After a week of blocking the Suez Canal, the now-famous cargo ship, Ever Given has been freed from the 27,000 cubic meters of sand and mud that were surrounding the ship. Supply chains are flowing again. I for one am very glad to hear that the ship has been freed since coffee, toilet paper and a whole host of other items were being held up! In all seriousness, it was and is a crisis that will have ripple effects on the global economy.

As I often do, I started to relate this crisis to the world of ERP that we live in. Although we are not responsible for dealing with a situation like what happened in the Suez Canal, we all deal with problems in our jobs every day. Some of these problems are small, and some are not so small. Some problems are caused by human error, some by prevailing winds that blow us in a particular direction, and some by circumstances out of our control. It is what we do about the problems we encounter that make all the difference. We could bury our heads and hope the problems somehow go away on their own, or we can take action and do something to bring about the change necessary to get past the blockage.

I see “blockages” every day in working with my customers. Sometimes it is a lack of understanding of best practices in a given department, or a reliance on tribal knowledge that determines how and why something is done in the system, or inefficient manual processes destroying a company’s efficiency, or hundreds (or thousands) of customizations standing in the way of an upgrade, or employees labeling an ERP system as “no longer a fit” when their company is only using 10% of the available functionality in the system.

So, maybe today we could focus on what it would take to remove the “blockage” that we have in our way. What benefits could we realize if we worked together to bring about incremental change? Could we actually get that upgrade done? Could we start operating based on industry-leading best practices? Could we increase our market share? Could we decrease our costs and boost our revenue? All of this is possible.

Contact me today so that we can begin to work together to solve the problems that stand in the way of your progress.

solutions@crossroadsrmc.com or 800.762.2077

Product taxability may seem straightforward because there are generally only two options: taxable or exempt. Yet that seemingly simple contrast fails to truly capture the inherent complexity of sales tax compliance. In fact, it’s a multistep process that starts with determining where a business has sales tax nexus. Knowing whether the products or services one sells are taxable or exempt is critical to the compliance process, from start to finish.

The good news is that you don’t have to be a tax expert, nor do you need to stay up on the latest tax rules and regulations in each state or country where you do business. Avalara handles all of this for you and Crossroads RMC provides the integration to Infor LN, Infor LX, Baan, and BPCS to make staying compliant a no-brainer.

Want to learn more?...

Measure what you want to improve.

Six simple words, but put together they convey a powerful concept that can transform manufacturing companies. It’s a basic concept that’s hard to argue with: Collect data, see where the data leads you, and make changes that have a positive impact on the data. Repeat often.

If your company is manufacturing a product, you’re more than likely creating manufacturing variances. These variances tell managers...

The Infor ERP Elephant in the Room That Must Be Addressed

In a recent survey of Infor ERP customers, we discovered that 50% of respondents said that they did not know whether or not their ERP system had the features and functionality required for their business.  50%....1 out of every 2……not good.

Why is this the case? Well, the causes can be traced back to one of the following reasons:

• A key-person has retired or left the company and their knowledge left with them.
• Systems were implemented based on how the previous system worked.
• Upgrades and implementations were viewed as a “technical upgrade”, meaning that the upgrade was done to get off an old or outdated platform. The new version wasn't researched, its functionality was unknown and no one was trained on it.

You may say “So what? Who cares if our team doesn’t know what else is available, or how the rest of the ERP system functions? Does it really matter?”

Yes - It matters more than you think.... 

One of the most common complaints from M3 users is that the wrong information is displayed on B (list) panels, or it is displayed in the wrong order. M3 provides a tool that allows users to personalize the display so only relevant information is seen without programming assistance from IT.

It is divided into two components:

You know what data you need to analyze your company’s financial and production health, but sometimes it's a struggle to get that data in a format that is meaningful. Here are some reports in Baan IV, Baan V, and Infor LN which you may find useful.

As is the case with most ERP reports, with each version progression from Baan IV, to Baan V, to LN, there are improvements in selection criteria and report content. Some may require some setup and others may require some formatting if you would like to export them to Excel.  Contact me if you have questions or need assistance.

BAAN & LN FINANCE & MANUFACTURING:

You know what ERP data you need to analyze your company’s financial and production health, but sometimes it's a struggle to get that data in a format that is meaningful. Here are some reports in BPCS & Infor LX which you may find useful.

As is the case with most ERP reports, with each version progression from the earliest versions of BPCS to the latest version of Infor LX, there are improvements in selection criteria and report content. Some may require some setup and others may require some formatting if you would like to export them to Excel. Contact me if you have questions or need assistance.

BPCS & LX FINANCE & MANUFACTURING REPORTS: