Building An Automation Test Framework For Windows-Based ERP

In the versatile domain of software development, maintaining the integrity and functionality of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems is a paramount concern. However, the task becomes increasingly complex for companies relying on ERPs, facing the constant challenge of testing with frequent product updates and multiple versions. Interestingly, recent statistics reveal that the tide is shifting as companies recognize the transformative power of automation testing. More than 24% of businesses have already embraced automation, automating 50% or more of their test cases, witnessing unprecedented efficiency gains. An additional 33% aspire to automate between 50% to 75% of their test cases, while 21% aim to take automation to even greater heights, covering more than 75% of their test cases.

This case study delves into the world of automation testing as a transformative solution to tackle these challenges head-on. We spotlight a mobile warehouse and manufacturing automation solutions provider leveraging Sage 100 —the backbone of their operations.

Problem Statement: Meeting Regression Testing Challenges With Limited Time

The mobile warehouse and manufacturing solutions provider faced a formidable testing challenge. With each Sage product update or Windows update that rolls out periodically, the need for thorough regression testing became critical to ensure product compliance and functionality. Furthermore, the solutions provider grappled with the burden of testing not just one but 32 different versions of their ERP with limited resources—all within a tight 45-day deadline for the 100+ features they offered. Developed in legacy technologies, there wasn’t any readymade framework available for testing.

The sheer volume of testing required for each update and version posed a significant strain on their testing resources and time. The traditional manual testing approach proved inadequate and time-consuming, making it imperative to seek an innovative solution that would enhance testing efficiency and enable them to meet their demanding testing timelines.

Solution: Custom Proprietary Automation Framework

In response to the arduous testing challenges, our experts introduced a groundbreaking solution—the development of a custom proprietary automation framework using Maestro. This innovative framework was meticulously designed to cater specifically to the complexities of the Windows-based ERP integrated with Sage 100, leveraging the ProvideX technology.

Given Sage 100’s longstanding presence in the industry, the products were deeply entrenched in a legacy technology environment. Our custom proprietary framework proved to be the perfect antidote to address the intricacies and challenges posed by this legacy system. Embracing the capabilities of Maestro and WinDriver, our solution transformed the testing landscape, delivering a robust and scalable approach to tackle their unique Windows-based product testing challenges and keeping up with the regular product updates.

Benefits Of Our Solution

The implementation of the custom proprietary automation framework using Maestro resulted in a series of significant benefits, revolutionizing their testing processes.

A Paradigm Shift In Testing Efficiency

Prior to the implementation of automation testing, the testing process for each of the 32 versions of their similar products was an arduous 7-day endeavor, leaving them with a daunting challenge to complete all testing within a strict 45-day cutoff. The manual testing approach demanded significant time and resources, making it an uphill battle to meet the tight deadline.

With the advent of the custom automation framework, the scenario underwent a remarkable transformation. The testing time for the entire product regression cycle was astonishingly reduced from 7 days to a mere 7 hours. This extraordinary time-saving enabled testing to be completed for all 32 products within the allocated timeframe and achieve resource optimization—reallocating valuable human resources to other vital development activities. Embracing automation paved the way for a new era of efficiency, productivity, and unparalleled success, propelling Scanco to the forefront of its industry.

CI Global – Embrace Automation, Embrace Excellence!

With their custom automation framework powered by Maestro, the customer conquered update challenges, achieving unmatched efficiency and meeting strict testing deadlines. As automation experts, CI Global offers exceptional testing capabilities akin to customer’s success. With a proven track record in optimizing software development lifecycles, CI Global tailors services to your needs. Elevate testing efficiency, streamline processes, and enhance product quality. Take the first step towards transforming your testing process—visit CI Global’s website or contact them today.

Embrace automation’s power for unparalleled success.

Why Building Automation Testing Frameworks are Key to Accelerating the Testing Process?

Imagine the scenario: After weeks of dedicated effort, you and your team have achieved a remarkable milestone – the development of an exciting software application that has generated immense excitement among stakeholders. However, before celebrating, the daunting task of testing looms ahead. As a software developer or tester, you are well aware of the immense pressure to meet tight deadlines while upholding impeccable software quality.

Evolution Of Software Testing

Software testing is crucial for ensuring quality and a smooth user experience. However, manual testing can be slow, repetitive, and prone to errors. Automation testing solves these issues by using frameworks, tools, and scripts to automatically execute test cases, eliminating the need for manual intervention.

By harnessing the power of automation, testing processes can be accelerated and streamlined, saving time, effort, and resources. This means higher productivity, faster release cycles, and improved software quality. So, let’s understand automation testing and discover why it is a game-changer for software development.

How Does Automation Testing Work?

Building automation testing frameworks are essential for accelerating the testing process by streamlining and optimizing test execution. To understand their significance, let’s explore the automation testing process.

  1. Test Environment Setup

    Testers configure servers, install the necessary software, and prepare databases to create a testing environment that closely resembles the production or target environment.

  2. Test Script Development

    Testers then create automated test scripts with instructions that simulate user interactions and validate expected outcomes. These scripts capture various test scenarios and workflows.

  3. Test Data Management

    The testers create and manage datasets the test scripts use to validate different scenarios and business rules. Test data enables comprehensive test coverage and the evaluation of various input combinations.

  4. Test Execution

    They execute the automated tests, where the test scripts simulate user actions, interact with the application’s interface or APIs, and validate expected outcomes.

Automation frameworks provide mechanisms for executing tests on different environments and devices.

Discover how to enhance your software development and delivery through automation testing. Visit CI Global today and explore our comprehensive range of services.

Organizations adopting automation testing frameworks witnessed a remarkable boost in efficiency, with an average reduction of 30% in overall testing efforts. By automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks, testers were able to focus on more critical aspects of testing, such as exploratory testing and analyzing test results.

Benefits Of Automation Testing

Automation testing offers several benefits that contribute to improved software quality and development efficiency.

Efficiency And Time Savings

Automation testing offers a significant benefit in eliminating repetitive manual effort, leading to faster test cycles. Unlike manual testing, automation allows the creation of consistent and accurate test scripts, saving time and reducing the risk of human errors. The frameworks enable scheduled and event-triggered test executions, ensuring round-the-clock testing for maximum efficiency.

This efficiency allows testers to focus on critical aspects of software quality assurance, further enhancing the overall testing process.

Enhanced Test Coverage And Consistency

Automation testing ensures enhanced test coverage and consistency, which is critical for software quality. Testers achieve comprehensive coverage with efficient and consistent execution of numerous test cases. Unlike manual testing’s limitations, automation allows for extensive test suites, including edge cases and negative scenarios.

Consistent test execution and validation deliver reliable and reproducible results by following predefined scripts, eliminating human errors, and validating software functionality consistently. This boosts testing accuracy and reliability and ultimately improves software quality.

Regression Testing And Early Defect Detection

Regression testing is vital for validating existing functionalities after software updates, but manual execution is time-consuming and resource-intensive. Automation testing frameworks efficiently and accurately perform regression tests by automating validated test cases. Early defect detection allows prompt issue resolution, reducing costs and effort in later stages of software development.

Automation testing ensures software stability and reliability through efficient regression testing, benefiting the development lifecycle.

Cost Savings And ROI

Automation testing’s cost-effectiveness results from eradicating repetitive manual work and reducing human errors. Though there’s an initial investment in setting up frameworks and test scripts, long-term savings arise from reduced testing time, resource utilization, and defect resolution costs. Automation also boosts ROI through faster time-to-market, improved software quality, and increased customer satisfaction.

Implementing automation frameworks brings lasting benefits, such as heightened productivity, reduced maintenance effort, and improved scalability, resulting in higher ROI for organizations embracing automation testing.

Get your edge in the market with the benefits of automation testing in your development cycle. Get in touch with us today to know more.

Download this checklist to understand and identify areas where
automation testing can significantly benefit your organization.

CI GLOBAL – Modernize, Optimize, Succeed

When embracing automation testing, CI Global is a trusted partner ready to guide you through your modernization journey. Our team of experts are dedicated to helping businesses like yours achieve seamless transitions, enhanced functionality, and increased productivity. Don’t miss the opportunity to revolutionize your operations and stay ahead in today’s competitive landscape. Visit the CI Global website now to discover how our comprehensive solutions and industry-leading expertise can drive your business forward. Partnering with CI Global today takes the first step towards a successful modernization.

Revolutionizing Sales Commission Management: A Case Study of CI Global’s Product Development

Commission management is crucial for incentivizing and rewarding performance. But there are several challenges organizations face in managing commissions. Some common challenges include

One of the leading quick service chains based out of New York with over 23 retail locations was facing the challenge of tracking and managing sales commissions. They reached out to CI Global for a solution for automating their commission payout process. This case study demonstrates how we achieved this by evolving the solution into a software product.

Calculating and controlling sales commissions was a daunting task in front of the quick service chain.

As the requirement analysis was done, the key factors for commission calculation were identified. The following commission aspects presented issues for the business::

Integration to the Sage 300 ERP was critical for this customer as they wanted a solution that would service their commission management workflows end-to-end.
Intensive user testing and market research activities were carried out to pinpoint the problems and difficulties the sales team experienced. The solution was built upon software that was developed after several rounds of discussion with the customer. The focus was on building an automated solution with integrations to accounting software. What started as building a solution for solving the challenges for a single customer turned out to be a potential for the development of a full-fledged product.

CI Global created Commission Manager, a software product to expedite and simplify the commission management process after realizing the need for an all-encompassing solution in the market. Commission Manager improved the commission management workflow by automating multiple commission criteria calculations.Commission Manager needed to be adaptable and scalable while still having the capability to integrate with accounting software to provide an end-to-end commission management experience.

Manual errors were removed with automated data entry through Sage 300 ERP integration. The solution enabled a fair and transparent commission payout process for the sales staff. This increased the team satisfaction score within the organization and enabled the sales staff to perform much better.

Upon implementing Commission Manager, the quick-service chain’s complex and time-consuming commission calculations were more straightforward and accurate.

The quick-service chain’s sales commission management procedure underwent a dramatic shift following its adoption. The introduction of the Commission Manager changed the game by making complex and time-consuming commission calculations more straightforward and accurate.

Commission Manager improved the commission management workflow by:

Manual errors were greatly minimized, and the solution made sure that the sales staff would get fair and transparent commission payments. The quick service chain’s problems were remedied by adopting a Commission Manager, allowing them to concentrate on their primary duties and stimulate sales growth.

The automation and user-configurable capabilities made the commission administration process simple and painless, freeing the sales staff to focus on driving sales. The customer acknowledged the following benefits:

CIG: Identifying problems, building solutions

As organizations grow, manual processes can become increasingly challenging to manage. Building a software product offers numerous advantages and opportunities for organizations. The case study highlights how software products can be built to address specific needs or provide a solution to a customer’s pain point. While building a software product involves investment in time, resources, and expertise, its benefits in terms of customization, competitive advantage, revenue generation, efficiency, and improved customer experience can make it a worthwhile endeavor for many organizations.

With 25+ years of experience in ERP, CI Global has been developing products in integration with ERP. Reach out to us today to get your product development started.

Demystifying Add-on Development: Why Building Add-ons Is Not As Challenging As It Seems

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, ERPs are constantly being enhanced and expanded to meet the diverse needs of businesses and customers. One powerful way to extend the functionality of existing software solutions is by developing add-ons. While building add-ons may initially seem challenging, this blog aims to demystify the process and highlight its benefits. We will explore the journey of software add-on development, the importance of understanding customer personas, and the specifics of add-on creation. By the end, you’ll discover that building add-ons is not as complicated as it seems.

Modular ERP system integration allows businesses to connect specific, independent modules like CRM, SCM, and HR to create a unified and tailored enterprise management solution without the complexity of a monolithic system. With a good understanding of ERP and market needs, the ability to add functionalities that simplify customer processes, a structured development process, and a deep understanding of customer personas, ISVs can develop add-ons/products, opening up a new revenue stream in the ERP marketplace.

This knowledge is used to discover current software gaps and determine the scope of the ERP add-on. Understanding the complexities of ERP systems allows organizations to create add-ons that seamlessly connect and increase existing capabilities, resulting in a smooth and efficient user experience.

Investing in scalable ERP enhancements ensures that the system can adapt and grow alongside the business, accommodating increasing data volumes, user numbers, and evolving operational complexities without requiring a complete overhaul. 

Understanding the customer persona: A business perspective

Businesses may ensure improved user happiness and higher adoption rates by designing add-ons to individual client requirements. This customer-centric strategy promotes the add-on as a beneficial solution, significantly increasing the value of the customer’s ERP system.

A modular design approach is essential when it comes to developing add-ons. Creating add-ons as standalone modules increases flexibility and simplifies maintenance for both software suppliers and end users. It enables organizations to constantly extend and improve their ERP systems by adding additional modules that interface smoothly with the core system. Furthermore, extensive testing of the add-on ensures its dependability, performance, and compatibility with the ERP system.

Adding functions, adding functionality: Making an add-on

This section focuses on creating an add-on, which includes detecting current software gaps, defining the scope of the add-on, and smoothly integrating it with the core ERP system. Effective communication and collaboration between software suppliers and add-on developers are critical for creating successful add-ons.

Module development is essential in the creation of add-ons. It includes several crucial components:

  1. Module Development Process: Module development involves designing and building specific components or functionalities to enhance the core ERP system. This process follows the software development life cycle, including requirements gathering, design, coding, testing, and deployment.
  2. Modular Design: Modular design is crucial for developing flexible, scalable, and easily maintainable add-ons. Breaking down the add-on into smaller, self-contained modules enables efficient management and updates. It allows for customization and future enhancements as per evolving needs.
  3. Scalability: Add-ons should be designed to accommodate potential growth and changing business requirements. Ensuring scalability allows the solution to adapt and evolve alongside the ERP system and the organization.
  4. Thorough Testing: Rigorous testing ensures the add-on functions properly, integrates seamlessly with the core ERP system, and avoids compatibility or performance issues. Comprehensive testing guarantees a reliable and robust add-on that meets user expectations.

Before delving into the add-on development process, it is essential to acknowledge the critical role of ERP knowledge. This knowledge allows businesses to identify the existing gaps or limitations in the ERP system and develop add-ons that seamlessly integrate and extend its capabilities. ERP knowledge is the foundation for designing add-ons that address specific customer requirements and enhance the overall ERP experience.

By combining ERP knowledge with effective add-on development practices, businesses can leverage the power of modular design, scalability, and thorough testing to create valuable add-ons. These add-ons bridge the existing gaps in the ERP system and provide flexibility and easier maintenance for software providers and end-users. The result is a more efficient and tailored ERP solution that aligns with evolving business needs.

CIG: Leading and solving your problems the software way

To address unique business requirements beyond standard functionalities, companies often engage ERP system extension services to develop custom modules, integrations, or enhancements that seamlessly work with their existing ERP platform. CI Global (CIG), a tech-first innovation company, specializes in add-on development for the ERP ecosystem. With years of experience and a team of skilled professionals, CIG is well-equipped to solve complex business challenges through software solutions.

By leveraging CIG’s expertise, businesses can tap into their add-ons and experience significant improvements in efficiency, productivity, and overall performance. In conclusion, understanding the critical role of ERP knowledge and customer personas is key to successful add-on development. Embrace the power of add-ons and unlock new opportunities for your business today.

Is the transition for SMBs from an outdated system to the newest software seamless?

Staying ahead of the curve is crucial for businesses of all sizes in today’s fast-paced environment. Organizations must adapt by embracing the latest software solutions to be competitive as technology develops at a booming rate. Many small and medium-sized businesses are constrained by the limits of out-of-date legacy technologies. They impede their productivity and ability to function seamlessly. The hesitation to upgrade is frequently exacerbated by worries about future costs and how time-consuming upgrading will be.

This blog will highlight the various points you need to know about upgrading your software systems. We examine the crucial factors that firms must consider throughout this transition and deal with any typical difficulties they can have. We review how our knowledge and solutions help SMBs surpass challenges and promote a smooth relocation process. Businesses can gain various advantages by adopting the latest software solutions, including increased productivity, improved data security, simplified operations, and the capacity to utilize cutting-edge features and capabilities.

Regarding updating their systems, SMBs may need to be more confident and concerned. We are here to help them through this transformational process. Let’s discuss the critical factors and how we can assist firms in 2023 with a seamless switch to the newest software.

Essential Elements to Pay Close Attention to When Upgrading from Older Versions to the Newest Systems

It takes careful planning to transition from an outdated system to the recent updated software,. Migrating the customization your business has and requires, is one of the crucial factors to pay particular attention to during the migration process. The compatibility of any customization with the newest software must be assured. It would be best to consider additional screens that need to be built specifically for your purposes to address the gaps.

Transfer the customization that your business needs.

During the module development process, in your previous ERP there are specific modules built to address specific use cases. 4-5 core modules are explicitly designed for ERP-specific core modules across all product lines. During the modernization journey, your personalized features will be transported to the new system including those customizations. The leap of innovation from the previous version to the new systems can meet your business needs.

ERP Product Line: Linking Current Capabilities to Your Wishlist

The Sage product line provides a wide choice of solutions to match the particular demands of your organization, which is an excellent illustration of this. It’s important to keep data transfer and add-on incorporation in mind while migrating a product. Scalability of features, mobile and web-enabled choices, and enhancing your current ERP with more data analytics are additional critical factors that you can consider while transferring custom modules.

Integrating Multiple Departments Using One Solution

Customization is essential when expanding the capabilities of the software you’re migrating towards; it helps combine several corporate divisions during the migration process. Sage provides products for several departments but might not fully meet particular use cases. When creating a comprehensive solution and ensuring a smooth transition into it, customization becomes valuable. Custom-built products enable businesses to handle departmental difficulties by altering modules to suit their workflows and data requirements. They make integrating current systems and data sources feasible, providing a smooth information flow.

Additionally, customization ensures that the solution complies with industry-specific standards for reporting and compliance. Due to its ability to fulfill industry-specific standards, interact with current systems, and cater to the demands of various departments, a customized all-in-one solution is more effective in migrating. The all-roundedness of the solution makes the transition easier, increases output, and guarantees that the solution successfully supports business operations and procedures.

CIG: Creating Innovation and Value

Your company may benefit significantly from modernization especially when it comes to updating software. Businesses can benefit from better functionality, increased productivity, and streamlined workflows. As an IT company, CIG helps with the modernization process by integrating add-ons, ensuring data integrity across old and new systems, and migrating customizations your business needs.

In conclusion, updating your organization requires moving from a legacy system to the latest systems, which may seem difficult. Planning is crucial to the process, and it is essential to pay particular attention to essential elements like new panels, and data migration. Businesses can profit from modernization and advance their operations by bridging their existing capabilities with their wishlist, utilizing all-in-one solutions, and consulting experts.

Building products for supply chain: Mobile Inventory Suite

An effective inventory management system is crucial for a functional supply chain business. Businesses must analyze their processes to understand where to estimate delays, mistakes, and inefficiencies. To analyze and break down what’s happening, an innovative approach is not just a need but a crucial part of the puzzle. This approach should solve visibility, streamline the process, and decrease operational overload. The Mobile Inventory Suite was developed with such an approach in mind.

In this case study, we will understand the processes behind MIS as we dig deeper into the problem statements and create roadmaps for supply chain inventory management. In developing a tailored solution, the key is to transform the inventory management process by comprehending business needs and pain points. Going into the crux of cross-border functionality, for example, we explore how we had to work for a Canadian client who runs a warehouse in the US and needs a solution that addresses the problem with scalability at the core.

Breaking down the common issues

Businesses frequently need help with typical problem statements and supply chain management pain points like inventory management, transportation and logistics, lack of visibility and many more. The company we focus on here is a Canadian client with a warehouse in the United states of America looking for a solution that balances size and functionality. Every warehouse has four significant steps to base its processes on: stock receipt, transfer, count, and shipment. However, their efficiency, accuracy, and overall operating performance are improved by automating laborious procedures. Businesses can seize possibilities for streamlined processes, improved inventory management, and improved supply chain efficiency by addressing the above issues.

Hypothesizing the solution

A thorough approach and plan was designed to solve the identified supply chain inventory management issues and provide a customized solution to satisfy the client’s unique demands. The journey towards a solution started with creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that included the essential features to help in transactional inventory management. It addressed the current pain points and gaps in the ERP solution the business has integrated.

The client was subsequently shown the MVP, and based on their particular warehouse operations and requirements, they offered insightful input to build a better roadmap. The MVP was continuously improved through the iterative method. The client’s input was significant in determining the development’s course, guaranteeing that the finished solution would meet their expectations and successfully handle their operations.

As the solution was being built and more features were added to address the edge cases, it progressively became a product that could be tailored to meet the needs of different supply chains. The solution’s adaptability and versatility made smooth integration with the ERP solutions of various warehouse setups and procedures possible, giving it a flexible and adaptive answer to inventory management problems.

What are the issues with transactional inventory management?

Transactional inventory management has many difficulties and constraints, which can cause inefficiencies in supply chain operations. Various system interfaces and parts cause these problems.

How did we create a software solution for a warehouse problem?

Various processes were involved in developing a customized software solution for the warehouse issue.

Along with increasing productivity, this mobile-first design enabled better visibility and accuracy throughout inventory management.

Improving efficiency through boosting transparency

The Mobile Inventory Suite increases supply chain efficiency by increasing transparency and real-time visibility in the ERP solutions that a specific company has incorporated.

These actions led to cost savings, higher client happiness, and increased productivity.

Empower your supply chain with barcode-based order entry.

The Mobile Inventory Suite offers substantial advantages to supply chain operations when barcodes are used to submit orders.

This simplified procedure eliminates human data entry, increases order correctness, and boosts supply chain operating effectiveness.

Mobile Inventory Suite: A Custom CIG Build

A comprehensive software program created to enhance inventory control inside the supply chain is called the Mobile Inventory Suite.

Success endorsements from businesses that have used the Mobile Inventory Suite to streamline processes and improve supply chain performance demonstrate how MIS has helped solve business pain points.

The CIG Edge: Identifying problems, building solutions

The case study emphasized how supply chain inventory management was essential in embracing cutting-edge software solutions. Significant advantages of the Mobile Inventory Suite include improved productivity, openness, and scalability. The system improves decision-making, streamlines operations, and boosts overall performance by utilizing barcode scanning, real-time tracking, and seamless integration. The study underlines the need to embrace technology to overcome inventory management obstacles and maintain competitiveness in the changing supply chain environment, where practical and transparent operations are crucial for success.

Demand Forecasting with ERP Data

Businesses across industries need the answer to two critical questions before they start building for the long run. “What does the market need?” and “How much does the market need?”. Using tools like Power BI and Tableau combined with Python/R, one can provide reasons why demand works the way it does.

Predicting how your business is heading is always a game of probabilities, but with time, our product, RubiCube, only gets better at giving the right direction. We provide 75-80% accurate predictions based on historical data and current scenarios. We visualize the order for you to make the pivots needed.

But how does it all tie up with understanding the demand for your offering? Read this case study to know more.

What is demand forecasting?

Demand forecasting is estimating the future demand for a product or service based on historical data, market trends, and other relevant factors. It is vital in supply chain management, production planning, inventory management, and sales forecasting.

ERP Data: What data does it gather, and how does it collect them?

An ERP system is one of the mainstream implementations that businesses have. It brings different data sets to bring information such as sales, inventory, production, and employee data to one platform.

Limitations of prescriptive analytics

Prescriptive analytics display a version of the future based on the past and doesn’t consider many factors. In this section, we uncover the limitations of prescriptive analytics and how it affects business.

Implementing demand forecasting

Now that business leader knows why they need to step beyond the past and get analytics based on the current situation, let’s understand how accurately demand forecasting is implemented and its benefits.

Steps to implement demand forecasting

Methods of demand forecasting

The tools and techniques you need for forecasting can vary on the methodology you choose and the way you want to proceed.

  1. Time Series Analysis
  2. Regression Analysis
  3. Market Research
  4. Customer Feedback

What role does AI play?

A statistical model can be trained to do what it needs to do, but when it’s given the capacity to learn what it’s doing, it can keep iterating to predict and get to the root of the cause accurately. AI algorithms can:

Conglomerates like Amazon, Walmart, and Coca-Cola use AI-led algorithms to understand their consumers and find the ideal position within the market for boosting sales and RoI.

Real-life problems, tech-led solutions

Technology and consumer lives are invariably overlapping over the last few years. But what happens when the approach misses one crucial KPI that connects the statistics to the present?

In this section, we discuss how a different strategy for analysis would have served as a warning system for the complete power grid failure in Texas.

Due to an unforeseen winter storm in Texas on February 2021, the temperatures dropped to -39 degrees Celsius, causing a massive upsurge in power demand. It took about 12 days for the power grid to be fully functional again; this lack of power led to an infrastructure failure that directly/indirectly caused more than 200 deaths.

Could this have been predicted?

Using data available from the Department of Energy of the USA, we built a data lake. We simulated and built a model using R and Python with an advanced regression testing model on the data lake. We did econometric modeling to refine the statistical system. Econometric modeling solves situations where prescriptive demand forecasting fails, because

What are the advantages of demand forecasting?

There is a wide range of reasons why you need ERP demand forecasting, and utilizing the power of AI is crucial when attempting to build functionality.

How can a software product company push forward with demand forecasting?

Predicting demand based on the likelihood of outcomes is always an iterative process. It uses a combination of data analysis, statistical algorithms, and demand forecasting with machine learning to pinpoint the most likely results from particular choices.

The following are the reasons why a software product company can help you:

A predictive model can run on any organized data arrangement and does not always need to be on ERP Data alone. This means you can estimate and build the scope of your business depending on the market instead of going on personal intuition.

CI Global: Predicting business growth with RubiCube

With ERP expertise, we built RubiCube with problem statements we discovered across our 25 years of experience. Understanding the demand for what you offer is vital in any market and business, but more than a linear graph of what already exists is needed. RubiCube doesn’t just predict market behavior with your business projections but also represents them through visualizations that point to connecting the dots.

The tool has more than 25-pre built dashboards and analytically boosts operational efficiency by 30%. Want to know how your business can benefit from it? Reach out today.

Relation between KPIs, Actionable Insights, and ERPs

Any information essential to the business becomes valuable data. With over 120 zettabytes of data generated daily, the world has a data overload across channels. It’s critical to take a step further from data-based decisions to insight-guided decisions. For that, data needs to transform into ideas and actions for decision-makers to understand when using the correct method so that you can visualize the impact.

In this blog, we uncover what data is and follow it through its journey to becoming insights through well-established KPIs. These indicators are vital in keeping track of progress and help the decision-makers take the correct route to the solution.

Analyzing the numbers that matter

Predictive analytics and machine learning algorithms are helping businesses make reliable decisions by leveraging accurate predictions. They can repeatedly simulate scenarios based on existing data to forecast the business’s future direction and potential standstills. Business intelligence uses these algorithms to teach itself to predict through a KPI.

What turns data into insights?

Data can be processed using statistical and analytical methods to identify patterns and trends. This analysis can involve looking for correlations between variables, identifying outliers, and using machine learning algorithms to uncover hidden insights.

Data visualization can take many forms, such as charts, graphs, and ERP KPI dashboards, and can be used to share insights in an easily understandable and interactive way.

How to create ML projections?

Securing and creating the proper dataset is a task half complete; it has to follow a suitable ML model that can be trained and developed in the required direction. This can be done on a few statistical concepts like linear regression, decision trees, and neural networks.

A process to create an ML model follows:

Why are well-established KPIs important?

An indicator becomes a KPI when it gives a company the upper hand in three key areas when it affects cost, revenue or it gives strategic advantage. Through measuring specific KPIs, organizations can ensure that their activities achieve their goals and align with their overall growth plan.

KPIs are vital because they:

How to measure a KPI?

From selecting the correct methodology to measure the KPI to the data source from the ERP and constant analysis techniques, there are many things to understand before getting to the root of KPI measurement.

After creating the KPI, you need to:

How to accelerate business capacity?

An ERP system can integrate different departments and functions into a single data system to better utilize resources and make informed decisions based on real-time data. Analyzing data is at the heart of growing a business of any size, whether micro-enterprises, SMBs, or from the ground up. Identifying the difference between the to-do list and the wish list is the primary step in accelerating a business; let’s see how that happens.

How to make decisions based on what your company needs vs. wants?

When you can identify patterns, trends, and opportunities that might not be immediately apparent through intuition or experience alone, you make more informed and better decisions backed with insights rather than assumptions or opinions.

What is an actionable insight?

An actionable insight is a suggestion that you can implement in the present to directly impact your business in the future. Let’s take an example of a power grid; sorting and analyzing data in a dataset as vast as running a power grid requires understanding specific organizational metrics.

This can follow proper processing until you reach a point where you end up with a to-do list of things you can do today. Likewise, when the concept is applied to the wine and beverage industry, the meaning of an insight changes depending on the KPI.

Module development at CI Global: Visualizing data for you

At CI Global, we understand business data can be overwhelming when displaying all numbers without visualization. We build software modules that can extend your ERP’s functionality, create a vision for the future and automate the report with the idea to you as a notification wherever you are.

Now that you know why insights matter, don’t you want to know what we can do for you? Click here.

Extending ERP functionalities through Add-Ons

Building software is about understanding the manner and direction of designing a solution; some solutions have strengths in a few particular aspects, while some build all-around features applicable across industries. ERPs are feature-directed software; they ease operational overhead for businesses and enterprises. If one needs an accounting feature—that Sage Intacct is most optimized for—into their integrated Sage 300 system, they need to build the add-on that can support the currently installed system and address the gap that needs to be filled.

Without proper ERP integration, data silos can hinder business insights and decision-making.  This blog explains why building purpose-driven ERP add-ons that extend functionality is essential for business and how it solves specific use cases.

Why does software need an add-on?

Add-ons help businesses optimize the ERP by giving it specific accounting, manufacturing, and distribution features. Depending on the needs, one can develop a purpose-driven add-on that provides functionality beyond the norm. While the off-the-shelf software is built for a macro view of the business, one can use an add-on to make it specifically for the purpose.

While a standard ERP system offers many features, ERP customization is often necessary to tailor the software to a company’s specific workflows and industry requirements. To improve efficiency, it is not important to invest in ERP integration to connect various business systems. Several ERP software solutions are available on the market, each offering different functionalities and catering to various business sizes and industries.

Sage 300

It was previously known as Accpac and is the most well-rounded ERP in the market. It is the perfect business accounting system for small and medium-sized businesses(SME/SMB).

Sage 100

It is the mid-point between a comprehensive ERP like Sage 300 and an accounting-specific ERP software like Intacct. Its strengths lie in process management across accounting and manufacturing.

Sage Intacct

Sage Intacct is an ERP software specific for accounting but needs adjustments and utility extensions to suit the business needs and the problem at hand.

How does expertise matter in building purpose-driven software in the ERP ecosystem?

The process of building an add-on is like product development. Like every software product, you need clarity on simple points and follow a wireframe, for example:

  1. The purpose of building it and the use case it solves.
  2. The method and roadmap for making the solution.
  3. The execution of the solution and testing the efficiency.
  4. The removal of any data pitfalls within the system.

An add-on complements and enhances the ERP by implementing business processes not addressed in the ERP. For building one, the business needs a software development team that functions from a business perspective, can optimize ideas, and has software expertise that implements the promises.

Add-ons: The value proposition in extending utility

ERPs are a platform that can give a view of what’s happening in the organization. Let’s take the example from a logistics perspective; the add-on extends the business point of view from just the rudimentary numbers on sales or purchases to a complete control system on sales, purchases and inventory.

With the ERPs and add-ons, the idea is cohesion between operations and the needed results. Automate with the add-on and observe with the ERP through perfect implementation for cohesion. Many organizations find that ERP integration simplifies reporting and improves overall visibility.

The following are a few examples of add-ons we’ve worked on for the logistics industry:

Digitizing operations with bar-code scanning- Add-on for Sage 300

Order entry module in Sage Intacct- Automating invoices and receipts

Multi-bin module for Sage 100- Strategizing the solution

By implementing business process automation, you can significantly reduce manual data entry and improve operational efficiency.

CI Global: Finding problems, building solutions

From identifying the need, understanding the cause and breaking down the solutions, CI Global has led several projects with expertise that only grew with experience. With over 25 years of experience across industries as a software development team, we’ve worked on critical projects that later became features recognized by the ERP provider. Connect with us to know more about the best ERP extensions for workflow automation.

Want to know more about what we offer? Click here.

Predictive analytics in ERP ecosystem: A study into utility

With the latest trends suggesting that there’s a need for AI at every point that data flows through, it’s elementary to understand how AI can transform business and operability. Probability and predictability are all about the chances of success of actions meeting the most-likely results.

In this case study, we go over why predictive analytics is the future of business operations and how CI’s product RubiCube fits business needs.

Why do we need to go beyond off-the-shelf functionality?

CRMs and ERPs are a norm across scaling businesses, from micro to macro. From an integrated suite of software applications to a set of databases, ERPs give a view of what’s happening within operations and business departments.

Understanding predictive analytics- Why now? Why AI?

AI constantly learns from data patterns within the company and can compare them to industry patterns from the market. The business data considers and displays what’s happening within the organization but when the scope is extended towards what the market wants, the decision-makers get closer to where they want the organization to be.

Using AI to make the descriptive data work

In the short to medium term, the company’s growth direction depends on the actions taken today. A tech-first solution like RubiCube can underline the future trajectory of the business. The following are the use cases for a predictive tool that allows taking actions that matter:

Predictive analytics for MSMEs

Building a business from scratch starts at the idea and the smallest action in starting operations, a micro-enterprise. At this stage, there’s a need to make decisions over just maintaining something there is. With the help of PA(predictive analytics), businesses can:

Data analytics and business intelligence: Transform ERP powerhouses

When a functional ERP can generate data on what’s happening, it reports it in numbers. AI powers the journey from numbers and data to visualizations and dashboards. With the help of PA, statistical data can:

Streamlining financial management processes

Money matters matter the most. Empower the business strategy and financial planning with AI that does the heavy lifting. With the help of predictive analytics, the in-house finance team can:

How predictive analytics software helps decision-makers?

Viewing how businesses perform and the future direction can have different implications for decision-makers in different positions. Predictive analytics is not the magic pill that solves all the problems in business strategies but it can become a contributor to each decision in the following ways:

Implementing RubiCube in a Sage solution

The supply chain industry works around multiple variables functioning simultaneously with seamless integration. But what happens when the business powers it with AI? While the science isn’t new, neither is the field, latest advancements have led large datasets to be analyzed and statistical models to be built on historical data to formulate future trends.

With the power of AI in the form of predictive analytics, businesses can:

Forecast future demand

The hardest metric to understand without AI is product-oriented demand. Improve predictability in forecasting rates with trained data systems. Analyze past and current trends with market intel and industry-level economic forecasts.

Manage supply inventory

Optimal inventory management comes from a supply chain that satisfies demand while minimizing stock. With a detailed view of demand across locations and usage, stock inventory optimally instead of losing out on potential demand or overstocking.

Plan and coordinate logistics

Transportation and shipment costs can significantly affect a product’s price. With a data-driven strategy, businesses can avoid downtime and account for optimal shipping frequency that saves money from spending in spaces without RoI.

Detect the outliers

When AI can predict the path the business should expect it can also immediately raise a flag when there’s a sale or a lack of it when it’s least likely to happen. This can help the organization identify fraud or check for sensor failures at the earliest.

CI Global: Empowering business leaders the AI way

RubiCube is the direct result of understanding the market gap and building a solution that solves it. With ERP expertise and the contextual knowledge of working across industries for over 25 years, we understood the value of providing a view into the future of business functionality.

RubiCube doesn’t just predict business stories but also supports them in a way that the decision-makers would understand. Through more than 25 pre-built dashboards that support more than 5 languages, we built RubiCube as a solution that can analytically boost operational efficiency by 30%. With RubiCube, we’ve automated reporting to where the decision makers are for transparency that matters instead of having them open the ERP and check for the status.

Want to know more about how we can transform your future? Reach out to us.

Product Integration: Whys and hows

To understand product integration, let’s visualize this scenario. 

Imagine a black pen with a blue refill and a red cap; it gets confusing a little too quickly. Having multiple products that do not have a seamless feel is like having a messy desk; at one point or another, you need to sort them from scratch again. Product integration in the software world is all about coordinating different products to make your life easier. For example, an e-learning app needs to integrate video-calling software into its interface and organize and support documents for each class conducted. 

Effective system integration techniques are crucial for ensuring seamless communication and data flow between different software applications and hardware systems within an organization. Proper integration is critical for improving productivity and channelling your operations across industries.

Product integration refers to the process of combining and connecting different software applications, hardware devices, or other components to create a cohesive and seamless user experience. API integrations enable seamless data exchange and functionality sharing between different software applications, fostering greater efficiency and innovation.

In this blog, we discuss CI’s experience in the product integration journey of connecting 10+ ERPs using 15+ custom and standard connectors, connecting more than a thousand metadata. So, how does integration work? What are the industry challenges? You need the right product integration strategies to crack this code.  

By implementing well-designed API integrations, businesses can create powerful and interconnected ecosystems that enhance customer experiences and drive growth. 

How to integrate software products?

A complete understanding of your needs lets you know what you can ask. Let’s break down the different points of product integration.

APIs, SDKs, and databases are integrated differently. The correct option is chosen based on the needs and integration platforms offered.

What are the best practices in product integration?

Breaking down a complex process into steps and methods makes a process as daunting as software product integration. The following are a few practices we ensure at CI:

What are the challenges in product integration?

From interoperability to seeing how the product can be scaled across different sizes and environments, there are multiple challenges in product integration as a field. Let’s go over a few common problems that CI solves for :

RubiCube: Bridging integration gaps the CIG way

RubiCube is a data analytics product that integrates data from multiple sources, including but not limited to Sage 100/Sage 300/Sage Intacct/CRM/ HRMS, with any of your in-house products. RubiCube’s data lake has been developed using proprietary frameworks and custom connectors for significant ERPs.

Integrating RubiCube brings predictive analytics to your ERP, CRM, and in-house systems. RubiCube is implemented for your use case to either increase revenue, reduce operational costs, or gain strategic advantage. Never go back to an off-the-shelf solution to fit into your processes. Instead, integrate RubiCube as the solution that seamlessly integrates into your system and gives you the room to find the exact fit to move forward in your business. 

Want to know more about its use and utility? Click here to contact us about the benefits of product integration. 

How do custom connectors help product integration?

A functioning system will have multiple software working collaboratively to solve a use case. Custom connectors connect different software applications when there is no built-in integration. These connectors connect two or more applications and ease data transfer. Companies can develop these connectors in-house or outsource the task to a team like CI Global. CI has been working with more than 15+ ERPs on their product- Rubicube- working with thousands of metadata to get to the customized level that makes a difference.

Product integration integrates a company’s product with another system or platform. This can range from adding a simple plugin to an existing platform to integrating the company’s product directly into another software system. Seamless integration assists companies in creating comprehensive and efficient software systems by utilizing various applications and platforms.

Product integration aids in improving internal workflows and streamlining processes by automating tasks that would otherwise require manual intervention. While they can co-exist without one another, why are they important to each other? Why does having a custom connector help you streamline your business capabilities better? Read this case study to learn more.

What are the challenges in software product integration?

Understanding the worlds of data and KPIs is the first challenge in integrating different products. When integrating different systems, understanding the implementation of each product is a challenge to overcome. This arises because each product or system is implemented using different technologies, architectures, and design patterns, making it difficult to understand how they work and how they can be integrated with other systems.

It is essential to clearly understand the data requirements for the integration process and identify any potential gaps or missing data factors. This involves thoroughly analyzing the data structures and formats used by the software products involved in the integration process and developing strategies to fill in any missing data factors. This may involve using data mapping and conversion tools or developing custom integrations to bridge data gaps or inconsistencies.

How do custom connectors help in solving your problem?

Custom connectors are key in making customization work for businesses looking to stay competitive. Standard connectors give you insights and smooth flow for standard business ERP, but a custom connector needs to be built to get the complete advantages of a custom ERP. Customization is the name of the game in today’s world; custom connectors ensure that your custom ERPs work in the way intended without any functionality flaws. The following are how custom connectors help:

Why do you need a custom connector?

Defining the customisation before building the integration and the connector helps avoid reworks. Often the environment in the solution is theorized is not the same as the deployment phase environment; that’s one reason why there are challenges in the implementation of the connector. With custom connectors, you can foresee the upcoming changes and build for the future your team sees ahead.

RubiCube- Easing through integration with custom connectors

Reaching a seamless integration point takes effort, understanding, and expertise. At CI, we build for zero data loss and construct our solution from the roots of your problem statement. Through custom integration, you can choose what you want to integrate through connectors that make the best happen. VIP BDN is an industry-standard tool used to create and report insights into your business; it follows a format, whereas your final reports might need a separate format. The way to take data from VIP BDN and automate the standard numbers to fall into the custom report that your business needs is done by custom connectors. CIG has performed product integration with such tools. It puts business-critical information in your hands, but even the most customisable tools need robust integration to work optimally.

Unload the worries of a faulty integration with the help of custom connectors that ease your data flow. Modernize your systems with technology that moves the needle for your business; contact us today!

Unlock the potential of automation testing

After building software, you’ll need to run across different edge cases to understand how it runs and iron out any chinks in the armor. Automation testing ensures that your software product is reliable, efficient, and user-friendly. Automation testing also plays a critical role in modern QA strategies by enabling continuous testing and faster feedback loops. It saves resources by automating redundant testing tasks and completing them much faster than manually. Investing in the process pays off for repetitive software projects with many test cases.

Automation testing minimizes human error and solves a significant problem in manual testing. In the debate of manual vs automation testing, the latter wins out in speed, repeatability, and coverage for regression and performance tests. Its thorough testing strategy runs multiple test cases simultaneously, in which automation is an integral part of software testing within a short duration. It helps in catching bugs that may go unnoticed. Automation tests help to ensure that the software is reliable and stable within a shorter duration of time when compared to manual testing. With the right implementation, automation testing enhances test accuracy, reduces test cycle time, and supports frequent deployments. 

Implementing automation testing in a software company is relatively straightforward:

  1. Identify the test cases that can be automated. These test cases should be repeatable and cover as much depth as possible.
  2. Pick an automation testing tool that best suits the software application that needs to be tested. Choosing the right test automation tools is crucial for successful implementation, as they should align with the technology stack and project goals. Set up the automation testing environment and script the identified test cases.
  3. Integrate automation testing into the software development process, considering every time you add new code to the software, the scripts need to be updated as well.

Automation will help ensure that any existing functionality is not broken and the software runs consistently. Automation testing saves time and resources and ensures thorough testing to minimize human error. Automated software testing reduces the time and cost of repetitive test execution, making it a smart investment for long-term projects. By implementing automation testing and integrating it into the software development process, a software company can ensure that its products are reliable, efficient, and user-friendly. The rise of automation in QA is transforming the way software is validated, allowing teams to shift left and integrate testing earlier in the development lifecycle. 

Let’s understand how automation helps in automation works across different landscapes.

Desktop app automation – Beyond use and utility

Automation testing of desktop applications such as Point of Sale (POS) systems and on-premise Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems can significantly improve the efficiency and accuracy of a business’s operations.

In the case of POS systems, automation testing can simulate transactions and ensure that the system can handle them correctly. It can include testing for proper calculation of prices, taxes, and discounts and ensuring that the system can handle multiple transactions simultaneously without crashing. Automation testing can ensure that the system can adequately address payment methods, such as credit cards and mobile payments.

Automation testing can test on-premise ERP systems by testing the system’s ability to handle different types of data, such as financial and inventory data, and ensuring that the system can handle multiple users accessing it simultaneously. Automation testing ensures the system can adequately control different business processes, such as ordering and invoicing.

Custom frameworks – Tailoring to your business needs

The standard frameworks may not necessarily work for all applications. Custom automation testing frameworks can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of automation testing, especially when tailored to the software’s specific technology and environment. A custom framework allows for a tailored approach that can be more effective in identifying and addressing the unique challenges of the software.

The benefits of having custom frameworks are as follows:

  1. Writing and maintaining test scripts is more accessible when the software and the custom framework are in the same programming language.
  2. Custom frameworks work with specific libraries or frameworks, such as Selenium for web applications, which can help streamline the automation testing process.
  3. They can handle the specific requirements of the software. For example, if the software has a complex user interface, the custom framework can be designed to handle testing that interface more efficiently.
  4. A custom framework handles data more efficiently. If the software has a lot of data to process, it will increase the maintainability and scalability of the automation tests.

Test scripts can save time and resources and make testing more efficient. Custom automation testing frameworks can significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of automation testing by being tailored to the specific software. CI has built custom UI frameworks using Selenium that helped automate parts of the Multi-bin feature. They increase the automation tests’ maintainability and scalability and allow for better code reuse.

UI automation with WinAppDriver

UI automation refers to using software to control another application’s user interface, typically for testing or automating repetitive tasks. WinAppDriver is a Windows Application Driver for Windows applications; it allows for automating UI testing of Windows Applications. It uses the same APIs as Appium and Selenium to interact with Windows applications. With WinAppDriver, you can automate the UI of a Windows Application by scripting actions such as clicking buttons, inputting text, and navigating menus. CI Global’s expertise in writing automation scripts helped automate the UI’s repetitive tasks. From identifying parts of the UI to the IDs associated with the cursor position and the way the fields interact with one another, CI did and continues to do every bit of the process for you to go hands-off with any product you have.

CI Global: From testing to beyond

As a team that built the automation in several product lines across multiple environments like desktop, web and mobile, CI Global has enabled faster product releases, while still focusing on thorough end-to-end testing.

Want to know what we can do for you? Click here, and we’ll get in touch with you.

Product Engineering- Bringing ideas to reality

Product engineering is the code-powered bridge between forming an idea and executing the solution. The process has a range of standpoints, starting with a problem statement and gathering the resources needed to execute the roadmap built. You create a product that meets the market’s needs and demands by analyzing the competitors. At CI, we bring apps and software into reality based on the entrepreneur’s vision; we create a minimum viable product, test it for the market, and ensure it meets industry standards. Building analytical software takes precision, clarity, and vision to align with the tech capabilities. This case study touches upon what happens when building an analytical product from scratch for a startup from ground zero.

When a company hires or outsources work to an external firm to design, develop, and launch a new product or service, it includes a wide range of tasks, such as prototyping, testing, and quality assurance, as well as more specialized tasks like user experience (UX) design, software development, and hardware engineering. By outsourcing product engineering, a company can access external expertise and resources they may not have in-house and save time and money by not having to build and maintain an internal development team. Product engineering service providers like CI Global have experience working with various technologies and industries, which benefits companies looking to launch a new product or service in a foreign market. But how does product engineering start? Where does it lead? What are the points to keep in mind before you end at profits? Keep reading to know more.

How to find the problem statement?

Start with a clear understanding of the problem that the product addresses. It will be easier to create a product that meets the needs of its intended users and is viable from a business perspective. When defining the problem or opportunity, it’s essential to start with the user needs, understand your market’s size and how the product should address specific needs, and then design the solution with the user in mind.

This step helps to validate if there is a real need and market for the product, avoiding the risk of building something that will not be used or adopted by the users.

Create the path for an idea to become action

Once you’ve identified the problem statement, the next step is the idea-to-action plan that takes an initial idea and charts a way to turn it into a functional product. The process emphasizes R&D, design, prototyping, testing, and roll-out. The goal is to create products that meet the needs of their intended users, are functional and reliable, and can be manufactured and sold at a profit. The path often includes lean methodology and agile development.

Competitor analysis and product creation

A gap analysis is critical in identifying areas where a competitor’s product is lacking and where your product can improve or differentiate itself. Stay updated on competitors’ products, including features, pricing, and user feedback, by conducting a thorough analysis. Look for areas where the competitor’s product lacks or cannot meet the user needs due to brand philosophical differences. The issues can include missing features, poor user experience, or high pricing. Like Twitter and the option to edit your tweet, they cannot develop this feature because it’s against twitter’s philosophy of taking a snap of your thoughts at that time.

The following are the pointers you need to know about when doing competitor analysis:

Build the process for progress

Creating a structured and repeatable method is essential for taking a product from idea to launch. After identifying the opportunity, thoughts for the product develop into a concept that is presentable to stakeholders. The initial stage is where ideas for new products are usually through brainstorming sessions or user research. Refine design and development by considering user experience, technical feasibility, and cost factors. The process helps create detailed specifications, test prototypes and build the final product.

Testing the product is key before launch to ensure that it meets user needs and functions as intended. After launching the final product, post-launch activities such as monitoring performance and gathering feedback can help it be tailored to the needs of the development and the organization and should be flexible enough to adapt to changing requirements and unforeseen obstacles.

Developing products for startups

Startups typically have fewer resources and a more limited budget, so they must be more strategic in allocating their resources. They also have to be more agile and able to pivot as they test and validate their business model. Startups often rely on a small team, meaning team members may need to wear multiple hats and take in a broader range of responsibilities. Startups have a more entrepreneurial and risk-taking culture, which is why they run on bigger ambitions than just remaining in the present. That’s why they focus on growth and are willing to invest more in product development to achieve that.

MVP and market research

Creating an MVP starts with a development plan for a prototype that validates the direction by outlining the steps required to build and launch the MVP, including timelines and milestones toward better usability and design for the product. Iterate and improve the MVP by gathering customer feedback, iterating, and improving it. Monitor the performance of the MVP and make decisions for the next phase. If there’s one place to be flexible and open to change, it’s in the MVP development process. It is iterative, and the final product may differ from the original concept. Following these steps, you can create an MVP that effectively solves customer problems and sets the foundation for future development and growth.

Prioritize features to plan

The only way to identify key features is by understanding what creates value for customers. Prioritize features based on their potential impact on the business, customer satisfaction, and feasibility, considering the available resources, budget, and technical constraints. At the next level, prioritize based on system dependencies and based on risk, ensuring that critical features rely on other features first based on risk, developing the least risky features first. At the last point, schedule and plan features based on the time to market, focusing on features that can be developed and launched quickly.

MobileSalesPerson- Creating scalable solutions

The sales job almost always involves going to different locations and pitching the company’s offerings to clients. The salespeople faced a visibility gap in updating each sale through the ERP interface, and needing to know how much to sell for severely impacted their sales pitches, leading to overselling or underselling. The visibility of the quantity at the warehouse and how fast you can get it to your customers solve the confusion at the enterprise and the sale level. CI’s vision identified, ideated, and created a feature that added that dynamic element to the ERP software. With the mobile salesperson, CI became a pioneer in creating solutions for the user through the mobile ordering system that updates sales taking place as they happen.

Scoping for the future with CI Global

At CI Global, we’re building MVPs that begin the journey of ideas toward action and to the market. With discussions and the future roadmaps set in motion, the products we create are becoming viable for pivots and building for the demand for which it’s constructed.

Build your dream products with the MVP solely on us; connect with us here to know more.

Keeping up with the tax updates in HRMS/Payroll systems

Human Resource Management System is a software tool that helps businesses manage their workforce’s records, payrolls, incentives, and benefits. HRMS prepares tax returns, complies with tax updates, and tracks employee incomes, deductions, and allowances. Every transaction has an element of tax attached to it, and the HRMS assists in preventing mistakes that can result in tax underpayment or overpayment. 

Implementing a robust HRMS ensures HRMS tax compliance by automatically calculating and withholding the correct taxes from employee paychecks, generating necessary tax forms, and staying updated with the latest regulatory changes. 

Businesses are now reviewing any W-2 and 1099 form updates issued by the IRS following the recent tax filing season to prepare for the upcoming year’s payroll and contractor reporting. Keeping abreast of the Payroll tax updates 2025 is crucial for businesses to ensure accurate withholding and compliance with the latest regulations. 

Direct tax compliance and complications

Any taxation bracket applied directly to your employees and business transactions, like income and goods tax, comes under direct taxes. Two strategies are used to process the data that falls in this bucket:

Data sensitization

Data sensitization is about protecting sensitive tax information from unauthorized users, access, or disclosure. Sensitization includes rolling out policies and cadences on how much your employees expose critical data to the public without intending it. Encryption, monitoring, and auditing are reliable measures for handling sensitive data. These measures help mitigate the risks of damaging your company’s reputation and directly impacting your finances.

Tax reforms

Ensure your calculation systems can match the proper taxes from paychecks around the tax reforms and updates rolled out in each iteration. New versions can have a fresh set of tax benefits, minor changes in the slab rates, or exemptions. The HRMS needs a collaborative approach from the HR and IT teams to keep the system compliant and practical. New employees are recruited throughout the year, but the taxes are filed only at the end of the fiscal year. Provide the context of the employee’s payment history and track the amount allocated to avoid disparities between the two salaries withdrawn.

Payrolls and tax forms- W2, 1049, and F941

Configuring and updating your payrolls requires you to keep up with the latest updates in each tax form your employees are responsible for filling. A W2 Form is a tax form that reports an employee’s wages and taxes withheld in a fiscal year in the US Payroll. Likewise, the 1049 tax form in US Payroll reports interest income earned by a particular employee or a business. Employers use F941 or Form 941 in the Canadian Payroll to report federal tax liabilities and taxes withheld from paychecks.

Any changes across the three forms will need a revamped calculation of tax algorithms, changes in employee information, and updating new information in the new fields introduced through the update. By providing US and Canadian expertise during ERP updates, CI Global helps you address concerns and provide the information the end user needs to understand and comply with the changes.

Effective tax rate and risk minimization

Regularly reviewing the HRMS calculations helps keep a tab on tracking employee income and compliance with the relevant regulations. Implementing safety nets and safeguards against unauthorized access to tax-sensitive information is key to minimizing risks. Automate the process of preparing tax returns through an HRMS that helps you stay updated with the latest deadlines and other requirements. Work closely with people who can help you through their expertise in creating a seamless tax calculating portal in your ERP.

As data privacy regulations continue to evolve, ensuring the security of sensitive payroll and tax information within the HRMS is paramount. Businesses must prioritize systems with robust encryption, stringent access controls, and audit trails to safeguard employee data and comply with regulations. To avoid costly penalties and maintain legal standing, companies must prioritize HRMS tax compliance through diligent system configuration and regular software updates.

How can CIG help?

Navigating the nuances of the recent Form 941 reporting changes, which include modifications to the calculation and documentation of employer-provided benefits, necessitates a thorough review and potential adjustments to existing payroll processes. Investing in comprehensive global payroll compliance tools not only helps businesses avoid costly penalties associated with non-compliance but also streamlines international payroll processes, ensuring timely and accurate payments to employees worldwide.

Looking ahead to the remainder of 2025 and into 2026, businesses should closely monitor potential legislative changes impacting payroll taxes. The ongoing trend of remote work presents unique challenges for HRMS tax compliance. Businesses must ensure their systems can accurately track employee locations and apply the correct state and local taxes, navigating the complexities of nexus and withholding requirements across different jurisdictions. HRMS features that automate location tracking and tax rule application are becoming increasingly critical.

Looking at tax compliance against the race of time? Fret not; CIG brings more than 16 years of experience in the HRMS and Payroll domain within the software development field to your table. Boost your teams’ potential and get the support that helps you deliver your best. Ideate around concepts that will impress your clients with innovative solutions that make a difference. Want to know more? Click here.

Customizing ERPs: Learning from iterations

Business management and ERPs come in the same breath as an industry-standard in companies of all scales and sizes. An ERP makes it easy for the organization to automate and manage a significant chunk of its business processes, from accounting, project, and risk management to compliance and resource management. A custom ERP solves multiple issues simultaneously: reduces costs, improves efficiency, and helps you make better business decisions by providing a single system for managing operations.

The only way to know how you want to customize your ERP is by following a blueprint. Read along as we discover opportunities and learn more about how to customize your ERP system sustainably.

Formulate and set your expectations

Involving only the decision makers and the developers while integrating an ERP will solve issues that only they face. Involving the employees who will use the tool daily is integral in getting feedback on how they want it to be and helps you reach the objectives better.

  1. Identifying the process to integrate: The ERP will support different parts of the process but creating a road plan for each operation will make your life easier.
  2. Determine the goals and objectives: Create an expectation ROI plan on when the integration will show results and reduce the operational overhead.
  3. Implement with intent: Outline the steps and timeline along with how your team adjusts to the system at hand, and identify the problem it solves.
  4. Communicate for feedback: Learn from the first impressions on how your teams think of the product and take the feedback necessary to improve the usability.

Choose the suitable ERP to customize

Follow the three-word rule when selecting which ERP you want to develop for your business: Evaluate- Consider- Test. Research and compare different ERP systems against one another to find which will require minor customization and which is the most customizable to meet your specific needs.

  1. Evaluate the ERP system and the vendor you choose: The vendor’s experience, expertise in handling edge cases, and track record of development and customization projects.
  2. Consider a systematic approach to building customizations into your ERP. Understand the process that the vendors ensure you have a smooth and efficient integration with your business operations.
  3. Test the ERP system and ensure it covers most of the organization’s needs and requirements. Engage in a pilot program or a trial version to test the system before deciding on the right fit.

When does an ERP fail?

Improper planning and hurried execution can cause many issues aligning expectations with the possible outcomes. This can quickly spiral out of control, cause delays, increase costs, and create a lack of user acceptance within your organization. The following are three reasons ERP integrations fail:

  1. Insufficient inputs from the stakeholders: If employees and management are not on the same page while creating a requirement document for ERPs, the goals and objectives are easily missed. When adopting a new system, you should take all the information and feedback to build a product from the ground up.
  2. Complex and inflexible system: Without making an ERP easy to use, you’ll complicate the user journey and make it hard for them to adapt. Meet their specific needs to solve a problem instead of creating one that doesn’t exist.
  3. Lack of domain knowledge: When customizing an ERP, partner with a vendor that has a history of providing high-value solutions and understands the domain you’re coming from.

ERP Functionality: Why customizing ERP is important

Tailoring a system to the business’s unique needs is critical in supporting and automating the processes that can revitalize your teams to be more productive. A custom ERP can:

Customization of an ERP for business needs

A custom ERP’s primary objective is to configure the system to meet the business’s specific needs and align the product towards the organization’s goals. It may involve orientation towards particular processes and functions and integrating other systems before adding custom features.

Finding the right balance of customization: ERPs, Context, and Growth

Integrating with other applications like CRM to provide users with a seamless experience comes with adding custom functionality like a reporting module or a commission management system. After understanding the industry where the system will be used and operated, break down the process of finding balance into three parts:

ERPs: Provide the ability to support critical processes and functions that contribute to the organization’s operations. The customization should be scalable, flexible, and customizable.

Context: Build a tool to support the broader context of the organization’s overall business strategy and goals and align with the organization’s mission and vision. Customization should support growth and promote competitive advantage.

Growth: Design and implement growth strategies within the ERP to ensure it can scale and adapt to meet evolving needs of the organization to provide necessary tools.

Customizations, design, and technicalities

Strike the right balance between the three aspects of the ERP by thoroughly understanding the needs and goals of the organizations:

Wireframe for the future and visibility

When charting your goals, you should also plan how to achieve them. Through wireframing, create a visualization of how it can be helpful in planning and designing future visibility. Concise views of capabilities and potential come from understanding the structure into which the ERP is being implemented. The following is a process you can consider:

Sage 300 Commission Manager

Sage 300 CM is a software solution for managing and automating commission and incentive programs within the system. It provides various tools that help create, track and disperse commissions to all stakeholders. The seamless integration with CRMs and accounting software that CM allows for tracking payouts for employees, partners, and other stakeholders.

Incentives and collaboration

Automatically calculate commission from a definition of what the business considers a profitable transaction and then uses that to calculate the payouts. It helps reduce operational overhead and ensures that the payouts are accurate, reliable, and consistent.

Reporting and analysis

Commission Manager provides a range of reporting and analysis tools that help organizations understand and optimize their payouts to the performance of the individuals. The software can generate reports on individual performance, team performance, and sales channels that help the team identify opportunities for improvement.

Why CI Global?

As pioneers in the software development field and the architects of Sage 300 Commission Manager, CIG is always at the forefront of innovation and execution. As an auxiliary to your team, we bring experience and expertise that boosts productivity and shortens delivery timelines. Click here to learn more.

How is predictive analysis the future of Business Intelligence?

Business Intelligence and Data Analytics for ERP

In the age and time of data-dictated rules, business intelligence comprises procedures and infrastructure for collecting, storing, and analyzing the data produced by a company’s systems. It includes data mining, visualization, performance tracking, and descriptive analytics of the plans until that point in time. Predictive analytics is a branch of data analytics that estimates the scope of the future and utilizes data modeling and statistical algorithms to determine future outcomes.

Creating a structure for raw data

Data is scattered and unstructured when derived from the systems because it comes from different sources. By an ETL(Extract, Transform and Load) protocol, you can work on the part of the data that does not affect any part of the running operations. The extraction is when all the desired information is pulled from their respective tables and systems. The transformation includes preparing the collective data for a predictive AI model and generating the desired attributes to fit business needs. The loading step is when the data is ready to be analyzed, and you get insights into the running model of the business.

A journey from statistics to insights

Deriving insights from data is done through data visualization and a thorough analysis of the business situation. Numbers tell the stories that employees hesitate but to derive the pointers, you need to take one extra step. Data insights are achieved through AI/ML models analyzing a dataset. An ML model translates data and numbers into real business value, like targeted advertising efforts and accurate loan predictions. These insights allow users of all skill levels and teams to understand the model’s meaning and where its usefulness could be improved. Through data visualization, see the numbers turn into graphs and pie charts to categorize and visualize the growth of your business.

Predictive Analytics- Vision to the Future

Predictive analytics is the base built in the present for the company’s future. ERP channels the data into data sets that view the present from the perspective of past events. With ERP being used across the industry as the norm, beat your competitors by understanding key areas of improvement and establishing KPIs within your organization. This addition to your ERP structure helps you steer your business away from stagnation points and improve the following parameters:

  1. Boost client retention and address churn
  2. Improve core business capabilities
  3. KYC- Understand your customers better
  4. Spot opportunities and optimize for productivity

Cleansing Data and Forecasting

Avoid manual processing by investing in specialized software that simplifies the continuous data cleaning that reduces manual processes that are time-consuming and inaccurate. For unstructured and structured data, removing data anomalies and defects helps validate insights and improve the data quality. The broad categories for a forecasting process come under actual and forecast data. The extraction can be automated or through custom-built forecasting tools.

Automation and Machine Learning

ML algorithms are assisting in improving maintenance, repair, and overhaul performance through predictive accuracy broken down into components. Integrating ML intelligence into an ERP allows organizations to get insights into their processes, customers, and workforce simultaneously. In a data-led world, standard ERPs and only live dashboards help in monitoring but don’t give insights into planning. With the help of predictive analytics and ML, invest in the future. With increasing amounts of data, feed data through an AI engine that provides insights and patterns that affect the product life cycle. Automate report-making and essential tasks for rechanneling that time into problem-solving.

Analytical Models

Predictive analysis is not just about predicting; it involves strategizing a method depending on the requirements and where the perspective is coming from. Once you understand the business model you’re following, devising a way to integrate the models is that much easier. The following are some of the most sought-after models:

Forecast Models

A forecast analytical model is based on predictive analytics of how much the demand needs and which way is the right way to invest in a sales team. For example, a forecasting model can help predict consumption and usage with smart meters and give you an accurate forecast of how much power you’ll need to borrow from the powerhouse if you’re a power distributor.

Classification Models

Suppose the likelihood of a business opportunity reciprocating the intentions is high. In that case, it makes better sense to invest money and time in that direction instead of pushing for a broad campaign. A classification model helps categorize customers into yes or no batches; this will help target marketing campaigns well.

Outlier Models

Outlier models spot anomalies like a sudden surge of demand for a particular product in W&B and the need for power in an area or a sudden unexplained dip in receiving input from the power meter of a home. They alert users to data points that stand out from the expected predictions. The model helps track what doesn’t correspond and indicates where the decision-makers and leadership team need to concentrate.

Time Series Models

This analytical model gives insights into changes caused by holidays that come each year, and decoration manufacturers and many food manufacturers get the data on how their stocks need to be to sustain the demand. Turkey during Thanksgiving, plum cake during Christmas, or the market for a particular kind of wine and the expected demand in the future, is one of the best examples for getting data on what you need.

Clustering Models

Clustering is making smaller data groups so companies can categorize an experience unique to this subset. This is one of the patterns used in targeting and segmenting an outreach campaign into different groups. In this analytical model, the best example is identifying what your customer is likely interested in if they’re interested in one product.

Automation: Refining the ERP Ecosystem

ERP: Automation leading into the Future

Living in a time where the survival rate of a business over a decade is only 30%, there’s a need to optimize for leaner and less manual operations. The key is in the details; automating repetitive and redundant processes will save you time and costs in the long run. The only way ahead is to develop your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) as part of your business plan. An automated ERP system has the potential to become the one-stop solution for providing insights and visibility about your business and the workforce behind it.

Growing a business comes with multiple opportunities across domains. However, a cutthroat pace comes at the cost of constantly prioritizing with limitations on what you can do. With the amount of data flowing in and understanding its critical aspects, automating the reporting process is a crucial step in managing a business. Like Eric Kimberling once said, “The potential pitfalls are that the technology is not as mature and tested as other ERP functionality, and organizations don’t know how to integrate automation into their operations.” Awareness about the problem needs to be followed up with an understanding of the solution; let’s see how automation can revolutionize your business.

Automation: Why and how it affects operations

Process automation is helping businesses promote growth and profitability with the help of AI. When you can identify what is repetitive with a particular set of patterns, it is possible to automate the process for better manual efficiency. The same logic applies to ERP automation as well. ERP Automation aims to bring smoother operations, improve team member productivity and increase quality while reducing errors and wastage.

In the Mobile SalesPerson offering from Scanco, connecting the funnels has improved Sage 300 functionality. The add-on helped every salesperson know what to do and how much they should aim to sell when they meet their clients. By managing orders on the go, SalesPerson makes it possible to cut down on time spent on crucial order fulfillment areas whenever the salespeople need to use it by digitizing a significant bulk of the processes.

Reduced Manual Errors and Report Digitization

Manual errors can be minimized to a bare minimum as your employees can save time and eliminate the chances of unintentional errors while duplicating or entering data. From having the whole process set in the paper route, go completely paperless by digitizing reports, insights, and records into digestible and readable formats. Provide information with the structure it deserves on secure servers and streamlined, centralized databases.

Accuracy and transparency directly improve and boost customer satisfaction. Instead of asking your workforce to create reports on daily updates that negatively impact their efficiency, learn about your teams through automated reporting. From the Sage Mobile Salesperson’, the real-time numbers on the available inventory give the salesperson visibility on what he can promise to their client and approximate the time it will take to get the following stocks in order.

Improved Productivity

Integrate several business processes for error-free data and to-the-point insights into your business operations. A streamlined data flow makes information uniform across various departments and gives the decision-makers the necessary scope of operations.

With a tool that gives real-time data on what the salespeople need to do, Sage 300 Mobile Salesperson cuts down the time spent on administrative tasks and re-routes wasted time into sales calls for building a customer relationship.

Flexibility for Process Management

The goal of any organization while developing ERP is to reduce the manual processes and make their employees work on tasks that drive high value. From indexing to deriving information from a device, access business processes from anywhere to make a game-changing difference. The flexibility makes room for empowerment that makes a difference in the long run.

A tool becomes comprehensive when it can solve every problem a user faces. The Scanco sage 300 MSP product contains multiple uses for the salesperson: from the visibility on inventory and sales orders to purchase order converter, delivery tracker, and importers for sales, work orders, and accounts that can provide spreadsheets with all the relevant information.

Controlled Operational Costs

When the primary processes are automated and getting insights is a daily routine, you empower your organization to become agile and better at controlling expenses and boosting revenues.

Routing every dataset produced by the MSP product to a database gives you a collective view of the business through minimal user intervention. You can perform in-depth analysis and check data integrity by automating the data dump and load backups. The process helps you understand and plan the next step in your business journey. And with the help of a Commission Manager, you can focus on making the best out of your workforce by dividing each commission plan based on geography, the discount given, and auditing.

Finding the right balance: ERPs and keeping up with updates

The mobile salesperson product was ideated and built from scratch at CI Global. With innovative solutions for everyday problems, the tech became a go-to add-on in the market. When a product is made with cross-platform functionality, the responsibility boils down to the service provider to update the product whenever there’s an update on either platform. In the premium versions of the Sage 300 offers, this logic is used to provide extra functionality to the product. CIG has led the future of the product by making things easier, functional, and streamlined.

From providing the context for your business to your software to automating repetitive tasks, the need to automate is now more than ever. With the help of AI/ML algorithms, the future of technology looks more data-driven than ever before. Utilizing the expertise of over two decades in the ERP Ecosystem, let CIG optimize your time and boost your team’s productivity. With domain expertise and in-house frameworks that speed up product engineering processes, get the solution you need at a place for every need; click here to learn more.

Streamlining Businesses with ERP Development

Developing ERPs: Streamlining processes for optimizing businesses

An investment in ERPs comes from a business’s commitment to stabilizing its product and focusing on the processes. As more companies invest in integrating a solution that covers a broader range of functions that a business does. They can include internal team functions like HRM and a UI that brings multiple moving parts to a single database.

Outsourcing ERP development services makes managing workflows easier and day-to-day management easier for the business. It is a tool that suits various management cycles: product lifecycle, supply chain, supplier relation, and customer relationship.

Introduction to Custom ERP Development

Developing an ERP is integral to filling the gap between what the ERP provides and what the business needs. For example, the ERPs are limited in providing ease of use when generating custom reports as a programmer is required to trigger the notification. Through a development process, you can take an approach that gives you organized structure and makes it deliver the reports with a matter of clicks.

ERPs provide only real-time analytics on what’s happening within the system. The lack of a database channel that stores the necessary information about what worked and provides the context for each design will be hugely detrimental to the business. Knowing what happened in the past in numbers will allow the decisions to be driven by a gut feeling instead of having a solid, proven thesis and numbers to back the theory proposed.

ERP Implementation Strategies: Why do you need it?

In ERPs today, product development and tailored solutions are the need of the hour. To meet the business’s specific requirements, it needs to be custom-made for your data flows. From the attributes of your organization to providing flexibility to all the stakeholders in the enterprise, a custom solution helps you avoid roadblocks.

Process standardization

When ERP vendors pre-configure industry-specific practices that standardize their business processes, the intention is to improve efficiency. The processes across departments can be standardized, covering offices in distant locations too. Depending on the business, there are unique ways in which transactions can be made. And that is where pushback comes from using a solution made right out of the box. Most businesses can benefit from standardization without negatively impacting their goals. Balancing the standardization of processes with effective change management helps transition employees to get the best out of the ERP system.

Cross-department communication

Management requires data about the other departments they are not involved in. While working independently, the need for seamless communication within each department is only rising. Without clarity and visibility, there is a high chance of miscommunication when data is pulled and submitted instead of automating this process. ERP serves as the core data’s central repository, allowing users to locate, retrieve, and store the information they need. A well-customized ERP can pool information in real time while giving access to the most relevant data and providing the context for each data point.

How to develop customization in an ERP?

Follow a phased approach and understand the business model to get the best out of an ERP system. The deeper the understanding of your intentions for a custom ERP development project, the better the result will be. A rough outline to follow when developing an ERP is as follows:

  1. Define the end goal after the customization
  2. Break down the basic functionality; understand the wireframes
  3. Decide the design language and create the first wireframes
  4. Choose the technology to develop with: Choose the suitable base ERP
  5. Integrate purpose-based modules and plan for the next module

 

By leveraging the power of business automation tools, companies can streamline repetitive tasks, freeing up valuable time for employees to focus on more strategic initiatives.

ERP: Success vs. Failure

A successful development project involves dedicated purpose-based models used by stakeholders across the organization, depending on who requires it. When companies are shooting in the dark to land on a successful project, they risk being too vague in defending what they want their end goal to be. The distance between the executive team’s vision and the project team’s alignment will prove detrimental to the success of the ERP.

Why an iterative approach beats a holistic solution in ERPs

The phased-out manner in developing the ERP and integrating parts in terms of layers instead of creating a forced fit situation. This approach helps prevent errors and missed requirements from either team involved in the preliminary discussion, as they may only be caught once the corrections prove too costly. ERP projects can involve a lot of detailing and planning even after the project’s first phase is done. With more time at hand, every team can build customizations that make it easier for them to operate on it.

Investing in the right business automation tools can significantly improve efficiency, reduce human error, and drive overall productivity within an organization.

Wireframing and Visualization

Wireframing is the incremental way of getting to the end instead of finding a quick fix that will work in changing your business. By planning the steps of the ERP development process, create a structured wireframe that involves all the key stakeholders and their inputs. Based on what the unique modules should have, you can plan how many resources you’ll need to match the time frame that the business needs.

Product Updates and Race Against Time

An ERP system unifies several disparate systems with the swiss-knife like functionality. It covers a broad range of operations, from progress on enterprise development to payroll management. It allows your staff to access all the tools they need in one centralized system. A unified solution is always preferred by your teams over multiple devices with loosely bound integration.

But how does an ERP work? What role does development play in upgrading your ERP software to the current versions? Why is it essential to develop add-ons for your ERP? And why is it vital for your team to keep your add-ons ERP compliant? Read this blog to know that and beyond.

Why do we need to extend the functionality of an ERP?

An ERP is a business management solution with standard features and a range of elementary functions. However, every business has unique operations and processes that an off-the-shelf ERP cannot offer. Overcoming the limitations of ERP is possible through developing add-ons. An add-on is a feature that is built on top of existing functionality. Some reasons why you should consider add-ons:

What happens in a product update?

A product update is down to an update on every level of the add-on, from keeping up with ERP updates to an OS update that fundamentally changes the data funnel. The base tech of an ERP is updated to keep up with the changing technology, adding new features to the base and removing low-priority and out-of-date features. Any fixes that apply to the ERP will directly impact a feature add-on that you’ve built on top of it, so the team involved in the product update will need a thorough understanding of the .NET infrastructure. Having a strong product update strategy ensures that all components—from base ERP systems to integrated add-ons—evolve in sync and remain stable during changes. 

Every add-on is created to serve a unique business purpose, with customization applicable to that business. Add-ons bridge the gap between the requirement and the available ERP without the firm undergoing a complete overhaul. They play a crucial role in enabling continuous product improvement by tailoring ERP features to evolving business needs without a complete overhaul.

An up-to-date ERP add-on is a primary yet prominent step to make your operations safer and maintain tech compliance against cyber threats. Especially when the updates are from the OS, security patches can sometimes mean that the data funnel you’ve built for the ERP needs to be remapped along with database reconfiguration. These updates can be triggered by policy changes as well. Such product updates need specific focus as the payroll, operational costs of businesses and trade flows are all connected within the ERP system they adopt.

Why do add-ons need to comply with the ERP update as soon as possible?

An update can cause many ripple effects throughout the funnel from a management perspective; the add-on needs a corresponding update to comply with the new version of the ERP. Often, the time given to comply is within two weeks; this halts the development team’s ideas and pushes the priorities into overdrive. Fast product iteration becomes critical when updates are pushed with short notice, requiring teams to realign and redeploy quickly to maintain functionality.

A simple change in the ERP system can directly impact the functionality of the add-on you’ve integrated into it. When compliance is neglected, a snowball effect occurs. Once a series of events continues on the old model without updating the software, your system collapses, and you risk legal actions in extreme cases. For example, in an HRMS update, payroll is affected, and the way your entire workforce gets their salary changes. A fast update on the add-on front must patch the requirement before it spirals out of control.

How does CI Global help your team get there?

Figure better ways out of a tricky situation—CI Global steps in whenever you need the guidance that makes things come alive. Our approach is rooted in agile product development, enabling businesses to stay adaptive and innovate at speed, even under tight compliance timelines. With over 25 years of experience in ERP product engineering across various industries, we bring the best solutions to your table. With experiences from compliance to tax updates across multiple industries. CI works around international time zones with a can-do-will-do attitude.
Are you convinced yet? Click here to get in touch.