Ecommerce the easy way

By Zuckerman Consulting, a WAC Consulting Group Parnter - As the pace of business marches on, more customers than ever want to do business online.  As ecommerce continues to grow in popularity, many businesses are deciding (or being forced) to provide online shopping.  Remember how banks used to close their doors at 3:00 PM on weekdays? Today's customers want access to product and account information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Depending on your business model, you may be selling to other businesses, or to the general public.  The 'business to business' model is probably more common among Pro Series users, and that's what we're going to discuss today.  In some ways it is easier to implement, since the customers already know you and know what they want to order.  This is a tremendous advantage, since marketing your web site to the general public is a much bigger job.

Is an online store right for you:  What do your customers think?

• Survey five of your best customers to see if they have an interest in buying from you online.

• Are they buying similar products from other on-line stores?

• Would they be willing to participate in an early release of your web store?

• Start by interviewing existing customers, then branch out to some new accounts.

• Is the prospect of an online store more appealing to your new or your old customers?

What are some advantages to them?

• Round the clock access.

• Order entry with correct pricing.

• Automatic shipping notification.

• They can review their purchase history and open balance on account

• They can manage changes to their own contact information and ship to addresses.

What are some of the advantages to you?

• Less time spent taking orders by phone or fax.

• Order data is validated by the web program and ready to process.

• Marketing to web customers is easy! They provide a valid email address to log in.

• Web specials, upgrades, associated items - all easy to present.       

• You may draw customers from competitors who don't offer this service.

• Focus more in-person customer contact to up-selling, product education.

How do we do it?

Data security is a high priority.  We use a secure data center to host your web store.  This means that users are not connecting to computers at your office. We automatically synchronize inventory, customer and other key files to the data center.

Data integration is important.  We set up an automated program to provide current shopping information that is required to take orders.  Online information is refreshed as needed.  Change a price in Pro Series and that information is updated online automatically. When a customer places an order online, it is automatically added to Pro Series for your approval.  All orders are validated and an email confirmation is sent as orders are received.

Ready to get started?

We have products available that already link to your Sage Accounting Software.  The basic setup includes the data synchronization tools and a shopping cart.  Additional modules can be added to enable additional features as you need them.  You can add functions such as credit card authorization, discount coupons and promotions, gift certificates, shipping address registration, freight and boxing, customer inquiry, color size and style, etc.

In addition, just like your Sage Pro ERP software, these tools are customizable- we can accommodate any of your special data or program requirements and integrate them into your web store.  We use the latest tools from Microsoft, including Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft.NET.  You can even update your company information directly with editing tools like Adobe's Dreamweaver.

Already have a web site?  Your customers can log in to access your online store, and our templates can reflect the look and feel of your existing website.

Let's Talk Shop

A quick look at Sage Pro ERP Job Cost and Project Accounting modules. - by Karen Smart of Smart E-Solutions, a WAC Consulting Group Partner

The line between a manufacturer and a job cost or job shop company can run thin, and for some companies they overlap, especially if your organization is manufacturing goods that you will sell on a job.  Luckily, we have a definitive product, Sage Pro ERP Job Cost module that allows you to trace costs to individual units of output by means of defining a specific contract with job numbers, phases, categories, cost types, job cost items, and the full use of bill of materials, for batches of goods, jobs or services that you provide your customers.

Organizations like print shops, custom home builders, and custom machine manufacturers use job cost systems.  Companies that work with cost-based contracts, such as defense, highway, and other types of contractors, also use job cost systems. Many non-profit organizations use job costing software to account for individual projects.  Service organizations also want to track labor and costs that determine the cost of each job performed.

Now, that you know you want job costing capabilities, you might be asking...How do I know if I need the Job Cost or Project Accounting Module?  That's easy. 

Do you need to track WIP? Do you require CSI Divisions?  Do you require progress billing at the job level?  Do you need AIA billing capabilities?  Do you need to view detailed transactional data at the job level?  Do you require the use of Change Order tracking?  Do you need to track your subcontractors and validate contract amounts against a job?  Do you need to allocate overhead to your jobs?  If you answered yes to any of these questions, you need the Sage Pro ERP Job Cost module.

Okay, so what about accounting?  If a company had only one department,  a single manufacturing overhead account and a single WIP account would suffice.  But many manufacturing and job cost companies have several departments through which jobs accumulate direct and indirect material, labor, equipment, subcontracted labor as well as manufacturing overhead.  Thus additions will be made to an on-going job as that job progresses through the different phases of its productions cycle imparting costs that you want to track in detail along the way.  There is also the timing factor that differentiates our job cost organizations from our true to form manufacturers.  Job cost organizations typically have job completion cycles that last for longer periods of time than straight line manufacturing.

The primary focus of job cost accounting is to analyze decision making (estimates/budgeting) and performance evaluations of the contracts, batches of goods, jobs or services that you provide.  To be successful in any kind of activity, managers must know how much things cost to make by product, department, service provided, etc.

Sage Pro ERP Job Cost's primary focus is to meet the needs of diverse job-oriented businesses, including made-to-order manufacturing, engineering, architectural, construction, and service/repair companies by providing you the tools to analyze your jobs more effectively.

Look for advanced feature enhancement in the next versions of Sage Pro ERP 7.5 - Project Management capabilities and multiple document interface to give you the same productivity as the other core accounting modules.

Another module that is often overlooked for those needing to track job cost information but not job transactional detail as the full Job Cost Module would be the Project Accounting Module.  This module is excellent for those that do not need to track WIP, don't need certified payroll and some of the other major functions of the full JC, but would like to integrate with the sales order and work order module for placing costs against jobs.  All entries to the jobs come from the sub-ledgers (AR, AP, SO, PO, WO, PR) when using the Project Accounting Module.

Important Job Cost Definitions and Acronyms

• ERP- Enterprise Resource Planning

• CSI- Construction Standards Institute

• AIA- American Institute of Architects

• WIP- Work in Process

Intelligent Reporting with DataSelf Business Intelligence

By Account Tec, a WAC Consulting Group Partner - Imagine a manager who wonders why certain initiatives are failing.  He asks IT for a report.  Half a day later, the report arrives, but it doesn't answer all his questions.  He asks for a new report.  Days of back and forth ensue while operation losses continue to accumulate.

Managers struggle to get custom reports because creating and modifying reports is a time consuming task for IT.

DataSelf Business Intelligence (BI) provides the obvious alternative: its user-friendliness allows decision makers fulfill from 70 to 100 percent of their reporting needs without help from IT.

DataSelf BI comes with more than 500 pre-defined reports and key performance indicators (KPIs), immediate return on their DataSelf BI investment just by monitoring trends revealed by the out-of-the-box reports.

More important in the long run, modifying existing reports and creating new ones usually takes less time than eating a donut--and usually without help from IT.

Here is a sample of what you can do with DataSelf BI:

• Create Crystal-like reports in seconds or minutes instead of hours or days.

• Improve customer loyalty by monitoring customer metrics.

• Improve business efficiency by monitoring the best and worst performers in sales, purchasing, or projects or any other area.  Group them in any way, such as by customers or products, and by any measure, such as by sales for expenses.

• Improve business efficiency by monitoring moving averages of any business area in any grouping and by any measure.

Until recently, acquiring a solution like DataSelf BI required a large investment in time and money.  Now you can join over 100 mid-size organizations that have taken advantage of DataSelf BI to satisfy all their reporting needs.

If the manager above had had DataSelf BI in place, he probably could have created the reports himself.  No IT required!  No delays!  More importantly, he would be able to find out why the initiatives are failing and act on the problem right away.