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Clients First knows their software, but they are also astute business people, and they really understand manufacturing and distribution in particular.
Jimmy Witcher, COO, Merrick
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Posts Tagged ‘manufacturing’

Process Improvement Comes First

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

By:  Donald Clark CFPIM, CSCP

Companies around the world implement ERP systems for a wide variety of reasons:  some to eliminate manual efforts, some to run their businesses in an integrated environment, some for regulatory reasons, and on and on.  I think that if you ask many people why they undertake an ERP implementation, you might get an answer like “So we can improve”.

True as it is that an integrated ERP system can help a company gain efficiencies, it seems like that improvement sought is not always clearly understood or realized.

There is an old saying that goes something like this:   “When you automate a bad process, you can now produce junk at the speed of light”.  I do not remember who originally said it and the first time I heard it, it was stated more colorfully.  The point needs to be well taken though. (more…)

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Food and Beverage Solution

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Adapting standard ERP applications to the demanding needs of food and beverage producers and distributors is usually quite a chore.  Work-around processes, add-in modules and continued reliance on spreadsheets are the orders of the day.

Microsoft has changed all of that through the introduction of its Food and Beverage Solution for Dynamics AX 2009.  This product delivers the functionality food and beverage producers need to run their businesses effectively.

Here is the product fact sheet – don’t worry because it is not long.

Dynamics AX 2009 Food and Beverage Solution

Take some time to find out more about how the Food and Beverage Solution for Dynamics AX 2009 can help your business improve.  Contact our California office at 888-222-8827  if you would like more information or if you would like to see a no-charge demonstration of this product.

Top Ten Most Common ERP Evaluation Mistakes

Friday, November 20th, 2009

mistakes

  1. Failure to identify your business drivers, IE,  The top 15 to 20 items in your enterprise  that a new system must address and provide a workable solution..
  2. Creating a list of 200 top issues and items that you expect the system to solve.   Obviously the list must be much smaller.
  3. Not fully understanding that “What you do in your business is different” from “How you  do it”, a clear separation must be made between Processes and Procedures.
  4. A failure of not bench marking your critical metrics before you begin the  implementation, IE, inventory turns, customer delivery metrics, cost of quality, supplier  performance, quality errors, asset utilization, actual cost of product versus selling price.  And more………..
  5. Under budgeting for the ERP Project Implementation, and attempt to make the Project budget numbers work out by reducing User training. The result being that users will  revert back to the old way of doing their job and benefits will lag… Or never be realized!
  6. Selecting an ERP system that is not in your niche market, IE.  ERP systems functionally requirements in a Formula based manufacturing company are different than  functionally requirements in a Medical Device or Engineering make to Order  environment.
  7. Selecting an ERP system because the financials, A/P, A/R, and G/L are all from the  same supplier therefore losing key niche functionally your business must have to be  successful…
  8. Failure to understand that ERP systems technology has limitations, if you do not see it  demonstrated before you purchase… Very bluntly, “don’t be disappointed when you don’t see it later”…
  9. A lack of total project planning, IE, the Master Project should be to (A) start the  election process with an end date, (B) completion of the selection process begins the  implementation phase. The two should be seamless. This is a Project; therefore it should  have a beginning and ending date. Selecting and Implementing ERP is not a continuous  “Process”.
  10. Failing to understand that you are the buyer, therefore buy the best ERP system for  your company; do not be sold a quick fix.

    Clients First Fall Dynamics NAV (Navision) Newsletter

    Friday, November 6th, 2009

    This particular issue has both Dynamics NAV and general business related articles so whether you use Dynamics NAV or not, there is alot of great content here.

    Topics Include:

    • Microsoft Customer Source
    • ERP Optimization
    • Champion Containers, a Success Story
    • Bio Analytics- Business Intelligence for Dynamics.
    • General NAV tips & tricks from Chris Young, our resident guru.

    Fall Newsletter

    Microsoft presents Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009

    Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

    September 2009, Holmdel, New Jersey (NJ)

    Clients First Business Solutions is proud to present the following announcement.  We have been an active member in the design and testing of this breakthrough release.

    Microsoft Corp. today announced the general availability of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, a comprehensive, innovative business management solution that helps people work faster and smarter, and gives businesses the flexibility to adapt to new opportunities and growth.

    The Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 release offers breakthrough user experience and technology innovations while maintaining the simplicity that has always been a core value of this solution. Never before has so much effort been put into a Microsoft Dynamics NAV release – from extensive customer research and a complete architecture redesign, to a concentrated focus on quality. The product has been thoroughly tested by partners resulting in more than 10 customers live on Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009.

    “Customers and partners are facing complex issues today. Customers need to streamline operations and find ways to use resources more efficiently, while partners are looking for strong opportunities to create and maintain vertical solutions,” says Kirill Tatarinov, corporate vice president of Microsoft Business Solutions at Microsoft. “Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 allows us to squarely address the needs of midsize businesses in today’s economic climate and to support our partners’ investments. By using the role-specific, user-friendly ERP solution, both groups can boost productivity and work smarter, maximizing their effectiveness in driving business impact.”

    With Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, businesses can:

    •Provide a streamlined, RoleTailored user experience to help people work more effectively.

    •Adapt to meet changing business needs with improved agility and enhanced flexibility.

    •Connect Microsoft Dynamics NAV easily to a wide range of applications with .NET Web services.

    •Provide new options for designing reports that are intuitive to work with and easier to distribute.

    •Maximize existing investments in Microsoft products and technologies, including Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

    “One of the biggest challenges faced by customers using ERP systems is how to get started using the right functionality in the applications. With the release of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 and its new RoleTailored client, we finally have a great answer for that challenge. Those capabilities allow users to focus on the 20 percent of the application’s functionality that they need to do their job and push the rest into the background,” says Scott Brennan, managing consultant with Sikich, a US-based solution provider and Microsoft Dynamics NAV reseller.

    Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 introduces several new capabilities designed to increase usage of ERP and fuel individual and organization-wide productivity, including the following:

    Personalized Role Centers corresponding to 21 key job functions. Based on research into the way employees really work, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 delivers simplified access to RoleTailored views and business processes through Role Centers designed and delivered out-of-the-box for more than 21 key employee roles. Role Centers change the work paradigm for the traditional user by providing a single overview of job-related tasks and information. By helping people to organize, prioritize, and access their work from a single location, Role Centers can increase productivity and effectiveness. With an easy-to-navigate window into their work world and the ability to personalize their Role Centers to fit their own unique work styles, employees have a powerful way to get work done accurately and efficiently.

    Improved business intelligence and reporting capabilities based on the new Microsoft SQL Server database layer introduced in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, enable employees to drill into data, identify trends, generate business insights, and monitor how they’re tracking against key performance indicators. The new Business Analytics in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 delivers powerful new features designed to make it easier for your clients to create and consume business information. In this new release, Microsoft Dynamics NAV focuses more than ever on simplicity and making information available in and intuitive and easy way so all employees can gain the insight they need to act on behalf of the business.

    .NET Web Services allow partners and customers to integrate data and business logic from Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 with other applications to support a wide range of scenarios. For example, businesses wanting to deploy credit check functionality to enable employees who normally do not have access to the ERP system to run credit checks on a new customer can easily create web services that make the process simple and efficient in providing the employee with access to recent and accurate credit data.

    “Our employees have enthusiastically embraced Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 because it fits their individual needs rather than force-fitting them into a one-size-fits-all system,” said Henrik Dam Jespersen, CEO of Hurup Furniture. “The ease of setup and tight integration with the Microsoft products we already use allowed us to get up and running quickly and smoothly, and we’re already seeing increased productivity, reduced costs and smarter decision-making.”