What Software Characteristics Dealers should look WHITEPAPER

WHITEPAPER
What Software Characteristics Dealers should look
for when selecting a Dealer Business System
A software selection
guide for ForwardLooking Equipment
Dealers
Abstract
Dealer Business Systems have a strategic and ongoing
impact on the business performance and agility of dealer
organizations. Leveraging the power and flexibility of
modern technology, an effective business system can
create a distinct competitive advantage. Dealer executives
should therefore periodically scrutinize the state of their
existing system and evaluate the opportunities presented
by modern alternatives.
This whitepaper provides concise guidelines to assess the
future readiness of existing systems.
Introduction
In today’s world, technological innovations present many opportunities for equipment dealers and
rental companies. Modern business systems provide a powerful opportunity for dealers to integrate
and optimize their business and position themselves for future profitability and growth. When
selecting a new Dealer Business System (DBS), it is very important for decision makers to evaluate
whether solutions presented as “next-generation” Business Systems truly deliver their promised
benefits. This document outlines the characteristics of an ERP-based Dealer Business System and
highlights the benefits to the dealer and rental business. Following is a list of sixteen criteria that
provide an effective means for evaluating DBS solutions.
1. Solution Completeness
Dealer and rental firms should look for an enterprise-wide solution which supports, integrates and
optimizes all of their business functions, branches, processes and information. Relative to legacy DBS
capabilities, a new business system should provide world-class and fully integrated capabilities for
Rental, Equipment Life Cycle Management, Finance and Loan Management, Insurance, Accounting,
Project Management (such as for project-based commissioning and maintenance), Workflow,
Remanufacturing, Core Tracking, Warehouse Management, Warranty and Claim Processing, Mobile
Service, Satellite Integration, OEM Collaboration, and Business Intelligence.
eXtend provides the full breadth and depth of functionality covering the requirements of dealers
and rental firms both now and in future. With no need for add-on software components and all
functions tightly integrated, eXtend enables dealers to streamline their business for maximum
growth, productivity and efficiency.
2. Dynamic Flexibility
Business continues to evolve, and an effective business system must be capable of supporting
operational changes. Modern ERP-based solutions provide built-in flexibility through parameters,
which can be configured and reconfigured at any time to provide the desired outcome (process flows,
algorithms, data flows, screen layouts, etc.). Easily configured parameters eliminate the need for
costly customizations (ie. source code changes) which over time result in a custom-made system that is
difficult to upgrade and expensive to maintain.
A few examples of common business process changes that benefit from dynamic system flexibility are
listed below:

As the business continues to grow, a Parts Manager may need to centralize parts procurement
processes in order to improve efficiency and negotiate better prices and discounts.

For certain branches, models or exceptions, a Sales Manager may require greater control
during the proposal phase through alerts or sign-offs, thus adding conditional steps to the
process.

In order for the CFO or Controller to better predict and control warranty costs, the system may
need to be configured with a set of Accrual Accounts against which warranty costs are
projected and actual expenses tracked.

The Sales and Marketing Department may come up with one-time or seasonal promotions
which should be quickly configured to complement or overwrite existing price policies for a
certain time period.
3. Industry Best Practices Modeling
Systems contain a vast amount of unspoken business knowledge. This can be hard to comprehend and
often overwhelming for users, if they are not trained properly. Many vendors and systems lack the
capability to effectively bridge the gap between the business user and the technology. This reduces the
full benefit of the system and hampers speed of implementation, on-going improvement, controlled
and documented change, and effective knowledge transfer to new and temporary hires. The single
most effective way of overcoming these traditional challenges is through Process Modelling and the
use of documented Industry Best Practices. Through a graphical format and business language, the
process models and industry best practices empower staff to visualize and map current and future
business practices and system-supported processes and variations.
The only constant in business is change. Most traditional systems inhibit ongoing change by
lacking inherent flexibility. eXtend provides the built-in flexibility to adjust to a company’s
processes, policies and structure, and to continually adapt as the business grows and evolves.
4. Ease of Integration and Collaboration
Traditional paper-based transactions have largely become electronic in nature. Today, OEM’s provide
dealers with many ways to utilize the Internet for real time collaboration and self-service. The majority
of OEMs offer between 20 and 60 interfaces into their systems for dealers to connect with. Traditional
dealer systems were not designed to integrate and collaborate with external systems. As they lack an
open architecture, integrating them with OEM systems is a major undertaking entailing significant time
and cost.
A modern DBS system provides interfaces based on Internet integration standards (such as Web
Services) to quickly, seamlessly and efficiently connect with any outside application or database. For
example, seamless electronic vendor catalog integration enabling parts selection from a graphical
catalog of equipment drawings should enable online parts orders to be generated, without a single
redundant key stroke or mouse click. In the same way, dealers can perform online inventory
availability look-ups and allocations into OEM systems, while interacting with the customer over the
phone. Warranty claims can be processed completely electronically, with an audit trail of every
interaction between customer, dealer and OEM. These examples illustrate the necessity and benefit of
an open architecture in today’s collaborative business environment.
eXtend includes a modern and powerful integration and collaboration platform, based on the
latest internet communication standards, which makes it quick and easy to connect into any OEM
interface. For instant integration with Komatsu, for example, eXtend provides a complete
Collaboration Pack will all required integrations available out of the box.
5. On-Premise and On-Demand Deployment
On-Demand usage of business software is a new and attractive option for companies to save cost and
reduce complexity, while leveraging the most advanced software capabilities available today. OnDemand is a subscription or “Cloud” model, in which you use the Software as a Service (SaaS), rather
than owning and maintaining the software yourself as in a perpetual licensing or On-Premise model.
Since it requires a modern software architecture and technology foundation, older software
applications are not suitable for On-Demand deployment for reasons of performance, security or
inability to run in a multi-tenant setup.
eXtend has a modern architecture and technology foundation and is deployed both On Premise
and On Demand. With its thin client technology, flexible N-tier architecture, virtualization
support and deployment by SAS-70 certified hosting companies, eXtend is meeting the highest
security, performance and availability standards that dealers look for.
6. Open or Proprietary System
Traditionally, dealers were not offered much choice regarding infrastructure, since most dealer and
rental applications were based on proprietary IBM AS/400 or other platforms. The term ‘open systems’
refers to the versatility of modern applications to operate on different hardware, operating systems,
databases, web servers and web browsers. This is a key characteristic for several reasons, including
customer preference, cost effectiveness, scalability, performance, and inter-operability. Some
companies prefer standardizing their IT infrastructure on Microsoft Windows and SQL Server, while
others prefer UNIX or Linux for scalability, stability or cost reasons. Modern hardware comes with
powerful multi-core Intel or AMD processors at a very competitive price point compared to older
generations of hardware. Blade servers allow for incremental capacity growth as and when the
business requires more horsepower, and for flexible deployment and redeployment of computing
power over time. Modern databases provide excellent backup and failover capability, thus increasing
reliability and quality of service to the business, while reducing database administration cost. The
requirement and budget of each dealer or rental firm is different, so the option of infrastructure
choice is important.
eXtend can be deployed on multiple hardware alternatives (IBM, HP, Sun, DELL, …), operating
systems (Windows, Linux, Unix), and databases (MS SQL Server, DB2, Oracle, Informix, MySQL).
This provides you the option of selecting the technology with the best price/performance,
standardizing your company IT infrastructure, simplifying system administration and
negotiating the best price with your preferred hardware vendor. eXtend finally removes the need
for dealers to invest in dated and expensive AS/400 servers.
7. Total Cost of Ownership
The previous topic of open versus proprietary systems translates to a big difference in cost. In many
cases the software purchase can dictate the hardware requirements, which can lead to varying levels
of cost and investment. On-going costs are another important, yet often underestimated, aspect at
time of purchase. For example, a system lacking built-in flexibility for configuration will require ongoing customization, making it a costly proposition over time.
eXtend reduces IT life cycle costs by limiting initial infrastructure investment, providing lowest
cost of operation (system management and user support), and offering perpetual entitlement to
new versions and upgrades, at no cost beyond standard maintenance fees.
eXtend provides powerful tools for administrators to manage eXtend. While some DBS vendors
charge for programs such as periodic upload of OEM catalogs and pricelists, these capabilities
are standard in eXtend and can be executed in-house, at no charge.
8. Personalization and Role-based Workspace
For user productivity, there are several important capabilities which an ERP-based solution offers by
default. One key question is whether the screens and menus are provided or can be configured to
exactly meet the needs of each user. Navigation must be seamless in order to provide the user with all
information required for effective job execution and decision making, while eliminating any redundant
key stroke or mouse click. The user interface should provide powerful search, sort and filter
capabilities, to provide ways to get to the right information quickly. Screens should provide capabilities
for easy personalization, such as removing redundant data, rearranging columns and changing visual
representations (e.g. graphs and charts), etc. Most traditional systems provide static screens, with
limited or no flexibility for the end user.
eXtend provides intuitive user navigation, operated from role-based dashboards. The user
interface is modern and in line with the entire application architecture. All eXtend screens are
integrated, with data automatically synchronized within screen flows. Data search capabilities
are powerful and enable the right information to be found quickly. Many traditionally manual
tasks can be automated, and re-keying of data abandoned. eXtend enables users to focus on highvalue activities and exceptions, ensuring employee empowerment, productivity and efficiency.
9. Multi-site Architecture
From single site operations, most dealer organizations and rental firms have grown into multi-branch
operations, with some business functions centralized and others decentralized. In order to effectively
model such complex organization structure and business processes, companies are best served with an
application which innately supports a multi-site setup with accurate characterization of all enterprise
units and their distinct roles (sales, service, parts, rental, etc.). Traditional systems designed many
years ago tend to be limited in capability of modelling and supporting complex multi-site processes.
eXtend provides the flexibility to structure and restructure the organization to take advantage of
the economies of scale that arise with the growth of the organization. The level of integration
and data sharing between branches and disciplines enables a new level of optimization across
the entire organization.
10. Internationalization
An increasing number of dealers and rental firms have ventured across the border. Several US dealers
operate in Canada or Mexico. Most European dealers have expanded internationally during the last
decade and some large distributors and rental operators have gone cross-continental. This has created
large scale international organizations with associated complexity. A basic requirement for such
companies, and those with plans to expand in the future, is a system offering seamless support for
multiple currencies, multiple languages, local regulation and taxation, dual currency accounting,
landed cost support, etc. An ERP-based Dealer Business System should provide these capabilities out
of the box and at no additional charge.
eXtend is completely internationalized to accommodate customer and supplier language
preference, user language preference, multiple trading and internal reporting currencies, local
regulation and tax rules, etc., making it the platform for growth without barriers.
11. Scalability and Robustness
With growing scale, complexity and the round-the-clock nature of the dealer business comes the need
for a robust and scalable business system. In extreme cases, it should scale up to thousands of
concurrent users and a vast number of transactions. Uptime or high availability is another critical
aspect. ERP applications leverage the latest technology (hardware scale up and scale out, database
clustering, etc.) to naturally support these stretch requirements.
With the growing size of dealer and rental organizations, scalability (and the cost of scalability)
becomes an important topic. eXtend leverages the most modern technologies to ensure scalability
and resilience at a competitive price point.
12. Application Management
Business Systems have become a mission-critical resource for dealer organizations. Reliable, secure
and productive administration of the system is therefore a key requirement. The Business System must
provide productive tools for user management and security, application maintenance (configuration
management, testing, upgrading), archiving, auditing, and central deployment of desktop components.
Application support for virtual servers (e.g. HyperV, VMWare) can further ease the job of the
administrator.
eXtend includes best-in-class tooling simplifying application management, making the IT staff
more productive, and ensuring an up-to-date, secure and reliable business application
environment at all times.
13. Web-based and Mobile Deployment
An increasing numbers of users work from multiple locations including office, home, airport, and
customer sites. Flexible system access through a web browser or mobile device has become an
important requirement. Modern applications should provide these various options of accessing and
utilizing the system.
The flexible architecture of eXtend enables users to deploy the application most suited to their
needs, either through a desktop application, a Web browser or via PDA or Smart Phone.
Employees and partner personnel can access the eXtend application and perform their tasks
irrespective of their time and location.
14. Migration Tooling
The migration of data from the old to the new system is important for uninterrupted visibility,
reporting and analysis of (historical) information. Many dealers are reluctant to change systems
because of a past experience with lost data, or due to the absence or poor quality of other migration
tools. ERP-based dealer solutions provide powerful tools to extract, transform, clean and upload data
from any source (or multiple sources) into the new system. Robust migration capabilities are an
important DBS evaluation criteria requiring verification during the DBS selection process.
eXtend comes with a powerful and proven migration tool kit and methodology. Many successful
migrations have been completed using these tools, from various legacy systems. eXtend allows
both master data and transactional data to be migrated, ensuring full continuity of the business.
15. Progressive Roadmap
An application may not provide every required capability today, but the roadmap should provide
direction and commitment regarding future capabilities. Depending on the productivity of the
application development tools and the size of the vendor’s development organization, the roadmap
required for the vendor to fill functional gaps in their DBS should be evaluated to ensure on-time and
on-budget deliverability. ERP solutions have large development teams and productive software
development tools at their disposal, and should therefore be able to show a progressive roadmap,
delivering any missing or incomplete functionality within an acceptable time frame.
eXtend’s modern and future-proof architecture leverages the ERP solution from Infor as a base
(with an install base of 6,000 clients globally, primarily in the machinery and equipment
industry), and the latest Microsoft technologies for mobile computing, reporting and business
intelligence. By leveraging the R&D investments of these extremely large software companies,
eXtend has become the single most advanced Dealer Business System available today. The
winning combination of Infor ERP’s 800 software engineers and over 110 e-Emphasys engineers
dedicated to eXtend R&D (more than any other vendor in our market) ensures that eXtend will
continue to be the leading system.
16. Implementation Methodology
A proven and structured implementation methodology with a clearly defined and executed
organization, process and deliverable is important for a rapid and successful implementation. As
organizations grow larger and implementations get more complex, the risks and stakes of system
implementations also get higher. The vendor with a proven methodology and a track record of
successful, large-scale ERP implementations will offer your organization the highest probability of
success, which makes it the last but not the least important aspect to consider.
The key to successful eXtend implementation (on time, on target, on budget) is the proven
StepFast methodology. The methodology ensures an orchestrated approach with all aspects of
the implementation project defined, managed and monitored.
Bottom Line
For many dealer organizations, the above presented selection guidelines represent an excellent way to
evaluate DBS alternatives. A thorough analysis of available systems will pay off as the business system
has a strategic and lasting impact on a business’ performance, agility and profitability.
For more information on eXtend, please visit: www.e-Emphasys.com
About e-Emphasys Technologies
eXtend is the first Dealer Business System for forward-looking, modern and professional Equipment
Dealers that is based on a proven and flexible Enterprise Resource Planning foundation.
Modern and professional Equipment Dealers have outgrown the capabilities of traditional Dealer
Business Systems. Today’s business requires nimble, integrated and intelligent dealer organizations.
Customers are demanding and competition is tough. Dealer organizations are as flexible and intelligent
as their systems enable them to be.
In eXtend, dealers model their organization and business processes unique to their situation without
force-fitting. Dealer employees collaborate by sharing activities and information. eXtend obliterates
islands of information and automation, unnecessary paperwork and redundant data entry. It provides
seamless OEM integration and an accessible portal for instant and round-the-clock ordering and
inquiries. eXtend enables decisions to be taken faster, better informed and with more impact. In
today’s equipment industry, the fit may survive, but the smartest thrive!
e-Emphasys Technologies, Inc. is a global provider of enterprise solutions serving customers worldwide
ranging from 25 to 2,000 users. The strategic focus at e-Emphasys is eXtend for Equipment Dealers and
Rental Companies. e-Emphasys employs a staff of over 240 highly qualified professionals and has a
close partnership with Infor Global. e-Emphasys offices are located in Cary (NC - USA), Tokyo (Japan),
Mumbai (India), Apeldoorn (The Netherlands).