Agresso + CODA, VITA + Link (+ CODA 2go): What’s the Sum? – Part 2

Enter CODA Link Architecture

For its part, CODA’s value proposition is in being a best-in-class financial management solution with possibly unmatched connectivity (i.e., it plays nicely with others, if not almost everyone in the yard). By the very nature of its narrow functional scope, CODA’s financial management software provides a stand-alone solution that simply must fit into customers’ existing IT infrastructure to work with other business systems without negatively impacting them.

CODA focuses on solutions targeted at chief financial officers (CFOs) and controllers. The “best-in-class” financial management designation comes from the single Web browser-based general ledger design that accommodates the “multi-everything” mantra (i.e., multi-currency, multi-country, multi-dimension, multi-subledger, etc.). This way CODA is able to meet both local and global requirements, and the system is compliant with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), and International Financial Reporting System (IFRS).

CODA’s customers have been raving about the vendor meeting their needs for consistent and accurate data, and an up-to-date “single version of the truth.” In addition, they often talk about improved financial processes (e.g., purchase-to-pay, invoice-to-collection, record-to-report, etc.), more streamlined and effective financial period closing practices, complete audit trails, and flexible enterprise reporting and analysis capabilities.

CODA-Financials is targeted at midsize and large companies across all public and commercial sectors, while CODA Dream targets small and medium enterprises (SMEs) , primarily in the UK. Both products have a long heritage, and CODA certainly has a remarkable reputation in the UK’s CFO/controller community.

CODA-Financials has a similar number of customers as Agresso, and has customers in all geographies (about 2,800 customers in over 100 countries). CODA has local sales and service & support hubs in the US, Europe, and Singapore.

The current Release 11 of CODA Financials (code-named Neon) has seen significant research and development (R&D) investment (the vendor estimates around 300 person years) to meet its customers’ changing needs. These are along the lines of helping organizations to achieve superior finance processes and improve business visibility (e.g., performance by company, location, product, line of business, etc.), regulatory compliance, and corporate governance.

In recent years, CODA has expanded its offerings beyond accounting transactions into other areas relevant to CFOs, such as financial analysis, financial consolidation, cash management (through the acquisition of OCRA), and financial governance solutions/business process control. This has enabled CODA to cross-sell these solutions to existing customers and even to organizations that do not necessarily use CODA’s financial management applications. However, the effort has not realized significant increases in revenue. For more on these events, see TEC’s 2005 series entitled “Best-of-breed Approach to Finance and Accounting.”

Superior Connectivity

The underlying Link architecture provides the backbone for CODA’s sophisticated and interoperable enterprise financials solution. Link’s capabilities give financial executives’ applications’ change management capabilities in terms of fast implementation, “low-impact” integration, and pain-free upgrading.

CODA’s standalone specialist financial management software has been designed to work with other surrounding IT systems, thanks to its notable system compatibility and easy integration. For one, the vendor’s stand-alone components fit into existing infrastructures due to their support for the following platforms (per each architectural layer):

* Hardware – Windows/Intel (Wintel) ; HP-UX servers; SUN SPARC; IBM pSeries (formerly RS/6000); and IBM System i (formerly iSeries and AS/400)
* Operating systems (OS) – Microsoft Windows; UNIX; Linux; and OS/400
* Databases – Microsoft SQL Server; Oracle; Sybase; and IBM DB2
* Web servers – Internet Information Services (IIS) and Apache HTTP Server
* Web browsers – Windows Internet Explorer (IE) and Mozilla Firefox
* Integrated development environments (IDEs) – Microsoft .NET Framework and Java Platform Enterprise Edition (formerly J2EE).

Moreover, integration with other key business systems can take place via either CODA 2link, a user-friendly integration tool (with more structure to it), or simply Web Services that capitalize on SOA principles. CODA 2Link offers a choice of appropriate toolsets for integration, starting with table-based batch loading integration. Integration can also be done via online remote procedure calls (RPCs), via extensible markup language (XML) in a distributed manner, or via a combination of XML interfaces and Web Services.

That is to say that this architecture blueprint provides both simple integration (via Microsoft Excel uploads) and advanced integration options. The latter options include Structured Query Language (SQL) batch uploads, Visual basic .NET and/or C language application programming interfaces (APIs) for legacy systems. Last but not least, and as said before, integration can also be programmatic via XML and Web Services.

User access is via a pure Web client or embedded within Microsoft Office (CODA also has its own implementation of AJAX called APE). Moreover, personal digital assistant (PDA) devices and mobile delivery of personalized reports are also supported.

The Web-based deployment and infrastructure for effective data management provides secure and personalized access to an up-to-date “single version of the truth.” The system ensures that everyone is “on the same page” by keeping functional updates “in sync” for all users, and by gathering, unifying, and analyzing data from systems across the entire organization, in a timely manner.

The system offers wide-ranging automation capabilities for data entry and processing, reconciliation, reporting, and financial processes. Personalization capabilities are also at the core of the architecture, with users driving configuration and tailoring of forms, inquiries, reports, and so on. There is a single graphical user interface (GUI) and look-and-feel for all CODA products, and users can redesign CODA’s processes and screens that come “out of the box.”

But the “Future Proofing” feature is the ability to decouple users’ personalized interfaces from the underlying CODA version on the server side, which provides for minimal impact on interfaces when moving to the latest CODA release. In other words, all user-driven customization and integration is preserved and protected through the upgrade process.

So, How is CODA’s SOA Better Than Other SOAs?

In addition to the aforementioned support for multiple platforms and personalization capabilities, I was wondering whether the CODA 2link SOA-based architecture is any different and better than other SOA counterparts, and how. In other words, SOA is known for plugging pieces together, and most SOA platforms are fairly evenly matched in that regard.

If there is something that differentiates the Coda 2link’s performance from, say, SAP NetWeaver, IBM WebSphere, or Oracle Fusion Middleware (OFM) connection capabilities, then users need to know that, and why it is better. CODA believes that its unique selling proposition (USP) with CODA Link is the extent of its coverage. Namely, all of the granular functions within CODA are available as Web Services, which means that anything that users can do within CODA’s finance system can be easily integrated to and accessed via another application – a front-end business system, or another back-end system, for example.

This feature also means that users can achieve a greater level of integration than with other systems, and avoid the normal pitfalls of enterprise application integration (EAI) and middleware products such as having to duplicate customer records or other data, for example. We should also note that OFM, WebSphere and NetWeaver are really middleware offerings that require extensive certification processes for best results. What CODA is providing is standards-based (the WS-I or Web Services Interoperability organization) service entry points into its business applications.

The vendor is not supplying a middleware solution per se, but rather a finance engine that can sit at the heart of an enterprise-wide, integrated, best-of-breed applications suite that meets the unique requirements of the customer in a way that no broad homogenous application suite could. The organic use of Web Services provides

* the ability to upgrade CODA but not have to change users’ screens;
* the ability to use the same development methods irrespective of the underlying hardware and software platform;
* integration with other systems independent of location (i.e., intranet or outside the firewall, at subsidiaries, affiliates, business partners, etc.);
* a single point of maintenance (repository) for financial business rules and security.

Furthermore, the entire Link infrastructure has full version support, so that CODA can guarantee that any integrations made using any of the technologies it offers within its architecture will continue to work through future upgrades of CODA. This versioning support, which enables consumers to maximize their investment in R&D around solutions they build even over multiple upgrades from CODA, is possibly a unique proposition that should resonate with some prospective customers.

Back to Agresso + CODA

The merger with Agresso has certainly given CODA a safer harbor from less friendly acquirers, while Agresso now has a two-prong product strategy along the “change” theme. On a somewhat negative note, despite Agresso’s ongoing success, its revenue is still centered on Europe, with only 9 percent of 2008 revenue coming from outside the region.

The Wizardry of Business Process Management – Part 3

It’s About (the “Six Rs” of) Automation, After All

Companies have to optimize their processes through technology that automatically integrates new objectives into their systems to adjust for every specific situation. They need a “brain” that ensures that processes and decisions are optimized per these new objectives in both mainstream and exceptional situations.

The idea is to get the initial process quickly and iterate later. Business users can do it one customer issue at the time, starting with any business process that needs improvement: e.g., open a new account, charge dispute, detect fraud, increase credit line, handle a missed payment, and so on.

As said in Part 2, Pegasystems (also known as Pega) users can use the familiar Microsoft Visio diagramming tool to visually create (model) the processes that will deliver better customer service. There are many pre-built solution frameworks with industry best practices to get them jump-started if necessary.

But the second brick in the Yellow Brick Road is the ability of the technology to automate all necessary computer programming. Namely, business people can draw nice pictures and diagrams to capture objectives, but if between that model of what you want and ultimately running your business you need to do lots of tedious Java or C++ programming, you cannot be agile and nimble enough. To that technical end, the model that business users create should actually automate the programming that makes the business process run.

The final brick in the Yellow Brick Road of BPM is the automation of business processes that then “drives the work to be done” by, well, automating the actual work. In other words, the work is not merely tracked or routed for human intervention, but is also completed with the power of smart automation and minimal manual effort.

Nirvana would be to ultimately automate the work for people, who then only add value as required. Although the human touch is always needed, the point of business process automation (BPA) is to eliminate any distractions.

Again stepping out of Trefler’s presentation’s narrow scope, let me try to explain here how Pega’s SmartBPM suite really turns work automation into a tool for business changes on the fly. Let’s explore the “Six Rs” of driving work to be done via Pega’s BPM technology.

As the first “R,” the BPM product makes it easy for users to receive the work that needs processing. SmartBPM has a broad ability to receive input out-of-the-box from virtually any conceivable channel.

To that end, flexible, self-expanding extensible markup language (XML)-based data structures make it easy to capture whatever data, attachments, images, or other content may be appropriate, so that users can always have the right information at hand. Web services, e-mail notifications, and so on are all treated through a common software architecture, to ensure that processes designed for one particular channel can be leveraged in a multi-channel environment.

The second “R” stands for route. To that end, rules ensure optimal work management for either people or systems by organizing related work into Cases and Folders, thus prioritizing and managing them. The duplicate checking ability prevents redundancy, while skills-based routing (SBR) optimizes work assignments.

For the third “R” of automation, report, the system offers over 100 standard reports, plus an open database to integrate with other customer information and enterprise reporting systems. Canned reporting capabilities can even be extended to include real-time business activity monitoring (BAM). For instance, built-in Service Level Agreement (SLA) management and statistical sampling provide management impacts in real time.

Customers use these capabilities to coordinate and control key business functions. For example, National Australian Bank (NAB) uses SmartBPM to control the receipt, prioritization, and execution of billions of dollars of high value payments, ensuring that every wire transfer request is handled according to the best practice.

The Exceeding “Three Rs” of BPA

But these are just the basic three “Rs” of BPA, something like the reading, writing, and arithmetic abilities in elementary school. They are the basis of what was originally called workflow automation that represents the procedural side of the world.

These days, competitive organizations need much more than the basics. To that end, PegaRULES Process Commander, a thin-client collaborative environment for both business users and IT departments, brings the further benefits and the power of automation with the additional three “Rs” that make the procedures even smarter.

Thus, the fourth “R” stands for research: the ability to dynamically get the data needed to automate work when and as needed, and use the best sources. Retrieving data if and only if it is needed saves resources and money. In addition, the system saves users’ time by only asking relevant questions and making it easy to dynamically insert alternative data sources.

Then comes the “R” for respond: the ability to reduce effort and provide service by ensuring that interactions with people are “smart.” For example, users are able to alter the forms and fields of the hypertext markup language (HTML) screens based on the rules and the situation. In addition, companies are able to notify partners, customers, and other relevant parties effectively and appropriately, and even have them directly participate in the completion of the work over the Web.

Last but not least, the sixth “R” stands for resolve: the ability to drive work through to completion with the power of an inference engine. In other words, it is the ability to fully automate work where possible and guide users if and when user involvement is needed.

The “Six Rs” of Automation in Action

Pega’s customers use these BPA capabilities to weave policies and other declarative rules into their procedures. As an illustration, let’s see how the “Six Rs” would work at an insurance call center:

1. Receive – A New York customer wants to add boat coverage to his homeowners and auto insurance plan. He or she goes to the online portal, gets partially through, but has questions about what happens if he or she moors in Maine in the summer, but brings the boat back for storage in New York in winter. He or she picks up the phone, switching from the Web to the phone channel.
2. Research – In the background, the system pre-determines that the local insurance agent is not skilled enough to write the policy for a boat moored in Maine, calculate the right policy for a commission sharing (and potential discounts), and up-sell.
3. Route – Thus, the customer profile triggers an SBR to a preferred customers queue in the call center. The right customer service representative (CSR) quickly asks a few relevant questions (e.g., near-shore or offshore sailing?) and recommends an additional multi-line coverage umbrella.
4. Resolve – The customer receives a quote to his liking and the change in policy is resolved by underwriting and a system-driven straight-through processing (STP) to be bound.
5. Respond – The customer gets an automatically generated confirmation e-mail with a print snail mail follow-up and confirmation of the change of policy and debit acknowledgement.
6. Report – The activity is monitored for ongoing process improvements and optimization via productivity and quality alerts.

The benefits of such intent-driven user experience are that it eliminates the CSR’s guesswork, since the system analyzes information on the customer history, coverage, value, prior interactions, etc., as well as the insurance provider’s business goals to determine the best course of action. Furthermore, CSRs benefit from improved effectiveness and efficiency, since the SmartBPM suite guides the agent through the interaction process and delivers the appropriate scripts, process steps, and customer information exactly when needed. In addition, Pega dynamically alters the agent experience to accommodate multiple roles (e.g., sales vs. service) and locations.

The Wizardry of Closing Execution Gaps

Going back to Alan Trefler’s luncheon presentation, in summary, he concluded that it takes the following: corporate courage (not to flinch in these times, but to instead try to see what can be done), a BPM brain (to capture the business intent), and a heart (a service oriented architecture [SOA]-based infrastructure). This creative cinematic BPM metaphor did not come out of thin air, since the presentation took place exactly on the 70th anniversary of the great “Wizard of Oz” movie.

Another salient point in Trefler’s creative speech was that the market for BPM software is driven by competitive businesses that seek to close the execution gaps that may exist between their business objectives and their actual business processes. Pega’s target customers are large, industry-leading service organizations faced with managing transaction-intensive, complex and changing processes that seek the agility needed for growth, productivity, and regulatory compliance.

Financial services organizations require software to improve the quality, accuracy, and efficiency of customer interactions and transactions processing. Pega’s customer process management and exceptions management products allow its financial service customers to be more responsive to changing business requirements. Representative Pega’s financial services customers include Bank of America, Barclays Bank, Citigroup, Credit Suisse Group, HSBC Group Holdings, JPMorgan Chase & Co., National Australian Bank (NAB), and TD Bank Financial Group.

Pega’s financial industry knowledge and experience has resulted in solutions to help these customers close execution gaps and improve the following processes:

* In Bank Card Operations: Multi-channel service; Self-service account opening; Product roll-out; Fraud processing; Customer on-boarding, etc.
* In Retail Banking: Event-driven marketing; Account opening; New product introduction; Service case management; Specialized fulfillment, etc.
* In Wholesale Banking (e.g., wire transfers and treasury management): Proactive service monitoring; Account servicing; New product introduction; Compliance trade monitoring; Exception management, etc.

For their part, healthcare organizations seek products that integrate their front-office and back-office initiatives and help drive customer service, efficiency, and productivity. Representative Pega’s healthcare customers include: Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, Group Health Cooperative, HealthNow New York, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals (Kaiser Permanente), and Wellpoint.

Pega’s healthcare industry involvement has resulted in solutions to help these customers close execution gaps and improve the following processes: Automated Underwriting; Sales Renewals; Appeals & Grievances; Consumer Directed Healthcare (CDHC) offerings; Facilitation; Authorization Management; Small- and Large-Plan Enrollment and Servicing; Disease/Care Management, and so on.

Insurance companies, whether competing globally or nationally for customers and channels, need software to automate the key activities of policy/contract rating, quoting, customization, underwriting, and servicing as well as products that improve customer service and the overall customer experience. Representative Pega insurance industry customers include: American National Insurance Company, former American International Group (AIG) that recently changed name into American International Underwriters (AIU), John Hancock, Farmers Insurance Group, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, and The Prudential Insurance Company of America. Pega’s insurance industry knowledge and experience has resulted in solutions to help these customers close gaps and improve the following processes: automated underwriting; event-driven marketing; product cloning; claims management; legacy transformation, etc.

A CRM Provider Too?

While its customers are typically large companies in the financial services, healthcare and insurance markets, with SmartBPM Suite, Pega is also able to offer solutions to a broader range of companies and industries, such as telecommunications, government, life sciences, manufacturing, and travel services. Marquee customers here include Amgen, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), General Electric Company (GE), Ford Motor Company, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, and The ServiceMaster Company.

All of the abovementioned companies are largely concerned about their customer service levels. Pega’s customer interaction know-how has also resulted in solutions to close gaps and improve the following processes: Customer retention and cross-selling; Specialized fulfillment; New hire training; Post-order clean-up; Objection handling; Reducing on-call time, Product warranty and servicing management, and so on.

In fact, Pega is also regarded as a customer relationship management (CRM) provider. ZDNet’s 2007 blog post mentioned Pega within a Forrester’s CRM Wave research document. Pega does acknowledge the competition from CRM application vendors including Chordiant Software, Microsoft Dynamics CRM by Microsoft, Siebel by Oracle; Pivotal CRM by CDC Software, and Consona CRM to name but a few.

There is also competition coming from companies that provide application specific software for the financial services, healthcare, insurance, and other specific markets such as Norkom Technologies, SmartStream Technologies, SunGard, The TriZetto Group, Oracle’s solutions for financial services, Misys, etc. An interesting nugget of information is that Pega used to be a Salesforce.com on-demand CRM customer. The vendor recently made a decision to replace Salesforce.com Enterprise Edition with its own CRM system, in an “drink your own champagne” manner.

Michael Jackson: Greatest Hits for ERP Users

You Are Not Alone – a customer representative will be with you shortly. Please hold the line!
Beat It – I’ll fix the label printer myself!
Dangerous – The old server is on fire because your boss decided that a new one is not necessary.
In the Closet – Where’s that interface the vendor promised us?
Black or White – As a project manager, you probably already know that implementation can only be a success or a failure
Remember the Time … when you could still track inventory without having to go check in the warehouse?
Who Is It … that sent all invoices to the wrong customer?
Keep the Faith – Still waiting for those bugs to be fixed?
Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough … sales orders into the system and then please try NOT to use the “delete all” button.
Heal the World – try lean manufacturing. If that doesn’t work, try this:

Blame It on the Boogie
Blame it on yourself (sunshine)
Ain’t nobody’s fault (moonlight)
But yours and that boogie, boogie, boogie (good times)
All night long (boogie)

Customer Relationship Manufacturing: the Symbiosis of Sales and Manufacturing

The departments within a company are like the children in a family: the owner, chief executive officer (CEO), or any other decision maker in the company, has a favorite department—in somewhat the same way that parents tend to have a favorite child. Not having children of my own, I did some research on the topic and found this very interesting article on a study about the burying beetle (Nicrophorus vespilloides), an insect that seems to have a family structure that is very similar to ours.

Another study from Temple University shows that “even a child who feels its parents may have favored one sibling over another will still be generally content later in life.” I thought children were supposed to be more than “content” later in life; but again, I have no children, so what do I know?

In a manufacturing company, the two favorite children (i.e., departments) are sales—because they make money—and production, because sales cannot make money without them. The parents (owner, CEO, etc.) usually have only one favorite, depending on their professional backgrounds, personal reasons, etc.

Still, in the same way parents admit that having a favorite child should be avoided, a wise decision maker in a manufacturing company will know that having a favorite department is not good for the business, mainly because it will create non-constructive competition between departments, which affects productivity.

Why Do They Need to Work Together?

Harmony, peace, well-being, and a positive work environment? Yes, those are good reasons too; but in the end, it comes down to the fact that the two departments are more efficient when working in tandem, therefore making the company more profitable.

Close cooperation between departments—especially between production and sales in manufacturing—can be a very important competitive advantage. It is especially true for small to medium businesses (SMBs), for which the competition is tougher. SMBs today need to be very flexible and to easily adapt to the fast-changing market—which is very hard to do when you have internal competition between departments. Here are three reasons why sales and production should get over their sibling rivalry.

1. Manufacturing companies must address shifting customer needs. This is done mostly by understanding those needs and how they evolve. This process cannot be fulfilled by either of the two departments alone. Production needs constant feedback from sales on the quality of the products, market trends, etc. And sales needs to know how production can adapt to new demands and how those changes will impact the company.

2. They can both improve each other’s activities. Sales can sell more by knowing how products are made; production can make more and know more about what customers really need. Both departments can provide vital information for one another. Sales and customer service can gather data about defects, returns, and many other types of problems, which can then be used by production to improve quality. On the other hand, production can share its knowledge on how to address these problems, which will benefit the customer care team when speaking to customers.

3. Inefficient collaboration between production and sales can affect other departments. Think about distribution or warehouse management. If production is making too many finished goods and sales cannot sell them, those goods will probably have to be stored in the warehouse for weeks, maybe even months—which means extra costs. Purchasing can also be affected if production does not know which raw materials are needed and in what quantities because sales cannot tell production how much to produce.

How to Make Them Work Together?

What you should NOT DO is tell both of them they’re your favorite child (department), as the woman who wrote this article did. Having a favorite will probably happen anyway, but you should act as if there were no difference. This way, neither team will have an advantage over the other, which will help avoid frustration, poor communication, bad- mouthing of each other, etc.

Probably the most important thing to do is define workflows that include both departments. This should create a continuous exchange of information between production and sales. Knowledge bases created and maintained for products and customers, with well-structured data and well-defined analytical processes, should be available to both departments as a common source of know-how.

Something else you could try is to make departments switch places regularly, for a short period of time. Have one of your sales people work in production for a few hours and vice versa. Getting to know exactly what the others do—and how they do it—will help them understand and accept the others better. Just make sure they don’t end up like Mark Twain’s prince and pauper!

Have regular meetings with both teams, together. Each team will be aware of the problems the other team is facing, which will make it easier to convince them to help. Also, this will make them all feel like a part of the same team—which is precisely what a company should be.

Assign common objectives to both teams. This way, no one will have reasons to say that they tried but the others weren’t ready or did not listen. Responsibilities, as well as rewards, should be equally shared between the two teams (which should really work as one).

On the technical side, an integrated business solution or suite should be used by both departments. This will allow collaboration and sharing, as well as definition and implementation of workflows, which will make everyone’s work easier and ultimately more efficient.

Food and Drug Safety: Prevention Better Than Cure (For Sure)

Namely, the “G.I. bug” that our 18-month-old likely got in her playgroup spread so quickly and violently to anyone who was in contact with her (including the broader family members that stopped by to just traditionally exchange holiday gifts). Sure, viral gastroenteritis might likely have had nothing to do with what we ate at the time, but the feeling of being listless and other unpleasant (and unspeakable) G.I. bug symptoms were quite similar to those that food poisoning outbreaks can “treat” us to.

Food processing and distribution are not be the only market with burning product safety issues, since similar issues can also apply to the drug and pharmaceuticals sector or consumer packaged goods (CPGs); remember lead-tainted toys or antifreeze-laced toothpaste coming from China? Still, we all seem to be the most sensitive about food-related breaking news, possibly due to the likelihood of those hitting home (perhaps even in a willful way by bio-terrorists).

Thus, some food processing market experts have lately been frustrated by companies’ focus on location and lot control, serial number tracking, and traceability as the panaceas to solve product safety issues.

While important, these critical capabilities still help mostly with minimizing the damage (i.e., during product recalls), but the damage to customers and company’s brand has unfortunately already taken place, leaving many folks seriously ill (if not even fatally affected).

Track-and-trace After the Fact: Good But Insufficient

On the other hand, while I agree that detecting the problem before “the horse leaves the barn” would be a great use of IT tools, my IT experience still only involves location and lot tracking (while the product is in the hands of the manufacturer) and traceability (once the goods go to the customer). The goal has typically been the immediacy of problem identification and minimizing the extent of a product recall.

Sure, random sampling of ingredients is usually performed by labs and quality control (QC) departments, but they can only report an “accept” or “reject” status. To also be fair, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) is a systematic preventive approach to food safety and pharmaceutical safety that addresses physical, chemical, and biological hazards as a means of prevention rather than finished product inspection. Still, like lot control and traceability, HACCP is only a piece of a much broader product safety issue.

Proactive Product Safety

Some of the market experts within leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors have thus started to develop a broader strategy to proactively protect food safety. The higher the risk (e.g., from non-processed “bag & ship” leafy green vegetables, seafood, meats, fruit and vegetables, dairy products, etc.), the greater the need for a proactive strategy.

Ultimately, this proactive approach could become part of an overarching governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) strategy (and message). Namely, companies can either choose to be reactive and support regulations and tracking as an imposed requirement or take a more proactive stance as part of a more comprehensive corporate social responsibility (CSR) message.

In other words, providing nutrition labeling and track-and-trace capability is one thing, whereas adding food education and balanced eating with more “green” or “organic” products is a whole different level that goes beyond simply compliance reporting. Implementing a comprehensive food safety management program both on the internal production side and overall supply chain side is one thing, whereas educating consumers is a CSR message.

Certainly, phrases like “organic or real food” and “farm-to-table” may sound like elitist jargon tossed around at upscale restaurants, and completely out of touch with the folks than cannot afford even a $0.99 burger (or such junk food) these days. But the country’s top chefs, several of whom traveled to Washington, DC for President Obama’s recent inauguration, hope that Obama’s apparent flair for good and healthy food will encourage people to expand their horizons when it comes to what they eat.

These chefs tout locally grown, environmentally friendly and - most importantly - nutritious food. They urge diners, even those who may never be able to afford to eat at their extravagant restaurants, to grow their own vegetables, shop at farmers’ markets, and pay attention to where their food comes from.

But before this “organic pie in the sky” becomes a reality, let’s see what some pundits within ERP providers have in mind when it comes to being proactive about food safety. Whenever there is a serious discussion about the food industry, one cannot avoid Olin Thompson, VP of Industry Strategy at Lawson Software and former contributor to TEC’s newsletter (e.g., see TEC’s previous article entitled “Food Safety, Government Regulations, and Brand Protection”). Lately, Olin has been talking about his (and Lawson’s) holistic approach as the “Four Ps” (”4Ps”) of Food Safety (along the lines of well-known 4Ps of the Marketing Theory).

“Four Ps” of Food Safety

The first “P” is “Prevent” or take steps to avoid a problem, since the best defense is good offense. Olin considers this as the most important of the four Ps, whereby sanitation, QC, and HACCP are some utilized practices. The idea is to build a quality fence around your business, with top management’s genuine commitment to food safety. To that end, your business system should provide the following capabilities:

* Product specifications during procurement processes;
* Supplier/vendor ratings;
* Inbound QC testing;
* Quality specifications as part of inventory management modules;
* Product quarantine management;
* Product aging tracking;
* Date-sensitive picking; and
* Lot tracking.

The second “P” stands for “Prepare” or build the ability to react to a problem if and when it happens. Good preparation presumes that you will have an incident and prepares you to respond via integration of food safety data with operations and automated data collection (ADC), storage, and analysis of food safety data. To that end, your business system should provide lot track-and-trace and location management capabilities.

Next comes “Prove,” to both yourselves and other concerned parties, that you are preventing problems and you are prepared to react if you have one. In other words, you have to be able to prove to all concerned parties that your product recall system will respond when it is needed (whether due to problems of an internal nature or coming from customers and regulators). This can be achieved by frequently testing the system, whereby the business system should be able to conduct mock recalls.

Finally, the last P is “Proactively respond” (OK, Olin acknowledges that it requires a little stretch here to get another “P”). Namely, if a problem is uncovered, one must be aggressive in addressing the recall and other needs, since holding back usually makes it worse. All incidents must be taken seriously and the company must respond quickly and completely. Over-response is often less expensive in terms of dollars and negative PR than under-response.

While management commitment to a proactive response is critical, the company’s business system should also provide rapid recall support. In other words, to meet the four-hour response requirement set forth in the Bioterrorism Act of 2002, the system must provide the actionable information in minutes rather than hours.

Which Enterprise Applications Can Cater to the 4Ps of Product Safety?

The critical part in the 4Ps-enabling applications landscape would be a Process Manufacturing ERP system like Lawson M3 [evaluate this product]. These systems are typically the most important for tracing and establishing the quality fence. Namely, ERP systems process inventory transactions that can come from the entire value chain. Process manufacturing ERP systems often have the laboratory software applications as well, while the procurement module can handle specifications, vendor certifications, and vendor rating.

Interestingly, Olin doesn’t consider product lifecycle management (PLM) systems to be critical with regards to product safety. Still, he at least acknowledges PLM systems’ help with creating quality specifications and matching approved ingredients to geographic markets (e.g., can this ingredient be in a product that is going to be sold in Japan?).

Supply chain event management (SCEM) tools are certainly critical for visibility and action reasons, albeit they can overlap with the inventory management modules of ERP systems. These visibility and workflow-based tools help only if they have lot tracking capabilities, perhaps bolstered with radio frequency identification (RFID) sensors and accompanying applications.

To that end, recently launched Lawson M3 Trace Engine is a standalone solution that combines repository, SCEM, data cleansing and integration, and workflow capabilities for food safety in extended supply chains. The product was described in great detail in my previous two-part blog series.

Manufacturing execution systems (MES) are important since HACCP capabilities are often found within them, but typically a MES is lot-blind and thus has to be interfaced to an ERP counterpart. Likewise, a laboratory information management system (LIMS) or quality management system (QMS) is a critical part of the quality fence for handling testing rules, analysis of results, vendor ratings, lab instructions, etc.

But as a standalone solution LIMS/QMS is usually not linked to a recall system. Most recall systems are part of ERP, which again demands some involved integration or interfacing.

The Changing Face of CRM

Being customer centric includes a wide range of strategies, approaches and ideas. Agile manufacturing, focused factories, flexible specialization, customer relationship management, and mass customization are strategies that emerged from the literature in the last decades. Despite different backgrounds and focus, the major objective is to improve the ability of enterprises to react swiftly to changing customer needs and to address the heterogeneity of demand more efficiently.

As a result, sales organizations have to optimize their customer relationships by relying heavily on technology. In particular, organizations will have to count on CRM vendors to deliver visibility into streamlined operational and supply chain efficiencies, mainly so organizations can retain existing sales opportunities. Other CRM challenges include the need to measure the impact of sales campaigns “on-the-fly” and to offer greater insight into sales analytics. This document will take a look at how some CRM vendors are working to meet the challenge.

The Challenges Marketing Organizations Face

Marketing and sales driven organizations face a variety of challenges at different levels. At the senior management level, the challenge is to maintain and increase profitability and grow market share. Inherent in these is the need to identify key performance metrics to

• Increase customer penetration
• Conduct sales planning and forecasting to predict future revenue accurately
• Use and leverage sales resources effectively
• Manage all information relevant to a particular sales account
• Implement opportunity management to obtain visibility into the sales pipeline and to qualify, manage, and distribute sales leads to appropriate personnel
• Perform sales performance analyses to monitor results by region and individual territory
• Apply product configurations and estimates to enable the sales staff to provide accurate and timely quotes to their customers, on–the-fly
• Employ collaborative tools to ensure accurate information is delivered to the customer
• Ensure customer retention by providing consistent personalized service across all client interactions

The Evolution of CRM: CRM 2.0

The CRM space has evolved from a one dimensional set of tools which provided limited interaction between back-office functions and client facing functions. Today, it has evolved to become a set of tools that are versatile enough to meet a unique set of capabilities, that are interactive, and that can provide visibility to an organization. The new CRM, “CRM 2.0”, is based on tools and principals from social networking sites, wikis, blogs, community forums, and RSS content syndication. The use of CRM 2.0 requires a paradigm shift away from just implementing a customer centric business model, to engaging the customer. This engagement becomes an integral part to any line of business that can benefit from customer input—whether it be product design, research and development, procurement, etc. Therefore we can describe CRM 2.0 as both a business model and a strategic philosophy used to actively engage customer collaboration, and is supported by a technology platform and business process.

In addition to CRM 2.0, we note below some other CRM applications.

Analytical CRM

Analytical CRM enables an organization to collect data on its customers (data mining) and develop predictive analysis by dividing clients into various segments through the use of rich application online analytical processing (OLAP). Among other things, it can be used to predict the likelihood of a customer purchasing a product or the impact of pricing models.

Mobile CRM

Mobile CRM is one of the fastest growing segments of the CRM marketplace as companies are looking for innovative ways to reach customers. The convergence of fourth generation WIFI networks, and the addition of greater functionality uniquely designed for wireless technologies, has resulted in a fully mobile office environment. The belief is that a dynamic, integrated sales force can increase the number of sales opportunities by giving sales personnel more time to meet with clients, as opposed to engaging in daily and weekly administrative work. This technology provides customers with the opportunity to have information, on-the-fly and reduces order processing time.

Integrated CRM

As many organizations—especially those within the small medium business (SMB) enterprise space—do not regard marketing, service, and sales as separate activities, CRM systems must be able to provide an integrated view of these and other back-office functions. Typically a sales representative or call center may require one view that gives them the ability to look at previous or past sales orders, track the status of a customer order, view any pricing or billing issues, and see information on sales contracts. These integrated functions are designed to optimize service to the customer.

Customizable CRM

Some sales organizations have become frustrated with rigid CRM packages that offer only one type of specific functionality and do not address the unique characteristics of their business. To remedy this, customizable CRM packages offer multiple CRM templates that are easily configurable and can support different enterprise verticals, providing flexibility and performance.

Outsourcing CRM

As the current economic slowdown continues, there may be a continued demand for outsourcing CRM—specifically call centers. In the US, there are increased compliance issues that companies need to respect, particularly with regards to the vigilance of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to enforce “do not call” legislation. However, lower forecasted economic activity may cause some US-based organizations to consider outsourcing a portion of their call center operations to stimulate onshore activities. This may potentially create a demand for focused contact center CRM applications

On Demand CRM SaaS

For organizations with a limited budget yet requiring some, but not all, of the feature functionality from major on-premise CRM solutions, on-demand (SaaS) CRM may be an option. It has a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) through its subscription-based pricing model. Additionally, the ease of deployment (as the application is accessed over the Internet) can be an advantage worth looking at if your business model is not complex.


Some Vendors Offerings
The TEC vendor showcase http://www.vendor-showcase.com is an excellent place to review the CRM space and vendor offerings in greater detail. Below are some CRM solutions that I reviewed and found worthy of mention.


Pivotal CRM by CDC Software
Pivotal CRM by CDC software is a flexible and feature-rich product which enables users to define their enterprise requirements through a customizable file template built on the MS .NET technology framework. It provides versatility to clients in the ever-changing financial services industry and to other, heavily compliance-laden industries, such as health care.

Maximizer CRM 10
Maximizer is a leading vendor of highly accessible CRM solutions. It offers an on-premise version, which has over 8,000 corporate clients, ranging in size from large global organizations to individual entrepreneurs. There is also a mobile version available, which allows users to access remote Web-enabled applications through a PDA device. The product builds on the organization’s twenty year legacy of success.

NetSuite CRM+
If your organization is considering an integrated end-to-end solution that delivers a robust CRM tool which includes sales force automation; customer support and service; analytics capabilities; and Web-enabled functionality, then this product provides the full “360 degree” of customer requirements. Through a simple click on a web portal, you can view all financial transactions by your clients. Your sales force will be able to enter orders directly into the system using remote access to engage supporting enterprise systems, like ERP, to review production schedules, thus enabling another level of customer service.

What Does the “L” in PLM Really Mean

According to Merriam-Webster, one definition of lifecycle is “a series of stages through which something (as an individual, culture, or manufactured product) passes during its lifetime.” In a typical manufacturing environment, these stages include conception, design and development, manufacture, and service. Ideally, a PLM system should manage the entire lifecycle that covers all the stages. Originally, however, the concept of PLM was designed to address product definition authoring and, later on, define data management issues for the design department. Not every stage receives equal attention under the PLM umbrella, and the application maturity of each stage is not yet at the same level.

Conception is the earliest stage of a product lifecycle. Within this stage, ideas are the raw input and development projects or tasks are the output. New ideas for product development come from different sources such as research work, through newly available technologies, brainstorming sessions, customer requirements, and more. Some of the ideas might be incorporated into existing products as new features; some might not be feasible at the moment; a large amount might simply be eliminated; the rest (grouped or alone) might become new concepts, and some of them might finally reach the development level after evaluation. Briefly, the conception stage is a process of idea attrition—only the good ones get to the next step. In this area, management applications are not quite mature and the adoption rate is relatively low. Part of the reason might be that conception is strongly associated with creativity, and people are not yet convinced that this can be handled well by machines.

Product design and development is the main stage where abundant product definition information is generated. When a concept becomes a development project, people need tools to define not only what a product should be (product design), but also how it should be manufactured (engineering design). Computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), and computer-aided engineering (CAE) are all well-recognized PLM tools that support the definition, as well as some execution processes. The adoption of PLM tools increases engineers’ individual productivity tremendously—but they also need a platform to collaborate internally (with peers and other departments inside the organization) and externally (with development partners, suppliers, and customers). The application of PLM for the design and development stage is the most mature. It is an exemplary approach for most organizations to start their PLM initiatives from this stage because it produces the majority of product definition information.

Manufacture is a joint task performed by enterprise resource planning (ERP), PLM, and other systems such as manufacturing execution systems (MES). ERP takes the lead from the planning and control angles, and MES manages and monitors the production processes on the shop floor. The reasons for having a PLM system in place at this stage are:

1. PLM provides information for what and how to produce.

2. Tight connection between PLM and ERP also helps companies develop better products that are produced in a better way.

Service includes marketing, sales, distribution, repair and maintenance, retirement, and disposal processes related to a product. The quality of these services relies on the accuracy, integrity, and timeliness of the product information that is provided. In general, the more complicated a product is, the more important it is to have the product information available for the mentioned service activities. Another reason for having a PLM system is increasing environmental compliance requirements. For example, at the time when a product enters into the last stage of its lifecycle, the manufacturer has to make sure that the disposal procedure can be handled properly so that the disposition has minimum impact to the environment—especially when it is an asset type of product that lasts years or even decades. Instead of hoping that the user will keep the manual shipped with the product, the disposal instruction has to be stored and managed securely somewhere within the manufacturer’s PLM system.

Drive down cost? What does that really mean in a supply chain world? » Fixes and Risks

Drive down cost? What does that really mean in a supply chain world

In the first part of this series of three, I will identify the challenges organizations face when driving their costs down for the supply chain network, as well as look at some strategies to bring down cost in the overall supply chain process. Here I’ll discuss two concepts on cost: cost cutting and cost reducing, and will be using definitions which are in line with Jim Tompkins article The Riddle of Supply Chain Cost Reduction. In the upcoming blogs, I will specifically discuss aspects of inventory management and IT systems and how to implement better business processes to achieve the cost reduction measures in an organization.

Many organizations would like to lower their cost in the entire supply chain, but achieving this is not possible without suitable strategic plans in place. Usually, in cost cutting strategies, organizations don’t look at the entire value chain, but decide to cut for sake of saving some dollars. When you think about cost cutting, is it really a good, strategic plan for the organization in long run? Or should we be looking at reducing non-value added activities and processes from our value chain? In an economic downturn, the latter makes more sense—organization should be looking at the overall, long term objectives and ask what it wants to achieve while maintaining its profitability.

Now the question comes: should organizations be cutting or reducing cost? For some companies there is no difference between cost cutting and cost reducing—however, there is. Let me describe the fine difference between these two strategies. In cost cutting, each department or group within an organization has the mandate from upper management to bring costs down to a minimum. However, this mandate is not based on visibility throughout the entire organization. Cost reducing, on the other hand, cuts out only non-value added activities from their supply chain process.

In general, when a supply chain manager considers cost cutting, he or she is looking solely from the perspective of “where can dollars be saved”. And this is often done through quick fixes, without realizing that they are actually much more harmful. Below is a table of typical, cost cutting quick fixes and the potential risk they may have to the overall organization.

khudsya_scm_table_resized.png

The above cutting tactics will lessen cost in the interim, but may also create major issues for the organization in the long run. That is the reason why many organizations won’t realize benefits from cost cutting.

Instead organizations need to adopt the strategy of cost reducing for their overall supply chain in their supply chain network. Cost reducing includes

* Buying raw materials at the right price from the right strategic partner (supplier) and moving the material in the most effective and efficient manner (channels), while keeping in mind that the objective is to move as little as possible so the material price stays low.
* Making product in a lean manufacturing facility will reduce waste and increase operation throughput. It will also reduce the overall lead-time to deliver. When doing this, organizations need to keep in mind that quality does not need to be jeopardized to implement this new process. It’s important to measure key cost reducing indicators to see if cost reduction has been achieved.
* Transportation has a variable cost, depending on mode and location. The best ways to reduce cost is for organizations to establish relationships with its suppliers so they can plan their freight delivery in a manner which will benefit both parties. This also allows organizations to manage the freight delivery of finished goods to distribution centers and customers in the most cost effective and economical manner. Organizations should also use tools to analyze each transportation delivery to understand hidden cost and to build an improved transportation model.
* Distribution centers need to have a best-in-class facility layout which can reduce the movement of material, as well as reduce the need to store inventory at other locations. Organization should apply the best practices of warehouse management to run the distribution center and remove inefficient labor cost. Organizations should also keep in mind the environmental impact of distribution centers, and strive to reduce the energy consumption and waste of packing material.
* Inventory should be managed in-house, at stores, and in warehouses. The number of days supply is stored at a location needs to be evaluated on a daily basis so that organizations don’t get stuck with non-conforming inventories. The bottom line is to keep business profitable by having the right inventory, at the right location, at the right time to create satisfied customers.
* Outsourcing should be evaluated through key indicator metrics, regardless of which activity is being outsourced. The organization should identify the benefits (profit) of outsourcing based on timelines and measure its return on investment.
* IT systems are just one of the places where organizations need to re-evaluate their current providers. Some systems are out-of-date and need to be replaced or upgraded with new technologies or capabilities. These systems will identify the organization’s obstacles regarding data accuracy, completeness, and timeliness. All IT systems need to be able to integrate with each other, as well with other third party providers and partners.

These areas of supply chain need to be analyzed further for companies to implement a cost reducing strategy. Some, which are simpler and easier to achieve, have already been identified in this blog, but others are harder to achieve without further collaboration with other parties in the supply chain network.

Intelligent Manufacturing Systems: Beating the Odds, Mightily

EnterpriseIQ’s Architecture

The extended enterprise resource planning (ERP) product was originally written in the now almost esoteric Delphi environment (from the client-server era) on top of an Oracle Database. The suite features a two-tier architecture, with all business logic (i.e., rules and transaction processing) residing on the Oracle database server.

IQMS chose Oracle’s database technology (Internet-enabled via an Apache Web Server) for its reputed safety, security, and high performance. However, the vendor packages and abstracts the database in an embedded way (via a silent installation routine) that mitigates the traditionally high price and heavy administration downsides of Oracle.

Repeated IQMS user surveys confirm that the database is easy to administer and maintain this way, with no need for intensive Oracle programming. Following a silent installation routine, the server works like a refrigerator (or some other white appliance): all users have to worry about is the quality of what they put into the system and how to properly use its output.

The EnterpriseIQ product has meanwhile been largely rewritten in Microsoft Visual Studio.NET (VS.NET), which makes it compatible with Microsoft .NET Framework. ASP.NET is used for the client-side technology (except for Microsoft Windows CE in the warehousing module), while Oracle Database remains as the back end. This combination of Microsoft and Oracle technologies somewhat resembles IFS’ approach.

IQMS strongly believes that this unified “same DNA” suite (even if on a seemingly out-moded two-tier client-server architecture) results in online transaction processing (OLTP) that is very fast; much faster than if IQMS had adopted a service-oriented architecture (SOA) as other contemporary vendors do to stitch together disparate applications.

The OLTP and decision support systems (DSS) processing speed has reportedly been an important criterion for customers selecting IQMS. As Randy Flamm, IQMS’ president and founder, said during our recent exchanges:

“At IQMS we have always believed it is easier to develop and nurture a product rather than attempt to integrate to another company’s package. Essentially this is what SOA is about – integrating many packages for use across an enterprise. For the most part, our opinion is “SOA what!” We don’t need to build on this platform because we handle almost every function within our own database.

Is there a need for some partnering? Yes. We understand there are report writing and spreadsheet automation software packages out there (Crystal Reports and Global Software) that handle this better than an ERP system ever should or could do. We utilize these to tie into our package for extracting and presenting data, but that is where the need for SOA in our package starts and stops.”

For user friendliness and intuitive navigation (e.g., with jump-around and drill-down features), IQMS has chosen a Microsoft platform for the client side. In addition to transactional performance, other advantages of the two-tier architecture are data integrity and user interface (UI) independence. Namely, there is a whole host of UI choices: traditional graphical UI (GUI), .NET client (including the variant for mobile users), portals, and Telnet client for warehouse workers. IQMS uses Terminal Server and Citrix for wide area network (WAN) links to its UNIX or LINUX back-end servers.

My belief is that the reliance solely on Oracle’s database might, in the long term, limit IQMS’ market opportunity, especially within smaller companies that are standardizing on Microsoft SQL Server. The vendor claims that prospective customers are more focused on the solution than on the technology, and that the database system doesn’t matter.

Fine, but maybe also offering an on-demand and software as a service (SaaS) solution could help in that regard (think of Plex Systems, formerly Plexus)? At this stage, IQMS does not see the justifiable demand to take the SaaS plunge (i.e., the gut-wrenching product rewrite).

More of EntepriseIQ’s Traits

Despite being tightly woven and with an extensive footprint, EnterpriseIQ is a reasonably open system and is also modular. Users have to go for a basic core ERP package, and can decide on optional modules to extend the enterprise as business and demands grow. Therefore, of the more than 20,000 concurrent user licenses, below is the breakdown of licenses per modules:

* Over 10,000 concurrent core ERP system user licenses,
* Over 3,600 concurrent customer relationship management (CRM) user licenses,
* Over 3,300 concurrent shop floor system licenses,
* Over 3,000 concurrent wireless warehouse management system (WMS) licenses.

In addition, IQMS has also sold over 15,000 RealTime Machine Monitoring (mentioned in Part 1) licenses. While the system’s scalability comes inherently from Oracle database, after adding French language capabilities to EnterpriseIQ in late 2008, IQMS now supports the following eight languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Mandarin Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, and Swedish.

In addition to multiple languages, IQMS claims support for multiple enterprise entities/plants (on a single database instance) and multiple currencies. The double-byte character set (required to support Chinese), the ability to specify language by user in a single system, and other global requirements were also driven by customers, as even small manufacturers in this time and age need to operate as parts of a global supply chain.

Pre-empting the Dreaded “I” Word

IQMS claims that its single-source offering resonates well with the companies that are wary of any hidden and unneeded expenses, especially these days. These smaller manufacturers are particularly “allergic” to hearing about the need for any interface.

Indeed, multiple products and interfaces come with the burden of continuous management and upgrade coordination and an increase in IT support staff. Also, one has to deal with multiple software vendor maintenance contracts and worry about the financial stability of multiple software providers, each of whom will likely have different business strategies.

Moreover, when different applications require their own databases, it becomes quite problematic to write holistic reports over multiple databases. Complex SOA-based configurations also come with speed and performance issues. Last but not least, there are many ongoing support issues that come with multi-vendor solutions, starting with each vendor’s decision to provide offshore support rather than a more intimate local call center. When support and customizations come from value added resellers (VARs), whom should the customer call first in case of a problem?

But EnterpriseIQ is certainly not meant to be all things to all people. I concur with Frank Scavo’s recent post on IQMS on his Enterprise Spectator blog:

“…Now, having said that, I’m sure there are major gaps in IQMS functionality for some clients, especially once you get outside of its target niche. But that’s the beauty of a niche strategy. IQMS doesn’t have to be all things to all customers. It only needs to be all things (or most things) to a few customers…”

R&D Work Never Ends

IQMS’ management is aware of how much more capability the company needs to develop, and the idea is to particularly intensify research & development (R&D) these days. The intention is to further distance itself from (or leapfrog) competitors that seem more concerned with cost-cutting and survival tactics.

Accordingly, in mid-2008, IQMS delivered EnterpriseIQ version 7.4.1.20 with over 1,000 built-in reports and 400 enhancements to areas such as quality management, electronic data interchange (EDI), WMS, product lifecycle management (PLM), security, and forecasting. Earlier in 2008, IQMS announced its enhanced support for the process manufacturing industry with the release of the Master Batch manufacturing capability. Master Batch is aimed at companies such as compounding or formula-based manufacturers that are focused on heavy mixing and blending operations, and require the ability to handle multiple operations in a single routing.

To best support process manufacturing needs, ERP systems should give manufacturers the flexibility to enter process bills of material (BOMs) based on formulas where the components either total 100 percent or they can be added based on volume or weight quantities. Comprehensive BOM/formula functionality also has to provide co-product/by-product capability, flexible packaging alternatives, flexible batch sizes, yield/scrap calculation, grading and re-classification of products, alternative and substitute formulas (and routings), “what if” costing scenarios, and more.

On the other hand, the most recently released Assembly Manufacturing type is designed especially for manufacturers seeking consistent quality and greater traceability within assembly processes via enhanced tracking of complex routing structures. Potential benefits of this assembly structure include the ability to identify product availability and costs at each stage of production as well as the option to choose between either dispatch lists or finite scheduling.

Some companies might also benefit from the detailed lot traceability, operator certifications and training, and tool tracking functionalities. The Assembly functionality is IQMS’ response to an ongoing trend toward imposing more requirements for machine shops, metal fabricators, and process-related operations, especially in the medical device field, which has strict traceability concerns and constraints.

Offering an Entry-level Product

To attract the lower-end of the market, in 2007 IQMS delivered the EnterpriseIQ LE (Limited Edition) version to provide a lower-cost entry-point ERP solution. The product is packaged to meet the needs of single-site manufacturers and smaller supply chain environments (in terms of lower EDI volumes).

IQMS achieved the lower price benefit by packaging just the functionality most often used by manufacturers with single-plant operations. EnterpriseIQ LE version gives small manufacturers the same set of core ERP capabilities found in the full version.

Functionality such as manufacturing and inventory management, quality control, sales and distribution, and financial and accounting management are all included in a single database and at an affordable price. Certain features that are customarily used to support larger operations are not included, such as those used for multi-plant operations.

By choosing EnterpriseIQ LE, customers who operate only one plant and currently have no ERP system in place should gain an initial modular, single-source ERP solution that can be tailored to fit their business needs and designed to scale up with optional modules that work seamlessly within the core system. IQMS is also offering a migration path with this LE version for companies that might eventually grow into multiple locations.

The final part of this blog series will analyze IQMS’ recent involvement in the user experience (UX) design. The vendor joins the fray of many peer ERP vendors that have been working on injecting a breath of a fresh air into their offerings. By putting the full power of commonly used applications on one intuitive and personalized screen, these vendors hope to speed users’ productivity and drive leaner results.

6 Ways Vendors Are Talking At You Instead of To You

15 years ago, you could forgive a company for thinking that a Web site was something they needed to have because everyone else had one. But by the end of the dot-com boom, pretty well everyone had realized that a corporate Web site was much more than just an online business card or brochure. Today, a company’s Web site is one of its most important assets, simply because it’s the first point of contact with potential customers.

Unfortunately, when it comes to talking to those potential customers, many companies are still missing the mark, and enterprise software vendors are among the worst offenders.Instead of talking to you, they’re talking at you. Here are 6 ways they’re doing it.
Making Meaningless Claims

If you’re developing a tagline, a good rule of thumb is to analyze the claim you’re making and think about whether any of your competitors would ever claim the opposite. If the answer is no, you need a better tagline. For example, a software vendor might use the classic three-word tagline structure and come up with something like “Flexible. Powerful. Efficient.” Since no vendor would claim to be rigid, weak, and wasteful, it’s neither memorable nor effective.

Shouldn’t the same rule apply to other communications?

Apparently not, it would seem. Vendor Web sites are chock full of unsupported claims that sound good, but don’t mean much. For example, almost every vendor’s site claims that the vendor is an “industry leader.” But what does that mean? How is it measured? Who decides? And more to the point, if every vendor is an industry leader, is that claim really going to help you decide?

What you want to know is what sets the vendor apart, and how that affects you. For example, if you run a financial services company and you’re looking for accounting software, are you going to pay more attention to a generic “industry leader” or to the “leading provider of accounting software for financial services firms?”

Probably the latter, right? And if that vendor backs up the claim with some hard information about their expertise and ties it into your business, so much the better.

But most vendors, content to wow you with their leadership, don’t do that. Why not?
Talking About “Businesses” Instead of Talking About You

Vendor Web sites are full of descriptions of businesses. Businesses facing challenges. Regular businesses becoming best-run businesses. Businesses applying best practices to achieve explosive growth. Businesses in turmoil. Businesses suffering in a weak economy. Businesses burdened by regulation.

But the only business you care about is your own.

This may sound picky, but to me, these generic descriptions sound a little too prescriptive. They sound like the vendor, without even asking what your business is actually doing, knows what it should be doing. Like without understanding where you want your business to go, they know where it should go.

If you would only implement their solutions.

And in their defense, many vendors deal with hundreds or thousands of companies—certainly enough to see what successful businesses (and unsuccessful ones) have in common.

But having things in common doesn’t make businesses the same. Your business has its fair share of unique characteristics, and you’re more keenly aware of them than a vendor will ever be.

So isn’t it easier on the ears when a vendor asks what you need? When they acknowledge that your business has its own problems and its own requirements? When they ask you what you want instead of telling you what “businesses” need?
Making It All About Themselves

If vendors aren’t telling you what you need, they’re probably telling you how good they are. Industry-leading this, best-of-breed that, and redefined the other. They’re almost daring you to speak ill of the software they’re so proud of. And pride in your work is great, but the problem with this approach is that it implies that the software is perfect, and it’s your business that has the problems.

But facts are facts. No solution is going to do 100% of what you need it to do. You’re going to have to make some compromises, and so is the vendor. In other words, the “best fit” solution is the one that comes closest to doing what you need with the least amount of headache. And vendors know that. The chest-beating tone is just that—a tone. But it does create an impression of how you’ll be treated as one of their customers.

So why not change the tone? Wouldn’t you prefer to hear that a vendor has a great piece of software and that they’ll work with you to integrate it into your business as smoothly as possible? Wouldn’t you rather feel like you’re working with your vendor and not for them?

I thought so.
Not Providing Concrete Examples

I see this one all the time. Vendors start by extolling the virtues of their solutions, then they make a bunch of claims about what those solutions will do for your business, and finally they throw a laundry list of features at you in the hopes that you’ll recognize what you need. But they rarely connect the dots.

The problem is that many vendors approach things backwards. They developed all kinds of neat features to (presumably) solve common business problems. So when they tell you that a feature exists, they think you’ll a) connect it to the problem it was designed to solve, b) immediately see its value, and c) recognize the benefit they claim it brings.

A more effective approach is to just spell it out. Rather than claiming that a solution “manages customer interactions, from contact data and history to calendaring and tasks,” (for example) a vendor might explain that when a customer calls the support department, your rep can see what products they have, what problems they’ve had in the past, and what other reps have told the customer. The call goes smoothly (and quickly), the customer feels valued, you save money, etc., etc.

It takes just a few extra words (or a short video) to explicitly connect a feature to a real world problem, connect the problem to a solution, and connect the solution to a benefit. And as a potential customer, you now know a lot more about what you’re buying.

Again, wouldn’t you rather deal with a vendor that goes out of its way to give you all the facts?
Making Information Difficult to Find

The problems I’ve listed so far all assume that you’ve actually found something like the information you’re looking for. But a number of vendor Web sites commit the cardinal sin of making information hard to find in the first place. You can find examples of this easily enough, so rather than listing some, let me just say this:

You should never have to work to find the information you want on a vendor’s Web site. That’s the vendor’s job.

Every vendor should be doing everything in its power to make sure that all the information you could possibly want is available, easy to find, and easy to act on. From information about solutions, to feature lists, demos, trial versions, references, testimonials, contact information, and especially purchasing information, it’s up to the vendor to make sure you find it. Not the other way ’round.
Assuming You Care

That issue of responsibility brings me to the common thread in all of these problems: vendors assume you care. About them. And they’re not wrong. They’re just going about things the wrong way.

What they’re doing is assuming you’re willing to slog through reams of marketing material to get at the information you want, convince yourself that their solutions are right for you, and buy.

You, on the other hand, care about whether vendors’ solutions can address your specific problems. You care whether the vendors can deliver what they promise—on time and within your budget. You care whether they’re going to support you before, during, and after your implementation.