Featured in the 2018 Software Guides: Artificial Intelligence in Business - Beyond SciFi

by Jeff Gusdorf and Maggie Peters
 
Does Artificial Intelligence (AI) in business sound like the stuff of science fiction? For smaller companies it does, since the focus is on competing with technology heavy companies like Amazon.

How can AI be a realistic or useful way to optimize business intelligence and processes when most distribution companies are focused on replacing legacy ERP systems and implementing warehouse and e-Commerce solutions?

At the same time, leading tech companies are propelling businesses into the future with their current and upcoming implementations of Cloud technology, machine learning and AI. Distribution and Manufacturing companies need to understand how these advancements will impact them in the future and see how these new technologies will change their competitive landscape.

The 2018 Software Guides are the only software selection guide specifically developed for the unique needs of the distribution and manufacturing community. The new editions are designed to assist you, the Wholesale Distributor and Manufacturer, evaluate, compare and analyze software to determine which products fit your operation.

Learn more at: http://www.software4distributors.com/vendor/resources_index.aspx

Signavio Webinar Nov 16, 2016: A Recipe for Process Improvement Success, Featuring Todd Snover.

“Does your company need to make process improvements but doesn’t know what ingredients to use?”

“Are your ingredients stale, or do you lack the expertise on your team to prepare the improvements?”

Todd Snover from Brown Smith Wallace Advisory Services will be featured in the most recent installment of Signavio’s webinar series asking these questions and others. On November 16 2016, the audience will take a look at the Recipe for Process Improvement Success. Todd will take you through the ideal “ingredient list” for ongoing process improvement success, the mapping of current business processes, and objectively measuring performance, and much more.

By the end of this web presentation you’ll know the importance of a good recipe for success, and how to tell whether your company has the right materials that it needs to whip up your desired process improvements.

Join Signavio for this innovative new webinar installment by signing up here.

See How Infor And Brown Smith Wallace Team Up To Improve Your Business Processes With iMap

Drive your business forward with a process improvement evaluation.
 
iMAP-Industry Measure, Analyze, and Perform-is an industry-focused, business-process improvement evaluation for Infor clients. This independent offering brought to you by the Brown Smith Wallace Business Process & Systems Group is designed to map key business processes to industry best practices. Brown Smith Wallace has a long history of advising wholesale distributors on best practices and leading software evaluations. With more than 25 years of service, we have the expertise to quickly assess your business challenges, compare your performance to industry benchmarks, and help you build a high-ROI business case for justifying process redesign and system upgrades.   Learn more at: http://tinyurl.com/hzj66a7

Dynaline Upgrades to VAI S2K Enterprise Software

S2K Enterprise 5.0 Will Improve Business Processes and Create Operational Efficiencies to Support Company Growth

VAI (Vormittag Associates, Inc.), an award-winning ERP software provider, today announced that Dynaline Industries Inc., a privately-held Canadian company sourcing agriculture, automotive and industrial products to major distributors across Canada and the United States, has upgraded to S2K Enterprise 5.0. VAI S2K Enterprise software helps companies manage and analyze virtually every aspect of a company’s business processes, providing the information necessary to drive educated business decisions. 

As a growing company dedicated to a niche market, Dynaline needed a dynamic system that could adapt to the industry and support its growth. Dynaline will work specifically with S2K Financial and S2K Distribution Management to further streamline operations and create efficiencies that will benefit the bottom line. With the latest upgrade, Dynaline has access to even more reporting capabilities that export directly into Excel and provide further insight into the business. As Dynaline continues to expand, the Company will look into other modules such as S2K Sales Force and Warehouse Management that directly integrate with S2K Enterprise.

“We have been working with VAI for more than five years, and we are thrilled with VAI’s ability to continually accommodate our Company’s growth and provide solutions specifically designed for our industry,” said Jennifer Otto, operations manager, Dynaline Industries. “Not only were we up and running on S2K 5.0 in only three days, but we are happy with the software’s ease-of-use. We are already using information extracted from the system to focus our efforts on specific aspects of the business.”

“VAI is pleased to continue its partnership with Dynaline with an upgrade to S2K 5.0,” said Pete Zimmerman, manufacturing segment manager, VAI. “Scalability is extremely important to a growing business, and we’ve specifically architected S2K Enterprise to expand with our customers. We are confident that Dynaline’s upgrade to S2K 5.0 will enhance the Company’s ability to achieve its business goals and we look forward to continuing to assist with Dynaline’s growth expansion with the future implementations of S2K WMS and Commerce Express solutions.”

About VAI (Vormittag Associates, Inc.)

VAI is an award-winning software developer and an IBM Premier Business Partner. Designed for the mid-range market, S2K Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software Suite is used by a wide variety of mid-sized companies worldwide, with a number of clients in the manufacturing, distribution, retail, food and related service industries. Advanced applications such as Warehouse Management Systems, EDI, CRM, Business Analytics and e-Business provide companies the power to leverage their information technology investment. VAI is headquartered in Ronkonkoma, New York, with branch offices in Miami, Orlando, Chicago and Oroville, California. For more information, please contact Diane Dady at 800-824-7776, ext. 236 or visit www.vai.net. 

Contact Information:

Rachel Perlmutter

SHIFT Communications

617.779.1884

rperlmutter@shiftcomm.com

 

SAP and Microsoft Make App Development and Cloud Management Easier

Microsoft’s broad partner ecosystem is what powers increased value and solutions for customers and their evolving business needs.

One example of this is today’s announcement of SAP and Microsoft’s plans to focus on two key areas: first, to help .NET Framework developers more easily build applications connecting to SAP, and second, to help customers harness the power of the cloud.

As a result of this announcement, developers can expect much more support and integration between the development worlds of SAP and Microsoft. Business processes from SAP software can now be easily consumed and extended by .NET developers, simplifying the overall application development process. This level of access will immediately reduce the number of steps developers must take in order to ensure application integration, and also lead to shorter development cycles and lower costs.

Microsoft and SAP also plan to provide integration between SAP’s landscape management software, Microsoft System Center and Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V technology, bringing greater agility to cloud management and deployments.

This integration will instill enhanced flexibility, scalability and management in the cloud, all while reducing cost and risk. Through these connected offerings, SAP and Microsoft customers will be able to easily scale their deployments in their own data centers or through private clouds, for example, if they have a workload that needs on-demand scale periodically, such as a paycheck or employee performance review application.

Together, Microsoft and SAP are committed to driving greater levels of innovation and flexibility for application development and cloud deployment – from your datacenter to the public cloud, eventually enabling hybrid computing scenarios via Windows Azure for companies to embrace cloud computing on their terms.

This announcement was made at SAPPHIRE® NOW, being held in Orlando, Florida, May 15-18, 2011 where Microsoft was also named SAP Global Technology Partner of the Year.

Posted by Ted Kummert (http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2011/05/18/sap-and-microsoft-make-app-development-and-cloud-management-easier.aspx)
Senior Vice President, Business Platform Division, Microsoft