EVS Blog

This may be un-techie (and un-cool) to say but I don’t like using web applications. While web applications have a distinct advantage over fat clients in their distribution of applications to the public, web apps are slow, clunky and make me frustrated nearly every time I use them.

At EVS we used SalesForce CRM for about 4 months until I pulled the plug. I realized that I would get angry every time I used the application; waiting for screens to refresh, having to hit the ‘edit’ button every time I wanted to change data and the web reporting was terrible and inflexible. We have since moved to SalesLogix (Fat client version) and I love it – it’s fast and flexible.

When I started blogging, I used WordPress.com but the slow clunkiness of the web pages made it painful to use and I couldn’t use it while I was on an airplane or otherwise disconnected. So I switched to MacJournal, a journal application that runs on my Mac and can publish journal entries up to my WordPress account. Now i spend more time writing and less time messing with slow web page refreshes.

What we are beginning to see in the market is a “smart” or “small” client. iTunes is a pretty good example where the client has a small application installed on the workstation but most content is pulled from the web. The user gets the rich client experience of a fat client and the publishers content can be dynamic like a web application.

Maybe ERP publishers can learn a lesson from the emerging technology of smart clients. Until then, I can proudly say, that I am Fat and Happy (at least my most commonly used technologies are).

Skype is my favorite IM, desktop sharing, video conferencing application; everyone at EVS uses this service. At our current office we have a really slow T-1 line and 5 of the channels are used for phone. During the day, our internet can get really slow. Skype is so efficient with it’s bandwidth usage that even on our slow internet connection we can have fairly good video and audio conferencing capabilities.

It seems that the telephony industry is going through a technology shift, in SaaS and other types of hosted services versus having to purchase a massive phone system. This transition is not dissimilar to the ERP transition.

For the last 3 weeks, I’ve been experimenting with the unlimited phone service that Skype offers; it’s $3 per user per month. Here are the results so far:

Good

- I have heard almost no wobbling, or any other VoIP bad traits
- It is inexpensive; – $3 per person per month, unlimited
- It is easy to administer multiple users
- My favorite attribute, I can use 10-key on my computer (being a former CPA I’m a lot faster on a 10-key pad than on an upside down telephone number pad)

Bad

- There is an import function to pull all of your contacts from Outlook. However, If someone has multiple numbers (office, home, mobile, etc), Skype creates multiple contacts in their phone book. What’s worse, the import utility doesn’t distinguish between the numbers. For instance there could be three entries for Evan Garber, but I would expect to have Evan Garber – mobile, Evan Garber – work, Evan Garber – Fax.
- I use a Macintosh and utilize spaces extensively. When I’m in a call and on another space, it can be cumbersome to get to the Skype menu to hang up the call.

Note: I have only used a USB connected headset for my test, I have not tested any of the Skype phones.

The next test for Skype is to investigate a box that can connect to our existing phone system. With this arrangement we can use our existing phone system and cordless earphones but all of our calls actually go through Skype. If it works, we could take 90% off our phone bill – stay tuned.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement on the EVS blog; I appreciate everyone’s comments and feedback. This weekend I changed the format of the blog to make it a little more EVSish and modern. We have lots of great entries coming this week – I hope you enjoy the new look and content.

Dawn Westerberg is a partner advocate at Sage and has done an amazing job learning and using social media. She recently posted a “Boxed Set” of Twitter for Beginners which is well worth the read if you are just getting started with Twitter. http://dwesterberg.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/twitter-for-beginners-the-boxed-set-parts-1-5/

The jury is still out on whether or not the iPad will be the revolution that Steve Jobs claims. For photos, email and browsing the web it has great potential but what about its impact on ERP?

My iPad is on order and will be here at the end of April (I’m waiting for the 3G version). As I anxiously await my new gadget, I can’t help but share my thoughts on how it will impact the ERP industry.

First and most obvious executives will be able to have their reports, dashboards, Active Roles, etc. while on the road. At EVS we have various iPhone widgets that run MAS 500 on an iPhone but the problem with some of them is the lack of real estate. The iPad will solve that problem nicely and will enable executives to easily dial into their MAS 500 system, run reports or look at dashboards and take action if necessary. Since it’s smaller and more portable than a laptop, an executive can easily add an iPad to their briefcase. In my opinion, every executive should have an iPad.

Another obvious use is that salespeople will see huge benefits from an iPad. Salespeople usually live and die by their CRM (if yours don’t, we need to talk). A laptop is clunky and and iPhone doesn’t have enough real estate if they need to see account history, open payments, etc. They may be able to show their Power Point slides from the iPad as well. No need to lug around a laptop.

The less obvious change could be within the four walls of the organization. If an employee has to get out of their seat they are immediately disconnected from their ERP data. If an inventory manager has to go to the floor and check on the inventory level of an item (and they don’t have O2 Mobile) they would either have to think ahead and print a report or write down what they found then compare it to the ERP when they get back to their desk. With an iPad they can have ERP data with them at all times. If they need to make an inventory adjustment or a quick journal entry, they can do it on-the-fly.

Think of revolutionizing the group meeting experience. What if everyone came to the meeting with their iPad, on each one is the meeting agenda and hyperlinks to the various reports or ERP screens applicable for the meeting. In a production scheduling meeting, for example, immediate changes could be made to the schedule and and the repercussions of the changes known right away.

As with any new technology, there will be early adopters but I believe with a little vision and experimentation the function of the iPad (or any other tablet) could be a paradigm shift for organizations; always connected to your ERP.

I’m testing who is better at SEO, Blogger or WordPress with the statement below. I’ll let you know the results.

Escape Velocity Systems is an expert in Food Manufacturing ERP

Every once in a while a reseller puts together a marketing piece that blows me away.  Arxis Technology put together a nutritional label as a give away at their local IFT show.  The IFT is an organization for food manufacturers and suppliers. Good job Arxis!

Marketing give away

“What’s your favorite iPhone app?” A simple question that can turn a quite social gathering into a competitive fury; iPhones drawn, apps launched and local bandwidth diminished from downloads of laggards getting hip with the coolest apps on the Apple App Store. I have so many apps on my iPhone that I frequently have to make decisions on which ones aren’t cool enough to remain on my phone.

If Apple ever said that I could only have 2 apps on my iPhone, my decision would be easy: Tripit (www.tripit.com) and Flight TrackPro (www.mobiata.com). I’ve traveled frequently for most of my professional career and have never found a more useful travel companion than these two apps. Tripit keeps all of your travel plans (flight, hotel, car, etc) but what is amazing about this tool is when you receive your and email of your reservation from a provider, you forward the reservation to Tripit and they automatically parse out all applicable data and update your trip. Better still, sharing your trip information is amazingly easy. For years, I had to cut and paste my receipts into an email to people who were traveling with me or meeting me at the location; not anymore – I share the trip with them and they get a notification in their email – easy.

FlightTrack Pro works with Tripit to tell me the status of my flight – what gate it my flight is leaving from and whether the flight is on time. I’ve found FlightTrack Pro to be extremely timely and accurate.

So if you travel a lot and don’t want to be an un-cool laggard – make sure to download both of these apps on your iPhone.

Apps that have honorable mention are:

- GPS Drive – I don’t carry a Garmin anymore since i acquired this app – it gives voice directions and is very accurate
- Pandora Radio – If you like music, you need this app
- WordPress for iPhone – for those who need to blog at a moments notice

Useless Apps that I couldn’t live without:

- Paper Toss
- Spin Art (my 4 year old daughters favorite too)
- Stick Bo (like Rambo)

Social media is beginning to becoming more popular among the masses but the technology around SM is really impressive and surprisingly mature. I’m finding that the secret to SM is in links and auto updates.

As of today in my little SM world, a blog post in WordPress automatically creates a Tweet in my Twitter account and Tweets are automatically posted on my blog site. There is a widget in LinkedIn that adds my latest blog entries and Tweets into my profile. I recently learned about Plaxo. With Plaxo I can link my blog, tweets, Facebook, etc to my account. And last but not least, our website (www.evs-sw.com), links to WordPress and automatically displays my entries.

Social sites will only work if content is current, interesting and pertinent. By having this tangled social web of updates and links, even a rookie like me can maintain multiple sites that can easily stay current with very little effort, now the challenge is to make it interesting.

My focus on the SM portion of this blog is B2B, I ran across this site that has tons of great information on the topic.

http://socialmediab2b.com/