Wednesday, August 19, 2009
CFO is your organizations Gatekeeper, does he have the right Arsenal???
CFO’s are the Gatekeepers of your organization.
They are responsible for planning and forecasting and budgeting the business and cash flows in your organization.
It is and will always be the duty of the CFO to provide the management with a single view of the organizations activities and present the case on what can be the most profitable way for the organization to work in. The key indicators always remain the revenue, cash and cost of operations i.e. the working capital that will be required to function. It is believe it or not the duty of the CFO to facilitate this.
It is the job of the CFO to consolidate all this info and present it , this info comes from precise planning. The precise planning is done not only by drilling and grilling the general ledger but by eying info from all the departments like sales, purchase, Inventory, Manufacturing , HR etc. so the CFO is supposed to have a 360 degree view of the entire organization so that he can precisely plan your company’s next move.
How does the CFO do this?
Traditionally the CFO’s have been doing this by their experience and rigorous efforts and hours of evaluating their books of accounts. This is earned by sleepless nights in the office.
Sage ACCPAC ERP is the solution to providing the CFO’s with a complete 360 degree view of their organization. Sage ACCPAC offers a comprehensive integrated suite of the processes required by your business. With its presence in 150 countries across the globe and 30+ years of experience Sage ACCAPC is a backbone of more than 5,00,000 customers across the globe.
What Sage ACCPAC ERP Offers to the CFO?
· A complete end to end reporting and 5 budget sets for you to make and compare budgets.
· A transaction history of 99 years which you can refer to.
· Drill down at the level of every transaction.
· Financial reporting tools – to generate the reports in formats in which you desire.
o Sales Management reports
o Dashboard of top 5 customers, top 5 expenses and many more
o Management analysis reports ( Custom made as per your requirement)
· Business intelligence reporting to estimate and scrutinize the performance of your business and plan them for the next planning period.
· Current Ratio analysis, Dashboards giving graphical analysis – completely customizable as per your requirement
· Overview of the Sales and Purchases done, complete history of the Customer – Supplier-- Item to give you an analysis of whether they are making profit or loss for you.
· All in all a complete view of the system along with Management Dashboards which reflect your Key Responsibility Area.
For more info on Sage ACCPAC ERP contact us at sales@greytrix.com .
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Iron age Businesses v/s Silicon age Businesses
Iron Age businesses were more focused on operational efficiencies, deliveries, finance and administration compared to Silicon age businesses which are more focused on one most important aspect of their business and that are Customers.
Silicon age Businesses understand importance of Customers viz their Products and Services, giving focus to Customer because once a Customer is comfortable with “You”, he will be your customer forever and your products and services keep changing with changing times and economies.Silicon age companies use high end IT solutions to cater their customers and provide them world class service, answer their queries and resolve their complaints and shortest possible time to enhance customer experience while dealing with companies; traditionally an ERP system was considered to help organization in optimizing operations but ERP system puts Operations and Finance on top and Customer on bottom of Pyramid.
According to Thomas Abraham, CEO of Sage Software India, for any organization their BEST Sales force is their Customers and Word of Mouth is best method of advertisement and it is the proven fact in sales world over. A good CRM product can help people achieve this pretty easily and make them transform from a Iron Age system to a Silicon Age system” Silicon age companies have realized that ERP is cart for their Business and CRM solution is Horse, without Horse you cannot use cart efficiently and you will need loads of Cart Pushers increasing costs of operations; an effective and fast Horse can make your business faster and achieve business goals and increase your top line and bottom line very faster. A CRM solution justifies ROI faster compared to an ERP system which takes years to justify investments.
Jitendra Somani, COO of Greytrix and implementer of integrated CRM-ERP solution at various multinationals opines “An icing on cake would be integration of your Horse and your cart, in other words an end to end integrated solution which can not only track your Production but can also track who is using your product or service and how satisfied end-user is with your services or products giving you a 360 degree view of your business, enable your sales force and customer support to get an insights into customer habits, buying patterns and overall customer satisfaction index.”
A good example for this type of solution would be Sage CRM solution offered by world’s leading SME software giant Sage Software, Sage provides a scalable solution where you can start with basic Sales Force automation and move on to next level of your customer centric activities like Targeted Marketing, Customer Support, Customer Self Service Portal with integration to back office ERP system giving your sales and service team a 360 degree view of sales and support life cycle.
Few of key challenges faced by SME segment is reluctance of their workforce to adapt to new technology due to constrains like difficult software processes, geographical diversity and limited exposure to technology; Sage CRM addresses these challenges by providing a world class web based architecture with very simple to use familiar web based user interface; Apart from this Sage CRM offers Role based interface so a user does not need to learn entire software to function on software, they just have to learn their area of responsibilities thus making entire CRM rollout very fast and leverage functionalities in base year of implementation of CRM software and organization can reap benefits of CRM immediately.
Silicon age Businesses understand importance of Customers viz their Products and Services, giving focus to Customer because once a Customer is comfortable with “You”, he will be your customer forever and your products and services keep changing with changing times and economies.Silicon age companies use high end IT solutions to cater their customers and provide them world class service, answer their queries and resolve their complaints and shortest possible time to enhance customer experience while dealing with companies; traditionally an ERP system was considered to help organization in optimizing operations but ERP system puts Operations and Finance on top and Customer on bottom of Pyramid.
According to Thomas Abraham, CEO of Sage Software India, for any organization their BEST Sales force is their Customers and Word of Mouth is best method of advertisement and it is the proven fact in sales world over. A good CRM product can help people achieve this pretty easily and make them transform from a Iron Age system to a Silicon Age system” Silicon age companies have realized that ERP is cart for their Business and CRM solution is Horse, without Horse you cannot use cart efficiently and you will need loads of Cart Pushers increasing costs of operations; an effective and fast Horse can make your business faster and achieve business goals and increase your top line and bottom line very faster. A CRM solution justifies ROI faster compared to an ERP system which takes years to justify investments.
Jitendra Somani, COO of Greytrix and implementer of integrated CRM-ERP solution at various multinationals opines “An icing on cake would be integration of your Horse and your cart, in other words an end to end integrated solution which can not only track your Production but can also track who is using your product or service and how satisfied end-user is with your services or products giving you a 360 degree view of your business, enable your sales force and customer support to get an insights into customer habits, buying patterns and overall customer satisfaction index.”
A good example for this type of solution would be Sage CRM solution offered by world’s leading SME software giant Sage Software, Sage provides a scalable solution where you can start with basic Sales Force automation and move on to next level of your customer centric activities like Targeted Marketing, Customer Support, Customer Self Service Portal with integration to back office ERP system giving your sales and service team a 360 degree view of sales and support life cycle.
Few of key challenges faced by SME segment is reluctance of their workforce to adapt to new technology due to constrains like difficult software processes, geographical diversity and limited exposure to technology; Sage CRM addresses these challenges by providing a world class web based architecture with very simple to use familiar web based user interface; Apart from this Sage CRM offers Role based interface so a user does not need to learn entire software to function on software, they just have to learn their area of responsibilities thus making entire CRM rollout very fast and leverage functionalities in base year of implementation of CRM software and organization can reap benefits of CRM immediately.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Journey to recovery has started....Let Sage ACCPAC ERP & CRM Solutions help you cement it.
And we are back.....mending our way to recovery.
Recovery, the buzz word around...
Is it so? Since the past few months we have raised these questions, '' is the worst over??’’, '' are we on the path of recovery''?? The answer would be,’’ we couldn’t be more optimistic’’.
Yes, the numbers give thumbs up to board the train for the path of recovery. The latest industrial survey done buy the Business Outlook states that 85% of companies in the eight manufacturing clusters are seeing a revival.
The verdict is unanimous, the Recovery is on.
The investors are again willing to put in their share to get things running at a faster pace now, though the fact still remains; investments were never withdrawn. Things came to a brief standstill but now the mindsets are gearing up to spend.
Time ago where preservation of resources was the mantra to keep the business running has now transformed to optimum utilization of resources to increase the revenue to inflate the output.
Manufacturing and export sector faced the maximum burns of the heated slow down due to many reasons be it weak scheduling, scrapping and reworking, ad hoc processes or just lack of production planning. Business houses came out of their comfortable traditional methodologies and aimed at shaping up after the slow down.
With the possibilities of the interest rates to lower, we can expect big foots stepping into the run making the economy rise to a next level. Though the only hitch is channelizing the investments and tightening the nuts and bolts.
Be it Inventory Control, Purchase, Sales, Receivables, Payables, Finance, Marketing; you need to have a consolidated 360 degree view of each of your business processes to avoid the leakages in your existing systems and controls and increase the productivity.
Indian SME segment after the comeback from the economic crises has now learned that timely decisions based on true fact and figures would have caused less harm back then or for that matter anytime. With the help of business intelligence and analytical tools available right decision with the right kind of statistical data at the right time would have painted the Indian economic graph differently.
Better late than never, now is the time to think of automating your vital business process, now is the time to go live with an extensive solution. A solution that follows your pace of growth, adapts to your unique workflow, defers to your database and deployment preferences, and flexes with your organizational structure.
Integrated business solutions are implemented to be the backbone to support the business through all the ups and downs of the trade graph. The traditional organizations are learning to craft flexible but tightly intertwined chains with the hope of securing tremendous competitive advantage.
The enterprise suits facilitates you achieve the workforce through rapid change along with better business planning and accelerate the savings in procurement. The world renowned best practices are deployed along with the pre defined industry specific process to give you an edge over your competition.
Few years later, the enterprise solutions comprising of ERP and CRM will serve as the foundation for the industry. The system would be so powerfully integrated with the organization that at few clicks the end user would be able to pull out arrays of information.
The simplicity of the solutions gives empowerment to the management so that they can make informed decisions in real time avoiding any further economic disasters if done in time.
It is time to think outside the box i.e. the time to call Greytrix. Call us at 022 67687847 or email us at sales@greytrix.com .
Recovery, the buzz word around...
Is it so? Since the past few months we have raised these questions, '' is the worst over??’’, '' are we on the path of recovery''?? The answer would be,’’ we couldn’t be more optimistic’’.
Yes, the numbers give thumbs up to board the train for the path of recovery. The latest industrial survey done buy the Business Outlook states that 85% of companies in the eight manufacturing clusters are seeing a revival.
The verdict is unanimous, the Recovery is on.
The investors are again willing to put in their share to get things running at a faster pace now, though the fact still remains; investments were never withdrawn. Things came to a brief standstill but now the mindsets are gearing up to spend.
Time ago where preservation of resources was the mantra to keep the business running has now transformed to optimum utilization of resources to increase the revenue to inflate the output.
Manufacturing and export sector faced the maximum burns of the heated slow down due to many reasons be it weak scheduling, scrapping and reworking, ad hoc processes or just lack of production planning. Business houses came out of their comfortable traditional methodologies and aimed at shaping up after the slow down.
With the possibilities of the interest rates to lower, we can expect big foots stepping into the run making the economy rise to a next level. Though the only hitch is channelizing the investments and tightening the nuts and bolts.
Be it Inventory Control, Purchase, Sales, Receivables, Payables, Finance, Marketing; you need to have a consolidated 360 degree view of each of your business processes to avoid the leakages in your existing systems and controls and increase the productivity.
Indian SME segment after the comeback from the economic crises has now learned that timely decisions based on true fact and figures would have caused less harm back then or for that matter anytime. With the help of business intelligence and analytical tools available right decision with the right kind of statistical data at the right time would have painted the Indian economic graph differently.
Better late than never, now is the time to think of automating your vital business process, now is the time to go live with an extensive solution. A solution that follows your pace of growth, adapts to your unique workflow, defers to your database and deployment preferences, and flexes with your organizational structure.
Integrated business solutions are implemented to be the backbone to support the business through all the ups and downs of the trade graph. The traditional organizations are learning to craft flexible but tightly intertwined chains with the hope of securing tremendous competitive advantage.
The enterprise suits facilitates you achieve the workforce through rapid change along with better business planning and accelerate the savings in procurement. The world renowned best practices are deployed along with the pre defined industry specific process to give you an edge over your competition.
Few years later, the enterprise solutions comprising of ERP and CRM will serve as the foundation for the industry. The system would be so powerfully integrated with the organization that at few clicks the end user would be able to pull out arrays of information.
The simplicity of the solutions gives empowerment to the management so that they can make informed decisions in real time avoiding any further economic disasters if done in time.
It is time to think outside the box i.e. the time to call Greytrix. Call us at 022 67687847 or email us at sales@greytrix.com .
How to improve the E.R.P (Effectiveness, Responsiveness and Productivity) of your Business
How to improve the E.R.P (Effectiveness, Responsiveness and Productivity) of your Business
The two pillars needed to improve or increase the productivity of any Company are –
• Employee productivity
• Customer Satisfaction
Improving Employee productivity
In today’s cost competitive world, companies have shifted their focus from increasing the head counts in the company to improving the productivity of the existing employee. Providing the employee with accurate and timely information not only reduces error but also increases the productivity. And this is what an integrated information system like ERP does.
Smart managers recognize wastage of human resource in activities like sorting of data, manual labor that slows down the process etc. Leading to the un satisfaction of the customers.
Implementing smart business practice like providing accurate and timely data, reduces wastage of human resource, and this is possible only when the manager realizes the importance of accurate and timely data.
Many opportunities can be found in areas that aren’t directly related to production or manufacturing.
For example if a company has efficient production team but there is some mismanagement in handling of inventory. The manager will think of scope for improvement. In such cases use of ERP like SAGE ACCPAC ERP helps reduce the wastage efficiently
An ERP system can be defined as a tool that is necessary to automate and integrate the majority of business process in an enterprise and can transform the business process for the betterment of any enterprise. There by increasing the productivity.
Improve Customer satisfaction
Employee productivity is directly proportional to customer satisfaction.
Quick customer service –Accurate and timely data with the help of SAGE ACCPAC ERP helps in providing support to the customer in a more efficient, accurate and quick manner.
Efficient management of financial report – Using of as an efficient ERP helps in getting accurate data for the financial report at the end of every quarter.
Managers in today’s time gets tons of data on orders, quality and customer satisfaction. Handling all these data efficiently leads to customer satisfaction and is the key to success.
To build a fact base decision making organization, the organization needs to give the insight data in the hands of their employees. With data received from an ERP and supported by powerful financial report tool it become easier for any organization to reach new heights leading to the satisfaction of their clients.
For more inforamtion write to us at sales@greytrix.com or contact us at 67687847
The two pillars needed to improve or increase the productivity of any Company are –
• Employee productivity
• Customer Satisfaction
Improving Employee productivity
In today’s cost competitive world, companies have shifted their focus from increasing the head counts in the company to improving the productivity of the existing employee. Providing the employee with accurate and timely information not only reduces error but also increases the productivity. And this is what an integrated information system like ERP does.
Smart managers recognize wastage of human resource in activities like sorting of data, manual labor that slows down the process etc. Leading to the un satisfaction of the customers.
Implementing smart business practice like providing accurate and timely data, reduces wastage of human resource, and this is possible only when the manager realizes the importance of accurate and timely data.
Many opportunities can be found in areas that aren’t directly related to production or manufacturing.
For example if a company has efficient production team but there is some mismanagement in handling of inventory. The manager will think of scope for improvement. In such cases use of ERP like SAGE ACCPAC ERP helps reduce the wastage efficiently
An ERP system can be defined as a tool that is necessary to automate and integrate the majority of business process in an enterprise and can transform the business process for the betterment of any enterprise. There by increasing the productivity.
Improve Customer satisfaction
Employee productivity is directly proportional to customer satisfaction.
Quick customer service –Accurate and timely data with the help of SAGE ACCPAC ERP helps in providing support to the customer in a more efficient, accurate and quick manner.
Efficient management of financial report – Using of as an efficient ERP helps in getting accurate data for the financial report at the end of every quarter.
Managers in today’s time gets tons of data on orders, quality and customer satisfaction. Handling all these data efficiently leads to customer satisfaction and is the key to success.
To build a fact base decision making organization, the organization needs to give the insight data in the hands of their employees. With data received from an ERP and supported by powerful financial report tool it become easier for any organization to reach new heights leading to the satisfaction of their clients.
For more inforamtion write to us at sales@greytrix.com or contact us at 67687847
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Control Cash Flow: Implement ERP System
Fail to keep the cash flowing and you can wave goodbye to your business.
ØYou can be profitable and still be bankrupt because we don’t spend the profits in a business. We spend cash
ØIn years past, in this situation you simply went to your bank and asked for a short-term Line of Credit. But now, the bank has clammed up
How Systems can help you in managing Cash flows?
ØDefine Credit Terms and Policies
ØCredit authorizations
ØCash Projections
ØWhat If Analysis
ØAccurate Aging Reports for quick actions
ØFinance charge policies for effective collections
ØLargest v/s Best customer analysis
Control Leakage/loss in Inventory: Implement an ERP System
Inventory is Money: Lost or untraceable Inventory is a major risk, let’s look at an example
Assume a nominal Rs. 1000 of material is lost per week (Rs. 52000 per year), this Rs. 52,000 comes off of your bottom line. If your net profit before taxes is 4%, it takes Rs. Thirteen Lacs in new sales to make up for this loss (Rs. 13,00,000 x .04 = Rs.52,000)!
Inventory is Time: The time it requires to answer customer’s question about Availability of stock is pure loss of Productivity
Imagine each time your customer inquires about availability of any particular stock and you have to rely on either manual files, spreadsheets or verbal information from your store manager.
10 mins per inquiry multiplied by Two enquires daily multiplied by 250 working days, comes out to be 5000 minutes or 200 hours or One Working Month!
Inventory is Customer Satisfaction tool: Accurate Inventory information makes you to do right promises and avoid false promises!
If you promise material to a customer based on what your computer says is in stock, but the material isn’t actually available in your warehouse, the result is often a disappointed customer. You’ll lose your reputation as a reliable supplier. And not being a reliable supplier is the best way to increase your competitor’s sales
How Systems can help you in managing your inventory?
ØForecast the demand and supply of Inventory
ØManage JIT Inventory and reduce inventory costs
ØPlan for Optimized and Cost effective Procurement by Vendor Analysis
ØGet a 360 degree visibility of your Inventory
ØABC and VED analysis
ØCost Control and Cost Variance analysis
ØFaster Shipments to your customer thus satisfied customer
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Agarwal Fasteners Tightens Operations with Sage Accpac
Agarwal Fasteners Pvt. Ltd. specializes in manufacturing critical stainless steel fasteners as per industry standards and specific customer requirements for a wide variety of industries. Founded in 1974, Agarwal Fasteners manufactures and imports best quality tools to produce high quality, reliable fasteners using modern multi stationed equipment. Having its manufacturing plant in Mumbai, Agarwal Fasteners has a direct sales team in Maharashtra and supplies its products to the rest of India through its dealer and reseller network.
Due to its strong focus on quality and timely delivery, the company has witnessed growth and expansion in its business over the last 3 decades. “Since we specialize in providing customized fasteners as per specific requirements of our many clients, we need to deal with various vendors across the world for raw materials and also manufacture many high quality tools and dies inhouse. We hence needed robust, modular and secure ERP software with tightly integrated inventory, operations and accounting modules that could help link our warehouse to the shop floor,” says Vikram Agarwal, Managing Director, Agarwal Fasteners Pvt. Ltd.
Sage Accpac - Secure, Robust and Tightly Integrated ERP Solution from Sage
Prior to implementing Sage Accpac, the company relied on a Fox Pro based local software application with separate packages for accounting and inventory to maintain stocks and generate invoices. Since the inventory and accounting packages were not linked to each other the entries had to be made separately into each of them causing duplication of labor and leaving room for human error. There were also some serious data security issues with this software as any user could delete entries once the invoice was generated.
“The Managing Director of Agarwal Fasteners wanted an ERP software that could provide him with high data security where access and security limits could be predefined so that the user can merely make additions and not tamper with pre-existing data,” shares Kumar Siddhartha, Chief Executive Officer, Greytrix. “The other requirements of the client included robust financial & accounting support, real time inventory control and visibility throughout the manufacturing cycle, automatic reporting option and tight integration of modules to avoid duplication of work. Sage Accpac was undoubtedly the best solution for them.”
Guided by its strong product understanding and domain knowledge, Greytrix, the implementation partner for the project, was able to understand Agarwal Fastener’s unique requirements and then carry out a live system demonstration to highlight the strengths of Sage Accpac and also implement the software quickly and effectively.
Agarwal Fasteners decided to implement a 10 user package of Sage Accpac comprising of System Manager, General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Inventory Control, Order Entry, Purchase Order, and Transactional Analysis and Optional fields as the major modules.
Real time view of inventory for informed procurement
Agarwal Fasteners has a state of the art manufacturing facility in Mumbai where it produces best quality stainless steel fasteners for its customers across the country. When the sales team receives an order from a customer, the existing inventory is checked and if the product is not readily available in the warehouse then a production plan is formulated. The raw materials needed for production have to be scoped and a checklist is made of the raw materials that have to be procured locally, imported from vendors based abroad or else in the case of high quality dies and tools, manufactured in-house. “Since the variety of inputs required for manufacturing fasteners is quite vast and a considerable number of vendors need to be dealt with for procurement of raw materials, manual maintenance of inventory is not possible. Furthermore unless there is a real time view into available stocks of finished products and raw materials, production planning will be flawed leading to considerable losses,” opines Vikram, “Sage Accpac offers us a real time view of the finished goods stock that is available with us, helps us identify the shortfall that needs to be produced and also scope the raw materials required for manufacturing these out of stock products. Since it provides us with a ready reckoner of the raw materials being sourced from various vendors and their expected time of arrival while also providing us with an update of the products under production on the shop floor, it also helps us forecast availability of out of stock products. Sage Accpac’s inventory control module also enables us to compare vendors on the basis of prices and delivery schedule and thus ensures that we get the raw materials at the best prices in the shortest timeframe.”
Once the raw material is received it is transferred to the shop floor where it goes into production and once the finished product is ready it reflects in the inventory at the warehouse. Since Sage Accpac provides an accurate definition of the location and flow of raw materials throughout the order entry and manufacturing process, it provides better control of the process and the outcome on the shop floor.
Seamless integration of modules for zero duplication and errors
When the company was dependant on the Fox Pro based software, the order would be booked by the sales person in the Order Entry module and this would then have to be manually keyed again in the General Ledger for accounting purposes. Similarly once the raw materials were received in the inventory module a separate entry would have to be made in the Accounts Payable section. This caused a lot of duplication of efforts and manual transfer of data also left room for errors.
“With Sage Accpac the accounting and order entry modules are tightly linked with each other. As a result any order that is booked under order entry automatically reflects in the Accounts Receivable section of the General Ledger. Similarly once the raw materials are received into the inventory module the Accounts Payable is automatically updated, keeping in mind the specific currency exchange rate depending upon the country that the raw material has been imported from,” explained Mr. Vikram Agarwal Managing Director, Agarwal Fastners Pvt. Ltd.
Automatic reports generated at the touch of a button
Once the product has been delivered to the customer, the sales person is responsible for collection of payments from the customer and is entitled to his sales commission only after the pending amount is collected. Using Sage Accpac a customer ledger can be automatically generated from the General Ledger to provide the sales person with an accurate report of the number of invoices due as of date. It is also possible to generate reports on item wise pending orders for manufacture and pending orders for delivery to customers using the Financial Reporter tool in Sage Accpac, which can dynamically extract data from the database to generate reports in the required format.
High data security for greater control
In the earlier system it was possible for the user to delete an entry after the corresponding invoice has been posted leading to discrepancies in the books. There was no system of laying checks and measures to prevent data tampering by the user. Sage Accpac has predefined access and security definitions that allow the user to only add entries and prevent him from making edits and deletions to preexisting entries once the invoice has been posted. Only the administrator is given the powers to modify security settings and access controls. Complete view of the data is accessible only to the manager. This ensures that the accounting process is stringent and streamlined and as a result the auditing process is a lot easier and less time consuming.
Challenge
No view of available stocks, uninformed production planning and raw material scoping, inability to identify best suitable vendor, separate entries to be made in inventory, order entry and invoicing packages leading to duplication of effort, no data security leading to data tampering
Solution
Sage Accpac ERP, a highly scalable and modular application provides high data security and real time inventory control. It also supports multiple currencies and features a strong reporting tool. Modules are closely interlinked with each other so that a small change in one module results in a corresponding change in the related fields of the other modules as well.
Result
Real time inventory control ensures that production planning is done accurately and the correct quantity of raw material is ordered at the right price from the right vendor. Tight integration between the various modules eliminates duplication of efforts and a high level of data security prevents data tampering. Reports are generated automatically in the required format.
Due to its strong focus on quality and timely delivery, the company has witnessed growth and expansion in its business over the last 3 decades. “Since we specialize in providing customized fasteners as per specific requirements of our many clients, we need to deal with various vendors across the world for raw materials and also manufacture many high quality tools and dies inhouse. We hence needed robust, modular and secure ERP software with tightly integrated inventory, operations and accounting modules that could help link our warehouse to the shop floor,” says Vikram Agarwal, Managing Director, Agarwal Fasteners Pvt. Ltd.
Sage Accpac - Secure, Robust and Tightly Integrated ERP Solution from Sage
Prior to implementing Sage Accpac, the company relied on a Fox Pro based local software application with separate packages for accounting and inventory to maintain stocks and generate invoices. Since the inventory and accounting packages were not linked to each other the entries had to be made separately into each of them causing duplication of labor and leaving room for human error. There were also some serious data security issues with this software as any user could delete entries once the invoice was generated.
“The Managing Director of Agarwal Fasteners wanted an ERP software that could provide him with high data security where access and security limits could be predefined so that the user can merely make additions and not tamper with pre-existing data,” shares Kumar Siddhartha, Chief Executive Officer, Greytrix. “The other requirements of the client included robust financial & accounting support, real time inventory control and visibility throughout the manufacturing cycle, automatic reporting option and tight integration of modules to avoid duplication of work. Sage Accpac was undoubtedly the best solution for them.”
Guided by its strong product understanding and domain knowledge, Greytrix, the implementation partner for the project, was able to understand Agarwal Fastener’s unique requirements and then carry out a live system demonstration to highlight the strengths of Sage Accpac and also implement the software quickly and effectively.
Agarwal Fasteners decided to implement a 10 user package of Sage Accpac comprising of System Manager, General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Inventory Control, Order Entry, Purchase Order, and Transactional Analysis and Optional fields as the major modules.
Real time view of inventory for informed procurement
Agarwal Fasteners has a state of the art manufacturing facility in Mumbai where it produces best quality stainless steel fasteners for its customers across the country. When the sales team receives an order from a customer, the existing inventory is checked and if the product is not readily available in the warehouse then a production plan is formulated. The raw materials needed for production have to be scoped and a checklist is made of the raw materials that have to be procured locally, imported from vendors based abroad or else in the case of high quality dies and tools, manufactured in-house. “Since the variety of inputs required for manufacturing fasteners is quite vast and a considerable number of vendors need to be dealt with for procurement of raw materials, manual maintenance of inventory is not possible. Furthermore unless there is a real time view into available stocks of finished products and raw materials, production planning will be flawed leading to considerable losses,” opines Vikram, “Sage Accpac offers us a real time view of the finished goods stock that is available with us, helps us identify the shortfall that needs to be produced and also scope the raw materials required for manufacturing these out of stock products. Since it provides us with a ready reckoner of the raw materials being sourced from various vendors and their expected time of arrival while also providing us with an update of the products under production on the shop floor, it also helps us forecast availability of out of stock products. Sage Accpac’s inventory control module also enables us to compare vendors on the basis of prices and delivery schedule and thus ensures that we get the raw materials at the best prices in the shortest timeframe.”
Once the raw material is received it is transferred to the shop floor where it goes into production and once the finished product is ready it reflects in the inventory at the warehouse. Since Sage Accpac provides an accurate definition of the location and flow of raw materials throughout the order entry and manufacturing process, it provides better control of the process and the outcome on the shop floor.
Seamless integration of modules for zero duplication and errors
When the company was dependant on the Fox Pro based software, the order would be booked by the sales person in the Order Entry module and this would then have to be manually keyed again in the General Ledger for accounting purposes. Similarly once the raw materials were received in the inventory module a separate entry would have to be made in the Accounts Payable section. This caused a lot of duplication of efforts and manual transfer of data also left room for errors.
“With Sage Accpac the accounting and order entry modules are tightly linked with each other. As a result any order that is booked under order entry automatically reflects in the Accounts Receivable section of the General Ledger. Similarly once the raw materials are received into the inventory module the Accounts Payable is automatically updated, keeping in mind the specific currency exchange rate depending upon the country that the raw material has been imported from,” explained Mr. Vikram Agarwal Managing Director, Agarwal Fastners Pvt. Ltd.
Automatic reports generated at the touch of a button
Once the product has been delivered to the customer, the sales person is responsible for collection of payments from the customer and is entitled to his sales commission only after the pending amount is collected. Using Sage Accpac a customer ledger can be automatically generated from the General Ledger to provide the sales person with an accurate report of the number of invoices due as of date. It is also possible to generate reports on item wise pending orders for manufacture and pending orders for delivery to customers using the Financial Reporter tool in Sage Accpac, which can dynamically extract data from the database to generate reports in the required format.
High data security for greater control
In the earlier system it was possible for the user to delete an entry after the corresponding invoice has been posted leading to discrepancies in the books. There was no system of laying checks and measures to prevent data tampering by the user. Sage Accpac has predefined access and security definitions that allow the user to only add entries and prevent him from making edits and deletions to preexisting entries once the invoice has been posted. Only the administrator is given the powers to modify security settings and access controls. Complete view of the data is accessible only to the manager. This ensures that the accounting process is stringent and streamlined and as a result the auditing process is a lot easier and less time consuming.
Challenge
No view of available stocks, uninformed production planning and raw material scoping, inability to identify best suitable vendor, separate entries to be made in inventory, order entry and invoicing packages leading to duplication of effort, no data security leading to data tampering
Solution
Sage Accpac ERP, a highly scalable and modular application provides high data security and real time inventory control. It also supports multiple currencies and features a strong reporting tool. Modules are closely interlinked with each other so that a small change in one module results in a corresponding change in the related fields of the other modules as well.
Result
Real time inventory control ensures that production planning is done accurately and the correct quantity of raw material is ordered at the right price from the right vendor. Tight integration between the various modules eliminates duplication of efforts and a high level of data security prevents data tampering. Reports are generated automatically in the required format.
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