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© Ultra Consultants | 847.692.6485 | www.ultraconsultants.com 1

ULTRA FOCUS:ERP VENDOR UPDATE

http://www.ultraconsultants.com

© Ultra Consultants | 847.692.6485 | www.ultraconsultants.com

CONTENTSIntroduction

What are the Verticals

Who are the Vendors

SAP

Microsoft Dynamics 365

Epicor

Sage

IQMS

Plex

Oracle | NetSuite

Summary of What We Learned

About Ultra Consultants

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This report provides an in-depth look at some of the top vendor/product solutions that Ultra identifies as Tier One or Tier Two. The information is useful for manufacturing and distribution project teams considering an active ERP project.

This report covers only selected ERP vendors, reflecting Ultra’s research activities. Ultra will be issuing a series of reports covering additional vendors on a quarterly basis.



INTRODUCTIONUltra Consultants, as a thought leader and trusted advisor to our clients and partners, attends annual conferences of the leading vendors in the ERP software industry. Our focus is on both the largest vendors in the marketplace, as well as the strongest middle tier vendors. NOTE: The focus of this report will be the vendor/product solutions that Ultra identifies as Tier One or Tier Two. Although, Ultra does work with Tier Three vendor/products, these products are not included in this report.

The purpose of our attendance is to learn the latest news and solution strategies of these key vendors by attending their keynote presentations and product roadmap sessions; as well as visit the strategic partners of these vendors on the floor of the conferences. In addition to these large, well-attended events, Ultra performs bi monthly vendor briefings with a select set of participants. Throughout the course of this year we will have been briefed by upwards of 20 software and partner firms. Also, Ultra is in the process of reviewing each vendor per Ultra’s ERP decision drivers via 1 and 2 day demonstrations scheduled at each Vendor’s HQ. Some of this information is also included here. Finally, we comb the internet for the latest news and background information.

This report showcases our experiences at the vendor conferences and offers what we consider a fair and balanced review of the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors in the ERP marketplace. As always, our focus is on the Manufacturing and Distribution segments of the industry, with emphasis on the mid-market (Revenues from $20M - $2B)

WHAT ARE THE VERTICALS?There are five Tier I vendor/products that support three to four ERP product verticals. There are upwards of ten Tier II vendor/products that typically support one to two verticals but not all. The four verticals are:

• Distribution Industries Vertical – takes into consideration all the same industries as manufacturing (e.g., equipment, food, etc), but do not make the product. Buy and resell. Therefore, these vendor/products offer a limited manufacturing BOM, Routing, and Work Order.

• Process Manufacturing Industries Vertical: Includes Food and Beverage, Chemical, Pharmaceutical, and some Metal forming industries. These industries require a recipe or formula that is a BOM and routing. A recipe/formula starts with how something is made and adds in the ingredients.

• Discrete Manufacturing Industries Vertical: Includes all non-process manufacturing e.g. Equipment, Wood/ furniture, Automotive, Aerospace, Defense, etc. We may break this down into Complex vs. Simple (creating a fourth vertical of Vendor/products), where complex includes the ability to configure a product during order entry (i.e., build your computer online). However, these ERP products have the same thing in common, the ability to make products with a BOM and Routing, which combined create a work order.



ERP PROJECT TEAMS CAN USE THIS DETAILED INSIGHT TO GAIN A FAIR AND BALANCED REVIEW OF THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF THE KEY VENDORS IN THE ERP MARKETPLACE.



WHO ARE THE VENDORS?Tier 1

There are three tiers of vendor/products, the Tier I vendors, who can mostly meet all industry verticals functional requirements, are typically sold to larger companies. $100 million annually is generally considered the minimum amount of revenue required by a company to begin to consider these products.

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Tier 2

The Tier II vendor/products typically focus on companies as large a $250 million in revenue and go as low as $20 million in revenue. Therefore, there is overlap between Tier I and Tier II with respect to size of organization. However, most of the Tier II’s cannot support (“out of the box”) all the industry verticals and typically support only one or two. The following is not an all-inclusive list, but it is most of the Tier II vendor/products.

Automotive

Aerospace & Defence

Contract Manufacturing

Industrial Equipment

Medical Devices & Products

Electronics & Equipment

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MANUFACTURING AND DISTRIBUTION PRODUCT TEAMS ARE WISE TO KEEP APPRISED OF INDUSTRY BEST PRACTICES AS WELL AS THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS – INSIGHT THAT HELPS TEAMS REALIZE THEIR TRANSFORMATION GOALS.


SAPOVERVIEWSystemanalyse und Programmentwicklung, better known as SAP, is a German based company that develops and markets enterprise business software. They are an international company with 75,000+ employees serving their nearly 300,000 customers in over 190 countries. SAP R/98 was the company’s first product to be launched in 1973, and has since become one of the largest software companies in the world, reporting revenues of almost $22 Billion annually.

TECHNOLOGY SAP’s newest product release is SAP S/4HANA which runs on their in-memory platform, SAP HANA. SAP S/4HANA is designed with SAP Fiori and is available as an on premise or cloud solution. SAP customers running older versions of the SAP Business Suite will continue to receive support and maintenance until at least 2025, but see SAP S/4HANA as the logical next step for their install base.

PRODUCTS - FEATURE/FUNCTION/MARKETS• SAP By Design: SAP Business ByDesign is software as a service, designed for small and medium-sized

enterprises. SAP announced SAP Business ByDesign on 19 September 2007 during an event in New York, and then in 2011 announced that they were going to kill the product; which never happened but drastically affected sales. It is built on the principles of a service oriented architecture (SOA). Integration between business capabilities is accomplished via messages. The underlying technology stack is a multi-tenancy enabled SAP NetWeaver stack, leveraging SAP’s in-memory HANA database.

• SAP Business One: SAP Business One was initially launched in Israel in 1996 under the name “Menahel” or “TopManage” in English. In March 2002, SAP purchased TopManage.

• Financial Systems and branded their system as SAP Business One. The strength of the product is distribution and simple discrete manufacturing. Partners are required to perform complex manufacturing or process manufacturing. Targeted at companies under $350 million.

• S/4HANA: Is built-on SAP’s proprietary Operational Database System and in-memory computing platform called SAP HANA. The S/4HANA launch took place on February 3, 2015. The event introduced cloud and on premises editions, and launched the on-premises edition. SAP S/4HANA Enterprise Management Cloud - for full ERP capabilities; the cloud enterprise edition is the equivalent to the Enterprise Management on premises offering.

This report covers only selected ERP vendors, reflecting Ultra’s research activities. Ultra will be issuing a series of reports covering additional vendors on a quarterly basis. The vendor/products included in this report include: (click on logo below to jump to vendor report)

SAP S4/Hana (Tier One) & Business One (Tier Two) | Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Enterprise Edition (AX - Tier One), Finance and operations Business Edition (NAV - Tier Two), Just Food (Industrybuilt) a NAV Partner | Epicor P21 & ERP E10 (Tier Two) | Sage X3 (Tier Two) | IQMS (Tier Two) | Plex (Tier Two) | Oracle / NetSuite (Tier Two)



SUPPORT/IMPLEMENTATION/TRAININGSAP has over 30.000 consultants on their workforce, and an ecosystem of 13,000 partners to help customers with implementation and support services. SAP offers various levels of support that range from online self-directed training, to embedded IT support staff. SAP expects average implementation times to continue to decrease as SAP S/4HANA becomes solution of choice for their customers. .

CONFERENCE REPORTSAPPHIRE ASUG (Americas’ SAP Users’ Group) Conference in Orlando, Florida. The conference ran for three days May 16-18, 2017 and featured multiple keynotes and software announcements. Ultra’s take on the theme was “The Newer, Simpler SAP”.

Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP, kicked off the conference on Day 1 with his keynote entitled “The Urgency of Doing.” This session was packed, as around 30,000 people flocked to see McDermott speak to the point where there was only standing room available.

McDermott started with the concept of making our lives simpler by running SAP. He also mentioned SAP is actively working on simplifying their processes, introducing simplified pricing where procure to pay, and order to cash processes are based on order transactions and there is no charge for static reads by third party systems.

Three key partners shared the stage with SAP. Michael Dell (CEO of Dell), provided witness that automation is not an IT project, it is one involving your entire company that must be driven by the CEO. Leaders from Google and Intel were present as well. Intel is working with SAP to improve the performance of HANA from the hardware side of the equation.

The Next Big Thing: SAP Leonardo

The big announcement at the event was SAP Leonardo, the company’s new digital innovation system. First SAP provided the framework for Digital Core, with SAP Cloud ERP applications like S/4HANA driving day-to-day business operations, and SAP Leonardo driving the cost savings and revenue-generating activities. SAP Leonardo consists of a set of tools that intelligently connects, people, things, and businesses.

Openness as the New Paradigm

Bernd Leukert, Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, led the remainder of the presentation, speaking for roughly two thirds of the session. Leukert set the stage for his presentation by saying that the new economy is where software is the strategy, and that openness is the new paradigm. Openness drives new business processes excellence, just as:

• Weather data drives logistics processes

• Machine data drives maintenance processes

• Social data drives customer profiling

All that needs to happen is for the data to be open, as well as integrated and secure. Leukert also mentioned this is a single solution from one vendor, in one data platform. Businesses today need to do two things:• Get to cloud and to the benefits scale, elasticity, and availability• Develop user intelligent application to automate as many processes as possible

The following quote from Leukert is at the center of SAP’s beliefs: “Hyper automation, driven by connectivity, by omnipresence of data, and by machine learning, will enable autonomous systems.”

Leukert predicts a few years from now 80% of all business processes running through systems will be autonomous – not just cars. This prediction of the future of businesses is the foundation for why SAP created Leonardo.



The Leonardo Toolset

It begins with Machine Learning, and includes Blockchain, Big Data and ERP, Data Intelligence, the Internet of Things and Analytics. The tools also come with a brainstorming methodology for solutions utilizing Leonardo.

For a fixed fee, the SAP team will help develop, build, and create the blueprint. They will leverage industry experience, and develop a flow chart of mockups that can be quasi tested by other employees – this is very like a wire frame in terms of workflow.

Mala Anand, EVP and President of Leonardo, offered a summary of the product in her session following the keynote. She mentioned the enterprise is connected by a data value chain. With the help of SAP Leonardo, the enterprise can now deliver contextual and personalized real-time experiences, where data is a strategic asset.

SAP Leonardo aims to help you ask the questions you never thought to ask, and provides the answers. When data turns into accessible, real-time, and tightly integrated information, it is a huge asset.

Conference Summary

Over the years, SAP has been viewed as a global ERP company best fit for large international companies with complex business requirements. While they obviously have the ability to support nearly any large organization, there appears to be a focus on taking on more of the mid-market, and as the slogan suggests, “Run Simple”, their new product development and deployment might make them more competitive and affordable for the midmarket.

MICROSOFT DYNAMICS 365OVERVIEWMicrosoft, with revenues of $85.3B in 2016, entered the ERP market in 2001 with the acquisition of Great Plains. The company expanded its presence in 2002 with the acquisition of the Navision product and the Axapta product. Revenue details here.

Microsoft named their business applications line of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) software applications Microsoft Dynamics. In 2017, Microsoft added onto the nominclature when moving to the cloud, now the applications are named Microsoft Dynamics 365, followed by the name of the product e.g. Sales (CRM), Finance and Operations (ERP), or Field Service. Microsoft Dynamics applications are delivered through a network of reselling partners who provide specialized services. There are over 300,000 businesses that use these applications and over 10,000 reselling partners worldwide.

TECHNOLOGYMicrosoft NAV (see new name below), AX (see new name below) and CRM (see new name below) all utilize SQL as the database of choice. Microsoft currently offers Azure for hosting and SaaS pricing, but does not offer a true multi-tenant cloud based solution. The Microsoft solution is technically a single tennat approach, however, from the end user perspective, there is no visible difference in appearance or responsivness.

PRODUCTS - FEATURE/FUNCTION/MARKETS• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Enterprise Edition (AX): Microsoft Dynamics AX was

originally developed as a collaboration between IBM and Danish Damgaard Data as IBM Axapta. Axapta was initially released in March 1998 in the Danish and U.S. markets. IBM returned all rights in the product to Damgaard Data shortly after the release of Version 1.5. Damgaard Data merged with Navision Software A/S in 2000 to form NavisionDamgaard, later named Navision A/S. Microsoft acquired the combined company in July 2002. In September 2011, Microsoft released version AX 2012. It was made available and supported in


https://www.microsoft.com/investor/reports/ar16/index.html


more than 30 countries and 25 languages. The newest version was released in February 2016. This version lasted only a few months, though, as Dynamics AX was rebranded Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations in October 2016.

• The product is sold into Ultra’s clients of at least 100 million in revenues. However, we will look at it in the right situations for clients under 100 million. The product performs well in almost all of Ultra’s industries. Struggling a bit in the very complex large industrial manufacturers.

• Ultra was surprised when Microsoft decided to only sell Microsoft Dynamics AX, newly named Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations Enterprise edition in the cloud, and not offer sales of the on-premise version.

• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Business Edition (NAV): Microsoft Dynamics NAV originates from Navision, a suite of accounting applications which Microsoft acquired in 2002. Navision originated at PC&C A/S (Personal Computing and Consulting), a company founded in Denmark in 1983. PC&C released its first accounting package, PCPlus, in 1984 - a single-user application with basic accounting functionality. There followed in 1987 the first version of Navision, a client/server-based accounting application that allowed multiple users to access the system simultaneously. The success of the product prompted the company to rename itself [when?] Navision Software A/S. In 1995 the first version of Navision based on Microsoft Windows 95 was released. In 2000, Navision Software A/S merged with fellow Danish firm Damgaard A/S (founded 1983) to form NavisionDamgard A/S. In 2001 the company changed its name to “Navision A/S”. On July 11, 2002 Microsoft bought Navision A/S to go with its previous acquisition of Great Plains. Navision became new division in Microsoft, named Microsoft Business Solutions, which also handled Microsoft CRM.

• The cloud version (Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Business Edition) is scheduled for a full release in the Spring of 2018 (today only the Finance portions are available in the cloud). In January of 2018 the on premise version of NAV is scheduled to receive a feature upgrade. Ultra is uncertain as to the future of the on premise version given what has happened with AX.

• In December 2008 Microsoft released Dynamics NAV 2009, which contains both the original “classic” client, as well as a new three-tier GUI called the RoleTailored Client (RTC). In October 2015, Microsoft released NAV 2016 features enhancements in reporting and email integration, deferral accounting, and posting preview function. Microsoft continues to invest in Dynamics NAV and is now on an annual release cycle.

• As MS AX has moved up channel, this has left room for MS NAV to take over the true mid-market with customers ranging from 25 million to 250 million in revenue; across all of Ultra’s industry verticals.

• Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales: The current version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is 2016. Microsoft Dynamics CRM has over 40,000 customers. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 was officially released on November 30, 2015. In the official press release Microsoft calls this “The most comprehensive upgrade ever for Dynamics CRM” and says it “includes advancements in intelligence, mobility and service, with significant productivity enhancements. The only true competitor of SalesForce.com in the Mid to Large customer CRM market. Microsoft created this themselves (not an acquisition as the rest of the products above). Integration with the office products and SharePoint is a big reason why clients should consider this product. MS CRM was an early adopter of the cloud.

SUPPORT/IMPLEMENTATION/TRAININGMicrosoft almost exclusively sells and offers support through partners. Ultra has direct experience with the following partners:



• Just Food (IndustryBuilt NAV)• Edgewater Fullscope (AX)• MCA Connect (AX)• Armanino (AX)• RSMi (AX)• ArcherPoint (NAV)• UXC Eclipse (NAV)• Western Computer (AX & NAV)• Sikich (AX)• Tribridge (AX & NAV)

BRIEFING REPORT: INDUSTYBUILT JUSTFOODIndustrybuilt is the name of the reseler of Microsoft NAV products, and one of their very significant enhancements is with their JustFood application, which allows NAV, and in the future 365 Finnace and Operations Business Edition to sucessfully operate within food and beverage manufacturers and distributors. The following is from an interview and briefing with their team in Toronto June of 2016

With respect to Microsoft Dynamics NAV, we are hearing that Microsoft is working very diligently to offer NAV in the cloud with most of the functional capabilities of the on-premise version. Dan Oughton, CTO at IndustryBuilt (makers of JustFood and BuildFood), a Canadian ISV of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, said that Microsoft is working diligently to “Saasify” the product.

Power to the User

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Financials, is the same product as NAV on premise, except that parts of it are hidden. Today there is no difference in the underlying core technology. Microsoft has hidden layers of the product, because Microsoft wants to expose these pieces as they “Saasify” them. We as end users expect different capabilities from SaaS products. Some of which are context sensitive help, online tutorials and selfled training and implementation. The SaaS Cloud model’s expectation is to minimize the use of external consultants, to put more in the hands of the user.

One of the issues that ISV products like JustFood face is that the new model of event driven development (Dynamics kernel plus extensions) limits some development of intellectual property, as extension development is required to happen “outside” of the core application. In talking with Dan, he said it is more work, but they will be there with Microsoft at some point in the future with their JustFood product.

The SaaS Model

What was eye opening is how quickly good products are accepted in the online SaaS cloud community. JustFood’s “Buildfood” Recipe Management is the second highest app offered (not owned by Microsoft) for Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Financials. With the top ISV app being in retail (a big segment for NAV). The app is free, and offers IndustryBuilt the ability to reach out to these customers to upgrade to JustFood application. The next step is to stand up a solution embed app in the cloud, which allows for a deeper level of extensibility that the normal apps do not have – targeting fuller features for food manufacturers and distributors.

As of the NAV 2017 version, each client in a multi-tenant framework can have its own extensions – making the platform a true multi-tenant cloud enabled solution. JustFood expects to have this architecture implemented, within a year. Microsoft continues to improve on this platform, and the current beta, codenamed “Tenerife” is in flight with some new improvements for highly scalable cloud architectures.

NOTE: A more in-depth focus report on the Industry Built/JustFood product functionality within the Microsoft Dynamics platform is available to registered prospects and customers of Ultra.



EPICOROVERVIEWEpicor, with revenues of $900M and aprox. 4,000 employees, provides integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), service and asset management, human capital management (HCM), as well as a range of solutions covering enterprise content management, business intelligence and analytics, and e-commerce to the mid-market and divisions of Global 1000 companies.

Epicor Software Corporation, founded in 1972, (combined with Activant Solutions Inc. in May 2011, acquired by leading global investment firm KKR in September 2016) develops business software for the manufacturing, distribution, retail and services industries. The company claims to have more than 20,000 customers in over 150 countries.

TECHNOLOGYEpicor has invested mostly in two products (ERP and P21) both based on SQL. Epicor is developing technologies that cross ERP products. In 2017 Epicor released it’s eCommerce cross platform product written with Magento called Epicor Commerce Connect (ECC). This offering attempts to separate them from their rival Infor, and to take on NetSuite who has made inroads into distributors, a market that Epicor would like to own with Prophet 21. Epicor ERP is available in a dedicated tenacy cloud deployment model.

PRODUCTS - FEATURE/FUNCTION/MARKETSEpicor offers two distinct products as go forward solutions:• Prophet 21: Came from Activant, a company that merged with Epicor in 2011. It is a full featured

distribution-segment focused product. With the addition of ECC for eCommerce, they will be a tough competitor for NetSuite.

• Epicor ERP: Strengths are configuration, project manufacturing, and service. It is focused on discree manufacturing (not process, nor distributors).

SUPPORT/IMPLEMENTATION/TRAININGEpicor traditionally sells direct, however Ultra has been successful working with Epicor partner Cre8tive Technology & Design in the complex manufacturing industry vertical.

CONFERENCE REPORTEpicor recently hosted their yearly Epicor Insights conference in Nashville. Representatives from Ultra’s ERP consultants team members attended to learn about the latest and greatest with Epicor software. The conference ran from May 22-25, 2017 and featured multiple keynotes and software announcements.

Epicor & Disruptive ERP

Joe Cowan, President and CEO of Epicor at that time, kicked off the event, which hosted a whopping 3,300 attendees. He mentioned their new owner, private equity firm KKR & Co. L.P., who is coming with open pockets to help Epicor grow.

Cowan spoke to a familiar theme of disruptive ERP, and suggested the Internet and eCommerce solutions have aided this disruption, as consumers want everything now. What it means to Epicor is going to change. As Cowan emphasized, “Change is constant, and growth is optional.” He considered a few statistics from a Gartner study on what is on the mind of CEOs, where 58% of the respondents said that growth is the #1 issue.



Therefore, the next logical question is, what factors are key for growth from the point of view of an Epicor user? In a similar , 47% of the customers said better technology was the key.

After setting the stage, Joe connected the dots and informed the audience that transformative technical solutions are needed to drive real growth, and that 20% of Epicor’s resources are dedicated to improving and changing the software.

A couple examples are how Eclipse can now use new devices. Epicor also acquired DocStar, which expands their document management capabilities, and the continued investment in the cloud ERP offerings.

Cowan closed his section of the keynote by informing the audience that this is the journey that Epicor is on, making it easier to do business with Epicor. To achieve this, they will show simple and low risk through four initiatives: product, support, services, and education.

Epicor’s Plan for Growth

Himanshu Palsule, Executive Vice President and Chief Product and Technology Officer, kicked it up a notch in his presentation. He established Epicor’s growth pillars:

• Global• Experiences• Analytics• Ecosystems

He then further established the Industry Pillars of Design, Expertise and Success.• But the focus was the ease of everything – this was the real message – and that Epicor’s goal is to be the

most intuitive ERP in the world, offering a solution that is:• Easy to deploy with choices• Easy to access at any time, any place, and with any browser• Easy to upgrade• Easy to do business with, as they have fixed their internal customer service system• Easy to use and intuitive, especially in the latest user interface, which offers more information at your fingertips• Easy to learn, with their new Epicor University offering – which is critical to support the cloud implementations,

which typically have less on-site consulting

Epicor announced, “Project Cirrus” and the ability to take customers from Vantage, Vista, and E9, at significantly reduced cost and time. This is a complete change to the upgrade program.

This move was made possible by utilities and the ability to build, move to cloud, convert it and give it back to you. We’ll talk more to come on upgrading to 10.2 in a future blog.

Epicor 10.2

Scott Hays, Epicor’s SVP of Global Product Marketing, then announced Epicor 10.2, and an extension of their role-based User Interface (UI) with role-based tiles from Epicor data discovery.

Hayes demonstrated how to pick data from the data warehouse, and further demonstrate the map of the warehouse to the bin number and created an animated simulation to show the movement of goods and inventory.

Epicor Prophet 21

Next up was Dave Getty, Epicor’s VP of Development, who spoke to Epicor Prophet 21 and demonstrated the solution using the browser approach with multiple versions, which can typically be confusing. He introduced a new P21 that allows user to control the windows of the browser.

Getty also announced that the beta version is a full new API for P21. He hit on the new eCommerce application which is a direct shot at NetSuite’s prospective customer base, who had previously cornered this market with distributors until Epicor partnered with Magento.



Working through P21’s top new features, they presented the new Epicor Data Analytics tool, which goes beyond portals and dashboards, as it can source and aggregate data from multiple systems.

Next on the roadmap was predictive analytics, and finally they ended with DocStar, Epicor’s newly purchased document management workflow module.

Training & Education

A new on-demand training toolset was introduced. These are online offerings both informational and functional, yet only six to ten minutes in length. One of these was demonstrated and the animation looked great, providing a quick answer, which is much better than a FAQ list.

Epicor mentioned they also want to go here with cloud-based training, fast and simple. Additionally, they applied augmented reality, which lays over the top of the real image being viewed through a virtual reality-like device.

This is incorporated into the learning experience, and will probably eventually be incorporated into warehouse applications, replacing pick-to-voice in noisy environments.

Internet of Things & Other Technologies

The best demonstration was the final one, where Epicor demonstrated their new Internet of Things (IOT) capabilities of Connect, Collect, Visualize, and Analyze from smart machines.

One of their customers from Birmingham, UK demonstrated IOT live on stage. He synced up sensors made by Photon with Epicor ERP, installed it in a piece of equipment on stage, and provided results, all in about ten minutes.

He demonstrated when the fuel goes below a certain threshold, which made the screen turn red. A message was sent to trigger a Business Process Management (BPM) action in the form of an email.

This allowed the supplier to perform the work and automatically create a service work order and product order (PO), effectively moving Epicor ERP into predictive maintenance.

NOTE: Ultra has many extensive blogs on Epicor, available to everyone. Please go to our website and search on Epicor.

SAGEOVERVIEWThe Sage Group plc, commonly known as Sage, is a global enterprise software company headquartered in the United Kingdom. It is the world’s third-largest supplier of enterprise resource planning software $2B in revenue, the largest supplier to small businesses, and has 6.1 million customers worldwide. It has offices in 24 countries and its products and services are available in more than 160 countries.

Sage North America is part of The Sage Group, plc, a global supplier of business management software and services to 5.8 million customers. From small start-ups to larger organizations, Sage software solutions are designed to help companies manage their business processes. Formed in 1981, the company was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989, and now employs more than 5,000 people in North America and 14,800 people globally.

TECHNOLOGYSage X3 is their flagship product, offers a modular design at the vertical level and user levels. New to X3 are Data and BI modules that tie in multiple data streams across platforms for BI functions with a path to IoT and PaaS.



Sage X3 offers an SQL based system that is “windows-like” in appearance. X3 offers multiple methods of browser based access including, tablets, and phone apps. The cloud solution was officially released in 2016 and is beginning to gain momentum this year (2017).

PRODUCTS - FEATURE/FUNCTION/MARKETSThe company’s product set can be divided into: Accounting; Payroll; Customer Relationship Management (CRM); Financial forecasting; Payment processing; Job costing; Human Resources; Business intelligence; Taxation and other products for accountants

Sage’s notable products include Sage One, Sage 300, Sage 50, Sage 100, Sage 500, Sage HRMS, Sage Fixed Assets and Sage X3. Sage continues to invest in all their products.

However, X3 is the go forward product for larger Sage customers (beginning at $25 million and up to $1 billion in revenue). X3’s strengths are in Process Manufacturing and Distribution, with new functionality in true project manufacturing and an advanced WMS released in 2017 with new capabiities for Automotive, Retail and Construction.

SUPPORT/IMPLEMENTATION/TRAININGSage X3 is sold through a direct sales team located across the U.S. and Canada and through an extensive partner network across North America. Sage has a large X3 consutling practice that is offered to new and existing customers. Ultra has specific experience with two partners, and recommends using both Southeast Computer Solutions (focused on the Southeast USA and spanish speaking countries), and Nextec Group (USA and Canada).

CONFERENCE REPORTFrom the Sage Summit 2017 (USA), which took place May 9-11, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia (Sage offers multiple Summits in multiple countries).

Sage CEO Stephen Kelly and Sage Executive Vice President Nancy Harris, discussed the current positioning of Sage, at the partner kickoff and the customer kickoff. Both sessions focused on their cloud offerings.

Sage was very clear that they are investing in the portfolio = all their products! They are leading with cloud, and hope to leapfrog the competition in this area.

The following is a summary of their product offering and updates on each product roadmap for 2017. Note that most Ultra’s clients would be working with the Sage X3 product either on premise or in the cloud. However, Sage’s message is that they are moving forward with all their products, and specifically focused on Sage 50, 100, and 300.

• Sage 50 is launching Sage 50 C to the cloud with MS Office 365 with apps! The new applications include Contact, Intelligence, Capture, Cloud Backup and Business performance dashboard.

• Sage 100 announced New Payroll, Job Costing and Direct Integration with Banks (e.g. reconciliation of checks).

• Sage 300 announced a new User interface, Hosting on Azure, AP automation, and eCommerce.

Sage discussed it’s multiproduct cloud approach. Five different applications, Sage One, Sage Live, Sage Accountant, Sage People and Sage X3.

Sage CRM is a solid Mid-Tier solution, and it as well will have a new User interface in 2017, plus team calendars, technical improvements, a new browser, and continued additions to mobility.

Some of the new develop for Sage X3 includes: the cloud private and hosting by partners, Version 11, a new Mobile UI, ISV for large construction, human capital management and many more features (see the next blog).



At the end of the partner keynote they also mentioned a new emphasis on planning with partners. They will be reaching out to their partners to assist them in growing their businesses. They will be establishing targets, have more recognition for partner success, drive joint solution development, provide new marketing tools and will simplify the partner program.

In the keynote for the customers they offered a big splash with Pegg a chatbot who interfaces with Amazon’s Alexa, and your voice is integrated with Sage. The users can ask questions verbally, and receive the answers both with charts and Pegg will talk as well. This is where all ERP systems are going to end up. The chat bot is just the beginning.

This is the future of ERP, and it is huge that Sage is in early.

IQMSOVERVIEWIQMS has been in the design and development of Manufacturing Software and ERP Software systems for repetitive, process and discrete manufacturing industries since 1989. IQMS is a privately held, global software company based in Paso Robles, California. The company develops and markets manufacturing ERP and real time manufacturing execution systems to the automotive, medical, packaging, consumer goods, aerospace, defense and other manufacturing industries. IQMS has been included on Inc. Magazine’s list of the 5000 fastest growing privately held U.S. companies from 2011 through 2017. Gary Nemmers became the CEO of IQMS in 2015. As a privately held company, IQMS continues to remain financially sound and carries $0 in debt. It has been profitable every year since it was founded with double digit revenue gains. Reports show IQMS revenue at 44.6M in 2015.

TECHNOLOGYThe company’s solution can be deployed as an on-premise, or cloud-based and supports the Linux, Microsoft Windows and Unix operating systems. The core of the product is MS SQL today. Also, part of their technology is the ERP software’s function as a true MES (Manufacturing Execution System) connecting to PLC’s on the floor to collect information for the MES, and drive reporting and activities. IQMS is available in three options: On-Premise, SaaS (Software as a service), and Cloud Based (Managed)

PRODUCTS - FEATURE/FUNCTION/MARKETSWhile IQMS offers multiple products, it is it’s flagship Manufacturing ERP that Ultra’s customers are interested in. IQMS’s Manufacturing ERP is strong in many areas, but the ability to perform true repetitive manufacturing, key requirements for auto and defense industries, as well as the integrated MES, are the real drivers behind it’s successful customer install base.

EnterpriseIQ - lean and agile functionality developed especially for process and repetitive manufacturers. Designed for Mid-Market single plant manufacturer or a large multi-plant, multi-national manufacturer.

IQMS maintains a continual and collaborative dialogue and development environment with its EnterpriseIQ customer base. Through the MyIQMS community forum, IQMS users play a major role in the software’s evolution. The result is a solution that is developed by manufacturers, for manufacturers.

IQMS is focused on over half of Ultra’s vertical markets, with auto and plastics being two of its strongest as can be seen with half the membership of MAPP running IQMS.



SUPPORT/IMPLEMENTATION/TRAININGIQMS offers partners to work with, but in our conversations with real customers at their conference, everyone had complements of IQMS’s direct consulting team. To that end, most of the presentations at the conference were presented by field consultants, vs. back office marketing individuals. Ultra is impressed by the overall praise and confidence that IQMS’s customers espoused at their conference.

CONFERENCE REPORTIQMS 2017 Pinnacle User Conference was held in Orlando, Florida from April 3 to April 6, 2017

In August of 2014, IQMS, a leading software provider of ERP and MES solutions for manufacturing companies, received an investment from Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV). Subsequently, a new management team was formed, which is now led by Gary Nemmers as CEO.

The new management team is responsible for hundreds of new customers, improved support of existing customers, and a well-defined product innovation roadmap, including a device-independent version set to go live by the end of 2017.

IQMS and the Manufacturing Industry

Steve Bieszczat, Chief Marketing Officer, kicked off the conference with a summary of the top issues facing US-based manufacturing companies. The manufacturing industry has quadrupled output in the past 10 years, which has been driven by lean manufacturing and automation, in addition to quality improvements and value-added services.

IQMS has a few advantages over other ERP solutions in the market, especially in the areas of quality management and shop floor execution. These features support the future of manufacturing, which is looking to be a next step level increase in output.

IQMS 2017 Plan

After Steve’s introduction, he introduced Dymotek, IQMS’s Customer of the Year and 2017 Plastics Processor of the Year. Steve then introduced key members of executive team, in addition to Oracle, who was discussing their new ideas and direction of the firm for the foreseeable future.

IQMS plans to make waves in the following areas in 2017:• Release 15.3 focus in high driven quality• Introduce WebIQ, which allows the solution to run in a browser that eliminates the client layer, and enables

running on tablets, phones, etc.• New business intelligence (BI) tool in collaboration with Oracle Cloud• Continuum of training, lean, and getting more out of IQMS ERP

Next up was Will Childs, an Oracle Director of ISV Cloud Business Development and Strategy, who brought a technologist’s view of the future of data and the Internet. He established that data is the real disruptor to businesses today. Examples include:• Uber – the largest taxi company in the world that doesn’t own an actual taxi• Facebook – the largest media company in the world that owns no media• AirBnb – the largest hotel chain in the world that owns no hotels• Alibaba – the largest retailer in the world

He went on to say we are breaking the internet with HUGE amounts of data, and how this data provides opportunity for businesses.



Hot Topics in Developing an ERP Roadmap

Rob Wiersma, VP Product Management and Strategy, provided the framework of which areas IQMS would be targeting based on where US manufacturing companies see their growth potential. He hit on a number of “hot topics” affecting the development roadmap of ERP systems:• The Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) is a disruptor, and the smart factory of the future has massive data needs• US Manufacturing’s growth is both organic and via acquisition, therefore, the ability to (re)configure financials to

mirror corporate structure is critical to understanding profitability• To meet the standards in regulatory compliance and quality standards and not hold back growth, ERP vendors

need to react quickly to support existing customers

Current and Future Goals for IQMS

Therefore, it is not a surprise the key improvements to IQMS in 2017 are:• Financial Configuration• Business Analytics• Track and Trace• User-friendly shop floor experience• WebIQ (browser version)

Then in 2018, IQMS will target improvements in charts and profile curves, regulatory and quality, engineering quotes and flexible configuration scheduling / what if modeling.

IQMS and MES

IQMS has many strengths as a vendor, but one of them that is especially appealing to the client base we deal with here at Ultra is their ability to manage the shop floor with a true Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) component as part of a whole enterprise system. To that end, the Ultra team sat in on multiple sessions with the IQMS user group to learn more about the software’s capabilities in these areas.

There was a session on how to build a better Bill of Materials (BOM), which was led by Chris Daman and Toby Huston, both training specialists at IQMS. Chris emphasized creating an efficient BOM is all about entering the right data into the system.

IQMS Presents RealTime™

In the next presentation, Jim Hoium, Senior Solutions Engineer, and Trevor Diehl, VP of Product Development for MES educated us on RealTime™. After the system is set up properly, the real-time MES offered by IQMS can pay dividends.

RealTime™ performs both process monitoring, a.k.a. information from machines that informs us what they’re doing, and production monitoring a.k.a. tracking what is being made.

RealTime™ monitors specific parameters, feeds SPC, and creates a historian database to maintain item, job, lot specific details, and process information. This yields a huge amount of data that is created with date and time stamps. RealTime™ also monitors the work center and machine data in response to trends.

The next frontier for RealTime™ is moving into the Internet of Things (IoT), where a machine may react to the data being captured and then adjust the speed, temperature, etc. of the manufacturing equipment for potential quality issues. Our presenters, when asked about the effort required to implement RealTime™, said it is “out-of-the-box, configurable, and ready to rock.”



Summary

IQMS uniquely combines ERP and MES functionality. Developed specifically for mid-market repetitive, discrete and batch process manufacturers, IQMS provides robust capabilities for addressing strict customer and regulatory certification and compliance. IQMS delivers traditional ERP functionality for accounting, sales orders, material requirements, inventory and purchasing, plus extended native features for CRM, human resources, production scheduling, shop floor control, warehouse and quality modules.

PLEXOVERVIEWPlex Systems, Inc. is a software company based in Troy, Michigan. The company develops and markets the Plex Manufacturing Cloud, a software as a service (SaaS) or cloud computing ERP and MES solution for manufacturing.

Plex has grown to 500 employees and now supports more than 550+ organizations and 1,800+ manufacturing facilities in 22 countries around the world.

Plex Systems began as an internal IT project at an automotive parts manufacturer, MSI, in 1989. The company was formed as Plexus Systems LLC in 1995, providing client/server manufacturing software based on Progress Software’s database technology. The company began offering its software via the SaaS model when Plexus Online was launched in 2001. In 2009, the company changed its name to Plex Systems.

In 2012, funds advised by Apax Partners sold Plex Systems, Inc.to Francisco Partners.

In 2013, the company also expanded into new industries and continued to build out a world-class management team with key leadership additions, many from Oracle and Eloqua. During that time, the company expanded its North American operations with new facilities in Michigan and California, and now has more than 365 employees.

In 2014, Plex Systems closed $50 million in new financing. The round was led by funds and institutional accounts managed by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., with participation from existing Plex investor Accel Partners.

TECHNOLOGYThe Plex Manufacturing Cloud is built on a multi-tenant architecture (Microsoft SQL) and delivered as SaaS-based cloud ERP solution. Cloud computing or cloud ERP means the software application is available “in the cloud” hosted by the vendor. The SaaS model enables customers to pay a monthly subscription fee that includes software, hardware, maintenance, support and continuous updates. Plex is unique in that it delivers versionless software, meaning all customers are always running the latest code.

PRODUCTS - FEATURE/FUNCTION/MARKETSThe Plex Manufacturing Cloud manages the entire manufacturing process supporting production, inventory, shipping, supply-chain management, quality, accounting, sales, and human resource departments, in addition to the traditional ERP roles of finance/accounting, procurement, human capital management, etc. Plex is focused on manufacturing industries including automotive, food & beverage, metals, industrial equipment, electronics, aerospace and defense, and plastics, rubber and packaging with rigorous traceability, in-line quality and food safety requirements.The system is accessed using a web browser, making its functions available from anywhere over any device with an Internet connection. The software is designed to provide all relevant personnel with real-time visibility to production data.



While considered an “ERP” solution, Plex also includes the following integrated functions:• Enterprise resource planning (ERP)• Manufacturing execution system (MES) or manufacturing operations management (MOM); this is unique

as compared to most traditional ERP systems.• Quality management systems (QMS). It helps maintain compliance with quality standards including ISO

9000 and ISO 14000, QS-9000, TS-16949, AS-9100, etc.• Customer relationship management (CRM)• Supply chain management software (SCMS)

SUPPORT/IMPLEMENTATION/TRAININGPlex sells direct with 30 sales people. Plex has developed key accounting firm partners as well, mirroring the similar NetSuite model. Ultra has worked directly with Plex, and does not recommend working with their partner channel given the number of net new sales per year.

CONFERENCE REPORTThe 2017 PowerPlex Conference, which took place in Atlanta, Georgia from May 8-11 had over 1,000 attendees and numerous valuable information sessions.

Plex By the Numbers

Jason Blessing, CEO of Plex, kicked off PowerPlex with a great video showcasing real customers working on the shop floor. The purpose of this feature was to show the audience that Plex is really focusing on what they do best, which is helping their customers make products. Jason went on to tout a few statistics from 2016. The company experienced:• 81 major go-lives• 506 expansions• 95% renewal rate• $100+ million in revenue• 13,000 active users worldwide• Only 26 minutes of total downtime

PowerPlex Shares Common Issues Among Manufacturers

Plex then presented the most important dimensions affecting manufacturers today. These included a technology disruption with the old business model of steady demand, long lead times, and standard products leading to a focus on efficiency to drive profits.

Today, variable demand, compressed lead times, short product life cycles, and reconfigurable global supply changes mean we need real-time information to make decisions to drive profits.

The speakers also touched on an especially “hot topic” of the current-day landscape, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT). They stressed IIOT will influence and change how they will make things.

Connecting People & Processes

Connectivity to the internet is everywhere, standardized, and the sensors to connect are not costly. The factory will collect data from different types of equipment used to improve efficiency.

Work sites will utilize machinery location data to avoid accidents. Finally, inventory levels will be monitored at various stages of the supply chain, both inside and outside the four walls of their buildings.

The Plex team connected the dots with the concept of connected manufacturing, which is when processes, products, systems and people are all connected by their enterprise software solution. Cloud is key to connectivity and centralizing data into a single source of truth.



When addressing the issue of systems connectivity, it was presented that Plex offers several solutions, including Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), a developer’s portal, adapters, and connectors. New features include a single sign-on with a federated approach, supporting Azure and Okta.

Most importantly, Plex announced they are connecting with multiple integration-platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) providers, Dell Boomi, Jitterbit and Mulesoft.

In terms of connecting processes, Plex spoke to their purchase of DemandCaster and the solution’s new supply chain management software capabilities.

By fully embedding DemandCaster with the Plex User Interface (UI), customers can forecast and plan inventories, expanding upon Plex’s capabilities in scheduling shop floor. Everyone who uses Plex should be using this module.

Plex and its customers have also started dabbling in wearables, having demonstrated the use of smart eye wear coupled with wrist- and finger-scanners in actual production environments..

New Software Capabilities

Plex used the PowerPlex keynote to introduce new capabilities in analytics, showing off their function-based landing pages with Plex Insight. This feature is capable of ten different functions.

They also announced the addition of a quality functional analytics page. This tool is considered to be fully functional out-of-the-box, and is yet another Plex feature that has a very finessed User Interface (UI).

New Training Options

Finally, Plex announced that customers would no longer need to fly to Detroit, Michigan in the middle of the winter for training on the software and general ERP education, as they are launching an online training program called PlexBootCamp.

Summary

Plex maintains their own data centers to guarantee the level of support necessary in a multi-tenant cloudbased environment – service availability is tracked at 99.9%. Close monitoring and diagnostics of all operations enables proactive error detection and correction. This also provides continuous performance tuning.

The Plex Manufacturing Cloud is built as a native cloud application set, so security is embedded.

Plex’s multi-tenant model supports seamless scalability, and eliminates upgrades while offering continuous innovation.

ORACLE | NET SUITEOVERVIEWNetSuite Inc. is an American cloud computing company based in San Mateo, California, that sells a suite of software services used to manage a business’s financials, operations and customer relations. Customers can access these services over the internet, through most internet browsers, ensuring access from anywhere in the world. NetSuite’s services are aimed at small to medium-sized businesses, although larger enterprises can also benefit from the consolidated ERP, CRM and e-commerce features. Oracle Corporation offered to purchase NetSuite for approximately $9.3 billion USD in July 2016, with the deal finalizing in November 2016. NetSuite revenues have been reported as 741M in 2015



NetSuite was founded in 1998 by Evan Goldberg as NetLedger, web-hosted accounting software. Oracle licensed the software under the banner of The Oracle Small Business Suite for a short time before that was cancelled.

On July 28, 2016, Oracle announced it had offered to purchase NetSuite for $9.3 billion USD.

On November 7, 2016 Oracle’s acquisition of NetSuite became official, bringing together the reach of NetSuite’s cloud ERP solutions for small to midsize businesses with the breadth and depth of Oracle’s enterprise-grade cloud solutions for the back and front office.

TECHNOLOGYNetSuite is based on Oracle’s database. It offers a true multi-tenant ERP solution. SuiteCloud Developer Tools include workflow management, scripting, analytics, web services, etc. Customizations automatically migrate with every NetSuite upgrade. NetSuite hosts the product at its own datacenters, having expanded with the Oracle aquisition. There are three data centers in the USA (East, West, and Midwest), and two in EMEA.

PRODUCTS - FEATURE/FUNCTION/MARKETSNetSuite groups its services into four main suites plus NetSuite OneWorld (newest release includes multiple company financials).• Enterprise resource planning (ERP) – NetSuite ERP supports back office operations which includes

financial, human resources, orders, inventory, shipping and billing. • Customer relationship management (CRM) – NetSuite CRM supports sales, marketing operations and

customer insights.• E-commerce – SuiteCommerce is intended as a platform for online sales and integration with traditional phone

and Point of Sale (POS) tools. SuiteCommerce platform is currently in use by over 1600 websites online.• Professional services automation (PSA) – NetSuite PSA manages the operations of service-based,

projectoriented businesses.• Oracle Cloud WMS – This is LogFire. Oracle’s acquisition of an Advanced WMS is now the defacto standard

for NetSuite. The old advanced WMS of Netsuite is being decommissioned. NetSuite “OneWorld” offers the above services plus additional capabilities for multinational companies such as the ability to manage multiple subsidiaries, currencies, accounting standards and tax requirements.

NetSuite “OneWorld” offers the above services plus additional capabilities for multinational companies such as the ability to manage multiple subsidiaries, currencies, accounting standards and tax requirements.

SUPPORT/IMPLEMENTATION/TRAININGNetSuite has sold mainly through a direct channel. However, about three years ago they began to sign up many of the same mid to small accounting firms that are Microsoft partners, and has since partnered with larger firms, both in the USA and Internationally. Their partner channel is growing significantly every day.

CONFERENCE REPORTNetSuite SuiteWorld 2017: Oracle & NetSuite Unite in Las Vegas April 24- 27, 2017

This was an exciting event given the new relationship between Oracle and NetSuite. If there was one constant message throughout the event, it’s that NetSuite is a global business practice within Oracle.

NetSuite & Oracle: Future Plans

Jim McGeever, EVP of the NetSuite Business Unit kicked off SuiteWorld using the theme “Next Starts Now.” We figured the explanation of this theme would give us some insight into what Oracle is planning to do with NetSuite as a result of the acquisition.



Based on what we were told at the Keynote and subsequent events, the future plans seem very positive for NetSuite customers and employees. The acquisition of NetSuite by Oracle and their stance as a global business unit means the company is no longer “just another tech startup.”

NetSuite, Oracle, and the Cloud

Mark Hurd, CEO of Oracle, was introduced by Jim, and was the primary presenter during the keynote. One of his main points of discussion was the benefits of functioning in cloud ERP vs. traditional ERP. These included:• Lower cost• Higher innovation• More security• No need for customization• More features• Faster speed• Modern experience

We at Ultra would add that solutions in the cloud cost less since the need for major release upgrades is eliminated.

Mark touted the worldwide growth of on-premise systems is negative, while cloud is 50% year-over-year. Currently, Oracle is the fastest growing cloud company, and the “Oracle+NetSuite Strategy” is in place to set a new standard for customer cloud satisfaction in their industries.

Oracle and NetSuite want to lead the ERP landscape with a SaaS ERP suite by extending their SaaS portfolio, and maintaining a strong partner ecosystem. When asked about additional products, Jim said there are only two. While Mark did not give us details, it was heard loud and clear by Peoplesoft and JDE partners in the audience.

The biggest benefit to customers and partners of NetSuite is the investment Oracle can make on its balance sheet. Oracle has a very large number of datacenters, both in the USA and worldwide, that are currently offering or working on offering NetSuite.

Planned Investments

Oracle’s planned investments include more in R&D, International Expansion, and broadening the suite with Oracle SaaS Solutions in budgeting, planning, and HCM. They also plan on investing in the NetSuite SuiteSuccess sales, implementation and service model as well as increasing distribution with partners and salespeople.

The bottom line is, NetSuite will be in more countries, more industries, and will have more products therefore resulting in more success

NetSuite SuiteSuccess

One thing that’s interesting to note is the doubling down on the SuiteSuccess implementation methodology. (Its product, workflows, roles, KPIs, reports etc). Moving NetSuite’s business requirements definition into the sales effort will help shorten the time-to-implement and improve the handoff from sales to consulting.

When talking with third party implementers afterwards, everyone said Suite Success will work well with smaller customers (under $50 million in revenue), and some of this will work well for larger customers.

However, the ability to translate the business model of larger, more complex organizations will need to be driven by the expertise of the enterprise software implementation team. The new verticalized, role-based interface will help to drive the success.



SUMMARY OF WHAT WE LEARNEDWhat Ultra found most interesting in visiting vendor conferences is the commonality of the themes. We expected all the vendors to address topics such as Cloud ERP and product direction as related to SaaS models, consulting, education and training to support the cloud offering. And we fully expected some of the vendors to address the internet of things (IOT) and the industrial internet of things (IIOT). Yet it was amazing to see how similar the messaging was across events. It was as if a consultant had worked with each of the vendors and told them where they had shortfalls.

The focus at the vendor conferences is to present what was new and hopefully address previous shortfalls in product and services. As mentioned, each vendor spoke about the cloud, discussing in detail how their education and services support the cloud experience of their customers. They presented education services that empower users with self-help features and independent study type of learning. Vendors continue to improve the “right click ability” of the software to provide answers to field level questions, as well as to provide tutorials to understand how an order is processed. Vendors offer and continue to develop new forms of training videos and testing to ensure that everyone understands how to use the system.

Additionally, all the vendors discussed new implementation techniques. As Ultra advises our clients, greater features, function, technology and price does not guarantee a great implementation. It is the vendor, partner, their consultants and respective implementation methodologies that drive a successful new ERP project. SAP, Epicor, Sage, and Netsuite, all promoted major changes and enhancements in their methodologies.NetSuite is going strong after the partner model to keep up with demand (which helps them win more net new business as the partner channel grows).

The vendors, based on feedback from their customers, have started to improve the implementation process. All vendors have announced quick and easy implementation methodologies. NetSuite has one approach that targets specific functional silos, rolling out one silo at a time with new software. Each vendor is trying to be “easier” to work with. This is a positive trend. As we move into the world of cloud computing, the vendors need to pay special attention to customer satisfaction.

Watch Ultra’s website and white paper library for additional research on vendor activities.

This report covers only selected ERP vendors, reflecting Ultra’s research activities. Ultra will be issuing a series of reports covering additional vendors on a quarterly basis.


https://ultraconsultants.com

https://ultraconsultants.com/erp-education/white-papers/


ABOUT ULTRA CONSULTANTSUltra Consultants has a deep passion for helping our clients realize technology-driven business transformations that deliver measurable and impactful business and technology improvements. Our focus is on manufacturing and distribution companies. Our knowledge of industry best practices and enterprise software solutions enables our clients to realize their transformation goals:

• Dramatic improvements to existing business processes structured upon industry best practices and differentiating business models.

• Accelerated process for selecting and successfully implementing the best enterprise and related solutions that align to the needs and future goals of our clients.

• Negotiated software purchase agreements and implementation services that deliver the best Total Cost of Ownership for enterprise and associated technologies.

• Successful realization of ROI goals and aspirations of our clients through Business Analytics, Process Excellence, Lean, Six Sigma, and other proven methodologies.

Driving these four strategic activities is a highly professional and competent Ultra team to facilitate the complexities of risk management and change throughout our clients’ organizations.

www.ultraconsultants.com



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