Newsletter Archives

One place you cannot afford to make a mistake is with your ERP system, the information backbone of your business. Fact is, the questions you ask before purchasing an ERP solution can make the difference between success and disaster. Here are 12 key questions you need to ask.

If you’re in the market for accounting software, here’s a handy reference guide that lays out the accounting features and functions currently available for SMBs. It will help you determine which features your organization needs—or doesn’t.

IT managers of SMBs have very different needs and concerns from their counterparts in large corporations—and software vendors are now marketing solutions that recognize that fact. Whether on-premise or hosted, SMBs have more options than ever before.

Read Advances in Software for SMBs

The marriage of virtual machines, software as a service (SaaS), and cloud computing has allowed the organization to save significant amounts of hardware space, as it is now possible to run ever more powerful and space-hungry applications from virtual machines or remote third-party servers.

Advances in data protection and backup are allowing for a much more efficient backup process. Disk space requirements have been significantly reduced, while the need for tape backup systems has been eliminated altogether—a real savings in space, hardware, and energy requirements.

The process of protecting your your SQL server database has become simpler and more efficient as well. Software applications can now provide both local and remote database protection, allowing for quicker and more efficient data recovery in case of data loss or site failure.

Read Increased Efficiencies in Remote Computing and Data Protection

After evaluating the pros and cons, more and more mid-market companies are choosing to outsource all or part of their ERP systems. But what are the real benefits of ERP outsourcing? What are the different outsourcing models, and the advantages and disadvantages that come with each? Which model is best for your organization, and what are the critical success factors? These are the questions you must ask, and here are the answers.

Today we also provide some analyst insight into one of the software industry’s leading solution providers: Infor. With its numerous new software license sales, new product deliveries, and its dedication to complicated technological rejuvenation—namely, an ambitious open service-oriented architecture strategy—Infor’s star is clearly on the rise these days.

Read The Ins and Outs of Outsourcing

PPM software enables your company to analyze, recommend, authorize, activate, expedite, and monitor projects. And that kind of control turns into dollars, whether your organization uses an engagement profitability or budget alignment model, or a hybrid of the two. A properly exploited PPM system can cut up to 30 percent off product development time, significantly improve on-time and on-budget rates, and boost R&D productivity.

Finally, on a different note, today’s feature blog post offers a look at Japanese decision-making, and how it uses a bottom-up flow rather than the familiar top-down North American model. You’ll also discover how this is spawning Japanese-style enterprise content management (ECM) software that helps manage this seemingly upside down (from a North American perspective) process.

Read Project Management Software for SMBs

If saving money is the name of the EAM game, then zero downtime is the holy grail. Best-in-class companies are using holistic, proactive strategies that include rationalizing data across all asset-related systems and databases, empowering decision makers more often, and leveraging emerging technologies such as smart devices to optimize plant and equipment performance. Where does your company stand?

Not meaning to blow our own horn, but you should be aware that TEC has a powerful yet easy-to-use tool to help you shortlist EAM vendors based on your organization’s specific needs, and today’s feature blog post tells you how to use it. Want to find out which EAM vendors are the best fit for your organization? This is an excellent place to start.

Read Enterprise Asset Management: Savings You Can Take to the Bank

Some manufacturers require a stand-alone warehouse management system to meet their supply chain demands, while others—even some with high inventory turnover—would be better served by extending their current ERP functionality.

But even if you have the right inventory system for your business model and processes, you still require visibility into your supply chain, and the ability to leverage that data, in order to make the right business decisions and to function efficiently.

Ultimately, it all comes down to your processes on the warehouse floor, where the ‘rubber meets the road.’ Since warehouse workers execute more that 95 percent of physical inventory transactions in most facilities, it’s essential to eliminate communications issues, interruptions, and incompatibility problems.

Read Bringing Your Supply Chain Systems Up to Speed

The first is talent management, a must-have for any forward-thinking organization. But talent management involves more than organizational will and strategy: it requires the support of the right HR IT infrastructure.

The second is employee performance management, a powerful HR tool that unfortunately dwells on the wish list of too many organizations. But there are ways to make employee performance management a reality within your organization, and you should act upon them before your competition does.

Read The Twin Peaks of HR Success