Rowie Walker & Associates Inc.

RowieWalker.com gets a new look!

If you haven’t visited our website in a while, we’d encourage you to take a look at the all new www.RowieWalker.com. Not only does the website have a new look but its packed full of great information, useful tools and so much more. All of this is in an easy to navigate, and pleasing to look at (if we do say so ourselves) format.

We’d love to know what you think! Use our new contact us page to send us your feedback.

Connecting with the Supply Chain
by Samantha Walker

Karl W. Richter (KWR) is an inventory control and supply chain management company based in Toronto, Ontario. The successful business values promoted by owner Alex Richter require the company to have superior supply chain management to meet the demanding deadlines for delivery of orders. KWR also requires a platform for growth as the company expands to Shanghai in 2008.

Broken Links

With activity across North America and China, KWR was struggling with keeping on top of large orders and managing the delivery commitments made to its customers. The company needed a way to improve the communication along the supply chain so that KWR’s customers would not be disappointed by unnecessary missed deadlines and delays.

Due to the volume of orders and plans for further expansion, the goal was to achieve efficiencies in the supply chain without burdening the already busy team with additional or more cumbersome duties.

The following business objectives were identified:

Improve the on-time delivery of orders to customers to achieve better customer service.
Reduce the need for phone calls and emails between KWR staff and the suppliers to improve visibility of communications.
Eliminate the need to manually update the ERP system with new information or modifications from the suppliers once purchase orders are issued.

Making The Connections

With assistance from Rowie Walker & Associates Inc., an ERP consulting and software development firm, Richter assembled a team of key staff from the customer service and purchasing departments. Through several roundtable meetings, KWR gathered information about the source of delays and learned more about the issues the various team members encountered during their day that made their job complicated.

How often were shipments late? What were the most common reasons for delays? How did the purchasing team most often communicate with the suppliers? How did the team measure the suppliers and was there any incentive for improvement? What kind of information would be most beneficial for the customer service staff to have available for communicating order status to the customers? Is there an opportunity to add data entry efficiencies in the ERP system when changes are made to purchase orders?

Talking through these questions with the team gave the management team a great base from which to begin the design. The system would have the following basic requirements:

Accessibility for KWR staff both inside and outside the office,
Accessibility for suppliers with different access than the KWR staff,
Connected in real-time to the ERP system, Sage BusinessVision 50,
Allow measurement of delivery delays for reporting to customers and suppliers.

To achieve the accessibility system requirements, the team decided on a web-based system. Development would employ .NET and AJAX technology with the most up-to-date frameworks to ensure a long-life for the system once deployed.

By hosting the system within the KWR infrastructure, a real-time connection to the BusinessVision would be possible. Some investment in the existing infrastructure improved security to a level acceptable for a direct ERP connection with a portal open to the public. A web security certificate purchased from an internet solution provider gives the outside users the required sense of safety for using the site.

The site, named SupplierCONNECT, is used to manage all line items on every purchase order issued by KWR. As purchase orders are issued in BusinessVision, the details appear immediately on the web site: the KWR part number appears with the supplier part number, description, quantity ordered, cost, and associated required dates as entered by the KWR purchasing team.

Both the KWR buyers and the outside suppliers have access to SupplierCONNECT and may update many of the pertinent fields. Changes to quantity, costs, and expected delivery dates are registered both on the site and within BusinessVision immediately. A full archive of all modifications can be accessed using standard reporting and query techniques.

KWR sets up accounts for all users in SupplierCONNECT. Each user must be designated as a buyer or supplier and is given access to specific supplier codes from BusinessVision or, for the case of some buyers, is granted the rights to view details of all suppliers.

Upon logging on, the site first presents to the user any late purchase order details that require attention. As a buyer, the user may use note fields on the line items to request updates from the supplier. An “internal notes” field allows the buyers to enter notes that will not be visible to the associated suppliers. The buyer may then move to other views: the confirmation view lists all modifications that have been made by the suppliers and are awaiting confirmation from the buyers; the new view lists all details that have not yet been acknowledged by the suppliers.

All tabs have filter options for adjusting the data presented and export options for further work on the data in spreadsheets. The views may be sorted by any of the columns on the display.

SupplierCONNECT presents similar information to the supplier users. The late tab appears first showing all details that need immediate attention. The new tab lists all new purchase order details that are awaiting confirmation of delivery date. Once confirmed by the supplier, this delivery date becomes the base measurement against which the supplier is rated. All modifications to this date are registered and the actual receipt date in the ERP system may be compared to this date to rate supplier’s performance.

Stronger than ever

KWR has improved delivery times to customers by maintaining a very close relationship with its suppliers. With the SupplierCONNECT system, KWR buyers have a tool that allows instant communication with their suppliers in a secure environment that encourages accountability through performance management. By increasing the visibility to the purchasing information and linking directly to the ERP data, SupplierCONNECT has improved customer service and created significant efficiencies in data entry.

Merger Better Serves Customers

RW&A is pleased to announce their merger with T.H.E. & Company, and the addition of Pierre Mantha to their team of Senior Consultants. The merger will bring forward each companies best resources for the benefit of their combined client base.

Read the press release on our website at www.RowieWalker.com.

BusinessVision 7.20A Update

Sage has released an update which includes a new System Setup option which has been added to allow the “User Log” utility to be enabled or disabled. This new option is located in Company > General settings. The program libraries and one report file are replaced by this update. For more information and to down load the patch visit http://sagebusinessvision.com/downloads/updates.html.

Additionally, RW&A’s Productivity Software is now ready for BusinessVision v7.2! If you are current subscribers to the RW&A maintenance plan you will be emailed the FTP link shortly with instructions on how to download the latest version along with the FAQs.

For those that are not current maintenance subscribers, contact our office to renew your maintenance plan to receive the latest version. All RW&A maintenance plans include application revisions, future enhancements & 5 technical support incidents.

Please contact us for more information.

BusinessVision 7.20 Training
July 23-24, 2008

This condensed two day workshop covers: System Setup, Suppliers, Inventory, Purchase Orders, and Accounts Payable on day one, and: Customers, Order Entry, Accounts Receivable, and Payroll on day 2. For more information visit www.AnyKeyTraining.com.

BusinessVision 7.20 Tip

Use the Shipping Method Module to track shipments on open or invoiced orders. The customer reference field in order entry can be used to record carriers tracking numbers.

Power Users Training
July 30, 2008

This one day workshop covers:

Customer & Vendor Creation
Customer Order Entry & Purchase Orders
Accounts Receivable & Accounts Payable
Inventory creation - includes v7.2 new features
Payroll (if requested by participants)

For more information visit www.AnyKeyTraining.com.

Seminars / Webinars

Key News Archives

Industry Publications

Press Releases