A Challenge for ERP

Today, multinational companies face business needs that require flexibility and usability as much as standardization and harmonization. Enterprises need to meet these conflicting business needs, translating into requirements such as:

• Collaborate within teams, and with teams in other divisions, other companies, other countries
• Exchange information and make sure everyone uses a common set of data
• Support and enhance operations, administrative but operational as well. Local operational constraints and features lead to local requirements, today even more than before with covid19 situation being handled very differently from country to country
• Comply with country specific regulations and statutory reporting

When each entity uses its own system, everyone must collect data themselves, translate them to the corporate reporting structure and they need to be consolidated for the whole group. It is a time-consuming process. And how can you ensure to have reliable data when every reporting unit does it its own way?

These conflicting requirements are not new. But today, companies using JDEdwards EnterpriseOne can benefit from specific functionalities and tools that enable:

• The possibility to create a global framework and manage it in a flexible way
• The personalization of the user experience to meet local operational needs

Single Environment, Single Model

JD Edwards EnterpriseOne allows you to create an environment where many companies can work together. Quistor recommends a five-step process:

JD Edwards EnterpriseOne allows you to define a common set up that can be used by all companies. For example, you can design a sales process with the same steps for all entities. All of them can share a customer base, so everyone has the visibility of orders and invoices issued to the customer. Using an accounting set up shared by all companies, you can process the sales transactions to finance in a consistent way. Now you can inquire on your sales invoices across all entities.

The core model consists of:

• Business Processes: Describing the business processes in a unified way, created and maintained in model with the use of tools. The business processes also contain control processes often based on regulations like the Sarbanes Oxley act (SOX) or local legislative acts.
• Data: Master and transactional data.
• Functional Setup: The setup of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne package.
• Customization: Modified functionality of the software because of localization or required additional functionality
• Documents: Formal documents like invoice, transport documents, etc
• Reports: Printed or digital Documents giving information making use of the data in the system
• System Landscape: Overview of all components of the system including interfaces, manual or electronically
• Security: The environments must be secure to ensure data safety and enforce Segregation of duties (SOD)
• Infrastructure: IT components making communication possible with hardware (printers, servers, scanners, RIF, etc)

Delivering a Better User Experience with UX One

UX One Combines the latest advancements of the JD Edwards user experience centering around the Alert, Analyse, Act design principles. Alert, Analyse, Act allows all types of users to work the way they want and be more efficient.

UDO’s are web objects that End-users/Business Analyst can create using the JD Edwards Web interface.

• Café One
• Queries
• Pages
• Grid Formats
• Personal Forms
• Form Extensions
• Search Groups
• Watchlists
• Notifications

UX One Objectives

• Make JD Edwards easier, more modern Deliver a UX that makes it easier for our customers to adopt Deliver a UX that makes it easier for users to do their jobs Deliver a UX that makes it easier to configure and personalize
• Think outside the cube Deliver a UX that enables new roles and non-traditional users Support lite-touch interactions

Example: Accounts Receivable Manager UX One Role

The Accounts Receivable Manager page (P03B001X|W03B001XA) enables users to receive alerts about invoices and receipts that need attention, view and analyze receipt and collection data, and access pages and programs that enable them to act on the information they see.

Watchlist Alerts for Accounts Receivable

These alerts are based on EnterpriseOne programs. By default, the alerts are set up to use queries that are based on delivered demo data. Each of these queries is associated with a specific program version. To use a different query or call a different program version, you can modify these queries or create new queries that better meet your requirements. Additionally, these watchlists have been set up with a specific warning and critical threshold values. You can adjust these values to meet your requirements.

Invoice Pay Items Overdue

• Invoice Batches in Error
• Pending Invoice Batches
• Invoice Batches Out of Balance
• Receipt Batches in Error
• Pending Receipt Batches
• Receipt Batches Out of Balance

Benefits for your Business

Having all companies in one environment facilitates daily business operations. It also makes your reporting easier. It is not just to have all companies in one IT system, it is about using it in the same way.

• Users can work together. They can share knowledge.
• Template solutions are easier to support.
• They bring more visibility and consistent information for your reporting.
• Do you need to implement new features?
• Do you want to improve current processes?

You can do it and all your companies can benefit from it.

To Conclude

Operating globally on a single JD Edwards ERP instance with standardized business processes provides significant benefits such as substantial efficiency gains and increased productivity whilst operational costs are reduced through unified support on both infrastructure and application level.

In order to benefit from these gains, global implementation needs to be done properly.

Respect for local diversity & language, compliance with local legal and business requirements, and proper user training require well-prepared planning and the appropriate expertise.

Quistor has experience with over 50 country localisations at more than 130 international, local, regional, and global operating JD Edwards customers.