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Industry 4.0

Humanity has constantly been finding new ways to increase & improve productivity. The progress that started with the invention of the wheel millennia ago is still ongoing & can clearly be seen in the improvements made by our species in the field of production. Every time we have a technological breakthrough, our society undergoes an “industrial revolution”.

An industrial revolution can be defined as the implementation of a breakthrough technology, over a period of time which results in increased productivity. In the past, industrial revolutions have been associated with both positive and negative effects on the socio-economic conditions of the society, though in the longer run, these revolutions have had more positive than negative effects. (Why, how, well that topic is out of our scope at the moment, but I may choose to post a video on this sometime in the future).

Some background

Historically we have had 3 industrial revolutions that have had an enormous impact on humanity.

First Industrial Revolution: Transition from manpower of mechanical power with the advent of steam and water power.

The Second Industrial Revolution: This era was marked with a huge increase in the reach of railways and the implementation of the telegraph. Industry was extensively electrified and the first production lines began to take shape.

The Third Industrial Revolution: This era is widely accepted to have started post the second great war. Also called the digital revolution, this era has seen increased use of computers in the production arena (along with other facets of human life). Sophisticated software, machine learning, Big data and Artificial Intelligence have brought about a rapid change in the way we engage in production and other allied production related activities.

These is where are currently, right at the cusp of the 3rd and the 4rth revolution. 

Industry 4.0 aka 4rth Industrial Revolution 

Industry 4.0 or the 4th Industrial Revolution focuses on computers and computer derived automated systems working together with robotic systems while being governed by sophisticated machine learning algorithms. All this with minimal human input.

Industry 4.0 is paving the way to smart factories of the future. Smart factories where all physical processes are monitored and managed by fully automated, decision capable, decentralized computerized systems and information will be shared in real-time over IoT (internet of things).

For any plant to be considered “Industry 4.0”, it must check the following:

  • Interoperability: Full duplex communication between individual components (including organic components eg, Human)
  • Information Contextualization: Add context to the information via the digital mapping of the physical premise of the location.
  • Decision/Execution assistance: The system should enable human operators to take complex decisions. Also, the system should have provisions to automate processes that may be hazardous to humans.
  • Decision Making: Systems must be capable of decision making, this is necessary if they are to be autonomous.

Caveat emptor

Apart from the massive advantages Industry 4.0 brings with it, there are certain caveats that one must be aware of as they are unique to it.

  • Data security is a huge part of the entire industry 4.0 endeavor. With so many interconnected components, zero day vulnerabilities are something that just cannot be ignored. Remember Mirai botnet? 
  • Industry 4.0 is still in the early adopter phase of the bell curve. The costs are high, and the level of reliability/robustness needed are still in the difficult to maintain area. 
  • Like every other industrial revolution, this too will bring (already visible) loss of “contemporary jobs”. This is probably the most contentious and divisive effect of Industry 4.0 and as such deserves a post on its own.

 Closing thoughts

The potential advantages of industry 4.0 far outweigh the socioeconomic challenges that it is associated with it. In a world where economies are going increasingly global, it has the potential to revolutionize the way consumers across are satiated.

Above all, so many of our future generations will be freed to pursue and discover new professions and opportunities that we currently don’t even have any clue about.

Marketing Plug

We are a boutique and lithe information technology advisory company based out of Dubai with a core focus and expertise in matching businesses to the right solution to get them the 360 degree field of view of their business. Want to know more? Cool, just drop us a line and it’s that easy 🙂

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Sage X3; review

What is Sage X3

Sage X3, formerly known as Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management, is an ERP software suite by the award winning, UK headquartered, Sage PLC. Sage X3 is a top tier business management suite for companies and includes integrated functionality for financial management, sales, customer service, distribution, inventory, and manufacturing, and business intelligence. 

Who is it most suited for?

Extensively configurable, Sage X3 can be molded to fit user roles and organizational preferences. The system is built around the core features of visual processes, automation, alerts, document management, quick communication tools. Sage X3 is most suitable for organizations with an international presence as it is designed to support multiple languages, currencies, taxation and legislation

Main Features (but not limited to)

  • Accounting
    • Standard accounting
    • Advanced Revenue Recognition
    • Currency management
    • Tax Management
    • Multi-company Consolidation
    • Inter-company accounting

  • Business Intelligence
    • Real time visibility
    • Built-in reporting tools
    • Customizable reports
    • Real time dashboards
    • Key Performance Indicators
    • Business Alerts

  • Sales & Customer service
    • Billing
    • E-Commerce
    • Order Management
    • Multiple Pricing strategies
    • Customer Relationship Management
    • Order Shipping
    • Service Level Agreement Management

  • Manufacturing & Production
    • Complex Bill of Materials
    • Process Management
    • Regulatory Compliance
    • Job Costing
    • Work In Progress and routing
    • Work Orders
    • Material Requirement Planning
    • Production Scheduling
    • Quality Control

  • Warehouse & Fulfillment
    • Multi-site Inventory Management
    • Complex Distribution
    • Scanning and Barcoding
    • Serialization
    • Lot Tracking
    • Shipping Automation
    • Stock Level Alerts

  • Procurement & Planning
    • Purchase Order Management
    • Approvals
    • Requisitions
    • Budgeting
    • Planning
    • Demand Management
    • Forecasting

What we think of it

Sage X3 is deeply configurable which directly means that Sage X3 is able to provide a tight fit to the needs of the business. Another major plus point for Sage X3 is that the user experience while interacting with the system is positive as the user interface is breezy and smooth. We have found that manufacturing-centric customers are particularly more leaning towards recommending Sage X3 to other businesses, unsurprisingly as Sage X3 does have manufacturing at the heart of it.

We should also account for the features that Sage X3 comes with out of the box. This proves to be especially advantageous for businesses as it tends to be more complete solution, reducing the need for third party integrations.

Over all, we find Sage X3 to be a reliable and robust solution for businesses that are looking for more than a basic accounting suite.

We rate Sage X3 a solid 4.5/5

We are a boutique and lithe information technology advisory company based out of Dubai with a core focus and expertise in matching businesses to the right solution to get them the 360 degree field of view of their business. Want to know more? Cool, just drop us a line and it’s that easy 🙂 

 

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What is this 360 degree view that everyone keeps talking about?

360 degree view, this term is thrown around a lot in the world of enterprise solutions, but what does it actually mean? 

Technically, 360 degrees view = all round unhindered view/vision

This begs the question, how is this applicable to business? Good question, glad you asked, allow me to answer.

360 degree business view, phrase when used in the business, refers to the availability of reliable & empirical data points to enable the decision maker/makers to make as informed decisions as possible.

Time before the “bigger picture”

It has been now a considerable amount of time since businesses have embraced information technology. These soft- ware and hardware solutions together have helped tremendously in the day to operations enabling businesses to access higher levels of profitability. 

All business solutions invariably work on real world information which, as it enters the system, becomes a data point. Historically, we have been interacting with these data points in order to form our perception of the business and attempting to take the best possible decisions. This being said, our foresight and decision making tools are limited by the depth of data points at hand.

Enter the bigger picture, a.k.a “Big Data”

Merriam Webster dictionary defines big data as:

“an accumulation of data that is too large and complex for processing by traditional database management tools”

More powerful computing devices, advancement in database platforms and the economical accessibility of powerful computing platforms in the form of cloud computing has dramatically reduced the computing power barrier and given rise to big data. Needless to day, the advent of big data in the last decade has forever changed the way we have interacted with information and the way we interact with it.

Businesses and organizations are increasingly leveraging on cutting edge business solutions like Sage X3 and Sage 300 to generate acute data and thanks to the advance data management technology coupled with powerful computing platforms to achieve:

  1. Deep, insightful and long range decision making
  2. Agile supply chain management 
  3. Acute forecasting demand, supplies
  4. Well rounded customer information
  5. Temporal and spatial information about operations
  6. Streamlined manufacturing
  7. Intelligent inventory control

Okay, no that we have grips on this big data, whats next

Agile like a Cheetah or Gazelle, how ever you like it

The more foresight you have the more in tune you are to the events that have higher probability of occurring. This kind of information is critical in order to react to events which have the potential to disrupt the daily operations of business. For example take any manufacturing process, temporal and spatial information helps you to have all the necessary BOM items in stock to ramp up the production either at one location or decide to balance the demand from another production area. The point here is simple, forewarned is forearmed.

Guessing begone

Global competition means that all processes of a business have efficiency as their primary mandate. 360 degree view enables decision makers to design and deploy processes that use resources optimally, reduce waste as much as possible and increase profitability wherever possible. Or simply put, embrace the lean ideology. More over this deep view of business enables the continuous improvement of processes as data accumulation just improves pattern identification.

Recap

A 360 degree field of view in the sense of business makes you quick on your feet and more proactive (rather than reactive). At the end of the day in order to be that “out of the box” thinking organization, its supremely important to reduce fragmentation of systems, data and response time to events. New age business solutions like CRM, ERP and Business Intelligence tools are developed precisely for this, to help you gain far and wide 360 degree view of your business environment.

This is where Evomatiq Business Solutions LLC comes into the picture. We are a boutique and lithe information technology advisory company based out of Dubai with a core focus and expertise in matching businesses to the right solution to get them the 360 degree field of view of their business. Want to know more? Cool, just drop us a line and it’s that easy 🙂

 

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This is how ERP pricing works. Minimal tech jargon, promise.

In the 21st Century, Enterprise Resource Planning (more affectionately ERP) soft-wares have become central to the effective management of businesses of all sizes. ERPs are a natural evolution of basic accounting soft-wares from 1987 (remember TurboCash) which in-turn had many humble roots in Lotus 123 launched in the mid-1980s. 

What marks ERPs from basic accounting suites is the sheer scale of ERPs. Where accounting software handles only the accounting aspect of the organization, ERPs, on the other hand, take care of all the other activities and processes in the organization. The following are some of the processes that are handled by your typical ERP:

  • Financials Management
  • Inventory Management
  • Human Resources & Payroll
  • Customer Relationship Management
  • Sales Management
  • Manufacturing & Supply Chain Management

All this control and efficiency does come with a price tag, this piece aims at breaking down the pricing structures (in general). ERP costs can be broadly broken down into:

  • License Costs
    • Module Licence
    • User License
  • Implementation Cost
    • Requirement gathering
    • Use Cases
    • Configuration
    • Customizations
    • Change Requests
    • Training
  • Annual Maintenance & Support
    • Support (Can have different models)
    • Future Updates

Before we hit them one-by-one, here are a few terms that you should be aware of:

  • Principal: The developer of the ERP for eg, Sage, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, etc.
  • Channel Partner (Vendor): Principals rarely work directly with the customer (unless the account is huge like that of the major manufacturer or an airline, etc). The products are sold by vendors called channel partners. 
  • Name User License: License tied to the name/ID of a user, ie 5 Name users license means that the ERP will have 5 users with predefined roles.
  • Concurrent User License: License that is tied to a maximum number of people who can use the system at any given point of time. For eg, 5 concurrent user license means that an ERP can as many numbers of registered users in the system, but at any point of time, only 5 will be able to log into the system, other users can log in once one/any of the 5 logs off. 
  • Module License: License cost for that particular module. 

License Costs

ERPs generally have 2 license aspects, 1 for the modules and the other for users. The cost for the licenses will vary from product to product. Concurrent user licenses, in general, are more desirable as they come with flexibility and for modules, the focus has to be to avoid the bells and whistles and stick to modules that are needed, not wants. Overall the license costs will be 50% of the entire ERP implementation.

Implementation Costs

Implementation is generally carried out, almost always, by a channel partner (vendor). Your organization will work with the vendor team from start to finish. We have covered the entire process of ERP implementation in detail, you can read it here or view the video here. 

Broadly implementation covers:

  • Requirement gathering: Series of interaction between the implementation team and your team to uncover and categorize the requirements.
  • Use Cases generation: General use scenarios based on the discovered requirements.
  • Configuration & Customisations: Setup and development of specific features for meeting the required specifications. It should be noted no ERP product will meet all your business needs right out of the box as each business processes are unique.
  • Change Requests: It is normal for requirements to evolve during the implementation process. Depending on your equation with our implementation partner these change requests may be chargeable.
  • Training: Training for your staff in the freshly deployed ERP system.

Annual Maintenance and support

The last but crucial aspect of ERP costing. Post-deployment the implementation is responsible for providing support for:

  • Technical support
    • Onsite
    • Remote
    • Telephonic
  • Staff Training for new induction or refresher courses for the staff.

The industry rule of thumb is 20% of the license cost but depending on the service level agreement between you and your implementation partner, the cost and services offered will vary. 

Conclusion

License costs, costs for implementation and your support requirements are the variables that decide the final cost of the implementation of a new cutting edge ERP. It should be noted that I have left out indirect costs such as hardware (server/local LAN infrastructure) and/or the need to hire specialist staff to manage certain new job openings that may open up with the deployment. 

If you like we have a much more detailed post and video about how you should proceed with ERP implementation. You can see the video from this link.

That being said, an experienced and accomplished implementation partner is crucial successful ERP implementation.

Evomatiq Business Solutions LLC is a boutique software solutions advisory based out of Dubai, UAE. Evomatiq excels in helping businesses understand the emergent requirements and match them with long term and scalable business solutions.