Year 2011 is coming to an end and to wrap up, the long awaited new TH5 version of our Project module is now ready!
Currently TaskHub ERP Project Costing solution is in used by customers spreading across various industries including Construction, Engineering, Manufacturing-related such as Scaffolding, Furniture, Cabling, System Integrator businesses.
While the main fundamental behind is module has no major changes, there is good improvement in the interface
and new features with integration with our Manufacturing MRP module. Below are some of the new screens
to share briefly and for existing customers whom are keen to upgrade to latest version, please do contact
your Solution Consultant.
Introduction of Global Project Number Concept
To faciliate companies with Group of companies, we've introduced our Global concept into the Project Numbering feature.
This means that once a new project ID is created, when another company create another new Project ID, it will auto-pick
the next running number. This feature is optional and can be turned on under for companies who find this useful.
Billing Management
To ease users in their Project Billing Management, we had now combined various types of billing and
claims into a single screens, differentiated by various tabsheets
NEW FEATURE only found in TH5: Project Schedulerwith integration to MRP
This feature allows users to plan for project schedule indicating the amount of work completion required by
specified start/end date and users will be able to update project percentage job completion as and when
needed. With the planning done, information is auto-pushed down to MRP screen
(under manufacturing module) for material purchase and/or reservation.
note: for existing customer who is in manufacturing environment and not using the project module
not worry as this is a system option function and only works for companies who turn on in order not
to affect your MRP computation accuracy.
On behalf on Synergix's team of 55 staffs, we wish all customers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Please do stay tune for more richer functions to be released in 2012!
Welcome to a new issue of our newsletter for the month of October 2011
Synergix Technologies Business Expansion
With our strong experience in the development of e-business ERP software and turnkey software solutions,
we shall aim to continue to lead in Singapore e-business ERP software market, upholding the quality, and
thereby expanding our team. As part of the Company's vision to be the leading solutions technology provider,
Synergix Technologies is actively participating in campus recruitment drives to expand our Team with bright
talents and potentials. Till now, Our Job advertisement in Singapore and Hanoi is still on-going for QC,
Developers, Sales, Project as Synergix is committed to its business expansion plans.
Our expansion mission is a result of an overall corporate strategy to promote the Singapore brand ERP
software to Asia and Emerging Markets. Singapore and Vietnam office team will expand in terms of
staff strength in each of the department - Sales, Marketing, Project, R&D, QA, SA, Development,
Programming, Technical Dept. In order to grow the business further, Synergix Technologies will
penetrate overseas market in upcoming years as well.
Newly-Released Feature: Ad-Hoc Assembly
Released new feature for company that is dealing with simple manufacturing to help monitor how much quantity of products
will increase after production and how much quantity of raw materials will have already been consumed.
Users can also load the BOM, to generate the raw materials needed to produce the finished good at one click. System will
help immediate update of reducing stock for required raw materials as well as increasing the stock of finished good.
Newly-Released Feature: Supplier Quotation
Users will be able to key in the item price information from Suppliers for information-tracking purpose. Users will be able
to keep track of the pricing details of each items that suppliers have quoted you previously. With this central storage system, users will be able to look up for the price and ensure they are quoting the right price, whenever they want to quote
their customers.
Enhancement Feature: Leave Entitlement
In this issue, we are pleased to announce the enhancement to the management of entitlement of various type of
Leave for each employee using this Leave Entitlement Screen (Medical, Annual, Childcare etc). Leave entitlement
specifies number of leave days an employee is allowed to take. With this, various types of leave entitlement for
each worker can be kept track in the system systematically and at any time, users will be able to see the
balanced of various leave entitled to them.
Enhancement Feature: Leave Application
As a common practice by most companies, employee has to apply for leave and gain approval from management
prior to actual absence from work. For some special circumstances where employees has to take leave urgently,
leave is still needed to be entered through application in order to update the attendance record of employees in
system. Leave Application is subjected to Approval of Manager or Supervisor.
Operating Hours Scheme
This screen allows user to define Operating Hours Scheme for operational asset and work centre. This will help to monitor
the working hours of the machine so as to enable careful planning when users use the Machine Capacity Planning to
produce required outputs.
Work Centre Maintenance
This maintenance screen allows user to create work centre. Work centre is used to organise MPS vouchers in
Finishing Schedule screen. If the work centre is a manual work centre, Operation Hours Scheme For Manual
Work Centre section will be displayed. User can specify the effective periods and choose one Operating Hours
Scheme for each period. For Machine Centre, Operating Hours Scheme is set for each machine in Operational
Asset Maintenance screen.
Jasper Reporting Tool
New Reports will be done with Jasper (existing reports are still done via Elixir)
Jasper has the ease of “Drag and Drop” Function that allows users to easily select the data source to create their reports
and dashboards for management review. Once data source has been chosen, any kind of preferred format (table, charts, diagrams) can be generated.
With Jasper, reports can be Scheduled Automatically at ANY time users want, be it every day, every week, every
Monday of the week,every 5th day of a month – it can be done easily!
Many companies have no prior experience in the selection of a Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. It is not
uncommon to hear users making complaint about the new system not suiting their company needs.
So how should consultants ensure that clients' requirements are not under-estimated?
1. Helping you to understanding and define your objective of implementing a new system.
2. Spending sufficient time to run through all your daily job processes, walking through documents that you are
preparing manually and identifying areas of gaps where communication across departments are lacking.
3. Hearing from the users what operational challenges they are facing and which areas of improvements they will like to see.
4. Hearing from the management team on their desired goals and result from derive from the new ERP system as well as
possible new direction for the company.
5.. Combining all of the above, ensure that you see the prototype demo of the final proposed solution (with your sample
working data) from the consultants will help you to identify and see if the consultants truly understand what are your
needs and whether their proposed solution will be effective for the corporate.
4. Last ly, having a proper documents on all discussed requirements will help to ensure no miscommunication arised.
Another year has come and gone and we will be entering into 2011 in a month's time. Looking back at all the past releases/ upgrades which we have updated you with, we would like to take this opportunity to say a big Thank You because you are the reason we are driven to constantly improve
TaskHub, to have our features kept up to date with the latest industry trends and requirements, and have the ability to grow our team.
Year 2010 has been an important year for Synergix Technologies. Many milestones have been reached and many
new initiatives have started. That also includes a very satisfactory record for our company in expanding our new
customer base.
We have definitely taken a big step forward and have brought TaskHub to a whole new level. We would like to take this
opportunity to extend our gratitude to you, our customers, for your continued support, suggestions , and feedback which
have enabled us to better achieve our corporate objectives. Additionally, I would to thank my staff for their
enthusiasm, commitment and creativity in executing their duties.
I look forward to the coming year, as well as the future of Synergix with great confidence and optimism, and as a team,
we will continue to do our best to offer quality business solutions and the most advanced technology to our customers
who have placed their trust in us over these past 20 years.
I wish everyone a very happy New Year as we move into 2011.
Mr Koh Yang Uei
Managing Director
Synergix Technologies
ERP. Does that sounds familiar? Indeed but that's not our famous Electronic Road Pricing system but rather, ERP represents Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) which is used by enterprise in managing their operations in a automated manner. Many years ago, ERP was adopted mainly due to the Y2K bugs which occur due to the legacy system in place. Moving forward, ERP becomes a norm in organization which helps many organizations ranging from SME to MNC in the management of their business process.
Despite the increasing trend in ERP adoption rate, many SMEs are still unfamiliar with what ERP can do.
Below are some information that we will like to share with you.
Misconception: ERP is the same as accounting system.
Correction: ERP is different from accounting system and no longer just seen as a backend office system. Accounting modules are just part of the entire ERP program. A full-fledged well developed ERP program will consist of several aspect of operation (depending on vendor's focus) such as manufacturing, project costing, CRM, HR etc.
Misconception: ERP are for giant firms, not for SMEs
Correction: ERP have different tiers ranging from Tier-1 product to mid-range and lower range. Tier-1 ERP typically easily cost $1million for investment while mid-range ERP program may cost the range from $100,000 - $500,000 while lower range can just cost you $30,000 - $100,000. No matter which range they belongs to, the most important thing is that there are bound to be something that is suitable for your business.
Misconception: ERP is rigid and it forces companies to follow their standard
Correction: That only apply to vendors who cannot helps in customization. No matter how similar you are in the same industry, same products/services offering sector with your competitors, a ERP software that works for them may not necessary works for you. Never make this assumption! There is always a X% that is unique about how your business functions, how you do your costing etc. Evaluating your business needs against what the ERP program offers is usually the most challenging task but for this topic, we'll leave this aside and touches it in our next discussion topic.
Misconception: Having a ERP program will caused a loss in data privacy across departments
Correction: Having a centralized ERP program will not necessary caused a loss of data privacy. Many ERP program are designed with security settings such that access to modules and information are limited and restricted by users access rights.
Of course, there are many more queries, concern that companies may have over ERP program. If you find above doesn't answer your queries, feel free to contact us and we'll be glad to share our advise for discussion.
Goods News: BCA Grant for The Construction Industry
It has always been the goal of every construction company to have efficient & smooth sailing day-to-day operations in order to maintain a desired level of productivity. Every aspect of the business is important especially the financial. But how can a business further increase productivity? What is the main key to realize this goal? The very basic foundation to make this achievable is for a company to have a system that can help them with their end-to-end operations. As we all know, that for project based industries like construction and engineering, Project Management System & accounting requirements could get very complex, so the company needs not just an accounting system but rather a fully integrated software that can assist them in project planning, costing, budgeting, WIP monitoring, billing process and most importantly the profit & loss analysis. This is the reason why most construction companies right now are looking into ERP software system to help them carry out the process in achieving productive operations. However, the costs that they will incur in the process of an ERP implementation is a huge consideration factor. Well, to all construction-related firms, here is the good news!
Just recently, the Building & Construction Industry (BCA) handed out a whopping 159 awards at it's Annual BCA awards, which is an indicator of a growing commitment of construction industry towards greater contribution to the economy. Against the backdrop of the need to improve productivity in the construction industry, the government has introduced a $250 million incentive funding through the Construction Productivity & Capability Fund (CRCF).
Productivity Improvement Project Scheme (PIP) is one of of the scheme under $250 million incentive funding. The PIP Scheme encourages contractors and pre-fabricators to embark on projects that build up their capability and improve their work processes for improved productivity. The PIP scheme supports up to 50% of the qualifying cost (eg. software implementation cost) or up to $100,00 which ever is lower. A higher level of financial support may be considered for group or industry-wide projects.
The PIP scheme from the government is the answer to the worry of construction companies which is the cost of software implementation. The government will help them shoulder the costs that they will incur in the process of enhancing technology to improve productivity. So this is the perfect time for construction companies to optimize their investment spending. Investing into ERP software system is always a long-term investment because you can use it in every project & it is assured that you can have all the necessary reports during proper profit & loss analysis.
"Our ERP implementation failed."- A statement which sums up many companies' experiences with ERP software implementation. Of course, 'failure' is generally defined as not meeting the desired objective. A few common scenarios depicting it could be: 1) The system never made it to the phase of live run. 2) The system has been implemented but is now a white elephant. We do not deny that in some cases, there are certain factors that are uncontrollable (eg: sudden cashflow issues of companies, change in direction of the team, etc) which could contribute to the unsuccessful result. However, putting aside the unpredictable circumstances, how do we ensure a smooth ERP implementation?
One key factor which makes a difference: Expectation. Users could ask for many features to automate their business processes, to reduce their workload. ERP developers, on the other hand, could provide the solutions to cater to their requirements. However, in the midst of it all, many tend to forget that there are limitations- budget, technology, resources, etc. Hence, it is important to have realistic views of the costs of an ERP implementation and the business benefits that could be achieved. As ERP developers/consultants, it is part of our role to bring the focus of end users back to their company's key objectives, and to work out an appropriate solution that addresses their main concerns and is within their budget. Bridging the expectation gaps of users will definitely be one of the quickest and most direct ways to avoid failure.
Synergix Technologies has been delivering immeasurable value to companies of all sizes from various industries for 20 years. Our TaskHub e-business solutions cater to industries as diverse as Manufacturing, Rental, Healthcare, Project-based, CRM, Trading & Distribution, Charity Management, Student Management, etc. Our goal is to provide end-to-end solutions which are fully integrated and capable to solve business challenges, especially to companies with unique business requirements. Our consultants grasp fast and are able to understand real-world needs, hence they are skilled with the ability to advise accordingly and propose a practical solution to meet your needs. Being the principal developer of our product, TaskHub, our niche lies in customization services as per required by clients' specific business requirements.
Delivering innovative enterprise solutions is a confirmation that our proven methodology is able to provide improvement on our customers’ operations. It does not just improve our client’s productivity but also increases their business efficiency by enabling transactions to be made easy with real time accessibility.
Here is what some of our clients have to say:
Toshiba Data Dynamics Pte. Ltd
Toshiba Data Dynamics is particularly pleased with the easy sharing of information that TaskHub encourages. Reports are easily available and the information within General Ledgers can be easily exported.
“We are impressed with the service that Synergix provides. The staffs are responsive and committed, to the point of sacrificing their personal time in the weekends to help ensure the smooth running of the application.”
Mr. Y. T. Lok
Toshiba Data Dynamics, Financial Controller
Ricon Private Ltd
With Synergix software in place, all transactions are captured and accounted for, be it from the Head office or in the Town office. Staff in the Town office no longer had to waste unnecessary time using the phone to check on stock availability and faxing sales orders to the main office for recording and accounting purposes. The staff at RPL can now easily do all that on line.
“Staff productivity has definitely increased, and I no longer have any worries about the quality of service support and maintenance as compared to the previous system. The recent software upgrades that I receive included the fine tuning of my database and the archiving and deletion of past records, is one example. The choice to go with Synergix has proven to be a strategic as well as an economical one.”
Mr. Tan
Ricon Private Ltd, IT Manager
King’s Safety Wear
Within 2 months, the office staff at King’s Safety Wear was comfortable with the new system. The implementation and post-implementation services they received from Synergix Technologies left them impressed. More astoundingly, the solution made a staggering difference to King’s Safety Wear bottom line. In spite of only 5 -10% post-implementation profit increases, costs have been reduced by as much as 50%!
“The company [Synergix Technologies] is flexible in accommodating our requirements at times without incurring additional costs”.
Ms. Lim Ai Wah
Business Development Manager
Portek International Limited
A Leading turnkey provider of equipment, services and solutions for the global port industry choose Synergix Technologies' software to solve their business needs.
With Synergix's TaskHub software, Portek found everything they were looking for. After implementing TaskHub's Project costing, sales quotation,sales order, purchase requisition, purchase order, logistic, inventory control, service order, cash flow projection, financial and financial consolidation modules, Portek is now able to get instant reports such as gross margin reports. The project department is now managing entire projects with cleared view on project activity and they have a clearer view on the project commitment and its cost. There is no longer information delay between various parties. Portek International can start do the work that really matters, to plan, strategies and build the business.
“Standard Packages CANNOT Meet my Business Needs!”
With higher levels of exposure, advancement in technology, increase in individual’s knowledge base, naturally, the world gets more demanding. Therefore, it has pushed us to a point whereby the ordinary, the standards, the off-the-shelf items might not be sufficient to satisfy one’s requirements anymore. Just taking ice cream as an example, flavours used to be fixed and the only additions used to be the usual toppings. At present, ice cream stores that allow your own custom creations are springing up as they have recognised the differing preferences of each individual. Doesn’t this then lead to the reason why people opt for customization- to have the ability to choose what suits their preferences, and meets their needs?
ERP software systems are constructed to automate and streamline business processes no matter which industry it is; Manufacturing, Healthcare, Rental, Project-based, CRM, etc. However, more often than not, there are differences between the functionality provided by the software solution and the unique requirements of the end users. Hence, some customization is needed to allow the new processes to align with the organization’s existing processes, enabling not only a smooth shift from the old processes, but also a better fit between the ERP system and the end users.
However, the majority thinks that customization costs a bomb, or might complicate the entire delivery of the software system, and would thus try to avoid it. Additionally, many have this concern, that once a solution is tailored specifically to their requirements, the customized portions would be left aside, excluded from any upgrades. But are these issues really that big a concern, such that the reason why people opt for customization does not apply to ERP packages? Definitely not. In fact, most companies require a certain level of alterations to cater to their workflow processes. Instead of changing the operational flow in the company to fit the software package, the ERP solution should complement and improve the productivity and efficiency of your company. Hence, customization is a choice for companies who understand the importance and benefits of implementing an organized workflow structure without having the end users to make major changes to adapt to the system.
So then, what makes customization work for you? Two key factors an ERP consultancy firm should possess: 1) Proper team structure that consists basically of a chief architecture, programmers, system analysts, QA/QC personnels, etc, to well manage the different aspects of the software development and implementation; 2) Proper versioning tool to monitor the change requests and merge the program version files, to ensure the version is monitored well. That being said, in order to determine the level of customization which your company might require, it really depends on your ,management's/users' needs and the key objectives which you want to achieve. With that, will you, together with your ERP consultants, be able to identify the optimal level of customization for the implementation of your ERP package.
Can my company implement ERP Software if we do not have a defined business process?
When embarking on implementing an ERP software, most concerns that come to mind would be if you are moving from a manual or simple accounting system to a fully-integrated ERP software;
1) Would the ERP Software be an over-kill for me?
2) If I do not have a defined workflow process, is my company still a suitable candidate to implement ERP Software?
To answer question 1, ERP Software is essentially modular in nature. Hence, you can pick and choose critical modules that is required, before moving on to explore other add-on verticals such as CRM or HR/Payroll. The implementation of critical modules in the ERP software will firstly allow an ease of information transfer between departments, cutting down the need for duplicate data entry and integrity of information captured in the system. Management will also have greater ease in report generation, real-time at their finger tips.
For question 2, ERP software may be the first step in which business processes can be defined for the whole organisation, or within individual departments. With clearly defined roles, workflow is further streamlined and information can be centrally shared, and yet, not compromising on security issues as you can restrict or enable the access rights for different users in the ERP software. However, from our many years of experience in the industry, it is critical for companies to have a basic business process as this can greatly help lay the foundation of what to look our for in the ERP software and more importantly, determine the success of the ERP software implementation.
Blog
