Lots of business people these days view the cloud with some trepidation and reservations.  We understand.  It’s a bit scary.  But with tongue firmly planted in cheek, we like to remind folks that Hey, the cloud is just some other’s guy computer.

Well, sort of.  Yes, it’s a computer somewhere else on the Internet, but along with it comes a whole host of security, cost savings and built-in collaboration advantages that may explain why moving to the cloud is the fastest growing sector in computing today.  Following then are 7 good reasons, courtesy of our friends at Stratos Cloud Alliance, on why it can make sense for you.

Reduce capital investments.  Cloud migration can eliminate hardware costs required to maintain and upgrade on-premise applications.  Customers can save 35%-50% vs. upgrading servers on-premise.

Put data security in the hands of experts.  Cloud systems are monitored continuously to prevent and mitigate threats, often with tools not easily available to small business.  60% of enterprises with appropriate cloud solutions will experience one-third fewer security failures.

Be prepared for the unexpected.  From weather to data breaches, cloud provides the ability to safeguard data and get back up & running quickly.  90% of organizations surveyed by Gartner say a single hour of downtime costs over $100,000.

Free up resources to focus on strategic objectives.  43% of employed Americans say they spend at least some time working remotely.

Unleash the potential of a tech-savvy workforce.  With the cloud, you can take advantage of connected productivity and collaboration tools that drive your workforce to more productive levels.  Note that 35% of today’s workforce are millennials, where collaboration and connectivity are assumed from the get-go.

Connect line-of-business applications.  Your mission critical ERP, business management, accounting and productivity applications are the core of your company’s workflow.  Is everyone connected?  66% of organizations consider themselves completely successful with business intelligence initiatives rooted in the cloud.

Real time data can be your competitive edge.  Unlock access to power data analysis capabilities in the cloud so your employees can better understand their customers, analyze trends, generate key reports and stay ahead of competitors.

Questions about your system needs, or about moving to the cloud? We urge you to contact PSSI directly at 877.273.2444. We’re here to help!

PSSI has been implementing ALERE manufacturing software for over 25 years, and we still think it’s one of the best-priced, best-functioning software products you can buy anywhere.  Users appreciate ALERE’s flexibility over many other systems. 
Below, a few features that make ALERE manufacturing software work so well for so many…

Managing Prospect Quotes
A major challenge for many companies is handling sales quotes for prospects. Often, one or more quotes can go out to prospects as part of the effort to close that first sale and turn them into customers. The ALERE InTouch CRM module is designed to manage prospects and facilitate the creation of quotes for them.

There are several different reports dealing with prospect quotes, and recently the InTouch Prospect Profile screen had two new tabs added related to quotes [see image above].

The Quote tab provides a convenient listing of the different quotes for a particular prospect. The list can be filtered by the status of the quote and a date range of when it was created. Double left clicking on a quote will hyperlink you to the actual document.

The Items tab complements the Quotes tab by listing the individual items on the quotes. Panoptic filtering can be done to look for certain items and quantities.

These two tabs place extensive amounts of information at your fingertips.

Where is an Item Used by BOM’s
A supplier notifies you that they are discontinuing an item you purchase from them and replacing it with another. You need to determine which BOM’s use that item, set an inactive date when the item will no longer be available, add the new item to the BOM’s, and enter the date it will become active. First you have to find which BOM’s use the item.

In v15.0 a Used button was added to the Inventory Item Master screen. Clicking on it will display a browser listing every BOM where the item is used as a component.

The Item Where Used browser provides three options. The first is to go directly to one of the BOM’s by choosing it and clicking on the Select button. The second is to print the list of BOM’s and the third is to send the list to an Excel file.

While there is a Where Used report available, the addition of the Used button provides a more direct and immediate way of managing inventory items that are used as components in bills of material. This helps keeping material planning accurate and ensures production is not interrupted when the old item is no longer available.

Work Order Revisions
Contrary to the way in which most manufacturing systems are designed, work orders in ALERE facilitate changes to material lists and routes to meet production conditions. Allowing changes make the work orders much more flexible but can introduce one major issue during the manufacturing process. Is the work order document on the floor up to date?

To address this question, work orders can track revision numbers and dates.  Work revisions can be done manually or can be controlled automatically according to how the Track WO Revision option is set on the Company Defaults Option tab.

Double clicking in the WO Rev field will display a revision note with a user, date, and time stamp. The note allows a reason to accompany the revision. Right clicking in the text area supports inserting file Hyperlinks to integrate relevant specifications, drawings, etc. for document management purposes.

Work order revisions round out the support required allowing changes to be tracked and the production floor kept up to date.

• Want to Learn More About ALERE?

TIW has a 7 minute “Manufacturing Overview Video“ on YouTube that gives a concise summary of what manufacturing software can do for you.  Click the link below to see why ALERE may be a great fit for your manufacturing operations.

To learn more, call us any time at 877.273.2444, or visit us on the web.