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In today's Exact Macola 10 tech tip, we take a look at custom workspaces and show you how to add default values to parameters. We also show you how to utilize the already available searches to create a better user experience.

I’m very excited to announce the availability of Exact Macola 10.3. As the name implies, this release is our third update to Exact Macola 10 that was originally released in June of 2014. As I’ve said many times, each release in the Exact Macola 10.x series should stay true to a handful of strategic focus areas. Those strategic areas are web services, mobile, workspaces, international support, and partnerships. I believe this 10.3 release represents those areas well.

On a side note, as we approach the end of the year, we also work on year-end tax updates. These are not available as part of the 10.3 release itself, but are made available for Exact Macola 10, Exact Macola ES, and Exact Macola Progression as a separate package.

Now let’s get to the good stuff. In Exact Macola 10.3, we added several new pieces of functionality:

Avalara Connectivity

Exact Macola 10.3 introduces a connector to Avalara which allows Exact Macola customers to seamlessly integrate with Avatax. Avatax is automated sales tax software which makes the calculating and reporting of sales tax a breeze. This connector is included with Exact Macola 10.3 out of the box and does not require an additional purchase.

Spanish Language Support

Exact Macola 10.3 continues our theme of increased support for Latin America. With this release, we have Spanish support throughout the entire product. We’ve also continued to make enhancements to our “Annex 24” tool which allows Exact Macola customers in Mexico to report transactions to the government (per the Annex 24 requirements).

Android and iPad Support for Mobile

We released our mobile app for the iPhone in June, and are now following up with a release for Android and iPad. The mobile app allows users to do tasks such as enter orders, create quotes, find customers “near me,” check inventory, and view workspaces. (iOS app updates available now and Android updates expected in the first quarter of 2016)

Windows 10 Support

Exact Macola 10.3 introduces support for Windows 10. There are limitations with the Windows 10 “Edge” browser, so Internet Explorer is still recommended.

Additional Web Services Features for Order Entry and Accounts Payable

In the Exact Macola 10.2 release, we introduced web services for Order Entry and Accounts Payable. We’ve continued to improve on these web services to make them even more feature-rich – making their functionality more in line with the desktop client.

Multi-site MRP Planning Workspace

As a direct response to requests from our customers, we’ve begun developing features around Multi-site MRP. The first step in this was to create a workspace which reports on multiple locations.

Grid-based Data Entry 

Grid-based data entry on purchase order screens allows users to enter data in a view that resembles the grid of a spreadsheet – instead of entering data one screen at a time. This has the ability to increase the efficiency of data entry significantly. 

In addition to the big items, there were several other notable changes based on customer requests:

New Option to Print Crystal Report Pick Tickets from Order Entry Screen

After entering and saving a sales order, the Pick Ticket button becomes active. Upon clicking this button, a new option appears to print either a standard picking ticket or a Crystal report picking ticket. (You can also print the picking ticket later from the menu if you prefer.)

New Option to Print Immediate Crystal Report Invoices

There is a new option to print a Crystal report invoice after entering an invoice or credit memo in O/E.

Citrix/Terminal Server - Redirected Drives are Visible when Attaching New Document

For this enhancement, the DriveListBox and DirListBox controls were removed because those supported only mapped and local drives. These controls were replaced with a FIP control, which allows browsing of UNC folders, redirected drives, and mapped and local drives.

Specific Due Date Added to Terms Codes

The Terms Code Maintenance screen has two new fields: Due Date and Discount Date. These are additional options for defining terms codes.

Time Out Increased for ASImport

The ASImport time out has been increased from 15 minutes to 24 hours. This is useful when moving data in very large databases from Exact Macola ES to Exact Synergy Enterprise or from Exact Synergy Enterprise to Exact Macola ES.

As you can see, we’ve put a lot of effort into this Exact Macola 10.3 release, and the results are beginning to add up.

Before I sign-off, I want to take a minute to let you know how proud I am of the development team that produces Exact Macola. In late 2014, I hired an Agile consultant to come work with us and help us adopt “Agile” into our development environment. This is our second public release using the agile framework – and I’m happy to say that we are quickly maturing in our agile practices.

When we were first starting out with Agile about a year ago, someone pointed out to me that it seemed so easy. What was the big deal, they asked. I let them know that Agile is easy like golf is easy. It takes a few minutes to understand the rules, but a long time to truly master it in practice! I believe we have taken the first healthy golf swings in 2015 and are well on our way to becoming professional “agilists.”

Until next time,

Dan

Exact Macola 10.3 Workspaces on an iPad

Exact Macola 10.3 Recent Orders on an iPad

Exact Macola 10.3 Workflow on an iPad 

Selecting an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system can be extremely daunting and complex. With so many software solutions on the market, executives need guidelines on how to choose the solution that best fits their business.

Software Advice, a site dedicated to helping technology professionals select the ERP software they need to succeed, recently published an eBook titled, “Key Criteria for ERP Software Selection," which outlines the top factors to consider when selecting ERP software.

According to the eBook’s author, Forrest Burnson, “small to medium size businesses have more options than ever when it comes to implementing a fully-fledged ERP system.” Burnson went on to say, “In this day and age there aren't many good reasons for those growing businesses to continue using disparate systems and manual processes to execute on their business's operations when they're able to house all of their critical software under one roof for an affordable price. Understandably, it can be a daunting endeavor with so many vendors out there and so many considerations to factor in."

The eBook quotes Dan Griffin, director of product management at Exact Macola, discussing how an ERP solution can help manage and improve everyday business tasks. Dan also notes the importance of considering all of the business' needs and key requirements of the solution before making a selection.

Are you considering an ERP solution? Here are seven things to keep in mind:

1. Understand the Market for ERP Software

It is important to understand what the ERP market has to offer. A business should be in that there are tens-if not-hundreds of ERP software options to choose from.

2. Assess Your Business Needs and Form a Committee

Before you can even outline what a system should look at, you first need to determine what your business needs to be successful.

3. Outline Key Requirements

A good strategy for picking an effective ERP solution is formulating what your ideal software will look like. What areas in your business are the most in need of a radical overhaul? These should be made a priority in the ERP software.

4. Identify a Short List of Vendors

With so many vendors in the market, narrowing down the list is crucial before choosing the right one. When determining the list of vendors, a business needs to keep in mind immediate needs as well as potential future needs.

5. Submit RFPs to Vendors

This is probably easiest step in the whole process; the time for vendors to fight over who wins the contract!

6. Get References From Vendors and Elsewhere

Just like in a job interview, references are probably the best indication of what the software is like on a day to day basis. It is important to keep in mind most software will fall somewhere in the middle.

7. Make a Decision and Negotiate

It’s decision time. After probably weeks of going back and forth and numerous conversations, it is finally time to pick the most appropriate ERP solution for your business!

By following these guidelines, the decision process should be a little less daunting. The most important thing to keep in mind when selecting the appropriate software is choosing one that meets and exceeds the business’s goals.

In this Tech Tip we review how to take a completely custom workspace and upload it to your Exact Macola 10 environment. We also share some best practices on managing your custom workspaces.

FlowChem manufactures and delivers products to the oil pipeline industry. These products known as DRAs (Drag Reducing Agents) are used to help crude oil move more efficiently through the pipeline. Exact Macola Solution Providers, Copious Solutions and Mayer Group, are working together to provide a complete solution for FlowChem’s business needs.

FlowChem has several unique requirements as they manage the production of DRA products and a fleet of tanker trucks used for deliveries. Copious Solutions will build an end-to-end solution using Exact Macola 10. The combination of workflow and business process automation will provide an integrated order, delivery, and billing system.

In addition, Copious has teamed up with Mayer Group to build out an iPhone application for the truck delivery fleet. The application will integrate with Exact Macola 10 and allow delivery drivers to record deliveries in real time for immediate invoicing. This will be called the POD (Point of Delivery) system and will significantly compress the order to cash process flow and allow for real-time reporting and projections.

We look forward to seeing these solutions in action!

Our partners at Mayer Group have been busy signing new customers and are excited to bring Krapf Bus Company into the Mayer Group and Exact family!

Krapf Bus Company was founded in 1942, they are one of the largest family owned and operated transportation companies in the nation currently transporting more than 72,000 students over 800 routes a day. Their goal is to provide the safest, most reliable and economically sound transportation services available. The partnership with Mayer Group and the implementation of Exact Synergy will provide the perfect platform to track and manage their bus routes. Exact Synergy will be utilized for tracking calendars of different schools, rates by district as well as route information.

Welcome to the family, Krapf Bus Company! We look forward to seeing you reach these goals with Exact.

Exact Macola 10 offers a lot of robust functionality between Manufacturing, Accounting, Distribution, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Business Process Management (BPM), Business Activity Monitoring and Workspaces. One of my personal favorite modules is Document Management. This module can help your business work towards going paper-less, or at least have less paper! It can be used for simple things like storing Work Instructions so new employees have access to what they need right at their fingertips, or you can store Customer Purchase Orders so customer service can quickly pull up the documents they need when a customer calls rather than rummaging through filing cabinets. You can even use it to help in meeting ISO 9000 or SOX and other regulatory compliance models.

In today’s Tech Tip, I will demonstrate how you can use the document management system to store and control your company’s engineering drawings.

Create Document Type

First we will go to Documents - Setup - Maintenance - Document: Types

We will create a new document type called “Drawings” under the Document Group “Engineering” (which we have already setup).

Under the Synergy Links tab we will make the Items option mandatory.

Next go to the Share tab and turn on the check in/check out option. This will allow users to check out the document while they are making changes to it.

Now we will go to the More Properties tab and turn on version control. This will allow us to track when changes are made and keep a history of old versions.

Finally, save our new document type and we are all ready to go.

Using the Drawing Document

Now that we have created the new document type our users can begin uploading drawings into Exact Macola 10.

Open up the item card for an existing item and click on documents.

Click New on the next screen and select the Engineering/Drawing type. You’ll be taken to a new document with the item code already populated.

Simply name your document and then attach your drawing and save.

Now, under the documents section of my item I have an uploaded document with a pdf attached.

As new versions of the document are added I can click on the versions button and see historical versions of my drawing.

With just some simple setup we are now tracking all our engineering drawings along with a full revision history. Stay tuned for our next Exact Macola 10 Tech Tip blog post where we will demonstrate how to take the drawings that we are now storing and controlling in Exact Macola 10 and link those to a workspace so a user may open up the current active drawing from a shop floor or production workspace!

RF Technologies is a leader in RF safety and security solutions within the healthcare, education, and hospitality marketplaces with over 10,000 installations nationwide. Their products protect the safety of residents, patients, staff, students, and guests every day. RF Technologies has been with Exact Macola since 1991, utilizing Exact Macola Progression.

Exact Macola Solution Provider, The Donas Group, started working with RF Technologies in 2014 to provide support and get their current software working properly in their environment. RF is growing rapidly and realized that they needed to streamline their current processes as well as address problems they were experiencing with all of the changes that had been made to their system over the years. The Donas Group met with their staff to discuss the new functionalities and cost savings that upgrading to Exact Macola 10 could make for their organizational growth. During the demo of Exact Macola 10, the team at RF Technologies was thoroughly impressed with the new solution, especially with the workflow and project management functionality. They also saw value in automating many of their labor-intensive manual processes.

This year, the Donas Group has been installing and migrating RF from Exact Macola Progression to Exact Macola 10. The project also includes automating the generation of documents back to their customers and replacing their existing CRM product with the SynergyExpert.com CRM EventPak.

The entire staff at RF Technologies realizes how Exact Macola 10 will benefit their organization with increased functionality, elimination of multiple data sources and the ability to standardize workflow processes.

We look forward to exploring more solutions in the future!

In the previous tech tip we showed you how to setup a document type to store engineering drawings. Today we will explain how to link that specific document to a workspace.

First we need to get our data lined up. So let’s look at a simple query that gives us our items linked to the current active version of the document type we setup last time. Please note this is just a sample of the tables that you want to join in order to get the data you need to link directly to the attachment from your active document version:

SELECT i.ItemCode,

       b.HID,

       b.Version,

       a.AttachmentFileName,

       convert(varchar(256),a.Entity) AS Entity,

       convert(varchar(256),a.ID) AS AttachmentID

FROM

--select from items table

       items i 

--join to documents

       LEFT OUTER JOIN bacodiscussions b ON i.ItemCode = b.ItemCode

--join to versions table

       LEFT OUTER JOIN BacoDiscussionVersions bv ON b.Version = bv.Version

              AND convert(varchar(256),b.id) = convert(varchar(256),bv.DocumentID)

--join to attachments table

       LEFT OUTER JOIN Attachments a ON convert(varchar(256),bv.DocumentID) = convert(varchar(256),a.Entity)

              AND b.Version = a.VersionID

--filter down to the example from the previous tech tip

WHERE b.type = 1000010 --this is your type ID from your document type setup

AND i.ItemCode = 'bikepp' --this is the sample item we used last time

Next you will add the query to your dataset in SSRS. In our example we are creating a simple table from our query:

Next we will configure the menu function on the ItemCode field. Make sure you add Entity, AttachmentID and Version as available values:

=UFssrsCA.CAFunctions.ContextualMenu("AttachmentTest",Variables!ReportID.Value,Parameters!Division.Value, Fields!Entity.Value, Fields!AttachmentID.Value, Fields!Version.Value, "") 

Save your report and deploy to your Exact Macola 10 environment. You’ll have the following menu:

Now open the document you created in the first blog post and right click on the Download link and go to properties:

Copy the URL and then configure your workspace menu. Replace the values in the URL with the values from your menu parameters:

DocBinBlob.aspx?Download=1&ID={1}&AttID={2}&Version={3}

You’ll now have a menu pick that takes you directly to a version controlled attachment!

You will be prompted to open or save the attachment:

In a few simple steps you’ve now incorporated dynamic links to attachments stored in the Exact Macola 10 document management system into your workspaces!

DLL Inc., a family owned manufacturing firm specializing in mechanical contactors, switches and relays recently needed a multi-pronged solution to meet their business needs. They began the RFP process and an employee who had previously worked at Exact encouraged them to consider Exact Macola software.

Harvest Ventures was contacted and asked to respond to their lengthy RFP process. The RFP was written in French and Harvest was able to translate all the documents and show an understanding of the needs DLL had. Their main priorities were production, mainly the processes for manufacturing, MRP, procurement and quality control. The challenges DLL faced meant they needed lot traceability throughout the whole process but most importantly from manufacturing through to the customers. DLL needed to be able to consolidate their historical data from their old system and merge it with Exact Macola and they needed the solution to validate all of the files.

DLL liked the solution Harvest presented and it was configurable to their needs. DLL liked the manufacturing and routing capabilities in Exact Macola 10 as well as the inventory control and visibility to sales through mobile. DLL also found having the ability to allow greater visibility to stock levels to their distribution channels through the portals was a superior attribute. DLL will also use WiSys Agility, Visual Planner and Workforce Manager to give them the full accountability they require.

Welcome to the Exact Macola 10 family, DLL!

There are a number of tools available in Exact Macola 10 to help you get the data you need out of the system. You can utilize the hundreds of out of the box reports, design custom reports in Crystal and SSRS, or use the Workspaces as a powerful reporting tool.

But what if you just want simple list type reports that are configured to return what you specifically want to see? Then the Template functionality is exactly what you need!

In this example we will turn a search on Help Desk requests (a workflow that we have configured in our Exact Macola 10 environment to track when employees need IT assistance) into a one-click report.

First go to Modules/Workflow/Reports/Search

Next we will search on our IT Help Request and use the wrench to customize what fields we see in the results.

In the customize screen we have the ability to select which fields we want to see displayed in the list, what order we want to see them, and if we want to add any totals to the bottom of the list.

If need be, you may also add addition search criteria to the search from this screen by simply checking on the elements you want to be able to search on. For example, I will add status because I want to only see open help desk requests.

Once I save my changes I will be taken back to the search screen. I’ll now add my status of open and hit show to validate my results.

My results look good! So I’ll hit Search to take me back to my search screen.

Now, on the right-hand side of the screen under Templates I will either pick public or one of the private settings and then hit save.

Note that private will mean that only you as the creator will have access to this saved report. Picking one of the other settings will allow you to share it with others inside your organization and even add it to a shared Workspace.

When you hit save you will be prompted to give this report a name.

This saved report will now be listed under your templates for future use.

You may also select it and hit show and then on the results page add that to your favorites so you can access it regardless of where you are at in Exact Macola 10. And now you can also add a direct link to this report from any Workspace!

This year at Exact Macola Evolve there will be several customer-led sessions where you can hear first-hand experiences of upgrading from previous Exact Macola solutions to Exact Macola 10. These customers are prepared to share specific benefits they are receiving as a result of the upgrade, as well as the nitty-gritty details about the upgrade process itself.

Customer-led sessions Include:

How Wastequip, LLC Prepared for a Successful & Seamless Upgrade to Exact Macola 10
Paul Thomas, Director of Enterprise Applications, Wastequip, LLC
Jim Widner, Senior Business Analyst, Wastequip, LLC

Typically, software version upgrades are viewed with equal parts anticipation and FEAR. In years past, Wastequip almost resigned itself to the fact that there would be two to three weeks of business disruption post-upgrade, as IT and business users “discovered” changes in system functionality or new bugs. In preparation for the upgrade from Exact Macola ES to Exact Macola 10, Wastequip IT overhauled the process for testing Exact Macola 10 and raised the commitment level of business stakeholders to “certify” acceptance of Exact Macola 10 and readiness for the upgrade.

The result: Eight Exact Macola ES instances (with hundreds of users) were upgraded over a single weekend. Normal business activity commenced on Monday morning with almost NO user disruptions – and full stable operations by Tuesday.

In this session the Wastequip team will describe:

• Lessons learned from prior upgrades
• New processes introduced
• Third party considerations (Avalara, Wisys, Crystal)
• Post implementation user care
• Benefits from being on Exact Macola 10

Why Seattle-Tacoma Box Upgraded from Exact Macola Progression to Exact Macola 10
Cindy Nunley, CFO, Seattle-Tacoma Box
Philip Bini, Director of Consulting, Exact Macola

Learn from a new Exact Macola 10 customer how 20+ years of Macola evolution has positively impacted every aspect of their business. Learn how the new technology and functionality of Exact Macola 10 has truly enabled their business and what impact it has had on addressing specific critical business issues. You will hear how the Exact Macola 10 has reinforced the company's foundation for future growth.

Why Nielsen-Massey Vanillas, Inc. Upgraded from Exact Macola ES to Exact Macola 10
Heather Herringer, Global IT Director, Nielsen-Massey Vanillas, Inc.

New business issues arise at various points throughout any company's journey. Learn from a new Exact Macola 10 customer how the evolution from Exact Macola ES has positively impacted every aspect of their business. Learn how new technology and functionality in Exact Macola 10 has truly enabled their business and what impact it has had on addressing critical business issues. Learn from customers how the EM10 technology and functionality has not only addressed current business issues but has also reinforces the foundation for future growth.

Nystrom is Using Workspaces to Propel Their Business in These Ways…
Ben Parrish, Business Analyst, Nystrom
Philip Bini, Director of Consulting, Exact Macola

Workspace technology and the variety of workspace designs available in Exact Macola 10 has achieved the often-elusive goals of increased productivity and increased employee satisfaction. Learn how one company has addressed a wide range of critical business issues within their organization and see how they have spread these results throughout all levels of their organization.

Why Altman Lighting, Inc. Upgraded from Exact Macola Progression to Exact Macola 10
Roger Pujol, IT Director, Altman Lighting, Inc. 

Learn from a new Exact Macola 10 customer how 20+ years of Macola evolution has positively impacted every aspect of their business. Learn how the new technology and functionality of Exact Macola 10 has truly enabled their business and what impact it has had on addressing specific critical business issues. You will hear how the Exact Macola 10 has reinforced the company's foundation for future growth.

Foam Supplies Shares Exact Macola 10 Customization that will Blow your Mind!
Todd Keske, President, Foam Supplies
Philip Bini, Director of Consulting, Exact Macola

One of the most powerful parts of Exact Macola 10 is it's flexibility. In fact, some of our customers are using Exact Macola 10 in ways that you may have never dreamed of. Let us show you some of our favorite customizations and open your eyes to how Exact Macola 10 could be customized to fit your business.

You won’t want to miss these unique customer-led sessions! You can learn more about Exact Macola Evolve and register at ExactMacolaEvolve.com. We will see you in April!

Frost & Sullivan is a private consultancy firm with more than 50 years of experience partnering with Global 1000 companies. The organization has a global team of analysts and consultants who are continuously researching a wide range of markets across multiple sectors and geographies. As part of this ongoing research, they identify companies that maintain consistently high standards for product or service quality and innovation.

Exact Macola 10 was selected as the 2015 North American ERP for Food & Beverage Product Leadership Award recipient based on Frost & Sullivan’s findings. Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has developed a product with innovative features and functionality, gaining rapid acceptance in the market. The award recognizes the quality of the solution and the customer value enhancements it enables.

Frost & Sullivan explains why Exact Macola 10 was chosen for this award:

“Exact’s well-integrated Exact Macola 10 ERP solution is a truly dynamic, configurable and customizable ERP solution that helps food and beverage manufacturers easily account for process variances. In addition, it enables them to save time, eliminates human errors and delays inherent in paper-based tasks, as well as creates a user-friendly work experience that is accessible at any time and from anywhere.”

Congratulations to the entire Exact Macola team! 

Warehouses can be chaotic environments, with endless orders to fulfill, inventory numbers constantly in flux and paperwork that always needs to be kept organized. The back office plays a critical role in ensuring smooth operations within the warehouse. In reality, the path from idea to invoice is a long one. Administrative tasks, sales, marketing, IT, engineering, product development and other ‘behind–the-scenes’ activities are critical pieces of the overall health of a wholesale distribution business. In fact, 60-80 percent of all costs related to completing a customer order are administrative-based. On the flip side, if back office operations are inefficient and deeply time consuming, it can negatively affect the bottom line, and inefficiencies can seep into the warehouse itself and impact the quality of customer service. 

With competitive pressures like Amazon.com and manufacturers hitting wholesale distributors from all sides, staying lean and taking advantage of the latest advances in automation technology to streamline workflows across the organization is now a decision many wholesalers cannot afford to delay any longer.

With the latest automation technology, manual tasks will become a thing of the past allowing workers to concentrate on meeting and exceeding customer expectations. With demanding customers who expect real-time insight into product availability and rapid order fulfillment, warehouses need technology that can pull information sources from all areas of the operation and answer questions before customers ask.

Here are the key benefits automation can deliver to your wholesale and distribution business today:

Make every customer a happy customer

Creating a lean, automated office primarily improves customer service, which can help in both business expansion efforts and customer loyalty. Efficient and lean internal operations reduce the risk of customer irritation when details on an order are not realized as specified, or deliveries are late. Delivering on commitments made during the sales process is much easier with a well-designed system of workflows in place to ensure that nothing goes missing. The benefits of automation aren’t solely for customers alone. Streamlined collaboration with vital third parties like manufacturers also speed up the path from order to invoice.

Say goodbye to delayed projects

Blocked workflows hurt your bottom line. Imagine a project that’s budgeted for 100 days, but in reality, more than fifty of those will probably cover work in the office. Without clearly defined operational procedures, it can easily end up taking a lot longer with people wasting time looking for information and making poor decisions when they can’t find it. Leaving this situation unaddressed can easily wipe out the benefits of an expertly executed lean warehouse. These delays will take a toll on your customers' satisfaction.

Uncover shop floor issues that are hiding in the office

Warehouse floor issues can take refuge in the back office. Consider office logistics: time spent manually entering data and inventory without tangible added value to the end product is bad for business. This might not sound relevant for the office, but information is also a material. Unnecessarily complex approval processes where information goes back and forth – with waiting times in between – are a good example. Inventory concepts can also be applied to lists of tasks to be completed and clogged inboxes acting as stores of work waiting to be processed. Not managing these tasks and their information can be a real anchor on progress. Add the concepts of re-work (having to re-do invoices with the correct information) and inefficient resource allocation (effort without result, as seen in meetings without firm conclusions), and you’ll see that the administrative force of the business can probably lose some weight. Now imagine the effect on your business if inventory level information and order statuses were freed from the constraints of filed paperwork or emails to review and process.

Getting Started

The lean approach focuses on two core principles - eliminating “waste” that does not add value to the customer, and smoothing the workflow. Given that many aspects of administration add no intrinsic customer value (order entry, drawing up quotes, etc.) it follows that there’s much potential for improvement in back office processes. Without simple, repetitive processes in place to turn a suspect into a prospect and then a customer, as well as turn estimates into quotations and then into cash, people can easily be investing their effort in the wrong places. In addition, the focus on smoothing workflow should support consistent continuous application of effort uninfluenced by surges or lulls in demand.

Once you’ve pinpointed the processes and workflows that you want to automate, you can choose the right enterprise software applications for your business, and make your vision a reality. With the right technology in place, the possibilities for growth are endless.

CorLiving is an Exact Macola customer that makes easy to assemble, quality furniture for the home. As their online business grew and presented new sales channel opportunities, CorLiving found that their manual processes were not able to handle the increase in transaction volume. The rise in orders resulted in delays in getting them entered, an increase in data entry errors and ultimately, customers not receiving orders on time.

CorLiving realized that they needed an automated EDI system to help get order details into their Exact Macola ERP system.

After implementing Data Masons’ Vantage Point EDI solution, CorLiving was able to:  

• Eliminate the need for manual data entry
• Increase customer satisfaction and omni-channel experience
• Seamlessly process over 1,000 orders daily
• Enter and process all orders by 10am
• Support their increasing transaction volume

Data Masons has released a customer case study that explains more about how CorLiving has benefited from the Vantage Point EDI solution.

You can read the full case study here.

Please note that this article assumes a working knowledge of creating custom SSRS workspaces.

In this tech tip we will look at how to configure a custom workspace to be able to launch into the customer card. We will also show a sample of how to get the correct unique identifier when pulling back office data but wanting to launch the web-based card.

In this example we will pull data from our back office database and join it to the front office database to get the correct ID number of the customer so that we can launch the customer card from our custom workspace.

select ord_no, ord_type, ord_dt, cus_no, bill_to_name, convert(varchar(256),c.cmp_wwn) as cmp_wwn

from oeordhdr_sql oe

inner join [synergy]..cicmpy c

on oe.cus_no = c.debcode

In the above example we are running the query against our back office database and joining to the account table in our BPM database (Synergy). You will notice that we are bringing in the cmp_wwn from the BPM database. This is because this ID is needed to launch the account page. You’ll also notice that we are converting this value to a varchar. This conversion can be done in SSRS as well but it saves a little time since we already have to write our SQL query. This is because the parameter values can’t accept unique identifier values.

Now, in our SSRS report we will create an action on the account (cus_no) field and add the cmp_wwn as an available parameter:

=UFssrsCA.CAFunctions.ContextualMenu("Customer_Number",Variables!ReportID.Value,Parameters!Division.Value, Fields!cus_no.Value, Fields!bill_to_name.Value, Parameters!Division.Value, Fields!cmp_wwn.Value)

Now, the cmp_wwn will be available to use as a parameter value in your menu picks.

To create a menu pick to launch the customer card you will configure a pop up window or a hyperlink with the following URL:

CRMAccountCard.aspx?ID={4}

Because 4 is your ID, it will launch the account card page with the ID of the customer account you are trying to view.

We are happy to announce that the Exact Macola 10 mobile app is now available for Android!

The intuitive interface means app users can access contacts and accounts, place customer orders, check inventory, run reports, access documents and more all from their Android mobile device. Taking your business mobile means meeting the demands of customers better and faster.

If you are:

Selling in the field...you can enter a quote or an order immediately

Working in the warehouse...you can quickly check the inventory levels on an item

Visiting a customer...you can easily find other customers nearby to visit

Away from your laptop...you can constantly check your company status via your Workspaces

The high level features available in the app are as follows:

• Calendar
• Workflow
• Documents
• Reports
• Accounts (customers and suppliers)
• Contacts/CRM
• My Accounts Near Me (Proximity)
• Lookup Inventory Levels
• Enter Customer Orders
• Workspaces

We’re very excited that all this functionality - which has been available on iOS devices for a while - is now available on Android devices! You can see sample screenshots of the mobile app below.

Woodstock Farms is a private label manufacturer of dried fruit, nuts and trail mix. Importing and reselling products makes up 40% of the business and the other 60% is packaging products for retailers.

Over the past few years, Woodstock Farms has taken several steps to increase their productivity and efficiency, including working with a solution provider to implement additional Exact Macola solutions. Since making these changes, Woodstock Farms has doubled the size of their business and brought more jobs to their community.

Hear David Irwin, Director of Finance at Woodstock Farms, share more of their story in the video below.

If you enter vendor invoices into Macola on a regular basis, you should be using the A/P Voucher workbench customization. It will improve the efficiency of entering vendor invoice data, simplify three-way matching, link A/P invoice documents, provide better traceability on the purchase to pay process, and automate the G/L matching process of PO receiving transactions to linked, posted A/P vouchers.

Benefits:

• Reduce invoice processing costs – realize significant time & cost savings
• Reduce errors & improve accuracy
• Replace manual data entry
• Replace paper-based invoices
• Integrate with Macola 10
• Easily search liabilities & payables
• Enable traceability
• Integrate with general ledger

Example Cost Savings:

Without AP Automation:
10,000 invoices x 5 minutes per invoice = 833 hours

With AP Automation:
10,000 invoices x 2.5 minutes per invoice = 416.5 hours

Result = $18,742 in savings (assuming a $45 hourly rate)

**Time savings could vary, with the possibility to receive up to a 70% reduction in processing time.

AP Automation Addresses the Following Issues:

• Large volumes of transactions arriving in different media and formats
• Challenges in identifying the right data to extract and enter in the financial system of record
• Discrepancy resolution and approval workflows that reach to the edge of the organization, and the need to ensure the highest integrity