International integrated ERP vendor and CRM specialist, Epicor Scala, has announced the local release and addition of its iScala Central Warehouse system, to its growing range of products.
Central Warehouse has been designed around direct customer demands, with the express purpose of assisting a company to effectively reduce inventory levels in an organisation without affecting turnover. Central Warehouse is a multi-site, multi-location system which can be run virtually in a real-time scenario, or can be used to manage single-sites and then link these back to a single storage location.
Tiaan Grobbelaar, General Manager of Epicor Scala Africa, says: "Customers who operate in stock-intensive environments are always on the look out for solutions which will allow them to optimally manage stock levels. As well as ensure better warehouse management, without letting them run into stock 'problems' which ultimately means reduced sales.
"Central Warehouse lets you take advantage of real-time visibility of all inventory, enabling stock levels at multiple sites and locations to be measured down to a single product / stock item level. This system is able to provide a customer a true 'single view' of their business."
With Central Warehouse deployed, trading locations will have a single view of all warehouses, and in turn will be able to measure stock availability in regions closest to them which leads to optimised warehouse picking. This functionality also ensures that stock is never overlooked or forgotten about should it not be sitting in the 'default' warehouse, and allows a customer to take advantage of single sales orders being backed by multiple fulfilment strategies.
Central Warehouse is also able to integrate seamlessly with other components of the Scala Epicor solutions and in turn ensure the warehousing element of a business is tied back into the central data and business application repositories on a real-time basis. This can also be seen in the fact that it supports integrated credit control and is able to manage automated inter-company transactions.
"Inventory is traditionally tied up in the sales offices of an organisation, but without having a single central view of this inventory, being able to track stock down can be time-consuming and laborious involving human intervention and loss in productivity man hours," adds Grobbelaar.
Other notable features of Central Warehouse include:
* Link many trading locations to many storage locations
* Real-time inventory visibility across your organisation
* Single sales order, multiple fulfilment strategies
* Full stock transaction and ATP information
* Optimised warehouse picking
* Integrated credit controls
* Direct delivery from warehouse to customer
* Automated inter-company transactions in any currency
"iScala Central Warehouse is an additional part of a business solution with allows you to better manage all of your sales offices, ensuring you can view both local and regional/central warehouses to see the on-hand inventory balances, known inventory plans (such as future deliveries, production and other committed sales) and offers Available to Promise (ATP) when combined with iScala Supply Chain Tools," adds Grobbelaar.
The functionality allows you to manage stock down to a single product layer, to being able to link and integrate it into your RFID and barcode systems, using the iScala connectivity solutions. iScala Connectivity Solutions are built to support specific collaborative processes; connecting different business entities, applications or users.
All Connectivity Solutions use open, industry-wide standards and technology enabling businesses to deploy solutions now, confident that their investment will remain mainstream for the foreseeable future. Scala Connectivity Solutions harness the power of XML, electronic message transfer and transaction based processing environments to deliver rock-solid reliability combined with ease of use. "Central Warehouse enables you to manage your warehouse at a granular level. The end result is tighter control on your business and an improved bottom line," ends Grobbelaar.
Detailed technical features:
Multi-company
* Unlimited number of storage locations
* Real-time visibility
* View stock allocation
* ATP available as an option
* Single SO can be fulfilled from multiple locations
Warehouse management
* Integrated security
* Integrated credit controls
* Optimized stock picking routines
* Direct delivery to customer
Financial management
* Transfer pricing controls
* Option for mark-up on internal sales
* Multi-currency support
* Automated update of sale and purchase ledgers
* Printing of internal sales invoices
* Full statistical history of all sales
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For 20 years, Epicor has been a recognised leader dedicated to providing integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM) software solutions to midmarket companies around the world.
With the acquisition of Scala, Epicor is a global leader in the midmarket serving over 20 000 customers in over 140 countries. Epicor leverages innovative technologies like Web services in developing end-to-end, industry-specific solutions for manufacturing, distribution, enterprise service automation, and hospitality that enable companies to immediately drive efficiency throughout business operations and build competitive advantage.
With the scalability and flexibility to support long-term growth, Epicor's solutions are complemented by a full range of services, providing a single point of accountability to promote rapid return on investment and low total cost of ownership. Epicor's worldwide headquarters are located in Irvine, California with offices and affiliates around the world. For more information, visit the company's Web site at http://www.epicor.com/.
Scala Africa
Scala Epicor is represented in Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands by Scala Africa, which provides sales, consulting and implementation skills to a customer base of 70 companies in SA and a further 300 in the rest of Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands. Headquartered in Johannesburg and with offices in countries including Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria, Scala Africa (Pty) Ltd, is a truly pan-African concern that offers integrated, collaborative ERP solutions to businesses across the continent. Visit Scala's Web site at www.scala.co.za for press information including press releases, information and product information.
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