Capabilities Overview

Transcription

Capabilities Overview
SocrateOpen – capabilities overview
SocrateOpen powered by Compiere
Open source ERP&CRM
SocrateOpen – overview
SocrateOpen ERP&CRM is a business management software solution, which contains in the same
package, both feathures for economic management and customer relationship management, site
management and an online store.
SocrateOpen is based on the American system Compiere, and is developed and supported by
professional consultancy services, technical support and implementation in Romania, by BITSoftware,
as Consona Authorized Partner.
Originally developed to meet the needs of organizations in distribution and retail services,
SocrateOpen is succesfully used in construction, discrete manufacturing and telecom by medium and
large companies.
SocrateOpen is a fully integrated solution, easy to use, 100% adapted to Romanian legislation, but
can be used simultaneously by companies worldwide. Compared with traditional systems,
SocrateOpen was designed to reflect the business processes of organization, and is offered as a fully
integrated system, and not as a series of modules coupled, between data transfers occur. Integration
applies to both customer relationship management and management of sites functionalities, and
traditional economic management functionalities.
Rich, Integrated Business Functionality
SocrateOpen delivers a broad and rich set of integrated business functionality. Its ERP capabilities
include: global financial management, purchasing, materials management, order management, sales,
fixed assets management, manufacturing and warehouse management. CRM capabilities utilize
customer information for automating sales and service processes. SocrateOpen also includes a web
store and a point-of-sale interface. Performance Management capabilities include a variety of financial
and managerial reports enabling you to make informed decisions and grow revenue and profit.
©2010 BITSoftware
2
All of these capabilities are offered out-of-the-box. Implement according to your most critical business
needs first, with the flexibility to implement additional business processes later. And don’t worry
about out-growing SocrateOpen. You are selecting a global-ready and enterprise-ready platform that
gives you the assurance your ERP system can grow with you – both in increased transaction volume
and the complexity of supporting the business needs of a global enterprise.
Exiting the Stage…STATIC Applications
SocrateOpen breaks away from the traditional STATIC Applications model common to the majority of
today’s enterprise applications. Static Applications are large and complicated pieces of software
composed of millions of lines of 3rd generation procedural code. They utilize an inflexible architecture
that intermingles application logic, business rules and company-specific customizations in a single
code base.
Customizing Static Applications to meet unique business needs is a significant concern to many
businesses leaders. Virtually all changes to Static Applications are major projects requiring highly
skilled personnel and significant resources. Further, upgrading the customized solution to future
versions of the Static Application requires the same expensive personnel to re-implement the
customizations with each new software release.
To avoid the risk and expense from customizing Static Applications, many businesses simply deploy
default functionality and modify their business processes to match the software. While this strategy
minimizes financial risk, it also severely limits the benefits from an automated ERP solution.
The New Generation… DYNAMIC Applications
©2010 BITSoftware
3
SocrateOpen applications are DYNAMIC Applications—highly adaptable and easily customized without
programming—a first in the ERP industry. This new generation of business solutions enables rapid
customization at far less expense and risk.
SocrateOpen uses a revolutionary model-based application platform that speeds and simplifies
application development and customization. Application elements are defined as objects in an Active
Data Dictionary rather than programmed as 3GL code. Business analysts create and modify
application elements such as the data model, screen layouts and business rules by defining the new
elements in SocrateOpen’s Active Data Dictionary. Your IT staff will easily embrace the techniques
required to customize and extend SocrateOpen.
An additional breakthrough associated with SocrateOpen’s architecture is that customized
SocrateOpen solutions can be automatically upgraded to latest SocrateOpen software releases. Your
business-specific customizations are segregated from the base SocrateOpen functionality in the Active
Data Dictionary. SocrateOpen Automated Upgrade Technology upgrades your base SocrateOpen
software to include the latest functionality while preserving customizations in the Active Data
Dictionary. This technology breakthrough solves the major problem presented when modifying other
application packages – it is extremely costly to analyze and reapply all of your code changes to new
releases. With SocrateOpen, this problem is largely eliminated.
SocrateOpen’s DYNAMIC Application model has addressed the major deficiencies of the STATIC
Application model by delivering:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
A powerful application platform for deploying highly tailored applications
Rapid deployment, customization and expansion of applications functionality without
programming
Automated upgrades to newer SocrateOpen versions while preserving business-specific
customizations
Segregation of business logic from platform logic for easier maintenance
Greater stability because windows and reports are generated from rules stored in the Active
Data Dictionary rather than programmed using 3GL code
Higher productivity for developers and users alike
Affordable customization of applications at any time without specialized programming staff
Modern, Web-based Technology
SocrateOpen is not only an applications innovator, but also a technology leader. SocrateOpen
Professional Edition leverages the latest generation of Rich Internet Applications (RIA) technology to
deliver a productive, personalized and highly interactive user experience.
©2010 BITSoftware
4
Users can access SocrateOpen from leading web-browsers including Microsoft Internet Explorer,
Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. There is no need to install and maintain client application
software across all of your computers. Authorized users securely access your important business
information from any web-enabled desktop anywhere in the world.
©2010 BITSoftware
5
Disruptive Economics of Open Source
SocrateOpen delivers exceptional value, with no upfront license fees, reducing the financial risk and
challenges commonly associated with ERP implementations.
Customers tell us that the return from their SocrateOpen projects comes from multiple sources—not
simply from reducing software licensing fees. SocrateOpen open source benefits include:
•
IT Benefits
o Lower implementation and customization costs
o Lower operating system, database and hardware costs
o Lower costs associated with upgrading to new software releases
o Easier access to technical staff with relevant skills
•
Business Benefits
o Ability to quickly adapt to new business requirements - without programming
o Streamlined business processes
o Improved customer service and responsiveness
o Improved integration between departments and divisions
o Better information and business visibility
By delivering DYNAMIC Applications through a commercial open source business model, SocrateOpen
is able to deliver significant business value at a fraction of the cost of proprietary software vendors.
Annual support and service subscriptions funds SocrateOpen’s continuing investments in product
innovations through:
• Leveraging the latest in open source technology
• Incorporating ideas and contributions from our community
• Leverage global resources from our customers and partners
• Focusing our spending on product development and support
Unmatched Freedom and Control
SocrateOpen’s flexibility gives you many choices and puts you in control of your business solution.
SocrateOpen’s open architecture and adherence to open standards allows you to choose from a
variety of supported computer hardware, operating systems, databases and web browsers. You can
easily extend the system to meet your unique needs at any time, now and in the future. And you can
license SocrateOpen under either an open source license or a standard commercial license.
With no upfront license fees and only an annual subscription, SocrateOpen must earn your business
year after year by providing valuable product improvements and technical support. In contrast to the
traditional software model where the vendor controls technology decisions, support policies and
licensing, SocrateOpen’s business practices puts customers in control of their business solutions.
©2010 BITSoftware
6
SocrateOpen Strengths
SocrateOpen characteristics that distinguish the system from the same kind of other applications are
listed below:
Fast implementation - based on the idea that decisions taken during analysis can be modified.
Users are not forced to examine everything from the beginning, the implementation is done in stages
and SocrateOpen is flexible enough to allow implementation of changes at a later stage. Any decision
is reversible.
Real integration - meaning that data (including ERP, CRM and CMS) come from the same
transaction. No need for migration, transformation. Users that introduce documents should not worry
about the data to be entered in CRM, for example, because once placed anywhere in the system,
they will find there also. It is known that, during the implementation of applications in an
organization, the highest costs occur because functionalities are not integrated between them.
SocrateOpen provides integration at both operational and technological level (including workflow),
thereby reducing the costs of using the system.
Availability 100% - SocrateOpen is 'Fail-Safe', protected against accidental drops. Each transaction
may be resumed or rebuilt. Most falls are identified by the system and the user can try to solve the
safety problem. If data recovery is not possible, the error is isolated and the remaining system
continues to operate. The mechanism of 'release transactions' stays behind this important feature of
the system.
Rich functionality and modern technology - SocrateOpen can be accessed using either client
server interface or web interface. Client server interface has a rich functionality, and the web
interface offers the possibility to use the same functionality without having the system installed on
the client station.
Available on premise or on Amazon Cloud – SocrateOpen can be used on premise or on Amazon
EC2 Cloud, a virtual computing environment for enterprise applications, so that enterprises of all sizes
can now leverage this deployment option and reduce total cost of ownership.
Global Reach - SocrateOpen is an application that addresses both firms operating in Romania and
with global activity, being developed so as to provide through its capabilities a global coverage.
Intuitive interface - most windows are generated based on rules-starting from the application
dictionary. This allows predefined users access, thus giving only the functionality they need. Thanks
to innovative architecture on which is built the application, windows/reports/processes are easy to
modify and offer users, increased flexibility.
Expandable and easy to change - compared with traditional systems, SocrateOpen is easy to
amend and extend. Version updating is easy, effortlessly and without the need for restoration of
system changes made earlier.
Open source - SocrateOpen is an integrated system distributed by BITSoftware under open source
license, which means it can be downloaded and used at no licensing cost. The system also comes
with free documentation in Romanian language. The fact that the ERP solution is open source lowers
the cost of application ownership by 50% compared to traditional systems, where licenses are paid.
©2010 BITSoftware
7
SocrateOpen - hardware and infrastructure requirements
Application server - SocrateOpen uses JBoss Application Server
Databases - SocrateOpen is designed to run on any platform. The system is operating system and
database independent. Currently, SocrateOpen runs on Oracle 10g or 11g database.
Operating Systems - SocrateOpen runs on a variety of operating systems, including Linux, Unix,
Windows, Mac OSX.
Hardware
•
•
•
Application server with a recommended configuration includes: 8 GB RAM, Xeon CPU with two
processors support, 10 HDD (Hard Disk Drive data storage unit), backup drive, UPS, Linux or
Windows operating systems supported by Oracle
Clients (workstations) with a recommended configuration includes: minimum 1GB of RAM,
support for Java 1.5, operating systems: Linux or Windows
Elements of networking and connectivity - modems, hubs, switches, network cables and
sockets but also monthly paid subsription to an Internet provider to provide the environment
for data transmission between two locations that are not in the same site and - consequently
- does not allow formation of a local network called LAN (Local Area Network)
©2010 BITSoftware
8
Global-Ready
In today’s business environment, companies rapidly move into new geographies. When selecting an
ERP solution, it is an ideal time to consider what the impact of an acquisition, both domestically and
abroad, would have on your ERP system and global-ready requirements. Selecting SocrateOpen gives
you the assurance that your ERP system can grow with you, even if you don’t utilize its global-ready
features in your initiation deployment.
Multi-Organization
Multi-Organization capabilities ensure that different organizational entities can share (or secure) data.
For example, a holding company can have several wholly owned subsidiaries each operating as
independent businesses, while enabling consolidated financials and performance views of the
business for executive management.
SocrateOpen implements multi-organization support using three entity levels:
-
System – where infrastructure information for the SocrateOpen instance resides,
enabling SocrateOpen to support multiple independent businesses. New Windows,
User Interface changes, Currency Rates are typically defined at System Level.
-
Tenant (company) – where consolidated business information and accounting
structure is defined. Products, warehouses and other business-wide elements
typically are defined at the Tenant level.
-
Organization – where transactions are created. Organizations may also have their
own data and information structure that is not shared by other Organizations within a
company. Organizations can be structured in hierarchies for use in reporting and to
administer user access security. Hierarchies are commonly used to define division,
branch, or business unit structures within an organization.
Role-based security is fully supported in multi-organization structures, with the ability to control role
and user level read and write data privileges at each level.
SocrateOpen fully supports multiple legal entity accounting, ensuring that transactions crossing legal
entity boundaries are accounted for correctly. This can include calculation of cost charges (e.g. the
selling organization is a different legal entity than the product owning organization).
Simulate and Implement Re-Organizations
In today’s world of corporate mergers and divestitures, SocrateOpen’s ability to simulate and
implement corporate reorganizations without disruption to the business is a tremendous advantage.
This is a key differentiator from traditional ERP systems where corporate reorganizations often
translated to costly and time-consuming reimplementation of ERP systems.
Using multiple organizational hierarchies, along with your primary hierarchy, you can simulate the
effects of corporate reorganizations on financial statements. This is an extremely powerful tool to
simulate the impact of reorganizations prior to implementing changes.
©2010 BITSoftware
9
Multi-currency
As trade becomes more and more global, multi-currency features become increasingly important.
SocrateOpen transparently supports transactions across multiple currencies, including the ability to:
• Transact in multiple currencies
• Revalue transactions
• Maintain bank accounts in multiple currencies
• Accurately report multi-currency transactions, including translation of transactions or balances
for reporting purposes
• Account for transactions in parallel using multiple currencies
• Maintain currency-specific price lists
• Define customer preferred currency
Multi-Accounting
SocrateOpen supports parallel accounting standards for any combination of the following:
• Accrual and cash-based accounting
• Multiple accounting standards (e.g., US GAAP, UK SAP, German HGB)
• Multiple inventory costing methods (e.g., Standard, Average, FIFO)
• Multiple currencies
Usually, a "Set of Books" is defined as a set of transactions with the same Chart of Accounts,
Calendar, Accounting Currency, Accounting Standard and Costing Method. SocrateOpen addresses
situations where this is not sufficient with support for parallel accounting through the concept of an
Accounting Schema. An Accounting Schema is any combination of the following:
• Chart of Accounts
• Accrual or Cash-based accounting
• Accounting standard
• Costing method
• Accounting currency
In contrast to a “Set of Books”, a Calendar is not directly part of an Accounting Schema, meaning you
may have multiple calendars per accounting schema. The calendar is reduced to transaction support
functions including open/close periods, summary postings and allocation definition for ease of entry.
Multi-tax
SocrateOpen offers a robust tax engine with support for sales taxes; value added taxes as well as
interfaces to 3rd party tax services.
The tax engine determines the correct tax amount based on:
• Transaction time
• Product category
• Ship from/to location and
• Invoice from/to location
Multi-language
SocrateOpen is fully internationalized and supports operation in multi-lingual environments.
SocrateOpen enables multiple language support by design, isolating localizable text strings and
messages from source code. The SocrateOpen multi-language infrastructure utilizes UNICODE,
ensuring support for the widest range of character sets and languages. Support for localizations
extends to any customizations made using the SocrateOpen Active Data Dictionary.
Users choose their preferred language at login. Business documents, such as invoices, are generated
based on the preferred language of the associated business partner. The default language for
SocrateOpen is US English. Additional language packs are available from SocrateOpen partners and
SocrateOpen community.
©2010 BITSoftware
10
©2010 BITSoftware
11
SocrateOpen ERP&CRM
SocrateOpen Structure
SocrateOpen structure differs from traditional systems because it was developed to fold the business
processes and not on existing departments in the organization.
This approach reflects the reality of companies where the same person manages several processes in
the organization.
SocrateOpen Terminology
The presentations and documentation are used certain terms with specific meanings in the context of
SocrateOpen application. They are described below:
• Owner (Customer) is an entity, most likely a company or an equivalent. It is a beneficiary of
SocrateOpen system which is able to offer services to several companies (organizations), and
each of them becomes a beneficiary of the system.
• Organization (Company) is an organizational unit of the SocrateOpen application (company,
department or division of a beneficiary-holder). An organization can be a separate legal
entity, such as a subsidiary or a company. Organizations (companies) are ranked.
SocrateOpen offers double entry accounting for all transactions between organizations so that
the payment made by an organization on behalf of other organizations will automatically
convert into an inter-organizational transaction of both organizations, additional to collection
and payment records.
In SocrateOpen “company” is equivalent to "Organization".
• Third party (business partners) in an entity with which the organization interact and conclude
deals. It may be a customer, supplier or employee. In SocrateOpen all three categories of
third parties are bound together as "partners".
• The document is a type of transaction initiated by a document such as an invoice, a receipt, a
transport document, a payment or collection. For each type of document, the user can define
an accounting rule which is automatically generated from the processing of such a document.
©2010 BITSoftware
12
Partner Management
The Partners’ Management function associates different clients between them, offering the possibility
to manage inquiries’ distribution, services requests, warranties and marketing expenses. This function
represents an aggregate of centralized services with the purpose of modelling partnership relations
existing between partners.
Communication between servers
SocrateOpen systems, installed at different partners, can communicate between them if the partners
wish to exchange information regarding allocation of partnership opportunities and activities. For
partners not connected to the system, the information are gathered by using a web interface. The
system synchronizes automatically requests coming from partners connected to SocrateOpen.
Inquiries‘ distribution and supervision
SocrateOpen can be used for generating inquiries and allocate them to business partners. System
allows you to monitor and supervise their progress and results.
Reporting marketing expenses and warranties
The system allows business partners to generate invoices for marketing expenses and warranties
directly from the user‘s system.
Customers’ request for services and warranties requests
The system allows the possibility to create and trail customer services and/ or requests for
warranties; in this way you can configured several support lines for requests’ escalade.
Shared services
SocrateOpen facilitates management and supply of shared services (e.g. Accounting, Help Desk,
transportation, et.al) between business partners and franchise owners. As services supplier, the user
has access only to information that he needs in order to accomplish his tasks regarding several
clients/ organizations.
Centralized storage data
SocrateOpen is able to gather data regarding Products, Price Lists and Accounting from every partner.
Partners can add other entities/organizations; for security and maintaining coherency reasons,
centralized data cannot be modified by them.
This combination between centralized data and local data offers the possibility to manage a network
of organizations, which you normally find in franchised type organizations or companies that function
with central functions for independent associates.
©2010 BITSoftware
13
Order Management
Order Management spans from the creation of a quotation for a prospect or customer, sales order
processing, invoicing and receipt of payment. Order Management is seamlessly integrated with
Materials Management and management of Business Partners (Customers).
Quotations
Create customer quotations using standard or customer-specific price lists. Binding Quotations will
reserve inventory. Quotations may be modified at any time and can be used to automatically
generate a Sales Order.
Sales Orders
The Sales Order is the "fulfillment control document" for generating shipment and invoicing
documentation. Many standard types of sales orders are supported, with the ability to customize the
associated workflow or create new sales order workflows to implement your organizations best
practices for order management.
Sales order types include:
©2010 BITSoftware
14
•
•
•
•
•
•
Standard Order — the order process ships product based on availability with the option to
generate the invoice immediately or after shipment.
POS Order — for point-of-sale environments with anonymous customers. The order process
generates both the shipment and invoice. Payment is received via Cash, Check, Credit Card,
etc.
Credit Order — used for known (on account) customers. The order process generates the
shipment, invoice, and optionally receives the payment.
Warehouse Order — used when creating summary invoices. Users can select invoices
manually or create the invoice based on invoicing rules (e.g. weekly, on the 1st and 15th of a
month, etc.).
Prepay Order — used for Web Store transactions. The order process requires receipt of
payment, then generates the invoice and releases the order for shipment.
Direct Ship Order — used when a sales order is directly shipped from a supplier’s
warehouse to a customer. A Vendor Purchase Order may be created automatically for
fulfillment.
Shipments
A Sales Order generates one or more shipments based on inventory availability, with optional back
order support for unavailable items. Utilize workflow configuration to make customizations to the
standard shipment process including:
•
•
•
Preparing shipment documentation
Confirmation of picking and/or shipment
Generation of invoice documentation
Customer Returns
Automate your customer return processes, including:
• Generation of Return Materials Authorization (RMA)
• Specifying return policies, including exceptions for specific Products, Business Partners or
other criteria
• Granting override privileges to authorized users to enable even greater flexibility in processing
returns.
Sales Invoices
Generate sales invoices according to general business rules with flexibility for invoicing:
•
•
•
Immediately after each shipment
When the order is completely shipped
Based on a predefined invoice schedule specific to the customer
For example, an invoice schedule could be established to arrange for the creation of a summary
invoice including all shipments to the customer for the previous month.
Receipts
Flexible payment rules support the automatic generation of payment receipts for:
•
•
•
Cash transactions
Credit card, check, and direct debit transactions
Merchant payment processors via VeriSign and PayFlowPro.
©2010 BITSoftware
15
Open Items are settled by entering Payments (i.e. receiving a check or creating a direct debit),
creating a Cash Book entry, or during the process of reconciling Bank Statements (i.e. bank
transfers).
Automatic Clearing House facilities can be used to directly debit a business partner's bank account.
The invoice is marked as paid and the transfer is maintained in the system as an un-reconciled
payment.
©2010 BITSoftware
16
Purchasing
The Purchasing process covers the business processes required for the creation of requisitions,
purchase orders, receipt of vendor invoices, and payment processing. The functionality is seamlessly
integrated with Materials Management.
Purchase Orders
Reduce data entry with auto-generation of Purchase Orders from Material Replenishment Reports,
Requisitions, Sales Orders and Projects. Two-way and three-way matching is supported, with
receiving and invoicing documentation.
Material Receipts
Avoid the overhead of additional data entry by auto-creating and auto-matching material receipts to
purchase orders or vendor invoices.
Return to Vendor
Automate your return to vendor process using Vendor Return Materials Authorization (RMA). Vendor
RMAs link to the original Purchase Order and Material Receipt. Utilize Vendor Return Policies to
control whether the goods are eligible for return, with override capabilities for authorized users.
©2010 BITSoftware
17
Vendor Invoices
Create and match vendor invoices from purchase orders or material receipts. Material Receipts can
also be created automatically from the vendor invoice when the invoice and shipment are received
concurrently.
Payments
Generate payments via printed checks, direct debits or credit cards. Optimize the discounts you
realize with auto-generation of payments based on vendor invoice payment terms.
©2010 BITSoftware
18
Material Management
Materials Management delivers a broad range of inventory capabilities.
Product
A Product is something that may be sold, purchased or stored. It must have a price. Products include
Items, Services, Resources and Expense Types.
For additional control over large product lines, SocrateOpen enables you to categorize products
according to:
• A specific Attribute Set for tracking products. There are two types of Attribute Sets,
Instance Attributes and Non-Instance Attributes. An Instance Attribute Set identifies a specific
instance of a product, for example a serial number, lot number or expiration date. A NonInstance Attribute Set is used for searching, for example size or color of a shirt. Product
attributes may assigned during material receipt, production, or when assigned to a sales
order.
• A Product Category, enabling grouping of products with similar characteristics, pricing
structures, accounting rules and reporting. For example, product categories can be utilized as
a means of globally defining or changing a discount structure for all products belonging to the
product category.
• A Storage Location, as defined by a combination of warehouse and locator. The warehouse
is the point of service. A warehouse may have more than one locator. Each locator has up to
five user-defined dimensions such as aisle, bin, rack, level, bay, etc.
©2010 BITSoftware
19
Product Catalog
Organize your products for simplified searching using the Product Catalog. For example, you may use
the Product Catalog to search for all products that are "shirts," "yellow" and "short-sleeved." The
Product Catalog optionally details the product bill of material and substitute products.
Price Lists
Utilize multiple Price Lists to manage pricing policies for both purchasing and sales. The date
effectivity of a Price Lists allows you to setup seasonal and special price lists in advance, and have
them automatically used during the defined start and end date.
Multi-Warehouse Control
User-defined locations within each warehouse are used to record stock locations in shelves and bays
(Bin Locations). A physical warehouse can be broken into multiple logical warehouse areas such as
receiving, quality assurance, bulk storage and picking. Priorities can be set to ensure that picking
takes place from bin locations in a prescribed sequence. Inventory movements can be effected
between bin locations and warehouses. Movements between warehouses can be configured to
generate appropriate shipping documentation, and manage 'in transit' stock. Complete Inventory
Counts and Inventory Valuation to record write-offs of stock used for internal purposes is supported.
Material Receipts and Replenishment
Shipment documentation can be created in batches, or individually on a per order basis. Goods
received from vendors can be compared directly with the purchase order or the vendor invoice.
Sales functions can utilize 'available to promise' information that includes reserved inventory for
future customer shipments and expected vendor receipts.
Generate Material Replenishment lists based on inventory replenishment rules, past sales, or targeted
inventory levels. Optionally use replenishment rules to generate Requisitions or Purchase Orders
automatically.
©2010 BITSoftware
20
Prices
In SocrateOpen, pricing for vendors and customers is achieved using Price Lists. SocrateOpen allows
users to create as many price lists as necessary. Using price lists users can control what is sold to
which customer and the price to b charged. There is a default Price List, which may be overwritten.
Price Lists
Price list determines what you can sell. If a product is not on a price list, it may not be included on a
sales order or a customer invoice. As SocrateOpen allows the use of multiple price lists, this
determines what is sold to whom.
Usually, there is one default price list. In the Business Partner screen, users can assign a specific price
list to a particular business partner.
All price lists entries have three prices:
List price (the official price)
Standard price (your price)
Limit price (your lowest price)
Price lists are organized in three levels:
The price list (example: retail, wholesale, customer specific)
Price list version (valid from a specific date)
Price (the actual product or service price)
Price List Version
A price list cand have only one version active at a specific time. This date driven control allows users
to create price lists for a future date, which become automatically active on the date specified.
Creating Price Lists
In SocrateOpen users can create or extend a price list manually by addding the product to the price
list version. However, in most cases, users create them automatically.
Price List Schema
Users can create price lists from product vendor prices or from other price lists. To automate this,
SocrateOpen provides the ability to create Price list schema line. The Schema Line are executed in the
line sequence. This allows users to create general rules followed by rules that are more specific.
Example: In general, there is a 35% discount on items from vendor A, but only a 20% discount for a
specific product category. In this case, the user would create two entries: one with a 35% discount
for vendor A, and a second entry with a 20% discount for vendor A for the specific product category.
The last entry overwrites the general 35% discount, so there is no need to create an entry for all
product categories from this vendor.
Source Selection
In SocrateOpen there are two sources from which to generate price lists. The following are the two
available sources for Price list generation:
©2010 BITSoftware
21
Product vendor prices (as defined/imported in Product Vendor Detail screen or in the vendor
tab of the product screen
Other Price List Versions
Base Price List
The base price list entry in the version tab is the default of the parameters. By selecting a value, this
indicates that the prices should be generated from another price list rather than the vendor prices.
If there are multiple vendors for a product, the price information from the vendor pricesof the current
vendor is used. Prior to creating the price list, is verifying that there is only one current vendor per
product; if not, an error message is printed. Vendor prices are maped as follows: List Price and
Standard Price refers to the vendor list price; the limit refers to the vendor PO price.
Purchase Price List
The major use for price lists is to determine what to sell customers at what price. Users may also use
price lists for purchase price control. For this feature use standard costing.
©2010 BITSoftware
22
Open items
SocrateOpen automates the management of Open items using a Payment Rules processor. A
schematic of the payment process is shown in the figure below:
Payment rules (Receivables and Payables)
Depending on the payment rule associated with the vendor invoice, payments are automatically
created. Payment rules can be changed at any time to reflect changes in the actual method of
payment and in the event that it is decided to pay an invoice using an alternative method.
SocrateOpen supports the following payment rules:
Cash
On Account (Payment term)
Credit card
Check
Direct debit transfer
©2010 BITSoftware
23
Cash - When cash is selected as payment method, an entry is automatically made in the default
Cash Book for that day. The cashbook may be changed as well as the day of the receipt. The default
cashbook is determined by the organization owning this tranzaction.
On account (Payment term) - For on account customers the payment term defaults to the
payment term in the Business Partner definition unless another payment term is specified by the user.
SocrateOpen also supports split payment terms (50% due in 30 days, - 50% due in 60 days).
Credit card - Credit card transaction may be entered and processed online. If there is more than
one payment processor, the best payment processor is selected based on the calculated change for
this payment. The invoice is marked as paid and the charge maintained in the system as an unreconciled payment.
Check - After selection of the appropriate bank account, checks can be entered into the system. If
enabled, checks can be processed online (as electronic checks). The associated invoice is maked as
paid and the check maintained in the system as an un-reconciled payment.
Transfer - SocrateOpen can use automatic facilities of a specified bank to directly debit a business
partner’s bank account. The invoice is marked as paid and the transfer maintained in the system as
an un-reconciled payment.
Payments
Payments (via credit card, check, transfer) are created when an invoice being paid by either method
is entered into the system or can be entered later. If a payment is for one invoice with the exact
amount, there are no additional steps. If the payment is for multiple invoices, or if multiple payments
apply to one invoice, or if a payment discount was taken then the payment must be allocated to the
relevant invoice.
Allocation
The allocation process links multiple payments to multiple invoices or credit memos and records
payment discounts and receivables write-offs. The user selects first the related documents and then
he must confirm if the possible differences represents a discount, currency variation or a partial
payment. Recording allocations allow treating properly payments in advance, currency variations and
barter.
Bank statements
Bank statements can be entered manually or automatically imported from multi cash banking
systems. SocrateOpen supports functions to allow for the reconciliation of in transit payments and
bank charges or the creation of payments for direct debit transfer.
Reconciliation
Reconciliation is a process that links a user’s payment to the bank statements and post the
differences. The main source of differences are bank charges, e.g. from the credit card processor.
Cashbook
Cash transactions are registered in cashbook. A cashbook is created for each organization and for
each day. The cashbook is also used for registering:
general expenses
general revenues
payments in advance
©2010 BITSoftware
24
charges
cash payments of invoices to a customer or from a supplier
transfers to or from a bank account
Charge (expenses)
"Charge" is used in SocrateOpen for allowing users to record expenses and incomes not connected
with items, for example transport expenses, loans, bank fees or bank interest, other receipts or
payments.
A “charge” element could be matched both with an expense or an income. For example, “transport
tax” included on a client invoice could be credit on an income account on an expense account if
included in a purchase invoice. A “charge” element included on a client invoice is considered income;
a “charge” element included on a purchase invoice is considered expense.
The user can define how to consider the “charge2 element. For invoicing, taxes for “charge” expenses
could be calculated using the same rules as those used for invoiced articles. The document’ currency
determines the “charge” currency.
©2010 BITSoftware
25
Accounting and Financial Management
Good business accounting is about more than simple debits and credits, and department-level
functionality for General Ledger, Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable. SocrateOpen automates
all of your financial, distribution, manufacturing, sales and service processes, and unifies your
enterprise data in a single repository. SocrateOpen takes a unified approach to integrating enterprisewide business processes and data. This ensures that your customized deployment provides you with
reliable information for accurate financial reporting and informed decision-making.
SocrateOpen offers comprehensive financial management capabilities. Your integrated SocrateOpen
ERP solutions supports the complexities of complex businesses that span multiple organizations,
currencies, accounting schema, tax laws and languages. Confidently customize your solution without
violating accepted accounting and tax rules.
Performance analysis covers issues regarding costing and operational and financial activities of the
company.
Accounting Rules
Accounting transactions are generated automatically based on the rules applied to every type of
document/accounting rules defined by the system, which could be extended by the user. The rules
define combinations of analytic and synthetic accounts for every group of transactions generated
from a document. As a result, the majority of accounting transactions are generated automatically by
the system, users do not need to have accounting knowledge. SocrateOpen allows also automated
transfers in order to generate additional reports for budgeting and statistics.
©2010 BITSoftware
26
Accounting Calendar. Accounting period
Accounting Calendar window to define the calendar periods - the time dimension that can make
accounts and reports. For an owner multiple calendars can be defined, which will be inherited by all
companies related to this holder. Detailed definition of a timetable is as follows:
• It defines the year
• Periods are generated for the year - 12 months, which may keep only those that are
interested in (eg if you start implementing the system beginning with six months to a year
will not keep the months January, February, March and April - five months will be used to
initialize balances accounting for 1.6)
• Control periods - each period generated in the previous step are automatically generated
document types to be used at this time - here you can intervene in that for a given
accounting period may restrict access to documents.
Predefined journals and notes
The majority of the accounting transactions are automatically generated based on predefined rules as
a consequence of operational documents. This allows registering individual transactions into multiple
accounting systems/schemes. Predefined explanations allow creating accountancy records using
specific accounting rules.
Accounting registers. Taxes
SocrateOpen offers fiscal reports and statements according to the existing legislation: Accounts
Register, Trial Balance, General Ledger, Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet. Different tax statement as
TVA journals, excises and other taxes could be configured easily. Managerial reports for cost centers
or other accounting dimensions are available to users which have the necessary rights.
Multi-accounting schema
An accounting schema represents a combination of Chart of Accounts, Calendar, Accounting Currency
and Accounting Rules. SocrateOpen records accounting information at the lowest level possible based
on “data storage” architecture which allows parallel flexible reporting. The necessary information for
decision making are not found most of times in the traditional accounting schemas which determined
parallel data storage systems to be created in order to satisfy this need.
SocrateOpen keeps both recording date into accountancy (accounting date) and transaction date
(book date). These data are required for income recognition rules for installment payments or for
expenses corresponding to another calendar period. When accounting according to different
accounting standard (accountancy based on forecast vs. accountancy based on cash), the accounting
calendar can be different. Reporting is possible for both methods at the same time.
This bottom-up approach allows compliance with the Romanian, Italian, French, American et.al.
Accounting System’ requirements, without the need of additional work. Due to the fact that
generating accounting records is based on accounting rules, unnecessary accounting records are
never generated. SocrateOpen makes accountancy easy to understand and to reconciled. The system
reconciles even the differences between different accounting methods.
Accounting Notes . Accounting journals. Accounts assigning
In SocrateOpen documents generate automatically accounting notes which are transferred to
accounts using an accounting processor, whose parameters Start / Stop can be set depending on the
©2010 BITSoftware
27
volume of activity during working hours (egg. the processor can be set to run after working hours to streamline the work speed). In some cases will require manual input of accounting notes: budgets,
special accounts, etc.. The window „Accounting Note” will be used for this. A log sheet can centralize
several accounting notes - the recording itself is at the level of detail available.
SocrateOpen provides and processes of accounting notes import (from other systems) provided the
data to be processed and translated into a format recognized by the system. It cand also record
accounting notes using different accounting schemes.
SocrateOpen can shape the processes of accounts assigning. Account assigning is a process by which
the carrying amounts of a transaction are allocated or distributed to other accounts (several), based
on predefined percentages. Accounts assigning is used for assigning utilities, rent etc.., for cost/[rofit
centers.
Standard Financial Statements
SocrateOpen contains in the Standard Edition a series of reports for financial analysis, reports that
can be adapted by users according to their business needs. Examples of such reports:
• Accounting transactions - accounting details of transactions posted (you can filter by: date
book, period, account, item, project, activity, company, etc.).
• Register diary: detailed, summary / daily period
• Audit sheets - original balance, transactions and the final balance for an account for a certain
period
• Check Balances - initial balance + transactions per account for a certain period
• Statement 394
• General Ledger
• Account balance (analytical, synthetic)
Customized financial reports
Are used to generate reports such as balance control accounts, statements of income, profit and loss,
cash flow. The depth of financial statements is based on the size and accounting hierarchies within
the system. An example of a financial report built on the model above is account balance (analytical
and synthetic), standardized report in SocrateOpen. Additional reporting options include customizing
reports with SocrateOpen’s internal report writer, data access using 3rd party report writers or data
export for analysis pdf, xls, csv formats or Olap tools.
The SocrateOpen reporting dimensions are:
Organization
Department
Account
Item
Project
Warehouse
Employee
Campaign
Business Partner
Activity
Subaccount
Asset
Sale region
User 1 (customizable depending on requirements)
User2 (customizable depending on requirements)
©2010 BITSoftware
28
Project Management
SocrateOpen Project system provides a set of tools to define, manage, track and report on tasks
associated with delivering services. A project is composed of multiple phases and tasks and may
utilize resources from multiple areas within your business. By using SocrateOpen Projects, you can
track and report on the financial progress of projects, including details of the accounting transactions
and documents associated with the project.
A Project is defined by its name, start date, and end date. It may include any number of phases,
tasks and products. Projects can be defined within or across Order Management, Materials
Management, Purchasing, Sales or Service processes. Additionally, projects can be used as a basis for
creating Sales Orders or Invoices.
SocrateOpen Projects is not a substitute for project scheduling, task management and GANTT or
PERT chart reporting from project scheduling software.
SocrateOpen supports the following rules:
The Project Type defines the standard (quantities, products, tasks) for a Project
The project is the actual work document. Start and end date, Actual products, quantities,
amounts
A project may have phases and tasks and will have lines associates with the defined level
A project may represent the actual creation of a product (i.e. a work order), a service
engagement (i.e. a consulting assignment), or a tracking mechansim (i.e. sales funnel),
among other users
Projects may generate orders. Orders and expense reports may update projects.
Project cycles allow for reporting across projects
Project type
The project type window defines the types of projects, the phases in a project and the steps in a
phase. The project type can be used as a template for actual projects.
While users can set up additional Project categories, the following Project categories are available in
SocrateOpen:
General – no special accounting, for presales or general tracking
©2010 BITSoftware
29
Service – no special accounting, for Service/Charge projects
Work Order – creates project/job transactions – ability to issue materials
Asset – creates project assets transactions – ability to issue materials
Project
In SocrateOpen, the details of a project can be defined, and through the use of reporting, users can
generate reports, which will reveal the curent status of a project. This allows the user to remain
informed of the financial standing and the overall progress of the project.
The Project window defines the actual Project. These projects will be tracked vi documents
(e.g. Orders). Project may include time and materials and have definitive phases and tasks or
they may be used for tracking tasks like presales
The Project line tab defines all of the products associated with a project
Each phase has a Start and an End/Complete. This allows users to track the progress of the
project. A project may have several phases and will have multiple lines associated with each
defined level.
The Task tab identifies the individual task that must be completes in each Phase.
Creating purchase orders
Once project lines, phases and/or tasks for a project are established, users can create purchase
orders for the project. The purchase order that is created can then be maintained and processed as
any other purchase order.
The invoiced amount, invoiced quantity, and purchase order will be updated as invoices and purchase
orders are created which reference this project. Project issue will be updated as lines are issued to
this project.
Project reporting
The project management functionality includes a set of reports which provide information like:
accounting records at project level (Accounting lines report), project consumptions (Project Issue –
SocrateOpen, Consumptions Open Project report, project details (Project Line Details), project
margin – report between planned revenues and costs (Project margin report), project cycles (Project
cycle report)
Project cycles
The project cycle is essential for identifying the steps or statuses of multiple project for which reports
are generated. A project cycle report can be generated to illustrate the progress of a project at
specific stages. It uses the project cycles to determine the specific phases reported. The relative
weights entered for each project phase will be used in the report. The relative weight allows users to
report based on probabilites. For example, if there is a 1:10 chance in closing a contract when it is in
the prospect stage and 1:2 chance when iti si in the contract stage, it is possible to put a weight of
0.1 and 0.5 on those steps. Then the Cycle report would reflect which stage is less or more,
compared to the other steps. This is an alternative method for a funnel or measures completion of
the project.
©2010 BITSoftware
30
Fixed Assets
The Fixed Asset module provides recording and tracking of assets per persons, locations, profit
centers on multiple accounting schemas.
Characteristics
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Identification by element description, serial number, location and afilliation to an asset group
Defining the acquisition cost and linking them to one or more vendor invoices
Establishing accounting rules for each accounting schema and different calendars (with
monthly, quarterly and half year periods)
Establishing the depreciation type, currently only the straight line depreciation and digressive
depreciation are supported
Specifying how much of the fixed asset is depreciated, in number of periods and value
Generation of depreciation rates tracking the changes made on the accounting
Movement bills rezulted through the transfer of fixed assets - changes upon locations,
assigned profit center, person
Increases and reductions in value for the fixed assets, at different moments, related or not to
invoices
At the time of the purchase of the fixed asset, it can be specified on the vendor invoice the
related asset, in order to post it to the specific account.
There is a possibility of introducing new methods of depreciation by defining tables with
specific depreciation coefficients.
Operations
•
•
•
Depreciation processing – generate depreciation rates, unpost depreciation rates, close
depreciation
Disposals – moving bills, transfers – location changes, donations, cassations, sales
Asset conservations - possibility to define a timeframe in which the asset will be conservated
Available reports
•
•
•
•
•
•
Fixed asset balance, fixed asset detailed balance
Yearly depreciation report
Fixed asset conservation
Asset status
Inventory number journal
Asset report: master and cost details
©2010 BITSoftware
31
Warehouse Management
SocrateOpen Warehouse Management includes comprehensive, integrated functionality that
automates inbound, warehousing and outbound operations, resulting in improved productivity, space
utilization and customer satisfaction.
SocrateOpen Warehouse Management utilizes a first-of-its-kind customizable rules engine to enable
directed putaway, picking and replenishment. Warehouse management rules and processes, like all
SocrateOpen capabilities, are quickly and easily customized to meet changing user and business
requirements - without programming.
Inbound Operations
Receive goods into the warehouse by matching receipts against existing purchase orders lines, return
material authorizations (RMAs), or product codes. Multiple product codes such as Name, UPC/EAN,
SKU and others are cross-referenced in the system for easy matching by warehouse operators.
SocrateOpen also supports blanket receipt of all products in a purchase order through an "Express
Receipt" capability. Products become available to promise (ATP) or allocate immediately upon receipt.
Directed putaway leverages the SocrateOpen rules engine and your customized rules to maximize
productivity. The rules engine produces an optimized putaway task list that includes specific
instructions regarding the Locator (location) where each received product should be putaway and in
what travel sequence. In cases where received goods will be putaway to multiple Locators, the rules
engine generates separate putaway tasks for each Locator. In the final inbound step, the operator
confirms completion of putaway tasks and reports exceptions or adjustments.
Outbound Operations
SocrateOpen Warehouse Management fully supports Wave Planning, giving you the ability to prioritize
ready-to-ship orders according to available labor and shipment deadlines. Create multiple waves
throughout the day by applying user-defined searches on orders using criteria such as promised date,
order priority, ship-to country, freight carrier and others. Wave Planning simulations and manual
overrides provide warehouse managers with additional control over the final set of orders released in
a wave. SocrateOpen Warehouse Management generates pick lists using cluster picking or order
picking methodologies.
Outbound operations extend to packing and shipping functions, including support for shipment
consolidation. SocrateOpen Warehouse Management improves customer satisfaction around
shipments by honoring customer preferences regarding partial/complete shipments, and by improving
order accuracy and on-time shipments. You may also define specific picking rules and wave planning
criteria to prioritize shipments to your most important customers.
Warehousing Operations
Automate the movement of goods within the warehouse, optimizing valuable inventory, warehouse
space and labor resources. Directed replenishment tasks, such as replenishing forward Locators when
inventory levels fall below the restocking point, are automatically generated from your rules.
Replenishment rules account for unit of measure conversions and capacity differences between
stocking and destination Locators.
Improve management and utilization of warehouse space as part of your integrated solution.
SocrateOpen supports up-to five levels of user-defined Locator segments, such as Aisle, Bay, Row,
Position, and Bin. The system lets you further organize Locators into Zones. Directed putaway,
picking and replenishment rules can apply to the entire warehouse or to a user-defined set of one or
more Zones.
©2010 BITSoftware
32
Replenishment rules and space management enable slotting optimization. SocrateOpen tracks key
statistics such as Locator visits, Zone configurations, and product shipments, allowing you to dedicate
sufficient space in easily accessible Locators for fast-moving products.
SocrateOpen Exclusive: Customizable Rules Engine
Your SocrateOpen Warehouse Management solution is flexible and adaptable, enabling you to change
any aspect of your automated solution to match changes in your product lines, warehouse design,
business practices and accounting rules.
SocrateOpen's customizable rules engine is the brains behind your directed warehouse management
activities. Organize SocrateOpen Warehouse Management rules into comprehensive strategies for
putaway and picking. The Generate Putaway and Wave Planning processes invoke the rules engine,
which in turn evaluates the relevant product inventory against your rules, warehouse design, units of
measure, and other parameters. The rules engine produces optimized and intelligent task lists that
maximize warehouse operator productivity.
While SocrateOpen Warehouse Management comes with a range of pre-defined rules, the solution's
power comes from the ability to quickly and easily create custom rules and strategies to match your
changing needs.
Integrate Warehouse Processes with ERP
SocrateOpen Warehouse Management is integrated with SocrateOpen ERP purchasing, materials
management, order management, manufacturing and global financial management capabilities.
Integration eliminates the effort and inconsistent information associated with importing and exporting
data across stand-alone applications. As a result, warehouse transactions immediately update related
data throughout the system, including product availability, order shipments and receipts.
©2010 BITSoftware
33
Manufacturing
Manufacturing automates discrete manufacturing operations by supporting your business processes
for assembling raw materials into finished goods. Manufacturing capabilities include:
• Support for multi-level bill of materials
• Work-in-process tracking and costing
• Work order transactions
• Seamless integration Purchasing, Materials Management, Order Management and Financial
Management
Bill of Materials
A Bill of Materials (BOM) is a product structure that lists the parts and components that constitute the
product in the context of an assembly, kit, or model. It contains one or more Products, Services, or
BOMs. The number of components a Bill of Materials may contain is unlimited. A product can be
assigned to multiple BOMs.
A Bill of Materials can be either stocked or non-stocked.
Work Orders
Work orders can be generated manually or via integrated support with sales orders. Manufacturing
requirements are generated from an integrated bill of material, and the issuing of inventory to
manufacturing work orders. The seamless integration between business processes results in
optimized inventory levels, increased operational efficiency and better customer service.
Costing
Customize costing to meet your organizational requirements. Flexible features include:
•
•
•
•
•
Level of detail to track
Using parallel costing methods for legal versus management reporting
Costing methods including:
o Standard Costing
o Actual Costing (Last PO, Last Invoice, LIFO, FIFO)
o Average Costing (PO, Invoice)
Include Standard and Actual costs
Costs composed of both Material and non-Material costs.
©2010 BITSoftware
34
Costs can be recorded at three levels: Company, Organization, or Batch/Lot. You can also specify a
different costing method or level for a Product Category. This allows the maximum flexibility for
costing analysis. You may switch the costing method used at any time. The information is very
valuable to compare trends.
©2010 BITSoftware
35
Customer relationship management (CRM)
CRM is a broadly recognized, widely-implemented strategy for managing and nurturing a company’s
interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects.
The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) module included in SocrateOpen ERP/CRM solution is
not an independent one, but a fully integrated functionality that helps in organizing, automating and
synchronizing sales, marketing, customer service and technical support. The overall goals are to find,
attract, and win new clients, nurture and retain those the company already has, and reduce the costs
of marketing and customer service.
Compared to traditional CRM systems which fail during implementation due to high integration costs,
in SocrateOpen the CRM function is already integrated with the ERP functionality, additional
integration costs being eliminated.
Case/Request Management
The Request management functionality in SocrateOpen allows efficient management and tracking of
internal and external requests. Requests can be created manually, grouped by type/urgency/priority,
status, in order to help in the routing/allocation process. SocrateOpen supports the following types of
customer requests:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Information — (un)structured requests from web or email sources
Service — structured requests to perform a service at a given time and place
Charge — requests to reimburse costs
Account — requests concerning a particular customer or vendor order, shipment, invoice or
payment
Warranty — requests concerning a product or service issue
Help — unstructured customer service requests
Depending on the type of request, it can be automatically converted into a target document (e.g. a
quote, order, or invoice). A confirmation email with tracking number can be sent manually or
automatically. Requests can be assigned to specific system users for action or follow-up. Predefined
templates can be uses for answering the request. Notifications can be defined and sent automatically.
The request management capabilities within SocrateOpen ensure timely response, escalation
in accordance with a defined process, timescale, and closure.
Lead Management
Manage and automate the sales process from start to finish with the SocrateOpen Lead Management
functionality. Register opportunities information, status, add comments and requests at each step of
the sales process , attach documents, generate offers, schedule follow –ups and appointments, send
emails and view all the sales history, in the simplest way. Manage your lead list by sorting leads
according to type, user, status, date, and more, using a variety of filters. Everything to help you sell
more, better and faster.
Marketing Campaign Management
Customer retention is a crucial mission for every company. SocrateOpen supports this by creating
mailings or requests for the sales force to follow up. Criteria for a campaign could be last sale, sales
volume, products purchased, or a variety of other triggers.
To attract new customers, addresses of prospects can be imported for mailings or other sales follow
up. The effectiveness of marketing campaigns can be measured by the revenue or gross profit
generated for each campaign by linking each document (e.g. Invoice or Order) to the relevant
campaign at the time of invoice creation. This information is then available within SocrateOpen for
reporting and analysis.
©2010 BITSoftware
36
Online Self Service interrogation
SocrateOpen allows agents of authorized partners (clients, suppliers or employees) to enter the
system, view or request relevant information. The information obtained can be used for several
purposes as gathering date over client or supplier open items as well as creating future contacts or
performing delayed payments.
Customer Profitability Analysis
Reports providing insight on revenue and gross profit for specific customers or customer groups or
over a period of time can be obtained by using the existing functionality or by using other reports
generators or OLAP tools.
©2010 BITSoftware
37
Complementary Capabilities
Webstore
Deploy your online web store with direct integration to your ERP solution to avoid the complexities of
synchronizing independent E-commerce and ERP applications. Information is gathered directly from
the standard application, making unnecessary additional synchronization or integration, this function
being completely integrated The Web Store utilizes cascading style sheets that enable you to create a
consistent look-and-feel between your Web Store and your corporate web site. Web Store
components can be adapted depending on the website content and characteristic.
Online Product Catalogue - Users are able to view and search the product catalogue. Product
images and specifications are stored for each product and can be displayed on the web store at the
user's discretion. Depending on the partner’ rights, the products available on the website can be
restricted. Hierarchies, including multiple hierarchies can be set up in the product catalog to simplify
searching using product category or product attributes. Product search is possible depending on
category or features.
Online Pricing and Availability - Depending on the price list specific for the client’ that enters web
store, products availability (available inventory) can be displayed.
Online Sales Transactions - SocrateOpen enables users to add items to the Shopping Basket via
the Product Catalogue or web form request. Item quantities can be changed or removed from the
shopping basket. When confirming the order transport cost and taxes will be calculated. The payment
information is then entered or confirmed. Currently, SocrateOpen supports payment processors
(Verisign implemented, others following). Before submitting the payment for authorization, the credit
card number can be verified for data entry errors. This ensures that transaction fees are minimized
for rejected transactions resulting purely from erroneous data entry. After receiving the payment
confirmation, the order is created and the receipt is displayed. SocrateOpen optionally sends email
notifications regarding the transaction to the customer together with the receipt.
Automatic user detection - Users information can be stored as cookies for automatic detection
and sign in functionality for return users. Users are required to authorize their email address to
reduce the possibility of fraudulent transactions. The system monitors all web requests, then collects
web statistics to analyze E-commerce activity, and quickly identifies visitors to the site as well as click
counts. A request or incident from a web user can be sent to one or several email addresses for
action. A confirmation email can be sent to the client. The request and the notification system
becomes integrated part of the CRM data base.
Assets
Asset capabilities are used to track products once sold to a customer. When a product is setup to be
tracked as an asset, each shipment of the product automatically generates an asset and records its
location and associated serial or lot number. Service requests received that are related to the Asset
can be logged directly against it to track associated service and maintenance history.
Content Management System
The CMS component allows web sites creation and publishing data from ERP/CRM in company’s
intranet or extranet. The CMS is scalable, built to support web sites with thousand of hits and pages,
with the possibility to install the media and broadcast servers on one or more PC’s.
©2010 BITSoftware
38
Extensions
Hours Management
The module provides a consistent method for recording the amount of employees' time spent on each
project.
The time is collected based on expense reports, requests and a new data entry window and is
detailed on projects, phases, tasks, activities and other dimensions.
The hours consumption can be issued to the projects, for project costing calculations and manpower
project costing.
The timesheet information may be used for payroll, client billing and increasingly for project costing,
estimation, tracking and management and can be accessed through WebServices or standard
SocrateOpen/Compiere reports.
Fleet Management
The module brings a new entity 'means of conveyance' which can be linked with the fixed assets and
resources in order to trace the costs and the usage of a resource.
The resource consumption can be issued to the projects, for project costing calculations.
The functionality is used especially in construction industry.
For distribution industries, the generation of delivery documents can be filtered by the mean of
conveyance.
Further developments will add different and refined ways for cost calculations/collection based on the
means of conveyance and interfaces for GPS tracking.
Mobile devices
The Hand Held suite is a Data Capture mobile solution used in many types of business for warehouse
management and Inventory control.
The suite includes a front-office application, running on WindowsCE compatible devices and a
backend component which sits on the Compiere Platform.
The main functionalities include: internal use inventory documents, delivery and receipt operations,
through confirmations.
The Backend component can be integrated also with other EDA, HH mobile devices/software.
EDI Connector
The connector provides document definitions and interfaces for linking the SocrateOpen/Compiere
platform with other systems, through standard EDI interfaces.
Other custom interfaces can be defined.
A process for import/export EDI documents is available and can be scheduled for automatic
execution.
Integration services are recommended for proper setup and configuration.
Online banking
The online banking extension allows import and automatic processing of a bank statement obtained
from the bank application or other applications provided by customers. It automatically determines
the IBAN account and the business partner if this one is already defined in SocrateOpen system.
©2010 BITSoftware
39
Reporting & Analytics
Standard Reporting
SocrateOpen offers four types of internal reports:
•
•
•
•
List Reports, or queries, are available in every Window or from the Main Dashboard. List
report layouts are fully customizable by the end users, including broad control over the fields,
appearance and parameters used to generate the report. SocrateOpen gives users flexibility
over the display, grouping, order, and summary information. End user report customizations
can be saved as templates for future use.
Forms are used to generate business documents such as Sales Orders, Sales Invoices with a
specific print layout. As with list reports, forms are fully customizable by the end user.
Financial Reports are standard financial accounting reports from the General Ledger. Financial
Reports are similar to List and Form reports, but are generated for an accounting scheme.
They include the flexibility of customization across accounting dimensions and can be
generated based on the organizational hierarchy selected by the end user. Financial reports
may be generated across multiple calendar years or periods.
Statement of Accounts are lists of all transactions for an account or account segment for a
given date or period range. The user-selected language drives the language used in
presenting the report. Each user can have a different language. All information can be printed
or exported to Excel, Word, XML, PDF, etc. for further processing.
Archiving Reports
Take advantage of online document management capabilities with SocrateOpen’s Archival capabilities,
available for all standard reports. Standard reports can be configured for automatic archival when
generated by the end user. Customizations can be completed to integrate SocrateOpen archived
reports with third party documentation management systems.
Business View Layer
The Business View Layer enables report designers and users to access data from an optimized
reporting schema that incorporates user-friendly field names, role-based security, and database
security. Pre-defined business views span customer, vendor, product, invoice, shipment, and material
receipts. Additional Business Views can easily be added using the Business View Layer toolset.
©2010 BITSoftware
40
The SocrateOpen Business View Layer supports Jasper Reports, Crystal Reports as well as other open
source and 3rd party analysis and reporting tools, such as Microsoft Excel and Pentaho Business
Intelligence Suite. SocrateOpen data and report templates are securely accessed through
SocrateOpen login credentials directly from the 3rd party tool or from a menu within the SocrateOpen
application.
Reporting & Data Security
SocrateOpen’s comprehensive Role-based Security and Data Security extends to all reports generated
based using the Standard Reporting tools internal to SocrateOpen, and the Business View Layer.
Customers seeking to utilize 3rd party reporting tools should always utilize the Business View Layer to
take advantage of full data security and views optimized for reporting performance.
Performance Dashboard
The Performance Dashboard is used to visually monitor overall status of the business using the key
performance measures used by each role in the organization. Performance measures are updated in
real time as transactions are generated.
End-users have the flexibility to utilize:
•
•
•
•
•
An unlimited number of performance measures allowing each department to track their key
performance indicators.
Goals for each performance measure, defined for flexible periods and at any level of the
organizational structure.
Color schema associated to the performance measure for quick visual interpretation of actual
performance compared to defined goals.
Definition of complex performance measure calculations using SQL statements.
Role-based assignment of performance measures to customize the Performance Dashboard
used by the CEO, CFO, Warehouse Manager Etc.
©2010 BITSoftware
41
Dynamic Application Platform
SocrateOpen applications are DYNAMIC Applications—highly adaptable and easily customized without
programming—a first in the ERP industry. This new generation of business solutions enables rapid
customization at far less expense and risk. The DYNYAMIC Applications for Financial Management,
Order Management, Materials Management, Purchasing, Manufacturing, Warehouse Management and
others are developed and supported by SocrateOpen. These applications are available to you to
customize and extend.
Importantly, all of the SocrateOpen-developed applications are created and maintained using the
same Model-driven Application Platform, Active Data Dictionary, Automated Upgrade Technology and
other development services that available to partners and customers. As a result of these powerful,
productive and broadly distributed tools, SocrateOpen is enabling an ecosystem of compatible
applications and extensions available for everyone.
This section of the paper describes the technology platform for SocrateOpen DYNAMNIC Application,
focusing on the tools and services available for application customization and development.
Model-Driven Application Platform
SocrateOpen employs a Model Driven Application Platform to enable broader application adaptability,
faster deployments and lower cost of ownership than is possible with products utilizing earlier
generation enterprise software architectures.
HTTPS
AJAX – based
Web interface
Activ Data Dictionary:
- Table & columns
- Windows &Reports
- Business rules
- Worflow
JDBC
Database
Tranzactional engine
Java processes & Callouts
Browser: IE, Firefox, Chrome
Java6, JBoss 4.2.3
OS: Linux or Windows
Oracle 10g,11g
or Postgress Plus (EDB)
The SocrateOpen Model-driven Application Platform is composed of an Active Data Dictionary, a
Transaction Engine and a Transaction Database. The Active Data Dictionary is the repository of
business logic meta-data such as window, field, report and workflow definitions. The Transaction
Database is the repository for your transaction (e.g. invoices) and set-up (e.g. customer) data. The
Transaction Engine manages the interplay between business logic from the Applications Dictionary,
transaction data from the Transaction Database and user requests.
The significant architectural breakthrough is that SocrateOpen manages all business logic—both the
core application functionality delivered out-of-the-box and your customized applications—as meta
data stored in the Active Data Dictionary.
©2010 BITSoftware
42
Without procedural coding or crafting of SQL commands SocrateOpen's Model-driven Application
Platform enables rapid application customization such as:
• Configure Business Rules
o
Application setups
o
Workflow & security
o
Accounting Dimensions
o
Change setups at any time
• Configure User Interface
o
Field, windows, labels
o
Layout, theme, language
o
Search fields
• Configure Reports
o
Dynamically create reports
o
Format reports w/ SocrateOpen or 3rd party report designer
• Extend SocrateOpen Applications
o
Add new fields (DB columns)
o
Add new entities (DB tables)
o
Add data validation & defaults
o
Add new workflows
o
Change security rules
o
Add performance measures
o
Link to external systems
o
Callout to Java processes if needed
• Create New Applications
o
Design data model & UI
o
Design business rules & reports
o
Enter into Active Data Dictionary
The SocrateOpen platform embodies the promise of rapid application development and rapid
customization. No big bang deliverables. No lengthy trial and error designs. No costly interruptions to
your business. Change the system and immediately get confirmation from the user that you delivered
what they want.
Active Data Dictionary
SocrateOpen's Active Data Dictionary is at the meta-data layer, and knows how to access data and
how data is related. The data dictionary contains definitions of a data entity (type, validation, etc.),
how it is displayed (label on screens reports, help, display sequence position relative to other fields),
and the display rules. Security and access rules are also maintained here.
The Active Data Dictionary is 'active', meaning it is used at runtime and is context-sensitive. For
example: it 'knows' that a counter sale does not have a payment term and does not display it. It also
knows that there must be stock available even if the inventory record shows zero (because, say, a
material receiving has not been processed). However if the user changes the transaction type to a
standard order, a payment term becomes a mandatory part of the transaction and the transaction
recognizes the "out of stock" situation.
As described above, the Data Dictionary is user extensible and can include user specified rules and
information. This enables authorized users to add new tables, windows and workflows to existing
applications.
Your new applications and customizations are designated as “User Maintained,” enabling independent
management. All added items are automatically able to be listed and reported using the standard
reporting functionality available throughout the whole application. The designation is also essential for
successful use of SocrateOpen’s Automated Upgrade Technology.
©2010 BITSoftware
43
Automated Upgrade Technology
One of SocrateOpen's primary design principles is that any element of the system can be changed at
any time without consequences in other parts of the application or to application data. This very
simple principle gives you unprecedented flexibility in managing your application over time.
Migration Server
SocrateOpen
2. Select new target
version
1.Conect to Migration
Server
Upgraded System
Source System
Prior SocrateOpen
version:
+ configurations
+ extensions
3.Upgrade automatically
Latest SocrateOpen
version:
+ configurations
+ extensions re-applied
SocrateOpen's Automated Upgrade Technology fully embodies the "change anything at any time"
principle. The Automated Upgrade Technology enables you to migrate to newer versions of the
SocrateOpen platform periodically while preserving all of the customizations, extensions and
transaction data accumulated since you first deployed your SocrateOpen solution. Automated
Upgrade Technology allows you to:
•
•
•
•
•
Deploy SocrateOpen and upgrade from any previous release to the current release
Deploy and upgrade partner-developed applications
Migrate a company instance or “tenant” from one database to another database
Migrate/copy setup meta-data (i.e. no transactions)
Delete tenants or transactions ("clean start")
©2010 BITSoftware
44
Preserving Customizations
The SocrateOpen Automated Upgrade Technology will not modify your customizations - as long as
they are marked as customizations. Automated upgrades give you the confidence to customize your
application to meet business needs, without impacting the supportability and upgradeability of your
solution. Upgrade to newer SocrateOpen versions and partner Application extensions on your
timetable with confidence that any and all customizations required by your business needs are
preserved.
Automated, Fast and Dependency-Free
Upgrading your SocrateOpen software is an automated process that completes in just a few hours.
There are no manual steps required prior to running a migration or after the process completes. The
Automated Upgrade Technology upgrade all SocrateOpen solutions regardless of patch level or
version.
Web Architecture
The SocrateOpen Web architecture dramatically improves ERP user experience. It is an example of
the latest generation of Rich Internet Applications (RIA) that utilizes Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript
and XML) technology to deliver functionality, usability, responsiveness and personalization through a
Web browser.
Built using standards-based Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and open source Google Web Toolkit
technologies, the SocrateOpen Web architecture provides advantages for end user productivity, ease
of customization and ease of management.
Ease of Customization
The SocrateOpen Web architecture is fully compatible with SocrateOpen's Model-driven Architecture
Platform which stores business logic in an Active Data Dictionary for ease of customization without
programming. Customize Windows, Tabs, Fields, Reports and more using your choice of Web or Java
clients. The Web architecture provides application administrators with the same usability advantages
available to end users. The Active Data Dictionary enables you to customize and store business logic
once. SocrateOpen ensures that your changes are rendered correctly in both Web and Java clients.
Ease of Management
The SocrateOpen Web architecture generates significant cost savings by eliminating the installation,
configuration and management of desktop client software. It is compatible with modern browsers
such as Mozilla Firefox 3 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 and does not require client software or
plug-ins. The flexible architecture is platform- operating system- and browser-agnostic, securely
operates within most firewall configurations and supports the demands of a mobile workforce.
The SocrateOpen Web architecture makes intelligent use of network bandwidth and server computing
resources. The SocrateOpen Web client sends focused procedure call instructions to the server only
when additional data is needed. The server replies by sending exclusively data. The SocrateOpen
Web client, resident in the browser memory, manages data presentation. This design is far superior
to traditional web architectures that require the server to maintain state for each user, dynamically
render HTML pages with every command, and transport fully formatted HTML pages across the
network.
©2010 BITSoftware
45
Security
SocrateOpen provides a complete application-level security infrastructure, supporting role-based
security, data security, data encryption and auditing. You are fully equipped with an application
architected to implement security policies that protect valuable corporate data from inappropriate or
unlawful access.
Role-based Security
Each User account is associated with one or more roles. Roles are used to secure access to both data
and functionality. An inheritance-based model is used to grant or revoke privileges according to role.
For example, everyone assigned to accounting roles are granted view-access to account balances, but
only the users assigned the role of CFO can change the chart of accounts.
Data Security
Robust data-level security is applied using Roles to restrict read and write level access at the record
or field level. For example, a data security policy can restrict sales representatives from viewing sales
invoices from outside their territory. A different data security policy would enable accounts receivable
staff to process sales invoices from all territories, but restrict them from changing prices. With data
security you have the ability to automate internal controls using precise access rules, ensuring
appropriate governance checks and appropriate segregation of duties for transactions.
Auditing
SocrateOpen provides the ability to audit any transaction in the system, including changes to the
Active Data Dictionary (metadata). For example, if an administrator changes a user's role, a security
policy or a field on an order screen, those changes can be logged and audited. New transactions,
changes to existing data and even queries of specific records and fields can be tracked in the audit
log. The choice of how restrictive or open your security policies are in your control.
Workflow
Establishing best practice workflows for your organization can eliminate unnecessary steps and
optimize business processes for all users. SocrateOpen provides a flexible workflow engine and
template workflows by module that you can change to implement workflow rules that match your
best practices. Achieve significant improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of standard
business processes using:
•
•
•
General Workflow – providing users with guidance and step-by-step instructions to complete
tasks with multiple steps such as setup of a new customer account or Month End procedures.
Document Process Workflow – used to incorporate approval and validation steps for any
document. For example, a document process workflow can be used to require a Controller to
approve Purchase Orders over a certain amount.
Document Value Workflow – used to automatically start a defined workflow process when any
entity fulfils a user-defined condition. Example: Start credit approval when a new Business
Partner is activated.
Alerts
Empower your users to monitor, notify responsible parties, and respond to events in a timely and
decisive manner. Alert and request capabilities allow you to define escalation rules by document type
that are linked to workflows and send alerts to the responsible manager or supervisor. For example,
an alert can be defined to notify the warehouse supervisor via email when an order that is ready and
scheduled for shipment today is not picked within four hours.
©2010 BITSoftware
46
Alerts can be generated as:
•
•
Emails to internal employees or external vendors and customers
Internal notifications communicated via the SocrateOpen dashboard.
Developing Applications
The Development Platform empowers partners and customers to create add-on Applications that can
be licensed and distributed using SocrateOpen’s Version Migration solution.
Applications can include:
Localization of financials and reporting for a specific region
Translation of SocrateOpen into a specific language
Customization of existing modules for your customers or internal business units
New modules developed for a vertical industry
•
•
•
•
An Application is composed of one or more Packages. A Package is a logical collection of add-on
functionality that is distributed, versioned and licensed in entirety, and managed with unique
registration of an Entity Type with SocrateOpen for version migration support. Once an entity type is
registered, it is solely assigned to the registering partner or customer.
SocrateOpen’s Version Migration solution manages application licensing including trial licenses,
subscriptions and perpetual licenses. Also incorporated are any version dependencies and preinstallation checks that must be performed.
Data Import
The Data Import Utility is a valuable tool during the implementation process for data migration. Data
can be loaded directly or imported with an intermediate step where data is scanned for any
corruption, as well validated against database and application constraints. Using the multi-step
process, you have the opportunity to review and manually edit data before loading into Production
tables. Import data can be in comma delimited, tab delimited or fixed format file. SocrateOpen
provides import loaders for standard migration data, which impose the recommended database and
program logical constraints, including:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Business Partner
Element Value
Vendor
Price Updates
GL Journal
Invoice
Order
Product
Report Line
The Data Import Utility may also be used for imports that occur on a regular basis, such as the import
of vendor price list updates, invoices, orders or journals from external systems.
©2010 BITSoftware
47
Data Export
SocrateOpen supports the export of any data in reports to the following data formats:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Excel
HTML
XML
Text
PDF
PostScript
Word
©2010 BITSoftware
48
About BITSoftware
Based on more than 17 years of experience in the field, BITSoftware, Ltd. is developing and
implementing fully functional ERP, CRM and Business Intelligence solutions which allows companies to
improve productivity and provide better services to customers by streamlining and automating
processes to achieve smart growth and sustainability goals. BITSoftware is one of the first companies
in Romania which developed an ERP system – Socrate+ implemented at the moment in more than
150 medium and large sized Romanian companies. BITSoftware is also the first Romanian company
who launched on the Romanian market a professional open
source ERP/CRM world class solution – SocrateOpen, sustained through implementation and technical
support services. SocrateOpen Enterprise can be deployed on premise or on the Cloud, so that
companies of any size can benefit from advanced technology and flexible management solution as a
low-cost service facility.
Besides product development, BITSoftware offers also professional consultancy, implementation and
technical support services directly or through authorized partners.
©2010 BITSoftware
49

Capabilities Overview

Transcription

Similar documents

HAIRHOUSE WAREHOUSE

Financial Settings

TyMetrix eBillingDesk - College of Law Practice Management

How Investology easily promotes their courses

Leasing Procedures

230 BOSSARDSVILLE ROAD Sciota, Monroe County, PA

hemispheres t/t wire cover letter

Cirrus Tech Core Capabilities THE CRANE

invoice - Forestry Suppliers, Inc.

Rooms To Go Distribution Center