by Sonia Zarino - Marketing & Communication Manager

Certain activities within a company are seen as a given and are not considered much in terms of efficiency and “profitability”. In particular, stock is often only seen from the perspective of their economic and financial burden, without any detailed analysis of the way space, operational logistics and stores personnel are organised. The efficiency and “productivity” of a company are achieved at times in large part by its correct structuring and organisation.

Optimising stock management means in particular:

• Minimising stock, at the same time maximising customer satisfaction, reducing to a minimum the time between an order for a product and delivery and implementing the just-in-time principle in distribution.

• Taking into account how the various market contexts influence stock management of industrial companies, wholesale enterprises, retail traders and service providers, and identifying the advantageous solutions in each individual case.

• Determining the necessary stock levels so as to achieve the most advantageous purchasing/production conditions, reducing stock to a minimum and being in a position to face any eventuality.

• Implementing a storage system for materials, components and finished products which minimises the costs of moving the goods and facilitates the physical management of the stock.

Mago.net is capable of fully satisfying these and other inventory management needs thanks to its multiple functionalities in the logistical area: Inventory, Lots and Serials, Inventory Locations. In particular, the Inventory Module offers all the tools required for an efficient movement of goods and related operations. The graphic navigation allows you to view all the key data concerning an item, speeding up analyses of quantities available, even in various stores, price lists, outstanding orders and so forth.

The module offers in-depth reports, which can be fully customised to meet individual needs, allows a constant monitoring of the stores and, therefore, of the active and passive cycles of the company. This aspect is particularly important because having up-to-date information is a prerequisite for making correct decisions within limited timeframes and thus achieving a real competitive advantage in the market.

For more information on managing this Mago.net programme visit our site at www.microarea.it under the Products area where you will find complete information on the functionalities available. Those who are already using the modules in the logistics area can also take advantage of online courses which are free for current MLU subscribers and use quick and easy methods to provide you with detailed knowledge of the programme, allowing you to achieve maximum productivity for your company.

by Sonia Zarino –  Marketing & Communication Manager

Active for almost two months, Microarea Community is proving to be a virtual rendezvous, popular with users and partners where they can exchange information and suggestions of any kind which, as in the case below, translate into product improvements and actively contribute to their technical and commercial development.

It all started with an observation by a final user who pointed out that in the electronics sector, the suppliers, not wishing to tie up goods (and therefore capital) in storage with the possible risk of not selling the products, often purchase materials only after having received an order from a customer.

Frequently electronic items must be imported and have delivery times of various lengths. Our user noted that in most cases each individual item has a different delivery date to the other items, although these are all part of the same order.

The proposal put forward by our sharp user was that it should be possible to insert the date of delivery of each single item in the “Supplier Quotation” screen. The idea being that when a quotation is received, it would be possible to save the delivery date of each item, generating a “self-updating” Excel spreadsheet thanks to Magic Documents, where all the information on the delivery dates proposed could be merged.

Microarea saw value in our user’s suggestion and launched a process known as Product Improvement to implement this new functionality, which will be released in a future version.

The topic proposed in this posting gave rise to various comments and another user, having observed that the problem experienced in the electronic field is also common in the mechanical sector, has suggested including the further possibility of linking the quoted price with the delivery date.

The collaborative process of shared analysis and development of our product is already bearing fruit and we are certain that the Community will be a valuable tool in this sense, continuously contributing new points of view to the future designs of our product, improving performance and accessibility on the basis of the real needs of the users.
 

by Sonia Zarino -  Marketing & Communication Manager

We know that energy is a fundamental aspect of the economy and has noticeable impact on the financial situation of companies and families. Many commercial organisations, therefore, do business in this sector and our partners have developed several interesting solutions aimed at these companies.

S.I.C. SRL - Servizi Integrati e Consulenze, Microarea Platinum Partner, have been active for almost twenty years in the petrochemical sector and has developed for Mago.net the two applications described in this issue.

1) OilGas.Net
This Mago.net application is designed for the management of methane gas and GPL suppliers. It makes it possible to run any aspect of this type of company, from the management of contracts and meters, to meter reading and tank truck delivery invoicing.

Data management with OilGas.Net is particularly comprehensive. The application offers many functions, such as:

• Calculation of fixed daily rate for the days of actual consumption
• Management of calendar and thermal years for price calculation
• Calculation of price in MC based on a gigajoule table
• Management of customised meter discounts
• Management of tiered VAT
• Modular structure and customising of thermal years by user
• Calculation of interest on arrears
• Management of adjustments
• Management of additional costs
• Management of reminder costs
• Estimated readings
• Export of meters to be read in various formats
• Import of readings from hand-held devices and files
• Statistics on average supply prices for natural gas
• Declaration of natural gas consumption for the Customs Agency

Technical characteristics:
Oilgas.Net has been developed for Mago.net Professional Edition and designed with Task Builder Standard. Supported databases: MSDE, SQL Server and Oracle.

The earliest release of Mago.net with which Oilgas.Net is compatible is 2.12 and compatibility with subsequent versions is planned.

The minimum configuration of Mago.net necessary for the programme to function consists of Server, General Accounting, Inventory and Sales modules. A paper copy of the manual is available.

2) Oilsys.Net
This Mago.net application offers a comprehensive solution to SMEs in the petrochemical sector who require a programme capable of an integrated managing function for all fiscal, commercial and accounting aspects linked to the management of inventory and marketing of petrochemical and chemical products (liquid and packaged).

The structure of the programme and the management of data allow it to be integrated with other specialised packages such as those for management of distributor stations, heat management or management of electronic weighing systems and meter readings.

The multiple functions of Olisys.Net include:
• Telematisation of excise duties and creation of flat files
• Multi-inventory and multi-customer management
• Management of drivers, means of transport and transporters
• ADR check, booklet dates and revision
• Motor vehicle capacity check
• Commercial products with definition of fiscal items and intended use
• Management of product wording for each type of accompanying document
• Density conversions by means of pre-loaded ASTM tables
• Unit of measure tables configured as desired
• DAS, DAS “not accompanying goods”, DAS, XABD and XAB lists, meter tag
• Multiple deliveries with collective DAS and collective DAS list

Various optional forms are also available:
• Transport management
• Management control
• Management of confirmation reports
• Management of fiscal and/or coastal deposits

The software can also import data from service stations for customer invoicing and connect to electronic weighing machines to access data automatically.

The application is completely integrated with Mago.net and shares its interface in order to offer the user an even more convenient and simple working environment thanks to the operative uniformity of the various functional modules.

by Sonia Zarino - Marketing & Communication Manager

The new Microarea portal was launched over three months ago and includes many more aspects than its predecessor. Designed as an interactive platform between companies and the outside world, the portal offers a series of new services with the primary purpose of consolidating and extending the network of users, partners, visitors, who on occasion interact with each other, and, of course, Microarea. 

Germano Traverso, Technical Director and qualified engineer at Microarea, heads up the project and in this article describes the achievements so far and what lies in store in months to come.

“As you can imagine”, observes Traverso, “the portal is by its very nature constantly changing, not only because our development team is continuously working on maintaining and up-dating the contents, but also because visitors (users, partners, etc.) participate in discussions, pose questions and suggest improvements.”

Based on CMS technology, the portal has been structured so that its contents can be easily picked up by search engines, thereby improving its visibility on the Web.

Among the new features introduced on the portal, some, such as online and video courses, have been specifically designed for Mago.net users. These courses are free to access (subject to user authentication via the site) and are proving to be particularly useful in acquiring a deeper knowledge of specific software functions. Since the courses are available 24 hours a day, users can choose their favourite time to access them, at home or at the office. Their simple structure makes the lessons easy to follow and the concepts necessary for using any of the functions can be remembered with the least effort.

Some of these courses are accessible even without authentication for visitors who are not Mago users but who wish to try out its efficiency and perhaps learn more about the product.

Consistent with the site’s Web 2.0 technology foundation, new instruments such as the Forum (discussed in our previous issue), Blogs and, coming-up, Wiki and code sharing instruments are growing in significance.

Blogs: Versatile and easily up-dated, our Blogs are the ideal tools to keep you regularly informed of new developments regarding partners and users. Some of them are reserved for partners (Business, Support, Technical, Training), others can be freely consulted (MicroareaNews, press releases, etc.). You can evaluate articles on Blogs and post your comments.

Wiki: This project will allow easy sharing of informative material. The content will be open to the community of editors. Each change will be recorded chronologically, making it possible to redraft the text in its previous version. The aim is to share, exchange, store and optimise knowledge through collaboration.

Code Sharing: This is yet another project designed to create a highly open, progressive environment, offering the community of developers the possibility of sharing “parts” of codes or more complex solutions made available to the community itself.
Traverso’s view is that, “Today we are already in an intermediary stage where we are sharing information and knowledge, templates, reports and simple solutions in preparation for the next step which will involve sharing code elements”.

In the reserved area, now more accessible and navigable, order processing (dedicated exclusively to partners) has undergone a complete restructuring, allowing for orders to be placed completely online with a noticeable time saving and quicker execution.

Even becoming a Microarea partner has become easier with the possibility of concluding contracts online. In time, this is expected to become the sole procedure, having already eliminated paper copy contracts in other areas (for instance, MLU Microarea Live Update).

“The favourable response we are receiving from the public (over a thousand visitors per day) shows that we are on the right path. In future, we will strive even harder to build and consolidate the network formed by partners, users and Microarea itself because we are convinced that reciprocal interaction can lead us to the solutions required by the market in terms of speed and creativity: two fundamental elements which are essential to always remaining competitive,” concludes Traverso.

 by Giuseppina Sperico –  ERP Logistics Team Manager

Mago.net has a particularly useful tool so it only takes a few seconds to trace information referring to documents registered in the various programme modules.

Everyone knows that …. to trace a particular order issued to a client or the Delivery Note relative to the same order, we access the data entry of the specific document and we look for it using Specific search (F3), but ….. maybe not everybody knows that ….. it is possible to execute Documents Graphic Navigation from the Customer Master or from any sales or purchase document. Using this tool to trace documents to the name of a particular customer or supplier, or documents linked to another document is a really simple, quick operation, which enables us to respond to any query in a few seconds – for example, if a customer requests the state of progress of their order or the delivery date of goods or deadlines still to be settled and more. Apart from viewing the documents in real time, it is possible to execute any operation connected to the single document without having to make impractical movements on the programme menu.
Contact your local dealer to find out more about how this useful tool works and if you signed up for the MLU/MSU service, you can also take the Documents Graphic Navigation course found in the Microarea courses catalogue of the Sales Area.

by Sonia Zarino

An import company operating on top of the range swiss watch market, new needs about the optimization of purchasing, selling and data remote access processes: Mago.net has solved all problems.

Since 1999 Alkor sp.zo.o.  has been importing and commercialising prestige Swiss watches for the Polish and east European markets. Besides the commercial activities, a Customer assistance centre is being created with the objective of developing post-sales activities and technical support. 
The Company has 10 employees and an annual sales revenue of circa 3 million Euro.

The Corporate commercial activity consists of a network of agents which utilise a remote integrated application with Mago.net, allowing them to perform e-commerce type transactions over the Internet.
Some of the watches commercialised by Alkor are: “Adriatica”, “Grovana”, “Oris”, “Revue Thommen” and “Pierre Ricaud”.

The Requirements
Alicja Rybotycka Financial Manager of Alkor, explains that following a careful analysis of the Corporate business model, the requirements to be applied for the selection of software were identified which have resulted in the choice of Mago.net.

• capacity of software to manage the forecasting processes for sales and consequent purchase orders of the goods;
• availability of tools to analyse sales and financial trends of the Company;
• possibility of remote access to corporate inventory data to place orders (Clients), or to re-establish spares (Suppliers).

An ulterior but important request was that of being able to find the best way to improve the effectiveness for the management of purchase orders, inventory and barcodes and at the same time minimising the creation of paperwork.

The system used previously had many limitations, including the scarce possibility of data analysis. Neither was it integrated with electronic mail or Office; this represented a considerable obstacle in terms of enriching the application with new functionalities, as well as the utilisation with external applications.

In the classic sense of word-of-mouth advertising, it was a Swiss partner of Alkor, already a Mago.net user, who recommended the product.  The positive judgement by the Partner, confirmed by some Alkor employees who had already had the opportunity of using Mago.net Easy Look at the Swiss offices,  considerably determined the final choice of Mago.net

The Solution
The configured used is that typical of a commercial company.  It includes the financial modules, commercial modules and some tools like Mail Connector and Xgate for the exchange of information and documents.
Besides the standard modules, and thanks to the use of Magic Link, integration with two independent applications developed from the platform used for Mago.net has been realised: a program for the sales force management which can be used in remote, and an e-shop program.

The Advantages
“We have optimised the management of the inventory, improved the process for accounting recording and retrieval of data.  We have also experienced considerable improvement in the financial analysis and management of commission for our agents” is the assessment of Alicja Rybotycka who concludes by saying: “On the whole Mago has improved the way we work each day in all the sectors of the Company.  It is an open and flexible solution, capable of easily being integrated with third party products.  Mago.net has a set of innovative tools that manage electronic mail and reports to keep control of the company situation  at all times”.

Configuration adopted:

Mago.net Professional Edition pw by SQL Server

• Server
• MagicLink
• Magic Documents
• Easy Look server
• XGate
• Financials
• Sales
• Inventory
• Forecast Accounting
• Sales Force Management
• Lots & Serials
• Intrastat
• Sale Orders
• Purchase Orders
• Purchases
• Fixed Assets
• Cash Management
• Mail Connector
• XGate
• 1 WEB CAL*
• 10 CAL*

*Client Access License