The Hidden Costs of Delaying an ERP Implementation
The Hidden Costs of Delaying an ERP Implementation
When a business is first formed, the leadership team needs to implement processes to manage their business operations. These areas encompass all the critical activities and information needed to run the business effectively, including tracking customers, vendors, sales orders, inventory, invoices, and purchase orders.
At first, the business will probably be quite small without a lot of capital available to purchase and install comprehensive Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. As a result, many businesses will often start using manual processes and simple software tools such as Excel or QuickBooks to manage their business.
As the business grows, small signs start to appear that the business is outgrowing the systems they have in place. Manual processes cause mistakes because data entry errors, data on inventory aren’t available in real-time, shipments are delayed, and expenses grow faster than sales.
The different processes also don’t integrate well. Customer order forecast, inventory purchases, stock levels, shipments, and financial systems all require meetings to communicate information and efficiently manage the business. Or worse yet, the process is held together by one key employee that hopefully never gets sick.
Most companies hesitate to take action because they are worried about the difficulty, complexity, and costs of installing a new ERP software system and the learning curve it could bring to the whole operation. They may also believe that what they have is good enough.
How about your company?
Are your business processes good enough?
Are you experiencing hidden costs and inefficiencies that you may not realize?
These hidden costs can limit your profitability and growth and hinder your company’s ability to grow profitably.
Some examples of problems that we have seen in the past and may not be fully appreciated include:
- Not enough inventory available, causing lost sales
- Too much or wrong types of inventory that can’t be sold, leading to waste and scrap costs
- Poor customer service creating dissatisfied customers
- Pricing which is either too high or too low causing either lost sales or lost profits
- Slow collection on invoices causing potential cash flow problems
Many of these problems can sneak up on you or you may not realize the extent that they are occurring.
It is wise to periodically step back from the day-to-day activities for a brief period and really take a look at these problem areas and see how bringing in a more modern software system can help. We urge you to take a closer look and truly understand the costs of some of the operational problems mentioned above. These hidden costs may be much higher than you imagine, while the costs of installing the right cloud-based ERP system may be much smaller than you think.
Improving your business’s sales and profits may be as easy as upgrading your ERP software system.
In the past, installing a sophisticated ERP system would require hardware to be installed on-site to run on-premise software. This would entail creating a whole new infrastructure to maintain this software and perform things like data backups, software updates, bug fixes, etc. In addition to the software's costs, there would have been additional capital and operating costs for the computer hardware itself and the necessary power, cooling, and floor space.
Fortunately, it is no longer necessary to pay extremely high costs to obtain a top-performing ERP software system with today's modern cloud-based software tools. My Office Apps offers Kechie ERP a complete, easy-to-use ERP software system that runs in the cloud and installs quickly. Kechie does not require any hardware installation or the attendant infrastructure to support it. Since it runs in the cloud, the My Office Apps team takes care of the servers, backups, software updates, data security, etc. Better yet, installing Kechie does not require any up-front capital costs since payment for this Software as a Service (SaaS) only entails a very reasonable, per-user, monthly access fee.
We realize that many companies are currently experiencing a temporary business downturn due to Covid-19 and are hesitant to make any changes while their business is lower. If you believe that your business will eventually come back, our advice is that now, is a great time to upgrade your systems. Your staff can focus on understanding your business operational challenges and help you think of new and more efficient ways of operating the business. This fresh perspective can quickly and easily be incorporated into a cloud-based ERP system, so you are ready when the inevitable expansion occurs.
A downturn doesn’t last forever. When it ends for your business, we want you to be ready to handle the growth as never before. And with a cloud-based ERP software system like Kechie, you won’t have to worry about implementing system upgrades while also challenged with keeping up with the higher activity levels in your business. And if you aren’t ready to handle the boom when it hits, it could cause lost customers and make the current downturn permanent for your business.
If you wait until the business is growing again to implement a system upgrade, you may need to bring on outside consultants to help with the task because your existing employees are too busy, and you can’t staff fast enough. This will make it more expensive to implement the ERP system upgrade than it might otherwise cost.
My Office Apps has business specialists available who can help you evaluate your business and uncover improvement opportunities. Many of our team members have been using ERP systems for many years under different situations. We have been in your shoes, and we can leverage our experience to show how much difference a reliable ERP software system can make in your operations.
For more information and advice on how to easily, quickly, and cost-effectively upgrade your ERP management software, visit www.myofficeapps.com. Or better yet, call us at (714) 486-1487 and ask to schedule a demo to show how we can help solve the business issues you face, both today and tomorrow.
Implementing New ERP Software Is Not As Hard As You Think
Implementing New ERP Software is Not as Hard or as Costly as You Think
You know you need to upgrade your business management software, but the challenge of changing to a new system and moving your data over is holding you back. A reliable Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) software system is essential to cost-effectively running your business, keeping up with the competition, and interacting with internet-based customers and partners. Every month you delay you are falling further behind.
So why do companies delay?
Data migration and staff reluctance to change. And of course, the unspoken fear of whether it will really work better than what I’m doing now. Although these are manageable challenges, most ERP software providers leave these challenges to their customers.
If you’d like to upgrade your business management system to the best capabilities available but have hesitated due to the time and effort to make a change, we have news for you. It really is not as difficult as you think! Our Kechie ERP software is designed for small and medium-sized businesses in your situation and has built-in features that make this transition easy. Other suppliers of inventory management and ERP software focus on getting you to install the software as fast as you can with a minimal cost trial offer but leave you with the implementation cost undefined. After 30 days you are on your own paying a consultant $200/hr or more to move you to a point where you can utilize the software and your old data. The team at My Office Apps is committed to your success and will work with you every step of the way. Because our team has great experience working in a multitude of different manufacturing, distribution, and service companies, we have been in your shoes.
Our philosophy is not just that we are providing software, but we are here to help our clients improve their business through automation and enabling more efficient procedures. We can advise you on how best to make this transition and offer suggestions on how you can improve your internal operations to take maximum advantage of our software features. With Kechie, our customers can typically make the transition in weeks and not months.
When you invest in Kechie, our team takes over from the beginning and is with you through the entire implementation and ongoing operation of your ERP system. You are never on your own to figure out what to do next or how to solve a problem.
The key to a quick start and short implementation is that we create an implementation Blueprint unique to My Office Apps and Kechie. We understand your business, data, and training needs and create with you a roadmap to success. From this, we can estimate the implementation services and time it will take to migrate your data and train your team. You know upfront how much it will cost to successfully implement your ERP software and we build the support services into your monthly software fee. Simple. Honest. Straightforward.
What are some of the details?
- Transferring this data manually could be very time-consuming, but Kechie has a great Data Import feature that will automate most of the work. These software routines will save considerable time. While doing this, some customers may use this as an opportunity to clean up their data and eliminate obsolete products or customer information, but this is not mandatory.
- Kechie has been carefully designed to provide an intuitive menu system that can be learned very easily. In addition, once someone has been trained to use one Kechie module, they will find that the menu arrangements for other Kechie modules are quite similar, and learning how to use these is even quicker.
For the initial transition, most of our customers will just concentrate on starting to run Kechie with the same functionality that they experienced with their previous system. This is a good strategy because it allows your team to focus on the initial transition and doesn’t introduce too many changes. However, we emphasize that this is just a way to get started.
The real value of Kechie is that it will enable you to gradually activate some of the additional functionality available in Kechie and improve both the efficiency of your operations as well as your visibility into how well things are going.
For example, perhaps your old system did not support functionality related to manufacturing or purchasing.
Once you are comfortable that the other Kechie modules are running smoothly you can then proceed to start automating these additional functions to achieve the true benefit of the system. And since the software has been designed to be highly integrated, once you do activate these additional modules, relevant data from them will start appearing automatically in the modules you were previously using. For example, when a manufacturing job is completed, the inventory module is automatically updated to show the additional inventory. Your team won’t have to manually enter in this data from an Excel spreadsheet or other ad hoc method you were previously using.
Conclusion
For more information and advice on how to upgrade your enterprise resource management software without it being a major pain, visit www.myofficeapps.com. Or better yet, call us at (714) 486-1487 and ask to schedule a demo so we can show how we can help solve the business issues you face, both today and tomorrow.
ERP System to Help Improve Pick, Pack, and Ship
How an ERP System Can Help Your Pick, Pack and Ship Activities
The productivity of a warehouse is crucial within the supply chain; it can make or break a company’s bottom line. The goal is to keep customers satisfied and the businesses running seamlessly. It is critical that we periodically review these operations to see if these are operating as efficiently as possible. A good ERP system can help! Read on for some essential tips on how to improve your warehouse and shipping activities.
Organize the Warehouse and Workstations
- How organized are your goods?
- What methodology did you utilize?
Organizing your warehouse improves productivity and maximizes efficiency. It should be designed for speed, accountability and ensure accuracy. There are several strategies to maximize productivity, including implementing a methodical location numbering system to easily identify a specific warehouse location – based on position, level, bay, aisle, and zone. These locations can be tracked in an ERP system using bin locations. You will have real-time information on the material available in each bin while saving time.
You can also de-clutter the warehouse by enforcing the ‘5s’ methodology (Sort – Set in order – Shine – Standardize – Sustain). Another proven warehouse organization strategy involves designing workstations according to the characteristics of the worker and specific tasks. This improves productivity and minimizes the risk of workplace illnesses or injuries.
Use a Velocity-Based Layout
Traditional product placement layouts, such as grouping products based on the manufacturer or the type of product, are largely inefficient and time-consuming. Instead, you can improve your effectiveness by implementing a velocity-based layout in your warehouse strategy.
By placing the frequently picked products closer to the shipping area, warehouse staff can easily and quickly pick the items on demand. Additionally, warehouse managers should consider integrating the packing and shipping stations to free up space and streamline the fulfillment process.
Powerful reporting capabilities within an ERP system can help provide your warehouse manager the tools necessary to plan, arrange and adapt. By running a report of historical shipments, one can obtain the information that is needed in order to determine the optimal locations for storing each item.
Streamline Workflows
- How do all of your warehouse resources fit together?
- Or better yet, how do you identify gaps in the processes?
Warehouse managers can determine how departmental workflow and scheduling affect operations by creating a visual map. This allows you to understand how things are working, including the health of the warehouse layout, storage of different materials, and handling of items. Simply put, streamlining workflows through visual mapping is like creating a well-oiled machine.
One very useful feature is the capability to generate paperless and optimal picklists for your warehouse employees. Many companies just have their shipping people pick the items in the order provided in the original sales order. But sometimes this can result in a warehouse employee constantly travelling back and forth from one side of the warehouse to the other. But some ERP systems can generate an optimized picklist where the picking order is based upon the location of the item. These systems can improve efficiency by minimizing the travel a warehouse employee needs to gather all the items.
Measure Results and Review Effectiveness
You can’t have 2020 vision for your warehouse strategy if you don’t measure and review the results. It’s important to analyze and gauge how you’re utilizing available resources.
- What is the flow of goods in and out of the warehouse?
- Are there any inefficiencies in the chain that may negatively affect the bottom line?
While analyzing the effectiveness of a warehouse, it’s essential to review the whole process – there’s no point in improving one system when another is lagging.
Your sales mix can vary from season to season or from year to year. It is important that you continually review your operations to ensure you are optimizing for what you will be shipping in the future and not just what you shipped in the past. An ERP system with a powerful MRP system can provide visibility into what is coming up ahead so you can prepare for materials on-hand and store it in your warehouse where it can be easily pick, packed and shipped.
Leverage Technology
Nowadays, there are tons of technologies designed to improve accuracy and increase productivity in a warehouse. Some of these tools include bin tracking, pick-to-label, bar codes, integrated CRM processes, and advanced inventory tracking methods.
Having an advanced bar code capability within your ERP system can be extremely helpful in making your shipping activities as efficient as possible. Not only will it save time, but perhaps more important, it will limit and reduce human errors. Shipping the wrong product to a customer because someone picked the wrong material can be tremendously costly and negatively impact the goodwill you have with your customer. A good bar code capability integrated with your ERP system can save you, oftentimes the initial cost of implementation.
Conclusion
As we shared in our previous blog, providing integrations with the leading shipping software companies is an example of My Office Apps commitment to incorporate innovative features using partnerships and smart algorithms in the Kechie ERP solution to help make our clients more efficient and profitable. With the help of a great Warehouse Management System like Kechie®, you can integrate several real-time systems to ensure the seamless flow of data and efficient movement of goods in the warehouse. This leads to lowered costs, space management, increased accuracy, and easier analysis of results.
Our goal is to provide the best solutions for small and medium-sized businesses utilizing the latest best practices techniques in order to contribute to the success of our customers.
For more information on shipping and the Kechie ERP software, you can visit My Office Apps, or better yet, call us at (714) 486-1487 and ask us to schedule a demo so we can show how we can help solve your business issues you face, both today and tomorrow.
Optimize Your ERP System with a Shipment Management Software
Save Money by Optimizing Your ERP System with a Shipment Management Software
You’ve worked hard to create, promote, and source a product and all that effort has turned into purchase orders. But the celebration can be short lived if shipping costs eat into your profit margins. Is it cost effective to invest more administrative resources to figure out the best way of getting your hard earned orders shipped?
The complexity of finding the most cost effective shipper or trucker is quite significant and many questions need to be answered:
- Which carriers can deliver to my different customers?
- Which carrier has the best cost but still deliver on time?
- Who can optimize less than load (LTL) freight?
- How do I get a quantity discount?
- How do I create the appropriate shipping labels for each carrier?
- How do I coordinate the pickup and deliveries with so many different carriers?
- How can I mix-and-match carriers to optimize the cost and service on a customer-by-customer and order-by-order basis?
Fortunately, by integrating high quality software with your ERP system you can not only answer these questions but simplify your shipping activities to make them easier and less expensive.
When evaluating shipping and trucking management software make sure it is designed to connect your business to all the major truckers and carriers including FedEx, UPS, DHL, and USPS as well as other smaller, yet cost effective alternatives. The software acts as an intermediary between your company and these carriers. By leveraging all their customers’ shipping volume, they can negotiate significant discounts that will be passed on to you.
Leading shipping and trucking management software allows you to quickly compare pricing in real time so you can pick the most cost-effective shipping method for each order. Not only will this save you on shipping costs, it will also save administrative headaches.
The shipping software consolidates all the carriers through one common user interface. You will only need to set up one account through the shipping software and not with each individual carrier. This eliminates the need to manage an account and password on each carrier’s website and learn their different order entry systems.
Not only does this simplify shipping each order it also makes it easy to receive, pay, and track the multiple invoices from different carriers that require separate payments.
Recognizing the value and expertise that shipping management software provides, My Office Apps has formed partnerships with the industry leading shipping and trucking management software suppliers. We have built a seamless integration of our Kechie ERP with their software to make it extremely easy to utilize their consolidated shipment capabilities.
With a built-in interface from Kechie ERP to these transportation experts, you can request shipments directly from the Kechie Shipping module. When you are picking an order, you simply click a button called “Ship Using” and select the shipping or transportation software company as the carrier. The order will be automatically transferred to the third party company and they will send back a tracking number and the shipping cost which will be stored in Kechie with the order.
Any required shipping labels will be printed out on your own printers. All your team needs to do is to box up the order, attach the shipping labels, wait for the carrier, and send out your own invoice to your end customer once the order ships.Providing integrations with the leading shipping software companies is an example of My Office Apps commitment to incorporate innovative features using partnerships and smart algorithms in the Kechie ERP solution to help make our clients more efficient and profitable.
Our goal is to provide the best solutions for small and medium sized businesses using the latest techniques in order to contribute to the success of our customers.
For more information on shipping and the Kechie ERP software, you can visit www.myofficeapps.com or better yet, call us at (714) 486-1487 and ask us to schedule a demo so we can show how we can help solve your business issues you face, both today and tomorrow.
Secure ERP Credit Card Processing Solutions
Two Critical ERP Challenges with Credit Card Processing Systems
In today’s always on world, seamlessly accepting online payments is no longer a differentiator but a basic success requirement for manufacturers, distributors, and service businesses. This means as part of your ERP system you must be able to accept credit card payments from your customers. Credit card sales allow your business to easily increase the size of potential sales, reduce the labor associated with sending out invoices, and improve cash flow.
Accepting a credit card for payment, however, introduces two critical risks to the business – fraud and operational complexity.
At the top of every business owners list should be security. Developing a security strategy is especially important today because of the increasing amount of attempted fraudulent charges. The loss of trust from stolen identity or criminal transactions will have many years of impact beyond a bad transaction.
In order to provide the highest levels of security, credit card payments must be encrypted. In addition, to prevent the possibility that a malicious person gains access to a customer’s account and steals their credit card information, no credit card information should be stored in an ERP system.
How is this done? Instead of storing a customer’s credit card information, the system can use a concept of tokens through a credit card processing company utilizing the PCI (Payment Card Industry) security standard.
These companies create an account for the customer and send your business a token that you store with the customer’s account information in your ERP system. Every time the customer orders, the token is sent to and verified by the credit card processing company. Once the token is verified, the transaction is approved without having to enter or store the credit card information on your site. Follow-on and add-on sales happen just as quickly.
Another risk of accepting credit card payments is operational complexity. Back end ordering, shipping, and accounting systems need to be synchronized with the processing of the payment. Otherwise, manual accounting and auditing practices will be required to match invoice with payments, issue refunds, or answer customer questions. Many businesses have had to implement expensive, complicated programming efforts to interface their business to these credit card processors.
In order to make it easy for you to accept credit cards and not have to worry about possible issues, My Office Apps has established partnerships with two well-respected credit card processing companies. We’ve invested in developing a seamless integration between our cloud-based Kechie ERP software and their credit card processing platforms. This tight integration provides the highest level of security while eliminating operational risk and the need for your business to initiate expensive software development to match payments with orders or manage returns and RMAs.
These two companies are CardConnect and Century Business Solutions. We have incorporated their token system into the Kechie cloud ERP software. Both companies provide highly secure transactions that are compliant with the PCI security standard.
Providing a built-in interface to credit card processing is another example of My Office Apps’ commitment to incorporate innovative features using partnerships and smart algorithms in the Kechie ERP system. Our goal is to provide the best ERP solutions for small and medium sized businesses using the latest techniques in order to help make our clients more efficient and profitable. For more information, you can visit www.myofficeapps.com or better yet, call us at (714) 486-1487 and ask us to schedule a demo so we can show how we can help solve your business issues you face, both today and tomorrow.
About My Office Apps, Inc.
My Office Apps, Inc. (MOA) is a leader in business improvement software solutions to automate your organization. Building on three decades of software design and development, MOA delivers Kechie™, a transformative business tool. Kechie is a fully integrated Enterprise Resource Planning Software as a Service (SaaS) platform with a simplified user experience and the latest in cloud technology. It is quick and easy to implement without the expensive price tag. Sold in separate packages – inventory and warehouse management (CRM, Sales, Procurement, Logistics included), manufacturing, finance – or a fully configured ERP system to include all of these individual tools. Kechie is easily configured to the scalable needs of your growing business. For more information on managing your business processes more efficiently and effectively, visit www.myofficeapps.com.
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Business Dashboard: 4 Management Tips from Warren Buffett
Business Dashboard: 4 Management Tips from Warren Buffett
The billionaire Berkshire Hathaway CEO has offered some sage advice over the years. Every year, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett writes a letter to the company’s shareholders. Although the letter is mainly about performance of the business, it’s also packed with sage advice from Buffett’s 60-plus-year career. Here are some of his best management tips from the past decade.
1. Base decisions on business needs, not fads.
In his 2014 shareholder letter, Buffett wrote: “That old line, ‘The other guys is doing it, so we must as well,’ spells trouble in any business.”
2. Recognize your employees.
Every shareholder letter from the last decade ends with Buffett thanking his team. “I regularly extol the accomplishments of our operating managers,” he wrote in his 2011 letter. “They are truly All-Stars.”
3. Don’t surround yourself with enablers.
CEO’s keen to close a deal seldom seek dissenting views, Buffett wrote in 2020. “It would be an interesting exercise for a company to hire two ‘expert’ acquisition advisors, one pro and one con, to deliver his or her views on a proposed deal to the board.”
4. Prepare ahead to avoid debt.
“I never will operate Berkshire in a manner that depends on the kindness of strangers,” Buffett wrote in his 2017 letter. “Or even that of friends who may be facing liquidity problems of their own.” Instead, he suggests, build a cash reserve for lean times. Or, as the billionaire calls it, a “cookie jar” fund.
Buffett has employed a laissez-faire or free reign approach to managing his company. It’s a style that allows employees to carry out tasks without much guidance from leaders. Much freedom is given to the employees to make the right decision about what they are going to do. With Kechie™ ERP, management decisions can be swift and powerful with real-time information available at your fingertips. Let us help you make meaningful and prosperous management decisions to grow your business. Visit myofficeapps.com and schedule a demo today.
4 Free Management Tips From Warren Buffett’s Annual Shareholder Letters. (2020, March 4). Retrieved from Management Tips From Warren Buffett’s Annual Shareholder Letters
About My Office Apps, Inc.
My Office Apps, Inc. (MOA) is a leader in business improvement software solutions to automate your organization. Building on three decades of software design and development, MOA delivers Kechie™, a transformative business tool. Kechie is a fully integrated Enterprise Resource Planning Software as a Service (SaaS) platform with a simplified user experience and the latest in cloud technology. It is quick and easy to implement without the expensive price tag. Sold in separate packages – inventory and warehouse management (CRM, Sales, Procurement, Logistics included), manufacturing, finance – or a fully configured ERP system to include all of these individual tools. Kechie is easily configured to the scalable needs of your growing business. For more information on managing your business processes more efficiently and effectively, visit www.myofficeapps.com.
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World War 3.0: Humans vs. Artificial Intelligence
World War 3.0: Humans vs. Artificial Intelligence
Today, artificial intelligence is a household name and sometimes even a household presence. (Hi, Alexa!).
While artificial intelligence’s acceptance in mainstream society is a new phenomenon, it is not a new concept. The modern field of artificial intelligence came into existence in 1956, but it took decades of work to make significant progress toward developing an artificial intelligence system and making it a technological reality.
With all these new artificial intelligence use cases comes the daunting question of whether machines will force humans into obsolescence. The jury is still out. Some experts vehemently deny that artificial intelligence will automate so many jobs that millions of people find themselves unemployed, while other experts see it as a pressing problem.
“The structure of the workforce is changing, but I don’t think artificial intelligence is essentially replacing jobs,” said Dr. Hossein Rahnama, founder and CEO of artificial intelligence concierge company Flybits and visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “It allows us to really create a knowledge-based economy and leverage that to create better automation for a better form of life. It might be a little bit theoretical, but I think if you have to worry about artificial intelligence and robots replacing our jobs, it’s probably algorithms replacing white-collar jobs such as business analysts, hedge fund managers and lawyers.”
Co-founder and CTO of Nara Logics Dr. Nathan Wilson said the shift toward artificial intelligence-based systems will likely cause the economy to add jobs that facilitate the transition.
“Artificial intelligence will create more wealth than it destroys,” Wilson said, “but it will not be equitably distributed, especially at first. The changes will be subliminally felt and not overt. For example, a tax accountant won’t one day receive a pink slip and meet the robot that is now going to sit at her desk. Rather, the next time the tax accountant applies for a job, it will be a bit harder to find one.”
Wilson said he anticipates that artificial intelligence in the workplace will fragment long-standing workflows, creating many human jobs to integrate those workflows. Other experts are not as sure about where the new jobs will come from once artificial intelligence becomes ubiquitous.
Whether rosy or rocky, the future is coming quickly, and artificial intelligence will certainly be a part of it. As this technology develops, the world will see new startups, numerous business applications and consumer uses, as well as the displacement of certain jobs with the creation of entirely new ones.
Let’s embrace the future and replace the past. At My Office Apps, we are incorporating elements of artificial intelligence into our software; not to replace people, but to free them up so they can create more value for your business. If we can eliminate the drudge work for your employees, such asentering routine data into a spreadsheet in favor of spending more time talking with customers, it is a win-win situation for everyone. Call us to see how Kechie™ could solve your business process problems and provide demonstrable value. Or visit us at www.myofficeapps.com to schedule a demo today.
Uzialko, A. (2019, April 22). How Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Business. Retrieved from https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/9402-artificial-intelligence-business-trends.html
About My Office Apps, Inc.
My Office Apps, Inc. (MOA) is a leader in business improvement software solutions to automate your organization. Building on three decades of software design and development, MOA delivers Kechie™, a transformative business tool. Kechie is a fully integrated Enterprise Resource Planning Software as a Service (SaaS) platform with a simplified user experience and the latest in cloud technology. It is quick and easy to implement without the expensive price tag. Sold in separate packages – inventory and warehouse management (CRM, Sales, Procurement, Logistics included), manufacturing, finance – or a fully configured ERP system to include all of these individual tools. Kechie is easily configured to the scalable needs of your growing business. For more information on managing your business processes more efficiently and effectively, visit www.myofficeapps.com.
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Inventory Success: 4 Steps to Optimize Your Supply Chain
Inventory Success: 4 Steps to Optimize Your Supply Chain
A wise VP of Operations once told me that the primary reason someone in his position loses his job boils down to one thing – Inventory. Blame gets placed by having either too much or too little inventory. Too much inventory will tie up cash and could result in partial or total write-offs if the material needs to be scrapped or liquidated at fire sale prices. Too little inventory may result in lost or delayed sales which will have a detrimental effect on a company’s cash flow.
Maintaining the optimal inventory levels is a complex problem. This is particularly true for manufacturing companies that need to procure components and assemblies to create a finished product. You may have an assembly that includes 100 components in the Bill of Materials (BOM). When one of those components is missing, building and selling products are stalled.
A Materials Requirements Planning (MRP) module can help an operations team figure out what items need to be ordered, and when so the needed material comes in at the optimal time; not too early and not too late. Kechie™ ERP has a module that can configure and manage this process with ease. Kechie’s MRP module performs the needed calculations in the computer that would be onerous and mistake prone for a human to do.
- The first piece starts with a BOM that is created for each individual item a company wants to sell. The BOM will specify all the components that are needed to build the item. In some cases, the same component can be used many different BOMs and in others a particular component may only be used in one BOM.
- The second piece needed is data on the expected sales volume for each item. This data could include current backlog, as well as additional data reflecting expected new customer orders. The data needs to include the number of pieces needed by a specific time frame. Many items will have recurring sales volumes month after month – you may not want to purchase immediately all of the requirements for the next 12 months. An MRP system can provide you with the visibility you need to split up the procurement of a component into multiple pieces so you don’t have too much inventory all at once.
- The third piece needed is data on the vendors as well as the vendor’s lead time. This can help provide guidance on when a company needs to place the order for component in order to receive it on time.
- The final piece is data on your own manufacturing cycle time. If it takes you a certain number of weeks to manufacturing an item, you will need to add that to the component lead time so that you will have enough time to order the component, build the finished good and ship it out by the customer request date.
With all this data, the MRP system will grind through the calculations and provide the operations team with guidance on what components to order and by when. For companies with a large number of items for sale and with items that may have hundreds of components in their BOM, this could require thousands of calculations. By having the speed and precision of a computer program doing this, accuracy and time savings are delivered. An added advantage is this capability will add to your flexibility and significantly improve your response time for changing conditions. If a new order comes in, or a BOM is changed, or a vendor changes lead times, it is easy to rerun the MRP module to calculate the new requirements and get the answer back quickly.
So a good MRP capability can substantially improve your company’s efficiency and sales level with the right amount of inventory at the right time. This module is an example of My Office Apps commitment to incorporate innovative features using smart algorithms and A.I. technology in our Kechie™ ERP solution to help make our companies more efficient and profitable. Our goal is to provide the best solutions for small and medium-sized businesses using the latest techniques in order to contribute to the success of our customers. For more information, you can visit www.myofficeapps.com or better yet, call us at (949) 486-1947 and ask us to schedule a demo so we can show how we can help solve your business issues you face, both today and tomorrow.
Still Holding the Hands of Your Sales Team?
Still Holding the Hands of Your Sales Team?
Let Kechie Provide You with an A.I. Sales Coach
Don’t you wish you could watch over every single salesperson on every single sales call and give them tips on how to sell more? The Kechie™ ERP software provides an equivalent capability called Upsales, using artificial intelligence-like techniques to provide real-time tips to a salesperson when they are in discussion with a prospect.
The Upsales feature provides coaching to make it easier for salespeople to sell add-on products when talking to their customers. Oftentimes, the most profitable products may not be products a customer sets out to purchase, but rather a secondary product to accompany the purchase. For example, if a computer salesperson is talking to a customer about purchasing a laptop computer, he/she might suggest they also include a spare battery and a laptop case with the order and increase the overall revenue and margin from the sale.
First, the Kechie Inventory module allows management, or product manager, to program Upsales links between products that pair naturally together. These links are the basis for the suggestions of additional items to suggest when selling. Secondly, a new icon appears in the Sales Order Entry module when a salesperson is entering the order for the first item. This icon reminds the salesperson can suggest additional products to the customer. When clicked, a popup screen appears with additional accessories or add-ons to the sales order. If the customer agrees, the salesperson can make this addition with a single click.
Smart algorithms and A.I. technology are examples of features within the Kechie ERP system to enhance efficiency and profitability for companies. Our goal is to provide the best solutions for small and medium-sized businesses using the latest techniques in order to contribute to the success of our customers. For more information, you can visit www.myofficeapps.com, or better yet, call us at (949) 486-1947 and ask us to schedule a demo so we can show how we can help solve your business issues you face, both today and tomorrow.
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Improve business efficiency with Artificial Intelligence
Are Your Employees Spending Too Much Time on the Hamster Wheel?
In previous blogs, we described how Artificial Intelligence techniques (AI) in an ERP system can help improve efficiency and accuracy in your operations. It can also free up employee resources with extra time for creative activities to add value for your business. In this blog, we will describe one feature in our Kechie™ ERP system that uses AI techniques to automatically generate a whole series of new part numbers.
In any business, a critical item used in tracking almost every transaction is the Part Number or SKU (Stock Keeping Unit). Part numbers are used in sales orders, purchase orders, manufacturing, inventory tracking, invoicing and everywhere in between. The use of part numbers creates differentiation between multiple items for ordering, picking and packing the exact item requested by the customer. Many companies have thousands (or millions) of part numbers in their system. Managing this giant mass of data can become impossible without strong processing software to assist along the way.
New part number creation is one activity that can be quite time consuming for your staff, particularly when a large number of new part numbers need to be added at the same time. For the apparel industry, this can be a daunting task. For example, a buyer wants to add a new style shirt to the inventory. The shirt is available in long-sleeved and short-sleeved, classic and slim fit, sizes include extra small, small, medium, large, extra-large, and available in the sixteen colors. That’s 320 new sku’s to be added to the system. One-by-one, an employee sits in front of a screen and adds new parts numbers – perhaps a multiple day project. Is there a better use of this resource?
Here’s where a built-in intelligence can save the day. Kechie delivers a function that can automatically create part numbers and add them to the system. An employee can now focus on descriptions and selling features for a quick-to-market process rather than being bogged down with keystrokes. The artificial intelligence features in Kechie not only help set up new products – but can help your sales staff to up-sell features and products to maximize profitability. More will be revealed on this feature in coming blogs.
My Office Apps, Inc., a business process improvement company, is committed to providing continued improvements and incorporating various advanced AI techniques in our Kechie ERP software. Our goal is to provide the best processing solutions for small and medium sized businesses in order to contribute to the success of our customers. In the coming weeks, we will post additional articles that describe some of the specific AI features present in the Kechie ERP software and also provide a road map for other features that we expect to implement in the future. Our focus is not to just provide AI for AI’s sake, but rather to implement practical AI functions that can make a real difference in your business. For more information, you can visit www.myofficeapps.com or better yet, call us at (949) 486-1947 and ask us to schedule a demo so you can view these features for yourself.
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