October Business Update
Hello everyone, It’s been a while since the last formal newsletter and although there has been a live townhall since, a formal business update is long overdue, which means lots of updates and a longer than usual newsletter.
The summer months are notoriously quiet with lots of people taking a well earned break, meaning that sales and operational delivery slow down. (it’s never quiet for the support team).
The pipeline remains strong and we are banking on at least one piece of new business before the year end, if not two.
We have some big projects in service delivery, but they are a little slow to gain momentum, so we need to be agile and fill the gaps in the diary as best we can.
We are ahead of budget to the end of September, but we have got a couple of big budget months left of this financial year so we really need to kick on in both areas in order to ensure we hit our year end targets.
The renewals are in full swing after a couple of minor issues with the technology. It is the first time we have done this in anger in CloudBlue, so it was always going to be a nervy time. We should have completed the invoicing by the time this newsletter goes to press, thanks as always to Amanda for the hard work and long hours to get this done.
K3 IBS:-
The IBS team continue to deliver a high quality of service to their clients which supports their steady revenue stream. This means that they are ahead of budget by £50k YTD to the end of September.
Well done to the team, keep on pushing to the year end.
Marketing:-
Our 2023 (40th anniversary) customer event is fast approaching, it’s on Thursday 9th November at Voco in Solihull. We currently have 85 customers registered for the event, so if you are speaking to customers, please ask them to come along and remind them to register. Take a look here to find out further information about the day.
IT Showcase
IT Showcases continue monthly, The last one took place on Wednesday 11th October where we had 8 appointments with businesses that have an ERP requirement . The next ones taking place in Bristol and Birmingham look to be just as busy.
National Manufacturing day
This was a great success, we had 7 students attend to learn more about a day in the life at NexSys. Thank you to the team that took part. The plan is to work more closely with more colleges to help with recruitment at NexSys. We have plans for an intern program for next year, so building these types of relationships is critical.
Macmillan Coffee Morning
We had a great morning where we raised an amazing £217 for Macmillan. Thank you to everyone who bought, baked and donated.
Advanced engineering
On 1st and 2nd November we will be exhibiting at Advanced Engineering, which used to be the event to be at in previous years. We haven’t attended since Covid so we are hoping it’s still a great event.
Case studies
We are waiting for final approval on a great study with Orthoplastics. We are still on the hunt for more as they will feature as part of our campaigns next year and we need them as part of our partnership with SYSPRO. If you are speaking to friendly customers, please drop a (not so subtle hint) about them helping us with case studies. These case studies promote their business as well as ours and we do give them something in return.
40 Year campaign
This has been delayed as we have struggled to get customers and other manufacturers to respond. We currently have 20 responses so if we get more then we hope to run it as an end of year campaign.
All this great work helps to build our profile and drive lead generation so it is vital that we all support Kelly and the team to convince our clients to attend our events and commit to helping us with case study material and referencability.
DataSwitch and Equator rebrand
We are very slowly working our way towards a rebrand for DataSwitch and Equator to be more aligned with NexSys. News of this coming very soon.
Recent Content
More new content available on the website and social media so please keep a look and help by sharing our posts on LinkedIn. Recent new content includes. SYSPRO Supports Digital Transformation with its latest Product Release, Animal Bedding Manufacturer puts SYSPRO ERP at the heart of its Growth Strategy and The Future of ERP: Driving Innovation to Respond to Changing Customer Demand
Sales:-
As mentioned in my opening, sales have been a little lean during the 3rd quarter (which isn’t unusual), but Andy Morcom (ably supported by Bryan, Maks and Paul C) after a long drawn out contract negotiation and the generation of 11 revisions of a 131 page proposal, closed the deal for the Hydrasun upgrade. To quote Andy “This has been the longest campaign I have ever worked through”
This equates to over £550k of software and services to be delivered over the next 18 months – 2 years.
A huge amount of hard work and patience was required to dot every I and cross every t multiple times on the agreement for what will be a complex and tightly controlled upgrade project.
Well done Andy, Bryan, Maks and Paul on getting this one over the line.
After an initial pre-contract planning and proving phase, Rautomead (an existing Dundee based IBS customer of many years, specialising in the continuous casting of non ferrous alloys) have now committed to migrating to SYSPRO.
The fact that this client wants to remain with K3 is a testament to the long term relationship that they have had with the IBS team.
We will work with Jane and the team over the coming months to ensure a smooth transition for Rautomead.
Well done to Kim on her promotion to Base Sales Manager
Operations:-
The WHS Plastics project, which has grown dramatically in terms of sites, footprint and complexity since the initial agreement because they acquired one of their biggest competitors is now well into the design phase with plans drawn for most of their sites / locations.
Since the last update, One new site (Pico Technology) has gone live on SYSPRO 8 and Medite, Platt & Hill and Vivid Arts have all completed their upgrades to SYSPRO 8.
M-CNC and ADL have also gone live with MOM.
Well done to all those involved with special mentions for Scott, Jerris, Gerrit, Ross, Kevin and Shon.
• Jason Hiles joined the support team as a support integrations analyst.
• Shane Sands joined the consultancy team as a graduate consultant.
A warm welcome to Jason and Shane.
We also have some more new faces joining us in the next few weeks.
• Tom Grindley-Ferris will be joining the consultancy team.
• Katie Clayton will be joining the projects team in a programme management role.
A pre-arrival welcome to Tom and Katie.
Some good news within the teams also, with Joshua being promoted to a support desk team leader role and Jay is moving from his application support role to working with Ricky in a technical consultant role.
This leaves a position open in the application support team, so if you know of a suitable candidate, please pass on their details. Remember that there is a referral fee for a successful recruitment.
We wish Joshua and Jay every success in their new roles.
SYSPRO and Other Product news:-
SYSPRO 8 release is now out in the wild
This release has 2 new saleable modules:
• Quality – first functionality release for a QMS solution in this release which allows customers to capture inspection information on purchase order or job receipts, additional functionality to follow in future releases for fuller quality functionality. This is a sellable module with Customer Complaints and Recall functionality is now licenced under the QMS module.
• AP Invoice Automation – to come in the life of SYSPRO 8 2023, this provides basic functionality similar to the AP Invoice matching solution provided by Anota with Docuware. It’s good for customers with few invoices looking to help decrease the manual effort of AP Invoice data capture. Pricing TBD.
• This release also introduces the SSO (single sign-on) functionality that a number of our larger customers have been waiting for! However, please note that the release does introduce a new runtime which means all clients MUST be updated, making the update an involved process and not one to be taken lightly. Details all covered on our 8 upgrade landing page: https://www.nexsys.co.uk/syspro-8-update-request/
SYSPRO MOM – Equator Beta integration
Jeremy has been busy integrating Equator clock in/out to SYSPRO MOM. This integration means that when employees clock in or out in Equator, they are simultaneously clocked in/out of MOM via the MOM API, allowing the employee to only have to interact with 1 system whilst giving the business visibility into overall employee productive time.
We are beta testing this at Alexander Dennis’s Larbert site where they have just gone live with SYSPRO MOM as well as the Equator integration thanks to Gary B and Ross.
Comment from Mark Day of ADL, ‘The Equator to MOM integration is working well.’ They did have some teething problems, and after diary juggling from Jonathan and time with Gary B, he was reported ‘I was in the Larbert factory this morning and I am pleased to say we got 100% successful clocking rate.’
More testing and validation to continue before we roll this out to other customers; however, great success so far.
This wouldn’t have been possible without Jeremy’s persistence and patience, Drew’s assistance with the MOM and data setup, Ricky’s perseverance with the test environment and Maks’ creativity on the MOM configuration.
Thanks and well done to all.
Any questions on this functionality, please reach out to Darshnee or Jeremy.
SYSPRO Application Designer.
This new functionality is continuing to develop and looks like being a real step forward from the older application builder.
We have already received some training from Andy Latham on the earlier release and have developed some applications already (including our in house expense integration app) and have arranged for Andy to come back in on the 27th of October to deliver another session to go through the product again and to show us all of the new features.
If you are not already on the session but would like to be included, please email Nick McGrane or Andy Nuttall.
TransLution
• TransLution version 7.2 is currently in beta testing and is soon to be released. This version focuses on UI improvements that will help consultants who build solutions for customers.
• An update overview session will be hosted by Renee Pattle, TransLution Product Manager on Friday 13th October. Contact Darshnee if you wish to know more.
• SYSPRO EMEA Channel Conference
This conference was held just outside Johannesburg and Darshnee attended to represent Nexsys as both Nick M and Chris B were on annual leave.
Darshnee confirmed that this was a good chance to represent NexSys within the SYSPRO Partner ecosystem as we continue to build a new relationship with SYSPRO as a partner under the EMEA region.
The conference was attended by channel partners predominantly from Africa but also Australia, Europe (Brainsys) and the UK (NexSys, HIT Tehcnologies and EnterpriseWorx IT) as well as Regional ISV solution partners strong in the Africa region (TransLution, Zap, RiteScan, TrailD).
The conference provided a good chance to better understand the SYSPRO Africa ecosystem, see the partners in action and hear about their challenges and successes.
There were some great customer and partner presentations on how they collaborated to solve business problems.
There was guest appearance from Phil Duff who wrapped up the conference celebrating 45 years of SYSPRO with the history of the company.
The conference was a real experience as it was out in the ‘bush’ where we had to compete with monkeys, deer and loadshedding.Thanks to Darshnee for standing in.
NexSys Products:-
DataSwitch:
The beta release for the new DataSwitch IIoT service is planned for the 18th October, with the first beta candidate being Samuel Heath. The platform itself will be on general release approx. January time following feedback and changes from the beta.
The general release scheduled for January will also include:
• Updates to the framework to run on .NET 8 which will improve the overall performance of DataSwitch
• A transitional step for the UI to work on purely React which will improve the agility of features going forwards
• The new Saxon transformer which will support XSLT 3.0. Remove the dependency on the Altova executables and improve both the resilience and performance of DataSwitch. It will be installed as standard but upgrades can opt to keep Altova in the meantime.
• New API options for invoking DataFlows, which simplifies the way the API is called from a third party application and also is better suited for scalability and parallel invocations
Orchard:
The 2023.2 Release includes:
• Upgrade to .NET Framework to align to SYSPRO
• New installer and Database management tool for better maintenance/alignment to standard product. This is to reduce bugs at the DB level and offer support.
• An Orchard management web portal as a transitional step for Orchard web:
• New customisable Dashboards
• Import utility
• SQL Management utility
• Orchard mobile has been split into distinct applications, allowing for each individual app to be versioned and imported when needed. This will enhance the ability to issue fixes or upgraded apps without the need for a full service upgrade.
• Work has begun on the full web front end, which will supersede the Orchard32 exe. Release date is unconfirmed but we are hoping to issue a version in the second half of next year.
Kyle Warford has passed he probation and will be working on Orchard as a front end developer. This will help us to move to a fully web-first product. – Congratulations to Kyle.
Equator:
The September release is available for download and a full list of enhancements is available and has been emailed to customers, but some key improvements:
• SYSPRO MOM Integration has been released in beta mode and on trial at a customer site
• Updated to use the Crystal 2020 runtime
• SYSPRO Labour posting now includes a reference field for better auditability
• Security enhancements to real time
• Improvements to dynamic query
• Auto refresh on real time status screen
• Graphical In/Out Board – show job and skills details in main window to allow these to be visible immediately when auto-refreshing and prevent the need to drill down to see this information.
• Increased field lengths for employee name and surname
The December release is scheduled with the following enhancements:
• Will ship with new runtime to match that shipped with SYSPRO 8.0 2023.
• New Webview control based on Chrome when viewing Crystal reports.
• Line manager now an available field on Holiday Authorisation and Absence Notification screens.
• Option added to run Dynamic Query using a consolidated company.
• Allow line manager to add comment when authorising/denying a holiday request.
• Improved formatting of fire list email.
• Allowances with zero value can be added to Salary History.
• Allow “nationality”, “ethnic group” and “religion” fields to be editable in Portal > Employee Details. These are currently always read-only values.
• Payslip message file changed so that it is held by payroll period. This allows messages meant for a specific period to be retained when viewing a historic payslip.
• “Pennies from heaven” – option added so that only one deduction of this type made per tax month for weekly payrolls.
Some serious progress across all of our key IP products, well done to Nick and the team.
People:-
Scott McBurnie has decided to hang up his NexSys boots and will be leaving us at the end of October. Even though he is a United fan and did take £50 off me when those in red scraped into the Champions League places last season, I don’t bear a grudge and wish Scott well in wherever his next career step takes him.
We have a number of work anniversaries across the team either just passed or that will be celebrated in the next month or so.
• Steve Gore –10 years in June.
• Kami Katebi – 10 years in August.
• Gary Rees – 5 years in September.
• Dane Jackson – 10 years in this month.
• Lindsey Elliott – 5 years in November.
• Darshnee Shah – 5 years in November.
Congratulations to Steve, Kami, Gary, Dane, Lindsay and Darshnee, don’t forget the long service award scheme.
In other news:-
Renewals on CloudBlue – Wow, this was one of the last pieces of the CloudBlue puzzle to enable us to finally retire the old MS Access licence database (although I’m sure that Amanda will keep this open in the background for some time to come to validate numbers etc and may even get it somehow framed just for the memories 😊).
Offices:-
The Manchester office continues to be open Tuesday to Thursday and accessible on demand Monday and Friday.
Nothing to update on the sale of the building, so it remains our home for the foreseeable future. I’ll update you if / when anything changes.
See, I did warn you that this was going to be a long one. I will try to do these more regularly to enable us to keep it shorter and sweeter in future.
If you’ve got this far thanks for reading it.
As always, thanks for all you do.
Best Regards.
Nick
