In today’s competitive and high pace work force there is much pressure to cut cost and increase productivity across all industries. We find ourselves struggling however with a constant feeling of stress and work overload. Because of this we tend to focus our aggression towards excuses of lack of resources and increased workload. Is it really though? In the IT world we also feel a similar downward spiral of pressure to keep the business afloat with the latest technologies and real time data to perform at this pace. While often underappreciated it is none the less a much needed piece of your business. With the constant need of system enhancements to provide the business with the information to succeed it is easy to get lost in a department of chaos. Much like sound business processes can aid you in efficiently cutting cost and managing best business practices, having strong IT processes will do the same for your IT department. It really takes us back to the basics…..SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle)....

During the CAUG and QAD Teamwork meetings this past week, I came away quite excited about the new Master Scheduling and Production Scheduling workbenches that will be released later this year for both SE and EE running the .NET interface. These workbenches will offer intuitive, visual drag and drop features that I believe planners will find very impressive. Additionally, the workbench will incorporate component availability checks, ensuring that the schedule is achievable from both a material and capacity standpoint. Any QAD user that is currently scheduling using offline tools (Excel, Access, etc.), should assess these workbenches as soon as they become available as they should have a positive impact in any planning environment.

EDI is an ever changing means of B2B communication. Staying on top of it can often be a challenging task in itself let alone implementing it from scratch. Customers and Suppliers are constantly changing their specifications as their business practices or needs change. With a history of maintaining EDI solutions in the Automotive Industry I can contest to the demand of the time sensitivity to these changes as well. QAD’s EDI Ecommerce Module has proven to be an exceptional tool to aid in the effective and efficient transmission of EDI documents when implemented properly. In addition to the tools you use a solid error resolution process and document tracking methodology should be leveraged. Transmitting EDI is easy…resolving EDI transaction issues in a timely manner is whole other story. In industries where the timeliness and accuracy of the documents being sent hold such implications as expensive fines, low ratings, or even the possible loss of business partner or customer; a best practice or methodology...

The automation of bad processes will actually set back your organization. While there may be some financial improvements, typically they are short lived and same old way of doing business prevails. In both the short and long term, you will more than likely automate and speed up a poor business model. Fundamentally, sound and well designed business processes coupled with an effective software implementation will position your organization for long term success. The next steps – following, maintaining and updating these “well designed” business processes will contribute your organization’s success and improve results. Drifting away from the processes may have damaging results.A QAD ERP software implementation, in particular a new implementation which evolves from antiquated and cumbersome legacy systems, offers companies the opportunity to take a fresh look at their business process and where possible – improve them significantly. It also puts the business process and its’ design in the forefront of management’s...

While it is generally recommended to utilize as much as possible the “best practices” employed in the QAD Enterprise ERP package, more often than not this is not possible. Most companies have proven and successful business processes or key reports that just are not addressed with standard QAD but can be incorporated into the overall package in a cost effective manner. This opens the door for customization and report modifications – a process that must be completed in both a cost effective and efficient manner. Tight functional specs and testing by savvy personnel ensure a smoother process from beginning to end.The development methodology for developing Functional Specifications & Testing typically follows this path:1. Define User Requirements – resulting in documented and approved Functional Spec for management’s approval. The due diligence in the definition stage should include the following: • Business Reason – “Why” • Assumptions & Inputs • Expected Results from Testing2. Development & Unit Testing –...

When presented with a project that reaches outside the borders of the US, there are many factors to consider beyond the obvious language differences. There are local regulations, requirements, standards and customs that should be taken into consideration before you begin. It is also important to consider the impact that cultural differences will play. Typical methods of documentation and training that work in some countries might not work as effectively in another.I recently spent a few months at a client in Mexico. They were struggling with using QAD’s Kanban module, so the goal was to help them use it more effectively. After a few weeks of one on one training and giving them more helpful documentation, the results were lagging and it became very clear that this standard approach wasn’t reaching them effectively.One issue, of course, was the language barrier. It took much more effort on my part to get them to open up about the issues they were having and the areas where they didn’t feel very comfortable...

Browse Maintenance has received a massive overhaul for the latest version of QAD. Creating, Modifying, and even moving browses between environments is much easier to do. Browse Maintenance now much more closely resembles other visual query tools such as MS Access where all you need to do is add tables and drag and drop fields to create relationships.

Moving browses between environments has also seen some major improvements. In the action bar at the top of Browse Maintenance, you can now export your browse into a static file on your local PC. Then, simply log into the new environment and import the browse from the file.

These changes mean managing browses are now something that anyone in IT (not just progress programmers) and even select power users can perform. This allows your users to get faster access to the data they want without waiting on costly programmer time to develop.

Recently a client moved a decentralized returns process from its plants around the country, all managed by customer service reps responsible for its local customers, to a central headquarters location. Prior to the transition, reps at the plants had ownership and relationships with their local customers in their regions. They owned return paperwork, system transactions, and credit pricing and verification for the returns for their customers. They had close working relationships with each of their customers. After the transition to a shared services model where all returns transactions were processed by a shared services group at headquarters, the relationships with the customers were not as close as they had been and customers no longer had one customer service rep focused on their account. In the end, a smaller staff was responsible for work that previously had been managed by a larger group, on an FTE basis. As a result, there are more errors and more time needed to correct them, and the transition has been...