With Salesforce-Based ERP, You Can Easily Build a “Best of Breed” Enterprise System

With Salesforce-Based ERP, You Can Easily Build a “Best of Breed” Enterprise System

If, in creating your company’s new enterprise system, you decided that the deep and connected functionality you required in each of your core operational areas could not be met by a single platform, you are not alone. Because modern systems are built with open, flexible architectures, they have made it possible for enterprise buyers to pick the best application for every need, user and business case, including ERP. No longer do you have to sacrifice functionality for ease of integration. You can build what you’ve always wished, a best of breed system. With the rapid growth of the Salesforce ecosystem, more and more companies are considering independent software vendors’ cloud applications for that platform. This also applies to those companies looking for cloud-based ERP solutions. Many manufacturers and distributors that have their CRM and other software on that platform are now considering an ERP created just for them that is written on Salesforce. This means the company can leverage their investment in the Salesforce platform and integrate their manufacturing and/or ERP seamlessly with their other Salesforce cloud apps. But, such integration doesn’t stop at with the manufacturing/distribution ERP. IT management will want to continue to promote a “best of breed” […]

What Companies Say About Building a Salesforce-Based Best-of-Breed System

As many companies are looking to move their systems to the cloud, they also want cloud-based software that can be easily integrated with other apps. Third-party applications that share the same platform are easier to manage and integrate. They provide users with a consistent interface and experience. Salesforce has a huge lead over its competitors when it comes to ecosystem and platform maturity, as it clearly has the most applications, customers, revenue and advanced features, making it the clear market leader, says Gartner, the large research firm. The Salesforce Platform is the world’s most trusted and comprehensive cloud platform for building social and mobile cloud apps. It powers Salesforce CRM, more than 3 million custom apps built by customers and more than 2,000 apps developed by partners in its ecosystem. Because it is a 100 percent native Salesforce solution, Rootstock cloud ERP easily integrates with other, wholly separate apps built on the Salesforce platform, helping customers build a best of breed enterprise solution. Built entirely on the Salesforce Platform, Rootstock’s solution includes “out of the box” integration with the Salesforce Sales Cloud and Service Cloud; mobile accessibility and finance and accounting apps; plus Salesforce Communities, Salesforce Chatter and the Salesforce […]

4 Myths About Cloud ERP Software

Manufacturing firms have been moving to the cloud for their ERP software. Yet some myths about cloud ERP persist. Myth 1 – Cloud ERP is Too Costly We’ve heard this one many times before. But industry analysts disagree. Their studies conclude that cloud-based ERP software reduces infrastructure, maintenance and lifecycle costs by as much 54%, and save money and time by increasing real-time collaboration and reducing time to market. Cloud ERP lets firms spend less on IT. Over a three- to five-year period, consider the hardware, software, implementation, customization, training, support and maintenance costs required for on-premise ERP. These items simply do not exist or are easier to implement with cloud ERP, which doesn’t need large computers or onsite staff to maintain them. Myth 2 – Cloud ERP is Not Secure Another persistent myth about cloud ERP is that it’s not secure. When cloud solutions first appeared, sure, security was a major concern. But this is no longer true with the best cloud-based ERP systems of today. Security for these systems includes firewalls, two-factor authentication, advanced encryption, frequent security updates, and detection. Compare the cloud ERP security to legacy ERP security. The Aberdeen Group recently wrote in the article “Web […]

5 Steps to Evaluate a Cloud ERP Solution

Manufacturers have been moving to the cloud, looking for new and innovative ways to succeed in the global marketplace. But there are so many vendors offering cloud ERP software with seemingly similar features that is difficult to differentiate between them. The pressures of the business can cause an organization to rush into a solution without fully evaluating it, resulting in costly problems down the road. Manufacturers can make the right choice by following these important steps when evaluating cloud ERP solutions: 1. Gather Business Requirements Knowing your requirements is the most important step in the cloud ERP evaluation process. This step should not be rushed. Your organization has pain points – what are they? Your customers have changing needs – how have they and how will they change over the next several years? What functions does your business absolutely need that your current system cannot perform? During this step, management and IT should meet to identify your firm’s high-level goals, and then get opinions from all stakeholders, from vice presidents and managers to production workers and office staff. Once you have gathered all of your business requirements, it is helpful to rank them as must-haves or nice-to-haves. When you start […]

Post-Dreamforce Comments – “Get Ready for a Ride!”

We hope that your Dreamforce visit was as successful and meaningful as ours. Rootstock CEO Pat Garrehy came away with the following thoughts. It was a great Dreamforce! Within the past twelve months, the market has validated that Cloud ERP for Manufacturing and Distribution is the future and this Dreamforce, compared to prior ones, was just one more confirmation. This is much different than when we exhibited at Dreamforce in 2011 and 2012, when no one even thought about Cloud ERP on the Salesforce platform. While at Dreamforce, we had meetings with a number of large companies that had mild to sincere interest in Rootstock because they are considering Cloud solutions. Many of these big corporations are just getting themselves educated as to that which is out there. This is very much like 1992-94 when the small/medium businesses that could afford it had already purchased IBM, HP or DEC mini-computers with ERP software. Those without mini-computers started to go Client/Server with UNIX and Windows. The large companies on mainframes wanted to get off the mainframe and wanted to go with UNIX running Windows. They didn’t know when and who they were going to select but they knew they were going […]

Needed – A Close Relationship between Manufacturing and Distribution ERPs

If you’ve reviewed the September 9 (2016) feature of Manufacturing Business Technology, you probably saw the article with this heading by Rootstock CEO Pat Garrehy. More than once, an interviewer has asked Pat why Rootstock created both a manufacturing and a distribution version of their cloud ERP. Pat typically responds with a real world example. Consider a company that produces RFID readers. In its manufacturing process, it orders printed circuit boards from one vendor, LEDs from another vendor and plastic housing or steel housing from yet another vendor(s). The various RFID readers – some potted; some not, different colors, various read ranges – are then boxed, the boxes put into skids with shipping instructions applied and sent to the customer. This process is classic discrete manufacturing. For this function, the organization would select a manufacturing ERP. However, this company doesn’t make long range read solutions because that’s an entirely different technology and the numbers don’t result in a profit by setting up manufacturing for these units. Yet, the company needs such units to fill out its line so prospects can buy all ID readers from one manufacturer, no matter the read range. So, the company buys long range readers from […]

How to Sell New Cloud ERP Systems to CFOs

When hoping to move to a new manufacturing cloud ERP system, sooner or later, you will need to have a discussion with the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) or the person who acts as such for your company. The CFO’s job is not to join in on your enthusiasm over all the terrific benefits that you plan to achieve with your cloud-based ERP system. That’s not what CROs do. We need to understand that the CFO’s role, with us and everyone else, is to turn down many proposals to assure that the few most important can thrive. Thus, the CFO asks the right questions to provide the rest of the C-suite with the correct risk/reward insights so that they know when to approve a suggestion or not. Since there are only so many resources in an organization, the CFO needs to assure that they are allocated properly. What to Tell a CFO about Your Proposed ERP Manufacturing Software First of all, you need to explain that what you are now using to track the business no longer works. At any particular time, if someone asks you how much you have in inventory or if you are making money on that big […]

The Oracle-NetSuite Acquisition – Good for Cloud ERP, Not So Good for Manufacturers

And why Salesforce-Rootstock – Salesforce’s ecosystem is a better combination than Oracle-Netsuite! Oracle’s recent acquisition of NetSuite is great news for cloud ERP, but may not be such great news for manufacturers. The NetSuite acquisition validates cloud ERP and helps to cement the technology as business critical, but both NetSuite and Oracle have platforms that have never been integrated, and NetSuite’s ecosystem is small and offers a limited number of solutions. Even if they can be integrated, the two systems cannot come close to the large number of products that are natively integrated on the Salesforce ecosystem and can provide a true, end-to-end cloud solution. Oracle and NetSuite After years of ignoring the cloud, Oracle is finally trying to expand into cloud services with the expectation that the extra sales will cover lost sales in its core software business. With the acquisition of NetSuite, Oracle hopes to set up a new retail cloud-computing division to compete with other retail cloud platforms from Amazon, Google and Microsoft. NetSuite is a cloud ERP system for professional services, retailers, distribution and other industries. It boasts strong market leadership and aggressive marketing, spending almost $100 million in annual advertising, marketing and media. Combining NetSuite […]

Rootstock Announces ERP 101 Webinar Series

Rootstock Announces ERP 101 Webinar Series Turns the Complicated and Intricate Topics of Enterprise Resource Planning into Understandable Business English for Manufacturing Personnel SAN FRANCISCO – JULY 27, 2016 – Rootstock® (San Ramon, Calif.), the leading provider of manufacturing and supply chain cloud ERP applications for the Salesforce Force.com platform today announced that starting Tuesday, August 2, Rootstock will introduce a webinar series that unlocks the mysteries of ERP for all types of manufacturing business people from engineers to salespeople, project leaders, buyers and other company managers. Hosted by David Bush, a 30 year veteran of manufacturing and ERP/MRP systems experience, the sessions will cover everything from a basic understanding of what ERP is to understanding how ERP interacts with almost every aspect of the manufacturing process. “As ERP systems have become a must-have for today’s successful manufacturers, it becomes obvious that every contributor to the organization’s progress must have a basic understanding of the responsibilities and contributions of each inter-related department,” states Bush. “ERP is a comprehensive solution that touches every aspect of the business but that does not make it complex or difficult to explain. This webinar series will help all types of employees appreciate what different departments […]

Does Oracle Lead Salesforce in ERP?

by Pat Garrehy, CEO, Rootstock Software In Oracle’s June 16, 2016 earnings call1, Larry Ellison, Oracle Chairman and CEO states, “[Salesforce] don’t compete in the largest category, which is ERP, also not HCM, again supply chain and manufacturing again and we think that gives us a huge advantage that our footprint is wider.” In their 2016 Q1 earnings report, he states, “In some of our most important SaaS markets, such as ERP, HCM, Supply Chain and Manufacturing, Salesforce.com does not participate at all. By successfully competing in all of these markets, Oracle has the ability to sustain its high growth over a long period of time. That should make it easy for us to pass Salesforce.com and become the largest SaaS and PaaS cloud company in the world.” What Does Salesforce Provide For Manufacturers? It is common knowledge that Salesforce provides the world’s leading apps for Marketing, Sales and Support, all working seamlessly together on the same platform. What may not be as well known is that Salesforce has built an incredible platform that today features nearly 3,000 ISV applications. These products have been widely adopted, with over 3 million installs to date. The beauty of this platform is that […]