Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 28 | Page 31

////////////////////////// the daily accounting and business management functions. It should support multi-company, multi-warehouse and international companies, including financial consolidations, intercompany eliminations and reconciliations. Its basic financial management and accounting functions should include General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Cash Management and Tax Management. Users should easily be able to create quotes, convert to sales order, check inventory availability, perform credit check, pick, ship, invoice, and collect payment. Bernard Ford, One Channel CEO Productivity Firstly, the product must make staff more productive, it must be intuitive and easy to learn and use. More importantly, it must offer access from any device, anytime, anywhere – to facilitate field staff and staff working from home. The product also needs to be multi-language so that staff can work in the language that best suits them. It is also essential to print documents like invoices in the language of the customer. Furthermore, multi-currency is a definite requirement, staff needs to work in any currency and convert as needed. One also needs to look at workflow, does the product automate business processes, approvals and notifications. Document management is a basic requirement. Documents should be accessible to all key personnel and users should be able to share information and company documents with various teams and departments. There should be no need to maintain integrations between applications, the product should offer a single database with one version of the truth. This will ensure better, quicker decisions and fewer mistakes. It also allows for comprehensive reporting to make informed decisions without the guesswork. Functionality The product should have features and functions that actually perform www.intelligentcio.com Additionally, they should be able to create requisitions, obtain approvals, convert to purchase order, receive inventory, receive invoice, match and pay. Modern products should support specific industries including professional services, business, repair and field services, wholesale distribution, manufacturing and retail. There should also be strong third-party software support to extend product functions. A library of enhancements should be available to extend the functionality of the product to meet one's unique business needs. “ THERE SHOULD BE NO NEED TO MAINTAIN INTEGRATIONS BETWEEN APPLICATIONS, THE PRODUCT SHOULD OFFER A SINGLE DATABASE WITH ONE VERSION OF THE TRUTH. INTELLIGENTCIO 31