You wouldn’t know it looking from the outside, but the reality is that most businesses maintain their data in a form of organised chaos. Typically this is across some combination of differing IT systems and task specific software: spreadsheets, accounting software, inventory management, production scheduling, project management, etc.

ERP brings all these under the one umbrella and provides a powerful and integrated tool that allows you to manage every aspect of your business. It provides timely and accurate information, eliminates unnecessary steps and duplication, and helps reorganise business processes to extract efficiencies and value to your business.

Top 10 benefits of an ERP system:

1. Integration: an ERP system integrates every aspect of your business by allowing internal and external information to flow seamlessly between all commercial functions of your business. Internally, this might be planning, inventory/materials management, supply chain, production, finance, administration, HR, etc. Externally, this might be direct integration with your suppliers to improve the supply chain, or direct integration with customers to drive sales, marketing, customer support, or ecommerce offerings.
2. Data Quality: by improving the underlying processes, removing duplication and reducing human error, ERP helps safeguard the integrity of your data.
3. Reporting and Business Analytics: The provision of high-quality data allows for real-time, accurate and relevant reporting and analysis. Most good ERP systems have built-in Business Intelligence (BI) tools or easily integrate with third party systems. ERP allows managers to easily identify and address financial and process bottlenecks, assess processes and operational efficiencies, and better evaluate the effectiveness of technical, marketing or strategic initiatives. Powerful information makes for powerful decisions.
4. Accountability: ERP provides visibility and powerful insights throughout your business. Managers can identify problem areas, departments or even people, easily, quickly and objectively. They can see not only where a problem or bottleneck exists, but what the problem is, how it go there, and who is responsible for it.
5. Scalability:A good ERP system allows you to add new functionality, processes, warehouses, departments or entire systems easily and with minimal expense. It will free up employees to focus on the task at hand rather than on managing data from disparate systems.
6. Supply Chain:
   1. Procurement: automated, integrated processes within the ERP system make the procurement process streamlined and more responsive. They help reduce fraud and make it easier for businesses to capitalise on supplier discounts and other bulk or time based savings opportunities.
   2. Inventory Management: ERP help you track and manage your entire inventory across multiple warehouses and locations – even countries – ultimately reducing your required inventory levels and obsolete stock. You can track serial numbers, batches, expiration dates, warranties, etc.
7. Comprehensive Forecasting: integrated processes take into consideration multiple areas of your business simultaneously, and in real-time – current production, current inventory levels, lead times, planned production, WIP, sales, etc – making for more accurate sales and production forecasts.
8. Finance & Administration: In addition to the obvious benefits of less time spent on routine administrative tasks, ERP allows for the implementation of company-wide policies that inevitably result in a reduction in errors, reshipping, refunds, etc, further reducing cost. Moreover, given all aspects of the business are integrated, your CFO can easily navigate through financial data in real-time.
9. Production: ERP helps streamline the production process ultimately reducing time required to make, sell and deliver products. This improves customer service, lets you invoice your customers earlier, and reduces the value of WIP and stock on hand or stock in transit.
10. Customer Service: ERP enhances customer service and support by providing staff and managers with accurate and relevant information in real time. Customer queries on sales, production, deliveries, repairs, stock movements, etc., can be handled quickly, easily and accurately. This not only reduces time spent by employees addressing the issue, but demonstrably improves customer satisfaction.

All of these and many others lead to a lower cost of operation and therefore increase in your bottom line, improved information flow and opportunities for sales, and ultimately, a competitive advantage and increased value of your business.

In the end, to ERP or not to ERP, shouldn’t even be a question!

This latest build of WinMAGI now has the ability to print your reports directly to Excel and then allow you to be able to perform standard Excel type calculations on the data within those reports. You can now also setup the system to directly email reports via SMTP without having Microsoft Outlook open. The updates to the standard printing routines incorporate some great new features.

Popup info centre on GL Account code field

You can now right mouse click on any GL account code field (be it in Sales order entry, AR, AP etc) within a grid and directly perform a GL Info Centre lookup on that account. See also the reference to the ‘Quick Tips’ in the October 2013 newsletter.

Popup info centre for Multi Orders

You can now right mouse click on a line detail field in a grid that may have multiple orders types associated with the line (i.e. A line showing that a manufacturing order may be pegged to a sales order) and select the order type you wish to enquire on.

Sales Order lookup by current user id

A new filter has been introduced into the Sales Order Maintenance screen that limits the display of orders to those orders that were entered by the current user.

Fantastic day with the great man himself – Lars Bjork

For example, if you don’t want your sales order entry staff to see the costs of the item on the sales order line, then we can easily hide the cost field from the sales order group of users while the costs can be still be left visible to your supervisor staff. Using the various security settings, you can tailor your system so that only those staff that need to see certain sets of data can see it.

All of these updating options are held within the System Security for Standard Menu option. If you would like to learn more about the Security settings, either give us a call or look at the on line WinMAGI Procedural help.

PS. To look at the WinMAGI on line ‘Procedural Help’, right mouse click on the “?” help button in any of the screens. The online ‘Procedural Help’ gives step by step instructions to help you use your system more efficiently and can also be used as a training guide. Note also that the Procedural Help can be printed.

Doing business over the web has become the norm for many businesses. Most businesses now have some sort of eShopping or eCart solution that allows their customers to trade with them. If your business is one of these, you will be familiar with the time, effort and headache required to maintain products, pricing, stock levels, etc, etc……….and, to get your customers to use it.

Web Direct changes all that.

What is Web Direct? Web Direct is the next step in the evolution of electronic shopping carts. Built using the latest technology, it is a real time web solution that integrates fully and seamlessly with your ERP system. It allows your customers, your salespeople or the general public, to make online enquiries or place online orders, directly from your ERP system with full security control. No more human error, no more maintenance of duplicate data, no more lost sales.

Imagine your customers being able to complete a purchase – including stock searches, real- time pricing, secure payments, production of all paperwork – with no human intervention whatsoever. Imagine empowering your salespeople with the ability to place customer orders – including stock availability, warehouse locations, delivery times, customised pricing and more – in real time, from the customer’s site. You can change the way you do business overnight.

If you would like to improve your bottom line and engagement with your customers, please contact us for a free demo.

When entering either a sales order line or a sales invoice line, the standard WinMAGI processing will automatically default a Unit Selling Price. This Unit Selling Price is obtained following the standard WinMAGI selling price processing and is exclusive of tax.  Using the Selling Prices inclusive of Tax module, we can now calculate a new ‘Unit Selling Price Inc Tax’ field. The inclusive of tax value is calculated to be the Unit Selling Price multiplied by the prevailing sales tax rate applicable to the sales order or sales invoice line. The main feature of this simple module is the ability for the user to directly enter in the unit selling price value inclusive of tax and have the system automatically calculate the tax amount of the entered value and the tax exclusive unit selling price. This makes for quicker and easier entry of sales order lines if you are quoting tax inclusive selling prices.