For more information, contact Mary Morgan at mary@vbs.cc.

http://www.thefabricator-digital.com/thefabricator/201109/?pg=68&pm=2&u1=friend

Your company will reap the benefits as you Connect with users from across the US and participate in 3 days of intense hands-on learning in the following areas:

Quality * Sales and Customer Service * Engineering * Purchasing
* Operations/Manufacturing * IT * Finance

You’ll return to work with:
*An arsenal of proven answers and solutions from top experts at INFOR, VBS, Synergy Resources, VISUAL South and peers
*National relationships within your specific functional area
*Motivation and Know-How to streamline and improve your processes
*Knowledge of new capabilities and functionality you can use to drive better results at your company!
*Improvement options for you, and an understanding of the benefits, risks, and costs for each path
*Impactful and specific input into the future of the VISUAL product by functional role

All this for about the cost of one day of on-site training!

For more detailed information and registration, go to www.VisualUserConference.com

Travel Cost Worries? Round trip plane tickets are reasonable now so sign up soon!
(Rates from Cheaptickets.com)

<$175 CMH, CVG, DTW, MDW, ORD, PIT, TOL
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<$300 ICT, SGF

There are a number of tools that are part of VISUAL that allow you to extend functionality, validate data integrity, enforce processing rules, and  just about anything else you can think of. And none of them effect the basic Source Code, so there is not upgrade issues. The major “Productivity Enhancement tools“ are:

User definable User Defined Fields.

Macros

CRM App Builder

Work Flow

Below are some examples of the types of things I have done with clients that really proved valuable for them:

USER DEFINABLE USER DEFINED FIELDS – Beginning in Version 6.5.4, most screens that have the standard 10 User Defined fields, have been expanded to allow multiple tabs of multiple user defined fields that you set up. The fields can be specified as to data type – Date, Boolean, Decimal, or text – which allows for much more flexibility then the standard alpha-numeric user defined fields. Once added to the application, they are available on most of the related Centura Reports so reports can be much more in line with your needs.

MACROS – Macros are basically a VB script within a specific application (Customer Order Entry, for example) that, based on the rules you define, causes something to happen. They can be triggered automatically (when the order is saved, When a new line is inserted into the order or when an order is loaded into the screen) or manually at some point in the process. A FEW Examples:

Want to change the product code on a line in a Customer Order based on key in Part   Maintenance? Normally I sell this item as part of my main business and have a product code defined to report that business. But some times I sell it as a spare part and want to report that separately? THERE IS A MACRO FOR THAT!!

Want to adjust  the order discount based on the TOTAL AMOUNT of the order rather then the value of a line on the order? THERE IS A  MACRO FOR THAT!!

Want to notify shipping that the order they are shipped requires special, customer specific    documentation that shipping usually forgets to include? THERE IS A MACRO FOR THAT!!

These are just 3 ways MACROS can help streamline your processes!!

CRM APP BUILDER – Within the Enterprise version of VISUAL CRM there is a tool called APP BUILDER. What it allows you to do is associate different sections of CRM to one another and then build a group of user defined fields to do all kinds of creative things. You can define the data types for the user defined fields and constrain text fields to a pre-defined list of acceptable entries. All the fields can be made to be “available to the grid” in CRM so that you can organize and report against the data collected.  All the standard CRM functionality  – Tasks, History, security, etc. – applies to applications you build. Some examples of how App Build has been used include:

A project management tool that allows you to keep track of activities for project based              manufactures. For example – when were approval drawings sent to the customer? When are               then due back? Once approved, when will the detailed production drawings be done and who is            working on them? THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT!!

Assign unique “License Plate” numbers to pallets of product shipped to customers with out   using VISUAL Lot and Serial trace. THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT!!

During a Sales Cycle tracking details of the proposal preparation and follow up activities for   major projects. THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT!!

WORK FLOW – Work Flow is a VERY powerful tool that allows you to automate a business process in part or in its entirety, integrating policies and procedures with information flow according to predefined conditions or rules. Building a Work Flow entails defining the predefined steps and related business rules then building the work flow using the graphic interface in the VISUAL Work Flow Designer.  A FEW examples :

Is there a part that you have in inventory and want to use up, but do not want Purchasing to buy            additional stock? THERE’S AN WORK FLOW FOR THAT!!

Do you want to automatically send the buyer an email when a purchase requisition over a certain dollar threshold is approved? THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT!!

In the Estimating Window would you like to 1)enforce that all quotes must have an expiration                 date, 2) automatically create a task to follow up 30 days after the quote is printed, 3)  automatically send an email to the sales manager if the follow up task is not completed within 24 hours of when it was due? THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT!!

Cost – Most of these ideas have minimal costs, especially if you have the necessary  in house skills. If not, VISUAL Business Solutions  has the skills and expertise to develop any of the suggestions above. If you can write down what you want the system to do, VBS can program it for you and my experience has been that the costs are minimal compared to the immediate benefits.

Let you imagination run wild!! If you are having problems 1) enforcing processing rules, 2) Validating Data, 3) make VISUAL more responsive to your specific needs,  your first thought should be to use some tools built into VISUAL.

Good luck and Good Business!!!

Ken Briney   

Senior Project Manager| Visual Business Solutions

For more information, or to register now…click here  http://www.rsvpbook.com/event.php?495017

Why you will not want miss it…

• The only place you can load Visual 7.0 onto your laptop,”"and then use “LIVE” code to practice what you’ve learned. Try it and see… is that add-on module what you really need? Find out here using your own data!

• Understand the Visual Roadmap for 2012 and beyond -”"don’t get left behind!

• Visual Expert Deep Dive – Learn advanced tips and”"tricks in Visual that impacts YOUR specific Role and”"Functional Area!

• Meet the top Infor Visual executives, including the Visual”"Product Manager…who owns the keys to the castle for future Infor enhancements.

• Experience 3rd party products and services to help you”"unleash the power of Visual!

• Meet and Network with Visual Users and learn how”"they’ve improved their business!

• The Keynote speaker – Soma Somasundaram, SVP of”"Global Product Development – will share exciting new updates – not yet announced. You won’t want to miss this one!

• Location! Don’t be left in the cold while the rest of your Visual community spends time in Disney Orlando making their business more competitive.

Hope to see you there!

“The Freight Terms option is now available when defining Terms Rules in Global Financial. After the database is updated, all Terms Rules in Global Financials will be set to the default Freight Terms value of “Billed.” Users should review the Terms Rule table in Global Financials and make any necessary changes. Once saved, the new value is exchanged to VISUAL Enterprise accordingly. “

What does this mean to me?  For Global Financials users it has long been an issue in that Visual Manufacturing didn’t really have a Terms table, but the elements of a payment term, discount percent, discount days, net days etc., was actually buried in the table that the terms involved document resided, like the Customer, Customer Order, Vendor Purchase Order table.  Exchange would take these transactions/documents and try to exchange with something in the Terms Rules Table that had the same elements as the terms rules that currently exist, and if it did not find a match it would create a “pretend” terms such as TERMS1, TERMS2 and so on.

Visual 7.0 changed that as in it actually created a terms rule table and the terms rule ID’s are actually imbedded in the tables mentioned above, and all was well, except for…

When a selection was made in Visual Manufacturing for a term, and a freight element was also collected, whether prepaid, billed or collect, that term could not find a match in Global Financials, because up until now, Global Financial Terms rule was only concerned with discount base, discount percent, discount days, net days, but no freight elements.

As you can see the freight element is now a selection in the latest build in Global Financials.

For more information, or questions on how VBS can help you with this issue, contact Jaime Bzdok at jaime@vbs.cc.

Hugh R. Alley – 12/9/2010 4:29:00 PM

Three years ago I joined a small manufacturing firm as Operations Manager. Two years earlier, the company had selected and installed a new super-flexible, highly customized enterprise resource planning (ERP) software package. Since I joined, I have reached the conclusion that I like vanilla. A lot.

Background Flavor
I first heard the term “vanilla” used in reference to computer software during a consulting assignment I had several years ago. I was helping an organization do a project review for a software installation that had gone sideways. The team described their recently adopted strategy as “vanilla, if at all possible.”

I had to ask what they were getting at. Their reply was that when they implemented software, they wanted to make as few changes to the software (out of the box) as possible. They did lots of configuration, to the extent that it was permitted by the underlying structure of the software, but very, very few changes to the software.

Why did they take this approach? Well, they described the history of their organization’s ERP system. An earlier version had been heavily customized. Then, with budget constraints (don’t we all have them?), they deferred upgrading the software as new versions came out, because of the cost of upgrading the customized portions and the extensive testing that would be necessary. The situation never got better, and pretty soon they were stranded: support for the version of the software they were using was about to be dropped by the manufacturer.

Now they were wrestling with the monumental project of transitioning to the newest version. Now they needed to keep it plain and simple. “Vanilla” was the new code word.

Why You Should Keep It Simple
There are, I think, three reasons to go for vanilla.

1) Your business isn’t as different as you think.

The operations of most businesses aren’t really that special. There are some specialized requirements in some industries; heat tracking in metal distribution, complete traceability in food and aviation, and so on. But even these are now handled natively by the many different specialized software offerings. I think there is some hubris in people’s belief that they’re special, different, unique. Often what that means is that the firm has grown up with unusual or obscure processes. In reality, those processes aren’t essential to what the organization does, but they have become identified as such. Choosing software because of existing practice is rarely a good decision.

The power of most ERP solutions is now high enough to allow you to do most of what you want to do. And if you can’t find one that will do, I recommend you think long and hard about whether what you want is really a necessary function. (As a side note, 10 to 15 years ago, when the power of ERP systems was much less, this was a much less convincing argument.)

2) Documentation, training, and reporting are often afterthoughts.

There are some common failings that occur when a company chooses super-flexible or highly customized software. Two are critical. The first is that documentation and training must be driven by the user, and this is rarely done well.

We have this situation where I work now. I am amazed by the staff’s resourcefulness in finding ways to get their job done in spite of the apparent obstacles the system puts in their way. But when I dig into each situation, more often than not I find that they simply haven’t been trained in what our ERP system can do for them.

The second is that reporting is often omitted. The developers work to get basic functionality in place. But between time pressures to get the system in and budget limitations, the reporting functions get left to a later phase. And like my former client’s version updates, that phase often never comes.

At my current company, even five years after our software is in, I still do not have a simple report that shows me how much of a certain stock-keeping unit (SKU) we have sold in any given period. I can get the information by faking out the system, or by doing extensive manipulation of data extracts in off-line spreadsheets, but it isn’t easy. It makes forecasting difficult, and that hurts our inventory management and our supply chain reliability. Big problem. By contrast, most out-of-the-box systems come with pretty good reporting, and as long as you don’t change the code, the reports will give you what you need.

3) Upgrades are hard with customized software.

That’s what my old client finally learned. If there are no changes to the underlying structure of the software, then upgrades are easy. The upgrades give immediate access to new capabilities, improve security, and reduce bugs. These are all good things. But with customized software, upgrades are more complicated, more expensive, and more risky.

Vanilla Essence
In my experience, the common argument given for choosing super-flexible or customized software is misleading. The argument says that with better flexibility, you will have the ability to do whatever you need. But it doesn’t work out that way. The resources to make changes are limited, and the result is that while all things are possible, little of what is possible is actually accomplished. It doesn’t seem to matter what size of organization you work in.

So the next time you go looking at ERP systems, think long and hard before straying from vanilla. Ask yourself whether those features you just can’t live without are truly essential to carrying on the business of your organization. My guess is that often enough, you’ll discover you have those requirements because you’ve always had those requirements, not because they’re at the essence of your business.

Yup. I like vanilla. A lot.

About the Author
Hugh R. Alley, PEng, is the Operations Manager at Alco Ventures Inc, a manufacturer of aluminum railing systems and retractable screen doors. Hugh is responsible for the entire supply chain of the firm, including purchasing, logistics, manufacturing and distribution. Alley has been doing process improvement work for 20 years, and has been advising management about IT system requirements and implementation for 15 years. Educated at University of Waterloo (Systems Design Engineering), Cornell University (Resource Economics), and Vancouver School of Theology, Hugh has taught at both Simon Fraser University and University of British Columbia. He writes and presents frequently on lean manufacturing and lean processes, decision processes, and project management. Contact him at halley@alcoventures.com.

Manufacturers Support Bipartisan Bill.

The link above highlights some new legislation geared toward helping manufacturers provide training to their workforce.