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General ERP Questions:
Que 1: What benefits will I get from an ERP system?
Ans:  The Benefits of implementing an ERP system are enormous. They streamline operational processes by pr strategic planning, managerial as well as operational control to them.
The ERP System provides benefits to an organization in the following ways:
  • By supporting strategic planning activities.
  • Establishing Managerial Control.
  • By achieving control over the Operational Costs.
Let us now look at these three vital factors associated with ERP in an elaborate manner:
1. ERP Supports Strategic Planning Activities:
Strategic Planning Activities in any organization include the following:
  • Defining the set of Goals and Objectives.
  • Carefully assessing the needs associated with an organization.
  • Defining the Target Audience.
  • Planning the Resources.
ERP thus logically connect all the above activities and coordinate them to ensure smooth functioning of an organization.
2. Establishing Managerial Control:
Managerial Control in an organization can be achieved by ensuring day wise management process. To achieve this, data needs to be maintained for the various Warehouses associated with an organization.
ERP system provides better accessibility to data so that management can have access even to minute information for making vital decisions. Thus the Managerial Control can be achieved. Since these activities incur costs, the ERP software helps to keep track of these activities and perform the organizational activities based on these costs.
3. Achieving Control over the Operational Costs:
The Operational Costs in an organization include:
  • Inventory Control Costs.
  • Production Costs.
  • Labor and Overhead Costs.
  • Marketing Costs.
The ERP Software integrates the various business processes spread across the Multiple departments into a single Enterprise based information system.This enhances the Coordination across the functional departments and thereby increases the efficiency of conducting the business in an organized manner.
Thus putting all this in a nutshell, we can sum up the benefits the ERP System provides to an organization in the following manner:
  • Improves the Operational efficiency of an organization.
  • Enhances the productivity of the organization and thus resulting in client satisfaction, flexibility, and control.
  • Providing new business, Growth Strategies.
  • Reduces the Operational Costs in an organization.
  • Reduces the inefficiency by coordinating the various activities and thus ensuring the business flow in an organization is conducted in an orchestrated manner.
  • Extend the growth prospective.
  • Provides absolute control over the various processes.
  • Expand the knowledge associated with Key business data in an organization.
  • Improve the communication by integrating the various activities in an organization.
  • Improve Communication and Collaboration.
  • Quality Control on Shop Floor
  • Productive decision Capability
Que 2: Do I need a new ERP?
Ans 2: Below are the indications that you need a new ERP now:
  • Increasing customer complaints about poor service
  • Using Manual and multiple systems for the same task
  • Failing to get accurate, up-to-date information for decision-making
  • Using handwritten notes because it's easier to jot it down than use the current system
  • Having to enter the same data into more than one system
  • Inability to expand the business due to limitations of current information system
  • Lost or corrupted data
  • Dependency on others for completion of your task
Que 3: What is the ROI and payback potential of an ERP system?
Ans 3: The return on investment from implementing an ERP system can be very attractive.
Return on investment does not just imply in terms of financial gain. It can be in terms of the growth in productivity, efficiency, or in terms of overall improvement in the performance of the company or even to the extent of better transparency in the operations being carried out by the firm and of course, the satisfaction of the users.
ERP automates your entire system while seamlessly integrating them resulting and fast and accurate movement of data reducing redundancy and effect caused by delay. ERP helps you deliver solid customer satisfaction by improving on-time shipments, automating clerical tasks, reducing inventory and providing solid information to make decisions on.
The Shop Floor chaos is eliminated by proper scheduling and material control. Billing and delivery errors are eliminated using system automation. These benefits certainly boost your productivity, reduce extra costs and overheads and ultimately increased ROI.
The two essential factors determining the ROI and Payback potential are Installation and implementation of the software. BatchMaster offers an outstanding implementation and installation packages thereby offering its clients unique and effective software solutions for their organization resulting in superior business operations and profits.
Que 4: What is the difference between ERP, MRP, MRPII and APS?
Ans 4: The Manufacturing Software systems have gradually developed in their functional aspects over the years. The previous systems were designed as Materials Requirement Planning Systems termed as "MRP".
Initially MRP systems comprised of the following functionalities:
  • Inventory Control.
  • Bill of Material Processing and Elementary Scheduling.
After the inclusion of more and more scheduling functionalities like Master Production Scheduling, Routing, Capacity Planning etc, the newer software versions were developed and came to be termed as MRP II- Manufacturing Resources Planning.
MRP II systems were in turn replaced with Enterprise Resource Planning systems termed as "ERP". These systems included more applications like the Order Processing, Project Management, Maintenance and Human Resources. Thus in the present days, the majority of the Manufacturing vendors design their systems to support ERP Software alone.
Advanced Planning and Scheduling Systems which is termed as "APS" further incorporated much more functionalities. Thus an APS program has the ability to optimize shop floor and supply chain scheduling related activities. Although the program has some constraints associated with Labor, Material and Equipment, the program has the ability to determine the best schedule.
Also separate APS products are available which integrates the existing ERP Solutions.

BatchMaster ERP Product Related Questions:
Que 1: What Software and Hardware is required for BatchMaster ERP software?
Ans: BatchMaster Minimum Server System Requirements
Hardware
  • Intel Quad 4 (2 GHz)
  • 4 GB RAM (for 32 bit) or 8 GB RAM (for 64 bit)
  • 100 GB available Hard Drive Space
  • 100 GB disconnected Hard Drive for Database backup
  • 1 Giga Bits Network Interface Card
  • SVGA Monitor, Mouse, CD-ROM, Keyboard and all other standard IBM compatible PC Server components.
Software
  • MS SQL 2000, MS SQL 2005 or MS SQL 2008
  • MS Windows 2003 Server (32 bit or 64 bit) or MS Windows 2008 Server
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or higher
BatchMaster Minimum Client System Requirements
Hardware
  • 1.6 GHz Core II duo
  • 2 GB RAM
  • 40 GB available Hard Drive Space
  • 100 Mega Bits Network Interface Card
  • SVGA Monitor, Mouse, CD-ROM, Keyboard and all other standard IBM compatible PC components.
Software
  • MS Windows 2000 / MS Windows XP / MS Windows Vista / MS Windows 7
  • MS Office 2003 or MS Office 2007 (Word, Excel) (ONLY required if using MSDS module within BME)
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or higher
  • Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher
BatchMaster Minimum Terminal Server Requirements for a Thin Client Environment (for up to 25 concurrent users)
Hardware
  • Xeon processors E5310 1.6GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache
  • 8 GB RAM (for 15 Users) + 512 MB additional RAM per user
  • 100 GB available Hard Drive Space
  • 1 Giga Bits Network Interface Card
  • Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher
  • SVGA Monitor, Mouse, CD-ROM, Keyboard and all other standard IBM compatible PC Server components.
Software
  • MS Windows 2003 Server (32 bit or 64 bit) or MS Windows 2008 Server
  • MS Office 2003 or MS Office 2007 (Word, Excel) (ONLY required if using MSDS module within BME)
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or higher
  • Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher
Que 2 : Can BatchMaster ERP handle Multi-Company, Multi-Divisions and Multi-Plant requirements?
Ans: BatchMaster can very easily handle Multi-Company, Multi-Divisions as well as Multi-Plant requirements. Many of our customers are working on the Multi-Company environment.
Multi-Plant requirement is also handled in BatchMaster with ease. For this, BatchMaster ERP incorporates inventory module that provides user with the way of defining multiple locations/division. BatchMaster identifies each item with its location. An item without location is non-existent for the system. All the processes and quantities like Sales, Purchase, production, QC, ON-Order, On-Hand, issue, Allocation etc are location dependent.
Que 3: Does BatchMaster ERP offer any e-Commerce capabilities?
Ans: BatchMaster ERP has dived well into the challenge of providing E-Commerce services. It is a powerful ERP with complete e-commerce functionality. It is quite unique and enables you to build complex e-commerce solutions that interface with payment gateways, CRM and ERP systems.
The electronic commerce gives the leeway of facing the storage in real time in order to reach clients through the web. The conditions of the prices stipulated will be for the different clients.
The BatchMaster incorporates the solid and current technology platform to absorb all the requirements for e- commerce. It also provides a way of sharing data with customers, suppliers, partners and employees
Que 4: Can BatchMaster ERP handle global commerce issues like multi-currency, sales taxes etc?
Ans: BatchMaster ERP can very well handle global commerce issues like multi-currency, sales taxes etc. It is a robust ERP that alone is capable to conduct transactions with customers and vendors in multiple currencies can maintain taxes up to different levels.
Multi Currency
  • Unlimited number of currencies.
  • Use either the spot, average rate or user selected rate
  • Match a future's exchange rate to specific Invoice and Purchase Transactions
  • Default currencies by customer and vendor
  • Foreign exchange gains/losses (both realized and unrealized)
  • Many Standard Reports include source and home currency
  • Automatic landed cost calculations including duty, freight and overhead
Sales Taxes
  • Up to 4 levels of Sales Tax
  • Sales Tax calculation by Sales Order, Invoice or Purchase Order line item
  • Override default taxes.
  • Unlimited Tax Authorities, Tax Groups, GL Accounts.
  • Maintain tax for both inventory as well as non inventory item.
  • Apply taxes on line level as well as order level tax
Que 5 : Is BatchMaster ERP software secured from intrusion?
Ans: BatchMaster is fully secured from intrusion. It has a separate Admin module that enables defining login permissions role wise. Moreover,
  • Logins are fully password protected
  • Passwords are system generated
  • Required to be changed after every regular interval
  • At login, displays last login and log out time
  • Approval- Process can be applied Purchase/Sales and Formulas
  • Formulas are fully secured.
Que 6: What reporting tools and options are available in BatchMaster ERP?
Ans: There appears a large variety of reporting tools and options in BatchMaster enabling the users to be clear on the status of business workflow throughout the business operations. The BatchMaster reporting tools include standard reports and customized Reports. These reports provide elaborated details of the entire operational procedures through the use of various search filters thereby furnishing the postulated details to the users.
Que 7: Is BatchMaster ERP Scalable?
Ans: BatchMaster ERP is scalable completely; in all terms, whether it is database, licensed user or features. BatchMaster uses Microsoft SQL Server, which can house many terabytes of data. So no matter how much your inputs grow, BatchMaster is capable to scale without changing the database.
Talking of number of licensed user, you can anytime add new users and there is no limit to the number of users.
Feature and functionality wise also BatchMaster is fully scalable. Your formulas, batches, Inventory etc information need to be entered once and can be scaled whenever required.
Que 8: Is BatchMaster software compliant with International standards/requirements?
Ans: BatchMaster software shines when it comes to the point of meeting the international standards/requirements. It is constantly evolving with the latest best practices, technologies and features.
  • FDA reporting
  • Incorporates USDA
  • Facilitates printing of Nutritional Labeling in different standard formats
  • Kosher and HALAL obligation
  • Includes HACCP – that tightens the quality management.
  • CGMP
Que 9: Why should I choose BatchMaster ERP Software and not any other ERP?
Ans: For over 30 years, we have led the way in developing the ERP standards and building them significant to individuals need. BatchMaster being viable ERP software analyzes data pertaining to each client’s unique business and its technical requirements. We provide a broad scope of design and services that assure process manufacturers with quality and productivity on time and within budget.
We prides of.….
  • Pioneer in Process Manufacturing Industry
  • Global experience
  • Customer satisfaction
  • The ability to design and implement products of superior quality
  • The capability to manage the process at the highest level of efficiency
  • Independent accreditation earned through performance
Que 10: Why do I need BatchMaster Add-Ons?
Ans: BatchMaster offers a full suite of additional modules to suit your unique business needs. Add-ons boost up your productivity while also making up BatchMaster more robust and interactive, with increased effectiveness. This suite of BatchMaster Add-Ons instantly delivers the functionality what the customer is looking for. BatchMaster Add-Ons is simply a continuously progressive way of producing what our customer wants, when they want it and at what price they are prepared to pay.
Que 11: Why do I need BatchMaster Add-Ons?
Ans: Yes!!! A process manufacturer benefits from the integration of the ERP system by eliminating the constraints of the current process, resulting in improved employee productivity, business process efficiency and operational effectiveness.
One of the primary advantages of BatchMaster over other ERP software is fast and easy integration of an industry or organization into an existing system. BatchMaster software is designed to provide a solution to improve business processes at the industry level. It is our major concern to serve customer information that enhances services.
We know the focus of our customers is always towards a simpler solution - native to company hardware and OS—deployed on an existing setup, one that requires no new IT skills, avoiding additional costs for ERP solutions. BatchMaster is intuitive and user-friendly solution that offers easy and quick access allows easy customization and has a brief learning curve combined with superb set of features and functionality, a system that provides quicker and less expensive integration in the initial stages.

BatchMaster ERP Implementation Issues:
Que 1: How long does an ERP implementation take?
Ans: Well, this depends on the size of the organization, in terms of number of departments, and number of staff members under the ‘scope’ of ERP implementation. BatchMaster’s implementation history suggests that and ERP implementation for SME (small and medium enterprise) can take 3-6 months, whereas a large organization implementing full enterprise suite may take a year’s time.
Que 2: Should I follow Big Bang or Rolling Thunder approach for ERP implementation?
Ans: BatchMaster has evolved a proven implementation methodology for ERP implementation. The implementation project starts on a Rolling Thunder approach – i.e. understanding, mapping requirements, developing solutions and training users in phases, module by module. But at the end, i.e., towards the project closure, we recommend a ‘Big Bang’ approach. We strongly recommend that one day users will stop using their old system, and switch on to BatchMaster ERP. We call this day as ‘Go-Live date’.
You can also refer to the ‘ERP implementation’ section for details.
Que 3: Does BatchMaster uses partners/third parties for implementation?
Ans: Though nine out of ten implementations are done by BatchMaster’ s own employees, in some cases where users have a language barrier, BatchMaster takes services of Partners. Partner are made after a rigorous process, and we maintain a long term relationship with our partners. BatchMaster has taken help from their partners in India (SAGE), China and south East Asia (SAGE), Europe (SAP B1), Unites states and Canada (MS Dynamics) in situations where it was an integration Project with these software.
Que 4: We have limited IT resources – do we need to hire a full time IT person to manage BatchMaster ERP?
Ans: Since BatchMaster has a long history working with Manufacturing companies, nobody better than us understands that manufacturing companies do have limited IT resources. BatchMaster takes care of the IT related problems during the implementation cycle, and also after Post Go-Live support phase. BatchMaster provides a list of To-Dos, Dos and Don’ts which are sufficient for a customer to manage their IT tasks such as installations and restorations, Database Backups, and Database Audits for correctness.
Que 5: We may need technical support for our new ERP system. What is BatchMaster’s policy for it?
Ans: BatchMaster provides technical support over email and phone throughout your business timings. Please refer to the ‘Technical Support’ and ‘Customer Services’ section for more details.
Que 6: What training issues should I consider when implementing an ERP system?
Training is the most critical part of an ERP implementation, because only after a successful training your employees will be in a position to switch on to BatchMaster ERP. So before the training commences, you should ensure the following –
  • Are my users ready – mentally and technically, to take the training?
  • Are the roles and responsibilities clear to my users, in terms of the tasks they have to perform?
  • Do they have sufficient time to get trained, and practice on the system, outside their routine tasks?
  • Is the training agenda able to cover everything under the scope?
  • How do I ensure that all my users attend the training, and practice with BatchMaster system?
  • Is the training material sufficient to cater to my business and training needs?
  • Is training program tailored to meet my business objectives?
  • Will the trainer provide some handout during and after training?
Que 7: Will BatchMaster provide EPR training to my employees?
Ans: Yes, as a mandatory step in the implementation methodology, BatchMaster provides training to your employees. If a trained employee leaves you, and you hire a new person, BatchMaster can even train your new employee and educate him how to use the system effectively for your business objectives. Please refer to the ‘Education and Training’ section for more details.
Que 8: Can you transfer the data from my current system into BatchMaster?
Ans: Yes, BatchMaster has got automated utilities which inserts the master data from your existing system into the BatchMaster ERP. BatchMaster helps you by providing you standard templates from where you can let BatchMaster fetch data into its system.