Comsense - Articles

System Integration - Key to the selection of Distribution/ERP software

Patrick Teas — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 21:42:00 GMT

By Wayne Teas

'You don't know what you don't know!'

What would appear to be a seemingly rudimentary statement is too frequently the root cause of the poor selection of distribution software for the Architectural Openings Industry. It is not uncommon for industry outsiders, specifically software vendors, to view this industry like any general distribution business. As many of us know only too well, this could be no farther from the truth. 'Off-the-shelf' Distribution Software works well with simple 'SKU' based product. The Architectural Openings industry is far removed from 'SKU' based product. The vast majority of product utilized in this industry must be configured from a selection of definition attributes, finishes, options and engineering elements.

Effective evaluation of software depends on at least one of the parties, the software vendor or the potential customer, having an intimate knowledge of the very unique requirements of this industry. If one of the parties has a limited understanding of the requirements, the chances of a successful implementation are significantly reduced, particularly if that one party is the software vendor. For both parties to be short sighted in defining or effectively communicating these requirements is a sure recipe for failure.

The complexities unique to this industry are not limited to the Estimating, Detailing and Scheduling aspects of the business, more generally referred to as the front-end application, but also extend to the distribution aspect of the business, more generally referred to as the back-end application. The back-end manages everything from order processing, inventory control, accounting, purchasing, customer service, supply chain management and finance management. Together, they represent the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution for your entire organization. System integration is the bringing together of the component subsystems (front-end and back-end) and ensuring that these subsystems function together as a unified system.

Let's explore this integration concept to understand what it is and why it is so important to the successful implementation of a complete business system for the Architectural Openings Industry distributor.

For many other industry applications, system integration can take different forms and exist in varying degrees, but for this industry the only effective integration is complete integration. Complete system integration must have the following characteristics and capabilities:

A database with instant access to both front-end and back-end data. This is generally only achieved by having both applications operating from a single consolidated database. It is difficult and costly to achieve at best between two or more different database vendors. The optimum is a single vendor, single database solution where the front-end and back-end operate as one unified application. This provides enhanced performance and undeterred yet controlled access to all data. A unified solution from a single vendor also eliminates the dreaded finger-pointing between vendors when a problem occurs.
All data is known by both applications at any point in time. The distribution application must have real-time information about detailed projects and any ongoing changes made to the project whether by way of detailing refinements or change orders. Keeping in mind that it is not uncommon to have 100 or more change orders on large projects, access to current information instantly is a key element of effective integration.
No redundancy of data, specifically in terms of master files. Maintenance of multiple master files, such as customers, suppliers, users, etc., is terribly non-productive, error prone and a challenge to keep synchronized.
A single data entry point. An integrated application will always rely on original data entry and will utilize that one source of data throughout the entire application.

In contrast, an integrated system is NOT:

A Submittal Import Process. Project information is notoriously dynamic. This ever changing process goes on until the project is completed and even then may be subject to change orders. A Submittal Import Process can only capture relevant data at one point in time.
Incomplete knowledge of either application's data. Unless there is a direct link between two different vendor databases, then this condition will naturally exist. Although difficult for non-technical evaluators to prove, a few direct 'show me' questions can usually ascertain the validity of this feature. For example, request a demonstration of an opening product hand change in the detailing module and show (1) how the detailer is able to immediately see the procurement, work order, shipping, invoicing status of the product that is about to be changed, (2) how the project management (product status) dynamically reflects the change and (3), if the change was due to a change order request, how the back-end distribution software reflects the change order contract amount segregated from the original contract and other change order contract values, as well as the applicable change order approval number.
Complete system integration is not a one-way communication of data. Two-way communication is impossible to achieve through importing. The importing application has no knowledge of how data may be changing subsequent to the import process.

What integration means to your day-to-day operations:

Provides an opportunity to be proactive. Your software should have the capacity to advise your key personnel - project managers, purchasing department managers, shop managers, etc. - when the supply chain is interrupted and puts your customer delivery schedule in jeopardy. This means the supply chain must be aware of requested delivery schedules - not just be a single, general date, but specific delivery dates by product and opening. It certainly is not uncommon for a contractor to request early delivery of exterior doors and frames and this may even occur before the project is completely detailed. The ability to set delivery dates for product and openings becomes crucial for phased projects where delivery dates are established by floor, building section, etc. This information is useless if it is not accessible during the procurement process, to the various in-house shop departments, or to the shipping departments.
Excellent customer service is always a key element of a good corporate strategy. An integrated system supports this strategy by providing all relevant information instantly. This includes supply chain status and any relevant documents that may be stored electronically either for on-line retrieval, reproduction or submissions.
One of the many challenges with change orders is determining an accurate cost of the material being replaced and material being added. An integrated application will provide this procurement and shipping information dynamically as the user is detailing the change order. With this costing information instantly available, the user is able to make more informed decisions when pricing change orders.
The integration of software vendor electronic catalogs and associated product configurators for hardware, doors and frames is a key component of an effective Distribution software solution.
- It is important to understand that without this feature, the stocking inventory being maintained in the back-end system cannot be automatically related to the project defined product without a significant manual resource commitment. Each stocking product would require manual mapping to the project product. This is a very time consuming and error prone exercise requiring the skill set not of an inexpensive clerical person, but the expertise of industry trained individual with broad product knowledge.
- Purchase order formats are often dictated by product manufacturers, particularly for doors and frames. Without software vendor provided electronic catalogs this is, for all practical purposes, impossible to achieve. This issue extends to electronic ordering interfaces. These ordering systems rely on a myriad of manufacturer specific definition attributes and engineering attributes provided in a very specific data structure. General off-the-shelf distribution software or quasi-integrated distribution software does not have this ability.

Be sure to take time to reflect on the real tangible costs related to these issues:

Non-productive personnel resources.
Ongoing costs of additional clerical and management efforts required in a non-integrated environment.
The deterioration of customer service levels due to missed delivery schedules and incorrect product.
The costs associated with the return of incorrect product or change order related product from projects without a supporting management mechanism to handle the returns. These returns often end up collecting dust in the back of the warehouse for months or years tying up working capital.

Don't be fooled by the 'free' incentive. If the software does not provide a solution, it is far from being free. The shortcomings, the inefficiencies, those hidden costs are reflected in poor profit performance and poor customer service. What may be perceived as 'Free' is difficult to ignore in these tough economic times but keep in mind your software decisions made today will have a very long term affect on your business. The implementation costs such as training, equipment and business disruption costs alone are significant.

Make every effort to the remove the 'You don't know what you don't know!' syndrome. Develop a list of key areas to be addressed to improve the productivity of your personnel, reduce errors, improve customer service, and promote and support pro-active management styles. Take a 'show me' approach when evaluating software. Have the software vendor demonstrate key integration features.

Choose a software vendor who can demonstrate extensive knowledge of the requirements for distributors in the Architectural Openings industry and can clearly demonstrate the implications of those requirements on your day-to-day activities and challenges. This industry knowledge is crucial during software implementation and even more so when you receive ongoing post-implementation support.

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A PDF version of this article can be found here.

Comsense Publishing via RSS

comsense — Thu, 14 Apr 2005 14:46:00 GMT

What is RSS?

RSS stands for RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication. RSS is a means of syndicating web content using XML. The beauty of RSS is that it gives you the power of subscribing to content that appeals to you. Whenever new content is made available it is automatically delivered to you via your RSS reader. RSS readers are available that run from your desktop and integrate with your email program like Newsgator for Outlook or run online like Newsgator online or My Yahoo. The most popular use for RSS today is to syndicate Blogs, short for Weblogs which are online journals kept by individuals publishing their thoughts on whatever suits them. For some sample blogs check out blogs.msdn.com where hundreds of Microsoft employees keep their blogs.

What is Comsense doing with RSS?

Comsense has begun publishing news and other information using RSS.In particular we provide four feeds that you can subscribe to: Announcements, Articles, Software Enhancements and eCatalog Updates. The Software Enhancements and eCatalog Info feeds are particularly useful for our customers in that they provide a proactive means of notifying when a new version of our software is available and when new electronic catalogs have been released, as well as including notes to indicate what the new versions have to offer.

How do I subscribe to the Comsense RSS feeds?

To subscribe to our feeds, simply click on the heading of a particular category on our home page, for example Articles. This will take you to a listing of all of the articles we have published. To the right of the article list there is an orange XML graphic. This graphic has become a standard on the Web for indicating an RSS feed. Right click on the XML graphic and click Copy Shortcut. Next, in your chosen RSS reader, add a subscription and past the URL where the application asks for the feed address or URL.

As a shortcut here are the URLs for our feeds:

Announcements:              http://comsenseinc.com/blogs/announcements/rss.aspx
Articles:                          http://comsenseinc.com/blogs/articles/rss.aspx
Software Enhancements: http://comsenseinc.com/blogs/programupdates/rss.aspx
eCatalog Updates:            http://comsenseinc.com/blogs/eCatalogs/rss.aspx

In addition to the RSS feeds, the same information is also published to our website at www.comsenseinc.com. At a glance you can see what the latest release of our software is, recent eCatalog releases and other information relevant to our customers and partners.

Please take a few moments to look at our website and consider using an RSS reader to help you stay on top of information that is important to you.

Support as an Enhancement Launchpad

comsense — Thu, 14 Apr 2005 14:45:00 GMT

By Shannon Hobson

In a perfect world, if we had a software problem we could call on our support group, they would rattle off an easy answer and we could move on in a matter of minutes.

As we all know we do not live in a perfect world and there are times when the call that you initiate requires the issue to be recreated by support staff, developers to become involved and updates to be released before you can continue. We, at Comsense Support, are attempting to make any issue that affects, or has the possibility of affecting, multiple customers be corrected and released via Program Updates to eliminate the chain reaction of one user after another being held up by these issues.

As our customer base grows and each company utilizes our software with subtle, unique differences suited to their business needs and current procedures, we refine our program to eliminate as many reported issues and suggested enhancements to our software to meet the requirements of the masses. Some of the changes incorporated are very apparent to our users and others are background changes implemented to improve the performance of the program and while not visibly noticeable are important to the accurancy and functionality of the program. I recommend reviewing the Today screen after each update to familiarize yourself with the corrections and/or changes contained in that particular update, also available is an archive of each Update and the changes therein.

As a member of Comsense Support Team I welcome all calls for procedural help, any enhancements you think would be beneficial to the program and any questions you have regarding changes. All requests are submitted and reviewed for incorporation into our program, some will be addressed immediately, others will be under review for future releases and yes, unfortunately, some will not be possible to incorporate.

It is always interesting to see customers reactions to their requests being implemented, showing that we are working together to create a program that we are all happy with.

Are You Ready for Enterprise?

comsense — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 01:41:00 GMT

As Enterprise gets closer to release, we trust you are getting prepared as well......(read more)

Enterprise Inventory Management

comsense — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 01:40:00 GMT

Wayne Teas

Recognizing the very significant impact that effective inventory management can have on your bottom line and customer satisfaction, we have implemented several features in our Enterprise product to help you better manage your inventory.

Determining optimal safety quantity is a very delicate balancing act. What is the acceptable percentage of stock-outs? What are my customers’ expectations on product availability? How much am I willing to invest in excess inventory to achieve this level of product availability? How can I better forecast inventory requirements?

Enterprise offers you many tools to help you effectively address these very important and difficult questions. We have enhanced the model used in our DOS version for the last 15 years. This model is based on Gordon Graham’s book Distribution Inventory Management for the 1990s. We find his principles and models appropriate for the Door and Hardware Industry with some refinements to better account for today’s market conditions. We have incorporated a weighted average algorithm and an additional ‘seasonal’ model for products which tend to be more seasonal in nature. It is vital that inventory managers understand the fundamentals of this model in order to effectively utilize and implement a successful inventory management system – it’s simplicity serves to achieve this goal while maintaining a high degree of effective inventory management.

Our very powerful database engine and extensive database of key product movement information allows us to supply you with critical information which, by any other means, is practically impossible to achieve. A calendar of supplier and distributor ‘shut-down’ days, date sensitive review cycle dates, analysis of excess safety quantity at time of product receipt and lead time variance analysis serve to significantly enhance the accuracy of both re-order alerts and re-order quantities.

One of the more important features is the introduction of the concept of ‘Anticipated Stock-Outs’. We are now able to be pro-active in identifying potential stock-out conditions. Purchasing personnel performing their daily purchasing tasks are alerted to stock-out conditions and may take immediate action to reorder. Of course this would be subject to the all important questions of ‘Should I create an ‘out-of-cycle’ stock replenishment order or wait until sufficient related product is ready for ordering to minimize freight costs?” What are my potential lost profits and to what degree will this impact my target ‘product availability, customer service level’? These decisions now become much easier to rationalize with information regarding anticipated number of stock-out days, potential profit opportunity losses, minimum order values and minimum ‘free-freight’ order values being presented to the user during this decision process.

Minimum Steps to Purging

comsense — Fri, 01 Oct 2004 14:55:00 GMT

These steps should be performed in this specific order.

Projects <AHM/Project Menu/Miscellaneous Project Menu/Purge Projects>

Ø Decide the cutoff date prior to purging to determine which projects will be purged.

Ø Print a project listing of all projects, and highlight which projects will be purged.

Ø Circulate the list to all affected staff to let them know what will be purged.

Ø Enter closed dates for all projects to be purged, using the bulk option #1 of the Project Purge routine making it valid for purging regardless of anything outstanding.

Ø It is not recommended to purge projects less than 1 year old.

Quotes, Orders, Purchase Orders <Orders/Housekeeping Menu/Purge Order Entry>

Ø Print Sales Orders Summary report and review for outstanding Sales Orders.

Ø Investigate Sales Orders older than proposed purge cutoff date and determine if there is outstanding material or if they should be purged.

Ø Print Quotation Summary report and review quotations older than the proposed purge cutoff date. If blanket quotations or sample quotations exist that will be required in the future, create new quotations based on the existing.

Ø Print Purchase Order Status report based on filled flag being NO and review purchase orders older than proposed purge cutoff date.

Ø If there is information required that is older than proposed cutoff date, revise the cutoff date to exclude these items.

Note: If you specify for items before a certain cutoff date to be purged, they will be purged regardless of outstanding information.

Ø Choose whether to purge only Sales Orders that have been invoiced.

Ø Purge Quotes, Sales Orders and Purchase Orders created prior to the purge cutoff date.

Ø After Order Entry purge, wait until after the next month end has been performed. This will give Receivables and Credit time to check to make sure none of the purged orders are required.

Inventory <Inventory/Housekeeping Menu/Purge Inactive Inventory>

Ø Purge Inactive Inventory, this will purge non-stock inventory that is not required on a project, quote, order or invoice.

Purging Notes

Ø Perform a complete system backup before the purge

Ø Ensure the scheduled backup will not run or network routines will not close the application while the purge is in process, including screen savers. It is recommended this process be done during off hours. All other users including Indexer need to be logged out during this process.

Ø If this is your first purge, a large amount of records will require more time, and Comsense recommends purging on a Friday night or Saturday.

Ø Wait two weeks between all purges to give the users a chance to restore items that were purged incorrectly.

Ø All records can be restored using a menu item, except for inventory.

Comsense Inc.