Bellwether Magazine - Tailor Fit Technology For Your Business

Volume 5 | Issue 3 | Third Quarter 2014
BELLWETHER
Tailored Technology That
Fits Your Business
Tailor
FIT
Choosing an ERP System
How Efficient Communications are Damaging Projects
How to Tailor Fit Field Service
Data Discovery - The Ultimate Customization
In This Issue:

Bellwether Magazine | Third Quarter 20142
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Contact us at 508-948-0082 or partners@centage.com
• Direct integration with your Sage General Ledger
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3bell•weth•er -noun: one who takes initiative or leadership
sections
Letter from the Editor 5
Leadership 7
Corporate Finance 8
Human Resources 14
Customer Profile 16
Cover Story 24
Industry News 26
28
“The only man who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my
measurements anew every time he sees me, while all the rest go
on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.”
George Bernard Shaw
42
14
46
8
I Don’t Want
Customizations!
ANY
Tailor
FIT
Tailored Technology That
Fits Your Business

1-855-562-6874
www.info.avalara.com/Bellwether
Sales tax
changes.
Don’t risk it.
Automate it.
Visit us at Sage Summit 2014
Booth 721

LETTERFROMTHEEDITOR
BELLWETHER
A Blytheco Magazine
Volume 5
Third Quarter, 2014
www.blytheco.com
www.bellwethermagazine.com
STAFF EDITOR
Apryl Hanson
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Greg Went
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Devin Ambron
Joseph Bisaha
Bobby Dohrmann
David Freschl
Joni Girardi
Warren Glick
Mark Grimes
Russell Harley
Alan Hart
Elle Heinen
Amy Higgins
Denise Renee Phinn
Joanna Rotter
Steve Showalter
Kelvin Takhar
Paul Ziliak
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LEADERSHIP
As the chairman of one of the world’s largest business support organizations, I’ve encountered
countless prospective entrepreneurs trying to put their ideas into action by launching a
business. My experiences have given me a unique insight into what makes and breaks a business
in today’s market.
Here are eight essential tips for shaping a good idea into a
great business:
1. “You can’t build a business like a hobby project.”
Entrepreneurship should never be a casual endeavor. Building
a thriving business in today’s market means devoting yourself
fully to the mission you intend to accomplish via the company.
Setting your business aside for any length of time can lead
it down a slippery slope you may not be able to crawl back
up from. Keep yourself organized; set clear goals you can
accomplish, and dedicate yourself to making sure your ideas
come to fruition.
2. “Wrong sequence ends in business failure.”
One of the biggest hurdles to business growth is the lack of
a detailed planning system. No matter how big your idea is,
expecting overnight success can cloud you to the practical
considerations that can quickly grow larger than your ability
to deal with them. Move your business forward one step at a
time, and more importantly, know where you’re going before
you try to get there.
3. “Advertising is naked without PR.”
Flashy ads are no substitute for a well-thought out
communications strategy. In the age of information, every
business needs a sensible way to spread its ideas and brand
to clients and consumers ready to buy. An idea is useless
without a suitable voice to present it to the world. Build your
advertisement strategy around the people best suited to get
you to the next step of your objective.
4. “Never say NO to growth.”
In today’s market, you can’t afford to miss the opportunities
that can get you from one step to the next. While defining a
plan for growth and future investment is necessary to guide
your business decisions, nothing should ever be set in stone.
5. “The difference between wealth and income is how
many people you benefit.”
All the growth in the world means little if you do nothing
to benefit those who helped you get there. Your team and
periphery support network need to be included in the rewards
in direct correlation with the effort they put into the business’s
success. While numbers need to be your first concern when
it comes to sustaining yourself and your ideas in the market,
make sure you measure your success by more than just a
bottom line.
6. “As you grow IT, IT will grow you.”
Don’t get tunnel vision when it comes to everyday business. In
today’s business world, every connection you make can be a
game-changing opportunity. Never walk away from the chance
to shake hands with a potential partner, no matter their value
to you and your business at the moment. Grow your network
every chance you get.
7. “Nothing will grow you more than growing your
dreams.”
While it’s important to consider all of your decisions through
a filter of practicality, you should never be convinced you
can’t achieve what you’ve set out to do. Businesses never fail
because a dream is wrong; they fail because they choose the
wrong path to achieve it. Remember that the more work you
put into getting somewhere only makes the achievement more
meaningful in the end.
8. “Competition slows everything down.”
If your definition of progress includes hurting other companies
along the way, you’re not on the fastest lane to success.
Although the market environment may appear inherently
competitive at first glance, a collaborative perspective on
business can make everyone’s ideas a reality faster than they
could through isolation and bitter fights for market share.
Look at your competitors as potential partners and find a way
forward for everyone involved.
Berny Dohrmann is chairman and founder of CEO Space International, (www.ceospaceinternational.com), one of the world’s
largest support organizations for business owners. Connect with him on LinkedIn at
http://www.linkedin.com/in/bernydohrmann.
About the Author
8 Must-Know Tips to Grow
Your Business by Berny Dohrmann

Elle Heinen is a Channel Marketing Manager for Avalara, specializing in ERP partner enablement. Her strong background in ERP,
supply chain management, and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, combined with her experience in technology legislation, has given her a
keen insight into best practices for businesses of all sizes.
About the Author
Choosing the right Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that gets the
job done for your business is a tall order. Successfully implementing that
system so it properly adds value requires a great deal of forethought. You should
not only consider what impact the system will have on all your departments,
but also how the system will affect specific requirements related to sales tax
compliance.
by Elle Heinen
CORPORATEFINANCE
Unfortunately, many businesses don’t consider this when
choosing an ERP, which could result in a shiny new ERP
system that doesn’t support your business complexities in
the way you’d hoped. Here are four sales tax compliance
issues to consider when implementing a new ERP system:
In what framework(s) do you need to be
compliant?
If you’re dealing with SOX Compliance or COBIT, you
should pay close attention to the audit controls your ERP
system provides and make sure you cover all of your bases.
The risk for non-compliance can extend beyond an ERP’s
core financial functionality; it can also arise in modules like
Project Accounting, Distribution, Inventory, and Credit Card
Payment, just to name a few.
Understand where you have tax compliance
requirements
What is the nature of your business? If you conduct business
in a supply chain upstream from the end consumer or offer
services that you think are most likely nontaxable (such
as installation and repair), sales tax might not be on your
radar. But exemption certificate management and use
tax certainly can be problematic if they’re not properly
addressed. Will your ERP help you simplify exemption
certificate management? What about reporting on use tax
transactions?
Scale the workload
If you’re investigating an ERP system it probably means
that you have business complexities and, by proxy, tax
complexities. How will your accounting team handle tax
rates and rules in your new system? Are you doing manual
research and updating rates in your ERP rate tables?
Manually managing sales tax can be difficult, expensive and
time consuming – and businesses can face stiff penalties if
they don’t get it right. Consider automating the process in
your ERP to save time and cost.
Retrieve and send information quickly
How do you currently file and remit returns? How will you
manage the process in your new system? While ERP is great
for streamlining business complexity, it can actually add
extra steps to your filing process, depending on what kinds
of modules you use. Talk to your vendor about how the
ERP system can help you file, remit, and report on taxable
transactions, and ask if there’s functionality available to
simplify that process.
The bottom line
An ERP system can remove complexity from your business
if implemented correctly – or can increase compliance
risk if your specific sales tax requirements are not properly
addressed.
Learn more about tax compliance issues to consider when
implementing an ERP by reading this handy infographic,
“Sales Tax Risks in the Supply Chain.” View the infographic
online at bit.ly/ERPTaxRisks
It highlights different tax compliance issues you might run
into in different modules you’re using with your ERP and
how those issues relate to different business activities. Vist
www.blytheco.com/avatax to learn more.
Four Sales Tax Compliance
Considerations

Finding the Right Middle Ground
When it comes to budgeting tools, CSG Assistant Controller
Frances Farella has used a lot of them, from a low-tech
spreadsheet-based system to high-end software like Hyperion.
When the company that she worked for was acquired by
CSG, she realized neither was ideal. When she moved to the
combined organization, Farella used Excel to build the budget.
“After the first year of using Excel as our primary budgeting
tool, I realized it was going to be the last. I couldn’t go through
another year of Excel. It was painful,” Farella said. CSG uses
many allocations in its budgeting and finance, to reflect the
different branches and shared services of the company. “Excel
just couldn’t handle the allocations upon which our budget is
built. Whenever I had to adjust an allocation, it took forever to
make a change and flow things through properly.”
Farella went shopping for a solution in between spreadsheets
and big-company applications. “I wasn’t looking for another
6-figure package. After doing our due diligence, we decided
Budget Maestro was what we needed,” she explained.
Allocations Made Easy
With two legal entities — the parent CSG and CHN — and
multiple divisions under the corporate umbrella, Finance
uses allocations regularly to spread employee time and direct
expenses across more than one company or division.
Unlike with Excel, Farella can now manage these allocations
and related changes easily. For example, one person’s salary
could be allocated to five different departments. With Budget
Maestro, Farella simply allocates a specific percentage to each
one. “If I want to change the percentages being charged to
each department, or change the departments in the allocation,
I can do it very easily in Budget Maestro and the system
automatically recalculates everything. It’s a simple process.
Faster, Easier, Better Budgeting & Reporting
Budgeting and reporting have become a breeze for Farella,
who uses Sage 100 ERP as her General Ledger system. Using
the Import feature, Farella easily and quickly imports the
numbers into Budget Maestro so she can run an analysis of
actuals to plan. Now, when she makes changes to the budget,
to the organization or to the allocations, everything flows
through thanks to Budget Maestro’s built-in financial logic.
CSG’s department managers are responsible for their own
operations and budgets. The Finance team developed custom
reports in Budget Maestro for 20 different departments, to
help managers track actual vs. budget results. “The reports
are built on the templates that come with Budget Maestro,
and allows our Finance staff to drill down into their numbers
if needed. It took someone a week to build and prepare those
reports in Excel. Now, at the end of the month, the whole
process to import actuals and run reports takes two hours at
most,” said Farella. “Since we’ve recently implemented Link
Maestro for Sage 100 ERP, it has even further reduced the time
for importing of actuals.”
The improved reporting capability makes the monthly closing
of the books easier too. “We’re able to generate our actual vs.
budget results within hours after we close, and drill drown to
analyze significant variance fluctuations.”
“During budgeting season, from September to December,
our Finance staff uses Budget Maestro almost every day. It’s
definitely helped us in facilitating the budgeting process. In
short Budget Maestro for Sage has been good for us. “
See in three minutes how quickly Sage users can make their
budgeting, forecasting, and planning process more efficient
and accurate. Visit www.blytheco.com/maestro.
Consolidated Services Group, Inc. (“CSG”) has more than 25 years
experience in the Medical Claims Management industry, and
provides Managed Care, Utilization Review, as well as a proprietary PPO
to auto liability, workers’ compensation and group health insurers.
by Alan Hart
Built-in Logic Makes Sense
of Budget Allocations
for SAGE Users
Alan Hart is a Principal Consultant at Pacific Shine Group in Portland, OR, with responsibility for business development and hands-on client project
implementations around financial planning and analysis. He works with Centage Corp. to evangelize driver-based budgeting and forecasting
solutions. Read more at BudgetingExpert.com or contact him at alan.hart@pacificshinegroup.com.
About the Author
Sense
CORPORATEFINANCE

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Don’t miss out — contact your Blytheco representative to learn more,
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www.concur.com
©2014 Concur, all rights reserved. Concur is a registered trademark of Concur Technologies, Inc.

Why Every CFO Should Invest in
Essential Technology
“As we plow through this period of digital disruption, where
established rules for competing may no longer apply, some
CIOs now question what they want for themselves,” said Kim
Nash, in a recent CIO.com article highlighting the State of the
CIO report. “The profession is changing fast in an atmosphere
where colleagues sometimes look upon a traditional IT group
as a hindrance to corporate success.”
Luckily the guidelines for making essential technology
investments are a bit more cut and dried.
According to Nash, “one thing thriving CIOs have in
common is that they continually strive to make the IT group
indispensable in diverse areas of the business.”
“Don’t wait to be asked into the fray,” says Cora Carmody,
CIO of Jacobs Engineering Group, a $10.9 billion technical
services provider. “Prove IT’s worth by stepping into critical
situations.”
And that means proactively addressing essential technology
investments instead of waiting to be asked to fix it.
According to the 2013 Gartner Financial Executives
International CFO Technology Study, a study aimed at
discovering how the CFO’s interest in the “Nexus of
Forces” has an impact on CFO investment priorities, mobile
technologies (including on-demand applications and SaaS)
ranked third, behind only business intelligence/performance
management and enterprise business applications. And of the
business applications that support the finance organization
seen as primary candidates for mobile devices, travel and
expense management was the clear leader.
Choosing the right technology
When choosing business applications to invest in, the safest
bet is to go the best-in-class, tried-and-true route. These
applications often have:
• A proven track record.
• The ability to integrate and “play nice” with existing
technology.
• A recognition among stakeholders that facilitates
buy-in and the resources and experience
available to facilitate implementation and ROI.
A few things to consider
Expenses after the purchase aren’t necessarily overlooked in
many cases, but they certainly aren’t given the amount of due
diligence needed to perform a proper analysis. Will you need
technical support that will ultimately increase your total cost
of ownership?
Think about where you can scale down needed tech
investments. For example, you may need new computers;
however, the work 99% of your employees perform does not
require a graphics card.
Strongly consider the cost of not having the technology.
Investing in technology that eases the burden on the sales
department and facilitates revenue generation – like software
that allows you to do away with time-consuming expense
report forms – can be one of the easier ways to achieve ROI.
See how expense management software can help your
business BEFORE you invest in it. Learn about Concur today
at http://www.blytheco.com/concur.
Amy Higgins is the Content and Social Media Manager for Concur SMB where she enjoys engaging with small
and mid-market businesses on social media and writing great tips about productivity, innovations and ways to
simplify your life. Connect with Amy at http://about.me/amywhiggins.
About the Author
CORPORATEFINANCE
by Amy Higgins
When making technology decisions, today’s CFOs (or CIOs, or whoever oversees technology
investments) navigate a tricky path. Their mission – to choose technology that will pay
for itself, yield ROI for the business, and appease all company stakeholders – may in fact seem
impossible. What’s more, there isn’t exactly a true roadmap for tech decision makers to achieve
this.

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by Russell Harley
HUMANRESOURCES
How many meetings have been held where the participants
arrive late, have another meeting so they need to leave
early and, or just want a 15-minute review of what is
going on? While this can certainly meet the definition of
“efficient,” it completely ignores the underlying need for
the time to communicate the real issues/challenges for a
project. If the project is of great importance for a business,
then the leadership/sponsors involved should be willing
to actually make time for an in-depth review on a regular
basis.
Don’t believe this? In the International Journal of
Computer Applications (0975 - 8887) Volume 86 - No 6,
January 2014 a research paper titled Project Failure Case
Studies and Suggestion was published by Nilofur Abbasi,
et el. (http://research.ijcaonline.org/volume86/number6/
pxc3892696.pdf) In section 2.1 the authors state that,
“Senior management must prioritize requirements and
make decisions. If any person is not actively involved in a
project, that project is doomed for failure.” They go further
in the same section saying that unclear project objectives,
scope creep, gaps in communications, and lack of visibility
of all projects are additional causes of project failure.
The sad thing is none of this should be news to anyone.
All of these causes can be traced, directly or indirectly, to
people trying to communicate too rapidly and concisely.
The fact that these reasons are still being highlighted in
2014 indicates that people are not willing to address them
in order for projects to succeed. Basically, we know what
we need to do, but choose not to.
Imagine this scenario: your family is having a crisis of some
kind. Maybe you and your spouse are not communicating
as much, or are misunderstanding each other more and
it is causing major issues. If you want things to get back
on track, do you want to spend just 15 minutes of your
day or week trying to fix things? No. If you are serious,
you will take the time, like hours, maybe even a weekend,
to discuss what is wrong, best ways to fix it, and how to
move forward better. Doesn’t that sound very similar to
what companies need to do to fix critical projects that are
in trouble?
Yet project/program managers feel lucky if they get a full
30 minutes with leadership/sponsors on a regular basis.
Much less the hours with the full team that is really needed.
To cover all the decisions, risks and issues in depth is
typically out of the question. This is because these items
are needed to be reviewed as efficiently as possible so
everything can at least be addressed. Otherwise, you get
comments like, “Why was this not brought up in out last
meeting?” While not helpful to long-term employment,
maybe a response of “You were too busy to listen,” would
underscore the real issue.
There also seems to be some misunderstanding between
“efficient” and “effective.” They do not mean the same
thing at all. You can have very effective communications
that are also efficient, but being efficient does not
necessarily mean communication will be effective.
Very often it has the complete opposite effect.
There have been meetings where everyone
has agreed on a plan of action, even
documented, and then a week-or two-later
things are off track again because Party
A misunderstood a decision or plan.
This may sound difficult to believe, but it can be true. In the definition of “efficient,”
we find the following: “achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted
effort or expense.” While this is great for busy executives and companies, it is terrible
for projects, especially when it comes to communicating about the project with others.

This is one reason that the Project Management Institute’s
project process requires so much documentation (which
no one reads once approved, but that is a different
communication issue). The talks involved in determining
what goes into the charter, scope, etc. has to have lots
of discussions. So having to cover similar topics over and
over again about the project at least can get things better
understood by repetition, if nothing else. Even if the
repetition is only in 30-minute segments a week.
Then we have the challenge of adding additional
communication steps into the mix. While you might be
able to have efficient communications with Party A, this
does not mean A will have good communications with
Party B. This is common when Sponsors say, “I am too
busy to handle this project so Joe/Sally/anyone else but
me will handle everything from now on.” While, hopefully,
whomever they delegate to may have more time to
communicate, this does not mean that they can have any
more time with the sponsor than was already available to
the project/program manager already. Yet we now have
an additional person(s) to communicate with.
The other challenge with delegation is that the delegate
may not have the full authority to make decisions for the
project. While this official transfer of authority does not
happen very often, when it does AND the delegate does
have the time to spend with the team to have in-depth
conversations, it can have an amazing impact on a project.
Unfortunately, most of the time, the delegate is just there
to take notes and have to check with the sponsor for any
decisions. This just adds to the communication difficulties
and the time involved versus being helpful, at least
to the project, anyway.
So how did we get here and what
can we do about it? Shortened
communications started with
trying to communicate over
long distances using
flags, smoke signals,
etc. Today we
h a v e
Instant Messaging, Twitter, etc. If people could figure out
how to communicate well with just using a single letter, we
would be doing it. It has become a source of pride to see
how much can be said with just 140 characters.
This seems to have been extended into the work place as
well. Even to emails with answers like, “Yes” to questions
like, “Do you think we need to extend the due date or
add more people to the task?” While one could make the
assumption that the ‘Yes’ applies to the first part, ‘extend
the due date,’ that assumption could lead to even more
issues if that assumption turns out to be wrong. So to be
sure, and project managers really like to be sure about
dates and resources, additional back-and-forth emails are
now needed to gain clarity. Not efficient by any means.
Is communicating quickly and with minimal content
efficient? Yes. But it is not a way to communicate well
by any means, not without a lot of effort. How many 140
characters are needed to cover a complex task or decision
to the point where everyone has a clear understanding?
And that is the bottom line. To communicate well,
time needs to be spent so that the content is clear and
understood by all. Without that, 10 years from now we will
still be reading about why projects fail and have the exact
same list of reasons as to why.
About the Author
Russell Harley is a veteran project manager and PMO
director, passionate about helping organizations embrace
world-class project management practices. Connect
with him through is blog at thepmoview.com.

by Warren Glick
Teasdale Foods Automates
Accounts Payable
Saving over 500 hours
and $25,000
CUSTOMERPROFILE
The accounting department receives 25 invoices and
30-35 orders per day. Teasdale needed to automate the
processing of 15,000 documents per year. Of the 6,500
invoices, approximately 260 (one per day) would be filed
incorrectly, requiring the accounting staff to contact the
vendor to acquire a replacement invoice—a process that
could take anywhere from 30 minutes to two weeks.
Teasdale utilizes Sage 100 ERP for their accounting and
enterprise resource planning system. When their trusted
Sage 100 ERP consultant was asked for the best way to
automate accounts payable and to go paperless, EZCM
fromACOMcamehighlyrecommended.Althoughanother
document management solution was considered, EZCM
was chosen for its flexibility in automating functionality.
Now, when Teasdale generates a PO, an open payables
file is created and placed in a drawer next to the desk of
the AP clerk. When the invoice arrives, the clerk grabs the
packet, types the invoice number, scans the invoice and
PO at the same time with EZCM and an $800 desktop
scanner, and then she shreds the paperwork. No more
filing, mis-filing or migration of archived files to short or
long-term storage. Auditors can pull up these images
themselves as part of Teasdale’s year-end audit, making
the audit easier and faster.
“A lot of our users have very limited computer skills, and
EZCM is really user-friendly and a simple system. They
don’t have to go into different windows to file an item and
it’s easy to create a new workflow process. The system is so
user-friendly that it didn’t require any training by ACOM,”
stated Alfred Tinoco, Director of IT. “ACOM implemented
EZCM for Sage 100 ERP remotely in just four hours.
Teasdale was interested in taking the guesswork out of
workflow automation to ensure higher productivity and
they chose EZCM for three reasons:
1. One-click, batch scanning invoice capture for Sage
100 ERP
2. Complete invoice processing automation, from
validation to authorization
3. Ease of use and implementation
Headquartered in Atwater, California, Teasdale’s roots can be
traced back to the 1930’s. Inspired by the rich agricultural
CentralValleyofCalifornia,thecompanyisthelargestproducer
and marketer of canned hominy and beans in the Western
U.S., as well as a major producer of conventional and organic
canned dry beans in the Midwest. Today, Teasdale employs a
staff of 150 and generates about $50 million in annual revenues.

Now,
when the
invoice is scanned,
EZCM’s ReadSoft Capture
optical character recognition (OCR)
engine automatically:
• Extracts the invoice number and dollar amount,
matching it with data in Sage 100 ERP via database
lookup.
• Captures the PDF image of the PO and invoice.
• Merges any related documentation with the
accounting record.
• Automatically routes the invoice for approval to the
CFO by e-mail notification.
• Approves and flags invoices for payment, or reverts
back to the AP clerk with instructions for follow up.
According to Alfred Tinoco, Teasdale Director of IT, “The
other vendor we considered didn’t offer workflow or
batch scanning for Sage 100 ERP, and their technology
wasn’t as convincing.”
Moving Forward with
Enterprise Content Management
Teasdale’s automation of invoice processing with EZCM
was so successful that within months, the accounts
receivable process was also automated. Tinoco is now
setting his sights on human resources:
“My goal is to have HR scanning all employee documents
and routing them automatically to an online folder for
each employee, and I believe EZCM is the right solution
for that,” said Tinoco
To learn more about ACOM, go to
www.blytheco.com/acom.
About the Author
Warren Glick is the Corporate Marketing Director
for ACOM Solutions, which provides comprehensive
solutions for managing the business document life cycle
and integrates effortlessly into ERP, CRM and other
management systems. Contact Warren by email at
wglick@acom.com.

CUSTOMERPROFILE
Built To Last: How a Customized
CRM Helped Home Manufacturer
Ma Williams Weather the Recession
Blytheco client Ma Williams sells manufactured, factory built and
modular homes. Their customers purchase these homes to be
placed on their private property on permanent foundations. The
process for Ma Williams to help their clients is quite involved and
includes securing financing, escrow, titles and permits, working
with contractors and more. Essentially, they handle the whole
process for their customers from soup to nuts.
Owner Kelly Williams shared, “In the process of selling
a manufactured home, there are lots of loose ends. So
for example, we have to get permits from the building
department. We have to go through escrow. We have to
have titles cleared. Lenders need to give us approval on
the construction loan, and the list goes on. As a result,
there’s lots of room for errors and loose ends.”
Since Ma Williams assumes the responsibility for the
entire process, they began to realize that they needed
help coordinating and monitoring data to make sure that
things didn’t get lost.
“Because in fact,” Kelly continues, “during our busy
times, we were losing a whole lot of business due to
many details falling through the cracks. Since purchasing
a factory built home is such an involved process, our
customers sometimes felt like they were on their own or
like someone wasn’t paying attention… so they’d bail
out, mid-sale.”
Enter a software solution.
Ma Williams started out using ACT to capture their
customer’s information. But they quickly found it to be
very stagnant and one dimensional for their needs. They
realized what they truly needed was assistance with their
workflow. One of their clients, who had purchased a
home from them, happened to be a software developer.
So Ma Williams contracted him to create custom software
for them. Unfortunately, he passed away in a car accident
so all the work put in with him was lost and the project
unraveled because no one could pick up from where he
left off.
With the search for another software solution back on,
a different client of theirs pointed them in the direction
of Phil Sim, Blytheco’s VP of Professional Services. Says
Kelly: “We fell in love with Phil and decided to go with
him for the process.”
by Denise Renee Phinn

Ma Williams has been using Sage CRM with custom
workflows for the last 9 years. Kelly shares, “According
to Phil, there is probably no work flow that has as many
steps or is as complicated with as many fields as ours.
We also use it to manage our sales order packets which
are all the documents created for the purchase of the
home.”
In the beginning, using the software was not without its
challenges to their business. One of the big problems
Ma Williams had before they implemented their
customized CRM is that their customers would request
lots of changes on the homes throughout the process.
Kelly explains: “All of those changes actually lost us
money because the sales person on our end would
make the changes but didn’t actually modify the
amount needed for the contract
or adjust for the extras in our
system. So we would sit down
to close the deal, only to find
out that there’s, for example,
$13,000 missing because it was
not properly accounted for and
so never collected. But at that
point, it’s a done deal; we can’t
get the loan modified and we
can’t ask the customer to come
out of pocket for it so we would
end up eating the costs and
eroding our profits.”
With mistakes like the above
and many other items and
customers that would slip
through the cracks, the errors
were literally costing them
serious money; Kelly factored
that they were losing about 1/3
of their business (which was
grossing around $8M - $10M a
year at that time).
These days, though, costly mistakes like that are a thing
of the past. “It started out being a learning curve,
obviously, for all of our sales people and team members
to get used to the customizations,” Kelly states. “But
just as we were getting pretty good and comfortable
with using it, the economy tanked in 2008. So if you
looked at financials for us, from when we started to
where we are now, it might seem as though investing
in our CRM system actually hurt us. But it didn’t. It was
the economy; people just stopped buying homes like
they used to for a couple years there!”
“But I must say if we didn’t have it in place when the
economy went south, I don’t think we would still be
here,” Kelly continues. “We actually tell people that we
think this system was one of the reasons we were able
to make it through. It helped our people to be able
to work from home; it helped us be able to monitor
what we were doing, keep close tabs on our customer’s
progress through the home sale and build cycle, plus
work effectively with the leads that we had.”
“Our sales team has been with us for a long time, but
they always say, gosh, we couldn’t go work anywhere
else because we wouldn’t have a system to work with
and it would be almost impossible to do what we
do with any other company without that technology
support.”
Says Phil Sim: “Kelly and Ma Williams is an ideal client
who had both a vision of improving the efficiency
of their organization while
focusing on the customer
experience. Being able to
leverage the process and
workflow components of
Sage CRM differentiated their
organization by providing tools
to the sales staff while providing
an infrastructure that enabled
an amazing experience
between Ma Williams and their
customers. It’s been a pleasure
to be a part of their vision and
I look forward to being a Ma
Williams partner for many years
to come!”
So what do they love best about
their customized Sage CRM?
The ability to be responsive
whenever they think of a better
way to improve their processes.
“Each user is able to create
their own functionality within
the system that helps them
work better; we can actually
change it and modify it to better suit everyone’s
needs,” Kelly shares.
When asked what has been the most surprising or
profitable result they’ve experienced since customizing,
Kelly says: “I think the best thing has been how it has
helped us through a difficult economy and now that
the housing market has been in an upswing, we were
already positioned to effectively capitalize on new
opportunities.”
To learn more about Ma Williams, visit :
www.mawilliamshomes.com.
“Because in fact,”
Kelly continues,
“during our busy
times, we were
losing a whole lot
of business due
to many details
falling through the
cracks.”

CUSTOMERPROFILE
How Industry Leader Southern Towing
Operates a Tight, Lean Ship With a
Customized ERP At The Helm
Headquartered in Memphis, TN, Southern Towing is one
of the largest transporters of fertilizer and other products
via the inland waterways. Southern Towing typically moves
materials not normally allowed to be transported by land/
truck such as hazardous materials, ammonia, farming grains
and rocks. With a fleet of 23 boats and 71 barges that
travel up and down the Mississippi River System and the Gulf
Intercoastal Waterway, Southern Towing’s services winds up
being a cheaper transportation alternative to trucking for their
clients.
At the heart of their business operations is a
customized Sage 100 ERP system which they’ve
been using for about four years. Says Controller
Greta Young, “When I arrived at Southern Towing,
they had a DOS system in use for record keeping
and accounting. We started using Sage 100 ERP
based on my recommendation because I had used
it at my previous company.”
To bend their Sage 100 ERP system to fit their
needs, they have a number of add-on products.
For example, the EZ Content Manager from ACOM
Solutions. This helps them organize purchases,
takes them through the different departments that
need to have eyes on it and finally, allows them to
provide a digitally signed document to the vendor.
Additionally they have several Scanco Warehouse
products and modules, including inventory scanning.
As Greta tells it, “Another thing we work with, which
I love, is custom reports. Because there’s no doubt,
Sage 100 ERP is not a towing accounting package.
But through working with Blytheco’s wonderful
team of Consultants, particularly John Stoffa, it
has allowed us to make the program fit our unique
business.”
Priortobeginningtocustomizetheir system,Southern
Towingdidn’thaveeffectiverecordskeepinginplace;
they used a lot of Excel spreadsheets and email.
“It was pretty cumbersome and ineffective,” Greta
says of their previous process. She continues, “The
people that were making critical decisions for the
company didn’t have easy access to the information
that’s now readily available to them. For example,
now that we have the EZ Content Manager, any of
our managers can go in at the click of a button and
see if we ordered something, when we ordered it,
Making Big Waves:

what time it was ordered and every piece of critical
data needed to check on that order.
Greta attributes about 90% of their discovery of
their need for customization to conversations with
her Blytheco Regional Account Manager, Kelly
Rayburn. “Each time I would talk to Kelly,” Greta
shares, “She would tell us about a new product
you had. Sometimes I’d say ‘No, we don’t need
that’ and sometimes I’d say “Now that sounds like
something we need!’ Other times, I would call her
and say ‘Hey, I’ve got this
need, what can you tell me?’
And Kelly would tell me what
she had available to suit my
needs.”
How have these
customizations improved
their business? It’s given
them the ability to have
better insight into their costs
and how best to manage
them and had organized
their internal workflow. It has
also had an indirect effect on
their bottom line. As Greta
shares, “our sales cycle is
greatly affected by weather.
We have bad months every
year so I can’t say that
adding your products has
directly increased our sales.
But what it has done is as the times are lean, it has
allowed us to get a better handle on it and have
enough information where we can make good
decisions.”
Another indirect benefit to their bottom line is how
their customized ERP, “helps us keep our human
resources count low; it’s unbelievable!” Greta
exclaims. “We try to keep our personnel down,
so any processes that we can have automated we
definitely invest in it. People see our company, as
opposed to others in our industry, and they can’t
believe that our staff is as small as it is. But we are
just able to be very efficient because of the software
tools that we have.”
“I think I’ve just been really lucky,” Greta continues,
“with the people that I’ve worked with at Blytheco
like Kelly Rayburn and our Sage 100 ERP Consultant
John Stoffa who helps me with the custom reports;
they are really good at what they do so it helps us
when we decide what to buy, knowing that we have
great support. For example, with our last purchase
of the scanning program, we had some options to
choose from. Kelly told us that one of the products
really had a better customer rating and that was
so important to us. And I’ll
be darned if it didn’t come up
later. When we had a problem
and their customer service
was great. So we are very
grateful to have the support of
a partner who is looking out for
our business’ best interests.”
Says Kelly Rayburn: “Greta is a
wonderful person to work with,
through and through. She’s
very pleasant, smart and direct,
and is one of those people
that makes coming to work
seem easy. Greta understands
the value in automation and
investing in solutions that we
offer, and has really seen great
return on investment with the
work we’ve done together so
far. I look forward to many more
years of a wonderful working relationship.”
When asked what has been the most exiting result
Southern Towing has experienced as a result of
their customizations, Greta shared, “I think it would
be seeing them actually work. Like I said, when
I arrived at this company, they didn’t have tools
like these in place. Because many staff members
were used to working with Excel and email, a lot
of people were very hesitant to change. But when
they actually got to see it in action and realize that
we could operate with a greater level of efficiency,
they were sold! And that was very exciting to see.”
To learn more about Southern Towing, visit:
www.southerntowing.net.
“The people that
were making
critical decisions
for the company
didn’t have easy
access to the
information that’s
now readily
available to them.

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COVERSTORY
Music To Their Ears
S
ound Productions provides sales and distribution for audio, lighting and
video equipment. Although based in the Dallas – Fort Worth, TX metro
area, they service clients nationally. A large segment of their customer base
includes houses of worship, contractors, DJ’s, home recording and other sound
and lighting related type individuals.
Joshua Curlett, Chief Operating Officer of Sound
Productions adds, “One of the things we’re most excited
about is what we call our “Sound Production Experience.”
In every step of all our processes, from sales through
warehousing to shipments and how we communicate vital
information, we are always looking for how we can put our
customers first.”
Driving their performance is their robustly customized
Sage 100 ERP and Sage CRM systems. Joshua proudly
shares, “We have quite a number of add-on products
and customized functionality, including Sage Alerts and
Workflow now, which is a querying tool on those data
bases. Customized forms have given us more flexibility
and control during the sales process. We have Paperless
Office and we also use EDI with our manufacturers and
vendors. Not to mention, our website is integrated with
our Sage software and we are in the process of going live
on a new integrated shopping cart system that will sync
data right into our ERP & CRM software. Basically, if it
could be customized, we probably did it or added it on!”
One of the challenges Joshua faced upon arrival at Sound
Productions, which lead to seeking solutions, was the
company had multiple databases and software for a little bit
of everything. For example, they were using Quickbooks
for accounting and a program called BizTracker for sales.
All their critical information was flowing throughout
multiple programs that didn’t speak to each other. There
was no integration, visibility, or forecasting available. The
insight and reporting was minimal at best and most of it
was unreliable.
How a Customized ERP and CRM Helps Sound
Productions Keep Customers First.

Visual Integrator has been one piece of their solutions
puzzle. The VI jobs allow for Sound Productions to
maintain vendor price sheets. When Sound Productions’
vendors send their files, they strip down those files and
import them in a way where they can use an UDF (User
Defined Field) to tell when an import date was so the
sales and accounting staff can always track correct pricing
information. That pricing information also gets fed to the
website. Joshua shares, “Our ERP is really the central hub
of all data and all interaction that feeds to our website,
which feeds to our customers, that feeds to our CRM, that
feeds to alerts, which is really neat and exciting.”
Another example of their customization is how they have
their shipping information from UPS World Ship integrated
with their ERP. They can now easily track the carrier, rates,
the tracking information, hyperlink and ID and send that
information to the sales orders and purchase orders. At
the end of the day, an alert and an email gets sent to the
sales person so they are able to track the appropriate
information for an upcoming or outbound order. Joshua
explains, “This insight is important to our customers
because now they can plan their installations and support
times accordingly. And it helps us put the customer first
because we are getting them that critical information in a
timely manner.
“We may appear to be small in number or staff, but we’re
very big in our industry. Our technology automation
and customizations allow for our team members to be
productive and take road blocks out of their way so we
can always hit our main goal… customers first!”
When asked how did Sound Productions uncover their
need for customization, Joshua had this to say:
“We have so many products to sell to our customers,
I think it was a function of us having a business
problem and then asking the right questions to get
it fixed. We often found ourselves saying: “There’s
got to be a better way... what is that better way?
“Alotoftheimprovementscamefromdirectconversations
with our Blytheco Account Manager, Kelly Rayburn. In
my opinion, Kelly is one of the best individuals and
professional associates I’ve worked with in my career. I
think that she does a great job of asking the right questions
and delegating appropriately to the right resources. She’s
really just a fantastic person to work with and has helped
us navigate how to use the technologies and processes
related to them.”
The admiration is clearly mutual as Kelly shares regarding
Joshua and Sound Productions, “Joshua is a model client,
a real joy to work with. He is very responsive, open to new
ideas and feedback, and has a very strong desire to push
his company to the next level with Blytheco solutions.
Joshua understands how important it is to keep their
system up to date with current offerings and continues
to work closely with Blytheco to have a full understanding
of what products and services can help streamline and
maximize his business.”
When asked what has been the most profitable results
Sound Productions has experienced since investing in
their software solutions, Joshua had this to say:
“I think that if you look at our ability to have clear, concise
and timely information, we have been able to make better
business decisions and be able to service our customer
base a little bit better. If you look at some of the other
things just in terms of the total man hours given back to
us, or the ability for us to do a lot more, we do the work
of 50 people with half that number and that’s something
we’re really proud about.
“Not to mention, we are much more cost efficient; what
used to take multiple individuals to query, monitor and
respond to important events by carrying out different
types of support tasks, those things are now able to be
done with our supporting cast of technology. As we have
worked with Blytheco over the last 3 years to continuously
customize and improve our software, it has allowed for
our whole team to be a part of the success because
everyone is a critical contributor to the process. That, to
me, is huge!”
To learn more about Sound Productions, visit:
www.soundpro.com.

by Joanna Rotter
INDUSTRYNEWS
Knowledge is power. Learn how access to the
right information can help you tailor service to fit your
customer’s unique needs.
As a service provider, not only is the ‘customer always right,’ but today more
than ever, the customer is also holding (almost) all the cards. If they are
willing to look for it, today’s customers of your service are more empowered with
information than ever before.
to Meet Growing Customer
Expectations
Joanna Rotter is the Content Marketing Specialist for MSI Data, a leader in field force automation software and creator of the enterprise field
service app, Service Pro. Connect with Joanna via email at joannar@msidata.com.
About the Author
Does more informed mean less loyal? That may be a matter of how
well the service you provide is tailored to each customer. In other
words, if you can’t provide exactly what your customer needs every
time, they’ll find someone who can.
How can field service organizations tailor their service uniquely to
each customer, while still operating efficiently? Here are a few ways:
1. Know What Your Customers Need Before You Show Up
Customers want to know you’re well informed about their account,
history and unique needs. In order to demonstrate competence in the
field, your workforce needs to know:
• What equipment assets does this customer have?
• What is the exact nature of the problem?
• What parts that may be required?
• Is it covered by warranty or contract?
• What is their service history?
By equipping technicians with a mobile application, service companies
prepare their field force to anticipate customer concerns before they
arise.
For example, with the customer’s service and equipment history in
front of them, schedulers can choose the technician with the right
skills to fix the problem. Technicians can see what tools they need as
well as other assets on site so they’re prepared to perform the task at
hand and maybe even sell a new contract while they’re at it.
2. Be Customer-Specific
One size does not fit all when it comes to field service, maintenance
and repair services. Service orgs must be willing to tailor their services
and create customer-specific service packages. Without a quick
and flexible system, companies risk wasting resources and time on
unbillable labor or failing to meet customers’ varying needs.
Tomeetcustomerexpectations,companieswithaservicemanagement
system can use a service bill of materials (SBOM) to book technicians,
equipment, parts, hours, etc. as soon as the work order comes in. An
SBOM allows you to configure functions like tasks, intervals, contract
terms, and pricing for each work order.
Using an SBOM lets you record and organize information, then send
it to each technician through his mobile application. When the tech
accepts the order, tracks hours worked, documents parts used, and
takes notes on the job site, the SBOM stores that information so it’s
immediately clear what to charge at the end of the billing cycle.
3. Note Everything, Not Just the Basics
Let your customer know you really care by noting not only the bare
minimum information you need to get the job done, but also by
observing items unique to them, such as:
• Unique personal notes about customer personnel (ie; birthdays,
etc.)
• Additional equipment, other business service needs
• Ways you can improve your service through customer satisfaction
surveys
• Documentation and sign-off of work performed
• Account potential to predict whether a customer’s needs will
change over time
When you think outside the box of normal, necessary data and use
the full capabilities of your service management app, you can raise
business intelligence, improve decision making, and distinguish
yourself by providing tailor fit service to each customer. Once you
determine what standard of service your customers expect, you can
use data to determine whether you’re meeting those expectations
and translate those findings into action.
4. Be the Company that “Gets It”
Competition in the service industry is intense these days. Set your
organization apart by proving you have the skills and business
intelligence to meet growing customer demands.
Nothing impresses a customer more than a company that understands
their problems and solves them. Be “that” company for your customers
by tailoring service without sacrificing resources or efficiency. Collect,
store, analyze, and organize the information you need to be successful
by using a service management app in your business strategy.
To learn more about MSI Data, visit:
www.blytheco.com/field-service-software.
to Meet Growing Customer
Expectations

To learn more about ScanForce, visit:
www.blytheco.com/scanforce.
INDUSTRYNEWS
At ScanForce, we strive to have a solid, versatile, tightly integrated,
off-the-shelf solution. This is perfect for most of the businesses
we work with. Our solution is straightforward and installs quickly,
enabling our customers to reap the benefits of ScanForce
immediately. But what if your business is unique? What if you’ve
found the perfect way to do business that fits your specific needs,
but it doesn’t exactly fit the mold of the standard accounting
system you’ve invested in?
The answer is simple – you customize it. One of the attributes
of Sage 100 ERP that I often hear people praise is the ability to
customize it to fit specific needs. It may be a simple UDF (User
Defined Field), or a completely custom solution that a certified
Sage Partner has developed.
ScanForce follows suit (pun intended), granting our customers
the luxury of defining what fits their specific needs. We do all
development in-house allowing us to offer a solution that can
practically fit any need within reason. Our development team is
well versed in not only our own software, but also in Sage 100
ERP. This allows our team to lend expertise in not only how to
customize our solution to fit a customer’s needs, but also to advise
on the best way to tackle an issue and meet their needs.
Versatility is key in today’s business. If you are not able to adapt
and react to the ever-changing business needs of today then you
are doomed to remain stagnant and watch the world and your
competition pass you by.
A solution with options gives customers the power and freedom
to select what works best for them. Is it a simple and clear-cut plan
you have in place? Or, do you have a complex and specific set of
needs that must be met? Either way, you want to have a trusted
resource to call on to help you sift through the “what would be
nice to have” and the “our business must have” items on your list.
ScanForce works very closely with Sage Partners to present a
united front making sure that we all keep the end user’s needs
and best interest as the focus. It can be daunting to evaluate and
select a solution that fits your needs and the way you do business.
I constantly emphasize to prospects that here at ScanForce, we
work to create an out-of-the-box solution that is as plug-and-play
as you can get. However, no two businesses are exactly alike,
making it all the more important to find
a solution that will fit your needs.
In some instances, it is simply
helping the prospect to understand
all standard options and how they
have the ability to “customize” the
solution to their specific needs by
understanding and utilizing the setup
options. Other cases require the
skills to listen to what the customer
is asking for and work with them to
create a plan and solution that is
best for everyone.
ScanForce is able to offer a
scalable solution designed to
fit the needs of Sage 100 ERP
customers. We work very hard
to continue to adapt to what
our customers and prospects
are telling us they want.
From customers that simply
want to count inventory to
full warehouse management
solutions involving Multi-
bin, pallet tracking,
manufacturing, labeling,
and custom bar codes, we
are able to work with the
Sage 100 Partner Channel
and their customers to
‘tailor’ the right solution
for them.
As a golfer, I immediately think of Taylor Made golf products
when I hear that phrase. A very close second is clothing.
There really is no substitute for a well-tailored suit. A skilled
tailor can make anyone look fantastic in a suit regardless of that
person’s body type. The same concept is true with software.
Tailor Made by Steve Showalter
Steve Showalter is a Sales Manager at ScanForce, a Gold Development Partner for Sage 100 ERP, providing bar code solutions. Connect with
Steve at http://LinkedIn.com/in/SteveShowalter.
About the Author

Warehouse Management
that’s Uniquely You
When you walk through the doors of a warehouse, you get a
glimpse of the heartbeat of a company. The warehouse is
where you “make things happen”. It’s where you carry out your
company vision, reinforce your company values, and tangibly meet
customer expectations. It’s a direct reflection of your business, a
piece of the puzzle to what makes you uniquely you. Just as no
business is exactly alike, no warehouse is exactly alike. You cannot
operate your warehouse according to a set of processes and
procedures maintained by another; it simply won’t work. If you want
to successfully manage your warehouse operation, you need to have
a thorough understanding of what makes your business tick and how
you can transfer that information into your warehouse environment.
When it comes to the technology you use to manage your
warehouse, it needs to be as unique as your warehouse’s
processes. While many out of the box warehouse management
solutions offer the option of customizing the software to fit
your needs, it can often be expensive and challenging to
maintain. These “simple” customizations typically lengthen
the implementation process, add significant cost to the
overall software package, and require re-customization every
time you upgrade the software. Wrestling with out of the
box software will only result in frustration, stress, and wasted
effort. No general solution can meet your every need, even
with extensive customizations. In order to run your warehouse
effectively and – in turn – carry out your business vision, you
need to have a warehouse management system that fits your
business like a glove.
3 Signs Your Software Isn’t Working for You
Before you can determine what works for your business,
you need to determine what isn’t working. Many warehouse
managers make the mistake of assuming “that’s just the way it
is” when it comes to warehouse management software. They
resign themselves to the challenges of the system, develop
complicated workarounds, and allow their productivity and
efficiency to suffer as a result. This often leads to significant
frustration in the warehouse and on the business side, where
processes cannot be carried out as smoothly as possible.
If you are constantly running into issues with your warehouse
management software, it may be time to look for an alternate
solution. Here are three signs your current software is not
working for you:
by Devin Ambron

INDUSTRYNEWS
Devin Ambron is the Director of Business Development and Marketing at Scanco, which meets the needs of thousands
of distribution and manufacturing operations with an extensive line of warehouse management solutions. Connect
with Scanco on Twitter at @ScancoLLC.
About the Author
1. Your business requires a unique set
of processes to sustain a competitive
advantage.
We’ve seen it before: businesses invest in out of the box
solutions, add on massive customizations, and end up
having to hire people to help support the data and data
entry processes required of the “customized” solution. The
software, for all of its promises to reduce the workload and
improve business efficiency, actually creates more work
just to meet your warehouse requirements. If you’re relying
on a general warehouse management package to fit your
needs, you are going to be disappointed. While it may be
designed and work for a similar business, it hasn’t been
designed for your business and unique processes.
2. Your extensive software customizations are
becoming difficult to maintain.
Hefty software customizations may seem like a good idea in
the moment, but what manufacturers and distributors often
fail to realize is that they are not sustainable in the long
term. Software customizations require a lot of time, money,
and effort. With every software upgrade comes the risk of
losing your customizations and custom data. We’ve had
several customers come to us over the years as a result of
losing valuable custom reports due to a “simple upgrade”.
Don’t take that chance with your business.
3. Your warehouse workers have created
workarounds that don’t involve the
software.
If your users aren’t actually using the software, you have
a problem. One of the surest signs that you’re current
solution isn’t meeting your needs is when your employees
are relying on spreadsheets and other internal systems to
get the job done. If you are tracking data outside of the
system, your current system is not the right fit.
Warehouse Management Software Stitched
Together with Your Needs
We understand the need for simplicity when it comes
to warehouse management. It’s the reason so many
manufacturers and distributors invest in out of the box
solutions; they figure it will be easy to use, easy to
understand, and easy to manipulate to fit their needs. The
reality is, this couldn’t be further from the truth. In order
to truly carry out your business vision effectively, your
warehouse management software needs to be tailor made
to fit your business. While this may have required a lot of
time and money in the past, today’s technology has made
it possible for even the smallest warehouse to benefit from
solutions tailored to their specific business needs.
Here at Scanco, we are committed to bringing the latest
and greatest technology advancements to warehouses
across the country. We have paired mobile technology
with exemplary warehouse management software to create
a solution that fits your business perfectly. Our newest
solution, Scanco Warehouse, is designed to provide you
with everything you need to take your warehouse to the
next level. This Sage 100 ERP mobile application is tailored
to your specific business needs, allowing you to take full
control of the warehouse management process. Whether
you need a simple mobile app to view your warehouse
activities and create custom reports or a robust warehouse
management solution, Scanco Warehouse is designed for
you. It’s tailor made down to its core.
For more information about our custom products
and services, visit www.blytheco.com/scanco.
You will find a variety of solutions designed to support your
unique warehouse and warehouse management needs.
If you’d like to discover how you can benefit from a tailor
made warehouse management solution, call (800) 425-9843.
INDUSTRYNEWS

We Make
EDI Painless
We Make
EDI Painless
888.205.1531 | www.highjump.com/truecommerce
Visit Us at Booth 928
Stop by our booth
at Sage Summit
#1327
erequester.com/summit | 1-877-727-9528

Consumers Professional
Practices
Mom & Pop
Stores
Big Box
Stores
Wholesale
Distributors &
Manufacturers
.COMsFranchise
Businesses
Clubs &
Organizations
 






MACHINE-to-
MACHINE (APIs)
Product Feeds,
Price & Stock Reports, Shipments,
Order Collection
SALES REP TOOLS

Customer Tracking,
Order / Invoice Tracking,
Order Entry, Quoting
CONTENT
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM


PUBLIC WEBSTORE(S)

Brochure, Catalog Only,
Shopping Cart, Store Locator
SYNCH TOOL

CUSTOMER
SELF-SERVICE PORTAL
CLOUD DATA
Customer Self-Service System
Booth 907For Wholesale Distributors and Manufacturers
built for:    

Quick Order
Place orders using sku
entry or product search.
Shipments
View shipments and track
packages.
My Account
View and edit billing,
contact, and address info.
Orders
Track open, backordered,
and shipped orders.
Payments
View previous payments
and make new payments.
Invoices
Track open and paid
invoices.
Price & Stock
Check product prices
and availability.
Price & Stock
and availability.
Favorites Lists
View, edit and order from
your favorites lists.

Customer Self-Service Portal

Quick Order
Place orders using sku
entry or product search.
Shipments
View shipments and track
packages.
My Account
View and edit billing,
contact, and address info.
Orders
Track open, backordered,
and shipped orders.
Payments
View previous payments
and make new payments.
Invoices
Track open and paid
invoices.
Price & Stock
and availability.
Price & Stock
and availability.
Favorites Lists
View, edit and order from
your favorites lists.

Customer Self- Service Portal
Automatic
Personalization
By user, account, type,
language, geo region, etc.

PRIVATE WEBSTORE(S)
Company Stores,
Punchout Catalogs
Catalog, Quick Order, Orders,
Invoices, Shipments, Payments
In The Cloud
In Your Oﬃce Network
YOUR ERP
OUR
O
FFERING
View ERP Data. View, Edit,
Delete Cloud-Only Data.
Sage 100, 300, and 500 ERP
and Sage ERP X3

Bellwether Magazine | Second Quarter 201432
by Kelvin Takhar
When considering your Supply Chain automation
needs and evaluating your software requirements
to support your strategy for growth, expansion and
ongoing efficiency, be sure you start with the right key
questions and considerations:
1. How can I minimize my Supply Chain Software
customization?
2. How can I maximize my Supply Chain Software
integration with our ERP?
3. How can I lower the Total Cost of Ownership of our
Supply Chain Software over the lifecycle of my ERP?
Less Customization = More Savings
Using customization to achieve the unique and required
functionality to capture, create and exchange Order and
Shipment Data within your suite of ERP integrated software
solutions comes at a steeper price than cost alone. Every
time there is an update to any component of your solution,
additional customization is required to bridge critical gaps
in the flow of Business Information. This costs you valuable
time and ongoing investment. To avoid unnecessary costs,
consider the following before committing to a customized
software platform:
1. Complexity: How much custom code has to
be written and tested to achieve your required
functionality?
2. Timely Application Updates: What steps are
involved in upgrading customized applications in a
timely manner? What is the level of difficulty in each
step?
3. Costly Application Integration: What is the risk of
cost overruns to integrate across multiple software
applications?
The Advantage of Intelligent Integration and
Configuration
The ideal way to automate your Supply Chain for Order
Planning and Order Fulfilment when managing multiple
software applications is to ensure your software solutions
can be configured to integrate with your ERP without
customization.
Key Solutions™ powered by Edisoft® are designed
to deliver complete freedom from customization. Key
Solutions unlock the power of your Supply Chain Software
Platform with turnkey integration across multiple software
solutions that work together seamlessly without the need
for customization. Key Solutions also work together in
any modular configuration to suit the unique automation
needs of both manufacturers and distributors without
customization and can be configured to optimize
Warehouse Automation across multiple industries
including Food and Beverage, Apparel, Electronics, and
many other vertical industries and sectors.
Intelligent Integration = Reduced Costs +
Increased Profits
The unique architecture of Edisoft Merchant™ and
Merchant QuikPAK™ enables Key Solutions powered by
Edisoft to function as single Integrated EDI and Warehouse
and Shipping Automation Platform to effectively meet your
Supply Chain automation requirements. Both applications
utilize easy-to-use, configurable, icon driven menus to
support a full range of modular applications to effortlessly
unlock the power of your Supply Chain by delivering Order
IntegrationforIntegratedEDI,WarehouseAutomation,Bin
Tracking, RF Handheld devices and Shipping Automation.
INDUSTRYNEWS
Supply Chain Software:
No Customization
Required

Key Solutions work together modularly to
deliver:
Order Integration and Order Automation: that captures,
creates and exchanges data to eliminate re-keying of
Order and Shipment information and reduces the risk of
human errors and costly charge backs.
Workflow Efficiency: that improves Staff Productivity by
reducing the time to manage and ship your Sales Orders
Reporting Visibility: that provides the in depth view of
Supply Chain Data relevant to the entire Order Cycle so
CEOs, CFOs, and COOs have greater opportunities to
evaluate Order Fulfillment and Order Shipment costs and
greater opportunities to identify ways to both improve
Supply Chain efficiencies and increase profit margins.
Savvy Suppliers: Create Definitive Value With
Your Supply Chain Software
Customization has its limits; Intelligent Integration has
its freedoms. Savvy suppliers seeking a competitive
advantage understand that Intelligent Integration of their
Supply Chain software-when managed effectively-can
create definitive value for their Supply Chain on multiple
levels to drive market growth and profits. Companies can
count on Key Solutions powered by Edisoft to unlock the
power to drive Productivity, Profitability and Growth. With
these Key tools and the Intelligent Integration to optimize
the exchange of automated Order and Shipment Data,
CEOs, CFOs and COOs are empowered to better control
costs, achieve greater efficiencies and increase profits.
Get the right ‘Key Solutions’ for the right Supply Chain
software ROI today.
To learn more about Edisoft, go to
www.blytheco.com/edisoft.
LABELING &
Kelvin Takhar, General Manager, Vice President of Sales &
Marketing at Edisoft Inc. is an innovative visionary ever pushing
the bar forward for ERP integrated Key Solutions™ that unlock
the power of Supply Chain Software for Manufacturers and
Distributors without the need for customization. Find Kelvin on
LinkedIn at ca.linkedin.com/pub/kelvin-takhar/9/892/812.
About the Author

When it comes to bringing new solutions to your clients to help improve their
business, time and budget are key. A small budget means a cheaper solution
will be purchased which will not satisfy the expectations of management or their
employees. New ERP solutions are purchased to see a fast ROI, automate workflows
and increase productivity. To have anything less will create the opposite.
by Mark Grimes
How Dimension
Funding Helps
MakeYour ERP
System Perfect for
You
INDUSTRYNEWS
Our customers have repeatedly expressed the
convenience of using us to conserve their capital,
lower the burden of entry and make the best solution
affordable. Even with companies that have means to
capital, our unique easy process has lessened the hassle
they have to go through to get the product they desire.
A large distribution company told us they were thrilled
we could finance the software, the professional services
and cloud managed services. Using us reduced the
CEO’s decision making time and they were able to get
the solution that best fit the company instead of only
what they were able to write a check for that day.
By having our partners offer a long-term financing
option to their customers it improves your own cash
flow and sets you up on a realistic payment plan. This
reduces the stress that comes along with sticker shock
and allows you to buy what your company needs to
grow. Not to mention you are able to expense the
monthly payments due to the tax deduction Section
179.
With the subscription service one may think there is not
a need; however we see our services helping even more
because professional services are still a large expense in
getting the solution where it needs to be. Reducing the
up front burden has helped many. Banks often won’t
help with professional services but we have worked with
our investors to ensure this can be done and we have
seen great things because of it.
A new ERP will lead to convenience, and that is our goal
with our customers. Easy funding, friendly experience
and low monthly payments make getting your ERP or
CRM system right for you.
Visit www.blytheco.com/funding to learn more.
Mark Grimes is a finance industry professional who has been with Dimension Funding for over 15 years. He has had a highly
successful career partnering with companies like Blytheco to help their customers stay within their budget by offering low monthly
payments. Connect with Mark on LinkedIn at http:// linkedin.com/in/markagrimes.
About the Author

Simple. Beautiful. Intuitive.
Inventory management reimagined
Great apps don’t just happen on accident. Our team of
developers have sought to invent an intuitive user
experience that brings simplicity to your fingertips.
What’s not to love about the new Scanco Warehouse?
Visit Scanco at Sage Summit booth 1214

Come take a look for yourself at the BizNet Software, Inc., booth
1123 at Sage Summit July 28-31 at the Mandalay Bay in Las
Vegas and discover what the Excel Suite can do for you.
• For Ballet Memphis, it’s budgeting, variance analysis and
boardroom-quality report production.
• For B&B Distributors, the BizNet Software Excel Suite’s
BizBroadcast solution streamlines the distribution of
reports to its retail customers – and, in the formats those
customers need.
• And for BeyondTrust, BizNet’s native Microsoft Excel
interface and direct connection to Sage 500 ERP systems
means that reports are instantly updated . . . saving
countless hours of repetitive extracting, copying, pasting
and reformatting data.
Ballet Memphis Does Quick Pirouette on Reports
ReachFurther. It’sgracefullyillustratedwithaballerina’ssilhouette
in the Ballet Memphis logo (http://www.balletmemphis.org),
and exemplified in the organization’s mission of “creating,
presenting and teaching ballet and dance in many forms as we
celebrate the human spirit through our bodies.”
The Ballet Memphis administrative staff must also reach further
to achieve greater productivity. So, it was an easy decision
when Philip West, managing director, learned that he could
produce the organization’s financial reports from Sage 100 ERP
faster – and in a more understandable format – using the BizNet
Software Excel Suite.
West has used BizNet Software to generate reports for himself,
the financial committee and Ballet Memphis board of directors
since the fall of 2009. Extracting the history needed for budget
preparation is also automated, he says, with production budgets
for the entire season presented on a single worksheet – even
though contracts with designers or for marketing buys can occur
at varying times and for varying lengths.
The resulting ability to analyze variances is what West calls
an adjusted waterfall report. “It’s not just looking at what the
budget says I should have remaining. It really is an analysis of
what’s been spent on that budget line, and it gives me a real
sense of what’s remaining.”
by Floyd Stanley
INDUSTRYNEWS
Organizations ranging from the ballet to beverage distributors and
all types of businesses in between are leveraging the power of the
BizNet Software Excel Suite to produce reports from their Sage ERP
systems up to five times faster, and with greater quality and accuracy.
Are You
Spending Any
Time In Excel?

Floyd Stanley, Partner Enablement Manager for BizNet Software, specializes in translating complex technologies into practical business benefits.
Formerly a professional writer, he’s been involved in the computing and data communications industries for more than three decades. Connect
with him on LinkedIn at http://linkedin.com/pub/floyd-stanley/7/a87/b7b.
About the Author
With oversight responsibilities for HR, IT, marketing and
development, the box office and even building maintenance,
West needs accurate information … and quickly. BizNet’s real-
time connection to Sage 100 ERP data, presented in a native
Microsoft Excel environment, meets the need with simplicity.
“I’ve been very, very pleased with the results,” he says.
BizBroadcast Makes Distributing Custom Reports A Breeze
For B&B
B&B Distributors supplies hundreds of retailers from major
grocery store chains to mom-and-pop convenience stores,
and as might be expected, each of those customers adds a
mark-up to the wholesale price. But that price is most definitely
a moving target, fluctuating monthly and even sometimes
weekly as a result of supplier-driven sales promotions.
“I would spend an entire day cutting and pasting the same
information over and over in different forms,” says Ellen
Caldwell, Sales and Technology Administrator. “The sheer
volume of reports I had to compile in order to conform to each
customer’s automated system made it an extremely repetitive
process.”
Not so with BizBroadcast, which provided immediate time
savings while also improving the overall process of creating
and distributing reports in Excel.
“It’samatterofaone-timesetup,”Caldwellsays. “BizBroadcast
is highly adaptable as well. I can customize any messaging
in the email body and I can send the recipient their report in
the format they require – even if they want an older version of
Excel.”
BeyondTrust Cuts Reporting Time in Half With BizInsight
BeyondTrust, a global provider of security software, had a
breakout year in 2009. The expansion in business, however,
meant the company faced a set of IT challenges. Elements
of its IT infrastructure – especially its accounting and financial
reporting solutions – were unable to keep pace.
The disconnect between the capabilities of its financial
reporting infrastructure and the reporting and analytical needs
of the management team was becoming a hindrance to the
business.
“Management wanted to see more granular reporting for all
products, based on factors like sales type, sales channel and
region and our existing system simply wasn’t going to give us
that capability,” says Vickie Kennedy, Controller “We needed a
far superior business, accounting and reporting system.”
BeyondTrust chose BizNet Software to handle the bulk of its
financial reporting and management needs within a month of
implementing Sage 500 ERP.
“We needed a financial reporting system that was automated,
much more intuitive and much easier to train on and use. I
didn’t want to have to go back to my consultant every time I
needed to change a report,” says Kennedy.
“BizNet has definitely opened me up to perform more value-
add activity. We’re a growing company, and in the past I had
no time to dedicate to managing that growth as the controller.
Now I have that time.”
To learn more about BizNet go to www.blytheco.com/biznet.

Service Pro®
is an end to end system for automated repair center and field service management,
including mobile, scheduling, back office & integration with Sage 100 and many other ERP systems.
See us at Booth 209 at Sage Summit!
Make an appointment to meet: call David Friedlen at: 262-292-4945 or email at Davef@msidata.com
Learn how Service Pro®
can help your field service business at www.msidata.com/blytheco
Service Pro®
Software can help.
blytheco@msidata.com www.msidata.com 262.241.7800
Calls, Assets, Parts,
Contracts, RMA & more
Mobile
Technician
Service
Dashboard
Real-Time
Scheduling
“The only man who behaves sensibly is my tailor;
he takes my measurements anew every time he
sees me, while all the rest go on with their old
measurements and expect me to fit them.”
-George Bernard Shaw
tnerruchtiwpugnipeektnemtrapeDecivreSruoysI
technology or using “old measurements”?

INDUSTRYNEWS
JDB Solutions Group specializes in Manufacturing Shop floor Data
collection and Live Monitoring Systems for Sage 100 ERP. We Barcode
and automate the shop floor process by allowing customers to collect
Material Issues, Labor, Completed Goods, as well as QC, Payroll time
and have multiple Shop Floor Monitoring Systems.
Every year, we constantly strive to create and design more features
and technology to stay up to speed with customer needs. In the
beginning, our early releases of product were very rudimentary
and simple, but over time as customers demanded more and more
technology, we had to evolve and customize our software. Barcoding
and tracking takes on many shapes. From mobile devices to tablets
and touch screens to flat panels, we have expanded our collection
services and devices to accommodate customers growing needs not
only for Manufacturing but Service and Field Service as well.
Nowadays, customers are more educated and want and need more
elaborate requirements. Maybe their process requirements need
some different collection needs or the industry they supply has
requirements that fall outside our standard software scope. We then
need to do one of 2 things, either find another third party option we can
fully integrate with or modify our program to meet their needs. Both
solutions offer the Best-Of-Breed type solutions. Merging together
multiple third party Apps that are fully integrated and certified to work
together is usually way better than an All-in-One program that claims
to do it all. When you can work with the top industry leaders in what
they do coupled with a highly educated consultant, the customer is
highly satisfied with the solutions at hand.
We as consultants have to educate our customers that one program
doesn’t mean the best and show them that integrated solutions
can provide seamless functionality and Industry leading service and
support. The other alternative is to modify your program if the need
is in your wheelhouse and take on the modification needs of the
customer and give them a fully qualified solution.
In the past years, we have not only developed highly adaptable
collection systems but we are now fully Cloud Ready as well as able to
work on or off-line at any given time. This enhancement was driven
by a customer need for a fully real time mobile solution that would
work on the manufacturing floor as well as for service crews. We have
also added features like Labor dilution, QC data collection screens
and Nesting of jobs for group tracking. In providing custom solutions
we separate ourselves more from the competitors and also allow the
customer to get exactly what they are looking for.
In looking at and quoting custom solutions for themselves, customers
need to be looking for certain criteria for the best solution they can
get. For example they need to be looking for someone that has vast
experience not only in manufacturing in our case but the supplier
should have first-hand experience with the market the customer
supports. Knowing your customers specific intellectual knowledge
of their industry and needs only comes from years of support and
experience. We at JDB Solutions Group pride ourselves in being
very versatile and have vast experience in many different fields of
manufacturing and service markets.
Also, a customer should qualify if the modification could be rolled
into the standard release of the software. This will ensure that there
should not be repeat charges each time a new version of the software
is released. In providing such solutions for customers we understand
the needs and wants for customizations even in the simplest levels.
From a quick screen change to a complete re-write we have done it
all.
In short, customers have become very dependent on us as solution
providers and consultants to provide us the best solution we
possibly can. We strive to forge relationships with vendors and other
consultants such as ourselves to make sure we are as educated as
possible and always have a good referral source for us to find out
what we do not know about. In forging these relationships, we allow
ourselves to qualify and provide some of the industry’s most leading
solutions for our prospective and current customers. That is what
makes our software industry so great, knowing there is a solution out
there for everyone.
If you would like additional information of what JDB Solutions Group
offers for the following: Manufacturing Barcoding Solutions, Shop
Floor Collection, Labor Tracking, Material Tracking, ERP integration
options to everything from Tooling systems to Automated Parts Cribs,
Kanban systems, or Engineering and CAD CAM programs. We also
offer Manufacturing and Install, manufacturing and Service, Field
Service, and Service and Install Mobile solutions.
Stop by our booth #2005 or contact us at (815) 728-1133 or http://
www.blytheco.com/joscan.
To customize or not to customize, that is the question….. Recent trending patterns show
end users are looking for a one-stop shop software that does it all. We consultants
are put on a quest to find the best solution for our customer’s needs. The reality is that
it is almost impossible to find one good program or module that does everything. The
software industry has found that trying to be the best of everything is harder than being
the best at your niche market.
Tracking and Adapting
by Joseph Bisaha
Joseph Bisaha is the President of JDB Solutions Group, which specializes in automating and simplifying manufacturing and field service data
collection and tracking. Connect with Joseph at https://www.linkedin.com/in/joebisaha.
About the Author
to Customer Needs

INDUSTRYNEWS
Joni Girardi is the founder and CEO of DataSelf Corporation, an innovative leader in business intelligence and analytics solutions for
SMBs. Connect with Joni on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/jonigirardi.
About the Author
Only a few years ago, regular reporting used to be all that any organization
had to do to keep tabs on operations. Then technology caught up with
science, and data discovery became a new competitive tool.
Data Discovery
The Ultimate
Customization
by Joni Girardi
The difference between reporting and data discovery is like
the difference between old time correspondence by mail and
today’s instant messaging on mobile devices.
Reporting still works fine when the questions and answers go
like clockwork. You need regular numbers on sales, expenses,
and all the parts of your business. But to crack open your data’s
deeper secrets, only data discovery works. It gets you closer to
your data than anything else. It’s the ultimate customization.
What makes it so powerful is that we’re practically hardwired for
it. Researchers at the famous Palo Alto Research Center, where
Steve Jobs found inspiration for the Mac, call it “information
foraging.” Like wild animals hunting for food, business users
want to follow “information scents.”
Users typically start with broad questions and crunch the
data in an ever-tightening spiral. They iterate, explore, and
experiment, with questions and answers coming in rapid
succession.
Adistributionmanagermightstartwith,“Whereareweshipping
products?” and gets a map showing customers’ geographic
distribution. At a glance, the manager sees that certain areas
of the country have significantly higher demand. That leads to
a question: “From which warehouses am I shipping to these
regions?” A new chart shows the distribution. “How has this
warehouse distribution changed over time?” Then, almost
on a whim, “Does it vary by season or by day of the week?”
Surprised, he sees it does change significantly by season.
And that insight starts a process to adapt the distribution of
products by warehouse by season. That will eventually yield
shorter delivery times, lower shipping costs, and perhaps more
sales from happier clients.
The rapid fire cascade of questions and answers is critical.
Anything more than a moment’s wait and the stream of
questions easily stalls or dies altogether.
Data must be instantly and intuitively understandable, which
visualization provides. The user requires support with built-in
best practices, titling, captioning, annotation, effective color
spectrums, and data storytelling.
Back-end access to data has to be fast, transparent, and easy
to understand especially for business users who usually don’t
have time to learn complex connections to data sources.
Flying through the data demands an architecture that makes
all data available using intuitive terms and structures, whether
the source is an ERP, CRM, and other system. Don’t make users
stop and worry about where to find what they need.
Data discovery products are now becoming available to
mid-market organizations. Only a few come with the all
the critical data connectors. One of them is DataSelf which
combines Tableau and Microsoft BI into a best-of-breed data
discovery platform. On top of that, their canned solutions
include over 5,000 report templates, dashboards, and
KPIs for Sage ERP and Sage CRM. You can learn more at
www.Blytheco.com/DataSelf or call 800-425-9843.
If you’re lucky enough to attend Sage Summit at the Mandalay
Bay in Las Vegas, stop by DataSelf’s Booth #1027 or Blytheco’s
Booth #1222. Also, attend the panel titled “Tips for Navigating
the BI Market for Sage Products” on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.

INDUSTRYNEWS
In the past, the small to mid-sized businesses in the retail
world only added trading partners to their EDI systems, and
that only happened when the large retailers required them
to do so. Everyone at MAPADOC, and indeed everyone
who has worked in the EDI world has received many emails
and phone calls in which a customer nervously reports:
“Costco [or other retailer] just sent me these specs, so we
need to get set up on EDI with them right away.”
But that was the past.
Small to medium-sized retail suppliers are no longer sitting
on their hands, waiting and fearing the requirements of
their retail partners. Not only are the SMBs of today well-
versed in EDI processes and advantages, they are making
plans to strategically extend those benefits across the
supply chain.
Here are four new business trends I have noticed
lately:
1. Leveraging of analytics:Suppliersaregettingsmarter,
and taking ownership of their sales relationships. They
leverage EDI information to advise the retailers about
where the product is selling, how much product they
need, and when it would be best to replenish.
2. EDI with both buyers and suppliers: Because
the big retailers send out purchase orders to their
suppliers, many smaller suppliers (who have suppliers
of their own) figure that they should automate that
process to save time—just like the big-box buyers of
their products.
3. EDI with third-party logistics/warehouse: When
choosing a third-party to house and send out goods,
businesses are now looking to companies that are
proficient in EDI. Business owners want warehouses
that are flexible enough to meet the demands of their
customers and that also improve internal processes.
4. Suppliers making requests: As a measure of
customer service and of the extension of automation,
suppliers are now approaching retailers to request
that they test EDI for themselves. Their requests are
reasonable, because with an automated system,
companies are quick to realize that the addition of an
extra partner doesn’t have to create extra work.
These and other industry trends demonstrate the
increasing popularity of automation and computer-based
supply-chain management. In today’s ‘ever-speedier’
world, it has become increasingly important to save on
personal effort while still activating business efficiency.
Successful big-box retailers have always understood the
need for business-enhancing technology such as EDI
systems, and as the smaller companies grow bigger, they
are now also realizing the many benefits that EDI brings.
EDI has become the new competition differentiator, and
those who use it are raising the bar in the supply world.
To learn more about Mapadoc, visit:
www.blytheco.com/mapadoc.
Changing Tides:
How Suppliers Are Taking
Control in an EDI World
David Freschl is an Account Executive with MAPADOC, which provides effortless EDI solutions for integration with Sage ERP systems. You can
reach David by email at David.Freschl@mapadoc.com.
About the Author
Retailisacontestthatgivesthenodtothebiggest
and brightest stars, such as Amazon, Walmart,
and other “big-box” retailers, and predictably, the big
guys have always run the show. Since EDI started becoming
popular, it was always something that the big guys mandated of the
little guys. If the little guys wanted a place at the retail table, they
had to do whatever was requested of them.
by David Freschl

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