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Low-code makes complex business processes simple, visual, and fast to adapt. Easily customize ERP and CRM systems without deep coding knowledge.
What is a Low-Code Platform? A low-code platform is a software tool that lets you create applications with minimal coding. Instead of writing complex code, users can use simple drag-and-drop features, visual interfaces, and pre-built templates to build apps quickly. Low-code platforms are great for businesses because they allow people without advanced programming skills to create, modify, or improve software. This makes it faster and easier to develop solutions that fit specific needs while saving time and reducing costs. Challenges Related to ERP Systems At Novacura, we have over 15 years of experience in implementing and enhancing various ERP systems, leveraging our low-code integration platform. Throughout our work, we’ve noticed that regardless of the ERP system a company utilizes, there are common challenges that many organizations encounter. In this article, we summarize the key challenges related to ERP systems that our customers often face. Complexity for Users ERP systems are advanced and encompass numerous modules that provide hundreds of capabilities. However, they also introduce a degree of complexity, which can present challenges with ERP implementation. The wide range of available functions gives users flexibility but does not guide them in following the correct path to accomplish their tasks. As a result, seemingly simple tasks (such as creating a new customer in the system) may require several additional steps to be completed by the user before they can finalize the task. Users must be aware of these additional steps; otherwise, they will be unable to complete their work successfully. Limited Integration Capabilities Complexity is not the only drawback of ERP solutions. These platforms are primarily designed to serve as central points within the IT landscape. Other applications need to integrate with ERP solutions to communicate effectively. However, ERP systems typically do not provide ready-to-use connectors for third-party software. Instead, they offer APIs, leaving the integration to the other applications. As a result, connecting an ERP solution with a new third-party tool is not straightforward; customers cannot simply select a connector from the ERP marketplace, establish a connection, and start using it. Limited Customization Another issue with ERP systems is that they are designed for multiple companies across different industries within the same version. Although they offer a wide range of configuration parameters, they cannot be perfectly tailored to the specific needs of each organization. This creates a gap between the actual processes within a company and the fragmented processes supported by the ERP system. As a result, employees often resort to workarounds and begin operating outside the ERP by using Excel sheets, emails, and paper documents. Expensive Modifications To address the issue of relatively limited customizations, ERP vendors allow customers to create modifications to the software. However, these modifications often lead to complications and contribute to ERP implementation challenges. Since they are not separate from the ERP core, the entire architecture becomes more complex, making it difficult to identify and track all modifications. This is especially crucial during upgrades, as all altered components of the previous ERP version must be identified, documented, and typically rewritten in the new version. Mobility Modern ERP solutions, such […]
A well-functioning business environment comprises a complex of operations that require highly efficient management at multiple levels. To operate the business sufficiently, organizations implement various digital systems and tools to support daily routine tasks. The lack of good integration makes business practices much more difficult when it comes to running large-scale operations (...)
Can you make Industry 4.0 manageable and profitable? At the same time, the technology, the processes, and even the products associated with Industry 4.0 are full of complexities and uncertainty. How do you manage the communication between all parts of the system securely? How to make any sense of the massive amount of data being produced? How can you connect everything and everyone involved in the process seamlessly and smoothly? The answers to these questions and many more are available directly from the file below. See how to manage Industry 4.0 requirements in your workplace. What Industry 4.0 is really about? Find the starting point Low-code as the Industry 4.0 engine Standardize data and make it scalable Increasing utilization of old machines Download Related articles : How low-code can unlock the business value of Industry 4.0 learn more Mobile solutions for WMS based on Novacura Flow learn more Reduce costs with returnable packaging management in supply chain learn more How to optimize cooperation between Production and Maintenance learn more More articles #Contact
Picture this. You’re one of the largest beer manufacturers in the world, with thousands of employees and global name recognition. Your products have prominent locations in nearly every liquor store. But your inventory management processes—including ordering new products and getting those products out to retailers—is an administrative nightmare. People in the field need to keep track of inventory, sales, product specs and more. But that information isn’t updated in real-time: instead, the back office emails spreadsheets to the field sales team every few hours. This leads to poor inventory control, frustrated sales people and unhappy customers. This is the situation Carlsberg found themselves in at the end of 2013. But just a few months later, Carlsberg had: cut administrative time by up to 90%drastically improved data quality and speedeliminated their dependance on spreadsheetsHow did they do it?Through business process management. Specifically, Carlsberg analyzed their business processes, discovered inefficiencies, and used BPM software to digitalize their inventory management and ordering processes. These changes meant that: administrative staff weren’t constantly updating spreadsheetsfield sales reps could check inventory in real-timeall employees were more productive and could devote time to more valuable tasksThe results Carlsberg saw from their BPM initiatives are great. But more importantly: they’re not unique. Nearly every business—from the biggest corporations to tiny startups—can benefit from BPM. But before you jump in and start changing up your processes, it’s important to know what BPM is (and isn’t), how the BPM lifecycle works and how to measure the success of your BPM efforts. The team here at Novacura have been helping businesses achieve BPM success for over 14 years. We’ve even created our own business process management tool, called Novacura Flow, that you can use to map, analyze, model and optimize your business processes—and connect your processes directly to your business systems, like your ERP, MES, CRM, and WMS. So it’s safe to say that we’re experts in business process management, and we know the ins and outs of BPM initiatives both large and small. And now, we want to share our BPM knowledge with you. So let’s get started. What is business process management (BPM)? BPM is a group of principles, methods and tools to design, analyze, execute and track business processes with the goal of getting more value out of them. This value might be internal—better efficiency, higher quality products, faster shipping times—or it might be customer value (better service, faster reply times, etc.). The official definition of BPM, according to bpm.com, is this:Business Process Management (BPM) is a discipline involving any combination of modeling, automation, execution, control, measurement and optimization of business activity flows, in support of enterprise goals, spanning systems, employees, customers and partners within and beyond the enterprise What do you mean by a “business process”? A business process is the way you deliver a product or service to your customers. Business processes provide structure and help you create repeatable, executable tasks. Without business processes, you wouldn’t be able to do the same thing twice—ever. To put it another way: your business is made […]
Why should CMMS be integrated? “Is it worth it?” is one of the fundamental questions that should be asked before any business decision. It is no different when it comes to integrating enterprise systems. When talking about manufacturing automation, integration should not be overlooked. But what are the benefits, risks and finally – is it worth it? Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) are intended to coordinate all maintenance activities, thanks to which production is continuous. This approach requires the coordination of the work of many departments. The CMMS needs to be informed quickly of any update from which it will recommend or make decisions. The overall value that CMMS system can bring and all investments spent on its implementation might be ruined, if CMMS doesn’t operate on accurate and updated information. A good example is the planning module of the CMMS system, which – if implemented correctly – might have a huge positive impact on downtime optimization in production. But maintenance plan prepared in CMMS will simply be incorrect if it is based on incorrect or outdated data (and this is usually the result of manual data rewriting between systems). As a consequence, the prepared plan will not utilize natural breaks in production for maintenance activities, or the company can order additional spare parts that are already in the company’s possession but have not yet been in the evidence possessed by the CMMS system. Inefficient business process solution Through integrations, data can be shared and exchanged between different software applications directly and without delays, to better understand your business processes. And no doubt – the most important system to integrate CMMS with is the ERP system. Moreover, all systems should see the same production infrastructure objects and the same resources and therefore, the company will be able to track all operations related to the same objects in different areas and systems (financial perspective, maintenance perspective, utilization in production, etc.). We’re technologically ready to do the integration and the cost of such an investment is worthwhile. Automation, precision and efficiency in data propagation are some of the major reasons why modern companies integrate CMMS. Integration of software is a key for streamlining business processes, simplifying data analysis and reporting. Also, it will contribute to higher profitability and growth. Efficient business process solution Where is the master information in CMMS or in ERP? Before we consider different integration scenarios between CMMS and ERP system (what data should be transferred? should it be sent or received?) we should firstly decide on where the master (primary) information resides. Multiple objects and transactions related to maintenance will be stored and processed in both systems (like physical assets, maintenance expenses, etc.). So before planning the ERP data integration, we should decide on where is the primary copy for that data and in which system should we process these data. As a consequence of that decision, we will be able to plan the data exchange direction (from CMMS or to CMMS) for particular objects. There is no one and right scenario […]