On-Demand ERP Is Here

This is an article from: http://www.autofieldguide.com/articles/010807.html
Look what’s gaining traction in enterprise resource planning: A new way to run it offsite. By Lawrence S. Gould, Contributing Editor

The article mentions Plexus Online in a few places. This is my favorite cut from it. Version control is easier in a SaaS setup. Plexus, for example, has only one version of its software on a single infrastructure. “We don’t have to cast about through a thousand different client-server configurations before shipping a patch with new features. Instead, we roll out new features every day."

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10 Strategies for Choosing a Midmarket ERP Solution

The read more link below will lead you to a white paper that is available for download at InsideCRM.com. The article covers 10 Strategies for Choosing a Midmarket ERP Solution. Number 4 mentions Plexus Online.

Think outside the (shrink-wrapped) box. Many SMBs are forgoing traditional means of buying and installing ERP solutions as IT executives discover the power of SaaS (software as a service). For example, Plexus Systems Inc. designs ERP and other systems, mostly for manufacturing and engineering customers. The company’s Plexus Online makes use of the SaaS model to provide more than 350 functional modules, including ERP. “Manufacturers pick and choose the modules needed for their unique business operations,” said company president Mark
Symonds.

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Plexus Online Named to Emerging 40 Vendors

Industry leaders and the publication's editors chose Plexus Online due to its domain expertise, which is cited as a need in the manufacturing industry. Plexus Systems, Inc. is distinguished among software vendors by its software as a service (SaaS) distribution model and innovative use of technology.

"This recognition by Manufacturing Business Technology is an honor for our Plexus Systems team," remarked Mark Symonds, Plexus Systems Chief Executive Officer. "The award confirms the value provided to our global customers in automotive, aerospace, defense and medical device manufacturing. Plexus Online enables them to achieve superior performance, improved efficiencies, and reduced costs."

According to Manufacturing Business Technology, the technologies included in this year's roster of the 40 vendors are forging the next generation of technology and process innovation.

Plexus Online is an on-demand solution, building on the SaaS model pioneered by Salesforce.com and NetSuite. Plexus Online offers over 350 functional modules, providing companies instant access to vital information and management functions using a simple web browser. The on-demand solution features enterprise resource planning (ERP) functions such as accounting and finance modules, customer relationship management (CRM) features such as order entry and tracking, manufacturing execution systems (MES) function such as production scheduling and machine integration, and supply chain management (SCM) functions such as supplier quality and traceability.

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Oracle Chimes In

The conversation continues.

This recent blog entry, entitled SAAS Doesn’t Pay, Oracle’s Ellison Says, noted that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison made comments that essentially knock SAP's recently unveiled midmarket on-demand strategy Business ByDesign. Ellison stated that Oracle is instead moving “beyond ERP [enterprise resource planning] to industry-specific software." You can’t get anymore industry specific than Plexus Online.

We here at Plexus Online were first to take the field with a proven, award winning on-demand software specifically designed for manufacturing enterprises.

That’s what we do, focusing 100% of our resources on the manufacturing market. This focus shows in the feature-set and architectural model of our system, Plexus Online. We were the first company in the world to provide manufacturing ERP and related functions via the software-as-a-service model, in 2001. We continue to lead the charge by providing functionality and services unmatched by even the largest companies in the world.

Much Ado About SAP's Business By Design

Mark Symond, CEO of Plexus Systems post his views about SAP joining the Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model.

"I am thrilled to have SAP enter the on-demand ERP market. If executives at mid-size companies had any lingering doubt about the viability of ERP on-demand, SAP's scurry into the market should put that to rest. The behemoth is slowly awaking to see that the train has not only already left the station, but it is around the bend and has already picked up a lot of passengers."

In Search Of Simplicity, Ease of Use

The blogosphere continues to reverberate with news of the recent SAP event introducing SAP Business ByDesign on demand solution for the mid sized enterprise.

For instance, this blog out of the UK summarizes a Forester analyst who makes this observation about the global software giant SAP. The analyst concluded “simplicity and ease of use still remain elusive to the vendor.”

We at Plexus Online couldn’t agree more!

The stakes are just too high for small and medium sized manufacturers, in particular, to move to a web-hosted ERP solution from a legacy technology provider known for its overly complex and unwieldy solutions.

Plexus Online users are very demanding about usability, functionality, vertical industry focus, and integration. Plexus Online is designed to support an organization’s key business processes and manage its most critical manufacturing business and operations information, from the “top floor to the shop floor” as we at Plexus Online like to say. Let’s face it; if a user interface is too complex for a shop floor operator to use, the entire effectiveness of a manufacturing technology solution is in question.

Another blogger, David Terrar of Business Two Zero, puts it this way about the SAP Business ByDesign user interface. He observes, "it looked to me like they have missed a big opportunity to simplify the user interface,"

Plexus Online vs. SAP Business ByDesign

Plexus Systems has been providing on-demand ERP and MES solutions for manufacturers since 2001. SAP announced limited availability of a solution, originally code-named A1S and formally known as Business ByDesign

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SAP Business By Design: Setting the Record Straight

Near the very beginning of today’s press conference introducing SAP Business By Design on demand solution for the mid sized enterprise, Peter Zencke, Member of the Executive Board, German-based SAP AG, made an interesting comment. “In terms of the Service Consumption aspect of our new on demand product; nobody has done this so far.”

Plexus Online is uniquely positioned to set the record straight.

The fact that SAP is finally entering the middle market with an on-demand software solution based on a SaaS model truly validates what Plexus Systems has been successfully doing for over a decade -- offering manufacturers an on-demand technology system that integrates Quality Management, ERP/MRP functionality and Inventory Tracking, with a high level of system integration.

We here at Plexus Online serve as a reality check to this mornings proceedings.

Plexus Systems has been recognized as the next generation of software pioneers, who are filling out the menu of Software as a Service applications across critical manufacturing business operations. With over 30,000 daily transactions and a 100% solutions satisfaction rate, Plexus Systems has been applying the software development and delivery model for enterprise-class technology for hundreds of global manufacturers -- specifically designed for automotive, medical device, and aerospace/defense.

Plexus Online - ERP - MES - SCM

Plexus Online Customer Testimonial

Plexus Online combines the capabilities of enterprise resource planning (ERP), manufacturing execution systems (MES), quality management, customer relationship management (CRM), shop floor integration, supply chain management (SCM) and much more. With the ability to manage a single facility or a global enterprise, Plexus Online utilizes lean principles to enable manufacturers to closely track and manage critical aspects of their operation, anywhere, anytime.

Industry Report Plexus Systems, An episode of PodcasterNews

Plexus Online , the first true on-demand manufacturing performance system. It delivers a powerful, real time interface to the total manufacturing process. With the ability to manage a single facility or an entire enterprise, Plexus Online allows manufacturers to closely track critical aspects of their...

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10 Critical Questions to Ask a Manufacturing ERP Vendor

Plexus Systems suggests that many manufacturers are focusing on the wrong issues when considering ERP solutions. The ERP industry has earned such a poor reputation for delivery in the last 20 years that users has learned to live within a very narrow set of constraints – and those constraints have been in place for so long that the questions we...

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Plexus Online Customer Feedback on ITtoolbox

Plexus is a full ERP/MES/CRM/SCM package. Yes, there's lot traceability as well as long term forecasting (whether sales based, quantity based, MRP based, or capacity planning). It replaced many integrated systems in our environment and consolidated us down to very few. The only business applications outside of Plexus for us are payroll, fixed...

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Julie Rogier honored for Plexus Systems 2006 Media Relations

Rochester Hills resident Julie Rogier of Markit Strategies and PR, LLC, is part of the team that recently received the Renaissance Award of Merit from the Detroit Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators. IABC honored the team for the Plexus Systems 2006 Business-to-Business Media Relations Campaign at the annual awards pr

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Kim Hayward named Top Wiki Contributor of the week at ITtoolbox!

I'm someone who tends to open most of my email if the url resembles anything that looks familer to me. Tonight I opened what I thought was a typical spam email, to find a nice surpise. See below....
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Hi khay, (the user id = Kim Hayward)

As a top contributor for the past week at ITtoolbox Wiki, your article,"Plexus Online", was promoted in the ERP-Decision-Makers newsletter onTuesday.

ERP-Decision-Makers newsletter can be viewed (The link will expire after four days.) Please feel free to contact me directly with questions or suggestions about ITtoolbox Wiki. I hope you continue to find value in this knowledge sharing community.

Best regards,SonjaSonja Soderberg ITtoolbox Wiki Helper ITtoolbox "Professional IT Community" SonjaSoderberg@ITtoolbox.com My profile: http://www.ittoolbox.com/profiles/ssoderberg

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Decision Maker Wiki
Recent Wiki Contributions Plexus Online
One crusader in the ERP market has been Plexus Systems, whose Plexus Online ERP offering is now being accessed by some 30,000 registered users across roughly 1,200 plants. The Plexus SaaS offering encompasses such ERP functions as accounting, inventory, costing, and CRM, but... More...Last modified by khay , member since 2/8/2003

Top
Wiki Top Contributor: khay Created: Plexus Online Contents: "One crusader in the ERP market has been Plexus Systems, whose Plexus Online ERP offering is now being accessed by some 30,000 registered users..."...Continued at ITtoolbox Wiki.

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This Wiki honor email made me head over to the ITtoolbox site to take a look around, below you'll see what I think is the very first post ever made by me on the ITtoolbox site , wow 2001. I must have stayed away for a couple of years moved url's from www.plex-sys.com to http://www.plex.com/ and forgot my password.

Take a look at this ITtoolbox post below you can clearly see some of the same advice is relevant to the Software as a Service industry as it was to the ASP delivery model. Has it really taken 6 years for the rest of the software world to catch on to this line of thought?

Reply from Kim Hayward on 5/31/2001 12:05:00 AM
ITtoolbox Portal for ERP - http://ERP.ITtoolbox.com

Steve,

I would also recommend including not only ERP, but search for a ERP supplied by an ASP (Application Service Provider)in your study.

Although ASP and its Web-based technology is new, the basic concept of outsourcing is not. Companies like ADP (Automatic Payroll Processing) have been outsourcing payroll services for years. In a way, ASP shares some similarities with the old days when we used to timeshare on mainframes. Even so, the idea of hosting critical databases offsite will worry some management teams, especially those that aren't keen on outsourcing. But ASP's invest millions of dollars in hardware, software, infrastructure, and IT staff; something many manufacturing companies can't afford to do. ASP's put in redundant connections, security firewalls, and many other measures to make sure their systems are protected and always available.

Many experts believe that because of its centralization scheme and economies of scale, ASP's will be able to deliver information systems that are more secure, more reliable, and more effective than traditional internal systems.

In the late 1800's when electricity was first invented, only the rich could afford it. They would hire an electrical engineer to setup a generator in the backyard, and then retain that costly engineer to nurse along the hand-built system. Today, we simply plug in to a wall outlet. We don't have a generator in the backyard and we don't even think about the power plant from which our electricity comes. Yes, occasionally we lose electrical power, but far less than back in the old days when it was a hand-built local generator. The risk of occasional power outages doesn't stop us from using electricity. In the future, or perhaps now, information services will be provided and paid for as a basic utility. Think of it as an information system on tap. If the need for a new or upgraded software package is on your company's horizon, the ASP approach warrants consideration. It's important to select an ASP that makes sense for your situation.

Here are several factors to consider: The most important factor in selecting an ASP is the quality and capability of their software. Whether its delivered via a T1 circuit or hosted locally doesn't change whether the software fits your needs and helps you improve your operation.

Beware: many ASP's simply rehash their existing software, or purchase someone else's standard package, then pipe it to you. Make sure the ASP is reputable, trustworthy, and responsive to its customer's needs. You can�t ascertain that from a brochure. Ask for a customer list and call as many as you can. Talk to them. Listen to their stories. You'll soon determine whether this is the right ASP for you. If an ASP can't provide a customer list, then don't bother. Finally, make sure the ASP has experience in your field. There are all sorts of ASP's, offering a vast range of different services, and the number is growing exponentially. A company that sells retail systems, Internet services, or just hosts your hardware probably won't have the background necessary to fulfill your company's needs.

Kim Hayward Plexus Systems

Microsoft Plays SAAS Catch-Up

Microsoft might be late to the game with a software-as-a-service offering for business applications, but it's working to lay the foundation for service-enabled applications with its Dynamics application architecture, according to industry insiders.

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AMR: SOA will kill ERP | Service-Oriented Architecture

A ZDNet.com Blog sees SOA, open source and on demand applications as the ERP killers by 2010. Let’s not give SOA all the credit for liberating our enterprises from the monoliths, however. There are other forces at work disrupting the ERP market as we now it. The growing volume of open source offerings in this space, such as Apache OFBiz, SugarCRM, Tiny ERP, and Compiere. Then there are the software-as-a-service offerings, from Salesforce.com for the CRM aspect to Plexus. (Oracle and SAP are already active in the hosted/SaaS space as well.) The Microsoft mass-market mid-market commodization threat also looms, via Dynamics GP/AX.

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The ERP in Manufacturing

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and their MRP (Material Requirements Planning) predecessors have been around for almost three decades now. As a result, many aging implementations, based on outdated technology, are limiting the business process evolution necessary to any company who wants to thrive and grow amidst the pressures of global

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Plexus Online Support

Many software companies don't like to talk about it. More than fifty-percent of all software projects end in failure: the software never achieves its Return on Investment (ROI), it's used in only a minimal fashion, and/or it's abandoned.

At Plexus, we are very proud of our track record:Plexus has a 100% implementation success rate.

Manufacturing is complex and demanding. We often have to work very hard to satisfy a customer's needs and provide the exact solution to achieve the best results. The difference between Plexus and our competitors is that we don't walk away. We put in the effort. And we always succeed. In the end, every system we've ever sold has been implemented successfully.

We would also like to point out that Plexus has never lost a customer. Every customer that has begun using Plexus Online, is still using Plexus Online today.Are we perfect? No. But we work very hard to provide as much value as we can to our customers. We stick with our customers. And our customers stick with us.

Plexus Online provides an extremely strong Shop Floor Control System (also known as Manufacturing Execution System (MES)). Many ERP software companies claim to support manufacturing companies, but they do little more than accounting, order entry, and other office tasks. They are not suitable for use on the shop floor and they provide little value to the manufacturing department. Many manufacturers indicate that traditional ERP software actually hinders manufacturing, rather than helps it.

Plexus grew up in the manufacturing industry and has always been, first and foremost, a manufacturing execution system. This is one of our primary focus areas and often noted as a major differentiator between us and our competitors

Plexus Expands The Value Proposition Of Its SaaS Model

It has become almost an article of faith that mid-size manufacturing companies, particularly those with little or no IT staff, need highly packaged systems that require little human intervention to run. This requirement has been at the center of the emerging value proposition for the so-called software-as-a-service application model, popularized by salesforce.com in the customer relationship management (CRM) market and now the subject of campaigns by enterprise resource planning (ERP) suppliers.

In a recent briefing, Plexus CEO and President Mark Symonds said the company came up with the idea for the engine about a year ago. "Engineering was tasked to come up with something revolutionary, " Symonds said. "We had had tools to enable customization, but the rendering engine goes way beyond what we had." But Plexus officials see another benefit to the engine, one that addresses the needs of larger organizations with IT staffs. "This gives back some control," says Tom Mackey, executive vice president of sales. "There was a gap in the offering for big companies that needed to make a change in the software."

Plexus showed a test version of the rendering engine at its user group meeting in May. Although the engine was originally envisioned as an internal development platform, Symonds has high hopes for it going forward, even suggesting that Plexus may develop a separate business around it.

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