IMPACT Encore Version 5.0 sets the standard for the future

IMPACT Encore Version 5.0, the latest ERP offering from Syspro being launched today, offers exciting new functionality as well as a host of enhancements. The Syspro development team has retained the core strengths of the product, such as user-friendliness, robustness and quick installation, but added features designed to assist organisations reap the rewards of e-commerce.

The highlights of IMPACT Encore Version 5.0 include:

• It allows complete flexibility, allowing the customer to choose between implementing the full SQL Server Relational Database Management System (RDBMS), or the C-ISAM indexed file architecture. Apart from the underlying database structure, users will have the full functionality of Version 5.0 available to them, no matter which version they choose to implement.

• Full support of transaction logging, which ensures that IMPACT Encore provides consistent and reliable data at all times.

• The SQL Server database incorporates a rich set of functionality that will help customers analyse their corporate data far more easily than in a C-ISAM indexed file method. Techniques such as Data Warehousing, Data Mining and OLAP are all possible using a SQL Server database.

• An improved user interface that is more intuitive and far better at managing data displayed on the desktop, and more closely fits the Window's 'look and feel'. Version 5.0's improved menu system includes a Window's Explorer-style menu system and a built-in web browser, allowing users to construct their own menus using a HTML editor.

• Version 5.0 ships with a simple but effective task list. Tasks will be able to be run one after the other automatically, and projects will be able to be marked as recurring. In addition, projects can be linked directly to Microsoft Outlook.

• Tight integration with productivity tools exists. For example, you can output data directly from IMPACT Encore's desktop interface to Excel.

• Additional features include the facility to run up to nine consecutive programs from one trigger point, as well as the Rich Text Notepd facility that allows users to manipulate fonts, colours, attributes and general formatting as well as being able to cut and paste to and from other documents. It is also possible to print publishing-quality documents (at a fraction of the cost using forms-based products) using Word.

• Other improvements have been made to security, multimedia capabilities and Windows printing. A number of entry fields have been increased in size and there is now full support for long and spacey filenames.

• Certification of Version 5.0 to the Windows 2000 platform is under way. Applications that carry the Windows 2000 logo are designed to deliver new levels of reliability and manageability, thereby reducing cost of ownership.

• Version 5.0 sets the standard for future versions of IMPACT Encore. Technologies such as Component Object Model (COM) can only be implemented with Version 5.0 or higher, and these technologies allow for far greater connectivity possibilities than ever before. The BizTalk initiative aimed at enabling business-to-business e-commerce is only possible with a component framework such as COM.

Future enhancements include Engineering Change Control, Blanket Purchase Orders, Subcontracting improvements in the manufacturing modules and support for Distributed Resource Planning (DRP). These enhancements will be implemented in a subsequent release of Version 5.0.