Technology in Practice

Technology has been called a great equalizer, providing tremendous efficiencies that allow small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to compete with larger enterprises. For example, cloud technologies including SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS level the playing field by providing access to vast computing resources at affordable prices. Applications such as eCommerce help SMBs get their products in front of broad audiences with a relatively small investment. But as anyone following the news knows, technology is also something of a trojan horse — it provides a gateway for cybercriminals to gain access to vulnerable infrastructures. Cybercrime Is a Business Modern IT infrastructures are more complex and sophisticated than ever. For cybercriminals, this complexity represents opportunity in the form of multiple entry points. Cybercriminals can launch thousands of digital attacks designed to compromise your operations at every turn, only one of which needs to connect to cause severe disruption. The wider the range of possible targets, the easier it is for cybercriminals to find undetected vulnerabilities. It also makes successful penetration more likely and reduces the risk of early detection. Protecting your business from cyber threats requires resources and expertise that go far beyond the capabilities of most SMBs. Even organizations with large internal IT teams are challenged to stay out in front of sophisticated cybercriminals. That’s why the best ransomware defense is to partner with a trusted technology provider who makes it their business to protect your business, mitigating threats while you focus on growing your business. Regain Your Power What are the risks to SMBs? How can SMBs protect themselves from cyberattacks while continuing to maximize technology? How can you gain the tools and confidence to safely leverage technology and unleash the power of your business? We answer those questions and more in our latest whitepaper, Digital Technology Will Not Be Ignored — Neither Will Cyber Threats. Download your free copy here.

Slowly but surely, the world is reopening. Factories are catching up on backlogs, and supply chains are rumbling back to life. Despite these positive signs, no one is suggesting we go back to business as usual. Wholesale distributors and manufacturers are adopting new strategies and rethinking old ones to keep their supply chains healthy and moving. What strategies are working for industry leaders? Are there common threads that all distributors draw upon to improve their chances for success in the new, post-pandemic economy? Use Technology as a Catalyst for Change Many distributors and manufacturers continue to rely on paper forms, manual workflows, and duplicate data entry tasks to support their supply chain. There’s been hesitation to invest in modern technologies where the return-on-investment is uncertain, especially during the pandemic when budgets tightened amid uncertain cash flow projections. At the other end of the spectrum, industry-leading companies accelerated their digital transformation efforts during the pandemic, deploying technology to help automate workflows, minimize human contact, and control costs. The declining costs and broader use cases for key technologies such as the Internet of Things, cloud computing, robotics, and business intelligence will allow all savvy distributors to use the pandemic-related slowdowns as a catalyst for change. One fundamental technology industry leaders all rely on is ERP optimized for the distribution sector. eBook Download: The Role Cloud ERP Technology Plays in Supply Chain Automation   Use Visibility to Boost Agility Even before the pandemic struck, distributors and manufacturers grappled with the need for greater visibility across their supply chains.  A company cannot react to late shipments, quality issues, or cost increases without deep end-to-end supply chain visibility. One major barrier to visibility is disconnected applications that don’t easily share data. Organizations that adopt a comprehensive suite of interconnected business applications have the proverbial single source, 360-degree view of the truth. With one ERP database holding orders, inventory, sourcing, and fulfillment — along with marketing, sales, and support data — companies gain the necessary agility and visibility to improve business performance and increase customer satisfaction. Leverage Analytics to Look Around Corners The sting may still be too fresh to consider the pandemic-induced challenges faced by distributors and manufacturers a learning exercise. Still, there is much to be gained from analyzing a business over time — even over unprecedented times. Industry leaders use analytics tools to improve efficiency, drive strategy and change, and monitor and improve their financial performance. Analytics can be descriptive or predictive, and both combine to inform better decision making. A modern, comprehensive, suite-based ERP application can include analytics and business intelligence tools that allow distributors to look at their operations in a multitude of ways. The best offer pre-configured dashboards and KPIs that provide organizations with real-time insight into key financial and operational data, helping leaders identify issues, trends, and opportunities. Sharpen Demand Planning to Lower Costs The pandemic caught many (if not most) distributors with a demand problem: either too much or too little. Even the most sophisticated demand planning tools are no match for the chaos a global pandemic brings, but effective inventory management is critical to the ongoing success of manufacturers and distributors. Industry leaders rely on accurate demand planning to reduce inventory holdings, increase inventory turns, and reduce lead times. Demand planning has always been part art and part science. The art come from experienced teams with institutional and industry knowledge and sharp instincts. The science comes from an ERP designed for wholesale distributors. The best ERP applications provide flexible configuration so that an organization can choose the planning method/s (linear regression, moving average, seasonal average, or sales forecast) that apply to them. It’s important to note that visibility (mentioned above) is critical for accurate demand planning, reinforcing the value of an integrated suite of supply chain modules. An Agile Post-Pandemic Supply Chain Building a more agile supply chain in the post-pandemic era is remarkably similar to building an agile supply chain during pre-pandemic times. Fundamentally, very little has changed. Instead, the pandemic revealed vulnerabilities in data access, workflows, and processes. In doing so, it is prompting many manufacturers and distributors to accelerate their rate of technological change, adopting technologies that deliver visibility and business insights while streamlining and automating tasks. By incorporating a powerful suite of business technologies designed for the industry, companies can gain the agility needed to balance demand, reduce risk, and better control costs.

The Net at Work team is excited for SuiteWorld, the annual NetSuite User Conference, taking place in Las Vegas October 18-21, 2021. Our clients who’ve attended past conferences have never been disappointed. Whether you‘re a beginner or advanced user there are tons of training and certification courses to help you better utilize NetSuite. Register Early Register today with a First Mover Pass and lock in a $600 savings. NetSuite only has a limited supply of these passes, so hurry, before they run out. Official Registration opens later this summer. SuiteWorld will sell out early. Visit the SuiteWorld Website to Register Attend & Learn How to Better Utilize NetSuite Over four energy-packed days, NetSuite customers, partners, and developers gather together to exchange ideas, train, gain certifications, and learn how to unlock the power of their NetSuite investment. Highlights Include: Pre-Conference Training and Certification Courses Optimizing your learning of NetSuite during one of the hundreds of breakout sessions for your industry and functional department Hearing from NetSuite executives, customers, and thought leaders during keynotes and workshops Visiting the Expo Center to explore NetSuite’s ecosystem of partners who help to extend the functionality of NetSuite Meeting with the Net at Work team to discuss your strategic roadmap with NetSuite Read the SuiteWorld FAQs Access the Pre-Conference Training & Certification Schedule For more information and registration visit www.netsuitesuiteworld.com. If you have any questions about SuiteWorld, would like to meet anyone in particular, or would just like advice on planning your days to the maximum please email us directly.

If you’re like many other manufacturers, you’re still recovering from the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic. Your supply chain may have faltered, causing sudden shutdowns or delays that affected your bottom line. Along the way, you may also run into challenges with your ERP system, making you question whether it’s the best choice for your business going forward. As IDC analyst Mickey North Rizza shared in a recent CIO article, “The COVID-19 pandemic has become the ERP market tipping point, quickly educating organizations on the need to digitize the business with modern cloud ERP systems.” If your legacy ERP system is making it unnecessarily difficult to run let alone grow your manufacturing firm, you may need to upgrade your current ERP software to a more modern and flexible cloud ERP solution. But how do you know when it’s time to make the switch? Here are three signs that your ERP just isn’t cutting it anymore — and what you can do about it. 3 signs that your ERP system just isn’t cutting it anymore If you’ve experienced any or all of these common problems with your current ERP, it may be time to upgrade to a new solution: 1. Your ERP doesn’t enable timely decision-making Outdated ERP systems often don’t provide the visibility you need to make mission-critical decisions in real time. As we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic, not having that insight at your fingertips can make it that much harder to quickly adapt when a sudden disruption hits the supply chain. If you’re constantly looking at older figures rather than real-time data or it takes you too long to come up with an accurate, up-to-date view of your supply chain’s status, for example, then that may be a sign it’s time to upgrade to a more modern ERP solution. A next generation cloud ERP system can give you the complete business visibility to make better decisions in less time, providing you and your team with robust self-service tools so you can quickly respond to changing market conditions. Reporting and analytics features give you the ability to configure custom dashboards or inquiries based on specific triggers or criteria, while financial reporting tools provide you with clear insight into your current financial status so you can make smart, timely decisions. You can improve your business decision-making process even further by integrating your cloud ERP solution with business intelligence technology that furnishes you with additional strategic context. 2. Your ERP doesn’t integrate well with other technology If your ERP doesn’t easily integrate with other business applications or let you capitalize on the tremendous potential that the industrial internet of things (IIoT) offers your company, for example, it may be holding you back. When your ERP doesn’t play well with other software or newer technologies, your employees may have to compensate with time-consuming manual workarounds for common business processes. Or, your IT team may have to invest more time and resources to create a custom integration for your ERP system that then breaks when either the ERP or the other software changes, sending IT back to the drawing board and racking up even more expenses. This inflexibility is a major sign that it’s time to upgrade to a more innovative ERP option. Cloud ERP is integration-friendly by design, featuring application programming interfaces (APIs) that support secure links with other business applications. It is also more mobile-friendly, allowing your employees to access the features and dashboards they need using their preferred device — whether that’s a smartphone, tablet, or desktop computer. Most importantly, a modern ERP system lets you take advantage of new technology rather than blocking you from making the most of it. In an era of continuous digital transformation, this is a core strategic benefit that any manufacturer can appreciate. 3. Your ERP is too unwieldy to maintain If you’ve been making do with a legacy ERP for many years, you might remember a time when it wasn’t so expensive to maintain. Eventually, however, the IT costs associated with supporting a large and unwieldy premises-based solution begin to creep up on even the most diligent company. Now that your IT team is juggling more responsibilities than ever, charged with digitally transforming your manufacturing business to keep it competitive, this administrative tax on their time and expertise not only lowers your ERP’s ROI but charges your organization an opportunity cost, as well. By switching to a cloud ERP solution, you can reduce your overall ERP spend while also freeing your IT professionals to focus on additional digital transformation projects that will advance your position in the market. A cloud ERP provider assumes responsibility for keeping your ERP up and running, and they also regularly maintain it with automatic updates that won’t accidentally break any customizations you have in place. As a result, your IT team and your company as a whole can enjoy a more reliable, up-to-date ERP solution that requires far less hands-on intervention than its predecessor did. Know when to a Next Generation ERP system The COVID-19 pandemic has made it abundantly clear that manufacturers need a modern, flexible next gen ERP system. ERP could even be the key to post-COVID business success, enabling the supply chain flexibility and resilience that give your manufacturing firm a competitive edge. If your current ERP just isn’t cutting it anymore, you’ve likely already noticed that it slows down decision-making, it doesn’t integrate well with other technology, and it’s burdensome to maintain. As a result, you may find it unnecessarily difficult to adapt to sudden changes in the market. A modern, next generation ERP solution can solve these problems, giving you the agility, flexibility, and speed to address the challenges and opportunities of our quickly evolving digital age. This article was written by Rose de Fremery and originally posted on Sage.com

For clients using recent releases of Sage X3, Net at Work offers a suite of Visual Process Flows (VPFs) as part of our Sage X3 Xperience Service Plans. VPFs, like the ones below, can improve your team’s user experience with Sage X3. If you are interested in more information, please contact us. To learn how to create your own VPFs in Sage X3, check out this Sage U course.

Manufacturers and distributors find themselves amidst a new set of post-pandemic challenges. Demand is sky-high, costs are volatile, labor is scarce, and over-stressed supply chains struggle to get back up to speed. In fact, with so much disruption to global supply chains, a new term – supply pain management — is entering the vernacular. CFOs have a strategic role to play in a post-pandemic economy. In fact, a strategic CFO may have a more significant impact on the business than any other executive. Here are five ways a strategic CFO can improve supply chain management and reduce the pain. 1. Choosing agile cloud technology CFOs play a major role in determining the direction their organizations take regarding a technology platform. Strategic CFOs recognize the limitations of outdated platforms and move to equip their employees with the digital tools they need to keep operations running. Modern cloud-based ERP offers robust supply chain management functionality, and the agility they provided to remote workers during the pandemic has cemented their value. Protiviti annual Finance Trends Survey revealed that 72% of CFOs ranked cloud-based applications as a top priority to address over the next 12 months. 2. Gaining real-time insight into costs By acquiring and integrating more information, CFOs can help the business develop a more responsive and reliable supply chain. Costs are changing more rapidly than ever. As a result, it is no longer helpful to evaluate future profitability by looking at historical data. To be effective, strategic CFOs need real-time visibility into production costs, raw material pricing, and landed costs (shipping and transport fees) — along with insight and information surrounding their suppliers’ activities. The effective use of data and the application of technology tools are essential for gaining this visibility. eBook Download: The Role Cloud ERP Technology Plays in Supply Chain Automation   3. Increase supply chain visibility Always important, supply chain visibility rose to critical status during the pandemic and into the recovery as volatility continues. A company can’t realistically grow its business when it tracks its supply chain through emails and spreadsheets. The more channels, regions, and partners, the more room there is for error. It is critical to migrate business processes to a dedicated application supporting efficient manufacturing, production, distribution, quality control, cost visibility, tracking, and reporting. As drivers of their company’s technology initiatives, strategic CFOs play a significant role in selecting software applications that bring the supply chain to light. 4. Upgrading metrics The pandemic has only increased CFO’s requests from the business for real-time data, including frequent, detailed and dynamic financial analyses and forecasts. Modern, cloud-based ERP applications collect a tremendous amount of data, but a strategic CFOs needs to cut through to the critical information to better understand their business operations, share this insight cross-functionally, and use it to drive strategic decision making. The targeted use of dashboards, KPIs, and other business metrics provides CFOs and their colleagues throughout the organization with visual windows into the data that matters to them. Continual monitoring of these metrics provides the organization with a way to measure performance over time and can help identify trends and opportunities. 5. An integrated technology platform Bringing data and people together across the organization results in faster, better decision making. When a business holds data in multiple disconnected applications, it can be a struggle to quickly access and assemble it in meaningful ways. The strategic CFO can lead the initiative to adopt a technology suite that supports every aspect of the business operation — including supply chain management — eliminating the silos that slow data sharing and analysis. Adopting new integrated technology streamlines data management and provides CFOs with the information and confidence to make informed decisions — making this a key element in any recovery plan. Strategic CFOs are masters of complexity CFOs in manufacturing and wholesale distribution companies are masters of handling complexity. They provide guidance in every area of the business – from technology to operations to the customer experience. This skill and expertise makes them ideally suited for addressing post-pandemic supply chain challenges. As a strategic CFO, you play a critical role in optimizing your organization’s supply chain. By providing the right technology infrastructure, your organization can grow while adding fewer employees — keeping them focused on high-value tasks and on client facing opportunities. It adds up to an environment where time saved is capacity earned.

Occasionally, you may find it necessary to close or delete a purchase receipt. In this blog, originally posted on Sage City Community by Vanessa Quwar, June 9, 2021, we’ll review the difference between closing and deleting a purchase receipt, how to do each, and the consequences of doing so. When a purchase receipt is processed to receive product into stock but the incorrect quantity was received, it is possible to delete the purchase receipt—even if the stock accounting interface has been processed on this receipt. If the entire receipt needs to be deleted, selecting “Change receipts” from the action button and deleting the line will delete the whole PO receipt (if one line exists on the receipt) and the product will be removed from stock. When the PO receipt is deleted, Sage X3 will: Create one journal entry if stock accounting FUNSTKACC was not processed on the PO receipt previously Credit the received not invoiced clearing account Process a debit to the Purchase price variance Debit received not invoiced Credit the purchase price variance account If the accounting interface was processed after the creation of the receipt, Sage X3 will create the first journal entry with credit to received not invoiced clearing account and a debit to the purchase price variance. After the deletion of the PO receipt, Sage X3 will process a second journal entry with a debit to the received not invoiced clearing account and credit to the purchase price variance account. If a purchase receipt was created and the product needs to stay in stock but no purchase invoice will be processed against this PO receipt, the PO receipt can be closed by clicking the “Close receipt” button within the PO receipt. Once the PO receipt is closed, a purchase invoice cannot be processed on it and when the FUNSTKACC is run, Sage X3 will debit and credit the received not invoiced clearing account and will debit and credit the purchase price variance with the same amounts. Please note that when closing a supplier receipt, you are saying to the system that there is no supplier invoice, hence no cost. As a consequence, the order price of a closed supplier receipt (with no invoice) is zero. This will impact your average base amount. And you cannot unclose a receipt. For more information on closing or deleting purchase order receipts, or any other questions about Sage X3, please contact us.

Your ERP system is at the heart of your business and nobody looks forward to a heart transplant. Yet, if the system is not supporting the needs of the business, limits your flexibility or inhibits customer service, a replacement is called for. ERP system replacement is a major business decision, and a major commitment of time and resources, so there has to be good reason to even consider it. So, how do you know when it’s the right time to change to a new next generation ERP system? Your current ERP system may be past its expiration date if: It does not support the needs of the business (lacks functionality, is hard to use, response time is too slow) It inhibits your efforts to adapt to changing customer requirements or market demands Operating costs are too high There’s no path to where you want to take your business – collaboration, new technologies (Internet of Things), analytics, etc. You should consider changing to a new Next Generation ERP system if any of the following is true: You rely on spreadsheets to get things done You are unable to meet or exceed competitors’ customer service benchmarks because of system limitations or inflexibility Competitors routinely outperform on cost/price, quality, lead time, and/or service – they simply manage their business better Your system is unable to support the growth and change required by your business – you need better visibility and control Executives get little useful insight from the system (lack of dashboards, self-service BI – or they are difficult to use) You have difficulty complying with requirements from regulators, creditors or board members Today’s modern ERP can be impressively comprehensive while designed to be flexible, scalable and adaptable as business needs change. The best of them include integrated Business Intelligence along with a full suite of applications designed for your specific industry. Today’s next gen ERP is also familiar and easy to use. It is accessible anytime, anywhere, through any device with a browser. A properly selected and implemented modern ERP system helps: Increase sales and improve customer service Improve cash management and reduce outstanding receivables Reduce purchasing and production costs; increase efficiency Improve inventory turnover Better utilize people, equipment and materials If your existing system doesn’t deliver the information you need to effectively run your business, start by gathering a team of your best people to identify what you need and research information about solutions and providers. After you have identified problems you want to solve and benefits you plan to receive, you must determine the correct time to make the switch. Unfortunately, too many projects fail or fall short of their goals because the organization was not ready for the work required to implement a new system. To ensure success, be sure to: Get agreement across all affected areas of the company on the project goals and benefits Establish an accurate budget Complete a cost justification analysis (return on investment or ROI study) Identify the executive sponsor and assemble the project team With our expertise and broad solutions portfolio, Net at Work can help you identify the right ERP system and implementation requirements. Contact us and we’ll connect you with a ERP Selection specialist

Welcome to the third installment of the Net at Work Sage X3 video series. In this latest episode, we take a look at pick location replenishment within Sage X3—ensuring that each picking location contains the optimal quantity of products for a smooth and efficient picking process. We will review: How to create/define bin locations and location types When to replenish inventory (e.g., using a predetermined minimum threshold) Transferring inventory from stock locations to pick locations .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } For more information on managing warehouse replenishment within Sage X3, please contact us.