A recent webinar hosted by Reckon showcased how Reckon customers can use the software platform Ostendo to capture critical business operations data. When used in conjunction with Reckon products, Ostendo eliminates the need to invest in a costly Enterprise Resource Planning software solution.
Which industries gain the most benefit from using Ostendo?
To answer this question, imagine that your company has just upgraded to the latest version of Reckon. The accounts and administration staff are very happy. But what about the operations staff?
Is the company still trying to juggle customer and stock priorities the old fashioned way? How about on-time delivery performance? Are they running a little behind in the factory? Could time and materials estimates be a complete guess? Is it harder to get timesheets from field staff than to choose the winning lottery numbers? And is it easier to reorder more stock than find it in the warehouse? Does batch or serial traceability need lots of cross referencing in different systems? Or is the company simply overwhelmed by all the onsite compliance checks required these days?
Ostendo is used to answer these types of questions for manufacturers, job shops, industries that service products, importers and distributors; with its primary focus on inventory traceability and operational compliance whether you’re in the office, out onsite with your smart phone, or logged into a data collection screen on the shop floor.
What sort of data can Ostendo reveal when combined with Reckon?
Reckon is the financial back bone reporting system providing crucial information such as cash flow position, P & L, balance sheet and tax reporting. Ostendo on the other hand, provides time critical operational compliance and better control over inventory related business processes. Every transaction with a financial implication is sent directly from Ostendo into the Reckon GL, ready for reconciliation and financial reporting. Here is some of the business information that can be revealed when using Ostendo with Reckon:
- Sales. The products and services that are actually selling, the average stock holding, the actual gross profit, and a breakdown of who is buying what.
- Stock. The ability to display stock availability and valuation by site, warehouse and location, including inventory traceability by expiry date, batch, serial and revision numbers.
- WIP. Provide actual and real time work in progress values for orders in the system.
- MRP. Determine how much the business needs to either purchase, manufacture or transfer between sites. This is calculated by stock holding, minimum inventory levels, sales forecasts, current demand and supply orders, multi-level bills of material, and specific site conditions.
- Jobs & Projects. Display profitability, what’s left to invoice out, and the progress percentage by job or project.
- Resource Integrity. Highlight whether the business has the capacity and the skills or compliance certificates to deliver on the work promised.
- Labour Cost Recovery. Allow timesheets to be allocated directly to orders providing accurate job costs, on time, every time. Labour hours can be captured remotely via a smart phone or tablet, on the shop floor through a touch screen interface or in the office by Ostendo users.
Ostendo provides functionality in a number of areas – what areas specifically are clients most eager to use Ostendo for?
Advanced Inventory is used to provide better traceability from purchasing through to sales for items with serial numbers, batches, expiry dates, different pack sizes and units of measure. Often the stock is stored within several locations, across multiple warehouses or even held on consignment. Ostendo allows you to calculate accurate landed costing for imported products as well as multi-level bill of material rolled up costs, if the product is manufactured or assembled to order.
Manufacturing is the core strength of Ostendo providing several configuration methods to make one off custom designs, recipes for the process industry as well as the traditional multi-level bill of material with routings for make to stock businesses. Constraints can be setup for capacity scheduling. Ostendo comes with a shop floor touch screen data capture module for recording times, materials usage, supervisory control and progress against a job.
Job Costing, Projects and Work in Progress is suited to Reckon clients wanting improved jobbing and project management. Ostendo offers extensive costing by stage and task, full progress tracking, retentions and percentage invoicing, as well as real time work in progress reporting.
Service companies are equipped with a complete asset register, a fully featured assignment board, a comprehensive service job module, and a mobility platform that allows information to be displayed and entered remotely, whether there is network coverage or not.
How much support and training does Ostendo offer customers?
Reckon clients using Ostendo are supported through a regional network of experienced Ostendo Consultants who work closely with Reckon Accredited Partners.
How technical an understanding does one need to use Ostendo?
It is not as easy as using Reckon. Everyone in the business will use Ostendo to perform their job function. One of the nice to haves is the unlimited smart phone users Ostendo offers, so you can take your work with you on the freeway.
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Want to learn more about Ostendo?
Give Jeff and Liz a call at Development-X on 1800 151 251 Aus or 0508 111 999 NZ to arrange a demo by a local Ostendo Consulting Partner with your Reckon Accredited Partner or check out the website www.ostendo.info
