Gartner: Dynamics AX a “Leader”

In a twenty-page review released at the beginning of June, IT research firm Gartner evaluated thirteen different enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for “product-centric midmarket companies” between 100 and 1000 employees.  The review, including many pros and cons of each system, is available here.  The only solution that received the accolade of being in the “magic quadrant” of high “completeness of vision” and “ability to execute” was Microsoft Dynamics AX.  Please refer to the image below to see a graphic layout of where Gartner evaluated each solution in respect to industry trends:

 

Dynamics AX was deemed a “leader” due to the product’s functionality, its wide network of partners and resellers around the world that makes global implementation less of a burden, its scalability and customizability to tailor the product to customer needs, and its ease of use, as it resembles the Microsoft Office products that are popular among the mid-market and it readily integrates with these Office programs.

The criteria for evaluating “ability to execute” included the product’s capabilities, the company’s financial viability and capacity to meet its commitments and continue a valuable relationship with a customer, and its ability to execute sales.  The criteria for “completeness of vision” included the understanding of the industry’s needs, the company’s sales, marketing, and product development strategy, and a clear business model that outlined the product’s growth goals.

Notable from the Gartner review is that while many mid-market companies have recently moved towards Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions, their findings indicated that the total cost of ownership of a SaaS option is “not necessarily” lower than that of an on-premise ERP option.

Epicor Vantage also received high marks due to its position as a “visionary” with defined plans of the product’s evolution, updates, and development.  Vantage did, however, lose some points due to its financial viability and its perceived candidacy for being bought out.

GraVoc Associates, located in Greater Boston in Peabody, MA, is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner dedicated to implementing ERP solutions, including Microsoft Dynamics AX, to commercial clients.  The Gartner report indicated a “concern” in the Dynamics AX evaluation is that much of the product’s effectiveness is contingent on the efforts and competence of the partner helping the customer with the system.  A very small number of Microsoft partners have achieved the highest certification level.  GraVoc, however, has reached the highest certification level, maintaining the Gold Certification for several years through competence and rigorous ongoing re-certification efforts.  GraVoc is celebrating fifteen years of business in the fields of information systems, information technology, and technological and professional services.  For more information about the wide range of services offered, as well as more information on whether Dynamics AX might be the right solution for you, please visit GraVoc.com.

GraVoc Brings Peabody Chamber Website Live

Late last week, the Peabody Area Chamber of Commerce (PACC) website was re-launched with a new design and enhanced functionality. GraVoc, a member of the Chamber, undertook the project of designing the new website using a layout from Expressive Web Solutions.  Features of this project included:

• Designing the website’s content.
• Allowing a visitor to access information provided to PACC by ChamberMaster without losing access to information on PACC’s website.
• Creating an easy way for Chamber personnel to edit content without changing the entire website.
• Streamlining the website’s front page with its Twitter feed.
• Communicating with the web hosting company to bring the new website live and functional on Thursday, June 4th.

Below, you can see the old website on the left contrasted with the new one on the right.

The new peabodychamber.com is available here.

Among the web-related services offered by GraVoc are website design, development, and hosting.  GraVoc can design the look and feel of your website, ensure that its links and features work correctly, and host it on GraVoc’s servers for World Wide Web availability.

GraVoc Associates, Inc, located outside of Boston in Peabody, MA, is celebrating fifteen years of providing services to Greater Boston, New England, and beyond in the fields of professional and technology services, information systems, and information technology.  To learn more about how GraVoc can help your website accomplish your goals, or to see more information about the products and services offered, we encourage you to visit GraVoc.com and gravocsoftware.com, or to call the GraVoc offices at 978-538-9055.

    

Highlights from Presidential Cybersecurity Plan

Much has been made of President Obama’s “ten-point” information security plan, some good, some bad.  It gained front-page news last month as information compromises seem to be spiraling out of control.  This initiative has largely been praised by those in the information security community, as the government is placing a high priority at keeping electronic information safe.  A few observations from Obama’s plans:

• Perhaps the most celebrated point of this plan is to appoint one person in charge of the national cybersecurity program.  This way, there is one so-called “cyber-czar” with chief accountability to ensure that actions are being executed.
• The ten-point plan describes cybersecurity as, in the words of GovInfoSecurity.com, a “key management priority” that will utilize performance metrics.  It will be especially interesting to see how the success of this undertaking will be measured.
• The plan prioritizes public awareness and education toward information security over the internet.  Currently, many cybercriminals are realizing the easiest way to compromise data is not through the weakness in the technological infrastructure, but the weakness and ignorance by the people using the information systems through social engineering tactics. 

An educated and aware populace will ideally be one of the keys to securing data online.  For example, this week Australia promoted “Change Your Password Day” with a self-explanatory call to action.  It is also notable to add that in a recent study, a high percentage of systems users had very simple passwords for them to remember—and for others to guess.  Sixteen percent of users, according to a Cyber-Ark study had the user’s first name as their password.

• The plan also emphasized the United States to reach out internationally for these initiatives, which is important.  Several major cyber-fraud plots have been perpetrated overseas, and some Russian and Ukrainian hackers are hailed as heroes for usurping money from wealthy Westerners.  This incentive to steal can be counteracted by harsher penalties by their own country.  Though they certainly will not completely eliminate the problem, strong global measures against cyber-fraud will help create a disincentive to carry out intricate hacking and social engineering activities.

GraVoc Associates, Inc, celebrating fifteen years of business in Peabody, MA, is committed to serving clients in three areas:  Information systems, technology and professional services, and information security.  GraVoc occasionally uses the GraVoc News Blog to alert information security clients on certain items of interest.  To learn more about GraVoc’s products and services, please visit GraVoc.com.

Phase 6

Today it was announced that the World Health Organization (WHO) has assessed the current swine flu (H1N1 virus) situation and confirmed that it is the first full-blown pandemic in 41 years. The WHO has declared a pandemic Phase 6 for the first time since the advent of the alert system.

Now is a reasonable and prudent time for your business to evaluate its pandemic plans to ensure that operations will be able to continue as normally as possible in the case of a widespread pandemic. Organizations must plan to cope with public fear, people exercising social distancing instead of interacting in a normal face-to-face marketplace, and, perhaps most importantly, widespread absenteeism and illness.

It has been speculated that in the height of a pandemic event’s severity, up to 40% of employees at an organization may be absent due to illness, their family’s illnesses, or children staying home from school or day care as a result of social distancing measures. This does not only significantly impair your business internally, but vendors and service providers may also be working at 60% capacity. As Phase 6 is declared, your organization must ask itself what needs to be done?

It is also worth considering how public demand for goods and services may change upon the onset of a pandemic event. Many of GraVoc’s information security customers work in the banking industry, and it is safe to say that in times of public fear, members and customers may want to carry cash at a higher rate.

Other items to consider as pandemic fears escalate can be found in past posts on the GraVoc News Blog by clicking here.

GraVoc Associates, Inc, based in Peabody, MA, is celebrating fifteen years of business serving greater Boston, New England, and beyond in the fields of information security, information systems, and technological and professional services. One of the services offered by GraVoc’s information security practice is helping organizations design business continuity plans so that a business can continue operations in the event of a disaster. Pandemic planning is a keystone element of business continuity planning. If you believe your business needs planning or training on how to cope with the onset of a pandemic, please feel free to explore the GraVoc.com website or to call GraVoc’s offices at 978-538-9055.

Insiders Play Role in Major Fraud

A highly-sophisticated bank fraud plot was discovered in New York City last month, leading to eighteen indictments.  This plot, which involved some bank employees conspiring with the alleged ringleaders, further indicates that even if a company’s computer systems and technological infrastructure are 100% hacker-proof, information can still be compromised.

An earlier post in the GraVoc News Blog illustrated the rising “insider threat” predicted while the recession continues.  Companies’ employees, with slumping bank accounts and fear for their job security, have less to lose by defrauding the organization for which they work for their own monetary gain.  The insiders at several New York banks who decided to become co-conspirators in this crime were likely in this situation.  Due to their jobs and their access to copious information, they were an indispensible part of the puzzle, and the crime would not have been possible without their roles.

While insiders turning on their own business is never fully preventable, some measures that could be taken for a financial institution would be to implement a rigorous evaluation process in hiring new employees, tightly restricting access to sensitive information only to those who have a specific business reason to use or even see it, and take measures to curtail the possibility of any of this information to be duplicated either in paper form or electronically.

GraVoc Associates, Inc. is committed to offering advice to its information security clients on how to protect their information from both internal and external threats.  Located in Peabody, MA, GraVoc is celebrating fifteen years of business in the practices of information security, information systems, and technology and professional services.  GraVoc works with several dozen regional banks and credit unions thoughout Greater Boston and New England in the realm of information security.  For more information about services being offered, please visit GraVoc.com or contact the GraVoc offices at 978-538-9055.

Budgeting Your ERP Project (Part 2)

Earlier this week, the GraVoc News Blog documented the challenges that make it difficult to gauge the price of implementing an ERP solution. The previous post was based off of an informative whitepaper available here.

Many of the challenges illustrate why GraVoc may be the best company to implement an ERP solution for your business, both in terms of receiving top-quality products and consulting services, but also in terms of avoiding unnecessary costs.

The diversity of the services offered by GraVoc is clearly an asset when it comes to ERP projects, as an ERP client only needs to work with one firm for a great deal of these services. GraVoc’s professionals have several years’ experience implementing the right ERP solution that meets a client’s needs. GraVoc also offers blocks of pre-paid hours at a lower rate for implementation services, project management capacities, training, and later support.

GraVoc’s ERP clients don’t need to go elsewhere if they need specific integration with other programs, as GraVoc has developed a large handful of custom utilities linking ERP products to other applications. The GraVoc Software website will illustrate that GraVoc’s programmers have a prolific history in enhancing the functionality of ERP solutions.

What may differentiate GraVoc the most, however, is the firm’s hardware and technological infrastructure services. GraVoc handles technological infrastructure design and hardware procurement for several commercial clients as well as banks and credit unions, where the integrity and the security of data is an urgent priority.

A way to cut down on the costs associated with implementing an ERP solution is through vertical integration. By engaging GraVoc, your project manager, your trainer, and, perhaps most importantly, your technology consultant will already be very familiar with your company’s processes because they are the very same people who are implementing the solution. This would cut down on miscommunication, possible errors, and lost time. Cutting down on lost time is another way to reduce costs on what is already a daunting project.

GraVoc Associates, Inc, based in Peabody, MA, is a Microsoft Gold Certified partner specializing in the practices of information systems, professional and technology services, and information security. GraVoc is celebrating fifteen years of business serving Greater Boston, New England, and beyond in this wide range of consulting services. For more information regarding how GraVoc can help your business achieve its goals in operational efficiency, please visit www.gravoc.com or www.gravocsoftware.com.

Budgeting Your ERP Project (Part 1)

Investing in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, while it is proven to help businesses streamline processes and become more efficient and profitable, is a very lofty and complicated undertaking. Unlike basic accounting software, there is not a specific price for ERP solutions. CAL Business Solutions, a Connecticut-based Microsoft Dynamics GP partner, wrote a detailed and helpful whitepaper explaining the elements of formulating a price for an ERP implementation. This whitepaper is available at the CAL website.

Over two blog posts this week, the GraVoc News Blog will examine the elements that go into the price of an ERP project and why, as the CAL whitepaper explained, choosing an appropriate vendor may be even more important than choosing the right software.

You cannot find a specific price for any kind of ERP software, and that is just the nature of the business. Launching an ERP solution is more similar, in terms of pricing, to building an addition to your house than it is to buying QuickBooks or Microsoft Office. The following elements, as described in the 28-page document, can all drive up—or drive down—the price of an ERP project:

• Software Licenses: As the CAL whitepaper described, the price of software licenses is variable depending on the number of licenses, the amount of modules being used, and the scope of maintenance plans, that typically include upgrades, support, and access to a searchable knowledge base. A good way to minimize costs is to ensure that you are not paying for things that aren’t necessary, such as too many licenses or access to modules that will not be used.
• Consulting Services: The whitepaper asserted that for every dollar you spend on software licenses, you will spend another $1.00-1.50 on consulting services. These services include implementation, setup, and data conversion, if necessary. Consulting services also could include custom development, tailoring the ERP solution so that it integrates with other programs, or project management tasks so that the efforts being put forward have a clear goal and direction. Here especially, it is necessary to ensure that the prospective partner/reseller has the requisite expertise to help guide your business through this project.
• Training: A massive ERP project’s value is greatly diminished if the users do not know how to use the software. A central theme throughout the CAL whitepaper is finding a partner who can handle the appropriate procurement, perform the necessary services to make the system work, and train users how to use it. Needing to work with different third-party service providers is more difficult logistically, and the right vendor would be able to handle this.
• Hardware: ERP systems, including Microsoft Dynamics ERP systems, typically run best on a server dedicated specifically to running the solution’s processes. This often involves selection of the correct server and installing licenses to server operating systems for each license of the ERP purchased.
• Support: Inevitably, challenges may arise with the use of a new system. Therefore, a business should consider some quantity of support services as part of its ERP project. The CAL whitepaper outlines eight questions that should be taken into consideration in regards to support and whether a vendor being considered provides the necessary care and support.

Later this week, the GraVoc News Blog will analyze these elements, choosing the right vendor, and why we hope your business seriously considers GraVoc as a candidate for implementing your ERP project.  GraVoc, based in Peabody, MA, is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in implementing a wide variety of ERP products and business solutions, including Microsoft Dynamics AX, GP, and CRM.  This year, they are celebrating fifteen years of business serving Greater Boston, New England, and beyond for consulting services in the areas of information systems, information security, and technological and professional services.  For more information about GraVoc and its diversity of services, please visit www.gravoc.com and www.gravocsoftware.com.