Does MIS reports suffices for your business???

Next level towards total business automation after business process automation is to develop a powerful tool which gives a deep insight into your business operation. Many of us get confused with the aspect of Management Information System & Business Intelligence. Management Information system is a collection of business operation information which work as decision support system for us at each functional level and provide feedback on daily operations.

But a just a MIS tool is not sufficient for a progressive organization, a tool which has a capability to analyze and address - “What” & “Why” of past, present & future business events is necessary. MIS tool is just a report which flash out facts of business operation to the management.


“Information about transaction will become more important than transaction itself.” - Walter Wriston, chair and CEO of Citicorp/Citibank, 1967-1984
“Companies that are high performing are more analytical than lower performing businesses.” - Jeanne Harris, Accenture Director of Research

“… top performing organizations separate themselves from their peers by their ability to quickly diagnose the root cause of problems they face on a daily basis.” - The Advisory Board


Business intelligence can be described as a methodology or processes designed and developed with technology, architectured for transforming raw data into meaningful and useful information which enables us to achieve strategic, tactical, and operational efficiency. Today Business Intelligence is used in almost every industrial vertical be it Reality, Real Estate, Retail, Financial Services, or a typical manufacturing.

Business Process Management and Business Process Engineering improves business efficiency but Business Intelligence Tool impacts on effectiveness of business decision. A simple principle works over here – the more you get to know about your business the more develop your competitive advantage.

Business Intelligence tool help you to focus on every aspect of business – Finance, Marketing, Resource Utilization, Operation, General administration, Compliances & regulations, and so on. Sage Accpac Business Intelligence module is one of the state of art tool which helps you to get better, faster, more informed and confident information from your business data. Sage Accpac Business Intelligence is low-cost, easy and faster deployable with dynamic charts showing Key Performance Indicators and Dashboard Technology.
So, just a system or a reporting tool is not enough in progressive organization, we should have a strong tool to highlight those information which often gets unnoticed but carries long term consequences in business. As someone had rightly said……..

“You Manage What You Measure!”

Have you considered the below points while selecting your Enterprise Solution ???

Read on further to acquaint yourself with some questions you need to answer before you finalize on an Enterprise solution for your Enterprise.

1. Scalability of your CRM to ERP and vice versa
   When selecting an ERP or CRM it is essential to keep in mind that we need to select a system which can be scaled up in future. As the business grows the need of integration amongst systems arises, the possibility of managing the current islands of information and automation decreases and you require one platform to manage the various activities of your business. The ERP or CRM that you select must be such that it can be scaled up and can be integrated with the systems that you may require in future. It is best if the same vendor can provide you with both the solutions, this helps in better integration amongst the systems. You may not realize it today but in the long run this integration proves to be one of the major success factors for your solution and forms the backbone of your business. Always look for a solution which has the capability of integration and can scale up to an enterprise level solution.
   
   
   
2. Skill set of your Users ,Organizational Needs, Technology
   The skill set of your users and the organizational needs should determine the solution that you purchase be it ERP / CRM you need to understand your business requirements and analyze them with the current user base. The question you need to answer is that will my users be able to handle the complex system and are my current requirements complicating the system ? You may need to sacrifice some of your requirements and may require a restructuring of your business processes so that your current users can fit into the system and can work with it. The additional requirements that you have can always be accommodated in the Phase 2 when your users are more comfortable with the system. So always remember that you need to select a system that can match closest to your requirements and which your users can use, keeping in mind the scalability aspect of the solution .
   
   
   
3. Saas Vs On Premise
   As a business owner it is very essential for you to decide on what kind of investments you want to do in the system and what kind of support structure can you provide to your ERP/CRM. SaaS model seems profitable at the first go , the investment is less , you do not have to maintain IT Infrastructure and it is a subscription based model. But what we do not see is the recurring cost that we have to pay every month/year to keep the subscription live and going. Also the scope of customization is restricted in SaaS. On Premise on the other hand is a costly option the initial investment is high but the recurring charges are very low and sometimes even NIL. The scope of customizations and mapping your business requirements is very high . Both the models have their own Pros and Cons, one thing you need to check is that can the SaaS model you take be converted to an On Premise model.
   
   
   
4. Realistic expectations
   This is one of the factors why sales people are frustrated, over selling happens and Implementations and systems fail. It is very important to set realistic expectations form a software , be it the cost , the implementation time frame or the delivery that the software will do . we need to be realistic about the functionalities of the software that we are purchasing and cannot expect Stars and moon from the system at the first go . We need to keep our expectations low during the initial phases and then raise the Bar as the system gets stabilized . All you need to do is check if the system has the capability to meet your expectations now and in future.
   
   
   With all this in mind you can start your search for the right ERP / CRM Solution for your organization.Sage Software offers you the exact fitment for your business,Sage Extended Enterprise Suite is an offering from Sage Software which comprises of Sage ACCPAC ERP and Sage CRM. These two application work independently and also work in synch with each other and have an inbuilt integration i.e. no customization is required to integrate the two.Sage EES offers you a complete business solution wherein you can start with ERP or CRM as per your immediate requirement and then add on the other later.Going ahead you can add a BI which will help you in better reporting , some add-on modules like a manufacturing module , project and job costing ,National accounts , GL Security , DMS etc… there is no limit to what all you can add to enhance your system …the best part is that all the offerings given by Sage are integrated to each other and the products are user friendly.
   
   The extensive training given by the Partners help the users in understanding the system better and our aim is to make the application as user friendly and as simple as possible. With Greytrix and Sage you can be sure of a speedy and simple implementation . The consultants @ Greytrix help you identify the right solution and the Best Business Practices. Sage also offers you a choice between SaaS and On premise for their CRM solution.
   
   Contact us @ sales@greytrix.com / 022-67687847/ http://www.greytrix.in/
   
   

GIVE YOUR ACCOUNTANTS BREAK FROM THE TEDIOUS TDS

Complications are just around the corner when we talk about the TDS provisions i.e. Tax Deducted At Source. TDS is a statutory obligation implied by the Income Tax Laws on every Individual/ Firm/ Organization. TDS is the amount which is deducted by anybody (Individual/Firm/Organization) who is having a valid TAN No. and have a valid contract with the assesse as per the rates defined by the finance ministry and the amount is being credited in govt. a/c by the tax deductor and issue a TDS certificate to the assesse.

TDS is liable to be deducted only when the amount of payment exceeds minimum limit for TDS category in one accounting year. Further in order to reduce hardship on smaller contractors a provision is made under Income Tax rules to levy reduced TDS rate for certain period on due authorized letter.
Confused???

As said earlier, there is nothing as complicated as the TDS rules and regulations. Imagine the terror the accountants of each association go through every quarter end.

Frequently asked questions like, how do I calculate the miscellaneous payment? How will the e-TDS returns be prepared?
What are the due dates for filing quarterly TDS Returns?

And many of such ordeals occur at the time of TDS filing and many a time due to lack of accurate information organizations end paying heavy penalties for not submitting the accounts in time.

There is a better way, to tackle in the TDS provisions along with the financial accounting of your organization.

Greytrix leads an easy way through the as ever difficult Indian Statutory especially in the TDS provisions by coming with the Greytrix Add-on TDS module for all the editions of Sage ACCPAC ERP. The TDS module, an add-on for Sage ACCPAC ERP, captures essential tax related information and generates reports in government recognized formats.

The Tax vital information like maintaining the default state codes and the section of coverage is done within the TDS Module automatically. Maintaining the various bank codes and the branch codes was always a mess with the system capturing this data and with the help with the advance finder options entering making a remit entry is no longer an hour’s job.

You can process TDS transactions like the tds deduction at source for regular invoice, cumulative cutoff invoice, acknowledgement entries and much more. Generate the Forms like 16A, 26/27Q using user apt parameters to get exactly what the government requires to witness at every accounting period end.

Form 16 A has an exhaustive information to capture like the Acknowledgement Nos. of all Quarterly Statements of TDS under sub-section (3) of section 200 as provided by TIN Facilitation Centre or NSDL web-site along with the details of payment, tax deduction and deposit of tax into Central government account.
Once the tax from the vendor is deducted and remitted, the deducting authority should provide Form16A report to the service provider for his remittance. In this form, you can generate Form16A copies as well as generate print outs for the same.
Also, Form 26 Q and Form 27 Q are the hard copies of the remittance submitted to the Tax Authority of India for their verification. The Form26Q is related to the resident Tax Payable Persons and Form27Q is for non-resident persons. Each form details should be submitted to the government on quarterly basis.

Calculation of the tax to be remitted is just one side of the coin and to remit the amount without any penalty is the other herculean task. Greytrix TDS module calculates the due dates of remitting the amount to the government once the user enters the start date of the fiscal calendar. Thus your finance team is aware of the penalty strike occurrence if due dates cross over allowing them to be well prepared in advance.

With a vital combination of a World Class ERP solution and technical expertise from Greytrix, Greytrix TDS add on for Sage Accpac ERP works more accurately and in the favor of the Indian Tax Scenarios.

We @ Greytrix let the products speak for themselves hence request for a live demo or webinar for your team, where we would addresses the pain points in your organization and guide you to a more efficient business process. Mail us at marketing @greytrix.com for Greytrix TDS for Sage Accpac ERP Demo.

SMEs & ERP : 3 Cs to be answered before selecting an ERP for SME

Read on to get a sneak preview of the major challenges faced in selecting the Right ERP

Choice

How to choose an ERP ? always proves to be one of the most important and difficult questions that have to be answered by the SMEs. How to decide whether to go ahead with a global player or with a customized local player? Will they be able to meet my requirements and what will be the implication? The key is to understand your business requirements and then evaluate ERPs and select the one which meets most of your critical requirements. The ERP has to be configurable and user friendly product, it should easily be able to adapt to multiple industry segment and lines of business. The ERP should be built around an architecture which can support growing enterprises mapping your current requirements and giving you scope to expand. There should always be a scope of growth in the ERP as business solutions cannot be changed every year, it is a long term commitment that is made between the ERP and the Organization using it. There should be add-on products for example a Business Intelligence Solution ,which can work on the base product and enhance the functionality of the product thus fulfilling your requirements which may arise in future.

Cost

Cost is a major fear factor for the SMEs, everybody is scared of the costs that are associated with an ERP solution and no one is clear what the right ERP solution is and what is the right Cost of an ERP for you. There is no clear measure of defining these costs and no standard parameters of what is the right ERP for SME. There is cut throat competition in the market and ERPs are available at very competitive prices. Every vendor claims to provide the most economical solution. How will you select the best player and what suits you. Cost is a major distinguishing factor but also we need to focus on the Vendor Portfolio , What kind of solutions is the vendor offering , What is the vendors client base and what is the authenticity of the vendor. The companies have to go through a tedious process to search for the right solution. The Vendor that you Zero down on must have a strong Industrial backing, it must have a good experience on delivering the kind of business solutions that you are looking at. The vendor must have industry wide knowledge so that it can make you aware of the best practices followed into the industry. One more major factor that you need to consider is that how efficiently the Vendor can bridge the Cost Vs functionality Gap, offering you the most optimal solution at the most optimal cost You always need to check for the hidden costs associated with the Vendor and the product.

Customization

Every company wants the ERP to work according to the company’s current business process, they do not want to change according to the ERP. Companies prefer customizing the ERP application according to their business needs. This usually proves fatal in the long run. The costs involved with customization are huge and there is no guarantee that the customizations will work as desired also if the company changes it business process the entire application will have to be customized again. This is an additional risk and the companies usually want to avoid it ..the SMEs today feel that there is no good solution existing in the market , either they are very expensive or very low in functionality. The ERP should be configurable so that it can be easily tuned to your company’s business process as on date and tomorrow if you change your business process all you have to do is to change the same in the ERP. There should be always nil amount of customizations done. Your motto has to be to come as close as possible to your current business process and avoid unnecessary customizations.

Sage ACCPAC ERP from Sage Software is a world class product which solves these problems for you. Sage has been a world leader in the SME segment for the past 30 years delivering the most optimal solutions at most optimal prices (Prices start @ 2.99 lakhs). Sage focuses on providing the right solution for SMEs, with the help of very strong and dedicated channel partners. Sage operates on a partner model and we, Greytrix are the Premium partners with Sage India for their ERP / CRM solutions. Contact us today to help you evaluate the right solution for you business. Email: sales@greytrix.com Phone: 022 67687847. For more information please visit us at http://www.greytrix.in/

Pace the run with Sage Auto Simply

The manufacturing sector roars out loud with a whooping growth statistics premeditated by the India’s manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI)—a key measure that indicates the mood in the manufacturing sector which rose to a 17-month high at 57.6 in January from 55.6 in December.

At the same time, exports grew for the second month running. In December, they grew by 9.3% to $14.6 billion (around Rs 68,000 crore). A year ago, the figure was at $13.7 billion states the Times News Network.

“The surge in export orders in January suggests growth is being supported by foreign demand,’’ an analyst from Nomura said.

Growth bars are cutting the manufacturing profit margins and Autosimply, a Sage Development Partner, not come up with a proposal for enduring the escalation process of the SME Manufacturing Segment?

Sage Accpac and Autosimply offering a promotional pack starting at 3.99 Lakh giving your business process the systemization it requires to attain the targeted turnovers.

Autosimply is a Sage Development Partner since 2004.Founded by a group of ACCPAC consultants with over 10 year’s project experience; Auto Simply understands completely the apprehensions of manufacturing units. Hence the products are developed according to Sage ACCPAC SDK and built on world-class architecture.

AutoSimply’s Manufacturing Order, is a compact, user-oriented manufacturing processing solution that is integrated with Sage ACCPAC ERP. ACCPAC service providers and their customers will find our solution easy to deploy and use.

AutoSimply Manufacturing Order is simple yet powerful, enabling an efficient manufacturing operation flow from material purchase, processing manufacturing orders, work in progress, routing cost calculation, material consumption, scrap and substitution handling and material close out.

The design of AutoSimply Manufacturing Order is conceptualized to fully accommodate user’s desires, business processes and functionality. The design also allows easy implementation and support by skilled Sage ACCPAC certified consultants. This user-friendliness enables users to quickly benefit from the solution.

A robust finance module in conjunction with manufacturing and production planning module aids multi level bill of material, Work in Progress Monitoring, Online Average Costing, Operation based Manufacturing and accompanied by a series of analytical reports which determines item history, manufacturing order history, product variance and much more.

AutoSimply enables an efficient manufacturing operation flow covering material purchase, processing manufacturing orders, work in progress, routing cost calculation, material consumption, material scrap and item substitution and order closeout. The design of AutoSimply’s Manufacturing Order is conceptualized to fully accommodate users’ business processes needs and expectations

Get in touch with Greytrix, who is one of the largest Gold Development partners of Sage Software providing migration, integration, customization and modification solutions globally as well as consulting and implementation expertise to the Sage product lines in India, to achieve the cutting edge over your competition and manufacture efficient outputs.

Real Estate- Rebuilding strategies with Information Technology

Real estate industry is currently estimated to be INR. 2100 billion, and is growing at the rate of 30%. This industry contributes 4 % of the GDP in Indian economy as on date. Growing business confidence among the entrepreneurs and corporate houses after recession is now taking a driving seat for its growth. Gap between demand and supply of quality real estate is adding fuel to the growth.

With an anticipated growth in FDI, commercial office business is shifting their business model of Sales mode to service mode, regional players are planning to expand their operation to national level by shifting their focus from Tier I cities to Tier II & III.

Rapid urbanization, increase in urban population and increase in per capita income of urban population had added wings to residential business to grow, even though this is the most unorganized sector in this industry. There are still many unexplored and unexploited segment in this business in :

Logistics & Warehousing - With the booming trade internationally and domestically, number of MNCs are establishing their operations in India. Outsourced warehousing and Logistic services require large infrastructure and engineering projects.

Healthcare Infrastructure - Industry experts expect steady growth in Healthcare industry, this give way to another avenue for the reality players to explore their opportunity in infrastructure outsourcing.

Education Infrastructure - Industry demands world class professional with strong knowledge base which in turn opens up big opportunity for Education Industry (termed in business language). Education Industry is a huge untapped potential market with low competition but demand high quality infrastructure.

Low Cost Housing - Almost 72 % of Indian population are still rural resident. Favorable situation like increase in nuclear family, easy access to finance had increased the % of family opting for owned house over rented house. Thus giving an open ground to realty players.

“Innovation is the Key to Success” this is true for every business and Real Estate Industry is no exception to it. Exploring new segment, new methodologies, new strategy, new opportunity is expected from a business leader who sits on driving seat. But a billion dollar question is :“Are you really ready for it?”

Growth is always a sweet dream but growth bring complexity in organization, in system and almost in every operation of business which can be nightmare. First step for any organization, aspiring growth is to get organized with a system in place. Business leader always prefer to be out of daily operational complexities so that they get a space to think out of the box. Atomizing daily business operation serves the purpose. Today about 90 % of decisions are taken on a quick impulse or `gut feeling' by smart business leader, one’s instinct might have helped in the past it could be pure co-incidence. Getting the facts right, before making any crucial decisions is necessary but, on demand & timely availability of trusted facts and figures is still a point of concern. We at Greytrix help small and medium enterprises to provide right information at right time in right place.

Regulatory & Document Management – Complex and stringent laws and regulation makes it difficult to maintain documents and legal proceeding during initial stage of the project be it commercial or residential. This results in dependency on specialized resources or time consuming activity. Project estimation is majorly effected by time factor and delay at any stage can effect the profitability of project. Workflow based document management handles the critical documents and legal procedure by its own, eliminating resource dependency.

Land Management & Development – Land procurement and development involves legal activities. Since these proceedings varies from case to case, involvement of legal cell is inevitable but management at any point of time is unable to anticipate the time line between land identification and project kick start because of unavailability of information. On screen, on demand detailed information to management helps to plan the further course of action on project.

Project Management – Pricing strategy on any project depend majorly on total project cost estimation. Prime focus of the project manager will be to finish the project on budgeted time and within budgeted cost so that profitability can be maintained. Sometimes it becomes difficult to allocate certain common cost during the project hence project variance report may not be full proof. Project and Job Costing addresses this issue and allocate cost accordingly. Thus management at any given point can view the cost incurred at project level which can be again drilled down till single unit level.

Customer Management – Investment in real estate is common among High Net-worth Individual (HNI), developers often see customers repeatedly coming back to them during new projects. Keeping track of such customer and floating information to this group is a major task today. Customer Relationship Management help the organization to achieve customer satisfaction and customer delight through such automated services.

Sales Management – Sales lead time in any project is longer thus sales team has to maintain prospect’s information from day of project or scheme declaration till handover of last unit. Sales in real estate is not just a sale of one unit but it involves customer servicing , document management, legal contracting, etc. Sale automation help the executives and managers to see the prospect pipeline at any point of time and take appropriate timely action to close the deal.

ERP and CRM to Manage Media Companies

With the idea of branded entertainment rolling up their wheels, the leading advertising agencies have tightened their grip on all the operations of their entertainment wings to generate more and more bucks for media.
According to different studies, with the increase in the numbers of television channel, the buzz is that branded entertainment is becoming clearer. With over more than 200 television channels in India. Advertising agencies are focusing their clients brand through entertainment properties such as television serials, movies and radio
In a highly competitive world of media, survival not only depends on how good or bad you are but it also depends on how tactfully you are able to cope up with the fast growing world. This will not only include managing your clients but it will also depend on how good you are in your finances.
Considering the above factors the first thought that comes to our mind is a solution that has the ability to manage both the task i.e. managing finances and doing the customer relationship management, also a solution that has made its presence felt in the market time and again.
Sage Accpac ERP and Sage CRM are the two business solutions that have an impact on the market and have managed to survive in this competitive world for more than 30 years now where every day a new solution pops up like wild mushrooms growing in your back yard, also it has managed to serve different types of industries. With some of the big names in the media industry being associated with SAGE ERP and CRM, it is indeed a reliable solution for media and entertainment industry. The solution has been designed keeping in mind the various aspects that go into running a media company (e.g. AD agencies). It not only makes your work more efficient and saves your time but it also increases your revenue by a percentage that you have been trying from a long time to achieve. As companies are becoming client centric managing your client becomes an important aspect of your business. Hence going for a world class solution will only benefit you.
When asked by a reporter how can Sage CRM benefit or help any organization, Mr. Thomas Abraham (MD Sage India) answered by saying “Let’s take the case of media companies. Sales executives of TV channels can have a rate card built into the CRM system, thus helping them to make customized proposals to their clients. This also helps in retaining consistency while dealing with different customers and across the sales team. They would like to link their programmes to specific brands that they wish to attract, and also get the attention of media buying houses and ad agencies. This again gets streamlined in the CRM system.
There are a number of other verticals where CRM and sales force automation play a pivotal role for sales organizations to maximize their customer relationships. It is important for these organizations to have a 360-degree view of their prospects and customers. Likewise, they also need to predict business that can be generated across geographical territories, product lines and sales executives.
In insurance, instant access to customer history drives CRM adoption. Companies can document customer complaints and be able to address them in a timely manner. CRM in customer service also provides necessary escalations to supervisory staff if issues are not resolved within pre-defined time-frames. This way customer service standard can be defined for organizations to follow.”
Similarly with the help of an ERP complete revenue recognition, project accounting, breaking down the scheduling of project/task/subtask and account for billable and non-billable activity can be taken care. To understand these features see the Demonstration of the solution and judge the system yourself.

For more details contact Greytrix India Pvt Ltd on 022-67687847 or mail us at sales@greytrix.com