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Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Wrights Group Selects IFS Applications for Global Operations

IFS, an global enterprise applications company, recently announced that Wrights Group, one of Europe’s leading suppliers of public transport vehicles, selected IFS Applications to assist in optimizing its global operations. Currently, more than 2,100 companies in over 60 countries rely on IFS Applications, a component-based suite for product and asset lifecycle management that can be configured for ERP, EAM, project-based ERP, field service management, or a combination of all four.

Headquartered in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, Wrights Group has established itself as Europe’s leading independent bus designer and manufacturer. Founded in 1946, Wrights Group pioneered low floor buses in the UK, and has earned a reputation for producing vehicles which are stylish, durable, high in quality and utilizing innovative features. Most recently, it secured the contract to manufacture the New Routemaster bus for the city of London.

To enable its plans for expansion in Europe, Asia and the Americas, the Wrights needed to deploy a business system that was easy to configure, maintain, and scale. IFS Applications was selected because it offered the company the best blend of multi-site, global capabilities coupled with robust features for product configuration, project management, and supply chain. Another critical selection factor was the ease with which Wrights can configure the IFS system to meet business needs while maintaining a standard upgrade path for future releases.

To read more about the implementation, visit the IFS News blog.

The 2013 Brown Smith Wallace Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides are currently available for download. The 2014 edition will be available in April, 2014. Please contact snelson@bswllc.com for more information.
You can also request these guides, as well as all other materials, via our website: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/resources_index.aspx


 
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Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Infor 10.0 Incorporates Social Capabilities To Core ERP

Infor announced Infor Distribution SX.e version 10.0, enabling social, mobile and analytics capabilities to the core enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. The latest version builds upon the Infor 10x strategy to incorporate broader support for Infor ION, the purpose-built middleware and Infor Ming.le™, a comprehensive social collaboration platform. The release provides deep distribution functionality and substantial enhancements to user experience, business intelligence enablement, and connectivity to best in class solutions, says the company. New features, according to the company:
  • Simple yet Powerful User Experience - Infor SX.e v10.0 features a consumer grade user experience. The Global Search capability has a familiar feel that allows the user to search the entire application to enable employees to work faster and smarter. Super grid technology offers an easier way to view results by allowing changes on the fly such as dynamic grouping, exporting, applying filters, drill down visibility and creating favorite views.
  • Deep Distribution Functionality - Distributors typically operate on very tight margins. Infor SX.e v10.0 includes many enhancements to help distributors make better, faster decisions that can improve their profitability.  Some of these enhancements include automating freight allocation to enable freight cost recovery, better tracking and managing of non-returnable, non-cancellable items and tools to compare estimated versus actual labor costs for value-added services.
  • Investment in Analytics - Infor SX.e v10.0 enables extensive transactional data to be written into the ION Business Vault, providing users with a single, optimized repository. This benefits users by allowing them to more easily mine data for flexible, powerful reporting, business intelligence and analytics. 
  • Best in Class Integrations - The Infor SX.e v10.0 release provides a certified integration through ION to Lawson Financials, a robust and powerful application that helps manage complex financial requirements. This solution joins a growing list of ION certified integrations including Infor Supply Chain Execution (SCE)InforceInfor CRM BusinessStoreroom, and Infor Road Warrior.  
  • Broad Social Experience - Social business involves more than just connecting people. With the addition of Infor Ming.le, the solution is now able to unite transactions, products and other entities within one easy to use social network that captures and retains the information shared across the enterprise. This places a network of people, applications, workflows, alerts and data at the hands of Infor SX.e v10.0 users.  
For more information, please visit www.infor.com.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Hi Spec Doorsets Benefits from Acumatica's 24/7 ERP

Acumatica, a provider of cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions for small and medium-sized companies, recently announced the publication of their latest case study featuring the benefits experienced by Hi Spec Doorsets after switching their ERP system to Acumatica.

Based in the United Kingdom, Hi Spec manufactures tailored doorsets for the construction industry providing customized solutions for hotels, offices, and residential developments, and for the health and education sectors. Hi Spec's old system required the sales staff to update leads, contacts, and sales orders from the office, because the remote login software was faulty.

Hi Spec found Acumatica's solution appealing for its reduced maintenance costs and no user licensing requirements. By utilizing Acumatica’s browser-based system, Hi Spec’s problems with remote login disappeared.

In addition, Acumatica offers financial management, distribution, CRM, and project accounting suites. Acumatica Studio, the company’s technology development platform, gives ISVs and OEMs a rapid, cost-effective means of developing and integrating cloud-based apps, using industry-standard tools.

To read more about the Hi Spec Doorsets implementation, visit the Acumatica News blog.

The 2013 Brown Smith Wallace Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides are currently available for download. The 2014 edition will be available in early-April, 2014. Please contact snelson@bswllc.com for more information.
 
 
You can also request these guides, as well as all other materials, via our website: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/resources_index.aspx



Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Encompass Group Gains Accuracy With Demand Solutions

Encompass Group, a manufacturer of reusable textiles, professional apparel, therapeutic support surfaces and disposable medical products, needed a planning tool.

Demand Solutions offered a cost-effective system for collaborating with vendors and customers, allowing Encompass to optimize costs within the IT budget. Encompass Group selected Demand Solutions so that it could gain better control of their inventory and planning processes which had been limited due to unsophisticated computer systems. The results were increased sales and significant margin gains with a strong ability to forecast accuracy and profits.

The Demand Solutions team conducted the full implementation of its forecast management software in less than 30 days, and Encompass Group experienced a ROI in just five months.

Some of the immediate benefits experienced included:
  • Inventory reduction by 10%
  • Increase in inventory turns by 20%
  • Boost in global fill rates by 5%
To read more and download the full case study, visit Demand Solutions Case Studies on the company's website.

The 2013 Brown Smith Wallace Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides are currently available for download. The 2014 edition will be available in early-March, 2014. Please contact snelson@bswllc.com for more information.
You can also request these guides, as well as all other materials, via our website: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/resources_index.aspx


 
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Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Bhagwan Marine Sets Sail with Pronto Software

Pronto Software, a developer of next generation Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software that integrates with advanced Business Intelligence (BI) solutions, has been selected to provide business management software to Bhagwan Marine, a rapidly expanding specialized oil and gas industry services company. Bhagwan Marine will be implementing the new Pronto Xi 710 software, featuring integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) and business intelligence (BI) to support its on- and off-shore operations.

Bhagwan provides critical logistics support to the resources and offshore oil and gas industry in Northern Australia through marine and port services. The company operates a fleet of 100 vessels, ranging from high-speed crew and cargo transfer vessels, to landing crafts and dive support workboats and employs approximately 700 staff spread across four locations.

Bhagwan’s reporting operations had become difficult, time-consuming and a mostly completely manual process. In addition, reliable and accurate vessel, customer and project data, and profitability analysis, was extremely problematic to develop as it was being managed in disparate Excel databases. Pronto Xi 710’s integrated ERP and BI reporting capabilities proved the best fit thanks to innovative automated functionalities as well as Pronto’s Project Costing capability.

Pronto Software will provide the Bhagwan senior executive team with faster access to key business information such as data on individual vessels, repair costs and labour hours needed for repairs. Information relating to specific sites and vessels will also be made available to various operational teams and managers, arming them with more detailed data to use in decision-making.

To learn more about the Bhagwan implementation, visit Pronto News.

The 2013 Brown Smith Wallace Distribution and Manufacturing Software Guides are currently available for download. The 2014 edition will be available in early-March, 2014. Please contact snelson@bswllc.com for more information.
You can also request these guides, as well as all other materials, via our website: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/resources_index.aspx


 
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