Which is the best online platform for eCommerce vendors ?

The Zerynth Platform

eCommerce websites are becoming one of the most powerful mediums for online buying and selling of goods & Services. Many companies are now focussing on their online store as it allows them cost-effective and sell the products and services at low rates as compared to bearing the expenses of virtual stores. E-commerce vendors.

There are many platforms available that an eCommerce vendor can choose from, but there is no distrust that Magento is considered one of the most influential eCommerce platforms. The reason behind this is being Open source Magento is one of the strong e-commerce platforms available today. With the massive success of websites like Etsy and ThemeForest, multi-vendor eCommerce marketplaces have become a popular way to sell both physical and digital products. They provide an easy method for you to host third-party vendors. Customers are happy because they get to choose from a wide selection of products, and you’re happy because you get to charge vendors a commission. But because of the unique functionality multi-vendor marketplaces require, you need specialized software to be able to effectively run one. Another important advantage of using Magento is that it enables the store owner to install, run & customize it easily.

Magento eCommerce store allows you to have integration with the payment gateways, Analytics other extensions, etc. It also allows you with variety of themes from which you can choose the most suitable for your store and products.

Some of the powerful services offered by Magento are as follows

– Quick operation

– Easy integration with 3rd party tools

– Categories and Product management

– Shipping management, order management

– Customizations as per user requirements.

– Strong Open source community

– Other support services are available

Apart from the above one of the most important features is that Magento is having user friendly interface.

How Busniess Process Management can improve business performance

Busniess Process Management

 Business Process Management

We always learnt during our management studies “Doing right things at a right time” to ensure smoothness in business operations and this can be accomplish when you have a proper processes in place from different department. It also applies where you are ensuring to contact right person in your organization to get the work done on time.

Business Process Management – workflow management helps you to increase and the capability of each department. The Company can easily track different processes of their departments to track the work completion. It allows you to take necessary actions in terms of delays in the work from one department. Apart from that business process management tools helps every employee to complete their duties and task with the help of certain clicks.

Another advantage of a BPM tool is that the person who is initiating the case does not need to worry as it allows you with information through emails, sms on the task done by different department. It also allows the company to become global, say for example a product concept is created in one place and design done in another place and so on. Today BPM – Business process management is considered as one of the emerging technology to improve the efficiency of business. It includes component of workflow management, document management, business rules and ERP integrations.

Thus, work flow solution can help a company to improve its performance dramatically.

Waterfall method v/s Agile methodology in Software Development

software development company

Software development industry mainly drives their project life cycles through two approaches.

1. Traditional software development approach/Waterfall method.

2. Agile methodology

Before choosing a vendor for software development or specifically for custom software development it is important to get familiar with these 2 methods to see which method is best suitable for business requirements.

Let’s start with the Traditional software method; normally these practices are broken down into different phases. The initiation starts from the set up of the requirement to see the timelines and implementation bias. After the requirements are done second step is to design the diagrams and models to provide a road map for the developers.

Further moving on after the road map is created the third phase consist of the development of the project. The development is broken into smaller task which is distributed among various teams depending on the skills. During the project execution normally testing part is done to avoid bugs in later stage. And after the project comes to completion the customer start the testing of the software and after the client is satisfied the project is delivered

Summary of Traditional Approach:

Requirement set up – Design – Development – Testing – Customer Testing – Project delivery

The main feature for implementing through tradition approach is heavy documentation, which allows you to set the timelines and project implementation requirement clearly before start. Because of this there are chances where changes in the requirement will affect the development. Although in real software development there are various problems that may arise as there might be change in the company processes or other changes during the development phase. Because the Tradition approach to software development does don’t provide changing ability to address the issues. Hence a little more flexible approach specifically for custom development is agile methodology.

In Agile method the more concentration is on the proper completion of the task through team collaboration. This phase rarely rely on the documentation part to measure the progress of the project. Hence agile development is not restricted to Functional requirement document. Agile method is followed in case of dynamic needs of the project or custom software development.

The Approach of agile development:

In Agile method the tasks are broken into small increment which is also known as iteration having short cycles which complete in 2 to 4 weeks. Further iteration follows the similar process of traditional software development which is as follows:

Requirement set up – Design & Development – Client Demo – Re- evaluation – Phase delivery

In the above if you see the customer involvement is very necessary as in every small phase the client testing is require to see if any alterations or customizations require in the development process. The Agile method involves different iteration to complete the total project requirements. Another advantage of Agile Methodology is the client receive working version of the software as the development happens in phases which decrease the risk of ROI – return on investment and provide the client with continuous feedback on the software development.

There are very less risk in Project delivery if a firm opt for agile methodology but it should be noted that with Agile development the vendor who is developing the software must be very experience to give proper timelines on the project & customization points. Another important point to be consider while applying agile methodology is that this method highly dependent on customer feedback and their involvement. If client doesn’t have time to invest then it may be difficult to do development through Agile.

From the above differentiation we can say that both waterfall and agile development methods are workable solutions with success. But to summarize in short Waterfall strategy are applied when the project requirements are very much clear and do not need customizations. And agile development is applied when the project requires flexibility and customization as per business processes.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Implementation in Phases

Enterprise-Resource-Planning--Implementation

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) system implementation is been done from past two decades and ERP systems is considered as one of the most powerful Business Management software, as it covers every department with one single software. ERP implementation is one of the biggest question arise as sometime it involve a huge timelines towards the development. An ERP implementation can be perform in Phase manner as shown in the example below.

For a typical ERP project, various phases are as follow:

  • Project initiation phase :

ERP project beginning is one of the most important phase as in this phase, You plan on certain initiation points such as Team formation, Project planning and fine tuning of every aspects of the business. In any successful implementation there are certain skills require checking the best expertises availability for the project. It also includes Key user team, IT personnel, Project implementation group etc.

It includes the vendor team onsite for the creation of functional requirement document and understanding the business aspects & Project administration plan. Some of the expected output from these phases is the project implementation committee formation, delivery and installation of default ERP application to judge the capability.

  • Development & GAP Detection Phase:

The second phase in ERP implementation is the development and GAP detection phase. In this phase main users and other team map the existing processes with the default functions available in the vanilla or existing ERP software. This happens with the vendor team.  Other parts include in the development phase is the Customization points identification where a separate customization document can be prepared for details.

  • Software Customization Phase:

This phase includes the development & customization of all the Modules which will apply in the ERP system. This phase also includes the testing of the modules, unit testing based on the plans developed by the vendor. This phase can be onsite or offsite depending on the company decision

  • Acceptance Testing:

Acceptance testing phase is another important part towards the implementation of ERP software. It allows you to see that the system works properly. This phase also include the creation of manuals if required. This phase helps you in quality control of the code from user perspective and technical perspective.

  • Training Phase:

After acceptance testing all the end users are trained for their specific functions. For example. There will be different set of training for sales management teams, similarly for purchase, Accounts, Manufacturing etc. This training is conducted by the vendor team and again this can be online or offsite.  Another alternative provided by the vendor on training part is the “training videos” where new users can see the videos and learn on the ERP process part.

  • Data migration phase:

After the user training phase the data migration phase starts where all the existing data is transferred into ERP system. This phase also include the establishment of access rights and passwords, Data conversion etc.

  • Go Live:

After the final data is loaded with the user roles and hierarchy creation, the ERP system is ready to have go live position. This is the final phase where a final training might be required. And this is the phase where the users work on real time data in the ERP software.

The above points may differ from vendor perspective or ERP product perspective. An organization may use various strategies or add other phases in the above to achieve success in ERP implementation.

If you’re interested in implementing ERP software for your business, get in touch! You can reach us using our contact form or at sales@bistasolutions.com.

Why SME’s & SMB are Selecting Open Source ?

Enterprise Resource planning – ERP software used by big organization to manage their business process and to gain competitive edge in the business area. Any ERP software is selected to streamline their internal business processes. But now the focus of an ERP software implementation is changing from big organization to small and mid sized companies or SMB’s. Previously this was not the case with SME’s as any ERP implementation required heavy investment, time, effort money and due to high risks

Today SME’s are implementing ERP  and business software to gain the advantages of a Proper enterprise resource planning tool and this is because of Open source ERP  software available in the market easily with different modules to start with. Open source ERP software is attracting small and medium sized enterprises to implement ERP solution to manage their business. Another part is lots of ERP vendors started implementing ERP solutions for SME & SMB as the market is huge.

Let’s have a look on the most powerful points where SME are opting for Open source ERP solutions for their businesses.

Costing : One of the most important factors affecting SME to opt for Open source ERP software is the cost. As Open source allows you free code and installation and the company doesn’t have to pay heavy software licence fees every year, which was one of the case with the proprietary ERP software. Hence being costing is one of the factor and Open source ERP doesn’t involve any license fees and maintenance cost.

Easy and quick implementation : As being open to the community and lots of implementation material available online it get easy to implement open source ERP  with the help of technical team, SME’s can also opt for vendor implementation options if require.

Flexible: Another important point of selecting Open source ERP  software is the flexibility and customization ability in the tool, which is very difficult with the proprietary software and that too it involves high investment for certain customization.

Freedom: Open source provides you with the freedom, freedom from the vendor locking, freedom from licensing and so on. The source code of the Open source ERP software is with the client where he can modify in further future and can take support from the vendor whenever necessary.

Training and support: The support and bug fixing gets easy as communities are open to help for the bug fixing part; also the training after the implementation is minimal as compare to the Proprietary

We have covered some of the advantages on why SME’s are opting for open source ERP software but there are disadvantages too if not selected properly. It is necessary for an SME to do a proper study of their business processes before selecting Open source ERP package accordingly. There are lots of Open source ERP software available in the market some of them are OpenERP , OpenBravo, Compiere and so on. . Normally open source ERP software are targeted to those companies whose needs are not covered by the normal ERP  software available in the market and organization whose processes are not standard

How long does it take to implement OpenERP?

This post is specifically posted for those who are looking out for implementing OpenERP for their organization.

Time is one of the most important factors in implementing any Business software. OpenERP being Open source and modular in nature takes various timeline towards the implementation. Let’s divide the implementation strategies in various group to understand the timeline for OpenERP

OpenERP implementations with default modules available can take somewhere 2 months time again as we said it depend on business to business and case to case basis.

Another part of OpenERP implementation is the customization part – this is one part where the estimation is solely depend on the modification you want to do in the tool to match your requirements. Sometime there might be all modules you implemented need customization and sometimes there are few.

There further more features of OpenERP implementation such as creating the workflows, hierarchy, users, training, bug fixing, testing, uploading on client server, and again testing etc. considering all these points a normal OpenERP implementation minimum take 2 months of time (again as i said depending on case to case basis)

If you need a proper timeline for OpenERP implementation for your organization you can contact us on sales@bistasolutions.com

OpenERP partners if you feel there is difference in your timeline towards implementation of OpenERP kindly comment.

Why eCommerce merchants should implement ERP

implement ERP

An ERP solution today is considered as one of the most powerful transformation in IT industry and it is used by many organizations. There are many exclusive advantages of using ERP solutions for an organization one of them are proper management of your business processes.

Today online & eCommerce are rising at a higher rate as customers consider shopping online rather visiting virtual shops. Online purchasing provide many advantages to people some of them are wide range of products online available, best prices from different stores and less travel time to virtual shop.

There is not only online shops based on Magento, Prestashop platform but they also take the advantage of other online platforms for selling their products and services such as eBay.com, Amazon.com, buy.com etc. eCommerce merchant sell similar products on these multiple platform in relation to that they also use shipping services such as FedEx, UPS, USPS to name few.

Integration of Online stores with different online platforms help eCommerce vendors to manage various stores with the help on one tool; An ERP integration with these online stores with the ERP system helps the enhancement of the performance of each platform. Another significance of and ERP for ecommerce merchants they can handle same inventory for their different stores.

Also ERP system helps the ecommerce merchants to see the sales order coming and other business process such as inventory management to handle them effectively and efficiently. Any Ecommerce merchant who doesn’t have virtual stores must implement ERP system integrated with their various e stores to ease their online operations.

Book your free Open Source ERP Demo today!

open source erp

Open Source ERP today called as Odoo ERP is the best ERP for any business with its vast inbuilt custom based apps. From ERP to CRM, eCommerce to CMS, Manufacturing to Supply chain open Source ERP (Odoo) covers all in its community as well as in enterprise version. Open Source ERP has brought tens of thousands of developers and customers to portal and have upgraded to the level where Odoo has become one of the best and most preferred ERP by all industries. You can find Open Source ERP Demo & download link here as well as you can download it from Odoo web portal.

Some the in-built Open Source ERP (Odoo) Apps:

                    SALES APPS                                                                            FINANCE APPS

Odoo CRM Odoo POS Odoo sales Odoo subscription                       Odoo Accounting Odoo Invoicing   Odoo Expenses

         

OPERATIONS APPS                                                                                MANUFACTURING APPS

Odoo Inventory    Odoo project    Odoo timesheets  Odoo Purchase                Odoo MRP  Odoo PLM   Odoo Quality

…many more

Some of the Open Source ERP benefits include;

  1. In-depth Customization: With its in-built 35+ applications and 200+ customized applications, open source ERP has become the most customized and suited ERP with maximum number of applications available.
  2. Scalable: Open Source ERP is easily scalable and can be frequently upgraded with no disruption. With growth in business & increased users, many companies realize that upgrading the software is costly and time consumable but with the open source ERP you can update user base with least implementation.
  3. Lower Costs: Open Source ERP (Odoo) implementation costs lower than any other main frame ERP’s. It is available in both versions Community & Enterprise, where community version is free and is good for the small scale companies with very less operations. Enterprise version suits best to the businesses with medium size operations.
  4. Demo Easily Accessible: Open Source ERP demo is easy accessible and available to download. Companies can access Open Source ERP Demo to test it at their own speed and discretion.

In case you looking for an open source ERP demo or implementation, we  Bista Solutions are the best Odoo ERP (Open Source ERP) gold partner with more than 250+ implementations across different industries. To book your free Demo contact us by filling the form.

Web based ERP v/s server based ERP

Any web based ERP solutions or business software provide advantage to Small and Mid-sized business. Being the world is connected through internet communications for every time, web based ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software provide you with real time information about the sales, purchases, employee, finances etc. It increases the business cycles and improves the level of services to the customers, suppliers and your external partners. It also helps you to increase the productivity of your business.

Let’s have a small example: A sales man moves from office for sales meeting. After client meeting, he/she gets to know the lead can be converted into a customer for future. With online ERP logins available the sales person can feed the information through the internet connectivity from his Smart phone, or laptop. This provides a real time data input on the CRM (Sales management) part to plan for future for Higher Management.

It not only helps in sales but one can manage their suppliers, partners, bill payments, shipping information etc through the web base ERP software.

Another advantage of a web based Enterprise Resource Planning solution is that there is no need to install the software on every machine, in addition to that it help you in quick data entering in the software. Whereas on server based solutions you have to install on every machine and data entering process is slow if the movement of employee is high.

Do check out our next post  tomorrow on the Demo links for One of the leading Open source web based ERP software.

ERP systems can improve business performance

erp systems

Enterprises Resource Planning (ERP) solution is considered as one of the most integrated solutions which help you to integrate all your different business processes in one single login quickly and effectively.

So what are the points where an ERP system help an organization to improve their effectiveness in the business so let’s have an example, Whenever a customer place an order with you the customer representative take customer order. In this case with an ERP system the customer representative have all the necessary information to make quick completion of the order. And when the order is completed ERP helps it to move the order to the next process or to the department automatically.

Whenever any department require the information on this particular order they can fetch easily by just login into their ERP system. This helps in quick movement of customer order completion and increase the reputation of your organisation with zero errors.

This was just a single part of advantage with ERP system implementation similarly ERP system helps in different process of your warehousing processes, Manufacturing processes, Accounting processes etc. It help both the organization also and the customers plus the stake holders to generate the reports and information as an when require.

Let’s have a look on the points where an ERP system can improve the Business performance:

  • ERP software integrates and automates all your business process and provide you with the information in real time which improve the customer services.
  • It helps in different functional areas such as sales, accounting, finance management, human resource, purchases etc. This facilitates the information from all the departments.
  • ERP systems not only provide integration across departments but also for your sister concern business. It allows you multi company management.
  • ERP solutions can also be used for better project management
  • ERP system not only helps you in current issues but also helps you in the improvement of your business process continuously for further future.
  • ERP system helps your employee to take better decision and improvement in your business process as it provides you with tools like business intelligence, data mining, reporting etc.