Visual South Insights

Can a configure price quote software solution help me?

If you aren’t sure about what configure price quote (CPQ) software is, or you want to improve your baseline understanding, you can check out my other blog, “What is CPQ?”. If you are specifically looking for Infor CPQ software, you can read a review here.

There are a lot of benefits provided by CPQ software, but probably the biggest one is the ability to make it easier for non-engineers to correctly configure a complex solution. As simple as it may sound, a lot of companies struggle with the issue of salespeople, customers, resellers, and others designing a solution (a part or material) that engineering cannot create, and one that manufacturing departments cannot manufacture. When there’s no CPQ solution in place, it creates very long lead times, and complex back-and-forth discussions due to the difficulty in managing all of the emails, drawings, and conversations that have to take place before actual manufacturing can occur. 

What does CPQ stand for?

The software industry has no shortage of three-letter acronyms, so let’s get right to answering the question.  CPQ stands for configure, price, quote.  More specifically, CPQ is a category of software that helps enable the business processes of configuring, pricing, and quoting a product or service.

Inventory count is complete

So, you’ve done your annual inventory count and probably thinking you’ve survived another one. Write-offs weren’t so bad and the big bonus is that you ‘found’ extra inventory that you didn’t think you had.

But before you call this year’s count a wrap let’s take a moment to consider what your count is really telling you.

You need a plan

When was the last time you thought about your data strategy? I hear people talking about data almost every day, but I rarely hear people articulate their data strategy. If there is no strategy for your data, that leaves hope; and hope isn't a strategy.

Infor Service Management is a Comprehensive Application

The Infor Service Management solution is an ERP application for service companies, field service companies, and manufacturers and equipment companies that provides service including installation, both preventive and emergency maintenance, warranty, service contracts, inspections, and both internal and external operations. Infor Service Management can be categorized as an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution due to the abundance of functionality provided with the core offering. This vast functional footprint is a differentiator for Infor Service Management, as few other field service management systems have the same broad reach.

As a technology barcoding has been around since the 70’s which puts it on par agewise with the IBM 360 mainframe, the Ford Pinto, and these TV shows: Happy Days, Charlie’s Angels, and the Brady Bunch. Yet unlike these icons of the 70’s, the humble barcode is still very much in use and growing. Here are 5 reasons why the barcode is still around.

The planning begins

I spent the first two days of November working with the VISUAL Focus executive committee developing the agenda and breakout sessions for the VISUAL user conference organized and hosted by Visual South, Synergy Resources and BizTech. The conference will be held October 21-24, 2018 at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, FL.

Equipment rental companies manage assets and customer service. Infor Service Management (ISM) does the same.

At a very high level, the goals of an equipment rental company and ISM are the same: to manage assets and customer relationships. The company needs to have assets customers want to rent; it’s also important for those assets to be maintained properly to reduce downtime. If either of those needs are not met, valuable sales opportunities may be lost forever.

Infor Service Management’s functionality is aligned to help companies meet these goals. Let’s start with the most important aspect of ISM: It’s one system, one database.

What should I be thinking about?

If you are in the process of choosing an ERP, it’s important to consider the company you could be partnering with. An ERP selection is a big decision in many ways, one that will affect your company for years to come. But it’s not entirely about the product itself (although making sure it has a good evaluation is important). The partnership you enter into with the vendor must also be the right move for your company. You should be comfortable on a variety of levels with this partnership, but here are the top three things to consider as you shop around:

ERP modules and functions through the years

The roots of today’s ERP systems were pretty humble. They were originally designed to take and ship orders, figure out what had to be made and bought, track who owed who money, and produce financial statements. Today, an ERP modules list covers all of that and so much more.