I.B.I.S. Announces The New Release Of Advanced Supply Chain Software™ For Microsoft Dynamics®.

I.B.I.S., Inc., a Sonata Software Company, recently announced the new release of Advanced Supply Chain Software™ for Microsoft Dynamics®. This release adds three new modules to Advanced Supply Chain Software™: Advanced Sales and Operations Planning™, Advanced Procurement Management™ and Advanced Demand Planning™.

With the additions of the three new modules, the software now fully supports best practices planning and aligns with the Plan to Profit business management methodology allowing distributors and manufacturers to meet their most important goal – to protect and increase margins. Progressive organizations are embracing an analytics-driven culture with a destination-focused business management approach.

This release features significant enhancements and improvements such as:
◾Sales and Operations planning for manufacturers and distributors by product line, including business impact of promotional events
◾Demand forecasting with industry standard methodologies
◾Smarter buying with a Buyer Console that allows for cost effective consolidation of planned fulfillments driven by vendor minimums and price breaks
◾Lead time management and control over inventory with new calculations for average lead time, economic order quantity with reorder points
◾Vendor sourcing activities tied directly to your selling activities, with end to end margin insight particularly for items not regularly kept in stock (e.g. special or non-stock items)
◾Quote and source new items on the fly, but only release products when you win the sale
◾Advanced purchase and sales pricing with more discount tier options and the ability to have automated selection and pricing of alternate vendors or fulfillment methods, such as drop ships
◾Improved customer service console and robust sales quotation and order management through workflow
◾Automated margin and credit holds
◾New vendor catalog and purchase price update engine
◾Full compatibility with cumulative update 9 for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3

To read more, visit the I.B.I.S. 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 2016 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.

International Business Systems Receives Food Logistics Magazine's FL100+ Award

International Business Systems (IBS), a mid-market integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Warehouse Management System (WMS) and supply chain provider, recently announced receipt of Food Logistics Magazine’s FL100+ Award.

IBS' received the award for their ERP and WMS distribution software, preferred for consistently improving operational efficiencies and business performance for mid-market companies challenged by the complexities of managing distribution.

For the 12th consecutive year, Food Logistics selected the FL100+ Award winner to recognize “the companies whose products and solutions benefit the food and beverage industry in multiple ways – from reducing food waste and extending shelf life to facilitating safe and sanitary transportation of product while assuring regulatory compliance.”

IBS’ WMS is unique in the marketplace for its position as a stand-alone solution and component of an integrated suite that includes ERP, Sales & Operations Planning, and web point-of-sale functions. The approach lets customers use only the pieces they require without being forced to use products from many vendors. IBS applications are designed to provide benefits such as lower IT cost through fixed monthly fees, reduced business risk, faster time to value and greater flexibility combined with the advanced functionality of the IBS industry-leading WMS and supply chain solutions.

To learn more about the award, and read additional case studies and white papers, visit the IBS 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 2016 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.

Demand Solutions Increases Value with Demand Solutions SaaS

Demand Management, Inc. a global supply chain planning software company that offers tools for manufacturers and distributors to increase forecast accuracy, improve customer service levels and reduce overall inventory, recently announced its collaboration with Microsoft to deliver the Demand Solutions SaaS solution built on Azure. Demand Solutions SaaS delivers full supply chain planning functionality in a solution that’s hosted outside the corporate firewall, and relieves IT staffs of the burden of performing updates and fixes.

Demand Solutions SaaS is designed for manufacturers and distributors that want to streamline and enhance their supply chain planning processes without having to build and maintain complex IT infrastructures. With Demand Solutions SaaS, companies can gain access to the full functionality of the on-premises solution, but without making an up-front investment in software licenses and hardware.

Azure is Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, a growing collection of integrated services—analytics, computing, database, mobile, networking, storage, and web—for moving faster, achieving more, and saving money. Azure offers a 99.95% monthly SLA, automatic operating system and service patching, load balancing, and resiliency in the event of hardware failure. Azure’s integrated tools, pre-built templates, and managed services make it easier to build and manage enterprise, mobile, web, and Internet of Things (IoT) apps faster, using skills developers and IT professionals already have and technologies they already know.

To learn more about Demand Solutions SaaS and access customer case studies and white papers, visit the Demand Solutions 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 2016 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.

Home Hardware Reduces Excess Inventory With Blue Ridge

Home Hardware is a co-op wholesaler owned by more than 1,000 independent business operators with three distribution centers across Canada. The company works with more than 2,600 suppliers and services its four banners, Home Hardware, Home Hardware Building Centers, Home Building Centers, and Home Furniture. As the co-op business expanded, it began to outgrow its legacy fulfillment solution. Keeping the inventory for each of these brands was becoming costly and cumbersome, creating inefficiencies in both time and stock levels.

After an extensive review, Home Hardware selected Blue Ridge. By implementing Blue Ridge's cloud-based solution, the company has seen a 10% reduction in excess inventory and safety stock while increasing service levels to stores by 2.5%.  In addition, IT costs have been lowered and reporting has become faster and easier, with individual store owners now having the ability to hone-in on data pertaining to inventory at any time from any location.

To read about the Home Hardware-Blue Ridge implementation, and view additional case studies, customer testimonials, and white papers, visit the Blue Ridge 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 2016 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.

Belden Brick Utilizes Infor LN For Data Visibility

Founded in 1885, the Belden Brick Company manufactures approximately 225 million bricks annually for residential and commercial use. Belden operates seven plants in Ohio and the mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions of the US. It also operates 160 wells producing natural gas used in the brick manufacturing process. When Belden acquired Redland Brick Company, the company chose to implement the open-platform Infor LN on Microsoft® Windows® and SQL Server®. In just over a year, the implementation was completed at Redland, and at the Belden operations six months later.

The implementation provided an opportunity to simplify the master data across the combined Belden and Redland businesses and achieve a common standard—something that Infor’s migration toolkit could manage easily. Since implementation, the company has seen important benefits in the system’s user interface alone. The filtering functionality of Infor LN is also key. Users such as production managers and salespeople can create their own filters for each screen, so they can focus on the data that is important to them. If they want to focus on a certain size, color, or shape of brick, they can do that as they look down through their inventory. Production managers also appreciate having only one transaction screen for analyzing the quantity of scrap produced on a production run and why it occurred.

The company has also implemented the Service module of Infor LN as an internal tool to manage the maintenance of the company’s trucks, bulldozers, service vehicles, kilns, and other assets. They also plan to use the system’s functionality to monitor what its gas wells are producing, and then manage the payment of royalties to those from whom Belden has acquired mineral rights.

To read more about the Belden implementation, and learn more about the products and services Infor provides to industrial manufacturers, visit the Infor 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 2016 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.

  

SIGMA Corporation Improves Supply Chain Planning With Absolute Value

SIGMA Corporation, an importer of specialized water products and accessories, recently implemented the SaaS or Cloud version of Absolute Value, enhancing the productivity and inventory management of their Sage MAS 200 ERP solution. Absolute Value has extensive roots in the distribution software industry, with specific strength in Forecasting and Replenishment. With an implementation timeline of less than 30 days, SIGMA rolled out the Absolute Value software solution to help streamline their Supply Chain forecasting and replenishment process.

SIGMA, based in New Jersey, has been in business since 1985. The company's core products are Waterworks pipe fittings and accessories. SIGMA pioneered production of these pipe fittings in China starting in 1985, and since then has steadily grown to be the second largest AWWA pipe fittings supplier in the USA. Because SIGMA imports much of their product from China, they are presented with a supply chain planning challenge every year related to the Chinese New Year when many factories close for the holiday. However, with less than two hours of careful planning in Absolute Value, SIGMA is able to avoid their normal product availability issues during that time.

Mitchell Rona, the VP of Operations for SIGMA, deems Absolute Value an "excellent forecasting and inventory tool. It is yet another way that SIGMA demonstrates its commitment to efficiency, strategic planning, and excellent customer service.”

To read more about the SIGMA implementation, as well as additional white papers and case studies, visit the Absolute Value 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 2015-2016 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.

  

Abatement Technologies Experiences Growth With Epicor

Abatement Technologies, Inc. is a designer and manufacturer of air abatement products that remove harmful particulates, bioaerosols and volatile organic compounds. Since its founding in 1985, more than 10,000 environmental abatement and HVAC contractors, commercial building owners, facility managers, and hospital infection control specialists have selected Abatement products to “clean the air” in millions of buildings.

In the past few years, the company has expanded its business to support the manufacture and distribution of a wide range of product consumables and accessories. As a result, the company's product line has grown substantially-from more than 300 SKUs to a few thousand today, and its supplier base has grown accordingly; today Abatement collaborates with more than 500 suppliers.

System Challenges:
•Needed strong manufacturing ERP capabilities to support its high volume make-to-order/ engineer-to-order production environment
•Desired real-time data access to improve efficiency and collaboration and overall responsiveness
•Needed support for financial management and reporting across its multi-plant operations

Solution:
•Epicor® ERP

Epicor Benefits:
•Support for financial management, engineer-to-order manufacturing and distribution operations
•Improved multi-plant coordination and collaboration
•Support for lean manufacturing strategies
•New robust easy-to-use reporting capabilities

To read more about the Abatement Technologies implementation, as well as additional white papers and case studies, visit the Epicor 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.

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