Technology in Practice

How efficient is your manufacturing operation? Must your production managers maintain laborious spreadsheets to plan production? How often are orders late because someone forgot to schedule an operation? The Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) module in Sage ERP MAS 500 is a powerful, yet easy-to-use tool than can increase manufacturing efficiency and make a positive impact on your bottom line. APS Benefits With a well-implemented APS module, you will be able to save money by reducing inventory and using your resources more wisely. Your production scheduling personnel will appreciate the ability to create multiple schedule versions to determine optimum efficiency. Synchronize Supply And Demand Manufacturing efficiency is maximized when you achieve synchronization between customer demand, material needs, and resource availability. APS helps you accomplish this with the ability to schedule using industry-standard scheduling rules. Industry-Standard Rules APS schedules production based on advanced mathematical algorithms. You can choose from the following nine industry-standard rules: Started Operations, Locked Operations, Actual Before Planned, Critical Ratio, Minimum Slack, Priority Code, Required Date, Due Date, and Entry Date. The minimum slack formula minimizes the time difference between required and scheduled completion date. You can give each work order a priority code manually and schedule via priority number. The master scheduling screen allows you to use multiple rules at the same time. You simply choose which rule the system should use first, then work your way down the list. A typical rules sequence might look like this: Started operation Locked operation Actual before planned Due date Release date Flexible Scheduling Of course, no matter how carefully you plan, new priorities or equipment failures will require schedule adjustments. The APS module gives you flexibility with the drag-and-drop scheduling board, and the ability to maintain multiple schedules and what-if scenarios. The system also allows you to override standard work center, machine, and holiday schedules, so you can schedule overtime if needed. As the need arises, you can tweak the schedule easily using the graphical scheduling board to accommodate those inevitable situations, such as fitting in high-priority orders or moving operations to a different machine if one breaks down. A preview window displays late scheduled Work Orders and special messages so managers can stay on top of problems. You even can use the Alerts module to send alert messages to appropriate personnel when production delays occur. The visual schedule also can improve customer service with visibility into the status of customer orders and scheduled completion dates across manufacturing facilities. Give us a call to discuss how APS can be put to work in your organization.

When Microsoft announced the retirement of the FRx financial reporting software, which has for many years been included with Sage ERP MAS 500, Sage began searching for a replacement. Sage ERP MAS Intelligence has been identified as the ideal FRx replacement solution. It provides powerful and easy-to-use financial reporting and it also can provide Business Intelligence from across your entire system, including Sage SalesLogix and Sage Abra. Power And Familiarity Of ExcelMicrosoft Excel has become the reporting and analysis tool of choice for accountants and executive management alike, so it made sense to choose a reporting tool for Sage ERP MAS 500 that is based on this familiar interface. Sage ERP MAS Intelligence comes with a selection of report templates that help you quickly and effortlessly produce pre-formatted reports. Then you simply can refine and expand your reports using all the flexibility and power of Excel. Sage ERP MAS Intelligence allows you to spend more time focusing on analysis and less time pulling data together. Comprehensive Integration Sage ERP MAS Intelligence is integrated so that it already recognizes the data structures within Sage ERP MAS 500. The software reads your data and knows your fiscal periods, chart of accounts, detail transactions, and various types of balances. As a result, you quickly will be able to build your intelligence solution to work the way you do. Informed Decision Making The Dashboard Analysis report provides a one-page summary of key business information, featuring Top-N details on customers, items, and expenses. View information both textually and graphically to help with daily and long-term planning. In addition, comparative profit and loss figures are displayed for current month and financial year-to-date. You can drill down to get further insight into what makes up the numbers. Components Sage ERP MAS Intelligence is organized into several components, similar to that of the FRx system it replaces. The components are Report Manager, Report Viewer, Report Designer, and the Connector Module. You can select the components based on the level of functionality you require. Report Manager At the heart of the system is Report Manager. This is where you create and edit new reports, as well as filter and aggregate data. Here you will find built-in report templates that help you get a quick start using the system. There are templates for financial reports as well as Financial Analysis, Dashboard Analysis, General Ledger Transaction Details, Inventory Status, Vendor Purchases, and Customer Sales. With Report Manager it is a simple matter to create your layout, set multilevel groupings and consolidations, and add formulas where you want them, all using intuitive selection tools. You even can use what-if analysis by changing a set of values on your reports to instantly see the impact of a change on an area of your business. Report Manager includes flexible security settings that allow you to set permissions and protect sensitive data from unauthorized access. Report Designer Report Designer gives you the ability to author new reports. When you have a Report Designer license you also can import data from external sources to be included in your reports. Report Viewer Report Viewer Licenses are available for staff members who need to run reports, but not create them. A Report Viewer License allows you to view existing reports with real-time information, perform  basic filtering capabilities such as selecting the date range, and drill-down to detailed reports. Connector Module The Connector Module gives you access to information from multiple data sources and multiple Sage ERP MAS 500 companies. With this module you can produce consolidated financial reports for multiple companies and connect to and report on data from other ODBC-compliant data sources, including Sage Abra. What Is Included? The Sage ERP MAS Intelligence Module will be available for customers on Sage ERP MAS 500 Version 7.3. Customers on a current subscription plan will receive, at no charge as a replacement for their FRx licenses, four single user Report Manager licenses. These licenses give you the ability to: Author new reports (organize, create, edit) as well as filter and aggregate data based on existing data containers. Run, edit, and clone the standard report templates, including financial reports, dashboards, financial trend analysis, general ledger, sales, purchases, and inventory transactional reports. Set security and permissions on all reports. Connect to one company database at a time. If you are running two or more companies, you can redirect the software as needed to access data from your other company codes or purchase an additional Report Manager or a Connector license if you wish to generate reports that include data from multiple companies. If you own and trade-in additional FRx licenses, only maintenance will be charged. Maintenance will not be charged on the initial free Sage ERP MAS Intelligence licenses. Advanced Capability Add-ons You can purchase advanced capabilities to add to the Sage ERP MAS Intelligence module. Import/Export functionality requires the purchase of an additional Report Manager License, a Report Designer License, or the Connector Module. Optional Report Scheduling requires the purchase of an additional Report Manager License, the Report Designer, or the Connector Module. Connections to other types of databases or more than one company database at a time requires the purchase of a Connector Module. Note: Because Sage ERP MAS Intelligence utilizes Microsoft Excel it requires Excel 2003 or Excel 2007. In order to run the Report Designer, customers will need Excel 2007. Sage will not include FRx in the Sage ERP MAS 500, Version 7.4. However, Sage will continue to support FRx as part of previous releases, according to the published Supported Versions Policy. Please note Net at Work is still evaluating this module and will shortly determine how to proceed. Please give us a call with your questions. Learn more about Sage MAS Intelligence

Wednesday, August 18, 201010:00AM PDT / 1:00PM EDT Register Here Over a business’s lifespan, it will face the task of continually replacing, upgrading, or enhancing its business systems in response to changing market conditions, new technologies, and shifting strategies. Consider how your organization approaches ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning).  Are you effectively leveraging your people, processes and software in a way that keeps you operating efficiently and a step ahead of your competitors? This Webinar will help you and your colleagues to chart a course for ERP evolution at your company, and to harness the power of your chosen solutions to achieve and sustain business value over the long term. Sign up now for this educational event and you’ll learn about the critical points for success, including: 7 steps to driving total business value using an ERP system A step by step approach for evaluating ERP solutions in a way that supports your specific and concrete business goals How to factor important benefits typically not reflected in classic ROI/TCO analysis  such as greater flexibility and business agility into your project in a more formal, institutionalized manner How to build business transformation, value, and change management into the foundation of your deployment to ensure a successful ERP outcome Featured Speakers: Eric Kimberling has over 10 years of experience devoted to the field of ERP and IT Benefits Realization, including performance measurement, process improvement, and organizational change management. He is the President and founder of Panorama Consulting Group, a US-based company that provides IT and ERP Benefits Realization consulting to international companies. Erik Kaas is Director of Product Management for Mid Market ERP products at Sage. He is responsible for managing the product life cycle from strategic planning to tactical activities. Erik manages a team of product managers responsible for specifying market requirements for current and future products.  Prior to Sage, Erik was responsible for product management at Pivotal Corporation, a provider of CRM solutions for mid market enterprises. Michael Oliver-Goodwin is a Contributing Editor for Focus. He is a widely published writer and an experienced editor for publications, including PC World, MacWeek and InfoWorld.

As storage continues to be the #1 problem for most IT departments, many are finding managing tape backup, disaster recovery (DR) and data archiving becoming increasingly complex. Backup was simple when data was measured in Megabytes & Gigabytes, but as storage moves to Terabytes (1,000’s of Gigabytes) and Exabytes, dealing with this amount of data has become difficult – until now. In this webinar, Net at Work along with Dell and EMC Data Domain will explore solutions to address the common challenges for organizations with 1Tb up to 1,000Tb’s of data. We will review: Why the ‘Storage’ problem is so prevalent and won’t go away easily Technology solutions that combat this ever increasing challenge How data deduplication can and should play a significant role in how you manage your data Anyone who finds managing tape backup, Disaster Recovery (DR) and data archiving becoming increasingly complex as their organizations store exponentially more information should Register.

If you haven’t had a good look at MAS90 / MAS200 v.4.4 tune in to this live demo to be presented by Sage Software. Some of the features we’ll be showing include: Paperless Office New User Interface Improved Report Generation Business Insights Explorer See More about What’s New in 4.4 REGISTER: Wednesday, August 4 11:00 am – 12:30 pm EDT Register Now Wednesday, August 11 11:00 am- 12:30 pm EDT Register Now  

Today, many organizations are expanding into new markets to take advantage of economical global supply chains, diversify to stabilize cash flow, or to create an organization more appealing to investors. If your organization is expanding, you may be facing a number of operational challenges. You will need to consider the localization requirements of language, business and tax rules; managing transactions in multiple currencies; processing transactions between companies; and producing consolidated financial reporting from disparate entities. We will look at each of these issues in turn and discuss the tool. Localization When operating in different countries, software systems must provide the user interface and data in the local language. Every country varies in its accounting standards such as reconciliation and taxation. Sage ERP Accpac offers country-specific layers or packs that allow you to provide local language, tax, and accounting rules through seamless default settings and templates. Multiple Currencies Having multiple locations around the world or simply dealing with customers and suppliers in different countries requires that you enter and process transactions in multiple currencies and keep track of constantly changing exchange rates. The Sage ERP Accpac Multi-Currency module handles the complexities of dealing with multiple currencies with ease. You can create and maintain an unlimited number of currencies and exchange rates. Transactions can be entered in any currency and reports can be produced in both your home currency and the currency of your vendor or customer. Seamless integration across financial and distribution modules ensure currency gain or loss is automatically calculated to reflect currency fluctuation as transactions are settled. Intercompany Transactions An intercompany transaction occurs when a subsidiary is involved in a transaction with headquarters or another subsidiary. Examples of intercompany transactions include the declaration and payment of dividends, the purchase and sale of assets, and borrowing and lending. The intercompany transaction must be recognized in the financial records of both units of the entity as if it were a transaction with an unrelated party. Sage ERP Accpac allows you to enter transactions that affect more than one company in one account, and then automatically distribute those transactions across companies, performing required currency translations and creating the necessary journal entry as soon as transactions are posted, balancing the books of both companies. Local And Consolidated Reporting When it comes to financial reporting, multi-national companies face a two-prong challenge. Each division or subsidiary must pay its employees, manage accounts receivable and accounts payable and pay taxes in the local currency using local accounting standards. Yet financial data from subsidiaries also must be consolidated into the ledger of record in the monetary unit and accounting standards of the country in which the corporation as a whole is operated. Exchange rates between currencies change constantly and the ledger of record must reflect these changes, and ensure that all entries balance. With the multi-national capabilities of Sage ERP Accpac and the Multi-Currency module, you easily can comply with the international currency standard. The Multi-Currency module uses international principles for accounting and reporting with adherence to FASB-52 and IAS 125 guidelines. If your organization is expanding, either globally or into new locations nationally, give us a call for assistance in leveraging the multi-national capabilities of Sage ERP Accpac.

Sage recently has published a Product Roadmap for Sage ERP MAS 500. In this post we’ll provide an overview of the roadmap, as well as highlights of current and upcoming releases, including Product Update 3, released in May 2010. Sage ERP MAS 500 StrategySage developed the Product Roadmap with the intention of providing value to customers with minimal disruption to customer business processes, through a combination of frequent small enhancement releases or Product Updates, and less frequent major new version releases. To determine what will be in its releases, Sage obtains customer feedback from a variety of mechanisms. These include customer input via surveys, customer site visits, and Customer Advisory Board meetings. Support cases are reviewed and enhancement suggestions from the online community are considered. Additional input comes from business partners through the Advisory Council, and technology direction is recommended by Sage Research and Development. Product updates will include top customer-requested enhancements. Sage also is focusing on reducing the impact of upgrades on customersí customizations to the software. May 2010 Product UpdateThe May 2010 Product Update for Version 7.3 is available for download. This release includes a number of customer-requested usability enhancements, as follows: Two security events have been added to Enter Transfer Orders to control updates to the Surcharge Amount and Percentage fields. Sales Order Entry Bulk Update now provides an option to update open sales order lines with defaults for Shipping Priority and Dates. The ability to select the unit of measure on three reports has been added. You can choose Stock, Sales, Purchase, or Price unit of measure before printing the Stock Status, Inventory Valuation, and Inventory Cost reports. Future Product UpdatesFuture Product Updates for Version 7.3 are already planned and include such useful features as the ability to copy sales order and quotes to a new customer, and security events to control the deletion of sales order and purchase orders. You can expect new product updates for 7.3 to be available every three or four months until Version 7.4 is released. Major Release ScheduleMajor new version releases to Sage ERP MAS500 will occur approximately every 18 months. Version 7.4 is targeted for release in the second quarter of 2011. Enhancements planned for Version 7.4 fall under three themes: Manufacturing and distribution improvementsñ such as the ability to change preferred vendor for replenishment, using the transaction date as post date for manufacturing transactions, and the ability to backflush from bin-tracked warehouses. Productivity enhancementsñ workflow improvements such as simplified customer refunds, better tracking of overpaid invoices, and allowing negative line items on Sales Orders. Platform and performance updates ñ Crystal ReportsÆ 11 R2 and Microsoft Office 2010 will be supported, as well as Visual Studio 2010. Performance enhancements are planned for Business Insights Explorer.Version 7.5 is planned for the fourth quarter of 2012 and is expected to include enhancements to usability, manufacturing, technology platforms, and multi-currency capabilities. Product Retirement ScheduleIn order to focus development resources more effectively on current and future releases, Sage will be reducing the number of prior versions that are supported. Support for Sage ERP MAS 500 Versions 6.3 and 7.0 ends September 2010 and support for Version 7.05 will end with the release of Version 7.4. Give us a call with your questions, or to plan your upgrade.

DATE: Thursday, August 5 TIME: 10:00am – 10:30am EST Click Here to Register With the FileBound Document Management Integration to Dynamics GP sharing data and documents between systems has never been easier. Join us for a 30 minute webinar to learn how Filebound GP Integration can help you achieve… Business Process Integration: Combine the FileBound document management workflow with the FileBound GP data integration to create a powerful extension to your existing business processes. Data Integration: Improve efficiency and reduce data entry errors. Simple Data Mapping: Easy to use mapping configuration that reduces implementation time and errors. Scheduling: Schedule each import or export to run un-attended to ensure the most accurate data is available at the right time Register and see how the allows you to leverage your investment in technology, training, and processes by delivering a document management solution right within your existing GP system.

Sage strongly recommends that a full external backup of the Sage Abra Suite DATA folder be performed nightly and that the backup is retained for at least three months.This may be done by burning a copy of the Data folder to a CD or DVD, or by copying it to a tape drive. Retention time periods vary on a case-by-case basis, but remember that in the event of a system failure these backups may be your only resource. If a backup of the currently installed version does not exist, it may be necessary to either re-register or uninstall and reinstall Sage Abra from the network to get to the correct version installed, as restored data must be in the same version as the installed application.