Business software IT questions answered: One of the questions I am asked the most has to be: "What are the minimum specs for running xTuple ERP?" Personally, I am not a minimum spec person. My wife will attest to that! I like to think I'm a 'you get what you pay for and get what you deserve' kind of guy, but, really... if you're trying to run your business on the zero-to-cheap plan, then it's all just luck. I prefer maximum specs: What has the most horsepower? Lowest 0-60 time? Lowest ET in the 1/4 mile? With my 'more is more' philosophy in mind, allow me to answer a few relevant specification questions.
xTuple's Collective Brainpower Blog
Authorize.Net Security Updates roll out in February 2018: If you are an xTuple customer who uses the Authorize.Net payment gateway to process credit card transactions in xTuple ERP, then you have probably heard about the security updates Authorize.Net is rolling out at the end of February 2018. xTuple is prepared for this event, having taken steps to implement the new TLS 1.2 protocol in newer versions of xTuple ERP. Anyone running xTuple ERP versions 4.10.x or later (e.g., 4.11.x) should not be impacted by this change. However...
Inspection and Testing During Product Lifecycle: Do you need to meet standards of excellence and document regulatory and/or quality compliance? Want to easily manage and/or improve non-conformance with corrective and preventative actions? We're talking about ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and FAI (First Article Inspection) for your specific industry, important for both manufacturers and distributors.
Are you running your business with PostBooks® — the core of xTuple's open source ERP — the fully-integrated business management system featuring sales, accounting, operations and CRM in a single system? If you hold a one-user license, you may have noticed a license expiration message. Single-user keys expire at the end of this month, January 2018.
Manufacturing around the world is the backbone of a healthy economy — especially in xTuple's target markets of North America: the United States, Canada and Mexico. Manufacturing gives a country, state, region — even a locality — it's competitive advantage. Manufacturing is where business innovation lives. We can't say it enough. Here are 15 facts that you simply cannot ignore about the U.S. manufacturing industry — they bear repeating at the beginning of every new year. Thanks to Industry Week for sharing this infographic.
If you're buying gifts this holiday season, of course thanks go to Santa or whomever bears present-giving responsibilities in your life. Thanks also belong with the manufacturing industry. You may be finished already, need a last minute gift idea, or are late and need to kick-start your holiday shopping (like me!). In any case, I found this awesome list from SME* and had to share — while giving props to the manufacturer, distributor and everyone else in the global supply chain who brings happy holidays to us all.
Why is LinkedIn® essential to your career success? Statistics don't lie: 98% of recruiters and 85% of hiring managers use LinkedIn® to find and vet candidates (according to researcher Viveka von Rosen — author of LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour a Day and founder of LinkedIntoBusiness.com ). And according to the Pew Research Center , LinkedIn® usage is highest among the educated and high earners....
My first trip to Chicago and to North America's largest convention center ( McCormick Place ) and to FABTECH (or any industrial trade show, for that matter) did not disappoint. I helped manage xTuple's FABTECH booth along with several partners and our VP sales Wally Tonra. Billed as North America’s largest metal forming, fabricating, welding and finishing event, I got to hear about...
At xTuple, we make it OUR business to understand and support YOUR business. Those of you who have commercial support and/or professional services contracts already know how hard we work for you — and how much we care . Whether the questions are simple or the issues more complicated, we’re committed to seeing every challenge through. Our #1 goal is to make sure we’re doing everything we can to...
Thanks to everyone who has filled out our Human Resources and Payroll survey on how you manage your company's staffing. We've had a nice mix so far of our commercial customers, users of our free and open source ERP version PostBooks®, and more than a few people who aren't either but are testing the software. (Hopefully, they're planning to join the xTuple customer community soon!)
What do enterprise resource planning (ERP) and aviation have in common? As many of you with whom I have worked know, I am an active instrument rated private pilot. I frequently offer up this information when introducing myself in the hopes of encountering other pilots with whom I can share endless hours of hangar stories. And, it also tells me something about that person.
Being a die-hard Star Wars fan, I totally appreciated the reference used by manufacturing technology industry veteran Greg Jones in a recent article he wrote. In his article (shared with permission in its entirety below), Greg quotes a study on the troublesome skills gap in U.S. manufacturing...
xTuple is excited to announce the major release of xTuple ERP+CRM version 4.11.0. Read on to learn more about some of the specific features, changes and improvements that will help you Grow Your World™ using next generation business management software. The Release Notes for xTuple 4.11.0 cover the complete list of changes. This post is all about why you should care.
For companies involved in importing, the cost of freight and duty on items purchased overseas can be quite significant. In developing a fully realized product cost to maintain profit margins, their accounting department must capture every cost of doing business associated with each product. Freight and duty are such expenditures that must be rolled into the core item cost so values such as cost of sales are reflected accordingly. Processing this manually means extra work for your back-office. Automating these calculations is much preferred, much simpler, and delivers a much more accurate “landed cost” for ...
First off, ERP is an acronym for enterprise resource planning. Way back in 2009, when xTuple’s open source ERP software was less than a decade old, and we were still having to explain exactly who we were and what we did, I wrote a blog post: What IS ERP? (Hint: more than just Business Management Software). What is ERP? We think a picture is worth a thousand words. So, we created an infographic, an at-a-glance image that perfectly defines what ERP encompasses.
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet — at least that's the theory — still popular these many centuries later, first written in one of William Shakespeare's most famous plays "Romeo and Juliet." The actual couplet is: "What’s in a name? that which we call a rose... By any other name would smell as sweet." Was the infamous playwright right? Or wrong? Modern marketing knows the truth. What we call a thing is important. It has weight. It matters. Whether you want to convey a negative or positive, strength or weakness, or a set of attributes that promises specific features and benefits and/or services.
Whether you work in sales and/or marketing, accounting or purchasing, or any of the myriad operational roles in manufacturing or distribution (or perhaps you inhabit the c-suite as an owner or CFO), if your business has more than ONE CONTACT to its name, your success relies on accurate information about your contacts — employees, suppliers and vendors, customers and prospects. Failure to keep your lists “clean” and orderly is not an option.
xTupleCommerce was originally conceived to help Manufacturers and Distributors give their customers direct, web-based, round-the-clock, self-service access — from anywhere in the world. For early adopters, this live, web-integration of accounting, customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) with eCommerce dramatically improved their ability to market products, operate more efficiently, and meet the needs of the millennial generation. And why do millennials matter?
When starting with xTuple, one of the first challenges you face is getting the system set up and ready, before you can even log in. We do offer a free online demo, of course, to preview the software, but once you are ready to get started on your own, you need something to guide you through the required steps. xTuple has just updated and consolidated a wealth of essential information for systems administrators and database administrators who want to set up and run xTuple ERP software. We've combined knowledge from websites, manuals, code repos, and other sources into a new book called the xTuple Admin Guide that is available to read for free at xTuple University.
Anyone who is a registered member of the xTuple community should have received an email from us this week. The message contained our first-ever weekly digest of xTuple forum activity. We're hoping this simple weekly update helps you feel more connected. In case you didn't see it, here's what the digest looks like: