2007 – Spending on Manufacturing Software to Rise Strongly

According to the Institute for Supply Management:

Spending by manufacturing companies on technology — particularly ERP and manufacturing software and integration tools — is poised to accelerate through 2007, stimulated by business issues such as globalization and the need for operational efficiency, according to three recently released reports.

This is good news. Especially for the ERP space. This month, being the year end, vendors are reporting that they are very busy. For a while, there was a drop in activity, but it seems that people are back looking at enterprise software again, especially in manufacturing.

ERP Software as GDP Indicator for China

ERP Software as GDP Indicator for China
By Frank Mulligan, Talent Software
The rollout of international level enterprise software in China has, over the
past 10 years, tended to follow a definite pattern.

The first phase began
in the early 90’s and only saw large scale systems such as SAP and Oracle. These systems
were rolled out in the US first. Closely after the US came Europe followed by
the first world markets such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. Finally, China
was rolled out based on business models developed in the other countries. And
often there was no rollout at all, at least not for a few years
more. Before the 90’s, of course, international companies in China were
unlikely to get any of the kind of software and had to rely on manual systems.
Aaah, the good old days….. By the end of the 90’s China was on a par
with small first world countries like Singapore. The volume of software was
increasingly higher than these small markets but with its huge distances China
still posed a challenge. Now you began to see the emergence of software
specifically for HR and local systems like Platinum emerging. Another
five years on and things have changed again. I note with interest the
recent announcement by Adidas Group that they will roll out an e-recruitment
solution from a company called Jobpartners. This company is not at all known to me but
obviously they have something if Adidas is rolling them out
worldwide. What got my attention was that the rollout would be
simultaneously in Germany, the US, Hong Kong and Greater China. So now we are on
a par with a multinational’s HQ country and the US. Other countries will have to
wait and they don’t even get a mention in the press release. China has really
arrived. As if to emphasize this point, a report by Kevin Wheeler Global Recruiting
Trend 2006, informs us that Chinese is now the number one language, besides
English, for Applicant Tracking Systems(ATS). It ranks alongside German as the
second language of choice for ATS’s that are installed on a world-wide basis.
This tells you a lot about the installed base of ATS’s globally. Sometime
you find alternatives to GDP figures in surprising places.

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Your One Stop Guide To Manufacturing Accounting Software

A good number of ERP software implementations are focused around manufacturing. Although Manufacturing ERP is one of the more complex implementations, a company stands to have significant ROI gains due to improved management of inventory and work-in-process.

The following article touches on some of the points to consider when implementing for a manufacturing firm. It points to one solution at the summary. This is not the best way to go (ie. looking at a specific target software), you need to focus on the software solutions that best satisfy your requirements. Requirements first, software second.

Your One Stop Guide To Manufacturing Accounting Software
Ashish Jain

Manufacturing in simple terms means changing of raw materials into final goods, ready for selling. Different processing methods and equipments are used in this transformation. So, how do you manage all these processes?

Definitely, you can take the help of a manufacturing accounting software. Manufacturing Accounting Software is developed with a view to achieve the various financial needs related to production. It is full of various functional modules assigned for different tasks. Accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger and much more are the essential modules of an efficient manufacturing software.

No matter what your business is, no matter whether it is big or small, you are bound to face some of the critical business challenges. Some of the basic challenges of a business related to manufacturing like constant optimization of inventories, processing and fulfilling of customer orders in a timely manner have to be tackled in an efficient way while keeping a firm grasp on the financial aspects of the company.

And here the great role of manufacturing accounting software comes into picture and enables you to face the challenges of your business set up. To define manufacturing software, it is an application used in the management and inventory field. Management and control of any organization has never been so easy.

A manufacturing software enables you to handle everything associated with production very easily. Management of manufacturing involves four main steps- estimating, producing, accounting and reviewing. And, with manufacturing software, all these become very easy. A manufacturing software is very helpful in entering different plans electronically and monitoring their process regularly. It also helps in tracking the assets of a company which is a crucial part.

Manufacturing software is great in the sense that it can easily link the product demand with the production ability of a company. It helps in the optimization of resource usage. It is great in forecasting future trends as well. Features such as sales forecasting, contact management, analysis and alike help in the effective management of the organization.

There are several manufacturing accounting software which you will find beneficial to your particular industry. Some of the manufacturing software solutions have developed manufacturing- specific solutions for different product lines. Manufacturing business requires that when the demand hits, it must be able to deliver. This software provides you the required tools to keep production running smoothly and efficiently, including powerful inventory management tools, job costing tools and much more.

One such excellent manufacturing accounting software is developed by Sage software to meet the unique accounting needs of the manufacturers. The name of the software is Peachtree Premium Accounting for Manufacturing. It encompasses key data and tools to assist you in fulfilling important jobs, quickly and easily. Other features of the software are manufacturing guide, pre-built reports, work tickets and quantity price breaks giving accurate inventory control and making you aware of the operational insight into your production and assembly processes. Above all, starting up and learning this software is very easy.

The software supports core accounting features and reporting options. It helps you in keeping track of:

a) Accounts Receivable
b) Time, Billing and Job Costing
c) General Ledger
d) Inventory
e) Accounts Payable
f) Payroll Solutions
g) Fixed Assets

Peachtree Premium Accounting software thus makes it possible for you to conquer the challenges of operating a profitable manufacturing business. It gives you a powerful yet flexible tool, designed specifically to help you meet challenges of your manufacturing operations. This software is known for its sound inventory and assembly management features. All these make this software, the choice of millions of small businesses. I strongly recommend you this software for at least once in your business. And I’m sure that you will be hooked.
Ashish Jain
To get more information about accounting, accounting software and types of acconting software visit http://www.managemyaccounting.com/

Lists of ERP Vendors

Please comment if you know of other vendor lists.

ERP Ecosystems

As a follow up to the previous post, here is an interesting article regarding how ERP applications are now becoming ERP Ecosystems. Turning the application into the platform…

ERP Ecosystems

‘ERP ecosystems allow customers to get the best of both worlds, because
best-of-breed applications are increasingly certified for one or several ERP
platforms. These emerging ecosystems will be an important factor driving the
market forward,’ said Bo Lykkegaard, program
manager of IDC’s European Enterprise Applications
service. ‘Niche
vendors, which are acquired and integrated into large application suites, will
also accelerate the demand for such application suites.’
Full article found at: http://www.irishdev.com/NewsArticle.aspx?id=4847

ERP Outlook by Microsoft

In reading this article on MS and ERP, the question came up “Is Microsoft really going after the smaller companies with their Dynamics ERP offerings?” So far all of the indications are that they are targeting SAP and Oracle as their competition. Is this a little arrogant of Microsoft, trying to compete against the established Tier 1 vendors in ERP? Oh… Yeah… they’re Microsoft. The same company that went after Lotus 123, Netscape, Word Perfect, and others. Find a niche that uses software, exploit it with the fact that MS software runs well on MS Windows, it has a familiar look and feel to it, and give it away for free or market the hell out of it.

So far that is not what has happened with Dynamics, but it is still early. What has happened so far is that they have completed wave 1 of their project Green integration. They have built a common user interface for all the Dynamics products (AX-Axapta, NV-Navision, GP-Great Plains, SL-Solomon). They have also built common database tools. Now Mr. Gates is outlining a future with CRM and Dynamics that integrates to the “Live” tools on the web, including MS CRM integration to the Live website for targeted advertising. Add to that that 2007 Office is going to have intimate linkages into and from Dynamics. The user interface is MS Outlook. Based on MS CRM, which essentially now plugs into Outlook, Dynamics will soon do the same. So you will have a single, familiar Desktop tool for managing Email, Customer Relationships, and Enterprise Data. All with the familiar Microsoft look and feel plus links into Microsoft Live.

Sounds irresistable for a midsized company who wants simplicity and flexibility. However, now your entire enterprise is dependent upon a single vendor for the Back Office (servers and database), Front Office tools (MS Office), and your enterprise data.

Further, as it stands right now, Microsoft is taking a familiar approach of providing a development platform for partners to extend. In Dynamics, the code is flexible with many MS partners building niche add-ins to the products. As we understand it, the core product of Dynamics works fine, but doesn’t drill to deep into any industry. The Microsoft Industry Builder addresses that by having MS VARS (Value Added Resellers) become specialists into certain industries and then developing the vertical software necessary on top of the Dynamics product. Yes, it is integrated and native, being built with the Dynamics tool set. Yes, it is supported. If anything happens to the VAR, then as long as it is a Microsoft certified Industry Builder solution, you get the Microsoft support for that vertical extension.

So is SAP and Oracle out of reach? Based on history, no they are not. And based on history, they should be preparing for a real fight.

ERP Definition

MySQL disclaims interest in the ERP market

In the ERP world, there are three database platforms that ERP software companies focus around: Oracle, MS SQL, and Progress. The up and coming database in the Open Source world is MySQL. According the the linked article, Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL has spoken up about his database and ERP, essentially saying that SAP will run MySQL.

It is interesting that most open source ERP applications are using Oracle or Postgresql. Compeire and TinyERP for example use these databases, but not MySQL. They for some reason have chosen not to go that route. So if SAP is getting behind MySQL, it will be interesting to see how that will change the market of ERP, especially open source ERP systems.

DBMS2 — DataBase Management System Services»Blog Archive » MySQL disclaims interest in the ERP market

Search your Oracle E-Business Suite data using Google

ERP and web search combined? What a powerful combination. Imagine being able to google data right from your ERP software! The possibilities of its applications are mind boggling. Google is the number one search engine for all things web. Now they are moving into book searches and as this article indicates it will soon be parsing your ERP data. Google is now teaming up to gather data from within Oracle’s E-business suite. It also mentions salesforce.com’s CRM product. This is probably just the beginning of possible linkages.

Follow this link to the article < Eddie Awad's Blog