Microsoft Dynamics AX (Axapta) Knowledge Village

Unit Conversion based on Inventory Dimension Size

2008-11-07T19:28:00.000+01:00

Latest question on the Axapta Knowledge Village group.

Is there any way I can assign unit conversion based on inventory
Dimension Size. For Example:

Item1 + size- small factor 4 == 1 cartoon
Item1 + size- large factor 2 == 1 cartoon

it urgent.....any guidence will be appreciated...

NEW ASi PR Submission: Microsoft Publishes PURE Bioscience Case Study

2008-11-05T21:59:00.002+01:00

Microsoft Publishes PURE Bioscience Case Study

Advanced Systems Integration helps “green” manufacturer manage rapid growth and governance, risk and compliance (GRC) with Microsoft Dynamics AX

LAKE FOREST, CA – November 5, 2008 – Advanced Systems Integration, Inc. (ASi), a Microsoft Dynamics AX Gold Certified Business Solutions and Learning Solutions training partner, is pleased to announce the release of a Microsoft authorized case study on its recent Microsoft Dynamics AX implementation at PURE Bioscience. This new case study, funded and written by Microsoft, highlights the many benefits and cost savings PURE Bioscience was able to immediately achieve after the successful implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX by ASi.

PURE Bioscience, headquartered in El Cajon, California, develops and markets technology-based bioscience products that provide non-toxic solutions to numerous global health challenges. PURE Bioscience selected Microsoft Dynamics AX to speed and integrate its business processes, helping to support the company’s compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and with the requirements of numerous regulatory authorities, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States. Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta) is a comprehensive business-management solution for midsize and larger organizations that offers a high degree of scalability, customizability and full industry-specific functionality. It helps optimize and centralize supply chain processes and improves real-time visibility into operations.

Working with PURE, Advanced Systems Integration, of Lake Forest, CA, implemented Microsoft Dynamics AX Advanced Management Edition with additional source code that allowed customization of proprietary processes and procedures that could not be met by any other solution.

For complete details or a copy of the case study, please visit the Advanced Systems Integration website www.advancedsystemsintegration.com. Or Microsoft Case Studies at:

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002871

About ASi: Advanced Systems Integration, Inc. is a Microsoft Gold Certified Dynamics™ AX Partner founded in 1991 that delivers comprehensive enterprise class applications that improve customer relations, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across supply chains and business operations. ASI also offers industry specific extensions integrated with Microsoft Dynamics AX platform. ASI uses its industry focus, enterprise software domain expertise and transparent agile implementation methodology to provide its clients an enterprise class solution that is implemented properly the first time. ASI is based in Lake Forest, Calif and has sales offices in strategic locations throughout the United States. Please visit the company’s web site at www.advancedsystemsintegration.com

About PURE Bioscience: PURE Bioscience (PURE) develops and markets technology-based bioscience products that provide non-toxic solutions to numerous global health challenges. Its proprietary high-efficacy/low toxicity bioscience technologies represent innovative advances in diverse markets and lead today’s global trend toward use of “green” products while providing competitive advantages in efficacy and safety. http://www.purebio.com

About Microsoft Dynamics AX: Microsoft Dynamics AX is an adaptable business management solution that enables companies and their workers to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics AX works like and with familiar Microsoft Office software, with comprehensive features that help automate and streamline business processes, and connect users with global customers, business partners and subsidiaries in a way that helps drive business success. http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/ax/default.mspx

About Microsoft: Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. www.microsoft.com

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For more information on this release, please contact:

Lisa Aschenbrenner

Marketing Manager

Advanced Systems Integration, Inc.

(949) 597-2170

lisaa@advancedsystemsintegration.com

Extend your Microsoft Dynamics AX Knowledge Village network with LinkedIn

2008-10-28T19:07:00.000+01:00

We recently started the "Microsoft Dynamics AX Knowledge Village"
network on LinkedIn. A network where Dynamics AX professionals can
share information about their companies, products and see what the
level of professionality is of co-members.

Participants are able to extend their personal network with LinkedIn
members and initiate long-term relationships.

Extend your network, join the Microsoft Dynamics AX Knowledge Village at LINKEDIN ! Microsoft Dynamics AX Knowledge Village

Felt Bicycles SPEEDS through implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX with Advanced Systems Integration

2008-10-09T20:01:00.000+02:00

Please find attached a new press release from Advanced Systems Integration (ASi) regarding its recent implementation at Felt Bicycles a leading designer, manufacturer and distributor of its own proprietary branded premium quality bicycles, framesets, components and accessories.

Felt Bicycles SPEEDS through implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX with Advanced Systems Integration

Global Bicycle Manufacturer/Distributor selects Microsoft Dynamics AX over competitors for its ease of use, scalability and manufacturing capabilities.

Lake Forest, CA — October 9, 2008 — Advanced Systems Integration (ASi) is pleased to announce Felt Bicycles is live with Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly known as Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta). Felt Bicycles selected Microsoft Dynamics AX over SAP and other ERP solutions to standardize business processes and offer real-time visibility into their supply chain. Microsoft Dynamics AX is an advanced comprehensive business-management solution for fast growing, midsize-to-large companies that offers a high-degree of scalability, adaptability, and industry-specific functionality.

Felt Bicycles, with U.S. headquarters in Irvine, CA, designs a complete spectrum of bicycles including road, triathlon, mountain, lifestyle and BMX. The company is widely known for its performance level products including bicycles that have been successfully raced at the highest level including the Olympic Games, World Championships and Tour de France. Felt distributes its own proprietary products through a network of globally authorized distributors and dealers. With a mission of ‘designing, developing and delivering the best bicycles in the world’, Felt knew it needed a scalable, adaptable integrated business-management solution that would help them quickly implement standard processes, collaborate with a network of global suppliers and dealers, and provide immediate and real-time insight to help them with sales and operational planning.

The company evaluated a number of enterprise resource planning solutions to support its U.S. operations before selecting Microsoft Dynamics AX and Advanced Systems

Integration (ASi). “We chose Microsoft Dynamics AX for multiple reasons,” said Bill Duehring, President, Felt Bicycles U.S.A., “including ease of use, the Microsoft look and feel that employees are accustomed to, the ability for the solution to adapt to our business processes, and the fact that it was an integrated and complete solution with native warehouse management (WMS), customer relationship management (CRM) and business intelligence (BI) capabilities.” Bill Duehring continues, “When it came to finding a partner we needed an organization that understood and could support the needs of a fast growing consumer product company like Felt. We needed a partner with proven abilities to help us manage the risk associated with implementing Microsoft Dynamics AX, and we knew we had found that partnership with Advanced Systems Integration.”

Advanced Systems Integration is honored to have been selected by Felt Bicycles. Jeff Onesto, Director of Business Development states, “Many of our branded consumer packaged customers are experiencing tremendous return on investment with Microsoft Dynamics AX. All joking aside, it looks like both Felt Bicycles and ASi (utilizing Microsoft Dynamics AX) have a very bright future designing products to make people go faster. “

About Felt Bicycles

Felt Bicycles is a leading designer, manufacturer and distributor of its own proprietary branded premium quality bicycles, framesets, components and accessories. The company U.S. office is located in Irvine, CA and its European office is in Edewecht, Germany. Felt Bicycles is an internationally recognized brand whose bicycles and products are currently sold in over 30 countries, worldwide. Athletes on Felt products have won numerous National and International events including World Championships, Olympic Games, ESPN X-Games, and other major national and international competitions. For more information on Felt Bicycles call (949) 452-9050 in the U.S. or (49) 4405-928015 in Europe, or visit Felt online at www.feltbicycles.com or www.feltbmx.com.

About Advanced Systems Integration Inc.

Advanced Systems Integration (ASi) is a Gold Certified Microsoft Dynamics™ AX and Learning Solutions partner founded in 1991 that delivers comprehensive enterprise class applications that improve customer relations, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across supply chains and business operations. ASi also offers industry specific extensions integrated with Microsoft Dynamics AX platform (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta). ASi uses its industry focus, enterprise software domain expertise and transparent agile implementation methodology to provide its clients an enterprise class solution that is implemented properly the first time. ASi is based in Lake Forest, CA and has sales offices strategically located throughout the United States. Please visit the company’s web site at www.advancedsystemsintegration.com.

About Microsoft Dynamics AX

Microsoft Dynamics AX is an adaptable business management solution that enables companies and their workers to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics AX works like and with familiar Microsoft Office software, with comprehensive features that help automate and streamline business processes, and connect users with global customers, business partners and subsidiaries in a way that helps drive business success. http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/ax/default.mspx.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. www.microsoft.com

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For more information on this release, please contact:

Lisa Aschenbrenner

Marketing Manager

Advanced Systems Integration, Inc.

(949) 597-2170

lisaa@advancedsystemsintegration.com

THE NUNES COMPANY AND GREENLIGHT BTS TEAM UP TO BUILD GROWER SOLUTION FOR DYNAMICS AX

2008-07-17T16:50:00.000+02:00

The Nunes Company, a international marketing organization that represents farmers growing a full line of quality vegetables in the fertile fields of California and Arizona, selected Greenlight BTS to be their Microsoft delivery partner and to collaborate in the development of a Grower solution in Microsoft Dynamics™ AX. After a careful evaluation of systems and vendors the company selected Greenlight BTS to implement Microsoft Dynamics AX for all of their operations and to help the Nunes Company extend the base functionality of Microsoft’s product to support the agricultural industry.

“When choosing between multiple vendors, Greenlight BTS started to stand out as the obvious choice” says Mike Scarr CFO of the Nunes Company. “Their history of success with demanding implementations like ours and the demonstrated capabilities of the Greenlight BTS personnel during the selection process made the selection easy. Greenlight BTS is a strong fit with our company culture where the lean structure and owner's hands-on approach in the delivery process is vital.”

Press release: KOORB CONSULTING NAMED TO 2008 MICROSOFT DYNAMICS PRESIDENT’S CLUB

2008-07-16T08:29:00.000+02:00

Microsoft Honours Koorb Consulting for Outstanding Customer Commitment and Sales Achievement

AUCKLAND, JULY 16, 2008 — Koorb Consulting has been named to the 2008 Microsoft Dynamics President’s Club, receiving recognition from Microsoft Corp. for its dedicated commitment to customers. This honor reflects Koorb’s success in extending the Microsoft Dynamics platform to drive business advantages in companies worldwide.

This recognition came during the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2008 in Houston. The elite club recognises the top 5 percent of Microsoft Business Solutions partners worldwide and their constant dedication to delivering solutions that meet their customers’ unique needs, active pursuit of product and technological advancement, and impressive sales performance.

“Microsoft is proud to congratulate Koorb Consulting on being named to this year’s Microsoft Dynamics President’s Club,” said Doug Kennedy, vice president, Microsoft Dynamics Partners. “Koorb not only has demonstrated a high level of product expertise, but also has provided a superior level of service and commitment to our Microsoft Dynamics customers, ultimately contributing to the overall success of Microsoft Dynamics and companies worldwide.”

Koorb works closely with the teams at Microsoft to maintain a comprehensive understanding of the Microsoft Dynamics AX platform. This knowledge, combined with a deep understanding of customers’ business needs, enables Koorb to help customers leverage the full value of their Microsoft investments and achieve the enhanced customer service, productivity and operational efficiency that promote growth and competitive advantage.

Koorb provides implementation, training and consultation for small, midmarket and corporate businesses using business applications. Specialising in Microsoft Dynamics AX, Koorb helps leading New Zealand companies achieve success across industries including FMCG, fresh produce, import/export, distribution and manufacturing.

Koorb continues to be the leading Microsoft Dynamics AX partner in New Zealand, having implemented or supporting over half of all local sites.

Four International Microsoft Wins for Eclipse

2008-07-14T16:33:00.000+02:00

Monday, 14 July 2008 - Eclipse Computing (Australia) Pty Ltd has taken home the top Microsoft Dynamics honours for 2008. At the Microsoft WorldWide Partner Conference held in Houston, Texas last week, Eclipse was announced the Microsoft Dynamics Outstanding Partner of the Year for the Asia Pacific Region. This is the fourth consecutive year for Eclipse to win this regional award presented at the global conference.

Eclipse had also been announced 2008 Microsoft Partner of the Year for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Eclipse was chosen out of an international field of top Microsoft partners as delivering market-leading customer solutions built on Microsoft technology.

In addition to these awards, Eclipse was also congratulated on reaching President’s Club status for the eighth consecutive year and once again was a member of the prestigious Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle, reserved for a very limited few of the top Microsoft Business Solutions partners. It recognises exemplary accomplishments during the past sales year and a strong commitment to Microsoft.

Receiving the Inner Circle award for the fourth consecutive year, Bradley Stroop, CEO Eclipse, said “We are delighted to receive this recognition from Microsoft. Once again, the Eclipse ethos of combining intelligent solutions from Microsoft with old-fashioned service has resulted in a win for our customers. Delivering this consistently is what really matters to us”.

The Microsoft Partner Program Awards recognise Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions during the last year.
Eclipse is now the most awarded Microsoft Dynamics partner in Australia:

Microsoft Global Awards
• Microsoft Dynamics Outstanding Partner of the Year, Asia Pacific Region 2005, 2006,2007, 2008
• Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle Partner, 2001 to 2008
• Microsoft Presidents Club, 2001 to 2008
• Microsoft Dynamics Gold Partner, 2001 to 2009
• Microsoft Business Solutions Partner Award – Outstanding Partner South Pacific, winner 2003
• Microsoft Business Solutions Partner of the Year, Global - finalist 2004
• Microsoft Dynamics AX Partner of the Year, Global – finalist 2007
• Microsoft Dynamics NAV Partner of the Year, Global – winner 2008

Microsoft Australia Awards
• Microsoft Dynamics AX Partner of the Year for XaptCare - 2005, 2006, 2007
• Microsoft Dynamics ERP Solution of the Year, ANZ – 2007 for XaptCare Clinical Care
• Microsoft Dynamics ERP Solution of the year, ANZ – 2005 for XaptCare
• Microsoft Business Solutions Partner of the Year – 2003

New PR Submission - Advanced Systems Integration (ASi) Partners with the AXUG (Dynamics AX User Group)

2008-06-10T20:57:00.000+02:00

Advanced Systems Integration (ASi) a Microsoft Dynamics AX Gold Certified Business Solutions and Learning Solutions Partner has announced it has been selected to join the AXUG (Dynamics AX User Group) as an implementation partner and will also be a gold sponsor at the upcoming AXUG User Summit in Las Vegas, NV from September 17-19, 2008. The AXUG is a Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta) user-based forum that was created to offer insight, support and knowledge exchange for organizations sharing a common interest of optimizing their Microsoft Dynamics AX usage.

As a partner of the AXUG, ASi seeks to support its existing clients already AXUG members as well as serve as a product or subject-matter expert when needed for such matters as training, system optimization, and upgrade and data migration. ASi has built its reputation and customer base through its commitment to service and knowledge. ASi has implemented and helped optimize some of the largest AX projects in the U.S. ASi specializes in mid-to-large sized manufacturing and distribution companies. ASi maintains a deep expertise in the manufacturing and consumer goods vertical which includes apparel and footwear, life sciences, and action sports. Also, ASi is one of the only Microsoft Business Solutions AX partners to have earned the Learning Solutions training designation. This additional distinction ensures the Microsoft Dynamics AX user that the training and courses offered by ASi are Microsoft Certified which includes the use of certified courseware and trainers (MCT).

Simon Sadri, Vice President of Operations at ASi, is particularly encouraged about the timing of ASi’s involvement with the AXUG as Microsoft is set to launch its newest version Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. Simon commented, “This is an especially important time for DAX users as Microsoft launches its newest version, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, this summer. Users running DAX 3.0 will now have the option to skip a product version and move directly to the latest release. But, determining the ‘should we upgrade’ and the ‘when/how to upgrade’ will be a critical element for most companies when reviewing the new product version.” Simon continues, “ASi has always offered its clients superior service and ‘true Axapta expertise’ dating back to the original Damgaard days, and with the new AXUG partnership, ASi plans to maintain its role as a product expert and a source for Axapta knowledge.”

About ASi: Advanced Systems Integration, Inc. is a Gold Certified Microsoft Dynamics™ AX and Learning Solutions partner founded in 1991 that delivers comprehensive enterprise class applications that improve customer relations, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across supply chains and business operations. ASi also offers industry specific extensions integrated with Microsoft Dynamics AX platform (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta). ASi uses its industry focus, enterprise software domain expertise and transparent agile implementation methodology to provide its clients an enterprise class solution that is implemented properly the first time. ASi is based in Lake Forest, CA and has sales offices strategically located throughout the United States. Please visit the company’s web site at www.advancedsystemsintegration.com.

About AXUG: The Dynamics AX User Group (AXUG) is an association of companies sharing the common interest of optimizing their usage of Microsoft Dynamics AX. AXUG is independent of Microsoft. This independent community of users gets together (remotely and face-to-face) via conferences, virtual tools, and programs to exchange knowledge and best practices. The AXUG is under Dynamics Communities. Dynamics Communities is the administrative organization behind other professional associations and software user groups including the Dynamics AX User Group (AXUG), the Dynamics GP User Group (GPUG), the Dynamics CRM User Group (CRMUG), and the Dynamics NAV User Group (NAVUG). Learn more at: http://axug.com/

http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/ax/default.mspx.

For more information on this release, please contact:

Lisa Aschenbrenner

Marketing Manager

Advanced Systems Integration, Inc.

(949) 597-2170

lisaa@advancedsystemsintegration.com

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Advanced Systems Integration (ASi) Grows Operations with Additional Microsoft Dynamics AX Master

2008-06-05T16:22:00.000+02:00

Simon Sadri Joins ASi as Vice President of Operations

LAKE FOREST, CA – May 6, 2008 – Advanced Systems Integration (ASi) a Microsoft Dynamics AX Gold Certified Business Solutions and Learning Solutions Partner is pleased to announce the addition of certified Microsoft Dynamics AX Master, Simon Sadri, as Vice President of Operations.

Simon maintains a long lineage to Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta and Damgaard Axapta) having worked most recently for several key Microsoft Dynamics AX partners as well as beginning his career with Damgaard. Simon maintains multiple Microsoft Dynamics AX certifications including Microsoft Master, Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) and Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP

Effective immediately, Simon will bring his years of Axapta experience and set of credentials to the ASi team and customer base. Simon will be responsible for the day-to-day inner workings of the company as well as many customer facing aspects such as service, delivery and customer satisfaction. Simon is dedicated to providing all ASi clients with superior customer service and value returned on each dollar invested in the Microsoft Dynamics AX platform. Simon noted, “My years of global company experience and managing complex projects has prepared me for my new role at ASi. I am very pleased to be working with such a dedicated team of AX professionals, developers and trainers.” Simon continues, “In my new role, I hope to bring an added vision for enabling ASi to up-the-anti for providing superior software service and training.”

“Simon comes to ASi with incredible credentials and superior industry knowledge,” says Jeff Onesto, Director of Business Development, ASi. “Simon’s addition will be instrumental as ASi expands its leadership position in the marketplace through on-going services and performance tuning of many of the most complex installations of Microsoft Dynamics AX in the U.S.”

Simon has earned his B.S. degree from University College of Gavle/Sandviken, Sweden in Software Engineering and a Masters degree in IT Management and Finance from the University of La Verne, California.

Greenlight BTS Acquires Two New Dynamics AX Clients

2008-05-10T17:24:00.000+02:00

Greenlight BTS, a Microsoft Dynamics™ AX delivery partner, announced the acquisition of two new clients: Myers Spring, a spring and wire form manufacturer located in Logansport, Indiana, and Arch Aluminum and Glass, an architectural glass and aluminum fabricator with national headquarters in Tamarac, Florida.

Myers Spring and Greenlight BTS are working together to develop a Microsoft Windows Mobile™ graphical user-interface for Greenlight's aXTend RF product, which provides access to almost any Dynamics AX application functionality from a hand-held device.

rch Aluminum and Glass has over 300 Dynamics AX users at over two dozen sites thoughout the US. The company plans on working closely with Greenlight BTS to upgrade from AX 30 SP6 to AX 2009.

New PR Submission - Advanced Systems Integration (ASi) Grows Operations with Additional Microsoft Dynamics AX Master

2008-05-06T20:16:00.003+02:00

LAKE FOREST, CA – May 6, 2008 – Advanced Systems Integration (ASi) a Microsoft Dynamics AX Gold Certified Business Solutions and Learning Solutions Partner is pleased to announce the addition of certified Microsoft Dynamics AX Master, Simon Sadri, as Vice President of Operations.

Simon maintains a long lineage to Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta and Damgaard Axapta) having worked most recently for several key Microsoft Dynamics AX partners as well as beginning his career with Damgaard. Simon maintains multiple Microsoft Dynamics AX certifications including Microsoft Master, Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) and Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP).

Effective immediately, Simon will bring his years of Axapta experience and set of credentials to the ASi team and customer base. Simon will be responsible for the day-to-day inner workings of the company as well as many customer facing aspects such as service, delivery and customer satisfaction. Simon is dedicated to providing all ASi clients with superior customer service and value returned on each dollar invested in the Microsoft Dynamics AX platform. Simon noted, “My years of global company experience and managing complex projects has prepared me for my new role at ASi. I am very pleased to be working with such a dedicated team of AX professionals, developers and trainers.” Simon continues, “In my new role, I hope to bring an added vision for enabling ASi to up-the-anti for providing superior software service and training.”

“Simon comes to ASi with incredible credentials and superior industry knowledge,” says Jeff Onesto, Director of Business Development, ASi. “Simon’s addition will be instrumental as ASi expands its leadership position in the marketplace through on-going services and performance tuning of many of the most complex installations of Microsoft Dynamics AX in the U.S.”

Simon has earned his B.S. degree from University College of Gavle/Sandviken, Sweden in Software Engineering and a Masters degree in IT Management and Finance from the University of La Verne, California.

http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/ax/default.mspx.

For more information on this release, please contact:

Lisa Aschenbrenner

Marketing Manager

Advanced Systems Integration, Inc.

(949) 597-2170

lisaa@advancedsystemsintegration.com

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Proforma Selects Microsoft Dynamics AX from Fullscope

2008-04-28T10:21:00.000+02:00

Fullscope, a Gold Certified Microsoft Business Solutions Partner focused on helping process and discrete manufacturers manage their businesses more effectively and efficiently, today announced that Proforma, a leading North American provider of graphic communication solutions, has selected Microsoft Dynamics AX to provide enterprise resource planning (ERP) functionality to support its rapid growth. Proforma will deploy Microsoft Dynamics AX for use by over 650 franchise owners to enable them to more efficiently conduct business. The Proforma organization will use the solution to better analyze key performance metrics, customer and vendor data and make timely business decisions.

“As Proforma quickly approaches the $500 million mark, the time has come to put an ERP solution in place that has the capacity to support our growing franchise ownership and their increasing sales levels,” says Vera Muzzillo, co-CEO of Proforma. “We have absolute confidence that Microsoft Dynamics AX (ERP) will provide the best support for Proforma, now, and throughout the exciting growth projected over the next five to ten years.”

Proforma relies on a franchise model to drive sales, and the company has more than doubled the number of offices, and increased system wide sales 210% over the last five years. While not a manufacturer, it does offer a number of value-added services to its franchisees including collecting accounts receivable from customers and providing accounts payable to vendors. With substantial growth plans underway, Proforma needed to transition its existing, custom ERP system to a new, flexible platform to address the needs of more than 2,600 projected franchise owners by 2011.

“Adopting Microsoft Dynamics AX as our ERP solution is an investment in the growth of Proforma that will help us reduce technology risks associated with our rapidly expanding owner network and client base,” says Brian Smith, president and chief operating officer for Proforma. “We’re confident that the implementation of this solution will result in a high degree of adoption across our network and provide excellent operational support for our growing number of franchise owners.”

“Proforma is known for keeping its franchise owners and their clients on the cutting edge of technology,” says Kevin Ameche, chief technology officer of Proforma. “The selection of Microsoft Dynamics AX as our ERP solution demonstrates our continued commitment to staying at the forefront of technology and to utilizing new advances in software and systems to increase operational efficiencies and encourage system-wide growth.”

“With Microsoft Dynamics AX, Proforma can leverage a familiar toolset using existing in-house skills already gained by working with other Microsoft products including Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL Reporting Services and Office,” said Russell Smith, president of Fullscope. “We see this happen time and time again—companies embrace the ability to use existing resources already familiar with Microsoft technology and extend them to an ERP application. We believe this will continue and will be one of the contributing factors that fuel the rapid adoption of Microsoft Dynamics AX.”

About Proforma
With over 30 years of experience, Proforma remains clearly focused on providing solutions to North American businesses for their graphic communications needs. A leading provider of promotional products, printing services, business documents, and eCommerce solutions, Proforma has received numerous awards and is recognized as one of the top five largest companies in its industry. Proforma serves over 50,000 clients through more than 650 member offices in North America. The Proforma Worldwide Support Center is located in Cleveland, Ohio.

For more information, visit http://www.proforma.com./

About Fullscope
The 2007 Microsoft Dynamics AX Partner of the Year, Fullscope, Inc. is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner that offers deep domain expertise for companies with process, discrete and hybrid manufacturing operations. The company develops and supports Process Industries for Microsoft Dynamics AX; offers an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) solution for Microsoft Dynamics AX for High Tech; and is one of the largest Microsoft Dynamics AX resellers in the United States and Canada. For more information, visit http://www.fullscope.com.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned in this press release may be trademarks of their respective owners and are hereby acknowledged.

NEW PR Submission - ASi Successfully Implements Microsoft Dynamics AX for Food Specialty Manufacturer

2008-04-22T21:39:00.006+02:00

Advanced Systems Integration Successfully Implements Microsoft Dynamics AX for Food Specialty Manufacturer

Microsoft Business Ready Licensing Program Enables Small to Mid-Sized Manufacturers Access to Microsoft Dynamics AX Business Software

LAKE FOREST, CA – April 22, 2008 – Advanced Systems Integration (ASi) is pleased to announce the success of its recent implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta) at Earthrise Nutritionals, a world-leader in the production of microalgae for use in food and dietary supplement (branded as Earthrise Spirulina).

ASi completed the implementation in January of 2008 utilizing the Microsoft Sure Step Methodology. Michael Forte, Senior Consultant of ASi, explains, “This approach along with Microsoft’s Business Ready Licensing for its Microsoft Dynamics business software product lines has enabled many smaller and mid-sized businesses and manufacturers the ability to now purchase Microsoft’s most comprehensive, scalable and flexible ERP system, Microsoft Dynamics AX.” Business Ready Licensing streamlines pricing for Microsoft Dynamics AX by moving from a pricing model based on hundreds of modules to a new model based primarily on the number of concurrent users who actually use the software.

Earthrise Nutritionals, located in Irvine, CA and with farms and production in the California Sonoran Desert, benefited immediately from the fully integrated ERP system, Microsoft Dynamics AX. Adrian Hsu, Controller at Earthrise Nutritionals explains, “Our previous legacy system did not allow the visibility and real-time views into production and reporting as the new Microsoft Dynamics AX system.”

Mr. Hsu also felt the ease, speed and success of the implementation was directly related to the implementation methodology and experience of ASi. The Microsoft Sure Step Methodology defines process phases, milestones roles, artifacts, cross-phase-processes, and additional project management processes. Earthrise specifically benefited from the structure put in place by both Microsoft and ASi. Mr. Hsu commented, “The timelines and tools provided by ASi and the Microsoft Sure Step Methodology made it easy to keep on schedule and track the project progress even with limited resources and an accelerated implementation timeline.”

About Earthrise Nutritionals: In 1979, after years of research, Earthrise introduced Spirulina to the natural foods market. Then, in 1982, the visionaries at Earthrise built the first U.S. Spirulina farm to grow this green superfood in pure California desert sunshine using ecological, earth-friendly methods. Today, Earthrise Nutritionals' farm is the world’s largest Spirulina farm. Earthrise products are marketed in the USA and in 30 countries on six continents. http://www.earthrise.com/

http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/ax/default.mspx.

For more information on this release, please contact:

Lisa Aschenbrenner

Marketing Manager

Advanced Systems Integration, Inc.

(949) 597-2170

lisaa@advancedsystemsintegration.com

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Advanced Systems Integration Successfully Implements Microsoft Dynamics AX for Food Specialty Manufacturer

2008-04-22T16:29:00.000+02:00

Microsoft Business Ready Licensing Program Enables Small to Mid-Sized Manufacturers Access to Microsoft Dynamics AX Business Software

LAKE FOREST, CA – April 22, 2008 – Advanced Systems Integration (ASi) is pleased to announce the success of its recent implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta) at Earthrise Nutritionals, a world-leader in the production of microalgae for use in food and dietary supplement (branded as Earthrise Spirulina).

ASi completed the implementation in January of 2008 utilizing the Microsoft Sure Step Methodology. Michael Forte, Senior Consultant of ASi, explains, “This approach along with Microsoft’s Business Ready Licensing for its Microsoft Dynamics business software product lines has enabled many smaller and mid-sized businesses and manufacturers the ability to now purchase Microsoft’s most comprehensive, scalable and flexible ERP system, Microsoft Dynamics AX.” Business Ready Licensing streamlines pricing for Microsoft Dynamics AX by moving from a pricing model based on hundreds of modules to a new model based primarily on the number of concurrent users who actually use the software.

Earthrise Nutritionals, located in Irvine, CA and with farms and production in the California Sonoran Desert, benefited immediately from the fully integrated ERP system, Microsoft Dynamics AX. Adrian Hsu, Controller at Earthrise Nutritionals explains, “Our previous legacy system did not allow the visibility and real-time views into production and reporting as the new Microsoft Dynamics AX system.”

Mr. Hsu also felt the ease, speed and success of the implementation was directly related to the implementation methodology and experience of ASi. The Microsoft Sure Step Methodology defines process phases, milestones roles, artifacts, cross-phase-processes, and additional project management processes. Earthrise specifically benefited from the structure put in place by both Microsoft and ASi. Mr. Hsu commented, “The timelines and tools provided by ASi and the Microsoft Sure Step Methodology made it easy to keep on schedule and track the project progress even with limited resources and an accelerated implementation timeline.”

Advanced Systems Integration Successfully Implements Microsoft Dynamics AX for Food Specialty Manufacturer

2008-04-22T16:26:00.000+02:00

Sunrise Technologies Provides a Dynamic Solution for Textile, Apparel, and Footwear Manufacturing and Distribution

2008-04-18T10:30:00.000+02:00

Winston-Salem, NC - Apr 18, 2008 (PRN): Founded in 1994, Sunrise Technologies is an experienced supply chain consulting organization and a leading Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in the Microsoft Dynamics™ AX ERP solution. With over 14 years of experience in business and information systems consulting, Sunrise offers its customers a combined expertise of business knowledge, strong project management capability, and powerful business software solutions.

Sunrise is recognized by Microsoft as a Microsoft Dynamics AX industry expert for the furniture, textile, apparel, and footwear (TAF) industries. Our experience and expertise in the field has allowed us to successfully implement the Microsoft Dynamics AX solution for several textile and apparel companies. The out-of-the-box functionality of Microsoft Dynamics AX is ideal for the TAF industry with its multi-item dimension (i.e. style, color, size) and multi-storage dimensions.

Sunrise has also developed Add-On solutions for the Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP system. Each solution adds advanced functionality and is written in X++, thus the solution is completely embedded in the Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP system.

o Textile-Apparel-Footwear Solution – Written specifically for the TAF industry, this solution helps companies meet their unique business requirements.
o Advanced Warehouse Management – Streamlines the shipping and receiving processes and improves order fulfillment times.
o StarShip Integration - a client/server application that allows businesses to package and ship parcel/cartons via FedEx, UPS, USPS, DHL, and some LTL carriers.
o BarTender Integration- works with BarTender commander script files and commander processing. This integration provides a much simpler solution for creating complex labels.
o Vertex O Integration- Sunrise has created a base package that seamlessly integrates Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 with the Vertex O Series™ for effective management of corporation’s sales tax responsibilities.

Sunrise Technologies’ goal is to help manufacturers and distributors create a new IT framework and gain competitive advantage after implementing the Microsoft Dynamics AX solution. Sunrise takes pride in their ability to lead customers through design, development, and implementation of the entire solution by employing certified and master certified consultants. Sunrise was named to the Microsoft Dynamics™ President’s Club for outstanding customer commitment and sales achievement. This recognition honors Microsoft Dynamics reselling partners whose commitment to customers is reflected in their business performance and high level of sales achievement and customer satisfaction.

AX Enterprises Joins Kineticsware Partner Program

2008-04-15T07:53:00.000+02:00

New Partnership Focuses on Southern United States and Mexico.

KIRKLAND, WA - Kineticsware, a global software company focused on customers in the consumer goods industry, announced today it has signed a partnership agreement with AX Enterprises, a leading supplier of enterprise software and Microsoft Dynamics AX in North America. AX Enterprises provides their clients a clear strategic advantage by applying industry focus, enterprise software domain experience, and expertise with Microsoft Dynamics at a superior value. Their role in the Kineticsware Partner Program will initially be as a services partner, supporting customer implementation projects, while transitioning to becoming a reselling channel partner.

Commenting on the new partnership, Jim McGraw, CEO of AX Enterprises, said, "This is an important partnership for AX Enterprises. With the help of Kineticsware, we'll be able to extend our manufacturing and distribution solution offerings in the Southern and Central United States and Mexico." Highlighting the unique opportunity to accelerate geographic expansion for Kineticsware's solutions, Chris Zimmerman, Kineticsware Vice President of the Partner Program, adds, "We are excited about adding a partner like AX Enterprises. The deep Dynamics AX skills, regional focus, and cross-border experience of AX Enterprises will help us reach new geographies and extend into the bilingual marketplace."

By selecting to participate in the Kineticsware Partner Program, AX Enterprises will be receiving additional support in terms of identifying new customer engagements, broaden their total solution approach with Kineticsware's industry solutions, and work jointly to attract and train new consultants to meet regional market growth opportunities. In addition, with their expansion across the southern United States and Mexico, AX Enterprises is uniquely qualified to expand and accelerate the reach of Kineticsware solutions to clients in the consumer products manufacturers, importers and distributors undergoing supply chain transformation initiatives.

About Kineticsware
Kineticsware is a global software company and Microsoft partner that provides enterprise applications to manufacturers and distributors in the consumer goods and other supply-chain intensive industries. Kineticsware enables its customers to become more profitable by increasing revenue, reducing operational costs, and increasing customer responsiveness. For more information, please visit www.kineticsware.com.

About AX Enterprises, Inc.
AX Enterprises, Inc. provides premier software and consulting services for managing critical operations in the energy, professional services, and construction service industries. The company is breaking new ground with the creation of integrated content management and Microsoft's.NET architected Dynamics product suites. AX Enterprises, Inc. is based in San Antonio, TX with delivery offices in San Jose, CA and Washington D.C. For more information, please visit www.ax-ent.com.

New Microsoft Press Release

2008-03-25T18:55:00.004+01:00

Bioscience Company Chooses Microsoft Dynamics AX to Improve Support for Compliance With Industry Rules

PURE Bioscience picks Microsoft technology over competitors for its ease of use, scalability and manufacturing capabilities.

REDMOND, Wash. — March 25, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that PURE Bioscience has selected Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 to speed and integrate its business processes, helping to support the company’s compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and with the requirements of numerous regulatory authorities, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States. Microsoft Dynamics AX is a comprehensive business-management solution for midsize and larger organizations that offers a high degree of scalability, customizability and full industry-specific functionality. It helps optimize and centralize supply chain processes and improves real-time visibility into operations.

PURE Bioscience, headquartered in El Cajon, Calif., develops and markets technology-based bioscience products that provide nontoxic solutions to numerous global health challenges. As a public company, PURE needed to remain compliant with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. It also sought a way to produce its financials more rapidly because its growth would move the company into the category of an accelerated Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filer during 2008.

PURE had been relying significantly on legacy systems and spreadsheets for financial operations, but management saw a need to both integrate its data and find advanced technology for automating its processes to help manage the significant growth and increased complexity that the company anticipated.

The company evaluated a number of enterprise resource planning solutions to support its manufacturing and financial requirements, including FourthShift Edition for SAP Business One, before selecting Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0.

“We chose Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 for multiple reasons,” said Michael L. Krall, CEO of PURE Bioscience, “including ease of use, the Microsoft look and feel that employees are accustomed to, the ability for the company to grow with the solution, the ability of the solution to handle process manufacturing, favorable scalable pricing for a medium-sized business, well-defined validation methodologies, speed to go live, and the ability to continue to meet our SEC reporting obligations as we transition out of the small-business reporting category.”

Working with PURE, Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Advanced Systems Integration Inc. of Lake Forest, Calif., will implement Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 Advanced Management Edition with additional source code that allows customization of proprietary processes and procedures that could not be met by any other solution.

“The ability to purchase and add modules, such as Production II or Shop Floor Control, in the future as we grow played an important part in our decision,” Krall said. “The new system will be integrated seamlessly with other Microsoft products that PURE has been using, including the 2007 Microsoft Office system, Windows XP Professional, SQL Server 2005 and Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition.”

“We expect Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 to enhance our ability to manage the anticipated growth in our bioscience technology across multiple industries and applications, both within the United States and internationally,” said Andrew J. Buckland, CFO at PURE Bioscience.

PURE Bioscience foresees the following benefits from its implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0:

· Support for growth. One of the primary objectives of the implementation is to provide PURE with a technology that will allow for management of considerable growth.

· Industry-specific requirements. In addition to financial-related regulatory compliance, Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 will support processes that enable PURE to meet regulatory reporting obligations to the U.S. EPA and to maintain its FDA Current Good Manufacturing Practices certification for the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 ensures data integrity and transparency using security features while reporting variances and communicating material events.

· Improved reporting. Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 will enable the company to produce statutory accounting and management information more rapidly than before, helping it to remain compliant with regulatory reporting while allowing management to make business decisions that are more timely and effective.

· Time savings. Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 will significantly shrink the time needed to produce financial reports, supporting the company’s needs for faster reporting as it becomes an accelerated SEC filer.

· Accuracy of data. Instead of relying on spreadsheets and multiple systems and processes, PURE will take advantage of the Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 capability to integrate many routines into one, eliminating repetitive data entry and thereby increasing accuracy.

· Better planning. Both business planning and resources planning are expected to improve with PURE’s new Microsoft technology.

· More efficient supply chain management. Previously, supply chain management was largely a manual process for PURE. Now it will be automated to a large extent, providing the company with the capability to support the larger and more complex manufacturing processes that it anticipates.

“PURE Bioscience is realizing the value that Microsoft Dynamics AX brings to businesses in helping them meet the specific needs of their own industries,” said Michael Park, corporate vice president for U.S. Dynamics Business at Microsoft. “As the manufacturing and regulatory environments become more complex, Microsoft technology is simplifying and integrating processes to enable businesses to accelerate their growth and fully employ their

competitive advantages, while helping to ensure they remain compliant with government and industry regulations.”

About PURE Bioscience

PURE Bioscience (PURE) develops and markets technology-based bioscience products that provide non-toxic solutions to numerous global health challenges. Its proprietary high- efficacy/low toxicity bioscience technologies represent innovative advances in diverse markets and lead today’s global trend toward use of “green” products while providing competitive advantages in efficacy and safety.

About Advanced Systems Integration Inc.

Advanced Systems Integration, Inc.(ASi) is a Gold Certified Microsoft Dynamics AX and Learning Solutions partner founded in 1991 that delivers comprehensive enterprise class applications that improve customer relations, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across supply chains and business operations. ASi also offers industry specific extensions integrated with Microsoft Dynamics AX solution. Please visit the company’s web site at www.advancedsystemsintegration.com.

About Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of financial, customer relationship and supply-chain management solutions that helps businesses work more effectively. Delivered through a network of channel partners providing specialized services, these integrated, adaptable business management solutions work like and with familiar Microsoft software to streamline processes across an entire business.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

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For more information, press only:

Liz Pandzich, Airfoil Public Relations, (248) 304-1444, pandzich@airfoilpr.com

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.mspx.

Advanced Systems Integration (ASi) to be a Gold Sponsor at Apparel's Tech Conference West

2008-03-05T18:56:00.003+01:00

Advanced Systems Integration to be a Gold Sponsor at Apparel’s Tech Conference West

Apparel’s Annual East-Coast Based Tech Conference Heads Out West in 2008

LAKE FOREST, CA – March 4, 2008 – Advanced Systems Integration, Inc. (ASi) a Microsoft Dynamics AX Gold Certified Business Solutions and Learning Solutions Partner is delighted to be a gold sponsor for Apparel’s first ever west coast Tech Conference West event. This annual must-attend event is historically held in New York in the fall. However, this year Apparel saw the opportunity build on the strength and success of the New York show by adding the west-coast event in the spring.

The one-day conference on April 2, 2008 will be held at the Orange County Campus of the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM) in Irvine, CA. The event will feature a keynote technology presentation, technology vendor tabletop displays, more than a dozen educational sessions and a networking reception. Attendees will have the opportunity to gain technology and business insights across the total supply chain, from concept to consumer, with content addressing: Design and Product Development; Manufacturing; Information Technology; Sourcing, Logistics, Transportation; and Retailing.

Advanced Systems Integration will be presenting a 30 minute afternoon presentation on “How Apparel Companies Can Leverage Technology for Increased Visibility and Supply Chain Optimization”. ASi session description:

Successfully managing a complex and highly seasonal inventory is all about information and visibility. Whether it is a shortage in materials, product allocation or managing overseas production, the perfect Supply Chain Solution must be quick to implement, familiar to your employees, scalable, and provide real-time information at the touch of a button. In this 30-minute presentation, Advanced Systems Integration (ASi), a Gold Certified Microsoft Dynamics AX Solution Partner, will introduce the Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta) platform and discuss why it is tailor made for rapidly growing fashion companies. ASi will present case studies related to supply chain visibility and optimization and demonstrate why using Microsoft technology is good but using the Microsoft Dynamics AX platform is better!

About ASi: Advanced Systems Integration, Inc. is a Gold Certified Microsoft Dynamics™ AX and Learning Solutions partner founded in 1991 that delivers comprehensive enterprise class applications that improve customer relations, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across supply chains and business operations. ASi also offers industry specific extensions integrated with Microsoft Dynamics AX platform (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta). ASi uses its industry focus, enterprise software domain expertise and transparent agile implementation methodology to provide its clients an enterprise class solution that is implemented properly the first time. ASi is based in Lake Forest, CA and has sales offices in strategically located throughout the United States. Please visit the company’s web site at www.advancedsystemsintegration.com.

About Apparel: Apparel provides apparel and retail executives with information, research and strategic insight in a variety of formats in order to help them improve their business performance. Apparel magazine serves 18,0601 subscribers. Its targeted focus is Technology & Business Insight - From Concept to Consumer, which encompasses the market, retail intelligence, supply chain, sourcing and logistics, concept-to-spec and fiber-to-fabric. Apparel has proudly served the industry for more than 48 years. A commitment to editorial excellence and quality content for the benefit of the industry is the foundation of its value. http://www.apparelmag.com/

For more information on this release, please contact:

Lisa Aschenbrenner

Marketing Manager

Advanced Systems Integration, Inc.

(949) 597-2170

lisaa@advancedsystemsintegration.com

Advanced Systems Integration (ASi) is a Featured Column Contributor for MSDynamicsWorld.comT

2008-02-06T20:29:00.002+01:00

Advanced Systems Integration is a Featured Column Contributor for MSDynamicsWorld.com™

MSDynamicsWorld.com is Launched as New, Independent Authority for Microsoft Dynamics

LAKE FOREST, CA – January 29, 2008 – Advanced Systems Integration, Inc. (ASi) a Microsoft Dynamics AX Gold Certified Business Solutions and Learning Solutions Partner is pleased to be a featured column contributor for the newly launched MSDynamicsWorld.com website.

Jeff Onesto, Director of Business Development, will write thought-provoking and informative monthly columns focused primarily on Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta) utilizing ASi experienced and tenured background with complex and varied Microsoft Dynamics AX implementations, consulting, and training.

Online media company, GuidePoint Media LLC, is behind the technology-focused website, MSDynamicsWorld.com. The new site is aiming to become recognized as the leading independent authority covering the world of Microsoft Dynamics. The Microsoft Dynamics product suite includes such packages as Dynamics CRM, Dynamics GP Dynamics AX, and Dynamics NAV. Visitors to the site can access the site’s wide range of resources, including:

· News and analysis about key Dynamics developments and trends;

· Columns from leading industry experts on how users can take full advantage of Dynamics products;

· White papers;

· Case studies

· Product-demos

MSDynamicsWorld.com is independent of Microsoft Corp. This independence enables MSDynamicsWorld.com to act as a platform for industry leaders to provide unbiased assessments of Dynamics products, third-party software and tools. ASi is excited to be part of the exciting new resource for ERP users and those researching the Microsoft business product channel.

About ASi: Advanced Systems Integration, Inc. is a Gold Certified Microsoft Dynamics™ AX and Learning Solutions partner founded in 1991 that delivers comprehensive enterprise class applications that improve customer relations, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across supply chains and business operations. ASi also offers industry specific extensions integrated with Microsoft Dynamics AX platform (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta). ASi uses its industry focus, enterprise software domain expertise and transparent agile implementation methodology to provide its clients an enterprise class solution that is implemented properly the first time. ASi is based in Lake Forest, CA and has sales offices in strategically located throughout the United States. Please visit the company’s web site at www.advancedsystemsintegration.com.

About MSDynamicsWorld.com™: MSDynamicsWorld.com is owned by GuidePoint Media LLC, a publisher of online technology content. MSDynamicsWorld.com is its first product. MSDynamicsWorld.com is independent of Microsoft Corp. It was formed to benefit the users and partners of Microsoft Dynamics products. This independence enables MSDynamicsWorld.com to act as a platform for industry leaders to provide unbiased assessments of Dynamics products, third-party software and tools. MSDynamicsWorld.com also provides opportunities for independent software vendors, consultants, and partners to cost-effectively communicate with customers. Please visit the website for further information: www.msdynamicsworld.com.

For more information on this release, please contact:

Lisa Aschenbrenner

Marketing Manager

Advanced Systems Integration, Inc.

(949) 597-2170

lisaa@advancedsystemsintegration.com

Sunrise Technologies and SolidSpace partner to deliver Microsoft Dynamics AX software as a service

2008-02-01T08:58:00.000+01:00

The Sunrise Technologies and SolidSpace partnership generates a scalable and cost effective alternative to a licensed Enterprise Resource Planning system.

(Winston-Salem, NC) February 1, 2008- Sunrise Technologies and SolidSpace today announced they are partnering to offer Microsoft Dynamics AX software, an Enterprise Resource Planning System, as a hosted per-user/per-month service. The Microsoft Dynamics AX hosted solution enables smaller manufacturers and wholesale distributors to automate and streamline business processes with flexible contract terms, and no upfront hardware and software costs.

Sunrise Technologies is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in Microsoft Dynamics AX, holding the highest level of qualifications in product competency and industry expertise. Microsoft Dynamics AX is a comprehensive and flexible business solution with integrated functionality across finance, supply chain management, customer relationship management and distribution. Microsoft Dynamics AX will streamline your business processes, improve supplier and trading partner communications, and significantly increase operational efficiency. Offering Microsoft Dynamics AX cost cutting and time saving features as a hosted solution offers smaller businesses the competitive advantage they would not typically be able to afford.

SolidSpace, a leading provider of IT hosting and networking services for the software industry, has been enabling enterprises to deliver their software as a service seamlessly and economically for over 10 years. The Partnership with SolidSpace will offer clients a Tier 1 business solution for a low monthly price per user. SolidSpace’s IT professionals and secure data center will provide 24/7 monitoring and technical support as well as the added security of multi-version daily data backups and off site data storage. This scalable hosted solution gives businesses the application functionality of an integrated Web service, with the ability to manage and monitor their entire business operations from anywhere, at any time.

Having implemented numerous business solutions for mid to large manufacturing and distribution companies, Sunrise Technologies saw smaller businesses struggling with the same planning problems. “We are extremely excited to offer a practical, cost effective solution that delivers the full power of Dynamics AX, without the up-front investment normally required for an ERP implementation”, states John Pence, President of Sunrise Technologies.

“Combining Sunrise Technologies’ and SolidSpace’s expertise brings a cost effective and infrastructure driven form of Microsoft Dynamics AX to the small business market. This software as a service (SaaS) solution gives businesses the opportunity to expand their infrastructure with centralized management, reduced integration times and unmatched support” states Jim Capps, president of SolidSpace.

About SolidSpace, LLC
SolidSpace, LLC is a leading provider of IT hosting and network services, enabling enterprises to deliver their software as a service seamlessly and economically. SolidSpace's solutions provide website, application and database hosting, managed services, colocation and broadband services. SolidSpace, LLC is headquartered in Winston-Salem, NC, and is a portfolio company of SilkRoad Equity LLC (www.silkroadequity.com). Additional information about SolidSpace, LLC services can be found at www.solidspace.com.

About Sunrise Technologies
Sunrise Technologies was founded in 1994 as a consulting services company, is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, and member of Microsoft’s elite President's Club. Sunrise sells, implements, and supports the Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP system. Sunrise Technologies is a global company with its corporate headquarters in the Piedmont Triad Research Park of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Sunrise has regional offices in Dallas, TX, Los Angeles, CA, and Xi'an, China.

Retail Software: Announcing New Release Of Junction Solutions For Retail Version 4.2

2008-01-25T21:46:00.000+01:00

Junction Solutions, leading provider of business software solutions for mid-market retail and consumer goods industries on the Microsoft platform, recently announced the release of Version 4.2 of its newly branded “Junction Solutions for Retail” packaged software suite. This release, containing over 70 new features, extends Junction Solutions’ cross-channel retail enterprise functionality to encompass e-Commerce and in-store POS systems within a single corporate data source built upon Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Junction Solutions’ announced earlier this year the acquisitions of both ThePage.com and ISS Retail which expanded its capabilities to run e-Commerce and in-store/POS operations. The former catalog and direct marketing JunctionMCR product, built on Microsoft Dynamics AX, has been expanded to become a hub for cross-channel retailing , so the product has been renamed to JunctionRES – Retail Enterprise Solution. All together, the Junction Solutions for Retail solution provides cross-channel retailers and vertically oriented retailers/manufacturers the most comprehensive retail enterprise solution (or “Retail ERP”) in the marketplace.

The focus of Junction Solutions’ 4.2 software development team was integration of the data and store, e-Commerce, and direct marketing business processes, enabling merchants to operate and provide a seamless, cross-channel shopping experience out of the box. Integrated systems of this type are typically very expensive and custom built with limited but duplicate and overlapping functionality.

Together, Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft .NET, and the Microsoft Server platform provide the foundation for Junction Solutions for Retail Version 4.2, giving it a combination of unique flexibility, advanced technology, low cost of ownership and global capabilities.

“Cross-channel integration was the key theme for Version 4.2 of our Junction Solutions for Retail solution,” said Brian Carpizo, CEO at Junction Solutions. “Our challenge was to create from the ground up an enterprise retail solution that is integrated with the functionality found in best-of-breed point solutions. With 4.2, we accomplished that goal and look forward to extending our lead in the marketplace.”

About Junction Solutions for Retail
Junction Solutions for Retail offers direct marketers, e-Commerce companies, and store retailers a customer driven suite of software that helps plan, operate, and power cross-channel retail performance. The Junction Solutions for Retail offering includes:
- JunctionRES -- Retail Enterprise Software built on Microsoft Dynamics AX
- JunctionEOD -- e-Commerce on Demand
- JunctionISS – In-Store Retail Systems
- JunctionBI – Business Intelligence
- CDP for Microsoft Dynamics AX -- Consumer Driven Planning

About Junction Solutions
Junction Solutions is a leading provider of business software solutions for the mid-market Retail and Consumer Goods industries. Powered by the platform of Microsoft, including Microsoft Dynamics AX, Junction Solutions offers both industry-specific depth and enterprise breadth that enables customers to profitably run their business on a modern yet industry-standard technology base. Junction Solutions for Retail offers direct marketers, e-Commerce companies, and store retailers a customer driven suite of software that helps plan, operate, and power cross-channel retail performance. The company maintains headquarters in Chicago and Denver, with sales and delivery offices across the US and in Canada, Mexico, and the UK. For more information, please visit www.junctionsolutions.com.

SOURCE: Junction Solutions

Microsoft, Talend Team on Data Integration

2008-01-23T21:50:00.000+01:00

Open source data integration vendor Talend has been working with Microsoft to build better interoperability between Talend's Open Studio product and Microsoft's business software, Talend says.

Open Studio is an ETL (extract, transform and load) tool that has been downloaded more than 150,000 times, according to Talend. The company also makes an on-demand version of the product, and an Integration Suite for use by teams.

Open source data integration vendor Talend has been working with Microsoft to build better interoperability between Talend's Open Studio product and Microsoft's business software, Talend says.

Open Studio is an ETL (extract, transform and load) tool that has been downloaded more than 150,000 times, according to Talend. The company also makes an on-demand version of the product, and an Integration Suite for use by teams.

eBECS and Kineticsware Announce Partnership

2008-01-17T21:54:00.000+01:00

READING, UNITED KINGDOM -- Kineticsware, a global software company and Microsoft Certified partner focused on customers in the consumer goods industry, and eBECS, a global Microsoft Gold Certified partner and developers of the Lean Enterprise solution for Microsoft Dynamics AX, announced today a global partnership between the two companies. With their proven expertise in Microsoft Dynamics AX solutions, combined with their deep domain knowledge of implementing lean principles in manufacturing and supply chain operations, eBECS is uniquely poised to drive greater value for customers within the Kineticsware Partner Program. Together, they will actively promote the lean capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics AX and eBECS as the Global Lean Centre of Excellence for Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Commenting on the partnership, Kevin Hall, Global Managing Director for eBECS, commented, "We are very excited about this partnership. It represents a great step forward for us in helping to drive the lean message to the market and demonstrate, through the Microsoft partner channel, the value that Microsoft Dynamics AX has in addressing the specific needs of lean supply chains in the European and North American markets. It represents a win-win for eBECS and the Kineticsware Partner Program, and we hope it will demonstrate a wider engagement model for promoting Lean AX for other Microsoft Dynamics partners."

"Together we can address our customers' needs for managing implementations of Microsoft Dynamics AX and complementary collaboration, business intelligence, and supply chain management applications at a lower cost with higher return on investment for target industries across Europe and North America. This collaboration further enhances our partnership delivery model with the addition of one of the leading Microsoft Dynamics AX providers in these regions," adds Simon Thomason, Managing Director, Europe, Middle East, and Africa, for Kineticsware.

Under the terms of the partnership, eBECS will receive additional support in terms of identifying new customer engagements, broaden their total solution approach with Kineticsware's industry solutions, and work jointly to attract and train new consultants to meet the market growth opportunities in the European and North American regions. The Kineticsware Partner Program will help eBECS to position the Lean capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics AX and access to expert services to help in training and implementation.

About Kineticsware

Kineticsware is a global software company and Microsoft Certified partner that provides enterprise applications to manufacturers and distributors in the consumer goods and other supply-chain intensive industries. Kineticsware enables its customers to become more profitable by increasing revenue, reducing operational costs, and increasing customer responsiveness. For more information, please visit www.kineticsware.com.

About eBECS

eBECS is dedicated to business improvement by the use of "Lean Thinking" throughout the extended supply chain. eBECS have developed expertise in the removal of waste from all aspects of the organization together with the specific solutions on defining value, establishing flow and running an enterprise based on pull techniques. eBECS's focus has been to enhance the Dynamics AX product, enabling organizations to quickly take advantage of all that "Lean Thinking" has to offer. eBECS provides a technology and business partnership approach, which at its heart, removes the complexity and hype surrounding the Lean and e-business world. For more information, visit: www.ebecs.com

ePartners arrives in Australia

2007-12-17T17:33:00.000+01:00

Source: Nadia Cameron, arnet.com
Texas-based Microsoft Dynamics channel partner aims to snatch up marketshare in the mid-market and tier-one customer space.

Texas-based Microsoft business solutions integrator, ePartners, has kicked off its Australian operations as part of plans to build up its international might.

The company is looking to acquire the local front-end ERP customer business of Microsoft gold partner, GrapeCity, and is headed up by new Australian CEO, Stephen Madeisky. It has a presence in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Marketing manager, David Giang, said ePartners saw the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, as a growing and maturing market.

The company also opened three offices in China in July and will look to New Zealand shortly.

ePartner specialises in Microsoft's Dynamics AX and CRM business platforms. Madeisky said customers were looking for a partner that could provide international solutions around business platforms regardless of country.

"We service lots of global companies with a presence in Australia as well as Asia. Companies don't want to have different partners in each country - they are looking for consistency," Giang said. "We work closely with Microsoft and really want to make an impact in Australia."

GrapeCity could provide resources and products to ePartners as a "partner behind the partner", Madeisky said.

Giang said ePartners was aiming at the upper mid-market and tier-one customer space. Key verticals include automotive, manufacturing and warehousing. Several multinational customer wins wouldl be announced shortly, he said.

ePartners has about 20 staff and aims to double its headcount in the next year. Madeisky said further acquisitions were also planned.

"We have a dual strategy: to employ people with strong, industry experience who can chase new business. We're also looking for acquisitions which bring us strong industry skill sets," he said.

Madeisky cited rapid consolidation within the software vendor community as well as increased investment by mid-market customers into business-oriented technologies.

This was putting more focus on integrated applications, he said.

"We're seeing many of the larger players, such as Microsoft and Oracle, coming into this market to give customers a stable platform," Madeisky said. "The days of people doing RFPs and only looking at functionality are fast coming to an end: customers need these solutions to be around in 5-10 years' time and support new technologies as they are introduced.

"The longevity Microsoft brings to the ERP market means we can build something substantial. We're trying to push a total business solution that is all threaded together, which makes for a more stable product."

The WMS Bloatware Battles

2007-12-14T19:48:00.000+01:00

In October, HighJump Software introduced Warehouse Advantage 45. ARC was briefed in more detail this week about this version of their Warehouse Management System (WMS) software. This solution is designed to be implemented in 45 days.

There is a tradeoff between the amount of functionality a software package offers and the speed with which it can be implemented. The more functionality, the more “bloated” the package, the longer it takes to implement. Until a few years ago, HighJump competed mainly among Tier 2 customers (customers with revenues between $250 million and $1 Billion) who did not need a complex solution but did want a solution that implemented quickly, had a good Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), and was flexible. It seemed to this analyst, that HighJump examined requests from customers for added functionality more closely, and was more reluctant to add new functionality, because they wanted to protect their TCO and speed advantages.

Then a few years ago, at their annual user conference, they announced that they wanted to greatly beef up the functionality of their package and become more competitive with feature rich solutions from Manhattan Associates and RedPrairie. Inevitably, with time, the speed to implement differentiation began to deteriorate. Last year, ARC called several companies that had implemented WMS from the leading Best of Breed suppliers that had implemented within the last three years. We found that with warehouses of similar complexity, HighJump implemented no faster at the first site than their main competitors. Their solution did implement faster in multi-site rollouts and retained flexibility advantages (the ability to make changes to the software without the vendor’s help as processes changed).

HighJump, with Warehouse Advantage 45, has in a sense gone back to their roots. They are selling a solution designed to be implemented in 45 days for warehouses with at most 20 concurrent users, but based on the same software code base as their main solution. This has been attempted by other Best of Breeds in this market with limited success. Some suppliers that want to sell to Tier 2 and 3 companies now have WMS solutions based on different platforms and sell the less complex solution to companies that don’t need all the bells and whistles.

HighJump may well succeed where others have failed in achieving fast implementations with a software code base that is feature rich. How do they plan to achieve this?

First of all, customers get a simpler configuration. If they want something complex, like task interleaving, they buy and implement that capability only after the base implementation is completed in the 45 day project. Secondly, they have a Playbook that rigidly defines what HighJump is responsible for and what the customer is responsible for on a day by day basis. At any time it is possible to know if a project is ahead, behind, or on schedule. In short, there is more process rigor around the implementation methodology than I remember seeing in previous attempts to quickly implement complex software. Thirdly, they also insist that their customers get 30 hours of training before the project kicks off.

Finally, they have developed a Web-based “Warehouse Wizard” designed to allow companies to more quickly map their physical layout to the logical warehouse contained in the software. This solution has shortcuts analogous to Macros in spreadsheets designed to speed certain routine, repeatable processes.

From a pricing standpoint, this solution is offered at an attractive price compared to their, and others, higher end solutions. But the price is still, perhaps, about a third higher than solutions from Accellos RadioBeacon and IntelliTrack. However, they argue that with IntelliTrack and Radio Beacon there is limited ability to grow into a more complex solution if needed.

With Warehouse Advantage 45, HighJump in particular is targeting, in the near term, 3 groups of customers. First, Anheuser-Busch has mandated that their distributors, many of whom are small, implement WMS. This is one target group.

Secondly, one of the largest problems Third Party Logistics providers have is on-boarding new customers. Their architecture, they argue, makes this easier in their solution than their competitors.

Finally, they use Micorosft technologies and have become almost pure in their use of Microsoft technologies for reporting, BI, portal etc. in their platform. They are looking to get better aligned with Microsoft and sell into the Microsoft Axapta ERP user base. My advice to them, if they chose to go this route, is to make the look and feel if their solution seamless to Axapta, such that a manager would not know whether they are in Axapta or in HighJump.

In conclusion, a solution rich if functions and features is good. But for less complex warehouses, speed of implementation and TCO are key. It will be interesting to follow this solution/methodology and see if they can succeed where others have failed.

Professional Advantage named part of elite Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle

2007-12-13T19:52:00.000+01:00

Professional Advantage has been named to the Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle, an accomplishment earned by firms whose sales achievement ranks them at the top echelon of the Microsoft Dynamics global network of value-added reselling partners.

Membership in this elite group recognises outstanding partners whose commitment to customers is reflected in their constant dedication to achieving high levels of customer satisfaction, active pursuit of product and technological advancement, and impressive sales performance.

“We are pleased to welcome Professional Advantage into the Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle,” said Microsoft Tami Reller, corporate vice president, Microsoft.

“By achieving Inner Circle recognition, Professional Advantage is at the top level of the premier partner channel in the industry. We congratulate them and thank them for their commitment to Microsoft, our customers and solutions.”

“This is the ninth consecutive year Professional Advantage has been named in the Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle,” said Derek Rippingale, joint managing director, Professional Advantage.

“It represents a continued focus and dedication by our team to ensure customers get the best possible experience dealing with us. We’ve made a commitment to improving performance of our customers’ organisations and we believe that is rewarded with customer loyalty and increased revenues.”

Professional Advantage specialises in several Microsoft Dynamics products including Dynamics GP, Dynamics AX and Dynamics CRM as well as Microsoft business intelligence and portal technology.

Brandbase USA, Inc. Finds Its Ticket to Ride with Microsoft Dynamics™ AX and

2007-12-13T17:37:00.000+01:00

Winston-Salem, NC - Dec 13, 2007 (PRN): Sunrise Technologies, Inc. announces that Brandbase USA, Inc. has chosen Microsoft Dynamics AX as its new ERP solution. Brandbase needed a flexible system that would have the ability to grow with them as their business expands across the globe.

Brandbase specializes in brand cultivation for the action sports industry. Located in Broomfield, CO, Brandbase has a unique set of offerings to assist young companies with growing their brands into major worldwide players. These companies can depend on Brandbase to provide expertise in sales, marketing, production, and distribution of their products to the global marketplace. Brandbase turned to Sunrise Technologies for a back-end ERP system that would allow them to be flexible to the needs of this customer base.

Brandbase was looking for a solution that combined cutting edge technology with a solid reputation. Dynamics AX is an adaptable solution that can work with our evolutionary product line. Sunrise has phenomenal experience in our industry and we knew that they would provide the best service for Brandbase, said Doug Saunders, VP of Operations at Brandbase.

We are very excited to add Brandbase to our growing list of apparel customers, states John Pence, President of Sunrise Technologies. As a life-long skier and father of snowboarders I am also delighted that Sunrise has an opportunity to work with a company in such a high-performance industry. Our TAF solution is a perfect fit for a company like Brandbase.”

Sunrise Technologies was founded in 1994 as a consulting services company and has implemented many successful supply chain and ERP solutions. Sunrise is a Microsoft Gold Certified partner and is specifically recognized by Microsoft as the Microsoft Dynamics AX provider and industry expert for the textile, apparel, and footwear industries. Sunrise is headquartered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina with regional offices in Dallas, Texas and Los Angeles, California and a technology center in China.

Advanced Systems (ASi) Launches New Website PR

2007-12-10T18:58:00.000+01:00

Good Day!

Please find attached and embedded below a new press release from Advanced Systems Integration (ASi) regarding the November 30^th, 2007 release of a Microsoft case study highlighting the successful implementation and training support delivered by ASi at Zurn, a major U.S. plumbing manufacturer.

Please advise if you have any questions.

Happy Holidays,

-Lisa

Lisa Aschenbrenner

Marketing Manager

Advanced Systems Integration (ASi)

(949) 597-2170 X-113

www.advancedsystemsintegration.com

Microsoft Releases New Case Study Highlighting Successful Partnership between Advanced Systems Integration and Zurn

Advanced Systems Integration Helps Empower Major Plumbing Manufacturer with Successful Implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX

LAKE FOREST, CA – December 10, 2007 – Advanced Systems Integration, Inc. (ASi) a Gold Certified Microsoft Dynamics AX Solution & Training Partner is pleased to announce the release of a new Microsoft authorized case study on its recent Microsoft Dynamics AX implementation and training support at Zurn.

The new case study, funded and written by Microsoft, highlights the immediate benefits and cost savings that Zurn was able to achieve after the successful implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta) by ASi, including:

· Maintaining Low Total Cost of Ownership

· Eliminating Redundancies and Automating Processes

· Increasing Inventory Visibility

Zurn, based in Erie, Pennsylvania, manufactures commercial-grade plumbing products and accessories. The company’s three incompatible enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems (including Oracle) made it difficult to efficiently share information across business units. Upper management was left without a real-time enterprise view of sales and warehouse data, resulting in costly redundancies. With help from Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Advanced Systems Integration, Zurn deployed Microsoft Dynamics AX business management software, which addressed IT concerns at Zurn and provided the IT team the means to fix, operate, and customize the ERP system on its own.

For complete details and a copy of the November 30, 2007 released case study, please visit the ASi website at: www.advancedsystemsintegration.com or Microsoft Case Studies at: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000001073.

About ASi: Advanced Systems Integration, Inc. is a Gold Certified Microsoft Dynamics™ AX partner founded in 1991 that delivers comprehensive enterprise class applications that improve customer relations, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across supply chains and business operations. ASi also offers industry specific extensions integrated with Microsoft Dynamics AX platform (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta). ASi uses its industry focus, enterprise software domain expertise and transparent agile implementation methodology to provide its clients an enterprise class solution that is implemented properly the first time. ASi is based in Lake Forest, CA and has sales offices in strategically located throughout the United States. Please visit the company’s web site at www.advancedsystemsintegration.com

About Zurn: Zurn was founded in 1900 in Erie, PA. Zurn originally manufactured a patented backwater valve, and now manufactures and distributes one of the largest plumbing products packages in the world! Zurn includes: the Specification Drainage Operation, AquaFlush flush valves, AquaSense sensor-operated plumbing products, AquaSpec commercial faucets, Wilkins, Zurn Light Commercial, Flo-Thru, the Chemical Drainage Systems, Zurn PEX Plumbing Systems and Zurn Radiant Heat. This wide variety of products and its commitment to quality make Zurn a leading manufacturer of plumbing products and accessories. Please visit the company’s web site at www.zurn.com.

For more information on this release, please contact:

Lisa Aschenbrenner

Marketing Manager

Advanced Systems Integration, Inc.

(949) 597-2170

lisaa@advancedsystemsintegration.com

Florida Healthcare Agency Chooses Microsoft Technology to Heal Its Reporting Maladies

2007-12-04T19:53:00.000+01:00

Lakeside Behavioral Healthcare will switch to Microsoft Dynamics GP to expand its capabilities for financial reporting and purchasing.

REDMOND, Wash., Dec. 4 -- Microsoft Corp. today announced that Lakeside Behavioral Healthcare has selected Microsoft Dynamics GP as the technology it will use to cure its previous accounting and reporting pain points.

Lakeside Behavioral is a not-for-profit agency serving people with mental illness and substance-use disorders in Orange County, Fla. The company, with $37 million in revenues, maintains 165 inpatient beds and a number of outpatient programs. The agency had been operating with a UNIX-based software system known as CMHC/MIS, which is specific to the healthcare and behavioral healthcare industry. But the software's accounting capabilities for general ledger and financial reporting were weak, and it offered no inventory management capabilities. Much of the reporting required manual processes such as entering data into Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheets.

"The financial software we've been using most likely will be phased out in the next couple years. We wanted to be ahead of the curve with Microsoft Dynamics GP," said Carla Caponi, CFO of Lakeside Behavioral.

After considering other products, including Sage Software, Lakeside Behavioral chose Microsoft Dynamics GP version 10.0 because of a number of advantages that it offered, including the following:

-- Integration. The Microsoft Dynamics solution works like the Microsoft
Office system and other Microsoft products that the agency is using, so
it is familiar to users and works with their existing Microsoft
technologies.
-- Time savings. The agency's previous software was outdated and
cumbersome, requiring data to be manually entered into Excel
spreadsheets. Microsoft Dynamics GP will save considerable time through
its robust reporting capability, and the ability to view real-time
refreshable information from Microsoft Dynamics GP in Excel, Microsoft
SQL Server Reporting Services or SmartLists.
-- Improved reporting. With Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft FRx
software, Lakeside Behavioral gains flexible and reliable reporting
options previously unavailable to its staff. In addition, now reports
can be stored electronically in a central location for easy access via
the Internet or Microsoft Office Outlook, ending the agency's practice
of printing, sorting, stapling and stuffing reports into intracompany
envelopes.
-- Proven technology. Lakeside Behavioral liked that Microsoft Dynamics GP
was widely used by other companies that had gone through a similar
selection process; and because it is familiar to many accounting
professionals, future hires in finance will be easier to train.
-- Advanced features. The agency felt Microsoft Dynamics GP offered a wide
set of features that the organization could grow into so that the
technology would continue to support Lakeside Behavioral as it expanded
in size and in its scope of work.

Lakeside Behavioral is working with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner InterDyn-CFO Consulting of Orlando, Fla., to implement its new Microsoft solution. InterDyn is installing a number of modules that will automate much of Lakeside Behavioral's business processes, including general ledger, payables, bank reconciliation, financial reporting and distribution modules for consumables, improving accuracy and business productivity and significantly accelerating the reporting process. With online financial statements, management will be able to drill down to source documents, instead of flipping through multiple spreadsheets.

"Microsoft Dynamics GP ultimately will mean executives can put their hands on business information in a more timely manner to help them make better decisions with less data manipulation," said Jeff Petersen, business development manager at InterDyn-CFO.

The new system also will enable the agency, for the first time, to expense consumable items to various departments and to establish a purchase order process. "Lakeside has never had a formal purchase order system," Caponi said. "We anticipate that with Microsoft Dynamics GP, we will be able to accumulate better information about our vendors and our purchasing habits to help monitor and control spending."

The Microsoft Dynamics GP business management solution will be integrated into the agency's ADP software and the CMHC/MIS clinical package, while replacing CMHC/MIS's general-ledger software.

"With its Microsoft SQL Server platform, Microsoft Dynamics GP will enable Lakeside Behavioral to integrate all its information into a single database for faster, more accurate accounting and reporting," said Michael Park, corporate vice president for U.S. Dynamics business at Microsoft. "The agency will be a healthier organization, with technology that will contribute to its growth and its mission in the community."

About Lakeside Behavioral Healthcare

Lakeside Behavioral Healthcare is a private, not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charitable organization that provides comprehensive community behavioral healthcare services to the Orange County, Fla., community. Lakeside has been serving the community for over 20 years.

About InterDyn CFO-Consulting

InterDyn is a global partner for Microsoft Business Solutions, with more than 500 certified professionals in locations around the world. InterDyn is dedicated to the sales, consulting, service and support of all Microsoft Business Solutions, including Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics AX, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. It supports more than 3,500 customers worldwide.

About Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of financial, customer relationship and supply chain management solutions that helps businesses work more effectively. Delivered through a network of channel partners providing specialized services, these integrated, adaptable business management solutions work like and with familiar Microsoft software to streamline processes across an entire business.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Advanced Systems (ASi) Launches New Website PR

2007-10-23T21:57:00.000+02:00

Good Day! Please find attached and embedded below a recent press release from Advanced Systems Integration (ASi) regarding its recent launch of a newly redesigned website.

Please advise if you have any questions.

Regards,

Lisa

Lisa Aschenbrenner

Marketing Manager

Advanced Systems Integration (ASi)

(949) 597-2170 X-113

www.advancedsystemsintegration.com

Advanced Systems Integration (ASi) Launches New Website

New Site Features Comprehensive Product Information on Microsoft Dynamics AX and Boasts Streamlined Navigation with a New Appearance.

LAKE FOREST, CA – October 19, 2007 – Advanced Systems Integration, Inc. (ASi) a Microsoft Dynamics AX Gold Certified Partner is delighted to announce it has recently launched an all new website. The company’s website address has remained the same www.advancedsystemsintegration.com, but the new site features new and detailed product information on Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta) as well as streamlined navigation menus with an all new appearance.

The new site was designed to include something for all visitors seeking additional and detailed information on Microsoft Dynamics AX and Advanced Systems Integration.

· Customers just starting their ERP software search will find the full offering of Microsoft Dynamics AX product literature and valuable on-demand product demonstrations. The key product features and benefits for Microsoft Dynamics AX can also be reviewed by company role such as IT/technical versus sales and marketing. Typically, each business area in an organization has unique and specific areas of interest.

· Site visitors seeking more information on ASi and its success in the Microsoft Dynamics AX partner channel will find the company background, key executive bios, client testimonials, and important case studies now included on the site.

· For those companies already using Microsoft Dynamics AX, the new site features information on the AX-SMART training facility. Website visitors can search for courses applicable to their role in the organization, review the detailed course outline, obtain hotel and driving direction to ASi, and register online for a Microsoft Dynamics AX end user training course.

“Response to the new site has been exceptional,” say Jeff Onesto, Director of Business Development for ASi. Jeff goes on the indicate, “The site was built using the feedback of current ASi customers and was modified to answer the most common questions and areas of interest typically encountered as business professionals are learning, researching and navigating the complex ERP business software market. Jeff notes that a website can not replace the important role of live person-to-person interaction and product demos but he adds, “A useful website is important as it fulfills the needs of customers seeking 24/7 availability of information and connectedness in today’s fast paced business environment.”

About ASi: Advanced Systems Integration, Inc. (ASi) is a Microsoft Dynamics™ AX Gold Certified Business and Learning Solutions Partner. Founded in 1991, ASi delivers comprehensive enterprise-class applications that improve customer relations, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across supply chains and business operations. ASi also offers industry specific extensions integrated with Microsoft Dynamics AX platform. ASi uses its industry focus, enterprise software domain expertise, and transparent agile implementation methodology to provide its clients an enterprise-class solution that is implemented properly the first time. ASi is based in Lake Forest, CA and maintains sales offices in strategic locations throughout the United States. Please visit the company’s newly redesigned web site at www.advancedsystemsintegration.com

About Microsoft Dynamics™ AX: Microsoft Dynamics AX is an adaptable business management solution that enables companies and their workers to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics AX works like and with familiar Microsoft Office software, with comprehensive features that help automate and streamline business processes, and connect users with global customers, business partners and subsidiaries in a way that helps drive business success. http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/ax/default.mspx

For more information on this release, please contact:

Lisa Aschenbrenner

Marketing Manager

Advanced Systems Integration, Inc.

(949) 597-2170

lisaa@advancedsystemsintegration.com

Press Release Submission

2007-07-11T23:06:00.001+02:00

Good Day! Attached and following is a recent press release from
Advanced Systems Integration (ASi) regarding Microsoft's release of a
case study on ASi's implementation at Sekisui TA Industries. Your
inclusion on the blog is much appreciated.

Regards,

Lisa

Lisa Aschenbrenner
Marketing Manager
Advanced Systems Integration (ASi)
(949) 597-2170 X-113
www.advancedsystemsintegration.com

Microsoft Publishes Sekisui TA Industries Case Study
Advanced Systems Integration Helps Global Package-Sealing Manufacturer
Reduce Costs and Gain Control over Manufacturing Processes with
Successful Implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX

LAKE FOREST, CA - July 11, 2007 - Advanced Systems Integration, Inc.
(ASi) a Microsoft Dynamics AX Gold Certified Solution & Training Partner
is pleased to announce the release of a Microsoft authorized case study
on its recent Microsoft Dynamics AX implementation at Sekisui TA
Industries (STA).

This new case study, funded and written by Microsoft, highlights the
many benefits and cost savings STA was able to immediately achieve after
the successful implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX by ASi. STA is a
global manufacturer of package-sealing applications with headquarters in
California, manufacturing operations in Tennessee. The company had
maintained a number of disparate systems to support its accounting,
shipping, and production processes, which often resulted in manual,
duplicate date entry and frequent errors. With the help of ASi, STA
deployed Microsoft Dynamics AX which enabled them to lower variable and
fixed costs by streamlining business processes and improved customer
service.

STA also implemented several of Advanced Systems Integration's AX-SMART
business solutions such as Multi-Plant, WorkFlow and Quality Control.
ASi's AX-SMART Multi-Plant enables organizations with centralized
accounting, administration, and sales with multiple production and
distribution facilities to operate seamlessly as a single,
highly-efficient company. With the AX-SMART Quality Control module,
STA's long-term goal of obtaining ISO certification is made possible.
STA obtains the ability to automate and fully track quality management
across all facets of the company including production, inventory
control, sales, and shipping.

For complete details and a copy of the June 29, 2007 released case
study, please visit the Advanced Systems Integration website at:
www.advancedsystemsintegration.com
Or Microsoft Case Studies at:
http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=40000003
01

About ASi: Advanced Systems Integration, Inc. is a Microsoft Gold
Certified Dynamics(tm) AX Partner founded in 1991 that delivers
comprehensive enterprise class applications that improve customer
relations, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across
supply chains and business operations. ASI also offers industry
specific extensions integrated with Microsoft Dynamics AX platform. ASI
uses its industry focus, enterprise software domain expertise and
transparent agile implementation methodology to provide its clients an
enterprise class solution that is implemented properly the first time.
ASI is based in Lake Forest, Calif and has sales offices in strategic
locations throughout the United States. Please visit the company's web
site at www.advancedsystemsintegration.com

About Sekisui TA Industries: Sekisui TA Industries, headquartered in
Brea, California, has been manufacturing and marketing a variety of
acrylic pressure-sensitive products since 1976. The company also
markets hot melt and natural rubber carton sealing tapes, supplemental
carton sealing equipment, tape heads, dispensers, case erectors, paper,
cloth and reinforced tapes and SOPRA shrink film. Sekisui TA Industries
is a subsidiary of Sekisui Chemical Company of Japan and is the largest
producer of emulsion acrylic tape products in North America. STA,
Supreme, Cohere, Superior, Adhere and SOPRA are trademarks of Sekisui TA
Industries.

About Microsoft Dynamics AX: Microsoft Dynamics AX is an adaptable
business management solution that enables companies and their workers to
make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics AX
works like and with familiar Microsoft Office software, with
comprehensive features that help automate and streamline business
processes, and connect users with global customers, business partners
and subsidiaries in a way that helps drive business success.
http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/ax/default.mspx

About Microsoft: Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the
worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people
and businesses realize their full potential.

www.microsoft.com

For more information on this release, please contact:
Lisa Aschenbrenner
Marketing Manager
Advanced Systems Integration, Inc.
(949) 597-2170
lisaa@advancedsystemsintegration.com

Microsoft Dynamics AX – Logistics: An inventory optimising software

2007-07-08T09:12:00.000+02:00

Jul 8 2007 - Microsoft Dynamics AX - Logistics connects production, purchasing and sales to help you reduce costs through optimised purchasing and inventory management.

Key benefits:
1 - Optimise inventory levels by better matching supply with customer demand;
2 - Improve your inventory management with detailed insight into your inventory and item tracking;
3 - Improve your materials requirements planning with flexible options for managing bills of material; and
4 - Create bills of material with lesser time in an easy way using the graphical BOM designer.

Microsoft Dynamics AX Logistics gives you the flexibility to manage inventory and purchasing according to your needs, with functionality to support forecasting, classifying and tracking inventory and the efficient creation and management of bills of material.

Microsoft Dynamics AX is an all-in-one solution that gives you real-time connectivity across your business. Logistics exchanges information with many other functional areas in the solution including Production, Master Planning, Trade, Finance and CRM to help ensure a high degree of synergy between logistics and other key areas of your business.

Optimise inventory levels:
Microsoft Dynamics AX Logistics offers better forecasting functionality that supports long-term planning and helps you to optimise inventory levels.

You can create sales and purchase forecasts based on items and time periods and use an unlimited number of forecast models to simulate various future scenarios. To project cash flow, you can transfer item forecasts to the general ledger forecast.

Get detailed insight into your inventory:
Inventory dimensions are better tools for classifying your inventory according to storage and item characteristics, so that you can get a detailed overview of your inventory whenever you need it.

You can track items throughout the system using batch and serial numbers. You can also view documents related to an item using a simple tree-graphic from anywhere in the system.

At any time, you have direct access to information telling you where items were used and where they can be found.

Flexible management of bills of material:
Microsoft Dynamics AX Logistics gives you an efficient and flexible means of managing bills of material (BOM) to ensure you get the accurate costing and materials requirements information.

An infinite number of BOM levels can be managed in an efficient manner and accurate consumption of raw materials can be calculated using formulas specific to each component. Price calculations, using cost price, can be done for each level of the BOM, giving you accurate and detailed pricing information which is updated throughout the solution.

Multiple BOM versions can be created to provide maximum flexibility and the version date can be used to control the validity of particular BOM versions. Previous BOM versions can be accessed and reused at any time.

Create bills of material quickly and easily:
The Graphical BOM Designer is a graphical suite used to create and manage BOMs based on Microsoft drag-and-drop technology. The familiar and user-friendly environment makes it faster and easier to construct BOMs using a graphical tree-structure. The BOM designer displays all levels and components of the BOM, and you can drag and drop relevant items from the inventory table into the BOM.

The BOM designer also displays the route for the current BOM, allowing you to drag and drop items from the BOM into the operations on the route where they are to be consumed.

This helps to achieve more accurate lead time calculations when scheduling production in Microsoft Dynamics AX Master Planning.

Scalable Data Systems provides customisation services for implementing Microsoft Dynamics AX –Logistics.

WellPoint announces launch of WellPoint Energy Broker

2007-07-05T09:09:00.000+02:00

CALGARY, July 5 - WellPoint Systems Inc. ("WellPoint" or the
"Company") (TSX-V:WPS), the premier supplier of innovative software solutions
to the energy sector, is pleased to announce the launch of WellPoint Energy
Broker; a solution designed to provide multi-commodity marketing functionality
that will revolutionize the way midstream companies run and measure their
business. A detailed demonstration of the product was unveiled yesterday at
the Calgary Petroleum Club. A second presentation of the company's latest
technology innovation is planned for September in Houston, Texas.

WellPoint Energy Broker breaks new ground by offering an integrated
energy software solution that enables multi-commodity deals and transactions,
forecasting, scheduling, nominations and contract settlement. With unmatched
support for the multiple currencies and languages needed to run local and
international operations, WellPoint Energy Broker is the industry's first
modular application to fully combine independent trading departments into a
single integrated entity.

Based on a Microsoft Dynamics AX framework, WellPoint Energy Broker is
completely configurable, exponentially scalable and the underlying technology
supports the kind of innovation and process precision controls that empower
marketing teams to drive new growth to the bottom line.

"WellPoint Energy Broker is the product of more than fourteen months of
insightful recommendations and feedback from customers, prospects and industry
experts", says Tom Mawhinney, President of WellPoint Systems. "We are
extremely confident that the combination of this invaluable market expertise
and our world-class technology framework will make WellPoint Energy Broker a
safe bet to become the de facto standard in the industry in a relatively short
period of time."

Junction Solutions Releases New White Paper on the Value of ERP Solutions Designed Specifically for Food and Beverage Industry

2007-07-05T09:06:00.000+02:00

Paper discusses new technologies for improved lot tracking on batch-processed goods.

LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill.-- Junction Solutions, a leading provider of vertical industry-focused enterprise software and services built on the Microsoft platform, today released a new white paper entitled “Tracing the Genealogy of an Outbreak.” The paper reveals the benefits associated with implementing industry-relevant ERP software, including an increased level of accuracy, efficiency, and accountability.

Until recently, the ability to quickly trace contaminated goods back to the source has been unreliable and disorganized. Many food and beverage processors still rely on hand-recorded entries or software designed for discreet manufacturing environments. The E. coli-tainted spinach outbreak, where it took weeks instead of hours to find the source of the contamination, is just the latest example showing the consequences of such delays. Nick Bova, General Manager, Food & Beverage at Junction Solutions, contends that ERP software designed for a batch production environment is the answer to this troublesome issue.

“This software provides automated, end-to-end management of every lot, allowing items such as produce to be traced both backward to the individual grower and field, and forward to the batch number of every finished product in which that lot was used,” explains Bova. “This complete transparency from field to shelf reduces the time it takes to perform a trace from hours (or days in the case of a record error) to just minutes. Processors are thus able to react quickly in order to protect themselves and their customers while assuring they are able to meet Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines.”

Copies of this white paper, “Tracing the Genealogy of an Outbreak,” are available for free download at www.junctionsolutions.com/programs/whitepaper.aspx

PrecisionPoint Software and Zap Announce OEM Agreement for Microsoft Dynamics Business Warehouse

2007-07-02T20:50:00.000+02:00

Partnership Promises Microsoft Dynamics ERP Customers in Asia Pacific a Complete Financial, Customer and Supply Chain Intelligence Solution in Days Instead of Months

LONDON and BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA--(Marketwire - July 2, 2007) - PrecisionPoint Software today announced that it has signed an OEM agreement to provide its Business Warehouse product for Microsoft Dynamics as an integrated data warehouse platform for Zap Business Intelligence, a web-based Business Intelligence application. The combined Zap Business Intelligence/Business Warehouse product will deliver a simple, easy to use and scalable Business Intelligence solution at a fraction of the cost and time that it would take to build a data warehouse using traditional methods and tools.

Garth D. Laird, Managing Director of Zap and former Regional Vice President for Navision, said, "Zap recognizes PrecisionPoint Software as the world leader in Business Warehouse solutions for Microsoft Dynamics. This OEM agreement means that we can now offer the combined Zap/PrecisionPoint Business Warehouse product as a complete BI solution which is rapid to deploy and provides trusted, reconciled information across the enterprise including Finance, Sales and Operations."

Aimed at mid-market and low enterprise market customers running Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Navision and Axapta), PrecisionPoint Business Warehouse is a complete reconciled business warehouse optimized for Microsoft SQL Server. Zap Business Intelligence provides knowledge workers with a top down view of their business through interactive queries, reports, dashboards and scorecards with user defined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Fully Microsoft .Net compliant, Zap Business Intelligence objects can be viewed in the Zap web portal or Microsoft SharePoint.

"Partnering with Zap is great for our customers and resellers who can benefit from the easy deployment of thin web clients to a wide audience of business users beyond the Finance department," according to Dr Nigel Geary, founder and CEO of PrecisionPoint Software. "Like us, Zap is an expanding and vibrant company that really understands the BI requirements of mid-size enterprises."

The OEM agreement covers the Asia Pacific region which includes Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, India and South Korea through Zap offices in Brisbane, Sydney and Singapore and resellers throughout Asia Pacific.

About Zap

Zap Technology Pty Ltd is an international software company that creates solutions to help businesses improve corporate performance. Zap unites data from many systems to present the big picture for understanding and planning performance. Zap offers complete, affordable solutions that are easy to use, scalable, and run on the Microsoft® platform. Zap is a privately held company headquartered in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. For more information, visit www.zaptechnology.com.

About PrecisionPoint Software

PrecisionPoint Software is the company that brings sophisticated business intelligence (BI) to Microsoft® Dynamics™ ERP systems, including Dynamics NAV, Dynamics AX and Dynamics GP (formerly Navision, Axapta and Great Plains). The fully automated PrecisionPoint Business Warehouse offers the lowest ongoing cost of ownership for a world-class, integrated business warehouse and the benefit of the mid-market. PrecisionPoint provides an enterprise-caliber platform for reporting and analysis that is fully compatible with SQL Server 2005™, Microsoft® Office 2007™, Reporting Services and SharePoint. There are hundreds of satisfied end-users in production with PrecisionPoint solutions at companies including Basic Chemical Solutions, Boehringer, Habitat for Humanity, Harrods Aviation, John West Foods, Ryvita, Rotary Watches, Sega Europe, TomTom and Twinings.

PrecisionPoint Software is headquartered in Bracknell, UK, with a US HQ in Waltham, Massachusetts and sales and support offices in New Jersey, and Johannesburg, S. Africa. For additional sales, distribution or solution information, please visit www.precision-point.com

Customer Credit Claim Management module from Scalable Data Systems

2007-06-28T20:42:00.000+02:00

Scalable Data Systems Customer Credit Claim Management module is specifically designed to work with Microsoft Dynamics AX’s Accounts Receivable.

The Customer Credit Claims Management module enables claims to be entered and settled against customer invoices.

It has been designed to suit organisations that have high volume of sales and credit claims with their customers.

Currently within Microsoft Dynamics AX, when an invoice is short paid pending a credit note, open balances are displayed on customer accounts.

Within organisations that have customers with high sales turnovers this can cause the Open Transactions of a customer’s account to inaccurately reflect their balance compared to the customers account because the customer account sees the invoice as settled by the claim.

SDS’s Customer Credit Claim Management module allows for credit claims to be entered and settled against invoices.

A debit memo is automatically raised as a separate document offsetting the credit and represents an unapproved claim until the approved credit note is applied to this debit.

This ensures that the Open Transactions for Customers reflect the status expected by your customer and substantially simplifies account management and reconciliation.

The Claims form allows entry of a claim number, date, reference, claim amount and currency. Claims are entered as part of the cash receipt entry allowing a single point of data entry.

Once a claim is verified, a returned item sales order can then be created. When creating a sales order of this type, a Claim Number can be entered.

This claim number will be used to settle the returned item invoice with the debit general journal created when the claim was posted.

Periodically, a claim matching process can be run which will settle return item invoices with their corresponding debit general journals.

Key features:

- When claims are identified they are transferred into a separate account for easy identification, investigation and processing
- Allows account receivable open transaction accounts to reflect accurate customer balances

Ideaca delivers Microsoft for Catalyst Paper Corporation

2007-06-25T20:47:00.000+02:00

Ideaca delivers Microsoft Dynamics CRM fully integrated to SharePoint and SAP for Catalyst Paper Corporation Vancouver, BC – June 26, 2007: Ideaca Knowledge Services (www.ideaca.com), a leading Canadian-based technology consulting firm and Gold Certified Microsoft partner, announced today that Catalyst Paper Corporation, one of North America's largest mechanical paper companies, has now fully implemented Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Catalyst and Ideaca worked together and developed a solution termed the “Outlook Sales Portal,” a single seamless application that brings together Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft SharePoint Services and SAP data that is accessed directly from Microsoft Outlook.

The focus of the implementation was to provide a single common application for users within the business to access key customer information and record their data.

The integrated CRM solution delivered by Ideaca has allowed Catalyst to make more efficient sales decisions, improve product marketing, solve business problems and further develop strategic views of their business.

“The flexibility and ease of integration of Dynamics CRM provides us with a single tool where our employees can access all their account related information and documents regardless of whether they are online or offline” said Stacey Wells, Manager of Service Assurance, Catalyst Paper.

“Ideaca worked with us to deliver an extremely innovative solution that integrates several systems to provide a seamless and intuitive data source for our employees to use going forward.”

“Catalyst Paper is one of British Columbia’s largest and most respected companies and we are honoured to have them as a key customer.” said Muneer Hirji, CEO, Ideaca. “Ideaca’s deep experience with Dynamics CRM, SharePoint and SAP was instrumental to the success of this project and speaks to our ability to deliver an integrated solution that fits our clients’ specific business requirements.”

Columbus IT U.S. Posts Robust Growth - Gains Nine New Customers For First Quarter 2007

2007-06-25T20:45:00.000+02:00

Announcement Solidifies Columbus IT's Position as Global Leader in Microsoft Dynamics AX and Dynamics NAV ERP Sales, Service and Post Implementation Customer Satisfaction.

STAMFORD, Conn./EWORLDWIRE/June 25, 2007 --- Columbus IT U.S., announced today nine new customers for the first quarter of 2007. The new customers were a culmination of strategic business development efforts initiated in 2006 and culminated with significant high-profile new customers, including the Dallas Cowboys, that will significantly enhance Columbus IT's reputation in the North American and international ERP marketplace.

These four new Dynamics AX customers, and five new Dynamics NAV customers, aligns with Columbus IT's vertical industry strategy for retail, complex distribution and process manufacturing. The new customers, such as Absolut/Cruzan Rum, Phillips, Silver Spring Garden, Southern Specialties, Stahmann Farms and Seabreeze, illustrate that specialized industries are searching for fully integrated, customizable and scalable business solutions including Microsoft's Business Productivity products.

Referred to as "America's Team," the Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise in the National Football League based in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area in North Texas. The Dallas Cowboys are one of the most successful and popular teams in the history of the NFL, holding the league records for most consecutive winning seasons, the most NFL playoff appearances, the most NFL playoff victories, and the most Super Bowl appearances with a record five Super Bowl titles. The team currently plays their home games in Irving, Texas but they will be moving to a new stadium in nearby Arlington in 2009.

The Dallas Cowboys were seeking a Tier 1 technology partner to help them execute against their strategy to maximize their fan experience and grow their business. The Cowboys, with unique business requirements among all NFL franchises, represents, in addition to operating the football club, many diverse businesses including a significant wholesale and retail merchandising division. The Cowboys required a fully integrated solution to operate their various diverse companies and business processes as they prepare to open their new one billion dollar stadium.

Columbus IT joined with Microsoft across regions, business units and partners forming one cohesive team to work with the Dallas Cowboys organization over a 12-month period to evaluate and develop a complete Microsoft solution with Dynamics AX at the core. The scope of the solution is to address the needs of each business interest on a fully integrated basis as well as the technology requirements of the new stadium and related services.

"Our new customers join an impressive roster of national and global organizations whose expanded synergies will further ensure a positive impact on earning and enhance new growth opportunities abroad. This is a great accomplishment given the intense and incredible completion of today's global ERP marketplace, a competitive business environment where many ERP providers are struggling - but even greater, it proves that our dedicated staff, vision, development and distribution of our vertical solutions solidifies our position as the leading reseller of Dynamics AX and Dynamics NAV worldwide," says Michael Faulks, vice president of sales.

Columbus IT is a global technology consulting and software development company dedicated to improving customers' operations by implementing ERP, BI and CRM systems, and by developing high quality industry solutions. Industry specializations include retail, manufacturing, distribution, professional service, food and chemical processing, and more. Columbus IT has seven locations in the United States and employs over 100 dedicated people. Columbus IT continues to expand not only in North America but globally in 28 countries, with 1,000 employees providing over 6,000 customer hours each and every day. Columbus IT maintains one of the best track records in the industry, with over 5,000 successful implementations.

Microsoft awarded Columbus IT "Pinnacle Awards for Outstanding Business Achievements" in 2007 and 2006, as well as, "Global Partner of the Year Award in 2005." Columbus IT is also a "Inner Circle" member, an accomplishment earned by firms whose sales achievement ranks them at the top echelon of the Microsoft Business Solutions global network of value-added reselling partners, plus is a valued member of Microsoft's prestige's "President's Club." Learn more by visiting http://www.columbusit.com.

Kineticsware EMEA Wins Major Contract in the UK With TCSJOHNHUXLEY

2007-06-21T15:41:00.000+02:00

Global Casino Outfitters Select Kineticsware to Implement Microsoft Dynamics AX-Based Manufacturing, Service Management, Rental and Financial Applications to Their World-Wide Sites

REDDING, UK--(Marketwire - June 20, 2007) - Kineticsware, a global software company and Microsoft partner focused on customers in supply chain intensive industries, today announces that its European team has closed a major deal in the United Kingdom with TCSJOHNHUXLEY. TCSJOHNHUXLEY is a global manufacturer of gambling equipment based in UK with operations in Spain, United States, Canada, Australia, Russia, China and South Africa. The entire selection process took six weeks from initiation to close.

TCSJOHNHUXLEY has chosen Kineticsware to project manage and architect a Microsoft Dynamics AX solution for manufacturing, warehouse management, service and rental management, financial management and customer relationship management. Kineticsware is resourcing key aspects of the project such as technical consultancy, systems architecture, project and programme management, utilising its Kineticsware Implementation Methodology (KIM™), and collaborating with Microsoft partners Touchstone Group (rental management), Blue Rock Systems (service management) and eBECS (manufacturing) to deliver a complete solution.

TCSJOHNHUXLEY chose to work with Kineticsware to deliver a Microsoft Dynamics AX solution over two other partners and their software offerings. According to Henrik Petersen, Group IT Director for TCSJOHNHUXLEY, "We engaged our users in the software selection process, which informed our decision to select Microsoft Dynamics AX. On the partner side, Kineticsware's professionalism and 'army' of internal resources reassured us that they had the right level of knowledge, resource and commitment. It was very pleasant dealing with Kineticsware and I certainly have a feeling they will go the extra mile."

According to Paul White, Director of Microsoft Dynamics (UK), "Kineticsware engaged with us right out of the gate to ensure a successful win, which helps to explain why the deal was closed in record time. Kineticsware is providing a level of business consulting expertise that is usually reserved for the large enterprise as well as vertical software solutions and collaborating with a network of highly-regarded VAR partners to deliver functional expertise."

The first phase of the implementation will be rolled out and tested with 200 UK staff and planned for completion by end of 2007. The next wave in 2008 will see the application being rolled out to the entire global organisation, which operates in the world's most lucrative gambling hotspots including Macau, Moscow, and Las Vegas.

TCSJOHNHUXLEY expects the new system to improve efficiencies and support real time decision making. According to Petersen, "We're expecting the system to streamline our business processes and support our efforts to achieve 20 percent year-on-year growth and take us to the high end of the mid-market. Because the system will look and feel like any other Microsoft product, we expect people to embrace the applications and get up to speed quickly. Finally, by having one database, we'll have one version of the truth across the world -- that's ultimately what we're after."

About Kineticsware

Kineticsware is a global software company and Microsoft partner with unparalleled industry expertise. The company delivers adaptable business management solutions for supply chain-intensive companies in the high technology, consumer goods, apparel and textile value chains. Kineticsware software extends Microsoft Dynamics and helps customers gain competitive advantage by improving employee productivity, increasing competitive agility, and lowering operational costs. By giving medium-sized companies an experience historically only available to large enterprises, the company creates lasting business value for customers with the lowest possible risk and highest possible return.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Advanced Credit Management for Microsoft Dynamics AX from Scalable Data Systems

2007-06-20T15:51:00.000+02:00

Scalable Data Systems value-added module Advanced Credit Management is designed specifically for and fully integrated with Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Source: www.ferret.com.au

The Advanced Credit Management module provides additional credit management capabilities on top of those already available in standard Microsoft Dynamics AX.

This Add-on Solution provides the credit manager with a mechanism for holding sales orders until credit problems have been resolved.

Key benefits

- The Credit Controller has greater control over processing accounts on credit hold.
- The ability has been added to the standard Microsoft Dynamics AX credit control to allow Customers to be placed on credit hold when they have payments overdue, as well as when they have exceeded their credit limit.

Key features

- If trading terms are breached, a sales order posting is aborted and logged in a credit control table.
- Customers can be placed on credit hold when they have payments overdue, as well as when they have exceeded their credit limit.
- The ability to release orders for processing is limited to a defined user group.
- Limits can be set up to specify the amount that credit controllers can authorise for release.
- A number of days grace can be specified for defined trading terms.
- An audit trail is maintained for all credit releases.
Scalable Data Systems Advanced Credit Management has been specifically designed to work with the Microsoft Dynamics AX Accounts Receivable Module.

Currently within Microsoft Dynamics AX, if a sales order causes a customer to exceed their credit limit, a warning is displayed on the screen.

Scalable’s Advanced Credit Management adds an additional check to ensure that there are no invoices outstanding that have gone beyond the agreed credit terms. In addition to this, it puts a hold on customer processing.

Processing is placed on hold when:

- The customer’s credit limit is exceeded;
- The customer has overdue transactions.

If an attempt is made to post a sales order (e.g. confirmation, picking list etc) and one of these conditions is encountered, a reference is logged to a credit control table, and the posting process is aborted.

The credit controller can view these exceptions and is able to select exceptions for release, by ticking a check box, then pressing a Release button. After this process, the exception has a status of Released and sales order processing can be continued.

Each Microsoft Dynamics AX User who can release orders from Credit hold has authorisation limits set up for them in the standard Employee table.

A number of grace days can be allowed before a customer is placed on credit hold because of an overdue payment.

Microsoft Dynamics AX

Advanced Credit Management for Microsoft Dynamics AX is an add-on module designed specifically for Microsoft Dynamics AX, a customisable, scalable and global Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution that provides you with a fast and powerful way to gain a competitive advantage.

Microsoft Ships Updated Dynamics ERP Products

2007-06-20T15:47:00.000+02:00

Microsoft this week unveiled new releases of two of its ERP products, including Dynamics GP 10.0 and Dynamics SL 7.0. Users of the new ERP systems will find greater refinement in the graphical interfaces, including the new capability to interact with the ERP systems through their standard Office productivity applications.

Source: Alex Woodie, www.itjungle.com

Microsoft has done a lot of work on the interfaces with the new ERP products, including enhancements to the products themselves, and the introduction of the new Dynamics Client user interface. The Dynamics Client product, which was first unveiled in March at Microsoft's Convergence 2007 conference, allows users to access specific ERP business processes through their Microsoft Office products, most notably Outlook. The new software is very similar to the "Duet" interface that Microsoft and SAP developed for the business software giant's ERP suite.

Microsoft says it has made more than 100 functional enhancements to Dynamics GP 10.0, including a new "RoleTailored" user interface that is customizable depending on the users' roles and looks like Windows Vista and Office 2007. Version 10 also receives enhancements to business intelligence, a new workflow engine, a new "light" interface for occasional users, and integrated structured and unstructured search capabilities.

Likewise, Dynamics SL 7.0 will receive a spruced up RoleTailored interface that looks and functions more like the current crop of Vista and Office 2007 products. The software, which was written in Visual Basic 2005 and is .NET compliant, also offers better compatibility with other Microsoft products, including the Office 2007 system, SharePoint Services, SharePoint Server, and SQL Server 2005.

One Dynamics SL beta tester smitten with the new Dynamic Client is Brooke Davis, controller for Moeller Design and Development in Seattle. "We have quite a few people at Moeller who have never used any type of ERP or modular system, so for those people who are a little intimidated by modular systems, the new user interface gives it such a familiar feel," she says in a PressPass Q&A available on the Microsoft Web site. "We love it."

A Dynamics GP beta tester had similar things to say about the new interface in GP 10.0. "The feedback I've been getting is quite positive," says Ken Green, director of IT for Clearwater Seafoods in Bedford, Nova Scotia, in the Q&A. "People have definitely noticed that this version of Microsoft Dynamics GP is easier to use."

One new feature in GP 10.0 that stood out is Action Panes, a graphical "command bar" that sits at the top of the screen and allows users to filter and perform actions on multiple records without opening multiple windows. Green says Action Panes "virtually eliminate the need to search around for what to do next and how to do it. . . . Action Panes makes their [accounts payable clerks] job much easier and repetitive."

Dynamics Client became available last month for Dynamics AX 4.0, which was launched in June 2006. With the general availability of Dynamics GP 10.0 and Dynamics SL 7.0, users can now use Dynamics Client with those ERP products. Dynamics Client will also be included with the next planned release of Dynamics NAV, version 5.1, which is slated to ship later this year.

Microsoft is gradually merging its four disparate ERP products, including Dynamics GP (formerly Great Plains), Dynamics SL (formerly Solomon), Dynamics AX (formerly Axapta), and Dynamics NAV (formerly Navision) into a single unified code base. The company is either the fourth or fifth largest ERP vendor in the world by revenues, (the group that tracks such things, AMR Research, is due to produce its report on 2006 ERP spending), behind SAP, Oracle, and Infor. It has similar ERP revenues to Sage, which concentrates on the small to mid size (SMB) market.

Dynamics products are available in three versions, including Business Essentials, Advanced Management, and Advanced Management Enterprise. Depending on the product, the following modules will be available: Business Intelligence and Reporting 'Collaborative Workspace' Configuration and Development 'CRM' Field Services Management; Financial Management; Human Resource Management; Manufacturing; Project Accounting; and Supply Chain Management.

FRx Financial Reporter—professional edition from Scalable Data Systems

2007-06-19T15:57:00.000+02:00

FRx Financial Reporter—professional edition, makes it easy and fast for you to design, create, manage and distribute accurate financial information to those who need it, when they want it, the way they prefer to view it.

Source: www.ferret.com.au

It puts an end to the struggle of gathering and verifying data to close the books and then trying to produce accurate, readable and understandable financial reports.

FRx Financial Reporter—Professional Edition offers flexibility and powerful functionality, including three distinctive benefits: FRx Report Server-(one engine included), FRx WebView, and FRx instant!OLAP.

FRx Report Server—run more reports-faster and increase productivity

The FRx Report Server is designed to automate the production of reports that need to be run and distributed on a regular basis, and offers a scalable, high-speed report production environment, which can save you time and increase your organisation’s productivity.

Schedule Distribution- You can set the schedule for reports to be automatically generated and distributed, without ongoing interaction from you. Specify the frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) of report production, or by specific date and time of day to improve the efficiency of running a high volume of reports.

Save Time- Reports can be scheduled to run overnight or during off-peak hours and distributed automatically without any manual intervention on your part

Secure Distribution- Select when and how specific reports should be generated and distributed—via email or as a compressed and/or encrypted file, as a shortcut on a shared directory on the FRx Report Server, or over the Web or company Intranet using FRx WebView.

Security options allow authorised users to access only the information they should see, anytime, anywhere.

Manage Report Production- Check or change the status of report scheduling from your workstation—conveniently start, pause or stop the server or cancel reports that are in process.

Increase Productivity- Sending reports to the FRx Report Server for processing and distribution keeps your workstation free for other projects, enabling you to increase your productivity.

FRx Webview—publish financial reports to your company intranet or the web

FRx WebView allows you to securely publish, store, and manage FRx Financial Reporter reports over your Intranet or the Web. You can save time and provide easy access to reports for end users using only a Web browser while maintaining important user security.

Convenient access means empowering more users in the organisation with the financial information they need to make smarter business decisions.

Publish Reports to the Web- Use FRx Report Designer or the WebView administrator to publish secure reports generated in FRx Financial Reporter for access over your company Intranet or the Internet.

Convenient Access- Authorised users can access reports from anywhere in the world by simply accessing the WebView site, logging in, and viewing the reports online. No need to download email or buy additional client software.

Online and Report Security- End users can access reports using WebView via a password-protected site. Security can be specified at the report folder, report and at the reporting unit level to ensure a secure and confidential environment.

Drill Down Functionality - Users can view reports as well as drill down from summary information to transaction detail using only their Web browser. This important financial application enables users to be more informed, productive, and efficient.

Print Reports from the Web- WebView allows you to print reports including detail level information and Reporting Tree units.

FRx instant!OLAP —robust graphical analysis

FRx instant!OLAP lets you render and view multidimensional graphics directly from FRx Financial Reporter data—pie charts, bar graphs, or other graphical representations of data—allowing for richer visual analysis.

Using any one of the popular OLAP browsers available today, instant!OLAP can make your analysis and data presentations even more effective and significant by visually depicting important financial information.

Increase Efficiency- One report can be viewed and manipulated by each user to meet his or her information requirements, reducing the need to design and generate multiple views of one report.

Analyse Information- Take advantage of OLAP dimensions—including time series and OLAP drill-down based on row and tree hierarchy information—to visually show performance, trends, or comparison data.

Manipulate Data- Graphically demonstrate what-if scenarios.

Enhance Presentations- Include effective graphics in your presentations by visually presenting financial report information from FRx Financial Reporter.

Currency translation — complex currency translation for sophisticated needs

FRx Financial Reporter’s enhanced currency translation module is available for organisations needing sophisticated currency translation capability. This add-on module allows entries made in the general ledger’s home currency to be translated into specific currencies for reporting purposes, and is FASB52 compliant.

You can easily create multiple exchange rate tables from FRx Financial Reporter or access exchange rate table information maintained in your GL. Each row may be designated as either a spot rate, average rate or historical rate. This eliminates the need to store the calculated rates in an Excel file.

FRx Financial Reporter - gain control of your financial reporting process

FRx Financial Reporter—Professional Edition, makes it easy to gain immediate control of your financial reporting process by making it easy and fast to build, manage, and maintain complex financial reports. For marked improvements in efficiency and effectiveness, timely and accurate information, and accelerated decision making, the choice is clear—start experiencing the benefits of FRx Financial Reporter today.

Scalable Data Systems office is a Microsoft Gold Certified Business Solutions reselling partner and experienced Microsoft Dynamics AX Partner for the implementation, development and support of the Microsoft Dynamics AX, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Solution.

Forcaster Microsoft Business Solutions for Analytics from Scalable Data Systems

2007-06-18T15:55:00.000+02:00

Today’s dynamic business environment requires flexible budget development and fast, easy revision capabilities.

Source: www.ferret.com.au

Microsoft Business Solutions for Analytics–Forecaster allows you to effortlessly distribute budgeting data and financial information throughout your organisation, collaborate with management, plan more effectively, and achieve your business objectives.

Forecaster makes it easy for you to immediately realise the benefits of budgeting and planning

The very words budgeting and planning remind accounting professionals of long, exhausting hours spent developing a budget, which is then ignored by most people in the company. Many view participation in the budget process as a waste of time because they just don’t see the benefit.

They feel that the budget numbers aren’t based on valid assumptions or accurate data. And because budgeting is so time consuming, most budgets are obsolete by the time they are approved.

A good business process for budgeting and planning for your financial future can have a positive impact on your company’s bottom line and show an on-going return on investment through time and money savings.

Forecaster allows you to quickly implement a comprehensive budgeting solution that saves time and money throughout the year

Forecaster is a Web-based budgeting application that saves time and money throughout the year. Because it is easy to learn and use, end users can start building a baseline budget in as little as two weeks.

Many can utilise ExpressLink to assist in establishing a baseline budget. With this unique built-in capability, financial data may be pulled from your general ledger or imported, which saves you time and ensures the accuracy of your financial information.

With ExpressLink, the initial set-up of Forecaster is automated, so the transfer of basic information such as the chart of accounts and historical general ledger data is easily transferred into Forecaster.

Capital, revenue, personnel, and other information can easily be imported. Many of the tedious manual tasks associated with budget set-up are automated for you.

Forecaster makes it practical and cost effective for managers to use budget and actual information to help make daily decisions. You can monitor business conditions and adjust plans, all of which have the potential to improve business performance and justify the investment in Forecaster.

By implementing Forecaster, you can easily base your daily decisions on the most current numbers compared to the budget, and continually adjust the plan with ease.

Forecaster gives you control of budgeting and planning by simplifying, speeding up, and more efficiently managing the entire budgeting process

Historical information can be populated from your general ledger, which makes it easier and faster to establish a baseline budget. Everyone can enter their cost center data into templates made by you over the Web. You can involve more people in the process; especially those not always involved in the budgeting process (but should be) and those responsible for daily decisions.

Workflow management helps companies more efficiently manage the budget process by monitoring and keeping it on schedule. A quick glance tells you the status of budget components by center and individual. You also have a map of the line-of-authority to see who is responsible for specific pieces of the budget allowing notifications to be sent to the right individual when budgets are due.

Forecaster lets you streamline the budgeting process

Individual creation of budgets, changing the budget model, budget consolidations, iterations for review and modification, reporting, and collaborating with interrelated departments; it is easier and faster to construct a thoughtful budget that is based on valid data and assumptions, and therefore is more predictive of the future.

Because Forecaster is completely Web-based, it is readily available for all individuals participating in the budget process. Forecaster also makes it easier for Excel users to continue to use spreadsheets, if necessary. Create a variety of user defined Excel output files, so that you can create budgets, manipulate and analyse.

Adjustments and changes are easy to make with Forecaster and they are reflected throughout the budget without additional work on your part. The result is a higher quality plan with goals that are realistic and more achievable. You can immediately view the impact as the numbers change.

Input screens make it easy for you to control what users see and how they enter numbers

A simple, browser-based interface and familiar functionality helps you and your end users get comfortable with inputting and analysing data quickly and with minimal training. Input Screens can be customised to use the time periods and accounts that you specify, and you can define formulas for calculations and assign them to any line, column or cell. Each budget version stores up to 13 periods to support multiple scenarios and flexible input screens can be defined with up to 100 different periods from multiple budget versions.

Copy/Grow functions let you enter an amount in a cell and either copy the amount across time periods or increase or decrease the amount according to your specifications. Single account input allows you to input and compare the current account’s budget against a baseline amount. And, the Single Account Input Screen makes it easy to apply automatic increases or decreases based on variance percentages or amounts over the baseline.

Your budgets are accurate, relevant and realistic with Forecaster

Forecaster makes budgeting and planning easy, but will the budgets be used? The major reason budgets are ignored is that they aren’t relevant or realistic, and they quickly become obsolete. With Forecaster, accommodating changes is easier when you can view one report that shows both budgeting goals and actual performance. With ownership of the numbers, and current budget-to-actual comparisons, it is powerful for front-line managers and others to see how their departments are performing in relation to their targets.

And there’s no waiting for a report that might be weeks out of date—anyone can access a current report via the Web whenever they want. They can also answer their own questions immediately by drilling down from summary data in the budget to supporting details. After the budget process has been completed, you continue to receive feedback on the accuracy and realism of the budget.

Forecaster gives you an easy way to keep score—how are individual departments and divisions doing in relation to the budget? This business process reinforces management’s commitment to making the budgeting process meaningful and more relevant.

You can collaborate by using email notification, memos, notes, attachments, and a centralised bulletin board to post goals, objectives, assumptions and instructions. This documentation helps everyone understand the rationale behind important budget numbers and changes made by others.

Control costs and understand your numbers better with our line-item detail for activities like travel, entertainment, and meals by entering supporting line items for any account. A difference row alerts you to any variance between the account balance and the line-item entries.

This approach to budgeting gives you the flexibility to add details for specific items and roll up the information for presentation and review. Line-item detail along with summary roll-ups, compensation budgeting, capital expenditure planning and expense allocation and revenue modeling allow you to build a precise budget.

Input screens can be customised to use the time periods and accounts that you specify, and you can define formulas for calculations and assign them to any line, column or cell.

Human resources budgeting allows you to add detailed budgeting data for specific personnel and includes flexibility in designating salaries and bonuses.

Employees typically account for the highest expense in a company’s budget. When it comes to budgeting for this important cost component, Forecaster supports you with advanced capabilities that allow you to plan for human resource expenses with precision and flexibility.

Forecaster allows you to easily understand the impacts of salary adjustments, bonuses, overtime and benefits.

Employees can be budgeted on a monthly or annual basis, using an hourly or salaried status, and they can be tracked by defining both hours and FTE/headcount.

Quickly allocate employees across multiple cost centers and easily view employee information to quickly determine the time allocation by individual. Detailed records for each component of employee compensation are stored to make it easy to pull this important information into account-level views.

An incremented benefits tier can be defined to apply fixed benefits—flat rate, fixed amount, or fixed amount incremented. Limits on individual benefits can be defined and enforced.

The capital expense module allows you to standardise the accounting of capital expenditure by cost center

Based on the type of capital expense, depreciation is calculated according to the time frame you choose, and the results are allocated to the appropriate accounts. You can even track the cash outflow and balance sheet impact of projected purchases.

The revenue module tracks revenue by market and product

Custom formulas can be used to calculate revenues and cost of sales in the worksheet. Enter factors such as price/ cost per item and items sold, and then let Forecaster automatically calculate your profit margin for you.

Allocate amounts from one cost center to multiple cost centers

With the allocation wizard, you can allocate company overhead or other items among cost centers by defining the distribution percentages yourself, or letting Forecaster distribute it on the basis of the factors you choose, such as headcount or square footage.

Quickly adjust your plan to take advantage of changes in the business environment

Forecaster gives you the ability to monitor the status of your business in real time. Comparison reporting allows you to immediately track trends in your business. And you can quickly and easily access the information you need to test a variety of alternatives to support a well-informed decision to expand, contract, emphasize or de-emphasize business initiatives.

For many companies, budgets are unrealistic and inaccurate because their systems can’t easily accommodate change. As a result, arbitrary across-the-board changes are made to expenses and revenues. Forecaster makes it easy to make top-down adjustments and communicate the reasons for budget changes. New versions can be made to accommodate unexpected changes in assumptions or business conditions using online collaboration tools.

Use the Drilldown Viewer to make Forecaster And Microsoft Business Solutions For Analytics– FRx especially vigorous tools for analysis

Reports from FRx can combine Forecaster and general ledger data into the same report. It’s easy to drill down past the account level to retrieve transaction-level detail located in either the general ledger or the Forecaster database. That means supporting details that roll up to an account are a mouse click away.

About FRx software

FRx Software Corporation, a Microsoft company and a part of Microsoft Business Solutions, is a leading provider of advanced financial analytic applications to mid-market and emerging enterprise organizations seeking to bring more control to their financial reporting and analysis processes. Its flagship product, Microsoft Business Solutions for Analytics—FRx, is used by more than 100,000 sites worldwide to bring control to the financial reporting process.

FRx is considered the financial reporting standard for mid-market companies and emerging enterprises, with interfaces to more than 50 industry-leading financial accounting systems. Microsoft Business Solutions for Analytics—Forecaster is a browserbased budgeting and planning application that makes it easy for organizations to immediately realize the benefits of budgeting.

Scalable Data Systems is an experienced Microsoft Dynamics AX Partner for the implementation, development and support of the Microsoft Dynamics AX, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Solution.

Microsoft partners set for Kineticsware boost

2007-06-18T15:46:00.000+02:00

Start-up ISV company poised to recruit 60 Microsoft Dynamics AX resellers worldwide

Laura Hailstone, CRN 18 Jun 2007

ISV Kineticsware is reaching out to Microsoft Dynamics partners to offer additional resources that it claims Microsoft may not be able to provide

Founded by two former Microsoft directors responsible for the vendor’s Dynamics AX product line, the company initially launched in North America in March and has just opened a European HQ in Reading.

Microsoft Dynamics AX is one range in the Dynamics family of ERP software, mainly aimed at large corporates. According to Microsoft, the AX business grew 45 per cent last year and is set for similar levels this year.

Philip Stride, Kineticsware’s UK managing director, said: “To sustain this growth Microsoft needs to take on more partners or get its existing partners to grow. We want to take the pain out of growth and help partners with marketing and lead generation.”

Simon Thomason, managing director of Kineticsware, EMEA, told CRN: “Microsoft is limited as to how much resource it can put behind any one partner, so where Microsoft’s capabilities stop we can bridge the gap.”

Kineticsware develops AX applications for three verticals – consumer goods, textiles and apparel, and high-tech – and is looking for partners with expertise in these markets. By next year it wants to recruit 60 AX VARs worldwide and 10 in the UK.

“We want to help the right resellers get the right leads and are spending a lot of money on lead generation for our partners,” added Stride.

Paul White, head of the Dynamics partner channel at Microsoft, said: “Kineticsware is trying something new and looking to create a community of partners that can work together. It’s saying to partners, ‘concentrate on doing the things you do best and we’ll help with the rest’.”

Thomas Ajspur, sales director of Watermark UK, said: “We are the biggest Dynamics partner in Europe so we can handle our own marketing and lead generation, but it might help smaller resellers.”

Microsoft Dynamics AX Business Analysis from Scalable Data Systems

2007-06-15T16:01:00.000+02:00

Microsoft Business Solutions- Microsoft Dynamics AX Business Analysis helps provide the power needed to quickly transform business data into knowledge and strategic action.

Source: www.ferret.com.au

Key benefits

Helps provide the insight needed to better control your business
No need for external reporting tools or data replication
Turn raw data into useful business knowledge

As a business leader in today’s market, you base your strategic decisions on the answers to tough questions and you need these answers fast. Who are your best customers? Which supplier should you choose? How do your numbers stack up quarter-to-date? Do you deliver products consistently on time? Do you have the right mix of people? Getting the right answers can depend on having solid analytical tools to extract usable information from all the data.

Microsoft Dynamics AX Business Analysis can help give you the accurate and fast analysis you need to make the right choices.

Microsoft Dynamics AX is an all-in-one solution that gives you real-time connectivity across your business. Microsoft Dynamics AX Business Analysis exchanges information with many other functional areas in the solution including Sales and Marketing, Production, Master Planning, Trade, and Finance to deliver in-depth analyses of key areas of your business.

Turn raw data into useful business knowledge

Microsoft Dynamics AX Business Analysis helps you analyze the factors that affect your bottom line. You can compare vendor data, analyze warehouse operations, develop strategies to retain preferred customers and attract new customers, create customer profiles and segmentation analyses, and more.

You can share up-to-the-minute information such as customer purchasing and supplier inventory, and identify weak spots in your supply chain so that you can make the necessary changes.

Analysis tools help you answer questions like How will switching my suppliers affect my profits? or What is my delivery lead time? You can also analyze costs associated with employee retention and productivity. Microsoft Dynamics AX Business Analysis uses predefined views to transform raw data into valuable business insight. The analytical tools are based on On- Line Analytical Processing technology (OLAP), letting you perform multidimensional analysis using Microsoft Analysis Services.

You can think of a multidimensional analysis as a multi-sided cube. Each side of the cube represents a dimension that is analysed by the OLAP server. Dimensions are distinct categories of business data such as time, products, geographical regions or sales channels.

Within every dimension, a hierarchy of data exists. For example, the hierarchy of the category of time could include year, quarter, month and weekday.

With Microsoft Dynamics AX Business Analysis, you can reduce the time and costs associated with transferring data, while also reducing the potential for errors, simply by centralizing the data from multiple sources into a single source of business information and analysis.

Just select the data sources you want when creating a query in Microsoft Dynamics AX and run the analysis. The tool also supports many languages and currencies. After the analysis is ready, you can save it in the language and currency you prefer.

Get the answers you need in realtime

Microsoft DynamicsAX Business Analysis can give you business insight when you need it. You won’t need to wait for the IT department or a system administrator to create special reports for you. Analyze and drill down into your business information instead of following static reports. Transform data into multi-dimensional analyses that support enterprise-scale data volumes and hierarchies. Manipulate and derive actionable business information by applying ratios, cumulative totals, trends and allocations across dimensions and across hierarchical levels of your data.

For optimum performance, Microsoft Dynamics AX Business Analysis saves cubes using the MOLAP model (multidimensional OLAP), which stores aggregations and a copy of the cube’s source data in a multidimensional structure. Reports can be published without intervention by your IT department.

Microsoft Dynamics AX Business Analysis helps you get reliable results of your analyses, regardless of how complex the query is. The business data used during analysis is constantly updated because it includes changes as they occur in Microsoft Dynamics AX or other data sources. You can set the update to run every day, every week or every month. There is no duplication or doubling of information sources.

You can also look at the results of your analyses at any scale, from a high-level overview down to microscopic detail. When analyzing buying patterns, for example, you can view information by customer group, by specific customer, specific invoice or by any other level of your choice.

By measuring performance continuously, you can measure accurately whether your business goals are being met and whether your strategies are working effectively. Microsoft Dynamics AX Business Analysis also gives you transparency when looking for the relationship between activities in different departments, locations or subsidiaries.

One of the barriers to traditional OLAP analysis is the time and expertise needed to build and maintain the applications and data. Microsoft Dynamics AX Business Analysis can have a lower total cost of ownership than other analytical applications, by using a built-in Cube Definition Manager to simplify the processes of creating and maintaining cubes.

Get deep analyses directly from Microsoft Dynamics AX

With traditional OLAP products, the process of mapping information between the enterprise resource planning (ERP) business data and the OLAP cube can often be difficult and time-consuming, because information needs to be mapped between two separate systems.

But with Microsoft Dynamics AX Business Analysis, the OLAP functionality and the ERP data are part of the same system. You don’t need to spend a lot of resources integrating a third-party business intelligence system that you need to reintegrate every time you upgrade your ERP solution.

Microsoft Dynamics AX Business Analysis requires Microsoft Dynamics AX and Microsoft Analysis Services, but not third party analytical tools. All mappings occur directly in Microsoft Dynamics AX helping you get advantage out of your business information and making the most of relationships between tables and extended data types.

Security

The security is managed centrally, reducing the effect on users and strain on your IT department. You have full control over which users have access to which models. The users must be registered on the server they select to gain access.

Microsoft Dynamics AX

Campaigns are organised in a hierarchical structure, indicating relationships between different marketing efforts. In order to keep the process as simple as possible, one employee has overall responsibility for each campaign, but numerous employees can be assigned tasks within multiple campaigns.

Easily gather and use customer feedback

Learn from your customers using questionnaires. Web-based functionality lets you design, publish and process questionnaires quickly and easily.

The Internet also makes it faster and easier for customers to respond to questionnaires.

Marketing Automation saves Internet responses directly into the Microsoft Dynamics AX Database, from where the information is immediately available to you.

When responses start flowing in, users have complete details on the target group and can easily see who has replied and the answers that were given to particular questions. Easy-to-use answer registrations are designed to enable effective follow up. Customer responses can be used to get market insight and a head start on planning for future demands.

Integration between sales, marketing and customer service departments is key to meeting customer expectations. By enabling resources from one department to be relayed to a common encyclopaedia, these departments can use a wider scope of information and are better equipped to support each other.

Measure the profitability of campaigns

Monitor return on investment (ROI) by linking a campaign with a project, and view response rates, revenue, costs and the work put into your marketing efforts. Income and expenses related to each campaign can be laid out in the campaign form allowing the cost of the campaign to be quickly compared with the revenue it has generated.

Microsoft Dynamics AX

Microsoft Dynamics AX Business Analysis is part of Microsoft Dynamics AX, a customisable, scalable and global Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution that provides you with a fast and powerful way to gain a competitive advantage.

More information about Microsoft Dynamics AX can be had at local Scalable Data Systems office, a Microsoft Gold Certified Business Solutions reselling partner.

SISL To Offer Technology Training In Saudi Arabia

2007-06-14T16:07:00.000+02:00

Sundaram Infotech Solutions Ltd (SISL), the software development and implementation arm of Sundaram Finance, has negotiated a deal with Microsoft for Axapta ERP training in Saudi Arabia.

SISL will train 25 ERP consultants from 10 leading organisations over a three-week period in its first ERP training deal in Saudia Arabia.

The deal is to provide detailed functional training in finance, supply chain and production modules, and teach installation and configuration of Microsoft's Dynamics AX technology.

'This deal is a significant endorsement of our training capabilities in Axapta ERP as Microsoft themselves have chosen us to train their partners and customers in the Saudi Arabian market,' J. Raghunathan, vice president (marketing), Sundaram Infotech, said here.

'Our expansion into the Middle East and West Asia market is rolling out nicely, both on the software development and the ERP training front', Raghunathan added.

The company had in February this year announced an ERP training deal in Jordan, and last week negotiated a partnership with Jordan's Business Soft for marketing the Axapta ERP solutions in the Jordan market.

US: American Apparel chooses Microsoft Dynamics’ ERP

2007-06-14T16:05:00.000+02:00

T-shirt and casual wear maker American Apparel has chosen the Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP solution to support its vertical supply chain, production, and global wholesale and retail operations.

American Apparel boasts the largest garment factory in the US with the largest stocked T-shirt line in the country. It knits, cuts, sews, markets, distributes, and designs T-shirts for men, women and children from its 800,000 square foot facility in downtown LA.

It is also one of the fastest-growing consumer apparel brands in the US with 14 authorised distributors and more than 153 international retail locations.

By manufacturing exclusively in the US, the company constantly strives to improve efficiency to remain competitive.

Sunrise Technologies, Microsoft's industry expert for textile and apparel, led the implementation."

Maxima stays on track

2007-06-13T16:12:00.000+02:00

Kam Patel, 13/06/07 08:55

Maxima, the acquisitive IT services group, signalled in line full year results and assured its new year has started well, with its order book strong. It remains on the acquisition trail.

In an update for its year to 31 May, the group notes that 'solid' trading across its solutions and managed services businesses means it expects full year revenues, profits and earnings per share will be in line with market expectations. Net debt at the end of the period stood at £6.5m.

The group completed four more acquisitions during the year, including Cognition Solutions and SevenThree, both software experts with a focus on the construction sector. All four acquisitions have been fully integrated.

Over the year the group secured 71 one new customers, including eleven new customers for SAP Business One and two for QAD applications in the healthcare and automotive sectors, where it has a strong track record. It also won the first contract for its newly launched construction industry software solution based upon Microsoft Dynamics AX.

In managed services, significant new business has been won, particularly as a result of the group's strong skills in Citrix and Oracle technologies.

Encouragingly, within its existing customer base, levels of contract renewals have been high.

The group says its new year has started well, with a strong order book and that it remains on the acquisition trail.

Derek Brown, analyst at Seymour Pierce, says the update is in line with his expectations, although the net debt is slightly higher than he expected. He says that although the

stock should carry something of a risk discount due to the acquisitive nature of the growth, the multiple is, nevertheless, 'very modest' at just 11x 2008 earnings, falling to 10x in calendar 2008, based on Seymour forecasts. He rates the shares a 'buy'.

Maxima floated on AIM in November 2004, priced at 110p, with the aim of acquiring businesses to build a focused IT services group. On flotation it immediately acquired Azur Holdings and has since made a further eight acquisitions:

Maxima Holdings PLC shares edged up 1.5p to 295.5p in early trade, valuing the company at £55m. Based on consensus estimates, the shares trade on a forward PER of 12.8, falling to 11 in 2008. The prospective yield is 1.7%.

New York Mint taps JunctionMCR for multichannel integration

2007-06-13T16:10:00.000+02:00

Leading rare and collectible coin marketer New York Mint has selected JunctionMCR from Junction Solutions to manage its business across multiple sales channels and integrate processes.

New York Mint offers a selection of rare and hard-to-find U.S. coins, other collectibles, custom-made jewelry and ancient artifacts through an e-commerce Web site at www.newyorkmint.net and a catalog. The company’s founder and CEO Bill Gale also regularly appears on various TV shopping channels selling his products.

New York Mint chose Junction Solutions, Lincolnshire, IL, to help integrate its warehouse, order management, fulfillment and customer service processes inside its 55,00-sq.-ft. headquarters in Edina, MN.

The platform is built on the Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP solution and can analyze marketing campaigns as well as the entire process, including customer service, order entry, shipping and returns.

Source: www.dmnews.com

Railway car manufacturer implements Dynamics AX

2007-06-13T16:09:00.000+02:00

Vagonmash plant that makes railway and metro cars has built a finance and logistics management system at the first stage of an automation project, which is based on an industry-specific solution AND Project: Mechanical Engineering for Microsoft Dynamics AX.

The information system provides full-fledged managerial, business and tax accounting. Automated aspects include settlements with contractors and contracts accounting, inventory control, cash accounting, fixed and intangible asset accounting, tax accounting, budgeting and financial and managerial accounting.

An important characteristic of the created solution is integration of Microsoft Dynamics AX with Lotsman PDM system. Operations of the company's main services have been transferred to the new system.

Vagonmash is gradually moving from a formally prevalent functional approach of divisions to their activities to a process approach. The plant is conducting a testing operation of second-stage implementations of the automation management system building project - planning and production management modules. On this basis Vagonmahs will build a complex solution for efficient management of all its production activities in the nearest future.

Fullscope Named One of Three Finalists for the 2007 Microsoft Partner of the Year Award in Microsoft Dynamics AX

2007-06-13T16:06:00.000+02:00

Fullscope today announced it has been selected as a finalist for Microsoft Corp.’s Partner of the Year Award in Microsoft Dynamics AX.

ATLANTA (June 13, 2007) Fullscope today announced it has been selected as a finalist for Microsoft Corp.’s Partner of the Year Award in Microsoft Dynamics AX. Winners for the 2007 Microsoft Partner Program Awards, which recognize top Microsoft Partners delivering market-leading, Microsoft-based solutions, will be announced July 11 in Denver, Colorado, at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference.

“We focus solely on the sale, implementation and support of Microsoft Dynamics AX and we are delighted to be recognized as an award finalist in this category,” said Russell Smith, president of Fullscope. “Our relationship with Microsoft is the life force of our business and we look forward to driving continued value for our customers.”

The Microsoft Partner Program Awards recognize Microsoft Partners that have developed and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions over the past year. Awards will be presented in a number of categories, with winners chosen from a pool of more than 1,800 entrants worldwide. The Microsoft Dynamics AX Partner of the Year award recognizes a partner who demonstrates excellence in delivering value to mutual customers.

“We have a diverse and talented partner ecosystem that each year raises the bar in the design and deployment of customer solutions built on Microsoft technologies,” said Allison L. Watson, corporate vice president, Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group. “We are pleased to recognize Fullscope as one of our partners leading the field in this category.”

Fullscope is one of the initial participants in the Microsoft Dynamics Industry Solutions (MDIS) program. The company developed and supports Process Industries for Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0, and is one of the largest Microsoft Dynamics AX resellers in North America.

About Fullscope

Fullscope, Inc. is a Gold Certified Microsoft business partner that sells Microsoft Dynamics AX and offers deep domain expertise for companies with process, discrete and hybrid manufacturing operations. For more information, visit www.fullscope.com.

A Dynamic Solution for a Dynamic Company: American Apparel chooses Microsoft Dynamics AX and Sunrise Technologies

2007-06-13T16:03:00.000+02:00

(Winston-Salem, NC) Sunrise Technologies, Inc. announces that American Apparel has chosen Microsoft Dynamics AX as their new ERP solution. American Apparel needed a solution that could integrate with every facet of their manufacturing and distribution. Sunrise Technologies, Microsoft’s industry expert for textile and apparel, was the obvious choice with its proven record of being one of the top AX partners in the USA.

American Apparel is the largest garment factory in the United States with largest stocked T-shirt line in the country. Creating fabrics that range from synthetic to organic cotton, American Apparel offers a variety of clothing for men, women, children, and pets. Providing a worker-friendly atmosphere and eco-responsible manufacturing facility has made the company one of the fastest-growing consumer apparel brands in the United States with 14 authorized distributors and more than 153 international retail locations. As a vertically integrated manufacturer and retailer, American Apparel knits, cuts, sews, markets, distributes, and designs T-shirts from its 800,000 square foot facility in downtown LA.

American Apparel faces unique information challenges in supporting their vertical supply chain, production, and global wholesale and retail operations. By manufacturing exclusively in the USA, they must constantly improve efficiency to remain competitive. “We chose Dynamics AX over several other ERP systems for its flexibility, scalability, and wide breadth of functionality. We liked the roadmap presented to us by Microsoft as well as their official support of partners devoted to providing industry specific solutions,” stated America Apparel’s IT Director, Jeff Kolb. Selecting the correct system is paramount but choosing the right partner is just as crucial. “The team at Sunrise Technologies showed deep industry knowledge and was always willing to back up their promises with detailed demonstrations, creating confidence and enthusiasm in our users,” Kolb commented. The familiar User Interface elements in the system, integration across the Microsoft platform, and SQL/.NET on the back end satisfied technical staff at American Apparel and fit their skill sets. Kolb sees a bright future with Sunrise and Dynamics AX, “We believe that AX will be a cost effective platform to further streamline our business and support future growth.”

Bill Gerrish, Microsoft’s Strategic Engagement Manager for the project, added, “I had the opportunity to work with the Sunrise team throughout the entire ERP evaluation at American Apparel. They demonstrated the willingness to ‘do whatever it takes’ to earn this business. The Sunrise team, clearly proved their apparel expertise, introduced their Apparel solution, as well as an experienced and credible team to lead the implementation.”

Sunrise Technologies was founded in 1994 as a consulting services company and has implemented many successful supply chain and ERP solutions. Sunrise Technologies is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in the Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP system. Sunrise is specifically recognized by Microsoft as the Microsoft Dynamics AX provider for the textile, apparel, and footwear industries. Sunrise is headquartered in Winston-Salem, with a regional office in Dallas, Texas and technology centers in India and China.

For more information about Sunrise Technologies, visit www.sunriseconsult.com

Sundaram Infotech bags Microsoft deal

2007-06-12T16:18:00.000+02:00

Chennai, June 12: Sundaram Infotech Solutions Ltd (SIS), software development and implementation arm of Sundaram Finance Ltd, today said it has bagged a training contract from Microsoft.

As part of the deal, SIS would provide Axapta ERP training to 25 ERP consultants from 10 leading organisations in Saudi Arabia over a period of three weeks.

The release added that this was the company's first Axapta ERP training deal in Saudi Arabia.

The programme involves detailed functional training covering finance, supply chain and production modules, besides installation and configuration of dynamics AX, it said.

Bureau Report

Junction Solutions Provides Retail Software for the Collectibles Market

2007-06-12T16:15:00.000+02:00

-- New York Mint Selects JunctionMCR to Manage its Collectible Coin Business --

LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill.--Junction Solutions, a provider of vertical industry focused enterprise software and services based on the Microsoft platform, today announced that New York Mint, one of the largest rare and collectible coin marketers in the United States, has selected JunctionMCR, a multi-channel retail solution to manage its business across multiple sales channels, integrate business processes and better serve customers. New York Mint is one of several collectibles retailers that have chosen JunctionMCR this year, including Royal Canadian Mint, another provider of collectible coins and currency.

Headquartered in Edina, MN, New York Mint serves collectors worldwide through its multiple divisions. Besides a wide selection of rare and hard-to-find U.S. coins, New York Mint offers many other collectible products including paper currencies, coin jewelry, foreign and ancient coins, ancient coin jewelry and specialized numismatic services. Through an international partner, Aber & Levine, based in Israel, New York Mint also offers a variety of custom-made jewelry and ancient artifacts to collectors.

Within its 55,000 square foot facilities, the New York Mint needed a retail solution that would integrate its warehouse, order management, fulfillment and customer service processes. After a thorough review of the competition, New York Mint chose JunctionMCR from Junction Solutions. JunctionMCR, built on the Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP solution, addresses the unique challenges of measuring marketing effectiveness, customer service, and streamlining order fulfillment. With JunctionMCR, the entire process from customer service to order entry, through shipping and returns can be analyzed and improved for greater efficiency.

“We chose the JunctionMCR solution based on its proven track record in the multi-channel retail industry as well as its ability to integrate multiple sales channels,” says Tim Kauffman, Director of Business Operations and Information Technology at New York Mint. “Our business is growing quickly, and with JunctionMCR we will have the flexibility and scalability necessary to manage our business processes, and most importantly, continue to better serve our customers.”

About Junction Solutions

Junction Solutions offers advanced, industry-specific functionality built on the latest standard technologies from Microsoft, including Microsoft’s flexible and proven ERP application, Microsoft Dynamics AX. Junction Solutions focuses 100% on solving business issues in the Retail, Food & Beverage Processing, and Manufacturing & Distribution industries. As a Gold Certified Microsoft Business Partner, we provide our customers with the sound technology platform required for a long term enterprise scale software solution. For more information, visit our web site at www.junctionsolutions.com.

ICS Founder Jorge Morales Appoints New CEO

2007-06-12T16:14:00.000+02:00

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ICS, Inc., developers of wireless, mobile and warehouse management software solutions as well as resellers of Oracle® JD Edwards and Microsoft® Dynamics AX, today named Adrian Thomas President and Chief Executive Officer.

Jorge F. Morales, founder, President and CEO of ICS for its first 25 years, maintains majority ownership of ICS and will be involved in strategic product and international initiatives as the company’s Chairman of the Board.

“I am very pleased to name Adrian Thomas as the new President and CEO of ICS,” said Morales. “We conducted a very thorough search to find an executive with a proven track record for growth, strong strategic leadership skills, and experience in the global supply chain technology market. I can’t imagine a better fit than Adrian Thomas.”

Thomas, former CEO of PEAK Technologies, a $240 million international automated data collection (ADC) hardware and software provider, takes over day-to-day leadership of ICS as of today. He brings more than 16 years of supply chain technology experience to ICS, the most recent being five years as PEAK Technologies’ CEO preceded by three years as COO of PEAK’s European operations. Prior to PEAK, Thomas served as one of two Executive Board members of ICS International AG., in Frankfurt, Germany. ICS International AG had more than 200 employees and was a leading European Systems Integrator of bar code data collection solutions.

“I am honored and delighted to have been selected as the new President and CEO of ICS,” Thomas said. “ICS is an exciting, healthy company with a terrific team of people and high-quality software products. We will hold strong to ICS’ commitments to customer and partner satisfaction as we pursue new product and market opportunities.”

About ICS

For 25 years, ICS has provided manufacturers, distributors and construction firms with powerful technology solutions and services that deliver superior business performance and customer satisfaction ratings near 100%. ICS-developed products include RF-SMART® data collection and RFID solutions for Oracle’s JD Edwards and Microsoft’s Dynamics AX; Logimax® software for public warehouse management; and EquentialTM mobile applications for construction job site labor reporting and direct-store delivery (DSD). ICS is also an award-winning reseller of enterprise software, with practices in JD Edwards and Dynamics AX. Learn more at www.icsfl.com.

SAG To Conduct Microsoft Dynamics AX training session in Mumbai

2007-06-11T16:17:00.000+02:00

Systems Advisers Group SAG, a Bangalore based Microsoft Certified Partner for Learning Solutions, is holding a new training schedule for Summer 2007.

The summer training schedule will be held from June 18 - July 9 in Mumbai and will cover both technical and functional aspects of Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0.
According to a company release, all classes will be delivered by Microsoft Dynamics AX certified consultants and developers and will include Microsoft certified training materials, personalised hands-on training, targeted and focused format with preferred customer discounted pricing for a limited class size.
Systems Advisers Group, a Microsoft Gold Partner has been delivering training on Microsoft Dynamics AX for over a year in India and for over a decade worldwide.

“Systems Advisers Group has contributed significantly for turning Microsoft Dynamics AX into the ideal enterprise solution for SMEs by providing its quality partner enablement training programmes both in India and abroad”, said Krishnan Muralidharan, Professional Services Manager, Systems Advisers Group, India. “Our approach to imparting knowledge by means of study aids, case studies, etc. has been widely commended by the participants and we intend to take this even further on a global level”, he added.

Training Day: Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0

2007-06-07T16:20:00.000+02:00

Training schedule starting from 18 June to 9 July 2007 will cover both technical and functional aspects of Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0.

Thursday, June 07, 2007: Microsoft certified partner for learning solutions, Systems Advisers Group (SAG), has announced its new training schedule for summer 2007. The summer training schedule will be held from 18 June to 9 July 2007 in Mumbai and will cover both technical and functional aspects of Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0.

All classes will be delivered by Microsoft Dynamics AX certified consultants and developers and will include Microsoft certified training materials, personalised hands-on training, targeted and focussed format with preferred customer discounted pricing for a limited class size.

SAG offers customised training options to advance IT skills. The most popular, 'Get set with Microsoft Dynamics AX!' Continuing Education classes, delivers real-world knowledge in a comfortable classroom environment. Classes are limited to 10 students and are scheduled to meet busy work schedules. Company 'on-site' specialised training is also offered, ideal for companies with large number of students, or entire departments in search of post-implementation group instruction.

As the official CPLS (certified partner for learning solutions), SAG follows strict guidelines laid out by Microsoft to ensure standardisation in the trainings conducted on Microsoft Technologies worldwide.

"Systems Advisers Group has contributed significantly for turning Microsoft Dynamics AX into the ideal enterprise solution for SMEs by providing its quality partner enablement training programmes both in India and abroad," said Krishnan Muralidharan, professional services manager, Systems Adivsers Group, India.

"Our approach to imparting knowledge by means of study aids, case studies, etc. has been widely commended by the participants and we intend to take this even further on a global level," he added.

Dynamics AX Beats OS/400-Based ERP at National Fleet Management Firm

2007-06-06T16:22:00.000+02:00

by Alex Woodie

QEK Global Solutions, a provider of vehicle management services in North America, has replaced its existing OS/400-based ERP system with a new Windows-based system running Microsoft's Dynamics ERP software, the software giant announced last week.

Based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, QEK Global Solutions provides a full range of outsourced fleet management services to organizations in the U.S. and Canada. As part of its offering, QEK provides everything from vehicle ordering, tracking, receipt, assignments and license, to accident and theft administration.

The company relied upon ADP's Dealer Management System running on an IBM AS/400 server to run many of these back office processes. However, that system was beginning to show its age, according to Tom Cyr, chief information officer with QEK.

"We had outgrown our legacy ERP system and needed to implement a single solution that would provide true integration throughout our U.S. and Canadian operations," Cyr says. "We needed technology that was truly scalable and that was intuitive for users throughout our company via a familiar look and feel with other Microsoft products already in use. We found the solution to our challenges in Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0."

The company reported specific benefits in the ease-of-use, look-and-feel, and user-comfort departments. The IT department at QEK is expected to benefit by standardizing on a set of "industry-standard tools."

The implementation was a coup of sorts for Microsoft, which displaced the AS/400 (now called System i) platform in an industry--trucking and fleet management--where the System i platform still has a fairly large installed base. For example, most of the big national trucking companies still use the System i platform for fleet management and dispatching.

CASPER LTD. AND INDUSTRIAL SUPPLIES CHOOSES JUNCTION SOLUTIONS AND MICROSOFT DYNAMICS AX IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

2007-06-06T16:21:00.000+02:00

Junction Solutions, the largest provider of vertical industry focused enterprise software and services based on the Microsoft platform, today announced that Industrial Supplies Group Ltd, an operating division of Casper Ltd., has chosen JunctionMCR, a multi-channel retail ERP solution built on Microsoft Dynamics™ AX, to streamline their distribution operations and improve customer service in the United Kingdom.

The Industrial Supplies Group (IS) is the largest independent distributor of cleaning and hygiene materials in the United Kingdom. With branches in Peterborough, Nottingham, Ipswich and Enfield, they are able to offer unparalleled levels of service to over 5000 customers in the Midlands, East Anglia, London and the Home Counties. As the largest member of Nationwide Hygiene and partner of INPACS (International Partners for Cleaning and Hygiene Supplies) IS services customers throughout the UK and Europe.

Casper Ltd. (www.casperlimited.com) was established in 2006 in order to provide a range of value-added services and products, particularly to medium- and small-sized companies. In addition, Casper makes strategic long term investments in businesses that can benefit from the operational improvements gained from applications of Casper’s services and know-how.

“The selection of JunctionMCR by Industrial Supplies is the beginning of a long and mutually beneficial partnership between Casper and Junction Solutions,” says Brian Carpizo, President and CEO at Junction Solutions. “We look forward to playing an important part in Casper’s expansion in the UK and Europe.”

About Junction Solutions Ltd.

Junction Solutions delivers comprehensive enterprise applications that enable companies to achieve profitable growth by streamlining processes, improving operational efficiency and building tighter connections with their customers and suppliers. Our industry-specific features for multi-channel retailers, integrated with the flexible and proven Microsoft Dynamics™ AX application, give customers proven return on investment and lower total cost of ownership. As a Gold Certified Microsoft Business Partner, we combine business process know-how with comprehensive services for a high-value, low-risk implementation. For more information, visit our web site at: www.junctionsolutions.com.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

CAD-ERP Data Integration System for AutoCAD and Microsoft Dynamics/NAV (Navision) Announced

2007-06-01T16:24:00.000+02:00

QUEBEC--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Elmo Solutions (http://ElmoSolutions.com?ref=070601), the leader in CAD-ERP data integration, announced Agni Link (www.elmosolutions.com), a live, bidirectional CAD-ERP data integration system for AutoCAD and Microsoft Dynamics/NAV (Navision).

Agni Link is an AutoCAD companion application that provides real-time, bidirectional integration with Microsoft Dynamics/NAV (Navision). Agni Link is the only application of its kind that offers a unique and reliable way to unify AutoCAD and Microsoft Dynamics/NAV (Navision) databases. Every time an AutoCAD document is saved, the user may edit data shared between AutoCAD and Microsoft Dynamics/NAV (Navision) using possible values obtained "live" from Microsoft Dynamics/NAV (Navision). Upon end-user confirmation, Bill of Materials data is updated in both the AutoCAD document and the Microsoft Dynamics/NAV (Navision) database, thus ensuring perfect synchronization of both data sets and completely eliminating redundant data entry. Agni Link can process and synchronize a wide range of Bill of Materials data from either environment, including:

- Part, Component and Assembly data
- Microsoft Dynamics/NAV (Navision) Bill Of Materials data
- Microsoft Dynamics/NAV (Navision) Routing instructions

Yielding high Return on Investment, Agni Link typically pays for itself in 60-90 days. Elmo Solutions Science Officer, Ricardo Talbot said: "We are very excited about delivering the most advanced and efficient method of sharing AutoCAD and Microsoft Dynamics/NAV (Navision) product data. We are especially very happy with our customer’s response to Elmo’s approach to alleviate the shortcomings of existing software in terms of BoM management, and we are thrilled about this new edition of

Agni Link. We expect similar response on the upcoming release of Agni Link for Microsoft Dynamics/AX (Axapta)."

Agni Link is readily available from Elmo Solutions. It not only addresses the needs of AutoCAD users, but also those of Microsoft Dynamics/NAV (Navision) users, who share product data with them throughout the enterprise. Designed with

Agni Link also supports AutoCAD-based vertical applications such as:

AutoCAD Architecture (Architectural Desktop)
AutoCAD Electrical
AutoCAD Mechanical
Mechanical Desktop

Established in 1979, Elmo Solutions is a leader in the creation, management and publishing of engineering documents and metadata. Elmo Solutions also offers a broad range of services related to CAD and ERP data integration.

Advanced Systems Integration Releases Next TREND in Apparel Software

2007-05-31T11:28:00.000+02:00

LAKE FOREST, CA – May 23, 2007 – Advanced Systems Integration, Inc. (ASI) a Microsoft Dynamics-AX Gold Certified Manufacturing Solutions & Training Partner is pleased to announce the release of Apparel & Footwear Solution version 2.5 for Microsoft Dynamics AX. Microsoft Dynamics AX is a highly customizable, enterprise-wide, business management system. An increasing number of apparel and footwear manufacturers recognize when selecting a Microsoft-based platform the immediate benefits of a "People-Ready" solution. Microsoft Dynamics AX provides a more affordable, easier to use, and less complex answer than SAP or Oracle for apparel and footwear manufacturers.

ASI’s tailor-made, Apparel & Footwear Solution, is built on and fully integrated with the Microsoft Dynamics AX platform. David Payne, President of ASI, started the company some 16 years ago and took on the Microsoft Dynamics-AX (formerly Damgaard) application because of its unsurpassed flexibility, adaptability and scalability. David charged his team to create a solution that would fulfill the specific needs of the apparel and footwear industry after working over 10 years with such manufacturers. Mr. Payne notes, "Apparel companies, whether vertically integrated or those that contract manufactures overseas will benefit from ASI’s updated Apparel & Footwear Solution integrated with the Microsoft Dynamics AX platform." Mr. Payne goes on to explain, "Companies requiring an enterprise solution for their growing and complex business processes are ideal candidates for ASI’s apparel solution. Our solution offers the ability to see real-time information, better controls and visibility of supply chains, product life-cycles, inventory, and warehouse management, all built in a Microsoft-familiar environment."

ABOUT ASI: Advanced Systems Integration, Inc. is a Microsoft Gold Certified Dynamics™ AX Manufacturing Solutions & Training Partner that delivers comprehensive enterprise class applications that improve customer relations, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across supply chains and business operations. ASI also offers industry specific extensions integrated with Microsoft Dynamics AX platform. ASI uses its industry focus, enterprise software domain expertise and transparent agile implementation methodology to provide its clients an enterprise class solution that is implemented properly the first time. ASI is based in Lake Forest, Calif and has sales offices in strategic locations throughout the United States. Please visit the company’s web site at http://www.advancedsystemsintegration.com/

Leading Vehicle Management Solutions Provider Selects Microsoft Dynamics AX for Greater Power, Vision, Value and Control

2007-05-30T16:27:00.000+02:00

REDMOND, Washington, May 30 /PRNewswire/ --

- QEK turns to Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 for its ease of use, familiarity and ability to increase visibility across the business.

Microsoft Corp (Nasdaq: MSFT) today announced that QEK Global Solutions, a leading provider of vehicle management solutions, has selected Microsoft Dynamics(TM) AX 4.0 as a single solution to improve visibility throughout the organisation and accommodate the company's growth by scaling to multiple locations and distribution channels across North America. QEK's North American headquarters is in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

The multinational, integrated fleet services company, which operates five sites throughout Michigan and in Ontario, Canada, decided to replace its aging AS/400 financial application and the ADP Dealer Management System with the Microsoft Dynamics product to better manage its complex, variable business processes and streamline invoicing procedures. The system's high degree of flexibility, adaptability and ease of use also contributed to the selection.

"We had outgrown our legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and needed to implement a single solution that would provide true integration throughout our US and Canadian operations," said Tom Cyr, chief information officer with QEK. "We needed technology that was truly scalable and that was intuitive for users throughout our company via a familiar look and feel with other Microsoft(R) products already in use. We found the solution to our challenges in Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0."

Specific areas in which QEK plans to realise benefits include the following:

-- Power. QEK expects to benefit from having a flexible solution based on
the Microsoft platform, which will allow the company to give its users
a tool to make better decisions and further enhance profitability.
-- Vision. QEK will realise its vision of an ERP system that's easy to
use and allows people to see the operation at every level, from
purchasing and service management operations all the way to the
financial impact of a decision.
-- Value. QEK selected the Microsoft Dynamics solution in part because of
its ability to seamlessly connect all of QEK's operations using
industry-standard tools and the look and feel of products being used
every day. Compared with other systems that QEK evaluated, Microsoft's
provided users with a level of comfort that others could not match.

Fullscope Inc, a Gold Certified Partner that specialises in helping organisations manage their business more effectively and efficiently, worked with QEK to select the solution. Throughout the selection process, Fullscope consistently demonstrated how Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 enables users to easily view data as it is captured and instantly make business decisions that will help the company better meet its business objectives both now and in the future.

"To thrive in an increasingly competitive and global marketplace, it's critical that QEK have the ability to operate seamlessly across multiple locations in two countries," said Michael Park, corporate vice president for the US Microsoft Dynamics business. "The ability, which is a key component of Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0, made the solution an ideal choice for supporting QEK's dynamic vision for future growth."

About Fullscope

Fullscope, Inc is a Gold Certified Microsoft business partner that developed and supports Process Industries for Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0, and is one of the largest Microsoft Dynamics AX resellers in North America. For more information, visit www.fullscope.com.

About QEK

QEK is a multi-national, integrated fleet services company, delivering stewardship of fleets through best practices, quality controls and on-site asset management to global automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), Tier One Suppliers and other automotive-related market segments. QEK's philosophy of fleet stewardship involves finding every way possible to create efficient and effective processes and procedures, both physically and administratively. QEK has 20+ years of experience in enhancing asset performance while reducing costs and risks for its clients. For more information, visit http://www.qek.com.

About Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of financial, customer relationship and supply chain management solutions that helps businesses work more effectively. Delivered through a network of channel partners providing specialised services, these integrated, adaptable business management solutions work like and with familiar Microsoft software to streamline processes across an entire business.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realise their full potential.

About Microsoft EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa)

Microsoft has operated in EMEA since 1982. In the region Microsoft employs more than 12,000 people in 60 subsidiaries, delivering products and services in 138 countries and territories.

This material is for informational purposes only. Microsoft Corp disclaims all warranties and conditions with regard to use of the material for other purposes. Microsoft Corp shall not, at any time, be liable for any special, direct, indirect or consequential damages, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other action arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of the material. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting any kind of warranty.

Microsoft and Microsoft Dynamics are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Leading Vehicle Management Solutions Provider Selects Microsoft Dynamics AX for Greater Power, Vision, Value and Control

2007-05-30T11:17:00.000+02:00

ATLANTA (May 30, 2007) Fullscope, a Gold Certified Microsoft Business Solutions Partner focused on helping manufacturers manage their businesses more effectively and efficiently, today announced that QEK Global Solutions (QEK), a multi-national, integrated fleet services company, has selected Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 from Fullscope to provide enterprise resource planning (ERP) functionality for five sites throughout Mich., and in Ontario, Canada.

QEK is owned by a consortium of Shareholders consisting of Transportation Resource Partners, LP, United Auto Group, Inc. (NYSE: UAG), Penske Truck Leasing Co. L.P., and Opus Ventures General Partner Limited. QEK’s North American headquarters is based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

The company needed a flexible, adaptable ERP system to replace its aging AS/400 application. “We wanted an easy-to-use solution that not only worked out-of-the-box to address the current needs of our automotive service industry customers, but also had the agility to accommodate for future growth and business process changes,” said Tom Cyr, chief information officer of QEK. “Microsoft Dynamics AX will help us better manage our complex, variable business processes and streamline our invoicing procedures.”

QEK also required an ERP system that could easily support a dealer management system, as well as eGAMS, the company’s proprietary asset management system built on .NET architecture.

“With Microsoft Dynamics AX, QEK can seamlessly connect its operations and offer an ERP solution that has a familiar look and feel with other Microsoft solutions already in use,” said Russell Smith, president of Fullscope.

“The ability for QEK to easily view data as it is captured and make instant business decisions will allow QEK to better meet its business objectives both now and in the future.”

WellPoint Systems Announces First Quarter Results

2007-05-25T11:41:00.000+02:00

CALGARY, May 25 /CNW/ - WellPoint Systems Inc. (TSXV: WPS) today
announces its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2007.
The Company recorded revenues of $4,923,051 in the first quarter of 2007, an
86% increase over the revenues of $2,636,212 generated in the first quarter of
2006. EBITDA(1) was $463,118 in the first quarter compared with $503,440 in
the comparable period of 2006. The Company incurred a net loss of $89,395 in
the quarter compared with net income of $128,950 in the first quarter of 2006.

"In the first quarter we met a number of key strategic objectives - the
highlight was completing an acquisition of iSoft which provided us with
valuable mining Intellectual Property," said Frank Stanford, CEO of WellPoint
Systems. "We continued to experience very substantial improvements in revenue
thanks in part to organic growth in Canada and the acquisition of IDEAS, which
we completed late in the first quarter of last year. EBITDA and net income
were ahead of budget. We anticipate that the launch of new high margin
products, like Energy Broker, will position us very well for the future."

Recent highlights:
- Revenues increased 86% to $4,923,051 in the first quarter of 2007, as
compared with $2,636,212 in 2006. This increase in revenues was the
result of strong organic growth in Canada and revenues from
IDEAS International Inc., acquired on March 10, 2006.
- EBITDA was $463,118 for the first quarter of 2007 compared to
$503,440 for the comparable period of 2006.
- There was a net loss of $89,395 for the quarter compared to net
income of $128,950 for the comparable quarter in 2006. Maintenance
revenues were up significantly because of a small number of Microsoft
support contracts extended by existing customers. The decrease in
gross margin is almost entirely attributable to the low margin
associated with these contracts.
- WellPoint announced that it had completed the certification processes
associated with Microsoft's Industry Builder program ("IBP") and, as
a result, now has its financial management product included on
Microsoft's Dynamics AX price lists in the United States, Canada and
the United Kingdom. The product, rebranded as "Energy Financial
Management for Microsoft Dynamics AX", is now available for resale by
Microsoft and the Microsoft partners within those specific regions
who choose to become certified in the marketing and implementation of
this solution.
- WellPoint announced it had completed its purchase of
iSoft Technologies (Pty) Ltd. ("iSoft") whose software applications
focus primarily on enterprise asset management, a concept especially
relevant to asset intensive industries like mining and energy.
WellPoint believes iSoft's MRO (maintenance, repair and operate)
module to be the most valuable mining intellectual property within
the Microsoft application suite.
- WellPoint announced it had formally initiated its channel program
with the announcement of two new strategic alliances, one with
ePartners Incorporated and the other with Deloitte and Touche. These
alliances will ensure the Company has the implementation capacity to
keep pace with the demand for WellPoint's products.

Progress toward WellPoint's 2007 key strategy points:
1. Exploit receptive U.S. & International markets.
- U.S. and International revenue represented 40% of total revenue
for the first quarter of 2007.
2. Pursue strategic acquisitions and partnerships that complement a
focused corporate strategy.
- WellPoint now owns the most valuable piece of mining intellectual
property in the Microsoft application world with the first quarter
2007 acquisition of iSoft.
- WellPoint continues to look for new acquisition opportunities.
3. Leverage a differentiated relationship with Microsoft.
- New member of Microsoft's elite Industry Builder Program - one of
only 9 global partners.
- Named to Microsoft's "Inner Circle" - the top 1% of the worldwide
Microsoft Business Solution partners.

For more information read the press release at http://www.wellpointsystems.com/main/components/news_releases/052507_WPS_Q1-2007-Final.pdf

Oil distributor gets slick with ERP

2007-05-24T11:48:00.000+02:00

With little IT manpower and no time to spare, the Canadian distributor of Castrol products builds a whole new sales and distribution system from the ground up.

Canadian Technology News -- by Vawn Himmelsbach

With an IT team of two, Wakefield Canada may have braced itself for a slippery ride when faced with the prospect of rolling out a company-wide ERP system in a short time frame.

With right planning and technology partner, however, this Canadian distributor of Castrol premium lubricants managed to build a system that improved its finance and wholesale distribution process.

One significant advantage, said Don Weston, director of business technology for Wakefield, was that the company was building the system from scratch.

“We were fortunate that we had no legacy systems – we didn't have one line of legacy code we had to worry about,” said Weston. “We built the computer room, we put the empty racks in and started loading them up.” Wakefield now has 24 physical servers.

Wakefield stepped in as a strategic partner for British Petroleum (BP) when BP decided to exit the sales, marketing and distribution of Castrol within Canada. At that point Wakefield faced the challenge of building a remote office in Canada from scratch.

Wakefield has grown from a staff of 68 people to 110. “All of our processing had been done prior to the acquisition by BP out of Wayne, N.J.,” said Weston. “We had to take on everything right down to telephones – we didn't even have a computer room in this building.”

When global partners are looking to grow their business in Canada, integrating infrastructures and application software for the Canadian marketplace is often the biggest challenge. Wakefield was no exception.

Faced with a tight timeframe, Wakefield turned to the technology experts: Microsoft and its partner Tectura. Weston's team started the implementation of Microsoft's Dynamics AX solution, but the company needed more time to set up. So, BP granted Wakefield the temporary use of its old J.D. Edwards system. That was up and running until August, when Wakefield went into production with Dynamics AX.

“Where they're going to see enhanced benefits and where Wakefield will go after that tipping point is in visibility into their system,” said Wehuns Tan, corporate account manager with Microsoft Canada. They've taken steps by investing in SharePoint and InfoPath to move toward automation across the business.

“Where there's paper processes, you're going to see a transformation to complete automation,” he said. While many firms haven't had much success in moving from paper to electronic forms in the past, he added, users today are intuitively able to use these types of tools.

Wakefield is also evaluating Microsoft's PerformancePoint tools in areas such as budgeting and forecasting. “We're looking at other integration strategies to get even deeper integration,” said Tan.

“Because we control the environment, we can now impact how we do pricing and how we process orders,” said Weston. Wakefield has created a custom business intelligence application beside AX so that all sales reporting is done through a data cube, creating consistency across the organization.

Wakefield also plans to roll out an application this September that will allow its territory sales reps to access its customer relationship management system directly from their BlackBerry devices.

Erich Krause deployed Dynamics AX in Latvia

2007-05-23T12:01:00.000+02:00

Erich Krause's Latvian branch office has finished the installation of a Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP system-based solution for the distribution company. Source: OSP International

The Latvian office introduces technologies and business processes previously proved to be successful in the distribution company’s Russian unit. Yet, the solution was adapted to Latvia: basic documents and specific forms were drawn up in Latvian, developed modifications were translated into English.

There are already two companies within the holding keeping their accounts in a common information space. This makes it possible to organize well the order cycle and goods reservation for specific orders, manage reserves, have a flexible price policy and manage the stock.

Systems integrator LANIT provided the consulting services. Erich Krause management company is conducting the next subproject, which includes processes of procurement, supply chain management, finance management and payments to vendors. For these tasks the company has developed a logistics module.

RRC increases overseas sales, expansion yields good results

2007-05-22T11:55:00.000+02:00

Russian and overseas revenues of a distributor company RRC approximately equaled in 2005. RRC comprises RRC EN, a project distributor, DiFo, consumer electronic appliances distributor and the RRC Training Center. The 2006 total turnover hit US$230 million. It also demonstrated significant structural changes with around 60 percent of RRC's 2006 revenues received beyond the Russian border.

Source: OSP International

"I believe 40 to 60 is a good ratio that we are content with", sais RRC Group President Konstantin Sidorov. The company's Russian and Polish offices bring around 28 to 30 percent of the turnover each. Then come RRC's offices in Ukraine and Hungary.

Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan were the last to add to the list of RRC's overseas operations. Today the company has twelve offices half of which are in Eastern Europe. RRC also has two sales representatives. Before the end of this year RRC has plans to start operating in Croatia as well as setting up sales representatives in Bosnia and Macedonia.

For financial reasons there are no further plans at the moment to open proper offices that require hiring a staff of at least five people. Instead, RRC will go for a more economical alternative of sales representatives. Besides, from mid-2006 RRC's Eastern European offices started selling actively not only in their own countries but abroad, too, including Turkey and Israel.

"If we speak about geography and our operations, I am quite content", said Sidorov. According to the RRC President, another important objective is to improve quality, extend the list of suppliers and the product portfolio. In terms of regional expansion, task number one is to strike an agreement with a vendor. This is the first thing one needs to do before starting any investment in the country. The next important task is to find qualified personnel. Now that RRC has a reputation of a European company, this has become less of a problem. Depending on the personnel an office employs the company creates competence centers that can be used by RRC offices in other regions if needed. For instance, the main team of Cisco System specialists is based in Russia while Symbol Technologies team is in Poland. According to Sidorov, this human resources diversification is one of the reasons why RRC business has shown such good growth in Eastern Europe. Typically, an overseas office starts bringing profit in the second year of operation. Today all RRC offices are breaking even.

However, RRC top management is not quite satisfied by the company's growth rates in Russia. "While focusing on development in Eastern Europe, RRC has climbed down a bit in the Russian market", says Sidorov. While the Group's 2006 turnover showed 38 percent growth on the previous year, the Russian business only demonstrated 17 percent of growth. This is a significant drop given that RRC's Russian business growth never went below 35 to 40 percent over the past eight years. RRC aims to get back to these figures in the near future, and the market has potential that makes it an achievable objective.

RRC has already replaced DiFo's Russian team whose performance spoilt the general financial picture in 2006 showing only five percent of revenue growth.

Besides, RRS has plans to get to grips with e-commerce. In Czech Republic, for example, RRC received 90 percent of orders online while in Russia this figure is at the zero level. RRC invested over $1 million in implementing Microsoft Dynamics AX. The project is scheduled to be completed before the year-end. The plan is for all RRC companies to switch to Microsoft Dynamics AX. At the same time RRC is launching Microsoft's CRM and developing an e-commerce system. RRC expects all of its e-commerce resources to start operating in early 2008. According to RRC's own forecast, the company's 2007 turnover will exceed $300 million.

Hot Springs transforms operations with Manhattan Associates’ supply chain solutions

2007-05-21T11:57:00.000+02:00

A supply chain solutions provider, Manhattan Associates, has deployed its integrated logistics solutions, built on Microsoft.NET for Hot Springs, one of Australia and New Zealand’s major suppliers of apparel and licensed fashion to the retail industry.

With the .NET-based solution, Hot Springs can now reach its operational goals while increasing customer satisfaction and enabling future growth not only in Australia/ New Zealand, but also across Asia and the UK.

“Manhattan Associates Warehouse Management solution will be a key enabler of our continued growth as an apparel distributor,” said Venu Varma, General Manager for Hot Springs.

“We selected Manhattan Associates based on its reputation and its people, and because the solution integrated with our existing enterprise resource planning system, Microsoft’s Dynamics AX (formerly known as Axapta).”

The solution has been successfully implemented at Hot Springs’s 10,000 square metre distribution centres at Minchinbury, and has streamlined the warehousing and distribution of all of the company’s 42 brands and licenses across the facility.

“One of the benefits of working with Manhattan Associates has been that the implementation process was very well run and very well documented” commented Varna.

“This enabled all the parties involved to stay focussed on the ultimate goal and achieve our objectives in a timely and cost-effective manner.”

Prior to implementing Manhattan Associates’ Integrated Logistics Solutions, built on Microsoft .NET, Hot Springs’ paper-based systems were becoming insufficient to meet the complexity of the company’s operations.

“We were using manual systems and Excel spreadsheets to try and run a very diverse business, but there were just too many variables for a manual process to be effective on a day-to-day basis. Each of our brands serves a broad spectrum of customers – from independent boutique stores right through to the big retail chains like Target and David Jones – each with their own distinct distribution requirements.”

“By selecting a state-of-the-art system like Manhattan Associates’ Warehouse Management solution to optimise our procedures and streamline our processes, combined with the effectiveness of our new Symbol RF units, we will be able to increase the productivity of our workforce and make better use of our resources.”

As the next stage of Hot Springs’s supply chain transformation, the company will implement Manhattan Associates’ Billing Management solution (often deployed by Logistics Services Providers to track costs by customer), which will enable them to capture all inventory handling, storage and fulfilment activities by company division.

This will help Hot Springs’ management team determine which processes, items, customers and suppliers are more costly than others and enable them to make more informed business decisions.

“Manhattan Associates is pleased to offer a solution that will support Hot Springs as it continues to grow,” said Jeff Baum, Manhattan Associates’ vice president, Asia Pacific.

“Our Integrated Logistics Solutions built on Microsoft .NET provides Hot Springs with a flexible tool to add structure to its distribution processes and the capabilities to scale with its operations.”

Fullscope’s Channel Efforts Gain Momentum

2007-05-04T11:21:00.000+02:00

Company reaffirms commitment to the Microsoft Dynamic Industry Solutions program; worldwide channel development growth continues

ATLANTA (April 5, 2007) Fullscope, Inc., a Microsoft Gold Certified business partner and one of the initial participants in the Microsoft Industry Builder program, today emphasized its commitment to the new Microsoft Dynamics Industry Solutions program unveiled at Convergence 2007 and announced continued strong development of its reseller efforts.

Fullscope builds and supports Process Industries for Microsoft Dynamics AX, part of Microsoft’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) product line, under the current Industry Builder program. Part of Fullscope’s Industry Builder responsibility is to develop the worldwide reseller channel for the Process solution. Microsoft recently announced the next phase of the Industry Builder program in a press release issued March 13, 2007:

“The Microsoft Dynamics Industry Solutions program will encompass the current Industry Builder program as well as other new initiatives … For Industry Builder members, the new program offers significantly improved benefits and revenue opportunities, and for customers, tightly integrated industry modules that will ship simultaneously with core Microsoft Dynamics releases and service packs.”

“We are committed to do our part to help Microsoft deliver on the next generation of solutions under the Industry Builder program,” said John Scandar, executive vice president and co-founder of Fullscope. “This change will let us create a stronger, development-focused relationship with Microsoft that will benefit our customers by bringing even deeper process industry functionality into the industry version of Microsoft Dynamics AX. Importantly, program improvements such as the simultaneous release of industry versions and standard AX will greatly please our core customers—upper mid-market and enterprise manufacturers.”

Kineticsware Launches Textile and Apparel Business Unit Based in Italy

2007-05-02T19:09:00.000+02:00

Unit to Carry Out Research and Development, Channel Management, Product Management and Technical Support

KIRKLAND, WA -- May 02, 2007 -- Kineticsware, a global software company and Microsoft partner focused on customers in supply chain intensive industries, today announces the formation of its Textile and Apparel business unit (BU), based in Lomazzo, Italy. The team includes Jon Buchan, former sales director responsible for North American sales of Blue Fox Porini, a division of Blue Fox Enterprises N.V., and John Charnovich, Vice President, Industry Solutions and former Chief Information Officer of Hanes Brands, Inc.

Kineticsware, established in 2006 with operations in North America and the United Kingdom, is led by former executives from Microsoft Dynamics and other enterprise software companies including i2 Technologies, JD Edwards, SAP, Oracle and PeopleSoft. Its new Textile and Apparel BU will carry out research and development, channel partner management, product management and technical support. The BU is expected to employ approximately 15 professionals in Italy by the end of 2007.

According to Kineticsware's CEO, Jeff Sampson, "There is a tremendous opportunity to build and deliver vertical software solutions for Textile and Apparel companies." As consumers demand an increasing assortment of unique lifestyle brands, fashions and comfort with new high performance fabrics and products in the market, the world value of exports in the Textile and Apparel industry has increased to over $476 BB, an increase of 25% over the past 5 years, according to the World Trade Organization. For years, software companies have failed to fully address the total needs of these customers due to increasingly complex supply chains characterised by shorter lead times, a growing number of seasons in a year, and challenges relating to global trade, product quotas and tariffs by country. Additionally, cost competitiveness and globalization of supply and manufacturing capabilities in Central America and Asia has lowered the barriers to entry and driven the need for global visibility of Supply Chain operations. "The new textile and apparel BU is established to help manufacturers in these industries tackle these challenges, increase efficiency and ultimately, profitability," Sampson adds.

Kineticsware develops complete vertical solutions for the Textile and Apparel industry. They are comprised of two key components; industry extensions developed for the Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP business application platform and stand alone, industry specific applications that are integrated and complement Dynamics AX. By providing additional applications in the areas of advanced planning & scheduling, product lifecycle management, product data management, manufacturing and shop floor control and sourcing collaboration, Kineticsware will deliver the only end-to-end and extended supply chain platform for Textile and Apparel companies.

Wellpoint Systems retains leading investor relations firm

2007-05-02T19:03:00.000+02:00

CALGARY, May 2 - WellPoint Systems Inc. ("WellPoint") (TSXV: WPS),
a leading provider of software and related services for managing critical
operations within the energy industry, today announced that it has retained
The Equicom Group Inc. ("Equicom") to provide the Company with strategic
investor relations and financial communications services.

Equicom provides strategic communications services to approximately 100
public companies across a diverse range of industries. Under the terms of the
agreement, WellPoint will pay Equicom a monthly retainer fee of $7,000 for
professional services. The initial contract term is 12 months. Neither Equicom
nor any of its principals has an ownership interest, directly or indirectly,
in WellPoint or its securities, and the Company has not granted Equicom or its
principals any right to acquire such an interest. Equicom is an employee-owned
firm whose principals include Barry Hildred, President and Jason Hogan,
Executive Vice President.

Golden Temple Chooses OneNeck to Host and Manage Oracle E-Business Suite and MS Exchange Environments

2007-05-01T19:13:00.000+02:00

OneNeck to Manage Golden Temple's Mission Critical Oracle ERP Application
SCOTTSDALE, AZ -- May 01, 2007 -- OneNeck IT Services announced today it has entered into a five-year contract with Golden Temple of Oregon to provide IT outsourcing services. Under the terms of the contract, OneNeck will be responsible for hosting and management of Oracle® E-Business Suite and Microsoft Exchange environments.

Golden Temple of Oregon is a mid-size food processing business. Its 151,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Eugene, Oregon produces Yogi Tea®, Peace Cereal®, Wha Guru Chew® nut bars, Granola snacks, and more for health food stores and grocery stores nationwide. It also produces private-label, organic products for major national and specialty retailers.

"We selected OneNeck for a number of reasons," said Keith Bearden, CIO for Golden Temple. "First, the selection of Oracle as our ERP solution led Golden Temple to seek a one-stop-shop service provider with significant Oracle and overall ERP experience. Additionally the responses from OneNeck were far superior to those received from other vendors and the negotiation process indicated that OneNeck was willing to treat this as a true partnership."

Golden Temple IT Director Jeff Smith added, "I am excited to establish a relationship with OneNeck as an important extension of our IT group. Partnering with OneNeck will allow our group to focus on strategic initiatives that will deliver value to our end users, while OneNeck handles the day-to-day management tasks related to our IT applications infrastructure.

"In this competitive award," continued Smith, "OneNeck distinguished themselves with their Oracle expertise, comprehensive SAS-70 Type II opinion, and capabilities to offer a complete solution to support the full technology stack of Golden Temple's enterprise systems."

"OneNeck is honored to be selected by Golden Temple to manage their mission critical Oracle environment," said Chuck Vermillion, CEO of OneNeck. "Looking forward, we are committed to partnering with their organization to deliver superior services, enabling them to drive top line and bottom line results."

Microsoft: Partnering Up or Partnering Down?

2007-05-01T19:10:00.000+02:00

For partners it is a question of how far Microsoft will go with the verticals initiative.

Source: www.destinationcrm.com -- by Colin Beasty, Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Microsoft is making its Dynamics business applications more industry relevant, the company revealed at its Convergence conference in San Diego in March. The software giant an-nounced Dynamics Industry Solutions, a new program under which Microsoft will build in additional vertical capabilities to its ERP and CRM applications through a combination of internal development, small-scale acquisitions, and a deepening of its Industry Builder incentive program, according to Tami Reller, corporate vice president of Business Solutions Marketing, at the conference. Future industry-specific offerings codeveloped by Microsoft and its partners can be standalone offerings or ISVs can build on top of them, according to Reller.

Microsoft had been relying on its partners to add industry-specific functionality to its Dynamics software. This was sometimes problematic for customers that needed vertically focused solutions. "Those users were largely dependent on code developed on top of Dynamics, often by very small ISVs' code that wasn't backed by Microsoft," says Yvonne Genovese, a vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.

That behavior is about to change. "We're strengthening opportunities for our partners," says James Utzschneider, general manager of Dynamics marketing. At the conference the company also announced Microsoft Dynamics Certified Solutions, a third-party program in which Microsoft tests and approves new code from all partners certified on Microsoft Dynamics software. Microsoft will then identify the top 500 ISV solutions that meet the specialized needs of particular industries.

Laurie McCabe, vice president of SMB insights for AMI-Partners, says, "If you think back to Microsoft's acquisition of Great Plains, everybody thought that would send ISVs running, but it didn't. For Microsoft's partners it's a question of how much farther are they going to go with this vertical initiative and how much room they're going to give the partners. Some will see this as a threat, others won't."

Utzschneider pointed to the strategic alliance Microsoft recently struck with public-sector information management software vendor Tyler Technologies. With its headquarters in Dallas, Tyler has more than 6,000 customers, most of which operate in the U.S. local-government sector. Tyler Technologies has 1,500 staff and approximately $200 million in annual revenue. In January the two companies announced a joint development of public-sector accounting functionality for Dynamics AX, suitable for out-of-the-box use by governments worldwide.

The enhanced version of Dynamics should appear in the latter part of 2009, according to John Marr, Tyler president and CEO. Marr welcomed Microsoft's industry-focused move after having spent years talking to Microsoft, but found it challenging to define a relationship that would benefit both companies. "They're now saying, 'Be a part of our development team.'"

Moving forward, Reller says more verticals will be added to the current five--manufacturing, distribution, retail, professional services, and public sector--that comprise the Dynamics Industry Solutions program. "This is just the starting point. As we see continued uptake in specific areas, we'll base our expansion from there." --Colin Beasty

BTD Manufacturing, Going the extra mile

2007-05-01T19:06:00.000+02:00

Source : The Manufacturer US -- Since its founding in 1979, BTD Manufacturing has grown from a simple job shop to a company offering its customers value-added services like engineering, assembly, and special packaging. Linda Seid Frembes finds out how

Bismarck Tool and Die Company (BTD) began in Bismarck, ND, on May 15, 1979. Its founders, Erling Rasmussen and Paul White Jr., created BTD as a job shop to design and manufacture dies, fixtures, and special machines. The company soon moved to its current location in Detroit Lakes, MN, due to expansion and growth. Today, BTD Manufacturing is an operating company of Otter Tail Corporation that provides OEMs with engineering, design, in-house die and fixture building, prototyping, metal stamping and fabrication, robotic and hand welding, machining, tube lasering and bending, riveting, assembly, plating, heat treating, and special packaging.

According to its parent company, BTD serves a niche in metal fabrication with the ability to manufacture large quantities of different mid-sized parts in small to medium volumes. BTD’s major customer market is the recreational industry, serving brands like Polaris Industries, Arctic Cat, and Kawasaki. BTD has also done well in the lawn and garden, agricultural, and construction markets, servicing brands like Toro, CNH, and Kubota. Jared Lotzer, sales engineer for the company, says, “Our differentiator from pure job shops is being multifaceted. We’re willing to go the extra mile for our customers. For example, we’ll provide the entire roll cage for a recreational vehicle, while others are not always capable of doing the value-added work. We can provide better service, thanks to our investment in new technology and our good financial backing from Otter Tail Corporation.”

BTD’s willingness to service its customers with value-added work has garnered a steady rate of growth year over year. BTD’s capabilities now include engineering and prototyping, which translates into manufacturing improvements and cost savings for customers. The company’s customers manufacture a wide range of products, from snowmobiles and ATVs to farm equipment and tractors, lawn and garden equipment, gas fireplaces, exercise equipment, and generators. “Ninety percent of our customers are located in the Midwest, with some in the South and East and continued emphasis on growth locally and nationally,” says Lotzer. “We have over 300 active customers, but the top 10 represent 65 percent of our business volume.”

“Some customers provide us with a 52-week forecast in advance and are input into the ERP system,” says Marty Kiebke, vice president of materials and systems for BTD. “We work with several different steel suppliers to ensure that materials are received and processed in a timely manner.” In June 2006 the company went live with RF-SMART’s Distribution Suite to enhance its Microsoft Dynamics AX enterprise software. RF-SMART provides wireless, mobile, and RFID software solutions specifically for Microsoft Dynamics AX environments. According to a press release, BTD implemented RF-SMART to add value to its Dynamics AX-driven logistics operations, which handle more than 2,500 logistics-related transactions per day.

In addition, the company focuses on continuous improvement. BTD has worked with David Meier, coauthor of The Toyota Way Fieldbook, to train managers in lean manufacturing principles. “We apply and use lean tools like flow and cellular manufacturing,” says James Vogt, vice president of continuous improvement and planning for BTD. “We are just now getting the first kanban system in place so we can intentionally create the need for improvements. Overall, we have been using the tools that control inventory flow, labor, and save space.”

BTD had dabbled in lean manufacturing over the past five or six years but recently took a more systematic approach to deploying it. “We concentrated on 5S and a lot of kaizen blitzing. Our systematic approach to lean says, ‘If it’s not broke, then break it, because you constantly reinvent yourself.’ That’s the mentality you need to stay ahead of the competition,” says Vogt.

Currently, BTD’s 410 employees are spending a lot of time learning about the principles of lean manufacturing with the hope that it will become an ingrained practice. The focus on improvement has meant that the company maintains some of the best stamping lead times in the industry. Its fabrication shop can often do a same-day turnaround on customer orders. Vogt adds, “We try to build to standard lead times, but we have projects that have their own lead times too.”

Rob Oelfke, customer service manager for BTD, also notes that some customers build to stock while others are build to order. To meet the growing need of its customer base, the company established a satellite production operation in Lakeville, MN, in April 2006. Located 200 miles from its headquarters in Detroit Lakes, the new production operation is housed in the same building as the BTD Lakeville distribution center. This production location improves the company’s reach by serving customers in southern Minnesota and eastern Wisconsin. Customers in the area have enjoyed the reduced shipping cost of just-in-time deliveries.

BTD Lakeville production operation is housed in a 52,000-square-foot precast building with ample room for future growth. The adjacent finished goods warehouse is identical in size to the 44,000-square-feet warehouse in Detroit Lakes. Moving forward, the company looks to grow both organically and via future acquisitions like Performance Tool in the Lakeville area. The addition of Performance Tool added to BTD’s already expanding expertise in tool and die.

As the company grows into more of a major player, market forces like global competition become more of a threat. “We have to control the labor content in products, and that’s where lean benefits us,” says Vogt. “Controlling costs like steel prices is done via quarterly contracts. We also try to build the relationship down the supply chain,” says Kiebke.

BTD Manufacturing is ISO 9001:2000 certified and is often recognized with customer awards for its quality, delivery, and cost-reduction efforts. BTD is affiliated with several industry organizations, including the National Association of Manufacturers, the Precision Metalforming Association, the Manufacturers Alliance, the Minnesota Safety Council, the Association of Women in Metal Industries, and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.

TopS BI merges with Systematica

2007-04-23T17:06:00.000+02:00

Source: www.ospint.com -- Systematica, a National Computer Corporation (NCC) company, and Tops Business Integrator have announced their merger. The merger will be carried out through the exchange of shares between the stockholders of Systematica and TopS BI without cash payment or going out of business of either of the parties. The merger documents were signed on March 27th, and the newly-merged companies are coordinating anti-monopoly issues with the authorities now.

The new company is part of National Computer Corporation and is referred to as the Systematica Group. The plan is to position the new company as an IT services provider. As of the year 2006, the companies' overall turnover is over US$230 million of which $71 million is TopS BI's share. The total number of staff is around one thousand. It is assumed that the Systematica Group's turnover will come very close to $300 million this year.
The plan for the first stage of the merger is for each part to remain independent legal entities. In the future the managing company along with AND Project (also an NCC company), TopS BI and Systematica will form the structure of the Systematica Group. The managing company will handle issues related to personnel, investment, marketing, finance and legal functional departments.

Strategic management of the group will be carried out by the board of directors chaired by Leonid Boguslavsky, TopS BI board chairman, and Anton Tsitsenko, president of Systematica. Leonid Goldenberg, Systematica's chairman until recently, will handle operational issues as president of the Systematica Group. TopS BI's general director Felix Glikman has been appointed chairman of the Group's board, a coordinating body that will be formed from the top management of all the three companies (AND Project, TopS BI and Systematica).

Systematica was formed in 2004 from Aquarius Data, Aquarius Consulting and AND Project, the National Computer Corporation's business divisions that worked in system integration and consulting. Although the holding's new venture showed some good growth of 60 percent in 2006, it became clear that Systematica would not be able to compete with large systems integrators. The management viewed a merger as the best solution to the problem. Last year a separate board of directors was formed for managing Systematica independently from the NCC. Besides, it was decided to preserve the AND Project trademark which is a subsidiary of Systematica today.

The merger with TopS BI whose owners were just considering similar options for the company development became the first step on the way of realizing the new strategy. "We found each other", said Goldenberg. "In a certain sense we are pioneers, in another sense we are following the general trend", Glikman pointed out. The managers of the merged companies believe that it is rather difficult to find another such pair of systems integrator companies comparable size-wise that fit together so well and do not have any competitors in their main fields of business.

One of Systematica's strengths is big infrastructure projects (over $100 thousand worth) and automation of government offices. Governmental orders bring over 70 percent of the company's revenues. TopS BI, that specializes in consulting and implements Microsoft, Oracle and SAP business applications, on the contrary, has no previous experience in the public sector.
The government's automation expenses are growing not only because of the extending infrastructure but also due to management systems implementation. "Today the government has learned to use the 'right' services", says Glikman. The synergy expected of the merger is to manifest itself in the public sector which has long-term projects that require contractors with qualified and experienced personnel, and adequate financial and managerial recourses.

According to Systematica, the company has very good sales managers, and TopS BI has excellent engineers. Today TopS BI's contribution to the business is around 50 percent while Systematica is providing only 18 percent of the services. The joint company's objective for the first year is to bring Systematica's share in the overall turnover to 50 percent. It is an ambitious plan given the fact that Systematica's revenues are twice as big as TopS BI's turnover. Yet, according to Goldenberg, mere mentioning the possibility of expanding the range of services provided by Systematica has had a considerable impact on a number of projects long before the actual merger with TopS BI.

According to Boguslavski, should the merger have never taken place, each company would have had to launch internal start-ups. In TopS BI's case that would have been projects in the public sector, while Systematica would have gone for big business management and development systems in the private sector.

The only common point in the two company's fields of activity is the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX. Yet AND Project mostly specializes in industry solutions while TopS BI focuses on products for financial institutions. Today TopS BI and AND Project are working together on a number of projects for governmental organizations.

For this year TopS BI and Systematica are going to rely on their own financial resources for the merger related purposes. Bigger investment will be required for the realization of the ambitious plans set for the future, yet the way it will come in is not yet clear. One thing that is known for the moment is that the group will most probably want to acquire some consulting businesses.

Iteration2 Accepts Invitation to Exclusive Microsoft Dynamics Industry Solutions Program

2007-04-23T17:01:00.000+02:00

Microsoft deepens investments in best-of-class industry solutions with inclusion of field services for Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Irvine, CA April 23, 2007 -- Iteration2 (www.iteration2.com), award winning provider of enterprise-wide business solutions, announced today they have deepened their commitment to Microsoft by accepting an invitation to join the recently announced Microsoft Dynamics Industry Solutions (MDIS) program. Microsoft is heavily investing in MDIS in support of their ongoing strategy of offering industry-relevant solutions in manufacturing, distribution, retail, services and the public sector.

As a member of the successful Microsoft Industry Builder Initiative, Iteration2 is experienced in working closely with the Microsoft Dynamics teams. With MDIS, they will continue development momentum on their Field Services for Microsoft Dynamics AX solution and align the tightly integrated solution with future Microsoft Dynamics releases and service packs. The program will give customers the confidence to enhance their investment in Microsoft Dynamics by offering an extended range of highly integrated industry modules certified uniquely for the industry specific solution.

"Iteration2 has been a proud member of Microsoft's Industry Builder Initiative since inception and with all the quality solutions, we are flattered be the one selected to be in MDIS and moving towards being a Microsoft product that can be used by all Microsoft Dynamics AX customers around the world. The formation of a program that extends the success for customers truly demonstrates the versatility and strength of Microsoft Dynamics solutions," says Mike Gillis, President of Iteration2. "We anticipate that the MDIS program will confirm Microsoft's passion towards offering tier one industry solutions to customers worldwide and we look forward to continue delivering on that promise, extending our powerful Field Service solution to Microsoft Dynamics AX customers worldwide!"