Author Archives: Hanna Kounov

by | April 5, 2017 · 9:10 pm

Who’s Got My Money?

One would think today that the era of check fraud is well past us, we’d be wrong.  Organizations are still using checks – a lot, in fact nearly a billion checks are processed every year by Canadian financial institutions.  A 2015 Association of Finance Professional Fraud and Controls survey found that 62% of respondent organizations experienced attempted or actual payments fraud, of which 77% were attributed to check fraud.

The advent of Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) and other electronic payment methods was going to dramatically reduce the use of checks in business transactions, but they haven’t.  In fact between 2011 and 2014 the Canadian Payments Association (CPA) noted that check transactions actually grew by about 2.5% on average each year.  Although the number of checks written each year continues to decline, the value of checks written continues to grow.

That decline doesn’t tell the whole story, printing checks, mailing them, depositing and processing them makes this form of payment expensive and unproductive.  The check replacement process for lost checks is time consuming and slow.  Should a check be intercepted somewhere in the delivery process, the risk of fraud exposes even more issues with replacement and the time required to facilitate.

Businesses might believe that there are no costs associated with check fraud but they’d be wrong.  Although banks typically provide insurance coverage, not all circumstances are covered and funds many not immediately be returned to you.

How can we improve our processes and mitigate this risk?  Two immediate options come to mind, introduce Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) to your organization as a substitute to check issuance and institute a “Positive Pay” policy to better control those checks that you still issue.  EFT will not only reduce fraud risk, it will also improve efficiencies in payment processing.  Positive Pay provides an electronic matching facility that allows the bank to compare key check fields (Payee Name, Check Number, Amount) to checks presented for payment.  Transactions that don’t match are automatically routed back for review and approval.

Diligence is a necessity if you want to ensure that your organization faces the least amount of risk where fraud is concerned.  Opportunities for fraud change and evolve constantly, continue to review your corporate polices and stay abreast of the latest trends in fraud management.

Written by: Dan O’Toole

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by | September 6, 2016 · 5:04 pm

Why Phoenix Systems?

One of the trends that we at Phoenix Systems are noticing is that ERP is becoming a commodity. What matters most is the VAR Partner you have chosen to assist with implementing, developing and supporting your system.   This trend made us ask the question, “Why Phoenix Systems?” Initially we thought that the question should be easy to answer – not so.  It took much discussion to come up with a comprehensive list as we all had different ideas as to where our strengths lie.  It was an interesting journey, and we want to share the result with you.

International Resource Specialists

We have offices and branches across both Canada and the US with highly skilled resources in:

  • Business Consulting
  • Development
  • Technical Consulting
  • Project Management

Our leading realization was that the nature of the consulting business has changed. It has been a gradual process but over the last decade telecommuting and remote access has changed the landscape of our primary function.  In most cases we have access to servers via various methods which allows us to provide our customers with excellent support and consulting regardless of where they are located.  Additionally it allows us to assign the resource best suited to your project, even when the resource isn’t local. Of course if your offices are close to ours and the resource is local then we are happy to be on-site that hasn’t changed but remote access has opened up many opportunities that would not have been available to many of our customers decades ago.

Support Desk

Phoenix Systems has a leading support desk which is manned by dedicated staff every day and we do not assign inexperienced consultants to our helpdesk. Our philosophy is that we can with careful scheduling have our experienced consultants assigned to the support desk in order for you, the customer, to have first-rate support on a daily basis.  There are two support desks, one for the Eastern customers and one for our Western customers and the two desks collaborate internally to ensure that support is available across most of the workday in North America.  The consultants are supported by our technical services and our development teams which ensures that all your issues can be resolved as promptly as possible.  Our annual support agreement allows your staff access to the support desk for a fixed cost and allows your staff to call in whenever they are stuck.

The most important role of the support desks however is to be your champion with the developers of the software i.e. SYSPRO. We troubleshoot issues, test and report errors on your behalf. Our role is to be your advocate and to ensure that SYSPRO gives us the best service possible.  If we have identified a problem with software we will report errors, track fixes and report back to you when the issue has been resolved.  Additionally our consultants will find a workaround for you while the error is being addressed.

Solution Partners – Best of Breed

We all know that there are areas in SYSPRO that can be better handled by software that is dedicated to a process i.e. Warehouse Management. Another way that we are able to provide excellent consulting is by aligning ourselves with many “Best-of-Breed” vendors and integrating to SYSPRO.  What we know is that often SYSPRO will not have the in-depth requirements needed.  Here is a list (not comprehensive) of Best-of Breed vendors that we have worked with on many occasions:

  • Manufacturing Systems Corp – Warehouse Management
  • Cabot Software – SAW
  • Preactor – Graphical Planning Board
  • CyberStore2 for SYSPRO – Website integration
  • RiteScan – Mobile Warehouse for SYSPRO
  • iDashboards – Dashboard Tool
  • Dash – Document Management
  • uniPoint – Quality and Maintenance
  • iWorx – Cloud Datacenters

We are however not limited to the vendors on this list and we are open to working on integrating any software that you might want to integrate to SYSPRO with our team of developers.

Custom Development & Custom Software

The development of custom software and enhancements is the basis of the origin of our organization. For over 35 years we have designed and developed web-based, distributed and standalone applications to meet our client’s specific business requirements. We utilize our own in house development team equipped with extensive business backgrounds and required certifications.

We follow proven practices that allow for successful project completion and deliver solutions that exceed customer expectations. We have experience working with a broad range of customers, from smaller organizations to much larger companies with worldwide operations.

Our skill-sets include:

  • .Net, VB Scripting and all presentation tools
  • SQL programming
  • Database level customizations
  • Website Development
  • SYSPRO Espresso
  • Micro Focus COBOL – enables us to modify SYSPRO Source code if needed which we can secure from SYSPRO

Professional Services – Goals & Philosophy

Based on our extensive 35 years of business experience and trained and committed Team:

  1. We wish to be a true partner, with a vested interest in working with client staff/teams to optimize your SYSPRO environment.
  2. We excel at project-based solution design and delivery. Projects may be fixed-bid or T&M, to be determined prior to each project.
  3. We can provide ad hoc and non-project based support as required. We can also provide (E.g. implementing investigating automated processes that run after hours)  Time-shift /work outside of regular hours where needed as long as planned in advance.
  4. We can help develop multi-year, scalable ERP architecture/roadmaps supportive of clients’ growth and expansion plans. No shortcuts. No Band-Aid solutions.
  5. We can provide end-user and super-user (train-the-trainer) training, tailored to the specific needs of your users; we have experienced trainers available for this purpose.
  6. We can provide support of your IT environment and deploy remote services as needed.
  7. We provide dedicated account management/account ownership to maintain an active relationship and as such look forward to being considered as an extension of your Team. This approach is consistent with our operating structure.
  8. We pride ourselves in leveraging native SYSPRO functionality as much as possible to reduce reliance on in-house application development. This extends to leveraging SYSPRO supported 3rd party applications of which we are very familiar and work in conjunction with vendors with whom we have established business relationships and concluded successful projects with over many years.
  9. We are well versed in Business Analytics and Business Intelligence information be drawn from SYSPRO and other recognized 3rd party applications such as SAW and iDashboard, for which we are certified. Additionally we are experienced at integrating products such as COGNOS to SYSPRO.
  10. We handle all requirements related to managing SYSPRO licenses changes, additions and annual renewal.

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by | June 8, 2016 · 6:29 pm

Simply Smarter 2016 Conference

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Written by: Larry Hack

During May I had the privilege of attending another great SYSPRO USA conference, this time in Anaheim California from May 21 through May 26, 2016. In fact, this was the first time two conferences were held back to back bringing together key executives of the SYSPRO corporate world, SYSPRO Partners/Resellers from Canada, USA and UK and customers. The goal, to hear firsthand about SYSPRO’S corporate strategy and innovative development plans for the next 3 years and to learn. Also in attendance were SYSPRO’S authorised 3rd party solutions providers whom we have got to know well over the past years and also partnered successfully with to bring their products to our customers attention as needed. Their booths were manned throughout the conference and all had an opportunity to meet their staff to gain an understanding of what these advanced solutions had to offer.

Entitled “Simply Smarter | 2016″, the first two days were devoted to presentations to Channel Partners followed by 3 days of corporate presentations and the opportunity to attend 87 breakout topical education tracks centered around SYSPRO Financials, Distribution, Manufacturing, Administration and Enterprise tracks. It was hard to decide what to attend! Eventually I decided on a couple of hands on work and play sessions on SYSPRO 7 and some what’s new sessions as related to SYSPRO GL and the financial modules. “Intercompany control across the supply chain” was also of interest as was “Orders to Shipping and everything in between”. I felt these topics would help me to be able to help you, our customers gain a better understanding of what SYSPRO has to offer in these fronts.

SYSPRO corporate is striving for excellence as it moves forward with a strategy to improve market share. To address this over the next 3 years we have to be cognisant of changing and emerging technologies. The goal is to make SYSPRO part and parcel of everyone’s daily lives in a simply smarter fashion. The Cloud, which we all read and hear often these days, will become an integral reality in the SYSRO world. On the innovation front it was exciting to learn about SYSPRO’S plans centered on topics which in the past we thought were just science fiction. These included plans to use Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Predictive Analysis to help understand analytical trends within our businesses. Use of social media, the internet and mobility platforms will all be part of the SYSPO environment as we are driven by disruptive technologies today that challenge us to change our business processes to meet the demands of a new generation of “Millennial” users. This presents an interesting challenge for our more mature customers who are used to entering data into standard data entry screens and running standard reports that report standard facts. Moving forward under the mantra of “Simply Smarter”, we caught a glimpse of great changes to come within the software, be it in terms of specific module functionality or user experience around how data gets entered, displayed or reported on.

Exciting times await us indeed and I left the conference feeling very confident that SYSPRO will continue to deliver great value for money for the annual license fees our customers pay each year. The challenge for us now is how to re-act and adopt to the rapidly changing and emerging new technologies so as to take advantage of their benefits, or get left behind in their wake. In a previous blog I wrote about the need to establish an annual ERP budget. After attending the conference and seeing firsthand what awaits us on the SYSPRO front I am even more convinced that this is an area that needs close attention in the years to come.

 

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by | May 5, 2016 · 7:33 pm

Non Traditional Cost Reduction Experiences.

Written by: Dan O’Toole President

“A penny saved is a penny earned” so the saying goes. Ben Franklin expressed this thought many years ago and it continues to bear fruit today. Our organization has undertaken significant growth over the past ten years, both in product offering and geographically.  As we continued to expand, we found overhead expenses growing, sometimes disproportionate to our sales.  Something had to be done to reverse this trend.

A key cost centre in our company is telecommunications. Amongst other products and services, we depend on WebEx and GoToMeeting for both internal and customer communication on a daily basis.  The cost of these services has been more than significant.  A way to reduce these costs had to be found.  Coincidently, we bought into video conferencing back in the 1990s as a means of managing travel and meeting costs.  The technology works great but adoption had been a challenge, at least until now.

The opportunity afforded to us, improve adoption of key technology and reduce overhead expenses.

The introduction of a new player in the video conference world has led our company to a double win. Not only have we experienced significant improvement in internal/external adoption, we’ve totally replaced WebEx and GoToMeeting, savings of over $40k per annum.  In April alone our teams engaged in 350+ meetings with over 930 participants, totalling 34,000 minutes of calling time.  So what was the difference in adoption?  The very same design feature that allowed Apple to capture a huge market with their iPad, ease of use.

By reducing the complexity of our organization and improving adoption, we’re more streamlined, cost efficient and maybe most important, more EFFECTIVE. Zoom is proving to be the fastest adopted collaboration technology for our teams at Phoenix Systems.

Reduce costs, improve efficiency; to coin another phrase, “You can have your cake and eat it too”.

 

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by | March 31, 2016 · 4:53 pm

“We Have Always Done It This Way” ~ Are Your Business Processes Helping or Hindering?

ContinuousProcessImprovementWritten by:  Sandra Stone

In many companies, when they are asked why they follow a certain process, this is the answer received. This ‘office-lore’ is often based on processes put in place many years ago, and may not reflect current company goals, and may not be using current technology and knowledge.

Your business is run by many processes that all work together to achieve your company goals. People are the process; the tools they use include knowledge, rules and technology.

As company goals, people and technology change, the business processes often need to be changed and improved to enable you to meet your goals.

Customers are continually demanding better products and services, and companies are striving to be able to do more, with less effort and at the highest possible quality. One of the major inhibitors to achieving these goals are Business Processes that are contributing to errors, duplication, bottlenecks, frustration and cost increases.

A Business Process Improvement exercise can help you improve existing systems and processes and it includes taking into account technology capabilities to help streamline operations and avoid waste.

One of your biggest assets in improving efficiencies, effectiveness and agility in the marketplace, is your SYSPRO ERP System. SYSPRO V7 takes advantage of the latest technology, to provide more functionality, more mobile capabilities, more automation capabilities and more integration capabilities. By leveraging SYSPRO V7 capabilities, you have the opportunity to improve your business processes, reduce inefficiencies, open the door to new products and services that you can deliver, and make it easier for customers and suppliers to do business with you.

Phoenix Systems experienced Business Consultants can work with your company to initiate and conduct Business Process Reviews. Once company goals are confirmed, then the process looks at each department or process, and basically addresses the following:

What are you trying to do?

How do you do it?

What works and does not work

What can be changed to make it better?

The resulting recommendations for improvement can encompass a wide range of activities. Some examples we regularly make are:

  • Use new functions in SYSPRO that can improve the process
  • Automate within SYSPRO tasks that are repetitive
  • Training for staff on new functions and new processes
  • Realign department responsibilities for different stages in the process
  • Reduce the number of spreadsheets in use, and have the data kept and maintained in SYSPRO – ‘one version of the truth’
  • Relook at old custom solutions to see if still required, as that functionality may now be a part of the latest version of SYSPRO
  • Bar coding and scanner solutions for Inventory and Warehouse Management
  • Automate the creation of Web Site orders in SYSPRO
  • Clearly define responsibilities and work flows, and ensure they are documented and staff members are trained on the workflow processes.

And one final comment: Business process improvement is not a static exercise. The most successful companies implement CONTINUOUS Process Improvement programs, so that ongoing fine tuning reflects the ever changing goals of the company, the market place, compliance requirements and technology.

 

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5 Leadership Essentials for a Successful Project

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Written by Hanna Kounov.

During my many years of project management I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly of projects. It is usual practice to have the scope, timeline and the budget of a project agreed upon by all parties so it is interesting to me that there is still an opportunity for failure. One would think that with all that in place and checks and balances it couldn’t go wrong. So why does it occasionally? Because it is not about the scope, the budget or the timeline… it is about change and therefore about people and their acceptance of the change.

I concede that no-one starts out to have a project fail but careful considerations should to be taken if you want it to succeed. In today’s business environment a failed project is no longer an option. That being said the scope of today’s projects – even small ones – are fundamentally different from just five years ago. New technologies and the ability of being mobile, coupled with smarter and more effective tools and customizations mean that projects are far-reaching and more complicated. For that very reason one has to ensure that these five essentials are in place. There are so many different reasons for project success or failure, but in my experience, for a project to be successful the following elements have to be present:

1. Committed Engagement
In order for any project to be successful there has to be commitment to the project. Management plays a role in ensuring that not only the project team is supported but everyone in the company understands that the change is required and necessary for future growth. The most successful project are the ones where the customer is engaged and takes responsibility for the system and the proposed changes. This requires motivating team members to test the new process and be involved at every level and task during the implementation.

2. Accepting Change
Perhaps the most damaging statement for any project is “We have always done it this way.” Receiving push-back of this nature can stop a project in its tracks or force it off the rails. The outcome is that you do not achieve the results you were expecting. These seven words will start a landslide of “fixes” or re-engineering that will reduce the effectiveness of the project as the software is forced to adhere to an often antiquated business process. There will be no gain in the long run and before long all the previous flaws will become apparent once again as people step outside the software to fill the gaps that were supposed to be addressed during the project.

3. Team Work
What is teamwork but relationships in motion? Foster respect between team members. It is not about being right, it is about getting the best outcome possible. Strong mentorship and support is crucial. Conflicts must be addressed immediately. There can never be room for passive or aggressive behavior and all viewpoints have to be seen as important and weighed to see if it makes sense. Have regular meetings and encourage discussion among team members. Remember e-mail is a great but voice and/or video communication really improves the overall health of the project.

4. Strong Leadership
Someone has to make the tough decisions! Leadership is essential as the proposed project is sure to change the structure and the nature of how business is conducted. Without leadership the project will flounder like a ship without a rudder. A successful leader is one who is optimistic with the ability to recognize what is and not avoid the harder conversations. A person who realizes that life happens and that you have to dance in the storm to keep some projects on course.

5. Care for the Team
It is my opinion that many times there is a lack of care for the project team within an organization. In most cases the individuals involved in a project still have to manage their day to day jobs. Splitting their energies in this way can cause huge stress for some individuals. As the live date approaches these team members need support. My recommendation is that some of their responsibilities are taken on by other staff members however that is not always an option in smaller companies. Therefore it is important for the project team to know that their efforts are appreciated through recognition in some form.

It doesn’t matter how simple or complicated the change is, it is still a change and with these five management essentials the chances are in your favour for a successful project.

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by | March 7, 2016 · 7:03 pm
by | January 25, 2016 · 10:39 pm

Find Your Business Intelligence Story….

Written by Oksana Slipenkyj.

Our article on Business Intelligence begins with a story….

It waSnoopys a dark and stormy night, when you needed to drive to a restaurant that you’d never been to before. Your car was covered in ice and snow, you didn’t have a snow brush, the wipers stopped working, your headlights were dim, the dashboard gauges barely visible and the GPS wasn’t turning on. Driving through a blizzard to somewhere you don’t know how to get to, without any aids or tools is almost impossible, and not something most of us would like to try.

Now imagine the car you’re driving is actually your organization, and the blizzard is our economy. That restaurant you’re trying to get to – that’s your company’s strategic objectives – increased market share, improved cash flow, new products and so on. The navigational aids are the Business Intelligence tools that help you steer your organization.

Business Intelligence is a set of tools or techniques that transform raw data into useful information for analytic purposes.

DataThese days, lack of data is not the problem. Your various systems – ERP, Quality, Warehouse Management, CRM, HR – all produce large amounts of raw transactional data about customers, products, sales, production and so on. The challenge is to be able to transform this data into meaningful, actionable information that you can use to gain results.

So what has your data done for you lately?
Information is an asset, and one that can help you gain a competitive advantage.
However taking all those gigabytes of raw data and coming up with meaningful measurements takes a few steps.

What are your company’s Key Performance Indicators?
Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) are metrics that help you evaluate your success – these can be things like sales targets, sales opportunities, product performance, manufacturing bottlenecks – whatever your company wants to track and measure. KPI’s can help you answer basic questions like: Questions

  • Who is buying what? And who is NOT buying.
  • Where do our sales come from?
  •  Is our inventory at the right levels?
  •  How can we make our production even more efficient?
  •  What have our Account Managers been doing?

KPI’s can lead you in making both operational and strategic decisions that directly impact your bottom line.

Transform your Data into Information and compare to your KPI’s

Analytic tools take your raw data and turn it into something you can actually use.

Phoenix Systems offers a variety of BI tools that work with your SYSPRO data and other databases.

There is no one size fits all solution, there is a suite of tools that you can utilize in the way that makes the most sense for your organization. These range from customized reports, automated report delivery, Analytic tools, Dashboards, and more. They can be available on demand, on a desktop, or on a mobile device or through email.

Business Intelligence tools are also scalable, you don’t have to do everything all at once. Pick a few key areas to focus on, and some key performance indicators and this will give you the most payback.

Visualizations help with decision-makingCharts

Present your information in a way that makes sense to you – you can go far beyond traditional grids and use graphical elements – they aren’t just a pretty picture – they can help you visualize large amounts of data quickly and aid in understanding and decision-making.

BIIf you don’t have this kind of information today, how do you make these decisions? Do you go by gut feel? Do what you’ve always done? Do what your competitors are doing?

There is a better way. It’s called Business Intelligence. Running a business without BI tools is like driving a car in a snowstorm without working headlights or gauges. It can be done, but you can get there faster and safer with a few tools.

Luckily our dark and stormy night story does have a happy ending. While the current economic forecast is challenging, you have lots of data, and there are many options for how to use this to help your company succeed.

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by | January 5, 2016 · 7:31 pm

Annual IT Budget ~ What to keep in mind..

Written by Larry Hack.

It strikes me every year how the IT budget, capital and services, is either ignored by companies, or underestimated. Further, the successful operation of an ERP/Accounting system on an up to date IT infrastructure will add hugely to the value of your company, however, this too is underestimated. Why is this?

If one Googles “IT Budget for companies” there are many tools to be had to assist in planning your budget. There are also sites which recommend how much spending there should be on IT. It is suggested that an average of 5.2% of annual revenue should be spent in this area. Some say between 4% and 6%. I read a white paper put out by American STRUCTUREPOINT Inc. which states:

“Deciding on a budget requires more than just flinging numbers onto a spreadsheet. Today, businesses are confused and uncertain as to what an appropriate IT budget is, and they don’t have a clear vision for how these funds should be spent”

In my experience many clients wait to the last minute to replace hardware. Then the upgrade ERP decision often rests on the hardware decision as old ERP is usually not supported on current technology.

Some of the driving factors to stay current with your ERP and update your servers/IT infrastructure every 3 to 4 years include the following:

ERP: Annual license fees are paid which ensures access to continuously improving software not only in new functionality but also in the areas of performance and optimization. The old saying “If it ain’t broke let’s not touch it” is less true these days as I would suggest that there is more benefit to be gained by upgrading your software. Take advantage of reviewing your business processes and retraining you staff. Usually with staff turnover it is common to find that newer staff has had minimal exposure to how to use the software properly nor have any understanding of its capabilities, never having been shown properly. Often there is frustration and lack of adoption of the software purely because of lack of knowledge. This leads to staff using “side systems” such as Excel and others and this in itself creates inefficiency  and reporting is done outside of the ERP system with resulting duplication of effort and various “versions of the truth”.

IT side: Security, Security, Security. (Internet threats, access by which members of staff to which data, remote access by offices in other locations local or worldwide. Working from home? A huge topic these days! This requires careful setup and maintenance. What about backups? More disk space is needed as so much data is collected. We do not want to purge history as we want to be able to analyze this more and more. Then we need multiple servers because we want TEST companies, upgrade companies and so on. Server virtualizations, dual processors, SQL databases and Microsoft operating systems upgrades.  This is a lot to comprehend!  Then we have new “Cloud” and “Mobility” solutions to factor in together with needs you may have for bar-coding solutions from an IT standpoint.

American STRUCTUREPOINT urges one to consider IT as an investment into the operations and flow of communications, rather than a cost of doing business. With proper budgeting, your company’s systems can be deployed in a way that enhances your ability to respond to varying changes in the competitive business environment. At least pause and re-consider your approach to this topic as we move forward into 2016. We at Phoenix Systems are of the same view and would like to help you with this process, if you would allow us.

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by | December 29, 2015 · 5:55 pm

SYSPRO 7 ~ Importing General Ledger Budgets

Written by: Ildiko Prelak

Things you can do in this program:
• Import GL budget records
• Verify if there are any errors in the import file without importing the GL budget records
• Print the contents of the import file
• Customize the program

Accounting periods
• Budgets are imported only for the number of accounting periods in your ledger year (an additional budget is available if you budgeted for the year end period), for example if you defined 6 accounting periods in the year and you import a line that contains 12 budget values, then only the first 6 budgets of that line are imported.

Budget value considerations
• The entry of budget values can be made at any point within the allocated field space. Because budgets are stored to the nearest unit (dollar, pound, etc.) any decimal values that are encountered are ignored.
• Any blank entries for a budget value are treated as zero.
• Although the allocated field size for each budget value is 15 characters, the actual budget amount cannot exceed 12 characters.
• The budget values on the import file are imported based on the account type defined against the ledger code (Ledger Code Maintenance), and are therefore not necessarily imported with the same sign defined against the values on the import file.
For Asset, Expense and Statistical account types, the values are imported as defined in the import file. i.e. negative values remain negative and positive values remain positive when imported.
For Capital, Liability and Revenue account types, the sign against the imported values is reversed. i.e. negative values on the import file are imported as positive values and positive values on the import file are imported as negative values.

 Errors that can be encountered
• The import process is immediately aborted if the first character of each line in the import file does not begin with a B. However, if any other type of error is encountered then a list is displayed within a browse window at the end of processing. A maximum of 200 errors is listed at any time.
Only the first error encountered on a line is listed, for example if a single import line contains three separate errors, then only the first error is indicated on the list. Once you have corrected the first error and re-run the import, then the second error is listed, etc.

Maximum number of records
• A maximum of 99 999 records can be imported from any one file. If you need to import more records, you need to break up the import file into multiple files.

Security considerations
Operator access to the following activities within this program can be restricted. You configure this using the Security Activities function of the Operator Maintenance program.

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Importing entries from a file
• Ensure that you have created an import file in the correct layout
1. Select the From file import method and then enter the name of the file that you want to import (or browse for the file) at the File name field.
2. Specify any options required, and then select Import.
3. Select Review file. The details of the import file are displayed in the Details pane.
If you do not select this option, then any errors found in the import file will be displayed in the Details pane. You will need to correct the errors on the import file before attempting to re-import the information.

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4. Make any changes, select Validate, and then select Import.

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Adding entries directly into the import program
1. Select the Use data grid import method and then enter the required details in the Details pane.

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2. Specify any options required.
3. Select Validate and then select Import. If any errors appear, make these changes before importing again.

Exporting column headers to Excel
You would typically follow this procedure to save the listview column headers into an Excel spreadsheet before you capture your import data.
1. Select the Export to Excel icon from the Details pane.
The column headers are displayed in an Excel spreadsheet as well as the company name, date and time of the import.
2. Capture your data in the relevant columns.

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Copying entries from an Excel spreadsheet
• Ensure that the required security options are enabled
• Ensure that the date format in the spreadsheet matches the date format used in SYSPRO
• Ensure that you have your Excel spreadsheet ready for copying, or that you have copied the data from the spreadsheet to the clipboard

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You would typically use this to save time when adding entries.
1. Select Paste (visible columns only) from the Edit menu in the Details pane.

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2. Specify any options required, and then select Validate to validate your entries.
3. Select Import to import the records.

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Duplicating listview data rows
You would typically follow this procedure to save time when adding import records.
Note
Duplicating records in a data grid is the equivalent of the Copy/Paste function.
1. Select the row you want to duplicate.
You can select the row by clicking on any cell within the row.
2. Select Duplicate from the Edit menu in the Details pane.

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by | · 5:21 pm

5 Corporate New Year’s Resolutions

Written by: Hanna Kounov

It is that time of the year and possibly you are making personal new year’s resolutions but have you ever considered making New Year’s Resolutions for your company or your department. Interesting thought right? This is the perfect time, in most cases year ends have just been completed and you have the big picture right at your fingertips. The point is to not just focus on the bottom line but on a broader spectrum.

So where do you start? Logically, with a review of the previous year. Word of caution, do not call it a post mortem. Post mortem by definition imply that something has died of unknown causes. Avoid this term when looking at the year or at anything else going forward for that matter. The idea for this review is to determine where you have been succeeding and where things can be strengthened. The fact that you are still in business means you are doing something right. The question is how do you make it better? These are the areas where you should focus your New Years Resolution’s.

With this in mind I did some research and found some of the key areas that companies are looking at for 2016:

1. Get to know your customer better.
You may be under the impression that you know your customers needs but things change constantly and what may have been important might not be now. Do you know their pain points and their needs? Find new and innovative ways to engage with your customers. Does your marketing strategy speak to their needs? If not how is that corrected and devise a plan of action. Marketing is important and there are many inexpensive ways to engage with customers in this day and age. Look for ways that work not just for you but also for your customer.

2. Time management.
Why do we fail at time management? Because everything we know about it is geared towards managing “clock time” and what we should really be managing is “real time”. Real time happens in our heads; we create it and anything we create can be managed. The first thing you have to know is how effective your company is at managing time. You could send your key people on time management courses but that would probably be a waste of time (pardon the pun) because they will be working with “clock time”. Perhaps a better way is to ask those same key people to jot down every thought, conversation, task or action they take for one week. At the end of that week look for the places where time is wasted on unproductive things that don’t produce results . Now you have the information to Organize, Prioritize and Schedule. Make sure that 50% of your teams scheduled time is spent on activities that generate results and schedule time for interruptions. Remind your team that it is impossible to get everything done in a day and be okay with that, tomorrow is another day and that is why you are prioritizing. The good news is that 20% of your teams actions will generate 80% of the results so if everyone is concentrating on the things that matter, you are way ahead of the game!

3. Maximize employee contributions.
Forget everything you know about this because there is no “secret”. Simply treat people the way you wish to be treated. Nothing makes up for compassion, mutual respect, kindness, open communication and flexibility. Adhering to this very simple rule will produce happier employees and happy employees engage with customers and each other in a positive way. Let your employees know that they are valued. Communicate the companies goals and values and allow for the people to have a say if they want to. Strengthen your teams skill sets with targeted training. When you invest in your people they feel valued, important and secure in their future with the company.

4. Understand your data.
Your company has a ton of data but other than the financials the rest may be shrouded in mystery. Find out what your key performance indicators are. Once you know what they are find ways to extract, massage and delve into it. Do you really know what is going on? Do you have enough historical information to make informed decisions in regard to budgets and sales targets? If the answer is no put it on your resolutions list and work with the data the whole year. Build a comprehensive Business Intelligence Strategy for the year. You will be tapping into a gold mine.

5. Set your goals for the year.
You do this every year and this one should be no different. The question would be, do you understand the information that is driving the goals? If you didn’t reach the previous year’s goals special care should be given as to why. Were you pushing the right products? Is your customer demographic in a strong position but you still missed out on sales or are you feeling the pinch because of an economic slowdown? Asking the tough questions will help you determine a valid sales target for the year ahead. Break down those lofty goals into milestones to be reached throughout the year. This will allow the team to feel that they are reaching their objective and motivate them. The final word I found in my research is; be realistic. If you are asking your sales force to reach unattainable goals it could have the opposite effect and make them feel defeated before they have started. Realistic goals make them strive and often exceed expectations.

 

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