Odoo Magento Connector

Odoo Magento Connector Benefits For Your Business

In today’s digital age, e-commerce platforms like Magento are gaining immense popularity as more and more businesses are moving online. However, managing a large volume of data across different platforms can be a tedious task, and errors in data management can lead to disastrous consequences. This is where the Odoo Magento Connector comes in.

Key Functionalities of Odoo Magento Connector :

  • Product Synchronization: Odoo Magento connector allows you to synchronize products between Odoo and Magento. You can easily update product details, such as price, description, and stock levels, from Odoo to Magento, and vice versa.
  • Sales Order Synchronization: It also enables you to synchronize sales orders between Odoo and Magento. You can easily manage and track sales orders from both platforms.
  • Customer Synchronization: It allows you to synchronize customer data between Odoo and Magento. You can easily create and manage customer accounts, as well as track customer orders and purchases.
  • Inventory Management: With the Odoo Magento connector, you can manage your inventory across both platforms. You can easily track stock levels, set minimum and maximum stock thresholds, and automate inventory updates.
  • Shipping and Tracking: It also allows you to manage to ship and tracking information. You can easily create and manage shipments, track orders, update order status, and much more.
  • Multi-channel Selling: It enables you to sell across multiple channels, such as e-commerce websites, brick-and-mortar stores, and marketplaces.
  • Improved Efficiency: Odoo Magento Connector can streamline and improve your business processes. You can easily manage your products, orders, and customers from a single platform.
  • Real-time Data Sync: The Odoo Magento connector ensures that data is synced in real-time between Odoo and Magento. This means that you always have accurate and up-to-date information on product inventory, sales orders, and customer data.

Overall, the Odoo Magento Connector offers companies a solid connectivity solution that enhances efficiency and streamlines processes. Businesses can reduce errors, save time, and boost customer satisfaction by automating crucial business operations and synchronizing data between Odoo and Magento.

Factors to consider before choosing an Odoo Magento Connector provider:

When it comes to selecting an Odoo Magento Connector provider, there are several factors that you should consider. Here are some of the most important ones:

  • Experience: Look for a provider with a proven track record of successfully implementing Odoo Magento Connector for other clients. Check their portfolio and references to see if they have experience in your industry and can meet your specific needs.
  • Customization: Ensure that the provider can customize the connector to fit your business requirements. Every business is unique, so the connector should be tailored to your needs.
  • Integration: Check if the Odoo partner has experience with the Odoo connector. Check how many implementation partner has. If they have connector it is good to go with them.

  • Support:

    Consider the level of support offered by the provider. Do they offer 24×7 support, and how quickly do they respond to queries? What kind of training and documentation do they provide?

  • Pricing: Get a clear understanding of the pricing structure.  And are there any hidden costs? Will there be extra charges for customization, integration, and ongoing support?
  • Security: Make sure that the provider follows best practices for data security and privacy. Check if they comply with relevant regulations, such as GDPR, and if they use encryption and other security measures to protect your data.
  • Scalability: Consider if the provider can handle your current needs and future growth. Will the connector be able to handle increasing volumes of data and traffic as your business expands?

Benefits of working with Odoo Gold Partner 

As a Gold Partner, Bista Solutions has met the all standards set by Odoo for quality and customer satisfaction, making sure that you receive a high quality solution. There are several reasons why you should choose us  as your Odoo Magento Connector provider for your business:

    • Most Awarded “Best Odoo Gold Partners” (2022, 2021, 2018, 2016 & 2014)
    •  200+ Successful custom App development
    •  250+ expert Odoo Developers
    •  350+ Odoo Implementations
    • Most Trusted Odoo Gold partners
    • Expert Consultant Team
    • Global presence in 10+ countries
    • 24/7 Support Available

Whether you’re running an e-commerce store, a manufacturing business, or a retail and wholesale operation, the Odoo Magento Connector can help you streamline your data management, reduce errors, and boost your sales. So why wait? Take the first step towards optimizing your business operations today by trying out the Odoo Magento Connector Connect With Us Today!!

Odoo 10 Barcode module

Odoo 10 Barcode module
  • by bista-admin
  • Apr 21, 2017
  • 0
  • Category:

Introduction to Odoo 10 Barcode module:

Odoo formerly known as OpenERP and before that tiny ERP is a suite of enterprise management applications. Targeting companies of all sizes, the application suite includes billing, accounting, warehouse management, project management, etc. Odoo offers various modules and one of these is Odoo 10 Barcode Module.

A few months ago only Odoo launched its version 10 with all new features. It is a platform for which we can say “All Applications Under One Roof”.

Barcode Module:

This module adds support for barcode scanning and parsing

Scanning

Utilize a USB scanner to work with standardized identifications in Odoo. The scanner must be arranged to utilize no prefix and a carriage return or tab as an addition. The deferral between each character input must not be exactly or equivalent to 50 ms. Most tags will work out of the box. We must be assured that the scanner uses the same keyboard layout as the device it’s plugged in.

Parsing

The barcodes are interpreted using the rules defined by a nomenclature. It has the following features: Patterns to identify barcodes containing a numerical value(e.g weight, price, etc ). Definition of barcode allows identifying the same product with different barcodes, support for endings EAN-13, EAN-8, and UPC-A

Barcode application is implemented for 3 applications as of now Stock, MRP, and Event.

FOR STOCK

Barcode scanning can be helpful to find the shipping transfer, performing some predefined operations like cancel, validate, edit… instantly by scanning it from the report printed from the shipping transfer itself.

1st on Shipping:

barcode1

The barcode on pickings can be used to find and process the pickings via scanner, where the user needs to scan the barcode of shipping transfer displayed in the right upper corner. Once the user scans the barcode picking will be open as detailed on the barcode number.

2nd Operations and Pickings

barcode2

The above commands can be used to validate or perform actions defined on the page on the screen.

3rd on lots and serial numbers for products

barcode3

The above barcode can be used to add a lot number directly on picking lines, once the user scans the barcode of a lot number it will be added to picking lines automatically.

The above barcode can be used to add a lot of numbers directly on picking lines, once the user scans the barcode of a lot of numbers it will be added to picking lines automatically.
FOR MRP

Barcode scanning can be helpful to find the manufacturing order, performing some predefined operation like validate, cancel, edit… instantly by scanning it from the report printed from the manufacturing order itself.

1st on manufacturing

barcode4

Barcodes on manufacturing can be used to find and process the manufacturing via a scanner, where the user needs to scan the barcode of manufacturing displayed in the right upper corner. Once the user scans the barcode manufacturing will be open as detailed on the barcode number.

2nd Operations Manufacturing

barcode5

Above commands can be used to validate or perform actions defined on a page on the screen

FOR EVENT

This module adds support for barcode scanning to the event management system. A barcode is generated for each attendee and printed on the badge. When scanned, the registration is confirmed.

technical training

From the above screenshot, we could see that the minimum number of attendees could be 3 and the maximum could be unlimited. Tickets are created and after each registration, an email is sent to that person and then the ticket is scanned through a barcode, and only then the particular person could be eligible for that event.

Below is the way in which the tickets are scanned through barcodes. Technical Training is just an example of the event created.

barcode scanning

Please feel free to reach us using our contact form for any queries on Odoo and its related modules. You can also call us at +1 (858) 401-2332.

Row Level Security In Power BI With Different Database Instances

POWER BI
  • by bista-admin
  • Apr 20, 2017
  • 0
  • Category:

In this Blog, we will take you through how we can achieve row level security using Power BI. As a business user Power BI is a great data visualization tool. With its ease-of-use capabilities Power BI allows a user to create charts and visualization using many data sources. In an enterprise scenario, there may be multiple users using the same report. However, if they belong to different departments or regions, you may want to give them access to data specific to their department or region. Row level security allows you to specify which data is supposed to be accessed by which specific user.

To get row level security in Power BI for different database instances we need to create a DB-link in our database. DB-link is a one-way communication path between two different database servers which is used to access data from database either present on a single server or multiple servers. Power BI is a BI tool in which row level security can be achieved easily.

To create a link between two different database servers we need to fire a command in our database that will enable the database for DB connection (In our scenario we are considering the database as PostgreSQL.)

1) The command is – “Create extension dblink;”
The above command will load some new extensions in the database with the name as “dblink”. After firing the above command we will be able to connect to the database we want to connect with.  E.g. Fire the above command in database A so the database A  is now open for DB-link connection. Now we want database A to be connected with database B, for this to happen we need to create a connection from database A to B. The next command is for creating the connection between two different databases.

2) The command is – “select dblink_connect(‘myconn_B’,’hostaddr=<IP of database B> port=5432 dbname=<Name of database we want the connection with> user=<user name of the database> password=<Password for the database>);”

The above command will create a one-way connection between database A and database B.

The next step is to access the data from database B. We can do this by querying the database A that will access the data from database B. Since we are dealing with two databases, we need to have a unique identifier in both the databases that separates the two. If there is no such field which is different in both the databases then just create as pseudo field in our SQL statement as;  – “B” as branch in database B and “A” as branch in database A.

3) The SQL statement will be like:

 (

Select

“A” as branch,

category as category,

customer_name as customer,

location as Location,

lost_date as Lost_Date,

product_name as Product_Name

from lost_sales

)

union all

(

SELECT * FROM dblink(‘myconn_B’,’select

“B” as branch,

category as category,

customer_name as customer,

location as Location,

lost_date as Lost_Date,

product_name as Product_Name

from lost_sales’

) as

 t1(branch character varying, category character varying, customer character varying, Location character varying, Lost_Date as date, Product_Name character varying)

)

After creating and testing the above query with the output, go to your Power BI desktop application and in modelling section select the option manage roles. Create a new role, give it an appropriate name and click on the name of the dataset. From there select the field (in this case we will select the branch field) for users who only need to see the data for branch A. For those users select the appropriate data set name and select branch type [Branch]=”A” and to those for whom we just want to show data for branch B, type [Branch]=”B”.

Next step is to enable cross-filtering feature in Power BI.

4) Go to Files then Options and Setting and from that select Options.

file

In left panel, you will find various options available select Preview Features from those options and check the box which says Enable cross-filtering in both the direction for the direct query.

options

Restart Power BI desktop application before start using this feature.

5) Publish the report in Power BI app service (app.powerbi.com). In dataset menu on the left panel of the screen, click on appropriate dataset name, select Security.

refresh

There will be a list of all the roles created. Select the appropriate role and enter the email address of the person you want to share your data with. Create a dashboard with that report and share that dashboard by entering the email address of that very individual. The dashboard shared with all the individuals will be able to see the data specific to their role.

This is how row-level security can be achieved in Power BI. We hope you will like the blog and share with your network.

Please reach out to sales@bistasolutions.com for any query pertaining to Power BI, business intelligence or analytics solutions.

5 Hidden Costs to Include If You Want Your ERP Budget to Be a Realistic One

ERP Budget

Introduction:

While implementation of an ERP, apart from the visible cost for implementation as assistance, hardware, software, and training. There are certain hidden costs that are not predicted hence not quoted. To ensure smooth usage of the system it is generally advisable to have as much beforehand knowledge of the system as possible. Cost being one of the most crucial concerns in any engagement it extremely essential to ensure in the primitive stage that you do not miss any scope in the respect. The motive of this blog is to cover the important costs associated with any ERP implementation that should be considered in any ERP implementation but generally remain hidden.

Following are few such hidden costs:

  1. Employee time investment:

When you move to an ERP system it is essential to consider the time involved when your employee is invested in learning the system, developing new processes to ensure proper ERP Software Customization. This cost remains unquoted as the employees are already on payroll while the ERP customization is on but it cannot be ignored that while the employee is working on the ERP development related processes, their contribution to their roles and  responsibilities are hampered and Employee being the engine in any organization it is essential to consider any cost associated with them and their time towards ERP implementation.

  1. Senior Role involvement:

Time Provided by Senior Executives should also be considered as their leadership plays a crucial role in ERP implementation. Senior Executives should also provide motivation to make sure implementation is on the right track.

  1. Maintenance:

The completion of ERP Implementation does not conclude the process. When users actually start using the system that is when they actually come to know the system better. Since it is a new system if they do face difficulties and need support to learn using the system. Getting acquainted with the system is essential for the employees as they are the one who actually has to use the system hence the cost incurred for support cannot be overlooked. Certain ERP software charge and an annual fee for maintenance and support, hence apart from the implementation it is essential for judge beforehand the cost associated with Software upgrades. A software upgrade may at times come up additional functionalities or change in the current functionality. It is must that the employees are updated with new development to make sure they make the most of the system.

  1. Coping up with changing needs:

The business process might also change in an organization over the period of time and accordingly, the ERP software might also need to be customized to accommodate the new processes. Hence it is very important to consider customization cost to make sure the chosen ERP won’t cost much if any customization needed in future.

  1. Support Charges:

Learning functionalities of an ERP system may take longer time than usual so it may be possible that your organization may want extended support. It is important to take additional support cost into an account.

This may not be the entire list for calculating additional cost for an ERP implementation but mentioned point are important if any organization wants to estimate the cost by considering various aspects for an ERP implementation.

If you have questions about finding the right ERP system for your business, or how to properly budget for it, please contact us at sales@bistasolutions.com. Our experts will be happy to talk with you.

For any queries or feedback, you can reach us at feedback@bistasolutions.com

Manage your sales Taxes better in Odoo V10

odoo v10
  • by bista-admin
  • Apr 11, 2017
  • 0
  • Category:

Introduction

Calculating the correct sales tax for an order can be quite a complicated task. Sales Taxes not only differ from state to state but can also be different within the zip code.

Also sales taxes can be different across products e.g. some states don’t charge taxes on shipping even though they may tax the actual product being shipped. So began the hunt for a solution that was relatively inexpensive, comprehensive and accurate and we found TaxCloud which is completely free.

What is TaxCloud?

TaxCloud handles every aspect of sales tax management, from collection to filling.

Sales Tax Calculation

Calculates sales tax in real time for every state, county, city, and special jurisdiction in the US Keeps track of which types of products are exempt from sales tax in which states Monitors changes to tax rates and tax holidays and updates data accordingly.

Reporting Features

Provides monthly reports, broken down by jurisdiction (state, county, city, etc).Manages sales tax exemption certificates.

Automated Compliance

TaxCloud has been certified to provide registration, filing, remittance, and audit response in the following 24 states:

states

 

The TaxCloud integration allows you to calculate the sales tax for every address in the United States and keeps track of which product types are exempt from sales tax and in which states each exemption applies. TaxCloud calculates sales tax in real-time for every state, city, and special jurisdiction in the United States.

TaxCloud is one of the six companies that is certified with SSTA (Streamline Sales Tax Agreement) which provides assurance regarding the accuracy of their data and TaxCloud has integration with most of the leading software solutions like Magento. TaxCloud is free because it is paid by the states where they file taxes and transfer the funds. TaxCloud provides for reporting, filing of taxes and also handles exemptions in situations such as sales to non profits, etc.

Configuration

In Tax Cloud

  • Create a free account on TaxCloud website.
  • Register your website on TaxCloud to get an API ID and an API Key.

tax-cloud

In Odoo

  • Go to Invoicing/Accounting ‣ Configuration ‣ Settings and check Compute sales tax automatically using TaxCloud. Click Apply, in those settings, enter your TaxCloud credentials.

account

  • Hit Sync TaxCloud Categories (TIC) to import TIC product categories from TaxCloud (Taxability Information Codes). Some categories may imply specific rates.

tax-cloud

  • Set default TIC Code and taxe rates. This will apply to any new product created. A default sales tax is needed to trigger the tax computation.
  • For products under a specific category, select it in its detail form (in Sales tab).
  • Make sure your company address is well defined (especially the state and the zip code). Go to Settings ‣ General Settings and click Configure your company data.

How it works

Automatic tax assignation works thanks to fiscal positions. A specific fiscal position is created when installing TaxCloud. Everything works out-of-the-box.

This fiscal position is set on any sales order, web order, or invoice when the customer country is United States. This is triggering the automated tax computation.

s009

Add a product with a default sales tax. Odoo will automatically send a request to TaxCloud, get the correct tax percentage based on the customer location (state and zip code) and product TIC category, create a new tax rate if that tax percentage does not already exist in your system and return it in the order item line (e.g. 7.0%).

s009-2

How to create specific tax mappings using TaxCloud

You can create several fiscal positions using TaxCloud. Check Use TaxCloud API to do so. Such fiscal postions can be assigned to customers in their detail form in order to get them by default whenever they buy you something.

fiscal

TaxCloud is safe and secure, all TaxCloud APIs operate only under SSL protocol. In addition, TaxCloud issue a unique ID and key for every merchant store/shopping cart. It does not store any of your customer data on their servers.

With this connector for Odoo OpenERP, we believe there is now a solution that can assist in filing sales taxes accurately, increase productivity and reduce the risk of the audit without incurring a per transaction fee.

Please feel free to reach us at sales@bistasolutions.com for any queries on odoo and its related modules. Also, you can write us through feedback@bistasolutions.com and tell us how this information has helped you.

Odoo V10 Magento Connector

magneto connector

Introduction

This is the new release of the open source connector linking Odoo and Magento also known under the name of Magento ERP connector. It is built on top of the connector framework. It is structured so that it can be extended or modified easily from separate add-ons a factor of success when the implementation of Odoo varies a lot. Odoo V10 Magento connector is a part of OCA(Odoo Community Association). The connector is designed to have a strong and efficient core with the ability to extend it with extension modules or local customizations.

In other words, we could say that the core module contains minimal scope to run your eCommerce with Odoo and Magento. More advanced features can be installed using extensions.

Features:

  1. Import the address book and partners

  2. Import the categories of products with translations.

  3. Import sales order

  4. Import customer groups.

  5. Export the delivery order status

  6. Export the tracking numbers.

  7. Creating invoices on Magento and getting their numbers back.

  8. Export of stock quantities with the configuration of the warehouse and an option to use the stock field.

Automatizations

  1. Use the automatic workflows to automatize the workflow of sales according to the payment method(confirm orders, create and reconcile payments).

  2. Per payment method choose when the orders are imported(only when payment is captured/authorized)

  3. Use the exception of the sale to prevent the processing of sale orders with issues.

Odoo V10 Magento Connector Workflow

Odoo Magento Connector WorkflowWith the Odoo Magento connector, you can process your orders automatically by linking your e-shop to the Open source ERP.

Why choose Odoo for an e-shop?

  1. Data Synchronization:customers,products,stocks,orders etc.

  2. Workflows automation: logistics and financial workflows related to much other processing.

  3. Robust, designed to handle high volumes: several thousands of orders per day.

  4. Multishop, multi languages, multi-currency and multi stock

This Magento extension provides additional API methods for use by multi-website,multi-store,multi-product categories, etc.

The Magento Connector is made accessible as an effortlessly installable and configurable module for OpenERP. Clients can deal with various web-based business frameworks through a solitary interface and in addition numerous stores inside a solitary internet business framework.

Ongoing sync of the stock framework is commanded keeping in mind the end goal to keep up fast reaction time, while others are rendered configurable. This new form of OpenERP/Odoo-Magento Connector is a perfect, sans bug answer for organizations looking to successfully interface and synchronize their OpenERP framework with the element-rich Magento to address different custom necessities.

This Magento Connector construct that came about because of a decent comprehension of continuous business cases has empowered Bista to effectively deal with the coordination of different work processes, creating a few fulfilled clients.

Assist, the Odoo Magento Integration incorporated framework when sent on cloud facilitated servers ends up being a snappy reacting, exceptionally versatile, secure, and financially savvy innovative arrangement that helps you develop, as well as develop with you.

We Hope this detailed walk of the Odoo V10 Magento Connector helps you drive your businesses. For more insights on the connector get in touch with us through sales@bistasolutions.com.

Odoo Openerp: U.A.E. Localization

  • by bista-admin
  • Apr 03, 2017
  • 0
  • Category:

Odoo OpenERP: U.A.E. Localization

Odoo is the fastest-growing ERP software in the world right now. With more than 2 million users functioning on it and with new extensions that integrate other business functions such as CRM, CMS, and E-Commerce, it has incontrovertibly become the most coveted free software by businesses worldwide.

What is more compelling is the fact that it is extensively customizable to the whims directed by the programmer, operated by the most advanced intelligence and logical foundation that currently exists. This paves the way for further manipulation of the design and interface to the user’s very specific needs. Coming with a professional support and warranty like other countries just to adds its viability.

There are almost more than 200 localization apps for different countries such as Russia, Ukraine, India, Indonesia, Algeria etc.

Odoo/OpenERP U.A.E. Localization was planned to give all U.A.E. guidelines and practices in odoo/opener to make it more versatile in advertisements.To accomplish this we have executed different modules

Giving standard U.A.E bookkeeping rehearses like one accomplice one record, adjust by an accomplice and so forth.

Aside from this, we have additionally actualized standard practices of HR alongside Self Service Portal, WBS File Generation, Gratuity, ISPF, and ESIC announcing.

This localization contains standard accounting practices Thar being followed by U.A.E. accountants and accepted by U.A.E accountants.

Odoo OpenERP localization means to create odoo openerp database with custom localizations i.e. with country currency and country specific chart of accounts and legal reports (trial balance, balance sheet and income statement, profit and loss statement).

Features of this localization

1.Separate account creation per partner

2.Accounting entries as per norms and legal practices

3.Separate account for suppliers and customers

4.Bank account reconciliation

5.Customer payment due reporting

The accounting profession in U.A.E has been growing remarkably with its growth.During the early days of the formation of the country, most of the accounting profession was held by Asians.With the expansion of U.A.E and so remarkable growth in its accounting.

ERP Accounting:

The manual accounting of the good ‘old days has been overlooked after the landing of ERP. With more business open doors and bookkeepers from everywhere throughout the world, we can see utilization of assortment of ERP in the district. Global programming from SAP, Oracle, Sage, QuickBooks, Peachtree to local particular programming resembles Tally, Focus, and so forth to privately engaged programming resembles Comrade.

Budgeting & Analysis:

The underlying motivation behind having the bookkeeper from an agent was simply to comprehend the productivity of the business and to comprehend the money related position. Yet, today the part has expanded to planning, dissecting, costing, and so forth.

MIS Reporting:

There is parcel of MNC’s working in UAE and they have impacted the way of life of MIS Reporting in the area. Consequently, month to month shutting off the books of records has likewise picked up the parcel of noticeable quality.

Leadership:

Money is the Lifeblood of any business and since bookkeeper is the person who works the trade out the business his part has been expanding. The part of a bookkeeper is developing in the transaction with money related establishments, providers, clients and other key partners. The UAE has an effective SME area and more often than not bookkeeper is the fund administrators of the organization.

we hope this short snippet would have helped you in getting some insights of Odoo Openerp UAE Localization. Stay tuned for more information on odoo.

Please feel free to reach us at sales@bistasolutions.com for any queries on odoo and its related modules. Also, you can write us through feedback@bistasolutions.com and tell us how this information has helped you.

Odoo V10 Amazon Connector Module

  • by bista-admin
  • Mar 31, 2017
  • 0
  • Category:

Introduction:

It can integrate, amazon-sellers manage and connect all your amazon seller account operations from odoo and can save your time by instantly entering items and inventory data to amazon.It is being very much essential to amazon seller account with odoo, if you are a seller on Amazon Marketplace and using odoo for all other business operations.

Odoo Amazon Connector module automates your vital business processes and eliminates the need for manual data-entry in odoo by enabling bi-directional data exchange between Amazon Marketplace and Odoo.

Amazon Seller Account Management is so easy in Odoo:

Firstly the user must be given all the access rights so that it is easy to go through the whole integration process of amazon.

After the complete installation of the module, an instance is to be created in amazon in which the credentials are needed such as access key, marketplace id, secret key and merchant id etc.

We can see from the image described below:

amazon1

Then by clicking on amazon and then on shops, e could see that a shop has been created as follows:

amazon2

By clicking on this the whole detailed description could be seen and various important parameters are there-

amazon3

Request Products Report means that whenever we click on this the report status of the product will be checked and secondly an unique id is generated for every product as mentioned and you could also see in the above image.

Import products means the same products which are present on the website of amazon could be integrated with odoo as well and their price and quantity could be updated as well which directly could be seen on the amazon website.

Import inventory is linked with the inventory adjustments in inventory module and import orders with the sale orders in sales module and we could see those orders from amazon website.

amazon4

Fulfillment by Merchant/Merchant Fulfilled Network

Merchant fulfilled network simply refers to sellers shipping their own products directly from homes, businesses or warehouse after receiving their orders through Amazon.This means that locating the stock, packing the orders, arranging for the shipping and providing all customer service is the direct responsibility of the seller.

One clear advantage of using merchant fulfilled network is that amazon sellers can ensure that the packaging is completely safe.Sellers can also create custom packaging to differentiate their Amazon store from competitors.

Merchant Fulfilled Network sellers have the advantage of packaging and shipping their products exactly the way they want. But, that means they also have to pick, pack, ship, and handle customer service.

This was all about Odoo-Amazon Connector Module of Odoo version 10.

Please feel free to reach us at sales@bistasolutions.com for any queries on odoo and its related modules. Also, you can write us through feedback@bistasolutions.com and tell us how this information has helped you.

 

MACHINE LEARNING

machine learning

Introduction:

Machine Learning is the advanced method of data analysis which iteratively learns from the data. Today, Machine Learning is not limited to the books or the theoretical knowledge only, it has crossed its limit and benefitting the entire world. As a new breed of software that can learn without being explicitly programmed, machine learning (and deep learning) can access, analyze, and find patterns in Big Data  in a way that is beyond human capabilities.

Evolution of Machine Learning:

Machine Learning is not new and it was discovered in 1950’s with simple and basic algorithms, but why it has gained so much of popularity in recent years? Because of new computing technologies, machine learning today is not like machine learning of the past. It was born from the pattern recognition but now it can adapt the new data behavior from the previous computations. It has gained the ability to learn the problem-solving approach without being explicitly programmed for every single task.

The machine learning has changed the mindsets. Now, the things are possible which we cannot even think earlier.

Here are a few widely-publicized examples of machine learning applications you may be familiar with:

  • A self-driving Google car. The essence of machine learning.

  • Amazon and Netflix recommendations for daily life.

  • Fraud detection.

Why is Machine Learning Important?

Let’s look at the facts, why machine learning is so important? There are several reasons:

  • The four V’s (Volume, Variety, Velocity & Veracity) of Big Data which really needs to handle more accurate and in an efficient manner.

  • Machine Learning made it possible to quickly and automatically produce models that can analyze bigger, more complex data and deliver faster, more accurate results – even on a very large scale and avoid unknown risks.

Who’s using it?

Most of the industries are using “Machine Learning” technology, especially those who are working with a large amount of dataset on daily basis. They understand the value of machine learning technology.

The sectors, who are using machine learning on a large scale have been discussed below:

Financial services

The financial industries like banks or other businesses using machine learning technology to fulfill their two important objectives: to identify the important insights of the data and prevent fraudulent activities. The insights can help to introduce new services and to understand their customers to serve them in a better way.

Marketing and sales

The machine learning helps to recommend and promote items you’d be interested in. It’s completely based on your past product interest and your purchase history. It captures the data, analyze it and uses it to personalize the shopping experience. The companies also using these analyses for many other things like running campaigns or offers etc.

Machine Learning Methods:

Two of the most commonly used machine learning methods are Supervised Learning and Unsupervised Learning – but there are also other methods of machine learning.

Supervised learning 

The majority of practical machine learning uses a supervised learning. All data is labeled and the algorithms learn to predict the output from the input data.

Supervised learning problems can be further categorized into two categories:

  • Classification: A classification problem is when the output variable is a category, such as “A” or “B” or “Yes” and “No”.

  • Regression: A regression problem is when the output variable is a real value, such as “rupees” or “weight”.

Explanation:

Algorithms are trained using labeled examples, such as an input where the desired output is known. For example, a part or a product could have data points labeled either “S” (stock) or “O” (out). The learning algorithm receives a set of inputs along with the corresponding defined outputs, and the algorithm learns by comparing its actual output with defined outputs to find the differences. It then modifies the model accordingly. Supervised learning is commonly used in applications where historical data points are likely to predict future. For example, it can anticipate when the order attempt is likely to be random or a genuine.

Unsupervised learning 

Unsupervised learning is where you only have input data (X) and no corresponding output variables.

These are called unsupervised learning because unlike supervised learning above there is no correct answers or defined labels. Algorithms are left to their own devices to discover and present the interesting structure in the data.

Unsupervised learning problems can be further categorized into two categories:

  • Clustering: A clustering problem is where you want to discover the inherent groupings in the data, such as grouping customer types by their purchasing behavior.

  • Association:  An association rule learning problem is where you want to discover rules that describe large portions of your data, such as people that buy eggs also tend to buy bread.

Semi-Supervised learning 

Problems where you have a large amount of input data (X) and in that only some of the data is labeled (Y) are called semi-supervised learning problems. The semi-supervised learning method is closely related to Supervised and Unsupervised methods.

Most of the real-world problems deal with the semi-supervised learning method because in the real world most of the data inputs are partially labeled. It’s easy to get and store the unsupervised data.

The scope of Machine Learning:

Machine Learning is a large future promising scope. It mainly focuses on neural network data processing algorithms. In the near future, we will be able to deny that a computer does not have IQ.

What Yet to Come?

There are several things which are yet to come, among of all some of them are listed below:

  • Real -Time speech translation.

  • Prolonging the mobile devices battery life – will prevent the unnecessary consumptions of the battery from apps.

  • Neural-Network running on our mobile devices.

  • Health and Fitness -will detect and help to cure diseases.

  • Cyber security optimization.

Worldwide dedicated teams are working on a large scale to make “Machine Learning” more accurate and reliable for taking complex business decisions.Do let us know your feedback on feedback@bistasolutions.com or you can reach out to us at sales@bistasolutions.com

Business Intelligence And Analytics In The Cloud

The Story So Far

The invention of supercomputers brought down computation speeds considerably. The evolution of such computers in the 50’s and 60’s brought down the costs of acquiring and using one for day to day purposes. More and more organizations wanted these machines for complex computations which led to the birth of Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.

  • Material resource planning (MRP) systems were the first set of proper automated planning systems to be used by manufacturers for production planning.

  • In the 70’s and 80’s planning and data management spread to other functions such as human resources, finance, accounting.

  • The 90’s then brought about the commercial use of Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics.

It was the need of the hour for companies to use the data they were gathering for insight into various aspects of the business and derive decisive actions to increase their competitive advantage. Not to mention, reduce costs across the organization.

Thus, organizations started storing each and every type of data that they could think with the pretext of using it for some form of analysis in the future. Storing every bit of information required lots of infrastructure and associated costs.

  • The larger companies had the capacity to invest in servers for storing and processing data.

  • The smaller and medium enterprises (SME’s) could not, however.

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In the advent of the Dot-com bubble, Data center’s sprung up all over the world due to high-speed internet connectivity. This allowed the SME’s to collaborate with companies who had setup up data center’s and allow their data to be stored at these data center’s and use the data center infrastructure for data processing. This setup henceforth was commonly referred to as cloud computing.

Business Intelligence as a concept has been existing for a few centuries. With the breakthrough of supercomputers came the technological side of BI which meant completing a task faster than what it would take if it was to be completed by a human. Because the technology was expensive and required a lot of space it was not common for organizations to invest in technology for the purposes of using BI. Only when personal computers were invented and then tools like Lotus notes and Microsoft Excel were accessible, organizations of all sizes ventured into using technology for BI purposes. These tools also gave users a chance to represent data in a graphical format thus allowing a better way of analyzing data and their business.

The Last Decade

The rise of spreadsheet-based tools provided end users the perfect platform for ad-hoc analysis and represent that graphically in the most intrusive form. The dominance of these tools was categorised to its ease-of-use, features, quick report and graph building turn-around-time, ease of sharing between users, the wide variety of formatting options.

  • All major ERP systems had to get themselves compatible with these tools.

  • They had to ensure data could not only be an uploaded from the spreadsheet into the ERP but could be extracted from the same ERP in a spreadsheet format.

Thus, spreadsheets became the most common tool of use because the users could extract data, perform the analysis, draw results whether in a tabular form or graphical and present it using only one platform throughout the analysis procedure.

This was all very good for organizations of all sizes. But spreadsheets still had one and only one major drawback. The technological incapacity to process data beyond a certain point. Moreover, organizations irrespective of their size started to realize the power of BI and the positive effect it had on business. Thus, started the evolution of BI tools.

  • Tools which had one and one only objective; provide means for importing, analyzing and/or presenting information using large volumes of data or Big data which could not be done by any available spreadsheets.

  • Most tools that existed in the market worked in silos.

  • Some could only perform ETL operations or provide means of aggregating data or provide a superior formatting and presentation platform.

But there weren’t any known tools which could do everything together and everything efficiently. They probably were prominent and one dimensional and were trying to evolve into a one-stop shop for BI and analytics.

Albeit, a lot of them evolved in the same direction as the requirements of the BI end users i.e. their core was BI and analytics and rest of the features were built upon this core. Tableau, Jaspersoft, Qlikview, SpagoBI were some of them that evolved into excellent tools each one creating its own space in the market. The only thing common between them was a desktop based application where the user would create content and a web-based platform for sharing that content. Thus, all of them were trying to provide the similar output which includes a long list of BI requirements. These include data collaboration, data discovery, master data management, data quality, data integration, data visualisation, data analytics, data science, data storytelling, predictive analytics, cloud BI, Hadoop and Big data, self-service BI.

The next few years…

With BI being a focus for almost all companies the market is now flooded with all kinds of tools. Each competing for some space or the other. However, this cluttered segment shall not remain for too long. Just like how SAP and Oracle created their own niche in their ERP segment, two or three of the mentioned players shall do the same in the comes months or years. This will change once organizations start looking at BI tools with more than a generalistic way i.e. prefer BI tools based on certain set of features. For example, some of them have already started preferring tools which give an excellent could based platform. Thus, from the long list of BI requirements, the following might be a trend in BI and analytics space for the next few years. The top three include:

  1. Master data management

In BI space master data management is the equivalent of data consolidation from various silos into a combined set. A lot of organizations even today have data stored in different module across different erps. This makes BI and analytics extremely difficult since data is spread far and wide and the time consumed on ensuring data quality is not compromised during the consolidation process. In other words, we can say data quality and data management go hand in hand. Organizations always relied on ETL tools but now shall look for an integrated platform. What this feature does is allows flexibility for organizations that do not have data on one platform and therefore spend time on merging data. This will also evolve into tools allowing combination data from all platforms available i.e. if sales data, supplier information, manufacturing data, warehousing are all on different servers the BI tool shall provide the capability of coming this within its own environment as required by the end user. This is irrespective of a size of data existing in each of the data sources being imported into the BI tool. This will majorly reduce the time to insight which actually is the main objective of any BI tool.

  1. Self-service BI

Although most BI tools have the objective of end users creating content and using that for analyses, each BI tool has its own learning curve. Moreover, if the learning curve is steep most users tend to give up on a tool thereby adapting or adopting the one they were using earlier. The flipside of this is content creation on these tools is then handed over to the IT team of the organization as they would have a smoother learning curve. This would then lead to a lot of back and forth communication and dependency on the IT team. The efficiency of achieving the desired result would not be high as compared to a self-service BI. This means each user is capable of creating his/her own content without the support of their IT team. This will allow fast turnaround times for insight and is a huge factor for our next trend, Mobile BI.

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  1. Mobile BI

The evolution of Laptops might have led to the ease of sharing business insights across geographies. But this had created device dependencies. While BI was growing across the world and establishing its requirement for every organization, the smartphone market was born. Before half of the world recognized the impact BI could have on businesses almost all the users creating BI content or at least consuming it had a smartphone. All the BI tools mentioned earlier took the smartphone evolution as another stepping stone and use this platform to evolve their own products. They tried to provide a similar platform if not exactly the same for developing BI content on a smartphone. The features being the same, only an extension to the existing desktop platform. It may not be easy to extrapolate the impact of using BI on a smartphone today. But with more and more businesses adopting smartphones and tablets as their choice of device for means of communication and day-to-day use Mobile BI shall be the next sought after requirement in BI and analytics.

For more insights on Business Intelligence and Analytics feel free to get in touch with us through sales@bistasolutions.com, you can also write your feedback on how this blog has helped you at feedback@bistasolutions.com.