A Message from AXIS

As we begin a new year filled with high expectations, AXIS Integrated Solutions is ready to assist you and your companies face the challenges that lie ahead together. Whether it is finding ways of increasing customer satisfaction, staying competitive, trimming corporate expenses, integrating fragmented business applications or increasing productivity, we can help.

Our newsletter will be focused on informing you of opportunities and solutions we identify that will empower your companies to leverage technology to reduce costs, create new revenue streams and increase profits. May 2006 bring health, happiness and prosperity to you and yours.

The Financial Impact of CRM: The Real Story (Part 3)

This article is the third of a series of articles focusing on the financial impact of CRM on an organization. The article centers on the CRM benefits associated with improved efficiencies. We will discuss some practices used by successful companies to reduce expenses while realizing CRM effectiveness.

Before we begin, let’s clarify the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. Effectiveness is doing the right things, i.e. making the right strategic decisions. Efficiency is doing things right, which means being as productive as you can be with the resources you have available to you. Many companies embrace CRM technology to increase efficiency, reduce costs, standardize processes and better leverage their legacy systems.

Efficiencies not only lead to reduced expenses but also to better data quality and customer knowledge. In CRM, efficiencies can be realized in the areas of sales, marketing, service and operations. Here are just some of the most commonly experienced efficiencies in sales, marketing and service:

Sales Efficiencies
• Increased productivity of sales people
• Reduced cost per sales contact
• Reduced cost per sale
• Reduced cost per salesperson
• Faster lead generation cycle and better management of the cycle
• Improved ability to track and measure sales performance

Marketing Efficiencies
• Reduced cost per marketing campaign or customer contact
• Improved selection of target customers through better knowledge
• Improved response rates through better positioning and offers
• Improved ability to track and measure marketing efforts
• Increased customer loyalty due to more personalized offerings

Service Efficiencies
• Reduced cost per service call or encounter
• Less service problems or errors
• Faster resolution of service call due to better customer knowledge and processes
• Improved ability to measure service representative performance
• Increased customer loyalty due to more personalized service encounters

The primary contributor to improved efficiency is well-designed business processes. Many CRM technology initiatives fail because companies implement the technology first and then realize that they need to design the processes to fit the technology. This is backwards. The focus is not on sales, marketing or service automation per se – the focus is on value creation for customers. Technology only facilitates this value creation. Designing interactive and well-defined workflows prior to software implementation can facilitate automated and manual process activities, decision points and business rules, as well as manage process exceptions.

Effective CRM initiatives complete the design of business processes or workflows first, based on the customer’s needs and expectations – processes that create value at all customer touch points – using process maps, experience blueprints, touch point maps and other tools. Processes should be customer-interactive or customer-centric so that they provide unmatched features and ease of use to improve efficiencies throughout an organization.

The benefits of well-designed workflows or processes can include:

• Improved efficiency through the elimination of unnecessary and redundant steps and standardization of operating processes, as long as they create value for your customers;
• Improved data quality;
• Better process control for future improvements through the use of audit trails and standardized work methods;
• Improved customer service and relationship-building due to increased process consistency and predictability;
• Ability to modify or adapt (flexibility) processes quickly and accurately when they must be re-designed as business needs change;
• Improved employee productivity because employees work faster and smarter – they know what is expected of them in terms of actions and skills;
• More effective training and faster adoption of CRM technology because technology use is linked to business processes, leading to reduced training time and errors;
• Reduced operating expenses in system and data maintenance costs; and
• Reduced operating expenses in access and sharing of customer information.

One of the key components of efficient CRM systems is the ability to increase a company’s knowledge of its customers. Our current business environment is no longer transaction-based – it is knowledge-based. An IDC study revealed that "knowledge workers spend 15-20 percent of their time actively looking for specific information; however, these searches are successful less than 50 percent of the time." Considering time spent on unsuccessful searches, IDC's study found that these unsuccessful searches could cost a company approximately $6,000 per worker, per year. A small business with ten knowledge workers could lose $60,000 per year while a larger organization employing 1,000 knowledge workers could lose $6 million per year.

Learning organizations constantly strive to learn more about their customers through effective and efficient interactions. With the right marketing strategies, customer-centric processes and technology, a company can realize increased revenues, improved efficiencies, and an unmatched competitive position in the marketplace. CRM is for the taking – it’s not a question of why; it’s a question of how.

For more information on the CRM certification programs offered by FIU, see http://cba.fiu.edu/web/ope/crm.htm

Dr. Nancy Rauseo is on the faculty of Florida International University’s College of Business Administration where she teaches marketing. Nancy holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University and an M.B.A and Ph.D. from Nova Southeastern University. She is also IBM-certified as an e-Business Solutions Advisor. Prior to her teaching career, she held various senior management positions for over 20 years in the areas of sales, marketing and technology implementation.

Dr. Rauseo is also Instructor for FIU’s Professional Certification Program in CRM. The next program runs from January 27th through February 24th, meeting on Fridays from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm at FIU’s campus. For more information, visit: http://cba.fiu.edu/web/ope/crm.htm

Warehouse Management: Planning For the Future

In the ever-evolving world of just-in-time purchasing and materials requirements planning, today’s customers demand efficient cost effective supply chain management. The most costly resource in supply chain management is “space” or the cost of the warehouse. Real estate costs continue to rise. Warehousing environments generally do not have very strong forecasting systems so purchasing departments typically overcompensate so that customer demand can be met. As a result, the warehouse contains too much inventory, which means warehouse turns are much more infrequent. Higher inventories use more cash, leaving less capital to fund the business. Space is often underutilized or inefficiently managed.

In order for businesses to reduce internal costs in supply chain management, more efficient systems are needed to reduce space requirements, increase warehouse turns, and decrease the amount of inventory kept on hand. To obtain these results, companies should consider using a warehouse management system.

What is a Warehouse Management System (WMS)? The textbook definition is “the management of warehouse resources (materials, supplies, people, space, equipment) from the point of acquisition to the point of disposition – efficiently and accurately.” (Webster’s 2099 Unabridged Dictionary via Google online) WMS systems that are integrated with accounting and business analytical systems allow companies to efficiently manage inventory, personnel and space.

Dan Schell was quoted in saying that “the Holy Grail of distribution center operations still is a framework of an integrated ERP, WMS and transportation management system.” (~ Integrated Solutions, December 2001). The dilemma faced by businesses today is that most companies are currently operating front offices with 21st century technology (email, high-speed internet, etc.) but are managing back-end operations (like the warehouse) with outdated “horse and buggy” systems.

Let’s talk about other benefits of an integrated WMS solution. Do your customers return their orders because of inaccurate shipments? Do your customer service representatives spend time resolving short-shipped order problems? Can you currently identify your most productive warehouse employees? How much time is wasted in the warehouse because products can’t be quickly located? Do you know exactly when your peak warehouse order fulfillment happens during the day, for scheduling personnel and shipments? Are the fastest moving products in the warehouse arranged so orders for those items can be picked, packed and shipped quickly? How much training time is necessary before new warehouse employees can function independently and efficiently?

In conjunction with an integrated WMS system, inventory and purchasing management becomes the strongest tool in internal cost reduction. Is it time that your company looks at improving its efficiencies and reducing overall costs of operation while delivering top notch service to that most important asset, your customers? Let us know how we can help you achieve these goals.

The Case for eCommerce

There is overwhelming evidence in the value of an effective eCommerce strategy across many industries. Thousands of business have used the Internet to not only increase sales, but to also reduce costs and to provide superior customer service, driving the value of Business to Consumer (B2C) and Business to Business (B2B) online transactions to hundreds of billions of dollars The size of the opportunity is too large for any business to ignore.

Implementing an eCommerce strategy takes careful thought and planning, and those that have been most successful have taken the time to fully integrate their online presence with their traditional back office systems and processes. In doing so these businesses have created effective multi channel sales and support processes with which to provide service to their customers.

Online Sales Growth Impressive in 2005

Retail internet sales rose 25% for the period of November 1 to December 25th to $18.11 Billion US according to comScore Networks Inc. compared to the same period last year. Computer hardware was the top-ranking category in sales volume with $4.1 billion spent online this holiday season, up 14% from last year. Apparel and accessories, representing $3 .0 billion in online sales for November 1 to December 25, were up 37% from last year. Online sales of consumer electronics rose 20% from last year to reach $1.3 billion. The category seeing the biggest percentage of gain over last year was sports and fitness products, where online sales during the holiday period rose 49%.
According to Forrester Research overall online sales for 2005 will reach $172 Billion, growing to $329 Billion by 2010, excluding online travel which is expected to grow to a $120 Billion business in the same time period. In addition, Forrester predicts that in 2010 the most significant online categories will be tickets, books, consumer electronics, small appliances, gifts, cosmetics and fragrances, linens, music and video products.
Many organizations are also successfully leveraging the internet for Business to Business (B2B) transactions. And for good reason; according to Forbes.com and GartnerG2 51% of businesses consider the Web as their single most important source of business information regarding purchasing decisions. In addition, Pembroke Consulting reports ‘that business customers are taking a more active role in the pre-sale and transaction portions of the buying process as comprehensive product information moves online’, showing an increasing use of web based self service tools.
Keys to eCommerce Success

As with any sales environment attracting customers to your site is a fundamental key to success. Without traffic you cannot generate sales. In a Business to Consumer (B2C) environment implementing effective Search Engine Marketing techniques is extremely important. Ensuring your site is ranked highly by the search engines takes time and energy to do it right and in some cases paying for positioning on key Search Engines like Google is justified. Search engine marketing can also be a key tool in a B2B environment as well, especially given the amount of purchasing related research that business now do on the Web. However, once you have successfully driven traffic to your site, the site needs to provide customers with what they are looking for in a manner that they enjoy.

Many studies have shown that price is not necessarily the top driving factor in online sales success, but rather the overall customer experience. A website should accurately reflect a businesses brand and be compelling enough such that a customer does not quickly move on to the next site. Highlighting new products, or promotions and providing industry specific information through whitepapers or useful links are also methods that have been successfully used to build and maintain customer traffic on a website.

Successful websites are not only visually appealing, but are intuitive to use and generally require few clicks of a mouse for a customer to find, and hopefully purchase, what they are looking for. This might require search wizards to assist customers in navigating a large product catalog of parts, or high resolution images of products so that customers can accurately visualize what they will be buying from you. Ideally the product information provided on a website reflects up to date pricing and availability of products as well.

In a B2B environment, successful sites accurately reflect a business customers pricing and shipping terms, and provide simple tools for business customers to place repeat orders or to look up the status of orders and outstanding invoices. A website can also be used to provide a wide variety of customer self service tools, including the ability to look up the status of orders, review account history, and perhaps to review and pay invoices on line.

Common eCommerce Pitfalls

Perhaps the most common trap that organizations fall into when deploying an eCommerce website is to not take the time to integrate it into existing back office systems. Rather than taking full advantage of pre existing product catalogs, pricing, terms, and order and payment processes businesses deploy stand alone sites that may have some visual appeal, but require duplication of processes and in most cases additional manual steps to process orders and payments. The result is often a poor customer experience and increased costs.

It is also not uncommon for a business to launch an eCommerce site with great effort and fanfare, and to then not regularly up date the site either visually to reflect the companies branding or more importantly product mix. Customers may get frustrated with out of date content, or just bored with the fact that there is nothing new to view.

Fortunately, as an organization that has chosen Sage Accpac ERP you can cost effectively deploy a proven fully integrated eCommerce B2C and B2B solution today that provides true two way integration of Sage Accpac Order Entry, Accounts Receivable and Payment processing and an eCommerce enabled website. These capabilities are made available to you by Iciniti Corporation, which has been providing e-Commerce solutions for Sage Accpac customers for more than eight years.

eCommSuite.net from Iciniti Corporation

eCommsuite.net is the leading eCommerce solution for Sage Accpac ERP worldwide, supporting businesses in North America, the UK, South Africa and Australia. Iciniti Store provides all of the tools necessary for an organization to create a corporate website and webstore that takes full advantage of existing inventory, pricing and customer account information in Sage Accpac ERP. No longer does an organization have to manage web-based data separately from data that already exists in Sage Accpac ERP. Organizations can also provide customers with consolidated account and order information regardless of where a transaction was initiated.

For organizations with a busy order desk environment, Iciniti provides Iciniti Credit Card a fully integrated payment processing solution that eliminates most of the manual steps associated with accepting payments from invoiced items. Credit card and debit card processing have been seamlessly integrated into both Order Entry and Accounts Receivable. In addition, the system can be configured to match credit card batch cut-off times simplifying bank reconciliation processes.

For organizations with complex order processing and payment requirements Iciniti has provided Custom Solutions that use the basic building blocks of Iciniti Store and Iciniti Credit Card to create solutions that integrate order processing and payment processing across separate organizations to reduce re-keying of order and payment information, as well as, brick and mortar Point of Sale solutions for Franchises that use Sage Accpac ERP.

Book your eCommSuite.net demo today

Axis Integrated Solutions and Iciniti are jointly sponsoring online eCommSuite.net demos during January and February. Please contact us at info@axisintegratedsolutions.com or Jim McLean jmclean@icintiti.com to arrange your demo today.

I Just Hired My 50th Employee – should I care?

Yes, actually. You are now what the Federal Government classifies as a large agency and subject to FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act). Noncompliance with FMLA will subject the organization to penalties and possible exposure to additional legal liability. You’ve already had to comply with COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act), possibly OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Agency) and definitely EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) reporting.

Fortunately, HR Series Software makes basic compliance fairly simple. For instance, the FMLA allows employees that have been employed 12 months and worked 1250 hours to take up to 12 weeks off without losing their job. This is a rolling 12 month period and the employee can take the leave just about any way they want to,, including one day at a time. Tracking this information manually is cumbersome and non-efficient, but Accpac HR Series comes to the rescue by keeping track of who is eligible, how many days they’ve taken and how many days they have left. (see http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/fmla/ for more information).

As for COBRA, if you have over 20 employees and provide group health insurance benefits, you are required to send a letter to each employee when they become eligible for the benefit. The letter states that the plan can be continued under COBRA if you terminate employment. When a qualifying event occurs, such as an employee leaving, you must send a letter explaining the employee’s rights under COBRA and how much the premiums are. Accpac HR Series provides templates of these letters and audit reports to show compliance. (For more information, visit http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_consumer_cobra.html).

What about OSHA? Tired of looking for the form every time there is a work place accident? HR series version 6.5 has a built in OSHA tab that collects information and prints out the 300 and 301 forms when ever needed.

How long does it take you to manually compile the information for the EEO-1 report? HR Series can keep track of that as well, and print the EEO-1 report at any time.

Tracking this information and timely reporting to regulating bodies will save your organization substantial money. More important, it saves your HR department time and allows them to focus on more critical issues. For more information on the Accpac HR business solution, please contact us at info@axisintegratedsolutions.com and will be happy to schedule your web demo.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q – How do you setup a sick pay earning code when it is being paid through a third party company?

For example, when an employee is unable to work due to illness and they receive sick pay based on their benefits plan, the insurance company (or another party) will issue the sick pay directly to the employee. Some of these companies prepare W2 forms indicating this which they send to the employee who are receiving pay from them but some do not.

In the cases where W2 forms are not issued by the third-party payer, the employer is responsible for accounting for this pay on the employee's W2 form.

A – This can be setup in the US Payroll module by creating a new Benefit type Earnings code. On the Employer tab of the Earnings and Deductions window under Payroll Setup, select “Sick Pay Not Includible as Income (3rd Party Sick Pay)” in the W2 reporting drop down box.

Q - F1 Help or Menu Help Is Not Available or No Help Content Is Present. This may occur after installing the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, or Microsoft Security Update #896358 and #840315. How can we correct this?

A – In order for Help to display properly, please follow these steps:
*** Note: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Manually modifying the registry can cause problems with the normal operation of your computer including preventing Windows from starting up. AXIS Integrated Solutions is not responsible for problems arising from the manual editing of information in the Windows registry. Before modifying the registry, it is important to verify there is a known good back up. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, please refer to article 256986 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base located at http://support.microsoft.com ***

1. Click Start, click Run, type "regedit" in the Open field, and click OK.
2. Browse to the following Registry Key Paths:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE | SOFTWARE | MICROSOFT | HTMLHelp | 1.x
a. If HTMLHelp does not exist, then with MICROSOFT highlighted in the left-hand pane, right-click on the right-hand pane and select New - Key.
b. Type HTMLHelp and hit enter on the keyboard.
c. If 1.x does not exist, with the HTMLHelp key highlighted in the left-hand pane, right-click on the right-hand pane and select New - Key.
d. Type 1.x and hit enter on the keyboard.
3. With 1.x highlighted in the left-hand pane, right-click on the right-hand pane and select New - Key.
4. Type ItssRestrictions and hit enter on the keyboard.
5. With ItssRestrictions highlighted in left-hand pane, right-click on the right-hand pane and click New, then select DWORD Value.
6. Type MaxAllowedZone and hit enter on the keyboard.
7. Double-click on MaxAllowedZone or right-click and then click Modify.
8. In the Value data field, type 1 and then click on OK.
9. With ItssRestrictions highlighted in left-hand pane, right-click on the right-hand pane and click New, then click String Value.
10. Type UrlAllowList and hit enter on the keyboard.
11. Double-click on UrlAllowList or right-click and then click Modify.
12.In the Value data field, type:

\\ServerName\Share\ACCPACFOLDER;file://\\ServerName\Share\ACCPACFOLDER and click on OK.
Where ServerName = Name of Server
Share = Location of Network Share
ACCPACFOLDER = Location of Shared Data for Accpac
For example: \\Win2003\Accpac;file//\\Win2003\Accpac

Q – We want to display a notification at the top of the screen of the “Assigned To User” showing the Opportunity Description when the opportunity is set to the Stage of "Qualified". Is this possible?

The "Show Notification on Screen" workflow action for an Escalation Rule is not triggered when the Escalation rule is created using a View. However, the actions are triggered when the Escalation rule is created using a Table.

A – The key is when the Escalation Rule Action is created with the type "Show Notification on Screen", make sure that the Table: field found under the "New Workflow Action Details" screen points to the entity where the view is stored under.

Image.1

For example, when you create an Escalation Rule using the vSummaryOpportunity as per the image below and you click on the New icon to create a new Action, the view name used to create the Workflow Rule, gets automatically transferred to the Table: field in the "New Workflow Action Details" panel as per image 3 below.

Image.2

Image.3

What you need to do is manually change the Table: field to the Entity name where the view is stored under as per Image 1.

This Escalation rule will be triggered when an Opportunity that is assigned to the current logon user is set to the Stage of "Qualified".

A notification displaying the Opportunity Description of the opportunity will appear at the top of the screen when the escalation is triggered.

Please note that this example is based on an Escalation rule that is created outside of a workflow.

Q – We would like to setup CRM so that it will automatically send an email out to the Opportunity's assigned user when the opportunity meets a certain condition. Is this possible?

A – Here are the steps to setting up the Escalation Rule:

1. The Escalation Rule is created under Administration | Advanced Customization | Escalation | New.

2. Type the name of the escalation under the Rule Name: field.

3. Create the Escalation rule using a view or table.

4. Make sure you enable the escalation rule by making sure the Rule Enabled check box is selected.

5. Enter the SQL Clause that defines the criteria for the Escalation Rule action to trigger.

6. Click on the New icon to create a Workflow action and select Send E-mail action.

7. Under the E-mail to: field enter: #oppo_assigneduserid#. Make sure that the user email addresses are entered correctly under the Users area in the application.

8. In the E-mail Subject: and E-mail Contents: fields you can use #[field name]# with any field from the current table, view that is used to in the Escalation rule or any field from the User table.

Other settings to verify the system is ready to perform this action

1. Confirm that you are able to send email out of Sage ACCPAC CRM by sending an email out from a Person's email address.

2. Ensure that the Escalation: rule feature is activated under Administration | Advanced Customization | Workflow & Escalation Configuration.

3. On that same Workflow & Escalation Configuration screen, enter a name and an e-mail address under the Notify E-mail name & Notify E-mail address: fields. The name specified here appears on an e-mail sent by the system. The e-mail address should be a valid e-mail account that is used to send the e-mails.

Q – What are the limitations of the Bill of Materials Module as Compared to Production Entry?

A – The Bill of Materials module is a simplified version of the Production Entry (PE) module. It was designed to allow for the creation of single level Bill of Materials (BOM) only. This is ideal for kitting, however, it is not optimal for building to stock. This article clarifies and compares the functionality of the Bill of Materials module to the PE module.

The following table displays the differences between the Bill of Materials and Production Entry
modules and which features are available in each:

Q – How to determine if a client needs Bills of Materials, Production Entry, or Production Entry
and Work Orders?

A – There are three main questions that must be determined:

1. Do component parts need to be allocated?
2. Does a production document separate from the sales order need to be created?
3. Is the Material Requirement Planning report needed?

If the answer to any of the above questions is "Yes", then Production Entry and Work Orders may be the best solution.

If the answer to all of the above questions is "No", then ask:

1. Are subassembly parts specified on the bills of material?
2. Do parts need to be configured during sales order entry?
3. Is there a build-to-stock requirement independent of sales order shipments?

If the answer to any of the above questions is "Yes", then Production Entry may be the best solution.

If the answer to all the above questions is "No", then Bill of Materials may be the best solution.

Q – What is the general purpose and usage of the Work Order Traveler?

A – A picking ticket may be needed after a work order is created: the Work Order Traveler may be used in this regard.

To use the Work Order Traveler as a picking ticket the following steps may be used:

1. Set up the Bill of Materials (BOM) in either the Production Entry (PE) or Work Order (WO) module. Go to the Bill of Materials Maintenance screen under the Maintain menu and create the BOM.

2. Create the work order by one of the following two methods:
a. Set the BOM to "Generate WO on SO Entry" through the BOM Maintenance screen.
b. Create the work order in the WO module through the Transaction menu and selecting Enter Work Orders.

3. Go to the WO module, choose the Print menu and select Work Order Travelers. There is the option to print the Work Order Traveler as a Batch or Individually. Refer to the page 149 of the WO Module Doc on Disk, for details on how to use the printing options.

4. The Work Order Traveler may now be printed for all work orders that need to be completed. It can be sent to the shop floor and issued to an employee who can use the Traveler to determine the location and quantity of the item to select.

Q - Our company needs the ability to send out COBRA notices to employees whom have quit or left the organization and I do not want to pay a third party administrator. What can we do?

A - ACCPAC HR Series allows companies to print HIPAA Certificates of Coverage, with COBRA notices or separately, at any time for their employees. Medical coverage and COBRA can be maintained with third party administrators or can be independently by your company in ACCPAC HR

Q - Our company would like the ability to track additional information on our employees. Is this a feature of the system and how do we go about doing this?

A - ACCPAC HR Series allows users to easily create an unlimited number of custom tabs and fields in minutes. This flexibility allows clients to track and report on anything that is important to them. Custom tabs can include up to 12 custom fields per tab.

TOOL OF THE MONTH

Budget Macro

As the new year commences, many of our clients begin entering their budgets figures into Sage Accpac ERP. Most users are unaware that there is a budget macro available to assist with this cumbersome task.

This month’s tool includes a copy of the macro (which should already be installed on your system but is included for your convenience) and a step-by-step guide to use the macro to export information from your accounting system, update the information in Excel, then import the data back into the accounting system. You must be running the General Ledger program in version 5.1 (or higher) for this macro to work.

Please feel free to contact our office if you have questions concerning this article or if there is anything that we can do to assist you with your daily or periodic processing. This is also a good time to review the financial statement formats that you’ve been printing to see what additional formats would be useful in analyzing business trends.

We can also help with financial statement design, and don’t forget to ask about a free demo of the ACCPAC CFO tool to optimize your scenario building and historical analysis (using your existing GL information).

Click here to download