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WisHList is now Gold Certified
We have reached a internal milestone! Through our brief history we set ourselves the vision
to become the leading Microsoft Dynamics NAV service provider in South Africa.
In order to accomplish this, we aim to continually deliver solutions which have a significant
positive impact, on our clients business. To meet these commitments we need too gain
extensive competency in the software and be proficient in understanding our clients business processes. Furthermore the skill sets required are far beyond that of just software knowledge.
We needed to ensure that we had strong project management and change management skills.
Another challenge was ensuring we could retain our skills against the allure of offshore opportunities being offered to SA skills. One of our key initiatives was to develop a mentorship programme whereby seniors undertake to coach and mentor the juniors. This provided good opportunity for both seniors and juniors.
Gold status is a formal recognition of our competencies and ability to deliver innovative,
practical and professional solutions. We aim to be the trusted advisor of our clients.
The Microsoft partnership provided us with the toolsets, collateral and methodologies
to build our competency which in turn emphasises our commitment to the product.
This is not a an easy business - the sales process and the delivery process are fraught with challenges. However this milestone says we are getting there.
- Neville Levinthal
Are you ready for an ERP upgrade?
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Sometimes it's easy to know when its time to upgrade or change your back-office systems—because your employees are telling you, loud and clear. If they're screaming for new functionality or are working around the present system, if they can't easily manipulate or combine data from existing business systems, or if they can't get the right data to use at the right time, it's probably time to consider a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.
"For some companies, we find that if you calculate the number of Excel spreadsheets that are being used as workarounds to [compensate for the] deficiencies of an existing ERP system, it'll give a pretty good idea of how ready they are to migrate or upgrade," says Elaine Watson, a principal with SoftResources LLC in Seattle, Washington, a software consulting group that helps clients assess commercial solutions.
Of course, there may be multiple drivers pushing a company toward replacing its ERP system, according to Sam Dharmasiri, international general manager in the London, U.K., office of ePartners Limited, a Microsoft partner that offers business solutions consulting and implementation for midsize and enterprise organizations.
"We frequently have customers considering new ERP solutions because of a range of specific business requirements," says Dharmasiri, citing government regulations or corporate IT infrastructure changes as two examples. Other drivers include cost-cutting measures, particularly if there are multiple business systems that require integration and even customization in order to work effectively.
Some organizations find that changes in technology are driving them toward migration—for example, if the existing ERP hardware platform is no longer supported. Another reason is the legacy system problem, for example when a mature company with systems that were developed in-house five to ten years ago decides that it wants to get out of the business of being a software developer and focus instead on its core business objectives.
One smart reason not to make a change: The allure of hot new technology. Make sure that your decision is based on solid business needs and goals rather than just taking advantage of a new technology platform that may not deliver appropriate business value to your organization. "You really want to make this kind of major change when the current infrastructure cannot effectively and efficiently support the current or projected business needs," Dharmasiri says.
Why it's a good time to upgrade
Consider these three important trends driving enterprise software investment—and signaling that this may be the right time for you to upgrade your systems:
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Changing business requirements resulting from new government regulations, security concerns, and other issues are having an impact on companies of all sizes.
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The breadth and depth of commercial solutions have grown dramatically not only to meet changing business requirements but also to fit the smallest of niche industry applications.
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Vendors are lowering prices and expanding packaging and licensing options for buyers because of growing competitive pressures and new business models such as software as a service (SaaS).
In many cases, it may be easier for companies to purchase solutions that support new business needs than to build their own. "The market has really changed in the past few years," says Spencer Arnesen, a principal of SoftResources. "The new packages are more affordable than in the past. When organizations ask us to evaluate whether they should buy or build a new application, we almost always recommend they buy one, since there are so many packages out there that can do just about anything."
Faced with these changing business needs, companies are looking to new systems that can handle project accounting capabilities such as activity-based costing (ABC), lean manufacturing, and specialized electronic data interchange (EDI) and radio frequency identification (RFID) capabilities to help them do business with large global retailers such as Wal-Mart or Tesco.
"Many organizations are struggling with changes in e-commerce and mobile applications," says Dharmasiri. "They often find their existing infrastructure can't easily support those requirements without a significant investment of resources."
He suggests that companies start by evaluating their current systems and defining what can be practically achieved with the existing technologies. For example, does the existing platform support Web services standards and user interface capabilities that an application deployed to a mobile device would require? If the organization uses a commercial software application, it should turn to the vendor for clarification of the vendor's technology road map and information regarding what future editions of the product will or will not support.
Making the decision
The fundamental starting point for an ERP evaluation is to do some type of return on investment (ROI) study to identify what benefits might be obtained from moving to a new solution. Of course, even with a solid business case, migration is no simple matter. It takes a thorough understanding of a range of factors, from the skill sets of people in your IT department to how to time the deployment with other business activities (for example, if your company is about to merge with another or add branch offices, you would want to avoid adding a major system implementation to the mix).
Managing people is critical too. "Companies may have a certain skill set in-house that they need to retain, and that may drive the selection or decision process," says Arnesen. It's a good idea to understand the market availability of specific skill sets before making a decision because, for example, widely adopted technologies and platforms from major vendors will have a much broader base of support and expertise than more nascent or niche platforms.
Budget is, of course, another top consideration. Increasingly, vendors (including Microsoft) are offering attractive financing alternatives to traditional big-ticket ERP investments. "With leasing, you can spread out the payments over three to five years, which can make a compelling difference to the business case for investing in a new solution," says Dharmasiri.
And it's only a matter of time before software-as-a-service (SaaS) options become more prevalent, which may mean downloading and renting applications from the Web at a much lower price than owning a license. However, SaaS does have some drawbacks, such as minimal customization, so you should make sure to explore it within the constraints of your business requirements.
While ERP migrations or upgrades are always a major change to the business and its processes, new solutions can provide significant payback. "Many companies continue to have islands of information that make it difficult to get a single view of their customer or business," Dharmasiri says. In contrast, the right ERP system, deployed at the right time and with the right implementation partner can help you achieve that holistic perspective on your business—which can mean the difference between being a market follower or a market leader.
ZAP Business Intelligence
Wishlist is extending our product offering to include business intelligence.
We have chosen to partner with ZAP Technology because their solution compliments
our current product offering.
Zap Business Intelligence brings together all the key BI capabilities you need, including scorecards, dashboards, key performance indicators (KPIs), analysis, reporting, and report packs – all in a user-friendly web portal.
Key features of Zap Business Intelligence include:
· User friendly and designed to be used from the CEO to the shop floor, Zap Business Intelligence software requires minimal training to use.
· Web-based with everything you need in one portal. Zap Business Intelligence contains all your BI functionality – performance dashboards, business analysis, reporting and performance scorecards – with no software to install or maintain for end users.
· Low maintenance for your IT department. As a web-based, zero footprint BI solution, Zap is fast to roll out and maintain.
· Highly scalable to grow with your business. Zap Business Intelligence is used by small to medium businesses, right through to enterprises with thousands of users in multiple geographic locations.
· Analyse any type of data from your business systems. Zap Business Intelligence software takes data from any system, including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Finance, Payroll, Sales, Manufacturing, Point-of-Sale, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and presents a unified picture of how your business is doing.
· Microsoft-based and affordable. You don’t pay for proprietary tools, and you can make use of your existing investment in Microsoft® technology.
Key functionality
Analysis - Often known as “slice and dice” or OLAP (online analytical processing), business analysis lets you quickly investigate multiple dimensions, such as sales per product, per region, per year, to reveal trends that might not be easily discovered when viewing standard reports. Zap Business Intelligence allows business users to build complex analyses by using an intuitive drag and drop interface.
Report Packs – Provide a unified platform for producing financial and management reports. The user simply drags and drops required reports, enters comments, text, images, a title page, table of contents, and generates the PDF report pack ready for distribution.
Scorecards – A collection of metrics that measure each key performance indicator (KPI) against target, with the results compared with the previous time period.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – measure performance against target. Users of Zap Business Intelligence can select from a wide variety of dials.
Dashboards - Business dashboards include charts, graphs, gauges and tables so you can easily make sense of complex data from your business systems at a glance. Dashboards in Zap Business Intelligence are easily created through a drag and drop interface, and provide the ability to add filters and drill through to more detailed underlying reports.
Events
Third Annual PSNext User Group Conference
Hear first hand how other organizations have successfully implemented their PMOs and PSNext
to achieve amazing strategic benefits.
Overview
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Strategic management sessions. These sessions are of great interest to executives who need to align resources and projects with the strategic vision of the organisation.
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General sessions of interest to people who want increase the value generated by the PMO.
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Technical sessions of interest to people who work with PSNext on a regular basis.
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PSNext Tips & Tricks.
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A networking lunch.
Event Details
Venue: Southern Sun Grayston, Rivonia Rd , Sandton.
Date: 19 November 2008
Time: 8h30 till 15h00
Cost: R500-00
The R500 cost includes refreshments, meals, parking and VAT.
RSVP: Linda on linda@mpsys.co.za
Watch the Flowergram case study on You Tube
This case study shows how Microsoft Dynamics NAV helped to:
Snap, Peek & Shake with Windows 7
New features in Microsoft Windows 7:
Snap is a quick (and fun) new way to resize open windows, simply by dragging them to the edges of your screen. Depending on where you drag a window, you can make it expand vertically, take up the entire screen, or appear side-by-side with another window.
Peek gives you the power of X-ray vision, so you can peer past all your open windows straight to the Windows 7 desktop. Simply point to the right edge of the taskbar—and watch open windows instantly turn transparent, revealing all your hidden icons and gadgets.
Ever need to cut through a cluttered desktop and quickly focus on a single window? Just click a pane and give your mouse a shake. Voila! Every open window except that one instantly disappears. Jiggle again—and your windows are back. (Who says the old mouse can’t learn a new trick?)
The lighter side ...especially for all the engineers
A mechanical engineer, an electrical engineer and a software engineer are travelling in an old Fiat 500
when all of the sudden the car backfires and comes to a halt.
The mechanical engineer says "Ah! It's probably a problem with the valves, or the piston!".
The electrical engineer says "Nonsense! It's most probably a problem with the spark plugs or the battery!".
The software engineer says "How about we all get out of the car, and get back in again, It might work...".
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Success Stories
Problem: Multiple contractors involved in the manufacture of components for a central plant provide problems for project managers trying to track the level of progress, location of individual constituents and co-ordination of delivery to central site within required erection schedule.
Read our solution
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