We Blog ERP

Sybase, an SAP company that provides mobile ERP software, today released an update its Sybase Unwired Platform, a platform for producing mobile ERP applications.

The platform allows enterprise developers to easily and rapidly build applications that enable mobile devices to access business data. It includes a tooling environment, integration with a variety os different ERP solutions, and support for Windows Mobile, Windows laptops and tablets, iPhone, and Blackberry. Sybase has several global partners that produce their own unique mobile ERP applications.

Sybase partners have found varied uses for the Unwired Platform. Bluefin produced an iPhone app that provides critical sales and customer information for sales people and managers on the move. HCL Axon, a consultancy that sells services to SAP customers, is creating mobile ERP applications that extend SAP solution capabilities for industries like utilities, oil and gas, travel and logistics, and financial services.

Independent CRM consulting company Maihiro designed its CRM to Go for Mobile Business application that allows mobile sales and CRM data access from devices including BlackBerrys, iPhones, and Windows Mobiles. NEO Business Partners has a NEO Mobile Suite, a host of mobile applications for SAP ERP and CRM that allows its customers to work on service orders and notifications offline on their mobile smartphones.

Gary Kovacs, senior vice president at Sybase, says, “Sybase offers the most comprehensive expertise and platform for mobilizing SAP solutions, as well as for rapid development and deployment of custom mobile offerings in the industry. Our leading mobility platform is fueling our partner ecosystem and extending our reach globally, enabling us to successfully transform businesses through enterprise-wide mobility solutions.”

Besides the Sybase Unwired Platform, Sybase also provides its own custom mobile ERP applications that accompany standard SAP solutions, which include Sybase Mobile Sales for SAP CRM and Sybase Mobile Workflow for SAP Business Suite.

Technorati Tags: mobile ERP, SAP, Sybase

According to research from McAfee’s Trust Digital team, about 75% of IT executives plan to make internal business applications accessible by mobile device in the oncoming year. Further, 57% of survey participants said they will extend remote mobile access beyond email to CRM, ERP, and other proprietary applications. 45% will have device support for the iPhone and Android by popular request from employees, though BlackBerry support has been most prevalent in the past.

The Trust Digital survey was conducted with 150 large U.S. companies to find out how senior IT management executives plan to utilize mobile devices as a part of IT infrastructure within the next year.

The looming tidal wave of smartphone devices – Android, iPhones, iPads, and other technological tomfoolery – will hit workplaces very soon, and organizations have to prepare for it, concludes McAfee. “Heterogeneity is real and enterprises are saying, ‘I have to learn to deal with it,’” says David Goldschlag, vice president of mobile technologies at McAfee.

Additionally, the survey indicated a shift from using corporate-supplied technology to enabling employees’ personal devices. About a third of respondents reported a desire to make this change to personal smartphones. Most organizations view employee smartphone use as a cost-saver, but the issue is making the devices secure and compliant with enterprise infrastructure.

Still, by all appearances, mobile ERP looks like the inevitable future. In the contemporary business, especially over a global market, workplace mobility is crucial. More employees over a larger work cycle can be utilized through telecommuting. With a mobile device connected to CRM or ERP data, critical sales or customer information can be available while on the go. These advantages are converging with a consumer mania of smart devices that will eventually bleed into the workplace. Providing mobile ERP access as a standard practice cannot be too far off.

Technorati Tags: mcafee, mobile ERP

At the Black Hat tech security/hacker convention last week, Dasient Inc., an anti-malware security provider, released a report, “Structural Vulnerabilities on Websites: Why Enterprise Websites Are Vulnerable to Malware Attacks,” that outlines the biggest security leaks on company websites.

According to data by Microsoft and Websense and cited by Dasient, malware infection has been on the rise in recent years.

The report finds that three third-party elements make up the key security risks of malware infection: third party widgets, advertising, and outdated web applications.

Dasient finds that 75% of enterprise websites use third-party JavaScript widgets. The more of these apps that a website combines, the more opportunities there are for the site to be compromised. Even third-party providers that are legitimate can be hacked.

42% of websites were found to rely on third-party advertising, which is susceptible to malvertising. This includes a 41% of financial institutions that use third-party advertising on parts of their website where crucial financial advice was being exchanged among online communities.

A massive 91% of websites were found to be running outdated, vulnerable third party applications, which can include CMS, CRM, help desk, and other web-based enterprise software.

“In today’s online world, it is highly unlikely that enterprises will rely completely on using all their own software on their websites – they depend on third parties to supply widgets, applications and ads to offer functionality and interactivity for many parts of their websites,” says Neil Daswani, one of the founders of Dasient. “Even while maintaining high security standards for the parts of the website that they directly manage, many enterprises have much less control over the security practices of these third-party providers, offering attackers easy, backdoor access to legitimate websites. If any of these third parties become compromised or infected, the entire website can be turned into a vehicle for the distribution of web-based malware, significantly damaging the enterprises’ business.”

Number of Entries on the Google Safe Browsing Malware List

Courtesy of Google

To prevent such security breaks, Dasient recommends vetting third-party associates for security practices, proactive website monitoring, and detection and remediation Web Anti-Malware (WAM) services to automatically monitor and contain malware infections.

Technorati Tags: dasient, malware

Today, Deacom Inc., an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions provider, announced the availability of mobile access to the DEACOM Integrated Accounting and ERP Software System.

Deacom, based in Pennsylvania and in operation since 1995, specializes in creating ERP software for manufacturing industries, including lumber, millwork, pharmaceutical, specialty chemical, cosmetic, food and beverage, and others.

screenshot of DEACOM interface

The mobile DEACOM app, usable through any smartphone, provides access to ERP data that includes sales orders, purchase orders, production jobs, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). However, this data may only be viewed as Read-Only documents. Also, company logos can be extended onto this mobile ERP app.

Jim Read, Senior Software Developer at Deacom says, “As a configurable function of the DEACOM ERP System, Mobile DEACOM can expose as much or as little real-time data to employees, customers, or vendors, depending on your company’s needs.”

This is a part of a spate of mobile enterprise applications released in response to recent smartphone popularity. Mobile devices are increasingly prevalent in the workplace, allowing employees to telecommunicate or remain connected from any location. For global and traveling workforces, mobile ERP and CRM are especially important in that they provide access to critical information in any location.

More information about Deacom’s mobile ERP solution can be found at their website at www.deacom.net.

Technorati Tags: Deacom ERP

IQMS, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software provider, yesterday announced the release of EnterpriseIQ for the Blackberry. The new application allows for management of work flow, customer service, inventory, and financial statistics from the mobile device.

The IQMS product was developed to meet the growing need for mobile (Blackberry) ERP solutions. This newest IQMS product is an addition to pre-exisitng EnterpriseIQ mobile ERP software, which was only capable of CRM applications. IQMS expanded on the idea of workforce mobility and chose to include many more mobile enterprise functions.

This is part of a trend of mobile ERP software that frees employees from having to stay at the workplace, and supports data collaboration among individuals on the move. The increasingly globalized economy requires businesses to be active and openly communicative.

The EnterpriseIQ ERP system uses a single database, and is designed to provide simple, lean business functionality. The application takes advantage of already existing Blackberry software and web services to give access to the system at all time; Blackberry servers are not used.

The application includes many practical mobile ERP features such as customer record viewing, customer pinpointing via GPS, and complete inventory access.

Glenn Nowak, vice president of IQMS, comments that EnterpriseIQ is another step in providing ERP services to employees in any location, on whatever interface. “The business world is constantly on the move, and we want to give our customers a competitive advantage,” says Nowak.

IQMS has been a business solutions provider for over two decades. The company offers ERP software that covers manufacturing, accounting, production monitoring, quality control, supply chain, SPC, CRM, and eBusiness.

Technorati Tags: enterpriseIQ, mobile ERP

Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) has won the coveted Aberdeen Group’s 2010 achievement award for supply chain management excellence. The company uses BravoSolution as their supply chain management software of choice.

BravoSolution was built to help users in the supply chain industry manage their multiple interconnected businesses. Supply chain management solutions help with provision of product and service packages, movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished products from the point of origin to the point of consumption.

The Aberdeen Group hands out an award of excellence once a year to the company whose supply chain process exemplifies ‘innovation in executive stewardship, business evolution and technology”. Becton, Dickinson and Company beat out other supply chain management users like Black & Decker, Home Improvement, Zappos.com, and Belkin International.

With BravoSolution supply chain management software, BD was able to cut costs and streamline processes. Improving workflow and decreasing avoidable spending is essential in the supply chain management industry. For more information on finding a supply chain management solution that best suits your companies needs,  check out this free report on the Top 10 Supply Chain Management Vendors.

Although ERP Consolidation can cut company costs drastically, other changes are necessary in order for ERP software to be a worthwhile project to consider.

Consolidation into ERP Software combines multiple databases into a single repository of information. However, in order to be truly effective, business processes must also be changed to facilitate the new software. Business must transform in order to meet the needs of the new ERP System in order to truly be effective.

Although many companies choose to adopt different software for their different office locations, there comes a time when companies grow so large that it becomes necessary to have one consolidated database that is shared across their whole company. ERP Consolidation projects are one way of accomplishing this. Even with the current recession, companies remained interested in ERP consolidation and the benefits that can be had from implementing these processes.

In order for consolidation projects to be successful, companies must be able to standardize business processes in all their offices. This makes it much easier for companies to effectively utilize the ERP Software to its maximum potential by adapting to fit the needs of the ERP platform. ERP consolidation can lead to increased efficiency and a tremendous amount of cost savings as long as its done the right way.

For more information regarding ERP Consolidation projects, read the full article here.

ERP Software has frequently been showered with praise as it often helps companies lower budgets and helps boost the productivity of its employees. Its role in improving efficiency within the company has helped many companies grow successfully. However, all this success does have a tradeoff.

The often ignored downside of ERP Software is a result of the efficiency of ERP Software. In boosting the productivity of employees, ERP Software renders many other employees superfluous. ERP Software achieves its cost savings as a result of boosts in productivity but also due to a lowered headcount. Since ERP Software automates many tasks, it also takes jobs away from many employees. Thus, the savings from ERP Software are also attributed to the reduced number of employees that are necessary to keep the company running smoothly.

With the economic recession continuing, companies continue to look for ways to lower spending. Although its role in saving company budgets can’t be taken lightly, the downside of company improvements is the decreased headcount within the organization. This often ignored fact is the reality of the improved efficiencies associated with the implementation of ERP Software. It should be taken into consideration when noting the costs and benefits of ERP Software. However, it should not diminish the importance ERP Software has in maintaining and growing a successful company.

Technorati Tags: ERP Implementation, ERP Software

Bamboo Pipeline had been a long time user of Infor ERP as they used it to manage their landscape supply business. But as time passed and their business continued to grow, Bamboo found that Infor ERP did not seem best suited to their business as the scalability of Infor did not match up to their company needs as they would have liked.

Bamboo looked towards other ERP solutions and decided to implement SAP ERP Software which was specifically tailored for smaller businesses. With their rapidly growing business, it became increasingly necessary to find a solution that would be able to meet their increasing demands. Investing in SAP ERP software has helped the company succeed in this recession where other companies continued to fail.

With SAP ERP, the company was able to grow revenue while at the same time cut costs. The features SAP offered enabled more flexibility for Bamboo. The flexibility and configurability allowed Bamboo to launch a new business utilizing the same technology at no cost. This enabled Bamboo to capitalize on an entirely different customer market.

Implementing SAP proved very easy for Bamboo employees to learn as they found the interface very intuitive. Although there were some minor issues involving data transfer, the implementation of SAP ERP proved to be a very smooth process. For more information on this new implementation of SAP Software, you can read the full article here.

Foreign-based Natural Sugar Factory has developed a new ERP Software tailored to fit their specific industry. With ERP Software options limited for the sugar industry, Natural Sugar Factory looked for a way to streamline their processes and optimize production. In doing so, they developed their own ERP software that specifically meets the requirements of sugar companies in linking departments throughout the sugar industry.

This low cost software option should help revolutionize the sugar industry. With their new ERP Software comes many integratable modules that can support many other processes within the company. The software should provide sugar plantation owners in depth knowledge of a variety of metrics, helping them sort and track from start to finish.

This complete solution is uniquely designed towards the Sugar Industry and should provide specialized features. For more information on this new innovative solution, you can read the full article here.

Technorati Tags: Agriculture Software, ERP Software, Sugar Industry