The 10 Best in class ERP Solution Providers, 2019

2019 | Vol 09 | Issue 01 

Sankar Ragavan 

CEO 

Virtual Future 

Virtual Assistants (VA) 

Professional Assistance, 

Virtual Guidance 

Editor's Pick 

Migrating the 

Data Warehouses 

into the Cloud 

The 

Best-In-Class 

ERP 

Solution 

Providers 2019 

MariApps 

Marine Solutions 

Delivering Leading Edge Maritime Application

E 

Transform your Business 

with ERP 

he present time demands change, and change is inevitable. Change has made several businesses fail to transform and 

Treach their goals. In such times, implementation of ERP systems help to improve the management of any organization 

and allows each team member to understand his/her role within the company. Many of its advantages include 

streamlining business processes, supporting the team’s daily operations, and promoting the growth of businesses. 

Along with better visibility, better insight is also a great advantage of ERP. Enacting an ERP suite across business means your 

organization has a single, unified reporting system for every process. Secondly, ERP system also functions to assist your 

warehouse operations such as lot number and serial tracking, stock management, multi-location stock transfers, and tailored 

picking instructions. 

As the business interests grow, the company’s supply chain and partnerships become more and more complex. Supplier 

information such as delivery lead times are stored within the system, and here ERP assists in production planning, and 

inventory management. 

One of the significant advantages of an ERP system is data security. After all, at the heart of the ERP theory is data. Although 

there are plenty of advantages, it’s not a cakewalk; ERP has its disadvantages too. The cost of ERP software! If you decide to 

invest in a traditional ERP, you could easily end up spending 5 figures for a single license. For many, this is by far the biggest 

disadvantage to ERP software.

“ 

“ 

Big Businesses are successful with 

the implementation of ERP. 

Sourabh More 

So, here the question arises, is the ERP platform right for your business? For majority of the companies, the advantages of 

ERP systems often cancel out the disadvantages. Experts assess that the ERP system will give your business the most 

potential to improve. Hence, implementing ERP systems is a worthwhile investment of time and resources. 

Since ERP determines the change in business software, supports the team, offers the best service and a unique, personalized 

experience for each customer, many companies are leveraging it to create reformative solutions for businesses and are taking 

them to the next level. With an intent to acknowledge the contributions of some companies into the ERP industry, Insight 

Success has curated a list of “The 10 best-in-Class ERP Solution Providers, 2019”. These companies are the leading 

trusted providers in ERP business solutions, for growing businesses worldwide. 

Featuring as our Cover Story is MariApps Maritime Solutions, which is a pioneer in providing digital solutions to the 

marine industry. The first-of-its-kind app allows users to track vessels, fetch real time finance, performance and operational 

data to facilitate decision making processes easier, reduce operational risk and maximize uptime. Steering towards a digital 

future has never been easier. 

Also while flipping the pages of the magazine don’t forget to go through the CXOs and the articles written by industry 

experts and our in-house editorial team respectively.

CONTENTS 

Cover Story 

10 

MariApps 

Marine Solutions 

Delivering Leading Edge Maritime 

Application 

30 

50 

Maestro’s Insights 

Leverage Existing 

SAP Solutions with 

Cloud Procurement 

Mentor’s Standpoint 

Beyond Automation 

AI powered Autonomous 

Factories of the Future

ARTICLES 

18 


Virtual Assistants (VA) 

Professional Assistance, 

Virtual Guidance 

36 

Changing the 

Status Quo 

Distruptive Technology and 

Changing Trends 

Influencing Business 

44 

Editor’s Pick 



into the Cloud 

Acumatica 

Empowering Customers 

since Inception 

20 22 

AIM Computer Solutions 

Delivering Integrated Business 

Software for Manufacturers 

24 

Baseplan Software Group 

A Leader in ERP Software for 

the Rental and Hire Industry 

28 

BC Systems 

A Leading Provider 

of ERP Solutions 

32

Big Bang ERP 

Helping Businesses 

Streamline their Processes 

38 20 

ePROMIS Solutions 

Transforming Businesses 

through Unified ERP Solutions 

40 

ERP Success Partners Inc. 

Transforming Businesses through 

World-class Cloud Solutions 

46 

ProcessPro 

Understanding Industry 

Needs since Inception 

48

Editor-in-Chief 

Pooja M. Bansal 

Managing Editor 

Anish Miller 

Executive Editor 

Kaustav Roy 

Assistant Editors 

Jenny Fernandes 

Sourabh More 

Visualizer 

David King 

Art & Design Director 

Amol Kamble 

Associate Designer 

Sanket Zirpe 

Co-designer 

Savita Pandav 

Senior Sales Manager 

Kshitij S 

Business Development Manager 

Peter Collins 

Marketing Manager 

John Matthew 

Sales Executives 

David, Kevin, Mark, Irfan 

Technical Head 

Jacob Smile 

Business Development Executives 

Steve, Joe, Alan, Sourabh 

Technical Specialist 

Aditya 

Digital Marketing Manager 

Marry D'Souza 

SME-SMO Executive 

Prashant Chevale 

Research Analyst 

Frank Adams 

Circulation Manager 

Database Management Technology Consultant 

Robert Brown Stella Andrew David Stokes 

sales@insightssuccess.com 

September, 2019 

Follow us on : www.facebook.com/insightssuccess/ www.twitter.com/insightssuccess 

We are also available on : 

Copyright © 2019 Insights Success, All rights reserved. The content and images used in this magazine should not be reproduced or transmitted in any 

form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Insights Success. 

Reprint rights remain solely with Insights Success.

COVER STORY 

Sankar Ragavan 

CEO

MariApps Marine Solutions 

Delivering Leading Edge Maritime Applications 

‘‘ 

We at MariApps aim to be the best at what we do. 

MariApps is focused on offering the best solutions, 

supported by latest technology platforms, to its 

customers at the most competitive pricing.

Amember of Schulte Group, MariApps Marine 

Solutions is a pioneer in providing digital 

solutions to the marine industry. MariApps’ 

flagship product smartPAL is a complete maritime digital 

solution, that is fully web based, cloud supported and 

mobile compliant targeting ship managers and ship owners. 

smartPAL covers all ship management and ship owning 

functions including Crewing, Payroll, Planned 

Maintenance, Procurement, Finance, HSEQ, Catering, 

Voyage, Dry Dock, Document management, Commercial, 

and Insurance in a single integrated solution and comes 

with standard interfacing to leading banks, travel systems 

and major vendors. 

MariApps is not only a solutions provider, but also comes 

as digital partner, sharing expertise in digital solutions, 

cloud, mobile apps gained with clients over several years in 

the maritime industry. The team brings in a variety of 

skilled resources, including business analysts, project 

managers, marine engineers, nautical officers, and strong 

technical leaders that are part of a 450+ team in India, 

Singapore, Cyprus, UAE, France and Germany to develop, 

implement, and support its software. The company offers 

customized maritime digital solutions development, project 

management consultancy, PMS data building, crewing data 

migration, organizational change management, 

communication planning, solution testing, implementation, 

and a lot more for the maritime digital needs. 

The Pioneer in the Maritime Industry 

MariApps is committed to developing the best solutions for 

the maritime industry. The first-of-its-kind app allows users 

to track vessels, fetch real time finance, performance and 

operational data to facilitate decision making processes 

easier, reduce operational risk and maximize uptime. 

Steering towards a digital future has never been easier. 

The leading-edge maritime software from MariApps 

smartPAL, is vast and versatile. The flagship maritime ERP 

is the right choice for all the ship management and ship 

owning needs. Aiding maritime personnel systems, 

stakeholders and managers with resources management, 

automated procurement, finance modules and offering 

timely purchase to PO cycle, efficient invoice processing 

with automated bots, complete voyage performance 

analysis, commercial details, in depth intelligence and 

analytical reports on all the transactions, processes and day 

to day business. 

smartPAL is a fully digitized, web based, mobile compliant, 

cloud supporting marine ERP (Enterprise Resource 

Planning) providing end-to-end solutions to ship managers 

and ship owners. With smartPAL one can access all the 

critical data in one place. 

MariApps’ flagship product smartPAL is a complete marine 

ERP plug and play suite which is fully web-based, cloud 

supported and mobile compliant. The company offers 

customized maritime application development, consultancy, 

data building, application testing and project management 

that can operate in all browsers like IE, Chrome, Fire Fox, 

Safari and on all platforms including mobile, tablet and 

desktop. 

The Visionary Leader 

With his towering personality and with his greatest vision 

and enthusiasm for a world leading maritime ERP, 

Sankar Ragavan, CEO of MariApps, introduced 

smartPAL to the not so IT adaptive maritime domain. The 

launch of smartPAL to the industry was an opportunity to 

learn and identify the scope, compatibility and acceptance 

th 

in the market. Currently running with the 4 version, the 

ERP has aesthetically improved user interface, dynamic 

workflow and automated functionalities, smartPAL has set 

the momentum for innovation by being the disruptive 

digital solutions technology. 

Sankar with his 20 plus years of experience in IT and 

technology industry, the right knowledge and domain 

expertise understood that smartPAL has long way to go, the 

opportunities are huge and yet to be seized. With the 

expertise gained from the Bernhard Schulte legacy, 

smartPAL was successfully implemented on 600 vessels 

managed by BSM, for Crewing and Technical management. 

Since its inception in 2014, MariApps has been focused on 

providing end-to-end digital ship owning and ship 

management solutions to the maritime industry. With offices 

in India, Germany, and Cyprus, MariApps is a Microsoft 

Gold Certified Development Partner and has also been 

certified by Deloitte with ISAE 3402 ¬ Type 2 certification 

for enterprise standard development and operating 

framework readiness to deliver systems. Thanks to its 

collaboration with more than 15 leading companies across 

the planet, MariApps deploys continuous R&D processes to 

cater to fully integrated marine solutions that are built on 

innovative technologies and hosted on mobile as well as 

web platforms. “MariApps has created history in this 

segment by being the first of its kind to introduce mobile 

applications for the shipping world,” affirms Sankar 

Ragavan, CEO, MariApps Marine Solutions. “Leveraging 

the technical expertise of our talented pool of mobile 

developers, we have built marine applications that can run 

on various mobile platforms such as Android, Windows and 

iOS, thereby equipping customers with the power to take 

decisions anywhere and anytime,” he goes on to elaborate. 

MariApps’ expansive portfolio of offerings includes Marine 

Application Development, Mobile Application

Web based vendor 

platform enabling quicker 

procurement processes 

Make instant actions with reports 

and interactive dashboards. An 

application exclusively designed for 

ship-owners to access all the vessel 

information in just a glance 

Travelling made easy

‘‘ 

We develop and encourage an 

environment of mutual respect within 

the company and extend it further to 

our clients. We encourage commitment 

and personal learning of our workforce. 

We are proud to be an organization 

built on the strong pillars of integrity, 

honesty, and passion. 

Development, Project Management and IT consulting, 

Business Intelligence and MariApps Innovation Hub. 

Bringing Fresh Approach to the Table 

According to MariApps, today’s growing businesses 

demand solutions that are designed with a fresh approach to 

existing IT systems, in order to bring tangible operational 

efficiencies to their users. With cost savings and efficiency 

gains being the primary criteria while selecting a solution, 

organizations need technology partners that can understand 

their exact requirements and deliver quality systems with 

much more promptness. Meeting this need, MariApps 

leverages the opportunity to develop applications for the 

non-IT familiar shipping industry, to bring its flagship 

product – MariApps smartPAL. As a complete marine ERP 

suite that is targeted at ship managers and ship owners, 

MariApps smartPAL is a web-based, Cloud supported, 

Mobile compliant ERP framework that covers all 

functionalities of ship management operations including 

Crewing, Accounts, Purchase, Planned Maintenance, 

Payroll, Voyage, Insurance, Dry-dock and New Building. 

With customizable dashboards, mobile applications, fleet 

management and well-integrated ship owning and ship 

management modules; MariApps smartPAL facilitates 

mobile ship owners and managers with critical data in realtime, 

thereby improving the efficiency, decision-making 

processes and the operational performance of their 

management teams’ worldwide operations. 

Furthermore, MariApps also caters to Fleet Management 

with Live Fleet, a module exclusively designed to help 

ship-owners access all the vessel information in real-time. 

This module facilitates ship owners with all the key 

parameters associated with vessel tracking, such as voyage 

and performance information, tracking of vessel position, 

and the speed of the vessel at any moment, on mobile and 

web portals. Live fleet also acts as a single point of data 

access for the owners, allowing them to make faster

decisions and eliminating the maintenance requirement of 

various spreadsheets, thereby saving time and money for its 

users. 

MariApps has developed their own technology Innovation 

Hub, for development of newer technologies like Big data 

(using Power BI), IoT, Block Chain, Augmented Reality 

(AR) etc. 

The Modern Cloud Based Digital Solution 

According to the company, smartPAL ERP from MariApps 

is the most modern cloud based digital solution available 

currently. This system automates all shipping process, end 

to end with real time decision making. MariApps also 

provides data migration facility and the user can migrate 

data to the system for any legacy systems. 

MariApps develops a very efficient application for cyber 

security named MaxV, which basically protects the vessel 

systems and data from Digital attacks. Be it any malicious 

software or application aimed at interrupting the business 

process or destroying information, innovative and cybersafe 

solutions from MariApps help its clients to monitor all the 

information and data transfer in the system. 

The best part is, MariApps Marine Solutions is a young and 

passionate company, committed to development of the best 

solutions for the industry. Follows leading project 

management standards (PMI) to execute projects and the 

dedicated Project Management Office (PMO) manage 

projects for various customers. 

Testimonials 

“After opting smartPAL our company has benefitted greatly. 

Our operations have become streamlined and follow the 

company’s strategy. We have established a great 

partnership with MariApps, and their dedication is evident 

in all the aspect of the ERP. Appreciate their attention to 

detail approach and integrity in ensuring quality and user 

friendliness of the system along with study on the 

functionalities we need daily.” 

- Shoaib Seedat, Tomini Shipping 

“MariApps smartPAL covers functional areas of ship 

management. They innovate on the product and brings in 

stability to our products across global offices.” 

- David Furnival, BSM

SUBSCRIBE TODAY 

Global Subscription 

1 Year.......... (12 Issues) .... $250.00 

6 Months ..... (06 Issues) ..... $130.00 

3 Months ... (03 Issues) .... $70.00 1 Month ...... (01 Issue) ..... $25.00 

Name : 

Address : 

Date : 

Telephone : 

Email : 

City : State : Zip : 

Country : 

Cheque 

should be drawn in favor of: 

INSIGHTS SUCCESS MEDIA TECH LLC

Assistants (VA) 

Professional Assistance, Virtual Guidance 

18 | September 2019 

www.insightssuccess.com


Nowadays, we all are 

becoming more engage and 

busy in our day-to-day life 

due to professional commitments or 

personal life. In such a situation, we 

always find ways to make our life 

simple and easy. Every human on 

this planet feels lazy at certain 

situations where he/she wants to 

make his/her work or task easier. 

Thus, there are various innovations 

which are carried out with these 

technologies. Those are intensively 

working upon such tools which can 

execute to minimize human 

efficiency and saves time. 

According to the well-known French 

author Jules Renard, “Laziness is 

nothing more than the habit of 

resting before you get tired.” 

To reduce this, there are some virtual 

inventions that create an easy way to 

implement our work. One such major 

device which is widely used is 

known as Virtual Assistant 

generally abbreviated as VA or 

Virtual Office Assistant. It is a unique 

self-employed device which provides 

assistance to clients remotely. It is a 

highly skilled device that recreates 

overall verbal communication 

stronger. VA helps its users to access 

data and information through voice 

assistance with its unique approach 

to signify various fundamental 

activities. 

Hence, VA exclusively synchronizes 

human voice instructions to manage 

various human actions such as music 

playback via voice, emails, to-do 

lists, and calendars with verbal 

commands. Its invention has created 

a reforming approach for doing our 

day to day task easier. The qualities 

that make virtual assistant a power 

tool is its exceptional programming 

and strong process execution. 

Various Forms of Virtual 

Assistants 

In the global market, there are many 

technology giants that have 

introduced their own virtual assistant 

(VA) devices are as follows, 

Amazon Alexa majorly known as 

Alexa is a virtual assistant device 

developed by Amazon. It has two 

devices which reflect its VA 

properties such as Amazon Echo and 

Amazon Echo Dot Smart Speakers. 

Alexa helps you to check the 

weather, latest news, connect to 

music and listen to your favorite 

song on command as its special 

features. Siri by Apple is one of the 

unique virtual assistant devices 

introduced in 2011. Siri answers all 

the questions and updates you with 

sports news as well. Siri also uses to 

set alarm, timer, and scheduling daily 

task manually. With voice request, 

Siri can help you to send text or 

place call just by voice. Siri is 

exclusively available on Apple 

devices like iPhone, iPad, Mac, 

Apple watches etc. 

Cortana is a Microsoft device, 

known as its digital assistant who is 

designed to learn from your 

command and respond to the queries. 

It is very similar to Apple and other 

VA device which can track tasks, 

manage your calendar or follow your 

commands etc. Cortana works on 

following Microsoft devices, 

including Windows phones and 

operating systems. Google Assistant 

a product by Google which is highly 

known for its accessibility. It is easily 

available on various devices like 

your phone, speaker, watch, TV, or in 

your car. It connects smoothly with 

any device and gives an active 

response. Google Assistant is 

available on Google Play Store and 

iTunes App store. 

Last but not the least; we have Bixby 

a smart virtual assistant by Samsung. 

It is one of the most featured and 

unique virtual assistant device used 

globally. It has a unique feature that 

represents your music choices and 

voice commands to identify 

landmarks and other visuals by 

taking a photo. Bixby can translate 

many foreign languages and 

transform them in an easy manner. It 

also recommends you about 

businesses, restaurants to create 

reminders and manage your 

schedule. Bixby is exclusively 

available on Samsung devices like 

Galaxy S series and Note 9. 

Role of Virtual Assistants 

Followed with its overall 

introduction and functionalities, the 

core part that highly approachable 

about virtual assistant is its features 

and roles like, 

1. Responsiveness: A virtual 

assistant is mainly known for its 

extreme responsive nature and 

fundamental structure. The ultimate 

role of any virtual assistant is to 

follow the commands and execute 

the process accordingly. In any 

organization, the basic role is to 

follow the commands and provide 

suitable information at the earliest 

like, quick response to the e-mails, 

requests, and voice commands. 

www.insightssuccess.com 

September 2019 | 19

2. Discretion: Discretion is nothing but the quality of 

behaving or speaking in such a way as to avoid causing 

offense or revealing confidential information. Hence, the 

virtual assistant helps individuals and organization to 

avoid conflict between confidential information and 

relieving information. 

3. Accuracy: Accuracy is very important and essential. 

Human make mistakes and it will happen but to avoid 

mistakes and false we need perfect and accurate work. 

Hence, virtual assistant provides accuracy that plays a 

crucial role when commands are given to it for 

execution. 

4. Multi-tasking: Probably one of the important feature 

of virtual assistant it its capability to do multiple jobs at 

the same time. A virtual assistant can hold many 

commands and actions with respect to multiple users and 

keep them moving correctly. It benefits organization with 

efficiency, good scheduling, and perfect duty. 

How Virtual Assistant aids Organizations 

Planning and Organizing: Finally, planning and 

organizing is another topmost virtual assistant feature. It 

prominently works to track and analysis top-level view 

of daily tasks and helps to create effective plans and 

methods to meet business goals. 

Promising Future 

As we mentioned earlier, how virtual assistant is 

important in our day-to-day life or in an organization 

process. In businesses, the virtual assistant helps 

organizations to grow fast and efficiently. Virtual 

Assistants are independent experts, who work for its 

users from a remote location. With specific skills, a 

virtual assistant can perform multiple tasks at the same 

time and work on various projects simultaneously. 

Hence, a virtual assistant is becoming one of the major 

parts of organizations overall process and structure for 

opting better growth and their future endeavors. In 

addition, it signifies importance it in our day-to-day lives 

and helps us to make our daily task easier. 

Today, almost every organization is working on its core 

competencies to grow rapidly in the market with 

effective speed and market response. Hence, they are 

building its capabilities with the help of a virtual 

assistant which are as follows, 

Email Management: A good virtual assistant will 

always offer email or inbox management services. 

Virtual assistant organizes various email skills such as 

managing emails into manageable folders, incoming 

emails notifications, prioritizing a list of senders etc. 

Better virtual assistant supports organization for superior 

productivity. 

Marketing Responsibilities: One of the top feature of 

virtual assistant, in which it handles various marketing 

tasks easily, timely and precisely. There are some of the 

respective tasks on which virtual assistant works such as, 

website landing page, blog posts, graphic design, and 

social media marketing etc. It also helps the organization 

more effectively and precisely. 






Solution Providers 2019 

Empowering Customers since Inception 

Headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, Acumatica 

is a leading innovator in cloud ERP with 

customers located around the world. Through its 

worldwide network of partners, Acumatica provides the full 

suite of integrated business management applications, 

including Financials, Distribution, Manufacturing, Project 

Accounting, Field Service, Commerce Edition, 

Construction Edition, and CRM. 

In an interview with Insights Success, Jon Roskill, CEO of 

Acumatica shares his journey and details about his 

contribution to the organization. 

Below are highlights of the interview between Jon and 

Acumatica: 

Give a brief overview of the company, its uniqueness 

and its vision 

Acumatica Cloud ERP works to deliver adaptable cloud and 

mobile technology with a unique, all-inclusive user 

licensing model. This enables customers to have a real time 

view of their business at any time and wherever they are. 

Through Acumatica’s technology, functionality, and 

growth-friendly business practices, the company delivers 

exceptional value to small and midmarket organizations, 

spanning the full suite of business management 

applications. 

What are the cutting-edge ERP solutions offered by 

Acumatica? 

The company is built on a future-proof platform and 

designed for the way modern businesses operate. The 

platform includes open architecture for scalability, ease of 

use, rapid integrations, and is built on a modular and 

adaptable platform with Open APIs, allowing for low code 

or no-code customization. 

We fully recognize digital transformation is about enabling 

customer success, and how this success looks different for 

every customer. This is why Acumatica offers flexible 

deployment, open integrations and full data transparency. 

This allows companies to easily adapt when their definition 

of success changes. 

What are the new approaches adopted by Acumatica to 

advance its ERP solutions? 

In every release, Acumatica improves the underlying 

system to evolve usability and create more efficient 

customer experiences. This year we announced the official 

launch of Acumatica 2019 R1 with continued focus on 

usability and customer satisfaction, as well as Help search 

with natural language and machine learning that assists 

users in finding the right information more rapidly while 

growing “smarter” over time. 

The R1 update also provides features and usability 

enhancements in three areas including the platform, which 

has been advanced with features such as highlighting 

inquiries based on conditions, side panel enhancements, and 

multifactor authentication, among others; general business 

applications which include updates to both financial 

management and the project accounting sides; and industryspecific 

enhancements which include new features to order 

and inventory management, field services, commerce, and 

manufacturing and construction. 

What challenges has the company faced while providing 

best-In-Class ERP solutions and how is Acumatica 

serving to tackle them? 

As an unknown entrant in the crowded ERP field, we have 

battled a lack of brand awareness since inception in 2008. 

Continuous success in the marketplace and industry-leading 

customer satisfaction scores have helped us in addressing 

this issue. However, we are in many ways, a dark horse and 

challenger to the legacy players such as NetSuite, Sage- 

Intacct, and Microsoft Dynamics. 

What are the dynamic factors that enable Acumatica to 

stay ahead of its competitors? 

Acumatica views our customers as business partners, and 

we are committed to their success. Acumatica’s licensing 

model, data policies, and support mechanisms are designed 

to meet the needs of end-users, not shareholders, and are 

unrivaled in the industry. We are the only business 

management solution designed for the unique and evolving 

needs of growing midmarket businesses, enabling us to put 

customers success at the heart of all operations. 



“ 

We provide the best business 

management solution for 

transforming your company to 

thrive in the new digital economy. 

—Jon Roskill 

CEO 

Acumatica 

Some of these factors include modern, consumption-based 

licensing, which operates on a pay-as-you go basis that can 

grow and shrink with business or seasonal needs. There’s 

no per-seat premium, so technology can scale features. 

Additionally, with data ownership, Acumatica’s solution 

allows customers to decide where to host data whether it’s 

on the public cloud, in a private cloud, or on-premise. This 

way customer data is always secure and accessible. 

Customers are also able to complete a full relational 

database export at any time —even if the intention is to take 

the data somewhere else. Comparatively, other vendors lock 

customers into their datacenters. 

With dual layers of support, Acumatica has a vast global 

value-added reseller (VAR) network focused on delivering 

the best service in the industry, so the company never 

competes against channel partners. We match customers 

with a local implementation partner who knows the industry 

and their unique business needs; this way customers and 

partners always have access to dedicated support, as issues 

and challenges inevitably arise. As a result, Acumatica has 

the industry’s highest customer satisfaction rating. 

What according to you could be the potential future of 

the Acumatica and how does the company envision 

sustaining its competency? 

With our recent acquisition by EQT Partners, Acumatica’s 

goal is to form a “powerhouse” of enterprise resource 

planning companies with our partner company IFS that will 

eventually generate $1 billion a year in revenues and 

compete with the biggest players in the ERP business. We 

expect to increase our workforce by 40 to 50 percent 

each year. 

EQT acquired Acumatica through the same investment 

vehicle that holds IFS (Fund VII, IGT Holdings). While 

Acumatica and IFS are well-aligned on customer ethos and 

focus industries, Acumatica’s sweet spot is small and 

medium-sized business customers with $20M - $250M 

USD in revenue; IFS is optimized to serve companies with 

$250M USD and above. 

Provide a quote that best describes the company and 

its vision. 

Acumatica Cloud ERP provides the best business 

management solution for transforming companies to thrive 

in the new digital economy. Built on a future-proof platform 

with open architecture for rapid integrations, scalability, and 

ease of use, Acumatica delivers unparalleled value to more 

than 5,000 small and midmarket organizations through a 

team of 275 worldwide employees and 300 channel 

partners. 

About the Leader 

Acumatica’s CEO, Jon Roskill has 25 years of leadership 

experience in the software business. He joined Acumatica 

in 2014 after a 20-year career at Microsoft where he led 

efforts in many areas including product development for 

developer tools, the business operations, strategy, and 

marketing for all of Microsoft U.S., and serving as 

Corporate Vice President for the Worldwide Partner Group 

– a particularly relevant experience as Acumatica is 100% 

channel-driven and sells only through partners. 

As a long-time channel builder, Jon prioritizes Acumatica’s 

100-percent commitment to sell with and through partners 

as a foundational business strategy and values the 

importance of diversifying the cloud ERP space. 







Delivering Integrated 

Business Software for 

Manufacturers 

In an interview with Insights Success, Jeffrey Sawka, 

Manufacturing Professional at AIM Computer 

Solutions shares key insights into the organization’s 

journey and how its specialized ERP solutions and 

services are continually growing to meet the dynamic needs 

of an evolving global market. 

Below are the highlights of interview between Jeffrey and 

Insights Success: 

Give a brief overview of the company, its uniqueness, 

and its vision. 

AIM Computer Solutions, Inc., offers ERP business 

solutions and consultancy for automotive production part 

suppliers and other manufacturers. Since 1991, we have 

designed and developed software to meet the EDI, barcode, 

inventory control, shipping, receiving and production needs 

of repetitive and discrete manufacturers. 

What are the cutting-edge ERP solutions offered by AIM 

Computer Solutions? 

Ÿ 

Ÿ 

At the heart of AIM Vision®, our primary modularbased 

ERP software solution for automotive suppliers, 

are EDI and barcode labeling applications. They include 

embedded business logic for more than 450 trading 

partners with more than 1,800 trading partner-specific 

barcode label formats. AIM Vision provides seamless 

business processes with no mapping required. 

Manufacturers gain operational efficiency with MRP, 

CRP and MES integrated into AIM Vision ERP software 

solution. 

For companies brokering products from overseas, AIM 

delivers ERP with a purchasing module that offers 

tracking and brokering solutions. It offers EDI and 

supply chain logic to manage the import of goods, 

schedule the arrival and account for their delivery 

against multiple customer releases. 

Ÿ 

We collaborate on financial software development with 

the experts at Microsoft and have certified integration of 

financial reporting with Microsoft Dynamics GP. 

What are the new approaches adopted by AIM 

Computer Solutions to advance its ERP solutions? 

Manufacturing happens on the plant floor and modern 

automotive manufacturers need the ability to input 

information using the latest hardware. AIM Mobility Apps 

provide a real-time method to input transactions into the 

AIM Vision ERP suite through an Android tablet and 

barcode scanner directly from the plant floor or hi-lo. The 

AIM Mobility App suite includes: 

Ÿ Mobility MES: Easily track and report out on various 

execution systems, from time clock and work centre 

tracking to load materials and printing directly to a 

Wi-Fi-enabled printer within the plant. 

Ÿ Shipping: Gain direct insight into the shipping floor for 

paperwork and direct shipping actions, all from the 

tablet. 

Ÿ Receiving: Manage both physical receiving and 

container movement from within the app. 

Ÿ Clipboard: Keep track of operator efficiencies, work 

center efficiencies and other critical information 

digitally, replacing paper production tags. 

Ÿ Physical Inventory: Reduce the time it takes to perform 

physical or cycle counts using bar code labelled tags. 

Real-time access to missed tags and inventory variances 

so analysis can be started. 

Ÿ Container Move: Achieve production posting of 

material, best used at quality inspection operations or 

when part number changes frequently. 

Ÿ Warehouse Transfers: Works in conjunction with 

inventory to transfer lotted material from one warehouse 

to another. 

Ÿ Consumption: Remove remnant material lot quantities 

from inventory. 

Ÿ Location Tracking: Track the storage location of 



“ 

AIM provides software and 

expertise to help automotive part 

suppliers operate more efciently. 

— Jeffrey Sawka 

Manufacturing Professional 

AIM Computer Solutions 

anything from your inventory to your assets – not the 

“perfect” science of warehousing, but rather a way to 

track “where’s my stuff.” 

What challenges the company faces while providing 

Class ERP solutions and how is AIM Computer 

Solutions serving to tackle them? 

Ÿ 

An ERP implementation has a significant impact on a 

company, introducing best-in-class processes across 

multiple departments, and offering new ways to capture 

and share information for the overall benefit of the 

entire organization. Yet, when it comes to pre-launch 

testing of a new ERP system, we often see gaps in both 

the process and stakeholder participation. These voids 

create disappointing results, and in some cases, a failure 

of the entire implementation. 

AIM Computer Solutions will continue to provide 

leadership to AIAG, MMOGLE & Supply Chain 

committees, so we stay up-to-date on the latest news and 

trends in the industry. Our 30-year footprint in the 

Automotive Industry will continue to guide suppliers to 

comply with OEM/Tier 1, Tier 2 and Sub-tier requirements, 

including IATF 16949:2016 requirements, for EDI, 

shipping, and barcode labelling. 

Ÿ 

One way to reduce the risk and uncertainty associated 

with an ERP implementation is to use a Conference 

Room Pilot (CRP) to get out process or data barriers in a 

test environment and address them before the new 

system is launched. The notion of CRP is not new to 

manufacturing – it parallels the use of preproduction or 

prototype runs. 

What are the dynamic factors that enable AIM 

Computer Solutions to stay ahead of its competitors? 

AIM Computer Solutions was founded to offer technology 

solutions specifically for automotive manufacturers and 

their suppliers, decades prior to Industry 4.0. This company 

has a legacy of understanding the unique business 

operations of each of the trading partners in the supply 

chain. 

What according to you could be the potential future of 

the AIM Computer Solutions and how does the 

company envision sustaining its competency? 


Jeffrey Sawka specializes in analysing operational 

processes and making recommendations that improve 

processes and increase profits. He has nearly 20 years lean 

manufacturing and management experience and a proven 

track record of successful project implementations to 

achieve the desired results as a plant manager, materials 

manager and software consultant. He holds both a Bachelor 

of Science – Engineering in Mechanical Engineering and a 

Master of Science – Engineering in Manufacturing from the 

University of Michigan. 

Clientele Testimonials 

“While there are many great things about the AIM family 

and software, I feel the user group meetings are a great way 

that I can get current and upcoming info on the use of the 

software, changes and other software solutions that we can 

use to support our operations.” - Ellen M. Lee, Controller, 

Eclipse Mold, Inc. 







A Leader in ERP Software 

for the Rental and Hire 

Industry 

Integrated ERP solutions provide companies the 

opportunity to streamline and improve their 

processes, drive efficiencies, improve customer 

service and adapt to an ever evolving business world. One 

such leading ERP solution provider is Baseplan Software 

Group. 

From mobile field solutions to rental management, 

Baseplan offers reliable business intelligence software 

designed to keep its clients one step ahead of their 

competition. It provides clients with world-class 

technologies that harness the importance of asset, service 

and parts and streamlined rental management. Baseplan’s 

software delivers scalable, tightly integrated and modulebased 

systems, including an integrated financial module, to 

offer a solution that embraces industry best practices with 

customized solutions. 

Since its inception in 1986, Baseplan Software has, and 

continues to evolve. It has developed and launched, for 

example, POS integration, Baseplan gateway, Software as 

a Service (SaaS), Mobile CRM App, Field Service App 

and a Transport App. Its primary goal was and is to 

provide a software solution that helps its clients to deliver 

increased value and service to their customers. 

Key Features of Baseplan ERP Software 

The ultimate goal of an ERP system is to update business 

processes and gain real-time data and business insights 

that can be used to drive improved business decisions. 

Baseplan offers ERP Software Solutions designed 

specifically for the Rental, Fleet and Construction 

industries. It develops, sells, and implements its own 

systems, ensuring industries get the highest level of 

competency and professionalism. Baseplan ERP system 

includes essential functions like: 

Ÿ 

Ÿ 

Ÿ 

Equipment Management: Baseplan Software 

specializes in equipment and asset management 

solutions. It provides equipment maintenance software 

for business with the tools to effectively manage rental 

or fleet items. Its benefits include keeping track of 

equipment, applying integrated operations 

management, preventative maintenance systems, bar 

coding, and stock control. 

Financial Management: Baseplan ERP software aims 

to simplify financial reporting and effective allocation 

of resources. A fully integrated financial management 

software solution provides considerable advantages, 

including the creation of invoices, automatic accrual 

processes, monitoring live access to profit and loss 

statement, and cycle billing – all contributing to the 

effective and efficient management of a business. 

Customer Management: Baseplan Software gives 

businesses the tools to manage customers before, 

during, and after the sales cycle with integrated 

customer relationship management software. The 

software does this by managing leads, existing and 

potential customers, an integrated sales quote module 

and efficient contract creation all supported by 

extensive reporting capability. 

Managing Customer Relationship 

Baseplan provides the most advanced and integrated 



“ 

Baseplan is focused on being the 

software and consulting partner 

of choice to the rental and hire 

industry. 

— Joe Westhuizen 

CEO & General Manager 

Baseplan Software Group 

business management solution available for customers that 

sell, service, and rent inventory and equipment. The 

company focuses on providing customers with best 

practice advice & process-improvement recommendations 

to gain greater visibility of their business activities, 

increase efficiency, and vastly improve business 

performance. The entire team at Baseplan is instrumental 

in supporting customers with world class solutions. BMA 

(Baseplan Mobile Application) eliminates complex manual 

and paper-orientated procedures, allowing staff to engage 

more productively with customers, on the move and in the 

field. It also allows customers to access their business 

information anytime, anywhere. 

A Glimpse of the Future 

With rapidly expanding business operations, workplaces 

are not limited to workstations anymore. Mobility is 

driving smarter businesses with a future-ready approach. 

Baseplan has recognized the need for enterprise flexibility 

and has developed a suite of intuitive mobile solutions for 

the hire and rental industry. In response to the increasing 

demand for on-the-go software, the organization has 

developed a state-of-the-art mobility application platform 

– BMA (Baseplan Mobility Application). 

The biggest challenge companies in the hire and rental 

industries face is to find an ERP that meets and addresses 

their unique requirements. Baseplan, through its three 

decades of experience in hire and rental, understands the 

specific needs of this industry and is able to offer a fully 

integrated ERP that addresses the unique requirements of 

this industry. By focusing on a market-specific segment, 

and by not trying to be everything to everyone, the 

software group is able to stay ahead of its competitors in 

the hire and rental industry. Baseplan will continue to 

enhance its position as the leading provider of software for 

the hire and rental industry by providing the core ERP 

solution around which companies build their unique 

ecosystems of information solutions. 

“Success is something you have to go and earn,” says 

Joe Westhuizen, the CEO and General Manager at 

Baseplan. Joe has spent over two decades in and around 

the ERP ecosystem. He has worked with and for 

companies implementing large and mid-tier technology 

solutions, in both the Public and Private Sector. He has 

thrived on building and leading teams, creating and 

crafting the right teams, with the right vision to grow and 

prosper. From the USA to Europe and Australasia he has 

supported organizations going through a significant change 

driven by technology implementations. 

Testimonials: 

“Baseplan allows us to accurately measure our business, 

to set up KPIs in terms of efficiency, and in the end, that 

really helps us to improve out support to our customers.” 

-General Manager, JLG Industries 



Leverage Existing 

SAP Solutions 

with Cloud Procurement 

Companies that have already 

invested in SAP find that 

they can achieve even better 

results from their existing investment 

with cloud technology and 

eProcurement. After the initial 

investment, companies find certain 

roadblocks preventing mass user 

adoption and diminishing cost 

savings. Issues such as inability to 

stay connected, lack of insight into 

data, and complex and fragmented 

business rules stop businesses from 

using the full power of SAP. As 

cloud application technologies 

advance, companies gain the benefits 

of rapid deployment cycles, 

increased self-service tools, and 

faster performance. Vroozi delivers 

on the promise and power of 

eProcurement in the Cloud with 

seamless integration into SAP. 

SAP users looking to the cloud 

generally face a few questions, 

including: 

Ÿ How can I benefit from using 

cloud procurement? 

Ÿ 

Ÿ 

Will my transition to the cloud be 

cost-effective? 

How will my business processes 

be affected by cloud technology? 

To understand the benefits of cloud 

technology to existing SAP users, 

let’s evaluate three procurement 

strategies that highlight the power of 

cloud procurement. 

Value Realization 

Return on Investment (ROI) is a 

central factor in any procurement 

strategy. Buyers and trading partners 

of cloud procurement solutions need 

to feel confident that solutions will 

lead to cost savings and higher 

productivity and efficiency. Users 

quickly see returns by focusing on 

user adoption, compliance, and spend 

management. Spend Management 

allows companies to visualize 

purchasing spending patterns and 

usage and drives employees to 

leverage preferred pricing with 

contract suppliers. To increase user 

adoption and compliance, the cloud 

empowers a mobile workforce with 

the right resources and experience so 

everyone stays connected and 

available so that business is not 

disrupted. As user adoption and 

compliance frameworks increase 

with cloud-based systems, 

organizations gain immediate cost 

savings in procurement by 

decreasing transaction costs and 

preventing spend leakage with your 

supply chain. 

Efficiencies 

Process efficiency is key for a 

successful, healthy business. Cloud 

technology enables better processes 

by keeping everyone connected 

through a mobile experience and 

automating transaction tasks through 

the use of machine learning and 

pattern matching. With a centralized, 

unified system, cloud automation can 

yield immediate benefits in 

requisition to invoice and payment 

business processes and reduced 



Maestro’s Insights 

Brad Hill 

Director of Global 

Sales & Marketing 

Vroozi 

errors and issues leading to higher 

productivity and decreased 

processing costs. Further, by 

allowing employees to interact with 

cloud procurement via smart Phones 

and tablets, business can continue to 

move with efficiency and speed. 

IT Cost Savings 

Perhaps no determinant is more 

important in realizing the benefits of 

cloud technologies versus traditional 

on premise software is in IT Cost 

Savings. Systems and applications 

which required large physical 

infrastructure and monetary 

investments can now provide 

inexpensive and scalable solutions 

through the Cloud and cloud 

infrastructure providers. A 

procurement solution that integrates 

with SAP is easier to access, less 

expensive, and takes a fraction of the 

implementation time companies once 

faced with traditional software 

solutions. Cloud technology relieves 

the user of hidden costs such as 

hardware, consultants, infrastructure, 

maintenance, and costly upgrade 

cycles, providing lower risk and 

lower total cost of ownership. 

Conclusion 

The cloud offers little upfront 

expense, automatic upgrades, and 

pre-integrated best practices which 

allow organizations to focus on 

business growth and improved 

operating margins. Vroozi’s 

eProcurement solution that takes 

SAP solutions to the cloud empower 

users with better returns, better 

processes and higher savings, so their 

overall SAP investment’s ROI is 

accelerated. 

About the Author 

Brad Hill, Director of Global 

Sales & Marketing of Vroozi 

is a passionate leader and is 

responsible for expanding the 

Vroozi Product Suite, Brand 

Adoption, Partnership Network 

& ensuring our customers 

receive an unparalleled 

experience with Vroozi. Brad 

spent the last 20 years building 

Enterprise Sales and Product 

strategies with leading IT 

Services organizations. His 

entrepreneurial strategies have 

served a vast number of 

Fortune 500 industries and 

verticals. He is also an aspiring 

mechanic and frustrated golfer, 

two good reminders to keep his 

day job. 

According to IDC, spending on 

Cloud computing is growing at 4.5 

times the rate of IT spending since 

2009 and is expected to continue 

growing at more than 6 times the rate 

of IT spending from 2015 through 

2020 (via Forbes). This massive 

growth is easily understood when 

businesses understand the power and 

value of cloud solutions. With the 

Vroozi Platform, companies can take 

advantage of robust eProcurement 

technology delivered in the Cloud 

and integrated seamlessly with SAP. 







BC Systems 

A Leading Provider of ERP Solutions 

Since its inception, ERP (Enterprise Resource 

Planning) has been the backbone of many large 

businesses and public entities, so these larger 

enterprises have dominated ERP usage. Until recently, there 

have not been many ERP options available for the small 

and medium-sized businesses (SMB) or public entities, as 

they did not have the funds or technical proficiency to adopt 

complicated and very expensive ERP solutions. Today, no 

business is too small for an ERP solution that is easy to use, 

powerful and yet affordable. ERP helps any business, 

whether it is a manufacturer, distributor, service-based, or 

public entity to measure and control all aspects of their 

operations from personnel, materials, inventory and 

accounting. It combines great usability with vertical market 

functionality. 

Understanding Small and Medium Businesses and 

Public Entities 

Founded in 1984 as BC Computers, Inc., BC Systems 

specializes in browser-based ERP solutions and progressive 

technology for SMBs and public entities. Its team helped 

pioneer the use of cloud-based solutions, recognizing early 

on the affordability and flexibility of these systems. BC 

researches and determines the daily needs of each company, 

learns what works for them and what does not, and provides 

solutions to both old and new business problems with a 

high degree of functionality and success. The company’s 

expertise is in designing and implementing highlyconfigured, 

integrated business management solutions. 

Today, BC is helping companies and public entities to better 

manage their internal resources to maximize productivity 

and to revamp their operational processes with ERP 

solutions to be more forward-thinking, scalable, 

manageable, and cost-effective. As a result, profits and 

efficiencies increase through the use of properly applied 

technology. 



“ 

BC Systems leverages your knowledge base, 

as a business stack-holder, down through the 

organization in order to facilitate 

productivity, decrease costs, and increase 

prots through the use of technology. We do 

this by using tools that are easy to use, costeffective, 

and will grow as you grow. 

— Don Waters 

Co-founder & President 

BC Systems 

Right Choice to Solve Problems 

Priority® is a true ERP platform that will allow SMB and 

public entities to stay ahead of the change curve. It is a fully 

HMTL5 product, so it can run within any browser, whether 

the server is on premise or in the cloud. It is purpose-built 

to handle rapidly changing and dynamic business needs. 

Flexibility and expandability are the core features of this 

platform. BC’s approach is always to apply the right pieces 

of the platform in the right way to solve the given problem 

in a simple, straight-forward manner. By creating highly 

configured mobile apps for just about any function in 

Priority® we can help those working remotely or at 

customer sites quickly and cost effectively. BC is proud to 

provide innovative and affordable web-based technology 

and practical business management solutions based on 

Priority® ERP. 

Future Plans with ERP 

Businesses are now seeing changes at the speed of light in a 

highly dynamic global economy. Customers expect and 

demand more from their suppliers, and citizens expect and 

demand more from their local governments. The key is to 

have a solution with the proper attributes and tool-sets for 

flexible change. BC Systems works very closely with its 

clients, to fully understand not only their needs today, but 

where they see changes heading in the near future. BC 

looks to provide continuous management consulting 

services to its clients, beyond the standard services needed 

to install, implement and use an ERP on a daily basis. BC is 

always looking at new and innovative ways to use Priority® 

and its deep functionality to enhance the work environment 

of its clients, and to reduce friction in running their business 

or public entity. 

BioPharma manufacturing, and other high-tech 

environments. He has also used his expertise in many 

distribution, service companies, as well as with public 

entities, to meet very specific and unique needs. 

Understanding workflow processes, and applying business 

rules to that flow, is one of the key areas of his expertise. 

BC is a unique solution provider, as a result of these 

experiences that Don and his team bring to their clients. BC 

is all about creating long lasting, mutually beneficial 

relationships with its clients. 

Testimonials 

“Very few companies get what we do in its full scope, of 

creating cradle to grave instrumentation for air flow 

calibration. BC not only gets it, but has helped us improve 

on our processes and our response times to our customers 

in a significant way.” – HP – Bios International 

“Looking back, I could not have predicted the positive 

impact Priority has had on our business.” 

- EB Biothane, USA 


Don Waters is a Co-founder, and has been President of 

BC Systems since its foundation in 1984 as BC Computers, 

Inc. As a chemist, he put his technical capabilities to good 

use in deploying Priority in some highly technical 

environments such as for Analytical Chemical Testing, 





Changing the Status Quo 








Helping Businesses Streamline their Processes 

ith a vision to allow all people, in every 

Worganization to have a direct access to the 

information that enables them to do their best 

work, from anywhere, every day, Big Bang ERP was 

formed. Big Bang is a boutique consulting firm that helps 

businesses optimize and streamline their processes by 

implementing cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), 

Customer Relationship Management (CRM), 

Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP), Information 

Technology System Management (ITSM) systems and other 

cloud applications. The company aims at becoming the 

most trusted independent consultant team specializing in 

business management, collaboration and automation 

solutions. 

Their highly skilled team of experts works hand in hand 

with organizations to achieve exceptional business 

improvements for every department in the enterprise so that 

companies can focus on what they do best rather than on 

repetitive manual processes, spreadsheet management and 

other non-value-added activities. 

Big Bang’s team of consultants is dedicated to helping 

businesses achieve their goals with smart, effective, 

scalable and high-quality cutting-edge cloud solutions that 

are delivered on time and within scope. Acting as trusted 

advisors, they contribute their diverse experiences and 

in-depth expertise to the success of organizations around 

the world. 

Cutting-Edge Solutions 

Big Bang offers a variety of cutting-edge solutions that 

cover all types of systems. Their extensive portfolio of 

products allow them to offer services that would help 

businesses solve all their management needs. With the idea 

of becoming a one-stop shop for all business needs, Big 

Bang offers professional services related to several cloud 

systems by being brand agnostic and focusing on a tailored 

solution for their clients. The company analyzes its clients' 

operational needs, recommends the best solution and 

implements it through their proprietary methodology The 

Big Bang Experience®, optimizing and streamlining 

processes to support business growth and success. 

Stellar Leadership 

The team at Big Bang ERP is led by Gabriel Tupula, Eng. 

PMP, CEO. Gabriel pushes a work culture that is very 

interesting. It’s a modern take on traditional methods to 

achieve the company vision in a fast-paced environment. 

What that means is that every single person within the 

company is aware of their role and how they contribute to 

the overall vision. He strongly encourages his team 

members to pick up the phone and to act responsively. 

Establishing a human connection is extremely important 

and by doing so, along with several other daily activities, 

reminders and insights, the team is able to provide 

exceptional service to clients and contribute to the 

development of the ERP industry through professional 

services and business advice that help businesses grow and 

succeed. 

Ensuring Seamless Work 

Big Bang ERP is constantly looking for new products it can 

add to its portfolio that will allow it to respond to all of its 

clients’ requirements as efficiently as possible. The 

company wants to build partnerships it can be proud of and 

long-term client relationships. Its focus is always on the 

customer and continuous improvement on top of being upto-date 

with the latest technological advancement so it is 



“ Trusted Business Advisors 

propelling your growth 

through elegant and best-inbreed 

cloud solutions. 

— Gabriel Tupula 

CEO 


able to give its expert advice to its customers confidently 

and earn their trust. This is how it came to implement a new 

approach (GAB’S pyramid). This approach consists of 

looking at business systems in a pyramid view to tackle 

every single department and make sure it is contribution to 

the success of the entire organization. They look at the 

clients’ business from every aspect and make sure to 

recommend the right solutions, so their clients are 

capitalizing on every process within the organization. The 

company also verifies that all the different systems 

implemented work seamlessly or suggests ways to improve. 

Personalizing Experiences 

Big Bang’s competitive edge is its ability to offer a unique 

experience to its customers based on their business needs 

and being able to give them a choice. The variety in its 

portfolio is its most unique offering because it is brandagnostic. 

What matters to the company is its customer’s 

business success leading it to recommend the best solution 

for organizations based on their business needs, not the 

brand they are trying to sell. 

Expanding Global Footprints 

businesses and will keep on improving its service to build 

and maintain long lasting partnerships with its clients. 

Testimonials 

“BBE’s team is flexible, knowledgeable and provide solid 

functional and technical assistance with NetSuite’s ERP.” 

- Walter Merkas, Senior Manager at WithumSmith+Brown 

“We were very happy with Big Bang ERP. They brought 

this project back to life and helped us put our priorities in 

line and allocate our resources efficiently. We know we can 

always count on them for support.” - Allison Roelofs, CFO, 

Gerotech Inc. 

Big Bang ERP is striving to make its vision a reality. Its aim 

is to be a one-stop shop for all its clients’ needs and build 

long lasting partnerships with them to contribute to their 

business growth and success. It also wants to expand on an 

international level and increase its global footprint. Thus, it 

constantly looks for new solutions to add to its portfolio in 

order to serve all business needs, and opening offices as it 

grows around the world to serve customers worldwide in 

the best way possible. To sustain its competency, the 

company will stay up to date with best-in-class cloud 

solutions to offer its customers the best systems for their 







ePROMIS Solutions 

Transforming Businesses through Unied ERP Solutions 

n today’s industrial era, with the significant ERP 

Isolution organizations are facilitating the following 

benefits such as, increasing effective communication 

between departments and allowing employees to access 

their data more efficiently. An effective ERP solution also 

allows streamline access to various departments. Hence, 

ePROMIS Solutions Inc is one such multinational 

software corporation offering industry-specific ERP 

software solutions for construction, oil & gas, MEP, trading, 

and manufacturing industries. It has over a million ERP 

users across the globe and has offices in 15 countries, 

including the USA, Canada, UK, UAE, Australia, Malaysia, 

and Singapore. 

With the vision to become ‘No. 1’ in innovative business 

solutions and ERP solutions, ePROMIS established 

technology leadership as the first to deliver innovative 

business software solutions time and time again. ePROMIS’ 

current investments in cloud computing, blockchain 

technology, big data, and enterprise mobility are based on 

vision 2025, that welcomes the age of Industry 4.0. 

Providing advanced ERP Solutions 

ePROMIS ERP has many useful built-in applications and 

functionalities such as real-time information, electronic 

approvals, business intelligence and analytics, enterprise 

mobility, document management system, document 

attachment system, and audit trail system. Being a leader in 

enterprise mobility, its ERP solutions run on smartphones 

and tablets with dedicated applications and even on web 

browsers. 

ePROMIS’ globally acclaimed ERP solutions are available 

across industries in three editions, 

1. ePROMIS Lite, which is Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) 

model solution for small and growing organizations, 

2. ePROMIS Innovate, cloud-ready ERP solution for 

medium-sized organizations, 

3. ePROMIS Enterprise ERP, ePROMIS’ flagship ERP 

software designed for larger organizations. 

An Idealistic Leader 

ePROMIS was founded in 1981 by Mathews Mathew, the 

current CEO and MD to provide computer software and 

networking services to local Texas businesses. ePROMIS 

entered the software business when only a few of the 

companies understood the need for automating business 

processes. 

The computer software of the 80s remained hardwarespecific, 

the book-keeping programs were written for a 

particular brand of computer and tailored to each client’s 

needs. On top of that, overcoming the resistance to 

technology adoption was the biggest challenge. “In the 

early day’s hardware were expensive and employees were 

comfortable with manual business processes. The initial 

challenges included educating businesses the need for 

automating businesses processes,” states Mathews. 

ePROMIS’ turning point came with the introduction of ERP 

system featuring a truly modular concept. Soon ePROMIS 

was attracting large-scale customers predominately from 

the construction, manufacturing, and trading sectors. 

Over the years, Mathew’s innovation-led strategy for 

ePROMIS has resulted in global business expansion, 

increases in customers, effective strategic partnerships, and 

profitable growth. While sharing about company’s vision he 

asserts that, “From making corporate decisions, driving 

innovation, managing the overall operations, to running the 

board of directors, I enjoy being immersed in the day-today 

operation of the business; and to this day, I believe I 

must keep proving myself. 

Our success secret is we never settle for ‘just getting the job 

done’. Constant innovation is the key to growth when 



“ 

Together with our customers 

and partners, to create an 

inclusive environment that 

drives innovation forward for all. 

—Mathews Mathew 

CEO and MD 

ePROMIS 

people or companies start to feel entitled they stop pushing 

they start losing their grip. We do celebrate achievements, 

but I always tell my people that we’re never done.” 

Modernizing ERP Solutions 

At ePROMIS, the product development and innovation 

strategies include internal development, customer and 

partner co-innovation, and acquisitions. Currently, it is at 

the test phase of next-generation cloud ERP system with 

increased emphasis on mobility, analytics and social. This 

one-of-a-kind enterprise system is designed and developed 

as per ePROMIS’ vision 2025 of creating technologies that 

open up entirely new possibilities. ePROMIS’s innovation 

lab is also working on the possibilities of Artificial 

Intelligence in business, i.e., AI-enabled ERP solutions, 

which will reshape the entire ERP software ecosystem and 

transform business processes and productivity benchmarks. 

ePROMIS’ current investments in cloud computing, IoT, 

blockchain technologies, machine learning, big data and 

enterprise mobility are based on vision 2025. 

Reaching New Heights 

Being a customer-centric organization, ePROMIS’ product 

development and innovations are based on real-life 

scenarios standing at a customer’s side. 

“With decades of experience serving various industries, we 

know the issues that companies face while running the 

business. By integrating business processes and eliminating 

silos, our solutions are enabling organizations to be more 

competitive and responsive to customer needs,” adds 

Mathews further. 

The company has achieved an excellent report for its topquality 

products and outstanding service. Over the years 

ePROMIS ERP received numerous awards and recognition 

including winning the top position in the Gartner-company 

Software Advice’s FrontRunners for ERP report three times 

consecutively. 

Stepping into Future 

As a pioneer in the business software industry with 

corporate headquarters in Houston, TX, USA., ePROMIS 

maintains a strong worldwide channel partner network and 

regional offices around the globe. Currently, the firm values 

its partnerships and collaboration and also looking forward 

to working on the innovative and unique opportunities that 

can be created through more successful partnerships. 

Clientele Testimonials 

“When choosing the most suitable resource planning 

software, we looked at several prominent software. 

ePROMIS ERP was the solution that all our stakeholders 

agreed would produce the best result. While our 

competitors use typical off-the-shelf business software 

solutions, we have a simple, customizable, and industryspecific 

ERP software environment.” - Austin Hill, COO, 

Texas Roofing Supply 

“The market is dynamic and unique challenges to be faced 

every day; it was inevitable to choose an industry-specific 

ERP software from a reputed software company that 

understands the construction and contracting industry. 

ePROMIS was selected due to the strength of its projectbased 

ERP system, and its reputation as a leading ERP 

consulting and systems integration company.” - V. V. 

Vaidyanathan, Group Finance Manager of ABM 




Data 

Warehouses 

into the 

Cloud 

he cloud has now become a well-established 

Tdeployment option for business applications. It 

provides an exceptional ground for grounding the 

business intelligence systems, as it provides business 

agility, scalability, and lowers the total cost of ownership. 

So, it is a little uncharacteristic that although most 

applications have migrated to the cloud, data warehouses - 

the fundamental of any business intelligence structures - are 

still mostly on proposition. 

Of course, that’s not entirely surprising given that 

businesses have invested heavily in an on-premise data 

warehouse technology, with strong concerns about 

protecting sensitive data. Being seamless, migration of the 

data warehouse to the cloud must ensure that additional 

cloud security measures are addressed. 

Steps required to be supervised while migration of the 


Characterize the current data warehouse along multiple 

dimensions 

Detailed analysis should be carried out to cover the 

sensitive data aspects very carefully. It should be taken 

under consideration on what options are provided by the 

cloud vendor, and what are the organizational needs for the 

confidentiality. Thorough analysis of the regulatory 

standards must be carried out. 


There could be multiple business users and business units 

who are using the data. We can also ease out the migration 

process by prioritizing and breaking down the whole data 

warehouse into significant business process subject areas. 

Select the right cloud vendor for your warehouse 

There are numerous cloud providers out there in the market. 

Amazon, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azureare some of the 

market leaders in among cloud solution provider’s industry. 

Based on the outcome of the classification of the existing 

warehouse, we must create a matrix of the functionalities 

required vs. existing features in respective cloud provider’s 

environment and then make the final choice. Of course, the 

monetary expenses also play a vital role in making this 

decision. 

Identify technology choices depending on there siliency 

of concept projects 

Choosing the appropriate database technology for hosting 

the warehouse is the most important technology decision to 

be made. You are required to identify the queries 

symbolizing the typical workload based on performance 

tests. The factors needed to be considered while making this 

decision are: 

Data types needed by the application 

Ÿ 

Ÿ 

Database technologies available from the cloud provider 

Database features required 


Editor’s Pick 

Ÿ 

Ÿ 

Ÿ 

Real-time data processing needs 

Number of concurrent users 

Performance needs etc. 

The compute and the storage necessities will decide the 

infrastructure needed for hosting the data warehouse. 

Preparing a surefire migration plan 

Preparing a well thought out project plan is certainly crucial 

for a successful migration. You must primarily involve 

business users in the entire decision making and project 

plan. They should be fully aware of the migration strategy 

and in fact they must contribute in testing the new system. 

Infrastructure readiness 

Most data warehouse projects on the cloud are required to 

set up a VPC. A VPC houses the entire production 

warehouse setup. It is very important to create 

corresponding environments for development, UAT and QA 

to ensure smooth operations of the systems. Set up access 

control and security on each of the environments. Also lay 

out the complete architecture beforehand. 

Complete the migration 

Migration embroils initial movement of the old data 

followed by the incremental tug of the data from the various 

sources. A thorough description needs to be in place that 

plots the source data elements to the target data elements. It 


is desirable to run the modeled data migration project in 

parallel with the legacy system so that it is easier to test and 

determine the success of the migration. The migration and 

extraction needs to be setup in a repeated manner so that in 

case there are some concerns with the migration, it can be 

re-processed. 

Test the success of migration 

In the primary stage of the data migration, we typically test 

and compare one or several sample queries and data sets. In 

addition, we would like to commend comparison of row 

counts of objects, min and max values as well as sample 

data row assessments. Outlining the success criteria for the 

migration and testing is of greatest importance to ensure 

long term success of the cloud data warehouse. You also 

need to reassure that incremental data loads work correctly 

throughout. 

Conclusion 

Nowadays, there has been a lot of support for data 

warehouses in the cloud. Moving data warehouses to the 

cloud is yielding real business benefits, since many vendors 

are expanding the breadth and depth of services for 

warehousing and analysis of the data. However, migration 

is not exempted of challenges. Make sure you think through 

all the different aspects of data warehouse migration and 

then come up with an infallible plan to address those 

challenges. 






ERP Success Partners Inc. 

Transforming Businesses through World-class Cloud Solutions 

In an interview with Insights Success, Mark Rhyman, 

Partner at ERP Success Partners, shares the journey 

of ERP Success Partners Inc. and about its contribution 

to the businesses through cloud solutions. The organization 

is committed to successfully optimize, transform and scale 

businesses through the Number One Leading Cloud 

CRM/ERP. 

Below are the highlights of the interview between Mark 

Rhyman and Insights Success. 

Give a brief overview of the company, its uniqueness, 

and its vision. 

ERP Success Partners is a NetSuite Solution Provider in 

North America and a NetSuite Alliance Partner in EMEA. 

We do provide NetSuite CRM/ERP business consulting in 

order to transform, optimize and support businesses around 

the globe. Our Vision is to become the most trusted 

business partner when it comes to the selection and support 

of your Enterprise Resource Planning Solution. 

What are the cutting-edge ERP solutions offered by 

ERP Success Partners? 

ERP Success Partners offers Oracle+NetSuite ERP as its 

cloud-based solution. We have been NetSuite Experts for 

the past 10 years and we highly believe in the future of the 

product. There are multiple NetSuite Solution Providers, 

SDN Providers and Alliance Partners nowadays and they all 

have their strengths and industry focus. With our 10+ years 

of NetSuite experience, we aim at helping every customer 

navigating in that ecosystem, choosing the right solution 

and ensuring that they select the best NetSuite configuration 

for the long run while ensuring their business processes 

meets industry’s best practice. 

Give a detailed description of the featured personnel’s 

influence over the company and contribution in 

developing the best ERP solutions. 

The Management of ERP Success Partners is composed of 

very highly skilled NetSuite Experts where we have all 

been exposed in multiple ERP Sales, Scoping and 

Implementations. That’s one of our unique differentiators 

as when we talk to our customers or prospective customers, 

we are putting our expertise to the customer’s benefit right 

away. This fast-tracks both the solution architecture design 

and the long-term support. 

What are the new approaches adopted by ERP Success 

Partners to advance its ERP solutions? 

Over the past decade we have learnt many strategies and 

always responded to the customer’s demand. As opposed to 

being a Multi-Solution company with no clear definition of 

what solution to propose to what customer, we focus on 

what is the Number 1 Cloud Solution worldwide. Recently 

we have also adopted an implementation methodology 

where we do work in Fixed Fee. Time and Material is not 

what we feel is the most advantageous approach for our 

customers. We are Experts and when we give an estimate, 

we know that we are going to deliver the solution and the 

customer knows the cost without any unpleasant surprises 

or budget overrun. 

What challenges company face while providing Class 

ERP solutions and how is ERP Success Partners serving 

to tackle them? 

One of the challenges we have seen and heard is that 

customers often realize that they are being overbilled and 

taken for granted. When operating in the traditional Time 

and Material mode, most of the customers will face 



“ 

ERP Success Partners 

aims at being the most 

trusted NetSuite 

Business Partner. 

“ 

Mark Rhyman 

Partner at ERP 

Success Partners 

themselves having bills that exceed the 

initial proposal. This creates friction. 

Pair that with the Professional Industry 

pressure of having the “Billable”, 

“Utilization” and “Productive” metrics 

where employees MUST Track their 

time to Bill Customers, one can clearly 

see that the more time the employee 

can track will show better revenue to 

their managers and in the end the 

customers ends up paying more until 

the relationship breaks. For us it’s 

pretty simple. We scope a project, 

provide an estimate and once agreed 

we invoice that amount. Our 

Employees have no Time Tracking 

Pressure and our customers are 

extremely happy. Our objective is to 

capitalize on Long Term Engagement 

as Business Partners. 

What are the dynamic factors that 

enable ERP Success Partners to stay 

ahead of its competitors? 

It’s definitively our team members that 

makes the day to day a success. Our 

NetSuite Certified team is always on 

top of the new features and for every 

major upgrade we remain educated on 

what functionality would benefit our 

customer base. Competition is also 

evolving, and it is important to also 

educate our team on market trends. 

Understanding properly what 

competing products offers also helps us 

ensure that our value proposition 

makes sense for each prospective 

customer. We have grown on Honesty 

and Transparency. If our product is not 

going to be a good fit, we simply have 

to be realistic about it. 

What according to you could be the 

potential future of the ERP Success 

Partners and how does the company 

envision sustaining its competency? 

ERP Success Partners has the ambition 

of providing high end business class 

NetSuite Consulting Services. It’s a 

small ecosystem and yet a huge 

potential for growth with worldwide 

customers. We ensure that there is a 

great collaboration between us and 

other NetSuite Partners. In the end it is 

always about putting Customers First. 

We are nowhere close as being 

individualists and pretending we are 

the best of the best. We have our 

expertise and knowledge. As being 

fully bilingual (French and English) we 

are also going to expand in French 

speaking territories such as France and 

West Africa. 


By understanding the needs of each 

client and business processes, Mark 

Rhyman helps enterprises find the most 

sustainable solutions through NetSuite 

- Oracle ERP and CRM configuration 

by considering their needs and budget. 

His specialties include NetSuite, 

Information Systems (ERP, CRM, 

PSA, WMS), eCommerce, SaaS 

Business Solutions. 







ProcessPro 

Understanding Industry Needs since Inception 

With roots in custom software programing that 

dates back to 1985, ProcessPro has grown to 

be a leading mid-market ERP software solution 

for the process manufacturing industry. Designed 

specifically for manufacturers that combine batches of 

mixtures, ProcessPro’s ERP solution seamlessly integrates 

all aspects of plant operation, from beginning order entry 

through inventory, manufacturing, packaging, shipping and 

accounting. ProcessPro has been serving the food, 

beverage, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, cosmetic, chemical 

and cannabis industries for over 30 years. 

In early 2016, ProcessPro joined Open Systems, Inc., a 

leading provider of business software, which allowed the 

company to access new markets and remain at the forefront 

of technology. ProcessPro focuses 100% of all efforts on a 

well-defined vertical market and dedicates its resources into 

delivering industry-leading solutions. No other ERP 

provider devotes 100% of their resources to providing 

business management solutions strictly to regulated batch 

process manufacturing markets. 

Helping Customers with a Unique Platform 

ProcessPro not only provides the most functionally rich 

solution to regulate batch process manufacturers, but it does 

so on a unique platform. This platform allows its customers 

to build capability and functionality that is specific to their 

business while allowing them to absorb ongoing product 

releases to the core platform. ProcessPro maintains a 

technology forward stance with its core platform which 

eventually allows clients to add their unique personalization 

to meet their business needs in order to get the most ROI 

out their ERP investment. 

A Client Oriented Leader 

Dr. Michael Bertini, the CEO of ProcessPro, strongly 

believes in a culture that puts the clients first. This 

philosophy is demonstrated throughout the company’s 

endeavors in order to help customers succeed, become more 

successful and transform their organizations. The 

organization’s ERP solution ensures that clients have access 

to the right information at the time to make informed 

business decisions. 

Michael takes a strong personal interest in the success of 

ProcessPro’s customers. He also believes ProcessPro’s 

products offer its clients not only one of the best returns on 

investment in the marketplace, but they also deliver a 

framework in which any investment made today in adapting 

the solution to your business is retained with future 

upgrades. 

The process manufacturing industry can change quickly 

from customer trends and regulations, and Open Systems 

has developed solutions to be able to adapt quickly. Its team 

works hard to understand customers’ specific needs and 

prides themselves on providing value to clients. 

Tackling Competition and Staying Ahead 

As ProcessPro serves in highly regulated markets (FDA, 

OSHA, USDA, etc.), which makes it mandatory to be 

constantly aware of changes in the regulations that its 

customers must comply with. So, to manage this, 

ProcessPro employs a staff dedicated to monitoring 

regulations and compliance requirements across the 

verticals it serves that provide constant feedback to the 

company’s development and implementation teams to 

ensure that ProcessPro helps those customers stay current 

with their regulations. 



“ 

Our products must evolve to 

meet the needs of the customers 

and the established and 

emerging industries they serve. 

—Dr. Michael Bertini 

CEO 

ProcessPro 

With its ongoing focus on a specific and well-defined 

market, continuous improvements and enhancement of its 

software’s functionality and technology, and a relentless 

pursuit of a sense of urgency in everything, ProcessPro does 

in order to stay ahead of the market demands and its client’s 

needs. 

Satisfied Clients 

“In my experience, being a consultant in the past, the one 

thing that makes a difference – going from good to great – 

is really the people behind the software. That makes all the 

difference in the world. I’ve found the people from top to 

bottom – from the owner of the company, the directors, the 

staff, programmers, customer service, all of the support 

people behind the scenes are really what makes the 

difference in terms of making a great, great software 

package work for your company. It’s the people behind the 

scenes that make that difference and make the difference 

between a good package and a great package. I’ve never 

been disappointed with the decision that I made back in 

2003 and I look forward to the tremendous opportunities 

coming down the road.” -Jim Jumpeter, (Retired) Chief 

Financial Officer, 21st Century® HealthCare, Inc. 

“It was extremely important for us to find an ERP company 

we would not only purchase software from but also form a 

positive ongoing working relationship. We like that 

ProcessPro Software provides us with a two-party 

relationship from development to implementation and 

training to ongoing service and maintenance. In addition to 

this, we are pleased with ProcessPro Software’s customer 

centric approach to updates and modifications.”- Sheri 

McKinney, Accounting Manager, Nova-Tech, Inc. 

“We chose their ERP solution based upon their strengths in 

the process manufacturing industry and their strong 

scheduling, purchasing, warehousing, and inventory 

management solutions.”-Mark Davitt, Vermont Smoke & 

Cure VP of Finance. 

“They have a food background, they speak our language. 

When we brought in other ERP vendors, they were 

manufacturing software vendors, but they didn’t speak the 

language of food. They didn’t have that background in the 

food industry, talking about yields and finished goods. We 

didn’t have to have a discussion on how our industry was 

focused. We brought ProcessPro in and with that 

background in the food industry it was a seamless 

conversation.”-Ed Crockett IT Director, Ready Foods 



BEYOND 

AUTOMATION 

AI powered Autonomous 

Factories of the Future 

Rise of the industrial robots in 1980s led to a 

major evolution of Henry Ford’s assembly line 

concept. Routine tasks that were being handled 

by factory workers started to be performed by robots with 

greater accuracy and efficiency. With the spread of 

device-to-device communication and IoT protocols, 

robots started taking a serious amount of responsibility 

from factory workers. This movement was initially led by 

th 

German high tech firms that branded this shift as the 4 

industrial revolution. On the opposite side, there was 

China, taking advantage of their access to low cost 

human labour as an alternative to automation. Very 

recently, a few years ago, China flipped their strategy 180 

degrees, becoming the biggest advocate of automation by 

starting to invest aggressively on buying robots and 

developing their own robotics know-how led by 

government initiatives. So the technology won. There is 

no question about the need for automation anymore and 

major manufacturing companies, including the ones in 

China, Germany and rest of the world are racing to 

automate their industrial processes to increase 

productivity. 

Daghan Cam 

Co-founder & CEO 

Ai Build 

Everything that can be automated will be 

automated, according to Zuboff’s law. 

However, some things are more difficult 

to be automated than other things. 

Those are non-repetitive tasks which 

require higher level of cognition and 

ability to adapt into unknown 

conditions. These tasks can be 

defined as the last mile in factory 

automation. Tesla, the electric car 

manufacturer, was recently 

criticized by analysts for 

automating their assembly line 

more than necessary. The 

reason of the criticism was the 

fact that the cost of 

automation exceeded the cost 

of a human led assembly 



Mentor’s Standpoint 

line. This may be a valid argument for 

today but the solution should be found 

in increasing the bar for commercially 

viable automation and not by going 

back to lower levels of automation. 

So if we are moving towards full 

automation and lights-out 

manufacturing, how can the last mile 

in factories be automated without 

overspending and over engineering? 

Autonomy seems to be the answer, 

therefore Artificial Intelligence… 

There is a slight but important 

difference between Automation and 

Autonomy. Autonomy is the state of 

being able to make independent 

decisions in situations that were not 

experienced before. By definition, 

autonomous systems are always 

automated, but the other way around is 

not always the case. A system may be 

fully automated but not autonomous. 

“Blind Automation” is the term we use 

for this category. 

Systems that are blindly automated are 

based on hard coded rules, as in expert 

systems, and they tend to be very 

difficult to be reconfigured if the 

conditions or requirements change over 

time. Autonomous systems, in contrast, 

generalize the rules for decision 

making in different scenarios by 

allowing a higher level of abstraction 

in their programming. 

For example, in the blind automation 

scenario, a robot may be programmed 

to go to coordinates x, y, z in order to 

pick up an object. This will work 

without problems as long as the object 

is found precisely at coordinates x, y, z. 

However, if for any reason the object is 

positioned at a slightly different 

location, the robot will still go to x, y, 

z, fail to pick the object up and 

continue executing the rest of its 

commands without noticing this 

problem. Eventually every step 

subsequent to this failure will also fail. 

A better strategy for performing the 

same task, is using a robot with vision 

sensors, and programming it to go to 

the object’s position (as a variable) to 

pick it up. Regardless of where the 

object is positioned, robot will localize 

it using its sensors and successfully 

pick it up. This difference between the 

two programming paradigms; “go to x, 

y, z” and “go to an object’s position” 

makes a big difference in making the 

system less prone to making mistakes 

in unexpected conditions which is 

crucial for last mile factory 

automation. 

About the Author 

Daghan Cam is the Co-founder 

and CEO of Ai Build, a London 

based startup developing 

Artificial Intelligence and 

Robotics technologies for the 

construction industry. He is also 

a visiting lecturer at University 

College London doing research 

on robotic fabrication, large scale 

3d printing and parallel 

algorithms with GPU computing. 

His work focuses on developing 

intelligence for automating 

complex tasks in design and 

manufacturing by using 

computer vision and machine 

learning techniques. 

In this scenario where robots make 

autonomous decisions by using realtime 

sensor data, a feedback loop is 

established between physical and 

digital environments. The constant 

flow of information from physical to 

digital and vice versa create immense 

amounts of structured data which is the 

fuel for AI powered autonomous 

factories of the future. Such actionmeasurement-action 

strategies allow 

the systems to self-improve over time, 

creating a data network effect in 

manufacturing. The more one process 

is executed, the more efficient it will 

get. This allows super-human 

performance in almost every domain 

given enough data. 

Robots making hundreds of decisions 

every second and receiving hundreds 

of measurements from the environment 

and from other devices also require 

massive computation and storage 

capabilities. Despite the popularity of 

cloud computing in most applications 

today, a decentralized compute power 

is necessary for most robotic 

applications and for IoT devices in 

general. The throughput between the 

edge and the cloud through internet 

connectivity is simply not enough to 

process all data generated by sensors 

and make sensible decisions in realtime. 

So edge computing, or fog 

computing - dedicated servers on 

premise as a layer between individual 

devices and the cloud - will likely be 

the norm in autonomous factories of 

the future unless we experience a 

breakthrough in science that leads to 

infinitely fast and reliable internet 

connectivity. However unlike compute 

power, storage of important data, that 

is filtered on the edge, should be 

centralized in order to achieve the best 

decision making models at every 

location. 

As a summary, a few conclusions and 

predictions about the future are: 

Ÿ 

Ÿ 

We are moving towards an 

autonomous black-box factory 

model where the factory robots are 

operated by themselves without 

human intervention. 

These factories will be powered by 

the data that is generated by 

themselves and their productivity 

will increase over time exceeding 

human performance in every 

process involved in manufacturing. 

Ÿ Factories will compute on-premise / 

on-edge and they will push 

important data to cloud for 

benefiting from a shared pool of 

data with other factories. 

www.ai-build.com

The 10 Best in class ERP Solution Providers, 2019

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?