Watkins relies on the Microsoft Dynamics ERP system to provide a solid foundation for efficient operations. “Automation is one of the biggest things Microsoft Dynamics GP provides for us,” says Watkins. “If we were on a paper-based system, we literally couldn’t keep up with the people we have.”

Watkins and his staff of 13 enjoy the time-saving benefits of Microsoft Dynamics GP’s role-based interface. “We have everybody set up on the roles-based system and we all use our customized home pages to help save time and streamline processes.”

Another critical process for Community Mental Health is managing their cash flow. “We use the Cash Flow Management module to understand where we are from a cash-flow standpoint on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis,” says Watkins. “I appreciate the solid framework Microsoft Dynamics GP provides for internal controls. Obviously, you can choose not to take advantage of those, but we certainly do.”

Ensuring the financial health of his organization is a top priority for Watkins. “I’m most proud of the good we do for the community,” says Watkins, “especially the underprivileged people we reach out to who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford our services.”

Being driven to provide excellent service is a quality Watkins appreciates in business partners. “Arctic Information Technology is truly a partner to us,” says Watkins. “I’ve worked with many IT consultancies around the country throughout my career. I find Arctic IT to be one of the most responsive I’ve ever worked with.”

Anchorage Community Mental Health Services (http://www.acmhs.com/) has helped people in Anchorage, Alaska, and surrounding communities discover new beginnings in their lives for over 30 years. A client of Arctic Information Technology, they have used Microsoft Dynamics GP for several years.

 By: Arctic Information Technology, Inc., Alaska Microsoft Dynamics Partner

Anchorage, Alaska  - Your Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner

Customizable Grant Reports Help Anchorage Non-Profit Run Smoothly is a post from: ERP Software Blog

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35 Questions Every CFO Needs to Ask About ERP Software in the Cloud

This simple, easy-to-follow white paper will  help you compare the benefits and risks of ERP/financial management software in  the cloud.

In the white paper, you will learn about:

• Cloud definitions
• Potential benefits of Cloud ERP
• Common concerns of Cloud ERP
• Compliance considerations for Cloud ERP
• Licensing questions for Cloud ERP
• Sample cost comparison for Cloud ERP vs.  on-premise ERP
• Business challenges and deployment options for  Cloud ERP

In addition to the information above, the white paper also  includes nine informative graphs and a sample comparison chart providing a  simplified 5-year model to evaluate the cost of various ERP deployment options  including on-premise, on demand and hosted deployment.

Download the white paper today and find out all you need to know about ERP in the  Cloud.

And contact BroadPoint, the largest Microsoft Dynamics GP reseller in the mid-Atlantic,  at skane@broadpoint.net or 301-634-2404 for more information on what deployment model will work best for your organization.

Broad Point Technologies, Virginia Microsoft Dynamics partner

Is Your Organization Ready for ERP in the Cloud? is a post from: ERP Software Blog

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2. Solutions Not Systems — Why Buyers Need to Put Business Challenges before Software Requirements
3. Stay Focused and Stay Sharp with Dynamics GP

By using an ERP solution in the cloud, you will:

• Avoid costly up-front hardware acquisitions or updates
• Make predictable, monthly, per-user payments
• Get software maintenance without annual fees
• Take advantage of software updates without paying for additional services

Regardless of your deployment type, one of the biggest unknowns going into a new ERP solution purchase is the cost for implementation services, because this number is dependent on your business needs.

However, Cloud Services by Socius now offers a fixed-fee implementation schedule that enables you to know upfront your total cost for a cloud ERP solution, like Microsoft Dynamics GP in the cloud.  While you can request a quote from Cloud Services for any of our Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions, our new pricing tool enables you to instantly calculate your costs for Microsoft Dynamics GP in the cloud.

When you use this tool, you will be quoted a cost for the specific functionality of Microsoft Dynamics GP Advanced Management that you need, for the number of users you require, and for the proven implementation services that has made Socius one of the top Microsoft Dynamics GP partners in the world.

See what Microsoft Dynamics GP in the Cloud would cost you!

By Socius, a Microsoft Dynamics ERP Partner in Ohio, Kansas City, and California

How Much Does Dynamics GP in the Cloud Cost? is a post from: ERP Software Blog

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 All too often, a software solution is developed to meet a specific business process and may perform that process quite well.  Over time though, the original product has grown to try to meet far too many niche needs and is stretched to serve an ever growing audience.  This often dilutes the product’s capabilities. The product becomes overly complex, seemingly having a button, module, or “bolt-on” for everything.  In the end, the product might be able to serve more needs but often fails to perform any one of them well.

 Organizations that are looking to purchase new software need to be careful in their selection.  Business applications that attempt to serve a large audience with many modules and many features are often mediocre at your most important business processes.  This also relates to usability, long term cost and support and whether the solution can grow with your organization.  If a solution is deeply complex, how easy is it to use?  If it is over engineered, how easy is it to support?  Are you paying for modules and features that you will never need or use?  How easy is it to get the data out of a complex system for business analytics?  How easy is it to extend or change the solution to meet your needs over time? 

 Organizations should focus on procuring solutions that not only meet the core business needs, but actually excel at meeting those needs.  BroadPoint Technologies, the largest Dynamics GP reseller in the mid-Atlantic, focuses on aligning core business needs to the right technology.  This strategy sets up our clients for the highest possible return on their investment.

by BroadPoint Technologies, Virginia Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner

Stay Focused and Stay Sharp with Dynamics GP is a post from: ERP Software Blog

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2. Solutions Not Systems — Why Buyers Need to Put Business Challenges before Software Requirements
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The result? They compromise the efficiency of many processes by letting the software dictate their procedures through limited setup options and configuration. *big sigh from me*

When I ask about the 5 year plan and how they see the company growing, I can see the disappointment when it’s realized QuickBooks won’t meet their future growth and simply will not cut it much longer. *big sigh from client*

Today I’m telling you, perhaps asking you, not to feel pressured to use other accounting software just because ”it’s cheap”. You can afford a long term solution that will scale with your business and give you room to grow.

Here. It Is.

Pay $3,000 and get 5 Microsoft Dynamics GP Licenses. Microsoft is offering the same pricing as QuickBooks . Yes, I found it on QB’s website. To be 100% clear, the only difference is, they include the first year of support/upgrades in that price. DFC provides support and we have support plans.

Why throw away time and money implementing a solution that is forcing you to compromise from the very beginning? Start planning now for the future of your business and acquire a solution that fits around you. We can guide you through the process from sales to implementation to training and support.

DFC is a Microsoft partner, with over 22 years of experience implementing, selling, and supporting Microsoft Dynamics GP. Please call DFC Consultants, at 800-277-5561 or find us at www.dfcconsultants.com.

One more thing. DFC Consultants specializes in the training for Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft CRM. We are the only Microsoft Certified Training Center in North Dakota and one of the largest in the Midwest teaching over 20 classes in the past 12 months. We have five Microsoft Certified Trainers that provide classroom training in a structured, hands-on, question-and-answer environment. View our training schedule to plan for your future today.

By Sarah Mueller, Business Development, DFC Consultants, North Dakota Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner

Microsoft Dynamics GP Competes with QuickBooks Pricing is a post from: ERP Software Blog

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This offer is hard to pass up! Reach out to your local Dynamics ERP partner to take advantage of this exceptional pricing.

Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Essentials includes accounting, tons of reporting and data mining tools and even distribution modules. Advanced Management all the Business Essentials modules below PLUS the additional financial and manufacturing modules. Contact your local reseller to determine which suite is best for your business.

Here is a complete list of Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Essentials Modules:

GENERAL LEDGER: Manage the heart of your business with intelligent accounting and analysis capabilities that sharply reduce time and effort for key tasks and deliver flexible, fast ways to track and analyze financial information.

ANALYTICAL ACCOUNTING: Classify, report, and analyze financial transactions based upon your specific business needs with wizard driven inquiries that integrate with Microsoft® Office Excel® and Microsoft Dynamics® GP SmartLists. Analyze transactions across your entire organization with smooth integration across modules in Microsoft Dynamics GP.

BANK RECONCILIATION: Manage all bank-related transactions through a single, automated process and ensure fast access and tight control for mission-critical financial information.

PAYABLES MANAGEMENT: Improve your control over expenses with up-to-the-minute payables information, comprehensive vendor management, and payment scheduling and tracking while automating routine and complex tasks.

RECEIVABLES MANAGEMENT: Maintain tight control over accounts receivable, manage sales made on accounts, and drive down overhead costs with integrated capabilities for tracking invoices, processing receipts, and analyzing customer activity.

FIXED ASSET MANAGEMENT: Improve financial control and put company assets to the best possible use with tools for tracking, analyzing, and manipulating fixed assets.

INTERCOMPANY: Efficiently set up, enter, and maintain relationships between companies so that revenues or expenses incurred in one company can be tracked as “due to” or “due from” amounts in other companies.

MULTICURRENCY MANAGEMENT: Take control of multinational operations and manage currency transactions smoothly and efficiently with flexible, powerful multicurrency capabilities.

ENCUMBRANCE MANAGEMENT: Not-for-profit, public sector or other organizations managing encumbrances can easily locate and track budget information, query current or historical encumbrances, and streamline period-end and year-end reporting processes.

SAFE PAY: Easily add Positive Pay functionality, including daily exporting of checks for comparison by the bank when checks are presented for payment.

REPORT WRITER: Modify existing or create new Microsoft Dynamics GP reports with an easy to use drag and drop design interface.

MICROSOFT MANAGEMENT REPORTER DESKTOP USER: Master your financial reporting process with comprehensive, highly customizable financial and management reports that are easy to create, distribute, and use

INVOICING: Improve invoicing efficiency with capabilities that include single-window entry for all vital information, batch processing, and easy return transaction processing.

SALES ORDER PROCESSING WITH ADVANCED INVOICING: Streamline and automate the entire sales ordering process to serve top customers more effectively, maintain tight control over fulfillment and invoicing, and minimize shipping and labor costs.

INVENTORY CONTROL: By controlling inventory effectively and setting prices on a customer-by-customer basis, you can reduce operating costs and achieve the fast, efficient fulfillment that keeps them coming back.

PURCHASE ORDER PROCESSING/RECEIVINGS: Manage vital commitments and build lasting vendor relationships with deep functionality that includes automated purchasing and approval processes, flexible extended pricing, and blanket purchase orders.

LANDED COST: Ensure start-to-finish accuracy with the ability to track and update the total cost associated with an inventory item—including freight, insurance, and duties—and then automatically assign or modify these costs on a purchase order as items are received.

CUSTOMIZATION SITE LICENSE: Deploy Modifier with Visual Basic for Applications solutions developed by a third party if you are not licensed for the Modifier module.

INTEGRATION MANAGER-CONVERSIONS: Migrate data from most common database formats or desktop applications into Microsoft Dynamics GP— a time-sensitive conversion tool to assist in a smooth transition from previous financial systems.

SECURITY MANAGEMENT: Manage roles-based user security quickly and effectively with powerful, easy-to-use tools that simplify configuration and management processes, yet provide high levels of protection for your system.

The Microsoft Dynamics GP ADVANCED MANAGEMENT EDITION is the preferred solution for growing, midmarket or high-functional-needs customers who are looking for an adaptive solution with a broad set of functionality, including all functionality included in the Business Essentials edition.

Financial Management

CASH FLOW MANAGEMENT: Customizable views and forecasting tools enable you to control, predict, and monitor inflows and outflows.

COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT: Minimize collections workload, improve your cash flow, and reduce bad debt expense with customizable information views and automated bad debt management tools.

CUSTOMER/VENDOR CONSOLIDATIONS: Quickly transfer information between Receivables Management and Payables Management to create a customer record that uses information already available in a vendor record, and vice versa.

GRANT MANAGEMENT: Not-for-profit and public sector organizations can automate grant management processes to track funds more easily, demonstrate accountability, and help attract future funding.

LOCKBOX PROCESSING: Automatically import and apply customer payment information from a lockbox transaction file provided by your bank. Lockbox Processing provides reliable receivables information, improved funds availability, and greater fraud protection.

NATIONAL ACCOUNTS: National Accounts provides the ability to define a national account relationship between multiple customers. It enables a customer to be defined as the “parent” account to which “child” customers may be added. This allows a payment received from the parent company to be applied across any of the child customers’ payments. Credit documents can also be applied from the child customer to any other member of the national account.

PROCESS SERVER: Move processor-intensive tasks off the computers your employees use every day and onto dedicated process servers, avoiding costly slowdowns.

REFUND CHECKS: Print refund checks for customers with credit balances, automatically debiting the customer and updating the ledger.

REVENUE/EXPENSE DEFERRALS: Simplify deferring revenues or distributing expenses with the ability to make entries for future periods within General Ledger, Receivables Management, Payables Management, Sales Order Processing, Purchase Order Processing, and Invoicing.

Business Intelligence and Reporting

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS: Executives and decision makers need at-a-glance access to key business metrics so they can quickly assess the health of the business and take command when conditions change. With key performance indicators (KPIs), companies can define and help deliver quick access to personalized views of key business information via a web-based portal.

MICROSOFT FORECASTER*: Forecast accurate budgets and gain control of the entire budgeting and planning process. Coordinate plans dynamically and collaborate easily with your management team. One named user license included; additional licenses available at extra cost. *One user included with each Advanced Management user. Additional users can be purchased a la carte by Advanced Management customers.

Supply Chain Management

AVAILABLE TO PROMISE: Help ensure the right inventory is available at the right time to meet customer needs, make firm delivery promises, and boost profitability.

BILL OF MATERIALS: Increase productivity with fast, flexible tracking of components and subassemblies used in light manufacturing and similar production and assembly operations.

PO GENERATOR: Automate purchasing by generating a suggested purchase order, with order point or minimum/maximum settings that determine quantities needed based on purchasing, sales, and inventory data.

RETURNS MANAGEMENT: Generate RMAs from historical customer invoices, service calls, or manually; generate RTVs or depot work orders; and automatically transfer items from the returns warehouse to the main warehouse.

Manufacturing

MANUFACTURING BILL OF MATERIALS: Build better, more flexible bills of materials to maximize your production efficiency including engineering, manufacturing, configured, archived, and even super bills that manage all options on the configurable products you produce.

MANUFACTURING ORDER PROCESSING: Efficiently track and manage the entire cycle of order processing, including detailed production costs, work orders, routings, outsourcing, and work center definitions.

MASTER PRODUCTION SCHEDULING: Gather information from sales forecasts to form a single, comprehensive production schedule and automatically create manufacturing orders.

MATERIAL REQUIREMENTS PLANNING: Ensure proactive planning, smart procurement decisions, and precise adjustments to production with flexible planning and analysis capabilities in addition to viewing material requirements and vendor information.

Project Management

PROJECT ACCOUNTING: Maintain tight control over project direction, costs, execution, and budget; support resources effectively; and ensure accurate billing and accounting through tight integration with financials, inventory, and accounts receivable.

PROJECT TIME AND EXPENSE: Capture, review, and approve project time sheets and expense reports through the web, enabling prompt, accurate customer invoicing and efficient reimbursement for out-of-pocket employee expenses.

Field Service Management

CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION: Maintain unlimited contract price books, monitor profitability against service calls, and recognize revenues through five different methods.

Description of a La Carte Modules Available for Advanced Management for Additional Cost:

Business Intelligence and Reporting

MICROSOFT FORECASTER*: Forecast accurate budgets and gain control of the entire budgeting and planning process. Coordinate plans dynamically and collaborate easily with your management team. One named user license included; additional licenses available at extra cost. *One user included with each Advanced Management user. Additional users can be purchased a la carte by Advanced Management customers.

Supply Chain Management

DISTRIBUTION SUITE: Includes Advanced Distribution and Advanced Picking.

EXTENDED PRICING: Create flexible pricing options and rules for customers, including standard and personalized percentage-off, value-off, and net pricing options. Implement date-sensitive functionality for sales and promotions.

Manufacturing

MANUFACTURING SUITE: Includes Capacity Requirements Planning, Engineering Change Management, Job Costing, Quality Assurance, Sales Configurator, Sales Forecasting.

Field Service Management

DEPOT MANAGEMENT: Track parts, labor, and expense details. Create a Parts Usage report. Manage spare parts and trunk-and-lot-tracked stock inventory.

PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE: Forecast purchasing and scheduling requirements based on time in service or product usage. Coordinate open service requests with upcoming preventive maintenance calls. Track details of Preventive Maintenance activities.

SERVICE CALL MANAGEMENT: Track and update new and historical service calls against a contract, service warranty, and current inventory. Time executions, coordinate customer schedules, assign appropriately skilled technicians, and escalate calls automatically.

Human Resource Management

BENEFIT SELF SERVICE SUITE – UNITED STATES: Reduce paperwork and manual entry with moving benefit processes online, including yearly benefits, change of status, and more.

Description of a La Carte Modules Available for Both Editions at an Additional Cost:

SMARTLIST BUILDER: Create customized SmartLists that enable you to quickly link Microsoft Dynamics GP, easily add new fields to SmartList windows, and analyze data according to the criteria you define.

CRYSTAL REPORTS PROFESSIONAL: Transform Microsoft Dynamics GP data into presentation-quality information with tools for building compelling, graphical views of business data. (Initial purchase includes 1 named user.)

MANAGEMENT REPORTER DRILLDOWN VIEWER: Review detailed reports while working online or offline, including the ability to drill down to transaction-level detail without accessing the general ledger or company network.

MANAGEMENT REPORTER REPORT DESIGNER USERS: Create, generate, and maintain boardroom-quality financial reports from your desktop, without the need to call on help from IT staff or a database professional.

MANAGEMENT REPORTER REPORT LAUNCHER: Select pre-existing reports, specify output options, and generate the reports you need, all on an on-demand basis, with the ability to drill down to transaction detail level while maintaining the original report design.

MICROSOFT DYNAMICS CRM CONNECTOR FOR MICROSOFT DYNAMICS GP: Increase consistency and accuracy in billing and forecasting, streamline operational costs and processes by eliminating redundancies, and promote increased organizational efficiencies that deliver strategic business impact by synchronizing and integrating data within Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics GP.

PAYROLL: Automate payroll processing, equip staff to handle complex and changing payroll requirements, and offer better service to your employees while reducing necessary overhead costs.

ADVANCED PAYROLL: Extend Payroll capabilities with Pay Policy Manager, Labor Accrual Manager, Advanced Labor Reporting, and Payroll Hours to General Ledger functionality.

FEDERAL MAGNETIC MEDIA: Help maintain full compliance with government reporting requirements by generating Federal Magnetic Media files.

PAYROLL CONNECT: Automate data transfer from ADP/PC Payroll for Windows® into General Ledger, using a turnkey solution that eliminates the need to re-enter data.

PAYROLL DIRECT DEPOSIT: Add payroll funds to employees’ bank, savings and loan, or credit union accounts through an automated clearing house (ACH) file, with no limit on the number of accounts or financial institutions for any employee’s payroll.

HUMAN RESOURCES: Make fast, strategic decisions for attracting and retaining top talent, process payroll more efficiently, and offer employees better services and programs with customizable hiring processes, scheduling, pay rates, and performance evaluation tools.

ADVANCED HUMAN RESOURCES: Extend Payroll and Human Resources capabilities with Benefit Lifecycle Manager, Certification, License and Training Manager, and Employee Health and Wellness functionality.

BUSINESS PORTAL NAMED EMPLOYEE USER/CUSTOMER USERS: Streamline full user access by providing secure browser-based access to Microsoft Dynamics GP data to employees and customers.

INTEGRATION MANAGER-DISTRIBUTION (POP, SOP, INV): Integrate data from other systems on a onetime or continuous basis into Microsoft Dynamics GP Purchase Order Processing, Sales Order Processing, and Inventory modules—strong security and data integrity checks, as well as scheduling and customized data processing, provide a dependable, efficient, and easy to use data integration experience.

INTEGRATION MANAGER-FINANCIALS (GL, RM, PM, FA, BR, PAYROLL, PROJECT): Integrate data from other systems on a onetime or continuous basis into Microsoft Dynamics GP Financial, Payroll, and Project modules—strong security and data integrity checks, as well as scheduling and customized data processing, provide a dependable, efficient, and easy to use integration experience.

EXTENDER: Personalize your data collection by linking additional windows that are easily created by non-developers, expand notes and macros, and launch ad hoc queries that are based on the new business information you are able to collect.

By Nancy Phillippi with Custom Information Services (CIS), Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner based out of North Texas. Your feedback and comments are welcome. Contact Nancy at nphillippi@customis.com or by phone at 817-640-0016 x 109.

Give Me 5! Five Microsoft Dynamics GP User Licenses for 3K! is a post from: ERP Software Blog

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BroadPoint and NextCorp/SMB Suite are presenting a discussion on the business case for moving Dynamics GP to the Cloud, and why some organizations think this is THE new way of doing business.  Speakers Steven Kane (BroadPoint) and Joanna Luttjohann (NextCorp/SMB Suite) will discuss the many benefits of moving Dynamics GP to the cloud including greatly reduced IT budgets, drastically improved Return on Investment (ROI), and elimination of technology management burdens.

The discussion will show how organizations can:

• Improve their financial model with reduced upfront investment and monthly pricing
• Grow their business by reducing IT costs and minimizing support infrastructure
• Experience lower costs per user and faster deployments through a Managed Service Model

In addition, our speakers will detail the specific steps organizations can take to bring Dynamics GP to the Cloud.  Contact Steven Kane at 301-634-2404 or skane@broadpoint.net to find out how BroadPoint Technologies, the mid-Atlantic’s largest Dynamics GP partner, can help you take Dynamics GP to the Cloud at your organization.

by BroadPoint Technologies, Virginia Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner

Taking Microsoft Dynamics GP to the Cloud is a post from: ERP Software Blog

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If you’re a business just starting to research ERP, it might be good to start with the history of ERP Software and how the technology evolved.

ERP had its early beginnings from MRP or Materials Requirement Planning, which integrated additional data specific to employee and financial information into the scope and planning. It then changed to Manufacturing Resource Planning primarily due to industry interest before it morphed into what we know today as ERP – a solution that streamlines internal and external operational processes to improve efficiency and profitability across the entire business.

Enter cloud technologies, specifically Cloud ERP, and now a company has the ability to achieve greater ROI by improving operational efficiency, being more competitive in the market and proactively planning for their growth and greater profitability. For small and medium businesses, Cloud ERP may be a more viable solution, delivering greater ROI.

Improved Operational Efficiency
It’s widely known that ERP Software is designed to increase visibility and transparency across every department. And that certain industries will have specific initiatives relevant to industry drivers. Move to the Cloud and you now have your ERP on demand creating access to services from anywhere the internet is available. This allows for greater collaboration between employees, regardless of where they are located, improved visibility and a clearer picture of financials across multiple departments. And having the ability to react quickly to business opportunities as they arise will only improve overall performance and agility.

Be More Competitive
An additional benefit associated with ERP Software is the capacity for a company to gain greater competitive advantage and remain resilient. To be exact, a company’s ability to meet the demanding needs of the market faster than the competition distinguishes its value proposition from the rest and allows it to remain ahead of the competition. Many believe this is the single most important aspect of staying competitive.

Cloud ERP adds further to the value proposition by bringing fluidity to the business – allowing an organization to adopt new technology without disrupting business or having to add additional resources, while adding the ability to better manage cash flow. This is especially important for small and medium business owners that can benefit from:

• No upfront monetary investment
• Moving CAPEX expense to OPEX
• Locking in a price structure that fits their budgets

Proactively Plan for Growth and Prosperity
The ability to plan for growth and prosperity may be the most highly regarded ERP benefit of all as companies have the opportunity to modify strategy for cost control, forecast for the short and long term, plan for the future and be in control of their own prosperity.

Cloud ERP takes it a step further by adding “scalable” options when you need and in a pay as you go model; utilizing smart technology to better manage operational capability; integrating the cloud footprint (across every department) to deliver innovative best practices; and taking the first step to alter your financial model in a positive way.

Now that you know what ERP Software can offer and the advantages of Cloud ERP, evaluate the best option for your company. By better understanding the internal details of your business, you will have more proactive options to improve the bottom line, plan your technology infrastructure and invest in the right resources needed to grow.

For more information on ERP in the cloud, visit www.smbsuite.com.

What ERP Software Can Do for Small and Medium Businesses and How Cloud ERP Can Return Greater ROI is a post from: ERP Software Blog

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• Define critical product requirements

• Narrow your search to a focused-list of solutions

• Analyze the pros and cons of the software and partner

• Determine which is the right solution for you

• Negotiate a fair deal

Below are some tips on the selection process:

• Focus on the Critical Functionality

It’s easy to get caught up in the “wish list” features of a product. In fact, looking at the bells and whistles of a technology plays right into the hands of some vendors, who have the latest “bleeding edge” glitz but lack some of your core requirements.  Initially, you should focus on the vital functionality requirements and processes that the vendor’s system must be able to handle. Once a comprehensive list of these scenarios has been developed, utilize them to keep your organization on track and focused during the selection process, and as an evaluation tool for comparison.

• Checking References…with a Twist

Simply asking for references from the vendor and checking to make sure the references are satisfied is not doing enough.  You must dig deeper.  Ask the reference if they know another of the vendor’s clients (one degree of separation) and then talk to that client.  This will give you a clearer picture of the software and partner and how they are with “average” clients.

• Don’t Psyche Yourself Out

Choosing an ERP Solution is one of the most critical decisions a business will make. However, too much back-and-forth will cause your information to become outdated, and the selection process can come to a standstill.  

• It’s a Business Decision

An ERP Selection project is not an IT decision; it is a business decision.  When working with clients, we often see the purchasing decision primarily made by the IT department. As a result, the technology selected will be architecturally sound, yet it will be missing critical business components.  All parts of the business must be represented.  It is also important to establish defined roles for each member of the team.  Additionally, a team manager should be chosen who understands or interacts with various parts of the business and has the authority to enforce timelines.

• Negotiations

Prior to beginning the negotiation process, your organization has to outline the desired goals of the negotiation.  You want your new partner, whomever you may choose, to be an asset to your organization.  This is the time to develop that relationship.  Think of the negotiation process as the “first date” of a long term relationship.

Selecting business software is one of the most critical and expensive decisions your organization will have to make. Your company will face numerous challenges on its path to the optimal selection. Regardless of whether you’re in the early initial stage, or at the very end of the selection process and are negotiating with the vendor (now partner), the tips described above will help you avoid mistakes made by other companies. 

Contact Steve Kane at 301-634-2404 or skane@broadpoint.net to find out how BroadPoint Technologies, with extensive experience implementing Microsoft Dynamics GP, can get evaluate your requirements and find the right solution for your organization.

by BroadPoint Technologies, Virginia Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner

Got Search Overload? 5 Tips on Navigating the ERP Selection Process is a post from: ERP Software Blog

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If making the change to a new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system has been weighing you down for a while, now is the time to check it off your list of things to do.  We are proud to offer “Buy 1, Get 3” on Microsoft Dynamics GP.  This means you buy 1 license (or concurrent user) and get 2 free.

Operating your business in a system you’ve outgrown not only takes away from your bottom line, it takes away from potential growth and puts you in a reactive state.  Feel the freedom of knowing you are moving to a sustainable, scalable solution for less with Microsoft Dynamics GP.

Here are a few game changing efficiencies we’ve helped our clients accomplish with Microsoft Dynamics GP:

-          cut time processing payroll by 67% and concentrate on more productive tasks and less repetitive busy work

-          reduce the time spent on month-end closings by 50%

-          email or share reports that mean something to you and your employees in minutes without the help of a developer

-          save thousands within the first year of implementing with tighter inventory management, eliminating rush orders, “dead” stock and excess  inventory

Even more good news. It’s not too late to get started.  Your first step (if you haven’t already worked with a Microsoft partner before) is what we call a Business Process Meeting.  

Since 1989, DFC has focused their expertise in distribution, tribal, non-profit, and professional service industries. If you are looking for one of the most experienced Microsoft Dynamics GP partners in the Midwest for sales, implementation, integration, customization, training, and customer support, contact DFC Consultants at 800-277-5561. Email us or call if you’d like to set up free business process review.

DFC Consultants specialize in Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft CRM and Tribal and Public Housing solutions.

by Sarah Mueller, DFC Consultants, North Dakota Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner

Buy 1 Get 3. Now is the Time to SAVE MONEY and Move to a Comprehensive Business Solution – Microsoft Dynamics GP is a post from: ERP Software Blog

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