Read Software Trends

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Australasia's TAE Implements IFS Applications 9 To Integrate ERP

IFS, a global enterprise applications company, recently announced that TAE, Australasia's leading provider of turbine engine maintenance, repair and overhaul services, is implementing IFS Applications™ 9 to integrate the TAE group of companies under a single enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.

TAE had previously purchased IFS Applications as an engineering management solution to comply with International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). However, the company had different ERP systems at its Brisbane and Adelaide facilities. Replacing these two systems with IFS Applications will enhance business visibility with real-time reporting to support growth and reduce costs.

“The functionality was key—IFS is in our market and knew what we needed at a maintenance level,” said Andrew Sanderson, CEO of TAE. “We spoke with other users—some of them are our customers—and IFS had the reliability and the credibility we were looking for.”

Complete visibility across its operations will quickly benefit TAE with the IFS Lobby, a configurable and role-based dashboard environment facilitating real-time business reporting. IFS Applications will also lower TAE’s financial reporting costs and reduce the effort and delays involved in manually combining information sources using Excel spreadsheets. IFS Applications will also support TAE’s growth as it looks to develop its business in South East Asia and the U.S. with better customer communication and coordination of activities across different locations.

TAE will initially implement IFS Applications for financials, human resources, maintenance, manufacturing, supply chain, and sales and service. Later, it will deploy IFS project management capabilities within the integrated ERP solution. TAE also plans to use IFS Applications to underpin new mobile apps to streamline customer operations and interactions.

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

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Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Retail Ready Foods Gains Flexibility with Blue Link

Founded in 1996, Retail Ready Foods Inc. distributes meat products to independent retailers throughout Ontario, consolidating the distribution of products from manufacturers and meat packers throughout North America. Inventory is over 3000 items, including fresh beef, pork, poultry, processed meat and deli products, with approximately 500 items in use at any one time.

RRF had an in-house system that was cumbersome for report generation, inefficient for inventory tracking, and was generally out of date for the company’s growing business needs.

RRF needed a flexible new system to track inventory (including at one 3rd party warehouse), invoicing, and reporting processes. It had to be flexible enough to administer the multiple units of measurement used by RRF, including shipping by the case, and invoicing by weight; promotional pricing; and occasional incentive offers.

The company wanted a system to replace the one it had, to speed-up reporting and inventory management, but also to reduce the risks associated with having an outdated system. The company wanted the flexibility to allow for temporary special pricing to assess sales changes, and volume discounts to increase sales as well as a system that would manage and control inventory, allowing accurate invoicing in one system.

After much consideration, the Blue Link solution was determined as the best fit for the business as it was a system customizable to suit the flexibility and inventory tracking needs. Blue Link worked with Retail Ready Foods Inc. to customize and integrate all their out-dated systems into one efficient application. As RRF went live on their new business management software, Blue Link helped RRF to set up the network, easing implementation.

According to Marc Jones, IT Manager, the implementation was extremely successful in achieving Retail Ready Foods Inc.’s objectives of streamlining time-consuming business processes, providing accurate and timely information to management and staff, and ensuring secure, timely updates and troubleshooting processes for the entire system. “Blue Link is very client-focused, and has always been concerned about our unique needs. Blue Link will seek out viable solutions for any ERP issue or need that arises… and provides timely and effective support by people who know the system inside out.”

To read more about Blue Link solutions, visit their customer case studies.

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Developed through a partnership with Industrial Distribution, Industrial Supply, Contractor Supply Magazine and the Brown Smith Wallace Consulting Group, these 12 page Supplement Guides provide valuable, independently researched information. Each Guide details software company information, identifies vertical markets, highlights functions and technology features, new developments to the software package, shows graphs of the user range, basic entry price point, sales channel (how and where the software is sold), along with company contact information. The Supplement Guides provide everything you need to know when beginning your software selection and evaluation process.

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Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Pret A Manger Selects NetSuite For International Financial Management

NetSuite, a provider of cloud-based financials / ERP and omnichannel commerce software suites, recently announced that international food and coffee brand, Pret A Manger has selected NetSuite OneWorld for finance management. Pret A Manger will utilize OneWorld to manage mission-critical business processes across the UK, US, France, Hong Kong and China, including procure-to-pay, credit-to-cash, global financial consolidation, multicurrency management for five different currencies, including the Euro, US dollar, and British pound, and multi-language capabilities for English, French, Cantonese and more.

Founded in 1986, Pret A Manger has 390 shops in five markets, serving over 450,000 customers a day. The company needed a financial management system that could support growth and expansion into new markets.

With support for 190 currencies, 19 languages and automated tax compliance in more than 100 countries, NetSuite OneWorld delivers the following key features and benefits to Pret A Manger including:

•Agility to adapt to market changes.
•Real-time global financial consolidation with NetSuite OneWorld will provide real-time visibility across all of Pret A Manger’s operations with one single unified financial system of record and consolidates financial reporting across the entire enterprise.
•Multi-currency transactions and reporting in 10 currencies including the British pound, the Euro and more.

“As we continue to grow both in the UK and internationally, we need a system that can scale with us while ensuring that we have the currency, language and tax compliance features we need,” said Andy Chalklin, Group Director of IT at Pret A Manger. “NetSuite will give us what we need, without the investment in IT that an on-premise system would require.”

To read more of the Pret A Manger implementation and learn about NetSuite OneWorld, visit the NetSuite Newsroom.

New Software Research Guides Available Finding that you cannot keep up with all the changes in the latest software? Want to know how the software's features and functions can assist you? Please contact snelson@bswllc.com for more information about these latest editions.

Read our 2015 Mid-Year Supplements

Developed through a partnership with Industrial Distribution, Industrial Supply, Contractor Supply Magazine and the Brown Smith Wallace Consulting Group, these 12 page Supplement Guides provide valuable, independently researched information. Each Guide details software company information, identifies vertical markets, highlights functions and technology features, new developments to the software package, shows graphs of the user range, basic entry price point, sales channel (how and where the software is sold), along with company contact information. The Supplement Guides provide everything you need to know when beginning your software selection and evaluation process.

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Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Wholesaler ICCONS Accesses Big Data with Phocas

ICCONS is an Australasian wholesaler providing a range of construction supplies including fastening systems, power tools and accessories.

According to ICCONS Managing Director Phil Rose, ICCONS selected Phocas to give the business a quick and simple way to manage sales and inventory data. “We use Phocas to measure our sales activity, our margin performance and our product group performance. These metrics are what’s really important to us. We want to get our stock moving and Phocas gives us a clear view into our business."

ICCONS National Sales Support Manager, Theo Hatzis, needed to access business data quickly and easily. Using Phocas allows him to get the data he needs efficiently, particularly through mobile. “We brought in Phocas and reporting has been instant. The ability to use Phocas on your mobile phone has been great. It makes things much easier to track.”

Both agree it’s the simplicity of using Phocas that makes it useful to many in the ICCONS organization. This simplicity also extended to the implementation process. Said Rose, “Phocas is low cost, very fast, very effective and has a painless integration. We haven’t had to spend more on capital equipment. Often when you introduce reporting systems, you need additional support and HR to drive it. That’s not the case with Phocas.”

To learn more about Phocas, watch their demo videos by visiting their Customer Case Studies page.

New Software Research Guides Available Finding that you cannot keep up with all the changes in the latest software? Want to know how the software's features and functions can assist you? Please contact snelson@bswllc.com for more information about these latest editions.

Read our 2015 Mid-Year Supplements

Developed through a partnership with Industrial Distribution, Industrial Supply, Contractor Supply Magazine and the Brown Smith Wallace Consulting Group, these 12 page Supplement Guides provide valuable, independently researched information. Each Guide details software company information, identifies vertical markets, highlights functions and technology features, new developments to the software package, shows graphs of the user range, basic entry price point, sales channel (how and where the software is sold), along with company contact information. The Supplement Guides provide everything you need to know when beginning your software selection and evaluation process.

Visit our website to learn more about the Brown Smith Wallace Consulting Group and to use our Software Features Comparison Wizard.

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