SAP to buy Sage???

The rumour mill is again in action implying that SAP may buy SAGE.

The new Sage MD Guy Berruyer might already have his hands full as he fends off takeover approaches from SAP and possibly Microsoft.
Sage's shares surged to 8.1p to a year's peak of 266.2p as speculators responded to gossip that SAP, the world's largest business software company, is gearing up for a cash bid worth £5.1billion or 390p a share.. SAP is said to be sitting on cash, even after splashing out £3.7billionn on database-software maker Sybase earlier this year.

Some say SAP would struggle to integrate Sage’s different solutions that they have bought, but this could be a great way to offer SaaS accounting software. The relationship Sage has with accountants might be worth a punt and help SAP push their new Business ByDesign software package.

With such a strong foot hold in the small to midsize software market, the leading suppliers of business software SAP could benefit from taking over Sage as software is seen to compete on some levels.

Shares in Sage Group gained sharply on Tuesday, with traders citing talk SAP AG was interested in making a bid for the technology company.

Both companies have declined to comment…

What do you think???

Top 10 Blogging Tips and Insight from SAP Social Media Webinar and IIS

The latest SAP Social Media Webinar held this morning proved to be insightful and particularly pertinent to activities within IIS. The focus of today’s webinar was blogging and tweeting, the purpose of it and advice on how to devise applicable and interesting content for your organisation and audience.

I actively blog on behalf of IIS via Blogger (as you can see) but we are now looking at integrating a blog within our new company website. This effectively means that we will host the blog on our website which hopefully will yield benefits in terms of search engine optimisation.

Some guidance was given on this but as of yet I’m finding it a tad difficult, but as soon as I have it set up I’ll be sure to share my advice!

What is Blogging?
Blogging is effectively a free publishing tool. It is a lot like a journal but it is intended to be read by others.

No right or wrong
There is no right or wrong when it comes to blogging or tweeting. How you use your blog or twitter account and the content you share is down to your organisations objectives and needs. There is no set amount of times that it should be updated though it is advisable that it isn’t left dormant for long periods of time as subscribers may lose interest.

Uses
You may use your blog or twitter page as a means of providing customer service, special offers, or as a general PR tool to build your brand image and create a human and interactive side to your organisation.

Tie posts in to current affairs
You can customise your Google News page to add a category with search terms that are either applicable to your industry or general customer base. The content you come across can then be reconstructed to make it applicable to your organisation, products or services whilst still holding on to the topical news theme.

Make Content Engaging
Content doesn’t have to be strictly formal, actually the opposite is advised! Your company blog is an opportunity for you to show the human side of your business so personalise the page as much as you can, use your own videos or links to interesting videos or content you find online. This is likely to prove more favourable with your audience.

Make Lists
Lists are liked by all! Well maybe not all but generally people’s attention is be caught by a “top ten list”. There quick and easy to read and straight the point as well as potentially being extremely insightful.

Shocking Content
Causing a bit of controversy can be good for business and gaining attention in the blogging world. You do have to be careful as going too far could harm your business.

Search Engine Optimisation
Blogs are excellent for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and with WordPress, SEO integration is as easy as 1, 2, 3. Plug -ins such as All in One SEO Pack and Google XML Sitemaps makes mastering SEO and pleasing the search engines a cinch.

Make your posts searchable
Make sure your key words and headings are simple and concise and avoid using acronyms. You want people that are interested in your content to find your posts.

Don’t over think it
Your blog should be natural, have a general theme and forming content shouldn’t be stressful, it’s not a dissertation!

Time Zone Management, Free Web Tools!

Never miss a meeting with international clients again. Conducting business internationally can mean more than just a language barrier- there can be a time barrier as well.

This is something which has a habit of causing confusion, potentially missed meetings and unnecessary upset!

With 24 standard time zones, it can be overwhelming to keep track of all your clients’ business hours, and scheduling tasks across time zones can be a challenge.
As it was something that came up this week for myself and another member of the IIS team when I came across an article on Mashable which outlined six free online web tools for managing time differences I was delighted!

If your business depends on knowing what time it is everywhere, don’t worry, as there are plenty of free online tools to help you coordinate, and ensure you never unwittingly call a client at 4 a.m.

Here are the five which I found to be of most use; my favourite was the Time Zone Convertor; quick and easy to use!

World Time Zone
World Time Zone is a handy, at-a-glance map that lays out every region. Divided and color coded, you can quickly see which areas fall into which time zones. It also displays local times for each of the world’s capital cities.

Time Zone Convertor
This website is pretty much as straightforward as it gets when it comes to calculating time differences. There are two clocks. The one on the left displays your local time. The one on the right will do the conversion for a number of major cities. If you simply need to know the time elsewhere in a hurry, this easy-to-use website has you covered.

World Time Server
The World Time Server is another helpful resource for all your international planning needs. The site shows you the current time and date for any city, country or time zone, and has a self-maintained database that adjusts for Daylight Saving Time.

Time and Date
Time and Date has the same features as the sites listed above, plus a few extras. Calendars and holiday observances are listed here and broken down by country. They are particularly helpful for scheduling important deals or conversations since each country has its own civic holidays or widely observed religious ones that differ from the Irish schedule.

Every Time Zone
Every Time Zone is a simple, nicely designed site that is perfect for quickly accessing time zones and date changes. Your local time is generated from your IP address and is displayed as a fluorescent green bar.

Source: Mashable.com; for the full article visit Mashable/TimeManagementWebtools

Retailers optimistic as sales up for third consecutive month!

The Distributive Trades Survey of 20,000 company outlets carried out by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) reveals that 60 per cent of retailers saw the volume of sales rise during September.

The CBI’s distributive trades survey for September showed unexpected strength as the balance of retailers reporting sales up year on year climbed to a six-year high at plus 49%, compared with plus 39% in August.

The increase is also reflected in the volume of orders placed upon suppliers (39%), surpassing last month’s balance of 29%.

Ian Mc Cafferty, CBI chief economic advisor, says: “The bank holiday weekend, combined with the tail-end of summer sales have resulted in a bumper period for retailers.”

It was the third consecutive increase and followed a decent month for clothing and footwear sales in particular, the business lobby group said.

Retailers also expect sales to be strong next month, but economists warned consumers are likely to find life much harder going as the public spending squeeze and rising food prices weigh on sentiment.

They also noted that the official measure of retail sales showed a much weaker picture during August.

The clothing and footwear & leather sub-sectors saw particularly strong sales growth, which are likely to have been boosted by the arrival of new autumn ranges. Solid sales growth was also recorded in the furniture & carpets sector.

Looking to October, a balance of +47% of firms expect a higher volume of sales than a year ago.

Business Challenges which retailers may face include:

•Ensuring visibility and proper tracking of inventory for multi-variant items.
•Creating item codes for multi variant items.
•Efficiently completing inventory reporting and sales analysis by size and colour

Intelligent Information Systems has developed Intelligent Colour Size Matrix which enables you to create and maintain parent and child items via matrix templates within SAP Business One.

Benefits of Intelligent Colour Size Matrix

•Save time creating item codes by creating child items within user defined templates.
•Quickly set up a product range for a new multi-attribute.
•Beat the competition and capture the market with proper inventory tracking.
•Quickly fulfill orders for multi attribute items.
•Improves inventory reporting and sales analysis by allowing any business in need of tracking by the sizes and colours of their merchandise to do so efficiently.

To find out more visit beabetterbusiness.co.uk/IntelligentColourSizeMatrix or check out our Intelligent Colour Size Matrix Demo Video on Intelligent B1.

Sources: Smallbusiness.co.uk; finfacts.ie; nebusiness.co.uk

SAP BI Solutions result in “increased customer base” through increased service provision

SAP NEWSBYTE - September 28, 2010 - Just because an organisation is not-for-profit does not mean it is not for cost efficiency and customer service. Case in point: Marietta, Georgia-based Cobb EMC, one of America’s largest electric cooperatives, relies on business intelligence (BI) solutions from SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) to enhance operational efficiencies, improve overall decision-making processes and better deliver reliable energy and gas at the lowest possible cost to the 435,000 residential and commercial customers it serves.

Previously, the not-for-profit utility’s IT department supported more than 6,000 individual business reports. Today — with SAP Business Objects Enterprise, SAP Business Objects Web Intelligence® and SAP Crystal Reports® software – Cobb EMC has reduced that number by 95 percent. With easy, self-serve access to information, employees have insight into real-time data, and can conduct detailed reporting to drive measurable benefits across the company – from marketing and HR to accounting and operations.

Having data at users’ fingertips means they can quickly and independently resolve issues. For example, with visual dashboards, they can more easily perform critical business analysis like examining and optimising marketing spend. Ready access to daily exception reports and individual bills helps personnel settle customer issues faster, improving quality assurance. As a result, Cobb EMC maintains a 99.9 percent accuracy rate in billing. Employees manage 65 percent of all standard reporting themselves, and the need for custom programming support has been eliminated — resulting in an annual savings of $300,000. IT now responds to requests for specialised reports in a matter of days instead of weeks.

Cobb EMC has successfully used SAP Business Objects BI solutions as the foundation of new services that have increased its customer base. One such offering lets property management companies better monitor and manage gas expenditures at apartment units — a service differentiator that has already generated $5 million in additional revenue.

A "big company" approach to business intelligence is no longer out of small and midsize business' league. Building a big data warehouse or investing in a lengthy project isn't necessary to reap the benefits of all that rich information. Smaller companies can mine their data just like their larger peers, and they need to do just that if they want to compete effectively.

SAP Crystal solutions offer an integrated group of affordable, intuitive business reporting, dashboarding, presentation, and ad hoc analysis solutions that enable individuals in organisations of any size to discover and share insight for optimal decision making.

Sources: SAP AG Newswire; Information Week

To find out more about SAP Business Intelligence Solutions, Crystal Solutions, which can be integrated with SAP Business One which is has been designed specifically for small to midsize companies visit www.beabetterbusiness.co.uk or www.beabetterbusiness.ie

SAP ERP implementation “improved profitability” expected by Air India

The Air India Board on Tuesday approved the implementation of the SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project.

The implementation of the ERP project is in line with the business objectives and strategy of the company for affecting a turnaround.

When SAP is considered in its proper context as a “change enabler” or “change lever” rather than a “change driver” it is easier to understand how and where it can properly fit into a revenue and profitability context.

SAP is the largest provider of ERP solutions world-wide and has been preferred by more than 115 airlines.

SAP solutions support the core business of airlines in passenger services planning and development and also MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) functions.

The implementation of the SAP ERP package would help Air India in strategic decision-making, monitoring and control systems, the release said.

Besides, integration of key business functions in the erstwhile Indian Airlines and Air India, the package would also help in seamless integration with other systems and ensuring availability and consolidation of critical data and information,

At the same time, the airline could aim for improved profitability by availability of real-time information on route network and profitability, it said.

It would also help in reduction in costs especially in inventories across various areas.

The cost savings an SAP ERP solution can bring a company come from streamlining operations, improved access to data, complete visibility of the organisation, and ultimately increased productivity and efficiency.

To find out more about SAP Business One, a business management solution designed specifically for small to midsize companies visit www.beabetterbusiness.co.uk or www.beabetterbusiness.ie

Source: Economic Times

“Super app” from Sybase and SAP for the Blackberry

Sybase, Inc., an SAP company and industry leader in enterprise and mobile software, yesterday announced the Sybase(R) Mobile Sales for SAP(R) CRM for BlackBerry(R) smartphones -- a new 'super app' that delivers an integrated application experience on BlackBerry smartphones. By extending the SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM) application to the expansive BlackBerry smartphone community, Sybase and

SAP are making it possible for sales, service and marketing professionals to experience significant productivity gains through this 'super app'.

The new mobile solution for BlackBerry smartphones from SAP and Sybase provides comprehensive access to up-to-the-minute SAP customer and business analytics data and the ability to seamlessly conduct workflow processes anytime, anywhere. Advanced features like instantaneous alerts via BlackBerry push technology, and integration with the BlackBerry inbox and calendar provide users with a 'super app' experience on BlackBerry smartphones. Enterprises can also further exploit their IT infrastructure investment by improving mobile worker productivity and efficiency, shortening sales cycles, and increasing visibility into performance.

By making available business-critical data on BlackBerry smartphones using the industry's leading Sybase Unwired Platform and the BlackBerry platform, SAP and Sybase are transforming enterprise operations to not only address the short-term imperatives of reducing costs and better decision making in the field, but also helping companies achieve differentiated capabilities in order to compete effectively over the long term.

Sybase Mobile Sales for SAP CRM delivers the type of powerful experience our enterprise customers expect on BlackBerry smartphones," said Jeff McDowell, senior vice president at Research In Motion. "We look forward to future innovation on the SAP, Sybase and BlackBerry platforms to empower the developer community to build 'super apps' for the SAP Business Suite that deliver a true, native BlackBerry experience."

As the world's leading provider of business software with more than 102,500 customers in over 120 countries, SAP enables organisations to maximise interactions across the customer lifecycle by allowing transactions to be consistent and relevant with real-time, accurate information.

To find out more about SAP Business One, a solution designed specifically for SMEs as well as the Intelligent iPhone app, delivering SAP functionality from the iPhone visit www.beabetterbusiness.co.uk or www.beabetterbusiness.ie
Sources: SAP AG Press Release

Small to Midsize companies continue to invest in IT

A global study of over 3,000 SME IT professionals has revealed that many plan to increase IT spending in the second half of this year. Virtualisation technology and investments that optimise existing resources are their top IT priorities.

The survey, from IT management software supplier Spiceworks had a number of significant findings in relation to future software purchase plans of small to midsize companies.

37% of small to midsize companies plan to invest in database software prior to year-end. Planned purchases are primarily via upgrades, continuing the trend we noted during the first six months of 2010 that IT pros are shifting away from filling gaps through new software purchases and toward upgrading existing software and renewing existing IT contracts/licenses.

Planned IT spending in customer relationship management (CRM) software remains consistent with that of the first half of 2010 as 23% of small and medium businesses plan to purchase new, upgrade or renew by the end of 2010.

Other key findings of the survey:

•68% of SME IT professionals plan to use virtualisation technology by the end of 2010
•65% of SME IT professionals plan to keep IT staff levels the same between now and the end of the year
•20% plan to add full-time IT staff before the end of the year
•42% of IT budgets for the rest of the year are allocated to hardware
•35% of IT budgets for the rest of the year are allocated to software
•48% of IT professionals plan to buy new, upgrade or renew at least one IT service

Investment in IT has become critical to small business success. The rate of technology development is driving SMB investment in IT as they recognise that in order to subsist competitively they must take advantage of all the benefits of increased efficiency, productivity, visibility and management that IT can bring them.

The SAP Business One application offers a single, affordable way for small to midsize companies to manage their entire business, from sales and customer relationships to financials and operations. It helps you streamline processes, act on timely information, and can accelerate profitable growth.

To find out more about SAP Business One and how it can help you become a best run business visit www.beabetterbusiness.co.uk or www.beabetterbusiness.ie

Sources: Computer Weekly; Spiceworks Report – The State of SMB IT September 2010

Data Improvement key to growth, innovation and improved customer relationships

“The fewer data needed, the better the information. And an overload of information, that is, anything much beyond what is truly needed, leads to information blackout. It does not enrich, but impoverishes.”

Peter F. Drucker

It’s not more data we need, its better more refined and useful data, rather than an abundance of useless information.

Sybase, Inc., an SAP company and industry leader in enterprise and mobile software, today issued the second installment of results from a new report -- 'Measuring the Business Impacts of Effective Data' -- an extensive study benchmarking some of the world's leading Fortune 1000 enterprises across a wide range of vertical industries by measuring the direct correlation between a company's IT investments and overall business performance.

While the first installment quantifies the relationship between incremental investments in effective data and the key financial indicators of an enterprise's health and profitability, the second installment examines 'Impacts of Effective Data on Business Innovation and Growth.' That is, the impact on a company's ability to drive innovation, organic growth and sustained customer growth -- each of which make financial performance gains possible.

"Business growth attributable to new offerings and new customers are both critical indicators of the competitiveness of an organisation, and this second installment of findings begins to unearth where data improvement impacts are felt the most," said Anitesh Barua, distinguished teaching professor and lead researcher, University of Texas at Austin.

"We have already drawn definitive correlations between improvements in data and key financial performance metrics of businesses today, as outlined in our initial installment. Unlike previous studies, we are continuing to further peel back the onion to more holistically understand how better data influences a company's health and profitability."

Even the most incremental investments made towards improving only two data attributes -- data accessibility and intelligence -- can deliver dramatic impacts on the following key business innovation and growth metrics:

"Every day, we have conversations with our customers about how their data can be leveraged in new ways to generate revenue, whether it be through the development of new products and services or reaching a new market segment," said Dr. Raj Nathan, executive vice president & CMO, Sybase.

"In the end, we always come back to one thing -- empowering employees with effective data so that data itself doesn't become an impediment to business growth. This study deductively shows that simple, pragmatic improvements in data intelligence and accessibility help employees better understand evolving demand patterns, customer preferences and market dynamics that enable companies to both drive innovations to market faster and attract new customers."

Press Release Business Wire 27/09/2010

SAP contributes to Unilever’s saving of £980 million in costs

In recent years, Unilever has moved to “dramatically” cut the number of suppliers it uses, after at one point using 160 vendors for 1,200 applications. That project, alongside the SAP rollout and a company-wide reorganisation, has helped it save £960 million from costs.

Earlier this year the company said its own SAP rollout, with supplier Accenture, was significantly improving “operational execution” and efficiency, as well as dramatically cutting complexity. The most effective cost cutting was being effected in western Europe, it said, the first region to go live with the system.

Unilever is now facing a large SAP integration, following the announcement it will buy TRESemmé shampoo maker Alberto Culver for $3.7 billion (£2.3 billion).
Unilever, which makes related products including Dove soap and Sunsilk shampoo, as well as other household brands, is standardising globally on SAP enterprise resource planning software.

Unilever said it would become the world’s second largest shampoo maker as a result
of the acquisition, emphasising the importance of the UK, US, Canadian, Mexican and Australasian markets.

Unilever boasts a portfolio of over 400 brands. “With 400 brands spanning 14 categories of home, personal care and foods products, no other company touches so many people's lives in so many different ways.” They are leaders in almost every field within which they work.

The world’s leading, largest and best companies are using SAP and yet it is now within reach of small to midsize companies, supporting them on their quest to become a best run business.

SAP Business One has been designed specifically with small to midsize companies needs in mind. Visit www.beabetterbusiness.co.uk or www.beabetterbusiness.ie to find out more

Intelligent Targeter

Enables Sales Targeting From SAP Business One

Intelligent Targeter enables users of SAP Business One to set targets for customers and sales employees.

Functionalities

•Set targets for customers.
•Multiple Measurements.
•Progress Alerts and Reports.

Business Challenges

All Business starts with Sales. One of the elements of Intelligent Essentials is Sales Targeter. This solution enhances SAP Business One around the areas of Sales Forecasting and budgeting. This ensures that your business is monitoring sales performance against the initial budget and the ever changing forecast.

Key Features

•Track sales against Budget and forecast
•Set sales targets by Sales rep for Customers, Customer group or customer properties.
•Measure Sales against individual products, product groups or product properties
•Set the targets by one or all of the Qty, Turnover, Gross Profit

Business Benefits

By setting Sales budgets for the year within SAP Business One each sales person can be monitored against actual sales. The system also enables a user to manage their forecasts for the coming months based on feedback from customers or the level of sales quotes being generated. Every business needs to be able to track sales and ensure that the sales figures are on par with the initial company budgets. Sales Targeter enables management and sales people alike to track their sales to ensure the company is on track to achieve its numbers.

Find out more about other Intelligent Essentials elements at www.beabetterbusiness.co.uk or www.beabetterbusiness.ie

Intelligent Essentials, Making SAP B1 Better!

Intelligent Colour Size Matrix

Create and maintain parent and child items within SAP Business One

Intelligent Colour/Size Matrix enables you to create and maintain parent and child items via matrix templates within SAP Business One. The matrix templates define the item code and description to be assigned to each child item created. The module also allows you to optionally copy parent item price list prices to their child items.

Functionalities

•Creates item codes within a user defined matrix template based on two item variables.
•Assign templates to parent items enabling user to create child items for the parent.
•Defines parent and child items in Item Master Data UDF – Colour Size Matrix.
•Assign multiple templates to one parent item.
•Apply parent pricing tab allows the user to copy selected price list prices from a parent item to all of its child items at any point in time.

Business Challenges

•Ensuring visibility and proper tracking of inventory for multi-variant items.
•Creating item codes for multi variant items.
•Efficiently completing inventory reporting and sales analysis by size and colour.

Key Features

•Customisable user defined colour/size matrix templates to meet your inventory needs.
•Multiple colour/size matrix templates can be assigned to one parent item to create multi-variant child items.
•Apply parent pricing to child items when applicable.
•Leverage standard order processing capabilities of SAP Business One such as special pricing, warehouse, availability check, etc in combination with colour/size matrix as items are processed through ordinary SAP Business One processing cycle.

Business Benefits

•Save time creating item codes by creating child items within user defined templates.
•Quickly set up a product range for a new multi-attribute.
•Beat the competition and capture the market with proper inventory tracking.
•Quickly fulfill orders for multi attribute items.
•Improves inventory reporting and sales analysis by allowing any business in need of tracking by the sizes and colours of their merchandise to do so efficiently.

To find out more about other Intelligent Essentials elements visit www.beabetterbusiness.co.uk or www.beabetterbusiness.ie

Intelligent Essentials, Making B1 Better!

Online sales - the barriers are smaller than you think with Intelligent Ecommerce!

Today’s consumers expect to be able to find everything they need or want online.
Despite this 69% of entrepreneurs have not yet made the move to e-commerce in the UK despite it being an extremely lucrative marketing channel. Many small businesses in the UK have failed to capitlise and enter the online market because they fear the unknown, they don’t know where to begin and a lot of them feel that the market is “out of their league” so to speak.

The most obvious benefit to trading online is that it gives you greater reach to customers and drives sales. In PayPoint.net’s recent report, Powering Small Business Britain, 59% of the over 800 entrepreneurs surveyed identified this aspect as the biggest pull to e-commerce. Consumers look to buy everything online, from their groceries and taxi bookings, to their insurance.

Clearly there are many advantages to e-commerce and this is recognised by small businesses in Britain; the issue, is that entrepreneurs want to go online, but feel that this is not possible for various reasons, such as cost, fraud, or simply apprehension.

With SAP Business One and Intelligent Ecommerce your small to midsize business can enter the world of online trading with ease.

Intelligent Ecommerce provides users of SAP Business One with a robust and easy to use solution to provide information to customers. Using Intelligent Ecommerce companies can provide their customers with an on-line portal. Customers can log onto the website, enter their username and password and view products on offer.

To find out more about SAP Business One, Intelligent Ecommerce and other Intelligent Essentials add-ons which take SAP B1 further visit www.beabetterbusiness.co.uk or www.beabetterbusiness.ie

Intelligent Deferrer

Easily defer income or expenditure in SAP Business One

Intelligent Deferrer provides additional functionality that will allow users to easily defer financial income & expenditure.

Functionalities

•Defer Income. Within SAP Business one, users will be able to select an existing Sales Invoice and for each line item decide to defer the income.
•Defer Expenditure. Equally when it comes to Expenditure, users can decide to defer any line on a Purchasing Invoice.

Business Challenges

•Need to defer income & expenditure to reflect best practice accounting.
•Currently this is a manual & time consuming process in SAP Business One.

Key Features

•Being able to defer both Income & Expenditure easily.
•All postings done correctly and automatically.
•Easy to review deferrals created.

Business Benefits

•Put best‐practice accounting in place.
•Ease of use for users

To find out more about other Intelligent Essentials elements visit www.beabetterbusiness.co.uk or www.beabetterbusiness.ie

Intelligent Essentials, Making SAP B1 Better!

Intelligent Back 2 Back

Enhanced Back to Back Processing Including Real Costing in SAP Business One

Intelligent Back 2 Back provides enhanced functionality to the standard SAP Business One back to back Sales to Purchase Order process that will allow users to handle real world scenarios and improves the link between the Sales and Purchase elements of the process.


Functionalities

•Create a Sales Order.
•Generate a Back to Back Purchase Order.
•Update and Change Purchase Orders –and the effect on Sales Orders.

Business Challenges

•Inflexible and limited back to back process in SAP Business One.
•No strong link between Sales and Purchase Orders.
•Stronger Batch control.
•Customer information.

Key Features

•Direct link between Sales cost & Purchase pricing.
•Handles Split –and alternative Supplier scenarios.
•Allows for real costing on Sales Orders.
•Fully integrated with SAP Business One.

Business Benefits

•Actual costing. Accurate GP.
•Lower stock on hand.
•Flexibility.
•PO’s easily matched to customers

To find out more about other Intelligent Essentials elements visit www.beabetterbusiness.co.uk or www.beabetterbusiness.ie

Intelligent Essentials, Making B1 Better!

Lack of “printer and coffee trips” risk to UK office workers health

British workers are in poor health, with more than 10 million UK male employees overweight or obese.

According to a survey of 8,778 workers by water cooler company Water Wellpoint, two thirds have an unhealthy body mass index (BMI).Nearly a third of respondents have high blood pressure and 59 per cent have a lower fluid intake than is recommended. Female workers don’t fare much better, with 44 per cent of women tested having a higher BMI than recommended, reinforcing data showing that more than half (56 per cent) are overweight or obese.

Rory Murphy, spokesman at Water Wellpoint, says: “We believe poor health is a real issue, both for employers who are trying to tackle sickness absence levels and maintain productivity, and for the coalition government which has made it clear it will cut costs across the welfare system and the NHS.

It’s the long periods of sitting at your desk that may be the killer. Scientists have identified a new threat from our sedentary lifestyles that they call "muscular inactivity".

Sitting still for long periods of time leads to the buildup of substances in the blood that are harmful to health. And exercise alone won’t shift them.

Millions of people lead sedentary lives, spending their days between car, office desk and the couch in front of the TV. While the ill effects are well recognised it has conventionally been thought that they can be offset by frequent trips to the gym, swimming pool or jogging track.

Now researchers say that that is not enough. In addition to regular exercise, office workers need to keep moving while they work, by making regular trips to the printer, coffee machine or to chat with colleagues.

Writing in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Elin Ekblom-Bak and colleagues from the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm say research shows long periods sitting and lack of “whole body muscular movement” are strongly associated with obesity heart disease, cancer and diabetes, and an overall higher risk of death, irrespective of whether they take moderate or vigorous exercise.

Dr Ekblom-Bak said: “Everyone knows about the health benefits of regular exercise. But what we have not been alerted to before is that long periods sitting down carries an extra risk that cannot be dealt with by taking exercise. There are a growing number of studies that show this.”

Dr Ekblom-Bak said that sitting still should be recognised as a risk to health, independently of taking too little exercise.

“It is important to have a five minute break from desk work every 45 minutes. Don’t email colleagues - walk across the office to give them the message. Take a coffee break or put the printer in the next room. I am a desk worker and I try to do it. It is not difficult but sometimes you get lost in your work and you forget about it.”

SAP used as a Twitter aggregation platform for Singapore Grand Prix!

This weekend the world-famous 2010 Formula 1 Singtel Singapore Grand Prix is being held, 25-26 September, will bring thousands of new time visitors to Singapore. The Singapore Tourism Board had partnered with SAP AG to build an online service combining Twitter feeds and geo tagging on YourSingapore.com, the STB’s online one stop visitor information center.

This will help visitors to the website discover Singapore and access relevant, real-time information on events, activities and promotions by the city and local merchants. With SAP BusinessObjects Text Analysis software in the back end, the service will help improve the user experience on YourSingapore.com by processing tweets and filtering searches for special events and offers, listing these by specific street names, city districts and locations. Visitors to YourSingapore.com will get their first chance to test the Web application during the FORMULA ONE night race in Singapore, September 24–26, 2010.

This weekend marks the kickoff of this new Web service on YourSingapore.com and is something which will continue to be used in the regular tourism season allowing merchants around Singapore to tweet about sales, parties and events. The introduction of SAP software via YourSingapore.com will offer users an enhanced experience with intelligent text analysis that will analyze messages, group them intelligently and present them in a user-friendly way.

"This collaboration to aggregate tweets on YourSingapore.com will enhance the experience of visitors to the website and put them at the center of the online buzz in the Twitter space during this season. We invite everyone to join in the conversations at #Singapore GP."

With more than 45 million Twitter users in the key markets of visitors identified by the STB, the need to involve Twitter in the Grand Prix outreach campaign was clear. SAP technology provides a platform that will allow the STB to supplement its tourism Twitter initiative to showcase tweets about the FORMULA ONE race and surrounding events on YourSingapore.com.

"We are constantly looking for innovative ways to help our customers implement SAP technology; in this case, enabling Singapore visitors with useful information through familiar user access," said Krish Datta, president, SAP Southeast Asia.

"This application started as a spontaneous idea, but it quickly morphed into a means to demonstrate the potential of SAP software, and is a great showcase of the flexibility of our solutions. We are excited about partnering with Singapore Tourism Board and look forward to seeing the campaign results."

Source: SAP AG

SAP wins out over Oracle for aerospace firm

Russian aerospace company Proton Perm Motors has selected SAP software over Oracle applications to overcome constraints of its current information systems and optimise production planning, gain better insight into resource utilisation and profitability.

Proton-PM sought to better regulate the business processes and the IT systems running its day-to-day production planning and status reports to keep it on track with its strategic plans. It needed a single, automated information system to improve its enterprise resource planning (ERP), manufacturing and human capital management (HCM) processes. It also sought to enhance its investment potential, strengthen its ties with long-standing and potential business partners, and to expand its product portfolio.

With SAP Business Suite applications, Proton-PM intends to free itself of the restrictions of its existing automated information systems and to optimise day-to-day and discrete production planning in stride with advances in its production equipment. Deploying the software in accordance with manufacturing resource planning (MRP II) standards, the company aims to decrease stock by 20 percent and shorten its production cycle by 15 percent.

"These days, public enterprises of our caliber need world-class information technologies, thus integration of SAP solutions turns out to be not only a strong optimisation project aimed at securing financial stability, but also an efficient tool to enhance our company's reliability with the help of the best global business management practices," said Igor Arbuzov, director general of Proton-Perm Motors, OJSC. "We hope that this will offer us an additional set of competitive advantages and further potential for growth."

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Visit www.beabetterbusiness.co.uk or www.beabetterbusiness.ie to find out more about SAP Business One, and here from customers who have seen a substantial ROI on their investment in the solution.

Original Source: SAP AG

IIS help SAP Business One customer “take full advantage of the deployment”

When your business is expanding, you need tight control over data and processes. That was the case for Advanced Ventilation Ltd., the exclusive installer in the United Kingdom for domestic ventilation units manufactured by Nuaire. As Advanced Ventilation received more and more orders from Nuaire – and began pursuing new business opportunities – it recognized the limits of its existing business software.

“We were struggling to run our operations efficiently because we were relying on manual processes to manage our data,” explains Jamie McCann, managing director for Advanced Ventilation.

Advanced Ventilation was impressed by the success of other small and midsize companies using SAP Business One. It also liked the fact that the solution could be tailored to address its unique requirements. “We decided to implement SAP Business One 8.8 so we could take advantage of new innovations such as embedded analytics from the SAP Business Objects portfolio,” explains McCann.

For implementation, the company opted to work with Intelligent Information Systems (IIS) Ltd., a local SAP partner experienced with SAP Business One.
McCann appreciated the level of involvement of IIS employees. “By fostering relationships with people throughout our organisation to truly understand our needs, IIS helped us develop and implement the best solution. Moreover, it made us aware of functionality we didn’t know existed, enabling us to take full advantage of the deployment,” explains McCann.
In six months, the company went live with SAP Business One. Now the software is being used by employees in both company divisions.

Because SAP Crystal Reports® software is integrated into SAP Business One 8.8,
Advanced Ventilation employees can access rich graphic reports and forms.

“In the past we based many of our decisions on gut feeling. Because SAP Business One provides access to up-to-the-minute financial information, including cash flow, we can make more informed decisions about our business. Plus we have the control over our finances and planning needed to effectively deploy new companies,” says McCann.

“SAP Business One provides us quick and accurate insight into project status, which helps us stay on track and ultimately boosts customer satisfaction.”
Jamie McCann, Managing Director, Advanced Ventilation Ltd.

SAP AG Case Study

To find out more about Intelligent Information Systems, SAP Business One and read other customer success stories visit www.beabetterbusiness.co.uk or www.beabetterbusiness.ie

Unemployable Traits Influencing UK Small Business Recruitment

"In the long run, there is not much discrimination against superior talent." Carter G. Woodson

Is this quote ringing true? Are individual personality and physcial traits now bearing greater influence on the employability of people?

According to a survey carried out by the largest growing HR Consultancy in the UK www.Reuber.com recruitment by small to midsize companies is still largely influenced by traits which a person employable or unemployable...

When asked the multi-answer question ‘which of the below traits would make you less likely to hire an individual?’ below are the top ten most common answers from respondents:

1. Poor personal hygiene – 68%

2. Negative body language – 64%

3. Poor speech and grammar – 59%

4. Dress sense – 56%

5. Bad attitude – 52%

6. Excessive body piercing or tattoos – 49%

7. Inappropriate sense of humour – 47%

8. Accent – 44%

9. Unattractive – 41%

10.Poor employment history – 38%

Kirsty Burgess, co-managing director of Reabur.com had the following to say about the findings;


“These results demonstrate that despite an increasing amount of legislation protecting applicants from being rejected for reasons other than their skills and experience personal traits still appear to be a distinct factor in making a recruitment decision. Although I appreciate that we are all human this really shouldn’t be the case and therefore it is important that employers use robust recruitment methods. This will ensure a fair process and provide a justification to reject an applicant that will stand up if legally challenged.”

Source: SME Web