Our guest blogger is Jonathan Gross, Vice-President of Pemeco. Jonathan provides his firm’s clients with impartial IT systems selection and implementation management services.  He also lectures to M.B.A. students and publishes a monthly column on ERP-related issues.  Pemeco has been helping its clients select and implement ERP and other IT systems for 30-plus years. http://www.pemeco.com/

Slicing-and-dicing through that long list to the right-fit solution is a difficult project – and one that calls for a well-conceived analytical methodology. Using a good methodology, a company can cut through the confusion and the red herrings. It can give a company an opportunity to perform an “apples-to-apples” comparison of the various ERP alternatives, where the “apples” represent the company’s entire universe of needs.

In general, a company’s universe of ERP system needs will be made up of a few categories, namely: functional specifications, costs, implementation requirements, technology, and maintenance and support requirements. In this post, I focus on the first category: functional specifications.

Before setting out our firm’s three-stage methodology to analyze functional specifications, let me first define and give examples of what I mean by “functional specification.” In a generic and non-technical way, a “functional specification” refers to an electronic task that supports the execution of business processes. As a first example, a logistics-related functional specification might be a requirement that the ERP system electronically communicate bills of lading to carriers. As a second example, a finance-related functional specification might be a requirement that the ERP system track and value WIP (work-in-progress) at different stages of a manufacturing cycle.

Getting back to the analytical methodology, a company should at a minimum perform the following three exercises:

• Identify Functional Specifications
• Weight Functional Specifications
• Evaluate ERP Software Packages

Stage 1: Identify Functional Specifications
At the outset, it is important to note that a company should never solely rely on a template spreadsheet to identify its functional specifications. Though these types of spreadsheets are easy to acquire, they are of limited use in the absence of underlying business analysis. Rather, the company should define its specifications from an analysis of its operating and IT environments.

An operations and IT assessment should invariably include business process mapping. These maps show – in step-by-step diagrams – how a business transaction winds its way through the company. In the following sample business process map diagram (a.k.a workflow diagram), I have set out the steps that a fictional company takes to submit its purchase orders to a Chinese parts supplier. As you can see below, every day, a procurement employee has to comb through purchase orders to identify the parts that it intends to source from its Chinese supplier. Then, that employee creates a spreadsheet with the order details and attaches certain relevant documents. Finally, the employee sends a daily purchase email to the Chinese supplier.

Though the routines in this workflow appear to be simple, this process map highlights some potentially serious organizational inefficiencies. Specifically, manual data extraction, spreadsheet manipulation and email delivery are time consuming, cumbersome and costly tasks. Based on a review of this workflow, the fictional company might decide to automate this workflow.

However, automation will partly depend on the company’s ability to select an ERP system that can perform the underlying functional tasks. As a result, it is crucially important for the selecting company to be able to first identify all of the key functional specifications. For example, in the case of our fictional company, one of the underlying specifications would likely include a requirement that the ERP system be capable of electronically splitting purchase orders into single parts. This specification would need to be identified because only certain parts in a given purchase order are to be sourced from the Chinese supplier.

Once this and all other relevant functional specifications have been identified, the company must next weight the specifications relative to their importance.

Stage 2: Weighting Functional Specifications
Determining which processes should be “ERP-ized” and which should remain outside of the ERP system is a question best answered in reference to business goals. For example, if sourcing from China represents a big part of the company’s plans, it might decide to automate the underlying processes. However, if the crystal ball does not predict a future for Chinese sourcing activities, the company might decide against “ERP-ization.” Consequently, weights should be assigned to the specifications relative to the business value of the associated business processes.

With respect to the weighting exercise, we generally recommend using a points-scale that does not exceed five. In our experience, a point-scale that exceeds five makes it difficult to distinguish among the priority levels. For our systems selection clients, we typically use the following four-point weight scale:

1. Required and cannot be worked around
2. Required, but can be worked around if missing
3. Nice-to-have
4. Future Use

In terms of allocating weights, we generally require input from all affected stakeholder groups – including end-user employees and top-floor executives. The end-users should be involved because they have the in-the-trenches experience to know what would make their jobs easier. The top-floor executives should be involved because they are in a position to translate strategic goals into operational needs.

Once priorities are assigned, the company is in a position to evaluate the ERP alternatives from a functional perspective.

Stage 3: Evaluate the ERP Software
Through the evaluation process, the selecting company intends to pick a system whose strengths align with its high-priority needs. It also intends to avoid picking a system that would fail to adequately meet its high priority needs. This latter category of unfulfilled high-priority needs is depicted in the diagram below and is what we call the Danger Zone.

Successful evaluation – and successful Danger Zone avoidance – largely depends on how well the company completed the identification and prioritization stages. If a company fails to identify or otherwise mis-prioritizes a functional specification, it runs the risk of unwittingly falling to the Danger Zone.

Using our fictitious company example, let us imagine that it placed a high value on automating purchase order workflows. Let us also imagine that it failed to identify a specification requiring the system to split purchase orders into parts. After evaluating the various alternatives, the company selected what it thought was the good-fit ERP package. However, by the time the company had learned that it had omitted a key specification from its request for proposal, it was too late. After spending $1million-plus on the system, the company still needs an employee to manually extract information and complete spreadsheets. As a result, the company will fail to achieve the full extent of the projected efficiencies and labor cost savings.

As the above example illustrates, the identification, weighting and evaluations exercises go a long way in helping a company select an ERP system that meets its goals. In my next post, I will dig into another key ERP system selection evaluation category: price. Among other things, I will offer some tips on negotiating license fees, implementation fees, and maintenance and support fees.

Your R.E.Q. (Relevant Experiences and Questions)
In the meantime, I would like to hear about your experiences relating to functional specifications and the ERP selection process:

• Did your company undertake a process-mapping exercise as part of its selection project? If so, did you find it valuable? Why or why not?
• What experiences or issues have you had with identifying functional specifications?
• What challenges do you face when evaluating alternative ERP solutions?

It’s no secret that we love Apple – run a search for “apple” site:softwareadvice.com in Google and you’ll see what I mean – but when it comes to tracking down an App for your iPhone or iPad, the App Store isn’t the friendliest place to search. Enter “construction” into the search bar in iTunes and you get a list of 234 apps (and counting). This includes apps categorized as “games,” “lifestyle” and “entertainment.” Or try typing “architecture.” You’ll get a list of 255 apps that include “photography,” “travel” and “navigation.” Sure we understand playing SimCity Deluxe might alleviate stress on the job site, but it’s not going to help you create a punch list item.

So we decided to build a list of the best architecture, engineering and construction project management software apps for contractors, project managers and architects. Our methodology was simple: filter out the irrelevant apps (e.g. “iShovel” and “Men at Work – Ultimate Sound Box”), sort by trade and functionality, then prioritize by rating and popularity. For anyone interested in seeing a complete list of construction apps (minus the junk), visit this Google Doc. We tagged each app with one or two category names, then added columns for price, rating, device compatibility and minimum iPhone OS requirements. If there is an app that you think belongs in this list, please leave us a comment below.

Bid Management

SmartBidNet – This app works in conjunction with SmartBidNet bid management software. It allows users to keep track of subcontractor and vendor interactions from their phones. It includes both bid (e.g. status, amount, due date) and project information (e.g. square footage, location, building owner). The app is $0.99, but it can only be used by SmartBidNet customers using the iPhone (OS 3.0 or later), iPad and iPod Touch.

BIM

goBIM – This app allows you to view BIM models from your iPhone (OS 3.1.3 or later), iPad or iPod Touch. It works by using a goBIM exporter with your BIM application to create a .gbm file. Then you load the file onto a web server and access them later from your phone, wherever and whenever you want them. The app costs $5.99 and has an average rating of 3.

CAD, Design and Drawing

cadTouch R2 – This app has been rated 144 times and has an average rating of 2.5 stars. It’s available for the iPhone (OS 3.0 or later), iPod Touch or iPad. It allows users to draw floorplans, land surfaces (and calculate area and perimeter), facades, mechanical or structural parts (and calculate moments of inertia), diagrams, field notes, and more. Users can then send drawings instantly via e-mail or FTP.

Finger CAD – FingerCAD has received 64 ratings with an average rating of 2.5 stars. It costs $5.99 and is available only for the iPhone (OS 4.0) and iPad touch. This app allows you to draw houses, bridges, plans of apartments, mechanical components, geometrical figures and more using your finger. Final designs can be saved and delivered using email. This could be used by engineers, architects, surveyors and students.

REVITKeys – This is a simple reference app for AutoDesk Revit Architecture 2010. It includes 260 keyboard combinations separated into 14 categories. It’s handy for Revit users “on the go.” The app costs $0.99 and works with the iPhone (OS 2.1 and after), iPad and iPod touch.

Google SketchUp Cookbook – A great app for intermediate and advanced SketchUp users. It provides step-by-step tutorials with detailed color graphics to help users solve design problems. It should be used by users looking to take their SketchUp design skills beyond the basics. The app is $4.99, it has a good rating (3 out of 5 stars) and it’s available on all devices (iPhone OS 2.0 and after).

iRhino 3D – This is a great app from Robert McNeel and Associates. It has a rating of 3.5 from 43 users. It allows you to view native Rhino 3DM files on your iPhone (OS 3.0 or later), iPad or iPod touch. Users can pan, zoom and rotate using typical iPhone commands. 3D models can be loaded from websites, Google Docs, email attachments (iPad only) or from iTunes (iPad only). The app costs $3.99.

Calculators

Architecture

Architect’s Formulator – This is the highest rated architecture calculator in the App Store. It has 17 ratings with an average rating of 3. However, “Architect’s Formulator” is a bit of a misnomer. There are formulas for electricians, carpenters, plumbers and other trades. In total, there are 200 formulas, and 23 are designed specifically for architects. The app is $9.99 and works with the iPhone (OS 2.2 and later), iPad or iPod touch.

Carpentry

Carpenter’s Helper – There are both free and paid ($14.99) versions of this app. It is easily the most popular carpentry app, and one of the most popular construction apps in general. There are over 1650 ratings of this app. It allows contractors to run multiple types of calculations for a variety of projects (e.g. decking, fencing, framing, and more). The app works on the iPhone (OS 3.0 and above), iPad and iPod Touch.

Carpet Estimating

Carpet Estimator – This is a great app from On Center Software, makers of On-Screen Takeoff Software. The app can be used by both do-it-yourselfers and professionals alike. It allows you to estimate cost and materials for carpet-laying jobs, store room estimates and specs, and even build reports all from your iPhone (OS 3.1.3 or later), iPad or iPod Touch. The app is only $1.99 and has high customer ratings in the App Store.

Civil Engineering

Discharge Capacity – This is just one in a series of apps developed by Marui Civil Design & Engineering. They make several other useful apps (e.g. Coulomb’s Earth Pressure, Simple Beams, Civil Curve). This allows users to compute discharge capacity using the formula of Manning’s mean velocity. It costs $1.99 and has an average user rating of 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Concrete

Concretulator – This is one of two popular and highly rated concrete calculator in the App Store. It allows users to determine how much concrete is required for a project (by cubic yard and the number of 40#, 60#, and 80# bags). It’s a handy concrete calculator for DIYers and can be used by contractors as well. The cost is $0.99; it has a rating of 5 stars, and; it works with iPhones (OS 3.1.2 or later), iPads and the iPod touch.

Concrete Calculator – This app has an average rating of 3.5 stars and has been reviewed 22 times. It calculates concrete for square or rectangular slabs, circular concrete slabs and concrete columns. The app costs $0.99 and can be used on the iPhone (OS 2.0 or later), iPad and iPod touch.

Fast Concrete Pad Calculator – This is another concrete calculator for DIYers and contractors. In addition to calculating total cubic yards, it will determine the amount of lineal feet of rebar required and the cost. Users can even send an email with this information directly from the app. This costs $0.99 and is available for the iPhone (OS 3.1.3 or later), iPad and iPod touch.

Drywall

Drywall Calculator – This is the highest rated drywall calculator in the App Store. It allows users to calculate how much drywall is needed for walls and ceilings (or both). After a user inputs their dimensions, the total square footage is calculated, along with the number of 4′ x 8′ drywall sheets required. The app is $0.99, it has an average rating of 3.5 and it works with the iPhone (OS 2.2.1 or later), iPad and iPod touch.

Electrical

E-Calc – This allows electricians and electrical engineers to calculate many common formulas, including: the full load amperage of any transformer, number of wires you can fit into a given pipe and complex voltage drop calculations. There is one caveat: it’s based on Canadian Electrical Code. Leave us a comment If you know an app based on US electrical code. It costs $4.99.

Feet, Inches and Fractions

inchCALC – There are a number of calculators that will perform this simple function. However, this is likely the most widely used with over 3,130 ratings and an average user rating of 3 stars. This app allows you to perform simple math using the feet, inch, fraction format (as it appears on a tape measure). The latest version works on the iPhone (OS 3.1 or later), iPad and iTouch.

General

BuildCalc – There are many positive reviews of this all-in-one or multipurpose construction calculator. It has a price tag of $19.99, but it allows you to perform many different types of estimates and calculations, including: pitch, rise, run and diagonal right-angle calculations; rectilinear, cylindrical areas, and volumes, and; arcs, circumference, segments and arched rake-walls.

Lumber

LumberCalc – Allows you to convert a unit of lumber’s given dimensions to board feet, and calculate order totals given an MBF price ( MBF = Thousand Board Feet). It includes a paneling coverage estimator for common paneling profiles (e.g. tongue and groove, bevel siding, etc). Enter the square footage desired to cover, and you’ll get the board feet needed to order, along with the dress width and the face width for that particular pattern.

Roofing

Roofing Calculator – A popular roofing app, this allows DIYers and contractors to estimate the number of roofing shingles, number of squares, or number of bundles for a job. Input the building’s square footage, the roof’s pitch and tap “Calculate.” This app costs $0.99 and works with iPhones (OS 2.0 or later), the iPad and the iPod Touch

Contract Maker

iQuick Contract Maker – This app allows users to create and email contracts to customers from your phone. The app uses templates and pre-written information for quick creation of a contract. It can also be used to customize contracts for your industry or trade. The app has been reviewed 13 times and has a good rating of 3.5 out of 5. It costs $2.99 and is available for the iPhone (OS 3.1 or later), iPad and iPod touch.

Document Viewer

Drawvis – There are both free and paid versions of this app. The free version seems to be more popular with 259 ratings as compared to just 3 for the paid version. It allows you to view technical drawings (e.g. drawings from Autocad) so long as they are in DXF textual format. It can be used on the iPhone (OS 3.0 or later), iPad and iPod Touch.

iBlueprint – This app seems to have mixed reviews, but it has been rated by over 50 users, making it one of the more popular document-viewer apps in the market. iBlueprint allows users to create and export custom floor plans. It’s handy for homebuyers and real estate agents, but can also be used by contractors for quick access to blueprints on the job site. It costs $0.99 and can be used on the iPhone (OS 3.0 or later), iPad or the iPod touch.

Estimating

iQuick Estimator – This is one in a series of construction apps from iQuick Tools. It can perform simple estimates for framing, roofing, flooring, drywall, paint and concrete projects. After determining material and labor costs, you can email your bid directly from the app to your client. The app costs $5.99. It has an average rating of 3 from 35 ratings. The latest version is only available for the iPhone (OS 4.0) and iPod Touch.

Fast Paint Calculator – This is a handy app for painters and finishing contractors that need to quickly calculate costs and materials of paint projects. Users can enter the dimensions of the room, enter the price per gallon of paint, then click calculate to determine the job cost. This information can then be emailed directly from the phone. This app costs $0.99 and works with iPhones (OS 3.1.2 or later), the iPad or iPod touch.

LEED

EcoFlash BD+C Lite – This is a popular and highly rated flashcard app that will help you study for the LEED AP 2009 Building Design & Construction exam. It has an average user rating of 3.5 stars, it can be used on all devices (minimum iPhone OS requirement of 3.1.2) and best of all, it’s free.

LEED AP Building Design + Construction – Similar to the previous app, this is designed to help construction professionals study for the LEED AP Building Design and Construction exam. The app includes 200 flashcards and a 100 question practice exam. It has received a 5 star rating by 2 reviewers and comes in at a cost of $19.99.

Green Pro – This app gives architects, engineers, owners, and contractors the ability to both access and track LEED credits for New Construction and Major Renovations. Users can access information about credit requirements and indicate when a particular requirement has been met. The app costs $3.99 and can be used on the iPhone (OS 3.1.2 or later), iPad and iPod Touch.

Level

sightLevel – This app popular among homeowners and DIYers, but it could be used on a job site when a normal level isn’t available. It works by holding the phone in landscape view, tilting it until the bubble is centered, then using the horizontal red line to determine the slope. This could be used to determine if walls, dividers, fences, wall hangings, and picture frames are level. The app costs $1.99. It 23 ratings and has an average of 2.5.

News

AEC Info – A simple news app that pulls architectural, engineering and construction industry news from Engineering News Record, Architectural Record, Builder Online and others. There are mixed reviews about this app, but it is one of the few apps that pulls news headlines in from multiple industries. The app is free and can be used on the iPhone (OS 3.0 or later), iPad and iPod Touch.

Plan Room

Mobile PlanRoom – This is the first official construction app for iPads. It allows architects, engineers and contractors to access drawings from the field without having to carry paper plans. It is designed to synchronize with www.BuilditLive.com, a web-based software application that allows project members to share drawings, specifications, and other electronic information. The app also works on iPhones (OS 3.2 or later).


Project Management

Procore – This is our favorite construction app. It allows users of Procore construction software to create, manage and share Procore project data from their phones. Specifically, users can create and manage punch list items, access contact data, share and store project photos, log time card entries and more. The Procore iPhone app has a rating of 4.5 and can be used on iPhones (OS 3.0 or later), iPads and iPod Touch.

Reference

I.D. Wood – This is a very popular app that is highly – and widely – rated. Not only is it an iTunes Staff favorite, but the app has been reviewed by BobVilla.com and “This Old House” staff. I.D. Wood helps users identify different types of woods from around the world. It presents screen samples and detailed information for almost 160 different woods. The app costs $4.99 and is available on the iPhone (OS 3.0 or later), iPad and iPod Touch.

[steel] – This is a popular and highly rated reference tool about structural steel. It gives users access to the current and historic AISC Structural Steel Database, right from their phone. The developer claims it has “everything you will need when checking / drafting / designing a steel member.” With over 60 ratings and a 4.5 rating, this is easy to believe. The app is $4.99 and can be used on the iPhone (OS 3.0 or later), iPad and iPod touch.

To meet these unique industry requirements, Microsoft has called on hundreds of partners that resell, customize and implement Microsoft Dynamics CRM. These value-added resellers (VARs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) are extending the core Dynamics CRM applications to meet the unique needs of companies in a range of vertical markets. There are now over 750 certified industry solutions built on Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The breadth of industry solutions available is impressive – a testament to the scope and sophistication of the Microsoft partner channel.

To demonstrate the specificity of these solutions, we decided to highlight some of our favorite Microsoft Dynamics CRM partner solutions. For easy navigation, we’ve linked each industry to its corresponding solution:

InterDyn just released DynamicsADvantage, a CRM solution for the media and entertainment industry. Increased consolidation in the entertainment and media industry has complicated management of the ad sales process. It has also produced a greater need for tighter integration with ERP and back-office operations.

To meet the specific needs of this industry, InterDyn’s suite of solutions includes opportunity management, advertiser/agency relationship management and commission calculations. Opportunity management allows agents to generate ad pricing on the spot, and combine similar product offerings to help in cross-selling. Advertiser/agency relationship management provides a full view of campaigns and proposals in the pipeline. Commission calculations help navigate often-complicated business relationships by making it easy for agents to find out just how much they will bring in for every contract made. Mad Men is no longer the example. In today’s competitive advertising industry, it is an effective software solution, rather than a three-piece suit and lowball of whiskey, that leads to success.

Agriculture

Atrio Systems has developed CRM for Livestock, a solution designed specifically for agriculture companies that manage or provide services for livestock. Beyond the traditional CRM challenges of tracking interactions with customers and suppliers, these companies need to maintain detailed data on the health and background of their herd. Both customers and regulators impose strict demands for animal-specific histories.

To address the needs of the livestock industry, Atrio has developed a suite of solutions for herd management, reproduction tracking and veterinary records. Herd management tracks all of the animals on the farm – inventory, if you will. Reproduction tracking monitors breeding and births, including detailed genetic information by animal. Finally, veterinary records provide a detailed health history by animal, including nutrition, test results and dispensing of drugs and supplements. When you previously thought of CRM, had you ever thought it would be used to manage Milk Urea Nitrogen (MUN) and Somatic Cell counts for Dairy Herd Improvement (DHI)?

Automotive

Quorum has developed Xsellerator, a dealer management system (DMS) that integrates every department in an automotive dealership. Dealerships require specialized capabilities that go beyond traditional CRM software, such as tracking and monitoring dealership assets. This information must also be communicated quickly to several people who are often in multiple locations.

Quorum’s solution meets the needs of both the salesman and dealership manager with a software suite that has capabilities for customer/vehicle database management, sales performance tracking and cross-departmental communication. Database management helps dealerships maintain detailed information on all potential and current customers, as well as every automobile on their lot. Sales performance tracking lets managers know how each sales person is performing and where they stand with their monthly quota. Cross-departmental communication provides every sales agent with immediate access to the deal-closing information they need, such as pricing, trade-in value, and financing options. Perhaps the image of the sleazy car salesman will disappear when they no longer have to slink away every five seconds to go “check with their manager.”

Construction

KMS has created Project-CRM 4.0, a CRM solution for the construction industry. In addition to sales, marketing and customer service management, this CRM offering has unique capabilities required for managing construction projects and the complex business processes that go along with that. Contractors and suppliers alike require a full view of company operations to manage each project to completion.

Project-CRM 4.0 is used by contractors, consultants, product manufacturers and suppliers. It meets the needs of those users with a set of solutions for project management, tender/bid recording, and supply chain management. Project management monitors project status and tasks. Tender/bid recording tracks what proposals have been made by the contractor and monitors the overall contract win-rate. Supply chain management connects contractors with back-end operations to ensure that they have what they need to finish the job. For the Facebook-loving construction worker, KMS has integrated social networking tools into their CRM solution to help target more opportunities. Who knew?

Distribution

Infosys has created a CRM solution for wholesale distributors. Beyond traditional CRM capabilities, Infosys’ Wholesale Distribution Solution helps wholesale distributors measure up against their competition by providing tools for identifying, attracting and retaining customers. Relationship building is is a key component of maintaining that customer base.

To meet these industry demands, Infosys’ Wholesale Distribution Solution provides capabilities for in-depth account and territory management, sales quota management, and lease management. Account and territory management help sales agents to identify important leads by segment and region, and execute contracts. Sales quota management tracks all sales interactions across multiple channels and segments. Lease management assists in the tracking and renewals of leases on equipment and consumer durables. And these days your organization most likely needs a third-party credit rating agency to run credit checks. Well, there’s an app for that.

Financial Services

GaleForce CRM provides a CRM solution for professionals in wealth management, banking and other financial services industries. GaleForce CRM has built on top of the generic CRM offering to help users navigate the unique challenges of the financial services industry such as procuring new clients and effectively managing deals and client portfolios. In addition, industry regulations require that all such activities meet certain rules and requirements.

GaleForce CRM’s suite of solutions meets the needs of industry professionals with account management, client procurement, and security compliance capabilities. Account management keeps track of each client’s investments, portfolios and preferences, and helps bankers and managers identify opportunities for cross- and up-selling. Client procurement tools help identify detailed and time-sensitive information on individuals and companies for targeting new client opportunities. Security compliance capabilities are built into the system to ensure that all professionals execute their job duties while keeping within the guidelines of such industry regulations as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Optional add-ons can increase customer service with functions such as news & quote integration that allows advisers to provide clients with the most relevant information based on their needs and investments.

Healthcare

ePartnersMD‘s CRM solution was created to meet the needs of the healthcare industry. It’s additional capabilities address the issue of improving staff, partner and patient relationships. The automation provided by the software reduces the challenge of data and information collection that has traditionally been handled manually within the healthcare industry.

ePartnersMD’s CRM solution provides benefits such as automated admissions data entry, enhanced record keeping capabilities, and better physician management. Automated admissions data entry helps organizations cope with high patient influx and reduces redundant entry of information. Record keeping is integrated across HR, billing, and accounts receivable to improve management of patient information. Physician management provides extensive physician tracking and credentialing capabilities for managing recruits and placement across multiple facilities.

Hospitality/Travel

IQubz offers a full CRM solution catered to the hospitality industry. It offers capabilities beyond a traditional CRM offering that help hotels manage their two biggest challenges: driving participation in loyalty programs and improving customer satisfaction. It is also important that a CRM application integrate with common hotel systems already in place, such as property management software (PMS) and central reservation systems (CRS).

To address industry-specific needs, IQubz has a suite of solutions for managing corporate partnerships, travel agent accounts and guest profiles across all front-end operations. Corporate partnership management has tools for creating targeted campaigns to attract the right partners for your hospitality organization. Travel agent account management targets and attracts the agents that will bring your hotel the most traffic. Guest profile management provides detailed information on every guest, including their contact information, guest history, participation in loyalty programs, and even detailed preferences for regular or VIP guests. This means that when Barbara Streisand checks in, you will already have the rose petals in the toilet and the peach-colored tissues by the bed. Seriously.

Insurance

VUE Software has combined their software offering, VUE Compensation Management, with Microsoft Dynamics CRM to create VUE IncentivePoint, a solution for insurance organizations. Improving agent sales performance is one of the bigger challenges in the insurance industry. Managers must maintain a competitive environment to motivate their sales teams.

VUE IncentivePoint meets the needs of the insurance industry with a suite of solutions for sales pipeline management, territory alignment and incentive management. Sales pipeline management identifies leads within territories and monitors communication among carrier, agency and producer through to an in-force policy. Territory alignment allows managers to define territories based on pre-defined metrics and ensures that leads are routed to the right agents. Incentive management gives managers insight into agent performance so they can adjust monthly quotas and create new incentive programs to drive higher performance when needed.

Legal

Client Profiles has developed CRM4Legal, a CRM solution for the business of law. Client Profiles has enhanced the traditional CRM offering to provide a solution that helps meet the unique challenge most law practices face of creating and maintaining client relationships. It was developed to address the issue of client loyalty by helping law firms understand what makes up the client experience and how they can address each client’s current and future needs.

CRM4Legal offers a suite of industry-specific solutions for managing marketing efforts, managing development of the practice, and monitoring client care. Marketing campaigns provide tools for targeting new leads and measuring matter and revenue produced on closed deals. Business development gives managers, lawyers and partners insight into opportunities, occurring deals, and revenue coming in from specific services provided to clients. Client care capabilities manage client issues with tools for a knowledge base and management of contracts and service agreements. CRM4Legal also has a social networking tool, Accelerator, so that managers and lawyers can track opportunities and monitor customer feedback.

Non-Profit

Axem offers Vital DB, a CRM solution for non-profit enterprise management. Non-profit organizations can easily get bogged down by administrative tasks, particularly those relating to money management. Automation of administrative tasks helps non-profits to focus more on initiatives that support their charter and mission.

Vital DB is comprised of six modules – event management, membership, fundraising, volunteers, clients, online interaction – that work in concert together, but can be deployed as best-of-breed solutions. When implemented as a full suite offering, Vital DB allows non-profit managers to execute and measure success of events and fundraising efforts; manage volunteers and track things such as past training and overall contribution; and improve client communication to better understand their needs. One unique offering of the software is the online payments and receipting functionality through integration with Pay Pal’s PayFlo Pro. This tool makes it easy for users to make payments and donations, and it requires little to no administrative interference.

Pharmaceuticals

ePartners combined the CRM capabilities of Microsoft with ProScape, an industry standard solution in the pharmaceutical sector, to create ePartners CRM. In addition to traditional CRM capabilities, ePartners CRM equips pharmaceutical organizations to handle drug sales, Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and other regulations, and physician management. In order to handle these challenges, organizations also require a solution that can integrate front- and back-office operations.

ePartners CRM has unique physician contact management and call center functionalities that help sales and support agents in the pharmaceutical sector. Improved organization of physician and product information combined with targeted sales messages make interactions between drug reps and physicians more focused and efficient. Call center capabilities enable drug reps to create specialized call lists and execute physician call campaigns more quickly. Service reps benefit from automated routing and queuing capabilities, as well as an easily accessible knowledge base with detailed drug and health information. With industry regulation compliance features built into the software, pharmaceutical companies can implement this CRM solution without having to look over their shoulder to make sure they are in compliance with the FDA and other big guys in government.

Public Sector

Eskel Porter developed the Public Records Tracker as a CRM solution for government agencies. It addresses the specific needs of agencies across the country that manage citizen records requests. Government documents are accessible to the public through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), but because of the high volume of requests, processing time has typically been pretty lengthy in the past.

The Public Records Tracker has capabilities beyond a typical CRM offering, such as prioritization rules, automated tasks, and FOIA integration. Prioritization rules help organize, route and escalate incoming requests to the correct person or department. Task automation includes formatted email responses to common questions, fee estimations for special requests, and due date alerts. Because every state has different FOIA regulations, specific features are built into the software so that each government agency can be in full compliance, no matter where they are located. In addition, the Public Records Tracker helps agencies manage all those fun bureaucratic procedures, protocols, and regulations, so that when the U.S. Attorney General comes knocking, all your organizational ducks will be in a row.

Real Estate

Ascendix created Real Estate Advantage as a CRM solution for brokerages, property owners/operators, and real estate investment trusts. Real Estate Advantage has additional capabilities built on top of a traditional CRM solution that helps users navigate complex business relationships among companies and contacts, as well as manage real estate assets. It also helps investment companies deal with the issue of making their investment products stand out in a highly competitive market.

To help real estate professionals manage these industry complexities, Real Estate Advantage offers a suite of solutions for property management, investment performance analysis and brokerage activity reporting. Property management gives property owners a complete view of activity related to each property, including photos, sales activities, tasks, and related documents. Investment performance analysis tracks selling agreements and provides asset managers with data on how each property is “performing” in comparison to similar properties. Brokerage activity reporting tracks all brokerage activity related to the property, including showings, sales communications, leasing activities, and marketing campaigns. Ascendix literally goes above and beyond – into space, to be exact – to help mangers and owners track their property. Integration with Microsoft’s Virtual Earth allows you view 2D and 3D mapping of your properties.

Retail

Nodus Technology has created CRM Charge, a CRM solution for retail organizations. The core of Dynamics CRM addresses the primary challenges retailers are facing now of getting to know customers better and bringing them into the store to buy. CRM Charge is a Dynamics CRM add-on that addresses the additional issue of slow payment processing times. Retail workers typically have to process payments manually which means a lag in data transfer and longer verification waiting periods.

CRM Charge offers a solution with tools for credit verification, audit-trail monitoring, and Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards compliance. With the credit verification tool, users can pre-authorize and charge payments almost immediately, and all payment information gets logged into the customer’s history automatically. Audit-trail monitoring lets managers see all payment activities, including cancelled and reverse payments. This, along with other advanced security features – such as encrypted and masked value displays – keeps your retail organization in compliance with the PCI standards that prevent things like credit card fraud. The automation of the payment process improves the accuracy of payment information, which means an error-free balance sheet at the close of business and therefore fewer occurrences of employees pulling their hair out trying to figure out where that extra $3.50 came from.

For more information on Microsoft Dynamics CRM and to find a partner specific to your industry, check out Microsoft’s CRM Partner page.

Software Advice thinks that this problem presents an opportunity for Google to take a big step into the healthcare IT market in 2010, following other major companies like Microsoft, I.B.M. and insurance giant Aetna. Through their Books project, Google has shown that they can scan, interpret and index a high volume of books in a relatively short amount of time. Unstructured medical records – those not neatly organized within an interoperable EMR system – could be managed in the same fashion. Google possesses many of the requisite skills and technologies to solve this problem.

However, to be successful, Google will have to figure out these issues:

• How to gather structured and unstructured medical data on a large scale;
• How to share and make that data accessible (searchable) to people; and,
• How to comply with privacy regulations.

With Google Health rumored to be on the back burner, working with hospitals and medical providers to aggregate and organize medical data could be Google’s window into the growing market that is healthcare IT. Here’s how they can do it.

The Benefits of Digital, Private & Secure Health Data
The driving force behind the government’s $19 billion EMR incentive program is that medical record software truly can transform the United States’ healthcare system for the better. EMR advocates have long touted the software’s ability to reduce medical errors, improve clinical decision making, empower patients, and reduce the costs of a bloated system.

When medical data is in digital form, it can be sorted, searched and analyzed at a higher rate of efficiency than paper charts. When implemented correctly, EMR software beats paper charts in efficiency, accuracy and cost savings. The problem that Google can possibly fix is the fact that a majority of health data in the U.S., both historical and current, is in paper form.

Structured & Unstructured Data
Medical data comes in essentially two forms: structured and unstructured. Structured data is information that comes in numbers, tables and rows, for example. It’s data that is disciplined and predictable. In the medical world, examples of structured data include insurance codes, HL7 standards and other diagnosis codes. Structured data, relative to unstructured data, is easier to aggregate and analyze.

For example, if a user needs to connect two systems operating in two different structured data formats, a “middleware” application is an option. Middleware sits “in the middle” of two different operating systems, allowing them to share information. There are a number of companies in the health IT marketplace today that connect disparate data systems via middleware.

Gathering unstructured data and turning it into a structured format, however, is not so easy. Unstructured medical data includes handwritten notes and charts, and medical images such as x-rays and CT scans. This data can be further categorized as textual unstructured data and non-textual unstructured data, respectively.

Currently, medical transcriptionists and document scanning services use a combination of human review and optical character recognition (OCR) to produce structured data out of unstructured EMR information. This method is expensive and time consuming to say the least.

How To Gather & Store This Data
So, how can Google go about turning unstructured data into structured data on a large scale?

An example of Google’s spam fighting program reCAPTCHA

In the case of textual unstructured data, Google’s reCAPTCHA program could be the answer to converting it into a structured format. CAPTCHA programs, boxes that ask a user to identify distorted words in order to proceed past a certain point, are becoming ubiquitous on the web as a way to fight spam. Google uses their reCAPTCHA program to translate books, old radio shows and newspaper articles by asking users to identify one word already known by Google and one previously unknown word. The unknown words come from a list of words that OCR programs were unable to translate. If a user gets the known word correctly, for example “overlooks” in the image above, it will assume that what the user types in for “inquiry” will be correct. The unknown word will continue to be shown to other users, to increase reCAPTCHA’s confidence that the translation is correct.

If Google is doing this with books and newspapers, why not with handwritten medical charts and notes? The same logic applies – scan and upload individual words from handwritten medical data to a CAPTCHA program, let humans translate them over the web and over time textual unstructured data becomes structured data. Google could theoretically let the 200 million CAPTCHAs filled out each day on the web work towards translating medical records.

Perhaps the most impressive fact about reCAPTCHA is that its accuracy rate is 99.5%, which is the equivalent of a human translation. It’s not a stretch of the imagination to envision a system where medical providers can upload their paper documents and have them translated by Internet users.

Finally, Google is well-suited for this project because of the huge amount of digital storage space they have in their 30+ data centers around the world. Hosting this data in the cloud and storing it on super efficient servers means doctors could access a patient’s EMR more quickly than if the data was stored locally. We’ll touch on privacy issues in just a moment of storing medical data in the “cloud” in a moment.

Making Medical Data Usable
Let’s assume that Google can use their reCAPTCHA program to over time translate unstructured medical records, in addition to collecting structured data through specifications such as the Continuity of Care (CCR) and Continuity of Care Document (CCD). How do they make that information easily accessible by humans?

Part of the answer lies in Boston, MA. A team of researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have created a system that pulls medical data from different sources within the hospital’s electronic medical record software and presents it in a logical and user-friendly format. It’s called the Queriable Patient Inference Dossier (QPID). Here’s how it works:

While Google’s PageRank system works by giving more weight to pages that are linked to more often, EMRs don’t have links and therefore cannot employ that approach. Instead, the dossier system has the ability to “learn” certain types of searches from its users, understanding that a search for “squamous cell carcinoma” and another search for “lung cancer” are actually seeking the same information.

The QPID system uses natural language processing (NLP) to “learn” the relationships between words. Sophisticated NLP tools, often associated with artificial intelligence, allow a computer to read and interpret text as if it was human. In short, they use complex statistical models to predict the correct spelling and order of words in a sentence.

Google just recently announced they were ceasing development of their Google Wave project, which uses NLP tools as part of its spell check system. Google’s NLP tools are particularly effective because they are developed using data from billions of Google web searches. This makes Google’s language and statistical models particularly powerful across a number of languages. Also, in a bit of an odd twist, two Google researchers are set to release a white paper about using Google Wave’s protocol to aggregate medical data.

So, if Google work with hospitals and other medical providers to translate handwritten medical documents, combine those with structured medical data, and apply their powerful NLP tools, they could end up with much more robust QPID program than the Massachusetts General team created.

Complying With Privacy Regulations
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is the United States’ guiding document when it comes to safeguarding personal health information (PHI). The 1996 piece of legislation requires any “covered entity” who manages personal health information to have administrative, technical and physical safeguards against a breach of data. A covered entity is defined as:

• A health care provider that conducts certain transactions in electronic form;
• A health care clearinghouse; or,
• A health plan.

Google Health, the company’s personal health record project, allows consumers to add their health information to a digital record online, import prescription information from pharmacies and share that record with their doctor. Currently, Google argues that they’re not covered by HIPAA because they’re essentially acting as a free online repository, and not transmitting health information electronically themselves.

If Google were to start organizing medical records in the fashion we’ve described, they would have to conform to HIPAA standards. With dozens of Web-based EMR vendors, who store medical records online, already successfully complying with HIPAA, we don’t feel that compliance would present a major issue for Google.

Fulfilling Google’s Mission Statement
Gathering the United States’ medical data and making it digitally accessible would be perhaps the greatest fulfillment of Google’s mission statement – “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

The tools are in place to make it happen. Google has shown they have the will to take on a project of this size. The Google brass will have to decide if the benefits outweigh the costs of a digital healthcare system.

The favorites were two of our “fairly straightforward ideas,” Informatica and Teradata, each with 14% of the votes. This suggests that 28% of our voters believe Oracle will play it safe the next time around and strengthen their already formidable data warehousing and business intelligence offerings.

However, more than a few of you were a little bolder with your predictions, arguing that Oracle is going to make one or two “pricey buys in hot markets.” With VMWare getting 143 votes and Salesforce.com getting 115, 20% of our readers feel that the Sun deal is merely the first in a series of game-changing buys for Oracle.

The “bold moves into the network layer” were less popular with voters. We understand why. Although the mobile possibilities of Research in Motion certainly seem to have piqued some interest with 80 votes, Brocade and F5 Networks did not fare as well with 4% and 3% of the vote respectively.

All three of our “messy but potentially profitable” ideas ended up in the bottom six, with Infor as the least popular option overall. Clearly, our voters are less concerned about the high valuations of companies like VMWare and Salesforce.com than they are about the potential complexity of integrating targets like Computer Associates and Infor.

Of course, our knowledgeable readers had ideas of their own, many of which offered food for thought and a few of which flew right in the face of our framework for possible targets. Here, we think, are some of the more interesting ones, even if we may not agree with them as logical options:

• Akamai. Doc Searls put this idea on the table in our comments section: “They’re the future of TV as it moves from over the air and cable to the Net, and as the content sources bypass conventional cable.” However, Searls and others agree that Akamai is not likely for sale. Even if it were for sale, Akamai’s high P/E of 58x means it falls well outside of the financial criteria we believe will guide Oracle’s acquisition decisions. It’s also very far afield relative to Oracle’s traditional markets.
• Cap Gemini. Josh Greenbaum mentioned this global systems integrator as a viable option, which may not be a bad idea considering that Oracle competitors have made similar purchases. With IBM buying Price Waterhouse Coopers and HP buying EDS, Oracle might be interested in a consulting company of its own. From a holistic standpoint, services are part of the stack. Cap Gemini would be a logical target.
• Lawson. A few readers mentioned this company as an opportunity for Oracle to grow its applications and industry solutions. Lawson’s M3 and S3 apps, in combination with their highly respected industry-specific solutions for retail and healthcare, certainly make them a desirable target. Considering Lawson’s own aggressive growth strategy in recent years, they seem intent on competing with Oracle, not joining them.
• NetApp. Many have cited this data storage player as a good option. As one reader suggested in the comments on our previous post, NetApp and Oracle have been collaborating for several years now, which means that many Oracle users are already familiar with NetApp. However, we think collaboration may be as far as this relationship goes: a P/E of 36x likely puts this one out of reach.

A few of our more vulture-like readers suggested a swoop on HP as it goes through a major leadership transition. But Ellison’s admiration for the defamed ex-CEO Mark Hurd will not make that $95 billion market cap any smaller. Nevertheless, as we’ve said from the start, it’s fun to consider all the possibilities, and the fun doesn’t have to stop here. Be sure to leave a comment below if you have any other ideas, and in a few months, maybe one of us will be right on the money.

Beginning in late 2004 with its acquisition of PeopleSoft, Oracle initiated an acquisition campaign that has brought over forty companies into the Oracle fold. During that time, Oracle has made five multi-billion dollar acquisitions – about one per year – all of which have made for big news in the ERP software market.

With the Sun Microsystems deal closed, we thought it would be fun to guess who might be next on Oracle’s M&A agenda.

In the post that follows, we attempt to make a few educated guesses on Oracle’s next move based on the criteria they employed in their past acquisitions. We also want to hear from you. What company do you think will be Oracle’s next target? Be sure to take our survey and express your opinions.

Before we go any further, let’s put this all in context by looking at a graphical illustration of Oracle’s recent M&A activity.

Our diagram includes all acquisitions since the PeopleSoft deal. However, for this post, we will focus only on the blockbuster deals: bold moves involving multi-billion valuations. Those are more interesting.

Oracle’s M&A Strategy
At the highest level, the motivations behind Oracle’s largest acquisitions appear to be the following:

• Grow market share leadership in key enterprise markets;
• Expand profitability by consolidating high-margin support revenue; and,
• Increase strategic relevance by offering a complete technology stack.

Each of Oracle’s five blockbuster deals met these requirements. Peoplesoft, Siebel and Hyperion all bolstered Oracle’s market share position in the applications market while contributing captive customer bases that pay highly profitable support fees. BEA Systems was particularly strategic given its leadership in the middleware market – an increasingly critical part of the Oracle strategy given the need to integrate so many applications. Finally, Sun Microsystems brought recurring support revenue but was most interesting because it demonstrated Oracle’s willingness to move into a major new layer of the stack – servers and storage (including hardware).

Oracle’s Criteria for Acquisition Targets
Oracle’s bold move to acquire Sun Microsystems and enter the server and storage market makes our attempt to prognosticate all the more fun. We can now consider deals that fall just outside of Oracle’s traditional enterprise software markets and even consider new layers of the stack.

At the same time, we need to apply a framework to our analysis that keeps our ideas from getting too radical. Toward that end, we identified the following five target criteria that we think Oracle will stick to in any blockbuster deal:

• A large customer base with substantial recurring support revenue;
• A leadership position in an enterprise technology market;
• Relevance to Oracle’s integrated technology stack strategy;
• An accretive pro forma combination, assuming cost synergies; and,
• A valuation that represents up to 20% of Oracle’s valuation, no more.

How We Built Our Target List
With these criteria in mind, we built a long list of enterprise technology vendors that trade at multi-billion valuations (note: we did not limit ourselves to software). We then took a fast cut at eliminating the behemoths that are too big for Oracle to swallow: Cisco, HP, IBM, Microsoft and SAP.

As ideas bubbled up, we found a need to bucket them into different categories. Some are logical ideas that meet all of our criteria and make sense. Others are a little more out there, but provide interesting food for thought. Of course, anything is possible. Here goes…

Fairly Straightforward Ideas
These are all targets that fit within existing Oracle markets and don’t seem like radical ideas to us.

• Teradata. This data warehousing and business intelligence (BI) play would check a lot of boxes, augmenting Oracle’s strength in databases and BI. Moreover, Teradata brings strength in key verticals. At 21x P/E, the price might work.
• Informatica. Another data warehousing play, Informatica would complement Oracle’s leadership in database and business intelligence. While the deal would be bite-sized, Oracle would have to eliminate a lot of costs to make it acretive.
• TIBCO. Like the BEA Systems deal, TIBCO would bring the benefit of adding a middleware market leader while also bolstering the Fusion story. With a P/E of 34x, this is another deal where Oracle would have to cut costs deeply.

Messy, But Potentially Profitable
These “roll-ups” have been engineered for profitability by savvy investors, but they add execution risk given disparate code bases, etc.

• Computer Associates. Computer Associates was a consolidator long before Oracle ramped up its M&A efforts. Of course, that history comes with some messy situations along the way. The deal could work financially given CA’s modest valuation at 14x earnings, but might not be worth the stress or integration.
• Sungard. This very large applications vendor and its various business units bring leadership positions in a range of vertical markets. The company was taken private a few years ago by savvy private equity investors, so an exit event is likely just over the horizon. However, Sungard brings a large services organization that might not be Oracle’s thing.
• Infor. Infor is another major applications consolidator backed by smart private equity. The company is similar to Oracle in that its M&A strategy is engineered for healthy profits; however, Oracle may not be willing to take on such substantial integration challenges in the applications layer.

Bold Moves into the Network Layer
Most people will tell us that these ideas are crazy. They are far afield from Oracle’s traditional markets and too expensive. We agree, but stranger deals have happened (e.g. eBay/Skype).

• Research in Motion. This one is far fetched, but given the massive popularity of mobile applications, we had to throw it in. RIM has the strongest enterprise presence of the various mobile players, so it would be an ideal target. The valuation metrics might be doable, but the size may be hard to digest.
• Juniper Networks. An acquisition of Juniper would be a bold move into the network layer of the stack. If Oracle wants to play in that market, Juniper is the strongest target (Cisco is too big, too expensive). Of course, Juniper isn’t cheap and cost synergies would be hard to come by given limited overlap.
• F5 Networks. If Oracle wants to strengthen its application delivery and data center story, F5 would be an interesting step. The company’s application delivery and networking systems would provide a growth vehicle in the networking layer.
• Brocade. Like F5, Brocade would be a strong addition to Oracle’s data center and enterprise campus network offerings. However, like Juniper, Brocade is not the cheapest option listed here, as it currently sits at a 29x P/E

Pricey Buys in Hot Markets

• VMware. It’s tough to come up with a financial scenario where this deal gets done, but its fun to think about. VMware is benefiting phenomenally from the growth of the virtualization market it pioneered. This would be another huge boost to Oracle’s data center offerings.
• EMC. This data storage behemoth would be a huge addition to Oracle’s presence in the servers and storage layer of the stack. We think Oracle would love to own this market leader, but it may well be too big and too expensive at a 29x P/E.
• Salesforce.com. An acquisition of Salesforce has been rumored before, but the success of this SaaS leader may have put it out of reach. Salesforce would catapult Oracle to on-demand leadership, but it comes at a steep price. Oracle would be more likely to wait until Salesforce stumbles some day.
• Allscripts. The healthcare market is hot as providers adopt electronic health records (EHRs) to meet government requirements. Allscripts is the biggest player in the EHR market and is a consolidator itself. Its recent move to acquire Eclipsys, as well as its rich valuation, might take Allscripts off the table.

Well, we put our best ideas out there, so now its your turn. Take our survey below and let us know what you think of our ideas. Or, use the comments section below to write in your own ideas. Be sure to explain your rationale for each.



]]> http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/manufacturing/oracle-mergers-acquisitions-whos-next-1080310/feed/ 37 http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/manufacturing/oracle-mergers-acquisitions-whos-next-1080310/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SoftwareAdvice/Articles/~3/60zlU1lWPjc/ http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/manufacturing/a-plain-english-guide-to-modern-manufacturing-methods-1071610/#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:14:46 +0000 Stephen Jannise http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/?p=5006 More ...]]> Methods of manufacturing – and the manufacturing software that enable them – have changed a great deal since the Ford assembly line, shifting from the rigid, push-oriented production principles of the early 20th century to more flexible, pull principles. If you find yourself wondering what a pull principle is, you’ve come to the right place.

Put simply, assembly line manufacturers historically pushed mass production ahead based on estimates of future demand, which often resulted in wasted effort and resources when customers failed to produce the estimated demand. Modern companies can’t afford this kind of waste, so they wait for actual demand to pull production forward, manufacturing products when they’ve been requested by customers or when the previous batch of products has sold out.

Consider this analogy. By trying to guess potential demand, manufacturers often found themselves in the same situation as someone carrying an umbrella on a sunny day because the forecast predicted rain: extra effort for no reason. Modern manufacturers prefer to stick their head out the window and check for rain before grabbing their umbrella, so to speak, limiting waste and maximizing efficiency.

Unfortunately, understanding the many complex strategies behind these new manufacturing methods can be as difficult as predicting the weather, as they have brought along with them a series of three-letter acronyms that dominate jargon-filled conversations about current manufacturing trends, like JIT, TPM, QRM, and JIS. These letters don’t exactly help to explain the basic ideas behind pull-production manufacturing, which actually make a lot of sense when spoken in plain English. So for the next installment in our “plain english guide” series, we’ve decided to break down the key concepts of lean manufacturing, Six Sigma and flexible manufacturing. While we couldn’t cover every concept – a Google search for “lean manufacturing glossary” should satisfy most pedants – we have reviewed the important terms. Leave a comment below if there are others you’d like us to explain. Let’s get started.

Basically, modern manufacturing methods boil down to three key concepts:

• Reduce waste - reduce the amount of materials, capacity and manpower wasted in the process by producing just enough product to meet current demand
• Maintain quality – devise more effective manufacturing methods in order to continue making quality products despite strict reductions of waste
• Accelerate production – decrease the amount of time needed to manufacture product, making up for the lack of surplus

Reduce Waste
If this first concept sounds like the motto of the recycling movement, it’s because manufacturing, like so many other industries these days, is basing its methods on efforts to avoid waste. Earlier manufacturing methods allowed for waste and an excessive consumption of supplies in order to meet their goals of mass production, but the re-branding of modern manufacturing goes by a new name: lean manufacturing.

Lean manufacturing describes the method used to achieve all three of the aforementioned concepts; in theory, a lean manufacturer would have the right supplies arrive at the right place at the right time in the right amount to create only the products that are necessary to meet demand. A number of concepts, defined in the table below, are influential in meeting this goal.

Concept	Description
Just-in-Time (JIT)	The concept of JIT basically suggests that any inventory is waste. JIT manufacturers buy just enough supplies to keep the process moving and schedule them to arrive at the factory “just in time” for them to be used in production.
Kanban	When supplies are running low, factories can have an automatic request for new supplies sent to their suppliers. These alerts have traditionally been called Kanban, and they are now often computerized.
Just-in-Sequence (JIS)	This is the most extreme example of JIT. Supplies arrive at the factory at the exact moment they are needed within the manufacturing sequence, which means production may come to a standstill if the supplies are just a few minutes late.
Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)	To avoid stopping production, some factories wait until the end of the day to repair minor issues with their machines. But TPM suggests that manufacturers will benefit in the long run by repairing the machines immediately and avoiding deterioration in the future.
Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM)	QRM is focused on making the time period between a customer’s request for a product and the final delivery of that product as brief as possible.
Cellular Manufacturing	This concept separates the factory floor into different sections (cells). Machines are placed in a certain order so that materials flow naturally toward the completion of a product.
Single-Minute Exchange of Die (SMED)	Manufacturers are always looking to reduce wasted time, even between projects. SMED focuses on changing the factory process from working on an old product to a new product as quickly as possible.

Maintain Quality
In order to manufacture a product of consistently high quality, it’s necessary for manufacturers to not only perform frequent maintenance on their equipment, but on their entire process as well. This means identifying errors or defects in the production flow and eliminating them to maximize productivity. This is where Six Sigma comes in.

The origin of the term itself is very complex. A manufacturing process is given a sigma rating based on the percentage of its product yield determined to be defect-free. A one-sigma rating designates a process with a disastrously low percentage of defect-free yield, 31%, while a six-sigma rating is reserved for processes that are nearly perfect, 99.99966% defect-free. In other words, every company wants to achieve six sigmas for all of its manufacturing processes.

To meet this goal, the Six Sigma method was created, which focuses on measuring and analyzing process data in order to find and remove defects. Whereas lean manufacturing is concerned with improving the flow between processes to reduce waste, manufacturers use Six Sigma to improve the processes themselves. The table below includes some of the concepts that make Six Sigma work.

Concept	Description
Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control (DMAIC)	This Six Sigma methodology is focused on improving the basic manufacturing processes that are already in motion.
Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify (DMADV)	This alternative methodology is a more anticipatory approach. Based on an analysis of customer demand, manufacturers plan ahead and try to design ways to avoid defects in the first place.
Critical to Quality (CTQ) and Quality Function Deployment (QFD)	These two concepts try to pinpoint the elements of a product that are most important to customers and translate those needs into a manufacturing strategy that focuses on getting the critical elements exactly right.
Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customers (SIPOC)	SIPOC is a diagrammatic tool that allows manufacturers to trace the life cycle of their products from supplier to customer and identify problem areas.
Taguchi Loss Function	If a manufacturer designs a production plan that will maximize profit and efficiency, any sudden changes or variations from that plan pose a problem. The Taguchi Loss Function suggests that production quality decreases as variation increases.

Accelerate Production
In the era of lean manufacturing, when surplus product is considered waste, the manufacturing process must work faster to make sure products are made available and demand is met. However, speeding up the process has become more difficult than ever due to an increased customer desire for customization.

In the 20th century, mass production and mass consumption went hand in hand. Assembly lines made it possible to make hundreds of thousands of the same product, and customers were entirely willing to own the exact same thing as their friends and neighbors. Now, with the advent of Internet shopping and its capacity to provide shoppers with a variety of choices, manufacturers must be prepared to adapt and change not only its products but its entire process as well.

Enter flexible manufacturing. Though manufacturers would undoubtedly prefer to continue producing standardized products at low costs, they must nevertheless make the best of their customers’ new tendencies toward individualized, unique products. These manufacturers can limit their cost increases by designing processes that adjust quickly and effectively to change. This table provides a few of the concepts that allow manufacturers to remain flexible while continuing to reduce waste and maintain quality.

Concept	Description
Machine Flexibility	This concept refers to the capacity of a factory’s machines to adapt. Can they be changed to manufacture different products? Will they allow for the slight variations in design that customization requires?
Routing Flexibility	This concept is focused on the adaptability of the manufacturing process as a whole. Does the factory have multiple machines that can complete the same task? Can they be paired with various other machines to make customized products?
Computer-aided Design (CAD) and Computer-aided Manufacturing (CAM)	Computers allow customers to customize products, and they also allow manufacturers to create those products with agreeable costs. If a factory has machine and routing flexibility, they can use CAD to design production processes and CAM to guide parts through those processes with robots and computer-controlled machines (CCM).
Computer-integrated Manufacturing (CIM)	Maybe the most important element of flexible manufacturing, CIM creates a network of computers that observe and operate the manufacturing process. With CIM, computers can monitor every step of production for defects and change the actions of a machine almost immediately, contributing to flexibility.

With customer demands shifting constantly on a global scale, manufacturers must utilize a number of strategies to maximize their profits and continue to compete. As this guide suggests, the three major goals of reducing cost, maintaining quality, and accelerating production are achieved through the combined efforts of lean manufacturing theories, Six Sigma methodologies, and flexible processes. It’s not a question of which manufacturing method is the right one, it’s a question of how to implement them all for optimum results.

]]> http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/manufacturing/a-plain-english-guide-to-modern-manufacturing-methods-1071610/feed/ 4 http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/manufacturing/a-plain-english-guide-to-modern-manufacturing-methods-1071610/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SoftwareAdvice/Articles/~3/hFU3-QQzMA0/ http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/property-management/2010s-most-tenant-friendly-u-s-cities-1071210/#comments Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:11:25 +0000 Chris Thorman http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/?p=4992 More ...]]> We recently came across a list of the top ten cities ranking places where renting a home or apartment was better than purchasing one. The criteria for the list was rather simple – the cities that had the lowest ratio of average rental price to average home purchase price won a spot on the list.

This got us thinking. What are the most “tenant friendly” cities in the United States? In other words, besides just rental and home prices, what other measurable factors make a city amenable to renters?

Our rental property software experts looked at the 50 most populous U.S. cities and ranked them based on the following criteria:

• Cost per square foot of a 2-bedroom apartment;
• Change in rent prices from 2009 to 2010;
• Residential vacancy rate;
• Rental cost as a percentage of median income;
• Tenant councils;
• Tenant-friendly foreclosure laws; and,
• Rent control laws.

Cities were awarded points based on our methodology below. Based on our analysis, here are the United States’ most tenant friendly cities (See all 50 rankings here):

Rank	City	Cost per sq. ft.	Rent Prices (09-10)	Vacancy Rate	Rent as % of Income	Tenant Council	Foreclosure Protection	Rent Control
1	Chicago, IL	$1.00	-3.71%	12.8%	26%	Yes	Yes	No
2	Arlington, TX	$0.52	-2.34%	13.3%	12%	Yes	No	No
3	Mesa, AZ	$0.65	-1.23%	19.8%	15%	Yes	No	No
4	Indianapolis, IN	$0.60	-1.48%	10.2%	16%	No	Yes	Yes
5	Phoenix, AZ	$0.77	-6.03%	19.8%	18%	Yes	No	No
6	Jacksonville, FL	$0.76	2.58%	19.5%	18%	Yes	Yes	No
7	Fresno, CA	$0.74	-5.75%	3.8%	22%	No	No	Yes
8	Sacramento, CA	$1.05	-6.46%	7.1%	25%	No	No	Yes
9	Detroit, MI	$0.60	-2.45%	17.7%	25%	No	Yes	No
10	Tuscon, AZ	$0.80	-0.67%	10%	26%	Yes	No	No

Our Methodology
Here is more about the metrics we used to determine “tenant friendliness.”

Cost per square foot. This number reflects how much a 2-bedroom, 1,000 square foot apartment costs per square foot, per month in a particular area. In order to keep it simple, we used 1,000 square feet across all of our cities to describe a 2-bedroom apartment. Rents are based on Rent-O-Meter’s pricing of 2-bedroom units. A point was awarded if the monthly rent was less than $1.10 per sq. ft., which was the median of all 50 cities’ rental prices.

Recent trends of rental prices. This number reflects the percent change in the average rent of a two-bedroom apartment from 2009 to 2010. The numbers come from ApartmentRating.com’s What’s My Neighbor Pay tool. Any decrease in rental prices earned a city a point.

Residential vacancy rate. This number reflects the percentage of rental properties that are vacant (as of March 2010) in a particular metro area, as determined by the United States Census Bureau. Approximately 10% vacancy is the national average. A point was awarded if the vacancy rate was higher than the national average, which would benefit tenants.

Rental cost as a percentage of median income. This number reflects what percentage of a person’s annual income is used on rent. Rents are based on Rent-O-Meter’s pricing of 2-bedroom units and median income is based on U.S Census data. Cities whose residents spent 30% or less on rent earned a point.

Tenant councils. This notes whether or not the city has an established, private tenant’s council or association to help settle disputes between landlord and tenants, as well as provide advice for tenants on a range of issues. If a city has a private tenant council, they earned a point.

Tenant-friendly foreclosure laws. The Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (PTFA) of 2009 is a federal law designed to protect the lease of tenants who are living in buildings that are being foreclosed. The legislation left many specifics up to the states. If a state has passed laws that enhance this tenant-foreclosure protection, they earned a point.

Rent control laws. This metric reflects whether or not a city, town or state has enacted rent control laws. These types of laws are fewer and fewer nowadays, with only a handful of states having them. Those cities that have them earned one point.

Feedback and The Full List of All 50 Cities
If you have any comments or questions about our analysis, please feel free to leave a comment below. We’ll be sure to respond quickly.

We’ve also put our full analysis online, detailing the tenant friendliness numbers for the 50 most populous cities in the United States. If you’re moving to an apartment in a new city, you should take a look. If your city is isn’t in the top ten, make sure you take a look at our full list to see where it ranks.

You can view the full list of cities here.

 

]]> http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/property-management/2010s-most-tenant-friendly-u-s-cities-1071210/feed/ 5 http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/property-management/2010s-most-tenant-friendly-u-s-cities-1071210/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SoftwareAdvice/Articles/~3/XhCYbpZCLRQ/ http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/uncategorized/why-the-technology-matters-an-analysis-of-consonas-acquisition-of-compiere-1070810/#comments Thu, 08 Jul 2010 19:58:05 +0000 Don Fornes http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/?p=4976 More ...]]> The software industry’s conventional wisdom holds that the underlying technology “stack” – code base, database, development tools – doesn’t matter. It’s the end product – what the users see and use each day – that matters. After all, most software is selected by business users that don’t need to know “how the sausage is made.”

In large part, I agree. Years ago, I tried to market software based on underlying code. I failed.

From the buyer’s perspective, the most important criteria are that the system does what they need it to do and that it’s relatively easy to use. Most buyers just don’t care about the underlying technology because they never see it or interact with it directly. Nor do they understand it.

However, long term, these same buyers will want their software vendor to:

• continue to add new features and fix bugs quickly;
• evolve to the next generation of technology; and,
• remain “strategically viable,” not just financially viable.

Underlying software technology is a huge determinant of any vendor’s ability to deliver on these three requirements. Software companies using older, inflexible technology have a hard time releasing new features, rarely prosper in the next generation of technology and wither on the vine for decades (rather than go bankrupt).

Recently, I was reminded of all this when ERP software company Consona acquired Compiere – a fairly unknown open-source ERP vendor. In my opinion, Consona bought Compiere not for its open-source business model, but because the Compiere product is built on a very modern technology stack and is designed to run in a cloud computing environment.

Why do I think this? Well, in part because Consona CTO, Steve Bailey said so:

“Compiere is the world’s leading open-source ERP solution and the products are brilliantly architected. They run on a fully open-source stack (e.g., Java, Linux, JBOSS, Postgres), utilize a browser-based AJAX UI based on the Google Web Toolkit, and are fully operational either on premise or on a utility cloud platform like Amazon…”

But more telling is that this acquisition diverges significantly from the traditional “roll-up” acquisition strategy of companies like Consona, Infor, Oracle and Sage. Usually, these consolidators are focused on buying companies with hundreds or thousands of customers that pay very profitable annual support fees. If they take good care of those customers, they can continue to collect those fees and increase profits through economies of scale.

While Consona has aquired a number of software companies based on this model, that doesn’t seem to be the strategy behind the Compiere deal. Compiere brings only 130 customers to Consona and I doubt Compiere’s open-source business model was generating big profits. Instead of buying customers and profits, Consona seems to be thinking ahead about how they can lead the market in the next generation of technology. The acquisition is more about growing organically – selling more Compiere systems – than it is about harvesting customer support contracts.

Why is this all relevant to software buyers? Because there is a big shift underway from client/server systems installed “on premise” to cloud-based or software-as-a-service systems that are hosted in a secure data center and accessed through a web browser. Moreover, the open source movement is producing underlying technology that is not only free, but increasingly really good stuff. Software vendors that don’t make the transition will wither on the vine.

Compiere is built on the Java programing language, Linux operating system, PostgreSQL database and Google Web Toolkit user interface framework – all technologies that are free to Compiere and its customers. Additionally, they are being enhanced every day by armies of volunteer programmers. That allows Compiere to just focus on enhancing its application functionality for accounting, manufacturing, distribution, etc.

To highlight the significance of this model, consider that a bunch of brilliant Google engineers built some cutting edge user interface technology (Google Web Toolkit) and open sourced it. Compiere turned around and used it in their products. Google did a big part of Compiere’s engineering for free…and will continue to do so. Now that’s efficient development.

Compare that to an application software company that has to pay ongoing royalties to an infrastructure software company for the privilege of developing on its outdated database or development tools. The smart engineers long since left both companies so they could work on cooler projects at more modern software companies. The mediocre engineers that remain are having a hard time developing new features on old code. Sales are declining and customers are defecting (albeit slowly because it’s hard to switch).

You don’t want to be that customer that is trying to defect but fears the switching costs. You want to be the delighted customer that loves their software because it works today and will work tomorrow, regardless of what new requirements emerge.

Honestly, I don’t know too much about Compiere and this post is not meant to be a plug for them. Consona is a customer of ours, but so are almost all of their competitors. I do know that the underlying open-source stack is good stuff. Moreover, I think the strategy behind the acquisition is a smart detour from the same old roll up strategy.

What I find most interesting is that a meaningful player in the ERP market is making a big investment in underlying technology. Why? Because long term, it does matter.

]]> http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/uncategorized/why-the-technology-matters-an-analysis-of-consonas-acquisition-of-compiere-1070810/feed/ 3 http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/uncategorized/why-the-technology-matters-an-analysis-of-consonas-acquisition-of-compiere-1070810/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SoftwareAdvice/Articles/~3/f3aHDPhk0tQ/ http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/medical/the-best-android-apps-for-doctors-nurses-and-health-care-professionals-1062810/#comments Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:55:53 +0000 Chris Thorman http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/?p=4806 More ...]]> When we published our list of the best medical iPhone apps for doctors and students, we had so many requests for a follow up post highlighting medical apps for the Android operating system that we had to do it. We’ve reduced the over 1,200 “Health” apps in the Android Marketplace to 18 categories and 60 apps designed for doctors, nurses and students. We’ve specifically geared the chosen apps towards those professions and away from consumers. As with the iPhone, there is unfortunately a shortage of quality apps for accessing electronic health record programs.

Our methodology was simple. We sifted through all 1,200 apps in the Health category and pulled out the highest rated, most relevant apps for doctors, nurses and students in the respective categories. Each category is sorted by most popular app, as determined by the ratings in the Android Marketplace. You’ll probably see a lot of the same brand name apps that were listed in our best medical iPhone apps list.

Before You Start
One thing to note before you dive into this list is that each app listed below is linked to its profile on Androlib.com, the definitive database for Android Marketplace apps. That profile contains pricing information, ratings, version number and download size.

Each app profile on Androlib.com also contains an image of a QR code, which looks like a UPC code. Once you download the Barcode Scanner app from the Android Marketplace, you’ll have a couple of new options for downloading apps. Here are two ways to download apps via QR code on Androlib.com:

1. Scan your monitor. Launch the Bar Scanner app and scan your actual monitor (the QR code image itself) with your Android phone. Tap “Open in Market” button that pops up and you will be directed to that app, in the Android Marketplace.
2. Tap the image. If you’re viewing an app’s QR code on your Android phone, you can simply tap the image of the code and you will be directed to the Android Marketplace where you can download the app.

Leave any suggestions in the comment section and we’ll update the list if we see a good app we missed.

Note: Descriptions were written by the app’s developer.

All-in-One

SkyScape Medical Resources – Free – Skyscape Medical Resources is a collection of medical information and decision support resources for healthcare professionals such as physicians, nurses, PAs, NPs, medical students, nursing students and more. When you install the App, it will download your free resources which include RxDrugs, OCM & Archimedes.

Lexi-Comp – Free – Keep updated with Lexi-Comp’s trusted clinical knowledge, now at the touch of a button. This application includes 30-days of access to all databases Lexi-Comp offers for your Android phone. Plus hundreds of images, calculations, and tables available with a cell or wifi connection, so you’re never without answers again.

Anatomy

Netter’s Atlas of Human Anatomy – $76.95 – Netter’s Atlas of Human Anatomy is the most loved and best selling anatomy atlas in the English language. Based on the phenomenal medical artwork of Dr. Frank H. Netter, full-color anatomic illustrations allow users to test themselves on key anatomic structures and relationships.

999 Medical Anatomy Terms Quiz – $2.29 – Learn hundreds of anatomy and physiology definitions through multiple choice quizzes, flashcards and dictionaries.

Anatomy of the Brain – $1.99 – Anatomy of the Brain is a fully-featured flash card app that helps you learn the names, locations, and functions of over 125 parts of the brain. Perfect for doctors, nurses, medical students or anyone interested in medicine.

Calculators

Mediquations Med Calculator – $4.99 – The most comprehensive medical calculator on Android. With 223 formulas and scoring tools and an intuitive interface, Mediquations makes getting the answers you need quick and painless.

MediCalc – $.99 – MediCalc contains over 70 of the most commonly used medical equations and scoring tools. It has a very simple UI with formulas broken down by specialty and systems.

Medical Calculator – $2.99 – MedCalc includes 58 of the most important medical calculators and scoring tools for the G1 android phone. It incorporates a simple and fast interface and provides comprehensive results maximizing your time caring for patients.

InfusionCalc – $.99 – Great tool for paramedics and nurses. Enter the dosage ordered (mcg/kg/mind), drug on hand (mg or mcg), fluid volume (ml), drop factor, and patient’s weight (kg or lbs).

Cardiology

Cardio Calc – Free – This app contains cardiology clinical calculators and decision support tools, Framingham & Reynolds risk score, CHADS2 and much more. It is designed for anyone managing patients with heart disease disease or lipid disorders.

Cardiovascular Pharmacology – $1.99 – This is a fully-featured flash card app that helps you learn about cardiovascular pharmacology.

EKGdroid – $3.99 – This is a simple arrhythmia guide for Android devices. Each component of the EKG is explained.

Dentists

Dentistry Terms – $1.25 – This Dentist Glossary application is a dictionary of all things having to do with Dentistry. They have included abbreviations, definitions, a glossary of terms, and many more Dentistry Terms.

 

Clinical Decision Support

Medicine Central – $159.95 – Medicine Central is an integrated mobile and web reference built specifically for physicians, students, residents, and nurse practitioners. Medicine Central brings you comprehensive point-of-care content on the essentials of diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up for over 700 diseases and disorders in a quick-read format.

Merck Manual Suite – $79.95 – The Merck Manual Suite plus Davis’s Drug Guide combines three references to create a complete point-of-care solution for clinicians. This package integrates expert descriptions of diagnosis and management of diseases with an A to Z symptoms guide and an award-winning drug guide.

Drug Facts Platinum – $149.95 – This app combines the most comprehensive drug database (A to Z Drug Facts) with a powerful interactions product (Drug Interaction Facts) and over 300 natural product monographs (The Review of Natural Products) for complete point-of-care drug coverage.

Diagnosaurus DDx – $.99 – Quickly search over 1,000 differential diagnoses by organ system, symptom, disease, or browse all entries to help you reach an accurate diagnosis.

Dictionaries

Concise Oxford Medical Dictionary – $14.99 – An Oxford Medical dictionary with over 10,000 terms used in modern medicine.

BKS Medical Dictionary – $19.95 – The Medical Dictionary for Android, contains easy-to-understand explanations of over 38,000 medical terms.

Medical Terminology – $.75 – A dictionary with over 500 medical words.

Drug Reference

Epocrates – Free – Quickly and easily access reliable drug information with Epocrates Rx beta. It provides multiple clinical tools in one easy-to-use application. Join more than 950,000 healthcare professionals who rely on Epocrates’ innovative clinical products to make more confident decisions at the point of care. (SD card is required)

SkyScape RXDrugs – Free – Skyscape’s RxDrugs Dosing Companion provides dosing guidelines on thousands of commonly used brand and generic drugs and now includes nearly 400 integrated weight-based drug dosing calculators. Continuously updated dosing guidelines on a variety of medications, including antimicrobial, cardiovascular and many more.

Davis’s Drug Guide – $49.95 – Davis’s Drug Guide delivers up-to-date, comprehensive, and practical information on over 5,000 trade name and generic drugs. Look up information on dosing and administration, safety, interactions, and patient teaching.

A2ZDrugs – $49.95 – A2ZDrugs is the handheld version of A To Z Drug Facts, the easy-to-use drug guide with the latest FDA approvals, indications, dosages, side effects, and patient care considerations.

Eyecare

Ophthalmology Glossary – $1.25 – Ophthalmology is a branch of medicine which deals with the diseases and surgery of the visual pathways, including the eye, hairs, and areas surrounding the eye, such as the lacrimal system and eyelids. To help you navigate this special issue on Ophthalmology, we have created a comprehensive Glossary on the subject.

Ophthalmology – $2.99 – Ophthalmology is a fully-featured flash card app that helps you learn about ophthalmology.

Games

Speed Anatomy – Free – How fast can you point to your liver, gall bladder or incisor? Speed Anatomy is an addictive game that tests your speed and challenges your knowledge of human anatomy.

450 Medical Slang Terms Quiz – $.99 – Includes 450 slang terms. Nurses, Doctors, and medical professionals use humorous euphemisms and slang to deal with serious situations. Review flash cards, online dictionary, and glossary.

General Reference

5-Minute Clinical Consult – $79.95 – The 5-Minute Clinical Consult, 5MCC, delivers to-the-point guidance on diagnosis and treatment of 700+ medical conditions seen in everyday practice. These include diagnosis, treatment, medications, follow-up, ICD-9 coding, and patient teaching.

PubMed Mobile – Free – Search the PubMed database with over 19 million citations for biomedical articles and life science journals.

Medical Glossary – $1.25 – This app is a comprehensive A to Z listing of medical terminology. The glossary contains thousands of terms, acronyms, institutions, lingo, descriptions, and definitions all about medicine, and practicing medicine.

Medical Abbreviations – $2.99 – Medical Abbreviations provides simple, fast and convenient access to more than 1,800 medical abbreviations at your fingertips. Easily search the abbreviations and definitions and see the search results as you type.

ICD Code Look Up

ICD-10 – $2.99 – Now you can see the new ICD-10 codes that will replace the current ICD-9. Works off-line and it contains more than 32,500 searchable codes.

ICD-9 – $2.99 – ICD-9 application gives you the latest ICD9-CM diagnosis codes on your mobile. If you need to quickly and easily find a code from the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD), get it now onto your mobile.

Lab Tests

Davis’s Lab & Diagnostic Tests – $49.95 – Davis’s Labratory and Diagnostic Tests is a nursing reference that puts hundreds of laboratory and diagnostic test monographs at your fingertips. Each entry delivers information on how the test works, how to accurately interpret results, and how to provide the best care to your patients before, during and after a test.

Labs 360 – $49.95 – Labs 360° is a clinically oriented laboratory guide written for the healthcare provider who wants to understand what a given test is, its clinical significance, and how the test can aide in patient diagnosis and treatment.

Normal Lab Values – $4.99 – Lab Values helps you in accessing the quick information to the common laboratory values. Around 150 common laboratory values are compiled in this application. You even have an option of adding a new category and a new lab value.

Mental Health

Psychiatry Q&A – $9.99 – Prepare for your certification, re-certification, USMLE, shelf exams, or rotations with Psychiatry Q&A. The app has 100 questions designed for students, residents, fellows, attendings, nurses, and physician assistants.

Psych Drugs – Free – Learn important and useful information (drug names, indications, etc) for psychotropic medications such as antidepressants (depression), antipsychotics (psychosis), mood stabilizers (bipolar), and anti-anxiety (OCD, panic, PTSD) medications.

Psych Facts – Free – Learn about mental health topics such as depression, anxiety, bipolar, OCD, ADHD, drugs, eating disorders and schizophrenia. This app contains hundreds of facts.

Nursing

Nursing Central – $159.95 – Nursing Central is the complete mobile solution for nursing that includes Davis’s Drug Guide, Taber’s Medical Dictionary, Diseases and Disorders, Davis’s Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests, and Unbound MEDLINE. Look up information on diseases, tests, and procedures.

RNotes – $29.95 – RNotes is a quick-reference application that puts the latest clinically-focused nursing information at your fingertips, helping you improve patient care. Find answers fast with conveniently organized content. The new third edition also helps you prepare for the NCLEX examinations by noting topics covered on the exam.

Handbook of Nursing Diagnosis – $39.95 – Handbook of Nursing Diagnosis helps nurses reach an accurate diagnosis with speed and confidence by identifying collaborative problems, addressing the special needs of specific populations, and linking clinical situations to a specific diagnosis using the latest NANDA-approved list. Also includes NIC and NOC lists.

Nursing Pharmacology – $2.99 – Nursing Pharmacology application helps you learn all about the nursing pharmacology. It contains over 140 flash cards.

Mini-Nurse – Free – An app made for student nurses and those who wish to know a little more about nursing. Contains dosage calculations, med abbreviations, and more.

Pediatrics

Pediatrics Central – $179.95 – Pediatrics Central Dx + ID + Rx is the complete solution for pediatric information at the point-of-care. Look up detailed disease and drug information in 5-Minute Pediatric Consult, Red Book, A to Z Drug Facts, Drug Interaction Facts, and MEDLINE Journals.

Pediatrics Q&A – $9.95 – Prepare for your certification, recertification, USMLE, shelf exams, or rotations with Pediatrics: PhysicianBoardReview Q&A. The app has 100 questions designed for students, residents, fellows, attendings, nurses, and physician assistants.

PALS – $2.99 – Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) is a fully-featured flash card app that helps you learn how to effectively respond to a pediatric emergency. Perfect for doctors, nurses, paramedics, pediatricians, medical students or anyone interested in medicine.

Pronunciations/Translations

Taber’s Medical Dictionary – $49.95 – Taber’s Medical Dictionary is the most complete medical dictionary with over 60,000 entries, 9,000 new and revised terms, 1,000 illustrations, and 30,000 audio pronunciations.

Merriam-Webster Medical – Free – A concise guide to the essential language of medicine with more than 39,000 entries, including English audio pronunciations.

Medical Spanish – $6.99 – The Emergency Medical Spanish Guide (EMSG) is a tool designed for non-Spanish speaking health care professionals to quickly ascertain vital medical information from their patients.

Study Guides

Medical Mnemonics – $1.99 – Medical Mnemonics puts 1500+ clever acronyms, rhymes, and memory tricks on your Android, on topics ranging from Anatomy and Biochemistry to Pharmacology and Surgery.

MCAT Prep Chem – $2.99 – The MCAT Prep Chem app covers all of the aspects of MCAT prep; general & organic chemistry. All the content is arranged by topic and category for easy navigation.

MCAT Prep Bio – $2.99 – The MCAT Prep Bio app covers all the aspects of MCAT prep: molecular bio, genetics, etc. All the content is arranged by topic and category for easy navigation.

999 Medical Anatomy Terms – $1.29 – Multiple choice quiz, flashcards, and dictionary. Post your score online for global ranking. Record and review correct and incorrect answers with email. Text message quizzes to friends. Recent upgrades include hundreds of new heart, muscle, blood, CNS, and skeletal terms.

For a full list of medical apps for the Android operating system, check out the Android Marketplace on your smartphone or head over to the Android Library.

]]> http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/medical/the-best-android-apps-for-doctors-nurses-and-health-care-professionals-1062810/feed/ 4 http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/medical/the-best-android-apps-for-doctors-nurses-and-health-care-professionals-1062810/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SoftwareAdvice/Articles/~3/5mFvR_emLj4/ http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/accounting/is-horizontal-accounting-software-dead-1062310/#comments Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:44:10 +0000 Austin Merritt http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/?p=4712 More ...]]> Is “horizontal” accounting software dead?

Well, maybe not dead, but these days most organizations are looking for vertical solutions – software designed for their industry.

While every company needs accounting software, a surprisingly small number of firms are implementing horizontal (i.e. generic, cross-industry) accounting systems these days.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, horizontal accounting programs were the norm. Most enterprises were running accounting systems that were often expensive, difficult to maintain, and independent of other software applications (i.e. CRM, project management, inventory control, etc.). However, software buyers are increasingly implementing accounting systems designed for their specialized needs and usually integrated with other applications.

I should point out that we have noticed that this trend seems to vary with company size. Most very small companies (with a handful of employees and less than $1 million in annual revenue) looking for a $200-$500 accounting system will opt for generic packages such as Quickbooks, Peachtree, or Simply Accounting. However, once buyers get above the $1 million to $2 million annual revenue range, they tend to seek out industry-specific or integrated solutions.

Intuit’s strategy of offering vertical-specific editions of Quickbooks (contractors, manufacturing/wholesale, retail, professional services, and nonprofit) is testament to this buying behavior. The goal of the industry-focused editions is to keep users on Quickbooks and to prevent them from replacing it with an industry-specific system.

A review of buyer preferences in three of the industries Software Advice covers illustrates this interest. For buyers with more than $1 million in annual revenue:

• 93% of construction firms looking for accounting software prefer a suite integrated with other modules (usually project management, cost estimating, or service management);
• 100% of manufacturers prefer an integrated suite with MRP and/or shop floor control over a standalone accounting system; and,
• 98% of real estate and property management firms are looking for accounting software integrated with budgeting, facilities maintenance, and/or lease management.

While once prevalent among larger companies, the older, standalone accounting programs are becoming obsolete as new technologies and market conditions arise.

Here are 5 trends that are killing horizontal accounting software:

1. Executives don’t want a standalone system anymore. Most seasoned executives are realizing that integration provides transparency across multiple aspects of the enterprise, and that having one system to cover multiple departments is a great way to achieve that visibility. It is also simpler and usually more cost-effective to maintain one system as opposed to several.
2. IT buyers want to see systems designed specifically for their “unique” needs. Everyone seems to think their business is different, even if it isn’t the case. Standalone accounting systems are inherently generic. The specialty-specific features of a system are typically found in the automation of other processes (shop floor control, project management, inventory control, etc.) that are removed from accounting. As a result, buyers seeking specialty-specific solutions naturally shy away from “generic” accounting applications and implement complete packages.
3. The emergence of Software as a Service (SaaS). SaaS enables collaboration and communication that were either very difficult or not achievable with older client-server systems. This collaboration enables companies to implement expansive systems to tie the enterprise together more easily. Since a lot of these collaborative capabilities will be used by employees across multiple departments, SaaS systems tend to naturally offer much more than just accounting.
4. The consumerization of the enterprise. For those new to this phrase, I would define it as “the process by which consumer technologies become prevalent in the workplace, disrupting the status quo of outdated enterprise technology and practices.” A number of research firms have reported that decision-makers are opting for systems that support modern technologies and trends (remote access with mobile devices, integration with social media, open, standard-based systems, etc.). This adoption will naturally squeeze out horizontal accounting systems because they can offer only one function or cannot support the “must-have” consumer needs.
5. Software vendors reacting to and further fulfilling the trend. As accounting software companies recognize this trend, they naturally begin offering additional modules and customizations built for specific needs and narrow vertical markets. Their customers then implement these packages, catalyzing the decline of generic, standalone accounting software. This is epitomized by the incredibly large number of options and packages available with accounting systems that were formerly horizontal: Sage MAS 90/200, Quickbooks, Microsoft Dynamics, Epicor, and Infor, to name a few. They all know that they need to go deep into industry verticals and other business functions to stay alive.

We expect the decline of horizontal accounting to continue indefinitely, as many of the above 5 trends are still young. See any other trends killing horizontal accounting software? Let me know below.

 

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