Friday 28 April 2017
Thursday 27 April 2017
PSA Airlines Selects IFS Maintenix As Its Maintenance Management Solution
Continued focus on quality and compliance underpins regional carrier’s transition to a more modern, scalable IT solution
IFS, the global enterprise applications company, announced that PSA Airlines (PSA), a wholly owned subsidiary of American Airlines and one of the fastest growing regional operators in North America, has selected IFS Maintenix to support its enterprise-wide fleet maintenance management needs.
This latest deal comes on the heels of other recent contracts with leading airlines such as Copa Airlines, Cape Air and Southwest Airlines, and reflects the IFS Maintenix software’s expanding footprint among operators of all sizes across the Americas.
It is the first order to be announced since the IFS acquisition of Mxi closed in January 2017.
As a flourishing carrier owned by the largest airline in the world, PSA recently embarked on a strategic growth plan that has seen its fleet more than double from 49 aircraft to 115 since 2014, with plans to operate up to 150 Bombardier CRJ aircraft. To meet evolving operational demands, the airline was looking to replace its legacy maintenance system with a modern, scalable software solution that could significantly reduce reliance on manual processes and drive greater standardization and process efficiencies across its maintenance management chain.
Following an extensive market review, PSA selected IFS Maintenix as its maintenance IT system to deliver complete lifecycle MRO functionality across the engineering, planning, line maintenance and materials management departments. By enabling more real-time, automated maintenance management, PSA Airlines is taking the necessary steps to meeting strategic objectives while staying focused on their mission of safety, quality and compliance.
“In this competitive market, PSA Airlines prides itself on providing customers with the highest degree of customer service and operational performance that comes from well-maintained aircraft, professional and dedicated staff, and on-time passenger services delivery,” said Gary Pratt, Vice President, Maintenance and Engineering at PSA Airlines. “Throughout the evaluation process, it readily became apparent that IFS Maintenix was the right solution capable of meeting our needs for a modern, flexible, and user-friendly approach to maintenance management and compliance control.”
Scott Helmer, SVP, Aviation and Defense at IFS added, “It is always a tremendous source of pride when a respected organization such as PSA Airlines joins our growing customer community. This relationship is indicative of aviation services providers recognizing the inherent business gains that come with using a system that can deliver on the promise of standard, lean and predictable aviation maintenance. We look forward to working closely with PSA Airlines in helping them continue to be among the top brand names in the regional airlines market.”
IFS Maintenix is a fully-integrated, web-enabled and mobile-ready software platform specifically built to address the complete spectrum of aviation maintenance in a single integrated business solution. It features capabilities including controlled workflow, graphical maintenance planning, point-of-maintenance access to real-time information, and paperless execution and compliance, enabling aviation organizations of all sizes to maximize the revenue potential of their mission-critical aviation assets.
The post PSA Airlines Selects IFS Maintenix As Its Maintenance Management Solution appeared first on Statii News.
source http://news.statii.co.uk/psa-airlines-selects-ifs-maintenix-as-its-maintenance-management-solution/
There’s Never a Good Time to Start Your ERP Software Implementation
“Employees have a lot on their plates right now.” “Some of the executives are taking vacations this summer.” “We don’t know if we can get the budget approved.” “Now’s just a bad time.” “Let’s wait to see what happens with the economy.”
Sound familiar? These are many of the reasons we hear when organizations say they can’t start their ERP implementations right now.
Unfortunately, there is never a good time to start an enterprise software initiative, but it’s something that most organizations need to further their businesses, scale for growth, increase revenue and improve delivery to their customers. In other words, it’s a necessary evil – and one that’s not easy to successfully pull off, either.
But there are a million reasons why starting your ERP project now makes more sense than waiting. Here are four considerations to help you determine if now is the right time:
1. Weigh the costs versus the benefits of starting your ERP software initiative now. There are certainly costs associated with starting your project now. Money, time, resources and heartburn are some of the things you can expect to invest in your initiative. However, in most cases, the benefits of a new system far outweigh these costs. In particular, be sure to look at how new technology might help you increase revenue, reduce costs, increase efficiency and make employees’ lives easier. Also, be sure to consider how much it’s costing you to not fix these problems – it is likely more than you think, especially when you consider the opportunity costs of waiting.
2. Develop an IT and ERP strategy roadmap. The proliferation of enterprise software options available today can be overwhelming, leading many to analysis paralysis. However, it doesn’t have to be that difficult. Create a technology-agnostic strategic roadmap for the various technology options that might suit your needs. Be sure to consider all options: SaaS vs. on-premise, single ERP vs. best of breed, standardized vs. decentralized systems, etc. Once you define some of these strategic variables and narrow the field, your decision will become much clearer.
3. Consider your alternatives to ERP. It may be that it really isn’t the right time to be biting off a big new ERP system for your entire organization. Perhaps an upgrade of your current system will deliver more low-hanging fruit at a lower cost. Or perhaps reengineering your business processes will do the trick. Whatever you do, don’t feel as though you necessarily have to implement a brand new system to improve your business. Consider your alternatives and weigh the costs and benefits of each.
4. Don’t confuse the need to wait with organizational resistance. Oftentimes, delayed ERP decisions are related to organizational resistance rather than a legitimate business reason. Organizational change management shouldn’t be a reason to postpone an initiative that will deliver tangible business benefits to your organization. Your organization should conduct an organizational readiness assessment to determine sources of resistance and identify how those barriers can be removed. This assessment should form the basis for your organizational change management strategy and plan.
Instead of finding reasons why now isn’t a good time, perhaps you should start thinking about business benefits in the long-term.
By: Eric Kimberling
The post There’s Never a Good Time to Start Your ERP Software Implementation appeared first on Statii News.
source http://news.statii.co.uk/theres-never-a-good-time-to-start-your-erp-software-implementation/
Process Manager Template selection
I have an issue with the Manufacturing process manager and predefined Manufacturing template selection.
if you have pre defined manufacturing templates it seems can only choose one template at a time in Process Manager. Where this becomes a problem is when I have a plate with maybe 10 to 15 different hole sizes in it and I have to select my predefined drill template for each hole size one at a time then select ok which take you back to the main process manager page you then repeat the select and ok for each hole size needed…. Very tedious.
It would be nice if we had the hold down the shift key or control key function to select multiple templates at one time in Process Manager.
I tried to do an enhancement request but it would not publish for me so I thought I would put it in here for discussion.
thanks for reading my morning rant,
SLucas
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source http://news.statii.co.uk/process-manager-template-selection/
Learn from Casper’s Public Cloud Success at Velocity’s COLLABORATE17 Cloud Workshop
CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 30, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Velocity Technology Solutions Inc., the global leader in enterprise application cloud services, announced its customer Casper will present its decision process and subsequent journey implementing JD Edwards in the cloud at a special workshop as part of COLLABORATE17.
Casper Sleep Inc,, named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in the World, recognized the need for an integrated finance and supply chain system as the company grew more complex; expanding their product lines and launching internationally in the U.K., Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. JD Edwards offered a strong fit for the business. A technology-first company, Casper recognized that running and managing back office systems was not a competency it wanted to embrace as its expansion continues.
Deciding on a cloud managed services provider was equally important, as the tech company sought a trusted advisor who could grow with it as its business evolved. Velocity’s flexible operating model, competitive pricing, and deep application expertise were the primary reasons Casper selected Velocity.
As a trusted cloud advisor, Velocity’s JD Edwards team chose AWS for this workload, managed by Velocity’s Cloud Applications Management Platform (VCAMP)™, to minimize business interruption and maximize flexibility for Casper. Velocity is an Advanced Tier Partner with AWS. “No company, least of all one in explosive growth mode, can afford the disruption that a traditional implementation typically means,” said Judithe Kennedy, SVP of JD Edwards line of business at Velocity. “We were able to deliver Casper a full cloud solution that was ready within weeks, not months or years.”
Velocity Zoom® Analytics further enabled Casper to understand user adoption of JD Edwards and track its change management as it rolled out JD Edwards. With unprecedented speed, Casper’s team was able to log into its JDE environment at the end of its initial kickoff call with Velocity.
“The seamless JDE integration along with supporting insights provided by VCAMP and Velocity Zoom® Analytics have been important to the success of our ERP implementation and continued operations at Casper,” said Jason Costi, Senior Vice President of Finance, of Casper.
To learn more about Casper’s journey to the cloud, join us at a special COLLABORATE17 workshop, The 2017 Cloud Imperative: What You Need to Know to Succeed With JD Edwards.
Not traveling to Las Vegas? Contact us for a virtual appointment and learn about our end-to-end JD Edwards solutions.
Source: Nasdaq GlobeNewswire
The post Learn from Casper’s Public Cloud Success at Velocity’s COLLABORATE17 Cloud Workshop appeared first on Statii News.
source http://news.statii.co.uk/learn-from-caspers-public-cloud-success-at-velocitys-collaborate17-cloud-workshop/
Auricchio S.P.A. Selects Avaap and CAD-IT to Implement Infor M3 Food & Beverage ERP
BARCELONA, Spain and EDISON, N.J., April 03, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Avaap, one of the largest software service providers for Infor ERP, and CAD-IT, an Italy-based Infor M3 partner, today announced they have been selected to implement the Infor M3 Food & Beverage Solution and Infor Xi at Auricchio S.P.A., an Italian food manufacturer which is almost 140 years old. Infor M3 Food & Beverage and Infor Xi offer industry-specific functionality designed to help address the needs of dairy manufacturing and distribution organizations. Avaap, together with Infor partner CAD-IT, expects to leverage industry experience in food processing and dairy to assist integration and help Auricchio S.P.A achieve a more cost-effective infrastructure, while working to utilize Infor technology to its fullest advantage.
Auricchio S.P.A. operates ten locations in Italy, Spain and the U.S. It faces challenges similar to other organizations with multiple locations in different countries, including a technology environment comprised of disparate legacy solutions that do not communicate with each other, limiting the ability to support streamlined business processes. The multi-warehouse implementation of Infor M3 Food & Beverage ERP is designed to support a “best practices” approach to managing physical inventories and assets. This should also assist Auricchio S.P.A. in standardizing and accelerating its warehouse and distribution processes which can result in greater efficiency, customer responsiveness, and cost and inventory control.
The Infor M3 application, which is currently anticipated to be live in early 2018, is designed to deliver the ability for greater coordination across departments, tighter product management and better visibility into data to help facilitate compliance with country-specific rules and regulatory requirements. Auricchio S.P.A. selected Avaap and CAD-IT as its systems integrators based on dairy industry references, specialized technical expertise in the Infor M3 application, Infor Ming.le™ and ION as well as their global community of Infor-certified technical and functional resources.
“Infor M3 is designed to address specific needs of the fresh produce industry and is being implemented, in part, to help us reach our goals of reducing waste, enhancing our product rotation and improving customer service,” said Giovanni Martini, CFO and Group Controller, Auricchio Group. “We believe the Avaap-CAD-IT team has familiarity with the needs of dairy organizations and the hardware and software expertise we need to help drive a seamless implementation, streamline distribution processes and improve accuracy in our warehouse operations.”
Added Avaap Europe Practice Director Leonardo Castaldi, “The Infor M3 implementation could be a game changer for Auricchio, enabling them to bring transparency and fluidity to their operations leveraging Avaap’s proprietary tools and implementation methodology. We are delighted to have been chosen as Auricchio’s implementation partner to help modernize its technology and to help enable strategic value.”
Source: Nasdaq GlobeNewswire
The post Auricchio S.P.A. Selects Avaap and CAD-IT to Implement Infor M3 Food & Beverage ERP appeared first on Statii News.
source http://news.statii.co.uk/auricchio-s-p-a-selects-avaap-and-cad-it-to-implement-infor-m3-food-beverage-erp/
Wednesday 26 April 2017
UK manufactured goods in demand with strong domestic and export performance – CBI
The UK’s manufacturers have reported strong growth in orders both at home and from abroad over the first quarter of 2017, although costs and prices have also continued to rise at an elevated pace, according to the latest quarterly CBI Industrial Trends Survey.
The survey of 397 manufacturers found that domestic orders had improved at the fastest pace since July 2014 in the three months to April. Meanwhile export orders recorded the strongest growth in six years, supported by strong rises in competitiveness, particularly in non-EU markets which improved at a record pace.
The weak pound continued to push up costs, with manufacturers reporting the strongest rises in unit costs in six years.
Output growth firmed to a three-year high and is expected to accelerate over the next quarter. Manufacturers’ anticipate that new orders will grow more moderately over the near-term, largely owing to a predicted slowdown in domestic demand outweighing export orders growth – expectations for the latter are at their strongest in over two decades. Companies are also upbeat in their year-ahead expectations for exports, with optimism posting the biggest gain in over four decades, contrasting with their assessment about the overall business situation which was unchanged.
There was a softening in investment plans across the board, particularly those for buildings and plant & machinery, with the latter at its most negative for nearly six years. When queried about potential limits on capital spending over the next year, the proportion of firms citing inadequate net returns climbed to the highest in a decade. Headcount saw decent growth, but hiring intentions for the next three months are muted.
This survey was conducted prior to the announcement of a General Election.
Rain Newton-Smith, CBI Chief Economist, said: “UK manufacturers are enjoying strong growth in demand from customers in the UK and overseas, and continue to ramp up production.
“Exports have surged and firms are at their most optimistic about selling overseas in over four decades. Even so, the combination of the weak pound and recovering commodity prices means that cost pressures continue to build, and manufacturers report no sign of them abating over the near-term.”
Key findings:
- Domestic orders rose at their fastest pace (+20%) since July 2014 (+23%). Export orders growth accelerated to (+22%) the highest since April 2011 (+24%)
- 42% of businesses reported an increase in total orders, and 17% a decrease, giving a balance of +25%, the highest since April 1995 (+27%)
- 36% of firms said the volume of output over the past three months was up and 14% said it was down, giving a balance of +22%, the highest since July 2014 (+23%)
- 26% of manufacturers said employee numbers were up, and 19% said they were down, giving a balance of +7%
- 23% of firms said they were more optimistic about the general business situation than three months ago and 21% were less optimistic, giving a rounded balance of +1%. Optimism about export prospects for the year ahead (+30%) climbed at the quickest rate since July 1973 (+33%)
- Firms’ competitiveness in the UK grew firmly over the past three months (+12%), while their competitiveness in non-EU markets rose at the fastest pace in the series’ history (+27%)
- Average domestic prices (+27%), average export prices (+24%) and average unit costs (+45%) all rose at the fastest pace since April 2011 (+53%)
- Manufacturers intend to spend less on buildings (-15%) and plant & machinery (-10%) over the next 12 months than they did over the previous twelve months.
Key findings – looking ahead:
- Total new orders (+14%), domestic orders (+7%) and export orders (+24%) are expected to continue to grow strongly over the next quarter
- Expectations for output growth (+16%) remain solid
- Average domestic prices (+29%), export prices (+20%) and unit costs (+41%) are all expected to rise quickly again over the next quarter.
The post UK manufactured goods in demand with strong domestic and export performance – CBI appeared first on Statii News.
source http://news.statii.co.uk/uk-manufactured-goods-in-demand-with-strong-domestic-and-export-performance-cbi/
Cyberbit’s new Endpoint Detection and Response release advances cybersecurity with adaptive, automated capabilities
Cyberbit, the wholly owned subsidiary of Elbit Systems, has announced a new version of its adaptive Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) platform, which now provides advanced and semi-automated threat hunting, centralised response capabilities, and an improved Software Developer Kit (SDK) for detection customisation.
Originally developed to meet requirements of high-risk organisations, Cyberbit’s new EDR enhancements help customers decrease threat detection and response times while minimising false positives, drastically improving cyberattack countermeasures and cutting distractions for security teams.
Cyberattacks continue to shift tactics, with hackers launching fileless malware that is undetectable by ransomware safeguards, antivirus and other traditional endpoint protection platforms. Cyberbit EDR’s approach detects a broad range of attacks without relying on indicators of compromise (IOCs), including signature-less, fileless and targeted attacks as well as ransomware. The adaptive approach automatically tailors a behavioural detection policy to the customer’s organisation, which ensures the highest levels of accuracy based on each environment.
“Cyberbit provides one of the most effective solutions for detecting unknown, signature-less and targeted threats, including fileless attacks and ransomware, by using machine learning and behavioral analytics, enabling quick identification of root cause and response,” said Danielle VanZandt, research analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “Cyberbit’s approach proved to provide its customers with substantially higher detection and response capabilities, while keeping low false positive ratios. As a result, security teams can focus on high priority alerts and are not distracted and overloaded with false alarms.”
The new release includes the following key features:
Analyst in a Box: Analysts often work with fragments of the attack story; using their knowledge and experience, they seek traces of attacks buried in data. Cyberbit’s EDR platform assists analysts by automating much of the hunting process, leveraging behavioral analytics and machine learning, which serves as an “analyst in a box,” speeding up threat identification and often saving weeks of investigative effort.
SDK and customization: Advanced customers can add proprietary detection algorithms to address their unique security requirements. They can also access the EDR’s big-data repository using Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), and use their own functions and tools to proactively investigate and hunt threats.
Centralized response capabilities: well suited for large, dispersed organizations, security managers can access any endpoint in the organization from a central location and rapidly investigate and respond to an incident, which eliminates the need to be physically present at the compromised endpoint.
Adi Dar, CEO of Cyberbit, said, “It takes only one fileless or signature-less attack to bring down an organization; however, these attacks are invisible to endpoint security systems. Customers now understand that this is where they need to focus. Our EDR is gaining traction as one of the most reliable means to protect against advanced attacks, and this new release helps customers stay ahead of new threats and save time with next-generation SOC technology.”
Cyberbit was recently named by CRN magazine one of 20 coolest endpoint security vendors for 2017. Cyberbit EDR is the winner of the Frost and Sullivan Technology Leadership Award for Cybersecurity Detection and Response, and the winner of the Network World Asia Reader’s Choice Rising Star award for endpoint security. Cyberbit recently announced a contract with Infor to provide its EDR platform.
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source http://news.statii.co.uk/cyberbits-new-endpoint-detection-and-response-release-advances-cybersecurity-with-adaptive-automated-capabilities/
InfinityQS launches Enact – 'the future of manufacturing quality'
According to InfinityQS, the platform gives manufacturers the power to enact a global transformation of their processes and product quality, and creates a gateway for them to embrace Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
“Today, access to information is the expectation in every role in manufacturing,” said Michael Lyle, President and CEO, InfinityQS. “But the sheer volume of data can be overwhelming. By creating a new way of collecting, analysing, and summarising data, and delivering actionable intelligence, Enact propels businesses to a level of quality knowledge that produces real business results, fast.”
Enact helps users intuitively process critical quality data that today’s modern manufacturing operations require. Advances in mobile and cloud computing, automation, and the IIoT enable Enact to aggregate data from disparate sources and input methods, uncover strategic information, and prioritise enterprise-wide quality activities. Manufacturers finally have the ability to see the “big picture” view of quality across all of their plants, production lines, products, and shifts.
Lyle continued, “There are three fundamental drivers of the factory of the future: upstream and downstream system integration, centralised data from across the enterprise, and powerful analytics that can be used to transform operations. This is exactly what Enact provides. Enact rewrites expectations of quality intelligence for manufacturers and helps them see the entire enterprise—information that has never before been available. This insight instigates change and can be used to drive global business transformations, readying the organisation to embrace Industry 4.0, generate sustainable cost savings, and ensure long-term business success.”
The Enact Quality Intelligence platform is a native-cloud product that helps managers and quality professionals easily view critical quality information across all regions and plants while using any computing device – even a mobile phone. This visibility helps highlight how processes are running, where problems exist, and where quality resources should be engaged to generate the greatest economic benefit for the organisation. In addition to providing visibility across all plants, Enact triggers real-time alarms on the shop floor and identifies opportunities for improvement that reduce costs, increase profitability, improve quality, enhance competitive position, and protect brand equity.
The post InfinityQS launches Enact – 'the future of manufacturing quality' appeared first on Statii News.
source http://news.statii.co.uk/infinityqs-launches-enact-the-future-of-manufacturing-quality/
GE Digital releases comprehensive APM solution to help industrial companies reduce unplanned downtime
This combined solution gives asset-intensive organizations visibility anytime, anywhere, into their assets’ status and health across the entire enterprise, arming them with powerful analytics to help avoid unplanned downtime. GE will showcase this Predix-powered offering next week at Germany’s Hannover Messe 2017.
Asset-intensive companies strive to reduce operating risk and improve reliability at the lowest sustainable cost by predicting and preventing asset failures. In addition, organizations must enable compliance with ever-expanding regulatory requirements, protect the health and safety of their workers, and provide the tools to make them more productive.
The new GE Digital APM suite, the most comprehensive in the industry, helps solves these challenges by covering the full spectrum of APM services from risk assessment and asset strategy development through condition-based maintenance (CBM), predictive maintenance, reliability centered maintenance, root cause analysis, and inspection and compliance management. The suite also facilitates the development of asset strategies that maximize reliability and availability, minimize risk and cost, and dramatically reduce unplanned downtime by predicting equipment issues before they occur.
“APM is all about visibility to equipment health and optimization of maintenance with a goal of reducing the long-term cost of ownership, safety to workers and the environment, and minimizing disruptions to operations,” said Eddie Amos, General Manager of GE Digital’s Asset Performance Management software group. “GE’s APM solutions help companies increase asset reliability and availability while reducing cost and risk in operations. And we’ve tested our APM capabilities on our own equipment in our customers’ plants. Because GE is an OEM, we monitor more than $1 trillion in assets. We know what it takes to monitor real industrial equipment and will continue to invest in APM solutions that work for us and work for industry.”
While outcomes vary by customer type, GE’s APM offering helps equipment operators optimize asset performance to increase reliability and availability, minimize costs and reduce operational risks, and decrease spend on unnecessary and unplanned maintenance. Additionally, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have the capability to reduce asset lifetime cost and increase profit streams from asset service by expanding monitoring and maintenance capabilities to their end customer. This capability helps OEMs increase service revenue and reduce asset lifecycle costs, including R&D, warranty and services. GE customers are already seeing positive outcomes using the APM offering.
These results come from GE’s control-to-cloud coverage and remote monitoring and diagnostics capability. These software models analyze and simulate real-world conditions to predict how equipment or a process will behave in order to more effectively manage cost and risk. Future integrations with the recently acquired ServiceMax will help industrial customers act on intelligence from the APM solutions and deploy services appropriately.
With predictive capabilities, the OEM can quickly respond to parts and service needs as well as provide timely, critical remote support, which decreases the costs associated with on-site engineering visits. GE’s APM solution also makes it easy to collect, organize, and analyze equipment health information from customer equipment to predict equipment issues and mitigate them before they happen – increasing customer satisfaction (and service contract renewal rates), while lowering warranty and service costs.
This technology helps OEMs address issues while they are small and easy to fix – and makes them better prepared for the likely issues before deploying resources on a service call (i.e. the right parts for repairs on the first visit rather than requiring a follow-up visit), decreasing cost to service. The solution also delivers near real-time equipment health and usage insights to accelerate the product development cycle.
The GE Digital APM suite consists of the following solutions:
- Machine & Equipment Health – Near real-time equipment health and state. Analytics/Rules engine, configurable dashboards and exception-based notifications of potential issues.
- Reliability Management – Predictive monitoring of equipment issues via digital twins. Collaboration and knowledge management tools aimed to improve worker efficiency.
- Compliance and Integrity Management – Ensure asset integrity and compliance by monitoring changing risk conditions.
- Asset Strategy Optimization – Tools and techniques to help optimize asset strategies across availability, reliability, risk and costs.
The post GE Digital releases comprehensive APM solution to help industrial companies reduce unplanned downtime appeared first on Statii News.
source http://news.statii.co.uk/ge-digital-releases-comprehensive-apm-solution-to-help-industrial-companies-reduce-unplanned-downtime/
Big Bang ERP Opens Their First International Office in The Heart of Ebene CyberCity, Mauritius
EBENE CYBERCITY, Mauritius, April 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Big Bang ERP, a Canadian-based cloud solution consulting firm opens their first international office in Mauritius to better meet the demands of their clients around the globe. A 4-Star NetSuite Solution Provider, Big Bang ERP also specializes in Salesforce, Rootstock, ServiceNow and other industry specific softwares to tailor scalable solutions for every industry.
According to Mark Rhyman the Co-CEO and Chief Business Development Officer at Big Bang ERP, they chose to open their second office in Ebene CyberCity because of the amazing talent and it’s perfectly located time zone.
“Mauritius is a central hub where the skill set is incredible. Everyone is bilingual and returning graduates from prestigious universities worldwide. Mauritius is like the Singapore of the Indian Ocean, it allows us to adequately serve our European, African and Australian customer base,” said Rhyman.
“Appointing Jeek was a natural progression considering his remarkable level of education and business experience. We originally needed someone with the right mindset to step in to help us with our EMEA clients but, one thing led to another and a few coconuts later, he was the perfect fit to run our new Mauritian office,” said Rhyman.
Jeek knows what it takes to be successful; with over five degrees and certifications from prestigious universities, he is more than qualified to successfully multitask between Big Bang ERP, being a successful author and a member of Mensa.
“I am extremely proud to be leading our EMEA branch, and certainly excited to help the companies across the region through our Cloud Advisory Expertise. Mauritius is an African hub where many companies are striving to find the right balance between increasing efficiency and scaling lightning fast,” said Jeekeshen Chinnappen, Director of Business Development at Big Bang ERP.
Source: Nasdaq GlobeNewswire
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source http://news.statii.co.uk/big-bang-erp-opens-their-first-international-office-in-the-heart-of-ebene-cybercity-mauritius/
Tuesday 25 April 2017
Companies Migrate To AuraPortal Cloud To Thrive In The Digital ERA
AuraPortal announced the growing adoption of AuraPortal Cloud on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. Companies worldwide are benefitting from the powerful combination of cutting-edge enterprise software and integrated cloud services.
AuraPortal Cloud has gone from being a technological advance to a fundamental part of the technological strategy of numerous companies across all industries.
AuraPortal CEO Olivia Trilles comments, “AuraPortal’s vision to optimize productivity and efficiency in all types of companies worldwide is well-supported through Microsoft Azure, which offers cloud service in more regions than any cloud provider and comprehensive compliance coverage.”
AuraPortal Cloud running on Azure provides users with usage-based services; anytime, anywhere access from any device; and enhanced protection from hackers, malware and unwanted access. In addition, Azure has the most certifications of any cloud provider.
Customers value the ability to continually optimize business operations and stay ahead of the competition. Getting started with AuraPortal Cloud is easy. Once a company has realized the importance of cloud migration, the AuraPortal team will design a unique “journey to the cloud” to identify the objectives, plan a time frame, identify the criteria for migration to the cloud and visualize the operating model and skills needed for a successful journey. The highly skilled AuraPortal consultants will use their vast experience of similar processes to avoid common pitfalls, such as losing control of important aspects including cost, data location, data protection and regulatory compliance.
“Companies like AuraPortal benefit from the global scale and enterprise-grade security of Microsoft Azure”, said Andrea Carl, director, Commercial Communications, Microsoft Corp. “We’re pleased to see AuraPortal’s commitment to Azure as it grows and supports new customer demands.”
Source: Nasdaq GlobeNewswire
The post Companies Migrate To AuraPortal Cloud To Thrive In The Digital ERA appeared first on Statii News.
source http://news.statii.co.uk/companies-migrate-to-auraportal-cloud-to-thrive-in-the-digital-era/
Pipol signs on market-leading US Dynamics Partner Arbela Technologies
A leading consulting and Microsoft Dynamics 365 solution provider
Pipol is announcing its partnership with Arbela Technologies, a leading consulting and Microsoft Dynamics 365 solution provider based in Irvine, CA, expanding its global reach across The United States. Subsequently, Arbela is expanding its world-wide presence through this partnership.
Pipol and Arbela both have a strategic focus of adding increased value to their international clients in need of business transformation, which not only requires trusted advisory but also cross-border consultancy, coordination, implementation of ERP, CRM, and Business Analytics solutions.
With this partnership, Arbela has the ability to better serve its international clients in locations where it does not have a current presence working closely with Pipol’s qualified partners everywhere in the world. Arbela is now able to support Pipol’s partners in the United States, providing a seamless implementation and support model across the globe.
This makes the partnership a natural move
”This makes the partnership a natural move,” says Morten Søger, Group Director Channel & Alliances at Pipol. “We see a tremendous untapped market with potential for substantial joint business growth in and out of US, and the strategic match with Arbela´s ambitions, capabilities and capacity is obvious.”
Arbela Technologies is a well-known consulting firm and a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner with a long history of helping companies streamline processes, be more market responsive, and improve customer experiences.
“With Arbela’s long history of global rollouts, the partnership with Pipol will strengthen our international delivery and provide true hyper-localization for our clients. The alignment of client satisfaction and cultural fit between the two firms played a big part in the forming of the partnership and we look forward to strengthening the Pipol brand here in the US” says Tim Harris, VP of Strategy & Solutions at Arbela.
The post Pipol signs on market-leading US Dynamics Partner Arbela Technologies appeared first on Statii News.
source http://news.statii.co.uk/pipol-signs-on-market-leading-us-dynamics-partner-arbela-technologies/
A 12 country business transformation and ERP challenge Part 5: International Business Process Optimization
“We want to work as one company, reorganize and develop synergies between our different subsidiaries, improve our competitiveness and be much more agile and efficient than we have been so far”.
This is Business Process Optimization on an international scale. How did Pipol go about it in an organisation like Kronos? Pipol’s TM Consultant organized and facilitated a series of BPO workshops starting with current state mapping, then getting the functional teams of Kronos to develop possible future (“to-be”) states for senior management review.
The US business unit made one of their Kaizen trained Operations Managers available to work with Pipol’s TM Consultant to assist in the planning, as well as to attend and assist in facilitating the proposed international functional workshops. The TM team spent 2 weeks on WebEx and individually preparing for the BPO sessions, capturing existing Kronos matrix’s, exploring best-practice KPI’s and discussing best-practice ERP functionality.
The workshops were to be held over a 6-week period alternating between the New York and Munich offices with functional leader attendees from each of the main locations. Following, the Readiness Assessment and confirmed in the telephone interviews, the Kronos Senior Management team agreed that there should be 4 workshops targeted at the main business functions. 2 weeks later, Pipol’s TM Consultant arrived in New York armed with flow-chart paper, pens and sticky paper pads with a copy of Visio on his laptop:
1) FINANCE – RECORD TO REPORT (R2R)
The Kronos Group Chart of Accounts (GCOA) and the need for timely and consistent reporting was the starting point for the Finance workshop. Current and future-state reviews showed the need for ERP standardization, account mapping capability, standardization of Reporting Dimensions and export to Kronos existing financial consolidation application. The workshop identified specific local GGAP and reporting bottle-necks and set itself (and the other workshops) the target to reduce monthly closure time from 8 days to 3 days.
2) SALES – BILL TO CASH (B2C)
This workshop showed some significant differences in approach between in the 2 companies approaches. Although, both companies employed a mix of direct and distributor based channels, their sales-force automation, web presence and salesforce motivation approaches were quite different. Both approaches were analysed and discussed. The Senior Management team had decided to transition the merged businesses towards the US business model, which was generally accepted. Good discussions took place about product availability, e-invoicing and SEPA requirements as well as the possibility to use Credit Management and T&E software tools, Credit card payments and Shared Services Center opportunities.
3) PURCHASING – PURCHASE TO PAY (P2P)
Direct purchasing was in all cases managed by MRP functionality in the different ERP systems. The workshops focused on A, B, C categorization and possible production “pull” as well as “push” techniques. The importance of ensuring optimum supplier delivery and quality performance was emphasized as well as exploring different inventory & logistics models. The group also reviewed the indirect purchasing profile with a view to minimize spend through supplier rationalization as well as means to reduce tranzactional costs. Industry P2P portals were discussed and a working party established to explore medium-term deployment opportunities.
4) OPERATIONS
The Operational units fell into 2 types, namely those in USA, Germany & China that had large facilities and assets for major product build and the smaller units designed for product finishing to local customer specification. All the major facilities had implemented best-practice manufacturing techniques, KPI performance differed significantly. The workshop agreed that an Operations best-practice team should be established to optimize each unit performance and to maximize overall effectiveness through systems rationalization and inter-site data flows and integration. The focus for the finishing units were on flexibility and stock optimization, also using A, B, C categorization principles. The Operations team gave valuable insight into the forecasting, demand planning and logistics requirements of the other workshops.
The 4 workshops were successful in identifying significant business process differences between the 2 businesses and with the benefit of BPO best-practice knowledge and preparation supported by industry benchmark data, improvement opportunities and a well-motivated Kronos TM team were established.
Departmental/Time based to-be process maps were created and iterated during each of the workshops. Functional leaders were tasked with documenting and circulating to their colleagues in the individual business units for more in-depth review and feedback to the TM team. The TM team presented the workshop findings and recommendations to Kronos Senior Management. The supporting Kronos TM initiative was presented by the TM team and was approved for next phase.
THE FOLLOWING PROGRAM DELIVERABLES WERE AGREED:
- 100% GCOA implementation
- Standardised Finance master data
- All locations to report through existing consolidation application
- Finance working party to establish R2R targets and time-plan
- European Shared Service Centre working party
- Sales USA best-practice implementation in Europe
- Implementation of Credit Management software
- P2P working group to evaluate web-based T&E and in-direct purchasing options
- Operations on-time delivery/inventory optimisation initiative
TM team tasked to establish and facilitate the Kronos functional teams
The post A 12 country business transformation and ERP challenge Part 5: International Business Process Optimization appeared first on Statii News.
source http://news.statii.co.uk/a-12-country-business-transformation-and-erp-challenge-part-5-international-business-process-optimization/
DIY Injuries on the Rise according to Reports
Many homeowners who are strapped for cash are turning to DIY to cut costs. DIY projects are a way to significantly cut prices on costly renovation and remodeling projects. However, the advent of video tutorials and the plethora of new shows centered on home improvement have had negative effects as well, most notably on the number of people visiting ER’s around the country for DIY related injuries.
DIY Injuries on the Rise across the Board
According to the president of the ACEP, Nick Jouriles, there has been a sudden spike in DIY related injuries recently and this can all be attributed to homeowners trying to save a few bucks by doing works they aren’t qualified for. He also blames the struggling economy as part of the reason why so many homeowners decide to take that route.
In a recent survey conducted by Angie’s List, a site where members can hire contractors for minor jobs, the overwhelming majority of respondents, 83% to be exact, said they would rather do a project themselves than hire someone. However, what is not accounted for is that costs usually become higher when they have to hire a contractor because they ended up injuring themselves doing a project they shouldn’t have been doing in the first place.
A Global Trend
The trend is not limited to the US only. In Australia, where the DIY trend is also very popular, DIY related injuries are also on the rise. This can be mainly attributed to the slew of new “reality home renovation” shows that have been gaining in popularity in the country. According to a recent report, hospital admission rates for unintentional injuries have almost doubled in the last ten years. And the main culprit is DIY shows and the DIY craze that has recently hit the country.
Lack of Protective Personal Equipment
But one of the most striking things about the recent DIY trend is that a large number of DIYers forgo protective personal equipment completely when conducting works on their property. Since they are not private contractors, they do not have to abide by the same set of rules and therefore decide to omit to wear PPE altogether, either by negligence or in an effort to cut costs even further.
So many common injuries could be avoided by using fall protection safety harnesses for construction, roofing, & more. According to a survey conducted on National DIY safety, 60% of Australians admitted that they used no protective personal equipment whatsoever when conducting DIY works. In the same study, one out of three reported that they suffered an injury while doing basic DIY projects.
What can be Done?
Novice and even advanced DIYers have to be more safety conscious on projects. That includes putting more emphasis on protective gear, but also applying some basic safety procedures as well. DIYers should also be careful not to bite off more than they can chew and go for professionals whenever they feel a certain project is out of their field of expertise.
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source http://news.statii.co.uk/diy-injuries-on-the-rise-according-to-reports/
Exporting individual sheetmetal part DXF data from assembly
Hi all,
I am trying to export flat sheetmetal DXF data from Creo Parametric 2. The assembly containsa fairly large amount of components that need to be sent to LASER cutting. The arrangement and number of parts is driven by expressions and references from a layout file. I don’t mind doing manual work, but because the parameters can often change, it would be very time consuming to do it.
To understand better what I mean here are some details:
I have a platform from sheet metal, on top of that there stiffener ribs, also sheetmetal parts. The ribs are dynamically generated thus always changing (also the platforms dimensions are variable).
What I am looking for is:
2d DXF files for each part in the assembly, scaled 1:1. Is this possible in Creo 2 (or 3)?
I appreciate any help or suggestion.
Thanks
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source http://news.statii.co.uk/exporting-individual-sheetmetal-part-dxf-data-from-assembly/
Monday 24 April 2017
Need help defining and using 45 degree face mill
When trying to define a tool for face milling, I am unable to find a tool that gives the option of having an angle associated with it, radius seems to be the option. 45 degree face mills are a fairly common tool, how can I define this tool? I am trying to face the part, and then mill the 45 degree angle in the part all with the same tool. Aside of being unable to define the 45 degree face mill under face milling, I am also unable to use a face mill for chamfer milling. The cam software that is being replaced does this job all with the same tool, and it is my job to replicate that. What would be the easiest way to do this in Creo?
Here the part needs to be face milled, and then using the same 45 degree face mill needs to mill the highlighted 45 degree chamfer.
This is the tool I am using.
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source http://news.statii.co.uk/need-help-defining-and-using-45-degree-face-mill/
Friday 21 April 2017
Manufacturing tab
Is there a way to make the Manufacturing tab active when opening or creating a manufacturing part upon startup instead of the model tab?
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source http://news.statii.co.uk/manufacturing-tab/
Different Ways ERP Can Be Integrated with Automation
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has come a long way since the concept was first introduced a few years ago. Today, thanks to systems like SAP and Oracle Cloud ERP, it is easy for small businesses as well as large corporations to manage their operations through a comprehensive, integrated system. An ERP platform can handle everything from production line management to HR and finance too.
Integration is the important key here. The best ERP systems are now offering the ability to integrate other, third-party systems directly into the ERP platform, allowing comprehensive management of operations and information on a single platform. Here are the different ways ERP can be integrated with automation in parts of the operations.
Automated Marketing
Marketing is among the functions offered by ERP. Marketing relies heavily on data and information, which is why a comprehensive ERP system is perfect for marketing purposes. There are so many metrics to tap into, including past sales, production history, and the entire Customer Relationship Management (CRM) data.
It is not uncommon for a company’s marketing department to review these details before formulating the next marketing campaign to run. From sales data, the marketing team can learn more about the products customers are actually buying, where and how they buy them, the quantity purchased, and other details. Processing these metrics could lead to some very interesting revelations.
The entire process can be automated, too. The ERP system can be programmed to process information and provide the marketing department with insights – in visual forms – on a real-time basis. Since ERP is fully integrated by nature, it is not difficult to get the necessary insights needed to formulate the best marketing campaign.
Automated Production
We often think of production or manufacturing as a big line with plenty of nodes. For larger systems such as SAP, a big manufacturing line is exactly what they are designed to handle. They can even be integrated with sensors and automation tools, allowing production monitoring and management to be done from the head office.
However, production automation can be so much better than that. For smaller businesses handling projects such as laser cutting yellow metals, the same level of automation can be used for scheduling and resource management.
Instead of wasting materials on a single project, for instance, the system can automatically group projects that use the same materials together to reduce waste and optimise the production process. The system can even be integrated with solutions from companies such as GF Laser.
Automated HR
My personal favourite, however, is the use of ERP for better HR management. There is an endless array of possibilities, from performance monitoring and employee evaluation to the most complicated payroll system you can think of. The possibilities are endless because most ERP systems also work well with third-party HR solutions and hardware.
The integration of ERP with automation can help streamline a business’s operations. Inefficiencies can be eliminated almost entirely, allowing businesses to focus more on growing sales, meeting market demand, and taking advantage of market growth.
The post Different Ways ERP Can Be Integrated with Automation appeared first on Statii News.
source http://news.statii.co.uk/different-ways-erp-can-be-integrated-with-automation/
Moduleworks : Cutcom still not working
I’m really getting annoyed about this Moduleworks. I loaded this morning Creo 3.0 M110 full of hope about this new release.
I started programming a new part and simulated,cutcom is still not correctly simulated !!! What’s going on ? A simulating tool is to make sure everything goes well, not supposed to give doubts about what we are doing. I’m once more going to go back to M080 which works with Vericut perfectly.
I’m going to open a new case about this “new” problem !!
I can’t see the benefits of paying a maintenance to get such a result. In our company, we’re seriously thinking about changing cam software for many reasons. And these problem are just confirming what we are thinking.
And when will Pro/NC will be a standalone module ? Our company is well developing and we’re getting more and more job. We are thinking of hiring a new employee, to have one on
CAD and the other one on CAM. But actually with Creo it’s really a big problem !!! Who can think of paying a CAD licence to do CAM job ? Serisously !!
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source http://news.statii.co.uk/moduleworks-cutcom-still-not-working/
Thursday 20 April 2017
Roughing sequence and plunge feed
Dear all,
When using the roughing sequence to rough a pocket I see there is no option to enter a plunge feed.
When using an end mill this is essential in order not to damage the flutes.
I’ve tried entering a ramp speed and specify explicitly a ramp angle of 90° (which is the default setting).
This has no effect on the resulting toolpath. The only feed applied is the default cut_feed.
The volume rough sequence does have this option but I can’t use that sequence for this particular toolpath.
Is it possible to specify a plunge feed with the roughing sequence ?
John
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source http://news.statii.co.uk/roughing-sequence-and-plunge-feed/
Epicor releases latest version of iScala to support global business growth
Designed specifically to support small to medium midmarket companies and subsidiaries of larger multi-nationals located in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia, the latest version of iScala features a brand new user interface in addition to new functionality that help companies drive cost efficiencies, take advantage of new global growth opportunities, and protect the business.
Many small to medium midmarket companies today have resource constraints and limited budgets, but still need a robust, feature-rich, and flexible enterprise-class solution that will underpin the business and help drive growth. These companies need proven, simple, expandable, and secure solutions that can help them grow by reaching more customers, expanding their product and service portfolio, or expanding into new geographies.
“Economic volatility, changing regulations, and digital disruption necessitate astute business decisions. Every company, regardless of size or location, needs to continually transform its operations to increase productivity and profitability to stay competitive,” said Robert Sinfield, director, product marketing, Epicor Software. “iScala is unique in that it delivers one global product set, with support for 36 languages, dedicated multi-national resources, as well as extensive compliance and governance support. This makes global and regional business easy. It helps customers realize cost efficiencies up and down the supply chain, it opens new opportunities for growth, and it helps them protect their business in a risk-filled economy.”
In use globally for over 20 years, iScala continues to deliver great benefits to customers. Tata Global Beverages Polska Sp Zoo, a subsidiary of Tata Global Beverages Limited that markets Tetley, Vitax, and Flosana tea products as well as syrups under the Vitax brand, is one example.
According to the company’s IT Manager Robert Hipp, the retail environment has seen a great deal of change and consolidation over the past decade. “Each year, as new players enter the field, iScala has enabled us to carefully track, analyze, and strategically predict customer buying habits,” says Hipp. “As a result, we’ve been able to stay in front of the competition through promotions and tactics that strategically leverage the shelf and sales value of our quality, world-renown brands.”
Hipp concluded, “Our company is well positioned for future growth and taking advantage of new opportunities through our modern trade expertise and ongoing investment in technological enhancements at every state of operation.”
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source http://news.statii.co.uk/epicor-releases-latest-version-of-iscala-to-support-global-business-growth/
Wednesday 19 April 2017
MaxPoint enhances customer Catalyst CRM software with email address matching and profile-based list expansion
The first set expands MaxPoint’s matching technology, linking customer email addresses with households to improve enrichment and multi-channel activation. The second uses existing CRM and customer profiles to create intelligent look-alike models for identifying high-value prospects.
The ability to match email addresses is particularly useful for companies with customer or prospect data in multiple locations and formats – including loyalty, sweepstakes, and email lists – that rarely interact, let alone integrate. Customer Catalyst matches email addresses to households for use across desktop display, video, mobile, and social channels, resulting in a more unified customer view. MaxPoint’s proprietary matching technology delivers higher match rates than solutions that largely rely only on cookies.
For brands or retailers seeking to build or grow their lists, Customer Catalyst now provides list building and expansion using advanced household modeling. The software-as-a-service product employs propensity models to add new ‘lookalike’ individuals who index similarly with the rest of a database list. Alternatively, MaxPoint can add households to lists based on an ideal customer profile that may not be reflected in the current list. MaxPoint applies predictive intelligence to each model using proprietary in-market, location, and product preference data. Our unique, full view of each consumer brings marketers exceptional audiences at the scale needed to achieve highly personalised efforts on a national level.
“Since launching Customer Catalyst last year, our customers have seen improved engagement and targeting of their customer base,” said Michelle Engle, VP of Product Marketing and Product Management at MaxPoint. “Now with our expanded matching and list-building capabilities, we help them derive full benefit from not just their database of customers but also deliver innovation in helping them with prospects.”
Launched in 2016, Customer Catalyst is a software-as-a-service solution that matches, enriches, and activates CRM lists across the full marketing stack. Unlike companies that depend exclusively on third-party data for list enrichment, MaxPoint uses its proprietary purchase intent, long-term interest, and location data to enrich customer records across more than 1,500 variables.
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source http://news.statii.co.uk/maxpoint-enhances-customer-catalyst-crm-software-with-email-address-matching-and-profile-based-list-expansion/
QAD announces Santa Rosa, solution enhancements and vertical segment solutions
QAD, provider of enterprise software and services for global manufacturing companies, has announced the availability of enhancements to its QAD Cloud ERP and QAD Enterprise Applications solutions.
QAD will present, offer training and demonstrate the new capabilities at the Explore customer conference, 8 to 11 May in Detroit US.
“Demonstrating our commitment to continuous improvement, this release focuses on important enhancements to our solutions, extending our Channel Islands user experience and deeper vertical industry focus,” said Bill Keese, senior vice president of research and development for QAD. “We continue to improve the underlying technology and architecture while launching many new features, all of which helps our customers build their Effective Enterprises.”
QAD continues to introduce new capabilities for its Channel Islands user experience initiative. The multi-year initiative provides customers an attractive, intuitive, device-independent user experience personalised for roles, tasks and individual users. Santa Rosa I, the third phase of Channel Islands, is available with enhancements including:
- Product-Wide: Full process map integration, security enhancements, additional microservices, extended personalisation capabilities and additional mobile support.
- Supply Chain: Enhanced vendor management functionality; QAD Supplier Portal adds collaboration and mobile access capabilities; enhanced mobile QAD Global Requisition System (GRS) is available to be downloaded from the Apple Store or Google Play.
- Manufacturing: Product structures have been added to Channel Islands ensuring a consistent user experience.
- Customer Management: New action requests provide simplified request management for customer service interactions. Enhanced functionality has been added for the customer service manager action centre, service orders, CRM integration and browses.
In addition to the user experience updates, QAD has made other key enhancements including:
- Financials: QAD Financials debuts a new solution to support revenue recognition changes mandated by ASC 606 and IFRS 15 guidance.
- QAD Internationalization (I19): The QAD I19 program, which tracks country and local regulations for financial reporting and taxation purposes to help keep customers in compliance, adds eight new country updates. QAD supports 60 countries and offers special country extensions for many more.
- QAD Enterprise Asset Management (EAM): A new version of EAM adds vertical-specific capabilities particularly for automotive, and introduces a maintenance manager dashboard that allows customers to track and analyse maintenance performance indicators in real time, enabling them to react quickly as issues arise and improve preventative maintenance.
QAD also announced an important update to its vertical focus. For nearly four decades, QAD has met the distinct needs of manufacturers in six industries: automotive, consumer products, food & beverage, high technology, industrial and life sciences. Recognising that each of those six industries is composed of distinct types of manufacturers, QAD has refined its solution design to address the unique needs of each of these types of manufacturers. QAD now offers a distinct solution for 24 vertical segments within those six industries.
“The reality is that there is a great deal of segmentation within our six focus industries,” said Anton Chilton, QAD’s chief, global field operations. “For example, within the food and beverage industry, candy and confectionary manufacturers face different challenges than those encountered by manufacturers of frozen foods. Each of the 24 vertical segments that we’ve identified face unique challenges in technology, competition, regulation and the business processes we address through our solutions. Identifying and drilling down on these vertical segments will help us to deliver solutions that more closely address customer requirements and allow us to help them align their business processes to support their business strategy and become an Effective Enterprise.”
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source http://news.statii.co.uk/qad-announces-santa-rosa-solution-enhancements-and-vertical-segment-solutions/
SuiteCRM releases Long Term Support Cycle
SalesAgility, the author and maintainer of SuiteCRM- the open source CRM applications, has announced the availability of SuiteCRM 7.8.3 Long Term Support (LTS) Edition for free download.
SuiteCRM 7.8.3 (LTS) adds new features to enhance the performance, stability and security of this fully supported open source Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform. The LTS release sees further expansion of the commercial ecosystem of support and professional services contracts available to users of SuiteCRM.
The extended maintenance period meets demand from business users to deploy SuiteCRM widely over a period of years. It also positions SuiteCRM as a platform for innovation and a driver of increased agility and large scale cost-reductions for enterprise-class deployments.
“SuiteCRM 7.8.3 LTS Edition is built for business,” said Greg Soper, CEO of SalesAgility Ltd. “This release brings together significant feature and stability improvements to a free and open source CRM application. SuiteCRM is at the centre of a growing ecosystem of applications that serve businesses of all sizes extremely well. We look forward to seeing its adoption grow across each LTS lifespan.”
As part of its news, SalesAgility also announced that SuiteCRM 7.8.3 LTS would continue to be 100% upgrade compatible with SugarCRM Community Edition (CE). SugarCRM users who are facing an uncertain future with the withdrawal of all support and updates of CE, can upgrade to SuiteCRM LTS and be confident in the long term security of the platform.
Next on the agenda for SalesAgility is looking into a warranted version of SuiteCRM
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source http://news.statii.co.uk/suitecrm-releases-long-term-support-cycle/
Global shop solutions improves shop floor security and efficiency with RFID technology
In today’s cost-competitive manufacturing environment, shaving minutes or even seconds from processes performed hundreds or thousands of times a day can make a real difference in shop floor productivity.
Global Shop Solutions, producer of manufacturing ERP software, helps their customers achieve this goal by using RFID (radio frequency identification) technology to simplify time and attendance and routine inventory processes.
Most manufacturers use multiple systems involving front-door badges, barcodes and picture IDs to manage building entry, logging on and off jobs, and visual identification. Global Shop Solutions RFID technology saves time and improves building security by consolidating these three processes into one. Using a single RFID card, employees can now gain entry at the front door, clock into jobs, and visually identify their authorisation to be in the building.
“Our mission is to simplify manufacturing,” says Global Shop Solutions CEO Dusty Alexander, “and one way we do that is by helping manufacturers eliminate redundant processes. Our RFID technology eliminates the need for biometric scanners, barcoded employee lists and separate ID badges. As a result, our customers enjoy simpler building entry and ERP system access, faster employee logins, and reduced human error.”
When asked what he thought of Global Shop Solutions ERP software, Production Manager Pete Madrid of Bazz Houston, a customer for nearly 18 years, responded:
“I like the fact the Global Shop Solutions continues to work hard at staying ahead of us by constantly adding new features to the system.”
Adding new features is a continual effort at Global Shop Solutions, which is why its RFID technology is offered to customers at no additional cost. The only expense to users is a small investment in RFID readers and inventory labels with embedded RFID chips.
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source http://news.statii.co.uk/global-shop-solutions-improves-shop-floor-security-and-efficiency-with-rfid-technology/
Weighing the Cost of an ERP Implementation Against the Cost of Inefficiency
New enterprise software costs money, consumes time and introduces risk to the implementing organization. Unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on how you look at it – these costs are very tangible, which can scare off an executive team and cause them to delay investing in ERP implementations.
The benefits of these implementation costs are a bit vague, nebulous and can be harder to quantify. This makes the task of confidently investing in a new ERP system somewhat challenging.
This is a phenomenon we observe for many of our clients. The downside of waiting too long to reconcile the costs and benefits of a new ERP system is that you are more likely to wait until it’s too late – or, at the very least, wait until you have no choice but to replace your system.
So what can you do to get ahead and accurately weigh the implementation costs versus the cost of inefficiency if you don’t implement?
1. Quantify the costs of inefficiency. Your current processes are likely broken, inefficient and/or ripe of opportunities for improvement. Those costs are very real and very tangible, even though they may not seem as concrete as the known line items on your implementation budget. Your employees, customers and executives are all feeling these costs, so it’s your job to quantify them. These costs will become even more real once you define how much time is being wasted on current activities and how much time automating some of those processes could save (which should all be part of your business process management initiative). Apply these time savings to decreased labor costs and other process benefits and you will be able to paint a picture of the measurable costs that will be saved by implementing a new system.
2. Have a clear vision of what your ERP implementation can and should do for your organization. In order to complete #1, you’ll need to have a clear vision of where your organization is headed and what you expect to get out of your ERP system. If you’re like most clients we work with, you may not have any doubt that a new ERP system is right for you simply because your legacy system is so outdated that you have no choice. However, this isn’t a good enough reason. You must define what exactly you want to be getting out of your system – increased inventory turns, increased sales, reduced process cycle times, less labor costs, and/or whatever specific benefits you expect to achieve. Only when you have done this can you quantify the costs of inefficiency.
3. Define how your organization will achieve those benefits. Numbers in a business case are meaningless without clear and tangible steps on how to achieve them. In order to fully “operationalize” these potential business benefits, your team will need to outline the steps and owners of the steps to realizing those benefits. For example, which specific software modules and business process changes will be required to achieve the expected benefit of increased inventory turns? How exactly will the processes be changed to reduce your process cycle times? Answering a multitude of questions such as these will ensure that you realize expected business benefits rather than creating a business case that collects dust on a shelf. It will also provide a strong foundation for downstream organizational change management, training, and employee communications activities.
Unfortunately, there is never a good time to start an enterprise software initiative, but it’s something that most organizations need to further their businesses, scale for growth, increase revenue and improve delivery to their customers.
By Eric Kimberling
The post Weighing the Cost of an ERP Implementation Against the Cost of Inefficiency appeared first on Statii News.
source http://news.statii.co.uk/weighing-the-cost-of-an-erp-implementation-against-the-cost-of-inefficiency/
Tuesday 18 April 2017
Monday 17 April 2017
3 Web Hosting Trends to Keep an Eye on in 2017
Choosing an affordable and reliable web hosting service for your website is important. Failing to do so means you have to deal with downtime when your website becomes inaccessible. This, in turn, leads to frustrated visitors, lost money, and, sometimes, poor SEO rankings. A poor service is also slow, has limited bandwidth and limited storage space.
Besides choosing the right service for your business, you need to remain informed on the latest trends in this crucial area of business. Web hosting, like any other field in IT, is evolving at a rapid pace with improvements and changes being made every day. For that reason, here are web hosting trends to keep an eye on in 2017.
1. A Greater Focus on Cloud Hosting Security
The cloud is an important part of the internet today and almost every internet user is aware of it. It allows you to store and later access your documents from multiple devices. Businesses both big and small also use it to cut the cost of computing.
This wide adoption of cloud computing by both people and businesses has not been lost on hackers. They are busy seeking ways to exploit breaches in cloud security. One such way is by creating malware. In response, cloud hosting companies such as Smart Hosting are investing heavily in security and training their staff on the issue.
2. More Differentiation among Hosting Providers
During the cloud’s infancy, hosting providers more or less provided the same basic services. Today, however, there is a move towards providing more services on top of existing hosting plans and marketing the advantages to customers. This is all in a bid to differentiate a service from those of the competition in a crowded and cutthroat industry.
Behind this differentiation is a heavy reliance on automation. It allows providers to cut out human intervention, increase efficiency, diversify their portfolios, and raise their profit margins.
3. More Reselling and Partnerships
Because of the wide adoption of cloud computing, big players such as Amazon and Apple are entering the field. To survive this onslaught, small businesses are changing tactics. Knowing that they cannot compete with the big guys, they are forming stronger partnerships with each other and with resellers.
This affiliate-reseller strategy is working. One company bundles some of its services and sells them to the second one, which has lower infrastructure costs and, therefore, higher margins. The second company then sells the bundled services to online companies and small businesses. It targets a specific niche while providing competitive prices and excellent customer service. In the end, both small companies make handsome profit margins.
Web hosting plays a crucial role in the operation and success of a business. Because it is changing and evolving all the time, you need to keep abreast of any new trends. For 2017, the first trend to watch is the greater focus on security. As hackers try to exploit breaches in cloud hosting security, providers are hitting back with stronger security measures.
Also, watch out for increased differentiation among hosting providers. The hosting field is now more crowded and competitive than it has ever been. Carving out a niche is the only way to survive. Finally, expect to see more reselling and partnerships, especially among smaller players.
The post 3 Web Hosting Trends to Keep an Eye on in 2017 appeared first on Statii News.
source http://news.statii.co.uk/3-web-hosting-trends-to-keep-an-eye-on-in-2017/