6 Great Reasons to Replace your AS/400

If you are running your business on an AS/400 IBM iSeries and wondering how much longer you can wait - then consider the following:

6. Data Availability - High availability and point-of-time data requirements for audit purposes have become the norm in this stringent regulatory climate. This is easily possible with today's RDBMS systems like open source PostgreSQL. With AS/400 this feature is available only through table journaling, impacting performance and costing money.

They just look old

5. Hardware Cost - The cost of a iSeries hardware and software combination is higher than that of a comparable Linux, Mac OS or Windows based system. In this age of increased data loads for businesses, increasing the cluster size is inexpensive on a Linux/Mac based hardware when compared to an iSeries based expansion.

Love the user interface

4. Support Cost - Even though total cost of ownership was the basis of using AS/400 initially, the landscape has changed today with ever increasing interactivity between disparate applications across the enterprise. Administering a legacy AS/400 in this environment is not cost effective because of high cost of support.

3. Declining AS/400 Staff - One of the main factors in switching from an AS/400 is internal support. There is a declining availability of AS/400 experts and programmers in RPG within the company. Companies that do have staff in this area are 20-25 year veterans who are close to retirement.

2. Application Support - More and more ERP providers in the mid-market are no longer supporting RPG versions of their products. You might have already received that call from your provider informing you that support will no long be available after the end of the year.

1. Award winning open source xTuple ERP - Manufacturing, distribution, planning, accounting and CRM functionality you need to manage your business. For hardware use a Linux, Mac or Windows server - or a managed data center. xTuple runs on PostgreSQL, the leading open source database, giving you all the tools you need let technology work for you. Visit OpenSurge for more info.

The AS/400 was the system of choice in the mad dash to prepare for Y2K. The A/S400 started as a System 34 and has since become the iSeries and later simply System i as IBM continues to evolve the hardware. This is just hardware, but the software makes the difference. One of the reasons the AS/400 and its offspring are still around is that the legacy software was too hard to migrate to the latest generation of server.  For the reasons stated above - you can save money by replacing your AS/400 in favor of the latest server technology (I'm an Apple fan) which is reason enough. So why wait until you find yourself caught with software that is no longer supported? Investigate, plan and execute on your schedule, but the time is now.

Can one little phone impact GDP?

Sales of the new iPhone could add between a quarter and half a percentage point to annualized economic growth in the fourth quarter according to Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist for J.P. Morgan.

xTuple's new Mobile Web client (works on the iPhone, iPad and Android's) will interoperate seamlessly with the desktop client. Both will talk to the same PostgreSQL database back end and, by the end of the 4.x series, the entire application will have been ported to the Mobile Web platform. We’re not aware of any ERP vendor that has come close to doing this. One little phone can make a big difference!

As reported by Sudeeep Reddy in the Wall Street Journal:

J.P. Morgan’s equity analysts expect Apple to sell about 8 million iPhone 5 units in the final three months of the year. If the phone sells for around $600, with about $200 of it counted as imported components, then $400 per phone would figure into the government’s measure of gross domestic product. (Even though consumers may not pay that much for the phone, because of subsidies from wireless carriers, Feroli explains that phone-selling companies often report the sales based on the price of the standalone product.)

The bottom line: the iPhone 5 sales could boost GDP by $3.2 billion, or $12.8 billion at an annual rate. That amounts to an increase of 0.33 percentage point in annualized GDP growth. It could be even higher, he says. Even a third of a percentage point would limit the downside risk to J.P. Morgan’s fourth-quarter growth projection of 2%.

Feroli warns that the estimate “seems fairly large, and for that reason should be treated skeptically” but adds: “we think the recent evidence is consistent with this projection.” When the iPhone 4S became widely available last October, he writes, over half of the 0.8% increase in core retail sales came in the categories of online sales and computer and software sales. The two categories together had their largest monthly increase on record. The fourth-quarter sales growth at those stores over the third quarter would have boosted fourth-quarter growth by a tenth to a fifth of a percentage point if due to the iPhone. The iPhone 5 launch will be even bigger than that, he says, making the latest estimate “reasonable.”

OpenSurge can help you grow your business too! Using the latest business management ERP solutions.

Payroll and ERP Selection - How it Fits

Technology's great! When you started your business it was a simple (and cheap) decision to begin running your accounting and invoicing with Quickbooks. Intuit does lots of neat things and is responsive to it's small business base. One of those things that Intuit does is provide payroll services. Note this is a "service" not "functionality". As a service Intuit prepares checks, direct deposits, calculate taxes, etc., but some of the work is still left up to the user, such as filing and paying taxes.

The problem is that your business isn't small any more. You have some complex issues to address such as managing your inventory and supply chain, quickly and efficiently processing orders for your customers, tracking your cash flow - maybe you even have manufacturing or production issues to address. Quickbooks is no longer able to keep up with the complexity, size and speed of your business.

A key step in a business management solution (ERP) selection process is to prepare a needs analysis. I often see "payroll" classified as a critical need. Don't get me wrong paying your employees is definitely a top priority, but it really shouldn't be part of the selection criteria. The "service" part of payroll is far more important than the "functionality" piece. 

Payroll service is a very competitive market (ADP and Paycheck being the current leaders) producing low prices and good services. Your payroll provider will be able to handle every aspect of your payroll needs, including giving your employees access to their own information (Pay stubs, W-2's, etc.) over the web.

The data provided from you payroll provider can be easily (even automated) imported into virtually every current technology enterprise class accounting and business management solution. The result is you get the best of both worlds; competent comprehensive payroll services and a complete picture of your payroll costs reflected in your enterprise solution.

Developing a needs analysis is an important step in the ERP selection process. In general, the Intuit/Quickbooks payroll model isn't replicated in the enterprise class solutions for the reasons outlined above. You should take this into consideration when developing your ERP selection criteria.

Since our customers and prospects still want an integrated approach to payroll, we partnered with ADP - the leading payroll provider, to deliver the payroll functionality to xTuple. So we can now answer "Yes, xTuple does payroll". Using ADP's web portal you can have all the payroll functionality you require (direct deposits, employee website, tax payments, reports, etc.) and the results are automatically reflected in your xTuple general ledger.

Visit our website to learn more

Manufacturing Software from xTuple

Do you need a better solution for managing your manufacturing business? Looking for better manufacturing software or accounting software?

Take a look at the recent webinar with Wally Tonra on the manufacturing functionality in xTuple.

In this webinar, we took a closer look at the powerful tools available to manage your inventory, manufacturing, and distribution operations. This presentation is especially valuable for companies that have some degree of manufacturing / packaging / assembly in their business.

We focused on the tools and functionality available in all three xTuple product versions including our Free and Open Source edition, PostBooks. We also covered some of the more advanced functionality found in our Standard and Manufacturing Editions.




For more information or to schedule a demo, please visit the OpenSurge website.

www.opensurgegroup.com

Now's the Time to Replace your old MAS 90/200 with xTupleERP

1. Is your company is currently using MAS 90 or MAS 200 as its business system, and it‘s not going well? 
2. Does it may take many hours of effort to get the information you need to run the business – using spreadsheets, hand-written notes, and lots of digging? 
3. Do you have other outside applications that aren‘t tied into your main system and it can be difficult to coordinate the two?

If your answer to the questions above is "yes", then following are some issues that you need to consider.

1. Business Intelligence - MAS 90/200 is not built on a relational database and users do not have access to advanced analysis tools. xTuple runs on PostgreSQL the leading open source relational database where all your information can be accessed through standard tools, particularly the Structured Query Language (SQL), making retrieval and analysis more flexible, open, and usable.

2. Functionality - While a product like MAS 90/200 has a reasonably comprehensive set of application modules to choose from, many of the modules lack the very specific functionality needed by companies today. Many growing companies will experience increasing functional needs around electronic banking, multi-currency, project accounting, manufacturing, field service and inter-company processing. This functionality either does not exist within the MAS 90/200 family or are only available as third-party add-ons. This features and many others, such as manufacturing planning, MRP and one of the leading open source CRM capabilities are all included in xTuple ERP.

3. Scalability - While all systems have an upper limit on the number of users and activities that can be supported at given transaction volumes, the underlying technology is the determining factor of how far a system will scale. Some versions of MAS 90, for example, are designed to support a very limited number of users with reasonable response time at which point system response times deteriorate, processes take unacceptably long to complete, and it is not uncommon for the system to 'lock‘, fail, or otherwise become unreliable.

4. Connectivity / Interoperability - Extending the applications to partners and customers, such as a customer portal to allow trading partners to view orders, shipments, schedules, and invoices is difficult at best. Reports are distributed on paper or through e-mail. Connecting to analytical and decision support facilities like Excel is mainly a copy and paste function. xTuple allows you to connect to your customers, partners and suppliers through the xTuple Web Portal. Using xTuple Connect you can seamlessly integrate email into xTuple ERP, automatically sending reports, invoices PO's and other documents via email. 

5. Productivity - MAS90/200 is designed in the traditional style with standard menus and limited ability to customize the screens that people work from every day. Because the menus are unique to MAS, users require considerable training and orientation to know where to find the functions they need. The xTuple user interface displays a graphic workflow by functions, allows for user preferences and custom hot-keys. xTuple's role-based screens are far more efficient for the user, easier to use, resulting in greater adoption of system functionality. Users can get right to the functions they use most without having to work their way through generic menus and screens.

6. Foundational Technology and Product Roadmap - Some Sage products have fallen behind the technology curve and need increased R&D investment. It is obvious from the previous points above that MAS 90/200 may not be considered examples of today‘s technology and while Sage is apparently committed to upgrading the products, this process will take quite some time and there‘s no telling how successful the company will be in its efforts. By contrast, xTuple ERP, using the open source development model is on the leading edge of available technology. Making the most of open source tools and the ability to operate on Mac OS X, Linux and Windows. xTuple has a reputation for consistently rolling out new features and functionalities; both specific ERP related functionalities (e.g. project management accounting) and integrations using the Web Portal and xTuple Connect that help you do more work with less effort.

It‘s easy to find fault with any application system – each has its own particular strengths and weaknesses. It‘s also easy to praise the strengths of any given system and down-play weaknesses. The real value of any system, however, is in how well the user company is able to use the tools to more effectively run the business.

Open source xTuple ERP is an ideal accounting solution for midsize and small business. xTuple can easily be hosted for cloud computing and clients can run on Apple Mac OS X as well as PC's.

5 Reasons Why Thymly Products Selected xTuple ERP

Thymly Products, Inc., a major dry mix manufacturer on the East Coast, provides specialized food ingredients to the food and pharmaceutical industries, ranging from enzymes to phosphates.

With a rigid, legacy accounting software vendor that continued to lock down the source code of its aging product, Thymly didn’t have the control over its operations it needed to take its business to the next level. In 2007, the company began searching for a more agile ERP solution that would help its business grow.

“As part of our due diligence we spoke with several companies that were running ERPs of all sizes, and the feedback was consistent—the bigger the software house, the more problems with the ERP program,” says Harry Muller-Thym, Sr., founder of Thymly After looking at both large and small vendors, Thymly chose xTuple because of its open source ERP philosophy and excellent customer support.

“Since September 11, 2001, restrictions and regulations have continued to tighten in the food industry, and xTuple works very closely with us to understand our specific needs and ensure that we are able to meet the changing requirements,” adds Muller-Thym.

Thymly shut down its previous accounting system on March 31, 2009, and went live with Linux-based xTuple the next day. Some of the many benefits the open-source software provides for Thymly include:

• Cost savings in inventory control—Thymly was able to reduce its inventory considerably within three months of implementation.
• Traceability—The new ERP system allows Thymly to tag each product with lot numbers and weights and to track it 100 percent through the supply chain. In the case of an FDA recall, the company is able to respond within minutes, much faster than industry norms.
• Integration—With its open-source technologies, the ERP package allows for integration with other software and production equipment. This allows Thymly to consistently produce the same quality product each and every time.
• Better control over accounts receivable—By automating invoicing and A/R follow-up, Thymly is able to significantly speed up collections.
• Permissions-based access—The software’s support for application permissions assigned by employee roles has helped Thymly with additional regulations set in place after September 11.

“The latest version of xTuple is the best yet,” says Muller-Thym. “It demonstrates xTuple’s commitment to taking feedback from its customers and incorporating those ideas back into the product. For every reason that we decided to purchase the xTuple solution, it has worked out, and it continues to exceed our expectations.”

B-Schools using Open Source ERP to Teach Business Processes

For years, there has been a need for teaching students about business process integration. The use of ERP systems has been proposed as a mechanism to meet this need. Yet, in the midst of a recent economic crisis, it is difficult to find funding for the acquisition and implementation of an ERP system for teaching purpose. While it is recognized that the use of ERP systems might provide a variety of benefits in a business school curriculum, how could business schools overcome the limited resources in order to bring in and integrate ERP systems into their business core classes?