Top 5 Inventory Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Top 5 Inventory Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Days before the solar eclipse of 2017 it became nearly impossible to purchase the special glasses needed to safely observe the event. People rushing from store to store in a frenzy trying to locate the last available pair of glasses, found the stores had just not planned well… they had nothing left. It got so bad that some stores reported customers coming to blows as they fought over the remaining items. To make matters worse, Amazon and Walmart had to let customers know that the glasses they purchased might not be safe. Some brands were not made to the proper specifications and could not be trusted. Walmart reported another problem… the stock they had ordered never arrived. That should not have happened at Walmart, a store known for its amazing supply chain. They manage over 11,000 stores in 27 countries, requiring a technological tour de force that rarely lets them down. Balancing supply and demand completely overwhelmed most retail and manufacturing entities. Somehow, their systems failed them. Inventory planning and management are among the most important tasks, as this event clearly demonstrated. When not managed well, the failure can be catastrophic. Rootstock recently conducted a webinar designed to identify 5 […]

The Wild West of Ransomware is here…

Ransomware is one of the newest malware threats in the news. (Mal, the Latin root for “bad” or “evil,” forms words like malfunction, maltreat, and malice.) And ransomware is truly bad! An attack will literally hold companies’ user systems hostage until they agree to pay the “ransom” request via Bitcoin or another hard to trace online payment. The FBI is warning it’s on the rise, and not just for single users- businesses, government agencies, law enforcement, healthcare, and academic institutions have all been victims. As UPS recently found out, ransomware is powerful and hard to prevent if you are not prepared. The usual “phishing” or “spoofing” of malware is becoming more common. Hackers are now better at designing corporate brand logos, legal disclaimers and colors to fool the consumer, tricking the clicker to click. But the world of ransomware is taking a huge leap with sophisticated hackers infecting corporate data platforms and stealing financial data. Recent attacks have wreaked havoc on large scale operations with multiple platforms. Ransomware extortionists like CryptoLocker, Lockey and KeRanger have become the new wild west of ransom hackers. Seeing a ransom note declaring your data access will not return until you send in tens of […]

The Impact of the Cloud on Manufacturing

Today’s manufacturers need to be agile in order to respond quickly to dynamic markets and changing customer demands. They must implement streamlined and efficient workflows that increase the speed of deployment and provide scalability. Manufacturers know that when they become more agile, they become more competitive and successful. That’s why they have turned to the cloud. The cloud enables automation, and more automation not only makes a firm more nimble, it also leads to increased revenues through cost efficiency and new revenue streams. The cloud gives firms the ability to store large amounts of data and then access that data in real-time from anywhere, and this allows just-in-time business decisions and increased collaboration across the entire supply chain. Cloud-based ERP solutions give companies end-to-end visibility into their entire operations, resulting in greater flexibility and adaptability and ultimately, greater profits. In a 2016 survey by Inspirage, 73% of manufacturing companies responding considered it important or very important that cloud ERP software establish and scale collaboration to reduce risk and increase agility. By now, the benefits of the cloud should be old news: on-demand real-time access to data and resources, scalability, data storage, reduced costs and the ability to connect core manufacturing […]

Will US Manufacturing Growth Drive Technology Advances?

The US manufacturing sector has been enjoying some good news lately. Manufacturing in the United States grew for the sixth consecutive month in February, as reported by the Institute for Supply Management. During that same period, inventories contracted, which is proof that manufacturers know that to compete and grow, they need to be as flexible and efficient as possible. Cloud ERP is specifically designed to help manufacturers become more flexible and more efficient, and the ecosystems built around cloud ERP give these firms the end-to-end solutions they need to apply these principles to their entire organization. We believe that the continuing growth and contracting inventories will drive manufacturers to embrace cloud-based ERP ecosystems and the technology innovations that these ecosystems make possible. According to the most recent monthly executive survey from the Institute for Supply Management, the US manufacturing sector grew for the sixth consecutive month in February. The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) was 57.7% for the month, a 1.7% increase over January and the highest total since August 2014. The PMI passed the 50% threshold for manufacturing growth back in September 2016. Indexes for new orders and production also increased for the sixth consecutive month in February. New orders […]

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 […]

Soon, Cloud ERP Users Will Be Surfing the Wave

by Chuck Olinger, COO and Executive Vice President Rootstock Software For those that wonder if analytics will become one of the major tenets of an ERP system, consider this. It is getting almost impossible to read an article on ERP that doesn’t have at least a paragraph on analytics. One of the best attended presentations/demonstrations at Dreamforce was presented by Rootstock COO and Executive Vice President, Chuck Olinger. It was on Wave Analytics, the first cloud analytics platform designed for every business user, making it easier than ever for anyone to explore data, uncover new insights and take action instantly from any device. Olinger demonstrated how Rootstock ERP Performance Dashboards would extend the power of the Salesforce Wave Analytics Platform to help every business user monitor measure and analyze the enterprise’s company performance, profitability and efficiency from any device. That’s because the data used in the ERP can be a gold mine. With ERP Performance Dashboards, customers are able to capture and manage this valuable data quickly across departments and facilities. When built on the Salesforce Wave Analytics Platform, access to this data is supercharged to allow organizations to quickly adjust to their markets by drilling into insights and discovering […]

Why Manufacturing Cloud ERP Users Need “Power of Choice” in Financial Packages

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 ERP. IT management will want to continue to promote a ‘best of breed’ approach to Financial Applications. Present and future manufacturing customers will want their Receivables, Payables, Ledger and Reporting software from a Salesforce partner so that they can continue to easily integrate that partner’s financials with Manufacturing Cloud ERP in the same manner as those seamless connections exist today. Leveraging “power of choice” options, Rootstock is integrated with other apps on the Salesforce platform such as Avalara for sales tax compliance and ZenKraft for shipping integration for Fedex and UPS. For their accounting functions, one may want to explore Financialforce, Intacct, Sage Live and […]

Quantitative and Qualitative Benefits on Implementing a New ERP System: Part 5

The Bottom Line To purchase a new software suite, vendors must show owners and upper management how the new investment will make money and provide a solid return on investment. Dino Farina, Proveris Scientific founder and CEO knew that his company was consistently overbuying parts and materials just to assure that it had enough in inventory to meet order demand for its nasal and aerosol testing instrumentation. His question was, with cloud manufacturing ERP, would Proveris be able to determine how many of its most popular machines could be built with the inventory on hand? “We were constantly trying to get the answers to such questions,” emphasizes Farina. “By the time we finally got the data, the answers were too late. With manufacturing Cloud ERP, we will now be able to not only find out how many units we can manufacture with the inventory on hand but whether we need more inventory, how much, how soon and at what cost. This will make our business more efficient by increasing our cash flow and improving our resource planning, while giving our customers faster deliveries on their orders.”