The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is increasing regulations and restrictions for food manufacturing companies. Failure to comply with the regulations brings with it the threat of mandatory recalls, enhanced inspections, severe penalties, and more. Visit here for more information about the FSMA, its purpose, the implications and impact, and how regulations can be met.

In addition to understanding the act itself and what it is intended to achieve, it is also important to have a good understanding of the timelines and deadlines associated with it. These carry significant importance for food manufacturing businesses and are required to be met.

The History of the Food Safety Modernization Act

The FSMA was originally signed and put into place in January of 2011. Like most laws and regulations, it takes time to implement the laws contained within it. This is certainly true for the FSMA, and implementation is still in process. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gradually releases new regulations following processes that allow for public and industry input. The FDA’s role has expanded significantly since with the new act, but they have only been able to gradually increase their resources which lengthens the implementation timeframes. In 2012, the registration system was implemented. On the contrary, product-tracing required by the new laws was still not finalized in 2014. In 2014, a large number of the act’s statues were approved, but they have yet to be regulated by the FDA and are therefore not yet implemented.

The Current Reality of where the FSMA Stands Today

Of the many facets included in the act, the FDA’s increased inspection schedule has still not been rolled out. This inspection schedule is an important part of the process, but there is still a need for the FDA to have budget increases in order to support this schedule. Food manufacturing companies are not yet subject to these enhanced inspections, but they will be once the funds are greatly increased over the next few years to support them.

The Future Outlook of the FSMA Deadlines

According to the schedule, all rules should be finalized within the FSMA in the beginning of 2016. This will be followed, one to four years later, by compliance deadlines. In essence, the FSMA rules and regulations should all be implemented by 2020. This is a final deadline with the hope being to have these in place even sooner. It is important to note that the size of your company matters in terms of when you must be within compliance. As a general rule, it is the case that the larger the company, the shorter the timeframe for compliance. This is likely due to their increased budget and likelihood of already having food manufacturing software in place to help them follow and uphold rules. The rules involved cover preventive control human food, produce safety, food defense, sanitary transport, third-party accreditation, and more.

In order to meet deadlines and abide by regulations, your business will likely need food manufacturing software to get the job done. This should include enterprise resource planning (ERP) for food manufacturers such as Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3). This is just one such food manufacturing software that can help in meeting regulations by supporting tracking, accounting, and record keeping.

ERP for food manufacturers can be of significant help in meeting deadlines and ensuring regulations are upheld.

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 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.

Did you know that major new food safety legislation is reshaping the entire food industry? If you are in the food manufacturing industry, you will need to be prepared. Do you understand what the Food Safety Modernization Act is and what it is all about? Let’s take a closer look to find out more information about the act and answer some important questions about it.

Understanding the Food Safety Modernization Act

Following the largest threat to safety and security that the United States has ever seen on September 11^th, safety and security are more of a major priority than ever before. This includes the importance of food security. In response, a registration system was created for food companies that also included the implementation of controls intended to improve the safety of the food system. A decade later, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was created. It further expanded the previous regulations and is the most expansive shift in food manufacturing regulations that has been seen in a long time. By expanding the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) power and position, the FSMA also expands the burden felt by the food and beverage industry who are responsible to uphold the regulations.

What purpose does the FSMA serve?

You’ve likely heard the expression, “It is better to ask for forgiveness than permission.” The FSMA’s intention is to reverse this thinking and shift the role of food safety from reaction to prevention. Instead of responding to outbreaks that are caused by foodborne diseases, the purpose of the act is to prevent outbreaks from happening in the first place. From farm to table, the FDA now has much greater power and authority over the entire food system thanks to the new act’s extension of its power. Not only is the FDA now able to have much greater enforcement compliance power, but the overall burden of compliance has increased substantially. This enforcement compliance granted to the FDA encompasses mandatory recall authority, greater access to records, expanded inspections, and a control and documentation program that is mandatory.

What is the impact FSMA has and will continue to have?

As a food and beverage manufacturer and distributor, this has significant implications. The burden has significantly increased to be able to prove your entire operations are properly run to ensure food safety, and this necessitates using food industry software. Safety of food will need to be proved prior to going to market instead of only being necessary after a safety violation has occurred. There is a financial investment piece to this as well because of the required expansion of testing, auditing, and documenting that will need to be instated within the company as well. This requires an investment in food industry software. If compliance regulations are not met, there is significant threat of mandatory recalls, enhanced inspections, severe penalties, and potential for federal or other regulator lawsuits.

What can assist in meeting the regulations?

An enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, such as Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3), offers great assistance in meeting all of these FSMA regulations by automating processes. This food industry ERP software has the potential to relieve the burden of the requirements and help reduce the chance of negative consequences. For more information on food industry ERP software that will suit your food manufacturing needs, contact us.

Although there are many regulations to meet in the food manufacturing world, it is possible with the assistance of food industry ERP software that helps to get the job done.

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 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.

Over the past month, we have taken a closer look at Customer Relationship Management (CRM). CRM software achieves important business objectives and offers many benefits for companies throughout Toronto and Canada, but these are only achieved when they eliminate the challenges. These challenges are based on different departments using different applications, ERP and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software solutions that don’t integrate, and disruptions to the business cycle. Three fundamentals of integration are needed in order to maximize the capabilities of integrating Sage CRM and Sage ERP to integrate front- and back-offices within a business. To learn more about these CRM and ERP capabilities, visit here. Let’s take a look at a summary and comprehensive view of all that goes into implementing and using a CRM software solution successfully even amidst challenges to achieve business goals.

• CRM Integration with ERP across a Business Necessary to Combat Challenges

Front-to-back-office integration can help companies to dramatically reduce administrative cost, speed up order fulfillment, and improve customer service. The problem is that without integration and with limited visibility of what is occurring in other parts of the business cycle or office, information may have to be passed back and forth instead of moving forward. This leads to order completion delays, increased administrative costs, and unnecessary workload duplications.

Undertaking point-to-point, retrospective integration can be a costly, complex, and risky proposition. The availability of CRM solutions with out-of-the-box, easy-to-deploy product integrations to market-leading ERP solutions, therefore, represents a highly compelling proposition for companies wanting to leverage the benefits of front-to-back-office integration cost efficiently.

• Customer Satisfaction Critical for Profitability

A unified and complete view of the customer is more than useful. Integrating key data can improve the customer experience and have a significant impact on profitability. Providing account managers with a comprehensive look at customer data, being able to give customers the right information at the right time, and streamlining the ordering process are all factors that contribute to a positive customer experience.

• What this all Means for a Business

Customer information gaps still exist after implementing CRM because offices throughout the company are not sufficiently connected, and this issue must be addressed. A business needs the necessary CRM and ERP software solutions so they can integrate and share data effectively instead of being plagued by errors, delays, and paperwork that result in customer dissatisfaction and large costs. A CRM project should be inter-operational instead of focusing solely on the front office. An overall integration harnesses business processes, applications, and data to manage customer relationships effectively while reducing costs and increasing profitability and sustainability over the long term.

Sage CRM achieves the objectives your company is looking for in terms of integration and offers the benefits needed to make CRM effective and helpful to the business and employees overall. Learn more about Sage CRM by visiting here.

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 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.

Many food and beverage manufacturers are getting ready to turn up the volume of production in order to satisfy growing customer demands. However, keeping tabs on high-volume SKUs, customized packaging specifications, and direct-store versus vendor-managed inventory can quickly get confusing. Deploy Sage® ERP and you can track products, customer needs, and be prepared for safety issues with efficiency and accuracy.

The food and beverage industry is already fast-paced and when you have a seasonal increase in demand or a hot new product is flying off the shelves, you need to be able to respond quickly. Manual processes, including data-entry and analysis, can create delays and lead to mistakes which can hinder your ability to respond to customer demands. You need the time-saving automation that can be found in more powerful business management solutions like Sage ERP.

You can manage all of your business operations from Sage ERP including financials, supply chain and inventory, manufacturing and distribution operations, and other core business processes. You and your team can enter and access information much faster with a single, centralized solution rather than multiple, disparate specialty software programs. As a result, you can access real-time data about your activities, such as inventory or sales data, and use this information to make strategic business decisions. You can save money by not overstocking inventory that can expire on the shelves, for example, or monitor consumption patterns to better position procurement and manufacturing operations to meet forecasted demands.

Sage ERP offers the flexibility to monitor both low-volume and high-volume SKUs, direct-store delivery and vendor-managed inventory, and you can align packaging requirements by product and customer destination. Electronic data interchange (EDI) methods can be used to tag pallets to food service standards. Lot traceability through each level of materials and suppliers can improve compliance and support your ability to initiate a recall if needed. These types of automated data collection processes make it more efficient when managing the increasing volume of critical information that your business generates and that you and your team need to use when making business decisions.

In order to keep up with increasing customer demand, you need the support of a robust business management solution. Contact IWI Consulting Group for more information about how Sage ERP can support your business as you pump up the volume of production.

In order to achieve success in integrating Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software with business processes to ensure that customer data is delivered to users of it across an entire enterprise, three fundamental elements need to be in place. To learn more about these fundamentals of integration, visit here.

Now that we know the fundamentals, let’s dive in to the capabilities achieved by Sage CRM when integrated with other Sage ERP products. If a business in the Greater Toronto Area or beyond has Sage ERP products, they can quickly and cost effectively leverage their data to both front- and back-office environments. Here are the capabilities of Sage CRM’s integration with Sage ERP that is directly linked to the three fundamentals of integration:

Front-to-Back Office Data Consistency

From its out-of-the-box state, Sage ERP can integrate with Sage CRM. This leads to bidirectional synchronization of customer information, both financial and nonfinancial, between the Sage ERP front office and back office environments. This ensures that information is captured once at the source and then automatically shared to all relevant fields throughout the Sage ERP environments without having to wait for it to be rekeyed and revalidated. This allows updated customer data to be available at all times. In addition, accurate pricing and inventory information are also available at all times.

Unified and Complete View of the Customer

Sage CRM enables employees to discover and share more meaningful customer insight by combining CRM and ERP information together. This provides an ERP-empowered CRM user experience with customer transaction information delivered through the native CRM user interface. It, in turn, also allows ERP-based customer data to be surfaced within dashboards, reports, and tabs, and used within groups, lists, and workflow automation. With true customer visibility, there are great benefits. This allows sales teams to maximize revenue potential through the identification of opportunities within the customer base. Sales representatives can book orders correctly the first time with correct account and pricing information available to them. Customer service representatives can address customer questions with confidence by having the data they need. Finally, marketing managers can calculate accurate return-on-investment based on actual revenue yield.

Facilitating “Straight-Through” Processing

The entire customer lifecycle is managed seamlessly across all interaction and transaction types with out-of-the-box integration between Sage CRM and Sage ERP. The quotes and orders functionality in Sage CRM bridges the process automation capabilities of Sage ERP. As a result, manual intervention is unnecessary with automatic order generation in the ERP system. Real-time inventory information ensures orders are fulfilled on a timely basis and meet expectations of customers. Delays and errors are eliminated because an order created in Sage CRM is automatically generated in the ERP system as well and is processed immediately.

Sage CRM is achieving integration. To understand all that encompasses this robust solution, visit here.

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 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.

Raw ingredients needed for food and beverage products can change hands several times between the farm and the consumer. Reliable data and speedy communication both up and down the supply chain are paramount when protecting the consumer and traceability is also a big part of the process. Streamline traceability within the food industry by implementing a strong enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.

Product safety initiatives are important when finished products leave a facility for stores and customer shelves, especially food and beverage products. Raw ingredients and food products can pass through several facilities before heading to the store and can be contaminated at any time leading to foodborne illnesses. When consumers become ill, businesses face unpopular attention which can erode trust and lead to loss of business and lawsuits in addition to costly recall procedures and fines or other penalties tied to the contamination. The transparency needed throughout the supply chain and the speed at which you need to respond to potential problems can’t be found in paper-based systems or aging systems. You need the power in an innovative ERP solution.

Today’s integrated ERP solutions offer a centralized location for all of your business data including financials, inventory and supply chain, manufacturing or distribution operations, and other core business processes. You can use real-time data to maintain visibility throughout your processes to protect your products and your customers. With the time-saving automation of lot traceability, you can track products by material, level, and suppliers and be confident that you can trace back faulty items during a recall if necessary. Data can also be used to show compliance with applicable rules and regulations, including track and trace records.

A robust ERP solution, such as Sage® ERP, can also support efforts to track direct store delivery and vendor-managed inventory, high-volume and low-volume items, and customized packaging needed for distributors. Sage ERP also supports electronic data interchange (EDI) for case or pallet tagging and radio frequency (RFID) and electronic product codes (EPC). Not only can you maintain closer attention to products that are coming and going from your facilities, you can use this data to further streamline operations, improving productivity and profitability.

Protect your customers and your business by gaining greater control and insight throughout your supply chain. Contact IWI Consulting Group to learn how Sage ERP can improve traceability and food safety.

Integrating, blending, and sharing customer information and data across departments and employees can be of fundamental importance and significance to companies wanting to make sure the business process flows with ease. The goal of front-to-back office integration is to bring disconnected business processes, applications, and data sets together. There are great benefits to achieving this objective, but there are also many challenges to achieving success in this. These challenges are based on different departments using different applications, ERP and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software solutions that don’t integrate, and disruptions to the business cycle. To discover these challenges in more detailed information, visit here.

If integration is achieved by connecting the disconnected processes, applications, and data sets within a business, this translates into effective management of customer relationships, lower costs, higher profits, and a sustainable, long term competitive advantage. Simply put, integration of CRM and other business facets is essential across offices. True integration is made up of three fundamentals. Let’s take a closer look at these elements of front-to-back office integration that are essential to saving costs and reducing potential errors for companies throughout Canada, including Toronto, and beyond.

Three Fundamentals of True Integration

1. Front-to-Back Office Data Consistency

Being able to share consistent data between CRM and ERP applications is essential to integration. This requires businesses to create dynamic links from entities within CRM systems to ERP systems so changes in either show up on the other system, too. Working with the same information across the board reduces or removes the need to reenter information and error potential.

2. Unified and Complete Customer View Regardless of Data Origination

Enabling employees who are the users of the CRM and other systems to view combined financial and nonfinancial customer information within a single application, regardless of where the information is being generated or stored, is so essential to true integration. This unification and complete view of customer data is useful for managers, in particular, who require access to a customer’s purchase history or for customer service representatives who need to update customers on information as it is requested. Blind spots in data are removed when employees have access to a complete view of the information.

3. Straight-through Processing

Straight-through processing enables users of data to initiate complex and multistage transactions which, in turn, automatically trigger the appropriate downstream business processes and pass seamlessly from one application to the next without the need for extensive manual intervention. This is done using workflow management and application integration. The benefit to this is the reduction or removal of the need to rekey information from one system to the next.

Sage CRM upholds these three integration fundamentals. For further information about Sage CRM, visit here.

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 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.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, when it successfully integrates across a business in Toronto, Canada or beyond, brings together customer data to achieve many benefits including integration, productivity, and streamlining. To learn more about the objectives meant to be achieve by CRM and it benefits, visit here.

In order to achieve the intended outcomes and benefits of CRM, a CRM system must be integrated throughout the company’s departments, other software systems, and cycles. This is the cause of many of the challenges for businesses when the integration doesn’t occur. Let’s take a closer look at these challenges:

Challenge #1: Different departments, different applications

It is often the case that different departments use different application types when managing the information they use about customers. In the front office, employees use CRM applications to support the activities that are customer-facing. These include sales, marketing, and customer service. In the back office, employees rely more on ERP applications that support activities that include invoicing, accounts receivable, cash flow management, and financial reporting. ERP software allows them to support transactional, reporting, and compliancy activities without them realizing the need for CRM data as well. Typically, the desire of the front office to integrate applications collaboratively, the back office typically uses more independent applications. The challenge is further complicated by the finance department that often is slow to release data and applications from its department to others.

Challenge #2: Separate CRM and ERP systems                          

Many businesses purchase separate CRM and ERP systems from specialized vendors and don’t even think about the need for these systems to integrate. Without integration, there are many struggles faced in addressing business process needs that cross over sectors of the front and the back office. These require extra steps, time, and often lead to more errors, too. These struggles result in departmental silos of information, unnecessary administrative overhead and inefficiencies, verbal sign-off requirements, and process duplication.

Challenge #3: Interruptions to Quote-to-Cash Cycle

Given the number of potential parties involved in the process of taking an initial quote all the way through to completing and being paid for a transaction, mistakes and omissions can be costly and time consuming regardless of when in the process they occur. The cycle spans across account management, sales order processing, shipping, and accounts receivable. Account managers and customer service representatives in the front office are also impacted. Errors in the cycle may cause them to struggle to provide the information customers are needing including order status updates and transactional information.

The good news is that Sage CRM and Sage ERP integrate with one another to solve these challenges and to introduce exceptions monitoring and mandatory fields that remove the need to recheck information. Learn more about out IWI Consulting’s CRM software offering: Sage CRM. It is an easy to use, fast to deploy, feature-rich CRM system providing enterprise-wide access to vital customer information—anytime, anywhere. With Sage CRM, you can better manage your business by integrating field sales, internal sales, customer care, and marketing information.

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 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.

Do you find that your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software does not adequately connect from your front office to your back office? If so, you are certainly not alone. It is becoming more and more clear that many CRM solutions are not adequately addressing the need for front-to-back office integration throughout businesses in Canada and beyond. Without proper and effective sharing functionality of customer data, processes within the business can be filled with errors and delays that also lead to extra paperwork and unnecessary challenges. With these errors and inefficiencies comes increased transactional costs and decreased customer satisfaction rates. Over the long haul, these can be exponentially harmful to business success.

If you are facing an issue with a lack of CRM software integration across the sectors of your Canadian business, there is hope. It is possible to have front-to-back office integration for companies of all shapes and sizes depending on the CRM software solution that is being used. Sage CRM, for example, allows all types of businesses to seamlessly connect their business processes, applications, and data while sharing it effectively and efficiently. This allows businesses to manage customer relationships more effectively, reduce costs, and increase profitability over the long term that is more cost effective and less complex than ever before. This should be good news for your business in the Greater Toronto Area and beyond.

Keeping the Objectives of CRM in Mind

Implementing and using CRM software is meant to bring together customer data from across the company. This is the primary goal and objective, and this translates into all staff having the access they need to meaningful information. This information, in turn, can be acted upon to develop and maintain profitable customer relationships. Keep in mind that any CRM implementation should result in enhancements to customer visibility that meet or even exceed the expectations and requirements the business has for customer data needs. The key is to find a way to integrate front office data with back office data and vice versa.

Benefits of CRM: How CRM Helps Business and Employees Overall

If the goal of bringing together customer data across the company is truly achieved, it will result in many benefits to the business. CRM helps businesses in a variety of ways. These benefits include:

• Productivity increases
• Employee empowerment when they have the right information at the right time
• Business process streamlining that also automates workflows throughout the business
• Cohesive information sharing across departments
• Integrated ERP and CRM information that gives customer-facing employees a complete view of customers

Sage CRM achieves the objectives your company is looking for and offers the benefits needed to make CRM effective and helpful to the business and employees overall. Learn more about Sage CRM by visiting here.

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 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.

Globalization is the talk of the time and the trend that will ultimately lead to success in a world that is ever expanding in its connectivity. Over the past month, we have looked at rewards and risks of globalizing your business and how enterprise resource planning (ERP) can help. We have also looked at factors needed in such a system. Last week, we started looking at just some of the requirements of an ERP software that lead to international success. These include being a system that is multilingual, that accounts for legal requirements, that is streamlined, that turns information into knowledge, and that is integrated. To learn more about these requirements, visit here. Now, let’s dive into some more important requirements that will lead your company in the Greater Toronto Area or throughout Canada to have success on an international level by exploring what functionality is necessary for mid-sized businesses in terms of their ERP solution.

Included CRM Software

With the need for transparent and visible customer communication, service, and support services on a global scale, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software within an ERP system is essential. This CRM software can automate customer processes and the professional management of all sales processes. Daily turnover estimates can also be possible with ongoing status updates of updated sales activities with CRM. Instead of a separate system, your ERP software should integrate information and processes related to this company division- customer relations- into its single software platform.

Automation

Powerful workflow engines and routines assist in defining business rules and in automating business processes. Managers need to be able to do this within the ERP system. Through this, it is possible to access pre-existing processes or modify them, as needed, on an individual basis. Managing processes efficiently and smoothly can help withstand international competition.

Ability to Grow

Globalization is intended to drive business growth. ERP software that is oriented to achieve international success for businesses must be designed to enable growth and give capabilities to do this step by step with functionalities activated as they are needed. This provides the individualized support needed to build and develop internationally. This same concept goes for user numbers as well and use across multiple site locations. These must be able to grow as the business grows.

Compatibility

The ERP system must remain flexible for the future. Functional and technological layers must be independent from one another, and the system must be compatible with a variety of different database and operating systems. Finally, it should be able to be implemented in both web and client server environments.

With vast amounts of features and functionality, IWI Consulting offers two ERP solutions that meet the requirements to be successful on a global scale as a business. To learn more about Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3), visit here. To learn more about Sage 300cloud (formerly known as Sage 300), visit here. 

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 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.