Tactical Human Resources Evolves into Strategic Human Capital Management
P.J. Jakovljevic
In contrast to traditionally investing in automation technologies for better use of tangible assets, enterprises have begun to invest in optimizing human capital. Human capital management, or talent management, is a set of human resources practices focusing on the acquisition, management, and optimization of the enterprise workforce.
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HRMS Showdown: Integrated or Best-of-breed?
Sherry Fox
HR is an area that many tier-one software vendors are trying to break into. But are they as good as the niche vendors? Find out in today's Showdown, which compares Lawson S3 Human Capital Management and Vista HRMS from PDS.
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Using Demand to Modulate Consumer Packaged Goods Supply Networks
Subramanyam Venkataraman
Traditionally, the consumer packaged goods supply has been driven to market mostly by upstream manufacturers. But progressive companies are realizing the enduring value of being driven by the market, and they are starting to use demand as a guiding light.
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EAM versus CMMS: What's Right for Your Company
Joe Strub and P.J. Jakovljevic
This article looks at where computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) end and enterprise asset management (EAM) takes over, focusing on features and functionality of EAM software. It also compares CMMS and EAM software and explores the two key differentiators.
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Is There a Smarter Way to Handle Excess Active and Obsolete Inventory?
P.J. Jakovljevic
Imagine the convenience of a 24x7 intranet marketplace where companies could sell off their inventory to the highest bidder. FreeFlow is one such business service provider, helping companies find buyers to sell their products to and increase inventory asset recovery.
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Outsourcing in Latin America
Jorge Garcia
Global economic instability has modified the configuration in the worldwide outsourcing market. Find out what impact the crisis has had for Latin America players, according to new data, as well as the steps they should take to survive and—perhaps—prosper.
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Taking Multilingual Support to the Next Level
Ketharaman Swaminathan
Product managers in product companies are trying to develop applications that support multilingual functionality. Multinational corporations use multilingual software applications in order to increase their productivity and in some cases meet compliance regulations.
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Why Enterprise Application Search Is Crucial to Your ERP System
Dan Matthews
Enterprise applications become easier to use with the addition of powerful search capabilities. There is a distinction to be made, however, between stand-alone search tools and true enterprise application search that is built into and tightly integrated within an application.
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A Guide to Selecting Process Enterprise Resource Planning Software
David Bourque
Today, the issue of regulatory compliance touches every enterprise, and process manufacturers are no exception. To answer the challenge of this new reality, vendors now offer enterprise resource planning systems with far more features and functionality than ever before. But how can an organization choose the right system to meet its business needs?
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How the Mining Industry Benefits from ERP Systems
Leslie Satenstein
Integrated enterprise resource planning software normalizes the reporting requirements for a mining company's various departments. This article loosely shows the parallels between the operations in a mining company and those of a manufacturer whose product is sold on store shelves.
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Who Could Object to Faster, More Responsive Supply Chains?
P.J. Jakovljevic
Today, global manufacturers have all but abandoned traditional vertical supply chain management to adopt the more flexible horizontal and virtual supply chain concepts. But in changing their business model, they have given up a fair amount of control over their supply chain processes.
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Managing Lean Manufacturing Using Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009
Dr. Scott Hamilton
A supply chain management system (SCM) is a critical success factor for implementing lean manufacturing. The SCM system helps define product structure, costing information, financial information and reports and is a useful tool in the decision-making process.
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Warehouse Management for Manufacturers: Why Extended ERP Might Be the Right Choice
David Barks
As a provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) integrated workforce productivity solutions, we have seen many approaches to distribution automation. Adding a warehouse management system is a logical option for many manufacturers, but this article provides insight into another option: extending ERP distribution capabilities to take advantage of a single receiving, inventory, shipping database.
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From Manufacturing to Distribution: The Evolution of ERP in Our New Global Economy
David Bourque
Because manufacturers are now competing globally, they have shifted production to developing countries where cost of labor and resources is low. Software vendors have combined supply chain management functionality with enterprise resource planning software to stay globally competitive.
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Playing Devil's Advocate with an Innovative Vendor's "Techies"
P.J. Jakovljevic
Rather than pursuing the usual route of writing analyses of major market trends, we've decided to ask vendors about their opinions and approaches. IFS has re-joined the discussion on the topic of user experience (UX) design.
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Gen Y Talent: How to Attract and Retain the Young and the Restless
Saba Software
Because "Generation Y" will soon make up the bulk of the workforce, companies need to evolve their human resources (HR) programs and services to deliver to Gen Y, and focus on recruiting and retaining this next generation of workers. For HR programs to be successful, you need to know the issues surrounding Gen Y in the workplace, including why Gen Y behaves differently from Generation X and the Baby Boomers. Learn more.
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Response Management: Rapid Response to Change Drives Improved Operating Performance
Kinaxis
Increasingly, success depends not only on how fast manufacturers can act, but how fast they can react—and the effectiveness of the actions they take. But fast and effective reactions depend on having the information you need when you need it. Is your response management strategy efficient enough? Do you have enough control over key supply chain processes? Find out how to better manage your response to volatile markets.
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Lean Maintenance: Best Practices to Turn Asset Management into a Profit Center
Infor
It's common knowledge that asset downtime disrupts production and drives up both process and per-unit operating costs. However, executives often lose sight of this because they focus on output, not on the assets used to create it. The irony is that companies can use asset performance management not only to make more widgets, but to make each widget more profitably.
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Making the Move: What to Do When You've Outgrown QuickBooks
Sage
Your old solution provided the basic bookkeeping capabilities you needed to start your company. But now, you have more customers. More employees. More complexity. What do you do when your small business is no longer so small? Before you make the move to a more powerful accounting solution, you should gather the facts and compare solutions. Get started with 37 tips for finding the accounting solution that fits your needs.
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Warehouse Management Better Business Practices: Cycle and Annual Counting
VAI
If you can't find the number of parts, finished goods, or products your inventory system says you have, you are wasting your time. There are two ways to track inventory: either by doing a physical inventory count, or by implementing a cycle count program. Manage inventory rather than just store it—learn about the benefits of cycle counting, and how it can help you increase the accuracy of your real-time inventory data.
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Nine Telltale Signs You Should Replace Your Current WMS
HighJump Software
You rely on a warehouse management system (WMS) to maintain ongoing operations, support changing customer requirements, keep up with industry regulations, and simply get product out the door on a daily basis. But a faltering system may also be constraining your global potential. Find out how to determine if your current WMS system is hindering your ability to execute business strategies that help you grow your business.
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The Location-intelligent Enterprise: Unlocking the Value of Location in Data
Quocirca Ltd
When it comes to data, it's all about location. Although more than 80 percent of enterprise data has a geographic dimension—such as stores, customers, and competitors—it's rarely used in traditional business intelligence (BI) analysis. In order to react faster to market changes and to improve competitive advantage and operation efficiency, businesses should consider adding location intelligence tools to their BI platform.
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Operational Business Intelligence: The Lawson Approach
Lawson Software
Traditional business intelligence (BI) software has not been available to line-of-business managers, frontline employees, or external stakeholders, but that is no longer the case. New BI solutions unite transactional and analytical worlds. Knowledge workers and executives can now analyze operational processes in real time. Decisions can be made and entered back into operational systems combining BI and performance management strategies.
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TEC Product Certification Report: Bluebee ERP v.4b.08
Technology Evaluation Centers
Companies performing a software evaluation and comparison want assurance that the products they're evaluating do what the vendors say they do. Solutions certified by Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) and bearing the TEC Certified logo were analyst-verified for accuracy. Learn about a TEC Certified ERP system for distribution and discrete manufacturing that might offer the modules and functionality you need.
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State of the MES Software Marketplace
Technology Evaluation Centers
Despite predictions that it would be subsumed by enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors encroaching from above and automation vendors encroaching from below, the manufacturing execution systems (MES) market has been growing steadily. This guide from TEC and Flexware Innovation provides state-of-the-market analysis, success stories from your peers, in-depth information on solutions, and a spotlight on leading vendors.
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How Kelly-Moore Paints Simplified Its ERP Software Evaluation and Selection
Technology Evaluation Centers
Kelly-Moore Paints, the largest employee-owned paint company in the US, was looking to consolidate all business activities into one company-wide platform. The challenge: it had only 10 months in which to complete the project—including requirements-gathering, evaluation and selection, and implementation. Find out how Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) helped Kelly-Moore take control of its software selection project.
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Seeing the Future in Discrete Manufacturing: Paving the Way for Success
Infor
The evolution of global discrete manufacturing is ongoing. How executives at manufacturing companies answer questions and anticipate what will be the right answer six months, a year, or two years from now will determine the success of their company. Infor examines current industry trends and identifies what it believes to be the seven trends producing the greatest stress and change in discrete manufacturing today.
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Lean Manufacturing: Reaping the Rewards of Lean through Response Management
Kinaxis
For years, manufacturers have been driven by sales forecasts and the need to maximize production efficiency at every level of operation. But in order to be successful, manufacturers must look toward adopting a lean mentality. While lean techniques are more easily applied to some manufacturing styles than others, new software tools are now able to deliver the benefits of lean to both high-mix and low-volume operations.
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The ERP Essentials: Under the Covers of a Process-oriented ERP Solution
CDC Software
Many manufacturers want to increase production efficiency and improve quality—but how can they ensure their efforts are successful? A process-oriented enterprise resource planning (ERP) system may be the answer. This white paper includes case studies on a variety of process manufacturing industries and provides valuable insights into the ERP capabilities required to successfully manage a process-oriented implementation.
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How to Choose a Distribution System
Sage
Implementing the proper distribution system can be as important to your bottom line as expanding your warehouse or bringing on new product lines. After all, the right system provides immediate and long-term benefits that can impact your business processes across the board. That's why it's important to define business processes and objectives before you start the search for new software.
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Case Study: SuperPharm, Ltd.
Technology Evaluation Centers
SuperPharm, a Trinidad-based pharmacy chain, was having a problem with replenishment and risked losing customers. The problem lay in the point of sale (POS) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) for distribution systems—and that users couldn't easily access the systems' functionalities. After TEC helped SuperPharm with a software evaluation, SuperPharm realized it already had the best systems for its needs. Find out why.
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The Next Generation of ERP Software
Epicor
The next generation of ERP and the new standard designed for the new manufacturing economy harnesses the technology required to optimize performance in the globally extended manufacturing enterprise. Learn how this new class of software is your key to gaining a leadership position in the manufacturing economy of today and tomorrow.
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