Tekoa Software Enterprise Cloud

It has become somewhat obvious in recent years that technology is essential for the advancement of businesses. However, what's the best way to advance? A study recently conducted by Google and Deloitte Surveying, affectionately called, "The Study," found that online advertising and digital business tools have done a lot to improve the productivity of small business across the globe. In most cases the tools increased productivity by 300% . Deloitte surveyed businesses that implement Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest to see if there was any difference in their productivity. This entailed the social media side of the survey. The other side of the survey analyzed the effects of things such as websites, analytics, online marketing, cloud-based communication, and other digital channels. Before diving into Deloitte's study, it would be a good idea to separate the alternate realities of social media and digital tools. According to the Meriam Webste

Business Process Discovery (BPD) in relation to process mining, is the endeavor to portray current business processes and business variations in an honest light. With this, organizations can asses situations and problems with the intent of improvement. There are several components to BPD, each playing a part in its functionality.   Emergent Paradigm - Where current business methods are organized from top-down manual operations, relying on second-hand interpretations of business data. An automated system of data collection relies on the collection of data over a certain period of time. From there, data can be analyzed to reform the business process. Automated Process Discovery - By automating the analysis of data, the subjectivity of current manual process analysis techniques is removed. The analysis system has an ingrained methodology that- through trials and periods of reform- has been shown to more accurately depict business data and process variations without the infringemen

Shopping now as opposed to thirty years ago is quite different. Today we have eCommerce stores (online stores), and many specialized outlets for products. But with all this input, what are some ways that your customer's overall experience can improve? One way is the use of EDI , (Electronic Data Interchange), which is an electronic communication method that provides standards for exchanging data through any electronic means. In the context of inventory, sales data can be exchanged between companies. By adhering to the same standard, two different companies or organizations, even in two different countries, can electronically exchange documents (such as purchase orders, invoices, shipping notices, etc.). EDI has existed for more than 30 years, and there are many EDI standards, some of which address the needs of specific industries or regions. It also refers specifically to a family of standards. In 1996, the National Institute of Standards and Technology defined electronic data

The importance of purchase orders  is somewhat obvious in today's business. A purchase order is simply an order that is submitted to an outside supplier for an amount of goods specified, for an amount that is agreed upon. But are there any way to improve this system? As stated, the purchase order is a vital part of the business' productivity. It governs how much material the company is taking in for the manufacturing of their product. For example, if we ran an electrical company, we would have to issue purchase orders to other companies for materials that we might need. These materials could range from wiring and electrical cables to switches and lightbulbs. But the acquisition of these items all depends on the purchase order. To get a bit deeper, a requisition order is an order that is submitted to the financial department of the business, and is then either approved or declined. In essence, the requisition is the purchase order before it has been confirmed. Whi

The Economics of One Unit By: Zayne Hamilton The Economics of one unit is an essential building block of the business plan. These days, the world is full of get rich quick schemes and ideas that often turn out to be a waste of time. What would happen if your company was focused on selling one product at a time, rather than meeting the goal of millions? The Economics of One Unit can be a blessing or a burden, depending on how you view it. For small businesses in particular it would be wise to focus on a specific small goal of sales rather than flooding the bank in the first year. Typically, the Economics of One Unit model will have three numbers: the price of the unit, the cost of goods sold (which is subtracted from the price), and the "contribution margin"- or gross profit. This last number is key, as it will be added to the fixed costs per unit. The resulting outcome of these numbers will be your profit (before taxes). The Economics of One Unit model derives itself f

Business Process Management (BPM) There are a lot of moving parts in a business. Sales management, purchase orders, shipping labels, etc. And the thing that binds them all together into a manageable group is this: Business Process Management (BPM). Note that this is not the study of individual functions in the effort to improve, however BPM seeks to encapsulate the entire string of actions into groups called processes. Typical examples of individual actions are: reducing prices, increasing customer satisfaction, reducing error rates, etc. The goal of BPM is to analyze entire processes. By knowing different business processes and their names, it allows for greater efficiency and productivity in your business plan. An example of a business process is the  Order-to-Cash process.  This process begins when a customer agrees to pay x amount of dollars for a good or service, and ends when the product has been delivered and the payment made. An order-to-cash process encompasses things

Business Analytics In the business world, information is everything. Without information, a company won't know how to better serve their customers, maintain their products, order stock, pay wages, or even when to open in the morning. Information in recent years has becoming less and less analog and more digital. Further, the company itself is becoming virtualized. Information is being stored in the cloud, making physical servers unnecessary. Another name for all this information can be, "data". The more data we have, the better informed our decisions can be. How data relates to a business in the terms of revenue and customer service is called business analytics. A large part of business analytics is marketing analysis data, where businesses take a look at the atmosphere into which they are selling their products, and make changes according to what they see. Marketing analysis data allows businesses to see whether they are gaining or losing customers, if they are ma

TEKOA Alternatives to Sage 100 Business Intelligence          Sage Business Intelligence is an application from Sage that essentially is an Excel plug-in. It allows you to create data pulls from Sage 100 into Excel. Although a bit cumbersome, it does its job well. One downside of this application is the resource draw on Sage. When the data pulls, it can have a negative effect on the Sage 100 application performance. Lagging, slow connection and occasional crashes can come from the pulls. The application is a good small business solution, but for a larger scale corporation it can be “too heavy” for the system. This is simply due to the fact that there is more data to pull and categorize from more places.          Tekoa offers an alternative to Sage Business Intelligence that uses SQL language instead. This allows the user to avoid the performance problems by caching the Sage 100 data into SQL where the enterprise grade Microsoft reporting tools can be used. These add

What Cloud Could Mean for your Productivity Microsoft has released a plethora of new programs and options to enhance your company's ability to be successful. Programs such as SharePoint and Cloud Office 365 are both Microsoft programs that can do wonders for your company's productivity.          SharePoint is a cloud based file sharing agent. It allows you to upload documents, photos, or files to  central drive that other people of your choice can have access to. With strict parameters as to who can see your files, it is a great way to share information and projects easily with your coworkers. Additionally, you can install several add-ons to your SharePoint account, such s image sliders, budget trackers, and contact forms. All of these are for the purpose of customizing your SharePoint experience.           Cloud Office 365 is somewhat self-explanatory,, however revolutionary for business productivity. Now even if your machine doesn't have Office installed, yu can

Good Inventory Management Practices Managing inventory is a severely underrated task. It requires a diverse understanding of the products you carry, their prices, and an intimate knowledge of shipping rates. So what makes a good inventory manager? Do the y just punch in a half hour early, and stay an hour late to clean up? Here are some practical ways you can improve your luster as an Inventory Manager. Check your Inventory Reports Frequently If you don't currently employ inventory reports, this is a great practice to get into. An Inventory Report is a summary of all of the items that you have in stock, and the quantities of those items. Checking these often can be beneficial for a number of maybe somewhat obvious reasons. For one, you will know what you can ship directly, and what you need to order. But on a more social level, if someone asks you if you have item x in your inventory, you have a better chance of knowing the answer if you have reviewed your Reports recentl

TEKOA Software: Why Switch to Cloud Processing? Here at TEKOA Software , we are big about the next thing, whatever that may be. And right now, the cloud is what’s next. It is already partially in use by companies and organizations, but not nearly to its full potential. Given time, the Cloud could mean entire governments run out of a virtual server, stocks managed and predicted effortlessly, and smarter transportation.  At the moment, however, the biggest step for your business would be switching your servers over to a cloud based system. In this article, we will look at some of the pros and cons of making the switch. Pros:             First off, switching to the cloud effectively eliminates the cost of server maintenance. Instead of counting the days until your server kicks the bucket, and buying a new expensive one to replace it, you can simply expand your cloud storage for a minimal price. In comparison to the purchase of a new machine, this cost is rather trivial.  

TEKOA Mobile: Pairing your Mobile Solutions with ERP             For a while now we have been pushing our barcode scanners. But what good is a barcode scanner that writes things to a notepad if you can’t process that information? That’s where the TEKOA Mobile ERP comes in.  TEKOA Software offers a complete ERP system in a mobile format. In this article, we will look at some of the perks of pairing your mobile solution with a TEKOA ERP .             There are several pieces to the Mobile TEKOA Application, and if you want a full run through of the program, see our other articles on the mobile application at TEKOA Mobile .   But for now, we will just consider how you can use the TEKOA Mobile app on a mobile device.             To start, you will need to activate your device. Use the installed browser to navigate to your TEKOA ERP portal and sign in using your credentials. You personalized TEKOA options will appear in a mobile optimized fashion. Select the Mobile t

💻TEKOA Mobile: Why Buy a Mobile Computer?             Mobility is one of the fastest growing needs for businesses. But why should you invest in professional barcode scanners when you could pick up a cheapie down the street? In this article, we’ll chat about the importance of mobility, durability, and storage. 📱Mobility             When you go to the supermarket, you see the checkers scanning your vegetables with their barcode scanners. Later, you jump online to see that those scanners are only a couple hundred bucks. Why spend the extra money for a computer when you could get a mediocre scanner for less? Well, for one, they’re mediocre. But more importantly, with a mobile computer, you’re not tied down to a station or actual computer than can process the information. At TEKOA , all our scanners are fully Wi-Fi and data compatible, giving you internet access, file storage, and a familiar operating system. This means that you can wander the entire warehouse and still hav

🕴TEKOA Articles: Steps to Becoming a Better Manager             Being the leader of a team is a big responsibility. People are looking at you to make the right decisions under pressure and to give the orders. With all this stress, it’s easy to become short with your employees for no apparent reason. Just the stress. In this article, I’ll give some practical tips on how you can better manage your team. So put the phone down, grab some coffee, and let’s go. 🕴Be a Motivator             One of the most important aspects of being a team leader is making sure that your team players feel important and useful. By dropping encouraging comments now and again, you can create a more relaxed environment, and foster better relationships with your employees. Kind words cost nothing, but are worth a lot. 🕴Be Willing to Help             It can definitely be frustrating when one of your employees isn’t getting something down, or can’t get something right. But when a bit of grace i

☝How Does Being a Team Player Impact Your Workplace?☝ By: Zayne Hamilton             Most all bosses in today’s market are interested in what their employees can do for their company, and not so much what their company can do for their employees. As harsh as that may seem, coming to this realization is crucial to moving forward in your career. For this article, I have compiled a couple of tips for you to be the most effective at your workplace. ☝Step Up☝             Meeting unassigned needs is a great way to show your boss that you have the company’s interests in mind. Get some coworkers around you who all want to do well at what they do. When you are surrounding yourself with people who really couldn’t care less, or worse, when you can’t care less about the company, you are labeling yourself as someone who could be fired at no great expense. You have the job that you have because your employer decided that you could help with the goal that he was trying to achieve. Bei

What Sets You Apart at Work? By: Zayne Hamilton Employers are looking for fresh ideas these days. Bringing some to the table can be a big part of being a team member. So what’s the trouble? Other people have good ideas too! So what can you do to set yourself apart at work and in the eyes of your boss? 1.    Be Smart with Your Time Nothing is more annoying than walking out of your office and seeing your employees not really doing anything.   So many instead of playing another round of cupboard basketball, sit down with your coworkers and tackle that plan that you’re all afraid to make. 2.    Don’t Be Afraid to Fail What? Isn’t success the main part of being a good employee? Well yes, but no one will get everything right all the time. So taking the time to ask some hard questions about exactly what you did wrong on a project will help you know what you can do better. In his article on how Millennials are better office workers, Peter Economy points this out. He says, “

Sage 100 ERP Hosted Online             Before reading this article, stop and ask yourself: what do I want my ERP to do for me? The standard answers might be give me a list of my purchase and sales orders. Print shipping labels. But what if there was an ERP that was stunningly affordable, crisp, and a one stop shop for all your ERP needs? Lists? Got them. The Sage 100 hosting platform from TEKOA Cloud is just the beginning platform for your enterprise. Sage 100 ERP in the TEKOA Cloud for Sage 100 is a comprehensive ERP system for today's enterprise. Using state of the art technology, TEKOA provides everything a business needs to run Sage 100 ERP in the cloud. Sage 100 Online by TEKOA provides ERP functionality familiar to Sage 100 users, plus much more. TEKOA offers advanced tools for Sage 100 like Advanced Business Intelligence Reporting, B2B Portals, Mobile Device Integration and more, on top of the already robust Sage ERP functionality. TEKOA takes Sage 100 ERP MA