Insightful » JD Edwards

A Real Customer Conversation

Kathy Wells — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 18:06:48 +0000

A customer relayed to me a conversation that took place in his organization recently. It is such a common conversation that I thought it would be worthwhile to share.

Tom: Have you seen this reporting tool that says it can get real-time information directly from JDE?

Joe: Yea, I saw it last year at a trade show. It’s just marketing baloney.

Tom: Me too. But I’m having so much trouble getting timely, updated reports that I’m thinking about trying it.

Joe: Whatever. It’s your shop.

A few weeks later…..

Tom: Hey Joe. Check this out. Remember what you said about Insight Reporting? It’s for real!

Joe: Let me see.

Joe: Wow! This is amazing. Wait — how long have we been trying to do this, again?

As a society we are inundated with messages of being more beautiful, stronger, smarter, etc. It’s become hard to believe something that seems “too easy” could be for real.

So when I hear customers talking about getting what they want, it’s something worth sharing. InsightSoftware customers tell us regularly how reports that took days and sometimes months now take 5 minutes to run. And they can drill into the data real-time — something they have never been able to do before.

Is it the best thing since sliced bread? Will it keep your attention at Super Bowl half time? Will someone tell two friends, who will tell two friends, and so on ? (Shout out to the 70’s and Farrah Fawcett).

Who knows. The real question is whether it makes YOUR life easier. And that’s all that matters.

Author: Kathy Wells

High tech marketer with over 20 years experience and proven results. Always keeping it fresh as a social media geek and frequent early adopter. Strong customer relationship builder, driving tangible ROI our customers. Education includes: MBA in International Business, Masters of Arts in Psychology and Interpersonal Communication (in progress).

ROI Calculators for JD Edwards and Oracle E-Business Suite

ryan.alford — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 19:00:18 +0000

InsightSoftware.com has an extensive lineup of ROI calculators to help answer difficult business questions related to an ERP system implementation – JD Edwards and Oracle E-Business Suite are no exception. Do you understand the related costs? What are the benefits?

Start enhancing your ERP system today, with InsightSoftware.com’s help:

Better Budget Cycles – Perform unlimited, concurrent budget cycles

The key to an optimized budget process is fantastic work flow. Modeling tools may look great, but unless you can automate the work flow process, you can look forward to long budget cycles that are difficult to manage and prone to error.

Better Cash Management – Summarize transactional AR data

If ever there was a business process that needed to run optimally; it would have to be cash collection. Cash is the lifeblood of every business and represents one of the most important optimizations our software provides.

Better Check Processing – Analyze payment versus invoice date metric

Organizations pay an average of $60 to $75 per check processed. Therefore, optimizing the number of checks that you cut each month has a significant impact on your bottom line. Insight enables the ability to proactively monitor the number of checks and invoices, per supplier per period.

Better ERP Implementations – Rapidly create ad-hoc inquires

Creating custom developed reports can be the single most expensive and risky line item on a project plan. Using Insight as your report and data validation platform significantly reduces risk, saves hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars compared to custom report development.

Better Month and Year Ends – Immediately identify data integrity issues

The month and year end can be a stressful experience but it doesn’t have to be. Easy ad-hoc inquiry is the secret to closing the month end quicker, yet most people worry about reporting. We have great reporting but we also bring to the table a culture of ongoing ad-hoc inquiry and data integrity management.

Better Payables – Easily match invoices and payments

When Accounts Payable does not have visibility to essential aspects of the entire receipt-to-payment process, it may not be possible to process and pay suppliers within terms. As a result, discounts may be lost and the financial impact may be significant.

Better Supply Chain – Analyze aged inventory movements

You have limited funds available to invest in inventory. Carrying too much can help in satisfying customers, but reducing inventory translates to immediate improvement in cash flow. By identifying slow versus fast moving items and their movement drivers, you can adjust to further enhance and optimize your overall number of inventory turns, while maintaining and improving customer service.

Author: ryan.alford

Ryan is the Internet Marketing Manager for InsightSoftware.com.

Southeast RUG a Resounding Success for InsightSoftware.com

ryan.alford — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 22:10:58 +0000

Tonja Zeigler, winner of InsightSoftware.com's Kindle prize draw, and Mark Kolanach

InsightSoftware.com participated at the Southeast RUG Fall 2010 Meeting, which took place at the Marriott Atlanta Northwest on Friday, Dec. 3.

The event offered a day of education, updates and networking for JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and Oracle E-Business Suite users. Amid the wide variety of education sessions and networking opportunities, InsightSoftware.com was pleased to participate in the event:

“These events are important to the health of the Oracle ERP user community,” said Mark Kolanach, InsightSoftware.com’s southeast sales executive. “Any time we can support JD Edwards and Oracle EBS customers, learning best practices and discussing how to be more effective at their jobs, is a good thing.”

As part of the day’s festivities, InsightSoftware.com had a raffle for an Amazon Kindle. The lucky winner of this early holiday gift was Tonja Zeigler of Toto USA. Thanks for participating Tonja, and congratulations!

For more information about the Southeast RUG, visit http://ps-srug.org.

Author: ryan.alford

Ryan is the Internet Marketing Manager for InsightSoftware.com.

Oracle EBS “Year-End Close” Tips and Hints

ryan.alford — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 15:06:10 +0000

By Tracy Bishop

If you want to improve your year-end processes around Oracle financials, there are a number of things you can do. The main one is to prepare well ahead of the deadline. We all know that year-end will be a rush with operational activity and sub ledger processes, including squeezing the actual accounting for year-end into a very small window. However, there are things you can do up front to take away some of the effort.

These include:

Checking your set up is correct, in terms of classification of accounts. Be sure you have used the GLOIRE process to roll forward balances well ahead of year-end. I once worked for an organization that did not roll forward their previous year’s balances until about two weeks before the following year-end. A simple report to help identify misclassified accounts will avoid problems in this area.
Checking chart-of-accounts parent/child relationships and summary accounts. Don’t leave it to the last minute to tidy up your hierarchies. Make sure there are no instances of orphan children in the hierarchies and make sure the hierarchies you have still support the reporting you will have to do at the end.
Making sure the FSGs you used last year are in good shape. Row sets can be complex and must be adjusted for any “in year” changes to your chart-of-accounts. Complex FSGs can also be prone to error, so do some integrity checks to make sure you will not have any problems.
Regularly run reports across the organization to identify any unposted journals or transactions. This will help avoid any nasty surprises.
Make sure your accruals are handled properly and completely
Use a sequential referencing system for all the regular year-end adjustments you have to make so you can easily run a quick report to check progress and identify any missing actions
Put together a “pre” year-end report pack to help with these checks (and others you may have)
Put together some easy-to-use monitoring reports to make sure everyone in the process can easily check their figures with drill-down to details
And finally, be sure the annual reports you produce can easily be reconciled back to the data in Oracle. Consequently, if this isn’t done, you will feel like you are doing the whole year-end process again when the auditors arrive.

For more information on Preparing for Year-End, visit http://mini.insightsoftware.com/yearend.

Author: ryan.alford

Ryan is the Internet Marketing Manager for InsightSoftware.com.

Spreadsheets Gone Wild!

ryan.alford — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 17:36:11 +0000

Using spreadsheets in conjunction with an ERP system is one thing. (It’s not suggested, but it happens.) However, using spreadsheets without an ERP is a completely different story altogether. According to research from the Aberdeen Group, many small and mid-size businesses are using spreadsheets without an ERP (such as JD Edwards or Oracle E-Business Suite) but in conjunction with a standalone accounting tool.

“Not surprisingly, spreadsheets top the list,” the Aberdeen research report explains. “But interestingly, spreadsheets were seldom the only tool used even in very small companies. Often spreadsheets are used in conjunction with standalone accounting applications and other desktop applications that do not qualify as true enterprise level applications or other applications that lack the breadth, depth or level of integration of ERP.”

So, it’s a “chicken and egg” scenario; which came first, the ERP or the spreadsheet? In most cases, the spreadsheets have been there all along. It’s hard to break a habit that seems to work efficiently, but there are other solutions that work better.

Does your organization rely on spreadsheets? If so, are they in combination with an ERP system or standalone accounting tool?

Author: ryan.alford

Ryan is the Internet Marketing Manager for InsightSoftware.com.

InsightSoftware.com at OpenWorld 2010

ryan.alford — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 21:22:03 +0000

InsightSoftware.com and its team had a great OpenWorld 2010 in San Francisco. Here are the highlights:

The Moscone Center aerial view -

Jon Louvar demonstrates Insight Reconciler for an attendee -

Phil Walton discusses the benefits of Insight Reconciler with attendees -

The Insight Reconciler kiosk in the JD Edwards Pavilion -

Lynda Huebsch and Donna Greer at the InsightSoftware.com booth -

The InsightSofware.com booth -

Jon Louvar provides a software demonstration for an attendee -

Matt Topfer prepares a software demonstration at the InsightSoftware.com booth -

Here are the OpenWorld highlights:

Oracle Enhances Oracle(R) Business Intelligence Applications – http://bit.ly/cruiu7

Oracle’s OpenWorld Show Boosted by Sun Users, Rebound in Corporate Travel – http://bit.ly/bP8Hv1

InsightSoftware.com Helps Ease the Pain Associated With the Year-End Close Process – http://bit.ly/cWswQk

Oracle Unveils Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Fulfillment Management – http://bit.ly/977CbU

Group VP and GM Lyle Ekdahl at the JD Edwards Session and Keynote. Full house, standing room only – http://plixi.com/p/46218725

Lyle Ekdahl: “You are going to see a lot in tools and applications…a lot of things in the pipeline. Leveraging tech from Oracle.”

Lyle Ekdahl: “Central to our strategy…continue to invest and support our products…it makes sense to our customers and our biz.”

ZDnet: Oracle OpenWorld keynote sets a dull tone – http://zd.net/bQRQG9

Accenture Wins Oracle Titan Awards for Business Intelligence and Public Sector Solutions – http://bit.ly/doEZkm

Author: ryan.alford

Ryan is the Internet Marketing Manager for InsightSoftware.com.

InsightSoftware.com Helps Ease the Pain Associated With the Year-End Close Process

ryan.alford — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 00:02:18 +0000

InsightSoftware.com, the leading provider of business process optimization software, assists companies with their year-end close preparations with its flagship product called Insight. Built especially for users of Oracle’s E-Business Suite (EBS) and JD Edwards (JDE) World and EnterpriseOne, Insight provides users with real-time access to the information necessary to create reports and data inquiries.

“Insight honors the already established ERP security setup for EBS and JDE,” said Julie Holmes, product manager for InsightSoftware.com. “Confidential information leaks become a thing of the past. Insight can help users easily create reports to show relevant information in a summarized format, with drill-down to transactional detail. ”

Before starting the year-end process, all data needs to be accurate and complete. The human resources team will spend time verifying addresses, tax IDs, and deferred compensation. Accountants will be busy identifying significant variances and completing audit compliance checks. Using Insight helps save time re-running reports but it will also help companies avoid penalties and late filing fees.

“Closing the year is the easy part,” said Holmes. “It’s all the reporting afterwards that can be difficult. Insight helps maintain the reporting that can overwhelm the human resources and finance teams.”

For more information on Insight’s Preparing for Year-End software applications, visit http://mini.insightsoftware.com/yearend/.

Author: ryan.alford

Ryan is the Internet Marketing Manager for InsightSoftware.com.

Preparing for Year-End: Taking Care of Business

ryan.alford — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 17:36:25 +0000

There’s no denying it: Using JD Edwards and Oracle’s E-Business Suite (EBS) to help close the books at year-end is no picnic. It can get complicated, quickly – especially when it involves complying with government-required standards. Members of both financial and human resources teams realize the oncoming deadlines and paperwork requirements. Of course, this usually happens as the third quarter ends and the fourth quarter begins (maybe later if procrastination persists).

It can be a struggle sifting through information that’s been placed on hold for months. The habits are all the same when it involves the last minute finalization of year-end financials and HR formalities. But now it’s time to break those habits and institute a new proactive approach to the year-end debacle.

According to PriceWaterhousecoopers, when it concerns closing the books, financial statements that are mistake-free and offer accurate details of the year-end results are more likely to avoid the plights of a public company’s late filing assessments:

“Closing the books is the process that a corporation uses to reconcile, consolidate, and report financial information on a periodic basis. A shorter, more accurate close process is cost-efficient and frees finance professionals to focus on strategic activities, such as analyzing the company’s financial data for patterns, trends, and warnings. In addition, companies with short, accurate close cycles build investor confidence with timely, error-free financial statements.”

Creating and implementing a series of best practices for the entire organization can change the dynamics of the year-end close. A “year-end checklist” is important to any strategy when gathering the required data and reporting for the annual closing of the books. This is especially useful when engulfed in the hazards of an audit.

To read more, click here.

Author: ryan.alford

Ryan is the Internet Marketing Manager for InsightSoftware.com.

Changing the Rules of JD Edwards Reconciliations at Quest Midwest

ryan.alford — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:21:04 +0000

InsightSoftware.com plans to highlight its Insight Reconciler product during the Quest Midwest tradeshow, Aug. 17 and 18 in Rosemont, Ill.

Insight Reconciler rewrites the rules of JD Edwards reconciliations, highlighting integrity issues in real-time and explaining inconsistencies with full transactional drill-down.

According to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers study, accurately managing the reconciliation of accounts adds to an organization’s financial reporting success: “Effective management of account reconciliation activities greatly increases executives’ ability to proactively identify and resolve issues that could result in misstatements in financial accounting and reporting records and lead to substantial write-offs. Many common account reconciliation problems are preventable. By creating and putting in place appropriate reconciliation and information management processes, and improving organization, training, and automation, companies can gain assurance over their general ledger balances.”

For JD Edwards users, having Insight Reconciler helps gain this assurance over the GL – in addition to Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Inventory, Fixed Assets, and Received Not Vouchered. Built for end-users, Insight Reconciler is customizable to suit an organization’s specific reconciliation needs.

“…(Insight Reconciler) has dramatically improved the efficiency of our end-users, from ad-hoc lookups to month-end close, reconciliations and audit cycle reductions,” said Melissa Penfield, Director of Business Systems at Majestic Realty Co.

Dump the spreadsheets. Stop the pivot table madness. It’s time to learn why having a tool like Insight Reconciler can help. The PricewaterhouseCoopers study continues: “Information management issues range from preparation of reconciliation in spreadsheets (which rarely have supporting documentation and proper controls over versions) to lack of visibility into the current status of account reconciliations. In many companies, internal audit reviews and Sarbanes-Oxley 404 tests are the only formal source of information available to evaluate the potential impact of unreconciled financial accounts on financial statements.”

To learn more about Insight Reconciler, visit http://www.insightsoftware.com/reconciler/.

Attendees of Quest Midwest can visit InsightSoftware.com at booth No. 23 for an Insight Reconciler demonstration. Additionally, showgoers are invited to attend InsightSoftware.com’s session, “Improve Data Integrity to Streamline Reconciliations and Month End Reporting,” presented by Tracey Lewis on Aug. 18, 9 a.m. – 9:50 a.m., in room International F.

Author: ryan.alford

Ryan is the Internet Marketing Manager for InsightSoftware.com.

Reconciliations: It Doesn’t Have to be This Way!

ryan.alford — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:30:33 +0000

Check out InsightSoftware.com’s cartoon about JD Edwards reconciliations:

http://www.youtube.com/insightsoftware#p/a/u/0/RspO90mFy8w

Stay tuned for more in the series. Let us know what you think!

Author: ryan.alford

Ryan is the Internet Marketing Manager for InsightSoftware.com.