Zoedale Strengthens Inventory Management With Vision33

Established in 1976 in Bedfordshire, UK, Zoedale distributes pipes and valves to control the flow of liquids and gases. Zoedale offers over 20,000 stock items and their clients range from at-home gardeners to multinational oil and gas companies. Brewing and beer metering, food production, and medical device companies rely on Zoedale for next day delivery and value-added services like installation, service, and maintenance.

As Zoedale’s inventory and client list grew, their software couldn’t go with the flow. Data from the company’s two old, disconnected systems – one for accounting and one for customer relationship management – needed to be merged at the end of every day, which ate up valuable time. This tedious process also involved printing numerous documents, which was unacceptable to a company involved in environmentally sustainable projects.

Zoedale needed technology to manage inventory, provide visibility into its warehouse, and make finding critical information fast and easy so it could continue providing superior customer service. Finding the right technology required a true partner, which Zoedale found in Vision33.

Like Zoedale, Vision33 is all about customer service, innovation, and thinking outside the box. Vision33 worked closely with Zoedale to implement SAP Business One, a robust ERP solution. With SAP Business One, Zoedale’s operations flow better than ever. Everyone in the company uses the system to easily find information they need, and the real-time data can be accessed anywhere, anytime for fast, smart business decisions. With purchasing and sales now tied to accounting, Zoedale’s transactions are more efficient, and cash flow is obvious.

Zoedale uses SAP Business One’s powerful reporting tools to see gross profit margin, number of orders, and the average value of orders. Because of SAP Business One’s simplicity and flexibility, adding new product lines and managing inventory are effortless for Zoedale.

Learn more about the implementation and SAP Business One on the Vision33 website.

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Developed through a partnership with Industrial Supply, Contractor Supply Magazine and Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services, 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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VIETRI Streamlines Processes With Vision33

Vision33, the largest global SAP Business One partner, recently announced the latest recipients of the 2017 Visionary Awards. Selected from over 800 customers worldwide, Visionary Award recipients highlight fast-growing companies committed to delivering the best experience possible to their customers through transformative business technology.


Vision33 presented the awards at this year’s Biz.One Conference held in October. Chief SAP Business One Ambassador, and host of the Vision33 TOTAL Care Wednesday Web Chat series, Carl Lewis presented the Visionary Awards to those in attendance. One of the award recipients was Italian ceramic distributor, VIETRI. VIETRI is the largest importer of handcrafted Italian tableware and home decor products, working with family owned and operated factories throughout Italy. Their mission today remains the same as it was over 30 years ago: to inspire the celebration of life with family and friends through the joy of handcrafted Italian designs for the table, home, and garden.


Working with Vision33, VIETRI leveraged the SAP Business One's transparent inventory control and distribution functionality so that it could streamline its business processes. In doing so, its operations became more efficient and it could provide shorter shipping times, a huge for customer satisfaction.


"SAP Business One has streamlined our processes and helped us become one of the fastest shippers in the industry," says Jody Davis, Customer Service and IT Manager, VIETRI. To learn more exemplary ways that VIETRI leveraged SAP Business One solution to achieve its goals for growth and success, read the VIETRI customer success story.

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Visit our website to learn more about the Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services<http://www.software4distributors.com/> and to use our Software Features Comparison Wizard<http://www.software4distributors.com/compare/default.aspx>.

 

Also, read our 2017 Mid-Year Supplements. http://www.software4distributors.com/downloads/2017_Mid_Year_Supplement.pdf. 

Developed through a partnership with Industrial Distribution, Industrial Supply, Contractor Supply Magazine and Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services, 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 Advisory Services and to use our Software Features Comparison Wizard.

Advanced Assembly Increases Efficiency With SAP Business One And Vision33

Advanced Assembly, an Aurora, Colorado based manufacturer with 100+ employees, provides Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Assemblies for the Transportation, Automotive, Public, Communications, Medical, and Technology Services sectors. Their customers are engineers and buyers involved in the development and production of innovative electronic products.

Advanced Assembly was experiencing the following business challenges:
• Outgrown the capabilities of their current, proprietary system due to sustained year-over-year growth
• Needed consistent and repeatable processes
• Experiencing limited visibility into process bottlenecks
• Had to manually integrate applications using spreadsheets

The ERP solution Advanced Assembly chose was SAP Business One® and Vision33 because of their detailed understanding of manufacturing and accounting processes.

As a result of the SAP Business One® and Vision33 implementation, the benefits provided to Advanced Assembly include the following:
• Creation of a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) for streamlined operations
• Real-time reporting for a snapshot of company performance
• Visibility into work order status for quicker manufacturing turn times and customer satisfaction
• Common business platform to support continued growth
• Tracking of manufacturing throughput to support growth planning

To read the full Advanced Assembly case study, and learn more about the services provided by Vision33, visit the Vision33 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.

For 2016 Distribution Software Guide: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/2016_BSW_Distribution_Interactive_Website_Guide.pdf?utm_source=DownloadInteractive&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2016DSG

For 2016 Manufacturing Software Guide: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/2016_BSW_Manufacturing_Interactive_Website_Guide.pdf?utm_source=DownloadInteractive&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=2016MFG

Coming in August 2016:

Developed through a partnership with Industrial Distribution, Industrial Supply, Contractor Supply Magazine and Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services, our 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 Advisory Services and to use our Software Features Comparison Wizard.

SAP Brings the Power of Dashboards to Mobile Devices

SAP recently announced the latest version of the SAP® BusinessObjects™ Mobile mobile app. The newest release allows users to visualize, explore, collaborate from within the app and share business performance through personalized and simple views in a secure environment designed natively for iPad.

Updates to SAP BusinessObjects Mobile allow for:

• Highly interactive dashboard capabilities, including native iPad gestures, such as the ability to pinch, zoom, share and collaborate.
• One mobile app for all BI content, including SAP® BusinessObjects™ Web Intelligence® software, SAP® BusinessObjects™ Dashboards software, SAP® Crystal Reports® software and SAP® BusinessObjects™ Design Studio.
• Powerful and consistent functionality, including geo-spatial and location analytics, text annotation, such as draw, crop or blurring of sensitive numbers, as well as online and offline use and integration with the SAP® BusinessObjects™ Business Intelligence platform and SAP® Mobile Platform

To learn more, visit the SAP Newsroom blog.

The Brown Smith Wallace Industrial Distribution, Industrial Manufacturing, and Contractor Supply software supplements have recently been updated. Visit our website to download your copy!

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SAP Labs Addressing China-Specific Needs

SAP uses its SAP Labs network across the globe to deliver local market-oriented solutions for different geographies. SAP Labs China, one of the four hub labs that drive corporate product strategy and execution of global projects, is taking the right steps to integrate local requirements and deliver product capabilities that address the above issues:

 ■ Solutions customized for China regulations and business practices.
 ■ More ease of use. To solve the ease-of-use problem, including the user interface look and feel and usage behavior of the product, SAP Labs China reinvented finance user experience and business processes for Chinese customers, and it also optimized the user interface for its human resource module.
■ To standardize SAP’s global offering, SAP also reverse integrated the local innovations into SAP solutions as add-ons, such as the account aging analysis based on HANA, as well as mobile workforce scheduling features.
■ All the above capabilities are based on the design-thinking strategy where the product design and release plan is based on the customer requirement by engaging clients from the bottom up.

To learn more about SAP and the work they are doing for customers in China, visit the Forrester blog.

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SAP Announces Availability of SAP HANA Cloud, SAP NetWeaver Cloud

SAP today unveiled its plans for SAP HANA Cloud, a next-generation cloud platform based on breakthrough in-memory technology. As part of SAP HANA Cloud, the company also announced the general availability of SAP NetWeaver Cloud, an open standards-based application service.

SAP HANA Cloud will include several key offerings, two of which are the SAP HANA AppServices that aims to allow developers to create next-generation applications using native SAP HANA, Java and other rapid-development services; and SAP HANA DBServices aims to provide database-as-a-service in the cloud.

Read more about SAP HANA Cloud and SAP NetWeaver Cloud on the SAP blog.

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3D Printing and the Manufacturing and Supply Chain

Manufacturing and Supply Chain Managers: You're next!

Outsourcing manufacturing to third parties eliminated the need for businesses to run their own factories. The next step is outsourcing manufacturing directly to customers. Factories will be a thing of the past. So will warehouses and inventory. When someone needs a physical object, the notion of “just in time” manufacturing will take on a whole new meaning; they’ll download a design and just make it themselves.

Affordable 3D printing is already putting small-scale factories directly into people’s offices and homes. Once everyone has a multipurpose factory in their living room, there’ll be a lot less need for fancy facilities.

Learn more about the future uses of 3D printing on the SAP on the Cloud blog.

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Why the Cloud Won’t Save Your Business

All of the hype and hoopla that has surrounded cloud computing is finally quieting down. We’re almost in the place where cloud computing is no longer being suggested as the miracle cure for what ails business. However, just in case your business still thinks that the cloud will solve all of its problems, here are the top 5 reasons why it won’t...

Read more on the SAP on the Cloud 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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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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Mitigating Common Cloud Risks

Although many vendors are willing to present cloud computing as the perfect solution to all problems (real and imagined), as with all new service delivery mechanisms, it comes along with potential risks that need to be mitigated. If you are evaluating cloud computing for use in your organization, here are some of the most common risks that people fail to identify, assess or mitigate.

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

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Is There a Right Time to Buy ERP?

We’ve all heard the saying before—timing is everything. But what about when buying an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution? Is there a right time to buy, and how much is at stake if you wait too long?

Alyssa Sittig of Arena speaks with Alan Fang, chief operating officer at ERPLogic (an Arena partner and reseller of SAP Business ByDesign) to discuss the details of implementing an ERP system.

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SAP 2-tier ERP Cloud-Based Solutions

A cloud-based ERP solution for a 2-tier subsidiary should meet four key requirements in order to meet functional needs and integrate with the corporate ERP system. Read more...

Many large corporate organizations are choosing SAP Business ByDesign because its combination of rich functionality, cloud-based delivery model, and analytics capability, as well as support for HQ integration scenarios (including out-of-the-box integration with SAP ERP).

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Cloud Silos - Not a New Trend

These days all it takes to enter the cloud is the swipe of a credit card – Visa, MasterCard, or corporate AMEX will do. This has led many enterprises and line of business owners to turn to the cloud for their business applications, computing, and storage needs. However, in the rush to take advantage of these easy to procure and deploy solutions, a hidden threat is beginning to emerge. This challenge is the proliferation of cloud silos across the enterprise. According to David Linthicum of InfoWorld, if companies are not careful “in many instances clouds will just become a set of new silos, diminishing the value of IT if we’re not careful… the end result is an enterprise IT that becomes more complex and difficult to change, now on the new cloud computing target platform.”

However, the silo trend is not a new one. We have seen it before in the 1980’s and 1990’s as large enterprises in an effort to spur growth and reduce costs purchased a large number of on-premise solutions to improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations.

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

 

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