Next when the item reaches a certain stage that it will be purchased or produced, the initial definition needs to be transferred to the ERP system and to be completed there with logistical data. Often as part of the classification data, the engineer has already what type of item it will be for logistical handling too. This information can be used in ERP to apply default data based on a certain template or derived-from item.

 
Item identification / Part Number

Most of the manufacturing companies are using so called intelligent part numbers to identify their items. This was done for historical reasons. As there was no IT system in the company the part number contained logic and information in order to 'immediately' understand its usage.

For example M210-23-4-00-A3.C tells me immediately it is a manufactured part, first time used in the milling product line (210) and it is hydraulic (23) used, not in stock (4), preferred to be used (00) and its definition can be found on the drawing with the same name, size A3 revision C.

If you did not understand this directly from the number, it does not mean you are not intelligent, although it is an intelligent part number. This shows that intelligent numbers are useful when people are trained and have a good memory. For everyone else in the company (and joining) the number is the same as a meaningless number.

For that reason is is recommended to use 'non-intelligent' numbers to identify parts. This creates no overhead for people to learn all kind of intelligent numbering mechanisms and it pushes everyone to look to additional information that is available, like the description or classification data.

For backwards tractability of course beside the new meaningless part number, there can be also a place holder to define what the origin of the part was (with intelligent part number). Specially when companies merge this will happen. The same part exists in different intelligent schemes. The only way to solve this is to add a new identifier, preferred to be the 'non-intelligent' number.

Conclusion: For part numbers it is recommended to use non-intelligent numbers based on a sequence, avoiding the creation of legacy information (merge) or training to understand the items by number.

Now the new created part has a meaningless identifier, we have achieved two things:

• The PLM and ERP system have unique key to share. Identifying this number with its revision (if relevant) immediately makes it clear for both the PLM and ERP system which part is meant.
• To understand what the item really does, we need to understand additional information like its description

Note

Description / Classification

Initially when an item is defined the engineer might create a description, like HYDRAULIC CLAMP without any further details. At the end this will lead to possible 10 hydraulic clamps in the system, where some of them might be identical and others differ. However the description HYDRAULIC CLAMP might be sufficient for a part list to be shipped to a customer - we do not want the customer to know the exact item characteristics in order to have him order the spare parts through us. Often on the engineering side an additional description field is added, which is a detailed description. This description is used internally and should be standardized in order to support the engineer to select the right item.

So HYDRAULIC CLAMP could have an internal definition HYDRAULIC CLAMP 400-600 describing its usage. This detailed description should be either enforced and generated by the PLM or should be handled through a librarian or standardization role in engineering. This should be combined with a classification of the new item. The advantage of a detailed description and classification is two-fold:

1. It supports engineers to search for existing items - so reuse is more likely. Often the description in the ERP system was not built in this way and for that reason engineers re-invent items while they might exist.
2. The classification will alert the engineer or librarian that an item with the same classification characteristics already exists. This means it might be identical or an additional classification characteristic is needed to differentiate the two items.

The definition of a new item would go through the following steps:

• The engineer defines the description and can work with the item in a temporary mode as he is not sure of using the new item in this way
• The item becomes mature and he needs to generate the detailed description.
• At this stage the librarian or a standardization committee might come in, to analyze the need for the new item. And if so to define all its classification data, knowing it is a new and unique item needed.
• Once the engineering definition is completed, the item definition can be send to the ERP system in order to complete it with logistical data - who can manufacture it and tens of attributes more. The item still is not released
• A hand-shake from the ERP system will confirm that the item definition is completed and as part of the release process the item can be approved for manufacturing. In case no pre-production stage exists it might be released even.

Conclusion: Standard Description, Detailed Description and Classification information is done on the PLM side to support reuse of items and to avoid creation of similar items with a different part number. The ERP systems uses the description definition and completes the definition with ERP required information. Data relevant for the engineering is synchronized back once the full definition is available.

The next post in this sequence will be discussing the BOM transfer to ERP

Analysts are talking about the additional value of Web 2.0 in combination with a service-oriented approach, which extends the reach of the enterprise systems as known of today. "The simple fact that you get more information, more capability and more features on the Web to get work done than you do in your own company, is pretty much driving these Web 2.0 initiatives," said R. "Ray" Wang, a principal analyst at Forrester. "Honestly, I can get better services outside of most enterprise companies today. We need to collaborate and we need a system in case our enterprise systems fail. Corporate IT departments are trying to figure out how to incorporate Web services, packaged app vendors are trying to figure out how to incorporate them, and users are just trying to figure out what they can do and still adhere to corporate IT policies."

Another trend we are seeing at the corporations is, that there aren't changes just be one's that imposed by necessity, many of them are driven from the bottom up. These kinds of grassroot IT solutions are mainly pushed by the Web-savvy workers. It brings a kind of parallel model of helper applications, which are often deployed in a Web or cloud environment and based on Web 2.0 paradigm. This working in 'two parallel worlds with different capabilities' will result in a push for generic features within the business systems. Most of these are lacking these systems since years, but now it could be directly compared with the webbased applications. I am expecting a high demand in the following areas:

• Real Enterprise Search:
  Everybody is using google like search capabilities for any information on the web he is looking for.  The users will complain more and more about silo-based search capabilities. Unfortunately there is no cheap quick fix.
   
• Security will become a major concern
  More and more business information will be moved in open wikis and social networking applications across the corporate firewalls. The edges of the corporation will be more and more porous from a security perspective. The demand for holistic concepts will increase dramatically to ensure confidentiality of business information and secure IP.
   
• Blogs and Wikis are driving the demand for extracting business information
  Blogs and Wikis are containing every kind of business information, from project status to research topics and organizational information. This information is efficiently linked and represent an own information network. The demand will rise to have a high-level overview about the available information.
   
• Enterprise intranets will learn social network capabilities
  Relationship management, collaboration capabilities and building ad-hoc interest groups will change the usage and the value of the current intranets. The process to get projects done will change with the availability of this kind of features within the company. This knowledge networks will be extended across the company borders and will establish dynamic structures of fast problem solving methodologies.
   
• Mashups are coming, but slowly
  We will see more and more enterprise mashups, however it requires a more or less code-free composition of information. This mashup capabilities are going hand in hand with situational applications, which are composed on the fly combined with analytical capabilities and business data available on-demand.
   
• Rich Internet Applications are extending the UI capabilities
  Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlight applications will bring a richer user experience with new graphical capabilities to adress complex business situations in a new way. We see spreading such capabilities in the analytics area and in edge applications like talent management. These new high graphical interactions are going beyond eye candy.
   
• Mobile devices are enabling web based collaboration
  Blackberry and iPhone are a new push to the mobile business applications. Even in business environment these new gadgets are on the way to improve the business work beyond email exchange. Mobile internet and access to exchange servers will become a driver for a new mobile application generation. The availability of little helper applications for these devices will push the demand for embedding business applications with a look & feel built for ad-hoc usage

So all in all we will see more and more a democratic Web 2.0 revolution, which will touch the business systems like ERP on many areas. Do you agree? In which application areas do you see the hardest push for Web 2.0 capabilities?

Interesting video introducing Singapore back in the 1960s, with British-accented narration. The policemen were still wearing shorts, samsui women can be seen working in construction sites, Haw Par Villa was still a star attraction... and best of all, there were no ERP and the road didn't look half as congested as it is now. :(

Technorati Tags: singapore, 1960s, retro video, old singapore video, haw par villa, tiger balm garden, samsui women, policemen in shorts, ERP, conjested roads

Our package is as simple as a child can operate it easily. No need of computers up to professional level required. Totally developed with one aim in mind is that “Provide professionalism with simplicity”. We don’t say much about this you can ask from our clients they can give you real feedback regarding our work. Our ERP can be implemented via multiple ways on the internet (centrally located server) or through intranet also.

You can check its live demo on by clicking here “ERP” or “KIOSK”. If you are Indian Citizen then you can also ask for demo at you door step by mailing us at mail~@~jsrsolutions.com. For any type of query you can also mail us at mail~@~jsrsolutions.com or contact us at +91 161 22 7670/71/72

Thanks

JSR Solution

Our package is as simple as a child can operate it easily. No need of computers up to professional level required. Totally developed with one aim in mind is that “Provide professionalism with simplicity”. We don’t say much about this you can ask from our clients they can give you real feedback regarding our work. Our ERP can be implemented via multiple ways on the internet (centrally located server) or through intranet also.

You can check its live demo on by clicking here “ERP” or “KIOSK”. If you are Indian Citizen then you can also ask for demo at you door step by mailing us at mail~@~jsrsolutions.com. For any type of query you can also mail us at mail~@~jsrsolutions.com or contact us at +91 161 22 7670/71/72

Our package is as simple as a child can operate it easily. No need of computers up to professional level required. Totally developed with one aim in mind is that “Provide professionalism with simplicity”. We don’t say much about this you can ask from our clients they can give you real feedback regarding our work. Our ERP can be implemented via multiple ways on the internet (centrally located server) or through intranet also.

You can check its live demo on by clicking here “ERP” or “KIOSK”. If you are Indian Citizen then you can also ask for demo at you door step by mailing us at mail~@~jsrsolutions.com. For any type of query you can also mail us at mail~@~jsrsolutions.com or contact us at +91 161 22 7670/71/72

We have two gates in our driveway.  One borders the pavement outside our house and the other one is further up the driveway.  The automatic gate was open while the one further up was closed as it keeps the dog from running around the front yard.  After unpacking everything I suddenly started to worry that somehow I had let the dog out during my first visit to the front of the house.  I don't remember opening the gate and in fact I can remember him sitting in front of the second gate waiting to be let out.  I didn't even open the second gate to go out into the yard and so it would have been impossible for him to get out.  When my mom arrived 30 seconds later he was still behind the gate and only ran out when I went to the car after my mom had closed the outside gate.

While typing this post I have started worrying that somebody might have sneaked through the front gate while it was open and that when the dog ran around while I was unpacking the car boot he attacked that person.  I know that we would have heard screaming and wild barking if this had been true and that my mother would probably have noticed but it still doesn't cure the unease that I feel.

I guess that the only thing to do is to practise the Four Steps and carry on with some useful behaviour instead of sitting in front of my computer worrying about what might have happened.  I could not give you any evidence that something bad had happened other than my feelings of "wrongness" and anxiety.  There is no logical evidence that anything did happen but that never makes me feel sure.  As somebody on a forum that I sometimes read says, "If you are unsure then it is probably OCD!"  Doesn't make it any easier to ignore though.

No matter the specification of the serial number on the sales lines, Microsoft Dynamics NAV seemed to be closing the item entries according to FIFO method. This effectively allowed a serial number to be sold twice (or more). They called for help.

Here is an example to repeat the problem:

1. Create an item with a serial number tracking setup like this (their setup):

   

2. Assign the FIFO costing method for this item
3. Fill an item-journal like this:

   

4. For each of the lines assign a serial number manually (make them SN-01, SN-02 and SN-03)

   

5. Post the journal
6. Create a new journal line, set it up like this:

   

7. Track it with serial number SN-03, then post it
8. Create a new journal line, set it up exactly like the above
9. Go to Item Tracking Lines, select the Serial No. field, then press F6 (or the Assist button )
10. See the results:

    

11. As you can see, SN-03 which has already been sold is still available. While SN-01 is gone from the list.
12. Take a look at Item Ledger Entries for this item:

    

Obviously, SN-03 hasn't been closed with the sale of the SN-03, and SN-01 was closed instead. Why did this happen?

Explanation: Mere specification of SN Purchase Tracking and SN Sales Tracking did just one thing: make it obligatory to specify the serial number on inbound and outbound sales and purchase transactions. It didn't do anything with the application method involved. Application method is controlled by the SN Specific Tracking field – and in the setup above, it wasn't switched on.

Now to the theory behind this.

Whenever decreasing inventory, the system needs to know inventory increase is being decreased with it. Say you bought 30 PCS of ThingoFix (of course, you value ThingoFix by FIFO, how else?):

Then you sell 6 PCS of ThingoFix on Jan 05, Jan 06 and Jan 07 each. The system needs to know the COGS for these sales. When valued by FIFO, COGS is determined by taking the cost from the earliest open increases, therefore it goes like this:

If you take a look at the application entries (stored in table 339 Item Application Entry), it will be immediately obvious why the entries were valued the way they were:

The system applied all 6 PCS of the first outbound entry ( 327 ) to the first inbound entry ( 324 ). Then it applied 4 PCS of the second outbound entry ( 328 ) to the remaining 4 PCS of the first inbound entry ( 324 ), and the next 2 PCS to the second inbound entry ( 325 ). Then it applied the 6 PCS of the third outbound entry ( 329 ) to the second inbound entry ( 325 ).

This is FIFO costing method. However, if you specify the SN Specific Tracking in the Item Tracking Code card, then regardless of the FIFO method, the system will apply cost according to the serial number assignment. Let's say you have another item, ThingoFix 3000. Value it by Specific costing method (how else ;-)), and have a serial number tracking with the following setup assigned to it:

Also, have a number series producing numbers in SN-001..SN-999 range assigned as the Serial Nos. for this item.

Then post the following purchases:

Assign required serial numbers to each of the lines, using the Assign Serial No. functionality. This will assign serial numbers SN-001..SN-010 to the first line, SN-011..SN-020 to the second line and SN-021..SN-030 to the third line.

Now, go and sell this:

For each line, choose the item tracking lines. For the first line choose serial numbers SN-023..SN-028, for the second one, choose SN-017..SN-022 and for the third one make it SN-001..SN-006. Post the journal. Adjust the cost.

I am not copy-pasting the Item Ledger Entry or Application Entry – they are huge for these transactions, and I'm not going to do all the legwork of this exercise – do something yourself ;-). However, notice the fixed application in Item Application Entry table, which did not happen based on FIFO method, but based on serial numbers.

Ok, this solves for the first part of the problem. But why did it allow for a serial number to be sold twice? Well, simply because the sales functionality of Microsoft Dynamics NAV allows for something to be sold before it enters the inventory, because it doesn't have to apply the cost immediately; it can apply a later inbound transaction to such an unapplied outbound transaction. However, with SN Specific Tracking turned on, the system won't allow posting of a serial number which is not in the inventory, because with specific tracking the system must apply the outbound transaction to the inbound transaction immediately.

Therefore – don't just rely on SN No. Info Must Exist or any of the SN Purchase/Sale/Positive Adjmt./Negative Adjmt./Manufacturing Tracking. It will merely make sure that nothing enters or exits your inventory without a serial number. It won't do anything to make any applications based on serial numbers though. If you are happy with this – cool. If not, tick that SN Specific Tracking checkbox.

By Amy Kilcoyne

Below is a list of quality candidates for hire that are currently available for direct ERP/CRM/HIT [enterprise resource planning - customer relationship management - health information technology] resources employment.

Copyright © 2008 The Sheffield Group.  All Rights Reserved.  Privacy Policy You may also contact us at The Sheffield Group, 1 Westbrook Corporate Center, Suite 910, Westchester, IL  60154 or 866-539-9497

About The Sheffield Group

The Sheffield Group is a full-service direct hire firm that specializes in providing ERP/CRM/IT resources that are not on the national job boards! Our proactive recruiting model provides the highest quality resources that are looking for an opportunity to further their career.

Assessment

If you would like further information about one of these qualified people, please give me a call or search our database yourself by clicking here - www.thesheffiel dgroup.com.

If you are not someone who makes hiring decisions, please forward this on to an appropriate person. I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Amy Kilcoyne
Director, Placement Services
The Sheffield Group
(866) 539-9497 x.232

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Objective
A visuo-spatial orienting task was used to investigate the individual and joint contribution of the presence of dyslexia and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to information processing.

Methods
Sixteen control, 17 dyslexic, 16 ADHD, and 15 comorbid adults performed the task, comprising a valid, invalid, and no-cue condition. Performance measures were errors and reaction time (RT). A negative potential in response to cues and targets (N2), and a positive potential in response to targets (P3) were derived from the EEG. A 2 × 2 design was used with the factors dyslexic/non-dyslexic, and ADHD/non-ADHD.

Results
Dyslexic participants demonstrated a smaller cue-related N2, yet a greater target-related N2 in the valid condition. ADHD participants were discriminated by the P3 difference between the invalid and valid conditions. Comorbids differed from ADHD mainly in invalid-valid RT, and were similar to dyslexics in target N2 processing.

Conclusions
Dyslexics were impaired in early information processing, and participants with ADHD differed for later processing stages.

Significance
This is the first ERP study of attentional processes in dyslexia to incorporate an ADHD and a comorbid group. Its results may contribute to differentiation of these clinical groups.

Apparently, the problem was due to the terp (Linux) system user not beeing assigned a bash by default when created by the Ubuntu package.This means that the request to create a new database being apparently operated from the command line, OpenERP couldn't execute this operation successfully. Of course, the terp database user also needs the permission to create databases.

You can easily fix that by changing /bin/false to /bin/bash in your /etc/passwd for that user.

I've updated the wiki, so read more about this here.

HansaWorld grundades i Sverige 1988 av Karl Bohlin och nu finns överallt i världen: Sydamerika, Afrika, Nordamerika, Asien, Australien (Oceanien) och Mellanöstern.

Jag har försökt hitta ett svar och det jag kommit fram är att hansa world är ett företag som tillverkar programmer, mjukvaror och komponenter som effektivisera och gör ditt arbete lättare. Till exempel kan du använda HansaWorld i din dator: Quick Player, First Class, e-Business, CRM, ERP och mycket mer.

På HansaWorld hemsida har du möljighet att ladda mjukvaran och se demos: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/player/ kan du se hur detta fungera och förstå bättre vad allting innebär,  lev du även intresserad av hansa world? Kolla på deras hemsida: http://www.hansaworld.com.

Önskar du förbättra, modifiera eller skapa nya och kreativa dokumenter? Vill du lägga till bilder, logo eller koppla till andra dokumenter? Då är det dags att kontakta hansa world!

The major cloud computing services (Amazon, Google) have recently had problems, preventing people from using their applications. It isn't too serious when those applications are word processing and email, but try saying that to a financial director whose company's business relies on the ERP transactions going through.

Two other recent articles (Nick Carr, Business Week) make the same point, and go into more detail.

For some people I guess the big surprise will be that most of the difficulties and discussions are not on the technical level, but on how a company has organized their data and organizes their data in the future.

The first rule for implementation is:
The PLM system manages all product related IP (Intellectual Property) and the ERP system manages the executing in the most effective way, taking into account resources, time, material scrap etc often linked with financial transactions

Although some ERP vendors might want you to believe they offer also PLM functionality in their system, it is always a small subset of the total PLM capabilities. Linking manufacturing documents to an item is not PLM. PLM is managing all product related IP and this requires connections to all information sources during the whole product lifecycle, not only during manufacturing.

So if we agree on the above, we understand there is a need to connect PLM and ERP, as both systems have a vital task in a manufacturing company and both work around common information, the product, composed of all its physical items.

The Item

The physical item, is the shared and understandable entity understood through the whole company. Some companies call their items parts. In order not to confuse between an item and a part designed in the CAD system, i will talk about items, when I mean the physical representation.

Items can be a single item, a rivet, a specific metal plate or it can be a complete product or smaller component of a complete product. They have one thing in common, we all identify them with a unique number the item number.

In engineering oriented companies you might hear designers say, the item number is equal to the part number of the part or product they are designing, as often in their case what they design on the lowest level of the assemblies, becomes an item.

In general you can subdivide the items in two major groups:

• standard purchase items
• company or project specific items.

  Standard purchase items

The characteristic of a standard purchase item is that it has been designed and developed by external companies and that these items can be found in catalogs produced my one or more manufacturers around the world, based on defined standard. For example a M12 Nut, a bearing with specific diameter and performance characteristics. The company that uses these standard parts creates an own definition of the part and makes references to manufacturers who provide these parts in the right quality and standard. These manufacturers appear on the Approved Manufacturer List (AML), which is an engineering task inside PLM to define this list.

In addition, based on this approved manufacturer list, the purchasing department will allocate vendors for these parts and based on vendor performance and reliability, they create a List of Approved Vendors (AVL)for these parts. This is a execution task to be defined in the ERP system.

So in day to day operation, engineering will define new standard purchase items if not available and this request will lead into an AML and then in ERP towards a AVL of the standard item. It is a combined activity where each of the disciplines has participate. For existing standard items, there is also a process triggered from ERP that influences their usage. For example a certain manufacturer might stop producing a certain item and this affects the AVL - purchasing raises a flag that the item becomes hard to acquire or even unavailable, which leads to engineering to define a new AML, which might end up in an engineering change as by changing some of the product functionality other standard items can be used to replaced the original defined item.

So for standard purchase items we see:

• new standard items are introduced through PLM - starting from AML into ERP with the AVL.
  Both system add information to the item information
• exiting standard item can become obsolete through PLM - as the company decides not to use them (anymore) or become phase out or obsolete based on a trigger coming from the ERP side, as the AVL has changed.
• Standard purchase items do not have revisions

Items

With items here we mean the non-standard purchase items, which can be divided again in two major groups:

• company standard items
• project specific items

Project specific items are items defined by engineering during the definition of a product. These items need to be manufactured specifically for this product based on the specification provided by engineering. Outside the project these items are not used again anymore as they are too specific.

However companies try to standardize even their project specific items, in order to share and reuse them in other products. At this stage, the project specific item becomes a company standard item and is managed to be reused.

Both company and project specific items can have revisions as their maturity may grow. As long as the new definition complies to the Form-Fit-Function rules, the new revision of the defined item can replace previous revisions, meanwhile better support future usage.

So for items we see:

• project specific items are introduced through PLM and on the moment of production pushed to ERP to be manufactured according the design specification with the right revision
• company standard items are introduced through PLM and can be produced on stock (if there is a wide usage through various products) or pushed to ERP when needed to be manufactured according the design specification with the right revision
• Items are revision managed and follow the Form-Fit-Function rules

The conclusion of the above for this post is:

• Items have a common usage in both PLM and ERP
• Items are initially created in PLM and at a certain time transferred to ERP to be completed with logistical information
• Item usage can change based on availability triggers from ERP or use cases in PLM
• an item is a hybrid entity - with a common shared identification, PLM relevant data and ERP relevant data
• Some of the ERP data might be relevant for information to be viewed the engineer and the other way around

Once agreed on the above concept, we have the guidelines how to connect items between an PLM system and an ERP system.  In my next post I will talk more about that, also about how to connect BOMs between PLM and ERP.

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Is this what we are teaching our future leaders politicians?

No? Then what?

Oh... we are open minded and welcome free speech and freedom of expression??

Or..

That your future politicians cant be bothered to read suggestions / feedback?

We are talking about at least from Jan 08... there's more commercial posts from '07 in the same board.

Should give them benefit of doubt...

Maybe they are all busy trying to improve the quality of life for Singaporeans.

- GST to help the poor.

- ERP to help Singaporeans own cars.

- Eat frozen meat. They taste as good as chilled meat.

- Discouraging firms from giving pay rise to employees to combat inflation and in the same breath giving themselves a pay rise to match private sectors.

http://www.youngpap.org.sg/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=11

Registrant:
YOUNG PAP
Domain Name: youngpap.org.sg
Owner/Main Contact:
Name: YOUNG PAP(SGNIC-ORGYO99745)
Registered Address(line1): PAP HQ 57B New Upper Changi Road
Registered Address(line2): #01-1402 PCF Building
Registered Country: Singapore
Registered Postalcode: 463057

Registrant:
PEOPLE'S ACTION PARTY
Domain Name: pap.org.sg
Owner/Main Contact:
Name: PEOPLE'S ACTION PARTY(SGNIC-ORGPE84084)
Registered Address(line1): BLK 57B, NEW UPPER CHANGI ROAD
Registered Address(line2): #01-1402
Registered Country: Singapore
Registered Postalcode: 463057

LG reported revenues of $44B in 2007 from four business units -- Mobile Communications, Digital Appliances, Digital Display and Digital Media. As a leader in the highly competitive consumer electronics sector, LG's success depends upon its ability to coordinate supply chain activities and share real- time information with a network of contract manufacturers, third party logistics providers and consumer electronics retailers around the world. GXS Trading Grid supports a broad range of e-commerce standards (e.g., EDI, XML, KEDIFACT, RosettaNet and AS2) and extensive global reach throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas. Consolidation of B2B transactions onto a single vendor, GXS, provides LG's IT organization with centralized operations in Korea to support its trading partners based in more than 70 countries.

"Since 2001 GXS has consistently provided LG Electronics with reliable and effective B2B integration services," said SunYoung (Sarah) Oh, assistant manager, Information Strategy Team of LG Electronics. "As we've grown as a company in the last 50 years, so has the complexity of our supply chain. Reducing that complexity was as important to our company as ensuring global integration capabilities and increasing real-time visibility into our trading partner network. GXS is the only B2B integration vendor we have found that can easily support all three of these initiatives."

Prior to consolidating with GXS, LG Electronics used multiple B2B e- commerce providers that were managed independently by local B2B centers distributed around the world. The use of multiple vendors led to duplicate processes and inconsistent capabilities, complicating LG's efforts to manage its trading partner network. Furthermore, the company was slow to respond to trading partner needs and incurred higher costs because of duplicate traffic and an inability to leverage its total transaction volume to reduce its overall B2B e-commerce costs.

"Through its move to consolidate its ERP systems and B2B networks, LG is standing as an example of how a truly global company can operate efficiently and effectively," said Raymond Teh, vice president of Asia Pacific for GXS, "Many companies operate in geographic silos when it comes to their trading partner networks and as a result, they have no idea of the scope of their networks and cannot gain real-time visibility into activities. The consolidation of LG's ERP systems will give the company a competitive advantage in the marketplace. As a global B2B provider with a local presence in Korea and throughout Asia Pacific, GXS is well positioned to help other multi-national corporations based in Asia, and anywhere in the world, consolidate their B2B e-commerce networks."

GXS Trading Grid is a global B2B e-commerce and integration platform that supports the creation and adoption of on-demand supply chain management solutions for companies of any size. As the world's largest electronic business community, GXS Trading Grid is used by more than 30,000 customers to exchange goods and services, gain visibility into global logistics operations and to synchronize product data. Trading Grid helps customers automate global trading communities by shielding complexity from rapidly changing standards, eliminating manual and duplicative processes and enabling the highest levels of B2B integration and collaboration.

About LG Electronics

Established in 1958, LG Electronics, Inc. (LG) is a global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, home appliances and mobile communications, employing more than 82,000 people working in over 114 operations including 82 subsidiaries around the world. With 2007 global sales of USD 44 billion, LG is comprised of four business units - Mobile Communications, Digital Appliance, Digital Display and Digital Media. LG is the world's leading producer of Mobile handsets, air conditioners, front- loading washing machines, optical storage products, DVD players, flat panel TVs and home theater systems.

About GXS

GXS is a leading global provider of B2B e-commerce solutions that simplify and enhance business process integration and collaboration among trading partners. Organizations worldwide, including more than 70 percent of the Fortune 500, leverage the on-demand services on GXS Trading Grid(R) to extend supply chain networks, optimize product launches, automate warehouse receiving, manage electronic payments and gain supply chain visibility. GXS Managed Services, GXS' B2B outsourcing solution, empowers customers with the expertise, technical infrastructure and program support to conduct B2B e- commerce with trading partners globally.

Based in Gaithersburg, Md., GXS has an extensive global network and has local offices in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions. GXS can be found on the Web at www.gxs.com.

Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click appropriate link. Steve Keifer https://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=42525

SOURCE GXS

Esta herramienta nos permite gestionar nuestra empresa dejando atraz esa cantidad de hojas de cálculo que hace complejo el manejo de la información; además permite a sus empresas clientes trabajar de un modo más organizado y preparar los datos con facilidad para posteriormente registrarlos en la contabilidad.

TNTConcept está desarrollada con tecnología Java/JEE.

+info: http://tntconcept.sourceforge.net/

With the rise in erp charges, my only erp-free route to work is congested like hell. So now i will wake up earlier and leave home earlier to try beat the erp. Sometimes i win, sometimes i pay :(

I thought i saw an article where our transport minister said that ERP will not go away. You can pay or be home late for dinner(not exact words, but probably close). And in the end he suggested taking public transport.

I was thinking, if just a quarter of the drivers(10000-15000??) just take the public transport tomorrow, will it make any difference to the MRT. Will i have space to even squeeze in. Will i be backside to backside with someone, smelling someone's armpit.

anyway, we seem to be bloody paying for the mistakes, or rather the short sightedness of the plannings by the transport ministry. The public transport framework do not seem to be up to satisfactory level. And for every alternative(not much though), it seem to be a catch 22 situation.

ERP rise? take public transport.

public transport squeezy and prices are rising too. back to driving and pay erp?

However, as leader in HR Systems Strategic Consulting and Talent Management Systems consulting, HRchitect feels like it has a pretty good grasp on where this marketplace is going. Below are eight predictions for the ITM Market...  

• The overall human capital management software market will continue to consolidate - driven by multiple vendor types (e.g., core HCM platform providers, ITM vendors, "aggregator" HCM firms, niche vendors) either seeking to expand their ITM coverage, or ceasing operations.
• Marketing and development efforts around ITM suites will continue full force, as vendors seek to differentiate their functionality and approach to ITM. There is not yet a mature ITM vendor that has competitive offerings for each component, and this will not change for several years. HRchitect continues to see the outcome of evaluation/selection projects depend heavily on the requirements of the functional area ranked as most critical (from either a timing or business-impact perspective) to the organization.
• Niche and ITM suite vendors have increased their feature/function lead - ERPs (e.g., Oracle, SAP, Lawson) and core HRMS platforms (e.g., Ultimate Software, NuView, Spectrum) will continue to invest in ITM, but will not close the gap with the ITM niche providers or ITM suite vendors, with one possible exception. Can you guess who? It's certainly not obvious, and probably not who you may be thinking it is. HRchitect explains more in its report, "The Suite Life of Integrated Talent Management" and will reveal the answer in a future blog.
• Firms will continue to try to rationalize their application portfolio and reduce integration issues by implementing ITM suites - however, because the depth of functionality is rarely at the same level within the ITM suites, customers often are not yet willing to settle for the level of missing feature/function in critical ITM areas in exchange for integration.
• The linkage between Performance, Learning, and Succession is increasing in importance for ITM - the emergence of this process ‘cluster' has some implications for the ITM market, as those vendors that began with learning capabilities and have expanded into performance and succession may have a longer-term advantage due to the depth of integrated functionality.
• Organizations are increasingly trying to satisfy multiple types of recruiting with a single solution, attempting to address professional, hourly and contingent requirements on a single platform.
• Use of competency data to link ITM components will continue to grow.
• Despite the marketing emphasis on features/functionality, vendor service and support are key to long-term customer satisfaction - HRchitect believes that the vendor community would do well to up the ante in their customer-support functions and take the view that a satisfied customer base will ultimately increase profitability and viability over the long term.

Solving a piece of the puzzle… 

Let me provide you with a background story, especially for those living outside Singapore. The Singapore roads and highways are equipped with these toll gantries called ERP. They are basically an automatic toll booth. You drive past it, and it will automatically deduct a certain amount from a cash card in your car. These ERP gantries were implemented to reduce congestions in the central business district and the downtown area, so that people will take public transport instead of driving their cars. The smart thing the government did was, they positioned the ERP gantries in such a way that there is no way of escaping it. For example, I drove to Orchard Road on Monday to attend my class there. I passed through THREE gantries and was charged $4. Feeling annoyed, I tried to devise other alternative routes to avoid that high a toll charge, but I realised that there are none. You have to give it to the government here, imagine how many cars pass one gantry during rush hours. All that money......

Anyway, back to what I saw last night. I had to pass 1 gantry on the highway on my way home. It was about 8pm, and as I was about 30-50m away from said gantry, when the traffic became unusually congested. I saw motorcycles parked on the road shoulder, even a couple of cars too, so I thought there must have been an accident. Being a busybody that I am, I slowed down too and tried to find out where and how bad the accident was. Then I saw the ERP gantry, and the time displayed was 7:59pm. My assistant manager, who was in my car, put two and two together. All these road users were waiting around until 8pm, when the ERP would be turned off. So they purposely slowed down, parked their vehicles on the shoulders, and watched for the clock to turn 8:00. Sure enough, the moment it hit 8pm, the ERP was switched off and traffic was back to normal.

I am quite amazed to find such a practice here. I would think that this is something Indonesian road users would do, since they are already such rebels on the road. Would I pass the gantry at 7:59? To tell you the truth, I probably wouldn't even notice it was a minute away from the end of ERP.

I wonder now if this has been going on since ERP was first started in Singapore, or if this is a new practice of saving money now that everything is expensive.

We're going to have a meeting with our corporate office to discuss the issues going on with the current software rollout (if they had a motto, it would naturally be something like "unprepared and untrained") at our specific site.  Given our current woeful state where we've been sharing our mistakes and lessons on a daily basis (and having them switch places -- amending lessons and vowing not to repeat them too often the next day) I imagine they'll have enough of an earful from other folks, but I'd like to chip in as well.

The world of working under the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is different than any other; even the simple act of buying spare parts requires careful documentation -- imagine, if you will, going to buy spark plugs for your car and, since they don't stock the original equipment Bosch platinum plugs, you have to pick out the critical characteristics (fit, resistance, configuration, etc.) and document the equivalence to what they've got, and furthermore, document the paper trail all the way back to the manufacturer of the raw materials.  We had a lot of specalized tools to facilitate our jobs, tools that have now been taken away and replaced with something more generic, but with extra features tacked on.  They took our Ferrari and gave us a Fiero with a bodykit and are telling us it's the same -- oh, we'll get there, but not quickly.  You know it's an upside-down world when I, with less than two years experience, am giving advice to folks who've been doing the same job for twenty-plus.

All along, we trusted them to take care of our needs -- we were reassured at every turn that they had experts in our work processes making the generic software fit what we did.  After they rolled it out -- this, after a scant six weeks of training -- we realized what a bill of goods that idea was, and we're spending more time piecemealing together what we used to do in this brave new world.  I don't mind being busy, and I don't mind learning a new system, but I'm still aghast at how clumsily we rolled it out.  As our rollout approached, it was increasingly clear (the second rule of managerial expertise dictates that the more produced and glossier the flyers become, the less information they contain) that there was a desperate need to save face and keep the rollout date in the face of certain uncertainty.

Mike