White Papers and Demos

Marketing has reinvented itself as a fascinating hybrid of right and left-brain activities.Remember that gorgeous campaign championed by your graphic designer? Now, you have a means to evaluate it by something other than artistic merit. The mountains of data at your fingertips enable you to optimize and enhance your initiatives in ways never before possible. But with all this new information cascading onto marketers' computers, the biggest challenge is figuring out how to consume data and translate it into better decision-making. How is this accomplished? The answer for an ever-increasing number of successful professionals is an effective marketing dashboard.

Any progressive assembly manufacturer has heard some mention of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. But what exactly is ERP software and why would it be useful to your business?

Rapidly gaining popularity in recent years, Cloud technology has begun to greatly reshape the manufacturing environment as we know it. Through ERP software that offers Cloud programs such as smart phone and tablet applications, customer and vendor Web portals and real-time production monitoring from anywhere, the Cloud purports to offer manufacturers a new level of accuracy, transparency and control.

Congratulations on the selection of your new ERP software solution! According to Panorama Consulting Services’ 2012 ERP Report, 54 percent of implementations take longer than anticipated and 56 percent cost more than budgeted. While these budget and duration overrun numbers are not an accurate reflection of IQMS’ services, they are still numbers that no one in the ERP industry can be proud of.

In today’s world of business, the word free doesn’t really mean free. It’s a tempting word–free–but it raises hairs on the backs of people’s necks. Nothing is ever free. You know the company with the low cost offer has to make money to stay in business… so where are they making it? You find yourself looking for the hidden costs, the catch that will make you pay in the end.

As any 15-year-old teenage girl can illustrate as she texts her BFF and updates her Facebook page before your desktop computer can even finish booting up, hand-held mobile devices have arrived.

In the realm of demand-driven manufacturing, where you must consistently do more with less, real-time information from the shop floor is imperative to prevent problems, drive quality, and enable the flexibility your customers require. Left unchecked, issues like downtime, poor machine performance, scrap, and overruns can quickly erode your profit. But without an enterprise system that works in unison with real-time shop floor data, these issues can remain hidden and change any seemingly lean progress into nothing more than a mirage.

Recently, your company made the important decision to invest time and money in a new manufacturing ERP system to increase competitiveness and operational efficiency. You’ve been selected to research potential new ERP vendors and whether it is a top priority or something you have to work into your other job responsibilities, due diligence is required to find the best fit in ERP vendors. The success of this new company-wide initiative depends on it.

Your relationship with your data can be a lot like a love affair. Think about it. At first you’re head over heels. Then, suddenly, there’s a distance. Information that used to flow freely is withheld. Simple questions go unanswered. Before, the world seemed so certain. Now it’s all confusion. You just don’t know where you stand. It’s time to admit: your data doesn’t love you anymore.

Time and again, BI projects don’t meet objectives, don’t connect with users and don’t get the right information to the right people at the right time. In offices everywhere, business intelligence is the butt of endless water-cooler jokes—the corporate oxymoron, the poster child for overpromising and underdelivering. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Done right, BI is one of those rare strategic initiatives that has the power to deliver real value and make companies more competitive—especially now, as the volume of actionable data available to firms rises daily.