A treasure trove of data is available in your enterprise software. Do you know how to access it? If you get reports now, do they provide the data you truly want and need to make intelligent business decisions?

It can be hard to get information from multiple sources, and even harder to consolidate this information into meaningful reports. The inability to customize standard reports is another challenge because it can, in some cases, require expertise in code in order to achieve the desired reports. This leaves managers and executives left feeling like they must settle for whichever reports they can get. Thankfully, flexibility in reporting is possible and easier than you might think to achieve.

Sage Enterprise Intelligence offers flexibility by empowering users to easily manipulate and distribute necessary information on demand.

Sage Enterprise Intelligence offers the flexibility your company needs to get meaningful reports. Instead of requiring intensive time and expertise to build the reports, all staff members have access to simple tools to collect, manipulate, and distribute reports quickly and easily. To take it a step further, Sage Enterprise Intelligence also enables users to drag and drop financial formulas from financial reporting software right into reports.

Business intelligence makes things so easy that graphical tools allow you to model any reporting structure you wish you to use, and you can also switch views to different parts of your organization. Data visualization tools include gauges, maps, and charts. It’s easy to set up key performance indicators (KPIs) and personalized dashboards so you can view the data that is meaningful to you on a regular basis.

With a few clicks, executives and managers are given the ability to control which financial data and information is made available and which is to remain private. Permissions can be established so the selected data can be accessed only by the stakeholders that are chosen to have this ability.

What are some of the financial reporting challenges addressed by Sage business software and intelligent reporting?

• Departmental reporting
• General ledger segmentation
• Project reporting
• Supply chain performance
• Quality issue resolution
• Detailed transactions

It’s not only easy, it is also fast. Reporting is quicker and easier than ever by allowing your business the ability to create multiyear and multi-budget financial reports with the required level of detail. It is even possible for financial values to be pre-calculated from the General Ledger and dynamically provided to reports in other programs. Drill-down and drill-up capabilities allow you to see the level of information you need.

Leverage the treasure trove of data in your enterprise software.

Is it time for your business to have the ability to leverage ready-to-use reports or build fully customized reports to meet your unique requirements? Do you want to have power and flexibility to analyze data in familiar business applications? It is possible to achieve the flexibility of reporting you need and desire with business intelligence solutions. Learn more about Sage Enterprise Intelligence here.

Contact us at IWI to learn more about moving from inflexibility to flexibility and from having limited report access to being able to create whatever reports you need. We would be happy to help! We specialize in helping Canadian businesses and non-profits use enterprise software to improve efficiency and growth. Business intelligence is just one piece of our comprehensive suite of solutions. Sage Enterprise Intelligence seamlessly interfaces with Sage 300cloud (formerly known as Sage 300) and Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3), affordable enterprise resource planning systems that streamline your business processes.

Are you making effective use of all of the data you collect in your enterprise software? The amount of information that is available to you can be overwhelming. While the concept of Big Data isn’t new, companies are getting smarter with their data. Smart data strategies include adopting business intelligence software solutions and identifying key performance indicators to track on a regular basis. The next step is to create an actionable plan for improvement. Automating this process increases agility, enabling companies to react quickly to changing market and customer demands. As the amount of data that companies store increases, businesses need a solution that can access and analyze massive amounts of data in real-time so everyone can make better decisions.

Are you getting the insight you need from your enterprise software?

There are a few key questions you need to ask yourself to identify whether you’re getting what you need out of your system.

• Can you easily analyze your data?
• Can you easily change views and create dashboards?
• Can you quickly and easily customize reports?
• Can you easily drill down into more detailed information within a few clicks (or do you need to re-run reports and start from scratch)?
• Can you automate the regular reports and dashboards you need?

If the answer to any of these questions is ‘no’ then you need to rethink the system you’re using. You are not alone. An Aberdeen survey showed that:

• 88% of managers can’t measure marketing influence on sales and pipeline
• 77% of mangers aren’t notified when changes affect the business
• It takes an average of 11.5 days for managers to be notified of events affecting the business

Business Intelligence offers significant benefits

Having business critical information at your fingertips is essential to ensure that your business keeps running smoothly. It also gives you the ability to act quickly and make better connections between different areas of your business. Let’s look at three key benefits of business intelligence:

1. Real-time visibility of operations

Good business intelligence should be at the heart of every company as it can provide increased control—visibility is essential. Do you know who the best performers are? Can you easily identify areas for improvement? Is stock going missing and you can’t identify where it’s going? Is there an error in your accounts and you need to drill down to invoicing or billing quickly to make your P&L balance—can you do all of this in a few clicks or do you need to re-run a report that takes forever?

2. Make better decisions more quickly

Analytical tools can give you the insight that you need to achieve real business agility. They can provide increased visibility of your financial prospects, help you better understand the implications of an investment, and can make and analyze connections between different areas of your business. Business Intelligence helps you to embrace strategic planning for business growth by identifying key trends and patterns in your data and helping you gain a better understanding of your business, transforming data into actionable information. You can be more responsive and can support future planning with the ability to identify opportunities to increase revenue or to reduce costs.

3. Improve collaboration and efficiency

The most important reason to have a good business intelligence solution is that it can improve efficiency within your business and, as a result, increase productivity. Simple, easy to use tools that can be used by anyone across the business can help you share information across different departments, enabling you to save time on reporting and analytics. This is particularly essential if you have regular reports you need to run (e.g. monthly executive reports where you need the same information each month). Sharing information reduces duplication of data and means all your figures match up. It allows you to get on with the more important things like the actual running of your business.

Sage Enterprise Intelligence helps you make the most of your enterprise data

If you would to use your enterprise data to become more agile and efficient, check out Sage Enterprise Intelligence, a business intelligence solution that integrated directly with Sage enterprise software.

 Contact IWI to learn more about making the most out of your enterprise software.

Transparency in food manufacturing is achievable with the right technology and enterprise software. Food manufacturers need greater traceability and data visibility in order to meet increased demands by regulators and consumers. Every step of production is impacted from the supply chain to manufacturing to marketing. This broad range of impact makes enterprise software a key factor in streamlining tracking and providing information visibility to all who need it.

We have taken a comprehensive look at the importance of transparency in the food manufacturing industry and how to achieve it in different areas of your business, in previous blogs. We also offer a free whitepaper on the subject. You can find them here:

• How to Improve Transparency in Food Manufacturing
• 5-Step Plan to Achieve Food Manufacturing Supply Chain Visibility
• Creating a Window into Food Manufacturing Operations
• Using Enterprise Software to Achieve a Competitive Advantage

With Sage X3, an ERP tailored for food manufacturing companies, you can gain transparency in all of your business operations.  It can help you collect, store, manage, and act on your operational data for improved transparency. Transparency tools include recipe and formula management, shelf-life management with expiration date control, GMOs and origin labeling, traceability into recalls, expiration management, sustainability, and allergen-free production. Sage X3 is a robust and adaptable technology platform with industry-leading mobile options.

With built-in best practices, Sage X3 will help you to:

Improve operations. Sage X3 can give you a full view of your operations. The enterprise software will help you make decisions with real-time insight into your production processes to ensure consistent product handling and tight quality control. With Sage X3, you will reduce food wastage and increase efficiency.

Manage goods with detailed tracing and tracking. An ERP system that is made for food processing offers the level of traceability needed by this industry. Sage X3 has sophisticated tracking and tracing capabilities built in.

• Continuously monitor best-before and expiration dates to optimize the flow of raw materials, WIP, and finished goods items.
• Automatically trace ingredients from receiving through batch production and across every product manufactured.
• Track products through all the process stages and quality checks until it is delivered to the customer.
• Expand lot tracking to include WIP and finished goods on an item by item basis. Pinpoint lots in minutes from procurement through manufacturing and sales.

Proactively address safety issues. You will always be ready for a food safety inspection or a recall with Sage X3. The ERP’s software easily provides the essential documentation to demonstrate adherence to food safety management, production control, quality assurance, record keeping, and transparency. The product’s strict controls reduce the potential for product cross-contamination of product and has allergen warning information readily available for label printing with automated tracking.

Accurately forecast demand. Sage X3 powerful business intelligence will produce more accurate forecasts to control costs and build on revenue opportunities. Food companies deal with volatile supply and demand. Weather affects crops and transportation or new trends appear and, suddenly, you have too much or too little stock. Good business intelligence can help you predict changes in supply and demand so you can keep your inventory at their optimum levels.

In addition to offering enterprise software that is specific to the food manufacturing industry, IWI Consulting Group has the expertise you need to implement technology and support your business. We understand your unique needs for transparency, traceability, and food safety. Contact us if you would like to transform your business to be more transparent.

In the past few weeks, we’ve discussed the need to establish transparency in the food manufacturing business. While implementing the technology needed to achieve transparency may require investment, there is also a significant marketing advantage that can improve your return on investment; enterprise software.

Consumers are increasingly putting great importance on the origin of their food as well as the methods used to grow and process it. They are motivated by health, safety, and environmental concerns and expect to receive information about food including contents and production practices. As a result, the food processing industry is under increased public scrutiny resulting in a need to provide transparency, traceability, and food safety.

How can food manufacturing transparency provide a competitive advantage?

Whether you sell directly to the consumer or to distributors, transparency can grow your revenue and enterprise software is necessary to provide this transparency. Putting a marketing focus on transparency will let customers know that you are dedicated to transparency in your operations and processes, providing you with a major competitive advantage over companies who only do the minimum required.

Transparency indicates accountability. Customers want their food manufacturer to take accountability for their product rather than hiding problems when they occur. Being transparent puts a “face” on your business rather than an operational “black hole”. Transparency nurtures a certain level of responsibility on the part of the company and gives customers a better idea of where their money is going.

Transparency builds trust. Transparency can help build trust in your brand, making you stand out from the competition and increasing customer loyalty. Because consumers are a large driver of the need for transparency in food manufacturing, companies that deliver on transparency may increase customer perceptions of their product, improving brand equity and product revenue.

Transparency increases customer engagement. Customers typically consider many factors before selecting your product. Some of those are obvious—price, quality, service—while others are less tangible—perceived value and trust in a particular brand. While it may be easy for a competitor to match your price, once you have established trust with your customer or consumer, you will have a significant advantage. Customers will come back again and again because they know what to expect from you.

Transparency reduces the effects of unforeseen problems. When you are using your operational data wisely, you mitigate brand-damaging problems like recalls as you avoid spoilage and eliminate cross-contamination of allergens or contaminants.

Transparency increases your customer focus. When you share data with your customers, you are improving your ability to meet their needs. By extending metrics programs and performance reviews to your distributors, you are forced to be more focused on your customer. Having a customer focus can improve your operations and increase sales.

Are there any risks to transparency?

When you implement transparency using enterprise software, your operations information is more easily available to everyone; not just your customers. Your competitors may try to copy you, but without a dedication to transparency, they cannot be as successful. Also, once you have established trust with your customer, they are more likely to remain loyal to your brand.

Having transparent operations means that you will be under more scrutiny by consumers. This means that it is important that your operations are safe and reliable. In fact, you shouldn’t tout your transparency when it is more important to make your product better first.

Enterprise software improves transparency to the customer

Enterprise software like Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3) is necessary to implement a transparency program. Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3) can help you be more transparent with your customers by allowing you to:

• Track properties and nutritional content by product
• Include formulas or recipes in quotes to customers
• Manage samples for prospects and customers
• Create Certificates of Analysis by lot and send them with the shipment or sample
• Track lots across the product lifecycle—all the way through sales.
• Use business intelligence to better predict demand
• Be better prepared for a recall
• Get real-time visibility of consumer preferences
• Customize your product to meet the unique needs of your distributors

IWI Consulting Group can help you implement transparency in your food manufacturing business with our enterprise software, Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3). Contact us to get started.

Do you have windows into your food manufacturing facility? No, we don’t mean actual windows, but virtual windows that see through the manufacturing process. These windows provide operations transparency—visibility and access to information that is needed for collaboration, decision-making, and compliance reporting.

Food manufacturers are often on the forefront of manufacturing transparency trends because food products can have a major impact on consumer health and safety. Consumers and regulators are concerned about food safety and are driving the need for transparency across all operations. Even so, according to a 2014 Smart Manufacturing Technologies survey, 40% of manufacturers have no visibility into the real-time status of their company’s manufacturing processes.

Transparency is vital in food manufacturing.

By establishing a window into your manufacturing operations, you are better able to comply with regulations, provide rapid response to customers or food safety issues, customize products, and improve operational performance.  The good news is that manufacturing technology exists to create that window. Technology can automate your processes, gather data about your products and operations, analyze data, and communicate the data in a meaningful way.

What does transparency look like in food manufacturing?

When your food manufacturing operations are transparent, these things must be present:

• Real-time operational data is collected that is granular and precise.
• Using real-time data, systems sense, detect and react to operational or safety issues.
• Data collection formats are standardized. You cannot achieve the standardization we discussed in our previous blog, 5-Steps to Achieve Food Manufacturing Supply Chain Visibility, unless you have standardized data collection on the plant floor. You will need to adopt universal standards for barcoding and data exchange.
• Production processes are standardized and automated. By reducing complexity and streamlining production, your processes become more transparent and make your products more easily traced.
• Fully automated lot traceability with tracking down to the ingredient level. Ingredients, lots, materials, processes, suppliers, and test results are tracked and easily accessible. Expiration dates, allergen information, and other food safety issues are closely managed and readily available.
• Emerging technologies are leveraged to reduce costs, improve flexibility and maintain safety. Manufacturing and computer technology are changing rapidly. These changes, such as mobility, offer significant competitive advantages and improve the ability to be transparent.
• Integrated systems are used to achieve visibility of operations. Without integration, companies have disparate data sources, lack of cohesiveness across business units and product lines, error-prone data, and inefficiencies. When your operations are integrated with your enterprise software, you gain significant improvements in transparency and better cross-functional collaboration.
• Compliance is automated so companies can easily provide the essential documentation to demonstrate adherence to food safety management, production controls, quality assurance, record keeping and transparency.
• Manufacturing and business intelligence are used to ensure consistent product handling and tight quality control.
• Metrics are aligned with strategy. If food safety is a number one priority, then there should be a way to measure it.
• Metrics are customer-focused. Real-time data from operations are combined with customer-focused metrics to create proactive performance evaluation.
• Performance issues are anticipated before they occur and corrective actions are taken in time to minimize impact. In order to be proactive, you need to be collecting, analyzing, and communicating operational data in real time.
• Continuous improvement programs are in place. Metrics across production lines, plants, and products are compared to make operational improvements.

IWI Consulting Group has helped food manufacturers improve their operations by providing enterprise systems that can increase transparency. We can help you identify the steps you need to take to build a window into your food manufacturing business. We can provide customized assessments that evaluate your operations and recommend the best enterprise software systems for your business. Contact us to get your Business Assessment started and take the next step toward transparency.

Increasing visibility is a critical strategy for all manufacturers, but even more so for those in food manufacturing. In our last blog, How to Improve Transparency in Food Manufacturing, we discussed the importance of transparency to food manufacturers. A vital component of transparency is supply chain visibility.

Supply chain visibility means that you are able to collect and respond to information from your suppliers regardless of size or geographic location. This information includes specific data related to product orders, physical shipments, invoices, and the status of events and milestones. When done well, you will have a tight synchronization of supply and demand as well as the ability to orchestrate the flow of product, information, and funds.

Visibility provides many benefits in addition to transparency. Supply chain visibility can help reduce costs and improve company performance by increasing your company’s agility and responsiveness. In order to establish supply chain visibility and see these key benefits, you will need to follow these steps.

An Action Plan for Supply Chain Visibility in Food Manufacturing

Establish communication: In order to gather information from your suppliers and transporters, you will need to share and adopt universal standards for barcoding and data exchange. GS1 standards will give you a common language to identify, capture, and share supply chain data at all levels—order, shipment, container pallet, and unit. You should have visibility wherever your inputs are located whether on the truck, on a ship, or on a loading dock.

Build relationships: Supply chain visibility is built on sharing information and trusting your partners with that information. It is important to set jointly held, concise and measurable benchmarks, and expectations across all levels of the organizations.

Know your customers: Be sure the decisions you make and the partners you work with understand the impact on all parties involved. Losing site of customer or distributor requirements could be a fatal flaw in your supply chain plans.

Invest in technology: All of the data in the world is not useful, unless you can act on it.  You must invest in the technology infrastructure and resources to gather information and respond to changing environments. Seamless, integrated, and efficient order-to-fulfillment processes between suppliers and operations will result in faster turn-around times, better compliance, and improved customer service.

Data collection technology, such as barcode scanning, should be implemented to track at the ingredient or item level. By adopting universal standards, you will be able to control and monitor item, shipment, and pallet flows.

Enterprise software can help you to exchange, manage, and analyze data in real-time. Integrated business software will enable the flow of data among all departments, as well as to your suppliers and distributors, providing the visibility you need for true transparency.

Identify cost savings and business process improvements: Visibility will help you optimize processes, reduce inefficiencies, and drive out costs. Using a business intelligence application, integrated with your enterprise software, will allow you to take advantage of data visibility by making better decisions to improve your business.

Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3): Enterprise software made for food manufacturing

Enterprise software is a key component in establishing supply chain visibility. With Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3), an ERP made for food manufacturing companies, you can gain visibility into all of your business operations.  It can help you collect, store, manage and act on the data that you receive from you suppliers and better manage the entire supply chain for improved transparency.

Transparency is a critical requirement in the food manufacturing business. With Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3), you can streamline tracking and provide information visibility to all who need it.

IWI Consulting Group has experience in implementing enterprise software and systems in food processing companies. We understand your unique needs for transparency, traceability and food safety. Contact us if you would like to transform your business to be more transparent.

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Do you know what transparency means in the food manufacturing industry? Do you know why it is so important? Do you know how to improve transparency in your processes? If not, read on to learn why transparency is so critical and how you can achieve it.

Transparency is vital in the food manufacturing industry in order to streamline compliance and improve consumer relations. Transparency is needed through all of the stages of food manufacturing including origin, supply, production, processing, and distribution. Successful transparency requires the right technology to streamline tracking and provide information visibility to all who need it.

What is transparency in food manufacturing?

Transparency in the food manufacturing industry involves openly providing information about how food is produced. Both regulators and consumers are looking for information ranging from ingredient origin to the specific processing methods employed by the food manufacturer. Transparency has been a hot topic for food manufacturers for some time. According to Innova Market Insights, transparency is the number two topic on the top-ten list of food trends right after “improving consumer trust”. While many elements of transparency are already practiced and mandated in forms like nutritional labeling and truth-in-advertising statutes, there are many more practices that are needed.

Why is transparency important in food manufacturing?

The need for transparency in food manufacturing is driven by both regulators and consumers. Regulators on local, national, and international levels are requiring more transparency from food companies. The Safe Food for Canadians Act (SCFA) requires increased levels of food tracking through all stages of production, processing, and distribution. It further aligns the Canadian food safety system to meet import requirements of the recent Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in the United States. The FSMA greatly expands the power of regulators to require transparency from food manufacturers and importers including detailed record sharing, stricter supply verification, and product tracking farther along the supply chain.

Additional pressure for transparency comes from consumers who desire more information about food including contents, origin and production practices. Over 90% of consumers strongly support labeling foods with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and 65% want to know more about where their food comes from. Consumers are increasingly concerned about the impact of agricultural and processing practices on the environment. These concerns have led to the rising popularity of organic, grass-fed, carbon footprint, buying local and recyclable packaging. This increased consumer and regulatory scrutiny has resulted in the need for food manufacturers to provide greater transparency, traceability and food safety.

Where is food manufacturing transparency needed?

1. Supply chain: The first step in establishing transparency is through the supply chain. Moving toward complete supply chain visibility and transparency is inevitable.
2. Manufacturing: You must have visibility within your own operations as well. You will need detailed information about everything you do and make that available to regulators, consumers, and your food safety personnel.
3. Marketing: A successful transparency campaign can improve consumer satisfaction and result in increased revenues. It can help you eliminate brand-damaging problems like recalls by helping you avoid spoilage and prevent cross-contamination.

We will discuss each of these areas—what is needed and how to achieve it—in more detail in future blogs.

How can you achieve transparency in food manufacturing?

Successful transparency in food manufacturing requires the right technology that can track your food product from the supplier, through manufacturing, and to the consumer. IWI Consulting Group offers enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for food manufacturers. Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3) will allow you to achieve transparency in your food manufacturing business by streamlining tracking and making all of your information accessible to those who need it. With Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3), you will have real-time visibility of consumer preferences, easier ways to comply with government regulations and packaging requirements, and the ability to meet the unique needs of your distributors.

For more information on achieving transparency, Contact us for help in establishing transparency with Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3) in your food manufacturing business.

Companies need to constantly measure key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure that they are achieving their operational and financial goals. Over the last few weeks, we have discussed how best-in-class organizations use enterprise software to become more profitable. One of those best-practices is that these companies can measure their performance and understand how their actions help them to reach business goals.  In fact, best-in-class distributors and wholesalers are twice as likely as their peers to use KPIs to track their business success.

In our first blog on this subject, (See How Do Your Business Systems Compare to Best-in-Class?), we showed that best-in-class companies have better inventory accuracy, timeliness and profit margins than their peers. These organizations understand the importance of monitoring their performance so that they can act to improve their operations using enterprise software. Best-in-class wholesalers and distributors are twice as likely to have a centralized repository for metrics and KPIs. They also provide instant access to the KPIs with a user interface that is tailored to the employee’s needs.

Top-performing companies use business intelligence integrated with their enterprise software to provide real-time insight into key processes and data. ERP systems like Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3) and Sage 300cloud (formerly known as Sage 300) provide tools for analyzing, fine-tuning and improving business processes. Insight into business information and data is a high priority, but this is not the only value of business intelligence. Let’s look at four benefits of business intelligence integrated with your business systems.

Increased access to business information with enterprise software

Enterprise software can provide you with a clear understanding of the transactional history in your database so you can forecast and plan for your business’ future. The amount of data and business information that needs to be processed grows on a daily basis, and companies have no way of keeping up. With limited time and resources to sift through and analyze data, many companies miss out on key opportunities they could have gleaned from their business information and data.

With integrated business intelligence, you can:

• Generate reports automatically from real-time data in your company’s databases, improving your visibility and allowing you to see what goes on in your company at any given minute of the day.
• Drill down within your reports to quickly examine the underlying data to certain metrics and take corrective measures, if necessary.
• View dashboard reports to understand the current state of your company’s goals. These dashboards will display current metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) in graphs so trends are instantly visible.
• Run standard reports and customize these according to your requirements or create your own reports.
• Customize reports to combine information from a variety of sources (including your ERP, CRM and HR software solutions).

Time savings and increased productivity

Business intelligence can help automate the reporting process so your employees can focus their attention elsewhere. Using enterprise software, reports can be created using real-time information at the click of a button, and data is delivered in pre-formatted spreadsheets and dashboards so executives can drill-down into transaction details.

Users can also automate a variety of management reports so business executives get real-time, accurate, and well-presented reports to assist with their decision-making. This eliminates the need to sift through massive amounts of data and information to get a simple answer. By automating and streamlining the reporting process with your enterprise software, executives can get the answers they need to make effective decisions for the business. By providing real-time reports on demand, business intelligence increases productivity, saves time, and allows companies to using the data and information in their system more effectively.

Improved decision-making 

As we mentioned above, business intelligence can positively impact business managers’ ability to make effective decisions for the company. With real-time information at your fingertips using enterprise software, you can see business trends and make estimates based on facts. Business intelligence also encourages collaboration across the business, giving more people access to the information they need to make better decisions, faster. This insight increases productivity and creates a more proactive environment across the business so you can take advantage of opportunities early on.

Immediate return on investment (ROI) 

By investing in business intelligence and enterprise software, your business can increase its visibility, improve operational efficiencies, streamlines processes, and increase productivity. All of this combined will give you a rapid ROI and help you realize your strategic vision.

If you would like to implement enterprise intelligence and measurement into your business practices using enterprise software, give us a call today.

Our small and dedicated team specializes in helping small-to-medium size Canadian businesses and non-profits select and adapt Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Human Resource Management (HRMS), and IT services. With IWI’s 15 years in business and 100 plus years of combined experience, IWI has helped hundreds of food manufacturing, distribution, and financial service companies gain efficiency, grow, and lower their operating costs.

With the unique combination of industry knowledge and diverse technology expertise, IWI provides cost-effective solutions to help clients gain a competitive edge.  As a Sage business partner servicing the Greater Toronto Area, we support evaluation and implementation of operations and finance systems to optimize technology, ensuring high return on investment with a quick and painless transition to new software.

Mobile technology integrated with your enterprise software promotes business agility. With mobile access, wholesale and distribution employees can react quickly to market or process changes. According to Aberdeen’s 2014 ERP Benchmark survey, best-in-class wholesalers and distributors are twice as likely to enable mobile access to their enterprise software. Not only have 56% of these organizations implemented triggers and alerts in order to help them make immediate decisions, but 76% have data entry at the point of activity. Improved business agility enables companies to drive down costs and increase revenue.

Mobile devices like radio frequency hand-held devices and barcode scanners have been used successfully in inventory management for some time to provide real-time information and product tracking. However, there is great opportunity in supply chain management to conduct business processes with mobile technology as well. Mobile devices and enterprise software like Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3) or Sage 300cloud (formerly known as Sage 300) can be used across the entire supply chain from the front to the back of the warehouse.

• Receiving: Capture inventory data from the point that it arrives in the dock. Using barcode technology, incoming shipments can be automatically verified against purchase orders and instructions sent to an employee’s mobile device
• Storage: Put-away is expedited by the system providing the best path to the right storage location or outbound location. Maintain visibility without the use of a paper trail
• Inventory Control: Replenishment is facilitated by hand-held mobile devices and barcode technology. Requests can be handled in seconds and workers directed to the right location by the quickest route
• Order Fulfillment: Picking operations are made more efficient with accurate order and storage information
• Packaging: Packaging operations can be automatic with error-free order validation
• Shipping: Shipments can be scanned, verified and staged for the proper truck

Using mobile technology with enterprise software, like Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3) or Sage 300cloud (formerly known as Sage 300), provides many benefits by automating and integrating processes to keep your entire company aligned and running smoothly.

• A mobile ERP will save costs and improve efficiency. Mobile data collection sends real-time data into your ERP system, eliminating manual entry and reporting errors. Better data mean better inventory management and efficiency which in turn leads to lower costs and higher profitability
• Using mobile technology will result in improved performance and greater customer satisfaction. When you update and change information as it happens, replacing manually-intensive inventory processes, you can create value-added services and a seamless consumer buying experience.

Of course, there are challenges in implementing mobile technology to increase efficiencies in warehousing and distribution.

• Devices may not be made for the abuse of a warehouse environment. In some cases, more rugged devices will be needed. Careful selection and research need to go into choosing the right technology for each process. Next-generation tablets and smartphones offer a number of advantages especially in cost, integration with other business systems, and the ability to visually communicate information
• Technology costs can be inhibitors for small to mid-sized companies. However, in many cases, personal mobile devices offer a cheaper solution to RFID devices or other rugged devices, especially in remote locations. Web-based software models can also offer cost-savings
• Mobile technology requires a cultural shift. With a mobile ERP, managers can move out of their offices and onto the warehouse floor. They can roam the aisles with their devices and have access to information for real-time decision-making. As employees become more comfortable with technology in their personal lives, they will be able to make the shift

As you can see, mobile technology will continue to impact warehousing and distribution as technology changes and becomes more inexpensive. For more information on how to implement mobile technology with enterprise software like Sage 300cloud (formerly known as Sage 300) or Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3), contact us.

Our small and dedicated team specializes in helping small-to-medium size Canadian businesses and non-profits select and adapt Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Human Resource Management (HRMS), and IT services. With IWI’s 15 years in business and 100 plus years of combined experience, IWI has helped hundreds of food manufacturing, distribution, and financial service companies gain efficiency, grow, and lower their operating costs.

With the unique combination of industry knowledge and diverse technology expertise, IWI provides cost-effective solutions to help clients gain a competitive edge.  As a Sage business partner servicing the Greater Toronto Area, we support evaluation and implementation of operations and finance systems to optimize technology, ensuring high return on investment with a quick and painless transition to new software.

One characteristic that best-in-class wholesalers and distributors have in common is that they use integrated enterprise software to run their entire business. In fact, 81% of these high-achieving companies have integrated business systems. They are almost four times more likely than other companies to have cross-functional collaboration within their organization. Best-in-class organizations have moved their warehousing operations from behind the scenes, and have turned it into a strategic process that integrates sales, marketing, product development, and service.

Business systems integration is critical to enable your company to move toward optimal performance. Cross-functional collaboration is best facilitated by integrated enterprise software because standalone systems impose informational and operational silos. Departments cannot be integrated unless your business software talks to each other. Installing the most comprehensive system in each area that doesn’t communicate isn’t much better than no system at all. For operations, this means that your inventory systems must be united with your ERP. Operations, sales, service, and accounting software should all be integrated, sharing the same database in real time. When all functions input data and have access to the ERP database, everyone can work together within the enterprise software system. An integrated system gives the customer a better experience in addition to improving efficiency, productivity, and profitability.

Business Systems Integration Improves Operational Effectiveness

Let’s see how enterprise software integration works in each functional area:

Sales: Customer relationship management tools like Sage CRM can deliver a more personalized customer experience. Using Sage CRM, you can give your sales professionals access to critical customer and inventory data. Using a mobile sales application like Sage Mobile Service, the sales team can complete orders in the field, enter important customer information into your Sage enterprise software, and capture payments seamlessly. The data are transferred instantly to the ERP, providing the other departments with the customer and sales information they need.

Marketing: Using ERP system sales and operational data, marketing can analyze trends and performance of products allowing them to adapt quickly to changes in customer requirements.

Finance: Accurate and timely information is key to giving finance and accounting the tools they need to evaluate costs, follow cash flow, and manage assets. Sage accounting software seamlessly integrates with other departments so that data is only entered once.

Warehousing: Inventory business systems are important pieces of operational excellence. Process automation enables operations to be accurate and efficient. When systems are still paper, inventory counts in the ERP are not updated until the data is keyed into the system, meaning that individuals accessing the system have an inaccurate reflection of quantities. Inaccurate data result in shipping errors, broken promises to customers, lost sales, and poor inventory levels. Clearly, these problems have a negative effect on the company bottom line.

Manufacturing: No matter what product your manufacturing business produces, enterprise software helps you keep your competitive edge by establishing a lean manufacturing process that responds to client demands, streamlines processes to reduce waste, and provides timely data and analysis that help make smarter decisions that impact revenue.

Field Service: Field service personnel need access to real-time information on the ERP. IWI’s mobile field service application, Sage Mobile Service, gives field service reps the ability to schedule work, view completed orders, invoice, and analyze from a web portal. Mobile field services capabilities integrated with your business systems should be a vital part of your field service strategy. These solutions can improve your service technician’s productivity, increase efficiency, and boost customer satisfaction.

Integrated Enterprise Software Enable Cross-Functional Collaboration

IWI has recognized the importance of cross-functional collaboration by offering full-featured enterprise software including Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3) and Sage 300cloud (formerly known as Sage 300) to improve the efficiency of your operations. If you would like to evaluate ways to improve your cross-functional collaboration, contact us today.

Our small and dedicated team specializes in helping small-to-medium size Canadian businesses and non-profits select and adapt Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Human Resource Management (HRMS), and IT services. With IWI’s 15 years in business and 100 plus years of combined experience, IWI has helped hundreds of food manufacturing, distribution, and financial service companies gain efficiency, grow, and lower their operating costs.

With the unique combination of industry knowledge and diverse technology expertise, IWI provides cost-effective solutions to help clients gain a competitive edge.  As a Sage business partner servicing the Greater Toronto Area, we support evaluation and implementation of operations and finance systems to optimize technology, ensuring high return on investment with a quick and painless transition to new software.