Vantage from Epicore, NAV from Microsoft - Case Study Example

Name Tutor Course Date Introduction In order to overcome the difficulties BITA is facing in managing its operations, the XMP systems the firm is using at the moment must be replaced with an ERP system which is anticipated to be more effective than XMP. The new system is expected to have unique capabilities in finance, inventory management, customer relationship management, management and E-Commerce support. BITA has been advised by the parent company in Germany to compare the products from three different firms to evaluate their effectiveness in meeting both the requirements of BITA and the value of money on their price tags. The products to be evaluated are Vantage from Epicore, Ax from Microsoft and Nav also from Microsoft. The products will be evaluated on the basis of the list of essential and desirable features that have been developed by BITA. Vantage from Epicore Vantage ERP is an integrated software solution for identifying and planning the entire enterprise resources that firms need to capture, produce, transport and account for clients’ orders. It has a distributed common database that offers the ability to access the appropriate information, from the right source and therefore empowers the users throughout the entire supply chain to make reasonable decisions. Vantage meets the users’ requirements in the following areas: Analytics and Reporting In terms of financial management, vantage offers manufacturers with the tools required to create value through monitoring financial situations and reasonable decision making. Accounts Receivable, Payroll, Currency administration, Accounts Payable, Fixed Assets and General Ledger assist the users in monitoring and management of invoices, payments, asset management, and payroll and benefits to lower costs so as to minimize the level of cash flow. Accounts Receivable enables the user to bill the customers as orders are shipped and then follow up payments as they are received. The product has a credit manager workbench which allows the user to view all credit related information concerning a particular customer. It provides a single point on which to control credit status, order credit status and account management. It has an invoice tracker used to view client invoices and payments. The software has lines for sales commissions, taxes and adjustments. It has customer tracker abilities for analyzing the sales, history and credit holds information for the customers. It has a sales tax register and formats for viewing aging information and sales commissions reports. The Accounts Payable allows the user to enter vendor invoices for any purchases that they make and then create checks for the invoices they want to pay. It allows one to update the purchase orders as well as purchase management. It has services such as cash management entries, easy entry, checks and online cost updates lines. Others are vendor trackers, general ledger interface and bank reconciliation entries. The General ledger processes and sends entries created by job management, AR, AP and Payroll. Customer Relations Management In the customer relations management sector, the tool controls all aspects of a firm’s interactions with both its clients and potential clients from producing the lead, and coming up with an opportunity, taking the order, manufacturing and shipping the goods, getting the cash and supporting the clients. All through the entire process, CRM allows the customers to be actively involved in the entire supply chain management. By using single source client information, from, production, engineering, sales as well as shipping to finance the firm is in a position to meet the customers’ demands. The CRM format supplied is intended to enable the firms establish and build long lasting relationship with the customers. Contact management enables the firm to keep in touch with the customers in an easier manner. Account information and integration with E-mail also assist in keeping track off the customers. Contact information, call history, task management and unlimited call notes enable the firms to keep in touch with the customers. E-commerce Since internet has become a major way in which firms market their products and exploit all the available channels to market their products, vantage will give an opportunity to the user’s clients and business partners to access the online stores throughout the day. CustomerConnect application will allow easy management of customers by leading them through the online marketing program. Storefront and customer portal give the advantage of establishing a strong relationship with customers preferring to shop via the online means. Services offered to facilitate online shopping include self-service, online RFQs, single login, one process and web-enabled product configurator. SalesConnect allows the sales personnel as well as partners to access and update critical information in the course of marketing the products. This will allow the sales staff as well as partners to create and manage marketing opportunities, configure products, create sales orders and maintain customer contact information. SupplierContact will assist the user in understanding and maintaining a good supplier relationship Financials The product will assist in currency management by automating the procedure of buying and selling in foreign currencies. It has trackers to identify default currencies and provide information on exchange rates in an attempt to minimize manual transactions. The service will have exchange rates, currency tables and a streamlined data entry method. Profits or losses made by the company will automatically be posted on the general ledger. Other services in the currency management include cash receipts, purchase orders, quotations, service contacts, vendor price breaks and invoicing. Human resources The product has a comprehensive management solution that streamlines all the HR processes in a firm. It administers appropriate applicant tracking, benefit programs, training and development of workforce and complex means of calculating union dues and the fast changing governmental regulations like EEO, VETS, OSHA and AAP reporting. Inventory and sales order processing The product has an inventory management program that updates and maintains information on raw materials, WIP and finished goods. The average costs for each item are continually updated while providing management analysis of shortage monitoring, re-order analysis, stock status, valuation and critical items. Other services within the inventory management package include the online part tracker, flexible costing, cost tracking, mass issue, time-phased material inquiry and multiple warehousing. Through the warehouse status inquiry and the warehouse transfer audits, the user will have the ability to track and locate parts stored in different locations. Other services within this package include cross-referencing, part master price breaks, physical and perpetual inventory, inventory lot tracking and serial number tracker. Others are serial documentation, void serial, non quantity bearing and dimensional bearing. Materials planning and manufacturing Vantage supports traditional BOM management with single-level formats that establishes the materials and components necessary to build end parts. It also introduces multi-level BOM management that incorporates internal and external routing steps in addition to single level components. Other services within the same package include drag and drop interface, visual BOM display, same-as-except and alternative BOM. NAV from Microsoft Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a business management aid that assists small and midsized firms simplify and streamline complex business processes. It adapts to the functions of the business in a fast pace and provides industry-specific functionality that is appropriate to the local needs of an organization’s operations. It is designed to assist firms in adding functionality, custom applications and online business capabilities. It enables people to be effective in managing businesses. Some of the services that the product entails include: Financial management The package has a basic general ledger which contains all the basic functions required to set up a firm and post to the all-purpose ledger, chart of accounts, general journals and VAT facilities. It also includes facilities for both internal and external reporting, documents for approving sales and purchases, posting and reporting in the firm’s base currency and capability to export data from any other form to Microsoft Word or Microsoft office Excel. The product allows the user to allocate general ledger entries to various accounts, departments and projects. It also allows users to work within budgets in general ledger accounts. It can allow one to work with more than one budget at the same time. The package allows for analysis of data from different applications. It has a configuration engine that configures data transformation packages in order to be transferred and also configures schema for data mart tables. Customer relations management In sales and marketing the package allows the user to maintain the contacts of the customers and personalize a general approach towards them. This is done by recording contact information for all business interactions. This service is incorporated with the sales together with receivables application area. The user can specify the individual persons related to each contact and get an automatic alert in cases where contact information that exists is entered for the second time. The user gets a precise view of prospects and clients by categorizing their contacts based on profiling questions. Companies can issue quotes to prospects or create sales documents for particular contacts where there are sales order management. The customers’ contacts can be categorized into classes based on any criteria that the user specifies. Customers can for instance be categorized on bases of revenue. They can then be assigned specified segments for easier management. Campaign management can then be organized on the basis of the segments formed. In order to send documents to people in various nationalities, Campaign Management based on document management is applied. Interactions of all kinds are recorded and documents are attached to the interactions. Supply chain management Users can set and maintain the client table. Sales are then posted in journals and manage receivables. In collaboration with multiple currencies, these packages are likely to post sales transactions and administer receivables in multiple currencies for every single customer. The basic receivables are then integrated with basic general ledger and inventory and are also required for the configuration of all other sales and receivables. Sales invoicing allows for setting, posting and printing customer invoices as well as sales credit memos. This service is entirely integrated with General Ledger and Inventory. The sales order management granule assists in managing partial shipments, ship and invoice separately, make prepayments invoices for the sales order and utilize quotes together with blanket orders within the sales phase. The granule calculates invoice discounts automatically and can set any number of invoice discount terms. In case a customer has several invoicing and ship to address, a ship-to address can be set for that specific customer. Based on the lead time or production time the delivery dates and times can be calculated. Inventory management This is a service that allows the user to keep track of items and prices in the basic inventory. It entails item tables, entries and item journals. Together with General Ledger and the posting processes in sales and receivables as well as Purchase and Payables, this granule is particularly useful for the configuration of all other inventory granules. Multiple locations granule allows for the management of inventories in different locations. It includes locations in plants and manufacturing equipments as well as distribution centers, warehouses and service cars. The stock keeping units allows for the storage of same items with similar item numbers in different locations and management of each of them at its location. Other granules within this option include alternative vendors, bills of materials, kitting, location transfers, item substitution, item cross referencing and non stock items. Others are item tracking, cycle counting, warehouse receipt, pick, warehouse shipment and bin. Warehouse management Warehouse management systems are applied in management of items on a bin level. Items are received and picked from a bin for management purposes. The items can be moved within bins in order to maximize the use of space. Picking and moving can be done manually. Services that assist in management of warehouse include automated data capture system and bin setup. Manufacturing The product assists in basic manufacturing through the use of production orders. Consumption and output are created in order to manage the production orders. The net requirements can then be calculated. Services within manufacturing include agile manufacturing, basic supply planning, demand forecasting, basic capacity planning, machine centers and finite loading. Human resource management The product is deliberated and designed to help in managing a company’s human resources. Relevant employee information is grouped and tracked in order to organize the employees on the basis of various types of information like experience, skills, education, training and union membership. Personal information about each employee is stored in order to fill vacant positions should they arise within the firm. The types of software applied in this case include Employee Portal Users (10), Employee Portal User (25) and Employee portal Users (100). Ax from Microsoft Microsoft Dynamics AX refers to an integrated business management tool for midsize and big companies that assists business people make informed business decisions with confidence. The software brings people, processes and information jointly from different places so as to enhance business productivity and effectiveness and assist businesses succeed in their operations. Financial Management Financials in AX performs the basic functionality like general ledger, bank management, accounts receivable and accounts payable. The module has features such as General Ledger, accounts receivable, bank management, and accounts payable. General Ledger is used to manage flexible accounting periods and multiple configurable journals. The Accounts Receivable monitors credit checks and provides flexible terms of payments which include advanced payment schedules and cash discounts. It has draft handling and prepayment capabilities. It also includes free text invoicing, advanced collection letter and interest calculation and multiple currency handling capabilities. The Bank management option has bank account reconciliation capabilities which include electronic bank account system. It has check set up, monitoring deposits, payments, drafts and bank balances capabilities. It has the options of electronic import and bank account in a few selected countries. It can also handle multiple currency and exchange rate adjustments. The export and import formats for electronic payments are transacted through bank management. The Accounts Payable has the capabilities of bridging accounts and to offer flexible terms of payments. It can also handle promissory notes and prepayments. Other features include payment proposals multiple entry options and payment journal with payment proposal features. Business analysis AX allows users to compare vendor data, evaluate warehouse operations, develop strategies and retain preferred clients while attracting new ones. This option has features such as generation and viewing of cubes, Microsoft analysis services, security and configuration, Microsoft reporting services and business intelligence metadata. Warehouse management Warehouse management in AX provides inventory dimensions which can be added to all inventory items to track the particular places in which they are located. Inventory dimensions enable the user to specify the specific put-away locations when receiving items. Warehouse Management can help the user in saving time and resources when receiving item by proposing optimized placements for storage in the warehouses. Reasonable picking routes can also save time when picking and shipping items from warehouses. Features that assist in warehouse management include placement and storage, storage dimensions, warehouse zones and location, random location storage, pick and shipments, output orders, shipment, pallet transports and barcoding. Manufacturing In manufacturing all the resources that a firm uses for production can be classified into four work centers: machinery, people, tools and vendors. Resources in AX assist the user in registering and organizing all the manufacturing or project resources. Features in this module include production orders, subcontracting, production consumption, scheduling, and production bill of materials and creation of production orders. These features assist in reducing lead times and satisfy client requirements with flexible BOM scheduling. Since updates on WIP and actual costs to the General Ledger can be done on the internet, users are always assured of having up-to-date information on where the products are in the production chain. Demand planner is useful in production since it generates quick demand information which can be used for forecasting in order to minimize planning time and horizons. Customer relations management Marketing Automation in AX enables the user to classify customers and prospective customers into categories based on sales and demographic data from Sales Force Automation in AX. By extracting groups of customers and prospects based on sales and CRM data, profit margins can be estimated. Marketing Automation thus assist the user in making campaign planning, execution and analysis easier. Campaigns can either be based on front office or back office information. Telemarketing Telemarketing enables the users to carry out and manage telephone-enabled sales and marketing actions from a single connection. The module also assists the users to improve lead generation and qualification, make guided calls efficiently with call center functionality and apply the data from telemarketing activities directly in the sales process. Business case Each of the above discussed ERP systems has excellent features that can assist in the running of BITA operations. Epicore and AX however have most of the features that are essential or preferred by BITA and thus a choice should be made from the two based on other factors such as cost, number of users and dependency on a third party. The best choice to make is AX since it is not as expensive as Epicor. In terms of popularity, AX is superior to Epicor implying that it is capable of meeting the requirements of many organizations. Epicor will not be preferred since it requires an average of 30 people to be run which surpasses the number of staff members in BITA after a reduction of 10%. AX is capable of effectively handling activities in all the sectors of the company. AX is the ERP product that will be able to handle all the customers’ needs effectively. The product is manageable according to available resources since it requires an average of eight users. Considering that BITA is in a process of reducing the number of staff members by 10%, then this is the optimum number to work with. The implementation cost of the product is relatively lower when compared to other products. Due to the global financial crisis affecting the parent company BIT GmbH, this product is affordable by the company even after cutting down the operational costs by 10%. The product will be able to handle all the key sectors of the company to achieve the firm’s objectives. It will effectively handle the financial management, production, marketing and human resources which are the major sectors of BITA. Works cited Managing SOA performance. Retrieved on November 23, 2009 from Read More