ISS Group joins this year’s PUG Challenge Americas as a Silver sponsor…!

Join worldwide Progress OpenEdge ® users and developers at PUG Challenge Americas 2013 June 9-12, 2013 in Westford, MA (PUG Challenge Website). PUG Challenge is the ultimate independent face-to-face forum for exchanging ideas, tips and best practices on the Progress suite of technology tools. The conference begins Sunday June 9, with workshops from 1pm to 5pm and an evening Welcome Reception. Breakout sessions start Monday morning and run until Wednesday noon with evening events on Monday and Tuesday nights.

Expert speakers from Progress Software and the community present over 40 technical sessions plus many workshops, info exchanges and commercial sessions, this conference is the destination for guidance on real-world OpenEdge innovations. The conference mixes both the old and the new with practical, technical insight. Browse through last year’s sessions, speakers and choices to get a taste for this event!

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The post 9 May | Encore Performance of BPI Solutions for QAD EA Overview appeared first on ISS Group.

Click here to receive a copy of the Presentation

The post 18 April | Business Process Improvement Solutions for QAD EA Overview appeared first on ISS Group.

Unfortunately, this bodes badly for purchaser/supplier relations.

Harsh, margin-busting negotiations can create volatile and animosity-filled supplier relationships. Since suppliers play an integral role in a company’s reputation today – from product quality and sustainability to labor practices – these practices put a company at risk. And at the end of the day, buying organizations can still only guess whether they’re getting the best possible value.

Fortunately, there’s a better approach to negotiation; Lending Tree’s slogan says it best: “When banks compete, you win.” The same is true in the supply chain – when suppliers compete, you win.

That’s the beauty of e-Sourcing. ISS Group has developed a solution, iRFQ™, specifically for this purpose. Instead of back and forth negotiations with suppliers, sourcing professionals request a quote (RFQ) to a collection of qualified suppliers telling them exactly what they need and letting the suppliers compete against each other. There’s no need to haggle; if a supplier wants your business, they will put their best offer forward.

By removing yourself from the negotiation and putting the supplier in control, supplier relationships are strengthened. The process is much easier, on the buying organization, and is almost guaranteed to save a huge amount of time and money.

The post Who wins when Suppliers compete, YOU do…! appeared first on ISS Group.

If you’re like most organizations, your Purchasing Contracts are your Achilles’ heel. Often, the biggest problem is finding them. And if your contracts aren’t at your fingertips, how can you be sure you’re buying what you negotiated and realizing your full saving potential? You can’t.

Introducing ISS Group’s Contract Catalogues.

Problem solved:

Contract Catalogues enforce any and all negotiated prices at the time of requisition; automatically tracks your spend and savings; and alerts you to critical commitment timelines and expiration dates. All while seamlessly integrating with your procurement processes.

Purchasing contracts are one of your most important tools for cost-effectively conducting business with your suppliers. You negotiate the terms carefully – now make sure you’re getting the most out of them!

Customers with ISS Group’s iPurchase™ Catalogues will:

• Enjoy easier, more secure access to purchasing contracts
• Reap savings via contract enforcement at time of purchase
• Gain visibility into purchase orders, invoice spend and total savings over a      contract’s lifetime
• Prevent saving leakage with proactive contract monitoring
• Improve contract negotiation with suppliers

For further information on this, or any of ISS Group’s Business Process Improvement (BPI) solutions, please stop by our Website, register for a live Webinar, view a taped presentation, schedule a one-on-one Web or face-to-face presentation, or just contact our sales group directly at sales @issgroup.net, or 888-547-7476; and we’ll be happy to assist with any questions or business issues/challenges you may be encountering.

The post Do you know where your Contracts are? appeared first on ISS Group.

My CFO counterparts and I typically believe that the finance organization has control of spend whether it is coming through procurement, invoicing, or expense reports. Unfortunately the amount of control, the ability to realize savings and the processing cost vary greatly between these approaches.

When I implemented a spend approval process that required a similar amount of scrutiny for invoices that are not backed by purchase requests and purchase orders as I would demand for the PO process itself, I realized how much these differences in approaches are often driving maverick spending — taking away savings opportunities from the organization.

The CPO cringes when they hear someone say “just expense it” because they know there is likely to be a missed savings opportunity. Why is this phrase something that most people recognize? It’s because the alternative way to spend money is often cumbersome, hard to use, difficult to access and limited in scope. ISS Group’s  iPurchase™ has changed all this.

We have seen some organizations try to address the challenges of the approval silos by directive – “no invoices without a PO” and “No purchases of goods will be reimbursed on an expense report.” While these approaches may, in the short term, lead to better spend results and somewhat eliminate a certain amount of maverick spending, they also come at a significant productivity and processing cost.

ISS Group has a better way. Manage all of your silos of spend as a cohesive unit, optimizing approval routing, use of contract pricing, and efficient and streamlined processing. This, in turn will help capture the maximum amount of savings.

The post Approval Silo’s Driving Maverick Spend appeared first on ISS Group.

15 November 2012 | iRFQ Webinar | According to the Aberdeen Group (Supplier Networks v2.0: A Look at Commerce in the Cloud, 2012), Best-in-Class companies utilize technology to perform procurement functions such as:

• Sourcing of Suppliers
• Preparing Requests for Proposals
• Transmitting Electronic Purchase Orders
• Exchanging and Archiving Compliance Documents
• Transmitting PO Change Orders
• Tracking Spend against Budget
• Electronic Catalog Connectivity (punch-out)
• Catalog Management
• Supplier Collaboration

ISS Group has been developing solutions over the past decade to satisfy the requirements for these and many other business functions. Our iPurchase™ eProcurement solution is being used by QAD end-user organizations throughout the U.S. to address the functional areas Aberdeen deems vital, in addition to utilizing our powerful and highly user configurable (no programming necessary!) iApprove™ Rules Based Approval Routing Engine for controlling maverick spend.

With the release of our new iRFQ module (developed based on the requirements of two very prominent QAD end-user organizations), we are excited that we now address another one of the functional areas which Aberdeen highlights as a process which is used by Best-in-Class companies for procurement.

Click here to watch recorded Webinar

The post 15 November | iRFQ Webinar (Recorded) appeared first on ISS Group.

“This alliance adds significant value to our product and service offerings’ for MSCRM,” states Andy Weinstein, ISS Group CEO. “We were in search of a business partner who would complement our practice, who was experienced providing CRM solutions and services to the manufacturing industry, and who also had deep technical knowledge of the MSCRM Software Developer Kit (SDK) in order to support the ISSG iBridge integration solution, a solution which connects MSCRM with QAD EA in real-time. After a number of discussions between ISSG and PDG, one of Microsoft’s leading MSCRM service providers, ISSG and PDG decided to form an alliance to bring our combined resources to our respective Clients as well as to the QAD EA user community”, says Mr. Weinstein.

“PDG has been a Microsoft Dynamics Partner for almost 20 years. They provide a variety of MSCRM services, including initial requirements gathering and project planning, software installation and configuration, customization design and development, integration with back-office applications, and training. By partnering with ISS Group we are now able to offer software application solutions which will extend the value of our clients investment in their core MSCRM implementations.”, says Rich Lederer, PDG CEO. “We at PDG are very excited about this relationship with ISSG, and look forward to working with ISSG in delivering a complete range of professional services and best of breed ad-value solutions to our respective clients and communities that we serve.”

About Pretty Darn Good Consultants, Inc., (PDG)

The PDG Consultants team includes seven consultants with diverse backgrounds and specialties. Their in-house knowledge of the entire Microsoft Dynamics platform makes it possible to provide comprehensive and tailored services to their clients. They have implemented CRM, ERP, and Business Intelligence solutions to businesses in the distribution, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, financial services, and transportation industries. For more information on PDG’s solutions and services, visit www.prettydarngood.com

About Integrated Systems & Services Group (ISS Group)

ISS Group was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in New Jersey. ISS Group has been providing IT solutions and services to Manufacturers and Wholesale Distributors since their inception, including implementation of various ERP, CRM and eCommerce applications. ISS Group has been a Microsoft Business Solutions Partner since 2001 reselling the Microsoft Dynamics CRM application, and is also a Microsoft Independent Software Vendor (ISV) offering integration tools and services which connect Microsoft Dynamics CRM to back-office ERP applications.

In addition to reselling and implementing Microsoft Dynamics CRM and eCommerce applications, over the past 10 years, ISS Group has dedicated significant resources to developing ‘ERP add-value’ solutions which improve specific business processes within an organization, including  electronic approval routing solutions, iApprove^TM, iPurchase^TM and iQuote^TM, and  integration and development tools, iBridge and iFramework. For more information on ISSG’s Solutions and Services, visit www.issgroup.com.

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Read the full study

The post How ISS Group Makes Progress – A Case Study by Progress Software appeared first on ISS Group.

Click here to watch recorded Webinar

Highlights / Features:

• Intuitive Web-based solution (Plug and Play!) – Expedited Training/Utilization
• Real-time integrated with QAD and will also operate in hybrid ERP environments
• eCommerce Shopping with all Major Suppliers (Punchouts)
• Supplier Catalog Management
• Rules Based Approval Routing
• Approval for non-PO Documents (ie; CapEx)
• QAD Work Order Integration at Line Level
• Project Budgeting/Tracking
• Charge PO to multiple Cost Centers
• Line Item Approval Capability
• Purchasing Analytics (UNSPSC)
• Integrated with eMail and Excel
• Mobile Functionality
• QAD Purchase Order Inquiry/Re-print (No QAD user licenses required for iPurchase!)

iPurchase Supplier Catalog Management

• Catalog Market Testing (Request For Quotation)
• Catalog Import Summary and Discrepancy Reporting
• Catalog Approval Routing
• Dynamic Rules-Based Approval Routing
• eCommerce Look and Feel
• Product Images
• Shopping Templates
• Multi-Vendor Shopping Carts
• Catalog Searching via Keyword and UNSPSC Categorization Hierarchy
• Auto Creation of Multiple Requisitions from Single Shopping Cart
• Multi-Currency Shopping Cart Recap by Supplier
• Configurable Data Elements
• Product Ratings

Click here to watch recorded Webinar

The post 16 August 2012 | iPurchase Webinar (Recorded) appeared first on ISS Group.