If anyone tells you that one set of software is best of breed for all areas of the business then they are very much mistaken.
Whilst one area of the business might be delighted with the software that they are using that is often at the expense of other areas of the business.
As competition in your sector hots up then the adequacy of your business systems may be a critical factor that can either assist or hold the business back.
So how does one overcome this situation?
Reading the first sentence above and accepting it means logically that to throw out the complete set of software employed currently may not be the solution unless no department of the business is satisfied by the suitability of any of the software employed today.
We at VALE are realists and we have an open mind as to software solutions and so we have developed a number of integration techniques and tools that enable businesses to combine the use of different software solutions that we have joined up.
Please read the few examples following:
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Growing dealership A – This end-user employed VALE software for the operational areas of order processing, billing, service work control/call processing and stock but needed to employ a strong financial system with which the accounts/finance areas of the business were happy.
Finance would provide key management information essential for the successful direction of the business whilst the operational software ensured that the day to day running of the business was efficient. |
The solution was that all sales and purchase ledger functions were handled by the strong finance system and VALE used integration software so that things like invoices were posted automatically to the preferred sales ledger, stock received was visible to the purchase ledger and turnover was posted automatically to the management accounts.
Thus no compromise for any area of the business.
Established dealership B – This company employed VALE similarly to dealership A but their chosen financials were from another provider and again VALE linked their software to the financials.
However the dealership covered a very wide area of the UK so there were extra requirements in order for the business to operate profitably.
To do this the company developed relationships with other dealers who could service areas that this dealer could not cover economically.
The dealer took the service calls via the VALE service call processing software but for cases where another dealer would carry out the service calls the call details were fired automatically into the other dealers system and when completed the closed call details would be sent back to the VALE system.
Also for consumable calls the dealer’s end user systems either raised the calls automatically in VALE service call processing, or calls were placed via email or telephone and then the consumable requirements were sent automatically into a national toner supply company who would deliver the toners as if they were the dealer themselves.
The supply company’s system would send back the toner supply details and all of this was made possible by employing VALE’s integration software and techniques.
In short VALE had enabled this business to expand its operations very economically.
National dealer C – In this case the dealer employed two different sets of financial software, a leading sales system that was not from VALE and a telesales system for office supplies.
VALE carried out the linkage of each of these systems to VALE billing, service call processing and stock but also provided integration to major end users own service and support software so that a major account could place its own service calls internally and then the calls would be raised automatically within VALE.
The call processing progress would be passed back to the major accounts internal systems.
The sales system received up to date information about the machines and services being provided, billed and serviced via the VALE software
Finally VALE provided integration to two logistics companies so that they could process and deliver orders of all kinds and post the receipts information to the VALE system automatically.
This is a good example of a business choosing the solutions that fitted key areas without sacrificing the benefits of integration made possible via VALE software and VALE integration tools.
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Logistics company D – In this case VALE software except for integration purposes was not employed at all.
The transport company had developed its own software and asked VALE to support it and to add some integration. VALE provided integration to a variety of retailers’ systems so that goods could be ordered in retail stores, the order details passed into the logistics company’s system and the orders delivered. |
No VALE application software was involved in providing this solution just VALE integration tools and support skills.
These are just a few examples of the integration that VALE can achieve and so if you require one system to talk to another we have the skills and tools to do just that.