Infor recently announced new functionality for Infor ERP LX that will enable process manufacturers to more effectively compete in the global marketplace. The new features will allow companies to expand into foreign markets by delivering enhanced multi-language and -currency capabilities, allowing organizations to deploy a single instance of LX around the globe. LX has always provided users with comprehensive multi-currency and transaction translation, expanded payment options and localized settings. Feature Pack 2 expands these global capabilities by adding region and time zone support throughout the system, cost inventory in local currencies, and enhanced multi-language capabilities. Additionally, multinational companies will benefit from a single global ledger across their operation, thereby reducing the need for data consolidation and improving operational efficiency. Manufacturers face many challenges as they try to lower costs and enter new markets, such as local regulatory and reporting requirements. Without a comprehensive view of the entire enterprise for accurate demand and compliance planning, companies risk regulatory exposure and losing market share. The new features in LX allow companies to extend best practices in these areas to operations in other markets by supporting regional variances such as language, currency and time. “Entering foreign markets can seem like a daunting task for many process manufacturers,” said Mike Frichol, vice president of industry and product marketing for Infor. “LX is a great example of how Infor continues to evolve its solutions to help companies face the challenges of today’s global economy and ensure sustainable market growth.”

LX FP2 continues to help manufacturers improve planning, promotional governance and customer service, reduce total cost of quality, minimize total cost to serve, improve, enhance overall efficiency and productivity, and streamline complex manufacturing and distribution processes. LX on IBM System i continues to minimize the total cost of ownership.  Highlights of LX Feature Pack 2 include: Credit Card Processing - Enables a wider variety of payment options to be offered to customers 

Region and Time Zone Enhancements - Provides organizations the option of handling their data and transactions in the appropriate date and time for the manufacturer, facility, warehouse, customer, or vendor  

Multi-Language Segment Descriptions - Supports multi-lingual organizations  

Enhanced Costing - Displays costs in customers regional currency for greater global support  Ohio-based industrial packaging and services company Greif chose LX FP2 for its enhanced capabilities which enable the manufacturer to manage its more than 160 locations around the world. With LX, Greif is well positioned to serve its multinational customers. “Globalization offers an epic opportunity for growth and profitability,” said Ken Andre, vice president, corporate controller and CIO for Greif. “The latest enhancements to LX will allow us to more effectively manage our global operations to provide our customers with unsurpassed service.” LX is a comprehensive ERP solution for enterprising organizations in multi-mode manufacturing, with business-specific capabilities for food and beverage, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and consumer packaged goods. New customers will benefit from LX’s expanded facility parameters which improve an organization’s ability to plan, source, schedule, and store items in a multi-facility environment by allowing each facility to determine the best way to manage an item within that facility

About Infor
Infor delivers business-specific software to enterprising organizations. With experience built in, Infor’s solutions enable businesses of all sizes to be more enterprising and adapt to the rapid changes of a global marketplace. With more than 70,000 customers, Infor is changing what businesses expect from an enterprise software provider. For additional information, visit www.infor.com

Hard on the heels of the K3, McGuffie Brunton merger, the new ERP software entity has released an upgrade to its latest version of Syspro 6.0 ERP, focusing on user interface improvements that spread the system’s use throughout a manufacturing business.

Syspro Office Integration is the big deal – now giving users secure access to the system’s database from Microsoft Word and Excel. It means that anyone within the user organisation can get remote access to Syspro data from their own desktop applications.

And there also new modules, including: Trade Promotions, for managing prices, promotions and rebates; Contact Management, which integrates with Outlook; and Factory Scheduling, already released as the Preactor scheduler integration.

Says K3 McGuffie Brunton managing director Howard Joseph: “Continual investment in Syspro ERP is allowing us to keep in step with our customers’ needs as well as enabling us to lead the market by example, with innovative solutions.

“By adopting standard Microsoft technology we have not only made it much easier for customers to gain full benefit of their ERP investment, we can now also give them access to Syspro information using secure web services through familiar spreadsheet and word processing applications.

“The new calendar, styled on Outlook, is an example where we are introducing a common user interface, thereby enabling users to become quickly proficient in its use.” 

MANILA, Philippines — The emergence of the Philippines as an offshore destination is also allowing non-call center firms like Kaisa Consulting to expand its client base. 

Kaisa Consulting is the sole education partner of German software giant SAP in the Philippines. The company offers training courses on SAP. 

The company currently provides SAP education and consulting services to more than 50 local corporate clients. 

Teh Opinion, Kaisa’s managing director, believes there is a market for the company’s services within the business process outsourcing sector. 

“With the advent of offshoring, numerous global companies who are using SAP are now outsourcing transaction processing, data analysis and ERP (enterprise resource planning) consulting and implementation to the developing nations such as India and the Philippines,” she said, replying to questions via email. 

“Not only for cost efficiencies but also because of the availability of quality ERP resources in these countries,” she added. 

Kaisa, a member of the Ramcar Group of Companies, known popularly for manufacturing car batteries, recently opened a facility in Makati City “to bring the company closer to corporate and independent clients”, said Kaisa president Ramon Agustines. 

Ramcar’s corporate headquarters is in Quezon City. 

SAP’s client base in the Philippines is largely from the corporate sector but the software maker, and rival vendors including Oracle Corp., has been introducing versions of its core ERP tools to fit smaller businesses. 

Two separate product sets called SAP All-in-One and SAP Business One have been launched by SAP locally. Ramcar itself is using SAP for its operations. 

“All-in-One is a pre-configured system that still uses the same SAP ERP so it’s really not a different product,” Opinion said. 

She added: “However, this does not mean that SAP has lost focus on the large enterprises. These are not competing but rather complementing products.” 

( www.inquirer.net ) 

Program maximizes ERP value by performing integration of business processes across multi-site, global manufacturing environments

Long Beach, CA — May 21, 2007 — Apriso Corp., a provider of adaptive software solutions for global operations execution, today announced a Core implementation program designed to optimize the configuration and implementation of its Operations Execution System (OES) across global manufacturing enterprises. This approach is designed to help manufacturers accelerate and better integrate enterprise resource planning (ERP) with manufacturing and operations, enabling a rapid roll-out of MES/OES business process applications.

The Core program is an implementation methodology designed to take advantage of Apriso’s FlexNet platform. Applying an 80/20 rule, a Core implementation approach identifies the approximate 80 percent of consistent business processes performed throughout the manufacturing environment — across all locations — as a Core system, or profile. These standardized business processes and performance measurements (KPIs) are then packaged and distributed enterprise wide, yet remain flexible to accommodate future updates.

Apriso said it is uniquely capable of implementing this Core system because of its FlexNet platform and Global Manufacturing Suite (GMS), each based on a flexible Business Process (BPM) and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). This architecture helps ease business process integration across an organization’s operations and between its business systems and plant controls or automation layer. GMS enables business and IT managers to easily package, distribute and manage sets of best practice business processes across the enterprise.

The efficiency of a Core program is demonstrated by Apriso’s ability to implement and support large, multi-site clients operating diverse manufacturing environments, including either discreet or process-based facilities. Apriso customers are using FlexNet as a critical part of their enterprise business process integration. At the health and beauty firm L’Oreal, a Core system was established as part of their SAP roll out to manufacturing. The system is now being implemented at a rate of four sites every six months across two continents.

Glass manufacturer Saint-Gobain Sekurit and another firm that produces paper, packaging and wood products have also implemented their Core system of business processes based on Apriso’s OES platform. Each have effectively utilized this approach to cut over 45 and 80 plants, respectively, and are now operating as an integrated “ecosystem,” closely integrating Apriso’s OES and SAP’s ERP systems.

An additional benefit of the Core program has been to simplify and accelerate ERP deployments down to the plant floor for global, multi-site manufacturers. Apriso’s Operations Execution System is a means of extending the reach and acceptance of ERP, complementing its functionality, while contributing to better global visibility and management of operations.

Apriso said it fills the “white spaces” around an ERP system, establishing directive user interfaces for operations personnel, as well as providing 24×7 visibility down to the plant floor. By treating a company’s Operations Execution System (including MES, WMS, Maintenance, Labor, Supply Chain Visibility and Quality) as a “module” of ERP, these manufacturing operations may be integrated, managed and deployed as an enterprise architectural component. In this way, Apriso’s broad OES footprint is effectively the bottom layer of ERP, rather than as the top layer of plant manufacturing operations.

“Many times, the initial driver for MES applications originates from the plant floor as an attempt to methodically trigger production, distribute work instructions and enforce production workflows. However, MES is changing from a production-focused application to a critical part of enterprise business process integration,” stated Gartner in its MarketScope for MES Software report, written by Andrew Hughes and Kenneth Brant in September, 2006.

This new focus has created a demand for MES/OES applications that can be managed and deployed across the enterprise. To address this demand, Apriso’s system provides support for multiple manufacturing models, to best handle diversity within processes; capability to easily extend core applications to unique, plant-level requirements; and an infrastructure to effectively manage processes across multiple plants and IT environments.

“Our customers are using FlexNet to help them achieve a tightly integrated supply chain network together leveraging knowledge, business processes and technology across their manufacturing operations and locations,” said Jim Henderson, president and CEO of Apriso. “They are achieving this vision by replicating best practice processes globally, with an outcome of better performance across operations. This is the essence of being a globally-managed company.”
 

by Alexander Gordon - Date: 2006-12-14 Any new technology is bound to have its share of myths and misconceptions. ERP is no different, and integration of ERP is an especially fuzzy area. Most small business owners think of ERP in terms of old communication principles, and think of ERP as no more than an upgraded version of old systems. 

Some of the common myths regarding integration of ERP are discussed below. 1) Information Transfer Is Unidirectional Information can flow in both directions, either from or to the ERP. If the ERP is integrated with the plant, it will have a bi-directional information flow. 

2) ERP Integration Is All About Copying Data Since older methods of integration follow a system of copying a tag and its profile, business owners think modern ERP system can be integrated the same way. However, there is more to ERP integration, since the business related-date that the ERP handles is very different from what the plant handles. 3) The ERP Can Come Up With Standardized Answers All the Time Many people think that queries related to a business process follow a set pattern, as do their answers. They cannot be more wrong. Even if the system knows the right question, the right answer may depend on a number of factors. 

4) You Must Use Only the Latest ERP Technology Although the latest ERP integration technologies offer many advantages to small business owners, they have their own share of problems. The biggest problem is the integration of new technology to the old. In some systems, you will find that retaining older applications may be more useful than overhauling it completely. 5) ERP to Plant Integration Needs To Be Total The ERP system deals with business process, while the plant, system deals with manufacturing and procurement issues. While the plant capacity fluctuates, the ERP capacity remains stable. 

6) Data Security Is Compromised When You Integrate Plant to ERP Nothing can be farther from the truth. Many people are concerned about what happens to the data that is not on site. The ERP programmers have spent a lot of time and money on making the system as foolproof as possible, so even data that is not protected by elaborate passwords are not easily accessible to unauthorized personnel. 7) Installing ERP System Means That You Can Keep Fewer IT Staff The ERP system is not meant to replace your IT staff, it is there to help them with day-to-day problems related to maintenance and troubleshooting. 

Now that you the answers to some common questions regarding ERP, you can take a better decision regarding the kind of ERP system you need. If you need help in deciding which the best ERP is for you, you can consult a business consultant.  Alexander Gordon is a writer for http://www.smallbusinessconsulting.com - The Small Business Consulting Community. Sign-up for the free success steps newsletter and get our booklet valued at $24.95 for free as a special bonus. The newsletter provides daily strategies on starting and significantly growing a business. Business Owners all across the country are joining “The Community of Small Business Owners” to receive and provide strategies, insight, tips, support and more on starting, managing, growing, and selling their businesses. As a member, you will have access to true Millionaire Business Owners who will provide strategies and tips from their real-life experiences.
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