top location. This solution, SCM Live™, links Mitsui’s trading partners and customers - while saving hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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Business process management (BPM) is not another form of automation, or another rocket science, or a revolutionary new philosophy. It helps discover what we do, and then manages the lifecycle of improvement and optimization in a way that translates into operations. Based on a solid mathematical foundation, the BPM breakthrough is for business people.
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Enterprises must collaborate or they will surely stagnate. Guarded proprietary information has given way to collaborative approaches where information is shared both inside and outside the enterprise’s walls. To survive, an enterprise must be flexible enough to collaborate externally with suppliers and partners while fostering the same environment with its employers.
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Adopting on-line payment systems can help businesses improve cash flow and save time and money. Inovium’s integrated, web-based account receivable management application for electronic invoice payment presentment is one such system.
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Any company efficiency improvements are going to involve business process management (BPM). BPM ensures process consistency, optimizes business processes, and ensures compliance. The result is not only cuts in cost and time, but it adds a price value and creates a price advantage which helps companies enhance their competitive edge.
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Cada módulo cuenta con múltiples funcionalidades que facilitan la operación de los procesos lo que permite su adecuado control y administración. Entre los módulos se encuentran: Punto de Venta, Activos Fijos, Asistencias, Warehouse Management System, auto transporte, Vales, Tesorería, Servicios, Servicios internos, Recursos Humanos, Producción, Proyectos, Precios y Costos, Planeador de Ordenes, Nómina y otros.
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By integrating data from disparate systems and delivering data in a management dashboard on a personal digital assistant (PDA) or cell phone, Persistent enabled service engineers to collect and update data related to tire usage. This solution seamlessly integrated approximately 1,000 dealers in more than 15 European countries to central data servers and a CRM solution. The result? Improved customer end acquisition and satisfaction.
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Assortment optimization, pricing decisions, and promotional activity fall flat if a product is not available for purchase. Out-of-stocks, overstocks, and markdowns drive down already strained profit margins. Replenishment, however, maximizes sales while minimizing inventory expense. By understanding replenishment, and planning and allocation, enterprise can determine the best strategies for addressing forecasting and inventory concerns, and improve profit margins.
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Companies implement a customer relationship management (CRM) system to balance increasing revenue, decreasing costs, while enhancing the customer experience. However, many implementations fail to do this. Companies, however, can meet these goals by implementing a customer-centric CRM. In this system, all business processes throughout the extended enterprise are optimized around customer life cycle care, which builds stronger relationships.
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Although cost reduction, decreasing response time, and increased revenues are all standard corporate drivers, they are predicated on the changes and improvements of business processes. For companies to reach the next level of productivity and efficiency, and to meet the new wave of stricter government regulations, they urgently need to streamline business processes.
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Global manufacturers want an integrated view of the shop floor. In response, manufacturing execution systems (MES) have emerged as a powerful tool for integrating plant-floor data with information provided by applications, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM). MES can connect the world, and it has an exciting future when combined with promising technologies such as business process management (BPM) and service oriented architecture (SOA).
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The benefits from enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have been well documented. However, its return on investment (ROI) is rarely satisfactory. The failure of an ERP package can be disastrous, but by understanding how to deliver a positive ROI, and by following a business process and business technology optimization strategy, companies can reduce the total cost of ERP system ownership.
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Dropped by its application service provider, Onsrud Cutter, a router bit manufacturer, decided to replace its enterprise resource planning system with a scalable, flexible, quickly installed solution. Further narrowing down its requirements to include customized reports, real time information, and e-business capabilities, the company selected Sage ERP X3. The installation took less than five months.
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Early adopters of radio frequency identification (RFID) are beginning to look at enterprise scale solution design and integration are emerging as key focus areas. Infosys has designed an optimal RFID architecture strategy based on lessons learnt from early adopters and Infosys experience in providing real time control and data acquisition solutions in the telecom and process control industries.
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Lean supply chain management and lean sourcing strategies are relatively new to the apparel industry, generating more talk than broad implementation to date. In this the final paper of our “Lean Is Fashionable” thought leadership series, we define a lean supply chain action plan with five concrete steps for building a collaborative infrastructure between your company and other members of your supply network. These represent an eleven year culmination of our and our customers’ real world experiences in implementing lean supply chain strategies that are designed as a road map to achieving a more collaborative and profitable future.
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Aberdeen research shows that developing innovative products is a top priority for manufacturers today. Such manufacturers must understand how enterprise resource planning (ERP) and product lifecycle management (PLM) systems, like Arena Solutions, support innovation.
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Contractors and subcontractors are both exposed to risk within a project. Thus, it is equally important to both parties that formalized risk management be carried out, not to eliminate project uncertainty, but to understand the potential impact of risk events and to plan risk responses.
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This white paper examines how Pertmaster can reduce exposure to project cost risk throughout the project lifecycle by using a combination of a high level cost estimate analysis and a detailed schedule-based cost risk analysis. Contingency and management reserve is also discussed.
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The competitive drivers of the twenty-first century are time and service (responsiveness and flexibility). Many small and medium enterprises (SME) have implemented enterprise resource planning (ERP) as one of the technology tools to improve their performance. This whitepaper on supply chain management (SCM) for SMEs highlight the crucial role and importance of supply chains to SMEs, and distinguishes the different roles of ERP and SCM.
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Spending money to save money makes sense in the context of large capital assets, including facilities, fleet, plant equipment, and even computers. A lack of preventative maintenance affects the shareholders of all companies. Aging assets and reactive maintenance can be financial drains. A complete preventative maintenance program consisting of better business practices and simple tools such as computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) or enterprise asset management (EAM), can help companies realize immediate savings and boost profits.
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As apparel and textile companies move to outsourcing production—relinquishing direct control in favor of a more cost-effective manufacturing model—a lean supply chain may appear to be the next logical step for further implementing cost and operational improvement. Not so, however. You can’t have a lean supply chain without lean manufacturing. Regardless of whether you or your partners engage in production, lean manufacturing is the lean engine that drives lean supply chain efficiencies. Accordingly, the business requirement for stability in a constantly changing demand environment motivates the fashion industry’s search for lean supply chain management principles and practices.
Intentia, in cooperation with industry experts, have written a series of thought leadership white papers on the concept of implementing lean supply chain in the fashion industry. The second of this series, From Lean Manufacturing to Lean Supply Chain explains how lean manufacturing relates to lean supply chain management and where it differs and sometimes conflicts.
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Does it really make sense to spend money to save money? The answer may surprise you when it comes to maintenance of large capital assets including Facilities, Fleet, Plant Equipment and yes, even computers. It makes even more sense when you consider that today more and more companies are adding a new line item in their financial statements called "Deferred Maintenance Revenue Write Down". A lack of preventive maintenance affects the shareholders of all companies due to aging assets and reactive maintenance practices.
A complete preventive maintenance program consisting of better business practices and a simple tool such as a Computerized Maintenance Management Software (CMMS) or Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) package can streamline the process and result in immediate savings in both time and money. So how do you justify the initial investment and where can the cost savings be seen across the enterprise?
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Just uttering the term "blade server" creates confusion and spawns many questions. That’s because the term is applied to a wide range of hardware and software products that can vary greatly in terms of value, functionality, and fit in the enterprise. This is akin to using the term "automobile" to describe everything from a three-cylinder compact car to an eight-passenger SUV. In this buying guide, we’ll sort out the confusion and provide you with a practical checklist for evaluating current market offerings. There is a place for blade servers in your enterprise, but not every enterprise needs every offering available.
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Packaged enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems can be expensive and resource-intensive to implement, but they are critical to business. Disruptions due to application failures, performance problems, or unavailability come at a high price. ERP systems are highly change-oriented and must adapt; as a result, ERP teams are struggling to keep up. This white paper focuses on the issues surrounding the automation of the application life cycle for ERP systems. IDC conducted in-depth interviews with fifteen large PeopleSoft customers to better understand their challenges and needs.
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Effective planning is integral to the success of a bank. It helps define and ensure the achievement of the organization’s objectives. Understanding and implementing the planning cycle, which leverages forecasting, operational metrics, and multidimensional analyses can help management determine the feasibility of a strategy. An enterprise-wide, integrated planning and forecasting environment that reaches business units, products, customer segments, and geographies can align non-financial performance targets with high-level financial targets and help banks meet their goals.
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Companies invest in information technology (IT) because they believe it will maximize their performance. The more a company knows about its customers, markets, supply chains, and internal operations, the more effectively it can pursue growth and profitability while avoiding risk and regulatory exposure. Unifying disparate systems with business intelligence (BI) systems, however, is not enough. For companies to truly differentiate themselves, they need to transform BI into business performance management (BPM) systems to leverage information discovered by BI and use it externally.
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Fashion companies need to respond quickly and strategically to major changes occurring in today’s global supply chains.
Implementing a lean supply chain management strategy can enable cost savings and more efficient operations by realigning process according to a demand-driven model.
Lean supply chain management uses Web-based technologies to create and maintain dynamic supplier networks. Such networks are able to deliver the highest customer value at the lowest cost. It also lays the groundwork for the next level of hands-free, wireless radio frequency identification-enabled processes.
Intentia, in cooperation with industry experts, have written a series of thought leadership white papers on the concept of implementing lean supply chain in the fashion industry. The first of this series, “Lean Is Fashionable”, explores the impact of lean practices in the fashion and apparel industry during a period of momentous change.
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The term "business intelligence" (BI) has emerged over the last ten years as a catch-all for a wide range of financial, analytical, and reporting systems that companies use to steer their business toward higher profitability and sustainable competitive advantage. Fewer and fewer companies deny the need for BI in today’s ever more competitive world, and numerous, increasingly sophisticated technologies have emerged to support this trend. Yet, despite the technological advances, failed BI implementations litter the landscape. What steps can companies take to insure the successful integration of effective BI into the daily management of their operations?
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The transition to IP A wireless carrier s national or regional next generation core network will be an all-IP network in the sense that IP will be the network layer (L3) protocol. MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching) will be the transport protocol for all IP-based services, applications, and control and management traffic in the network. Learn more in this white paper.
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Companies typically manage their proposal generation efforts using word processing documents, e-mail, and spreadsheets. However, more efficient and effective ways now exist that enable companies to collaborate with all interested parties. Online collaboration with a knowledge-based application streamlines processes, improves quality, and saves time, eliminating error-prone manual processes and redundancies.
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Jabil Global Services, a subsidiary of Jabil Circuit provides repair and warranty solutions to companies in computers, communications, medical equipment. To meet the demand for next day and same day returns, it needed to replace its in-house operations management system with a scalable and robust system. Learn how it used Click Commerce’s reverse logistics and depot repair solutions to manage its advanced exchanges and warehouse fulfillment, and credit receiving processes.
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Microsoft’s US Partner group manages relationships between the company and its 12,000 Microsoft Certified Partners. It needed an integrated solution for partner relationship management to reduce redundancy and replace the personal spreadsheets and custom tools its account managers were using. Learn how Microsoft deployed PartnerCentral by Click Commerce and implemented a single tool to manage all aspects of Microsoft’s partner relationships.
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Unfortunately, many enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions are “hard wired” to naturally flow with someone else’s assumptions about how your enterprise works. If an ERP system doesn’t suit the needs of your business you will find yourself looking for a new ERP solution sooner. By following some practical suggestions, you can chart a winning course in selecting your next generation of integrated enterprise application and deployment platform solution.
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New technology in enterprise asset management (EAM) is changing the way multinational companies manage joint venture operations. With new growth opportunities in China, many corporations are looking at how to best take advantage of the low cost base and enterprising labor force. Learn how an American and Chinese joint venture at the Daning Coal Mine used Trans-lingual EAM to remove the language barriers to protect their $84 million (USD) investment.
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Dillen Products, Inc. is a major supplier of plastic planters and trays to the grower segment of the horticultural market. Dillen needed a better way to manage its increasingly diverse inventory, meet the labeling and distribution demands of its major retailers, and integrate its warehouse management system (WMS) quickly and seamlessly into existing supply chain and financial systems. Dillen implemented Click Commerce’s WMS to offer customers a stable and reliable solution that is easy to install and support, while providing the flexibility and scalability necessary for future growth without the risk of major future investment.
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Invacare is the leader in the manufacturing and distribution of innovative home and long-term care medical products. For Invacare, warehouse management was a complex program, involving thousands of pieces moving through distribution centers, controlled by manual business processes. A typical customer order could vary greatly, ranging from a single carton to 4,000 cartons. The company needed to implement a new system that could handle orders equally well, regardless of size. Invacare implemented Click Commerce’s Warehouse Management Solution to meet the unique requirements of its warehouse operations.
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Organizations are overwhelmed with how to begin implementing identity and access management (IAM)
solutions. They are scratching their heads and asking, "Where do I start?" Even after implementation, security and information protection must be continually improved while ensuring compliance with regulations. Auditors continue to ask: "Are the right controls in place?" "Are they effective?" Download this white paper to learn more about defining the steps necessary to understanding and deploying IAM, giving enterprises a roadmap to an effective IAM program.
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Rapid market fluctuations; changing customer and channel requirements; pressures from shareholders, executives, and partners; and continued competition are forcing high-tech companies to re-examine not only what products and services they sell, but also their processes and tools for developing, deploying, monitoring, and managing products and services. To deal with these challenges, product managers need to leverage product management processes and tools. This white paper introduces the concept of enterprise product management and the process of requirements gathering automation; the product management continuum; and the creation of a collaborative environment.
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Extending supply lines overseas brings new commercial and operational challenges that are far more complex than ever before. Enterprises are exposed to an entirely new universe of costs and liabilities, operations, and resource and management needs. Next generation global cost control systems can help organizations overcome these challenges. These systems help enterprises understand the real time cost impacts and financial liabilities of global sourcing initiatives--while protecting profits.
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Disintermediation is the process of removing redundant intermediaries from a systems management infrastructure. Once vital to systems monitoring, proprietary agents are now made largely redundant by native management tools, emerging standards and agentless monitoring architectures. Centauri makes disintermediation possible by providing a low-cost event management solution that unifies performance data and event messages under a common umbrella. This paper describes how you can take advantage of the disintermediation opportunity and minimize the risks of migrating from working proprietary data collectors to a new native-agent based solution.
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There are potential benefits of operating business process management (BPM) side-by-side with business service management (BSM). BPM and BSM are emerging technologies: BPM is concerned with the orchestration and management of effective business processes, while BSM focuses on the operational effectiveness of the enabling IT services. These technologies are mutually beneficial to one another. This white paper is intended for managers interested in implementing robust BPM solutions in IT-dependent business scenarios or managers looking to lay down a basic foundation for effective on-demand utility computing. It addresses the partnership between Fuego and Proxima Technology, vendors in BPM and BSM solutions.
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A balanced scorecard is a measurement system for management that provides real insight into the status of a business or some part of it. Developed by Kaplan and Norton in the early 1990s, balanced scorecards provide a control system that helps ensure the right balance between different, and often times conflicting, perspectives. For example, an insurance company may increase profitability by offering incentives to claims assessors for taking a tough stance on payout, but will soon find dissatisfaction among its clients that may lead to lost business. Scorecards help ensure this balance and are an improvement over more traditional single dimension approaches that tend to be based purely on expense management and business growth.
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As more business processes exist in an electronic universe, the need to manage the IT services that enable these processes increases. Business service management does this and achieves the IT alignment with the business necessary to ensure service improvement activities are prioritized with business objectives. Business service management applies the adage that if you improve IT, you improve the business. This paper presents an overview of business service management concepts and describes how Proxima Centauri provides a solution for this. It also describes how Six Sigma can be used as an underlying quality improvement process to eliminate the associated costs of poor quality.
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An overview for CIOs of the provision and management of IT services at a level that addresses the risk management issues raised by the Basel Committee's New Capital Accord expected to become effective during 2006. Because of the dependence financial institutions have on IT services, the accord requires adequate provision to assure the availability of these services. Centauri Business Service Manager is presented as the solution: one that allows a CIO to assess current risk levels, measure ongoing risk and support a process of ongoing improvement to reduce this risk. Furthermore, Centauri provides the financial institution with a cost-effective balanced scorecard to improve decision-making.
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Industry analysts, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), recently conducted research to understand how widespread the acceptance of Six Sigma is for managing IT service quality. This research, which was targeted primarily at enterprises, showed that 65 percent of those surveyed acknowledge the relevance of Six Sigma for IT-based service management. While many IT organizations have yet to adopt Six Sigma for service management, 80 percent stated that they have plans to do so. This research suggests there is a growing interest in Six Sigma.
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Today, entrepreneurs running small-to-medium sized businesses face daunting tasks that just a few years ago were not existent. The complexities of the business world have created new risks, a myriad of regulations, and complex reporting requirements that can overwhelm any organization. Owners and managers of all enterprises, even smaller private businesses, need to be cognizant of both the spirit and the letter of the law. How does a smaller organization, with limited resources, cope with all of this? How do they stay abreast of the additional changes that are on the way? In this guide, Pete Russo of the Entrepreneurial Management Institute at the Boston University School of Management outlines the pitfalls and steps, but also looks at effective solutions for private companies.
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Active Execution Management captures radio frequency identification (RFID) and electronic product code (EPC) data and integrates it into the supply chain business process. AXM associates individual EPC events (the observation of an EPC tag at an RFID reader) with the supply chain transaction that is currently being executed and then determines if that supply chain transaction is executing as planned. AXM is able to make this determination by comparing key performance indicators of the supply chain transaction with the characteristics of the EPC event. The paper describes multiple business cases, such as promotions management, deductions management, complex international shipments, and spoilage management, and shows how RFID data can be leveraged to improve supply chain performance.
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The past decade saw the emergence of the storage area network as a way to centralize, consolidate, and virtualize deployment and management of storage resources. This architecture was developed to address complex problems that arose as storage moved from a central point (the mainframe-based data center) to a distributed model due to growth in departmental systems and applications.
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Maintaining a competitive advantage is paramount, no matter what business you operate within. Engineer-to-order (ETO) companies that produce complex products, usually in low volumes, and with project control techniques, are no exception. A lean enterprise involves the reduction or elimination of any activity that does not add value to a customer. In order to effectively utilize lean, lean concepts must be taken from the manufacturing floor and used thorough the ETO enterprise. This paper demonstrates how IFS applications supports the principles of developing a lean enterprise for ETO organizations. It demonstrates how process improvements apply equally to office-based functions, manufacturing, installation, and service activities.
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Here's the dilemma. Your largest customer has mandated that, to continue doing business with you, product shipped to their distribution centers must be encoded and labeled with RFID tags. None of your other customers have expressed a need for this requirement in the near term future. You can't afford to lose the business and revenue; nor can you justify a full-blown RFID implementation costing several hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is not a business nightmare. This is reality. This white paper looks at a compromise position offered by 3i Infotech and its warehouse management solution, ORION™ Enterprise WMS. This position is aptly described in the industry as the slap'n'ship approach to the RFID dilemma. This paper looks at the advantages and disadvantages of slap'n'ship and how ORION™ Enterprise WMS can preserve and maximize your initial foray into RFID.
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With product lifecycles accelerating and pricing pressures increasing, organizations must focus on delivering unique customer experiences to differentiate themselves from the competition. Customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning technologies play a critical enabling role.
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When it comes to marketing, sales and customer service there’s no question that the second approach delivers higher value—especially in an age when companies are combating unprecedented competition while being forced to do more with less. The reality is this: choose the second example or risk being second best.
This white paper explores why actionable business intelligence is so critical in today’s business environment and how Maximizer Software’s customer relationship management (CRM) solution can be used to deliver actionable intelligence when and where it’s needed most.
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This CRM spotlight will help you understand specific ways your organization can adopt a four-phase approach based on sales effectiveness best practices that can be automated using Maximizer Software’s customer relationship management (CRM) solution to boost your bottom line and remain competitive year after year.
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To store its wealth of transactional data, Trail Operations employs an ERP solution comprised of JDEdwards, Process Data Historian (PDH) and EtQ systems. To ensure proactive rather than reactive business decisions, it is imperative that management at Trail Operations have reliable and timely access to this data. While their ERP solution met all of management’s data capture requirements, its cumbersome reporting capabilities proved inhibitive to providing the key performance indicator (KPI) information necessary for quickly recognizing trends and driving improvements.
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Hearing confusing messages from your customer resource management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors? You may be dealing with dozens of software vendors and system integrators, each one praising the benefits of his solution. Among these proposals, one claims not only to efficiently manage the entire customer life cycle, but also to take full advantage of your previous technology investments. Your incumbent ERP system vendor also has a CRM solution, and praises the benefits of the tight integration of both systems. The question then is, how do you know whether this solution is the best for you? Request your copy of Integrating CRM with ERP compliments of Baseline Consulting. The report gives you the criteria to use when formulating your strategy of integrating CRM with ERP, best practices of CRM implementation, dealing with ERP integration, and how to integrate CRM with ERP impacts the value chain.
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This paper examines key issues for CFOs and CEOs in managing ERP systems in the new world of SOX, IFRS, Basle II. While most IT management attention seems to be on document retention, reporting quality, and security, there are broader issues to be considered toward ensuring good governance and compliance with regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, IFRS and Basle II.
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Companies everywhere have realized the need for greater efficiency and improved quality within the enterprise to stay productive and competitive in today's business environment. In order to obtain these efficiencies, corporations have turned to the successful model used by manufacturers for years known as lean, just-in-time (JIT), or kaizen. The fundamental goal of lean manufacturing includes the reduction of waste increase in productivity and improved quality. Most manufacturers launch their lean initiatives in order to maximize work flow and obtain dramatic improvements in performance.
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GNX Supplier Performance Management is a web-based application that enables companies to establish, track and report performance metrics for a large supplier base, with a collaborative platform to proactively resolve and avoid problems.
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GNX ProductVine is an enterprise software suite that enables retailers with private brand food programs to seamlessly integrate and manage all elements of brand integrity, regulatory and food safety compliance, and new product development and introduction, with an automated, web-based process.
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When your company’s ERP is implemented and running smooth (or maybe not) it’s now time to give your c-level management a bird’s eye view of how their company is running. C-managers are often not at ease with even the simplest use of computers. But in this information age those that don’t USE and LEARN from their corporate data put themselves, and worse, their company’s livelihood at risk because they may not know the pulse or health of their business.
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The government of Mesa County, Colorado, had been using an in-house, nonintegrated HR and payroll solution that was slow in processing reports and required manual reconciliation of workforce data. The solution also lacked the sophistication needed to manage the government’s payroll and reporting demands. The organization recognized that a change was necessary to improve the workforce-related information that upper-level management had at its disposal.
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With 10 remote office locations spread across nine states, Amerisure was in need of a communications platform that would enable the company to enhance the distribution of information to employees. Employees located in satellite offices, with no direct access to the home office, can feel disconnected from corporate headquarters’ operations and activities. Amerisure needed to communicate to employees in a timely manner that would allow the flow of accurate, important information, whether that data be employee-specific, such as salary, job, or benefit information, or company news and updates. In addition to a centralized communication platform, the company wanted heightened management of its workforce through the use of business intelligence tools that would allow it to track trends and have improved monitoring capabilities for each location.
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An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is a significant investment for any enterprise. A functional ERP system that benefits a company should contain the following essential components: A to Z modular functionality, high value proposition, your way of doing business, leverage technology; and proof with a configured demo. Learn the basics about these components and how they can benefit your enterprise.
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You can blame your sales people all you want, but if the lead data is bad, they’re not going to bring in business. You can blame your product managers for ineffective promotions, but if the target lists are redundant, the pitches fall on deaf ears. You can blame your customer service representatives for low satisfaction scores, but if customer data is missing, then no wonder the complaint resolution pipeline is backed up. Think it’s your customer resource management (CRM) system? Think again. It’s bad data, and it’s costing you millions. Request your copy of The Bottom Line on Bad Customer Data that delivers detailed advice from Jill Dyche, partner and co-founder of Baseline Consulting, about what you can do to address the impact of bad data on your company. The report gives you insight into how bad data is impacting your company and what you can do about it. How to identify where the bad data is and quantify its impact, and different approaches to determine the sources and causes of bad data are all offered in this paper.
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When it comes to software implementations, organizations large and small share the common goal of rapid deployment and return on investment. Small and medium businesses (SMB) however, face unique issues and challenges that might not be satisfied by vendors that typically serve the Fortune 1000 or tier one community. Such vendors may tout specialized "SMB solutions", but many times they are nothing more than scaled-down versions of the larger enterprise suites that do not take into account SMB concerns. By following some fundamental concepts, smaller companies can make their technology investments pay off, with little disruption to the business. This paper discusses nine steps to easier ERP implementations and better profits.
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US companies spend approximately $300 billion (USD) annually on asset maintenance and operations, with 80 percent going to fixing asset failures. This situation can now be drastically improved with the advent of enterprise asset management (EAM) solutions that incorporate closed-loop diagnostics. This best-of-breed maintenance functionality extends the boundaries of traditional software by providing specialized failure analysis features that are fully integrated with core business processes. This paper examines how EAM solutions can support closed-loop diagnostics to provide a number of significant benefits.
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This workbook is designed to help firms that are in the process of investigating their need for more advanced business management and accounting software. Companies have a wide variety of potential software and system needs based on their size and industry. Determining exactly where a company stands in terms of needs and current technology will be necessary for deciding the exact approach it should take toward upgrading. This document has two types of information designed to make this process easier: interactive self-assessment tools and educational text based on IDC research covering the small and medium business (SMB) and enterprise applications markets.
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This white paper reviews the need for broader financial management solutions that enable the finance function to deliver greater transparency and visibility of business information. It also covers the growing requirement to improve both the efficiency of financial management and reporting processes, whilst at the same time maximizing the effectiveness of corporate performance activities.
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The task of managing and maintaining today’s IT infrastructure has become vastly more complicated and complex as IT has become more critical to business success. The response from a technology perspective has been the introduction of services oriented architectures that enable IT to be responsive to the business needs but also live within their economic constraints. But the very technologies fueling this success create significant problems. Even small changes can cause major disruptions in today’s highly interactive and interdependent applications. Unfortunately, the pace of change means traditional testing architectures with lengthy development and testing will not work. But the testing must be done. Worksoft’s Certify is discussed as the test management repository and framework solution to this testing problem for XML-based applications.
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The requirement that enterprise software vendors deliver a measurable return on investment (ROI) has never been greater than right now. Customers are demanding that ROI analysis be a critical factor in their decisions to acquire new enterprise software. Without a demonstrable return, few customers are willing to invest scarce capital and human resources in new enterprirse software. A more complete analysis of return can be had by looking at the overall payback that enterprise software can offer to a company. Enterprise software payback includes not only quantifiable improvements in bottom and top line functionality, but also more qualitative measures-—such as new business opportunities, improved customer and partner relations, and improved time to market—-that contribute significantly to the success of a company's enterprise software implementation and use.
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Since our research-driven beginnings, Johnson & Johnson Advanced Sterilization Products (ASP) has continually improved the new product development (NPD) process. Detailed process mapping has revealed three tiers of business metrics, starting with drivers and moving up through execution metrics to business performance metrics. When driver metrics improves, so does business performance. Six Sigma tools helps identify specific metrics at all tiers and the causality linkages among them. Each NPD process step at ASP results in a deliverable, and each deliverable relates to a trade-off triangle (cost-time-resources) and, ultimately, to investment dollars. To track performance, ASP calculates how actual NPD decisions and what-if scenarios affect deliverables, alter investment triangles, and thereby influence business results. ASP uses similar process and tools, including the investment triangles and Six Sigma QFD, to make idea management decisions. The IDweb real-time software environment enables both the NPD and idea management processes at ASP. By deploying the strategic planning, idea management, portfolio and pipeline management, process management, and resource management modules of IDweb, ASP has increased throughput by 20 percent and reduced cycle time by 40 percent.
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Risk, risk mitigation, and accountability are at the center of several key industry regulations and are factored into all forms of financial and operational metrics. Learn how enterprise software can be used to develop strong models using balanced planning to mitigate risk.
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Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is fast replacing ScanCode technology in asset tracking and inventory management. Traditionally, asset tracking and inventory management in retail supply chain or manufacturing or service units depended heavily on manual scanning of bar code printed on each item at every strategic point. This white paper focuses on details of RFID technology and how you can automate asset tracking and inventory management of your enterprise using it. The white paper takes aid of a case study on how FicusSoft has developed and successfully implemented RFID integrated asset tracking and inventory management solutions for a reputed manufacturer of ultra-sensitive instruments used in the field of biotechnology and pharmaceutical research.
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Recent legislation has bought about unparalleled emphasis on corporate governance and regulatory compliance. In the United States, the Enron and Worldcom affairs have led to a new law Sarbannes-Oxley. In Europe, the EU parliament has decided that all countries must streamline the laws for financial reporting in accordance with IFRS rules from IASC. Bringing organizations into compliance with new demands for corporate governance is having immediate and long-term effects. In this paper we discuss the current business environment, those facets of legislation impacting manufacturers and how QAD enterprise suite of applications can assist you in achieving corporate governance and regulatory compliance quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively.
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Read about how QAD JIT Sequencing (JIT/S) is helping automotive suppliers execute JIT delivery of custom configured products to their customers. Results: reduced inventory levels, improved order management and cost avoidance caused by expediting activities in the supply chain.
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There is a real cost associated with buying and using a customer relationship management (CRM) software system. Licensing, implementation, integration, and adminstration, are just some of the challenges companies face. Learn the secrets of twenty-one experts in CRM, IT, business and management consulting on getting real value from CRM software.
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In this guide you will find out how to test, purchase, install, and use a thawte Digital Certificate on your Microsoft Internet Information Services (MS IIS) web server. Throughout, best practices for set-up are highlighted to help you ensure efficient ongoing management of your encryption keys and digital certificates. We will also touch on the role of thawte as a trusted third party and how using a thawte digital certificate can benefit your business by addressing unique on-line security issues to build customer confidence.
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In the relentless pursuit of profitability and competitiveness, more and more companies are turning to lean manufacturing to reduce or eliminate waste in their production processes. Once confined to the automotive industry, lean principles are becoming standard operating procedure in many industries today. The reason is simple: When implemented with a good performance management system, lean principles have a proven track record of operational and strategic success, which ultimately translates into increased value to the end customer. This paper illustrates how IFS Applications supports lean principles, particularly in the many manufacturing environments that require both rate-based (takt-driven) and order-based shop-floor execution.
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Customer demand has pushed customer relationship management (CRM) business solutions to higher levels of technological innovation and integration resulting in more user-friendly and cost-effective solutions that deliver measurable results to both the users and the organization. In this paper we outline how CRM has matured both technologically and as a strategic business initiative to deliver organizational CRM success supported by real ROI.
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Continuous process simplification of inherently complex enterprise applications should be the primary goal. Apptricity believes that the primary focus for business-
technology managers should be on achieving a rapid application integration and deployment to guarantee measurable return on investment (ROI). Business technology and business managers should not have to constantly recalibrate solution delivery objectives or re-scope project deliverables with reduced functionality because of finger pointing or other rationalized justifications. How can ROI be assured and achieved more rapidly? What are the major decisions faced by organizations relative to their information technology (IT) strategy, and how does this impact ROI? And why would a company choose an (application suite) versus extending in-house legacy systems?
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Component event management promises an answer. Component event management is a methodology to systematically detect and resolve component events in the most timely and efficient manner possible. This paper will introduce the philosophy of component event management and introduce a new category of software that is being developed to help implement this concept and improve business performance.
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Companies are going global because the risk of not doing so greatly outweighs the comfort that staying domestic brings. According to a World Trade Organization (WTO) report issued in October 2004, "Despite the rise in oil prices the volume of world trade is likely to grow by 8.5% in real terms by the end of 2004." The liberalization of trade, the reduction of tariffs, the elimination of quotas, the continued rise in China as an industrial force, and the rise of outsourcing as a cost reduction opportunity, all create an environment that is full of opportunity and fraught with hazards. The ability to effectively manage global commerce will be a key strategic competitive differentiator. Global commerce management (GCM) is what is required by companies to win in this tougher, more competitive environment.
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Client processes and risk control contextualization can be greatly improved through investigation process design, process execution, and file management issues. Learn how BPS Server uses process templating concepts, separates fact management activities, and uses COSO centric mechanisms to accomplish this. This the second part to Risk, Risk Mitigation, and Functional Requirements in Dynamic Compliance Environments. This is part two of a two part white paper. Part One Risk Mitigation and Functional Requirements in Dynamic Compliance Environments.
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Productization of services is accomplished by associating tangible features with intangible service offerings. Tangible features may take the form of personnel, collateral, methodologies, pricing, facilities, or other attributes. Automation tools like enterprise service automation, database, and project management tools serve as enablers to service productization. By associating tangible features with intangible services, the professional services firm can build client confidence.
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To survive in today economy, every enterprise must put the reins on spending across every location and category. Rogue spending infiltrates even the most disciplined distributors, and is even more apparent in organizations with remote locations and employees. Vendor lists grow like weeds. There is confusion over who manages what service area, and manual approval procedures for requisitions and invoices are cumbersome. The ability for an enterprise to effectively source, procure, and manage its spend must keep pace with the demand for promptness and compliance in supplier relationship management (SRM).
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Howard Johnson’s Enterprises, Inc. (HJE) is a provider of lawn and garden fertilizer products whose discrete manufacturing package assumed a discrete process. It took ProcessPro eight months to implement a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that worked to address HJE’s unique needs.
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Strem Chemicals, which manufactures and distributes specialty chemicals, implemented ProcessPro’s Warehouse Management Solution (WMS). The solution helped them streamline their processes and reduce operational costs, by reducing their overall shipping errors, eliminating the label planning function, and eliminating the dual recording of a majority of their inventory transactions.
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Customer relationship management (CRM) is more than just software or a set of processes--it's a business culture solidly focused on winning and keeping the right customers. A good CRM solution builds value to your business. Learn about the value of an integrated CRM suite.
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This document describes how SAP’s mySAP supply chain management (SCM) software can help a company transform its sequential supply chain into an adaptive supply chain network to remain competitive and successful.
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SAP Business One is a new offering from the largest business application software company in the world. It offers tremendous potential synergy for buyers of mid-market enterprise resource planning (ERP) software by combining state-of-the-art technology and first class business consultants with companies who are serious about building a highly tailored ERP system that can organically evolve no matter what future challenges their businesses may face.
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Business process management (BPM) is a term used by many organizations to refer to the procedures that tie diverse operations together. However, as technology vendors come up with BPM solutions, they often fail to focus on the entire organization, leaving certain segments of the enterprise fragmented and fending for themselves. So how can you bring the employees and processes living outside the system back into the fold?
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Companies are moving away from the linear production path of the supply chain to embrace value cycle management (VCM). VCM is the optimization of supply chain functions across all levels of suppliers, partners, and customers through the integration, collaboration, and synchronization of technology, data, and people-centric processes. Learn how companies can employ VCM to make business processes smoother, more productive, and more profitable.
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This case study shows how U.S. Tsubaki, a major producer and supplier of roller chain, engineering class chain, and other drive components, adopted the QAD MFG/PRO enterprise solution to address the ever increasing complexity of it’s inventory and supply chain.
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The MMOG was a self-assessment process developed by the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) to provide consistent methodology for evaluating supplier performance, identifying weaknesses, and focusing improvement efforts. The Global MMOG/LE incorporates the Odette Logistics Evaluation (OLE), developed by AIAG’s European counterpart, to provide a single global standard for self-assessment. The MMOG is a proven tool for supplier development and provides a recognized industry standard for suppliers who have been asked by customers to complete a self-assessment. Although it was developed by the automotive industry, QAD believes it can be a helpful benchmark tool for customers across many verticals.
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This case study shows how Cephalon, a biopharmaceutical company, adopted the QAD MFG/PRO enterprise solution to address the management problems for their global spread manufacturing sites, packaging site, and workers. Read how it improved visibility and synchronization across global operations, improved inventory tracking, and better leveraged knowledge of enterprise assets.
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This UltiPro Workforce Management technology white paper offers an overview of UltiPro’s technical architecture, and is primarily intended for information technology executives and professionals who want to better understand UltiPro’s technology advantages. After reading this white paper, the reader should have a clear understanding of the modular design and underlying technology of the UltiPro Workforce Management solution and the key benefits to the information technology (IT) organization.
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This document provides system administrators and technical professionals an overview of how Surado SCM SQL Enterprise CRM Solution can be used in a High Availability Environment. This document assumes that you are planning on installing the Surado SCM SQL System on Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 Advanced Server and will be using Microsoft's SQL Server as the primary database.
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This white paper introduces customer self-service and how using Surado Web Self-Service can increase customer satisfaction, reduce costs, and increase return on investments (ROI). The key is to understand your customer, your products and services, and the tools available to deliver service to maximize customer satisfaction and reduce customer service costs. This paper will discuss the various self-service options available, how to utilize best practices, delivery technology and how customer self-service is tied to the "big picture" of customer relationship management (CRM).
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Small to medium businesses (SMB) want to stay competitive, increase revenue, and remain profitable at the same time. This can be a challenge. Whether companies find this challenging because of a slow economy, market saturation, or other reasons, many companies are re-evaluating business strategies and internal processes to overcome these obstacles. For many successful companies, creating a customer-focused business strategy was the first step. Learn how leadership and customer relationship management software can help breed corporate success.
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Contemporary firms must recognize a fundamental shift in the management of distribution activities as a strategic driver of their competitive success. Instead of the traditional focus on pushing products to customers through distribution channels, there is a need to migrate toward adaptive distribution networks. Such networks focus on managing the flow orders from customers by providing them with high levels of convenience while preserving attention to responsiveness and total distribution costs.
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CustomerFirst contains the service support, help desk, problem resolution, and call center functionalities of the CustomerFirst Enterprise Software Suite. It manages the flow of work through the organization from the time a request or issue is reported, until it is completed or resolved. CustomerFirst also allows you to track the history of every touch point that you have with your customer.
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SalesFirst is the sales force and marketing automation component of the CustomerFirst Enterprise Suite. SalesFirst provides functionality that manages the marketing and sales process within your organization. It also allows you to track information about your prospects and gives a complete 360-degree view of each potential and existing client.
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Enterprise applications can't provide value unless they work within the realities of the business they are trying to support. The current generation of enterprise architecture, while reflecting the best thinking at the time they were designed, does not address key realities of business and does not address the support gap their absences generate. In this paper, we introduce the concept of The Three Realities of Enterprise Solutions, which are fundamental truths about the way that businesses use enterprise solutions.
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Primarily due to rapid development of technology in the past thirty years, the market structure throughout the world has changed considerably. Local markets have become accessible to foreign manufacturers, who are able to perform well in their newly established territories in part due to their superior application of technology. In this light, most companies, including small and medium size, have embedded globalization in their expansion strategies, consistently seeking for new markets abroad. Consequently, local manufacturing companies are facing global competition, forcing them to adopt new concepts with respect to people, process and technologies. This document describes these approaches to production planning in detail as well outlines a software solution. The software solution (Production/3) combines both pull and push techniques and enables small to medium size organizations to fully automate their production system while retaining their investment in their legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
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Asset life cycle management is an increasingly important strategic initiative for asset-intensive industries to explore. Innovative organizations can use their assets for competitive advantage and thereby improve the profitability of their business. Learn how advanced asset life cycle management strategies can contribute to organizational agility, security, and flexibility, and improve responsiveness in a demanding marketplace.
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Nearly half of all new products do not justify the resources it takes to launch them—they fail in the marketplace. Product lifecycle management (PLM)—a powerful IBM e-business on-demand enabler—is a strategic approach to creating and managing a company. Learn how to improve supply chain communication and business process, and innovation by linking technology islands together and break down the barriers between function silos.
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Every day you make decisions that affect the short and long term success of your company, regardless of role. Exact Software has developed Macola Enterprise Suite (ES). Macola ES was developed based on three simple, though sometimes elusive, criteria: innovation, speed, and user-friendliness. Learn how ES can benefit the customer service, purchasing, plant management, and controller departments.
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E-mail marketing is experiencing dramatic growth as marketers in virtually every industry begin to take advantage of this power technique that helps to increase revenues and reduce sales costs. Learn how to take full advantage of this high-response, low cost marketing technique by learning the characteristics of this unique medium through proper management to generate metrics and facilitate future successes.
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When a company is selecting any piece of enterprise software, there is invariably someone assigned to "look under the hood" and evaluate the application's architecture. While this is a critical step, many organizations do not have a clear understanding of how their short and long term application needs can be directly impacted by an underlying architecture. This white paper serves as the foundation for understanding how Clientele's next generation application architecture shatters traditional enterprise software boundaries.
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Product lifecycle management (PLM) enables companies to manage all information regarding a product, from the initial design and engineering through to manufacturing, sourcing, support, and run down. Traditionally, enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions have successfully managed manufacturing-related information, but have at best, limited integration to the engineering systems such as product data management (PDM). Learn how the Vantage manufacturing solution offers a complete end-to-end solution that manages all aspects of a product's life.
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An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is your information backbone, reaching into all areas of your business and value chain. That’s why replacing it can open unlimited business opportunities. The cornerstone of this effort is finding the right partner. And since your long-term business strategy will shape your selection, it’s critical that your ERP provider be part of your vision.
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Enterprise performance management (EPM) is the validation of perceptions. It is the ability to analyze business conditions and provide visibility into day-to-day operations to enable more effective and timely decision-making. Learn how to link strategy and execution to encourage the continuous improvement with your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
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Whatever the reasons for pursuing a lead-time reduction strategy, time compression across all company processes is critical to growth, and in some cases means survival for today's manufacturers. Learn about the complementary nature of enterprise resource planning (ERP), value chain exceleration, and quick response manufacturing (QRM).
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Successful implementation of an extended enterprise resource planning system (ERP) is the result of knowledgeable and dedicated people working together. It entails company-wide commitment, openness to change, good planning, and experienced guidance. Learn about the three primary criteria of recognizing return on investment (ROI) from an ERP system and how using them during the system selection process and subsequent implementation can ensure that the chosen system will support and enable the business improvements envisioned.
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Midmarket service organizations face challenges in administration, project management, and business management. Learn how Australia's NATA reduced expenditures and increased return on investment (ROI) and how FMC improved customer visibility with Epicor's integrated solutions and enterprise systems architecture (ESA).
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So-called best-of-breed software solutions may not always actually be the best. Sometimes less heralded niche products more closely aligned with a company's requirements make a better choice. Learn how Tinnerman Palnut Engineered Products, LLC used a feature-rich, enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to get a highly efficient system for its over 15,000 products.
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Simulation can remedy one time and ongoing problems in the warehouse. Learn about the technology of computer stimulation and how it can benefit senior management in the logistics, distribution, and warehousing industries. This paper will describe the benefits of simulation as an analytical tool and the industrial lessons learned from failed simulation projects.
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The Container Store’s growing employee base rendered communications with employees, updating manuals, managing paperwork, and obtaining relevant benefits reports more time consuming and complex. Ultimate Software’s UltiPro Workforce Management solution streamlined the management of payroll and benefits, while reducing administration.
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This case study describes the complexity of human resource management systems (HRMS)/payroll management when merging two organizations and how Ultimate Software’s UltiPro Workforce Management software helped solve the new challenges arisen from the merger.
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This case study shows how Morrison Bowmore Distillers (MBD), a fast growing Scotch whisky industry, used SSI’s Tropos enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to future-proof its business and replace its inadequate system and packaged software application. Learn how it saved hundreds of thousands on inventory and headcount, and enhanced financial management and its ability to support expansion.
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Lincolnshire pie and sausage producer George Adams Pork Products is looking to its new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to underpin future growth through tighter control of the production process. Learn how it implemented SSI’s TROPOS system across its supply chain and received more accurate forecasting, improved production planning and process control, and enhanced yields, costs, and profitability.
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Eastern Foods, Inc. produces fresh goods for one of the most widely dispersed populations in the world. The leading supplier of salad dressings to airlines, Amtrak, and the cruise ship industry, Eastern is nationally known for Naturally Fresh dressings as well as premiere meat sauces and dips sold in stores and distributed to the food service industry. The job has never been easy – but it has been made easier in recent years with the implementation of Ross Systems’ iRenaissance suite of business applications for both front and back office operations. The flow of information, necessary to make critical decisions and ensure high levels of service, now travels quicker than the fast-paced industry it serves. The plant scheduler has been able to reduce the number of daily individual production jobs by as much as 20%, as well as reduce the number of changeovers, resulting in higher capacity utilization and throughput. Visibility to the forecast and orders allows for better management of the scheduled cycle of product runs, which must be closely coordinated with inventory to ensure supply is both adequate and fresh. Cycle schedule compliance has improved from 88% to 95%.
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In the mid-1990s Heinz was managing their product specifications, formulas, and quality information in the same manner as most companies. Their product information was stored in a variety of disparate systems, spreadsheets, text documents, and paper forms. Learn how it was able to continually leverage product information across the entire life cycle.
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Wilden began to investigate several customer relationship management (CRM) packages in the market including: Maximizer Enterprise, PeopleSoft, Siebel, Pivotal and Oracle. The Company knew it would require some customization assistance from the vendor but it also wanted the capability to manage the new technology in-house. Maximizer Enterprise was the only one that was flexible enough-it fit their sales channel model and had the knowledgeable Professional Services staff that the Wilden team felt comfortable with - along with the overall package to fit within their budget.
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Since they implemented Maximizer Enterprise, the sales people have found it easy to learn, and the marketing department has taken advantage of its flexibility to customize it to their business and marketing needs. Having recently upgraded to Maximizer Enterprise 7 with the implementation, installation, and training services of Certified Multiactive Business Partner, Wintec Group, the users and administrators have seen increased reliability and speed in the daily use of its customer database.
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Stockgroup includes accountability, integrity and open communication, within its set of core values, to achieve its objectives of being a financially strong and profitable business. That's why when it came time to replacing its CRM system to better manage accounts, schedules, sales forecasting, and marketing, Stockgroup selected Maximizer Enterprise as its CRM solution of choice - an easier to use system with a lower TCO.
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With the assistance of a Maximizer Business Partner, Senior Flexonics deployed Maximizer Enterprise to its global sales force to manage the distribution of leads and collaboration on complex sales opportunities. Today, it collectively manages over 2500 ongoing opportunities at a time, each with a sales cycle of three hours to five years, amongst four or more sales districts and over 300 different sales teams.
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With the help of On-Line CRM Solutions, a Certified Maximizer Business Partner, GrowthWorks upgraded from Maximizer to Maximizer Enterprise 7 running on a SQL database. This enabled the company to integrate the customer database with the transaction database.
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This case study covers why a sporting goods and apparel manufacturer's selection team chose to purchase and implement the Made2Manage® Enterprise Business System from Made2Manage Systems.
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In 1999, Qualitel Corporation, an electronics manufacturer, earned $2.85 million (USD) in revenue. Just one year later, after implementing a new business model and the Intuitive enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, Qualitel's revenue exploded 471 percent to $12.89 million (USD). By modernizing its operations, Qualitel decreased lead times and increased on-time delivery from 30 to 90 percent.
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Learn how Fabcon, once a small manufacturing company and now the premier sheet metal shop in Southern California catapulted its 55 percent on-time rate in 1993 to a 97 percent on-time rate a year later through business vertical integration and the help of Global Shop Solutions enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions.
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As Wiltshire Precision has grown, it has faced challenges common to manufacturers—controlling costs, constant efficiency improvements, competition from abroad, and expansion of customer base and shop space. After implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, Wiltshire’s newly automated processes resulted in greater efficiency—and a near-perfect quality rating. Discover the ERP solution’s other benefits.
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In 1996, Davis Controls, a licensed assembler of instrumentation and control products, implemented Exact Software’s Macola Progression solution. The subsequent 50 percent increase in their sales convinced the company to deploy Macola Enterprise Suite (ES). Macola ES’s integrated business process management (BPM) tools have led to improved productivity.
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Learn how SunGard Treasury Systems, a provider of Internet-based treasury management solutions to global corporate, government, and financial services organizations, consolidated its disparate databases into one centralized database for company and customer information.
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Learn how Eastern Plastics, a small precision plastic machining, design, and assembly company, implemented an integrated solution and document management system to aid in its growing, international business.
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Learn how three small and medium businesses (SMB), ITW Wilsonart Canada, Neutronics, and Polk Audio, respectively employed an enterprise system to improve operation, visibility, and performance.
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Learn how Cubic Defense Systems improved their overall product quality and government compliance, while conforming to support mission-critical processes by using Cincom's integrated quality management solution.
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