Avoiding Supply Chain Risk by Moving to the Cloud

There is much debate within organizations whether to adopt the cloud or to just maintain their current on-premise systems. Although many companies have already made the leap, a huge chunk of the market is holding back, citing risks around security and privacy.

But in fact, manufacturing businesses can reduce risk by moving to the cloud, according to a recent white paper by Frost & Sullivan. Companies in manufacturing, distribution and logistics depend on a smooth-running supply chain. Any disruptions leave it vulnerable as they can substantially impact production and create negative ripple effects throughout the entire chain. Unfortunately, managing the risk of disruption has grown more difficult with increasing supply chain complexity.

Read more and access the report on the Cloud NetSuite blog...

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Pronto Software Wins Business Award for Product Excellence

Australian enterprise resource planning (ERP) and business intelligence (BI) software provider, Pronto Software, has been awarded a Product Excellence Award in the 2012 Australian Business Awards for its flagship Pronto Xi solution.

The Product Excellence Award recognises market-leading products that demonstrate overall product superiority offering a point of difference from their competitors. This is the second consecutive year Pronto Xi has received recognition in the Product Excellence Award category for the Software Publishing Industry sector.

Read more about Pronto Software and Pronto Xi on the Pronto blog...

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Things About The Cloud We Take for Granted

Crystal-ball gazing is always a fun pastime, and can make for some pithy punditry. Predictions about The Cloud are especially fun to bandy about, as prognostications can take real flights of fancy. Case in point: Ben Kepes—commentator, adviser, cloud computing analyst, blogger, and CloudU curator—got his crystal ball rolling when he asked tech business leaders, “What are the top 10 things about cloud we’ll all take for granted in three years?”

Visit the SAP on the Cloud blog to read more of the soothsaying!

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Do You Know The History Of Supply Chain Management?

Need to brush up on your history of logistics and supply chain management? If so, there's an infographic for that.

A diagram on SCM-Operations.com tracks the evolution of those terms from the first printing of the word “logistics” in 1898 to present-day matters like global supply chain security. You'll be surprised by the nuggets if information contained. Test your knowledge and see how many you know!

Read more at the Advanced Distribution Today blog...

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Is It Time To Refresh Your ERP System?

IndustryWeek recently interviewed Andy Vabulas, CEO of  I.B.I.S., a Norcross, Ga.-based enterprise business solutions provider- to discuss some of the challenges companies are facing in terms of their ERP system. Learn more about how I.B.I.S is helping manufacturing companies leverage their high tech tools to optimize performance and maximize efficiency and read his suggestions for best practices for ERP software deployment.

Read more on the IndustryWeek blog...

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Cloud Solutions: Focus on Flexibility First

Listening to multiple presentations from a variety of vendors with cloud-based solutions, you would get the impression that the greatest benefit of the cloud is cost savings. That’s certainly the way most marketing pitches for the cloud seem to lean. While it is true that entry costs for a subscription-based service will almost always be lower than the entry costs for a service or product that is purchased outright, the math begins to favor the capital expenditure after the 5 or 6 year mark. This situation is quite similar to the cost differential between purchasing a home or automobile outright vs the long-term costs of financing these same items over a longer period of time. Ultimately, you pay for convenience, and the cloud offers a special brand of convenience.

The key is for an organization to determine if the benefits which are derived from this convenience, outweigh the raw costs that might be greater over the long haul. It is no wonder that very few vendors will ever suggest that the long-term costs of any particular cloud computing service are automatically lower than the alternatives. No, what the cloud provides is low entry costs plus increased business and technology flexibility.

Read more on the SAP on the Cloud blog...

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Does Cloud Computing Hurt or Help Hackers?

The convenience of cloud computing is intoxicating, and we’re all living in the cloud more and more every day, both at work and at play. Unfortunately, with convenience comes exposure. The headlines are rife with cautionary tales of personal identity theft and corporate data breaches, and hackers show no signs of slowing their efforts to get their hands on sensitive information. So, just how dangerous is the cloud? Is cloud computing enabling cybercrooks, making it easier for them to practice their nefarious trade? At focus.com, folks tackled the topic of cybercrime in the cloud when answering the question “Does the accessibility of cloud computing make hacking easier?”

Read more on the SAP on the Cloud blog...

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Taking a Two-Tier Approach to Cloud ERP

A growing number of larger companies are taking a two-tier approach to cloud ERP. In a typical two-tier ERP arrangement, one level of the business continues to run an incumbent ERP product while new lines of business, acquisitions, or new locations employ a modern, cloud ERP solution. This "hub-and-spoke" model enables large enterprises to start benefiting from cloud solutions immediately in subsidiaries, divisions and business units without disrupting business as usual at headquarters. The two-tier approach is also more practical for extremely large companies, which can struggle with the problems of gaining organization-wide buy-in into any major project.

Read case-studies and learn more about this strategy on the Cloud NetSuite blog...

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How Leading Distributors Navigate Supply Chain Challenges

Business relationships are more tenuous than ever for distributors. Trading partner expectations are at an all-time high and loyalty can no longer be taken for granted in a volatile, rapidly changing marketplace. An agile technology strategy can help a business cope in this environment by preparing it for long-term viability and sustainability.

Read more about the top supply chain management concerns on the Epicor blog...

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Taking Your Business Overseas? Pack Your Cloud Financials!

Expanding your business to new markets is exciting, but once the thrill of new potential wears off, you are left with a very important, utilitarian problem—how to keep track of profit and loss in a new office, in a new currency, with a new set of tax and regulatory requirements? In the past, the solution was typically to extend a complex corporate ERP system to the satellite office, or adopt a regional accounting package and go through the cumbersome process of converting and manually integrating results with the head office. Today, however, sophisticated international cloud ERP is making both approaches obsolete.

Read more on the Cloud NetSuite blog...

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The Future of Cloud Transformations for Business

In a recent survey of global business and technology executives shows that nearly 75% of the 600 leaders surveyed indicated that their companies had piloted, adopted, or implemented the cloud in their organizations. However, the cloud’s potential for driving business innovation remains virtually untapped. Irving Wladawsky-Berger, Chairman Emeritus of the IBM Academy of Technology and Visiting Lecturer at MIT's Sloan School of Management and Engineering Systems Division, notes that “over the next decade, advances in cloud computing will enable critical societal and business applications in a number of industries, including health care, learning and finance.” The report cites six specific game-changing business enablers empowered by the cloud:  visit the Epicor blog to read more...

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NetSuite Named to "100 Great Supply Chain Partners" List

NetSuite Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based financials and ERP software suites, recently announced that it has been voted by supply chain professionals for the second consecutive year to the annual "100 Great Supply Chain Partners" list published by SupplyChainBrain, the comprehensive supply chain management information magazine and resource. NetSuite's inclusion on the list is based on results from a six-month online poll of supply chain professionals who were asked to nominate vendors and service providers whose solutions have made a significant impact on their company's efficiency, customer service and overall supply chain performance.

Read more about this annoucement on the NetSuite blog...

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Dynamic Business for Industrial Distributor CxOs

How can you predict future business challenges and opportunities? Check out this Microsoft video to see how you can set up your employees for success through the use of software. Fully integrated and embedded in Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012, Advanced Distribution Software was created for industrial distributors.

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