#rootstock cloud erp

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The Impact of the Cloud on Manufacturing

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Today’s manufacturers need to be agile in order to respond quickly to dynamic markets and changing customer demands. They must implement streamlined and efficient workflows that increase the speed of deployment and provide scalability. Manufacturers know that when they become more agile, they become more competitive and successful. That’s why they have turned to the cloud.

The cloud enables automation, and more automation not only makes a firm more nimble, it also leads to increased revenues through cost efficiency and new revenue streams.

The cloud gives firms the ability to store large amounts of data and then access that data in real-time from anywhere, and this allows just-in-time business decisions and increased collaboration across the entire supply chain. Cloud-based ERP solutions give companies end-to-end visibility into their entire operations, resulting in greater flexibility and adaptability and ultimately, greater profits.

In a 2016 survey by Inspirage, 73% of manufacturing companies responding considered it important or very important that cloud ERP software establish and scale collaboration to reduce risk and increase agility.

By now, the benefits of the cloud should be old news: on-demand real-time access to data and resources, scalability, data storage, reduced costs and the ability to connect core manufacturing tasks to each other. Cloud ERP supports all critical functions in the manufacturing process, from MRP, process manufacturing, purchase order and inventory software to shop floor and supply chain management software. Manufacturing firms are implementing cloud solutions that support the complete product lifecycle, from product inception to product development, planning, manufacturing, materials management, and order management and fulfillment.

Because these benefits give companies visibility into every function across the entire enterprise, they can integrate business processes to achieve improved productivity and efficiencies, which are critical to agile enterprises. Thanks to the cloud, manufacturing firms of all sizes can drive innovation in communication, collaboration, workflows and customer service, focusing on developing new projects and delivering them to market for greater revenues.

One example of cloud-driven automation is the replacement of error-prone, manual, document-heavy processes with streamlined, on-demand workflows. Manufacturers are reducing costs significantly from improved productivity, fewer errors and real-time visibility. Cloud-based ERP solutions can now apply document process automation a whole range of solutions including sales order processing, invoicing and accounts payable. The cloud allows for pay-as-you-go models that let firms scale usage based on their business needs. Finally, automated document processes in the cloud reduce IT-related costs.

Cloud-driven automation is having an impact on global supply chains too, especially in the areas of product quality and operations management. A recent survey conducted by the Manufacturing Alliance for Productivity and Innovation found that the improvement of product quality was one of the most important outcomes of automation by survey respondents.

Automated shop floors and supply chains increase transparency, which results in predictable and reliable delivery, reduction in data entry errors and increased visibility into inventory. Automating processes in the cloud lets manufacturers connect systems together, analyze large amounts of data, identify and correct issues, improve forecasting of demand cycles, and ensure customer satisfaction.

Manufacturers are now creating new business models and revenue streams based on the capabilities of the cloud. Every function in the enterprise must be able to contribute to the success of the company by adding value. For manufacturing supply chains, the contribution to success comes in the form of streamlined production and delivery, improved customer service and efficient, accurate business processes. Customers, vendors and workers all need flexibility, transparency and fast results.

The cloud helps organizations turn resources into professional services that generate continuing revenue and create lasting business relationships. Automated analytics help supply chain managers anticipate customer needs and identify opportunities for upselling or cross-selling products and services.

Collaboration solutions are getting popular thanks to the real-time collaboration made possible by cloud-driven automation. Firms not only can collaborate internally but with their customers and suppliers.

Manufacturers of all sizes must be able to master increased competition and fickle customers. Thanks to automation enabled by the cloud and cloud-based ERP solutions, firms are growing leaner, more productive and more profitable.

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Rootstock Integration with eBridge

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Manufacturing firms have embraced Cloud ERP as part of their strategy to compete successfully in global markets. These firms know that they need to be as agile as possible, find new revenue streams and reduce costs. Organizations that have implemented Rootstock Software on the Salesforce platform have a solution that accommodates many workflows, implements social collaboration, and perhaps most importantly, integrates with best of breed applications.

Now, Rootstock Cloud ERP integration has just gotten better with the release of eBridge Connections’ new Rootstock connector. eBridge Connections is known for its integration platform, which automates bi-directional data exchange between Salesforce and the leading eCommerce platforms, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) trading partners and CRM applications. Rootstock is 100% native to the Salesforce platform, so it integrates easily with many apps on the Salesforce AppExchange.

The power of integrating Cloud ERP with other applications cannot be overstated. Industries change, markets change, and technologies change. Consider the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT is already changing manufacturing through smart, interconnected sensors and devices installed in materials handling and storage, equipment operation and maintenance, and in the final products themselves. Firms that are unable to adapt to the IoT will be left behind as their competitors reap the benefits of the IoT backed by robust Cloud ERP. Customers adapt to these changes, and manufacturing firms must be prepared to adapt as well. Integration with Rootstock Cloud ERP with best of breed applications provides the most flexible solution for manufacturers, helping them address the unique business needs of today as well as tomorrow.

With eBridge’s integration platform, manufacturers using Rootstock Cloud ERP and Salesforce CRM can now easily connect to their EDI trading partners like Home Depot, Costco and Walmart; eCommerce stores like Amazon, eBay and Shopify systems. Here is a solution that moves sales orders, inventory levels, product data, shipping updates, and customer information between systems, integrating an organization’s departments and processes together to increase productivity and efficiency.

Rootstock’s powerful cloud ERP solutions represent every step in the manufacturing process. There are modules for sales and purchase order management, production engineering, inventory management, lot and serial control, scheduling and capacity planning, and shop floor control. Material requirements planning (MRP) helps plan what to make in time to build products while cost control and project control modules give firms finer control over costs. The ability to seamlessly integrate Rootstock with a variety of different platforms on the Salesforce Platform is one of the great advantages of a Rootstock-based  solution.

Rootstock integration with eBridge offers several key advantages to manufacturers:

Save time: eBridge eliminates the manual and duplicate entry of product, order or inventory data, which not only saves time, but also improves data accuracy by decreasing the chance of costly manual errors.

Speed up processes: The automation of eBridge’s integration platform increases the speed by which information is exchanged, allowing manufacturing firms to implement streamlined workflows that benefit the organization and their customers.

The eBridge Connections-Rootstock integration is ideal for manufacturers who want to prepare for the future and who are serious about integrating their Rootstock Cloud ERP and Salesforce CRM solutions with EDI partners and eCommerce stores.

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Why Choose a New Cloud ERP Solution?

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Everybody’s getting lean. Manufacturers have known for some time that in order to compete locally or globally, be profitable and grown their companies, they need to adapt lean manufacturing techniques to reduce waste, increase efficiency, sustain continuous process improvement, ensure product quality and support just-in-time manufacturing. Lately these firms have been embracing cloud ERP in their efforts to get lean.

Why are manufacturers choosing cloud-based ERP solutions? First, many of these firms have discovered that legacy ERP systems are simply too expensive, difficult to use and don’t grow with their company. Sure, some legacy, on-premise ERP vendors are promising some cloud-based functionality, but often these are bolted-on afterthoughts in an effort to get some of the cloud ERP market share. A true cloud-based ERP solution is one that is designed and implemented in the cloud and takes advantage of storage, real-time access and mobility benefits that the cloud provides.

Cloud ERP’s ability to provide real-time access to critical data allows firms to track every step and component in their supply chain. For example, firms can use cloud ERP to track production, receiving, yields and efficiency, and their production workers can then access this data in real time on their smartphones.

Manufacturers can integrate their website with their cloud ERP software to provide a complete workflow. Cloud ERP lets firms create and assign SKUs to parts and products, sell those materials and products on their customer-facing website, and then integrate those orders with production. Orders are sent directly to the shop floor to be filled immediately.

Another reason manufacturers are moving to cloud ERP is the ability to add functionality and integrate other software as the company’s requirements change over time. Cloud ERP solutions on popular platforms like Salesforce can easily integrate out of the box with other partner solutions tailored for a firm’s specific needs. APIs provide integration with new technologies that for example, support production planning without the relying on indirect labor.

Watch the video here to see how one firm chose their cloud ERP solution.

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Check Vendor’s Manufacturing Expertise Before Selecting Your New Cloud ERP

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As you begin your quest to find the cloud manufacturing ERP you need to help run your company, you are going to note a similarity among a great number of them. Many Cloud ERP packages have fallen short, because in the rush to get to the Cloud, they are either severely limited in functionality or they are only replications of a predecessor legacy ERP package supporting one business type. They do not acknowledge that manufacturers of today require a greater variety of manufacturing methods and services to be supported. You don’t need to be a software Sherlock Holmes to conclude that many of these apps were not created by people that understand manufacturing, especially in today’s world.

Of course, that is not true in all cases. Consider the following quote from the noted research firm, Frost and Sullivan.

“Rootstock has secured an edge for itself over its competitors by leveraging its strong technical expertise and years of manufacturing experience to build a broad and deep end-to-end functional cloud ERP solution in a short time frame,” reported Sankara Narayanan, Frost & Sullivan Senior Analyst. “This solution supports requirements for multiple modes of manufacturing and enables real-time management of manufacturing for customers of all sizes and types. As the largest product footprint among ISV products on the Salesforce.com platform, Rootstock’s cloud ERP solution possesses the functionality required to replace more than 25 legacy ERP products. With its strong overall performance, Rootstock has earned the 2016 Frost & Sullivan Technology Leadership Award.”

This wasn’t the first time that Rootstock has obtained such glowing praise about its roots. When determining that the company wanted to have an ERP Executive Council, Rootstock hoped to convince Lee Wylie to join and be the chairperson. After all, as Director of CIM at Gartner Group, Wylie created the concept of ERP to describe the evolution of MRP into next generation business systems.

Upon taking on his role, Wylie emphasized, “I have a lot of confidence in the Rootstock software and their approach to the manufacturing industry. A quick review of this software makes it evident that the developers have many years of experience creating in-depth ERP packages for the manufacturing sector. As importantly, Rootstock approaches this market with the perfect balance needed to be successful with manufacturers. They shun the glitz so common with ERP providers, replacing it with a problem-solving attitude that makes manufacturers comfortable.”

Joining Wylie, the founding members of the Rootstock ERP Executive Council are an impressive group of ERP innovators and practitioners. Included are Jan Baan, former chairman and CEO of Baan Software, Jim Bensman, former president of SAP North America and Bill Happel, former vice president of General Motors. This high-powered group collectively brings many decades of both top IT as well as manufacturing executive experience to Rootstock’s product and business development activities.

The Roots of Rootstock

The founder of Rootstock is Pat Garrehy who is also the founder and former CEO of Relevant Business Systems, a client-server ERP software provider with an exclusive focus on discrete manufacturing companies. Relevant, which was sold in 2006, remains the most profitable division of the acquirer to date. The software is currently utilized in a number of business operations, including major divisions of Lockheed and Solectron with sales of over one billion dollars. To Rootstock, Garrehy brought most of his Relevant team, builders of successful ERP solutions for over 350 customers including Cray Research, Lockheed Skunk Works and Solectron (now Flextronics) in Asia. That initial Rootstock management team had over 600 man years of manufacturing ERP/MRP domain expertise with first-hand experience in the evolution of ERP from mainframes to the cloud.

These ERP veterans understood that times were changing for manufacturers. Contrary to on-premise ERP, with cloud ERP, using the Software as a Service (SaaS) model, manufacturers could access to ERP software and databases in a newer manner. Instead of managing the infrastructure and platform upon which the ERP software suite runs, the cloud providers do so for them. The end user accesses Cloud ERP via a web browser or mobile app while the software and user’s data are stored on the provider’s servers at a remote location.

Thus, a manufacturing organization can reduce its IT operational costs by outsourcing hardware and software maintenance and support to the cloud provider. In addition, with the ERP system hosted centrally, updates can be released without the need for the users themselves to install new software. Another major benefit of cloud manufacturing ERP is that it lets an enterprise get their ERP solutions up and running faster with improved manageability and less maintenance.

As a result, the Rootstock team recognized that cloud ERP will be one of the most radical, sweeping upgrades in manufacturing technology over the next decade. It will become a major consideration for every manufacturing or supply chain entity. As smart phones have become to the individual businessperson, it is not a question of “if” organizations will adopt a cloud ERP solution, but “when.”

Not only did the Rootstock team build among the first cloud manufacturing ERPs but they created the most in-depth, flexible manufacturing ERP found in the cloud.

The Roots of a Distribution Channel for Rootstock

As Wylie had noted when undertaking his original review of Rootstock, this team did not rely on the typical glitz associated with ERP software marketing. Recognizing that manufacturers were a “nose to the grindstone, eye on the ball” type of customer, as were the Rootstock creators, the Rootstock team decided to follow their previous mode of going to market. They met at the customer’s manufacturing facility, walked the line and discussed manufacturing problems and how manufacturing cloud ERP could respond. Prospects understood what was being said, saw what the software did, talked with other Rootstock manufacturing users, bought and installed the software. Then, they became reference sites.

As Rootstock began to grow, it was time to create their own channel. One of the first partners was Vanenburg Software, founded by an ERP icon, Jan Baan. As Garrehy said about the announcement, “Jan Baan has developed his Vanenburg Software team to help customers address their current and ever changing requirements. It wasn’t that many years ago that we were competing with legacy ERP products. We recently discovered that our visions for the future requirements on enterprise ERP were closely aligned.”

Next up was Rootstock Nordic AB, launched by six ERP veterans with a deep knowledge base from selling and implementing legacy client server applications like Baan, IMI Order, JDEdwards, Oracle and Jeeves, to service the Scandinavian countries. Respected organizations such as Tquila and Xebra Services were selected to cover Australia. In North America, manufacturing centric organizations such as Badal Solutions, BT Partners and Mountain Point continued the tradition.

The Type of Manufacturing Experience You Want to Discover

Perhaps Frost & Sullivan sums it up best – “Leveraging its strong technical expertise and years of manufacturing experience, Rootstock has secured an edge for itself over its competitors by building a broad and deep end-to-end functional cloud ERP solution in a short time frame. This solution supports requirements for multiple models of manufacturing and enables real time management of manufacturing for customers of all sizes and types. As the largest product footprint among ISV products on the Salesforce.com platform, Rootstock’s cloud ERP solution possesses the functionality required to replace more than 25 legacy ERP products. Rootstock’s single system provides insight, control, visibility and support for each step of the manufacturing value chain across global operations, whereby its customers can handle multiple sites and efficiently operate and grow their businesses.”