Entries from Thinking Tech tagged with 'ERP'
How Do Companies Benefit from ERP?
We've been analyzing the past five years of projects, asking some probing questions about why clients invest in ERP systems. We've located three primary benefits our clients have gotten. Here's the first: Making more time for sales. I'm not sure...
Sacred cows gobble up ERP benefit!
I've come to the conclusion (slowly) over the last five years that we assume that if an ERP software package works and users know how to use it, the business benefits will start to flow to the bottom line. We're...
Oracle Believes ERP Market is Recovering
The title of the article below seems a bit misleading to me. It's not clear to me that there is evidence of SAP's unravelling, unless the reference is to SAP losing market share. Furthermore, I don't think at this point...
More xTuple Review
Since I work a good bit in manufacturing and distribution, items are important. I've been looking at the video on items. There is a good bit of functionality here. The devil, though, is always in the details, and I highly...
An ERP Selection Process That Guarantees Results
IT Toolbox recently noted that 73% of all manufacturers are dissatisfied with their current ERP systems. Not surprising, they say. The problem--says IT Toolbox--is the "legacy selection process commonly used is flawed." Bingo! So what do they recommend? A three...
Dynamics NAV 2009 and SharePoint
This week is Directions 2008, a conference put on by the Microsoft Dynamics NAV channel. Actually, a group of volunteers from a dozen or so Microsoft partners collect the money and host the event, which is limited to Microsoft NAV...
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009
The preview of Dynamics NAV 2009 we can show to the public is finally out. The version I've been testing to now has been the Partner Technical Preview. It had a few features that I wasn't able to make work,...
Sage ACCPAC ERP - News
Although it had been announced before the conference, version 5.5 of the Sage ACCPAC ERP product is beginning to ship as of the end of April. We've released the first installment which includes the core product, but there appear to...
Sage Insights Conference
I'm at the Sage Insights conference this week. As we mention on the web site, Sage owns millions of products. Ok, well maybe not millions. But at least it's safe to say that Sage owns a bunch of products. For...
Sage Insights Conference in Washington, DC
It seems that all software vendors have an annual conference. Sage's Insights conference focuses on the Sage ACCPAC ERP product line. Sage ACCPAC ERP is--well, obviously--an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software product. I'm increasingly reading various information that seems to...
Sage Software: Where to from here?
Every email I've gotten from or about Sage recently, I've been looking for a major announcement of some kind. The announcement earlier in the year that the company had pushed the management groups for all the mid-market software products (Sage...
Software Support Fees
Software support fees have been sticking points with clients for years. Sometimes the value of support fees is difficult to see. Software vendors charge from a low of about 15% to a high of 25% per year for "maintenance" and...
Implementing Accounting (ERP) Software
Did you ever think about the process of implementing ERP software or accounting software? From the implementer's point of view, I mean. When I was in public accounting, clients brought their tax records to us. Hopefully, they didn't bring the...
Revision of Top 10 Accounting Software Packages Page
I've been revising the web site, slowly. There are more pages there than I realized, and updating them takes time. One page that's been sorely in need of revision is the Top 10 Accounting and ERP Packages page. Take a...
Dynamics NAV 5.0: Miscellaneous Notes
I've finally had time to load the beta, order the beta license from MS, and get the whole thing going in a virtual PC. One of the things I picked out of the "What's New" training was the fact that...
GP and SL Put Out To Pasture?
Interesting week for rumors. After the rumor circulated about Project Green withering, the new rumor is that SL (Solomon) and GP (Great Plains) are to be shelved. AccountingTechnology editor-in-chief Bob Scott reported both on his Consulting Insights newsletter. I'm with...
Nav 5.0 Installation
NAV 5.0 NA (North American) database is now out...actually, the second release is out. I thought I'd try installing the client and the database. I loaded up a virtual machine copy that I've got with Windows XP and a couple...
Dynamics NAV 5.0: New Features
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0 beta is out and about, along with the "What's New" training manuals. There are two volumes of training designed for dealers and implementers, but the basic information should be available on CustomerSource as soon as 5.0...
#2 Problem With Demos and Selecting Software
The #2 problem with getting demos to select software is that most demos aren't driven by the needs of the company trying to select software. Don't get me wrong--a demo is an important part of selecting software. But not a...
Just Give Me a Demo
I should probably add this to the list of things you should (or shouldn't do) when selecting software. It's part of the standard way businesses go about selecting software. It works something like this: Find 12 companies that sell software...
How To Mess Up When Selecting Computer Software: Don't Listen To Anyone Who Doesn't Report To You!
I got a call from a company with serious software issues in the last week. They called about a year ago and wanted to buy some software that we work with. I listened to the description of why they wanted...
Selecting Business Software #7: Electronic Conversion is Not For Everyone or Everything
My rule of thumb is 1,000. It takes a thousand items to make a conversion really worthwhile. Less than that, you might as well hire a temp and have them key the data. That's 1000 of anything: Customers, Vendors, Items,...
New Year...New Plans
For the new year, I'd like to propose several questions that I've been thinking about for Data Guidance Group. Most of the issues here may seem to be technology issues, but they really aren't. They're business issues. So here are...
Selecting Business Software #5: Prepare for Change
In the 1980s when I was in college, an article came out in one of the leading journals describing technology projects as a process of "unfreezing," "change," and "refreezing." I've found this image useful for what DGG does. In most...
Selecting Business Software #4: Do It Yourself? You Might Be Able To
Many clients like the idea of "do it yourself" software implementation. After all, industry studies show that between 1 and 4 times the cost of the software is invested in services (customization, implementation, training, etc.). Saving that money looks pretty...
Selecting New Business Software #3: Set a Reasonable Budget
There are sites on the internet (like FindAccountingSoftware) that collect information from people looking for new software and feed it to people that provide software. If you looked through the list of "projects," you'd see a lot of them that...
Selecting New Business Software #2: Start With Needs Analysis
Hopefully, if you're looking for new software, you started with a thorough needs analysis. Not just what was wrong with your existing software, but what your total needs were. I used to teach consultants how to do consulting. One of...
Selecting New Business Software #1: Don't Start With The Platform
I visited with a client that was thinking about buying new software last week. They had a pretty good idea of what they wanted, and I was there to ask more questions to make sure I understood all the detailed...
Try Not To Modify ERP Software
Jeff Kugler makes a great point in the article below. He says you shouln't modify ERP software. I agree. Since you can read the article for free after you register, I won't repeat the entire argument. Since you have to...
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0 New Features
Microsoft reps announced a number of forthcoming features at the Directions 2006 conference. I've been back for a couple of weeks and am finally hunting up my notebook to relay a few tidbits of information. None of this, of course,...
Did You Implement This Year?
This is the time of year when businesses seem to think, "I meant to do this all year, better hurry up to get it done by year end." I know this because businesses we've been working with since January make...
Year End Things to Think About
At year end, there are a few things you might want to think about. You'll be closing out your books. You need to evaluate the operations you'll need to do in order to get your software and hardware ready for...
Support Discontinued for Dynamics NAV 3.7
I have trouble calling it Dynamics NAV. To me, it's still Navision. And version 3.6 was new when I first learned Dynamics NAV a few years ago. It's time for the 3.x versions to be retired, and Microsoft is doing...
Another Take on Dynamics NAV 5.0/5.1
Didn't meet Mark at Directions 2006, but he does have something to say about 5.0/5.1. Everyone's opinion is valuable. Here's another one for you to consider. Mark Brummel : Reporting from Directions 2006...
Project Green Strategy Beginning to Come Into Focus
Microsoft bought four products from the mid and upper market ERP space: Great Plains, Solomon, Navision, and Axapta. Since then, the products have been renamed to Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, and Microsoft Dynamics AX. Most...
Microsoft: It's What They Don't Say
In their defense, it isn't just Microsoft. I'm still stinging from the software vendor (name withheld to protect the guilty) who threatened to fire employees if they published the internally developed list of 100+ features from the DOS product that...
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