Importance of Optimizing IT Infrastructure for smooth running of Business

A lot of companies invest heavily in buying software to manage their business. Specially large companies have a variety of software applications like an ERP, a logistics solution, an HRMS integrated with the ERP along with some home grown applications.

If the infrastructure is not in tune with the software investments then the company would eventually face high costs of maintenance and high Total cost of ownership (TCO). Especially large companies, who have a heavy reliance on their ERP applications, cannot afford a failure in their IT infrastructure which would affect business continuity.

For instance if a data center crashes, then the business operations come to a halt, especially if the company has just one data center. Companies tend to ignore the importance of infrastructure planning. Disaster planning is critical in developing effective mitigation strategies.

To avoid such issues, it has become very important for IT managers to have a robust plan to manage their infrastructure needs. They should be well equipped to handle four major areas.

1. Data Center Management: This is crucial since failure of a data center has serious implications on business. Hence most companies like IBM, Oracle and Cisco provide a wide array of data center solutions right from planning and design to its actual implementation. Strategies for the optimal deployment of servers, databases, messaging and storage systems help in effective management of data centers.
2. Network Management: Network Management is also very important for fast and efficient access of data by all the users of the system. For instance, consider a large enterprise having around 8000 global users of SAP. In this case, availability and performance of networks is a very important factor affecting key business areas like production, planning, shipment etc. Leading networking solution companies like Cisco, Nortel, and Juniper provide robust networking solutions to assist these companies in building robust networks.
3. Security Management: Security is always a key business concern for companies. Hence placing firewalls and intrusion protection systems seem to be a logical step towards the same. Companies like Checkpoint and VeriSign assist companies in this area.
4. End User Services: End user services play an important role in faster delivery of information and problem solving. For instance a service desk is essential for troubleshooting and escalation management.

It is therefore imperative for companies to have an IT infrastructure plan in place, along with software implementation. This would only lower the TCO and add to the bottom line profits of the company. For smaller companies cloud computing has become a viable option, since they do not have to invest time and resources in managing IT. They can focus their energies into their core capabilities, which are managing their business.

Even larger companies who shrug to maintain IT are outsourcing it to best in class software companies. Cloud computing is becoming a viable option for large companies as well, with its increasing popularity and business advantages. Nonetheless, companies with an existing IT infrastructure and those who deploy IT at their end need to be well prepared to manage IT effectively.

Written By:

Lawrence Gilbert

(Business Development Executive at Accent Consulting)

Tips on Selecting the right ERP for your Business

Process Manufacturing is much different from discrete manufacturing. In case of discrete manufacturing, the company makes products on a shop floor, with the end products being easily identifiable. In simple terms, the discrete product can be broken down to retrieve its basic components.

Most common examples of discrete manufacturing would be automotive manufacturers, consumer electronics, the aerospace industry, and household appliances. Process manufacturing on the other hand deals with formulas and recipes and the end product cannot be broken down to get its original components. Common examples would be paints, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and the food and beverage industry.

Most of the companies in these industries have sophisticated software applications to govern their business processes. Highly popular ERP systems like SAP and Oracle are commonly used in these firms. There are many local vendors as well providing custom made applications.

However, a lot of companies jump into purchasing an ERP system, without doing a thorough analysis of their business processes and what solution would fit them best. For example, even in case of manufacturing there are many styles from job-shop to highly complex automated systems like robotics.

The solution that is chosen must support the business processes, the style of manufacturing and the business model of the company. For instance the interfaces required for a highly configured machine cannot be the same as that of a high speed automation machine making a hundred pieces an hour. This is probably the reason why most companies fail or are unhappy with their ERP investments.

This makes it absolutely crucial for companies to identify their critical success factors (CSFs) or the processes that are critical to their businesses and need to be automated. Moreover, it is always important to document the requirements so an easy comparison can be made at a later stage.

Many companies do not do a comprehensive study of their existing business processes. For instance a company may be doing certain tasks in a unique way and steps could be taken to replace or improve them. Without a detailed analysis of requirements and business processes, it would be difficult to evaluate an ERP solution or to predict its potential to be a perfect fit for the company.

For example, a large cosmetics manufacturing company implemented an ERP system, however after a few years, it did not realize complete value as some of their existing processes still had to be done manually. Real time inventory tracking was not a robust feature of their ERP system. In fact the employees had to manually count the stock to ensure availability to fill open orders.

Purchasing planning and scheduling took a beating and the company began making mistakes on purchasing inventory, at times investing more than required, hence increasing the cost of inventories. Such requirements are specific in process manufacturing industries which the company failed to oversee. It also did not have robust capabilities in defining item and lot characteristics which was becoming a concern.

Eventually they had to re-invest in another ERP system. To avoid such pitfalls companies must be better prepared and should do extensive planning on key issues before evaluating a vendor for ERP selection. The anticipated ROI, ERP system functionality, pricing, vendor capabilities, technical issues like platforms and customization, need to be analyzed well before evaluation.

There are some good products in the market which are tailor-made or industry specific. For example BatchMaster specializes in process manufacturing. Industry specific applications would be a good option to consider as the customization required would be less and the ERP system would have evolved over a period of time with installations in different companies within the same industry.

Finally if a company is proactive and has a clear ERP vision, with the expectations in place, it would only be that much easier for the company to choose a right system to suit its business, and to be a right fit in the long run.

Written By :

Lawrence Gilbert

(Business Development Executive at Accent Consulting)

Manage your HR function better with an integrated HRMS solution

Human Resources management in different companies is viewed differently. Some companies view HR as an administrative task that needs to be done. In fact, till the 1960’s the personnel department was still viewed as a record keeping function that did the payroll tasks and organized the company picnic.

However due to ever increasing issues in managing workforce and the increasing complexities of Human Resource management, the top management soon realized that the function is not just important but critical to its business. Terms like organizational behaviour, complex psychometric tests, feedback forms, having policies and structures in place are becoming very important in today’s increasingly competitive business environment.

Hence most firms look at creating HR as a strategic business partner within the firm, having a definitive say in strategy meetings, adding value to business by suggesting changes in policies or the way employees are managed within a firm. Most companies now see HR as a potential game changer, having a definite role in strategic planning of a business.

For HR to take such a comprehensive role it must first identify the business needs, processes and both, short term and long term goals of the company. Hence companies find the need to more efficiently manage their day to day operational tasks more efficiently so they can channelize their resources in the more strategic aspects of HR.

This is when most firms look at implementing an HRMS software solution to help them better manage their daily complex processes. However companies must first do a rigorous assessment whether they really need an HRMS system. Issues like how much paperwork is becoming cumbersome to manage, record keeping and a growing need to quickly run reports, needs to be assessed.

Considering a web based HRMS solution would seem to be a good option, especially for SMEs who want an integrated and cost effective solution. Using this solution, employees can easily see their attendance, benefits, leaves pending, claims and many other features which advanced HRMS software’s provide.

Most HRMS systems also have the option of multiple user licenses which gives specific access to different users based on their role and function in the company. For example, an HR manager would have complete access of all the employee records, while employees would have restricted access to only their records, and every department manager would have access to only the records of his functional department.

Even if the company consists of only hundred employees, a web based HRMS system would be useful to streamline the entire HR lifecycle right from training to recruitment to payroll management. This helps in increasing efficiency of HR processes, and limits errors in payroll or ambiguity in record keeping. At the same time, it empowers employees to focus on the more strategic aspects of HR.

A good HRMS system would be one which is user friendly, secure, having wide range of modules covering the entire HR lifecycle, would be flexible in terms of implementation, and being compliant to open database platforms (ODBC) such as Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server. This would allow better integration capabilities with other applications as and when required.

Going for a comprehensive HRMS solution is becoming a must for large organizations and a great investment for SMEs to provide efficiency and add value to the HR function in their company. The time is soon when majority of companies would have HR as a strategic enabler and a business partner for contributing to the long term strategies and goals of a company.

Written By :

Lawrence Gilbert

(Business Development Executive at Accent Consulting)

The all new SAP Business One 8.8 release for the growing SMB market

The mid market adaption to ERP software is increasing every day, and so is the constant changes and new releases in the ERP provider landscape. So how can the market leader in the Enterprise Software landscape stay behind. SAP has announced its latest release, SAP Business One 8.8 for the small and medium sized (SMB) market.

With growing competition from Microsoft Dynamics and Oracle in this space, SAP Business One 8.8 has some refreshing add-ons to differentiate its product offering. One of the new features that is eye catching is the new interface which is much more user friendly with an improved GUI. Newer icons give SAP a more Web 2.0 look, however giving users an option to switch to the previous GUI.

The integration of Crystal Reports in SAP Business One gives users and partners an easy and flexible option to create and view reports. Data archiving is another new feature for SAP Business One 8.8, which enables users to archive old operational data like sales order closures, dead accounts or gives the option to deactivate certain ledgers or partner information.

One of the most interesting features for companies in varied industries; is a solution packager feature which helps companies to implement pre-packaged industry specific solutions. This gives additional flexibility to companies to add certain configurations that are specific to their industry or deploy certain industry specific add-ons.

A feature that caught my attention was even country specific customization, for example SAP Business One 8.8 lets you send an e-TDS return statement to tax authorities, in liaison with Income Tax Act, 1962 norms of India. This is an example of the localization concept and an epitome of the phrase “Think Global, act Local”.

With this release, SAP has gone one step ahead on the infrastructure and security front as well. With the help of advanced encryption algorithms and enhanced access mechanisms, the access to critical data is restricted. Better memory and cache management is another significant improvement on the infrastructure front.

Most of the times, customers have a concern of adding customized modules or need integration of SAP with some third party tools. The new SAP Business One SDK can be used to create customized applications and interfaces with third party applications with ease. Hence, giving flexibility to SAP users and adding to their convenience in using the application.

SAP has also recently announced better business network connectivity for its customers, hence empowering them to better manage their business partners and tightly integrate their various branch locations with their headquarters. With a plan to release by April 2010, SAP Business One 8.8 has some strikingly new features which have the potential to put SAP in the driver’s seat in the SMB market as well.

Some really innovative ideas like iPhone integration and increased integration capabilities with on-demand Web applications shows that SAP has its roadmap and focus attuned in the right direction. As most people say that the future is cloud computing, SAP Business One’s added capabilities shows its willingness to adapt and constantly evolve to keep pace with changing customer needs and the business environment.

How would the latest SAP Business One product fare in the SME segment is something which everyone is eager to know. It would be interesting to see how other Enterprise software vendors would react to the release. However SAP Business One 8.8 is definitely a product which reaffirms SAP’s dominance in the Enterprise Software space.

Written By :

Lawrence Gilbert

(Business Development Executive at Accent Consulting)

SAP adds Digital Asset Management to its ECM Offerings by Leveraging its Strategic Relationship with Open Text

SAP has now added more value to its Enterprise Content Management (ECM) offerings by adding digital asset management as one of its key components. SAP and Open Text have had a successful collaboration for more than a decade now. SAP resells content management software from Open Text, as a result of a strategic partnership between the two companies.

By extending the global reseller agreement, SAP will now add SAP digital asset management application to its already successful SAP enterprise content management solution offerings. Most companies today are looking to standardize the digital media content in order to portray a consistent image in the minds of their customers.

SAP Digital Asset Management, will add higher value to its CRM application, by adding digital asset management capabilities to existing modules of marketing resource management (MRM) and intellectual property management (IPM) . With a rapid change in marketing strategies and a higher shift towards digitized and targeted marketing campaigns, companies look at robust solutions to effectively create, manage and distribute their digitized content.

This capability would see higher ROIs on marketing campaigns due to faster creation and efficient management of standardized marketing collaterals. The functionality would also benefit media and entertainment companies who rely on high quality media content. Digital asset management solutions would help these entertainment houses to better manage their digitized content like photos, logos etc. , hence saving a lot of time and effort of editors, and in turn boost profits for these companies.

This is especially helpful to large companies with many product lines and spread across varied locations all around the globe. To create and manage an integrated marketing campaign for these companies, and to send across a consistent message with the right images and content is very important, keeping in mind the branding and marketing objectives of the company. SAP digital asset management would hence be a boon for such companies as it would empower them to create such integrated campaigns with ease, and also monitor the efficiency of these campaigns.

SAP has had a successful collaboration with Open Text by reselling document access, archiving and invoice management solutions. By expanding its offering to add DAM, just adds another feather to its cap and goes in line with SAP’s strategy to constantly strive to add value to its customers in the rapidly changing and dynamic business scenario.

Written By :

Lawrence Gilbert

(Business Development Executive at Accent Consulting)

Cloud Computing - Is this the way of the Future

Cloud Computing is slowing becoming a buzz-word in the Software Industry. So much has been said about the power of cloud computing and its ability to revolutionize the way we do business.

So what exactly is cloud computing? A very simplistic explanation would be internet based use of technology. Here the term cloud personifies internet as a medium to communicate and collaborate. This would allow companies and consumers to access applications over a connected network without the hassle of installation and maintenance.

Most people jump to conclusions that cloud computing is same as SaaS (Software as a Service Model). However SaaS is only a part of this larger concept. Cloud Computing includes three core aspects. These are Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), SaaS and Internet based development (Platform as a Service).

IaaS typically provides the networking infrastructure and other hardware support to software developers and vendors. They can use these IaaS services to host their applications on the internet to their end users. This is a concept in the nascent stages, yet providers like Amazon, provide such computing services to their customers.

SaaS is a concept which has been in use for some time now. Vendors like Salesforce.com, Google and NetSuite use it in a big way, and it is slowly gaining popularity as an effective business model. The basic idea behind this concept is that customers can access software applications, on demand over the internet via a Web Browser. In this model, customers can subscribe to the software, instead of purchasing it. Hence they can pay for the period for which they use the software, most commonly on a pay per month basis.

PaaS is a concept where software developers can develop and host new software via the internet, without having to purchase new hardware or software. Microsoft Azure and Google Apps, are some of the popular PaaS providers.

Seeing a rise in popularity of this concept, major software vendors like SAP, Oracle, Microsoft and IBM, each are working on devising key strategies for the same. Currently vendors like SAP and Microsoft have a combined share of thirteen percent in the Indian SaaS market, with Webex and Salesforce leading the roost. There is a general trend of SMEs adapting much faster to a model like this as compare to larger corporations.

It seems traditional on-premise application providers have shown some resent toward this increasing buzz and adoption towards the cloud hype. In fact Oracle CEO Larry Ellison states that the IT industry is more fashion driven and begins to associate everything to a cloud, in a sarcastic statement to the press. Yet, Oracle has its own strategy to counter cloud computing. Its CRM on-demand tool is slowly gaining popularity among the industry.

SAP is not far behind when it comes to cloud adoption. It has taken a hybrid approach to integrate the on-premise and on-demand models to ensure unison and integrity among enterprise applications. SAP BusinessObjects is an on-demand solution to cater to the diverse needs of small and medium sized enterprises.

There are still some risk factors and apprehensions to a complete shift to the cloud. In fact, SAP's former CEO Leo Apotheker had said, that a large company cannot put everything on the cloud, as the cloud would collapse. John Wookey who is now in charge of SAP's on-demand strategy, is working on new strategies to counter the hype of cloud computing.

How will businesses, software companies adapt to the changing trends in the software industry is something to look for in the near future. But from the looks of it, cloud computing is definitely something that is here to stay.

Written By :

Lawrence Gilbert

(Business Development Executive at Accent Consulting)

Accent Consulting is happy to announce successful implementation of project for Helical Springs

Accent Consulting has added yet another successful implementation to its kitty. We are happy to announce the succesful project completion of ERP software installation at Helical Springs. Helical Springs is now an esteemed client of Accent Consulting. Kudos to the entire team at Accent Consulting !!

New WebSite

Accent Consulting :- Website with a new look and feel was made live today with exclusive sections for support and partnership. I am sure new website will be easier channel of communication between Accent Consulting and its customers. We look forward to your feedback.

Support team.