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), Inforce, Infor CRM Business, Storeroom, 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.

CRM Is Here to Stay: Evaluating Its Use with ERP

by Trevor B. Cain

The debate over whether the recession has ended may continue, but most industry watchers agree that conditions over the past two years have created a new climate in business – a climate where caution reigns, and increased customer service will be a key differentiator between competitors.

I hear almost every day from Activant clients and prospects that they need better tools and access to more accurate, real-time information in order to provide the increased level of service required to keep their current customers and attract new business. Competition is tough: a quote from one rep today could easily turn into an order for a competitor tomorrow.

The businesses I work with are distributors of wholesale durable goods. Wholesale distributors often run lean and mean – many times, without an outside sales force or the ability to be in front of every customer all the time. This does not exempt them from needing to create a competitive edge, however. Their field sales force has to be more proactive than reactive. They need to walk into a customer meeting armed with information: Quotes and invoices based on the last visit. Were there any new quotes? Any outstanding orders? Credit issues? Other problems?

Being aware of what is going on with an account has always been basic to customer relationship management (CRM), but in today’s climate, it’s a critical factor. As a result, wholesale distributors are looking for a better approach to CRM as they evaluate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to run their business. For some, this is their first look at CRM, but others may be seeking to consolidate systems, searching for a more efficient alternative to maintaining two or more databases of information that often don't communicate with each other.

These stand-alone CRM applications can be quite costly to the midsize family-owned distributor. The functionality may be robust, but is it tailored to the specific demands of the distributor? Often, the investment has more function than needed.

When considering ERP systems for distribution, the question to ask in reviewing CRM functionality is: What does CRM mean to my business? Determining what CRM means to a distributor involves evaluating all areas of the business and their needs. CRM isn't just the customer relationship as it pertains to sales, but also accounting and value-added services, if they exist. Outside of sales, distributors also maintain relationships with their vendors. Without inventory and knowledge of availability, distributors would be dead in the water.

One approach to evaluating these areas of the business is to empower key employees from various departments to have a voice in what is important.

• Does the company have an outside sales staff? If so, enhanced CRM functionality could greatly increase their efficiency. This usually goes to their bottom line, which is what they are always watching.
  


• Do these field sales reps have laptops, smartphones, iPads? What tools do they need to have access to and from a system?
  


• Can your company automate workflow not only within the business, but also out to those reps in the field?
  


• Can the system generate automated tasks based on those important transactions that often require follow-up, such as quotes to the customer?
  


• Does your company get involved in larger bids with customers (i.e., it's not just a single quote, but multiple quotes under a larger opportunity that may linger on for months)? Is the company able to track these opportunities in order to generate a pipeline of what is to come in future months?

These small pieces of functionality will make the difference between being proactive or reactive. The bottom line is, to see both immediate and long-term effects of CRM, you should get buy-in from employees. Determining needs, uncovering key functionality and implementing are only half the battle. No matter what CRM system you choose, the ROI will come only if it is put to use.

Trevor B. Cain is an Industry Segment Manager at Activant Solutions Inc. Find out more about Activant at distribution.activant.com or call 1-800-776-7438.

Are You Under-Utilizing Your Technology? By Steve Epner, CSP

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Are you and your management team getting the information you need to make the right decisions at the right time for the right situation? Is the information you get from your computer system:

• Current


• Accurate


• Reliable


• Meaningful


• Relevant

If not, you may not be using your computer to its fullest capacity. According to most surveys, businesses use less than 15 percent of the features and functions that are available on their computer systems. While automation systems are one of the largest financial and time investments that most companies make, most owners are pitifully unaware of what can be done. It is a tremendous waste of resources.

What you want to do to be more successful is to get a greater return on your information investment?

You must begin by documenting what you are doing today. This is imperative as most companies have created entangled masses of paperwork based on system failures of long ago. These quick fixes havenever been reviewed as systems have been upgraded, enhanced, or replaced. As a result, most people force their current system to try to do things the old way. The bottom line result is that we use very little of what the system can do for us as we try and duplicate or imitate old procedures that are no longer necessary or appropriate.

We also need to look at what steps have been added to your paper and information flow because you just “want to be sure”. Many times we add steps to review, revise, and approve computer-generated output because there is no trust in what is being created.

Proper planning and execution of your paperwork flow will correct this situation. Our many years of experience have allowed us to find that most companies can easily reduce 20 percent of the time they spend handling paper. In some cases, the number will go as high as 75 percent. Don’t be embarrassed if, as you look around, you find many things that just don’t need to be done.

Another area of analysis that we find very helpful is to look for bottlenecks. When we do a bottleneck analysis, we take a look at the forms that enter, are created in, and leave each desk. It is quite an eyeopener for most executives to see how paper is processed in their offices. There are many times when people get paper “just to look”. They add no value.

We are very conscientious as we eliminate duplication, bottlenecks and efforts that don’t add value for the company or the end user.

More importantly, we take a look at the numbers that you use to run your business. It always amazes us how many people spend time re-entering data into spreadsheets so they can get valuable management information. Most systems today have many of these features built in. We will help you find what is already there to reduce the time and effort you need to find the answers to help you make decisions. Furthermore, we will reduce the number of errors caused by transcribing numbers and the time and effort involved in running multiple systems manually when the answers can be provided on an almost automatic basis.

To make things even better, we can often help you create graphical output which will show you exactly where the company is and where it is going. These reports can be produced on a daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis. By using “running averages”, we are able to smooth out individual peaks and valleys so that a trend is more easily recognized. Executives should get an End of Day Report that shows how they did. This is available in all of the systems we have reviewed and we would guess that it is available in what you already have if you are willing to look for it.

Some time ago (or in the recent past), you made a major investment in automation for your company. You spent a lot of money to buy hardware, software, and services. You took valuable resources (people) and put them through weeks of training, conversion, and start up. The end result is one of the largest noninventory investments that you will ever make (other than brick and mortar). If you are using only 15 percent of this investment, you are not getting the return you deserve or should expect.

Step back from what you are doing, take a look at how things operate, be prepared to make changes, and you can increase the effectiveness of your information investment. Just doubling your return to 30 percent should have major impact on your ability to operate the business effectively and to reduce the cost of servicing your clients.

About The Author
Steve Epner, CSP, Founder of the Brown Smith Wallace Consulting Group
Steve Epner has been directing traffic on the information super highway since 1966. A highly regarded industry expert, Epner is widely published and has provided comment for national business publications including the Wall Street Journal. His experience in business, technology and strategic planning makes him a nationally renowned technical speaker.
Epner can be reached at sepner@bswllc.com.

About The Brown Smith Wallace Consulting Group
The Brown Smith Wallace Consulting Group has been serving the distribution community for more than 20 years through the publication of the Distribution Software Guide, speaking at industry programs, giving free telephone advice to distributors and providing fee-based consulting services to companies who need help selecting the best software packages for their business.

What’s the point of the software demo?

Written by Jeff Gusdorf, CPA: Jeff is a Principal in the Brown Smith Wallace’s Consulting Group. He is the managing consultant and is responsible for IT strategic consulting, software research and evaluation. Jeff has more than 20 years’ experience as a financial manager and technology consultant in the manufacturing, distribution and service sectors.

I attended a program presented by a local Microsoft partner this week. The partner did a very nice job of hosting this presentation; rented a very nice meeting room at a local restaurant, spent a ton on food, had Microsoft representation, gave away a nice door prize. Attendance wasn’t quite what they wanted but it was still a nicely attended event. But I think they missed an opportunity to make the needed impact on the attendees to move them forward in their software selection process.

Microsoft sells four ERP packages under the Dynamics brand and each product occupies a certain niche as explained by this partner: AX is the high end package, NV is a mid-tier product that is easily customized, GP is another product for mid-sized companies that have both distribution and manufacturing requirements and SL is for companies with project management needs.

Each product was demonstrated for 30 minutes. Each demonstration focused on the role-based model that Microsoft has incorporated into their software. Users are assigned a profile based upon their role in the organization and each role has a set of tasks already configured so that the user can be more productive more quickly every day. Each user can customize their start up screen with menu options, alerts, fact boxes and fast tabs. Great – but did I have to see the same thing 4 times? Did 75% of the time have to be devoted to showing the same functionality again and again?

This brings me to my point – what’s the point? What do you need to see in order to decide that this software package could/should be considered by your company as a potential solution? Is it replenishment? Order processing? e-Commerce? Make a list of the business processes that are critical to your business and communicate that to the software vendor. Reporting, Dashboards and Business Intelligence are the whip cream and cherries of software demos. It’s sweet and looks appealing but not very filling. Make sure you know what the point of the software demo is before you invest your time and the software vendors time.

Activant Introduces its Next Generation of Business Analytics

Activant Solutions Inc. users know the power that Activant's business analysis tool gives them to help make smarter decisions about their operations. Now Activant has introduced its next generation of business analytics -- Activant Business Analyzer -- to give distributors an even greater advantage.

The Activant Business Analyzer solution includes features and functionality that provide distributors with greater insight into their businesses. For starters, it's faster -- queries return results quicker and databases are more compact and take less time to build. It's also easier to customize: distributors can produce charts and tables for specific users and roles, and users can also produce their own custom reports.

"I am particularly pleased with the ability to customize a number of different queries into a very flexible layout of multiple reports that reflect valuable information across different departments in our company," said Rodger Hurt, president of Southern Marketing Affiliates, headquartered in Jonesboro, AR. "In previous generations of executive information systems from Activant, you were limited to a single report on the screen. With the Activant Business Analyzer product, you can have multiple tabs that can be built and modified to show information based on how you want to see it. The graphs and charting functionality is much improved."

In addition to allowing the viewing of multiple reports at the same time, the Activant Business Analyzer solution also lets users set up flags that warn them when performance indicators are weak or headed south. And it's far easier to get important information into the hands of those who need it with this new package.

"You can email reports directly from the application," said Hurt. "You can launch an Excel file with ease that retains nice formatting. Reports can also be set to run on a variety of different scheduling options and then distributed automatically to the people in your company that need the data.

"The ability to create multiple scheduled distributions of varying reports is going to be great as we develop our business further."

The Activant Business Analyzer solution comes packed with other useful features, such as:

* Ability to view data based on calendar or fiscal year
* Security protection to keep users out of unauthorized areas
* Drag-and-drop design tool that creates queries faster
* And many more

To find out more, visit distribution.activant.com, email distribution@activant.com, or call 1-800-776-7438, press 1.

About Activant Solutions Inc.

Activant Solutions Inc. ("Activant") is a leading technology provider of business management solutions serving retail and wholesale distribution businesses in three primary vertical markets: hardlines and lumber; wholesale distribution; and the automotive parts aftermarket. Founded in 1972, Activant provides customers with tailored proprietary software, professional services, content, supply chain connectivity, and analytics. More than 30,000 customer locations use an Activant solution to manage their day-to-day operations. Activant has operations throughout the United States and Canada , Ireland and the United Kingdom .

For more information, please visit distribution.activant.com.

Activant Prophet 21 Offers Functionality for Petroleum Distributors

Activant®, the leading software and services provider for wholesale distributors, announces the addition of functionality to Prophet 21® specific to petroleum distributors.

"Petroleum distributors have unique needs due to the variable nature of supply and demand for our products," said Bob Crouch, CFO of PetroLiance, LLC. "Activant’s product development teams have spent the time to understand our requirements and build them into Prophet 21’s functionality, and they are committed to continuous improvement of these features for the long run."

Special Functionality for Petroleum Distributors

Activant Prophet 21 contains the key functionality important to the success of petroleum distributors, including:

* Integration with suppliers – including ExxonMobil, Shell Oil, and Valvoline
* Integration with routing systems- including Geocom, Centeron Dispatch Compass Integration/E-tank
* Support for delivery scheduler routines
* Extensive reporting, including gallons display and loan processing
* Hazmat Tracking
* PetroVend Cardlock integration
* Integration to Axxis
* Support for drum deposits
* And much more

To find out more, visit distribution.activant.com, email distribution@activant.com, or call 1-800-776-7438, press 1.

About Activant Solutions Inc.

Activant Solutions Inc. ("Activant") is a leading technology provider of business management solutions serving retail and wholesale distribution businesses in three primary vertical markets: hardlines and lumber; wholesale distribution; and the automotive parts aftermarket. Founded in 1972, Activant provides customers with tailored proprietary software, professional services, content, supply chain connectivity, and analytics. More than 30,000 customer locations use an Activant solution to manage their day-to-day operations. Activant has operations throughout the United States and Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

For more information, please visit distribution.activant.com.