In this Webinar we discussed Best Practices for Customer and Partner Collaboration. We had a great audience with many questions.
Topic: Collaboration Best Practices
Date: Wednesday, April 29, 2009
In this Webinar, we shared Best Practices on these Topics:- Warehouse Management Systems and Collaboration
- Collaboration Scenarios
- The Role of SaaS in Collaboration
- Tapping The Social Network to Extend Collaboration in a Warehouse or 3PL
- Collaboration and Security
A copy of the webinar presentation is available here:
Download - PDF reader required
If you'd like a copy of our Best Practices eBook, contact our sales team or download it here:
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Below are the Questions and Answers directly from the webinar. Feel free to contact the moderator or our sales team to help answer any further questions about SmartTurn or our Best Practice Series.
Question & Answer Session:
Q: Describe how VMI would look in SmartTurn.
A: This is really just a matter of setting up the specific role for a Vendor, assigning the appropriate permissions and giving them access to the application. You can give access to view only for stock validation or to perform cycle counts during a vendor visit. It is entirely up to you on how much access you want to provide and what actions they can perform.
Q: For outside sales, how can I track sales by sales person?
A: This is extremely easy to do. Each user can have their own access so every transaction a user does is tracked. For example if you have a sales rep or broker who creates an order remotely while in the field, this is tracked back to that sales rep and can easily be filtered in a report to see the history behind the sales. Additionally, on all documents you can assign a broker/sales rep so that when product is shipped or received that sales rep can get credit for that product.
Q: How can SmartTurn help me collaborate with carriers?
A:: You can provide carriers access to the SmartTurn application where they can keep track of loads they are assigned to. Similar to the previous two questions, it’s just a matter of setting up the appropriate permissions.
Q: How do you integrate to your customers ERP or accounting systems?
Q: Will smart turn work with QuickBooks for billing and invoicing?
Q: Does this integrate with QuickBooks and or Peachtree?
Q: What happens if I have SAP ERP System?
A: Several questions were asked about integration and the answer to all four questions is that we have three methods for integration depending on your specific requirements and resources:
- SmartTurn has an import/export feature in many areas of the application. Our Customer Experience Managers will help you build and understand how you can make this process useful when updating your ERP.
- If you have the resources and are experienced with .NET XML (WebServices), you can build your own process flows through our API’s.
- We partner with a leading on demand business Integration Company called Boomi, who has many pre-built connectors including financial applications like QuickBooks, Peachtree, NetSuite, SAP, SAGE, and more. The cost of integrating your applications to SmartTurn is very reasonable.
Q: How does the Smart Turn solution handle on site printing of operational documentation such as Pick Lists, count lists etc. Also, what reporting tool is used to customize standard reports per site?
A: Answers to your two part question:
- Today, printing of pick lists or count lists is done through an Export. Our CEM’s will help you build the right export template so it can be reused each time you need it.
- For reporting SmartTurn has many “canned” reports readily available that can be made visible or non-visible (via permissions) so you can have each user, site, client, etc. have access and run the reports when then require it, and they will see only their data. We also have a built in function for real-time reporting we call “Inventory Managers” and is widely used as a reporting tool. You can use Inventory Managers to create an unlimited amount of “canned report templates” and run them whenever you want to see the data.
Q: How does the SmartTurn solution handle site specific labels with the various types of barcodes and customizations?
A:: If you don’t have a barcode solution in place we suggest using a tool called TechnoRiverStudio (
TechnoRiver - Barcode Software and Components, RFID and Label Software). You can build custom barcode templates and use them for your process flows with SmartTurn. They support a huge list of barcode types, e.g. 1D, 2D, FIM, RFID and supported labels/printers. SmartTurn makes use of this software tool with many of our customers.
Q: Does this have the capability of being used with multiple locations. If 16 locations all have the same part, can the user go in and view the qtys on hand for each location?
A: I’ll need to answer this particular question in two parts as many of our customers consider a “location” as either many storage slots at a single facility or a location is considered a “facility”. However the answer to your question on both sides is, yes, and the SmartTurn app is very flexible in this area.
- Many slots/locations in one building: You can look at “rolled up” quantities for a location or item and see the quantity on hand for the Unit of Measure of your choice or see the detailed views for a single slot/location and find out how many different items you have available in the location.
- The cooler side of this is when you want to look at many sites/facilities for inventory availability from a single sign-on (and screen) where you can pull up the details for that item and find out which site has the part in stock. It’s just a matter of viewing it by one warehouse or all warehouses. Check out our test drive to see how this will work for you: Test Drive
Q: Do you provide a customized user interface?
A: We do offer custom field creation and the ability to add those custom fields to the header or details of a document, but it doesn't stop there. If you want to remove the Lot# field because you never use it, or you want to add 15 new field columns, or you want to rename column headers, you can. You get to choose what screens you want them to appear on. We offer several custom fields like: currency, date/time, list, yes/no selection and more. You can rename existing fields and set the desired length. Custom fields can certainly be used during a process, e.g. you create list field on a receipt so the user is able to select one from a list. Also, depending on the permissions you assign, you can create custom views for each user, module, department or company so that everyone and anyone can only see the screens (or data if they are a customer) that you want them to see. We are the first true on demand WMS SaaS company with this kind of flexibility and at a price point that turns the industry upside down.
Q: Kevin can we set up GoTo meeting for a more detailed demonstration as to how information is entered and moves through the system?
A: Yes, thank you for inquiring. Please contact our sales team at 1-888-NO-RISK-8 to setup a custom demo for you.
Q: How long does implementation of SmartTurn take?
A: Our average implementation timeframe is 17 days. We have had customers go-live in shorter and longer cycles and it is really dependant on each customer’s requirements, integration, training, availability, etc. Please read how we approach the implementation process at:
SmartTurn's Plan-Configure-Run. I believe you will find our team of expert customer experience managers delightful to work with and will enable you to go-live quickly.
Q: Can documents be scanned to SmartTurn?
A: Good question. Let’s use a Purchase Order as an example to answer this question:
- If it is scanning a PO and then SmartTurn receiving that file and storing it somewhere for document storage, we don’t support that today. In the future we might consider this but we don’t have very many customers asking for this capability.
- If it is more of scanning a PO and having SmartTurn receive this file and create a PO in the application, this would be supported through our partner Boomi but would require the scanned file to be translated into a standard format like EDI, XML or a flat file before it could be created into SmartTurn.
Q: What is your pricing?
A: The cost for our core inventory software starts at only $500 per month. Contact our sales team to see what fits your company best: 1-888-NO-RISK-8
Q: Is this like CRM or SCM?
A: We do have some CRM features but our product is driven behind inventory and warehouse management processes. We can integrate (as noted in question 2) with other solutions to help tie in your systems. For SCM, we do touch in some areas for this space but more around the management of inventory inside the four walls. Depending on what your goals are, I would suggest calling our team so we can learn more about what you’d like to do and achieve.
Q: Will this software facilitate inv transfers from multiple locations?
A: Yes. The SmartTurn application gives you flexibility in inventory transfers. Whether you want to move product from a single location or perform bulk inventory transfers from many locations we support that. Our model is like this:
- One location to one location
- One location to many locations
- Many locations to one location
- Many locations to many locations
Q: Does this software have POS functionality?
A: We have many features of a POS application and can integrate with POS software. We are driven heavily in IMS and WMS and have customers who use SmartTurn to manage their inventory while conducting business through with POS. Please call our sales team to learn how we can help you.
Q: Is possible to have Kanban System in SmartTurn software?
A: SmartTurn is the leading On Demand Inventory and Warehouse Management Software in the market. By our very nature all inventory, transactions and data is available in real-time so that intelligent decisions can be made and you can respond quickly when looking at your demand. I suggest calling our sales team to setup a personlized demo to see how we can help streamline some JIT/Kanban processes that may be used by your company.
Also, be sure to check out
Al's Supply Chain Corner on Collaboration
Kevin Collins
Director, Product Marketing
SmartTurn, Inc.
Main: 1.888.667.4758