Inventory is often the largest asset most of the distribution companies have. It is also expensive to purchase. Therefore, having poor inventory control may result in working capital crisis, damage, expire/ perish of inventory which will have a ripple effect on profits. On the other hand, if a company doesn’t manage to sell its inventory at the right time, it “eats” the profits by increasing the cost of inventory handling that can be one of the main bottlenecks for the growth of wholesale distributors, warehousing and logistics companies.

Wholesale distributor often stocks and sells thousands of inventory items; and some may contain slight variations in size, style, or other attributes. So, it’s important to pick the right items for production/processing to align with the customer/ production specifications. On the other hand, when it comes to handling customer orders, proper management of SKUs with similarities need careful mapping to avoid wrong items being sold. Also, it promotes fewer returns and scraps while ensuring efficient sourcing of materials from suppliers.

Accordingly, poor item management strategy can lead to harmful miscommunications and loss of productivity, ultimately hurting your business, while proper item management supports an organized warehouse, with carefully tracked inventory and supply chain movement.

Here’s are 5 reasons why well-defined item management should be in place;

1. To manage alike items

These are usually called matrix items. These items may contain slight differences in type, size and colour etc. that could be a hassle, creating various combinations ultimately resulting in confusion, time-consumption, wrong items being sold or purchased, overstock or stockout and many other things that can limit growth. 

Hence, fully-fledged item management automates and streamlines item creation, sales, and purchasing processes for product families that use item attributes and values. These functionalities need to be simple to perform and should be constructed well for flawless operations.

2. To streamline kitting process

Kitting is common in durable goods such as automotive, electronics, machinery and some of the goods such as; food & chemicals. It can be either disassemble of items into stock to resell as separate components or to pick as components to use in assembling or bundle with the products as kits in the form of instructions, user manuals, etc. which are call non-stock items. Especially, when the items are disassembling to use in other orders there is a high chance of components getting lost or damaged. 

Therefore, the ideal ERP for distribution should consist of flexible item management options that provide flexible kitting options for both stock and non-stock kits which also enable accurate costing associated with scrap accounting.

3. Manage compliances, recalls and quality control (QC)

Distributors require serial tracking to seamlessly monitor and manage inventory movements. Serial numbers provide full visibility with tracing down stocks at the receipt of them from suppliers to sales orders to identify which items to include in the customer orders. It helps understand what’s gone wrong and where the exact problem is in the value chain and assist in taking the corrective measures fast.

On the other hand, when it comes to handling product replacements and recalls for warranties, lot tracking capabilities are crucial. Lot tracking improves compliance with industry and customer quality requirements and is used in combination with expiration dates to manage stock rotation for perishable inventory, to manage recalls and to track items and inventory attributes.

Serial and lot tracking provides the ability to backtrack the material throughout the production/ value-adding process where it supports quality control by identifying and avoiding using expired/perished/ damaged items in the production/assembly process before the final product goes out to the market.

An ERP solution that provides complete item management functionalities with serial and lot tracking will enhance customer experience, quality of work while enabling you to confidently face regulatory or customer compliance.

4. To overcome problems related to the unit of measure

Warehouse distributors will face over-complication of their processes when it comes to the unit of measure conversion, where they may purchase in one unit of measure, stock in another unit of measure, and sells in yet another unit of measure. It will be an even more struggle to deal with bulk quantities and when larger quantities should be broken into smaller quantities. 

ERP users also should be able to define units of measure and how each unit of measure is related or converted to other units of measure while providing user-defined UOM conversions and variable UOM for purchasing, inventory, and sales avoiding manual calculations. This is why you should research item management capabilities when you are selecting an ERP solution that is a long-term investment for your company.

5. Manage expiration dates 

Expiry dates play a vital role when it comes to the storage of perishable goods. Some of the non-perishable’s such as rubber, plastic etc also can have expiry dates even they do not seem to have where their expiry may be due to outdated technology, depreciation or degrading etc. Therefore, it is important to associate your inventory with lots and serial numbers for Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) processes. Managing expiry dates efficiently also enables efficient stock rotation for maximization of your inventory profitability. On the other hand, it helps manage customer satisfaction by assuring the quality of the products by removing expensive after-sales rectifications/ replacements. 

Thus, lot expiration dates in item management help improve stock rotation, quality control while amplifying customer service visibility.

Accordingly, it is very important for you to carefully select your ERP solution for your distribution/ logistic company as you will need extensive capabilities in item management with having understood the importance of inventory management for businesses of this nature.

You must be wondering if your current ERP software version is “doing the job” and if there is a reason to upgrade to a new version when the vendor releases a new version claiming advanced functionalities, efficiency improvements, technological advances, etc. Why do software vendors release updates and new versions, anyway?

When it comes to most new software releases, developers continue with research and development on the product to add new capabilities such as configurability to reduce modification requirements; improving functionalities to support better processes; fixing bugs; and security issues that are discovered; thus reducing vulnerabilities and cybersecurity threats your company may face. On the other hand, such releases could entail major changes to underlying architecture such as moving to the cloud, making software platforms independent adding intelligence and autonomous capabilities etc.

Furthermore, it could involve; lack of mobility, missing features/functionalities, compliance with the changes to laws and regulations, increased cost of maintenance and most importantly improve user experience. 

IFS™, being a class-leading solution provider, has released a fully cloud-based version of its software which empowers you to choose how you wish to host your solution. You can select IFS™ fully managed cloud, on-premises or self-managed cloud infrastructure. This latest version comes with 100% open APIs which allows seamless integration with any other systems, using capabilities such as Artificial Intelligence(AI), Machine Learning(ML), Internet of Things (IoT) or Robotic Process Automation(RPA). 

Bi-annual optional releases with IFS™ cloud means that the solution is always up to date with new capabilities whilst keeping the impact on business to a minimum level.

New IFS™ Cloud brings to you.

●    A sophisticated user interface to drive employee engagement & satisfaction while improving the speed and efficiency of decision making.

●  A cloud platform that is responsive to screens of different devices for a greater user experience, AI, IoT, and a host of other application services to facilitate remote assistance in services or predictive maintenance.

●    A Single Platform that includes all IFS™ products 

 ●    Rapid Evolution for FSM -New service innovation to support Field Service Management like Remote Assistance functionality, keeping the phase as the industry-leading solution.

●    Maintenix components for Aircraft Maintenance

●    Enhancements – some of the key enhancements are listed below.

● Service Management – Embedded Remote Support for Service & Maintenance.

● Asset Management – Improved EAM Technician Portal.

● Projects – Improvements to Contract Management.

● Manufacturing – Supplier classification tracking & improved quality management.

● MRO – Improved Heavy Maintenance Engineer Portal and Aircraft maintenance visit material and part sourcing.

● HCM – New Browser-Based Time Clock, APIs for integration with third-party payroll systems.

● Supply Chain – Warehouse Data Collection (WADACO) enhancements.

● Platform – New Machine Learning application service new capabilities for process automation, OData-based RESTful APIs to replace BizAPIs for system-to-system integration.

●    New Release Cadence

     – Releases new functionalities every six months along with monthly service updates.

●    Evergreen Support

      IFS™ Application 8 or below – This is already in the restricted support phase. 

      IFS™ Application 9- Standard support is not available and extended support is only available until mid-2023 and will move to restricted support thereafter.

      IFS™ Application 10- Standard support expires in 2025 and extended support will be available until mid-2028.

      IFS™ Cloud-Evergreen Support- Standard support is available with monthly service updates. 

Accordingly, Upgrades brings you more capabilities and helps you remove obstacles that you are facing as every upgrade comes with advanced technologies and capabilities for your company to stay agile. IFS™ cloud is something that you should consider if you are looking to make your business evergreen and help you to stay ahead of the competition.

“Industry best practices” is a common term in the ERP world, where most of the ERPs utilize standard practices in the industry to build their ERP solutions. Best practices are a collection of norms & methods which are commonly accepted as successful practices by the industry professional and successful entities. In the context of ERP solutions, integrating industry best practices are important to fasten the implementation process and benefit from industry best practices that are tested and proven to be effective.

Industry-specific ERP solutions with industry best practices would provide a greater level of adaptability within the particular industry and its micro-verticals with minimum configurations and customizations. The below illustration explains the exact benefits of using Industry-specific ERP solutions compared to the traditional ERP implementation approach.

 

Every company has their way of doing things and completely replacing those workflows would alienate employees resulting lack of support for the new initiatives. On the other hand, our years of experience in implementing ERP is that no company is going to adopt an ERP as it is without personalizing it to the company. The interfaces, documents etc. are some frequently configured items that become different from one to another. Also, in many companies, there are unique configurations that might associate with their differential factors from others. An industry-specific ERP solution comes with a greater percentage of industry-best practices built-in within the system.

Benefits of having the best practices on your ERP implementation.

• Quick delivery with a predictable outcome.
• Incorporation of industry practices to align workflows according to successful similar companies.
• Professionally produced technical solutions.
• Broadly tested and verified with fewer possible errors and risks.
• Reduce the total cost of ownership.

Selecting a correct ERP and a solution provider is the greatest challenge you have where selecting a wrong ERP can lead you to bear an unnecessary amount of money for expensive additional configuration along with your time value out of lengthy implementation process.

Platned as an expert in providing ERP solutions helps you to select the right ERP system to deliver the best value for your company while taking you through a reliable journey towards your digital transformation. We specially focus on providing industry-specific ERP solutions where close to 60% of the system comes in the core product and only the balance you will have to customize with simple deployment configurations and unique configurations.

To begin, it’s important to remember that most distribution ERP software systems are designed and developed using industry standard practices in order to implement them faster with less customizations. Obviously, implementing a proper Enterprise Resource Planning system will bring in disciplined procedures to the company, but sometimes the standards are difficult to adopt across different industries.

 

However, selecting the best distribution ERP system should be done carefully with properly evaluating many factors while considering current business processes, workflows, employee work structure and so on. Lack of due diligence during the evaluation stage may lead to an inadequate Enterprise Resource Planning solution. This won’t just translate into a loss of precious resources, time, and costs, but also cause frustrations, restrictions in the business’s growth and operational capabilities for years to come.

 

Simply, you need to make sure that your long term investment on a distribution ERP system pays off your investment and enable you to reach out to your long term and short term goals.

Here are 5 main areas that you need to evaluate before implementing an ERP system for your distribution company;

1.Productivity: You need to evaluate how far your chosen Enterprise Resource Planning system increase your overall productivity. Here are some evaluation criteria that you have to consider to identify if a particular system will contribute to increase productivity of your company.

• Accessible anytime, anywhere and from any device.
• Ability to work in any language or currency.
• Easy to learn and adopt with less complex interface.
• Automation of business processes with simplifying approval process and notifications.
• Single database to store documents that is accessible by any key personnel.
• Comprehensive reports.

2.Functionality: Another aspect that you need to evaluate in your Enterprise Resource Planning selection decision is functionality that it delivers. You can evaluate functionality with below criteria in a broad perspective.

• Capability in handling multi-company, international companies, multi-site, multi-warehouse including consolidation, reconciliations etc.
• Financial management capabilities.
• Quote-to-cash capability.
• Sales order and PO management Cost accounting capabilities functionalities.
• Warehouse and inventory management related functionalities
• Integrated BI with industry-specific analytics.
• CRM.

3.Technology: from the technological capabilities aspect, it is vital to evaluate your distribution ERP in terms of;

• Availability of all functionalities on cloud platform.
• Responsiveness across different devices and screens.
• Ability to export data for reporting, transfers and backups.
• Switch data hosting method.
• Flexible and customizable.

4.Value: an ERP should add value to your business with;

• Multiple deployment options.
• Flexible licensing options.
• Reduced cost of ownership.
• Scalability.
• Vendor charges.

5.Risk: a fully-fledged ERP need to have the capacity to minimize risks faced by your company.

• Predicting monthly cost.
• Quick deployment.
• Utilizing resources of cloud hosting leaders.
• Vendor’s industry knowledge and customer reference on previous projects on same or similar industry verticals.
• backup & disaster recovery.
• Security.
• Simpler integration.

These evaluation criteria will guide you to choose the best ERP that well suits your distribution industry-specific requirements. So, do not hurry to conclude your decision in selecting the best distribution ERP system since it’s a long term investment which will directly impact your company performance.

Most of the manufacturing companies today take mixed challenges such as compliance management, adhering with regulations, traceability requirements, managing inventory and supply chain, staying up to date with the rate of innovation within the industry and skill gaps. Therefore, manufacturers require a breadth of integrated functionalities that fits your specific business requirements. Also, when you are selecting an ERP solution for your manufacturing company, it should adopt/align with your short- and long-term business goals.

And, some companies expand vertically as they grow which demands an ERP system that is flexible in adapting to broad-ranged manufacturing situations at the first go when they are selecting an ERP as it will help them to continue one ERP system without moving to another or multiple systems for different businesses as they grow. This will also help to have streamlined intercompany transactions as well as to have a full view of entire business for efficient decision making at all levels. On the other hand, discrete manufacturing and process manufacturing require different functionalities in the software based on the differences in the processes involve. Process manufacturing will require different and complex functionalities than discrete manufacturing as the production process is more detailed. Therefore, you should consider what ERP fits best for your manufacturing nature when selecting your ERP system. ERP vendor sustainability in the market for the long run, industry focus ERP, functionalities that provide a close match to their existing requirements are some of the other main things to look into when selecting the right ERP solution for your industry.

Read more:  ERP Solution For Manufacturing

Small & medium-sized businesses (SMB) manufacturers are usually flexible for changes and adapting to new solutions but sometimes constrained by the limited resources. In the case of financial limitations, they can go for mid-market ERP solutions that provide limited scope than top market-focused ones where they still serve the purpose by delivering specific functionality for an affordable cost. In contrast, based on your process requirement and fund availability to you, you may go to a top market solution that might provide you facilities that may allow you to have deep downed functionalities. Especially, medium to large scale manufacturers will benefit out from these sorts of solutions and of course, it depends on the manufacturing nature and complexity involved. These solutions will require minimum configuration because if you take most of reputed ERP solutions for top market provide industry specific ERP solution where they continuously invest on going into details and being relevant to specific industries and verticals. On the other hand, small to medium companies can benefit from mid-market solutions and follow the best industry practice to minimize any customization costs.

 

1. Helps adapt to change – Market conditions and regulatory environments can change swiftly, and a business should be able to effectively respond to these changes. A flexible ERP, on the other hand, should easily respond to this change. Releasing new versions of software(s) with new functionalities by your selected ERP vendor is a good sign of that you receive a solution which helps to be up-to-date with latest technological advancements in the market to increase overall efficiency. Moreover, it enables the company to transform and extend business processes complying the new changes that may demand by the internal or external environment. Like the flexibility of the ERP platform the availability of the extended after sales team and their flexibility is important.

2. Cost-effective – ERP should save long term cost of the customer specially in adding horizontal and vertical modules and in terms of annual cost increments. Sometimes, even if you feel the particular investment is costly at a given time you should always evaluate the future costs involve in expansion plans, compatibility with other business areas of the company etc.

3. Excellent functionality– ERP systems must be flexible to integrate/ associate with other software and platforms to achieve more functionalities. Business Intelligence (BI), AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) capabilities have already taken over many areas of businesses. Having such futuristic technologies combined into your ERP functionalities will help you become agile and capable of keeping up with new business world challenges with confidence.

4. Quick upgrades – Upgrading process should be easy and flexible for you to undertake at your convenience at any time you prefer.

5. Easily accessible data – Your ERP solution provider & vendor should provide flexible data hosting options; cloud or on premise based on your own preference. On the other hand, you should be able to swift your hosting method at no or less hassle. Cloud-based ERP systems has become the new normal where it provides a safe data hosting. Also, it reinforces real time data processing and fast access to information with fastening the decision-making process. On the other hand, cloud ERP facilitates field services, remote document management and other new business models such as virtual businesses.

Thus, great functionality and flexibility are required for a fully-fledged ERP to drive business excellence in the manufacturing industry.

Be long-sighted and invest in the right ERP with the right solutions provider with a proven track record, who can provide long-term support & services with constant updates and enhancements aligned with the latest technology!

AI and DATA Protection Artificial Intelligence is taking over many industries by facilitating personalized experience and managing & providing information. One of the main fear factors among the public against the adaptation of AI is the privacy concern related to data usage of individuals without their consent for various purposes.

It’s being only one side of the coin, there are many advantages that businesses can be benefitted from integrating AI. One such area of benefit is the automation of user support and the level of automation of user support can be varied from zero to full based on the organization’s requirement. Accordingly, based on the level of usage of AI in user support for automation, it can be either reactive support or proactive support and Autonomous support.

1. Reactive Support – Artificial Intelligence will only react to commands from users to support them, this can be through various input activities.

2. Proactive Support – Artificial Intelligence proactively take actions without explicit user request. This can be either.

• AI services notify users what to pay attention on via notifications or alerts.
• AI services make personalized recommendations such as fitness and health applications.

3. Autonomous Support – Artificial Intelligence will make decisions and take actions on behalf of users without confirmation.

However, we can protect our data ourselves.There are few levels that you can take your data protection initiative. At Management Level, System Level and AI Level. While management level and system level assist to protect data from unauthorized entities, AI can provide different DATA protection approaches where the AI itself will protect your data. Depend on the level of protection provides, there are 4 approaches for data protection.

• Data-modifying Approaches – Modify or sanitize user data so that it cannot be linked to specific individuals which leads to an inherent conflict between both privacy and effectiveness goals.
• Data-encrypting Approaches – This comprises protection approaches that work with encrypted user data, ensuring integrity and confidentiality when sharing data.
• Data-minimizing Approaches – Aim to increase efficiency by minimizing the amount of personal data required.
• Data-confining Approaches – An approach that does not require sharing personal data outside the user’s territory.

These 4 approaches ensure data integrity and confidentiality related to AI. The personalization of AI is one such way that protects your data handled by AI.

Accordingly, it identifies the advantage of using AI over the general fear of data security. However, due to the broad nature of AI, it cannot be concluded that it is fully secured and there are still some arguments that are to be further researched and addressed.

A business is made from numerous building blocks; from Finance to Manufacturing, Purchasing, Marketing and they must meet their individual and collective goals to meet company overall goals where the ultimate success is how well they synchronize within and beyond!

How to select the right ERP solution for your manufacturing enterprise! A business is made from numerous building blocks; from Finance to Manufacturing, Purchasing, Marketing and they must meet their individual and collective goals to meet company overall goals where the ultimate success is how well they synchronize within and beyond! As any business grows, data that is to be processed and mange increases grow. On the other hand, complexities of workflow rise and becomes difficult to manage with pen and paper. Many companies who have initially functioned with spreadsheets and email already found out the difficulty to manage data/information with the existing outdated technologies and time-consuming processes in place. Moreover, the inability to keep up with the booming customer demand could derail any business sooner or later. Information being the most valuable resource of any organization, data processing and timely disseminating accurate information to relevant parties across individuals in a particular unit, between different units, departments, plant or even outside the organization has been identified as the key for the success of any business.

This is where ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software comes into play! Investing in an ERP is a vital decision to any organization, and it is often regarded as the DNA of a business! However, once you get to know the pros, letting an ERP manage your business resources would be an easy decision for you to make.

Apart from the main use of an ERP which is, bringing together disparate activities under a single integrated application, increasing operational efficiency which ultimately ensures customer success, there are ample benefits you get on your way to becoming #1 such as, increased measurable value for investment, data security, streamlined processes, superior scalability, enhanced employee efficiency and of course high customer satisfaction!

As many ERP solutions claim different benefits, it is important that you smartly choose the perfect ERP solution to suit your business. So, here’s a few factors that you need to take into account;

• Type of manufacturing (high volume/low volume or discrete/process).
•  Level of training.
• Operational simplicity.
• Coverage of core functionalities.
• Financial availability.
• Flexibility in adapting to different manufacturing situations (project, job shop, batch, mass).
• Future vertical and horizontal expansion strategies.
• Ability to adapt to short- and long-term goals of the company.
• Ability to upgrade with new technologies for improved functionalities, increased effectiveness, and efficiency.
• Security and privacy.
• The number of users allowed.
• Personalized dashboards for a greater experience.
• Additional functionalities it provides.
• Ability to integrate with other software and platforms.
• Proven track record in the industry as well as other industries.
• The flexibility of hosting methods available.

Again, considering these elements only will not be effective if your service provider cannot fulfil and cater to the needs of your company effectively. Thus, we need to review and appraise their knowledge and comparison knowledge in multiple industry-leading ERP vendors. Another important thing to consider is the stability and experience they have catering to your industry, related industry and beyond the industry. A good ERP partner would be transparent and provide accurate as well as independent opinions about their ERP products which help you to take correct decision concerning the benefit of both parties.

Most importantly the ability to provide long term commitment which extends from implementation of a system to aftersales will help your company to operate without any bottlenecks.

Have you been worried about delivering late to your customer? Or have you received complaints from your customers due to the inconvenience that they had to face since the expected delivery was delayed?

Customers want every order they place to be delivered at the right time, right place with the right quality in the right condition and that is exactly what the distribution businesses should focus on achieving. On-time delivery is perhaps the most important issue customers are concerned about next to the condition of the items. Today, customers are even willing to pay additional amounts for fast deliveries with full transparency from the start to the end of the orders. One of the most serious costs that any business has to pay for late delivery is breaking the trust of the customer which finally leads to great disappointments and loss of brand image result in switching suppliers/brands. Therefore, an efficient delivery/ distribution is required to minimize the bottlenecks and gain and retain loyal customers to succeed in the highly competitive and dynamic market.

On-time delivery of orders are not merely the responsibility of frontline delivery persons in your organization but includes wider scope. Proper raw materials, goods in transit, work in progress management being an important element in inventory management timely replenishment, purchase order management and issue management facilitate efficient delivery. On the other hand, pick, pack, ship operations and sales order management contribute to on-time delivery at a greater scale.

Today, the selection of correct technologically advance ERP solutions are capable of streamlining different processes and functional areas within your distribution enterprise minimizing manual intervention for process alteration to have a standard workflow with minimizing inefficiencies. Also, it would help to adjust to fast-changing dynamic environments and enable efficiently to manage the entire production and supply chain process with ease.

An ERP solution that especially focuses on distribution enterprise would benefit you with industry-specific functionalities and best practices. Warehouse management, inventory & supply chain management, order management are some of such key functionalities that you should look at when you are selecting an ERP along with financial, sales and other support activities if you are in the distribution & logistics industry. Through the automation of these functions, businesses can serve their customers better with shorter delivery times, and hence control costs ensuring a long-term relationship with your client.

A well-established Distribution Management Software that includes efficient inventory and operations management & inventory tracking, customized dashboards for data visualization and KPI realization, automated customer management, field services and documentation, effective AI and Machine learning to automate repetitive cycles with real-time tracking & access to data and many more would add value to your business and help you reach your goals efficiently while satisfying your customers with providing a greater value to your customers too.

Having managed few data centres myself, I am aware of the troubles we went through when there are power outages, AC failures, when perfectly fine DR scenarios don’t work, when actual disaster hits and so on. IT professionals should love the cloud services.
Then again, you need to have the expertise in general cloud technologies and specific services like AWS (Amazon Web Services), Microsoft Azure and GCP (Google Cloud Platform).
I am an AWS fan so you will see lot of references and terms to AWS resources. However, almost all servers are available with most of the top 5 cloud service providers like AWS, Azure, GCP, IBM and Alibaba.

What is Cloud Computing?

You just have to google above, and you will get tons of references and I am not going to define cloud here. However, the following caught my eye.

What questions come to your mind when thinking about cloud?

Is it secure?
It is difficult to say, all cloud service providers are very secure but major players like AWS, Azure and GCP have maintained very high standards.
Following are some of the compliance accreditations of top three cloud service providers in the world AWS, MS Azure and GCP.
Having looked at these certifications from major bodies like ISO, SOC etc, these companies have given lot of weight for cloud security.
Only a handful of companies will think of getting such accreditations for their own data center and this is due to many factors like, cost and lack of expertise to implement and manage.

AWS
ISO 9001, ISO 27001, ISO 2017, ISO 27018, CSA, PCI DSS level 1, SOC1, SOC2, SOC3…
https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/programs/  

MS Azure
ISO 9001, ISO 27001, ISO 2017, ISO 27018, ISO 22301, ISO 20000-1, CSA, PCI DSS level 1, SOC1, SOC2, SOC3…
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/compliance/  

GCP
ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 27017, ISO/IEC 27018, ISO/IEC 27701, SOC1, SOC2, SOC3, PCI DSS, CSA STAR, CyberGRX … https://cloud.google.com/security/compliance/offerings#/regions=Global

Having the above accreditations does not mean that cloud services aren’t susceptible to attacks by hackers or groups with malicious intent. They are, and this happens on a regular basis. However, due to the various levels of protection they have, attacks fail.

The following are some of the sample cases.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53093611
https://thehackernews.com/2020/12/microsoft-warns-crowdstrike-of-hackers.html

Is it expensive?

This all depends on the workload you are running and your business model. TCO comparison is a methodology used to calculate and compare costs of running the same workload in the cloud against on-premises.

Basic TCO calculators provided by service providers typically focus on actual costs of procurement, management, maintenance and decommissioning of hardware resources over their useful life (which is typically a 3 or 5 year period). Given the plethora of different hardware configurations available today, it sometimes becomes difficult to know the actual costs and come up with an accurate TCO model that represents the true cost of running your application.

I am hearing from customers that it can be challenging for them to do the right apples-to-apples comparisons between on-premise infrastructure and an infrastructure that is offered as a service. In practice, it is not as simple as just measuring potential hardware expense alongside utility pricing for compute and storage resources. We have noticed that customers struggle to compare the two models especially when they are trying to compare the TCO of a web application scenario that includes compute, storage, network access, load balancing and all the complements of the architecture.

Due to this difficulty in comparison, all top-level cloud service providers have come up with a TCO model that allow you to calculate cost of services in the cloud using exact scenario you are planning to have your workloads running. You can get the benefit of features such as auto scaling, spot instances, capacity reservations to reduce your cost of services in the cloud. Put it this way,

• You have no capital costs.
• You get very high security.
• You can spin up new resources like virtual servers in minutes.
• Go global with services like cloud front.
• No need to spend on data centre related costs like power, cooling, administration costs.

And the list can go on.

The following statistics give you a good indication what is happening around the work. It shows that the demand for the cloud services are increasing.

What happens to my data?

Usually what is in the cloud is your responsibility. Security practices like encryption of data at rest (stored in disks) and data in transit (data sent via emails and between other end points), AV and malware protection and activating a network protection are customer responsibility.

Cloud service providers with the help of third-party service provider have introduced great number of features to enhance cloud capabilities.

In my view you need to make sure that your data is safe and protected, and you should take action without leaving it for others to look after them. This is true whether you have your data in the cloud or on-premises data centre.

It is very easy to activate DR and BCP features like geo-redundancy backups using inbuilt functionalities of cloud services. If you are using AWS S3 for your data, you can activate replication services to store a copy in another location within minutes.

Having that balance in anything you do is important; it could be your working life or personal life.
So, I would say look at a hybrid solution where some services are running in the cloud and some on-premises to start with. You may realise that some services can’t go to cloud at all, so you keep them on-premises.
So, my personal view is you should start your journey to cloud now. This does not mean you should move all your services to cloud in one go but you should start.

In todays’ dynamic business environment, one common problem for many companies those who involve in manufacturing, warehousing & logistic, wholesale distribution, transportation etc. is the challenge in meeting market demand quickly and responsively. On the other hand, the shorter the product life cycles are, the faster should be inventory response time. Moreover, if not for efficient inventory management, companies may face the risk of products being unsold that will increase inventory costs eventually having a detrimental effect on profit margins. Therefore, efficient inventory management is vital in having a competitive edge in the competitive business landscape.

Thus, a company must adopt a fully-fledged agile inventory management system to face the changes in the dynamic business environment and overcome the challenges confidently as it will provide your customer with a quality experience. An agile inventory management system helps companies to track, organise, issue, and manage inventory with improved speed, accuracy, and transparency for overall operational excellence.

As your warehousing or production scale-up, you might need better control of your materials in the warehouse, materials in transit etc. with having full control of it. A need for better management of inventory can be fulfilled by having a scalable ERP solution that facilitates efficient sourcing, inventory tracking, accurate & efficient inventory audits, efficient document management & inventory issuing, fast & unbiased reporting with a 360° view of inventory. Having an ERP solution in your distribution company will help to have a smooth continuation of workflow with a great degree of reliance to face the unseen business challenges.

Also, the ERP solution will help you to continue your business operations by planning your inventory to be responsive to shifts in consumer demand and market supply. Also, it helps avoid unnecessary costs in inventory wastage while help in maintaining an optimum level of inventory to avoiding quick purchases at high costs and maintain the quality of materials that purchase.

Having an ERP system for your distribution company also helps you to manage your inventory at different locations, business operations in multiple warehouses or different countries/ regions with real-time visibility of inventory and a quick glimpse of your overall business performance. On the other hand, now you can make your routine & time taking processes assisted with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to simplify and make them efficient.

Accordingly, stationing a well-defined inventory management system would be a competitive edge for your company as it will be a long-term investment that you make for an impregnable business operation.