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Ask the Experts
 Does your company have IFS-related questions? Perhaps you are facing Manufacturing, Financial, or Distribution problems that are begging for a solution? Do you have a technical issue that needs to be resolved?
Here is your chance to ask IFS-related questions to our team of highly qualified experts.
Email us your questions. Our team of experts will get back to you with our best answer. If your question is featured in The Edge, we will send one of our favorite toys. |
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Consultant's Corner
| An interview with Ryan Sharp
Recently, eNSYNC welcomed Ryan Sharp as a new employee. We've known of him for some time, and are very pleased that he has joined our staff. Ryan has a great deal of experience implementing IFS and other ERP systems and in consulting in many phases of manufacturing and distribution.
He was recently interviewed for The Edge and said, among other things that having started as a stockroom clerk, later as an APICS-certified senior distribution and manufacturing consultant, he finds himself still in the stockroom!
Please click below to read more notes from the interview.
Read the full article here.
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Technical Tips & Tricks
 ORACLE SHRINK
When Size Matters...
Practically speaking, the size of the database is directly related to the amount of data it contains. The physical size of the database files continue to grow as long as the amount of data in the database increases.
Have you ever wondered why you do not get back any disk space after deleting records from the database? There is a good reason. To understand this better, lets discuss the "high water mark" (HWM) in an Oracle segment.
High Watermark
- Oracle uses the HWM to identify the maximum amount of space used by a particular segment.
- The HWM acts as a boundary between the used and the free space inside a tablespace.
- Above the high watermark there are only empty blocks which can be formatted or unformatted and used for future extent allocation.
In this article Srikanth discusses how the high water mark expands as records are added, how you can assess it using a query, how you can shrink your database, and when you should NOT shrink your database.
Read the full article here. |
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Greetings!
"Is he LOST in your stack??"
 Given the amazing breadth and depth of IFS Applications, it's not uncommon for manufacturing companies to delay implementing some functional modules. This is really one of the "coolest" features of the IFS component-based architecture...deploy what you need, when you need it. Pressing needs are always addressed first with the core ERP needs typically tackled in phase one (financials, manufacturing, and distribution, orders, inventory, purchasing, and shipping). What modules groups might follow does vary, but what eNSYNC finds perplexing, is that one group of components is most always "lost" or "forgotten" or at least left for "last." Yes, we are talking about Maintenance Management (a.k.a CMMS, EAM, or MRO) 
Looking back over the nine years, we have been implementing IFS and checking our records on the 70+ customers we have served, only 20% have actually elected to use Maintenance Management, while 90% own the licenses from their original purchase of IFS. This is indeed ironic, given that IFS Applications are considered among the best in class at Tier 1 EAM/MRO, ranking well ahead of SAP and Oracle. Even more ironic, is IFS' history and its formation in1983 as a software company focused exclusively on computerized maintenance management for the nuclear power industry! Perhaps the tremendous ROI potential available from deployment of maintenance management is not understood or hard to quantify to justify using "more" of what you already own. We have some customers that weren't even aware they owned Maintenance Management until we began their upgrade assessment plan for version 7.5!
If equipment availability and reliability are crucial to your business, cost-effective maintenance, repair and overhaul should be of the utmost importance. Keeping the maintenance expenditure to a minimum without compromising reliability can make a major contribution toward your company's overall profitability. eNSYNC would like to offer a "tool" to assist you in determining if their might be a strong case for implementing some or all of the components in your Maintenance Management stack. If you'll click the link below you will find a very good ROI calculator specifically designed to measure your Maintenance Management potential for payback. If you like some assistance with this assessment or a copy of the Excel version, please give us a call or send an e-mail to georgesmith@ensyncsolutions.com . We have some veteran business analysts who have worked in the maintenance field. With this exercise, there might be a great "find" in your IFS component stack. Good hunting!
Link to ROI CMMS White paper
Sincerely,
Roger Resley
President
eNSYNC Solutions, Inc.
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ScanWorks Scoreboard
The Company We Keep - CapRock Communications
 CapRock Communications is the premier provider of worldwide communications systems for customers with critical operations anywhere in the world. Cap-Rock specializes in satellite communications for a diverse group of customers ranging from oil and gas rigs to ships to military outposts in Africa and the Middle East.
Based in Houston, Texas, CapRock chose to implement the IFS application suite to help manage their rapidly-growing buisness. When looking for a bar code solution, CapRock demanded the vendor be as focused on customer service as they are and provide a system as dependable as the ones they deliver, so they chose ScanWorks™ from eNSYNC Solutions.
CapRock has a unique business model that focuses strongly on assets. While they engineer, build, and deliver complete communication systems including fax, phone, and Internet, they do not sell the equipment. Each system used by their customers is owned and serviced by CapRock.
Read the full article here.
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What's in the Works
Introducing ScanWorks 7™
eNSYNC Solutions recently announced its newest product release of the most popular and widely used bar code data collection solution for IFS Applications! ScanWorks 7 represents the next generation in bar code data collection featuring a powerful new architecture built entirely on the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET framework. Supporting all versions of IFS, the "New Look" GUI powered by Windows Mobile, is scanner hardware-independent and offers a rich set of unique navigational features. ScanWorks 7 is intuitive to learn, easy to use (no stylus required), provides part field image look up from any inventory transaction, and incorporates the new "Work Smart" productivity bundles, consisting of 35 standard IFS transactions.
Read the full article here.
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