We have already talked about the importance of Java Technologies at “Oracle E-Business Suite Customization: New Directions”. Not only for Oracle Company itself, but also for the Oracle E-Business customers, whose investments must be preserved. Now we present tools and frameworks, you will use if you intend to develop in Java:

• Java Language Itself: is an object oriented language, so if you are not used with this paradigm, we strongly advice you to study this already established paradigm. To develop in Java you will use a lot of standards and libraries, they are known by its name, J2ME, J2SE and J2EE, to portable, standard and enterprise applications respectively;

• JDeveloper: is an integrated development environment (IDE) built in Java for Java development. It is complete considering the development life cycle, so you can model, code, debug, test and deploy. It is prepared for Web, XML, Web Services, SQL, J2EE and Oracle ADF development. Provide built-in features for open sources tools and frameworks, such as Struts, Ant, JUnit and CVS. According to Oracle, JDeveloper is the tool of choice for Forms, Reports and Designer customers because it carries a similar development model.

• Struts: is a java framework considered a de facto standard to build web applications. Struts is a solution to organize what was happing when people used Java Servlets and JSP freely. Struts implements the MVC (Model / View / Controller) pattern, so you might separate business logic (Model) from web application flow of control (Controller) and JSP/html code (View).

• J2EE: is an architecture to define standards to solve enterprise level problems, like persistence, scalability, availability, security, distributed computing, etc. This standard should be followed by application server vendors, so a J2EE application would run on any J2EE application server complaint, like Oracle OC4J (OAS), IBM WebSphere, BEA WebLogic, JBoss, etc. It is not a simple architecture to solve a simple problem. Get ready to study and understand the complexity of enterprise programming (we will deal with this matter on others papers to help you).

• EJB: is a J2EE standard to define components to write business logic at the server side (Session Beans), to define a domain layer to access data (Entity Beans) and to deal with asynchronous and queuing messages (Message Driven Beans). The last EJB standard release (the 3.0), not commonly used yet, became much easier to develop with. The previous one (the 2.0 and 2.1) should be used with a series of design patterns to solve common problems, what make the code not so easy to program and understand. The first one (the 1.0 and 1.1) was useless to enterprise level development; it did not implement even a one to many relationship.

• Oracle ADF: according to Oracle, ADF is an application development framework design to simplify J2EE development and bring productivity and ease of use of Oracle forms to the J2EE platform. ADF with JDeveloper is the best choice for Oracle E-Business Suite, because Oracle made this environment familiar to Oracle Forms, Reports and Designer developers.

Next papers we go deeper about J2EE and Oracle E-Business Suite Development.

If you need help, give us a call: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew is technical consultant at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally. We are serving USA Nationwide: Chicago, Houston, Dallas, San Francisco, Miami, Denver, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Diego, Atlanta, Phoenix, Minneapolis

You probably have heard about the new directions of Oracle concern on Java and J2EE Technology. Oracle has announced the commitment with Java and also kept the “traditional development tools” community happy, promising they will continue to invest on them. But at the same time, Oracle recommends to their E-Business customers the following strategies (have a look at the Oracle Statement of Direction at http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/forms/pdf/10g/ToolsSOD.pdf):

• Move from client-server to the Web

• Upgrade to the latest versions

• Interoperate with Java/J2EE

• Develop new modules using JDeveloper

It’s clear that Oracle is aligning everything to Java and also recommending its customers to do just the same. So, it becomes very important to the customers to also adhere to the same technology. This will guarantee its investments at the long run. If you consider that Java Technology is the choice of many IT companies, like IBM, Sun, and Oracle itself, and also that the market is recognizing (maketshare, downloads, highest growth) its benefits, this will be a good movement.

It does not mean you need to change everything to Java: it is just a recommendation that the new modules could be done using Java. Oracle E-Business will run Forms for a long time. Oracle itself has not converted the entire E-Business itself to Java, and this will probably take a long time. Remember, they still have PeopleSoft, JDEdwards, Retek and now Siebel, a recent agreement on acquisition. They will “fuse” all in one architecture call “Fusion”.

Well, if your company has not written any application in Java yet, it is time to start. The next articles will focus on this technology, its principles and, mainly, the strategy the E-Business customers should take. If you need help, give us a call: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew is technical consultant at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally. We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN, Europe: Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Middle East (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, OAE, Bahrain), Asia: China, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, South & Central America: Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico

Pay cuts for CEOs? Sounds good to many rank and file workers indeed. CEO pay in the United States has outpaced the rest of the workforce and now the average CEO makes 300 times their counter parts at the lower levels. Let’s face it a company’s job is to make money and a public company’s job is to increase shareholders value and quarterly profits. If all the money is going out the top end then, we need to cut costs there. Performance based pay is one thing, but when a company is not doing so hot, why should the CEO be paid so much? Well if you are wondering that, then you are not alone, in fact you find some friends in this line of thinking at the top as well. Warren Buffet for instance and if you read his papers on Corporate Governance and essays you will see what I mean.

Today we are replacing manufacturing jobs with robots, which do not complain, call in sick or go on strike. We never have to worry about lifetime pension contributions, employee lawsuits or sexual harassment. In fact we do not even have to worry about on-going education, as we can simply pop in a new program into the robotic machinery to continue the efficiency needed in Finite Capacity Scheduling models.

Kicking the CEO out the door might be a very inviting idea, as the cost savings would be huge. Artificial Robots could make this a cost-savings reality made in heaven for investors. Cutting a CEO’s pay like Michael Eisner would have saved Disney and unbelievable amount in the 10’s of millions. What about the former Tyco, World Com, Adelphia or Krispy Kreme CEOs; now we are talking, but is it possible to program a computer to do what a CEO does? Well, it could be.

The computer would not need to take a vacation or have an Ego Complex, you could train it not to steal from the company and make sure its mission was appropriate for the delivery of on time, quality goods to the consumer and the lowest possible costs to the company for the best price scenario of what the market will bare, based on the demographic target market and volume needed to maintain and increase market share.

Sounds to MBA’ish; well, isn’t that what we do, train humans to think like that in our Business Schools? If it is only a matter of training and we all know human nature is not the best for all the parties previously mentioned then why not shit can the CEO for a robot? Besides if something goes wrong you can literally axe the robot for a later version right? Actually there are artificial intelligent trading programs, which work with a myriad of complex scenarios, which can beat out any human trader in the stock market.

There are also scientists working on robotic artificial intelligent programs right now to replace these CEOs. Is this a reasonable alternative to seat-of-the-pants, fearless leader, decision-making? Could be. Is it something a small business could use to make decisions too? Ask it a question and it pops out the answer. How about Non-profit groups like the United Nations, such a program instead of Koffee Anan would have prevented the Oil-4-Food Scandal?

These programs will make the need for organizational capital obsolete using data, complex modeling and better decision-making. If Big Blue can make a computer which can beat a Human in Chess, why not one which can beat out the competition, with their over paid CEO?

As a matter of fact lets downsize government. A smaller government saves taxpayers money and who need all those brain dead government bureaucrats anyway? Kick the whole lot out the door as one computer could take the place of 100’s if not thousands of the coffee pot sipping scoundrels in Washington D.C., you see there is a brighter future ahead. You just have to think outside he box. Think on it.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Historically, little thought has been given to creating or maintaining strategic architectures for business enterprises. As the competitive landscape continues to put pressure on organizations to be more efficient, the process of implementing unified Enterprise Architecture will become an essential part of any business. This paper covers the definition of Enterprise Architecture, provides a description of how it should be utilized to tightly couple business processes and goals to information systems, and how to create an architecture that is able to be supported.

Enterprise Architecture:

Enterprise Architecture is a tool that aids businesses by allowing managers to see and think about smaller functions within the whole of the business. A common phrase used to describe an Enterprise Architecture is a set of "living documents" that are short, simple, and easy to understand. Enterprise Architecture is a relationship between processes and goals that allow businesses to organize, assess, and implement changes based on a set of "blueprints." These blueprints vary based on what is needed. For example, a company setting up an Enterprise Architecture could have three, four, or five different sets of blueprints for various reasons, such as one for product assessment, one for consumer reports, and so on. Not only is Enterprise Architecture a set of blueprints, it is the actual work behind those plans. Implementation is required for the architecture to be built and maintained, as all the plans and actions must be integrated so that proper managers can view needed material in its relationship to other factors.

After building upon the blueprints and integrating all the processes and goals, the proper questions may be asked. These questions are what bring about change that may improve and maintain a business.

An Architecture Cycle:

When establishing an Enterprise Architecture, all aspects need to be incorporated into one place. It is this assimilation that allows managers to begin questioning. Often, this process is a cycle with four phases. First, an architect receives input about new strategies, goals, and processes that may not be performing properly. Next, the architect must look at any further implications and connect those to the received input. Third, the architect makes alterations based on the input and wider implications. Lastly, the process starts all over again. Overall, this cycle gives the architect the opportunity to assess all areas of the business, including some that may have been overlooked, and make changes that will best suit the organization.

Organizing Business Processes and Informational Systems:

Once organized, an architect will assess the alignment of business processes to informational systems. Simply put, an architect translates the information that is transferring from process to applications and vice versa. The architect determines if the results are in-line with goals, and so on. Proper organization allows the architect to translate and even determine where translation is needed.

Creating an Enterprise Architecture:

Enterprise Architectures are not developed in a day, and in order to set up an Enterprise Architecture, an organization needs to establish a series of steps.

The specifics of the individual Enterprise Architecture will differ among businesses. However, listed below are six general steps for creating an Enterprise Architecture:

1. Assess Current State & Agree on Deficiency:

To create an Enterprise Architecture, it takes one or more persons to determine the need for such an architecture. The Enterprise Architect, usually the one who suggests the architecture and ultimately builds it, assesses the different variables that demonstrate a need for change.

2. Select a Framework, Platform and Methodology:

The selected framework should fit the individual needs of the business, the goals and desired results of the organization, as well as a course of action that suits both the architect and managers.

3. Select Tools:

Keeping track of the integration of the processes and documentations may require the utilization of various tools. Appropriate tools will store all the information in a repository that will allow managers to access the needed materials.

4. Organize, Organize, Organize:

Whichever type of organization an architect chooses, it is important to remember that this is the most time-consuming and important step. One suggestion for a type of organization is Business Functional Domains & Sub Domains over a unified architecture. Another method for organization is to build the models of the existing system as they are improved

5. Utilize the Architecture:

Although the architecture may not be complete, the business should begin to use it. It is designed to fit the organization; therefore, the architect should make sure that the managers start to utilize its benefits as soon as possible.

6. Maintain & Build Upon the Architecture:

Once the foundation for the architecture is done, the business should maintain and build upon the architecture, and in order to do so, a methodology should be selected. A methodology will allow managers and workers to function with the same goals in mind, improving results. In addition to maintaining results, the right methodology allows a business to expand the architecture’s uses to fit the organization’s needs.

Initiating and Supporting an Enterprise Architecture:

When initiating an Enterprise Architecture, one must survey the existing environment, talk to representative users, read existing documentation, and study current systems. It is critical to seek inherent problems the enterprise has in accomplishing the tasks it needs to perform in order to be successful. This is accomplished by boiling down the potentially large amounts data gathered and abstract the findings into the conceptual diagrams. One must aggregate important policies and standards into a cohesive and broadly applicable guidance document. Applying some well-known patterns and a few of the favorite concepts will evolve working documents into drafts and eventually into the proposed architecture. Educated and armed, one is able to lobby superiors, peers, and subordinates to aid in implementing the architecture.

To support an Enterprise Architecture, certain tools are relied upon that will aid in the integration and execution of the architecture. These tools should provide the opportunity to view all diagrams, documentations, and processes. Although analyzing and designing processes are still left to be done, assembling and tracking the various relationships will be managed by using a tool.

About Patrick A. Spencer:

Patrick A. Spencer is a Delivery Manager in the IT Solutions group at ITX Corp. Mr. Spencer plays a key role in the analysis, architecture, design and deployment of major applications for clients in a variety of industries.

About ITX Corp:

ITX Corp is a business consulting and technology solutions firm focused in nine practice areas including Business Performance, Internet Marketing, IT Staffing, IT Solution Strategies and Implementation, Technical Services, Internet Services, and Technology Research. To learn more about what ITX can do for you visit our website at http://www.itx.net or contact us at (800) 600-7785.

-Students Administration System is the most powerful central database system that seamlessly knits together all modules in the AIMS PLUS students records management system. It has been designed to be powerful, fast and fully customisable. It is so powerful and user friendly that on a single click you can track any desired information about any student and staff. Save plenty of your staff’s valuable time used in student record keeping and data entry.

-Information of students with photo, sibling details, parent details, birth details, discipline, leave, personal diary of each student, person authorised to pickup from school campus, transfer, character, Date of birth, clearance form etc. Report section contains admission register, class register, lists, Identity card, sibling list, school overview, class wise strength and many more.

-School college overview gives you the reconcilation. Facility for viewing and analysing fee / bill paid and due status, report card, student’s diary, etc. sitting right at the table. Also you can see the performance of a selected student. In other words better communication with parents/ guardians by having them online on your machine.

-AIMS+ is implemented in many reputed institutes, it has proved its success and functionality in various types of schools / colleges spread across India.

-AIMS+ is developed using latest technologies.

-It is a multi-user, fully secure system.

-It is fast, complete and easy to operate school administration software.

-It has a number of options which can be set according to the specific needs of the school.

-It can fully remove the manual work and and will convert the existing paper work to a computerised system.

-Generates more than 100 reports.

-Reports can be exported to MS word, Excel, PDF format, HTML plus a number of other standard formats available.

-It helps to minimize the repeated tasks.

-Proper financial planning takes care of projected / actual income, losses and gains.

-Many other features which you can go through the website for detail.

Kundan Upadhyaya, Software Engineer - Dev Genie Software Technologies.
e-mail - kundan@dgstonline.com
url - http://aims.dgstonline.com

It’s Saturday, or after hours a buyer lands on your website and discovers the only way to order your product is by calling you the next business day. You lost a sale and the real problem is you may not even know it. Would you like to have a website and manage the content without a webmaster? How about a website that takes orders and passes all the information into your accounting system with the push of a button? Here is a list of the tools you would need to purchase, all for a total investment of around $1,600 and a few days of your time.

Domain name registration $25 Make sure the provider is reliable, easy to work with and has the ability to change and redirect your web domain if you need to. Additionally, make sure you have password protection, registrar locking ability and for advanced users you may want the ability to change DNS settings and have flexible configuration options without having to pay for these changes.

Peachtree Web Site Creator Pro Version 4.5 $197.88 for the annual subscription. Build a professional-quality web site for your business with customizable pages and an online catalog, including inventory items that you can upload from your Peachtree Premium software with graphical pictures. This product has an intuitive basic setup page that includes a step-by-step guide to help you get your website up and running. You may view a sample of this product @ http://www.bellwethergarden.com/ct_catalog.htm

Peachtree Web Site Trader Version 4.5 $197.88 for the annual subscription. Sell your products and services online and transfer web orders into your Peachtree Accounting software. This product has a secure interactive storefront and instantly adds new customer information to Peachtree from web orders. Additionally, the e-mail order confirmation for you and your customers is simple to modify. The price listed also includes annual web hosting. After you have your Peachtree Accounting software up and running you may purchase the web site subscription from www.peachtree.com.

Peachtree single user Premium Accounting Version 2006 retails for $499 – This product has additional features not found in some of the lesser priced versions of Peachtree. It is designed to help small businesses better manage their accounting, streamline their operations, and aid in their decision making. With training you can quickly learn, use and easily correct mistakes. This product helps businesses do more in less time. To get almost a 20% discount off the software, plus mail in rebate coupons, forms discount coupons and free tips and tricks newsletters shipped with your order go to www.bizsoftresource.com.

Training classes from certified training centers are generally around $350 per day, include a training manual and sometimes lunch. I would suggest a minimum of 2 days of training. A listing of the certified training classes be found @ www.peachtree.com/forms/html/premiertrainers.cfm

We have helped a few of our clients set up E-Commerce solutions using these tools and have set up a site of our own. Once we decided on the content it took us less than 8 hours to upload our inventory and configure the website. I give this product thumbs up! Look for information on Peachtree’s credit card and a payroll processing services which we will review in future articles.

Jennifer OBrien is the founder and president of JCS Computer Resource, Inc. and has served on the Steering Committee for Certified Consultants for Sage software 5 times over the past 15 years.
www.jcscomputer.com

When it comes to the terms, “Streamline Operations” or “Reduce Operating Expenses” and “Cut Labor Costs”, do you really have any idea what these terms actually mean? How much money does the company actually want to save? And how does workflow software help the company to achieve this seemingly insurmountable goal?

When it comes to workflow software, every company definitely has their own sets of procedures as well as methods that they implements when it comes to handling all sorts of day-to-day operations in and out of their companies such as the following: invoicing, time sheets, status reports, new account setup and you might as well include everything else that will be able to make your business tick. The term workflow in workflow software actually refers to the tasks, personnel, procedural steps, required information as well as the various tools that are needed for the steps that that the business has to take in order for it to become successful.

Every company has a unique and different process as compared with other companies in the business, this is why a lot of growing companies usually end up with a highly unorganized business process when it comes to email templates, spreadsheets, shared documents, paper forms and even trivial knowledge which the employees should know in order to be able to handle the day-to-day business.

Majority of the time under such chaos and disorganization often leads to various frustrations and problems for the small company, such every day hassles include: missing paper work, missed deadlines, lost as well as incorrect information as well as extending heavily on working hours in order to complete a certain task. This is what usually happens to unorganized offices and is often referred to as “red tape.” The bottom line is that when red tape starts getting on your customers nerves, it would soon be a downward spiral for your company as well.

So to your company’s rescue comes workflow software automation. But what exactly is workflow software? And how can it will be able to help you out in this company crisis? Workflow software is actually still relatively new to the corporate setting wherein it is a combination of a to-do list as well as project management tool, only set on a different scale.

When it comes to workflow software just think of having a simple to-do list at your hands wherein through the workflow software, that to-do list can now also be accessible by other employees from your company through the company network. This simple to-do list can actually, on its own, keep track of all the items that need to be addressed by everyone in the company. Also, through the workflow software, once certain tasks are completed by the assigned company employees, the workflow software will actually automatically send off other to-do tasks to the appropriate company employees.

The workflow software is actually smart enough to also pass whichever documents or data that is needed to be able to perform whichever tasks that it sends out to the employees. And lastly, if the workflow software’s features are not exciting enough then there are other great features that this automation software has in store for its users. The workflow software can also do some visual status tracking of the tasks at hand, due data monitoring (which ensures every member of your team that a deadline has been set and has to be especially met by the employees, business rules). The workflow software will always make sure that the employees continuously adhere to the company’s rules and regulations, e-mail and database capabilities.

It is incredibly important for a company to have a well sorted out database in order to prevent people from panicking once a certain file has mysteriously disappeared most especially during the time that their boss needs it. All these are jam-packed in the workflow software automation wherein it will certainly be able to help you and your company, and most especially the employees to have a simplified working environment which is highly geared towards being able to produce the best results at any given time. The workflow software will actually enable employees to be able do their job well since they would not be scrambling for lost files anymore as well as all sorts of other hassles that may erupt when you are in a highly disorganized company. It is also equally important that the employees are highly skilled but their skills will not be a match to the cluttered chaos that will be caused by disorganization.

For more great document shredding info and advice check out: http://www.superiorbpm.com and http://www.justworkflow.com

SAP Business One has up to 10 thousand installations worldwide and in the perspectives of Latin/South America we are talking about multiple countries, such as Chili, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, etc. Brazil however has some implementation, localization and customization challenges. Being purchased from original vendor in Israel, SAP Business One has such nice features as Multilanguage in one database/company, multicurrency, MRP/Production/Manufacturing, Service Management, CRM (with graphical interactive sales funnel), integration with MS Office on COM level, Drag and Relate, from technical side – Microsoft SQL Server database platform, etc. We’ll describe Brazilian market challenges in the small article format:

• Tax Engine. Who is familiar with the subject understand the importance of Brazilian, Indian, Russian, French tax engine localization. Being very efficiently designed, SAP Business One object model structure still required a lot of development efforts to localize SAP Business One tax engine to Brazilian tax code. SAP seems to have global strategy, while developing Brazilian tax engine. It plans to use the same flexible construction to adopt/localize SAP BO to Indian market, where we have similar issues (uniqueness of the tax code)

• Potruguese/Braziliero translation. This is where SAP BO is really strong – you can switch American English to Portuguese by clicking CNTRL-XXX combination (you will have to close all the SAP BO windows, but hey – this is not a big deal comparing to the amusement to have Multilanguage feature in the same company). Plus you can have user profile to define the language for the named user (SAP Business One has named user flat licensing fee)

• Integration to SAP. SAP Business One has integration gateway to SAP, which makes this product attractive for franchise network, where you consolidate franchisees into central ERP.

• Competitors. You should expect that SAP will try to get market share from such local ERP solutions for midsize (and even large) companies as Microsiga and RM, Microsiga is probably the focus. SAP Business One plans to come up with price strategy, which will make this brand name product licensing price slightly below Microsiga

• Lockbox Processing. Current Localization will allow you to work with several central banks, such as Banco do Brasil.

• Some Drawbacks. No Payroll, just HR, No Project Accounting (however you can emulate project allocation for inventory items through user defined fields, etc.), no Retail Management solution (for Brazil, however 3rd parties exists in Venezuela for Auto Dealership and in Argentina - RMS)

• Licensing. You can start with just one license. In the case if your business has large sales department you can purchase CRM users only licenses and half of the price (you will have access to CRM module with ability to create the quote, order and invoice, plus see the interactions and reporting for these)

• CRM. You can have workflow (compare to Microsoft Sharepoint) with approval cycles, CRM uses messaging through Microsoft Outlook client

Good luck with implementation, customization and integration and if you have issues or concerns – we are here to help! If you want us to do the job - give us a call São Paulo 55-11-3826-3449, USA: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew is SAP, Great Plains specialist in Alba Spectrum Technologies (http://www.albaspectrum.com) – SAP, Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Microsoft CRM Partner, serving clients in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Belo Horizonte, Recife, Manaus, Lisboa, Coimbra, Porto, Cascais and having locations in multiple states and internationally.

One of the first questions for multinational company/corporation to move to new market is ERP implementation, customization, report tuning, integration for newly established subsidiary. The specific of South American and in particularly Brazilian market is manufacturing or production outsourcing to Brazil. We will try to provide the first level comparison or readiness of the major worldwide ERP brands: Microsoft Business Solutions, Oracle (we will not touch PeopleSoft & JDEdwards, just Oracle E-Business Suite) and SAP (where we will give you update on reasonable solution for mid-size companies – SAP Business One). Also we will be concentrating on manufacturing-type of subsidiary, the franchisees network deserves special publication.

• Localization Challenge. Each large country: Brazil, India, Russia has unique taxation system and special rules in the accounting practice itself. This is why we see locally developed ERP/MRP applications flourishing on the corporate ERP market. At the same time – these specifics create some barriers and challenges for worldwide ERP brands to penetrate on the market. In the case of Brazil, we would like to mention such regional ERP as Microsiga. Please note that Multilanguage is usually easily resolvable issue, comparing to tax code.

• SAP Business One. This ERP solution, coming from SAP deserves very high scores, it is pretty much ready with tax code, Multilanguage feature (Brazilian Portuguese). SAP Business One has MRP as well as Production modules plus integration to high end SAP is also available for transaction consolidation to the headquarters in Europe or in the USA. SAP Business One has about 8 thousand installations Worldwide and it is very advanced and popular in Latin America, where tax code is rather standard one: Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, Chili, etc. SAP Business One launch in Brazil is the fall of 2005.

• Microsoft Business Solutions. MBS has two ERP applications for Brazilian market – Microsoft Navision and Microsoft Axapta. Navision has several dozens of implementations, while Axapta will be available soon (in 2006). We see several blends of Navision localizations for Brazil. Axapta localization is currently on the way to be released. Talking about Navision – MBS promotes Navision on the emerging markets, such as Russia, East Europe, plus it is traditionally strong in the Europe. Also take into consideration very good Navision positioning in manufacturing industry. We do not want at the same time to deemphasize Axapta – it has very high potential. In East Europe and especially Russia – Microsoft indicates that number of Axapta installations is close to Navision implementations and Axapta was designed relatively recently, so please compare these two: Navision & Axapta before making final decision. Just to mention, that Great Plains is not popular in Brazil, however it was partially localized and if you have corporate standard to use Microsoft Dynamics GP worldwide – it should be available for you. Microsoft Project Green will lead to “merge” of its ERPs: Microsoft Dynamics will be the final merged ERP product, it will harmonically integrate the pieces of Microsoft Dynamics NAV (Navision), Microsoft Dynamics AX (Axapta), etc.

• Oracle E-Business Suite. Also known as Oracle Financials and Oracle Applications – Oracle has traditionally strong positions in Latin America and Brazil. Oracle has conception of standard functionality (which could be used worldwide) and local or regional (language, special forms, tax engine, etc.). If your company has Oracle Financials/Applications implemented in the headquarters – you should check on the status of Oracle Financial localization for Brazilian or Latin American regional market. Oracle E-Business Suite also usually has extensive customization and integration components to custom Oracle databases.

You can always appeal to our help and expertise – in our Sao Paulo office we have all these systems expertise, plus Microsoft CRM, MS Great Plains, Lotus Notes Domino. Please give as a call São Paulo 55-11-3826-3449, USA 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew is Great Plains specialist in Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) – Oracle, SAP, Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, Microsoft CRM Partner, serving clients in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Belo Horizonte, Recife, Manaus, Lisboa, Coimbra, Porto, Cascais and having locations in multiple states and internationally

If you’ve been downloading programs and stuff from the Internet, you must have come across the term shareware and freeware at one point in time. Most of us don’t know the difference between shareware and freeware. Freeware is pretty easy to explain…it’s free to use, that’s all there is to it. Freeware is developed by an individual or a small company for the free use of others. Freeware and shareware are often downloadable from the Internet from sites like www.download.com.

Well, a shareware is actually a software developed by an individual or a company for a public domain that is available for use for a small fee. This small fee that we’re talking about is usually a very small, one-time-fee that won’t be more than what your dinner would cost. Depending on the developer of the shareware, usually sharewares are pretty funky and efficient. Because most of these shareware developers are not restricted with stringent rules and boundaries (and red tapes) like large software development companies, they are free to develop the shareware to meet with the demands of people like them. And often times, sharewares are pretty good.

Sharewares, unlike freewares, are protected by copyright laws. Usually, you can download the shareware from the internet for free use for a short period of time. This is called the ‘demo’ or ‘evaluation’ period. If the evaluation period is 15-days, you can freely use the shareware for 15 days without paying anything and when the 15 days is over, the shareware will automatically be disabled. You’ll need to pay the registration fee to continue using the shareware program. Once you’ve paid and registered the shareware, you’re eligible for technical assistance and upgrades.

You can copy and share the shareware with your friends and family but they would have to go through the same thing you have. Sharewares, remember, are not free. If they don’t register the shareware, they won’t be able to use the shareware when the evaluation period is over.

Sharewares are generally safe to use but there are those who embed harmful files into their download folders. When downloading sharewares, take a good look at the developer and check their background. The shareware developer should have a good reputation and a long history of developing shareware. Some unscrupulous people actually place adwares, malwares, worms, and spywares into the shareware. So, be careful.

Dakota Caudilla, journalist, and website builder Dakota Caudilla lives in Texas. He is the owner and co-editor of http://www.software-and-everything-else.com on which you will find a longer, more detailed version of this article.