Category Archives: Business Processes

Amazon, Amazon AWS, Amazon Elastic MapReduce, Amazon Web Services, AWS Data Pipeline, Big Data, Business Intelligence, Business Processes, Workflow

New AWS Pipeline Tool Aims to Make Effective Use of Your Business Data

AWS Pipeline Diagram

Amazon’s new AWS Data Pipeline product “will help you move, sort, filter, reformat, analyze, and report on  data in order to make use of it in a scalable fashion. ” You can now automate the movement and processing of any amount of data using data-driven workflows and built-in dependency checking.

A Pipeline is composed of a set of data sources, preconditions, destinations, processing steps, and an operational schedule, all definied in a Pipeline Definition.

The definition specifies where the data comes from, what to do with it, and where to store it. You can create a Pipeline Definition in the AWS Management Console or externally, in text form.

Read more.


Airclic, Business Processes, Cross-docking, Logistics, Mobile, Shipping, Stevedore, Supply chain, Third-party logistics

Airclic Helps Dock Workers Stage, Load Shipments from Multiple Suppliers

Airclic, a global provider of cloud-based software for mobile supply chain and logistics operations, today announced that it has released the latest version of Transport Perform® (version r12.4), its cloud-based 3PL transportation solution that improves order accuracy and operational efficiency. With this release, Airclic has expanded its support for high-volume cross-docking, allowing dock workers to receive, stage and load shipments from one or more suppliers in parallel and validate received items or shipments in real time against Advanced Shipment Notice data.

Transport Perform is a third-party logistics (3PL) mobile transportation management product that works with any device or carrier. It has been designed specifically to improve the efficiency and accuracy of cross-docking and delivery within a logistics operation by providing visibility into the mobile supply chain and giving an organization the features and functionality it needs to enable a more scalable and reliable workflow. Costly and time-consuming paper-based processing can be eliminated alongside received versus loaded versus delivered errors, reducing overall costs and increasing customer confidence that their shipments have been executed correctly. Transport Perform is intuitive and easy-to use, ensuring a seamless deployment and rapid ROI, as customers have reported saving an average of $400 per route, per month.

With Transport Perform r12.4, the full and accurate data required to process shipments from suppliers is captured, validated and assured from the first point of contact on the dock. Inbound shipments are validated in real-time against advanced shipment data (at item level, order level and supplier container level) and automatically direct the dock worker to the correct outbound container and route based on shipment details, such as end destination or customer location. It also boasts highly configurable workflows to ensure that dock worker activity is based on the requirements of the original supplier.

“Organizations that have automated their transportation logistics and delivery systems have improved customer satisfaction while reducing the cost of doing business,” said Pól Sweeney, CTO, Airclic. “Improved accuracy and better efficiency have increased customer confidence and given 3PL providers using Transport Perform an advantage over the competition. The new capabilities announced today will help them accurately record items received on the dock, staged and loaded all at the same time, in real-time.”

The key features of Transport Perform r12.4 include:

  • A graphical interface for administrators, enabling them to fully setup
    and configure workflow forms for dock workers and drivers to ensure
    the accuracy of information captured during receiving and staging
  • Data validation and post-processing behavior definition capabilities
  • Customizable Perform Reports designed to support cross-dock receiving
    and post-receiving reconciliation with supplier systems based upon the
    unique rules of each
  • Allowance for the upload of custom attributes as part of the customer,
    depot or supplier location bulk upload process


Business Processes, Capital market, European Securities and Markets Authority

Thunderhead.com Launches ONE for Capital Markets

Thunderhead.com today announced the launch of its ONE for Capital Markets solution for the cloud.

The cloud solution automates trade and relationship documentation processing and all paper transactions throughout the entire trading lifecycle, across all asset classes and product types, to bolster business performance through enhanced compliance, greater control and reduced costs.

Used by 14 of the G15 investment banks and major energy companies, the Thunderhead.com  functionality is now available as a Software as a Service to the broader trading sector, and provides a path to cloud for existing on-premise customers. The solution provides real-time collaboration capabilities to support secure multi-party negotiation based on a single source of the truth, eliminating the time-consuming and error-prone sequential circulation of documents.

In addition, the solution allows trade data in industry-schema based XML to be fed to downstream processes, enabling rapid integration and regulatory reporting.

The SaaS solution has been developed with advisory support from a group of representatives from the G15 investment banks as well as Sapient Capital Markets to ensure market compliance in line with CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) and ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority) rules.


Business Processes, E2open

E2open Announces Availability of Next-Generation E2 Cloud Connectivity

E2open, a provider of cloud-based solutions for collaborative execution across global trading networks, today announced the availability of the newest version of E2 Cloud Connectivity, the foundation layer of the E2open Business Network.  With a next-generation open cloud interoperability model that fundamentally changes the way transactions and data are mapped between trading partners, E2 Cloud Connectivity reduces the time and the cost of ownership of trading partner connectivity.

“E2 Cloud Connectivity changes the economics of trading partner on-boarding,” said Lorenzo Martinelli, Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy, E2open. “One of the biggest challenges to rapid and cost-effective trading partner connectivity is the traditional practice of one-off, custom, point-to-point maps for transactions and data.  Working with some of the most complex supply chains, and hundreds of customer deployments, we have created a next-generation model that enriches our network content using open canonicals and cross-standard maps.”

For many companies, connecting trading partners is both expensive and time consuming, as the task of mapping data and transactions between companies creates a bottleneck. The latest version of E2 Cloud Connectivity brings industry-first productized maps that speeds data transformation across industry standards such as X12, EDIFACT, OAGIS and others, providing businesses with unparalleled open, cross-standard interoperability.

“Canonical messages reduce the number of transformation maps that an organization must create and manage — one of the most time-consuming activities in implementing interfaces”, said Benoit Lheureux, Vice President, Research, Gartner. “Consequently, their use significantly reduces interface development time and simplifies interface asset management.”

The latest version of E2open’s open network cloud connectivity includes the following new capabilities:

  • New Network Content: 20 OAGIS standards-based canonicals, 69 productized maps that support cross-standard interoperability with X12, EDIFACT and other industry standard formats.  For a list of available Network Content, see “Find a Message Guide” at businessnetwork.e2open.com/message-guides
  • New Software Functionality: Support of end-to-end interchange of a transaction across de-coupled productized maps and tools to develop and manage canonicals, productized maps, and map deviations.

“At OAGi, we are committed to building the open standards for mobile, cloud, business to business, and enterprise interoperability”, said David Connelly, CEO, Open Applications Group (www.oagi.org). “E2open’s use of product maps that interoperate with other industry standards and OAGIS-based canonicals addresses an untapped capability in the market.  This solution has the potential to accelerate trading partner connectivity across many industries.”


Business process, Business Processes, Enterprise resource planning, IBS, Supply chain, Supply Chain Management

IBS Expands ERP Cloud Computing Solutions

ERP and supply chain provider International Business Systems today announced the expansion of its traditional on-premise applications into the cloud, making it the industry’s most secure offering available with service level agreements with guaranteed performance. IBS Cloud applications are scalable and designed specifically for the changing needs of distributors and manufacturers.

IBS Cloud applications combine the expertise of 3,000 implementations across 40 countries to enable faster deployment of critical IBS applications like IBS Business Intelligence, Mobility, Sales, Service, Warehouse and Supply Chain Management.

“IBS has a history and proven track record of delivering cloud solutions, said Tapio Voutilainen, Director, Business Processes and Tools, Evac Oy. “This evolution of the IBS cloud solutions provide distributors and manufacturers with a secure choice and a variety of options to meet their business requirements to give clients the peace of mind they need.”


Basware, Business Processes

Basware Launches Procurement Module for InvoiceReady

Basware has announced the availability of a procurement module to its InvoiceReady solution, to “deepen the benefits of fully electronic invoice handling to SMBs.”

Automated invoice handling improves SMB’s ability to manage cash flow across their organization. To address this, Basware designed InvoiceReady to be able to be configured rapidly, deployed quickly, scaled up and down based on business need, with users paying only for what they use. As a cloud-based service, it does not require complex integration, and allows the SMB to experience the benefits of electronic processing of invoice and purchase transactions without having to worry about managing the technical infrastructure.

With a controlled way of creating, reviewing and approving purchase requisitions before and after ordering SMBs are now able to gain visibility of indirect spend and gain greater control of purchases as well as future cash commitments within the company. The procurement module also includes matching functionality that links purchase orders and incoming invoices together, allowing businesses to manage cash flow visibility more efficiently and produce reliable audit trails of the invoices processing through the organization.


Business Processes, Intuit, Intuit QuickBase, iPad, Mobile, QuickBase

Intuit’s QuickBase Goes Mobile

Image representing QuickBase as depicted in Cr...

QuickBase from Intuit Inc. now enables information workers to  build and  deploy QuickBase applications across tablets, smartphones and desktop computers.

QuickBase is a cloud platform that empowers do-it-yourself workers (DIYers) to create their own applications and solutions that improve productivity. It’s easy to use so anyone can create custom, collaborative business applications with no coding knowledge needed. DIYers have built more than 3 million QuickBase applications since the platform launched in 2002.

Intuit refreshed QuickBase to make it even easier to build and access apps with user experiences designed specifically for desktop computers, tablets and smartphones. A simplified design, enhanced search and reporting functionality, and a more intuitive navigation make QuickBase easier to learn and to use on desktop computers. A mobile version of QuickBase.com enables tablet users to create new or improve existing apps, and smartphone users to access their mobile business apps on the go.

A September 2012 survey from QuickBase found that information workers aren’t satisfied with today’s off-the-shelf options.

  • 53 percent said they would build their own mobile app if they could do
    so easily.
  • 33 percent of respondents said the mobile apps they’re using are not
    currently meeting their needs. Nearly all (95 percent) said they
    obtained their mobile apps from IT or purchased them from an online
    app store.
  • 76 percent cited the inability to write code or lack of approval from
    IT as reasons that would keep them from developing their own apps.
  • 40 percent would build apps that serve business management and
    collaboration functions.

“The fast and accelerating pace of business today requires enterprise employees to work dynamically, solving problems as they surface, at times on the go,” said Allison Mnookin, vice president and general manager of Intuit QuickBase. “They need tools that are easy to use, collaborative and help their teams get their jobs done faster. They need applications that solve their teams’ unique workflows and that can flex, scale, and evolve as their needs morph.

“Mobile enterprise apps on the market today don’t meet these needs well; they either solve problems with a one-size-fits-all approach or require IT resources to develop expensive custom solutions.”

QuickBase solves this need by enabling DIYers to build applications once and deploy them across any desktop or mobile device. The QuickBase platform offers unique benefits that include:

  • Empowering enterprise workers to build business apps on their own,
    reducing the IT development backlog and reducing development cycles
    from months to days.
  • Providing hundreds of templates that solve problems instantly and
    jumpstart the solution for complex apps, making it easier to address
    any business problem.
  • Offering robust permission controls to determine who accesses or edits
    specific data or the application itself.
  • Making app development collaborative and iterative so teams can modify
    their work to meet their evolving needs.
  • Interconnecting QuickBase apps to bring data together in one place,
    improving productivity and the quality of business insights, while
    reducing high costs associated with managing a patchwork of solutions
    from different providers.

“Our business lives in QuickBase,” said Will Wieder, chief information officer of Ministry Health Care in Appleton, Wisc. “We manage everything from meeting agendas to plans to IT projects across thousands of QuickBase applications.

“It’s our personal Swiss Army knife. QuickBase prepares us to address the changing needs of our teams’ work with custom solutions. The new mobile capability helps traveling members of the team stay productive, especially those who have ditched their PCs in favor of iPads and other mobile devices.”in the United States and other countries.


B & L, Business Processes, Metalcaster, Partnerships, Progress

B & L, Progress Software Partner to Deliver Cloud-Based ERP for Metalcasters

Progress Software Corporation announced that B&L Information Systems, developers of metalcasting-specific ERP software, has successfully transformed its Odyssey ERP offering to a Software as a Service (SaaS) model with the help of the Progress® OpenEdge® product.

B&L’s Odyssey software provides foundries and die casters with precise and timely information to balance customer satisfaction, operational efficiencies and profitability. With the help of Progress Software, B&L transformed its traditional ERP software to a SaaS model and doubled its close rate for the application. The Odyssey SaaS application offering outsold the traditional model by 300% in the first year and has seen a revenue increase of 880% since 2009. The SaaS model has enabled B&L to spend more time on site with customers instead of keeping up backend systems.

The Progress OpenEdge platform helps Progress’ Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) Partners build dynamic, business process-enabled applications for secure deployment across any platform, any mobile device and any Cloud. The OpenEdge platform has evolved over the last 30 years incorporating new technologies such as multi-tenancy, data encryption and auditing, security and compliance and user-interface flexibility.

“Progress has given B&L the resources and support needed to grow our business beyond expectations,” said Matthew Gacek, vice president of Business Development for B&L Information Systems. “A major benefit for us was the Progress SaaS Empowerment Program, which helped B&L develop a business plan, determine costs, and market our applications. Progress’ tools, market intelligence and expertise are unmatched by any other provider we’ve looked into.”

Gacek continues: “Progress has allowed us to do two things very well. First, they have given us a rock solid platform to work with which means no crashes or downtime – that’s critical in our industry. Generally, our customers are smaller, privately held firms. They don’t have resources for a formal IT department. The Progress OpenEdge product has empowered us to give them a product that does not require a vast amount of maintenance resources, which, in turn, allows us to help them improve their bottom line.”

“Progress has always strived to provide our partners with the information and services needed for market success,” said Kimberly King, vice president, Global Partners and Channels for Progress Software. “It’s great to see that our Empowerment Program played a key role in growing B&L’s business, and our OpenEdge platform continues to provide loyal partners, like B&L, with new opportunities to drive their business forward.”


Business Processes, Enterprise resource planning, ERP, Manned mission to Mars, Mars, Mars Science Laboratory, Red Planet, SYSPRO

Beyond Cloud Computing: ERP Helps to Land Curiosity Rover on Mars

SYSPRO, a devoper of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for on-premise and cloud-based utilization, announced today that Windings, a manufacturer of custom electric motor and generator components and a user of SYSPRO ERP since 1998, is the producer of a key component of the sky crane’s braking system that safely lowered Curiosity to the Red Planet for the rover’s explanatory journey of the Mars landscape.

While smaller rovers of past Mars mission have utilized airbag landing systems, the size of Curiosity necessitated the utilization of a special landing system to provide a soft landing for the huge vehicle.

According to Windings President and CEO Jerry Kauffman, this was not the first time that a Windings-built component has been instrumental in assisting in the exploration of planets, as well as the earth’s nearest neighbor, the moon. However, he did indicate that the Curiosity mission is the first time a Windings component has been utilized in the braking system of a device to safely land a large, mobile instrument package on the surface of a planet.

Windings, which is based in New Ulm, MN, has utilized SYSPRO Enterprise Resource Planning software since 1998. Prior to that time, Windings had been utilizing an IBM System 36, which lacked the flexibility to deal with the mixed-mode manufacturing operations utilized by Windings to produce both standard and custom electromagnetic motors, generators and sub-assemblies for numerous industrial uses, including factory automation, renewable energy, automotive, medical, defense and aerospace.


Business Processes, Property management

PropertyVista Lowers Cheque Processing Costs for Property Management Industry

Property Vista Software Inc. today announced that its cloud-based property management service can save property management companies up to 30 percent on the cost of processing rent and related payments, currently being made by cheque. Unlike other property management solutions, PropertyVista’s software provides unmatched CRM capabilities at a fraction of the cost, helping property managers streamline their operations, from 1 to 500 units, along with REITS and larger property & condo management firms. The service provides property managers with a personalized website and online tenant portal that they can administer without IT support.

According to independent research, the cost to process cheques can range from $15 to $25 for each cheque issued. This includes both hard and soft costs, such as clerical, cheque requisitioning, authorization, reconciliation, tracing and more. PropertyVista allows property managers to eliminate many of these costs by automatically accepting payments online 24/7, via cheque, credit, debit or direct payment. The cost to process payments is included with the PropertyVista monthly subscription, plus an additional fee, which varies depending on payment type and number of transactions.

According to research from the Canadian Banker’s Association, 51 percent of Canadians reported that they bank primarily online, while 38 percent use Automated Banking Machines. In addition, CBA reports that 46 percent of Canadians use online bill payment as their primary tool for paying bills.

“The demand by tenants to conduct transactions online continues to increase – whether it’s the need to pay online, make a maintenance request, or pursue a rental-related inquiry,” said Leonard Drimmer, CEO and Founder of Property Vista. “PropertyVista addresses the online shift in consumer and tenant behaviour, while providing property managers with the tools to more effectively operate in the internet and mobile age.”

PropertyVista Service Overview

  • Integrated payment system; centralized maintenance and
    tenant service requests     – results in more efficient customer
    service; timelier processing of rental payments and faster closings &
    renewals. Accepts payments online and by mobile device, 24/7, via
    cheque, credit, debit or direct payment.
  • Scalable and Customizable – easy to add applications,
    buildings, and property details as required. Customize reports and
    websites; provide information in whatever format preferred.
  • Point-and-click technology – Cloud-based, simple to use,
    available online and on mobile devices, 24/7. No hardware or IT
    support required.
  • Bank-grade security – PCI-compliant with token-based
    security ensures secure data and transactions.
  • Multi-lingual Support – Includes support for English, French,
    Spanish, and Traditional and Simplified Mandarin
  • Minimal up-front investment – service available on
    month-to-month basis. No long-term contract required.