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4 ERP Pitfalls: Don’t Just Roll the Dice on ERP Integration

February 22, 2012 in , , , ,

ERP Software SolutionsAs more businesses turn toward extensive ERP projects, instances like this are becoming increasingly common.

“Epicor is being sued by one of its customers over an ERP (enterprise resource planning) project that allegedly racked up five times its expected implementation costs…”

It’s ironic that so many of these implementations are meant to increase visibility across a corporation, yet fall victim to blindness within the projects themselves. Much of the problem comes down to a collapse in communication or unrealistic expectations on one or both sides. An implementation skyrocketing from $190,000 to over a million serves as a neon sign that says there was a lack of clarity, either from the vendor and what they were able to provide or the customer and what they stated they needed when the deal was struck. Apptricity has spent more than a decade helping companies that come to us following an unsuccessful ERP implementation from another vendor, so we’d like to share some of the more common pitfalls that plague these projects:

  1. Not understanding your requirements – The client must clearly define their own needs and make sure the provider understands them. This sounds rather basic, but it’s important to make sure that the expectations of both sides match up.
  2. Not allowing adequate time in your schedule for testing – Every organization has different requirements. It’s worth taking time to build adequate testing into your schedule so there’s no need for finger pointing when the switch is flipped. Problems can be addressed as they come instead of rushing through an implementation only to end up with a system that does not function as expected – it’ll save a lot of lawsuits.
  3. Lack of communication with the vendor team– This is the real killer for ERP implementations. There has to be open and consistent communication between the two sides or else the customer may end up with a “solution” that doesn’t really solve anything at all – and may cost hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) to fix.
  4. Not doing homework – Know your vendor before you buy. Talk to their customers and make sure they are capable of delivering what they promise. Some of the vendors involved in the recent ERP failures had a trail of troubled deployments that followed them into the project that ultimately led to the lawsuit. Look for red flags and save yourself a lot of wasted time and money.

If you need assistance building your own implementation roadmap for expense management, invoice management, inventory management, asset management solutions or other ERP integration solutions, contact Apptricity. We’ve got 12 years of experience cleaning up the messes other vendors leave behind – while staying on time and on budget.

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Robo-Signing: A Tragic Lesson In Failed Financial Automation

February 17, 2012 in , ,

Warehouse Automation

A landmark lawsuit settlement involving five of the largest US financial institutions was announced last week by the Department of Justice. A $26 billion dollar deal, which is expected to impact states and homeowners alike, is the result of gross negligence in the mortgage lending industry. Although this massive settlement, second only to the tobacco lawsuit of 1998, sends a clear message to lenders, it introduced a term this reader had not previously heard – robo-signing.

I work for a mid-size software enterprise automation solution provider and this word has far reaching ramifications for those in the business of automating and making lives simpler. It’s a little unnerving to say the least. I cannot imagine taking automation to such a level, but it has apparently been uncovered after a grueling 16 month investigation.

Within the grand walls of these lenders’ and servicers’ illustrious offices, I envision mass signing parties around conference room tables, where homes were foreclosed upon callously with little or no review of the case file. These files and the families inside them fell victim to the laziness of those entrusted to watch and care for every aspect of their American Dream – home ownership. With “blind” or robo-signing the fate of these families, financial institutions across this great nation contributed to heartache and humiliation of millions of homeowners and rendered many of them homeless.

Why would a company like Apptricity care? Well, we are all part of a family, our own and the larger Apptricity family. Within our comfortable office walls are single parents, grandparents, empty-nesters and parents-to-be, many of them homeowners. More importantly, they belong to our success as we pave the way in automated solutions for corporations. Like many of our offices at our headquarters in Irving, Texas, our automated transportation solutions, warehouse solutions, financial solutions and asset solutions are completely transparent. Why would you want to run a company any other way? With automation, you should feel secure that the software is performing at its peak, but it should also be fully accountable at the end of the day, a week, a month or a quarter. Basically, when you need full accountability and reporting, it should spit out the information immediately, not 16 months and 15,000 exhaustive hours later.

I have owned three homes in my lifetime. I am proud of that accomplishment and hope at some point in the future, when banks lend realistically and not optimistically, I’ll be back to look for my little piece of the American Dream. Until then, I feel confident that automation is alive and well at Apptricity. No blind signatures, no robo this or robo that – just automation that is clear, accountable, and secure. We do it right and sleep very well at night, thank you very much. Headlines, executives, and even banks come and go, so at the end of the day, do it right, do it honestly and whenever possible, automate!

Annmarie Davidson is an Application System Analyst for Apptricity Corporation.

 

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Purchasing an ERP system? Make finding the best UI a top priority.

February 16, 2012 in ,

ERP WorkflowAn ERP can be a valuable tool for your company, giving you the ability to manage your business processes more quickly and efficiently, and increase the visibility of vital information within your organization.  Finding the right product is essential to get the most bang for your ERP integration buck, and there are many factors to consider as you look to buy.  Of these, the one that is most often overlooked is application UI.

The user interface is important because it is the one aspect of the system that is touched by everyone, from the basic user all the way up to the system admin.  It should be simple and easy to use and provide you with the power and flexibility that you need to adapt to your ever-changing requirements.  It should be able to accomplish this while limiting the need for customization requests to the provider’s business services team, and the development/implementation costs and delays that accompany them.

With this in mind, here are three things that you should consider when looking at an ERP solution’s user interface:

  1. How usable is the ERP interface?   For software systems that are intended to help businesses run more quickly and efficiently, it’s pretty amazing how few providers apply this same concept to their software.   Over the last few years, advanced mobile and web interfaces have revolutionized the usability landscape.  This trend seems to have been largely missed by ERP software providers, who are often clinging to dated technology and processes within their product.  Something as simple as creating and submitting an expense report may require clicking through multiple screens (with the refresh and data load/update times that accompany them) and having to scan the page to locate where you need to go and what to do next.  Choosing a product that offers modern interface and process management within the UI maximizes the time and cost benefits you’ll see from your new system, and saves your employees a lot of unnecessary headaches.
  2. Is it easy to configure?  For most organizations, the out-of-the-box application isn’t rich enough to capture all of the data that they need, or to label it appropriately according to their business terminology.  Fields will need to be added, renamed, or reorganized to allow for their employees to quickly and accurately perform their tasks.  Make sure to invest in a system that will allow you to quickly and easily make these changes on your own.  Having to submit a change request to the provider’s business services team every time you need to have a field renamed can be time and cost prohibitive.
  3. Can it be easily adapted to how your business works?  Every business operates within its own system of business rules and procedures, but can your new system easily take those rules into account and, more importantly, does it give you the ability to create and manage them without having to go back to the provider for additional development?  A product with integrated rules and workflow components will give you the power to implement your own policies and procedures and the flexibility to make alterations when necessary without involving the provider’s development staff, saving you time and money.
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4 Ways to Maximize Warehouse Automation

February 15, 2012 in

Image of a warehouse workerWhen it comes to maintaining warehouse equipment that has a direct impact on your organization’s bottom line, think about it like the other important systems you interact with and depend on daily, like the human body or an automobile. Proper maintenance of warehouse equipment is both a productivity and safety issue. By adhering to routine service schedules and monitoring the performance of each machine, your operations team can stay on top of problems as well as optimize the functionality and life cycle of your equipment; neglecting to do so will likely result in premature expiration of those assets and increased operational expenses. As a company that specializes in finding ways to streamline warehouse and supply chain operations, Apptricity would like to share a few tips for keeping your warehouse’s equipment running at optimum efficiency:

  1. Preventive maintenance plans should be in place for things like lift trucks, conveyor systems, automated material handling equipment, dock equipment, stretch-wrapping machines, palletizers, bailers, compactors, etc. As with the human body, keeping up with routine maintenance like oil changes, tire rotations and replacements can prevent unnecessary strain on the system and extend its useful life.
  2. Employees should be trained and encouraged to immediately report any problems with equipment. Contingency plans should be predefined for all key pieces of equipment to ensure you are prepared in the event of a breakdown.
  3. Don’t overlook pallet racking maintenance. Any warehouse that has racking will have some degree of racking damage. It is important to replace or repair damaged racking as quickly as possible. Leaving damaged sections in place tends to promote further racking damage. Rack guards and barricades may be put in place where there is a higher likelihood of damage.
  4. Consider the financial aspect in terms of depreciation schedules and predicted asset lifetimes. If equipment is not maintained properly and consequently does not last as long as you’ve forecasted, it’s necessary to make the appropriate changes to its projected lifetime in the books. In some instances, this results in companies paying taxes on both the old equipment and the new.

It’s important to stay current with your service and maintenance schedules in warehouse and supply chain environments to maintain optimal production levels. With proper upkeep, you can avoid uncertainty and increase confidence in your organization’s operations.

For more information on automated warehouse solutions and how they can help you keep your warehouse in top shape, contact Apptricity via e-mail or by phone at 800.693.2193.

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Universities Challenged by Expense Management & P-Card Improprieties

February 10, 2012 in ,

p-cardThe mere appearance of impropriety is often enough to prompt high-ranking officials to step down. And while they cite other causes, the specter of scandal lingers, as it does for a pair of law-school programs in Massachusetts.

Application of institutional policy in real-time reduces such concerns and ensures that when “unrelated audits” are conducted, these kinds of irregularities are caught and dealt with before they can possibly derail an institution’s long-term strategic plan, as seems the case with Ward’s departure.

With increasingly frequent comments in trade publications, the popular press and the blogosphere about a looming “Higher Education Bubble,” colleges and universities need to employ much more scrutiny over charges that show up on expense reports or P-Card reconciliations. At present, the majority of the reporting on the bubble, especially from Glenn Reynolds of the University of Tennessee’s Law School and PJ Media, has focused primarily on the expansion of debt as compared to the diminished value of a college degree. But critics of the status quo will readily seize on tales of impropriety as further proof that change is required. Colleges and universities can mitigate those calls to action by policing themselves with greater diligence.

Rogue (or maverick or whatever modifier you prefer for unauthorized) spending bedevils schools who still use paper-based processes to account for their employee expenses. There are better ways of accomplishing these tasks. But no matter what your institution chooses to do, expanding visibility and control over your organization’s expenditures needs to be among your top priorities. Being blindsided by such revelations will serve to disrupt your forward progress, diminish your institutional reputation and jeopardize vital funding.

Joe Tetreault is Apptricity’s Higher Education Liaison. You can reach him at highered@apptricity.com or by calling 800.693.2193

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Apptricity Asset Management Helps Earn Prestigious Award from NASA

February 3, 2012 in

nasa asset managementNASA is known and respected for employing only the best and brightest, so it’s a special honor to work with them to help resolve their unique challenges. Apptricity got to do just that last year when NASA selected our asset management solution to manage properties and track equipment that was scattered in various locations across the New Mexico desert.

NASA’s Ben Sanders said of the project and its result, “I cannot say enough good things about Apptricity and the solution they deployed for us there at the NASA White Sands Test Facility. As a matter of fact, I and my team were the recipients of the coveted “I am an Innovator” award. More people have walked on the moon than have received this award, and it was largely due to Apptricity and their software package.”

Apptricity Asset Management software offers graphical tracking capabilities that use RFID, GPS technology and integration with Google Maps to enable real-time tracking to show an item’s exact location on site. This provides a level of visibility NASA struggled to achieve before the solution was deployed. The project proved to be the first successful implementation of its kind for NASA and earned recognition both for the efforts of the implementation team and the comprehensiveness and ease-of-deployment offered by Apptricity Asset Management.

Want to find out more about what NASA is using to manage their properties and equipment? Check out Apptricity Asset Management or contact us for a demo.

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Challenged by existing ERP? You don’t have to be.

January 24, 2012 in

Have you ever considered just how many transactions some of the world’s largest companies see in a month? Even in the current economy, there’s a lot of business being done, with some of the larger organizations managing millions of transactions every year. That volume of activity makes automating business processes both a necessity and a challenge for these companies – one Apptricity has solved for our customers time and again.

Making the transition from ineffective to fully automated business processes presents a unique challenge for the largest companies, which tend to have individualized business rules and expensive legacy systems that guide implementations. Apptricity is unique in its ability to leverage and extend the existing backend for these companies, painlessly integrating with whatever infrastructure they already have in place, including SAP, Oracle and PeopleSoft to name a few. 

For instance, when a Fortune 500 energy company selected Apptricity to track spend across its organization, we were tasked with implementing a solution that could aggregate financial data for five separate business units, all of which had varied spend management procedures that prevented financial transparency. We were able to deploy our solution within a shared services environment and still give each business unit the ability to report separately. Apptricity minimized the cost and disruption while maximizing visibility for top-level management. Last year, that company processed more than $1 billion in transactions – and they had a transparent view of every single dollar. They’re no longer challenged by inadequate ERP and you don’t have to be, either.   

For more information on how we approach the most challenging implementations, register here to view our case studies or contact one of our representatives at empowered@apptricity.com.

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Keeping Your Data On-Premise and Out of the Headlines

January 20, 2012 in

…Zappos Still Closed To Non-U.S. Visitors Four Days After Revealing Security Breach…

…Anonymous Hackers Hit DOJ, FBI, Universal Music, MPAA And RIAA After MegaUpload Takedown…

A headline devoted to your business is great. A headline devoted to leaked financial data? Not so much. Corporate data security is a hot topic across the headlines this week as several high-profile organizations experienced external attacks that compromised their data and customer information. With targeted hacking on the rise, it’s important for companies to take a look at their own risk and identify any internal security deficiencies that might “help” their data find its way beyond their own four walls.

For management of financial areas like travel & expense, eProcurement and accounts payable, on-premise business solutions can enhance data security both in and outside of the office with benefits such as:

  • Reduced risk of external attack
  • Fewer hard copies of financial documents
  • A 360-degree view of financial data and infrastructure
  • Enhanced compliance with federal regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley

Shareholders and customers rely on informed decisions from executives to keep their information away from prying eyes and news headlines. Companies that have the IT infrastructure in place to support an on-premise approach to their financial processes should take a look at what is available to assist them with their security and compliance needs. With technology changing rapidly, both to combat and create these crippling intrusions into public and private data, it’s important to stay one step ahead of the game – or even better, change the rules with help from a trusted solution provider like Apptricity.

 

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Top 10 Resolutions for AP Professionals

December 14, 2011 in

If you haven’t finished your New Year’s resolutions yet, here are the Top 10 funny resolutions created by Accounts Payables staff:

 
1.   Stop attending “Go Green” corporate meetings with a stack of invoices in hand
2.   Quit saying ROI when I mean READ OUR INVOICE
3.   Refuse to accept any more giveaway calculators at tradeshows
4.   Quit correcting Mom when she introduces me as a bookkeeper to friends & family
5.   Blackout the 15th, 28th and 31st dates on my calendar
6.   Will my first 10-key to the kids so they can sell on eBay as part of their inheritance
7.   Stop being the one who always splits the tab (including tax and tip) at lunch
8.   Suggest others call me “Most Organized” instead of “Most Controlling”
9.   Change my font color from black to green
10. Be kinder and gentler to trees with automated invoice processing

 
On a serious note, for many of you it will be increased efficiency with cost savings. With Apptricity Invoice Management or other solutions, including Procure-to-Pay, Expense Management, P-Card and Asset Management, you can realize ROI savings of up to 60% and laugh more with added cash in the corporate account!

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Squashing Expense Fraud: How Automation Can Help Close the Loopholes

December 7, 2011 in

Everyone knows the old saying about death and taxes being our only guarantees in life, but a recent article from CNN makes employee expense fraud sound like a third certainty. The article exposes some underhanded tricks used by business travelers to beef up their reimbursement checks, including phony receipts, double billing plane tickets and expensing purchases that are then resold on eBay. It’s true that manual processing helps hide fraudulent expenses; the sheer amount of paperwork that crosses the manager’s desk combined with lack of automated oversight cultivates easy processing for non-compliant charges and slow discovery of employee fraud, sometimes taking as long as 24 months.

While no system can certify 100% fraud-free expense reporting, specialized software can help discourage dishonest behavior and catch offenders. Automated expense reporting provides a net of checks and balances that manual processing does not, including enforcement of company policy and spending limits, red-flagging of duplicates and transactions that don’t “look right,” the ability to download credit card purchase data and scan/fax receipts, and a configurable workflow that ensures management approval before expenses are paid. It’s harder to slip double receipts past a manager that has so many tools to help him/her catch fraudulent activity.

Beyond taking advantage of what an automated expense system has to offer, companies can further prevent expense fraud by writing a clear, easily-accessible travel policy, encouraging purchases made with company-issued credit cards and contracted vendors, and mandating usage of automated expense reporting. These tips combined with strict enforcement will help keep your travelers compliant and your company’s money where it should be.

 

If you’d like more information on the benefits of automating your travelers’ expense reports, contact one of Apptricity’s T&E experts: empowered@apptricity.com.