Visual South Insights

What are the ingredients in your cost of production?

For manufacturing companies, it’s critical to understand your production costs. If you know your costs, you’ll have better control over your profitability and make better business decisions. I’ve had conversations where companies thought certain customer orders were critical to their business, but after understanding their costs better, they decided to turn those orders away because they were NOT profitable.

To help you determine what your cost of production actually is (versus what you think it is), here are the four primary factors to consider:

Some background before we begin

I speak with lots of companies and many of those conversations revolve around ERP software evaluations. Recently, I’ve had quite a few conversations with companies that are running Sage 500, or any of the other Sage products. They ask me whether the rumors about a Sage 500 end of life are true and if so, what the future holds for their ERP system. To be clear, I represent Infor ERP and that is where my expertise lies. I am not an expert in any competitive solutions, but my views are shaped by what I hear from the people I talk with. In this article, I’ll give a quick rundown of what I think you should expect with your Sage 500 ERP.

A little background first…

I want to start by telling you a little bit about my background because I believe it will give some context to this blog. I proudly represent Infor ERP products and have been at Visual South since 2002. Five years prior to coming on board here, I was an SAP consultant. My specialty was the sales/distribution module, along with the variant configurator. I was part of many full implementations in a variety of industries, taught training classes, and helped with presales efforts. My first implementation was on R/3 version 3.1G and my last was on version 4.6.

A little background first

I have been in the ERP industry for close to 25 years, both as an implementation consultant and a salesperson. For my customers who have been using ERP for decades, as well as those looking for their first ERP, one of the most common discussion points is customization versus configuration. Let’s take a look at each approach, and I will tell you why we recommend one over the other.

A little background first

I have been in the ERP business since 1997. While I’ve been in a sales role since 2002, my first five years in the industry were spent as an ERP consultant. This hands-on experience has given me a unique perspective on what makes for good versus bad consulting. At Visual South, we believe consultants are as important as the ERP software you choose. If you are actively evaluating ERP solutions and are interested in learning why evaluating consultants is as important as evaluating software, you can read all about it in this blog. If you are interested in getting foundational knowledge on the basics of ERP consulting, then read on.

How are electronic payments used?

Electronic payment systems are just what they sound like: a way to send or receive funds online. Depending on your business, you can execute financial transactions electronically through a variety of ways:

Working toward a quality product

Manufacturing a quality product is at the top of the list for every manufacturer in order to obtain and keep customers. There are quality control measures that a lot of manufacturers use to control their quality, and a few of them are listed below:

What is ERP?

I have been in the ERP world for over 25 years—primarily in sales, but I’ve implemented ERP software for companies as well. My experience is largely in manufacturing environments, so that is the point of view from which I write this blog.

Some background before we begin

I work with companies that are in all stages of their ERP journey. Some companies are looking to purchase and implement their first ERP system; they are typically trying to understand what ERP can do, how to evaluate vendors, and dreaming of the “to be” state they are trying to attain. On the other end of the spectrum are companies that have been running ERP for 25 years and longer. These clients are always trying to improve what they have and make themselves a better company. Whether your company is at the same stage as the former, the latter, or is somewhere in between, there is one fundamental truth you need to keep in mind: an ERP system is only as good as the data that is put in it. Let’s get a little background on the types of data an ERP needs before we get in to the importance of the data itself.

What is VISUAL Time and Attendance (VTA)?

VTA is exactly what it sounds like: it is a time and attendance solution for your employees. A lot of VISUAL customers use the labor barcoding or new Shop Floor Mobile applications to track the time of employees doing direct work on jobs. VTA allows you to do the same, plus much, much more!