Accounting Software Is Not an ERP and Why You Should Care
Accounting Software Is Not an ERP and Why You Should Care
There are many business software packages available that were initially designed as simple on-premise accounting software packages. While this may have been adequate for a business starting, as the business grows, they find deficiencies that may be causing unneeded extra work and are restraining their growth. For comparison, we will examine QuickBooks, the most popular accounting software, but all accounting software packages will have similar challenges.
A Brief History of QuickBooks
QuickBooks was initially designed over 20 years ago for small to medium business accounting and bookkeeping and not as a full-fledged ERP system. Although it has expanded features since it was developed initially, it does not easily support many essential business functions. These include manufacturing, bills of materials, purchasing, and critical inventory functions such as bar code scanning, eCommerce, lot tracking, multiple warehouses, and purchasing. A common complaint about QuickBooks is that it has limitations on the file sizes it supports and the number of users who can use the software simultaneously. This can be a big problem if a company has many SKUs to track or many employees who need to access the system.
A cloud version was later introduced called QuickBooks Online, but it is not designed to be an ERP replacement. Users have complained that QuickBooks Online supports fewer features than QuickBooks Pro, the on-premises version. Although its accounting functions do have good reports, many of the other parts' reporting capability is relatively weak. Also, companies with large databases report slow load times and occasional system crashes, and system downtime issues.
QuickBooks Issues
QuickBooks does provide the capability to supplement the functionality of their software through the addition of third-party apps that can be obtained through their App Store. However, adding these apps takes extra time and effort for a busy business manager. Integrating the app with the rest of the system may be less than perfect and require outside support resources for implementation and ongoing maintenance.
Another issue is QuickBooks customer support. QuickBooks provides telephone support, but it has been characterized as general and impersonal. This level of support may be acceptable for bookkeeping issues. Still, when a time-critical issue comes up in your business, it is crucial to get fast, accurate answers as soon as possible. If you don't, you may end up losing a customer or make a mistake that could cost your company a lot of money.
The Kechie Difference
Kechie ERP from My Office Apps, on the other hand, has been developed within the past few years from the ground up to be a modern, integrated ERP system that takes into account the business environment and technologies of the 2020s. These days, one of the essential software features is to be based in the cloud using a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. This frees up support resources within an organization since it no longer needs to worry about computer system maintenance, processing software updates, or backing up data. The SaaS model is much more efficient and lower in cost for most companies. Kechie was designed from the start to provide these advantages.
Customers are also looking for a more integrated software system that seamlessly combines functionality from many operating departments. Kechie was designed by people who have significant experience working inside manufacturing companies and understand what functionality is needed in today's business environment. It includes the ability to effortlessly handle important business activities beyond finance tasks, including manufacturing, bills of materials, purchasing, RMA, and essential inventory functions such as bar code scanning, eCommerce, lot tracking, multiple warehouses, and purchasing.
Another critical advantage of Kechie ERP is the personalized support that customers receive. The My Office Apps team is committed to providing the highest quality customer support for Kechie ERP. We see our role as a company that sells software and a business process improvement company that will work closely with you and your team to help you improve your business processes by leveraging the Kechie integrated ERP system.
See What We Can Do For You
Our goal is to provide the best solutions for small and medium-sized businesses using the latest techniques to contribute to our customer's success. If you consider acquiring business management software to help you run your business, make sure that you don't choose something that you will likely outgrow or wasn't initially designed for today's modern business environment. Please take a look at Kechie ERP from My Office Apps and experience the value of getting a more capable system that will have the flexibility to grow with you when you are ready.
You can visit www.myofficeapps.com, or better yet, call us at (949) 486-1947 and ask us to schedule a demo to show how we can help solve the business issues you face both today and tomorrow.
Lower Cost & Improve Deliveries w/a Cloud-based Procurement Management System
Lower Costs and Improve Deliveries with a Cloud-based Procurement Management System
The timely purchase and delivery of goods and services can be a significant challenge for even the best-run organization. Comparing vendors’ quality and on-time delivery, historical purchase prices and volumes, and understanding what parts have extended lead times and are in short supply can significantly impact operational productivity and Cost of Goods Sold (COGS).
Procurement management can help a company save on costs and improve deliveries. It is a business area that too often does not receive the management attention or technology resources it should. Perhaps this is because all businesses need to purchase both goods and services to operate, so it becomes regarded as a standard function that can just run without much supervision, unlike the more exciting areas of product development and marketing.
Yet, a useful procurement function can have a significant positive effect on your business operations. In many businesses, a large portion of their overall costs can come from things that are purchased. Not only is the price you pay vendors important, but choosing the best vendors and tracking their performance is also critical.
Purchasing activities can get quite complicated, and keeping track of what is happening can become a big challenge. Often, the purchasing department gets caught in the middle with pressure from both the company’s internal employees and their outside vendors. The manufacturing department will want faster deliveries of their required components with higher quality and lower vendors’ prices. And all the other departments that purchase items, whether they be goods or services, need their orders cost-effectively fulfilled promptly to accomplish their tasks.
Without a sound procurement system, it is next to impossible to achieve good results. For example, say there are multiple potential vendors for a particular item. A purchasing professional does not have a quick and easy way of tracking the historical performance of those vendors. They may give the order to the first vendor they see on the list. You rely on pure luck that the procurement agent can optimize price, quality, and delivery performance without an automated process.
A reliable procurement module inside of a cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software system can provide many benefits. It can offer a purchasing history and instantaneously show the vendor, the previous price paid, and vendor delivery performance from past purchase orders. This real-time information can put the purchaser in a better position to select a vendor for the next PO. Also, it can be invaluable when a purchaser is negotiating a price with the vendor. Not only can they see price history of the vendor they are talking to, but they can also see any price history from the vendor’s competitors.
Next, a procurement module also allows a purchasing agent to plan their purchases and automatically track their status so the agent can advise others when the requested items will be delivered. They also have greater visibility when delays occur and can then begin the contingency planning process as soon as possible. The procurement module connects to a Material Requirements Planning (MRP) module in the ERP system, which means that a company can achieve more automation in determining what items need to be purchased and when they need to be delivered to keep the manufacturing operation running smoothly.
Some purchases may require management approval, especially for high-dollar-level purchases. Another advantage a sound procurement system can provide is an automated purchasing requisition and approval process. Instead of paperwork being passed back and forth between different departments and company management, these approvals get sent electronically, saving time and money and providing a useful log of who approved a particular purchase and when they did it.
If you would like to understand how your procurement function could operate more efficiently and effectively, talk to My Office Apps. We have business specialists available to evaluate your business and find ways to minimize the costs and maximize the benefits with our cloud-based Kechie ERP software system. Folks on our team understand the needs of the procurement department and have been implementing integrated ERP systems for many years under all sorts of different situations. We have been in your shoes, and we can leverage our experience to show you how much of a difference a reliable procurement module in an ERP system can make in your operations.
For more information and advice on how to upgrade your management software without it being a significant pain, 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.
My Office Apps Talks SMB Manufacturing ERPs
My Office Apps Talks SMB Manufacturing ERPs
Cloud-based Kechie ERP software advanced features a host of features and automation that can revolutionize how a company operates its business. Not just enterprise resource planning software but a true business solution system.
With over thirty years of business solutions, Kechie is a proven leader in business transformation software with the use of one or more of its software packages – inventory and warehouse management (which includes CRM, sales, procurement, and logistics), manufacturing, finance – or a fully configured ERP system to include all the available modules.
Read more about the New Kechie 2021 ERP SaaS Software System.
MOA Introduces Kechie™ 2021 ERP SaaS Software
My Office Apps Introduces Kechie™ 2021 ERP SaaS Software System
Cloud-based Kechie ERP software advanced features further automate workflow, tracking, and scheduling, eliminating error-prone manual processes.
With over thirty years of business solutions, Kechie is a proven leader in business transformation software with the use of one or more of its software packages – inventory and warehouse management (which includes CRM, sales, procurement, and logistics), manufacturing, finance – or a fully configured ERP system to include all the available modules.
Read more about the New Kechie 2021 ERP SaaS Software System.
Comfort, Peace of Mind, and Transformation for Your Business and Family
Comfort, Peace of Mind, and Transformation for Your Business and Family
Comfort, peace of mind, and transformation for your business and family is my wish for you as I reflect on a year unlike any other in our three decades of software design and development that led to the creation of our transformative business software. I want to first pause and express our heartfelt gratitude to our customers, partners, and all of you who took the time to consider our cloud-based Kechie ERP solution.
I also want to acknowledge the sting we all feel with the inability to gather with family and friends the way we enjoy, especially during the holidays. We have, and I’m sure most of you have suffered losses, whether family members, employees, customers, or business. Please know that you have the support of the entire My Office Apps team in any way we can help you and your business, and you have our deepest sympathy and prayers for healing.
Like many companies, we didn’t hit all the targets I imagined a year ago, but we have had important successes that have sustained us amid the shutdowns and remote work. Because we are a cloud-based solution, all our customers and we could immediately implement remote access to all critical inventory, purchase order, CRM, sales, WMS, logistics, procurement, manufacturing, and financial information. While we never imagined a global pandemic being the driver for the cloud-based digital transformation of manufacturers and distributors, we feel especially grateful for our design decisions when customers tell us Kechie has been a “godsend” in the current remote work environment.
We are in awe of all our customers and the companies that have worked with us over the past year. Thank you for all you’ve contributed to the collective spirit of innovation and perseverance that helps us weather the current conditions.
As we move into 2021, that spirit motivates our mission even more to serve and support businesses like yours. We will continue developing and implementing Kechie ERP to empower and propel your businesses to new heights by maximizing efficiency, strengthening company-wide collaboration, and empowering you to make timely, accurate business decisions. You can count on the team at My Office Apps to deliver a solution tuned to your business and how you need to operate during these challenging times.
And finally, thank you for being a part of our family. It’s my sincere hope that you can spend meaningful time with your loved ones in any way you can and that you get some much-needed relaxation.
Sending you warm wishes this holiday season, and may the new year bring you peace, prosperity, and good health.
Best Wishes,
Mariam Komeili, CEO
See How Meals on Wheels Can Deliver 30,000 Meals a Day in San Francisco
See How Meals on Wheels Can Deliver 30,000 Meals a Day in San Francisco
Meals on Wheels of San Francisco will be able to reach more people than ever before this Thanksgiving. See how an ERP developed by My Office Apps and built on Progress OpenEdge helped them help thousands more.
When we think of Meals on Wheels, we think of homebound senior citizens getting important nutrition they otherwise would go without. But it’s even more than that. Meals on Wheels provides a friendly face and a much-needed check-in to break up the isolation and ensure that everything is OK.
Today, that friendly face is behind a mask, and the challenges of hunger and solitude are even steeper as the COVID-19 pandemic surges into the holidays and winter months.
Read the Full Story on Combining Technology and Compassion to Help People in Need.
How to Get the Best ROI from Your ERP Investment
How to Get the Best ROI from Your ERP Investment
There is no doubt that installing a new ERP software can be a big step. Whenever a business invests, the first thing to consider is the ROI (Return on Investment) to ensure the benefits are worth the capital and resources being invested.
Below are some of the factors that should be considered when analyzing the ROI of such an investment.
Initial Installation Costs
The initial installation costs can vary considerably depending upon the deployment of cloud-based software vs. on-premise software. For an on-premise, a software license fee can be a considerable amount, not to mention the costs involved in configuring or customizing the software to fit your business. Some ERP vendors may recommend that you hire expensive consultants to help you with this process. The installation will likely require some amount of effort from your own staff to review your business needs and provide the requirements for how the ERP system should be configured to match your business.
Besides software and consulting costs, installing on-premise software will likely require that you purchase hardware to host the system. The computers themselves can be quite expensive and may even require some refurbishments to your facility to make space for the computers and handle the additional electrical power required. Cloud installations that provide the ERP software as a service through the cloud do not have any of these expenses and represent significant savings.
Finally, when you have decided on the type of deployment and configured the software, you need to migrate your existing data to the new software. These include customer & vendor lists, bills-of-materials, purchase orders, accounts receivable, inventories, etc. It is crucial to migrate your data correctly and quickly so that no transactions are lost, and any company downtime is minimal.
On-Going Operational Costs
The on-going operational costs can also vary significantly depending upon the type of deployment. For an on-premise installation, there are other costs to consider, such as electricity, a proportion of the rent for space the hardware is using, and an on-going IT staff to maintain the system, including data backups and applying software updates. The vendor may also require on-going payments for software updates and support to answer any questions that your staff may have.
Typically, the costs for a cloud installation are much simpler. You will likely need to pay a monthly subscription fee for access to the software. Most vendors offer backups and software updates included in the monthly subscription. Plus, there are no additional expenses for electricity, rent, or IT staff to maintain the hardware.
Benefits of Increased Efficiency
A key reason for installing a new ERP system is to achieve increased efficiency in your company and reduce your business operations cost. By automating processes that used to be performed manually, your staff can be more efficient, and their time can be allocated to helping the company grow. Also, inventory management processes can be improved to increase your inventory turnover and reduce waste. When it comes to manufacturing, scheduling will be done more efficiently, allowing you to reduce overtime and other operational expenditures.
Benefits of Improved Sales
A benefit of choosing the right ERP system that is often overlooked is that it will allow you to provide better customer service and increase your sales. By having the needed information at their fingertips, your sales staff can provide quotes for prices and inform customers of available inventory and lead times faster than current manual methods. They may also increase each customer order's size by suggesting additional products that can be purchased along with the main product (cross-selling and/or upselling).
Benefits of Increased Flexibility in Your Operations
A good ERP system will allow you to access information in real-time from anywhere, as long as you have a good internet connection. This allows a warehouse manager to query inventory status on a tablet computer while walking through the warehouse. You can have employees work from home and be as effective (if not more) than working in the office. Employees can travel and visit customers face-to-face without worrying about missing out on updates back at the office. The company’s operations can be handled anywhere from the cloud.
Better Overall Management and More Confidence in Your Operations
Although this benefit may be hard to quantify, it can be very significant. Having the information in real-time on what is happening in your business will give you greater confidence and help you decide on your business's direction. Perhaps you have been thinking about adding a new product line or expanding a current sales strategy. With a more capable management system, you will have greater visibility and streamline the needed steps to bring it on board and monitor the ROI. Furthermore, you will have the information needed on costs, equipment utilization, vendor performance, etc., that will allow you to increase your bottom line and grow your business.
Summary
There are many things to consider when considering a potential investment in an ERP system and figuring out if you will get a good return on your investment. My Office Apps has business specialists available to help you evaluate your business and find ways to minimize the costs and maximize the benefits with our Kechie ERP system. Folks on our team have been using ERP systems for many years under all sorts of different situations. We have been in your shoes, and we can leverage our experience to show how much of a positive impact a reliable ERP system can make for your business.
For more information and advice on how to upgrade your management software without it being a major pain, visit www.myofficeapps.com. Or schedule a demo to see how we can help solve the business issues you face, both today and tomorrow.
When is the Best Time to Bring on a New ERP System?
When is the Best Time to Bring on a New ERP System?
A key to successfully manage a company is to learn how to manage change. A good manager is proactive and anticipates changes in the company’s external environment to better prepare ahead of time. A manager who is unable to anticipate change is reactive, causing unnecessary errors and adjustments. In some cases, they are forced to make sudden changes, leading to an overreactive response that can be detrimental to the company’s health.
Bringing on a new ERP system will create change in your company. However, if done thoughtfully and strategically, it is a great boon to your company. It will allow you to be more efficient, effective, and even boost your financial results. This article will discuss various scenarios when it makes sense to bring on a new ERP system and how to recognize those scenarios.
When You Are Considering Other Changes to Your Business
Companies are ever-changing and seeking new ways to build and grow their business. A company may open a new manufacturing site, relocate to a larger facility, introduce a new product line, or acquire another company. A company may want to revamp its internal processes to ensure continuity and streamline.
If you are going through one or more of these changes, upgrading your ERP capabilities is a natural part of this change process. It is often more efficient to do these changes together. One of the opportunities during an ERP upgrade is that it will allow you to rethink your business processes and help make improvements. Oftentimes, a company may repeat the same inefficient processes and find manual workarounds. They discover their current software cannot support or change with advanced technologies. One prime example is a barcode system's technological capabilities, which your current software cannot support or is too expensive to build out. If you upgrade to a software system that can handle this feature, you will improve productivity not only for your administrative activities but also for your physical activities.
Perhaps you are planning a major expansion and anticipate you will be required to onboard a large staff of employees to handle the increased business. Do you really want to bring on the new employees, train them in an existing ERP system and then find out that the old system cannot handle the increased business? You may have to install a new ERP system to handle the increased business and then train them again just a short time later in the new system. Consider adding a new ERP system that is efficient and can automate certain aspects of your business processes to justify low headcount costs.
For Cyclical Businesses, Transition to a New System During One of Your Slow Periods
Many businesses are cyclical, with both busy and slow periods. If your old system had difficulty keeping up during your last busy period, taking advantage of the slow period to onboard a new effective ERP system is a great strategy.
When Your Administrative Costs are Higher than Your Operational Costs
A well-run business should have more people and resources devoted to operating your company than keeping track of it. These people consist of sales, production, and warehouse staff. The business will require other administrative people who execute indirect tasks such as keeping track of inventory, accounting, purchasing production planning, etc.
Inefficient ERP systems can cause more harm than good. You may find yourself in a position to hire more people to keep up with manual methods and workarounds due to the lack of ERP capabilities. These costs include the additional salaries and benefits and the costs of errors made by manual data entry, missed shipments, or having the wrong levels of inventory. A modern ERP system can help you keep these administrative costs under control. It will allow you to do more with higher accuracy and fewer headcount.
The team at My Office Apps has great experience making changes in a business and using more advanced software to improve business operations. We have been doing this for many decades, both for our own business and our Kechie software clients. Contact us, and we can discuss the challenges you face in your business and how we can help you develop a plan to make improvements using advanced software tools. To learn more, you can visit us at www.myofficeapps.com. Or better yet, give us a call 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.
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.
